Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato and Basil

This version of spaghetti is fabulous in its simplicity! It is called: Scarpetta's Spaghetti With Tomato and Basil. We make it several times per year. It is best when there are really tasty tomatoes in season. The secret is the pasta is only half cooked in the water. The remaining cooking happens when it is immersed in the sauce and absorbs the flavor of the tomato directly into the noodle.  You can get the recipe on our blog of: August 6, 2015. Click the date to get the recipe.

Scarlett’s Tuna Salad

We made Scarlett’s Tuna Salad, I thought it was ok, but not great.

Scarlett’s Tuna Salad

New York Times

For when it’s too hot to cook, there's the chef Scarlett Lindeman’s tuna salad — the same one she serves at her Mexico City restaurant, Cicatriz. Made with high-quality, oil-packed tuna, the salad is fresh, juicy, bright and summery, composed with cucumbers, avocado, pickled onion and lots of herbs. Don’t be afraid to season the cucumbers generously with salt at the start, and to season more as you build the layers of the salad. The dish is so simple that seasoning it well is key.

Ingredients

½      cup rice-wine vinegar

1       tablespoon sugar

2       teaspoons kosher salt

1       red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced

3       Persian cucumbers, peeled if skin is thick and waxy, sliced about 1/4-inch thick

2       spring onions, thinly sliced

2       limes, juiced, about 1/4 cup

5 to 7 ounces olive-oil-packed tuna

1       avocado, peeled and cubed

½      teaspoon or more finishing salt, such as Maldon

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Handful basil leaves, washed and torn

Handful cilantro sprigs, washed and torn

Handful fresh mint leaves, washed and torn

3       tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation

1. In a clean glass jar with a tightfitting lid, mix vinegar, sugar and 1 teaspoon kosher salt with 1/2 cup hot water. Shake until sugar is dissolved. Bring a pot of water to the boil, and add the onions. Let it sit for just a few seconds in the hot water, then drain well and transfer onions to the jar with the vinegar. The pickled onions will be ready to use in an hour, or can be made ahead and kept in the fridge for up to a week.

2. In a large mixing bowl, dress the cucumber and spring onions with the remaining kosher salt and lime juice. It should be fairly wet. Pour into a deep serving plate or a wide bowl, along with any extra liquid at the bottom of the bowl.

3. Spoon tuna out of the oil, and use your hands to break it into bite-size pieces, directly into the now-empty mixing bowl. Add avocado, 3 tablespoons of pickled red onion and 1 tablespoon of pickling liquid from the jar, and mix gently with your hands to dress. Scatter over the cucumber mixture, and season with finishing salt and black pepper. Cover with torn herbs, and generously drizzle everything with olive oil. Eat right away, with spoons.

-->

Zucchini Pasta

Tomato Salad with Burrata and Pesto

This is one of our favorite summer dishes. Zucchini Pasta. Actually to be clear the pasta isn't made from zucchini, the sauce is. It is sautéed until it is a rich dark mass. The browned zucchini almost taste like a meat sauce. It is a delicious pasta especially appropriate for you vegetarians. The zucchini is sliced very thin and sautéed until dark and crisp. They cook down to very little, so start with a lot of zucks. You can find the recipe for this simple and delicious pasta in our blog of: June 19, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe. This is one of those dishes that makes me realize I could be a vegetarian (theoretically speaking - I will never give up my love a great steak!).

We started with a Tomato Salad with Burrata and Pesto. Perfect summer dinner.

Crispy Rice With Shrimp, Bacon and Corn

We made this recipe for Crispy Rice With Shrimp, Bacon and Corn but weren't thrilled by it. Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't. Looks nice however!

Crispy Rice With Shrimp, Bacon and Corn

New York Times

This one-pan recipe is a great use of leftover rice, though you can also use freshly cooked rice as long it’s no longer hot. The starch in sticky short-grain rice, together with the corn’s starch, caramelize into a nice crust that you can remove in big pieces. Long-grain rice will brown as well, but stay loose when served. Try to get a little of everything in each bite: crisp yet tender rice and corn, savory shrimp, crunchy bacon, juicy tomatoes. This recipe was developed with 16/20-count shrimp in mind, but you can use whatever shrimp you find aside from fancy super-jumbo ones. Serve with hot sauce if you’d like.

Ingredients

1       tablespoon vegetable oil

1       pound peeled and deveined shrimp, patted very dry

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

4       strips bacon

3       ears corn

6       scallions

1       cup grape tomatoes, or 1 large chopped juicy tomato

4       cups cooked rice

Preparation

1.   Heat oil in large cast-iron skillet or other heavy skillet over high heat. Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Add to the hot oil in a single layer and sear until browned, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

2.   Turn heat down to medium-low and add the bacon in a single layer. Cook, turning to evenly brown, until crisp, about 10 minutes.

3.   While the bacon browns, shuck the corn and cut off the kernels. You should end up with about 3 1/2 cups. Thinly slice the scallions and set aside some greens for garnish. Cut the tomatoes in half. (If the bacon is done cooking before you're finished slicing, remove the pan from the heat for a moment.)

4.   Drain the bacon on paper towels, leaving as much liquid as possible in the skillet. Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the corn, scallions, and a pinch of salt to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until the scallions just wilt, about 1 minute.

5.   Add the rice and stir until well-mixed and heated through, about 3 minutes. Press the rice evenly across the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Let cook, without stirring, as the rice and corn begin to crackle, until you smell a toasty scent and the rice browns, about 5 minutes. You can lift up a section of rice to peek and see if a golden brown crust has developed.

6.   Remove from the heat and divide the rice mixture among four bowls, scattering the tomatoes, shrimp and accumulated juices on top of each. (Alternatively, serve rice directly from the pan, with tomatoes and shrimp on top.) Season to taste with salt and pepper. Crumble the bacon all over and garnish with the reserved scallions.

Steak!

What a Hunk!

Sauté one side only

Perfection!

Purchased a massive Dry-Aged Rib Eye Steak at McCall's Meat and Fish. You can get the recipe of how we cook them on our blog of: February 17, 2018. Click the date to get the recipe.

Lobster Fried Rice

Melon and Spec

We had dinner at Newport Seafood (our favorite Chinese restaurant). We always get their special Lobster. We ordered The House Special Lobster that was big enough that we knew we would have leftovers. We took the leftover lobster home along with the shells of the lobster that we ate. We then proceeded to make  Thai Lobster Fried Rice with the leftover Lobster. We use the recipe for: Fried Rice with Crab from Thai Street Food by David Thompson.

We simply substituted the crab with Lobster. It was as good or better than any Fried Rice we get a restaurants. This is a recipe (with Crab or Pork or Shrimp, or lobster) that you should try. We used the lobster shells that we brought home, plus the lobster shells from the lobster that we used in the Fried Rice and made lobster stock by just covering the shells with water and boiling for about an hour or so. We then froze the stock for future use. The fried rice was unbelievably good!

You can get the recipe for fried rice from our blog of: April 4, 2013. Click the date to get the recipe.

We started the dinner with a Melon and Spec appetizer.

Chinese RIbs

Two new recipes both were good. One brought back wonderful memories of my childhood in Cleveland. When we went to a Chinese Restaurant we always had Ribs as an appetizer. I don't see them on menus now. The New York Times had a recipe for Chinese Style Barbecued Ribs and damn if they weren't close to what I remember. They are good!

I also liked the Greek Tomato Salad. It was interesting because it didn't have olives in it. Any salad with Feta Cheese is always winner in my book! This one is good one!

Greek Tomato Salad

New York Times

The Greek approach to a good tomato salad, whether it has cucumbers and lettuce or not (this one doesn’t), is all about keeping it simple. Sweet, ripe summer tomatoes, salt and olive oil are all you need. The flourishes here — green pepper, red onion, chopped mint and pinch of oregano — are optional, but they add brightness. Good Greek feta cheese takes it over the top.

Ingredients

3 to 4    pounds ripe tomatoes, preferably heirloom

1           small red onion, sliced thinly crosswise

1 or 2   small sweet peppers, such as bell or corno di toro, sliced into thin rings

Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon

4           ounces Greek feta cheese

2           tablespoons roughly chopped mint

½          teaspoon dried oregano

Fruity extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Preparation

1.   Wash, core and slice tomatoes 1/2-inch thick. Arrange slices on a platter or in a shallow wide bowl.

2.   Scatter onion and pepper slices over tomatoes and season everything with sea salt. Let sit 10 minutes to draw out juices.

3.   Break feta into rough chunks and scatter over salad. Sprinkle mint and oregano over top, drizzle generously with olive oil and serve.

Chinese Style Barbecued Ribs

New York Times

These are the best oven-roasted ribs ever, and they can also be finished on a grill for extra smoky flavor. Creating steam in the oven is the key to tender meat. The ingredients here are close to the ones used by traditional Cantonese barbecue masters to produce sticky-salty-sweet meat that has a reddish, caramelized crust — with ketchup standing in for Chinese red fermented tofu. (It can be left out if desired.) Although these ribs are presented as an appetizer in many American Chinese restaurants, barbecued meat is traditionally a main course, served with freshly cooked rice and a green side like smashed cucumber salad or stir-fried bok choy.

Ingredients

3      cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

4      scallions, white and pale green parts only, plus additional sliced scallion for garnish

¾     cup hoisin sauce

½     cup ketchup, or 4 tablespoons tomato paste or Chinese red bean paste (nan ru)

¼     cup honey or light corn syrup, more to taste

¼     cup soy sauce, more to taste

⅓     cup Chinese rice wine or vodka

¼     cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar

½     teaspoon five-spice powder

2      racks baby back or St. Louis-style pork spareribs, 5 to 10 pounds total (see note)

Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Preparation

1.  In a food processor or blender, mince garlic and scallions. Add hoisin, ketchup, honey, soy sauce, rice wine or vodka, rice vinegar and five-spice powder. Process until well blended. Taste for sweetness; the mixture should be sweet like barbecue sauce, not candy. Adjust the taste with honey, soy sauce and vinegar.

2.  Set aside 1/3 cup marinade for basting. Transfer remaining marinade to a container or pan large enough to hold the ribs, or to large resealable plastic bags. Add ribs and turn until well coated. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, and up to 2 days, turning occasionally in the marinade.

3.  Heat oven to 300 degrees. Set up a rimmed baking sheet (or two) with an oven-safe wire rack that fits inside, the kind you’d use for cooling cookies. Line the bottoms of the pans with foil or nonstick baking mats. Place the racks inside the pans and place the empty pans on the bottom rack of the oven. Pour in hot water until it comes about halfway up the sides of the pan. (Do not skip the water: The steam helps cook the meat to the right tenderness.)

4.  When the oven is hot, remove the ribs from the marinade and place on the racks, meaty side up. Bake without basting, 1 hour for baby back ribs, 2 hours for St. Louis style ribs. Check the water level occasionally to make sure it hasn’t cooked off.

5.  Remove ribs from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Pour off any water from the baking sheet and return the ribs to the racks. (Alternatively, you can finish the ribs on a medium-hot grill; see below.)

6.  Return ribs to the oven and roast (or grill), basting 2 or 3 times with reserved marinade, for 20 to 30 minutes (less time for baby backs, more for spareribs). Watch the ribs carefully to make sure that the edges don’t burn, and don’t baste them too close to the end; they should be dry and sticky, not wet on the surface.

7.  Use a big knife to cut between the bones, making sure that each rib has meat on both sides. Mound on a platter, sprinkle with scallions and cilantro, and serve immediately.

Tip

If you're using 2 slabs of full-size spareribs, double the amount of marinade.

Roasted Chicken Provençal

Roasted Chicken Provençal is one of our go to recipes. I really like this preparation. It is a one pot wonder! I highly recommend it! You can find the recipe on our blog of:  April 6, 2015. Click the date to get the recipe. This is a dish you should make, it is that good!