Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Hawthornes Prepare Red Snapper And Pineapple Salsa.

Lunch at the Hawthornes today was red snapper with pineapple salsa.
Rosie's Pineapple Salsa 1 cup diced fresh pineapple 1/4 cup chopped red onion 2 TB diced red pepper 2 TB diced green pepper 1 TB rice wine 1 TB sugar 2 TB chopped cilantro 1 tsp cayenne pepper flakes Mix pineapple, onion, peppers, cilantro, and cayenne. Amounts are up to you really. Sprinkle sugar and pour wine in and toss to coat. Taste test. Adjust amounts if needed. Make it your salsa.
Dice the pineapple. Chop the red onion.
Dice the red and green peppers.
Mince the cilantro.
Mix all together and add in the cayenne.
Sugar in.
And the rice wine.
Toss to coat.
Mr. Hawthorne slice a red snapper filet in half and ...
... let it soak in buttermilk.
The breading mixture is equal parts Panko and Idaho Spuds.
Dredge each filet through the breading and ...
... place in hot oil.
Fry each side until golden brown. Depending on the thickness of the filet, 3-4 minutes a side. Drain on paper towels.
Serve snapper with fresh pineapple salsa and Mr. Hawthorne's cole slaw, which I have to say, is getting better and better. Cole slaw is like potato salad. Everybody has a recipe. And Mr. Hawthorne and I are usually at odds over our recipes for these two things. However, he's getting much better. This was his best cole slaw to date.
Nice, fresh, light lunch. I'm going to have to get his cole slaw recipe for you, but he's being rather secretive about it right now. Patience!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Rosie's February Flowers.

Welcome to Rosie's February garden.
Little blue anemone coming up.
My stock is always the first flower in my garden to bloom, but it's never bloomed this early.
Pretty anemone. Now, the next part is just plain sad. I bought a few hundred assorted bulbs and planted them last fall. The first of my "tulips" are coming up.
Pretty red color!
Here comes the sad part:
Shut up, XKT, I can hear you laughing.
Just remember I gave you the same bulbs for Christmas.

Rosie Makes A Poached Pear Salad With A Reduced Wine Glaze.

For something a little different for lunch,
 I recommend a mixed greens salad
with lettuces from the garden,
a poached pear, toasted walnuts,
fromage bleu, and a reduced wine glaze.
First, I'm poaching a pear in a wine solution.
 Ingredients:
1 cup red wine
 1/2 cup sugar
1 TB lemon juice
 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch cloves
 And just forget about that apple up there.
I certainly did.
 Mix all ingredients together, bring to a boil,
add peeled, cored, and halved pear to mixture,
and lower heat.
Simmer for 10 minutes,
spooning the liquid over top every now and then.
 After 10 minutes,
 turn pears over and simmer another 10 minutes,
spooning the cooking liquid over top.
Add sugar to lemon juice.
Pour in wine.
Add in cinnamon.
Add vanilla.
I liked this picture.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce to simmer and add pear halves.
Spoon syrup over top and cook for 10 minutes.
After ten minutes of simmering, turn pears over.
Keep spooning syrup over top.
 Simmer for another ten minutes.
Remove from heat and let pears cool in poaching liquid.
Remove pears from liquid.
Next you want to reduce your poaching liquid by half.
 Barely simmer at the lowest setting.
 Here's a Rosie Tip #487:
When reducing liquids,
place your pan in an iron skillet to diffuse the heat.
  A diffuser is your nanny.
Trust Rosie on this.
 If you put your pan with liquid in it directly over heat,
 there's more of a chance of burning it.
 A reduction can go south in a heartbeat,
so use the diffuser and watch the pot.
This is not something you can rush.
Take your sweet time.
When first starting the reduction, take a dip stick to the pan.
Mark the level.
Every now and then, throughout the cooking period,
come in here and shake the pan or stir.
My poaching liquid has thickened, turned syrupy, and has reduced by half.
It's 4:40 PM and my syrup has reduced by half.
I started at 2:10.
2 1/2 hours of anticipation.
 Like I said, you can't rush a reduction.
The flavors have intensified.
I picked salad greens from the garden and added my poached pear.

I toasted the walnuts to intensify their flavor a bit.
Crumble some bleu cheese over the leaves.
Drizzle with the red wine reduction.
Perhaps some Balsamic vinegar and your favorite olive oil.
And enjoy.
 I have four of my favorite flavors here:
walnut
bleu chese
 pear
wine.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Follow The Light.

I looked through my kitchen sink window and saw my rainbow.
If anyone can guess what that shadow in my rainbow is from, please comment here. If you guess correctly, Rosie will send you a prize. Don't know what yet. But it'll be good.
Tittie sparkles!
Tittie sprinkles.
I love refracted light!

Eggs Hawthorne.

It's Sunday morning and I'm fixing Eggs Hawthorne, my version of Eggs Benedict. Toasted English Muffins. Sauteed ham slices. I use Kentucky Double Smoked Ham, available at Food Lion. A bed of spinach. And a 2.50 - 2.75 minute poached egg. Bring water with a splash of vinegar in it to a boil. Stir to create a vortex. Drop in the egg. Place drained poached egg in spinach nest. Caress with Hollandaise Sauce. That was my plan. It's always worked for me before. This time I screwed up the Hollandaise. This has happened to me once before. My sauce separated and curdled. I think I might not have paid attention and added too much butter at one time, then I had to stop and answer the phone, and I couldn't properly continue heating my emulsion, and whisking it, and I had to ignore it for a while, so it all separated. Mea culpa. Into fat pieces and liquid. Looked like crap.
This isn't my Hollandaise. I grabbed this pic off the internet. But this is what my Hollandaise kinda looked like. Only worse. More curdled and separated. Imagine that.
This is a nasty mess. But you don't need to throw it out and start over. You can fix this. What I did was put a tablespoon of white wine in a Corning ceramic bowl thingie and heated it over low, low heat. Then I whisked in the curdled sauce a tablespoon at a time.
And would you look at this? I ended up with this beautiful Hollandaise. I was amazed.
Who'd a thunk? It's freakin' beautiful Hollandaise.
My favorite part - penetration.
And release.