It is summer!
Fresh Vegetables and a cool soup in the way to go!

Working within my heritage, inspired by Tzatziki!

gazpacho - Greek Inspired

3 medium lemons, juiced

2 cucumbers, peeled

3 tomatoes, cleaned

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup fresh dill weed

5 scallions, green part only

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup plain yogurt (not Greek)

All is placed in a blender and liquefied, serve cold

success when cooking with \a fish i don't like

It is Tilapia, the fish that i have not liked previously.
I have had it cooked for me, i have had it in restaurants and i have tried to cook it previously,
i always found "Meh" at best.
No flavor,
no soul
and sometimes a "tinny" taste.
The challenge was issued by my GM friend (of several major restaurants),
it was his favorite fish.
The fish was on sale, as it often is, and so i went for a challenge.
Special ingredients were up my sleeve:
something new off the self - Panko bread crumbs with chipolte peppers!
Then a blend of dried oregano, basil and sun dried tomatoes, all diced up nice.
A not so good sesame oil, so no added taste.
Salt.
So here is how it went:

2 pounds thawed tilapia fillets
sesame seed oil to coat the bottom of a 17" x 12" cookie sheet
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoon dried oregano, basil and sun dried tomato blend, minced
1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs with chipolte peppers

1 tablespoon of  the  dried oregano, basil and sun dried tomato blend is added to the pan with the oil.
Mix and add in the salt.
place the tilapia pieces on the tray and then sprinkle the remaining dried oregano, basil and sun dried tomato blend over each piece.
Refrigerate for 1 hour
Sprinkle the bread crumbs on each piece, flip the fish and sprinkle again.
Cook in a 425 F oven for 7 minutes.
Serves 5.

The team who i cooked for rated it a AAA!

going South again

Pork, pulled or Shredded with

BBQ Sauce

2 lbs southern cut pork ribs

Cooking oil - enough to just coat pot

1 tablespoon of paprika

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups orange juice

1 tablespoon raw sugar

1/2 onion, minced

3 cloves garlic minced

1 Jalapeno, minced

2 Chipolte peppers, minced

1/2 teaspoon smoked salt

1 tablespoon dry orange zest

2 limes, juiced

6 oz tomato paste

sear the ribs in a large pot with a touch of cooking oil with salt and paprika

when brown to black, add onions and 1 garlic clove

cook till the garlic is brown (yes there is bitterness, you want that)

add orange juice, sugar, orange zest, Jalapeno and the remainder of the garlic.

Cover pot, set the heat on low and reduce liquid by half (~2 hours)

Remove ribs and as much fat as possible (discard fat)

Used a fork to remove any bones and the shred the pork.

Drain the fat and discard, but add any non-fat liquid back to the pot.

Add smoked salt, Chipolte peppers, lime juice and tomato paste to the liquid

cook on low until desired thickness (~30 minutes)

Middle Eastern

My mom's Parents were from Greece, one from Crete, the other Cyprus, so many dishes she created had that middle Eastern flavor.
I served these the other night, a complementary pair:  chicken and tabouli salad.

chicken Middle Eastern style

4 chicken quarters

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup green peppers, diced

1/2 medium red onion, minced

mix garlic, onion, cinnamon, cumin, salt, cayenne pepper and dried parsley together

mix raisins, peppers and onions and spread them on a baking pan

rub each piece of chicken with this and set in the pan.

bake at 375 F for 30 minutes

Reduce heat to 225 till the internal temperature of the chicken is 160 F (~30 minutes)

Serve on a bed of cracked wheat or with a side of tabouli salad.

Tabouli

2 cups bugler wheat

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

1/2 cup green peppers, diced

1/2 medium red onion, diced

2 tomatoes diced

2 cucumbers diced

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup sesame oil

1/4 cup fresh mint, diced

2 cups plain yogurt

mix garlic, cinnamon, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper together with the dry wheat

Rehydrated the wheat mixture with 4 cups boiling water and then let cool 2 hours.

fluff with a fork after it is completely cooled

Mix in cucumbers, onions, peppers, tomatoes, mint and parsley.

Mix the sesame oil, lemon juice and yogurt  into the wheat mixture.

Chill and serve adding extra yogurt if desired.

clam, not so chowder

with our kitchen still in "progress", i have been cooking at one of our families other houses.
Thee are significant differences:
it is a large kitchen, with an electric stove and they do not have many of the supplies i normally use.
So i truck in stuff that i can find in the disarray at my home and hope i have not forgotten anything.

There are many dietary restrictions which people live with and i had to work with 2 people with an intolerance for milk products and one who has a very dangerous allergy to lobster, crab and shrimp and i wanted to do a chowder.
Additionally, i have never made a chowder before and so consulted the many recipe outlets on the internet.
Of course, not one had the kind of ingredients i needed and wanted to work with, but it gave me ideas.
As an aside, i do not like Manhattan clam chowder, so i was not going there either, but what i came up with was a success.

Joey's own Clam, not so chowder

1 pound of clam meat, minced
3 potatoes, cubed in half inch pieces
1 6 oz bottle clam juice
1 can vegetable stock
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup corn
5 finger size carrots, diced small
1 white onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup scallions, green part diced
1 lb package bacon
flour, to make a roux

Cut up the bacon and cook it to crispy in a large pot
remove the bacon and cook the potatoes for 10 minutes on medium high heat (they should not brown, but should become soft)
Remove the potatoes and drain the excess bacon fat.
add onions, carrots, corn and garlic and just sweat the onions till translucent and then add the clam broth and vegetable stock
bring to a simmer and add back the potatoes, bacon, scallions and the can of cream of celery soup.
bring to a simmer and add the clams and thicken with roux.

serve with parsley sprinkled on top.
Pair with corn on the cob and garlic bread!

This is a full meal!

the beginning of a move

while i am away for a few weeks, the demo on our kitchen will begin.
It will not be completed until i come back and so i will be using an alternate kitchen.
Last night i did a trial run using an electric stove in this alternate kitchen.
Used a grill i brought over that will stay (note: it is NOT my smoker) and a few other items.
It is a much larger kitchen with a lot of counter space.
The meal was grilled baby back pork ribs, escarole and mushrooms, baked yams and my smoky Avocado salad.  Dessert is simple orange jello with pineapple and whipped cream (with cinnamon and vanilla).
Several other people came so the total number was 7.
I did everything and it took me 2 hours (this includes hand whipping the whipped cream, which is a lot of work).
One of the people is the general manager of a large restaurant.

Again it was a success and people were surprised that i was able to do it, but i was very happy to do it.

Smokey sides

Potatoes smoky mashed

10 small potatoes, mixed white and red, scrubbed clean

1 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon smoked salt

1 cup chives, diced

1 cup 1% milk

1/2 cup half and half

2 ounces extra sharp cheese, diced into 1/2 inch squares

1/4 teaspoon rosemary

1/4 cup sour cream

Food mill

i cheat, i microwave the potatoes, but you can also boil them and discard the water.

boil the water with salt, chives and rosemary and reduce the heat to low.

add the milk and smoked salt to the water.

use the food mill on the potatoes and add to the liquid

mix and add the half and half, cheese and then sour cream keeping the heat on low

If the mixture is too liquid, continue to heat on the stove, constantly stirring

OR place in a baking pan and bake it at 350 F for 30 minutes

OR add instant potatoes to the desired consistency