Beef Roulade

One day I ended up with a small beef tenderloin and was looking to do something creative.  I had recently eaten at a German restaurant and enjoyed the Rouladen, so I decided to give it a shot on my own.  After looking through various recipes online, I came up with this recipe based on the ingredients I liked the most and here is my take on the dish.

1 beef tenderloin
Ground pepper

Ground mustard
Minced garlic
Shallot (diced fine)
Parmesan cheese
Pickles (cut in to small pieces)
6 to 8 pieces of cooked bacon (or more, you know you'll eat what you don't use)
Olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Use a carving knife to "unroll" the tenderloin in to a large flat piece about 3/4 inch thick.  Place string across the cutting board 1.5 inches apart.

Place meat on top so the direction of the roll lines up with the strings.  Cover the meat with pepper, mustard, garlic, shallot, cheese, pickles, and top with slices of bacon.

Start from one side of the meat and roll everything to the other side.  Bring the ends of the strings together and tie to hold the roll in place.

Coat the roulade with olive oil and put on a pan.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Cut between strings and serve.

Homemade Cheese - Quick and Easy

This is an easy and fun recipe for making a simple Farmer's Cheese from regular whole milk.  While aged cheeses with their robust flavors can be complex to make and require starter cultures, rennet, or other special ingredients, this cheese can be made in less than an hour with items that are found in most kitchens.  All we're doing here is heating milk to separate the curds and whey to make a mild, almost sweet product.  The cheese is firm, yet easily crumbled.  It doesn't easily spread and won't melt.  I'll serve it whole as a snack with knife and crackers.  Or it goes great crumbled on top of salads or tacos.  Great when cubed to accompany antipasto.  You will get different degrees of firmness depending on how much moisture you remove from the finished product.


Ingredients:

• Whole milk (can be goat's milk)
• White Vinegar or fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• Salt
• Herbs or other flavoring of choice (I like Herbs De Provence)
• Cheese cloth, muslin, tea towel

If using white vinegar, proceed with the following measurements:

• 1 gallon milk = 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 gallon milk = 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 gallon milk = 1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar

Prepare a colander with a double layer of cheesecloth or muslin.

Pour the milk in to a pot, preferably with a heavy bottom.  Heat milk over medium (or higher), stirring frequently to avoid burning to the bottom of the pot.

When using dried herbs for seasoning, I like to add them during the heating process so they have time to soften in the milk.

Once the milk is boiling (190 degrees F), cut the heat and stir in the vinegar or enough lemon juice until you begin to see it curd.  Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes.

This can be a good time to stir in salt unless you're planning to use the whey for something else because it will make it very salty.

Drain curds in to the colander.  This is another good time to add salt and other flavoring while you can gently stir it in to the curds with a spatula.

Grab the corners of your cloth and bring them together to form a ball.  Twist or squeeze the cloth to remove excess moisture from the ball.  The more you squeeze, the more firm the cheese will be.  Let the ball sit in the colander to cool and drain for 1 to 2 hours.


Simple right?  Why not give it a try?  You could literally make this with milk, lemon juice, and salt.  Put it in a tea towel and squeeze enough water out to get fresh crumbly cheese for salad toppings if you want.

Chicken Lasagna

Ingredients:

Lasagna noodles
2 lbs ground chicken
1 med. onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh spinach, chopped, cooked or 1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen
spinach, chopped, thawed, drained
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced 2 c. or 1 can (8 oz.) drained
4 c. spaghetti sauce or homemade or canned
6 oz. part skim Mozzarella cheese, 1 1/2 c. grated
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
Black pepper
2 eggs
1 lg. low fat Ricotta cheese



Directions:

Boil water, then cook noodles according to package. Lightly oil and heat a pan to cook the chicken, breaking up and stirring occasionally. Add onion, garlic, mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add spinach, pepper, eggs, and Ricotta cheese. Mix well and remove from heat.

In a large flat baking dish, assemble
the lasagna from the bottom up as follows:


1/4 inch of spaghetti sauce

Single layer of noodles

Half chicken, mushroom, spinach, cheese mixture

Sprinkle Mozzarella and Parmesan

Repeat with spaghetti sauce

Noodles

2nd Half of the mixture

Repeat with spaghetti sauce


Top layer of noodles with sauce to keep moist

Finish with cheese as desired

Bake:
350 degrees uncovered for 30 to 50 minutes. Check occasionally to see that it is not burning or boiling over. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Sausage & Basil Pasta with Spicy Mustard Sauce

This recipe evolved when I asked myself what to do with all the basil growing out back and I already had enough frozen pesto. This fits in to the same category of the sausage and broccoli recipe I previously posted, but with a light cream sauce and fresh herbs instead of veggies.  I still consider this a lighter pasta because there is no cheese, not a lot of cream, and it calls for turkey sausage.

Ingredients:
2 cups medium shell pasta, uncooked
1 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb turkey Italian sausage, casings removed
1/2 cup dry white wine or sherry
1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half
3 Tbs country Dijon (or any "grainy" mustard)
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 cup thinly sliced fresh basil

Directions:
Boil water in a large pot and cook pasta until al dente and strain.  While cooking pasta, heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up into pieces with a spatula or spoon until browned and juices form (approx. 8 minutes.)  Add the wine and simmer until mostly reduced (approx. 5 minutes), stirring occasionally. Add cream, mustard and crushed red pepper.  Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the skillet from heat and add the pasta and basil.  Toss to coat and serve hot.

Lobster Tails Thermidor

Ingredients:

1 to 1 ½ pounds raw lobster tails
4 Tbs butter, divided
1 shallot or small white onion, finely chopped
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
¼ cup sherry or dry white wine
½ cream or half and half
1 Tbs Dijon or spicy mustard
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning or paprika

Prepare lobster:  Bring water in a large pot to boil.  In order to keep the lobster tail from curling during cooking, insert a skewer lengthwise under the membrane to hold it straight.  Add the lobster tails to water and boil for 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove the lobster tails from the water and place in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.  Use scissors to cut away membrane from underside of shells.  Carefully remove all the meat and save the shells.  Cut the meat in to small pieces and set aside.

 
Prepare sauce:  Bring both a medium skillet and small saucepot to medium heat.  Melt 2 Tbs of butter to saucepot, add shallot and cook for 3 – 5 minutes.  Melt 2 Tbs of butter in the skillet and sauté lobster meat while preparing the rest of the sauce.  Preheat your broiler to high.

  Gradually stir flour in to the saucepot.  Add wine and lemon juice, whisk, and simmer for 3 minutes.  Then add milk and mustard.  Whisk together.  Remove sauce from heat and stir in cheese and Creole seasoning or paprika.  Once the liquid has cooked off the lobster meat, pour sauce in to skillet and stir to combine.  Season with salt and pepper.  

 Arrange the lobster shells in a shallow casserole dish.  Scoop mixture in to shells and top with more cheese if desired.  Broil on high for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve on bed of mixed baby greens (the bitterness of the greens really completes the palate of this dish.)

Spicy Calamari with Chorizo - Calamares a La Plancha

This recipe was inspired by an apetizer I had in a Basque restaurant in San Franciso.  The calamari is not breaded, but essentially stir fried with a number of robust ingredients.  I looked up various recipes for this traditional Spanish tapa and threw together my own creation below:

Ingredients:

1. 6 - 8 lbs of calmari rings and tenticles (tubes can easily be cut in to rings)
2. 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
3. 1 Tbsp kalamata olives, chopped
4. 2.5 oz chorizo
5. 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
6. 4 tsp. minced garlic
7. 1/2 tsp. salt
8. 1 crushed red pepper
9. 1/4 lemon, juiced
10. A few pinches of sage and oregano.

Directions:

Thouroughly rinse the calamari and look for any remaining pieces of the spine bone.  Pat dry to remove all moisture.  Combine ingredients 5 through 10 in a mixing bowl. Mix calamari in to with the marinade and let sit for 5 minutes.

  

In the meanitime, heat a small skillet with a little oil on medium-high.  Add the chorizo and cook, breaking it up into pieces with a spatula or spoon until browned and juices form (approx. 8 minutes.)  Transfer to a plate and set aside.  Hint: spraying the spoon or spatula with non-stick cooking spray will prevent the sausage from sticking to the utesil.

Heat a 10-inch cast iron pan to high temperature with a little bit of oil.  Add calamari mixture to the pan in a single layer.  Cook on medium-high until most of the moisture has evaporated.  Fold in the chorizo and serve hot.

Mabo Don

“Mabo” is a Japanese dish with tofu and ground pork in a spicy ginger sauce.
  

“Don” means "rice bowl" in Japanese. So anything served with rice in a bowl is called a don.

This is a wonderful, savory dish that is actually very easy to cook.  Don’t let the number of ingredients intimidate you.  Prepare and portion out everything before cooking.  All the work is in the prep.  Everything else just falls together.

Prep time 20 – 30 mins

Cook time 15 – 20 mins

Ingredients:

• ·         1 package firm tofu (approx 350g)                                                           
• ·         ½ pound ground pork
• ·         5 green onions
• ·         1 tbs cooking oil
• ·         2 cloves of garlic, finely minced or crushed
• ·         1 small piece of ginger, minced (or 1 tsp crushed ginger)
• ·         1tsp sugar
• ·         3 tbs soy sauce (substitute oyster or black bean sauce proportionately)
• ·         1 cup chicken broth
• ·         3 tbs rice wine
• ·         1 tbs sesame oil
• ·         1 tsp corn starch – dissolved in 2 tbs water
• ·         2 tsp crushed red pepper
• ·         1 tsp sriracha

Cooking Instructions:

1. Thoroughly drain tofu and dice in to ½ inch pieces
2. Finely slice green onions
3. Heat cooking oil in wok or skillet on high
4. Add garlic and ginger.  Stir until fragrant (if using crushed ginger, wait and add with next step)
5. Add ground pork and stir fry until brown.  While pork is cooking, add soy sauce, sugar, and half of the sliced green onions.
6. Once the pork is cooked and broken in to very small pieces, add tofu, broth, rice wine, peppers, and sriracha (if using oyster or black bean sauce, add during this step)
7. Stir and simmer until sauce is mostly absorbed.  Then add sesame oil and corn starch to thicken the sauce.

Serving:

Serve over rice in a bowl and garnish with the remaining green onions.

Variants:

Some recipes include peas, mushrooms, green beans, or bell peppers.