A Christmas Chocolate Martini...

The perfect glass of cheer!

Before you start making this, make sure your martini glasses have been in the freezer for a few hours!  Take a really cold martini glass and turn it on it's side.  Now drizzle some chocolate syrup around the inside of the glass and return to the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Recipe for one:
2 parts gin
1 part Kahlua
2 parts Bailey's
1/4 part Frangelico
1 teaspoon chocolate ice cream

Fill a shaker full of ice, add all the booze and shake the dickens out of it!  Pour into your frozen martini glass and then add the ice cream.  If you use two teaspoons, you can shape the ice cream into a ball, it looks better that way!

Cheers!

Dover Sole With Shredded Buttered Cabbage And Roasted Potatoes

A nice little seasonal fish dish, with a white wine, lemon, butter, caper sauce.

Recipe for two:
4 small dover sole fillets
2 shallots finely chopped
2 cups cabbage finely shredded
4 small potatoes peeled
4 T duck or goose fat
1 T capers
2 T butter
3 T olive oil
1 cup white wine
Juice of one lemon
Flour for fish

First thing to do here is to get your oven nice and hot, set at 350*  Peel the potatoes and cut in half, now boil them in salted water until they start to get soft in the middle when a knife is inserted.  Then drain and place them in a roasting pan with the duck or goose fat, and place in the oven.

Now get a saute pan nice and hot over medium heat with the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter.  When the butter has melted add shallots and shake the pan to coat the shallots.  When they start to change color and get soft, lower the heat to low and add the cabbage and stir or mix with the shallots, season with salt and pepper.

In another pan place the rest of the olive oil and heat the pan over medium high heat.  While the oil is getting hot, season the fish with salt and pepper and dust with flour.  Making sure the oil is really hot, add the fish while moving the pan back and fourth to avoid the fish from sticking.  When the fillets are brown, turn and cook a little more, then finish in the oven.

Now make the sauce.  Using the same pan you cooked the fish in, scrape out any bits and wipe out any oil.  Over high heat, add the wine and lemon juice, and reduce the volume of liquid until you have about 2 tablespoons.  Then add the capers and turn off the heat, now add the butter and shake the pan back and fourth until you have a nice shine on the sauce.

Using warm plates plate your potatoes on the side, and the cabbage in the middle, then place the fillets on top of the cabbage and then add the sauce.

Bon Appetit!

Holiday Dipping Sauce...

This is a fun little dipping sauce, and it's quick and easy to make.

You can make as much or as little as you like, and you can adjust the heat for your taste.

Basic recipe:
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce
1 whole head of garlic finely chopped
2 t chili flakes
1/3 cup Italian parsley chopped
1 pinch salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, using a whisk.  Now it's ready to serve with nice, fresh, crusty bread from the bakery!

Bon Appetit!

Awesome Warm Spinach Salad, with Bacon, Egg and Roasted Red Peppers

Quick, cheap and easy to prepare salad that will satisfy the taste buds...

Recipe for two:
5 slices of uncured bacon cut into 2" pieces
1 shallot thinly sliced
1 tub organic baby spinach
1 roasted red pepper cut into strips
4 eggs (see my egg recipe in an older post for the perfect egg)
1 three finger pinch of red chili flakes
1 three finger pinch of both salt and pepper
2 T sherry vinegar
2 T olive oil
1/4 cup dried cranberries
balsamic drizzle

You will need a large stainless steel bowl for this recipe.

First cook and peel the eggs, and cut in half and set aside.  See my egg recipe in an older post for the most perfect egg.  Now fry the bacon, when done remove bacon from the pan and keep warm in the oven.  In the same pan cook the shallots with the bacon fat.

Place a stainless steel bowl on a burner over low-medium heat.  Add the shallots to the bowl with the fat, add the bacon, chili flakes, salt and pepper, vinegar, olive oil, cranberries and toss and mix together.  When the vinegar and oil starts to sizzle add the spinach.  Now toss all the ingredients together, melting the spinach just a little, but don't over-do this step, you just want to warm and slightly melt the spinach.

Transfer to warm plates and garnish with eggs, red peppers and a balsamic drizzle.

Bon Appetit!

Oven Toasts with Salmon Gravlax, Creme Fraiche, Capers and Red Onion

This is a Bristol little treat for the holidays, when you're having guests over for a glass of cheer!

Oven toasted slices of a rye baguette, if you can get it, otherwise use sourdough or farm house white, at 325* for 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.  Be sure to brush with a good amount of olive oil.
When they're ready, apply a little creme fraiche and capers.  Then lay some thinly sliced gravlax on, and garnish with thinly sliced red onion.  Now drizzle a little hot sweet mustard all over, and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Yum!

Bon Appetit!

Killer Holiday Season Gravlax

This recipe for gravlax comes from an old friend from Napa, California, Cindy Pawlcyn.  Cindy learned this recipe from the New French Cafe...  It's the best gravlax you will ever eat, and you probably won't eat smoked salmon again!

Gravlax is cured, not smoked.  You can use any fish, but salmon and halibut are preferred because of the fat content.  The end result is a sweet, tender and tasty gravlax that melts in your mouth!

Let's make gravlax using king salmon.  First you need fresh fish for this, so trusting your fish monger is important.  I buy my fish here in Friday Harbor from Eric and Brenda at Friday Harbor Seafood, down on the fish barge located on the main dock.  These guys use to fish, so they know the business.

Recipe:
1 pound of king salmon, pin-boned and skin on
1/8 cup good quality sea salt, like Eden or Maldon
1/4 cup organic whole cane sugar from Rapunzel
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1/2 bunch fresh dill, stems removed

First a word about sugar.  I don't use sugar because it's the root of most of our health problems.  But in some recipes we need it.  I found one that is pure and minimally processed, it's organic whole cane sugar, that's unrefined and unbleached, made by Rapunzel and is available at Gourmet Galley.

Watch the video on how to make this fantastic cured salmon.

Bon Appett!

Don't Forget To Protect Your Garlic Before The Ground Freezes!

This spring, I will be adding another element to my blog.  I will be showing you how to grow a garden.  I have over 35 raised beds on our half-acre lot, that feeds us all year long.

I will also be teaching you how to prune fruit trees and vines.  Also how to raise healthy, grass-fed chickens.

Typically, you plant garlic in October.  It gets really cold here in the Pacific Northwest, especially when you're growing in raised beds.  So make sure the beds are covered with a good amount of straw, then cover with a frost fabric.  This will help stop the soil from freezing, and also keep the straw from blowing off!

Bon Appetit!

Risotto...

On Sunday we had roast chicken for dinner, and on Monday I made risotto with the leftover chicken.  This is a great way to stretch your money.  Here's how.

Recipe for six:
2 cups arborio rice
2 pints chicken stock (hot)
1 cup leeks or onion finely chopped
1/2 cup carrot finely chopped
1 cup celery finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 cups dry vermouth or white wine
1/2 stick of butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded cooked chicken

First thing to do, after you've prepped your veggies, is to get the stock hot.  Don't boil it, just get it hot and keep it hot.

Add the olive oil and two tablespoons butter, to a saute pan, and heat over medium high heat.  When the butter starts to foam add the Mirepoix (leek or onion, garlic, carrot and celery), and saute until soft, but don't brown.  Season with a little salt and pepper.  Now add the rice, and fry it, stirring often, you don't want it to burn, but you do want to cook it for a minute until it starts to turn translucent.  Now add the vermouth or wine and stir.

Once the liquid has reduced a little, now add your first ladle of stock and a good pinch of salt, and turn the heat down to a simmer, while stirring.  Once the stock has started to disappear, add another ladle and keep stirring and massaging the rich creamy starch out of the rice.  Keep doing this, it takes about 15 minutes. If you run out of stock before rice is cooked, add some boiling water.  Remember, you're cooking rice, test the rice for seasoning, and add more salt if necessary.  When last ladle of stock or water goes in, then add the chicken, and stir.

When you're happy that the rice is done, now add the butter and cheese and stir.  Now turn off the heat and place a lid on the pan, and let it sit for a couple of minutes.  This is the most important part of making risotto.

Plate onto warm plates and add more cheese and a little drizzle of olive oil.

Bon Appetit!

Well Done, Medium Well, Medium, or Rare....

If you have a hard time knowing when your meat is done to your liking, try this little trick!

Thanks to JB, for reminding me about this...

With your hand laid out flat, and the thumb brought in to the side of your hand, try feeling these spots that I've marked on my hand.

Well done will be hard or tight.
Medium well will have a little more give in it.
Medium will be way more squishy.
Rare will be really soft and squishy.

Before you start cooking any meat or fish, it's important to bring it to room temperature for about an hour.  Otherwise you will end up with cooked meat that's still really cold in the middle.  Not ideal!

Remember that when you've finished cooking meat and chicken, it needs to rest.  By doing this, the meat will release it's juices and then soak them back up again.  This way you won't end up with a plate full of blood, or dried out meat!  Bon Appetit!

Grilled Salmon with Seasonal Pomegranate Sauce...

Don't let this scare you, the sauce is simple to make, and once again it's easy!  Even me mate JB could do it! :-0)"

I served this dish with seasonal greens and roasted potatoes...

You decide on what you're going to serve with this.  I'm just going to tell you how to cook the fish and make the sauce.

Sauce for two:
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup fish or vegetable stock
Juice of one ripe pomegranate
1 tablespoon butter

Get sauce ingredients ready now!

If you're going to grill or BBQ the salmon, you can leave the skin on, otherwise take it off.  Cut salmon into portion size pieces and as usual season well with sea salt and black pepper.

Get your grill or saute pan hot, add oil if using a pan.  Now the trick here is to only turn the fish once, and to cook the presentation side first, and the skin side second!  Oil your grill and place the fish on hottest part of the grill, or place your fish in a hot pan with oil.  The only difference in cooking fish on a grill vs. a saute pan is you want to keep the fish moving a little bit, by shaking the pan once in a while.  Once you're comfortable that the first side is done and has some color, turn it and cook for about a minute or two, then finish in oven set at 325*.  This will give you time to make the sauce, but act quickly.

In a hot saute pan over high heat, add the wine and reduce by 2/3rds its volume, then add the stock and do the same.  Now add the juice and reduce until you have about four tablespoons of sauce.  Now turn off the heat and add the butter, and shake the pan in a back and forth motion, until the butter melts and you start to have a nice shine to the sauce.  You will know the shine when you see it, go with your gut!  Remove from the stove at this point, and sauce your fish.

Bon Appetit!

Flat Iron Steak with a Green Peppercorn Cream Sauce...

In no time at all you can whip up this classic sauce!  It's easy and the prep is simple.  Try it, you'll love it.

This dish should keep Larry quiet for a bit!

We served our meat with roasted acorn squash, which is coated with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.  Then put in the oven at 325* for an hour.   We also had caramelized onions and garlic, with kale.  To caramelize the onions just chop or slice finely and saute in olive oil over medium high heat.  When they start cooking and get soft, add the garlic and turn the heat down to low.  Now leave them alone for 15 minutes, then add the chopped kale, stems removed, and season.

For the meat.  The meat should at room temperature for about an hour before cooking.  This step helps the meat cook evenly.  Get a saute pan nice and hot.  Rub or brush the meat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then place in the hot pan.  Cook until nice and brown, then turn and do the same.  The meat should be very rare still, so move to another pan and place in the oven to finish.

Sauce for two:
1 cup red wine
1 teaspoon green peppercorns
1/2 cup beef or vegetable stock
1/2 cup cream

Clean out the pan that you cooked the meat in by wiping with a paper towel and scrape out any burned bits.  Now place the pan back on the stove over high heat, when it's hot, add the wine and reduce until about two tablespoons.  Then add the stock and do the same.  Now add the peppercorns and cream, lower the heat to medium and reduce the cream a little.  This only takes seconds!

Sauce your warm plates, and place the meat on the sauce, now add your vegetables.  You can put the rest of the sauce on top of the meat because you won't want to waste any!

Bon Appetit!

Blow Your Socks Off, Poor Man's Crab Cakes, With Mango Sauce...

Fresh crab is expensive, so I made these little beauties with mashed potato as the binder.  I also cooked a live crab, and then picked the meat.  It's a bit of work, but worth it in the end.  If you have a friend in the restaurant business, have them order you a pound of fresh crab meat...

Recipe makes about six large crab cakes:
1 cup celery chopped finely
1 cup onion chopped finely
1 cup red bell pepper chopped finely
1 & 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
1 egg
2 three-finger pinches sea salt
1 three-finger pinch black pepper
1 three-finger pinch cayenne
1 live crab about 1&1/2 - 2 pounds

6 - egg rings or cookie cutter type rings

First fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil.  When water boils add the poor little crab, shell side down.  When water comes back up to a boil, then set your timer for 20 minutes.  When done remove crab from the water and place into a sink or bucketful of ice cold water.  Let it rest until cold, about 5 minutes.  This process releases the meat from the shell.

Clean the crab under running water, now crack and pick the meat and place in the refrigerator.  Now cook your potatoes and then mash with butter and olive oil, don't use milk or cream, as you want a thick paste to bind.  Place in the refrigerator to cool.  TIP:  If you don't know how to clean and crack a crab, contact me.

Add finely chopped vegetables to a hot saute pan with a little olive or coconut oil, salt and pepper and cayenne, cook until soft but not brown, a little color is alright.  When done place in refrigerator to cool.

When everything is cold, place all ingredients and the egg into a large bowl and mix with your hands or a spoon.  Lay out your egg rings on a piece or grease-proof paper and fill with the crab mixture, making sure to compact it, so it stays together.

Now heat a saute pan up over medium heat with two tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin).  When the oil is hot, slide a steel spatula under a crab cake ring and move to the pan, one at a time, leaving the ring in the pan to hold everything together.  Repeat with the remaining cakes.  Turn after a few minutes, you want them to brown a little but not too much.

We served our crab cakes with rice, sauteed onions and chard, and with white wine, mango and honey sauce.  To save time you can use mango chutney that's been heated up in a small saucepan.

To make the sauce from scratch, peel and chop a couple of fresh mangos and puree in a food processor.  Reduce two cups of white wine down to about a half a cup, then add mangos and reduce a little more.  Turn the heat off and add two tablespoons of honey and stir.

Bon Appetit!

Chard and Spinach = Oxallic Acid

All greens are loaded with minerals and vitamins.  They're also loaded with oxalic acid.  Especially chard and spinach.  These greens should be avoided being eaten raw.  Two of my friends were helping me pick greens this summer, later that day they cooked some chard and spinach, al' dente, and about 45 minutes later they both had throat irritations!

So I did some research, and found that chard and spinach are loaded with oxallic acid.  It turns out the only way to neutralize the acid is to cook it or dress it with an acid!  That's why we put vinegar on salad greens.

I also found out that spinach is full of iron, but the body can only absorb the minerals if it's cooked with tomatoes.  And guess what, tomatoes are an acid!

This is how I cook chard when I don't have tomatoes.  After washing a bunch of organic chard, take the stems off and chop them up into fine dice.  I like to use a little onion or leek in this dish, so chop a little of either.  Now chop up the leaves and set aside.  Heat a saute pan up over medium heat, and melt butter or coconut oil.  When it's good and hot add the onion or leek and the chard stems and a little salt and pepper, and cook until caramelized.  When done add the greens and cook until just melted. Then add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar to neutralize the oxallic acid.

Bon Appetit!

A Healthy Snack For Kids...

For the most part our schools are doing a great job feeding our kids a healthy lunch, at least here on San Juan Island.  It's my opinion that kids are becoming unhealthy when they get off school, around 3:00pm.  This is when they're alone at home, or with their friends, and they tend to get stuck into the bad stuff, like candy, chips and cereal, which is highly processed.

Here's a healthy little snack you can prep in the morning so it's ready for when they get home!

Thinly sliced apple or pear, and Parmesan cheese, with a balsamic drizzle.  Deb's kids love this snack food, it just takes the edge off, while dinner is underway...

If you prep this in the morning, squeeze lemon juice on the apple or pear to stop it turning color.  Remember fruit is fructose (sugar), so avoid eating to much.

Bon Appetit!