Great Idea FAIL

After a long day at the beach, BD, myself, and HD (HD is our new roommate and coincidently, BD’s brother) had our first joint venture in the kitchen. HD had a really lovely beef tenderloin that he marinated all day and later grilled; BD did a crab and shrimp scampi; and I contributed Au Gratin Potatoes. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves that night. I can’t think of a better way to savor the last few hours of a weekend than with some really great food.

I was attempting to create a recipe to post for the Au Gratin Potatoes that night. While they were good, they weren't a knock out just yet. So rather than posting a recipe that I know I will be tweaking, I’m going to hold off for now. It will be worth the wait – I promise. In the meantime, here is a picture of them.



Believe it or not, we had a pretty decent amount of steak leftover. Therefore we planned on making steak sandwiches on Monday night for dinner. BD and I had come across a horseradish cheddar cheese a couple of weeks ago and had been trying to come up with a dish to use it in. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The plan was to take the steaks and top them with caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, and the cheese on some French bread. It sounded awesome, and it could have been awesome….but it was a bust.

I’m posting this because one thing I’ve noticed with several food blogs is that everything is always perfect. That is not always the case in my kitchen – I screw up plenty. Plus, one of the purposes of starting this blog is to further expand my culinary talents, knowledge, and interests. How can I do that without trial and error?

So. Why did I think this sandwich was a bust? I honestly, blame two things: 1- not enough ingredients, and 2- the bread. I don’t know how I always do this but when it comes to caramelizing onions or sautéing mushrooms, I always underestimate how small the shrink. I need to remind myself that it’s sneaky like spinach. You may THINK you have a whole mess of it, but you really don’t. Also, BD wanted to go easy on the cheese. He was afraid the horseradish would overpower everything. In the end, I couldn’t taste the cheese at all. As for the bread, it just wasn’t the right choice. Perhaps if we had toasted it first it might have worked better.


Even though this sandwich overall was not a winner, it did have some good points. The onions, mushrooms, and steak all worked together….but how could they not? So with a little more tweaking this one may eventually be a winner.

Kitten ^..^

Everything is Better with Roasted Garlic Butter

Roasted Garlic is probably a gift from the “gods above”. It is simply divine. Near the start of our relationship, BD and I were doing surf and turf at home - filets, king crab, loaded baked potatoes, and I think we also made prosciutto-wrapped asparagus that night as well. There wasn’t any real occasion…it was simply what we were in the mood for. I remember we had one of the best cuts of filet I’ve ever had. It was pricey when we bought it, but worth every penny.

For whatever reason that night, I suggested making Roasted Garlic Butter for on top of the filets. I know I must have seen it somewhere – probably the Food Network – but I can’t remember where exactly now.

I’m not going to call this a recipe, but below is how you can make roasted garlic butter. It’s super easy and tastes so yummy on steaks, potatoes, veggies….almost everything!

Roasted Garlic Butter

(print recipe)

Ingredients:

- Head of Garlic

- EVOO

- Butter

Method:

1- Slice the very top of the garlic off so that the cloves are exposed.

2- Place on a sheet of foil and drizzle some EVOO over the top of the head.

3- Wrap foil around garlic and place in the oven at 350 for 35-45 minutes. (Your nose will know when it’s done)

4- Allow to cool and then unwrap foil carefully.

5- Take bulb and squeeze the roasted garlic from the bulb and into a dish.

6- Mash garlic until smooth. Then add 4 tablespoons of butter* and mix together.

7- Place in fridge or freezer to set for at least 10 minutes.

* This gives you a fairly strong garlic flavor. If you want it a little less potent add more butter until you achieve the amount of flavor you desire.

Kitten ^..^

Be Crabby Cakes!

Crab Cakes can be very temperamental. You have to get the ingredients just right, cook it to the point of perfection, and then hurry up and eat it before it goes past its prime. I’ve only attempted cooking crab cakes at home once before last night. This was about two years ago and while it wasn’t bad – it wasn’t a great success either. I think last night's attempt went much better. I didn’t reference any other recipes and went with my gut on this one.

Crabby Cakes

(print recipe)

Ingredients:
- 6oz of picked lump crab

- 4 tablespoons of melted butter (approx – you may need more or less)

- 1 teaspoon of seasoned salt

- ¾ cup of bread crumbs (approx)

- 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley

- juice from half a lemon

- 1 tablespoon minced garlic

- 3 tablespoons of finely minced red bell pepper

- 3 tablespoons of finely minced onion

- 1 egg

- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder (optional)

- 2 tablespoons of EVOO

- fresh ground pepper to taste

Method:

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl add crab, lemon juice, parsley, seasoned salt, egg and the cooked peppers, onion, and minced garlic. Mix together. (I beat the egg first. It’s an OCD thing. For some reason, I think if I don’t the egg won’t evenly distribute throughout the mixture.) If you want a more prominent garlic flavor add the extra teaspoon of the garlic powder, but if you don’t care for garlic you can omit it.

3. Once that is well combined, add half of the bread crumbs and half of the butter. Mix together and slowly add the rest until you get the mixture where it’s not flaky but not overly wet. You want it to be moist so that it sticks together. You may not need to use all of the butter and bread crumbs. (NOTE: I used Italian bread crumbs because that is what I keep on hand. Plain would be fine)

4. Once you’ve reached the desired consistency take a portion of the mixture and form it into a patty. My cakes were about 1.5” in diameter and about ½” thick. In order to make them uniform, I first make the mixture into a little ball that fits in the palm of my hand and then slowly flatten them out. I was able to make 5 with my palm. Once you’re patties are made place them in the fridge to set for about 10-15 minutes.

5. In a medium sauce pan, add equal parts of butter and EVOO. About 1 tablespoon each. Over medium to medium-high heat, add your crab cakes and pan fry until golden brown and crisp. Mine took about 4 minutes. Then flip (carefully) and repeat.

6. Serve immediately!

*This made recipe made 5 medium crab cakes and served two of us.

My thoughts on this dish: From what I can recall this attempt was defiantly better than my last. The outside had a nice crust and the inside hot and soft. I thought the ratio of crab to other ingredients was just about right. While you do want the crab to be the dominant flavor, you also want it to have a little more depth. I think I was able to accomplish that this time. I felt the peppers and onions added a lot of flavor to the cake and the garlic played nicely in the background.

Crab Cake Sauce

I have no idea what else to call this. This recipe is derived from one I saw Sam the Cooking Guy use one episode. It looked tasty, and I thought something similar would be nice for the crab cake rather than just plain old tarter sauce. After tasting it, I think it would pair nicely with other kinds of seafood as well.

(print recipe)
Ingredients:
- 3oz of plain Greek yogurt (you could use any plain yogurt)
- 1 tablespoon of capers
- 1 teaspoon of dill
- Juice of half a lemon
- pepper

Method:
1. In a small mixing bowl add the yogurt and lemon juice, and whisk together until smooth.
2. Add the capers and dill. * I didn’t roughly chop the capers but probably will the next time so they are more evenly distributed and the sauce looks smoother. Add the dill as well. I did this little by little to make sure I got the amount of dill flavor I wanted.
3. Lastly add some black pepper. Allow to set in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

My thoughts on this dish:
When I first tried it before placing it in the fridge I was a little scared - I’m not gonna lie to you! It didn’t taste like what I had hoped for; little too tart and tangy. But instead of ust tossing it, I let it sit in the fridge while I made the crab cakes. I figured I would try it anyway once they were done to see how they might pair with the cakes. That’s when the magic happened. After sitting in the fridge for a bit, the flavors really blended well together and the tartness reduced. Overall I was really pleased with the end result, and will probably use it on something else in the near future.

The Finale!

Together I thought the sauced paired very well with the crab cakes. It was hard to resist going back for more.

Kitten ^..^

1. In a sauté pan add 1 tablespoon of EVOO, minced garlic, red bell pepper, and onion. Season with S&P and sauté over medium heat until soft. Set aside to cool.

I Scream, You Scream...

The other day I had a ravenous craving for come warm chocolate cookies with vanilla bean ice cream. I didn’t fight it – I went to the supermarket. I’ve never cared for regular vanilla ice cream, but vanilla bean is on a whole other level. On my quest I came across Haagen-Dazs’s new Five product line of ice cream. In their commercials they claim that they only use five ingredients. I rarely eat Haagen-Dazs so I decided to give it a try.

I tested it while my cookies were baking in the oven and it turns out – it’s really good. The vanilla bean flavor is really prominent and you can taste the cream. It also has a really smooth and rich flavor as well. I was pleasantly surprised, and in heaven at that point. There is nothing better than getting exactly what you are craving when you are craving it. I plan on trying the other flavors as well at some point.


And I did check the ingredient list and there were only five ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Hangover Helper

It’s Saturday morning – well morningish – and we were paying the small price for going out the night before to welcome our new roommate to the house. BD and I were up and trying to decide on what to make for breakfast when our new roommate, HD, strolled into the kitchen and asked what was for breakfast. I think this is where he got a quick crash course in what cooking and eating is like for us on most days. (HD is BD’s brother so he did have some idea having been over for dinner or get-togethers.) I smiled at him and relayed what BD and I had just decided on making: Omelet with shaved steak, sautéed peppers and onions, chipotle cheddar cheese, and crispy fried onions on top. His face was pretty priceless.

BD was kind enough to make breakfast for us while I padded around the house. After what seemed like forever breakfast was finally done, and it was the perfect remedy for what ailed us.

While the dish was pretty delicious, my only complaint was that there could have been more cheese!