Tag: European
Octopus with Spanish Chorizo
Octopus with Spanish Chorizo
Octopus sautéed with dried chorizo and crispy potatoes is a classic Spanish dish that May looking intimidating to make, but is actually pretty simple and straightforward. The key here is to find good quality precooked octopus tentacles. If you can only find fresh octopus, you will have to boil them on the lowest setting your oven can go for an hour. Beyond that, once you add the cooked octopus to the dish, you only should cook it 2-3 minutes max or you’ll be chewing on rubber.
Ingredients
- 1 lb red potatoes diced
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 6 oz dried Spanish chorizo small dice
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 24 oz cooked octopus tentacles cut into 1/2” pieces
- 1 tsp Spanish paprika
- 1/4 cup parsley chopped
- cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Simmer the potatoes for 10 minutes until they are just cooked through. Remove from the pot and drain.
- Toss the potatoes in a bowl with the olive oil, thyme, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large sauté pan over medium high heat, cook the dried chorizo and garlic for 2 minutes. Remove from the pan.
- Add in the potatoes and onion. Sauté until the potatoes are crispy for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the octopus and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the chorizo back in and cook for a minute. Turn off the heat.
- Stir in the parsley. Season with the paprika and cracked pepper.
Steak Frites with Maitre D Butter
Put a tbsp of the maitre d butter on the steak and serve with your favorite fries.
Sicilian-Style Grilled Swordfish
Sicilian-Style Grilled Swordfish
Swordfish steaks are my absolute favorite fish to cook. They’re meaty, oily, firm fleshed, and holds up great on the grill. Swordfish is a type of fish that can be tricky, since you want it cooked all the way through without overcooking and drying it out. The secret is to get a steak that it 1” – 1 1/4” thick. Any thinner, you risk cooking it to a piece of leather. This recipe is a simple Sicilian-style preparation, with olive oil, lemon, garlic, basil, and Italian oregano for the marinade. If you change out the Italian oregano for Greek oregano, you will have a Greek marinade. 5-6 minutes a side over the charcoal is all it takes.
Equipment
- chimney starter
- charcoal
- charcoal grill
Ingredients
- 1 lb swordfish steak 1” thick
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 3 tbsp basil finely chopped
- 1 tbsp Italian oregano finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Mix together the marinade ingredients.
- Marinate the swordfish steak for 8 hours. Save the remaining marinade.
- Start the charcoal in a chimney starter until gray. Poor into the grill and place on the grate. Place the swordfish over the charcoal.
- Grill for 5-6 minutes a side; casually basting the swordfish. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Baked Eggplant Parmigiana
Baked Eggplant Parmigiana
I’ve very recently fell in love with eggplant parmigiana. I ate it from my work’s deli hot bar. It was good, but I knew that I could make it better. Eggplant parmigiana’s origins are from the southern regions of Italy; Calabrian, Campania, Apulia, and Sicily all claiming it’s creation. The dish consists of breaded and fried slices of eggplant baked in a tomato sauce, topped with parmesan cheese. Instead of frying the eggplant, I baked it in the oven until crispy; reducing the amount of oil used to make it slightly healthier. To completely ruin the healthier aspect, I added a garlic cream sauce to the dish; plus slices of mozzarella.
Ingredients
Cream Sauce
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 3 tbsp flour
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- black pepper to taste
- salt to taste
Eggplant Parmigiana
- 1 large eggplant sliced into 1” pieces
- salt
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 cups tomato sauce divided
- fresh mozzarella sliced
- 1 tbsp dried basil
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Slice the eggplant and salt liberally to extract the moisture. Let sit for 10 minutes.
- Make an assembly line of flour in a bowl, beaten egg in one, and breadcrumbs in another. Dredge the eggplant in flour, then the beaten egg, and finally the breadcrumbs.
- Pour the olive oil on a baking sheet. Place the breaded eggplant on the baking sheet.
- Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for 20 minutes; flipping half way through.
- While the eggplant is baking, melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Sauté the minced garlic for 2 minutes. Whisk in the flour.
- Pour in the whole milk and continue to whisk for 5 minutes until thickened.
- Take off the heat. Whisk in the parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour half of the tomato sauce into a large glass baking dish. Arrange the eggplant on top of the sauce.
- Pour over the cream sauce.
- Place a spoonful of sauce on top of each slice of eggplant; followed by a slice of mozzarella. Season with the dried herbs. Top with the parmesan cheese.
- Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until the top is bubbly. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
