I poached an egg!!!

Believe it or not, I have never poached an egg.  I know, right?  Well, today I did it. 
I had dinner with a friend at Marlowe the other night and had this amazing, decadent, rich like woah polenta dish.  It was intense - I could only eat half.  So today I figured I'd poach a couple of eggs, dump them on top and eat it like my name is Michael Dickerson.  It was perfection.  Rich like woah, decadent perfection.  But I just LOVE the combination of egg, truffle oil, parmesan and earthy something - either mushrooms or asparagus.  It is the best, and perfect for an ucky, rainy fall morning.
I can't take full credit, since you know, I only poached the eggs, but I bet I can make something similar.  I don't really like polenta though, so go figure.

For my eggs, I filled a small saucepan maybe 2/3 full of water, added 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp of white vinegar and maybe a teaspoon of salt and brought the water to a boil.  I cracked my eggs in a small bowl and gently eased them into the water.  I let them boil for a few minutes - 2?  3? til they looked set.  Voila!  Perfection.

You can go ahead and nestle your eggs into a bowl of soft polenta, just make a little nest for it in the middle.  The yolk all mixed into the polenta is divine.  Sautee up some wild mushrooms, Place them all around the outside, and sprinkle with arugula and some shaved Parmesan, then drizzle truffle oil all over.  Or maybe mix it into the polenta?    Eat a small portion, seriously.

Asparagus & Prosciutto Pizza

If the fact that I use prosciutto and arugula on every pizza I make has gotten old I'm sorry, but it's just how it goes in my house okay?  Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the amazingly delicious pie we made last night; made only better by a delicious bottle of Tempranillo.

I learned from one of my favorite pizza masters, that the easiest way to make sauce is thusly:
1 can of San Marzano tomatoes
fresh basil
garlic
pinch of salt
your hands
(a pinch of red pepper flakes would be a great addition if you're feeling spicy)
- open the can and dump it into a bowl, tear up some basil, chuck in some minced garlic, add a pinch of salt and then smoosh it all together with your hands, pulverizing the whole tomatoes into puree.  Done.  This makes way more than you need for one pizza, but can be frozen.
(By the way; said pizza master might be game to teach you and your friends the basics if you ask nicely.)

As for the pizza, it's easy:
A bag of whole wheat crust from Trader Joe's, or whichever premade crust you like best; heck, make your own, whatever
lowfat mozzarella
4 or so slices of prosciutto, torn into thinner strips
5 asparagus spears, thinly sliced on the diagonal (you know, so it looks almost like almond slices); keep the pretty tops for garnish on top of the pizza
freshly grated Parmesan or Reggiano
1 large handful of arugula
(for arugula salad: salt, verjus or lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil - toss together and set aside)

Pop your pizza stone into the oven and preheat.
Roll out your dough as you do - for me this involves rolling it out on wax or parchment paper that has been floured, making it super thin, sprinkling with a generous amount of cornmeal, then placing my peel on top and flipping the whole thing over and peeling the paper off what is now the top; leaving your cornmeal ball bearings ready to slide around on the peel.  Badda bing, badda boom.
Sauce that bad boy as heavy or light as you like, and top with mozzarella.
Scatter your thinly sliced asparagus all over the joint, then lay the prosciutto on top.  If you saved your asparagus tips, here is where you can make the pretty design.  Sprinkle with a generous amount of Parmesan or Reggiano and bake away.  I like mine a little more done so the crust is a bit crisper and the prosciutto gets all crispy like bacon, oh my God my mouth is watering just typing this.
Once it's done, take it out of the oven and let it sit a few minutes or when you cut it all of your toppings will ooze off.  Top the complete sliced pie with your arugula salad and hook in.

This time around, we ended up with extra dough that we made breadsticks out of (cut into strips, brush with olive oil, sprinkle generously - REALLY generously - with Garlic Garni and top with freshly grated Parmesan or Reggiano); bake until browned and as crispy or as soft as you like 'em.  That extra sauce comes in handy here for dunking.

Steak Sandwich

Thanks to a lovely dinner at La Petite Rive in Little River, CA - I was struck with inspiration.  The chef prepared an amuse bouche featuring a little chompsworth of steak, with blue cheese and a grilled peach.  The flavors were lovely and even summery.  I was struck with bbq picnic inspiration and insisted on whipping up some sandwiches, despite Patrick's aversion to blue cheese (I just subbed in a shallot/balsamic reduction on his sandwich for the blue cheese on mine) - fool.

1 slab o' London Broil
seasoned with salt & pepper
Marinade:
soy sauce
balsamic vinegar
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil

1 can of sliced peaches in juice or light syrup - you don't need all that sugar (the store didn't have any fresh quite yet)
blue cheese (a chunk to crumble, or ready to go crumbles, or whatever you like or is on sale)
arugula
sourdough rolls

Season the steak with salt and pepper.  Smash the garlic cloves (you don't even have to take the skins off) and add them to your mix of soy, balsamic & oil.  I probably use mostly balsamic with about half the amount of soy and oil each.  This is one of my dad's little creations, but he uses rosemary too - I didn't want the competing flavor so I left it out.  For other usage though - I highly recommend it!
I allowed this to marinate for a couple of hours, turning frequently.

Grill up the steak to your preferred doneness and set aside to rest before slicing.  While it's resting, grill the peaches.  Split open your roll, toss on some arugula and blue cheese, top that with the slices of steak, and that with the grilled peaches. 

For the Patrick version, I just minced a small shallot; sauteed it in a little bit of olive oil until translucent, then added a cup or so of balsamic vinegar and allowed it to cook down by about half.  I drizzled this all over the bread before adding the arugula.

This made me so hungry typing it up that I almost can't stand it.

Making pizza

I don't know about you, but when I have three cups of homemade cheese staring me in the face, I think pizza. Luckily some people are open to everything I suggest and just roll with it once I arrive at my latest destination/plan/scheme/recipe.
The ready made pizza dough at Whole Foods was actually really good and easy to use, though not whole wheat. :o(
Sorry South Beach - it's full fat cheese too.

Two bags of dough and a couple other odds and ends and I was ready for one of my favorite savory pizzas, and a just made up sweet pizza. I swear, some day I'll photograph my food with something other than my iPhone, but until then. . . .

Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza with Homemade Mozzarella
Sauce:
one small can of San Marzano tomatoes
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 tsp dried basil (fresh would be awesome if you had it)
Open the can of tomatoes into a bowl, add the crushed garlic and basil and then squeeze with your hands to make a sauce.

Pop your pizza stone into the oven and head it up. Roll out the dough, sprinkle the stone with cornmeal and drop the dough onto the hot stone.
Spread the sauce all over, and top with mozzarella and prosciutto (I used just under 1/4 lb). Bake until done.

Toss the arugula (around 2 c) with basil oil or olive oil (1 tbsp) and salt, and top the hot pizza with it. Let pizza sit for a moment before cutting, and then whammo - enjoy your insanely yummy pizza.

Pear & Ricotta Pizza with Balsamic Onions
Thinly slice one onion and set about caramelizing that bad boy. Once the onions are cooked through and sweet and yummy and brown, stir in 1-2 tsp of balsamic vinegar (I used a fig balsamic) and set aside.
Thinly slice a pear - I recommend bosc over d'anjou since I think the bosc just has better pear flavor.
Again with the stone and rolling out of the dough and the placing of the dough onto the hot stone.
Top with 1 - 1 1/2 c of ricotta and drizzle with honey.
Spread the balsamic onions on top - quite honestly, if you wanted to go with two onions and spread them on first like delicious onionjamsauce, you'd probably be a very happy camper.
Lay out the pears and drizzle with a little bit more honey. Bake, nom, repeat.

** an interesting bit of trivia thanks to Wikipedia. . . . even though the bosc pears taste more like what I'd call "juicy pear jelly belly," it's actually d'anjou puree they use to make that flavoring. Who knew?? **

Kill me, kill me now

I'm posting a Sandra Lee inspired recipe. But come on, we've all seen something using similar flavors so can we really give her credit? Plus, I'm not posting it exactly as is; I'm posting it as I'd make it. I still feel a little nauseous, but hey, credit where credit is due, and I was indeed watching her show and thinking, "yum." If you are unfamiliar with Sandra and her work, a quick web search will give you the actual scoop, and then if you scroll down, the mountains and mountains of angry, hateful, vitriolic websites and parodies dedicated to her. It's her own fault, really. Really.
And while I'm here talking about this one; I'll share a recipe that a friend of a friend made for a recent party:
Little crostinis
goat cheese
sliced dried figs
white truffle oil
Top the crostinis with goat cheese, a slice of dried fig and drizzle with truffle oil. Die and go to heaven.

Fig & Prosciutto Crostata
1 pre-made pie crust
4 ounces cream cheese, softened (OR! 2 oz cream, 2 oz goat; OR! add some blue cheese crumbles on top of the fig preserves)
1/2 (10-ounce) jar fig preserves
1 (3-ounce) package prosciutto, cut into 1/2-inch strips
arugula
1 egg
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the pie crust onto a baking sheet. Spread the cheese over the crust leaving a 1-inch border. Top with fig preserves (and sprinkle with blue cheese crumbles if using). Fold border over fig spread and top with prosciutto strips.

Lightly beat egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Use a pastry brush to brush edge of crust with egg wash. Bake in oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes before serving. Serve topped with arugula (simply dressed with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper) if you dig it (which I do).

This is similar to another party snack I like to make using premade pizza crust (or even pita), smeared with goat cheese and then topped with caramelized onions and shallots with the little arugula salad on top. Yum.