meatball subs

If you read this blog, I'm sure you've heard me mention Smitten Kitchen before. If not, and you love food, check it out ASAP. She has awesome recipes and takes beautiful photos of her food. This is another recipe that I found on Smitten Kitchen and it is seriously amazing. One of my favorite things to make and eat. It's a pork meatball sub with carmelized onions. Yum right? Believe me, it tastes even better than it sounds! The first time I made it, it took FOREVER - only because it makes a ton of meatballs and I didn't start cooking the onions until the meatballs were almost done. The second time I made them, it took about an hour which isn't so bad. It's definitely worth the time and effort. And if you are in the Philly area, you have to eat them with Sarcone's bread - incredible.

Here's the recipe:

Yields about 24 to 28 2-inch meatballs

Ingredients:

Meatballs
The baguettes or seeded sandwich rolls you’ll use for your sandwiches (see Note above for how to estimate)
2 pound ground meat of your choice (I used pork but have in the past used beef, veal, chicken, turkey or a blend thereof)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 small garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 large egg
Olive oil
4 cups prepared tomato sauce (plus extra if you like a lot of extra sauce)

Caramelized onions
2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt

Assembly
2 cups coarsely shredded Gruyère

Make the meatballs: Split your rolls almost the whole way through, leaving one side attached. Scoop out some of the roll to create a channel for the meatballs to rest in. Grind the bread you pulled out in a food processor or tear it into minuscule bits. You will need 1 1/3 cups or 2 3/4 ounces of fresh breadcrumbs for the meatballs. If you’re not making subs, you can get this same amount of breadcrumbs from 2 to 3 sandwich bread slices. Set rolls aside until later.

Place the fresh breadcrumbs in a large bowl with 3/4 cup warm water and all of the meatball ingredients except for the olive oil and tomato sauce. Combine with a fork, breaking up clumps of meat until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Form mixture into 2-inch meatballs are arrange on a tray. I find wet hands make it easier to form meatballs without them sticking too much.

Heat a generous slick of oil (few tablespoons) in a large saute pan with a lid. Brown meatballs in batches, being careful not to crowd the pan or nudge them before they are nicely browned or they will stick and you’ll leave delicious meatball bits in the pan. These meatballs are soft, so use a gentle hand. Transfer meatballs to a paper towel-lined tray and continue until they are all browned.

Discard the oil and heat your tomato sauce in the pan. Add the meatballs, cover the pan and simmer them on the lowest heat possible for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through.

Caramelize onions: While the meatballs are simmering, you can cook the onions. Heat the olive oil and butter in a heavy large skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion, sprinkle with salt and a little pepper and cook until they’re tender, sweet, and a deep golden brown, stirring occasionally. This takes me about 30 minutes.
**This part does take a while, so I like to start them when you start browning the meatballs**

Assemble subs: Arrange meatballs with sauce in the hollowed-out roll(s). Drape caramelized onions over the top and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Place subs under a broiler or in an oven at top heat to melt the cheese.

dinner by eric

Before I started to enjoy cooking, most of our meals at home were made by Eric. He's definitely the better cook - I'm not afraid to admit it! It's actually really nice and probably much nicer for him now that I cook more often and he gets a break once in a while.

Gnocci is one of his favorite dishes but I've never been a huge fan. But recently I've been enjoying it more and I realized that its not that I don't like it, it's just that I don't like it as an entree. It's great as a side or an appetizer, but just too much if it's my entire meal. This weekend he decided to make gnocci for the first time using Giada's recipe and it turned out SO DELICOUS. Especially with the seared scallops he made to go with it. YUM.



Sweet Potato Gnocci with Sage Brown Butter (modified from Giada's recipe)

Ingredients:

For the Gnocchi:
2 pounds sweet potatoes
2/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/3 cup for the work surface

For the Sage Brown Butter:
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
20 fresh sage leaves
salt
freshly ground black pepper
Directions
For the Gnocchi: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Pierce the sweet potato with a fork. Bake the sweet potatoes until tender and fully cooked, between 40 to 55 minutes depending on size. Cool slightly. Cut in half and scoop the flesh into a large bowl. Mash the sweet potatoes and transfer to a large measuring cup to make sure the sweet potatoes measure about 2 cups. Transfer the mashed sweet potatoes back to the large bowl. Add the ricotta cheese, salt, cinnamon, and pepper and blend until well mixed. Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms. Lightly flour a work surface and place the dough in a ball on the work surface. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls. Roll out each ball into a 1-inch wide rope. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces. Roll the gnocchi over the tines of a fork. Transfer the formed gnocchi to a large baking sheet. Continue with the remaining gnocchi.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the gnocchi in 3 batches and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 5 to 6 minutes. Drain the gnocchi using a slotted spoon onto a baking sheet. Tent with foil to keep warm and continue with the remaining gnocchi.

For the Brown Butter sauce: While the gnocchi are cooking melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted add the sage leaves. Continue to cook, swirling the butter occasionally, until the foam subsides and the milk solids begin to brown. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the cinnamon, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. Careful, the mixture will bubble up. Gently stir the mixture. When the bubbles subside, toss the cooked gnocchi in the brown butter. Transfer the gnocchi to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Seared Scallops

Ingredients:

Scallops
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Directions:

Season scallops with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil and cook scallops til brown. Simplest recipe ever.

We also had a bottle of wine that I've passed by numerous times at the liquor store but never tried (this bottle was a gift):



It was really good! Pleasantly surprised. Will definitley get this bottle again!

never as good as mom's...

My mom is an amazing cook. I never realized it growing up because I was busy being jealous of all the kids that were eating Hamburger Helper and Kraft Mac & Cheese. Now that I'm older, I know better...and I've still never had Hamburger Helper, but I no longer want to! I'm sure I've said this before, but it's so difficult getting a recipe from my mom. She doesn't always know the English names of herbs or veggies and there are rarely exact measurements of things - it's always a little bit of this and little of that. Which results in things not turning out to be nearly as good as when she makes them. And that's exactly what happened when I tried to make her shrimp soup/stew recipe. It's actually a pretty simple recipe with just a few ingredients and although it was still tasty, it didn't taste as good or look as good. Sigh...


lemon grass on the far left, chopped scallions on the top, chopped culantre on the bottom (can be found at an Asian supermarket)



That just doesn't look that good does it? Believe me, it tasted a million times better than it looks but I like my food to look pretty too! When my mom makes it, the broth is more orange-y and the herbs are a brighter green.



You eat it with rice (of course) and this AMAZING spicy chilli sauce that you pour over top. Of everything. Eric will even eat it over plain white rice. We had leftover sauce so I cooked some chicken legs and thighs the next night and ate it with rice. Yum. Also good over fish.

Shrimp Soup/Stew Recipe

Ingredients:

Tamarind Soup Base Mix (can be found at any Asian supermarket)
1/2 a lemon grass stem
Culantre (5 or 6 pieces)
Shrimp (my mom always gets the shrimp with the heads attached - she eats the heads, I don't)
Fish Sauce
3 scallions

Directions:

Bring a pot of water to boil with the lemon grass stem in the water. When it comes to a boil, add the shrimp. Add the herbs when the shrimp look done. Add a tbsp or two (or more to taste) of the tamarind soup base mix and about a tbsp of fish sauce (or more to taste). And you're done!

Spicy Chilli Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

Lime (2)
Fish sauce
Garlic
Whole Thai chilli peppers
Culantre
Scallions

Directions:

Squeeze limes into a bowl. Add about 2 garlic cloves, minced. Depending on how spicy you like it, add 1 or 2 chilli peppers, chopped up. Add about 2 or 3 pieces of the culantre chopped. Add maybe half a scallion, chopped. Add fish sauce - its really hard for me to say how much because I kept adding until it no longer tasted too sour - sorry for the vagueness. Mix all together and enjoy!

roast chicken

I've yet to come across an Ina Garten recipe that I didn't like...and today's recipe is definitely one of my favorites. It's really simple (no hard to find or expensive ingredients here) and there really isn't that much prep work. The only thing is that it takes about 1.5 hrs to cook (depending on the size of the chicken) - but it's worth the wait. I followed her recipe pretty closely - just added some mushrooms - would also be great with potatoes or butternut squash. Ate it with some bread and a green salad - delicious dinner!

Ingredients:

1 5-6 lbs roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 large yellow onion thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2" chunks
1 bulb fennel, tops removed, cut into wedges
Olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Removed the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

amada

Last week I expressed my love of Jose Garces and his newest restaurant JG Domestic. Today, I'm continuing the lovefest and talking about his first restaurant in Philly - Amada. Amada pretty much started the tapas trend here in Philly and set a pretty high standard - and still continues to do so. It's a wonderful restaurant to go to for a delicious (Spanish) meal or to stop in to grab a drink and some snacks. And it doesn't hurt that the space is beautiful - it's hard to see all the great details in the space through photos - you'll need to stop in to see for yourself...


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I stopped in the other day with a friend to have a couple of drinks and a couple of dishes. But a couple dishes turned into 5, and by the time we left I was pretty full. And very happy.

We started with some cocktails - I had a "Dark Habits" - lime, strawberries and gin. Tasty, but I preferred Coll's choice - "Tie Me Up Tie Me Down". It had lemon, vodka and rosemary. I was nervous that the rosemary would be overpowering but it was perfect.



Complimentary dish of tortilla-like chips and dip/spread that tasted somewhat fishy and very yummy:



Alcachofas y setas - Spanish flatbread with artichoke, wild mushrooms, black truffles and manchego:



Gambas al ajillo - garlic shrimp. So good we had to order extra bread to soak up the garlic oil:



Madre e hijo - chicken breast with fried egg, mojama and truffles. I'm a sucker for anything with an egg on top:



We had the leche frita - fried vanilla cream, chocolate hazelnut sauce, hazelnut ice cream - for dessert. But we ate it so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to photograph - I seem to have this problem with Jose Garces's desserts! It was delicious!!

jg domestic

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I heart Jose Garces. He has really well designed restaurants, makes amazing food and also seems like a really nice guy. I've now been to every restaurant he's opened in Philly and I've only been dissapointed once - and it wasn't even with the food. It was the house margarita at Distrito - it's not your typical margarita - wasn't tart at all. Maybe if it wasn't called a margarita and I was expecting something completely different, I wouldn't have been so dissapointed...Anyways, I went to his newest restaurant,JG Domestic, with some friends last week and knew I would have a good meal but didn't realize just how good it would be! It was the perfect combination of interesting and cool decor, fantastic food and awesome company. The photos that I took of the space with my iphone just don't do it justice, so I found better images online:


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If you're not familiar, it's located on the 1st level of the Cira Center - basically in the lobby. They did a great job creating an intimate space within such a large and open area. It has a very natural, organic feel - very fitting with the type of food they offer. They specialize in the "season’s best from American growers, making available to you ingredients at their peak: premium pastured meats, farm fresh vegetables, and organic dairy". Their menu consists of smaller plates - sort of like tapas but a bit larger. The idea is to order a bunch of different plates and everything is served family style.

Our meal started with complimentary bread. How adorable is the little pan that it came in? And it was delicious.



Next came the wood oven flatbread topped with chanterelles, black truffles, chedder and egg yolk. Yes, it was as good as it sounds:



Then we got the blue crab gratin. C'mon, can you really go wrong with crab?



Our meat dishes came next - the wild boar rack on the left and the Adobe rubbed ribeye on the right. I've been eating a lot of wild boar lately and I like it! This dish had a mustard glaze and came with maple grits (yum!). And the ribeye - so fatty and delicious. Some people think its gross to eat fat, but it's the best part!!



And more meat: rabbit and duck. I was a bit nervous about the rabbit - I've never had it before and I'm not a huge fan of game-y meats. But I was assured that it tasted just like chicken, so I gave it a try. And it tastes just like chicken! Well, at least the loin did. There were parts that were definitely more game-y than others, but in general it was tasty. The duck was probably my favorite dish of the night. There were 3 parts of the duck prepared - the breast, duck confit made with the leg and seared foie gras. I wish I had this entire dish to myself!



We decided to be a little healthy and ordered a veggie dish...and it was probably the richest dish of the night. Hey, at least we tried. We got the crosnes which came with potato dumplings and artichokes. I had never heard of crosnes before and to be honest they look pretty gross - like worms. But they're not worms - they're a tuber and pretty good. Especially with potato dumplings and artichokes. And butter. A lot of butter.



By this point, I was pretty stuffed and definitley would've been happy without dessert. Until I saw a nearby table with beignets. We ate them so fast I didn't even get a chance to take a photo! SOOOO GOOOOOOOOD.