Summer Grilling

Summertime and the cookin' is easy



(This is not me)



The lighter foods of summer are a welcome change from the heartier fare that we enjoy during the fall and winter. No longer do we think of long simmering sauces, complex braises, and roasted meats and vegetables. It’s all about foods that are grilled, fresh seasonal salads and truly flavorful vegetables that haven’t been picked green and trucked 1,200 miles to our local grocery. Through the summer and well into the fall, farmers markets rotate around the city offering everything from exotic vinegars to freshly made donuts. On any given weekend there are endless food and wine festivals being held all over the state. Whether it’s the chi chi poo poo $$$$ Aspen Food and Wine Classic where tickets are over $1,000 per person, or the annual Strawberry Days Festival in Glenwood Springs, with free strawberries and ice cream, arts fair, rodeo, and parade. You can attend a food and wine festival every weekend without going to the same town twice. What a fun way to tour Colorado.

So what’s for dinner? Just about any food can be grilled; fish, chicken, meats, vegetables, fruit, even lettuce. Have you tried grilling a head of romaine for Caesar salad? Delicious!                                                                           

When the temperature starts hitting 90 and above, the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven and heat up the house. So become a proficient grill cook and you’ll be eating delicious meals, enjoying the outdoors, (preferably with a cool libation in hand), and there’s even the added bonus of having very little cleanup. A blessing for me, as Chef Jack dirties every pot and pan in the house to make toast. Here are a few tips to make you a super star griller in no time.

(This is not me either)





(This is me)
For all your Residential and Hospitality Real Estate needs
Call Becky @ 720-979-3184 or email me @Becky@innmatchmakers.com
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Grilling Tips:

1.      Always keep your grill clean, this is essential for good tasting food and food safety.

2.      Pre-heat your grill. If you have a gas grill you can have part of the grill on high heat and part of it at a lower temperature, thus being able to sear the food item then finishing it at a lower heat.  

3.      Marinades and dry rubs; Use them for seafood and all type of meats. Marinating helps tenderize, keeps food moist and imparts flavor, dry rubs add great flavor.

4.      Aluminum foil is the grill cook's best friend. Vegetables can be enclosed in an aluminum foil packed before placing them directly on the coals or on the grid to cook. To ensure even cooking without any leakage, use the Drugstore Wrap Technique.

Drugstore Wrap Technique:

Place the food in the center of an oblong piece of heavy-duty foil, leaving at least a 2-inch border around the food.

Bring the 2 long sides together above the food; fold down in a series of locked folds, allowing for heat circulation and expansion. Fold the short ends up and over again. Crimp closed to seal.

5.      Use tongs to turn and move your food around. Forks pierce the meat and you lose flavorful juices.

6.      Allow your meats, fish, or poultry to come to room temp before placing on the grill. About one hour for steaks and chicken, less for seafood.

7.      Season meat & chicken the day before when possible.

8.      If you like smoked flavor but don’t have a smoker it’s easy to accomplish on a grill. If you're using a gas grill, soak either wood chips, dried or fresh herbs in water for at least 20 minutes then place them in a metal or disposable foil drip pan. Poke several holes in the bottom of the pan and place it on the lava rocks directly under the food.

9.      Soak bamboo skewers in water for at least 20 minutes before building kabobs to prevent skewers from burning.

10.      Turning food too often slows cooking and can result in tough, dry food. Ideally, most fish and meats should be turned only once during cooking time.

11.      Don't apply sauces prior to grilling. Not only do they tend to drip onto the coals and cause flare-ups, but most also contain sugar, which will burn quickly and give the food a burnt taste. Consult the recipe to see when to begin basting; usually it's about 5 minutes before the end of grilling time.

12.      Always allow meats and poultry to rest, lightly covered for at least 5 minutes after coming off the grill.

Basic tools for grilling:

1.      A long pair of professional grade tongs. Don’t skimp and buy a flimsy pair, you’ll regret it.

2.      Long handled spatula – excellent for turning delicate seafood

3.      Meat thermometer – chicken is especially difficult to determine doneness from sight alone. When the thermometer reads 165 degrees it’s done.

4.      A good wire brush for cleaning the grill, before and after cooking.  

 Let’s eat, I’m hungry.

Halibut, salmon, shrimp, tilapia, swordfish, trout, mahi mahi, you name it. If it swims you can grill it.

When hubby chefed at Cliff Young’s Restaurant, his macadamia crusted four citrus salmon was legendary. When I was single, dating and before I had met Jack, if I was given a choice of restaurants for our date, I always chose Cliff Young’s.  I would agonize over whether to order the rack of lamb with apricot / mustard glaze, or the four citrus salmon with macadamia nuts.  You wouldn’t go wrong with either one, but they were both so wonderful it made for a very tough decision.

I asked Jack if I could reprint his salmon recipe for you, so here it is. If you’re having friends over for dinner and would like to wow them with your culinary skills, this dish will do it.

Follow this link for a downloadable pdf version of the recipe printed below:

www.innmatchmakers.com/ftpfiles/salmon.pdf

Grilled Salmon with Four citrus Beurre Blanc and toasted macadamia nuts

It's a French-style sauce (if anyone knows great sauces, it's the French!), easy to make and endlessly versatile. Cooking the wine until it nearly evaporates adds great flavor to the sauce, and adding the butter a tablespoon at a time turns it silken. Take your time when you make this; you will be rewarded with a smooth, satiny sauce with subtle but gorgeous flavor.

SERVINGS: 6

INGREDIENTS:

Vegetable oil cooking spray
Six 4- to 6-ounce salmon fillets, with skin, if possible
1/3 cup vegetable oil, such as canola or safflower
Kosher salt to taste
2 tablespoons of lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit zest, for garnish
1 1/2 cups beurre blanc (recipe below)

3 ounces of toasted macadamia nuts- rough chopped

BEURRE BLANC:

Makes about 2 cups

1 teaspoon clarified butter or olive oil
1 cup heavy cream
1 large shallot, minced (about 1/4 cup)
2/3 cup dry white wine
1cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon fresh grapefruit juice
kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS FOR BEURRE BLANC:

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the clarified butter over medium-low heat. Add the shallot and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, or until it softens without coloring.

2. Add the wine and mixed citrus juices, raise the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the wine reduces and the liquid coats the bottom of the pan. Add the cream and simmer, stirring often, for 5 to 7 minutes, or until reduced by half.

3. Reduce the heat to low and begin adding the butter, a tablespoon at a time, whisking after each addition. Do not allow the cream to boil once the butter is added.

DIRECTIONS FOR SALMON:

1. Preheat the broiler or prepare a charcoal or gas grill. Lightly spray the grill rack with vegetable oil cooking spray. The coals or heating element should be medium-hot.

2. Lightly brush both sides of the salmon fillets with oil and season both sides lightly with kosher salt. (If using the oven, broil the salmon, skin side down, about 3 inches from the heat source for about 5 minutes.) Slide a spatula between the skin and fish and turn the fish over. Broil the salmon for 3 to 5 minutes longer or until opaque and beginning to flake. If grilling, place it on the grate, skin side down, for about 5 minutes. Turn and grill for 3 to 5 minutes.

Serve each fillet garnished with citrus zest and the beurre blanc sauce. Top with toasted Macadamia nuts.



Hits, Misses, and Black-eyed peas

Well, the holiday cooking and eating marathon for 2010 has just about come to an end. We ate a lot of great food this year. There were many standout dishes, a few misses and a couple of ‘what the @#$% happened to that??’ We risked and experimented with new recipes and techniques, made old favorites, and learned something new with each and every dish. I learned that it doesn’t matter who the renowned chef is that writes the recipe, if you don’t test it first you may not like the results. I learned that if you trust your instincts, you’re likely to be happier with what you serve. I learned that if the dish doesn’t turn out the way you hoped it would, it’s not the end of the world. As in life, cooking is an exciting journey, not a destination. Just when you think you’ve tasted or perfected the best macaroni and cheese, ever, someone reworks the dish in a totally new and unexpected way, and blows your socks off.  God, please grant me the open mindedness to recognize and appreciate bold, new, unconventional, and innovative approaches to food and the ability to enjoy it for the rest of my life. Amen!

I relearned that chefs have huge egos. Deservedly so, they work long, hot, excruciating hours, for minimal compensation, and they work tirelessly to satisfy one of our basic needs. Ergo; if you would like special treatment in a restaurant, seek out the chef, chef de cuisine, chef owner, sous chef, whoever happens to be in charge of the kitchen, and thank them. Treat them with respect, buy them a drink, compliment their food, and ask them to cook for you. Chefs love to cook outside the confines of their daily menus. Make it worth their while and you will be rewarded with a meal you won't soon forget. Chefs are artists, if you understand and appreciate them, they will perform for you.

So here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from our 2010 holiday meals. We’d love to hear about your successes and mishaps, please share your comments!

Misses:

We had a few glitches with our rib roast this Christmas. First, we couldn’t keep our new butane torch lit. Try as we might, the blasted thing would not ignite, so we had to use a different method for roasting which turned out just fine. The biggest issue was with the herbed salt crust which we applied a few days prior to roasting. Even after thoroughly wiping off the crust, the exterior of the roast was way too salty. I was bloated for two days. Thankfully, the interior was delicious. Next time we’ll season the roast before it goes into the oven as we’ve done in the past with excellent results. The roasting method we used was the tried and true ‘low and slow’ method. Roasting at 250 degrees until the internal temp reached 110, then removed the roast and allowed to rest for about 15 minutes, raised the oven temp to 500, put the roast back in and achieved a beautiful brown crust in about 10 minutes. Too bad the crust tasted like the Great Salt Lake and was completely inedible.

Hubby says he’s tired of Rib Roast, wants to do tenderloin next year. Sounds good to me, just hold the salt…..

Yorkshire pudding: We didn’t make the big fluffy ones from Jamie Oliver, long story but the end result is ours turned out more like hockey pucks. We can’t figure out why they didn’t puff up, I’m going to make Jamie’s just to test the recipe because they look so great. They should go well with just about anything.

Hits:

On a sweeter note, Tyler Florence’s whipped sweet potatoes with bananas and honey which we served at Thanksgiving were fantastic. It was hands down the favorite dish this year. 

The turkey was wonderful too. We purchased two smaller birds as we like to have more dark meat; Jack deboned the birds, brined then roasted them. Delish! Heard some people had a salt issue with their brined birds, we rinsed ours thoroughly after brining and did not have a problem. Comments?

Made a delicious warm rice pudding with blueberries on Christmas Eve for dessert. Made it with Carnaroli rice which is used for making risotto, Aborio will work just as well. It was lovely. Many years ago I worked at Strings, a wonderful Denver restaurant owned by Noel Cunningham, the king of charititable giving. Their first pastry chef was a crazy Brit named Woody. He used to make an amazing blueberry rice pudding, which when warm out of the oven made me weak in the knees. I was the daytime bartender, and had the pleasure of enjoying many wonderful desserts prepared by him. He was delightful man;I miss him and think of him often. 

Another hit this year was the French toast made from Panettone bread for Christmas brunch.  Lordy, it was good. Panettone bread is available during Christmas and New Years, if you haven’t tried it, you’re really missing out. It’s great just plain and lightly toasted, but it truly shines as decadent French toast. You can add rum, Amaretto, or Grand Marnier to the batter, or keep it simple. Add orange zest, vanilla, cinnamon, whatever sounds tasty. You can stuff it, top it with berries, make elegant individual servings or make it in a large pan for a party. It’s easy, inexpensive, travels well if you’re bringing a dish, and best of all it tastes fabulous. I’ve never made the bread from scratch but it would be fun to try.  

Beware, it’s addictive. Even cold leftover Panettone French toast is impossible to pass up. The few remaining pieces lasted all of about 1 hour in the fridge when brunch was over.

Thank you for reading and following our blog. Please feel free to pass it along to any friends who you think might enjoy it. We’re looking forward to a stronger economy in the year ahead as Roxanne and I gear up for a busy and exciting new year in real estate. We appreciate your referrals more than you can possibly know and hope that you will continue to think of us  when you hear of someone who is buying or selling their home. You rock!

720-979-3184

Becky@innmatchmakers.com

What’s up with eating

those Black Eyed Peas on New Year’s Day?

Typically a southern tradition as the practice of eating black-eyed peas for luck is generally believed to date back to the Civil War. At first planted as food for livestock, and later a food staple for slaves in the South, the fields of black-eyed peas were ignored as Sherman's troops destroyed or stole other crops, thereby giving the humble, but nourishing black-eyed pea an important role as a major food source for surviving confederates.

  

Today, the tradition of eating black-eyed peas for the New Year has evolved into a number of variations and embellishments of the luck and prosperity theme including:

• Served with greens (collards, mustard or turnip greens, which varies regionally), the peas represent coins and the greens represent paper money. In some areas cabbage is used in place of the greens.
• Cornbread, often served with black-eyed peas and greens, represents gold.
• For the best chance of luck every day in the year ahead, one must eat at least 365 black-eyed peas on New Year's Day.
• Black-eyed peas eaten with stewed tomatoes represent wealth and health.
• In some areas, actual values are assigned with the black-eyed peas representing pennies or up to a dollar each and the greens representing anywhere from one to a thousand dollars.
• Adding a shiny penny or dime to the pot just before serving is another tradition practiced by some. When served, the person whose bowl contains the penny or dime receives the best luck for the New Year, unless of course, the recipient swallows the coin, which would be a rather unlucky way to start off the year.
• The catch to all of these superstitious traditions is that the black-eyed peas are the essential element and eating only the greens without the peas, for example, will not do the trick.

I am an avid fan of black-eyed peas as I grew eating them from my grandmother’s kitchen. She and my grandfather owned a farm in rural New Mexico. They raised their own beef, pork, chicken, and eggs and tilled a large garden each year. They always had a dairy cow for fresh milk and butter. She was the consummate country cook and I loved her food. I will concede that enjoying the flavor of black-eyed peas, frequently described as nutty, earthy and buttery, is an acquired taste. Whether to enhance or disguise the flavor, depending on your point of view, there are several popular ways to serve black-eyed peas, other than as a simple side dish:

Hoppin' John - Although served throughout the year as well, Hoppin' John is one of the most traditional New Year's Eve and New Year's Day dishes in the South. Black-eyed peas are cooked with rice, pork (such as chopped pork or ham, hog jowls or hambones, fatback or bacon) and seasonings. Sometimes chopped onions and hot sauce are added. For a delicious vegetarian version leave out the ham hocks and use a good vegetable broth instead of the 6 cups of water for added flavor.

• one pound dried black-eyed peas
• two small smoked ham hocks or meaty ham bone
• two medium onions divided
• three large cloves garlic halved
• one bay leaf
• 1 cup long grain white rice
• 1 can (10 to 14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes with chile peppers, juices reserved
• 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
• 3 ribs celery chopped
• 1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, minced
• 2 tspcajun or creole seasoning
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 3/4 tsp ground cumin
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 4 green onions, sliced

Preparation:

In a large Dutch oven or kettle, combine the black-eyed peas, ham bone or ham hocks, and 6 cups water. Cut 1 of the onions in half and add it to the pot along with the garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer gently until the beans are tender but not mushy, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove the ham bone or hocks, cut off the meat; dice and set aside. Drain the peas and set aside. Remove and discard the bay leaf, onion pieces, and garlic.

Add 2 1/2 cups of water to the pot and bring to a boil. Add the rice, cover, and simmer until the rice is almost tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Mince the remaining onion then add to the rice along with the peas, tomatoes, and their juices, red and green bell pepper, celery, jalapeno pepper, Creole seasoning, thyme, cumin, and salt. Cook until the rice is tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the sliced green onions and the reserved diced ham. Serve with hot sauce and freshly baked cornbread.

Black-eyed peas salad with Basil Dressing - a light and tasty way to enjoy those peas....

• 3 cups cooked black-eyed peas
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• one small sweet red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped

Basil Dressing:

• 1/4 cup champagne vinegar
• 3 Tbls chopped fresh basil
• 2-3 medium cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 tsps sugar
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1 cup olive oil
• fresh basil for garnish

Preparation:

In a serving bowl combine the black-eyed peas, 1/4 tsp salt, chopped onion, celery and red pepper. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, chopped basil, garlic, sugar, remaining 1/4 tsp salt & pepper. Gradually whisk in the oil until well blended.

Combine peas and dressing, cover and chill thoroughly at least two hours or overnight. Garnish with fresh basil and serve. Serves 6.

Enjoy your Black-eyed peas but remember, as with any legume, don't forget the BEANO! 

What are your New Year’s Eve plans? Big night out on the town with dinner, dancing and party favors? Early dinner out then home before the crazies come out? Or will you be hangin’ at home and watching the festivities on T.V. like Jack and I? We both worked too many New Year’s in restaurants, so our annual tradition is sharing a nice bottle or two of bubbly, noshing on good caviar, oysters, crab, a variety of cheeses and salumi, and attempting to stay up ‘till midnight. The staying up ‘till midnight thing doesn’t happen very often, but we give it our best shot.

Happy Eating, see you in 2011!





Cooking Library

Thanksgiving roundup: Great food, great friends and family, overall a wonderful day, can’t wait for next year when we get to do it all over again!

Onto the next big event, of course that would be Christmas. Before we get into the foods of the holiday I thought it would be fun to look into unique gift ideas for you and or the aspiring chef in your life

Cookbooks are a wonderful gift. Every year hubby hand selects a special cookbook for his best clients, each book chosen with the chefs’ particular talent in mind.  They are truly enjoyed and appreciated.

Have I mentioned that Jack is a shopaholic? One of his weaknesses is cookbooks. Imelda Marcos and her shoe fetish? She was a piker. Her collection pales to the shelves upon shelves of cookbooks in our home.  You name it we’ve got it, had it, he wants it and will soon get it, or it’s probably not worth having.  He is very discerning about his collection, you won’t find Rachel Ray, Guy Fieri, or Sandra Lee among his tomes, (who are those people?). He has an extensive selection from the classic chefs such as Escoffier, James Beard, and of course Julia Child. Jack had the rare privilege of cooking with and for Julia Child in June 1990. She was in Denver promoting her organization, The American Institute of Wine and Food.  He was selected to assist her in several cooking demos around the city, then prepared a special dinner in her honor at his restaurant, Cliff Young’s.  She signed the menu adding a charming inscription and along with a photo of her and Jack cooking together, it hangs proudly in his office today.

We have hundreds of cookbooks written by chefs from all over the world, French, Italian, American, Asian, Mexican, and Vietnamese. But we always need MORE. Scads of new cookbooks are published every year, so how does one choose? Which books are must haves and which ones are a waste of money? Well you are so lucky because I’m going to tell you. Below are a few selections from Jack’s wish list which I’m sure will eventually find their way into our home at some point? Hmmm, and I thought we were on the austerity program…..”Honey, I only paid $10 for this $30 book on Amazon.com!” If I had a dollar for every time I heard that one….

Interest rates and home prices are at record all time lows. If you have been contemplating the purchase of a new home or investment property, don’t sit on the fence too long. These rates, prices and inventories will not be around forever. Don’t look back and wish that you had invested instead of horded. Call me, I’m happy to run comps and research areas of interest. In today’s market you need to think long term investment not ‘fix and flip’, that ship has sailed.

Becky

720-979-3184

1.       Avec Eric: A Culinary Journey with Eric Ripert – written by Eric Ripert – Originally from France and currently one of the top chefs in New York. Seafood is his specialty.

2.      Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking – Nathan Myhrvold – The truly extraordinary thing about this book is the price, $475!  Advertised as a six-volume, 2,400-page set that is ‘des­tined to rein­vent cook­ing’. The lav­ishly illus­trated books use thou­sands of orig­i­nal images to make the sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy clear and engaging.

I’ll tell you right now, I better not EVER see this book anywhere near our house.

3.      Taste of Mario Boxed Set – Mario Batali - For the Italian food lover in all of us, Mario’s cookbooks are a joy to read and recipes are easy to execute.

4. The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan – Learn and understand where your food comes from; if you care about what you eat, you need to read this book.

5.      The Sweet Life in Paris – David Lebovitz – The ex-pastry chef from Chez Panisse, and lover of all things French. This guy knows desserts.

6.      Tyler Florence Family Meal – Good solid technique, great food, and easy recipes for everyday cooking.

7.      Good Eats Boxed Set – Alton Brown – He’s just so much fun and he has an excellent understanding of theory, technique and reasoning.

8.      Jamie’s America – Jamie Oliver – We love this Brit, he’s entertained us for years and his fresh, casual, robust style of food is fantastic.

9.      Grandi Vini – Joseph Bastianich – Joe is Mario Batalis’ partner and Italian wine expert. This book is his opinion of Italy’s best wines. He is also Lydia Bastianichs’ son; who is one of the great Italian chefs today.

       10. The Perfect Bite - Jennifer Jasinski - Colorado's exceptionally talented chef and co-owner of Rioja, Bistro Vendome, and Euclid Hall. Denver's own has written a stunningly illustrated cookbook that just might be out before Christmas, we're keeping our fingers crossed,  Congratulations Jen!

 11.      Mastering the Art of French Cooking 2 Volume Set – Julia Child – From the Queen, need I say more?