Pesto Lasagna

Boil 10 lasagna noodles in salted water. Extra al-dente. Run under cold water, pat dry and set aside. (this is for an 8x8 baking dish - perfect for 2 with leftovers, make more for a 9x13)

Next, in a blender add:

• 4 oz fresh basil leaves
• 1 pint milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 medium onion

Frappe until it looks like a McDonald's St. Patrick's day milk shake gone bad. It will be minty green with small flecks of basil leaves. I know this seems gross - just stick with me.

In a sauce pan add:

• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Stir together and heat until bubbly. The add the milk mixture from the blender and bring the mixture to a boil. It should get fairly thick. Remove from the heat. Add:

• 1/2 cup of grated parmesean cheese - please use cheese from Parma, not the stuff in the green can.

Stir in the cheese until melted

Now taste it. It should be really good - cheesey, pestoey, and yummy. Add salt and pepper to taste.

In a separate bowl, mix

• 10 oz whole milk ricotta cheese (not that skim, part skim, or low fat, or reduced fat stuff - trust me, it makes a difference)
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper

Now, assemble the lasagna. I use an 8x8 ceramic baking dish. Layer noodles, ricotta mixture, basil cheese sauce, then shredded mozzarella (whole milk - not the part skim stuff) and fontina cheese. Repeat until you run out of noodles. Top with grated mozzarella, fontina, and parmesean cheese.

Bake at 350 covered for 30 minutes, then for 20 minutes uncovered. The top should get bubbly and golden brown and delicious.

Let set for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Pair with a good chianti

Stuffed Turkey Breast

I love roasted turkey. I hate leftovers. After 2 days - turkey goes bad (at least as far as my palate is concerned). So Thanksgiving is a dilemma. Usually I go over to someone else's house. Last year it was a visit to Liz and Tom's. (I just re-read that blog entry - wow has my life changed in the past year.) This year - probably since I'm not hanging out with Lynn - I was not invited to the usual festivities. That sucks.

Anyway Thanksgiving dinner is just me and Jason here at the house. So this year I decided to try these turkey roll-ups - so as not to have gobs and gobs of food that gets thrown out. But still get that great taste of roasted turkey and stuffing.

a 2 pound turkey breast

2 cups fine bread crumbs
2 tablespoon minced onion
3 tablespoon minced celery
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
5 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup cream
salt and freshly ground pepper

For the bread crumbs I usually take some stale french or italian bread and run it through the blender. You can use stuffing croutons (but then go light on the sage) but you'll need to crush them for this application.

You can do any of the usual stuffing variations here - add bacon, sausage, use cornbread crumbs, whatever you like. But you need to keep a fairly fine texture.

Some folks don't like celery - you can substitute all onions or add some carrots.

Anyway, just mix all the ingredients up in a bowl. It should form a kind of paste - if it's dry and crumbly you should add an egg yolk or more cream.

Take a turkey breast and slice it into 1/2" to 3/4" thick steaks against the grain. Pound them out to 1/4" to 3/8" thickness. You're looking to make them about 6 or 7 inches long and about 4 or 5 inches wide.

Salt and pepper to taste. Spread on a thin layer of the stuffing - about 1/8" thick and roll it up. Tie with butcher's string.

Brown well in a skillet (not a non stick one - you can't brown it well, and then you can't make a good gravy) then place in an oven proof dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 160.

Use the pan drippings to make a gravy. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Thanksgiving without the leftovers!

Tomato Sauce

Yeah, it's late Saturday night and I am posting recipes on the internet. Sigh. How sad.

Anyhoo... My usual tomato sauce recipe is from Alton Brown (Good Eats) you can find it here. It's pretty fool proof and I like the way it comes out.

But when I have an abundance of fresh Roma tomatoes I make a filetto sauce. You can't make it with anything other than fresh Romas (or other paste type tomatoes). I tried it once with store bought tomatoes - and it ended up way too watery. And if you cook off all the extra liquid, you lose the fresh tomato taste.

So, here's the recipe:

2 Tablespoons of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic finely minced

Put the garlic and oil in a pan cold, cook over medium low heat until the garlic starts to sizzle. I found that starting with a cold pan and applying the heat slowly extracts a lot more flavor from the garlic.

Once the garlic starts to sizzle (and way before it browns) add:

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried)

Cook until the onions are translucent - about 7 minutes over medium heat. The add:

2 lbs fresh Roma tomatoes, milled
1 teaspoon sugar
some basil leaves sliced fine

Simmer for up to 1/2 hour - no longer.

Before serving add:

1 splash vodka
more basil, salt, and pepper to taste

If it ends up too runny (which happens if the tomatoes were not absolutely fresh) do not try to cook it down, you'll lose the really fresh tomato taste. You can save it by adding a cream bechamel:

In a separate saucepan

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour

Cook over medium heat until bubbly

Add 8 ounces heavy cream

Bring to a boil stirring constantly. It will get really thick (but that's the point).

Add to filetto sauce (turning into a tomato vodka cream sauce, which is something completely different - but really good, too). Add some grated parmesan cheese and serve over pasta.

Chicken Picatta (aka pounded chicken)

4 Chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup champagne
Juice from one lemon
Lots of capers
Lemon slices for garnish

Take a chicken breast and place it on a hard surface (counter, cutting board) between two pieces of wax paper. Get a meat pounder, using the flat surface (not the medieval looking surface) and pound the crap out of the chicken until it is about 3/8” thick – or until you are satisfied. It helps to envision the chicken breast as the person that your lover cheated on you with, or something that you particularly hate. It’s OK if the meat breaks up into several pieces – or if there are holes in it when you are done. The important thing is that the muscle fiber of the meat should be pulverized, torn, and shredded.

Put a skillet (not non-stick, please) over medium heat and melt the butter with the olive oil.

Mix the flour with the salt and pepper and spread out on a plate. Dredge the chicken breast through the flour and shake off the excess. Cook the chicken breasts in the oil butter mixture, about 2 minutes per side, browning slightly. Do not overcrowd the pan. Remove the chicken pieces to a plate after they are cooked.

Once all the chicken breasts are cooked, deglaze the pan with the champagne. I never measure this – just pour it in from the bottle. It will boil, hiss, and steam a lot, then settle down to form a thick sauce. Add in the lemon juice and capers. This completes the picatta sauce. You can do this with a dry white wine instead of champagne, but the taste just isn’t the same. Next add the chicken back into the sauce and make sure it’s heated through. Garnish with lemon slices and serve immediately.

It’s pretty simple, it tastes great and it really works out your aggressions.

Hollandaise Sauce

3 egg yolks
1/2 stick of butter, cut up and ice cold
2 tablespoons of lemon juice - and if you're going to go through the trouble of making this, squeeze a fresh lemon

This recipe is all technique. And don't dream that you'll make it right the first time. It took me about 20 trys to get this right.

Whip up the egg yolks for a couple of minutes in a metal bowl. Add a teaspoon or two of lemon juice and whip some more. Once it's all mixed up, put it over a pan of simmering water. Whisk, whisk, and whisk - as the temperature of the egg yolks rises and they start to thicken. Then put in a small pat of cold butter. Whisk as it melts. Yeah, this gets tiring. If you overheat things, the egg yolks will cook - so keep throwing in cold butter - and pull the bowl off the heat if you see the eggs start to seize up. If you put the butter in too fast, it turns into an oil slick. But if you do it just right - it forms an emulsion like mayonnaise. As things get thick and fluffy, add more of the lemon juice.

You can add as much lemon juice as you like - go by taste. Also you can add fresh herbs, white wine, or really anything you like as flavor additions once you're done. I like to add white wine and dill when topping salmon. Tarragon and chives for eggs. A dash of salt is good, too.

One more thing, you'll probably notice that this is almost pure saturated fat. This stuff is evil - but sooo good. Unless you are related to a cardiologist, don't eat this stuff too often. Once you taste the real stuff, you won't want the fake stuff you get in most restaurants.

This stuff only keeps at about 130F - which is the ideal temperature for growing bacteria, and it is nutrient rich. There's no way to safely keep it around for more than about 30 minutes. That's why you can't get real Hollandaise in most restaurants - it's just too labor intensive to make a new batch for everyone who orders something.

Buttermilk Pancakes

The wet team -

2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
3 tbsps butter melted
1 teaspoon vanilla

The dry team -

1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar

Mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl.

Mix the wet team together. There's a couple of tricks to this, first is getting the melted butter mixed in well. If you're lazy - just mix them all together whisking in the butter as the last ingredient. It will seize up into small blobs, but when you mix it with the dry ingredients it should be OK. If you're serious about food - separate the eggs, whip the yolks in a separate bowl, and then mix in the butter - then add in the remaining wet ingredients.

Once the wet ingredients are all mixed, you need to bring everything together.

The second trick is mixing the wet and dry. Do it at the last minute. As soon as you mix the wet and the dry, the buttermilk and baking soda will create bubbles - this only lasts for 15 minutes - after that you've got flat pancakes. So, wait until your pan it hot and ready before mixing the wet and dry teams - and then, work fast. Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry stuff. Also, keep the stirring of the mix to a minimum - I mean this. You want to just get the really big lumps of dry stuff worked out. The more you mix the tougher the pancakes - and that's not a good thing.

With everything mixed, ladle out onto a hot griddle. Cook for a couple of minutes on each side until golden brown and delicious.

Rich's Basil Pesto

a few tablespoons of Pine nuts
4 ounces of Basil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
a few cloves of Garlic
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Salt

I never measure when I make this, I go by look and taste along the way. I start with a few tablespoons of pine nuts. Toast them in a dry frying pan. They should start to give off a nutty smell and turn golden brown – be careful not to burn. Next take about 4 ounces of good basil. I always use northern California grown basil – southern cal just doesn’t taste the same, but it could be the shipping that ruins it. Go local. I also grow my own, which is best. But we are too early in the season for that, and my garden has been sorely neglected. Grind the basil up with 1 tsp of salt, a couple of cloves of garlic, and the pine nuts with enough olive oil to lube things up. Add in a mess of grated parmesan cheese – about a ¼ cup. Add in enough olive oil to get it to the right consistency – about ½ cup total. Finally – and I never see this in cookbooks – add in some lemon juice. If you don’t the basil turns black after you add it to the pasta (or whatever you are serving it on). The lemon juice keeps it a bright green. You only need about a tablespoon.

The secret to making this great is pretty simple. You need to use a really good basil infused olive oil – which is hard to find here in the U.S. I know of two sources: http://www.olivier-on-line.com from paris (this is the best) and http://www.oliviersandco.com available at few locations in the U.S. (it's OK). You can't go down to your local mega-mart and pick up a bottle of basil oil - it will probably taste like crap.

Serve over pasta, meat, fish or bread - really anything. Keeps for about a day.

Rich's Jambalaya

2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup diced onion
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes (fresh is better – but not this time of year)
3 tbsp a.p. flour
3 cups chicken stock
2 hot sausage links (about 1/3 lb)
1 chicken breast, cut up in 1 inch cubes
½ lb shrimp, cleaned and peeled
¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper or more if you like it hot

Salt and pepper to taste

Grind up the celery, onion and bell pepper in a food processor. Cook them in the olive oil over medium heat in a heavy sauce pan until soft and mushy – about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Next strain the tomatoes and save the juice from the can. Add the tomatoes and garlic to the pan and turn the heat up. You need to caramelize the sugar in the tomatoes. Don’t use a non-stick pan, it just won’t work. With a stainless steel or copper pan you will start to see a brown coating stick to the pan – this is good. Once the pan starts to look like it will never get clean (5 to 10 minutes) take the veggies out of the pan and set them aside in a bowl. In the same sauce pan (this is important for the flavor) brown two sausages – I like hot Italian, but any sausage you like will do. These should also stick to the pan and leave a lot of brown bits. Once the sausage is done take it out and set it aside. Next, brown the chicken breast (cut up in 1 inch chunks). After this is done take out the chicken and deglaze the pan with chicken broth. I usually make my own, but I was in Paul’s kitchen – so canned would have to suffice.

Add 3 tablespoons of flour to the pan and scrape up the brown bits. This should soak up all the oil in the pan. If there is not enough fat, add some olive oil or butter to make a good roux. Then pour in about 3 cups of chicken broth and the tomato juice (that we saved earlier). Crank up the heat to get the liquid boiling and dissolve all of the crusties from the pan. This is the secret to a good sauce. Use a wooden spoon and scrape everything off – this makes it a lot easier to wash the pan, too. Bring the sauce to a boil. If you like, you can add in a can or two of tomato sauce.

Throw the sausage and vegetation back in, add some salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste. Add the bay leaves. Simmer for anywhere from 15 minutes to 5 hours (longer is better). About 15 minutes before serving turn the heat up to medium and add the chicken back in (if you leave it in it to stew it will overcook and be dry). Right before serving, add the shrimp and take off the heat as soon as the shrimp turns pink.

Serve over long grain white rice with a good amber ale. I like Mirror Pond from Deschutes brewing company with this.

I know that most Jambalaya recipes call for cooking the rice in with everything else – but I have never been able to get the chicken, shrimp and rice to all finish at the same time.

Risotto

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion
a couple cloves of garlic
½ teaspoon salt (a large pinch)
¼ cup good white wine
1 chicken breast, poached and cubed
1 cup broccoli florettes , raw chopped up small
6 cups chicken stock (I did homemade – makes the house smell sooo good)
1 cup medium grain rice
3 tablespoons butter
about 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated – from Italy – nothing from a green can!
1 or 2 teaspoons while truffle oil (optional, if you can get it)
¼ cup heavy cream (optional)
fresh ground pepper to taste

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer in a separate pot, do this before you start anything else. It can heat up while you prep the other ingredients. You’re going to add the stock to the rice during the cooking process, and it needs to be just under boiling.

With the stock heating up, prepare all your other ingredients. Once the cooking starts, you won’t have time for anything else. Chop up a small onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. Next cut up and cook anything that goes in the risotto – I like chicken and broccoli (use anything you like – I like no more than 2 or 3 additions – shrimp and asparagus is classic, as is a mix of mushrooms) I usually poach a chicken breast and cut it up in bite sized chunks and cut up broccoli into small florettes. The broccoli I leave raw, it will cook when you throw it in at the end. Grate a handful of parmesan cheese. Finally, measure out a cup of rice.

There’s a huge debate on what kind of rice. The traditional risotto is made from Arborio rice from Italy. I’ve tried it and I really like the results that I get from calrose rice better. This is a medium grain rice that you can get at Costco for less than a 50 cents per pound. Arborio will set you back $4-$6 per cup in most of the high end grocery stores in the bay area. In Italy you can buy Arborio rice for about 2 euros per kilo - $1.50 a pound – so the local stores are just ripping us off. Tyler Florence had a show on risotto on the food channel where he recommends carnaroli from Italy – I need to try that. You can get that from various places on the internet for about $2 a pound.

Oh, one last thing. Open a good chilled pinot grigio from Italy. Pour yourself a glass and start sipping. Make sure you save a ¼ cup or so to go in the risotto.

Now you’re ready to cook. Turn off the phones, accept no interruptions for next 30 minutes. Need to pee? Do it now – once you start, you can’t stop. I said it was good, I didn’t say it was easy.

First, sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil and salt until they are soft and translucent. Keep the heat low, or the garlic will burn and get bitter. Here you can add some dry herbage that matches your accompaniments. If you have fresh herbs (and why wouldn’t you) then put them in near the end of the cooking process. Next put in the rice, and up the heat a bit. Stir constantly for about 2 or 3 minutes, until the rice gives off a nutty smell and starts to brown. What you’re trying to do is toast the grains of rice. They should soak up all the olive oil and it should start to get sticky. Next pour in a splash of the wine ¼ to ½ a cup. Stir until it’s absorbed.

Now it gets tedious. Put in ½ a cup or so of the hot stock and stir until it is completely absorbed. Repeat this until the rice is just almost cooked (you need to taste it to see, but it will be at least 20 minutes but not more than 30.) And, yes, you need to stand there and stir it constantly. Don’t stop stirring, even for a minute, not for anything. The rice will burn, cook unevenly, and it won’t come out creamy. The stirring rubs the starch off the rice and that makes the most creamy wonderful sauce.

After the rice is almost cooked (only way to tell is to taste), turn off the heat and throw in your accents. For me, this is poached chicken breast and broccoli. Throw in a knob of butter and put the top on the lid and let it sit for 5 minutes. Now you can throw in any herbs that are fresh, I like thyme. The rice will finish cooking and the residual heat will cook the small bits of broccoli perfectly.

After 5 minutes, add the parmesan cheese (and white truffle oil, if you have it) and stir. If you are feeling really decadent, add a bit of heavy cream – but it doesn’t really need it.

A little cracked pepper and a fresh grating of parmesan cheese is all it needs. Eat and enjoy with a good pinot grigio.

I love this stuff.

Yorkshire Pudding

1 cup of flour
½ teaspoon of salt
½ cup of milk
½ cup of water
2 eggs
¼ rendered beef fat (drippings from a roast beef)

It's best if the ingredients are at room temperature - but you can do it with cold eggs and milk.

Mix the flour, salt, milk, water, and eggs into a pancake like batter - there may be a few lumps, but try to get it smooth, a whisk works best. Let it sit for about 2 hours covered in the fridge - this lets the gluten in the flour relax - don't skip this step or the texture won't be right.

Take about ¼ cup of hot rendered beef fat from a roast and put it in a 9 by 13 glass baking pan. Pour in the batter in and put it in a 400 degree over for 30 to 40 minutes – until very puffy and golden brown and delicious. Do not open the over door during cooking, or you'll lose some puffiness. The rendered fat makes it very decadent and delicious. Sounds greasy, but if you eat it hot and fresh from the oven it's great.

Great the next morning, too - nuke it in a microwave until hot, and cover with maple syrup.

Pasta Carbonara (heart attack style)

1/4 lb smoked bacon (about 6 slices)
1 medium shallot (can substitute a little bit of onion)
2 teaspoons flour
1 cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup grated parmesian cheese
1 lb spaghetti or fettuccine

Cook the of bacon, nice and crisp. Once it’s done, pat dry it on a paper towel and set aside. Pour out all of the bacon fat from the pan except for 2 teaspoons. Sweat a medium sized shallot, minced, in the remaining bacon fat until it is soft and translucent. Add two teaspoons of flour and cook for about two minutes. Add a half pint of heavy cream.

Yes, folks, we are making a béchamel sauce with bacon grease and heavy cream. Break out the defibrillators. For those of you prone to arterial sclerosis, please turn away now.

Crumble the bacon into small bits and add it to the béchamel. Next add two egg yolks (yes, more fat and cholesterol) tempering them so they don’t curdle.

Finally, add about ½ a cup of grated parmesan cheese (imported from Italy, please) (and, yes, even more saturated fat - this is sooo good) to the béchamel and remove from the heat immediately. Stir in 16 ounces of prepared pasta. I prefer Fettuccine or Spaghetti, but anything you like will work. If it’s too thick, add milk or reserved pasta water to thin it out. It should be the consistency of a thick alfredo sauce.

Take a tip from restaurants and serve this on heated plates – put them in a 200 degree oven for about 15 minutes. If you don’t halfway though dinner this turns into a gooey paste, which is not good eats.