Grilled Lobster

This is such a great way to do lobster. The cutting them down the middle while they're alive is a little awful/creepy/terrifying. I had Jamie do it, but I think you can ask a fishmonger to do it for you, too. The combination of the herb butter and the smoke of the grill gives the meat an excellent flavor and seems to concentrate the flavor, too. Definitely want to make this again!

Grilled Clams with Herb Butter

These are incredible, and so easy! I made them as a little hors d'oeuvres for a BBQ this past weekend, but I think they were the star. I am looking forward to being back out in Southampton (with a grill) again next weekend so I can make them again! My friend Alice doesn't cook, so to gauge difficulty levels - she said even she could do this. Very simple and so, so tasty!

Ingredients:
A big handful of fresh herbs (I used basil, dill, tarragon, parsley, chives, and thyme from my garden)
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 stick of butter, softened
big pinch of salt and pepper
2 dozen clams

Directions:
Finely chop up the herbs. Mash into the butter with lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Form into a log on a piece of Saran wrap and put in the fridge for an hour or more so it hardens. (Probably fine to do it right before and not refrigerate too.)

Fatty Cue Style Ribs

After an amazing dinner at the new Fatty Cue in the West Village, I couldn't wait to have another savory and sweet rib. I tweeted about it the next day asking for a recipe and was directed here. I'd already bought some baby back ribs from Faicco's that morning, so I decided to adapt the recipe to baby backs. I had a trip to Kalustyan's for the more exotic ingredients. They were a big hit! So juicy and tender, and the meat really shines through, so make sure to get some meaty ribs. (If you live in Manhattan, it's worth a trip to Faicco's - their baby back ribs are the meatiest and juiciest I've ever had.) Don't be scared of all the fish sauce - you really don't notice it in the final product. It just gives the ribs a great umami flavor.

Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
2 racks of baby back ribs
2 cups fish sauce
6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 medium shallot, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup sugar

Banh Mi Hot Dogs

I had a few recipes in the cue to put up before this, but this one just needed to be posted. After sampling Asia Dog's delectable "Vinh" banh mi style hot dog a few weeks ago, I've been craving another. Since the banh mi ingredients aren't terribly hard to come by, I figured I'd try it myself. I made these for dinner and they were amazing. So flavorful with a great heat and much fresher tasting than a classic dog, and infinitely more interesting. Jamie scarfed two down and wanted a third, but settled for taking another for lunch (they're actually pretty filling!). We both can't wait to try this out for a big group BBQ. So unique, and really not too hard! I looked up a few regular banh mi recipes and mixed and matched a little, adapting them to hot dogs. Try this at your next backyard BBQ, or even just having a few people over to watch baseball or True Blood or something. Yum yum yum!

Ingredients:
(serves 2-4)
2 super thinly sliced carrots (using a mandolin, or you can grate)
2-3 super thinly slice radishes
3 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsbp kosher salt
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
4 hot dogs

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!

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!