Crab Rolls!

It's leftover night. We had snow crab legs a night or two ago. When there is leftover crab, I like to make crab rolls. They remind me of lobster rolls on the Maine coast. Pick the crab out of the shells and mix with a little mayo. We also had some potato salad leftover, so it made a perfect summertime treat.

Guest Chef: Chicken Marsala

 

Served with a Fresh Garden Salad and Potato Cakes

Chicken Marsala is a relatively simple dish to make. Not a lot of ingredients required and no complicated cooking techniques involved.

Chicken Marsala
serves 2

1 boneless chicken breast, sliced thinly
olive oil
8 oz white mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced thinly lengthwise
1/2 t. dried thyme (or more)
2 cups of sweet Marsala
salt and pepper to taste
fresh chopped parsley

Saute the sliced chicken in olive oil over medium heat until just about done.  Remove from pan and reserve. Saute the onions and mushrooms in the same pan with a little more olive oil. Add the thyme and some pepper. When everything starts to brown, add the Marsala. Turn up the heat to high and let the Marsala reduce by at least half. Add the chicken back into the pan and heat through. Season to taste and top with parsley.

This is one of my favorite chicken dishes. Now the guest chef makes it more often than I do.

Tomato Season

This has not been a great year for tomatoes. We always try to grow enough tomatoes to make some red sauce and if possible to can some sauce to eat during the winter. This is the first batch I have been able to make this year, and I hope it won't be the last.

How to Make a Big Pot of Spaghetti Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes

Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Green pepper
Jalapeno pepper (optional)
Italian seasoning, dried
Red wine
Salt
Sugar


I begin by going out to the garden and picking any ripe tomatoes I can find. Returning to the kitchen, I first wash, then peel, seed and chop them.

Tomatoes are easy to peel if you first drop them into boiling water for 10-15 seconds. If you see the skins split quicker than this, pull them out of the water.

Remove the seeds and then chop the tomatoes. I am not fussy about the chop. I do some small, some medium and some large for a little variety in texture. You can chop everything finely if you want a smoother sauce, or even use a hand blender after they have cooked down a bit.

Load the chopped tomatoes into a large pot. I usually use a 6 quart pot and cook the tomatoes on low heat until they have reduced by almost half. This can take a few hours, because you must use low heat or the tomatoes will burn. You can start cooking them before you have all of them chopped, just keep adding more as you go. I ended up filling half the pot. On a good day, we can fill a whole pot to the brim.

Now that the tomatoes are cooking it is time to start working on the rest of the ingredients. Chop some onions. I use lots. The amount depends on how much tomato you have. For this batch, I probably chopped three cups of onion. Chop 4-5 large cloves of garlic. Use more or less if you like.

Saute the onion in olive oil in a large separate pan. Cook the onions until they have started to color and caramelize, throw in the garlic and the Italian seasoning and continue to gently cook for a few more minutes, then add the onions and garlic to the pot of tomatoes.

Chop some green peppers. This batch used about 2 cups. I also added 3-4 finely minced jalapenos, seeded and deveined. Why? Because they were there and they give the sauce a little kick. Totally optional. Saute the peppers lightly and throw them into the pot.

Add about a cup of red wine, a teaspoon of sugar and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Let everything simmer and start tasting. Does it need more garlic? More Italian seasoning? A bit of salt? A pinch of sugar? Taste and season as you like. I am very careful with the salt and sugar. They are easy to add, impossible to take out.

Often the sauce will need a bit of sugar because the tomatoes are acidic and if they are at all under ripe, they can taste sour. Add the sugar carefully, just a teaspoon or less at a time, stirring and tasting. Same procedure with the salt, although I only go 1/2 teaspoon at a time.

This is a procedure for the committed red sauce lover. Not undertaken lightly. It takes time and patience. We think it is well worth it for that first pot of fresh spaghetti sauce.

Tangy Cherry Chicken with Walnuts

Guest Chef Night

This chicken dish is a specialty of the guest chef and a favorite with the diners, all two of them.

The chicken is encrusted with dried thyme and sauteed. The sauce is a white wine (Pinot Grigio) based sauce with sauteed onions and celery, dried cherries, rehydrated in the sauce, and with toasted walnuts added tableside to maintain their crisp texture. The "tangy" taste was from some minced jalapeno peppers. If the fresh jalapenos are not available, use pepper flakes.

Sides included fresh garden green beans and mashed potatoes.

Spaghetti Fra Diavolo

What began as a "simple dinner" of spaghetti to use up some partial containers of tomato products turned into a major production. The result was well worth it, a delicious dinner of Spaghetti Fra Diavolo. Why Fra Diavolo? A number of circumstances came together to produce prodigious quantities of jalapeno peppers, so they will probably be turning up everywhere from now to October.

When I was gathering my ingredients I noticed some garden tomatoes in the fridge. They were not beautiful big ripe slicing tomatoes. Some of them were small, some of them were down right ugly, but they did come from our garden, had survived the month of rain (about 15 inches) and they are as organic as you can get. So I decided that instead of opening more tomato anything, I would use those tomatoes in my sauce.

We also had some fresh yellow cherry tomatoes from the garden and fresh basil on the deck.

I began by making some rolls. Once they were rising I started work on the rest. This is more of a rough guide than a recipe.

Fra Diavolo Sauce

• olive oil
• one large onion, finely chopped
• 3 jalapeno peppers, seeded, deveined and very finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 8-10 fresh tomatoes, skinned and seeded, roughly chopped
• 1/2-3/4 cup red wine (I happened to have a Merlot)
• 2-3 t. dried Italian seasoning
• 1-1/2 cups strained or crushed tomatoes (from a jar)
• about 3 T tomato paste
• 2-3 T fresh Italian parsley, chopped
• Fresh basil leaves, whole or chiffonade, lots
• Fresh cherry tomato halves
• Spaghetti
• (optional) sliced and browned Tofurky Italian Sausage
• salt and pepper as desired

I started with my onion, garlic and jalapeno prepped and worked on skinning, seeding and chopping the tomatoes as the onions and then the sauce cooked. I liked the way some of the tomatoes were cooked more than others. 
Heat a large skillet and add olive oil. Swirl enough oil into the pan to lightly coat the bottom. Cook the onion over medium low heat until translucent. Add the jalapeno and continue to cook. Add the garlic. Start adding the chopped tomatoes as you get them chopped. Add the Italian seasoning and the strained tomatoes from the jar. Continue to cook everything as you prepare and add more tomatoes. It is OK if the ingredients get a little brown. When they begin to stick to the pan significantly, add the red wine. Continue to cook everything down. Add the tomato paste and 1/2 cup water (or more wine).

Cook the spaghetti and the Tofurky Sausage (if using). Serve the cherry tomatoes and basil at the table, and the sausage to the side, so everyone can dress their own plate as they like. But don't skip the raw cherry tomatoes or the basil. They're great!

Potato Salad

Potato Salad is quintessentially summery. It goes with sandwiches, hot dogs, barbeque, picnics....

I made some recently and it was so good I had to make some more. We had it with sandwiches on fresh baked rolls. Mine is a no-mayonnaise vegan version.

Potato Salad

About 4 cups of diced potatoes. They don't need to be peeled if they are clean and organic. The dice should be a medium-large bite size.
1/4-1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4-1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4-1/2 t coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 T yellow mustard
4-5 finely chopped sweet pickles and 2-3 T pickle juice

Place the diced potatoes into a saucepan with water to cover. Bring the potatoes to a boil and boil for about 4-5 minutes. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl.

Check a large piece of potato for doneness. It should be al dente to tender but not mushy.

When the potatoes are cooked, drain them and add to the bowl with the dressing. Toss everything together and taste for seasoning.

If you want a creamier dressing, all you have to do is cook a handful of the potatoes for a few minutes longer. The longer the potato cooks the more it dissolves into the dressing.

This is a slightly tangy salad. If you want a milder or sweeter flavor, use less vinegar and a little more sugar.

Plain Food: Tater Cakes

Mashed potatoes seem to go with so many dishes. They are a great side dish to have with many different sauces or any gravy. As a result, we often have mashed potatoes, and just as often have leftover mashed potatoes. In fact, we make it a point to have extra just so we can make potato cakes.

Are you thinking of a plain patty of cold potato thrown into a pan? Around here there wouldn't be too many complaints about that but I am actually talking about something a little more interesting.

I almost always have onions and mushrooms on hand and that's where my basic potato cake begins.

Place the leftover mashed potatoes in to a large bowl. Usually these are cold and come straight from the fridge. You want plenty of room in the bowl to stir in additional ingredients.

Chop the onions and mushrooms and saute them in olive oil a large skillet. How much onion and mushroom? That depends on the potatoes. I like to add no less than 1/2 and onion and 4 large mushrooms for every cup and a half of potato. Don't skimp, you're adding flavor.

Let the onions and mushrooms get a little brown. Add a generous amount of coarsely ground black pepper.

Put the sauteed veg into the bowl with the potatoes while still warm. Keep the skillet handy to cook the potato cakes. Add a handful of panko. Panko is Japanese breadcrumbs and it is nice and crunchy.  If I have a bit of vegan sour cream, I will often add about 2 tablespoons at a time for moisture and richness.

Now you can form the cakes. Make them about 1/3 cup each, form into patties. If they seem loose, mix in more panko. Heat more olive oil in the skillet. Dip each side of the cake into panko, then transfer to the skillet. The pan should be medium hot and there should be a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet.
Let the cakes brown on each side and serve.

You can add almost anything to these cakes: Fresh herbs, chopped broccoli or other vegetables, leftover flaked fish. A little more exotic, add leftover sauces to the potato before forming into a cake. I made some really good ones with leftover Provencal sauce. Be creative and put something different into a potato cake tonight.