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.

Bobby Flay's Panzanella Verde Salad

It's Friday, and I thought I'd have my big meal for lunch today. Still looking at Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction on the Food Network, I watched him make a Panzanella Verde Salad, and had to try it. For me, it's fun to be inspired by delicious looking foods prepared on TV, then try them at home.

The dish went together easily. The only difficult thing was finding the right olives for the recipe. I came close, with two types of olives, buttery castelvetrano and briney cerignola. The grilled ciabatta bread was gorgeous, and so was the bright green dressing. I didn't have arugula, so I used baby lettuce. Highly recommended! For the recipe, click here.

Before/After & Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction

Me, Bill Volckening, before and after

Two months of healthy eating, and I have dropped about 35 pounds, recently dipping under 220 for the first time in over a decade. When I look at the gorgeous foods I'm eating now, I have to laugh. It's like I'm spoiling myself rotten...I mean...just look at what I had for supper last night.

Wild sockeye salmon Pacific Northwest style, after watching Bobby Flay

It was getting late, and I was wondering what to have. A little uninspired, I turned on a recorded episode of Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction on Food Network. He was preparing foods from the Pacific Northwest, and made a hot smoked salmon topped with a chop salad of baby lettuce greens, toasted hazelnuts, dried cherries, Gala and Granny Smith apple and a homemade honey mustard vinaigrette.

I don't have a smoker grill, but realized I could enjoy a similar experience by roasting the salmon and doing everything else the same as Bobby Flay. I glazed the salmon with a little dressing before and after roasting, in the oven less than 12 minutes at 450, and it was incredible! You can find the original recipe here.

GZ's Roasted Grapes

Today I was watching The Kitchen, and Geoff Zakarian made a dish I just had to try. It was roasted grapes in a muscato ginger thyme reduction served with blue cheese.

Insanely delicious! For the recipe, click here.

Loaded Question: Do you rinse first?

Yesterday I posted a photo on Facebook and Instagram and asked, 

"Do you rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? Or do you put them in without rinsing?"

A loaded question, indeed!

The responses varied, but were overwhelmingly in favor of rinsing first. The most popular reason offered was to avoid rewashing dishes after food gets stuck on them. Many households, such as my own, do not have enough occupants to fill a dishwasher quickly. It can take several days to fill mine, and in that time anything I may have eaten would be very difficult if not impossible for a dishwashing machine to remove. Do we want to rewash the dishes after washing them? I don't!

Aside from saving time avoiding rewashing dishes, pre-rinsing can also protect the machine from damage. 

"Our dishwasher clogged recently and the repair guy told us that we have to remove all food bits before washing, our machine can't grind them up." said Marina Salume of Portland in response to my question on Facebook. 

Good to know, but I'm a lifelong rinser. My gorgeous Miele dishwasher, which doesn't have a built-in garbage disposal or scrubber brushes, will last a long time.