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By J.Ho, September 7, 2011 11:41 pm

Oh. My. Goooaahhd! This was hands down the best dish I made all summer.  Coming off back-to-back cooking disasters over the weekend I climbed back to the top of the charts with this zinger!  I rarely experience a cooking fail and I NEVER post two consecutive fails!  This dish was simple and good!  Wicked good!

This type of sauce isn’t revolutionary by any means, but people rarely make it at home.  Canned tomatoes make things a whole lot easier, but nothing can compare to a sauce that’s make with 100% fresh ingredients.

I’m a minimalist.  The fewer the ingredients, the better. My golden rule in the kitchen is utilize the best, freshest possible ingredients.  So there!

The Ingredients

• 4 pounds fresh Roma tomatoes .. peeled, seeded and chopped
• ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ½  cup chopped fresh basil, roughly chopped
• ¼ cup fresh oregano, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup dry red wine
• pinch or two crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 pound spaghetti, cooked
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

The Plan

First off, you have to hand pick the best Roma tomatoes you can.  Four pounds comes out to about two dozen regular sized Roma tomatoes.  When picking out tomatoes, as with all ripe fruits, a ripe tomato will seem heavy for its size. If you’re not sure what this feels like, you can get and idea by picking up several different tomatoes of a similar size and comparing their heft.  Once you’ve found a nice weighty tomato, hold it up to your nose and take a nice big sniff.  The best tomatoes will have an awesome garden fresh aroma.  Finally, how does the tomato feel? A ripe tomato will be soft when pressed, but not mushy. Again, as with other fruits, you’ll want to avoid tomatoes that are bruised or that have broken skin.

Prepare a large bot of boiling water as well as a large bowl of ice water. Give the tomatoes a good rinse and cut 1/2 inch criss-cross slits into the tips of each tomato.  Working in batches, drop the tomatoes in the boiling water and blanch for about one minute.  Remove the tomatoes and drop them into the bowl of ice water to cool.  The blanching process should have popped the skins of the tomatoes and make them very easy to peel.  Trim of the bottom stem part and peel off all the skin.  Slice each tomato in half and carve out the inner structure and remove all the seeds along with the slimy stuff.  What you’ll be left with is the rich, deep red meaty part of the tomato which should then be finely diced.

In a large sauté pan add the olive oil over medium heat.  Toss in the garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté for a few minutes.  If you have time the best thing to do is let the garlic “sweat” over the lowest possible heat setting for about a half an hour.  This will bring out more flavor than you could possibly imagine.  Add the diced fresh tomatoes and red wine.  Stir well and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Add the chopped basil and oregano and simmer for another 10 minutes.  Toss in one pound of cooked spaghetti.

Bang-Bang … Done-Done!  Nice bum, where ya from?

Now I’m still no good at all when it comes to food photography, but I took a shot anyway.  This time I tossed in a little sweet Italian sausage, but next time I’ll probably prepare as described above!

Enjoy!  Yankees suck!

Fresh Tomato Sauce with Basil & Oregano

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By J.Ho, August 29, 2011 10:17 pm

So I got bored and decided I’d take a shot at deboning a chicken for the first time and make a awesome stuffed chicken roast.  Not much of a recipe to share here, but it’s a technique everyone needs to try.

The video below is all you’ll need.  You can’t find a more proficient culinary technician in the world than Jacques Pépin!

I followed these instructions to the letter and roasted the chicken with a stuffing made of spinach, bacon, feta cheese and Merlot braised mushrooms.  Roast in the oven for hour at 350° and then crank it up to 500° for about ten minutes to give it a nice sear.

I probably wouldn’t use feta again in the stuffing, but otherwise it came out BOSS!  Yankees suck!

Roasted Stuffed Deboned Chicken

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By J.Ho, July 15, 2011 7:26 pm

Seriously, what more could I possibly have contribute to the world with regards to corn?  Corn is, without question, the most widely cultivated crop in the universe.  Well maybe second to wheat. Or maybe not.  Corn kernels are technically a fruit but are wrongly considered a vegetable.

Corn is also a great source of vitamins B1, B5, B6 and C.  It’s high in fiber, niacin, iron, magnesium, potassium, thiamin, folate, lutein and beta-cryptoxanthin.  Tons-o-fun!

So I’ve heard plenty of people talk about grilling or roasting corn and they all have basically the same approach … soak ears of corn in water, with the husks still on, for a while then place on a hot grill.  As the husks burn and wilt, peel back each layer of husk till you get to the kernels.  Or wrapping the ears in aluminum foil and placing on the grill. Well that’s great and all, but I just don’t like grilling corn either way.  Sorry.  My method is much simpler and guaranteed delicious!

Take about six ears of husked corn and place them in one of those thin plastic bags you find in the produce section of the supermarket.  Place the corn on a microwave-safe plate and loosely tuck the open end of the bag under the corn.  microwave for ten minutes.  The bag tents the corn and since corn and the corn cob and kernels are loaded with water, it simply steams itself.

Gently remove the ears of corn from the bag and place in a large baking dish.  allow for a few minutes to cool.  Now if you like boiled or steamed corn, well, you’re done.  It’s good to go.  But we are grilling today.  Once cool enough to handle, take each ear and gently wipe off any excess water with a paper towel.  Place back in the baking dish.  Also wipe out any water that could be left in the baking dish too.

Melt one stick of butter and brush all over each ear of corn.  Use the entire stick.  Roll them around and get each ear completely covered.  Season each ear lightly with salt and pepper.  Adding butter, light salt and pepper before grilling is what seals in all that amazing flavor!

Slap those babies on the hottest grill you can find.  The excess butter will drip down into the grill and flame up a nothing you’ve ever seen … and that’s exactly what you want to happen!  Constantly rotate each ear so you have a nice even sear all around each ear.  I love the popping and hissing of the kernels losing air sealing in flavor.

That’s it people.  Pretty simple.  There are a million different ways to kick up the flavor of the corn, like seasoning with Parmesan cheese or italian dressing.  Tons of ways.  I’ll get into those techniques at a later time.

Have a bitchin’ summer!

Yankees suck!

Pre-Microwave Tent

Hittin' it!

Searin'

That's How It's Done, Son!

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By J.Ho, March 19, 2011 5:51 pm

Simply a classic.  When it’s cold and windy outside, nothing hits home better than a warm pot of potato leek soup.  Yukon Gold potatoes are the only way to go when making potato and leek soup.  Their golden, waxy flesh give this soup a hearty texture and creamy finish. Enjoy!

3 large fresh leeks
2 quarts chicken stock
2½ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
2 heaping tablespoons grated onion
2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup sweet butter
½ cup heavy cream
2 heaping tablespoons chicken base paste
Freshly chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

Trim off the ends and green parts of the leeks and peel off the outermost layer.  Wash the leeks thoroughly; dice and put aside about two ounces of the tender, white/pale green hearts. Cut the rest of the leeks (not the dark green green parts) into ½ inch pieces. Place the chicken stock in a large pot and add the potatoes, leeks and grated onion. Bring to a boil, then add the milk, salt, chicken base and pepper. Cook slowly for 30 minutes. Lift out the cooked potatoes and leeks and force them through a ricer or sieve, or puree in a blender and return to the soup pot. If pureeing in a blender, be careful!! Only fill the blender about 25% full. This stuff will expand greatly when it’s this hot and it can explode out the top if you’re not careful. Sometimes I want the soup a little chunky.  For this I reserve about ¼ of the boiled potatoes and not add them to the puree.  Add those potatoes at the end.  Add the tender diced leeks, the butter and cream; bring to a boil. Be sure to stir and do not allow to burn. Reduce heat and simmer slowly for 15 minutes. Top with chopped parsley and serve with toasted garlic bread.

For some nice twists try adding a some crushed red pepper flakes or freshly grated Grana Padano.

Yankees suck!

Potato Leek Soup

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By J.Ho, August 17, 2010 6:08 pm

Mozzarella Stuffed Garlic Bread … Or is it a wicked awesome Italian cheese sandwich?  Call it what you want, but this just oozes with flavor and texture.  I recently saw this recipe for Garlic Bread Revisited online and thought I would try it, with a few twists of course.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Mix the butter, garlic, basil, parsley, paprika, lemon juice, salt and pepper together in a small bowl.  Make 1-inch thick slices into the bread, but do not go all the way through, just to the bottom crust. Put a teaspoon or two of the butter mixture between each slice along with a few slices of the fresh mozzarella.

Wrap the bread in aluminum foil and heat for 20 minutes in the oven.  Remove from the foil and place under the broiler for 2-4 minutes.  Just until it starts to brown and crisp.  Let cool for about five minutes and cut up and serve immediately.  Wicked, wicked, wicked good.  You can add any kind of seasoning you want.  Next time I’ll add a pinch or two of hot red pepper flakes to the butter mixture to spice things up a bit. Caio bella!!! Yankees suck!

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By J.Ho, August 16, 2010 11:19 am

So yesterday I needed some comfort food in a wicked bad way. I did a cursory Google search and immediately came up with an awesome simple beef stroganoff recipe from Simply Recipes.  This is an outstanding site with outstanding recipes. I’ve been following this site for a long, long time.

As usual, I added my twists to the ingredient lineup and changed things up a bit.  This is my approach:

See the original recipe here and follow the instructions.  I made a few changes … First off I chopped a slice of bacon and browned it in the pan before adding the butter. Instead of cutting the beef into thin slices I diced the it into ¾-inch cubes.  Mix the flour, salt and pepper then toss the steak in the seasoned flour and brown quickly in the butter.  add the garlic with the shallots.  Add the wine when cooking the mushrooms. Other than that and switching out the tarragon for thyme, my version is relatively the same.  I definitely needed to thin everything out after adding the sour cream with a little milk.  I figure mine was too thick since I added flour to the beef.  Flour always makes things thicker.  I also added some fresh chopped Italian parsley.  Love that stuff.

Thank you Simply Recipes and never forget, Yankees suck!

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By J.Ho, June 23, 2010 8:39 am

Why use canned clams if you live in clam country, people ask me all the time.  Cause it’s cheap and easy!  This is a perfect mid-week, inexpensive, simple and amazingly delicious meal.

1 pound dried linguine
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 (6-ounce) cans of chopped or minced clams with their juice
½ cup dry white wine
¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
¼ cup freshly chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
Juice of ½ a lemon
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

In a large sauté pan heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and slowly cook, stirring, until slightly golden, about 5 minutes. Or sweat the garlic in the olive oil for about ten minutes.  Add the clams with their juice, wine, red pepper flakes, butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper (keep in mind that the clams are quite salty on their own). Stir, reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Sometimes I like it a tad thicker than usual and I take about level tablespoon of flour and mix it in a small amount of wine.  Add a small amount of the flour/wine mixture to the sauce and stir. till you get your desired thickness.

Now, when you add the wine, make sure you use a good quality dry wine such as a nice Chardonnay. Use something that you would actually drink. Don’t be stupid and use one of those “cooking wines” that you’ll find at the grocery store. They suck.  they suck bad. If you wouldn’t drink the wine out of a glass, why the hell would you cook with it?

Cook the linguine while reserving about ½ cup cooking water. Tip for cooking linguine: add 4-6 quarts of cold water to a large pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Add about ½ tablespoon of salt. Always wait till the water is boiling before adding the salt. If you add the salt before the water boils, the salt crystals will not dissolve immediately and can damage your pot. Stirring occasionally, cook for 8-10 minutes or so, no longer than 12 minutes.  I like my pasta sub-al dente, so 8 minutes is good for me.  Drain the pasta and immediately add it to the sauce along with the chopped parsley to the sauce and mix well, adding a few tablespoons of pasta cooking water if needed to coat the pasta evenly. Cover and cook for about a minute. Serve immediately. This dish is pairs perfectly with a bottle of Spanish Albariño.

I measured out the ingredients to have a little more sauce than most people would use. I like my pasta swimming in sauce. If you would like to regulate it better, add drained pasta to your serving dishes and spoon sauce over the top to get the volume you like.  I could eat this three or four times a week.

Yankees suck!