New Orleans

Our recent trip to New Orleans, or as I like to call it . . . How to O.D. on pork belly and confit! Featured dishes from Herbsaint. The entire meal was delightful. Starting with Beep's favorite the crispy poached egg over taso ham carbonara, my crab tower with beets and grapefruit and just because two appetizers are never enough, the grit cake with taso ham, tomato mushroom okra sauce with shrimp and the gumbo were must haves. Main course, none other than the king and queen of New Orleans, pork belly with Louisianna style sticky rice and perfectly cooked sweet and tangy greens and confit that was a combination of moist and crunchy over a delicious cajun rice. One of our favorite additions to the meal was the marble-sized fried brussel sprouts, perfectly crisp and finished with salt, they were addictive. To top it all off we ordered two desserts, Beep, the Banana Brown Butter tart with Fleur de Sel Caramel and I thoroughly enjoyed a marshmallowy pillow of creaminess, Ponchatoula Strawberry Balsamico with Creole Cream Cheese Mousse. The certainly don't skimp when naming these dishes and they don't skimp on the flavor either.
Herbsaint is upbeat while at the same time very cozy with wonderful staff and the intermittent rumble of the trolley passing by reminds you that you are in a very special town.

Homemade Pasta Lasagna

One of our favorite places for authentic brick oven pizza makes a wonderful single serving of lasagna that Beep and I always order along side our metro Regina Margarita. I decide to attempt this lighter version of the layered dish at home. The recipe has four basic components: bolognese, pasta, cheese, and sauce. It turned out great! I made a full pan. The homemade pasta, makes all the difference. I completed each step over a period of days, so it wasn't an overwhelming amount of preparation. I started with the meat filling two days ahead, mixed, rolled and cooked the pasta one day in advance then mixed the cheese filling, assembled the morning of the third day, then relied on my completely competent sister-in-law and husband to finish the cooking.

 

INGREDIENTS:

MEAT FILLING:
A slightly shorter version of my traditional bolognese, which can be found on this blog.
2 T. olive oil
1-2 carrots, minced
1-2 celery ribs, minced
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
1-2 garlic cloves minced or crushed
1/2 Pound Veal, ground
1/2 Pound Beef, ground
1/2 cup tomato puree or sauce
1/4 cup cream
2 tsp. Italian seasoning, I use Penzey's
Salt & Pepper to taste
Pinch of Sugar, opptional

HOMEMADE PASTA SHEETS:
See blog recipe, roll to seven setting and cut into strips to fit your baking dish. Boil until Al dente and store in refrigerator until ready to assemble. If you mix the entire pasta recipe you will have enough to do more than one lasagna or cut extra pasta to cook as regular noodles. I rolled my sheets first and once I knew I had enough for 3 layers to fit my baking dish, I rolled and cut the remaining pasta into angel hair for the kids.

CHEESE FILLING:
8 oz. Whole milk Ricotta cheese
1/4 C cream
1 Large whole egg
1/4 C Parmesan cheese
a few grates of fresh nutmeg

SAUCE:
I use Alessi smooth jarred sauce, it is one of the best!

Freshly grated Parmesan for the top.

PREPARATION:

Prepare your meat filling a day or two in advance. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, saute the veggies in olive oil until translucent and slightly caramelized. Season with Italian seasoning. Add both meats to the pan and cook until completely browned. The final product you want is a meat sauce that melts together, break up the meat as it cooks, so all of the veggies and meat become incorporated. Stir in tomato sauce, allow to cook 2 minutes. Pour in cream and simmer until almost all the liquid is absorbed, mixing and pressing down on the contents of the pan to "marry" all the ingredients of the sauce. Taste and add additional seasonings or tomato sauce and sugar if needed. Cool, refrigerate airtight until ready to assemble.

See pasta blog entry to prepare the pasta. Can be prepared and boiled the day before.

Final Assembly, should occur the day you plan to cook the dish. Coat baking dish with non-stick spray, place a layer of pasta sheets to cover the bottom of the baking dish. Next, spread all of the meat filling over the pasta to create an even layer. Top with a second layer of pasta sheets. In a large bowl, mix together ingredients for the cheese layer and spread it over the second pasta layer. Top with a third layer of pasta.

At this stage, I covered with foil and placed the baking dish in the refrigerator. We had a volleyball tournament and I knew it would be a long day. If you are going directly into the oven at this stage, preheat to 350 degrees and pour jarred sauce over the top of the lasagna, cover with foil and bake 30-45 minutes, until bubbly. Remove foil for the final 10 minutes of baking and sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese.
Allow to rest 5 minutes, cut and serve.

If you are baking later in the day, hold off on the sauce. Refrigerate until ready to bake, remove from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature while the oven is preheating. Top with jarred sauce, recover with foil and bake as instructed above.

Brisket Pita

Toasted Pita Sandwiches are a big favorite of our family! It started with my husband and a local restaurant in his home town of Fort Lauderdale, they served a variety of sandwiches in toasted pita halves. I will list a few of our favorite variations. Perfect for kiddos on the go, all the ingredients are contained in the crunchy pocket of goodness! I also make my own pita bread now, it is decidedly more delicious than the store bought pita, and surprisingly easy to make once you do it a couple of times. Come on, you know you love your family enough to make it from scratch! No pressure. For this one, I must confess, I cheated and used pita from the market. We had leftover brisket, add your favorite cheese, condiment and toast away.
I do pre-toast the pita prior to adding my fillings, then place the entire prepared sandwich into the toaster. I have handy little holders on my Dualit that make it easy to fit the pita into the machine. If you are afraid of your sandwich getting stuck, you can also toast in the oven or on a griddle. WARNING: filling will be hot!

 

PREPARATION:
Get all ingredients for your sandwich ready.
Slice Pita Pocket in half
Toast each half just slightly, 1 minute or less, just so it will open easily
Pre-heat any ingredients if needed (tomato sauce, meats)
Spread any condiment onto one side of the pita interior
Stuff fillngs into the pocket
Toast until warm, crunchy and filling is desired temperature 1-2 minutes

Chicken or Tuna Salad Melt
Choose your favorite filling and a slice of American cheese, toast away!


Roman Cheese
Tomato sauce with shredded mozzarella and or provolone cheese. I pre-heat the tomato sauce on this one, no one wants cold sauce. Add some leftover sliced meatball or Italian sausage. YUM!

Ham, Mushroom & Swiss
Bo's favorite . . . I saute some sliced mushrooms, heat the ham a little in the same pan. Then spread a little mayo on the pita add the fillings with a slice of Swiss, and he is in heaven.

Come up with your own and pass them along!

Grilled PB&J

Thank You Mrs. Finley, 6th grade home economics!!! One of our very first lessons in step by step preparation and cooking. I never knew a simple 4 ingredient sandwich could have so many steps. We were required to write out a supply list, ingredients and kitchen tools, timeline and person responsible for each task, ultimately the actual cooking, then consumption and clean up. No detail was left undocumented. I had learned to cook from my mom and dad, but this is where I learned to plan to cook. I had no idea Mrs. Finley would serve me so well.
One lesson I will never forget. . . when given the option during our bacon and scrambled egg class we could cook the eggs in the left over bacon grease or start fresh with butter. Well, my team decided to go with the bacon grease and needless to say our grade suffered for the color the grease imparted to our eggs. I will never make that mistake again, I have been a butter girl ever since!
The grilled PB&J is a decadent treat. One of Beep's favorites. He has always enjoyed the toasted PB&J, but this takes it to another level!!!! Perfectly paired with an icy cold glass of milk, enjoy.

INGREDIENTS:
2-4 Slices of your favorite bread
Peanut butter
Your favorite flavor of jelly or jam
butter, soft and spreadable
Cold milk



PREPARATION:

Heat your griddle or pan to medium high heat. Spread butter on one side of bread and place it face down on the hot surface. Spread peanut butter and jelly on another slice of bread and place it on top of the first slice. Butter the second slice of bread and get ready for the flip. Allow to cook until golden toasty brown, flip and cook on the second side. When perfectly toasted, remove from heat and allow to rest a second or two. This may be the most difficult part, be patient, I know it isn't easy, but you don't want all the warm gooey ingredients to run out onto the plate.
Slice your sandwich and enjoy!