Tuna “Tataki” Provencal – The difference between fusion and confusion

“Fusion” cuisine is nothing new. For many years Chefs have been combining aspects from different cuisines to create new and exciting combinations. That Chipolte aioli mayo spread you had on that meatloaf sandwich last week is just one example. When done correctly this “Fusion” cuisine can result in some amazing dishes. Unfortunately, in many cases, these combinations are forced and contrived and just don’t work. When that happens you have what Chefs jokingly call “Confusion” cuisine.

The dish I’m doing today, I hope, is an example of fusion cuisine done right. I’m using a classic Provencal combination of fresh tuna served over a very flavorful Blood Orange Tapenade Citronette. The style I’m using to prepare the tuna is classic Japanese sashimi technique called “Tataki.” This is my favorite way to eat tuna at my local Sushi Bar. They take the freshest tuna possible, give it a quick sear on all sides, slice it thin, and serve it with the traditional sushi garnishes; soy, wasabi, pickled ginger, etc.

I thought this “Tataki” method of cooking would be perfect to use with this delicious tapenade. I was right! It was amazing and incredibly easy. Bye the way, if you are afraid to try sushi (eeewwww, raw fish!) this is a great way to get over your fears. As I say in the clip, this is much closer in taste and texture to a rare piece of beef tenderloin than any fish you’ve had. I hope you can find some fresh tuna and give this a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
4-5 oz. Sushi or Sashimi grade Ahi tuna
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tbl olive oil
serve with our Blood Orange Tapenade Citronette

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

Homemade Homefries – Deliciously Redundant!

There are many reasons to go out for breakfast or brunch on the weekend. Maybe it’s a break from the daily routine, maybe it’s the Mimosas (when else can you start drinking before noon and feel good about it), or maybe it’s the Homefries. Let’s face it, those crusty, crunchy, hot-off-the-grill potatoes that come with your omelet are a pretty good reason alone to venture out.

Very few of us can duplicate those at home. When most of us try to make Homefries, we just don’t get the same results. They look the same; they’re golden-brown and cooked all the way through, but they just don’t have that beautiful crusty/crispy texture. In this demo you’ll see why. The key is pre-cooking the potatoes in water first, and then frying. By the way, this is my mom’s very basic recipe, and you can of course dress it up with diced peppers, mushrooms, onions, etc.

2 large russet potatoes
3 tbl olive oil
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1-3 cloves garlic
1 tbl cold butter

I Have a Request!

As you can imagine, I get a lot of requests. I love the interaction with my viewers, and I try as often as possible to satisfy these culinary whims. But, it's not easy. So, if you've made a request and I haven't gotten to it, please don't take it personally (except for Pete, who wanted a classic Italian Lasagne with no cheese, meat products, wheat or salt. He also said he wasn't crazy about tomato sauce, but "use it if you have too").

As you can see from the photo, I do have a system set up for emailed requests. As soon as I get one, I print it out and stack it neatly on my desk. So be patient, I will eventually get to yours...as soon as I find it.

By the way, now that the site is pretty much set-up, I will hopefully be back to posting every week day. On the weekends I'll try to post some fun food stuff I've found surfing the web. Anyway, keep those requests coming! Enjoy!

Dijon Pan Jus

Sorry to keep you waiting! Here is the sauce clip as promised. This technique is so crucial since it allows for a very fast and elegant sauce anytime you've roasted meat in a pan. All it requires is the "fond" (refer to clip for definition), some type of liquid, and a small chuck of cold butter. At the end of the clip I explain my thought process regarding the exact ingredients to use, but the technique is ALWAYS the same; deglaze, reduce, finish with butter.

Classic Beef Pot Roast with Winter Vegetables

We went “lean” on Fat Tuesday? Yes, it’s Fat Tuesday, but instead of rich and decadent, today’s clip is lean and clean; a classic beef pot roast, slowly braised with aromatic winter veggies. As I say in the clip, this dish “makes itself.” A nice hunk of chuck, a few seasonings, some veggies and a few hours is all it takes to make something so satisfying and heart warming.

Most of these recipes have you flour the meat first, and then sear it, but I think my method works much better. You’ll see me make a quick roux in the pot before we braise. This allows me to really brown the roast well, without worrying about burning the flour.

Of course you can vary the vegetables that we add for the last hour of cooking, but I hope you don’t leave out the parsnip. It really gives the dish an important aromatic layer of flavor. I didn’t add potatoes (since I wanted to save the carbs for the bread I used to soak up the juice!), but they are a standard addition to this dish in most recipes.

Be careful when selecting your pot roast. You are looking for a boneless, 3 pound beef “Chuck” pot roast. Check a few packages, as some can have larger chucks of fat than others. By the way, hey Butchers, stop putting the price sticker over that big chuck of fat to hide it! I hate that. Anyway, hopefully you have a nice butcher who will make sure you get the perfect cut for this great dish.


3 pound boneless beef “chuck” pot roast
2 tbl olive oil
3 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leave
3 cloves garlic
3-4 springs fresh thyme and rosemary (2 tsp of dried if you can’t find fresh)
2 tbl flour
1 quart beef stock or broth
1 yellow onion
4-5 carrots
2 parsnips
3 stacks celery

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

Italian Meatballs – Let’s get rolling!

While the ingredient list may look a bit long, home-made meatballs are a very easy to make, and since we skip the very messy step of pan-frying these before they hit the sauce, it becomes downright simple. Here I use a standard 1/2 beef, 1/2 pork mixture. Some recipes use 1/3 beef, veal, and pork, which is also nice, yet more expensive. These days you can find all sorts of lean to fat ratios for ground beef. Most stores sell 90% lean, 10% fat, but I prefer the 80% lean, 20% fat ratio for this recipe.

The other trick here is soaking the bread crumbs in milk before adding. This makes for a moister meatball, and the milk actually helps keep them tender. If you make your meatballs the same size (golf ball) I do, this recipe will make about 30 portions.

This is one of those dishes that just get better the next day. So, if you have time, make these a day ahead and refrigerate in the sauce and re-heat slowly the next day to serve. The meatballs will be even more tender and flavorful. I know I will get emails requesting the sauce recipe, so let me save you the time and tell you that I plan on filming a nice meat sauce soon.



1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1/3 plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk (can substitute water or beef broth)
1 diced onion
2 tbl olive oil
3 cloves crushed garlic
2 eggs
1/4 bunch fresh parsley
2 tbl grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp red cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried Italian herb mix (basil, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, etc.)

* Once shaped, bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes, then simmer slowly in a rich tomato sauce for 1-2 hrs.

Homemade Pizza in 3 Acts

Made properly, pizza at home can be just as good, and probably better, than the stuff you have delivered. Except for the pizza pan you’ll see later, I tried not use any special equipment, like pizza stones, or exotic ingredients you would have a hard time finding.

Act 1: The Pizza Dough (Pay attention or you’ll get pizza D’oh!)

In clip one I make a very simple standard pizza dough. It’s amazing how intimidated people are when it comes to making any kind of dough or bread at home. Hopefully this demo will cure that. By the way, I will add ingredients to all these clips so you can have the exact measurements. This is only really crucial for the dough. The sauce recipe and final pizza can be varied as you see fit. So, let’s get this Pizza party started right! The key to a great pizza dough is a moist, sticky dough. We only want enough flour to be able to work with the dough…too much flour will result in a dry, tough pizza.

The “Sponge”:
2 teaspoons dry yeast
3/4 cup lukewarm water
2/3 cup bread flour

The Rest of the Dry Ingredients:
4 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 cup rye flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup olive oil

Act 2: The Pizza Sauce

The sauce for our pizza is also very simple. A fast and tasty base for whatever wonderfully creative toppings we decide to go with later. This is an important point. If you’re going to top the pizza with lots of spicy and/or salty ingredients, your sauce better be fairly basic. Regardless, this quick, homemade sauce will destroy any canned grocery store sauce, as well as most pizzerias. By the way, I’m giving away an ancient family secret in this clip, so pay attention, my Grandmother is watching from pizza sauce heaven!

1 can whole peeled tomatoes (28 oz) “San Marzano” if possible!
3 cloves garlic
2 tbl olive oil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt to taste
1/2 tsp dried Italian herb mix (basil, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, etc.)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
pinch sugar
small pinch baking soda (shhh)

Act 3: The Pizza

OK, so I’m not giving a list of ingredients for the finished pizza. You know what you like. But, here are a few key mistakes most people make when doing pizza at home. They put too much sauce. They put too much cheese. They put too many toppings and when they try to eat it, it all slides off on to the floor and all their left with is a wet piece of steaming bread. Don’t be that person. Watch me restrain myself and also watch how my pizza pie ends up being the shape of a heart. Wow, what a great Valentines gift idea for you guys out there…make your lady a heart shaped pizza! By the way, go to the local Bed, Bath and Beyond, or other kitchen wares store, and get one of the pizza pans with holes in it that I used in this clip. It really makes crispy crust a reality without the 70 pound pizza stone that you probably aren’t going to pull out of the bottom cupboard anyway.

Crispy Skin Salmon on Warm Potato Mushroom Salad with Cherry Tomato Citronette

This dish shows off the importance of contrasting textures and temperatures when assembling a dish. The hot, crisp skinned salmon tops a warm, soft, earthy mushroom and potato salad; both are surrounded by a cool, tangy tomato citronette (vinaigrette made with citrus instead of vinegar). You’ll be amazed how delicious the skin of the salmon gets when cooked this crisp! It also has a high concentration of the healthy oils that salmon is renowned for.

NOTE: cooking time for the salmon was 5 minutes on the skin side, and then 2 minutes on the other. This gave me a nice medium doneness (a bit pink in the middle).

Ingredients:
2 Boneless Wild Salmon Fillet (4-5 Oz. Each) SKIN ON!!!
8 Oz Cooked Yukon Gold Potato
2 Cups Mushrooms
1 Clove Garlic
1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes
1 Tsp Herb Mustard
Olive Oil
1 Lemon
Salt and Pepper
Cayenne

Spicy Mediterranean Chicken with Sausage Stuffed Cherry Peppers

A culinary tour of the Mediterranean! Succulent Chicken thighs, artichoke hearts, olive, pepperoncini, and sausage stuffed cherry peppers! WARNING: This is an intense food experience, not for the bland palettes of the world.

As I mention in the clip, if you want this dish to be less spicy and intense, drain the pepperoncini before adding. This is great on top of rice or pasta. By the way, I got the inspiration for this dish from my Uncle Bill, who stuffs the “Peppadews” (a great brand of jarred cherry peppers from South Africa) with sausage and grills them as an appetizer.

Ingredients:
6 Chicken Thighs
1 Onion
1 Cup Sliced Pepperoncini
18 Cherry Peppers (Pepperdew if possible)
6-8 Oz. Italian Sausage
Herb De Provence
Salt And Pepper
Cumin
14 Oz Can Artichoke Hearts
1/2 Cup Greek Olives, Pitted
Olive Oil
Chicken Stock
Fresh Herbs to Garnish

White Bean and Aromatic Vegetable Ragout

A great all-purpose bean dish that pairs well with so many things, especially when the weather turns cold. We served this under lamb shanks (click here to watch that clip), grilled chicken, or even a nice piece of fish. If you want to cook dried white beans from scratch go ahead, but I find the imported Italian white beans work wonderfully, and so much faster.

Ingredients:
2 Jars White Beans (12 oz. each) Cannellini, or White Navy Beans
1 Onion
2 Carrots
2 Stalks Celery
1/3 cup Diced Tomato (fresh tomato, or any canned tomato product will work)
Olive Oil
Chicken Stock
Herb de Provence
Bay Leaf
3 Cloves Garlic
Black Pepper
Salt
1 Bunch Fresh Italian Parsley

Slow Roasted Lamb Shanks with Garlic and Rosemary

This is simply the easiest and most flavorful way to enjoy lamb. This cut of lamb is also the most affordable, which makes it a great choice for entertaining. Moist, fragrant and falling off the bone, this recipe should be a regular in your fall/winter dinner repertoire. We served this over a wonderful ragout of white beans and aromatic vegetables. You can also see that clip, as it makes a great base to any slow-roasted meat.

PLEASE NOTE: You should get an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is at the proper temperature. Many home ovens are not that accurate when set to a very low temp, like 200 degrees as directed in this clip. To be safe, check your shanks after 2 hours and see if they are “fork tender,” if not simply wrap back up and put them back in.

Also, the shanks from the front legs of the animal are not as large as the hind shanks. This is also a reason to check the doneness after 2 hours. When you buy the shanks, be sure to have the butcher give you ones that are the same size!

Ingredients:
2 Lamb Shanks
Olive Oil
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Thyme
5 Cloves Garlic
Black Pepper
Salt