It's the Cherries!

Cherry and Goat Cheese Compote

2 cups cherries, pitted and chopped
4 spring onions, finely diced
1 cup fresh mint, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
4 oz goat cheese
salt and pepper
2 tsp olive oil.

Mix together and serve with crackers. Everyone might think its beets and be pleasantly surprised.
Adding a chopped jalepeno would be yummy too - when they are taken off the FDA list!

Supper Solutions/Sassy Suppers/Supper Club

So - what do you think? I have never actually prepared meals at one of these but just bought one frozen and made it for dinner. It was delicious but not necessarily quick and I got 3 pans dirty making the meal - Tandoori Chicken with Rice from Supper Club on Kearny. And I had to make a veg. So, not a big deal but made me think.....

When I was working the part-time office job, dinner was a nightmare - now I understand completely!!!! So much easier to have something already made and just heat than go through the k'fuffle when you get home at 5 or 6.

Here's the pitch....I had a few clients last year for whom I made and delivered prepared meals. They generally cost 25 - 30 bucks and fed 4. I'm thinking about resurrecting the service once school starts - 3 choices, one delivery a week.
Thoughts???? Interest????

Gazpacho

4 plum tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 red pepper
1 med cucumber, deseeded
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp lemon juice.
2 cups tomato juice

Whizz in Blender. Garnish with croutons and diced avocado.
Make it a meal with some grilled shrimp or use is as a sauce for grilled fish - halibut, tilapia etc.

Croutons: So easy to make at home and SOOOOOO much better than the packaged kind
1/2 loaf crusty bread, cubed ( the staler the better)
3 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat oil to med-high in large pan. Add bread and toss around until brown and crispy. Drain on paper towel and season with salt and pepper - you will never go back!!!!

Black Bean Salad/Salsa

2 cans black beans
3 tomatoes, diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 avocado, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Toss all ingredients together and serve over lettuce. Or as a salsa. Or on top of scrambled eggs. Or......wrap in a tortilla with some grilled steak, grated cheddar and lettuce....

Recipes

Mom's Gone Wild Part II - A fun girls night in WP - great food, wine and company - thanks ladies!

Garlicky, Lemony, Shrimp Pasta

1 lb linguine

1 lb shrimp

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 lemons, zested and juiced

1 bunch flat leaf parsely, chopped

olive oil

2 tbs butter

In a large pot, cook pasta in lots of boiling salted water. Drain when al dente and toss with a few teaspoons olive oil to prevent it from sticking.

While pasta is cooking, heat butter in a large skillet over med-high heat.

Add garlic and sautee until soft and slight transluscent- don't brown or it will be bitter.

Turn up heat to high and add shrimp. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Sautee about 2 minutes and flip. Add lemon juice.

Cook another 2 minutes until shrimp are just pink.

Remove from heat.

Place pasta in a large bowl. Stir in shrimp, lemon zest and parsley. Add olive oil and adjust seasoning as necessary. Sprinkle a little parsley on top and serve with crusty bread and salad.

We were treated to Karen's delicious arugula, parmesan and toasted walnut salad with vinaigrette. Delish!!

Estes Park

We are staying in a beautiful cabin that belongs to a true foodie. Her kitchen shelves are lined with cookbooks so I have been buried deep in cuisines from around the world. Funny thing is I always go for the French everytime. So here are a few I have been playing with in the delightful gourmet kitchen equipped with a gorgeous Viking stove....heaven!

Tarte Tatin

1 package puff pastry

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp butter - room temp

3 lbs halved apricots or sliced fresh peaches

Preheat oven to 400

In a heavy, oven proof skillet, make a caramel with sugar and water. Heat over med high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture becomes golden. Whisk in butter. (Mixture will bubble and hiss a bit, keep stirring to calm it down)

Place fruit in concentric circles into the caramel.

Roll out 1 sheet of puff pastry into a disk a bit larger than the skillet and place over fruit. Carefully tuck in edges around the fruit.

Bake in oven until pastry is puffed and golden.

Remove and let sit for 30 minutes. Place large round plate over pan and carefully turn out tarte from skillet onto plate. I usually use 2 oven gloves.

Serve warm or at room temp.

Salade Nicoise (Serves 4)

1 1/2 lbs tuna steaks

1 large bag salad greens

1 bunch asparagus

1/2 lb green beans

2 large tomatoes, quartered

2 hard boiled eggs, quartered

1/2 cup artichoke hearts

1 lb yukon gold potatoes*

1/2 cup Nicoise olives (or kalamata)

In a large pot, bring potatoes to boil.

Add asparagus and cook for 3 minutes in boiling water and remove and blanch in ice water. Do the same with the green beens. Cook potatoes until tender, Drain, cool and slice.

Season tuna and grill steaks about 2 minutes a side on a hot grill so center is still rare.

To assemble: On a large platter

Place salad greens over platter

Layer sliced potatoes on top.

Layer asparagus and green beans.

Slice tuna and criss cross over beans and asparagus

Place quartered tomatoes and eggs alternately around rim of platter.

Scatter artichoke hearts and olives over the top.

*For a low carb option, you can use roasted beets instead of potatoes*

Serve with French Vinagrette

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup vegetable oil

salt and pepper

Stir together garlic, mustard and vinegar in bottom of a bowl.

Slowly drizzle in oils whisking constantly so the dressing thickens and absorbs the oil (emmulsifies). Season to taste with salt and pepper

The Happy Fam

Here we are - this is for you Mom!

Potager.....

I have been dragging my feet on this one. I feel like I have been let down by an old friend and keep wishing it weren't true but a week has gone by and I must dish.

We had visitors in town last week, Walton and Jeffrey, the newlyweds! and decided to take them to Potager for dinner given our past wonderful experiences there. We walked in and waited what seemed like 10 minutes for someone to acknowledge us and finally take us to a table. Not a good start. We should have made a run for it then. Fortunately we were seated on the patio and our orginial angst began to slip away. Drinks arrived and we began to look at the menu. I know they are in season but there was an abundance of fava beans and spring peas and not much else. The menu items all suffered from being too verbose-it was so easy to get lost in the verbage of each dish you forgot where you started. After much deliberation and a little help from our server, we ordered. And the wait began....

Twenty minutes later, 2 bread servings later...Appetizers

Asparagus Soup - when it arrived it was a beautiful bright green soup with a tiny dollop of cilantro cream in the middle. When I tasted it was watery, underseasoned and the best part about it was the tiny, insufficient cream. For this I paid $8. Ouch.
Farmers Vegetable Salad was about the most boring salad I've seen, peas, radishes, jicama, baby carrots and that was it - very light dressing that also lacked flavor or seasoning.
English Pea and Mint Pesto Risotto - delicious, delectable and underseasoned - oh no again - did they run out of S&P in the kitchen that night?

We waited a good 40 minutes after our apps were cleared for our entrees. Our server all but disappeared once the apps had been served and we were then "taken care of" by random others in the dining room. We were the table that time forgot.

Entrees
Buttermilk Fried Frogs Legs - "mushy" - unforgivable
Smoked Cod - tiny portions of two bits of cod and you guessed it, peas and fava beans
Duck Confit Salad - the duck was perfectly cooked and delicious BUT - the duck pate croutons were sloppily thrown on the side of the plate, the salad with underdressed and underseasoned and again, thrown on the plate. (For $26+ I want some composition and care)
Steak - Huge hunk of meat (not a recognizable cut of steak) piled ontop a huge crostini (charred leftover house bread), a tiny portion of green tomato gratin which was underwhelming when it could have been so good.

Had we been alone without guests, I would have made a stink. But my good manners got the better of me that night.

We skipped the dessert offerings and headed for Liks which restored our outlook.

All I could think of as we left was that I wished we had gone to Tables. I am not ready to write off Potager, I think the chef was out of the kitchen that night, perhaps they were at the end of the menu cycle for Spring and everyone was bored of the food. I certainly was. There is no excusing the SLOW and inattentive service and that can be a deal breaker for me. Next time, I'll call and make sure the Chef is in.