Smoked Swordfish with Avocado Salsa

Smoked Swordfish with Avocado Salsa

Growing up in South Florida, we ate a lot of swordfish. Then, there was over-fishing that nearly brought swordfish to extinction. Having overcome that situation, swordfish is back and I couldn’t be happy – I love it!

I’ve been thinking of things to make on my Rectec smoker and since swordfish has a meat-like texture, I thought it’d be a good candidate. The ‘recipe’ is very simple but the results are amazing.
If you don’t have a smoker, simply add some wood chips to your grill and grill with smoke.

I served the fish with a side of guacamole that I left very chunky, some lime and cilantro and it was a great pairing.

Ingredients:
• Two 6-ounce pieces of swordfish
• 1 Tbsp. Kosher salt, divided
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. Tony Chachere’s no salt seasoning (or your favorite Creole seasoning)
Cilantro Lime Rice (optional)
Zesty Guacamole or an avocado salsa
• Juice of half lime
• 1 tsp. cilantro (optional)

Directions:

  1. Place the swordfish on a plate and sprinkle with the Kosher salt. Place in the fridge for an hour.
  2. Take the fish out of the fridge and rinse the salt under running water. Pat the fish dry with paper towel.
  3. Coat the fish with oil and sprinkle with pepper and Tony’s.
  4. Bring the smoker up to 200 degrees, place the fish in it and smoke for 60 minutes.
  5. Bring a grill to medium/high heat and grill the fish on each side until internal temperature of the fish reaches 130 degrees.
  6. Serve with the rice, if using, the guacamole, a squeeze of lime and the cilantro, if using.

Makes two servings.

Blueberry Croissant French Toast Casserole

I love a recipe you can prep in advance that doesn’t require a lot of work once my guests arrive. Just love spending time with my guests vs having them speak at my back while I’m making food.

One such recipe is this Blueberry French Toast Casserole that’s prepared the evening prior to your brunch and pop in the oven to bake while you’re entertaining.

It’s blueberry season now so I’m using that berry, but this dish is also great with sliced strawberries or blackberries. I use Quebec maple syrup but use any good quality syrup. I like making this with buttery croissants, but brioche of challah bread would be great also.

Ingredients:

  • 12 cups croissants torn into bit size pieces (about 10 medium sized croissants)
  • 10 large eggs
  • 1 cup, plus more for serving
  • 1 cup milk (not low-fat)
  • 1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, optional
  • 2/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups blueberries
  • 1/2 tsp. lemon zest, optional
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup, plus more for serving
  • 2 Tbsp. confectionary sugar, optional

Directions:

  1. Butter or coat with cooking spray a 9″x13″ baking dish. Add the croissants pieces to the casserole. It might seem like a lot of croissants, but after they soak into the custard overnight, the mixture will shrink some.
  2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, 1 cup of cream, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon (if using), and brown sugar. Whisk the mixture until fully blended, about 1 minute. Pour the mixture over the croissant pieces and push down on the croissant with a spatula to ensure all the pieces are soaking into the custard.
  3. Add the blueberries, lemon zest (if using) and drizzle with the maple syrup.
  4. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap, or foil, and place in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 5 hours.
  5. When ready to bake, turn oven on to 350 degrees F, allow to preheat then place the casserole in the oven and bake for 40 minutes, or until the casserole top is golden brown (see pics for reference).
  6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. Dust with confectionary sugar, if using.
  7. Serve with additional maple syrup and a drizzle of cream.

Makes 10 servings.

Cheers,

Veronique

Top Food and Wine Chickie Posts in 2022

Top Food and Wine Chickie Posts in 2022

Always fun running analytics on my blog to see what posts have the most likes, comments and clicks so I thought I’d recap the posts with top engagement of 2022.

Crumb Top Blueberry Pie
  1. Crumb Top Blueberry Pie
  2. Purple Rain Cocktail
  3. Easy Pears Foster
  4. Easy Veal Saltimbocca
  5. Chocolate Walnut Crumb Bar
  6. Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting
  7. Cabot Creamery Seriously Sharp Mac N Cheese
  8. Chicken Risotto Soup
  9. Tourtiere du Lac St Jean
  10. Pancetta and Sundried Tomato Creamy Spaghetti
Pancetta and Sundried Tomato Creamy Spaghetti

Hope you try some of these top recipes!

Cheers,

Veronique

Horseradish Cream

Horseradish Cream

Horseradish cream is fantastic and you need it in your life. That’s all this post should really say. It’s a condiment that’s put together in a couple minutes and goes amazingly well with some many things, including my Reverse Seared Prime Rib.

Whip this up the day prior to using it as it develops its flavors over time, just cover your bowl in cling wrap and refrigerate.

Regarding the horseradish I use, I like the Silver Spring Horseradish brand as it’s fresh and hot. Make sure whatever brand you get, it’s the horseradish that’s refrigerated often referred to as “fresh”, “prepared” or “coarse”. I don’t recommend the kind found on grocery shelves store at room temperature for this preparation.

Ingredients:

  • 5 Tbsp. fresh prepared horseradish, drained
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 6 Tbsp. mayonnaise (I use Duke’s)
  • 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice (could use lime juice also)
  • ½ tsp. each salt and freshly-ground pepper

Directions:

  1. Combine and whisk all the ingredients together
  2. Refrigerate until ready to serve, up to a day ahead of serving

Yields 1 ½ cups cream.

Cheers, Veronique

Carrot, Apple and Ginger Soup

Carrot, Apple and Ginger Soup

At our home, we make soup nearly every weekend when the weather’s cooler. While we have some favorites that we often default to, we also like to try new flavors to change things up.

Carrot, Apple and Ginger Soup

This week, I did a velvety, stellar carrot, apple and ginger soup that was absolute fall in a bowl.

This recipe is super simple to prepare with just a few ingredients. After simmering all the ingredients in vegetable broth, I puréed the mixture in my Vitamix until perfectly smooth.

The results were outstanding.

Soup Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 4 cups peeled and sliced carrots
  • 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh ginger
  • 1 large garlic clove, chopped
  • 1 medium apple, peeled and diced (I used a Granny Smith)
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • Pinch of nutmeg
  • ½ tsp. each salt and pepper
  • ¼ cup heavy cream, optional 
Soup Simmering
Soup in Blender

Directions:

  1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, add the oil and warm for 1 minute.
  2. Add the onion and the carrot and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
  3. Add the ginger, the garlic and the apple and sauté an additional minute.
  4. Add the broth and spices and simmer for 30 minutes.
  5. Pour the cooled mixture in a blender (could also use a food processor) and purée until very smooth. This may need to be done in two batches depending on the size of your blender.
  6. Pour the soup back in the saucepan over medium heat and bring back to a simmer. Turn off the heat and add the cream, if using.

Serves 6.

Cheers,

Veronique

Lemon Mustard Cream Sauce

Lemon Mustard Cream Sauce

This lemon and mustard cream sauce is perfect on basically everything. I originally made this easy mustard sauce to put on a pork schnitzel dish, but it’s equally great on fish and chicken. It’s creamy from the béchamel, tangy from the lemon juice and mustard, and a little licoricey from the tarragon.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tbsp. butter
  • 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp. coarse ground mustard (could also use 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard instead of 1 tablespoon each Dijon and ground mustard)
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • ¼ tsp. each black pepper, salt and tarragon

Directions:

  1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour, whisking constantly, and cook for 2 minutes.
  2. Add the mustards and lemon juice, whisk well and continue to cook for 1 minute.
  3. Add the cream, chicken broth and spices, whisking until the mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for about 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.

Yield: 1 ½ cups.

Reverse Seared Roasted Prime Rib

Reverse Seared Roasted Prime Rib

This is the ultimate prime rib technique. I’ve used it the last two Christmases and it produced superior results and I highly recommend it. I very skeptical when I saw the beef would roast at 150 degrees Fahrenheit, but, it’s simply brilliant.

Reasons to love this technique:

  1. Set it and forget it for five ½ – six ½ hours!
  2. It comes out of the oven and MUST rest for 45-60 minutes allowing you to use the oven for other purposes, like making Fail Proof Yorkshire Puddings.
  3. The slow and low temperature creates a perfect cook from edge to edge. No more bullet of raw beef in the center and gray/overcooked meat on the outside.
  4. As long as you keep the cooked beef covered loosely in foil, you can determine the exact time you’ll serve dinner because all you need before slicing is 10 minutes in the hot oven. This is awesome!

Technique:

  1. This works with a bone-in (a must), well-marbled prime rib from three-12 pounds. I typically make a four to five-pound roast to feed four-six people.
  2. The day prior to your dinner party, take the beef out of the packaging and place on a rack in a roasting pan and place in the fridge uncovered.
    • The early morning of your dinner, apply a very generous coating of black pepper and kosher salt to the roast and put back in the fridge until ready to cook.
    • Two hours before cooking, take the roast out of the fridge to allow to come to room temperature.
    • Place the roast, still on the rack in the roasting pan, in a 150-175 degree Fahrenheit oven (some ovens won’t stay on at 150 degrees, so raise to 175 degrees if that happens). I cook mine at 150 degrees. Place an instant-read thermometer in the center of the roast (make sure it doesn’t touch a bone). Cook for five ½ – six ½ hours, until the thermometer reads 120 degrees for rare, 130 for medium-rare or 135 for medium. Anything more cooked than medium is a sin, don’t be sinful. For a five-pound roast, mine took just over 6 hours.
    • Once the roast reaches the desired temp, 120 degrees at my home, take out of the oven and tent it loosely with foil. Allow the roast to rest for 45-60 minutes.
    • Raise the oven temp to 500 degrees and place the roast back in the oven, without the foil, for 10 minutes to crisp up on the outside. I only crisped mine up for seven minutes, but will go the full 10 next time for a deeper brown color.
    • Serve at once!
    See the ‘crust’ that forms from sitting overnight in the fridge?
    Look at the yummy crust!

    The fabulous person whose method this is, is J. Kenji López-Alt, a stay-at-home dad who’s moonlighted as a culinary consultant of Serious Eats. Read all about the fascinating testing he did to come up with this perfect method on Serious Eats. This guy’s changed my Christmas dinners forever and I’m very grateful!

    Please let me know how your prime rib turns out when you try this method!

    Cheers,

    Veronique

    Josee’s Beef Stroganoff

    Josee’s Beef Stroganoff

    In our family, my sister makes the very best beef stroganoff. Hers is the recipe my grandma used and it’s rich, comforting and perfect on a cool night.

    Beef Stroganoff was invented and named after Count Stroganoff, a member of a Russian elite family, by his personal chef.

    In the original recipe, beef bouillon granules are added to boiling water to create a broth. I’m simply using beef broth and it’s an adequate substitute.

    Serve this dish the day after making it as it gets better as it sits. You just need a side of long grain white rice for a perfect pairing.

    Ingredients:

    • 2-pound sirloin, sliced into 2” strips
    • 4 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
    • 1 small onion, diced
    • 1/2-pound mushrooms, sliced
    • 3 Tbsp. butter
    • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
    • 2 cups hot beef broth
    • 3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
    • 3 Tbsp. tomato paste
    • 1 tsp. salt
    • 1/2 tsp. black pepper
    • 2 bay leaves
    • 1/ tsp. thyme
    • 1 cup sour cream
    • Cooked white rice
    Cut Beef Into Strips
    Sprinkle Beef with Flour
    Sauté Beef
    Add Broth to Beef
    Beef Stroganoff Simmering

    Directions:

    1. Coat the beef strips with the flour, set aside.
    2. In a medium Dutch oven or heavy pot, sauté the onion and mushrooms with the butter over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
    3. While the vegetables cook, in a large heavy skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the beef strips and cook for about 5-7 minutes until the beef has browned, stirring a few times to prevent scorching. Add the hot broth to the beef and stir to scrape down any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook for 1 minute.
    4. Add the broth and beef to the vegetables and stir to combine.
    5. Add the Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste and stir to combine.
    6. Add the spices and the sour cream and stir again to combine.
    7. Lower the heat to low, cover and simmer for 2 1/2 – 3 hours, stirring occasionally, until the beef is tender.
    8. Serve with rice

    Makes 4-6 servings depending on how hungry your family is.

    World’s Best Warm Spinach and Artichoke Dip

    World’s Best Warm Spinach and Artichoke Dip

    You’re at a party and appetizers are served. Every single time, the humble spinach and artichoke dip will be king. It’s warm, comforting, gooey and so….so delicious.

    This version of the popular dip features fresh spinach, which makes a huge difference in taste and texture. Serve this with either toasted French bread or with scoop chips (my favorite).

    Be sure the cream cheese is at room temperature BEFORE you assemble this dish.

    Ingredients:

    • 5 ounces fresh spinach
    • 1 cup sour cream (don’t use low fat), room temperature
    • One 8-ounce package cream cheese (don’t use low fat), room temperature
    • One 15-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
    • 2 garlic cloves, minced
    • 12 ounces shredded Mozzarella cheese, divided
    • 5 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese
    • Two big pinches each of salt and pepper

    Directions:

    1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
    2. To a large bowl, add the spinach, the sour cream, the cream cheese, the artichokes, the garlic, half the Mozzarella, the Parmesan and the salt/pepper. Mix until combined.
    3. Coat a 9×9 baking dish with cooking spray (of butter well) – could also use a cast iron skillet. Spread the spinach mixture in an even layer and top with the rest of the Mozzarella.
    4. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Then tun the broiler to high and broil for 1-2 minutes or until the top of the dip is golden brown.

    8-10 servings (unless you’re my gang, then it’s 4-6 servings).

    Inspired by this recipe.

    Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream and Creamy Lemon Sauce

    My mom’s become quite the food photographer over the years. She’s a great cook and baker and often shares details of her culinary experiments with me and sometimes, I even get pics!

    Last week, she had many lemons on hand and fixed a lemon cake with a creamy lemon sauce that sounded so great I’ve decided to share it, along with two of her photos!

    Ingredients

    Cake:

    • 2 cups all purpose flour
    • 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
    • Pinch of salt
    • Zest of three lemons (reserve 1 tsp. for the buttercream and 1 tsp. for the sauce)
    • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
    • 1 cup plain yogurt
    • ¼ cup melted butter
    • ¼ cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
    • 2 eggs
    • ½ tsp. baking soda

    Lemon Buttercream:

    • 1 cup butter, softened
    • 5 cups powdered sugar
    • ¼ cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
    • Reserved 1 tsp. of zest

    Creamy Lemon Sauce:

    • 1 cup plain yogurt
    • 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
    • Reserved 1 tsp. of zest
    • 2 cups fresh berries (optional)

    Directions:

    For the Cake:

    1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
    2. Butter, or coat with cooking spray, an 8”x8” cake pan.
    3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and the zest.
    4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, yogurt, butter, lemon juice and the eggs until just combined. Add the baking soda and mix to incorporate.
    5. Using a large spoon, add the flour mixture to the batter, one spoon at a time, until just combined – don’t overmix! Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
    6. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes then unmold and allow to cool completely.

    For the Lemon Buttercream:

    1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
    2. Add the lemon juice and beat for 30 seconds.
    3. One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar until fully incorporated.
    4. Add the zest and beat 30 additional seconds.

    For the Creamy Lemon Sauce:

    1. In a small bowl, mix the yogurt, the sugar and the teaspoon lemon zest.

    Frost the cake with the lemon buttercream, drizzle with the creamy lemon sauce and serve with berries.

    Yields 6 Servings.