Camacho Watcho

This Fall we headed to Grecco’s on the St. Croix for dinner. Grecco’s is located in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin (across the river from Taylors Falls), so it is a bit of a drive. But as we have always enjoyed a bit of an adventure for a good meal, going an hour out of our way wasn’t an issue.

Grecco’s is located right on the main strip in St. Croix Falls. You enter a large building that feels quite commercialized (a hair salon is in the front of the building), however after winding back to the restaurant, you find yourself in a cozy little spot with a roaring fireplace.

The regular menu changes frequently and is very inspired. I also love that they have tasting menus every night, your choice of four courses for $35 ($50 with wine), six courses for $50 ($70 with wine) or nine courses for $85 ($115 with wine). The best part is that the menus are chef’s choice, so you don’t get to know what you’re eating until it arrives at the table.

We decided on four courses with the wine pairing, pictured as follows. *There are two desserts pictured, as they served each of us a different one to try and share – I love that!

Morocco was the theme of our December cooking club. Kyle and I hosted the dinner and were really excited about the menu, hoping that the flavors would work as well together as we imagined they would. Kyle took care of decorations, bringing almost every candle in our house out and lighting them throughout our kitchen, dining and living room area. He put on some Moroccan club music (courtesy of Pandora) and we were set.

The food turned out even better than I could have hoped. Everyone actually commented that the recipes were very easy and, in fact, were easily prepared in advance so it gave minimal trouble to get ready for the evening. As for serving sizes, I actually told most people not to double their recipes. My plan was for each plate to be small portions that would add up to one large plate of food.

The flavors were fantastic – each dish complemented the others yet was robust on its own. My favorite was the squash and carrot stew, but the lamb tagine was so tender that it’s hard not to mention it as well. As I can’t decide which recipe I liked best to share, I decided to go ahead and share them all.

Moroccan Cooking Club Menu
Dolomint Cocktail
Moroccan Winter Squash and Carrot Stew
Lamb Tagine with Figs and Walnuts
Moroccan Chicken Brochette
Moroccan Stone Fruit Soup

Dolomint Cocktail
Cocktails of the World
30 ml Gin
30 ml Galliano®
30 ml Lime Juice
Soda Water
Mint Leaf
Ice Cubes

Pour gin, Galliano and lime juice over ice into a highball glass. Complete with soda water and rub mint on the edge of the glass. Garnish with a mint spring and serve.
*Amazing cocktail that will definitely be made again in the summer!

Moroccan Winter Squash and Carrot Stew
Bon Appetit, January 2006

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Pinch of saffron
1 cup water
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups 1-inch cubes peeled butternut squash (from 1 1/2-pound squash)
2 cups 3/4-inch cubes peeled carrots
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint, divided

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until soft, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add garlic; stir 1 minute. Mix in paprika and next 8 ingredients. Add 1 cup water, tomatoes, and lemon juice. Bring to boil. Add squash and carrots. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.) Rewarm stew. Stir in half of cilantro and half of mint. Spoon into serving dish and sprinkle remaining herbs over.

Quinoa
Bon Appetit, January 2006

1 cup quinoa
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped peeled carrot
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 cups water

Rinse quinoa; drain. Melt butter with oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and carrot. Cover; cook until vegetables begin to brown, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, salt, and turmeric; sauté 1 minute. Add quinoa; stir 1 minute. Add 2 cups water. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover; simmer until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes.

Lamb Tagine with Figs and Walnuts
Gourmet, Adventures with Ruth (Morocco)

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
2 1/2 lb boneless lamb shoulder cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium red onions, sliced lengthwise
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
12 oz dried figs (about 1 1/2 cups, preferably Calimyrna), hard ends discarded
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup walnut halves
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 small tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

Lightly toast saffron in a dry small heavy skillet over moderately low heat, shaking skillet, just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer saffron to a small dish, let cool, then crumble with fingers.

In a 12-inch tagine, or 3-qt shallow covered casserole, combine lamb, with oil, onions, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon sticks, 2 teaspoons salt, 3/4 tsp pepper, and reserved saffron, tossing to combine. Add 2 cups water to tagine and simmer, covered, 1 hour. Add figs and honey to tagine and simmer, covered, 30 minutes longer, checking occasionally toward end of cooking time to be sure tagine is not dry, adding more water if necessary to keep meat from burning and sticking to pot. Simmer tagine until lamb is very tender and most of liquid has evaporated.

While tagine is simmering, toast walnuts in butter in a small skillet, over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until a shade darker, then set aside.

To serve, arrange tomato slices over lamb and top each with a fig. Sprinkle with walnuts and chopped cilantro.

Moroccan Chicken Brochette
adapted from About.com: Moroccan Food

1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into 3/4″ cubes
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients except the chicken. Add the chicken, and mix well to fully coat the meat. Cover with plastic, and leave the chicken to marinate for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Transfer the chicken to skewers and grill or broil about 4 or 5 minutes on each side, or until the meat is done. Serve immediately.

Moroccan Stone Fruit Soup
adapted from cuisine.com.au

2 peaches or nectarines
4 apricots
4 red plums
100 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp orange flower water or rosewater
1 tbsp Cointreau or Grand Marnier
2 tbsp runny honey
2 tbsp sultanas (golden raisins will substitute for this)
2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
1 tbsp flaked almonds
1 tbsp small mint leaves

Original Recipe: Slice the fruits in half, remove the stones and cut into segments. Place in a bowl. Combine the orange juice, orange flower water, Cointreau, honey, sultanas and cinnamon sticks in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to melt the honey.

Pour the syrup over the fruit and leave for 10 mins for the fruit to absorb the flavours. Pile the fruits in four shallow bowls and spoon on the syrup. Add half a cinnamon stick to each bowl. Toast the almond flakes in a dry frypan until golden and scatter on top, with a few mint leaves.

Adaptation: As stone fruit is not in season anywhere when we had our cooking club, we adapted with the following. We made the sauce as directed, then served with thawed, frozen peaches and a scoop of cinnamon ice cream (vanilla ice cream would be great too).

*The greens was just kale sauteed with garlic and olive oil. I don’t know how Moroccan it is, but I just felt like we needed something green on the plate.

While visiting Chicago recently, I had the opportunity to check out Han 202, a tiny Chinese restaurant with an amazing meal deal. For $20, you have your choice of five courses: soup, salad, appetizer, entree and dessert. Better yet – it’s BYOB. I love that about Chicago!

All the food was fantastic, but I did have my favorites. For appetizer, absolutely do not miss the Salt and Pepper Calamari. Its crispy salty/peppery flavor is positively addicting in the best way possible.

Another of my favorites is the crispy beef with orange extract – a lovely orange flavor that is surprisingly balanced for what could be an overly sweet dish.

Last, but definitely not least, is the lovely, lovely dessert – vanilla ice cream with tomato mango sorbet. I am head over heels in love with it…*sigh*.

PS – Did I mention that this deal runs every day of the week?

After grabbing a drink at Prohibition, we headed to Sea Change for a late dinner reservation to ring in the New Year. To start, we ordered from the raw bar – amazing smoked salmon and oysters – and then moved on to the five course tasting menu which featured candied tuna, langostine ravioli, ocean trout, pork cheek and pine nut ice cream for dessert.

Happy 2010!!!

I can’t believe the long Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. We had four days at home to get through our list of “to do’s” and, while we accomplished many things, it just seems that the time went too fast.

Part of this is because one whole day was spent cooking a Thanksgiving feast. Our initial intention was to go out for a Thanksgiving dinner, since it was just the two of us, but at the last minute we decided to stay in and cook. As soon as I agreed to it, I knew I’d gone crazy. The only thing that got me through the long day of cooking was the thought of eating all the leftovers over the weekend – no leftover meal satisfies like a turkey taco with dressing.

And although I enjoy turkey, for me Thanksgiving is all about the side dishes. We were only two, but I just couldn’t decide what not to make. So we didn’t skimp – potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts with bacon, gravy and cranberry relish. We also made a pumpkin praline pie. I didn’t make a homemade crust, but I did roast the sugar pumpkins. Honestly, this is one of the most incredible pies ever.

Although the sides were good (except the very pretty, but very bad cranberry pear ginger relish recipe I tried out), the most important dish to me was my mom’s sage dressing. As we waited for our bird to finish in the oven, I realized that all I really cared about was digging into that huge bowl of intensely flavored dish – the bread moist but still fluffy and crunchy from the onions and celery.

Just when you thought you had your Thanksgiving meal set, I put this post out there about my friend Kate’s Pumpkin Praline Pie. She describes it as one of the more involved pies she’s baked, but that it’s delicious and, perhaps, deserving to be called her new favorite.

Kate has a passion for baking pies. Her initial inspiration came from the movie Waitress. If you haven’t seen it, in the movie Keri Russell’s character is constantly baking pies. Since watching that movie, Kate is always trying new recipes. She regularly sends me photos (she lives in Atlanta so I have to be satisfied with eye candy only) and tells me about all the pies she’s tried. The photo above is courtesy of Kate.

Since I don’t do much baking, I thought I would share some of her kitchen adventures with you and have Kate guest-blog occasionally. In this post, she references a homemade crust, but we don’t get into it this time. Perhaps we’ll have to touch on that subject in an upcoming post. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Praline Pie

Fall is my favorite time of year to cozy up and bake pies so I was thrilled when Katie asked me to guest blog on her site. I started on this endeavor of learning the art of pie-making a few years ago when my son was born. My sister bought me a used copy of Pie by Ken Haedrich. I never would have imagined the number of pies that I would make from this bible for pie-makers. Haedrich has an amazing approach that makes even the most complex pie feel like something you can master in your own kitchen. The recipes are tried and tested and many of them are even tweaked from the original owner. The real gem of this book, however, comes from the pages and pages of techniques and ingredient secrets.

With my mother-in-law’s birthday approaching, I asked her for her pie request. She immediately said that pumpkin pie was her favorite. So I thought about that and made a few decisions right from the start. 1. I would make it with real sugar pumpkins and 2. I would have to find something that was special…no regular pumpkin pie that you whip up last minute before Thanksgiving.

I opened up my favorite Pie book in search of the perfect pumpkin pie and, I dare say, I might have found it in Diane’s Pumpkin Praline Pie. Haedrich took this particular recipe from a cook and cookbook author in California named Diane Rossen Worthington. In introducing it, he was quick to point out that there are two kinds of pumpkin pie. The kind for pumpkin pie purists “bereft of fanfare and flourishes” and the kind that really wow a crowd because they are so over-the-top. I’m guessing you know which category this pie falls into.

I spent the first day preparing my crust – a basic flaky pie crust that I have made dozens of times and could do in my sleep. Next it was time to learn how to roast my adorable little sugar pumpkins that I picked up from Berry Patch Farms, my local pumpkin patch. It is amazing how simple it is to create fresh pumpkin puree for pie-making. Simply place the clean halves of the pumpkins facing up or down and roast them at 375 degrees with a little water in the bottom of the pan. After 50 minutes you will have soft fleshy pumpkin that is falling from the skin. A good tip is to wait and let it cool before scooping it out.

Day two of the Pumpkin Praline Pie was to roll out my crust and create this beautiful pie. This is really a three part pie, so as someone who loves the art and process of pie – making it is a fun project. It involves pre-baking the crust, baking the pumpkin pie and broiling the praline as the finishing touch. After a long day in the kitchen I sat and looked at my pie hoping that perhaps this pumpkin pie would change my mind about pumpkin pie, which I usually do not prefer…it did not disappoint.

Diane’s Pumpkin Praline Pie
From Pie by Ken Haedrich

1 single pie crust (homemade please!)

Filling
3 large eggs at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 ¾ cup fresh pumpkin puree or 15oz of canned puree
¼ cup light cream or half and half
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
3 Tbsp bourbon or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Praline Topping
1 ¼ cups chopped pecans
¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp heavy or whipping cream
¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Garnish
Fresh Whipped Cream (I added 2 tsp of pumpkin spice for every ½ cup of whipped cream and it was the perfect addition to this pie)

Prepare pastry and refrigerate for 1 hour before rolling it out.

Roll out pastry into 13 inch circle on a lightly floured piece of wax paper. Invert over a 9 ½ inch deep dish pie pan. Carefully pull off the wax paper and tuck the pastry into the pan. With your hands form an upstanding ridge. Place in freezer for 15 minutes.

Prebake your pie crust by placing a piece of foil over the crust and tuck it in so that it is a second shell but leave top of foil like wings so that you can easily grab them. Fill the foil with dried beans or pie beads (if you are fancy!) Place in preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Slide rack out and remove foil with beans. Prick the crust with a fork all over and twist slightly to enlarge the holes. Lower oven temp to 375 degrees and continue baking 10-12 minutes. The crust might pull a little or bubble. Prick the bubbles with fork and use back of spoon to push the crust gently back to the pie pan. Let cool. Lower oven temp to 350 degree.

Combine eggs and sugar in large bowl. Using mixer beat on high speed until light and lemon colored, about 3 minutes. Add the pumpkin, light cream, salt, spices and bourbon. Blend on low speed until evenly mixed. Pour filling into cooled pie shell.

Place pie on center oven rack for 20 minutes. Make sure you rotate the pie 180 degrees then continue to bake 40-45 minutes until filling is set. When done, the perimeter of the pie will have puffed slightly. Also the center will look a little glossy. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely.

Preheat broiler and adjust one of the oven racks so that it is 6-8 inches away from the broiler. Combine all praline toppings and scrape over cooled pie evenly. Place pie on the oven rack and let bake until melted and bubbly. This whole process will take about a minute and you should rotate the pie as it is broiling. Do NOT walk away! Transfer to wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with fresh whipped cream (see note above). You can also add some pecan halves for show as a finishing touch on top. Just press into the warm praline.

Who knew that this huge red cabbage would lead to such a food obsession for me? It’s not that I’ve never eaten red cabbage before, but the recipes that some readers shared are just so good that I have now been obsessed and have eaten red cabbage about twice a day for the past week.

I first made the Warm Red Cabbage Salad recipe that Emily suggested (recipe is below with my changes). I loved it the first night, served with a roasted Callister Farms chicken (I am continually impressed with how good their chicken is), but the following days the salad just kept getting better. With time to rest in the fridge, the flavors mellowed and blended together – the rosemary became a background pleasure and the balsamic vinegar came out a bit more. For leftovers, I simply heated the salad until warm (not hot) then topped with roasted pumpkin seeds (original recipe called for sunflower seeds) coated in brown sugar and salt, golden raisins and feta. I’ve made this twice now and I can’t get enough of it.

Although the salad made a very large portion, it didn’t even use half of the huge red cabbage from my CSA, so I turned to Susie’s recipe suggestion: Braised Red Cabbage from Wolfgang Puck (via The Food Network website). Another fantastic dish of beautiful red cabbage and apples braised in red wine and orange juice with a cinnamon stick (I was out of nutmeg, so I left it out and it was still fantastic). I served this with a pork shoulder that I made in my crock pot with onion, apples and garlic. Again, as I continued to eat leftovers throughout the week, the flavors continued to blend and it just got better and better. I also heated the pork with the cabbage to infuse some of the flavors into the meat, and that was also quite good. I have more plans for the cabbage leftovers to serve on top of a brat instead of sauerkraut. Note: the original recipe makes an insane amount of braised cabbage. I halved the recipe and it was still a lot of food.

I still have half a head of cabbage in my fridge and I have a feeling the recipe that Mimi linked to for Spicy Soba Noodles with Chicken and Cabbage will be made in the very near future.

A big thanks to my readers who suggested such fabulous recipes!

Warm Red Cabbage Salad
adapted from The Complete Tassajara Cookbook

1/2 cup pepitas
1 teaspoon natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
fine grain sea salt

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 red onion, diced
3 medium cloves garlic, minced

1 pound head of red cabbage, quartered and cut into thin ribbons

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
2 ounces golden raisins (or other plump, chopped dried fruit)
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Roast the pepitas in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Sprinkle on the sugar, and a couple pinches of salt. Stir until the sugar melts and coats the seeds (your pan will need to be hot enough). Transfer the seeds immediately to a plate so they don’t stick to the pan. Set aside. (You can use roasted salted pepitas for this. If you do, just heat in the dry pan until warm, then continue with the sugar only.)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and saute the onion for a few minutes with a couple pinches of salt. Stir in the garlic, and the cabbage, and a few more pinches of salt. Stir and cook until the cabbage softens up just a touch. Then stir in the rosemary, most of the raisins, and the vinegar. The cabbage will continue to get more and more tender even after you remove it from the heat, so keep that in mind, and do your best to avoid overcooking it – where it collapses entirely. Fold in half of the feta cheese, most of the pepitas, then taste. Season with more salt if needed. *Serve garnished with the remaining raisins, feta and pepitas.

*I like to make mine ahead of time and refrigerate without the toppings to allow the flavors to blend and mellow. Remove from refrigerator and reheat in microwave until warm (not hot). Transfer to serving bowl and garnish with raisins, feta and pepitas.

Serves 6

Our Mexican themed cooking club took place a few weeks ago – just in time to catch the final days of summer. Katie and RJ hosted, choosing a delicious menu of guacamole, quesadillas, fish tacos and stuffed poblanos. Dessert was a repeat of the Toasted Coconut Caramel Ice Cream Sundaes – yum!. I honestly can’t pick my favorite dish, as they were all fantastic.

While Vickie (left) and Katie (right) finished some kitchen prep, Chad acquainted us with his friend, Mr. Patron. Classic shaken margaritas were the perfect start to this Mexican fiesta!

We had two starters – smoked gouda and caramelized onion quesadillas and charred tomatillo guacamole.

Dinner was the fried fish tacos – large chunks of fish beer battered and crispy fried served with tortillas and a fresh pico de gallo – rice, and poblanos stuffed with goat cheese and shrimp.

We were in charge of the poblanos so we had a lot of leftover roasted red pepper sauce. (I used it to make a delicious pasta sauce by mixing it with an equal portion of tomato puree and added browned Italian sausage from Seward. It was finished with some red pepper flakes and mild seasonings to taste.) The stuffed poblanos and roasted red pepper sauce comes from Bon Appetit December 2002.

Smoked Gouda and Caramelized Onion Quesadillas
Bon Appetit September 1995

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon golden brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1 1/2 cups grated smoked Gouda cheese
4 10-inch-diameter flour tortillas
2 ounces sliced prosciutto, chopped
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion, brown sugar and vinegar; sauté until onion is golden brown, stirring frequently, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Sprinkle cheese over half of each tortilla, dividing equally. Sprinkle prosciutto and sautéed onion over cheese. Season with pepper. Fold other half of each tortilla over cheese mixture. Brush tortilla with some of melted butter.

Brush heavy large skillet with some of melted butter. Place over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook quesadillas just until brown spots appear, brushing skillet with butter between batches, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer quesadillas to heavy large baking sheet.

Bake until tortillas are golden and cheese melts, about 5 minutes. Transfer quesadillas to work surface. Cut each into 6 triangles. Arrange on platter and serve hot.

Fried Fish Tacos
courtesy of Katie and RJ’s friends

1 quart vegetable oil
12 to 16 corn tortillas
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup beer (not dark)
1 pound cod fillet, cut into 3- by 1-inch strips

Optional accompaniments: shredded lettuce, sour cream, avocado slices, chopped or sliced radish, red or green salsa, and lime wedges

Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat 1 inch oil in a 10-inch heavy pot (2 to 3 inches deep) over moderate heat until a deep-fat thermometer registers 360°F.

Meanwhile, separate tortillas and make 2 stacks of 6 to 8. Wrap each stack in foil and heat in oven 12 to 15 minutes.

While tortillas warm, stir together flour and salt in a large bowl, then stir in beer (batter will be thick). Gently stir fish into batter to coat. Lift each piece of fish out of batter, wiping any excess off on side of bowl, and fry fish in batches, turning once or twice, until golden, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Increase oil temperature to 375°F and refry fish in batches, turning once or twice, until golden brown and crisp, about 1 minute. Drain on paper towels.

Assemble tacos with warm tortillas, fish, and accompaniments.

I finally made it to Smashburger, the Golden Valley location, a little bit ago. It seemed that everyone and their brother has been there… so I thought I was due to try it out.

I have to say, I really liked Smashburger. I went with the Classic Smashburger – American cheese and veggie fixings, topped with smash sauce. The burger was well-cooked…that said, don’t expect a gourmet burger experience. The burgers here are smashed and the edges or cooked to crispy (similar style to Steak ‘n Shake…Minnesotans might not be as familiar), but the toppings are fresh – tomatoes and lettuce are crisp and the pickles have a nice crunch. The bun is also great – soft potato bun – just how I like them.

We tried two sides – the smashfries (tossed with rosemary, olive oil and garlic) and the haystack onions (crispy fried, thinly-sliced onions). The fries were good, crisp and well-seasoned, but the onions were my favorite. Sliced so thin and lightly fried – they practically melt in your mouth.

For $4.99 for a 1/3 pound burger and $1.99 to add on the haystack onions, Smashburger was a great deal for lunch. Plenty of food and plenty of flavor.

It was tough…but we managed through it – shot photos of all the new foods at the fair for Metromix. A big thanks to Sarah for taking on this whirlwind tour of the fair with me! Check out the rest of the photos here.