Tagliata

Tagliata

Tagliata di Manzo con Rucola ~ Combining a great steak with peppery arugula salad might sound like an odd idea, but I guarantee that once you've tried it, you won't want to eat steak any other way.

Traditionally this steak is always served rare, but if desired you could cook it a little more. It should be meltingly tender though to contrast sharply with the crisp, peppery lettuce.


Serves 4


Ingredients :

• 4 Medium Sized Good Quality Steaks At Least 1 1/2 inch Thick- T-bone, or New York Strip
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Bunches Fresh Arugula, Washed and Dried
• Coarsely Ground Pepper
• Coarsely Ground Sea Salt

Preparation :

Lightly rub the steak with the oil, and sprinkle with pepper. Grill over an open grill for about 4 minutes on each side. Your steak should be rare inside. Trim the fat, and carve the steak into 1/4 inch slices. Serve on a bed of arugula, drizzle with a little more olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve.


Cooking Tip :

Arugula can now be found at many grocery stores or Italian specialty stores. If you are having trouble finding it, speak to your grocery manager at your local grocery. Mine always will carry it if I request it.

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Baba Ghannouj - Eggplant Dip

Baba Ghannouj - Eggplant Dip

Baba ghannouj is a popular dip made from eggplant and tahini. It has a smooth, creamy texture, and a slightly smoked taste. It is traditionally served with pita bread (toasted or fresh), however many people like it as a chip dip with potato chips or tortilla chips.

Prep Time : 15 minutes

Cook Time : 30 minutes


Ingredients :

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup lemon juice (depending on taste)
• 3 tablespoons tahini
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tespoons olive oil
• Garnishment
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoon olive oil

Preparation :

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake eggplant for 30 minutes, or until outside is crisp and inside is soft.

Allow to cool for 20 minutes.

Cut open eggplant and scoop out the flesh into colander and allow to drain for 10 minutes. Removing the excess liquid helps to eliminate a bitter flavor.

Place eggplant flesh in a medium bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mash together. You can also use a food processor instead of by hand. Pulse for about 2 minutes.

Place in serving bowl and top with lemon juice and olive oil. Add other garnishments according to taste.

Serve with warm or toasted pita or flatbread. Enjoy!


Garnishment Ideas for Baba Ghannouj

Baba ghannouj always has to have olive oil on top for garnishment. However you can spice things up a bit by adding crushed red pepper, a dash of cumin, parsley or coriander.

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Barbequed Spareribs

Barbequed Spareribs

Serves : 6 to 8

Ingredients :

• 4 pounds spareribs
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup honey dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water

Preparation :

Place the spareribs in a shallow dish.
In a small bowl, combine the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar and chopped garlic.
Add the mixture to the spareribs and marinate in the refrigerator, covered, overnight.
Turn occasionally to make sure the spareribs are completely coated.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fill a shallow roasting pan with 1/2-inch of water and place in the bottom of the oven.
Place the pork on a rack above the water.
Roast the pork for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the ribs just begin shrinking and the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Brush the spareribs with the honey and water mixture several times during roasting.
Remove and cool briefly before serving.

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ALOO DAHI WALE

ALOO DAHI WALE

Ingredients :

• 500gm aloo (potatoes) boiled and peeled
• 1 tbsp ginger-finely sliced
• a pinch asafoetida
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 cup yogurt (curd)
• 3-4 green chillies
• 2 tbsp clarified butter
• 1 tbsp coriander leaves-chopped

Preparation :

Break the aloo (potatoes), by holding each in the palm of your hand and closing the fist. Keep these unevenly broken potatoes aside until further use.

Heat the ghee, add cumin and asafoetida. When the cumin splutters, add ginger and sauté till slightly fried.

Lower the flame, add yogurt 1 tbsp at a time, stirring vigorously until all of it is well blended.

Add garam masala, coriander, salt, turmeric and chilli powder. Stir a few times until well mixed, add potatoes and green chillies, turn around over high heat, until they look slightly fried.

Add about 2 cups water, bring the mixture to a boil, and then simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes.

Serve aloo dahi wale hot, garnished with coriander leaves.

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TARHANA

TARHANA

Ingredients :

• 100 gr. yeast
• 300 gr. onions
• 1000 gr very ripe tomatoes
• 250 gr. big red peppers (may be hot or sweet according to taste)
• 250 gr. natural yoghurt (unsweetened and unflavored)
• 2000 gr flour
• 1 glass of water

Preparation :

Mix yeast with water and make it into a paste.

Peel and strain tomatoes.

Chop the peppers thinly.

Grate the onions.

Mix the yeast, yoghurt, tomatoes, peppers and onions in a bowl until they turn into a thick liquid.

Start kneading the mixture by adding flour gradually.

Knead the dough until it becomes very thick.

Flour a tray, put the thick dough on the tray and cover it with a piece of cloth. If the dough is in a warm place it will puff up in 1 hour, if it is in a cool place it will puff up in 5-6 hours.

When the dough has puffed up, remove it from the tray and knead well.

Then put it on the tray as before and cover it.

Go on with the same procedure until the dough no longer puffs up.

Now that your tarhana is ready, you can take a piece of the dough and see that it breaks without skretching.

Form the dough into small pieces, place pieces on a cloth and let them dry.

Check the pieces as often as possible for drying.

Crumble the dried pieces. (It is necessary to check the dough often, because if the dough dries too much, crumbling gets more difficult.)

When crumbling is over, put the crumbles in a fine sieve and sieve then, put tarhana in dry jars and cover with lids.

Your tarhana is now ready.

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Brazilian Lasagna with White Sauce and Ham

Brazilian Lasagna with White Sauce and Ham

SERVING SIZE : 6 portions

White sauce :

The traditional Béchamel as created by Louis de Béchamel in France is prepared with melt butter, wheat flour and hot milk seasoned with basil, nutmeg and onions.



INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tbs (30 g) butter
• 3 tbs (30g) all purpose flour
• 1 cup (250ml) milk
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp (5g) salt
• 1 pinch ground pepper

PREPARE :

Place a sauce pan in medium heat. Melt the butter with the flour stirring well. Add the nutmeg, salt and ground pepper. Add the milk slowly while stirring the mixture with a wood spoon. Bring the sauce to boil and cook for about 10 minutes or until creamy.

Do not overcook as it can break the starch and thinner your sauce.

Set the white sauce aside to assemble the lasagna.


Meat Sauce :

INGREDIENTS :

• 2 tbs (30ml) vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1/2 lb (250 g) ground beef
• 1 lb ripe tomatoes

PREPARE :

Peel tomatoes, remove seeds and chop.

Brown ground beef in a large sauce pan over high heat with the vegetable oil, onion, garlic. Add the prepared tomatoes and water just enough to cook a thick meat sauce.

Set meat sauce aside to assemble lasagna.


INGREDIENTS TO ASSEMBLE LASAGNA :

• 1lb (500g) uncooked lasagna noodles
• 1/2 lb (250g) sliced mozzarella
• 1/2 lb (250 g) sliced ham
• 2 oz (60g) grated parmesan
• Oregano to sprinkle

PREPARE :

ASSEMBLE :

Bring 4 qt (2L) of water to boil. Add 2 teaspoon of salt. Add four noodles at a time, cook uncovered until tender, but firm. Use a large fork or slotted spoon to remove cooked noodles directly to the baking pan. Spoon meat sauce on baking pan and put the first layer of noodles. Make four layers of noodles as you go cooking them. In between each layer, put meat sauce, mozzarella and ham. In one of the layers, put only white sauce with ham. Cover the lasagna with white sauce, grated parmesan and sprinkle oregano.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 Celcius).

Bake lasagna until heated through or about 20 minutes.

Cover lasagna with aluminum foil during baking to avoid cheese over burn.



Hint :

Meat sauce is better if the beef is ground twice.

Do not overcook the noodles. You can use pre-cooked noodles. Follow packaging instructions.

You can buy Béchamel sauce ready to use in Italian stores. The sauce comes in little aseptic boxes made by Parmalat.

As this recipe makes two lasagnas, you can bake one immediately and freeze the second lasagna assembled for up to 3 months.

SERVE : Serve it warm.

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Penne All'Arrabbiata

Penne All'Arrabbiata

Preparation time : 5 mins

Cooking : 25 mins

Firstly, this fiery dish gains its name Arrabbiata (angry) because of the use of chilli. When preparing this angry dish, feel free to use as much chilli as you want, it is up to you and to your mouth, to make it angry or very angry.

This is a recipe that has its origin in the central part of Italy, more precisely, it belongs to the Roman cooking tradition. As you can imagine, in Italy there are many versions of it because of the different regional cooking traditions that influence this famous dish, some are so adventurous that they have nothing to do with a proper arrabbiata (like the use of cream or anchovies).

I believe the best arrabbiata is in its minimalist form and I believe that an arrabbiata should not contain pork meat (usually bacon) because otherwise we would trespass on another famous Roman dish, the “Bucatini all’amatriciana”, which rightly requires pork meat. The arrabbiata, in its simple way, is an aglio, oglio e peperoncino with the adding of chopped tomatoes, where fresh top quality Ingredients should be used. Also, the adding of Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese is not recommended because it would overwhelm the typical flavour of this dish.


SERVES 4

Ingredients :

• 400 g (14 oz) Penne rigate pasta (cooked "al dente" - see How to cook perfect spaghetti)
• 90 ml (3 ½ oz) Extra virgin Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 2 or 3 Whole dried red chilli (roughly chopped) - see also Using chilli
• 500 g (1.1 lb) Chopped tomatoes
• A small handful of flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped)
• Salt for seasoning

Directions :

Chop the garlic and chilli. Heat the Olive Oil in a sauté pan (medium heat) and add the chopped Ingredients (garlic/chilli) into the pan. Sauté for a couple of minutes or until the garlic becomes golden in colour. When the garlic has turned to golden, add the chopped tomatoes. Stir for a few seconds. Season with salt. Stir again for few seconds. Now, cook on medium/low heat for about 20-25 minutes, to reduce the sauce. After this time the suace will be ready.

A few minutes before the arrabbiata sauce is ready, boil your pasta and when the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it and add it into the pan containing the sauce. Stir for few seconds to coat the pasta with the sauce. Do this when the pan is still on the heat. Then, sprinkle with chopped parsley. Give a quick stir and serve immediately.

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Grilled Asparagus with Lemon and Mint

Grilled Asparagus with Lemon and Mint

Grilled Asparagus is the perfect side dish to many main courses, including meats and seafood. Serves 4-6.

Prep Time : 30 minutes

Cook Time : 7 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. fresh asparagus
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon mint
• salt and peper

Preparation:

About 30 minutes prior to grilling, combine olive oil, lemon juice, and mint.

Brush fresh asparagus with olive oil marinade and allow to sit.

Heat up grill and place asparagus on grill with tongs. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook for about 5-7 minutes.

Serve grilled asparagus immediately.

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Almond Boneless Chicken

Almond Boneless Chicken

Almond Boneless Chicken (batter coated chicken that is deep-fried and sprinkled with almonds) is a specialty in Detroit, Michigan. The total preparation and cooking time will depend on what type of cooking utensil you use to deep-fry the chicken.

For the batter, use a regular or large egg that has been lightly beaten with a fork. Combine the batter ingredients in a bowl and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Ingredients :

• 2 whole chicken breasts, skinned, boned, and cut in half
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry

Sauce :

• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons water
• 3 cups chicken broth, homemade or storebought (low-sodium is best)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms (optional)
• 3 tablespoons chicken fat or butter
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules

Batter :

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon water

Remaining Ingredients :

• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• 1/3 cup toasted, slivered almonds
• 1 green onion, finely chopped (green and white parts)
• Oil for deep-frying, as needed

Preparation :

Sprinkle chicken with salt and sherry and marinate for 15 minutes.

While chicken is marinating, prepare the sauce. Mix together the cornstarch and water in a small saucepan until smooth. Gradually mix in the chicken broth, mushrooms (if using), chicken fat or butter, soy sauce, and bouillon granules. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Let boil for 1 minute, and keep warm.

To prepare batter :

Beat together the cornstarch, flour, baking powder, egg, and water until smooth. Coat each piece of chicken with the batter.

Heat wok or a large skillet and add oil to a depth of 1/2-inch. Heat to 375 degrees. Cook coated chicken pieces in oil until they are golden, turning them once. This should take about 5 - 7 minutes. Drain the chicken on a tempura rack if you have one, or on paper towels.

Cut the chicken diagonally into strips. Reassemble the strips into chicken breast shapes and place on a bed of shredded lettuce. Sprinkle with almonds and green onion. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.

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