Fifty-fourth Post ~ Easy Sirloin Steak with Mushrooms and Fingerling Potatoes

Maybe it's the fact that I'm halfway through the week. Maybe it's the sunshine. Whatever the reason, today just feels like a day that should be celebrated. And I like to celebrate with a good dinner.

I ran to Wegmans after class and picked up two organic sirloin steaks, a bag of fingerlings, and a package of pre-washed and sliced baby bellas mushrooms, for a change of pace from the buttons.

Home I went. Given that it was already pushing 10:30, I needed to get this dinner in order and on the table post haste. Here's what you'll need to make tonight's dinner, and here's how you can get it all on the table within a half hour or under:

~ One small sirloin steak (I've never bought organic steak before, but these were mismarked, I think, and therefore within the realm of what I like to pay for a small steak: $3 a pop)

~ Ground salt

~ Herb of choice for use on the whole meal (I relied heavily on thyme, 'cause that's what I have a bag of in my fridge, but I also had a little rosemary left, so I used some of that, too)

~ White wine

~ One clove garlic

~ Olive oil

~ Mushrooms

~ Fingerling potatoes

As soon as you walk in the door (after greeting a puppy, if applicable) start your toaster oven on conventional bake 350. Wash and pierce the fingerlings. Rub some olive oil on them and place them on a piece of foil on the same pan you plan to cook the steak on later on. Scatter some thyme and grind ample salt over them. Pop 'em in the oven.

In a pan, start some olive oil and white wine simmering. Add the mushrooms as soon as you get the package open, grind some sea salt over them, crush a clove of garlic into the mix, and add some thyme (assuming that's the fresh herb you're using) and add more wine and oil as it boils down.

As soon as the mushrooms are going, salt the steak and add some olive oil over the top. Place a sprig of rosemary on the top of it and place it next to the potatoes in your toaster oven. I usually go by the rule of 5 minutes on one side, 8 on the other. This was a bit smaller of a steak, so I went less.

Serve the steak topped with the mushrooms alongside your yummy fingerling potatoes (after about 30 minutes, they're perfect!). I enjoyed tonight's mid-week celebration meal with my last glass of Sangre de Toro Tempranillo. I cannot say enough good things about this wine. I think it will be one of those wines that I'll just always plan on having in my wine rack. Besides being really affordable, it's smooth and earthy with bright overtones of cherry and blackberry that deepen over time. It's a perfect match for a dinner like this!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Forty-sixth Post ~ Savory Pot Roast

This is a pretty simple meal to put together in the middle of the day, then forget about until your day is done and you're ready for dinner.

Bear in mind that I'm cooking for one and my leftovers are designed to be relatively small - as good as pot roast is, no one wants to eat it for five dinners in a row. So realize that the picture above is practically a miniature potroast - a chuck eye that is a little under a pound, baby carrots, pearl mushrooms and fingerling potatos.

Here's what you'll need to prepare tonight's meal in whatever size you desire!

~ Chuck eye roast

~ Fingerling potatoes

~ Slices of a small cooking onion

~ Baby carrots

~ Baby pearl mushrooms

~ Beef boulion cubes to taste, dissolved in about 2 cups of water

~ Splash of whatever red wine you have laying around

~ Salt

~ Sprig each of rosemary and savory

The directions are pretty simple: wash and pierce your potatoes and add them to the slow cooker, add carrots and mushrooms, then the meat topped with two slices of onion, salt to taste, and a sprig of each of the herbs. Pour in your two cups of liquid into which you've dissolved the boullion, a splash of red, and you're good to go! Slap the lid on, get to class, and when you return (presumably between 4-6 hours later, depending on the size of the roast), heavenly aromas of a home-cooked meal await you!

The herbs added a nice fragrance to this meat. I put everything out on a plate once it was cooked and mixed the juice with a little dissolved corn starch on the stove to make a fast and flavorful gravy. Overall, it was a nice "mom's cooking" kind of meal, and went beautifully with a Sangre de Toros red table wine. The earthy old-world reds are SO good with roast beef!

The leftovers will provide about 2 meals for me, which is a perfectly desireable amount!

Yours in the love of good food and wine (and eating well, even as a singleton),

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Forty-third Post ~ Cornish Hen with Wild Rice and Mushroom Stuffing and Fingerling Potatoes

I've been wanting to make a Cornish hen for a while for two reasons: Reason 1: It just seems like it would be fun to make a Cornish hen. Reason 2: My mom and I cooked some up years ago together, and I thought it would be fun to come home on a Friday armed with two birds and a bag full of ingredients and surprise her with a home-cooked dinner made from my own original recipe.

So this week, in strategizing my meals, I realized that I'd be making a box of Uncle Ben's rice to go with my pork: BAZINGA! Instant stuffing. This was my moment. This was my chance to test my poultry prowess.

So here's what you'll need to make what I had hoped would be (and I guess still kinda was) an easy-peasy-one-two-threesey Cornish hen:

~ Cornish hen (obviously)

~ Cooked long-grain wild rice

~ Fresh herb of choice (rosemary is in season in my refrigerator at the moment)

~ Spoonful of jam (you know how much I love apricot)

~ One scallion

~ Handful of mushrooms (I used washed baby pearls)

~ Fingerling potatoes (not familiar? Go to Wegmans. My mom and I discovered them over break and tried them out eagerly, not knowing what to expect. Weroasted them with a pork loin and, oh, were they good. Slightly creamy in texture, each color yields a slightly different flavor. I'm a fan.)

On your chopping block, chop up some mushrooms, one scallion, and one small sprig's worth of rosemary needles. Start a little olive oil and white wine heating up in a pan. Add everything with a dash of salt. Add a good helping of the wild rice and stir everything around a bit. If you made the rice like I did for yesterday's dinner, you've added ginger and cinnamon to the rice as it cooked, so all of these aromas will meld together beautifully. Add a spoonful of apricot jam. As it looks evenly heated, take it off of the heat.

Pierce the fingerlings and place them on a piece of parchment in a pan. Over pan, place a cooking rack. Open the package containing your hen.

:: PAUSE ::

Giblets. Did NOT know Cornish hens came with giblets. Unlike other kids, I was the one picking the giblets out of the stuffing - out of the pan of stuffing - so I could get extras. I love them. So even though this was not on my agenda tonight, I really could not simply toss away all that savory, vitamin-packed goodness. So I got out a second pan and melted some butter and cooked up the giblets. Once they were done I added the stuffing and stirred it all around a bit. If I had known Cornish hens came with giblets, I would have done them first, then sautéed the rest of the ingredients for the stuffing and only had one pan to wash. Live and learn.

:: UNPAUSE ::

So, now that the stuffing is done, rinse off the hen and stuff it. Secure the closure with a toothpick. Years of watching my mother stuff turkeys (we have about four a year) has given me a good sense of how much stuffing can fit in a bird - and that you can always, always, ALWAYS find room for more to fit SOMEWHERE.

Place the stuffed hen on the cooking rack over your fingerlings. The juice that drips off of the bird will give a nice savory taste to the potatoes.

Bake for between 35 minutes and an hour (depending on the size of the hen), checking here and there. Work on schoolwork, wash dishes, play with puppy, check email, etc. I am becoming a huge fan of "hands-off" dinners that have to be left alone for a while. When the juices run clear, it's ready to go!

:: PAUSE AGAIN ::

My apologies for the multiple pauses. But this tale merits telling. So I poked it a few times with a knife, and all juices ran clear. Onto my plate it went. First slice, and it was evident that I had obviously not poked deep enough. So back into the oven it went with the stuffing spread out on a pan (which I had already consumed in forkfuls by this point - one of the many benefits of testing out a recipe before you make it for other people: if there's going to be food-borne illness-related death as a result of your cooking, at least only one person has to die). Out onto my plate it went, and I flipped it over this time (more meat to be found opposite the backbone; never was one for chicken anatomy) and the juices ran pinker than ever. Back into the oven. In the mean time, I ate the stuffing and the potatoes, which I figure, HAD to be done. Out came the chicken. At this point, I was pretty much full with the stuffing and potatoes, and had become so paranoid about the meat that I ate a few bites but then foiled the rest up and put it in the fridge to reheat and eat the next day Here's the moral of the story, folks: Invest in a meat thermometer.

:: UNPAUSE ::

So, while the chicken proved to be a bit of a logistical challenge, I can quite honestly and shamelessly say that the wild rice and mushroom stuffing was probably one of the best things I've cooked yet. So there is still hope for my mother's surprise meal.

I paired tonight's dinner with the last of the Pepperwood Grove's Pinot Grigio. It gave a nice acidic company to the herbs and fruit overtones in the stuffing and chicken, and in my opinion, was a natural pairing.

Yours in the love of good food and wine, and not letting the chicken win,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-fifth Post ~ Pork Tenderloins en Papillote

As the third addition to the "en Papillote" files, I offer you pork tenderloins and potatoes. I made this a few nights ago, and just didn't want this to end up wasting away in the File of Meals that Don't Get Blogged. So I thought I'd take five minutes out to write it up. Here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Pork tenderloin - cut a few pieces off then save the rest for another meal

~ Small red potatoes

~ Dried fruit (I used golden and regular raisins and cranberries)

~ A random few sloshes of whatever wine is laying around

~ Chives or green onions

~ Fresh (or dried) herbs - I used thyme and marjoram

Preheat your oven. Quarter and boil the potatoes in salted water with some thyme. Meanwhile, dice your pork and place it in one half of your paper heart (See Post #33 for directions on this one!) Salt and pepper the pork to taste. Add a sprig of fresh marjoram. This herb is nearly floral in its aroma - use it sparingly! Add a small bit of green onion or chive. Once the potatoes are forkable, place them over the pork and scatter some dried fruit all around. Fold up your heart and pour in the bit of wine. Cook for 12-15 minutes. All the flavors will meld, and the dried fruit will reconstitute with the juices, making it all sweet and savory at the same time.

I enjoyed this dinner with some leftover Cupcake Vineyard's Chardonnay. It needed something floral and sweet to downplay the serious oakiness of this wine. As it's fermented in stainless with oak chips added for taste, it comes off a bit heavy and not as well-rounded as a chard actually aged in oak barrels. Based on the tasting notes of this wine (warm vanilla, oaky, slightly spicy and well-rounded) I was hoping I had found a lesser expensive version of Cakebread Cellar's Chardonnay (truly the best wine I've ever had in my life - It's what actually started me on this whole path of food and wine appreciation two years ago!) but was disappointed. It still is a nice wine to pair with meals that would normally overpower a weaker white, like this one.

All in all, a good, quick meal to enjoy at the end of a long day!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-third Post ~ Salmon en Papillote

Parchment paper... where have you been all my life? If you think I'm being over-dramatic, consider the meal at your left. It went from raw ingredients to steaming hot on my plate in 20 minutes. I'm considering running a series in my blog called "The en Papillote Files" (which, translated from French means, "The In-Paper Files" which actually sounds quite boring in English, which is why I'll be writing it in French). Here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Parchment paper

~ 1 small potato

~ 1/2 lemon

~ White wine

~ Butter

~ Veggie (I used snap peas, because they're lovely)

~ Fresh herb of choice (I used thyme, as it is one of my newfound favorite herbs)

~ Salmon fillet (this one was farm-raised and dye-free, and came to a whopping $3 and change)

~ Salt/Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Start a pot of salted water boiling. Slice your small potato and boil the slices until tender. Cut lemon in half, and cut two very thin slices off and juice the rest into a prep bowl. Add a good splash of wine. I used some Clean Slate Riesling from Germany.

While your potatoes are boiling, fold a large-ish piece of parchment in half and cut it into a heart, grade-school-style. Open the heart, and place the salmon in one half of it. Place fresh herbs on top with a couple dabs of butter. When the potato slices are pierceable with a fork, lay them on top of the salmon and herbs. Salt and pepper them to taste. Place the two slices of lemon on top. Now here's the part that's key to the whole "en papillote" part: starting at the top of the heart: fold the empty half over the top of the food and make little folds along the edge, sealing the packet. When you get to the V of the heart (the bottom) you'll have a little open "tail." Into this, pour your lemon and wine mixture. Seal the rest up.

Place it on a pan in your oven. Here's the best part: kill 10-12 minutes while your dinner cooks. Feed your dog, check your email, chat on the phone, whatever. In 10-12 minutes, your dinner is DONE, baby. Take the parchment package out of the oven, put it on a plate, and slice an X into the top of the parchment to reveal the goodness inside. Mine looked like this when opened.

So... what wine to drink? I had heard great things (on Food Network and in lots of wine blogs) about Cupcake Vineyards Chardonnay. I learned that its oakiness may be rendered in fact by oak chips in wine aged in stainless steel barrels, so I was a little disheartened. However, it was suggested that it would pair well with salmon, so I gave it a shot, with the nice, dry Clean Slate Riesling on hand as a back-up. The verdict: Riesling. The chard by Cupcake is so oaky, it actually overpowers the salmon. Which is quite a feat, for a white wine. It wasn't a bad pairing, but it definitely downplayed the delicate tastes of the fish (and salmon ain't that delicate, so...). The Riesling, like its name suggests, was clean, crisp, and refreshing.

So what to pair with Cupcake chardonnay? Aged Gouda. I got this 3-year aged Dutch Gouda from Wegmans, and it just sings with the oaky, buttery chardonnay. Consider it dessert after a very satisfying dinner!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirtieth Post ~ Wine Feature: Mas de la Garrigue with Lamb Tenderloin

The wine. And the meal.

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A little over a year ago, I bought a bottle of wine at a retail wine store, and it tasted a bit of cork taint. I took it back to the store and spoke with the manager. He gladly took my bottle back and in compensation, offered me a bottle of one of his favorite reds the store offered: Mas de la Garrigue from Força Réal in Côtes du Roussillon Villages in France. He gave me these words of advice: "Don't drink it with someone who'll say, 'Mm! This tastes like grape juice!' because you'll be sorely let down."

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Taking these words to heart, I tied a checkered red and white ribbon around the bottle and saved it for the appropriate person. This individual would have to appreciate the nuances of a fine vintage. This individual would have to have a discriminating palate. This individual would have to be a bit of a wine snob. This individual would have to be... Meg.

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So we set a date for "French Red Wine Fest," and I set to researching this particular wine and winery. Time on the internet put me in touch with Cyril, the son of the man who bought the Força Réal vineyard in 1989 and who trained at the Chilean winery Villa d’Este and in the Côte-Rôtie. He recommended a grilled red meat with the wine, and a red fruit salad for dessert. He also laid my fears to rest that the wine from this particular year would be fine to drink after its recommended date of three years.

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So here, my friends, is what you'll need for tonight's meal (first the basics, then the details):

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~ A spectacular vintage from Força Réal. Mas de la Garrigue is a blend of Carignan, Grenache Noir and Syrah varietals. I got this one from Colonial Wine and Spirits in Orchard Park.

~ Red meat: I chose lamb tenderloins from Wegmans (naturally)

~ Cheese plate

~ Fruit salad

~ Vegetable

~ Starch

~ Chocolate

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For the starch:

~ Tiny red potatoes

~ Olive oil

~ Salt/Pepper

~ Fresh (or dried) dill

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I got a bag of tiny red potatoes. At Meg's suggestion, I quartered them, salted, peppered, and tossed them with olive oil and fresh dill. Put them in the oven on 425. Stir a few times while you cook everything else.

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For the meat:

~ Lamb tenderloins (one of the only cuts of lamb that actually seems to expand as you cook it, so three per person is ample)

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For the glaze:

~ Cherry preserves

~ White wine (I used some Blanc de blanc from Vieux Papes)

~ Olive oil

~ Marjoram

~ Dried cherries

~ A hint of balsamic vinegar

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Start about a tablespoon or so of olive oil heating in a stick-free pan. Add some white wine. Add a good couple tablespoons of cherry preserves. Pass the jar and a spoon back and forth between you and your sous chef. Add a touch of marjoram and a dash of balsamic and let simmer. Talk about your days at work.

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In a separate pan, brown the lamb tenderloins with a bit of oil. Once the sauce has started to meld, add the lamb. Turn frequently and take out of the sauce just as the juices start running clear. Set the lamb aside and let the sauce cook down while you make the veggie.

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For the veggie:

~ Snap peas

~ Salt/pepper

~ Olive oil

~ Garlic cloves

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Sautee some crushed garlic and olive oil in a pan. Add the snap peas, salt and pepper. Sautee until just tender.

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For the cheese plate and fruit salad (optional, but highly recommended)

~ Vintage gouda (aged 3 years, Holland)

~ Dried cherries

~ Slices crisp, tart apple

~ Dark chocolate (Hershey's pure dark chocolate and pure dark chocolate with cranberries, blueberries and almonds, as per Meg's impeccable taste = perfection)

~ Red fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries for color and sweetness, tossed with some honey)

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The wine. Ahh, the wine.

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We decided to pour part of the bottle into a decanter to let it breathe for a bit while we finished cooking dinner. The first taste was reminiscent of the bright red fruit salad recommended by Cyril: tart, fresh, full-bodied. The finish was sweet and lingering. It paired beautifully with everything we ate this evening: the lamb brought out its Old World earthiness, the fresh herbs highlighted its bright, sweet notes, the carmel-smoothness of the gouda enhanced its crisp "biting into an apple" taste, the red fruit showcased this wine's full-bodied texture and flavor. What a wine. What a meal!

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Over four and a half hours we dined, we chatted, we drank, we dined some more, we discussed; we even watched a chick flick (the video store didn't have our original pick: French Kiss, so we thoroughly enjoyed Under a Tuscan Sun instead!). I've said it before, but it merits repetition. Good food, good wine, good conversation between friends: This is the merry triumvirate on which life can ever turn in its momentum of happiness.

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Yours in the love of all three,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Twenty-eighth Post ~ Herbed Steak with Mushrooms and Baked Potato

I was in the mood for steak tonight, but not a super heavy meal. What to do? I decided that an herb marinade might lighten the meal a bit. That, and mushrooms go with everything. A little red potato would pair well with the whole thing (and whether it would have, we'll never know...)
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Here's what you'll need to prepare tonight's meal:
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~ Steak (I got my usual two-pack at Wegmans for around $5. They are not big steaks, and that fit the bill for me)
~ Herbs (my favorites ground together are dried oregano, rosemary, thyme, and paprika)
~ Olive oil
~ Red wine
~ Soy sauce
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For the mushrooms:
~ Mushrooms (I go for my standard pre-cut, pre-washed baby bellas)
~ Chives
~ Garlic
~ Salt/Pepper to taste
~ White wine
~ Olive oil
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For the potato:
~ Potato
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::PAUSE::
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Here's the thing - I had a red potato at a barbecue a few weeks ago, and granted, it had probably been sitting in the coals for the better part of the afternoon, but it was the best potato I've had in years. Ergo, I bought two reds to try to replicate the same effect in my toaster oven. I rubbed each with a bit of olive oil, pierced them, wrapped them in tin foil and broiled them for over an hour, and they were still underdone. So the potato in the picture is a prop potato, if you will. I don't include the picture of myself looking highly disappointed when I take a bite and find that it's still way too starchy and not at all smooth. I actually kept broiling the other one while I ate the steak and mushrooms. I was full when I was done with that, so I saved the potato for a later meal this week. Oh, well...
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::UNPAUSE::
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So commence with the preparation of the meat and then the mushrooms. Mix your herbs together and grind them with a mortar and pestal. I got one at TJMaxx of all places for $3.00. Up until that point I had used two bowls ground against each other.
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Pour a dollop of oil into the herbs, followed by a splash of red wine. and then a tiny bit of soy sauce. Mix this together and pour it over your steak. Let the steak sit in the marinade for a while - in a perfect world you'd let it marinate while your potatos finish, but I think the steak would have been pickled if I had actually waited until that point.
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In the mean time, prep your mushrooms. In a pan, splash some white wine over them, some olive oil, salt and pepper them to taste, and add some garlic and chives. Here's a pic of everything ready to be cooked:
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In actuality, this ended up comprising the meal, and it was a perfect amount of food. As previously mentioned, I like my steak on the rare-to-medium-rare side, so I broiled it about 5 minutes on one side and about 8 on the other.
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The mushrooms simmered nicely, and I added a bit of wine here and there if they started getting too low on moisture.
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Rather than breaking out a heavy, hearty merlot or cab, I paired tonight's dinner with the light-yet-earthy Italian pinot that I had with the caprese salad. Pinot noir is to a wine rack what a little black dress is to a woman's closet: It's versatile and can be "accented" for nearly any occasion. Pinot noir is one of the only wines that can be passed around a table at which every diner has ordered something different from the menu. Paired with a caprese salad, it's light and fruity. Paired with tonight's meal, it's balanced and earthy. Paired with chocolate, it's... well... what's not awesome when paired with chocolate? But I digress...
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So yes, tonight's meal came together nicely in spite of the potato, and the pinot noir added the final touch of lightness that I was striving for tonight!
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Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL
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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.