Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

It is so good to be back in the North Carolina Mountains.  There is nothing more beautiful.  Our timing for the trip back was perfect.  The temperatures have been even warmer than in Florida.  The only downside to being back is the amount of work that we are facing.  Because of the brutal winter, we had to deal with cracked water pipes; no water for the first couple of days.  There are leaves to be raked, downed limbs to be hauled, porches to be cleaned and fresh paint needed in several places.  But one of the first areas I tackled was the upper porch.  It is warm enough for meals out there overlooking the lake.  I made this asparagus tart for lunch yesterday to celebrate our good weather.

This is very simple to pull together if you have sheets of puff pastry in your freezer.  I found the recipe on Pinterest.  It came from Nicole at Heat Oven to 350.   You may want to visit her blog to see instructions on how to shape the pastry.  The filling in the tart is a mixture of ricotta cheese, egg and cream.  The asparagus is not blanched ahead of time, but if you have large stalks, you may want to consider doing it.

Relaxing on the porch for lunch was a good respite from the tasks at hand.  The asparagus tart was light and delicious.  I served it with leftover corn and black beans with picante sauce.

This was a wonderfully flaky tart with a mild and creamy filling that supported the vibrant green asparagus.  The recipe makes two tarts.  One tart can be cut into 4 pieces to serve four or if that is all you are serving, perhaps two hungry people.  I halved the recipe to make this one tart.

ASPARAGUS TART

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One of the first posts that I shared with you when we arrived in Florida for the Winter was a meal that we had on our lanai.  You can see it here.  It just seemed appropriate that the last meal that I share with you from Florida would also be outside on the lanai.  We are leaving for Lake Lure on Sunday.  This delicious sandwich is one that I posted three years ago, but it is special so I wanted to repeat it in case any of you missed it.  It is one that I made for a contest on Food 52.  I didn’t win the contest, but it is still a winner in my opinion.

There are several components to the sandwich.  All of them can be done ahead of time.  The flank steak can and should be grilled ahead of time.  You can use your own favorite marinade or the one I have included here.  If you want to skip this step, you could always get some good deli roast beef.  The pear horseradish mustard is easy to make and the extra will keep in the refrigerator for at least a month.  It gives an interesting kick (but not hot) to the sandwich.  The onion marmalade has a nice sweet and sour flavor, more sweet than sour, that compliments the mustard.  This sandwich is best served on toasted ciabatta bread. The whole sandwich brings together the elements delightfully.  I love it.

The weather was warm and sunny on the evening that we enjoyed this meal.  It got cold again the next day and we have had cloudy skies and rain.  I have no idea what we will find in North Carolina, but like all of you, I am ready for Spring.  We are packing and looking forward to being back.  I miss my Lake Lure Kitchen.  See you back there soon.  I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday at The Comforts of Home.

GRILLED FLANK STEAK SANDWICH WITH SWEET CARAMELIZED ONIONS AND PEAR HORSERADISH MUSTARD

Serves 4

For the Flank Steak and Sweet Onion Marmalade:

Marinade Ingredients (Simply recipes)

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Other ingredients

• 2 pounds flank steak
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper

2 Large Vidalia onions, halved and sliced

3 tablespoons Canola oil
3 tablespoons Sugar
3 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 cup Water (May or may not be needed)

1.Marinate the flank steak in the marinade ingredients in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

2.While steak is marinating, heat the 3 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet. Add the sliced onions and cook over moderate heat until the onions become soft. Add the sugar and cook stirring for a few minutes. Add the vinegar and turn the heat to low and cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. If the onions are not as soft as you would like, add the water and simmer, stirring, until mixture is slightly thickened and onions are very tender, about 10 minutes.

3.Prepare grill. Remove steak from marinade and grill it over hot coals turning once until it reaches your desired doneness. Medium rare to medium works best. Remove steak and let rest before slicing it into thin strips.

For the Pear Horseradish Mustard and Final Assembly:

4 Ripe Pears, peeled and chopped
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
6 peppercorns
1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup Red Wine
1 10 ounce bottle of Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoons Creamy Horseradish
4 Ciabatta rolls, split and cut side browned in an oiled pan
Chopped lettuce for garnish

1.Wrap the cinnamon stick, bay leaf and peppercorns in a small piece of cheesecloth and tie with kitchen string. Add the chopped pears and cheesecloth bag to a large saucepan with the red wine vinegar and wine. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook uncovered for about 20 minutes or until the liquid has reduced. Cool slightly and remove cheesecloth bag. Puree the mixture in a food processor. Add the pear puree to a large bowl along with the Dijon mustard and the horseradish. Stir to combine. The pear horseradish mustard keeps, covered and chilled for 1 month.

2.Assemble the sandwiches. Spread the split and toasted ciabatta rolls with 1 tablespoon pear horseradish mustard per side (or to taste). Add the sliced steak and the onion marmalade. Garnish with lettuce. Enjoy!

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If you want to try something a little different for St. Patricks Day, I highly recommend this riff on the traditional corned beef and cabbage.  The colcannon is a mixture of cabbage, mashed potatoes and bacon.  If you are lucky you can find authentic bangers which are British pork sausages.  They got their name because they are said to make a bang sound when they split while cooking.  But the star of this dish is the brown sugar and Guinness Stout gravy.

The sausages are cooked in the beer and then the beer and brown sugar are thickened with a butter and flour mixture.  The taste is excellent with both the sausages and the potato, cabbage mash.  Unfortunately, I did not put much of the gravy on my plate when I photographed it.  I corrected that mistake when I dug into it.

As far as I know the original recipe came from Tara at Smells Like Home.  You can visit her site to see a better picture of the dish with the gravy.  If you can’t find bangers, any mild sausage will do.  I used an Italian turkey sausage.  The dish is garnished with scallion tops.  It is well worth a celebration.

BANGERS AND COLCANNON WITH BROWN SUGAR GUINNESS GRAVY

For the bangers and gravy:
6 Irish bangers (or mild sausage)
12 oz Guinness beer
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter mashed with 1 1/2 tbsp flour
Pinch of Kosher salt
1-2 tbsp chicken stock, as needed

1. In a 12″ sauté pan, brown bangers on all sides over medium heat. Add beer to pan, reduce to a simmer. Braise bangers until they are fully cooked and the beer reduces by half, about 10 minutes.
2. Remove bangers from the pan and whisk in brown sugar, butter/flour mixture, and salt until the mixture is smooth.  Bring gravy to a gentle boil and reduce to a simmer until thickened.  If the gravy thickens too much, add 1-2 tbsp of chicken stock as needed.

For the Colcannon:
1 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed(I used Yukon Gold, but russets would do too)
2 3/4 tsp Kosher salt, divided
4 oz bacon, diced
3 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
3 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, divided
1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Place potatoes in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water.  Add 1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Boil until potatoes are fork tender, about 10-12 minutes. Drain and keep warm in the saucepan you boiled them in.
2. While the bangers brown and potatoes boil, cook bacon in a 12″ skillet over medium heat until almost crisp, rendering as much bacon fat in the pan as you can.  Add 2 tbsp butter, allow to melt, and then add the cabbage. Sauté mixture until cabbage is almost tender but a slight amount of crunch remains, about 10-15 minutes while stirring occasionally.
3. Add heavy cream and 1 tbsp butter to the pot

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While we were in Washington DC a few weeks ago, we spent a Sunday morning visiting The Phillips Collection of art in one of the row houses in Dupont Circle.  We had decided that we wanted to stay in the neighborhood where our apartment was located.  As much as I admire the Metro System in DC, we found that the Red Line was undergoing an upgrade this Winter and parts of the track were closed.  On Saturday we had experienced delays, overcrowded cars and none of the ease that we had experienced in our previous visits.  Besides that, the morning was very cold, so being close to our warm apartment made sense.

The most well known painting in The Phillips Collection is Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party.  Duncan Phillips, an avid collector of modern art, acquired the painting in 1923.  He had opened his row house in Dupont Circle as an art museum in 1921.  Luncheon of the Boating Party “captures an idyllic atmosphere as Renoir’s friends share food, wine and conversation on a balcony overlooking the Seine at the Maison Fournaise Restaurant in Chatou.  Parisians flocked to the Maison Fournaise to rent rowing skiffs and . . . eat good meals.”   We also ate a good meal in the museum cafe, Tryst.  Chicken and barley soup was on the menu.  Due to the fact that I was still chilled to the bone, that was exactly what I wanted.  Lots of Hmmms later, David said “I know what you are thinking. You want to make this soup when you get home.”  He had it right.

The only decision was finding the right recipe that would be as close as possible to the soup that I had eaten.  Martha Stewart’s recipe won out.  It is full of vegetables and aromatic chicken and broth.  The barley is a quick cooking variety and I had this on the table in no time.  Each spoonful was as good as I remembered.  Even though we are all looking forward to Spring meals, this last hurrah to winter soups is worth your attention.

CHICKEN AND BARLEY SOUP  (Martha Stewart)

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 carrots, diced small
• 4 celery stalks, diced small
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 5 sprigs thyme
• 1 cup quick-cooking barley
• 5 ounces baby spinach (5 cups)

  1. STEP 1

     In a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add carrots, celery, and onion. Cook until just tender, about 8 minutes. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until chicken is opaque at edges, about 2 minutes.

  2. STEP 2

     Add broth and thyme and bring to a boil. Stir in barley. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until barley is tender and chicken is cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes.

  3. STEP 3

     Add spinach and cook until wilted, 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

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What a lovely little risotto cake.  I love food that can be stuffed in a ramekin, baked, and then un-molded.  I was perusing Nourish Magazine, a quarterly magazine from New Zealand, on-line recently and found this recipe for a vegetable filled risotto cake.  Nourish promotes local, seasonal and vegetarian fare, although the vegetarianism is not total.  There are recipes using meat products as well.  It is always fun to get a fresh prospective on eating.

The recipe makes six to eight risotto cakes.  I think this would make a lovely luncheon dish topped with a small dressed salad.  For dinner, it makes a pretty side to fish or chicken.  The risotto can be made ahead of time, placed in the ramekins and baked right before you are ready to serve the risotto cakes.  The flavor of the tomato, corn and basil adds lots of interest to the dish.

So simple, but yet so lovely and delicious.

On a change of subject, the above picture was taken at last year’s Bloggers’ get together at Larry, of Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings, and his wife  Bev’s Almost Heaven South lakeside pavillion in Tennessee.  We had the most wonderful luau with authentic delicious food, great company and a chance for all of us bloggers to connect with each other.  The event for 2014 is scheduled for either June 7th or 8th.  The official date will be announced in March.  We would like to invite any of our fellow bloggers to attend.  I can guarantee that you will have a good time.  You can contact Larry or Chris, at Nibble Me This, if you are interested in attending.

We had some of the best barbecue gurus in blogland manning the grills.  This grill line-up still brings a smile to my face.  Come and join us.

TOMATO, SWEET CORN AND BASIL RISOTTO CAKES

2 onions, diced
2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 cup Arborio rice
3 1/2 cups tomatoes, diced (I used canned)
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
2 spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp basil pesto
⅔ cup sweetcorn (I used frozen)
⅔ cup grated cheese (I used Parmesan)
3 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot, soften the onions in the oil.

Add Arborio rice and cook for a couple of minutes being careful not to let the rice catch on the pan.

Then add the tomatoes, mix well and let the Arborio rice absorb some of the moisture from the tomatoes before adding the stock.

When the Arborio rice is nearly cooked through take it off the heat and stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Spoon into greased ramekins and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until golden.  Un-mold by running a knife around the sides and inverting onto plates.

Serve with salad.

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