Venison Tenderloin

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It's deer season, and we have lots of people in Arkansas out deer hunting.  My parents sent me home with a couple of tenderloins, which I was glad to have.  Venison is so lean, it can be classified as nonfat.  A broiled venison tenderloin delivers a high amount of protein, which is what you want to burn fat.  Venison also give you a nice amount of absorbable iron.  If you don't get enough iron, you may be cranky and tired often.  Like someone I know.  But. (sigh) .......bless her heart.  That's just what you have to say in the south about those passive aggressive types who you're just too polite to be rude to.

A great overnight venison marinade:  soy sauce, garlic powder, black pepper.  I prepare venison like I do beef.  Pan sear over high heat with the smallest amount of oil possible to seal in the juices and create a crust on the outside.  Venison is so lean, this process is much quicker than beef.  About 2 minutes per side.

Medium rare venison is just as delicious and tender, yet flavorful as a medium rare beef tenderloin.  Costwise versus a beef tenderloin -  for me, free!  I finished mine under the broiler for 5 minutes per side.  Letting it rest means that the juices don't all spill out when you cut the meat.  Just wait a little while to cut into the meat.  15 minutes is probably a good amount of time to let this little tenderloin rest so that all the juices can circulate and remain inside your every individual juicy bite. 

Thanksgiving 2011 - The Nguyens

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Holidays are a great time to reflect and appreciate.  Also a great time to share an exorbitant amount of food with your loved ones?  The Nguyen side of the family does occasionally enjoy turkey, but on the rare occasion that the majority of us could get together for a big meal, we usually choose our favorite offerings to share with one another. 

I chose to bring lamb chops.  My dad or brother threw them on the grill until medium rare.  I had marinated them in soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, fish sauce, lime, and mint.  They're a real treat for the holidays!

My brother Huy "Brian" brought a prime rib roast.  It was done very well with rosemary sprigs over indirect heat for a long, slow time period until the thermometer registered 130 degrees.  He rubbed it with black pepper and garlic beforehand. 

When you separate the bone part of the prime rib roast and the beef part of it, you will have some beef ribs.  Then you have the rest to slice.  You need to let it rest for about 30 minutes.  We mixed some wasabi with some mayonnaise for a sauce.

We also had some great crab stuffed mushrooms...

Then, creamed carrots and potatoes.  Just add 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of milk, bring to a simmer, then let the vegetables absorb all the creamy milk and buttery goodness.

Roasted veggies are so easy:  add olive oil, cover with aluminum for 20 minutes at 400 degrees, then uncover for another 20 minutes, and then remove.  Sprinkle some shredded asiago on top.

Then add a tender, crumbly dessert with very little sweetness that I found that I could eat a hundred slices of.....

My sister Nhu brought this coffe cake from Desir, a bakery in Plano.  It was sooooo good!!  I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.  I know that although a few people were missing, my Thanksgiving was everything I wanted it to be.  Filled with peace, love, and yummy food.

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I had a great morning today!  I was invited by my friend Frankie to join her on our CBS affiliate KTHV (channel 11 here) to make holiday appetizers.  Frankie owns Pizza Cafe, a quaint restaurant on Rebsamen with fantastic food!  She shared a fabulous recipe for basil hummus, and I really enjoyed it!  Frankie and I have worked around food for a long time now, so it was great to be able to be on TV preparing our food together.  We've also been great friends for a long time as well.  The morning show cast and crew are so nice at KTHV, I think they have my loyalty in the morning!  For Frankie's recipe, click here.  Thanks to the wonderful KTHV staff for being so welcoming to us; you made it a pleasure to prepare food for you.  Also, a special thanks to the producers for helping me get this video up on my blog!  Happy Holidays everyone!!

Steamed Clams

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My eight year old Gianna had a diorama due for her school project, and she chose to recreate the scene in Surprise Island (of the Box Car Children series) where they went digging for clams.  So I told her that I would get some clam shells for her. 

I found some all natural, fresh, live Middle Neck Clams from Chesapeake Bay.  Prior to preparing the clams, soak them in a bowl of water with a little kosher salt.  You may hear some interesting sounds.  Since they're live, if you see any open shells, tap on them.  It's pretty cool to see them close up.  You see bubbles.  Some people say to leave the shells soaking up to overnight, and some say just a couple of hours.  I soaked mine overnight.

Next, pull the shells out of the water.  Don't dump them into a collander because all the grit that has been released is in the bottom of the bowl, where you want it to stay - not on top of your clams in the collander.    Heat a teaspoon of butter in a medium dutch oven. 

Ingredients:

• 1 half onion, diced
• 24 clams
• 1 cup of sherry cooking wine
• finely chopped cilantro
• 1 half lemon

Directions:

1. Heat the onion in the butter over medium high heat until soft.
2. Add the sherry and bring up to a boil.
3. After about 5 minutes, add the clams.
4. Cover with the lid and let steam over medium high heat for 5 minutes.
5. Remove the lid, checking for any clams that did not open.  Remove the opened clam shells, and let the unopened shells simmer a little longer with the lid on.  Discard any that do not open.  I only had 2 that needed to be tossed.
6. Top with the cilantro and the juice of the lemon.

Gianna's Diorama:

Tapas Trio: Cured Meats of Spain

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Jamon Serrano is also known as Serrano Ham.  It is sliced paper thin, has a silky texture, and melts in your mouth.  It is very similar to prosciutto, the Italian style cured ham. 

Salchichon Salame looks and tastes just like salami.  I've been noticing that the people of Spain and the people of Italy have many similar foods.

Then we have Chorizo Cantimpalo - it has a reddish color.  I suspect it is flavored with paprika.  Spanish paprika.

To make these snacks you need:

Ingredients:

• Spanish deli meats, sliced
• French baguette, sliced as shown
• Boursin garlic and herb gourmet spreadable cheese (light)
• Cucumber, sliced and halved
• Ciliegine (Cherry sized fresh mozzarella)
• Toothpicks or skewers to secure everything together

Directions:

1. Toast the baguette if desired.
2. Spread the Boursin on the slice.
3. Fold the meat slices in half, then half again.  Place onto the spread.
4. Top with cucumber, then fresh mozzarella.
5. Secure all the pieces with a skewer or toothpick, then serve.

The other night I was at Kitchenco. at a cooking class where I snapped a few photos, and the owner Jay was laughing at all the pictures we food bloggers take.  I told him it really requires several before we're happy with what we've got.  I look at so many other food bloggers' sites, and many are just like me.  It's hard to choose just one picture.  Food is art - who knew from my still life photography class when I was little that I would become so hooked on taking pictures of food!

November Giveaway & Cul De Sac Humor

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Holiday idea:  bake your neighbors this cute little bundt cake!  How, you ask?  Maybe you can enter my drawing to win the pan you need to make it so easy to show your neighbors how much you appreciate them!

As a thanks to all of you who follow or occasionally glance at this site, I enjoy partnering with Kitchenco. to provide an easy way to win something fun and food related.  All you have to do is "follow" the site by clicking on the "follow" button, or you can "like" Red Kitchen Recipes on Facebook, or you can post a comment on either the Facebook page or on the actual RKR site.  You can enter up to 3 times, then one of my enigmatic daughters will draw a name out of a Whole Foods Bag, and it could be yours!!  (The prize, not the bag.  I use that bag a lot!)  Needless to say, the more times you enter, the more chances you get.

The prize is Nordicware Bundt Bakeware.

So today was filled with humor for me.  The morning started with my friend Dave Elswick of the KARN Newsradio afternoon show - riding in my car to see a prospective client with me.  I needed help with resetting my car clock.  It's still an hour ahead due to the time change last week!  Changing the time in my car was so labor intensive, it was difficult to get it to the proper time, so I told Dave forget about it!  However, the rest of the day, I thought, "At least it was exactly an hour ahead before.  Now it is just randomly wrong."  Hard to tell time that way, but I had to laugh about it.

Then there was a conference call where there were strange sounds and other fun distractions.  Having to listen to someone who is not good at their job is just plain painful.

Lastly, I got home to find lots of recyclables in my yard.  Many of my neighbors and I placed our recycle bins out last night, as today was garbage day.  It was so windy, a lot of the items ended up in my yard - at the end of the cul de sac I suppose is the reason...   

So the conversation went like this:

Me:  "I don't know how all these bottles and cans ended up in my yard."  Peter:  "Here, Thanh, I'll pick them up.  They're probably all my stuff."  Me:  "Do you drink Fresca?  There are like 5 cans of it right here!"  Peter:  "No, we don't drink Fresca.  If we have cans, they're usually beer cans."  (LOL!!)  Jason:  "That's why I drink bottles.  They don't fly out of our recycle bin!"  Kyle:  "That's why I just don't recycle!"

That was just the end of day comic relief I needed!  Love my neighbors!  (I know...you're all jealous!)

Weekend Tapas: Ceviche Style Calamari

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My favorite aisle at Barnes and Noble is the International Cookbook aisle.  Lately I have browsed Lebanese, Turkish, and Portuguese cookbooks.  And more recently, I looked over 3 different cookcooks about Spain.  I love tapas!  It's my favorite way to eat:  small dishes of different selections with a glass of wine.  The tapas bar tradition of small bites of food with your drink is a great way to experience dfferent flavors without filling up.  I was asked to tell about myself prior to a President's Club trip with King Pharmaceuticals (now Pfizer), and one of the questions was what my favorite food was.  I said tapas.  And so at our Awards Ceremony evening, we had servers walk by with small bites of food as we visited with each other over wine before we were seated at our tables at the castle in Budapest.  It was one of the most memorable evenings of my life.

This recipe came about as I pored over the cookbooks of Spain on Saturday.  They had so many recipes with calamari, which I love.  But with the humid Arkansas weather that we were having this week, I really craved something with more of a fresh, Mexico flair.  Ceviche.  But not really.  Rather than rely solely on the lime juice to cook the squid, I blanched it.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Private Selection Calamari (already cleaned!)  16 oz.
• 1 half red onion finely diced
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1/3 cup of finely minced cilantro
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
• 2 small red chilis seeded and diced
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• fresh cracked black pepper
• Splash of rice vinegar

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Drain the calamari and add to the pot for about 3 - 4 minutes, or until the edges start to curl a little.  Remove, and add to an ice bath (a bowl of water with ice).
2. Mix all the other ingredients.  Add the calamari.  Let sit for about 20 minutes, and serve with tortilla or pita chips.

 

Pomegranate

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Pomegranates are everywhere right now!  They are usually in season September through February, but this is the time of year that I notice them most.  This time of year also coincides with the time that stores start to place the fresh cranberries and large roasting turkeys, hens, and hams on display.

The girls always want one pomegranate of their own to take home from the store.  We found some really big ones from The Fresh Market.  The seeds were perfectly sweet and tart.

The seeds are called arils, and you can eat them whole.  You can slice the pomegranate in half, then in quarters.  From there, you can break them apart really easily and harvest the little seeds out.

They're a fun part of this fall season!

Braised Beef Short RIbs

This classic dish is inspired by Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  It's a rustic dish with a deeply rich au jus made with a red wine and beef stock.  Many aromatics also play a big role.  I used Zinfandel because it's my favorite red wine.  The carrots are from The Fresh Market - already washed and peeled.  Also very pretty for presentation.  Because a meal should be a feast for the eyes.  Everything else you can pretty much get from anywhere.   

I start the deep flavoring process by seasoning the short ribs with course kosher salt and pepper.  But just like with everything else, I add a marinade.  I just use soy sauce and garlic powder.  It sits in the fridge overnight.

Diced onions and celery add so much flavor to this dish.  I like to leave my carrots bite - sized, or sliced in half if they are petite sized to start.  Many others also dice the carrots.

Many recipes start with bacon pieces.  I used pancetta - it's just an Italian style bacon that I've gotten used to keeping on hand, and it's already diced!

A big part of the process is the fat removal.  If you let this dish refrigerate overnight, you will be able to skim off the fat the next day!

Ingredients:

• 6 bone in beef short ribs
• 1 Bottle red wine (I used Zinfandel)
• 4 bups beef stock
• 2 carrots or 1 package small baby carrots
• 1 Bag of Pearl Onions
• 4 stalks of celery diced
• 1 onion diced
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 4 oz. bacon or pancetta

Directions:

1. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper the day before you plan to serve them.  Add to a sealable bag with soy sauce and let sit.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Let the short ribs sit at room temperature for about an hour before cooking. 
3. Heat a Dutch Oven to medium high heat.  Brown the short ribs on all sides.  This will take some time, but you want your short ribs to be nicely browned.  Remove the ribs.
4. To the same Dutch Oven, add the bacon or pancetta.  Render the fat, and spoon the rest onto a paper towel for later.
5. Add the diced celery, onion, and carrots.  Let them brown, then set aside. 
6. Add the red wine.  Reduce to about half.  Add back in the short ribs, pancetta, and vegetables, excluding the carrots.
7. Place the dutch oven into the oven for 2 hours.  When done, let cool and refrigerate overnight.
8. The next day, remove the Dutch oven from the refrigerator, and remove the thick white layer of fat.
9. Place the Dutch Oven back onto the stovetop, add the carrots, and heat over medium heat.  Prepare the boiler onions as instructed on the package.  In a separate saucepan, bring water to a boil.  Put onions in for 3 mintues, then add to a bowl of water with ice.  Peel.
10. When the Dutch Oven comes up to a gentle boil, add the onions. top with the lid and let simmer for about 30 minutes.

The end result is just beautiful and delicious!

Roasted Duck

I was so excited to see that my Kroger Marketplace recently put out some Maple Leaf Farms Duckling.  It's my favorite brand to make.  It's all I wanted to do all weekend.  Prepare the roasted duck.  I'm a marinade-a-holic, so I started the preparation a day ahead.  I also love cooking with fresh aromatics that are great for flavoring a roast, not to mention they make the entire house smell wonderful while the roast is cooking.

I didn't have my own kitchen twine, so I searched all over, but could not find any.  Luckily the nice chef from the Kroger deli gave me a big handful.  I forgot to ask him why you have to tie the legs anyway!

Ingredients:

• 1 (5 pound) Pekin or Long Island Duck
• 1 Orange
• Ginger Root
• 5 Cloves of Garlic
• Soy Sauce
• Garlic Powder
• Black Pepper
• Course Kosher Salt

Directions:

1. Remove the orange sauce packet, neck, gizzards, and liver from the inner cavity of the duck if there.
2. Trim off the excess fat on the duck around the neck area.  The less fat on the duck, the better.  Cut off the wing tips.  You wont be eating them anyway.
3. Poke the skin all around the duck by pulling the skin away from the meat, and poke with a knife.  Careful not to poke the meat.  This will make draining of the fat better, and the skin will crisp up.  Some people love to reserve duck fat.
4. Mix up some soy sauce, garlic powder, and black pepper.  Place the duck into a large, sealable plastic bag.  You may need to angle it.  Add the marinade ingredients.  Seal the bag and massage the seasonings into the duck overnight.  Occasionally turn the bag.
5. Next day, pull the duck out about 30 minutes before roasting.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
6. Wash an orange thoroughly, then zest it with a Microplane.  Reserve it for later.  Quarter the orange.
7. Peel a small portion of ginger root with a peeler.  Also peel the 5 garlic cloves.
8. Place the duck onto a cookie sheet.  Stuff the inner cavity with the orange quarters.  Smash the ginger and garlic to release the aromatics, then add those to the inner cavity. 
9. Tie the legs together with string, then place the duck onto a rack on another pan, breast side up, then into the oven when it's ready.
10. After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 degrees.  Cook for 45 minutes.
11. Pull the duck out of the oven.  Check the fat, and remove any if necessary.  You don't want your duck sitting in fat.  Turn the duck breast side down.  Place a meat thermometer around the leg and thigh area.  Mine presets duck at 180 degrees.  Place it back into the oven.
12. Cook another hour, or until it registers the 180 degrees, then remove from the oven.  Let it rest 15 minutes, then you can slice it.

I probably love duck just because chicken is so common.  I also grew up with my parents serving this stuff all the time.  With the Vietnamese under French control for so long, it's no wonder I often sway towards French cuisine.  For whatever reason, I think that duck is delicious!

Antipasto with Starfruit

Antipasto is an Italian culinary experience meaning "before the meal," but on occasion in the home of the Red Kitchen, it IS the meal.  Just like Spanish tapas, another favorite tradition of ours that is similar.  We love to combine small bites of different foods that compliment each other, such as cured meats with crusty bread, cheeses, and seasonal fruit.  Today we had salami with white cheddar cheese, french baguette bread, and starfruit.  Starfruit is more of a Southeast Asian occurrance, but that's what you get in this Italian Asian melting pot:  a little bit of fusion food preparation.  I think that if you let it get ripe and turn yellow, it is sweeter.  But we enjoyed its slightly tart kiwi like flavor today.  And hey, they had it at The Fresh Market today.  What is actually not pictured is the pomegranate, prosciutto, and olive oil bread dipper that we also had.  It was a great Saturday lunch!  And fun for my daughters...

Shrimp Piccata

Sometimes it's nice to just shut out the rest of the world.  Forget all about it.  And just cook.  My husband Jereme and bff Joe think I'm really out of it for not being able to keep up with them on current affairs right now, but I've become completely hooked on The Cooking Channel in place of the local news that I used to watch in the early morning when I wake up to get ready for work.  Some of the shows on The Cooking Channel are Molto Mario, Aaron Sanchez, and Cat Cora, so I've been watching them cook some Italian, Mexican, and Greek dishes that make me really hungry.  I love learning about their cultures.

I'm not sure of the origin of this dish, but I'm guessing it's closer to Italian cuisine.  I like that it's quick and easy to make!





Ingredients:

1 lb. Large Shrimp, peeled and deveined
Capellini or Angel Hair Pasta for 4
3 Tablespoons Butter
Capers
Flour
1/2 Lime or Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Chicken Stock or White Wine
Fresh Chopped Parsley

Directions:

1. Cook the capellini per packaged directions.
2. Heat butter in pan over medium high heat until hot, then add the shrimp.  Turn after 3 minutes and continue to cook until pink.  Remove from pan when finished. 
3. Add lemon juice, stock, and parsley.  Bring up to a light boil, then use a whisk to remove the bits from the bottom of the pan.  Return shrimp to pan, add capers, and turn off the heat.
4. Serve over the pasta and top with shredded asiago if you'd like the taste of extra Italian flair.