Stuffed Peppers

Four colorful peppers and an heirloom tomato provided the inspiration for this recipe.

I stole the recipe for the filling from my grandmother, who used the same in her Golabkis. 

I stole the idea for cutting the peppers lengthwise from Chef John, who opines that this is a much better way to serve this dish as it "improves the meat to pepper ratio."  It also provides twice as many servings from your peppers...

The idea for topping off the dish with a slice of vine ripened heirloom tomato with parmesan cheese came from the Tomato itself - As I was thinking of how to finish the dish, I noticed it proudly sitting on the counter.  I think I actually heard it say "You've got to work me into this Dish!"

Prep Time:  20 Minutes

Cook Time:  1 Hour and 15 Minutes

Servings:  8

Ingredients:

Four large peppers - any color

1 pound of "Meatloaf Mix" ground meat - Beef, Pork, and Veal

1 onion chopped fine

1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 cup partially cooked rice (or) 1 cup fully cooked barley

1 egg

1-1/2 cups freshly shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Divided

1 tablespoon butter

salt and pepper

2 to 3 cups of Homemade marinara sauce 

Method:

• Partially Cook the rice and then immediately cool - about 8 minutes.
• Cut the peppers in half and discard the stem, seeds, and any large ribs.
• Saute the onion in the butter until softened and slightly carmelized, let cool.
• Poor the marinara into the bottom of a large deep casserole dish.
• Combine the cooled onions, meat, egg, rice, seasoning, and 1 cup of the cheese.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Evenly divide the meat mixture amongst the peppers.  It is OK if the filling goes a little  beyond the boundaries of the pepper - the egg in the filling will keep that under control as it bakes.

• Place the peppers into casserole dish and top each with a 1/4" thick slice of tomato
• Evenly divide the rest of the cheese and place atop each tomato
• Garnish cheese with freshly chopped parsley
• Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 20-30 minutes, or until the peppers are very tender and the cheese is golden brown.
• Let rest for 10 minutes or so and then serve.

Recipe Links:

Here is a video recipe from Chef John where I got the idea for cutting the peppers lengthwise.

Here is another non-video version of the same recipe.

And, of course, here's a link to the original golabki recipe.

Steelhead "En Papillote"

Although I Stole this idea and technique for poaching fish from Chef John,  He Stole it from the French - En Papillote means to cook "In Parchment".

Prep Time:  20 minutes

Total Time:  40 minutes

Servings:  2

Ingredients:

(2) 8oz center cut fish - Steelhead or Salmon 

(12) large asparagus spears (blanched)

(10) small fingerling or new potatoes (pre-cooked)

Method:

• Blanch the asparagus and pre-cook the potatoes
• Cut two sheets of parchment into large heart shapes (the surface area of half your "heart" should be a little bigger than the size of a large dinner plate)
• Spread Olive Oil over both sides of your parchment heart.
• Place fish, asparagus, and potatoes in the center portion of one side of the heart.  Season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle with Olive Oil

• Fold over opposite side of paper and Starting at the top of the heart overlap, fold, crease, overlap, fold, crease, overlap fold, crease, etc. until all the way around to the bottom.  Pinch the last crease and fold under to lock in place.
• Place bundle on a baker's sheet and cook at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.  Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting open.

Recipe Links:

Here is the terrifyingly easy original video.

Here is how to blanch asparagus.

As recommended in the original recipe, a light mustard aioli goes great with this dish.

A simple Mother's Day meal

Heavenly Breakfast Crepes

These breakfast crepes are a delicious and fun bundle of pancakes, bacon, and eggs.  Drizzled with pure maple syrup, you think you have died and went to heaven they are so good.  We didn't "steal" this recipe per se, although I'm sure it is out there somewhere...

Prep Time:  20 minutes

Total Time:  30 minutes

Servings:  4

Ingredients:


enough prepared crepe mix to prepare 8 crepes. 
8 slices of market fresh bacon
3 eggs
fresh pure maple syrup

Method:

• Cook bacon.  I place mine in the oven on a sheet of parchment paper for about 20 minutes.
• While bacon is cooking, prepare crepes according to package directions using a small non-stick fry pan.
• Mix up eggs and cook, one at a time, in the same no-stick fry pan used to prepare the crepes. 
• Take one half of a prepared egg and one slice of bacon and place along the edge of the crepe.  Gently roll crepe from the filling side to the other and plate with the seam side down.
• Drizzle with maple syrup and garnish with fresh mint (if desired).  Serve two to a plate.

Recipe Links:

Here is a great, no-fuss way to bake bacon.

Cajun Catfish

This year for Christmas I received a couple of All-Clad fry pans from my beautiful wife and a cookbook from my thoughtful son.  In this season of giving, the two of them found something for me that they are sure to enjoy for years to come...


Prep Time:  10 minutes
Total Time:  30 minutes
Servings:  4

Ingredients:

4  6-ounce fresh catfish fillets, about 1/2 inch thick

3 to 4 teaspoons blackened seasoning

2/3 cup panko bread crumbs

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, diced (1/2 cup)

1 medium red or yellow sweet pepper, diced (3/4 cup)

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups of cooked barley or rice (about 1 cup dry)

Method:

• Rinse fish; pat dry with paper towels.  Sprinkle fish with 2-3 teaspoons of the blackened seasoning.  Place bread crumbs in a shallow dish.  Coat both sides of fish with the bread crumbs.
• In a large skillet or fry pan cook fish fillets in 2 tablespoons of the hot oil over medium-low to medium heat about 6-8 minutes or until golden brown and fish flakes easily when tested with a fork, carefully turning once.  Remove from pan and keep warm.
• Add onion, sweet pepper, garlic and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet.  Cook and stir until vegetables are tender.
• Stir barley or rice and the remaining 1 teaspoon blackened seasoning into vegetable mixture; heat through. 
• Divide mixture evenly onto 4 warmed dinner plates.  Serve fish over mixture.

Recipe Links:

Here is a great recipe for a homemade blackened seasoning.

Stuffies

A staple of New England summer cuisine, these stuffed clams are known regionally as Stuffies.  This stuffed clam recipe is a first for me.  It is my first stolen non-recipe.  What?  It was inspired by a chef who touts a "No Recipe Lifestyle".  Fresh ingredients and sound culinary techniques provide the foundation for his dishes.  I soon found out that I was on my own and was forced to improvise.  The results were fantastic.

Local fresh clams, right from the sea

I bumped into Chef Todd Mohr online when doing a search for "What to do with 200 fresh clams".  We had an exceptional morning of clamming and I wanted some inspiration, I wanted to do something besides the same old steamers and chowder.  I also love classic stuffed clams and always wanted to make this dish.

Plan on shucking about 3 raw clams for every 1 stuffed clam

Given the fact I had no recipe to follow, I was forced to carefully review the techniques.  I will say there are a few things key to the success of this dish.  First, start with the freshest clams you can get.  Second, plan on shucking about 3 raw clams for every 1 stuffed clam.  Third, lightly pulse the raw clams in a food processor prior to mixing into the stuffing.  This breaks down the largest chewy parts of the clams and better incorporates the clams into the mix.

Clam broth, lightly minced chowder clams, and raw whole shucked clams.
I used the raw whole shucked clams for the stuffies.

Prep Time:  About 1 hour (Includes shucking clams time)

Total Time:  About 2 hours

Servings:  33 clams

Ingredients:

100 fresh clams

1/4 cup of butter

1 cup of panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Freshly ground black pepper, basil, and oregano (to taste)

Thin sliced bacon (optional)

Method:

• Shuck 100 or so clams.  Clean and reserve a third, or 33 of the largest shells.  Separate the clams from the juice.  Reserve the clam juice for another use.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
• Lightly pulse the clams in a food processor - do not  over process.
• In a large sautee pan over medium heat, melt the butter - do not brown the butter.
• Add the clams to the pan.  After a few moments the clams will release much of their own moisture and will begin to poach in their own liquid. Watch the temperature to ensure the clams do not boil or simmer, but continue to poach.
• Stir in the panko bread crumbs and the parmesan cheese.  This is the thickener and will soak up most of the liquid.
• Taste the mixture in the pan, and add fresh ground black pepper and other seasonings to taste.  Once the seasoning is just right, add the fresh chopped aromatic parsley.
• Place the empty shells on a baking sheet and evenly divide the stuffing mixture into the shells.  You can place a small piece of raw bacon onto each clam if you wish. 
• Place clams in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until clams are bubbling around the edges and the bacon, if used, is cooked through.

You can also freeze these stuffed clams for cooking at a later date.  Just extend the time the clams are in the oven to 30-35 minutes or so.

Recipe Links:

You will need to learn how to shuck clams, here's how.

Here is the original recipe video which inspired this post.

Creme Filled Cupcakes

Inspired by one of my son's schoolmates, these creme filled cupcakes are fun and easy to make.  

Prep Time:  30 minutes

Total Time:  about 2 hours

Servings:  24

Ingredients:

1 package (18-1/4 ounces) cake mix, any variety

Prepared frosting, any variety

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 1/2 cups (7.5 ounce jar) marshmallow creme

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Prepare cake mix batter according to the package directions for cupcakes
• Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean
• Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely

While cupcakes are baking in the oven prepare the filling

• In a medium bowl, whisk marshmallow creme and butter until smooth
• Chill until slightly firm, 15 to 30 minutes
• Once cupcakes have cooled you can inject the filling

A plastic straw taped to a piping tip makes filling the cakes a breeze

• Transfer filling mixture into a piping bag fitted with a special piping tip (see above).
• Insert tip into the top of each cupcake and squeeze to fill.  You will see the top of the cupcake bulge a little.  Some practice will help you determine how much to put in - Too much will crack the top and you could explode your cupcake.
• You can use the remaining filling to decorate the tops of the cupcakes or just use a prepared frosting as I did here.

Recipe Links:


Here's the original post which gave me the inspiration for the filling.

Shrimp-and-Crab Gumbo

The other day I found myself thumbing through an old issue of Coastal Living magazine.  In that Fall 2010 issue I found this recipe.  Enjoy!

Prep Time:  40 Minutes

Cooking Time:  1 hour, 15 minutes

Servings:  12

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided

1 (16 ounce) package andouille sausage, sliced

(next time I will use fresh sausage with casings removed)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 white onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

4 large celery ribs, chopped

1 medium head of garlic, about 8 cloves, crushed

3 cups fish stock or chicken broth

1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 pound fresh okra, sliced and baked

6 fresh thyme sprigs

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne

1/4 teaspoon old bay seasoning

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined if desired

1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves

1 tablespoon file powder, optional 

Okra is a key ingredient in any Gumbo.
The dish derives its name from the Bantu word for Okra (kingombo).

Method:

• Pre-bake fresh okra for 20 minutes or so in a 325 degree oven. Transfer to a plate.
• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large heavy soup pot.  Add sausage, and cook 3-4 minutes or until browned on all sides. Transfer sausage to a plate.
• Add remaining oil to drippings in pot to equal 1/4 cup. Whisk in flour. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, 20 minutes or so until mixture is a dark reddish-brown. This oil and flour mixture is called a "Roux" and adds a richness of flavor to the dish.  If you burn the roux by mistake, through it away and start the dish again.



The vegetable "Holy Trinity" of celery, bell peppers, and onions (w/garlic).

• Stir in onion and next 4 ingredients, and saute over medium heat 10 minutes or until softened. Stir in stock and next 9 ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, 45 minutes.
• Stir in sausage and shrimp, and cook 5 minutes or until shrimp are done.  Add crab, and simmer until heated. Remove bay leaves, and stir in parsley and file powder.
• Serve gumbo over rice or grits. Season with hot sauce, if desired.

File powder, also called gumbo file, is a spicy herb made from the dried and ground leaves of the sassafras tree. Native to eastern North America, it adds a distinctive, earthy flavor and texture.  It can also act as a thickening agent.

Recipe Links:

Here is a link to the original recipe as published in Coastal Living, October 2010.

Here is a video of Scott Hargrove making gumbo.