Make Some Fried Artichokes

29 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by danteskitcheninferno in Food, recipie

Tags

appetizer, artichokes, fried, Italian side dish

I loooooooove artichokes. Growing up, my Italian family members made them for most family gatherings – steamed and stuffed with garlic, seasonings, breadcrumbs and Parmesan. I have a kind of mushed memory where every occasion looks the same as we sat around the table pulling them apart, scraping the flesh and stuffing off of the leaves with out teeth whilst making fun of each other.

Years ago a lovely Roman waiter delivered an artichoke to my table that I didn’t order. No no no, he said – I know you didn’t order it, but is so good, you just have to try it, no charge, from the chef. This small experience was apparently a watershed moment in the way that I viewed food, because 10 years later I still remember exactly how everything around me looked, and the exquisitely delicious simplicity of the most fantastic artichoke I have ever tasted to this day. Thank you chef and waiter – since then I’ve become borderline obsessed with finding other ways to cook them. Unfortunately here in the States we do not have the luxury of several varieties to choose from, but nevertheless, the possibilities remain extensive.

Here is an easy and addictive appetizer or side:

artichokes hearts – you can prepare them yourself fresh, or take the easy (and less expensive) cheater route of buying them frozen. Usually, I prefer fresh everything. But I like frozen artichokes because you can get them any time of year, and more importantly, they are not stored in brine, which I think ruins their flavor. The pictures here are frozen artichoke hearts from Wegmans.

all purpose flour
salt & pepper
good quality olive oil

Toss your artichokes with some flour and salt & pepper. You can add anything else you like as well – pepper flakes, parsley, garlic, etc.

Heat about a 1/4 inch of olive oil in a large skillet. Don’t turn it up to high, you don’t need the heat and you want to keep the oil from smoking.

Add your artichokes and fry until golden on one side, then toss with a spatula and allow time for another side to brown. Serve immediately.

Sprinkle them with salt and drizzle with lemon juice. Yum.

A Study in Olive Oil: Part 1, the simplest ingredients

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by danteskitcheninferno in Dinner, Food, recipie

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cheap dinner, easy recipie, Mediteranean cuisine, olive oil, spaghetti

Lately I’ve been studying all things olive oil. I was thinking of all the beautiful ingredients involved in Italian cuisine, and had the random thought that I didn’t just want to make tasty Mediterranean food, but I wanted to really know it. I thought of how delicious the simplest food is when its done really really well. There is nothing like the combination of a crusty bread, fresh mozzarella (and I do not mean the mass produced kind you buy at Wegmans), basil and tomatoes with a little olive oil drizzled on top. Its different when the tomatoes are grown on the slope of a volcano. In the town of Tropea, I had an onion that was so amazingly delicious that I sat happily dipping it in the oil & vinegar on my plate munching on the slices as if they were something else like carrots or red pepper spears. Its amazing to me that food is bred to make it look a certain way on the supermarket shelf, rather than taste the most flavorful way. I want to get back to the way things taste, at their most fundamental level. Olive oil seems the best place to start – and if not, at least its the most romantic place to start.

Cracked Pepper Spaghetti

I’ll go into more detail on my olive oil education later. Tonight I want to share a quick recipe, or rather, a basis for whatever recipe you want it to become. In Italy, when its late, and you’re tired and you have nothing in the house, this (or some variation of this) is what you throw together. Basically its infused olive oil – so simple, yet surprisingly satisfying.

1/2 – 3/4 c minced flat leaf parsley
5 – 6 minced garlic cloves
1/2 ish tsp. crushed red pepper
salt & cracked pepper to taste
1/2 – 3/4 c good quality olive oil
1 lb. spaghetti
some people add anchovies. not me, but feel free.

Put your water on to boil first, this doesn’t take very long.

Heat the oil in a skillet, and keep the heat on the low – medium side. You want to avoid bringing the oil temperature too high – you’ll lose the flavor and the health benefits if it starts to smoke.

Toss your spices in the oil and let them simmer in the oil for a few minutes. When the parsley starts to turn from bright to dark green, and you can smell everything in the air its done.

Toss it all with your spaghetti and sprinkle with some nice salty Parmesan or Romano. Its like the adult version of the butter and cheese noodles that picky kids demand. Enjoy.

Restaurant Review: ORBS

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by danteskitcheninferno in Dinner, Food, Restaurant Review

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Cocktails, fish fry, meatballs, orbs, Rochester Restaurants, southwedge

Orbs. A restaurant that whimsically relates everything to balls. okay, okay. We decided to go see what everyone was talking about. Orbs is a small place on South Ave. in the wedge. They have uninteresting outdoor seating, but since outdoor seating in Rochester is at a premium, I’ll just mark it down as an option for next time I’m wishing for it. We sat inside to get the full effect.

The first thing that I noticed is the front of house staff – females apx. 26-33 years of age, resplendent in facial piercings and Urban Outfitter apparel. No male staff other than the one fellow who seemed to be in charge which gave me a sort of Charlie’s Angels impression. Of course that may not be the usual. I would like to clarify that this is just an observation, I’m not finding fault. The floor is small, but the atmosphere is pleasant – not super loud, but not so quiet you could hear the next table over. The lighting was great – hanging lights over the bar and some house lights, but the amount of natural light from the large curtain window overlooking the street is what does it.

After a comprehensive explanation on drink specials, balls and dinner specials from our server we settled on some old favorites. They did have an interesting list of beer cocktails available that we did not try this time, opting instead for the reliable local Rohrbach’s Scotch Ale.

For this outing, we decided to order together and share everything. We started with the “Bits and Pieces,” it being a meatball themed restaurant and all. This is an appetizer plate of Buffalo chicken meatballs with blue cheese, beef meatballs with Asian style BBQ and pickles, and Falafel with tahini and kale chimichurri – back to that in a second. The falafel were nice on the outside, but on the mushy side within. The other meatballs were good, the sauces were nice. I wasn’t wowed, but they were good. Back to the kale chimichurri – best thing on the plate. This unassuming compliment is outstanding – really brightened up the whole plate and could completely hold its own in a larger role on a main dish. Yum.

We followed this with the beet salad which was good – arugula is delicious and underutilized in my opinion and the yogurt was a nice change.

As charming as the whole ball idea is, having already consumed several meatballs for an appetizer we tested the often tried, but rarely well executed Friday fish fry. This is one of the better fish fries I’ve had. They have the batter nailed – its just the right thickness, crunchy, golden, it doesn’t fall apart. The fish was a smidgen overcooked for Matt’s taste, but perfect for mine. French fries – average, expectations met french fries. Fennel slaw – interesting, different. I’m often disappointed in fish fries because you can taste that the fryer oil is old. This was very good, I’d buy it again.

Our lovely server did a fine job. She made sure to ask if we’d ever dined there before and gave us the low-down for our first dinner, relayed all of the specials and was prompt and courteous all evening. The restaurant was appropriately staffed so it seemed that everyone was getting the right amount of service. The survey we were issued with our check is a clever way to keep your staff accountable – I hope they’re also willing to survey the satisfaction of employees on occasion. Issuing the one without the other is like saying the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Reasonably priced. we spent $45 on 2 drinks, an appetizer, salad and entree.

I think the thing that impressed me about this place is that they didn’t mess anything up. Every time I go to a restaurant I can easily find something – usually multiple things to find fault with. …and while this is not Michelin star type food, everything was good, everything was hot, the prices are reasonable and the service was good. I would bring guests here, and I’ll definitely be back next time I’m wishing for a fish fry.