Puff Pastry Gorgonzola Gallette

Sorry for the delay – but here it is, finally! Here I am making this at our local Iron Chef competition, which, coincidentally I did not win - but I should have! But oh well.... This is very easy to make for a crowd of  6 or 26, and looks great on a white plate with a little smudge of balsamic reduction, and tastes even awesomer.

• Puff pastry ( in your grocer’s freezer). It comes in a box with 2 separate sheets, one sheet  per gallete will serve about 7-8 appetizer portions.
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 garlic clove minced
• About 4-5 oz of Gorgonzola cheese, or half and half goat cheese / Gorgonzola.
• 4 tbsp chopped fresh dill
• 1 egg beaten
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• Butter 

Veggies sauteing

      Preheat oven to 410. Grease a baking sheet well with butter.  Roll out 1 sheet of puff pastry between 2 sheets of Saran Wrap – no mess method. The pastry needs to be about 9x13 or 10x12 or something like that. It really does not need to be perfect looking, if the edges come out uneven it’ll just have that “ rustic” look. You can roll it out the regular way using flower if you want – but the cling wrap method is just so much cleaner. Once the pastry is rolled out, put on the greased pan and brush the 1” edge with beaten egg. Slice red onion and red pepper into slices of about ¼” thick, and sauté in olive oil with the garlic until soft and start to brown – about 10 minutes.

Before it goes in the oven

     

     Spread the veggies onto the dough, leaving about 1” edge. 

     Salt/pepper, crumbled cheeses all over leaving the edges untouched, 

      and sprinkle with fresh chopped dill generousely.

Bake at 410 until golden brown, about 13-14 minutes.

 

Add caption

Slide out onto a cutting board, and slice in triangles, like a pizza. Serve with balsamic glaze smudge on the place. Enjoy! 

CURRY CHICKEN SALAD WITH CUCUMBER MINT RAITA

Yo my peeps! How long it’s been, how I've missed your faces! You look like you've lost weight.

I've been waiting for something to put up here, but have been uninspired… UNTIL NOW, you lucky hungry bastards. In my humble opinion this little recipe is worthy of the Interwebs. It’s for one of those days where you want something easy, distinctly curry-ish, something filling and yet healthy – you put this in your mouth, and enjoy it. Feeds 4 hungry souls.

 For the curry chicken: 

2 large cooked chicken breasts, from a rotisserie roasted chicken is fine, roughly hand shredded (yields about 4 cups meats)
1 med. onion, chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger, or 1 tsp. powder ginger
1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
2 chopped tomatoes or 1 14oz can chopped tomatoes of any kind
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp salt

For the mint Raita: 

(can be made up to 2 hrs ahead, put’er in the fridge to marinate in‘er juices)

• 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, chopped in small cubes.
• 2 tbsp chipped mint
• ½ tsp salt.
•   

To make the chicken salad: shred the chicken in a separate bowl while trying to keep away the cats/dogs/boyfriends creeping by and stealing the chicken.  Add 1 cup yogurt & cilantro to the chicken, set aside. Saute onion, garlic and ginger in the oil on medium heat  until someone yells at you to put on the exhaust fan; this takes about 5 mins.  Add cumin & curry powders, crushed red pepper and 1 ½ tsp salt, sauté for 2 more mins. until your hair smells like an Indian curry house.( Yes, you’ll be that house on the block that smells of curry this night, but I digress). Add the tomatoes and sauté covered on medium-low heat for about 5 mins, until mixture begins to thicken.

 Remove this shit from heat and add to the chicken and yogurt, mix thoroughly and let stand until room temperature. Serve with warm Naan bread and mint Raita. TRY to share w/ your guests, ‘cuz this shit be tasty. Holla!

Bonus: when you wake up the next morn, your house will still smell like curry. Here's the money shot:

Grilled Polenta with Spinach & Mushrooms

It's been so long! You don’t call… you don’t write… so sad. But I love you anyways, so here’s another installment of something that was con-cocted over the weekend. Since it’s grillin’ time, we shall implement the grill for this.

Large Polenta log ( in the pasta section usually)

Large bunch of spinach

Cremini mushrooms

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp butter

Salt/pepper

To concoct ( makes about 15):

Slice the polenta log into ¼’ thick circles. I hope you had the good sense to remove it from its plastic condom before slicing. Brush with olive oil on both sides, salt/pepper. Grill each side directly on the grates, about 6 min/ side. Set aside. Sautee sliced mushrooms w/ 1 tbsp butter until nice and tan, remove from pan, salt. BTW – a secret to a nicely browned mushroom is #1) do not crowd the mushrooms, #2  -use medium high heat, #3 – salt AFTER they cook. Otherwise they release moisture in the pan and never brown, just grossly stew. But I digress…. Remove the mushrooms, sauté minced garlic until fragrant in the other tbsp. butter, and throw in some spinach until wilts, about 3-4 mins. Add more butter if you want, and make a mental note to run 2 extra miles next time. Once spinach is sautéed, pour out the spinach water from the pan. Add mushrooms, salt/pepper to taste, and top the polenta circles with some-of- dat. This is pretty freakin’ good hot or cold. Miss you, love you, call me, we'll lunch!

*Credits to Tomas Smit for the idea! 

Semi- Jerk Chicken Drumsticks

Hello! Welcome! Or rather, I welcome myself back after some time away of not eating. I have something easy for ya’ll today, but this one you have to have a food processor. This cray –hot marinade sauce just doesn’t work any other way, people. So go buy one already.

*Eric: the rosemary sprig in the picture I stole from your garden. Sucker!

Yee shall need:

10 chicken drumsticks, skin removed – or not. I remove the skin.

10 scallions

1 Habanero chile (or a Scotch Bonnet, if you like fire), seeds removed & coarsely chopped

2 tbsp white vinegar

1tbsp thyme( fresh or dried)

1 ½ tsp Allspice

1tbsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

Oil or cooking spray for broiler pan.

Ok. This is what: throw everything but the chicken stumps in the food processor, pulse to death to a pasty obedience. Marinate the chicken stumps in this for about 30 minutes. Preheat broiler to HI, put oven rack in the center of the oven. Hopefully you remembered to do this before preheating the oven, and get to keep your eyebrows and facial skin. Spray broiler pan or oil it up so the chicken don’t stick, slick. Arrange drumsticks in the broiler pan, salt thoroughly some more. Broil on HI (turning once or thrice) for a total of about 30 mins, until delicious charred crusties form. Enjoy, but I caution: this is just as spicy on the way out, as on the way in. Cray!

Raw Shaved Asparagus salad with Avocado

So here’s a little something’-somethhin’ from the “no-cook-vegan” part of our cookbook. Raw Shaved Asparagus salad with Avocado. The asparagus was getting kinda hairy, so we shave it. Just kidding. Super easy & tastes like a grassy knoll. Looks pretty on a plate though! 1 bunch (about 14) thick asparagus stalks makes 5 servings. Trim about 2” of the tough asparagus ends, and shave each stalk into thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler. Squeeze 2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice and add olive oil to a large bowl, add asparagus, salt & pepper to taste, mix and let marinate in the fridge for about a hour, mixing occasionally.  Serve with few slices of avocado, and enjoy your pee as a bonus. 

Rice Crispy Treats on steroids

Is it possible to develop objectophilia (...a pronounced emotional and often romantic desire towards developing significant relationships with a particular inanimate objects (Wiki)) towards a desert? Apparently it is.

I don’t know what it is about me and marshmallow-based deserts lately, must be that time of the month…. anywho…These pieces of goodness will make you love them at first bite, or at the very least put you into a sugar coma. 

 To make about 16-18  2x2 squares yee shall need:

2 heaping cups marshmallows, large or small

2 cups Rice Krispies cereal

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup dried cherries or cranberries

½ cup crushed thin pretzels

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup grated coconut, divided into 2 equal parts.  

Toast the coconut in the oven on 375 until golden brown, about 3-4 mins. Reserve ½ cup for later. While you are saliva-ing over the smell of toasted coconut, crush pretzels into small pieces; I like to do that by putting the pretzels into a zip lock bag and beating the crap out of them with something heavy. Pretzels crushed, I feel better, and 7 calories burned. Win-Win-Win.. Melt the marshmallows over medium/low heat stirring often for about 7 min.until fully melted, then incorporate vanilla extract. Remove from heat, add rice krispie cereal, ½ cup toasted coconut, dried cherries, crushed pretzels, and mix everything until evenly mixed. Working quickly, dump the whole sticky mess into a 9 x 13 parchment paper lined pan. When lining the pan with parchment paper, do yourself a favor and have enough there to close the parchment over the pan once the contents are in the pan. Press down over the parchment so the rice crispy mixture is of uniform thickness. You’ll need to let it cool completely, which  - you eager beavers - takes about 30 minutes. You can put in the fridge to cool faster if you must. Once the rice sheet cools, cut it into squares.(I hope you removed the parchment first). In the mean time occupy yourself by melting the chocolatechips in a bowl set over a simmering pot of water until fully melted. Dip one side of each square into the melted chocolate, then into the remaining toasted coconut. Let cool completely before serving. Enjoy your objectophilia!  

Shrimp Ceviche

It’s Shrimp Ceviche people! The ultimate no-cook summer treat!! Freakin’ tiny shrimp!!! Yay!!!!.... You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been lazy lately & don’t really feel like turning on the stove, so you’ve seen me post stuff like those marshmallow 5-minute owl faces... So if you’re like me right now – then this should be right up your alley. This could not be easier to make. Well, I guess it could be easier to make, if you just float all the ingredients whole in a bowl of lime juice, but hopefully you will give your guests the courtesy of a small dice at this par-tae.  Typically the recipe calls for cucumber, I didn’t have any so I used a tomato here. Whatevs, it’s still good.

You will need:

• 1/2 cup (preferably fresh ) lime juice 
• 1 lb tiny cooked shrimp.
• 1/2 red onion, diced  
• 1 jalapeno, diced very small
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup ketchup (or chili sauce)
• About 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup seeded diced peeled cucumber
• 1 small ripe but firm avocado,  cubed
• Salt
• 
  

Toss the shrimp with lime juice, cover and refrigerate for about an hour. In a small strainer, rinse the onion under cold water, then shake off the excess liquid, ‘cuz you be cryin’ otherwise. Add to the shrimp bowl along with all other ingredients. Taste and season with salt. Cover and refrigerate if not serving immediately. BAM!  Serve with tortilla chips, or whatever other scooping agent you find palatable. PS: you can also substitute firm white fish like sea bass, if you have a fatal allergy to shellfish, or if you’re fancy.