tasty

Hans’ Wonder Bread – Best Bread Ever? Nope, But……

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Yesterday afternoon I prepared some pizza for myself and had some leftover dough. Today I came home late and did not feel like cooking up a storm, so I made this stuffed bread for dinner. I guess I could call it a calzone?, but I am more comfortable with “Stuffed Yeast Bread”.
I ate the whole thing piping hot and I must say: Simply delicious 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !

Pizza Dough Recipe

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Stuffed Yeast Bread

pizza dough, diced salame, spicy tomato salsa, gorgonzola, corn meal, red onion, olive oil, sage, rosemary, thyme, scallion

roll dough, top with salame

top with gorgonzola

top with spicy tomato salsa, thyme and sliced sage

top with another sheet of dough. Coat finely sliced onions and chopped rosemary with generous amount of olive oil. Sprinkle over bread. Sprinkle with corn meal. Place on corn meal dusted baking pan. Cook at 375 F. When done, sprinkle with scallions and chili flakes

Stuffed Yeast Bread

Calzone

Hans’ Wonder Bread

Stuffed Yeast Bread

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Roasted Piglet

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Once in a while I like to roast a whole pig. When Maria was still alive and we had once or twice a month a party at the house for 30 or 40 friend’s, I usually cooked two 45 pounder. Last night I only had one friend over for dinner at 9.30 pm and another one at 1.00 am, so 25 lbs seemed just fine.
I seasoned the pig with sea salt, sriracha and soy sauce on the inside, then stuffed the cavity with lots of garlic, cilantro, orange wedges, lemon wedges and onion wedges. The outside got sea salt, sriracha, granulated garlic and soy sauce. Roast for half an hour at 425F, then 4 hours at 275F, then the last half hour at 425 again. Basting the little darling every 15 minutes with beer is the secret to the beautiful skin and great taste. After removing the piglet from oven, let it sit for 30 minutes before carving. The result: Perfectly crisp on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside, extremely flavorful. Accompanied by sour dough bread, cornichons, horseradish, mustard and sea salt mixed with freshly ground black pepper. A couple of Stella Artois during the meal and a couple of shot’s of Chivas afterwards. Aaahhhhhhh…. 🙂
Bella and I had the last little bits and pieces for lunch today.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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: suckling pig

: roasted piglet

: roasted piglet

: roasted piglet

: roasted piglet

: roasted piglet

: freshly baked sour dough bread

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Almost Vegetarian

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Yesterday’s dinner plan was simple enough – just a few grilled vegetables and some tonkatsu dipping sauce. But when I started grilling and looked what was cooking, I felt I had to add a few little things, namely a New York strip steak, pork chop, morcilla and chorizo. Now I had a meal 🙂
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !

Tonkatsu Dipping Sauce Recipe

grilled strip steak, pork chop, morcilla, chorizo, tomato, asparagus, tomato

sauteed strip steak, pork chop, morcilla and chorizo, grilled tomato, asparagus, potato

: season meat’s and veggies with sea salt and black pepper

: meanwhile, blanch asparagus in generously salted water. Shock in ice water, drain

: tonkatsu dipping sauce

: season asparagus with sea salt and black pepper. Grill

: almost vegetarian

: sauteed strip steak, pork chop, morcilla and chorizo, grilled tomato, asparagus, potato

: almost vegetarian

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Creamed Spinach

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Like so much other comfort food, creamed spinach is hardly found on menus (or homes, for that matter) anymore, with the exception of steakhouses where it usually is one of the standard side dishes. I just love spinach, no matter how it is prepared, but the price goes without a doubt to creamed spinach. Following is the simple instruction how to prepare this great dish.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Creamed Spinach

blanch spinach in generously salted water.

shock in ice water ( screaming BOOOOO does not work )

saute onions and garlic in butter

add flour (ratio butter flour = one to one)

add half milk and half heavy cream, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Simmer for five minutes. sauce must be VERY thick, chopped spinach contains lot’s of water

chop blanched spinach to the texture you prefer

add to sauce. simmer for 5 minutes. check/adjust seasoning

add to sauce. Simmer for five minutes. check/adjust seasoning

Creamed Spinach

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Spicy Lamb Tortilla Wraps

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These lamb wraps are even tastier than they look.
Twice ground lamb, lots of seasoning and good salsa, a few squirts of lime and fresh guacamole made this a great, quick, economic ( we don’t say cheap 🙂 ) lunch.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !

Guacamole Recipe

Salsa Mexicana Recipe
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serve with guacamole and salsa mexicana

Spicy Lamb Tortilla Wraps

: saute onion and garlic. Add ground lamb, saute while getting rid of all lumbs

: Add finely diced celery, peppers, chilies, five spice powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper, tomato sauce

: add a bit of red wine, simmer until most liquid has evaporated. Check/adjust seasoning

: hot tortilla

: spread a good amount of meat

: add white cabbage and red onions

: sprinkle diced peppers and chilies

: add freshly grated extra sharp cheddar, top with sour cream

: roll into tight wrap

: serve with guacamole and salsa mexicana

: Spicy Lamb Tortilla Wraps

: Spicy Lamb Tortilla Wraps

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Chinese Style Ginger & Garlic Crabs

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Last night’s dinner was truly special.
Special food, special digestive (very old cognac) and most of all, special friends.
This is the first Chinese recipe I ever learned, way back in 1974 while working on Royal Viking Sky. My assistant was a Chinese fellow named Chang. Whenever we were in Vancouver, instead of going ashore, he took his fishing line and a few pieces of chopped up fish and went up to the aft deck to fish for crabs. In these days there were very few cruise ships and fewer still went to Alaska during the three months summer season. So, crabs and other seafood were still plentyful and as I remember from watching him fishing once, all it took for him was to lower the fishing line with a bit of fish on the hook into the water, wait maybe a minute, then pull it out with the biggest crab attached to it. It took him less then an hour to fill three buckets of the freshest, largest crabs you have ever seen. He kept them alive in the cooler until the next evening, then he cooked them for a few of us for a late dinner. He supplied the food, I supplied the beer – everybody happy 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Saute very finely slivered garlic and very finely julienned ginger in peanut oil until garlic starts to turn yellow. Deglace with sherry wine, add seafood stock or clam juice, sea salt and cayenne pepper. Add crabs, cover tigtly and steam until crabs are just done. Remove crab into serving dish. Thicken stock with corn starch slurry. Using a wire whisk, stir sauce slowly in one direction, add egg whites. Remove from heat, add sesame oil and scallions. Check/adjust seasoning. Ladle sauce over crabs. Enjoy 🙂
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Chinese Ginger & Garlic Crabs

Fresh Crabs

Gale, Junior and Moses

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Crispy Fried Duck With Dirty Rice Sticks

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Some of you might remember the roasted ducks I have prepared in the past. This recipe for a fried duck gives you a completely different texture, just as good but very distinct from a roasted duck. The texture of the skin is much more like that of chicharrones, since it puffs up during the frying process. It was a recipe I have tried to teach my students countless times over the years, but very few have actually been able to prepare it during class.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !

Link to Dirty Rice Sticks Recipe

Link to Whole Roast Duck Recipe # 1

Link to Whole Roast Duck Recipe # 2
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Crispy Fried Duck With Dirty Rice Sticks

put whole duck onto a upside down bowl, add water, cinnamon stick, five spice powder, chilies, star anise and sea salt

cover tight and steam for 2,5 hours

strain stock, reserve for suck soup. let duck dry for one hour

strain stock, reserve for duck soup. Let duck dry for one hour

fry whole duck at 390 F until very crisky

fry whole duck at 390 F until very crispy

Crispy Fried Duck

Crispy Fried Duck With Dirty Rice Sticks

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Mondongo A La Soupi (Ox Tripe & Chicken Gizzard My Way)

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If this recipe does not make you like ox tripe and gizzard, nothing will do the trick. This is on my list for one of the ten dishes I don’t want to live without 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Mondongo A La Soupi

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: saute onions and garlic in olive oil

: add sliced chicken gizzards

: saute until onions and garlic starting to caramelize

: add triple – blanched tripe, diced tomato, caraway seed, bay leave, demi glace, salt, pepper and morcilla

: deglaze with red wine and vinegar

: simmer until tripe is tender

: add beans, potatoes and chilies

: add dark beer

: simmer until potatoes are cooked. Check/adjust seasoning

: Sprinkle with young basil. Serve with bread or rice

: Mondongo A La Soupi

: Oxtripe & Gizzards My Way

: Ox Tripe & Gizzard Stew

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Chili Beef, Pennoni Lisci & Peppers

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Great lunch today with a minimum of time and work. I used whole chili‘s because I find the taste better and more intense than chili flakes. Saute them until they change color and have infused the oil with their pungent heat. Remove the chili’s at this point or leave them in the dish for presentation ( I also like to chew on them a bit)

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Chili Beef, Pennoni Lisci & Peppers

: cut beef tenderloin into strip’s, season with kosher salt and cayenne pepper, dust with corn starch and saute in peanut oil until brown and still rare. Set aside

: saute onion and chili’s until fragrant

: add peppers and roasted garlic purre, saute another minute

: deglaze with red wine

: add, freshly cooked pasta, beef, chopped parsley, salt and pepper

: Chili Beef, Pennoni Lisci & Peppers

: Chili Beef, Pennoni Lisci & Peppers

: sprinkle freshly grated peccorino

: Chili Beef, Pennoni Lisci & Peppers

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Short Rib Sandwich

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Often when we use leftovers, if we just add a bit of imagination and love, the resulting dish can be at least as enjoyable as the original and sometimes even better. This was surely the case here. The original Beef Short Rib’s Braised In Merlot were a wonderful dish, but the leftovers were just as tasty and satisfying, with some added spices and flavors, served on a toasted kaiser roll with salad in dijon vinaigrette, they took on a whole new personality. Good Stuff 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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top kaiser roll with short rib mixture

: mise en place

: toasted kaiser roll

: shredded short ribs, chilis, scallions, scotch bonnet sauce, short rib sauce, garlic, onions

: top kaiser roll with short rib mixture

: short rib sandwich with romaine and tomatoes in dijon vinaigrette

: short rib sandwich with romaine and tomatoes in dijon vinaigrette

: short rib sandwich with romaine and tomatoes in dijon vinaigrette

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