Archive for the 'Recipes' Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

One thing you know about the way I do things, for those who follow me, is that besides pointing out tips I point out the rough spots, the mistakes that I’ve made on a previous version or how to correct mistakes if they’re made. What you don’t see (though I sometimes talk about) are the once in a while big flops.

Yes, I have them too. We all do. (You might find some comfort in that.) Maybe I made a silly mistake that flopped the whole thing. Once in a while the technique I used was the downfall — as when I tried too tough a cut of beef for shish kabobs. Sometimes I misjudge as with a recent braised Swiss chard recipe where by (having not used it before) I totally miscalculated the amount of shrinkage and so the other ingredients in the dish came out in too much proportions.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

How I came up with this dish has an odd little road to it. A couple months ago I had friends coming over for a get together and I had my cooking itineary planned, complete with an Italian dessert. No, not one of my own. I do do other people’s recipes at times too. Sometimes I make so many changes that they end up turning into something different and my own, but this was one of those times I was going to pretty much go along with the recipe I had. (At least that had been the initial plan.)

Listen up, this will teach you the value of reading something first, and all the way through and thoroughly. I was going to make this chocolate ricotta dessert (forget what, maybe was a cake, I seem to think it was going to be one of those custard things in ramekins. I had read the recipe throught and even did the two hour prep (again this was a while back, Iwrote down the recipe, but I didn’t write down this story, so bear with my fuzzy memory.)

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©2008 Harry Kenney

Funny how there are some dishes I’ve created and made for a long time, yet, seven months into this cooking site, realize there are still one’s I haven’t included here. This is one of them (til now). I stumbled into this one of those times when I had salsa left over from a party. You see, I do enjoy tortilla chips and salsa as a nice alternate to the usual potato chip and dip. Thing is, in the days after the party I just don’t feel like eating salsa and chips solo. So I need to come up with something to do with that jar. Several years ago after one party I also found I had forgotten to serve the second half of the shrimp I’d bought. (There was still plenty of food and no one at the party knew or missed it though.) … In short. Boom. Came this recipe.

I know the name seems a tad corny coming from me. No, I swear I’m not turning “Rachel” on you. I promise never to call things in between soup and stew “stoop”. And no, I don’t think any male, no matter how brimming with nor how deficient of testosterone should ever have the word “Yum-o!” come from his lips either. So that’s not happening. So the choice was, call this was I call it around the house as my shorthand “Sorta Jambalaya” or name it something more long-winded like “Chicken and Shrimp in Spicy Tomato Spanich Rice”. The latter is accurate but doesn’t roll off the tounge as well. The first is reluctantly a tad cutsy, but it does convey the concept quickly.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

Simple recipe? Yes. Simple ingredients? Yes. Great taste? Hey! That goes without saying. What does need talking about is, simple as these are, what is a sauce? A glaze? A mop? What exactly is Jack Daniel’s? And while we’re at it, where exactly on the steer does a strip steak come from?

According to About.com “Mops are sauces you might (better) know as sop, bastes or mops.” I would have to add “glazes” to that list. (For instance the Asian glaze I use on salmon is like this; whereas the glaze I put on meatloaf stays there the first time, that is, one application and leave it.) First, let’s take a left turn. A marinade is a sauce made of either all wet ingredients or wet ingredients and some dry (spices and herbs), but it’s still basically a wet sauce. And into this marinade, your proteins, your meat, poultry or seafood is placed prior to cooking to add flavor. So all these other things — glazes, mops, bastes — are what you put on immediately before and/or during your cooking — as with this recipe.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

Several different types of fish have gotten somewhat popular in the last few years and can now easily be found at your local fish monger or at the fresh seafood section of your local supermarket. Among these is one with the very cool sounding name of mahi-mahi. So what is mahi mahi? (The name by the way can be two words or a single hyphenated one from what I’ve found.)

Obviously the name conjures up the tropical Pacific, specifically Hawaii. And indeed the name is Hawaiian, meaning “strong-strong” as this fish can really put up a fight when on the end of a fishing line. Despite the name however, this fish can be found and caught in many places including the deep South Pacific but also in the Caribbean, the west coast of South America and Southeast Asia; and it is in these areas the commercial fisherman go for. That said, in less abundance more recreational fisherman have caught them in the Arabian Sea and even in the Atlantic from New Jersey down to Florida.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

Cooks are generally pretty imaginative. That said, when something gets popular, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. In the last few years we’ve seen the big bulsamic vinegar craze, and then there was the Parmesano Reggiano fad, and of course endive has long replaced the boring iceberg lettuce as the salad staple. The first one is still going, though I see some chefs lately such as Bobby Flay starting to use sherry vinegar instead; and as for grated cheese, it seems of late Pecorino Romano is the food world’s “new black”.

What brings this up? Especially in terms of this particular dish? Well while there’s not too much wrong with everyone jumping on a bandwagon (well, there is to some degree), the thing is few people seem to know when to jump off that wagon, not even when it’s been run into the ground. And that brings me to the mango. Like most people I enjoy it, and yes, I’m sure I will use mango in future recipes just as I have in the past. But, please folks, there is a world beyond. In short, the wide-spread massive over-use of the mango to the exclusion of everything else stops here.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

What can I say about mushrooms? Ok, first off, they’re obviously delicious! Eating-wise they can add another dimension to a steak. Or to chicken as well. They give that extra “something” when added to soups, a rice mixture or pasta. They can serve as a tasty vessel for stuffing.

In many ways they are “meaty” for both the vegetarian and the carnivore in us alike. I recall the oft-quoted here Frugal Gourmet, Jeff Smith, saying something to the effect of mushrooms being a sign of a generous God that from horse manure could such amazing things as mushrooms spring. Or something to that effect. He said it partly in jest and partly serious. Anyway, we get the idea of what he meant.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

Crostini. A sort of cousin to bruschetta, they mean in Italian “little toasts”. Funny though, the pronunciation sounds much to the English speaking person’s ear as “crust teeny” which would describe them equally well. Now I know I said I was getting away from the Italian food a bit, and I am, but, fact of the matter Italian food is such an integral part of the American food tapestry, I will always end up doing an Italian recipe now and then.

That said, the rest of this is certainly not in any way Italian. I topped it with Muenster cheese, an American cheese with an orange rind, and light texture and taste that is a great melting cheese. And to that I added a sliver of red apple. Supposedly one doesn’t don’t add herbs or spices on it. Hah, silly rabbit! I add a touch of garlic powder — not so much as to make it in any way a garlic bread however. And some dried oregano and basil. Where as for bruschetta I use the thicker wider Italian bread, for this I use the long and skinnier one. A French baguette would have worked just as well. Besides an obviously wonderful appetizer, I find, as I do with many appetizers, they also make great little “sides” accompanying a salad or soup.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

What we have here essentially is a Spanish Oxtail Stew featuring Root Vegetables. Not only is it a dish eaten in the south of Spain, but this is a dish that transcends not only geography, but also social classes and time itself. With a few variations this dish could have been eaten in close to this form not only a few hundred years ago, but also two thousand years ago, and even nine millennia ago. Talk about getting in touch with the earth and roots huh? So how did I decide to do this exact dish?

Having done so many Italian and Italian-American recipes lately I’ve felt a great need for change. And a desire to let my taste buds, if not my actual personage, travel to some different distant lands. It was an episode of Dinner: Impossible that got me interested in trying out oxtails. I find it in some ways humorous and in many ways delightful when poor people’s food or “peasant food” becomes trendy cuisine.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

This recipe is so cut and dry that for once I’m not sure what even to write about. Of course, that’s not usually the case and this blog is set up to show the first two paragraphs and then “divide” so I have to write something here. I guess I’ll just say how nice it is to wander the earth from my desktop computer and from my kitchen and to see — and to taste — how different people’s do the same thing — like a salad — but do it their own way.

Californians, parts of Mexico and Spain all have salads that contain avacado, for instance. In Greece, it’s olives and feta that helps make it uniquely theirs, their “stamp” on things, or their contribution. You’ll notice two ingredients I say are option, I myself didn’t put into this salad, anchovies and hard-boiled eggs. Again two ingredients that make it more distinctly Mediterranean in nature. So, try it with one of the two Greek salad dressings I posted here yesterday if you want to keep it authentically Greek — or feel free to use your own favorite salad dressing. Your choice. Enjoy.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

Seems lately I’ve been doing some pairings. First the pesto then the pasta. Another day, a side and then a soup to go with it. Today, something similiar. I’ve made two Greek salad dressings and tomorrow or the next day I’ll put up the Greek salad that goes with it.

I told you I got into a bit of a “rut” doing a lot of Italian and Italian-American food. Well, rut is a negative word and I’m not pinning that in any way on the food, just the lack of variety. So you’ll also notice that I’m taking a more global walk on the wild side. Why? Pretty simple. I love all kinds of food. And fortunately seemingly every country, and often smaller regions of countries, have contributed major food items or at least nuances to the overall food tapestry of what we eat.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

Here’s the second homemade cookie recipe I promised I’d get up to the site that I did over the holidays. Applesauce cookies. Yum! And while this is a good one to eat all year round, it definitely has those fall - winter spices we’ve come to associate with the Holidays. Moms take note: with fruit, nuts and raisins in this it’s no doubt a higher than average nutritional cookie too.

There is one important baking item I want to touch on though, and I should have done this with the butter cookie recipe probably, and that is the whole discussion or school of thought about salted versus unsalted butter in baking and especially cooking recipes. Salted butter, even though most of us don’t taste the salt, is the most commonly found one at markets and convenience stores. And against popular thought, it’s the one I use.

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