Friday, May 28: Chicken & Shrimp Fried Rice

This is Mike's attempt to make Laura's favorite dish to order in a Chinese restaurant, but putting our own spin on it.

CHICKEN SHRIMP FRIED RICE WITH EXTRA VEGETABLES

We had a nice boneless chicken breast in our freezer, so we defrosted it, seasoned it, grilled it, chopped it and added it to our usual shrimp fried rice dish.  It worked nicely.

Typically, when we prep this dish, we mince/dice/chop whatever fresh vegetables we have in our refrigerator.  The prep picture is from an evening when we prepared our usual shirmp fried rice.  The rest of the pictures are from this evening, when we added the chicken, mushroom and broccoli and omitted the zucchini.

Shrimp Fried Rice

Ingredients

1 cup shrimp, chopped

1/4 - 1/2 cup of any of the following, diced

onion

celery

carrot

mushroom

zucchini

radish

red pepper

broccoli

one serrano pepper, diced

on clove garlic, diced

1/2 cup rice

1 cup water

soy sauce

salt/pepper

sesame oil

Preparation

Use rice and water to cook rice according to package directions. Set aside.Heat a small amount of sesame oil in a large pan. Stir fry shrimp for a few minutes until cooked. Remove and set aside.Add another drizzle of oil to the pan and cook vegetables on high heat for a few minutes unitl softened. Remove and set aside.

Add another drizzle of oil and add rice to pan. Cook on high heat for a couple of minutes, add several shakes of soy, toss and heat another minute.

Add the shrimp and vegetables, mix thoroughly and cook for another minute.

Serve hot.

Thursday, May 27: Coq au Vin

After returning from a week in Paris for the French Open, I was inspired to recreate this French Classic for Mike. This is not Julia Child's coq. I've tried this many times and I do have to say the secret ingredient is cooking everything in bacon fat. I know, I know. But it makes all the difference in taste. I also substitute sweet (Vidalia) onion thick slices for pearl onions, but feel free to use pearl onions if that's your preference. This takes about 2 hours to make from start to finish, so give yourself plenty of time. I bought a pre-cut chicken at TJ's for about $7. Since I'm not a butcher, this was the easiest way for me. This dish is obviously wine-based, so you want to buy an under $10 Burgundy or Bordeaux to use in the recipe. Don't use pre-opened wine for this. And then you can drink what you don't use while you're preparing the dish!

 

COQ AU VIN

1 chicken, rinsed and cut into 8 serving pieces

2 cups of thickly sliced onions

6-8 strips of bacon

1 stalk of celery

1/2 cup of sliced carrot

6 fresh parsley sprigs

1 fresh thyme sprig

1 dried bay leaf

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 1/2 cups of dry French burgundy or bordeaux

3/4 low sodium chicken stock/broth

1 lb. small mushrooms, halved

1/4 cup cognac or brandy

3 tbsp. flour

1 1/2 tbsp. unsalted, softened butter

Cook bacon in large heavy skillet until it's brown but not too crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels.

Sprinkle chicken with salt & pepper. Brown chicken in skillet with bacon fat. Depending on the size of your skillet, it might take 2 batches, so make sure you have enough bacon fat reserved for both batches. It will take about 5 minutes per side to brown the chicken. Transfer to a plate.

Cook onions in skillet, until starting to brown -- no more than 10 minutes.

Take a 5 quart pot.  Add the onions, a few pieces of chopped up bacon, the wine & the stock. Add the herbs and simmer (covered) to 10 minutes. 

Now, add the chicken to the pot and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, re-heat the bacon fat in the skillet to cook the mushrooms & carrots for about 5 minutes. Add the cognac and cook on high heat until the liquid starts to reduce, in about another 3 minutes.

Add the shrooms and carrot mixture to the chicken pot. Continue to simmer until chicken is tender and fully braised, another 30 minutes at least.

Once the chicken is cooked to your liking, remove the chicken, bacon & vegetables with a slotted spoon and place on a serving platter.

Mash the butter and flour in a small bowl. Bring the remaining liquid to a simmer and whisk in the butter/flour mixture a small but at a time. Whisk until sauce is smooth and thickened, about 2-3 minutes.

Season to taste with salt & pepper, then spoon over chicken. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.

Bon Appetit!

Mike thought this was the best version of this recipe I've ever made. 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I don't remember the name of the wine I picked up for this meal. It was a decent bordeaux from the St. Emilion region.

For dessert, I brought home some overpriced La Duree macaroons from Paris. They were a hit and went quickly!

Sunday, May 16: Cannelloni & Amarone

Bruschetta

8 slices baguette

3 plum tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

10 basil leaves

1 tbsp shredded parmesan

1 Tbsp evoo

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt/pepper

Cut tomatoes in half and remove seeds and pulp.  Dice tomato.  Mince garlic.  Chop basil.  Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix together thoroughly.  Add evoo, balsamic vinegar, salt/pepper and shredded parmesan.  Mix thoroughly. 

Slice baguette on diagonal to achieve long, thin slices.  Brush bread with olive oil and toast until lightly browned.  Top toast pieces with mixture.  Top with a thin slice of fresh mozzarella.

Laura's appertif....A Lambrusco purchased today from Trader Joe's. It sort of tastes like a wine soda. It's a little addictive, as it goes down very easily.

We also bought the Amarone we've been craving since Friday night, to have with the meal. This one is smooth, strong and tastes a lot like licorice, which can be a good or bad thing based on your tastes.


Chicken Cannelloni

Cannelloni Filling
2 chicken breasts (about 8-10 oz)
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
¼ cup onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
16 ounces ricotta cheese
3 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
salt/pepper
12 sheets home-made pasta (4”x4”)

Cannelloni Sauce
16 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup seeded diced tomato
½ cup half and half
3 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese
5 large basil leaves, torn
Salt/pepper


Preparation
Mix together sauce, cream, basil, salt/pepper in a large frying pan and bring to a simmer. Cook chicken breasts in sauce on low heat until fully cooked. Remove from sauce and dice or shred cooked chicken.
Place chicken into a large mixing bowl. Sautee garlic, onion and pepper in hot oil for 2 minutes. Add chopped spinach, sautéed vegetables, ricotta, mozzarella, pepper and salt, and mix thoroughly.

Roll fresh pasta and cut into 4” squares.

Place two rounded tablespoons of filling mixture down the center of each pasta sheet and carefully roll pasta around filling. Coat the bottom of a baking dish with a few tablespoons of sauce. Place the rolled cannelloni, side by side, into an shallow baking dish.

Pour sauce over cannelloni covering completely. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over top of sauce. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven and serve family style or on individual plates.

Saturday, May 15: Dolsot Bibimbap

Tonight we will be making a bibimbap for dinner ... a dolsot bibimbap, to be exact.  Huh?  What the heck is a dolsot bibimbap?  Until about two years ago, I had no idea.  Then one night, Laura and I went out in our neighborhood to Wharo for some Korean barbecue. 

We ordered the typical stuff any Korean barbecue novice would order, kalbi beef and spicy shrimp for grilling.  We understood that the entrees would be served with a fine variety of Korean side dishes, including of course, kimchi.  We ordered some sake.  The server turned on our grill.  We had been to Wharo before and knew we were in for a treat.

As we sipped some sake, we spied a great looking dish at a table near us.  It looked like a sort of stir-fry - a hot stone pot filled with rice and vegetables.  However, after the server brought the food to the table, she cracked a raw egg into the pot, added a few spoonfuls of a red sauce and folded the the elements of the dish together in the pot.  You could see the food steaming and hear it sizzling.  It looked and sounded delicious.

So, we called our server over and asked him about this mysterious, delicous-looking, fun new food.  He handed us a menu and pointed to the item ... vegetable dolsot bibimbap - bean sprouts, carrot, radish, mushroom and spinach over rice, served in a hot stone pot - with egg, add $1.  We ordered one with egg ... and another carafe of sake.

When the food came, the server did as we had seen earlier.  He cracked the egg on top of the vegetables in the stone pot and asked how spicy we wanted the dish.  We're not afraid of the heat, so we told him to kick it up pretty high.  He added a few hits of the unidentified red sauce and mixed the ingredients together.  *sizzle-crackle-sizzle* 

We spooned some of this concoction out onto appetizer plates for each of us.  Delicious!  We scarfed down a few forkfuls and dove in the dolsot pot for more.  The rice was getting crispy against the sides and bottom of the bowl.  We spooned out a few more bites on each of our plates.  The rice is delicious as it continues to cook in the pot, similar to the rice in a properly prepared paella.  This rocks!  I'm hooked ... time to find some stone pots and a recipe and try this at home. 

Our bibimbap recipe has morphed over time and I can honestly say that after making it a dozen times or so, we have never used the same combination of ingredients.  We swap out and use different combinations of the meats and vegetables in the recipe depending on what we have in our refrigerator or freezer and/or what we pick up at the farmers' market or grocery store.

This can require a bit of prep, but it's worth it.  Think positively ... the more you prepare this dish, the better your knife skills will get.

Servings:

2

Ingredients:
Marinade
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp green onion, chopped
Salt/pepper to taste

6 oz. rib-eye steak, thinly sliced
6 oz. shrimp, sliced or chopped

1 cup white rice
2 cups water

1/2 portabello mushroom, thinly sliced
1 cup fresh spinach, wilted
1 cup zucchini or cucumber, julienned
1 cup carrots, julienned
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup onion, thinly sliced
4 large radishes, julienned

2 eggs

sesame oil
kochujang sauce (chili paste)


Preparation:
Make the marinade. Combine ingredients for marinade in a bowl. Add sliced beef and shrimp and refrigerate. 
Cook rice.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees and place 2 Korean stone bowls in oven for 15 minutes.
Wilt spinach in a work or large frying pan.  Set aside.
Preheat wok with sesame oil to high heat.
Cook vegetables separately until soft (i do two at a time).  Set aside. 
Cook steak/marinade mixture in wok for 4 or 5 minutes.
Remove stone bowls from oven and place on suitable heat resistant surface. Brush bowls with sesame oil. Put rice into bowls and gently pack to the bottom. Arrange the vegetables and beef over each portion of rice. Add one uncooked egg (or sunny side up egg as we prefer)  to each bowl.
Serve with Kochujang sauce.


Prepped and ready to cook.

Sabrina endorses the kochugang sauce.

The finished product.

To complement our meal tonight, we went back to our wheelhouse ... the Cambria pinot noir.  This particular bottle is a 2007 Bench Break Vineyard.  It retails for $30 and I can easily mistake it for one of the very limited production Cambria clone pinots that approach $50.   (NOTE: Sabrina is in the background pretending to watch TV ... she's just trying to get in the picture.)

This wine should work well with tonight's version of the bibimbap ... steak and shrimp in a sweet soy marinade, vegetables stir fried in sesame oil, a spicy sauce ... only a pinot can dance with such a wide variety of tastes and textures.  It worked perfectly.

P.S. We're very excited for the first Federer/Nadal clash in a year in the Madrid Masters final, tomorrow at 9:30am Pacific, only on Tennis Channel!! Feddy won the last one a year ago, but Nadal is looking like his old bad clay self. Even Sabrina is sending good energy by spending the day on the racquet Feddy gave Laura several years ago (and, yes, we keep it under the bed)....

Friday, May 14: Time To Make The Ziti

Tonight's meal that I'm preparing while I wait for Mike to arrive home from Austin... I pulled one of our house favorite reds from the wine rack,  a blend of the 5 classic bordeaux varieties (Cabernet, Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec & Petit Verdot) the 2007 Double T from Trefethen, about $25. It goes well with red meats & red sauces. Normally I would pair the dish I plan to make with an Amarone, but we don't have one in the house, so this California red is very versatile for what it is.

When I moved to Los Angeles 7 years ago, I got a kick out the fact that no one out here had ever tasted baked ziti -- or  barely knew what it is (!!!) Growing up in Central NJ, you couldn't go to any sort of social event without a big tray of ziti being served. I'm not even Italian, but I love The Ziti. It's so easy to make and serves a small army, so it became my "go to" dish when I entertain or am asked to bring something to potlucks. I think by now almost everyone who knows me in LA has been served The Ziti. Who knew it could be such an "exotic" dish? It's always the first dish everyone digs into at the buffet table. And there are almost always leftovers. The only evolution I have made in the dish is making my own red sauce instead of using sauce from a jar. It's even hard to find ziti noodles in the grocery stores in LA, so whenever I stumble on some on the shelves, I usually stock up on a few boxes.


THE ZITI

1 box of ziti noodles
1 lb. ground beef
16 oz. part skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 28 oz. cans of San Marzano tomatoes
2-3 strips of roasted red peppers
16 oz. part skim ricotta
1 egg, beaten
handful of fresh garden basil & oregano, finely chopped
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt, pepper, ground red pepper & sugar to taste

Heat oven to 350. Boil water on stove. Start the sauce first: put olive oil, half of the onions and garlic in a deep pan or pot. Make sure they do not brown. When the onions start to get translucent, add the 2 cans of the tomatoes, along with the juice. Add the basil and oregano and bring to a boil. Once the tomatoes begin to soften, take a potato masher and mash down the tomatoes to break them up. (Be careful--they squirt.) To your taste, add salt, pepper, ground red pepper (optional) and sugar (optional). The need for sugar should be minimal since the onions considerably sweeten the sauce. Simmer for 30 minutes.

While the sauce is simmering...

1. Add the ziti noodles to the boiling water. Cook for about 8 minutes. You want the noodles al dente.

2. Brown hamburger meat with half of the onions & garlic. (You can also add more basil & oregano if you want.) Make sure the bits of meat are very small. When cooked, drain out the fat. In a large bowl, combine the ricotta cheese & beaten egg (the egg helps bind the filling). Fold in the hamburger meat. Add salt, pepper, a half cup of parmesan cheese, and a half cup of mozzarella.

The sauce should be ready now. If you like your sauce chunky, you can keep it this way, but I usually run it through the food processor for 5 seconds to smooth it out.

Take a 9 by 11 Pyrex dish and line the bottom with sauce. Take 1 cup of sauce and mix it into the meat & ricotta mixture. Add the noodles to the mixture & make sure all the noddles are covered. You can add a little more sauce if you want. Put all the noodles into the baking dish and smush them down. Pour the rest of the sauce on top of the ziti. Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella on top so that it's fully covered. (Add cracked pepper or basil on top if it suits you.)

Bake covered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, bake uncovered for another 10 minutes, or until cheese bubbles.

One of our favorite local Italian markets in the area is Sorrento's in Culver City. It's a little bit of a cluttered dump inside but they have EVERYTHING. They even own a farm in Central CA & always have produce from the farm available for a very reasonable price. Whenever I throw a dinner party, you can bet the antipasto platter or some cannolis or cookies came from Sorrento's. Mike was ecstatic to find a huge jar of the Lupini beans that his grandmother used to have on hand when he went to visit her (I find them fairly revolting, but to each his/her own). Anyway, their cannolis are solid, so guess what was for dessert!

Just for the record, we only ocassionally eat fattening foods like this. We do watch our weight, but it's all about balance. And we love pasta. I will imagine tomorrow's dinner will feature lots of vegetables!

Sunday, May 9: Mother's Day at Geoffrey's

We're going to venture into new territory today, by posting our very first restaurant review!

We took Laura's mom to the Mother's Day Brunch at Geoffrey's - Malibu. Geoffrey's as what we refer to as a "special occasion restaurant" as the food is delicious, but pricey. Laura had secured reservations a few weeks ago on opentable.com, which was a good move since the restaurant was packed. Located about 4 miles north of Malibu Canyon, Geoffrey's is mostly outdoors, with tables on the patio overlooking the ocean. It's the ultimate California fine dining experience. At night, it's quite romantic with the lights in the trees surrounding the patio. We would eat here once a month if our bank accounts could take it. But even brunch is a $68 pre-fix for 3 courses. Once you throw in a drink, tax and the valet parking charge, you're easily looking at $100 per person. The tip takes it north of that. For brunch. But the food is worth it. And our server Dee Dee was friendly and solicitous. She even tried to steer Laura away from ordering a watermelon mojito (but it sounded delicious!!) It wasn't. It was cloyingly sweet and medicinal tasting. Like an alcoholic jolly rancher. Instead of doing a condescending "I told you so," Dee Dee easily took the drink back and replaced it with a perfect Mimosa. Mike ordered his brunch standard, the Bloody Mary, which he deemed "good, but nothing special." Sandy went for a glass of chardonnay. There were 3 choices on the menu for chards, all between $10-$14 per glass, and she went with the Solaire chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands, which was the oakiest & butteriest of the bunch. We looked the wine up and it only goes for about $13 a bottle, but it was quite good.

The brunch menu split the courses into a choice of an appetizer, an entree and a dessert. Geoffrey's largely specializes in steak and fish (California style) and the portions are large enough where you will not leave still feeling hungry. Here is what we ordered:

Mike: Porcini mushroom soup

Laura: Mixed green salad with pear, candied figs & blue cheese

Sandy: Crab cake

 

For our entrees, Mike ordered the crab cake benedict, Laura ordered the lobster quiche, and Sandy ordered the sea bass on a bed of pesto whipped potatoes, which is pictured to the right. We would have taken a picture of Laura's lobster quiche, if she hadn't torn in and eaten 1/4 of it before either Mike or Sandy took one bite of theirs....

Dessert was a choice of a berry tart, a lemon cheesecake and a chocolate hazelnut crunch tart, so of course we ordered one of each! Our collective vote went to the berry tart, which was light enough to be the perfect end to the meal. The chocolate hazelnut torte was extremely rich and fudgy, and nothing tastes better than just plain New York City cheesecake, so this one paled by comparison.

Saturday, May 8: Three's Company

Laura's mom is visiting this weekend from New Jersey. She asked for some of Mike's fresh pasta for dinner.

Since it was sort of a warm day in Venice, and Laura's mom prefers whites over reds, we decided to pair the dinner with a white syrah. Yes, you read that correctly. It's called Babcock Identity Crisis from  Babcock Winery and it's a mere $15. It has a light strawberry color but it's not sweet at all; it's actually quite dry. It went down very quickly between the 3 of us.

Chicken Piccata

2 large skinless boneless chicken breast halves

2 Tbsp butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup dry white wine

¼ cup chicken stock

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

2 Tbsp drained capers

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

Salt/pepper

Cut each half breast in half to make two large thin pieces. Place chicken between 2 large sheets of plastic wrap. Lightly pound chicken to 1/4-inch thickness. Salt and pepper chicken pieces. Coat each chicken piece in flour.

Heat 1 Tbsp oil and 1 Tbsp butter in a large skillet. Add chicken and cook until golden and cooked completely, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate and keep warm.

Mix 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbps flour in small bowl until smooth. Bring wine, stock and lemon juice to boil in skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk in butter-flour mixture and stir for a minute until sauce thickens. Stir in capers and parsley. Season to taste. Pour sauce over chicken and serve or toss chicken in pan with sauce and serve.

Mediterranean Artichoke Pasta

8 ounces spaghetti, cooked and drained

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbsp minced onion

1 can (14 1/2 oz size) diced tomatoes, drained

1 cup artichoke hearts; drained and quartered (canned or frozen)

1 can (2 1/4 oz size) pitted ripe olives, sliced

3 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Salt/pepper to taste

While we don't normally do dessert, we couldn't resist this Chocolate Cream Pie on sale at Marie Callendar's this week for $6.99. Yum!