An Epic Meal And Andy's Tinto de Primavera

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, 

it would be a merrier world" 

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Epicurus

Epicurean

Epicure

~ Epic ~


April's Sunday Supper
"Seder Re-Mixed"


Aperitif
"Tinto de Primavera"
with Salt and Lemon Foam

Matzo Ball Soup
Spinach, saffron broth
~
Rock Art Brewery Barn Raising Brown Ale (American Brown Ale)

Seder Plate Bento Box
Beet soup shooter, garlic mushrooms, apricot charoset,
horseradish deviled egg
~
Vermont Pub & Brewery Burly Irish (Irish Red Ale)

Intermezzo
Farnum Hill Farmhouse Cider (Sparking Cider)

Chicken Tagine
Spring vegetables, smoked paprika, local herbs
~
Rock Art Brewery Vermonster (American Barleywine)

Fourth Course
Aunt Carolyn's flourless chocolate cake
Caramel meringue cookies
~
Upside-down coffee shooter

Andy's Tinto de Primavera with Salt and Lemon Foam

Base

3 part Kosher Cabernet Sauvignon

1 part soda water

1 part lemon-lime soda

(pin of citric acid)

Foam

4 medium lemons, juiced

1.25 cups water

2 tsp sea salt

1 spt soy lecithin

Method

Combine the base over ice cubes in a rocks glass, then blitz the foam mixture with an immersion blender.  Spoon the resulting foam over the base.

 ~ Epic ~

Over Easy Eggs Topped With Smoked Salmon, Avocado and Baby Spinach Confetti

Brunch today . . .

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An easy way to dice an avocado is to slice it in half, remove the stone, slit into cubes, and gently scoop pieces out with a spoon.

To cook eggs over easy, check out: http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/10/how-to-make-eggs-over-easy.html

Easy Seared Tuna With Cucumber, Corn, And Celery Salad

Seared tuna is so easy to make on a busy week night. It cooks fast. It's tasty raw, like below, or cooked through.

Don't we all have those crazy week nights! Today, it's mid-week and we're driving our kids to their separate lessons on the same night. Thankfully, my daughter's piano teacher lives near a Whole Foods so I can stop in to pick up something fresh for dinner since there's isn't anything else pre-made at home.

Seared Tuna

Season a tuna steak with salt and pepper. Preheat toasted sesame oil, or olive oil, in a saute pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, place a nice fresh tuna steak in the pan. Sear about one minute on each side, depending on the thickness, and it's done! To make it less rare, adjust cooking time. The inside temperature is easily gauged by watching the grayed cooked edges on the side. When making rare tuna, be sure to buy good quality sushi tuna.

Remove the tuna steak and let it rest while preparing a salad or other side dish. When ready to serve, slice it against the grain. Top with fresh herbs of your choice if you want.

Cucumber, Corn, and Celery Salad
This salad was very nice and light with the tuna. My kids really love cucumbers and corn. I added the celery for a little extra crunch. After washing the English cucumber and celery stalk (organic), I simply shaved the cucumber with a potato peeler then sliced the celery. I added about a half can of drained no salt sweet corn (organic). I dressed it simply with rice vinegar and pepper to taste.

To finish, I sprinkled a little more rice vinegar over everything, including the tuna.

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Easter Goodies

These adorable Easter cut out cookies, with frosting naturally dyed from fruit, are from Spring Brook Farm. The farm dates back to 1713 and has a charming store where they sell their own produce, milk, meat, and fruit as well as flowers, beautiful baked goods, and assorted gifts. I love stopping by whenever I get a chance.

  

Here are naturally dyed jelly beans and eggs from Whole Foods. They're really good!

Naturally dyed jelly beans and eggs

           

We love, love, love maple syrup and all things maple so I also picked up these sweet maple cookies from Spring Brook Farm also. They're gushing with a maple cream filling and bursting with maple flavor.

I wish I could tell you how the pretty Easter cut out cookies tasted, but the dogs ate them! I accidently left them on the chest after I took photos and that was that.

And I wish I could share an Easter recipe but I was sick all day and didn't cook!

So, yes, the dogs ate the cookies and I was too sick to cook. No one seemed to mind because, fortunately, we had a great Easter dinner at my sister-in-law's on Saturday. But still, I was planning on cooking a light dinner and missed filling our home with those wonderful aromas.


Have a great weekend and a Happy Easter!

Vegetable Stuffed Shells

This is our favorite Meatless Monday meal so far. I was surprised because it contains four vegetables my children don't like. Chef Caprial was right when she wrote that kids will like this. I think finely dicing the vegetables helped blend the flavors into a very tasty combination.

Filling
Trim, finely dice, and saute these vegetables a few minutes until soft and tender.

Mushrooms

After sauteing the vegetables, put them in a bowl. In same pan, saute the mushrooms. They can be sauteed with the vegetables but I chose to do it this way. 

After giving it a little thought, I decided the mushrooms were too big and finely chopped them before adding to the vegetable mixture. Next time, I'd probably cook them with the other vegetables.

Cheese 
When all the vegetables are mixed together and cooled slightly, add cheese. I choose lactose-free cottage cheese in place of ricotta and a little grated Parmesan cheese.

Shells
The shells were filled with the mixture and placed in a lightly oiled baking dish.

Cheese Topping
Freshly grated mozzarella and asiago cheeses were spread over the top and baked in place of the sherry sauce.

Dinner
My son set the table, tossed and served the salad. The salad was dressed with a simple homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Vegetable Stuffed Shells
Adapted from Cooking with Caprial, Vegetable Cannelloni with Sherry Sauce

Vegetable Cannelloni ingredients, with my changes
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped (I minced)
3 shallots, chopped (I minced)
1 medium onion, diced (I omitted)
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I finely diced)
About 1 tbsp bourbon (*optional, see method)
1 zucchini, finely diced
1 eggplant finely diced
2 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, and diced (I used 1, finely diced and sauteed with the vegetables)
1 ts chopped fresh oregano
1 ts chopped fresh basil
3/4 cup ricotta cheese (I used 2 cups lactose-free cottage cheese = 1 16 oz container)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used 1/2 cup)
Salt and pepper to taste
8 cannelloni shells, cooked al dente (I used jumbo shells for the ease of stuffing)

My method for the vegetable filling: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook shells, al dente.

Wash and trim zucchini, pepper, and eggplant. Peel eggplant. Clean mushrooms with cloth or soft brush. Finely dice vegetables. Trim and mince garlic and shallots. Saute all vegetables in olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat a few minutes until soft and tender. (Or, do as above in illustrations.) Remove from pan and place in a bowl.

After vegetables cool slightly, blend in cottage cheese, or ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, oregano, and basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle a little olive oil over bottom of a baking dish. Stuff cooked shells, or cannelloni, and lay into dish. Spread a mix of freshly grated asiago and mozzarella cheese (or make sherry sauce instead, see below) over the top. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 5-10 minutes more until cheese is a little browned.

Sherry Sauce (I omitted and substituted grated Asiago and Mozzarella cheeses)
1 ts olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 cup dry sherry
2 cups heavy cream
Salt to taste and 1/2 ts cracked black pepper
If you use the Sherry Sauce . . . Lightly saute garlic and shallots in oil in a preheated pan, turn heat to high and add sherry and boil until only about 1/3 cup remains. Add cream and boil down to about 1 cup. Season with salt to taste and pepper.

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Photos:

I didn't have my new camera when I made this, was shooting at night and not knowing about ISO, this was the best I could get the photos. I'm glad that daylight hours are getting longer, it'll make photographing dinner easier!

Sliced Steak With Dijon Mustard Sauce Over Lemon Thyme Mushroom Wild Rice, Roasted Sweet Carrots

This dish was created from two leftover dishes, steak one night, and wild rice we had with East African Braised Chicken the other. It would have been fine to just serve the steak, rice, and carrots together, but I needed to use up the mushrooms so into the dish they went.

The bella mushrooms were so good just by themselves, I almost didn't want to mix them with the rice. But blending mushrooms into something else gets my kids to eat them.

The lemon thyme is finally growing in my garden and I was so excited to use some. 

I added the bella mushrooms after the lemon thyme softened a bit, and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

After mixing the mushrooms with the leftover wild rice, I added a few fresh thyme leaves over the top and juice from half a lemon to brighten the flavor a little.

These huge sweet carrots are from the local farmer's market and they were simply washed, scrubbed, sliced, and placed on a baking pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper. They roasted beautifully at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. 

The mustard sauce was quick and easy. I blended Dijon mustard, extra virgin olive oil, and 2 garlic cloves. 

The meat was left over from sirloin steaks the other night. I often buy extra steak it can be sliced and used in salads, etc., for another meal or two.

Wild Rice and Mushrooms

Rice

Prepare rice according to package

Mushrooms

1 medium package, bella mushrooms

2-3 sprigs fresh lemon thyme, or plain thyme

equal parts butter and olive oil, about 2 tablespoons each

salt and pepper to taste

juice from half a lemon

a sprig of lemon thyme to finish

Gently brush dirt off mushrooms with a soft brush or towel, slice into halves or quarters. Heat pan over medium heat, add butter and oil, add sprigs of thyme and stir until they become soft. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper, being careful not to crowd pan otherwise they'll steam more than saute. Stir occasionally and rough up thyme to release the leaves. Saute mushrooms until tender, but not mushy, about 3-5 minutes depending on their size. Remove thyme sprigs with tongs, pull off any remaining leaves and add to mushrooms. Mix mushrooms into rice in a bowl. With remaining sprig, scrap off thyme stems and add to mixture, squeeze lemon over the top and blend. Season to taste.

Roasted Sweet Carrots

2 large sweet carrots, or 4 regular carrots

1-2 tablespoons olive oil, or extra virgin

salt and pepper to taste

Slice carrots in half, and then slice lengthwise, into quarters (if using regular carrots, slice in half lenthwise). Lay on a baking sheet and toss with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until tender.

Dijon Mustard And Garlic Sauce

Equal parts Dijon mustard and olive oil or extra virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons each

2 garlic cloves, halved

(double, if more sauce is needed)

Process in a small food processor until blended. If you don't have a small food processor, mince garlic (or mash into a paste) and vigorously stir all ingredients together.