Apple Cream Cheese Palmiers

One of the things I don't like to do is throw food away. If you remember the other day when I made my Apple Calvados Cheese Cake, I had some leftover apple slices that I had cooked. I also had an extra package of cream cheese. I decided to come up with a little dessert (great for breakfast) that I thought you might like. This is very simple to make and it utilizes any of the leftovers you had from the cheese cake recipe, should you have chosen to make it - or if you make it in the future. I decided to call this Apple Cream Cheese Palmiers. What an original name, LOL. OK, here are the leftovers I had:

Ashe Anar Soup - I Did It My Way

One of the things that I want to accomplish in this blog is to introduce you to new dishes and how to use ingredients that you are familiar with in a way that you might not be so accustomed to. This week it's pomegranates. Pomegranates are an interesting fruit, one of the few fruits where you eat the seeds and throw out everything else. But it has a variety of uses, I found out. Earlier in the week, I used pomegranate to make a cranberry sauce and this weekend I was thumbing around and found that it can be used in making soups. One of these is Ashe Anar, also called The Pomegranate Soup. I want to share this recipe with you; however, I want to make a couple of changes from the traditional recipe.

First, I am using ground lamb instead of ground beef. You could also use lamb shanks as well. I think lamb adds a richer flavor to this soup and combines very well with pomegranate. Second, I am using yellow lentils as opposed to split peas. Let's face it, the yellow lentils go great with lamb and yet they don't overpower the other ingredients as much as split peas might. I also have read that beets and their flowerettes are used. Since I don't like beets, I decided to use baby zuchini with their flowerettes attached. Other than that, the traditional recipe remains intact. I'm sure you're either getting tired of turkey leftovers or you've run out of ideas on what to do with those leftovers. This will give you a nice break. Here's what we need:

Save The Turkey Leftovers For The Weekend - Make Something Simple Today... Seafood Stir Fried Rice

After a day of stuffing our bellies with turkey, dressing, and all the gravy we could eat, it's nice to give it a rest on Friday and eat something on the lighter side. I love Chinese Food and adore seafood. I am always trying to come up with new variations of the two, but I always come back to my favorite, stir frying shrimp and scallops along with savory vegetables and ... oh, need I say more? This dish is so flavorful and a perfect dish when home alone and you want to cook for nobody else but yourself.


Serves 2 but you'll want to eat it all yourself

1 cup short grain rice
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 pound bay shrimp
1/4 pound bay scallops (small ones)
2 medium shallots, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 green onions, finely sliced
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons pimientos
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon course ground black pepper
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped

1.In a pot, bring chicken stock and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to a boil, add rice, and cook covered, reducing heat to low. Cook according to directions (about 18 to 20 minutes. When cooked, gently stir using a fork. Set aside.

2.In a saute pan, saute onions, shallots, celery, and garlic in the 2 remaining tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. Saute for about 3 minutes.

3.Now add the shrimp and scallops and saute, stirring for about 30 seconds, then add pimientos and green onions, stirring for another 30 seconds. Add the water.

4.Now add the sesame oil and the cooked rice, stir well so all ingredients are incorporated and rice is well coated. Add the salt and pepper, along with the sesame seeds. Stir for about 20 seconds and transfer to a serving platter. Serve hot.
 
Now how easy was that? If you want to feed a group of 4, just double the quantities of the ingredients. If you want, you may also add some shredded bbq pork, which can be found pre cooked in your grocery store. After a long day of tedious cooking for Thanksgiving, it's nice to give it a rest and make something simple. Save the turkey leftovers for the weekend!!

Apple Calvados Cheese Cake

You will recall that a while back, I created a recipe for a wonderful cheese cake. I  decided that I would experiement with that  recipe today and came up with something totally new. I call it Apple Calvados Cheese Cake and from the smells in the kitchen, I think it's going to be a hit on Thanksgiving. I know that I had promised that I would post this today and I tried my hardest to make it available to you by early afternoon, but I didn't get a chance to; therefore, as late as it is tonight, I decided it was too good to wait until tomorrow. I had to share it with you by the off chance that you might want to prepare it for your guests on Thursday. Don't be intimidated by the ingredient list. It's really easier than it looks. The time you spend will be greatly repaid by the compliments you will get. Here's what we need:

The Topping

5 medium crispy green apples
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of apple butter
1 cube of butter
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/4 cup of Calvados
5 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cup of water

The Crust

1 1/2 cups of sifted flour + 2 tablespoons for your cutting board
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of Calvados (or apple brandy)
1 1/2 cubes of butter, room temperature and sliced
2 egg yolks

The Filling

4 packages of cream cheese (8 oz. packages)
1 cup of ricotta cheese
3/4 cups of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 tablespoons of Calvados
4 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of corn starch
4 eggs + 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup of heavy whipping cream
Dash of salt

An Absolute Explosion of Flavor - Crab Orzo "Risotto"

You're going to want this. You're going to want this bad! I had no idea that what I was creating at Noon was going to have such full flavors. I mean let's face it, crab is mild, orzo itself is bland; however, when I combined it all with the other ingredients, flavors exploded. I took my time making this, making sure that I stirred and stirred and watched it every step of the way. I've had requests to create recipes for Dungeness Crab and I wanted to make sure this recipe turned out right. All the while I wanted to make sure that it was also going to be easy for everyone to make. Easy ingredients are also included. Check them out:

1cup of Orzo
8 ounces of Dungeness Crab meat, I prefer the legs and claws
4 cups of fish stock
1/4 cup of dry white wine
1/4 cup of sweet Marsala wine
1/2 cup of cream
1 medium shallot, finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated Parm
1/4 cup large capers
2 green onions, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
4 tablespoons of olive oil

In a 10 inch pan, spray bottom with cooking spray, add the olive oil and heat over medium high heat. I should mention at this point that I assume you have done your prep work and everything is chopped, minced, and grated. OK, now saute the shallots and garlic, lowering heat to medium. Saute for a couple of minutes and then add the orzo. Stir well so that orzo is well coated with the oil. Continue cooking for another minute or two, constantly stirring. Once you sense that the orzo is just beginning to stick to the pan, add the Marsala and the white wine and stir well.

Next you want to start adding the fish stock one cup at a time. Add the first cup, stir, and bring to a slow boil. Turn heat down a bit so that liquid doesn't boil too hard. Continue to stir for about 3 minutes and then add the second cup of fish stock. Reduce heat to medium low and bring back to a slow boil. Let it slow boil for about 6 to 8 more minutes. The orzo should begin to soften and liquid turning creamy. This is what you want to happen. Cooking orzo is a slow process and you want to constantly stir and keep adding moisture because in the end, you want the orzo to be cooked al dente with a creamy liquid.

Go ahead and add 1/2 cup more of the fish stock, continually stirring, this time stir like you are folding whipped cream into a batter, you know what I mean? Keep an eye on the liquid. As it reduces, keep adding a little more until you have used all 4 cups of the stock. Once all the stock is added, the orzo should have been cooking for about 12 to 15 minutes. Taste test the orzo for doneness. It should be very close to al dente but not quite.

Once you have reached that almost al dente finish, begin to add the cheese a little at a time, all the while stirring so that cheese melts nicely into the sauce. Begin to add the cream and ...... yes, continue to stir. When the rest of the cream has been added, lower heat to low or simmer. Add the capers and green onions and blend well. Add the pepper and the crab and carefully stir so that crab doesn't break apart too badly. You want to have some nice chunks. Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes before you plate it. You may grate some additional cheese once plated, maybe even a pinch of parsley for garnis. A nice finishing touch to this meal is a nice tossed salad of mixed greens. I had this for lunch and guess what? I"m going to have it for dinner too. This is crazy tasty! And did you notice you didn't even have to add salt?? How cool is that?

My First Cranberry Sauce... You Be The Judge.

I was recently surprised to find that cranberries can be found in my birthplace of France. I always heard my Mom tell me that there were no cranberries there and I always believed her. But then again, she's of the mindset that if she hasn't eaten something, then it must not exist. Well, as a famous American cranberry eater once said, "trust but verify", I decided to check it out for myself. Mom, you are wrong. Seeing how we argue a lot, you can't imagine how nice that makes me feel to softly spit out that little word to her, WRONG. It turns out that they're called canneberge (sometimes called airelles des marais). The berry is smaller and more tart than the traditional cranberry we find here. But none the less, they are cranberries, thank you very much.

So along comes this little Frenchman who has never made cranberry sauce in his life before and is going to try his hand at making something that, let's face it, Americans are the best at, the making of cranberry sauce. This little guy is ballzy! After all, it is Thanksgiving and I wanted to make a couple of dishes that are traditionally American for this most American of holidays. And you can thank me for talking my Mom out of making Escargots as an appetizer. Can you believe that? What Pilgrims was she thinking about?

And so, I have gone out on a limb and the limb did not break. With that said, I would like to share my recipe for Cranberry Sauce with a little Francais tossed in. You be the judge and let me know if I should have simply fallen off the tree or if I created a keeper.

For this experiment, you will need:

4 cups fresh cranberries, cleaned and washed
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup fresh cut oranges
1/2 cup Triple Sec (orange liquor)
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon raspberry preserves
2/3 cup water

Begin by tasting one of these little berries. Yes, do as I did and then wonder how the heck can something so tart and bitter become so good. Just kidding, you don't have to do that.  Start by adding the water,cranberries, and pomegranate juice into a sauce pan and bring to a light boil over medium high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium low and add the Triple Sec, stir, and then add the sugar. Continue to slow boil for about 15 minutes, as you will notice the berries begin to break down. Continue to cook on low, stirring occasionally. If you need to, you may add 1/4 cup more water, but I don't think you'll need to. After cranberries have been slow cooking for about 30 minutes, add the orange pieces, the orange zest, the marmalade, and the raspberry preserves, and stir to blend all ingredients together. Continue to slow cook for about 15 more minutes, stirring every few minutes. Taste for sweetness. If it's still too tart for your liking, you may either add 1/4 cup more of the Triple Sec or another couple of tablespoons of sugar. I used an additional shot of Triple Sec, but it never made it to the sauce, if you get my drift. Anyway, I digress. Shut the heat off, cover, and let it sit until cooled. Transfer to a storage container and refridgerate until Thanksgiving.

There you have it, my version of Cranberry Sauce. I hope you like it. I did test it out by the way. I'm happy to report that it was pretty darned good! My second contribution to Thanksgiving Dinner this Thursday is going to be another creation of mine that I've never done before and that will be my Apple Calvados Cheese Cake, topped with caramelized sliced apples. This will be posted on Wednesday, so look for it please. Wishing you all a most wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Plain and Simple.... POT ROAST

What's not to like about Pot Roast? This is a dish that can be found on the dinner tables of most cultures around the world or at least  a variation  of it. Whether it be pork, beef, or lamb, pot roasting is basically the use of braising, meaning searing at a high temperature and then slow cooking covered in various amounts of liquid. One thing is for certain, it's a way of taking a cheap cut of meat and making it taste so delicious and be so tender.

Everyone seems to have their own recipe for Pot Roast and in most cases, it's a recipe that is handed down from generation to generation. I would venture to say that you make it like your mom made it and your grandmother before her. My mom would make Pot Roast with carrots, potatoes, turnips, onions, and mushrooms. She would use very little beef broth and allow the natural juices from the fat of the meat steam cook the vegetables in the oven. It would be served with a hot Dijon mustard on the side and the juice lightly poured over the vegetables. Oh so good it was. I've made it that way myself; however, I also like making it the way I am about to show you, by slow cooking the vegetables with the meat and then processing the vegetable and juice until it becomes a puree. I cook the potatoes separately this time around by cutting them in halves, sauteing the cut side in olive oil and then finishing with a baking in the oven during the final hour of the Pot Roast cooking. They are freaking great that way! OK, here's what we need for a Pot Roast for 4 people: 

2 to 3 lb. Chuck roast (should be at least 3 inches thick)
2 Large carrots (12" x 1" is a large carrot), cut in 2 inch lengths
2 Large yellow onions, quartered
2 Celery stocks, cut in 2 inch lengths
8 Cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Medium parsnip, cut in 2 inch lengths
2 Cups of white button mushrooms, left whole, stems trimmed
1 Tablespoon of Dijon style mustard
1 Tablespoon of tomato paste
1/4 Cup of chopped parsley
4 Large Russet potatoes, skin on, clean ( do not cut in halves until just before sauteing)
2 1/2 Cups of Burgundy wine (or your choice of Pinot or Merlot)
2 1/2 Cups of beef stock
1 Teaspoon of Pepper and 1 teaspoon of salt
2 Tablespoons of flour and 1 Tablespoon of garlic powder
1/4 Cup of olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350. In a small bowl, mix the flour, garlic powder, and 1/2 of the pepper. Make sure your roast has been patted dry. Take a tablespoon of the olive oil and rub the entire surface of your roast so it is well coated. Next, roll or rub the flour and garlic powder mix all over the meat. There should be enough of it so that the roast will be well coated. Over medium high heat, heat up 1/3 of the remaining olive oil in a large saute pan and sear all sides of the roast until golden brown. This locks in the juices and flavors. Transfer the roast onto a large enough "dutch" oven to fit the roast and the vegetables. You can also use a large pot. Now bring the stove top heat to medium and saute the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in the same frying pan, stirring frequently. Saute for a couple of minutes. Remove the ingredients from the pan and transfer it to the dutch oven. Now deglaze the frying pan by pouring half the wine and carefully and slowly scrape the bottom as the wine comes to a boil. Turn heat down a bit and continue to cook for another couple of minutes.

Either on the stovetop or microwave, heat up the beef broth and unused wine. Add the rest of the vegetables (except the potatoes) to the dutch oven and around the roast. Pour the wine from the frying pan over the roast and the heated remainder of the wine and broth should be poured over the vegetables. The liquid should fill the pot a couple of inches deep, give or take. Anyway, finish by sprinkling the rest of the pepper and the salt over the vegetables, cover and transfer to the oven. Reduce oven temperature to 300 and slow cook for 2 hours. After one hour, turn the roast over and stir the vegetables.

After the first couple of hours, add the remaining olive oil to a saute pan and saute the potatoes cut side down over medium high heat. Saute until nice and golden brown. Transfer to a baking dish and slide in the rack below the Pot Roast pot. Increase oven temperature to 325 and continue baking for one final hour. This should give the potatoes time to cook nicely.

When 3 hours are up, remove the Pot Roast and set aside. Transfer the vegetables to a food processor and add some of the liquid and puree for about 30 seconds. Return puree to the pot with remainder of liquid, add the tomato paste and Dijon mustard and stir well so everything is incorporated. At this time, I should mention that if you can spare some of the mushrooms from being pureed, that would be nice. Anyway, arrange the potatoes around the roast on a serving platter and pour some of the sauce over the roast and potatoes. Sprinkle some of the parsley over the roast for garnish. The rest of the liquid can be transferred to a serving bowl and parsley stirred in. Slice the roast in 1 inch thick slices and serve with 2 potato halves per person, along with a nice helping of extra sauce. Dijon mustard can be served on the side, as it tastes wonderful with the meat. Have a nice loaf of peasant's bread to sop up the extra sauce, you don't want any of it to get away!