Mediterranean Style Lemony Cucumber Apple Salad

This salad is made with lots of unusual ingredients. I used LEMON CUCUMBERS, Lemon Verbena, Preserved Lemon and Lemony Sumac. The lemon cucumbers do taste different than regular cucumbers.They are very crisp and sweet. I’ve never come across lemon cucumbers in the store and I only find them at Farmers Markets. The Lemon Cucumbers I’m using today I purchased at the Pinnacle Peak Farmers Market but I remember last year I purchased them from the Anthem Farmers Market. I also just came across Lemon Cucumbers at the Scottsdale Farmers Market. These Lemon Cucumbers go extremely well with honey crisp apples. Lemon Verbena, Preserved Lemon, Sumac, Urfa Pepper, Walnuts and Feta sort of gives this salad a Mediterranean Accent.

The salad is easy to prepare. I also used walnuts in this recipe. I heated the walnuts for a short time in the microwave with water to remove some bitterness from the walnuts. Then  put a little oil, sugar and salt and pepper on them and just ten minutes in the oven so they were nice and lightly seasoned.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

8 lemon cucumbers – skin removed, sliced up and cut in halves

1 cup assorted bell pepper slices

1 large honey crisp apple cut in slices

1 celery rib – cut in thin slices on an angle

1/4 cup sweet onion sliced very thin

12 dates (preferably local Arizona Grown) – pits removed and chopped

1 preserved lemon – fruit and white on skin scraped out well and rind chopped

3 sprigs lemon verbena (about 100 leaves) – chopped

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon course sea salt

1/2 teaspoon sumac

1/2 teaspoon urfa red pepper

1 cup walnuts – slightly broken

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon sugar

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

4 oz sheep’s milk feta cheese crumbled (preferably the mild and creamy kind without tang) to top salad with

Directions

Turn oven on to 350 degrees F.

Put the walnuts in a microwavable bowl and add one cup of water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and microwave for 3 minutes. You will see a lot of brown water that is very bitter. You’ve just removed much of the bitterness from the walnuts. Drain the walnuts well and put in a small mixing bowl and add I tablespoon olive oil, I Tablespoon sugar and fresh ground sea salt and black pepper to taste. Spread walnuts on a baking sheet and place in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Then set to the side. Top salad with walnuts and feta cheese when it’s ready to be served.

Get a large bowl and everything left expect the cheese gets mixed together.

When ready to serve top with walnuts and cheese.

I know it’s pretty darn tasty and I also was told that this was really good!

Mediterranean Style Lemony Cucumber Apple Salad

Enjoy!

The Forking Truth

Duchess Potatoes -The Special Occasion Potato

If there is a place in your heart for potatoes then there should be a place in your stomach for Duchess Potatoes. You ask, “What are Duchess Potatoes?’ Duchess potatoes are a level up from a mashed potato. They are a slightly richer due to egg yolks and are presented in a more elaborate way. Fine dining restaurants used to serve Duchess Potatoes on the menu. They were usually served with something like Chateaubriand (savory tenderloin filets with bernaise  sauce) that is usually served table side. It’s very rare these days to see Duchess Potatoes on any menu anywhere. Actually it’s very rare to come across any table side food anymore like Fish en Papillote, Steak Diane, Baked Alaska and so on. Sadly classic fine dining has gone out of style.Gone are the days when dining out was a big deal and people would dress their best to go out. I am lucky that I have experienced classic fine dining before it went out of style. One dish I really loved was Duchess Potatoes.I always looked forward to Duchess Potatoes when I had a fine meal out. These are the potatoes you wouldn’t normally prepare at home because THEY ARE A LOT OF WORK FOR WHAT THEY ARE. You WANT to dine out and have these potatoes. Here is what might be considered a lost recipe. Duchess Potatoes….Perfect for a special occasion! Not your everyday potato. These potatoes freeze very well so you can use what you need and freeze the rest and pull them out when you need.

Ingredients for about 16 servings.

3 lbs potatoes – peeled and cut in half – covered well with cold water in a sauce pot

1/2 onion – to boil with potatoes and discard afterwards

1 carrot – to boil with potatoes and discard afterwards

1 celery rib – to boil with potatoes and discard afterwards

2 garlic cloves – to boil with potatoes and discard afterwards

2 Tablespoons kosher salt – to boil potatoes

8 oz unsalted butter – 4oz to put into potatoes and 4 oz to finish potatoes

1 1/2 teaspoon course sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon white ground pepper

1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

3 large egg yolks (just the yolks) – slightly beaten

16 pinches piment d”espelette

2 Tablespoons fresh either parsley, thyme or celery leaves finely chopped

non stick spray

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F and spray baking sheet(s) with non stick spray. Set to the side.

In a sauce pot add the potatoes, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, kosher salt and medium boil till potatoes are fork tender. About 15 minutes.

When the potatoes are fork tender drain the water and throw out the onion, garlic, celery and carrot.

At this point you should rice the potatoes…….

After all these are special occasion potatoes so you SHOULD rice the potatoes for the fluffiest potatoes….but you can mash them only if you have a very good masher that looks like a disk with holes in it. It’s almost as good as a ricer. So either rice or mash if you can but don’t get mad at me if you mash and have lumps later from mashing that screw you up.

Hand mix the butter in now while potatoes are still hot or warm.

Hand mix in the sea salt, black pepper, white pepper, fresh grated nutmeg.

Taste for seasoning ….make any adjustments you want but it’s pretty close to perfect if you measured correctly.

Hand mix in the egg yolks.

Get out a #6 Ateco Star tip and a disposable pastry bag. Snip the end off the bag to insert tip. Fold the bag half way down and add potato mixture.

Twist end to hold in potatoes.

The bag is easy to use now.

If you aren’t used to piping do a practice swirl in the pot with potatoes. You just swirl.

Get out your sprayed baking sheet(s)

Now pipe out swirls well spaced like this.

20 minutes later …….

Melt the extra butter you have left and finish the potatoes with your choice of fresh herb and pinches of Piment D’ Espelette pepper.

Duchess Potatoes (The Special Occasion Potato)

Everybody will FORKING LOVE THIS! Man and Beast!

“DANG!” “THOSE ARE FORKING GREAT POTATOES!”

“That Runt is just being a suck up but them potatoes are lip smacking!”

“I FORKING LOVE Duchess Potatoes”

“Make any day a Special Occassion with Duchess Potatoes!”

The Forking Truth

Open Breakfast Sandwich made with 90 second Microwave Bread in a Mug.

Rocco DiSpirito’s 90 Second Microwave Bread in Mug

This recipe is a variation of Rocco DiSpirito’s recipe for 90 second Bread in a Mug from his latest cook book. I saw Chef Rocco make this kind of bread on the Rachel Ray TV Show so I thought I had to give it a try. I can’t do his recipe as written because it was based with Buckwheat Flour and my husband is allergic to buckwheat so I don’t use anything with buckwheat. The other ingredient that I swapped out was light coconut milk because I had light soy milk in my pantry and needed to use it. So I really did Rocco’s Recipe but I used Whole Wheat Graham Flour and Soy milk instead of buckwheat flour and light coconut milk . I also added some seeds to the bread for flavor. This is a Fun Recipe that is easy and quick. You can play around with it like I did. Thank you Rocco for a really fun and really easy recipe.

Ingredients for 4 servings

2/3 cup graham flour (Rocco’s recipe calls for buckwheat flour)

1 teaspoon sesame seeds (no seeds in Rocco’s)

1 teaspoon caraway seeds (no seeds in Rocco’s)

1 teaspoon poppy seeds (no seeds in Rocco’s)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 pinch course sea salt

1/4 cup plain low fat soy milk (Rocco’s recipe calls for light coconut milk here)

2 large eggs

non stick spray

Directions

Spray two coffee mugs with non stick spray.

Put all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix with your fork.

Spoon the mixture into the sprayed coffee mugs.

Microwave about 90 seconds.

Pop the breads out.

My mugs are Ikea slim on the bottom

It’s not bad….just slightly dry.  It taste better than it looks. I think this would be good for little cocktail sandwiches. Chef Rocco DiSpirito made breakfast sandwiches with his Buckwheat and Coconut Milk Breads that looked good!

I don’t know if every flour and every milk out there will work with this recipe or not…You just have to give it a try if you care too.

Thank You! Rocco DiSpirito for sharing your 90 second Microwave Bread in a Mug Recipe.

The Forking Truth

Spicy Mexican Style Cole Slaw

This is a light and refreshing slaw with many Mexican Food flavors. Some of the ingredients are harder to find like fresh epazote. You should purchase fresh epazote from your closest Mexican grocery and keep some in your freezer because epazote freezes well. It also is a very strong flavor so you always use very little but it’s that flavor in Mexican Food that’s gives the food a closer to authentic taste. The recipe has lots of different kinds of pepper in the recipe but the slaw isn’t fiery hot it’s just on the spicy side. DO NOT USE GROCERY STORE pickled peppers….because they have an awful taste to them and your slaw won’t come out tasting  good. You can almost always find pickled jalapeños at farmers markets and Mexican grocery stores.

Ingredients for 6 small servings

1/2 head of cabbage – sliced very thin on a mandolin

2 carrots – thinly shredded

1/2 small sweet onion – very thinly sliced

1/4 cup pickled jalapeños (preferably my recipe or house made by someone) chopped small

1 pickled serrano (preferably mine or a house made one) chopped fine

1 garlic clove ground to paste

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons canola oil

2 Tablespoons lime juice  (fresh squeezed)

2 Tablespoons cilantro

1/4 cup scallions (chopped)

1/4 teaspoon fresh epazote

Directions

In a large bowl combine cabbage, onions, carrots, salt and sugar and mix well.

Let sit about 1/2 hour.

Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Chill and serve.

Spicy Mexican Style Cole Slaw

It you enjoy Mexican Style Food you should enjoy this slaw.

The Forking Truth

Fresh Ricotta Gnocchi with Pesto

Gnocchi are Italian dumplings. There are many variations of Gnocchi out there. Potato, semolina, flour, ricotta, with or without spinach and other vegetables or prunes, bread crumbs and cornmeal. My husband strongly prefers the fresh made ricotta gnocchi that I make so much so that he has said on more than one occasion that my ricotta gnocchi would be his last meal if he could choose. These ricotta gnocchi are light in texture and very flavorful. They are done in the lump style, extruded from a pastry bag and are not rolled out. Less handling of the dough does produce a more tender gnocchi. Mine come out almost like gnudi. This recipe is harder to explain than most recipes I publish. I feel it’s essential to prepare your own ricotta cheese since it’s FAR SUPERIOR and far more flavorful than store bought ricotta cheese. Maybe the most difficult part of the recipe is that I can’t give you an exact measurement of flour since the amount with differ depending on how dry you got your ricotta cheese. You might want to prepare the ricotta the day before and let drain slowly overnight wrapped in cheese cloth in a colander to drain. If you use a mesh strainer to drain cheese I find you can get the same results very quick. I do recommend doing one tester gnocchi so you can figure the amount of flour out. It’s better to start with too soft a dough and add 1/4 cup more flour at a time till it’s correct. This time instead of my usual light coating of tomato sauce I used pesto. Other sauces that would be delicious with these gnocchi would be  browned butter with sage or a light cream gorgonzola sauce or a home made red sauce. You will have extra ricotta cheese and extra pesto from this recipe that you either use in another dish or freeze. The pesto recipe is just a guild and it does come out too thick because I try to use as little extra oil as possible. FEEL FREE to add all the oil you want or some water to thin it down to desired consistency. Read all the directions first and the recipe will be much easier to understand.

Ingredient for about 6 servings

1 gallon whole milk

1 pint heavy cream

3 lemons (just the fresh squeezed juice)

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups ricotta cheese (fresh made from above recipe)

1 L – XL egg beaten

1 cup parmigiana reggiano – shredded

1 1/2 cup flour *****NOTE this is approximate  ******(…If your ricotta is nice and extra dry you only need one cup of flour. This would be ideal. Do tester gnocchi and add 1/4 cup flour more and repeat if necessary……you shouldn’t need more than 1 3/4 cups flour…if you do your cheese was way too wet)

few grates fresh nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

pinch white pepper

1 tablespoon kosher salt (to boil gnocchi)

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (to coat gnocchi with so they don’t stick) ((YOU CAN SKIP THIS INGREDIENT if you have your pesto made)

3 cups basil leaves

2 garlic cloves – grated or ground

2 oz pine nuts – toasted – 225 degrees F 10-15 minutes

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil ****** ( you will need to thin this down by adding at least 1/2 cup more oil or water)

1/2 cup Italian hard cheese shredded preferably Sardinian Fiore Sardo or pecorino or parmesan

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

pinch or two of sugar

Directions

Make Ricotta.

In a large pot on medium low heat add milk, cream and salt. The contents need to go to a slow boil. This will take at least an hour. Once it’s at a slow boil….VERY SLOWLY….SLOWLY drizzle in the lemon juice into the parts where it’s boiling. The contents will curd. Let it slowly boil a few minutes. Use a wire strainer or a colander lined with paper towels and slowly drain contents. Put cheese in a container in the refrigerator. Leftovers can be frozen.

Make the pesto.

Blend together basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, Italian hard cheese, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, black pepper and sugar. Thin as needed with either more oil or water and  adjust seasoning if desired. Set to the side.

Make Gnocchi.

In a medium bowl mix together 2 cups of your fresh made ricotta cheese, 1 egg, 1 cup parmigiana, 1 cup flour, few grates nutmeg, 1/2 t. sea salt and a pinch of white pepper. Mix well.

Put a pot of salted water on to a medium boil. You might want to add kitchen twine to one side of the pot because the string can slice off the gnocchi you push threw the pastry bag.

To fill the pastry bag fold it half way down, add dough and twist the end shut.

Do one tester gnocchi.

It should float within a minute. Test for flavor and texture but it should be right. If you want them firmer you can add slightly more flour but a gnocchi is suppose to be a very light tender pillow. The best ones are made with as little flour as possible. Once you have the gnocchi the way you like them squeeze out the gnocchi one bag at a time and use twine wrapped on the pot handle to slice off each gnocchi.

let the gnocchi boil till after they float. Take them out with a slotted spoon and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil or pesto on them so they don’t stick together.

Serve. Should you happen to have leftovers they freeze well.

“All Beagles are Italian.” “There will not be any FORKING leftovers.”

“Hey Runt, you are only 50% Beagle so that means you are only 50% Italian”. “You are a runt and you come from a long line of runts…..according to your DNA your Mom was a runt, your dad was a runt and 6 generations back you all were runts!” “I’m a BIG Aussie Shepard and I’m getting Gnocchi first!”

“I still love you no matter what you say you really big beautiful Aussie Shepard.” “We can gnocchi together.”

Enjoy!

Fresh Ricotta Gnocchi with Pesto

The Forking Truth