Monday, September 24, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Butternut Squash & Apple Soup
Tonight I am testing a recipe that I found on Epicurious.com for a Butternut Squash soup. I am about to cook for a 100 person lunch at my church, The Vineyard, in Duluth, MN and I want the dishes I do to be pre-tested and good before I experiment on 100 people. I cooked for this same group last March and they have asked me to do it again next week. Last time I did a Creamy Asparagus soup and a Chicken with Ancini De Pepe. I am going to repeat the chicken soup but it is Fall and Butternut Squash is in season and I like it so here we go. I have tweaked the recipe to what I think I would like and I will include it here for your enjoyment.
I begins with 1 1/2 lbs. Butternut Squash, skinned, seeded and cut into 1/2" pieces.
6 slices of thick cut bacon cut into 1/2" pieces
2 Celery ribs, chopped
1 Carrot, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 medium apples, cored, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 1/2 cups homemade Chicken stock
2 cups water
In a 6 qt. heavy pot, cook the bacon until crisp and remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels. Reserve 2 T of the fat in the pot. Cook the Celery, Carrot and onion in the fat over low heat, stirring occasionally until softened, about 10-12 minutes. Add the Cinnamon and cook for about 1 minute. Stir in the Potatoes, Squash, Apple, Stock, 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon Salt and 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper and 1/4 teaspoon White Pepper and bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes.
Add 1/2 the cooked Bacon and use a hand blender or process in a regular blender in small batches until very smooth. Serve the soup topped with Sour Cream, Bacon bits and some croutons if you like. This is a very nice soup! It will serve 8-10 people as a first course, or 6-8 for a main course.
Good eating, my friend!
Tim
I begins with 1 1/2 lbs. Butternut Squash, skinned, seeded and cut into 1/2" pieces.
6 slices of thick cut bacon cut into 1/2" pieces
2 Celery ribs, chopped
1 Carrot, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 medium apples, cored, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 1/2 cups homemade Chicken stock
2 cups water
In a 6 qt. heavy pot, cook the bacon until crisp and remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels. Reserve 2 T of the fat in the pot. Cook the Celery, Carrot and onion in the fat over low heat, stirring occasionally until softened, about 10-12 minutes. Add the Cinnamon and cook for about 1 minute. Stir in the Potatoes, Squash, Apple, Stock, 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon Salt and 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper and 1/4 teaspoon White Pepper and bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes.
Add 1/2 the cooked Bacon and use a hand blender or process in a regular blender in small batches until very smooth. Serve the soup topped with Sour Cream, Bacon bits and some croutons if you like. This is a very nice soup! It will serve 8-10 people as a first course, or 6-8 for a main course.
Good eating, my friend!
Tim
Friday, April 20, 2012
Venison Confit
Venison Confit
1/2 t fennel seed
1/2 t Cumin seed
6-8 Juniper berries
Toast spices and put in a grinder, then put into a bowl. Add 1/3 t dried whole Rosemary, 1 t Kosher salt, 2 scoops finely ground coffee, 1/4 t ground Rosemary, 4 Bay. leaves.
1 Venison steak
Coat Venison steak in light olive oil and rub the spice mixture evenly over both sides of the meat. Place in a small baking dish and cover with plastic wrap, then place in the refrigerator for 48 hours. Pre-heat the oven to225 degrees. Rinse off the spices and place a little oil in the bottom of the same baking dish.
Add the meat and cover it completely with light olive oil. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 4-6 hours.
Uncover the meat and pull it apart with a fork. Serve over fresh pasta with a mushroom/bourbon sauce or a reduced red wine sauce. It can also be an appetizer on crostini with soft cream cheese and caramelized onions.
Sent from my iPod
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Venison Confit Success
I recently had the honor of cooking for the annual Wild Game Dinner at my church, The Vineyard, in Duluth, MN. We were expecting anywhere from 150 to 200 men and it turned out we served 180 in the final tally. It was so much fun for me that I can't properly express it. I had some great help in the kitchen thanks to the organizing efforts of my friend Charlie Plys. We cooked anything we could get our hands on to feed that many people and it worked out that all were fed aplenty and we had a smidgen of leftovers to boot.
My dishes for the dinner were Venison Confit with Smoked Onions, Mushrooms and Fettucini Pasta and Venison Bourguignon. I have done the Bourguignon before and it was a hit and I will share the recipe here but the big deal for me was the Venison confit. I have played around with this before and reported it here on this blog but with no really good conclusion to the dish. This time however, it was a real success. Here is the deal:
This will do a small amount for an appetizer or main entree for about 4 people.
1good sized Venison steak or 2 chops
1/2 t Fennel Seed
1/t Cumin Seed
6-8 Juniper Berries
Toast the spices above in a skillet over medium heat and then put in a spice grinder and pulse until coarsely ground and then into a small bowl. Add 1/2 t dried whole Rosemary, 1 t Kosher Salt, 2 scoops (about 2 T)
finely ground coffee, 1/4 t ground Rosemary, 4 bay leaves.
Coat the venison in light olive oil and place in a small baking dish. rub half the spices on one side of the venison and flip over, rubbing the other half of the spices on the second side. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and place in the refrgerator for 48 hours.
Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Remove the venison from the refrgerator and rinse off the spices with cool water. Place a little olive oil in the bottom of the baking dish and place the venison on top of it. Cover the meat completely with light olive oil. Cover the dish with aluminum foil very tightly and place on a sheet pan. Bake at 225 degrees for 6 hours. uncover the meat and pull it apart with two forks into shreds.
Smoked Onions:
I use an aluminum 9x13 cake pan with aluminum lid for my smoking chamber. Place about 1/2 cup Apple smoking chips in the bottom of the pan and place a sheet of aluminum foil poked full of hole over the chips. Take a medium sweet onion and cut into quarters.Set the onion quarters on the foil and place the pan over a gas burner or on your gas grill for about 20 minutes. the onions should have a nice golden brown look about them but may not be quite fully cooked yet. remove them from the pan and slice them into smaller pieces and saute them until nice and soft.
Meanwhile, to complete the dish, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook 1/2 lb of Fettucini for about 9 minutes until slightly al dente.
Place 2 T olive oil in a saute pan and add 1 T Anchovy Paste ot 2 oil packed anchovies and cook until the Anchovies blend into the oil as though they have disappeared, about 2-3 minutes.
Add 1/8 cup minced Garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Slice 1/2 lb of Baby Bella or Button Mushrooms and saute along with the Anchovy and Garlic until all the moisture has been released, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add about 1/4 cup Red Wine to de-glaze the pan and cook until the wine has reduce by about 1/3. Add the shredded Venison and Smoked onions and cook until heated through. Stir into the cooked Fettucini, drizzle with a little Olive Oil and serve.
My dishes for the dinner were Venison Confit with Smoked Onions, Mushrooms and Fettucini Pasta and Venison Bourguignon. I have done the Bourguignon before and it was a hit and I will share the recipe here but the big deal for me was the Venison confit. I have played around with this before and reported it here on this blog but with no really good conclusion to the dish. This time however, it was a real success. Here is the deal:
This will do a small amount for an appetizer or main entree for about 4 people.
1good sized Venison steak or 2 chops
1/2 t Fennel Seed
1/t Cumin Seed
6-8 Juniper Berries
Toast the spices above in a skillet over medium heat and then put in a spice grinder and pulse until coarsely ground and then into a small bowl. Add 1/2 t dried whole Rosemary, 1 t Kosher Salt, 2 scoops (about 2 T)
finely ground coffee, 1/4 t ground Rosemary, 4 bay leaves.
Coat the venison in light olive oil and place in a small baking dish. rub half the spices on one side of the venison and flip over, rubbing the other half of the spices on the second side. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and place in the refrgerator for 48 hours.
Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Remove the venison from the refrgerator and rinse off the spices with cool water. Place a little olive oil in the bottom of the baking dish and place the venison on top of it. Cover the meat completely with light olive oil. Cover the dish with aluminum foil very tightly and place on a sheet pan. Bake at 225 degrees for 6 hours. uncover the meat and pull it apart with two forks into shreds.
Smoked Onions:
I use an aluminum 9x13 cake pan with aluminum lid for my smoking chamber. Place about 1/2 cup Apple smoking chips in the bottom of the pan and place a sheet of aluminum foil poked full of hole over the chips. Take a medium sweet onion and cut into quarters.Set the onion quarters on the foil and place the pan over a gas burner or on your gas grill for about 20 minutes. the onions should have a nice golden brown look about them but may not be quite fully cooked yet. remove them from the pan and slice them into smaller pieces and saute them until nice and soft.
Meanwhile, to complete the dish, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook 1/2 lb of Fettucini for about 9 minutes until slightly al dente.
Place 2 T olive oil in a saute pan and add 1 T Anchovy Paste ot 2 oil packed anchovies and cook until the Anchovies blend into the oil as though they have disappeared, about 2-3 minutes.
Add 1/8 cup minced Garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Slice 1/2 lb of Baby Bella or Button Mushrooms and saute along with the Anchovy and Garlic until all the moisture has been released, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add about 1/4 cup Red Wine to de-glaze the pan and cook until the wine has reduce by about 1/3. Add the shredded Venison and Smoked onions and cook until heated through. Stir into the cooked Fettucini, drizzle with a little Olive Oil and serve.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Keegan's Seafood Grille
Teresa and I recently returned home from our second culinary adventure vacation in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. We did this same trip last year in search primarily of the restaurants featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We had such a great time that we just had to return to try a few more that we couldn't get to and to look for other great spots as well. We arrived on a Saturday in Tampa, procured a rented 2012 Chrysler 200 convertible and proceeded to our all-time favorite restaurant in the area; Keegan's Seafood Grille in Indian Rocks Beach, about 25 miles from the Tampa Airport and 15 miles from our hotel in St. Pete's Beach down the road.
Keegan's is a very low-key restaurant with a smallish dining area and bar in a fairly non-descript strip mall along Gulf Shores Blvd. It really is a kind of "sleeper" restaurant. The food, however, is nothing short of spectacular.
We arrived around 7:00 pm to find a fairly long line waiting for a table; no matter, I would wait for an hour for this food! We signed in with Rob and struck up a conversation. He directed us to the bar for a drink while we waited. Now we had been here before and knew that their White Sangria was amazing ( I have been working on figuring it out for a year now). The wait was not all that long and it was fun to talk with Rob, who seemed to be either a manager or owner. I told him that this blog was featured as #3 fan blog on his website from our visit last year so here I was again to write some more. By the way you can check them out at keegansseafood.com to find out about their daily specials. This night was Mediterranean Rubbed Char grilled Swordfish on a bed of Parmesan Smashed Potatoes with fresh Tomato and Olive Relish, Drizzled with a dark Balsamic and Citrus Reduction. Now doesn't that sound great? It was. We had another Sangria with dinner and Teresa had a piece of their Key Lime Pie for dessert.
They typically have 2 or 3 entree specials and a couple appetizers not on the normal menu. The seafood is always high quality and cooked perfectly and very pleasing to the eye as well. We came back a couple days later for another round and I'll tell you more about that in another episode.
If you can make your way here you will not be disappointed!
Dine well,
Tim
Keegan's is a very low-key restaurant with a smallish dining area and bar in a fairly non-descript strip mall along Gulf Shores Blvd. It really is a kind of "sleeper" restaurant. The food, however, is nothing short of spectacular.
We arrived around 7:00 pm to find a fairly long line waiting for a table; no matter, I would wait for an hour for this food! We signed in with Rob and struck up a conversation. He directed us to the bar for a drink while we waited. Now we had been here before and knew that their White Sangria was amazing ( I have been working on figuring it out for a year now). The wait was not all that long and it was fun to talk with Rob, who seemed to be either a manager or owner. I told him that this blog was featured as #3 fan blog on his website from our visit last year so here I was again to write some more. By the way you can check them out at keegansseafood.com to find out about their daily specials. This night was Mediterranean Rubbed Char grilled Swordfish on a bed of Parmesan Smashed Potatoes with fresh Tomato and Olive Relish, Drizzled with a dark Balsamic and Citrus Reduction. Now doesn't that sound great? It was. We had another Sangria with dinner and Teresa had a piece of their Key Lime Pie for dessert.
They typically have 2 or 3 entree specials and a couple appetizers not on the normal menu. The seafood is always high quality and cooked perfectly and very pleasing to the eye as well. We came back a couple days later for another round and I'll tell you more about that in another episode.
If you can make your way here you will not be disappointed!
Dine well,
Tim
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