Preheat cast iron skillet on medium heat. It needs to be very hot.
8 large sea scallops
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
Salsa:
1/2 mango peeled and diced
1/4 red bell pepper, minced
1 tablespoon jalapeno pepper, minced
3 scallions, minced including part of the green section
1/4 teaspoon ground garlic
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
pinch of salt and freshly grated black pepper
2 tablespoons Ponzu (or 1 tbs. orange juice and 1 tbs. soy sauce)
Mix all the salsa ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
Scallops:
Sprinkle a small amount of salt, pepper and chili powder on both sides of the scallops.
Put the olive oil in the cast iron skillet and brush the oil to cover the pan surface.
Place the scallops in the pan and don’t move them until they form a brown crust on the bottoms. This should take about 3 minutes. Turn them over and repeat the process on the other side, cook another 3 minutes.
Cut into one of the scallops, if the inside is still translucent, continue to cook scallops for another 1 or 2 minutes.
Remove scallops from pan, plate them and dress them with the salsa.
Serves 2
Photo by Paul Goldfinger
MUSIC: By Celia Cruz (The Queen of Salsa): “La Vida es un Carnival.” (Life is a Carnival).
August is the right time for the Jerseys. We got these at Matt’s in Belmar. $$3.00 per pound on . Blogfinger photo. We also got some fine specimens at the Saturday Sunset Avenue market in A. Park
By Eileen Goldfinger, food editor @Blogfinger.net and Paul Goldfinger (right hand man)
We had family over for a chicken dinner last night, but the stars of the show were the Jersey tomatoes done up by Eileen who prepared her Caprese (Capri style) salad with slices of tomato alternating with sliced fresh mozzarella; See the actual recipe below.
The chicken thighs and wings were prepared with a dry rub and then finished with Wegmans’ Organic Sweet Chili sauce.
In addition we served fresh white Jersey corn and fresh green beans.
Almost all the tomatoes were gone because they were so delicious. Go out now and buy some. Remember to look for the fruits where the red reaches the stem and don’t buy if they are too mushy to the touch.
They should have a slight give when gently squeezed, as my friends (PG) and I discovered in high school.
Here is Eileen’s Caprese salad recipe:
August 10, 2020. Eileen’s photo in her kitchen.
CAPRESE SALAD:
Ingredients:
NJ beefsteak tomatoes
Handmade mozzarella*
Fresh basil
Fig flavored balsamic vinegar
Tuscan extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Assembling the salad:
Cut four quarter inch slices of beefsteak tomato
Place the slices on a plate and sprinkle with salt
Place a slice of mozzarella on top of each tomato slice and place one or two large basil leaves on each slice of cheese.
Drizzle a small amount of balsamic vinegar over each stack and then drizzle a small amount of extra virgin olive oil over each stack.
Repeat the above steps creating four stacks of 2-layers each.
Use smaller basil leaves as garnish on the plate.
Serves two.
*The wonderful homemade mozzarella came from Antonio’s Gourmet at 2201 Sunset Avenue, Wanamassa, in the same strip as the liquor store.
Fill the night with song… Music, family and good food—-a fine recipe for a family gathering:
PINK MARTINI: “Hang on Little Tomato.”
And here is FRANK SINATRA regarding a tomato he found in Italy:
Place chicken on baking sheet. Sprinkle them on both sides with saltand black pepper and rub them with olive oil. Bake them for 35 minutes or until they are baked through. Half way through turn chicken parts over and finish baking. Remove from oven and set aside. When chicken is cool cut it in bit sized pieces.
Filling:
In a large Dutch oven melt butter and saute onions and carrots for 15 minutes. Add flour and cook over low heat , stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Slowly add the chicken stock to the pot. Simmer over low heat until stirring until sauce becomes thick. Add 1.2 teaspoon of salt , 1.2 teaspoon black pepper and fat free half and half. Add the chicken, peas, whole onions and parsley. Mix well.
Assembling:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
You will need two 9-inch pie plates.
Roll out a sheet of pastry on a floured surface , one for each pie plate. Place in plate and press pastry into plate. Trim off excess pastry. Prick the pastry thoroughly with a fork. P lace aluminum foil onto the surface of the pastry. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and remove foil.
Divide filling in half and place in each pastry lined plate. Roll out two more pastry sheets on floured surface. Place one on top of each filled pie plate. Pinch the edges of the dough to make it stick and seal all around the plate. To make a lattice top, cut top pastry into long strips and weave in and out on top of the filled pie plate . In either case brush the top pastry with an egg wash (one egg whisked in a small bowl) and sprinkle with sea salt.
Place pies on baking sheets in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour or until the top crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
Note: Don’t bother the cook while she is timing the pie:
PALAST ORCHESTER and MAX RAABE: “As Time Goes By.”
By Eileen Goldfinger, Food Editor @Blogfinger.net Re-post.
Sauce :
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 28 ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes
1 24 ounce jar marinara sauce
1 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup salt-free chicken broth or clam broth
1 6 1/2 ounce can chopped clams, drained
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped (a garnish)
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano.
In a 5 quart Dutch oven heat oil on medium-low heat. Add onion and cook until onion wilts. Add garlic and simmer for 1 minute. Add whole tomatoes and mash them in the pot. Add the remaining ingredients, except the parsley. Stir and simmer for 30 minutes.
Leave sauce on low heat while you prepare the pasta and the fresh clams.
See directions below for cooking the clams and assembling the dish.
Sprinkle parsley on sauce when ready to serve.
Cook pasta (I use linguine) according to package instructions, 1/4 pound per person. (Cook the pasta and the clams at the same time because they both take approx. 10-12 minutes to cook)
Clams:
1 50 ct bag little neck clams (We got ours at Wegmans.)
Clean clams: (This step can be done while the sauce is cooking.)
Fill a large bowl with cool water, 1/4 cup of ground corn meal. Stir. Place clams in the water (the water should cover the clams) and let them sit for 1 hour. This step causes the clams to disgorge any sand they may have ingested. Discard any clams that are cracked. If a clam is open, tap it gently on the counter top—- if it doesn’t close, discard it.
Remove clams from bowl by lifting them up out of the water so that any sand in the bowl stays at the bottom. Place clams in a colander and rinse them with cool water.
Check again to see if any are cracked or open.
Steam clams:
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot or small onion, minced
1 cup salt-free chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine or clam broth
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
In a 5 quart pot, heat oil on medium. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Add clams and cover the pot, lowering the heat to medium-low. After 5 minutes shake the pot so the clams cook more evenly. Cook for another 5 minutes or until the clams open. As they begin to open, remove them from the pot and set them aside in a dish. The reason for removing the clams from the pot is so they don’t overcook and become tough.
Assembling the dish:
Place a 1/2 cup of sauce at the bottom of a wide individual pasta bowl. Next put 1/4 pound pasta on the sauce. Place half the cooked clams on the pasta. Then ladle more sauce on top of the clams. Sprinkle parsley on each assembled bowl.
Flounder Almondine. Photo by Paul Goldfinger. Edward Weston slept with his models. Paul gets to dine with his.
By Eileen Goldfinger, Food and Garden Editor @Blogfinger
Fish:
1/2 pound flounder
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Smart Balance margarine
Sauce:
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon Smart Balance margarine
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup Kitchen Basics seafood broth or chicken broth
10 whole roasted almonds, chopped
Sauce preparation:
In a small sauce pan heat margarine and olive oil on low and add minced garlic.
Let garlic soften in mixture for 10 minutes. Add additional ingredients, stir, raise the heat to medium-low and simmer until fish is ready to be served.
Fish Preparation:
Heat 10 inch non-stick fry pan on medium for 10 minutes. Add oil and margarine and brush them to cover bottom of pan.
Sprinkle black pepper lightly on both sides of flounder filets. When oil and margarine start to bubble, add filets to pan and cook until fish browns; then turn filets over and brown on other side.
Place filets on plate and serve sauce on the side.
Serves 2
Cooks note:
The fresh flounder is from Iceland.
The corn and tomatoes are from New Jersey farms.
The wine is a Pinot noir from France. (Note the fleur de lis on the glass)
SOUNDTRACK: Let’s listen to something French while we are waiting for dinner. It’s Rina Ketty in 1938 with “J’Attendrai” (I Wait)
Editor’s Note: This amazingly delicious recipe is a perfect heart healthy dish. We have fresh fruits and vegetables, no sugar, no added salt, low calorie content, excellent portion size, protein, minimal carbs, good oils (fish, olive, and Smart Balance in small doses), red wine, and nuts (almonds are particularly healthy.) The corn on the cob, without butter, but with a small amount of margarine, is about 150 calories, mostly from the complex carbohydrate content. Paul Goldfinger, MD
4 cups fish broth
1 cup water
6 ounces halibut, cut in 2 inch pieces
4 extra large sea scallops
7 ounces cooked lobster meat
1/2 32 ounce can San Marzano whole tomatoes, hand crushed
1 sweet onion, diced
1 Anaheim pepper, seeded, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
pinch of sea salt or kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
10 large leaves of Swiss chard, remove center stem, slice leaves in 1/2 inch strips
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Use a heavy 5 quart Dutch oven with a lid. Heat oil on medium heat, then add diced onions. Cook onions until they begin to soften, approximately 10 minutes. Add the Anaheim peppers, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper; stir and cook for another 10 minutes. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, return the heat to medium and cook for an additional 10 minutes
Remove fish from refrigerator and allow it to reach room temperature.
Add the broth, water and Swiss chard to the pot, stir, bring to a boil, cover the pot, lower heat so the liquid simmers and cook for 45 minutes.
Taste the soup and adjust seasoning.
Add halibut to soup and cook for 5 minutes. Next add scallops to soup and cook for 7 minutes. Finally, add lobster and cook for 2 minutes.
Serve with grilled Ciabatta bread and sautéed slices of polenta.
Serves 2
Cook’s note: A more economical version could substitute any solid white fish such as cod loin for the halibut. The lobster could be replaced with shrimp. A good wine with this is Cavit’s Pinot Grigio (from Italy) served chilled. It is inexpensive and quite delicious.
Editor’s note: This recipe is 100% heart healthy. Fish is a nutritious protein source which contains no saturated fat and very low amounts of total fat. Lobster and scallops are shellfish which contain only small amounts of cholesterol. All these fish components are heart healthy due to their fish oils. Note that the cooking oil chosen is olive oil, which is a “good oil” high in monounsaturated fat. Swiss chard is high in anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals. This recipe originally posted on Blogfinger in 2011. PG
MUSIC: To play while you enjoy your Italian Fish Soup by candlelight : Puccini, from La Boheme, “Musetta’s Waltz”–Kiri Te Kanawa:
1 large head green cabbage, slice into 2-3 inch pieces
2 24 ounce jars marinara sauce
4 24 ounce jars water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon
2 medium onions, diced
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated black pepper
salt to taste
2-3 pounds short ribs, trimmed of fat
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
In an 8 quart stock pot heat oil on medium low. Add short ribs and brown on all sides. Remove ribs from pot and set aside. Add onion and cook until it wilts.
Next add marinara sauce, water (use the marinara jar for measurement), lemon, salt and pepper. Stir and cook until liquid begins to simmer. Add cabbage and short ribs, then stir.
Place lid askew on pot and cook at a simmer for 2 hours or until meat is ready to fall off the bones.
Serve with boiled potatoes and Russian rye bread.*
Serves 4
* We like Pechters Russian rye bread (made in Harrison, NJ) with seeds, purchased at Wegmans. It’s not packaged, it is displayed at the fresh bread section
THE GRASCALS featuring music from the Andy Griffith show “Boil Them Cabbage Down”
By Eileen Goldfinger, food editor @Blogfinger and Paul Goldfinger, official taster and photographer @Blogfinger.
In October we usually attend the Chatsworth Cranberry Festival. It’s fun. Read about it at http://www.cranfest.info.
It was cancelled for 2020.
The Festival is a very crowded event in the Pine Barrens, about an hour from here. The best bet is to go on Sunday morning early and park along the side of the road. Mark your calendar for October 2021 and check the date on-line since that date has not yet been announced.
New Jersey is one of the most important cranberry growing regions in the world with over 3,500 acres devoted to the crop. In the US, we are second in size to Wisconsin and Massachusetts. Cranberries are grown in bogs where the soil and water requirements are quite complicated. The harvest is usually complete by the end of October.
In New Jersey, most of the growing occurs in Burlington County, around Chatsworth, where the annual Cranberry Festival is held.
We go to the Festival to enjoy this unique cultural event—-Appalachia in Jersey. Hear bluegrass music and buy fresh picked cranberries. Eileen purchases her usual 7 pound box. Vendors make all sorts of products from this versatile fruit.
In 2015 we were away for the Festival, so we drove to Tabernacle, NJ ( BF search “Tabernacle”) down the road from Chatsworth, one week later, and visited Russo’s Farm Market where Eileen purchased her supply of cranberries. That’s where we went recently (2020)
She makes fresh cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and freezes the rest of the berries in small Ziploc portions to use throughout the year. Fresh cranberries can be purchased at Wegmans and Delicious Orchards. Or take a ride to Russo’s. But remember the Pine Barrens scene in The Sopranos.
Below is Eileen’s recipe for homemade cranberry sauce. It’s a treat for your company on Thanksgiving, so don’t get bogged down with that gelatinous canned stuff.
EILEEN’S CRANBERRY SAUCE:
1 cup of water
1 cup sugar
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 orange, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/8 cup Grand Marnier (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Mix sugar and water in a medium sauce pan.
Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve sugar.
Add cranberries and bring to a boil; then reduce the heat and gently boil for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat.
Cool to room temperature.
Add diced orange and zest and Grand Marnier.
Refrigerate.
Makes approx. 2 cups of cranberry sauce. In general, if used as a condiment, it will serve about 4 people.
MICHAEL GIACCHINO, COMPOSER OF THE MOVIE SCORE OF RATATOUILLE. From the soundtrack of the Disney/Pixar film. The selection is “Le Festin” by Camille.
