Copycat

Last week I snuck home to upstate NY to surprise my mom.  I landed Thursday evening and was surprising her Friday.  Since we had some time to kill and no one knew I was in town, we took advantage of the free time, Nicky took me out to dinner Thursday at Daniella's Steakhouse in his neighborhood.  After an incredible steak dinner (and stuffing my face at my moms and eating on th road for three days while driving back to Miami), today I decided today to make steak in a gorgonzola sauce with oven roasted potatoes and green beans.

SO GOOD!!

This meal had a lot of steps so timing was very important.  First I minced the garlic that would be used in the steak, the sauce, the beans and the potatoes.  I cleaned and cut the beans and potatoes.  Nick peppered the steaks. 

Oven Roasted Potatoes
3 yukon gold potatoes
olive oil
pepper
thyme
oregano
parsley

Pre heat the oven to 400.  Put the cut up potatoes in the pan and thinly coat all of them in olive oil.  Sprinkle all of the spices over the potatoes and bake until golden brown while you are making everything else.

Start the beans on low heat.  Cook some garlic in olive oil and add the beans.  Salt and pepper to taste and cover.

Nick then started the steaks on low in a tiny bit of olive oil on very low for about 15 minutes.  Then were fairly thin rib eyes.

Gorgonzola Sauce
2 cloves of minced garlic
6 tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
4-5 tablespoons of gorgonzola cheese

Melt the butter in a sauce pan.  Add the garlic and onion.  Allow them to soften up some in the butter.  Add the cheese and melt down. 

You could also add another tablespoon of crumbled cheese on the steaks before pouring the sauce over.  We did not because I bought a 1/2 pound block of gorgonzola from my fave italian maket, Laurenzo's.

And here you have....

my version of our date night, steak dinner at Daniella's. yummmmmm!

Cilantro, FINALLY.

I love cilantro and I swear I ALWAYS forget to pick it up at the market or when I did get it, I did not have other complimentary ingredients.  Not for this meal.  Simple, light, flavorful, I enjoy adjectives (I am becoming my mother).

Basa (that awesome fish from the previous, Feeding Becky, post) in Cilantro Lime Herb Butter

1 lb (2 fillets) of basa, which can be substituted with flounder or sole
3 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of cilantro
1/4 cup of minced green onion
3/4 small,medium sized lime
dash of salt
1 tablespoon parsley

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add the onion.  When onions start to become transparent, add the cilantro, parsley and dash of salt.  Turn down the heat to low and squeeze 1 quarter of the lime onto everything.  The lime will make everything sizzle.  Turn the heat back up a tiny bit and melt the last tablespoon of butter.  Cook for 3-5 minutes on each side.  Squeeze the other two lime quarters onto the fillets while they are cooking.

On the side we had green beans sauteed garlic, butter, salt and pepper.

Ok, ok, ok three fish dishes in a row.  I could eat seafood everyday but a little more variety is next!

 

Feeding Becky (and then Nicky)

I got to cook for the infamous Summyr Tyler aka Becky aka her real undisclosed name, because honestly, does anyone really even know her name?  Well I do, but you don't.

We played guinea pig and tried basa, a fish comparable to flounder or sole, apparently.  I made (and hopefully taught Becks how to) Lemon Almond Butter Fish.

Here is the catch.  I made it two days in a row, once for Becky last night and then with some minor changes tonight for Nicky.

You will need....

1 lb or two fillets of basa
3 tablespoons of butter +
half a lemon (cut into thirds)
1/2 cup of almonds
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
2 garlic cloves (optional)
salt and pepper (optional)

Melt a tablespoon and half in the frying pan and add the almonds (and the sugar and garlic if you'd like) on medium, so they can get nice and crispy and brown but before they reach that point, squeeze a lemon over the nuts.  A minute or two later add the rest of the butter and when its melted, the two fillets.  Salt and pepper at this point if you would like.  Cook on each side for 3-5 minutes each. 

Becky and I had a caprese salad and oven roasted potatoes (not pictured). 

Nick and I had asparagus with the fishy.

The beauty of this is that one pound of basa was $2.99. Two fillets were not even a pound!!  It came to $2.63.  To top it all off, it was (as Nick called it) hearty, it was not very fishy.  Overall - surpassed satisfiedness!

The HEAD was still ON THE FISH!!

When I asked Nick to pick up tilapia, like filets of fish, he came home with a rainbow trout, the entire rainbow trout.  Head, eyeballs, whole fish.  FANTASTIC.  I never cooked an entire fish before.  It looked gross and he kept putting the cold fish  like on peoples' shoulders.  I hid it in the freezer but considering we do not have a full freezer, it was found pretty quickly.

Tonight we had Stuffed Trout with Baked Eggplant, Tomato and Mozz Morsels (I named that myself).

Trout
1 entire trout, cleaned (weird)
1 cup of mushrooms
3-4 tablespoons of parmesean cheese
1 heaping 1/4 cup of onions
1/4 cup (or more) of white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
Salt and pepper

Combine the mushrooms, onions, cheese and wine.  Salt and pepper as you wish.  Scoop into the fishy.  The recipe said to broil it but make sure its on a low shelf.  Bake 6-8 minutes on each side.

Scary I know.

1/2 an eggplant
1 tomato
fresh basil leaves
fresh mozz
(the heavenly) balsamic creme
2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of flour

Combine the flour and parmesan.  Slice the eggplant into thin slices and cover in the flour and cheese combo.  Add a slice of tomato, then a slice of cheese and top with a basil leaf.  Bake for 5-7 minutes with the fishy.

Preeeetty awesome!  I may add a little more wine next time.  Nick said "I am glad you are a little rough around the edges" as I ate out of the pan.  He said it was because I cooked/ate a fish with a head on it!  <3 So bad ass, I know.

Lunch - Pepperoni Roll

Another meal from Laurenzo's.  Come to think of it, if Laurenzo's was into marketing, at all, I should be their blogger.  Unfortunately, they are the epitome of ma and pop shop.  So sad.

Anywho, I made a melty, delicious pepperoni roll.

1 lb of fresh dough
1/4 lb of pepperoni
1/4 lb of cheese (I used cheddar but mozz is good too) shredded


Preheat the oven at 350.  Stetch/lay out the dough on a lightly greased pan. Lay out the ronis and sprinkle the cheese.  ROLL IT UP!

Bake until golden brown!

Slice and ENJOY!! Nick did, it didn't last passed 5pm.