I love onion dip, and really good onion dip is hard to find…you’ve got to make it. It’s not difficult to do, and it’s worth the effort. Great with chips or veggies, it’s perfect for TV binge munching, or to bring to a barbecue.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups diced sweet onions
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
chopped chives, to garnish
In a pan over medium heat, sauté the onions in the olive oil and salt until they are soft and barely caramelized, about 15 minutes. Remove them from the heat and set them aside to cool to room temperature.
In a bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients except the chives, then add the cooled onions and mix well.
Refrigerate the dip and stir again before serving. Sprinkle the chopped chives on top to garnish.
It’s that time of year when friends are coming over, and you want to make one drink you can serve everyone, rather than playing bartender all night. This one hits the spot.
There’s only one thing better than a freshly made mojito…and that’s a pitcher of freshly made mojitos! Organic raspberries and blueberries are in the markets right now, and my mint plants are taking over the yard! All the ingredients for a great mojito!
Very often, I’ll use raspberries alone, but mojitos are even better when you combine the raspberries with blueberries. I stock up on organic berries, rinsing them and placing them in plastic bags that go in the freezer until I’m ready to make my mojitos. I always go organic with berries. Pesticides should never be a cocktail ingredient! Pay a little extra and get the good stuff…it makes a difference!
Once you make mojitos by the pitcher, you’ll never have them any other way. (Even if you’re drinking alone!)
Make ahead of time…
1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lime juice
1 1/3 cups turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw is a common brand)
Mix both ingredients together, letting it stand at room temperature for a few minutes. I like to combine them in a Mason jar, then shake really hard until the sugar has dissolved. I keep it in the fridge, and it’s good for up to 3 weeks…ready to use any time. Shake it well again before using.
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 (I use Don Q Cristal rum)
3 or 4 cups club soda or seltzer
Combine the mint leaves and 1/2 cup of the sugar/lime mixture in bottom of a pitcher. Muddle the mint up very well to release mint oils. Add the blueberries and continue to muddle.
Add the remaining sugar/lime mixture, rum and raspberries. Mix well. Just before serving, add the club soda and ice. Stir. Pour into tall glasses.
Or…for drinks one at a time, I put in a shot of the sugar/lime mixture into a tall glass. I throw in about 8 mint leaves and muddle them for a minute. Then I add 2 shots of rum, and a few raspberries and blueberries. I muddle again. I add ice, and I top it with the club soda, stirring well. An option is to pour it all into another tall glass. Garnish with a mint leaf.
Bottarga is a classic Italian ingredient. It’s a fish roe pouch–usually from grey mullet, sometimes tuna–that has been salted, cured, and dried. If you’re a fan of anchovies or squid ink, you’ll enjoy the softer expression of salty fishiness that bottarga offers.
Very often, bottarga comes in a chunk, and you have to grate it yourself. But I received a packet of already grated bottarga as a gift, and I went online to find the most simple preparation I could find to highlight the flavors, not hide them.
The ingredients sounded perfect, and it didn’t hurt that I had them all at home: pasta, olive oil, garlic, lemon, parsley, red pepper flakes, and of course, the bottarga.
This recipe is technically 3 servings, but I ate the whole darn thing the first time I made it!
It doesn’t hurt to have a small kitchen digital scale for this, since measurements are most accurate in grams.
1 oz (30g) grated bottarga 1/4 cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil 1 garlic clove Red pepper flakes, a large pinch Kosher salt 6 oz (170g) spaghetti or other long pasta 1/4 cup (8g) loosely packed parsley 1 1/2 teaspoons (8ml) fresh lemon juice Zest of 1/2 lemon
Grate the bottarga if you bought it as a lobe, and set it aside.
In a large skillet, combine the oil and garlic. Cook over medium heat, turning the garlic occasionally, until it’s deep brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Remove the garlic from the skillet and discard it. (Or eat it!)
Add the red pepper flakes and continue to cook, stirring for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.
Remove the skillet from the heat and add all of the grated bottarga, and stir it until it’s well combined with the olive oil.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta to just before al dente. You want it firm. Just before the pasta is ready, transfer 1/4 cup of the pasta water to the skillet with the olive oil/bottarga mixture and stir it to combine.
Using tongs, transfer the pasta to the skillet.
Rapidly stir the pasta in the skillet until it has mixed with the olive oil mixture and it has emulsified into a nice sauce. Add more pasta water if needed.
Add the parsley, lemon juice and zest, and stir to combine. Season with salt to taste.
As recently as a couple of years ago, I had never heard of beef flap. But I purchased one from Slanker’s, a distributor of grass-fed beef out in Texas, and it’s become one of my favorite cuts of beef.
You won’t find beef flap in most supermarkets…at least I haven’t been able to find it…so online ordering may be one of the only ways to give it a try.
Beef flap is also known as bottom sirloin butt, and it comes from a part of the cow where flank steak comes from, only farther back. So it has its similarities to flank.
Beef flap is wonderfully marbled and is fantastic for a variety of dishes, including fajitas, stirfrying, or just enjoying it grilled.
I’ve marinated beef flap in many different ways, with Asian flavors and classic American BBQ spices, but one of my favorite ways is to give it a marinade that is similar to Italian dressing.
Some folks actually use bottled Italian dressing to marinate meat, but I prefer to make my own.
Olive oil White wine vinegar Salt Pepper Granulated garlic Granulated onion Dried oregano
Combine these ingredients in the proportions that you like in a bowl, mixing thoroughly.
I like to trim the beef flap, removing any silver skin that might be on it, and cutting it into pieces that are about 4” square and 1/4” thick. If the meat is too thick, I slice it lengthwise in half, to make a thinner cut. I place all the beef in a Ziploc bag, pour the marinade in, squeeze the air out of the bag and then seal it tightly.
I squish the bag all around to make sure that the marinade makes contact with all the meat, and I place the bag in the fridge overnight. (I usually put it in a bowl or tray, just to avoid any accidental spillage.)
The next day, I remove the meat from the fridge and let it come to room temperature before I cook it on a hot hardwood charcoal grill.
Beef flap cooks quickly on the grill, especially if you like it medium-rare, but because it has that fat marbling, it still stays juicy even if you like it well done.
And if you can’t get outside, a hot cast iron grill on the kitchen stove works just as well!
I’ve always loved Manhattans and Negronis…two different cocktails, yet similar in certain respects. Both use sweet vermouth. Both have a touch of bitterness: Manhattans will often include a few dashes of angostura bitters, where a Negroni gets its bitterness from Campari. So when I visited Food Network chef Geoffrey Zakarian’s The Lambs Clubrestaurant in NYC many years ago, and tasted my first Boulevardier, I was instantly hooked.
Loosely translated, a boulevardier is a “man about town.”
The cocktail was created by Erskine Gwynne, the publisher of “Boulevardier,” a magazine for expats living in Paris in the 1920s. It’s basically a Negroni with whiskey instead of gin.
My personal preference for whiskey is bourbon, and one of my favorite bourbons to mix with is the very affordable 1792 Small Batch, though Buffalo Trace is another great choice. And for sweet vermouth, nothing beats the grandaddy of them all: Carpano’s Antica Formula.
I was just reading an interview with food blogger and cocktail expert, David Lebovitz, in the Wall Street Journal, and he mentioned the Boulevardier as one of his favorite cocktails. I hadn’t had one in ages, and started digging in my bar inventory. Bourbon is something I always have…but I also found Campari and an unopened small bottle of Antica Formula. I was all set!
Be very careful, especially with the vermouth. If you stray and buy some cheap brand, the drink will resemble nothing even close to what it could truly be!
Eagle Rare is a great choice for bourbon as well, but its prices have skyrocketed recently.
Many recipes go for the classic 1:1:1 ratio, like you’d find in a Negroni. Others boost the bourbon to 1.5 ounces. But I actually prefer a 2:1:1 ratio.
2 oz. bourbon or whiskey
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth (Antica Formula preferred)
Add some ice to a cocktail shaker. Add the ingredients and stir. Strain into a rocks glass with a large cube.
Some add a twist of lemon or orange. Others, a maraschino cherry. I like it as is.
Perfection.
1792 Small Batch bourbon: Everyone has their favorite bourbon, and I really enjoy this one, because it mixes well and, at about $40 a bottle, is very affordable. Made by the Buffalo Trace distillery, who can pretty much do no wrong. (Which is why I also recommend Buffalo Trace bourbon itself.)
Campari: A liqueur, invented in 1860 by Gaspare Campari, considered an aperitif. Its alcohol content depends on the country it’s sold in. It’s unique bitter flavor is obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit in alcohol and water.
Carpano Antica Formula: First invented in 1786 in Turin by Antonio Benedetto Carpano, it has survived in its original recipe thanks to the Fratelli Branca Distillerie. It costs more than the typical 5-buck bottle of vermouth, because it’s simply the best you can get. Buy it once and you’ll never buy another sweet vermouth again.
When it comes to new dinner dishes, my daughter and I often look on line for inspiration. She found a recipe that featured gnocchi and prosciutto in a garlicky cream sauce with a splash of truffle oil. We came up with two similar dishes based on our individual preferences.
I had cured my own guanciale a while ago, and I had a few slabs of it in the freezer, so we decided we’d use that as our salty pork instead of the prosciutto. And we weren’t in the mood for gnocchi, so we went to the local market and found frozen raviolis from Venda, a well-known shop in Providence’s Federal Hill (our little Italy.) My daughter went the cheese ravioli route…I opted for porcini mushroom raviolis.
We boiled 2 separate pots of salted water for the raviolis, and we had 2 separate pans to make our cream sauces. They started basically the same, but ended up different and delicious in their own ways.
Like many first time recipes, it’s not about measurements. It’s about the ingredients. As long as you’re familiar with what goes in, add as much or as little of it as you like.
Ava’s dish: Cheese ravioli with a Parmesan garlic cream sauce with guanciale, chicken breast, peas and truffle oil.
Package of cheese ravioli 1/2 head of roasted garlic 4 oz chopped guanciale Light cream or half-and-half Chopped fresh parsley Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated Chicken breast pieces, fully cooked Frozen peas Truffle oil Fleur de Sel
My dish: Porcini ravioli with a Parmesan garlic cream sauce with guanciale, chicken breast, peas and porcini mushrooms.
Package of porcini ravioli 1/2 head roasted garlic 4 oz chopped guanciale Light cream or half-and-half Chopped fresh parsley Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated Chicken breast pieces, already cooked Frozen peas Dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped Reserved porcini liquid, strained and reduced Fleur de Sel
Both dishes: I start by roasting an entire head of garlic. I slice the top off of it, drizzle some olive oil on it, and wrap it in foil, placing it in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour. I unwrap it and let it cool a bit so it’s easier to handle.
In a pan, I heat up some olive oil and cook the chicken breast, which I cut into 1/2” pieces that I seasoned with salt and pepper. I stir the pieces in the pan constantly until they’re cooked all the way through. I set the chicken aside.
I start the 2 pots of salted water for the raviolis over high heat.
My dish: I rehydrate some dried porcini mushrooms in hot water. I chop the mushrooms up and set them aside. I strain the liquid, and reduce it to 1/2 cup or so.
I put the 2 pans on medium heat, adding a little olive oil, and then cooking the guanciale until it’s crispy, but not burned. I remove the guanciale from the pans, but leave the fat.
I squeeze half of the roasted garlic head into each pan, stirring, and then add the cream. I sprinkle in the parsley and the cheese. I add the cooked chicken pieces. A little freshly cracked black pepper.
When the raviolis are even firmer than al dente, I remove them from the boiling water and place them in the individual pans, stirring well.
Ava’s dish: adding the cheese ravioli.
Ava’s dish: I add the peas, stirring to warm them up, and add back the guanciale. Truffle oil, to taste, at the end. When serving, I season at the very end with Fleur de Sel.
My dish: I add the peas, the mushrooms and the mushroom liquid, and let the sauce reduce until it thickens a bit. I add back the guanciale. When serving, I season at the very end with Fleur de Sel.
Adding the porcinis into the pan.In go the porcini raviolis for my dish.A little Fleur de Sel.Both dishes were delicious!
I’ve probably got a dozen really great barbecue sauce recipes. But these days, it seems I’m always gravitating toward this one. It’s sharp and vinegar-based so it has that acidic kick, and goes great with beef and chicken, but especially pork.
I’ve used this sauce when making tacos with ground beef, pulled pork, ribs, and grilled chicken, as well as a whole roasted bird. Lip-smackin’ good!
Let’s make it…
2 cups ketchup 3/4 cup water 6 tablespoons cider vinegar 6 tablespoons white vinegar 6 tablespoons brown sugar 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon chili powder 2 teaspoons Kosher salt 2 teaspoons black pepper 2 teaspoons cumin
Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan, and bring it to a boil. Then lower the heat to a simmer and cook until until the flavors have blended and it has thickened a bit–about 20 minutes.
If you store it in an airtight container in the fridge, it will keep for weeks.
With gluten-sensitive people in my family, I have always been on the hunt for the best gluten-free pizza crust recipe. I’ve tried everything from ready-made crusts with cauliflower, to a variety of gluten-free flour recipes. But I finally found a gluten-free pizza crust that tastes–and smells– like real pizza should!
In some ways, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the gluten-free flour comes from an Italian company based in Naples that has been making regular 00 pizza flour since 1924. The company is Caputo, and they are the standard when it comes to pizza flour.
What sets the Caputo gluten-free flour apart from all the others that I’ve used in the past is that the main ingredient is gluten-free wheat starch, a slightly controversial ingredient. Only a trace of gluten remains after the removal process, so it’s considered gluten-free, and those with gluten sensitivities, even those with Celiac, can use it. Those with a wheat allergy (not the same as a gluten allergy) should still stay away (or check with their doctor) because wheat starch is, after all, a wheat product.
But what a difference the wheat starch makes in flavor and texture!
As it turns out, the makers of my Ooni pizza oven also recommend this flour for making gluten-free pizzas.
There are several versions of this recipe, so I took what makes sense to me from all of them, and created my own.
Accurate measurements are important, so I use a kitchen scale to weigh out everything. I got a really inexpensive one on Amazon, and it has become an essential tool in my kitchen. It’s totally worth the investment.
Place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the salt and mix it into the flour.
Pour the water into a Pyrex measuring cup and place it in the microwave for 60 seconds on high. How much longer it will need after that will depend on your microwave oven, so measure the temperature carefully. You want the water to be no more than 110 degrees, or you’ll kill the yeast.
Pour the yeast into the warm water and stir. Add a pinch of sugar (optional) to feed the yeast. It should foam up in 5 to 10 minutes.
Connect the dough hook to the mixing bowl and set it on slower speed.
When the yeast has foamed up, add the olive oil to it, and then pour everything into the mixing bowl.
Increase the speed of the mixer and let it run for 5 to 10 minutes, making sure it grabs all the flour that might be clinging to the sides of the bowl.
When the dough has combined, stop the mixer and remove the dough hook. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let the dough rest in a warm area for 1 to 2 hours.
I’ve had my KitchenAid mixer forever. It’s a beast, and I wouldn’t trade for any of the mixers out there!
When the dough has roughly doubled in size, divide it into 2 equal portions, rolling them into balls. It may collapse on you, but that’s normal. Dust your hands with flour to keep it from sticking.
Place the 2 dough balls into a well-floured airtight tray (individual bowls covered with plastic wrap work well, too) and let them rise again for at least an hour. You can let it go up to 5 hours, if needed.
Pre-heat your oven (whether it’s in your kitchen or outdoors) to its highest temperature. If using the kitchen oven, invest in a pizza stone. It goes into a cold oven and needs time to heat up.
Grab your pizza peel and flour it liberally. Take a ball of dough out of the container and place it on the peel. Rather than stretching it and tossing it like regular pizza dough, you need to be gentle with gluten-free dough, so simply press down on it with your fingertips, stretching it out as you go. Form a higher edge for the crust, if you like. If you push down too hard, or stretch too much, it will tear, so be careful.
When the dough is stretched to a 1/4” thickness, pick up the pizza peel and give it a gentle shake to make sure the dough isn’t sticking to the peel. (If it is, carefully lift up one side of the dough and toss some flour under it. Do the same on the other side, then test-shake the dough again.)
Put the toppings on the dough only when you know it’s not sticking to the peel!
The standard pizza margarita is great, but one of my favorites was this one…
2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons gluten-free flour 1/2 cup heavy cream 4 oz mozzarella, grated 4 oz prosciutto Fresh baby arugula Parmigiano Reggiano, shaved slices
The bottom layer of the toppings is a béchamel sauce. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and whisk until it’s combined. Keep whisking, and add the heavy cream. When it thickens, take it off the heat and set it aside. If it’s too thick, just add a little water to it and whisk again.
To build the pizza, stretch out the dough on the peel, making sure it doesn’t stick to it. Spread the bechamel sauce over the dough, stopping at the edges, just like you would tomato sauce. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top. Slide the pizza into the oven and bake it until golden brown. (In the case of gluten-free dough, it’s better to bake it a bit more than a bit less.)
As soon as you pull the pizza out of the oven, scatter the prosciutto over the top of the hot pie, then sprinkle the arugula on top of that. Finally, top with the slices of shaved Parmigiano Reggiano.
With the annual Boyz Weekend at my house now history, one of the successes was my garlic bread. I served it with my Chicken Rollatini recipe, which you can also find in the search engine of this blog.
My daughter also loves foods that are heavy on the garlic, so this is a special treat we make when diets don’t matter! It’s buttery, it’s garlicky, it’s carby, and it’s absolutely delicious!
I use 2 kinds of garlic in my garlic bread: fresh and granulated. I think it packs a garlicky punch even better than either one alone. And passing the fresh garlic through a press ensures that it will cook quickly and not leave you with that raw garlic taste in your mouth.
Although I love French baguettes, they’re too thin and crisp for garlic bread. I buy that long, soft, Italian loaf you can find in just about any supermarket bakery. When it bakes, the outside edges are nice and crispy, while the inside of the loaf stays soft…exactly what you want! The Italian loaf is big, so not only do I cut it lengthwise, I then cut each piece in half. This will make enough for us to enjoy one evening, and still store some in the freezer for a future craving.
This recipe makes enough for 1 garlic bread, 1 cheesy garlic bread, and also the bread you’ll be putting in the freezer for another time.
The delicious final product…but I digress…
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter
2 (or more!) large cloves garlic, squeezed through a press
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon parsley
grated mozzarella cheese…a few ounces
In a bowl, let the butter soften to room temperature. Once it’s soft, squeeze the fresh garlic cloves through a garlic press and add them to the butter. Then add the granulated garlic, salt, oregano and parsley. Using a fork, mix the ingredients really well until you have a beautiful garlic and herb butter. (Once it’s mixed, I find it’s easier to spread with a spatula or the back of a large spoon.)
Spread the garlic butter evenly on all 4 pieces of bread you’ve cut. Use it all up! Going thin on the butter serves no purpose here!
Place one of the loaves on a baking sheet. Add the grated mozzarella to one of the other loaves, and place it on the baking sheet as well.
Regular garlic bread on the left, cheesy garlic bread on the right…ready to go into the oven.
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
With the other two pieces of bread, I simply put them together…with cheese inside or not…
…and wrap them in aluminum foil. I place that in a freezer bag and keep it frozen until we have another craving. When it’s time to cook, I pre-heat the oven to 350, and bake the loaf in the foil for about 25 minutes. I take it out of the foil at the very end and bake another 5 minutes to get it to crisp up.
Ready to be devoured!
With the oven at 400, I bake my garlic bread and cheesy garlic bread for about 10 minutes, or until the edges of the bread start to turn a golden brown and the cheese on the cheesy side starts to melt.
I cut each piece in half so my daughter and I share in the 2 breads. There’s never any leftovers!
The fifth almost-annual “Boys’ Weekend” at my house is coming up next weekend, and when we’re doing a lot of drinking, we need a solid breakfast the following morning! My home fries have become a staple, crucial for our recovery.
Home fries are a simple thing. But we’ve all been to a diner where the home fries they served tumbled out of a bag of frozen pre-cut potatoes, and tasted like cardboard. It’s time home fries got the respect they deserve.
Let’s get one thing out in the open from the very beginning: home fries were never meant to be low in calories! Mine are definitely not diet food! So, as you read this blog, if you’re shaking your head at the fat and calories, know that I know that you know!
3 lbs. Yukon gold or yellow potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2″ cubes 2 lbs. sweet potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2″ cubes (optional, see below) 1 lb. bacon, chopped 2 Vidalia onions, finely chopped Lawry’s Seasoned Salt 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
I like my potatoes with the skin on, so I remove any blemishes on the skins, then cut the potatoes in approximately 1/2” cubes. Some can be larger, some smaller, and they don’t have to be perfect squares. The smaller pieces will cook and soften faster, while the larger pieces will retain their shape and texture.
Place the cut potatoes in a pot of clean, cold water over high heat on the stove. (If using sweet potatoes, boil them in a separate pot. See below.) Add a little Kosher salt to the water. Let the potatoes cook until they are a bit al dente…a bit underdone. They will cook some more later in the pan. Drain them and set the potatoes aside.
While the bacon is frying, finely chop the two onions. Add the onions to the pan when the bacon has cooked completely. Now, here’s where eyebrows are often raised: Leave all the bacon fat in the pan!
Leave the bacon fat! It’s all about flavor!
Cook the onions until they are soft and translucent.
Now add the drained potatoes to the pan, mixing well, coating the potato pieces in the bacon fat.
Lightly season the potatoes with the Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. Remember: there’s a lot of salt already in the pan from the bacon.
Cook the potatoes, mixing well, and then add the butter in small pieces, scattered around the pan. Keep mixing until the potatoes brown a little.
One option that I really like and started doing only recently: I add a pound or two of sweet potatoes to the mix. I keep the measurements of all the other ingredients exactly the same. I boil the sweet potatoes separately from the regular potatoes, because they cook more quickly. I drain them and set them aside and then mix them with the regular potatoes in the pan.
Live the Live ™ 