The Pan of Olive Oil that Launched a Thousand Emails

Well, maybe not a thousand, but I did get quite a few requests for the sauce that went with the homemade pasta my Uncle Bill made during my trip to New York. We did two videos together, one was the “Homemades,” and one was an amazing chicken recipe called Chicken D’Arduini. In that post I said I would try to demo the olive oil sauce that went over the homemade fettuccine. Well, I haven’t filmed that yet, and have lots of great excuses why, some of which are even true.

So, in the meantime, since it’s such a simple sauce, I’m just going to talk you through it. You can see most of what’s happening in the photo of the pan. I can’t give exact amounts because it’s just not that kind of sauce.

While the pasta is cooking (I think we cooked about 2 pounds), put a heavy sauté pan on low heat. Add lots of olive oil, maybe a good cup. Add 5 or 6 anchovy fillets, and 4 cloves of minced garlic. Sauté on low until the anchovies melt and the garlic begins to sizzle. Add some chopped fresh basil and some hot pepper flakes and cook for another minute. Do NOT brown the garlic. Turn off the heat. In a large pasta bowl, cut up a stick of butter into small pieces. Grate about a cup of Parmesan cheese (the real stuff!). When the pasta is cooked and drained, add it to the pasta bowl, and toss with the butter for a few moments. Pour over the olive oil mixture, and add the grated Parmesan (save a little for the table), and toss until everything is coated. This is best served as a side dish due to its obvious richness, and was great with the Chicken D’Arduini, as it would with any similar recipe.

This is not the type of pasta to eat if you are thinking about grams of fat, or calories, or those new “skinny jeans.” In fact, this is a dish best eaten when your brain is completely void of all thought. So, clear your mind as you slurp the buttery, salty, spicy, garlicky, cheesy goodness. Enjoy!

Watermelon and Feta with Toasted Cashews – Old footage, new narration, watercolor filters, and one really amazing summer salad!

I vaguely remember eating a slice on watermelon as a young child and watching in shock and horror as my grandfather started sprinkling salt on his slice. I said whatever the 5 year old version of “what the hell are you doing?” was. He said something like “it makes it sweeter.” What? Needless to say that didn’t make any sense at the time. Fast forward 30 years later to a café in San Francisco where I was served a green salad garnished with sweet, juicy watermelon, crumbled feta che ese, and toasted cashews. Wow, it was amazing! What a combination of sweet, salty, juicy, creamy, crunchy, and just…mmmmm. Ah ha! I finally understood what grandfather was doing. Better late than never.

This video recipe was pieced together with footage I shot last year when I was just playing around with my new webcam. I found it and decided to add some new voice-over and show you this great salad. Yes, it’s a bit unusual, but one bite and you will be hooked. You’ll get to see and hear both sleeveless and blurry 2006 Chef John, as well as the new and improved 2007 Chef John. So, here’s the clip, a whole year in the making, as they say. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
1 small ripe watermelon
4 oz feta cheese
1/2 cup toasted cashews
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
*optional garnish: some fresh mint or basil

Wild Halibut Steaks with Warm Bacon Dressing – Mmmmm….Bacon

Yes, it’s true what they say, bacon makes everything tastes better. Even bacon tastes better with bacon. Recently I saw an online lecture by a woman who makes specialty chocolates and she had actually done chocolate with bacon. So, now it’s really official, bacon goes with everything! By the way, I plan on posting her lecture, which I found equally inspiring and perplexing, but that’s for another day.

Today we’re making a very simple warm bacon dressing to go over some pan cooked halibut. With just a few ingredients, and a very simple procedure, we’re going to produce some amazingly delicious results. The smokiness of the bacon is such a great match with the meaty halibut, and the slightly sweet/sour profile of the fresh lemon and rice vinegar brings this all together. Usually at this point I tell you a few ways you can alter the recipe to match your personal tastes…forget that. Make this exactly like I show you. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
2 halibut steaks (about 3/4 to 1 inch thick)
1/2 lemon
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
4 strips of bacon
fresh parsley to taste (about 1/2 bunch for me)
salt and pepper to taste
* I served this on baby romaine, but any greens would be nice

The “Fava of Love” Salad starring Fava Fav!

If you don’t watch VH1, or have never heard of Flavor Flav, then today’s post headline isn’t funny. Come to think of it, even if you do know what I’m referring to, it still may not be that funny. Anyway, today’s post’s title is a take-off on the wildly popular VH1 reality show “The Flavor of Love” starring Flavor Flav. While I’m a huge Public Enemy fan, I’ve never been able to watch more than a few seconds of Flava’s television show. The cringe factor is off the charts for me. It’s right up there with Nancy Grace and Jerry Springer.

I’m a Chef, not a TV critic, but how anyone can watch that show is beyond my comprehension. To be clear, I’m not judging you negatively if you are a fan of the show, hey, I was crushed when they cancelled Pirate Master! I’m just saying I can’t watch it, I don’t get it, and I think it may be the worse TV show ever made. OK, back to the fava beans!

This salad is so delicious, so refreshing, so satisfying, and so easy, that you must try it. Yesterday, I showed you how to prep your fava beans for a recipe. Today I show you why all that work was so worthwhile. One key to this very simple combination is letting it chill in the fridge for a few hours to marry all the flavors. You can substitute parsley or basil for the mint, but I beg you to try it with the mint, which is just amazing with these flavors. There is something about the taste of fava beans that the mint really brings out like no other herb. Enjoy, or as I’m sure Flava Flav would say if he tasted this, “Yeah Boyeeeee!”



14 oz jar of butter beans, rinsed and well drained
1 1/2 cup prepped fava beans (see previous demo!)
1/2 cup diced roasted red pepper
2 tbl chopped fresh mint
1 clove garlic
1/2 to 1 lemon
4 tbl olive oil
salt and pepper to taste (this salad will be “flat” if you don’t salt it sufficiently, I used about a teaspoon at least)
*red pepper flakes are also a nice addition if you want more heat.

Homemade Mayonnaise - The Recipe Video the Big Mayo Companies Don’t Want You to See!

A fan of the blog just wrote me asking for a mayonnaise recipe. I could have sworn I posted this clip a while back, but I guess not. It’s been on YouTube, but apparently never made its way over here. Or maybe I did post it and the IT guys at Hellmann's hacked into the system and deleted it from this blog for fear of its effect on their sales! I mean can you imagine if everyone knew how easy it was to make their own mayo? The whole mayonnaise industry would crumble. Of course, I have to give the standard “this is an old clip” disclaimer/warning; old equipment, bad sound, bad lighting, bad jokes, and some really bad singing.

Homemade Mayo is one of those indescribable culinary pleasures. If you have a stick-style or regular blender, you CAN make your own mayo! It’s so much cheaper, and way more delicious. You also get to decide what kind of oil you want, a nice fruity olive oil, or a lighter vegetable oil, or your own secret custom mix. Give this a try, it’s fun and you can taste something so few Americans ever taste…fresh, creamy, homemade mayo!



Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
1 tbl fresh lemon juice
1 tbl white wine vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup olive oil

Wasabi Dipping Sauce – How much can you take?

This very simple (and fat free) dipping sauce is a great all-purpose condiment for many things. I love it with the spring rolls I made yesterday, but it’s also good with many Asian dumplings, pot stickers, etc. As I mention in the video clip the amount of Wasabi you add is completely up to you and your pain threshold. I ended up with 3 teaspoons worth, but I think most of you will be fine with one or two. By the way, I know full well that “I’m over-powering the flavor of the fish.” I’m fine with that. For me the spring rolls were just an excuse to catch a Wasabi buzz.

This sauce can be varied in many wonderful ways by adding lemon, lime, cilantro, garlic, green onions, ginger, etc; well, you get the idea. Happy dipping, and enjoy!



Ingredients:
1 to 3 tsp Wasabi powder
1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp Shiracha hot sauce
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce

Bonus Wasabi Video Clips: Damn you Budweiser!

In the clip I joked about people that still do the “Waaassssaaaabiiii” greeting from the Budweiser commercial that ran ages ago. Like I said, it was funny for about 2 days. Then it was just annoying. Now it’s actually painful to hear. Please, I beg you, stop doing it! Believe me, your friends (if you have any left) will really, really appreciate it. Here’s the original commercial that started the insanity.


And here is a clip of someone still actually using it! I sent her a message on YouTube asking her to please stop. She was a good sport about it but replied “never!” She said her friends “loved it.” Sure they do.

Simple Sherry Vinaigrette – Shake it baby!

Today’s post is really two separate demos. One is to show you a fantastic, all-purpose salad dressing using sherry vinegar. The second is a technique that makes emulsifying a dressing a fast and easy process. The reason I like sherry vinegar so much is that combines the complex, tartness of really good wine vinegar, with the rich, sweetness of balsamic vinegar. The vinaigrette shown today literally goes great with everything; whether it’s under a delicate filet of poached fish, over a grilled steak, or with an avocado salad, as you see pictured here (avocado salad sold separately).

The squeeze bottle method I show is such an easy way to emulsify a dressing and eliminates the need for the old “stand there and slowly drizzle in the oil in a fine stream” method. Lots of professional cooks will of course use a blender, which works great, but for the home cook making smaller amounts, I think my squeeze bottle is the way to go. By the way, as you’ll hear me attempt to explain during the video recipe clip, the small amount of mustard is a key ingredient, and if you leave it out, the oil and vinegar will not stay bound together. Needless to say, this is my base recipe and can be varied in countless ways by adding herbs, garlic, shallots, etc. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
1/3 cup sherry vinegar
1 cup olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

The Nasturtium Salad - Pretty Delicious

Nasturtium, which is Latin for "nose-twister,” is a very common, very colorful ground cover that, as you’ll see in today’s video recipe clip, is a great addition to a green salad. By the way, I got the "nose-twister” translation from Wikipedia, but it didn’t say why or how it got that name. So, all you gardeners out there, if you know PLEASE tell me why, it’s driving me crazy. Speaking of crazy, no, you don’t have to be crazy to put flowers on a salad. As long as they are there for flavor AND color you are culinarily correct to do so. It’s hard to think of another flower whose petals are as intensely colored as the Nasturtium. It actually makes filming and photographing them quite a challenge (at least that’s my excuse).

Culinary students are always reminded by their Chefs to never add things to plates solely for cosmetic reasons. Ideally, everything on a plate should add both flavor and visual appeal to the dish. Nasturtium petals meet both goals; they’re incredibly beautiful as I have already stated, AND have a subtle, delicious flavor. It’s a slightly peppery taste similar to a mild Watercress. Many grocery stores have these flowers in the herb section during the summer and you can always find them at any farmers market.

By the way, since we are talking salads in today’s post, in my next recipe clip I’m going to show you what I consider to be the best “all purpose” oil and vinegar-style salad dressing. It’s a simple Sherry vinaigrette I leaned ages ago, and it’s my all-time favorite, and soon, maybe yours. Stay tuned. Anyway, take a walk around the backyard, or the neighbor’s garden, and find some Nasturtium (it shouldn’t be too hard) and make that plain old mixed green salad explode with color and flavor. Enjoy!

Spring Pea and Stellette Pasta Salad with Fresh Mint and Parsley – We’re reaching for the Stars

This simple spring pasta salad is a lesson in culinary restraint. There are so many things we could add to this, but we’re not going to do it. I want to celebrate my tender and sweet spring peas, and delicate star-shaped pasta (Stellette) in a simple salad, and I’m not going to clutter it up trying to clean out the vegetable bins. Everything about this salad is subtle. The tender peas barely get cooked by sitting in the hot pasta for a few minutes. The dressing is nothing more than some lemon and oil. I finish with some fresh mint and parsley, salt and pepper and I’m done. Just stop and back away from the salad. There are many magical food pairings, but one of my personal favorites is mint and fresh peas. There is just something about those two ingredients getting together that makes both shine above and beyond what they are capable of alone.

Sure, usually pasta salads are a great excuse to chop up and use all those forgotten veggies in the bottom of the fridge yearning to be free, but not this one. Save that one for the company picnic. Today’s recipe is you and your lover, sitting on a blanket somewhere fresh and green, enjoying this and several others of life’s simple pleasures.



Ingredients:
8oz Stellette pasta
1/2 cup spring peas
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1.2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopper fresh mint
1/4 cup chopper fresh Italian parsley
*don’t forget to salt the water you boil the pasta in!

“Roasted” Tomato and Balsamic Vinaigrette – We really need to concentrate on this one!

I worked with a Chef, way back when, who made this amazingly delicious roasted tomato vinaigrette. He would slice a whole pan of Roma tomatoes lengthwise and slowly roast them in a very low oven until the sugars and acids in the fruit would condense and caramelize and concentrate into a delicious mass. This took about 5-6 hours. Then, these roasted tomatoes were cooled, pureed, and with the addition of some oil and vinegar, turned into a wonderfully complex vinaigrette. It was so good next to any grilled fish, meat, veggies, etc. The only thing I didn’t like was the extended cooking time.

Now, the whole reason for the long, slow roasting was to concentrate the flavors. So, I thought I could duplicate it by using a really good, double-concentrate tomato paste and nicely aged balsamic vinegar. It worked. Is it as good? Who knows? Yet another “subjective mater of taste” argument. Do I always use the shortcut method? No, I do (when I have time) love a nice pan of slow roasted, caramelized Roma tomatoes. They are great served whole on burgers, and as a side dish with many main dishes. In fact, now I have to demo the original method! Anyway, here is a 5 minute version that will pair wonderfully with so many things, and you’re only a few minutes away. I used this on my Pan Seared Perch with Fried Capers recipe, so if you haven’t seen that one, check it out. By the way, this is also very nice with I touch of fresh garlic, which I didn’t use this time…hey, I can’t use garlic in every recipe! Enjoy.



Ingredients:
1 tbl tomato paste (double-concentrate)
1 tbl aged Balsamic vinegar
1 tbl rice vinegar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
6 tbl olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Pan Seared Perch with Fried Capers and Roasted Tomato Balsamic Vinaigrette

The most common request I get for recipes are “easy fish recipes.” Well, here’s one that’s not only easy, but healthy and very tasty. I’m using Perch here, but almost any thin, flaky fish will work. I am a big fan of the “fresh-frozen” fish case at the market. The fish is frozen as soon as it’s caught on the boat, and stays that way until I decide to cook it. Many times what you are buying as “fresh” at the market is not so fresh. Sure, it’s never been frozen, but it traveled from the boat to the processor, to the market, and then maybe sat in the case for a couple days. So don’t confuse fresh with always better.

This video recipe clip is only the fish with the fried capers and brown butter. The sauce, Roasted Tomato Balsamic Vinaigrette, and the cold salad, Stellette Pasta with Spring Peas and Lemon, will both be demonstrated on the site this week. Sorry for the tease, but today, it’s all about the Perch. The key pre-searing technique to pay special attention to is the small cuts or “scores” I make on the Perch’s skin. This keeps the fish from curling up and also allows the flavor of the butter and capers to really get into the filet. The small filets I used only took a couple minutes on each side, so you’ll have to adjust if you used another fish like sole, or tilapia, etc. Bye the way, even though I use a good amount of butter in the pan, very little actually makes it on to the plate. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
boneless Perch filets, skin-on
2 tbl butter
2 tbl capers
salt and pepper to taste

View the complete recipe

Served with Roasted Tomato Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Stellette Pasta Salad with Spring Peas and Lemon. Recipes for both to follow this week, so stay tuned!

Fresh Cherry Tomato Relish – A Reduction Production

Photo Note: All the decent photos of this recipe were lost in a tragic beer-related editing mishap. The thumbnail you see to the left is the only survivor, and not the best quality. I considered “borrowing” a photo from some unsuspecting online source, but then realized that would not be ethical (and coincidentally didn’t see any I liked) and so I decided to use the one I had. OK, on to the recipe.

Here’s the idea; we take the liquid that’s produced by marinating fresh cherry tomatoes in salt, pepper and vinegar, and strain it into a pan. We then take this already delicious juice, and make it even more so by reducing it over heat thereby evaporating most of the water. This intensified liquid is poured back into the tomatoes and we have a great fresh tomato relish, or tomato vinaigrette (if you want to be all fancy) that we can top some grilled meat, chicken, or fish.

This is an extremely common culinary technique that Chefs have used since the beginning of time to improve the flavor of all kinds of things. A “Reduction” is one of those Chef secrets that most home cooks don’t bother with, or maybe don’t even know about. Most of you have made a basic tomato salad or relish and simply eaten it as is, or topped whatever. That’s fine, and it tasted great, I’m sure. But, by reducing the water content from sauces and dressings, you can produce even more impressive results.

By the way, I suggest ALWAYS using cherry tomatoes for this recipe. Large ripe tomatoes are just too hard to find, even in the summer (unless you have some in your garden of course), and most markets have an almost year-long supply of decent cherry tomatoes available. Look for “Sweet 100’s,” “Red Grape,” and “Sun Gold” varieties, which all are pretty consistently sweet.



handful of cherry tomatoes
clove of garlic
splash of olive oil
splash of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Spicy Thai-style Steak and Rice Noodle Salad – Hot and Cold, Sweet and Sour, Soft and Crisp; an adventure in culinary contrasts!

This is my favorite Asian-style noodle salad. There are so many different flavors, temperatures and textures mingling together. I love almost any pasta salad with meat, but what I really love about this one is the chewy rice noodles I use as the base. As you’ll see, they don’t really get “cooked,” but simply covered in very hot water for 8 minutes before being drained and rinsed in cold water. You should be able find the rice noodles (sometimes called Rice Sticks) in the Asian section of any large grocery store. They are a perfect contrast to the crisp cold vegetables mixed into them, which is a perfect contrast to the warm savory slices of the spicy steak, which is perfect with the sweet and tangy peanut dressing, and so on. This is just a fun dish to eat.

The beef we’re using for the salad is skirt steak. It’s very flavorful and easy to work with. You’ll find it next to the flank steak in the butcher case. While you’re in the Asian section at the store there’s couple of exotic ingredients we’ll need to pick-up. For both the dressing, and to marinate the steak, we need Shiracha, which is a hot Asian chili sauce. We’ll also use Asian Fish Sauce in the marinade. This is a very common addition to many Southeast-Asian dishes and is well worth finding at the market! By the way, you should still have some fish sauce leftover from the caramel chicken recipe.



Ingredients:
1 skirt steak (about a 1 1/4lb)
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp shiracha or other hot sauce
1 tsp red curry powder
2 tbl fish sauce
8 oz. rice noodles
1 bunch mint
2 cups shredded cabbage
3/4 cup grated carrot
peanut dressing to coat, about a cup
chopped peanuts to garnish
lime to garnish

The Peanut dressing I also demo in this post is a very basic version, and doesn’t have lots of additional ingredients since I usually use this as a base for other recipes, as I did here. As Chefs are always telling young cooks, you can always add ingredients, but you can’t take them out. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 limes, juiced
1 tsp Shiracha
12 drops sesame oil
1 clove garlic

Pan-seared Spring Asparagus with Lemon, Balsamic and Parmesan – “Foiled” Again!

It’s spring, when a young man's thoughts turn to two things; the other one is cooking delicious fresh asparagus! This is an easy method for cooking this delicious spring veggie, and NO we are NOT going to blanch them first. Why the all caps? Well, Day 1 of vegetable cookery in most old school Culinary Academies begins with a lecture on how and why to blanch vegetables. It’s boiling salted water, cook until tender-crisp, “shock” in ice water…or die. Those old-time Chefs really do love to boil vegetables before using them in various recipes. Now, I’m not saying to never do this. For many things like green beans it’s a great idea. But, I’m saying don’t always do it for every fresh vegetable – especially beautiful spring asparagus.

What you’re about to see in this video recipe is closer to what you’d get if you grilled raw asparagus and then drizzled over a nice lemon, balsamic dressing. But, we’re not grilling. We are simply going to pan-sear the raw spears in a VERY hot pan until they just start to get tender. Then, we’ll wrap them up tight in foil with our dressing, and wait for 5 minutes as the residual heat finishes the cooking process, and the asparagus is completely “favorized” (I’m trying to invent new words so I can get one in the dictionary like that Stephen Colbert – “truthiness?” Are you kidding me?).

There is a magical moment of doneness for asparagus; if undercooked they are bitter, if overcooked they are soft and fibrous, but if cooked until just tender…they are sweet and absolutely sensuous. Did I just say asparagus was sensuous? It must be spring. Enjoy!

*Note: I say near the end of the clip, when the asparagus is wrapped in the foil, to “toss” them half way through. What I meant was just to turn over the foil package after a few minutes, so the dressing get re-distributed. Don’t open the foil and mix them or you’ll lose the heat. This note will make was more sense if you’ve seen the clip!

Ingredients:
1 bunch trimmed and washed asparagus
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbl olive oil
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
shaved Parmesan cheese to top

12 Second Coleslaw… in 42 seconds!

OK, I’ll admit it, this doesn’t look like a very exciting recipe, but that’s the point. Sure, the photo is boring. I didn’t even bother to Photoshop in some colorful veggies! When most people think of coleslaw they think of that bowl of soggy shredded cabbage sitting at the end of the picnic table. This is a completely different approach. This is fresh shredded cabbage prepared as a fast (12 seconds to add the ingredients, and 30 seconds to mix), crisp, low-cal, low-carb, slightly spicy, and delicious side dish that you should be eating as part of your regular veggie side-dish rotation. Do yourself a favor and find a grocery store in your town that carries the “angel hair” finely shredded cabbage, ready-to-mix in the bag. My 12 second coleslaw in 42 seconds claim only counts if you use the pre-shredded bag. By the way, I have no problem taking an extra 5 minutes and shredding my own cabbage, but I rarely can use a whole head and so I don’t like to buy those giant heads unless I’m making this for a large group.

There are 2 keys to this super-slaw; the very small amount of highly-seasoned dressing (it really doesn’t look like enough but you’ll see that it is), and the fact that I don’t toss the cabbage and the dressing together until I’m ready to eat. As soon as any dressing hits shredded cabbage, water starts to be pulled out of the leaves, which causes most traditionally made coleslaws to go limp and soggy. By mixing just before you eat, you will experience the true essence of fresh coleslaw; sweet, crunchy and refreshing. I served this under a spicy Jerked Chicken (aka Jerky Chicken), and it was perfect!

Ingredients:
10 oz. bag of Angel Hair Shredded Cabbage
2 tbl Seasoned Rice Vinegar
2 tbl Thousand Island Dressing
1 tsp hot sauce of your choice
pinch of salt
*I didn’t because I only had 12 seconds, but you can certainly add ANY finely shredded raw vegetables to this coleslaw and yours won’t look as boring as mine.

Tarragon Aioli – Keeping it real!

Many of you have never had real “aioli.” Oh, you’ve probably had garlic flavored mayonnaise-based sauces and dips many times. But today we’re talking about “real” aioli. Modern aioli comes to us from the south of France and is commonly used as a dip for vegetables, potatoes, as well as fish and meats. It’s more ancient origin is probably the Italian “Aglio Olio” which simple means “garlic oil.”

The reason I say that you may not have ever had “real” aioli is because 95% of what is served as aioli in American restaurant is nothing more than garlic mayonnaise. What’s the difference? Let me explain. Most cooks simply chop, or mince, or blend garlic with mayo, add other flavors, and call it aioli (some freaks of nature even use roasted garlic!!). Now, I don’t want to sound like some kind of food fascist. I have no problem with roasting garlic and stirring it into mayo, but call it a “roasted garlic mayo.” The only real way aioli is made is by using a mortal and pestle. When you crush the garlic in this ancient culinary tool, you are completely pulverizing the cells of the garlic clove which sets off crucial chemical reactions that you don’t get by simply chopping or blending. There are compounds formed during this crushing that produces something called “allicin,” which gives real aioli its amazingly sharp and intense flavor. The follow excerpt is from www.herbalchem.net:

“Odorless and stable, alliin is the most abundant sulfur compound in whole, unbruised Garlic. It is stored inside one kind of Garlic cell; in a separate type of cell, an enzyme called alliinase awaits. When the cells are broken open, alliin mixes with alliinase, and in about ten seconds all of the exposed alliin has been converted into a new group of compounds: allicin and its close relatives, which give off the aroma of fresh Garlic.

The beauty of aioli made in the traditional method, with a mortar and pestle, is that a small amount of garlic can flavor a large amount of mayo. Also, this real aioli is so strong and powerful that you don’t need half a cup of mayo on your grilled fish. Just a teaspoon of my version is so intense; it will fully flavor a whole piece of meat or pile of veggies. Also, the legendary health benefits of eating raw garlic are largely derived from this allicin production. Fair warning: if you don’t like garlic, don’t even attempt this recipe. It could kill you. But, if you do love garlic this demo may change your life. And by all means, get a mortar and pestle! I use it for other things besides aioli, like crushing whole spices for dry rubs, etc. Once you have your plain aioli recipe down you can start to experience with various fresh herbs, like the tarragon I used here. I served this under my Salmon Cakes recipe, and it was really good.

Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
pinch of salt
tbl of fresh tarragon
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup mayo
dash of cayenne

Blood Orange Tapenade Citronette – Cheating and proud of it!

Sometimes you just have to cheat. I was planning to serve a beautiful seared Ahi tuna loin. I wanted to slice it and serve it on an olive Tapenade. This is a classic combination in the Mediterranean, but I had one problem, I didn’t have the hour it was going to take to shop for, and mince the 12 ingredients that go into my Tapenade recipe. Lucky, I live near a Trader Joes (a CostPlus World Market, or Whole Foods would have also worked), so I went in and bought a jar of prepared green olive Tapenade. Before it went into the basket I carefully checked the ingredients… nothing but vegetables and spices! It was incredibly close to the one I make from scratch, and so I decided to use it guilt-free.

When I got home a quick taste-test confirmed my belief I had made a great decision. It tasted great and I was ready to move on to the tuna. So the point is, if you’re going to “cheat” and use prepared foods, make sure they’re high-quality and all natural. Now, this Tapenade would have made a great accompaniment for my seared tuna all by itself, but I decided to dress it up with some blood orange juice and olive oil as you’ll see in this demo. Bye the way, this mixture is fantastic on almost anything from grilled fish to roasted vegetables. It’s low-carb (as in almost no-carb) and since a small amount goes a long way, it’s also fairly low-cal.

4 tbl green olive Tapenade
1 small blood orange (or half a regular juice orange)
2 tbl olive oil
salt to taste
cayenne to taste

Pan-Roasted Halibut Cheeks with Warm Pancetta Vinaigrette

I was originally going to use scallops for this dish, but when I looked at the fish case at the market and saw fresh halibut cheeks, my menu changed quickly! If you can find halibut cheeks you HAVE to try them. If your market carries regular halibut fillet or steaks, ask the fish person to get you some cheeks. Frozen are fine and they can probably do a special order for you. These are actually sweet, succulent pockets of meat found in the cheeks of the fish. It looks, and also cooks, like a scallop. It is the kind of thing that the fish mongers take home to eat themselves while they laughing at us poor suckers stuck with the fillet!

Warm pancetta vinaigrette is a wonderful sauce for this dish (as it is with almost any dish), and a little goes a long way. I served my cheeks on top of some bright yellow spaghetti squash with is a great, and healthy base for this recipe. Just the pancetta dressing on the squash would have been a winner. Check the site for a demo on how to prep the squash, as it is a very simple and delicious side dish.


Ingredients:
1 Pound Wild Halibut Cheeks (Or Scallops, Tuna, Etc)
3 Oz Pancetta or Bacon
1 Large Handful Pea Shoots Or Sprouts
1 Clove Garlic
1/3 Cup Rice Vinegar
1 Tsp Dijon Mustard
Black Pepper
Salt
2 Tbl Olive Oil
1 Lemon

The Citronette – Why do they call it “Lemon Vinaigrette?”

Remember that post I did recently where I said how stupid it is for Chefs to argue over terms and names for dishes? Well, forget all that! Now, just to be clear, what I really meant is to argue whether something is a relish or a salsa, is basically a waste of time. You know my rule…if you made it, you get to name it. But, when something is just plain wrong, I have to draw the line.

I was at a restaurant recently and one of the salads came with a “lemon vinaigrette.” I asked the waiter if it was made with lemon juice and vinegar, and he said it was just lemon juice and olive oil. So, I say, “then it’s not a vinaigrette, it’s a Citronette!” Well, instead of agreeing with me, and telling me what a brilliant point I had just made, he basically stared at me, as if to say, “listen you jerk, I’ve got other customers, do you want the damn salad or not!?” OK, OK, I don’t blame him; in fact, my wife was giving me the same look. It’s just one of those things that really bugs me… if it doesn’t have vinegar in it, it’s NOT vinaigrette! If you use lemon juice (or some other citrus) then call it a Citronette, that’s the accurate name. Wow, I feel better.

By the way, this wonderful Citronette is a natural with so many dishes; grilled veggies, any fish, chicken salad, etc. I also steal yet another trick from Chef Gordon Ramsey, who adds a little water to his Citronette to make it even lighter.

Ingredients:
1/3 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
1/2 Tsp Dijon Mustard
1 Tbl Water
1/3 Tsp Salt
Pinch Of Cayene

Almond and Parsley “Salsa Verde” – It’s easy being green!

As you watch me make this delicious and versatile condiment, you might be thinking to yourself, wait a minute, that’s a pesto. Well, it basically is. The reason I’m calling it a “salsa verde” and not a pesto, is because whenever you say “pesto” people instantly think of the traditional (and DONE TO DEATH) version with the pinenuts and basil. Now, I have no problem with a nice, properly made pesto. But, I was in the mood for something completely different. By the way, there’s nothing I hate more than Chefs arguing terms and names… “That’s NOT a Confit, it’s a Compote!!” or “That’s not a marinade you idiot, it’s a wet rub!” …Every professional chef or cook reading this knows exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve heard my rule before; if you make it, you get to name it! For example, my Salmon Mango Bango, ridiculous name, but no one can do a damn thing about it.

So, I’m using the term “Salsa Verde” the way it’s used around Northern California. It’s a very generic term for any fresh green sauce, usually starring some type of herb, but also can be made with spinach, arugula, etc. If you are a regular to this site you’ll see me do many versions of salsa verde, especially when the weather gets a bit warmer. (to combat Christmas shopping stress I want you all to close your eyes and for one minute picture a warm, sunny meadow, lush with fresh herbs) ahhhh, that’s better.

This is a great sauce to experiment with by switching out the nuts, herbs and oils used. Hopefully you saw the Piquillo Pepper video, which this sauce was amazing on. I also had the left-overs on a piece of seared salmon which was sublime.