Grits Parmesan

Hey guys! Food Adventure time! Thought I would try something a little bit different today. Something vegetarian would be nice. Something healthy would be good, too. Got to get in shape for summer. The two things I love are Italian food and southern food, so tonight's experiment is Grits Parmesan.

I made some grits earlier in the morning. I added a little bit of basil, garlic and Parmesan, let it cool to room temperature, and put them in the fridge until I was ready to make dinner.   Heat some oil in a skillet, cut the grits into 6 little biscuit shaped cakes, roll them in Italian bread crumbs, and put them in the hot oil. Cook until the edges are a crispy, golden brown. Flip once and do the same thing for the other side.

Now, my grits cakes are golden brown and cooked to perfection. Put a nice bed of fresh spinach on the plate for the grits cakes to rest in, and smother with the heated up a jar of some of our sweet, delicious, homemade marinara sauce. Yummy! Cover that with with a little grated cheese and presto! Dinner is done -- 22 minutes from start to finish. Helps to have the grits and marinara made ahead of time.

I served this with a Yellow Tail Shiraz, an ensalada de caprese in my homemade vinaigrette, and a fresh multi-grain baguette with olive oil for dipping. The most expensive item was the fresh mozzarella for the salad, and that was about 2 bucks on a BOGO. Total cost of the dinner was about 5 dollars since we had the majority of the ingredients.

Tony Rating; 3.75 stars.

 It was a good dish. I will make it again. Did not think it was all that when I ate it, but about a half our later I was craving more. Sneaky good, I think next time I will put more garlic and more cheese in it. I did not want to over-power it since it was the first time I ever made this dish. The cakes would also be good for etouffee and shrimp in grits. A cool, new way to serve an old southern classic.

Sandy's Rating:  4.0

This was a very good meal.  It could've used a little onion, a little more cheese, and maybe some bacon crumbles or pork cracklins in the grits, but the crunchy little cakes were delightful.  Tony topped them with our homemade marinara, and it was amazing.  (Can't wait to have pizza with it next week!)  I can envision a lot of ways to top them.

Until next time. All men must dine. ~Tony

Double-Cream Cheesecake

Tony's birthday was this past week, so I made him a double-cream cheesecake.  This, by the way, is the perfect desert to make if you need a quiet day around the house.  It takes a while to cook, and to cool, and that gives you a few hours of peace and quiet.

This recipe is from a book my grandmother gave Tony several years ago called A Passion for Baking, by Marcy Goldman.  The recipe in the book calls for a sour cherry glaze that I do not make.  I'm a bit of a purist in my cheesecake preferences.

You will need:

Graham Crust:
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/3 c. firmly packed brown sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon

 Cheesecake Batter:
2 lbs. cream cheese, softened               1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 c. sugar                                        1/4 tsp. pure almond extract

5 large eggs                                           1 (10 oz.) can Nestle double cream*
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract                      1/4 c. all purpose flour

*You can use Double Devon Cream found online, or use a blend of 3/4 cup sour cream with 3/4 cup whipped cream folded in.

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.


2.  Toss graham crumbs, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon together in the bottom of a 9-inch spring-form pan and press firmly into pan bottom.  Place on prepared baking sheet.



3.In a large mixing bowl, blend cream cheese and sugar until well blended.  Add eggs and next 5 ingredients and blend well, still on low speed, about 5 minutes until totally smooth.






4.  Pour into spring-form pan, drop on the counter lightly a few times so any air bubbles rise to the top, and place in oven.  Back until just set, about 60 - 75 minutes.





5.  Turn oven off, open oven door slightly and allow cheesecake to cool in the oven for an hour, gradually opening the door.  Then, moving the cheesecake to a wire rack on the counter to reach room temperature.



6.  Once the cheesecake has reached room temperature, refrigerate for 8 hours or, preferably, overnight.


Notes:

1.  Somewhere, last year, when making this cheesecake for the first time, I read that cheesecake blends better if you let all of the ingredients reach room temperature before you begin to blend them all together.  So I stuffed the eggs, cream cheese, lime, and butter in the microwave overnight.  Then, the first thing I made was the double cream substitute and sat it on the stove while the oven preheated.  The cats wouldn't have allowed the double cream to sit out untouched overnight.

2.  Mix everything thoroughly.  The crumbs for the crust, mix them until every little crumb is dark with moisture from the butter, or you will have dry clumps of graham cracker crumbs in your crust.

3.  Mix everything thoroughly.  It says to mix the cheesecake batter for 5 minutes.  I find it takes a little longer to get all of the lumps out of the mixture.  This is good, though.  You can justify eating it later by the workout you had to do to make it.

4.  I omit the almond extract.  I don't like it.  And, I substituted lime juice for lemon juice.

5.  I wrap the bottom of my inherited spring-form pan with aluminum foil.  I find some of the butter from the crust tries to leak out and the aluminum foil protects it from spilling into my oven.

6.  I struggle with some of the cooking terminology and really can't identify when a cake is "just set."  So, I watched for the edge of the cake to start browning.  It's a little harder as I didn't open the oven door, rather looking through the discolored oven window.  It seems to have worked to get the cheesecake to the right consistency without cracking.

7.  I did not take the spring-form pan off until it had been refrigerated.  I do not know if it makes a difference or not.

Ratings:

Sandy:  4.5 stars

The texture was perfectly creamy.  The crust was thick and buttery.  The only imperfection were a few air bubbles that rose to the top in cooking, making it look like fish eyes in the cake.  It was a real treat, and worth every minute of the hours of silence while it cools.

Tony: 5 stars

Light and fluffy, creamy and smooth. Melts in your mouth like butter, stays in your love handles like cement.The only thing better than chocolate is cheesecake. For my birthday, nothing makes me happier than a good cheesecake. Best ever hands down.


Cost:

I confess, I didn't keep the receipts from my grocery shopping and this is from memory.

Cream cheese - 4 blocks - $8, but it was on sale 2/$4
I made the whipping cream by buying heavy cream and whipping it up. - $2.50
Sour cream - $1
Graham cracker crumbs - $3
Eggs - $2 for a dozen
Butter, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and flour are all staples in our home.

Sandy

Hot Tamales!

 Happy Easter everybody! When I was a kid, we went to Grandma's house for Easter dinner and it wasn't ham. It was Hot Tamales. In honor of Grandma Joe I give you... Hot Tamales!

This dish is not to hard to make, but you really need a lot of time and patience.  Of which I have neither . But, anyway, crack another beer and we'll get through this. Here is a list of ingredients that we will need.

I like big butts

2 Bay leaves

2 Teaspoons of salt

1 chicken bouillon cube

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

2 cloves of minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

5 lbs of pork shoulder or boston butt

1 pound bag of corn husks

Cutting the skin off the pig gave me a new found respect for anyone who has ever had to skin an animal.  It took me a good 10 minutes to clean the carcass. Poor little piggy. Once that's done, I put the pork and the spices in the crock pot on high for 5 hours. I like my meat done well.

                                                                                                                                                       Take the pork and put it in a bowl. Now drain the juice. You are going to need that for later.

you like a the juice?

Ok now to make the puree. You will need the following:

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

3 casabelle peppers 

4 ancho peppers.

3 pasilla peppers

Bring 8 cups of water to a boil and add ingredients. Lets boil for 15 minutes. Shut off heat and let cool. Strain the juice and put items in the blender and blend smooth until it looks like something from a horror movie.

Add a little of the broth we saved. 

stir vigorously

Mix in the puree, saving a couple of spoonfuls for the masa.

For the Masa, you're going to need a cup of lard, 2 cups of instant masa, 1 and 1/3 cup of broth we saved and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Mix by hand until fluffy and creamy enough to spread on your corn husks. These corn husks were very small. which made it a little difficult. Your corn husk has a smooth side and a rough side (don't we all). Put the masa on the smooth side like you're putting peanut butter on a piece of bread. When that's done, take a good pinch of your tamale meat and fill it in. Don't skimp on the meat.

Okay, now after about 60 of these I think we are ready to cook. We have this giant steamer (a tamalera we picked up at a local Spanish grocery) we filled the bottom with water and put a bowl at the bottom so the tamales don't get soggy. We steam for one hour and then its time to eat.

Tony's Rating: 3.0. 

The meat and everything was fine, but I had a problem with the tiny husks and some tamales did not get enough masa. Also, the masa got a little to much puree making the tamales a dark red, I prefer the yellow cornish looking tamales, But, the taste was good; it was the execution that was lacking.

Sandy's Rating: 3.5
The flavor was excellent, but some of the masa was a little dark.  Some of the husks were too small and that made for some less than pleasing appearing tamales, but not much you can do about it.

'Til next time, all men must dine! 

~Tony

Tom Yam Gung

This week, I decided to take a trip to the other side of the world for our Food Adventure and make up some Tom Yam Soup.  This particular recipe is from a book I bought many years ago, for a mere $2.99, simply titled Thai.  It's full of beautiful pictures and obvious translations of outstanding recipes.

This is a spicy dish, and you may need to modify the spice to your taste else you find yourself coughing each time you slurp a sip of soup.

Ingredients:
16 oz. light chicken stock
2 fresh kaffir lime leaves, chopped
2-in piece of lemon grass
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. Thai fish sauce
2 small hot green chilis, deseeded & finely chopped
1 tsp. sugar
8 small shiitake or straw mushrooms, halved
1 lb. raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

Tom Yam Sauce:
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 large hot dried red chilis, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp. dried shrimp (optional)
1 Tbsp. Thai fish sauce
2 tsp. sugar

1.  Start by making the tom yam sauce.  Heat the oil in a sauce pan, add garlic and cook until just brown.  Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.  Add the shallot to the oil, fry until crisp, remove with slotted spoon, and reserve.  Add dried chilis, cook until dark, remove with slotted spoon, and reserve.  Remove sauce pan from heat and reserve the oil.

2.  Grind the dried shrimp, if using, in a food processor or spice grinder, add reserved chilis, garlic and shallots.  Grind to a smooth paste.  Return to sauce pan with original oil to a low heat.  Warm thoroughly.  Add fish sauce and sugar and mix.  Remove sauce pan from heat.

3.  Heat the stock and 2 Tbsp. of tom yam sauce together in a separate sauce pan.  Add the lime leaves, lemongrass, lemon juice, fish sauce, chillis, and sugar, and simmer for 2 minutes.

4.  Add the mushrooms and shrimp and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, or until shrimp is cooked.  Ladle into warmed serving bowls and serve immediately, garnished with spring onion strips.

Notes:

*  I have made this soup many times, most of the time it is too hot for most people to enjoy when made as written above.  I like the heat, but it will make you catch your breath.  This time I attempted to mitigate some of that and it seemed a bit bland to me.

*  On fish sauce, put frankly, it stinks and will make your house stink when you cook with it.  That same flavor can easily take over the food, and I am not particularly fond of it.  But, the food doesn't taste quite right without it, so I used one teaspoon of fish sauce and substituted soy sauce for the remaining portion of fish sauce.  I probably would adapt that to use a little more fish sauce and a little less soy sauce next time, but not much.

*  This particular batch had a lot of extra shrimp and mushrooms in it, so it was more like a stew than anything I've made or had previously.  This, combined with my efforts to avoid making it too spicy and the extra broth required, might account for the fact that this batch mostly tasted like shrimp soup with a mild hint of Asian flavor.

*  I have never found lemongrass that wasn't in a tube.  I have no idea how much would equate to 1 inch of lemongrass, so I use a tablespoon for every inch.

*  I used limes instead of lemons.  I prefer their slightly milder flavor.

*  I didn't use any kaffir lime leaves, dried shrimp or sugar, and never do.  I don't know if I would know the difference.

*  If the budget doesn't allow for shrimp, you can cut a chicken breast up into small, bite-sized pieces and use it instead.

Sandy's rating:  4 stars
It could've been spicier, and perhaps had a touch more fish sauce.  My efforts to tame the spiciness of the dish resulted in it being a little bland.  When reheating the batch in the freezer, I may need to toss in a handful of crushed red pepper for the desired level of heat.  However, it was fresh, nice and satisfying in the way boiled shrimp can be.  I also really enjoyed the mixed mushrooms we used.

Tony's rating:  3.5 stars
It's very good.  You can really taste the fish stock.  Could use a little more heat.

Cost:
Shrimp  about $18.00 (we had a 1 1/2 pounds)
mushrooms $3
chicken broth - $2.50 (but we only used half)
lemongrass - $5
garlic is a staple
fish sauce and soy sauce are staples
dried red chilis are staples
green chilis in the freezer from last year's garden
limes 6/0.99

Spaghetti with Red Claim Sauce

Hey Foodies! My turn to cook. My girlfriend says she is tired of the same old shit, so here we go. Time to bring the A-game. Tonight's Food Adventure is the sinful Spaghetti with Red Clam Sauce.

This is one tasty dish and so easy it's laughable. Here's the stuff you're going to need to make your sauce:

Who ever controls the spice controls the universe.

10 oz can of whole baby clams
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
6 cloves of garlic
28 oz jar of tomatoes
1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper
2 Serrano peppers
1/4 cup of chopped fresh parley    

Start out by heating up the vegetable oil over a high heat. Roast the garlic in the oil until it is a golden brown. Stir often. Once its ready pour in your tomatoes. Add the clams next to get a good reduction and give the pasta some flavor. Add salt and the rest of the ingredients and stir and let sit for 10 minutes. We like to serve this over pasta and we had some spaghetti in the pantry, so we are good to go. This dish is so awesome because its so good and so easy to make. I just love it. Well, that was quick. Time to eat!

        

We Paired this dish with a Ecco Domani Pino Grigio. Light and sweet, a perfect balance to the spicy hot. I also made a plate of homemade crustinis for dipping. Devilishly delicious.

Tony's Rating: 5.0
Phenomenal, So easy, yet so darn good. It had some good flavor and the spice was perfect. More like a Thai dish. Sneaky heat and good to eat.

Sandy's Rating:  5.0
Amazing dinner!  Quick, easy, light and satisfying.  The added hot pepper gave it just the kick it needed, and the fresh parsley from the garden gave it a hint of color and freshness.

OK guys, 'til next time.All men must dine!