Camponata... Simple Goodness

                        There is something beautiful in the utility and simplicity of Italian food. It is all about the ingredients and the care and tenderness that you treat them with and the results are almost always good, sometimes great and every once and a while sublime. The sublime is what spurs me on, those few times when I pull a pan off the stove at exactly the right time or decide not to add that one last touch that would be too much. The rare times that this happens I know that I have made something that I consider to be special. I wish it happened more often but I am okay with that fact that I get it at all. Complicated and okay is way easier to achieve than simple and great. I will keep trying for the latter. There is something that I find ridiculously satisfying in being able to use the same recipe and turn out two or three things that all seem to work with the results of that one recipe. I have done this with a great Italian recipe for a dish called Camponata or marinated vegetables. It is a wicked little starter if you serve it with some good country style bread, it makes a great side dish served with fish, I have added it to a basic pasta sauce with great results, and it makes a killer filling in omelette. All of these dishes from a simple yet fantastic little recipe, like I said simple and full of utility. It takes a little bit of time to pull it together but it keeps great in the fridge for a few days and like I said it is crazy versatile. So here is the recipe for the Camponata along with a recipe for a spicy sole they worked great together so give them a go.

Camponata to the tune of the Four Chords Song by Axis of Awesome

1 eggplant diced

1 medium zucchini diced

3 stalks of celery diced

1 medium onion diced

2 tomatoes skin and seeds removed and diced

100-150g of good pitted green olives

100g almonds

¼ cup vinegar (I used plain white vinegar)

2 tbsp sugar

4ish tbsp finely chopped mint

1 cup of water

3 tbsp capers

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

-so you will need a few pans on the go for this one. In one you want to sauté your eggplant so that it is just starting to soften. In another do the same with the zucchini. Put these aside for a moment

-Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch your tomatoes, this allows the skins to be removed quickly and easily. There is a little tip for the day.

-In a large skillet over medium heat sauté your onions and celery until they start to soften. Add in the eggplant, zucchini, olives, almonds, capers, and tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium low and let them work.

-While that is going combine water, sugar, vinegar, and mint in a small sauce pan and bring to a low boil. Allow this to reduce by about half.

-Add in your peppers and your salt and pepper and let it go for another couple of minutes and then let everything cool. Add your liquid to the rest of your goodness. Fire it into a bowl, cover it with cling film and put it in your fridge for no less than 4 hours. The longer it sits the better it gets. It will keep in your fridge for a good week. And boom you are done.

Quick Pan Fried Sole to the tune of  In My Life by The Beatles

2 sole fillets

½ tsp chilli powder

¼ tsp paprika

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

-combine chilli powder, paprika, salt and pepper in a bowl. Dredge your fillets coating them in the spice rub.

-In a medium sized pan over medium high heat add your butter and your olive oil. Plop your fish in and let it work. After a couple of minutes flip them over and let them work again. Give them a poke if they are firming up pull them off the heat and let them rest for a minute or so. Serve with the Camponata and you have yourself a killer meal. Enjoy.

Pochetta because.... Well Why Not Really

            So there I was thinking of having some friends over for dinner and the question arose, as it always does, what am I going to feed these folks? I started to think about the food that I have had out and if anything struck me. I was taken back to a meal that I had at the Clay Pigeon bistro and I had it.... Porchetta. I started moving through my cook books and found a few recipes and managed to cobble out one of my own. Porchetta is a pork loin that is stuffed with herbs and then marinated in wine. It is then roasted. It is super tasty and is killer on sandwiches the next day. Now I had an epic fail in making this recipe in that the crackling did not turn out at all. I am sorry to all who had to push it to the side of their plate and I am even sorrier to the people who scarfed it down only to realize that it sucked. It did not crisp up the way I wanted it to, so to fix it I recommend removing the skin and frying it further so it becomes that crispy awesome that you want it to be. So here is Porchetta, it is totally worth giving a go.

Porchetta to the tune of..... The whole new Mumford & Sons album. You got the time.

A big chunk of pork loin, ribs removed and trimmed out so that it lays flat and is easily rolled. Your butcher will do this for you if you don’t want to do it yourself.

Rosemary, stalks removed

Thyme, stalks removed

7 cloves of garlic minced

 ½ cup olive oil, the best that you have

1 bottle of red wine, one that you would drink on its own

-In a blender or food processor blend your rosemary, thyme, garlic and oil until you get a thin sort of paste.

-Lay out your pork in a pan, skin side down and then spread the paste over the meat, coating evenly.

-Add the wine to the pan until it is almost all of the way up the sides of your meat.

-Cover and let marinate for 2 days in your fridge at the very least.

-Preheat your oven 375 degrees. Remove the pork from the marinade and roll and tie. As my Grand would say, like a jelly roll.

-Roast in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Let it rest and then slice it up. I served mine with roasted root vegetables. It was pretty darn tasty. So give it a go.

Tres Leches Cake inspired by a great meal and better friends

Every so often some friends and I take the opportunity to go and eat at really good restaurant. We spend more money than we would normally in the hopes that we will be rewarded with a meal that is not only incredibly enjoyable but also challenging and inspiring. We also use these meals as an excuse to get dressed up and play a little at being fancy. As all of my friends will tell you I am as far from fancy as you can get but it is fun to play none the less. My friend Toby and I inevitably start to break down the food, trying to figure out what made a dish great and how we could pull these things off in our own kitchens. These meals serve a couple of purposes, to me at least, beyond just reveling in the glory that is sitting down and eating really good food. The food humbles me a little, which is good. Food that is amazingly prepared and thoughtful, where each component of a dish serves a purpose without taking away from the whole is something that I strive for always and accomplish every once and a while. The other is simply inspiration. Seeing a dish arrive at the table, taking that first bite and being blown away by the flavours moves me to try and figure it out. It pushes me to try new things and that is always a good thing.

This recipe comes from one of these meals and is inspired by the second best thing that hit our table in my opinion. Now the first was a mussel dish which was sublime. Toby has just posted an article on mussels, which you should check out, so it seems that I would be treading in the same water. Toby’s recipes are great and are totally worth giving a go, so why rehash something that is all ready good. So Johnny is taking on dessert. I have tried to give a little nod to everyone sitting at our table. So the fact that it is baking goes out to kid sister Tiff as she is one of the bakers in our little group. The technique is all for Toby mainly the fact that you have to whip egg whites which I know makes him smile. The use of blueberries is for my friend Fyfe who put the use of them into my head. And the use of Gin is for my little one Kelly whose love for that spirit knows no bounds. Johnny bakes, very much out of my comfort zone but it was a challenge and I took it on to some pretty decent results. So here is Johnny’s take on a Tres Leches cake. It was not as good as the one that we had that night but it is not bad for an amateur. Enjoy.

Tres Leches Cake with Blueberries Marinated in Gin and Honey to the tune of Gaucho by the Dave Matthews Band

The Berry Part

1 carton of blueberries

1cup of water

2oz of decent Gin

3 tbsp good quality honey

Zest of 1 lime

-Combine water, Gin, honey, and lime zest in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Reduce by half and it is syrupy. Let it cool.

-Combine berries and syrup in a bowl, cover and refrigerate.

The Tres Leches Cake part

I did individual servings but you can do one big cake the cook time for a 9” cake is 45-50 minutes

1 cup white sugar

5 egg yolks

5 egg whites

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 can evaporated milk

1 can condensed milk

¼ cup whipping cream

-Preheat your oven to 350. Grease 2 muffin tins.

-Beat egg yolks and ¾ of the sugar until it has doubled in volume. Add in the vanilla and milk and mix. Whisk your flour and baking powder together and add to the yolk mixture and stir together.

-In a separate bowl beat your egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly add in the remaining sugar and continue to beat until they are firm but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the batter gently until they are incorporated.

-Spoon the batter into the muffin tins just shy of all the way full. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes. Remove from the tins and place on a deep serving tray.

-Mix together the three milks. You will have lots left over. I recommend that you use it in your coffee. It is delicious. Using a carving fork or skewer poke a bunch of holes in the cakes. Spoon the milks over the cakes allowing it to absorb into the cake fully.

-Top with your berries and you are set. Give it a go.

Greekesque Food for Sammy

            This one goes out to my friend Robyn who I call Sammy. Sammy asked me to put together a couple of recipes for some Greek style food for her and here it is. Now I will say here that this is more of a blending of Mediterranean styles. The Skewers themselves are very much in the Greek style, the rice has a little more of a Moroccan thing going on but it is the closest thing I could find to what I think she was looking for while still using Greek flavours. Or at least what I think of as Greek flavours. Now I struggled a little bit trying to make this taste what I think of when I think of good Greek food and not what you would find in a mall. Mediterranean food by definition is great due to its simplicity and letting the ingredients shine through above and beyond any of the techniques that you employ. So this is Johnny telling you not to scrimp on the quality of the ingredients. So here we go. This one is for you Sammy.

Chicken Skewers and Rice Greek Style to the tune of Moving Right Along by the Alkaline Trio

(It’s a Muppets Song)

The Chicken Part:

3 cloves of garlic minced

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp oregano

1 ½ cups of plain yogurt

Salt and pepper

3 Chicken thighs, you can use the breast meat if you like but I find the thighs to be a little cheaper and a lot juicier. Cut the meat into moderately bite sized pieces.

3-4 skewers, I use the bamboo kind as they are cheap and easy to use. Make sure that you soak them in water for a while so that they won’t burn when you put the heat to them.

-Mix all of the ingredients, except the chicken, in a bowl and put aside (this is your marinade) until you have your meat taken care of.

-Skewer your chicken and then place in a baking pan, cover with the marinade, wrap in cling film, and put them in the fridge and let them work for at least 2 hours, over night is better.

-Heat up a large skillet and add some oil to prevent sticking. Toss in your skewers and brown them on all sides and cooking them all the way through. You now have your skewers, well played now on to the rice.

The Rice Part

4-5tbsp butter

1 onion cut into a small dice

4 cloves of garlic minced

1 cup of rice, I used a long grain variety

2 cups of chicken stock

A pinch of saffron, like half a pinch, this stuff is crazy expensive and a little goes a really long way.

8-10 pitted black or green olives the best that you can afford cut into quarters

So this is a pilaf sort of a thing. Now all that means is that the rice is fried in a fat, like butter, and then the liquid is added.

-Take your tiny bit of saffron and dry toast it in a small pan over medium heat just to wake it up a little bit. Toss it into a bowl and add 1 cup of the chicken stock and let it infuse.

-In a large sauce pan, over medium high heat, add ½ your butter, onions, and garlic until the onions are translucent.

-Toss in your rice and the rest of your butter and let it work for about 5-7 minutes stirring all the while.

-Add your stock including the saffron infused stuff and crank up the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Let it go for 20 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the heat, toss in your olives and recover and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir it up with a fork and you are good to go.

Enjoy Sammy I hope that these work out for you.