red pepper salad with hard boiled eggs and anchovies

So my last two posts have both involved roasted red peppers, something that I really enjoy, both eating and preparing. Today, I have one more idea of what you can do with them: a big old salad with anchovies, hard-boiled eggs, garlic, parsley and a nice vinaigrette with olive oil.

red pepper hazelnut salmon

I stumble across recipes everywhere, and I never know what's going to catch my eye and get me to take a second look at one. In this instance, I think that it was probably that this roasted salmon with red pepper hazelnut pesto came from someplace called the Thyme Cafe & Market. I know that's a pretty cutesy name, but I also kind of love it. And then the recipe was an interesting sounding salmon dish with roasted red peppers, which I had in abundance from the food co-op, and toasted hazelnuts, which sounded delicious. I was sold.

As it turns out, this was actually really similar to a couple of things that I made last year: romesco sauce and pesto trapanese. If you'll recall, I actually wasn't too crazy about either of them, but I guess I just wasn't ready to give up on the idea. Somehow, every time I read a recipe with the nuts and red peppers/tomatoes combo, I just can't resist making it.

roasted eggplant spread sandwich with roasted red peppers, arugula and romano cheese frico

It doesn't take much to make a great sandwich. Take peanut butter and jelly for instance. I learned how to make it when I was in preschool, and pretty much nothing could be easier, but who doesn't love a good peanut butter sandwich? Well, Nathan doesn't, but he can be a weirdo sometimes. But I'm not here to talk about peanut butter sandwiches, but a much fancier affair, with crisp romano cheese frico, marinated red peppers and garlic, fresh arugula and a roasted eggplant spread from Ina Garten. Now that's a sandwich.

Crab Cakes

We had almost a pound of crab left after making the Udon Carbonara, and my mom suggested that we use it to make crab cakes. So we did.


crab cakes

I followed this recipe and it was very easy. Apparently it's based on a Frugal Gourmet recipe so it's probably a good dish to eat before you touch lil boys. Mix egg, parsley, some mayo, lemon juice, dry mustard, and salt/pepper in a bowl. Then you add in the crab and a bunch of bread crumbs, a little bit at a time so that it mixes in well. At this point in the process some naysaying emerged - my deft and dexterous mixing of the ingredients was mistaken for "smashing" by Sarah, who kept insisting that the crab cakes would end up like hockey pucks, would be hard and heavy, etc. She was being a bit... ... ...crabby.

Once the patties were formed I refrigerated them for like 20 or 30 minutes. Meanwhile Sarah made and toasted some bread crumbs, in which I dredged the crab patties before frying them to a golden brown. In the end they came out crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, really good stuff - even Sarah agreed!

To go with this, I made a remoulade sauce, which is basically what you call tartar sauce if you're too cool for tartar sauce. It's very Euro. Two parts mayo, one part mustard, some chopped anchovies and capers, and about ⅔ of a red pepper that I had roasted while I was doing all of this. The pepper gave it a nice sweetness that balanced well with the sourness and saltiness of the rest of the sauce.


garlic mashed potatoes and crab cakes with red pepper remolade

A pound of chunk crab meat costs $15, but the other ingredients are all negligible in terms of cost and this made enough for two people to have as a main course, provided that there is a good-sized side; (garlic mashed potatoes worked for us). You could also make numerous smaller patties and do some sort of hors d'oeuvre thing.

Master Sneals Week MCMXXIV: Rick "Bayless" Moonen's Bluefish with Dijonaise Sauce

Broiled Blue Fish Dijonnaise

Don't be fooled by the unappetizing picture, what appears to be a mound of gray and yellow goop is actually a delicious piece of fish! We got this recipe from this guy Rick Moonen. He is one of the contestants on Top Chief: Masters of the Universe and he looks a lot like last season's winner, Rick Bayless. He has an elaborate, yet surprisingly successful, combover. It's probably the best combover I've ever seen. The guy must shellac his hair with about 2 pounds of crude oil each morning to get it to work. He's also into sustainable fish and stuff. I actually found this recipe on some sort of eco-fish website, which has a bunch of other good meal ideas too.

You will need:
- Some small, portion-sized fillets of fish, or just one big fillet that you can cut up later. The original recipe said mackerel in the title, but then the actual text said bluefish, so who knows. We used one big bluefish.
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 2 tbsp. dijon
- some thyme and oregano, probably any herbs would do, whatever you like
- salt and pepper

This was incredibly easy. The only remotely difficult part was getting the pin bones out of the fish. Why don't fishmongers do that for you? I bet they have some tool that could do it really quickly with no effort. I thought this was America.

Start by putting a griddle under the broiler. I got a big griddle at Good Will a few years ago for like a dollar. It's probably worth more than that in scrap, and it is such a great cooking tool. I also got a little toy hippo at the same time. I've still got the hippo, too; it was really a bang-up day at the Good Will.

While the griddle is heating up, mix together the mayo and mustard and herbs. Season the fish with salt and pepper, then slather the top of the fish with the sauce mixture. Once the griddle is hot, put the fish on there, skin side down, for about 3 or 4 minutes. When the sauce on top has started to brown and bubble, you're done. That's all there is to it.


fish on the griddle

We served it with rice and peperonata. We tried Rick Moonen's peperonata recipe, which, while still good, is a step down from the one we used last time. It's pretty much the same as a standard peperonata, except it adds anchovies (wasted, no impact on the flavor at all, save them for something where they can make a difference) and tomato (no flavor impact, just made the dish more watery). He also did not call for red wine vinegar in the recipe, but I made a game-time decision and threw some in.

Overall, this meal was awesome and required very little time or effort. It even made good leftovers. It seems like fish is usually really easy to cook, all you do is kind of throw some sauces on a fillet and then cook it on high for a little bit. Or maybe that's just amateur hour stuff? Who knows. I like it.


blue fish and peperonata

maiale in agrodolce e peperonata

This gorgeous recipe comes from Saveur's April issue, which featured an absolutely inspiring spread on Roman food. Nathan's co-worker turned him on to it, and he insisted we make the cover recipe, and even though it was fantastic we've put off blogging it for quite awhile now.


the classic Roman porkchop

Impressive, no? Well, ours didn't look nearly as picture perfect, but it was still a damn tasty meal. The ones in the photo have been frenched, which looks fancy, but really just means you're cutting off all that tender meat along the bone, which is one of the two best tasting parts of the chop. Therefore, we didn't have any regrets about sacrificing Saveur's dramatic presentation for the sake of MORE MEAT.

To start, we seasoned our chops and drizzled them with olive oil. The recipe called for letting them sit like this for half an hour, but I can't recall if we listened or not. Basically, I'm sure resting the chops with the salt makes then more tender (that's almost like brining, right?), but the agrodolce glaze you're about to make is so good that it probably doesn't matter. Also unnecessary? A grill. We cooked our chops on Nathan's griddle, which has grill ridges on one side, but a regular skillet or pan would be fine.

For the sauce, we reduced ⅓ cup balsamic vinegar and 2 tablespoons of honey in a small pot. You want the sauce to get nice and syrupy, but don't let it get too thick. If it's getting to the point where it's so viscous that you're scraping, not stirring, you've reduced too much. This happened to us, but we just added more balsamic and it loosened back up. To finish the sauce, melt in a half a stick of butter and the leaves from one sprig of rosemary.

We then cooked the chops on medium high heat, basting with the sauce and turning them over every so often. They should be done after 12 to 14 minutes. The recipe instructs letting them rest for five minutes before serving, but these smell so good that it'd be understandable if you cracked before that.

As you might have expected, these are awesome. The balsamic honey glaze is more sweet than sour, but the rosemary really gives it a depth of flavor. It was my first agrodolce, and it won me over instantaneously. Cooking down the balsamic really mellows it out, and the sauce tastes wonderful with the pork; (I love pork so much and I love finding new ways to cook it).

Saveur's suggested serving these beauties with peperonata, which turned out so good that it rivaled the main dish. The onions and peppers become sweet and delicious, and the red wine vinegar finishes it off with a nice tang. So good, and so simple.

Simply chop up 4 assorted red, yellow and orange bell pepper, 4 cloves of garlic, half and onion, and cook them in a pot with a little hot olive oil. Add a quarter cup water and some salt and pepper, and just let them cook for about an hour, stirring every so often. Stir in 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar at the end, and you're done. Perfection!


hearty Roman fare