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Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2011 by

“That’s the day people celebrate food by eating as much of it as possible. Yes! That’s the day they try to eat every turkey, pumpkin, and cranberry on the face of the earth. It’s a tradition. And you know how I LOVE tradition!”

~ Garfield The Cat, describing Thanksgiving

Ah, Thanksgiving … my favorite holiday of the year! Seriously, a day full of nothing but food, family, and friends … what could be better than that?

In keeping with our Thanksgiving traditions, The Chef and I are heading to my aunt’s for a lovely Thanksgiving lunch, then it’s off to his sister’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. We’re both thankful that we have two wonderful families to celebrate Thanksgiving with … and I’m incredibly thankful that I have The Chef in my life. My kitchen adventures would be no where near as fun without him!

So, in the spirit of doing nothing but eating, drinking, and hanging out with those we love the most today, I don’t have a recipe for you, but I’m not leaving you empty-handed. Here is my one of my favorite Thanksgiving shows, in which a very fat, hungry cat tackles the Thanksgiving holiday with those he loves the most.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Crash Hots and Braised Red Cabbage

November 21, 2011 by

Here we go again … it’s Secret Recipe Club time!

Faithful readers of Rhubarb and Honey know that I’ve been participating in The Secret Recipe Club for awhile now. The idea of The Secret Recipe Club is similar to other blog exchanges in that each participating blogger is assigned another participating blog to make a recipe from, but the twist with The Secret Recipe Club is that you can’t tell anyone whose blog you have—shhhh, it’s a secret!—until you finally post about the blog you were assigned and the recipe you chose.

So, what fabulous food blog did I get to visit and cook from this month? In a funny turn of events, I was assigned Cairns Manor, a blog written by the lovely Joanna, a Certified Nurse Midwife with a passion for cooking, gardening, and painting, decorating, and “HGTVing” her house. What’s the funny part? Joanna was assigned my blog for last month’s Secret Recipe Club!

I spent awhile perusing Joanna’s blog after reading her take on my “pork and beans” recipe, so when I was assigned her blog, I already had an idea of what I might make. So, what did I choose? Joanna has a number of great recipes on her site, but there were two, Crash Hot Potatoes and Danish Red Cabbage, that really jumped out at me so The Chef and I decided the make a meal out of them.

In reading Joanna’s post, I learned that “crash hot potatoes” are pretty popular, but I have to confess … I’d never heard of them. Does that make me a bad food blogger? Well, if so, I hope my version redeems me a little. Simmered gently with aromatic herbs and then sauteed in bacon grease, these potatoes were delicious … crispy on the outside, creamy and fluffy on the inside. These will definitely be making an appearance at our dinner table again.

Also making another appearance will be the Danish red cabbage as well. This recipe was adapted pretty heavily by The Chef, who taught me how to make it the way he always has. The addition of onion, apple, and cinnamon was a delicious twist, and the bright, vibrant color made it one of the prettiest side dishes we’ve made in awhile … maybe ever!

Served with a thick, juicy, pan-seared pork chop and a light, yet still rich-tasting sauce made with cream and both Dijon and stone-ground mustard, these new dishes rounded out a fabulous meal, and they have won their place in the Rhubarb and Honey recipe repetoire. I hope you enjoy them as much as The Chef and I did!

Crash Hot Potatoes

Ingredients:

  • 12 whole new potatoes
  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 2 to 3 bunches fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsely, etc)
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil (or bacon grease for additional flavor)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with water.

2. Add garlic, herbs, and 1/2 cup salt; stir to dissolve salt.

3. Heat water until barely simmering; cook at this heat until potatoes are fork tender, approximately 20 minutes. (Potatoes can be simmered or boiled, but take care not to allow potatoes to burst.)

4. When potatoes are tender, remove pot from heat. Allow potatoes to cool in salted water.

5. When potatoes are cool, place one potato on a cutting board. Place a small saucer (a dessert plate is perfect) on top and gently push down to flatten potato; repeat with remaining potatoes. All of the potatoes should be about the same thickness.

6. Heat olive oil or bacon grease over medium-high heat; saute potatoes until golden brown.

7. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste; serve.

Note: The Chef and I make it a habit to save the grease from any bacon we cook; it stores easily in a Mason jar in the fridge and can really amp up the flavor of almost anything sauteed in them.

Danish Red Cabbage

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 small red cabbage (about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds), cored and thinly sliced
  • 2 cups apple cider
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 1 tablespoon pickling spice
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
  • 2 small Granny Smith apples, cored and diced
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large saute pan, saute onion in olive oil over medium-high heat until translucent. Add cabbage; stir and cover. Turn heat to low.

2. In a separate pan, combine apple cider, red wine, pickling spice, cinnamon stick, and bay leaves. Add sugar; bring to boil to dissolve.

3. When sugar is dissolved, strain mixture into cabbage. Discard spice mix, but add cinnamon stock to cabbage.

4. Simmer cabbage mixture until almost dry; add 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar, then add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Add apples; stir to combine. Remove cinnamon stick; serve.

 
 

P.S. To learn more you about The Secret Recipe Club or to join in (you do have to have a blog with a decent number of recipes for others to choose from), click here to read about it and sign up!



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Goin’ Fishin’: A Recipe for Trout en Papillote

November 13, 2011 by

A few weekends ago, The Chef had a rare three days off so we packed up the car and hit the road. Our destination? Rockbridge Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch in Rockbridge, Missouri, for a little bit of fishin’. And before you ask, yes, I fished … and I baited my own hook and took my own fish off the line!

Rockbridge Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch is a 3000-plus acre resort nestled in the picturesque Ozark Mountains. Sparkling, crystal clear waters, monumental bluffs, and lush scenery all converge to make one of the most spectacular settings Missouri has to offer. Running through the resort is Spring Creek, replete with beautiful rapids, slow moving currents, sunny shallows, and shaded deep pools. The spring-fed streams are stocked with mature rainbow trout from the ranch’s hatchery and are perfect for both fly-fishing and light tackle fishing.

The Chef and I both grew up fishing with our dads, but we’d never gone together before. The Chef is a fly fisherman, and it was a joy to watch him doing something he loves so much. Since I’ve never fly-fished before, I stuck to the shore and fished with a new rod and reel The Chef bought for me. I can’t tell you who originally said, “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work,” but I can tell you he or she is right. The Chef and I both work a lot so it was a true treat to unplug for a few days and spend time getting back to nature.

Yep, that’s The Chef and The Chef’s 2-pound rainbow trout, the biggest fish we caught all weekend. Unfortunatley for us, the trout were spawning and were more interested in each other than anything we had to offer them … so as the saying goes, “The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.” But, even though we didn’t catch “the big one,” we still had a wonderful time.

Rockbridge Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch is a catch-and-keep resort (but catch-and-release permits are available for an extra cost), and they clean, fillet, and freeze any fish you catch until you’re ready to go home. On the day we left, we received our trout, perfectly packaged for the ride home.

Both The Chef and I are looking forward to our next trip to Rockbridge Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch … and if you’re looking for a quick get-away, or even a great place for a family vacation, we highly recommend it.

So, just what did we do with the trout we brought home?

There are so many ways to prepare trout, but baking is a great way to bring out the flavors of this fish. One of my favorite ways to bake fish is “en papillote,” which is just a fancy way of saying “in parchment,” which refers to parchment paper used to enclose the fish like an envelope. Baking en papillote is one of the easiest (and usually healthiest) ways of cooking fish, and once you have the technique down, you can use it with any combination of fish and accoutrements you like.

Have you ever prepared fish en papillote? If so, leave me a comment and let me know what you made. If not, I encourage you to give my recipe for trout en papillote a try!

Trout En Papillote

Ingredients:

  • 1 lemon, cut into 12 thin slices
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 4 rainbow_trout fillets (about 6 ounces each)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 stick butter, sliced into 8 slices
  • 4 bay leaves, dried

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Cut a 16 x 14 inch piece of parchment paper for each trout filet. Fold each sheet of parchment paper in half lengthwise, then cut out a heart-shaped piece from each sheet. Open the parchment “hearts” and lay flat.

3. Lay three lemon slices to one side of each piece of parchment paper, then evenly top each with onion and garlic slices.

4. Lay one trout fillet, skin side down, over each of the lemon/onion/garlic stacks.

5. Sprinkle trout fillets evenly with salt and pepper.

6. Top each trout fillet with 2 butter slices and one bay leaf.

7. Fold the empty side of the parchment paper over the trout. Starting at the top of the heart (ie, not the pointed end), make a series of tiny folds all the way around, then tuck the last fold under the pouch to seal completely.

8. Place the parchment packets on a cookie sheet or baking pan, and bake for 15 minutes (note: paper will brown slightly).

9. Remove parchment packets from oven and place on plates. Carefully cut opening into top of parchment, allowing steam to escape.

10. Remove bay leaves, serve, and enjoy.

Notes: Parchment paper is readily available at most major grocery stores, but if you can’t find it, aluminum foil may be used instead.

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