Shrimp Bisque

First, I have to admit that I absolutely adore soups. Winter, spring, summer, it doesn’t matter. Second, shrimp bisque is probably my favorite soup of all (although tomato bisque is right there with it). This recipe is sort of a mish mash of all the flavors I found great in shrimp bisques that I’ve tried. The vegetables in the soup prevent it from tasting overly fishy, while the cream adds that distinctive creaminess, and the cayenne pepper give the soup a little bite.

Shrimp Bisque

Olive Oil
2 Leeks, green and white parts coarsely chopped
2 Carrots, chunked
1 Onion, chunked
2 Celery Stalks, chunked
3 cloves Garlic, smashed
¼ Cup Brandy
¼ Cup Dry Sherry
4 Cups Seafood Stock
4 sprigs Thyme
2 Bay Leaves
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
2 lbs Shrimp, peeled and veined
¼ Cup Butter
¼ Cup Flour
2 Cups Half & Half (or Cream, if you want it really rich)
3 Tbs Tomato Paste

Begin by sautéing the leeks, carrots, onion, and celery with some olive oil. After the veggies begin to brown up, add in the garlic, toss around. Add the Brandy, and stir until the alcohol evaporates. Repeat with the sherry, and then add the seafood stock. Add the thyme, bay leaf, and cayenne, and bring to a boil. Allow the soup to cook on a simmer until the vegetables are tender.

Bring the soup up to a full boil, add the shrimp, and then remove from heat. Stir the soup until the shrimp are cooked and pink, about 5 minutes.

Puree the soup in batches in a processor, and store in a separate container from the pot it was cooking in.

In the original soup pot, melt the butter, add the flour, and whisk until the roux comes together. Add the half & half, along with the shrimp soup puree and whisk until it begins to thicken. Whisk in the tomato paste and serve bubbling hot with a few flash seared shrimps!

Toasts!!

French Green Lentil & Arugula Salad with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette atop Prosciutto & Goat Cheese Toasts

Sourdough Loaf
Olive Oil
6 oz Goat Cheese
¼ lb. Procuitto
1 cup French Green Lentils
1 cup Chicken Stock
3 sprigs Thyme
1 cup water
5 oz Arugula
1 Red Onion Sliced
1 clove Garlic minced
3 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbsp Honey
¼ cup Olive Oil

Oven at 375 F

Rinse lentils, and place in small sauce pot. Add chicken stock, water, thyme and season with salt. Bring to boil and cook for 15-20 min. Don’t let them get mushy!

Begin by slicing the sourdough into 1 inch thick slices. Rub with olive oil and crisp in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Remove the toasts and spread the goat cheese even over the toasts. Top with a ribbons of prosciutto and put back in the oven until the prosciutto begins to crisp up. Mix up the balsamic vinaigrette by combing the vinegar and the honey, and then drizzling in the olive oil while whisking.

Sauté the onion and garlic until it begins to caramelize, and then add the vinaigrette.

Pour the warm vinaigrette/onions along with the drained lentils over the arugula in a large mixing bowl, and toss to coat. Serve the toasts with the lentil/arugula salad overtop.

I modified this recipe from Tyler Florence’s similar dish.

Squid Ink Noodles

These noodles are made with squid ink, which gives them their distinctive black color. While cooking, they omit a slightly briny odor, like the sea, but as far as taste, they're just like regular noodles. They're more for that wow "black" factor than anything else.

While I didn't make these, I can at least vouch for their tastiness. Although, it wouldn't be hard to make your own. All you need is 1 or 2 tablespoons of squid ink added to your regular semolina pasta recipe.

The brand I used is called "La Campofilone," which are surprisingly the best dried noodles I've had recently. They say that they only use semolina, and eggs (no water) to make their noodles, and then slow dry them at slightly higher than room temperature. I don't know much about noodle making, but apparently they do, because these dried noodles are the closest thing to fresh noodles that I've had short of the real ones.

Bacon CC Cookies with Maple Glaze

Or any other time really. But these cookies are made with bacon, which makes them better than normal cookies! As Mike said, "Bacon is the candy of the meats." This started out with Liz sending me a link to a similar recipe. I made some minor modifications like adding rolled oats and such, and then tried it out.

I personally, think they're great. I got a lot of mixed reactions when I started making these. But I've yet to have someone say they didn't like them. The bacon adds a nice salty/smokey depth to the sweet cookies, and the maple-cinnamon glaze reminds me a french toast and the syrupy bacon that usually accompanies it.

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies with a Maple-Cinnamon Glaze

Cookies

1 cup butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 egg

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup finely crushed walnuts

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups bacon bits (real bacon!!)

Directions-preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Beat together the butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs until creamy. In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir together. Dough will be slightly soft. Add in the oats and crushed nuts. Add in chocolate chips and bacon bits. Stir until well integrated. Set dough balls about 2 inches apart on heated baking stone.

Bake cookies for about 12 minutes, or until the dough starts to turn golden brown. Allow cookies to cool on a cooling rack while you ready the glaze.

Maple Cinnamon Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon maple extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoon cream

1 tablespoon water

Mix all ingredients together until smooth and creamy. If lumpy, use a whisk.

Spread a small amount of the glaze on the top of each cookie and top with a small piece of crisp cooked bacon.

Nori Crusted Ahi

I got this recipe from another site, and decided to modify it a little for my own tastes. I got a lot of mixed reactions on the nori flaked ahi. Some liked it, others said they'd rather have it without. Either way, I liked it and that's all that matters.

Nori Crusted Ahi

3-4 Ahi Tuna Steaks

4 Tbsp Lime Juice

4 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp Honey

2 Tbsp Rice Vinegar

3 Nori Sheets

1 Cup Chicken Stock

High Temperature Oil (like vegetable, I used tea oil)

1 package Flat Rice Noodles

2 Carrots, sliced

hand full of Snow Peas

hand full of Bean Sprouts

3 Green Onions, sliced

Sesame Seeds

Begin by boiling a large pot of water. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat, and throw the noodles in for 8 min to soften.

While waiting for the water to boil, place the nori sheets in a processor, and pulse until the nori is flaked, like fish food. Combine in a bowl, the lime, soy, honey, and vinegar. Dunk the tuna in the soy mixture, and set aside and cover. Add the chicken stock to the soy mixture in a small sauce pot, and reduce by half over medium-high heat.

In a wok, fry the carrots for 1 min in a little oil, and then toss in the other veggies for about a min, then remove from the wok.

Place the softened noodles in the wok, and place the veggies on-top. Pour the reduced soy over the noodles and toss to coat, until everything is hot.

While the noodles are frying in the wok, heat a heavy skillet with a few Tbsp of oil on very high heat. Take the soy dipped tuna, and "bread" the outside with the nori flakes. Once the oil begins to smoke, add the tuna steaks to the skillet, and sear for about 30 seconds on each side. An important note, try not the place the nori crusted tuna down after you crust it. The nori will come right off, and it's hard to put back on. Just crust the tuna and stick it in the hot pan.

Slice the tuna, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and place atop the noodles in a bowl.

Neapolitan Pork Cutlets

This is a combination of apple, onion, and mushroom over marille pasta with mascarpone cheese.

Neapolitan Pork Cutlets with Mascarpone Cheese and Marille

1/2 stick + 1 stick Butter

4 Pork Cutlets or chops

1 Onion, sliced

2 apples, peeled, cored, sliced

8 oz button mushrooms

1 Tbsp Tarragon

Black Pepper

1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

14 oz dried Marille

Olive Oil

1 cup Mascarpone cheese

Beef Tomatoes, halved

Oven to 300F

Bring pot of salted water to a boil

Lightly season the cutlets with salt, pepper, and paprika. Melt the 1/2 stick of butter in a skillet, and fry the cutlets over medium low heat for about 5 min each side. transfer to a dish and keep warm.

Fry the onion, apples in the pan until lightly browned, transfer to the veal dish and keep warm.

Melt remaining 1 stick of butter in skillet. Gently fry the mushrooms, tarragon, and pepper for about 3 minutes. sprinkle in the sesame seeds.

Cook the pasta until tender, but still firm to the bite.

Drain the pasta, and plate. Top with mascarpone, and a sprinkle of olive oil. Place the onions, apples, and cutlets ontop of the pasta. Spoon the mushrooms on to the cutlets, and place in the oven for 5 min to melt the mascarpone.

Sear the halved tomatos and serve with the pasta.

Dr. Pepper Ham

Yet another mish-mash of recipes and ideas. I've done hams before in the traditional honey/brown sugar/pineapple syrup sweet glaze, with a cherry-port glaze, and a "city" ham with mustard and ginger snap crust. So this time I wanted to take what I liked from each recipe and blend them into something incredible. I think I succeeded with this one.

I kept the cherries from the cherry-port glaze, but lost the port, and added a bit of merlot that I happened to draining that night. Along with the spice of whole ground mustard from the city ham, and a bit of brown sugar to help make the glaze syrupy, I added a good bit of Dr. Pepper to the glaze. At first, it might seem a bit weird to either add soda to your ham, or that I've stuck too many things into a simple glaze, but it turned out great regardless. The mustard kept the ham from turning that predictable salty-sweet flavor, and gave it a bit of bite. The cherry/merlot/Dr. Pepper glaze reduced wonderfully into a thick sticky mess, which stuck to the ham, and began to caramelize in the oven, making it even more delicious. I think the cherries and merlot complimented each other well, and the cherries cut down on the "winey" flavor that might otherwise have overpowered. As for the Dr. Pepper? I just got lucky seeing it somewhere. And it worked out great. Dr. Pepper has an excellent flavor for ham, and it's dark, which looks pretty in the glaze!

Dr. Pepper/Cherry/Merlot-Glazed City Ham

1 Hickory-Smoked, Cooked, Non-Spiral Cut Ham

1/4 cup Whole Grain Mustard (i used grey poupon country dijon)

1/2 cup Cherry Preserves

1/2 cup Merlot

1 cup Dr. Pepper

1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

Begin several hours in advance, by putting the ham (still shrink wrapped) in a bucket and covered with hot water and let sit for an hour or so. Replace the hot water when warm, and let sit for another few hours. This is to raise the internal temp of the ham and reduce cooking time later without drying the ham out.

Oven to 250 F

When the ham is uniformly warm (use your temperature probe: ~ 70F - 80F or so), remove from water and plastic. Rinse ham and discard the pad covering the bone. Make thin cuts on the ham fat in the pattern of a diamond. This helps the ham stay flat while cooking, instead of curling up, and makes for easy removal of the fat later on when it's glazed.

Put the warm ham in an oven bag, and stick your temperature probe into the center of the ham but not touching the bone. Place the hame on a baking tray cut side down. Bake until the internal temperature of the ham is about 115 F.

While the ham is cooking, mix the cherry preserves, merlot, and Dr. Pepper in a blender and blend until the cherries are not chunky. Be carefull as the Dr. Pepper will foam up when blended. Put the mixture in a small sauce pot, add 2 Tbsp brown sugar, and stir over medium-low heat until reduced at least by half, or until syrupy.

Take the ham out of the oven (about 1-2 hours later), remove from bag, and place on a baking pan, or roasting pan cut side down. Remove the fat diamonds and excess fat from the ham. Brush or spread the mustard on the ham, and then rub (careful 'cause it's hot) the 1/2 cup brown sugar over the ham and mustard.

Increase oven to 300 F

Give the ham, a good basting with the glaze and return to the oven. baste periodically until the internal ham temperature reaches 130 F, and the glaze begins to caramelize.