Sauteed Kale w/ Polenta

We've been getting a lot of kale in our CSA lately.  I love kale and usually end up putting it in a soup (it's stellar in soups!), but with the weather being so hot - I just haven't been in the mood for any kind of soup.  Simple and easy is the route I like to take.

And when I saw this recipe on Eats Well With Others, I just knew I had to make it - especially since I'd never cooked with polenta before either.  It just seemed like the perfect opportunity!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Eats Well With Others' recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 cups kale, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup polenta
1/4 cup smoked gouda, shredded

In a large skillet, heat olive oil under medium high heat.  Add garlic and saute for about a minute or so, until fragrant.

Add the kale, salt, and pepper and saute for about 3-5 minutes, or until kale is slightly wilted, but still green.

Meanwhile, bring about 4 cups of salted water to a boil.  Slowly pour in polenta and stir constantly until thick - about 5 minutes or so.

Spoon some polenta on a plate and top with the kale.  Sprinkle some shredded gouda on top if you want too.

Joanne served this with some braised short ribs (which looks pretty darn awesome too!), but I found this a great dish all by itself.  It's elegant, easy, and super tasty!  And let's just say... this won't be the last time I cook with polenta, either!

The Marketplace Restaurant: Recreated

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Remember a couple weeks ago when I said I wanted to go out and recreate restaurant meals as well as review them?  I'm a little late on delivering on that, aren't I?

Instead of making excuses, I'm going to get right into it.  I had a lot of fun with this one, and can't wait to do many, many more!

The Review

Source

 Marketplace Restaurant is in downtown Louisville, in Theater Square.  It's a cozy little place that had a fun little jazz band playing on a Friday night.  It wasn't too busy, maybe only 4 or 5 parties in the whole place, but you could tell everyone was having a good time.

The service was very friendly and the server was very informative on many of the dishes.  It was definitely hard to choose, because everything sounded so delicious.

We tend to judge a place by their calamari, so of course, we had to order theirs.  It was a buttermilk fried calamari and it was crispy and delicious.  The calamari itself was perfectly cooked, just the right texture.  The sauce they paired with it was a Sweet Chili-Lime sauce.  While I love sweet chili sauce with calamari, I wasn't too too crazy about the lime, but then again, it was a different twist and I like that.

For our mains, Andy chose to go with a Curry Seared Scallop.  He enjoyed it for the most part, but said that it didn't offer much contrast in the dish as a whole.  After a few bites, it just got boring.  I thought it was a good idea in concept, but execution was just so-so.

I'm still not used to the whole, "taking pictures in restaurants" kind of thing =)

 I chose to go with the Market Fish of the Day, which was a Swordfish steak w/ risotto cakes and braised vegetables with a cherry reduction.  Now this was pretty tasty.  I don't normally like swordfish, but this was great.  Perfectly cooked and the risotto cakes were absolutely delicious.  The dish as a whole was beautiful in presentation and taste.

Of course, we always have to go for dessert.  In this case, it was a brownie with some fresh vanilla bean ice cream.  Sometimes the simple things are just right.  This was a perfect end to the meal.

All in all, I'd say our experience here was great.  Lovely atmosphere, attentive service, and pretty good food!

And now... what did I recreate?

Well, I decided to do my dish, but instead of hunting around for some swordfish, I would use the bounty of salmon that we had just acquired.

At first, I was hesitant with choosing the salmon, because the Flavor Bible had no record of salmon and cherries going together, and because I trust the Flavor Bible almost more than I trust the actual Bible, I was a little scared.  But I said "to hell with it" and pressed on anyway.  And boy, am I glad I did.

So without further ado... my recreation of The Marketplace Restaurant's Market Fish of the Day (with the use of salmon instead of swordfish)


Ingredients:

Risotto Cakes:

salt and pepper, to taste
1 box Risotto mix (yeah, I took a shortcut here - I used a Parmesan/Garlic blend)
2 large eggs
small handful of chives, minced    

3/4 to 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
olive oil

Make risotto according to package directions.  Let cool to room temperature.

Mix risotto with eggs and chives.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cover mixture with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 250 F.

Spread the panko in a shallow dish. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium to medium high heat. 

Form patties out of the cooled risotto mixture. 

Place patties in panko and turn to coat.

Working in batches, add patties to skillet and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side until the risotto cakes are crisp and nicely browned.  Place finished cakes on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and keep warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Continue cooking in batches, adding oil as necessary, until all the cakes are fried. Serve hot.

Cherry Reduction:

1 tablespoon olive oil 

1 large shallot, minced

1/2 cup red wine
1 & 1/2 cups frozen cherries

1 tablespoon honey
salt, to taste
pinch of sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter 

In a medium saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter.  Add shallot and saute for about 2-3 minutes, or until starting to soften.  Season with a pinch of salt and sugar.

Add cherries, wine, and honey.  Simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until mixture is thickened.

Whisk in remaining tablespoon of butter until incorporated.  Set sauce aside, until needed.

Sauteed Zucchini & Spinach

1 large zucchini, sliced
1 cup spinach
salt and pepper
splash or two of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
squeeze of half a lemon

Heat a large skillet until medium high heat.  Add olive oil.  

Once oil is shimmering, add zucchini and saute for about 2-3 minutes.  Then add spinach and cook until just wilted.  

Season with salt and pepper.  Add a splash of balsamic, if you'd like.  Finish off by squeezing some fresh lemon juice on top.

Salmon:


2 6 oz. salmon fillets
salt and pepper, to taste

Season both sides of salmon with salt and pepper.


Heat a large skillet under medium high heat and add salmon, skin side down.  Cook for about 3 to 5 minutes.  Flip over and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, or until opaque throughout.

Phew.  That was one long winded post.  What's my verdict?  Well, there were pros and cons to both dishes, mine and the actual restaurant's.  

I definitely now believe I can add the pairing of salmon and cherries in my Flavor Bible notes.  I loved the salmon a tad bit more than the swordfish.  However, my little addition of the balsamic to my veggies, it sort of overpowered or "felt out of place" in the whole composition of the dish.  I would have been great as a side all by itself, but along with the salmon and cakes, it just didn't quite "fit".  

I definitely feel that if your looking for a restaurant quality meal (I know it's sort of late to do it for Valentine's Day), this would be it.  Who knows... maybe it'll be on my restaurant menu one day? =) 

Hope you all have a great rest of your day, and I promise tomorrow's post will be much much shorter!

Sauteed Carrots & Brussels Sprouts

Happy Labor Day!  Hope you guys will be grilling out, having good times with good friends, and enjoying the last days of summer and first days of early fall!

Our weekend was pretty fun.  Dinner at 732 Social was A-MAZING!  They make the BEST Shrimp Mac-N-Cheese and my steak was huge and perfectly cooked.  Definitely a good time with good friends.  Then afterwards, we headed over to Cake Flour for dessert... and we were not disappointed.  I like Cake Flour for 2 reasons:  #1 they use all natural ingredients in EVERYTHING they make.  No artificial anything is found in anything produced there.  #2  they use local ingredients and everything I've ever had is phenomenal.  P.S.  They told us when we were in that night that they're actually going to be featured on the Food Network this fall, so check it out if you can!

Saturday we went down to WorldFest and we were not disappointed there either.  The hardest part was deciding what to eat out of all the booths they had there!  I wish I had brought my camera, but since we went kind of later, I was afraid I wasn't going to have good lighting for good shots.  Maybe next year.  But we ended up settling for some Red Curry from Thai Orchid (quite delicious, but Simply Thai is still our favorite!)  And then, as we were walking around, there was a line probably 50 plus people deep.  With a line that big, you know that whatever is at the end of it was going to be delicious.  So we hopped in that line and waited for over 30 minutes.  And when it was finally our turn, we realized what the fuss was all about.  La Colombiana was serving up Arepas!  These were huge arepas, packed full of your choice of chicken or beef, beans, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and your choice of green or red hot sauce.  These were WELL WORTH the wait!

It seems like Louisville has had TONS of stuff going on the past couple of weekends.  Or maybe it's that we haven't been home-bodies and actually ventured out the past couple of weekends.  Whatever it is, I'm liking it!

So enjoy your Labor Day and I'll leave you with the side item we served with our Fennel-Garlic Chicken Legs!


Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon rosemary
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup brussels sprouts, chopped

In a large saute pan over medium high heat, melt the butter.  Add shallots and cook for about 1 minute.  Stir in carrots, rosemary, salt, and pepper.  Toss to coat well.  Pour in chicken broth and bring mixture to a boil.  Cover pan and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook for about 7-10 minutes, or until carrots are barely tender.

Increase the heat back to medium high and add in brussels sprouts.  Cook, uncovered, for about 5 minutes, or until the brussels sprouts are starting to soften, but still crisp, and liquid is almost entirely absorbed.

Serve as a side dish to any grilled, roasted, or pan-seared item!  So practically anything!  Enjoy the holiday!

Swiss Chard Stuffed Trout w/ Sauteed Squash & Corn

I've got some great news guys! I always check out food blogs in the morning and 9 times out of 10 always hear someone talking about their CSA this or CSA that. I've never thought to actually check into it and see if Louisville offered CSA services, but it turns out they do! And the CSA season has already started (obviously), but they're still accepting application for new members, so we sent ours in yesterday! I'm really excited because, #1, it'll definitely cut down on our weekly grocery bill, #2, it'll give us the opportunity to use absolutely fresh and in-season ingredients (especially just looking forward to trying new things with some of the produce). Might even do a little blip-it section on what we end up getting every week too. I feel like it's Christmas and I've just received the best present ever. (I know, I'm a little late on the CSA excitement, but hey... better late than never!)

And this is way off the subject, but this Lobster Roll looks mouth-watering and makes me want to go pick up some lobsters to make this right now.

Anyway, keeping on the seafood track, this trout was pretty delicious and easy. And it also happened to be the day that we went all over Louisville to find a WHOLE trout... still couldn't find a whole one, with the head and all, but close enough. (Whole Foods usually is the go-to place for whole fish, but their truck just happened to have broke down in Boston that day and they didn't get a seafood shipment... BUMMER!)


Ingredients:
Adapted from Food & Wine's June 2010 issue - 'Escarole-Stuffed Seared Trout'

1 cup chopped swiss chard
1 shallot, thinly sliced
juice from 1 lemon
olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
2 headless whole trout, cleaned
cornmeal
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
3-4 yellow squash, sliced
1 cup corn

In a medium bowl, toss the chard with the shallots, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Stuff the trout cavities and close with skewers. (My skewers were a bit too large, so you could probably use some thick toothpicks to do this also). Season the outside of the fish with salt and pepper and sprinkle with cornmeal.

In a large skillet, heat 1/8 inch of olive oil under medium high heat. Add the trout and cook until skin is crisp and fish is cooked, about 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of your trout. Transfer trout to a plate and wipe your skillet clean.

Melt the butter in the skillet and add the trout back in. Turn to coat well. Remove from the heat and allow trout to sit in butter for about 5 minutes or so. This adds so much flavor to the fish, it's definitely not a step to skip.

While you're waiting for the trout, you can make your squash and corn. In a medium skillet, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat under medium high heat. Add squash and corn and saute until squash starts to soften, about 5 minutes.

Serve trout with the squash & corn mixture and with lemon wedges!

We served this at a dinner party for 4 we had a couple weeks ago, and everybody seemed to enjoy it! Our friend Mike practically just left the bones on his plate, so we knew he loved it. And my friend Kendra, who's a little weary on eating whole fish or things with bones still in it, went out of her comfort zone and said she enjoyed it as well! Enjoy!