Grilled Meats and Vegetables with Saffron Orzo

Over Memorial Day weekend we decided to make a dish we don't have often. Partially because it takes some planning, but mostly because it feeds more than 2 people! Since it was a long weekend we decided it was the perfect time to pull out this recipe and share it with friends. Here's the recipe (courtesy of Food Network):

GRILLED MEATS AND VEGETABLES OVER SAFFRON ORZO

Marinade:

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup fresh lemon juice, from about 5 lemons

2 cups extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons smoked salt, or kosher salt

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

For grill:

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1/2 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined

2 ears corn, husked and cut into thirds

1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, wiped clean

1 red bell pepper, halved and cored

1 yellow bell pepper, halved and cored

1 orange bell pepper, halved and cored

*NOTE* You can use any meat or vegetables you choose, we used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, flank steak and shrimp. Since we had so many meats and vegetables this time we put them on skewers which made turning on the grill much easier.

Saffron Orzo:

4 cups chicken stock

1 teaspoon saffron threads

1 pound dried orzo

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

In a medium bowl, combine the marinade ingredients. In a large bowl, combine half the marinade with the chicken breasts, chicken thighs, and shrimp. Toss to combine. Cover and let marinate for at least 1 hour. If marinating for longer than 1 hour, make sure to refrigerate. Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Brush the corn with reserved unused marinade and wrap in foil. Toss the mushrooms with 1/4 cup of the reserved unused marinade. Grill the chicken breasts and thighs to an internal temperature of 165 degrees, about 7 minutes a side. Grill the corn for about 5 minutes a side. Grill the peppers for about 5 minutes a side. Grill the shrimp and the mushrooms, about 2 minutes a side. Brush the grilled peppers with the last of the reserved unused marinade. Slice the peppers and mushrooms before serving, if desired. While grilling meat and vegetables, begin cooking orzo. In a large pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, bringing the stock to a simmer. Add the saffron, stir, and allow the saffron to bloom, about 5 minutes. Return the heat to medium and the stock to a boil, then add the orzo and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain orzo and transfer to a large bowl. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and parsley. Toss to combine. Arrange grilled meats and vegetables over the saffron orzo on a large platter and serve immediately.

Dessert disaster that I've had recipe requests for . . .

(Lovely berry picture c/o my friend: Google Images)

Yes, you read it right. I decided to make a super simple Berry Galette from the Joy of Cooking Pie & Tart Cookbook my Mom gave us and completely messed it up! The cookbook provides a variety of pie and pastry crust recipes at the beginning and then gives a suggestion of which to use with each recipe in the book. For this particular recipe they suggest substituting cornmeal for some of the flour in the pastry dough. Since that already cut down on the amount of "regular" flour I was using I decided I'd use rice flour for the rest so it was gluten free. This is always an experiment with new recipes so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out. The fatal error came when I somehow mis-read 1/3 cup water for 3/4 cup water and ended up with REALLY moist dough! After adding a lot more flour, powdered sugar and cornmeal I created a somewhat workable consistency and threw it in the fridge to harden up. The extra moist dough did not make it easy to roll and transfer to the baking sheet but after piecing it together we finally cooked and had a finished product. I wanted to throw it away but Mark insisted on finishing and serving it; now I've just finished baking a second one (with the left over dough) and have recipe requests. I'm sure when the directions are followed appropriately it is a very easy and delicious summertime dessert!

So, here's the recipe:

"Half-Covered Berry Galette"

Pastry Dough:

Using a large rubber spatula mix the following ingredients in a large bowl:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

**they suggest increasing the powdered sugar to 1/6 cup and substituting 3/8 cup cornmeal for 3/8 cup flour***

Quickly(to prevent softening) cut 1 stick of cold, unsalted butter into small pieces. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and cut with a pastry blender (or 2 knives) until the butter is in pea sized pieces.

Add 1/8 cup shortening, cutting it into the mixture as you did the butter. Do not let the mixture soften and begin to clump.

Drizzle 1/6 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon ice water over the mixture and cut with the blade of the rubber spatula until it looks evenly moistened and begins to form small balls. Press down on the dough with the flat side of the spatula and if the balls of dough stick together you have enough water. (If they don't add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon additional ice water). The dough should look rough. Press the dough into a flat disk, wrap it tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

(picture c/o: Cheryl Gater)

Half-Covered Berry Galette:

-Position a rack on the lower 1/3 of the oven and preheat to 400 F.

-Roll dough into a 13-inch round on a well floured surface. Carefully slide onto a cookie sheet(rimless sheet makes things easiest, I used a pizza pan).

- Arrange 1 1/2 to 2 cups berries in the center of the dough (leaving a 2-3 inch border of dough).

-Scatter 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter (cut into small pieces) over the top of the berries.

-Fold the border of the dough over the fruit, forming a pleated half cover (leaving the fruit exposed in the center). Lightly brush the dough with milk and sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons sugar.

-Bake until golden brown, 25-35 minutes.

-Let cool on rack.

-Serve warm or at room temperature.

And as always, enjoy! :-)

An additional note about hard boiled eggs

Straight from the chef himself:

Bring the eggs up to room temperature before dropping in boiling water to help prevent as much thermal cracking :-) -Michael

Hard Boiled Eggs

Hard boiled eggs you say? Yes! I doubt I'm the only one who has hard boiled eggs before and gotten so frustrated peeling them as chunk after chunk of egg stays on the shell, that I end up taking brownies instead of deviled eggs to the cookout they were for.

Well, this post is a tribute to my brother-in-law Michael who gets all the credit for making my life of hard boiling eggs a lot easier!!! So here's the trick . . .

In a large pot bring water to a boil. Gently add eggs. Boil eggs for 12 minutes (cooking time may very slightly depending on how many eggs you have, I usually cook 6). While the eggs are cooking make an "ice bath" in a large bowl (simply fill a large bowl with ice and water). After 12 minutes, drain the water and rinse the eggs twice with cold tap water. Then place them all gently into the ice bath and let them sit until cooled. Once cooled take out of ice bath and peel. You will have perfectly cooked, easy to peel hard boiled eggs . . . and will be much more willing to volunteer bringing deviled eggs to your upcoming holiday cookout!



On a side note, we recently began getting farm yummy fresh eggs from a guy Mark works with and no longer have to buy them at the grocery store! :-) As much as I couldn't stand our chickens growing up I never imagined being so happy to not have to buy eggs from the store.

Banana Bread French Toast

While I was in San Diego I went (more than once) to a little restaurant recommended to me by a friend called Cafe 222. They only serve breakfast and lunch and have amazing muffins along with this . . . Banana Bread French Toast. So this is a tribute to the amazing breakfast at Cafe 222. If you're ever in San Diego it's highly recommended!


Maybe this will inspire me to try making it myself. . . .

Goodies from the last month

We've been cooking . . . and baking . . .just not blogging. Here's a picture preview of what we've made and the recipes to come:

Mark's Amazing Cookies!!!!!


Carrot Cake in a bunny cake pan for Easter


and Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread (that Mom makes much better than we do!)

Sourdough

While we were home for Christmas, Mom gave us some of her sourdough starter. Recently Mark made some amazing sourdough bread. A plain loaf and the a cinnamon swirl loaf, yum yum! It's really easy and so flexible. We have to "feed" it (with water and flour) every other week, and then during the off week we get to make something. We haven't branched out yet from our usual bread and cinnamon rolls but hopefully we'll have some new recipes to share soon.