Jalapeño Tartare Sauce

Today’s blog comes from Sharon, Brisbane, Australia.

When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to love Trader Joe’s Tartare Sauce with Jalapeños – I think I have finally managed to copy their recipe. Here it is, served with Moreton Bay Bugs – these are found as you would expect in Moreton Bay here in Queensland, Australia. They are a type of slipper lobster and totally delicious.

Jalapeño Tartare Sauce

1/2 cup good mayonnaise
2 Tbs small-diced pickles or cornichons
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs capers
1 tsp coarse-grained mustard
Pickled jalapeños – chopped finely – to taste
Pinch kosher salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper

Mix together and serve.

Quick Marinara for Chicken Parmigiana

Guest blogger Jessica (Denver, CO) from Beauty Marks again.

Sometimes nothing but chicken parmigiana will do for a grumpy child. Yes, you all know how to make breaded chicken cutlets, but what made this version great was the sauce. It only took about five minutes longer than opening a jar:

Quick Marinara for Chicken Parmigiana

1 28 ounce can San Marzano tomatoes – whole or crushed; puree them with a hand blender (or as I like to call it, the kitchen vibrator)
Olive oil
Two cloves of garlic
A pinch of crushed red pepper
Dried or fresh oregano (I used both)
Salt

Sauté the garlic and pepper in the olive oil. Add the tomatoes. Simmer for about ten minutes. Add the oregano and salt. Sauté for a few more minutes. Voilà – or eccolà – you have the best sauce imaginable.

Mini Kofta Patties with Tzatziki

The other night, when I made Chicken Zorba, I also made these mini Kofta patties.  They are meant to be made with lamb, but I hate lamb and I made them with ground beef.  Also, they are meant to be shaped onto skewers and grilled, but that’s too much work.  You can eat them in pita bread with the Tzatziki. Tzatziki is a Greek yogurt and cucumber sauce, that is very refreshing.

Mini Kofta Patties with Tzatziki

4 cloves garlic
1 Tbs kosher salt, plus a pinch
1 lb ground beef chuck or lamb
3 Tbs grated onion
3 Tbs chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 Tbs ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil, for brushing the grill
Tzatziki, recipe follows
Grilled flat bread

Smash the garlic cloves, sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt, and, with the flat side of a large knife, mash and smear mixture to a coarse paste. Mix the paste and the remaining 1 tablespoon salt with the meat, onion, parsley, and spices.

Line a pan with aluminum foil. Divide the meat mixture into 28 rough balls. Flatten each ball and place on a pan, cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 12 hours.

Heat a grill pan over medium heat or prepare a grill. Brush the pan lightly with olive oil. Working in batches, grill the patties, turning occasionally, until brown all over and just cooked through, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter and serve with tzatziki and flat bread.

Tzatziki

Makes 1 1/4 cups

2 cups Greek yogurt
1 medium cucumber, peeled, halved, and seeded
2 tsp kosher salt, plus a pinch
1/2 clove garlic
1 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried mint, crumbled

Grate the cucumber on the large holes of a box grater into another bowl. Sprinkle with the 2 teaspoons salt and rub into the cucumber with your hands. Set aside 20 minutes, then squeeze the cucumbers to express as much liquid as possible.

Smash the garlic, sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt, and, with the flat side of a large knife, mash and smear the mixture to a coarse paste. Stir the cucumber, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and mint into the yogurt. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Passata Sauce from Pizzeria Mozza

If you think I’m done talking about the pizza class I took last week at Pizzeria Mozza, you are mistaken!  I want to tell you about the sauce.  Fortunately, my friend, Chris, took awesome notes.  This sauce is so easy, it’s seems like you’ve forgotten something.  There is no garlic, no herbs in this sauce!

For their pizzas –also called Passato. The sauce is not complex, instead showcasing the ingredients.

KEY: the variety of tomato. Best: San Marzano. You want tomatoes that have more meat—lots of flesh– less water, fewer seeds, and sweeter. “DOP” designation is important. Home grown tomatoes are often very watery making them less desireable since so much water would have to be cooked off.

TIPS:  Pan you use to cook sauce should be twice size as amount of product you’re adding.  A heavy pan—the heavier the better – should be used because it prevents sticking.   Enameled cast iron (like Le Creuset) is perfect.  Simmer sauce gently until you get the taste you want.  Taste often.  It should not take that long to produce the sauce as it is simple with few ingredients.  Do not cook it to a paste.

Cool down sauce before putting in on pizza dough.  2 oz. ladle of sauce per pizza.  No more.  You can also use this sauce for pasta.

Passata Sauce from Pizzeria Mozza

Makes 7 cups

2× 28-oz cans whole tomatoes, including their juices
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Pass the tomatoes through a food mill or crush well by hand. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat until warm but not smoking, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the pureed tomatoes, being careful as they will splatter when they hit the oil. Stir in the sugar, salt and pepper; cook until sauce thickens slightly.

Apple Puffs with Vanilla Sauce

Rosh Hashanah is the “Head of the Year”–literally, the Jewish New Year.  Rosh Hashanah 2012 begins at sunset Sunday, September 16, and ends in the evening of Tuesday, September 18.

One of the symbols most often associated with Rosh Hashanah is the apple. Throughout the Jewish world families are dipping apples in honey and reciting the special blessing requesting God to renew for us a good and sweet year.  Last year, I posted a Honey Cake recipe, which is another traditional Rosh Hashanah dessert.  The beauty of the recipe below is that it can be make ahead and baked before serving.

Have a Shana Tovah – Happy New Year!

Shanah Tovah Apple Puffs with Vanilla Sauce

Serves 8

1 pkg frozen puff pastry, thawed until pliable but still very cold
3 medium golden delicious apples, peeled, cored, and chopped into 1/2″ pieces
3/4 cup dried apples, chopped into 1/2″ pieces
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg mixed with 1 Tbs water, for glaze

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease or spray a heavy cookie sheet.

On a lightly floured board, roll one pastry sheet into a 13-14″ square.

It will be very thin.  Cut into 4 equal squares.

In a medium bowl, toss apples with the dried apples, raisins, sugar, flour, and cinnamon.

Spoon a scant 3/4 cup apple mixture into the center of the squares.  Then brush edges with egg glaze and pull corners of pastry up over filling like a money bag and twist and seal. Pull back corners.

Place 2″ apart on greased baking sheet.  Brush tops and sides with of pastry with egg glaze.

Bake for 25- 30 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown.  Serve warm with the vanilla sauce.

Note – Puffs may be made and refrigerated 8 hours before baking.

Vanilla Sauce

2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups light non dairy creamer (for dairy meals, substitute whole milk)
2 tsp cornstarch
1Tbs vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan off the heat, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks and sugar.

In a small bowl, stir non-dairy creamer and cornstarch together, and whisk into the eggs.

Cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens slightly.  Reduce heat to low and simmer 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  If the sauce is too lumpy press it thru a strainer.  Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on surface of sauce and cool to room temp.  Refrigerate until chilled you can make this up to 2 days ahead.  Serve chilled or at room temp.

Rib Eye with Bordelaise Sauce

Please proceed with caution! Flames are involved!

Bordelaise sauce is a classic French sauce named after the Bordeaux region of France, which is famous for its wine. The sauce is made with dry red wine, butter and shallots.  Traditionally, bordelaise sauce is served with grilled beef or steak.

The term flambé [flahm-BAY] is a French word meaning “flaming” or “flamed.” Flambé means to ignite foods that have liquor or liqueur added. This is done for a dramatic effect and to develop a rich flavor of the liqueur to the foods without adding the alcohol.

Always remove the pan from the heat source before adding the liquor to avoid burning yourself. Vigorously shaking the pan usually extinguishes the flame, but keep a pot lid nearby in case you need to smother the flames. The alcohol vapor generally burns off by itself in a matter of seconds.

Rib Eye with Bordelaise Sauce
Entrecôte à la Bordelaise

Serves 6

6 Rib-eye steaks (about 7 oz each)
6 shallots, peeled and chopped
2½ Tbs Cognac
1 cup Bordeaux wine
2½ Tbs butter, chopped
Salt and pepper

Pan-fry the steaks over high heat for 5 minutes on each side.  Remove, set on a plate, and keep warm.

Sauté the shallots in the same pan.  Flambé the pan with the cognac, and deglaze with the Bordeaux, scraping up the bits on the bottom of the pan.  Allow the sauce to reduce by half, then whisk in the chopped butter and season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle the sauce over the steaks and serve.

Sesame Sriracha Glaze for Fish

This mayonnaise-based glaze, flavored with toasted sesame seeds and Sriracha chile sauce, is delicious brushed on all kinds of fish before roasting or broiling. Use it on skinless fish like halibut, mackerel or wild striped bass. Mixed with scallions and soy sauce, it becomes a terrific sauce.

 

 

Sesame Sriracha Glaze for Fish

About ½ cup

½ cup mayonnaise
3 Tbs toasted sesame seeds, crushed
1 Tbs mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tsp Sriracha chile sauce
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a small bowl, blend together the mayonnaise, sesame seeds, mirin and Sriracha. Season with salt and pepper.

Notes
Sauce variation: Add 2 thinly sliced scallions, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and 1teaspoon mirin per ¼ cup of glaze and serve with grilled, poached or sautéed fish.

Shrimp Lamaze

I found a stack of old Gourmet and Bon Appétit magazines from 1982 in a cupboard at my mother-in-law’s house.  Of course, I spent hours looking through them.  What struck me was that all the advertisements seemed to be shot through mist, all soft focus.  That’s probably because the photographer was smoking Merit cigarettes during he shoot.  There were so many interesting ads – cigarettes (Benson & Hedges, Merits, Virginia Slims , Marlboro Lights, Vantage Ultra Lights, More Lights, etc), liquor (Bailey’s, Frangelico, Sabra, an orange chocolate concoction, Seagram,s Canadian Whiskey, Meyers Rum, Waterford Cream, an Irish cream liqueur, Tanqueray, Canadian Club, Drambuie, my fav, J&B, Kahlúa, Hiram Walker Triple Sec, and Praline Liqueur).  Mind you this is in just one of the issues!  I won’t list the ads for wines….

Anyway, I ran across this recipe called Shrimp Lamaze, which was developed by chef Johann Lamprecht at Philadelphia’s Warwick Hotel. The dish is named after the proprietor of the Warwick Hotel, George Lamaze.

Shrimp Lamaze

Serves 4

2 cup mayonnaise
½ cup India relish
2 cup chili sauce
1 Tbs prepared mustard
1 tsp chopped chives
1 hard cooked egg, chopped and chilled
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of A-1 sauce
2 lbs shrimp, cooked and shelled

Use a chilled bowl. Combine mayonnaise, relish, chili sauce, mustard, chives and egg. Season with salt, pepper and A-1 sauce. Serve sauce over cold, cooked shrimp or other seafood on a bed of red leaf lettuce that has been soaked in ice water.

Violet Mustard

Violet Mustard is a Limousin mustard speciality that was created centuries ago and its recipe has been on the verge of being lost several times in history due to – a difficult to understand – lack of interest! It is prepared from over ripe black grapes.

The traditional Brive mustard is definitely part of the Limousin food and gastronomy scene and is generally served with the famous limousine beef, veal, duck or blood sausage. It is also excellent as an ingredient to flavor sauces.

Known since the 13th century, this Limousin speciality is most renowned since Pope Clement VI, who was born in the area and was homesick because of the Vatican food, asked a local manufacturer to prepare specialities based on violet mustard for him.

The violet mustard from Brive is created from the mixture of seeds of mustard with black grapes must, wine vinegar and spices.  It makes a superb vinaigrette. Companies still produce this traditional Limousin mustard. Here are a few companies – Earthy Delights and Zingerman’s.  Amazon has it, but it’s twice the price.  The recipe below is from The New York Times and uses red grapes.

Violet Mustard 

Makes about 2 cups

2 cups red wine
2 cups red seedless grapes
1 cup ruby port
1 cup whole-grain mustard
1/2 cup Dijon mustard

Bring the wine, grapes and port to a boil in a medium saucepan. Boil until the liquid is almost gone and the mixture turns syrupy, 15 to 20 minutes. Purée mixture in a blender, then pass through a fine sieve. Set aside to cool. Add the mustards and stir to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Spicy Apricot Dipping Sauce

I often make breaded chicken tenders for dinner.  I thought I would change it up a bit and serve it with a spicy sauce which, can be brushed over cooked chicken and browned briefly under the broiler for a tasty glaze.

Spicy Apricot Dipping Sauce

Serves 6

1 cup apricot jam
¼ cup orange juice
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Melt jam in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk in orange juice, mustard and red pepper.  Purée sauce in food processor or with an immersion mixer.