Saturday, August 17, 2013

Deconstructed Ratatouille

This medley of roasted vegetables is easy to make and tastes just like summer to me. It gets its name and flavor inspirations from the classic French dish, but instead of the Julia Childs casserole approach, this version goes for a fast and laid-back chunky style that makes for a no-fuss side dish with tons of flavor. You can play with what vegetables and herbs you add here; I didn't use any eggplant because I dislike the texture, but half an eggplant with the seeds removed would fit in just fine. I used rosemary because I have a huge rosemary plant next to my kitchen door, but if you've got fresh basil or marjoram or parsley or thyme those would work also. The key for both vegetables and herbs is fresh. This dish is supposed to taste like it just walked out of the garden, dusted off its pants, and sat down at your dinner table.



Deconstructed Ratatouille

1 squash
1 zucchini
1/2 sweet onion
6 oz white mushrooms
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, very finely chopped
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper


Preheat the oven to 350F.

Begin by chopping the squash, zucchini, onion, and mushrooms into approximate 1/2 inch cubes. It doesn't have to be perfect, you're just going for bite-sized chunks. Dump them all into a bowl and pour a little less than a tbsp of olive oil over them, just enough to coat all the veggies when you stir them around well. Line a 13x9 baking pan with tin foil, and spread the vegetables into a layer on top. Sprinkle rosemary, salt, and pepper evenly over the veggies.

Cook for 1 hr uncovered, stirring every 20 minutes. When you take it out to stir at the 40 minute mark, add the tomatoes so that they only cook the final 20 minutes (tomatoes don't take nearly as long as the other veggies to roast). The roasting time here is flexible depending on how big your vegetables were and how you cut them, so just use your best judgement. The juices at the bottom of the dish should be mostly evaporated and the veggies should be soft and have that characteristic roasted look to them. Remove from oven and serve.

Serves: 3-4


Stuffed Tilapia Florentine in Mornay Sauce

Wow, doesn't that title sound all fancy? I was in the mood to make something a little more involved for dinner tonight, and my refrigerator contained a lot of fish thanks to a buy-one-get-one sale, so I went searching for a recipe that would dress up the fish into something upscale. This recipe (which combines beautifully with my Deconstructed Ratatouille for a loosely French meal theme) was the result. The fish is flaky and light, and the Mornay sauce really set off the spinach and cheese stuffing. You could do this recipe with most white fishes, I imagine: flounder would probably be great here too. This recipe takes a little more time and fuss than a lot of what I post here, but the taste and presentation is restaurant-worthy, and very worthwhile!



Stuffed Tilapia Florentine in Mornay Sauce

Stuffed Tilapia:
4 tilapia fillets
1 bag baby spinach (12 oz bag, and make sure it's baby spinach instead of the large kind)
1/4 red bell pepper, finely minced
1/4 sweet onion, finely minced
4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
2 oz feta cheese
1/4 cup veloute sauce (see below)
Olive oil

Mornay Sauce:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup chicken stock, heated
1/2 cup milk (heavy cream is also acceptable)
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
Salt
Pepper


Preheat the oven to 350F.

Start by making the stuffing mix, so that it has time to cool while you do other things. Heat a dash of olive oil in a nonstick pan, and add the onion and red bell pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes over medium high heat, then add the spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is completely wilted. Remove from heat and pour into a colander, to help start getting the water out of the spinach. Set aside for the moment and let the spinach cool a bit in the colander.

Next, start on your sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and add the flour a little at a time, stirring until it's smooth, to make a roux. Let the roux simmer over LOW heat (not high, or you'll overcook the roux and your sauce will end up strangely dark colored) for about 5 minutes to thicken and cook the flour. Add the heated chicken stock to the roux, still stirring to keep things smooth. At this point, your sauce is a bechamel. Add the milk to the bechamel, and let it cook for a few more minutes (more stirring!) until it thickens a bit. Your sauce is now a veloute sauce.

Reserve 1/4 cup of the veloute to use in your stuffing mix. Add the cheddar cheese to your sauce, stir until melted, add salt and pepper to taste, and you've got a Mornay sauce. Set it aside and let it cool.

By now the spinach should be cool enough to handle, so use the colander and folded paper towels to press as much water out of the spinach mixture as you can. Moist is okay, but wet is not. Transfer the spinach to a bowl and mix in the mozzarella and feta. Add the veloute sauce you reserved earlier, and mix the whole thing up until homogenous. This is your stuffing; it should be soft but not runny. If it's too dry, add a little more sauce.

Finally we can begin assembly! Divide the stuffing between your four fillets. Make a rough 'ball' of stuffing to place in the middle of each fillet, then roll the ends of the fillet up around the ball of stuffing like an envelope. Place your fillets, seam side down so that they don't open back up, in a baking dish. You want to use a dish that will hold all four fillets closely, without a lot of room left over for them to move around. Add about 2 tbsp water to the dish, then stick it in the oven and cook for 15 minutes at 350F.

At this point, remove the dish from the oven and carefully drain off as much water and juices from the dish as you can. Add the Mornay sauce until it comes about 3/4 the way up the fish rolls. Depending on the size of your baking dish, this may or may not require all the sauce. Return the dish to the oven to cook a further 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Serves: 4

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Cast Iron Roasted Chicken

A very simple recipe, but it yields a really moist chicken with great flavor and pretty brown crispy skin. Serve it alongside some fresh vegetables like corn and green beans, and this makes for a simple, satisfying summer meal. Plus it's great for leftovers, since you can pick the leftover meat off for chicken salad and boil the bones to make chicken stock for future recipes.



Cast Iron Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken, thawed (4-5 lbs)
1 russet potato, sliced into thick chunks
Salt
Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Rinse and dry your chicken thoroughly, removing the innards. The chicken should be as dry as possible so that the skin will crisp up nicely. Salt the chicken liberally all over. Use more salt than you think you'll need, especially on the breast regions where the salt will have to penetrate through a lot of meat. If you think you've salted enough, add a little more just to be sure. Place chicken in a cast-iron dutch oven.

Pour 1 tbsp olive oil into a bowl with the potato slices and stir so that the slices get coated. Place potato slices in dutch oven around chicken, poking them down to get them as close to the bottom of the pot as possible.

Cook for 1 hr 15 minutes UNCOVERED, then check the chicken. Return to oven and cook for between 5 and 30 minutes more as necessary (mine usually take about 1 1/2 hrs all told). Before serving, check the meat temperature of the chicken to make sure it's above 160F.

To serve, lift the chicken out of the dutch oven and arrange on a platter, surrounded by the potatoes.

Serves: 6-8 if you intend to eat all the chicken in one sitting. I make this one for 4 though, then use the leftover meat for a quick meal the next day.