F*$K CHICKEN, I WANT DUCK!

   
     Julie. Julie. Julie. What can I say? Awesome. Funny. Beautiful. Perfect! Julie has the best attitude: "you cook and I eat." Then, after we eat and drink wine and have lots of fun, "I clean." Marry me? So when she invited a few friends and myself up to her house in Carmel, I was delighted.

    Then we had to plan the menu. DUCK!!! Its expensive, especially from the Farmer's Market. Chicken? You know what I say to chicken (see blog title). So I was the duck lady. And I failed. Miserably. I went to the Farmer's Market. There it was, exactly what made me drool the week before. But the price was up there. So I figured, I can get it somewhere upstate. NOT. I couldn't find it anywhere! So we were stuck with stupid chicken.

     I was determined to make this the most delicious chicken ever. It was pretty good. I stuffed the skin with butter, garlic and rosemary and roasted the thing. But it wasn't duck! Chicken just is not duck. Can we just change the subject? Please!

     Julie's house is gorgeous, inside and out, and the view of the lake she has from her porch is so serene. For a bird watcher, it was the perfect vantage point. I saw a crested woodpecker!!! Don't get too excited! No one else but myself did anyway.
     Back to food: Julie got us started with a fantastic cheese plate. And Miguel made a vat of his infamous and the best guacamole.

     I made some pesto pinwheels. Easy. Defrost some puff pastry, spread some olive oil, pesto and grated cheese on it, roll it, cut it, then bake cut side down. A really easy appetizer.

   Some rosemary lamb chops. Bleeding. Succulent.

  Markus' Sunchoke Bruschetta.

    Along with the chicken, Miguel made a mushroom risotto, and we roasted some carrots and brussels sprouts.
    Dessert: with the rest of that puff pastry I made Elephant Ears.

 It was a fantastic (duckless) dinner. 

Next day for breakfast we had a delicious kale and mushroom frittata, some yummy fried potatoes and banana bread. Needless to say we were full and happy. Lake time and catchphrase and it was a perfect day! I did not want to leave the wonderful company and Julie's gorgeous home. Thanks for your grace and hospitality Jules! You're the best!   

GUIDO GIRLS DINNER #3 - in Queens!

In a worried tone Nonna asks when I go to Manhattan, "Jane you gotta go to New York?" I always find this funny, but then again I myself call it "the city," as if there aren't 4 other boroughs in New York City besides Manhattan. Most of my friends think visiting me in Queens is like traveling to another planet.

So when I proposed an Eyetalian Girls Dinner in my new Queens place, Meredith basically said, "Thanks for the offer, why don't we have it at my place?" (which is in Brooklyn). I held my ground, which is not easy with strong brained crazy Sicilian broads, and everyone made it here without a problem. Enter the new "awesome" phase of our friendships, because anyone willing to visit me in Queens from another borough is automatically an awesome friend.

Markus started off everyone's unique Queens dining experience with some professional Old Fashioned Cocktails he made with the Tuthilltown Manhattan Rye Whiskey we brought back from our "wine" tasting along the Shawangunk Wine Trail. If you haven't gone wine tasting along this trail, go! It was so much fun. But beware, after a few tastings you will get loose with your credit card and come home with an obscene amount of wine.

Markus takes his cocktail making very seriously and even watched an instructional video on how to make a proper Old Fashioned, the cocktail so named because people would ask for a whiskey cocktail made the "old fashioned" way. That day he put me on the hunt for oranges with oily skin, which I thought were appropriate for a greasy Italian dinner party. The cocktails were perfect, strong, enough but not too sweet with a nice citrus hint.

For appetizers I made local Sunchoke Bruschetta and served it alongside some Sicilian cheese, olives and sun dried tomatoes.

For the pasta course, I made a Creamy Mushroom Sage Sauce over Campanelle. This is such an easy sauce, perfect for company and in my opinion there is not a better flavor combination than shallots, mushrooms and sage. I also made an vegan version for my special Sicilian vegan guest that stood up to the creamy version. It had more of a mushroom flavor.

For the main course I served Panelle, which are chick pea fritters, with Italian bread, Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Brocolli Rabe. This was my best panelle effort yet.

On our way to Ikea Rocco and I had stopped at Ferdinando's in Red Hook, which is one of the only places in the city where you can find panelle. I asked the panelle guy for some advice. He just said chick pea flour and water, with a little salt and fry them in canola oil. And at Ikea I found this great pan to use as a panelle form for $6. I followed his advice and didn't use lemon juice or parsley, I salted the paste well and I deep fried the panelle in Gemma oil, which is a vegetable oil about 10% olive oil. I was very satisfied with the results.

Melissa Love, of Crema Fatale, our favorite Vegan Pastry Chef brought over an unbelievable Salted Caramel Chocolate Mousse Martini with Almond Praline. It was so delicious we practically licked the salt rimmed martini glasses clean. The almond praline was outstanding, so crunchy and chewy. The chocolate mouse was so smooth and there was a nice soft caramel surprise waiting on the bottom. The sea salt with the sweet was perfection and I don't do justice in this photo of the remarkable presentation. The dessert along with some really nice Cava, a white spanish sparkling wine that Meredith brought over was the perfect ending to our Crazy Eyetalian Girl's Dinner #3.

Thanks for coming to Queens my awesome Eyetalian friends!

Recipes from Eyetalian Girl's Dinner #3:

Old Fashioned Cocktail

To a cocktail glass add:

2 oz. rye whiskey

2-3 spoonfuls of simple syrup (For simple syrup dissolve 1 C. sugar in 1 C. water and cool)

2-3 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Ice

oily orange peel, twisted to express the oils and used as garnish

maraschino cherry (optional)

Sunchoke Bruschetta

1lb of Sunchokes or Jerusalem Artichokes

Olive Oil and/or butter

Salt and Pepper

1/2 loaf Italian Bread, sliced

1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 whole clove of garlic

Preheat oven to 450.

Wash and peel the sunchokes and chopped into small pieces. Drizzle olive oil and salt and pepper on top and roast for about 15-20 minutes until they are soft.

Chop 1-2 pieces of garlic. Roast the chopped garlic with the sunchokes during the last 5 minutes of roasting.

Remove sunchokes from the oven and melt a few pats of butter on top (optional). Season to taste with salt and pepper and additional olive oil.

Toast sliced Italian bread. Upon removing from the toaster rub each slice with a clove of garlic.

Top each slice of toasted bread with the roasted sunchokes and serve.

Creamy Mushroom Sage Sauce with Campanelle Pasta

2 packages of fresh mushrooms (baby portobello, crimini or shiitaki), sliced

2 shallots, chopped

bunch of fresh sage, chopped

olive oil and butter

salt and pepper

about 1/2 C. cream or regular milk or soy milk

about 1 C. vegetable or chicken broth

1/2 lb. pasta, campanelle or penne

Sautee shallots and sage in butter and olive oil until softened. Add sliced mushrooms.

Once soft, season with salt and pepper. Add vegetable broth. Reduce for 5 minutes. Add cream of soy milk. Reduce until thickened about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and add a few pats of butter. Serve over campanelle pasta.

Panelle Revised

1 lb. chick pea flour

4 C. water or 1 Liter of Water

Salt

Oil for Frying

Boil the water. Add the chick pea flour slowly stirring constantly. Lower the heat if it starts to boil over. Keep boiling until its thick. Keep stirring. Once it pulls from the side of the pot, season with salt. Pour the paste into a greased mold. Cooking spray works best.

Let the panelle paste cool for a few hours in the fridge. Once its cool remove it from the mold and cut into thin 1/8 in. slices. Fry in canola or gemma oil and season with sea salt. Serve with Italian bread.

Brocolli Rabe

1 bunch broccoli rabe

1 clove of garlic

1/2 tsp peperoncino (red pepper flakes)

extra virin olive oil

salt and pepper

In a large pan with a lid, sautee garlic and peperoncino in olive oil. Before the garlic browns add the broccoli rabe season with salt and pepper and put the lid on so it can steam. Stir after a few minutes so the greens on the bottom don't burn. Cook until the greens are softened. Serve with Italian bread.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1lb. Brussels Sprout

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and cut bottoms off the brussels sprouts. Cut each brussels sprout in half. In a baking dish season with a generous amount of olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake about 20 minutes until tender and the outer edges of the leaves are browned and caramelized.

deutschen Nacht

     To kick-off Oktoberfest bestest and oldest friend Monica and I hosted German Night. Monica, who must legally change the spelling of her name to "Monika" because its way more authentic and Ks are cooler than Cs, raided her Oma's recipe book and her parent's house for beer steins, German music, a German board game and even a collectible Oktoberfest German Barbie! 

      So with German blood flowing through everyone's veins but mine (I really felt outnumbered) plus lots of German beer, we set out to group cook a delicious German feast. Ja!*

     I put out some radishes with salt, a typical snack served with beer during Oktoberfest. I also served some bleu cheese with honey (not German but I couldn't find German cheese) and really dark rye bread.

     Tim made an appearance in my head and prepared some some of the most delicious Kartoffelpuffer (Potato Pancakes) I've ever had. Some potato pancake pointers: drain them really well over a strainer or a cheese cloth and wear onion goggles because it can get brutal grating them. Tim was crying like a baby. Then to kick him while he was down, Monika asked him to open a bottle of Riesling, because he has wine opening skills. All of a sudden the the cork pushed into the bottle and sprayed him in his already irritated eyes. (It wasn't Tim's fault though, I have a bottle opener that should be recalled). He was a trooper and still fried those delicious pancakes up to perfection and I would expect nothing less than excellent frying skills from Tim. We ate them with berry apple sauce and sour cream.

     For our main event, Monika prepared Omi's Huhner Goulasch (Grandma's Chicken Goulash - recipe to follow) made with cornish hens and lots of onions and paprika. Monika got brutal on the poor cornish hens. I turned my back for one second and she cut them in quarters like a true German butcher's daughter. Arnt taught her well. 

    There's Monika (above) working the knife and if you look in the background there is a vile blue bottle of germaphobe spray that she sprayed on everything that the raw chicken remotely came into contact with, even her own hands! I was like, "Noooooooooo, Mooooonika!" She even offered to spritz Tim in the eyes to soothe his onion/wine irritation. I think she gargles with the stuff in the morning. 

    As a side I made Rahmspinat (Creamed Spinach) with boiled eggs on top. Tim though it needed to be creamier so I just poured in more and more half and half and butter to taste. I also didn't make the cream sauce separately and it was a lot easier and still great.

   I thought it would be barbaric to eat some organs, so Monika fried up some chicken hearts in butter and shallots. It was the first time I ever ate a heart and it will not be my last. It tasted like yummy dark meat, my favorite kind. Thanks to that Julie and Julia book, I am not scared to eat any weird organ as long as its drowned in butter.

    For dessert, the challenge was Altwiener Apfelstrudel (Traditional Viennese Apple Strudel). Neither Monika nor myself had ever attempted this before. I was scared. I did some research and found out a few things. Phyllo dough is not a proper way to make the strudel dough. I set out to make it by scratch. I have never made dough before. Ever. It actually wasn't that hard. Some flour, water and salt. Knead and let it sit in a ball in "neutral" oil for an hour. I interpreted that as olive oil since thats the only kind I had and I secretly wanted to insert some Italianess into German night. 

   Strudel takes a long time so I made the dough in the morning and left it in the counter all day. When the dough is ready, brown bread crumbs in butter. I was super excited about this. I had no idea that strudel had buttery bread crumbs in it. Let that cool.

    Next peel and slice all those apples into tiny slices and let them sit in nutmeg, sugar and cinnamon while you prepare the dough. I used Gala Apples.

    To make the dough super thin the technique is to kind of keep lifting and pulling it at the ends until you have a 2X3 thin sheet of dough that you roll the strudel in. Transfer the dough to a floured towel, much like flipping a cake onto a plate. Then butter the dough up. (I got a my first pastry brush that day!) Spread the bread crumbs on that. Then the apples. Then the rolling and more buttering. I made slits on top even though the recipe did not call for that and somewhat regretted it because it was a little drier than I would have liked. Bake at 400 for 20 min then 350 for another 40 min. Let cool then sprinkle powdered sugar on it. 

   After I served all the Germans the strudel with fresh whipped cream on top, I sat quietly waiting for their reactions, hoping they'd like it. Germans aren't always the most exuberant of people, they weren't going to get up and do a polka over some strudel, but I think they liked it. German night was a sheer success. Next time, Jaegerschnitzel!    

Omi's Huhner Goulasch Ingredients: 4-5 onions chopped 1-2 tbsp. paprika 2 Cornish hens - cut up into 4 pieces each 4 tbsp. olive oil 3-4 boulien cubes 2 cups of water, enough to almost cover the chicken 2 peppers cut into chunks 1 package egg noodles Method: Cut up onions and saute with paprika, olive oil & boulien cubes. Once browned, put in Cornish hens. Add water and peppers. Let simmer for approx. 1/2 hour. At the same time boil noodles, drain and then add approx. 4 tbsp. sour cream. If sauce is not thick enough, add cornstarch with a little water.

*Disclaimer: I am using an online German to English translator for this post, so everything will probably be wrong