What's the best thing you've made lately?

Aaron's Gourmet Meatballs For a Crowd

I created this recipe one sunday afternoon (about three weeks ago actually) on a creative whim and they turned out absolutely amazing!! Don't let the unusual ingredient combinations (i.e.: grapefruit juice/zest, mint, fennel seeds, etc.) dissuade you from giving them a try. They're a magical balancing act of sweet, savory, spicy and aromatic. The recipe can easily be halved for a smaller crowd or even changed to an appetizer by reducing serving and/or meatball size. Enjoy!

Servings: 20 (about 4 meatballs per serving)

> 4 lbs. Ground beef
> 2 lbs. Ground pork
> 6 large whole eggs
> 1 large onion, chopped medium (about 2 1/2 cups, 1/4"x1/4"chop)
> 1 cup fresh chives, finely chopped
> 3/4 cup fresh spearmint, finely chopped
> Zest of 1 grapefruit (about 3 Tbs.), finely grated
> Juice of 1 grapefruit (about ½ cup)
> 3 cups aged cheese (parmesan, romano, asiago or combination), coarsely grated
> 2 cups panko crumbs (or any good dry bread crumbs)
> 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
> 4 Tbs. Kosher salt
> 3 Tbs. Whole fennel seed, freshly ground
> 2 Tbs. Black pepper, ground
> 1 Tbs. Red pepper flakes

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl combine all ingredients and mix very well (hands work the best). Make meatballs by scooping meat mixture out of bowl with standard size ice cream scoop, mixture leveled off. Remove meat mixture from scoop with hand and roll meatball. Place meatballs on cookie sheet -lightly sprayed with cooking spray- about 1 inch apart.
Cook in oven on center rack for 15-20 min. or until well browned and cooked through. You will need to cook in 2 or 3 batches depending on the size of cookie sheet. Makes about 80 meatballs.

Serving Note:

These meatballs are fabulous served with a dipping sauce of either honey mustard, barbecue sauce or my personal favorite apple chutney-(not necessarily a sauce but, man it's yummy!)

Bon Appetit!

A poolish focaccia that I made for a dinner party I was invited to on Saturday night. It was drizzled with a lot of homemade herb-infused olive oil. Incredible amount of work making it. I think I'll stick with making simpler focaccias.

An Indian family brought some amazing rice made with their version of curry. One of the main flavor notes was star anise. Amazing flavor.

The hostess made a yummy green chile chicken stew.

Best thing I made this week was a soup made with leftover roasted chicken, chipotle peppers, hatch chili peppers from my freezer, chicken stock, onions, garlic, stewed tomatoes, cannelli beans, cumin, and toppings. It was so tasty.

Best thing I made this week was a soup made with leftover roasted chicken, chipotle peppers, hatch chili peppers from my freezer, chicken stock, onions, garlic, stewed tomatoes, cannelli beans, cumin, and toppings. It was so tasty.

Wow Karen. that sounds like a soup I would love. Sort of like chunky tortilla soup sans tortilla?

Made falafels tonight. Decided to pan-fry rather than deep-frying them, but they came out really nicely - made Arabic sandwiches with them using flat pita bread, diced tomatoes, tahini and a cucumber/onion/yoghurt sauce. Best thing I've made in a while.

Sweet potato-bourbon cheesecake (w/ a chopped pecan crust). This is an artery-clogging delight.

(RCP) Potted Crab

Ultra traditional in British cooking, the best known recipe(s) from Elizabeth David as quoted by the blessed Jane (Grigson) layers the brown and white meats before packing them with butter. I couldn't be fagged, so I seasoned them separately, mixed them together, added copious amounts of just melted butter, and after checking the seasoning (nothing needed), chilled for a short while in the fridge. I then poured over clarified butter and when that was set, put them in the wine cellar to mature for 24 hours. If possible, freshly cooked crab should neot be refrigerated as it loses flavour terribly. Though I say it myself as shouldn't, the recipe was not only far easier, but IMO the results were way better, with the white meat being flavoured by the brown and the brown, which can be quite powerful in taste calmed by the white.

Eaten (Served with Muscadet Domaine de la Louveterie 2004 from Jo Landron. Perfect match.) last night with home made brown bread toasted it was an entrée made in heaven after a Cream of Wild mushroom soup and before the main course of roast back bacon (also home made) and vegetables and finishing with a Tarte Tatin.

(RCP) Potted Crab

1 kg crab; boiled - to give:-
375 g crabmeat; when prepared
1 pn ground mace
nutmeg; freshly grated
1 point cayenne pepper
freshly ground black pepper
salt; optional
lemon juice
250 g butter; melted

This dish should be made 24 hours to allow the flavours to ripen. Ideally, once cooked the crab should be allowed to cool, covered in a cool place but not in the fridge before potting.

Open the crabs and remove meats, keeping brown and white meats apart. Work the meats to remove and lumps. Season to taste, with plenty of pepper, and a little of the remaining spices. Add lemon juice to taste. The brown meat will need more than the white. Mix gently together.

Pour over sufficient melted butter to impregnate the mixture well, it should almost be swimming in butter.

Pour/spoon the buttered crab into suitable containers, a single terrine or individual ones as required. Tap it down well, and level it with a spoon. Allow just to set.

Meanwhile, clarify the butter that was left over from impregnating the crab - Put it in a small pan, and heat gently until the froth subsides. Spoon off any solids and remaining froth from the top, and gently pour the pure butter fat from the sediment. Allow to cool till still liquid but not hot. When the butter has just set around the crab, pour over the warm clarified butter to a depth of 3-6 mm - or more if the potted crab is to be kept more than a day or two. Allow to set again.

Yield: 6 servings
Preparation Time: 01:00

My best thing this month is probably a thick winter soup made with squash, leeks and some potato for more body, pureed, and topped with a slab of seared foie gras and some chives (if the foie gras sinks, you made too thin a soup!) Everyone wanted more of the garnish!

[Jenise]

potted crab

Sounds yummy, Ian. Funny, I'm familiar with the potting concept and have done shrimp in my distant past from an old Craig Claiborne recipe, but never thought about potting the excellent crab we catch locally. Must do this next season! Btw, I'm going to add '(RCP)' to your recipe. This guarantees that in the future, any post with a recipe on our site can be located using 'RCP' in the search criteria. I try to do it to every recipe posted.

[Jenise]

My best thing this month is probably a thick winter soup made with squash, leeks and some potato for more body, pureed, and topped with a slab of seared foie gras and some chives (if the foie gras sinks, you made too thin a soup!) Everyone wanted more of the garnish!

That was your so-called vegetarian dinner. Sounds wonderful, really does.

My "best thing" is also a soup. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of recipe, just a lovely scratch vichoisoisse. What made it 'best' is the monumental effort to produce such elegance in quantity: we made 28 quarts last night.

Best thing I made this week was a soup made with leftover roasted chicken, chipotle peppers, hatch chili peppers from my freezer, chicken stock, onions, garlic, stewed tomatoes, cannelli beans, cumin, and toppings. It was so tasty.

Wow Karen. that sounds like a soup I would love. Sort of like chunky tortilla soup sans tortilla?

That is correct....no torts

I'm ashamed to say that I haven't made any standout meals lately (cooking for one contributes to laziness in the kitchen IMO.) Last night I boiled some large shrimp with celery stalks and onions and just added lemon juice before digging them out of the tails. I had some marinated artichoke hearts as a side dish. I have some tip steak for tonight or tomorrow night but haven't decided exactly how I will prepare it. Any suggestions?
(I don't like hot spices or chiles so something on the mild side would be more appropriate.)

That was your so-called vegetarian dinner. Sounds wonderful, really does.

Whaddya mean 'so called'? That piece of duck liver was simply a garnish. The only bit of meat in the whole dinner was a measly quail. For me, that is as close to pure vegetarian as I'll ever get.

I have some tip steak for tonight or tomorrow night but haven't decided exactly how I will prepare it. Any suggestions?
(I don't like hot spices or chiles so something on the mild side would be more appropriate.)

JC, I like to marinate tip steak in soy sauce, crushed garlic, brown sugar and a little sherry, then grill it over a very hot flame. It makes a really nice flavor with good carmelization, as you can imagine.

My pal Nilo ended up overbuying in an order to La Espanola, so he gave us a couple of morcilla sausages. Last night, I cooked them up in olive oil and red wine and served them on lentils with red-wine caramelized vegetables. These were my first morcilla, and they weren't what I expected. Very tender and much more subtle in flavor than I would have expected but also quite rich and tasty. This went very well with a rustic Bordeaux Superieur. Excellent food for a crisp fall evening.

Thanks, Carrie for the suggestion on the tip steak. I think I will try that either tomorrow night or Sunday.

Btw, I'm going to add '(RCP)' to your recipe. This guarantees that in the future, any post with a recipe on our site can be located using 'RCP' in the search criteria. I try to do it to every recipe posted.

Oops, thanks so much I'd noticed (subliminally? ) that replies with recipes in tended to have that prefix, but not to the extent that it occurred to me to do it for myself. Doh!

I promise to TRY to remember and am almost certain that I won't succeed. So if that's the case, do feel free either to PM me to give me a boot up the butt to tell me to edit it in, or else do it for me without further ado.

but never thought about potting the excellent crab we catch locally.

Your Dungeness crabs are pretty like the ones we get here, though I was a little disappointed in the ones we tried on our trip to the Northwet. I had expected them to be considerably tastier than ours, but they weren't. When you cook them, make sure you have enough salt in the water. I follow Jane Grigson in this (as in many other things) and use about 100g salt per litre. Translating that.... call it 3½ ounces per quart. (I expect you do already).

I finally bought some 00 flour and I am convinced that it makes a difference for the pizza crust. I've really been loving the results: chewy, crispy, flavorful, what's not to like.

Your Dungeness crabs are pretty like the ones we get here, though I was a little disappointed in the ones we tried on our trip to the Northwet. I had expected them to be considerably tastier than ours, but they weren't.

Although I grew up with Dungeness crabs and still love eating them, I have to admit that the blue crab of the Atlantic seaboard is, for me, a more flavorful crab. Jean's calculus is that the body of a blue crab has about as much flavor as the legs of a Dungeness. Of course, one Dungeness is a full meal, whereas it takes anywhere from 6-10 blue crabs to make a meal. Still, in search of good crab, what effort is too much in the face of true determination? Anyway, Ian, I'm sure that you've had blue crab during one of your visits to the East Coast, so you most likely have drawn your own conclusions.

Mark Lipton

I have to admit that the blue crab of the Atlantic seaboard is, for me, a more flavorful crab.
[snip]
Anyway, Ian, I'm sure that you've had blue crab during one of your visits to the East Coast, so you most likely have drawn your own conclusions.
Mark Lipton

Poor buggers - they have to have a lot of flavour to stand up to the liberal dousing with Old Bay seasoning that many people in VA MD etc give them. I prefer my ball to taste of crabs... err... I think I have to ask you to take that as it ought to be taken!! Anyway, I love crab balls, but not if they are over seasoned (what was I saying about not pointing a finger at any country?). I was also lucky enough to taste some soft shell crabs when we visited the region (I stayed with an ex spook who lived nearly on top of his work) but again, found they were over seasoned. I think Dale did let me dress my own balls once, and when treated sympathetically, I thought they were excellent.

However, I think that in the USA, the best crab I ever had was king crab legs at an eat-all-you-can buffet on the coast. The next best were the freshly cooked stone crab claws in the Florida Keys, served with "pink sauce". But there's really not a lot in it. The very best crab I've EVER had, was with my friend Alain in Brest, and was the spider crab he served us for lunch last year. Cooked and eaten still lukewarm, with home made mayo, good crusty bread and wonderful salt breton butter!!! A glass (or three) of Muscadet (amphibolite from Landron) and I floated on a sea of contentment that mortals are rarely privy to.

[Jenise]

I have to admit that the blue crab of the Atlantic seaboard is, for me, a more flavorful crab.
[snip]
Anyway, Ian, I'm sure that you've had blue crab during one of your visits to the East Coast, so you most likely have drawn your own conclusions.
Mark Lipton

Poor buggers - they have to have a lot of flavour to stand up to the liberal dousing with Old Bay seasoning that many people in VA MD etc give them. I prefer my ball to taste of crabs... err... I think I have to ask you to take that as it ought to be taken!! Anyway, I love crab balls, but not if they are over seasoned (what was I saying about not pointing a finger at any country?). I was also lucky enough to taste some soft shell crabs when we visited the region (I stayed with an ex spook who lived nearly on top of his work) but again, found they were over seasoned. I think Dale did let me dress my own balls once, and when treated sympathetically, I thought they were excellent.

However, I think that in the USA, the best crab I ever had was king crab legs at an eat-all-you-can buffet on the coast. The next best were the freshly cooked stone crab claws in the Florida Keys, served with "pink sauce". But there's really not a lot in it. The very best crab I've EVER had, was with my friend Alain in Brest, and was the spider crab he served us for lunch last year. Cooked and eaten still lukewarm, with home made mayo, good crusty bread and wonderful salt breton butter!!! A glass (or three) of Muscadet (amphibolite from Landron) and I floated on a sea of contentment that mortals are rarely privy to.

I have to go along with Mark about blue crabs--best I've ever had, and I'm an ex-Alaskan as well as rabidly persistent Dungeness crabber when allowed that seasonal opportunity (in Canada, they can catch crab all year long but on the American side of the border--I live precisely 33 miles south of Vancouver International--we have but a six week window starting mid-August.) Still, the best crab of all is the one you have in your hand right now. ANY crab will do.

About cooking method, there are many opinions about what makes the best crab. Many of my neighbors boil theirs without salt, which I dislike, and many boil them whole, which I also tend to dislike, or at least like the least--there's a bit of a bile taste to that I'm not fond of. We bring them back live, then kill and clean them before steaming with a bucket of salt water we bring back for that purpose. Eaten while still warm and THAT fresh, I doubt you could find much fault with PNW Dungeness. All other preparations, and of course the greater the elapsed time between capture and dining, especially if they're taken to commercial tanks, affect flavor negatively.

[David M. Bueker]

tonight's pea and mushroom risotto

yummy.jpg

A quick, satisfying comfort food I occasionally prepare is creamed eggs on toast--sliced hard-boiled eggs in a bechamel sauce over toast. I pulled off a variation a couple of nights ago: I constructed the dish with toast, prosciutto, sliced hb eggs, asparagus and a bechamel with Malaysian curry powder. Very satisfying and tasty.

I'll just mention this because it is quick and easy.

Last night we ate with our neighbors (which happens often) -- she had just gotten a copy of the cookbook from Kinkead's (sp?) -- the famous fish restaurant in Washington DC -- and was making a salmon dish which they say is their signature dish. That was pretty great, had a kind of Mexican, fish taco slant -- salmon served over shrimps crusted with this and that and topped with cilantro.

I had bought some baby golden beets a week or so ago, and had already roasted them as Thomas Keller prescribes -- wrap half a dozen or so in tin foil, add a touch of olive oil, and roast until easily pierced with a sharp fork. The skins more or less slide right off after cooking. Golden beets have a wonderful fresh sweet flavor, with just enough of the earthy beet flavor. At any rate this were the size of a ping pong ball or slightly smaller, and I cut each one into 4 slices about 1/4" thick. I had bought some goat cheese rolled in black pepper to go with, and I cut slices also about 1/4" thick and made "sandwiches" with a toothpick stuck through.

Very unusual flavors and very popular as an appetizer... Of course this is a modified version of one of Keller's "cheese course" recipes from the French Laundry cookbook.