Cook for me

You're on.

1. Heat a heavy sauté pan until very hot.
2. Meanwhile, dry the scallop thoroughly on paper towels.
3. Melt a small amount of clarified butter in the pan. (Olive oil is okay, but I prefer the flavor of butter for scallops.)
4. When the butter is shimmering and barely smoking, add the scallop, one flat side down.
5. Let the scallop sit for about 1 minute without touching it. Then lift with tongs to check if the bottom is golden.
   • If not, gently place back in pan and check again in a few seconds.
   • If so, turn over onto the other flat side and leave for about 1 minute, until golden on other side.
6. Remove from the pan with tongs, salt and pepper lightly, and serve immediately.

(If cooking more than one, make sure there is plenty of room in the pan so they don't steam instead.)

I'm getting hungry: Peel me a grape. :lol: No, I want some asparagus with that, please. :lips:

Brown Butter Asparagus

OK ....

Cook up a bunch of asparagus so that they're perfectly done to your liking, and while they're cooking put some butter in a skillet and cook that until it smells nutty and browns. Plate the asparagus, pour the brown butter over them, and grate some Parmigiano-Reggiano over the buttered asparagus. For this dish a spring season Reggiano would be nice if you have access to it. It's a little sweeter than Reggiano from other seasons and plays nicely off the asparagus and butter.

Now, somebody whip up a plate of frog's legs.

shel

stuffed squash blossoms....come 2 ways here, one with a tiny 1" diameter pitty pan squash or small 2" long zuchini attached, or large enough blossoms to be separate.

Gently open the blossom and break off the stamin, it's edible but not really desirable.

take fresh chevre (I season with garlic and chives) beat egg white until stiff, fold into the chevre. approx 2 egg whites to 4 oz chevre, which will fill numerous blossoms.

Pipe the chevre into the blossom, twisting the top closed.

Salt/pepper/flour, milk.....run through milk then flour, pan fry or deep fry.

Great garnished with chopped ripe tomatoes/garlic/basalmic/basil/evo.

how about damson plums?

Damson Tart with Pecan Cream

Ingredients:
Macerated plums:
1-1/2 lbs ripe Damsnon plums
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbs aged rum

Crust (pâte sablée)
1-1/4 cup AP flour
1/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
1/2 cup, plus 1 tbs sweet butter
1/3 cup milk
ice

Filling:
1cup pecan halves (or may use English walnuts)
1/4 cup honey, or to taste
1 egg
3 tablespoons crème fraîche
1 tbs juice from the macerated plums
2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
Powdered sugar for dusting
(Optional) Chantilly cream, flavored whipped cream, or flavored creme fraiche.

Technique:
Grease a 10" tart pan with butter, reserve.

Macerating the plums:
Cut the plums in half, and stone them. Place them in a bowl, add the sugar, and rum. Toss to make sure they are coated evenly. Cover with cling wrap and reserve on the counter.

Making the (pâte sablée) crust:
Begin by cutting all but 1 tbs of the butter into 1/2" cubes. Return the cubes to the refrigerator to chill for at least 15 minutes. Reserve the 1 tbs to soften on the counter.

Meanwhile, prepare your mise en place so that everything besides the butter and milk are ready. When the butter has chilled, prepare the milk by putting 2 cubes of ice in a cup and measure the milk in. Allow to chill briefly while you complete the following steps:

Measure the flour and sugar into a bowl, add the salt. Mix with a fork until evenly distributed. Remove the butter from the refrigerator and cut it into the dough, until the lumps are relatively even, and all of the loose flour is picked up (will appear to be slightly coarser than corn meal).

Handling the dough as little as possible, add just enough cold milk to barely bring the dough together ( probably 2 - 4 tbs milk). Spread a piece of cling wrap on the counter and empty the dough and the few remaining crumbs of flour onto it. Pick up the cling wrap by its four corners and form a ball with the dough. Lay the ball on the counter and gently press it into a disk. Refrigerate for 45 minutes or as long as overnight.

Meanwhile, generously grease a false bottom 10" tart tin with butter, and preheat the oven to 350F.

When the dough has chilled, roll it out to a little less than 1/8" thick (~2mm). Cut off a scrap, roll it into a ball, and reserve. Transfer the dough to the tart tin by folding it over your rolling pin, and lay it in the tin. Use the dough ball to press the dough into the fluting on the side of the tin. Use your rolling pin to cut of the excess dough off, by rolling it across the top, or if you're obsessive, you may use a little paring knife while you whistle La Mer. Don’t forget to cock your beret rakishly and light a Gitane because you’re too cool for Galuoise.

Line the the crust with a sheet of aluminum foil or bakers parchment, so that the crust is completely covered and the edges of the paper extend beyond the top of the crust all the way around. Fill the crust with pie weights, uncooked dried beans, or rice. Put the tin into the oven on a middle-height rack, and pre-bake the crust until lightly browned, about 17 minutes. Remove the crust and allow to cool. Note: This process is called “blind baking.”

Making the filling:
If the oven has cooled, preheat to 350F again.

Grind the pecans and sugar together in a blender or processor until they form a coarse flour. Add the remaining ingredients, and a tbs of the juice blend. Mixture does not have to be purely smooth, but may be. Up to you.

Drain the plums. (Reserve the liquid if you like, and use it to make flavored whipped cream or creme fraiche for topping. Otherwise just drink it when no one’s looking. Too good to waste.)

Spread the creme evenly in the bottom of the tart crust. Arrange the plums in a pretty pattern on top, concentric circles, starting from the outside is the easiest for the aesthetically challenged (like me); the plums may be placed flesh up or tilted at a 45deg angle, or alternated by circle.

Take the tart back to the oven and bake 30 minutes. Remove and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar before or after cutting. May be garnished with sweetened, flavored whipped cream or creme fraiche.


Make me something with whole wheat flour

BDL

PS ON EDIT: I HAD SECOND thoughts about the crust and adjusted it to make a more traditionally French and less flaky style crust. It's going to be easier to handle, too.

Pan (shallow) fried whole wheat bread dough with butter, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla ice cream. Pat a piece of dough out into a thin circle, pan fry, add the rest. Comfort food recipe from when I was little :)

Something with Great Lakes perch.

Hold on there bobbalooie -- recipe for the dough, Sill view play.

Dames! I tell ya,
BDL

Pick your favorite wheat bread recipe :p
Mine is from The Bread Bakers Apprentice page 270 so I can't post it here.

I agree with Mary B - Can't mess with copyright...

Great Lakes Perch

Keep whole (gutted and scaled obviously). Score both sides on the diagonal to even out cooking time, stuff with roughly chopped fennel tops and slice of lemon, salt and pepper insides. Top with finely julienned ginger and red jalepno chillies.

Steam covered until done . Depends on size of fish. To test, insert a knife into thickest part of fish for a few seconds, place it - briefly!- onto your lower lip. If the knife is hot, it's done, if its not - keep steaming. Remove from steamer. I say to test it this way so it doesn't spoil the look of the whole fish by poking around in it :) . Rather than with a fillet or steak of fish, where its easy to see by the flakiness and translucency.

Top with finely sliced spring onion tips. Sprinkle a little light soy and few drops of sesame oil over the fish. Heat some peanut/groundnut oil till smoking point - pour couple of tablespoons onto fish to crisp (but stand back!). Serve with juices in plate.

Now - cook me a Moreton Bay Bug. Please.


DC

Right.


Remove the tail meat from 3 or 4 Moreton lobster tails. Prepare a smoker. Smoke the tails over a mild wood such as alder, pear, or citrus at approx 250 for approx 20 minutes, or until tails are just opaque and have begun to curl. Wrap the tails in cling wrap and reserve.

While the tails are smoking, make polenta by sauteeing 2 finely minced shallots in butter. Add 3-1/2 cups lobster and shrimp shell fumet and bring to a boil. When the stock is boiling, add a splash of dry vermouth, and stir in 1 cup coarse polenta. Cook in the usual way, until just done. Remove the polenta from the heat, and stir in 6 tbs of butter. Cover with a ceramic plate, and reserve warm.

Season 12 bay scallops and 12 medium shrimp (shell off, tail on) with salt, pepper and ground chipotle or smoked paprika. Saute them in evoo until just done. Remove the plate from the polenta, and reserve the shrimp and scallops on it. Pour off the oil, and reserve the pan.

Stir 2 tbs truffle oil into the polenta, along with a little bit of chopped chervil and fennel leaf (and 1 tsp of truffle pieces if you can afford them). Plate the truffled polenta by dividing evenly into 4 shallow bowls with generous rims. Divide the scallops and shrimp evenly and garnish the bowls with them, just inside their rims.

Unwrap the lobster tails and slice into medallions. Arrange them on the polenta in a chrysanthemum pattern (shingled circle).

Make an emulsion cuisson by heating the shrimp/scallop pan, and deglazing it with 1/2 cup of vermouth. Reduce the wine by 1/4 and whisk in 2 tbs butter, remove from heat and whisk in 2 tbs truffle oil (and another tsp truffle pieces, if you have them). Whisk in more butter as necessary to make the sauce set up. Pour the emulsion over the polenta. Garnish with a sprinkling of minced chervil and fennel. Make sure to get some green on the bowls' rims.

Make mine monkfish -- with a usable recipe, please.

BDL

OK monkfish. (usable) I'd roast it.- For a 2lb tail


Saute shallots in butter. lots of them and add a good pinch of fennel seeds and a whole star anise, scrunched up. Add the fish and seal it

Pour over a good slug(1/3 cup) dry vermouth season and roast in the oven @ 250 for 30 mins the last 5 mins add cherry tomatoes

Can someone now cook me some spicy kidneys please (not devilled)

Perfect for a brae Scot such as your own bad self. Kat-a-Kat, is a traditional highland dish -- the Pakistani highlands. In deference to modern sensibilities, I've left out the brains.

Clean, trim (cut the vein out), and chop some lamb kidneys into medium dice, soak them cold milk for at least one hour. Clean and trim a lamb heart (one heart for every two kidneys), and chop into medium dice. Combine the offal with one lamb chop per kidney and make a curry including both red and green chillies as well as a little extra fenugreek compared to your usual; and of course the other usual suspects. Make sure to include generous amounts of both ginger and garlic pastes.

Here's the technique part: Cook the spices and meat -- spicing to vindaloo or phal level -- with as little oil as possible until the meat is cooked through. Then fry some onions, fresh green chillies, fresh ginger, and coriander leaves in ghee or oil until the onions are browned, add the meat and spice mixture and cook until the chops are tender.

BDL

How about a Portuguese custard tart?

A memorable potato, how about . . .

Yeti,

You have to give to get, buddy.

BDL

Since I didn't post a full recipe before here is a potato one.

Baked Stuffed Deep Fried Potato

Bake 2 large potatoes until done.
Scoop out the inside to form a shell (leave 1/4 inch or so next to the skin so it doesn't break).
Mash the scooped out potato with a little milk. You want the mashed potato to be on the dry side.
Add 4 ounces cheddar cheese and 4 ounces pulled pork or chopped brisket point and mix well.
Put back into the potato skin and wrap with bacon. Make sure the bacon covers the mashed potato or pieces will break off in the fryer.
Deep fry at 325 to 350 until the bacon is nice and crispy.
Serves 4 and if you have cholesterol issues I would avoid this one :lol:

MaryB, that sounds really good :lips:

Baked potatoes don't thrill me much, but your recipe does. For myself, I would do as you suggest up until the deep frying. Instead of deep frying, I would take a detour, brush some bacon fat on it and roast it at maybe 450 degrees for just 5-10 minutes.

Then I would put on some full-fat yogurt (I actually prefer that to sour cream, and use enough to flavor it but not make it cold), chopped chives, and a whole chipotle chile in adobo sauce from a can on the side, to use as much or as little of as preferred.

Thanks for the jump start :D