cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Party Food’ Category

What’s a great any-time appetizer and definitely a crowd pleaser? Stuffed mushrooms. Especially now, the “holidays” between Christmas and New Years when family and friends are more apt to come visit.

Want not one but two items that will not only impress guests but both are simple to make, taste delicious and can be done rather quickly? The first is Pancetta Wrapped Shrimp which can be done in under 20 minutes. And (bet you saw this one coming) the second one is stuffed mushrooms which can be made within 30 to 45 minutes.

Portobellos or the smaller ones, lately marketed as “Baby ‘Bellos” are perfect for stuffing. As with many other dishes (meatloafs come to mind) there’s probably a hundred different ways to stuff a mushroom, and this is only one of a handful that I like to make. I was originally intending to do this with bacon bits (real ones, naturally), but having recently purchased a container of finely-diced prosciutto and being undecided what to do with it yet, this lent itself perfectly.

So, spinch and cheese, and now Italian ham. What for a stuffing binder? Could do Italian bread crumbs, but I had still had some ricotta left over from my pie the other day, so that was perfect. Add some grated parmegena to it and little bit of onion for some bite, and wham. Although having mixed it up, even with minched garlic, it was lacking and a tad dull. To the rescue I added two tablespoons of marsala wine which rounded it out nicely and added a needed wetness. Still missing something, I opted for a recent favorite of mine, horseradish sauce. Just a tad. Turned out great.

Funny thing, this particular night I made these there were no guests — I was just in the mood for stuffed mushrooms and didn’t want the package I had in the fridge to wait too much longer and possibly go bad. So for dinner I took the remainer of last night’s fennel salad, some shrimp left over from a couple days ago when I had company over and added the stuffed mushrooms. Plus a couple of thick slices of Italian bread and some White Zinfandel, and voila a very very tasty and slightly different dinner.

Prosciutto, Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Portbellos
©2007 Harry Kenney

1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup frozen spinach (measured before taking all the water totally out)
1/2 cup ricotta
1/3 cup parmegan
2 oz. finely diced prosciutto (or ham or bacon or pancetta)
2 tbsps minced garlic
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsps dry marsala
salt
pepper

Take off inner mushroom stems if present. Clean off top and sides of bello caps with a moist paper towel and ready. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl and mix well with fork.

Spoon mixture into mushroom cap with tablespoon. Now use clean hands to gently press as much as you can into cap. If lots of excess, return to bowl. Some excess, smooth around to form slight mound. Do this to the rest.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place mushrooms on baking sheet face up. Lightly drizzle some olive oil on top and add additional pinches of parmagen. Place in oven for about 25 minutes. Cool slightly and serve hot.

The above is enough stuffing for roughly 8-10 baby portobellos. Mind you, sizes of these have no standard, so it could even be as little as 6 or as many as 12.

French fries. Another item that is so very “all-American”, yet, as with the people who populate the U.S., it came from elsewhere. We just popularized it. How can anyone not like the quintessential “fry”. It goes with everything. Like it’s cousin, the potato chip, you put it on the side of something else and it turns whatever it’s accompanying into a meal.

And name any other food in the world in which all women will say they don’t want, but when your meal comes with fries, they will eat a third of them from your plate! Admit it, ladies. Guys, you know this is true.

Different Names, Condiments, Toppings

In America, sometimes the fry replaces the potato chips (as with a sandwich or hot dog). Sometimes it’s replacing mashed or baked potatoes next to a pork chop or even a steak (as in steak fries or steak potatoes already mentioned). And sometimes we just eat them by themselves. Not to mention the endless possibilities of toppings that turns it into cheese fries, crab fries (Old Bay seasoning, not actual crab meat), chilli fries, pizza fries or Mexican fries to name a few. And there is curly, shoe-string (super thin) and steak (thicker) ones as the cuts of the potato and slightly different.

Of course there’s also the region differences. In the Northeast part of the US where I live, you eat them plain or with ketchup. And when I crossed the Mason-Dixon line a decade ago and took a trip to Baltimore, I was shocked to find my burger and fries came with brown gravy dumped on top. I quickly learned afterward, if you don’t say hold the gravy in Maryland, it comes automatically without asking for it. And if you go further South, well I know that Paula Deen the Georgian television cook likes them with mayonnaise.

And, of course, (sigh) as with any talk of food, if it’s in America, then sure enough the Brits call it and it’s relations by totally different names, totally confusing things and requiring yet another discussion of “two countries, one language” — or so they say. (Yes, I know, and if you’re British then your point of view is the exact opposite, that those Yanks always have to mess with the Queen’s English.)

Where They Came From

In the United States french fries are thin sticks of deep-fried potato. In the UK, Ireland and the various Commonwealth counties, they are called chips. Also the sizes, shapes and thicknesses vary. The US one is usually the “thin style” of roughly 1/4 inch or less widths and fairly even, though sometimes long. The UK chips tend to be thicker and often shorter. As to it’s “cousin”, in the US, thin oval slices of deep-fried potato are called potato chips, while the same in the UK are called crisps.

As to their origin, it is of course a matter of great debate. Though it seems the so-called French fry probably comes from Belgium. Among the questions though are, is it Belgium that was the Spanish Netherlands, the Belgium that was part of France or the Belgium that was, well, Belgium. And depending on which, the French and the Spanish also claim therefore that they made them first. Again, though, it’s America that both consumes the most, and who via various foreign hamburger chains, have made the thin-width, longer, skinner french fries the version the world tends to eat. What gives me a little chuckle is when an English-speaking chef refers to them as pommes frites in the title of a recipe; I always think their egos be a little flattened that day and so they want to call everyone’s attention to their classical “culinary chops”.

All of that history, names, type of cuts, condiment or food add-ons said, it comes down to deep-frying. Sort of. Deep-frying is how they should be done, though there is also oven-baked from frozen when it comes to home cooking. Today I’m talking about the deep-frying, which involves a whole totally different way of cooking. So much so, there’s no way I’m going to cram all of what is involved into one recipe or even a single article.

It’s About Oils and Deep-Frying

So, I advise you to check out my recent article on Everything You Need to Know about Cooking Oils for now. And I’ll be adding in the near future a second one on deep-frying which I suggest you look at when it’s available.

For now, I’ll say use a good cooking oil with a high-smoke point. I personally prefer canola, vegetable oil or peanut. You will need specific equipment for this if you do not have an electric deep-fryer: A big pot that is stainless steel or cast iron or otherwise “non-reactive”, a deep fry or candy thermometer is a must, and either a spider (usually stainless steel or copper and looks a bit like a spider web with lots of thin wire, sometimes called a steel strainer) or a skimmer (wide, round, many holes, see accompanying photo). You should also have a brown bag and tons of paper towels.

As you see in my photos, one of the great things about having a galley-style kitchen as I do is it makes it easy to set up a “station” where you can cut the potatoes, have them ready for the fryer, and then space to set out a ripped brown bag, on top of which are paper towels for padding the oil off, and also for placing on a baking sheet to maintain the first ones staying warm while the rest are being done.

Worth It? Maybe

Two things I have to tell you. First, yes, these were absolutely delicious fries. Among the best I’ve had. The double-fry method used makes all the difference. And it’s difficult to beat fresh and warm and just-made. That said though, (the second thing, the sound of the other shoe dropping in some ways …) I’m uncertain if I’ll make these again. At least in this way. Why? It is a lot of work. And if you don’t already know one of my big items when it comes to cooking is the taste versus time equation. If something is tremendously better the long way than the short, I’ll go that extra mile. However if something is very difficult and time-consuming and the taste difference doesn’t likewise go up a similar number of levels, then I’ll take the easy way.

With this recipe, it was reusing the oil. It took over and hour and a half to pour 8 cups of oil into a small funnel with a coffee filter in it. Even if I had a really big funnel, there was still the size of the coffee filter. I know, maybe cheese cloth will work better, that and a large funnel. Maybe a microfine coned strainer is the answer. Or maybe, tossing the oil. But then ouch, the world’s most expensive french fries! Another thing, to not crowd the pan I did the first fry in six parts (that’s 6-8 minutes per) and the second fry was three batches for about 2-3 minutes. So, prep time, plus 50-60 minutes plus another 15. The mess and paper towels everywhere, and the long long time of filtering for reuse made this not worth it to me.

Anyway you’ve been forewarned. All in all, I’d rather either buy frozen and put them in the oven or I may try figuring out an oven-only method since I did really enjoy the taste of fresh. Now, I am not flip-flopping in the least here; just presenting the pros and the cons both for you to consider. One big reason you might want to do this is it is the best way to start out deep-frying. I mean if you’ve never done it before ever, or you haven’t for a quite some long time, what you rather mess up a bunch of chicken or a few potatoes? So, this is excellent “beginner training” or “refresher course” for someone getting into or back into deep-frying. And yes they will taste yummy. And if you’re willing to not reuse the oil or you have a better filtering system, go for it. Or if you doing it for a party or for four or more people. Or … it might be worth the investment and get an electric deep-fryer which is something else I myself am considering. Anyway, enjoy!

Homemade French Fries (Deep-Fried)
©2007 Harry Kenney

5 large or 7 medium potatoes (russets or Idahos)
6-8 cups of cooking oil (with a high smoke-point)
salt to taste

Place oil in a large stainless steel stock pot. Add and adjust thermometer on the side so it is not touching the bottom, 1/4 inch to 1 inch from the bottom is good. Turn heat on to high. Keep watching and if it gets past 300°F while you are still prepping/cutting, turn heat down to low.

Choose in your mind first the width you want for your fries, 1/4 inch thick or 1/3 inch. I went with the latter. With your (hopefully) starchy, large and ovalish potatoes, slice across the horizontal making several 1/3 layers. Place them down and now cut through this layer at roughly 1/3 inch apart. Let the length fall where it may. See photo. Into an ice water bath place your potato cuts as you make several. This not only preserves the color, but more importantly helps remove the starch making for a crispier potato for deep frying.

Keep an eye on the oil. If it’s under 300, leave burner on simmer, if it’s over 340°F, turn it off. For the first part you are aiming for 325°F. Continue with the next “level” you cut and the rest of your potatoes, each time you have several placing them in the ice bath. When everything is cut. Leave them in the ice another five or ten minutes, giving you time to set everything up for your stations. You need to have a place to put the potatoes and blot them dry with paper towels. Have them ready for putting in the oil. A place to put them when you take them out of the oil to drain off the excess oil, preferably using a combination of a brown bag and paper towels. And a baking sheet to place those in the oven to keep warm as you finish the rest. Turn oven on now to 200°F.

With fries dried well of moisture and oil at 325°F, place a handful or two of fries into the oil carefully. I suggest between 10 and 12 of these is a good number. You don’t want too much in. Your oil will drop with the addition of food into it. Keep an eye out and turn heat up and down to maintain close to the 325°F mark, neither too far down nor too far over. For this, time I found is a better indicator than eye-balling it for color. About 7 minutes take them out and place on bags/towels. Do not put the next batch in until your oil is once again at the target temperature.

When through with this batch, start again. This time you want your temperature to be at 375°F for your target. Be careful this time not to go over 400°F, if you do, remove the pot to a burner that’s cool, and place back in between batches. You can also add fresh oil in 1 cup increments to help cool, but this trick you probably don’t want to do more than twice as the most. For this second dip, eyeball for color more than time. Should take anywhere from 2-3 minutes (if you’re at the right temperature and over 4 minutes you have browned, tough fries). Golden brown you want.

Blot and place into baking sheet.as they come out. After a couple batches of these, place baking sheet on top rack of your 200°F oven to keep warm as the rest come out. Continue this cycle until done. Salt fries on baking sheet as desired. Serve as soon as possible. Though you can leave fries up to 30 minutes max in the warming oven. Makes about four servings.

I really do get annoyed when my market doesn’t have exactly what I want. Which happens too often actually, but what can you do? You play with the cards your dealt with or you fold or you find another game. I did what I’m often (grrr) having to do, the first. This time it was uncooked shrimp and I wanted them larrrrrrge. Big-butt. Jumbo. Prawn-like. I had to suffer with 31-40s, the only size they had at the moment, and the only ones in the store, and they didn’t even have enough to make a full pound. Sheesh.

What kind of rookie-league outfit were they running here? Why don’t I have a fish monger near me? So you take what you can get. What’s the saying? When life gives you a lemon make lemonade.. Or, with me, it turned out make margaritas!

The dish is so out-of-this world, I think I’m in a mood to do my Emeril impersonation. Bacon-wrapped shrimp? Nice, oh yeah. Let’s take it up a notch. Pancetta-wrapped shrimp. Mmm. Delicious. What? Still another notch, you say? Fine. Let’s get it drunk. Let’s give it margaritas. That’s right, tequila and lime marinated pancetta-wrapped shrimp. Bam!!

Not sure how much I’ve talked about marinades before. If I have, I’ve probably only glanced at it. To be brief, I love what I call quick marinades. Yeah, yeah, I know. A lot of cooks seem to start out by saying “… and place this in the refrigerator for at least eight hours … better yet, overnight”. I dunno about you, but I have nether their kind of patience nor their kind of planning skills. If I’m going to do a pork loin sometime tomorrow evening, the last thing on mind is, let me go defrost it and marinade it right now. Then let me do all that, put it away and still I have to make dinner. Nope, just doesn’t work for me.

And their version of short of 8 or 10 hours? That’s worse! Let me go marinade some chicken while I’m trying to figure out what I want for breakfast. Sorry Charlie, I want a cup of coffee and a danish or an egg, I am not in the mood with playing with frozen-butt raw chicken at nine in the morning. Uh-uh. Ain’t happening!

What does work for me? You guessed it — quick marinades. But Harry, that doesn’t give it enough time, one might say. Fine. It does give it a lot more flavor than if I hadn’t done a thing at all, is my reply and I’m sticking with it. But, says the “purist marinader” (is there such a thing?), you’re breaking all the rules. And I say: hell, yeah. I do what I want to do. And I’ve told you there reading this before: do what works for you. Do what tastes good for you. You don’t want to marinade, don’t. You want to marinade your buns off, hey, stick it in there a month (ok don’t). But do what you think works for you. You don’t always have to listen to whatever one else tells you. And that even goes for me. Ignore what I said. I’ll try not to loose too much sleep over it.

Next: indoor “grilling”. Natch if the weather is great, do this on an outdoor charcoal grill by all means. As this was December in the Northeast, I did it inside on my stove top grill. If you don’t have one, use your grill frying pan (a frying pan with grill lines). If not that, a “stick” frying pan. Huh? You know, the opposite of non-stick, a non-non-stick pan. Cast iron preferably, if not, stainless steel. You will never never never (did I mention never?) get any “grill” action from a coated pan that makes juices in the pan instead of evaporating them. If you’re brave you could use the broiler. But I don’t like the chances of burning up a pound of shrimp, especially wrapped in pancetta. If you want to take the chance though, more power to you.

Another thing I want to touch on …. In a way this particular recipe seems very high-end and gourmet, simply because “shrimp ain’t cheap” and pancetta is even more costly. But think about it a moment. Ok, a pound of 31-40 shrimp was six bucks a pound. The pancetta was five dollars for four ounces. I used some of it in another recipe, leaving me with 12 slices which were halved and used on the shrimp here, about two dozen of them. The left over shrimp we had unwrapped. And this fed two people lunch. (You didn’t really think that was my usual hands and arm in the photos did you?)

Now, tell me outside of McDonalds where can you fed two people lunch for USD $11? So we had an upscale “gourmet” lunch for the price of fast food. Upscale? In one sense, definitely. And yet, if you look at it the other way, pricey? Heck, it’s almost a budget meal when you break it down. Look at it another way, how much would this have cost at a restaurant? I’ve seen six jumbo shrimp wrapped in American bacon go for $12. Pancetta would probably bump that to, what, $18? Now times by two, don’t forget drinks and tips, and we’ll forget about transportation. Anyways, as you see, money well-spent. And this is why you should be cooking at home!

Besides even were it a lot more expensive than it turned out, I’d have still done it and enjoyed it. Why? Harry’s rule: Every now and then you have to treat yourself. You deserve it. And if you can do it with company, all the better.

Pancetta-Wrapped Margarita Shrimp
©2007 Harry Kenney

1 lb uncooked shrimp, “large”, 31-40
4 oz pancetta
salt
pepper
vegetable oil

marinade:

1 cup tequila
2 tbsps fresh lime juice (1/2 lime)

Place shrimp in a ziplock bag or other container with the tequila and lime juice. Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Take out. Dump marinade. With paper towels, pat shrimp dry. Leave out to warm up to room temperature five minutes.

Season the dried shrimp. Take pancetta, cut in to even halves. Carefully wrap as many of the shrimp as possible; 4oz pancetta will wrap approximately two dozen shrimp. (No toothpicks to hold. Careful handling and heat will hold all but one or two on.) Preferably use the stove top grill or an uncoated iron or steel pan at medium-high heat. Use vegetable oil or butter-spray to coat surface. Place on grill or pan with plenty of space to turn. About three minutes on each side. Serve.

If this is the only food, it makes a nice lunch for two. Goes with red or white wine or beer or margaritas. Fresh cut loaf of bread on the side would be great. With other appetizers or sides etc, can serve more. Double or triple this recipe easily for upscale party snacks.

You can substitute bacon but if you do and with shrimp at this size, should be thin sliced. If larger shrimp you can use bacon at the normal thickness, cut it into thirds or quarters instead of halves, and figure one additional minute for each side in grilling time.

Whew! The last three recipes were each a bit complicated and time-consuming in terms of preparation and cooking … got to do plenty of interesting cooking things though: turned a slab of beef into steaks, pounded meat thin, made a meat stuffing, created a custard in a pot, made a ganache, took a squash apart, made a puree with the food processor, oven-roasted vegetables, got to cook some chorizo…

Time then to switch things up and do something quick and a bit more whimsical. So for today, it’s pizza for kids. Yes, I know, kids like any kind of pizza; but that said, they’ll like these even more. Moreover, you don’t have to have kids, these are definitely pizzas for the kids in us all!

Before diving in, be sure to check out my previous pizza foray, where I made the more convention Pepperoni Pizza as well as a Ham and Pineapple one. There are more basic tips in that one. Think of this as a continuation. As said, last time was somewhat more traditional. This time, I went and let my inner child run wild, hmm, maybe even a tad amok. hehe

And this is one of the best things about doing pizza at home: you can create pizzas you will not find at your average around-the-corner, down-the-street pizzaria. One element I kept running up against doing this — can’t recall if I complained about this in my other recipe or not — but that was that my dough wants to basically stay round, and my baking sheets are rectangular. What happened each time then, in my personal experience, was I would end up with one large rectangular pizza and one smaller rectangular one. You see I had to go the width of the baking sheets and that would have made too doughy a pizza. Following the outline or dimensions of the sheets though made for thin, crispy crusts. While nothing wrong with that, I do personally like a bit of more medium dough. I’d also like to make a “real” round pizza too.

So, realizing I am definitely going to make more of these in the future, I went out and got a round pizza pan. I measured my oven first to ensure I could get the largest that fit, and found a 16″ would do it. Next stop at K-Mart and I grabbed one for about 10 bucks. So I’m looking forward to — if not tossing it in the air — at least letting my dough make a nice big round one. If you follow my recipes and get some ideas of my philosophy when cooking I tend to like to go zen and let my food tell me what it wants. (Asparagus tells you where to cut it; frying pans tell you when you can have your browning meat…) Since pizza dough wants to stay round,

Ok, the cheeseburger pizza is fairly explanatory. Actually, so is this particular dessert pizza too. However, just so you can get into the mood of it, let me say all you have to do is think what would each particular ingredient be for a dessert pizza as compared to a standard pizza? Mozarella cheese … then you need a sweet cheese … ricotta or perhaps a mascapone if you can get a hold of some. Ok, what replaces the pizza sauce? At first you go “huh”, and then you start getting into the swing of things and go “ah, jelly!”. Ok, pepperoni or whatever topping becomes some kind of fruit. Garlic powder? Maybe it becomes cinnamon. Basil? Maybe (or not) it becomes sprigs of mint. Maybe jimmies. Who knows? You tell me.

Play with it, think it out, give whatever comes to mind a try. Now you’re getting the idea. So let that inner kid go run wild — better yet, do it with your children — have some fun, and enjoy!

Cheeseburger Pizza
©2007 Harry Kenney

pizza dough
tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce with meat works nicely
shredded mozzarella
American cheese
ground beef
ketchup

salt
pepper
garlic powder
dried oregano
dried basil

Too many variables (plus this is supposed to be fun) to list actual amounts. Just go free-for-all.

Make dough into pizza form you want. Place sauce on dough and spread with tablespoon or larger spoon. Don’t over do it. Spread some mozzarella, light, not as much as a regular pizza. Rip slices of American cheese and place on top. In frying pan, pinch off pieces of ground meat, make small, larger than a pea, smaller than a lima bean. Pinch, roll between thumb and forefinger, place in pan and cook. Do not overcook, keep moist, this is going to cook further on the pizza remember. Add tiny bits of American cheese on top a minute before done. Place atop pizza. Add spices to taste. Squirt small streaks of ketchup here and there. 350°F for 14-16 minutes.

Peach Ricotta Dessert Pizza
©2007 Harry Kenney

pizza dough
can of peach halves
Ricotta cheese
Apricot preserves
cinnamon

Make dough into pizza form you want. Spread out ricotta cheese, then preserves, put on peach halves, dust with cinnamon. This cooks a bit faster than a traditional meat pizza. Keep and eye on it. 350°F for 10-12 minutes.

I love this town. I love it for so many reasons, too many, I won’t even get into cause I might not be able to stop. But one of the reasons is food, baby. Philly is hometown to so many foods, it’s just crazy. Probably first that comes up on everyone’s list is the Philly Cheesesteak. If not that, it’s the Hoagie. Whats a hoagie? Ever have something called a “sub” or submarine? Ever have something called a “hero” or hero sandwhich? Well, if so, they are just pale, lack-luster imitations of a hoagie.

What else? There’s the Philly pretzel. Much superior to those things they burn in NYC and call pretzels. There’s scrapple, a mysterious and wonderful substance — sorta like haggis, not in taste, in mystery — that is a wonderful alternative to bacon, ham and sausage as a breakfast meat to go along with your eggs. And then, to my surprise, there’s the stromboli.

To my surprise? Well I’ve known strombolis ever since I was little. The local pizza shop or steak shop always had them along with the calzones. Wasn’t actually until just a few days ago when I looked up in various food encyclopedias on the web — Epicurious’s is my favorite by the way. And I was wondering just what was technically considered the difference between a calzone and a stromboli.

According to the Epicurious-Barron’s database: “Originating in Naples, calzone is a stuffed pizza that resembles a large turnover. It is usually made as an individual serving. The fillings can be various meats, vegetables or cheese; mozzarella is the cheese used most frequently. Calzones can be deep-fried or brushed with olive oil and baked.” Whereas a stromboli is “a specialty of Philadelphia, a stromboli is a calzone-like enclosed sandwich of cheese (usually mozzarella) and pepperoni (or other meat) wrapped in pizza dough.”

So, a stromboli, yet another food originating here in Philly, is something akin to (but not) an inside-out pizza, a loaf of Italian bread that’s stuffed, a giant non-fried calzone, the world’s biggest “hot pocket” (except it tastes 100 times better). Let’s face it, these are just comparisions. A stromboli is what it is — a stromboli. And it’s delicious!

Now, as said this here is not your average stromboli. (Oddly, now that I’ve made the monster one, I’ll have to make a “normal” one to show you in the near future.) This is brimming with pounds of delicious meats, plus a substantial amount of savory veggies too. Some believe that where calzones were made to be eaten by hand, that strombolis were too. Personally, I have never (even with the normal ones you get from the shops) believed that. When you slice it you have two open ends, what a slop that would make eating by hand. So I’ve always used the knife and fork. And with this particular one, heavy-weighted, jam-packed “big guy”, manly-sized log, that is the only way to eat it.

Needless to say, this is one puppy you definitely want to make for a tailgating party, or bowling night, or on the big game day to feed a bunch of big hungry guys. The loaf ended up being 17 inches long, 6 to 7 inches wide and an inch to an inch and a half thick and even weighed (I’m guessing here) a good five to seven pounds. Tell me this isn’t going to be the hit of the party?! You know it!

When slicing a serving, figure rbout an inch width; perhaps an inch and a half or even up to two for a jumbo slice. This is going to make anywhere from 10 to 16 servings. If you figure in the price of the ingredients, and what the same amount of food would cost at the pizza joint, this is even a pretty sweet budget saving meal to boot. Oh, and just cause it is party food, doesn’t mean it’s not dinner or lunch. I didn’t make this for a party but for “dinner with lots of leftovers”, the kind I can reheat for a couple more dinners or as a few more hot lunches later in the week.

One last item here, before we hit the recipe. There’s also two schools of thought with those who make strombolis. (Geez, aren’t there always at least two schools of thought with food?) One is, you put some of the sauce inside; other’s say no, it leaks, it’s too messy; no sauce inside the stromboli itself, instead have some spaghetti sauce or marinara on the side for dipping. Me? I figure why does is it always have to be one way or the other — both ways together works! You need some of that inside, and hey, offer some to dip too to accomodate people’s taste.

Ok, get yourself plenty of napkins, grab a cold one to “go along” outta da fridge, dig in, and enjoy!

     

Over-Stuffed Meat Lovers Monster Stromboli
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

3/4 lb sweet Italian sausage, cut open from casing
3/4 lb hot Italian sausage, cut open from casing
1/2 lb thinly sliced pepperonis
4-5 slices of frozen sandwich steak, chopped

3 green (or red or mixed) bell peppers, cut to chunks
1-2 medium yellow onions, cut to chunks
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1/2 pound baby portebellos (or any mushrooms) chopped

one portion of pizza dough (enough to make one large pizza pie)
12 oz marinara or spaghetti sauce
6 oz shredded mozerella or mixed Italian cheeses

grated parmagena
salt
pepper
garlic powder
oregano

Take one serving of pizza dough, roll and knead out into a rough rectangle about 18 inches long and 8-10 inches wide and place inside baking sheet. Add oregano and grated parmagena to dough and press in with palm of hand. Lightly add shredded cheese all around and do same with hand again, pressing in slightly

In one very large pan, bring up to medium-high with very little oil, add half of sliced garlic, put in the pepperonis and brown. These have ton of oil. After turning constantly a few minutes, dump the oil, place pepperonis on a plate with paper towels and let sit, getting off the excess oil. Add sausage mixture into this pan and start to brown, lightly salt and pepper only as these are already well seasoned.

In a second smaller skillet, add oil, remaining sliced garlic, and put on medium-low and add the peppers. Remember you’re browning the meat, but you’re going to be sweating (not browning) the veggies. As peppers start to soften slightly add onions and mushrooms. You want all the ingredients to soften, stir constantly. Add some seasonings including some oregano.

In meat skillet, make some room in the pan and add the crumbled steak, season and brown. When everything nearly done in the meat skillet, put the pepperoni back in, mix everything up and add about 4 oz of marinara or spaghetti sauce and incorporate well.

Now to layer. Take handfuls of shredded cheese and thickly make a line down the center, about six inches or so wide. Take meat and spoon out down the middle of the dough, forming a line from near top to bottom, should end up being four to six inches wide and maybe half inch or so high. Now, do the same with the veggies, right on top, form a line top to bottom, should end up being roughly two to three inches wide. Take your sauce and add a thick bead, no more than an inch wide again down the length, atop the veggies.

Fold one side up across the top, then the other side, gently prodding as needed to make oval loaf. Fold the two ends up neatly as possible. Score slits in top of dough width-wise roughly four or five inches in length and spaced and inch-and-a-half or two down entire length. Take grated parmagena and liberally sprinkle atop the entire loaf. Now drizzle some olive oil across top. This will add flavor and aid in browning. Place the baking sheet into a preheated 400°F for about 35 minutes. When nice and brown, and you see the liquids inside boiling through some of the slits, you’re done.

Let sit on sheet at least 15 minutes before serving. Optionally take some of the sauce and add to a bowl for additonal dipping. Serve with knife and fork and plenty of napkins. Servings 10-16. Beverage of choice, beer of course, but works with anything.

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This was one of the items I had listed last month in my article “Food Terms You Keep Hearing About“. There I said, “In which bread is toasted, raw garlic is rubbed into it, then olive oil is drizzled on top. Now for some folks that is the complete definition, and it stops there. For myself and others it is not complete until the above is topped with a chopped tomato, garlic, basil and olive oil salsa. Mmm. (Toss some slices of very fresh mozzarella on top for the ultimate.) Until it’s got the topping, to me it’s not a true bruschetta. This is one of the best appetizer’s in the world as far as I’m concerned.”

When I went to the local supermarket the day before a recent party to pick up a freshly baked loaf of Italian bread, I found it was all old and none had been made that day. On top of which, instead of being long and having some width to it, whoever had made all the long loafs made it in my opinion way too thin, more like baguettes — which would be wonderful were I recipe-wise going to Paris, but I was aiming closer to Rome, (And this was supposedly Italian bread, remember.)

So I perused the shelves for something else, and happily came upon a shorter, fatter oval Italian bread. Not only that, it was made with sun dried tomatoes. And it was made within the last six hours, that would make it perfect for tomorrow’s party, a little body, but still what I consider to be fresh.

In fact, check out the photos of the sliced bread, big, wide pieces. That long skinny kind they had would have been about a third the size, “cocktail” cracker almost — not what you want, you want to serve the big meaty, “this is something I can dig into” slice of Italian bread you see there.

Tangent warning: Some other day I’ll figure out why day old is considered stale and why bakeries all like to keep their bread in the air to hasten the staleness, whereas I head home and wrap it up in plastic and alumninum foil and it lasts and tastes fresh for several days. Also for another day, how many ways — there seems to be about a dozen — in which people will pronounce bruschetta. (The two major ones being bru-shet-ta or bru-sket-ta. I often say the former, though there seems to be more of a conscientious as time goes on that the latter is most correct).

At the recent part, I served near it a separate plate of cut fresh mozzarella with some cherry tomaotes on the side. And next to that a plat with two different olives. As I suspected, half the guests grabbed the garlic bread, put on the tomato mixture and added a slice of the cheese on top. So there’s a tip for you. When you can offer some complimentary elements, and folks can mix and match (or not) as they want. I’ve even included a couple of photos of those here below (that I actually took for a “menu” or “meals” page section I’ll be adding in the near future.)

I have to mention, I put the food out on the table, went for my camera which was nearby, came back quickly, and already parts of the food presentation were gone. So, sorry I couldn’t get full shots of the all of the food in my photographs; hard to fault my guests for grabbing the food so fast off the plates! Anyways, this is such a delightful appetizer and so simple easy to make it’s ridiculous. Grab a glass of Chianti or Merlot or Pinot Noir with this and nosh away!

     

Bruschetta
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

garlic bread, bakery fresh (that morning up to a day old)

diced tomatoes. canned are preferred to fresh
fresh garlic, two to three cloves, sliced thin
fresh basil, chopped

salt
pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven at 350°F. Slice the Italian bread load thickly. Assemble on baking sheet and drizzle olive oil along the tops. Place in over for 7-12 minutes. You want a golden brown. Crispy but in no way hard, just a little crunch.

Meanwhile in a bowl place tomatoes, add basil, garlic, salt, pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil, mix together.

Take out bread from oven. Once toast is cooled enough to work with (as soon as you can) rub a clove of garlic across the top of each one many times. Pretend as though you are grating something. The warm heat of the toast and the movement will get the garlic on the toast. (I did this, but then knowing my guests wouldn’t mind very garlicky bread I also got a jar of minced garlic out and put a tiny bit of that on each as well.)

Make a nice presentation and serve to your guests, garnishing with basil leaves. Later you can place it back on the cookie sheet with oven on low and serve again if it gets cold. If necessary, re-warm in oven at 170-200°F (or “warm” or “low” setting). Or make some more.

The amount of people it will serve varies greatly due to size of bread, slicing, etc. If you’ve made 10 slices, that could be five to 10 people depending. Sauce should be enough for ten people with some left over. You might want to add fresh sliced mozzarella on the side too.

At last, some true “play time” with food. I let my inner child run amok and came up with a grown-up fantasy come true. This is, as the title suggests, what I consider to be my ultimate twice baked potato.

Well, almost. I couldn’t believe when I shopping the day before the party I could not find a good, large baking potato! Must be a Murphy’s Law thing. If I didn’t care, they would have been there at the store the size of watermelons. But no, the day I want to get a big bag of really large ones, every single bag of russets — and not an Idadho in the place — contained pm;u three inch and unders.

You ever get that feeling you’re on Candid Camera? (For the younger folk reading, ever think you’ve been Punk’d?) Long story short, between a choice of red bliss and the in-betweener thin-skinned yellows from Jersey, I went with the Jerseys.

You’ll note below in the recipe I say six large potatoes, I ended up using nine medium. As always, vary as needed, or to fit in with what you can get at the market. Also, since it’s a good time saver — and this was part of a big party the next day and I had a lot of other dishes to cook — I “nuked” the taters in the microwave for about 18 minutes instead of the oven for 50. Same difference.

Next day about an hour before the party I sliced the potatoes in half length-wise and scooped them out, and then filled them back up with nothing but good stuff. Quick tip: You know those grapefruit spoons in the back of your drawer that you never use? The one’s where you got this thing that’s mostly spoon but with a serated, knife-type top on them? If you have those, they work awesome for scopping out the potatoes!

Needlesstosay (but I will any how) they were a party hit. Enjoy!

Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

Six large potatoes
 (large as you can find, preferably baking kind)
8 oz extra thick sliced bacon. diced 1/2 squares
4 oz shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
3 tblsps butter (or margarine)
salt
pepper

Place potatoes in the oven and bake at 400F for 50 minutes or until done. Alternately about 18 minutes in an 1100 watt microwave (about 25 minutes in a 700 watt microwave, placing plenty of fork vent holes in each). When potatoes are done let cool. You can either work with these the next day (storing in the fridge over night) or when cooled down at least 1/2 hour.

Take diced bacon and brown in frying pan. Take out and place on plate between paper towels to drain excess fat and let cool.

Cut each potato in half, lengthwise and scoop out into a mixing bowl. (Leave enough on the sides and bottom that you still have a firm “shell” of potato.) Place skins aside, covered in plastic or foil wrap so they do not get hard or dry.

To potato mixture, make as you would normally for mashed potatoes with milk, butter, salt and pepper. Now add cheddar cheese and about 80-90% of the bacon and mix with hand mixer or large spoon. Once thoroughly mixed, take out potato “shells” and fill each evenly as possible. Place pinches of cheddar cheese atop each of the 12 potato halves, and then top each with remaining bacon bits.

Some things I put off trying (for a while) having convinced myself that the item, the recipe, the dish is too intimidating. Oddly pizza was one of them. I know, silly — such a simple thing too! I think I know what it is. Failing something complicated seems fine, but failing something simple seems wrong. Thing is often the simplest things are the most difficult. No shame there. Plus, some of my best successes began as failures the first time out. Long story short, at long last I’ve gotten to make homemade pizza. And you know what? Don’t you put it off like I did. You’re missing out on some fun and some good stuff here!

I’ve tried a few homemade chinese dishes, all worked out. Already have my steak quesadilla recipe up as well. And now pizza. Am I going to stop doing take-out now? Heck no. Am I going to stop buying DiGiorno’s? Nope, there’s still that occasional late-night pizza urge that hits me after the store has closed and when I just don’t want to do much work. Besides, I don’t know about you, but I like to be treated or pampered once in a while, and having someone else do the cooking for me is just grreat. And the second best is sticking pre-made in the oven. Especially the delcious self-rising frozen pizzas of today!

That said, being able to do some of your favorite dishes that you normally get delivered or hat you run out and pick-up is a very “liberating” experience. Not only is it nice to say “hey, I can do that as well as they can” (and sometimes better) … but when you get to “home make” your take-out favories, it gives you tons more freedom. What does that mean?

It means you can give yourself more of what you like — with Chinese or pizza, more meat or more toppings. You can control the degree of spiciness — as with homemade quesadillas. Or, as with pizza, you can give yourself greater variety than what’s otherwise normally available. I must have no less than 25 pizza places covering where I live. Not a single one has ham and pineapple as toppings! Definitely none of them venture anywhere near the realm of the “dessert pizza”. (We’ll get to that again in a future recipe.) But making them myself, the sky’s the limit as to what I want, how I want it, how much of it I want!

That said, some tips and then the simple recipe. First off, almost everyone makes the mistake of putting on too much pizza sauce. A little goes a long way. Place some down on the dough. Move it all around with your tablespoon or big spoon or whatever you’re using. Looks like it needs more? Chances are it doesn’t. (Like everything else, practice makes perfect. You’ll figure out if it’s enough or not).

Next tip: Dough doesn’t have to be round. It’s tough, especially at first to make a round pizza. Don’t get hung up on how the overall shape looks. Homemade remember. No Jeffrey Steingarten or Ted Allen around to judge you on “shape concaveness” or whatever other ridiculous element. So, just chill out. This is meant to be one of the more fun things you’ll ever cook!

Also, keep in mind that pizza dough can be forgiving — up to a point. If you go too thin and make a hole (check out the one photograph above) you can even rip off a piece elsewhere and sort of “plug” the hole. That said, over kneeding or using a baking pin or recombining from scratch into a new ball — anything major such as that — will make for too tough of a crust.

One last tip for now. Either: get frozen pizza dough at the market, or buy some from your local pizza place (yes, some sell it) or, make it your own from scratch (seriously) — but whatever you do don’t use that Pilsbury silly puddy thing they sell. It doesn’t behave like normal dough. It has a mind of it’s own and it is stubborn. It also tastes more like a pretzel than a pizza.

Ok, not one but two pizza recipes here. Same recipe, different toppings. Try your own creations!

Homemade Pizza
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

Pizza dough
Spaghetti or tomato sauce
Bag of shredded mozzarella or Italian mixed cheeses
parmesan
garlic
basil
oregano

Follow the instructions if frozen dough, for mine, it said take out, put in bowl and let sit at room temperature for six hours. I did. But I also put a bit of olive oil all around it. And since I didn’t want any flying insects or dust or whatever, I also placed a paper towel on top of the bowl and got some string to hold it loosely there so it had a “breathable” lid. From there, six hours later, again, followed the instructions, stretching the dough out.

I find putting some spice down right on the dough before adding spaghetti sauce works great. For me, I sprinkle some garlic powder, dried oregano and dried basil on the dough. Plus a light dusting of parmesan. Then put down the sauce and then the shredded cheese and finally the toppiings.

Pepperoni and Jack Pizza

My local convenicnce store, Wawa, has a fresh snack section where one of the items they sell is this plastic cup or glass thing with two crackers in it, tons of sliced pepperoni and some monterey jack cubes. So I used those to make up the first pizza. More spices on top, into the oven.

Pineapple and Pork Roll Pizza

I wasn’t going to use the sliced boiled ham, too thin. I did have some premium ham in the freezer but that was frozen. Ah, Taylor’s Pork Roll next to the bacon and eggs in the fridge. Dunno what it is, it’s a cross between ham and sausage, basically smoked ham and spices. Think Canadian bacon with a definite sausage edge instead of a ham taste. A can of Dole Pineapple rings, cut into chunks. And then the spices on top and bake.

My instructions said 350F for 14 minutes and then turned out perfect. Out of one clump of dough (see photos) I got two pizzas, thin crusted. The pepperoni one I got eight slices out of it. The pineapple and “ham” one, I got six. Your mileage may vary.

Here we go. The meat of meats, the summertime special, the reason — so many thousands of years from cavemen, we still like to do it their way — old school, neolithic old school — we’re talking about BBQ spare ribs, baby.

Maybe you’re totally into BBQ and smokin’, or perhaps you’re totally new. Either way, I’ve decided the best way to get the main elements across isn’t to repeat them in every barbecue recipe, but to refer to a single primer on the subject BBQ: Bringing Smoke to the Fire.

So feel free to give a once-over before continuing. Or, if you’re a veteran or you feel confident, let’s jsut get at it. One quick thing first, you need a grill, charcoal and wood chips. (If you do propane, fine, recipe doesn’t change at all.)

This is going to take about 2.5 hours of cooking time. That’s an important phrase. Like football playing time, 2.5 hours cooking time may actually mean 3-3.5 hours. This is an investment in time. And if you know me and my way of thinking, I don’t like putting a lot of time into my cooking unless the reward is worth the effort. And when it comes to BBQ spare ribs, yeah, it’s definitely worth it.

BBQ Pork Spare Ribs
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

One, three-pound slab, pork spare ribs

dry rub:

1 tbsp Paprika
1 tbsp Cumen
1 tsp Ginger Powder
2 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tbsp Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Dry Mustard
1 tbsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Pepper

bbq sauce:

1 cup Ketchup (base)
1/3 cup Worchishire
2/3 cup Soy Sauce
1/2 cup Honey
2 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Ginger Powder
3 tbsp Dijon
1 tbsp Pepper
2 tbsp Lemon Zest
2 tsp Hot Sauce
2 tsp Horseradish sauce
Juice of 1/2 large lemon (or all of small lemon)

smoke:

chardonnay wood chips, personal preferrerence (mesquite or apple wood are very nice choices)

Put together dry mixture for rub. Rub all over the defrosted ribs. About 2/3 or 3/4 on the top, and the remainer on the underside. Place on cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil and place back in refrigerator for 1-6 hours. (No, not that long, you’re saying.) Bare minimum time 30-60 minutes, but really, the longer in the fridge with the rub, the tastier the meat and the more the tough meat will breakdown. Rush this and you will pay for it later; your call.

Get your grill going with your charcoal and wood chips. Shut the lid. Internal temperature of your grill should be at least 180°F and rising, also smoke should be seen coming out the sides. At that point, place the rack of ribs on the grill, facing upwards, on the side of the grill without coals nor wood. Remember this is indirect-heating and smoking. Shut the lid and check the grill’s temperature (from the outside) every half an hour. You should keep the heat between 220°F and 240°F; this is the ideal zone.

After the first hour, you will need to change wood chips for certain, and probably refresh the coals as well.

If you haven’t changed the coals in the first hour (you probably have), you’ll definitely need to add to them by hour-and-a-half. Again, let your temperature gauge tell you. Remember too, when the temperature has gone down to much, and/or the smoke has thinned to much, the cooking time has halted. You can’t start counting again until heat and/or smoke are back up to proper levels.

Before the two hour mark, make the BBQ sauce up as given above.

At the two hour mark, see how things look. Good chance the ribs are looking good. Pick them up with the tongs by the middle, over the grill. Just lift them up in the air. See how much bend you get. They should be benind like a U-shape at least as the cartiledge is cooking between each rib. Place back down, still facing upward. Add coals as needed. You probably do not need to add more chips. But it’s up to you to gauge this.

Take an internal meat thermometer and see if the ribs are getting towards where they should be. 150°F is the minimum safe temperature to safely eat pork and have any contaminants killed off. In terms of doneness, for pork: 160°F is considered medium, 170°F as well done. If you feel there’s about a half-hour or so left, start brushing on the BBQ sauce and do so every 10 minutes. Remember, the longer the lid is up, the longer amount of time for heat to escape. so do it right, but do it quickly and shut that lid back down.

Two things, you don’t want to burn sauce; put it on too soon and you will. (That is if you think there’s 30 minutes left and it’s close to an hour, you could burn the sauce). Second, when it’s all done you want the meat to almost fall off the ribs by themselfves with little prodding.

When you pick up the rack with tongs in the middle and it bends so much the two ends want to touch each other, you’re definitely at doneness. So, sight it, keep an eye on the barrel or drum (the grill’s inside) tempeature to make sure it stays in that zone, see how much the rack bends, and when you get 160°F-170°F, bingo.

Take inside, slice into individual ribs. Serve with sides and call yourself King (or Queen) for the BBQ.

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Did this one with a decidedly Moroccan influence in the marinade. Yes I know, when you see in the list below I’ve used soy sauce, you’ll surely recognize that isn’t exactly at the top of the list of ingredients for Rabat. Point is it works (and why I say the marinade was “influenced” as opposed to straight out “Moroccan”.)

Btw, you might also think lamb more than beef when considering this North African country, and you’d be correct that lamb, goat and such are high on the list. But beef is a close second to lamb there these days. That said then, do feel free to substitute lamb if you wish. I just can’t give a 100% guarantee that the amounts of spices in the marinade would work without making adjustments or not. Right now, every thing is calculated for the stronger beef flavor. If you try it with lamb, my instincts tell me to half the cumin, and to then add the same amount you just subtracted with the same amount of dried mint. If you have fresh, all the better.

Mistakes. Got to make at least one and share it with you so you don’t do the same.

First time I made this I thought I could do a bit of cost-cutting by buying stewing beef. The thinking behind this was that the combination of the marinade before cooking, along with the “raw” fire from the grill would be plenty enough to break down the fibers of the cheaper cut. Sadly, it wasn’t enough. I ended up with something amazingly flavorful but overly chewy. (Told you about the mistake, but not the fix: Ended up cutting the pieces to every thing smaller, added to a pan, put in water and red wine, then carrots, mushrooms and some pieces of other leftover veggies. Stewed for an hour and a half and served atop egg noodles.)

True, one might think that a longer stay on the grill would have a difference, and it may have, but it would also have definitely burned the veggies on the skewers to a char. (In short, that wouldn’t have worked either.) This next time I made it, I took care of that “mistake” from the very start of the process: Purchase a nice slab of beef and then cut to cubes yourself. Nothing expensive, nothing too cheap, in this case the “Goldilocks” middle works out nicely. Another advantage by doing this, the precut stewing beef in the case doesn’t try to be unform; makes sense as it’s not as important in a stew. When it comes to kabobs though, the more uniform each cut of meat is and keeping the chunks of veggies on the skewers similiar sizes, makes for the best cooking.

Beef Shish Kabobs
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:
2 pounds beef, precut into chunks
2 medium red onions, chunks
1 red pepper, chunks
1 green bell pepper, chunks

marinade:

2/3 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tbsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp tumeric
2 tbsp minced garlic
salt
pepper
lemon juice

Marinade in fridge for at least one hour. Longer the better, if you can do two to four hours, fantastic. You can keep the marinade to baste while on the grill, but I did not find that necessary.

Alternate onto metal skewers: beef, onion, red pepper, beef, onion, green pepper.

Place on grill. Keep turning sides as necessary, about every two minutes. Should be done in 10-12 minutes for medium doneness.

Btw, here’s “ye olde temperature chart” for beef: rare 120°F-125°F, mediium rare 130°F-135°F, medium 140°F-145°F, medium well 150°F-155°F, well done 160°F and over.

To keep this recipe with its Moroccan theme intact, suggest serving kabobs with or over couscous; second choice: saffron rice. That said, any nice rice will do. The marinade is so very flavorful even a regular, unadorned, slightly buttery long-grain white rice will be perfect.

Here’s a bit of a departure. This recipe uses pretty much all off-the-shelf ingredients to make a nice quick meal and a trip for the tongue to another country’s cuisine.

Yes, I like fresh. But I also like fast. So what happens when they conflict? Which one wins out? Pretty much the same answer as everyone else: When the difference in the end taste is comparitvely small and the difference in the time to make it is relatively great, then go with the quick one. (And conversely, if a little bit of increased time produces a much more tastier dish, then go with the fresh.)

After all, how often do you make your own pasta from scratch — if ever? Salsa, sure you could make your own, but why when you can grab a jar at the market or local convenience store that tastes excellent? Tortillas. Are you really going to grind the meal together on a stone and put them in a brick oven? Why not go harvest the corn while you’re at it? Yes, I kid. So this is definitely one of those times when store-bought or pre-packaged works out for best.

Was the above necessary? Um, probably not, but I’m feeling a bit (needlessly) guilty for offering something so basically simple. Then again, flavorful, fast and simple. Nothing to be guilty about at all. You will find this so vastly superior to it’s fast food derivative, you’ll find yourself making this at home again and again.

Right now, this is a nice family meal. I’ve made the proportions below to serve two. This way, it’s super easy to double it once and it’s a family meal. Double it again, and you’re on your way to delicious party food. Also, this recipe works well if you substitute ground beef. However, when I substituted chicken I found it over-powered by the salsa and other ingredients.

Btw, I’m from Philadelphia where we love pizza and we created the Philly cheesesteak. This dish is such a wonderful Mexican combination of the two. How can you not love it!

Steak Quesadilla
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

4 soft flour tortillas (preferably the larger, 10-inch diameter ones)
1/2 cup salsa (choose your heat)
handful of shredded Mexican cheeses
4 frozen thin steaks (the paper-thin ones for sandwiches)
one diced medium yellow onion

garlic powder
chilli powder
cilantro (optional)
salt
pepper

recommended sides:

box of rice primavera (for this meal, suggest Goya over Ricearoni)
can of refried beans

In the above proportions, serves two
Prep time: None
Cooking time: 10 minutes (longer with the rice)

If you’re doing sides (like rice or refried beans) get them going before you start on this main event.

The following is optional, but it gives it more a realistic and deeper taste with the crispier tortillas and can be a whole lot of fun too. (Just keep the kids away.) Take out four tortillas. You need a top and a bottom for each serving. Turn on the front burner on low. With tongs (or two tablespoons used as tongs), take one and place it directly atop the burner. (See photo.) You want a slight browning or scorching on each side. Roughly three to eight seconds per side, depending. Do it on the other side and to the remaining tortillas and reserve.

Dice the yellow onion and place in hot pan, medium heat with oil. Let them get transparent and lightly golden.

With the four portions of thin frozen steak, either let them defrost on the counter for about five minutes or place them on a plate in the microwave for about 40 seconds on high. Normally to make these, you want them in the pan immediately so they don’t fall apart. For our use, you want them to fall apart. In fact after the defrosting or microwave, crumb them up with your hands onto the plate so you have a nice loose pile of the steak. Add to pan with onions, turn heat up slightly to medium-high. Season with the spices. Cook until brown, but steak is still moist; don’t overcook.

Take a plate. Place a paper towel atop it, and one tortilla atop that. Put half the steak onto the shell and move it around for even distribution. Take several tablespoons of the salsa and do the same. Take some of the shredded cheese in hand, and place around likewise. Make certain a small amount of the cheese gets to the very ends, as this well help with sealing.

Top this with second tortilla shell. Give a firm but light push overall, and also push around the end edges. Place in microwave for 40 seconds on high. (The paper towel will ensure the bottom shell doesn’t moisten. It will also help catch any overflow of the ingredients.) Take out and let sit a minute and build the next one.

Slice your quesidilla with a pizza slicer preferably, or carefully with a knife so you end up with four segments or triangles. With your fingers push around all the edges to help “seal” it a bit. Serve by itself or with the suggested sides or your own sides.

Easily turn this meal into party food by taking the above proportions and times it by 2.5 — that is, using all 10 tortilla shells.. Now instead of putting it out piece meal by “sandwich”, serve it up as a stack of 20 quesadilla triangles and let folks take as much or as little as they want. Fiesta!

You can probably do this with a can of pineapple rings … but … they’ve been so long in their own syrup, it might not work. Probably would work in a pinch. Not as well, but well enough. (One day I’ll try it and let you know.) In any event, when in season, I love fresh pineapple. How can anyone not?

Ok, you’re wondering where the photograph of the finished product is … I don’t have one this time. Enjoy the one here of them on the grill and use your imagination. What happened? Family and friends were literally taking these out of my hands as I was finished making each one! Not making this up either!

I’m there going, “Wait wait, I gotta take a photo first!”. And this one’s going “No, the ice cream is melting with the warm pineapple” and takes her dish away. Then my buddy goes “Gimme my ice cream already, you can take a picture of the empty dishes and that’ll show’em how good it was. What more do you want?” and he takes his. Then I look at mine and say “Eh, what the heck …”

Really happened. I kid you not. So photos of the finished product hopefully next time! You know what? Naw! The pic of them on the grill says a thousand words already.

Rum-Soaked Grilled Pineapple (over Ice Cream)
©2007 Harry Kenney

One fresh pineapple
1 cup of (light) rum
1-2 tbsp sugar

Added bits:

Vanilla ice cream
Chocolate jimmies
Whipped cream

Take the fresh pineapple. Get rid of tops and side skins. Cut down middle making 1/2 inch circles. Leave the core as it’s needed to hold them together on the charcoal grill. Put the slices in a bowl and add a cup or so of rum. Move the pineapple about to get them covered. Leave soak for about five minutes, come back, move them around again.

Drain the liquid — preferably in a glass for later drinking. Pat down both sides with paper towel to get off the excess. (So the grill can better brown the outsides.) Sprinkle a bit of sugar on both sides. This too will help with the browning and the caramelization.

Place them on the grill until you see they are getting nice brown grill marks on both sides. Varies by heat and a lot of things but roughly two, two-and-a-half minutes per side. Btw, I find transporting them out and back on a cookie sheet works great. You still want some “heft” to the pineapple, and you don’t want them overly brown or cooked. Bring back in and let cool just enough that you can work with them.

Forget the knife, I like nature to tell me what to pull off and what to leave. So going around each circle, pull off chunks with your fingers and place over vanilla ice cream. One circle’s worth of pineapple per dish of ice cream works fine. Serve that way or add your favorite toppings, just don’t let the added topics overwhelm the star of this show. For mine, I added a light dusting of chocolate jimmies and whipped cream worked nicely.