Fog City Kitchen

So yesterday was Ash Wednesday and even though I am a lapsed Catholic I am not about to go eating meat on Ash Wednesday! I mean I have enough sins in my life I don’t need to go adding to them on a technicality right?

So I was talking to my mom and she mentioned a delicious lunch her good friend Sandra had prepared that involved shrimp and rice and a light red sauce. Perfect. What a great combo and thus Ash Wednesday shrimp was born.

I don’t know how Sandra made hers so I had to wing it. I walked around the store and looked at produce and settled on leeks as my veggie. I love love love leeks and think they go great with shrimp. You might not think leeks and red sauce would pair well together but the resulting dish was fabulous. In fact, I think this was one of the best things I have ever made! Here is the recipe:

• 1 half pound of peeled and deveined medium size shrimp
• 1 large leek, white and light green part only,thoroughly washed and cut in half lengthwise then sliced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small can whole peeled tomatoes
• 2-3TBS olive oil
• 1 cup white rice
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1TBS cream fraiche
• S&P

1. Cook the rice in the vegetable broth
2. slice one clove of garlic into very thin slivers and saute in a splash of olive oil
3. Add your whole peeled tomatoes to the garlic right as the garlic begins to turn golden
4. Mash tomatoes in the pan and bring sauce to a boil. Add S&P and turn sauce down to simmer for 30-45mins
5. Right before serving mix 1 TBS cream fraiche into red sauce
6. Slice your other garlic clove into thin slivers and saute with leeks in olive oil. Saute for about 15mins and then remove veggies from the pan.
7. Heat olive oil in the same leek pan until very hot but not smoking. Add shrimp and season liberally with S&P. Cook shrimp about 3 mins. Do not overcook shrimp.
8. In a large bowl add a layer of red sauce, top with rice, leeks and then shrimp. Serve immediately.

Serve with a crisp white wine or a nice Riesling and crusty buttery french bread. I used a whole grain peasant loaf.

Tonight when I was making ketchup to go with my parsnip fries I was trying to decide just exactly what I would like to accompany said fries.

I was making breaded chicken tenders for Wyatt and I knew I had a beautiful grilled, skinless, boneless breast that I had grilled to perfection the other night just waiting for me in the fridge.

I was following the recipe for the ketchup and when it was time to take the tomatoes out of the oven for the 2nd step of the roasted tomato ketchup I had an idea for my dinner.

When the tomatoes came out and I saw all the wonderful juice they had produced while roasting I knew I had to use that juice and not waste it.

I had made a roasted tomato and garlic sauce yesterday so I had some of that left. I had greek yogurt, beautiful tomato juice, lavosh, red onions and grilled chicken. A tomato yogurt with sliced chicken breast and red onions sounded like the prefect accompaniment to parsnip fries and homemade ketchup.

Basically I mixed 2 tbs roasted tomato sauce ( Roast 2-3 plum tomatoes + 2 cloves garlic in olive oil till carmelized then puree), 2 tbs greek yogurt, S&P and the juices from your roasted tomatoes. Now you have a nice low cal sauce to top things with. Spice up anyway you like.

The dinner was yummy and satisfying and I didn’t feel guilty. The parsnip fires are fabulous and I will definitely be making soups, sauces and more out of the roasted tomato ketchup.

Hello hello! I took the month of November off from blogging:-) Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving.
I can’t believe we are well into December, time does fly.

This year for the first time in many years I have decided to throw a Christmas Brunch at my house here in California before leaving back to Florida for the Holidays. I never really celebrate Christmas in California because we have such a big family celebration in Florida every year but this year Wyatt and I decided to go full force and decorate and celebrate here in Cali too. So my halls are decked and I just had to figure out my brunch menu. Every year on Christmas Eve my mom makes a Christmas Casserole that we eat on Christmas morning so I decided to riff on hers a bit. Hers is pretty traditional eggs, cheddar and sausage.

I wanted something a bit more savory so I developed the following recipe. I made it last night and tested it out on my mom and me to see if it was something I could serve at my brunch. It looks very Christmasy and to my relief it tastes very good too. This is one recipe I will be serving at my brunch next week.

This is what I did:

Arugula, Roasted Tomato, and Cheese Breakfast Casserole.

Yield:10-12 servings
INGREDIENTS

4 teaspoons olive oil
Half a sweet onion-grated
4 garlic cloves sliced in half+1 minced
3 cups Arugula
1 Ciabatta or rustic loaf-cubed
8 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cups roasted tomatoes in olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup Dutch Parrano Cheese Grated
S&P To taste
1tsp worcestshire
1 cup cooked spicy sauge-I used pork sausage

Butter for greasing the cooking casserole dish.
Turn on the broiler.
Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until just beginning to turn brown. Add the Arugula and wilt. Take off heat. Transfer the Arugula to a medium bowl and add tomatoes. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in the skillet and saute the spicy sausage until cooked through. Remove from heat and cool completely. Butter a 9×13 casserole dish.
Slice Ciabatta. Toast slices until lightly browned on both sides. Remove and cool and then rub bread slices with garlic halves and tear into bread crumbs.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, milk, cream and mustard until incorporated. Add the cheeses, S&P, Worcestshire and pour into Arugula, tomato mixture. Add the sausage.
Put the bread cubes on the bottom of the baking dish season with S&P and pour egg mixture over bread.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or at least 8 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Remove the plastic wrap from the casserole and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until top forms a light brown crust.

NOTE: I made this again and this time I used a pound of thick cut smokey bacon instead of the sausage. I think I like it better with the bacon. I also added another cup of milk and the casserole turned out better, so make sure to add 3 cups of liquid if you make this:-)

I love salads. That said I am also an extremely picky salad eater. Really there is nothing worse than a bad salad, but a good salad is oh so delicious. Recently I have been majorly crushing on this salad at a local restaurant here in Marin called Il Fornaio. They call the dish Insalata con Fileto di Manzo. I call it the Best Steak Salad Ever!
I decided to recreate it at my house.

First you will need some nice filet mignons. Season them liberally and throw them on your grill. Each salad portion gets a whole filet mignon so you need a steak for each person you plan on serving. Notice in my picture I am grilling 3 steaks, right, those are all for me!

Once your steaks are cooked it is very important to let them rest for about 10 minutes or so on your board so they will be very juicy. I like my steaks pretty rare so don’t be shocked when you see the picture of my salad. Grill your steaks how you like em.

For your salad you will need:
Really good Arugula. (In California we get wonderful arugula but if you don’t have great arugula in your part of the world use Mache or some other slightly bitey green.)
Avocado
Small amount of cooked couscous. Each portion size gets only about 1 TBS for texture.
Capers or Caperberries
Red Onion
Raisins or craisins
Shaved Parmesan or Asiago
For the Dressing
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup very good olive oil
1 TBS grainy mustard
1 minced garlic clove
S&P

Emulsify your dressing. Mix all salad ingredients together in a big bowl and dress. Portion out salads on individual plates. Slice your wonderful juicy filet mignons and place on top of each salad. Serve and enjoy.