Scallop Hush Puppies With Lemon Allioli Dipping Sauce

In Tucker's endless attempts to corrupt me (and make me die young), he made bay scallop hush puppies. Seriously, where does he get these ideas? Oh yeah, from the cook books, I give him. This instant favorite was from Rick Moonen's Fish Without A Doubt (our copy is SIGNED by Rick from when I went to his restaurant in Las Vegas!  Boom toasted).

Before you get too anxious about not having the right equipment, we did not use a deep fryer for this. We use a dutch oven and a thermometer, oh, and a ton of oil.

Scallop Hush Puppies With Lemon Allioli Dipping Sauce


Ingredients
FOR FRITTERS
1/2 cup milk
1 TBS white vinegar
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp coarse salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 pound frozen bay scallops
fresh ground white pepper
canola oil for deep frying

FOR ALLIOLI
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large egg yolks
fresh lemon juice


Instructions
FOR FRITTERS

• Whisk milk and vinegar together, let sit while you do the rest of the prep. It will thicken and look a bit curdled
• In another bowl, whisk cornmeal, floug, baking soda, salt, and some white pepper
• Heat 3 or more inches of oil in the dutch oven to 350-365F
• When ready to fry, add milk mixture and egg to dry ingredients, stir until smooth. Fold in scallops
• Lift scallops out one my one and drop into hot oil, fry until golden
• Remove hush puppies with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels or drying rack

FOR ALLIOLI
In blender, purée garlic, salt, cayenne pepper, and 2 teaspoons oil until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add yolks and lemon juice and blend until smooth. With motor running, very slowly add remaining 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons oil in thin, steady stream, blending until allïoli is thick, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Serve fritters hot, with allioli dipping sauce and fresh lemon wedges

Rice Krispies Treat Paninis

This might sound strange, but I promise it was nothing short of heavenly. Essentially, we made a "panini" out of two Rice Krispies treats with chocolate in the middle and grilled it on a panini press. Seriously, what could be better? We fancied-up this guilty pleasure a bit by making our own marshmallow.

Rice Krispies Treat Paninis
Inspired by Ideas in Food, marshmallow recipe from Alton Brown

Ingredients
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately
1 1/2 cups 1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
About half a box of Rice Krispies (sorry we can't be more precise)
A few chocolate bars

Instructions

• Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper, spray with non-stick spray
• Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. 
• In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt.
• Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes.
• Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat. Using the whisk attachment, turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. 
• Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. 
• Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping.
• Add in Rice Krispies and mix until just combined
• Spread mixture out evenly over parchment and let sit overnight
• Cut Rice Krispies treats into squares (we did about 1.5') using a pizza wheel
• Spray a griddle or panini press and preheat
• Make a sandwich with chocolate and two pieces of Rice Krispies treats, grill until golden brown
• Don't burn your tongue on the molten chocolate or marshmallow

Sorry, no picture of the finished product, we ate them too fast. oops.

On The Road: The Luquillo Kioskos

Well, I've been pretty negligent about updating this blog. Let me explain, right around the time the posts started falling off, I started travelling for work. Like a lot. TripIt tells me it was almost 150k miles. As you can imagine, that doesn't leave me much time to blog, but more importantly, it didn't leave me much time to eat meals at home. But, I really miss blogging and I realized, why don't I blog about some of the interesting things I eat while on the road. Yes, sometimes it's just lots of fast food. But no matter where I go from Rome to Salt Lake City, I try to eat something unique and interesting. I'm going to start documenting this under a new "On the road" section of the blog. First up, a trip I actually took for FUN (shocking): Puerto Rico.

We spent a few days in Old San Juan (and actually had our best meal at a breakfast place called Caficultura, I highly recommend the sweet potato crepes), but I want to tell you about is the food in a little beach town called Luquillo. I have to admit, I did pick Luquillo because it is home to the famous Luquillo Kioskos-- a strip just off the beach about a half-mile long jammed with about 50 or so food stands (or kiosks) with fare ranging from traditional fried Puerto Rican (more on this in a moment) and American (i.e., hot dogs) street food to pretty nice sit down restaurants with wait staff serving food from all over the world.

My pictures of the kiosks aren't so great, so I admit I had to steal some by other people so you get the idea.

Since we were staying in a lovely little hotel about a half mile walk down the beach from the kioskos, we spent a good deal of time on this little strip. It was also a perfect place to escape to and drink rum during the few short rain showers that drove us off the beach!

Despite the humble appearance of the kiosks, we had some world class food in these shacks.About half of the kiosks are defined by the large glass cases of fried goodies (which we obliged to sample all different types) include bacalaitos (imagine a giant chip, crispy, and made with salt cod), alcapurrias (meat dumplings in a masa dough), empanadillas, arepas, pastelillos, sorullos (cornmeal breaded fried cheese sticks that are slightly sweet), and SO much more.Wash it all down with coco frio (a cold coconut with a hole for a straw in it to drink the water) or mavi (or mauby, a homemade soda sort of like birch beer).

Fried food case

I enjoy a coco frio

Ok, we ate more than just fried food at the kiosks, we enjoyed several fine meals worth noting at kiosks with waitstaff. Some of the best meals were at La Parilla, Ay Bonito! Grill, Vejigante, and Ceviche Hut.

Ay Bonito! Grill is a fresh seafood place that is really the antithesis of all the fried food places around it. I don't even remember seeing anything fried on the menu--the traditional tostones, or fried green plantains at Ay Bonito are served mashed. I got halibut with hazelnuts and cilantro served with a local root vegetable mash. 

Our last night in Puerto Rico, Tucker and I went to Vejigante and really indulged. We started with fried local cheese (see above) and then shared an entire deep fried fish (picture has mysteriously disappeared from my phone, I'm investigating) with a creole sauce and tostones. Paired with several mojitos, this was a good way to go out.

La Parilla seems to be the favorite kiosk for many locals, and I don't blame them. Tucker says his grilled and stuffed spiny lobster (above) was the highlight of the trip. The kiosk is the only one with a tank of live lobsters out front, you pick your prey and they grill it up. I got mofongo (a traditional Puerto Rican mash of plantains and casava) stuffed with churrasco. We ate a lot of mofongo on this trip, but La Parilla far and away had the best.

Yes, we ate raw fish from a place with "hut" in the name. In our defense, Ceviche Hut is one of the nicest kiosks on the strip AND the ceviche was the best we'd ever had. Tucker got the mixed ceviche with medium spice and it was heaven! Lime, cilantro, fresh fish, just the right amount of spice, mmmm.... I got fish in white sauce (yes, it was cooked) but that was also very very good.

What an amazing trip. We didn't spend the whole time eating, but I have to admit we spent a good deal of time thinking about what our next meal would be. Can you blame us?

The beach behind the kiosks

Summer Beet Salad: Two Ways

I love beets. And that's a good thing, because we get 1-2 bunches of beets every week for the majority of the summer during our farm share. We're in year three of this, so we've become pretty expert at cooking with beets (see Lena's Borscht which turned my mother into a beet believer), but the one dish we make most often with the beets is some sort of salad. So I wanted to post about some of the salads we've made because they are really yummy! They usually involve corn in addition to the beets because New England corn in the late summer is pretty much the best thing ever, and then whatever other vegetables we have from the farm share that seem appropriate.

I apologize in advance for not having exact proportions on anything, we really just used what we had around! I figure you can adjust this to your own tastes/pantries.

Golden Beet Salad With Corn, Cucumbers, And Feta

Salad

4-6 golden beets

6 ears of corn, cooked and taken off the cob

one bunch parsley

1 medium cucumber

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

1 small red onion

4-6 oz feta cut into small cubes

Dressing
Olive oil and fresh lemon juice in a 2:1 ratio (two parts olive oil to one part lemon juice)
1 clove minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

Beet Salad With Goat Cheese And Sugar Snap Peas

Salad

4-6 beets

1 cup pine nuts, toasted

6-8 oz goat cheese

1 bunch sugar snap peas

small bunch of scallions

Dressing

Equal parts red wine vinegar and olive oil

1 clove of garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Adventures in Cheesemaking

Tucker and I recently embarked on a really genius (or really stupid) adventure in cheesemaking. Tucker's mom recently gave us some awesome cheese making kits and recipes from Ricki Carroll and we were so psyched!. We love cheese! Who doesn't? Aren't all things better when they're homemade? That's our philosophy. So as cheese lovers and culinary adventurers, why not make cheese? Well, for one, we've learned that it's tricky. And that it requires equipment that we don't have. And it requires delayed gratification, which is well, really annoying.

I'm not trying to turn you off from making cheese, it was definitely fun, and hopefully will taste delicious (we won't know for another month or so), but just know before you start, this is a looooonnnng process. I think we spent at least 6 hours straight through just getting through to the first stage when the cheese dries out for a few days.

We started out making a farmhouse cheddar, so it won't be ready to taste for another month, BUT, here are some pictures documenting the process!

 "Ripening" the milk via hot water in the sink.

 The cheese ripens and starts to separate curds from whey!

The curds are cut into cubes.

Reheating the curds so they shrink and separate from the whey. We made the whey into ricotta. Yum.

Hanging the curds to dry.

Mmmm... I could deep fry these and eat them right up!

 Curds are pressed into a mold...

 And weight was put on it for a while...

 Then more weight (we had to get creative here).

After being pressed for 24 hours, we bandaged the cheese in cloth, and left it on the counter to dry for a few days. Now it's in our cheese cave (basement)!

That's all for now! Check back in a few weeks when we find out if it's edible.

Sourdough Pretzels

Recently, Tucker has been doing a lot of experimenting with sourdough. We've had a strange, pulsing, smelly sourdough starter living in a mason jar in the kitchen for several weeks now. I'm willing to forgive this strange creature only because it leads to delicious creations! The latest was PRETZELS. Actually, they were easier to make than I expected, they are similar to bagels (which we've made in the past) but actually a bit easier.

Tucker was first inspired to try making pretzels when he read this Harold McGee article in the New York Times.

Sourdough Pretzels
With help from Mark Bittman, Harold McGee, and the King Arthur Baker's Companion

FOR THE SOURDOUGH SPONGE

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup bread flour

1 1/2 cups tepid water

Sourdough starter (We learned how to do this from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything--we use the iPhone app, you can also use the cookbook)

Instructions

1. The night before you are ready to make these, combine all ingredients in a food processor or bowl and mix until smooth. Cover and let rest overnight (it should bubble and foam a bit)
2. Scoop out a few cups of the dough to save for your next sourdough adventure. You can keep starter in the fridge unless you want to continue feeding it daily.

FOR THE DOUGH

Ingredients

1-1 1/2 cups bread flour

2 tsp salt

1 spoonful brown sugar

Sourdough sponge you just made
1 cup baking soda
2 cups water
Sea salt to taste

Instructions

1. Mix flour, salt, sugar, and sponge in the food processor
2. Pour out into a bowl and let rise for a few hours until doubled in volume
3. While the dough is rising, prepare the alkali (this is what gives the pretzel that special pretzel quality): spread a layer of soda on a foil-covered baking sheet and bake it at 250 to 300 degrees for an hour. Try not to touch it if you can (although it won't kill you)
4. Cut into 10-12 pieces, roll out, and form into ropes about 1/2 inch in diameter
5. Fold them into pretzels
6. Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 425.
7. Dissolve baked baking soda (the alkali) in the water
8. Immerse the formed raw pretzels in this solution for three to four minutes, rinse off the excess dipping solution in a large bowl of plain water
   
9. Place pretzels on a baking sheet and sprinkle the pretzels with sea salt
10. Bake at 425 for about 20 min (or until golden brown).

Asian Salad With Sesame Crusted Chicken

This salad is actually much simpler than it looks, and it's so good! I like to think it's pretty healthy as well :)

Asian Salad With Sesame Crusted Chicken(adapted from Epicurious)

FOR THE CHICKEN
Ingredients
6 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 lb total)
2 large eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup sesame seeds (we used a mixture of black and white seeds)
3 Tbs peanut oil
Pepper to taste

Preparation

If chicken breasts are more than 1/2 inch thick, put them between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and gently pound with flat side of a meat pounder or with a rolling pin until 1/2 inch thick.

Whisk together egg in a shallow dish. Put sesame seeds in another shallow dish. Put flour, salt, and pepper into a third dish. Dry the chicken on paper towels. Dip first in flour, salt and pepper mixture, then in egg, then in sesame seeds.

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Reduce heat to moderate and cook 3 pieces of chicken, turning over once with tongs, until coating is golden and chicken is cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes, then transfer to a plate. Remove any browned sesame seeds from skillet, then cook remaining chicken.

FOR THE DRESSING
Ingredients

1 shallot

1 clove garlic

Juice of 1 lime

1/4 cup minced cilantro
2 Tbs toasted sesame oil

2 Tbs fish sauce

Preparation

Toss all ingredients in a salad dressing container.

FOR THE REST OF THE SALAD

Ingredients

Baby spinach

Sliced almonds, lightly toasted

1 red pepper, roasted and skinned

Instructions

Toss spinach, roasted red pepper, toasted almonds and slices of the sesame chicken with the dressing. Enjoy!