Herb "Bunch" Recipes: Cilantro

So I have come upon a problem that I think this blog should take some time to deal with…The fresh herb problem. See here in New England its winter (despite the lack of snow) and all the herbs I need for recipes are no longer a walk and a pick away. Now they must be *gasp* purchased.
Well the other day I was shopping and came upon a nice bunch of Tomatillo’s and thought “I NEED to make salsa verde”. To fufill this wanton desire I needed cilantro, which meant I needed a bunch of cilantro, which meant I would have a half a bunch left over. And rather then watch that bunch go to herby hell I decided I would make something with it. And they led me to here…a group of blogs dedicated to things to make with the rest of your herbs after you use that little bit for whatever your making. And where better to start then with Cilantro

Cilantro
Cilantro is actually the leaf part of the coriander plant (the name is derived from the Spanish name for the plant and is also called Chinese parsley) and are popular in South Asian. Chinese and Mexican cuisines (to name a few). I find that this is one of those herbs people seem to either like or really hate….kindof like Sonic Youth or the television show Glee.

Salsa Verde
Unlike “regular” salsa, salsa verde is…well green, as well as more citrusy and tart. It is delicious and one of my personal favorites. It is especially good in chicken tostadas which I will add was one of my favorite dinners to make when I lived in my apartment because it was easy to make for one and didn’t take a lot of work or time.
• 1 1/2 lb tomatillos
• 1/2 cup chopped white onion
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
• 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 2 Jalapeño peppers OR 2 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped
• Salt to taste
METHOD
Remove papery husks from tomatillos and rinse well.
Cut in half and place cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Place under a broiler for about 5-7 minutes to lightly blacken the skin.
Combine all ingredients and blend, I use the emersion blender but a food processor works too. Chill.

Like I said this is slamin with Tostada Salsa Verde (though I don’t use the cumin when I make them….sorry Martha)

Also good options:

The recently covered Cilantro-Tomato Sauce

And in the spirit of Mexican cuisine: Mango Salsa

And while we're on the subject I may have to make these: Lime Ricky's

Delicious Cocktail Parties Part II

As promised here is another delicious recipe from my Holiday cocktail party:
DIY Bruschetta

This recipe is perfect for no-fuss entertaining (which is nicer sounding then “I’m barely trying” entertaining) Basically, instead of putting together a bunch of bruschetta, you make all the components, serve them on a nice plate and hope the delicious flavor will make everyone forget that they had to put them together themselves. The only real cook component of this is the cilantro-tomato sauce. (unless you count toasting bruschetta which even I don’t so come on now).

This sauce is good with pasta as well, or really anything you put pasta sauce on and the cilantro gives it a nice fresh taste.

Cilantro-Tomato Sauce
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, (optional)
• 1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
•
In a medium saucepan, heat extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high. Add minced garlic cloves; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add red-pepper flakes (optional) and whole peeled tomatoes, breaking them up as you go.

Season. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a rapid simmer. Add tomato paste. Cook, stirring often, until sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Stir in minced fresh cilantro and cook two or three more minutes.

Serve with a can of drained artichoke hearts and toasted French bread.

Wine and Nut Sacks

So Yours truly was going to throw a killer party a week before Christmas. Then all hell broke loose. And by all hell I mean I broke myself. I threw out my back (ouch), two days later I came to find I had pinched a nerve and had the most miserable burning pain down my leg. Cut to two more days later and my cramped leg hurt so much I could barely walk on it causing suspicion that it was a blood clot. Fast forward through the resulting ultra-sounds and balanced diet of Advil and it was time to reschedule. So with Cocktail party redux in the works I vowed to spend less time on the kitchen tile (a contributing factor to the aforementioned pain). So my elaborate spread was replaced with more simple fare like cheese and crackers. The two things that did make it on the menu however were Roasted nuts (Ina Garten) and tomato-artichoke bruschetta And let me just say they were both slamin.
First let me just say that the nuts I made were also part of my co-worker gift this year. And my report back was that they were so good one of my co-workers said they were so good, her family went out and bought expensive cheese just to go with them. I know! Can’t imagine a better endorsement.

Also they were placed in a small cellophane bag and attached to a bottle of 90+ Wine, and my friend just HAAAAD to point out that I was taping my nut sack to each bottle. Try giving this gift when all you can think is “here enjoy this bottle of wine I taped my nut sack to”



Ina’s “Geoffrey’s really going to like these” nuts
Vegetable oil
3 cups whole roasted unsalted cashews
2 cups whole walnut halves
2 cups whole pecan halves
1/2 cup whole almonds
1⁄3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder AND ½ teaspoon smoked paprika [Ina’s recipe is 2 teaspoons ground chipotle powder]
4 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves, divided
Kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Brush a sheet pan generously with vegetable oil. Combine the cashews, walnuts, pecans, almonds on a sheet pan. Combine 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, the maple syrup, brown sugar, orange juice, chili powder, and paprika [chipotle powder] in a bowl and whisk. Pour over nuts and toss to coat the nuts evenly. Add 2 tablespoons of the rosemary and 2 teaspoons of salt and toss again.
Spread the nuts in one layer. Roast the nuts for 25 minutes, stirring twice with a large metal spatula, until the nuts are glazed and golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with 2 more teaspoons of salt and the remaining 2 tablespoons of rosemary.
Toss well and set aside at room temperature, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking as they cool. Taste for seasoning. Serve warm or cool completely and store in airtight containers at room temperature.

Bruschetta recipe to follow.

Nom's 2011 Last Minute Gift Guide

Everyone loves gift giving....when they get their shopping done as early as I do. (those presents were purchased, wrapped and under my decorated tree before Dec 1st....I know its not a game but I win at Christmas...well I at least level up)

So while save for a few small last minute things, I am done with Christams. However, I realize I am in a minority and most of you will spend this last week before the holiday clawing bitches in the eye at the mall. This is of course unless you are Jewish in which case TODAY you will be clawing bitches in the eye at the mall because Chanukah starts tonight so move yo ass!

So in light of this pending holiday here are some last minute gift ideas for the foodies in your life:


For Your Friend Who Loves Good Food And Wants To Learn To Cook:

Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Brilliant foundation book that covers all the basics of cooking.






For Your Friend Who Is….Long Story Short….On The $20 Gift List

Ikea Coffee Accessories http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70149125/

For Your Friend Who Is….Long Story Short….On The $20 Gift List….and Kathy Lee
Wine Tasting Sampler: This is cool. You get six bottles of wine, can taste a few different vintages then buy big-kid sized bottles of the ones you like

http://www.tastingroom.com/

For Your Friend Who Likes To Hit The Sauce In Style
A Bottle Of Quality Bourbon and Whisky Stones

http://www.amazon.com/Teroforma-1220-Whisky-Stones/dp/B002GZX2DE

For Your Friend Who’s Like….Whatever
S’Well Water Bottles
http://swellbottle.com/shop-now



For Your Friend You Secretly Hate
Julie & Julia By Julie Powell: Your friend is really a freinamy so why not reward her by giving her a book she’ll think is right up her alley but is really a chronicling of the worlds most self-indulgent blogger/home cook’s attempts to garner fame off the greatness of Mrs. Julia Child by writing a mind-numbing detailed account of her chronic temper tantrums and boring life stories….what can you say. You saw it and it made you think of her.
http://www.amazon.com/Julie-Julia-Recipes-Apartment-Kitchen/dp/031610969X

Top Five Ways To Host A Party Like It's Yo Job!!!

I love magazines (who doesn’t) but I hate clutter so I try as routinely as possible to go through my old magazines and remove any items I want to keep (for my Recipe, fashion and design books respectively) then discard the rest. Well I was flipping through a Bon Appetit on entertaining and read an article by The Foodist called My (Highly Debatable) Rules of Entertaining. So in light of my (I think) successful diner party this past week I thought I should write a list of my rules for entertaining:

1. You Are Only As Good As The Company You Keep. I’m not too big of a fan of mantras, the utterance of which does tend to suggest considerable time in support groups, or an overly enthusiastic amount of attention is paid to one’s self. However even I have a few. And one of them is “life it too short to eat bad food, drink bad wine, read bad books and hang out with people who suck” (yes I did just quote myself) I try to think of this simple phrase whenever I am in the diner-party planning stage. As a rule then only those who can contribute lively conversation and appreciate good eats can earn a seat at my table and by setting my quality of guest as high as I do, a delicious menu follows suit. It’s the least I can do for the guests who will inevitably make my evening a success. Plus passion follows passion; I love to surround myself with awesome people and therefore people I want to treat right. I should also note that adventurous eaters are nice, but not necessary; However, picky eaters will not be tolerated. No one wants to slave over an elaborate meal only to have one or more of their guests inform them that they cannot eat XY or Z because even though they have never had it “they don’t like it”.

2. Hire a Cruise Director: Everyone means well. Remember that when your pots are boiling over and there are now three apex markers in the kitchen where you are trying to keep the tasty in meal who’s delicious doesn’t materialize till the fourth quarter. Your friends love you! And to some of them, the idea that they are sitting by idly while you work your ass off over a hot stove makes them crazy. (for the record I am not one of those people and will keep planted on my fanny while you work). And as a practical matter, people are coming to the door, need to be greeted, want to thank you for inviting them etc etc. This is why I ask at least one of my friends to come about an hour early to help me prep. They have the important job of getting coats, ushering people out of my kitchen and beginning the boozing process (I have found that even the most helpful of friends desire to elevate your taxing chores is easily put in check with a stiff cocktail)

2.5: Hire a Cruise Director: This is also the code name I put in my notebook when I’m planning everything out for the cocktail I serve before dinner. It serves an invaluable social function (see above) as well as it wets the whistle and prepares the palette for the Armageddon of tasty it’s about to experience.

3. It’s Your Party: but please don’t cry even if you want to. It’s unbecoming. Do feel free to steer conversations, declare start and finish times and tell people when it’s time to quit hittin the sauce.

4. Write This Shit Down: I am basically a moron and cannot remember anything ever. So I always make a “plan” for my parties. I write down a slew of recipe ideas, note which are easy/hard/time consuming/ etc and then make my final decisions as to what to serve. From that I generate my grocery list. It seems simple but taking the two seconds to write this down helps insure nothing is forgotten, not purchased, etc.

5. Have Fun: if hosting parties stresses you out don’t do it! I always approach every function I host with the same attitude of utter relaxation: if things go wrong so what, if the dinner is crappy, whatevs. If someone has a shit fit or gets into a fight who cares. I took the time to surround myself with people who love to eat good food but they love me more and no matter what everyone is going to have something to talk about the next day, even if it is because my subpar cooking ended up forcefully pushed into someone elses face during post- hours devours fisticuffs. S’all good

Happy Birthday to Me Bitches

So yours truly has just turned 26, and as a way of staving off the pending quarter-life crisis that one associates with turning 4 years shy of 30 I threw a party.

Now I know what you’re thinking (mostly because everyone I knew asked me this) if it’s your birthday why are you doing all the work? Well reader, I decided that my birthday is about more than just turning another year older: it’s about celebrating me and what better way to celebrate me and all I bring to the world then by letting me show off my mad-skillz in the kitchen.

The menu:
Apple, Rosemerry Beacon Braciole with Stout Gravy
Pomegranate Brussels Sprouts
Roasted potatoes
Devils food cake with 7-minute frosting.

Let’s start with the Braciole. I make it a habit of routinely breaking the “don’t make something new for a party” rule and this party was no exception. And I wanted to take it one step further and make up the recipe too. I have to say I was pleased as punch with the result though so as always my reckless party planning went without a hitch.

Stout Braciole
2 lb flank steak
1 cup bread crumbs
4 pieces beacon
1 green apple
2 sprigs rosemary
I bottle of Guinness
2 carrots
1 onion
2 stalks of celery
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and whole
Beef stock
- Pre-heat oven to 350
- In a Dutch Oven, cook the beacon on med-low until the beacon is crispy and to render out the fat. Remove beacon and add to a bowl with diced apple, breadcrumbs and 1 sprig of chopped rosemary. (remove Dutch Oven from meat until you use it so it doesn’t smoke).
- Butterfly the flank steak (ie split in half, leaving an inch at the end of the steak so you can open it like a book.

- Stuff the barciole with the stuffing, and roll like a jelly role. Tie with cotton kitchen twine.
- Heat the Dutch Oven over med, and add a few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil to the pan along with the reserved beacon fat. (this is to give the meat a little more of that beacon taste but it certainly could be skipped if you wanted to prepare the braciole up to this point a day ahead. Then just brown in olive oil) Brown the braciole on all sides (between a minute or two per side). Remove
- In the same oven, cook the onion, carrots and celery till softened and onions are translucent (4 mins) then add garlic and cook 1 more minute.
- Add the bottle of Stout and about a cup of beef stock, season with salt and pepper, and boil briefly (5 mins). Add the braciole and cover.
- Place in oven for 1 hour, basting half way. Then uncover, baste and cook 30 minutes more.
- Remove and slice steak. Cook down sauce over high for 5-10 minutes and then puree.
- Serve.
Side note: my future husband Josh Groban was on Live! With Kelly Ripa and they made braised short ribs in Stout. Copycats….marriage is off Mr. Groban

Pomegranate Brussels Sprouts
- So this recipe was sortof a Bobby Flay recipe in that I saw a recipe by Bobby Flay that sounded delicious decided to make it, and then when it presented me with two substantial problems I made it completely different. First it asked for a pomegranate molasses which I had no idea how to locate nor did I care to so I opted to make a vinaigrette instead. Then I went to roast the Brussels and found I had no more room so I cooked them in a pan. The result is nothing like the original but was pretty tasty. My only grip with it was I went to Fitzies to get the Brussels and I could only get them in small containers. The result was unnecessarily priced and I had no control over the size of the sprouts which ranged from the size of a normal Brussels sprout to the size of a small cabbage so they were not cooked as evenly as I wanted.
Vinaigrette: Halve a pomegranate and remove seeds. Reserve juice from this process and whisk into it Champagne Vinegar and salt and pepper. Then add EVOO until you have a vinaigrette.
Take Brussels sprouts and slice in half. Brown lightly in a large pan, and then add a cup or so of water and cover, steaming until cooked through and soft. Remove from heat and toss with vinaigrette, pomegranate seeds and hazelnuts.

All and all the party was quite a success: god food, good friends and four bottles of wine….the Niezabitowski recipe for success

Secrets, Lies and Power-outages

Dear Readers,
I think I’m having one of those crises typical of most bloggers. I never find the motivation to blog, so why do I do it. This Generation Y crisis of faith has recently taken a whole of yours truly who consistently feels guilt over leaving you (both of you) hanging with my recent adventures.
In an attempt to rectify my past mistakes I have both a few excuses and a promise of reperation.
First, the excuses. My dad has a saying, excuses are like assholes; everybody has one. And while this is true let me offer you mine. I feel like November never happened at all. First, and I don’t know how many of you caught this one the news/are locals and heard about the massive black-outs we CT residents had after an unseasonal snow storm just before Halloween. Well we all went to a Halloween party the day before, and in the middle of the “snow storm” that I was convinced wouldn’t be a big deal we all lost power. And I mean all of us. The whole damn state. We left our party local and drove home the next morning, and it look like someone had bombed our hometown. Well needless to say we spent a good 10 days or so without heat, power, cell phone charging, enjoying Chinese food (literally the only show in town) trying not to go Jack Nickolson a la The Shining on each other, and listening to CL&P press conferences like the desperate wrecks we were. I went back to work late in the week rather then early like I usually do to make up for lost days, then began our annual anniversary sale which meant I worked almost everyday till 8. I spent countless hours with delightful customers (not sarcasm) and ending each day with a glass of champagne (eat it P-Diddy). When life resumed it’s normal pace the following week I was shocked to discover that half of November was done (where did a week of my life go? Oh yeah I spent it huddled around a fire place freezing my Bo Jangles off). Next thing I knew it was Thanksgiving, which was claimed by my mother this year so I didn’t make anything….so sorry no stories there besides it was delicious.
So while this is merely an excuse for leaving you high and dry on the culinary front, it is nevertheless my unfortunate truth.
Now on to the positive: It is almost my birthday soon!! And despite likely having a quarter life crisis, I will also be serving a hell of a diner to my lovely friends.
Menu:
Apple, beacon, rosemary Braciole with Stout gravy
Roasted potatoes (I think)
Homemade birthday cake (and I am kindof hell bent on making it pink)

Plus, I also plan on hosting my first holiday party. Partially (ok mostly) because I have been in school, the Christmas season has not been so much about celebration as it has been about outlines, finals and tears. But now that I am a few months school free (I should get a chip) I am actually in the Christmas spirit and therefore plan to show off the decorations my aunt and I pain over by hosting a Yuletide Fete.
So there are going to be at least two blogs this month. It’s better than nothing.
Cheers
Alex