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

[Jenise]

This is always a fun question and gives people a chance to crow about dishes and meals they don't neccessarily post recipes for or think newsworthy. Since I've made almost nothing besides grilled this or that lately to speak of, I have a pretty shallow pool to fish from and have to go back two weeks to a salad I took to a sit down dinner for ten where each attendee brought a course. My own creation, I billed it as a lobster, tarragon and pea salad. The salad itself was peas, pea leaves (not the infant shoots, but the tips and tendrils of the mature pea plants which you can buy at Asian markets), torn butter lettuce, enoki mushrooms, fresh tarragon from Susan B's garden and microgreens tossed in a fruity lemon vinaigrette, mounded in the center of a clear square glass dinner plate. Each was then topped with a grilled 6-8 ounce lobster tail proudly puffing out of their shells that I had a local restaurant grill off for me, brushed with more dressing and garnished with more tarragon. The wine pairing was a 99 Nigl Privaat Gruner Veltliner.

Jenise, that salad sounds like a little piece of heaven and one I would enjoy very much. I love lobster, done right, and while I have never attempted it myself, I would like to. I want it to be like you said, "proudly puffing out of their shells".
The best lobster I ever had was at our local Country Club, at a dinner hosted by Mercy Medical Center. I was President of their Guild and we were all treated to the most amazing dinner that arrived hot, with perfectly cooked lobster.

Gene would tell you that the best I have made lately is some Farmer's Market broccoli that I sautéed, then cooked in a bit of home made chicken stock until tender. It had to sit because he was on the phone.. He love it! He said, "most of the broccoli we eat is so crisp" Now I know he likes it on the tender side. We had halibut that night and he thought it was perfectly seasoned. All I used was Old Bay Seasoning! The same night I made those "splat" potatoes from Pioneer Woman. My sweet, dear man raved about the whole dinner. For me, the best lunch I made was some smoked salmon, on romaine, frisée, and red oak lettuce, with raw, fresh peas, cherry tomatoes, and a lemon vinaigrette.

Simple fresh pasta (store bought fresh) with fresh tomatoes, basil from my patch of dirt in front and, instead of mozz, burrata. Decadent, yes. Delicious. YES. Wasteful (as someone accused me of wasting burrata in a dish)...no way. A Grating of fresh pepper a sprinkle or freshly grated parm...It was enormously satisfying. And simple.

For the NiagaraCOOL picnic I made the following:
Tapenade
Hummus
Deviled eggs
Shrimp Cocktail
Beans & Greens Soup - with roasted red peppers, kale, collards, spinach and cannelloni beans.
Cucumber & tomato salad with red onions, balsamic vinegar, EVOO and feta cheese (had this at Jo Ann Henderson's last month)
Green salad
Fish - whiting poached on the grill with garlic, dill and lemon
Grilled Portabellas with Chiaveta's marinade. brushed with olive oil and topped with mozarella
Potatoes - steamed baby Yukon golds with butter
Boeuf Bourguignon
There are leftovers if anyone wants to come over.

Fish soup.

On Saturday, I stopped by the fish market to get some bones. They had White seabass. I asked for 2 pounds. They gave me about 3.5 pounds for $6. I was able to get about 3/4 pounds of good chunks of meat off the bones.

I poured 2 quarts of freshly made hot Court Bouillon over the chilled bones and brought it to a simmer. The court bouillon had leek, onion, celery, fennel, carrot, thyme, parsley, bay, white wine and peppercorns. After the fish stock had simmered for 30 minutes, I added some fennel fronds to the pot and turned off the heat.

I strained the stock. I sauteed some red onion, garlic, celery, fennel in EVOO, added saffron, white wine and homemade heirloom marinara (frozen from last year's crop). This marinara was incredibly sweet and flavorful. After evaporating the wine, I added about 1 quart of stock and froze the rest. After 15 minutes of simmering, I added a chopped potato and cooked until al dente and turned off the heat.

Later, when it was time to serve, I added back some of the reserved fish flesh, heated just to a simmer, and served. This was really yummy.

Tonight, we had some leftover with bruschetta rubbed with home grown garlic that was freshly picked today. Drank a Provencal rose. Yummmm...

BBQ’d chicken…but, I don’t like sticky sweet BBQ sauces. I use lots of chopped garlic in EVOO with fresh lime juice, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and cumin ( you can add just a touch of honey if your limes aren’t sweet enough…but in season limes are hard to beat). Salt and pepper the chicken (skin on!), cover with whatever spice rub I’m currently experimenting with. Light a big charcoal fire at one end of the pit, let it burn down a bit…then add the chicken pieces on the other end of the pit (38” steel pit) by the chimney. Shut the pit down tight except for a large enough crack on the chimney to pull the smoke and heat across the meat.. Turn and liberally mop the chicken with sauce every 20 minutes for 1 ½ hours +/- .

I guess, technically,…its more of a smoked chicken. But a higher heat application that nicely crisps the skin. Pair with fresh green beans and a pasta salad. Chianti works nicely with this meal.

Richard

[Jenise]

For the NiagaraCOOL picnic I made the following:
Tapenade
Hummus
Deviled eggs
Shrimp Cocktail
Beans & Greens Soup - with roasted red peppers, kale, collards, spinach and cannelloni beans.
Cucumber & tomato salad with red onions, balsamic vinegar, EVOO and feta cheese (had this at Jo Ann Henderson's last month)
Green salad
Fish - whiting poached on the grill with garlic, dill and lemon
Grilled Portabellas with Chiaveta's marinade. brushed with olive oil and topped with mozarella
Potatoes - steamed baby Yukon golds with butter
Boeuf Bourguignon
There are leftovers if anyone wants to come over.

Howie, you go to so much work! Sounds great. But I have to say, for years I've been reading your Cool menus and seeing one recurring item and wondering the same thing every time I see it. Just how do you serve soup at a picnic?

[Jenise]

BBQ’d chicken…but, I don’t like sticky sweet BBQ sauces. I use lots of chopped garlic in EVOO with fresh lime juice, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and cumin ( you can add just a touch of honey if your limes aren’t sweet enough…but in season limes are hard to beat). Salt and pepper the chicken (skin on!), cover with whatever spice rub I’m currently experimenting with. Light a big charcoal fire at one end of the pit, let it burn down a bit…then add the chicken pieces on the other end of the pit (38” steel pit) by the chimney. Shut the pit down tight except for a large enough crack to pull the smoke and heat across the meat.. Turn and liberally mop the chicken with sauce every 20 minutes for 1 ½ hours +/- .

I guess, technically,…its more of a smoked chicken. But a higher heat application that nicely crisps the skin. Pair with fresh green beans and a pasta salad. Chianti works nicely with this meal.

Richard

Love your marinade. What kind of heat are you running on here? Seems like a long time to cook chicken pieces unless you're down at 275 or thereabouts.

[Jenise]

Jenise, that salad sounds like a little piece of heaven and one I would enjoy very much. I love lobster, done right, and while I have never attempted it myself, I would like to. I want it to be like you said, "proudly puffing out of their shells".
The best lobster I ever had was at our local Country Club, at a dinner hosted by Mercy Medical Center. I was President of their Guild and we were all treated to the most amazing dinner that arrived hot, with perfectly cooked lobster.

Gene would tell you that the best I have made lately is some Farmer's Market broccoli that I sautéed, then cooked in a bit of home made chicken stock until tender. It had to sit because he was on the phone.. He love it! He said, "most of the broccoli we eat is so crisp" Now I know he likes it on the tender side. We had halibut that night and he thought it was perfectly seasoned. All I used was Old Bay Seasoning! The same night I made those "splat" potatoes from Pioneer Woman. My sweet, dear man raved about the whole dinner. For me, the best lunch I made was some smoked salmon, on romaine, frisée, and red oak lettuce, with raw, fresh peas, cherry tomatoes, and a lemon vinaigrette.

Karen, you should definitely try lobster sometime. It's not intimidating at all. I had to have this done for me because I don't have the means to broil myself at present, but it's a very easy preparation to do at home. About the Old Bay, isn't that a pickling mixture or is there another form of Old Bay I don't know about?

[Jenise]

Fish soup.

Sounds just wonderful--you're such a clever and classic cook. And there may not be anyplace more wonderful for the best fresh everything than where you live. Seafood, produce, fruit, wine, and everything else--could you ever live anywhere else?

[Jenise]

Simple fresh pasta (store bought fresh) with fresh tomatoes, basil from my patch of dirt in front and, instead of mozz, burrata. Decadent, yes. Delicious. YES. Wasteful (as someone accused me of wasting burrata in a dish)...no way. A Grating of fresh pepper a sprinkle or freshly grated parm...It was enormously satisfying. And simple.

Sounds wonderful--never had burrata served that way but oh my. Was it imported or domestic burrata? It's a pretty difficult ingredient to find--I remember when we lived in So Cal, reading about a fresh burrata maker in that area whose product was really terrific, only normal people couldn't get any because 100% of it got bought up by high end restaurants. Years would pass before I'd ever see it where I could buy it myself.

Love your marinade. What kind of heat are you running on here? Seems like a long time to cook chicken pieces unless you're down at 275 or thereabouts.

Jenise,

I don't know what the heat is. But the chicken is offset pretty far from the actual fire...so it takes awhile. Also, that time is +/- depending on whether I cook one or 2 chickens. But once the skin is crisped and the size of the pieces is somewhat reduced...I can just tell when its ready.

Richard

...Howie, you go to so much work! Sounds great. But I have to say, for years I've been reading your Cool menus and seeing one recurring item and wondering the same thing every time I see it. Just how do you serve soup at a picnic?

Quite easy, actually. I make the soup at home in a 20 qt. SS stock pot in the morning and keep it on the stove until I'm ready to go to the picnic. I also bring the burner assembly for my turkey fryer. Then, at the picnic site I light up the burner with a low flame and re-heat the soup, stirring often to avoid scorching the bottom. Usually I add the greens to the soup at this point, but this year I was using kale and collards, which needed longer cooking, so I put them in at home. When it is ready to serve, I put it on the picnic table with a ladle and tell people to help themselves, serving it in either foam cups or Dixie bowls, topping with grated Romano cheese. I don't have a propane grill, but I know that many of them have a side burner on them, so I'm sure one of those could be used also. My original plan was to make Bouillabaisse, but I didn't want to make something I had never made before and it would have exceeded my budget constraints. I believe the Beans & Greens recipe is is posted in the FLDG recipe archive, but here it is again, with the modifications for making a vegetarian version. I doubled the recipe for NiagaraCOOL - served about 25 people and returned home with about 1.5 gallons.

BEANS & GREENS SOUP
6 cloves garlic or garlic powder equivalent
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
GREENS 1 box frozen spinach AND 2 boxes frozen mustard greens OR equivalent Fresh greens – Escarole, Swiss Chard, Turnip greens, Kale, Dandelion greens, etc. (whatever is in season)
BEANS 4 cans white Canelli beans OR, Great Northern beans and Black beans or Red Kidney beans (LaHacienda in Niagara Falls uses dark red kidney beans – Michaels, next door, uses Canelli).
8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
Grated cheese to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste
(OPTIONAL) - add chopped bacon, priscuitto, pancetta, ham, salami or pepperoni when sautéing.
(OPTIONAL) - Chopped roasted red pepper
Saute onion, garlic, crushed red pepper and meat in olive oil. Add canned beans with liquid to saute mixture. Add 8 cups stock and bring to boil. Add greens and reduce to simmer for 10-20 minutes. Serve in soup bowls. Top with grated cheese (I prefer Romano). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Jam doughnuts!

[Jenise]

You are an evil, evil woman.

Celia - the word that comes to mind there is "lurid" - and in a good way!

As for me, the only thing I've made at all over the last week and a half is gougeres. I did those last night for a get-together with the other families who are hosting exchange students this summer. Otherwise, circumstances have had me eating out or just doing grilled cheese sandwiches and the like for quite a while now.

[Jenise]

Celia - the word that comes to mind there is "lurid" - and in a good way!

As for me, the only thing I've made at all over the last week and a half is gougeres. I did those last night for a get-together with the other families who are hosting exchange students this summer. Otherwise, circumstances have had me eating out or just doing grilled cheese sandwiches and the like for quite a while now.

You're hosting an exchange student? Cool! Tell us more, like where they're from and how that's working out for you.

We'll have Eva, a 13-year-old from near Orange staying with us for 2 1/2 weeks. She'll come over here with a bunch of other kids on the same program. There will be some events that the program organizes - trips to San Francisco, Six Flags, river rafting, etc. The rest of the time, she'll hang out with us.

Should be a lot of fun!

Albacore tartare. Too many ingredients and step to go into, but sublime served on TJ's sesame crackers with NV Philipponat Rose.

Using an assortment of ingredients on hand, I made a variation of creamed eggs on toast last night:

whole wheat toast layered with:
sliced hard-boiled eggs
fake crab meat
sauted mushrooms and white onions
fresh spinach leaves
bechamel sauce with Malaysian curry powder and green peas
garnished with bacon bits and crispy onions

pretty, tasty and satisfying

Chocolate-mint mousse with creme de menthe liqueur.