What's cooking at Jerk Castle . . .

Jalapeno Jack and Spinach Omelet

We had a bit of an omelet disaster a few weeks ago, basically, an omelet that ended up scrambled eggs (we've all been there).  . . well steven (the resident omelet chef) was not pleased. 

He decided his downfall was due to too much stuff in the eggs and no big spatula. . .so when we went out to the Tanger Outlets last weekend, he picked up this bad boy at Le Gourmet Chef (http://www.legourmetchef.com/)- 4 bucks for a mario batali spatula- not bad. . .   

 

And let me tell you- it did the trick- see for yourself:

 

Here were the steps used to make this perfect omelet:

1) crack and wisk three eggs in a bowl and salt and pepper to taste

2) grate a healthy pile of cheese

3) sautee one thinly sliced shallot and then add chopped spinach in a non-stick skillet

4) when spinach is soft but still bright green, pour in the eggs

5)   let eggs cook for a few minutes until the bottom is cooked and take spatula around the outside edge and lift the edges of the eggs from the skillet

6) pull the edge of one side of the omelet off the edge and tilt skillet so some of the uncooked egg mixture gets underneath and let that cook.  do the same on the other side.

7) after going around the edge again with the spatula, work the spatula underneath the eggs and flip it over

8) while that side is cooking, add the cheese to one side

9) fold over onto the cheese side 

Plate and serve!

Cucumber and Celery Salad

Please excuse my slow posting these days- June has been a work nightmare but the summer is here and we are back on to the recipe clipping madness.

This salad was light and refreshing although a bit vinegary for me. . . next time i'd add more yogurt and less white wine vinegar. honestly, not too much to say about this salad so i won't bore you with rambling except it is easy and quick and a cucumber salad always feels good.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/grilled-salmon-cucumber-celery-salad-00000000015722/index.html

 

man, did the color of this picture turn out weird. . . anyway, you get the point- cucumber, celery, parsley and yogurt (and how nice looking are our new countertops).

Roasted Garlic and Veggie Pizza

This pizza, if i do say so myself, was franny's worthy (for those of you who don't know franny's, it is time to get to brooklyn- http://www.frannysbrooklyn.com/), the crust was perfectly crispy and salty (maybe just a tad bit too salty if we needed to find a complaint), the mozarella was a perfect cheesy layer and the roasted garlic and veggies were thin and lovely.

After attempting to make pizza a number of times without success, let me share some tips with you:

1) DO get a pizza stone- it doesn't have to be fancy- steven bought this one during an amazon.com procrastinating spree and it worked like charm- http://www.amazon.com/Bialetti-4-Piece-Pizza-Stone-Set/dp/B0001SJGAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1244989215&sr=8-1 

2) DO NOT use mozarella made fresh that day- according to the cheesemaker at a cheese shop in rockland, fresh mozarella made that day sounds great but is too watery and mushy for baking- (and the last pizza we made was very watery)- for this pizza, we picked up a mozarella that they made at the cheese shop specifically for baking but if you can't find that, no need to get polly-o, we just bought mozarella yesterday at the fairway that was made two days ago and froze it for our next pizza- (ill let you know later on this week how it went with this cheese).

3) If you buy pizza dough from your local pizzeria, DO cut it in half and then roll out to a ball as best as you can-do not use the whole amount or you will have a thick raw nightmare that looks good but is gross (see prior pizza post!).

For this pizza, we rolled out the dough, brushed it with olive oil and added sea salt, we then layered sliced mozarella and the veggies and garlic- thinly slice zuccini and eggplant which we had brushed with olive oil and grilled on the grill pan and roasted garlic from a jar we had bought at the supermarket. Place on the stone and bake at 500 degrees for just around 8 minutes.

This pic does not do the cheesy, salty, roasted goodness justice. . . but here is a peek.

It was really really good- we had to slow ourselves down from eating the whole pizza in like 5 minutes.  

Beef Lettuce Wraps

Not usually a fan of the magazine Cooking Light but had stocked up on magazines in the airport for a flight to LA and that was one of them. . . we found a few recipes that looked interesting- this was a lovely one- easy and quick and the sauce was sweet and vinegary-we also added advocado slices and some salsa- i'd recommend that.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1898540

tip: use bibb lettuce or other lettuces with large leaves- we bought the lettuce they had at our farmers market- which was fresh and local and all that stuff but wasn't the best for wrapping.