Roasted BBQ Chicken with garlic peas

Alright I know I've been skimpy on the posts but here was a quick one I will add being that I am in the thick of my toughest stretch in med school...

First I wanted to intersperse a couple of pictures of my family from my brief trip back to the States for my father's wedding.

A beautiful fall sunset and clouds in Brooklyn

A Candid shot of some of my cousins (I have a ton!)

My father and Pina the  morning of...

My Aunt Fran and cousin LoriAnn

This is where I gave my best man speech, made my Dad cry and Pina laugh!

Despite the fact there was a wedding going on there was also 6 Birthdays/anniversaries as well!

We had to make it official and hit up Nathans afterwards!

Nothing like the original

 Okay now on with the Chicken!

For this I found this big ole' chicken which you don't usually find out here so I decided to make my own BBQ sauce and roast her up.

I marinated it with Butter and paprika on the outside (with salt and pepper too of course).  I had one whole onion chopped up underneath with a local carrot stuffed inside as well as fresh oranges from the tree outside (yes I know they're green but welcome to the caribbean!)

The BBQ sauce consisted of ketchup, white vinegar, gravy master, worcestershire suace, Balsamic vinegar, mustard, salt pepper, lemon pepper and a splash of water.  I would tell you the exact amounts but they were all really a unspecific amounts and hard to really delineate.  

I roasted it at a low temp (300F) for about an hour.  I wanted to get that succulent taste as I basted it every 15 minutes to maintain its juiciness.

 Whipped up some garlic peas and that was dinner!

Buon appetito!

Lasagna, e Pizza, e Pasta!

This time I think I even out-did myself.  The past three days I have been preparing for a feast for 20+ at my humble abode here in Grenada.  Two of my roommates have their respective parents here and since family is involved I have to make it as close to home as I can.  

First thing I came across while shopping was this beautiful tricolor pasta that gave me the inspiration for this cold pasta salad that included artichoke hearts (featured here) halved olives, Edam cheese, Gouda as well as a poppy seed vinaigrette.  

I believe the combination of the two cheeses as well as the vinaigrette made for a tasty alternative to the other treats that were in store.

The next challenge I faced (being on a small island) was the fact that they ran out of ricotta cheese.  Sure, no problem they said, just make some béchamel they said.  So I did.  and this is what I did. 

First I put equal parts butter and flour (1/2 cup of each) in a pan.  First I melted the butter then I stirred in the flour.  For those of you who aren't familiar, this is called a roux.  For all you southerners (especially from N'Orleans) this is common place.  From here we will add about 3 cups of whole milk..  The whole trick with the roux is to make a blonde roux which means we will cook it for about 5 minutes so that it doesn't turn brown and get carmelized like most Louisiana roux's.  After you've cooked the flour taste out of the roux you add the milk and start stirring with you whisk.  This takes approximately 10 minutes from here for stirring to make sure it all gets incorporated.  For good measure and added flavor at the end, I added about a quarter cup of parmesan cheese to the mix.  

Next its lasagna time!  Lets start the layers...here were all the ingredients....

First I took 3 cups of semolina flour, and made a well.  Then I added about 5 eggs to the middle. 

Next I started stirring... this is something you have to see, which you can if you look right here!

Next I rolled out the pasta..  Now this was Not easy at first...there is definitely a learning curved involved and I invite you all to explore this side of yourself.  

Now  that you made your pasta (if you're that lucky..) start laying down the home-made pasta with some Bolognese sauce that I made the day before.  This is a meat sauce that you simply stir fry chop meat with salt and pepper and then add it to a standard sauce recipe you can catch from one of my earlier recipes.  From there you let it come to a boil then simmer, taking you about an hour and change.  

From there I started layering the lasagna. First pasta, then sauce, then my béchamel,  and some parmigiano and fresh mozzarella cheese I made the day before.  

Here is my sister and my father making Lasagna from back in the day...check out that technique!

Keep on layering (2-4 times) until you get this..

Did I mention in my spare time I whipped up a pizza...there it is!

And another one!

And in the end we had a bunch of people that were well fed...Any Italian knows its a good night when you fed a bunch of people an still have leftovers...mission accomplished!  Many thanks to all who came and enjoyed the food!

Mozzarella Fresca!!!

So here it is, the object of my desire, the subject of my dreams and the deliciousness that fills my stomach, Fresh, Home-made, Mozzarella.  Now, for this there is no substitute, and these past couple days I have even been impressing myself with what I can accomplish.  Come tomorrow I will be cooking for quite a large number of guests in my house and the worst thing an Italian host can do is not make enough food.  

On the menu is Pizza, Lasagna and Tricolore pasta salad alla Salvatore...and you cant have Sal's pizza without fresh mozzarella.  The only thing is the shipment that should have came today was delayed and wont come until Sunday (TIG:This is Grenada) so I adapt.  I had the curds in my freezer and said, lets give this a shot...

I took this block of 10 pounds of curds and got almost halfway through it...so think about 4 pounds of curds, and I let it come to room temperature and diced them up.

I made them into french fry style shreds and then gave them a good rinsing twice.

After I rinsed them I drained it out and had on the stove about 4-5 quarts of salted water (about 3-6 oz of sea salt) and brought it up to just before a boil.  To do this you either need a thermometer or a good sense of temperature.  You also want to set up a bowl with ice water.  So once that is set, you take the sliced curds and start putting the hot water on.  

You want the hot, salted water to be around 180 F and it will cool down to about 140 when you put it in the bowl.  This is prime stretching time.  Now this technique is a little hard to explain so unless someone wants to be my videographer I will try to explain.  You want to let it come and fold together like a log.  Once it is formed you want to stretch it out, letting the weight of the cheese stretch itself out.  You also want to fold it about 3-4 times lengthwise allowing it to be maintained in the water after each fold.  I know sounds hard, but it isn't really once you get the hang of it. Just come over and I'll show you!

Next you are going to want to take the cheese and fold it like a croissant out of the hot water and form a ball.  When it is cooled a little from forming in your hands you want to put it in that salted ice water bath.  

Just pinch it off properly and have fun with it...it's Mozzarella!

Here you see the little family of eight complete with the baby at the far left.  We are in for a treat tomorrow!

And there you have it, fresh Mozz' whenever you want it!  Enjoy, I know I will!

A Greek and an Italian were hungry...

Agnello!

There is not much to be said for this post.  It will read more like a pictorial than a collection of words (much like our ability to talk was diminished at the end of that day).  My friend Evangelos and I have been talking about roasting a lamb for a while now and we finally completed our mission.  

It was simple.  Buy a lamb (unfortunately I did not butcher it even though I would have liked to), Tie it to a pole, then place a Fire of chunderneath. 

 In a couple of hours you have yourself a simply tasty and delicious slab of meat that is succulent and juicy and goes best with a handful of bread and a couple beers on a lazy Saturday.  

Slicing the meat is tricky at first but knowing your anatomy helps!

Evangelos thoroughly enjoying the front leg in true Mediterannean style

When its done you take the leftovers and you have food for the rest of the week.

I made a sandwich with melted munster cheese and whipped up some greek yogurt with some paprika, salt and pepper and garlic powder and there you have it, some delicious leftovers! 

So this is not something everybody has the capabilities to do but if you have the opportunity I say take it.  It was a fun day and one that I will never forget.