Pancetta Wrapped Veal Loin, Fennel Puree, Baby Potatoes and Braised Radicchio

This delicious recipe is taken from various items that I have seen done at the restaurant where I work. This way by far the tastiest dish done this year. This feeds 2 took 1.5 hours to prepare and costs $40.

Pancetta Wrapped Veal Loin
8 thin slices of pancetta, ask the deli guy
8 oz veal tenderloin, trimmed

Preheat the oven to 300. Season the veal loin with salt and pepper and sear in a medium pan on high until golden on each side. Place on an oven rack and place in the oven until 130 degrees in side, about 10 minutes. Take out and rest until cool about 15 minutes. Wrap with pancetta and pan sear again on medium until pancetta is cooked, about 3 minutes on each side.

Veal Jus
2 cups vegetable broth
1/8 cup veal trimmings
1/4 white onion
1 teaspoon rendered pancetta

Cook all ingredients in a sauce pan on medium low until reduced to 1/4 cup. Strain and reduce by half, let cool and add a teaspoon of butter.

Fennel Puree
1 organic fennel bulb, diced
1 organic leek, chopped
4 cloves organic garlic
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Boil fennel, leeks and garlic in a medium saucepan on medium high until tender, about 12 minutes. Strain an place in a food processor, add cream and blend, slowly add olive oil until puree is smooth.

Crispy Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes
2 lbs organic baby yukon golds
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Spray a sheet pan with olive oil and season. Place potatoes cut side down and spray with oil and salt and pepper. Cook for 25 minutes until golden. Turn off the oven and let stand in the oven for 15 minutes.

Braised Radicchio
1 head organic radicchio, julienned
1/8 cup pancetta, diced
1/4 red onion, diced

In a medium pan render the pancetta on low, once crisp and onion and cook 5 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium and add radicchio, let cook ten minutes and season.



I also seared some scallions in the same pan I used to finish the veal. I plated it all together and the flavor combinations were amazing. Buon Apetitio!

Rock Shrimp and Lobster Risotto topped with Shredded Stone Crab

I was shopping at the supermarket the other day and they had rock shrimp and baby Maine lobster tails for a great price. How could I turn that down... obviously I can not. They also had some great prices on stone crabs so I grabbed a jumbo claw as well. Now I had to figure out what to do with it and then it hit. The most awesome risotto ever. This costs about $25 dollars and can feed 4 people. It takes 1.5 hours to complete. Risotto requires the use of warm water or stock in the preparation. I created my own veg stock for this recipe but you could use water or store bought stock if you wish.

Vegetable and Lobster Stock
1/4 cup carrots, chopped
1/4 cup white onion, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 vidallia onion, chopped
cut off pieces and scraps bell peppers
lobster shell, cleaned
parsley stems
thyme
8 cups of water
salt

Start a large sauce pot on medium heat. Add some olive oil and then all the vegetables. Let them cook for 5-7 minutes or until softened. Now add the water, lobster body, herbs and salt. Let that cook for at least 45 minutes.



Rock Shrimp and Lobster Risotto
1/2 organic white onion, diced
1 vidallia onion, diced
1/4 cup carrots, diced
1/2 cup total of red, yellow and orange bell peppers, diced
2 cups Arborrio rice (risotto rice)
1/4 bottle of white wine
6-8 cups of vegetable stock
1/4 cup Romano cheese, grated
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

1/4 pound rock shrimp, halved
1 baby Maine lobster tail, meat removed and large diced
3 tablespoon, salted butter

1 jumbo stone crab, meat removed from the shell and shredded

Start a large high sided sauce pot on medium low heat (4 of 10) and add enough olive oil to cover the bottom. Add the chopped vegetables and stir, let cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Now add the 2 cups of risotto. Stir the rice until it begins to toast a bit and becomes translucent, about 4 minutes. Now add the wine and stir until all of the wine has cooked off. Now add three ladles of the homemade warmed stock. Stir the rice well until all of the liquid is almost all absorbed. Then add three more ladles of stock and stir it in again until absorbed. Stir the pot every 2 minutes or so, don't walk away. Keep adding the three ladles of stock every time the liquid is almost gone. It should take about 30 to 40 minutes for the rice to stop absorbing the liquid rapidly and begin to get tender. About 5 to 7 times of adding the stock. Once you have added about 3/4 of the stock start the seafood.

Start a small sautee pan on low and add the butter. Once the butter is melted add the lobster and shrimp and let it cook for about 10 minutes turning occasionally. This is called butter poaching.

Turn off the heat on the risotto and add the Romano and Parmesan cheeses and mix well. Add the butter poached seafood along with the butter used to cook them into the risotto and fold it all together, being gentle not to beat up the rice in the risotto. Finish it off with the parsley add salt and some pepper to taste. Scoop it on to a plate and top it with the shredded stone crab, garnish with a parsley sprig.



The stone crab adds a great richness to this dish that is great even without the additional crab. The tenderness of the rice and creaminess of the dish are the keys to making it an amazing dinner. Buon Apetito!

Lemon Chicken with Brussel Sprouts

My wife loves lemon, hence she loves the lemon chicken that I make. This time I added some more of her favorite ingredients (cilantro, ginger, large amounts of black pepper) to my standard way of making this dish to make her even happier, if at all possible (notice the sarcasm). The results were excellent, which goes to show that creativity doesn't have to be in creating a new dish, it can be simply tweaking a standard to get a new twist on familiar flavors.

Lemon Chicken

4 pieces of thin sliced chicken breast (boneless skinless thighs work good also)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 a red onion sliced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, fine dice
1 tablespoon of lemon peel, fine dice
1 cup of vegetable or chicken stock (or water)
1 lemon, juiced
1 handful of cilantro, chopped
salt and lots o black pepper (1 salt to 2 pepper ratio)

Start a large sauté pan on medium high (6 of 10) and add some vegetable oil to coat the pan. Season the chicken breasts liberally with the salt and pepper, then dredge them through the flour on both sides. Add them to your hot pan making sure you DO NOT OVERCROWD THE PAN. As they get golden on each side flip and cook for 4 minutes on the other side. Once all of the chicken is cooked and moved aside we can start the sauce. In the same sauté pan add a tablespoon of butter and then your onions, cook them for five minutes or until the start browning. Then add the lemon peel and ginger and cook for 3 minutes. Now add a tablespoon of flour to the onion mix and stir constantly until no more white flour is visible and the flour mix starts to brown a bit. Now add you stock to the pan and mix well. Let that cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until reduced to a sauce consistency. Now add the lemon, cilantro and some salt and pepper to taste. Stir and let cook for 3 more minutes. Add the already cooked chicken back to the pan and turn off the heat. Let it sit for a few minutes and then serve.

Brussel Sprouts

1 package brussel sprouts, halved and trimmed
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
salt and pepper

Brussel are easy to make using this method. Start a large frying pan on medium heat. add the butter and olive oil. Once melted add the brussel spouts cut side down in the pan. Cover and cook for ten minutes or until they get a bright green color. Uncover and turn up the heat to medium high. Let then cook for about five more minutes and then add the salt and pepper and lemon juice. Turn off the heat and recover them for 3 minutes to let the salt,pepper and lemon juice to soak in. Thats it.

Thanks babe for the idea of adding the new ingredients to our old favorite. This was all done in under 45 minutes and the dish scales to serve many people real well. Plus its a crowd please! Buon Apetito