Veg Head

Like not the cute side veg. I mean REAL veggie main

Ratatatouille Tonight with Some Firm Duck Breast

October 29, 2012 — Leave a comment

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I love ratatouille. I had a Marseillaise pop ’round last time I made this lovely dish. I showed her the Ripailles recipe that included some lemon. “Citron? Mais NON! Jamais!”. Then she told me all the secrets of a standard French dish of which I will share as the blog rolls.

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“Duck again?” the kids whine. Oh if they only knew how lucky they are. Yes, it’s duck again. We learned this little “finger” number at a restaurant in Toulouse after our Carte Vital was renewed. Slice the duck breast in fingers with a little salt-and-pepper’s-here action then do your fry routine. The slices give it a nice, even cook with some juicy redness in the middle without being too red.

For whatever reason or child or chicken or cow, I have forgotten to finger and had to cut fingers mid-fry. This worked like a charm and you can feel an obscure recipe developing ( now why do I slice the duck breast into fingers after I’ve started frying it? I’ll tell you why, because whomever wrote that recipe had kids and cows and chickens and farm and they forgot to slice the damn breast. )

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But 6:30 is approaching. In a very non-European way, dinner is served before 8pm. As such, we need to let the ratatouille rest overnight and serve up a new squash dish.

On Radish

June 2, 2012 — Leave a comment

Here’s a tip: never process cockerel in faded blue jeans.  Zara can handle the club with the bub, but it is unknown their strength with culling the boys in your peep of chooks.

Poor radish, they need a mama.  No one really appreciates its spice, its potential, its history.   So easy to grow and yet what the heck do you do with them?  Well, let me tell you, you keep it simple.  A little criss-cross, some salted butter, you’re done.  But you MUST prepare these babies or no one will eat them.  They will see radish along with some cucumber or dried ham and think, “ooo ham.  I love ham.  How pretty it looks with all that radish pizazz.”  A radish can stand alone.  Don’t forget that.  Or I’ll hit you.

You need:

– fresh radisheseses

– salted buttah

– a sharp knife for all the criss-cross bidness

Stick delicate shavings of butter in your perfect criss-cross.  Think outside the radish.  Let the radish move you.  Make it pretty.

Grilled Goat Cheese Parcels

April 1, 2010 — 5 Comments

Spicy Goat Cheese Parcel

Or as I like to call them, “Cabbage Sacks.”  These babies were a total success.  Straightforward to make with a little magic in the kitchen.  You could even make these and bring them with you to relieve your grilling host of preparing a vegetarian option.  Inside these elven wonders is a bit of spice, softened onions and garlic with red pepper (very pretty) and other goodies all brought together by melty goat cheese.  The whole thing works wonders in the mouth.  But let’s look inside …

Cabbage Revealed

Innards:

  • Onion, one will do
  • Red Pepper (or green or orange or yellow), one again
  • Clove of Garlic
  • Sesame seeds
  • Dried chili seeds n skin, just a pinch
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Fresh Parsley … yes FRESH don’t skimp here! The dried stuff no taste no good

… and for the wrapping part:

  • Goat Cheese
  • Bread Crumbs, a few handfuls

Outtards:

  • Cabbage Leaves
  • Aluminum (or Aluminium for the non-Americans in the bunch) Foil
  • Kebab Sticks

Two Ways To Grill A Cabbage Roll

Kitchen Magic:

In a hot sexy fry pan, toss in a big knob of butter.  Fry up the innards (don’t fry the Goat Cheese and Bread Crumbs. They are for later).  Everyone has their own order of frying things, do like you do.  You can let the chili fry first for a spell, then onions, then garlic and finally pepper.  It’s all good.  Just get it glistening, soft and sloppy.  Of course, you can do all this on the grill if you have that sort of grill.  Set this aside while you tend to the cabbage leaf softening.

To get the cabbage leaves soft for wrapping, drop the leaves in a pan of boiling water for a few minutes.  After that’s done, you’re ready to wrap.  It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from goin’ undah.
Doing The Roll Stick a Stick In It stickin the stick

Doin’ The Parcel:

Katty did the parcels two ways.  One had an outer cabbage leaf with a stick in it.  The other was wrapped in foil.  I didn’t notice a difference in flavor.  I think the stick version is prettier!  Your pick.  In one cabbage leaf, drop in the onion-pepper mix, about a golf ball size.  On top of that, sprinkle some bread crumbs.  On top of that, lay a thick slice of goat cheese.  Wrap ‘er up.  Bring two opposites sides together to overlap in the middle.  Bring the other two sides together.  Stick that in another cabbage leaf, give it your new fancy wrap technique and stick a stick in it.  OR pop it in aluminum foil.  Rinse and repeat!


parcel on the grill

Grill and Serve (whew at last!):

Stick these puppies on the grill flipping both sides “until the cheese goes all melty” as Katty explained.  Hard to say how many minutes, make it hot, you can work it!  You can grill!  Eat the yummy spicy goat cheese parcel cabbage and all.  If you do the double cabbage option, you may want to remove the out layer before eating, but hey … it might taste good.  I’d wash this down with a nice Champagne … but that’s how I roll.

Grilled Avocado

March 30, 2010 — 59 Comments

Grilled Avacado

Oh grilled avocado how I love thee.  Who knew that such a simple concoction could fuel so much drool and want.  While Katty was whipping up her stunning Cabbage Sacks, she pulled out a ripe avocado from her veggie basket and said, “I’ll cook this!”  She’d not stuck an avocado on the grill before.  The avocado was perfectly ripe so not much was needed other than the two secret herbs and spices (salt and pepper, ssssh), some olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar.

Cutting Avacado

Avacodo With Oil and Vinegar

Ingredients:

  • ripe, avocado or two or three … like the dark, dark ones
  • olive oil
  • balsamic vinegar or a nice fancy pants vinegar could be nice

Do to it:

  • cut in half and pit (hell stick the pit in water and grow a tree!)
  • pour a touch of olive oil in the center
  • pour a touch less vinegar in the center
  • pepper and salt that baby
  • stick on grill skin side to the heat  (don’t flip it!)

Serve:

We share here at Girl On Grill Action, so everyone gets a half.  No whining! Katty had this lovely meal with some red wine of the region, but a girly white like a Riesling or a Sauvignon Blanc could do the trick just fine.  Champagne goes without saying as it goes with everything.  Or whatever you crazy Californians use for white wine.  Put that wine cooler down!  A wine cooler is neither “wine” nor “cool.”

avocado gettin' hot

regional red wine

Katty kept the avocado on the grill while the other stuff was cooking.  I can’t imagine that you can over cook an avocado.  This dish was too easy and too good to not provide for your vegetarian or carnivorous guests.  You could even get all fancy and stick some chopped tomatoes, cilantro and onions in the center and call it  wanky guacamole.  Oooooo. I might try that!