Mark Manguerra's Roasted Cauliflower with Cumin, Coriander and Chili

This is a "re-blog" of Mark Manguerra's brilliant recipe, from his blog No Special Effects.  I've cooked this three times, including on Thanksgiving, and it was amazing!!!

What you need:

500g head (18-oz) of cauliflower, washed, green leaves removed and cut into florets (half-florets if you want extra crunch)

sea salt

olive oil (add a knob of butter that has been melted for serious flavor, but I wanted to keep it wholesome)

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (or 2 dried chilis)

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Make sure the cauliflower is completely dry by patting it in between paper towels. In a sheet pan or roasting pan, toss the florets with a good glug of olive oil. In a mortar, bash the spices with a pinch of salt. Sprinkle over the florets evenly and toss well. Make sure they are laid out in a single layer on the pan. Roast in the top rack of the oven for 20 minutes, then give them a good toss to ensure even cooking, and roast for 10 minutes more or until the edges are brown and crunchy. Serve immediately.

My Thanksgiving Beer Can Turkey!!!

That's not a chicken it's a turkey baby, yeah!!

Full disclosure:  I have been absolutely obsessed with cooking birds on the beer can this year.  Why?  Because it consistently makes the absolute best poultry on the panet and is incredibly simple to do.  The reason is because you're steaming the inside of the bird and infusing it with flavors at the same time as you're roasting it.  The result?  A beautifully crispy bird that is flavorful and incredibly moist.  I've done this with chicken plenty of times, but this Thanksgiving, I got the wild idea to do it with a Turkey... 

Now, for years I have listened to people tell me how to properly cook a Turkey, and everyone has their own idea on how to do it : "Brine it".  "Cook in in a bag".  "Cook it breast side down, then flip it at the end for color".  "Put cheese cloth on it to keep in the moisture".  "...the real key is basting it every 20 minutes". 

There is more discussion around how people cook their turkeys than just about anything else, and quite honestlly, the results are usually just ok.  Not to mention the fact that people spend hours and hours prepping and roasting their bird.  "There's got to be a better way!", I thought to myself...and so, I decided to try the old Whiskey Tango (aka White Trash) special:  Beer Can Turkey.   And I swear to you, this was the best turkey I have ever had.  Crispy, moist and packed with gorgeous flavors.  And the best part is, it took me about 15 minutes to prep, and 1 hour and 45 minutes to cook the 9lb bird.

Here's what you need:

Turkey - I suggest using smaller Turkeys, which first of all are more flavorful, and secondly, you need to make sure that your turkey(s) are small enough to fit under your grill the long way, with a beer can in it.

1 oil can of Fosters
1 bottle of a hoppy, really flavorful beer, I used "2 Below", by New Belgium Brewery.
4-5 sprigs of rosemary
4-5 sprigs of time
olive oil, salt and pepper
Gas or propane BBQ
Meat thermometer

First off, rinse your turkey in cold water and pat dry.  Then rub generously all over with salt, inside and out.  Put it in the fridge and let it sit for at least 2 hours -- you can even do it over night.  I did 3 hours and it was perfect.  But before you start cooking, make sure that you've taken your bird out of the fidge at given it enough time to get to room temperature.  You don't want to cook a cold bird.  When you're ready to start cooking your bird, go outside and turn on your BBQ at full whack, close the lid and get it piping hot.  Should be 400-500 degrees.  Now go back inside, grind some fresh pepper all over your turkey and rub it generously all over with extra virgin olive oil.

Now open your can of fosters and pour out 3/4 of it.  Then, take a the sharp end of a bottle opener, or a knife and punch 4-5 holes in the top of the beer can -- these are vents for your beautiful perfumed steam to come out of.  Now, pour in 1/2 of your other, more flavorful beer.  You really want to use something with some flavor here, but keep it gold or amber in color -- don't use Guinness or a brown ale or anything.  Fat Tire is a also good choice or even a wheat beer.  For chicken, I would use a citrusy beer, like Hoegaarden or Shock Top...anyway -

Now take your sprigs of thyme and rosemary, give them a rinse and shove them into the can.  These guys are going to boil and steam the flavor right into the meat of the turkey...

Take your bird and beer can outside.  TURN OFF the center burners of your BBQ, but leave the outside ones on, making your BBQ just like an oven, with no direct heat on the bird.  Here comes the difficult part, one person can do it, but two is better.  You need to insert the beer can into the cavity of the turkey, without spilling the beer into it, then you set the beer can on the grill, using the legs of the bird like a tripod to hold it in place.  It's surprisingly easy to balance.  Gently close the lid to the BBQ as to not knock your turkey over, and cook until internal temperature reaches 165...mine 9.5lb bird took 1 hr 45 minutes. 

When it's ready remove from the grill -- careful not to spill the remaining beer inside, and pull out the beer can using pot-holders or oven mitts.  The can will be really hot.  Then take your bird inside, cover with foil and let it rest for 15 minutes.  if you try to carve it while it's piping hot, you will shred your bird. 

Uncover the foil carve and get ready for the most flavorful, moist turkey, with the crispiest skin you have ever tasted!   

Cheesy Toast

If you're like me, you prefer something savory for breakfast.  I'm not much for flapjacks, waffles or french toast...once in a blue moon maybe, but day to day, I only like my sweets after dinner.

 Now, good cooking doesn't always have to be elaborate or fancy; sometimes simple is best and that's what cheese toast is.

Who doesn't love cheese toast?  It's phenomenal and a great quick thing to throw together in 5 minutes before you run out the door.

What you need:
1 slice of sourdough toast, preferably Francisco International, it's the best...I'm a sourdough fanatic.
Small handful of shredded parmesan
Small handful of shredded Greyure
1 clove garlic (optional)

Put your toast in the toaster oven (or toaster if you don't have a TO) and toast it halfway. 
When done, take it out, slice your garlic clove in half and rub it on the bread, just to get the essence in there.  If you're worried about your breath you can skip this step, but you'll be sorry!
Take your parmesan and put it on the toast first, spread it evenly, then spread out the greyure on top.  Put it back into the toaster oven (or in the oven on broil) set to broil and cook until the cheese starts to bubble and look delicious.

You start your day off with that, and things will be turning up roses...

Shouts out to Russia, Australia, Canada and Germany for checking out the blog this week!

Wild Duck Pasta ala Jamie Oliver

This dish is one of my absolute favorites and perfect for the holidays.  The wine, garlic, duck and cinnamon make your house smell like Christmas morning.  It's time and love intensive, but well worth the effort.  

Now, I'm a hunter and have been duck hunting ever since I was a kid.  The problem with duck hunting is that when you're done hunting, you have a ton of ducks and most people don't know what to do with them -- myself included!  Wild duck is much different than raised or farmed duck that you get in a restaurant or store. They're smaller, not nearly as fatty, and have a much gamier flavor. Also, because they're migratory birds, the meat is much tougher than ducks that grew up on a farm. For years, I have gone to "duck dinners", large dinner parties where the hosts cook up a massive batch of ducks for a huge group of people, in hopes of getting rid of all of their duck meat for the year. With enough wine flowing, you usually manage to put a good dent in your haul, but it's tough to muscle 2 whole ducks down, that aren't cooked with care.

So, this recipe from my man Jamie has been a lifesaver.  It's in "Cook with Jamie", which is my favorite alltime cookbook.  In his book, it's called Gorgeous Slow Cooked Duck Pasta.  Now, I can't get my hands on enough ducks, and get requests to make this dish all the time.

What you need: 
2 Wild Ducks or 1 Raised Duck
6 Rosemary stalks, leaves taken off and chopped
6 Slices of Pancetta, chopped
1 Red Onion, diced
2 Celery Stalks, chopped
2 Carrots, chopped
4 Garlic Cloves, sliced
1 Cinnamon stick
2 Oranges

1 28oz can of whole, peeled, plum tomatoes

1/2 bottle fruity red wine, like a zin

Handful of golden raisins

Handful of pine nuts

Red wine vinegar

1 lb pasta, rigatoni, fettuccine or pappardelle are my faves for this.

First - roast your ducks.  Pre-heat your oven to 350F, salt and pepper your ducks, inside and out, then rub olive oil all over the outside.  Quarter one of the oranges, squeeze the juice into the cavity, then stuff 2 of the orange slices into each duck.  Roast, breast-side down in a roasting pan, for two hours, turning every 30 minutes. 

Now, I don't roast my ducks in the oven...  Funny story, when my dad was ill, he started watching TV, which he never did before, and become fond of the Home Shopping Network.  One day, a package arrived at my door -- it was the RONCO "Showtime" Rotisserie.  My dad watched the infomercial for an hour or so, and was so excited about it that he had to buy it for me...he was medicated at the time, I'm sure.  But, I gotta say, this thing really works!  I've made incredible roast chicken and pork on it, and for duck it is outstanding.  Easy to clean, too.  Thanks, dad.  So, roast or Ronco your ducks, and while that's going on, chop all your veggies. 

Get a large pot going on med heat, add a little olive oil and your pancetta.  Cook until golden.  Then, add your diced red onion, chopped carrots, chopped celery, rosemary, cinnamon stick, and garlic. Cook slowly until it all softens up, then add the 28-ounce can of plum tomatoes (drained).  Let that cook for a few minutes, then add your wine. Let simmer for about an hour.

When your ducks are roasted, take it out and let it cool, then strip all of the meat off the ducks.  Shred the duck meat and add it to the sauce.  Using 2 forks to pull apart the sliced duck meat works well.  But really spend some time shredding it up -- this will make your duck tender and gorgeous.  Then add that into the pot, cover, and let it simmer for at least 30 minutes, I recommend an hour an a half.  Check the consistency.  If too dry, add some more wine or a bit of water.  If too thin, take the top off and let it cook down.

When you're ready to eat, boil your pasta and when it's ready, toss it into the pot, and stir.  Than grate in the zest of 1 orange, and add in a good handful of your raisins, pine nuts and Parmesan.  Mix it in, plate, add a little parsley, and Happy Hunting.   

Awesome Cooking Blogs!

I recently discovered two AWESOME cooking blogs:

The Paupered Chef - www.thepauperedchef.com, by Nick Kindelsperger and Blake Royer, professional food writers and cocktail enthusiasts.

and

No Special Effects - http://manggy.blogspot.com, by Mark Manguerra - a 20 something(maybe now 30 something?) amateur chef from the Philippines, who is a Doctor in real life.

These are two really incredible sites with recipes that are right up my alley. Last night my wife made some amazing Califlower roasted with Cumin, Corriander and Chili from No Special Effects. It was out of this world.

I debated whether or not to share these blogs, because once you go to these sites, you may never visit The Regular Guy Again!

The bar has been raised, so I've gotta step up my game big time.

Finding Inspiration

Just got back from my annual fall trip to Montana. So incredibly beautiful and peaceful there.

What was I doing in Montana?

Well, wait for it...wait for it...

Hunting.

GULP.

I know that many readers out there may have an issue with hunting, and I can tell you that I sometimes find myself conflicted about it as well. But, at the end of the day, I'm not a vegetarian and I believe that hunting is actually a much more humane way to provide meat for your family than buying it from growers. Even when you buy organic and free range meat and poultry, those animals are being farmed versus living free until the end. They have good lives and are eating completely naturally. There's nothing more organic than that.

If you haven't seen the wonderful documentay FOOD INC., I highly suggest you check it out. It's a really informative film, done by the guy who wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Anyway, Montana's natural beauty and game provided me with some culinary inspiration -- great dishes for pheasant, duck, wild turkey and venison coming your way, right in time for the holidays.

Afternoon Snack, Table for 1

"Big Ups" to the UK for checking out The Regular Guy -- and to my neighbors in the north, "Sup Canada?" Canada ia my home away from home...esepcially T Dot and Munchreal.

So...my wife was out of town this weekend, which means I was on "Mancation"...obviously, it was time to get seriously wild and crazy.

So, after hitting the Venice park yesterday with my 15 month old daughter, I put her down for a nap and broke out the goods...oh yeah, a whole smorgasbord of aged cheeses and some beauty figs...oh yeah, it was both wild and crazy. Those guys in the Hangover got nothing on me.

Seriously though, there's no finer afternoon treat than some bread, great cheese and some figs. Get some fig spread too while you're at it -- it's fantastic and makes any cheese even better. So next time you're at the market, spend a little time in the cheese section and make an investment. Aged cheeses last for a long time in the fride, and ther'yre great to have on hand for an impromtu get together or when your friends pop over. Get a nice blue, a manchego, a St. Andre, Etorki, and maybe another hard cheese, like a good parm to start, and venture out from there. May want to keep a decent bottle of dry riesling in the fridge, too, just in case!

The Bolognese

First I'd like to give a shout out to the folks who have visited my blog from around the globe - that's you in Russia! I'm talking to you, my friend in Taiwan. France - you're beautiful, hope to see you soon. Tanzania - respect. And Singita South Africa - hope you're keeping it real in the Sabi Sands.

So the weather has turned in Los Angeles (last week anyway), and it feel like fall may be finally upon us…what could possibly be better on a rainy Sunday, than to fill the house with the incredible aroma that comes from cooking a beautiful Bolognese sauce? It makes a house a home.

I mean, who doesn’t love a good Bolognese? Vegetarians and vegans may not eat it, but I’m sure most would have to admit that it’s pretty damn good! Lately I’ve been working on my “Last Meal” -- don’t worry mom, I’m not off to the gas chamber or anything, but I have been thinking, somewhat morbidly I suppose, if I were to have one last meal on this earth, what would it be? Well, I can tell you that Bolognese would be on the menu – probably as a Primi, but it would def be on there.

So a little history on the sauce. As most of you probably know, the word Bolognese, roughly translates to “meat sauce as it is made in Bologna”, Italy, the official recipe of which, was registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce on October 17, 1982 by The Accademia Italiana della Cucina (Italian Academy of Cuisine),.

However, Bolognese is considered to be the most widely abused recipe in all of Italian cooking and what many people consider to be Bolognese, is not. For instance, did you know that Spaghetti is not the traditional pasta used for Bolognese? It’s actually Tagliatelle. Interesting, no?
So many Italian chefs were up in arms about the abuse of Bolognese that they banded together to create “Bolognese Day”, in January of this year. The Telegraph reported that “In an attempt to restore the integrity of the dish known to millions of British diners as ‘spag bol’, nearly 450 chefs in Italian restaurants in 50 countries cooked Spaghetti Bolognese on Sunday with authentic ingredients including pancetta, carrots, celery, onions, tomato paste and a dash of wine.”
So obviously, this dish is a national treasure and taken very seriously. However… while the official recipe is fantastic, is it really the only way to make Bolognese? I think not. Bolognese has been around much longer than 1982 and was likely started as a rustic dish that poor Italian famers made, scraping together various ingredients to make a sauce to serve with pasta.

Saveur magazine interviewed Alessandra Spisni, owner of the cooking school La Vecchia Scuola Bolognese, who put it this way:
"Ragù was traditionally made at home, so every version—if it has been passed down for generations within a family—is as authentic as the next. Who is to say whether my neighbor's ragù is more Bolognese than mine or less? ...I learned it like I learned to talk, little by little. It's very traditional: I don't use olive oil because we've never produced olive oil in this region. Instead, I always use rendered pork fat. I add thick tomato purée, not the concentrate in tubes from the supermarket. And it isn't traditional to use broth, so when I do add liquid to the ragù, it's water. A family with little money and many mouths to feed wouldn't spend hours simmering a rich meat broth only to put it into a sauce. That means that the meat has to come from the most flavorful cuts. We don't raise cattle for steak here in Emilia like they do in Tuscany; our beef comes from older cows, so it's very tasty, but it must simmer and tenderize for hours. I use red wine, not white, because those are the types of grapes that grow in the hills outside the city. The tannins in the red wine help to break down the meat. I never use spices or milk. Those ingredients are added to correct something—nutmeg to sweeten overly acidic tomatoes, milk if the meat is too gamy—but they aren't part of the recipe."
So, even though there may be an “official” recipe, Bolognese sauces are actually a highly personal, familial dish – a Coat of Arms of sorts, the recipes of which Italian families pride themselves on – and guard like a national secret!

Now I’ve messed around with Bolognese for years…I’ve tried different combinations of meats, with carrots and celery and without, white wine vs. red wine, different blends of aromatic herbs…I’ve done a bunch of experiminenting, and have finally landed on what I feel is “My” secret recipe, which “Mama” is more than happy to share with my loyal constituency.

Time – 3 Hours. A Labor of Love!!

What you’ll need:

1lb ground beef
1lb ground veal
1lb gound veal
6-7 THICK slices of Pancetta. I’m talking 1/8” thick.
6-10 Cloves of Garlic
2 big yellow onions
2 cans whole, peeled plum tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
Handful of rosemary
Small handful of thyme
¾ btl cheap, but good red wine – cab, valpocello or barberra is good.
Large stock pot.
Food processor

Now, there’s not a whole lot that goes into a Bolognese, but the execution is very important, which is why I like to get everything prepped and ready to go first. First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Oven? For Bolognese? Yeah, I know, you’ll see.

Then peel all your garlic and press with a garlic press – right into the stock pot (not on stove yet), then, pick the rosemary and thyme leaves from the stem and chop up fine – throw that into the stock pot. Next, cut up your pancetta into small squares – throw that in the stock pot. Now take your stock pot and put it on the stove – medium heat, add a glug of olive oil. But don’t burn your garlic! You want the heat to be hot enough to brown the pancetta and render the fat from it, but not burn the garlic, so gently sautee it.

Next, peel and dice the onions. When the pancetta gets golden, add the onions and sautee for another 5 mins. While that’s happening, drain the whole tomatoes of liquid, then reach in with your hand and push down on the tomatoes to squeeze any excess water out, and drain that too. Put the whole peeled tomatoes into the food processor and whizz them up into a nice thick ragu.

After 5 mins, when the onions are nice and soft, add all your meats, some more olive oil, and a good bit of salt and pepper, and brown it for 5 min or so. When the meat gets nice and brown, turn the heat up to high, and slowly add ½ of the bottle of wine. Stir, mix in well. When the wine just starts to boil, add the tomato ragu. Stir in well, add some more salt and pepper to taste, and another ¼ of the red wine. Bring to a boil, stir, then add one can of tomato paste. Stir the sauce to make sure the paste really mixes in – this should thicken the sauce and turn it a beautiful color red. Now, the second can, is optional. It’s really a taste thing, and a sauce thickness thing. The second can will make the sauce more zesty and a little less powerful in terms of garlic and wine flavors. It’ll also take longer to cook down without it. You may want to try just a ½ second can. Up to you really. So I added the second can and mixed it in, and again, salt and pepper to taste.

Tasting your Bolognese, is really important. I probably tasted my sauce 30 times, easily. You need to keep tasting it – does it need more wine? More salt? More pepper? You really need to keep tweaking as you go, so the flavors cook into the meat. Once you’re happy with the taste, cover, turn the stove off and put it in the oven for 90minutes.

Why the oven? A little trick I learned from my man J.O., who thinks that if you do a sauce in the oven instead of on the stove it cooks it evenly, from all sides, and you don’t have to work about the bottom burning. Pretty smart, especially with a Bolognese that eventually does require a lot of stirring anyway – this minimizes it as much as possible.

After 90 minutes, remove from the oven, put back on the stove, uncover the pot, give it a few good stirs, taste (don’t burn your mouth). Now at this point, the sauce was missing something for me…I wanted a little bit of a bite, a tang to my Bol, so I added a good couple of dashes of red wine vinegar – probably 2-3 tablespoons. It really made the sauce. So add it. Now bring the sauce to a boil – low heat’ll probably do it… If you have a splatter screen to cover your pot, it’ll be useful. And now the real work begins…

You need to reduce this nice looking tomato sauce by about 50%, without burning the bottom. This sauce needs to become a Bolognese and the only way to do that is with a little love, patience and elbow grease. Here’s what you do Set a timer for 3 minutes – let the sauce boil for three minutes, then actively stir for one minute with a wooden spoon, being sure to really scrape the bottom of the pot to make sure nothing is sticking and burning. Repeat the process for about 30-45 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced down to a dense meat sauce – as pictured. If you put some in a bowl by itself, a spoon should almost be able to stand up in it.

When your sauce looks good, turn the heat off and let it rest. Boil some water, add salt and olive oil, and drop in some fresh Tagliatelle or Pappardelle for three mins. Drain the pasta, and serve it up with a hulking ladle of Bolognese and smother with parmesan.

It just doesn’t get better than that!

Grilled Pistachio Pesto Opakapaka with Tomato, Sweet Onion and Chili Relish

This one is a winner...

I love Sundays, especially during the fall. You've got the return of football and your team still has a chance, the air is getting crisp, and ski season is on the horizon. Sundays are also great days to cook. Rather than jjst parking it on the couch with a beer, why not sort yourself out for the week and make some great stuff with NFL Sunday Ticket on in the background? That's what I did Sunday anyway.


So, I hit the farmer's mkt, and picked up some nice looking Opakapaka. Opakapaka is also known as Crimson Snapper or Hawaiian Pink Snapper, and is a mild, white fish -- which is just what I like. Anything that tastes slightly fishy...just can't eat it. On a sustainability level, Opakapaka is okay, depending on where it's caught -- preferably the Northwestern Hawaiian islands where the populations are still healthy. A good alternative to Opakapaka, according to Seafood Watch is Farmed Striped Bass.


Brooke, meanwhile, wanted to make some more fresh pesto, but this time instead of using pine nuts as in traditional pesto, she used pistachios -- which turned out beautiful. The pistachios give the pesto a much richer flavor and thick, hearty texture. As good fortune would have it, both pistachio encusted and pesto are common preparations for Opakapaka, so it seemed like we were in the chips.


We also have a bunch of tomatoes on hand -- our four tomato plants are finally producing, so I decided to make some kind of tomato relish. We made the relish and pesto Sunday, then put it together last night, which was great, because we had a great dinner on a Monday night that took almost no time to get together.

Here's what you'll need:


1/2 lb Opakapaka or Farmed Striped Bass
2 handfuls of various small to med sized tomatoes
2 Fresh Chilis - I used Cherry Bombs and red Jalapenos
1 Sweet Onion
2 cups fresh basil
1/3 cup Pistachios
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup olive oil

To make the pesto, please see my "Pesto Buccatini with Diver Scallops" post, but subsititute pistachios for pine nuts.

For onion portion if the relish, make sauteed onions ala Jon Waxman, as in my previous bay Scallops post.

Take your tomatoes -- small to medium sized like cherry, roma, and lemon boy, grab a knife and give them some stabs. You want the tomatoes to break open and fall apart, and this will give them a head start. Clean your chilis (slice open, remove seeds and the while spongy stuff inside), cut in half and then into 1-2" strips. Put the chilis into a sauce pan, add some olive oil and sautee for about 5 mins. Give them a good bashing with your wooden spoon as they cook. Add salt and pepper. After 5 mins or so, add a cup of dry white wine, bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat for about an hour. The tomatoes and wine should really reduce down to a cutney like consistency. Once the consistency is to you liking, combine the tomatoes with the sweet onions, and simmer for 10 minutes.

After combining the onions with the tomatoes, turn your BBQ on full whack and heat to 400-500 degrees. Then, rinse your Opakapaka and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper and rub both sides with olive oil. Then, coat the fish with your pesto -- you may need to add a little more olove oil to it to get it to spread nice on the fish. Don't be shy, get a nice coating on there.

Grill the fish about 6 minutes a side with the top closed or until your fish is white, but slightly translucent all the way through.

Plate, cover with relish, eat and enjoy!

Bay Scallops ala Jon Waxman

Brooke's not a big fan of scallops and in fact, she wasn't wild about the pesto/scallop pasta I made recently...but I'm not giving up! She liked the flavor of the dish, but she has a problem with the texture of scallops. She doesn't like the soft, smooth, fleshy nature of them, so I decided to try out Bay Scallops. And it worked! She loved the dish and because the scallops are smaller, they cook through a bit more and have a texture closer to chicken.

The great thing about scallops is that they are flavor sponges -- they just soak up whatever you give them, and because of this, you don't need to over season them. They can absoarb delicate, complex flavors really well, which is why chef's often have them on the menu -- so they can really show off!

I found this recipe in Jon Waxman's book, "A great American Cook", that I've been dying to try and it was far better than I could have even imagined. So here you go:

1 lb fresh bay scallops

1 cup dry white wine

2 lbs sweet onions

Unsalted Butter

Salt, pepper

Parsely

Put 1 cup of wine into a sauce pan, bring to a simmer, and simmer gently for 20 mins. Cut the onions lengthwise, then slice crosswise as thin as possible, or use a mandolin. Melt 5 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over med. heat. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper and cook over very low heat for 40 mins, stirring often. The onions will get super creamy. After 40 mins, add the reduced white wine.

Wash and pat dry your scallops, season with salt and pepper. Melt two tablespoons of butter in a skillet over med. heat. Add the bay scallops into the pan, spread them out evenly, and let cook undisturbed for about 3 mins, then strir them around for the next 3 minutes so they can cook evenly -- which is kind of hard because they;re so small, but do the best you can.

Place the onions on a plate, top with scallops, and garnish with parsely. Start with this dish as an app, and you are on your way to a good night!

Ps. When you take pics of your food, it's readily apparent why chefs use parsely -- it's just for effect and to give the dish some color. The yellow/white of the onions and scallops does not look all that appealing here, but if I had sprinkled some parsely over the top, it would have given the dish depth and color. But it tasted great.

Farmer's Market

So, I thought I'd just post a typical haul from the farmer's market... some staples I like to keep on hand throughout the week.

So on the left, we've got some nice beets, gold and red that I plan on roasting and I'll use the beet leaves for a great braised veggie dish. Got some leeks of course, can use those in just about anything. I've got a big, huge knob of ginger, which I'll use to make some Thai food, fresh ginger tea and to kick up my Dark n' Stormies...

At the top center is some fresh spinach, for spinach salad or sauteed spinach, as well as a bag of wild arugula aka "rocket", which is much spicier than baby arugula, and looks totally didifferent. Also, a side note on spinach -- interestingly, on Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" show, he said that frozen spinach is actually has more nutrients than freh spinach, because they harvest it and freeze it right away, which I confirmed in an article I read about research done on the topic at Penn State. So, don't think that frozen spinach is a faux pas or anything, I use it all the time for sauteed spinach and you can't tell it's been frozen at all -- in fact, I prefer it.

Got some Heirloom Tomatoes of course. Gotta load up on em while they're in season. Three types of fresh pasta from Beverly Hills Wine and Cheese - the best in LA: Pappardelle, Buccatini and Whole Wheat Fettuccine.

Got some peaches to make a dessert with, some fresh strawberries and blueberries for breakfast , some figs to eat with some nice cheese and bread, some grapes for the kid -- and some amzing Concord seedless grapes that taste like grape soda. OMG they are good. Got some eggplant to mess around with, some fresh white corn (no reason to ever get yellow in my opinion) which is great to add to just about anything - salad, pasta, fish, as a side or on the cobb. And, some red peppers to make Fred's famous Romesco Sauce...not sure I can post the recipe because it's top secret -- and for good reason! It's the bombzo.

So there you have it. Some typical weekly staples.

Pesto Buccatini with Diver Scallops

If you watched this season of TOP CHEF MASTERS, you'll remember chef Johnathan Waxman aka The Obi Wan Kenobe of cooking.

I bought Obi Wan's book (proves that being on Top Chef is great marketing for chefs) and in it are a few great looking scallop recipes -- this isn't one of them.

In his book, "A Great American Cook", Waxman says that it's a crime to do too much with a scallop. Keep it clean and simple, and that's what I tried to do here. I feel like I succeded, but then again, I don't have Padma or Tom to tell me how badly I failed.

But I think Obi Wan (or at least his book) taught me well...

So if you read some of my previous posts, we have this basil plant that is going crazy and have more basil than we know what to do with, so Brooke said "Let's do a pesto". "Great", I said, even though I've never made pesto.

I've been wanting to make scallops and thought that a nice pesto pasta was simple enough not to be a travesty by Waxman's standards and so here's what we came up with -- by the way, I say "we" because I have the greatest Sous Chef in the world -- my wife, Brooke.

What you need (for two):

5 Large Scallops

Buccatini Pasta (or similar pasta - I like Perciatelli a lot, too)

For the pesto, from Joy of Cooking:
2 cups Fresh Basil leaves
1/3 cup Pine Nuts
Olive Oil
1/4 cup Pamesan Cheese
Salt n Peppa
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic - I used elehant garlic
Food processor.

**Side Note: interestingly, Elephant Garlic is not garlic. It's actually a type of onion -- a species of leek, in fact, which probably explains why I love it! I am bat-shit about leeks. Elephant Garlic is milder than regular garlic, and although I love strong garlic, in pesto sauces I think that regular garlic is often overpowering, which is why I went for elephant garlic instead.

Put the basil, nuts and parmesan into the food processor, and gun it. then slowly pour in your olive oil until it makes a nice paste. You may not need to use all of it, but keep adding the olive oil until it gives you a good, pasty texture.

Next, get a pot of salted water boiling for the pasta. Then start on the scallops. First, wash and pat them dry and cut off the tough muscle from the side of the scallop if it hasn't been done by your fishmonger. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter over med heat in a skillet or pan. Don't use a non-stick pan...they aren't as good for searing as they don't distribute heat properly. Put your scallops in the pan and cook without disturbing them for about 3 minutes. You want the bottoms of the scallops to be brown, and when they are, they should release easily from the pan. When the first side is done, turn the scallops over using tongs and brown the other side.

Meanwhile, cook your pasta, strain, then put back into the pot. Add pesto to taste, and mix it up with the pasta over low heat. You may want to add a little olive oil to help looses the pesto and coat the noodles.

The last step is really a dealers choice. You can either chop up the scallops and mix them in with the pasta, or plate your pasta with a couple of scallops on top, and finish by putting some pesto on top of each scallop and drizzling with olive oil. Either way is good. And I know it's sacrilidge to put cheese on seafood pasta, but if you want some parmisan on there, knock yourself out!

The Singita Salad

This recipe is straight from the plains of Tanzania -- the Singita Grumeti Game Reserve in Africa. There's a very good reason that we carried this recipe the 8,000 miles and 46 hours it took to get home, because not only is it the best salad on the continent of Africa, it may be the best salad in the world...

What I love about the sald is it's dense texture. This is a hearty entree salad with rich, bold flavors. But the dressing is really what makes it...it's f-ing phenomenal.

For the dressing:

1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons neutral oil, like grape seed or canola.
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon peeled and grated ginger
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil.

For the salad, equal parts Julienned:

Seared or grilled beef filet or skirt steak (salt, pepper, olive oil), finely sliced.
Carrots
Mauge Tout
Onions
Peppers (red, yellow or green)

Mix everything together and finish with toasted sesame seeds.

There you have it...the best of Asia in Africa!

Dana's Halibut with Sufferin' Corn & Okra Succotash

My sister, Dana, is an incredible cook, and baker, and has recently been hired as a private chef. She lives on the Big Island of Hawaii and if there's one thing she knows well (though she knows many) it's how to cook a fish.

Honestly, I'm not a big fish eater. That doesn't mean I don't like fish (I do, as long as it's the sustainable, not-over fished variety), it means that I can't eat it unless it's perfect, so therefore, I often don't order it or make it. I usually only eat fish at a top restaurant or when I'm in Hawaii or the Caribbean, where you know you're getting incredibly fresh fish. I found a fish monger recently who gets really fresh stuff, so I decided to give it a shot.

The great thing about fish, is that when it's fresh, you barely have to do anything to it, and it cooks really quickly. Dana cooks simple, fresh, sustainable and organic food. She cooked this halibut for me once, and it was great, so we did it again last night, and made a succotash out of some beautiful fresh okra I found at the farmer's market, white corn, and onion.

Succotash is a Native American dish, (Algonquian tribe). In the Narragansett language it means for "boiled kernels of corn", and is technically, made with corn, lima beans, and butter or cream. It became very popular during the Great Depression because of the cheap ingredients, especially in the south, where they added vegetables to it, as well as peppers. Since we're in the Great Recession, we figured it was appropriate.

What you'll need:
A piece of halibut
3 ears of white corn
A large handful of okra
1 onion, yellow, preferably maui
lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper

First, heat up your grill or your pan. You want to get it nice and hot.

Take your fish, rinse, pat dry, put in a bowl and season both sides with salt and pepper. Squeeze on the juice of half your lemon, then coat with olive oil. Let it sit in there for about 10 minutes. The lemon juice actually cooks the fish, so you don;t want to marinate it in lemon juice for too long.

While that's sitting, cut your okra horizontally into 1cm pieces, so you get think discs of it. Roughly chop or dice your onion. Saute the okra and onion on medium heat for five minutes, with some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Then turn it down to low.

Now take your corn and halibut outside and put it all on the grill. I'm not that great at grilling corn, but I try and leave it on there long enough to get some good grill marks on it, turning and rolling every few minutes so that it cooks evenly.

For the fish, I cooked it for about 4 minutes a side. The first four minutes, the grill was open, the second for minutes, I closed it, so the fish would cook through. My grill was about 450-500 degrees. I then opened up the grill and flipped it once more and cooked it for another minute on each side, so it had a nice golden color on each side, and was white / translucent all the way through - it was just starting to flake apart. While your fish is cooking, be sure to go back inside and give your okra and onions a stir -- or have your friend or significant other tend to it.

Take the fish and corn off. Cover your fish with tinfoil while you finish the succotash.

Take the corn, and cut it off the cobb into a bowl, and add it to the onions and okra. Crank the heat up to medium high, add a little more olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and cook for 2 minutes.

Unfoil your halibut, plate and serve with a large spoonful of succotash.

It's Hawaiian and Narraganett for D-lish.

The BSD Salad

Sometimes a man just wants a god damn salad -- a Big Swingin' Dick salad. A BSD salad is personal. It should be the things you love most in a salad, together. Maybe you love avocado and pine nuts?Maybe you like pear in your salad? Maybe you like spinach? Some things will work together, some things won't. Experiment a bit and find the one that's right for you.

Also, it should be easy. No fuss. Man style. Here's what I came up with on Saturday afternoon...

What you need:
1 Italian Sausage (mine gad fennel in it, so money)
Wild Arugula, washed
Heirloom or some type of tomato
Fresh Burrata
Girard's Champagne Dressing
Good Balsamic

Quickly grill or fry your sausage.

While you're doing that, wash and dry your veg. Chop up your tomato. Put the arugula and tomatoes into a bowl. Dress with Girard's.

I gotta say, I've tried a lot of salad dressings in my life (i love me some salad dressing) and Girard's Champagne Vinaigrette is pretty unstoppable. One of the things I love about it, too, is that it lends itself well to modification -- you can add some mustard to it for some kick, or add some balsamic to it to give it a richer flavor. You can really play around with it. Sometime I eat it as is, sometimes I put a spin on it. It's a great, basic dressing.

Back to it, cut up your burrata into hunks and put on top, drizzle some good, syrupy balsamic (the expensive stuff) over the cheese. Take your sausage off the grill, pour yourself a glass of Zind Humbrecht and fuhgeddabowdit.

"Yea, that's I'm eating a salad and having a glass of white wine for lunch...you gotta problem with that tough guy?"

Caprese Egg Sandwich

One of the best things about summer is that tomatoes are in season, and not just tomatoes, but heirloom tomatoes. They have such great flavor, and a wonderful, fleshy texture. And there are so many varieties...I like the really dark crimson, nearly black ones called "Rosso Brunos". If you ever see any at the farmer's market or in a store, don't hesitate on buying them. They're the best tomato I've ever tasted.

From what I've read, they are called "Heirlooms" because the tomato seeds have been saved from one growing season to the next and have been handed down through several generations. Nice one.

There are so many ways to enjoy an heirloom and here's a good one for the morning, in under five minutes! A great, rustic breakfast spin on the great italian salad.

What you'll need:

1 thick slice of heirloom or another kind of large tomato
2 fresh basil leaves
1 egg
1 english muffin
1 large slice of havarti cheese

Side note - I just started a little vegetable garden and I'm completely obsessed with it. We're growing 4 types of tomatoes, basil, 2 types of lettuce, chives, egg plant, strawberries, and about 7 types of peppers (my wife thinks I've gone way overboard on the peppers, and she's right).

Anyway, our basil has gone absolutely nuts, the thing has grown about a foot in the past week and we have more basil than we know what to do with, and it's really fun to head out the the garden and pick some basil or lettuce and then eat it immediately.

So, for this dish, poach your egg, either in the microwave or on the stove (see previous post for instructions on cooking the egg).

Toast your english muffin. When it's finished, remove and put the slice of tomato on top and the two pieces of basil. Then slide your egg on top, and put the large slice of havarti on top.

Put the sandwich back into the toaster oven on broil, until your havarti is nice and melted -- be sure you use the baking sheet that the toaster oven comes with and cover with a piece of tin foil so the cheese doesn't run into the toaster (it's a pain to clean).

After about a minute, you'll have missile lock on a tasty treat.

SAUSAGES W/ BRAISED CABBAGE, SAUTEED SPINACH AND ROASTED YUKON GOLD POTATOES

We had a great, mellow Friday evening dinner with our friends Alex & Kristen the other night and it goes to show you that you don't have to go to a ton of trouble to host a great dinner.

A & K are world-class entertainers, and I think their key to having people over is to make it fun, seemingly effortless , and get everyone involved. Alex is not afraid to put his guests to work, and it's great because people always end up in the kitchen and would actually much rather have something to do than stand around while the host scrambles to make dinner. The four of us cook together all the time, and it's always a blast.

So for this meal, some good sausages and simple sides are all that are required. Since I wasn't leading the charge, I'm not going to do a full blown recipe here, but give you the gist of what went down.

What you need:

Some good sausages
Yukon Potatoe
Two bags of fresh spinach
Rosemary
Garlic
Olivie Oil (OO)

Quarter your potatoes, put in a bowl and toss in OO, salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary. Put on a baking sheet and into the oven on 350 for 1 hour.

Now pour a glass of wine and hangout for 40 mins...

40 mins later, heat up your grill for 5 minutes or so. Put on the sausages on medium heat.

Back inside, wash up your spinach and put it in a pan on med-high heat. It's ok if the spinach is still wet. Put in a glug of olive oil, chopped up a few garlic cloves and sautee until the spinach is soft, but still a nice shade of green. If you cook it too long, the spinach will become a brownish color that is not appealing and doesn't tase as good either.

Check on your sausages. When their ready, take off. Should be about 7 minutes per side.

Serve with the potatoes and spinach. Boom. A nice, rustic meal.

Now, the kicker to this dish, was this amazing braised cabbage relish that Alex made. I don't know how he did it, because he had made it a couple of weeks ago and froze a bunch of extra portions.

This is a genius trick that I've been using for the past couple of years -- THE FROZEN DINNER. Often, there's just not enough time to prepare a meal, right? You'd like to have people over, but you just won't be able to throw something together. That's why on the days you DO have the time to cook, it's a good idea to make some basic things in bulk to have on hand, just in case! I like to cook on Sunday mornings. I go to the Farmer's Market, pick up some good stuff, then spend a few hours in the kitchen, making dinner for that night, as well as a bunch of extra to freeze for a later date. I also like to freeze things in different sized containers for individual portions when I'm alone, two for just me and the wife, or four or more for when we have guests.

Right now in my freezer I have a gorgeous Duck Ragu, a Bolognese, Venison Stroganoff, Homemade Chili, and a Port Red Wine Reduction sauce. There are certain dishes you can freeze and they lose absolutely none of their flavor and no one will ever know! Sauces, ragus, soups and stews are especially good to do.

Perfect for impromtu dinner guests or TV dinner!

The Best Damn Pork Roast Period.

Pork Loin Roast with Apricots, Peaches, Onion, Leeks, Rosemary and Honey

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. It was hatched by Alex and I years and years ago when we were living together in our friend Teddy's house, and I have made it at least 20 times since! The sweetness of the fruit goes incredibly well with the pork, and the onions cuts it nicely. It's a great sweet yet savory dish. It never gets old, always pleases a crowd and perfect for a summer night.

Here's what you need:

Pork Loin Roast or Two Pork Tenderloins

3 Fresh Apricots

Handful of Dried Apricots

2 Peaches

1 Large Yellow Onion

3 Medium Sized Leeks

10 Sprigs of Rosemary

Honey

Salt, Pepper

1 Glass of Riesling

Roasting Dish

Grill Pan / Pan or BBQ

Preheat your oven to 350.

Then, prep your fruits and onions. Cut your apricots and peaces into 8ths and dice the dried apricots. Slice your onion in half, then cut into 1/2" wide strips. Cut off the greens of the leeks so they are about 6" long (as you would a scallion), then cut in half length wise, and slice into 1/2 inch ribbons. Put everything into the roasting dish. Drizzle some olive oil and 4 tablespoons of honey over the top and set on high heat on the stove.

Next, get a grill pan going on high heat. if you don't have a grill pan, you can use a regular pan or BBQ if you prefer.

For the pork loin, I like to run about 4-5 rosemary sprigs right through. 4 through the sides and one right down the middle. This really gets the wonderful rosemary tasts into the meat. Then, generously rub the pork with salt and grind pepper all over it - top and bottom, rub olive oil over the entire roast.

When your onions and peaches start to sizzle, make sure you give them a few good stirs, then dump in your glass of riesling. Your riesling should come to a boil, but never fully cook off. You want to have a little bit in the dish when you stick it in the oven.

By now, your grill pan should be nice and hot, so put in your pork loin and sear for about 3 minutes on each side, or until you have some nice grill marks, golden color and crisp to the outside. When you do turn the heat off. Then with your remaining 5 springs of rosemary, create a bed for your pork roast in the roasting dish. With some tongs, lift the roast onto the bed of rosemary. Cover the pork with some of the fruit and onions, spoon some wine over the top and stick it in the oven.

Like chicken, it takes about 15 minutes per pound, or until it's internal temperature is about 155-160 for medium rare. I like my pork light pink in the middle, which prevents it from dring out.

Serve with a glass of dry riesling or another white wine and you are off to the races my friends.


Can't wait for my leftovers tonight...sometimes it's even better the next day!

Anniversary Cherry Pie

Check out the cherry pie my wife made me for our 6 year anniversary!

It tasted even better than it looks. I can't bake a lick, so I'll try to get Brooke to post the recipe. It was one of the best gifts I've ever gotten!

Big n' Rich Mushroom Papardelle

Pappardelle with Asparagus, Porcini and Chanterelle Mushrooms, Pancetta, Speck and Marscapone Cheese.

WARNING: THIS IS A MANLY PASTA. IT'S RICH, IT'S HEAVY AND NIIIICE.

What you need:

Fresh pappardelle pasta
Two, large, fresh (not dried) Porcini Mushrooms
A handful of small Chanterelles (a cup's worth) or one large sliced up
Six asparagus stocks
Six slices of Pancetta or better yet a 2"x2" hunk (cubed)
Four strips of Speck - or a 2"x2" hunk (cubed)
One clove of garlic
Marscapone Cheese
Parmesan
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

I've been on a mushroom kick lately. I shop for my veggies at the Pacific Palisades Farmer's Market (8-1 on Sundays) and a few months ago, this mushroom guy showed up with the most incredible looking mushrooms I've ever seen -- Chanterelles bigger than your fist, huge fresh Porcinis, Shitakes, Maitakes, Morels, and a ton of mushrooms I'd never even heard of, like: Blue Foots, Yellow Foots, Candy Caps, Maitakes, Enokis etc. There's a whole, beautiful world of fungus out there that I'd never discovered and I started playing around and discovering all of their different flavors. Here's the chanterelles and porcinis I bought Sunday:


Jamie Oliver has an incredible recipe for wild mushroom pasta that is an absolute killer, and the best part is that it's the easiest pasta I've ever made. It can be done in under 5 minutes, seriously. The recipe is here and I suggest checking it out some time: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/pappardelle-with-mixed-wild-mushrooms-recipe/index.html

I made it so many time in the past few months that I got a little burned out on it, so I decided to make another mushroom pasta with whatever I had in the fridge last night and this is what I came up with...

First off, cut up your pancetta and speck. If you have hunks, cube it small. If you have slices, just roughly chop them up. I like to roll the slices up, then cut them into strips, then cut the strips in half.

Get a pan going on high, and put in your pancetta and speck and drizzle with a little olive oil -- just a little, because the fat is going to start rendering in the pan and you don't want it to get too greasy. Cook for about 3 mins.

Now start some water boiling. Add salt and some olive oil.

Slice up your porcinis and chanterelles - I'm not super picky about how I do it. I may leave some small chanterelles whole, halve bigger ones, and make nice slices of huge ones. the goal is to keep them all roughly the same thickness so they cook evenly.

By now, your pancetta and speck should be starting to turn golden, so toss in the mushrooms, add salt and papper and let cook for about 3 min. Be light on the salt -- pancetta and speck are salted meats and will release salt into the dish. I've definitely over-salted things in the past when cooking with pancetta, so be mindful. You can always add more.

Finely slice up your garlic, turn the heat down to medium-high and add to the pan. Then give your asparagus a quick rinse, then quickly chop into 1" pieces. Add them to the pan.

At this point, your water should be boiling, so add your Papardelle and cook for 3 minutes -- err to the side of undercooking. Fresh pasta cooks fast and will continue to cook after it's out of the water. When the pasta is done, strain and add it into the pan. Turn the heat down to low and spoon in two tablespoons of marscapone. Mix and toss the pasta well -- the marscapone should melt and create a thin, creamy coating on everything.

Serve in a bowl, sprinkle on some parmesan cheese, maybe drizzle some fine olive oil over the top, add a pinch of pepper and get ready for a decadent meal! I suggest drinking a nice dry white wine with this to cut the fat and watching World Cup Highlights to sooth the mind. That's what I did anyway.

Enjoy!

Alex's Roast Chicken with Roasted Fennel and Beets

So "me main man" Alex, who helped raise my chefing game, recently had us over for dinner and made the absolute best roast chicken that I've ever had. I tried to emulate his recipe the other night and unfortunately, it wasn't quite as good. Don't get me wrong, it was good -- but not the new "best ever".

The chicken you see here was dinner on Sunday, though I forgot to take a picture before we dug in! So it's not quite as good looking as it once was, but you get the idea.

Roasting chicken is good times, because again, it's easy and it looks cool. When you put that golden bird on the table surrounded by roasted veggies, it just looks badass. By now you;re probably sensing a theme here. Easy food that looks good is what I'm all about. I may get adventurous once in awhile and break out the Top Chef cookbook -- but for the most part, I keep it simple.

So, here's what you need:

1 whole chicken
4 slices of pancetta
4 slices of speck, if you can get it
6 large beets
2 large fennel bulbs
1 large bunch of rosemary
1 large bunch of thyme
1 lemon
salt, pepper and olive oil.
2 roasting pans

Side note -- make sure you get yourself a nice organic chicken. I've heard that smaller ones are more succulent, so you may try to stick to one that's about 4lbs. I think part of the reason Alex's chicken was better was that he had bought it fresh from the farmer's market that day -- it had been killed that morning. Talk about fresh!

Another side note - Speck. I was introduced to the beautiful meat by Alex a few months ago and since then I have been totally obsessed with it. "Speck is a distinctively juniper-flavored ham originally from Tyrol, a historical region that since 1918 partially lies in Austria and partially in Italy." And it's been around for at least 800 years. For those of you who live in LA, I get my speck at Guidi Marcello on 10th in Santa Monica. It's wonderfully smokey and gives an intense and distinct flavor when you cook with it.

First set your oven to 350. Then cut off the beet greens, put them in a plastic bag and put them back in the fridge for another day. A lot of people throw away beet greens, which is a big mistake. They're really tasty! Now, scrub your beets under cold water with a firm brush. When roasting, I don't recommend peeling them. They cook better with the skin on and that's where all the nutrients are so get a clean brush or one of those green scouring type pads (not a brillo!) and scrub your beets until they're nice, clean and crimson.

Now, break out your cutting board, sharpen up your knife and cut the beets into eighths. Put the beets into a mixing bowl, drizzle on some olive oil -- enough to evenly coat them. Add salt, pepper and mix with your hands. Then put the beets onto a cooking sheet and stick in the oven. Set your timer for 30mins. When it goes off, take your beats out and give them a stir with a wooden spoon, then put them back in for another 30 mins. They should take an hour, but keep an eye on them. They should be soft to a fork, but not totally shriveled up!

Next, quarter your fennel and put into your other roasting pan. Drizzle some olive oil over the top of the fennel. Then rinse your chicken under cold water and pat dry. Now, take your index finger and slide it underneath the skin that covers the breast of the chicken -- be careful not to tear the skin. Slowly work you finger under the skin to create some space -- a little pocket of room over the breast where you'll be able to stash some goodies to season it. Repeat on the other breast.

Now take a slice of your speck or pancetta and slide it under the skin and cover the breast. You don't have to be exact or anything, but do your best to have it evenly cover the breast. Put two slices of speck and two slices on pancetta under the skin on either side. This will do two things - 1. season your breast with beautiful flavor and 2. help keep the breast moist. Take a couple of rosemary sprigs and some of your thyme and sneak it under the skin too.

Now, take your knife and slice the skin between the leg and the chicken. Take 2 more slices of speck and two more pacetta, roll them up and stick them into the cuts you created on either side to season the leg and thigh. Put a couple more sprigs of rosemary and thyme in each cut as well.

Now, generously rub your bird with salt -- inside and out. Then take your remaining rosemary and thyme and stuff it into the cavity. Now take your lemon, slice in half, stuff it inside the cavity and give it a squeeze. Put both halves of the lemon in if you can. Now stitch the cavity up with cooking string or cooking pins, and tie the legs together.

Last, evenly rub olive oil over the outside of the whole bird and put into the roasting pan. Try to make a little bed for your chicken with the fennel - so the bird is right on top of it. This way, the jus from the chicken will drip right into the fennel.

Last, and this is optional, put 1 cup of white wine into the roasting pan. This will help to caramelize your fennel and give a nice aroma to the chicken. Put the roasting pan in the oven and cook your chicken about 15 minutes per lb - so a four pound bird should take an hour. I usually pull my chicken out twice to see how it's cooking and to baste it with the juices in the bottom of the pan.

If you have a meat thermometer, the temperature to serve the chicken should be about 165 when taken from the joint between the thigh and the body. And monitor the chicken every 15-20 minutes to make sure the bird is browning, but not burning. if towards the end your bird is not fully cooked, but you like the level of browning on the chicken, just cover it with foil and stick it back in.

After about an hour, your chicken and beets should be ready to come out. Loosely cover the chicken with foil and let it stand for 10 minutes. If you try and carve a hot bird, you will massacre it.

After letting it rest, carve and serve with the fennel and beets. Drizzle some jus over the chicken and fennel and you should be in business!

Hakuna Frittata

In The Lion King, when Simba meets up with Timon and Pumba, they teach him their secret to life: Hakuna Matata, which means "No Worries". And a Frittata is exactly that, a no worries, delicious breakfast, that's sure to impress.

What's great about a frittata is that they look a lot harder to make than they really are, and when you present the dish, you look like a pro. A frittata has the exact same ingredients as a scrambled egg dish or an omelet, but it's presentation blows both of them away. And best of all - it's simple!

What you'll need (Serves 2):

8" non-stick or well oiled pan
Oven - set to broil
4 Eggs
Milk
2 Sausages of your choice - I'm using an Italian fennel sausage
1/2 a yellow onion
1 tomato
Gruyere cheese
Small handul of spinach
Small handful arugula
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil

Quick note about the pan size -- for 2-4 people, I use an 8" pan (my wife's sister and husband actually bought me a Calphalon fritatta pan after making them one), but you can use a 10" or even large if your going to use more eggs. For 2-4 people, an 8is nice because it makes your frittata nice and thick.

In terms of ingredients, this is just what I had in the fridge today, but really, you can make a great frittata with just about anything. I always like to have 1 meat, some onion, cheese, and a few different kinds of veg. Here I'm using spinach, arugula, tomato (really a fruit), but I could just as easily have asparagus, broccoli or whatever.

First off - turn on the oven to broil. Now, in a bowl, crack in your eggs add a glug of milk (like 1/4 cup), sprinkle in some salt and grind some pepper and whick the eggs until they're well beaten.

Next - get out a cutting board and slice up your sausages -- I usually cut them into 1/2 inch pieces. Put the sausages into your pan, put on high heat, add olive oil and start to brown. As the sausages begin to cook, slice up your half onion and tomato (I like to cut my tomato in big slices, then quarter each slice). When the sausages have some color on them, turn down to med-high heat and add the onions.

While the onions and sausages are sauteing (about 3 mins), give your spinach and arugula a quick rinse. Check on the pan -- if the onions look like they're getting nice and soft, add the arugula and spinach (if not keep cooking until they do). Add some salt and pepper to the pan and cook until the spinach and arugula STARTS wilting. Personally, I like my greens slightly underdone -- I find it gives better flavor.

Once the green are soft and have reduced in size so that they are manageable in the pan, turn the heat to med.-low and pour in your eggs. Let cook for about 3 minutes. The edges cook faster, so around the pan with a wooden spoon and push down on the more cooked eggs and let the uncooked portions in the center pour into the gaps you create. This will help to avoid having a runny center of your frittata. While you're monitoring your eggs cook, quickly grate about a cup of Gruyere.

After about 3 minutes, turn off the heat and place your sliced tomatoes on top. Next, evenly spead the Gruyere over the top. Now take the pan and put it in the oven for about 10 minutes -- or when the Gruyere starts to get a nice golden-brown crust on it. You'll see the frittata rise in the pan slightly as the eggs cook and get fluffy.

After about 10 mins, take the pan out of the oven and use a knife to press on the middle of the fritatta. I should feel pretty firm. If it is, let it sit for 2-3 minutes. If not, put it back in for a few more minutes. If the cheese is getting too brown, cover with foil before putting back in.

It's important to let it sit and cool -- this will make it easier to take out of the pan and easier to cut. You don't want this thing of beauty to fall apart on you! After you've let it rest, go around the edge of your pan with a knife and make sure the eggs aren't sticking to it. Get out a cutting board, take your pan and tilt it, using the knife to gently pry and slide the frittata onto the board. Let sit for another 2 mins, then slice, serve and enjoy!

Hakuna Frittata!

Classy Poached Egg on Toast - Less than 15 Minutes

Do you know the #1 reason why food in restaurants is better? Because they're better chefs? Because they have the best cooking gear? Because they prep for hours and hours? No, none of the above.

The reason why their food tastes better is because they use THE BEST INGREDIENTS. It's hard to build a Formula One race car out of junk parts or create a beautiful gown from terrible fabric. If you buy the best ingredients --- fresh, organic vegetables, fresh herbs, good pasta, spices, good cuts of organic meat, fine cheeses instead of Kraft etc., you will instantly raise your cooking game 1000%. Yes, you will pay a little more, but:

a) shopping will become an interesting, fun, educational experience.
b) your food will be much healthier.
c) the process will be much faster because you don't need to cook and season the hell out of your food for it to taste good.
c) your food will taste like the bombzo.

I'll get more into ingredients later, but to prove the point, here's what I made for breakfast today, which was really simple, fast, healthy and only took me 10 minutes.

Poached Egg on an English Muffin, with Pancetta, Arugula and Parmesan

What you'll need:
1 egg
poacher (can use microwave if you don't have one)
6 leaves of fresh organic arugula, rinsed.
1 slice of nice pancetta
fresh grated parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper

Add an inch of water to your poacher, drizzle a little olive oil into the one of the poaching cups so your eggs don't stick, and crack in your egg. Put a pinch of salt and grind some pepper over the raw egg. Crank the stove up to high and put the top on.

If you don't have a poacher, crack your egg into a small, microwaveable sauce dish (little white ceramic guys are perfect for one egg). If you don't have one of those, use a coffee mug - just make sure you put just a little olive oil in the bottom and smear it around with your fingers so your egg doesn't stick. Microwave in 20 second intervals until the egg is cooked to your liking. You can push on the center with your finger to feel how firm the yolk is getting.

While your egg is steaming, get your toast into your toaster or toaster oven if you have one.

**A little trick for toast when your making an egg sandwich type deal. You want your muffin to have some crisp on the outside, but fluffy on the inside -- and to be able to cut it with a knife with relative ease. If my bread isn't totally fresh, I'll dab a little water on the muffin (bottom and top) and toss it in the microwave for 15 seconds or so, until the bread is soft and moist. Then I put it in the toaster. This will make the bread crispy, yet soft and easy to eat under your egg, instead of a bulletproof rock.

While the bread is toasting, take your arugula and give it a quick rinse under the sink. Put it on a paper towel and pat it dry.

Check on your egg -- turn the range down to medium-high heat so you can control the cooking speed better. Push on the yolk with a butter knife or your finger. I like mine with a soft-boiled yolk, so I cook until it's medium firm. It's a feel thing, and don't worry if you over cook it or under cook it, it's going to be good either way. After a couple of times, you'll get the timing right.

Check on the toast -- when the top starts to look nice and golden, open up the toaster oven if you have one, put the slice of pancetta on top and set the oven to broil. This will get the pancetta nice and warm and get the fat to start to soak into the toast. If you just have a toaster, Fuhhgeddabowdit! The pancetta will taste just fine without being warmed.

By now, your egg should be done and you're ready to rock and roll!

Turn off the heat on the stove and take the top off the poacher. Then take your toast out of the oven and put on a plate. Grab the arugula and place it on top of the pancetta. Take the egg-poaching cup out of the pan, grab a butter knife and go around the edges to make sure the egg doesn't stick, then slide that puppy on top of your bed of arugula. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the top, and finish by drizzling some olive oil on top (that's for you Jamie O.).

That, right there, is about as good of an egg dish as you're gonna get anywhere and it can be done in under 15 minutes! And, it should look beautiful as well.

Note - this picture is lacking the parmesan cheese.

Until next time.

Intro

I've always loved cooking. I started cooking creative scrambled eggs for myself when I was about 7, because on the weekends, while my parents were sleeping in, I would get up super early to watch all the cartoons (GI Joe, Transformers, Smurfs, Gummy Bears...dare I say Gem? Hey, I had sisters...anyway, you name it, I watched it) -- and during the hours and hours of TV with no parents around to feed me, I got hungry! I got bored of cereal and there was nothing good to microwave for breakfast, so I decided I needed to take matters into my own hands...

My first creation was scrambled eggs with onions, a meat (hot dogs, salami, ham, whatever mom had in the fridge), cheese and salsa. I would sautee the meat with the onions, crack in the eggs, scramble them around, add cheese and finish with some Pace Picante. They were damn tasty for a 7 year old, and I got trremendous satisfaction from the fact that I had made them myself. I also became a hit with my firends, for whenever we had sleepovers, I would cook everyone breakfast!

As I got older, weekend breakfast became a staple routine for my father and I. We had competitions on who could cook the best scramble combo. My dad used to always say, without fail, that whatever he was eating at the time was the "best ever", so no one ever really won or lost. After eggs, my dad taught me how to properly grill a steak (filet), and make some killer sauteed mushrooms. So those became my two go-to dishes. Scrambled eggs in the morning, and if necessary, a steak dinner. Those two dishes got me by until college. I couldn't really cook, but i could do two things well, which was all you really needed to impress the guys or cook dinner for a girl.

While I was in college, I spent a summer living with a guy, Alex, who grew up in Milan and really knew how to cook. Today he's one of my best friends and God-Father to my daughter. Alex is a true renaissance man, and from him, I've learned a tremendous amount about the finer things in life -- Art, Music, Wine and especially food. Because of Alex, food and cooking became a hobby of mine and it's one of the things that's given me great joy in my adult life.

So why the hell am I writing a blog?

Good question. The reason is that most people I know love good food. Who doesn't? And many people I know love watching cooking shows like Top Chef or Hell's Kitchen and yet, they don't cook themselves. Why? One simple reason: they're intimidated. Even if they have a cookbook and are following a recipe, they are intimidated. And because they are nervous about cooking, when they try, they're so worried about screwing up and what people will think when they taste their food that they don't have any fun and therefore just say "forget it". Or they say, "Oh, I'm going to go to cooking school so I can really learn how to do it right." Cooking school is wonderful, but let's face it -- 99% of the people who say they're going to go to cooking school never do. Even though most chefs and cookbooks tell people that anyone can cook, that it's easy, and provide things like "great receipes in 20 minutes or less" -- people who love good food still don't cook because they say, "Yeah, sure, 20 mins or less for YOU, a professional!"

Well, I'm not a chef. I'm just a regular guy with a job and a kid who likes to cook, and I'm here to tell you that it is easy. It is fun, and very satisfying to the mind, body and soul. There is nothing else you can do where you can be completely creative while providing essential nourishment for yourself and others. It's like painting a beautiful picture, and then getting to eat it! I'm here to share with you things that I cook on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and hopefully whoever reads my posts will get inspired to start cooking for themselves, friends, family and strangers.

Tyler