Grilled Tuna With Bell Pepper Salsa

So pretty.

Fish has always seemed a bit mystical to me, most people I know never cook the stuff. A good tuna steak is pretty cheap, and very tasty. This recipe is pretty foolproof, and delicious. It's great way to get into cooking a good cut of fish, and the fresh peppers are just coming into season, which means they'll be cheap and yummy.

Ingredients:
~3 cups de-seeded chopped tomato (any will work, here. Pick one you like. I prefer Roma tomatoes, or Campari tomatoes, on the vine. For the love of everything tasty, do NOT refrigerate them before you use them. That makes them mealy, more on that in a later post.)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
2 jalapeno chiles, seeded and chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped
5 tblsp lime juice
1 tsp olive oil
4 boneless skinless tuna steaks

In a bowl, mix the peppers, cilantro, chiles, garlic, and 2 tblsp of the lime juice. Cover, and let it hang out for a while so the flavors mix. I'd make this the night before, if possible. It'll soften the peppers. It forms a kind of ceviche. The citric acid cooks the peppers, without losing any of the vitamins or flavors. Add the tomatoes at the last minute, if you can, to keep them fresh and bright.

Mix the remaining lime juice with the oil. Rinse the fish and pat it dry, then brush both sides with the lime mixture. Fire up your grill for medium heat, and slap some olive oil on the grill's grate so the fish doesn't stick. Cook for about 2 minutes, flip, then cook for another 2 minutes. It should be browned but still a pale pink in the center. When you buy fresh tuna, you *can* cook it to a doneness. There's no "this fish is cooked enough to not get me sick" with fresh tuna, so cook it like a steak. If you're nervous? Cook it until it flakes when you push it. Me? I like it a bit more on the mid rare side.

Put it on a plate, top it with the salsa. Easy. This plays best with a good tossed salad, since it's already amazingly healthy. Field greens in a light vinaigrette is my favorite bed to put this on.

Grilled Shrimp Kebabs With Mojo Sauce

Here's a late addition, since I forgot to update today. This stuff is awesome. It's spicy, and tangy, but not overpowering. The mojo sauce is versatile, and a great showcase of the often-neglected carribean food which is just outside of our borders, yet most Americans are completely unaware of.

Ingredients:
Mojo sauce:
1/2 cup orange juice (bonus points if you squeeze your own)
2 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp chopped de-seeded habanero (that's probably gonna be a quarter of a pepper, for those of you playing along at home)
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tblsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tblsp dijon mustard
S+P to taste

Mix it all together. Simple? Yep.

Shrimp:
2 tblsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
8 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 skewers. If wooden, soak them in water first for a few hours

Mix olive oil and garlic. Brush the shrimp with it and cook for about 2 minutes a side on a hot grill, brushing with the extra oil as you go. You know the shrimp is done right when it turns red. Really, I'm not sure how to describe done shrimp except to say that it looks done. If you've eaten cooked shrimp, that's the color you want to look for. Serve topped with a tiny bit of the mojo sauce.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

This is the easiest recipe you'll ever make. I'm including tips on how to roast your own red pepper, just in case you're curious and ever want to try it. You can use the jarred kind, too, just as easily. I use the real stuff for cost, but it's really not that much of a difference. lol I just like being difficult and doing everything the hard way, and in my experience the fresh roasted stuff just tastes better, since you can season it yourself.

Yum.

Ingredients
1 15 oz can of chick peas (garbanzo beans)
2 tblsp tahini (sesame paste. feel free to sub peanut butter, or cashew butter, or just don't bother. It helps but isn't 100% needed. A pinch of nutmeg can do the job, too.)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 cloves chopped garlic (to taste)
1 tsp olive oil (extra virgin would work)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 roasted red bell pepper (See below)


To roast the red pepper, set your oven on 450. You're gonna want to cut the top off of the pepper and pull out the heart and seeds, since they'll make it taste pretty funky if you roast it with them inside of it. Lop the seeds off of the top of the pepper, and use it as a nice little cap for when you're roasting. It'll keep all of the flavor in, until the pepper softens enough that the cap falls out, by which point the spices will be infused well enough that you don't need it anyway. For extra flavor, put about a half teaspoon of oil (I use olive, but you can use whatever you want, really. Note, however, that extra virgin olive oil kinda sucks for this purpose because of its incredibly low smoke point. It'll taste burnt, and not in the delicious way the rest of this does), and a pinch of cumin and cayenne pepper. Swirl it around to cover the inside of the pepper. Then, put the pepper on a baking tray (you might wanna use some foil under it, this gets messy) and bake it for about a half hour to 45 minutes, turning occasionally, until the skin is black and the meat of the pepper is nice and soft. It'll look burnt. That's intentional. To finish, simply split it, lay it flat, and peel the skin off. I keep some of these around in light oil, when possible. Cut em into strips and they're downright awesome on sandwiches, especially grilled ones.

To make the hummus? Mix it all in a cuisinart until perfectly smooth. The flavor's pretty awesome when it's freshly made, but it's even better if you let it hang out in the fridge overnight. A great garnish for this is some diced roasted red pepper (for texture, since it'll mix in as the dip is eaten) and some green onions. However, I like being an oddball with those. Instead of the typical rings people usually slice the green onions into, I like slicing them down into quarter inch julienne strips. It just looks nicer.

Mister Sauce

This is my specialty. It doesn't have a name. It started out as a cardinale sauce, but it's kinda taken on a life of it's own over the years and couldn't be farther from the original if it tried. This is the culmination of about 4 years of work, perfecting it, weekly.

I think I'm going to now name it. Ladies and gentlemen, I present.... Mister Sauce. Mister Sauce is spicy. Mister Sauce will climb up into your throat, grab your taste buds, and stab them. He is also sweet. His spiciness creeps up on you gently, like a lover with a straight razor. Normally, I tell you to experiment. DO NOT TOY WITH MISTER SAUCE. He gets angry when you mess up his suit. If you want to make a different version of him, call it something else. And no "dr sauce" or "reverend sauce". There is only one Mister Sauce, and he works alone.

Mister Sauce does not like to be photographed. This is the closest approximation to Mister Sauce I could find. I had a picture of him on my laptop and my desktop and they both died at the same time, and wouldn't work properly for weeks. This is the first time he will see the light of day. Use him carefully. Mister Sauce hates weak pasta. He will eat your angel hair for you. He will save a single piece of it and kill you with it. He works better over a hearty pasta. He works best over filled pasta, with shrimp and a bit of broccoli. He can be cooked while the pasta water is boiling and the pasta's being made.

Ingredients (Mister sauce feeds 4 people, or 3 if you've never had him and don't know what he's capable of.)
3 tblsp butter
3 tblsp flour
3 cups whole milk (Do not toy with anything less. He doesn't work well with any less than whole milk, and any more will make him too thick. Mister Sauce is a razor's edge of precision.)
1 small can of tomato paste
1 small red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp each paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, chipotle powder (I use a tblsp, but I guess he'll be polite, since he's in a new house and all. I think my version would kill the average american. If he feels a bit limp, apologise to him and add in the extra next time)
1/4 cup basil leaves. Roll them into a long tube and chop them. they should come out into long thin strips. Julienne, ftw. youtube it if you don't know how.
1/8 cup shredded parmesan cheese
3 green onions, sliced thin diagonally, for garnish (Mister sauce likes to think he's mexican, so I humor him)

So, this starts simply enough. Melt butter in a sauce pan on medium heat. Let the butter bubble up a bit and grow a tiny foam. Toss in the garlic and red onions and cook until the onions are clear. DO NOT BURN THE GARLIC. If the garlic starts to darken, skip straight ahead to: add the flour. Mix it up, stir it around, push it about, and generally manhandle it. This is the only time in this process you will feel that you are in control of Mister Sauce, so enjoy it. You want the flour totally absorbed. It should be a nice paste. Cook it for about 2 minutes. You'll think you're burning it. Don't worry. That's just his hate beginning to fester. Pour in the milk, a half a cup at a time, and stir well between, making sure that the flour is fully absorbed and well mingled. Adding the milk should take about 2 minutes or so. Add in the spices, all at once. Note: the spices probably blew through the sauce and colored it immediately and completely. You probably didn't even have to stir it. He wants the anger. YOUR SPICES WILL ONLY MAKE HIM STRONGER. Simmer him, stirring pretty frequently, for about 2 minutes. Add the cheese. It'll melt in pretty near immediately. He'll eat the cheese just like he ate the spices. Give it another minute, stirring frequently, then add in the tomato paste. You just lost control of this sauce. Now, it's a fight. Mister Sauce wants your freaking fork. Oh, you were using a whisk? Not anymore. You can manhandle him into submission, eventually, with a wooden spoon, but a plastic fork is really the best tool if you have a non stick pan. YOU HAVE TO STAB HIM TO DEATH. The tomato puree will be a pain in the butt to work in, otherwise. Work in the puree fully, until smooth, stirring constantly and cooking for about another 2 minutes or so. You want to cook him until he's nice and creamy and delicious. You'll think, at some point, that he's perfect. Give him an extra 30 seconds. We want this thicker than alfredo. Take him off of the heat, or turn off the heat if you're cooking with gas, and pour in all of that basil. Stir it about, He will steam the basil perfectly, keeping it sweet but unlocking all of that flavor.

Pour him over a pasta that's capable of taking all of that saucy yumminess, pour yourself a glass of milk (trust me, you'll want a bunch of milk on hand), and top it with a nice handful of the diagonal sliced green onion.

Seriously, I know I talk up food from time to time, but I'm not even kidding when I say this is the best thing I cook. It's not even a close competition. Oh, keep a pillow nearby. Mister Sauce put a roofie in your milk, you won't be able to operate heavy machinery for at least a half hour after you eat him, and you might need a nap.

White chocolate panna cotta with raspberry sauce

I'm working on transferring over my old food to this blog, since I'm going to be food writing again. Watch this space, I'll be sharing my old recipes and thoughts, as well as my new ideas. Most of my old stuff is made with stock photography, since I didn't have a light box at the time. I'll tag my old recipes as retro, so you can tell the difference.

Any guesses on what this would cost at a posh restaurant?

Ok, guys. I have a confession to make. I know a bunch of you think I don't know how to make dessert. I've stated a bunch of times to my real life friends that I don't like sweet things, and that I can't bake dessert because I have no taste for it.

That's not entirely true.

This one is drawing on a lot of my cooking skills at once. Skill with alcohol, cream manipulation, and the most important aspect: plating. This dish really only works if you put it on the plate in an amazing, beautiful fashion. It's a high-class dessert, so serve it as such.

If this doesn't make you hungry, you're not human.

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup creme de cacao (not the dark stuff. White chocolate godiva liqueur would work too, really.)
3/4 cup sugar
1 package unflavored gelatin

sauce:
at least 1 1/2 cups of raspberries
2 tblsp triple sec
1 tsp lemon juice

Grab some ramekins. If you have no ramekins, buy ramekins. If you're feeling romantic, this looks amazing in a martini glass. Personally, though, I prefer it turned out.

Warm up a sauce pan, medium heat. Put the milk in the saucepan, and sprinkle the gelatin over it. Stir it until the gelatin breaks down and dissolves. Add the cream, creme de cacao, and 1/3rd of a cup of the sugar. Reduce the heat to low, and stir until the sugar's broken up. Take it off the heat, cool it, and pour it into ramekins or glasses. Cover it, and refrigerate it for at least 6 hours.

In another sauce pan, heat 1 1/2 cups of the raspberries, triple sec, lemon juice, and the rest of the sugar. Stir it until the sugar's dissolved and the raspberries are all soft and gooey. Then, pour it through a seive and press it down to get all of the juice out of the raspberries. There's the topping.

To pull the Panna Cotta out of the mold, just soak your ramekins in hot water for a few seconds to loosen the dessert, and invert onto a plate. To top this, there are 2 ways you can do it that I find appealing. Obviously, experiment. 

The first is to lay down a pool of the sauce, and plop the panna cotta on top of it. Use a spatula to invert the panna cotta. Top it with a few fresh raspberries. The second is to plate the panna cotta, and do what is in the picture, and garnish it with a few raspberries beside it. The first looks the best. Obviously, setting it on the base of the sauce probably has the best flavor. Some shaved white chocolate wouldn't be bad, either.


To serve it in a martini glass, set it in the glass after you make it, and let it solidify. Then, hit it with a swirl of the sauce. Put a few raspberries in the center of the finished dessert. Shave some white chocolate, then place it next to the raspberries on one side. A mint sprig on the edge of the glass finishes the look, and makes an awesome garnish.

Take out the liqueur and you can really do anything with this base. Panna cotta is only limited by what you can dream up, and it's a great base to experiment with cooking with alcohol and flavoring agents. Another great idea is flavoring it with creme de menthe and shaving dark chocolate over the top, then giving it a mint sprig garnish. 


This stuff tastes like a combination of thick pudding and flan. I can't even tell you how awesome it really is.

WINTER WHITE CHILI

White Winter Chili

This is a flashback post from my last food blog. I originally started messing around with this recipe while I lived in Maine, and there were about 4 feet of snow on the ground. It's interesting, and not quite what you'd expect from a chili. It's very mild, and great comfort food for when it's cold outside. The recipe's the one I had back in Maine, but the pics are brand new.

I feel like I should apologize for the lack of light, this was pretty spur of the moment and I lack a backdrop/did this at night. I went a bit pic heavy, because wtf. Why not?

Ingredients:

1 lb Sweet italian sausage
1 julienne small white onion
1/4 medium chopped green bell pepper
1-2 cloves chopped garlic, to taste (yeah, I cheated. meh. Do as I say, it's way better with real garlic. I had none at the time.)
1 small can sweet corn (or, for better results, grill some in it's husk and chop it off the cob. Man, I feel like Sandra Lee right now. Eef.)
2 cans cannelini beans, drained well but not rinsed
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
pepper to taste
1/4 c water
splash of olive oil

Directions:
First, hack your veggies into small pieces. Dicing the peppers is a pretty straightforward process, but julienning (is that a real word?) onions is a bit more complicated. So, I took pictures! I'd apologize for the overabundance of them, but really? I had fun. Don't judge me.

Peel the onion, and chop it in half from the top down.

Lay the onion half on it's side.

Then, cut it into strips.

THE VEGGIES! This is what your onions should look like, but the thickness is up to you. I like them a bit thicker cut.

De-case your sausage.

That takes care of the prep.

So, take a cold pan and put a splash of olive oil in it. Heat it on medium heat until the oil is rippling and the pan is good and warm, then add the sausage. A cold pan makes the olive oil smoke less, and break down less. Any recipe that tells you to add it to a really hot pan for sustained cooking is lying to you, and they suck at cooking. Unless it's Gordon Ramsay. He's always telling the truth, so do that. All the time.

Break up the sausage into the pan, and discard  the cases. Let it brown for a few seconds, and toss it around.

Add your veggies and mix it up really well.

Add the chili powder and cumin.

Then, cover and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, then recover and cook until the onions are translucent and the veggies are nice and soft.

Add the corn. Cook for about 3 minutes.

Then, add the beans. This might seem like a lot, but that's kinda the point of this recipe. Before you ask, no. You won't have the usual problem beans give you. At least, I never have. This time around I used northern white beans, but any mild white bean will do. Cannelini beans are delicious in this recipe. Cook the chili for about 5 more minutes, then add the water. Allow it to go for about 3 more minutes, until there's a nice creamy base.  The reason you don't rinse the beans is the bit of starch left on the beans makes the stock thicken, and provides the body of the chili. This recipe also goes against the grain in one major way: The leftovers are WAY better than the original dish. This tastes best if you make the chili the night before, then reheat it and garnish. Lazy winter food, it keeps amazingly well.

Garnish with sour cream and shredded cheddar, if desired.

Variations include adding some diced carrots in with the veggies in the beginning, or mushrooms. You can also use ground turkey instead of sausage, but if you do you're going to have to add a bit of caraway seed, some coriander seed, celery seed, a bit of salt, some paprika, and maybe a pinch of cayenne pepper. If you want a more smooth recipe, grate the carrots, onions, and some red bell peppers, then sautee them in the olive oil until they break down a bit, before adding the ground meat. This makes for a really smooth chili, with amazing flavor, but it doesn't have as much texture. Obviously, your tastes will vary.

Any way you cook it, with any of the variations, I hope you enjoy it! White chili is not very heavily represented in American cuisine, which is a shame given how very delicious it can be. It's also awesome over rice.