Heirloom Tomato, Burrata and Yogurt Salad

Last night, J planned an excellent date night. He took me to the local Publix Aprons Cooking School which is inside of the world's best grocery store, Publix. We were treated to a celebrity chef cooking demonstration/dinner by Harold Dieterle, the winner of Season 1 of Top Chef, my absolute favorite cooking show. I remember watching Season 1 religiously in my senior year of college, and Harold was always a stand out chef.

It seems as though Chef Harold has partnered with Chobani Greek Yogurt and themed the entire menu around its products. Publix's wine specialist did a great job pairing wines for us as well, and I left the dinner more than a little happy. We had a front row seat and we were not hungry when we left at all. The first course served to us by Chef Harold was an interesting twist on a Caprese Salad, and we all know how much I love that!! So, while still inspired and with ample time, I set out to see if I could recreate the deliciousness we had last night. The result? Obviously not as good as Chef Harold's but remarkably close!!!

Total Prep Time: 35 minutes
Total Cook Time: 15 minutes (for the fried shallots)

What you will need:

Heirloom tomatoes (3-4 of them, whatever varieties you prefer, just make sure they are nice and firm)

2 shallots, medium

5-6 leaves of fresh basil

4 oz. 4% Chobani Greek Yogurt

1 ball fresh burrata cheese (this was difficult to find--ultimately ended up at Whole Foods)

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Not pictured: a small dusting of flour and canola oil to fill a small frying pan

First, we will prepare the fried shallots, which is the garnish for this dish that gives it a nice bit of crunchy texture. Peel and slice ONE shallot into thin rings:

Separate the rings and lightly dust with flour.

Now heat canola oil in a small frying pan, deep enough to let the little shallots float:

You want the oil to get hot enough to where its shimmering, but not crackling yet. I turn the heat up pretty high (like on an 8) to get it where it needs to be, then lower to about a 6. Toss half of your shallots in the oil, and listen to the delightful frying sounds.

Let them cook for a few minutes, until they are delightfully brown and crispy, then remove on to a paper-towel lined plate. Cook your other batch and then set aside.

Next, cut your tomatoes into large wedges (eighths or so), and throw them in a large glass bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper to taste, then toss. You don't need a ton of juice (I got a little over exuberant and the next time I make this, I will probably cut back on the balsamic and oil).  Chef Harold explained that this technique is excellent for drawing some of the natural liquid out of the tomatoes to enhance the flavor and add even more juice to the bowl.

Chiffonade your basil (you can tear it into large chunks if you prefer--that was Chef Harold's method, but I like the more uniform look of a chiffonade) and throw it in as well. Then, mince half of the second shallot into a nice fine mince. J handled this part because he was very excited to use the technique he learned.

He cut the shallot in half so that it had a flat side, then made vertical, tiny slits almost all the way to the end. It's important not to cut the very end of the shallot, because that will keep all the pieces together. Then, he cut horizontally through the shallot as seen above. Next, he diced finely down the shallot.

Add the minced shallot and the basil to the tomato mixture, give another good toss, then set aside.

Now, let's talk about burrata. You know how fresh mozzarella is amazing? Burrata is like the love child of fresh mozzarella and heavy cream. It's a ball of fresh mozzarella with LIQUID CREAM inside. Burrata is great as its own appetizer with some olive oil and salt and pepper drizzled over it, served with crostini. But we're elevating the burrata right now.

That right there. It's full of cream. It's amazing.

Quarter the burrata and combine with 4 oz of the Chobani yogurt. Make sure you get all the good liquid cream that comes pouring out of the burrata into the bowl. Then add some salt and pepper to taste, and mix with your handy dandy immersion blender. You don't want it to become completely liquefied, but a relatively smooth consistency is great.

Chef Harold indicated that you could freeze this mixture and really elevate the dish, but I didn't have time for that tonight--I was too hungry. I stuck it in the fridge while I plated the tomatoes, then took it back out and spooned it into each dish. Top with the crispy shallots, serve and ENJOY!!!

Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables (Adapted from Thomas Keller)

One of my favorite things to do is to make a roast chicken on a Sunday evening. The leftovers are great for work lunches, it makes the house smell delicious, and just makes me feel like I'm putting myself in the right frame of mind to face the week. So, I'm always on the look-out for a new, tasty roast chicken recipe. 

This Thomas Keller Ad Hoc recipe does not disappoint. Full of flavor, some interesting new vegetables to try, and except for a lot of knife-work, one of the lowest-maintenance TK recipes you will ever attempt. There are no weird kitchen tools and the ingredients can all be found at a regular grocery store. He's very particular about the size of the vegetables you use, but I did not stick to those recommendations and found that as long as I chopped the vegetables to be approximate the same size, it didn't matter. Also, these are just the root vegetables I chose to use on this particular day, but I've used tons of other veggies, depending what I've had in my fridge. You can use parsnips, celery...pretty much anything that is a hardy wintery-type vegetable. 

The other note I want to make is that a lot of TK's recipes suggest that it is absolutely essential to bring your meat to room temperature before cooking, which I think discourages us working people quite a bit, as I don't feel comfortable leaving a chicken sitting out all day, and I don't want to wait four hours when I get home at 7 PM to make dinner. My general rule is--if I have time on the weekend to take the meat out and let it warm up a bit, then I do. But if I want to make a meal on a weekday, I just take the meat out of the fridge as my very first step and it will get as warm as it can while I prep the rest of the meal. It really doesn't ruin a meal. 

You can make this chicken in a roasting pan (without the roasting rack), or in a dutch oven type dish (I use my Le Creuset braiser because it's easiest to wash). 

Total prep time: 30 minutes (not including the time it takes to bring chicken and butter to room temperature)

Total cook time: 1 hour 15 minutes

What you will need:

4-4.5 lb whole fresh chicken, gizzards/parts removed
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
6 garlic cloves (you can use fresh ones if you have them on hand, otherwise, I use this minced stuff and it's fine)
6 fresh thyme sprigs
2 large leeks
1 rutabaga (TK calls for 3 tennis-ball sized rutabagas. My grocery store only has humongous, softball sized rutabagas so I reduced to 1).
2 turnips (TK calls for tennis-ball sized turnips. I didn't have a lot of options).
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally (I actually did not use carrots in this batch--see my note above about how you can use whatever veggies you feel like using)
2 small yellow onions, peeled and quartered
8 small red potatoes (golf ball sized)
1/3 cup canola oil
4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Preheat your oven to 475. Yes, you read that correctly. It's not going to stay there the entire time, I promise you.

If you want to rinse your chicken, go ahead and do so. TK actually says you don't have to because when you cook at that high of a temperature, it kills the bacteria, and you're only adding undesired water by rinsing. Whatever your choice, make sure you dry it very thoroughly with paper towels (both outside and inside--I typically stuff a few paper towels in the cavity and let them absorb for a few minutes). This is a super important step as it is the key to making sure you have roast, crispy chicken, not steamed uncrispy chicken.

After the chicken is dry, liberally coat with kosher salt and black pepper. Pour salt and black pepper in the cavity as well, and really, don't be shy with it. You want it to permeate the chicken and give it good flavor. You can rub some underneath the skin as well. 

Put 3-4 thyme sprigs in the cavity of the chicken along with three smashed or chopped garlic gloves. Now put your hand in there and rub all the seasonings and herbs along the inside of the cavity. It really helps get the flavor into the chicken. You can truss the chicken if you want to, but it's not a necessity.

Set the chicken aside and start chopping vegetables. For turnips, you have to peel the outside of the turnip. You can do that with a peeler, but I tend to just slice the outside of the turnip off with my knife, cutting off one end of the turnip to give me a steady base on the cutting board.

Once it's peeled, cut into approximately 1" cubes.

Once these are cut, put them into a large bowl where you will combine the rest of the vegetables. Make sure it's a big bowl, because these veggies take up some room.

Next, take your potatoes and either halve or quarter them, depending on how large they are. The key is to try to get them all to be roughly the same size or weight.

With the rutabaga, the strategy is much the same as it was for the turnip.

Next, make sure your leeks are thoroughly rinsed. Cut the dark ends off. Rinse again. Leeks are dirty little suckers.

I sliced the leeks diagonally into large chunks. They were tasty.

Peel your onions, cut off the ends, and quarter them into wedges.

Once you have all of your vegetables in your mixing bowl, add a generous amount of salt, black pepper, 1/4 of the cup of canola oil (set aside the rest to use on the chicken), and the rest of the garlic. mix well. I just stick my hands in there and toss.

Next, spread the vegetables at the bottom of your casserole dish/roasting pan. Rub the remainder of the canola oil on the chicken, then place the chicken in a "nest" of the vegetables. You don't want to put the chicken on a roasting pan for this one...you want the delicious chicken juices and fats to run directly all over your vegetables to give extra flavor. You can throw the rest of the thyme sprigs on top of the veggies at this point.

Put a couple of pats of butter on top of the chicken (you can skip this step if you're trying to make it kosher, just use a little extra canola oil on the chicken breast).

Pop that baby in the 475 degree oven uncovered for approximately 20 minutes.

You'll see that there's a delightful crisp skin forming on the chicken and you've given it a good jump start to the cooking process. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 and cook for approximately an additional 45 minutes. After about 30 minutes of additional cooking, I start paying a lot more attention to the chicken, and check the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh, waiting for it to register to 160 degrees.

Once the chicken is 160 degrees, remove from the oven and let it rest for at least 5 minutes before you start cutting. They say this helps trap the juices, but I'll tell you, it's really so you don't burn the crap out of your fingers trying to carve. Feel free to sneak a veggie or two while you wait.

Once it's not so piping hot, start carving and serve on a platter or just right out of the dish. Enjoy!

Moules Marinieres

Happy 2015 to you all! I've been in quite a bit of a cooking rut recently, repeating a lot of dishes and relying on a lot of mixes. One of my resolutions for 2015 is to get out of the rut and think out of the "chicken breast and vegetable" mindset for dinners. Moules Marinieres is a good, EASY start which meets the primary goal of the Epicurean Esquire: Looks very impressive but is very simple. I am not giving you the recipe for the french fries here, but you can serve them with french fries or a crusty french bread, or even over a bed of pasta. 

The key to making moules is to make sure you get quality, fresh mussels. I have always been a bit leery of making shellfish at home (other than shrimp) because I have always been afraid that the shellfish I'm buying isn't as good quality as I would get in a restaurant. Luckily, I live near a quality seafood store, The Fisherman's Dock, which I have recently learned supplies a lot of the seafood used in the best restaurants in Jacksonville. I can see the loading dock where the trucks deliver fresh seafood every day, which is very reassuring. If you live in a coastal state, you should be able to find these types of dealers just as easily! And FYI--the seafood is NOT more expensive at these types of stores. The mussels I purchased for tonight's dinner were $3.99 a pound, which is less than chicken!

Total Prep Time: 30 minutes Total Cook Time: 15 minutes

What you will need:

2 lbs fresh mussels (try and buy them the same day you will eat them)
3 tbsp butter
1 shallot (not pictured here)
1 medium tomato
1/2 cup white wine
6 cloves garlic, minced (or 2 tbsp the stuff in the jar)
thyme and fresh parsley to taste
salt, pepper and red chili flakes to taste

First you will need to rinse the mussels in cold water and scrub their shells to get rid of any grit. Most mussels that are sold nowadays are farmed and shouldn't be too dirty or gross, but giving them a quick rinse never hurt. You will also have to de-beard the mussel. Now you may ask...what is a beard? I've never noticed mussels running around with goatees like evil little hench-bivalves.

That little stringy thing hanging off the side of the mussel is its beard. It's a piece of muscle (on a mussel! Get it?!) which helps the mussel attach to a rock, but when you cook it, it becomes very tough. Some of your mussels will have retracted their beards into their shells and so you won't be able to de-beard them. However, if you notice this stringy thing hanging off the mussels when you clean them, you'll want to remove it. The way to remove them is to grip the beard between your thumb and forefinger, and pull back and away from the mussel, ripping the beard off. It can be tough, and that mussel will not want to let it go, but it's very satisfying when it pops off.

Next, dice your shallots and your tomatoes and set them aside. You want a fine dice.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic, and saute until they just begin to brown, and become very aromatic.

Next, add a few sprigs of thyme and some red pepper flakes. Once the mixture starts crackling, add the wine and bring back to a boil.

Once it's boiling, pour the mussels in and put the lid on the pot. After about 3 minutes, open the pot and stir the mussels to bring the ones on the bottom to the top. They should be starting to open. Replace the lid, and after another 2 minutes, put the tomatoes in, then immediately transfer to a large serving bowl with all of the liquid at the bottom of the pot.

You can add a bit of parsley if you have it on hand, but it's definitely not necessary. Serve with some delicious carb to soak up all of that juice. Then enjoy!

Bubbe Elaine's Honey Cake (as modified by Dr. Carol)

This past week marked the beginning of the year 5775 for members of the Jewish faith. The Jewish New Year, known as "Rosh Hashanah" (literally, Head of the Year), is celebrated in Jewish homes with sweet foods, traditionally sweetened with honey, to help us with our hopes for a sweet new year. Fortunately, weight loss is not typically a "Jewish New Year Resolution." 

This honey cake recipe was created by my grandmother, Bubbe Elaine, and was so good that it appeared in her Sisterhood's cookbook up in Syracuse, New York. The recipe was subsequently handed down to my mother, Dr. Carol, who makes it every year. However, in the time that she has had the recipe, its been modified to include substantially more liquor than Bubbe Elaine's original...

This is the version of the recipe that my mother taught to me. It requires you to have a good collection of liquor, but can be easily modified if you don't want to fail a breathalyzer after eating a slice. Best part of this post? Dr. Carol is actually making the cakes in the pictures. She has great jewelry.

One recipe makes 4 medium-sized cakes baked in loaf pans. 

Prep time: 30 minutes

Bake time: 50 minutes

What you will need:

3 1/2 cups flour (note: we needed to add a little more flour...perhaps because of how much *liquid* Dr. Carol put in the mixture...)

1/3 cup coffee

1/3 cup pulpy orange juice
3/4 cup canola oil (or other vegetable oil)

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

3 eggs

1 lb. orange blossom honey (an extra little dollop won't hurt either)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. lemon peel (dried, found in the spice department)

1 tsp. orange peel (dried, found in the spice department)

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground mace

Slivered almonds to top the cakes (not pictured--I forgot about them until the end)

1 "cup" Southern Comfort brandy (Note: This is the only liquor that appeared in Bubbe Elaine's recipe)

B&B (or any other type of Brandy you prefer)

Triple Sec

Cointreau

Wild Turkey American Honey (or other honey liquor)

Canadian Club whiskey

Preheat your oven to 350. Spray four medium sized (Dr. Carol likes the disposable kind the best) loaf pans with Baker's Joy or some other non-stick baking spray and set aside.

Pour the honey into a large mixing bowl. 

Then, add the coffee, oil, sugar, orange juice and eggs. The next step will be adding the "cup" of Southern Comfort. This is Dr. Carol's version of a "cup" when it comes to Southern Comfort:

I'm pretty sure there was an extra slug added after I took this picture, too.

Start mixing on a low-medium speed (my Kitchen Aid stand mixer came in very handy for this recipe, especially with the pour shield, since there was quite a bit of splashing at the beginning). Add the flour to the mixture as it mixes, about a cup at a time.

Once the flour is mixed in, add the rest of the dry ingredients (baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, lemon peel, orange peel). This should all keep mixing on a low-medium power.

Next, it's time to add the rest of the liquor. I can't give you exact measurements for this; it's really how alcoholic do you want your cake to be. Dr. Carol gives each bottle a good splash. I personally like the taste of the honey liquor the best. 

Let the mixture continue to beat for another few minutes and scrape the bottom with a spatula to ensure the sugar and flour are not sticking. The batter is ready when it's slightly thick. If you find that the batter still seems very runny (as in, it drips right off the spatula), add a little more flour (1/2 cup or so) and continue mixing until it seems more like a cake batter consistency. My mother claims that the reason her measurements were off were because I had a different brand of flour than she uses at home; I contend that it's because she put more Southern Comfort in when I wasn't looking.

Once your batter is the right consistency, pour into the readied loaf pans. You want to pour until each loaf pan is about 1/3 of the way full.

For toppings, pour sliced/slivered almonds down the center of each loaf pan. If you don't like almonds, you can use other types of nuts, or even raisins or other types of dried fruits.

Pop the loaf pans in the oven at 350 for about 50 minutes. Depending on your oven, you'll want to check them at around 40-45 minutes with a toothpick/testing device to see if it comes out clean in the middle. Once it does, remove from the oven and transfer to cooling rack.

Let the cakes cool in their pans for about ten minutes before transferring directly to a cooling rack. Continue to let cooling for about 20-30 more minutes, then serve and enjoy!

World's Best Hamentaschen

The Jewish holiday of Purim is coming up in mid-March, and one of my favorite cousins is visiting me to escape the "thundersnow" occurring in Chicago, where she lives, so we decided we would bake. Her mother (my aunt) happens to be the creator of the "World's Best Hamentaschen" and she has so graciously provided this recipe to my cousin, and by proxy, to me. These are delightful shortbread/butter cookies that are triangular shaped and filled with things like apricot, raspberry, and nutella. What's not to like? They're traditional for this holiday and people go nutso for them!!! So without adieu...The World's Best Hamentaschen:

Total Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

What you will need:

5 cups all-purpose flour (in red mixing bowl)

1 tbsp baking POWDER

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

1 tbsp lemon juice
1 and 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
a little extra flour to flour your rolling surface
a rolling pin
whatever fillings your heart may desire (examples include Nutella, Apricot pie filling, raspberry pie filling, cherry pie filling, prunes, poppy seed filling for the old school bubbes out there).
A cup with a 3" diameter opening, or some other round cookie cutter that is 3" in diameter

A brief digression about the fillings for these hamentaschen: My cousin swears that if you are going to use a fruit filling, Solo is the best brand to use. However, we could not find Solo raspberry filling, and I really wanted raspberry. So we tried the Duncan Hines "Comstock" brand of raspberry filling. We found it to be a bit runnier than the Solo, but otherwise, just as delicious. So don't be afraid to use the alternate brand.

Preheat oven to 350.

Ok, first step is mixing your flour with the salt and baking powder in one mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, mix your four eggs, sugar, lemon juice and vegetable oil.

Next, add the egg/sugar mixture to the flour mixture, and mix well. NOTE: Although this turns into a sticky dough, do not be tempted to use a stand mixer or hand mixer. I have been instructed that this "over mixes" the dough and turns your hamentaschen into mediocre cookies.

At this point, go preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Come back to your cooking surface and lightly flour the countertop.

Pour the hamentaschen dough out on to the floured surface and begin rolling until it is approximately 1/4" thick.

Use your 3" diameter cup to make circles in the dough. Try and fit as many on the dough as you possibly can, but don't kill yourself. We'll do this several times.

My aunt sent along my very own "hamentaschen cup" for this demonstration

Remove all of the excess dough between the circles and toss it back in your mixing bowl. We're going to roll it up and roll it back out to re-circle cut after we make the first round of hamentaschen.

On each of your circles, take about 1/2 of a small spoon's worth of filling and place in the center of each dough circle.

You don't want to "overfill" because they will become runny and leaky, which does not qualify for "World's Best Hamentaschen."

Then, here comes the tricky part. You will pinch the corners of the circles together to make triangular shapes. My cousin instructed me by telling me that you don't want to "smash" them together, but rather, you just want the edges to meet. Like this:

Continue filling, squishing, and re-rolling your dough until you've gone through as much as you can, and place cookies on ungreased baking sheets.

Put in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, then switch racks so the cookies get a chance to bake evenly. Cook again for another 10 minutes, then check on them. If you have a lot of hamentaschen in the oven at once, you'll need a little more time (just a few minutes), but if there are only a few, 20 minutes can do it, depending on your particular oven. Just know that at 20 minutes, you better watch 'em like a hawk. Then, when they are lightly golden on the edges or creases, you know they are ready. Take them out of the oven, place on cooling racks with a spatula, then serve and enjoy!