foodie nyc

Poached Morels, Roasted Ramps, Ramp Pesto

Here's a little appetizer I created in order to feature two of my favorite ways to serve ramps and morels.  As I've mentioned before, I love to poach morels slowly in half and half.  This produces soft, tender, creamy morels, but it also creates a cream infused morel liquid that I can use as a phenomenal finishing sauce. 

You know how I feel about ramps. I like to separate the white bulbs from the green tops, so I thought I'd use them both in the same dish.  I pan roasted the white ramp bulbs in olive oil, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.  I then blanched the green tops for 30 secs, dried them, then pureed them in a food processor with pine nuts, olive oil, and some parm regg cheese to create a pesto-like sauce.  I spoon a little of that morel cream around the ramp and morel salad for an excellent and simple little spring treat. 

Below is my recipe for the poached morels.  Sorry, not in the mood to write recipes for the rest.  Word.

Roasted Lamb, Ramp Orzo, Horseradish Parmigiano Broth

So before I get into this dish, a reminder that your last chance to submit your contribution to the May ILSL Monthly loathfest is approaching - send me your contributions by the end of this weekend (Sunday, April 30 will be fine). Don't be a loser. I know you loathe Sandra Lee, so I'd love to feature your loathing on this site on May 1.

But Sandra Lee is only a minor aspect of today's post, as I have some more spring inspired food to share with you. 

Last weekend, we enjoyed a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon here in NYC.  As I looked through the market, I felt like there would be nothing more perfect than a loin of lamb.  Marinated in garlic, rosemary and olive oil, I would sear and then roast the lamb slowly in the oven.  But what to serve with it?

I had to keep the spring thing going and luckily I found some ramps to go along with the lamb.  In a future post I will show you how I feature the ramp white bulbs without the green leaves, reserving them for a separate use.  Hey, two ramp dishes for the price of one can be a great thing!

I had some ramp tops on hand, so I blanched them in boiling, salted water for about 30 seconds.  I then dried them well and pureed them in a food processor with salt, pepper and olive oil.  I would later make some orzo and fold the ramp puree and some grated parmigiano reggiano into the pasta as a side for the lamb.

I definitely wanted a sauce to finish the dish but didn't want something thick or overly rich. I needed a sauce that was light yet flavorful to match the weather, I guess.  I decided to take chicken stock and simmer it with a rind of parmigiano reggiano and a large handful of fresh, grated horseradish.  I simmered the chicken stock slowly in order to allow the flavors of the cheese and the horseradish to infuse into the stock.  After about 40 minutes, I took the stock off the stove and strained it.  The result was a mellow, earthy, spicy, parmigiano flavored broth that continued to maintain a soupy, light feel.  Can you tell I love spring? I'm not sure if it's obvious....

Ramp Wrapped Shrimp

I rarely make dishes in which my lovely spring favorite, ramps, play a supporting role.  Why? Well, the fact that I don't get to enjoy ramps as frequently as I'd like means that I want to taste them as a co-star of a dish. 

How else can I appreciate the subtle yet pungent onion- garlic-leek combination that resides in these little weed-like beauties?

A simple and easy first course that I made recently had that exact mission - feature ramp as the co-star of a dish.  I decided to simply make my recipe for Spanish style shrimp, but held the garlic and parsley.  I only used olive oil, smoked paprika, salt and pepper in the searing of the shrimp.  After they were cooked, I sauteed the ramps in olive oil for only about 1.5 minutes on high heat.  I then wrapped a ramp around the shrimp, so that each bite gave us a taste of the shrimp and the ramp.   Before serving, I squeezed some lemon juice on the ramp wrapped shrimp for a touch of acid.  (Note: this dish is best with the small bulbed ramps, like the one in the picture.  Lots of ramps have a thicker white bulb, so pick the smaller bulbs out of the bunch for this technique).

Ramp Caprese Salad

I don't serve raw tomatoes outside of the late summer season.  Every tomato I eat outside of August and September is just usually a major letdown for me.  I never order them at restaurants or buy them at the market.  People think I am a snot about this, but I just prefer to OD on tomatoes when they are at their best.

For Easter dinner, my mother had tomatoes, mozzarella and basil to use in a salad to start the meal.  I wanted nothing to do with it, to be honest.  But everyone gave me a hard time and told me to stop being a snot and just make the dish.  I brought some ramps home with me, so I added them to the Caprese-eque salad. 

I separate the whites from the greens on the ramps, as they have different cooking times.   When I pan roast them without separating them, the green tops get all brown and grey and lose some of their fresh, from the garden taste in my opinion.  So I pan roast the white bulbs in olive oil, salt, pepper and maybe a few spinkles of red chili flakes, with just a squeeze of lemon juice after removing from the heat (they only need about 2-3 minutes worth of cooking time on medium high heat).  I then quickly sautee the green tops in the same pan for only a minute or two, just until wilted but still vibrant green in color.

I layered the green tops of the ramps in between the tomato, basil and mozzarella slices, then added a few of the white bulbs on top to finish.   Some great olive oil and a few drops of aged balsamic I brought back from Modena a while back made me forget about the just OK tomatoes.  I guess.

Roasted Chicken with Morels and Fiddlehead Ferns

I need morel intervention. 

I think I've eaten morels three times a week for the past two weeks.  I tend to OD on the spring treats because they are so unavailable the rest of the year.  I have plenty of ramp and more morels dishes to share with you.

Last night I was asked by a friend what I make on a busy weekday night, with little time to go ballistic in the kitchen like I do on the weekends (Sundays in particular).

This dish is a good example.  I choose three or four ingredients at the most while shopping - less is more when under a time crunch. The best ingredients can be the star of the show, which also translates into the reality of not having to do much to make them taste amazing. 

I always start by shopping in the vegetable sections of the market.  For me, veggies and produce lead to the other choices I make for the rest of the meal.  This market had morels and fiddlehead ferns.  I flipped out with happiness and grabbed as many as I could without breaking the bank.  I wasn't in the mood for red meat or fish, so I went with organic, skin-on, bone-in chicken breast.  Substantial enough for the morels but lean enough for my tastes that night.

As soon as I got home, I seasoned the chicken and seared it with the goal of creating a crusty, brown skin. By the time I would take it out of the oven, I would have the morels, fiddleheads and a side salad ready to go.  I'll take you through my procedure for morels in a future post, but my favorite method is to slowly poached them in milk, butter and herbs, which also creates a sauce.  After removing the stems from the fiddleheads, I tossed them in a pot of salted water for a minute or two.  I took them out, gave them a rinsing under cold water to stop them from cooking a bit and set them aside.  When the morels were finished (soft and luscious), I added the fiddleheads to their sauce, as well as an acidic element for balance of flavors (lemon juice).  The morel liquid becomes the sauce that I drape all over the chicken when serving. 

This was a 30 minute meal that even Rachel Ray could make.  (Though I guess she would replace the morels with a "super fun" turkey chili or something).

(A note about morels.  I learned from the French Laundry Cookbook a long time ago that just a few pieces of a luxurious ingredient never do.  Cut back on the expenses of the rest of the dish and do it up.  Thus the pile of morels here.)

Potato Chip Sole, Pea and Bacon Broth

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past week - busy, busy.  The good news -  I have lots of good dishes to post in the upcoming days, along with the next ILSL recipe for April.

I'm in full Spring mode, as I hope you are.  Food-wise, I'm all about balancing light with flavorful.  Here's a dish I created based on another Iron Chef-like challenge.  You know - hand me the ingredients, I make whatever.  This whatever is sole, which I crusted with sesame seeds.  I seared it and finished it under low heat in the oven.  In the meantime, I pureed some peas with chicken broth, creating a sweet soupy broth.   I crisped some bacon because peas and bacon is just an excellent combo. 

That could have been the dish, and a fulfilling one at that.  But I was given potatoes (a purple and a yukon) as well as golden beets.  Sure, I could have made a puree with potatoes or simply roasted them, but I thought about creating a textural contrast.  I sliced the potatoes very thinly and fried them for a few seconds in a very small amount of vegetable oil.  I roasted the beets with some olive oil and salt in a closed foil pouch in advance, then sliced them as a base for the fish.

I was concerned this dish would be busy with flavors.  Sure, if I wasn't playing the Iron Chef game I think I could have skipped the beets.  Otherwise, I think this dish is certainly one for the arsenal. The perfect bite -a moist fork of fish with a piece of crispy chip, bathed in the pea sauce and a small bite of bacon - was the kind that left the others at the table silent.   That's usually when I know a dish is more than just good.  Average dishes usually just become part of the conversation....

Related: Crispy Pea Wontons

Crispy Pea Wontons, Hen of the Woods Mushrooms

Spring is here and you can count me as someone who couldn't be happier.   I have obsessed over spring treats for years and years, and I'm sure you'll see plenty of the same focus over the upcoming weeks.  I frequently enjoy being given a handful of ingredients and asked to make dishes on the spot without prior knowledge.  Yesterday I was given a bunch of winter ingredients, but I was also given a bag of frozen peas.  Yeah, not really fresh English peas but hey, at least I could pretend.  Plus, I think frozen peas are pretty good for everyday eating.

I decided to puree the peas with some olive oil, salt and pepper.  I then stuffed the pea puree into wonton skins, in the general method I outline here.  But since I had some Hen of the Woods mushrooms that I would broil to a crisp, I decided that a crispy wonton would be better than a steamed or boiled version.  I fried them in oil for about 2-3 minutes, just until brown.  The pairing of the sweet peas, broiled mushrooms and the crispy wonton skin was very nice.  I drizzled the dish with some truffle oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, just to add to the mushroom goodness. 

Shrimp Stuffed Squid, Hazelnut Dust, Blood Orange Reduction

I am the first to admit that my lifestyle is a bit expensive.  My food and wine passions are really only fulfilled by experiencing them frequently.  You can't understand great wines until you taste them. Same with average wines.  This is also true with great food and cooking.  I learned a long time ago that I couldn't create inspired dishes at home without tasting how the most innovative restaurants and chefs did it in their own restaurants. Further, I could only set benchmarks for excellence by comparing restaurants to each other, which continually allows me to draw from these experience for inspiration.  I treat virtually every meal I eat in a restaurant as much more than a temporary investment in satisfaction. 

Dining at Charlie Trotter's will effect my cooking as I'm sure you'll see here.  A few nights after this experience, I went to the market looking to make a lite fish dish for dinner.  I saw whole squid and obviously had to stuff it with something like I had at Trotter's.  Then I randomly remembered a shrimp stuffed squid dish I had at 71 Clinton Fresh Food while Wylie was cooking there.  Perfect.  I'd make my Spanish-style shrimp, flavored with garlic, olive oil and parsley.  I wanted a bit of creaminess, so i picked up an avocado.  I needed something acidic to balance the flavors, so I picked up some freshly squeezed blood orange juice (just buy a couple and squeeze your own) and reduced it by 3/4 until a syrup-like consistency. 

The final piece came together when thinking about how I'd cook the squid.  After I stuffed the cooked and chopped shrimp into the squid and seasoned the exterior with salt and pepper, I dredged it in flour and submerged it in hot vegetable oil for about 1 minute. I then took it out, rolled it in some very finely ground hazelnuts (thus the dust) and put it back in the hot oil for another 15 secs.

While the collective experience of tossing cash at Charlie Trotter and Wylie Dufresne may have seemingly only given me temporary pleasure, somehow I see these experiences as investments that continually pay me back over time.

Juniper Beurre Monte, Goat Cheese Tortellini

As you've read over the past month or so, I've recently been enjoying pink peppercorn.  I was picturing toasting it, grinding it roughly in a coffee grinder, and infusing it into a beurre monte, as I did at the last foodie.

The pink peppercorn can be pungent.  I love to infuse it into rich dishes, mainly because they act like a vessel to carry the pink peppercorn aromatic, floral flavors.  So when I went into my cabinet, couldn't find them and saw a bottle of juniper berries handy, I didn't hesitate.  I toasted them in a dry pan, as I would pink peppercorn.  I ground them in a coffee grinder and infused a few pinches into a beurre monte, which would gently coat my goat cheese tortellini.

It was an excellent experiment.  The juniper has flavors similar to the pink peppercorn - actually just a bit more intense.  Next time I make something like this (shortly), I will try not grinding the berries in order to downplay the flavors.  I definitely recommend experimenting with juniper, pink peppercorn fans. 

And the Winner Is.....

I received lots of great submissions for the Savory Chocolate Contest - thanks to everyone who took the time to submit their work and ideas!

The winner was very hard for me to choose, for a variety of reasons.  We had some fantastic food photography, some excellent creative ideas that made me drool, as well as some interesting storytelling.

I gravitated toward a submission that I very much identified with.  For those of you who read this site frequently and/or cook as often as I do,  cooking is often a labor of love.  As much as we are in the 30 Minute Rachel Ray era, great food doesn't just fall from the sky.  It takes effort to create great food.  In fact, the best food often requires planning, attention to detail, trial and error and sometimes, even 13 hours of effort. The current foodie event I am working on will require about 72 hours of straight work, with breaks only for sleeping and minimal eating.

That's why I have chosen Jake Lemkowitz the winner of the Foodie NYC Savory Chocolate Contest.  I admire Jake's passion and commitment to go all out in the pursuit of great BBQ.  I also enjoyed his experimenting with chocolate and BBQ, something that sounds incredibly delicious to me (smoke, spice, dark chocolate, ribs....).  Jake did his BBQ the right way - low and slow.  And he'd learned from mistakes with temperature from previous BBQ experiences.  Not to mention 13 hours of BBQing in the snowy winter weather of Ohio - god bless him. 

Jake, you (or a friend) are the winner of a night of enjoying the fruits of my labor as well as lots of great wine at a foodie event of your choice. 

Here's Jake's story in his own words, as well as a picture of his creation.

________________________________

Jake Lemkowitz - Chocolate BBQ Brisket

"I'd like to enter the Foodie Savory Chocolate Contest with a recipe for a chocolate infused barbecue brisket that I made for the Superbowl.

The day before I made a dry rub out of salt, pepper, a lot of chile powder,coffee grounds, Hershey's cocoa powder, and powdered mustard. I rubbed it into the two six pound slabs of brisket. Then I let the meat sit in the refrigerator overnight. When I woke up the next morning, there was a blizzard outside my window (I live in Ohio), but I decided to bravely press  on with the most intrepid winterbeque of all time.

In the freezing cold, I managed to light some mesquite coals. I added woodchips and began (indirectly) cook the brisket at around nine a.m. While the coals were still heating up, I made a mop to baste the brisket with over the course of the day. I used a few cups of leftover turkey stock, a teaspoon of bacon fat, some of the dry rub, a shot of whiskey, and a whole bar of Lindt dark chocolate. I boiled it down a little, and then kept the mop warm on the stovetop, basting the brisket with it every forty-five minutes or so.

Usually my biggest problem with barbecue is that it's hard for me to keep the coals cool enough so that the meat doesn’t get dry. Now with the snow storm going on outside, my coals wouldn’t stay lit! It was truly an epic battle, mankind versus the elements. There were moments where I thought that I didn't have the energy to go on, but in the end, mankind, and brisket, prevailed. By the time the brisket was finally ready to eat, it had been barbecued and basted with the chocolate mop continuously for just over THIRTEEN AND A HALF HOURS!

The chocolate worked amazingly well with the flavor of the mesquite smoke and the spicy dry rub. It not only helped the brisket achieve a beautiful caramelized outer crust, but it greatly intensified the flavor of the meat which came out juicy and perfect. The recipe was born when we decided to use cocoa powder as a replacement for brown sugar in the dry rub. After that, adding a chocolate bar into to the mix seemed only natural. To give the flavors their space, we  took out all garlic and onion flavors. That kind of stuff is usually standard in brisket, but the taste ended up being A LOT more dynamic without them.

Anyways, it was the best BBQ I've ever made, and considering the weather and the amount of meat, it was also by far the most ambitious.  Maybe not the greatest food photography (Styrofoam plate of Polish sausage in the background), but you get the idea. Keep up the good work!"

            

Merguez and Chanterelles with Mushroom Reduction

I used to be obsessed with Merguez sausage and fries when I lived downtown next to Les Halles restaurant in NYC.  This was a favorite standby meal that I used to crave and could only really imagine eating there.

The lamb sausage, thin and rope-like in appearance, had a deep, gamey flavor with hits of spiced heat, thanks to the harissa chili paste they mix into the sausage. 

After moving away from Les Halles and finding a good source for fresh Merguez around the corner from my new home, I have been cooking with Merguez for years.  I use it to finish soup very frequently, but on a random visit to the market a while back, I decided to pair it with hen of the woods mushrooms.  I loved the combination of the merguez with mushrooms, so I tried the sausage with chanterelles.  I sauteed the chanterelles in butter and rosemary, picking up the brown bits from the pan that had previously seared the Merguez.  I had some mushroom stock on hand and reduced it to a thick reduction, which I spooned around the dish for a sauce.   What a perfect appetizer for a cold winter night! If you didn't want to use mushroom stock, just drizzle some olive or truffle oil on the dish with some lemon juice.  Croutons or even a nut for texture would be a nice addition.  Simple and easy to prepare, but rich and deep in flavor.

Braised Veal Shoulder, Garlic Pattypan Squash, Roasted Fingerlings

Just looking at this photo makes me dream of being at home, braising on a Sunday afternoon, unwilling to dealing with the winter mess of the city for the rest of the day. 

But I write this from Dodger Stadium, sitting inside a dugout as we shoot a TV spot.  It's a big thrill - I've pitched off the mound, fielded some grounders at short, thrown a ball from left field to home plate as if a runner was rounding third to score. 

But I've missed cooking over the past few weeks.  Looking at this photo reminds me of the roasted fingerling potatoes, drizzled in olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt and chopped rosemary.  I miss those smells of home - the garlic in olive oil awaiting the blanched pattypan squash for a few minutes of final cooking.  The caramelized smells of a seared veal shoulder, then the haunting aromas of the braised meat slowly simmering in a pot of red wine and mushroom stock.

Eating in fancy restaurants for two weeks can be fun, but sometimes there's nothing like a meal made and created by nothing but your own effort.

Pink Peppercorn Caesar

This is the last post on my unplanned pink peppercorn series (Ha! That cracked me up.  As if i didn't just get obsessed with pink peppercorns and make three or four dishes in the span of a few days.  What a joker).  Crab cakes and fondue have received the PP treatment.  A final and simple recipe to appreciate the bold flavor of the pink peppercorn is a version of Caesar salad.

A creamy, rich Caesar dressing is the perfect base for toasted and ground pink peppercorns.  The PPs add a floral bite and textural crunch to the dish that really adds to the creamy dressing and fresh crisp bite of whole romaine hearts.

This recipe is a breeze and a quick way to experience the PP flavor in a simple yet revealing recipe.   

Enjoy.  Recipe after the jump.....

White Chocolate, Blood Orange Beet Salad

OK, I admit it.  I have been secretly hoping that people will vote for chocolate as the theme for our next foodie event. 

Why? Well, I think we can shatter some of the expectations people will have about what a chocolate tasting with savory foods would be like. 

Take, for instance, this beet salad I came up with while randomly browsing through the market one afternoon.  Beets are sweet and earthy and I thought they would benefit from a bit of rich chocolate flavor.  But for it to work, I wanted to balance the chocolate and beets with a sharp, citrus acidity and some fresh mint.  After roasting the beets and toasting the pine nuts, I created a dressing with the blood orange juice, olive oil, mint, and then a tablespoon of melted white chocolate.  I tossed the beets in the dressing then and drizzled a little more around the beets on the plate. 

In concept, this dish might create a few skeptical winces.  But my taste tasters have assured me that this dish is nothing sort of excellent.  I agree, mainly because of the judicious amount of chocolate I use and the fact that the earthiness of the chocolate makes such a great combo with the beets.

Finally, I would most likely pair this salad with an rich white wine...again, not a traditional pairing for chocolate.

So, if you are intrigued, go here and vote chocolate!

Pink Peppercorn Fondue

After my first experiment with the pink peppercorn crab cakes, I've started to use toasted and ground pink peppercorns pretty frequently in my cooking.  But my observation so far is that it needs to be treated as a star of a dish.  Just like curry or other pungent, fragrant spices, ground pink peppercorn is pretty intense.Therefore,  I tend to avoid using it in a mixture of other spices or herbs (so far).

It was a cold and rainy day here in New York when I had this craving for fondue.  I made a traditional Swiss style fondue recipe (sans kirsch and nutmeg) and at the last minute, added a heaping tablespoon of the ground pink peppercorn into the fondue.  It was phenomenal, mainly because the pink peppercorn added a floral depth to the fondue, as well as a bit of peppery spice and texture. 
I served this pink peppercorn fondue with sliced pears, large slices of sauteed portabella mushrooms (large enough for us to put on a skewer and dip effectively) and some roasted fingerling potatoes.

Now if I could only figure out how to get a consistent flame under my fondue pot, I'd be all set.  I either have a massive fire under the pot or just a little whimper.  I suppose this is based on adding too much or not enough alcohol to the fondue starter, but I'm yet to get it right....

Pink Peppercorn Crab Cakes

I started out thinking about pink peppercorns.  As you may know, pink peppercorns are actually a berry.  After toasting them in a dry pan for a two minutes and grinding them to a fine dust, the pink peppercorns unleash a deep, floral aroma and taste that is pretty spectacular.  As a result, you can be rest assured you'll be seeing lots of pink peppercorn dishes on this site in the upcoming weeks.

So how would I use the pink peppercorn 'dust'? I started to go toward a pink peppercorn au poivre, but quickly realized that steak wasn't a good pairing.  I gravitated toward crab cakes.  I would make relatively traditional crab cakes (lots of lump crab, some herbs, finely chopped bell pepper, panko bread crumbs, a touch of mustard and mayo to bind), add a few pinches of the pepper corn dust to the crab cake mixture before forming, then crust them with more of the dust before searing.  But the pink peppercorn can only handle minimal searing without burning, so these crab cakes were seared in oil for only for a few minutes on each side before finishing in the oven.

The pink peppercorn and crab are an excellent combination.  I thought about serving this with a creamy dipping type sauce, but since I wanted to appreciate the pure crab and peppercorn combination on their own, I just went with a drizzle of an excellent olive oil to finish.

Butter Poached Lobster Salad with Champagne Gelee

Call me a snot, but I cannot have a New Year's Eve without lobster.  Lobster can be so decadent, rich, satisfying and special that I've begun to associate celebrating an impending new year with making a special lobster dish.

Last year, I made lobster with gnudi.  Two years ago I made a lobster carbonara (I think...damn I wish I had this site back then). 

Butter poached lobster is a favorite preparation of mine, ever since the entire food world went ga ga over Thomas Keller's version at French Laundry and his subsequent French Laundry Cookbook.   I basically follow his technique point by point, and as you'd expect the results are outrageously good. 

For this dish, I served the butter poached lobster as a salad, with hearts of palm, sprouts, and a champagne gelee.  The champagne gelee is a nice counterpoint to the rich lobster and buttery dressing it slowly cooks in.  The gelee is straight up champagne, and has a kick of acid and alcohol that cuts through the richness. The gelee balances the salad almost like vinegar or citrus would do in a salad dressing.   Lots you can do to dress this up, including add nuts, bitter greens, fruit - the world is yours.

This is a pretty labor intensive dish, but sure to get you some lovin' impress someone for a special occasion.

Full recipe and picts below.

Black Trumpet Coffee Crusted Pork, Nutmeg Poached Eggplant Puree

I'm going to make a bold statement, something I avoid saying to anyone, let alone the internets.  This dish may be the most satisfying, tasty recipe I have created for this website to date.

At a cooking demo recently, I told you how I loved this crusting/wrapping technique for roasting meats.  I decided to create a crust for a roasted pork loin with the goal of focusing on very bold and earthy flavors.  The combination I used was a blend of dried, ground black trumpet mushrooms, ground roasted coffee, curry and a touch of nutmeg.  This crust is out of this world.  The flavors are the perfect blend that, when roasted, create a fragrant, earthy counterpoint to pork that left us in awe (corny but true).

The next piece of this dish is a decadent poached eggplant puree.  I simmered some half and half with nutmeg and slowly poached the eggplant in the liquid until soft.  After straining and pureeing, I had a sweet, earthy, creamy compliment to the pork.  The combination of nutmeg and eggplant may be my obsession for 2006. I finished this dish with a crumbling of finely ground pistachios for texture.

I beg you to make this dish and let me know what you think.  It's really that good. 

Full recipe with photos after the jump.

Maple Curry Carrot Soup

Happy New Year to All!

Aki and Alex from Ideas in Food have announced their Maple Menu giveaway selections.  This maple curry carrot soup I created for their collaborative menu won for the soup category!   

This is great news in the fact that I get to try what seems like an amazing bottle of maple syrup as a winner, but even more rewarding is the opportunity to be recognized by, in my opinion, one of the most important cooking blogs in cyberspace.  If you are serious about cooking, you've got to check out their site on a daily basis.   The ideas shared there will no doubt affect the way you think about creating a menu at home.

In the spirit of the Ideas in Food site, I wanted to come up with something unique, or at least unique to me.  I went down the carrot track as I thought maple glazed carrots would be a nice combination.  I love the flavor of curry with carrots and thought its earthy flavors would balance the sweetness of the maple and add another dimension to the carrots.

But after roasting the carrots I was inspired to puree them with a homemade vegetable stock. What I really like about this soup is the underlying flavor of the maple is present, yet it works to balance the other flavors in this dish rather than overwhelm them.  I garnished the soup with toasted almonds and the crunch of pomegranite seeds.

After the jump, I've included a general method for preparation.   

Experimenting: Tap and Cheese

Experimenting is what makes cooking fun for me. Ideas just randomly pop into my head, but it's usually when I'm thinking about food the least.

I was walking around the city, doing a little Xmas shopping, happily secluded in my own little Ipod world (The Joggers rawk, by the way).  Then it hit me.  I craved mac and cheese and decided to make a version on Sunday, my big cooking day.  Then later on that night I saw Alex Lee on Iron Chef America make a fontina cheese based fonduta (cheese sauce, dude).  I thought about making my mac and cheese with a fonduta, but maybe holding the eggs that are in a typical fonduta (i guess this could be a fontina bechamel then, but whatever). 

A few hours later I was walking to the subway and bang.  Tapioca.  Tapioca has a neutral flavor to me, but the texture is obviously phenomenal in the mouth.  I would make the tap just as I would a mac and cheese.   Boil the tap until it was just cooked through.  Make a fontina cheese sauce (bechemel-esque, butter, flour, milk, fontina).  Combine the tap with the cheesy sauce in a casserole dish and cover with panko bread crumbs.  Broil the crumbs until crunchy and warm the tap and cheese through.  It was just as I hoped.  The texture added a different element to the dish, which was exactly what I was looking for.  And it had all of the satisfying, creaminess of a standard mac and cheese.  The key here is serving it very hot.  The tap, when it begins to cool, clings together and firms the casserole up a bit too much.  Good thing it's easy to just rewarm and reheat if needed.

UPDATE: I have created a recipe based on Megan's request in the comment section.  It's a bit of an approximation as putting a recipe together wasn't my intention when making this, so I hope my backtracking was successful.   

Full recipe follows.....

Bacon, Camembert, Sage Frittata

Saturday night dinner began with a bottle of a nice Spanish red (2002 Telmo Rodriguez "G", a nice value).  Then before I know it, I'm sipping on an amazingly foamy, fizzy drink made with rum and ginger beer at a fantastic and pricey cocktail lounge called Pegu Club. A few ginger beer/rum cocktails later, I'm cruising toward a Sunday am hangover.

I was in too much pain to head out to brunch, so I needed to satisfy my hangover myself.  Bacon. Check.  Eggs.  Check. Multiple cheeses, including a Camembert and Gruyere.  Check.  Sage.  Done.  A frittata it is.

After about 15 minutes of prep and about 15 minutes of oven time, I had a crusty, golden brown frittata featuring  smoky bacon, creamy and tangy Camembert, gooey Gruyere and the earthy flavors of sage. 

The key to a good frittata, in my opinion, is a golden brown exterior along with a fluffy, creamy interior.

The method to my frittata madness is after the jump.

Maple Glazed Pork, Brie & Chive Parsnip Puree

Without prior knowledge, I was given pork chops and parsnips for a recent dinner at home.  I had a piece of brie in the fridge, along with some chives and a bottle of maple syrup.  I have been inspired to utilize maple syrup in my cooking recently, thanks to the generous Ideas in Food maple syrup giveaway.  (I've come up with two dishes but haven't cracked my best creation yet).

Anyhoo, I seared a pork chop to create a crust in a pan with very hot oil.  I then slowly roasted it in a low oven to finish cooking.  I basted the pork with maple syrup when I was about 3-4 minutes from taking it out of the oven so as not to burn or over caramelize.  I wanted a subtle background type of sweetness, not a big, thick glaze on the pork. (If I had more time, I would have brined the pork first). 

I was really happy with this parsnip experiment.  I boiled the parsnips in large chunks in water until soft.  I pureed them with salt, pepper, chopped chives, a squeeze of lemon juice, a shot of half and half, and about two tblsp worth of brie for about 1 1/2 large parsnips.  Creamy, a touch sweet, these parsnips were a real treat.

After deglazing the pan from the roast pork with just a touch of stock,  I spooned the juices that had mixed with maple syrup drippings over the pork and finished the dish.  Serve with a side of veggies.

Golden Beet, Beet Green & Goat Cheese Pesto

For those new visitors or for any regular readers that need a reminder, one of my hobbies is to receive a pile of random ingredients without prior knowledge of them with the goal of creating a meal on the spot, without planning. 

All of my recent efforts in this area, which I call spontaneous cooking at home (TM), are fun for me as well as frustrating.   Sometimes I really nail a flavor combination, sometimes I don't.   Sometimes I plate a dish that I love to look at, sometimes it sucks ass. That's just the nature of these spontaneous experiments.

This is a recent spontaneous effort with golden beets.  They were presented to me fully attached to their green leaves on top.  I decided I would use the greens as a pesto-like condiment for the roasted yellow beets.  I roasted the beets with a glug of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and wrapped in a foil packet so they could steam in the oven.   I then washed the beet greens, blanched them for :30 in boiling salted water and drained them.  I then placed the greens in a food processor with a glug of EV olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, pine nuts and a few pinches of a firm, aged goat cheese.  I whizzed them together and had a very earthy, creamy, nutty pesto like dressing.  It was a bit creamier than the traditional oil based pesto, but we all know that goat cheese and beets work together and so did this.

I didn't really nail the plating of the dish.  I attempted to place the thinly sliced beets in a piled layer,add a dollop of pesto, pile of beets, layer of pesto, etc.  It would have been better/neater looking if I had done it in a ring mold, but it tasted great as a salad to start our meal.  It was also a technique that proved to be a nice way to utilize an entire bunch of beets.  Great taste, suck-ass plating (TM).

Turkey Leftover Magic

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. 

As you may expect, I did a decent amount of holiday cooking.  My family doesn't really like me to experiment on Thanksgiving, which is understandable (I guess).  So I won't get carried away with pictures of a freaking roasted turkey or mashed potatoes.  Instead, I'll share possibly the best thing I ate over the entire holiday and wine filled weekend.  I made a stock with the turkey bones the day after Thanksgiving, something which I find an absolute must.  Throwing away the turkey bones should be a criminal offense, punishable by a lifetime of Taco Bell gordita consumption. After I made the stock, skimmed it and removed as much of the fat as possible, I decided to make turkey meatballs with finely chopped leftover shreds and pieces of turkey white and dark meat that are always lying around.   I mixed the meat with an egg, parm cheese, parsley and formed them into meatballs.  I seared them in a pan of olive oil and then let them reheat in the turkey stock.  No need to get fancy with this - just season the stock with salt and pepper, toss in your meatballs and a handful of grated parm cheese to finish.

Edit: Cindy's comment below reminded me to post my chicken and meatball brodo recipe, created from a similar stock based recipe.  Cindy's right, it's easy and worth the effort to make your own stocks at home, especially on a cold winter afternoon or night.  And even easier, my ham hock stock recipe for a variation.

Chipolte Skirt Steak, Buttermilk Mushroom Couscous

I am yet to meet someone who doesn't love marinated skirt steak when it is done well.  Chewy yet full of flavor, inexpensive and easy to cook, skirt steak is every knowledgeable home chefs' secret weapon.  Unfortunately, it is given a bad wrap by shitty chains that serve it on sizzlin' fajita platters.

All you need to do is infuse a flavorful liquid base with some aromatics and let the skirt steak marinate in it overnight.   Quickly sear the skirt steak for a caramelized crust, slice it, place it on a bed of creamy, mushroomy Israeli couscous, ladle some of your reduced marinade around your creation and thank yourself for a job well done.

Here's how I do it.......

Concord Grape Experiment #2

Another experiment with concord grapes, this time playing off the timeless combination of peanut butter and jelly.

I thought I would use the concord juice in a reduction, as a syrupy sauce for scallops.  In my opinion, the peanut butter idea would not work with the typically rich, smooth, creamy texture that we all know it to be. Instead, I imagined it a bit crumbly in texture and just barely held together. 

A seared scallop would be the perfect foil - its texture is receptive to a nutty peanut crumble and of course always works with a simple sauce. 

We cut into the scallop, picked up a bit of the peanut crumble and did a little dunk in the concord grape reduction - it was excellent.  This dish is great for an appetizer, as it works best when you get to appreciate just a few bites.

Details on how I made this after the jump......

Concord Grape Experiment #1

I've finally been able to experiment with concord grapes, as I had recently been thinking about how I can use them in my cooking.  I'll post a few of these creations over the next few days. 

The first, pictured on the right, is a Jalapeno Concord Jelly.  The juice of the grape is infused with slices of spicy jalapeno and chilled to make a jelly. The grape juice tastes a bit like Welch's to be honest, but the spicy kick of the jalapeno was a very nice addition.  I chose to use the jelly with fresh raw oysters.   The briny, fresh oyster was perfect with the sweet/spicy flavors of the jelly.  The fresh chopped mint was added as a garnish to work with the grape flavors and balance to some of the spiciness.

See the recipe below.....

Apple Cider, Mint Dressing

We picked up some fresh apple cider that is so good this time of year in New York.  I had some baby spinach greens but little else in the fridge that could be used for the salad, other than a bunch of mint, a hunk of parm regg, a lemon, and some pine nuts.   So I took about 1 1/2 cups of the apple cider and reduced it by 3/4, boiling it until it became a thick syrup consistency.  I transferred it to this ramekin and let it cool.  I added fresh chopped mint, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to create a balanced dressing.  The apple cider is sweet, so plenty of the acidic lemon juice is key.  The olive oil is whisked in to give it a bit of an emulsion-like consistency.  The mint adds a blast of freshness that matches well with the fresh apple taste from the cider.

As the apple reduction is potent, it's important to lightly coat the greens with the dressing.  Add the toasted pine nuts and shaved parm regg to the salad and we had a simple yet interesting side dish to go with a hefty main course.

Apple and Guajillo Pepper Reduction in Roasted Acorn Squash

I was introduced to Guajillo chiles after watching chef Rick Bayless's PBS show about authentic Mexican cuisine.

Bayless uses dried guajillo chiles frequently, as they are one of the most popular chiles used in Mexico. He either re-hydrates them and makes a paste by pureeing them or infuses them into liquids and soups.

The guajillo is smoky, kind of spicy but not overly so.  It has a deep flavor and adds a dark, rich crimson color to whatever you are making.

For this dish, I was spontaneously given an acorn squash, an apple, watercress and a few sweet bell peppers.  I had some dried guajillo peppers in the cabinet, along with ham hock stock frozen from the other night.  Here's what I did with them.....

Recipe for Sunday Soup

There are two food related reasons as to why I love the cold weather.  Simply put, it's braising and soup.  Braising is a favorite of every passionate cook as it's simple and of course very tasty.  But soups are my favorite thing to make, as I really enjoy creating intense, flavorful broths and bases and carefully choosing a few key garnishes to round them out. 

In my opinion, the best soup I make is what I now just call Sunday Soup.  I've made this at a foodie event in the past and it seemed to be a hit.  It was inspired by a Malaysian dish I love called Green Curry Ayam.  As with most things I do, I recall some of the key flavors and ingredients and end up just riffing off of it based on what I like to eat.  My Sunday Soup is made from a smoked ham hock stock and infused with curry, garlic, ginger, lemon and lime rind, chilis and coconut milk.  I then add seared merguez sausage, blanched broccolini and steam mussels right in the broth.  The result is an intense soup filled with lots of little goodies, but the star of the show is the broth.  Aromatic and intense, it has become my Sunday comfort food.

My recipe follows........

Fig Rockefeller

Dining out in NYC is my number one hobby, other than cooking at home of course.  Beyond the obvious pleasure of eating great food, excellent restaurants inspire me to experiment with cooking techniques and tastes that I wouldn't experience otherwise.  (FYI, I've chosen not to write about dining out much on this blog, as restaurant reviewing is done in overwhelming proportions these days.  I may also be in the minority on this one, but I'm not a fan of taking pictures while eating out and I don't think they turn out all that great anyway).

Take a recent dish we had at Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar for example.  They are known for their deconstructed oyster rockefeller.  An oyster is poached and placed on a teaspoon of chopped creamed spinach, a slice of bacon and topped with a dollop of rich butter/cheese sauce and a few bread crumbs. There were 3 or 4 to a plate.  Yum.  Here's Jack's recipe.

On a recent night in, I had virtually all those ingredients on hand, but not the oysters.  I thought warmed figs would take the place of the oysters perfectly.  I also opted for chorizo vs bacon, just because I had it on hand.  I sauteed some spinach with a pat of butter and made a quick beaurre fondue in line with their recipe, but with a splash of white wine.  This was one of the most enjoyable dishes I've had recently at home, thanks to Jack's, of course.

Fried Oyster Po' Boy Canape

I wanted to bring the brilliant flavors of the Po' Boy to a bite-sized canape to begin a multi-course meal at home.

My goal was to avoid bastardizing the classic fried oyster Po' Boy too badly. I used a French baguette, which I'd slice, drizzle with olive oil and salt, then broil for two minutes until toasted.

I then made a traditional garlic aioli to add a pungent creamniess to the crispy fried oyster and the crunchy bread.

Finally, I shucked some fresh kumamoto oysters and dredged them in yellow corn meal mixed with a little Old Bay seasoning.  I fried them in hot vegetable oil for barely two minutes, just until the crust turned crisp and brown.   A chiffonade of peppery arugula and a cold beer were perfect accompaniments to this little treat.

Ribeye, Broccoli Stem Puree, Roasted Hazelnuts

I had used broccoli florets to make a side salad recently and had a bunch of broccoli stems sitting around.  What to do with them? I peeled the tough outer layer with a vegetable peeler and boiled them in salted water for about 5 minutes until soft and tender. I then placed them directly into the food processor with a knob of butter, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice for a few minutes. I then had a pale green, creamy puree with a subtle, earthy taste of broccoli.  It was a great base for seared ribeye and crunchy roasted hazelnuts.

Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli, Corn, Tomato

One of my favorite ways to cook is to just have a pile of ingredients land on my kitchen counter and spontaneously prepare a meal from them.  I find this challenge rewarding, as I get a chance to rely on creativity and spontaneous instincts.

Here, I roasted potato wedges in a 400 degree oven until browned and just a bit crispy. I blanched the broccoli while the potatoes roasted.  When these tasks were completed, I chopped two cloves of garlic, took the kernels off an ear of corn and diced a small tomato.  I tossed the garlic and a dash of red pepper flakes in a hot pan with olive oil, then combined all of the above into the pan in order to coat them in the garlic and chili infused oil. Salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and you're ready to eat.  Add some herbs, chives, curry, cheese or anything else you think would work.  I served this as a side dish for a steak, so I wanted to keep it pretty simple. 

Red Mullet, Creamed Spinach

I like red mullet as a simple first course, mainly because it's the perfect size for a few bites.  I like to pan sear it, skin side down, for a few minutes until the skin is crispy. I paired it here with the rich, simple taste of creamed spinach and toasted pine nuts for a little crunch.  A squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle of sea salt and this simple starter is out on the table with only about 15 minutes of cooking.

Parmigiano Crisps with Lump Crab Guacamole

One of the first ideas I picked up from The French Laundry Cookbook years ago was Thomas Keller's Parmigiano Reggiano crisps shaped into little cups.  Any creamy filling is a perfect balance to the salty, crispy cheese. Keller's original recipe for the crisps is here.

I was in the mood for fresh lump crab meat, so I steamed it and mixed it with a mash of avocado, red onion, chili, mint and lemon juice.  We enjoyed these with this Neyers Chardonnay, but a crisp Sav Blanc from NZ would have been the other choice. 

Watermelon, Goat Cheese, Spinach Salad

This isn't the best picture, but I wanted to document this random salad I made the other night for a few reasons.  First, the combination of creamy Coach Farms goat cheese and watermelon is a great combination in a salad.  Crunchy kernels of fresh summer corn and toasted pine nuts also contributed to the crunchy texture of the salad.  After setting the ingredients into a bowl with fresh spinach and some Thai basil, I created the dressing by adding some lemon juice and olive oil into a small bowl along with a few chunks of the goat cheese.   Mashing the goat cheese into the olive oil and lemon juice created a creamy goat cheese dressing that gently coated the greens and tied eveything together. 

Charcoal Grilled Lobster, Peaches, Mint

Many summers ago, we went on a camping trip to Maine. My entire goal was to O.D. on lobster. As we only had a campfire grill on hand, I grilled lobster for the first time. I took the tails and split them open through the middle and stuffed them with butter mint, salt and pepper on a picnic table.  Our friends thought I was on crack and had generally low expectations, so I was told afterward. 

When I am an old man without much of a memory, I will always remember that lobster.  The lobster was sweet and fresh, just caught in Maine.  The butter trapped inside the shell had basted the meat as it cooked. Best yet, the outside of the shell was able to protect the meat from a few minutes on very high heat right under the charcoal (and a few minutes on colder part of grill to finish).  The charcoal flavor gently permeated the meat and added an amazing flavor to the lobster.  Mint added a blast of freshness that worked well with butter and sweet lobster.

These pictures were taken just last weekend (click on them for larger images).  It is still one of the favorite ways I prepare lobster.  I make charcoal (forget gas) grilled lobster multiple times a summer. Here, I pair it with my favorite lobster combination in the summer - fresh peaches and avocado with a drizzle of melted butter and lemon juice.  I love how I got just a bit of char on the meat here without overcooking.  This was my portion of the five I made and it was a real treat.  Everyone commented on the amazing flavors charcoal added to the lobster.

Heirloom Tomato Tower

Ok, not a tower really.  More like a stack.  Three colors of heirloom tomatoes are marinated with olive oil, salt, pepper, basil and lemon juice in a single layer in the refrigerator for a few hours.   

The juices that come out of the tomatoes and stay behind in the marinating pan create a flavorful dressing to the salad.

Place a slice of the tomato on the plate, add a thin sliver of radish or maybe cucumber (or corn), a basil leaf, a crumble of goat cheese, a splash of the tomato juices and repeat with multiple stacks of colorful tomatoes. Spoon extra juices around the plate and serve.

Corn, Jicama, Mint, Pine Nut Salad

Jicama is a perfect summer ingedient.  It's mostly made of water, so it has a refreshing and cooling effect in a salad. Better yet, jicama is a great match with the sweet veggies and fruits of the summer. 

In this salad, I've just taken fresh corn off the cob and mixed it with some matchstick slices of jicama, fresh mint, toasted pine nuts and a squeeze of lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.  Maybe a few shavings of parm reg or even a soft,fresh goat cheese would be a nice touch. 

Cucumber Ice in Soup

With the virtually unbearable heat making it difficult to turn on the oven, I made this fresh and cold cucumber soup with a dollop of icy cucmber mint ice to garnish.  I topped it off with a crumble of a fresh, tangy goat cheese.   

This dish is a breeze to make.  I just chopped and pureed cucumbers and strained them, leaving me with their juice. After chilling, I added the juice and some chopped mint to my ice cream maker and after 30 minutes, I had a cucumber ice. It's not sweet at all, just the pure flavor of cucumber in another form to add texture to the soup. The soup is literally just the cuke juice with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.  The goat cheese adds a freshness and creaminess - it's a great match for fresh cucumbers.

Lemongrass, Mint, Ginger Butter Poaching

I had done my own version of Thomas Keller's Butter Poached Lobster last summer, with the addition of fresh peaches and avocado (recipe and picts here).

I was interested in using a similar slow poaching butter technique, but also wanted a more substantial dish for a heartier main course.  Obviously whole live lobsters can be pricey, so I added shrimp to the dish as well.  I served the butter poached lobster and shrimp on a bed of black lentils, which I enhanced with fresh chunks of papaya, avocado and mint.

Finally, I took the butter poaching liquid and infused it with fresh lemongrass, ginger and mint.  It really added another subtle dimension to the original butter poaching liquid. The good news is that while the lobster can be a chore to handle, the shrimp is a breeze.   Just clean them and poach in the low temperature liquid for a few minutes and you're done.  Leave out the lobster if you're on a budget or time crunch.  Again, the original recipe can be found here.

Balsamic in Strawberries

I had been inspired by a recipe created by Chef Doc over at A Perfect Pear. The idea was stuffing a fresh strawberry with a tomato jam.  The presentation of this dish featured drops of a sweet balsamic, a traditional Italian condiment for strawberries that I've enjoyed during previous trips to Italy.  I have also become obsessed with gelees (see below) because they offer an intense blast of flavor without much labor.  They also seem perfect for summer fruit.

I played with the pairing of balsamic and strawberries by reducing balsamic to a sweet yet acidic syrup.  After combining the balsamic with gelatin, I refrigerated for a few hours to firm up.  I then created cubes and stuffed them into a hole I created in the side of the strawberry.  From a pure taste perspective, the combination and the texture contrasts really work. In retrospect, I would have made a cavity through the top straight to the bottom (like Chef Doc's recipe) and would have stuffed as much of the gelee as I could have fit in the berry.  The ratio of gelee to strawberry could have been enhanced in the above presentation.

Watermelon in Cherries

I wanted to create a few bite size canapes for guests coming over for dinner recently.  Since we are in the sweltering heat of the summer, I wanted to create a few dishes that didn't involve slaving over an oven.  In addition, I wanted our guests to have something refreshing.  For a foodie event a few years ago, I stuffed raw cherries with foie gras.  Here, I stuffed them with a watermelon gelee.  I simply pureed watermelon chunks to yield about a cup of watermelon juice.  I mixed it with a pack of gelatin and placed in the fridge for a few hours.  Just cube the gelee and place inside a pitted cherry (I used multiple cherry varieties here, making a nice presentation).  Just before serving, I popped them into the freezer for about 5 minutes.  A garnish of mint adds another cooling flavor to this refreshing bite.

Stuffed Piquillo Pepper Salad

Piquillo peppers are a great summer food.  They obviously don't require cooking and they are ideally served at room temperature.   I browned some bacon and crumbled it into a bowl. I then added some cleaned large shrimp into the bacon pan and browned them on high heat with chopped garlic. 

After chopping the shrimp and adding it to my bowl of bacon, I diced some avocado, tossed in some crumbled ricotta salatta, and season the whole thing with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

I stuffed this salad into the peppers with a teaspoon and mixed some of the salad leftovers with some sprouts for a salad to garnish. 

I had three of these peppers as a light summer dinner.

Curried Scallops, Mint Tapioca, Green Onion Sauce

Tapioca, when boiled and mixed with butter, cheese and/or milk, has a savory yet sweet taste that goes with almost any seared dish. Better yet is the whole, al dente texture of the tapioca as a counterpoint to the buttery scallop.  Here, I boiled it for about 5 minutes until soft yet still firm.  I drained it and immediately added it to a pot with some chunks of unsalted butter. I added salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon and a handful of mint.

I then set it aside and dried large, meaty fresh scallops with paper towels.  I salted, peppered and dusted ground curry powder on each side.  After getting a pan very hot with a shallow coating of olive oil, I seared each side for about 2 minutes each.

The green onion sauce was a soup I made for my Gothamist recipe next week.  You'll have to wait a week for that part, but it basically consists of a milky onion broth mixed with a puree of blanched, green onion tops.

Sea Bean, Porcini, Walnut Salad

I've been hearing raves about sea beans for a while.  I blanched the sea beans by placing them in boiling salted water for about 1 minute and then shocked them for another minute in a bowl of ice water. 

After straining and drying, I began to pan roast some fresh porcini mushroom I found at Fairway.  I roasted them on medium heat in butter and a touch of olive oil, salt, pepper for about 4 minutes.   A touch of white wine degalzed the mushrooms.  When tender, I added the sea beans and some chopped raw walnuts.  You may need a squeeze of lime to balance the acidity ,along with some more pepper. Lay low on the salt, as the sea beans have a natural sea taste.  Some shaved Parmiggiano Reggiano here would be a worthy addition, but considering the salt issue, a crumble of goat cheese would be even better.

It's All About Charcoal...

....except when it's grilling with wood, which I don't get to experience as often as I'd like. Here are some pictures from Memorial Day grilling with the family.

        Margarita Marinated Chicken & Grilled Hen of the Woods Mushrooms

 

                              

                              

                           

                              Grilled Asparagus & Grilled Jumbo Scallions