First an apology to Mary Kravec and Ruth Henderson of the Silo Cooking School, part of the Hunt Hill Farm Trust.
They were kind enough to ask me to teach a class, handheld me thru the whole thing, and then I lost the tape of the show we shot at the Silo.
BUT, i found it. The tape was labeled “Cider” so how would I know it was the Silo tape?
The Hunt Hill Farm was started by Ruth and Skitch Henderson, the maestro of the Tonight show, among other musical accomplishments. Skitch passed away recently, but Ruth stopped by my event at the cooking school and ended up staying the whole night.
I got to practice my German with her. It helped I was drinking Old Milwaukee.
Here are the recipes from this fun night of cooking. Thanks to everyone who came. It was a blast.
There are many very similar recipes for the following appetizers, these are my versions, with some help from Mary Kravec on fine tuning them.
Henry Martini, inspired by my friend Rand
2.5 oz of gin
.5 oz of vermouth
1 olive, preferably oil cured, stuffed with blue cheese
Mix vermouth and gin with ice, pour into glass while straining out
the ice, add olive.
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Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms
1 package of white button mushrooms
2 cups basil leaves
extra virgin olive oil
handful of walnuts or pine nuts ( you can toast these if you have time, just don’t burn them )
1 cup parmesan or pecorino romano cheese, freshly grated.
1 garlic clove, crushed or minced
olive oil
Preheat oven to 400
Clean mushrooms, remove stems
pour a few glugs of olive oil into food processor, add basil, and pour a few more glugs of olive oil on top of the leaves
pulse a few times to chop leaves,
add cheese, nuts, and garlic. pulse some more until mixed, adding oil if needed.
scrape down sides of food processor to ensure its all mixed up.
taste and adjust your ingredients to your liking.
grease a cookie sheet
stuff the mushroom caps with the mixture, arrange on a sheet, and bake until browned,
about 15 minutes
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Black Bean-Corn Ensalada in
Radicchio Scoops
1 large can black beans, drained
1 package of frozen corn
1 red onion, chopped small
red wine vinegar
Radicchio
Toast the corn in a skillet until the kernels brown. you can do this while they are frozen, but it takes longer.
Mix with the black beans in bowl, with the onion and a few splashes
of red wine vinegar.
Taste and adjust vinegar, adding salt and pepper.
Peal the radicchio, and fill the leaves with a large spoonful of the bean mixture, arrange on a platter.
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Parsley Pesto
2 cups parsley
1 garlic clove
1 lemon zest & juice
handful of pine nuts or walnuts
Extra Virgin olive oil
Pour a few glugs of olive oil in a food processor. Dump in parsley,
crushed garlic, lemon zest and juice, nuts.
turn on the food processor and let it spin. turn off and scrape down
sides, adding more olive oil if its too thick.
be careful not to over-process the pesto, as it can turn into mud.
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Parsley Pesto Triangles
pesto sauce from above
phyllo dough sheets
blue cheese
Preheat oven to 450
cut each phyllo dough sheet into thirds so you have 3 long strips per
sheet.
place a dab of pesto and a dot of blue cheese at the bottom of a phyllo strip and fold over and make triangles.
brush with butter or oil
place on a baking sheet and baked for about 20 minutes
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Pepper-Anchovy Melange on Crostini
1 jar of roasted peppers
anchovies
extra virgin olive oil
garlic
lemon juice
1 baguette
cut the bread into slices, cut a garlic clove in half and rub it on each slice.
brush with a bit of olive oil, place on a baking sheet, and toast in the broiler.
cut the peppers so they are a bit bigger than a full anchovy and put one on each bread piece.
place an anchovy on each pepper strip, lightly drizzle with olive oil and lemon
juice.
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Salt Cod Mousse
1 lb of salt cod ( also called bacalao) , soaked overnight with several changes of water
2 cloves garlic
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup cream
lemon juice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Place salt cod in a saucepan or skillet, cover with water, bring to a
boil, turn off and let cool for 15 min.
put the cod in a food processor with garlic and a glug of olive oil,
turn on processor and drizzle more oil and cream thru the feed tube.
season with pepper, nutmeg, lemon juice. you can heat this in a
microwave.
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Salt Cod Fritters based on Mary Kravec’s recipe.
1/2 pound of salt cod, soaked overnight in several changes of water
2 cups flour, all purpose is fine
1 cup water
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup ( approx ) chopped parsley
shred the cod with a fork
mix together the flour, water, salt and baking powder, then add in the fish and parsley. do not overmix
season with pepper
heat 1-2″ of oil on the stovetop in a saucepan. be careful with hot oil.
test the heat of the oil by dropping in a teaspoon of the batter, if it sizzles well, the temp is ready.
spoon in large tablespoon sized dollops of batter into the oil. do not crowd the fritters, turn them over when browned.
when the 2nd side is brown, remove with a slotted spoon to a plate pile with several paper towels.
allow to cool a bit before serving, sprinkle with salt.
©2008 eric rochow all rights reserved
Julie made this comment from our old site:
“I think you have to understand the immediacy and therefore appeal of your podcasts. I saw this one yesterday afternoon and thought, wow pesto stuffed mushrooms – hey that’d work! Ok I didn’t make the pesto but since there is always a jar in the fridge and we always have mushrooms about…..
Well its a family tradition here to have homemade pizza on a Friday night so whilst Tim (my husband) was finishing off the toppings I chucked a couple of mushrooms each in the oven with pesto in them. Instant appetiser before pizza! Went very well with a glass of homemade Rhubarb wine! Thank you for the recipe. Next time I’ll make the pesto as well…”
