Easy Entertainment Appetizers

On Wednesday, I got an email asking if I'd like to do a segment on New Day NW...the next day!  I thought, what the heck and went for it.  Less than 24 hours later I was on KING 5 with Margaret Larson.  It was really fun and exciting.

The show aired immediately but they've posted my segment online.  Here's the link below.  If you have a Facebook account, I would totally appreciate you hitting the "recommend" or "like" button so I could get a little PR from it.

Hope you like it.  Thanks so much for checking it out.

Olives Marinated in Orange and Thyme-infused Olive Oil

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 orange

1 lemon

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup San Juan de Ullum Olive Oil

2 tbsp Sherry Vinegar

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 tsp salt

1 jar Estancia Lucia Arauco Argentinian Olives

Method:

Zest the orange and the lemon and place in a bowl along with the juice of the orange.

Using the flat side of your knife, crush the garlic cloves and combine with the zest and orange juice. Next, add the olive oil, sherry vinegar, thyme, salt, and olives to the juice and zest and mix well. An easy way to do this is to combine the olives and dressing in a plastic bag or container with a lid and simply shake.

Allow the mixture to marinate at least 12 hours before serving. Serve at room temperature.

Crab Stuffed Shrimp with Sherry Cream Sauce

A few weeks ago I catered a birthday party with a menu that included mini crabcakes.  After I initially offered the selection I started searching for crab cake recipes and panicked. I thought I would put myself out of business with the cost of crab!

Here's the issue. When you are a caterer, you never want to run out of food. The host expected 50 people.  The party took place over the dinner hour so people would be eating heavily, so I figured I'd make at least 4 crab cakes per person.  I wanted to serve a quality crab cake that was more crab than cake, so based on the assumption that each crab cake would weigh 3/4 ounce and I'd be making about 240 of them, I thought I'd need around 11 pounds of crab meat...at $16 per pound (dear God). 

I happened to go into my restaurant supply store on a customer appreciation day. One of the featured vendors was offering crab meat for a great price, one day only, so I bought a case - 12 pounds in all. Yea bargain!

However, all of this happened before I decided on a final recipe. It turns out that I had over estimated the size of the cakes slightly and ended up using about 4 1/2 pounds instead of 11!  So, now I have 7 pound of canned crab meat in my refrigerator.  Time to get creative!

So how about some crab recipes, you ask?  Okay - here you go!

Crab Stuffed Shrimp with Sherry Cream Sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp finely minced onions

2 tbsp finely minced celery

1/4 cup finely minced red bell peppers

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 lb lump crab, picked over for shells, etc.

1 egg

2 tsp arrowroot powder or cornstarch

2 tbsp mayonnaise

24 large or jumbo shrimp, peeled except for the tails and butterflied

Sherry Cream Sauce, recipe below

thinly sliced green onions, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F degrees.  Spray a baking sheet with canola oil spray.

Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add onions, celery, bell peppers, garlic powder, Old Bay Seasoning, salt and black pepper.  Sweat until onions become translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add crab meat and stir gently to combine.

Whisk egg in a large bowl.  Stir in crab mixture, arrowroot and mayonnaise.

Shape mixture into 20 balls - using about 2 tbsp for each ball. (A small ice cream scooper/or cookie dish-out works well for this.) Press one ball into each shrimp (as pictured above) and arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until shrimp is pink and stuffing is slightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Drizzle with Sherry Cream Sauce and sprinkle with sliced green onions, if desired.  Serve immediately.

Sherry Cream Sauce

Makes approximately 3/4 cup

Ingredients

1 tbsp minced shallots

1/2 dry sherry

1 cup heavy cream

salt to taste

Directions

Place minced shallots and dry sherry in a small sauce pan over high heat.  Simmer until sherry is almost completely gone.  Add heavy cream and reduce heat to medium.  Simmer until the cream thickens and reduces by about 1/3.  Be careful not to let it boil over.  Add salt to taste and serve over Crab Stuffed Shrimp.

 

Next up - Crab Dip! : )

Rising From The Ashes

You know, I've debated for a couple years now about whether or not to include personal stories on this blog.  Initially, I thought it should be about the food - just informational - because really, do you care about my story?


Lately, I've been listening to the Tobolowsky Files by character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. I've been so engaged and enchanted by the stories of his life. I guess the personal stuff is really the difference. So, I've decided that maybe that's all part of it. The personal stuff is what draws us to one another.  With that in mind, I am going to tell you the story of a grilling class gone wrong, very wrong.


I teach series of classes at Chefshop.com - lots of interesting things like Spanish Tapas, Moroccan Tagines, and a grilling class called Grill Like A Pro.


I love to grill.  Vince, my husband, and I used to grill about 4 nights a week when we lived in California.  A little less when we lived in Arizona because who wants to stand in front of a blasting grill, under a blistering sun, on a white hot concrete slab but that's another story. In any case, I'm not a grill virgin.  So, when Eliza, one of the owners of Chefshop, and I talked about a grilling class, I thought cool! I got this!


I chose a few different recipes I liked that featured different grilling methods like brining, indirect grilling, grilling a whole salmon, and fruit on the grill. I really try to be hyper organized.  I have lists. Lists of ingredients I need to buy and prep. Lists of equipment I'll use.  Notes on the margins of my recipes so I remember to highlight certain tips. I practice all the recipes, test them on friends. I even set alarms on my cell phone to keep myself on track and on time. If I'd been a boy, I'd surely been a boyscout.  I just like to be prepared.  I'm not rigid mind you, I just like to have an "outline" to work from.


So, I'd done all this for the Grill Like a Pro class.  I was ready, but as I put everything together early in the day I had an uneasy sense. I usually grill on a gas grill.  When I proposed the class, I anticipated using my own grill but we'd run into some transportation issues so I agreed to use the battered old Weber from the Chefshop warehouse.


I planned to doing an indirect grilling demonstration with a whole butterflied chicken thinking the indirect grilling thing would be more forgiving on charcoal.  In addition, I planned to grill a whole salmon.  Whole salmon is great - okay, maybe a bit intimidating but really manageable in the right circumstance.  The "right" circumstance being the qualifier.  It's ideal to grill a large item like a whole salmon using indirect heat.  That means that the heat source, charcoal or gas, surrounds the item instead of coming up under it.  Anyway, I was planning to demonstrate the process on a griddle-sized Coleman camp grill.  Doable, yes. The "right" circumstance, questionable.


Let's get back to the chicken for a moment. We'd lite the Weber using a chimney and mesquite coals. When we dumped the coals out on the grill base, I felt there weren't enough so we shook on more.  After about 30 minutes of introduction and demonstration, I brought the class over to the grill to show them how to move the coals for indirect grilling.  I threw an aluminum pie pan into the center to collect drippings and got ready to flop the chicken onto the grill.  I should mention that although the coals we very hot, I thought I'd be safe pushing them out to the edges of the grill.


After coating the chicken with rice bran oil, I placed it in the center of the grill, added a couple bricks wrapped in foil, and took the class back to the outdoor kitchen where the demonstration was centered. Moments, perhaps seconds, later I was prompted to address the flames engulfing the chicken behind me. By the time I reached the chicken it was covered in soot.  It had the look of a ravaged, firefighter - flesh smeared with dust and ash.  Of course, as the Pro in the Grill Like a Pro class I had to play it off as though all was good.  All was not good, but this was only the beginning.


I pushed on, explaining that the coals were too hot and that we'd put the chicken back on shortly.  In the meantime, I made an herb sauce, demonstrated a technique for peeling the skin off tomatoes and created a rub for lamb.  I hoped that my rhythm was back on track and returned the chicken to the grill.  Still too hot but I had little choice but to press on to try to stay on time line.


Next I prepared the salmon. I demonstrated how to squeegee it with a knife to remove moisture, seasoned and stuffed it with citrus and herbs, talked about positioning in on the grill and about how long it would take to grill a fish that size.


My Coleman camp grill wasn't ideal but I'd done a whole fish on it before so I felt prepared.  I placed the salmon on the preheated grill and reduced the heat to low. I explained that the salmon would cook faster if  covered but since the camp grill doesn't have a cover, I folded some heavy aluminum foil over it.  Unfortunately, we had a good bit of wind in the parking lot so my foil just wouldn't stay in place.  As I battled the floated foil, I started to question the heat source itself. It, of course, had blown out.


So there I stood in full "Julia Child-Mode" - I swear if blood had been spurting from my thumb, it couldn't have been any worse. I was mortified. Questions? I said. Anyone have questions about grilling.


Well, long story short, everything cooked eventually - even the charred chicken turned out well, a testament to the wonders of brining. I've taught the class a couple times since then to far greater success but I wanted to share my fallibility and resilience with you.  You too can rise from the ashes - especially if you brine first.

Grilled Chicken Under a Brick

This is a traditional Tuscan method known as Pollo al Mattone—bricks weigh down the butterflied chicken, resulting in even, quick cooking and crispy skin (you'll need two bricks for this recipe; wrap them in foil). If you don't have bricks, a cast-iron skillet will do the trick.

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

1 whole 3- to 4-pound chicken, trimmed of excess fat, split, backbone removed

3 qts water

1 cup plus 2 tbsp Morton's Kosher Salt

1 1/2 cup sugar

rice bran oil or grape seed oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Garlic Herb Sauce, recipe on next page

Directions

The day before you plan to grill:

Rinse the chicken and set aside. In a large bowl or nonreactive pot, dissolve the salt and sugar in water. Submerge the chicken in the brine. If the chicken tends to bob above the surface, set a plate on top to weight it down. Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours.

Remove the chicken from the brine, discard the brine, quickly rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Place chicken on a platter in the refrigerator and allow to air-dry overnight.

The day of:

Prepare Garlic Herb Sauce.

Prepare the grill: To grill by the Indirect Method on a charcoal grill, arrange hot coals evenly on either side of the charcoal grate. Place a drip pan in the center of the charcoal grate between the coals. Place the cooking grate over the coals and place the food on the cooking grate, centered over the drip pan or empty space.

To grill by the Indirect Method on a gas grill, preheat the grill with all burners on High. Then adjust the burners on each side of the grill to medium temperature and turn off the burner(s) directly below where the chicken will rest.

Liberally brush chicken with rice bran oil and season lightly with freshly ground pepper. Place chicken, skin side down, on grill. Place foil-wrapped bricks or cast-iron skillet atop chicken (if using bricks, position 1 brick over top half of chicken and 1 brick over bottom half). Cover and grill until skin is crispy and brown, about 15 minutes. Remove bricks or skillet. Using tongs or 2 large spatulas, turn chicken. Replace bricks or skillet and cook, covered, until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes longer. Let chicken rest 10 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature, with Garlic Herb Sauce.

Garlic Herb Sauce

Ingredients

12 garlic cloves, peeled, divided

1 1/2 cups (packed) fresh Italian parsley sprig tops

1/3 cup Katz Late Harvest Viognier Honey Vinegar or rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup (packed) fresh mint leaves

1/4 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper

1 cup Etruria Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

Cook 8 garlic cloves in boiling water 2 minutes. Drain garlic. Place in a food processor and cool. Add remaining 4 garlic cloves and next 6 ingredients. With machine running, gradually add oil, blending until thick sauce forms. Season with salt. (Note: Can be made 2 days ahead.) Transfer to bowl; cover and chill.

Mango Musings: From Selection to Salsa

My local grocery store has tons of mangos on sale and I also received an enormous, ripe beauty in my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box this week - so it must be Mango season!

I just love a succulent, juicy mango whether it's sliced "hedgehog-style" with lime juice and a touch of chili powder or diced in a fruit salad with strawberry. I recently had the most delightful martini of mango sorbet and vodka and highly recommend that combination as well.

My grocer has been stocking two types of mangos lately. The Common Mango and the pale yellow, sugary-sweet Champagne Mango. I prefer the Common Mango and its fleshy, peach-like, texture. It's sweet, without setting my teeth on edge.

If you're stumped as how to select a ripe mango, here are a few tips. Try sniffing the stem end for a fragrant fruity odor, or squeeze very gently, if its ripe the flesh with be firm yet yielding feel under your fingers. If you've purchased a under ripe mango have no fear, placing the fruit in a paper bag on your counter overnight usually does the trick.

Mango peel is considered inedible so you should remove it. You can either peel it like a banana or, use a knife to slice around the large central seed, as you would an avocado. Twist the fruit gently to divide it into two halves, and remove the seed. Sometimes the seed lifts right out but if it doesn't, you can coax it out with your knife. At this point, you can spoon the fruit directly into your mouth or - if you feel like sharing - slice or cube it.

Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa

For years I've been making a mango salsa that is absolutely to die for (if I do say so). It has splashy colors, bright citrus notes, and just a hint of heat to balance the sweetness of the mango. It's perfect for simple grilled chicken or fish. I wanted to share it with you just in time to kick off grilling season.

Mango Salsa

Serves 4

1 medium mango, peeled and diced

1/2 medium red bell pepper, diced

2 tbsp red onion, minced

1/2 to 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

3 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice

salt to taste

Combine ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Toss to mix. Season with salt to taste.
Serve on grilled chicken, pork, or shrimp.

Don't you just love food that's pretty and easy to make? Me too!

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Shrimp Veracruz = A 'Vera' Delicious Cinco de Mayo

I’ve just returned from a visit to Arizona so my taster is up for Mexican food. With Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, I thought it would be a perfect time to share one of my favorite Mexican dishes – Shrimp Veracruz.

Veracruz, located on the gulf coast, is one of Mexico’s oldest and largest port cities. Hernán Cortés established it as the first Spanish colony nearly five hundred years ago. Known for abundant seafood and a rich culinary history, Veracruz is a melting pot with influences from Spain to the Caribbean.

Huachinango a la Veracruzana (Snapper Veracruz), a signature dish of the area, demonstrates these influences with its blend of local fruits and vegetables (tomatoes, chili peppers) and Spanish ingredients (olive oil, garlic and olives). I’ve substituted shrimp for the traditional red snapper, but this sauce is so vibrant that you could serve it with chicken or without the shrimp as a vegetarian dish.

Shrimp Veracruz is a gorgeous dish filled with color and texture, and you want to know the best part? You can make in no time at all! The whole thing takes about 20 minutes. So, ask a friend to have a margarita ready for you because you’ll be ready to celebrate Pronto! Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Camarones a la Veracruzana (Shrimp Veracruz)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil 

1 large green bell pepper, cut into thin strips 

1 large yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips 

1 medium white onion, cut in half and sliced (about 1 ½ cups)

1 clove garlic, crushed 

2 (14.5-oz) cans stewed tomatoes

1/4 cup sliced pimento-stuffed olives 

1/4 green jalapeño pepper sauce or green taco sauce 

1/2 tsp Mexican Oregano

2 tbsp lime juice 

1/2 tsp salt 

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup chopped cilantro 

3 cups cooked white rice 

cilantro sprigs for garnish 

Method:

Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat; add bell peppers and onion and cook until tender-crisp, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes with their liquid, olives, green sauce, lime juice, salt and bring to a boil. Add shrimp, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 3 to 5 minutes, until shrimp is pink, stirring occasionally.

Stir in chopped cilantro. Serve with rice and garnish with cilantro sprigs.

Farmers Market-Inspired Spring Dinner

Last Sunday I took a walk through my local farmers market. We've had a mild winter and warm spring up here in the northwest and I wanted to see what was fresh. Among the many flower stalls, fish mongers, and bakeries were the first signs of spring. I found a plethora of spring greens including mizuna, arugula, and mache. Herbs were in abundance - fresh chives, sorrel, mint, and chervil, to name a few. There were a variety of new potatoes as well including dutch babies, red-skinned, and fingerlings.

I also found some young, tender leeks. We don't eat leeks as often in America as they do in Europe. It's a shame because they are a delicious vegetable; an elegant member of the onion family. Their flavor is more subtle and sophisticated than their strong cousins. Leeks are also an excellent source of vitamin c, iron, and fiber.

Inspired by my experience, I started to envision a spring menu. The lovely leeks, fresh spring herbs and greens, baby potatoes...the menu practically wrote itself.

Farmers Market-Inspired Spring Menu

Braised Leeks

Mixed Spring Greens with Fresh Goat Cheese
Steamed Baby Potatoes with Mint Butter

Herb-Crusted Rack of Spring Lamb

 

Braised Leeks
Ingredients
8 small to medium leeks
1/2cup finely diced onions
1/4 cup finely diced carrots
1/4 cup finely diced celery
2 Tbsp. butter
1 cup chicken broth
4 slices of French bread, optional
kosher salt and pepper to taste






Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To prepare the leeks, trim off the dark green stalks. Without cutting entirely through the root, slit the leeks lengthwise and rinse under cold water to remove all of the dirt.

Blanch leeks for about 30 seconds and shock in an ice bath. Cut through the remaining tip of the leek and remove the roots.

Next, melt the butter in a small sauté pan. Add the onions, carrots and celery and cook over medium low heat until the onions become transparent, about 10 minutes. Spoon the cooked vegetable mixture into a medium-size casserole dish (one just large enough to accommodate your leeks). Place the blanched leeks on top of the vegetables and then add the chicken stock, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover with the French bread (delicious when the dish is finished) or foil. Bake until leeks are tender, about 35 minutes.

To serve, lift off the toasted bread, and spoon the leeks onto plates. Garnish by spooning the chopped vegetables over the leeks. Serve with the toasted bread. Serves 4.

Have you visited a farmers market yet this year? What inspired you? Please share your favorite spring dish or menu idea!

Savory Cheesecake Bites

These little cheesecakes a easy and elegant way to start a meal.  Top them with the Spiced Rhubarb Compote recipe below or use them as a garnish on a mixed baby green and herb salad.

Savory Cheesecake Bites
Makes 24

Ingredients
1 cup chopped, toasted walnuts
3 tbsp melted butter
8 oz goat cheese, at room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Using 1 tbsp melted butter, brush the cups of a 24-cup mini muffin pan (1 3/4" x 3/4" cups) and set aside.

Place walnuts in a food processor and process until the walnuts are finely chopped. Pour the finely chopped walnuts into a small bowl, drizzle the remaining 2 tbsp of butter over the nuts and mix until thoroughly combined. Spoon 1 tsp of the mixture into each muffin cup. Using your fingers or the back of a spoon, press the walnut mixture into the bottom of the muffin cups to make the crust.

Beat the goat cheese and cream cheese with a mixer until smooth. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well. Add the thyme, white pepper and salt and combine well. Spoon mixture into the prepared pan.

Place the prepared pan in a roasting pan or deep sheet pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water half way up the muffin cups. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until the cheesecakes are set.
Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. To serve, run a thin sharp knife around the sides of each cheesecake.  Serve as an appetizer (see the photo below) or garnish for a salad.

Put Some Zing in Your Spring!

As I sat thinking about spring vegetables for this blog, my first thoughts were about fresh asparagus. Then I thought, "everyone thinks asparagus in spring." Everywhere I turn there's an asparagus recipe. It's not that I don't like asparagus. I love it. I just didn't want to offer the ubiquitous asparagus recipe when there are so many other vegetables popping up in the springtime. So what could I suggest that was unique?

The answer came to me while walking through my neighborhood. I noticed a home with planter boxes overflowing with tawny-pink rhubarb stalks and was inspired.

Rhubarb is one of those often overlooked vegetables but it's delicious, simple to work with, and a great source of potassium and vitamin C. The early pink stems are the best for cooking. You'll definitely have to add some sugar to offset their natural tartness though. Oh! Do remember that the stems are the edible portion of the plant so trim away all the leaves before cooking.

I'm sure that moment I mentioned rhubarb many of you thought of pies, but since I am not much of a baker I decided to develop a different type of recipe - a Spiced Rhubarb Compote.

If you like tangy, sweet and sour sauce, you'll love this compote! It's quick, easy, and so versatile. I've spooned over roasted pork and duck, served it as a condiment for a glazed ham, and topped savory goat cheese cheesecakes with a dollop. So yummy!

Spiced Rhubarb Compote

6 cups diced rhubarb stalks (about 2 lbs)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 ground allspice
1 pinch of nutmeg

Combine all the ingredients in a large sauce pan. Simmer over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the rhubarb is tender, about 20 minutes. Simmer a bit longer to thicken, if you like.

The compote can be served warm, at room temperature, or cold and will keep up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

What are some of your favorite springtime vegetables? Share a recipe with us!

Romantic Dinner In

My husband and I have a little romantic ritual. Each year for Valentine's Day, instead of going out, paying high prices, and getting mediocre service at a restaurant, we stay home. Doesn't sound romantic yet? Just wait.

We dress up as though we're headed to a fancy restaurant. We light candles, play our favorite music, open a nice bottle of wine, and have a romantic dinner at home. With a little planning you can have the same experience. I promise it will be stress-free.

Here's a sample menu for your romantic Valentine's Dinner In. It's not the most original menu but the main focus is ease. Remember, low stress equals romance!

Shrimp Cocktail a la Gazpacho or Mushroom Toasts (see recipe under Seasonal Food Guide - Fall post)
Mixed Green or Iceberg Wedge Salad
Steak with Blue Cheese Butter & Baked Potato
Something Chocolate
Everything I am suggesting can be done ahead of time so you can enjoy your evening. Here's how it breaks down.

Shrimp Cocktail a la Gazpacho
Here's little twist on a classic. Buy 8 to 10 jumbo, cooked, peeled shrimp (or uncooked, if you prefer to steam them yourself), a hot-house cucumber, cocktail sauce and lemon. Wash and finely dice about half of the cucumber. Spoon the diced cucumber into martini glasses or wine glasses, top with a couple tablespoons of cocktail sauce, and hang the shrimp off the rim of the glass. Garnish with a lemon slice or lemon twist and refrigerate until dinner.

Mixed Green or Iceberg Wedge Salad
If you are making a simple mixed green salad, try your own vinaigrette (see recipe under Guiltless Gourmet post) or just purchase a favorite. Place a handful of mixed baby greens onto two salad plates, garnish with tomato if you wish, and place the salads (without dressing) in the refrigerator until dinner.

If you would prefer the iceberg wedge salad, purchase a small firm head of iceberg lettuce and cut it in half vertically through the core. Create a wedge by cutting one half vertically again. Trim away the sliver of the core. Place each wedge onto a salad plate, garnish with your choice of crumbled bacon, chopped hard-boiled eggs, sliced green onions and tomatoes. Refrigerate without the dressing until dinner, then serve with a good quality bottled or homemade bleu cheese dressing.

Steak with Blue Cheese Butter
If you haven't made a compound butter before, you'll be surprised how easy it is. You can create all kinds of flavors and they can be stored in your freezer for months wrapped in plastic. This particular butter is wonderful on green beans and baked potatoes, as well as steak.

Combine 4 ounces (1 stick) of room temperature butter with 4 ounce of crumbled blue cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallots, and cracked black pepper to taste. Blend until relatively smooth, however some blue cheese chunks are good. Spoon onto waxed or parchment paper and roll snuggly into a cylinder shape. Refrigerate until firm.

Now, all you have left is to wash and prepare your potato for baking and season your steaks. Put your potato in the oven a half an hour before you plan to start your shrimp cocktail that way it will have been in the oven for a full hour by the time you are ready for your main dish.

Here's how the evening will go. You will come into the kitchen looking beautiful. Your significant other will hand you a drink and a kiss. Together you'll bring the Shrimp Cocktail to the table. Perhaps your significant other will clear the table and bring out the salad? Together you'll cook your steaks, top them with a pat of the amazing Blue Cheese Butter you made earlier and enjoy them with your baked potatoes.

Dinner will end with something chocolate - your choice! Maybe a hot fudge sundae or a fancy dessert from the gourmet market? In the end, you have had a romantic evening for a lot less than you would have paid at your local restaurant. So when the mood strikes you, head upstairs!

Chocolate Dipped Caramels with Grey Sea Salt

Looking for a great homemade holiday gift? These dark chocolate covered caramels are divine! The sea salt is key. It adds a whole new dimension of flavor and texture. Enjoy!

Makes approximately 150 pieces

4 cups sugar
1 1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
1 quart whipping cream
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature,
   cut into pieces
1 teaspoon grey sea salt, plus extra
1 pound tempered bittersweet chocolate or
   dark chocolate candy melts

Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Smooth out wrinkles and generously butter bottom and sides.

In deep, heavy-bottomed 8-quart pot, combine sugar, corn syrup and water. (Be sure to choose a very deep pot so the sugar mixture doesn’t boil over.) Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Swirl the pot once or twice to combine ingredients, but do not stir. Boil until mixture turns a medium amber color. Be sure to watch the boiling sugar closely because the color can deepen quickly.

As the caramel continues to boil, it will turn a very dark mahogany brown, the bubbles will turn tan in color. This is your cue to remove it from the heat and add the cream, butter and 1 teaspoon of salt. The mixture will bubble up; just let it sit a moment to subside. Place back over medium-high to high heat and swirl pot around a few times to combine ingredients. Clip on a candy thermometer and boil until mixture reaches 250 degrees, swirling mixture several times during boiling to make sure the temperature is consistent throughout. Immediately pour mixture into prepared pan but do not scrape the bottom of pot.

Allow to sit overnight or until firm enough to cut. Cut into squares (1/2” each).

Melt chocolate in a double boiler over lightly steaming water. Remember, chocolate doesn’t need a lot of heat to melt, if you over heat it, it will seize up and be unusable.

When the chocolate is completely melted and smooth, skewer a caramel with a bamboo skewer or candy making fork and dip it in the chocolate. Remove the caramel from the chocolate and allow the excess chocolate to drip away – it makes for a neater finished candy vs. a pool of chocolate around each caramel. I even gently tap the skewer on the side of the pan to get the last few drops off.

Using another skewer, coax the chocolate dipped caramel onto a sheet of wax paper. Use the tip of the skewer to swirl the chocolate slightly to cover up the puncture mark. Sprinkle with a few grains of sea salt and allow the chocolate to set. Once the chocolate has set, place each one in a paper candy cup.

Note: Caramel recipe adapted from Fleur de Sel Caramels, "Unforgettable Desserts: More than 140 Memorable Dessert Recipes for All Year Round" by Dede Wilson

Cookbook Review - Chefs on the Farm

A friend of mine gave me this cookbook for Christmas last year. I thought I'd share my thoughts about it and share a recipe I tested.

Chefs on the Farm
Recipes and Inspiration from Quillisascut Farm School for Domestic Arts
By Shannon Borg & Lora Lea Misterly

The Overview
Seasonable, Sustainable and Local
Chefs on the Farm follows a year of seasons at Quillisascut Farm in northeastern Washington.

The Recipe
I chose a recipe from the Winter Recipes section to test (as I began this review in late March), Anise Seed Roast Pork with Celeriac Mash by Chef Kären Jurgensen*. I had never cooked celeriac and was intrigued by trying something new.

Roast pork:
2 pounds pork loin
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon anise seed, crushed lightly with mortar and pestle
½ tablespoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Celeriac mash:
1 pound celeriac, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
3 russet potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup heavy cream or sour cream
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Trim the pork loin of any silver skin but leave fat intact. With a sharp knife tip, shallowly score the loin on all sides. Slip the garlic into the scores. In a small bowl, combine the anise seed, salt, and pepper and rub the surface of the loin with the mixture.

Put the loin in a heavy cast iron skillet or roasting pan and cook in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue cooking for 25 more minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees. Let the loin rest for about 7 minutes before slicing. Reserve pan juices to pour over when serving.

To prepare the celeriac mash, put the celeriac and potatoes into separate saucepan and cover with water. Bring each to a boil and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and run both vegetables through a food mill into a large bowl. Stir in the butter, heavy cream, and nutmeg. Season with salt to taste.

*Recipe reprinted with the consent of Chef Kären Jurgensen.

Recipe Test Notes
The recipe is simple, relying more on quality products than the complication of multiple ingredients. I purchased a pork roast from a local ranch (Skagit River Ranch) in keeping with the book’s themes of organic, local and sustainable food.

I found the crust mixture a bit scant so I mixed half again as much to coat the roast.

The recipe simply suggested peeling it and cutting it into 2” pieces. Chef Jurgensen included a brief note regarding cooking dense root vegetables in cold water to prevent the outside from going mushy before the inside cooked. This suggestion worked well for the celeriac but the potatoes did disintegrate a bit before they cooked fully. (A few years ago, I started slicing potatoes in ¾ inch slices when boiling them. I found that they cooked quicker and more evenly that way. I’d suggest the same when boiling potatoes for this recipe.) The celeriac took about 5 minutes longer to cook than the potatoes but remained more solid.

The smell of the anise seeds roasting in the oven coupled with the succulent smell of roast pork made my mouth water before I even got the roast out of the oven. The combination was remarkable. The anise and garlic enhanced the pork. I loved the celeriac / potato combination. The celeriac added a subtle parsley and celery flavor to the mash without being overpowering. The consistency of the combination was lighter than standard mashed potatoes. The suggested amounts of butter and cream were perfect. The result was a rounded, rich mash with piquant notes.

My Overall Impressions
The book is filled with beautiful photographs of seasonal life on Quillisascut Farm, visiting chefs, and delicious food. The introduction is a bit wordy; once the general setting is established it does have a tendency to drone on a bit. I get it though, the farm is inspiring and Borg and Misterly want to convey that.

For city dwellers, or anyone who isn’t familiar with the cyclic nature of farming, the book sets the scene for each season – the hibernation and planning of winter, the rebirth of spring, the abundance of summer, and the harvest and storage of fall. Recipes are interwoven in text, and feature enticing descriptions or explanations of key ingredients.

Sidebars offer insight from culinary professionals regarding the benefits and challenges of seasonal, sustainable, and local foods. Other vignettes profile small producers, discuss biodiversity, and feature seasonal harvest lists.

As for the recipes, Jurgensen does a wonderful job of letting the food speak for itself. Her recipes finesse flavor without feeling heavy-handed. She often includes suggestions and variations for ingredients that are less common. You get a sense of the chef’s creativity; the ingenuity that happens when you work with what’s ripe vs. following a recipe verbatim.

The final section offers guidelines for incorporating local, sustainable and organic foodstuffs into our own kitchens and lives. The information is practical and plentiful – providing resources for everything from books to producers and suppliers to sustainability organizations.

In summary, though Chefs on the Farm has its verbose moments, it’s a delightful cookbook and respectable reference for those interested in the sustainability and local food movements.

I would give it 4 out of 5 ladles.

Buy It If:

You are interested in the local food movement

You enjoy cooking seasonally

You live in the Pacific Northwest