Every now and then I’ll sit through one of those “secrets of the ancient world” shows on the History Channel. You know, the ones in which they have modern experts try to “decode” how the pyramids or the hanging gardens of Babylon were constructed using graphics that make you feel like you’re watching B-roll from The Da Vinci Code, and where, before every commercial break, there’s some sort of cliff-hanger like “Coming up, how this building ought never to have stood!”

So it was this past week, when shortly after the birth of our son, I was rocking him gently to sleep with one eye on a TV show about how Europe’s gothic cathedrals were built. Focusing on the massive limestone spires of the cathedrals of Notre-Dame d’Amiens, St. Pierre de Beauvais and Notre-Dame de Paris, this show was among the more interesting of its genre as not only did it deal directly with how modern architects are trying to prevent these houses of God from collapsing under their own weight, but it also brought back memories of our trip earlier this year to the Picardy region of northern France when we visited the first of these.

While the nave of St. Pierre de Beauvais did in fact collapse because of architectural over-reach, which its foreshortened and incomplete appearance reflects, Notre-Dame d’Amiens stands perilously intact as among the largest of its kind in the world. Sitting on the highest point in town, it can be seen, as was intended, from miles around. At night, it is so illuminated by floodlights that the visitor might be forgiven for thinking it is heralding an alien invasion.

When these giants of devotional architecture were being erected, they were in competition with one another for the title of the grandest monument in the country, but if competitive historic structural design isn’t your exactly bag, there is plenty else to appreciate about Amiens, including a feat of construction every bit as daring, but much more toothsome, than those stonemasons of yore managed. For Amiens, as Picardy in general, is famous for its duck products, and in particular for a fascinating multi-meat confection of duck, rabbit, pork and chicken livers all sealed-up crustily in a layer of savory pastry.

In truth, this was my train of thought. Fatigued as I was by several sleepless nights and hungry for something corporeally rewarding, the enduring might of colossal 13th-century cathedrals was far less intriguing than Jane Grigson’s recipe for pâté en croûte d’Amiens. Moreover, I was even more drawn to it because its preparation seemed to be easy enough for my addled senses to follow. Even after butchering and stripping the duck and rabbit carcasses, it didn’t feel like a lot of work, nor did the very basic pastry recipe cause any pain, persuading me, momentarily, that perhaps this parenting lark isn’t so tough after all.

However, pulling the rich, golden-brown terrine from the oven, and hearing my mother-in-law comment that in spite of the recent arrival of our firstborn I was willing to waste time preparing such a dish in place of a easy greasy take-away dinner, I snapped at her rather meanly, that given the level of the strain I was under, and some fried crap in a tray just wouldn’t cut it. I subsequently apologized, and had my nerves not been so frayed by weariness, I would have replied much more civilly, perhaps saying that in this pâté en croûte, I, like the structural engineers on the History Channel, had found a temporary solution to crushing gravity.

With the summer over (sad face) but the warm days of Indian Summer lingering on (happy face), this dish will be relavant for a few more weeks (for those who are super traditional about eating warm weather dishes only in warm weather). For me, this will be an excellent dish to eat after months of freezing winter weather and extra fat stored from weeks of heavy stews. It’s a mix of light and heavy, but, for some reason, it feels lighter than heavier. Maybe that’s just what I’m telling myself?

Roughly translating to tuna’d tuna, tonno tonnato is grilled tuna with a cold tuna sauce, and probably doesn’t sound all that appealing. Even the photographs can not capture how delicious this dish really is (beige on beige – gorgeous!). That could be because it’s fish, but, if you think about the concept behind it, i.e. making a sauce out of the same thing as the principal element of the dish, you are reminded just how many times you’ve had a meat sauce. Taking it to it’s logical conclusion, how many times have you had leftover bolognese sauce cold the day after? It’s pretty good, right? In fact, most long-cooked sauces taste even better the day after.

Tonno Tonnato is take on the traditional Piedmontese dish, Vitello Tonnato, a cold, sliced veal dish topped with the cold tuna sauce (one we will make someday for this here blog). Vitello Tonnato is sure to make many American’s scratch their head in wonderment (or maybe even make their stomach churn at the mere idea of the dish). We are one food culture that doesn’t often mix fish with meat like many other countries do (with the exception of some Creole/Cajun and Lowcountry dishes). But, if you’ve ever given it a try, you’d realize just how well they can go together.

I think the tonnato sauce alone could be used in a variety of ways if you don’t feel like topping some tuna with it. It would make a great spread on some grilled bread with a bit of white beans and herbs mixed together as a bruchetta topping. Throw it in a bowl with some veggies as a dip? Toss it with some cold macaroni for a twist on tuna pasta salad? How about as a nice little condiment for your pannini (depending on the stuffing, of course) or maybe as a dipping sauce for some crispy fried shrimp, fried zucchini or fried oysters (or anything fried for that matter)?

It is important you try to have an open mind about tonnato. So, if you think of the tonnato (the sauce portion of the dish) as a fish version of a cold meat sauce, it might sound more appetizing. On the other hand, it might not. So feel free to skip this one if it grosses you out, but do us a favor and first ask yourself if you would turn your nose up at a nice medium-rare steak topped with bolognese sauce.

**A little on a personal note:  You may notice we’ve been kind of MIA for the past 4 or 5 months – we really haven’t been posting as much. Well, we have a little bambino coming our way within the month and, although we love this blog, we also love life and, as you know, sometimes blogging can feel like it’s getting in the way of living life.  Although we have still been cooking, we’ve also been trying to prepare for the kid, moved, Jonny started a new, more stressful job, we set up a nursery, learned about breast pumps, binky’s, boppy’s, barfy’s and any other stupid thing babies r us tries to make you think you need (I swear all I had growing up was a cardboard box for a toy and an umbrella stroller!).  Jonny and I have also been enjoying our time together before this child arrives and turns our relaxing twosome into, well, who knows, probably a crazy, loud, but fun 3-some (ok that sounds weird).  So you can see why blogging took a back seat to more important things.  We are excited but, naturally, nervous.  We swear we will still be cooking up a storm as soon as we learn how to parent a newborn so, please stick with us. We may be silent for a few months, but we won’t be gone.  And I promise I will not turn this blog into a way to showcase my kid and his latest round of “perfect poos or perfect coos” and I promise we will not feature recipes for homemade baby food!  This blog will remain Jonny and my baby – our thing.  We’ve still gotta have our little things that are just for us, right? That’s not being too selfish? So, again, we don’t often get too personal around We Are Never Full, but we felt like all 4 of you who actually read our blog deserved to know why we haven’t really been keeping up the way we used to recently.  Hopefully this new little life will inspire amazing dishes in the near future!  Stay tuned!

New Yorkers may remember back in January, 2009 (and in ’05, ’06, ’07 and ’08), there was this mystery plaguing our city. The watercoolers in Midtown offices were buzzing with workers asking the question, “Why the hell does our city smell like maple syrup?” Even our ridiculously rich mayor couldn’t figure out what was going on. Just like one may walk in the city on a hot summer day and smell wafts of trash cooking on the sidewalk mixed with sauteed onions and garlic, and possibly a hint of sidewalk vendor smoke, during this week you really smelled syrup. In fact, Gothamist blog created an awesome Google Map showing where the majority of calls and e-mails about this phenomenon came from during that time (using oh-so-cute mini Mrs. Butterworth images to pinpoint them on the map).  Also noted, was the maple syrup mystery made its way on to a segment of 30 Rock.

After a lot of investigating, it was discovered that the smell that took over the city was from a North Bergen, New Jersey (god, we really DO love Jersey, we swear) factory that produces “food flavors” (I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit) and the culprit of the smell was from the processing of fenugreek seeds.  Many of you may use fenugreek in your cooking — most commonly in cooking Indian food.  But, did you know, fenugreek seeds are also one of the main ingredients used to flavor fake maple syrups (besides nasty things like high fructose corn syrup and sodium hexametaphate, a sequestering agent most commonly found in soap and photography products)? We’re not not joking here.  Yup, you learn something new every day, huh? The maple syrup smell that overtook NYC was not from an actual tree, but from a processing plant across the river. Sigh.

This summer we took a lovely roadtrip to Quebec City for a few days. Driving lazily through New York State, Vermont, and some of Canada was not only relaxing but helped us see some beautiful parts of the great Northeast. We found ourselves at a Vermont Maple Syrup Shack and picked some up. Later on in our trip, we discovered how crazy the Quebecois are for their own maple syrup.  So, yet again, we bought some Canadian Maple Syrup, curious what the flavor difference between this and the Vermont kind would be like.  Growing up on Aunt Jemima, I figured it was a worthwhile experiment to do another blind taste test  (remember our Vodka tasting?) of fake versus real maple syrup. Could we spot the fake? Would we really, really like the real stuff? Would I, GASP!, prefer high fructose corn syrup and refined fenugreek seeds to real sap from an actual tree?

I was actually nervous to eff this one up. Jonny, on the other hand had less to lose — his palate isn’t as trained to spot the fake as mine. He has only had the pleasure of getting to know pancakes as a normal weekend breakfast for the five years he’s been living here in the States. In fact, one of the first interactions he had with my mother (now his mother-in-law) was when he sat down for his first breakfast with the family and mom asked Jonny if he wanted syrup with his pancakes. Without even waiting for an answer (and in typical “Italian-American Mama” fashion) she proceeded to give a death grip squeeze to the plastic Aunt Jemima bottle, dousing his silver dollar Bisquick beauties in the fake stuff. Politely, he changed his side-to-side head-shake to an up-and-down nod saying, “Well, yes. Thank you!”. These days, he knows how to speak up to the Italian-American Mama…. it takes some practice.

So, last night we did a blind taste-test of four kinds of syrup. On the block were two American “fake” favorites: Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth.  On the “real” side were the Vermont “Dark Amber” style syrup and the Canadian Medium 100% maple syrup.  Jonny was blindfolded first and I wrote down his comments. then we switched places.  Here are some of the results of our taste test:

#1: TASTE TEST RESULTS FOR AUNT JEMIMA

Jonny’s Comments:

• “Taste like Sunday morning at Rosie’s” (that’s my mom – his mother-in-law.)
• “Not actually that bad on the whole.”
• “Caramel backnote, very sweet, burnt-flavor.”

Amy’s Comments:

• “Less chemical-tasting than #1 (later to find out was Mrs. Butterworth’s) but with an aftertaste of corn syrup.”
• “Buttery, thick and, I’m going to regret this, but I kinda like it.” (Probably because this is the crap I was brought up on!)

Jonny’s Guess: Aunt Jemima – CORRECT (+1 for Jonny)

Amy’s Guess: Mrs. Butterworth’s – INCORRECT (0 for Amy)

#2: TASTE TEST RESULTS FOR MRS. BUTTERWORTH

Jonny’s Comments:

• “Powerful nose!” (LOL – you’d think he was at a wine tasting).
• “Very sweet, more flavor than #1 (which was Aunt Jemima), more caramel flavored in the mouth.”
• “Tastes darker and thicker than some of the others – not loving this one.”

Amy’s Comments:

• “Very sweet, very familiar.”
• “Gluey, sticky and thick.”
• “Sugar and caramel in flavor.”

Jonny’s Guess: Vermont Dark Amber Maple Syrup (Oh boy!) – INCORRECT (0 points for Jonny)

Amy’s Guess: Aunt Jemima (at least I knew it was fake!) – INCORRECT (0 points again for Amy)

#3: TASTE TEST RESULTS FOR VERMONT DARK AMBER REAL MAPLE SYRUP

Jonny’s Comments:

• “Eww! Very Sugary and sweet.”
• “Tastes like the bottom of a teacup.”
• “I don’t like it at all – you need to rely on good pancakes to save that!” (Oh Jonny, you really are going to be embarrassed when you find out that you royally messed up on this one!)

Amy’s Comments:

• “More natural than the first one (Mrs. Butterworth).”
• “Less fake sweet and more natural in flavor.”
• “Almost floral in smell – this one is my favorite.”

Jonny’s Guess: Mrs. Butterworth  – INCORRECT (0 points for Jonny)

Amy’s Guess: Vermont Dark Amber Maple Syrup – CORRECT (1 point for Amy)

#4: TASTE TEST RESULTS FOR CANADIAN MEDIUM MAPLE SYRUP

Jonny’s Comments:

• “Much thinner than the others, less viscous.”
• “I really like this.”
• “No caramel flavor, cleaner in the mouth and very woody – like freshly cut pine.”

Amy’s Comments:

• “Stronger and sweeter than #2 (the Vermont Maple).”
• “Stronger flavor and thinner than 1 & 3 (the two fakes).”
• “Very nice.”

Jonny’s Guess: Canadian Medium Maple Syrup  – CORRECT (1 point for Jonny)

Amy’s Guess: Canadian Medium Maple Syrup – CORRECT (1 point for Amy)

Well, this experiment proved to be an interesting one.  I grew up with fake maple syrup and I could spot it from a mile away, unlike Jonny.  I was actually disappointed in myself for not nailing the Aunt Jemima test — that was the household favorite back in the day.  One thing that is for sure though, Jonny and I both preferred the real maple syrup.  I enjoyed the Vermont Maple best and Jonny loved the Canadian. The grades of the maple syrup may have made it harder to really do a side-by-side test of the two real ones.  Either way, it was obvious to me that there is a major difference in the texture, flavor and aftertaste of real maple syrup versus fake.  It is worth the cost to get the real deal.  A little goes a long way!  And why would anyone want to put those chemicals in their bodies just to save $9?

Some food for thought – fake maple syrup costs about $28 per gallon to produce where real maple syrup typically sells for around $100 per gallon. The fake stuff is quick, cheap and easy to make.  Why tap a tree for sap when you can make a whole fake bunch of it in something that resembles an oil refinery?

Although Jonny made a huge boo-boo by thinking Vermont Maple syrup was Mrs. Butterworth’s, he doesn’t have the years of expertise that I do. He’s actually eaten more fake syrup while living in American than real. I’d like to say he was at a disadvantage, but I’d encourage you all to seek out some real maple syrup and think twice about what’s in that $1.89 version of “table syrup” you may have been eating for years.

Next, we’re on the hunt for real NY State Maple syrup!  Check out this site if you’re interested too.

On a cold, wintery day, there is nothing better than the warmth of a hearty bowl of Hungarian goulash. After much research, I adapted a recipe by Wolfgang Puck. I’m glad I trusted my instinct that his would taste pretty authentic considering he is from Austria. According to my research, traditional goulash should NEVER contain green peppers or tomatoes. So many recipes I found contained canned tomatoes, but this is supposedly a BIG no-no. Another key, I learned, to a kick-ass goulash is onions, and lots of ‘em. Slicing them thin (use a mandolin if you can) and sweating them down may take a bit more time, but the sweetness and oomph it adds along to the paprika is a taste that can’t be beat.

I have used most of Puck’s recipe, but have adapted a bit of it based on a few other recipes I read as well. Many eat goulash alone, with a side of spaetzle or flour dumplings. I added some boiled potatoes for my starch. Americans may put goulash over rice or egg noodles and top with sour cream, but that is not traditonally Hungarian. I’m also a big lover of paprika, so I use alot… you can scale it down a bit if you’d like. In fact, if you do not like it a bit spicy, do not add the hot paprika and just add one more tablespoon of sweet.

HUNGARIAN GOULASH (Adapted from Wolfgang Puck’s recipe)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 medium to large onions, thinly sliced (about 4 – 5 cups)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds, toasted and ground
• 3 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1 tablespoon hot paprika
• 2 tablespoons fresh marjoram (I substituted oregano), minced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 cups beef or chicken stock
• 2 to 3 pounds of beef, cut into 2 inch cubes
• 4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut in halves or quarters
• Salt and Pepper

What to do:

1. In a large saute pan or dutch oven, heat olive oil on medium low and slowly cook your thinly sliced onions until they are translucent. This should take about 30 minutes if you cook them on low and slowly. If you want to cook ‘em faster, go right ahead. I just love the sweetness the slow cooking of the onions brings.
2. Add your beef pieces and allow to sear a bit.
3. Add your garlic and ground caraway seeds and cook for a minute or so.
4. Add the paprika (both hot and sweet), the marjoram or oregano, thyme and bay leaf and allow to saute for a minute.
5. Add the tomato paste and your stock along with a pinch of salt and pepper.
6. Bring this to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook for at least an hour (an hour and a half is optimal). This will allow the meat to become tender.
7. While meat is cooking, boil your potatoes until they are parboiled and then add them to your goulash a few minutes before you are ready to serve. Taste and add more salt and/or pepper if needed. Serve in a bowl with enough bits of meat and a few halves of potatoes and enjoy.

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:

• PAPPA AL POMODORO (Tuscan Tomato and Bread Soup)
• SHREDDED CHICKEN SOPES WITH TOMATILLO AVOCADO SAUCE
• GNOCCHI DI PATATE WITH A BROWN BUTTER, SAGE, BREADCRUMB SAUCE
• VEAL SAUSAGES WITH HERBED POLENTA AND ROASTED BEETS
• LIVORNESE FISH STEW
• VEAL KIDNEYS WITH MUSHROOMS AND COGNAC

VEAL SAUSAGES WITH HERBED POLENTA AND ROASTED BEETS (Serves 2)

• 4 Veal Sausage Links
• 2 Large Beets, cut into 2” half-moons
• 1/2 cup polenta
• hot chicken stock for the polenta
• chopped parsley and sage

For the gravy:

• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 onion, finely sliced
• 1/2 habanero, finely chopped (optional)
• 2 teaspoons of BISTO (or 1 beef stock cube)
• 2 cups of boiling water
• Salt and Pepper to taste (for polenta and gravy)

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the beets, cut them into half-moon shapes and toss with olive oil and salt/pepper. Put on baking sheet and roast for 25 minutes.
2. In a medium-hot pan, brown your sausages on both sides. When they are browned on both sides, remove from pan and keep on side.
3. Add some olive oil (1 Tbsp.) to the same pan sausages browned in. Add sliced onions and allow to soften. When onions are translucent, add garlic and (optional) hot pepper. Allow to saute for a minute or two.
4. Add red wine and deglaze the pan, picking up any bits on the bottom.
5. Mix BISTO (or stock cube) and boiling water thoroughly. Add this to the pan. Bring to a boil. Simmer liquid until reduced by half.
6. While gravy is reducing, start your polenta. In a separate pan, combine polenta with 1 cup of hot chicken stock by first putting stock in pan and then slowly pouring polenta in it (STIR all the while… it will feel like you don’t have enough hands to do this, but just do your best!). Add a pinch of salt. Continue to stir vigorously with a wooden spoon, adding more chicken stock while doing so. You don’t want the polenta to be dry, but also do not let it get soupy (unless, of course that’s how you like polenta). You want it to be smooth and not runny. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon while on medium – low/medium heat for about 15-20 minutes. At the end, taste for necessary salt and smoothness. Throw in your herbs and some (optional) parmagiano cheese.
7. Take beets out of oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
8. Add the sausages back to the pan. Allow to simmer for 3-4 additional minutes.
9. Plate your dish – start with a layer of polenta, two sausages per plate nestled into the polenta, topped with some gravy (get some onions in there!) and finish with a few roasted beets. Enjoy!

CHECK OUT SOME OF THESE OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:

• HUNGARIAN GOULASH
• JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN
• WINE-BRAISED LAMB SHANKS WITH ROSEMARY AND THYME IN PRESSURE COOKER
• ORECCHIETTE WITH SAUSAGE AND KALE
• TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE (Sausages Nested in Batter)

Regular readers will remember the vigorous back-tracking done in the recent post In Defence of Sandwiches when excuses had to be made for having seemed to have been demeaning towards the humble sandwich. Well, friends, here’s some more hand-held, lunchable flip-flopping for you, I’m writing today about an excellent sandwich I made for lunch and which sat in my backpack, sweating away under the hot sun for half a day before being enjoyed. I normally mock such soggy sandwiches and compare them unfavorable to my delicious leftovers, but this was an extraordinary sandwich, and one that provided a gourmet experience not at the desk, as is my usual lunching spot, but on a rock in the hills of upstate New York.

Last weekend, Amy and I were hiking in Sam’s Point Preserve, close to the one-horse town that is Cragsmoor, NY, and we had decided to take a picnic with us as a way of economizing, having already splurged on dinner the previous night. After two hours on the trail, we sat down to lunch. Pulling the foil-wrapped bufala mozzarella, rocket (wild arugula) and pesto topped Italian bread roll from my bag, I was happy to see that it hadn’t wilted completely, and the foil had kept it from overheating. We’d even brought extra pesto along with us in a small plastic pot, so were able to use it like a condiment, dipping our sandwiches in for an extra garlicky-basilico tang. All extremely delicious and made all the more enjoyable by a beautiful view over the surrounding hills clothed with the yellows, oranges and reds of fall.

I raise this sandwich not just as an example of how to make an ordinary picnic slightly less ordinary, but also as an example (see image) of a sandwich that is not over-stuffed with fillings whose success relies on the careful balance of bread, condiment and just two high-quality fillings.

Another recent example of a successful, but simple, sandwich is the paté and cornichon sandwich I made for lunch the other day. Our first order from Fresh Direct was filled with “luxury and gourmet” products we wouldn’t normally buy, and for some reason buying things online made it much easier to swallow the $12 for a 1/4lb of jamon serrano.

Also in that order was a thick slab of country pork paté (literally) peppered with whole black peppercorns and surrounded by a generous layer of fat. Having bought some wholewheat Portuguese rolls, some amazingly cheap wild arugula and a jar of cornichons (baby gherkin pickles) we had the makings of a fantastic sandwich. Add a little smooth Dijon mustard, and you’ve got what the French might call “un sandwich de chasseur” or hunters’ sandwich. Fantastically simple, hearty and delicious, with the right blend of meaty fattiness, crunchy pickles, sharp mustard and peppery tang of the arugula.

The great thing about sandwiches is that you can put virtually anything between bread and that a great sandwich doesn’t have to have thirty-six slices of roast beef crammed into it. I often reminisce about a roll with 2 slices of the most fantastic jamon iberico that I had for breakfast in Barcelona train station a few years ago. Do you have a great sandwich memory or a killer sandwich“recipe” / combo that you’d like to share? What’s you favorite sandwich? And what’s the best accompaniment to it? Potato chips (crisps), fries (chips), salad, condiment/s? Let us know.

Last week we discovered that the 5-day forecast was calling for a week’s worth of blue skies and summer-like weather. Not bad considering this past Sunday marked the beginning of Fall. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do love fall. But, like many, there’s something about summer that just excites me like no other season. Maybe it’s that whole “school mentality” thing where we are all just programmed to believe that there’s an end to work once Memorial Day comes? I changed careers 3 years ago from a corporate Marketing job to a School Counseling job in the NYC Public School System so now I’m back to feeling like I did when I was 10 year old. No more pencils, no more books! No more teacher’s dirty looks!! Even as an professional, paid adult, there still are some teacher’s I can’t stand! Maybe I know that when summer begins, I can go “down the shore”. Anyone from Philly or NJ will know what I mean… we don’t say we’re “going to the beach” we always say we’re going “down the shore”. I am lucky to have family that owns a house down the shore, only about 4 houses from the beach. Summer to me means going to the shore.

When we discovered the weather forecast, we decided that maybe our “summer ends after Labor Day” rule would be pushed aside. We loaded the car and headed “down the shore” with some of our cooking gear and ingredients. My mom and dad’s house isn’t very well-equipped with any type of cooking stuff. Our shore house is kind of a shack – a place where you don’t need to worry about washing the sand off your feet before you enter. A place where the oven broke 3 years ago and has never been fixed because you can always use the grill on the deck as your oven. The kind of place you may walk in and say, “eh, what’s all the hype about?” but then spend some time in and relax immediately. So with spices, a whole fish and our chef’s knife in tow, we headed south.

Saturday night we decided to have a seafood fest with tapas recipes in mind. It was just the two of us eating, so it ended up being a bit more than the normal tapas portions. We started with a calamari and potato with lemon and wine tapas, moved on to a Portuguese-inspired littleneck clams with white wine and chorizo (using pan con tomate – grilled bread topped w/ garlic and tomato – to ‘shoop’ up the sauce) and finished with a whole fried snapper topped with a spicy parsley and garlic sauce.

CLAMS WITH WHITE WINE AND CHIORIZO

Ingredients (for 2)

• 2 pounds of clams (cleaned)
• 2 chorizo links – chopped into small, diced pieces
• 1 small spicy hot red pepper (optional)
• 1/2 of large spanish onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced or sliced
• 1 diced ripe tomato
• 2 cups of hot clam stock (or chicken stock)
• 3/4 cup of dry white wine
• olive oil
• S&P
• minced parsley

What to do:

1. Saute your diced chorizo in your pot until they release some fat and take on a darker color. With a slotted spoon, remove chorizo and keep on the side for later.
2. Using the rendered chorizo fat (you may need to add a bit more olive oil if necessary), saute your sliced onions until the absorb the color of the chorizo fat and are slightly translucent. Add minced garlic and saute for another minute.
3. Add your white wine and simmer for 30 seconds.
4. Add your stock and S&P (don’t add any more salt if the stock is salted already). Let simmer for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the clams and put the lid on your pot. The clams should start to open after about 4 minutes.
6. Remove lid and add back the chorizo bits. Sprinkle with your diced tomato and chopped parsley.

SQUID WITH GOLDEN POTATOES (Serves about 4 tapas-style)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. new potatoes
• 1 small onion, sliced thinly
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 lb. cleaned squid, bodies thinly sliced in rings
• 3 to 4 tablespoons dry white wine
• parsley, chopped
• lemon juice (fresh, of course!)
• olive oil
• S&P

What to do:

1. Boil your new potatoes in salted water until soft – about 15 minutes.
2. Heat up a good amount of olive oil (about 4 tablespoons) in a pan. When potatoes are tender, remove from water and put into the oil. Cook until they turn brown and crispy. NOTE: We wanted to use new pototoes, but instead used Yukon Gold. These potatoes were delish but the consistency of the dish changed…the yukon gold (due to it’s high starch content) created almost a bit of a chunky sauce.
3. As the potatoes are browing, add your sliced onions and cook for about 7 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
5. Add your squid slices and cook for 2 minutes.
6. Add your wine and cook for another minute.
7. Mix everything together if you have not done so yet. Add your parsley, S&P and some lemon juice.

WHOLE FRIED RED SNAPPER WITH A PERSILLADE (AKA Garlic and Parsley Sauce)

Ingredients:

• 1-2 lb. whole snapper (any other mild fish would work well), cleaned, gutted and scaled with head and tail
• vegetable oil (enough to deep fry the fish) – I used a whole bottle
• 1 1/2 cup of white flour
• 1 cup of water (stream in slowly, you may need a bit more or a bit less – you want your batter to be THICK, not thin)
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 2 cups chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 6 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped
• 1 mortar and pestle (could be optional, but it helps make a better sauce)
• 1/2 of lemon

What to do:

1. Put your oil in your pot and start heating it (on high).
2. Pat your fish dry and season lightly with salt and pepper on and inside the body
3. With a sharp knife, make three diagonal slits (about 1/2 inch or so apart) on each side of the fish, deep enough to hit the bone (about 1 inch). This will help when eating the fish.
4. Meanwhile, take your chopped parsley and your finely chopped garlic and mash it all together in your mortar and pestle (just mash it up a bit to release more of the flavors of the herb and garlic – do not make it into a paste).
5. In a bowl, mix together your flour (add a pinch of salt and pepper) and water to make a batter. Feel free to add the water gradually and stir into the flour, adding more as needed. You don’t want a thin batter. Dip your whole fish into the batter and make sure the excess batter drips off.
6. When the oil is hot enough, add the whole, batter fish and allow to fry until golden brown. Turn fish if not completely immersed in the oil. Probably takes between 6 to 9 minutes. When finished, take out and drain on paper towels.
7. Take your parsely/garlic mixture and put in a small sautee pan with enough olive oil to make a sauce and gently heat through on low. This will allow the flavors to lightly infuse with the olive oil. Heat through for about 4 – 5 minutes.
8. Plate your fish, squeeze some lemon juice on top of the fried fish then spoon on your warmed sauce. Enjoy!

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