Seckel Pear Salad with Mache Lettuce

An 18th-century Pennsylvania farmer (for whom it was named) is credited with introducing the Seckel pear. It's a small, seckled rosy fruit with a sweet, spicy flavor. The Seckel's firm flesh makes it excellent for both cooking and canning. It's available late August through December. It is often called the sugar pear.

2 Seckel Pears per person, sliced just before serving 
Dried cranberries
Finely chopped chives
Mache Lamb's Lettuce1

Camembert or Brie cheese slices

Few toasted nut slices (slivered almonds are good) Top with raspberry vinaigrette

Camembert when properly aged, is a bit salty. If using another cheese it may be necessary to adjust the salt content of the vinaigrette accordingly. My policy is to under salt but have it on the table. 

Italian Agretti Salad

Agretti - roscana, barba di fratte, also known as monk's beard 

This is very popular in Italy mainly in mainly in Rome and Umbria and has become the latest in vegetable in fancy Italian restaurants. When mature (50 or so days) the plants are a 12 wide, 24 tall bush that looks like a huge chive. Braise washed and chopped agretti in some olive oil with garlic and serve as a side dish with fish, shellfish or chopped and tossed in a salad. The plant has a mild slightly bitter flavoured not unlike endive! The same dressing used for Pun- tarelle Chicory Salad would work for Agretti.

Garlic Basil Balsamic Dip (Ailio, Basilica e Balsamica ala Piacere)

This recipe is based on the dip served originally at the Piacere Restaurant in San Carlos, California. This bread dip was the brainchild of the Kurd owner. It was so immensely popular, patrons would literally fill up on bread hence the restaurant soon discontinued serving it.

1⁄4 cup very finest fruity olive oil

18 Cloves coarsely chopped garlic

1 Cup of freshly chopped basil

1 Cup of very good Modena balsamic vinegar

Heat frying pan until hot, then add and heat oil until it begins to glaze. Add all the garlic. Cook exactly 1 minute while stirring constantly. Add basil. Cook 20 seconds. Add vinegar. Store in jars in refrigerator,  but serve at room temperature for dipping bread.

 

Honey Lemon Lamb Riblets with Cilantro Jalapeno Dipping Sauce

 Honey Lemon Lamb Riblets with Cilantro Jalapeno Dipping Sauce

I developed the recipe as an appetizer and was first presented at the Gourmet Club dinner in Livermore, California.

4 pounds lamb riblets or enough to “feed the flock” 

4 ~ 5 lemons

Juice from one orange
1 cup chopped fresh mint
1⁄2 cup chopped fresh rosemary
Salt
Pepper

1 half a large onion cut into large full length chucks 
1 green bell pepper cut into large full-length chucks
 4 cloves of chopped garlic.
2 tablespoons olive oil

Honey Sauce

Juice from a lemon

1/3 cup of clover or orange honey

Cilantro

Jalapeños 

Marinate ribs for three to four hours with the juice of four lemons, juice of one orange, salt, pepper, chopped mint, chopped rosemary, chopped garlic, chopped remains of lemons in into large chunks.

Get the Barbecue grill hot. Skewer the onions and bell peppers and cook like kabobs for ten minutes. Cook ribs and lemon chucks until well colored from grill. Remove from grill and bake just ribs covered in a 375 preheated oven until tender. When ready to serve, reheat ribs, onion, bell pepper and lemon chunks in microwave. Reheat Honey Sauce. Toss with ribs and other ingredients. 

Garnish with Kalamata Olives and Cilantro. Serve with dipping sauce.

Kae’s Tamales

Katherine Ottesen lived in Nayarit for thirty years, and learned the cuisine of Mexico. Perhaps, I’ll live never to see a better cook! When we cooked these, we cook two, or three tiers of tamales, filling the pot.

3 1/2 cups Quaker masa harina

2 cups chicken broth

3/4 cup of lard (Manteca)

Cooked pork or chicken, shredded

Whole black olives, one or two per tamale

Combine masa, warm stock, and salt to taste. In a mix master, beat best lard until light and fluffy, add masa, and beat a long time. A small sample dropped in cold water should float, if not add more lard.

Sauce:

1/8 pound dried Pasilla chilies

1/8 pound dried Ancho (California) chilies 

1 clove garlic

1 medium onion

1 tablespoon lard

1 cup chicken stock

1 teaspoon vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Toast dried chilies on a griddle. Cool. Discard stems, seeds, pithy parts, and wash them. Cover with one cup of cold water, soak two hours. Blend until smooth. Add water to make one cup. Mince onion and sauté in lard until soft. Combine ingredients and cook until thick. Taste for salt.

Fill tamales with masa, meat and one or two olives. Wrap in top quality dried corn husks soaked in warm water and let stand overnight. Tie corn husks with strips of husk. Steam in layers in a covered pot 50 minutes.

Risotto alla Romano (Roman Style)

Risotto alla Romano (Roman Style)

 See the recipe for risotto alla milanese for all about arborio rice. 

Risottos are flavored with harmonious ingredients such as chicken, shellfish, sausage, vegetables, stocks, cheese, white wine, herbs, or a combination of these. 

This Roman style, in its simplest form, uses tomatoes and garlic. It is this risotto the Romans use for suppli 

 2 Cups arborio rice or Carnaroli rice 

½ Cup pinot grigio or another dry white wine 

 3 Tablespoons of butter 

 3 ½ Cups of low salt veal stock (if doing a sea food version reduce this to 3 cups and add to it, a ½ cup of clam juice. 

 2 Inches of beef marrow 

1 Tablespoon concentrated tomato paste 

1 Medium-size white onion, diced 

1 8-ounce can of San Marzano plum tomatoes 

2 Cloves chopped crushed garlic 

Finely chopped slices of Prosciutto ham 

 

Optional for seafood version :

(½ Pound of cockles or small manila clams 

 ½ Pound mussels 

 4-5 Mantis shrimp (Canocchie) )

1 Tablespoon sweet butter 

 Finish with 3 Tablespoons of butter or unfiltered extra virgin fruity olive oil 

 8 Tablespoons of graded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (skip if seafood version) 

 Salt and white pepper to taste 

 Chopped Italian parsley 

In a separate pot, heat wine and stock to a boil and retain. The wine-veal-stock mixture will be added, ½ cup at a time with a ladle. Wipe the bone of any saw chips. Boil a small pot of water. Dip the marrow briefly in the boiling water for a minute. Chop the marrow. Brown the marrow in a heavy sauce pan with in 3 tablespoons of butter, and then add the onion. When the onion begins to clear but not brown, add the rice and garlic. Stir until the rice is coated and shiny and has absorbed the fat. If using Prosciutto, add it now. Add a pinch of salt and carefully pour in ½ cup of the boiling wine-vealstock mixture over rice. Stir the rice occasionally and cook on medium for 15 minutes adding liquid judiciously as liquid is absorbed and as is needed. The finished rice should only be slightly moist. 

In the meantime, if adding seafood, sauté it in some extra butter and a splash of wine and cover. Seafood will be added last. The rice is done when “al dente” – cooked through but still somewhat firm at the center. Keep in mind the rice will continue to cook even when removed from heat so remove it from the heat sooner than later. If NOT adding seafood, then stir in 3 tablespoons of butter and 6 tablespoons of graded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and adjust the seasonings. The balance of the cheese is for topping each bowl of rice. Optionally, drizzle with a little truffle oil. If adding seafood, then strain the juices from the seafood in case there is sand in it, reduce a bit on the stove and then add it and the seafood to the rice

Pasta Channels with Red & White Sauce

Cannelloni Alla Romano

Unquestionably one of my very favorites. And although it may be prepared as a large casse- role dish it is much more elegant when prepared as individual servings each in its own oval chafing dish. This is the way cannelloni would be prepared in Rome. Once assembled, the dishes may be covered with tinfoil and frozen in advanced preparation of a large dinner party. In that case, the individual chafing dishes are unwrapped of their tinfoil when needed, and go straight into the oven.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pasta will be baked on the top shelf. The bottom shelf of the oven should be provisioned with a sheet of tin foil to catch and spillage.

Roman Style Tomato Sauce

Italian White Sauce

Fettuccine al uova recipe making egg pasta in 5 inch squares

Filling:

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

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1 finely diced small red onion

1 pound ground veal

1 pound ricotta cheese

1 pound fresh spinach triple washed and stemmed 1/2 cup heavy cream.

1 beaten egg

1⁄4 cup bread crumbs made from stale Italian Bread (stabilizer) 1/4 cup graded Asiago cheese

1/4 cup graded Romano cheese

1/4 cup graded Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

salt and black pepper

Cook the stemmed spinach in boiling salted water for five minutes, drain, put the spinach in a kitchen towel and wring the towel to force water from spinach then chopped well. Saute the onion in olive oil until translucent. Add the veal and cook over low heat, stirring and breaking up the bits with a wooden spoon until the meat just done. Do not overcook! Allow mixture to cool. In a large bowl, beat the egg until pale yellow. Add and mix all the other ingredients and season with nutmeg and salt and pepper. Refrigerate the mixture for several hours to make it manageable.

Very lightly brush the individual oval chaffing dish bottoms (boats) with olive oil. Spoon in two table spoons of red sauce in bottom of dish.

Assemble Cannelloni two channels per dish being careful not to over fill the individual boats.

Add filling to each wrapper and a little white sauce to the pasta sheet. Roll up so some white sauce is rolled between the pasta sheet walls. Cover the two channels with white Sauce. Then cover the white sauce with Roman Style Tomato Sauce. Top with grated Romano cheese. Drizzle over the channels a hint of good olive oil.

Bake at 350 F for about 45-60 minutes or until done. Dishes should be bubbling hot and placed on a larger round plate so they may be carried. Serve immediately.

A full bodied Italian wine is required. (Brunello, Bordolino, Brolio, Sangiovese)

Chinese Oxtail Soup

This a Simple soup with very few ingredients. The magical properties of oxtail add a beefy flavor and cartilage for a smooth body. 

+3 pounds oxtails, roasted to enhance their flavor for twenty five minutes under a hot oven
1/2 pound carrots, cut diagonally 
1 vidaila onion, cut slices

2 cloves garlic

Dark soy to taste

Salt and pepper and star anise

Water

Some sort of hot pepper is nice.

Garnish

Diagonally slice scallions, greens only 

Brown oxtails  til flecked with brown at 375 degrees F.

In a large pot, boil oxtails 4 hour in 4 cups of water with garlic. Skim off fat periodically.

After 4 hours, add other ingredients. Cook an additional hour. Correct seasoning

 

Add noodles if desired