Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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- Aug 20, 2004
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Yesterday, I had my best friend and his wife over for a leisurely dinner. The evening was spread out over 5 hours. I thought some of you foodies would like a few of my recipes.
We started with an aperitif of Moet White Star, ......and ended up going through two bottles of it.
While enjoying the Moet, I served an appetizer course of gazpacho style salsa with whole grain corn scoops. Chef Turkel and I came up with this recipe 30 years ago. It is made similar to gazpacho, but left at medium chop and not quite as liquefied. There is cilantro, basil, white corn, black beans, red beans, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, garlic, tomatillios, okra, celery, five kinds of peppers, and a little balsamic vinegar. Chop the veggies in the processor until just short of when they start to liquefy.Then add the vinegar. This is an eating salsa, not a dip. I served each person a bowl of it with the chips arranged around it.
Next was a nice summer salad (with the tomatoes coming from the garden). Nothing special besides the raspberry vinaigrette dressing and some garlic croûtons.
The main course was:
Grilled vegetables - Eggplant, asparagus,zucchini,and red peppers. Prepare and season with dill, basil, and Mrs. Dash. Toss with olive oil and some white truffle oil. Seal in a foil packet and grill five minutes each side over medium heat. Leave packed sealed and set in warm oven to hold.
Grilled chili corn - prepare the corm ears, and place in a foil pan. drizzle with olive oil, melted butter, black truffle oil ( corn can take more earthiness), and sprinkle with a mix of chili powder, Mrs. Dash herb blend, and ground black pepper. Roll around in the pan and rub well with your hands to work the oil/spice mix into the corn ears. Cover with foil and place on a medium-hot grill. After five minutes remove foil and start turning the corn to equally grill all sides in the hot oil and spices in the pan. When done remove from grill, stick a half chopstick in each end ( cut in half and sharpen on the belt grinder), and place in warm oven to hold.
This is really great, and the chili taste is not predominant, but makes a pleasant secondary taste on the tongue. Add as much chili powder as you like, or leave it out for plain grilled corn.
Planked King Salmon with Goat cheese, smoked over rosemary - Prepare salmon by washing and cutting the fillets in half. Leave the skin on. Square up by cutting off the tip if too long.You want 4-6" squarish fillets. Make a marinade of ginger,light olive oil, Mrs. Dash, lots of dill,rosemary, white truffle oil,and a small amount of garlic. Crush well together and coat both sides of the salmon. Set in a covered pan on ice for four hours. Cut two long cedar grilling planks in half,and soak the square planks in water with rock salt and rosemary needles for four hours. Take eight good size rosemary branches and strip some needles for the marinade and planks, leaving the rest on the branches.
Set grill to medium and place drained planks on for 2-3 minutes. You will hear them starting to "POP" .Remove from grill to top rack and immediately place the rosemary branches across the grill. Place planks, charred side up, on the rosemary, and set a marinated fillet on each. Close grill and reduce heat to low. Grill for five minutes, checking occasionally to spritz the plank edges with water ( they will be burning).The rosemary will create a lot of smoke, burn, and then just provide a little smoke along with the cedar. Take care when checking the grill, as it will billow out the smoke and flare up when opened the first time. When the salmon is just starting to flake, but isn't done yet, cover with crumbled goat cheese. Grill one more minute, check for an "almost done flake " that doesn't fully separate, and remove the planks from the grill. Place the charred planks of salmon on a large platter. If the edges are glowing, leave them that way. Let everyone see them before plating. The look is awesome.
Serve the grilled veggies arranged on a side plate, with a salmon fillet ( minus the charred plank) and two ears of corn on the main plate. Have an extra side plate for the cobs. Garnish the fillet with a sprig of rosemary.
Desert was fresh raspberries and home made ice cream with a blackberry/Grand Marnier reduction over it. Blackberries were picked from my patch. ,- Place a few raspberries in a compote, adding a cylindrical scoop of ice cream in the center. Arrange raspberries around the ice cream ,adding more ice cream in the center as needed. Drizzle with blackberry reduction and serve. The reduction is made by juicing blackberries to get about 1 cup of juice. Add 1/4c. of turbinado sugar ( light brown will do fine), and bring to a low simmer. Reduce to half the volume. Add 2 oz. Grand mariner and reduce a few minutes more. Chill and check for thickness. Add more GM or reduce longer to get the desired syrupiness.
A nice white Zinfandel was served with dinner, and single malts for the guys and liqueurs for the ladies on the deck after dinner. John and I enjoyed a superb Virgin Island rum cigar with the single malt vatting we did up a while back. We have named it after him - "The Olde Coggeshall".
About 8 PM,while relaxing on the deck with the cigars and drinks, a huge thunderstorm passed by a few miles southeast of us. It was a real "4th of July" ending to a great afternoon. We watched the celestial pyrotechnics as it passed and never saw more than a few raindrops. The storm canceled all the fireworks displays scheduled for the entire region.
We started with an aperitif of Moet White Star, ......and ended up going through two bottles of it.
While enjoying the Moet, I served an appetizer course of gazpacho style salsa with whole grain corn scoops. Chef Turkel and I came up with this recipe 30 years ago. It is made similar to gazpacho, but left at medium chop and not quite as liquefied. There is cilantro, basil, white corn, black beans, red beans, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, garlic, tomatillios, okra, celery, five kinds of peppers, and a little balsamic vinegar. Chop the veggies in the processor until just short of when they start to liquefy.Then add the vinegar. This is an eating salsa, not a dip. I served each person a bowl of it with the chips arranged around it.
Next was a nice summer salad (with the tomatoes coming from the garden). Nothing special besides the raspberry vinaigrette dressing and some garlic croûtons.
The main course was:
Grilled vegetables - Eggplant, asparagus,zucchini,and red peppers. Prepare and season with dill, basil, and Mrs. Dash. Toss with olive oil and some white truffle oil. Seal in a foil packet and grill five minutes each side over medium heat. Leave packed sealed and set in warm oven to hold.
Grilled chili corn - prepare the corm ears, and place in a foil pan. drizzle with olive oil, melted butter, black truffle oil ( corn can take more earthiness), and sprinkle with a mix of chili powder, Mrs. Dash herb blend, and ground black pepper. Roll around in the pan and rub well with your hands to work the oil/spice mix into the corn ears. Cover with foil and place on a medium-hot grill. After five minutes remove foil and start turning the corn to equally grill all sides in the hot oil and spices in the pan. When done remove from grill, stick a half chopstick in each end ( cut in half and sharpen on the belt grinder), and place in warm oven to hold.
This is really great, and the chili taste is not predominant, but makes a pleasant secondary taste on the tongue. Add as much chili powder as you like, or leave it out for plain grilled corn.
Planked King Salmon with Goat cheese, smoked over rosemary - Prepare salmon by washing and cutting the fillets in half. Leave the skin on. Square up by cutting off the tip if too long.You want 4-6" squarish fillets. Make a marinade of ginger,light olive oil, Mrs. Dash, lots of dill,rosemary, white truffle oil,and a small amount of garlic. Crush well together and coat both sides of the salmon. Set in a covered pan on ice for four hours. Cut two long cedar grilling planks in half,and soak the square planks in water with rock salt and rosemary needles for four hours. Take eight good size rosemary branches and strip some needles for the marinade and planks, leaving the rest on the branches.
Set grill to medium and place drained planks on for 2-3 minutes. You will hear them starting to "POP" .Remove from grill to top rack and immediately place the rosemary branches across the grill. Place planks, charred side up, on the rosemary, and set a marinated fillet on each. Close grill and reduce heat to low. Grill for five minutes, checking occasionally to spritz the plank edges with water ( they will be burning).The rosemary will create a lot of smoke, burn, and then just provide a little smoke along with the cedar. Take care when checking the grill, as it will billow out the smoke and flare up when opened the first time. When the salmon is just starting to flake, but isn't done yet, cover with crumbled goat cheese. Grill one more minute, check for an "almost done flake " that doesn't fully separate, and remove the planks from the grill. Place the charred planks of salmon on a large platter. If the edges are glowing, leave them that way. Let everyone see them before plating. The look is awesome.
Serve the grilled veggies arranged on a side plate, with a salmon fillet ( minus the charred plank) and two ears of corn on the main plate. Have an extra side plate for the cobs. Garnish the fillet with a sprig of rosemary.
Desert was fresh raspberries and home made ice cream with a blackberry/Grand Marnier reduction over it. Blackberries were picked from my patch. ,- Place a few raspberries in a compote, adding a cylindrical scoop of ice cream in the center. Arrange raspberries around the ice cream ,adding more ice cream in the center as needed. Drizzle with blackberry reduction and serve. The reduction is made by juicing blackberries to get about 1 cup of juice. Add 1/4c. of turbinado sugar ( light brown will do fine), and bring to a low simmer. Reduce to half the volume. Add 2 oz. Grand mariner and reduce a few minutes more. Chill and check for thickness. Add more GM or reduce longer to get the desired syrupiness.
A nice white Zinfandel was served with dinner, and single malts for the guys and liqueurs for the ladies on the deck after dinner. John and I enjoyed a superb Virgin Island rum cigar with the single malt vatting we did up a while back. We have named it after him - "The Olde Coggeshall".
About 8 PM,while relaxing on the deck with the cigars and drinks, a huge thunderstorm passed by a few miles southeast of us. It was a real "4th of July" ending to a great afternoon. We watched the celestial pyrotechnics as it passed and never saw more than a few raindrops. The storm canceled all the fireworks displays scheduled for the entire region.
