In addition to being simple, this recipe is fast to prepare, and you can do it on a week night.  Like I did last night at our friend’s house (Rick and Cindy Rich). They were kind enough to be my food taste testers. Sorta like being the emperor’s food taster, except I am more like a jester than an emperor.

At any rate, I am sure you will enjoy this meal.

Ingredients

Four filet of sole
Olive oil
Knob of Butter
Salt and pepper
Pinch or two of cayenne pepper
Jar of capers (their small)
½ lb of bay shrimp

Directions

Bring a large skillet up to temperature over a medium-high heat. Add olive oil. Salt and pepper the sole and cook for 2-3 minutes per side.

While the sole is cooking, bring another pan up to temperature over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and butter. Add a pinch or two of cayenne pepper. Drop in the shrimp and the cappers and stir. Cook for 3-4 minutes.

When the sole is cooked, plate up and spoon over the capper and shrimp sauce.

Another variation is I left out the grained mustard, since my wife simply doesn’t like mustard. I would include the mustard to give it just a bit more flavor.

To prepare the chicken you can either use your BBQ or you can use the stove. I used the stove method because I was out of charcoal – of all the things. Nevertheless, the stove method works as well. I have a pan with grill slates on the bottom and I sear on each side for 2 minutes then bake at 500 for 6 minutes. The original recipe called for grilling on the BBQ, however, I will show you the stove method.

Ingredients

4 (6-oz) skinless boneless chicken breasts halves.
¼ cup olive oil
¼ chopped dill
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
1 pint cherry tomatoes – quartered

Directions

Preheat your oven to 500° F.
Pound the chicken to ¼ inch thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap with a meat pounder (flat side).
Salt and pepper the chicken on both sides
Whisk together the olive oil, dill, shallot, white-wine vinegar and grainy mustard.
Cut your cherry tomatoes into quarters and place in a bowl. Add ¼ cup the relish to the tomatoes.
With the remainder of the relish, spread over the chicken on both sides.
Cook the chicken in a skillet for 2 minutes per side.
Then place the chicken (in the skillet) into the oven and bake for 6 minutes or until just done.
Meanwhile, if you want to heat your relish like I did, place the relish in a pan and sauté for 2 minutes.
When the chicken is done, place each breast onto a plate and garnish with the relish.

Nevertheless, the sauce in this receipt sounding interesting and he uses Madeira, and I looked in my cellar and well I guess I was all out. So I was batting 0 for 2.

But have no fear. I had fresh cherries (Bing) from my neighbor [Eric Moore], who ran up to Hood River last weekend to a customer (Hood River Cherry Company) who buys custom made boxes from his company (Alliance Packaging). I really needed to finish up the cherries because they were getting a week old.

So, with some pork in hand, cherries, and some Willamette Valley Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007, I started to make an alternate to this recipe, still using the same techniques for the sauce and displaying the meat by slicing and fanning.

This is truly amazing!

Ingredients

4 Pork center cut tenderloins (no bone) [Chef Ramsay’s recipe calls for duck here]
2 Shallots finely sliced
50g button mushrooms
250ml Pinot Noir [Chef Ramsay’s recipe calls for Madeira here]
100ml chicken stock
100g fresh cherries, stoned and halved [I used Bing for the deep red color].
Knob of butter
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil, add the shallots and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms and cook through. Deglaze the pan with the Pinot Noir. Allow to bubble and reduce for a few minutes, then add the chick stock. Allow to reduce down again, then strain through a sieve and set aside. Keeping the sauce, discard the shallots and mushrooms.

Heat a large, oven proof frying pan until hot. Season the pork and place in the pan. Cook for 2 minutes per side until golden brown. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 8-9 minutes. Then remove and set aside to rest for 3-4 minutes.

Using the pan that cooked the pork, add the wine sauce and cherries. Cook until the cherries just begin to soften, the add the knob of butter and stir well.

Take your pork and slice it lengthwise three times (four slices) 4/5ths the way through. Then fan the pork out on the plate and arrange the cherry wine sauce around the pork. Drizzle some of the sauce over the top of the pork. Serve.

  Baked Rigatoni

This recipe was inspired by a restaurant over on the Oregon coast in Lincoln City called The Italian Rivera. Their food is hand made from three generations of Italians [if my memory serves] and is worth the stop. They even have a piano bar for some late night fun.

In this recipe, I am going to show you two different sauces so that you can please everyone in you household – a modified alfredo and a tomato butter sauce.

Ingredients

Rigatoni pasta
Italian sausage links, cooked and sliced
Feta cheese
Tomato butter sauce or alfredo sauce (sauce recipes to follow)
Mozzarella
Salt

Directions

Preheat your oven to 425°.

Boil the rigatoni according to the packaging – leave firm.

Prepare your alfredo or tomato butter sauce (recipes to follow)

In a mixing boil toss the rigatoni with the sliced Italian sausage, feta cheese and one of the sauces. Put the mixture into a small baking pan and cover with mozzarella and bake until the cheese is melted.

Tomato Butter Sauce

Ingredients

300g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes
1 tsp sherry vinegar
1 tsp sugar (fine if you have it)
1 tbsp fresh chopped basil
Pinch of paprika
100ml heavy cream
25g unsalted butter, diced (about ¼ stick)

Directions

Cut the tomatoes in halve and put into your food processor. Add the vinegar, sugar, basil, and paprika. Blend in the food processor until smooth. Pass the puree through a sieve into a sauce pan.
Over medium heat, cook for about 5 minutes or until reduced by half. Mix in the cream and simmer for another 2 minutes. Now, over low heat, gradually whisk in the butter one cube at a time. Set the sauce aside.

Alfredo Sauce (modified)

Ingredients

¼ cup butter
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup parmesan and mozzarella cheese (50% of each)
Salt
Pepper

Directions

In a sauce pan on medium heat, melt the butter, then add the milk and cheese. Stir continuously until well blended, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat immediately.

Here is a quick recipe that will take your boring chicken night to the next level. This recipe comes from Chef Ramsey’s The “F” Word that aired on Wednesday and combines frying the chicken to seal in the flavor then baking to finish it off.

Rather than the sauces you may have seen in prior recipes on this site, this takes some simple ingredients [shallots, garlic, basil, and tomatoes] and tops the chicken during the baking process. The mozzarella cheese tops the whole ordeal to hold it together.

You will notice that the ingredient list does not show exact measurements. Well for one I jotted down this recipe from the show and has not been posted on the site [The “F” Word], and I think we are getting to the point, if you have been following this blog, where we cook by feel more than by measurements. Except for baking! Yep baking takes precise measurements.

So back to the chicken.

Ingredients

Skinned, boned chicken breast
Flour
Egg wash (two eggs beaten)
Bread crumbs
Olive oil
Shallots chopped
Garlic chopped
Basil rough chopped
Cherry tomatoes quartered
Mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat your oven to 450°.

Clean your chicken breasts and butterfly them to make them cook more evenly. Alternatively you can pound the chicken flat.

Run the chicken through the flour and dust off the excess. Coat the chicken in the egg wash. Then run it through the bread crumbs. Salt and pepper.

In a skillet on medium heat, add some olive oil to the pan and place the chicken in the pan. Sear the chicken on both sides, then put on a plate and set a side. The chicken will not be fully cooked through yet.

In a skillet on medium-high heat, add olive oil, garlic and shallots. Cook for about 2 minutes. Then add the basil and tomatoes. Cook down for about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Put the chicken (you set aside) on a baking sheet. Place the tomato basil mixture on top of the chicken. Slice the mozzarella cheese and put on top of the tomato basil mixture. (Your building a creation here).

Bake for 8-9 minutes until the chicken is done. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let rest for 3 minutes.

Plate up.

That same days, my neighbor (Nick) came back from Halibut fishing off the coast of Oregon. And would you believe it, he laid a big fillet in my hands.

What was I to do? The answer was to put some simple seasonings on the fish and BBQ both of them at the same time. Some garlic salt, onion salt, and dried basil. Then topped with some real butter.

The reason this is on the 5 star site today is because it was fresh caught fish. What a difference fresh makes!

Italian Chicken Under A Brick – Revisted

A few weeks ago you may remember seeing an interesting chicken recipe that utilized bricks on top of the chicken while BBQing. In that post I used chicken breasts, not my favorite but it worked at the time.

Over the 4th of July weekend I had the opportunity to use my sister-in-law’s (Carrie) kitchen and BBQ. What a relief

from that cramped kitchen I work in. Anyways, this time I boned three chickens and attemped the “Italian Chicken Under a Brick” recipe again.

To start with, I cut the backbones out of the chickens (saved them for stock), and flipped over the chicken to remove the ribs and breast bone. I removed the wish bone and part of the wing. Emeril has a quick video that will help you get started on deboning a chicken – Emeril.

Cooking with whole chickens is wonderful and makes you never want to by that package of skinless, boneless chicken breasts ever again. As you shouldn’t, those whole fryers are cheaper and taste better.

The recipe I followed can be found in my post here. http://www.5starrecipe.com/?p=425#more-425

Crème brûlée – Baked Custard With Burned Sugar

This recipe originated in Cambridge, England and has become associated with France and is widely made and eaten there. This dessert is becoming one of my favorites, because I love custard, love caramelized sugar, and I add a little orange liqueur to give it a little more flavor.

There are couple secrets to this recipe. The first being you need to use an actual vanilla bean. Trust me its not hard, scrape out the bean, boil and strain. Sure beats using extract. The second secret is in using boiling water in your roasting pan (or cookie sheet) half why up the ramekins during the baking process.

You may ask what is a ramekin? It’s a small 4.5 oz bowl. You can pick them up almost anywhere.

Ingredients

1 vanilla bean
4 cups heavy cream
6 egg yolks
½ cup superfine sugar (baker’s sugar)
2 tablespoons almond or orange liqueur
1/3 cup light brown sugar

Directions

Preheat the over to 300 degrees. Place six half cup ramekins in a roasting pan or ovenproof dish and set aside (I did eight ramekins).

Split the vanilla bean lengthwise with a small knife. Scrap out the black seeds and put into a medium sauce pan along with the outer casing of the bean. Add the cream and bring just to a boil over medium-high heat, stir frequently. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 15-20 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, superfine sugar, and liqueur until well blended. Whisk in the hot cream and strain into a large pitcher. Be sure to strain we don’t want beans in the pitcher. Divide equally among the ramekins.

Pour boiling water into the roasting pan (the ramekins are already in the pan) to come up to halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes until the custards are just set. Remove from the pan and let cool on a rake. Empty the water from the roasting pan. Return the ramekins to the dry roasting pan and chill.

Preheat the broiler. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the surface of each custard and broil for 30-60 seconds until the sugar melts and caramelizes. Do not let the sugar burn or the custard will curdle.

Place in the refrigerator to set the curst and chill completely before serving.

Smoked Chicken on a Stick

My neighbor Rick Rich submitted this recipe and I had the opportunity to eat a few of these chickens on a stick. Wow, I’m ready for another plate full.

In this recipe, a boned chicken is marinated in soy sauce for 4 hours, then smoked. In this case it was on a Traeger. Ever since Rick got his Traeger, he cooks (smokes) everything on it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he found a way to smoke pasta (wink).

If you don’t have a Traeger, I guess a regular old smoker will have to do.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken – boned
Soy sauce

Directions

Bone a whole chicken. Cut into nice size strips and marinate for 4 hours in soy sauce.

Thread the chicken strips onto wooden sticks.

Smoke until cooked through.

Bacon-Smothered Haricots Verts

This side dish uses small French green beans, but your ordinary run of the mill green beans will work. It’s early in the season here so the green beans are small, so those worked perfectly.

This recipe comes from Chef Emeril Lagasse and naturally has a Southern twist to your everyday bacon and green beans. The recipe calls for rich chicken stock, but it was running late and I didn’t have time to make it, so I substituted plain old chicken stock. On my next go at this recipe, I will take the time to make the rich chicken stock.

This side takes about 15 minutes to prepare and I paired this up with some chicken from the grill. I prepared the chicken simply with shallots, garlic, and Emerils Creole seasoning as not to distract from the green beans.

Let me tell you, the flavor on the beans was amazing. Try this right away.

Ingredients

1½ pounds haricots verts or small thin green beans
½ pound bacon – chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup rich chicken stock (I used plain chicken stock)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon sherry vinegar

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the beans and cook for 2-3 minutes until tender. Drain and transfer to an ice bath. Drain well.

Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes.

Add the shallots and garlic to the skillet. Cook and stir for 1 minute.

Add the flour to the skillet. Cook and stir constantly for 2 minutes.

Add the stock, salt, pepper, and vinegar to the skillet. Cook and stir until thickened, about 4-5 minutes.

Add the green beans and cook until warmed through, about 2 minutes.