Good Fish And Thoughts On A New Blog

Tonight was simple and quick.  I stopped by Findlay to pick up something to grill, knowing in the back of my mind that I was in the mood for fish.  I had left The Guide at home, so I didn't have a recipe in mind.  I remembered that I still had one or two swordfish recipes to go, and they looked tasty at Luken's Fish Market.  I picked up two "steaks" and headed home, looked at the guide, wrote down what I needed, headed to Meijer, and came home ready to make the Swordfish Kabobs With Pasta Provencal on page 289.

Following protocol, I doubled the marinade and put everything in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.

I also got to use my kabob skewers again.

I started the sauce and the pasta.

It was here that Weber taught me something.  The directions called for adding the basil chiffonade to the pasta immediately after draining.

Then I was supposed to give them a gentle toss to incorporate the basil into the noodles.

I really dig this technique!  It is something that will stick with me for many years to come.  It is a simple and effective way to add amazing depth of flavor to the noodles.  As the noodles are still very hot after draining, the steam that they release cooks the herbs which releases their essential oils and coats the noodles with their flavor compounds (this is all my theory, based on previous knowledge).   I then pulled the kabobs from The Forge.

I plated and dinner was complete, and all in less than an hour!

This is a recipe to keep in mind if we need something quick.  I think that with a little experience I could trim the total cook time a little bit to make it even more of an efficient meal.  In the last couple of weeks I've cooked a fair amount of "Provencal" meals, enjoying every single one of them.  I dig this style of cooking quite a bit, and the wine from this region just as much (Corey LOVES Bandol wine...hint, hint).  I remember coming across a cookbook on Provencal cooking one time when The Bride and I were at Half-Price Books.  I think I'll pick it up sometime with the intention of making that the basis of my next blog (whenever I finish this one, that is, which based on the pace I am at will be in about two or three years).  I'll also add visiting this region of the world to my bucket list as well.  One of my favorite Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations is when he visited this part of France.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this recipe was quite nice.  The swordfish cubes were cooked to perfection (The Bride used expletives to describe how much she enjoyed them), and the quick marinade helped tremendously, especially given the short length of time that was allowed.  The sauce was simple and delicious with just a hint of heat from the red pepper flakes, which is always welcome in the Bogdan household.  Still, my favorite part of it all was the basil-infused pasta noodles, all thanks to the new technique that I learned from Weber!

A Rare Monday Night Off

For the first time in many, many moons I have a Monday night off.  It's Steelers/Bengals, beautiful weather this week, and grad school isn't pressing down on my style, so I knew that I had better take advantage of this rare alignment of fortunes.  The Bride declared that we need to start eating better before the holidays take over, so I picked out the Three Lemon Chicken on page 233. 

The first step was to create the paste that would be rubbed both inside and outside the chicken.  I'd roasted garlic in a previous post, so I followed that procedure to achieve the same results.  

The paste came together well, and when I snuck a taste, it was surprisingly bitter and pungent, but promised to deliver a lot of flavor to the chicken.  

The paste needed to be rubbed inside the bird, just under the skin.  I won't lie, this always creeps me out.  The Bride likes to mess with me on Thanksgiving, knowing that I don't handle it well when she runs her hand under the turkey's skin and shows it to me.

Ew.  Once the paste was rubbed both inside and outside the chicken, I then followed the recipe by stuffing rosemary sprigs and white wine inside the cavity of the bird.

Calling on my experience with trussing a whole chicken, I was able to tie up the bird significantly faster (and better) than the previous attempt.

 The chicken went on the grill, and I went back to watching TV.  When the time to pull the chicken off the grill grew closer, I prepared the side for the evening, the Tomato, Cucumber, & Onion Salad on page 367.

I got to try a new toy!  For our Five Year Anniversary, The Bride gave me a mandolin!

Ooooh!  Aaaaah!  This thing is sweet!  My first food item to play with was the cucumber, which was supposed to be cut into one-eighth inch slices.  I set the mandolin to that measurement and started slicing.
 

Ridiculous!  There is no way I could have done this with my chef's knife.  I love the consistency and ease that the mandolin affords the preparation process.  It's hard to believe that this pile of slices all came from one medium-sized cucumber.  The tomatoes were next.

The onion went third and I then began plating the salad.

 I mixed up the dressing and went to retrieve the chicken.

Gorgeous!  I am starting to really dig grilling whole chickens.  It's very easy and the taste is a significant upgrade from grilling individual pieces.  While the chicken rested I chopped up the herbs to sprinkle on the salad, and informed The Bride that we were almost ready.

I plated our dinners and got ready to watch some Monday Night Football!

I really enjoyed the chicken recipe.  For not having any sort of marinade or brine there was a tremendous amount of flavor in this recipe.  It's quick and easy to prepare, and a great way to have a healthy meal that's tasty on a weekday night.  The salad is refreshing and the herbs play a large role in the flavor profile of the dish.  The Bride figured out that if you combined the chicken with the dressing for the salad that it would make a delicious chicken gyro.  Noted.  Otherwise, the onion needs to be cut back in the salad.  An hour later, I'm still tasting them.  The bitter paste that I was concerned about earlier completely mellowed and delivered as promised.  I'm actually looking forward to leftovers tomorrow for lunch!

Scaring Up a Winner

Tonight was Halloween, and it was also the time to pick a winner.  I thought long and hard about how to do this, and settled on just declaring the winner later in this post.  Start skimming!

The Bride and I went down to Findlay this morning to pick up the ingredients for two recipes.  Our main course would be the Greek Pita Pockets on page 116 and the side/appetizer was the  Tapenade on page 49.

 The first thing to do (before football started) was to marinate the flank steak.  This can be a rather tough cut of meat, and the long marinade time would help tenderize it.  I put everything in the Ziploc bag and in it went to the fridge!

Later in the evening, as trick-or-treating was winding down,  I started up the coals and then started the tapenade. 

I used the immersion blender from this point to create the paste-like consistency that tapenade requires.  I then cut up the bread for a quick toasting session.

The slices toasted up quickly, and that recipe was done and ready for serving.

Here we have the flank steak after about 7 hours of marinating, before heading to The Forge.

While the flank steak was grilling I assembled the "salad" portion of the "gyro."

Overall, I liked the salad by itself.  Meanwhile, the flank steak was ready!

After the proper resting time, I began slicing up the meat for the gyros.

I notified The Bride that the meal was ready, and it was just in time for Sunday Night Football.

 

The winner of the haiku was Bru.  Not only was her haiku the first, but her request was granted and she was kind enough to stop me in the hallway and inform me that her one-year-old son approved of my Mac and Cheese.  

I liked this recipe for its simple and honest flavors.  The gyros were tasty, although I was nervous as I was plating them.  I happened to sneak a taste of the steak, and it was aggressively peppery.  I was concerned when the marinade called for the amount of pepper that it did, and those fears were confirmed when I tasted the steak for the first time.  However, when paired with the salad and bread, that strong pepper flavor was absorbed by the other ingredients.  The tapenade was a big hit with me.  I'm still learning to appreciate olives, but this spread is amazing on bread.  Great depth of flavor, and terrific bright saltiness make it rather appealing.  The toasted bread is a nice touch as well.   Because of the long marinade time, along with the fact that I have so many other long-marinade recipes to cover, it will be a while before I make this again.  Still, I recommend it for others to try!

Quick Grill, Quick Reminder

I had a lot of work to do tonight, wanted something interesting that I wasn't confident The Bride would enjoy, and it needed to be quick.  Enter the Grilled Oysters With Sriracha on page 71!  A trip to Findlay provided me with what I needed, and the prep was quick.

 I scrubbed them down as best as I could to remove any loose sediment. 

 I made the executive decision to use Old Faithful instead of The Forge because this was supposed to be a grill time of only about five or six minutes, and it wasn't worth the amount of charcoal required to get the direct high heat that Weber prescribed.  Granted, Old Faithful doesn't get nearly as hot as The Forge, but it would be fine for what I needed.

 After five minutes, I pulled them off, and did my best to open the oysters.  Never in my life have I tried to shuck an oyster, and after today I'm convinced that I'll never win any of those speed contests that I've seen on TV.  Without an oyster knife on hand, I found that the best tool in my kitchen was the bottle opener.

 This worked pretty well.  I used the sharp pointed end to force my way into the shell, and then the lever part to open it up the rest of the way.  As I was working my way through the oysters, I came across one that was really foamy inside.

I'd never seen this before, and honestly didn't know what to make of it, so I threw it away.  I figured that I had paid sixty cents for it, and the repercussions from the risk eating a foamy oyster weren't worth sixty cents.   From there I used a paring knife to separate the oyster meat from the shell, and then topped the good ones with the Sriracha sauce, put them back on the grill, and about a minute later they were ready!

Scrubbing them well earlier was a big help.  The best way to eat the oysters was to slurp them out of their shell. Without the scrubbing, you might get a fair amount of sediment while slurping.

This was a lot of fun.  While I've had oysters before (the best ever were at my sister's wedding), I've never actually done the prep for myself.  It was a cool and easy learning experience that gave me a lot of confidence for future sessions.  The recipe is delicious, but then again, I've enjoyed Sriracha sauce for many years now.  I didn't have to buy any for this recipe because it's always in my fridge.  I highly recommend it for anyone who likes a good chile sauce.  

On another note...only ONE haiku?  You have until Sunday!  It's a free $35 shopping spree, all for putting together only seventeen syllables!

The Giveaway!

I'm still not confident how they found me, but an online retailer called CSN Stores contacted me stating that they liked my blog and wanted to run a promotion through it.  I checked them out with the Better Business Bureau and they have an A+ rating!  They actually run multiple sites (over 200, in fact), each with a different theme, covering everything from dining room chairs to cookware. Here are some others:

http://www.allmodern.com/

 http://www.csnlighting.com/

and my personal favorite (for obvious reasons) http://www.cookware.com/

They want to give one of you a gift card worth $35.00 to any of their stores! Oh, and if you are from Canada, there may be some international shipping charges, but otherwise enjoy the free $35.00!  Let me know what you buy!

I decided that a proper entry worthy of a giveaway was required, so I invited my friend Matt over, gave him the option of a couple of recipes, and he picked the Kansas City-Style Spareribs on page 163.

 Following my usual procedure, I made the rub by blending the ingredients in my spice grinder and then using my shaker to distribute the rub.

While the ribs were in the fridge, I also took the time before the football games started to make a side dish for a good BBQ, so I picked the Old Fashioned Creamy Coleslaw on page 367.

 I pulled together the dressing, and then went about breaking down the head of cabbage.  The directions instructed me to quarter the head and then remove the core.  So I started by quartering it.

 Then I removed the core from each quarter.

 I knew I need to slice these thinly, so I started by laying each quarter on end and making length-wise cuts.

 I repeated this cut, holding the quarter together until I had made strips of cabbage through each quarter.

 I then rotated the quarter ninety degrees and made cross cuts to finish breaking down the quarter.

 The carrot was a little easier.  I just used a grater.

Just two medium-sized carrots yielded the amount I needed.

The ribs went on the grill, my mac n' cheese went into the oven, Matt arrived just in time, and I pulled the slaw out of the fridge.  With a little bit of basting during the last twenty minutes, the ribs came off the grill looking nice!

 I cut up the ribs into individual pieces and plated everything.

This was one of my top five recipes from Weber.  Perhaps I was just in the mood for ribs, maybe I was just looking forward to this a lot, but I thoroughly enjoyed this recipe.  I'm particular about my ribs, especially since The Bride bought me a smoker a few years ago and I've become quite adept at making them delicious.  The seasoning on the ribs was amazing, showing great complexity and softness at the same time.  The sauce was perfectly complimentary, and I'll admit to a fair amount of finger licking.  The slaw by itself was unimpressive, but really rounded off the meal well.  I generally don't prefer a creamy slaw - I usually opt for a more vinegar-based slaw - but after the ribs and sauce, along with my awesome mac n' cheese, it was cooling, soothing, and had a nice array of textures.  Matt thought the meal was awesome.  He enjoys all styles of slaw, and said that this one worked.  He also stated that he got about halfway through the ribs before remembering that there was a sauce, because they were that good.  Finally, he wants the mac n' cheese recipe.  I might even sell it to Weber.  :)

Okay, on to the contest.  Here's how it will work.  If you wish to be entered into the contest, you will leave your impressions of this meal in the form of a haiku (yes, I'm going to be a pain, but this will amuse me) in the comments section of this blog, not on Facebook.  Make sure to leave your name so that I know who you are, and if you are a little unfamiliar to me (you've been reading this and I don't know you that well) make sure to leave your email so that I can contact you if you are the winner.  I will give everyone a week, and then declare a winner on Sunday, October 31st.