FoodB

I am starving. I am sitting at work and thought it would be a good idea to get out another post for this here blog. I am realizing that it probably wasn't such a good idea.

Last week we our usual recipe for Cornish Game Hens. We both really like it and haven't felt the need to expand on it really. When you buy game hens though, you typically get a pack with two of them in it and usually we just throw the extra one in the freezer for a future retread of the same recipe. This week we decided to go ahead and find another recipe that involved our favorite little bird. So after much searching, it Emeril to the rescue:

Bulgur, Herb, and Feta Stuffed Cornish Hens

1 1/2 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup medium-grain bulgur
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, plus generous sprigs for garnish
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus generous sprigs for garnish
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint, plus generous sprigs for garnish
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
4 scallions (white and green), chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup crumbled Greek feta (about 3 ounces)
4 Cornish game hens, backbone and breast bone removed (butterflied)
Charred Tomato Coulis, recipe follows

1. Bring the stock to a boil in a small saucepan. Meanwhile, toast the bulgur in a medium skillet over medium heat until fragrant and nutty, about 4 minutes. Stir in the bulgur, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Transfer the bulgur to a medium bowl and fluff with a fork. Add 1/4 cup of the olive oil, chopped herbs, pine nuts, 2 teaspoons salt, scallions, and garlic and season with pepper, to taste. Cool slightly and add the egg and feta, and mix to combine. Set the stuffing aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
4. Lay the hens on a work surface. Starting from the neck of a hen, slip a couple fingers between the skin and breast, and loosen the skin. Take a large spoonful of the stuffing and slip the spoon between the skin and breast. With your free hand, hold the stuffing in place and gently pull the spoon out, leaving the stuffing behind. Press the skin down to evenly distribute the stuffing over the breast. Repeat until the hens are evenly stuffed. Cross the legs of the birds at the breastbone and tie them with a piece of kitchen twine.
5. Arrange the hens breast-side up on a baking sheet. Brush all over with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
6. Roast the birds until well browned and crispy, and an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees when inserted into the thigh, about 40 minutes.
7. To serve, split the hens in half lengthwise. Pour the coulis onto a platter and arrange the hens on top. Garnish with the herb sprigs and serve.

Charred Tomato Coulis
4 medium ripe tomatoes
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Put the tomatoes over 2 gas burners on high and cook, turning occasionally, until charred and peeling. Alternatively, broil the tomatoes until charred. Put the tomatoes in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside to steam for 5 minutes. Peel and seed the tomatoes.
2. Transfer the tomatoes to a blender with the vinegar and garlic and puree until smooth. While the motor is running, drizzle in the oil until incorporated. Season with pepper, to taste.

Pretty intense recipe. The bird and the stuffing were both good stuff. As for the tomato coulis, there was a little accident and I ended up cleaning more of it off of the counter than ended up on our plates. I'm not really a sauce person myself so I let Jenn have the bulk of what could be salvaged. As for the stuffing, I was very surprised that the feta or the dill didn't overpower it. I'm not a big fan of either so I was a little worried when I saw that both of them were involved. Since there was only two of us, we decided to split the recipe by 4 (which made for some interesting fractional measurements). Also we avoided the pine nuts due to possible allergic reactions as always. The recipe may seem intimidating just looking at the amount of ingredients and steps, but I think Jenn had a pretty easy time of it. All and all, another keeper.

Posted by Gordon at 11:12 AM | Permalink

Back on Labor day weekend, it was frickin' hot. So the natural place for most people to go when it is hot is to the movies (that is if you are not really a beach person). That weekend we got a chance to see Pixar's latest movie, Ratatouille. Cute little film and the only problem I had with it was that it seemed to be geared more for adults. I like animated films that are geared more for kids yet have a little things thrown in for the parents in the crowd. Those movies tend to be more light-hearted in my book.

So oddly enough when we were making the menu for last week, we got to our usual question of what soup should we make for the week. My mother gave us a really good soup book which I have been using for that same question for the past month and I came across ratatouille in it. After seeing it made in the movie we were both curious and already had an eggplant in the fridge, so why not.

Ratatouille

2 medium eggplants (2 – 2 1/2 lbs. total) cut into 1 inch dice
Salt
2 large zucchini (1 1/2 lbs. total) cut into 1 inch dice
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion cut into 1 inch pieces
2 medium cloves of garlic minced
3 medium ripe tomatoes, cored, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
1 Tablespoon minced fresh Thyme leaves
Ground Black pepper

1. Place the eggplant in a large colander set over a bowl. Sprinkle the eggplant with 2 teaspoons salt and toss to distribute the salt evenly. Let the eggplant stand for at least 1 hour and preferably 2 to 3 hours. Rinse the eggplant well to remove the salt and place on a triple thickness of paper towels. Cover with another triple layer of towels. Using your palms, press the eggplant firmly until it feels very firm when pressed between fingertips. Set aside.
2. Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 500 degrees. Toss the eggplant and zucchini with 2 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Divide the mixed vegetables between 2 parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets and season liberally with salt to taste. Place the baking sheets in the oven and roast the vegetables stirring every 10 minutes, until the eggplant and zucchini are well-browned and very tender, 30 – 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add the onion, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring often until the onion is golden and very soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until just fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook until their juices are released and tomatoes begin to break down, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the reserved eggplant and zucchini to the pot, stirring gently but thoroughly to coat until the vegetables are reheated. Add the parsley, basil and thyme and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Chefs Notes
For the tomatoes there is a whole process you can go through peeling the tomatoes if you don't have the best knife skills or one shortcut you could do is to buy a can of whole tomatoes that has it already done for you. Notes on the process are as follows:

Peeling Tomatoes

1. Place the cored tomatoes in a saucepan of boiling water, no more than five at a time. Boil until the skin splits and begins to curl around the cored area of the tomato, about 15 seconds for very ripe tomatoes and up to 30 seconds for firmer tomatoes. Remove the tomatoes from the water with a slotted spoon and place them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.


2. When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, peel back the skins with a paring knife. Use the curled edges at the core as your point of departure.

For the Salt, I prefer to use Kosher salt when cooking and flat leaf (Italian Parsley) when recipes call for it. It gives a more fresh flavor to things.

If you don't feel like taking the time out to cut up fresh herbs you can always use dry herbs but just greatly reduce the measurements it asks for because the dry is reduced in size quite a bit.

I only used one tray for roasting the veggies because I had a big enough pan, as long as everything consists of one layer, a couple here and there is no big deal. Also I didn’t use a dutch oven, I just used a plane old skillet but reduced the heat because the heat goes through that metal a lot quicker.

End Chefs Notes

Pretty impressive stuff here. I have no idea why it was in our soup and stew book because there wasn't anything that resembled a broth involved. It was also nice to have a dinner that did not involve a meat as the star of the dish. I've noticed that most of our meals revolve around some kind of meat and the few times we have tried to veer away from this, the results have been mixed. But this is a welcome addition to our collection and a healthy choice as well.

Posted by Gordon at 11:28 AM | Permalink

The Simply Recipes website is my new crack. We have made 2 things from them now and I have really enjoyed both.

The second dish we made was the stuffed zucchini recipe below. I saw it come across my RSS reader and when I saw the picture of the finished product, I really wanted to try it. Was a little difficult convincing Jenn that this wouldn't be another one of my disaster project recipes. I find that for every three recipes I try to take on, Usually one of them is good. I know, enough talk, get to the food!

Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey Sausage

1 zucchini about 12 inches long, or 6 medium ones
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1 pound ground turkey
2 diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper

1. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving shells about 1/4 inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides.
2. Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add mushrooms and reserved zucchini insides, and sauté another 2 minutes.
3. In a separate skillet heat a Tbsp of olive oil on medium high heat. Add the ground turkey. Lightly brown the turkey, stirring only occasionally. After the turkey browns on one side, stir it so that it has a chance to brown on other sides. Cook until the ground turkey is lightly browned, about 6 minutes. Stir in the onion and mushroom mixture from the other pan. Add the wine. Stir in tomato, basil and rosemary and cook 1 minute longer. Drain any excess fat. Remove mixture from heat and set it aside.
4. When mixture has cooled, add cheese, egg, salt and pepper. Fill zucchini shells with mixture. Fill a baking pan with 1/4 inch of water. Place filled zucchini halves in pan and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove zucchini from pan and serve while hot.

Good stuff! I thought that hollowing out the zucchinis was going to be a nightmare. Boy was I surprised when I had finished the job in 10 minutes. We omitted the mushrooms from this dish because the 'shrooms just ain't my thing. We had plenty of leftovers on this one also.

One thing we discussed afterwards was the choice of meats. Ground turkey is alright, it just tends to dry out very easily. Jenn and I both agree that this recipe would have gone better with either ground chicken or chicken sausage. I think it might be good with ground pork as well but Jenn usually knows better when it comes to stuff like substituting. This one is definitely a keeper and I have yet to find a recipe with zucchini that I don't like.

Posted by Gordon at 01:55 PM | Permalink

So much for that whole record of posting every 3 days or so. I do have an excuse though. Someone killed my car.

About a month ago, Jen's mom put her house up for sale. She is planning on moving up to Oregon and hopefully someday soon, we shall follow. We both really miss a lot about Oregon (the food selection is top notch up there) and want to really make that area our future home.

With the sale of the house comes open houses. For the first open house, we invited the family and dogs over so the realtor could do his business and we decided to cook up some ribs. The ribs were smoked and I have to say that it has been awhile since I have had ribs that good. One of the other things that we threw on the grill were some shrimp marinated in a sauce that Jenn whipped up. She got the inspiration for the sauce from watching Iron Chef and decided what better time to experiment. Here is the recipe for the sauce:

Mean Green Dressing

1 bundle of flat leaf parsley (Italian Parsley)
1/2 bundle of cilantro
1 bundle of small scallion tops (you can find these in the herb section of your grocery store)
5 sweet basil leaves
1 lemon
1 clove of garlic
Kosher salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Olive Oil, about 1/2 a cup

• Squeeze half the lemon into a blender, the add the bund of parsley, cilantro, scallions and basil, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Start to blend in the blender slowly adding the olive oil as you go. You may or may not need all the /2 a cup just make sure to eyeball and taste as you go to get the consistency you like. If you need to, add more salt or lemon juice.

Man that was good on the shrimp. The flavors really came out. Grilling the shrimp was pretty easy with this on it because they were pretty much coated with olive oil. There was some leftover sauce the next day and Jenn tried throwing it on a salad. She enjoyed it yet I did not. I am finding that I still like my salad with no dressing so don't take this as a negative review of it. Just not my cup of tea.

Posted by Gordon at 07:56 AM | Permalink

What a great weekend here in Southern California. Labor day weekend was last week and for those of you that don't live around here; it was pretty fricken hot. Temperatures for all three days were in the triple digits and our poor little window air conditioning unit just wasn't up to the task. It is pretty sad when you would rather go to a nice air conditioned office instead of having an extra day off to enjoy with family and friends.

This weekend was the complete opposite. The weather was around 80 degrees and perfect for BBQing. Luckily I had invited my parents down from the Victor Valley area to celebrate fathers day, albeit a little late.

Back in July we were planning on inviting my parents down to celebrate and we got news that my Grandfathers health was failing. He ended up passing away that week and we all agreed that we would have to postpone any such plans. Well it was about time that I paid off that rain check and what better way to celebrate at the end of summer than to BBQ.

I ended up cooking the tri-tip recipe that I wrote about a few weeks back with the typical assortment of side dishes that I enjoy (namely potatoes and corn on the cob). Before all that happened though, Jenn decided to make a batch of snickerdoodle cookies so the house would smell good and we would have some form of dessert. Snickerdoodles are my favorite cookie and we found a great recipe in the big yellow baking cookbook that my mother gave us and here is that recipe:

Snickerdoodle Cookies

2 1/4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter softened but still cool
1/4 cup of vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 3 tablespoons for rolling dough
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon of cinnamon for rolling dough

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower middle positions and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Either by hand or with an electric mixer, cream the butter, shortening and the 1 1/2 cups of sugar at medium speed until combined, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs. Beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
4. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds.
5. Mix the 3 tablespoons of sugar for rolling and the cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Working with a heaping tablespoon of dough each time, roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar and place them on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
6. Bake until the edges of the cookies are beginning to set and the centers are soft and puffy, 9-11 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets 2 to 3 minutes before transferring them with a wide metal spatula to a wire rack.

Good stuff!!! I can't recommend that baking book enough. We have made about 6 items from it and each one has been great. Usually I am the one that does the baking for our little family, but this time Jenn stepped up and made me look like a chump in the kitchen. Guess I am going to have to defer to her now any time I go near the stove.

Posted by Gordon at 02:01 PM | Permalink