Fancy Spuds 'n' Sauce

During the last week on the Food Network, Bobby Flay and Ina Garten both made potatoes with aioli. I'm always up for spuds 'n' sauce, but these recipes looked fancy-- more grown-up and gourmet. Ina Garten used fingerling potatoes in her recipe, and Bobby Flay used small new potatoes in his recipe.

Having read both recipes and a few others online, I figured out how to work with what I had in the pantry. I took two Russet potatoes and cut them into long spears, similar to thick-cut steak fries. Each medium size potato yielded eight spears. Next, I tossed the potatoes lightly in extra virgin olive oil, seasoning with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and paprika. Then, I oven-roasted them for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees, turning once midway through.

When they were done, I turned off the oven and left them in while I made the aioli. I approximated Bobby Flay's recipe with mustard, mayonnaise, honey, garlic, salt and pepper. His recipe included fresh tarragon, chives and flat-leaf parsley, which would be a superb addition. Even without the herbs, it was amazing, perfect as an appetizer with a glass of red wine. Best news of all, there are leftovers!
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National Shrimp Day!

Today was National Shrimp Day, so I had to have some shrimp. I found large wild prawns at the market, fresh and unpeeled; just the way I like them when I'm in the mood for perfect shrimp. My preference is to peel and clean the fresh shrimp when time allows. I like them very fresh and thoroughly cleaned and deveined. I also like them cooked perfectly.

I made a simple dry-rub with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika, and tossed the shrimp in it after drizzling them with some olive oil. Then, I cooked them in a very hot pan for just a few minutes, flipping them once. When they were close to done, I turned off the heat and moved the pan off the burner, then plated the shrimp. I served them on a bed of baby arugula, heirloom tomato, and a fresh basil dressing. Happy National Shrimp Day!

leftover smoked salmon

Earlier in the week I made Ina Garten's Smoked Salmon and Egg Salad Tartines, and today it was time to finish up the leftover salmon. There wasn't any egg salad left, so I started googling recipes, and came up with one I'd wanted to try for a long time-- Wolfgang Puck's Pizza with Smoked Salmon and Caviar.

I made a few substitutions. Instead of making the dough from scratch, I used whole wheat naan bread, the perfect portion for one. To make the dill cream, I replaced the sour cream with Siggi's Icelandic yogurt. Also, I used a caviar that was available in the market and less expensive than Sevruga. It was delicious! The perfect Sunday supper. Check out the original recipe here.