Posted: 2009-07-15

We've got an easy Greek Salad recipe for you that you can throw together in just a few minutes. With its Feta cheese, sweet white onion, Kalamata olives and homemade red wine vinaigrette -and a loaf of crusty bread -on some hot nights, it's almost a meal in itself! And the neat thing about this salad, with spinach available year round, you can enjoy this salad almost anytime. If you have the choice, buy the chunk Feta rather than the crumbled. The whole chunk stays more fresh and moist than the crumbled style.

Greek Salad-A Spinach and Feta Salad
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time:
MAKES 2 SERVINGS.

Ingredients.

4 to 5 ounces fresh Spinach leaves , washed and stems removed
4 ounces Chunk Feta Cheese , crumbled into small bite-sized pieces
1/2 large Sweet White Onion , peeled and sliced into very thin slices
15 large Kalamata olives , pitted and halved

The Red Wine Vinaigrette
1/3 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
1/8 teaspoons salt or to taste
1/4 teaspoons Dried oregano
Several grinds black pepper
Optional
1 Medium clove garlic peeled and crushed

Preparation Directions.

1 To make the vinaigrette, add the vinaigrette ingredients red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, dried oregano, cracked pepper and garlic if you're using it to a glass measuring cup or bowl.

2 With a fork or small whisk, beat the ingredients together to meld well. Correct seasonings to personal taste. Set aside until later.

3 In a large salad bowl, add the spinach leaves.

4 Separate the onion slice segments into individual strands and add to the spinach, distributing well.

5 Add the Kalamata olives to the mixture, distributing well.

6 Toss the salad mixture well.

7 Sprinkle the crumbled Feta cheese over the spinach mixture and toss carefully to distribute evenly throughout the salad.

8 Whip the vinaigrette well and drizzle over the salad. When half of the vinaigrette has been added, toss well and check salad leaves for moisture. Add more vinaigrette if needed and toss well. Correct the seasonings if needed.

9 Serve family style at the table, or on individual plates.

10 Serve with some crusty bread and enjoy.

Serving Suggestions.

A white wine such as a Sauvignon Blanc or a Chardonnay goes well.

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Grilled Vegetables and Capicola Sandwiches

Posted: 2009-07-07

When it's hot and you're doing a lot of barbecuing, our Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches with Capicola recipe is one that's easy to grill and serve on a hot night. This makes good use of some of summer's best vegetables-peppers, eggplant and onions, with a few slices Capicola, topped with arugula and a homemade red wine vinaigrette all on some crusty lightly-grilled bread (such as Pugliese.) It's a balanced meal right in your hand! What's nice about this meal, you can skip the Capicola and make it with all vegetables, add a little bit of meat, or add a lot of meat according to your taste.

Grilled Vegetables and Capicola Sandwiches
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
MAKES 4 SERVINGS.

Ingredients.

1 Large Eggplant , washed and sliced in quarter-inch slices
3 Large Red Peppers , washed and seeded and membranes removed
1 Large Green Peppers , washed and seeded and membranes removed
1 Large yellow Pepper , washed and seeded and membranes removed
2 Large Onions , peeled and quartered into sections
1/2 Pound Capicola , thinly sliced
1 Large bunch Arugula , washed and de-stemmed
8 Slices Crusty bread , cut in 1/2 inch thick slices
Extra virgin olive oil for brushing on the vegetables prior to grilling
Toothpicks

The Red Wine Vinaigrette
1/3 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
1/8 teaspoons salt or to taste
1/4 teaspoons Dried oregano
Several grinds black pepper
Optional
1 medium Garlic Clove , crushed

Preparation Directions.

1 Preheat your barbecue grill.

2 Lightly brush both sides of the eggplant with the the olive oil. Then salt and pepper to taste. Put aside on a dish.

3 Cut the cleaned peppers into sections. Lightly brush both sides of the peppers with the olive oil. Then salt and pepper to taste. Put aside on a dish.

4 Lightly brush all sides of the onions with the olive oil. Then salt and pepper to taste. Place a toothpick through each onion section to prevent from falling through the bars of the grill when grilled. Put aside on a dish.

5 Lightly brush each side of the bread with olive oil. Set aside.

6 Lightly grill each slice of bread on both sides. Remove from heat and set aside.

7 Grill the vegetables until lightly browned on both sides. Set aside and keep warm.

8 Remove toothpicks from onion sections and separate sections of onion. Set aside.

9 To make the vinaigrette, add the vinaigrette ingredients red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, dried oregano, cracked pepper and garlic if using to a glass measuring cup or bowl.

10 With a fork or small whisk, beat the ingredients together to meld well. Correct seasonings to personal taste.

11 To assemble the sandwiches, between two slices of bread, layer the bread with a slice or more of eggplant, peppers, onions, Capicola.and a few leaves arugula.

12 Drizzle the sandwich base with the vinaigrette and a few grinds of cracked pepper.

13 Put another slice of bread on top and place on a plate to serve.

Serving Suggestions.

Any robust red such as a Sangiovese or Zinfandel will go well with these as well as a cold handmade micro-brewed local beer.

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Peach Cobbler

Posted: 2009-07-05

Peach Cobbler is a traditional Summer recipe bringing back memories of our grandmothers in flowered summer dresses and long aprons bringing out dishes of warm peach cobbler and ice cream to the summer picnic table as we all sat around enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon.

This is an easy straight forward dessert recipe to make and always has crowd appeal. It's dessert comfort food at its best! The dough topping is a cross between a shortcake and a cake. It's light and luscious!

Do not over fuss or work the dough topping when you dabble it on. It spreads out nicely and the cobbler is best looking and pleasing when it has a "rustic old-recipe" look. The cobbler melts in your mouth effortlessly so be sure to savor it all while it's there.

We like this peach cobbler best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Peach Cobbler
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
MAKES 8 SERVINGS.

Ingredients.

The Peaches
5 cups Fresh Peaches , about 6 medium peaches, peeled and sliced --
2 Tablespoons Butter
2/3 to 1 cup Sugar ,
1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract , Preferable Mexican
1 Tablespoons Cornstarch

The Topping
2 cups All purpose Flour
4 teaspoons Double Action Baking Powder
1/4 c Sugar
1/4 teaspoons Salt
1/2 c Unsalted Butter
3/4 cup Milk

Preparation Directions.

1 Preheat your oven to 400F.

2 Set out the peaches for the cobbler in advance so that they're room temperature. In a medium-sized saucepan fill to three-quarters full with hot water. Bring to a boil. On the bottom of each peach, make cut an X with a knife. For each peach, boil in boiling water for thirty seconds. Remove peach from the pan and set aside. Do the next peach....until all peaches have been blanched. Then carefully peel the peaches with a paring knife and slice as directed.

3 Add the peaches and butter to a sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Allow the peaches to cook to release their liquid, (about 5 minutes) Taste the peaches, then add the sugar according to taste. Reduce the temperature to low and let the peaches cook for a few minutes more to thicken a bit.

4 Dissolve the cornstarch in a couple tablespoons of water. Stir the cornstarch into the peaches quickly to avoid lumps. Continue cooking until the peaches' filling thickens up. Continue to cook at low heat until ready to assemble the cobbler.

5 While the peaches are cooking, mix or sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together. Using a pastry knife or food processor, cut the the butter into the flour mixture. The mixture when ready should look a bit pebbly. Stop at his point until the pan is ready. Stir in the milk quickly --just a few stirs to evenly mix the liquid into the flour, a few lumps are fine.

6 Turn the hot peach filling into a buttered 13x9 baking pan. Then using a spoon or your hands (best way), working quickly drop spoonful size lumps of the topping evenly over the top. Do not worry about gaps, the topping will expand as it bakes.

7 Place the baking pan in the upper middle of the 400F oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until nicely browned on top. When done, remove the pan from the oven.

8 You can serve the cobbler hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or allow to cool and serve at room temperature.

Serving Suggestions.

Any sweet white dessert wine will pair very well with this dish.

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Calamari Fritti - Fried Calamari with Spicy Marinara Sauce

Posted: 2009-06-22

Calamari Fritti, or fired calamari is one of the simplest, but at the same time most delicious seafood delicacies. The key is to use a good quality --small wild caught cuttlefish in the preparation. They are very delicate, so you usually cannot find them fresh in your seafood market, but frozen works very well.

You can usually find frozen cleaned calamari tentacles and tubes, but check the frozen seafood section of your food market, and look for a flash frozen product caught off of the Pacific Coast. These little fellas are usually whole and you must do the cleaning yourself. But don't worry, it is very easy to do as we show here in this article How to Clean Calamari.

Finally when preparing the calamari, be careful not to overcook the fish. It is very delicate and will become dry and tough very quickly. That is why we add the the bread crumbs to the flour mixture, it helps to make a crispy coating with just a little frying time.

I have to admit, calamari lovers have a weakness for the small fried tentacles. They are wonderfully crispy and flavorful. However, if you are serving this to guests for their first time, as we did once, they may recoil at the site of the fried tentacles! In this case we suggest you reserve the tentacles for yourself, or let your guests work their way up to them. Once they experience the taste of the calamari, they will be willing to try it all.

Calamari Fritti - Fried Calamari with Spicy Marinara Sauce
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
MAKES 2 SERVINGS.

Ingredients.

1 pound Calamari cleaned
1/2 cup Milk , only if needed
1 cup Wondra or Cake Four
1/4 cup Bread crumbs
Safflower oil for frying (about 2 cups for a 6qt sauce pan)
Sea Salt
Lemon Slices , for garnish.


The Spicy Marinara
1 cup Basic Marinara Sauce
2 to 3 cloves Garlic minced
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes
1 to 2 teaspoons Lemon Juice

Preparation Directions.

1 To prepare the spicy marinara, add the extra virgin olive oil, red pepper and garlic to a saute pan over medium heat. Saute until the garlic is just fragrant.

2 Add the marinara sauce and continue to heat until the sauce is hot. stir in the lemon juice, remove the pan from the heat and cover to keep warm.

3 To prepare the calamari, cut the calamari tubes into rings, about 1/4inch thick. Leave the tentacles whole.

4 Combine the flour and bread crumbs in bowl and toss the cut calamari in the flour mixture to lightly coat it. If your calamari has been bought prepared you may need to first dip the calamari in milk to add a bit of moisture for the flour to stick.

5 While you are preparing the calamari, if you are using a deep fryer, heat the oil up 350F. If you do not have a deep fryer, you can use a small (6 quart) sauce pan just as well. Fill the pot with canola oil to a depth of a couple of inches --about 2 cups of canola oil in all. Use a candy thermometer and heat the oil to 350F

6 Working in a couple batches to avoid crowding, add the floured calamari and fry until just lightly golden --about 3 to 4 minutes depending upon the oil and thickness of the calamari. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel or napkin covered platter to drain.

7 To serve, pile the fried calamari attractively on a warm serving platter. Lightly salt the calamari with sea salt and a few squeezes of fresh lemon to taste. Place the warm spicy marinara sauce in small dipping bowl on the platter with slices of fresh lemon.

Serving Suggestions.

If you are serving the calamari with the marinara as a dipping sauce, to keep the Italian flair, serve the calamari with young non-oaked Aglianico, Sangiovese or Zinfandel.

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Scallops with Two Bean Cream

Posted: 2009-06-15

Scallops with Two Bean Cream is a chic modern combination of seared scallops and bean creams, The scallops are lightly floured, seared, then served with a combination of black and white bean "cream" sauces; an old mellow Italian white bean recipe and a spicy black bean recipe from Colonial California. Kind of an Old World classic meets a New World upstart you might say.

The "cream" in the sauce is actually healthy --not real cream, just a puree of some of the beans added back. Starting with a classic trito (which you know means it's going to be very mellow) for the white cream, and a spicy California trito for the black cream, we make two savory sauces, one with white cannellini beans with fresh rosemary for a classic Mediterranean flavor and the other with black beans, cumin and a bit of jalapeno for a little new world spice and heat.

If you are pressed for time, use the white bean cream for a classic Mediterranean dish. But if you can make both creams , this is a very elegant dish worthy of your best guests!

Scallops with Two Bean Cream
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
MAKES 4 SERVINGS.

Ingredients.

The Bean Creams.

Black Bean Cream
1/2 pound Black Beans
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 cup Carrot , coarsely chopped
1 cup White Onion , coarsely chopped
1 Jalapeño Pepper , minced
1/2 teaspoons cumin
2 Tablespoons Fresh Oregano , minced
2 Tablespoons Fresh Cilantro , minced
2 Tablespoons Sherry

White Bean Cream
1/2 pound Cannellini Beans
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 cup Carrot coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Celery coarsely chopped
1 cup Chopped White Onion
2 springs Rosemary
2 springs Thyme
2 springs Fresh Italian Parsley

The Scallops

1 pound Large Sea Scallops
1/2 cup Milk (if needed see text)
1/2 cup Wondra or Cake Flour
1/4 cup Toasted Bread Crumbs
1/2 teaspoons Italian Parsley chopped.
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation Directions.

1 Rinse and clean the beans, In separate dishes, cover the beans with one inch of water and soak for 4 hours or over night.

2 To prepare the white bean cream, in a heavy bottom pot or sauce pan over medium heat, add the olive oil, carrot, onion and celery and saute until soft and the onion is translucent, Add the garlic and continue to saute for a few minutes more.

3 Add the soaked and drained white beans, the rosemary, thyme and parsley sprigs. Cover the beans with 1 inch of water and bring the contents to a simmer and continue to cook until the beans are tender, about 1 hour.

4 When the beans are tender, remove the spice springs, and drain the beans, reserving about 1 cup of the liquid. Reserve 1 cup of the beans and a bit of the cooked vegetables if you like, and place the remaining beans and vegetables into a food processor and puree with 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid. Puree to a smooth cream, adding a little extra reserved liquid back if required.

5 When done, remove the bean cream from the food processor and place into a sauce pan. If you are doing both a black and white bean cream (see below) add the reserved Black Beans back to the white bean cream cream. Add pepper and salt to taste. If you are just doing white beans add the reserved white beans back and proceed as above. When done, cover the sauce pan and keep warm.

6 To prepare the black bean cream, in a heavy bottom pot or sauce pan over medium heat, add the olive oil, carrot, onion and Jalapeño Pepper, and saute until soft and the onion is translucent, Add the garlic and continue to saute for a few minutes more.

7 Add the soaked and drained beans, and the cumin, oregano, cilantro and sherry. Cover the beans with 1 inch of water and bring the contents to a simmer and continue to cook until the beans are tender, about 1 hour.

8 When the beans are tender, drain the beans, reserving about 1 cup of the liquid. Reserve 1 cup of the beans and a bit of the cooked vegetables if you like, and place the remaining beans and vegetables into a food processor and puree with 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid. Puree to a smooth cream, adding a little extra reserved liquid back if required.

9 When done, remove the bean cream from the food processor and place into a sauce pan. If you are doing both a black and white bean cream (see below) add the reserved White Beans back to the black bean cream. Add pepper and salt to taste. If you are just doing black beans add the reserved black beans back and proceed as above. When done, cover the sauce pan and keep warm.

10 Prepare the scallops last. If the scallops are thick, more than one half inch, cut them horizontally into two thinner disks.

11 Mix the flour and the toasted bread crumbs together with the 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley. If the scallops are dry, dip the scallops into the optional milk, then lightly coat the scallops with the flour mixture.

12 Heat the olive oil in a non-stick saute pan over medium heat. Working in batches, place the scallops without crowding into the hot pan, and lightly sear each side, about two to three minutes per side depending upon thickness. You may need to add a little extra oil between batches.

13 To serves, spoon a small pool of each cream on opposite sides of a warm plate, then arrange the scallops attractively on top with a spring of Rosemary for garnish.

Serving Suggestions.

Any white wine with citrus overtones and good acidity will go very well with this dish. A Pinot Grigio or a Alsatian style Riesling would be a good selection.

If you opted for just the white bean cream with rosemary for a light meal or luncheon, and are daring try an off-dry orange muscat.

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