Artichokes cooked in Olive Oil

To go with my Branzino I decided to make something from the much neglected side dish chapter. Considering that any of the recipes would go perfect with the fish, I went with some baby artichokes from my local Whole Foods Market. 

Many chefs, in an attempt to keep their diners interest and attention put lots of different components on the plate. Batali has a good thing going at Babbo by offering an array of side dishes, allowing the diner to be the director of the meal. This way, one can have several different plates with out over stuffing themselves and each plate has just what it needs. 

Much of the the recipes here come from the local farmers market and so should ours. 

My backup camera crew (i.e. my wife) was busy dress shopping so I wasn't able to get too many action shots of the artichoke preparation. Artichokes brown super fast so I wasted no time in prepping them. There is a great video from Mario on his YouTube channel which goes into detail about how to prepare the artichokes for cooking. The link for the video is here:

 http://youtu.be/pXfbWptoLmE

Once the artichokes were trimmed and quartered, I put them in a saucepan and added oil, mint, red pepper flakes, and garlic. The pan is brought up to a boil. Once boiling, the artichokes are taken off the heat to cool for about 15 minutes. 

The artichokes just need to be seasoned and they are ready for eating. 

The artichokes were just cooked through. The mint and garlic really come through on the palette with just a hint of spice. The leftover oil can be saved to make a very flavorful vinaigrette. Artichokes aren't my favorite vegetable, but I enjoyed the way Mario had me prepare them. 

Next up I make some more fish. Or maybe pasta. Oh god I don't know, there are so many good options in this store. Until next time... 

Whole Roasted Branzino with Braised Fennel and Lemon Oregano Jam

It's hard to believe that a full year has passed from the start of this blog until now. That's right, Babbo At Home is celebrating its first birthday. It's amazing at how quickly time passes. 

I can remember the excitement as I rolled out and cut the pappardelle from the first post. It seemed like a really daunting project at the time to dive into, and to a certain degree it still does, but now with roughly a third of the recipes in the cookbook finished I am filled with a tremendous sense of accomplishment, knowledge, and enrichment. Oh, and don't forget excitement, because there is still a ton of cool stuff to do from this cookbook. 

I regret that as of lately I have not been able to give this blog as much of my attention as I would prefer. Work has been just murder lately. Long days have turned into even longer weeks which leaves less free time to pursue my orange-clogged kitchen debauchery. 

Regardless of when I am finished, it's all about quality versus quantity and enjoying the whole process while learning a little something along the way. And learning is exactly what I've done this year. 

Blogging this past year has allowed me to build upon my culinary foundation, as I learn different approaches to my chosen craft, under the guidance of a master chef within the familiar confines of my home kitchen. I am really starting to get a feel for how Mario creates an amazing dining experience at Babbo in NYC and how that can be recreated, at least at a micro level, in our home. 

Babbo is rated at one Michelin star. Quite an accomplishment for any restaurant. And when I think of dishes that represent Michelin quality, the subject of this post is what comes to mind. Why? Probably because this is a dish that is meant to be shared between two people, finished table-side, and carefully plated with a snooty looking well-dressed server who carefully removes the fish from the bone using a spoon and fork in one hand and placing it ever so delicately on your dinner plate as the rest of the patrons in the restaurant gawk at you like you're Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. 

Making this Branzino was a first for me not only because I have never tried this variety of fish  but I have never roasted and served a whole fish before. In the recipe note, Mario mentions that this is the way that Italians cook their fish most often. Again, knowing that fish have bones they are not freaked out by them when they cook their fish this way. And doing so helps to give the fish the best flavor possible. Mario has us roasting this in the oven but in a coastal town in Italy we would very likely cook it whole like this on a grill. Let's get started. 

First we need to make the lemon oregano jam. I take a bunch of lemons, remove the seeds, and cut them into eight pieces. The pieces then go into the bowl of a food processor along with salt, pepper, sugar, oregano leaves, and marjoram leaves. 

This mixture is pulsed in the processor and then extra-virgin olive oil is slowly drizzled in to emulsify the jam into a honey-like consistency. 

Next, the oven gets preheated to 450° and I start prepping the Branzino. As you can see from this picture below, I found some beautiful looking Branzino at my local Whole Foods Market. The fish needs to have the fins and gills removed. 

In a mixing bowl I combined some shaved fennel, thyme, oregano, olives, and salt-and-pepper. 

This mixture is then going to be stuffed inside the seasoned cavity of the fish. Once this is done I can let my fish hang out in the refrigerator for a little bit as I am not quite ready for it. 

Next up on the list is to prep the fennel. I take some fennel that has been quartered and lay it in a single layer in an ovenproof pan. I add some white wine to cover, season it with salt pepper, and braise it in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. It gets removed and then is allowed to cool. 

I then heat up a sauté pan with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil until nearly smoking. I add the braised fennel quarters with a little bit of sugar and cook making sure to stir it until the fennel is a light golden brown. 

While this is going on I drizzle the fish with a little bit of olive oil and put it in the oven to roast until the fish is just cooked through. In my oven it took me about 20 minutes to get a perfect result. 

All of my components for this dish are now finished. The picture of the plating that Mario published with this recipe leaves much to be desired in my opinion. And considering that it would need to be broken down to be served for dinner anyway, I decided to go for a more formal plating. I carefully removed the Branzino fillet off the bone and placed a few of the braised fennel quarters on the plate with a spoonful of the lemon oregano jam. 

Wow. Another home run. 

The fish was perfectly moist and had a really wonderful mild flavor. The fennel had just enough sweetness from the caramelization in the sauté pan. But what really sold the dish for me was the jam. It packed a very powerful lemony punch that when combined with the fish, was just a naturally perfect accompaniment. Totally making this again. What a perfect way to say Happy Birthday. 

Until next time...

Blood Orange Cosmopolitan

So I walk through the front door of my local Whole Foods Market and the very first display that I see is a pile of some beautiful blood oranges. Now that I'm officially a card-carrying foodie I think to myself, 'I'm using these for something'. So why not make a drink?

The first chapter of The Babbo Cookbook contains some of Mario's favorite mixed drinks, many of which are staples at Babbo itself. Any good restaurant should have some damn good mixed drinks and wine, especially one in the center of New York City that has earned a Michelin star. 

Mario's drink philosophy is that if you're trying to re-create a five-star meal at home with all of the minute details planned much in advanced, an opportunity presents itself to create a unique welcoming drink to greet your guests with. And I agree.

Having said that, I'm just not a drinker. Don't get me wrong, I love a cold beer in the summer and a nice full-bodied red anytime, but I never touch hard liquor, except for the NyQuil that I need to knock me out when I'm sick. Which is why of all of the chapters in the cookbook, this one will be the one that I kind of dread. 

The drinks in this cookbook are Italian inspired with an American twist. Italians love their sweets, especially anything that takes advantage of local, fresh, and in season fruit. And this drink certainly meets that criteria. 

Here are the ingredients (do they use the term 'ingredients' with drinks?):

Look at how beautiful these blood oranges are. These should make a great drink. 

Let's make this. You combine orange-flavored vodka, Cointreau,fresh lime juice, and fresh blood orange juice in a chilled shaker. 

Then you try and look cool like you know how to bartend. 

Next the drink gets poured into a chilled martini glass and garnished with an orange twist. Not being a drinker I don't have a martini glass set, perhaps I will invest in some later on. I just used a champagne flute. As Mario points out, half of the fun of having a drink is putting it into a sexy glass. 

Now for the tasting...

My wife took one sip and was good. Her drinking days ended with college graduation. I actually finished it. Slowly of course. It's definitely what my colleagues would call a 'girly drink'. I found it to be simply, not bad. 

I bought small bottles of the liquor so that I don't feel guilty letting it fester on the shelf until my 'alchy' friends come over to help themselves. Otherwise it could get a little pricey, and I want that money to go towards some of the delicious ingredients used in the book, some of which I haven't tried yet. Maybe that'll be my inspiration for the next post.

Until next time...

Two-Minute Calamari Sicilian Lifeguard Style

Like Mario, I too have never met a Sicilian lifeguard, nor do I foresee myself ever meeting one in the near future. But our esteemed author felt that if one was to cook up a pot of calamari, this, as explained in this newest post, is how they would do it. 

Sicily is about as southern italian as you can get. So southern that geographically it is closer to Tunisia and Morocco than Milan. So the inspiration for this dish combined the spice of Sicilian food with the sweet ingredients of Northern Africa. 

I wanted to save this dish for the summer to match the warm climate and spicy food of Sicily, but with all of the single digit weather up here lately, I needed something to heat me up and make me long for warmer days.  

Calamari is not one of my favorite fish in the world either, mainly because it's so hard to find a place that can cook it properly. Thirty seconds too little or too much and the calamari may as well be rubber bands. Many restaurants around my neck of the woods bread and fry the tubes and tentacles and offer a tomato based dipping sauce. Regardless of how it is prepared, this Italian staple is a great fish to add to your repertoire. Mastering it's cookery will impress any dinner guest without killing your food budget. And because it cooks so quickly, it makes a perfect meal option for even the busiest of food snobs. 

Checking my ingredients, I see that the only real prep that i need for this recipe is to slice a few scallions, cut the calamari tubes into 1/4 inch rounds, and halve the tentacles.

I also need another batch of Mario's basic tomato sauce. This should be no problem for you following along with me at home because you made that big batch of sauce that I told you to make last week right? I saved what I had left from the last recipe in this blog series so I'm ready to cook. And the cooking will be quick. Surprisingly quick. 

I start by boiling some salted water and add Israeli couscous, cooking for two minutes and then blanching in an ice bath. 

Next I grab my sauté pan and heat olive oil until smoking. I then add pine nuts, currants, caperberries, and red pepper flakes and sauté until the pine nuts are golden brown. 

I now add the tomato sauce and couscous and boil. 

The calamari is now ready to be thrown into my sauté pan. It only needs two to three minutes to cook, or until the calamari turns opaque. I adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. 

The dish is now ready to be plated with some sliced fresh scallions. 

Is that all? Is that really all I have to do? Easy peasy. 

I loved the taste and texture of the couscous with the calamari. There was a bit of a kick from the pepper flakes but nothing too overwhelming. When I watched Mario make this on YouTube with Eric Ripert, he added the jalapeño pesto that I made in the last recipe. I should have added that to this dish for more heat. The flavor would have elevated this recipe from an 8 to a 10. Still, you've got to love how simple it was to put this together. 

The next post is inspired entirely but my recent visit to Whole Foods Market. In fact, the main ingredient jumped out at me as soon as I walked through the front door. Until next time....

Baccala Mezzalune with Golden Tomatoes and Green Olives

Despite all of the rumors, I am still alive. I will say, though, it was a close one. In between my last blog entry and this one I have lived through 'Snow-maggeddon' or 'Snow-pocalypse', got crazy sick not once but twice to where my taste buds were nearly dead, and have snow-blowed measurable snow more times than I care to count. But it's great to be back. 

So far, my new year's resolution of four posts a month and 50 recipes completed by March is not looking so good. Two posts in two months is a poor showing. I need to get working here. The idea is not about rushing to get this project over with, but I do have a dinner at Babbo that my wife promised upon completion, which I would like to attend before 2077. 

I'm going to continue with the last posts main ingredient, baccala. I froze the left-over fish for this very purpose. I'm hoping that this recipe makes me love salt cod, because so far I'm not much of a fan. 

Looking at the mise-en-place for this recipe I see that I once again get to make the fresh pasta recipe. I used my KitchenAid mixer instead of the well method this time and it came out just fine. Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer using the well method. 

Next up is to make the jalapeño pesto that goes into the filling for the pasta. This is another signature Batali recipe that I've been dying to try. It's also used in a few other recipes throughout the book. It's easy to make so I thought that I would include the prep work here instead of devoting an entire post to it. 

In a food processor I combine jalapeños, sliced almonds, and a diced red onion. It gets pulsed until puréed, then I drizzle in some extra-virgin olive oil to emulsify. The key point to making this pesto pop is to leave the pepper seeds in to give it the heat. 

The pesto tastes amazing, and now I need a batch of tomato sauce. I've already covered the making of this in a previous post so I won't waste any blog real estate covering it again. 

Now I can begin actually making the recipe. Mezzalune refers to the shape of the pasta meaning 'half-moon' in Italian. The filling is almost classic Portuguese. I start by breaking the baccala into small chunks and add it to a sauce pan with diced potatoes, the pesto, water, and milk. This gets simmered until tender enough to resemble a thick Ragu. Once finished, the filling gets chilled. 

Next I get to roll out the pasta dough into thin sheets using my new pasta rolling set for the KitchenAid that my wife got me for Christmas. OMG it's so much easier to make pasta now! 

I now use a round biscuit cutter to cut circles out of the dough, put a spoonful of the cod filling in each circle, and fold them all in half to resemble a half moon. Mario notes that you'll want a tight seal on these because any open space will allow the pasta cooking water to get in and destroy your rav's. 

Speaking of pasta water, I put a pot on the stove and bring it to a boil. 

I then put a sauté pan on high heat and put in some olive oil and cook the golden tomatoes and green olives until the tomatoes start to burst. 

Next, some of the tomato sauce goes in the pan while I drop the mezzalune in the boiling water. They should only need about four minutes to cook being fresh pasta and all. 

The mezzalune are now done and I toss them in the sauté pan and add more extra-virgin olive oil and shredded parsley to the mix off the heat and toss. 

Time to plate. 

The smell is amazing. 

Okay Mario you have converted me. I am now a fan of salt cod. 

My wife and I loved these pastas. There was the saltiness of the cod, brininess of the olives, acid from the tomatoes, and just a slight kick from the addition of the jalapeño pesto. The smell from these cooking brought me back to the dining room of my great-grandmother's house all over again. Outstanding!

I am keeping some of these in my freezer for dinners. The prep involved in making this particular shape of ravioli was a little labor intensive, so if I had to do it over I would probably make a different shape. But all together, this was an amazing recipe!

I don't want to make any food promises for my next post that I can't keep right now, so I'll leave by saying that the next post will be.....a surprise. Until next time... 

Marinated Baccala with Baby Fennel and Aceto Tradizionale

My great-grandparents immigrated to this country from Portugal many moons ago. I never had the chance to meet my great-grandfather because he passed away before I was born. But I remember stopping over to my great-grandmother's house as a child, usually right after seeing my grandmother who lived just up the street. 

My brother and I loved going over to see her because she always had treats for us, mainly cookies and Tang (hey, we were easy to please back then). But she also had plenty of snacks for any of the adults in the family that would pop over unexpectedly too.  

She was famous for her rice pudding, which to this day has yet to be duplicated exactly by anyone. She could make a killer vinaigrette. And she used a Portuguese staple, baccala, the main ingredient in this next recipe, to make her amazing cod-fish fritters which always went fast. 

Sundays used to be the day where everyone in the family would drop in to feast on her traditional Portuguese cooking, my grandfather's homemade wine, and to catch up on family gossip. Her cooking was by feel and sight, with no measuring, and it came out perfect and consistent every time, something that everyone can envy, chef or not. Pretty impressive for a woman that joined my great-grandfather in marriage and calling a new land home at the young age of 17. She kept on cooking until her passing well into her eighties. Seeing an ingredient like baccala in the book makes me nostalgic and I hope that Mario's preparation and handling of this ingredient pays her the homage that she deserves. 

I want to get started with the prep, but as the recipe notes mention, baccala needs to be soaked in water for 48 hours before it is used, making sure that the water is changed every 12 hours or so. 

Once that is out of the way I can start with the marinade for the fish. In a casserole dish, I combine the baccala, olive oil, champagne vinegar, thinly sliced red onion, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, peppercorns, and fennel fronds. I make sure the fish is well coated. The baccala gets marinated for four hours, turning after two hours for even marinating. 

Next is to bring some salted water to a boil and to set up an ice bath nearby. The baby fennel bulbs get blanched for almost a minute then removed and shocked in the ice bath. I then heat up the broiler, brush the fennel bulbs with olive oil and seasoning, and then broil the fennel until they are slightly charred and cooked through. Now the recipe calls for baby fennel bulbs but I was unable to find any babies at the market, so I bought the smallest ones that they had and cut them up smaller than I normally would have. You do what you have to do to make things work sometimes. 

Once the fennel is cooked, the fish is removed from the marinade and sliced very thin as if you were slicing a carpaccio. You'll need an extra sharp knife for the step which I am sure that by now is already in your arsenal. 

The marinade is strained and reserved. 

I am now ready to plate. The thin slices of baccala are placed on the plate with the fennel, the marinade is spooned over the fish and fennel, then the fish is drizzled with some really good extra-virgin olive oil and Aceto Tradzionale, or aged balsamic vinegar. I was able to get the aged balsamic that Mario recommends in the liner notes that is made by a friend of his in Italy. This stuff is quite expensive at $40 a bottle, and Mario notes that a small vial of aged balsamic vinegar is usually included in a brides dowry. I can understand why as a little goes a long way. 

Overall I didn't hate the dish is much as I thought that I would, but that's a far cry from me wanting to ever make this again. The marinade really made the fish pop and helped to cut some of the richness of the baccala, but I felt like the fennel was just 'there' and didn't really contribute much to the dish. Overall it's a little too light and skimpy in order for me to consider it an appetizer. Sorry Mario, but I much rather prefer my great-grandmother's way of handling baccala. 

Until next time...

5 Autumn Vegetables with Goat Ricotta and Pumpkinseed Oil

Happy new year! 

I'm back from my brief hiatus away from the blog and ready to dive in feet first. I hope all of you in blog-land had a great holiday season and are enjoying the new year. I certainly had a great Christmas with my wife and pet rabbit, and even scored some sweet gifts that'll make completing this blog all the more easier. My wife gets me so well that I even found a pair of these under the Christmas tree:

This time of year tends to be very busy for me at work. Add to that, my February cold came early this year, but regardless I'm excited to be continuing on with this project. We are rapidly approaching the 1-year anniversary of Babbo-at-home, and are nearly 50 recipes into the book. Not including my text books from culinary school, this is the most that I have ever cooked out of any one cookbook before. 

I'm starting to reach a point to where I am showing up to Whole Foods with book in hand and am checking out what's fresh and available and proceeding from there as opposed to picking my recipe ahead of time and hoping that my ingredients are on the shelf, which is kind of the main point of the book. Shopping as Italians would, with an open mind, a good eye, and no preconceived notions about what's going to be for dinner is Mario's main mantra. 

I also find that I am going to have to factor more time into the pre-planning of cooking these recipes as there are more and more specialty products popping up that need to be sourced out. If Whole Foods doesn't have it, shockingly so, then I have to hit up Google and go from there. So between allowing for sourcing, shipping times, and longer preparation of more complex recipes, my pace may slow a little, but this is where the real learning will kick in. With the exception of the drinks, many of the preparations from now on will be more complex. 

This inaugural 2015 post wasn't complex per se, but it did have quite a few ingredients that I was shocked to find available all in one convenient location. It's a beautiful looking appetizer that's vegetarian friendly. I let my wife pick this one out for me to make so let's see how it scored. 

I start by preheating my oven to 475°. Sharpen you knife because we're in for some chopping. I peel some butternut squash and cut it into 1/2 inch cubes. It gets tossed with some extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and some finely chopped sage, then put in the oven. 

While that's going, I take some scrubbed Jerusalem artichokes and slice them into 1/8 inch disks. I take the butternut out of the oven, which has now been in for a few minutes, and put the artichokes on the same sheet tray as the squash. The two should now cook at the same time. When done, they are set aside. 

Next I peel some parsnips, slice them into 1/4 inch disks, toss with olive oil, cumin, and seasoning, and roast them for about 7 minutes until they are cooked. The parsnips are set aside when fully cooked. 

I then bring some water up to a boil and set myself up with a water bath to blanch some julienned leeks. The leeks need only a few minutes in the boiling water before being shocked into the ice water. 

Sage oil is needed for the plating, so I took out my food processor and puréed sage leaves with olive oil, then strained it out. 

My last real prep work for this recipe is to julienne some celery root. It stays raw for this preparation. 

Okay now it's assembly time. The squash, artichokes, parsnips, leeks, and celery root get added to a mixing bowl with mizuna. Whole Foods didn't have any fresh mizuna for me, but luckily in the recipe notes Mario suggests frisée as a substitute, so I used that. The salad gets tossed with olive oil, sherry vinegar, and salt and pepper. 

The finished salad gets plated with a goat cheese smeared baguette slice, and drizzled with homemade sage oil (recipe on page 51) and pumpkin seed oil which Whole Foods had in their flavored oil aisle. 

My wife found this dish to be boring and uneventful. I thought that it was a nice salad. If we ate it in October our opinions might be better, but it served its purpose as a light, fresh, veggie starter. I'm not a fan of the goat cheese and probably never will be. But the rest of the dish is a keeper and something I may revisit next year when poking through a farmers market. 

Next up is a dish with a main ingredient close to my heart. Some that my Portuguese great-grandmother used often in her cooking. Until next time...