Mussels with tomatoes

I love mussels. I make them all different ways and they are a quick, tasty, pretty healthy meal. I tried a slightly new way to make them this weekend on my seafood binge and they were a big hit. Almost every mussel recipe calls for shallots because they give such a great flavor to the broth. This time I used a mix of shallots and garlic--yum. These are almost just the classic mussels in white wine, but the tomatoes and the saffron add a new twist and give the broth a beautiful orange color.

(Serves 4 as a starter or main with a big salad or crusty bread)

Ingredients: 
4 pounds mussels
1 can whole tomatoes, juices drained, chopped by hand
3 springs thyme
2 large shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
olive oil
1 pinch saffron
about 1/2 cup white wine
fresh chopped parsley

Directions:
In a large pot, saute the shallots in a little olive oil until they start to soften and add the garlic. Stir until the garlic is fragrant and then add the tomatoes, thyme and saffron. Mix that all together, then add the wine. Cook it a little so all the flavors blend and the alcohol cooks off. If the broth looks too dry, add a little more wine and maybe a little water. Add the mussels and put on the lid. Shake the pot around so all the mussels spin and move a little. Do this every 30 seconds or so to make sure they are cooking evenly. Turn off the heat right when the mussels open--this is the perfect amount of cooking time so they'll be tender and juicy. Scoop the mussels and broth into bowls and garnish them with the parsley. Great to eat with a crusty piece of bread.

Salt Crusted Snapper

I went to the fish market in Hampton Bays this weekend and picked up a couple of things for a seafood fish. Mussels, calamari, and a beautiful red snapper. (Cor J fish market in Hampton Bays has an amazing selection of seafood and prices are great.) I'd been wanting to make a salt crusted fish since I saw someone do it on the Today show a while back. I love snapper, and their fresh snapper looked beautiful, so that was my fish. It doesn't take too much time, but it looks very impressive and is amazingly juicy and flavorful.

(This is for 4 people, but along with a few other things.)

Ingredients:
1 whole red snapper (cleaned, scaled and gutted)
2 lemons (1 quartered and one sliced thinly)
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 1/2 cups kosher salt
6 egg whites
olive oil

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Dry off the fish. Rub olive oil all over it. In a metal bowl, beat the eggwhites until the form soft peaks. Then gently fold in the salt. Spread a thin layer of the salt mixture onto a baking sheet (lined w/ foil or parchment for easier clean up). This should be just a little bigger than the fish. Put the fish on top of the salt spread. Put the herbs and as many lemon slices that fit comfortably in the cavity of the fish with a little olive oil. Now cover the entire fish so that it is encased in the salt mixture. Put the whole thing in the oven.
Let it cook for about 35 minutes, then take it out and let it rest for 15. The salt crust should be hard. Crack the crust off the top of the fish and peel back the skin. Chop of the head of the fish (so you can remove the spine to serve pieces from the bottom.) Serve the fish in pieces. There should be about 2 servings on top of the spine and 2 below. Serve it with a quarter of a lemon and some olive oil.

Sautéed Calamari

I've always seen calamari on menus as grilled or fried. I went to dinner at Supper last year on the Lower East Side and they had sauteed calamari. It was delicious and I've been making my own ever since. (Calamari is cheap and it cooks in no time.) It's a great appetizer or side dish and it seems impressive but is super easy. Last weekend I had some chorizo grease left in a pan and I thought it would go really well will calamari--it was a hit. Any time you make chorizo, save the grease for calamari! (I used leftover from the chorizo for a grilled pizza.)

Ingredients:
2 calamari, cleaned (or more if you have more people), sliced into thin rings
grease leftover from sauteeing loose chorizo in olive oil
1 clove of garlic

Directions:
Heat up the leftover grease and add the garlic (on high heat.) Sautee it until fragrant. Then add the sliced calamari and toss it all together. Cook until the calamari looks opaque, only 1-2 minutes. You really don't want to over cook it because it will get rubbery.
Take them out of the pan and serve.

(If you don't have chorizo grease, you can just use olive oil and add a bunch of crushed red pepper flakes.)

Grilled Pizza

Grilled pizza is a great thing to do in the summer with a group of people. Last weekend was unseasonably warm and I was out in Long Island with a few friends, so I thought we should try a grilled pizza. We had a couple of other things in the works for dinner, so we just made one and had it as an appetizer, but it's fun to split the dough up and have everyone do their own--picking sauce and toppings etc. We made our own dough, but you can buy it too. You can often find fresh pizza dough in the bakery section of your grocery store, or you can get frozen pizza dough. I use Mario Batali's recipe for pizza dough. The honey gives it a nice sweetness and the wine adds a little flavor. (Jamie made the dough--it's his specialty.) I made a quick sauce, but you can buy pizza sauce too. We just put chorizo on top, which was really good and gave it a kick, but use any toppings you want. (Use the chorizo if you want to make the calamari after.)

Dough:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html

Sauce:
1 can whole tomatoes and their juices (cut or squeezed into chunks)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 sprig thyme
olive oil

Topping:
Mozzarella cheese, sliced
loose Chorizo
finely grated Pecorino Romano

Directions:
First, make the dough and let it rise. Then make the sauce: In a medium sized skillet, sautee the onion with olive oil until it started to soften, then add the garlic and stir until it is fragrant. Once you smell the garlic, add the tomatoes (to keep the garlic from burning) and the thyme. Stir it all together and let it simmer until the sauce is thick.

For the chorizo, heat a little olive oil in a skillet and add the loose sausage. Break it up with a wooden spoon while it cooks so it's in bite-sized pieces. When it's just cooked through, remove the pieces with a splotted spoon and put them in a bowl. (Leave the chorizo grease in there if you want to make the calamari.)

Turn on the grill and let it heat up. When the dough has risen, roll it out to whatever thinness you want (I think thinner is better, especially for the grill.) Rub a little olive oil on one side of the dough and put the dough on the grill, oil side down. Let it cook until the dough just holds its shape, about 1-2 minutes. Take the dough off of the grill and and dress the grilled side. (It should have some nice grill marks.) Spread the sauce over the dough, then add the mozzarella, then the chorizo. Before you put it back on the grill, sprinkle it with a little Pecorino Romano. Put it back on the grill and close the lid. This will melt the cheese while the bottom of the crust firms up. This can take from 3-7 minutes, depending on the size of the pizza and heat of the grill etc. You just want your cheese melted--the dough will cook quickly.

Take it off the grill and let it sit for a minute, then slice it up!

Breakfast in Bed

With the 2 slices of prosciutto I had leftover from my PLT, I decided to try making an egg cup. I'd seen it before in a cook book or cooking show and wanted to try it myself. It was easy and very tasty, especially on top of a salad. (I love salad and eggs together.) It looks special and only takes about 15 minutes.

I made it for Jamie, so this is for two people, but just add another egg and prosciutto slice per person.

Ingredients
2 eggs
2 slices prosciutto
non-stick cooking spray
2 thin slices of butter
2 tbsp grated cheese (I used pecorino romano)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375. Spray two cups of a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Cut each slice of prosciutto in half and put one piece down first in the cup, then the other perpendicularly on top so the prosciutto comes up a little above the muffin cup. Do this again for the 2nd piece.

Put half the grated cheese at the bottoms of the cups and put a little slice of butter on each little pile of cheese. Then crack an egg into each prosciutto cup. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top, along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a pinch of paprika. Put them into the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending how cooked you want the yolks. (At 15 minutes they will be pretty much completely cooked through.)

I made a simple salad, piled a little on each plate, then topped it with the egg cup. Yum!

PLT

When I made the gnudi, it called for crispy pieces of prosciutto. These salty, crunchy slices made me realize they would be an excellent bacon substitute. For lunch today, I went to Faicco's, picked up a few slices of prosciutto, and made myself a PLT: prosciutto, lettuce, and tomato. My favorite part of a BLT is the crispy, salty bacon, and often the bacon doesn't have that crunch you're expecting. The PLT was great. I think it's also probably a lower fat option, but I'm not 100% sure. I also used pita because I didn't have any bread. (This is for 1 sandwich)

Ingredients:
2 slices prosciutto, cut in half horizontally
about 5 grape tomatoes, sliced
a handful of lettuce
mayonnaise
half a pita
salt

Directions:
Take the half pita and separate it into two pieces (as if it were 2 pieces of bread) and toast them.
Put a tsp of olive oil in a pan and add the prociutto. Cook until they are crispy and beginning to brown on both sides. Drain them on a paper towel. Spread as much mayonnaise as you like on the toasted pita slices, then top one slice with lettuce, then with the tomato slices. Here I like to sprinkle a little salt over the tomatoes. Then top it with the prosciutto and a little more lettuce and finally the other pita slice.

It's really easy, and the prosciutto cooks up faster than bacon. Feel free to use regular bread.

Ostrich

When I lived in Cape Town, I was strolling down the meat aisle in the grocery and passed chicken, pork, beef, and then ostrich. They had ostrich filets alongside the hamburger meat and steaks. With this rare bird (which is actually red meat, and you'd think it was beef by looking at it) at my fingertips, I thought I'd experiment. It's extremely healthy and has hardly any fat, but lots of protein, so it's best cooked rare/medium rare. I made it a few times in Cape Town and really loved it.
Since moving downtown, I am right around the corner from Ottomanelli's. I've often seen their sign in the window stating that they sell ostrich, and until Monday, I hadn't investigated. I went in and got one ostrich filet (frozen) for $8. It was the afternoon and I didn't know if it would thaw by dinner, but it said "DO NOT THAW IN THE MICROWAVE" in big letters, so I popped it in a bowl of warm water and it was thawed in less than half an hour. I threw it in a marinade and got started on my ostrich brainchild menu that had been brewing since the first time I saw the sign "We have Ostrich!" Here it is, if anyone wants to try it. I made it for Jamie and it seemed to be a success. (He thought it so impressive he took a picture on his iPhone--above.) It's a good dinner to impress someone. It looks pretty, tastes great, is healthy, and isn't all that difficult. (Feel free to buy store bought noodles and just throw a little red wine in the cooking water.)

(This only serves two with a little leftover, so double it if it's for more.)

Ingredients:

Ostrich
1 ostrich filet
1 bottle of red wine (I used Charles Shaw Shiraz)
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 chopped garlic clove
1 chopped shallot
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
salt (to taste)


Pasta
2 cup 00 flour
1 egg
pinch of salt
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup red wine

Sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 shallot, sliced
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
red wine

Garnish

12 cherry/grape tomatoes (I got little heirloom tomatoes from Trader Joe's)
2 wooden skewers

Directions:
First, mix all the ingredients for the marinade together, tasting as you go and adjusting salt/spice, and throw in the ostrich. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing it down so it touches the ostrich and the marinade. Marinate for about 4 hours, give or take a couple of hours if you don't have time or want to give it more flavor.

For the pasta, pour the flour out onto a table or cutting board. Make a well in the center and crack the egg into the well. Add a pinch of salt, the olive oil, and a splash of the wine. Using a fork, gently beat the egg mixture, slowly incorporating more flour and adding more wine as needed, until it forms a dough. The dough should be soft, but not sticky. Once it gets to that consistency (and it should be a light brown/purple color), knead it for about 5-10 minutes by pushing it out with the ball of your hand and pulling it back in. Do this until when you stretch the dough it comes back back together and seems elastic. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it sit for half an hour in a warm place.

After half an hour, run the dough through your pasta maker until it's at the thinnest setting and you have long thin sheets. At this point, I like to halve the sheets so they're not as long and are easier to work with, but if you want long noodles, keep them long. Let the sheets dry out a little because they'll be easier to cut. Once they get a little dry, run them through the pasta maker on the linguine/fettuccine setting. (If you don't have this, you can roll the sheets up and slice them so when unrolled them form long noodles.) You can keep your cut noodles in the fridge until you need them, or if you're about the cook them, just leave them out.

I used a grill pan, but you can definitely use a skillet for your ostrich. Get the grill pan really hot (if you're using a skillet, put in a little olive oil and get it really hot). Meanwhile, bring your water to a boil. Take your tomatoes and put them onto the skewers, then rub a little oil on them and put them on the grill. Grill them until they get a little soft and have a little browning on them. Grill the ostrich for about 3 minutes per side then take it off and let it sit. Put the shallots, olive oil, and tomato paste into a skillet and cook it until the shallots get soft. Cook the pasta (it cooks really quickly because it's fresh) and when it's ready throw it into the pan with a little wine and salt and toss it together. Taste it to see if you want to add more wine or salt.

To plate it, slice the ostrich into thin pieces. Put the pasta in the middle of the plate, top if with the ostrich pieces, then surround it with the grilled tomatoes.

Add a bake at home baguette from Trader Joe's and you're all set!

Chicken Chili

When it's a beautiful day like today, chili may be the last thing on your mind. However, while feeling last week's cold, dreary, end-of-winter blues I thought a rich bowl of chili might warm the cockles of my sun-starved heart. I do enjoy a beefy, greasy chili once in a while, but this chili is healthy, even though it tastes sinful. I took lots of pictures to go with the steps--it's easy and spicy and hearty and everyone who tasted it seemed to love it.

Ingredients
1 can dark red kidney beans and 1 can of blackbeans (use any beans you like) drained and rinsed
1 package of ground chicken (you can also use turkey, but I think chicken has more flavor)
1 1/2 onions (I used a combination of yellow and white, but just yellow works too) chopped
3 cloves of garlic (gives it a good kick) finely minced
1 can whole tomatoes (crushed my sticking your hand in the can and squeezing them, or however you like to crush them)
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 red bell pepper roughly chopped
1 green bell pepper roughly chopped
cumin
coriander
chili powder
paprika
hot pepper flakes

I got everything ready before I started cooking because often I'm supposed to stir something for 2 minutes and then quickly add something else, but I find it's not ready and I'm making a huge mess trying to chop an onion while searing a pork chop and measuring water--so, chop/drain/get out all the ingredients first to make your life easier.

First, heat up some oil in a skillet. Then add about 2/3 of the onion and about 2 teaspoons of coriander, cumin, paprika, and chili powder and about a half tsp of hot chili flakes. (It helped release the flavor if you rub them between your hands before you put them in the skillet.)

Mix this all together and saute until the onion begins to soften and then add half of the garlic, stirring until fragrant. Once you smell the garlic, add the chicken. Separate the chicken with your spoon while it sautees and cook until it is browned.

Once the chicken is uniformly browned, but not overcooked (it will continue to cook in the chili), add sald and pepper to taste, and then put it into a bowl.

Next, add the remaining onions and peppers into the pot with a little oil and the same mix of spices as before. Sautee them until they get a little soft, then add the tomato paste and mix until all the vegetables are coated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now pour the contents of the skillet, and the chicken, into a large pot and mix them together. Then add both the canned tomatoes and their juices to the pot, along with the same mix of spices as before, along with the remaining garlic. (It helps if it's mashed into a paste with a little salt.) Stir this all together and bring it to a boil. Bring it down to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until it thickens up a little. Then season to taste with salt and pepper and add as many hot pepper flakes or cayenne as you like to give it heat.

I like to garnish it with a few pieces of extra sharp chedder. The bright peppers give it a great freshness. Also, this makes a lot of chili, so either serve it up at a dinner or save whatever you don't eat in your freezer for a cold day.

Good luck!