Uncategorized | culinary flights of fancy

December 15, 2014
by Craig Leave a comment

Florence, Italy, oh how I loved your food!

Stuffed squash blossoms with anchovies and soft pecorino cheese garnished with parsley and olive oil drizzle.

My wife and I recently traveled to Florence and Tuscany in general and it was great. I’m pretty sure Florence, if it isn’t already, should be considered a ‘foodie’ Mecca of sorts. Here are a few pictures. In the coming days, I’ll start posting some Holiday cakes, most of them Italian in honor of our trip. I’m also going to post a wonderfully simple yet complex egg and mushroom dish, a roasted pumpkin quinoa recipe, and other treats and goodies that I make along the way leading into the Christmas and New Years holidays.

One of my personal favorites: La Proscuitteria, a little wine, meat, and cheese place that serves all of the above in a casual setting. They make their own dried and cured meats including aged proscuitto.

Beef, Pearl Barley, and Vegetable Stew

Beef and Pearl Barley Soup:

I love soups and stews in winter and I especially love a good beef stew. It brings me back to my childhood and there’s something inherently comforting in stew. For the beef, I used a chuck roast that I cut into one inch squares. I used a myriad of vegetables and made the pearl barley separately, cooked it until al dente and then finished it in the stew. I used veal stock as the base and if you are so inclined, using veal stock made for a very tasty stew. However, if you don’t have access to veal bones to make the stock, beef stock will certainly do the trick. The great thing about stew is that it’s a very forgiving dish and can accommodate almost any vegetable you have on hand. So, I’ll provide my recipe here but definitely do not be shy about substituting out one ingredient you may not care for or have on hand for another that you do prefer or have on hand. The only real rules with stew, as with any braise, is that you have to completely brown the meat to a dark brown and then slowly cook the meat and vegetables in a liquid, usually stock or wine or a combination of the two. However, if you prefer beer, a dark beer would work really well with this. Cognac would work as well. Really the possibilities are limited only by you! The recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →

November 27, 2014
by Craig Leave a comment

French Apple Tart

Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you! Thank you for taking the time to read; I appreciate it. This isn’t very Thanksgiving-y but still pretty tasty. So, while you recover from your food coma, consider this for one of your upcoming holiday parties or just simply as a special treat!

So, a while ago I promised I would post a recipe for a classic French apple tart and I used a recipe from the text book from the International Culinary Center, the school I attended. Besides old fashioned procrastination with this post, I have run into a bit of a problem. That is to say that I thought the book with the recipe was available for public purchase. However, after an initial search on the school’s website, I’m not so sure that’s the case. As such, I don’t feel comfortable posting the exact recipe as I can’t credit it back to something you, the reader, can reference and I definitely don’t feel comfortable posting the exact recipe without permission. So, I decided on a happy medium that I hope can work. I’m going to walk through the various stages of making a tart and how to assemble it. I’ll provide a link or two for a good tart dough recipe that would work in lieu of the exact one I used to make mine. Anyway, let’s try it that way.

Tarts are pretty easy to pull off, but they do take some time. Like making pie, how much you handle the dough and giving it incremental rests will result in a flakier, better textured crust. For mine, I used a classic tart recipe and made a pretty straightforward compote as the base. The sliced apples used for the topping retained their skin for extra color. I prefer it that way and like the way it looks. However, that is very much a no-no for a traditional French tart. You’ll notice from the pictures that the sliced apples are arranged very neatly around the tart and make for a very beautiful finished product. You’ll also notice that mine is slightly uneven and not the greatest looking from a presentation standpoint…story of my life with baking. I lose patience with the precision of it and find myself hurrying…go slowly and have patience with it. If not, hey, the imperfections make it look homemade and there’s nothing wrong with that! The recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →

November 26, 2014
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Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Brown Butter, Fresh Sage, and Red Pepper Flakes

So, I’m going to make this a very short and sweet recipe as it is very simple. It takes a while to roast the sweet potatoes (about a hour or maybe a bit longer…but, can roast them ahead of time and then do the rest when you are ready). This was one of the more well-received dishes I made for Thanksgiving dinner and it was definitely one of the easiest. So…here goes…recipe follows after the jump. Happy Thanksgiving! Continue reading →

November 26, 2014
by Craig 1 Comment

Tuscan Kale Gratin

I know, I know…I’ve written a lot of kale recipes of late. I’ll watch that for a while so that we can explore other vegetable options moving forward. If you don’t have kale or would rather use a different vegetable you can certainly use other vegetables such as Swiss chard, Brussel sprouts, potatoes (sweet or regular), carrots, parsnips, cauliflower…anyway you get the idea; there are a lot of options with this recipe. I made this dish for our Thanksgiving family dinner and it was actually one of, if not the actual favorite(s) of the day. The good news with serving this dish for Thanksgiving is that it is very easy, fairly quick to make, and can be made ahead and simply finished at the last minute. Apologies about the picture…it’s a bit blurry. I was moving quickly to take pictures while at the same time getting dinner ready for us and our friends. So it was more of a moving target with this meal…recipe follows after the jump. Continue reading →

November 26, 2014
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Thanksgiving Dinner Part 2

The Thanksgiving gauntlet…dishes served buffet style.

So, Thanksgiving was turned out great. Everyone seemed to really enjoy all the food. I thought the dry brined turkey was excellent. I would definitely recommend trying that sometime (as an aside…you can do the dry brine for roasted chicken as well). Interestingly, two of the dishes that seemed to be really popular were the kale gratin and the simple brown butter and sage sweet potatoes. I’m going to post recipes for those in a separate post but both are really easy and as a bonus, both can be made ahead and simply reheated at the very end just prior to serving.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday! Happy Thanksgiving…and go Cowboys!

November 22, 2014
by Craig Leave a comment

Thanksgiving Meal Part 1

Roasted Pumpkin (Cheese Pumpkin Variety)

Roasted Pumpkin Pie with Bourbon Vanilla Extract

Classic Apple Pie with apples from Alsteade Farms.

Thanksgiving is upon us very soon and it’s here early at our house as we are doing a Jersey Thanksgiving today before we visit family for our actual holiday. The menu is set. I’ll post recipes and pictures very soon (assuming everything turns out okay!). Here goes:

Dry brined turkey with mixed herbs

Brussel Sprouts with homemade molassas cured bacon

Tuscan Kale and Onion gratin

Dressing with homemade bread, sage, porcini, toasted walnuts, and possibly homemade hot Italian sausage (haven’t decided on the sausage yet)

Mashed potatoes with celeriac

Roasted Sweet potato mash with browned butter, toasted sage, and red pepper flake

Cranberry relishes (brandied cherry and apple cider vinegar pickled (sweet and sour)

Pies to finish.

So…all in all, a very light meal here. I’ll be back on Sunday or Monday with the pictures and recipes!

November 21, 2014
by Craig Leave a comment

Mixed Roasted Vegetables

So, do you ever purchase way more vegetables than you need at the market? I’m definitely guilty of that, as I get swept away with what looks good without factoring in how am I going to use this particular item this week. Guilty as charged for me. At any rate, I found myself with a bunch of different vegetables that needed to be used last week. Most of them were root vegetables (as is the season) so roasting them is an easy, natural way to prepare them. They caramelize well while roasting and turn a beautiful golden brown and in doing so, the natural sweetness of the vegetables is brought front and center.

Here I roasted brussel sprouts, golden beets, Easter egg radishes, and beautiful multi-colored carrots. I’m not going to write out an actual recipe for these as you use the exact same process for all of them. Actually, I roast all vegetables in this way and I always roast at 375 degrees (convection setting if you have it).

Anyway, to roast these, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the vegetables as you’d like (I cut mine in half, except the carrots, which I left whole). Once the vegetables are cut, place in a bowl and drizzle a bit of olive oil over them. Then add kosher or sea salt over the top. Toss to combine so that each vegetable has a coating of oil and a bit of salt on both sides. Place on roasting pan, cut side down and roast twenty-five minutes. Check to see if they are done (they should be soft and a nice caramel brown color). If not, place in the oven for ten more minutes, check again and if finished remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. If they are not done, continue cooking in ten minute increments until finished.

That’s all there is to it and they are great. They are great on the first day and they are great chopped into salads after that.

November 20, 2014
by Craig Leave a comment

Cranberry Sauce with Brandied Cherries, Vanilla, and Star Anise

So a few months back…way back in the summer during cherry season, I posted a brandied cherries recipe that combined cognac, tart cherry juice, and a touch of sugar with vanilla bean, star anise, and cinnamon. After a few months of marinating in a dark place, they were ready to role and believe it or not, they took on every spice included in the mix and are wonderful. They are great with adult beverages and they are pretty spectacular here. If you didn’t make the recipe last summer, I think you can find brandied cherries for sale at liquor stores. I’d check Berkeley Wine though I haven’t yet so I don’t know for sure that they have them. At any rate, to continue on with this you’d need the brandied cherries.

Got the brandied cherries? Check! OK, the rest is easy…The recipe follows after the jump. Obviously, this recipe is geared towards a Thanksgiving table. However, I’ve tried them with crackers and brie and it was great. Continue reading →

November 19, 2014
by Craig Leave a comment

Thanksgiving and Dry Brining a Turkey

To Brine or Not?

Usually we celebrate both the Thanksgiving holiday and the Christmas holiday out of town as both sets of parents live in other parts of the country. As such, we usually miss out on having a true holiday meal of our own at our own home. This year, however, is going to be a bit different. We will be spending Thanksgiving in Chicago with Tara’s parents and family but we decided to do our own little Thanksgiving dinner this weekend with some friends. As such, I’ll post some things that I thought worked and some things that may have missed the mark.

The first step however is the turkey. I pick ours up tomorrow from John’s meat market (they are great…ask for Nick). They get their turkeys fresh from the farm and can get them next day if you call ahead (though given it’s Thanksgiving they might need a bit more notice). Anyhow, back to the turkey. I go through this internal debate all the time with poultry: to brine or not to brine! I almost always fall on the side of not brining the bird as I think it’s an extra, unnecessary step. I think I may be the only trained chef on the planet that feels that way (or so it seems) as everyone recommends brining the turkey or a roasted chicken for that matter.

So, I had almost given in and started looking at traditional brining recipes and options and I came across this one on thekitchn.com, which involves a dry brine. I’d never really heard of that but after reading a bit about it, I’m intrigued, so that’s what I’m going to do with ours. I’ll make the rub using dried herbs, salt, and assorted other spices that I haven’t decided upon quite yet and will set up the dry brine once I get the turkey back home. It will brine for two days and I’ll roast it on Saturday. I’ll post some pictures, etc. once it’s finished.

How are you preparing your turkey this year? If you are so inclined, why not try the dry brine method? It seems pretty easy and I’m sure it’s delicious as the kitchn does not mess around with stuff that’s not pretty great. Anyway, if you try it, let me know how it went for you.

I’ll also post some of the sides and assorted extras that I’m going to serve along with the turkey for Saturday. So, stay tuned for that.

culinary flights of fancy

Home Cooking Adventures in Berkeley Heights

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