Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Grilled endives with ribeye, and a special night

This is a special post for a few reasons...
1. Amy's birthday month continues and this a special dish for her.

2. We've wanted to cook endives for over 9 years and never got around to it.

3. Both of the main ingredients were on sale at Fresh Market in Normal IL and the wine (2007 Napa Cellars Zinfandel) was on sale at Wine.com I'll get right to it, all three suprisingly exceeded expectations! Have a look at the wine and let me know if you want to order some (I paid for free shipping for the year and am glad to order some with my loyal followers).

4. We are just back to Normal after a nice little summer break so this was a perfect opportunity for food, fun, and fire.

Endives: slice down the middle, the long way. Drizzle the sliced side with olive oil, then hit it with a nice layer of salt and fresh ground pepper. Don't be shy with the pepper and go coarse!

Grill the endives "sliced" side down over indirect medium heat for 3-4 minutes per side. I went for 10 minutes total tonight and I think that was plenty and they might have had more flavor if less cooked.

Note... When the endives are half done, get the ribeye on the grill. Like our other weeknight steak adventures, again this time we cut them horizontally for smaller/thinner steaks. See my other posting for espresso rubbed ribeye. The espresso rub would have knocked this meal out of the park but I went more conservative with just coarse pepper, coarse sea salt, garlic, and olive oil.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Pecan crusted walleye

Felt daring and hungry one day and found some freshwater walleye on
sale.

Some fun things about this dish:
1. You get to use that side burner you've probably never used.
Cooking fish in butter can stink up the house and can be messy.
2. Fish is good and good for you but I think most people are
apprehensive about cooking new things. Trust me, it is easy; just
relax and have fun. Buy good fish though as it is safer and healthier.
3. It looks impressive and tastes delicious. The pecans get candied in
the butter with the sugary syrup.

Salt and pepper then cover with a thin layer of real maple syrup. In
a pan, melt butter and heat to medium. Roll the walleye in crushed
pecans (meat side only) then sear in the pan. Once seared, finish on
the grill (indirect medium heat) until meat easily flakes off but be
careful not to overcook. One trick, cook a small tester piece first
to get your method down. Fish gets a bad reputation because it is too
often over-cooked by over-cautious chefs.

One last thought... A maple mayo might be nice with this. I'd suggest
a 1:5 ratio of maple syrup:mayo. Maybe a little lemon and some salt
too.. Let me know if you try it.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Basil (and whatever) stuffed tomatoes






Had an epiphany with this one. Saw these juicy red organic tomatoes and thought about everything that "goes with" tomatoes, then checked the fridge to see what we had.

Chopped red onion, fresh basil, fresh parmesan, olive oil, salt, pepper. Mixed in a bowl, cut out the center of the tomatoes, stuffed them and grilled indirect for about 15 minutes. Finish with a little balsamic vinegar (that good stuff I told you to get a while back).

These came out great and the flavor reminded me of Grandma Andaloro's sauce (certainly not as good as hers).

Other ingredient ideas (think pizza toppings and think fresh)... Shallots, garlic, pine nuts, mushrooms, chopped olives, jalapeƱos, mozzarella, cooked sausage...


I tried both hollowing out and slicing laterally. The hollowed out method seemed to work better on the grill. Another thought is to use smaller tomatoes and serve as an appetizer.

Robust flavor, healthy, low carb, fun, colorful, easy, inexpensive, great with white or red wine...

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Flank steak with crumbled blue cheese on new stainless steel grates!

Olive oil, favorite seasoning, sear both sides... Cook indirect until
rare then add crumbled blue cheese.

Good times.