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! 

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! 

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. 

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. 

Spicy Ahi Tuna

What’ up, my Peeps!

It’s been ages since I’ve seen you. I missed you. Did you miss me? I hope you’ve been well. Today, for your pleasure, I have con-cockted this Ahi Tuna Poke. It’s spicy, it’s tasty, and this beats paying $16 for it at the restaurant. You will need all (or at least most) of the items below, plus some Mayo which was too shy for the photo shoot. It was being fussy and having a bad hair day. But I digress….

You Will need:

Palm-sized sushi grade Ahi Tuna steak, diced into small cubes.

2 tsp. Soy sauce

½ tsp. Sesame Seed oil

1 tsp Sriracha hot sauce

1 tbsp Mayo-nayo-naise

½ tsp chili paste (optional)

1 tsp rice vinegar (optional)

½ tsp Sesame seeds

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

Here’s “just the tip” before starting: prior to dicing, put the tuna steak in the freezer for about 20 minutes. It’s way easier to dice this way, otherwise you will end up with mashed up tuna blobs, not pretty. Dice the aforementioned tuna into small-ish dice. Mix all other ingredients except sesame seeds in a separate bowl & dump in the tuna dice. Mix thoroughly, refrigerate for about 20 mins.  Serve on a cracker, or just as is. Thank me later with a shoulder massage, ‘cuz this recipe is the shit. 

Salmon Roe & Cream Cheese on cucumber hors d'oeuvres

All-righty. Here's the 1st order of weirdness. If you are like me, and will put anything in your mouth ... wait, that may be misconstrued...oh well. Anywho, try these little morsels of salty goodness: Simple, requires little assembly, & looks cool. And  as an added bonus, you get a side of high blood pressure from all the yummy sodium.You're welcome! 

                 

Ingredients: 

1/4 Cup Salmon Roe

1/4 Cup softened Cream Cheese

1/2 Cucumber ( cut into slices)

Ponzu sauce, and optional Sriracha hot sauce if you lika'da Sa-piicyyy! 

Fresh dill for decoration 

Assembly:

Cut cucumber into slices. I prefer using the English Cucumbers, less seedy. Top with a dollop of cream cheese. If you have one of those squeezable frosting bags that you can squeeze the cream cheese out of in a decorative way, use that. I, personally am too cheap to buy one so I used a Ziploc bag with a cut off corner creating a tasty circular cream cheese half-turd. Put about a half tea spoon of Salmon Roe into that, and add a splash of Ponzu sauce on top. If you want some kick, squirt (he-he) a drop or two of Sriracha on top. WARNING: some people hate salmon roe. F*%$ those people. Someone will eat this, I promise.