Gorgonzola & Spring Onion Scones

Scones. Perfect, tender scones are the subject of today's post. Now I know that perfect scones which demand anything less than precision and coddling are virtually unheard of, but I'm here to share a great big secret about scone making for dummies: cream cheese. Cream cheese is a magical mystery ingredient that gives most any dough that combination of airiness and richness found in things like puff pastry. These qualities will be present in the finished product virtually no matter how much you work or re-work the dough. This combination was inspired by a bunch of garlic chives my friend gave me from out of her garden. Sadly, when I went to prep them I noticed that they'd spoiled (our warmer weather must have been too much for them to be stored out of the fridge; d'oh!), but those garlic chives inspired my next blog post, so I'm thankful instead of sad. Besides, green onions (or scallions, if you prefer) make a great substitute and are much easier to find. :)

I served these scones alongside some kale sauteed in olive oil with a splash of apple cider vinegar, and some buffalo style spicy roast chicken drumsticks.

Gorgonzola & Spring Onion Scones

Makes 12 scones

2 cups plus 1/3 to 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cold butter, chopped into small squares
1 egg, beaten to a froth
1/2 cup half n half
6 ounces cream cheese, softened to just before the melting point*
4 - 5 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, finely crumbled
8 spring onions, dark green parts discarded and the light green and whiter parts sliced finely

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Sift together 2 cups of the flour and the rest of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2. In a separate mixing bowl add half n half, cream cheese, then gorgonzola with the frothy egg. Stir in green onions.
3. Add butter to dry ingredients and pinch flour into butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Add wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. Turn out onto a floured work surface and sift in up to an additional 1/2 cup of flour while gently kneading. Only add flour until the dough barely sticks to your hands.
6. Press the dough into a 9" diameter circle and cut into twelve wedges.
7. Arrange on a greased or parchment lined cookie sheet** and bake for 15 minutes at 400, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
8. Serve the first few warm.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!

*Warmer than room temperature, and practically liquid throughout, but not hot enough to cook the egg when it is added
**An optional step before baking them is to brush an egg wash over the tops composed of 1 teaspoon water, 2 teaspoons half n half and one whipped egg.

Tea Poached Chicken Salad w/ Toasted Walnuts, Apples & Raisins

Have you ever craved chicken salad without having any leftover roast chicken with which to make it? I have and rather than longing for it I usually decide to poach some chicken for the salad. I typically use bay leaves, peppercorns and a few whole pieces of the veggies in mirepoix to flavor the broth, but lately I've been thinking about which dishes might be good with tea. I recalled some lovely tea-poached chicken wings I'd had at a chain called Saint's Alp and the idea for tea poached chicken salad was born. To heighten the depth of the flavor profile I wanted to add toasted walnuts, which led to apples, which led to golden raisins, which (naturally) led to the addition of celery. This is essentially a tea-poached spin on Waldorf salad with chicken as the star. I enjoyed it alongside some homemade baked salt and pepper potato chips. If homemade chips aren't your thing I recommend kettle cooked chips alongside a sandwich piled high with this yummy salad!

And I have a hunch that tea might be the new gourmet flavor of the year. I certainly love its flavor in chocolate truffles--seriously, Earl Grey truffles are fabulous!

Tea Poached Chicken Salad

For the poached chicken:

3/4 lbs. organic skinless and boneless chicken breast
3 bags of black tea of choice (I used English Breakfast; I had it on hand)
2 cups water
1 whole clove (the sweet spice)
4 peppercorns, gently crushed
1/2 lemon sliced width wise

For the salad:

3 small celery heart stalks
1 honeycrisp apple, chopped finely and tossed in the juice of about 1/2 a lemon to avoid browning
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 large stalk outer celery stem, chopped into large-ish pieces
1/4 cup toasted walnuts*, minced
4 Tablespoons mayonnaise, homemade or store bought

1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small pot, then remove from heat. Add tea bags and steep for 4 minutes. Remove teabags and set tea aside to cool.
2. While tea is cooling fit chicken snugly in a single layer in the bottom of a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Cover with lemon slices and top with the tender celery stalks. Sprinkle pepper and clove around the edges of the chicken.
3. When the tea has cooled to room temperature add it to the pan with the chicken until it just covers the chicken. Bring tea and chicken to a boil, then mostly cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for ten minutes.
4. When the chicken has been simmering for 10 minutes, remove pan from heat and allow the chicken to sit for another 15 - 20 minutes in the hot liquid.
5. Remove chicken from poaching liquid and pour liquid into a mixing bowl; try to avoid adding the solids from the poaching liquid, if possible.
6. Shred chicken between two dinner forks and add to mixing bowl with liquid. Allow this mixture to cool and the chicken to absorb more of the poaching liquid.
7. Squeeze the excess liquid off of the chicken before adding it to a larger mixing bowl. Add the salad ingredients and mix to incorporate. Serve on crusty bread.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!

*To make toasted walnuts cook walnuts in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet in an oven preheated to 375 for 5 minutes, or until you start to smell walnuts in the house; remove promptly, because walnuts are easy to burn

Balsamic Roasted Zucchini & Summer Squash Soup w/ Ginger Yogurt

Spring has sprung and our corner of the world is blossoming before our eyes. The allergy sufferers are in misery and the skies have opened up a torrential downpour on us, the better to nourish spring's buds. All this is to say that it is soup weather once again. This soup weather calls for a lighter, squash-based soup which is perfected by a dollop of savory ginger yogurt. Glazing the squash in balsamic and roasting it with onions gives the soup a surprising depth of flavor.

I served this along with my smoked trout and citrus salad and some fabulous zesty lemon & thyme chicken drumsticks.

Zucchini & Summer Squash Soup

For roasting the squash:

3 Medium Zucchinis, quartered lengthwise
4 Medium Summer Squash, quartered lengthwise
1 Medium yellow onion, quartered
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped off & woody stems discarded
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

For the soup base:

1 Bayleaf
1 leek, chopped finely
3 carrots, chopped finely
2 stalks celery, chopped finely
3 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Teaspoon olive oil
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
salt, to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste

For the yogurt:

1/2" x 1" piece of ginger, peeled and grated
3/4 cup unsweetened greek yogurt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a mixing bow combine all roasting ingredients, then toss to coat. Spread squash and onions in a shallow baking dish in a single even layer. Roast for about 25 minutes, or until completely squishy (the more you overcook your squash, the smoother the consistency of the soup). You may want to remove the onions before 25 minutes are up; start checking on them every 5 minutes at 15 minutes.
2. While the squash and onions are roasting combine the yogurt and ginger and chill in the fridge in a covered container until the soup is ready to serve.
3. When the squash and onions have been roasting for 15 minutes, melt the butter for the soup base in a large heavy-bottom skillet (or whatever you intend to make your soup in); add in olive oil, leek, celery, carrots, salt, pepper and bayleaf and saute until tender over medium heat.
4. When the zucchini and summer squash have roasted until their melting point, remove from oven and allow to cool somewhat. Puree onions and squash in a blender until completely smooth.
5. Add chicken stock and water to your mirepoireau* in the pan and bring to the beginnings of a boil.
6. Mix in pureed veggies and cook another 3-5 minutes, or until all ingredients have reached the same temperature.
7. Serve with a dollop of ginger yogurt and garlic rubbed crostini.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and I welcome your feedback!

*Your soup base; get it? n_n

Beer Onion Relish and Lemon Thyme Butter New Potatoes (BBQ Dishes Part Two and Three)

I posted part one of this bbq dish series last year during grill season and I'm only finally getting around to posting it! The onion beer jam makes a fantastic hostess/host gift, but only if you're making it within 48 hours of gifting. I'm hoping one of these days I'll find a recipe that can be preserved in mason jars, but for now the possibility of the wrong types of bacteria are too intimidating.
Neither of these is a main dish, but by the end of this post I hope none of my readers will mind all that much. I discovered the Beer Onion Jam nearly by accident while preparing a fancy-ish meal to bring on a foodie camping trip. When I made it up I didn't realize how similar it was to a French dish, confit l'oignon, until I stumbled across a post on one of google+'s food-loving communities, in fact my main community, foodies+. The confit stores very well if poured into a sterilized jar and I have to admit I'm still tinkering with a version of my onion jam recipe that will do better in the long term. As for the potatoes...my word, the fluffy baked-in-butter potatoes have my vote for side dish of the year! Lemon zest and Thyme add a lovely combo of citrus fragrance and smoky herbaceous-ness, and the absolute best potato to use in this dish hands down is yukon gold. A really good dark beer is required for the Onion Jam; the few times I've tried to use a cheap beer the liquid in the jam tasted sort of dirty and very salty.
I'm sure you're wondering how a dish is made up "by accident"; well, while planning the meal I wanted to complement the flavor of some delicious organic pork sausages I planned to grill. I came across a recipe suggesting a beer-onion-garlic marinade for pork sausages. According to the recipe the sausages would be simmered for awhile in beer. The cooking liquid smelled so delicious while cooking that it made me realize reducing the liquid and bottling the result would make for a fantastic relish. As it turned out, it was a big hit! It lent an amazing flavor to our grilled sausages. We ended up with a lot more relish than we could use, so I'd recommend using the liquid to braise some sausages for you and your family the night before attending or hosting a big bbq, then reducing the simmering liquid, pureeing the results and serving it up at the next day's bbq alongside your other hot dog/sausage/hamburger condiments. It tastes amazing with a little mayo on a grilled pork sausage.

Beer Onion Relish

2 slices uncured, thick cut bacon, sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 1/2 medium yellow onions, roughly chopped
18 - 24 ounces good dark beer (a stout or a porter from a brewer whose beers you enjoy)
3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. In a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium flame, cook bacon until crispy and fat has been rendered.
2. Add onion, garlic and black pepper, and stir to coat. Add beer to just cover all ingredients.
3. Add in bay leaf and mustard powder and reduce heat to low.
4. Simmer, uncovered over low heat until liquid reduces by at least half.
5. Once liquid has reduced, remove from heat and allow jam to cool before pureeing mixture. Serve as a condiment with grilled sausages and burgers. It is amazing on the same bun with mayo, particularly mayo with a little horseradish mixed in!

Lemon Thyme Butter New Potatoes

12 - 14 smallish new yukon gold potatoes
2 sprigs with of thyme leaves (strip leaves off and discard woody stems)
Zest of 1/3 lemon
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
Salt, to taste (I use around 1/2 teaspoon, but I much prefer potatoes that aren't lacking in it)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste (3 or so twists of the grinder into your mixing bowl ought to do it)

1. preheat oven to 42 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl combine butter, thyme, salt, pepper & lemon zest. Add in scrubbed whole potatoes and toss to coat.
3. Spread in a single even layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 - 35 minutes, or until fork tender.

Enjoy alongside your grilled mains.*

*If you want to cook these on the bbq alongside your grilled mains, spread them out in a sing layer on aluminum foil, then cover with foil and crimp top & bottom foil together to seal in steam escaping from potatoes. Depending upon the size of the potatoes they'll need to cook on the grill in their foil packet for 45 - 55 minutes. If you're going to grill I'd highly recommend grilling up some olive, salt & pepper rubbed spring onions (all one piece, but white & light green parts only--discard dark green rougher top parts) until tender and somewhat more translucent and then slicing them and adding them to some mayo to make an unbelievable dipping sauce for the potatoes.

I hope you enjoy these recipes and I welcome your feedback!

Post Script: Sorry for the low quality photo; those potatoes were make, then gobble!

Roasted Artichoke Bisque with Spicy Crab Meat, Lemon Infused Olive Oil and Parmesan Crisps

When I originally wrote this recipe a huge banner over my local health food chain proclaimed it to be "crab season", which got my creative juices flowing, although inside the store the price per pound was less than inviting: 35 USD/pound for lump Dungeoness Crab meat (separated). I purchased the smallest amount I thought I could cook with and prayed my roasted artichokes would step up to their daunting task and serve as a satisfying star of the dish alongside the figurative scene chewer--fresh crab meat. If you also live in a place with extremely expensive crab meat I suggest structuring the soup the same way I have and perhaps planning to serve it while entertaining, since the finished product is impressive and not inexpensive to make! If you live in an area where crabs are abundant and cheap I suggest flipping the main ingredients and googling how to make crab stock. Had I "world enough and time" (to make the hour plus drive to the area where an abundance of small family seafood markets drive the price of crabs down to a more manageable one) I would have made the dish this way; sadly, seafood prices in my area are conspiring against this possibility.
Roasting the artichokes in lemon infused olive oil and serving the finished soup with droplets of the infused oil really allowed the flavor of the artichokes to shine. The parmesan crisps also added a sort of golden umami--a richness and depth of flavor. I used Ina Garten's recipe for the crisps, which can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/parmesan-crisps-recipe/index.html (thank you, Ina--you rock!)

Roasted Artichoke Bisque with Spicy Crab Meat and Lemon Infused Olive Oil

Makes 4 - 6 servings

3 Tablespoons lemon-infused olive oil, plus >1 Teaspoon for drizzling*
3 globe artichokes or 4 violetta artichokes (globe tend to be larger), cleaned, trimmed and halved (leave on the stems, but trim off the dried up ends; face them, essentially)
1/4 lb. jumbo lump crab meat
1/2 Teaspoon sriracha
1/4 Teaspoon smoked paprika1/4 Teaspoon regular paprika
1 bay leaf
6 black peppercorns, gently crushed
1 sprig fresh thyme, just the leaves stripped from the stems
1/2 Teaspoon sriracha, or hot pepper sauce of choice
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 Tablespoons butter
1 shallot, pureed
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1 leaf of fennel bulb, pureed
1/2 cup mirepoix
(Optional) 1/2 a baby leek, cleaned and sliced finely
2 cups vegetable stock or water
1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Faranheit. In a wide pot of boiling water squeeze lemon juice and parboil cleaned, trimmed artichokes for 5 minutes. Remove artichokes from water, toss in 3 Tablespoons infused olive oil and roast in hot oven for about 30 minutes, or until outer leaves fall away from the stem with little resistance, when tugged, or when the flesh of the heart is fork-tender. Since you'll be pureeing the artichoke flesh, you'll want them to be slightly overcooked when they're done roasting. Remove leaves and set aside to cool. If you can keep from scraping the delicious artichoke from the leaves they make a cute garnish. Set artichokes aside to cool. When artichokes have cooled, remove hair from chokes with the tip of a spoon and set artichokes aside.

2. Melt 2 Tablespoons of the butter and 2 - 3 drops of infused olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot (this will be your soup pot) and add fennel, mirepoix, shallot, optional leek, 1/2 bay leaf, thyme leaves and half of the crushed peppercorns. Sautee over medium heat until tender. Remove the half bay leaf.

3. Puree cooled artichokes and add to pan with mirepoix & etc. Add in vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and add cream and turn heat off when the cream has reached the same temp as the other ingredients and is incorporated. Taste and add additional salt, if needed and freshly ground black pepper.

4. To finish soup: in a smaller heavy-bottomed saucepan pan melt the remaining butter along with 2 - 3 drops of the infused olive oil over medium heat. Add paprika, smoked paprika, half a bay leaf and the other half of the peppercorns. Stir to coat and cook for 90 seconds to toast spices. Mix in sriracha, then add crabmeat and stir to coat. Cook until crabmeat is heated though, less than 4 minutes, then remove the half bay leaf. Ladle bisque into bowls and top with 1/4 to 1/6 of the spicy crabmeat (depending upon how large a serving you want). Rest parmesan crisps vertically along the edges of the bowl (see photo), or use them however you like as garnish. Drizzle each bowl with just a few drops of lemon infused olive oil and serve.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!

*the kitchn has an excellent article on how to make infused olive oils, which can be found here: http://www.thekitchn.com/fancy-flavors-how-to-infuse-ol-103225; I accomplished mine the quick 'n' dirty way, by adding lemon zest to a lovely Italian extra virgin olive oil I had on hand (this method won't keep for more than 24 hours, so if you're planning to use this oil for more than one recipe I suggest going about it the traditional way, as in the link above).

Grilled Shrimp Cocktail with Cajun Spices (Bbq dishes, part one of three)

August has been quite a busy month for my fiance and I--whew! We took an amazing 8 day, 7 night trip to London and Paris toward the end of the month which required planning, packing and working extra hours to make up for our absences. Sadly, I didn't find a lot of time to experiment in the kitchen, although I am sitting on material for yet another blog post (apart from the three promised in this series), a pasta dish with shrimp, which I'll be posting after this series. In between preparing for the trip, fighting a month-long sickness and studying for round two of the GREs, I've sadly been too busy to blog. All that is about to change, starting with an impressive, delicious appetizer that nevertheless is super simple to prepare! Yesterday I had a serious craving for shrimp cocktail. I knew I'd be grilling the main course for the dinner, so I thought why not grill my shrimp for the cocktail as well? Taking this idea to its *logical* conclusion I decided to also brush my shrimp skewers with butter, lemon juice and cajun spices...mmm! I used a store bought cocktail sauce, but making your own is quite easy with lemon juice, tomato paste and horseradish. I used my trusty mandoline to slice my lemon slices to make my skewers look nice, but you can easily do without and slice them by hand. I love my cheap-o mandoline, however, and I'd absolutely recommend getting one if you slice a lot of foods. Either way you'll wow your loved ones and guests with this simple variation of an old classic.

Cajun Spiced Grilled Shrimp Cocktail

For the skewers:

1/2 pound white or pink shrimp (I used white and I love their slightly sweet flavor)
1 large lemon, sliced into thin rounds (see photo)
3 - 5 small bamboo skewers

For the "rub":

1/4 teasp. cayenne pepper (or more to taste, but be careful, as it is very spicy)
1/2 teasp. smoked paprika
1 1/2 tblsp. butter
1/2 bayleaf, crumbled
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
juice of 1/2 large lemon

Directions:

1. De-vein shrimps, keeping them in the shell by using your paring knife to cut through the back of the shrimp and scrape out the vein.

2. Assemble the skewers by piercing a lemon slice in two places across the diameter of the slice (see photo), then sliding two shrimp on, then another lemon slice pierced in the same manner, then two more shrimps. Continue assembling skewers until all the shrimps are on skewers.

3. If you're making your own cocktail sauce, now would be the time to put it together. If not, melt the butter over medium-low heat in a saucepan. Add cayenne, paprika, salt, pepper and crumbled bayleaf and allow aromatics 5 minutes or so to marry flavors. Turn off heat and mix in lemon juice.

4. Allow to cool slightly, then pour over shrimp. Use a pastry brush to ensure spice rub gets into all the areas between shell segments and at the head opening, etc.

5. Allow to cook on the grill over direct heat for 2 - 3 minutes, then turn skewers and cook for 2 - 3 minutes more, or until shrimp have turned a pale pink all over and have lost their glossy translucence.

6. Serve alongside cocktail sauce, peel and enjoy.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and I welcome your feedback.

Part 2: Beer, onion and pork fat relish for all of your grilled hot dogs, sausages and burgers.

Balsamic-Basted Lemon Chicken on the Grill

Recently we got a brand new sexy charcoal grill with cast iron grates. It's been inspiring me to dream up dishes and actually cook them with more and more frequency. Often the results of my new grill enthusiasm are snapped up too fast for decent photos to be taken and this incredibly moist chicken with crackling-crisp skin would have gone the same way had I not finally had an epiphany: shoot the frikkin' food on the frikkin' grill! No one can eat it if it isn't fully cooked! That won't work with everything, but this chicken looked quite tasty well before my thermometer told me it had reached the right internal temp. The taste of balsamic and cayenne was really only present on the skin and I might consider pouring the vinegar on in time to actually allow it to marinate next time. I tried parsley stuffed up into the top of the cavity and I don't think it lent anything, aside from perhaps a bit of extra moisture. The lemon I pierced and placed into the cavity was a whole other story, adding definite moisture as well as an unmistakeable tart citrus flavor. Since it was a huge chicken we ended up with leftovers, which made a perfect sloppy-joe's style sandwich after I shredded it and simmered it in some tangy barbeque sauce. I roasted the chicken whole on my charcoal grill using a beer-can-chicken frame (I stuffed the lemon and parsley inside the well of the frame and placed the chicken over it--you can sort of see what I mean in the pic). If you don't have a beer-can-chicken frame I'd suggest roasting this chicken in the oven. You probably won't get such crispy skin but I don't know how easy it is to get a cheap one (ours was bought at a chef's store in an outlet mall and it was the on sale item of the day; since we were on a new grill high we said yes pretty easily). I served this chicken alongside chilled tortellini with homemade pesto and balsamic glazed grilled squash.

Balsamic-Basted Lemon Chicken on the Grill

1 lemon

1 whole chicken, washed and patted dry (size will determine cooking time)

1 tsp olive oil

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tsp Cayenne powder

Salt, to taste

Fresh Ground pepper, to taste

4 sprigs flat parsley or 3 sprigs curly parsley (optional and I recommend flat or italian parsley, as it seems to me to have much more flavor)

1. Wash lemon with gentle soap and pat dry. Whap onto clean counter top and roll backwards and forwards a couple of times, pushing it downward with your palm (to help loosen the juices inside). With a fork pierce a line of holes down the side of the lemon. Repeat four even times across the lemon (every quarter of the fruit score another line).
2. Place the stand in a large bowl and the lemon in the well of the stand, toward the bottom; place the parsley above in the well. Cover with the chicken and douse with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and rub well all over skin.
3. Put stand with chicken onto grill and cook with the lid closed over medium hot coals for approximately 15 minutes per pound of chicken, or until meat thermometer reads 180 when stuck into the breast. Baste with liquid from the bottom of the prep bowl every 10 or so minutes, being sure to moisten the darkest/driest parts.
4. Serve alongside veggies, salad or pasta and enjoy.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!