Rustic Salmon Wellington

I would guess most people have heard of Beef Wellington but that's about as far as their understanding goes. It's just some fancy pants dish that they would probably like. It has beef in it after all.  Because we are food nerds, and like to tinker, we took the classic flavors and textures of Beef Wellington and transformed them into a rustic preparation for salmon. Use any mushroom you like — white button, cremini or mixed wild mushrooms are all good choices.

Ingredients

3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter 

1/2 pound mushrooms very finely chopped

2 shallots finely chopped

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme  or 1 tsp dry 

1 (14.0-ounce) package frozen puff pastry thawed but very cold

2 pieces center-cut skinless salmon fillet about 1/3 lb each

2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup dry white wine - Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio work well

1 large egg whisked with 1 teaspoon water

1 teaspoon fine sea salt divided

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper divided

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter and add the minced shallots. Stir frequently and cook until the shallots are translucent.

Add mushrooms,  the thyme. Cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are tender and almost completely dry, about 8 minutes. Add the white wine and cook until the wine reduces and the mixture is dry. Set aside to let cool.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. On a well-floured surface, roll out pastry to a rectangle about 21 x 16 inches. Use a sharp knife or pizza wheel to cut into 2 pieces, each about 8 x 10 inches. Smear the Dijon mustard over both salmon filets and season on all sides lightly with salt and pepper. 

Place a piece of salmon on each piece of puff pastry to get an idea of the area it will cover and spread a layer of the mushrooms. If any ends of the salmon are particularly thin, tuck them under so the pieces are fairly uniform in thickness. Top salmon with mushroom mixture. Use your finger to moisten edges of pastry with a little water, then fold pastry sides in like a package and press to seal, completely covering the salmon and mushrooms. 

Arrange seam-side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, brush the tops of the pastry with the egg wash and bake in the top third of the oven until pastry is golden brown, about 25 minutes. 

Pistachio Orange Biscotti

Biscotti are good any time but they make great Christmas treats this time of year to have around the house and to give to friends. The basic recipe for biscotti is very simple but where they really get a personality is by making use of a wide array of complimentary ingredients - dried fruit bits like cranberries, candied citrus peel, almonds, pistachios, fennel seeds, chocolate bits. They can also be dipped in either white or dark chocolate. But don't go crazy and turn them into little fruit cakes, just stick with one or two additions. Here is a basic recipe I use, just substitute the pistachios and candied orange peel for one or two other ingredients that you like. 

Ingredients - this will make about 24 - 4" x 1 1/2" biscotti

1 cup shelled unsalted pistachios

1/3 cup candied lemon or orange peel
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter - softened
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

*** If you are shelling the pistachios yourself, double check to make sure no bits of shell haven't fallen in with the pistachio meat. It's not fun to bite into a hard piece of pistachio shell.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Lay the pistachios on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes or until the nuts are lightly toasted. Remove from the oven.

In an electric mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. With the mixer running (or by hand, because this is a hard dough), gradually add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla; mix until creamed. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix the dough until smooth.

Using a wooden spoon, or better - dig in with your hands - mix in the pistachios and candied orange peel until evenly distributed.

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut in half. Roll each half into a log, each 12 inches long by 1-inch high. Place the logs on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 35 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly brown.

Let the logs cool for 5 minutes and then place on a cutting board. Slice each log on a diagonal into 1-inch thick pieces. Put the biscotti back on the cookie sheet and bake 5 minutes. Turn the cookies over and bake the other side for another 5 minutes. Store the biscotti in an airtight container.

Taralli

Taralli  (also called ciambelle) are chewy, anise flavored bread rings. In Southern Italy they are treats typically made for Christmas and Easter. They can be finished plain, like here, or with icing and colorful sprinkles.  Because they are handmade, they don't need to be perfect, in fact, their irregular rustic look is part of their charm. Have them with breakfast or a between meal snack, with a cup of espresso or with a glass of wine before dinner. Initially they will be crunchy, but become more chewy after a few days. Store in an airtight container. 

Give them out to friends for Christmas and Easter treats! 

This recipe makes about thirty 3" diameter taralli - 

1 cup of warm water
1/2 cup white wine

6 Cups all purpose flour

1 packet active dry yeast

3/4 cup sugar

3  tbs. olive oil

2 tsp salt

2 tbs fennel seeds

Pour the cup of warm water into a glass bowl or large measuring cup. Add the yeast and dissolve in the water. Add the sugar, olive oil and wine and let sit until bubbly. Add the salt. 

Put the flour in a large mixing bowl (or if you want to do it old school, mound the flour on the kitchen counter and make a depression in the center). Slowly add the yeast water into the center mixing it into the flour with a fork or spatula while adding the fennel seeds.

Continue to add the yeast water until you have a workable mixture. The dough should be fairly firm at this point but still pliable. Knead the dough until smooth, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and let stand for 1 hour for a short rise.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut dough into pieces a little larger than the size of a ping pong ball, then roll out each piece into a rope, about the thickness of your finger about 6-7 inches long. Form into a doughnut like shape, pinching the ends together.

Meanwhile bring water to a boil water in a sauce pot.

Drop 4 - 5 dough rings into the water at a time. When they rise to the top, in about 3 minutes, remove with a strainer and place on towels to dry. 

Place the taralli on cookie sheets in the middle of the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes on each side or until a medium golden color. 

Remove, and cool. Store in an airtight container for up to a month (but they'll be gone way before that) or freeze for up to 6 months.

How to Roast Chestnuts the Right Way

If you like chestnuts, you have surely tried roasting them yourself probably with mixed results. Here is an interesting article by Gabriella Vigoreaux with her take on how to roast chestnuts - the right way - based on Dan Roman's "Buttery Roasted Chestnuts in Foil" from the December 2012 issue of Bon Appetit magazine - 

    

 Enjoy!

If you've been spreading your chestnuts across a baking sheet to roast them, you're doing it ALL WRONG. You see, what chestnuts really need to open up is steam. Keeping them warm just until you peel them is also key. Here are some tips for roasted chestnut perfection every time. 

Don't forget the X!  Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...You know the song. Sadly, the closest many of us have ever gotten to roasting chestnuts on an open fire is sticking them in the oven. You know the drill. You cut the X's into the shell, roast them, and then you have to quickly peel off the skins while they're hot (inevitably burning your fingers along the way).

Even if you're lucky, you only have a 75% success rate, since many stubborn chestnuts refuse to slip from their skins once cooled. After many personal chestnut roasting fails, I have resorted to just buying them from the street carts of Manhattan. That is until recently, when I discovered a foolproof way to get it right, every single time. Read on to see how it's done: lay the chestnuts flat side down on a cutting board. Use a small paring knife, score an X through the skin on the rounded side of each chestnut. 

Soak 'em! Once you've scored them all, place the chestnuts in a bowl of hot water for 1 minute. This will help them steam in the oven. Drain and pat the chestnuts dry. If you want to add herbs or flavorings, this is the time. Toss the chestnuts in a bowl with a combo of melted butter, rosemary, sea salt, or any other combo of fat, herb, and salt.

Wrap them up! Tear a generous length of of aluminum foil and place the chestnuts in a single layer. Gather up the edges to form a parcel with a small opening on top (while still keeping them in a single layer). Place the parcel on a baking sheet. You can stack multiple parcels on one baking sheet if you need to. 

Work quickly! Bake at 425°F until the edges of the chestnut shells really curl up, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and working one parcel at a time, peel off the shell and the skin at the X. (A paring knife sometimes makes this job easier). Do this as SOON as they are cool enough to handle; the shells are harder to peel when cold. Don't open up a parcel until you are ready to peel the chestnuts. Eat the chestnuts right away or store them in the fridge for up to 3 days for soups, gnocchi, and snacking.

Get the recipe: Dan Roman's Buttery Roasted Chestnuts in Foil

Sweet Potato Souffle

This is Lisa's Grandma Nancy’s famous sweet potato soufflé recipe with pecan topping.  Lisa says it is the best sweet potato soufflé recipe in the world – and that is no kidding!  She's served it to many, and have had nothing but rave reviews!

Ingredients:

3-4 cups mashed sweet potatoes (fresh - not canned!)

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

½ cup milk

 Sweet Potato Mixture:

Boil and mash sweet potatoes.  Add butter and salt.  Mix well.  Add sugar.  Beat eggs and milk together.  Blend with other ingredients.  Spread in greased casserole dish. 

Topping:

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/3 stick butter

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix ingredients until crumbly.  Sprinkle on top of potato mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Braciole

Braciole (pronounced - bra-SCHO-lay or bra-SCHOL in Americanized Italian) is another one of those Italian classics that has a basic style - thin sliced meat packed with a filling and rolled but with many variations - someone's mother/nana/aunt made it with pork instead of beef, made it with a layer of prosciutto in the stuffing, someone else used a layer of salami instead, some added raisins or currents, pine nuts, crushed pistachios, some used parmesan cheese, some used pecorino cheese, on and on.

I decided to make this blog post about braciole following a disappointing experience at a local Italian restaurant that we really like. Lisa wanted to try their braciole. When it was served, it was not what we expected, it was more like an oblong meat ball wrapped in a Steak-Umm sitting in a thin beef gravy. And it was very bland like an unseasoned hamburger patty.

This is our version. We know you will love it! Serve with pasta and a good tomato sauce.

For four -

4  6" x 10" pieces top round beef thin sliced about 1/4 thick 
2 full cups coarse bread crumbs - homemade from good crusty country bread like ciabatta 
24 pieces thin sliced sopressata or hard salami
1 1/2 cups grated Pecorino Cheese - divided
5 or 6 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp Herbes de Provance
1 tsp Crushed fennel seeds
Olive oil

Parsley

1/2 cup Raisins - chopped

1/2 cup Pine Nuts - toasted

1 box of spaghetti or other long pasta

Salt and Pepper

For the sauce -

2 15 oz cans peeled whole tomatoes with their sauce. Add whatever herbs and seasonings you typically use to make your favorite tomato sauce.

Sautee the garlic until just lightly colored. Then add the bread crumbs, stir together and lightly toast.

Pecorino cheese

- I like to take a meat hammer to the beef, pounding it to make it a little thinner and reshape if necessary.

Layer the beef slices with the sopressata 

Top with the bread crumbs, pine nuts, raisins, herbs and cheese

Roll it all up and secure with toothpicks or tie with string

Brown the braciole up well -

Click to see the video -

Take out the browned up braciole and deglaze the pan with a little red wine. I like Sicilian Nero D'Avola or a Primitivo from Puglia. Add the wine and deglazed bits to the sauce!!!!  :)  Then add the braciole. Have the rest of the wine with dinner.

Simmer in the sauce for at least an hour -

Tip - I like to pull the braciole out and set on a plate while the pasta is boiling to al dente then drain the pasta and add to the sauce to continue cooking so the sauce gets into the noodles.

Plate up with the pasta -

Tomato, Cranberry Bean and Pumpkin Soup with Escarole

We found the recipe for this soup in Franny's Simple-Seasonal-Italian a wonderful cookbook given to me by my amazing daughter. All you had to do is look at the photo of the finished soup from the book to know you had to have some - 

Description from the book - 

"It is a brothy autumnal soup that embodies the transition from summer to fall, with the last of the seasons tomatoes and cranberry beans and the first showing of pumpkin and escarole." 

The borlotti beans (cranberry beans) are cooked in water with Parmasan cheese rinds, pieces of roasted pumpkin, fresh tomatoes, fennel, celery, rosemary, sage and escarole. The pumpkin adds sweetness, the cranberry beans add satisfying pops of richness and the tomatoes do what they do best all set off by the mild bitterness of the escarole.

Serves 6 - 8

Ingredients

4  medium ripe tomatoes peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup olive oil plus more for drizzling
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1/2 cup diced fennel bulb
1/2 cup diced celery
4 cloves of garlic minced
Parmigiano-Reggiano rind
1 large sage sprig
1 large rosemary sprig
1 1/2 cups dry cranberry beans soaked over night
5 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 cups peeled and diced pumpkin ( about 3/4 inch pieces)
6 cups chopped escarole - 2 heads
Freshly cracked black pepper

In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, fennel, celery and garlic. Cook until tender.

Add the tomatoes and cook until their juices are  released (the liquid should be about level with the tomatoes). Lower the heat to a simmer.

Add the cheese rind cut into small pieces, the sage and the rosemary, the beans, water and salt to the pot and bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low. Cover the pot and cook until the beans are tender - about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile brush the pumpkin wedges with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast at 375 for 30 minutes. When done cut the slices into pieces about 3/4 inch square.

Stir the pumpkin in with the beans, cover the pot and cook for 20 minutes more.

Add the escarole to the pot, cover, and stir every few minutes until the escarole is wilted. Remove the sachet and squeeze it over the pot to release any remaining flavor into the soup.

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve, drizzle with olive oil and a few turns of pepper.

Eggs in Purgatory 2.0

We love eggs cooked in spicy tomato sauce - known as uove in purgatorio (eggs in purgatory) in Italian or shakshuka in the middle east. 

Here is a slightly different take we tried for breakfast this weekend. So I'm calling it Eggs in Purgatory 2.0.

Ingredients - 
Eggs
Grape tomatoes
Garlic
Rosemary
Soppressata - hot Calabrian salami
Cheese
Chili pepper
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Serve over English muffins or biscuits or toast

Red Pot Whiskey Rebellion Bread

 

I'm calling this Red Pot Whiskey Rebellion Bread  because I added some of the spent grains I used in making my own whiskey and it's baked in a red cast iron Dutch oven. It's a safe bet you don't have spent cracked rye, malted barley and wheat berries that are used in making home made rye whiskey. They give this bread a sweet, earthy, nutty flavor but not like rye bread.  You can substitute a little whole wheat flour though that will approximate the taste. 

Just a little back story - 

The Whiskey Rebellion took place in SW Pennsylvania and parts of Virginia and Maryland in the early 1790's. It was an armed, but mostly peaceful, revolt against the newly mandated excise tax on whiskey. Farmers in the western frontier were accustomed to using their surplus rye, barley and wheat to make whiskey. These farmers resisted the tax. In these regions, whiskey often served as a medium of exchange because hard cash was simply not available. Many of the resisters were war veterans who believed that they were fighting for the principles of the American Revolution, in particular against taxation without local representation.  It was the first big test of the power of our new nation's federal government. George Washington, largely influenced by Alexander Hamilton, sent an army of 12,000 soldiers to western Pennsylvania to shut down the insurrection. The farmers lost, the government won. Come to find out, I had 4 gr gr gr + grandfathers on my mothers side who participated in the Whiskey Rebellion on the side of the rebels.  Once I found that out I put it on my bucket list to try making rye whiskey myself. And I did.

Ingredients - makes 1 loaf

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour plus more for sprinkling

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
 
Equipment
Large bowl
Plastic wrap 
Large Dutch oven with oven-safe lid
Parchment paper
Whisk
Spatula
 
Instructions
Place the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Make a well in the center, and add the water into the well. Stir until it forms a wet shaggy dough.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in size and bubbly, 6 to 8 hours.

After that first rise, fold the dough over on itself several times in the bowl with a rubber spatula then re-cover and put in the refrigerator to slow rise over night. Letting the dough slow rise overnight will give more flavor to the bread. 

(If you are in a hurry, you can omit the slow rise in the refrigerator).

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let come to room temperature- at least an hour or more.

Lightly flour a piece of parchment paper. Turn the dough out of the bowl onto it, folding it over on itself at least once while you do so. Quickly shape the dough into a round ball. 

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 450°F and place a large Dutch oven with its lid on the rack. Let it heat up for about 30 minutes. .

Using the parchment paper as a sling, carefully transfer the loaf, still on the paper, to the Dutch oven. If desired, make a slash or shallow cut on the top of the dough with kitchen shears or a sharp knife so that the bread can expand while baking.

Place the lid on the pot and put it in the oven. (Be careful, the lid is hot!) Bake covered for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake for 10-15 minutes more.

Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and use the parchment paper to transfer the bread to a wire rack. Let cool at least 15 minutes before slicing the bread.

Slather with REAL butter while still warm and ENJOY!!! 

Pasta with Pistachios

We recently had dinner at Hoffstot's Café Monaco here in Oakmont. Lisa ordered their Pasta Pistachio. It was so good that we decided to try to recreate it at home. Their menu describes the dish like this - 

"This simple dish is a chef’s favorite. Imported fusilli pasta tossed in butter with garlic, basil, oregano, fresh tomatoes and spinach then topped with toasted pistachios and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese".

These are the original key flavor ingredients- Pistachios, Garlic, Tomatoes, Basil, Oregano, Spinach, Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese

The dish was delicious as is but we wanted to make two changes right off the top: 

1) They used whole pistachios but we thought it would be better if it were a mix of whole pistachios and roughly chopped pistachios. 

2) They used fusilli but we felt a different type of pasta such as mezzi rigatoni would hold the nuts and other ingredients better and help prevent the bigger pieces from all ending up on the bottom of the pasta bowl.

But the more we thought about it, we came up with other ways to do a pistachio and pasta dish without getting too carried away. Like mixing all the original ingredients into ricotta and stuffing that into large shells or into pacheri (a short wide tubular pasta). Maybe do the original 7 ingredients but in a cream sauce or add crisped up pancetta as an additional ingredient

We finally settled on these ingredients - 

1 box Mezzi Rigatoni

1 cup Shelled Pistachios - chop half of them and leave half whole

1 pint multi colored Grape Tomatoes

1 Red or Orange sweet bell pepper - cut in thin ribbons

Half and Half - 1 1/2 cups

1/2 cup grated Pecorino cheese plus more for 

5 cloves Garlic - minced

Arugula - hand full

Good big handful fresh Basil

Oregano - 1 tablespoon fresh or 1 teaspoon dry

Fresh Hot Chili Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon minced or more to taste (optional)

Salt and Pepper to taste

How to - 

Bring a big pot of water to boil for the pasta. Add a tablespoon of salt and stir. 

In a medium sized frying pan on medium heat saute the garlic in olive oil for a 3-4minutes.

Add the pistachios and stir together.

Add the oregano, chili pepper and sweet peppers. Saute for another 3-4 minutes

Meanwhile drop the Rigatoni in the pasta pot.

Add the tomatoes to the pan with the pistachios and peppers. Add the Half and Half and Pecorino cheese. Stir everything together, salt and pepper to taste and cook to thicken.

When the rigatoni is done, drain and put in a large serving bowl, then add the ingredients in the pan along with the basil and arugula and stir everything together. It's important to add the basil at the end to keep it's flavor strong.

Put this delicious stuff in pasta bowls and top with grated pecorino cheese. 

Dig in and enjoy!!!

Fancy Pants Mussels Rockefeller

You've heard of Oysters Rockefeller. This is their cousin Mussels Rockefeller. We love mussels and were planning to have them this past Friday our favorite way - steamed in a wine and herb broth and served over linguine but Lisa said "Hey, babe, let's change things up. I've found a cool recipe for mussels Rockefeller maybe we can play around with the recipe and have them that way." I replied, "Why not?" And so we did and lived happily ever after.... Wait, that's another story. I'll save for another time. 😄

Typically oysters Rockefeller are prepared by mixing together breadcrumbs, garlic, herbs, some kind of green - usually spinach, and butter and topping oysters on the half shell with that mix and baking or broiling them.

Mussels Rockefeller is done the same way but with a little different, and necessary, prep twist that we discovered pretty quickly. Like oysters, mussels don't like to have their shells pried open. Oyster shells are much harder than mussel shells, but with a little practice, you can easily pry open raw oyster shells at their hinge with a shucking knife without damaging the oyster inside. But mussel shells are delicate and if you try to pop the shell open at the hinge you will just end up cracking or breaking it and destroying the mussel meat in the process. What you have to do is "coax" the mussels into opening their shells by themselves. How do you do that? By heating some water in a pan to just boiling and tossing the tightly closed mussels in. About 5 - 10 seconds later the mussels will have opened up on their own. Then fish them all out with a strainer. The shell can easily be snapped apart leaving the mussel meat on the other half ready to be filled with the delicious breadcrumb herb topping.

The ingredients in the topping we made - for 2 dozen mussels (about two pounds) -

Garlic - 3 cloves minced

Olive oil

Fresh Thyme - 1 tablespoon finely chopped

Fresh Flat Leaf Parsley - 1 tablespoon finely chopped

Red pepper flakes - to taste

Splash of white wine

Bread crumbs - 2 cups

Butter - 3 tablespoons

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a small frying pan, sauté the garlic in a little olive oil until just translucent, add a splash of white wine and turn down the heat to simmer, stir in the herbs, salt and pepper and bread crumbs. Stir regularly until the bread crumb mixture gets toasty. Remove from the heat and add the butter. 

After taking the shells apart by the method above, place the half shell mussels on a foil lined baking sheet. Top each mussel with about a teaspoon of the bread crumb mixture

Move the oven rack to the top of the oven and bake at 425 F for 3-4 minutes. Turn off the oven and turn on the broiler. Broil for just a minute to put an extra crunch in the bread crumbs.

Remove from the oven and hit each one with a spritz of lemon juice. Enjoy!

We served these with a side of arugula, basmati rice and mandarin orange sections.