Baked Pear with Bleu Cheese and Bacon

In a rare moment of inspiration after watching an episode of Jacques Pepin on a lazy Saturday morning, I concocted these little treats and have been waiting to try them for a few weeks. Truthfully, I really wasn't sure if they would be any good. With so many strong flavors fighting for your attention, it may just be too much. But I had to try, if for no other reason than it gave me a reason to buy really good bleu cheese.

My first attempt at making these was not a complete failure, but it was pretty close. First, I did not cook them long enough. Second, I used the broiler instead of the oven, so they didn't cook from the right side. On the second attempt, I think I got it right, or I am at least getting closer. I am still not sure how to classify these. If they were to appear on the menu at a popular five-star restaurant, would you find them with the appetizers? Or with the desserts? I guess I will let you decide. I hope you try them, add your own flavors to the recipe, and have fun. I did. Here we go.

Baked Pear with Bleu Cheese and Bacon

Ingredients:
1 ripe pear, (be sure it's not too over ripe or squishy)
3 pieces of good quality bacon
4 - 5 Tablespoons of high quality crumbly bleu cheese
3 - 4 Tablespoons brown sugar

Fry the bacon, set aside to drain and cool. Once the bacon is cool, chop and crumble it into tiny bits. It's ok, go ahead and taste a few pieces. You deserve it.

Spoon the brown sugar into two brulee ramekins, spreading just enough to cover the bottoms. Peal the pears, and slice off the first 1/2 inch of the top and bottom. Halve the pear, and using a paring knife and small spoon, cut out the inner stem and seeds. Use the spoon to carve out the hole made by removing the seeds a little bit.

Place the pear halves in the ramekins, one in each. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet, and place into a 375 degree oven. Bake the pears for about 10 - 15 minutes, depending on softness of the pear. Once the brown sugar begins to liquefy and bubble, remove the pears from the oven.

Crumble the bleu cheese into the hole and trough left by the seeds and stem. Once again, go ahead and take a little taste of the cheese for yourself. I know. You're hungry.

Put the pears back into the oven for another 10 - 15 minutes. Check on them after the 10 minute mark. The brown sugar should continue to liquefy and the pears should soften. You will know they are done when the pears feel soft and forgiving when you squeeze them.

Once out of the oven, sprinkle the bacon crumbles over the top of the pears and bubbly brown sugar. Serve just out of the oven, while the brown sugar is still liquidy. Yes. Liquidy.



The flavors in this relatively simple dish are robust, but manage to mingle well. The sweet pear and brown sugar mix nicely with the tangy bleu cheese and salty bacon. It may not be something you make everyday, but I promise if you give a try, you will not be disappointed. Enjoy.

Dinner in the Raw

In the spirit of healthy living, occasionally the missus and I try something on the greener side of the buffet table. Specifically, we prepare something created by the Raw movement, where everything you eat, and I do mean everything, is well, raw.

Many people might think this way of preparing and enjoying food is missing something; for instance heat and cooked flesh. But the folks who ascribe to this movement may actually be on to something. Food, in its raw, uncooked form, is the best way to get the most nutrition out of each bite. This of course means no meat, but some of the more crafty raw foodies out there have worked their way around that little hiccup.

It should be said that any raw recipe, including the one that follows, is missing one very commonly accepted step: cooking. Many of the simpler recipes, those that don't require 24 hours in a dehydrator, require only chopping, slicing, stirring, and maybe a few seconds in the high-speed blender. The following recipe is a pretty basic raw recipe that should impress even the pickiest omnivore you know.

Zucchini Pasta Alfredo

For the pasta, first you are going to need one of these:






This handy little tool is a spiral slicer. Take 4 to 6 large zucchini, peel, cut off the ends, then spin them individually in the slicer, turning them into beautiful little curly ribbons of squash. Like so:





You might want to cut them down into manageable strips for easier consumption. For the sauce, you will need:

A high speed blender
3/4 cup coconut water
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup raw pine nuts or cashews
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Mix all ingredients (except the zucchini) in the high speed blender until smooth and creamy. Mix the sauce with the zucchini in a bowl, and serve.







Recipe note: The texture of the zucchini noodles improves if they are left to sit at room temperature for 6 hours or so. These can also be prepared the night before and stored in the refrigerator.


Editors note: In order to get the coconut water necessary for this sauce recipe, you might have to get creative. Buy a fresh coconut, carve off most of the outer skin, and see how far you get trying to crack it with a kitchen knife. Really, give it a shot. Eventually, you will realize the tools you need are not in the kitchen. And then you will hammer an 8" Phillips-head screwdiver into the stubborn coconut.



Thanks to Matt Amsden and his "Rawvolution" cookbook for the sauce recipe. The book has some great ideas for raw beginners, and for those of us who just have had one too many hamburgers.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Nectarine Pie Anyone?

When I was growing up, my father was always making pies. Apple, coconut cream, and his speciality, pecan. In our little town in Central California, his pies have become something of a legend and a staple on the wish lists of many in the community. My dad learned everything he knows about making pies from his mother, a true southern lady who's pie crust ingredients read something like "a few cups of flower, about half as much shortening as butter, and some ice water. Too thin? Add flower. Too sticky? Add water." Anyway, something like that.

I have always been impressed with my dad's pie making ability, along with the simplicity of the recipe handed down through my family. So when I first decided to confront the challenge of making a pie myself, I was pretty sure I was going to screw it up horribly. And, believe it or not, I did. It was an unmitigated disaster.

Because of the challenges faced with having a kitchen the size of a public bathroom stall, it is difficult to find enough room to roll out a properly sized pie crust. Well, my first attempt was an easy apple pie, recipe consisting of two pie crusts (top and bottom) and the baked apple filling. As I attempted this seemingly simple task, I think I may have broken several state laws with the amount of vulgar obscenities that came tumbling out of my kitchen. I barely got the bottom crust into the dish and most of the top crust ended up on the floor because the damn thing kept sticking to the "non-stick" mat. So we had a single crust apple pie. Whatever.

So now, for my second attempt, I was smarter. I remembered the horrors of my first attempt and learned from them. I adapted and overcame. For anyone else suffering from the same tiny kitchen syndrome as we are, here are a few tips to help you get through the pie making process. First, put EVERYTHING in the freezer. The butter, the shortening, the water, and especially the mat or pastry board you will be rolling your dough on. The colder, the better. You might even want to freeze your rolling pin. Second, to get the crust off of the mat and into the dish, roll it gently onto your rolling pin, pick it up, and lay it gingerly into the dish. I do not reccomend trying to pick it up with just your hands. So, after finding a recipe, the Missus and I went down to the farmers market to buy some fresh fruit, and away we went.

Blueberry Nectarine Pie

Flaky Pie Dough (These measurements make 4 individual pie crusts. Cut the amounts in half to make enough for one pie.)

5 1/4 cups pastry or all purpose flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 sticks cold, unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups solid vegetable shortening, chilled
1 cup ice water

With a pastry blender, cut chilled butter into the flour and salt until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Cut in the chilled shortening until it forms curds.

Add the ice water gradually and toss to blend. (Your hands work great for this.)

When the dough is sufficiently moist, pinch it - it will stick together

Lightly gather the dough into a round and chill before rolling.

After the dough has chilled for an hour, cut the ball into equal halves. Chill one half, and roll the second into a round about 10" in diameter and 1/8" thin. When you lay it into the pie dish, it should come up the sides and hang over the edge. Trim the excess, and chill for 1/2 hour.



The Filling
3 cups fresh blueberries, washed
2 cups sliced nectarines
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
large pinch of lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

While your dough is chilling before you roll it out, start your filling. Put half of the fruit in a medium saucepan, keeping the remaining fruit close at hand. Add the sugar, flour, and lemon zest and stir to mix. Bring the mixture to a soft boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. The fruits will release their juices and the liquid will thicken. Turn the mixture into a bowl and stir in the uncooked fruit. Cool the filling to room temperature. Taste, and add lemon juice as needed.




Spoon the cooled filling into the pie shell and dot the tip with butter.

Roll out your second ball of dough. Transfer it to the top of the pie, aligning the edges of the top crust with the bottom crust. Trim any ragged edges.

Fold both layers of overhanging dough under to create a thick edge around the rim of the pan. Crimp the edges by pushing the thumb of one hand against the thumb and index finger of your other hand, creating scallops every 1 - 2 inches around the rim. Using a sharp paring knife, cut 4 - 6 slits in the top of the crust, brush egg wash over the top, and chill for 20 minutes.

Placing the pie on a jelly roll pan in the center of the oven, bake at 375 for about 40 - 50 minutes. Let the pie cool for 30 minutes before serving.



Ok, so I didn't get the nice scalloped edges like the recipe suggests. Other than that, the pie was a success. It even had a top crust! The tart blueberries and sweet nectarines are a great combination, and the crust was tender and flaky.

Deep thanks are owed to the amazing chefs who contributed to the cookbook, "Baking With Julia", especially Leslie Mackie who wrote the recipe for this pie. And, of course my beautiful wife for taking these mouth watering pictures.

Enjoy!

Steamy Cups

Some recipes are worth repeating. Some recipes are just so good that you gobble up the left overs for the next days lunch and dinner. And some recipes are just plain fun. This recipe, thanks to Jaden of Jaden's Steamy Kitchen, is all of the above.

Remember those great spicy chicken lettuce cups you get at P.F. Changs? They don't come much better than that, but I think Jaden and her recipe have managed one up on Mr. Chang. So I will try to do Ms. Jaden justice here in my tiny kitchen, and try not to mess it up too badly.

ASIAN LETTUCE CUPS WITH TURKEY AND GREEN APPLE

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp grated ginger
2 cups frozen carrot/pea mix OR red/yellow bell peppers, finely diced
2 stalks, scallions
1/2 tart green apple, finely diced

Toppings, Wrap
2 bunches of Mung Bean noodles
2 medium carrots; use a vegetable peeler or a spiral slicer to cut them into tiny slivers
1 head of Boston Bibb or Butter lettuce, leaves washed and separated



The Sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons of Hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp hot sauce

Instructions
Fry noodle - wok or a pot (something not too wide at its base. the smaller the base width, the less oil you will need to use). Fill with about 2" of oil. While oil is heating to 375F, use your hands to separate the strands of the mung bean noodle into small clumps. When oil hot, fry one batch at a time. It should only take 10 seconds to fry. Remove, drain paper towels.

Heat wok on high heat with cooking oil. When oil is hot, add scallions, ginger and garlic and fry a few seconds until fragrant. Add chicken and fry until 80% cooked through. Add vegetables and cook 1 minute. Add sauce ingredients. Let simmer for 1 minute to thicken slightly. Add apples. Toss to coat. Immediately remove from heat. You don’t want to "cook" the apples - keep them nice and crunchy. Serve with hot sauce sauce, lettuce cups, fried noodles.

Serve in lettuce cups with fried noodles and carrot slivers.

Thanks once again to Jaden and her great recipe. Take a look at her blog to see what a foodie blog is supposed to look like, and keep an eye out for her new cookbook due in bookstores sometime soon.

Check this out...

Hello to everyone in foodie land. I wanted to bring to your attention a little website that just found me, The International Recipe Forum. One of the many enterprising foodies out there, Jeena of Jeena's Kitchen has developed a great web-based forum for the discussion and sharing of all manner recipes and food-related marginalia.

Whether your predilictions lean toward exotic fare or you just want to share your favorite apple pie recipe, Jeena and the International Recipe Forum have you covered. So check out Jeena and all of the folk on the forum, and help a fellow foodie grow her site into something great. Enjoy!

Comfort Food

Sometimes you get in a rut. Sometimes you feel uninspired. Sometimes, you just don't feel like cooking. For those times, when your creativity seems to have run dry and you feel no desire to deal with the challenges of having an incredibly small kitchen, you need the right recipe. And the right woman.

The woman, in my case, was my lovely wife, who's constant prodding finally got us back into the kitchen with a new recipe to try. The recipe we found after looking for something to excite our palettes and warm our bellies. I must admit, though, that while I am writing the blog about this dish, my wife did most of the cooking. I helped with chopping and prep, but she really did the bulk of the work. This is because, well, risotto scares me. Yep, that's right. I've tried it before, and it tends to come out like a salty rice pudding rather than the delicate, comforting dish we are all used to.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe that just might help get me back in the game and my head back into the kitchen. Oh, and by the way...it is frickin DELICIOUS!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO WITH BACON AND SAGE

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups homemade or canned chicken broth, may need a small amount more
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon crushed sage leaves, adjust to taste
4 slices turkey bacon, cut into thirds - regular bacon can be used as well
2 medium shallots, minced or 1 small onion, chopped (approximately 1/4 cup)
2 cups diced butternut squash
1 1/2 cups arborio rice or risotto rice
1/2 cup fresh grated parmigiano reggiano cheese - more if desired
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat the broth in a saucepan under medium heat, keep warm. In another saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the sage and bacon. Saute for about 5 minutes until it becomes fragrant. Transfer the bacon and sage to a paper towel. Add shallots to the pan, stirring for 3-5 minutes, until softened. Add the squash and rice to cook, for about one minute. Ladle enough broth into squash and rice mixture to just cover the rice.




Here is where risotto gets tricky: Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, until the broth is mostly absorbed. Add more broth and continue the process, adding and stirring, for about 25 minutes, until the rice is just tender. Now, be careful, if you add too much broth, the rice will keep absorbing it and it will become mush. As the broth gets absorbed by the rice, continue to taste the rice to check flavor and consistency. If you use all of the broth before the rice is cooked, add a little more at a time until the rice is done and the liquid is absorbed.

Once the rice is just this side of al dente, stir in the bacon, sage and cheese. For a tasty garnish, add some roasted garlic. Take a full head of garlic and chop off the top so you have removed the tips of each garlic clove. Place the head of garlic on a sheet of foil, and drizzle olive oil over it. Wrap tightly, and cook in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until it is light brown and fragrant. The garlic will be soft and very hot, so once it has cooled down a bit squeeze the cloves out of their skins into a small bowl. Mash the garlic into a thick paste, and spoon on top of your risotto.

Thank you to our friends at Recipetips.com for the great recipe. Enjoy!

The Devil Can Cook

My most favorite show ever (ok, maybe not EVER) is back on the air and is, and I really mean this, better than ever. The stakes are higher. The contestants are cockier. And the star is more frightening than ever. No my friends, I am not talking about "Dancing With The Stars." The show that makes me giddy every Tuesday, the show that makes me chuckle in diabolical delight whenever I see a teaser is "Hell's Kitchen". Chef Gordon Ramsay's vulgarity spitting, garbage can kicking, raw meat throwing contest to see which jackass out of a group of jackasses he can shape into a highly refined cooking machine and give a prized executive chef to is back for it's fourth season.

So if you haven't been following this season thus far, let me catch you up. This season's prize is bigger and drastically more important to Chef Ramsay than the other three seasons combined. Why you ask? Because this season's prize is the Executive Chef's position at Ramsay's own new restaurant in Los Angeles. So not only is he grooming someone to run a high profile five star restaurant, he is choosing someone to run HIS restaurant. So far we have had three failed dinner services, someone almost catching the kitchen on fire, and someone serving raw chicken to a child. Already kicked off are a lazy misogynist, a woman more concerned with her makeup than her cooking, and a guy who couldn't even boil pasta. One contestant's "Signature Dish" served to Chef Ramsay on episode one was a plate of veal tartar, raw egg, caviar, and white chocolate. Yeah, you read that right. And this guy is still on the show. It's a mystery.

Chef Ramsay is in fine form, hurling obscenities and over-cooked hamburgers across the kitchen as these two teams struggle through yet another dinner service. There still seems to be some dead weight to shed, (veal tartar and white chocolate guy gets my vote) but eventually Ramsay will hack away until he finds the prime cut. The guilty pleasure of this show is to see Ramsay finding just the right combination of choice adjectives to abuse these "chefs" who seem to constantly let him down. Now, before you go on about how cruel and disrespectful he is, Ramsay is choosing the person who will be in charge of his restaurant, and this person must meet his rigorous and exacting standards. It is going to be an exciting season. Enjoy the show.

Shame Rick Bayless, Shame...

Recently, I found a review for Chef Rick Bayless' newest branch of his Frontera Grill franchise in the Macy's Cellar in San Francisco. I cannot honestly for the life of me remember where I saw the review, but whoever it was, it was not favorable. I was aghast. I thought "Rick Bayless, master of Yucatan Cuisine, would never open a shoddy, poorly designed restaurant. Never!" The review in question said that the menu was lacking in choices, was expensive for what it did offer, and the food was mediocre at best.

Again, I thought, "Pshaw!" I have watched many of his PBS shows where he enthusiastically and thoroughly describes the many facets of Yucatan cuisine and the history behind the dishes. In fact, it was because of Rick Bayless that while on vacation on the Yucatan Peninsula myself I purchased a bottle of Xtabentun, a unique sweet honey liquor.

Therefore, when my wife and I visited the Macy's Cellar in downtown San Francisco to wrap up our wedding gift registry, we decided the reviewer mentioned above must have gone on an off night and we would be the ones to prove them wrong. At the very least, I wanted to give Chef Bayless another chance to prove himself.

As it turns out, whoever wrote that first review was spot on. I was THOROUGHLY disappointed, in both the restaurant, and Chef Bayless. The menu, if you can call it that, consisted of four Tortas, or grilled sandwiches, and a handful of enchiladas, a tortilla soup, and that was about it. And every dish on the "menu" was over $8, just a tad pricy for a quickly assembled pre-made sandwich. And here's another thing: Maybe I have become a bit jaded about my Mexican food, but I generally expect a basket of warm tortilla chips and some salsa to accompany my order. As it goes, Frontera Grill charges you almost $2.00 for this luxury, and they aren't even fresh! Nay, the chips you pay an extra two dollars for come stuffed into a hermetically sealed bag, prepackaged and already stale for your chewing enjoyment.

My wife and I both ordered the same thing, a chipotle chicken torta, which was not bad. Sadly, that is the best thing I can say about the whole experience. The sandwich was not bad. Mind you, it wasn't great either, but it did the trick. The Missus ordered one of Chef Bayless' Limeaid drinks, this one with mango, and I got the feeling he didn't try very hard on this one, either. After tasting the "beverage", I imagined someone being paid $8 an hour to mix gallon jugs of high-fructose corn syrup, pre-measured powdered flavoring and water into a large vat before pouring it into a stylish and convenient serving container.

My unfortunate experience was compounded mostly by the fact that I had such high expectations for a restaurant, although technically "fast food", that was designed by a respected and celebrated chef. I would have expected this dining experience if I had walked into say, Taco Bell, but not a place created by someone who has dedicated their culinary career to the Yucatan Peninsula. While I was expecting something akin to "Mall Food", since we were of course in a department store, Frontera Grill shares space with a Wolfgang Puck grill and a Boudin Bakery, one of San Francisco's best go-to eateries; so I was at least hoping to be able to give a thumbs up to Chef Bayless. How Rick Bayless felt secure about stamping his name on this waste of time is beyond me. Shame Chef Bayless, Shame. Try harder next time.