Eddie’s House Restaurant in Scottsdale AZ serves up complimentary Blue Cheese Butter topped with Pistou with a bread basket that includes flat breads. It’s very indulgent and delicious! I used an Epicurious Recipe for the flat bread. It was very easy and quick to prepare. The blue cheese butter and pistou are also easy to prepare. You can whip this up for a crowd and they will be impressed.

Ingredients for Flat Breads about 6 servings

1 3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil + extra for brushing breads

flake salt

Optional seasonings like sesame seeds, poppy seeds, zar’tar, rosemary, onion flakes, garlic flakes can also be delicious on flat bread.

Directions

Set your oven to 450 degrees F

In a medium size bowl add all your dry ingredients and make a well in the center. In the well add your water and oil and mix well.

Divide the dough into three balls.

Put your dough ball on top of  parchment paper that fits your baking sheet and top the dough with plastic wrap and roll thin with a rolling pin.

Now remove the plastic wrap and brush with oil. Top with flaked sea salt and what ever other herb or spices you want.

In about 10 minutes in your 450 degree F oven your flat bread should look like this.

Let cool and break up to serve.

You might want to serve with blue cheese butter.

Ingredients for about 6 servings

4 oz unsalted butter – room temperature

4 oz blue cheese – room temperature

2 oz whipped cream cheese

Directions

Mix well and serve.

For the Pistou – You might want to read the more detailed Pistou Recipe I published last week but it’s very easy and I made a big batch to use with other things. Extra Pistou can be frozen in an ice cube tray for latter uses.

12 oz. basil leaves – cleaned and rough chopped

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves smashed

1 Tablespoon salt – kosher or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Just blend till smooth. I note you might want to use more oil. I try to use as little oil as I can so my batch is slightly thick.

It’s just delicious and is another crowd pleaser.

 

 

After trying Adam Leonti’s (from the Brooklyn Bread Lab) recipe for Boule Bread, I felt I used  his basics to create a wonderful rye bread. Using his Boule Recipe I made a great bread that’s very developed in flavor and texture by taking about a day to prepare the dough. I know that rye flour doesn’t have enough gluten in it to become bread so I used two thirds bread flour. Rye bread isn’t like sour dough but has a slight sour with slight sweet and is accented with caraway seeds. Rye bread is essential bread of choice for pastrami, corned beef, rueben sandwiches and patty melts. Rye bread also goes very well with Swiss Cheese.

Ingredients for about 20 servings

4 1/4 cup bread flour (plus extra for the dough ball to rest in)

2 1/4 cup dark rye flour

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 1/2 Tablespoons kosher salt

1 Tablespoon yeast

1/4 cup caraway seeds

3 cups water (use liquid measuring cup)

1/2 cup oil (use liquid measuring cup)

1/4 cup semolina flour (to rest the un-baked loaves on)

Directions

Get out your stand mixer and put all the dry ingredients in the bowl and then slowly add the wet and mix with a spoon before you start up your mixer so the ingredients don’t fly all over. Now put your dough hook on and start out on low and slowly work up to medium high for around ten minutes or until the dough seems very much like elastic.

Now get a large bowl and get your ball of dough and cover it with flour and then wrap the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave the bowl sit out for FOUR hours.

After four hours it will look like this.

Now punch it down and make it into another ball. Cover it again with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for TWELVE hours.

After twelve hours punch the dough down again.

Get out a board and make two loaves.

Put semolina flour under the loaves and make three swallow slashes on the loaves.

Leave the loaves in your oven (not turned on unless you have a proof setting) till they rise and warm up.

Then after 2-3 hours the loaves should look something like this.

You need a well seasoned heated baking stone. If your baking stone isn’t well seasoned or oiled your baking stone will shatter. I preheated my oven for an hour at 475 degrees F and a few minutes before I put the loaf in then I turn it up to 500 degrees F I do this because the suggested heat for my stone is only 425 degrees so I know I am taking a chance pushing it.

Now that your oven and stone are good and hot turn the oven to 500 degrees F to one rack bake. I do note that you are taking a chance of your baking stone shattering. I keep my stone well oiled. I recommend the newer stones made of metal.

Carefully slide one loaf on to the stone and in about 15 minutes it will be done.

The exterior will be very dark like this and you will know that it’s done when you knock on it and it sounds like it is hollow.

Now you will want to repeat with your remaining loaf.

You wind up with two pretty nice flavorful loaves of rye bread. The semolina flour underneath adds a nice crunch and a slight nutty flavor to the bottom of the crust.

Forking Good Rye Bread

 

Pistou is similar to Pesto sauce but lacks pine nuts.

Cold Provencal Pistou sauce is made from Basil, Garlic, Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper.

Newer less traditional Pistou recipes include a cheese like Gruyere.

Pistou means “pounded” and according to Chef Wolfert for true Pistou  the leaves are to be hand torn and Pistou is only made using a mortar and pestle.

Feel free to use a mortar and pestle. I’ll be a little rogue and use my stick blender.

If you happen to have a restaurant supply store near you I recommend to purchase your herbs there because I got a pound of basil for what my local supermarket charges for only four ounces. (supermarkets charge about a dollar an ounce)

If you have leftover Pistou sauce you can freeze it in an ice cube tray so you can pop out a cube when you want it.

I do note my Pistou is slightly thick because I try to use to least amount of oil as possible. Depending on your need you can thin the sauce by adding more olive oil.

While it is traditional to stir Pistou into a soup there are countess other uses. Add it to hard boiled eggs or an egg salad. Pistou in a tuna salad.  Pistol make a fabulous chicken salad. Pistou spread on a grilled cheese sandwich or a poultry sandwich. On a flat bread. In dressing, a dip or Pistou tossed with pasta. A local restaurant called Eddie’s House in Scottsdale AZ serves you complimentary bread and flat breads with blue cheese butter that is topped with Pistou and that’s forking delicious! You might want to give that a try! In the picture below I made flat breads, my version of blue cheese butter and poured Pistou sauce over the blue cheese butter the same way that Eddie’s House serves it.

Ingredients for about 18 ounces I’d say that’s about 12 servings

12 oz cleaned basil

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves – smashed

1 Tablespoon salt – kosher or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Give your basil a rough chop – or hand tear it if you prefer

Blend till smooth – or use a mortar and pestle if you prefer

Pistou is just delicious! The Pastabilities are endless.

 

This Forking Great Buffalo Potato Salad is a little spicy from cayenne pepper sauce. I recommend Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. This potato salad is a crowd pleaser. People will ask you how you made it. The only difficult part of the recipe is cooking the russet potatoes just right. I had smaller medium sized potatoes so I cooked them peeled and cut in half at medium high for 15 minutes till mine were fork tender in boiling water, salt and a little Red Hot Cayenne sauce to flavor the potatoes. I removed about two thirds of the potatoes and let the remaining third cook for two minutes more and mashed them with other ingredients to make that just right creamy sauce. This potato salad came out really delicious and you might want to give it a try. If you have a Walmart Store near you might want to purchase the “Snacking Celery Sticks” wrapped in an American Flag sort of package. They are super sweet and crisp and are better for potato salad than any other celery I ever tried. Most likely you will be using regular celery. Try peeling your celery and see if the celery taste sweeter to you.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

2 lbs russet potatoes – peeled and cut in half waiting in a pot of water

1 Tablespoon kosher salt – to put in your pot of potatoes

5 Tablespoons of cayenne pepper sauce – Frank’s Red Hot is recommended (two of the tablespoons goes into the potato pot and you might want extra for display)

1 cup celery – chopped

1/4 sweet onion  – chopped

1/2 cup radish shredded

1/2 cup scallion chopped

1 carrot fine shredded

1/2 cup low fat mayonnaise

1 garlic clove finely grounded

1/4 teaspoon celery seeds

1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder

1 teaspoon salt – kosher or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

splash low sodium soy sauce – (this brings out more blue cheese flavor)

3 oz blue cheese – crumbled – ( you might use slightly more for optional  garnishing presentation)

Directions

In you pot of potatoes add the 1 Tablespoon of salt and two Tablespoons cayenne sauce. Get the pot on medium high heat.

Cook the potatoes till still firm but fork tender———about  in fifteen minutes. When done remove about two thirds of the potatoes with a slotted spoon and let the remaining potatoes cook till a little softer —about two minutes more.

Now drain the water and mash the one third of potatoes with mayonnaise, three Tablespoons cayenne pepper sauce, garlic, celery seeds, cayenne powder, teaspoon salt, black pepper, and splash of soy sauce. Mix well.

You potatoes might need a little breaking down at this point. Decide and break them down less than you want because as you stir they will break down more. Fold in all the remaining ingredients except the blue cheese and then fold in the blue cheese last.

This Buffalo Blue Cheese Potato Salad came out really delicious and Forking Great!

For serving to a crowd you might want to top with a few splashes of cayenne sauce and a little more crumbled blue cheese.

 

 

 

When you have a bunch of eggplant and squash lying around you might want to prepare Thomas Keller’s Eggplant Chutney. After all this chutney is served at The French Landry and if it’s good enough to be on the menu there then you should forking make it because it cost about a thousand dollars a couple to dine there.

The French Laundry is considered to be one of the top fifty best restaurants in the world and has a three star Michelin Rating.

Now I can’t say if I did this recipe justice or not but at least it’s close. I followed the directions and made very few minor substitutions due to what I had in my kitchen. I used a whole red bell pepper instead of half a red and half a yellow. The other substitution was that I used all green squash instead of half yellow and half green. The only problem I had with preparing this recipe was adding my toasted curry powder to the sachet I made. The powder fell threw so If I made it again I’d just throw the curry powder in with the tomatoes , wine and juices and not worry about placing  the curry in a sachet.

If you ordered the Skate ( a fish that looks similar to a stingray) at the French Laundry it would be served over this chutney.

I got this recipe off the web. You can find this recipe at www.food.com , www.recipegreat.com , www.yummly.com , www.recipebridge.com , www.familyoven.com just like I did.

Ingredients for 6 servings

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1 cinnamon stick – 1- inch

1 clove

1/2 lemon zest of, cut in 2 inch strips

1/2 orange zest of, cut in 2 inch strips

8 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup shallot – minced

1 cup tomatos – peeled – seeded, finely chopped

1/2 cup red wine

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons orange juice

3 cups eggplant – finely diced

1 1/2 cups  zucchini – finely diced

1 1/2 cups yellow squash – finely diced

3 Tablespoons butter unsalted, cut in small pieces (optional- leave out for vegan)

1/4 cup roasted sweet peppers – finely diced

1/4 cup roasted yellow peppers – finely diced

1 teaspoon parsley – chopped

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1-In a small skillet, combine curry powder, cinnamon stick and clove and place on medium heat, toasting till aromatic; removed from heat and wrap spices in a cheese cloth with lemon and orange zest and tie the cheese cloth to make a sachet.

2-In a medium saucepan, combine 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and the shallots and sauce over low heat until shallots have softened – about 4 minutes.

3- Add the tomatoes, red wine, sugar, lemon and orange juices, and add the sachet.

4- Simmer until the liquid has reduced and the mixture resembles a marmalade- about 20-25 minutes.

5- Remove from heat and discard sachet.

6- Ina large skillet over medium heat, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil and then add the eggplant and sauté till tender-about 5 minutes.

7-Drain eggplant on paper towels set on a rack.

8- Return the skillet to medium heat, add two more Tablespoons of oil and when the oil is warm, add the zucchini and yellow squash and sauté till tender. 4-5 minutes.

9- Drain the zucchini and squash.

10- Note: Dish can be prepared in advance to here and chilled several hours; if it’s chilled bring to room temperature before proceeding.

11- Reheat the tomato mixture and whisk in the remaining 2 Tablespoons of oil.

12- Add butter one piece of a time, whisking to emulsify the sauce. (this step can be omitted to “veganize” the recipe).

13- Add the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash.

14- Fold in red and yellow peppers and parsley.

15- Serve warm.

16- If served as a base for skate (as at The French Laundry ), this serves six; as a condiment or as part of an appetizer plate, it will serve more-the yield is roughly 6 cups. I thought it was interesting and not like anything I ever had before. It says on the recipe that this dish can be made in advance but I thought the flavors were much more bright on the first serving.

 

A few weeks back I tasted one of the most delicious Indian Dishes I ever tasted. It was called Kauai Bhindi Masala from Mayuri Palace in Phoenix AZ. Little did I know I was eating Okra. They cooked it in the most pleasing way I ever had cooked okra. I actually thought I was eating green bell peppers in a very delicious aromatic spicy sauce. I figured a similar dish could be made with green beans with chickpeas. I looked up bunches of recipes for Kauai Bhindi Masala and none of them seemed exactly like what I tasted. They were more simple with less ingredients so I winged it and came up with this. It’s not exactly what I tasted at Mayuri Palace but this dish is an inspired dish that came out delicious!

My husband will very rarely will try Indian Food but when this was on the stove he ran in to see what smelled so good. He tried it and said it was really delicious so it really was.

Ingredients to make around 4 servings

8oz. blanched green beans – cut in bite size pieces

1 sweet onion chopped

1 tomato chopped

1 red bell pepper chopped

1 Tablespoon ginger – grated

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 very spicy hatch chile – roasted with skin removed and chopped well – (or any very hot pepper(s) that you like)

1 teaspoon chile powder

10 cashews crushed to powder

3 garlic cloves – minced

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup water

4 branches (store package size) curry leaves – chopped well

15.5oz can low sodium garbanzo beans (chick peas) – rinsed very well

Directions

Tomatoes, onions, peppers, olive oil, garlic, cashews all go in a sauce pot on medium high heat and you cook till peppers and onions are soft. Make a well in the center and add all spices and cook them for about a minute.

Add everything left except the green beans and let reduce. You need to cook it maybe ten minutes and at the end add the green beans so they are hot.

Enjoy with rice or bread. Feel free to add pulled chicken to make this a dinner.

This is really good!

 

 

 

Home Made Sweet Butter is very easy to prepare. It’s only whipped cream that you whip too far.

My directions are for using a stand mixer.

Ingredients for about 10 servings or a little over 7 oz of butter

1 pint of heavy cream (not whipping cream)

Directions

Pour cream into mixer bowl. Attach whip. Set speed to #8 or near high.

At around 5 minutes you will have whipped cream.

Around at 8 minutes it almost looks like cottage cheese.

At around 10 minutes it looks like yellow cottage with bigger curds. At this point the butter gets done really fast.

Now you drain the butter and keep the thin buttermilk that you can use for baking or adding to potatoes.

You now have a little over 7 oz. of butter and about 9oz of thin buttermilk.

Home made sweet butter is forking easy.

 

On the Chew Food Variety TV Show the guest Martina McBride prepared her Mom’s Peach Cobbler Recipe. This recipe is based on Martina McBride’s Mom’s Peach Cobbler Recipe. I felt like trying this recipe because this recipe sounded very interesting. It sounds crazy to pour boiling water over your cobbler but that’s what she did so I thought I’d give it a try. On the Chew TV Show they said that this was a Southern Technique. I had a bunch of blueberries so I did this recipe with blueberries instead of peaches. I thought adding malt to the cobbler might be fun so I did that and upped the cinnamon a little. I also added an egg because batter without an egg sometimes is trouble. The topping is interesting. It’s almost like a layer of cake. This is a solid recipe and is great for a family gathering. I do note the blueberry filling does thicken up a bit on day two but seems perfect day one. Next time I am going to try tapioca flour instead of corn starch. I don’t think it will thicken as much. I do also note when I watched Martina McBride prepare this dessert she used much more sugar than this recipe suggest. According to the comments on the TV show most people think she used three cups instead of one cup but after doing this recipe I’d say she would have had to use more boiling water for this recipe to come out right. I used what ABCChew posted on line but from watching the TV Show I’d say you’d get a crispy sweet crust of sugar on top if you added as much sugar as what I saw Martina McBride add. For your first time doing this style of cobbler I’d suggest doing it this way without the extra cups of sugar.

Ingredients to make about 12 servings

18oz blueberries (and another 18oz. later)

1/2 lemon juiced and zest

1 cup sugar

2 oz butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cornstarch

18oz blueberries

3 Tablespoons butter melted

1 cup flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup malted milk powder

1 XL egg – beaten

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

neutral non-stick spray (vegetable or canola)

2/3 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 Tablespoon corn starch

Directions

set oven to 375 degrees F

Spray a 1/2 pan with a neutral non-stick spray.

In your sauce pot add 18 oz of blueberries, lemon juice, zest, butter salt and corn starch mix well and turn up your heat to medium high and then reduce to a slow boil and when your mixture is thick then add the remaining blueberries and keep on heat until it bubbles. This mixture can go in your half pan now and set it on the side.

In a large bowl combine 1 1/4 cup sugar and egg and well well and set to the side. Now mix in the melted butter.

In a medium bowl combine 1 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, malted milk powder and mix well.

Slowly mix in some of dry ingredients from medium bowl and then slowly mix in milk in thirds till done.

Now pour batter over blueberries.

Put 2/3 cup water in a pot to boil.

combine 1 cup sugar, 1 Tablespoon corn starch, and one teaspoon cinnamon. mix together and then sprinkle over batter.

Now pour the boiling water over what you just sprinkled on.

Set in a 375 degree F oven for about 45 minutes.

Enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream. Vanilla ice cream is a nice match.

Perfect  for a family gathering. The dessert isn’t too sweet and is almost not sweet enough until you add the ice cream and then it’s perfect.

 

 

 

 

Gnudi and Gnocchi are pasta that are very similar. They both are very light pasta dough. Gnudi translates to naked and you are suppose to think of Gnudi pasta as a ravioli without the dough. It’s filling that is barely held together and is made of ricotta cheese and sometimes a vegetable. It’s almost like eating just the filling from a ravioli.  The Gnudi should look like the inside of a ravioli. It takes two days to make them because the soft filling sits in semolina flour overnight and draws out moisture and leaves a slight skin around the Gnudi.

Below the recipe for Forking Awesome Spinach and Fresh Ricotta Cheese Gnudi.  I’ve included my directions for making fresh ricotta cheese and also the way I prepared the spinach for these Gnudi. This recipe takes two days to prepare. Also I do recommend reading the whole recipe before you give this a try.

A word of warning if you do the cheese and spinach my way the recipe will work out. Your cheese needs to be fairly firm and the spinach must be drained very well.

Ingredients to make about 80 Gnudi about 10 servings

1 bunch spinach (fresh cooked and drained)

1 XL egg – beaten

2 cup fresh ricotta cheese (It should be on the firm side, creamy but firm)

1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano

big pinch white pepper -ground ( about 1/16 t.)

pinch fresh nutmeg grated

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh black pepper

1 cup flour

2 cup semolina flour – (this doesn’t go into gnudi batter…..the semolina is used to draw out moisture from the pasta)

extra virgin olive oil to sprinkle on Gnudi so they don’t stick.

finish to taste with fresh ground sea salt

finish with fresh ground black pepper to taste

garnish with hard Italian cheese if desired

Directions.

Either blend the well drained spinach and chop fine or just blend it with the egg. Get a large mixing bowl add the spinach mixture, all cheeses, spices and flour. Stir till it’s mixed well. To insure the gnudi will come out right. Make a tester gnudi and add it to a pot of boiling water to make sure it will stick together. Also check the flavoring and determine if the spices are correct for you. If the gnudi fell apart that would be because either your cheese wasn’t drained enough and or your spinach wasn’t drained enough. If it’s only slightly off you can fix it by adding more flour 1/4 cup and testing again.

Get baking sheets and line them with a thin layer of semolina flour. Fill a pastry bag with gnudi dough and make like your filling raviolis.

No sprinkle the tops with more semolina flour.

Cover the Gnudi with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator over night.

The next day just slow boil them a portion at a time until they float. Eat and enjoy.

These came out really amazing. My husband said that this dish would definitely be on his last meal list along with my fresh ricotta gnocchi.

 

Home Made Ricotta Cheese is easy to make and taste better than store purchased  ricotta cheese. There is no comparison. Below is the recipe for basic ricotta cheese. Once you make it you can play around with the richness and the texture. you might want to use more cream in it for certain things like desserts. This recipe makes around 2 1/2 pounds of Ricotta Cheese.

Ingredients for around 10 servings

1 gallon whole milk

1 pint heavy cream

teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1-11/2 lemons just use the fresh squeezed juice.

Directions

Put a large pot with the milk, cream and salt on medium heat. After a while you will need to lower the heat to low so the mixture doesn’t boil over.  You need to bring the mixture to a slow boil. This will take a long time but it’s worth it. Let it slow boil like this about five minutes.

Then you want to slowly add the fresh lemon juice until you get curds. Let it stay on the heat for up to five minutes.

It will look like this.

The easiest and fastest way to drain the cheese is to use a wire mesh basket.

The cheese was whey easier to make than you thought! For best results let this chill in your refrigerator over night. You will have up to 2 cups extra than what is needed for this recipe. You either enjoy fresh or you can freeze left over cheese for another time.

A word of caution.

Don’t use manufacture’s cream or boxed heavy cream that doesn’t need refrigeration because they are full of gum and your cheese won’t curdle but will thicken slightly. If you accidentally find that you used a poor quality cream with too much gum you can try to save it by using a colander lined with cheese clothe and let it drain for a day in your refrigerator.

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Ingredients for spinach

1 large bunch spinach

1/4 sweet onion sliced very thin and rough chopped

either a quart of  vegetable stock or about 5 Tablespoons of vegetable stock paste to add to boiling water.

Now it’s time to prepare the fresh spinach. Whenever possible purchase full grown spinach instead of baby spinach because baby spinach is flavorless. You might want to trim off some of the large stems and then do several rinses on the spinach to make sure you got rid of all the dirt. There are many ways to prepare spinach. You can steam, sauté and boil spinach. I usually don’t boil most vegetables but I prefer spinach to be boiled because this is a low flavor vegetable and you can easily infuse flavor into spinach by boiling it briefly.

After the spinach is clean give it a rough chop.

Now add the spinach, onion and vegetable stock to your sauce pot and bring to boil about three minutes and then drain.

When the spinach is cool enough to handle you need to use your hands and squish the water out. Don’t get excited your not left with much spinach but your left with enough for this recipe.