nothing screams sexy like raw oysters.
i can slurp up dozens of them. and i do. living in maine i have access to some of the freshest, most amazing seafood available any where. when i hit the Lobster Company of Arundel, Maine, i usually add a dozen or so oysters to the bill. my favorite oysters are Kumamoto...they have a subtle cucumber flavor to them that i haven't found in any other yet. but i'm not picky. it's hard to come by Kumamotos. i'll settle for a good 'ol Damariscotta any day!
i learned to shuck oysters working at Street & Co...an absolutely amazing Mediterranean seafood restaurant in Portland, Maine. it is a skill. it isn't easy. and i am not about to take responsibility for teaching anyone who reads this...but know that it is well worth the effort you exert, especially when you pair the oysters with a Mignonette Sauce. a fine tutorial is here.
mignonette is a traditional french oyster sauce. it allows for the flavor of the oyster to come through, unlike a cocktail sauce. the one i make is a bastardized version of the one they serve at the raw bar at Street & Co. when you make it you will set it out in a small bowl or ramekin to spoon into the oyster shell and slurp right up. mmmm...can't be beat.
you will need:
red wine vinegar
sparkling pellegrino water
prepared horseradish
freshly ground pepper
the water found within the oysters as you shuck them
preparation:
1. pour about 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar into a small mixing bowl.
2. add about 3 tablespoons of pellegrino to the vinegar.
3. i like my mignonette a little spicy...so i add about a tablespoon of horseradish to this vinegar/pellegrino blend...you should add what you like depending on your taste.
4. grind some pepper into the sauce to taste.
5. as you crack each oyster open pour off the water you find inside into the mignonette...and then put the oysters on a dish lined with ice...
6. spoon a little sauce into the oyster shell as you are about to eat it and enjoy!!!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
our favorite lemon tea cake
my children, who are all under 10, ask for this cake consistently as their birthday cake. it is sooooo good. a dense lightly lemony cake that is just sweet enough. it is sinfully moist on the bottom as it soaks up the sugary lemon juice and has a lovely crust of sugary goodness on top. it is absolutely a perfect cake to pair with fresh whipped cream and some sort of berries, but is just as good alone.
you will need:
a bundt pan
1 cup of butter, softened, plus a little extra to butter the pan
1 3/4 cup of raw sugar with 1/4 of a cup separated from the rest
2 lemons, zested, pitted and juiced...
1 1/2 teaspoons of pure lemon extract
4 eggs
3 cups unbleached white wheat flour (i love king arthur's brand)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
preparations:
1. butter and flour the bundt pan and preheat oven to 350 F.
2. beat the butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar together until creamy.
3. add the grated zest from the two lemons to the sugary butter. beat well.
4. add the eggs and the lemon extract to the mixture and beat thoroughly.
5. add the flour, baking soda and salt and gently fold into the butter-sugary-lemony-eggy goodness. as you stir the dry ingredients into the wet, add the milk. you may add more milk if the batter consistency is too dry, but it is intended to be a little gloppier than a box cake mix might be. it should be beaten thoroughly, but not runny.
6. spoon mixture into the bundt pan and bake for about one hour. when cake has plumped up nicely, is mildly browned and a wooden skewer can be inserted and extracted and remain clean, it is done. take it out to cool a bit.
7. while cake is baking add the remaining quarter cup of sugar to the juice of the two lemons and mix. the sugary juice will still be granular, and thats okay. when the cake is done and has cooled a little while, turn the pan over onto a serving plate and shake that baby out! then, pour the sugary juice over the top, letting the granules stay on the top to harden. the juice will run down the edges and puddle at the bottom of the plate where it will soak into the cake and make every problem in your world dissappear if not just for the moments you're eating it. :)
enjoy!!!
you will need:
a bundt pan
1 cup of butter, softened, plus a little extra to butter the pan
1 3/4 cup of raw sugar with 1/4 of a cup separated from the rest
2 lemons, zested, pitted and juiced...
1 1/2 teaspoons of pure lemon extract
4 eggs
3 cups unbleached white wheat flour (i love king arthur's brand)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
preparations:
1. butter and flour the bundt pan and preheat oven to 350 F.
2. beat the butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar together until creamy.
3. add the grated zest from the two lemons to the sugary butter. beat well.
4. add the eggs and the lemon extract to the mixture and beat thoroughly.
5. add the flour, baking soda and salt and gently fold into the butter-sugary-lemony-eggy goodness. as you stir the dry ingredients into the wet, add the milk. you may add more milk if the batter consistency is too dry, but it is intended to be a little gloppier than a box cake mix might be. it should be beaten thoroughly, but not runny.
6. spoon mixture into the bundt pan and bake for about one hour. when cake has plumped up nicely, is mildly browned and a wooden skewer can be inserted and extracted and remain clean, it is done. take it out to cool a bit.
7. while cake is baking add the remaining quarter cup of sugar to the juice of the two lemons and mix. the sugary juice will still be granular, and thats okay. when the cake is done and has cooled a little while, turn the pan over onto a serving plate and shake that baby out! then, pour the sugary juice over the top, letting the granules stay on the top to harden. the juice will run down the edges and puddle at the bottom of the plate where it will soak into the cake and make every problem in your world dissappear if not just for the moments you're eating it. :)
enjoy!!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
broadening horizons...
i love having new experiences...and trying new foods...and thankfully over the weekend i had the amazing opportunity to do just that while visiting relatives in New Jersey. there is much more variety to life south of Maine. i love it here for so many reasons, but it definitely lacks diversity in culture, people and food! (we have amazing fare here...just not all that culturally diverse!)
for the first time ever, i went to a Korean BBQ. it was a loud, large smoky room that was packed full of diners. when we sat down, my father in law ordered a bunch of food for the whole table, so i honestly don't know exactly what it was that we ate.
food began parading to the table right away...in a matter of moments the table was covered with 3 sets of about a dozen little appetizers...kim chi, cured black beans, marinated bean sprouts, a waldorf-esque salad of apple and potato (that was thankfully much tastier than a waldorf salad), an egg souffle, several salads with different types of spicy dressing, marinated straw-like mushrooms, among other things. each was fabulous and different from the next.
we also were presented with a big plate full of chilled, finely diced raw meat. the server tossed it all in raw egg and a dressing that was a tad sweet right at the table. it was meant to be eaten raw and it was amazing. i have had raw meat before, carpaccio is one of my favorite delicacies, but this was sooo much different than that and very delicious. it looked much like a pile of shredded roasted red peppers and was called yuki, i think.
as we began to nibble on all of these goodies, a man brought out a small cage full of flaming charcoals and nestled it into the center of our table. next, a big plate of raw meat was brought over and we cooked it ourselves right there in the center of our tables! there were large crunchy piece of lettuce on the table and we put this amazing tangy peanut sauce on the leaf, with the meat and some bean sprouts and/or mushrooms and rolled it up eating it altogether like a sushi handroll!
it was fun...the children had a blast and there was plenty for them to love. we left smelling a bit like the BBQ itself, but it was so well worth it.
IT WAS ALL SOOOOOO FLIPPING GOOD!
for the first time ever, i went to a Korean BBQ. it was a loud, large smoky room that was packed full of diners. when we sat down, my father in law ordered a bunch of food for the whole table, so i honestly don't know exactly what it was that we ate.
food began parading to the table right away...in a matter of moments the table was covered with 3 sets of about a dozen little appetizers...kim chi, cured black beans, marinated bean sprouts, a waldorf-esque salad of apple and potato (that was thankfully much tastier than a waldorf salad), an egg souffle, several salads with different types of spicy dressing, marinated straw-like mushrooms, among other things. each was fabulous and different from the next.
we also were presented with a big plate full of chilled, finely diced raw meat. the server tossed it all in raw egg and a dressing that was a tad sweet right at the table. it was meant to be eaten raw and it was amazing. i have had raw meat before, carpaccio is one of my favorite delicacies, but this was sooo much different than that and very delicious. it looked much like a pile of shredded roasted red peppers and was called yuki, i think.
as we began to nibble on all of these goodies, a man brought out a small cage full of flaming charcoals and nestled it into the center of our table. next, a big plate of raw meat was brought over and we cooked it ourselves right there in the center of our tables! there were large crunchy piece of lettuce on the table and we put this amazing tangy peanut sauce on the leaf, with the meat and some bean sprouts and/or mushrooms and rolled it up eating it altogether like a sushi handroll!
it was fun...the children had a blast and there was plenty for them to love. we left smelling a bit like the BBQ itself, but it was so well worth it.
IT WAS ALL SOOOOOO FLIPPING GOOD!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
salt. mmmmmmm.
a pediatricians' confession of her love for salt.
it's a lovely little NPR piece and worth a moment. down with processed foods...and up with sultry homemade goodness!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
my bastardized bolognese sauce...
we love pasta in my household. and i do love making sauce. not the kind i remember my mom making that took all day. i just don't have that kind of time...but an hour to prepare an amazing sauce that can yield two hardy family meals isn't such a sacrifice...and once you taste how yummy this bolognese is, you'll know it's well worth the time even if you only make the batch big enough for one dinner. this recipe will yield enough sauce for two dinners comprised of a pound of pasta each.
you'll need a cast iron skillet. and also...for those of you weak hearted folks out there who fear the anchovy...you'll need to ditch your fear for this one. anchovies are the not so secret any more secret ingredient of this dish.
fixins:
1 pound box of pasta prepared al dente (i have a weakness for nice expensive imported pastas. i love orechietta, aka ear shaped pasta, with this rich flavorful sauce.)
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1 small can of flat anchovies
4 large lobes of garlic, crushed and minced
2 large shallots, crushed and minced
extra virgin olive oil
a bit of red wine
the juice and pulp of an orange or grapefruit
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, mottled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano finely chopped
1 teaspoon of fennel seed, mottled
1 pound of ground meat (turkey, beef or even fresh tuna..i've also used sausage out of the casing)
a bit of light cream
butter (i like to use earth balance's buttery spread)
preparations:
1. coat the cast iron skillet in extra virgin olive oil and heat on medium low.
2. saute the garlic and shallot until translucent, but not brown...add can of anchovies with the oil it was packed in to the garlic and shallot, as well as half of the fresh herbs and the fennel seed and simmer and stir a bit...allowing the herbs to release their flavor and letting the anchovy disintegrate (don't worry noone will ever know it's in there...and it makes this sauce taste amazing!!)
3. add meat to the pan, turn up heat to medium high and brown.
4. squeeze the orange juice onto the meat and let the pulp fall right in. add a couple of tablespoons of butter (or erth's balance) and a bit of wine, maybe a few tablespoons or even 1/4 cup, and simmer, melting the butter and cooking off the alcohol.
5. add tomatoes and the rest of the fresh herbs and simmer on medium low heat for 1/2 hour. add a dash of cream and simmer once more...letting thicken.
6. salt and pepper to taste.
like i mentioned earlier, this will be enough sauce for two meals...so pack half of it up right away or someone is liable to nosh on it and it'll be gone before you know it! it freezes well...
the half that you are using should be tossed right into the pasta which you can top with a mixture of grated parm and romano cheeses (make sure they're good quality...it makes a huge difference)...serve with some yummy bitter green, like broccoli rabe and some crusty italian bread with a little dish of olive oil garnished with sea salt and crushed red pepper for dipping bread in.
you'll need a cast iron skillet. and also...for those of you weak hearted folks out there who fear the anchovy...you'll need to ditch your fear for this one. anchovies are the not so secret any more secret ingredient of this dish.
fixins:
1 pound box of pasta prepared al dente (i have a weakness for nice expensive imported pastas. i love orechietta, aka ear shaped pasta, with this rich flavorful sauce.)
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1 small can of flat anchovies
4 large lobes of garlic, crushed and minced
2 large shallots, crushed and minced
extra virgin olive oil
a bit of red wine
the juice and pulp of an orange or grapefruit
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, mottled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano finely chopped
1 teaspoon of fennel seed, mottled
1 pound of ground meat (turkey, beef or even fresh tuna..i've also used sausage out of the casing)
a bit of light cream
butter (i like to use earth balance's buttery spread)
preparations:
1. coat the cast iron skillet in extra virgin olive oil and heat on medium low.
2. saute the garlic and shallot until translucent, but not brown...add can of anchovies with the oil it was packed in to the garlic and shallot, as well as half of the fresh herbs and the fennel seed and simmer and stir a bit...allowing the herbs to release their flavor and letting the anchovy disintegrate (don't worry noone will ever know it's in there...and it makes this sauce taste amazing!!)
3. add meat to the pan, turn up heat to medium high and brown.
4. squeeze the orange juice onto the meat and let the pulp fall right in. add a couple of tablespoons of butter (or erth's balance) and a bit of wine, maybe a few tablespoons or even 1/4 cup, and simmer, melting the butter and cooking off the alcohol.
5. add tomatoes and the rest of the fresh herbs and simmer on medium low heat for 1/2 hour. add a dash of cream and simmer once more...letting thicken.
6. salt and pepper to taste.
like i mentioned earlier, this will be enough sauce for two meals...so pack half of it up right away or someone is liable to nosh on it and it'll be gone before you know it! it freezes well...
the half that you are using should be tossed right into the pasta which you can top with a mixture of grated parm and romano cheeses (make sure they're good quality...it makes a huge difference)...serve with some yummy bitter green, like broccoli rabe and some crusty italian bread with a little dish of olive oil garnished with sea salt and crushed red pepper for dipping bread in.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
a gorgeous...and delicious...kale salad
i love kale. period. simply one of the best foods on the planet. and i just got this amazing recipe for a kale salad which is sooo easy it's not even funny...of course i have bastardized it to my liking...tonight, i actually made it with a blood orange and it is divine!!!
so here it is...(ingredients are rough estimates...)
kale. raw. lots of it. chopped up in tiny bite size pieces.
some bragg's amino acids (about 3 Tbs)
the juice of a citrus fruit...the original recipe called for a lemon, but i recently just subbed a clementine for it and it was fabulous. let the pulp fall right in, too.
some EV olive oil (a few tsps)
finely sliced shallot (one big fat one or so...)
apple cider vinegar (as much as needed depending on how much kale you've used)
chopped red cabbage
salt and pepper to taste
mix it all up and let sit for a little while...or not.it's also great right after you toss it, too.
and soooo bloody good for you. every time i have felt i wanted to shed some pounds kale became my best friend...for a good reason. mmmmm.
so here it is...(ingredients are rough estimates...)
kale. raw. lots of it. chopped up in tiny bite size pieces.
some bragg's amino acids (about 3 Tbs)
the juice of a citrus fruit...the original recipe called for a lemon, but i recently just subbed a clementine for it and it was fabulous. let the pulp fall right in, too.
some EV olive oil (a few tsps)
finely sliced shallot (one big fat one or so...)
apple cider vinegar (as much as needed depending on how much kale you've used)
chopped red cabbage
salt and pepper to taste
mix it all up and let sit for a little while...or not.it's also great right after you toss it, too.
and soooo bloody good for you. every time i have felt i wanted to shed some pounds kale became my best friend...for a good reason. mmmmm.
roasted chicken with wood ear mushrooms and baby rosemary potatoes...
fixins:
2 chickens (approx 4-5 pounds each)
2 lbs of rinsed baby potatoes...or the littlest red potatoes you can find (or you can chunk some red or yukon gold potatoes if babies aren't available)
1 cup of re-hydrated wood ear mushrooms, chopped (or shiitakes if you can't find wood ear)
fresh rosemary, chopped finely (about 2 tablespoons full when all is said and done...can't have too much fresh herbage!)
extra virgin olive oil
4 lobes of garlic, crushed and roughly cut
2 shallots, crushed and thinly sliced with skin on (the skin makes the gravy we'll make later nice and brown!)
coarse sea salt
freshly ground pepper
water
prep:
1. heat the oven to 400 F. prepare the chickens by rinsing them, removing any guts that are inside and rubbing them with extra virgin olive oil. put them breast side up in a large roasting pan and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly ground pepper onto them.
2. in a large mixing bowl put potatoes, wood ear mushrooms, rosemary, and shallots...drizzle with extra virgin olive oil until coated...toss in some sea salt and and freshly ground pepper and about 2/3 of the garlic.
3. put the potato and mushroom mixture into the pans surrounding the chicken.
4. sprinkle the remiaing garlic onto the top of the chickens.
5. pour a little water into the pan to coat the bottom and stuff that baby in the oven.
cooking time will vary depending on the size of your chickens. you'll need a meat thermometer, because from experience, there is nothing worse than thinking the chicken is done when it isn't and having to have the kids wait while you shove it back in the oven. i cook chicken to about 160 F, measured in the breast.
for a nice, easy gravy, pour most of the drippings from the pan into a sauce pan and heat over medium low heat...add a little flour to the rest of the warm drippings and stir it in until it is dissolved...add this to the sauce pan and stir...it will get nice and thick...you can add salt or pepper to taste if necessary.
this is a great supper to pair with my favorite kale salad...i'll post it next!
(pssst...remember to wrap and save everything that is leftover for an easy chicken stew late in the week! potatoes, mushrooms, chicken! it's all going to get used!)
THOSE cookies...the sexiest vegan cookies. ever.
simply the best Chocolate chip cookies i've eaten or made (and i've made plenty...it's how i bribe my husband into doing things for me)...and believe it or not they're vegan!
1 cup earth balance(or butter for you non-vegans)
1 1/4 c sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract (real, of course)
2 1/2 c flour (i use unbleached white whole wheat and it is great...but regular flour will do.)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chips
set oven to 350
combine thoroughly each ingredient in order listed except chips...should be creamy and firm, but if it is dry add a touch of water. then add chips. lick the beaters. drop by teaspoon fulls on a cookie tray and bake 8-10 minutes...let cool on sheet 5 minutes before taking off...
pour yourself some milk, cow, rice, soy, goat or otherwise, dunk and enjoy!!!
1 cup earth balance(or butter for you non-vegans)
1 1/4 c sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract (real, of course)
2 1/2 c flour (i use unbleached white whole wheat and it is great...but regular flour will do.)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chips
set oven to 350
combine thoroughly each ingredient in order listed except chips...should be creamy and firm, but if it is dry add a touch of water. then add chips. lick the beaters. drop by teaspoon fulls on a cookie tray and bake 8-10 minutes...let cool on sheet 5 minutes before taking off...
pour yourself some milk, cow, rice, soy, goat or otherwise, dunk and enjoy!!!
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