California Girl's Osso Bucco

A little Italiano comfort food. Rich, delicious and satisfying. 

Ingredients:
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup flour, for dredging

6 beef veal shanks or oxtails
1 large onion, diced medium

4 ribs celery, diced
3 to 4 carrots, sliced into 1/4 inch thick coins
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon Italian herbs
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon each, Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper or course ground pepper
1 cup good red wine
1 to 1 1/2 cups beef stock
a good handful fresh parsley leaves, chopped

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a Dutch oven or heavy bottom stock pot, add olive oil and heat until very hot.

In a plate combine the flour with salt and pepper. Dredge the shanks in the flour and shake off to remove any excess flour. Add shanks to the Dutch oven or pot and brown on all sides. This should take 5 to 6 minutes. When meat is browned, remove from pot and set aside.

Next add the onions, celery and carrots to the pot and cook until tender.

Add garlic and Italian seasoning and continue to cook for about 2 minutes.

Deglaze the pot with red wine, scraping up any bits from the bottom.  Add the stock and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, add the meat back, the can of crushed tomatoes, stir and cover with the lid and place into the oven.
Cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender. Add cornstarch, a bit at a time and stir to thicken to desired consistency. Sprinkle parsley.

Serve hot over buttery polenta, grits or creamy mashed potatoes.

Another Sandwich...

I know, I know, I know...yes, I'm posting another sandwich. This is just how my week is going. After the holidays and all the baking and slaving over a hot stove, I was just ready for a little break. So enjoy!

Cheesy Bacon Potato Salad

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, boiled in jackets and cubed

3 green onions, chopped

6 slices bacon, fried crispy and crumbled

3/4 cup good mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain yogurt

4 to 5 ounces mixed Colby/jack cheese, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Toss all ingredients together, season and gently mix. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cooks Note: If you want the cubes to stay reasonably in tact after you toss the salad, cook potatoes al dente and refrigerate the cubed potatoes until firmly set before tossing mixture together. Otherwise, the potatoes with mash somewhat when mixed.

Texas Style Pastrami & Turkey on Black Rye with Jalapenos
Serves 4 or more

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 loaf dark rye bread, cut lengthwise into three long slices
8 ounces real deli turkey breast (not pressed)
8 ounces deli pastrami
4 slices Provalone cheese
2 large leaves butter lettuce or a nice handful of spring mix
4 to 6 large slices fresh tomatoes
2 to 3 pickled jalapenos, sliced or 15 or so slices
Mayo and/or mustard to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a skillet, add 1/2 tablespoon butter and toast all three slices of bread. In the same skillet, add the rest of the butter and heat turkey and pastrami for 2 to 3 minutes and remove.

Building the Sandwich:
Spread bread slices with mayo or mustard and place pastrami on bottom slice of bread, then add 1/2 the cheese slices to the top of the pastrami. Top pastrami and cheese with tomato and jalapeno slices. Add the middle bread slice and top with the turkey, the remaining cheese and lettuce. Add the top and secure the layers together with a long tooth pick or cocktail fork. Divide into individual sandwiches.

Cooks note: I like my deli meat cut on no. 1 or 2 thickness. This is also the cut we used in our restaurant and everyone seemed to really like it and even commented on it. However, to each his own. If you like thicker slices, ask for it. I prefer this particular thickness because it can be fluffed and is much more aesthetically pleasing. It's just plain looks purdy this way! As my Uncle Frank would say ; ).

Shrimp & Bacon Club with Pommes Frites

This recipe is for 2 sandwiches. That said, these are huge and can easily feed 4 when cut in two. Absolute-a-ly de-licious! We love this sandwich. It is very much like one of the sandwiches we served at our tea room. I gave it a little twist, but other than that this is our shrimp and bacon. Funny, but true story...a lot of the Doctors from the local hospital ate in our establishment on a fairly regular basis. One Doctor in particular loved this sandwich. He ordered it quite often and picked it up to go when he had to. One day he came in to pick up his order and said to me, "I gotta tell you, I couldn't wait to get though with my last patient. All I could think about was getting to my shrimp and bacon sandwich". He said, he just kept looking at the clock and thinking it's almost lunch time! He was an OB GYN! Now you know what they're thinking!

*First prepare garlic mayo sauce and refrigerate to let flavors meld.

Garlic Mayo Sauce:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup good mayonnaise
2 teaspoons garlic powder
Several drops hot sauce, to taste

In a bowl, stir all ingredients well and refrigerate.

Belgian Fries or Pommes Frites
4 cups vegetable or peanut oil
2 to 2 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into uniform strips.
salt

Frites Directions:
Pommes frites are fried twice. So this is a two step process. Fill a large heavy bottom pot or deep fryer 2/3 full of oil and heat for deep frying. A thermometer should read 325 to 350 degrees. Dry potatoes well so that they don't splatter when they are lowered into the hot oil. Lower potatoes in using a large spoon and fry for appoximately 5 minutes. Don't over crowd the fries. Fry in as many batches as you need to for your size pot. Keep in mind that you are not frying them completely. Just to a lightly golden color. When fries are the desired color, remove them and drain on paper towels in a colainder. This is the first fry. Let fries rest for as long as possible and then return them to the hot oil to cook to a golden brown color. This should only take 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from oil again and drain. Using a large kitchen bowl (a salad bowl works well), place fries with salt and toss well. Serve hot with sauce, if desired. We used the garlic mayo sauce as a dip for the frites.

Shrimp & Bacon Club with Avocado and Garlic Mayo Sauce

(Ingredients make 2 sandwiches, 1/2 for each)

6 medium thick slices bread (I used French bread here)
8 slices bacon, fried and drained well
2 leaves Bibb lettuce or small handful of spring mix, washed if need be
4 slices tomato, washed and sliced
4 slices Swiss cheese
10 medium frozen shrimp, defrosted in warm water, tails removed
Hot sauce

1 avocado, seeded and sliced
8 extra long frilly sandwich toothpicks (4 for each clubstyle sandwich)

Directions:
Add frozen shrimp to a bowl of warm water to defrost. Let sit while you fry the bacon. On a griddle or flat grill, fry bacon until crispy. Remove from grill, drain well and sit aside. Drain shrimp and pat dry with a paper towel. Lay shrimp on one side of the grill and add 2 to 3 drops of hot sauce to each. Fry on each side for 1 or 2 minutes. Set aside. Toast bread on the other side of the grill.

Assemble Sandwich:
Spread one side of each slice of bread with garlic mayo sauce.
Add 1 slice of cheese to a slice of bread and top with shrimp
Top shrimp with avocado slices
Top avocado slices with another slice of bread, mayo side down
Add mayo to the other side of the bread and add another slice of cheese
Add bacon to the cheese and top bacon with tomato slices
Top Tomato slices with lettuce and add slice of bread to top.

Here's where the tricky part starts. Stick a toothpick in each of the four sides of the bread in a cross type pattern, midway between the edge of the bread and the center. Using a bread knife, cut bread diagonally crisscrossing the sandwich in an X pattern. It's a little tricky holding it all together and cutting at the same time but you can rearrainge anything that falls out. Once sandwich is cut into four pieces, join two quarters together, end to end using toothpicks in top and bottom to secure together. Do this for each sandwich.

All I Can Say Is Yummy, Yummy Comfort Food!

Shepherd’s Loaf

INGREDIENTS:

Serves 6

Meat Loaf
½ pound ground beef
½ pound ground pork
½ pound ground turkey
½ cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon ketchup
½ medium onion, minced
1 small carrot, shredded (I use my mini food processor)
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 egg, beaten

Potatoes

¼ cup heavy cream
4 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoon butter or margarine
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 pounds butter gold potatoes, peeled and cubed

(No one said this was diet food : ), but you can lighten the potatoes by using Heart Smart type butter, Neufchatel (cream cheese) and skim milk.)

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 350° degrees. Spray or grease a loaf pan.
Add cubed potatoes to a pot of boiling water and cook until tender. Meanwhile, add all meatloaf ingredients to a bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. (Use clean or gloved hands if you need to). Pour meat mixture into the greased pan and press to fit pan.

When potatoes are fork tender, turn off burner, drain and return potatoes to stove. Mix in cream cheese and butter using a hand mixer. Add heavy cream and continue to mix. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon potatoes over meat.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until meat is thoroughly cooked. Drain excess fat and let cool slightly. Slice and serve with your favorite green vegetable or salad for an old fashioned family dinner.