The (Cal)Zone Diet

Mini Calzones

Exploring a new kitchen supply store always leads to buying something experimental. For me, it was a pastry press from the new Chef’s store in Orange, CT. It’s great for fruit tarts, large ravioli or mini calzones.

I thought I’d continue with my Italian theme and make calzones. Once again this was a fun collaboration with Tom and our friend Noah. We thought we’d try pizza dough from our favorite place for late night pizza, BAR New Haven. Their dough was so much easier to work with than the stuff from the grocery store. I don’t think we can ever go back! (Goodbye whole wheat dough!)

I cooked up a bunch of different fillings and displayed them in bowls so it was like a “make your own calzone” bar. We had lots of wine to taste leftover from a tasting earlier that day at Caseus. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

Wine sampling

Here are tips when making mini calzones in a press:

• Instead of grated cheese, use ricotta mixed with grated cheese and an egg to prevent it oozing out
• Try to keep the filling tightly together before pressing since it will shrink in the oven
• Lightly flour the press (exclude the edges) so it doesn’t stick
• Don’t press too hard or you’ll squish the dough instead of sealing it
• Brush the calzones with an egg wash before baking for a nice crust

Holi Moli, Ravioli!

A few years ago I bought my mom a Kitchen Aid mixer with a pasta attachment. I thought it was so cool and we’d be eating pasta all the time. Not so! Cut to Christmas 2012 when my mom re-gifts the attachment to me (which I happily accept!) I recently had my own Kitchen Aid mixer upgraded to INDUSTRIAL SIZE! I’m thinkin’ big breads, tall cakes, and tons of homemade whipped cream. The attachment fits on both.

So this is my first attempt at making ravioli. I had the help of Tom and his friend to feed the attachment. I made and kneaded the dough, cooked the filling, and made a creamy sauce. It tasted great, but we learned we MUST make the dough thinner next time. I was so afraid the filling would spill out in the boiling water that I got paranoid and make the edges too thick. Live and learn! I served the ravioli with a big salad of arugula, crumbled goat cheese, my homemade candied pecans, and sliced gala apple.

Wine butter sauce

Filling:

1 Tps butter

Finely chopped bella mushrooms

Finley chopped yellow onion

Ricotta cheese

Truffled salt

Pasta dough:

4 eggs

1Tbs water

3 ½ c. sifted flour

½ tsp salt (I use course Kosher salt)

Sauce:

Veal stock

4 Tbs butter

½ c. heavy cream

½ c. white wine
¼ c. finely grated parmesan

Finely chopped chives (about 10 stems)

Using a glass to cut out the round ravioli shapes

My sou chef hard at work

 

Please, sir, may I have s'mores

Last weekend my sister hosted some cousins of ours from France! I'd never met them, but we became fast friends. What better to bring people together (with a language barriar!) than food! Tom invited everyone to Caseus for their annual BBQ night.

They loved tasting Southern American food. It was all new to them. We had smoked brisket sandwiches, pulled pork burgers, ribs, cole slaw, sugary baked beans, and potato salad. We also had a flight of some local  beers and a bottle of wine from America. To top it all off, we all shared a mason jar filled with strawberry shortcake and a chocolate chip s'mores dessert served with a jar of milk (pictured.)

You're not the Kielbasa me!

Dirty

Until I moved to Connecticut permanently, I spent my summers here at my grandparent’s house. We had huge Russian home cooked meals every night. Sometimes, if my grandmother was too tired, she would just put out all the makings of a killer sandwich for all us kids to put together. I loved those nights. The simplicity of a sandwich on a plate for dinner with a good beer (or wine!) is something I hold dear to my heart.

   

Poured some 2006 Domaine Jean-Marc
Bouley Clos des Chenes 

Tom bought some mighty fine looking kielbasa and wanted a hearty sandwich for dinner. So I bought some grinder rolls, sauerkraut, peppers and onions and went to work! I first browned the chopped peppers and onions with salt and pepper in an iron skillet. Then I added the kielbasa in large chunks. After a few minutes, I added a bottle of Magic Hat’s Summer weiss Elder Betty and a bottle of hard cider. I let that simmer on low for about 30 minutes (MMmmm I can almost smell it now…) I toasted the grinder rolls with some sea salt butter and loaded them up. I topped it with cheese and broiled until melted. Then I topped that with the sauerkraut and served North Carolina hot dill pickles on the side.

I was stuffed halfway through this bad boy, but I finished it no problem because the flavors were so nice! And for dessert? My left over cake pops over cookies and cream ice cream! Hello heart attack!

Aspen you so hard you dizzy

Fried Green Tomatoes with Crab

Warm Goat Cheese Salad

Vacations mean eating out! Tom and I are never as relaxed and satisfied as we are when we are on vacation together. Our splurge night on our South Carolina trip was to Aspen Grille. We read some reviews on Yelp of surrounding restaurants and I knew right away this place would be perfect for us. Their menu is fancied up version of classic southern cooking.

Veal Aspen with Asparagus, Carrot, and Potatoes

We started with their fried green tomatoes with lump crab add-on for just $4 extra dollars. Then I got their warm goat cheese salad with beets and truffle vinaigrette. I’m a sucker for anything with warm goat cheese! Then Tom and I shared the special, fried soft-shell crab. Tom liked it a little more than I did, but the sauce was nice. We also shared one of their signature dishes, Veal Aspen. This was a good value ($29) because, along with veal, we got to see how the chef plays with shrimp and scallops. It was a rich dish, but the portions of vegetables with the meat balanced it out nicely.  We paired our meal with Sean Minor Pinot Noir from Carneros.

I finished off the meal with some Chambord and coffee (they didn’t have espresso, but then again, this is southern food!). Tom had a coffee with Sambuca.

Fried Soft-Shell Crab over Salad

Overall, the meal was very good and the service was good.  I wish they’d used more southern ingredients or methods in their menu to make it more consistent, but we would definably come back.

Little hats off

There's a delightfully thick pasta I discovered that I'm very excited about. To Italians, orecchiette, or Little Hats, is a well-known pasta that is typically served with broccoli rabe and tomato sauce. Although the name of the pasta on the bag I bought was Little Hats, the direct translation of orecchiette is Little Ears.

Since moving to New Haven, I've learned a lot about Italian food. And it's not just because Connecticut has the largest Italian population in America (what, you didn't know?) Rare, imported pastas and other Italian foods make their way into the aisles of my local grocery store. Also, Tom is half Italian. Through his family I've learned new names of pasta, tried new dishes, and learned Italian food is far from a quick, simple meal (my previous impression.)

I wish I could say the dish I made was with homemade orecchiette, but I wasn't up for the task. The ingredients are simple enough, but it takes a certain finesse I've not yet acquired to shape the tiny pasta's rounded edges thicker than the middle. One day...

I served the pasta with a salad, pan fried chicken and my first homemade cream sauce:

• In a saucepan on medium heat, saute finely chopped onion and garlic in white wine, then add salt and pepper. 
• Pour in a cup and a half of heavy cream and two tablespoons of butter. 
• Continually stir the sauce with a wooden spoon until it thickens, then add chopped parsley (finally got to use my new herb window boxes!) 
• Toss the strained pasta in the saucepan, coating it
• The chicken breasts were simply coated in flour and fried in oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Surprisingly enough, Smart Balance makes an oil that fried beautifully (I'm trying to be healthy...And I was out of olive oil.) The chicken was crispy on the outside and full of juicy flavor on the inside. Mmm, mmm!

Crying at Mclaughlin

The vineyard . . . . Bistro View

Today I visited McLaughlin Vineyards in Sandy Hook, CT. The weather was perfect for it, the vineyard was beautiful, but the wine, unfortunately, was not. The wine tour guide described the wine as "interesting and unique," which it most definitely was. No matter, I still had fun and refreshed my pallet by visiting Sandy Hook's picturesque Chao Chi Restaurant, which overlooked a low banked stream and the town green.

Pomfrit with a light

béarnaise sauce. Grilled peaches & roasted

pecans over chèvre

Da plane, da plane!

Yesterday evening, I took a breather after work with a glass of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay and a plate of cheeses, breads, tomato, and pickle. That Danish Blue literally "blue" me away! Strong as the dickens, but delicious! Found it at Fresh Market (of course!).

*Notice the plane taking off in the background, she's a beaut!