Apricots and Elderberry ~ Wow em!

Fruits are coming into season and we often forget that many fruits can be baked, stewed and even sauteed to compliment any meal or made into juice, sauce, syrup and jam.

Consider apricots... wash, halve and saute in butter

 

My mom would make apricot wine too but its a recipe that will always be her secret. She also made excellent wild elderberry jam. Many people don't know what elderberry looks like and that it grows wild freely and can be picked along roadsides. 

You will have to pick a lot and then cook them down, stem and all. Once cooked down into a frothy juice, strain out stems and skins through a tight webbed strainer. Return to the stove in the same pot and add sugar to taste and sweeter is better.

Put the thick sauce into hot clean jars and a 1/8 tsp of pectin to top it off, lid the jar, seal and process. If you prefer step by step: Here is a link that does just that. http://www.pickyourown.org/jam.htm

Chicken Fried Steak... the Brainy Way!

A little southern hospitality never hurt anyone...

There always a first time for everything in the kitchen when it comes to the variety of meals you can prepare; and the Brainy Gourmet is no exception. Yes, the Brainy Gourmet is making chicken fried steak for the first time ever! But, what's there to be afraid of? I have heard that most worry is over  the outside coating with regards to it being cooked to crispy or not.

Making this for the first time, I was more concerned about the taste of the steak being tender and delicious than the crispiness of the outside coating. You can look at this as a dilemma which is similar to ordering fried chicken: crispy or original. Original recipe is more of a traditional pan fried and not so crispy; which is what I prefer.

As I said, I wanted the steak to have an exceptional tenderness and taste. To begin, choose either flank, sirloin or round steak and generously sprinkled meat tenderizer and garlic powder on each piece and let them sit 2 hrs before frying. Preparing to fry: whisk in a shallow bowl one egg in 3 tbs of balsamic vinegar, adding 1 tbs of dried herbs. Use a plate for the flour coating, add to that a pinch of salt and black pepper, mixing it up with a fork.

Pour enough oil (one inch high) into your skillet. Turn up the heat to prepare to pan fry. Take one palm sized medallion of pounded round steak, dip into the egg mixture and then coat with flour -salt and black pepper. When the oil is hot, lay in your coated first steak. Continue, until you have all pieces in the skillet. Since, the oil is extremely, don't walk away for a minute. 

Once the frying is nearly done, test to make sure the meat is just pink inside; if yes, you can set aside the steak on a paper towel in a warmer or oven on low heat in order to prepare to a side dish.

Since I wanted to serve yellow squash, I just fried in the same skillet (wiped out with paper towel) dropping in a dollop of butter. You can also serve with mashed potatoes, which should be prepared just prior to frying and kept warm in a covered 'oven safe' dish in the oven on low heat.

If you want gravy on that as many southern folk do, then take some saved bacon grease to melt into the skillet and add a mixture of milk and flour to make a creamy white gravy.

 ~ Tutti a Tavola!

Flank Steak with Asparagus and Sun Dried Tomatoes!

Italian cooking whether in the high mountains, piedmonts or by the sea is not an all day long process. It can and should always be spontaneous, fresh and full of flavor. This dish is just that. All you need is a tender flank steak cut into strips and marinated with a meat tenderizer. As for the rest of the ingredients, stop off and pick up some asparagus, a package of dried sun tomatoes and probably you have in your kitchen pantry a box of linguine pasta.

Start the water to boil for the pasta. Then, stir fry on high/med heat washed asparagus spears in 2 tbs of olive oil and coconut oil, sprinkling in some garlic powder, red pepper flakes and dried herbs: rosemary, mint and oregano. Push the asparagus aside and lay in the flank steak strips, searing for 2-3 min on high heat. Toss in half of the package of sun dried tomatoes and stir blending the asparagus, steak and tomatoes. Drizzle on or give a splash of hazelnut balsamic vinegar and 2 tbs of beef stock for a clean finish.

When the pasta is tender, drain and ladle onto a low lipped serving dish and top with your stir fry.

~ Tutti a Tavola!

 https://deliciousontap.co.uk/product/vinegars/flavoured-balsamic-vinegars/hazelnut-balsamic-cream-vinegar/

Mashed Potatoes with Iowa Pork Cutlets and Applesauce!

Just finished making homemade applesauce and what could be better than to serve farm fresh boneless Iowa pork loin chops 'pounded down' into 'cutlets' as the side... I mean as the main course along with a mound of creamy mashed potatoes.

To begin, saute chopped onion in a skillet of olive oil and butter until browned. Pound down or out the pork loin chops into 'cutlets'. Next, push aside the onion and lay in the pork cutlets, add to the skillet dried herbs. You can coat the meat first with an egg wash and pat in dried bread crumbs...but you don't have too.

Once the meat is nearly white with just a bit of pink yet in the center, pour in 1/2 cup of heavy cream, adding a tbs of Dijon mustard and then tossing in a few sun dried tomatoes. Stir and let simmer on low while you wash, peel and cut in half or quarter yellow gold potatoes to boil and mash with a dollop of butter and 1/4 cup of milk.

Put out the applesauce and enjoy!

Green Zucchini ~ The Italian Squash!

Zucchini is simply a variety of summer squash commonly used in Italian cooking. Some recipes actually refer to it as 'Italian squash'. Italian recipes using squash range from very simple to quite complex. One simple, traditional Italian recipe involves stewing zucchini with olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and fresh herbs, such as parsley or basil.

My mother always cooked for us and preserved in jars what she referred to as 'Italian Goulash' and of course its main veggie was Zucchini squash. Come a snowy winter evening, that goulash was a bowl of summer sunshine.

Basically, when it comes to cooking zucchini...you can stew it, fry it, roast it and even bake it with olive oil and herbs or bake it into a sweet breakfast bread. This summer squash can be found in many countries and kitchens. In France, it is even used to make the famous 'Ratatouille', a kind of goulash.

A bit of parmesan on that please...

 ~ Tutti a Tavola

Everything Brainy Linguine you Can Imagine...

Linguine originated in Genoa in the Liguria region of Italy. Linguine is a pasta something like Fettuccine. For some people, the name may sound a little bit strange. It may be because the name linguine means "little tongues" in Italian. 

It seems that when it comes to linguine most think of 'Linguine with clam sauce' or 'Linguine with Shrimp'. It doesn't have to be. It can be served with a basic Marinara sauce minus the clams and shrimp. It can be used with many meats and served with buttery pesto as well as tomato sauces.

In fact, if you want to make an Asian dish that asks for rice noodles and you don't have any or can't find any to buy, just be brainy and use Linguine.

*Scroll Brainy blog pages for the above Linguine dishes or go to the website and click on Brainy Archives.

Baked Brie ~ A Simple, Delicious No Brainer...

You don't have to be dramatic to be brainy. But, your family will think its a staged event when you serve baked brie with either a cold tomato gazpacho or a hot garden goulash and serve dinner in the backyard...

Buy as many small round brie as you think you will need. And for every two brie, one pop open packaged croissant dough. Simply wrap each brie until covered, set on a non stick baking sheet and bake at 350 until golden brown.

While they bake, prepare a quick cold tomato gazpacho or a hot garden goulash. Either or takes pretty much as long as the brie does to bake. For either, dice finely: fresh tomatoes, onions and green peppers along with zucchini if you do the goulash.

The cold soup 'gazpacho' can be done in a blender. The goulash can be done on the stove top... the key to quick cooking time is dicing all veggies finely. If you prefer larger 'chunks' that's fine only the cooking time will be a bit longer; and, use a bit of fresh tomato juice as a starter base.