Have your cake and eat it too..

Let's face it, crab is expensive, unless you want to go catch your own and then it is merely a huge time suck. I am also completely over crab cakes. I love hot, freshly steamed crab that drips down your arms served with a little drawn butter but the cakes are only mildly interesting to me. So instead, last week I made some fantastic fish cakes using Tilapia, sour cream, tarragon, shallots, garlic and lemon. Fish cakes have some similar tasty attributes to crab cakes: crispy on the outside, fried in butter and served with a mayonnaise based sauce. They are also much lighter in flavor and texture as well as being a lot more affordable.
Try these at home, it's easy! Mince the garlic and shallot first and then process the fish and all the ingredients in the food processor. Just be careful not to overprocess, just pulse a couple of times. If you don't have a food processor, you can finely mince the fish with a knife. Divide the mixture into even balls, approximately 2 inches and then roll them in either fresh or panko bread crumbs. Pan fry in a little butter, pressing down lightly to form a cake, and brown on each side. These cakes are best served over a mixed green salad. I also made a lemony garlic aioli to serve with the cakes and the aioli serves double duty as a salad dressing.

Better than your Grocer's Freezer

I love Lasagna. I am going to tell you the best way to make Lasagna. It is very easy and concerns the sauce. The rest, (noodles, meat, ricotta, cheese, spinach) works just like you would think. Cook, grate, layer.

First, make your your own red sauce. This is not hard and is also very cheap, or should we say, "cost-effective."

Step One: In your food processor, grind up 3 garlic cloves, 1 celery stick, 1 carrot and 1 medium onion. If you don't have a food processor, you are going to need to cut these VERY tiny.

Step Two: Heat olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add your ground up veggie mixture. Let it cook and don't stir it around a lot. It needs to brown and stirring all the time does not help matters. Personally, this is hard for me as well. Go play on Facebook and forget about it for a minute or five.

Step Three: Add 2 big cans of whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes or tomato puree. Just make sure the tomatoes don't have any added spices or herbs. Now add your own fresh or dried herbs. I like a few sprigs of thyme, some chopped basil/oregano and a couple of bay leaves (off my own bay tree, I will NEVER have to buy bay leaves again.) Let this simmer for a good while and then puree with an emulsion blender or regular blender, just be careful. I make the sauce first so by the time I cook the noodles, grate the cheese, cook the beef and make the bechamel (your next task), it will be ready.

Second Part of Ultimate Sauce Making: Bechamel

Step One: Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium. Once melted, add an equal amount of flour (e.g. 2 Tablespoons butter and 2 Tablespoons flour.) Whisk to incorporate flour and cook until it smells slightly nutty. You don't want it to brown but you do want the raw flour smell to cook out.

Step Two: Add Milk. You will need 1 cup milk for every 2 Tbl butter. Add a bay leaf and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly (make sure you get in the corners of the pot, flour likes to hide there.) Cook until it has begun to thicken. Grate in some fresh nutmeg and salt/pepper to taste.

Okay, now the fun part. COMBINE equal parts red sauce and bechamel. This stuff is seriously delicious. Use this as your sauce component in your lasagna. Since I have learned about this neat trick, I make lasagna quite often.

If you serve it with a salad, it's healthy, right??

Grilled Cheese - Caprese Style

You should make this for lunch today.

This sandwich is SO good. Plus it is easy, which is good for a sunday lunch item.

Ingredients:

Buffalo Mozzarella, sliced

Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Fresh Basil, chiffonade

Bread, sliced

Butter

1. Combine olive oil, balsamic, basil and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slice your tomatoes and add to the bowl. Let marinate for about 5 minutes.

2. Spread your bread slices on one side with butter. Build your sandwich, placing Mozzarella and tomatoes on bread. Grill like you would a grilled cheese sandwich. Do I need to write directions for this?

Serve with cucumber salad or homemade fridge pickles (okay, they don't have to be homemade.)

Cheesecake for Breakfast

Eggs, Cream Cheese, Honey, Oranges...


Those all sound like breakfast items to me! And so today I had a Orange, Honey and Ricotta Cheesecake for breakfast. Thank you, Giada!


I have been wanting to make a cheesecake for a while now, having purchased my new springform pan as well as many packs of cream cheese. I haven't yet followed through because a whole cheesecake seems to require an occasion. One cheesecake for two people is a bit excessive. However, I found myself with a surplus of ricotta cheese left over from the aforementioned catering event. Normally, the only thing I use ricotta for is lasagna and homemade ravioli. We had lasagna last week and ravioli would not use up a large enough amount of the ricotta. I had heard of ricotta in cheesecakes so I did what any good blogger would do: I googled it. Giada's recipe showed up first. I have never had any trouble with any of Giada's recipes. They are usually fairly simple and straightforward and always work out well. So I went with her Honey and Ricotta cheesecake flavored with Orange Zest. Since I had graham crackers on hand, I used these for the crust instead of the biscotti called for in the recipe. I'm surprised she didn't use Amaretti Cookies, which seem to pop up in 9 out of 10 Giada recipes, because, you know, she's Italian.

As you can see, the cheesecake came out beautifully. I made it yesterday afternoon and since it needs to cool at least 8 hours, we had to wait until today to enjoy it. Cheesecake for breakfast? Why not, it's Saturday! I highly recommend this cheesecake to anyone who wants a lighter version of the classic. It is less sweet, due to the substitution of honey for sugar and also lighter in flavor since ricotta is in place of some of the heavy cream cheese. If I make it again, I will probably omit the Orange Zest and maybe add lime or lemon instead. This is just a personal preference as I do not particulary enjoy orange flavoring in creamy or chocolatey desserts. I think it gives it a slightly bitter taste. A lot of people love it though, and if you are one of those people, go for it. It does give the cheesecake little flecks of orange, which look beautiful. If you want to try it, the recipe is listed on the Food Network web site.

Eat, Drink and Be Married

My Labor Day Weekend spent Laboring...

Saturday was my first independent catering job, for a good friends' aunt. I had a fantastic time! There were a few small missteps but overall, it went smoothly. The food was a hit and I spent the evening with some great friends.

The Menu:

Shrimp & Grits Station: Shrimp sauteed to order with a White wine/Shallot Cream sauce served over Grits with toppings (Bacon, Kielbasa, Green Onion, Aged Cheddar)

Sauteed Crab Cakes with Tarragon and Lemon served with Shallot & Tarragon Tartar

Thai-marinated Chicken Satays with Coconut-Chile Peanut Sauce

Summer Squash Casserole with Crispy Panko Topping

Asian Pulled Pork served with Jicama Slaw, Soft Rolls and Homemade Pickles

Bruschetta Trio: Caprese; Pesto, Mushroom and Ricotta; Homemade Pimento Cheese

Misses:
The Jicama slaw did not turn out that well. I thought I could just substitute Jicama for cabbage and use my normal slaw dressing. However, Jicama is much more starchy and slightly bitter and sweet at the same time. The texture was also more like potatoes so the cut I used didn't hold up well when mixed. When this was placed on the sandwich, it worked well. But most people ate it on the side, or I should say didn't eat it at all because there was a lot left. The boyfriend was somewhat dismayed that I would make something for a catered event without consulting a recipe. In my defense, I didn't consult a recipe for anything else either, many of which I had never made, and those turned out great.

A super annoying mistake was made on my part as well. I bought the wrong kind of grits. I thought I had bought stone ground, which take about 40 minutes to cook and stay smooth. Somehow, I bought instant grits which take about 5 minutes and get all clumpy and thick. Yes, I had lumpy grits. I am clearly not fit to be called a good southern cook. Please hold your jeers for later.

The only other miss was the chicken satays, my marinade needed to be much stronger. I used lime juice, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, honey and lemongrass. I needed more soy and more lime. The suggestion was also made to me to marinate the chicken alone in lime juice for thirty minutes. This is the method used in making the Indian dish, Chicken Makhani, but with lemon juice. The acid helps the chicken to later absorb the flavors better. I should also have added coconut milk or even just oil to make the flavors more well rounded.

Hits:

The bruschetta was the most popular item (or items) by far. Mainly because you could pick them up and eat them by hand and also, mainly because they were delicious. The caprese version consisted of the classics: fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and olive oil. A form of caprese salad is popular at any function. It always tastes clean and fresh, not heavy. The pimento cheese version of bruschetta is enjoyed by all, as a familiar and super-cheesy bite. I never liked pimento cheese until I made it myself. I roast my own red peppers and use an aged white English Cheddar. These two steps make all the difference. The third version is the one I am most proud of: Herb Pesto (in this case, thyme and sage), Sauteed Cremini Mushrooms, Ricotta and Toasted Pine Nuts. This is a fantastic combination of flavors.

The Asian barbecue was eaten up quickly as expected. The barbecue sauce was homemade with roasted red peppers, ginger, garlic and hoisin. Squash casserole was also devoured. What's not to like about squash casserole? And of course, the crab cakes. I don't really like making crab cakes for functions because they are never as good on a buffet. The coating doesn't stay crispy which I think is an integral part of a perfect crab cake. But people love to have crab cakes at their wedding for some reason, so crab cakes it was. And of course the guests ate them up, they were super tasty served with the best tartar sauce recipe I have ever found. Not as good as freshly seared, but you can't really go wrong with something that consists 95% of crab meat.

And finally the shrimp! The cream sauce for the shrimp was PERFECT! Super flavorful, with a nice white wine flavor, it thickened perfectly and clung to the shrimp without tasting overly heavy. The fresh shrimp flavor was able to shine through. Here, I have to give a big THANK YOU to my shrimp de-header, peeler and de-veiner. All 6 hours of your time was greatly appreciated. Since I loved this sauce so much, I thought I should share it with everyone. It goes great with the shrimp, just saute your shrimp in butter until almost fully cooked. Then add a spoonful of the sauce per person and heat through, coating the shrimp. It is also fantastic with pasta. For dinner, I sauteed mushrooms and tossed them with farfalle pasta and this sauce. Excellent.

White Wine and Shallot Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
2 shallots, finely minced
1 cup white wine

3 Tbl unsalted butter
4 Tbl flour
1 qt heavy cream
freshly grated nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped

Method:
1. Add the shallots and white wine to a wide saucepan. Cook on med-low until the white wine is evaporated. Remove shallots from the pan and set aside.
2. Using the same pan, melt the butter on medium. Stir in the flour and cook until it smells slightly nutty. You do not want to brown the flour.
3. Add the heavy cream and cook until thickened, stirring frequently. Once thick, season to taste with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
4. Once cool, add the shallots back to the sauce along with the chopped parsley.

You can make this ahead of time and keep in your fridge. It will be good for 3 or so days.

ENJOY!