Author Archive

IT’S TIME TO MAKE PESTO!

Posted: July 11, 2013 in Food, garden, Recipes
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We eat a ton of pesto at home, and I’m amazed at how much my 6-year-old daughter loves the stuff. Most of the time, it’s simply mixed with pasta. But we stir it into tomato sauce and smear it on grilled chicken or beef as well.
Part of the problem with store-bought pesto is that it can get pretty expensive. You can save a lot of money by making pesto at home yourself. Don’t go to the supermarket to buy ingredients like pine nuts or olive oil. They come in stupid little jars that are crazy expensive. Instead, go to membership stores like BJ’s and buy in bulk…and with basil growing like crazy in the garden, now is pesto-making time!
Here’s my sure-fire pesto recipe. I make massive amounts of it, store it in plastic storage containers, and put them in the deep freeze. They last all year, and thaw out easily.
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh basil, packed down a little
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
Put all the ingredients in a food processor and let it rip!
Pesto combinations are endless. Some people use walnuts or pecans instead of pine nuts. Some go crazy with the garlic. Tweak your pesto however you like it. And make enough to enjoy it year round!

GOOSEBERRIES, MAKING A COMEBACK

Posted: July 9, 2013 in Food, garden, Rhode Island, Southern New England
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Gooseberries grow on a bush that can get anywhere from 3 to 10 feet tall, the branches having sharp spines on them, making picking the berries a bit of a challenge. Berry colors are usually green, though there are red and even purple varieties. They feature a skin on the outside much like a grape, and flesh with seeds on the inside. But they’re not super sweet…just sweet and tart enough.

Gooseberries are used mostly in desserts, but in some countries, like Portugal, people mix gooseberry juice with soda, water or even milk to make a popular beverage.

 
 
I’ve always enjoyed gooseberries simply straight off the vine. My Mom had several gooseberry bushes in her yard, and the early ripening fruits were a special treat in my childhood.
 
Moving to Rhode Island 20 years ago, I had hoped that I could grow my own gooseberry bushes someday. But unfortunately, a disease called white pine blister rust made that impossible. The way white pine blister rust survives is by traveling back and forth from 2 host species. One of them, obviously, is the white pine. The other is…well, the family of plants that gooseberries belong to: Ribes. (Currants belong to this family of plants as well.) So, the logic was that if you don’t plant a gooseberry near a white pine, the rust has nowhere to go and never gets past its first of 5 stages. You literally could not plant a gooseberry within a few miles of the nearest white pine, which for Rhode Island meant nowhere! And although most states got rid of this ban back in the 1960’s, Rhode Island kept it on the books for many more years. (Part of the problem is that many gardening catalogs and websites have not updated this information and still refuse to ship gooseberry plants to Rhode Island.)
 
But recently, the ban was lifted! I visited my pal Rick at Peckham’s Nursery in Little Compton, RI and I saw gooseberry bushes sitting there, just waiting to be bought. I scooped 2 up immediately and planted them in my yard. Rick explained that the ban on gooseberries had been lifted, in part because the disease was no longer a threat, and also because new varieties of gooseberries have been developed that are immune to white pine blister rust.
 
So the next time you see a local farmstand with a basket of funny-striped grapes, look again. It may just be a basket of gooseberries…a treat that we can now all enjoy again.

THE CULT FOLLOWING OF SCHWEPPES BITTER LEMON

Posted: June 28, 2013 in Cocktails, drink recipes, Drinks, Recipes
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Schweppes Bitter Lemon is a carbonated beverage that was invented in 1957 and was available in the United States for a while, but poor sales forced Schweppes to withdraw the product from US store shelves.

Fanatics, however, have kept the demand up for Schweppes Bitter Lemon, and so you can now find the import at websites like amazon.com and britishdelights.com. Some say that a proper Pimm’s cup is not made with ginger ale, but with this stuff. I was curious, so I bought a few bottles and started out with a simple vodka + Schweppes Bitter Lemon: refreshing, and a wonderful twist on the basic vodka-and-tonic.

So I’m hooked.

One of my favorite new drinks of the summer is this recipe that I found on line and tweaked the proportions of the ingredients to make my own. For the light rum, I like to use the new Caliche Puerto Rican rum from the Serralles family of rums, makers of Don Q and Captain Morgan. And second to Angostura bitters, Peychaud’s bitters, invented by famous New Orleans apothecary Antoine Peychaud around 1830, should be a staple of any home bar, especially since it is a key ingredient in making the perfect Sazerac cocktail. It works equally well here.

banana1

BITTER BANANA COOLER

Ingredients:

3 oz light rum

3 oz of ripe banana

1 1/2 oz pineapple juice

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

4 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Schweppes Bitter Lemon

 

In a blender (no ice) combine all ingredients except Schweppes, and blend until smooth: just a few seconds will do. Pour into a cocktail shaker with ice, shake and strain into a 16 oz glass filled with ice. Top off with Schweppes Bitter lemon.

banana2

 

 

LAMBURGERS WITH FETA CHEESE DRESSING

Posted: June 19, 2013 in barbecue, burgers, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, lamb, Recipes
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When it comes to grilling, lamb is often overlooked. Yet it’s a wonderful, flavorful meat that makes a great burger. The taste of lamb can be a bit strong, however, so I mix 1 lb of ground lamb with 1 lb of ground grass-fed beef.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground lamb
1 lb ground beef
2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons extra Virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons minced Spanish onion
2.5 teaspoons whole grain Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon each fresh parsley, mint, and dill, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried Greek oregano
.5 teaspoon cumin
1 large clove garlic, squeezed through a garlic press
1 scallion, finely chopped, green part only
1 teaspoon salt
.5 teaspoon black pepper

Heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over high heat. Add onions. Cook until browned, about 6 minutes. Transfer onions to a plate. Let cool.
In a bowl, mix onions, lamb, pork, mustard, herbs, spices, garlic, scallions, salt and pepper.
Form meat into slider-sized patties. Place on baking sheet covered with non-stick foil, and place in fridge.
Prepare a medium-hot charcoal fire.

lamburger

To keep the Greek flavors going, I came up with this feta cheese dressing that works great with the lamburgers.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1  cup mayo
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper sauce, like Franks Red Hot
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4–5 ounces crumbled feta cheese

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate. Best the next day.

Don’t let the lamburgers get too cold in the fridge…just enough to firm the meat up a bit. If it gets too cold, give it a few minutes at room temp to warm up again.  Grill burgers until cooked to medium. Place on slider buns with lettuce and tomato, and smear the bun with the feta cheese dressing.

WHAT YOUR FOODIE FATHER WANTS, PART 3

Posted: June 13, 2013 in Cocktails, Food, MARTINI, mixology, pizza
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A couple more ideas for your foodie Dad this Father’s Day…

Baking Steel: I’ve got a pizza stone for my home oven. But if I want to grill a pizza on the barbecue, a stone will simply crack from the heat. This is the solution: a solid slab of steel that can take the heat and will give your pizza the perfect char on the crust. It’s also great on the grill for fajitas, veggies, anything small that could fall through the cracks of your grill. http://www.bakingsteel.com

Mason jar cocktail shaker: A fun new way for Dad to make his martini. http://www.masonshaker.com

mason jar, baking steel

WHAT YOUR FOODIE FATHER WANTS, PART 2

Posted: June 10, 2013 in CHARCOAL, curing, grilling
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There are so many cool things you can get your foodie father (or yourself) this Father’s Day. Here are a couple more gadgets that have become indispensable in my grilling arsenal…

BBQ timer: Even someone that has barbecued all their lives runs the risk of burning or undercooking a roast or a large bird. Opening the grill and jabbing the meat with a thermometer several times causes the juices from the meat to run out, leaving it dry…and every time you open the grill, you lose precious heat. This is the better solution: You stick the needle into the roast or bird and leave it in there the entire time it cooks, so no juices leak out. You plug it into the monitor which then calls you when the meat is ready (from as far as 100 feet away!) You set the time or temperature, and then get to join your guests for the party. Redi-Check Remote Cooking Thermometer: www.target.com

Smoking Gun: This is a fun toy. There are times when you don’t need a full-on smoker. All you want to do is smoke a small piece of fish or a hunk of cheese.  You simply take some of the finely ground wood chip powder (comes with the gun) and place it in the pipe-like bowl. Light it, and the Smoking Gun will blow that smoke through a hose into the Ziploc bag where your piece of fish is waiting for its magical transformation to smoky deliciousness. (Thanks to chef Rizwan Ahmed of the Hourglass Brasserie in Bristol, RI, who introduced me to this very cool device.) You can get it at Williams Sonoma.

smoking gun

ASIAN NOODLES WITH PEANUT SAUCE

Posted: June 7, 2013 in Food, Recipes
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There’s something about Asian noodles with peanut sauce that I find addictive. They are great hot or cold, and desperately in need of a fix, I decided it was time to make them at home. I have an arsenal of basic Asian ingredients in my pantry, so slapping this together was no effort at all, and damn, does it taste good!

Since the only peanut butter I had at home when I first created this recipe was the portable Jif-to-Go containers, I still use them to this date!

Asian noodles

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter (or 2 Jif-to-Go containers)

2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 Tablespoons Satay sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese chili garlic sauce
12 oz package Chinese noodles

Combine all ingredients except noodles in a bowl. Set aside.
Boil noodles until al dente. Drain.
Mix noodles with the sauce. Devour.

WHAT YOUR FOODIE FATHER REALLY WANTS, PART 1

Posted: June 3, 2013 in barbecue, CHARCOAL, Drinks
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Skip the necktie. If your dad’s a foodie, he wants something cool for the barbecue grill this summer! All of these ideas have been rigorously tested by our panel of experts (OK, just me), and get a big thumbs up.

Digital Smoker: I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to grilling. I refuse to use a gas grill because I think there’s no difference between that and my kitchen stove. If I’m grilling, I want to use real hardwood charcoal, with real smoke and real flavor. But when it comes to smoking meats, basic smokers require constant maintenance so that the temperatures don’t fluctuate. With a 6-year-old daughter to take care of, that is something I don’t have time for, especially if I’m cooking something low and slow for about 12 hours. So my solution is a digital smoker. You plug it in, set the time and temperature, and then periodically add wood chips through a side drawer to smoke the meat. You can literally set it and forget it. I have it cook through the night, so I wake up to a beautifully smoked slab of meat in the morning. Masterbuilt Electric Digital Smokehouse: www.walmart.com

Cognac! How can you go wrong with booze for Father’s Day? But if you’re looking for something really special to give Dad (or your favorite morning DJ with a food blog), may I suggest Kelt XO. What makes Kelt XO special is that before bottling, they place the barrels of cognac on board ships that sail the world for months at a time. During this time, the cognac gently rocks back and forth in the barrels, slowly acquiring a smoothness you can’t find in other spirits. Each bottle even comes with a tag that tells you exactly what ports around the world your cognac has been to. At most high-end liquor stores.

jack daniels

Jack Daniels smoking chips: Whether you have a smoker or not, these chips will make anything you cook taste better. Made from the old oak barrels that they use to age Jack Daniels, you get a serious hit of whiskey in every bag…and in your food. Simply toss a handful of chips you’ve soaked in water for about a half hour, and they will infuse the food on your grill with flavor. You can also use them dry, on charcoal or gas grills. At Amazon.com.

Cookbook favorites: “Jamie at Home,” by Jamie Oliver (a great combination gardening/cookbook), “Charcuterie,” by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn (the best book on how to cure and smoke meats), “Barbecued Ribs, Smoked Butts, and Other Great Feeds,” by Jeanne Voltz (my absolute barbecue Bible!), and “Martin Yan’s Feast: The Best of Yan Can Cook” by Martin Yan (the authority on Asian cooking, with what amounts to his greatest hits.)

STUFFIES: A NEW ENGLAND CLASSIC

Posted: May 31, 2013 in Food, Recipes, Rhode Island, seafood, Southern New England
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Stuffies, or stuffed clams, are a very personal matter here in Southern New England. There are as many stuffies recipes as there are chowder recipes, and everyone thinks they’ve got the best one. Most stuffies that I’ve had in restaurants, like most meatballs I’ve had, have too much bread and not enough of the good stuff.

I use medium-sized clams for this recipe and not the traditional quahog, a large clam often used in chowders that I find to be too chewy.

Dropping the clams in hot water in the beginning helps make opening the clams a lot easier.

This recipe makes a lot of stuffies, but they freeze well so you can have them when you want.

stuffies

ALZ STUFFIES

Ingredients:

4 dozen medium neck clams

1.5 pounds chopped chourico, skin removed (I use Mello’s from Fall River, Mass)

3 onions, finely chopped

3 tablespoons garlic, finely chopped

3 cups frozen or fresh corn kernels

3 cups toasted and coarsely ground Portuguese bread

3/4 cup chopped fresh oregano (or 1 Tablespoon dried)

1 1/4 cups chopped fresh sage (don’t use dried)

Salt and pepper

Butter

For the aioli:

Sambal chili paste

Mayonnaise

In a large pot of boiling water, drop the clams in, about a dozen at a time. Remove them after about 30 seconds, before they open. Place in bowl to cool. Do this with all the clams.

Open the clams with a clam knife over a bowl, making sure you save all the liquid from the clams. Put clam shells to the side. Throw away any broken shells, and wash the empty shell halves thoroughly.

Move clam meat to a cutting board or food processor and chop to medium-fine. Set aside. Let clam juices sit in bowl and then pour off to another bowl, leaving behind sand and grit.

In a large frying pan, add olive oil, onions, and chourico and cook on medium heat for a few minutes. Add oregano and sage and cook a few more minutes. Add corn and cook a few more minutes, a little more if the corn was frozen. Add chopped clams and stir, cooking for a few more minutes. Add breadcrumbs a little at a time until you have a nice balance of bread and other ingredients. Add the clam juice a little at a time as well, so that you can add all the breadcrumbs, but the mix isn’t runny. There’s lots of flavor in the clam juice, so use as much as you can! Season with salt and pepper.

Remove the pan from the heat and fill the empty clam shells with the stuffing.

At this point, you can freeze the clams. I put them on small sheet pans in the freezer until they harden, then I wrap them 6 at a time, and put them in freezer bags. Keep frozen!

To make the aioli, mix mayonnaise and Sambal in a bowl, to taste. Sambal is hot, so a little goes a long way. Keep covered and refrigerated.

When ready to bake, remove clams from freezer and place on a sheet pan in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Top each clam with a small ¼” square piece of butter. Bake about 15 minutes, until the clams are sizzling and light brown. Top with a small dab of aioli.

THE BEST MOJITOS ARE BY THE PITCHER

Posted: May 28, 2013 in Cocktails, drink recipes, Drinks, mixology, Recipes, Uncategorized
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I love me my Mojitos, and they’re even better when I have fresh organic blueberries and raspberries to add to the mix. Frozen fruit works well, too. Make it by the pitcher and you’ll never make it any other way again!

The ingredients

The ingredients

Ingredients:

Make ahead of time…
1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lime juice
1 1/3 cups turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)

Mix both ingredients together and let stand at room temp. Shake until dissolved. The mixture can be covered and refrigerated for several weeks and ready to use any time. Shake well before using.

mojito pitcher

For the Mojitos…

1 cup sugar/lime mixture
1 cup mint leaves, packed
1/2 pint blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 pint raspberries (fresh or frozen)
3 or 4 cups white rum, preferably Don Q Cristal rum
3 or 4 cups club soda

Combine mint leaves and 1/2 cup of sugar/lime mixture in bottom of a pitcher. Muddle mint up very well to release mint oils. Add blueberries and continue to muddle.

Add remaining sugar/lime mixture, rum and raspberries. Mix well. Just before serving, add club soda and ice. Stir. Pour into glasses.

Or…for drinks one at a time, fill a tall glass with ice. Fill one-third to halfway with club soda. Top with Mojito mix. Garnish with mint leaf.

 

Cheers!

Cheers!

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