January 21st, 2009
One of my favorite new shows is Ted Allen?s Chopped, which debuted last week. I think it is really interesting to watch what different chefs can do with the same ingredients.
On the first episode, in the appetizer round, one of the ingredients that the inspiring chefs had to use in the dish was octopus. This is a very difficult ingredient to cook. I have been cooking octopus for a few years now because my husband loves cold Italian seafood salad. I am going to offer my tips for dealing with this unusual ingredient.
I typically boil the octopus for about 20-25 minutes. Then, I like to cut off all of the tentacles and purple skin because it is rather tough. On Chopped, the octopus looked smaller than the pieces I normally use for my recipe. So, just make sure to boil it until it is tender if you buy larger pieces. When making the seafood salad, however, I find that the octopus holds the flavor of the marinade better and becomes more tender without the purple skin.
My cold Italian seafood recipe is as follows:
pound octopus cut into pieces
pound shrimp
pound calamari
3 celery stalks
Juice of 2 lemons
Olive oil
1 tbsp. black peppercorns
5 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley
Fill a pot with water and add salt, peppercorns, 3 garlic cloves, and celery. Bring to a boil.
When water is boiling, add shrimp. Boil for about 3 minutes. Remove shrimp and put into a large bowl to cool.
Add calamari and boil for about 3-4 minutes. Remove and add to the bowl with the shrimp.
Last, add the octopus and boil for 20-25 minutes until tender. Remove and clean the purple outer later and tentacles as described above. Add to the bowl with the rest of the seafood.
Next I like to drain the water and remove the celery because I like to add it to the seafood salad.
Once the seafood has cooled, add juicy of 2 lemons, cup olive oil, salt and chopped fresh parsley.
Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours, preferably 24 hours. The longer the better.
This salad is really delicious and healthy. This is may favorite way to make it, but there are many different versions and you can add any seafood that you like and any other herbs you like.
Enjoy!
January 13th, 2009
There are plenty of other blogs where you can read about what happened on Food Network shows and read gossip about the hosts. So, I have decided to focus on the food. I will be talking about the food featured on my favorite shows and offering information and tips. I will be trying some of the recipes and will share how they turn out.
Recently, there have been a few shows that have caught my attention. I am a Ted Allen fan and I have to say I did not think Food Detectives would be good in the beginning but is quirky and amusing. However, his new show Chopped, starting tonight, looks promising. The show is going to feature challenges in which 4 new chefs must take ordinary ingredients and turn them into an exceptional 3 course meals. I also really like Anne Burrell’s show, The Secrets of a Restaurant Chef. She offers great tips and manages to make everything look easy. I am going to try her Pasta Bolognese this weekend and I will let you know how it turns out. (It really looked great when she made it.)
Sunny Anderson’s Cooking for Real, is a great show for people who want simple, affordable recipes that are easy to do. Sunny really loves her food and that makes you want to try her recipes.
Guy Fieri is like the new Emeril.(he may not like that analogy). He has several shows on the Network, as well as a best selling book. He is the new “star”. My favorite is the Ultimate Recipe Showdown. I love to see how home cooks from all over the country come up with these great receipes.
And…..last but not least, Iron Chef is still my favorite show. Every episode is full of information about all different types of food and it is always interesting to see how the chefs utilize the secret ingredient. I will recap Alton Brown’s amazing Food tidbits, as well as try to replicate some if my favorite dishes. Every time I watch Iron Chef, I think, “I should write that down” or “I need to rememeber that.” So, that is what I am going to do.
The Food Network has come along way and has gone through many changes lately. There are many new shows and new hosts on the horizon. I would be very interested to hear what shows are your favorite and who is your favorite new Food Network host???
Please stay tuned for more…..
