Butternut Squash Polenta

I was walking through the grocery store and there was a sample guy with butternut squash and little bit of bread. He had spiced it with green onions and chicken broth.

Oddly, this gave me a totally different idea.

Butternut Squash Polenta

Butternut Squash
Cooking spray
Goya Sazon with Saffron
Garlic powder
Paprika
tofu
mushroom
Goya Sofrito
Water

Polenta
Cheese


I quickly sauteed the chopped, de-seeded squash then added water, garlic, paprika and sazon.

I allowed the squash to simmer in this soaking up the water.

In a separate pot I made up some cheesy polenta.

In the first pan I added tofu and mushrooms and some margarine. These sauteed and the squash turned to its paste.

Once these was all cooked and the squash was fully mashed, I added a few tablespoons of sofrito and water. I continued adding little bits of water until the sofrito and mashed squash had created a sauce. then I added the cheesy polenta and stirred.

There you go, butternut squash pasta sauce that wasn't too sweet with polenta.

Mexican Inspired Meal

As the first full meal served to multiple people in the new Deconstructionalist Kitchen, I made a Mexican Inspired multi course meal.

Soup

Gazpacho

Green

2 Avocado

2 Cucumber (seeded and peeled)

2 tbsp minced onion

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp vinegar

½ tsp salt

1 cup water

1 cup greek yogurt

1 tsp chili powder

Blend and chill

Red

2 lbs tomatoes peeled and seeded

2 red pepper peeled and seeded

1 cucumber peeled and seeded

½ cup olive oil

4 tbsp vinegar

½ onion

1 clove garlic

-blend

-chill

Appetizer

Quesadillas

Green

Avocado

Brie

Recaito

Spinach Wrap

Red

Tomato

Cheddar

Sofrito

Tomato Wrap

Intermezzo

Spicy Mango Margarita

6 oz tequila

4 oz mango liqeur

6 oz tangerine juice

½ oz tobbasco

Ice

Rim with salt and chili powder

Fruit Kabob

cherry

Mango

Guava

Pineapple

Kiwi

Main Course

Peppers

Roast Red and Green pepper

Serve with Chili Lime Dipping sauce

3 Tablespoons of sriracha

½ cup lime juice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp ginger

Tacos

Margarita Scallops

1 lb. scallops

½ cup tequila

½ cup lime juice

½ cup lemon juice

½ sugar

2 red medium chilis

Cilantro

Salt

Pepper

1 orange

Blend everything but scallops

Marinate 1 hr.

Pork Al Pastor

1 lb Pork (whatevers on sale)

1 Pinepple

1 Mango

1 red onion

1 red medium chili

1 green chili

Cumin

Garlic

Lemon zest

Marinate over night

Desert

Bananas Foster

• ¼ cup (½ stick) butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ cup banana liqueur
• 4 bananas, cut in half
  lengthwise, then halved
• ¼ cup dark rum

- Combine the butter, sugar, and cinnamon in skillet.

- Place the pan over low heat and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.

- Stir in the banana liqueur, then place the bananas in the pan.

- When Banana sections begin to soften and brown, add rum.

- Continue to cook the sauce until the rum is hot.

- Set afire.

- Serve with Frozen Funky Monkey

Frozen Funky Monkey

2 cups coconut milk

5 oz rum

5 oz crème d’ Banana

4 oz crème d’ cacao

Ice

- Blend

Orkan Apfelkuchen: Hurricane Apple Cake

mmm....Apfelkuchen

Back in 2007, a group of us went to Germany. My cousin Jason and I probably spent as much money on Apfelkuchen (German Apple Cake) as we did on beer. Off and on I have tried to make it, but never got it right. The key I think is the springform.

Well, Irene was supposed to give us a terrible storm that would require me to stay inside. And by the looks of outside when I went for my run, that was a good idea last night. Today, I had planned to stay inside.

So, I bought a springform and was going to make an Americanized** version of Apfelkuchen.

2/3 cup margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 crank (a new BIPM measurement equal to 1.41 dashes) sea salt
1/2 capfull (a new BIPM measurment equal to 2.82 dashes) almond extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp all spice
7 small to mid-sized apples (I used ginger golds)

---
lemon drizzle
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

----
1 tbsp of confectioners sugar (to coat after baking)

1. peel, core and slice apples. I just used an apple slicer after peeling but you can slice them even thinner.
set aside
2. pre-heat oven to 350F
3. beat margarine in a mixing bowl
4. Slowly add sugars, vanilla, salt, almond extract and 2 eggs
5. Sift in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
6. Mix in the sifted goods
7. Pour batter into greased springform. level off the batter.
8. stack apples atop batter. I did this core side down. I have seen them place on their side.
9. Mix lemon drizzle
10. brush or drizzle over apples
11. bake for 75 minutes
12. cool and then dust with confectioners sugar. (You'll notice in the picture I forgot to buy confectioners sugar.)

**For a more traditional apfelkuchen, don't use the cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice and use all white sugar instead of white and brown.

Jamaican Tofu & Plum Curry

This dish is an old standby of mine. And, in my new apartment with its very own Deconstructionalist Kitchen, it was the first dish I made.

The tofu can easily be substituted for by chicken or seafood.

I switch between red plums and red pears, depending on the season.

Jamaican Tofu and Plum Curry

Rice-
1 cup of rice
2 cups of water
1 tbsp of turmeric
1 tbsp margarine

Curry
12 oz pkg of tofu, cubed (I always buy the pre-cubed kind, its so much less of a hassle).
1 lb broccoli, chopped
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 red plums, chopped
2 tbsp of flour
4 tbsp of Jamaican yellow curry (I use Reggae Country Style or Goya)
1 can of coconut milk
2 tbsp margarine

1. Make rice
2. Stirfry tofu and broccoli
3. Add mushrooms
4. Add plums - briefly stirfry (just enough to get hot and see a little juice)
5. Add flour and curry, stir
6. Add Coconut milk, stir and cover.
7. Put rice in with curry or serve curry over the rice. (I prefer the former just because I can get a good mix in without later having rice and no curry or vice-versa).

Carbonade Cantabrigian: A Cambridge twist on a Belgian Classic

At 4pm, the skies opened. All I could think was: "Thank god, that means I can cook again without making the house 100 degrees." The only question was what will I cook.

While we only spent a few hours in Brussels three things stood out: the beauty of the Grand Place, the Royal Palace and Carbonade Flamande. We ate Carbonades, awesome steak tips stewed in Belgian brown ale at a cafe on the Grand Place with fries and Charles V brown ale.

So, as I was excited to finally cook again - I created the Cambridge, MA twist on it. I took the stewed tips, floured them and then seared them before serving them with beer gravy. My roommate-for-a-month, Andrew, and I both loved it.

Carbonade Cantabridgian

Ingredients

1.75 lbs Top Round
2 small yellow onions
2 cloves shallot
1 22-oz Belgian brown ale. (I used Cambridge MA's own Pretty Little Things St. Botolph's Town)
1 12-oz Witte or Weiss (I "made mine a Smutty" with Portsmouth's Smuttynose Summer Weizen)
1 tbsp Paprika
1 tbsp Tumeric
1 tbsps Oregano
2 tbsps Worcestershire Sauce
Flour
3 tbsp taragon
Margarine
Salt
Pepper


1. put cubed beef in a crock pot set on low
2. atop the beef put diced onions, diced shallot paprika, tumeric, oregano, Worcester sauce, salt & pepper
3. Pour in entire bottle of brown ale
4. stew for 2 hours

5. in a bowl mix 1/4 cup of flour and taragon
6. with a slotted spoon pull out steak tips and toss in flour and targon
7. sear tips in a pan over medium-high heat on lite oil
8. put seared tips aside

Weiss Gravy
9. in pan that you seared tips, put in margarine and flour to start gravy
10. slowly stir in half of bottle of weiss beer over medium heat
11. drink other half of the beer
12. continue stirring until hot

I serve the Carbonades topped with Weiss Gravy next to roasted potatoes and sauteed leaks.

Apple Pie Leg of Lamb: As American as Leg of Lamb?

So, it's Fourth of July weekend. Cookouts galore and it's time for me to bring my dish. Most people will bring burgers and dogs. Maybe some will go as far a field as brats. These are, of course, key to any Fourth of July cookout. Once the keys are in place, we should have some fun.

At the Co-op, I found a nice 1.5 lb piece of leg of lamb, with the bone in. Then it became a question of how to prepare the piece. I could go the "traditional" mint jelly route. But, I remembered the Moroccan Lamb, I had had at the place in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Central to the Moroccan flavor was cinnamon and nutmeg. And then it hit me.

With cinnamon and nutmeg all you need is allspice and wham! you have apple pie spices. And on the Fourth nothing is as American as Apple pie right?

Apple Pie Leg of Lamb

1.5 lbs piece of leg of lamb
1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon of Nutmeg
1 Tablespoon of Allspice
(now, the Co-op had in bulk "apple pie spice" I bought this instead)
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
3 ozs of prosciutto de Parma - sliced
2 Granny Smith Apples - cored and chopped

1. Mix together Cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice into apple pie spice
2. Slice open the leg of lamb
3. stuff with 1/2 of a chopped granny smith
4. fold back closed
5. Rub lamb with half of the apple pie spice
6. Wrap Prosciutto slices around lamb
7. Rub remainder of apple pie spice.
8. Place on large piece of tin foil
9. cover in 1 chopped apple
10. (Eat remainder of apple)
11. pour balsamic on the apple (The acid will draw out some of the apple juice)
12. Wrap tin foil around Lamb and apples
13. Place on the edges of the grill, let slow cook 45-1, flipping occasionally.

Berry Skorthato: New England Summer Twist on a Greek Favorite

Skorthato is a traditional Greek Chicken and Potato dish. In a flavorful explosion of Mediterranean flavor, one mixes lemon, garlic and oregano over chicken and potatoes. Only the Ionian favorite, Stifatho, can challenge as my most loved Greek dish.

However, the use of the lemon seems incompatible with New England Summer for me. In Kefalonia, we had a lemon tree outside out house and in Corinth, lemon and orange trees lined the main roads and the town square. The use of lemon and the dish are distinctively tied to the area. So I asked, what New England summer flavor can challenge this. Blackberries and raspberries are the answer!

Berry Skorthato

Ingredients
1.5 lb of Gourmet Red Potatoes (These PEI perfect sized potatoes replace the Greek yellow finger potatoes
Half pint of raspberries
Half pint of blackberries
3 Tablespoons of Pomegranate molasses
1 Tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of Shiraz
1 shot Sour Cranberry Schnapps
1 Medium red chili pepper - chopped
2 lbs of chicken - in pieces
1/2 - 1 lb chopped vegetables - chopped

1. Bring potatoes to a boil; continue to boil for 15-20 minutes
2. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
3. In a bowl grind together blackberries and raspberries
4. Add molasses, balsamic, Shiraz, schnapps and chili pepper to berries
5. Lay pieces of chicken about a 9x13 baking pan
6. Rub chicken with half of berry mixture
7. Halve potatoes and place about the chicken - filling up the pan
8. Place chapped vegetables atop chicken and potatoes
9. Pour remainder of berry mixture evenly over the top of potatoes
10. Cover in tin foil
11. Bake 35-45 minutes