Category Archives: roasted meats and veggies

Sep 02 2 comments
roasted meats and veggies, seafood

Whole Roasted Snapper

First of all, for those of you who have so sweetly been asking, I wanted to let you know that my parents, family, friends, and their possessions in the Outer Banks are fine.  As you might know my dad, Capt’n James Rosemond, lives in Morehead City most of the year running his dive charter, Tortuga Charters.  He lives on Fisher Street, a block away from the family vacation home, the Swamp House.  Because Irene hit the area so directly (landing on Cape Lookout, the lighthouse shown below), MHC was in serious danger.  Thankfully the Swamp House only flooded, something it is prepared for, and Pap’s house was dry and safe.  We were very, very lucky, and my heart goes out to those who were not so fortunate.

While we were in MHC last week for our vacation I had the opportunity to try something I’d wanted to do for a long time- to stuff and roast a whole fish.  Tuesday afternoon, our night to cook, Dan and I headed to the local seafood market and picked up three pink snapper.  We had gone for red vermillion snapper but my new bff at the market recommended pink as it has “the same flavor for half the price.”  I love that kind of advice.

We stuffed the snapper with rosemary, thyme, lemon, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil, bathed them in white wine, and then let them roast.  We paired the fish with couscous, a cucumber, tomato, and feta salad, and a sauvignon blanc.  One thing that struck us as when ate was that despite smelling amazing, the fish was still pretty subtle.  It was tasty, but didn’t have the flavor punch we were hoping for.

When we evacuated MHC to come back to Baltimore we were sent home with the leftovers (including a whole fish- my friend at the fish market suggested 3 fish for 6 adults, his family apparently eats much more than mine).  We enjoyed the fish for dinner this week with a  simple sauce- browned butter, white wine, garlic, and rosemary.  It gave the fish exactly the flavor boost we were looking for, a perfect addition to the meal.

Despite a looming hurricane our week in Carteret County was wonderful, easily one of the best family vacations we’ve ever taken.  And since the Swamp House survived to see another hurricane I look forward to doing another couples vacation next summer. Maybe next year we can actually catch the fish we cook!

Whole Roasted Snapper

feeds six adults

2 medium-large pink or red snapper

3 lemons

Bunch of rosemary, put some aside for sauce

Bunch of thyme

7 cloves of garlic

Salt & pepper

Olive oil

1/2 bottle dry white wine

1 stick butter

Have the market scale, gill, and clean your whole snapper.  When you get home, open up the cavity and drizzle olive oil inside.  Then sprinkle in salt and pepper.  Chunk your garlic and add 2 cloves to the inside of each fish.  Split the thyme and rosemary between the two fish, leaving a little to put on top.  Slice your lemons and put 1 whole lemon inside each fish.

Line two baking pans with foil. Lay down 1/2 lemon and 1/2 garlic clove in each pan.  Put the fish in the pan and top with remaining herbs.  Drizzle with olive oil and add 1 cup of wine to each.  Bake for 35 minutes at 400.

While the fish are baking, make your sauce.  Over very low heat combine butter, a bit of chopped rosemary, and the last clove of garlic, chopped.  Allow to simmer until the butter has browned.  Add 1/2 cup white wine, and simmer for 5 more minutes.  Set aside.

When your fish is done serve it whole.  Use a fork or a knife to open the fish up, peeling the skin back.  Allow your guests to pick the meat out.  Serve with the sauce on the side so that people can add it as they please.

 

Jan 26 4 comments
roasted meats and veggies, vegetables

Roasted Chicken & Root Vegetables

This year we managed to make Christmas last until January 15th.  One benefit of having large families spread all over the country is that there’s a great excuse to celebrate and celebrate and celebrate.  We started in the beginning of December with my grandparents, visiting a beautiful lighted garden and enjoying a nice dinner.  After that we (I) broke all rules about withholding presents until, you know, Christmas, and started giving Dan his presents a little at a time.  That was a great idea.  Next came Meredith’s dance recital and Amelie’s baptism.  We love nieces.  After that we headed to North Carolina to do Christmas with my family.  We were so lucky that we were able to see aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings, and friends.  Once we returned we had a week of New Year’s downtime before we celebrated first with Dan’s parents and then the next weekend with Megan, John & the nieces.  These last two celebrations were at our house, which gave me the opportunity to cook recipes I’d had tucked away for company, something I love to do.

For these celebrations I made a roasted chicken on a bed of root vegetables, rice, sauteed beet greens, and a lemon meringue pie.  The first week the pie was a disaster (because I used tapioca beads, silly me) but the second week it was silky and perfect.  The flip side, of course is that the fudge I made for the Turcotte family to take home the second week was grainy and totally off.  Because- and I say this in all seriousness- there is no such thing as a perfect meal when I have company. Something always goes wrong.

The roasted chicken, however, was perfect.  Rubbed down with butter and stuffed with garlic cloves it had brown crunchy skin and moist, flavorful meat.  The vegetables were bursting with flavor, all pink from the beets in the mix.  It was a wonderful meal to wrap up this year’s Christmas celebrations!  And now that the decorations are down, I’ll just need it to be spring… immediately (closes eyes and ignores freezing rain outside the window).

The nieces and I with their new Christmas hats! Photo by Dan

Roasted Chicken & Root Vegetables

1 whole chicken

4 tbsp butter

1 tbsp salt

8-10 cloves garlic

3 beets

4-6 medium size carrots

3 red potatoes

1 large vidalia onion

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt & pepper

1 hour before you’re ready to cook your chicken, take your chicken out of the fridge.  Remove the innards, rinse with cold water, and allow to come to room temperature.  Also allow your butter to come to room temp.  Tie legs together.

Begin by rubbing your chicken down with butter.  Then, cut slits throughout the body and legs of the chicken.  Stuff each slit with a clove of garlic.  Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 475.

Peel and dice your beets and carrots.  Cube your potatoes and cut your onion into large chunks.  Place all vegetables into a large roasting dish.  Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Make a bed in the vegetables and place the chicken on top.

Cook at 475 for 20 minutes and then lower the temperature to 400.  Cook an additional 45 minutes.  Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest 10 minutes before serving.  Baste with juices.

Oct 26 4 comments
holiday, roasted meats and veggies, vegetables

Balsamic Mushrooms

This weekend I went to Charleston, SC to visit my bff Megan.  This week Megan is turning 25, and to mark this special occasion (and help prevent a quarter life crisis) I flew down on Friday and spent a long weekend taking in the beauty (and warmth) of the south.  Charleston is one of my favorite places with its history, culture, and charm.

After a weekend of eating (wonderfully) out, I told Megan that on Sunday I was going to teach her how to cook something.  Megan’s experience in the kitchen is limited, though I’ve been trying slowly to domesticate her over the years.  One of these days it’s going to stick.  So on Sunday we made brisket (recipe to come on iVillage this week), balsamic mushrooms, and tarheel pie.

While the brisket and pie were both delicious, these mushrooms stole the show.  Cooked over low heat for four hours in butter, balsamic vinegar, and red wine, they were so intensely flavored and delicious.  They were hands down the best mushrooms I’ve ever eaten and I love mushrooms.  They’ll have a place on my holiday table this year.

Speaking of the holidays, this is the official kick off of Thanksgiving 2010 recipe season. Starting today, over the next few weeks, I’ll be bringing you this year’s Thanksgiving recipes.  I’ll also post links to our tried and true holiday favorites.  In other news, I was the featured blogger on A Bloggable Life yesterday.  It’s a nice little feature that, I’ll admit, I really opened myself up for.  I’d love to hear what you think.  And, of course, be sure to wish Miss Margaret Elizabeth Patrylick a happy 25th birthday.  She needs your good thoughts, girl is a hot mess.

Balsamic Mushrooms

2 lbs button mushrooms

1/2 bottle red wine (merlot)

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 stick butter

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tbsp cumin

In a deep dish combine mushrooms, wine, vinegar, cubed butter, salt, pepper, and cumin.  Cook at 315 for 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

Oct 18 2 comments
roasted meats and veggies, soups, grits, and stews

Braised Short Ribs over Creamy Grits

Sometimes we get very lucky and have the opportunity to host someone very important to us.  This past weekend it was our old college professor, George Ciscle.  Dan and I participated in many years worth of George’s signature program, the Exhibition Development Seminar.  It was in this class, in fact, where we met.  Actually, technically speaking, it was in this class where on the first day I spent the better half of the first hour admiring his forearms as George talked about how the course is incredibly difficult and everyone should leave, etc etc etc.  Then, on the break, I showed Dan my compass in line at MICA’s Cafe Doris.  That’s not a euphemism.  I really did show him my compass.  It was new.  And awesome.

Is it starting to add up why it took three years for us to actually start dating?  Anyhoo, we were lucky enough to host George and his husband Rick for dinner on Friday and it was, well, awesome.  We laughed and ate and caught up and told stories, it was a wonderful evening.  And in the background, along with a simple arugula salad and a pitcher of sangria that only I drank (it was delicious, by the way), were these short ribs.  Braised in red wine and served over cheesy, creamy, scrumptious grits.

Fall, to me, means a lot of things.  It means scarves and jackets and boots and pumpkin lattes, but it also means the beginning of serious meat season.  While we eat a fair amount of meat in the summer it’s always something light, refreshing.  Fall and winter is the time for stews and braises, foods that require your oven staying on for hours.  Food that you eat while wearing a sweater or with your fuzzy socks on.  Or is that just me?  Fuzzy socks, ftw!

Braised Short Ribs over Creamy Grits

Ribs:

8-10 beef short ribs

1 bottle red wine

4 cups vegetable or beef stock

1 tsp allspice berries

1 tsp peppercorns

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1 tbsp fresh rosemary

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp salt

1 stick butter

Grits:

2 cups milk

1 cup vegetable or beef stock

1 cup yellow corn grits

1 lb cremini mushrooms

4 shallots

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp bacon fat

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup gruyere cheese, grated

1 cup extra sharp white cheddar cheese, grated

Salt & pepper

Juice of 1 lemon

Green onions

The night before you’d like to serve this, marinate your meat in 1/2 bottle wine and half of all the herbs/spices.  Refrigerate overnight.

4 hours before you’d like to serve this, take the meat out of the marinade and pat each side down.  Melt 1/2 stick butter in a medium size pot.  Salt & pepper ribs and brown them for about 30 seconds per side, in the butter.  When they’re all browned put them into the pot.  Cover with remaining wine, stock, butter, and the rest of the herbs.  Cover and cook at 375 for 3 1/2 hours.

To make the grits bring the milk and stock to a low boil.  Stir in grits.  Stir until thickened and remove from heat.  Stir in cheese and cream.

In a medium size pan melt your butter and bacon fat.  Slice your shallots and cook over low/medium heat until brown.  Set aside.  Slice mushrooms and add them to the pan (adding more butter if necessary).  Cook until brown.  Stir mushrooms and shallots into the grits, along with the lemon juice.

Arrange short ribs on top of the grits on the plate and top with green onion.

Jun 29 1 comments
grilled, barbequed, smoked, and fried, roasted meats and veggies

Pork, Fig, & Rosemary Browned Butter

To frame this post, I’d like to tell you Dan’s recommended names.  First was “Pork Fig Fat.”  Secondly, he went with PORK FIG AWESOME.  I was partial to both, but thought I’d give a more descriptive title.  No matter what you call it though, this dish was exactly what I needed.  You see, tonight was the first night that we have been home to cook dinner since last week, something that has left me feeling off center and a bit cranky.  Also, I ate some old marshmallows so that could be a contributing factor.

I started dreaming about figs mid last week, but beyond stuffing them with goat cheese and wrapping them in proscuitto (done) and fig ice cream (coming soon), I couldn’t think of anything interesting.  I wanted something sweet yet salty, juicy yet firm.  Figs are such a strange texture and flavor, I knew I needed to pair them with something that wouldn’t overwhelm them.  Something that would act as the facade broach to your neck scarf.

Incidentally, this dish was over 50% accident.  On Sunday night I was drinking a beer, but then I got too tired to finish it.  I didn’t want to waste half of a very nice beer, so I thought beer brine!  And that is what I did.  I was going to cook this Monday night.  But then we had to go to Pennsylvania to sort out some issues transferring the title of our car, so instead of marinating 24 hours, the pork marinated 48.  I was also going to put goat cheese on top of the pork, but I forgot that one.

I am glad to say that, with the exception of forgetting the cheese, this dish was a combination of happy accidents.  Like making a mixed tape of a handful of artists that don’t seem to go together but completely work (so much so that you start writing letters to them encouraging a tour).  I want to write letters to the pork and fig boards.  I want to let the browned butter association know about this.  I’ll probably just settle for letting you know.  It’s good.  Damn good.  As Dan described, the fig almost tastes like it’s the pork fat, but sweeter and more succulent than expected.  Which explains his first title suggestion.  Also, it explains his face whilst waiting for me to finish taking pictures.

Pork, Fig, & Rosemary Browned Butter

2 boneless pork chops

6 black mission figs

1 cup beer

2 tbsp honey

1 stick of butter

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

2 garlic cloves

4 slices goat cheese

Salt & pepper

Olive oil

Place pork in a bowl and pour honey and beer over, completely submerging.  Stick in the fridge and marinate at least 4 hours, or up to 48.

To Grill This Dish:

Remove the pork from the marinade.  Pat dry and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.  Fire up the grill.

Cut figs in half.  Brush both sides with olive oil.  Set aside.

In a medium skillet over low heat, melt butter with rosemary and sliced garlic.  Allow to cook, stirring occasionally, until it is dark brown.

Grill pork for 5-7 minutes.  Flip.  When you’ve flipped the pork, put the figs on the grill open face down.  Place cheese on top of the pork, allowing it to melt slightly.  Cook 5 minutes and remove everything.  Let meat rest at least 5 minutes.

Combine figs and pork on a plate.  Top with browned butter sauce and serve.

To Roast This Dish:

Remove the pork from the marinade.  Pat dry and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Heat oven to 350.

Slice figs in half.  In a roasting pan combine pork and figs.  Slice the butter and place the pats around the dish.  Slice the garlic thinly and sprinkle over everything.  Add rosemary, salt, and pepper.  Cover.  Let cook about 30 minutes.  Top with cheese and serve.