Seared Ahi Tuna on a Bed of Green with Ginger Vinaigrette and Pickled Cucumbers

For Monday Night Dinner:

Serves 4

Ginger Vinaigrette

• 1 piece fresh ginger, 1 ½ inches long, peeled and grated
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• ½ tablespoon crushed red pepper
• ¼ cup peanut oil
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil

The Tuna

• 1 large sashimi grade Ahi tuna steak, at least 1 pound, black part removed
• 2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Cucumber Relish

• ½ cup rice wine vinegar
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup water
• 1 English cucumber, peeled, cut in half, seeded and sliced thin
• 1 shallot, sliced into thin ringlets
• 1 Serrano chili, minced
• ¼ cup coarsely chopped cilantro

Salad

• 6 cups mixed greens
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 avocado, cubed
• 1 green onion, green part only, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup coarsely chopped cilantro
• ½ cup sliced almonds, toasted in a 350 degree oven for 7 minutes

In a jar with a tight fitting lid add the ginger, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, red pepper, peanut oil and sesame oil. Shake until emulsified

Rub the Ahi steak with 2 teaspoons of oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Press to adhere the seed to the Ahi. Heat a small sauté over high heat then add oil. When simmering add tuna steak and cook for 1 minute, turn over and cook for an additional minute. Transfer onto plate and refrigerate until cold (can be done earlier in the day). Slice the tuna thinly and marinate with a few tablespoons of the dressing.

For the cucumbers, in a small saucepan bring the vinegar, sugar and water to a boil, stir to dissolve the sugar. Meanwhile place the cucumbers, shallots and Serrano chili in a bowl just large enough to hold them. Pour hot sugar water over cucumbers and push them into the liquid (they will soon be floating with more liquid than cucumber). Place in the refrigerator until cool, about 1 hour. When ready to use drain and add cilantro. This also can be made ahead.

In a large bowl toss the greens with the radishes, avocado, green onion and cilantro. Add dressing to taste.
For the presentation, place a mound of salad in the middle of a plate. Place slices of tuna decoratively onto the lettuce. Top with a mound of pickled cucumbers. Sprinkle each salad with 1 tablespoon of toasted almonds.

Tomatoes in Winter???

Grilled Hanger Steak with Shoestring Potato Salad 
*
Grilled Acme Herb Slab

I cannot believe I bought hydroponically grown tomatoes at the farmers market yesterday and paid good money for the "strawberry" variety which I normally dislike. I must have been channeling the summer of 2009 and was struck by the luscious red color of the fruit on the bright green vines that they clung to. I did not even try one (too full from huevos rancheros at breakfast) and just trusted the vendor's pitch that the strawberry variety was the sweetest. When asking my family what they wanted for dinner last night I suggested pork with sweet potato french fries and my husband immediately said, "hanger steak with shoestring potato salad". "Hummmm", I thought. That really is a summer meal that calls for sweet, suculent farm fresh tomatoes in the salad, but I do have those hydroponic tomatoes from the farmer's market. Those tomatoes that taste like the medium they are grown in; water. Yet, my husband doesn't ask for a steak very often and the thought of a juicy piece of meat made me say "perfect, that is an excellent recommendation". I immediately ran into the kitchen and tried one of the strawberry tomatoes and was floored. They were absolutely delicious! Kind of like the surprise you get eating a good strawberry when the tempurature is way to cold outside. I was ecstatic! I already had some arugula from the lobster risotto I made Friday night so all I needed was the hanger steak, some good quality blue cheese and a few russet potatoes.

The key to making good quality shoestring potatoes is cutting the potatoes in a thin UNIFORM manner (I use a japanese mandolin; the Benriner), a large heavy pot to fry the potatoes in (I use a Le Creuset), filling the pot no more than one third full of oil (I use canola) and finding the sweet spot with your flame so it keeps the oil around 350 degrees. Use a thermometer to check the temperature initially then place the potatoes carefully in the hot oil. Place a handful and a half in at a time, too many potatoes will cause the oil temperature to drop too much. After the initial drop and boil, the oil will settle down and you have around four more minutes of cooking time. Once the potatoes take on a brown hue, take them out of the oil and place them on a sheet with paper towels or even better yet, a sheet topped with a rack so the potatoes have air circulation and will avoid getting soggy. I just read that in Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc" cookbook and forgot to do it!! Until you know your flame's sweet spot for frying, check your oil's temperature before you drop in your next batch.

I grilled the hanger steak on my stove grill but it would be lovely over a wood fire. That is just a dream of mine, I really never cook over wood, or even charcoal for that matter, since I am spoiled with my range and my outdoor gas grill. But I know it would taste EVEN better with wood!

I cooked the steaks for a total of seven minutes, three minutes on each side on a high heat, then went one more minute thinking it still needed more cooking. I was wrong, it was a bit overdone for my liking and should have trusted my instincts (or what my husband told me) of three minutes per side. I let the steak rest for five as I tossed the salad with those marvelous tomatoes, arugula, blue cheese with a classic French vinaigrette, sliced the meat and sat down for dinner. We had left over bread (herb slab from ACME) from our clam appetizer last night and that bread, broiled was SO GOOD, I hated to waste it. I grilled some, brushed it with a bit of Italian olive oil my daughter brought home from Florence and sprinkled it with a bit of fleur de sel. Not recommended for this dinner, too many starches, but I just could not resist!

I hope you try this recipe from Susan Spicer's, "Crescent City Cooking". Please visit the blog post, "Grilled Steak with Shoestring Potato Salad", for a my complete secret to frying shoestring potatoes and for Susan's recipe.

Paella!!!

Seafood, Chicken and Chorizo Paella

Flank Steak with Harrisa

Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Pecans

Ceasar Salad with Parmesan and Homemade Croutons

If someone asked me what my signature dish was, I would have to say Paella. It was the first dish my husband and I cooked together in college. He swooned me by cooking pheasant (that he shot and had in his freezer), rice pilaf and broccoli with hollandaise sauce, after a study session. Seeing that he liked food, I bought him a cookbook and it was in that cookbook, Julia Child and Company, that we found An American Paella in a Chinese-Style Electric Wok to cook and the rest is history.

Since then we have had years of consecutive Paella parties where we have woke up with with way too many people sleeping in our living room. Paella was the first dish we cooked at our christening dinner party in Barcelona, Paella was the main entrée for the Teacher’s Appreciation Luncheon and Paella was a station at my friend’s wedding. When I tell my family I am cooking paella, everyone comes home.

It was last summer that we cooked paella for my cooking partner’s 50^th birthday. She did not want to celebrate her birthday. I had to talk her into a party. All my suggestions of fun things to do fell on deaf ears. To me, a birthday is a REASON to celebrate, whether it is a luncheon, dinner cooked by loving friends or a dinner out. She loves to bike so I twisted her arm to a weekend party encompassing all of the above along with her favorite, a grinding bike ride. My partner in crime is an Iron Man triathlete and I ride with her and THAT is my claim to fame. Anyway, her 50^th turned from nothing, into a great, three day weekend of daytime outdoor adventures and nighttime kitchen fun.  You know, kind of like Woodstock.

The highlight of the weekend was us at my stove cooking two paellas side by side! I was famished after a 40 mile, difficult bike ride, so the dish we created tasted better than ever. My husband cooked flank steak with a harissa sauce and our friends helped make a Caesar and beet salad. Her birthday was a weekend to remember!

I have changed my paella a touch since I first made it, changed it enough to just perfect it! I hope you enjoy all the recipes!

Paella

All colors of wine goes with Paella. Just make sure it is not too strong of a red. We like Pinot Noir, a Rioja, a Napa Chardonnay, even a French Rose

Serves 8

8 chicken thighs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound chorizo (Spanish cure), cut into ½ inch slices
1 cup onions, chopped
1 ½ cups peppers (I use a mix of red, orange and yellow
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup vermouth or dry white wine
4 cups chicken or shrimp broth (Swanson's is just fine but if you have some shrimp shells, a      nice, salted shrimp broth is lovely)
2 cups rice (if you can get Spanish rice, by all means use it but arborio rice will also work. Uncle Bens is fool proof.)
16 large shrimps, prepped, and seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper
6 large scallops, prepped and seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper
16 clams washed
Any other fish you want like squid, mussels, halibut, etc., just do a piece for everyone, do not crowd.
1 cup chopped, peeled and seeded, tomatoes
1 cup garbanzo beans
1 cup cooked or defrosted peas or green beans or a mixture of both

Heat the olive oil in a large paella pan over medium high heat and sear the chicken on both sides. Remove chicken and add chorizo; sear well on one side only, remove and add to chicken. In the fat from the chicken and chorizo, saute the onions two minutes or until soft, add the peppers, garlic and all the spices and cook until spices are aromatic, two more minutes. Add the wine and let it reduce for one more minute and add the chicken or shrimp broth; bring back to a boil. Add the chicken, cover with either a lid or piece of foil (if your paella pan is too big for a lid), reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is almost done. Add chorizo. At this point you can let the mixture rest until you are ready. You could actually cook this recipe up until this point and refrigerate the mixture until you are ready.

From here on out, you have 20 minutes to a half an hour to finish the dish. I like to have my paella pan ready to go with all my accompaniments; rice, shrimp, clams, fish of your choice, tomatoes, garbanzo beans and peas or green beans. Bring your liquid back to a boil and add rice making sure all the rice has settled evenly on the bottom of your pan and not hanging out on top of the chicken, I shake the rice down into the broth. After that you want to stir the rice as little as possible, really not at all, to avoid making risotto and bringing out the starch. Open boil the rice until you see rice starting to float to the surface. This should take around 5 to 7 minutes. Add all of you fish, pushing them evenly down into the broth to cook. If you are cooking the clams and mussels in the paella, I place them hinge-side down, half way into the broth. (If you cook them separately, add a little of the wine in the pan to steam them and add them in at the end along with the broth, maybe the broth a little earlier, so it can absorb). Turn the heat down to low and strew on the tomatoes, and garbanzos and just a bit later, the green beans and peas. You are just heating up the garbanzos, green beans and peas. I then start playing with the fish, pulling out the fish that is cooked and placing in on top of the rice, on the side of the pan, like a warming tray. If it is getting to dry add more stock or wine, if it is too soupy, be thankful, the broth is WONDERFUL and in Spain many even ask for their paella "wet". Do not stir the rice though. If you feel the rice is not cooking properly for some reason, pop it into a 400 degree oven for a few minutes. Once the rice is al dente and the fish is cooked and vegetables hot, turn off the heat and cover the paella with a tea towel while you dress your salad. Serve directly from the paella pan with a Caesar salad with homemade croutons to soak up all the wonderful paella juices!!

Sunday Fun! Duck Two Ways with Port Poached Pears

Boy, we know how to have fun! We had a wonderful time cooking together at the beach last night and finally had a historian to take pictures!! Thank you! Literally, this experience of applying for the best home chef has taught me to learn how to blog, navigate a foodie network site, research wine pairings (my husband usually does that but he thought it is high time I learn!!), download pictures, shrink images, upload pictures AND take pictures! I do not think I have taken a picture in years!! So really, even though Food and Wine might not find me worthy of their honor, I feel like I am already a winner! Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this community and learn! It has truly been a wonderful few weeks and a humbling experience to learn how my passion has touched others.

But about last night! I forgot the soup so we had to ditch the pumpkins soup shots (having another gather on Wednesday to bid our friends goodbye so will have them then!) but nobody noticed! Everyone arrived around 4 and we snacked and talked until 5:30 or so. Then I gave everyone a job and we cooked. And we ate and we drank! The food was wonderful and the company the best! And we had all of this fun with the sound of the crashing waves in the distance. Too cold to hang outside but we did manage a midnight walk in the pitch black! Here are some of the recipes for the dishes I cooked last night.

A Special Menu to Celebrate My Montana Friends!

December 13th, 2009

With Cocktails and Conversation

Ricotta, Gruyere and Prosciutto Filo Triangles

First Course

Beet and Spinach Salad with Warm Pancetta Vinaigrette,

Goat Cheese and Hazelnuts

Entrée

Duck Two Ways, Confit and Seared Breast with Port Poached Pears

In a Port Wine Sauce

*

Yukon Gold Potatoes fried in Duck Fat

*

Wilted Swiss Chard and Turnip Greens with Turnips

Dessert

Ginger Bread with Poached Persimmons and Whipped Cream

Beet and Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette, Goat Cheese and Hazelnuts

Talk about a great combination of flavors; sweet beets, salty bacon, creamy goat cheese and crunchy hazelnuts! My idea of heaven on a plate!

Serves 6

The Salad

• 
  
  2 small or 4 large beets
  
  
  
• 
  
  8 cups spinach or combination of spinach and radicchio
  
  
  
• 
  
  ½ cup crumbled goat cheese
  
  
  
• 
  
  ½ cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped
  
  
  

The Vinaigrette

• 5 ounces bacon, cut into ¼ inch batons
• 
  
  1/3 cup good quality olive oil
  
  
  
• 
  
  1/3 cup hazelnut oil (if not available use all olive oil)
  
  
  
• 
  
  ¼ cup good quality balsamic vinegar
  
  
  
• 
  
  Freshly ground black pepper
  
  
  
• 
  
  Salt to taste
  
  
  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and trim beets then wrap each beet individually in aluminum foil. Roast the beets until a knife slides through, about 40 to 60 minutes depending on the size. Once cool enough to handle, slip off the skins and cut in half inch dice. Place in a bowl and set aside with the spinach/radicchio, goat cheese and hazelnuts.

Cook the bacon in a small sauté pan over medium heat in a bit of the olive oil until the bacon has rendered its fat and is slightly crisp. Add the remaining olive oil, the hazelnut oil, vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper. Whisk lightly to incorporate and continue to heat the oils lightly. Toss the beets with a bit of the dressing and then the spinach, making sure you place all of the bacon on the spinach. You may not need all the dressing. You can serve on individual plates or on a platter by placing the lettuce first, top with the beets then add the crumbled goat cheese and the hazelnuts.

Pan Seared Duck Breast with Port Poached Pears

This easy entrée must become one of your entertaining stables. It is unusual and absolutely delicious. You can use chicken stock in place of the duck, just make sure it is true stock, not canned chicken broth. You can find stock in the freezer section of your well stocked super markets.

Serves 6

For the duck

• 3 large duck breasts or 6 small
• 8 cups body temperature water
• ½ cup salt
• ¼ cup sugar

For the pears

• 
  
  2 to 3 cups port wine
  
  
  
• 
  
  3 large bosc pears or any other firm pear, peeled cut in half with the core removed
  
  
  

For the salad

• 
  
  3 tablespoons olive or almond oil
  
  
  
• 
  
  6 cups arugula
  
  
  
• 
  
  ½ cup sliced almonds, toasted in a 350 degree oven for 7 minutes
  
  
  
• 
  
  Salt and pepper to taste
  
  
  

For the sauce

• 
  
  1 cup port from the pears
  
  
  
• 2 cups duck or chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons butter (optional)

For the potatoes

• 
  
  6 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cooked, peeled and cut in ½ inch cubes
  
  
  
• Left over duck fat from the cooking the breasts

Mix the water, salt and sugar and whisk until completely incorporated. Score the fat on the duck breasts in a diamond shape being careful not to cut through the skin. Place the duck breasts in the brine and refrigerate for one hour.

While the ducks are brining, place the prepared pears in a small saucepan and cover with port wine. Bring to a simmer, turn the heat down to a low simmer and poach for about a half hour or until tender. Let cool in the liquid. Once cooled fan the pears by cutting 1/3 inch sliced into the pear keeping the slices intact at the neck of the pear. This can be done a day ahead just bring the pears to room temperature for the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the duck breast from the brine and dry well. Heat a skillet just large enough to hold the breast to a low heat and add duck breasts. No need to add oil, as the duck cooks, it will release the fat which will sear the skin. Cook the duck breast, again over a low heat (to slowly render the fat and cook the meat) for around 20-25 minutes or until the skin is lightly browned. Turn the breast over and cook for an additional 5 minutes and then place on a baking pan (this can all be done ahead of time but bring the duck back to room temperature before continuing). Cook in the preheated oven for 5 minutes. Remove the duck from the oven and let rest in on a plate covered with foil for at least 10 minutes.

While the duck is in the oven (or set aside if you are doing this ahead), place the fat into the pan you plan to cook the potatoes. Reheat the duck pan and add the port wine to deglaze. Boil the wine until reduce to around 2/3 cup. Add stock and continue to reduce until the sauce is syrupy and has flavor. Again, this can be done ahead of time, just reheated when you are ready to finish the serve the dinner. Just before serving, reheat the sauce and add butter to create a shiny more finished sauce.

While the duck is resting, heat the duck fat over high heat and add potatoes. Salt well and let potatoes cook, undisturbed until a nice crust is formed. Turn potatoes over and continue on the other side until well browned. Again, season well with salt and a bit of pepper. All of this cannot be done ahead of time, or you will lose the crisp of the potato.

Dress the salad with the almond oil and season with salt and pepper (no need for a vinaigrette, the meat juice and sauce will properly season the greens). Toss in the almonds. After the duck has rested, slice the breasts in ¼ inch slices. Place the salad on the plates and top with the duck breast on the side of the salad. Place a pear half onto the duck and dress with the warm sauce. Scatter around the fried potatoes and serve!

Gingerbread with Poached Persimmons

Gingerbread

· 1 ½ cups boiling water

· 1 cup molasses

· 1 teaspoon baking soda

· 4 ounces (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature

· 1 cup firmly packed, light brown sugar

· 1 large egg

· 2 teaspoons ground ginger

· 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

· Pinch of ground cloves

· 2 1/2 cups flour

· 1 tablespoon baking powder

· 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Persimmons

• 
  
  6 persimmons
  
  
  
• ½ cup dry white wine
• ¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Gingerbread

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch square pan.
Bring the water to a boil in a small pot and remove it from the heat. Stir in the molasses and the baking soda. Set aside to cool to lukewarm.

In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix until incorporated.

Sift together the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, flour and baking powder. Add the salt. On low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the cooled molasses mixture to the butter mixture in 3 additions, stirring well after each addition. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Poached Persimmons

Peel and quarter persimmons. Take the hard center out of the quarters and then cut each quarter in half or thirds, depending on the size of the persimmon

In a saucepan, add the wine, orange juice, sugar, ginger and cinnamon; bring to a boil. Add persimmons, reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove persimmons from liquid and reduce to develop flavor, about 5-7 more minutes. Add poaching liquid back into the cook persimmons and cool. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Indian Butter Chicken

In a medium sized bowl, mix the onion, tomatoes, cucumber and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper. Add the yogurt and mix well. Let sit at least 15 minutes but no more than two hours before serving.

I read cookbooks like a novel. If I need a lift, I buy a cookbook. Actual I buy a pair of shoes first then read the cookbook while glancing at the new shoes on my feet. That truly does put me in a good mood and back in the kitchen with my new high heels! When the head of fundraising for our children’s school asked me to organize a community cookbook to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of our school, I never imagined how much I would enjoy the project. I know she was thinking of a smattering of recipes in a binder, but I saw a professional cookbook with tested recipes, headers and comments. She wanted the book by December and it was January.

First I bought two books on recipe and food writing and studied. I also interviewed some of my cooking mentors that wrote books and all they said was edit, edit, edit. Through a community email I asked for help from the parents at the school and had a coffee to enlist my crew and cherry pick some key people. Someone to choose and learn the software, someone to work with the design, someone to coordinate the recipe testers, a person or two to write about the history of our wonderful school and a community to give recipes.

As the recipes came in I began to realize how much I LOVE to write, review and edit a recipe. I ran home from work excited to get onto my computer to see what recipes were sent me. Kind of like now, looking at my homepage to see if any new comments or ratings came in! While we had a group of 35 testers, I tested more than 50% of all the recipes. I definitely choose the best ones to test AND to this day I cook about ten of those recipes on an everyday basis.

I received recipes that were just a list of ingredients with cryptic instructions, recipes so perfect I KNEW they came straight out of a cookbook and the author needed to be recognized. I received a recipe for coke cherry jello that I REALLY wanted to like but all in all, they were all good home cooked recipes without much packaged products. I then took all of these different formats and began changing them to a single recipe style as the books taught me. I took some liberties and changed recipes to make them better. Sautéing an ingredient to build more flavor, putting in a homemade dressing when it called for bottled, changing an order to make it easier. Once I was done, I edited the recipe at least twice more before I gave it to my recipe testers. I asked the testers to interview the recipe originator to ask where they got their recipe and why they chose the recipe in the first place. The tester’s results helped me make sure the instructions were clear and also guided me in writing the headers.

When we were done, which meant editing each recipe at least 10 more times on top of my work, I got nervous. I had made so many changes to our community’s cherished recipes, they might feel the new “perfected” recipe was not their own anymore. When we were almost ready to hand over our finished product to our computer software wiz, we were all concerned we might have to go back to the drawing board and rewrite recipes! We all agreed though, we had to print them out and send them to the recipe originator and ask for their approval. We gave them five days to respond, if we did not hear from them, it was a vote of approval. Those five days were long but to our surprise, we got more compliments than complaints. A few did feel that I made things too complicated and they were right. To make both of us happy, I changed the recipe back to the original and then in the tester’s comments, gave the recipe for the homemade dressing, for example. It worked and the book was a complete success and we had it in our community’s hands before Christmas break!

Tonight we had one of my favorite recipes from the cookbook, Indian Butter Chicken. It was given to me by my twin. We always get confused for each other and I LOVE it because she is a doll! It is one of her good friend’s recipes and she was kind enough to share it with us.

Indian Butter Chicken with Raita

This dish must be accompanied by the recipe at the end, raita. It cools the heat of the dish, add a fresh crunch and acts like your vegetable. I made this dish last night, in December so was worried about the tomatoes. I bought cherry tomatoes and they were surprisingly good. If they weren’t, I was going to use extra cucumber. You can make raita a number of ways and may do not call for tomatoes at all. So if your tomatoes are bad, do not use them.

Indian food can be a bit difficult with wine pairings because of the spiciness and complex flavor blends. My first thought would be a Gewurztraminer again more dry and the same with a Riesling. But like my last wine recommendation, this dish also goes well with beer!

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, minced
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, skinned
• 1 to 2 Serrano chilies or to taste, roughly chopped
• 1 cup chopped cilantro leaves with stems
• 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs or breasts cut into small pieces
• 12 each blanched almonds and raw cashews, ground fine in a food processor
• 1 ½ cup peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Tandoori paste, available in any Indian grocery store
• 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
• ¼ cup sour cream, or more to taste
• Cilantro leaves for garnish, chopped
• ½ cup sliced almonds, toasted for 7 minutes in a 350 degree oven

Heat oil is a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion and cinnamon and fry until the onions are lightly browned.

While the onions are cooking, place the ginger, garlic and cilantro in a food processor and pulse until completely minced and smooth. Add to the onions along with 2 tablespoons of water and cook until the mixture is dry, about 2 minutes.

Add the chicken pieces and sauté until the chicken has turned white. Pour in the ground nuts, chopped tomatoes with juice, tomato paste and Tandoori powder; mix thoroughly. Bring to a simmer, cover, reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.

Add sour cream, mix and simmer, uncovered for an additional 10 minutes on low heat. Salt to taste.Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with raita (recipes below) and Bastmati rice.

Raita

• 1 small sweet yellow onion, chopped in ¼ inch cubes
• 2 small tomatoes, cut in half, seeded and chopped in ¼ inch cubes
• 1 cup cucumber, seeded and chopped in ¼ inch cubes
• ½ cup chopped cilantro, lightly chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• ½ cup plain whole fat yogurt

In a medium sized bowl, mix the onion, tomatoes, cucumber and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper. Add the yogurt and mix well. Let sit at least 15 minutes but no more than two hours before serving.

Fish Night

Monday is not supposed to be a good day for fish. Most say, fisherman do not work on Sunday or even Saturday so the fish is last week's catch and old. It is our tradition to always have fish on Monday, not Friday even though I was raised Catholic. We like to eat light on Monday after our weekend of richer food, wine and desserts, so to make up for a decadent weekend, fish is on the menu.

If it were my husband’s choice we would eat fish three or four nights a week yet we still have a sixteen year old in the house and she would protest. So I shop at my favorite fish and poultry market on Monday and let my fish monger guide me to the best fish of the day. Today I chose salmon. After writing about Susan Spicer’s cookbook, “Crescent City Cooking”, I am craving her chourcroute, a traditional, French, Alsatian and in general central European dish that normally blends sour cabbage with smoked pork and sausage. I also love making that dish, in the depth of winter, but Spicer’s dish is a twist, lightened up by using salmon as the meat. Perfect for a Monday night dinner. It is made more elegant by adding a sauce; a tangy Gewurztraminer beurre blanc. I served this dish with Yukon gold potatoes that I peel, cut up, boil then drain. I heat a pan to medium high, add a few tablespoons of olive oil and place the potatoes in the pan and then break them up with a potato masher. I seasoned the potatoes with salt and pepper then let them sit in the pan to brown while I cook the salmon. The combination of the tangy sauerkraut, crunchy salmon (coated with panko then pan seared), smooth butter sauce with the potatoes to catch all of the flavors makes this dish one that I cook over and over. Please see my picture of this dish on my photos. I hope you enjoy it!

Salmon with Choucroute and Gewurztraminer Sauce

Susan Spicer of Bayona in New Orleans’s loves this dish because of the tart of the sauerkraut and spiciness of the Gewurztraminer that balances the richness of the fish. I completely agree and would recommend a dry Gewurztraminer, Riesling, or Pinot Gris; if you are in the mood, your favorite beer.

Chourcroute

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, julienned (I use a benriner mandoline)
• 1 (16 ounce) jar sauerkraut
• 1 cup chicken stock
• ¼ cup white wine (I used the Gewurztraminer)
• ½ teaspoon coarsely chopped whole juniper berries
• 1 bay leaf
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• Snipped fresh chives, for garnish

Gewurztraminer Sauce

• 1 cup Gewurztraminer (you can substitute Riesling or another Alsatian white wine)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
• 2 tablespoons cream, optional (this is my addition, find the sauce breaks less with the addition of a bit of cream)
• 4 tablespoon (1/2 stick) butter
• Pinch salt

Salmon

• 4 salmon fillets (about 6 ounces each)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup panko or dry bread crumbs, mixed with 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and carrot and cook, stirring, until just wilted. Stir in the sauerkraut, stock, wine, and seasonings. Bring to a simmer and cook, about 15 minutes, then set aside, to keep warm.

Combine the wine, vinegar, and shallots in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently until the liquid is reduced to 2-3 tablespoons. Gradually add butter, in small pieces, whishing constantly, until the butter is incorporated, not melted. The sauce should be a shiny, creamy yellow. Add salt to taste. Taste, and adjust seasonings.

Season the salmon with salt and pepper and coat with the bread crumb mixture. Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium-high heat. When it is very hot but not smoking, add salmon, presentation side down. Lover the heat to medium, add the butter, and use a spatula to lift. Cook until it is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Turn and cook about 3 more minutes, until salmon is just medium-rare. Cook a little longer if you like it more done, but not long enough to dry it out.

Divide the choucroute among four plates, top with a piece of salmon, and drizzle the sauce around the fish. Garnish with chives.

Grilled Steak with Shoestring Salad

If I get one recipe out of a cookbook that I use as a family or entertaining dish on a regular basis, I consider that book an absolute winner. Susan Spicer’s, “Crescent City Cooking” is one of those books. I have had this book for close to two years and it is still one of my go to cookbooks when I need inspiration. I do not need to look in the index to find a recipe, the crumpled page, full of misplaced ingredients is my bookmark. From that book I cook on a regular basis (and as I am going through the chapter heading to find these recipes I am thinking, “I need to cook THAT”!) Salmon with Choucroute and Gewurztraminer Sauce, Pan Roasted Quail with Dried Cherries and Pinot Noir Sauce, Roasted Duckling with Orange-Cane syrup Sauce, Bayona Extra-cheesy Spoon Bread and Butternut Squash Spoon Bread Soufflé. A friend loved the quail with the cherry sauce and I immediately directed her to the bookstore to buy the book! I do change that recipe around a bit since I have a particular way to make a sauce but it is the Grilled Steak with Arugula, Tomato, Blue cheese and Shoestring Salad that I want to address in this blog.

I made this dish for another friend and the husband LOVED the shoestring potato salad. Ah come on, who does not LOVE shoestring potato fries alone, but this recipe tosses them in with wonderful bitter lettuce, sweet garden grown tomatoes, savory-salt of blue cheese and the juices of a good hanger steak to make the perfect combination for an entrée. It really is a bit of pure heaven on the plate but creating the perfect shoestring potato is a bit difficult. There is an art to that and I helped some friends through the process with a series of emails that I will share here:

1. Use russet potatoes, not a cooking potato like a red, Yukon or white.

2. Once you create the shoe strings, pop them into cold water to remove some of the starch. Dry them before you place them in the oil or you will have a splattery mess. I use a Benriner Japanese mandoline to create thin even sized shoestrings. VERY important if you want them crisp and evenly browned.

3. Make sure your oil is at 350 degrees before you put the potatoes in. I actually use a deep fry thermometer to check the temperature and pop the thermometer in after each batch to make sure the temperature is right before I drop the next batch in.

4. I limit the amount of potatoes I put in the hot oil, I think it is about one potato per batch. One large potato should be good for the two of you, two will create a bit of leftovers which are great and will keep crisp in a zip lock bag.

5. I also use a lot of oil. I strain and save the oil in the refrigerator for the next time. BUT the amount of oil in the pot is extremely important. Use a large, heavy pot and do not fill past 1/3. If you do the oil will boil the oil over and you will have a complete kitchen mess.

6. I cook the heck out of them. It will take at least 4 to maybe 6 minutes to get them crisp. Some of them will be brown. I test them as I am cooking them.

7. I salt them RIGHT after I take them out of the oil. I think the salt permeates and sticks to the potato when it is hot.

8. In the past, I have made them beforehand and stored them at room temperature but with the wet weather on Friday, they became soggy. Maybe if I placed them into a Ziploc after they cooled that would not have happened. In the summer I made them and had NO PROBLEM so this was a new thing for me. So on Friday, I just popped them back in the oil to recrisp and they were absolutely perfect! Actually, most chefs do a twice cook approach for a French fry, cooking the first time just to cook the potato through, letting it rest then giving it a quick crisp. So if they come out soggy again, just bring your oil up to 350 and reheat for 30 seconds or so. You do not want them to get too brown.

So now that you know the scoop about frying shoestring potatoes, here is Susan Spicer’s wonderful recipe:

Grilled Steak with Arugula, Tomato, Blue Cheese and Shoe String salad

(A good red wine with this might be a Rhone style Cabernet Franc or Grenache to compliment the saltiness of the cheese and fries or a fruit forward Cabernet. If you like white, try a Gruner Veltliner or a Riesling)

The Steak

• 2 steaks of your choice, I use hanger steak
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Preheat your grill or broiler. At least 10 minutes before cooking, pat the steak dry with paper towels, rub it with a little olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Grill or broil on high heat to brown and sear the meat, then lower the heat slightly to finish cooking to desired doneness. If you like it rare, you probably don’t have to lower the heat, just get a good sear on both sides and pull it off. If you like it medium-rare, you will want to cook it about 3 minutes per side for a 1-inch-thick piece of meat.

If you serving rib eye, strip or filet, serve it whole. For hanger steak, it’s best to let it rest about 3 minutes, then slice it across the grain into thin slices.

Shoestring Salad

• 1 russet potato
• Oil for frying
• Salt
• 2 handfuls of arugula
• 1 ripe tomato, diced (in winter, just put in extra arugula)
• Classic French Vinaigrette
• 2 tablespoons blue cheese

Peel the potato, cut it crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices, then cut into thin matchsticks, or use a Benriner mandoline. Rinse the matchsticks thoroughly in cold water, then drain and shake or pat thoroughly dry in a kitchen towel. Heat 2 inches of oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat until it registers about 350 degrees. Fry the matchsticks to golden brown and crisp, 4-6 minutes, stirring a little to cook them evenly. Drain on paper towels and salt lightly. When they’ve cooled completely, you can store them in a Ziploc bag or an airtight container, and they will stay crisp for several days.

Place the arugula and tomato in a bowl and dress with the vinaigrette. Toss, crumble in the blue cheese, and add a big handful of shoestrings. Toss again and serve the steak.

Classic French Vinaigrette

• 1 tablespoon minced shallots
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• ½ to ¾ cup olive oil or a combination of almond and olive

Whisk together the shallots, mustard, and vinegar in a small bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in the olive oil in a slow, steady stream. After you’ve added ½ cup, taste the mixture. It might be perfect for you, but if it still tastes a bit acidic, add the remaining ¼ cup olive oil. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.