Sherry – Page 9 – Rosemary and the Goat

Quick and Easy Clam Chowder

Winter is finally here in Texas and I’m in the mood for some clam chowder.

Back in the fall I went on a girls trip with my twin sister and two other friends. We went to Newport, RI and had such a great time touring the mansions, shopping, and eating a lot of wonderful seafood.

I knew that I was going to have a lot of seafood while on this trip and I did. I had crab cakes, clam chowder (twice), shrimp, and steak/shrimp. By the time we left the temperature had dropped to 39° and I was wanting more of the clam chowder and couldn’t wait for some cool or even colder weather here in Texas so I could make a pot of this Clam Chowder. I’ve said before that here in Texas you can’t wait for cold weather to have soup, you just have to make it when you’re in the mood.

My sister and I have been making this quick and easy chowder for years. Supposedly it is a recipe from a restaurant up in St. Louis that we went to back in the 70’s that looked like Noah’s Arc.

The recipe calls for a lot of canned soups but we have tweaked it and use “fat-free” or “healthy request” soups for any of the ones we can find, added some extra clams and some bottled clam juice.

January 3, 2010 By Sherry

Food Stories

Ode to my favorite tool of 2009.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year little Veggie Chopper

‘Twas the night before New Years, when all through the house

Not a utensil was stirring, not even a knife;

The knives were hung by the stove with care,

In hopes that my lady soon would be there;

Everyone was nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of mama’s cooking danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,
When out of the dishwasher there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the kitchen I flew like a flash,
Tore open the cabinets in a dash,
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature veggie chopper in all it‘s glory,
With a little old blade and a pull cord, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be MY FAVORITE KITCHEN TOOL of ‘09
More rapid than her cousin the knife, her courses they came
And she whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, chef‘s knife! now, Santoko! now, ulu and paring!
On, chopper! on mandoline! on, salad chopper and slap chopper!
To the top of the dishwasher to the top of the counter
Now chop away! chop away! chop away all!”

I am her favorite kitchen tool for 2009!

A few pics of her at work.

Onions and peppers in no time. I always thought I didn’t need a tool to do the work of a knife. But, I have changed my mind.

Nuts are a whiz in this little chopper. Pull about 8-10 times and you have minced nuts. And just think of the muscle you are building in your arms.

Mushrooms fresh or canned chop up quick and easy in my favorite little friend.

Black olives are chopped in about 3-4 pulls. So much faster than using a knife.

I promise to try and not talk about this little tool so much this year but thumbs up for my favorite new tool for 2009.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. And Happy New Year!

December 31, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Thai Tuna Wonton Chip

Beautiful little wonton with a spicy bite.

I never ate tuna any way other than out of a can until just a few years ago. When we were first married back in 1969 I think I was really into cooking or at least trying to learn to cook. I remember ordering a computerized menu plan for a month’s worth of recipes. I remember trying every one of them. My least favorite and I think that is why I had a mental block against tuna for years was a recipe for Tuna Noodle Rosie Casserole. I have to admit I hate hot tuna casseroles to this day because of this recipe. It was made with noodles, canned tuna, green peas and some kind of tomato soup or sauce. I gag even thinking of that recipe.

In the last few years I have tried more new things from pork belly to veal cheeks and even deer heart (at our day after Thanksgiving feast). So I have started revisiting tuna and if you try this recipe, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

I came across this recipe for Thai Wonton Chips and ALL it had on it was a few slivered vegetables. With a bunch of tweaking, I came up with this recipe. It was a favorite at one of the Christmas parties I catered recently.

December 27, 2009 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Sauces

Salmon En croute

Another www.daringkitchen.com challenges and I’m pleased with the results.

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

I’m really getting into these challenges. This one is the “cook’s” challenge and they are posted on the 27th of each month and the “baking” challenge is revealed on the 14th of each month.

I have made en croute once in my life and that was individual beef wellingtons I made for a Valentines dinner for two I catered about 18 years ago. I don’t know why I haven’t tried salmon en croute before. The crust is very simple and is has a wonderful flaky texture.

I really thought that the filling for this recipe would be too rich. We had the option of cream cheese or mascarpone. I had the cream cheese so decided to use it. Next time I will probably try the mascarpone. I also used a mixture of arugula and spinach. Next time a little more on the spinach. I did add some dill to the mixture and I made a lemon butter paprika sauce to go with it.

I got to pick one of my Meyer lemons from my tree. I wait all year for fall to get here so I can start using them. I only had 18 this year but better than the 8 I got last year. My husband is going to plan it in the ground after this crop has been picked so we may get a bigger tree with more fruit next year.

I hope you will try this recipe. You could use puffed pastry but you should really try this shortcrust recipe first. I really thought this fish would be an individual serving but as I cut my template, I had to keep making it bigger and bigger to accommodate the fish I was going to put inside. Kind of like my dad’s fish stories. I think hearing about some of his catches, the fish kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger each time he told the story.

December 14, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Little Bites

Little Bites to tingle your tastebuds! — Amuse Bouche

I had never heard that word (Amuse Bouche) until I came back from our NYC trip in September and I was telling a friend I work with about a little potato appetizer we had at Gramercy Tavern. She said “oh, you had an Amuse Bouche”. (pronounced uh-MYUZboosh) And I have been obsessed ever since with these little bites. The chef at Gramercy Tavern actually sent me that recipe which I plan on making during Thanksgiving holidays. The one we had that night (and I guessed right on the recipe) was a choux pastry puff that had mashed fingerling potatoes mixed in and they were deep fried in grape seed oil and when done, an olive tapenade was piped into the center of the puff and was served on a bed of sea salt. We only had one each, but that was enough for me to know I wanted the recipe.

You won’t find Amuse Bouche on any restaurant menu because they are usually compliments of the chef. Sometimes chefs use the amuse bouche as a way to try out different recipes that may become an appetizer on their menu. An Amuse Bouche is a one bite appetizer served before the meal meant to tantalize your taste buds. In French the word means “mouth amuser”.

Recently I have checked out two books from our library in search of some different little bites I can try for some parties I’m catering. The books are Amuse Bouche by Rick Tramonto (chef/partner at Tru in Chicago), and Small Bites by Jennifer Joyce. I have found several I want to try out during the holidays.

Here are two Amuse Bouche recipes I have tried, nothing fancy, but cute and yummy. The third appetizer I did in these little bamboo cones. Wouldn’t be classified as an amuse bouche because it is more than one bite but thought it was worth posting. The burger and melon appetizers I thought up my self (like I said, nothing fancy)

This tiny burger is a take on “sliders”, much smaller and cuter I think. I’ve been wanting to make a mini burger for a long time so I thought why not try an amuse bouce burger. Anyway, here’s what it looked like.

Isn’t this the cutest thing ever. No recipe needed. I used wheat bread, toasted it and then using a 1″ cutter, cut out little buns. Then I fried up some little burgers about 1″ size, put a squirt of mustard (any kind) on the burger. Top this with another piece of toast (bun), then a slice of grape tomato, tiny onion slice (those cute little onions that are the size of a dime) and little chunk of baby dill to finish it off. You could also use small slice of cheese on burger if you wanted. Just cut it out using your 1″ cutter. Put one on a plate, dot with mustard, for dipping and serve. Wouldn’t a few julienned fries be a cute garnish for the plate.

November 19, 2009 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Pistachio Zucchini Fans

Here I go again playing with my food!

The other day I was cleaning out my freezer, or at least looking to see what I had in there that has been hiding for a long long time and I came across some panko bread crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs) and some chopped pistachios that I had left over from making cannolis a while back.

I love zucchini and I had bought some smaller ones recently and decided to make this dish to go with some grilled fish my hub was making for dinner.

I learned to play with food way back when I had a semester of Garde Manger. This was when I first made sushi (never tasted it), I did my first and only ice carving, cooked all kinds of organ meats, did terrines, galantines, plate painting and learned to make all sorts of vegetable garnishes. I would go home from this class all eager to go to the grocery and buy an arm full of vegetables and start carving away. I remember trying to make this staircase from carrots. That was a disaster. I’ve done kiwi birds, napa cabbage angels, pear reindeer and even Mario boiled eggs (yes, they did look like Mario).

November 16, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Food Stories

Sushi Challenge

Doesn’t that look like a real dragon?

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

Sushi (寿司 or 鮨 or 鮓) is much appreciated for its delicate taste and exquisite appearance. Sushi actually means vinegar-ed rice, which is the essential ingredient in every sushi recipe. Sushi is simple and cheap to make at home, needs no special equipment and is an excellent way to use left overs.

Although sushi in various forms has been around for fourteen centuries, the modern version was invented in Japan in the 1800’s where a ‘hand-formed’ sliced fresh fish and vinegar-ed rice ball was eaten as a snack food. Nowadays, sushi is made with various seafood, meats and vegetables, raw and cooked.

I belong to www.thedaringkitchen.com site and each month there is a cooking challenge and baking challenge. November’s cook’s challenge was to make sushi.

I have a confession to make. Last week our Friday night friends were out of town so I told my husband about a new sushi place we have in town. He asked me if I had been there before and I said “yes, for lunch this week”. What I didn’t tell him was that this would be my third time to eat there that week. I wanted to sit at the bar and watch them make the sushi this time so I could get ready for this challenge. That really helped. Now, if I can just get the rice right.

I won’t be posting a recipe here because if you really want to make sushi I would just google how to make the sushi rice and watch several sushi making YouTube videos. That’s what I did. By the time I had watched about 6 videos I thought I would be able to do it — and I (we) did.

For this challenges we were suppose to make a dragon roll, spiral roll and nigri sushi. I was looking in the produce section for all our ingredients and saw a star fruit and had the idea to use this for his fins, scales or whatever it is a dragon is suppose to have on his back.

Here are a few pictures of what we made last night.

This was a spicy tuna crunch roll. We put chopped up tuna, sriracha hot chilli sauce, some of the crunchies I fished out of the pan from doing tempura shrimp.

This was my least favorite. I didn’t care for the fake crab legs. I think next time I would do shrimp and tuna.

I prepped all of our fillings earlier that day. I cut up cucumber, scallions, red bell pepper, avocado, tempura shrimp, spicy tuna mixture, spicy mayo, made some sweet soy and did some green beans in tempura for an appetizer.

A plate of our night’s work. This ginger was some I bought. I did try making pickled ginger this week and didn’t like the results. I think you really need “young” ginger to make the recipe because mine was tough and string.

This is my dragon roll. I used a star fruit sliced very thin and inserted it between pieces of sushi to look like fins. Of course, I’ve never seen a “real” dragon so I don’t know if they have fins or scales but I think he turned out pretty cute. I used my aspic cutters and cut shapes from a fresh beet to use as a plate garnish.

I will be watching some sushi rice making videos the next time I do sushi.

どうぞめしあがれ (enjoy your meal)

Hope you are up to this challenge one day soon.

November 14, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Bread/ HotApp/ Morning Foods

Dijon Ham and Cream Cheese Biscuits

Dijon Ham and Cream Cheese Biscuits for holiday brunch.

I can still smell my mother’s homemade biscuits baking away in the oven. She made the best from scratch biscuits. My sister and I use to have her bang the pan on the counter so the biscuits would flatten out and you would have two crunchy sides with no middles. These days, people want big fluffy biscuits and I think, now, I prefer that type of biscuit, but what I wouldn’t give to have one of my mother’s.

A couple of years ago I was flipping through one of my food magazines and saw an advertisement for a Cream Cheese Ham Biscuit. They were $24/dozen and the first thing I thought of was “I could make those”. I love the challenge to try and make something I have tried in a restaurant or seen in a magazine.

I found these biscuits at a local store, bought some, baked them and then baked mine. Mine were really close and after tweaking the recipe I think I would rather save my $24 and make my version.

November 3, 2009 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood

Shellfish with Spaghetti Squash

Who would have thunkit that Spaghetti Squash could be so good with Shellfish!

The first time I every had shellfish with pasta was when we were in Italy three years ago (I would really like to go back someday with our kids and their families.). When I usually think of pasta, I think of red sauce with meat. One night a friend who was with us ordered a dish that had the shrimp, mussels and clams along with fettuccine. After watching her scoop all the wonderful shellfish out of it’s shells, mix it with the pasta, twirl it around her fork, I decided the next night out, I would have to try this dish. I did and it was delicious.

Even though this isn’t pasta, this dish is wonderful. I thought for a healthier dinner I would forgo the pasta for spaghetti squash.

October 30, 2009 By Sherry

Cookies/ Cookies/Bars

Marvelous Macarons

This is my first attempt at making French Style Macarons — will I make them again?

I call these M&M Macarons for two reasons. First they are decorated with these beautiful pink and purple M&M’s and the second is they are marvelousssss…

I have started participating in The Daring Kitchen baking challenges. I think this will be a lot of fun and will push me to try things I’ve never baked before. Once a month someone sponsors a challenge. Everyone is given the same recipe and you have a month to make it and post it to your blog. After catering for 20 years and being married for 40 years I can’t believe I have never made French Style Macarons so this is going to be an attempt to go out of my comfort zone. Whether it fails or succeeds, the results are posted here.

I was in NYC in September on our anniversary trip with some friends who were also celebrating their 25th anniversary. Our last night’s dinner was at Gramercy Tavern and one of the amuse bouche desserts (we had 4) we were served were tiny little raspberry French Macarons. They were fabulous. So, I guess after this challenge I will know if am a failure or not at making Macarons.

Three days before I’m suppose to be making these, I have my egg whites sitting at room temperature. From everything I have read on macaron tips aging of the whites is really suppose to make a difference in the finished product.

Here I’m sitting at the computer, knots in my stomach trying to get up enough nerve to start these cookies. Oh, how I want them to turn out the first time. I don’t deal very well with failures. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. (I ended up making four batches.)

I put it off a little longer, decided to go work out and get rid of some of the anxiety that is building in this challenge. And, I thought I was fearless 🙂

RESULTS:

October 27, 2009 By Sherry

Soup

Chicken and White Bean Chili

Not your traditional chili. The chicken and white beans are wonderful in this fall favorite.

I love any recipe with white beans listed in the ingredients. Not to sound like Forrest Gump, but I like white bean hummus, white beans with cornbread, cassoulet (we made a wonderful one the year we did French country dinner theme), Italian Chopped Salad (Giadas’ recipe with white beans), and white bean bruschetta.

Ugly chicken — yes, but it holds a wonderful soup.

There’s a story behind this ugly chicken. As you all know by now, I work at Williams Sonoma part time. We use to sell this Staub chicken. I think it was originally priced at $200 (or close to it). Well, seems like they just sat there looking ugly and I started referring to it as the “ugly chicken”. Just look at her, sitting there with her eyes shut like she’s embarrassed for someone to look at her. 🙂

We have these two customers that come in the store often and they were in the store during one of our big summer sales. I was showing them the Staub chicken and said “this chicken is so ugly, she’s cute” and explained how well the chicken roaster was suppose to cook either on top of the stove or in the oven. On the underside of the lid there are these little bumps that allow condensation to build up and then the moisture drips down on whatever you are cooking to make it tender and juicy. It really works.

Well, they each bought one and by the time they were on sale at our rock bottom price, and with my discount, I paid like $30 for my ugly chicken. I have to say that the ugly chicken cooks wonderfully and I use mine on top of the stove instead of the oven because I like to look at her. We did use it in the oven for our cassoulet and then served right from the chicken. It was a nice presentation for the dish.

That is a killer bread on the plate with the soup. You just mix some mayo with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, garlic and basil, spread it on the bread and broil it until hot and bubbly.

October 23, 2009 By Sherry

Food Stories

It’s Not Always About The Food

Ya know, it isn’t always just about the food.

Yesterday I had to work until 6:00. I don’t do that often, and when I left the house I told my husband that I wouldn’t be cooking dinner. This August we celebrated our 40th anniversary. Add to that the 6 years we dated (steady in high school, lavaliered, pinned (Sig Ep), and engaged in college), we have known each other practically our whole lives.

My husband has been retired for two years and plays golf practically every day. He is absolutely the best at bar-b-quing, smoking and grilling anything but really has never been an “inside” cook. Over the last few years he has gotten involved in our Friday after Thanksgiving “family feast” and has come up with his own unique dishes the last few years. (I want him to post his smoked fish with fruit he did last year, beautiful presentation.)

So, when I came home last night and found him up to his elbows cooking in the kitchen I was amazed. This may look like an ordinary plate of food but it was fantastic.

He met me at the door with a glass of wine. He was preparing some venison cube steak he had gotten from a neighbor friend. He had breaded and fried it and was making gravy. He had potatoes in a pot that he was ready to mash and he had these delicious apples cooking away in one of the iron skillets we just brought back from my dad’s. (My husband spent two days, grinding and cleaning all the old iron pieces, from bean pots, to griddle, to get them back in condition to start seasoning them.

Don’t these apples look beautiful.

So we had Fried venison cutlets, milk gravy, mashed potatoes, and fried apples. May not sound like a gourmet meal to some, but believe me, at the moment it was the best thing I have ever tasted. Now, I’m wondering what more surprises he could have up his sleeve.

October 20, 2009 By Sherry

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