Saturday Night Sunday Night Dinner!

Sup cuz! Here I am in Minnesota, it sure is nice to be home. Tomorrow is Momma's birthday, and I cooked tonight so we can go out tomorrow. Mom has a fantastic kitchen to cook in, and Mom is the whole reason I love to cook so much, so tonight was a real treat.

Menu:

Olive tapenade bruschetta

Duck ragu with polenta

Tomato and cucumber salad

Totally rad. Here's what you do:

The bruschetta is a super tasty appetizer. Take some pitted kalamata olives (I'd say a half cup) and throw them in the food processor. Pulse a few times. Next add one clove of chopped garlic, two tablespoons of chopped fresh basil, two tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley, one tablespoon of fresh thyme, one tablespoon of lemon zest, a handful of capers, some ground pepper, and about a half of a cup of olive oil. Put everything but the olive oil in the food processor and pulse. Keep the mix going and stream in the olive oil, then taste for seasoning. Meanwhilst, toast some sliced ciabatta bread, then spread the tapenade on the warm bread, put a dollop of ricotta cheese, and top that beauty off with some drizzled olive oil. En - effing- joy.

Take the help where you can get it - Costco sells a half duck that is fully cooked. It is so delicious and so versatile. You can roast it in an oven until it is heated through and pour the orange sauce that comes with it on it. ORRRR you can make duck ragu. Totally up to yous. For the ragu, heat a three count of olive oil in a sauce pan and get it nice and hot. Put the duck in skin side down and brown it: render some of that delicious, precious duck fat. Uhhhh, duck fat.....Back on track. Once some good fat has rendered, take the duck out of the pan and set it aside. Chop one onion and throw into the pan with the duck fat, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and some salt/pepper. Get that nice and browned (10 minutes), and toss in a good tablespoon of fresh rosemary and two cloves of chopped garlic. Cook that for a few minutes longer, and then deglaze with 1/2 cup of red wine (or white, whatevs. I used white because I didn't have red). After the wine cooks down for a few minutes, toss in one fourteen ounce can of diced tomatoes and 2 cups of chicken stock. Let that simmer for at least an hour so the flavor can develop. Your next step involves using one of my favorite kitchen tools: the immersion blender. Get one. Now. I'll wait.

Sweet, that's a rad new immersion blender. My pal Emeril and I call it a boat motor. Stick that sucker in the pot with the ragu and blend away. This will puree and thicken your ragu. Set it back on simmer, and shred up that duck that you heated up earlier, then throw the shredded meat (sans skin, boo) into the pot with the ragu, and set to low. Finish that pot of love with three or four heaping tablespoons of ricotta cheese.

Now it's time to make that polenta! I freaking love polenta, it's delicious, easy to make and has a great texture. Not everyone is a giant polenta fan, so if you're not, you could totally make some linguine or pappardelle with this.

But I think you should man up and make the polenta. My mom made it tonight, and she's super cool. One cup water, and one cup half/half (Sunday night diiiiiiinnnnnerrrrrrrrr) into a saucepan with a teaspoon of salt and bring that shiznat to a boil. Throw in a half cup of corn meal and whisk your life away. Whisk, I say! Whisk until it thickens, and then switch to a wooden spoon. Guess what's next? Butter! Woot! Put a pat of butter in the polenta with some freshly ground pepper.

This is where my Aunt Carol lent a hand. She chopped up some garden fresh tomatoes and a giant cucumber from Farmer Rog's garden. Next she added some salt, pepper, a few dashes of balsamic vinegar and some fresh basil. Done, and delish.

Serve the ragu over the polenta with the tomatoes and cucumber salad and BOOM. Super awesome Saturday Sunday Night Dinner. Boosh.

Dinner from Sunday Night Past....

Hi friends! Alas, I cannot make Sunday Night Dinner tonight, gots to go sling some ale. But do not fret! You will be visited by the ghost of a Sunday Night Dinner past....but you won't be scared. You will become the mayor of Delicious Town.

Menu:

Brisket burgers with umami mushrooms, caramelized onions, avocado, and Cabot white cheddah

Artichoke-Zucchini Gratin

Mache and Heirloom tomato Salad with a mustard vinaigrette

I know, right? It was a tasty one. The brisket for the burgers is clutch, I urge you all to try it. Go to Whole Foods or Bristol Farms or Byerly's (what up, MN peeps!) and head on over to the meat counter. Ask for a pound of brisket and have them grind it for you. I have a grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, and the Whole Foods butcher was cranky, so I just brought the brisket home and ground it myself (read: Adam ground it; that's a boy's job).

To make the brisket patties, I put the ground brisket in a mixing bowl with a few squeezes of ketchup, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, some salt/pepper, and one egg to bind them all. Use your hands here, guys - the are your best tools. Get everything nice and incorporated, but don't overwork the meat. Heh. Divide the meat into four and form into patties and refrigerate until you're ready to grill.

The Artichoke/Zucchini Gratin is pretty tasty - and a healthier alternative to delicious fries. It is a Giada De Laurentiis recipe, but I changed it just slightly as so to feed four people. For the artichokes, don't be scrrrd: you do not need to use fresh artichokes. Most grocery stores have them in the freezer section. Just let them thaw before you use them so that they don't steam when you saute them. So, I pre heated the oven to 450 degrees. As it heated, I threw the entire bag of thawed frozen artichoke hearts (it was almost a pound) in a skillet with a three-count of olive oil, three zucchinis that i roughly chopped, three cloves of chopped garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, and a pinch of red pepper flake. I got the veggies to brown a bit, and then added to the pan 1/2 cup of chicken broth and 1/4 cup of dry Marsala wine. I let that simmer for another couple of minutes, then transferred the mixture to my gratin pan (any shallow roasting pan will do here). Meanwhile, I melted some....butter! 2 tablespoons and then mixed it with 1/3 cup bread crumbs and 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese and poured in on the vegetables for a yummy, crusty topping. Into the oven until it turned golden brown, it took about 15 minutes. Dude. So good.

For the salad, I got some Mache, from Whole Foods - which I love. I heart it. I really like soft lettuces like mache and butter lettuce. Give them a go. I made a quick vinaigrette with mustard, red wine vinegar, a splash of white wine, salt/pepper and olive oil. I like to whisk the vinaigrette in the bottom of the salad bowl, then pile the greens on top. That way you can toss it right before serving, and the lettuce won't wilt. I also added chopped heirloom tomatoes, which were so sweet and delicious. Big step for me here, as I am usually only a fan of tomatoes in their sauce form. I'm such a grown up.

Okay - burger toppings. If you read last week's dinner, I do so love caramelized onions. I made these in the same way: two to three count of olive oil in the pan with a sliced onion with some salt/pepper. Get some good color on those boys and deglaze the pan with some white wine. Take the onions out and set aside, you're going to use this same pan to cook the mushrooms.

Time for umami mushrooms! I wear very fancy pants, by the way. Just kidding. Adam and his brother wear fancy pants - these mushrooms were their idear. So I took 10 or so crimini mushrooms and cleaned them (do NOT wash these, just brush the tops with a damp cloth; or don't if you like super rubbery mushrooms) and quartered them. I let them marinate during the burger and artichoke prep in some soy sauce, some Worcestershire sauce (five or so good shakes of the bottle of each), a small palmful of dried thyme, and some salt/pepper. After the onions are caramelized and out of the pan, pour the mushrooms and the marinade in, and cook those delicious fellas until they are browned but not too dry.

Sliced avocado and some Cabot white cheddar rounded out these outstanding, melt in your mouth burgers. Since grilling is also a boy's job, I sent Adam down to our apartment community's grill. He had gone down about ten minutes earlier to clean and heat the grill. When he went down there with the the meat and the ciabatta buns, a lovely neighbor of ours had totally bogarted the grill that Adam had prepped. Had it ENTIRELY covered . Uh, hello? Did you think that this grill was prepped just for you? Ah, apartment living. My patient fella shot the duder some laser beam looks and just prepped another grill. Sigh.

Anyhoosers, the burgers were cooked medium for me and medium well for those who can't handle a little pink in their burgers. Not naming names. The brisket was like butter, so juicy and melty and you can really tell the difference when it is freshly ground. With all of the toppings and side dishes, this was a really special meal. So tasty and refreshing on a beautiful, warm Sunday night. Try it tonight! Let me know how it goes!

-D

First Sunday Night Dinner!

Tonight's menu: Roasted pork tenderloin, caramelized onion mashed potatoes, and sauteed spinach. Awwwww damn.

Hi guys! I've been making Sunday Night Dinner for a while now, so I wanted to share my weekly meals in the hopes of spreading this tradition worldwide! Lofty goals, children. We must have lofty goals.

Okay tonight - I went with the pork tenderloin. Not generally a favorite protein of mine, as I've always been dissatisfied with the moisture content. Thanks to my dear friend Ina Garten, I tried a method of roasting the tenderloin that I hadn't done before. Honestly I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I guess that's why she is the Barefoot Contessa. It is a tried and true steak cooking method of sear-then-oven roast.

So. Tenderloin. I overcame my reservations and got a beautiful looking tenderloin from Ralph's for under $6. Dude. This loin comfortably fed my fella and I with plenty of leftovers - it probably could have fed four people. I went with Ina's marinade as a guideline: I threw the tenderloin in a freezer bag with the zest of one lemon, the juice of two lemons (and I put the husks in the bag as well), a tablespoon of dijon mustard, four cloves of chopped garlic, three sprigs of chopped fresh rosemary, a palmful of dried thyme (I would have preferred fresh, but Ralph's didn't have it, c'est la vie), a six count of olive oil (bar talk - I have a bar pour spout on my olive oil bottle, quickly turn it upside down to pour and count to six), a good pinch of kosher salt and some ground pepper. I squeezed and tossed the bag around (after sealing, doy) to fully coat the tenderloin. Let that sucker marinate for at least two hours - it's not a Sunday Night Dinner if you can do this quickly!

Towards the end of the two hours, I began to caramelize some onions for my caramelized onion mashed taters. I thinly sliced half an onion and threw it in a pan with a two count of olive oil and some salt and pepper. I let the onions get some color, and deglazed the pan with some sauvignon blanc. It took probably twenty minutes total. Onions out, set aside. Meanwhile, I threw some quartered new po-tay-toes in a pot of water with two cloves of garlic that I smashed. Brought that to a boil until tender, drained, and immediately put the hot potatoes and garlic back into the pot. Now comes the butter. Remember, kids, it's Sunday Night Dinner; this is no time to skimp on the butter. Two tablespoons into the pot. What. Don't judge. Throw on the cover and let that beautiful butter melt. After melted, mash those suckers with a little milk or half and half, salt, pepper, and your beautifully caramelized onions. Shoooot. Put the cover back on and keep it warm until you are ready to eat.

Multi tasking here! While your taters are going, heat a cast iron or other oven safe pan over medium high heat with a two to three count of olive oil. When the oil is good and hot, take your tenderloin out of the marinade and carefully place in the hot pan. That sizzle is golden. I browned the tenderloin all around with a little more salt and pepper to form a nice, moisture locking crust. Don't blacken, just get a nice brown crust. The use of a meat thermometer at this point is clutch. I have one that is digital, so the readout stays out of the oven, whilst the pin and the connected cord go into the oven. Skewer that sucker in the thickest point and put the entire pan into the oven. You want the thickest part of the tenderloin to be at 137 degrees. When it reaches that point, put away your fear and take it out of the oven. Out, I say! Out of the oven and out of the pan, and for the love of all things holy, let. it. rest. For at least five minutes. All of those juices that you locked in by searing need to be redistributed.

While the meat was resting, my adorable sous chef made some sauteed spinach: a two count of olive oil in the pan that I caramelized the onions in with some chopped garlic. Let the garlic cook for thirty seconds to flavor the oil and toss three to four good handfuls of fresh spinach in. Add some S and P and let the spinach wilt, it really should take no more than five minutes. I like to keep a bit of crunch to the sauteed spinach.

Oh man, all of this work is what a Sunday night dinner is all about. The tenderloin was sliced on an angle. The middle was pink - this is perfect! The ends were more well done, so choose to eat which portion you like. Me, I thought the pink center was perfect and moist, and not the chewy toughness that I was expecting. It was like butter. You may have realized I do so enjoy butter. The caramelized mashed potatoes and the sauteed spinach were really nice compliments, along with my glass of sauvignon blanc. We had some crusty french bread and butter too, because dammit: it's Sunday night. It's your night to splurge.

Try it, eat up, and enjoy. Don't be afraid of the juicy pink center of the tenderloin. Don't be afraid of the tenderloin, period, like I was! And please, kids, don't skimp on the butter. It's what Sunday nights were meant for.

-D