Meatballs Constructed...Meatballs Deconstructed

Hello all!! As I'm writing this blog, I have two dinners roasting away in the oven. Those will be in the next post later this week :) Tonight's blog is similar to the last blog post in that the recipes use a common ingredient. If you couldn't guess it by the title of this blog, that common ingredient is meatballs! Up first is Rachael Ray's "Veal & Pork Meatballs with Mushroom Gravy & Egg Noodles".Using the leftover meatballs, the second recipe in this post will be Rachael's "Stuffed Peppers with Broken Meatballs & Rice". First up, the meatballs, constructed.

So first up I made the meatballs. This recipe is a great go-to recipe for meatballs and would be perfect to make extra and pop them in the freezer for when you wanna make meatballs. These meatballs use a mixture of ground pork and ground veal. Where i live in NY now they have something called meatloaf mix. It's a mix of ground beef, pork, and veal. You could use that in this if you wanted. If not, you can get a pound and a quarter each of ground pork and ground veal. For my friends back in Alabama, unless you go to Whole Foods or a butcher shop, you might have a problem finding the ground veal. If so, you can totally substitute 2 1/2 lbs of ground pork. First I preheated the oven to 400 and then I put the bread in a bowl and doused with milk. A great tip is to save white bread when it starts going stale by popping it in the freezer. All you have to do then is thaw out a couple slices when you need them. Next i put the ground pork and veal in a bowl. Then I took the bread slices, squeezed the milk out of them, and crumbled the bread into crumbs in the bowl with the meat mixture. The milk soaked bread will help to bind the meatballs and keep them moist. Next i added in the beaten egg, Parmigiano-Reggiano, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg and a healthy drizzle of EVOO. At this point I mixed up the meatball mixture. You want to make sure all the ingredients are well combined, but don't over mix. Once mixed, I portioned out the meatballs. I find the easiest way to do this and get them all about the same size is to use a small ice cream scoop (which I actually never use for ice cream lol). Once all the meatballs are made you should have about 40-48 meatballs. Rachael Tip: Place the meatballs on a cooling rack over a baking sheet so that the heat gets all the way around them in the oven. I also put some foil down on the baking sheet to catch the fat as it drips. It makes for easier cleanup later. The meatballs will bake for about 18-20 minutes. While they are in the oven you can make the mushroom gravy! 

First up I added the dried porcini mushrooms into a small sauce pot and covered with about 2 cups of chicken stock. Dried mushrooms are pretty common in the regular grocery stores these days but if you can't find them, you can omit them. The downside to omitting them is that you won't get the added bonus of the mushroom stock that comes from reconstituting the mushrooms. Bring the pot to a low boil and then turn down to a simmer and let the mushrooms steep while you work on the gravy. I added the EVOO and butter to the skillet and while it melted I sliced the crimini mushrooms. Rachael Tip: NEVER run mushrooms under running water to clean them. This makes them rubbery. Instead, take a wet paper towel or kitchen towel and wipe them down. Once the butter foamed I added in the mushrooms and let them brown. Rachael Tip: DO NOT salt the mushrooms until they are deeply browned. Adding salt will draw out liquid and will slow down the browning process. Once browned I added the shallot, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and let it cook a few minutes to soften the shallots and garlic. Be careful not to let the shallots or garlic burn. These cook up very quickly and if they go too far it will turn the garlic bitter. After the shallots and garlic were softened i sprinkled in some flour and stirred for a minute or so to cook out the flour. At this point I added in the wine. The recipe calls for Marsala. Marsala and mushrooms is a marriage made in heaven. I didn't have Marsala on hand and just didn't wanna make a trip to the wine store. I did have dry sherry so I used that instead. You could also substitute a dry white wine as well. After the wine cooked out for a few minutes I removed the reconstituted porcini from the stock, chopped them and added them into the gravy. I then added in all but the last little bit of the porcini stock. Rachael Tip: When working with dried mushrooms, always reserve the last bit of stock. Grit from the dried mushrooms will settle in at the bottom of the pot and if you pour all the stock in, you'll be pouring in the grit as well. Once the gravy thickened i added in a little cream, stirred to combine and reduced the heat to low to keep the gravy warm while I made the boiled the egg noodles. Once the noodles were done, the dish was ready to plate up. I plated some of the noodles, piled the meatballs on top, and poured the mushroom gravy on top. 

This one was really great and reminded me of a classic Swedish meatball dish. The recipe for the meatballs makes two trays of meatballs. One is used in this dish and the other tray is used in the next dish. Here is the steps for the meatballs, deconstructed.

In this meal, the leftover meatballs are coarsely crumbled and combined with a rice pilaf to make a stuffing for bell peppers. The first thing to do is to prepare the peppers. You can use bell peppers of any color you choose. Rachael used Red so naturally, I did what Rachael did. By all means, if you wanna use a different color or even mix and match different ones, go for it. To prepare them, I sliced them lengthwise in half and scooped out the ribs and seeds from the peppers. Using a pairing knife, I made an "X" in the flesh of the peppers. Be careful doing this. I got in a hurry and actually sliced all the way through one of my peppers. It held up ok, but still, be careful. At this point I salted and peppered the inside of the peppers, placed them cut side down in a baking sheet, drizzled with EVOO and baked them for 20 minutes. Doing this helps to soften the peppers a bit and gives them a head start for when you add in the filling. While the peppers were in the oven, I started the filling. 

The first thing I did was make the tomato sauce. I grated the plum tomatoes on a box grated into a dish. This skins the tomatoes while you grate them and makes quick work of the whole process. Once the tomatoes were grated, I grated in the purple onion and garlic and added in the chopped fresh thyme, salt and pepper. This recipe calls for a fresno chile pepper to be grated into the sauce. For whatever reason, I haven't been able to find these in months up here. So like in the last post, I used a rounded tablespoon of the chili paste I have in the fridge. Once the sauce was made I started the rice pilaf. 

For the pilaf I added a drizzle of EVOO and some butter to my rice pot. When the butter foamed I added in about 1/2 cup of broken thin spaghetti. Something that is a little easier, and actually what the recipe calls for, is to use 1/2 cup of Orzo pasta. Orzo is rice shaped pasta and works perfectly in rice pilaf. I mistakenly bought thin spaghetti at the store a couple months ago, so rather than waste it, i'm using that for pilaf when I make. Anyway, once added to the pot I let the pasta toast until deeply golden, as you see in the picture here, and it has a nutty fragrance. Once the pasta start to brown, it will brown quickly, so keep an eye on it. Once the pasta was nice and golden I added in half the tomato sauce and the rice and stirred it a couple minutes to allow the rice to toast up a little bit. At this point I added in the chicken stock, brought it to a boil, and reduced the heat to simmer. For long grain white rice, it should take 18 minutes to cook. I always go by 18 minutes and it always comes out perfect. While the pilaf is cooking, you can crumble up the meatballs. You want the meatballs to be coarsely crumbled. If you crumble it too fine, the meat will get lost in the stuffing. Once the rice pilaf was done I added the rice mixture to the meatballs along with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. At this point I stuffed the peppers. I read one reviewer on food network.com who said that you could probably cut the filling in half. DO NOT DO THAT! My guess is this person didn't see Rachael make this and didn't see that she packs the peppers full. The filling was just enough to stuff all the peppers for me. Don't be skimpy with it. Pack them full!! Once the peppers were stuffed I topped them with the remaining tomato sauce, some more parmigiana-reggiano cheese, and and a drizzle of EVOO. 

Once they were baked I took them out of the oven and plated up two pepper halves per plate. These were so delicious. I've never been a huge stuffed pepper fan but these were great. I'll definitely be making these again. Hope you guys enjoy these recipes. Later this week, I'll be doing another post. That one will be a first for me. Tonight I made dinner and then also did a make ahead meal for Wednesday. I joined the gym yesterday and will be going for a training session Wednesday night so I needed to be able to get dinner on the table quickly after that. Rachael would be so proud to know I'm using her Week in a Day recipe and the strategy of cooking ahead for the week. Until then, Hope you guys enjoy the recipes and give them a shot. As always the recipe links will be below. Also, the link for Rachael's #9millionmeals challenge will be listed as well. If you can, please take the time to donate. $10.00 can supply 100 meals. Until next time guys, Buon Appetite!!

Recipes:

Both of these recipes were featured on Rachael Ray's Week In A Day and can be found at the links below:

Veal & Pork Meatballs w/ Mushroom Gravy & Egg Noodles:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/veal-and-pork-meatballs-with-mushroom-gravy-and-egg-noodles-recipe.html

Stuffed Peppers w/ Broken Meatballs and Rice:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/stuffed-peppers-with-broken-meatballs-and-rice-recipe.html

Donate to Rachael Ray's #9millionmeals challenge here:
http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/9-million-meals/

Two Blogs For The Price Of One

Hello All! So for this blog, I'm gonna be posting about two separate dinners that utilized one protein, Braised Pork Shoulder!! For this post, I'll be talking to you about Rachael Ray's "Braised Pork Tacos" and "Pork Ragu". First up, the tacos!

First I made the pickled onions. These are simple and such a nice pop of acidity in the tacos. I combined the vinegar, sugar, salt and bay leaves in a pot and brought it up to a boiled to dissolve the sugar. While the vinegar mixture was heating, I sliced the onions and layered them in a deli container. A great container for these is those soup containers you get when you order a quart of soup from a Chinese take-out place. I always keep the soup containers and use them to store different things or even to put fresh herbs in on my countertop. Once the sugar dissolved I poured the brine over the onions and allowed them to cool for a bit. Once they stopped steaming, I put the lid on the container, gave it a good shake and put it in the fridge. Every so often until dinner was ready, I took them out and gave them a good shake.

Next, I switched on the oven to preheat to 325 degrees. You'll need to get a boneless pork shoulder between 4 & 5 pounds. My grocery store only had bone-in. I brought it home and deboned it myself. It ended up being a lot of work and I'm sure a butcher could have done it much better. What I would suggest, is if your store doesn't have boneless pork shoulder, take it to the butcher counter and ask the butcher to debone it for you. Most will do it at no additional charge or may charge a couple extra dollars to do so. For all my Birmingham friends, I know for a fact Whole Foods carries boneless pork shoulder, so that's where I would suggest going to get it. To prepare the pork, I took it out of the fridge and allowed it to sit and come to room temperature for about 30 minutes and then patted it dry. Rachael Tip: Patting the meat dry will help you to get a nice crust on the outside of the meat. Once patted dry, I seasoned liberally with kosher salt and pepper. Kosher salt gives meat a great crust, but if you don't have it and don't want to spend the extra money, whatever salt you have will work fine. Once seasoned, I added the meat to a dutch oven with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil over high heat. I actually put my burner on 9, just a little below high. I find that with the electric stove, putting it on high ends up creating too much smoke and my little builder grade exhaust hood just can't keep up with it and my smoke alarms end up going off. Putting it a little below high seems to help with the problem. If you have a gas stove, you will probably be fine. There is just something about the electric coil tops. While the pork was browning, I chopped the onion, garlic, chili pepper and oregano. Once the pork was nice and deeply browned on all sided I took it out of the pot and put it on a plate and covered it with foil. I then turned down the burner to medium-high heat and added in a couple tablespoons of EVOO. I then added in the onion, garlic, chili pepper, oregano and bay leaves. Just a quick note on the fresno chili pepper. For whatever reason, I have found it very difficult to find them anywhere up here for several months now. I have a jar of chili pepper paste that I got in the asian foods section of the grocery store. I have found that using a good rounded tablespoon of that is comparable to 1 fresno chili pepper, so if you can't find the fresh chills you can substitute the chili pepper paste. Once the veggies softened for a while I deglazed the pan with the beer. Typically, when Rachael uses a Mexican beer in a recipe, she suggests to use a Negro Modello. I don't drink beer, so typically I would just purchase 1 beer and use that. The problem there is that the grocery stores here do not allow you to purchase 1 beer. Whole Foods will, but that's a good 20 miles away from me, and I typically don't drive there. For this recipe, I decided to just get a 6 pack of beer in the bottles and use it and then I'd have it for the next time I needed it. Sadly, my store did not have Negro Modello so I instead bought a 6 pack of Dos Equis. The point is that since it's a Mexican inspired meal to use a Mexican beer. If you are a beer drinker then pick up whatever Mexican beer you enjoy drinking. Once I deglazed the pan and scraped up all the bits off the bottom of the pot, I added in the fresh squeezed orange juice, chicken stock and nestled the pork back into the pot. At this point I brought the liquid to a boil, put a lid on the pot and put it into the oven to braise for about 3 hours. 


Once the pork was tender and literally falling apart when pulled with a fork, I took the pork out of the oven, removed it from the dutch oven to my cutting board, tented with foil, and allowed to cool. While the pork cooled, I put the dutch oven over medium-high to high heat and reduced the braising liquid. You want it to reduce by about half and get pretty thick so that when the pork is added back in, it coats the meat. While the pork is cooling and the liquid is reducing, you can process your chipotle peppers in adobo. Chipotle in adobo are smoked jalapeño peppers in a vinegar and spice mixture. The problem with these is that most recipes call for 1 pepper, 2 at most. You're

then left with a can full of peppers that you have to figure out what to do with. Rachael, has just the trick. Rachael Tip: Take your remaining chipotle peppers and slice them open, seed them and add them into a blender or food processor with all the adobo sauce and process them into a puree. Once pureed, add into a plastic food storage bag and make into a little log and put it in the freezer. The next time you are cooking a recipe with chipotle in adobo, break off what you need and put the rest back in the freezer. Be sure to label it so you know what it is later on when you come across it in the freezer. This tip is really great and it's a perfect way to store the chipotle without worrying it'll go bad before you use it again. When I do use the frozen puree at a later date, I generally cut off an inch per pepper the recipe calls for. So that means if the recipe calls for 1 pepper, cut off an inch of the frozen puree. I've included a couple pictures here so you have an idea what i'm talking about. Once the meat was cool enough to handle I shredded it with two forks. When the sauce had reduced enough, I added in the chipotle pepper and lime juice, stirred to combine and then added about 2/3 of the pork into the sauce and stirred to combine that as well. The other 1/3 of the pork was placed into a plastic container and put in the fridge until I made the pork ragu later in the week! While the pork was in the oven, I shredded up some monterey jack cheese, shredded a little purple cabbage, and lastly, just before ready to serve, I heated the tortillas by placing them between damp paper towels and popping them in the microwave for about 20 seconds. You can also put them in the oven for a few minutes or blister them in a dry skillet on the stove top. 


To plate the tacos, I placed the tortillas on the plate and spooned in a little of the pork mixture. I then topped the pork with the monterey jack cheese, shredded cabbage and pickled onions. The recipe also calls for you to add either pickled jalapeños or banana pepper rings on top of the tacos. I didn't want to spend the extra money for either because I knew they would go bad before I used them again so I omitted them but they would definitely add another pop of color and a nice spicy bite to the tacos. These were good and had a great depth of flavor to them. Next up is the Pork Ragu made from the remaining pulled pork!

Typically during the week, I cook dinner on Sunday night and then again on Wednesday night. The tacos were Sunday dinner and the Pork Ragu was Wednesday's dinner. 

To kick this recipe off, I heated up a dutch over over medium-high heat. While the pot was heating I chopped up the carrot, celery, onion and garlic. Once chopped I added in the EVOO to the pan and all of the chopped veggies, the bay leaf and seasoned with salt and pepper. Once the veggies had softened, I added the tomato paste and stirred it a minute to wake it back up. Rachael Tip: Stir the tomato paste until it is fragrant. It's been in a tube for a while and needs to be woken up. Once the tomato paste was fragrant I added in the white wine and deglazed the pan, picking up the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan from softening the veggies. Once the wine had cooked out a couple minutes I added in the chicken stock, the shredded pork and a pinch of ground cloves. Once the sauce had come back up to a simmer I added in the whole milk, reduced the heat and allowed the sauce to simmer while i brought the pasta water to a boil and cooked the pasta. Rachael Tip: The milk will add fat to the sauce and allow the sauce and it's flavors to stay on your tongue longer. 

Once the pasta water came to a boil, I salted the water and dropped the pasta. For this sauce, you really need to use a wide pasta like paparadelle. If you aren't going to use a long cut pasta and are instead going to use a short cut pasta, I would suggest using a penne rigate or a rigatoni. I use an egg paparadelle for this that I get in the organic section of my supermarket. For my birmingham friends, Whole Foods carries this and it's fantastic. I cooked the pasta to al dente, drained it and put it back in the hot pot. Rachael Tip: Putting the pasta back into the hot pot will evaporate the remaining water off of the pasta. At this point I tossed the pasta with the pork ragu, plated it and topped it with chopped fresh flat leaf parsley and freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese. This one is super comforting and very nicely flavored. I hope you guys enjoy these and will give them a shot. You won't be disappointed.

Don't forget about the Rachael Ray #9millionmeals challenge. The link to donate will be posted below along with the links to the recipes featured in this blog. Until next time, Buon Appetito!!

Recipes:

Both of these recipes were featured on Rachael Ray's Week In A Day and can be found at the links below.

Braised Pork Tacos:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/braised-pork-tacos-recipe.html

Pork Ragu: 
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/pork-ragu-recipe.html

Click below to donate to the Rachael Ray #9millionmeals challenge!!
 http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/9-million-meals/

A Visit to The Rachael Ray Show!!

Hello All!

So this blog has nothing to do with a recipe that I've cooked, but rather my recent visit to see the inspiration behind this blog, Rachael Ray. 

So my friends who read this blog are all aware that my birthday is September 11th. This year was the big 3-0 for me so I wanted to do it big. I had already planned to go to dinner at Butter Midtown (Chef Alex Guarnaschelli's restaurant...AMAZING btw, if you are ever in NYC you should definitely go!) as well as tickets to see Idina Menzel in  If/Then on broadway (Again, if you are in NYC, you should DEFINITELY see this musical). About a month before my birthday, I got an email telling me tickets were available for The Rachael Ray Show on September 10th, the day before my birthday. I took this as a sign that I was meant to go and accepted the tickets. 

So on September 10th, I go to the show and luckily I got there early enough to get admitted for the taping. Once we got into the studio, Rachael comes out and thanks us for coming, but tells us she has some bad news. The guest who was supposed to be on the show that day had a conflict and would not be there and that they only had 5 out of 7 segments to film for us. She then gave us the good news that she was vouchering the entire audience to come back for a guaranteed seat for a taping the next week! Needless to say, I was perfectly ok that the guest wasn't there because I was gonna get to see the show twice in one week! 

So this past Tuesday I went back to the show and was able to see a whole taping and I have to say I had more fun than I have had in a long time. It was such a joy and a privilege to see someone whom I look up to so much be exactly what I imagined them to be. Rachael was funny and sweet and just a joy to watch. The best part was that I got to watch her cook not once, but TWICE!! During the breaks between takes the audience warm up guy would be joking and cutting up with the audience, but I couldn't tell you a single joke because I was completely engrossed in what Rachael was doing in the kitchen. It was such a fun experience that I can't wait to have again. However, one day I am going to be on that show, not as an audience member, but as a guest and I'm gonna cook with Rachael in that kitchen, and I'll be able to cross the number 1 thing on my bucket list, off the list :) 

For this season of The Rachael Ray Show, because it's the 9th season, they are doing a charity project called the 9 Million Meals challenge. The goal is to raise enough money and collect enough food to deliver 9 Million Meals to the hungry. One of the many things I love about Rachael is her giving heart and her desire to give back to those less fortunate. This drive is pretty awesome and one that I'm happy to support. Below is the link to The Rachael Ray Show website where you can donate money to the 9 Million Meals challenge. You don't have to donate a lot. $1.00 = 10 meals!! I'm pretty sure we can all spare at least a $1.00. If you are going to NYC, I'd encourage you to try to get tickets to the show and if you do, be sure to bring canned goods with you to donate. Even if you don't get tickets, take canned goods down there anyway!! Every little bit helps. 

Again, this was such a wonderful experience for me and it definitely made my 30th birthday the best one yet! Look for a new food blog coming soon!! And remember, donate to the 9 Million Meals challenge below! Until next time...

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/9-million-meals/

Rachael Ray, Southern Style...

Hey y'all! Wednesday night I cooked a Rachael meal that I have had in my arsenal for about 4 years and never made. So glad I did because it's fantastic! Here is Rachael Ray's "Smoky-Spicy Bass with Greens & Andouille and Corn Cakes with Honey".

First up is the fish. The recipe for this meal calls for Black Bass and also calls for skin-on filets. I've never seen this in my grocery store or even in the Whole Foods in Birmingham. You could probably ask them and they might could order it if you know in advance you are going to make this meal. You could definitely get it ordered if you have a local fish market. The grocery store I went to here in NY did not have any fish with the skin on so I just got a nice firm white fish to use. If you are able to find a white fish with the skin on that's perfect. If not, any firm white fish is good for this recipe. First I turned the oven on 250 and placed a platter in the oven to warm. Unless you just have a gigantic pan, you'll have to cook the fish in batches. Having the warm pan in the oven allows you to cook the fish in batches and keep the first two warm while the other two cook. For the fish I combined the necessary ingredients to make a sort of cajun/blackening spice rub. If you'd like to know the specific ingredients, they can be found in the recipe link below. Once combined, you will want to score the skin if you are using skin on filets of fish. Rachael Tip: Scoring the skin on the fish will help to prevent it from shrinking too much while it cooks and help to get you a nice crispy skin. Once scored, season both sides liberally with salt and pepper and coat both sides well with the spice mixture. The recipe calls for you to heat up a cast iron skillet over medium-high to high heat. I find in my cast iron skillet, no matter how much oil I use to coat the skillet, the fish still sticks. I have a non stick griddle pan that I will probably use when making this again. If you are better at using your cast iron skillet than I, then by all means, go for it! When the pan was nice and hot I added in the vegetable oil and then the fish. If you are using skin on filets, you will want to put the skin side down first. Cooked the fish for about 4 minutes per side and then transferred the fish to the warm platter in the oven. Once all 4 filets were done I turned the oven off and let the residual heat keep the filets warm to proven the oven from over cooking the fish. 

While the fish is cooking you can start working on the greens. The recipe here calls for dark spicy greens such as mustard greens or dandelion greens. My grocery store again didn't have either one so I got 1-1.25 lbs of collard greens. If your store has mustard or dandelion greens, go with one of those and be sure to get at least 1 lb of greens. Greens cook way down so if you don't get enough, you'll end up with a very small amount of greens once they are cooked. If your store does't have mustard greens or dandelion greens, any dark bitter greens will do. Just be sure to get at least 1 lb. and no more than 1.25 lbs. Stem and chop the greens. Rachael Tip: To stem the greens, hold the greens upside down by the stem and using the opposite hand, curl your middle finger and index finger around the stem like a claw and strip the leaves from the stem. Once the greens were stemmed I piled them up and rough chopped them. After chopping the greens I added a couple of inches of water to my oval sauté skillet and brought the water to a boil. Once it was boiling I salted the water and added in the greens to cook for just a couple minutes. Rachael Tip: Boiling the greens for a couple minutes in salted water will help to take some of the bitterness out of the greens. After the greens boiled for a couple minutes I removed them to a colander to drain and dried out the pan. Make sure you dry it out well. Leaving water will cause the oil to spatter when you put the skillet back on the heat and add the EVOO in. After drying the skillet out and putting it back on the heat I added in a few tablespoons of EVOO and then the andouille sausage. If you're grocery store has a large butcher section, such as Whole Foods for my friends back in Birmingham, you may can find fresh andouille. If using fresh, remove the casings from the sausage and add it to the skillet, crumbling it as you add it and cooking it until it's is done. My grocery store did not have fresh andouille so I used andouille from the packaged meats case. This product is already fully cooked so all you need to do is chop it into half moon shapes and add it to the skillet. I let it cook for just a few minutes until it started to brown a little and it had rendered out it's fat. At this point i added in the onion and cooked until the onions became translucent. Once the onions were done I added in a little chicken stock, the greens, salt, pepper, freshly grated nutmeg and a couple splashes of apple cider vinegar. Rachael Tip: Freshly grated nutmeg really helps to bring out the flavor in any dark green. Also, you could use apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar either one. I really love the flavor of apple cider vinegar so I went with that. I let the greens cook for a few minutes until tender and then turned the heat down to the lowest setting and put the lid on to keep them warm until i finished the meal. Just a disclaimer: I'm not a fan of greens in general. I've never liked collard greens, but I absolutely LOVED these. They were my favorite part of this meal. 

Last up were the corn cakes. This is really simple but has such a nice flavor to it. I took a box of jiffy corn muffin mix and followed the instructions on the box for corn pancakes. To give these a twist, Rachael adds in corn kernels from to ears of fresh corn as well as a couple scallions chopped, whites and greens, and the zest of an orange. Rachel Tip: Here is Rachael's trick to getting the kernels off the cob of an ear of corn. Take a large bowl and a smaller bowl and invert the smaller bowl inside the larger bowl. Stand the ear of corn up on the the smaller bowl and scrape down the cob with a sharp knife, scraping the kernels off the cob. The large bowl catches all the kernels and you don't have to chase them all over the counter. Once the kernels were scraped off the cobs I added them, the scallions and the orange zest into the batter. Pour the pancakes out onto a greased griddle heated over medium-low to medium heat. I used canola cooking spray, but Rachael recommends nesting a chunk of butter in a paper towel and greasing the hot griddle that way. Either way works great. I then used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour out the pancakes. it should make 8-10 corn pancakes. While the corn cakes cooked I placed a glass jar of honey in a pot with water and brought the water up to a boil. Once it boiled I turned it down to low and let the honey stay warm in the water bath. This makes the honey pourable. Once the cakes are done, you plate them up with the fish and the greens and drizzle the cakes with the warm honey. 

This one was a delicious meal all the way around and definitely a southern comfort style meal. Rachael's father is from Louisiana and you can definitely see how the flavors here come straight from that side of her family. Hope you guys enjoy this one. I sure did. Buon Appetito!

Recipe:

This meal was featured on Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals. The recipes can be found at the link below.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/30-minute-meals/22-series/southern-nights.html

Let Freedom Ring!!

Hello all!! First of all, Happy Fourth of July!! May we all remember how blessed by God we are to live in a free country and may we always be grateful to the men and women who have served, are serving and will serve in the future to protect the freedoms we hold dear. To celebrate today I made some of my favorite summer cookout foods, but I made them in the comfort of my apartment. Two of the recipes are Rachael's but I also used a Bobby Flay recipe and a Giada DeLaurentiis recipe! To celebrate Independence Day, here is Rachael Ray's "Coney Island Chili Dogs and Salt & Vinegar Oven Fries" with Bobby Flay's "Creamy Cole Slaw" and for dessert, Giada DeLaurentiis' "Citrus Gelato".

First up was starting the oven fries. Turn the oven on to preheat at 425 degrees. Something in this recipe that i had never seen in any other recipe was to preheat the baking sheet in the oven while the oven preheats. I find that in order to keep the oven fries from being too piled on top of each other, it works better to split them between two baking sheets, two potatoes per sheet. If you have an extremely large baking sheet, which I don't, you can probably get them all in an even layer on one baking sheet. While the oven preheats, peel the potatoes. I leave a little skin on each end of the potatoes when I peel them just to have a little textural difference but to peel or not to peel is completely up to you. If you like the peel a lot, you can leave it all on or peel and leave the ends like I did, or if you don't like it peel all of it off. Once they are peeled, slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and then cut 5 wedges per half, coming out to 10 wedges per potato. Once the oven reaches 425 degrees, take the baking sheet, or sheets, out of the oven and drizzle the pan with EVOO. Scatter the potatoes in an even layer, coat in the EVOO and sprinkle with grill seasoning. Put the potatoes in the oven and let them cook for about 40 minutes until they are soft on the inside and crispy and golden brown on the outside. Be sure to check them every so often and turn them, otherwise they will burn on one side. When the potatoes come out of the oven you sprinkle them with sea salt and drizzle them with malt vinegar. These were so tasty and reminded me of salt and vinegar potato chips! While the oven was preheating I actually started working on the coney island chili sauce and here's how I made that!!

Start off by heating a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a medium sauce pot. As all my friends can attest to, my kitchen looks like a Rachael Ray product display and I have both the RR oval dutch oven and the RR round dutch oven. I used my round dutch oven for this. I find using a cast enamel dutch oven gets a wonderful caramelization on the beef and holds the heat well while the chili cooks. If you don't have a dutch oven, a medium sauce pot will work just fine. For this recipe, I really wanted to get a nice crust on the meat before I began breaking it up. Rachael has to great tips for making that happen. Rachael Tip: To get a great caramelization and crust on the meat, first take the meat out of the fridge to take the chill off of it. If you put really cold meat into the pan it seizes up. Second, pat the meat dry before putting it into the pan. If the meat is wet, it won't caramelize and build that nice crust. Once the meat had a nice caramelization I broke the meat up into fine crumbles. Because this is a chili that is going on top of hot dogs, you don't want huge clumps of the meat. It really needs to be a fine crumble. As I've stated before, I have a pampered chef tool that was given to me that is fantastic for doing that. But, don't go out and pay for an expensive tool just for that. If you have a potato masher it is terrific for breaking up meat. You can also use a wooden spoon, it'll just take a little more work. Once the meat was browned I added in the onion, garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper and let the onions sweat out. The onions are chopped really fine for this recipe so they cook out pretty quickly. Something that was not in the original recipe was to drain the meat. While I love the buttery taste and texture of ground chuck, I don't like knowing I'm consuming that much fat. I drained the meat after he onions were sweated out just to remove some of the fat from the chili. After draining I added the meat mixture back to the pot and added in the tomato paste. Rachael Tip: When using tomato paste in a small can, as in this recipe, or whether it is in a tube, you want to let it cook out a minute to "wake up" the tomato paste. Cook out the tomato paste until it is fragrant and then you can proceed with the recipe. At this point I added in the cup of water and let the mixture come to a boil. Once the mixture came to a boil I added in the spicy brown mustard, worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Before whisking it into the chili I mixed these three ingredients together in a bowl to dissolve the brown sugar and then added it. At this point I turned the chili down to a low simmer and let it simmer for about 40-45 minutes to thicken up. Once done I tasted it and adjusted my seasoning as needed. The recipe calls for all beef hot dogs which I highly recommend. It also instructs to cook them by heating water to a boil, reducing to a low boil and then adding the hot dogs in for 4-5 minutes to heat through. I actually prefer to have a hot dog grilled than boiled. I like them boiled, but I prefer them grilled. I don't have a grill pan but i do have a little griddle pan. I heated the griddle pan over medium heat and sprayed with canola oil cooking spray. When the pan was hot I placed the hot dogs on the pan and let them get nicely browned all over. All beef hot dogs have a casing and when grilled or placed on a griddle the casing gets crispy and just pops in your mouth! When the dogs were done, I placed the hot dog buns on the griddle for a few seconds to toast, placed the dog in the bun and topped with the coney island chili sauce. The recipe calls to put chopped raw white onion on top, which is perfectly acceptable. I'm not a huge fan of raw white onion, so I didn't but if you like it by all means go for it!!

The other side dish I made for this meal was Bobby Flay's "Creamy Cole Slaw". I actually made this the night before so that all the flavors could meld together. First up shred the head of cabbage and the carrots. First quarter the head of cabbage. Slice into the cabbage on an angle to remove the core. I used my food processor because I like a very finely shredded cole slaw. If you like larger pieces of cabbage, thinly shred it with a knife. If you don't have a food processor you can also shred the carrots on a box grater. The dressing for this slaw is really delicious and had ingredients I wouldn't have though to use. I mixed together the mayo, sour cream, grated onion, sugar, white wine vinegar, dry mustard, celery salt and pepper. The recipe also calls for regular salt. I would mix the dressing without the regular salt first, taste it, and then decide if you need to add any salt. I tasted it and the celery salt was plenty for my taste. Once mixed, I added it into the cabbage and carrot mixture and let it sit over night. Before serving, I tasted again and mine needed a little extra sugar. Be sure you taste your food ;)

Last, but not least, was dessert. Fourth of July just wouldn't be the Fourth of July without homemade ice cream, or at least not in my family. So for dessert was Giada's "Citrus Gelato".  I actually made this the night before as well so that it had plenty of time to set up in the freezer. First up is to make the base for the gelato. I whisked together the egg yolks and sugar in a stainless steel pot until mixed and then slowly whisked in the heavy cream, whole milk and buttermilk. I then grated in the lime, lemon and orange zest and mixed together.  Place the pot over medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the custard coats the back of the spoon. It should take about 8-10 minutes. The best way to tell if it is ready is to coat the back of the spoon and then run your finger down the middle of the mixture. If the mixture stays separate and doesn't come back together, it's done. The mixture then goes into a 4 cup measuring cup and stays in the refrigerator for 3 hours. I did stir it every so often to prevent a skin from forming on top of the mixture. After three hours you can either cover and leave it in the fridge until you are ready for it, or you can go ahead and mix it in an ice cream maker. I have a cuisinart countertop ice cream maker and it takes about 25-30 minutes to be ready to go in the freezer. While the mixture is mixing, peel and segment the orange but cutting between the membranes and pulling the segments out. Cut them into 1/2" chunks and in the last 10 minutes or so of freezing, add them into the mixture. Once the mixture was done, I transferred it into a container with a lid and put it in the freezer. I have to say it set up perfectly and was just refreshing and delicious! 

This whole meal was a great one for Independence Day and all the flavors worked so well together! Hope you guys will try some of these for your next cookout. I promise, you won't be disappointed! Buon Appetito! 

Recipes: 

The recipe for the Coney Island Chili Dogs is found in Rachael Ray's The Book of Burger. The recipe for the Salt & Vinegar Oven Fries is found in Rachael Ray's My Year In Meals. 

The recipe for the Creamy Cole Slaw and the Citrus Gelato can be found at the links below.

Creamy Cole Slaw:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/creamy-cole-slaw-recipe.html

Citrus Gelato:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/citrus-gelato-recipe.html

Classic Italian Comfort

Hello all. So it's been a little while since I've posted anything here. I apologize. I've noticed whenever I have a life change, I tend to neglect this blog lol. The most recent change for me was starting a new job, so naturally, I haven't posted on here. But, now that I'm settled into my job I'll try to get back in the swing of things. Tonights dinner is one of my favorite Rachael Ray meals. It's comforting, it's hearty, it's delicious, and it's extremely easy to make. This, is Rachael Ray's "Genovese Red Sauce with Egg Tagliatelle." 

So the only thing you really have to cook in this recipe is the sauce. To start it, heat a few tablespoons of EVOO in either a soup pot or a cast iron dutch oven. My dutch oven is probably my favorite piece of cookware to cook in. If you don't have one, I would HIGHLY recommend getting one. You can do virtually anything in them and they just work beautifully. But I digress. Heat the EVOO over medium heat. When the oil is rippling and just starting to waft a little smoke, add in the pancetta. Stir it until it begins to get crispy and then add in prosciutto. Again, stir until the prosciutto begins to get crispy and then add in your veal. If you don't like veal, you could substitute 80/20 ground beef. Veal is very buttery in taste so if you are going to substitute a ground beef, it needs to be a fattier grind in order to get that buttery flavor. If you are really trying to watch your figure, you could substitute ground sirloin, but the flavor will not be the same and the sauce will not have the same richness. Crumble the meat into a fine crumble until it is lightly browned. A have a pampered chef tool that was given to me by my Aunt Lori that is star shaped and is the best tool I've ever used to break up meat. If you don't have that, a potato masher is great tool to use to break up the meat! Once the meat is browned, add in the onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt, pepper and a few grates of nutmeg. Stir the onions in and then partially cover the pot. By leaving the lid slightly ajar, you allow a little of the steam to escape, but trap most of it in, which forces the onions along and cooks them a little faster. The recipe doesn't call for this, but once the onions are soft and translucent, I actually drain the fat off the meat. I've made this sauce before and not done that, and it ends up with a lot of fat on top of the sauce. Draining the fat off definitely helped to reduce that to virtually no fat on the top of the sauce. Once the meat is drained, add it back to the pot and add in the tomato paste and stir it until it is fragrant. Once fragrant, add in the wine and heat through, then add in the milk. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and let the sauce simmer for 3 hours. You'll need about 2 cups of chicken stock or water to thin the sauce as it simmers. I find that adding 1 cup after an hour of cooking and another cup after the second hour of cooking will keep the sauce from going too far. 

Once the sauce is complete, heat a pot of water to a boil. When it comes to a boil, salt the water and drop the pasta. The pasta that is called for in this dish is egg tagliatelle. When I lived in Birmingham, I was never able to find this pasta. Whole foods had an egg pappardelle pasta that I always used when living there. One of the perks of living in NY is that there are specialty markets all over the place and lucky for me, there is an Italian foods market a mile from my apartment that sells egg tagliatelle. If you can't find the tagliatelle, you can substitute an egg pappardelle or an egg fettuccine. Cook the pasta to al dente or even a hair shy of al dente as it will continue to cook when you toss it with the sauce. Once the pasta is done, reserve a little bit of the starchy cooking water. Rachael Tip: The starchy cooking water is the glue that will bind the sauce to the pasta. So don't forget the starchy cooking water! Once I drained the pasta, I added it back to the hot pot and added the starchy cooking water and half of the sauce. Add in about 1/2 cup of grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese and toss it together until the sauce wraps around and sticks to the pasta. Pour the remaining sauce over the pasta and then serve in shallow bowls topped with more parmigiano-reggiano cheese and a little chopped flat leaf parsley.

This really is one of my favorite Rachael Ray meals. It is so simple to make but the flavor is the definition of pure comfort. If you don't make any other meals I blog about, you have to make this one. You'll love it as much as I do. Buon Appetito!!

Recipe:

The recipe for this meal was featured on Rachael Ray's Week In A Day and can be found at the following link. 

http://recipes.foodnetwork.com/search?q=genovese+red+sauce

Who Says Mexican Has To Be Heavy?!

Hello all! So as everyone knows, this past Monday was Cinco de Mayo, which is when pretty much everyone either cooks Mexican food, or goes out and gets Mexican food. Everyone except me lol. I actually had leftover spaghetti on Cinco de Mayo but decided that I would make a Mexican dish this weekend and what I decided on was a Rachael west coast version of a Mexican dish, tacos. Here is Rachael Ray's "Margarita Fish Soft Tacos with Pico de Gallo Rice Pilaf".

So the first thing I did was get the fish marinating. This recipe calls for you to use either Mahi Mahi or Halibut. The local grocery stores around me either don't have a fresh seafood counter, or the fresh seafood counter smells absolutely awful. Rachael Tip: Don't buy seafood that smells bad. Most people just assume that seafood stinks. If the seafood is fresh, it should not have an unpleasant odor to it. It should merely smell fresh. I opted to drive to Whole Foods in Yonkers NY to get these groceries so that I could get nice fresh fish that was one, fresh and didn't smell awful, and two, that was sustainably caught. Whole Foods didn't have fresh Mahi Mahi or Halibut so I used Tilapia instead. Any firm white fish will work for these. These are called margarita fish soft tacos because you are basically marinating the fish in a margarita. You make a marinade of tequila, lime zest and juice, vegetable oil, old bay seasoning, and chili powder. Add the fish fillets into the marinade and coat them and let them sit while you begin preparing the rest of the meal. I also put my flour tortillas in some foil and popped them in a warm oven to soften them up once I had the fish going in it's marinade. 

Once you get the fish marinating, you can start on the rice pilaf. In general, when I make rice pilaf, I always use orzo pasta to get it started, and that is actually what this recipe calls for. But, I had about 1/4 lb of spaghetti left over from making the broken spaghetti soup a couple weeks ago so I used that instead. Rice pilaf is simply a mix of toasted pasta and rice. Rachael Tip: You can use the leftover bits from your pastas in rice pilaf. Save the bits left in the box and when you have enough, use them for pilaf! If you don't do that, and being perfectly honest, I never think to save the bits of pasta, you can either use orzo or broken spaghetti. Since I rarely have just a little bit of dried spaghetti on hand, I usually keep orzo in the pantry for making rice pilaf. Add a little EVOO to the pan over medium heat. When the oil ripples, add in the broken spaghetti. Toast it until it is deeply golden brown, but be careful. It will go from toasted to burnt really quickly. Once the pasta is toasted, add in the rice and chicken stock. When the stock begins to boil, turn the pan down to low, place a lid on it and cook for 18 minutes. When it is finished, you will fluff it up with a fork and add in your Pico de Gallo! The instructions for the Pico are coming up!

Once the rice is underway you can begin working on the tomatillo sauce that you use inside the tacos! Drizzle a tablespoon of veggie oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Chop up a small purple onion (I refuse to call them red onions, they are not remotely red, they are purple), a couple cloves of garlic and a jalapeño pepper. If you don't groove on super spicy food, you can remove the seeds and rib from the jalapeño. The heat in chili peppers lives in the ribs and seeds so stripping those out will tone down the heat level. Once the veggies are chopped, add them to the pan and sweat them out. While the onion, garlic and pepper softens, you can begin working on the tomatillos. Tomatillos look like small green tomatoes and come with a papery husk on the outside. They are actually not related to tomatoes at all, but are in the gooseberry family and have a very tart and sweet flavor. Tomatillos have a lot of pectin in them and when you remove the husks off of them, you will feel that the skin is tacky. Rachael Tip:  Rinse the tomatillos under a little cold water and it will remove the stickiness from the skin. Coarsely chop them and when the onions are soft, add in the tomatillos and season with salt, pepper and 1/3 palmful of cumin and toss to combine. You'll let them go for about 8 minutes until the tomatillos are breaking down and becoming very soft. When the tomatillos are broken down, remove them from the heat and let them stand for about 5 minutes. Then you can add them to a food processor or blender with a ripe avocado coarsely chopped, a nice tablespoon of honey and the zest and juice of a lemon. Blend it until it is farely smooth and set it aside until you are ready to serve. If by some chance you can't find tomatillos, you can purchase a good quality salsa verde and simply puree that with the avocado, honey and lemon. This sauce is so tasty and the recipe makes a ton. It would be good with tortilla chips or even poured over grilled chicken. If you have leftover, freeze it! Once you add the tomatillos to the pan, heat up your griddle pan over medium heat. If you are making this on the grill outside, you'll probably already have it heating. 

Once the tomatillos are in the skillet, you can make the Pico de Gallo that you will toss with the rice pilaf. Finely chop a purple onion, a jalapeño pepper and seed and chop 4 plum tomatoes. Rachael Tip: To seed the tomatoes, cut them in half and give them a gentle squeeze over the GB. If you don't speak Rachael Ray lingo, GB is the garbage bowl :). This will seed the tomatoes so that the Pico doesn't add too much liquid to the pilaf. Combine the veggies with the zest and juice of a lime and a little salt to taste. Rachael Tip: Be careful not to add too much salt to the pico. Lime hits the same points on your tongue that salt does so if you over salt, the added lime juice may make the dish come across as too salty. When the rice is finished, fluff it with a fork and add in the Pico de Gallo!

So the last thing to do is to cook the fish. Once the griddle pan is hot, spray it with some cooking spray and cook the fillets about 3-4 minutes per side. My pan would only accommodate two fillets at a time so I cooked them in two batches. While the fish is cooking, shred up a half a head of purple cabbage (again, it's not red) to put in the tacos. Rachael Tip: To remove the core from the cabbage, cut into quarters and slice into them on an angle. When the fish is finished cooking, you are ready to plate up the tacos. 

Take your warmed tortillas and put a couple on your plate. I found one fillet would give me enough for 2 tacos. Take a fillet and flake it up with a fork. Add it into the tortilla. Top the fish with some of the tomatillo sauce and then put some crunchy purple cabbage on top. Plate up a serving of the Pico de Gallo pilaf along side and enjoy. This one was really tasty, and it's pretty light. I had never tried fish tacos but had always wanted to try them. This recipe was very tasty and definitely brings out a Mexi-Cali flavor. Hope you guys enjoy this one! Buon Appetito!

Recipe: 

This meal was featured on Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals and the recipes can be found at the following links. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/margarita-fish-soft-tacos-recipe.html 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/pico-de-gallo-pilaf-recipe.html

New Version of an Old Favorite

Hello all! On tonights menu is a nice and light soup that's pretty figure friendly and has great flavor. According to Rachael, she came up with this recipe, quite comically, out of laziness. She was home by herself, didn't feel well, was a rainy day and was going to make Minestra. For any that might not know what Minestra is, it's a traditional Italian soup that generally has white cannellini beans and escarole, otherwise known as "Beans and Greens". Shockingly, Rachael didn't have any cannellini beans at home and didn't want to go to the store so she came up with this recipe. Here is Rachael Ray's "Broken Spaghetti Soup with Escarole".

So the first thing you deal with is the broken spaghetti. To start the soup, melt a couple tablespoons of butter in the soup pot over medium heat. When the butter foams up, you can break up 3/4 of the 1 lb. of spaghetti noodles and add them to the pot. The leftover 1/4 of a pound of pasta can be reserved for another dish called Green Harissa Chicken Thighs that will be featured in my blog soon, or if you are going to follow the Week in a Day strategy you can toast up the whole pound and simply save the 1/4 pound when you add the toasted spaghetti to the soup the night you serve. You want to let them toast until they get a nice golden color. Now, not every noodle will turn that golden brown color. If you waited for all of them to toast, you'd end up with burnt spaghetti noodles long before they toasted. Also, watch them closely, they will go from toasted to burnt very quickly and then you have to start over. Once they are toasted, remove them from the pot and set them aside. This recipe was taken from Rachael's show Week In A Day and is intended to be made ahead and reheated and served later in the week. If you are going to do that, store the cooled, toasted spaghetti in a container until the night you are going to serve. 

Once the pasta is removed from the pot, add a couple tablespoons of EVOO and add in the onion, garlic and herb bundle and season it with salt and pepper to taste. Unlike me, make sure you have all the fresh herbs in your fridge. This herb bundle is made from fresh Thyme and fresh Italian Flat Leaf Parsley. I was positive that I had fresh Thyme in the fridge so I didn't pick any up at the store. Once I started making the soup, I opened the package only to realize that the Thyme had all turned black except for one lone sprig. So, I tied that sprig in with the parsley and tossed it in. To bring out the Thyme flavor, I added a good pinch of ground thyme. But, be more prepared than I was and make sure you have what you need ;). Once the onions have sweated out and are nice and soft, you are ready to add in the escarole. 

Escarole is a bitter green that is part of the endive family and is high in folic acid, fiber, and vitamins A and K, so it's a great way to get some good nutrition. Like most bitter greens, escarole wilts way down when cooked. So to handle the escarole, take the large bundle or the two small to medium bundles and coarsely chop them. You are going to have a mountain of greens on your cutting board. Don't panic. Again, they are going to cook way down when you wilt them into the soup pot. So once you chop them, add them to the pot and season with nutmeg. I also seasoned with salt and pepper. Like Rachael, I find if you season every layer of a dish, you end up pretty close to hitting the nail on the head when the dish is through. The escarole will wilt down in just a few minutes. Once it is wilted, add in a quart of chicken stock and two cups of water. Again, this meal is intended as a make ahead meal. If you are doing that, this is when you would let the soup completely cool and store it. If you are serving it when you cook it, you are now ready to add in the spaghetti.

Tuen the heat up a bit and bring the soup to a gentle boil. At that point, add in the spaghetti and cook it to al dente. When the spaghetti has finished cooking, you can turn off the heat and add in the lemon zest and juice. Serve the soup up in a shallow bowl with some grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese. This was a nice, light soup that was surprisingly hearty. While it's a meat free dish, you could absolutely make it a vegan dish by replacing the butter with EVOO, the chicken stock with veggie stock and by omitting the parmigiano-reggiano cheese. I, am not a vegan. So, mine was meat free but by no means vegan. This one was really tasty and one i'd definitely make again. Hope you all enjoy it? Buon appetito!!

Recipe:

This recipe was featured on Rachael Ray's Week In A Day and can be found at the following link.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/broken-spaghetti-soup-with-escarole.html

Classic, With a Twist

Hello All! To my 5's of 10's of readers, I apologize for taking so long to post. Gonna try to be more regular about posting here! Today's recipe is actually adapted from a couple of different Rachael Ray recipes "Wild Mushroom French Onion Soup" and "French Onion Dip Soup with Dijon and Gruyere Croutons". So here is my version!

French Onion soup is one of those dishes that is a classic comfort food and a pretty basic recipe. One thing that Rachael does is try to reinvent it to some extent. In both the recipes this version is adapted from, there is something added in to spruce it up a little. I took what I liked about both the recipes and combined it into one. So to start the soup off, you need to caramelize a TON of onions. I used vidalia onions and you need 4 pretty good sized ones. Slice the onions and caramelize them. You are going to have a mountain of onion on your cutting board, as you see in the picture. (This picture was actually taken from another recipe I did that had potatoes, but it was the same amount of onions. There are no potatoes in this recipe so pay no attention to them). Don't panic, they will cook way down. Rachael Tip: Don't rush the onions! To get the onions really caramelized, you have to be patient. Set the burner on medium heat, no higher. It takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to get them to a nice medium caramel color. If you turn the heat higher, the onions will char at the edges before they caramelize. You can caramelize them in 1 of 2 ways. Rachael uses butter, 1 TBS per onion, or you can use EVOO. Since I'm trying to lose a little weight and watching what I eat a little closer, I used 1 TBS of EVOO per onion rather than the butter, but by all means, if you aren't watching what you eat quite so closely, or you happen to be one of those lucky people who can eat whatever you want and never gain weight, go for the butter. It will give it a little richer flavor. Once the oil ripples and wafts smoke, or the butter begins to foam, drop the onions into the pot. Add in salt, pepper, a couple fresh bay leaves, 4 cloves of garlic thinly sliced and a good pinch of ground thyme. If you don't have fresh bay you can use dried, but i've found that if you keep fresh bay leaves in the refrigerator in a plastic food storage bag, they will keep for weeks and weeks and the flavor comes through stronger from the fresh. Again, allow the onions time to sweat out. I let mine go for about an hour to get that nice medium to deep caramel color. I also looked at my Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking  and in the book Julia recommends adding a 1/4 tsp of sugar to the onions to help them to caramelize. I didn't do that because I didn't check the book until after I had already finished with the onions but I'll probably give it a shot next time! I mean if Julia says to do it, it has to be right!

When the onions are about halfway through their cooking time, you can start on the mushrooms. For this you'll need a 1oz. package of dried porcini or dried wild mushroom blend. Most grocery stores have these now. My store had them in 0.5oz packages so I got two. I've also seen some that are 0.75oz. packages. If thats' what they have just use that, don't buy a second package for 0.25oz. Remove the mushrooms from the package and add them into a small to medium sauce pot. Cover with enough beef stock or water to just cover the mushrooms. You will need a total of 5 cups of stock for the soup. You can use water for the mushrooms and then 1 quart of beef stock in a box if you want to save a few bucks and only buy one box. I had a box of chicken stock open in the fridge so I used that for the mushrooms and only used 1 box of stock in the soup. Bring them to a boil and reduce to simmer and allow them to steep in the water or stock while the onions finish cooking. Once the onions are caramelized, remove the mushrooms with a slotted spoon and coarsely chop them and reserve the mushroom stock that has been made. Now, if mushrooms aren't your thing, you can absolutely omit them. 

Once the onions are caramelized, deglaze the pot with 1/3 - 1/2 a cup of dry sherry. If you don't have dry sherry you can use dry white wine. If you don't have either and don't want to buy them, omit it and you can deglaze with the mushroom stock, but the dry sherry adds this nutty aspect to the soup that is killer. When you add the sherry scrape the bottom of your soup pot with a wooden spoon to scrape up the little bits that are trapped on the bottom from the onions caramelizing. Those bits = awesome flavor! Once the sherry cooks out for a minute or two, add in a good rounded tablespoon of Dijon mustard! It's that little thing in the soup that makes people say "hmmm, what is that?!". once you stir in the Dijon, add in the mushrooms and mushroom stock, if you didn't use it deglaze in place of the sherry or white wine. Rachael Tip: When you add the mushroom stock, add all but the last couple spoonfuls of the stock. When you reconstitute dried mushrooms, some grit from the mushrooms can settle at the bottom of the pot and if you add all of the liquid, you'll add that grit as well, and that can be unpleasant. Once you have added the mushrooms and stock, add in your quart of beef stock and bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to simmer and let it simmer while you make your gruyere croutons!. 

Now, I didn't actually make the gruyere croutons for this. Instead, I melted the gruyere cheese in a skillet and  then put that on top of the soup. I actually recommend making the crouton as it will float on top of the soup, not sink into it like mine did. To do so, simply take some slices of baguette and top with a mound of gruyere cheese. Place under the broiler and let the cheese melt. Serve the soup up with a crouton served on top. 

This one was really good and had great flavor. Hope you guys will make it and enjoy. I'll put the ingredient list below since I adapted this from a couple of different recipes. Until next time, Happy Cooking!

Ingredients:

4 Tbs. Butter or EVOO
4 sweet onions, medium to large
4 cloves of garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste
Healthy pinch of Ground Thyme
2 Fresh Bay Leaves
1 oz. Dried Porcini or Wild Blend Mushrooms
5 Cups of Beef Stock, or 1 Quart plus 1 Cup of Water
1/3-1/2 Cup of Dry Sherry or White Wine
1 Tbs Dijon Mustard