Mellow Yellow Monday #66

It's Mellow Yellow Monday, usually I post something pretty, in a house full of men pretty is hard to find, but today well you'll see...



I can honestly say, I'm shocked. This is the breakfast, lunch, or supper of my eldest son. The pain in the neck eater. For 23years I had to come up with some awesome meals to please that pain, and here he is eating poutine, and coke for breakfast. I worried about nutrition, and vitamins and the absorption of all the nutrients in the foods I gave him, and acne and allergies , you name it I worried. The minute I'm not cooking for him, look what he replaces me with... KIDS!!!!!!

Good Friday eats.

I know this will have little to do with a recipe, but our Polish/Catholic Easter traditions sure do have a lot to do with food, and my mothers interpretation of what we're eating. After Ash Wednesday, some forty days, my mother would make us fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. I think now that the Wednesday bit was her not wanting to think of something to cook. I guess pleasing 6 members of the family was quite a challenge. You never said you didn't like something and then she would make you something else, like at my house, you just ate it. If my father was working afternoon shift,which he often did, we would get these unusual concoctions, like sardines with onions, or mustard sandwiches we gobbled them up, my husband would DIE if I served him a plate of onions. So when my family turns their nose up when I serve them Rainbow Trout, I say fooey to you. The option is sardines and onions. Today being Good Friday, we do fast or abstain, not too much though, we'll be having pierogi for supper, just no meat. I usually do "Blackened Sole, but since my gourmet isn't going to be home to eat it, I'm sticking with pierogi. I will however include the recipe.

Blackened Sole with Internal Damnation Sauce


Even the most innocent "soles" will feel the heat from this succulent seafood. This hot dish will spice up your weekend.

Ingredients:
Internal Damnation Sauce:
• 1 lb. fresh hot red peppers, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 cups distilled white vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 drop liquid smoke
Blackening seasoning:
• 1 teaspoon each ground white pepper and ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons each dried thyme and dried marjoram
• 1 tablespoon each garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt, and cayenne
• 4 tablespoons paprika
Sole:
• 4 large filets of sole
• 1 stick melted butter

Directions:
1. Combine peppers, garlic, vinegar, salt and liquid smoke in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Remove pepper mixture from heat and blend in 2-3 batches until smooth, then strain into a clean glass jar and set aside to cool. Cover and refrigerate until use
3. Combine and blend seasoning ingredients and set aside.
4. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat.
5. Turn on the ventilator hood fan, open the windows and disconnect the smoke alarms. Heat a large cast iron skillet over high heat for 8-10 minutes until hotter than hell.
6. Rinse the sole in water and blot dry. Brush both sides of the filets with melted butter and coat well with seasoning mix.
7. Carefully lay the filets two at a time into the hot pan and cook for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes on each side. Then lay sole in a pool of Internal Damnation Sauce and get ready to feel the burn.

If this seems like a lot of work to you, it is. But, I always tried to get that pain in the neck of my eldest son to eat, he was so skinny, so when he took an interest in food, I jumped on it. He's the one not going to be home today. I think what appealed to my guys was the play on words for this recipe and how we should eat it on Good Friday, annoying little pains that they are.

They found this recipe on the food network, Dinner & a Movie. I hate to tell them this but if they lived in my mother's house they wouldn't be watching television and awful movies on Good Friday either. I told them they didn't have to worry about their "soles" as I was saving them a seat REALLY close to "the fire".

Roasted Garlic and Artichoke Pizza

This is a recipe from The Barn School of Cooking. Pizza without tomato sauce!


Roasted Garlic and Artichoke Pizza

Pizza dough for a 12- inch pizza
1 tsp. hot pepper flakes
1 head roasted garlic*
1 c. grated Asiago cheese
½ c. chopped prosciutto (approx. 50 gr.)
1 398 ml. can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered.

Gently work pepper flakes into pizza dough (This is store bought pizza dough) Roll out dough into 12 inch circle. Place dough on greased pizza pan.

Spread garlic on dough and top with ½ c. Assiago cheese and all the prosciutto. Arrange artichoke hearts on top, sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake at 500 degrees for 12 – 15 min. or until crust is golden brown.

Makes 2 or 3 main course servings or 12 appetizers.

*Roasted Garlic . To roast garlic, cut top off pointed end of garlic bulbs. Place on shiny side of aluminum foil and wrap. Bake at 400degree for 1 hour or until tender. Once cooled, squeeze pulp from garlic bulb. Can be frozen for up to 3 months.


If you are like me, you will not put the oven on for an hour at 400 degrees, for just one head of garlic. So, I usually plan this meal and schedule it in during one of the days that I have a roast in or I'm baking for the whole day. With Easter fast approaching, I know I will be baking, so this pizza is usually made for me, (my son and husband don't like something or other on the pizza, too bad, it's delicious.) I usually made it for us as we were painting eggs on Wednesday night, and they got to have a pizza with their own toppings on it. Remember the garlic flavor subsides and it's quite sweet after roasting. I've actually skipped the prosciutto, added more artichokes and loved it. Sasha loves roasted garlic in his potatoes. I think I might give the dough a try with a recipe from my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes. Enjoy

Polenta Cubes with Goat Cheese Veg. Sauce

Polenta Cubes

13 in by 9 inch cookie sheet with sides, sprayed with vegetable spray.
2cups. water
1 cup cornmeal
2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic

In a deep saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add garlic. Reduce heat to low and gradually whisk in cormneal. Pay attention to this or you'll get lumps. Cook 5 minutes, stirring all the while. Stir in Parmesan. Pour out onto baking sheet, smooth out. Chill.

Sauce

2tsp. vegetable oil
2tsp. minced garlic
2cups chopped leeks
2 cups. red bell peppers
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
2/3 cups chopped softened sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 c. sliced black olives
2tsp. dried basil
4oz. goat cheese crumbled
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

In a large nonstick saucepan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add garlic, leeks, and red peppers: cook 5 to 8 minutes until soft and slightly browned. Stir in vegetable stock, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and basil. Reduce heat to medium, cove and cook 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut cooled polenta into 1/2 inch squares. Stir cheese and balsamic vinegar into sauce until cheese melts. Stir in polenta cubes, cook, stirring 4 minutes or until heated through. Serve immediately.

In a hurry! Pour your hot palenta into individual shallow pasta bowls and then just top with the sauce. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM. good.

I have reheated by frying the polenta cubes (without the sauce) and then topping with sauce. * I personally do not like balsamic vinegar and have left it out with acceptable results.