Wines to Pair with Goat Cheese Mac & Cheese

First of all I wanted to say WOW, thanks for all the great comments so far on my post about Michael Symon's Mac & Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese, & Rosemary. Of course you know, I expect you all to comment on all of my posts now that I know you're out there, not just when there is a giveaway. I can't wait to try some of your suggestions, especially the bacon & gouda, buffalo chicken (minus the celery), & the Rocky River Brewing Company rendition. As much as I love Michael's rendition, I still think my Mom's mac & cheese made with Velveeta is my favorite. Velveeta is pretty much everything I am against when it comes to food (what kind of cheese doesn't even need to be refrigerated?), but everyone deserves a guilty pleasure, right?

Don't forget, to enter the contest to win one of 2 pairs of passes to free cooking classes at the Viking Cooking School in Beachwood compliments of Heinen's. I will pick the winners on Monday at Noon, so go enter now! You can enter multiple times each day, so Tweet about it, post it to Facebook, write a blog about it, or spread the word any other way and leave a comment on the original post to make sure it gets counted.

As I mentioned in the mac & cheese post, Heinen's recommended a couple bottles of wine that would pair well with it. Now I should preface this post by letting you know I don't know much (or anything, really) about wine. I enjoy drinking wine, but my knowledge about the grapes and pairings is really lacking. That's where Heinen's or any of the other great wine shops we have in the area come in. One of my favorite things about Heinen's is their wine department. They are great about making recommendations for people like me that don't really know what wine to buy. For example, when I made Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce it called for a dry white wine. I was walking around looking at bottles trying to guess what a good choice would be when the wine consultant came up and asked me what I was looking for. I had a $12 bottle in my hand and she quickly told me that it would not really add much flavor to the wine and suggested something that would work better in the sauce that was only $6.99.

When I went to Heinen's to pick up the ingredients for the mac & cheese, I introduced myself to Laurie, who is in charge of the wines at the Heinen's in Avon, and told her about my project. As soon as I mentioned the word goat cheese she instantly knew which wine she would recommend, Coopers Creek Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Coopers Creek is a family owned vineyard in New Zealand and Robert Parker scored this wine at 91 points.

From the bottle, "Warm days and cool nights allow us to harvet fruit brimming with aromas and flavours of gooseberry, passionfriut, and nectarine." While my palette certainly did not pick up on all these flavors (what is a gooseberry???), it paired perfectly with the mac & cheese. Laurie told me that goat cheese screams for Sauvignon Blanc and I agree. The citrus in the wine went really well with the sourness of the goat cheese. My wife, who typically only drinks red wines even enjoyed this wine, although she only liked it with the pasta. When she tried it prior to eating she thought it was too sweet.

This wine is also a bargin at $9.99 a bottle at Heinen's. It was originally priced at $14.99, but was $5 off when I bought it. Of course Heinen's, like any reputable wine shop, offers 10% off when purchasing a case of wine. Buying by the case is a great way to save money when buying wine. Of course, it also leads to drinking more if it's always in the house.

Even though Laurie was so adamant about the Sauvignon Blanc I asked her to recommend a red wine as well since that is what I typically prefer. She picked out the 2008 Domaine Rochette Beaujolais-Villages. It was a light, dry red with more body than the Beaujolis Nouveau wines that are released every November. At $15.99, this bottle was more expensive than the Sauvignon Blanc but did not pack nearly as much flavor. This is definitely one example where the white wine went better with a dish even though I typically prefer reds and all our guests agreed. This wine went much better with the brownies I served for dessert.

What wine would you serve with Michael Symon's mac & cheese?

Interesting Side Note:
While I was in the wine section at Heinen's in Avon I noticed a flyer advertising a wine tasting. Has anyone ever been to a wine tasting at Heinen's? Here's the information on the tasting in case you are interested.

Springtime Wine, Beer, & Cheese Feast
Friday, March 12th 6pm
Heinen's Avon Cafe
$25 per person

"Come join us as we welcome in the spring season with a tasting of special selections of wines and beer choices. There will also be artisian cheeses and delicious fare prepared by our chefs to complement the wine and beer samplings. Enjoy a relaxing evening with your friends from Heinen's.

Pre-registration is requested. Contact Laurie Toth 440-937-7660."

Be sure to tell them you learned about it on Live to Cook at Home.

Mac and Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Rosemary (p. 89)

This is a really exciting post for me. This is the first of what I hope will be many posts sponsored by Heinen's. Heinen's is the best grocery store on the Westside of Cleveland and neck and neck with Whole Foods for the best in all of Cleveland, in my opinion. From time to time, they will provide the ingredients for me to prepare a dish from Michael Symon's book and suggest a wine or two that will pair well with it. I will write about the wine pairing in a separate post, at least for this dish.

For this post, Heinen's is also sponsoring a GIVEAWAY. Two lucky readers will receive a gift certificate good for two people to take a cooking class at the Viking Cooking School. To enter to win simply leave a comment about your favorite mac & cheese on this post. If you don't like mac & cheese, just leave any comment. Bonus entries awarded for tweeting, facebooking, blogging it, etc.  See all the ways you can enter at the end of this post. I will announce the winner next week.

Heinen's made it clear that they want honest feedback, so rest assured that is what I will provide. I started talking with Heinen's after one of my first posts, Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette. Someone from Heinen's read the post and saw I was unhappy with the quality of the shrimp I purchased at Heinen's in Avon and contacted me to send me a gift card to cover the cost of the shrimp. I never asked for it and they never asked me to mention it on my blog. That's just an example of the amazing customer service you can expect to receive from Heinen's.

I wanted to pick a great recipe from Live to Cook for this special post and I decided on Mac and Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Rosemary (p. 89). This is probably Michael's most famous dish and one that has been on his menu since he first put it on the menu at Piccolo Mondo in 1992. He hasn't been able to take it off the menu ever since. You can currently find it on the lunch menu at Lola, the happy hour & dinner menu at Lolita, the dinner menu at Bar Symon, and the sides menu at Roast. This dish is comfort food at its finest and is sure to please the pickiest of eaters. I found this recipe a few years ago floating around the interwebs and have made it many times yet my wife still often orders it when we go to Michael's restaurants.
 

Only 5 ingredients

This is one of the easiest dishes that I've made from the book and it does not require many ingredients. The book suggests using rigatoni but that is one of my least favorite pastas (too toothsome for my taste). The cellentani pasta by Barilla is what we use most often, but you can use any pasta that you like.

 

Seasoned chicken about to go in the oven

The recipe calls for 2 cups of roasted chicken. The idea of the recipe is that you can use up leftover roasted chicken but I decided to buy a whole chicken, break it down, season it, and roast it. I like the flavor you get from roasting chicken with the skin on and prefer a combination of leg, thigh, and breast meat but you can easily substitute any kind of chicken you have on hand.

I seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper, and good Hungarian paprika from Spicehound. The recipe does not call for paprika but I like the flavor it adds to the dish. Once it was seasoned I roasted it in a 375 degree oven until it reached 160 degrees. In nicer weather I prefer to grill it, but I was preparing dinner for friends this night and didn't want to mess with the charcoal in 20 degree weather. Once the chicken reached 160 degrees I removed it from the oven and let it cool a little before removing the skin and bones and chopping the chicken. I used all of a small chicken except one of the breasts. If you cook a whole chicken be sure to save the bones for stock!

  

Seasoned cream reducing

While the chicken was roasting, I added the cream to a large pot along with a little salt and a couple tablespoons of fresh rosemary. You may notice some sticks also floating in the cream. I like a strong rosemary flavor in the sauce so I add the rosemary "sticks" to the sauce as well and remove them once the cream reduces. I brought the cream to a simmer, ok a boil, and then turned it down. It can be difficult, at least for me, to control the heat of the cream. I struggle to keep it at a simmer unless I constantly watch over the pot. Even though I often let it boil or rest below a simmer, I never notice any affects to the taste so don't worry if you struggle with the temperature like I do.

Once the cream reduced, I added the goat cheese and roasted chicken. There are two goat cheeses in Cleveland I really like, Mackenzie's & Lake Erie Creamery. I use Mackenzie's more often, simply because it is more convenient for me to buy it at Heinen's than to drive to the Westside Market or Coit Road Market to get Lake Erie Creamery. Both are great cheeses and I encourage you to try them both. I wish Heinen's carried Lake Erie Creamery but I think Lake Erie Creamery does not have the bandwidth to distribute on that large a scale. I've also heard great things about a new creamery making good goat cheese, Lucky Penny Farm, but I have yet to try it. I let the cream, goat cheese, and chicken simmer over low heat until it was nice and thick while I prepared the rest of dinner.

  

This bowl didn't last long!

When we were almost ready to eat I cooked the pasta and added it to the sauce. Do not rinse the pasta! Rinsing pasta is a common mistake home cooks make. Rinsing washes the starch off and prevents the sauce from sticking to the pasta.

 

A delicious dinner shared with good friends

The book says this recipe will serve 6-8 people and that's probably pretty close. We had 5 for dinner and there were leftovers for my wife & me for lunch the next day even though everyone had seconds. I served the mac & cheese with a simple salad and roasted asparagus and my first attempt at homemade brownies (need some work - any tips on homemade brownies. 

The recipe also easily doubles, I even tripled it once while visiting my in-laws so don't hesitate to make more if you are concerned it won't be enough. The leftovers are good, although not great because when reheated the oil in the cream separates and can be a little unappetizing. All the more reason to have seconds the first time around! 

One more tip, the mac & cheese is delicious by itself but I like it even more after I add a little Sriracha hot sauce to it. A couple of my guests agreed with me after skeptically adding a little to their portion.

WIN A GIFT CERTIFICATE FOR YOU AND A GUEST TO ATTEND A COOKING CLASS OF YOUR CHOICE AT THE VIKING COOKING SCHOOL

Heinen's has been kind enough to give two lucky readers a gift certificate good for 2 people to attend the class of their choice at the Viking Cooking School - for those of you outside of Cleveland, sorry but the passes are only good at the school at Legacy Village in the Cleveland area. There are multiple ways you can enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post describing your favorite mac & cheese or something else of interest if you aren't a mac & cheese fan
2. Mention this post on Twitter - be sure to mention @live2cookathome
3. Mention this post on Facebook
4. Write a blog post about mac & cheese and link to my blog

You can enter one time per day so feel free to come back every day to add another comment, tweet, etc. Be sure to leave a comment for each entry and make sure to leave an email address I can contact you at in case you win. I will pick the lucky winners next week via www.random.org/. Good luck!

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used.  

It cost about $27.13 to make Michael Symon's Mac and Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Rosemary.

Pasta - $1.39
Organic Valley Cream - $8.76 (I prefer to use organic but you could easily cut the cost in half by using regular cream if you don't care about organic)
Chicken - $4
Mackenzie's Goat Cheese - $11.98
Miscellaneous (Salt, rosemary) - $1

Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce (p. 229)

Wow, what a great weekend! My 30th birthday was on Sunday (yes, I know, I'm a Valentine's baby, how cute). So after I spent Saturday making chicken stock and smoking some pork chops & beef jerky (side note: you can still smoke on the Weber when it's 20 degrees out), my wife threw me an awesome birthday party at Bier Market / Bar Cento on Saturday night. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate my birthday than to share more than a few drinks and pomme frites with my closest friends & family. I also received some great food & beer related presents including Chef's School at the Greenhouse Tavern, an awesome food mill, The Flavor Bible, some amazing & rare IPA's, dinner at the Culinary Vegetable Institution, and a gift certificate for dinner at the Greenhouse Tavern. I am so blessed to have so many great friends and family to celebrate my birthday with. Thanks to everyone that made my birthday a great time!

I also wanted to mention that I'll have some exciting news coming up on Live to Cook at Home later this week, including my first giveaway, so be sure to check back soon.

So, how about Michael Symon's Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce? I usually save my review for the end of the blog, but wow, this is probably the best red sauce I've ever had. This sauce, which is the base for several other dishes in the book, is the same sauce Michael's maternal grandmother made when he was growing up. This recipe is a perfect example of why you need to buy the book not just for the recipes, but also for the great stories and tips Michael tells along the way. I will give a few of Michael's tips, but be sure to read the book for the story of how his grandmother became such a good cook.

The first key to Yia Yia's sauce is using San Marzano tomatoes. San Marzano tomatoes are a type of plum tomato grown in, you guessed it, San Marzano, Italy. According to Michael, "They are the best available; their natural sweetness makes them especially good for tomato sauces." After tasting this sauce, I definitely can't argue.

The second key to this sauce reminds me of my favorite cooking method, smoking - low and slow. High quality ingredients are mixed together in a large pot and left alone for 8+ hours over low heat as the flavors combine to form an amazingly rich, meaty sauce even though there is no noticeable meat in the sauce.

Waiting to Become Yia Yia's Sauce

I'd never purchased beef bones before so I wasn't exactly sure what to get. I wandered around the Westside Market on a slow day before coming across some nice looking bones at Wiencek's Meats. I immediately noticed one set of bones labeled as neck bones and ordered 2 pounds. As they were being wrapped up I noticed leg bones so I ordered 2 pounds of those as well. Rather than freezing one set of bones, I decided to make 2 batches of sauce, one in my new dutch oven, and the other in my new stainless steel pot - the book mentions to always use stainless steel or other non-reactive pans when cooking tomato dishes.

  

Mise en Place

Because I was making 2 batches at once I knew I needed to be organized so I got all the ingredients together and set up each batch on opposite sides of the stove. I split the neck & leg bones up so each pot would receive equal portions and used my scale to make sure that everything was exactly even. The beginning of the recipe goes pretty quickly. First I heated up the olive oil in each pan. Once it was almost smoking hot I added the onions and cooked them until they were almost translucent. Then I threw in a bunch of garlic and some salt and cooked it until it was soft.

  

Pulverizing Tomatoes is a Good Stress Reliever

Next came the fun part, squeezing the tomatoes into each pan. I poured the juice in first to prevent the onion & garlic from browning and then squeezed each tomato into the pot, leaving it in chunks.

  

Finally, I added the beef bones, wine, herbs, and spices and brought the sauce to a simmer.

  

Once it slowly started to bubble, I turned the heat to the lowest possible setting and walked away from the stove for 8 hours. Ok, I may or may not have dipped more than one chunk of bread into the sauce throughout the day. Someone had to taste it to make sure it was worth keeping.

  

Finally reduced

Michael writes that the sauce should reduce by about 1/3. He also mentioned that he and his cousins would get in trouble for dipping bread in the sauce while it was cooking. I can't help but wonder if the sauce actually reduces on its own or if it's from so many tastings throughout the day. I am sure bread dipping helped my pans of sauce reduce.

  

Comparing the Sauces

I was surprised to notice a difference between the two sauces. You can even tell in the picture above, notice how the sauce on the right looks much brighter & vibrant? It tasted that way too. I can only assume it had to do with the amount of meat on the bones or the quality of the tomatoes in each can. It couldn't be the difference in pans, could it? Either way, both pans were delicious. I let the sauce cool before separating it into smaller containers for the freezer. The sauce freezes very well. It's so nice to have such a rich, hearty sauce during the long, cold winter here in Cleveland.

 

Yum!!!

The picture above is my favorite use of Yia Yia's sauce, smothered over the top of a Bluebird Meadows Italian sausage and a piece of Italian bread, all topped with fresh shaved Parmesan cheese. Of course it also tastes great served simply with some Ohio City Pasta, or with spaghetti & meatballs, or straight out of the container with a spoon....

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used.  

It cost about $18.36 to make a little more than 2 quarts of Michael Symon's Yia Yia's Sunday Sauce from Live to Cook and it was worth every penny!

San Marzano tomatoes - $9.38
White wine - $2.00
Beef bones from Wiencek's Meats at the Westside Market - $3.98
Miscellaneous (olive oil, onion, garlic, salt, bay leaf, oregano, pepper) - $3

All ingredients except the beef bones came from Heinen's.

Stove Monkey's Flavor Tripping

Want to go on a fun trip? How about a Flavor Trip? Stove Monkey's, is hosting a Flavor Tripping event at B-Side Lounge in Cleveland Heights this Monday, February 15. Stove Monkey's is an awesome chef and food inspired t-shirt company founded by a friend of mine, Cleveland chef Matthew Mytro. I highly suggest you check out their awesome shirts too.

Despite the name, no drugs are involved in Flavor Tripping, yet you'll still experience things in a way you never have before. The miracle fruit plant (Synsepalum dulcificum) produces berries that contain an active glycoprotein molecule that binds to the tongue's taste buds. After eating a miracle fruit berry, bitter and sour foods (such as lemons & limes) taste sweet, hence Flavor Tripping.

Examples of the effects of miracle fruit berries:

• Guiness tastes like chocolate milk
• IPA's taste like rootbeer
• Cheap tequila tastes like top shelf
• Strawberries taste like they are coated in sugar
• Vinegar tastes like sugar water
• Lemons & limes can be eaten whole without puckering
• Tabasco loses it's spicy flavor

Flavor Tripping parties have been increasing in popularity across the country over the past few years, especially in NY, LA, San Fran, Miami, and other cutting edge cities. Stove Monkey's has been hosting Flavor Tripping parties in Cleveland for the past year. I went to the Stove Monkey's first Flavor Tripping party last year and while the effects of the berry vary from person to person, I thought it was a great time and definitely giving it a try if you haven't done it before.

The event starts at 8pm and will feature snacks from Light Bistro and North End Wine Bar, as well as lots of fun foods & drinks to test out the berry.  Tickets can be purchased for $10 in advance on the Stove Monkey's website or for $15 at the door.

You can read more about Flavor Tripping and Miracle Fruit on these sites:

About the Miracle Fruit
How Flavor Tripping Works

Micahel Ruhlman's Buttermilk Dinner Rolls

Even though I love bread and love to cook, I've never made homemade bread. I've always thought baking bread was time consuming and difficult and since I have so many great options for buying artisan bread, I've always purchased it rather than even think about making my own. However, the biggest reason I started this blog was to push myself to new levels in the kitchen. So when I read Michael Ruhlman's blog post about buttermilk dinner rolls, I knew it was time to give it a try. If you are not familiar with Michael Ruhlman, he is the co-author of Micahel Symon's Live to Cook as well as many other food books including The French Laundry, Ratio, The Soul of a Chef, and more. You have probably seen him on TV too if you watch The Food Network or Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. His blog is one of my favorites and provides a ton of great tips. I highly suggest checking it out if you aren't already reading it.

Michael challenged his readers to give this recipe a try. He adapted it from a recipe he saw in a recent issue of Saveur. According to him, the most important thing about baking is using a scale. When measuring in cups, the volume of flour varies greatly so it is essential to weigh it out. He even offers you a great deal on a scale if you don't already own one. I was fortunate enough to receive an awesome one for Christmas a couple years ago so I weighed out all my ingredients (recipe at the end of the post) and put them in my Kitchen Aid mixer with the bread hook and let it work its magic.

 

 Buttermilk Roll Dough 

It really was as easy as measuring out all the ingredients, putting them in the mixer and turning it on medium for 10 minutes or so. Once the dough was smooth and elastic, I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to let it rise overnight. Alternatively, I could have left it out on the counter and baked it after a few hours but it was already late and I wanted to eat them the next day.

  

Rolls Formed

I took the dough out of the fridge the next afternoon and let it come to room temperature. The dough had at least doubled in size. I kneaded it for a couple of minutes and cut the dough into 9 equal portions. Michael recommends 4 oz portions but I actually baked them away from my house and I forgot my scale so I just eyeballed it. I kneaded each individual dough ball and formed it into a boule following some of the recommendations I read from Michael's readers. It is important to knead them enough to make sure you get all the gas out of each ball. 

After each boule was formed I placed them in my newly purchased springform pan, brushed them with egg wash, sprinkled poppy seeds on the top, and put them in a 375 degree oven. As the bread was baking, the house filled with a delicious aroma.

  

Fresh Buttermilk Rolls Out of the Oven

After 40 minutes I took them out and was amazed how well they turned out. I got a lot of rise out of my dough.

  

 After Removing the Spingform Pan

They had a nice crust on the outside.

 

 Soft and Flaky on the Inside

I was very pleased with how my rolls turned out. They had a nice crunch on the outside but were soft and flaky on the inside. They had a great flavor that reminded me of sourdough but it was not as dense. I wish I knew how much each boule weighed because they were huge rolls. When I make them again I will cut down on the size and maybe even spread them between two pans to have more, smaller rolls.

I am so glad I decided to give this a try because it was so easy and it will encourage me to bake more of my own bread.


Buttermilk Cluster Rolls

28 ounces/800 grams AP flour (5 1/2 cups if your scale is broken but no guarantees!)

20 ounces/570 grams buttermilk, room temp or microwaved for 40 to 60 seconds to take the chill off it

1/4 ounce/7 grams (1 package) active dry yeast

1/2 ounce/14 grams kosher salt (1 tablespoon)

1.5 ounces/40 grams honey (2 tablespoons)

vegetable spray or butter for greasing a springform pan (can use 9-inch cake pan but may be hard to remove rolls)

1 egg

1 teaspoon poppy seeds (or as desired)

1 tablespoon melted butter, optional (good for photos!)

Combine the flour, buttermilk, yeast, salt and honey in the bowl of a standing mixer.  Mix on medium till the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  (See this post on Bread Baking Basics for more info on mixing and rising.)

Cover and let rise till doubled in volume (dough shouldn’t bounce back when you press a finger into it).  This will take at least two hours, maybe three or more depending on the temperature of your dough and the temperature of your kitchen.

Turn the dough out onto your counter and give it a good knead.  Divide the dough into 12 equal portions (about 4 ounces each).  Form each into a tight boule by rolling it on the counter.  Spray or butter a springform pan.  Fit the boules into it, cover it with a towel and let the dough rise for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F./190 degres C.  Whisk the egg till it’s uniformly yellow.

When the rolls have risen again, brush them with the egg wash, sprinkle them with poppy seeds and bake them for 40 minutes (to an internal temperature of 195-200 degrees F./90-93 degrees C.  Let them rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 12 adults or 4 hungry children.  Serve with soft, soft butter.  Mmmmm.

Shaved Fennel Salad with Oranges, Lemon, Dill, and Watercress (p. 73)

We invited a few friends over for dinner and to play some games a couple weeks ago. I love to cook for my friends and family and this was a great opportunity for me to try a few new dishes. I went all out and prepared a five course meal full of things I'd never made before. Everything turned out so well I could do a separate post for each of the courses but I didn't take pictures of everything so I'll start by telling you a little about the other dishes I made before moving on to Michael Symon's Shaved Fennel Salad with Oranges, Lemon, Dill, and Watercress.

I started with a recipe I found on Cleveland Foodie's site, Jonathon Sawyer's Chopped Chicken Liver, served along with some crusty bread. I used fresh chicken livers from Plum Creek Farm but they are also readily available at the Westside Market. The first step was to make a chicken liver mousse and and then add a mixture of onion, pickle, hard boiled egg, caper, & vinegar to it. The mousse by itself was amazing so if you are short on time or think the combination of ingredients sounds weird, don't be afraid to try the mousse alone. My sister, who made a nasty face when I told her what I was serving her, was even seen going back for seconds (and thirds...) so I think this was a big success.

While everyone was munching on the chicken liver I was working hard on the rest of the meal. The second course was Michael Symon's Shaved Fennel Salad, the third course was an amazing garlic soup (picture below), the main course was tagliatelle pasta with homemade duck ragu sauce, and since I don't enjoy baking or making desserts I picked up a carrot cake from Heinen's.

Delicious Garlic Soup with Crunchy Croutons

Prepping this meal definitely gave me a lot more respect for real chefs go through on a day to do basis. Unfortunately, shopping for all the ingredients took much of the day so I didn't start cooking until 4 and our guests showed up at 5. I felt like I was on an episode of Top Chef trying to execute each of these dishes, but it was worth the hard work when we were all enjoying dinner.

Now onto the reason for the blog, Michael Symon's Shaved Fennel Salad with Oranges, Lemon, Dill, and Watercress from page 73 of Live to Cook.

 

All the Ingredients Except the Garlic

  

Segmented Oranges

The first step to make the salad is to zest one orange and peel and segment all the oranges. I'd never segmented any fruit before but I found it pretty quick and easy to do. It would be even easier if I owned a sharp knife. Make sure to segment over a bowl to catch any orange juice that may squeeze out while you are holding it.

Based on the suggestion of a clerk at Whole Foods, I used two different kinds of oranges, regular navel & Cara Cara. I was not familiar with Cara Cara oranges, which are a special type of navel orange distinguished by their rosy color. While they look like grapefruit in the picture above, they taste very sweet and juicy and have a low acid content. Cara Cara oranges are in peak season during the winter, specifically in December and January, but I highly recommend checking them out if you see them in your grocery store.

  

Orange Vinaigrette

The dressing for the salad consisted of lemon & orange zest & juice, garlic, shallot, & salt whisked together.

  

Shaved Fennel Salad Minus the Oranges & Watercress

I wasn't sure how to shave the fennel so I just used a vegetable peeler and cut each bulb into slices like I was peeling an apple. The picture in the book shows much smaller shavings but I was happy with the result with the vegetable peeler.

I added the shaved fennel, dill, orange segments, watercress, olive oil and spices to the vinaigrette and gently mixed it all together. I wasn't sure what fennel fronds are so I ignored that portion of the recipe.

Dining Room Table Waiting for Guests

I plated each salad individually and set them on the table to greet our guests when we all sat down.

I wasn't sure if I would like this salad. I am not a fan of black licorice (something else with a strong anise flavor) and while I've had more than my fair share of Jagermeister, the red bull it's typically mixed with masks the anise flavor Jagermeister shares with fennel & black licorice. I had only tried fennel on one or two occasions and don't remember liking or disliking it.

The salad was crisp and refreshing. The sweet citrus from the Cara Cara oranges was very refreshing, so much so that I may or may not have drank the leftover juice on my plate as I was clearing the table. I would definitely make this salad again and I'd likely serve it as a palate cleansing course. From a plating & timing perspective it was easier for me to have the salad plated when we sat down to eat and then serve the soup hot when we were ready for the next course. However, this salad would have been perfect to break of the richness of the garlic soup and the duck ragu and also allowed us to savor the complexity of the ragu. Michael Symon also suggests that in addition to a nice side salad, the salad makes a nice base for a lean white fish.

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used.  

It cost about $15.61* to make the Shaved Fennel Salad with Oranges, Lemon, Dill, and Watercress from Michael Symon's Live to Cook.


All ingredients came from Whole Foods unless otherwise noted. Yes, I really drive 45 minutes from Avon Lake to University Heights to go to Whole Foods but only if I combine it with a trip to the Shaker Square or Coit Road Farmers Market.

Oranges - $3.50
Organic Fennel - $6.12
Watercress - $2.99
Miscellaneous (garlic, salt, pepper, coriander (Spicehound), dill (Heinen's - the dill at Whole Foods looked old), lemon, olive oil (Olive Tap), shallot) - $3

*This is what it cost to make a single batch. I doubled the recipe to serve 6 people.

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday. A day that has grown to be less about football and more about spending time with friends and family, enjoying greasy food, throwing back a few cold ones, and watching bad commercials (plus maybe a funny one or two). This is especially true in Cleveland where the Browns have never even made it to a Super Bowl, much less won one. At least this year we can celebrate that neither the Steelers nor the Ravens are in the Super Bowl either. While I am confident the Browns day will come soon (yes, I am a major homer), we'll have to stick to enjoying good food and drinks with our family & friends for at least one more year.

I have not decided if I will make anything for the game, but if you have any delicious, quick recipes you can share with me, I'd love to hear it. Just leave me a comment or send me an email.

Below are links to a couple other sites, as well as my game day stand by.

Chef Gusteau from At the Pass is having an amazing spread at his party including lamb lollipops, a fajita bar, and a different kind of chili to represent each team. Wish I had an invite to his place!

Michael Symon's Super Bowl Blowout. Michael was featured in a Food & Wine magazine article by Michael Ruhlman two years with quite a few great recipes for his super bowl party. Be sure to try the Sriracha wings & pork cheek chili.

Bet on the Game with Cleveland Foodie. Cleveland Foodie is giving away a cooking class at Viking to the lucky commenter that guesses closest to the final score. I am rooting for Indy, 31-28. She also has some food & drink ideas for the game courtesy of Heinen's.

My Gameday Standby. We host a lot of parties for sporting events, especially Ohio State football games. I make Buffalo chicken dip for almost every party because everyone loves it. This link takes you to the Frank's Redhot recipe, which I use as the starting point for mine. I NEVER use the canned chicken they suggest and hope you don't either. Instead, season chicken legs and thighs (or breasts if you prefer) with salt, pepper, & paprika and grill them. As for the rest of the ingredients, I usually go with whatever I have on hand or remember to pick up at the store. I use some combination of cream cheese, ranch dressing, blue cheese dressing, fresh blue cheese, and cheddar cheese. You don't have to use all these ingredients, just mix what you like in and taste until you like it. This stuff goes fast so I always make at least a double batch and make it in my rice cooker, aka mini crock pot, so that I can keep it warm throughout the party. A crock pot could also be used if you don't have a rice cooker.

Be sure to come back Monday to read about Michael Symon's Shaved Fennel Salad with Oranges, Lemon, Dill, and Watercress.

Reminder: $1,800 Restaurant Gift Certificate Giveaway

I know I already posted about this once but it's a great cause so I thought I'd re-post it. You have until Feb. 13 to make a donation to Veggie U. By donating a minimum of $5 not only do are you entered to win over $1,800 in restaurant gift certificates but you are helping support a program that promotes the well-being of children through a healthy lifestyle with a focus on making wise food choices, combating adolescent and juvenile disease, and attaining an understanding of sustainable agriculture.

It's easy to donate. Simply call 419.499.7500 and reference Cleveland Foodie.

For more details and to see all the gift certificates you'll win, go to Cleveland Foodie's site.

Happy eating this weekend!

Dave

Slash & Burn Grouper (p. 175)

It's tough for me to write about Michael Symon's Slash & Burn Grouper (p. 175). You see, when I made this dish I had been laying on the beach in St. Martin all day with a cold drink in my hand and enjoying amazing food every where we went. Now, I sit in the frozen tundra that Cleveland turns into every February, dreaming of warmer days, runny cheese, fresh baguettes, and amazingly fresh fish. Even though I was on vacation just over two weeks ago, it already feels light years away.

This is not the first time I've made this dish. The recipe for Slash & Burn Grouper is also in Michael Ruhlman's book Soul of a Chef. I made this dish, along with the crab tater tots in Soul of a Chef, about three years ago when I first started to really get interested in cooking and the local food scene. It came out great then and it came out great in St. Martin. On a side note, if you haven't read Soul of a Chef, I highly recommend reading it. It's available for only $10.88 on Amazon. The book is broken into three sections; the first section describes the Certified Master Chef exam at the Culinary Institute of America, the second focuses on the early years of Michael Symon and the final section is dedicated to Thomas Keller, chef at three of the countries finest restaurants: French Laundry, Ad Hoc, and Per Se. It's a very entertaining book.

 

Fresh, Line-Caught Grouper

The most important thing to being a good cook is to use the freshest, best quality product you can get your hands on. It doesn't get much better than line-caught fish fresh from the Caribbean Sea. I found a fresh fish market in Marigot, St. Martin that was open every Wednesday and Saturday morning. They had a wide variety of line caught fish you could either buy whole or have them clean for you. Most of the workers only spoke French so I had some challenges getting my message across but eventually they realized I wanted a large grouper filleted, plus a kilo of miscellaneous fish parts.

 

My Grouper Being Filleted

If I had a fillet knife I would have tried to clean my own fish even though I haven't cleaned one in about 10 years. Instead, I chose to pay the guy at the market $1 to clean it for me.

 Beautiful Grouper Fillets

I am sure my fillets would have looked just as nice.

 

Yes, those fish eyes are staring at you

To make the dish, the first thing I had to do was make the stock for the sauce. If I had shrimp or lobster, I could have made the simple stock that went with the Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette. Instead, I bought a kilogram of fish heads, backs, and other parts and substituted the fish parts for the shellfish in Michael Symon's shellfish stock recipe.

  

Fish Bath

I let all the stock ingredients cook over low heat for 45 minutes or so until it had great flavor and was becoming rich. I took it off the heat and strained it, leaving me with delicious, rich fish stock. I also tasted some of the meat from the fish parts I used to make the stock and the meat was very good.

Guacamole Anyone?

While the stock was cooking I decided to make a quick batch of guacamole to top the fish with, a suggestion Michael makes in the book.

Fresh Guacamole

Fresh avocados were prevalent around the island and very tasty. They were actually growing on the grounds of the condo building we stayed in, along with fresh limes, passion fruit, bananas, mangoes, and other fruits.

  

All the Ingredients for Slash & Burn Grouper

 

Slash

The first step was to cut a pocket in each fillet and fill it with Jamaican jerk seasoning. Because I was staying in a rental condo I was a bit limited in my utensils. The first problem I ran into was the knife selection. They only had serrated knives, which made it difficult to cut a proper pocket in the grouper. Regardless, I did my best and put a tablespoon or two of jerk seasoning inside each fillet. 

  

Burn

There is a section in the book on sauteing & pan roasting, the method used to cook the fish. Michael writes that the biggest mistake cooks make when sauteing is to start moving the food around. "Don't touch it, don't shake the pan," Michael writes. "This commonly results in sticking and torn flesh. Allow the food to cook, it will develop a well-seared crust and pull naturally away from the pan if you don't touch it."

I got the best pan I could find nice and hot, heated the oil, dried & seasoned the fish and added it to the hot oil. The book says to brown the fish for 3 minutes, turn it, and put it in the oven for 3-5 minutes (until the fish is 140 degrees). I followed this fairly closely but wish I would have browned it longer because my skin did not get crispy. It also took more than 5 minutes for the fish to cook all the way through in this pan. 

  

Time to Make the Sauce

As with many recipes in the book, Michael finishes this dish with a quick pan sauce that is the perfect finish to the dish. Once the fish was done cooking I removed it from the pan and put it on serving plates in the oven to keep it warm. Next, I deglazed the pan with the stock & lime juice, making sure to get all the crispy, tasty fish bites in the sauce. I brought the liquid to a simmer for a few minutes until it had reduced in half. Finally I removed it from the heat and whisked in butter & the roasted red pepper.

  

Final Plating

  

So good it deserved two shots

For the final plating I spooned a little sauce on each plate, placed the fish on the sauce, and topped each piece with a dab of the guacamole. None of the cilantro I found on the island looked very good and neither my wife nor I like it anyway so I left it off.

I love fresh, well cooked fish. I definitely need to work on the latter, but even though I did not cook it as well as Symon would have, this dish was very good. Obviously the quality of the fresh, line caught grouper was superb. The sauce was rich because of the butter, but also had a crisp, refreshing finish from the lime juice & red peppers. The guacamole was the perfect frosting on the cake. I served the fish with white rice that I topped with the left over sauce and a nice bottle of wine.

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used. 

It cost me about $33.27 to make Michael Symon's Slash & Burn Grouper in St. Martin. Too bad we can't get this quality of fish for this cheap in Cleveland! Take the cost of this dish with a grain of salt. The fish was much cheaper than it would have been in the states, but the fish stock & jerk seasoning were much more expensive because I only would have used a small portion of each if I was at home.

Grouper - $10 for a whole fish that weighed about a kilogram

Jerk Seasoning - $6 (had to buy a whole bottle but only used a small amount)

Lime - $1

Red Pepper - $1.27

Butter - $1

Fish Stock (miscellaneous fish parts, onion, carrot, ginger, coriander, bay leaf, salt) - $10

Guacamole (avacado, onion, tomato, lime, serrano, garlic) - $4