Baked Spinach

This quick side dish was an idea I got from a steakhouse we went to recently.  It is basically a take on creamed spinach, but I chopped the spinach into bigger pieces for texture.  The end result is more soupy than thick.

 I began by cooking garlic, onion and red chili flakes in butter for a couple of minutes before adding about a pound of chopped spinach.  I tossed everything to coat and cooked untilt he spinach wilted.

I added a bit of half and half to the pan and mixed in some crumbled aged cheddar.  I topped with additional cheese before baking.

After baking at 400 for 20 minutes the cop was browned and some of the spinach on top crisped up slightly.  The end result was delicious, the cheese worked great with the spinach and the bit of broth that formed was quite flavorful. I would probably cut back on some butter and cream next time as this was just for a meal at home, though I can see a large tray of this being a hit at a holiday party.

Chile con Leche con Papas

This weekend I had my mom's delicious cheesy potatoes.  Her version is made up of boiled potatoes, sour cream, butter, chihuauha cheese and baked in the oven.  It is always awesome and I wanted to make something kind of similar but also using roasted poblanos.  The intial idea was combine flavors of the potato dish with chile con leche, which are roasted poblanos sauteed with onion and garlic and topped with some cream.  I went a bit further and added a bit of gratin ideas by utilizing thyme and gruyere cheese.

I started by peeling and boiling some large russet potatoes.

While the potatoes boiled I began to roast the poblanos over the stove. I did this by placing over a stove burner at high heat.  The goal is get as much of the skin blistered and roasted so that it can be peeled off.

This is what the chile poblano looks like after roasting on one side. You might need to angle them to make sure to get the flame is touching the uncharred bits.

In a pan I sauteed sliced leeks and garlic in butter.  I thought of leeks when trying to think of more gratin comparisons.  I think they compliment well with potatoes and gruyere.

After the poblanos were roasted, I placed in a plastic bag for 10 min before peeling off the skin.  Once cleaned I chopped the peppers and added to the pan.

Once the potatoes were done I removed from the water and placed in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.  I then cut into slices and tossed with the poblanos and leeks.

I finally added about a half a cup of heavy cream and some shredded gruyere cheese.  I flattened the combination into the pan as much as I could and topped with a bit more gruyere.

I placed the pan in at 450F oven for about 15min just to have everything heat through and to get a bit of color on top

The potatoes were delicious and the poblanos did remind me very much of chile con leche.  The gruyere also provided a nuttiness that went well with the chiles and potatoes.  I would probably use more poblanos in the future just to get more spice and a contrast in flavors and texture.  I can see this as a good fall side dish for the holidays maybe with the addition of some nutmeg to compliment the flavors of the gruyere and poblanos.

Leftover Ice Cream

I had two tubs of vanilla ice cream sitting in my freezer left over from a family party and while I love vanilla ice cream, I wanted something with a little bit more interesting. An idea came to me after breakfast yesterday morning as I had a ton of dried tart cherries that I had reconstituted in orange juice to serve over oatmeal. The cherries were soft and juicy and developed a rich flavorful syrup so I thought this would be perfect to mix into the ice cream. I grabbed one tub of ice cream that was already partially eaten and added the cherries. To compensate for the sweetness I mixed in some used goat cheese to give it a tart flavor. I got the idea after seeing how some people make cream cheese ice cream by basically mixing cream cheese into vanilla ice cream and serving with fruit.

I let the ice cream soften a bit and then mixed all the ingredients together directly in the tub.  After mixing i placed back in the freezer to set for a couple of hours while we had dinner.

 

The ice cream was very good. the tartness from the goat cheese played well with the sweet and tart cherries, smoothed out by the vanilla ince cream. I have one tub left of vanilla ice cream so I'm excited to see what other combination I might be able to put together next week!

Corn and Peach Salad

This is a newer recipe I picked up last year around this time.  A nearby restaurant was serving a salad which included peach, corn, goat cheese, lemon and scallions.  It was excellent and they referenced the farm from which the ingredients came.  It so happened that we were driving by the farm the very next week on a trip to Michigan.  We picked up the same fruit and recreated the salad.

Ever since then this salad has been a popular staple of summer cookouts and family gatherings.  I never new the exact combination that the restaurant used but it has always been enjoyable, fresh and delicious.  Last night I made a slightly updated version that I think is my favorite to date that I would like to share.

For this version I did 2 ears of corn, 2 peaches, 1/4 of a red onion, 1/2 of a chile serrano, goat cheese and a vinaigrette made with lemon, honey and olive oil.  I stripped the corn off of the cob using a knife and cut the peaches into smaller cubes.  I added the thinly sliced onion and minced chile.  To make the vinaigrette I added the juice of two lemons, honey and olive oil with cracked pepper to a jar and shook until combined.  I tossed the salad in my vinaigrette and topped with crumbled goat cheese.  The salad was refreshing and I found it difficult to stop eating, it is really that good.  For dinner last night I served it alongside sincronizadas which are simply quesadillas with ham.

I would recommend incorporating this salad into your summer repertoire.  It goes over very well and is a very fresh and flavorful alternative to a traditional green salad or a slaw.

smoked salmon scrambled eggs

In my previous post, I mentioned picking up some smoked salmon along with the shrimp.  I wanted to make a quick post about what I did. 

First I have to say that the piece of salmon I got looked delicious, it was calling my name from the cases at Calumet Fisheries.  The particular piece I got was rubbed in garlic in black pepper prior to smoking.  I had to eat a few pieces of it alone and it was delicious.  One of my favorite combinations with smoked salmon are eggs.  I think they compliment each other so well and really allow the salmon to shine through.

I proceeded to remove the meat from the salmon and set aside.  scramble was made simply: eggs, smoked salmon and a touch of bleu cheese.  I've had salmon omelettes and scrambled eggs in the past with cream cheese or goat cheese so I felt that just a touch of bleu cheese would give a nice tang. I beat the eggs and let tossed them in a large skillet.  I let them set up a little bit before moving moving them around.  I then folded in the salmon and a bit of the cheese, took off the heat and covered. I wanted the eggs to maintain their creamy quality.  I served along some corn bread that I cut into pieces and toasted which went well with the texture of the salmon and eggs.