Olive Cheese Bread

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...We took off for parts unknown today. Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration. The weather promised to be gorgeous, so we packed a hamper and headed to Dexter Lake to spend the day with good friends. The plans for the day included an upscale picnic to be eaten as we watched a sculling competition known to locals as the Covered Bridge Regatta. The picnic was a pot luck affair, but the gal who planned the outing wanted food that would be at least as good as the wine she planned to bring. I was asked to bring a soup and hearty appetizer. I immediately thought about Ree Drummond's Olive Cheese Bread. I've made this for picnics in the past and knew that it could be assembled at home and finished on a charcoal grill at the picnic grounds. It is one of those easy dishes that tastes like a lot of effort has gone into its creation. In truth, it takes about 10 minutes to make the topping for the French bread and it transports well. I have one caution to share with you. The first few times I prepared this bread I used European or Mediterranean black olives to make it. I found them to be too strong and salty in this application, so I switched to the old-fashioned California mission variety and have been happy ever since. I also recommend creaming the butter and mayonnaise together until the mixture is combined and smooth before mixing in the other ingredients. This is one of those foolproof dishes that even beginning cook's can prepare and serve. I love the ease with which this appetizer comes together and I serve it several times a year. If you have not yet tried Ree's Olive Cheese bread, I urge you to do so. It is great and you'll want to have the recipe in your files. Here is how the bread is made.

Bob's in the Kitchen - Tuna Pate

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While I don't have a dinner recipe to share with you tonight, I do have a new recipe for a tuna pate that made for some delicious nibbling while we watched the Super Bowl last Sunday. Mary found the pate in Food and Wine magazine and clipped it to make, but she was grounded before that could be done. She told me about the pate and how easy it would be to make, and since there would be just two of us for the game, we decided to try the pate rather then have the usual game day snacks. I think the pate, while strongly flavored, is delicious when served with a light rye or crusty peasant bread. Any leftover pate makes a great filling for sandwich wraps. Do try this! Here is the recipe.

Tapas - Pinchos Morunos (Spicy Pork Skewers)

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...How can you not love a country where the wine flows like a river at flood stage and you get to eat 5 times a day? Over the course of the next few days, it will become obvious that Spain, despite its flaws, has charmed me, and I've left a small piece of myself tucked in corners of its cities as I traveled across long stretches of the country. Food brings you here, so I promise I won't stray too far from our shared interest and I'll attempt to stay on point as I work through the foods and recipes I've brought back with me from Spain. A quick look at daily meal patterns is probably the best way to understand Spanish food preferences and how the country eats, so let's jump right in and get to it. The day in Spain begins with desayuno which is the first meal of the day. It consists of coffee and toast or a biscuit and it is usually eaten at home. Around 11 o'clock, the country breaks for the real breakfast, almorzando, which is served in coffee bars and restaurants throughout the country. It is a more substantial version of the early morning repast and might include pastry or a slice of tortilla, as well as juice and coffee. La comida is the main meal in the Spanish diet, similar to dinner in other countries, and takes place around two in the afternoon. It usually consists of several courses that include salad or soup, a main course and dessert. Still hungry? Merienda is basically an afternoon snack that consists of a sandwich or yogurt and some type of sweet bread or pastry. The final meal in the Spanish day is la cena, or dinner. Dinner in Spain is lighter than la comida but can also consist of multiple courses and it has contributed to the growth of the tapas culture in Spain. Traditionally, the meal takes places around ten in the evening and tapas bars hum at this time of night. For the record, a tapa is a small dish of something edible. While it can be as simple as a small plate of olives, tapas have an extraordinary range of complexity and expense. With the help of some friends in-country, I have been able to find some truly wonderful tapas offerings and will be sharing them with you for the remainder of this week. I wanted to start with one of my favorites. I know you will love these pork skewers. Here is how they are made.

Gougères - Cheese Puffs - Away A While Recipe Favorites

Gougères - Cheese Puffs

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...These light and tender morsels are in danger of extinction. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help keep this recipe relevant and make sure that these silky, egg rich pastries remain on our tables for years to come. Please understand, I have nothing against salsa, or chips and dips and pesto. I've been known to down a beer or two and confess that beer nuts are not safe in my presence. There are, however, times when I want something a bit more classic, something with culinary chops and a history that commends its presence on my table. The French gougères has much to recommend it. These savory cheese puffs are made with the same pate a choux dough that is used to prepare cream puffs and eclairs, but the addition of cheese or other savories make them a wonderful appetizer or hors d'oeuvres to serve with wine or champagne. Because they are so easy to make, I also serve them with more pedestrian meals of soup or stew. I must warn you that they are additive and the puffs should come with a "once bitten" warning attached to them. I've just finished making a gazillion of these to share with friends tomorrow. I know they will love them and I suspect you will too. These are best served directly from the oven, but I understand that that is not always possible, so I have a few tips to share with you. The dough can be refrigerated for a day before it is formed and baked. Once baked, the puffs can be frozen until needed. Frozen puffs should be thawed and reheated in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes before serving. If you plan to bake them ahead of time, make a slit in the bottom of each puff and turn them upside down to let moisture escape. I make it a point to reheat the gougères before serving them. Five minutes in a 350 degree oven does the trick. While I prefer to use Gruyere cheese, cheddar or blue cheese can be substituted and, if you wish, a filling can be piped into the puffs. I bake my trays of gougère on the lowest rack of the oven and I only bake one tray at a time. It may be my imagination, but I think the puffs get better lift that way. I really hope you will give this recipe a try. I like to share my addictions with others. The recipe for these simple cheese puffs can be found here.

                    

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Frugal Foodie Friday - Poutine

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I suspect that many of you have never heard of poutine. It's the French Canadian equivalent of comfort food and it's a favorite of our neighbors to the north, where some refer to it as the "National Dish of Canada." Poutine, by the way, is from a Quebecois slang word that means "mess". While it sounds dreadful, and doesn't look much better, poutine, a dish which consists of French fries that are topped with cheese curds and gravy, has crossed the border and has developed a committed following here in the United States. The exact origin of poutine is unknown, but as best as anyone can tell, it started in Quebec in the 1950’s, when cheese curds and gravy were added to orders of carry-out fries. A version of the dish known as "disco fries" was made in New Jersey soon after that,  but it used shredded mozzarella cheese rather than the cheddar curds that identify the classic dish. The curds are finger-tipped sized chunks of cheddar that have a briny taste similar to that of cottage cheese. They are usually sold in a bags, and if you are fortunate enough to get them freshly packed, they will actually squeak when you bite into them. Your grocery store may carry them and they can also be ordered online. Poutine was once an embarrassment to the French-Canadian populations of Montreal and Quebec, where great value was placed on their reputations for high-end cuisine. They considered it to be a low-end rural food, but as homely cooking gained international recognition it became more acceptable, not unlike our mac n' cheese to which lobster and crab can now be added. While the correct "gravy" used to top the fries can be debated, it is most often shown as being dark and rich. I decided to use Emeril LaGasse's recipe because he used a roux to make his sauce and I suspected it would be delicious. It is, but it took much longer to develop color and thicken than his recipe suggested. I've included my times along with his in the recipe that appears below. He also blanched the potatoes before frying, which gave them a wonderful crust while allowing their interiors to remain soft as they cooked. I LOVE THIS DISH and were it not so high in calories I'd have it once a week. DO TRY THIS RECIPE. It makes a poutine that will have your socks going up and down. It is not expensive to make and it can be served as an appetizer or main course, depending on your sensibilities and the state of your waistline. Here is the recipe for this week's Frugal Foodie Friday feature.