There are many internet and you tube resources for making various cheeses and I looked over many of them. The simplest method required only whole milk, an acid, either vinegar or lemon juice, and salt. Some recipes called for the addition of a little heavy cream for extra flavor and, well, “creaminess”. I had everything on hand so I gave it a go. (Note: The resulting cheese from this recipe is more like an Indian paneer than true ricotta, but it works perfectly in recipes calling for ricotta and it’s delicious on its own.)

For safety reasons, the milk needs to be heated to at least 185 degrees, Fahrenheit. I poured the whole milk into a heavy-bottomed stainless steel soup pot to which I added a cup of heavy cream and a tablespoon of salt. Using a candy thermometer attached to the side of the pot, I slowly heated the mixture, stirring nearly constantly, until the milk simmered, steamed and reached 190-200 degrees. For a gallon of milk, this took about 15 minutes on my electric stove. At that point, I turned off the heat, and stirred in 6 tablespoons of lemon juice. Rather quickly, the curds and whey began to separate.

After 5-10 minutes it was time to strain away the whey. There are a few easy ways to accomplish this without buying any cheese-making aparatus or using yards of folded over cheesecloth.  I find the easiest way is to use a man’s cotton or linen handkerchief, clean of course, and rinsed with water, placed over a medium sized colander or strainer. I have also used a #4 coffee filter in a strainer, but it doesn’t hold a lot. The handkerchief is at least 12 inches square and easily fits in my large colander with the corners hanging over the rim of the colander.

Whichever straining method is used, you must place the strainer over a bowl large enough to catch the hot whey. You will have much more whey than cheese and if your bowl isn’t large enough to hold it all, you will need a second bowl close by. You can also put the colander in the sink and let the whey go down the drain. (Remember that the curds and whey are very hot.) Carefully pour the contents of the pan into the colander or strainer. At this point, you can let it stand to complete the draining away of the liquid. This can take 30 minutes or so, depending on how dry you want the curds. You can hurry the process by bringing up the ends of the handkerchief, twisting them around to force the cheese to release more liquid. The ball of cheese will be hot for quite a while, so be careful if you use your bare hands to squeeze out the liquid.  Once the draining is complete, you can scrape the cheese off the cloth and into a container. I usually let it cool an hour or so on the counter before refrigerating it.

A gallon of milk will produce about 2 cups of cheese. Of course you can always make a smaller amount. If you don’t need that much for a specific recipe, the rest of the cheese can be flavored with some chopped herbs for a savory cheese spread for bruschetta or any other bread. You can also make a sweet cheese spread by adding honey; this would be good on  biscuits.

With no preservatives, the cheese must be refrigerated and used within 3 or 4 days. If you have milk that is nearing it’s expiration date, this is a great way to avoid wasting it.  I have saved some of the whey and used it as the liquid for baking bread. It can also be used in soup recipes.

Gorgeous and delicious!

ASPARAGUS CHEESE TART

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 sheet puff pastry (I used Pepperidge Farm)

½ cup shredded Gruyere (I used white cheddar once instead of Gruyere)

¼ c. shredded Parmesan

1 bunch of skinny asparagus

1 T. olive oil

¼ c. minced scallions or shallots, optional

salt and black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Trim off 1 inch of the asparagus to remove the woody ends.  Toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

3. Thaw the puff pastry on a piece of parchment paper (about 30 minutes) until you can carefully unfold the two flaps. Roll out the dough slightly to seal the seams. Transfer the parchment paper and dough to a baking sheet.

4. Sprinkle half of the cheese onto the pastry. Line up the asparagus spears on top of the cheese. Sprinkle with the scallions or shallots if using. Scatter the rest of the cheese on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

5. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until the pastry dough is golden brown and puffy and the asparagus is roasted and cooked through.

In my “recipes to fix someday” file – which will require me to live to 150 in order to accomplish – I had a few recipes for hanger steak, one for pan-roasting and the other for grilling. I split the difference and used the marinade for the grilled steak and the sauce from the pan-roasted steak. We had broccolini and browned butter mashed potatoes as accompaniments.

For the marinade, I mixed a version of Chef Anne Burrell’s hanger steak recipe from the Food Network, some dijon, chopped garlic, a little rosemary, lemon juice and zest. I smeared it on the steak, bagged it up, and let it hang out in the frig for a couple of hours. When ready to cook it, I let it sit on the counter for a while to come to room temperature, then salted it, and got to work. For the sauce prep, I peeled and sliced 4 large shallots, put red wine vinegar and some dry red wine at the ready, and picked a few stems of parsley from the garden. The sauce recipe is from Daniel Boulud’s Cafe Boulod Cookbook via Epicurious.

The broccolini (a cross between broccoli and kale, I believe) is a little daintier than broccoli and maybe a little milder in taste. It takes just a few minutes to steam and we like it sprinkled with a little Parmesan or Asiago.

I delegated the mashed potatoes preparation to my husband. I had already browned some butter (slowly and stirring nearly constantly) and set it aside.All he had to do was peel and cut the potatoes, cook them and mash them up with some of the browned butter, buttermilk and whole milk, salt and pepper. He drizzled the rest of the butter over the finished product.

I must admit that the red wine reduction renders the sauce a very dark, almost chocolate color, which some might find off-putting. The taste more than made up for it, I assure you.

Remember to cook the steak to medium-rare at the most! I understand that hanger steak, very tender at rare and slightly beyond, can become tough if cooked to well done. Slice it against the grain and it will reward you with delicious, juicy tenderness and taste.

The jalapenos were halved, lengthwise, seeded and deveined, stuffed with cream cheese (some mixed with chives), and then wrapped with half slices of bacon. These little devils were baked in as 375 degree oven for at least a half hour until the bacon looked thoroughtly cooked and we couldn’t stand the wait. At that point we retired to the patio, mojitos in hand, to enjoy the varying heat of the peppers. These were all from the same farm, presumably the same crop of plants, but there were some that were relatively tame and others that were hotter. Luckily, there were no killers in the bunch. (That’s happened before!)

While we were waiting for the jalapenos, we prepared the nacos. A nice, thick layer of taco chips on a half sheet pan, topped with cooked and drained ground beef, refried beans, diced canned green chilies, dollops of sour cream, grated jack and cheddar cheese, minced onion, and into the oven for 15 minutes at 350, until the cheese is melted and the whole thing is hot and too tempting for words.

We dug into those babies and made short work of them, washing them down with a second mojito. Love those more than margaritas. They are the only reason I grow mint. Of course, I wind up using the mint in other ways, but in the spring when I plant my herb garden, I think of mojitos and make sure to get a nice and healthy mint plant. (Be sure to plant mint in a pot, not in the garden, or it will take over. You will have mint enough for mojitos for everyone in the neighborhood.

What a nice evening it was. Kids and dogs running around, adults enjoying adult food and beverages, the weather pleasurable, and the end of summer fast approaching. I hope your Labor Day holiday had at least one day as great as today was for us.

It is a timely soup for us now; the end of summer approaches and the local farm markets are offering the bounty of nature. We have oodles of tomatoes, peppers of all colors, and more squash than we can handle. The corn has been great and if you’re lucky enough to have a few ears on hand (or a can of corn in the pantry) give this a try. It’s from “locallemons.com” – that’s local lemons. My apologies to the “locallemons.com” people for altering their recipe to suit my needs and whims.

Quick and Tasty Summer in a Bowl

Ingredients:

3 ears of corn

2 pounds of tomatoes (you can use canned if necessary)

2 1/2 T. roasted garlic (or just use raw garlic, minced)

1 red onion, peeled and chopped

2 poblano peppers

2 jalapeno peppers (I used crushed red pepper flakes about 1/4 teaspoon instead of jalapenos)

1/4 c. chopped cilantro

2 T. butter or oil (I used 1 T. of each)

sea salt

1 avocado, sliced

1 c. water or chicken broth, optional, to dilute

1/2 fresh lime, juiced

Now, here are my notes. First of all, it makes a small amount, about enough for 3 large-ish servings. If you’re feeding a crowd or aiming for leftovers, you’ll have to double or triple the recipe.

Second of all, be sure to read it all first. You must roast the peppers, first in order to skin them and render them a little tender. This is easy if you have a gas stove or grill but takes a little longer with an electric broiler unless you have one that gets blazing hot in no time flat. I don’t. But anyway, it should be no problem to get the peppers roasting while you prepare everything else.

Thirdly, you need to roast garlic and have 2 1/2 tablespoons available. I didn’t have time to do that; I was starting this at nearly 11:00 and wanted to eat at noon. No time for garlic to roast. I improvised by sauteing the garlic with the onions at the beginning. I imagine that roasted garlic would give its own unique flavor to the dish, but I didn’t miss it. Next, I added about a cup of chicken broth with the tomatoes. Why? I don’t know. It just seemed like the thing to do. Lastly, the recipe calls for jalapenos, which I didn’t have on hand. I used a sprinkling of crushed red pepper to give the soup some added heat. Jalapenos, of course, add flavor as well, so I had to go without that. I found that the poblanos leant more that enough peppery flavor, but if jalapenos float your boat, go for it.

I guess this  demonstrates my philosophy of not letting a missing ingredient get in the way of trying a new recipe. There are exceptions, of course. Baking usually requires strict adherence to the ratios of ingredients, if not the exact amounts. But to let the absence of shallots keep me from making a sauce when I have scallions would be a shame. I recognize the difference between the two and am usually able to reconcile the taste discrepancies. In this case, fresh corn would be perfect, but canned or frozen corn would hardly be taboo. In fact, I doubt if anyone could tell the difference in this soup, as rich and flavorful as it is. The end of the sermon.

1. Roast the poblano and jalapeno peppers under the broiler or over a grill until the skins are black and blistery. Let them cool for a while until you can handle them and slip off the skins,, remove the seeds and white veins and give them a rough chop.

2. Peel the tomatoes* and break them up with your hands into a bowl. (If using canned tomatoes, save the juice.)

3. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onions until soft and add the raw garlic, if using raw, and cook another minute or two without browning the garlic. Add the tomatoes and continue to cook on medium heat. Now add the crushed red pepper flakes if you are using that instead of  jalapenos.

4. Mash up the peppers in a mortar and pestle, a small food processor, or with a fork or other mashing type device until they somewhat come apart. We don’t want puree, here, folks, just a further breaking down of the cell walls. Scrape all this peppery goodness into the cooking pot.

5. Next crush the corn a tad and add the broken kernels and the corn juice into the pot as well.

6. Stir in the roasted garlic, if using, and add a little sea salt to taste.

7. Cook all this for 10 to 20 minutes until it reaches the consistency you like. You can add a little water or chicken broth to dilute it a bit if it gets too thick.

8. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with a slice or two of avocado and a little drizzle of lime juice.

We had toasted bread and some cheese with this for our lunch and decided this recipe is a keeper. Give it a try. It just tastes like summer in a bowl.

It’s a frequent request from the man who lives here, the one who can eat all the calories, fat grams, and carbohydrates without affecting his waistline or cholesterol count. I, on the other hand, can feel the cholesterol count go up if I even think of cheese, potatoes, butter, milk, or cream in a single bite.

Regardless of all that, I threw caution to the wind and prepared this delicious potato recipe a while ago and it was right up there among my favorite potato recipes. The addition of cabbage made it reminiscent of colcannon.  If you’ve never tasted that Irish delight, try it next year on St. Patrick’s Day. 

The origin of this dish is from Food Network’s Tyler’s Ultimate Show. I halved the recipe for the two of us and still had a bit left over. Double it to serve 6 easily.

ULTIMATE POTATO GRATIN (based on Tyler Florence’s recipe)

Notes:   I didn’t use the entire half head of cabbage; I used about a third. I also used regular bacon that I had on hand, about 4 slices. If I find myself without chives, I usually substitute some shallots, or scallions. To save calories and fat grams, use half and half or milk instead of heavy cream. Gruyere or cheddar could work instead of  the parmesan, but the taste would be different. I have occasionally used regular cabbage instead of Savoy.

1/2 head Savoy cabbage, cored and shredded 

1 inch piece of slab bacon, thinly sliced

1 T. butter

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/8 c. finely chopped chives

Salt and Pepper

1 lb. baking potatoes, unpeeled, thinly sliced (about 1/8″)

1 1/4 c. heavy cream 

1 c. parmesan, grated

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

2. Fry the bacon; remove from the skillet when crisp, and drain on paper towels. 

3. Add about 1 teaspoon of the butter to the bacon fat in the skillet; let it melt and add half the garlic and the cabbage. Over low heat, let the cabbage wilt slowly and mix with the garlic. Add the bacon back to the skillet along with the chives. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.

4.  With the remaining butter, grease the casserole or gratin dish and set aside.

5. In a large bowl, combine the sliced potatoes, half of the cream (3/4 cup), half of the parmesan (1/2 cup), and the rest of the garlic. Season with salt and pepper and mix carefully with your hands. 

6. Place about half of the potatoes in the gratin dish. Sprinkle with a little more parmesan. Spoon the cabbage on top and repeat the potato layer and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.

7. Cover with foil and bake one hour. Remove the foil and bake another 30 minutes. Let stand about 10-15 minutes before serving.

Forget those little paper envelops of instant grits. Yuck. It’s easy enough to make it from “scratch”. Boil some water, whisk in the grits, stir, stir, stir, yawn, stir, stir, stir. See? Easy. 

Now I must confess – I am not that fond of plain old grits, no extra added ingredients.  Give me some sausage gravy, some cheese, some bacon and eggs, then I’m happy to eat the grits. But I prefer them dressed up a little with some flavor cooked in with them. The star of the show of our traditional Christmas breakfast is a grits “souffle”, flavored with garlic and cheese, fluffy with beaten yolks and egg whites folded in, and topped with a crisp cornflake crispiness. Yum.

Last night I fixed a pot of grits as a side dish for dinner. It was so simple and tasty that you just have to fix it. (It would be a great addition to a hearty breakfast, also.) The grits are flavored with Cheddar and Parmesan.

This recipe is from the September, 2008, issue of Southern Living. Thanks, guys and gals.

TWO-CHEESE GRITS

4 c. water

1 t. salt

1 c. uncooked quick-cooking grits

1 c. (4 oz.) Cheddar cheese

1/2 c. (2 oz.) Parmesan cheese

2 T. butter

Salt and Pepper 

1. Bring the water and salt to a boil in a 3 qt. saucepan.

2. Whisk in the grits; reduce heat to  medium-low, and cook 5 – 6 minutes until tender.

3. Remove from heat, and stir the cheese and the butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I have so many recipes clipped/copied from various sources – thousands, I dare say. Every now and then I go through my files and look at a particular recipe and think “Who am I kidding? I will never fix this.” I can usually get rid of one third of them. I also find some duplicates, or near duplicates. Still, I have too many to use effectively. I guess it’s some kind of foodie addiction, this incessant searching for and collecting recipes. Luckily for me and my family, it’s not a harmful addiction. I don’t force feed anyone.

Be that as it may, I bought a roasting chicken yesterday and am cooking it right now. Last week, I tried Thomas Keller’s “favorite” roasted chicken from Epicurious.com. It was fine and you can find it here.  I wanted to try something different and the Barefoot one uses lots of vegetables as an edible rack upon which to cook the bird. That’s always good. That way there are lots of very tasty veggies cooked in the drippings. 

Here’s the recipe, or at least the way I fixed it. You can find the official one at the Food Network website.

Barefoot Contessa and Morgana’s Roast Chicken

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large bunch of fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs

1 lemon, halved

1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise

2 T. butter, melted

1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced

4 carrots, cut into 2-inch chunks

1 fennel bulb, tops removed and cut into wedges

Olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Remove giblets and neck if present in chicken cavity. Rinse the chicken with running water inside and out. Check for excess fat and pinfeathers and remove them. Pat the chicken dry on the outside.

3. Liberally salt and pepper the inside cavity.

4. Stuff the cavity with the lemon halves, and the garlic and the bunch of thyme.

5. Brush the outside of the chicken with the melted butter and season with the salt and pepper.

6. Truss the chicken legs and tuck the little wing tips under the chicken’s body. 

7. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel (I added a cut-up parsnip ’cause I had a lonely one handly) in the bottom of the roasting pan. Toss with salt and pepper, the 20 sprigs of thyme (I only had a few) and a little olive oil. Place the chicken  on top of the vegetables.

8. Roast for one and a half hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and a thigh. Remove the bird and vegetables to a platter and cover with foil for about 20 minutes. Slice up the chicken and serve with the vegetables.

UPDATE:

Here’s how I finished the dish. While the chicken was resting, I poured the pan drippings into another container and removed as much of the fat as possible. Then I added about 1/4 c. white wine to the pan and scraped up the little goodies on the bottom, those caramelized bits of chicken, carrots, and the rest of the veggies. Over medium heat, returned the drippings and some chicken broth (saved from a previous dinner) and a little splash of cream.  I drizzled this over the veggies and chicken when they were served next to mashed potatoes which were ready just in time.

It’s trash day tomorrow so I went ahead and removed the remaining chicken from the bone and will decide what to do with it tomorrow. I’m way too full and tired to think of it now. I know I’ll be glad I took care of that little chore right away. I can get rid of the carcass immediately. I hate to keep chicken bones in the freezer. I’m not always prepared to make broth each time I have chicken. I would love to be able to have a ready supply. Oh well. Dream on.

Any suggestions?

Several people warned that the recipe would set off all of the smoke alarms in the house.  I followed the suggestions of more than a few reviewers that a layer of sliced potatoes under the chicken would soak up the drippings and prevent smoke. That did the trick. I included a few slices of onions with the potatoes and had a bonus of crispy, chicken flavored potatoes and onions. I also had a layer of nonstick foil under the potatoes to make cleanup easier. 

Here’s the basic recipe:

Wash and dry the chicken, inside and out.  (Let’s hear it for paper towels!) Season the inside of the bird with salt and pepper. Truss the chicken to keep a nice shape that cooks more evenly without overcooking the wings and legs. Sprinkle the outside of the chicken with lots of salt. I found that the dried skin repelled the larger Kosher salt crystals, so I used table salt which stuck a little better. If you lightly rubbed the skin with oil or butter the salt would adhere. Then sprinkle with pepper to taste.

I placed my chicken on a rack over the aforementioned foil, potatoes and onions. Next, the chicken went into a 450 degree F. oven until done. Keller suggests 50-60 minutes, with a 15 minute resting period once removed from the oven. My chicken was slightly larger than the 2-3 lb bird he recommends in the recipe. It took significantly longer for mine to be done, about another 15 minutes in the oven. After resting, it was nice and juicy.

While the chicken was cooking and resting, I made mashed potatoes. When I took the chicken out of the oven, I scraped off the layer of onion and potato slices from the foil on the bottom of the roasting pan, gave them a quick chop or two and mixed them into my mashed potatoes. That was a delicious addition, let me tell you, and the caramelized onions and crispy chunks of potatoes added some textural interest as well. Let’s hear it for textural interest!

We had about 2 cups of chicken leftover after we picked the meat off the carcass. Last night I used it in a quick chicken divan casserole. I have a different chicken divan recipe for you to consider  here .

The one I used last night was a little simpler. I steamed some broccoli florets and made a quick mornay sauce with a little gruyere, white wine and nutmeg for flavor. I layered the broccoli, half of the sauce, the chicken and the rest of the sauce. Then a topped it with about 1/4 c. grated parmesan. It baked in the oven for about 25 minutes at 350, just until the top was starting to get golden brown. The recipe for that is at the bottom of this post.

I had planned to make chicken salad with the remains, but, having a cold, I didn’t want to handle all the fresh ingredients and risk sneezing or coughing all over food that wasn’t going to be cooked later. For that reason, I let my husband unload the dishwasher for me and set the table. That’s about the only benefit of having a cold. 

EASIER CHICKEN DIVAN

1 1/2 c. cooked broccoli florets

1 1/2 to 2 c. cooked chicken, diced

1/2 – 3/4 c. shredded gruyere or swiss cheese

3 T. butter

3 T. flour

1 c. milk or cream

1/2 c. chicken broth

2 T. white wine

1/4 t. nutmeg

salt and pepper

1/4 c. grated parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or spray an 11 X 7 or 9 x 9 baking dish or gratin dish with the same capacity.

2. In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir for a minute or two to cook the flour. Then add the 2 T. white wine and the chicken broth and stir to  mix well. Add the milk and whisk until all lumps are gone and the sauce begins to thicken. (If the sauce is too thick, you can add a few tablespoons of milk or cream.) Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring. Season with the nutmeg, and the salt and pepper to taste.

3. Add the gruyere or swiss cheese and stir to melt the cheese.

4. Put the broccoli in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour about half of the sauce over the broccoli and then add the chicken evenly over the sauce. Pour the remaining sauce over the chicken and then sprinkle with the Parmesan.

5. Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until the top starts to become golden brown.

I hope you try one of the two Chicken Divan recipes and, by all means, roast a chicken. It’s one of the true values in the grocery. 

One day last week I was catching up with the DVR’d Food Network shows I like to watch. Mostly, Barefoot Contessa, Tyler Florence –  that’s enough. If I watch too many shows, I would have way too many ideas floating around in my mind and wouldn’t get around to trying any of them. I usually find one or two to try each week and those that I have liked best were usually from Barefoot Contessa or Tyler Florence. 

I use her method for roasting beef tenderloin**. It never fails, and is so easy. Tyler’s dishes are usually great, but sometimes just a little too involved for me to make at the last minute. I do like his Ultimate Potato Gratin with the Savoy cabbage*** and prepare it several times a year.

Last night I was compelled to prepare a meal that Tyler Florence had on his show last week, “The Ultimate Brick Chicken”. It looked intriguing, weighting down the whole chicken with bricks while browning it in a skillet. The method was used to force as much surface area as possible to be in contact with the hot oil in the skillet. The cooking was finished in the oven while I made the recommended couscous and delicious yogurt sauce flavored with cilantro and mint, honey and lemon juice. The sauce was so good that I had to try a few – HA!  - spoonfuls. I think it would make a delicious salad dressing on its own. 

The chicken, a whole split chicken, backbone removed, and flattened, was rubbed with a Moroccan inspired spice mixture and allowed to rest in the frig for about 4 hours. Then it was into the hot skillet, bricks applied, and cooked for 15-20 minutes undisturbed on the burner, then flipped over, and finished in the oven for 35 minutes. It was served with the apricot, almond couscous, the recipe for which takes couscous to a whole new level. Delicious!

Here’s the recipe for the whole she-bang. It will become one of your favorites.

(You will need a brick a heavy rock, the afore-mentioned extra cast iron skillet, or something really heavy (and relatively clean) to lay atop the chicken. I had an old brick in the yard which I covered in foil. It wasn’t big enough to weight down the whole bird so I scrounged around and found another rock which did the trick.)

(Go to this link and  read the comments sections for other folk’s reviews of this meal. The photo shows the chicken and couscous served on flatbread seasoned and grilled. I didn’t fix that this time. If you can’t find a flat chicken, ask your butcher to remove the backbone of a whole chicken and flatten it for you. If you can’t do that, look for a “split chicken” in your grocery. I found one at Kroger. I suppose you could always use a cut-up chicken and cook  it the same way. Maybe I’ll try that next time.)

*Brick Chicken with Apricot Couscous

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Ingredients

• 1 head savoy cabbage, cored, cleaned, and shredded
• 1 (2-inch) piece slab bacon, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 bunch fresh chives, finely chopped to 1/4 cup
• 2 pounds baking potatoes, unpeeled and thinly sliced (about 1/8-inch), see Cook’s note*
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups grated Parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Finely shred the cabbage. Cut the bacon into 1/2-inch chunks. Place a small skillet over medium-low heat and fry the bacon, until crisp. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon butter to bacon fat in frying pan. When it has melted add 1/2 the garlic and give it a quick stir with a wooden spoon to soften. Add the cabbage and coat it with the butter. Slowly let it wilt. Add the bacon. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove from heat and add most of the chives, reserving a little for the garnish.

Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9 by 13-inch ovenproof casserole dish. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, 1 1/2 cups of cream, 1 cup of Parmesan, and the remaining garlic. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Using your hands, place a layer of potatoes in the casserole dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan and repeat with 2 more layers. Spoon the cabbage mixture on top and spread it out evenly over the potatoes. Top it off with 2 more layers of potato and Parmesan. Pour the remaining 1 cup cream over the dish. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan.

Cover dish with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Leave for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh chives.

• Cook’s Note: Slice the potatoes immediately before using so they don’t turn brown.

 

*BEEF TENDERLOIN CONTESSA

Copyright, 2001, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, All rights reserved

Prep Time: 5 min

Inactive Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 25 min

Level: Easy

Serves: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

• 1 (4 to 5 pound) fillet of beef, trimmed and tied
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper

Directions 

(Be sure to remove the beef from the frig an hour before cooking so that it can reach room temperature)

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Place the beef on a sheet pan and pat the outside dry with a paper towel. Spread the butter on with your hands. Sprinkle evenly with the salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for exactly 22 minutes for rare and 25 minutes for medium-rare.

Remove the beef from the oven, cover it tightly with aluminum foil, and allow it to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. Remove the strings and slice the fillet thickly.

Note: Be sure your oven is very clean or the high temperature will cause it to smoke.