4 posts tagged “cooking”
Book: Show us one of your favorite cookbooks.
Well *that's* easy...
... I make a pretty fucking awesome ratatouille.
Signature recipe? Depends on who I'm cooking for. I'll give you three of the top requests I get from friends and family, and you can choose for yourself:
Risotto with Bacon, Asparagus, and Shitake Mushrooms
Ingredients
½ # Bacon
6 Shitake Mushrooms (sliced)
4 - 5 Cloves of Garlic (sliced)
½ Onion (loosely chopped)
10 Asparagus Stalks (cut into thirds)
1 T Fresh Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Dash+ of Red Pepper Flakes
½ T Dry Mustard
2 T Butter
½ Cup Dry Vermouth
½ Pint Heavy Cream
¾ Cup Risotto (Italian Arborio Rice)
2 Cubes Knorr Porcini Stock
2½ Cups Water
(if you can't find Porcini stock cubes, drop the water and use 2½ cups of mushroom stock instead)
4 oz. Italian Four Cheese Blend (or, 2 oz. Grated Parmesan and 2 oz. Grated Romano)
Mixed Greens (for serving)
Pan Seared, Oven Roasted Monkfish
Ingredients
2 # Fresh Monkfish Filets
1 Medium Yellow Onion (loosely chopped)
2 T Olive Oil
2 T Butter
¼ - ½ Cup Dry Vermouth
1 Red Pepper (Roasted and Julienned)
Juice from 1 Lemon
Projole (Italian Flank Steak Rolled with Pine Nuts, Parmesan Cheese, and Mint)
Ingredients
2 # Flank Steak
6 cloves garlic (loosely chopped)
3 ½ T fresh Mint (about 33 leaves, loosely chopped. You can substitute Fresh Basil for this)
2 T fresh Parsley (loosely chopped)
¼ Cup Pine nuts
1 T Olive oil
¼ Cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper
Sauce:
6 tomatoes (loosely cut) Or 1 (28 oz) cans whole peeled tomatoes (loosely cut)
1½ - 2 cups of red wine (nothing fancy)
1½ - 2 T dry oregano
Parsley
5 cloves garlic (loosely chopped)
Pepper
That's a tough one. I was never a big fan of meatloaf, and I'm still not a big fan of meatloaf (though I'll happily eat it if it's placed before me). And I can appreciate shrimp, and can cook it like nobody's business, but I'd never order it for an entree.
But having started working in a restaurant at the age of 13, and taking over dinner operations at 17 and creating the menu each night, I truly came to love how things taste, how flavors play off of one another, there's very little I won't eat (no, really - tripe, liver, pig ears) so long as it's cooked nice. Now granted, when I was little, I never had liver, tripe, or pig ears put in front of me - if I had, maybe my answer would be different.
So in an effort to answer the question of the day, I guess I'd have to say "clams". Which is all kinds of wrong considering I grew up in New England, more specifically, on the Cape. But I vaguely remember one night when I was 7 or 8 sitting down to dinner and we were having clams. And I remember saying that I'd throw up if I ate them. Sometimes I hate the earlier versions of me. But I digress. So my parents said that I couldn't leave the table until I ate them. So I ate them. And threw up, if memory serves.
Ironically, a couple years back I was in New York, staying at my brother's place in the Bowery, and it got into my head that I wanted clam chowder. And came up with a righteous recipe for Clam Chowder with Guinness and Bacon.
