WOW, its been a long time.

I apologize to all of my readers for such a long absence of new posts. I have been incredibly busy at school with all of the graduation preparation. I do have other preparations in mind, including some delicious new recipes that I have been perfecting. Look forward to Green Chili with White Beans and Pulled Duck, my now infamous Pulled Pork Sandwiches with hand cut Green Apple Coleslaw, and other dishes soon to come. So, keep looking for new and improved posts.

Raspberry Jam Filled Almond Bars

It has been said that a picture speaks a thousand words, but this picture conjures only two- "oohhhh god!" I would love to take credit for these delicious raspberry filled almond bars, but alas, I cannot. My wife began baking a few months ago. In her words, "I felt that I had to contribute in the kitchen and you won't let me cook." This is true to some extent, I am a little territorial, and my kitchen is my home. I remain, however, extremely open to her newly found love for confections. Instead of my writing the recipe of a dish that I have never cooked, I will hand over the reigns to my lovely wife, Christa.

Sweet! I am excited to share this recipe with your blog readers - although there was a time when I considered keeping it "Top Secret". I figured at very least it would help me secure more dinner and party invitations from our friends and family simply by keeping their hope alive that I might bring these bars along. But, alas, I have come to terms with the fact that they are so good that it is unfair to keep them to myself and so, I will share the recipe with the world.

Decadent Raspberry Almond Bars

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened


Filling:
3/4 cup almond paste, diced (4 oz)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
Pinch salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (about ½ regular sized jar) raspberry jam
1/2 cup sliced almonds (just eyeball the amount of almonds. I'm pretty sure I used more than 1/2 cup)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Grease a 9-inch square metal cake pan (a buttered non-stick pan worked great) or line with parchment paper to extend 1 inch above rim on 2 sides; set aside. You can use a bigger pan and just double the recipe as well. This recipe isn't too finicky.

Step 1 - Crust: In bowl, whisk flour with icing sugar; using a fork, blend in butter until it creates fine crumbs. Press mixture by hand into bottom of prepared pan to evenly cover the bottom surface. Bake in the center of 350°F oven until pale golden, 16 minutes. Let cool on rack. (a larger batch/pan may need just a little longer – maybe 17 minutes)

Step 2 - Filling: In bowl, beat almond paste, sugar, butter and salt until combined. Beat in egg, vanilla and almond extract until smooth. Mix in flour; set aside.

Spread raspberry jam over base; spoon filling over jam. Drop large spoonfuls evenly spaced across the top and use a rubber spatula to just prod the filling into the empty spots so that the surface of the jam is completely covered with almond filling. Work slowly to avoid mixing the jam up into the almond filling). Cover evenly with sliced almonds.

Step 3 - Bake in center of 350°F oven until light golden and filling is just firm to the touch, about 30 minutes (Larger Pan may need a little bit longer – no more than a couple extra minutes though).

Step 4 - Let cool in the pan on a cooling rack rack. Make sure you let the bars cool as completely as possible before cutting. Once cool, run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the filling from the sides. You can then cut them right in the pan, or, turn the entire pan out onto a large cutting board and cut them upside down. You may want to put them in the fridge to let them firm up before slicing Use a sharp knife to cut and you may want to run knife under hot water or wipe with a damp cloth in between cuts to make the process a little bit easier.

Good luck, and let us know how your bars turn out!

Food Blog Royalty

Here is a list of the top rated food blogs out there. There are some very good blogs in this list that ought to be checked out. The most interesting thing about the top blogs is that they are specifically geared towards one thing. Give some of these a look-see, I am sure that you will find something that you like.

Sea Scallops with Saffron Rice and Truffle Oil (and a scallop lesson)

In a few days, my wife is going to be running a half marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at Disney (you can make donations here). So, a few days before she left, I thought I would cook her a nice dinner. I drove out to the local seafood market, which I previously wrote about, here, called Hills. Winter is never a great time of year to get impressive seafood, but there were a few things I had in mind that ought to have been of high quality, regardless of the season. First, scallops are always sort of "in season." There are two very distinct types of scallops, and NO, I do not mean the difference between sea and bay. Sea scallops are going to come either dry packed or wet packed. The difference is that lovely caramelization that you can clearly see on the above photo.

Wet packed scallops are packed in a combination of phosphates (used for preservation), which causes the scallop to absorb water. You pay for the added water. The added water is also forced out during cooking, which prevents the delicious crust that formed on my scallops. Wet packed scallops look snowy white after cooking, and are shrunken, dry and taste more fishy.

Dry packed scallops are completely natural, with no added anything. They are shucked on board and flash frozen. They are usually thawed properly by a good seafood market. Most importantly, however, they cost less (because of no added water), look fantastic when caramelized, have a buttery but tight-grained texture and taste amazing. The price per pound will be more (these were $18 per lb) but I bought seven scallops for $10, well worth it.

I served these with a saffron rice and finished them with a few drops of black truffle oil. The rice was a short grain rice. I added a 1 to 1 stock mixture of veg stock and chicken stock to cook the rice. To that, I added more onion powder, garlic powder, a pinch of tomato paste (and I mean about an eighth of a teaspoon), salt, white pepper, and saffron. Bring 1 1/2 cup of stock to a rolling boil, add the extras, and the rice, cover and turn down to a simmer. 18-20 minutes later, you should have a risotto textured rice with a nice "juice." Uncover and take off the heat.

For the scallops, add two pads of butter to a non-stick sauté pan with a little oil to prevent the butter from browning. After the pan is good and hot, season with salt and white pepper and put the flattest side of the scallop UP. You will serve the flatter side down, so brown the slanted part. Cook for about four to five minutes on the seared side, or until nicely browned. Turn ad repeat for three minutes. You can then finish them in the oven for about five more minutes. Serve about scoop of the rice, place your scallops down, and finish with a little truffle oil or truffle salt. YUM!

Dinner on Sale Episode II- Pork Chops with Balsamic Reduction and Hand-Cut Coleslaw

Dinner should be both delicious an affordable.  As part of my series on creating meals with nothing but items on sale at your local grocer, I bring you this meal.  Now, I was at my local Genardi's, the store that I do most of my general meat shopping at, and I saw something I had never seen before.  The store called them "country style lion ribs" on the label, but they turned out to be simply the rib cut with half of a lion chop attached, as you can see in this picture (the loin in the large half circle muscle).  While there was a bit more fat on these "chops," they were only $0.98 /lb.  For six pieces of meat, they were about $2.60.  I decided to take these ""country ribs" and treat them just like pork chops.  I grabbed some white onions, also on sale for $0.99/lb, green cabbage on sale for $.99/lb, baby carrots on sale for $2.00/20 oz bag, and light cream at $.99/half pint.  I first prepared with coleslaw by cutting all of the ingredients, but only after salting the pork.  I quartered the cabbage and cut out the center support.  I halved each quarter down the middle and turned it up on it's side to shred.  After all of the cabbage was shredded, I skinned and put a fine julienne on the carrots (you can also run them through your mandolin on the fine julienne mode).  I also quartered an onion and shaved it thin. 

After the coleslaw was prepared, I began the pork.  I took the salted "chops" again and added pepper.  I took my saute pan and added a wild mushroom and sage infused extra virgin olive oil (I will tell you where this is from soon) and sauteed the meat over medium heat.  Before the meat was added, I threw into the hot oil some thyme, rosemary and minced garlic to flavor the oil.  Once the first side was seared nicely, I added more minced garlic and once diced onions.  I sauteed this delicious mixture for about 8 minutes on each side.  I took some pieces out of the mix earlier, as they were not as thick as others.  While the meat was cooking, I added some light cream into the prepared coleslaw veg with some salt, pepper, and store bought coleslaw dressing (I am working on my own recipe for coleslaw dressing, but for not I trust a brand called Marzetti).  After the coleslaw was finished, I turned back to the pork.  I made sure that the meat was all at proper temperature, and then removed the "chops" as they came to temp.  

Once the pan was empty, I poured off some of the cooking oil and placed back on the heat for about two more m minutes with nothing in it to allow the pan to heat up.  I then threw the last of the shaved onion into the pan and let sear.  I then added a special balsamic vinegar (bought the same place as the wild mushroom and sage olive oil) that was infused with cinnamon and pear into the pan to deglaze it.  The balsamic bubbles up and reduces VERY quickly into a nice drizzle.  The meat, slaw and glaze reached the plate in a sort of unusual plating for me.  It was a nice dish, though, that was accompanied by a salad with romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, shaved onion, walnuts and goat cheese.  All in all, a nice meal for about $9.50 for two people.  

Christmas Day Meal!

I married into a great family which, on most occasions, shows their love for each other through food.  When they really love you, you get something like we had on Christmas night, where eating is an all day event.  This meal was one that I made no personal contribution besides an empty stomach.  

My in-laws food desires are fed by a Scandinavian background: my father-in-law's family is from Sweden and mother-in-law from Norway.  Some of what we ate is inspired by that background, but some just comes from a love of food.  We began the day with a few deliciously Scandinavian selections.  There were two food options and one drink that were put out early.

  First was Swedish coffee bread, which is a dense semi-sweet bread infused with cardamom and sprinkled with shaved almonds and sugar.  The other is gravlax, sugar and salt cured raw salmon served with dill and accompanied with hovmastarsas, a dill mustard.  We also had an interesting drink called Glug.  While the name suggests a vile concoction originating from the middle ages, it is actually quite good.  It is a lovely combination of one beer, a gallon of port wine, whiskey or vodka, almonds, raisins and cloves.  During the process, it is flambéed to burn off some of the alcohol, but it remains fairly potent.  It is on the same traditional line as wassail, but not mainly fruit juice.   It is served warm and is ideal for opening gifts.  

This was simply something to keep people happy until the main event rolled around.  As is often the case, the meal with my in-laws centers around a huge amount of meat.  This time, it was around a nine pound, four rib, bone-in ribeye.  It was accompanied by several sides, which included dill carrots, mashed potatoes, roasted Brussel sprouts with shallots, Asparagus, creamed leaks, and three sauces- creamy horseradish, hollandaise, cream cabernet with mushrooms and shallots, and a true pan gravy.  

The meat was cooked to a perfect medium on the outsides and a slightly less cooked medium-rare in the middle of the roast.  The creamed leaks, however, stole the show.   My father-in-law used simple ingredients to create a delicious side dish.  He cooked the leaks in butter, white wine, and cream, then topped with homemade whole wheat bread crumbs.  The leaks were tender, but not soggy, which can happen even though leaks   

are tougher to overcook that onions or shallots. The meal concluded with a ridiculous spread of cookies, almond bars (which will be in a future post) and after-dinner drinks (which will be another post soon).  

All in all, it was a great holiday, topped off with a great holiday meal.  I hope that you all who read will post some comments about the meals your families cook during the holidays.  For now, have a good few days and have a great New Year.  

-Kris

What a Christmas!

I had a great Christmas, and I hope you did too.  I have a few new and exciting things to blog about.  First, I received a new camera from my lovely wife.  My new Sony a230 will surely be providing you with crisp, clear pictures ASAP.  I also have some new suggestions for seasonal drinks that will warm you on those cold winter days.  Finally, I have to report on the masses of delicious and traditional foods that I get to eat with my family during the holidays.