Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Fancy French Fish (Ooo La La!)

Instead of the usual dinner out on the town, I stayed in Saturday night to indulge in some all-to-rare home cooking. I normally tend to gravitate toward fail-safe stir fry, curry and pasta dishes, but this night I wanted something to try on something with a little more flair.

So I dug through my cupboard and pulled out the "International Cookbook" 2005 edition, a delicious collaboration between the University of Nebraska-Kearney, International Student Association and Morris Press Cookbooks. Thumbing through many exotic dishes from around the world, the one that ultimately stood out was "Terrine de Saumon Aux Epinards - Riz Spécial," translated as Salmon and Spinach Terrine - Special Rice, contributed by Julien Champarou of France. Not only did it look scrumptious to eat, it also struck me as possibly easy to make, with most of the ingredients already in my kitchen. I was a little nervous that the souffle salmon wraps would fall apart or suddenly burst into flames when I took them out of the oven, but it turns out that evening I was a certified Julia Child with this recipe. The eggs mixture was fluffy, the salmon was tender and the dish was rich and satisfying. So with due thanks and credit to Julien, here is the my two-serving modification of the "Terrine de Saumon." Bon Appetit!


Ingredients (measurements are approximate):
1/4 bag fresh baby spinach
2 salmon tail fillets, about 1/3 pound each.
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
2 strips of bacon
Nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons butter

Grease the inside of two 7-ounce oven-safe ramekins or souffle dishes. Preheat oven to 410 F. Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the fresh spinach until wilted. Drain liquid and set cooked spinach aside in a small mixing bowl. Cook bacon, cut into small bits and add to the spinach. Take the skin off the salmon fillets and place the wide part in each of the greased ramekins, with the narrow end hanging over the edge. Add the sour cream and egg to the spinach and bacon in the bowl and mix well with a fork. Add dashes of salt, pepper and nutmeg to the mix. Spoon the spinach/sour cream/egg mixture over the salmon, and fold the tails over the top of the mix. Bake at 410 F for 10-15 minutes. Serve with rice or other side of your choice.

RNA

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day!

Today is National Chocolate Cupcake Day. How do I know? An old schoolmate of mine who operates the Madison County Dessert Factory in Winterset, Iowa, announced it on Facebook, and after a quick online search, I can verify it is indeed true. I also can verify that National Lemon Cupcake Day lands on Dec. 15 (my calendar is marked!). So to celebrate National Chocolate Cupcake Day, I swung by the Rolling Pin Bakeshop, which has a nice assortment and is situated conveniently down the road, and selected the most attractive chocolate cupcake in their case - the chocolate buttercream-laden Raspberry Fudge Cupcake. Here is a picture of the beauty, which is now in my tummy:


The guy at the counter said it is a miniature version of the bakeshop's Raspberry Fudge Dark Chocolate Cake, which I'm sure is equally delicious.

I also realized this is a good excuse to post a couple other random cupcake pictures I happen to have on file. These are not all chocolate cupcakes, but they are celebrating the holiday just the same.

Here is Pat eating a maple bacon cupcake after a recent brunch outing at  Daisy Cafe and Cupcakery.


Doesn't he look happy? Additionally, I found this photo of a Solidarity Cupcake - also from Daisy Cafe and Cupcakery, that my co-worker brought me earlier this year around the time of the Madison protests against Gov. Scott Walker removing unions' collective bargaining rights:


How can you not celebrate the cupcake? Looking forward to Dec. 15!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Sal's Tomato Pies

Pizza is pizza is pizza, but sometimes you come across one so artistic, delicious and inspiring that it wakes you from your 10-month vacation from blogging so you can tell your friends, "You gotta try THIS tomato pie!!!"

Sal's No. 4 was such a pie. Salvatore's Tomato Pies in Sun Prairie has been open only a week at 503 W. Main Street, a spot that formerly housed a notoriously bad sandwich shop and shares a front entrance with the local check and go. Sal's was a pleasant surprise. The inside is painted in warm hues and decorated with portraits of angry-looking women and pastoral landscapes. A play corner keeps the kiddos busy while you wait for your carry-out, and there are several tables for dining in. The tomato pies are made "the authentic Italian immigrant way" and feature an old family recipe from Trenton, N.J., with the ingredients sourced as locally as possible. This is a fresh and tasty combination.


My cell phone snapshot above does not capture the true beauty of the pie as it was first presented to us, with a spontaneous swirl of tomato sauce and speckled with locally-made Italian sausage, caramelized shallots, fresh basil, fire roasted sweet red peppers and French chévre (goat cheese). If I wasn't so hungry, I'd have been tempted to shellac it and hang it over my fireplace. Below is a better picture borrowed from Salvatore's Tomato Pies' Facebook page.


The menu so far is limited to eight tomato pies, three appetizers and a selection of canned beverages, but our choice of pie still was a tough one. The No. 4's crust, cheese, sausage and sauce all were delicious, though a bit more sauce and meat would balance out the substantial crust. For my next visit, I am looking for a fellow appreciator of strong cheese to help me polish off the No. 6: Bacon & Blue - with aged gorgonzola cheese, applewood smoked bacon, fresh broccoli and mozzarella.

RNA