Fennel slaw.
Intriguing and not at all what you would think it would be.
Especially when you only have one fennel bulb.
And you realize fennel’s best friend is celery.
And there’s a plethora of the celery in the fridge.
A little bit of orange zest, crushed fennel seeds, ground cumin, hot red pepper flakes and minced garlic.
Let this baby sit a bit and it gets a mind of its own.
Spicy, peppery, fragrant and so damn good with a piece of grilled chicken marinated in fresh lime juice.
Dare I say it?
Big Fat Yum!!!
Fennel and Celery Slaw with Orange, Cumin and Chilies
Adapted from Molly O’Neill’s A Well Seasoned Appetite
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and julienned
1 large cup thinly sliced celery
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp fennel seeds, crushed
Good pinch crushed hot red pepper flakes
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 small clove garlic, smashed and minced
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp fresh orange juice
Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Combine fennel and celery in big bowl. Combine fennel seeds, cumin and crushed red pepper flakes in small bowl and add to fennel and celery and toss. Whisk together the orange zest, garlic, fresh lemon and orange juices. Add a couple of good swirls of extra virgin olive oil and season to taste with the coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add to the fennel and celery and toss til well coated. Let sit for an hour at room temperature.
The original recipe calls for chopping ¼ cup of fresh fennel fronds and adding to the salad prior to serving.
I forgot. I’m sure it would be divine. Also you can do this recipe with 3 medium fennel bulbs and leave out the celery. Up to you!
Serves 3.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Two Years Ago on Feeding Groom
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Fennel and Celery Slaw with Orange, Cumin and Chilies
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Grilled Halibut in a Yucatecan Marinade
Rain, again.
Movie.
Joyce Goldstein.
Inspiration.
Marinade.
Lime, orange, coriander, allspice, cayenne, chile powder, roasted garlic oil, zests.
Halibut.
Shrimp.
Grill.
Black beans, sweet yellow onions, splash orange zest, cilantro, rice.
Salsa with avocado chunks stirred in.
Dinner.
Good.
Grilled Fish in a Yucatecan Marinade
Adapted from Joyce Goldstein’s Back to Square One
One ½ pound halibut fillet
10 large shrimp, tail on
Marinade:
¼ cup roasted garlic oil
½ cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup fresh lime juice
Zest from ½ lime
About 2 tsp orange zest
1-½ tbsp smushed then chopped fresh garlic
1 tsp finely minced jalapeno pepper
¼ cup chile powder
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground allspice
Cayenne pepper to taste
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Fresh cilantro to taste
1 15 ounce can black beans, rinsed or home cooked beans
A splash of sherry
½ large sweet yellow onion, sliced in half, then sliced again
1 cup of your favorite salsa with 1 avocado, diced stirred in
Cooked rice for three
Lime wedges if you remember to do them
Make the marinade and pour over the halibut and shrimp in flat pyrex pan and refrig for 2 hours. The marinade may make more than you need and it stays nicely in the fridge for several days.
When ready to grill the fish, put a couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil in medium skillet over medium high heat and, add the onions and reduce heat and let cook until golden brown. Add the black beans, raise the heat and add a splash of sherry, reduce heat a bit and let cook. Add fresh cilantro to taste.
Grill shrimp and halibut til perfect, three minutes a side.
To plate, rice, a bit of halibut, a bit of shrimp, black beans and salsa.
Serves 3 generously.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Sauteed Shrimp with Feta, Orange and Kalamata Salad
There are people in your life that you believe will always be there.
You can’t imagine that they would be gone.
It’s just not possible.
They are comfort, love, fun, giving, knowing and there for you no matter what.
I had…have someone in my life that has been there since I was born. She is the mother of my dearest best friend. She has been there for me for almost 54 years and now she is not where I can call her or touch her.
But she’s still with me.
She put up with everything my mother put up with. She loved me no matter what. No matter that she had five children, lots of dogs, a busy husband and me under her feet as often as I could be.
She put up with me calling every Christmas morning at God knows what hour to say Merry Christmas to Nana. I would spend the night at her house most every weekend at least one night…Nana would be at mine the next. My dad would drop me off at the top of their driveway, saying’ don’t come home til you graduate from college“…and her dad would say, as he opened the door into a bustling busy noisy place,…“we don’t want any“…but he’d let me in anyway.
Her parents would go out and leave us to tend to the flock…three boys and a girl…Lord knows what they were doing…we’d be in the kitchen testing out a recipe…Lemon Icebox Pie , Nashville One Pan Fudge Cake…or upstairs jumping up and down on their bed, smoking Marlboro cigarettes the maid had left in a secret hidey hole that we would find…listening to her dad’s Tom Lehrer albums or memorizing Fannie Flagg’s Rally Round the Flagg, or reading John Updike’s Couples and hiding the book under a chair in the den when they came home early one night.
It was my second home.
When I got in to the catering business, she was there. Always getting something from me to serve..so she wouldn’t have to think about food. A child gets married, can you cater it. I’m having some people in for dinner, what kind of casserole do you have? We’re going out to dinner but need an hors d’oeuvre with drinks before hand.
Always, always giving me the freedom to cook and learn..on her. Whenever I needed support., she was there.
It’s been a long week since she left us.
The world is the same but not.
Food is the same but not.
I came home late and had to throw something together to feed Groom and our souls.
Something that would show us comfort, love, fun, giving, knowing, familiarity and taste good at the same time.
She would have loved this.
Sauteed Shrimp Salad with Feta, Orange and Kalamata Salad
10 large shrimp, peeled tail on
A couple of swirls extra virgin olive oil
Crushed red pepper flakes
Heat small sauté pan over medium heat and add oilive oil. When wavy add the shrimp and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes.
Cook til pink and remove from heat. Sprinkle with coarsely ground black pepper
A handful of Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1 small handful of fresh Italian parsley chopped (add a little chopped frsh mint if you like)
A couple of Cara Cara oranges peeled and sectioned and cut in half
2 ounces feta cheese slightly cubed
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into bite sized pieces
A good splash of seasoned rice wine vinegar,
1 small touch of Dijon mustard (1 tsp of creamy Dijon)
couple of swirls of extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put the dressing in ingredients in bottom of salad bowl and add remaining ingredients. Toss well, put in butter lettuce lined bowl and serve.
Serves 2 generously.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Monday, March 30, 2009
Provencal Oven Onion Saute
These days, inspiration in the kitchen has been hard to come by. A long winter probably hasn’t helped, but the promise of spring has me reaching for different cookbooks to read, different flavors to explore and getting myself excited about the food to come.
One of the most inspiring cookbooks whose inspiration is hidden in the simple, straightforward directions and hints, uses normal ingredients and allows you to end up with the most fabulous dinners is The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper.
This Provencal Oven Onion Saute is perfect for an easy, easy dinner that can impress friends as a pasta sauce, or as a bed for a beautiful piece of grilled steelhead trout, or as a topping for a quick homemade pizza, or whirled together with a bit more olive oil as a spread for crusty bread, or a stuffing for baked tomatoes….
See what I mean?
Inspirational!
Provencal Oven Onion Saute
Adapted from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift
5 oil packed anchovies
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
5 good swirls extra virgin olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
½ tsp fennel seeds, bruised
½ large orange
2/3 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
4 canned San Marzano tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 medium onions, all red or a mix of red and sweet yellow, sliced ¼ inch thick
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon
Preheat the oven to 450. Cover a large pan with aluminum foil. Slid into the oven to preheat.
In large bowl, mash the anchovies into the balsamic vinegar olive oil and garlic. Shred the zest of the orange into the bowl. Add fennel seeds, olives, tomatoes, onion, salt and pepper and toss with your hands to mix. It’s easier that way.
Spread mixture over the pan and roast, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. Squeeze the lemon over to taste. Let your inspiration guide you!
Serves 3 generously.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sauteed Shrimp in a Citrusy Fennelly Tomato Sauce
So, this is what I did for dinner.
Nothing fancy. Just a fast shrimp saute thrown (literally ) into a fennelly, citrusy tomato sauce slung over angel hair.
Using up the stuff in the fridge so I can go get some more stuff and forget that I have it.
Then remembering and deciding to forge ahead, because extra virgin olive oil, garlic confit, San Marzano tomatoes will bring out the best in some rather past its prime fennel and a slightly sad looking Valencia orange.
It’s Monday night.
Sautéed Shrimp in a Citrusy Fennelly Tomato Sauce
1 fennel bulb, coarsely chopped
½ large Vidalia onion, coarsely chopped
1 heaping tbsp garlic confit
A couple of good swirls of extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
About a tbsp of fennel seeds
1 Valencia orange, zested, then cut in half
A splash of Pernod
1 28 ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes and their juices
16 large shrimp, peeled, tail left on
A couple of good swirls more of extra virgin olive oil
Fresh Italian parsley, a handful, chopped
Put a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Do a couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil. When it looks wavy add the fennel and onion and let it cook until soft, about five minutes. Add garlic confit and fennel seeds. Season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Cook, stirring until garlic is blended in. Add tomatoes and their juice and raise the heat a bit to get a good bubbling going. Add the splash of Pernod, add the orange zest and squeeze one half of the orange over top and stir. Reduce heat to a good simmer and let cook for about twenty minutes.
Take a medium skillet and place over medium high heat and do a couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil. Throw in the shrimp, season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper and squeeze the other half of the orange over the shrimp. These should cook really fast and turn pink. Remove from heat.
When you are ready to eat, add the shrimp to the tomato sauce and let bubble for about three minutes. Toss with chopped fresh Italian parsley and serve with angel hair pasta.
Serves three generously.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Chili Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Orange Vinaigrette
I don’t cook pork tenderloin very often.
I love a bone in pork chop.
Something to hold onto.
Know what I mean?
Pork tenderloin always seemed to me to be a bit…I don’t know…light.
Boring, maybe?
It just wasn’t my “go to” pork for dinner thing.
However, I’ll go to it for this fabulous meal any time.
Bobby Flay’s way too cool rub . …lime juice and ancho chili powder and spicy hot Spanish paprika…makes you think it would be too spicy, right?
Wrong…it’s perfect.
And then the spicy orange vinaigrette to drizzle over the top when you serve it. Orange juice reduced to a sweet syrup and blended with sherry vinegar and more ancho.
And leftovers make a killer chef’s salad for lunch.
Nothing boring about that!!
Chili Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Orange Vinaigrette
Adapted from Bobby Flay's From My Kitchen to Your Table
¼ cup ancho chili powder
¼ cup hot Spanish paprika
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup fresh lime juice
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Mix in blender and pour over two pork tenderloins. Let sit for at least an hour. Remove from marinade and season to taste with salt and pepper. Grill until medium rare to medium, 10-12 minutes turning and basting with marinade. *
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp ancho chile powder
¼ cup aged sherry vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Heat the orange juice over medium high stirring often. It will thicken and reduce down to about a ¼ cup.
Put ancho chili powder, sherry vinegar and salt and pepper in blender and slowly add the olive oil and let blend.
Serve over the sliced pork tenderloin. Lots of fresh cilantro for garnish.
Serves 3 generously
* I have preheated the oven to 450, heated a cast iron skillet and filmed it with olive oil and seared the tenderloins on all sides. Then popped in the oven and let cook until done, takes about 20 minutes. Works great when you forget to buy gas for the grill!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Pork Ragout with Cannelini and Orange
There’s still a chill in the air.
Freezing in the mornings and warming up to the 50’s in the afternoon. People are pushing warm weather. At work, I look out over a main drag in Middle Tennessee, home of the Bradford Pear, which is in full bloom. Giant puffballs of white moving in the wind..in the totally unpredicted snow flurries Monday. Bending and swaying yesterday in the sunshine while ladies of a certain age drive their convertibles with the top down and all the windows up and the heat on. Kids from the neighborhood high school doing their p/e run in shorts and cut off tee shirts. Legs and faces red with the cold, but they wouldn’t put on a sweater to save their lives.
Thinking about dinner, hoping to find something that will fit the bill: warming, spicy maybe a bit of something to make you think spring is just around the corner.
Then I remembered this recipe that I had saved from sometime last fall, Cloves, oranges and red wine. That’s a bit wintry. Pork and cannelini, red bell pepper, onion. Then comes the smoky paprika and garlic and lots of Italian parsley.
There’s the hint of spring.
Whatever it is, it works.. Warming, spunky, makes your nose tickle type spicy with lots of character and flavor and cooled with a splat of sour cream and a squeeze of orange at the end.
Perfect.
Spicy Pork Ragout with Cannelini and Orange
Adapted from a recipe I found in the New York Times with absolutely no credit given to the cook.
2 14 ounce cans cannelini beans, or 1 cup dried, cooked cannelini
2 good swirls extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, in 2-inch chunks
1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
3 branches fresh rosemary
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Small pinch red chili flakes
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley.
Heat a couple of swirls of extra virgin olive oil in a Dutch oven and lightly brown pork without crowding over medium-high heat. Remove. Add onion, garlic and bell pepper. Sauté over low heat until soft. Stir in paprika, cloves and zest. Stir in orange juice and wine, scraping bottom of pan. Return pork to pan. Drain and rinse cannelini and add. Add rosemary, black pepper and chili.
Bring to boil and then reduce heat to simmer and let bubble along for about an hour. Season with salt. Serve with a blap of sour cream, grated orange zest and more Italian parsley.
Serves 5.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Brazilian Black Beans and Rice
Years ago I went through the vegetarian phase. Briefly. Very briefly. The one thing I learned to love during that time were beans. Black, pinto, cannelini, red…you name them I loved them. I had a lot of great vegetarian cookbooks at the time and one of them had a recipe for Black Beans and Rice. The author referenced the Brazilian dish, Feijoada, as something that she would eat if she wasn’t a vegetarian, so she decided to recreate the beans that went along with the dish and then she would have almost eaten Feijoada.
The original dish as they cook it in Brazil is chocked full of pork and beef along with the black beans and oranges. I have no idea what happened to my book or the author. Maybe she gave up the vegetarian lifestyle and moved to Brazil to eat the real deal with her black beans. Whatever.
Over the years the recipe has evolved into this great meal. A bit of smoked sweet pimenton adds a great flavor and the oranges cook to almost nothing but a sweetness accented by the sherry. Serve it over regular or brown rice, if you’re inclined towards brown rice…it’s great on corn chips . It’s versatile and divine at the same time. Freezes like a dream. Top with fresh cilantro and orange slices and a bit of sour cream.
1 sweet yellow onion, chopped
2 red bell peppers, diced
4 fat garlic cloves, minced
2 15 ounce cans black beans, rinsed
1 small lemon, juiced
1 Valencia orange, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp sweet smoked paprika
1/½ tsp oregano
3 tbsp dry sherry
Cooked regular or brown rice
Orange slices
Fresh chopped cilantro
Sour cream
Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Do a couple of swirls of extra virgin olive oil. Add the onion and sauté for about five minutes. Add bell pepper and garlic and sauté another five minutes. Add cumin, oregano, paprika, coarsely ground black pepper and a pinch of salt. Add black beans, lemon juice, tomatoes, orange and its juices and stir to combine. Add a bit of water. Keep this mixture thick but not dry. Add the sherry and let cook for about 15 minutes. Add more water if you need it.
Plate the rice, then the beans on the side with the fresh cilantro and a dollop of sour cream on top with orange slices.
Serves 3 generously.
