Scallops in Prosciutto with Monk fish and Rosemary, Confit of Halibut and Monkfish with Mousseline sauce, and Apple Pie

Every Christmas Eve my mom, my sister, and I go down to our Mom mom house to eat and open some presents.  This year my other sister, who is much much older than me, came down as well.  It is always a night filled with good food and laughs, and of course some beer for me!

My aunt gave me some cookbooks for Christmas this year and I was told I had to cook a meal.  She wanted an appetizer, entree and dessert.  So I picked a few things out and decided to give it a shot.  The dessert did not come out like I wanted, but it still tasted good.  When it comes down to it, it's all about flavor anyway.

I also grossly underestimated how much fish I would need, so the meal was quite light, and I actually only had a small piece of the halibut and one or two scallops.  However, I think most of the fun is to cook for someone else even if you don't eat the meal yourself.

The first thing I made was some Scallops in Prosciutto with Monk fish.  Monk fish is known has the poor man's lobster.  I find lobster to be rubbery and tasteless.  Everyone seems to go crazy over lobster, but my guess is that if you dip any fish in 50 pounds of butter you will go nuts over that as well.  Needless to say Monk fish is very similar to lobster, but I found it to be more flaky and more flavorful than lobster.  I also slightly overcooked the fish, mainly because not all the pieces were consistent in size, and I could see some of the albumin, which is really just unsightly.  Most of the the ones I cook came out pretty good.

One of the best advice I can give to someone is to cut the scallops in half.  Most scallops are overcooked and rubbery and gross.  They should melt in your mouth.  If you cut them in half you can cook them faster about a min on each side for medium sized scallops in a pan with olive oil.  If you don't cut them in half you want to make it so that it is almost raw in the center and let them sit for 2-3 mins, that way the center will cook through on it's own and you don't end up with a rubbery scallop.

The pictures are from my cellphone.  Basically you just get some scallops, cut them in half and cut the prosciutto in half length wise.  Wrap the scallop with the prosciutto, and cut up the monk fish into small cubes (Brunoise).   Place them onto a baking sheet and place some sprigs of rosemary and drizzle with olive oil and put into a 400 F oven for about 5 mins.  

Confit just means to poach in the fat or oil.  A lot of recipes with duck are confit of duck, using the duck fat to cook the duck.  For this I just confit the rest of the monk fish I had and some of the halibut.  I wouldn't recommend doing the confit of monk fish, because it cooks up and looks much like lobster and wasn't that good.  The confit of Halibut flaked up nicely after 10 mins and was very good.

Basically put some sea salt on the fillets.  It would be good to let it stand for 30 minutes, and soak for 20 minutes then drain and pat dry.  My aunt was probably pretty hungry since I was taking a long time with this, and I also didn't have enough fish for everyone.  I didn't expect my younger sister to come in and steal some of the food.  No one really likes her that much anyway, and I figured we might as well feed her something other than fish heads for dinner since it is the holidays.

This is two pieces of Halibut and one piece of the monk fish with some mousseline sauce drizzled over it.  

For the fish heat up about 2 cups of olive oil in a pan, but it doesn't have to be as hot as if you were frying.  About 122F or hot enough to put your finger in it and not burn your finger.  After 10 minutes pull it out with a slotted spoon.  You should see it start to flake when you take it out.  

For the mousseline sauce, whip 1/2 cup of heavy cream til it forms soft peaks, then fold in half a cup of mayo and 3 tbsp of lemon juice.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  

The apple pie was a disaster.  I got the recipe from his 3 star chef book.  It was the simplest of the recipes and I was ill-equipped for the task.  I needed a certain pan, which I just didn't have.  It was basically cut up apples with caramel sauce.  The crust on top is puff pastry placed on top, and was baked at 400F for 15 mins and then 350 F for 15 minutes.  You then tip the pie over so that the top crust is now the bottom.  Let's just say that I won't be flipping pies again for a while.  Hence, no pictures.  I did scrap it together and put some ice cream on the top.  So it tasted okay, it just looked like apple slop.  

Chocolate Macaroons and Orange Ganache

So I went to my mom's house to pick up my Christmas tree out of the basement and to take it back up to my apartment.  When I walk in the door my mom informs me that she wants to make cookies because it's the holidays, and she surprises me by telling me I have to make them.  I don't particularly like baking.  It's too exact, and cooking usually lets me pretend I am somewhat creative.  Anyway, I bought some pre-made sugar cookies to make and decided to try making some macaroons with some orange ganache.

My mom also decided to help out.  Needless to say it was a mess, and I really don't like dirty kitchens.  I also made some steak and potatoes for dinner, and really didn't want to waste a lot of time making these.  I also didn't like them very much.  I like the macaroons, but not the ganache.  The macaroons were crunchy on the outside, and chewy on the inside.  The ganache had allspice in it.  I like allspice, but it is very strong and I think it over powered the chocolate.  I also strongly suspect my mom didn't measure the amount I told her and just added it til she thought it was good.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 2 cups powdered sugar, divided
• 1 1/4 cups slivered almonds
• 3 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons egg whites (from about 3 large eggs), room temperature, whisked to loosen
• 1/4 cup sugar

Ganache:

• 3 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Preparation:

Set the oven to 325 F. Arrange the oven racks to that it is on the top one is 1/3 of the way down from the top and 1/3 of the way up from the bottom.  And line two cooking sheets with wax or parchment paper.  

In a food processor or blender, mix the almonds with the powdered sugar for about 30-60 seconds.  Add the remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar and the cocoa powder and blend to mix it up. Shift the mixture and you take the leftover nuts and re-blend it and then shift it further.

Take the egg whites, about 3 eggs and whisk or use a mixer to beat the whites till they are white and frothy.  I usually just whisk it, but an electric mixer would probably be faster and easier.  Then add the sugar a few tablespoons at a time.  Then add some extra egg white, I used one egg white and whisk until it forms hard peaks.

Fold in the meringue into the shifted powder.  Spoon the mixture into a zip lock bag, and pour it out onto the wax paper into circles that are about the size of a quarter.  The total cooking time is 16 minutes, but you will want to rotate the trays after 8 mins.

For the ganache, but the chocolate and butter into a bowl.  Use a double boiler, or put a glass bowl over a pan with hot water to melt it.  Or just microwave it.  I'm not some chocolate purist.  You can microwave it for 2 mins at about 50% power and the mix it together.  Just check it and make sure it doesn't burn in the microwave.  I did it for 2 mins at 50% power and the butter melted and when I whisked the chocolate into the butter it was basically melted.

Bring the cream almost to a boil over medium heat.  Remove from the heat and mix in the orange zest, salt, allspice and cloves.  I think if I ever do it again I will leave out the cloves and allspice, or put less into the chocolate.  Place that into the fridge for 20 mins until you are ready to add it to the cookies.

Then just place one cookie on the bottom, then pipette the chocolate through a zip lock bag onto the cookie and place another one on top. They are small, almost bite size, and not too bad.  

Chik Fil A Nuggets

So I had some Chik Fil A nuggets not to long ago at a party for a friend before he had to ship out to Afghanistan again.  I forgot how good they are so I tried to make my own.

I won't say they were as good as Chik Fil A Nuggets, but they are pretty damn good.  It is also important to note, that the first few batches may have burned and smoked up the apartment pretty good.  However, after I got to use to how they cook they turned out pretty good.

The ingredients I used are pretty simple as well.

Ingredients:
2 Chicken Breasts cut up
1 1/4 cups Milk
2 Tablespoons of Powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 egg

Whisk the egg in a bowl and then whisk in the milk.  Add the cut up the chicken to the milk/egg mixture and put in the refrigerator for  2-4 hours.  I did it for about two hours.

Meanwhile mix the dry ingredients in a bowl or a ziplock bag and put to the side.  After the chicken marinates for 2-4 hours pull them out and place them into the dry flour mixture.  Heat up some oil in a heavy medium size pot over med-high heat.  I don't measure how hot the oil gets, I just throw some water from my finger tips onto it.  If it starts to bubble and pop, the oil is ready.  You can also just look at the oil and you will see some "ribbons".  Anyway, pop the chicken bits in and flip if you have to in order to cook all sides.  I cut them up small so they were done in about 1 min. 

To make some honey mustard:
1 1/4 cup mayo
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon of honey

Mix em together and dip some nugs in there!

Tuna Provencal

Tuna Provencal

Since I was evacuated (for the second time) because of Hurricane Irene flooding making my apartment unsafe for occupants to live in, I went to my Mom's house in South Jersey.

I figured I would make something every night out of Gordan Ramsey's cookbook featuring recipes from around the world. However, I only got to do French. I didn't even make the lemon souffle I wanted to make. Mainly because I threw my back out for the first time and can barely walk without sharp pain shooting up and down my spine.

Anyway, this recipe is so stinking easy and good, I decided to ignore the pain and type this up real quick. I cooked this medium rare, so it was pink inside. I personally like tuna medium rare, but if you like it well done, just cook it longer.

Recipe (from my memory because I don't want to get up and make sure I wrote everything down right.)

Ingredients

Tuna steaks
Lemon
Salt and Pepper
1 Red and 1 yellow pepper
Sprig of Thyme
Sprig of Rosemary
Can of plum tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 red onion
2 medium zucchini
some Basil if you want
Olive oil

Place some of the olive oil into a large skillet or pan. Chop and place the onions, peppers, garlic (minced) into the oil and cook til the are soft but not so they lose color. Then add the zucchini and cook for another 2 mins.

Take the plum tomatoes and peel the skin, and chop them up and add to the mixture. Let that cook for another minute or so and then season your tuna steaks on both sides generously with Salt and Pepper. Drizzle a little olive oil over the fish.

Pour the onions, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes into a large baking dish. Place the tuna fish on top of the veggies and place a lemon slice between each steak. Then season with pepper. Cook for about 8-10mins at 400 degrees or another 5 to 10 mins for well done.



And thats it. My mom does not even like fish and she ate the whole thing!
Then

Gourmet Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

I got this recipe from cupcakerecipes.com I saw cupcake wars and decided I wanted some cupcakes. I may have gone over board with the ingredients, but these things are delicious. For instance instead of using unsweetened cocoa powder and sweetening it myself, I bought Ghirardelli chocolate hazelnut cocoa powder.

For the cake I used some cake flour, but also ground up hazelnuts and almonds. They tasted more like a muffin the sweet cupcake, but the frosting makes up for the sweetness (and fatness).

These pictures were taken from by my sister.

Here is the recipe. I couldn't get the syrup for the hazelnuts to form a nice spike.

Gourmet Hazelnut Cupcake Recipe

Makes 16

1/2 cup whole unblanched almonds, toasted

1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising), sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar

3/4 cup milk

4 large egg whites

Dark Chocolate Frosting

Caramel-Dipped Hazelnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a food processor, pulse together almonds and hazelnuts until finely ground (do not overprocess, or the nuts will turn into a paste). Into a mixing bowl, sift together both flours, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in the ground nuts.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating well after each.

In another mixing bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. In two additions, gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Using an offset spatula, spread frosting over each cupcake. Cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature and top with caramel-dipped hazelnuts just before serving.

Yummy Caramel Dipped Hazelnuts

Ingredients

24 hazelnuts, toasted and skinned

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup water

Directions

Gently insert pointed end of a long wooden skewer into the side of each hazelnut. Place a cutting board along the edge of a countertop; place newspaper on the floor, directly under cutting board.

Prepare an ice-water bath. Heat sugar and the water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved and syrup is clear. Stop stirring; cook until syrup comes to a boil, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Continue to boil, gently swirling occasionally, until medium amber. Plunge pan into ice bath to stop the cooking; let stand until thickened, about 10 minutes. (To test: Dip a skewer in caramel and lift a few inches; if a thick drip slowly forms and holds a string, the caramel is ready.)

Dip a skewered hazelnut into caramel, letting excess drip back into pan. When dripping syrup becomes a thin string, secure opposite end of skewer under cutting board. Repeat with remaining hazelnuts. (If caramel hardens before all hazelnuts have been dipped, rewarm it over low heat.) Let stand until caramel string has hardened, about 5 minutes; break each string to desired length. Carefully remove skewers. Candied hazelnuts should be used the same day; store, uncovered, at room temperature until ready to serve cupcakes.

**recipe created from Martha Stewart.

This amazing dark, satiny frosting will be perfect for spreading or piping into beautiful swirls. It also has a wonderful sheen. Yum!

Makes about 5 cups

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water

2 1/4 cups (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 pounds best-quality semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions

Combine cocoa and the boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners’ sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

.

Spinach, ricotta, and pine nut ravioli with sage butter

Spinach, ricotta, and pine nut ravioli with sage butter

My mom started to ask me to make dinner again. So I decided to go with my man Gordon Ramsay. The dude is awesome. The good thing is that my sister from Florida came up so this would be an easy meal to make. Well at least I made it a bit simpler. In his recipe he makes the pasta from scratch and cooked in water that has saffron placed in it. I am all about trying to make pasta from scratch one day, but I was pressed for time. Also, saffron is supposedly amazing, but at the price it cost to buy some, it better be sent from the gods to bless me with wisdom or a bountiful harvest.

Before I get into the help my mom gave me while making this dinner I preface it with this little story. I was telling my sister about this show called "Worst Cooks in America" and how they made my mom look like a good cook. I may have jumped the gun with that statement.

In an attempt to make it go faster, I asked them to help me with certain things. I asked my mom to toast the pine nuts. I explained to keep moving them and not to burn, just get a lit brown color. Meanwhile me and my sister are working on cooking the spinach and getting the seasoning ready. When I hear when are these suppose to be done. I look over and say are you crazy should have been done a while ago! Sure enough she watched them go from light brown to black. There were some pine nuts that were okay. Just when I thought she might not be the worst cook in America she comes back out of no where and takes the title back.

Anyway, I made some Spanakopita and just loved the combo of spinach and pine nuts and wanted to do something similar. Also, instead of making pasta from scratch I decided to buy wonton wrappers. Very easy to make a quick ravioli. I've used them before when making crab ravioli. Just let throw them in the pot and let them cook till they float.

Ingredients

For the filling:

Olive oil

2 gloves or garlic, peeled and minced

1 lb spinach leaves

1 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

sea salt and black pepper

2/3 cup ricotta cheese

2-3/4 oz Parmesan grated

2/3 cup pine nuts, toasted

squeeze of lemon juice

beaten egg for brushing

In a large skillet, brown the garlic in the olive oil. Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then increase the heat slightly and add the butter, nutmeg, and seasoning. Drain and roughly chop the spinach. In a large bowl, mix the ricotta, Parmesan and pine nuts. Stir in the spinach and add a touch of lemon juice. Taste and season if needed. Let it chill for 30 minutes (I didn't chill but if you have the time, go for it).

Place about half a teaspoon onto the wonton. Brush at least two sides of the wonton with the egg, and press with a fork. At first I just made triangle ravioli's. However, my sister folded them in half and then folded up the edges on the two shorter sides and pressed them with a fork, then it looked more like a ravioli.

Sage Butter

5 tbsp butter, diced

2 tbsp heavy cream

6 sage sprigs, leaves shredded

Melt the butter in a saucepan and heat until it begins to brown. Take it off the heat and strain into a clean pan. Heat it slowly and stir in the heavy cream and sage.

This is how a meal looks when a pro cooks it.

New Years Pork

I decided that my first post would be the New Year's Day dinner I made for my mom. Besides the typical traditions observed such as kissing at midnight or possibly just getting sloppy drunk, there are a few less known traditions or superstitions are also observed.

Commonly in my house we eat pork. The reason (which I had no idea until yesterday) is because poultry scratches backwards, cattle stand still, but pigs keep rooting forward. The bad part about this tradition is I never liked pork. This is probably because my mom would murder the poor pig again and serve us a piece of dry, tough pork chop. I would usually run to a friends house in high school when we were going to have pork chops for dinner.

So I told my mom I would venture into the realm of cooking pork. I decided to go with a recipe I saw from Iron Chef Micheal Symon. I cooked pork chops on the bone with an apple, peach mostarda and puree. Mostarda is common in Italy and is fruit with the essence of mustard, being either mustard seed or mustard oil. You can make it and jar it up and it is served up with boiled meats.

In this dish there is really three levels of flavor. The mostarda gives a nice tart flavor to accent the pork while the puree adds a bit of sweetness. Also, I specifically looked for the pork on the bone with the fat still on it. The fat just adds to the flavor and can be trimmed off before serving.

The pork chops on the bone are thick. I would typically go to a butcher my dad found in Ventnor, but I found some in Shop Rite. You can probably make this with the chops off the bone and thin cut, but there will be less flavor and easier to overcook. Also, to get a moist chop, it should be slightly pink and somewhere around 150-160 degrees on a thermometer.

Ingredients:

4 Pork Chops

Kosher or Sea Salt

Pinch of Sugar

Blended oil

Apple and Peach Puree

1 Peach peeled, pitted and sliced

1 McIntosh Apple, peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup of unsalted butter (I used 1 cup and then looked in the pan and decided 1 cup was entirely too much and poured a lot of it out, so you may want to use less)

Sea Salt

Apple and Peach Mostarda

1 tablespoon coriander seed

1 tablespoon mustard seed

1/2 cup dried cherries

1 peach peeled, pitted and diced into medium size chunks

1 Granny Smith Apple peeled, cored and diced into medium size chunks

4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 shallot finely sliced

2 cups of apple cider vinegar

Sea salt and Black peppercorn

Splash of mustard oil

For Plating

Peppercress

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Instructions

For the pork:

Season the chops with the salt and a pinch of sugar on both sides. If possible season the night before and leave in the fridge. Typically for steaks I don't put salt on meat like steak until AFTER cooking because it tends to pull the moisture out of the meat, but it worked for me. Allow the pork to cool to room temp before cooking.

For the puree:

In a large saute pan over medium-high heat add the butter, apple and peach and allow to get tender about 10 minutes. Carefully put into a blender and blend till pureed. And salt to taste.

For the Mostarda:

In a small saucepan over medium heat add the coriander and mustard seeds. Allow to toast for about 30 seconds. Then add the apple, peach, vinegar, thyme and shallots and cherries into the saucepan. Allow to simmer till the apples and peaches are tender, again about 10 minutes, I let mine on for a little longer. Add salt and fresh pepper to taste. Take off the heat and add a splash of mustard oil.

Plating (which I am not great at):

Toss the peppercress with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Place a spoonful of the puree onto the plate. Cut the pork off the bone and slice up. Place some of the mostarda on the pork followed by the peppercress. Drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil and serve! Mine plating is what it looks like on the top. Here is how an Iron chef serves it.