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! 

Zucchini Pancakes

Are there any vegetarians up in here? Holla! This one’s for you. I strongly recommend that you invest in a food processor. And not just the 2 cup-mini prep one you cheapskate, those suck. Aside from a lost finger or two they really do make your life a lot easier. If you don’t own one – that’s cool -just use a grater like a caveman. 

I present, the Zucchini Pancake.

You will need (for 6-7 cakes):

 2 large zucchinis, grated.

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp white or wheat flower

1/2  tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

ground black pepper

Sour Cream

Sriracha (optional)

Grate the zucchinis in the food processor, or the pre-historic way on a grater. Just make sure to grate on the large holes, and please be considerate and remove any knuckle skin that you may have inadvertently grated into the bowl. Salt the shredded zucchini, mix thoroughly and leave to drain in a colander for about 15 minutes so it releases liquid. Squeeze as much  liquid out from the zucchini as possible. Drink it. Just kidding, that’s disgusting. Discard it. In a separate bowl mix the rest of the ingredients with the beaten egg. Add zucchini, and mix thoroughly. Heat 1-2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet, form the zucchini mixture into flat-tish cakes about the size of your palm, and fry on medium heat COVERED for about 7 minutes, or until browned. Uncover, flip the cakes and brown the other side for about 5 minutes on medium. Serve with a dollop (Gawd, I hate that word) of sour cream and a spooge of Sriracha.

Woo-Hoo! Peace out. 

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.