Chicken Fried Gourmet

Rosemary grilled beef tenderloin with mushroom ravioli & popcorn sunchoke puree

Just playing around in the kitchen with some new flavors/techniques......

New house, new baby, new kitchen..............

Again sorry for the lack of updates recently ( man I really should just post more so I can stop apologizing) but there have been a lot of changes recently in the past couples of months, some good some bad but the biggest and best things are we have bought/moved to a bigger (and better) house BECAUSE we are expecting another child. One of the benefits of the new home is the kitchen, a great place to cook for me considering what I had before. Below are some pictures of what little cooking I have been able to do recently in the new kitchen, there is also a b&w pic of the old kitchen (while making pasta) just so you can really appreciate it. Look for good things to come with this new setup.

BTW the shrimp on the grill are outside, no inside grill :(........yet

Guinness and Happy St Patrick's Day

I had this idea to make a dinner around a few Irish ingredients, okay really just potatoes and Guinness beer. I went to the store and picked up some oxtails (google it) and a 4 pack of Guinness Draught beer in a can.  I planned on making a ravioli filled with Guinness braised oxtails, a Guinness brown butter sauce and diced potatoes cooked in duck fat. Nice concept right? Well after cooking the oxtails in my slow cooker I realized that the weather outside was very "springy" and thus this dish seemed really heavy and more suited for colder weather. I will figure out something else for this Guinness braised beef but in the meantime I need to take care of the rest of the "ingredients" so they do not go to waste ;) My name is O'Boyle isn't it........

 

 

 

 

 

 

Piquillo Pork Tenderloin with Manchego Cheese Potatoes and Piquillo sauce

So this will be a quick post. This is something I did a few weeks ago - a piquillo pepper marinated pork tenderloin, grilled then sliced over a manchego cheese potato au gratin and served over a piquillo pepper and honey sauce. I have been on the hunt for authentic jarred piquillo peppers for some time and have had no luck finding them in the different upscale grocery stores in Dallas. I finally came across them in Whole Foods in Baton Rouge when we were there for an LSU game back in November. Here you go, enjoy......

         

Porcini Crusted Chicken with Blueberries and Polenta ala Marc Vetri

I know what you are thinking...blueberries seriously ??? But really this works on all sorts of levels and isn't this why you come here, to see al the culinary wacko stuff I try to pull off?

This is an adaptation of a recipe from Marc Vetri's new cookbookthat pairs blueberries with Porcini Crusted Halibut. Chef Vetri has a restaurant in Philadelphia that I would love to try if I ever make it that way. Philly seems to be giving NYC and Chicago some play for a progressive foodie town from what I am seeing.

As I am not the biggest fan of fish I substituted chicken breast. The basics of this recipe are to finely grind dried porcini mushrooms use this powder to crust your protein and sear/cook in a non stick skillet (to keep the porcini powder from burning). The sauce is prepared by simmering blueberries in sugar, water and some champagne vinegar (I used white wine vinegar). I felt like the end product of the sauce needed something so I added some freshly ground black pepper as well as some fresh blueberries. The recipe does not call for polenta but hey, polenta goes with everything as does it's southern cousin, grits. I added some Romano cheese to the polenta as well.

                

This turned out really well. The blueberries cut into the earthiness of the mushroom crusted chicken as well as the creaminess of the polenta, a very nice balance. Marc's cookbook also has a recipe for a free form lasagna with blueberries and porcini that I will need to try in the future after tasting this combination.

If you want a different type of Italian cookbook then look no further than Marc Vetri.

Versatile meatballs and stuff

One of the things I like to do on a Sunday is to make a big batch of meatballs. We can eat spaghetti and meatballs, meatball subs, meatball sliders etc all week long. Its nice to come home on a weekday night and just heat up some meatballs instead of cooking dinner from scratch. This past Sunday I made a big batch of meatballs and at first only cooked half of them in the usual way - with tomato sauce paired with pasta.

Last night I made the 2nd "batch" of meatballs and this time paired them with an almond sauce in the style of spanish tapas. I bought some whole regular button mushrooms and liberally seasoned them with salt, pepper and garlic and sauteed them in a skillet with some white wine. It was a somewhat light but very filling meal. I had made these almond meatballs before and you can see them HERE. I neglected to take a picture of the finished product of the pasta because well it is just spaghetti and meatballs, nothing fancy but very comforting and tasty.

            

Pumpkin Gnudi with Fried Sage and Brown Butter

So a few weeks ago I made these "gnudi" which are basically a ricotta version of gnocchi. I previously have made a different version of these awhile back for a valentines day dinner, you can see it HERE. I used pumpkin puree and "attempted" to make a brown butter sauce. The sauce did not work like I thought so although it tasted good it did not look too pretty on the plate. I topped the gnudi off with fried sage leaves and some grated parmesan. A very light but filling and tasty weeknight meal.

Chicken with red wine, linguine and mushrooms

Sometimes it is best to use old stand by recipes rather than try to ‘re-invent the wheel”. The other night I was craving some form of chicken and pasta so I picked up some linguine, mushrooms and chicken from the store. I decided to make a riff on chicken marsala. I started off by pounding out some chicken breasts to an even thickness and dusting them with some seasoned Wondra flour. I sautéed these in a  pan with some olive oil till golden on both sides. I used the same pan to sauté some diced baby bella mushrooms and fresh garlic. I deglazed this with red wine( Merlot – hence the riff on marsala) and then added some milk and set it to a simmer. I added the chicken back to the pan and let it finish cooking in the sauce.

Meanwhile I prepared the pasta by boiling water with chicken stock. Once the pasta was done I added about a cup of the pasta water to the mushrooms and chicken and let it simmer for about 2-3 minutes. I topped off the dish with freshly grated parmesan cheese and parsley.

I even included a shot of my “setup” when photographing food on the stove.

Comfort food - shell pasta with fennel, pork and beef ragu

Some nights I want nothing more than to just make spaghetti and meat sauce. Usually if I am thinking about it I will make enough meatballs on a Sunday to feed us throughout the week. Now I am not talking about eating meatballs everyday, well I guess I am. What we usually do is have the traditional spaghetti and meatballs dish a few times and on other nights maybe a meatball sub or meatball sliders. They keep fairly well in the sauce and are easily reheated in whatever form we would like to use them in. Being in full spring mode now I find it difficult to sit down and cook like this at an early time when I could be outside enjoying the weather before it gets to the typical summer in Louisiana where it is 100 degrees and H U M I D.

An easy fix is meat sauce, not as labor intensive as meatballs and as close as you can get to a one pot meal. What I normally like to do is combine equal parts ground meat and ground pork, throw in some crushed fennell seeds, garlic, red pepper and saute away. Once browned I throw in some crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and chicken stock and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Throw in some pasta and you have dinner. It is easily reheated for lunch as the pictures below attest.

In other news my tomato garden is coming along pretty well.

       

Balsamic Fig marinated ribeye with corn tortilla puree

So the other day I was at the store and came across a thick piece of ribeye that was priced fairly well. Since the ribeye contains more fat than I should consume on a daily basis (yes I know I contradict myself with previous posts) I usually only buy one and cut it in half to split between Ann and I.

I have this Fig-Balsamic vinegar in the fridge and decided to use this to marinate the steak along with some red wine,the usual spices  and olive oil. It ended up marinating for about 4 days before we decided to grill it. The weather here in Louisiana is crazy,last Thursday it snowed , the weekend was nice and sunny with temps in the 70's, this morning was 40 and ended up with a high of 70. You can see why outdoor grilling can be sketchy.

Anyway I usually pair grilled steak with some sort of grits concoction, but not this time. I am not sure why I thought of it but I took some corn tortillas and tore them into small shapes and added them to a pot with a little bit of olive oil. I sauteed these for about 5 minutes then covered with chicken stock. I brought it to a boil then simmered for about 10-15 minutes. I pureed then strained this mixture and kept it at a simmer while the steaks were cooking.

When ready to serve all I did was add a touch of milk to loosen the puree and added salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

For the sauce all I did was add the leftover marinade and some red wine, brought it to a boil then reduced to a syrup like consistency.

For an additional side I made a simple zucchini soup flavored with garlic and jalapenos. I was not too impressed with it as it was too "grassy" for me but Ann loved it.

BTW, my wife pointed out the seemingly "risky' pictures" of the puree........