Dans Gourmet Restoration

This is a recipe sent to me by the wife of a friend in the Navy.  Haven't tried it yet, but it sounds really good!  He is in Iraq right now ( go figure, submariner in the desert.... only in America....)  Say a prayer for him to stay safe!  I think he has about 6 months to go till he can come home to his family... Enjoy! Ingredients: 2 lbs. of white fish (flounder, cod, tilapia, etc.) Lemon Butter Sauce 1 cup dry white wine ½ cup lemon juice 2 T. minced garlic 1 T. minced shallot 1 t. salt ¼ t. black pepper 1 dash Worcestershire sauce 1 dash hot pepper sauce ½ cup heavy cream 6 T. butter, room temperature Fish Spice Blend ½ tsp. paprika ½ tsp. salt ½ tsp. garlic powder ¼ tsp. black pepper ¼ tsp. onion powder ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper ¼ tsp. dried oregano ¼ tsp. dried thyme ¼ cup almonds or pecans (finely ground in blender or processor) ¾ cup breadcrumbs ¼ cup buttermilk Method: Heat a large skillet over high heat.   Add the wine lemon juice, garlic and shallots; cook for 3 minutes.   St

Rigatoni Vodka Rigatoni Vodka- simply awesome! We have a local restaurant that does probably the best Rigatoni Vodka I have ever had!   All of the ingredients are minced so fine, they almost render down in the cooking.   This is my version of the sauce – my son, who is a HUGE fan of the restaurant , says it is just as good – I guess I will have to go with his opinion!   This is a fairly simple sauce to make – again, the trick is to mince up everything as small as possible.   This is a great meal when you don’t feel like cooking – a little dicing, and simmer it for a bit – you are good to go! Well, enough said, here is the recipe: For the sauce: 1 tbs regular olive oil, NOT extra virgin 3 spicy Italian turkey sausages, de cased ( kind of a pain, but really necessary – usually you can just squeeze the meat out like toothpaste…. Sausage toothpaste…yummm) 1 jar tomato basil sauce 1 small onion, diced fine ½ cup red wine 1 cup (a handful) frozen tri color peppers, diced fine 1 14.5 oz can d

Orange-Sake glazed salmon Salmon – my wife loves it, I think it’s only ok – and that ok totally depends on the way it is prepared!   Most times, we oven roast it with herbs on top – which always tastes awesome.   Thought I would try a little something different.   I recently received a great fruit basket from work – had some amazing oranges in it.   Had some sake and rice vinegar kicking around, so I made a nice brown sugar glaze for the fish.   Really tasted great – the sweetness of the brown sugar and orange zest was balanced by the sharpness of the sake…. Really nice, and super easy!   I keep some sake in the cabinet to cook with - if you don't have it, just use the white wine, it will still taste great. Use white vinegar if you don't have the rice vinegar as well. Here is the glaze recipe: Zest and juice from one orange 3 tbs sake 1tbs white wine 1 tbs light brown sugar 1 tbs rice vinegar 1 tbs Dijon mustard ¾ tsp corn starch pinch of cayenne pepper In a small sauce pan, w

  Chicken Divan Had a bunch of leftover chicken meat from a huge chicken that Lynne roasted the night before – after looking around to see what we had in the house – decided on making Chicken Divan.   My mom used to make this all the time – and as a kid, I always thought it was pretty bland, and didn’t really care for the nutmeg she put in it….   So I thought I would ramp things up a bit.   I only used a pinch of nutmeg, and used some brandy, lemon juice and slivered almonds as well.   Came out awesome!   It is a super simple dish – it does require making a roux – which is butter and flour whisked into a thickened paste.  This is a great thing to know how to do – especially if you want to cook Cajun! I had to use frozen broccoli – I would much prefer fresh in this dish, but hey, I was using what I had in the house.   Here is the recipe – I know it seems like a lot of ingredients…. But I was rummaging through cabinets at the time.   It really is super easy to make! Yum, comfort food at

The road to a great demi-glace steak sauce! I have always been a fan of a good demi-glace sauce for a beautiful steak.  A local restaurant, Franks Gourmet Grille, where I live on the East Coast, has a demi glace to kill for….. just a beautiful, silky, rich, fatty sauce that completely compliments the meat.  Restaurants generally simmer a base stock of veal bones, vegetables and wine for this sauce for a good 6 hours or more. Petit Sirloin, Onion Mushroom Risotto But really, who has time for that?  I recently came upon a recipe in Cooks Illustrated Magazine – (subscribe if you like to cook – this magazine is a definite keeper) that makes it fairly simple to do your own demi-glace in about 45 minutes.  It tasted great – not in Franks class, but definitely restaurant quality.  A few caveats – it ain’t cheap…..the ingredients cost about $8 bucks for about ¾  of a cup of finished product….and it’s a bit of a pain to make, but it is VERY good, and a little goes a LONG way.  It freezes well,

Well, after a long, and extremely stressful day at work, sometimes – and I really hate to admit this – I just don’t feel like cooking.  About once a week or so, we get the urge for pizza.... the heck with the diets, comfort food is where it's at!  We have been trying to keep the eating out to a minimum – so instead of ordering pizza, we have been going with frozen.  Some are actually pretty good – but hey, EVERYTHING can be approved on.  A good start! So last week, we took a Freschetta California style, sun dried tomato and cheese pizza and put it on steroids.  Got to say – it was REALLY good with some improvements!  I added fresh mozzarella, fresh parmesan cheese, fresh baby spinach and some more sun dried tomatoes ( I mean really- there were about 6 little pieces on the whole pizza out of the box…)  Now THAT’S what I am talking about.  5 minutes of chopping, and 15 minutes in the oven, and – BAM! A frozen pizza as good as take out! ( Sorry Emeril!) Another ten dollar awesome wine

Well, I’m back.  It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted any recipes  - I apologize for the silence! I still have been cooking though, and will be posting a bunch of great new concoctions over the next couple of days – as well as some amazing wines for around ten bucks!  Came up with this recipe looking for something interesting to do with some Tilapia we had in the fridge.  It is easy, tasty, crunchy and definitely a keeper!  Matched it with what I think is the best find of the year so far, wine wise! Let’s start with the wine.  I am a HUGE fan of Chilean wine, and boy is this one a keeper.  Korta - find it, buy it! KORTA vineyards, in the Lontue Valley was just stocked by a local wine shop.  Several varietals – all for $9.99.  I decided to start with the Carmenere – another favorite grape of mine from Chile . This was a 2009 Barrel Selection Reserve, estate bottled.  The label claimed 12 months in oak.  We popped this baby while making the fish – and YES it’s ok to have re