Jun 24 2011

Pastrami Panini w/Muenster Cheese and Wilted Cabbage

Once again my bed rest day was brightened by friendship and food. I got an email a few nights ago from my foodie co-worker (soon to be retired) John, asking if I would be interested in a sandwich day at work. John had corned an 8 pound brisket per Julia Child’s dry cure method (20 days) and used 1/2 for corned beef and then smoked the other half at 165 degrees for pastrami. Impressive for sure! I must also note that he recently took first place in a local rib cook-off.

Once I let John know that I was going to be out the entire week due to my back injury, my co-workers decided that I still needed a sandwich. Kristen and John worked together to make me a Pastrami Panini with Muenster Cheese and Wilted Cabbage – a Fine Cooking Magazine recipe that John has used before. The recipe actually calls for corned beef, but he used his pastrami instead.

Ingredients: Recipe makes 2 sandwiches
1 Cup Thinly Sliced Green Cabbage
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/4 Teaspoon Table Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Yellow Mustard Seeds
2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter – softened
4 1/2 inch-Thick Slices Rye Bread with Caraway Seeds
1 Tablespoon Grainy Mustard
12 Thin Slices (6 oz.) Pastrami
6 Thin Slices Muenster Cheese

Directions:
Combine the cabbage, 1/4 cup water, the olive oil, salt, pepper, and mustard seeds in a small saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until the water comes to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-low, cover, and steam, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is very soft and completely wilted, 10-15 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cabbage to a bowl, leaving any excess water in the pot, and set aside.

Heat your panini sandwich press or grill pan.

Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread. Put the bread, buttered sides down, on a cutting board. Spread mustard on two of the slices. Arrange the pastrami on top of the mustard. Spread an even layer of cabbage over the pastrami. Top with cheese and remaining bread slices – buttered side up.

Put the sandwiches on the press or grill pan. Cook until they are browned and crisp – 5-8 minutes.

Enjoy!

This toasty sandwich was very much loved by me. I’ve been grabbing snacks here and there because I can’t lift much and standing and cooking is out of the question. I’ve been living off of fruit, smoothies, pretzels, jelly bellies and yogurt.

Thank you John for your amazing sandwich creation and thank you Kristen for delivering it to me at my house. Unshowered, no make-up, PJ’s and I still got a hug.  You guys really did make my day.  This past week has been really rough and it’s made me realize that I really have surrounded myself with amazing friends. So many people have reached out to me and offered to help, it has been so appreciated.

O.k. enough mushy stuff… back to Million Dollar Decorators, House Hunters, The Next Food Network Star, Eat Street and all of my other TV friends that have made the time at home go by a little faster.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=5143

Jun 23 2011

Gnocchi Bake w/3 Cheeses & Crispy Prosciutto

Sorry that I’ve been MIA this past week. I really did a number on my back and have been off work and basically on bed rest since Saturday. This is my worst injury since I had my spinal fusion. I thought I’d just bounce right back like usual, not so much. I am getting better, it’s just taking time/ice/heat/meds and a whole lot of doing nothing.

Deede to the rescue – she played Foodiddy for a post and I couldn’t be more excited to feature her creativity here on my blog. So here goes… I introduce to you – Chef Deede – (Now go convince her in comments that she needs to start her own blog – she rocked it out!)

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My dearest friend, what have you done to yourself?!  Working yourself to the bone. Do not fear, for I am here. Iʼll help you fill that belly and your blog while you stay off your feet. This way your back can normalize from your mega (and dare I say, victorious) weed pulling, pruning and pool scrubbing extravaganza last weekend.

So first order of business… deciding what to make. If I had my way it would be a pie, macaron, cookies, ice cream, basically anything sweet, but that wouldnʼt sustain my dear sweet Kath. She needs a healing food and since she doesnʼt have a cold, chicken noodle soup is out (also itʼs currently 100+ degrees here). I know…

Leek-and-Gnocchi Bake with Three Cheeses and Crispy Prosciutto
Itʼs very much like macʼn cheese, but better, because the noodles are like big puffy dough pillows.

The Ingredients:
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
8 thin slices prosciutto, halved crosswise
2 leeks-trimmed, halved and cut crosswise 1/2 inch thick
salt and pepper
2 – 10-12 oz packages fresh potato gnocchi (I used trader joes stuff, located on the pasta aisle. I donʼt know how “fresh” it really is)
2 T butter
2 T flour
2 cups Milk
Ground nutmeg, to taste
1 cup grated fontina cheese, remove wax
1/2 cup grated asiago cheese
1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Directions:
In a large skillet pan fry each slice of prosciutto until crisp.

Turn once. About 2 mins. Drain on paper towels.

When cool crumble or cut into small bits

The Leeks… Add olive oil to skillet and heat, add the leeks. Cook on medium heat until tender.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil, add gnocchi and cook until the gnocchi float to the surface, about 3 mins. Drain gnocchi.

Expert multi-tasking skills: At the same time as boiling water and cooking leeks, get a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour for 1 min.

Then slowly add the milk while whisking. This way you avoid the dreaded lumpy, lumpage. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cook until thickened, 5 mins. Turn off the heat.

Stir in fontina and asiago cheeses in batches until fully melted.

But not before having some fun with your fontina cheese… Well hello there…

Pre-heat broiler. In large bowl stir together gnocchi, leeks and cheesy mix. Pour mix into casserole dish. The recipe makes enough to fill a 13×9 casserole dish, but I used my Le Creuset rectangle baker set, given to me by Ms. Foo herself. One is 5×7, the other 7×10.5. Top with parmigiano-reggiano cheese and prosciutto. Broil until browned, 3-4mins.

Credit where due:
I got the recipe from Rachael Ray. The recipe says 30 mins… maybe for a super organized, multi-tasker. It usually takes me and hour to prepare this recipe, which is not uncommon for me when doing her recipes. Thereʼs always lots of simultaneous steps.

Lessons Learned:
1. Butter is quick to burn if you are holding a camera

2. It takes a LOT longer to prepare a meal and document it, than to just whip it up.

3. Butter, Prosciutto and Cheese make camera equipment especially filthy.

4. Itʼs okay to take a cookie break while cooking

5. Avoid the help of overly exuberant sous chefs.

Especially tall ones with fur.

I delivered Kath’s Gnocchi Bake and 2 Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies and we took a few “Foo style” photos once I got to her house.

A direct quote from Kathleen – “Yum!!! Thanks for my dinner, I love it. Perfect comfort food, you’re the best!”

What a lot of work…

Foo, you are amazing for all the time and energy you put into your blog on top of you regular duties. My job here is done, hope you all enjoyed my guest post.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=5098

Jun 17 2011

Pizza Rock – 80’s Night

Dan and I got together with friends Wednesday night to try Pizza Rock on K Street in Sacramento. I’ve been wanting to try it and it was my girlfriend Michelle’s last evening in town before heading out on her summer adventure. She is a summer camp director and she’ll be gone for 6 weeks. It also happened to be 80’s after 8:00 p.m. Wednesday. 80 cent meatballs, 80 cent drink specials, all 80’s movies and music videos (I know right? What are those?)

It was also the K Street summer block party – drink specials at District 30, Dive Bar and Pizza Rock.

The DJ booth is located inside a Peterbilt truck cab suspended above the bar. Loved when he honked the horn – as if it wasn’t loud enough already.

The ceiling is painted with a rock and roll take on Michelangelo’s painting of the creation of Adam.

A game of tic-tac-toe was immediately played on the table between Dan and Michelle and Tom’s son. He was not a fan of the place due to the noise – and I’m pretty sure the Thriller video ruined him for a good week or two. Scary zombies.

I loved that all of the table place settings were stored in the tomato cans, I’m totally going to steal that for my next Italian themed get together.

Michelle and I decided that we wanted to start off with the baked formaggio.

Too bad it didn’t arrive until all of our food did – disappointing, but at least they apologized, they were slammed.

Goat cheese, Brie, pesto and tomato jam wrapped in puff pastry and served with fuji apples and toasted baguette. It was really good, but since we got everything at the same time, it was carb/bread/pizza crust overload.

We did partake in the 80 cent meatballs… I easily couldn’t have eaten several. We each had one.

I chose from the Pizza Napoletana section of the menu – pizzas cooked in their – 900 degree wood fired Cirigliano Forni oven. The dough is hand mixed using San Felice Flour, proofed in Neapolitan wood boxes and created with San Marzano Tomatoes, Mozzarella Fior di Latte, basil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and topped with sea salt. This is the pizza that co-owner Tony Gemignani baked to win the World Pizza Cup Competition in Naples, Italy.

 I liked the crust, the pizza had great flavor, it was perfect… not too heavy. I ended up folding some of the pieces in 1/2 to eat them.

Dan chose the “Sacramento” from their Classic American menu – The pizza was cooked in their Rotoflex gas brick oven. Toppings included mozzarella, pepperoni, Molinari & Sons Salami, bacon, mushrooms, red onions, bell peppers, black olives, Italian sausage and cherry tomatoes. I tried a bite and thought it was great. I don’t like meat on my pizzas, but I did love all of the fresh local veggies.

Michelle ordered from the Classic Italian section of the menu – cooked in the same oven as the Sacramento. The “Cal Italia” made me drool just reading the description… Asiago, Mozzarella, Imported Gorgonzola, sweet fig preserve, Prosciutto di Parma, and Parmigiano-Reggiano with a balsamic reduction. Apparently it was a gold medal winner in the Food Network Pizza Champions Challenge. It was like eating dessert. I took a tiny sliver and it was the perfect ending to my meal.

Michelle’s husband Tom went for the Stromboli. I tried a bite of that as well, the pepperoni had a lot of flavor, I liked it.

We kept ourselves entertained with good conversation and 80’s mix sing-alongs. Yaz, Madonna, Duran Duran… We watched movie clips from Back to the Future, Footloose, and Ghostbusters. Speaking of Ghostbusters… their 80 cent drink special was “Ectoplasm” – ghost slime.

Cheers! It tasted like Midori and Nyquil – ha! Tom and Dan thought they tasted like lime Jello.

Michelle ordered Gelato – can’t remember what flavor it was. I was intrigued by the little cookie package on the plate.

Lazzaroni – Amaretti di Saronno Cookies – dipped in the gelato… Yes!

Another fun part of the evening was the employee 80’s fashion show. Our server rocked a headband and guitar.

Skinny piano tie and leopard print hair – the bartender was awesome!

I missed the mullet guy and a few others. The place was full of energy. The crowd cheered while the DJ introduced them.  We had a really great time and went home with lots of leftovers.

Now I’m not sure I can ever go on anything but 80’s after 8 Wednesdays ;).

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=5061