Football Season Is Almost Here….Take these Ideas to Your Next Tailgate!

Photo courtesy of Christopher Morgan Photography

With September and October around the bend, it’s time to start planning your NFL football season! Just let the scent of honey maple BBQ and fresh corn on the cob, roasting in its husk beckon you down the street (or out to your own backyard!) for the next great tailgate or block party. A sports fan or not, the beginning of fall is all the motivation you need to plan a party or wax nostalgic.

Who doesn’t remember their high school football games, circling the track and watching the field, cup of hot chocolate in one hand and hotdog in the other?  Now you’re ready for something more sophisticated than those concession stand snacks you grew up with. Relax, I’ve got you covered.    

When a fan and editor at Woman’s World got in touch with me last week, it was to ask for advice on tailgate food. I gave her a mouthful, and took to my blog to share the love. Whether it’s in a parking lot or someone’s backyard, outdoor parties are the perfect excuse to get to know your neighbors better, swap cobbler and nacho recipes, or simply give the kids an excuse to throw water balloons at each other.

Personally, I like to use tailgates as a method of sharing everything I’ve learned in my decades of being a Dolphins fan.  When the current draft picks were toddlers, I was already making a science out of cooler contents. This is a cheat sheet to get you started:

·         Sophisticated, Filling, Ooey Gooey Sandwiches that Pack Up Neat! Braised short ribs covered in melting munster cheese turn out awesome on a Panini grill. While the sandwich is still warm, wrap in Reynolds combo parchment/aluminum foil with the foil on the outside. Stack the sammies on top of each other and place into a thermal container. Serve when the tailgaters get their hungry on. Hero sized subs are a great idea, too! My favorites incorporate cobb or grilled chicken caesar salad, with anchovy laced caesar dressing.  Alternatively, I like to utilize leftovers, like my barbecued salmon hoagie with apple cider slaw. Whatever the filling, take the insides out of a long baguette. Stuff the bread and place the top back on. Wrap tightly in parchment paper. When it's tailgating time, slice the sub into sections (right through the paper) and hand out to your fans.

·         Done with stale boring nuts? Me too! Toast your favorite nuts on a baking sheet. Make it your own by adding your favorite spice, like chili powder. Place the nuts into a bowl and add raisins or dried cranberries. Toss in brown paper lunch sacks; roll over the tops and seal with chip clips. For the party, remove the clips and roll back the tops so that the bags make their own nut bowls.

·         You can't go wrong with friend chicken. Think outside the KFC bucket and prepare your own buttermilk fried chicken before you trek to the game. Place the pieces into a napkin lined basket and make it the star on your tailgating table.

·         Burgers, burgers, burgers. Earn the blue ribbon by stuffing your burgers before you put them on the grill. Stuffers include sautéed veggies like peppers and onions, and melting cheeses like provolone and mozzarella. Don't forget to butter the buns for toasting as you grill the burgers.

·         Sides That’ll Get You Tailgated: My favorite salad sides are purple potato salad, toasted corn and poblano slaw and pasta primavera salad. 

·         Bring a Pinwheel Platter: If you are bringing the dish to the tailgating party make a huge platter of bite size picnic pinwheels. Wrap 10-inch tortilla around your favorite fillings. My favorites are smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers; provolone, roasted turkey and avocado with cornichons, and my Ruben inspiration which is filled with sauerkraut, corn beef, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing – Yumm!

·         Stuffed Cupcakes:  Make your favorite cake batter and bake the cupcakes. When they are cooled uses a squeeze bottle to stuff the insides with your favorite filling, like peanut butter and jelly, chocolate ganache, marshmallow fluff or my favorite – Nutella! Don't have a squeeze bottle – don't worry. Cut the tops from the cupcakes, use a melon baller or spoon to remove some of the insides, and scoop your filling into the cupcake. Top and frost!

It’ll all be so good you won't remember the score ; ). Let’s swap recipes before the season’s done!

The Greek Yogurt Craze: Just a “Fage” or Here to Stay?

America must be obsessed with Greek yogurt. How else can you explain the 2 billion dollar industry that is Chobani and Fage? Even Pinkberry has started selling Greek yogurt, topped to order, with a range that’s going past the sweet stuff and into truly savory territory—think yogurt topped with herbed tomatoes and balsamic. If you can’t picture yourself going to an ice cream shop for lunch, try this at home: open up a container of Greek yogurt and adorn it with the ingredients you were saving for salad. You’re going to love it, I promise.

Southern Living Magazine calls this concept picnic in a glass.

Yep, that’s Greek yogurt in there—and it’s the perfect, light fare for bikini season. If you’re watching your weight, it’s good to know that Greek yogurt has the same flavorful effect as Ranch dressing, sour cream and mayo.

But calorie counting isn’t the name of the game for us foodies. It’s about inspiration!  Many home chefs aren’t aware how trendy restaurants use Greek yogurt. It’s in cocktails! You can add it to fried Brussels sprouts and cauliflower for a creaminess and tang you never realized existed in cruciferous veggies; you can dredge your chicken through it (I do in my oven fried chicken recipe), and last but not least, make your smoothies infinitely better.

The most creative thing I’ve done with Greek yogurt, to date…..

Sauté a healthy-sized dollop over high heat, with the result of creating a Saganaki fried cheese knock-off. I bet you’ve ordered Saganaki in a Greek restaurant before and burned your tongue because it was so good you couldn’t wait for it to cool off. Hint: Cool down by mixing up one of these yogurt cocktails I found on yummly!

So where did this “plain muse”, as Bobby Flay puts it, start—at least for the USA? According the New York Times, it was back in the 80s, when small business owners from Greece were craving the yogurt their grandparents used to make, and just couldn’t find anything like it in the United States. I don’t know about you, but the idea of New Yorkers standing in line to taste a century-year-old recipe that originated on a window sill in the Mediterranean sunlight, made me want to try to make my own from scratch, too. 

Watch this Awesome Video About Making Your Own Yogurt. It’s Not Scary, I promise!

I’m struck by how easy it is. I found this youtube video, and encourage you to not only watch it, but scratch that fancy “yogurt maker” off your wish list. I almost never say that about kitchen gadgets, but you really don’t need one here. So long as you have milk, live cultures (cheap at any health food store), a jar with a lid, cheesecloth and oven in which to place the yogurt overnight, you don’t need anything else. Anyway, watch Tressa Yellig’s explanation of the creamy process in this video. She distinguishes between ordinary and plain yogurt, shows you the whey that gets drained off, and makes truly delicious Greek yogurt parfaits right before your eyes with so few kitchen gadgets, and with such simplicity, that I wonder what her food is like at Salt Fire and Time.   

Guess I’ve given you enough creamy 411 to get inspired—so get out there and buy (or make!) a tub of yogurt and start experimenting! Your Sunday Best inspirations are ready for the Mason Jars and pretty labels!  

2 “Sunday Best” Blends That’ll Get You through the Heat of This Summer

Strawberry Granita and Cool-as-a-Cumber Soup

Is it EVER hot outside! Poking around food blogs, I see that everyone is doing sorbets right now, white wine popsicles with great big pieces of fruit stuck inside, and other treats that give one an excuse to pad over to the freezer.  Yep, it’s time to throw your hair up in a pony-tail and contemplate the subtle differences between sorbet, Italian ice and granita as the temps shoot up around you, and friends complain it’s too hot to use the stove.

Melting sugar and water in a sauce pan and mixing the resulting “syrup” with blended fruit gives you a sorbet you can cherish in a matter of hours, straight from the freezer. I saw A LOT of red, white and blue sorbets for the Fourth of July.  They had a simplicity about them that soothed the home chef—that is, if she was worried over what to do for a HOT backyard party. No matter what the fruit, you can use the same basic recipe to produce all kinds of sorbet: blackberry for the blue, strawberry for red and pineapple for white. GOD BLESS AMERICA—let those good colors continue to serve you well up through the dog days of summer!

But a Granita takes a little more work to set up.  Totally worth it! Once you blend it up and pour it into a dish to freeze, you have to remember to take it out just before the center is frozen solid. Then scrape it with your fork to tease it, so that it looks like this:

I just love an excuse to put something besides a martini into a martini glass!

But here’s what I like best about granita. Did you know that in Sicily, the largest Mediterranean Island and the hottest place in Europe , the traditional breakfast is a coffee & almond flavored granita, served with a big hunk of buttery brioche?  Granita is such a staple in Italia, that different regions are known for different textures of it. I hear it’s chunky in Palermo and smooth in Rome. I love this photo of breakfast time in Sicily.

Before anyone gets too disappointed, I did not make a coffee flavored granita—I’m sure it’s my Vitamix’s next date with destiny, though.  I did something just as refreshing by taking advantage of a huge mound of in season strawberries, to make SUNDAY BEST Strawberry Granita. 

Of course, granita comes to fruition in any blender or food processor, but if you have a Vitamix than there’s really no excuse not to run out and make this RIGHT NOW! 

It’s only July, but I’m sure this Kitchen Must Have is a front runner on LOTS of Christmas lists. “But wait a minute,” some might say, “isn’t it just a blender?” Um, no.  Vitamix heats soup to boiling as it’s pulsing along; it can make pizza dough, cookie batter, and every fancy French sauce and dressing under the sun. 

Whipping up a batch of hummus in the Vitamix reminded me to let my readers know that Sabra (I’m sure you’ve had some of their hummus in your grocery cart at some point) is launching an ad campaign to become the official NFL game watching snack! That’s pretty wild, isn’t it….but a perfect segue into talking up SUNDAY BEST chilled Cucumber soup—great with hummus and pita on the side!

I wish the recipe photo did it justice—this soup comes out in the prettiest grasshopper shade of green, and it’s toe-curling-ly good. It replenishes everything you lost splashing around in the pool or mowing your lawn. Let me know if you had a chance to try it!

Enjoy the rest of summer, my friends!

SUNDAY BEST Chilled Cucumber Soup

Serves 8

Prep Time: 10 minutes, Plus 45 minutes to chill

4 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced into ½-onch pieces, about 3 cups

1 small clove garlic, peeled, minced and mashed to a paste with a pinch of salt

1 cup plain yogurt

1 medium lemon juiced, about 3 tablespoons

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

A pinch of sea salt and a grind of fresh pepper

1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced, about 1 cup

Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to cucumbers and let sit for a few minutes. Drain excess moisture of cucumbers, and place in blender or food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Pulse until smoothe. You may add additional yogurt if you desire a thicker consistency.

Cover and place in refrigerator until chilled, at least 45 minutes. Serve with a side of pita and hummus and enjoy!

SUNDAY BEST Strawberry Granita

Serves 6
Prep Time: 1 hour, plus a minimum of 3 hours to freeze

1 pound fresh strawberries, stems removed and sliced, about 2 cups
3 tablespoons all-natural granulated sugar
½ large lemon juiced, about 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar 
1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar, optional
Fresh Mint leaves, for garnish

Place sliced strawberries in a large bowl. Toss the strawberries with the sugar, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and honey. Honey or agave are optional for extra sweetness. 

Place strawberries in a blender and add ½ cup cold water. Pulse until smooth. If you don’t want seeds, drain the mixture through a cheesecloth.  

Pour strawberry mixture into a 13x9-inch baking dish, cover and freeze approximately 45 minutes until the edges of the granita are just set and the center is soft.

Whisk granita with a fork in order to distribute frozen portions evenly. Cover and return to the freezer for an additional 30 minutes. The edges of granita should be icy, with an overall slushy texture. 

Scrape the ice cyrstals from the side of the pan and return to the freezer for 3 hours or overnight. 
Let granita thaw for about 10 minutes before serving.

You may ring the glass with sugar for a prettier presentation.

Serve granita, using a fork to get it into ramekins or martini glasses, which make for the best presentation. Top with a fresh mint leaf and enjoy! 

Shake the Tree and All the Chutney You Ever Wanted Falls Right in Your Lap

If you live or ever have lived in South Florida, you know that tropically inspired food and the in-season fruits that make it legendary are like living a Jimmy Buffet song—only in hi def!   Right now, mangoes and papayas are dangling—and quite tantalizingly—from the branches; iguanas are watching closely, hoping for some of that fruit to fall.

A summertime walk outside in Ft. Lauderdale may be a steam bath, but it’s also an invitation to shake the tree so that all the fruit you ever wanted falls right in your lap—and that’s just what this girl did… except I went to Publix. I picked up enough red flesh papaya to bow the sides of my hand basket. It was just a quick trip for the supplies necessary to make Ft. Lauderdale Fresh Mango & Papaya Chutney: green-skinned papayas and fat, red mangoes weighing about 4 pounds each, chili peppers, a little local honey, etc…..

When I got the papaya home and chopped it open, the seeds reminded me of caviar; these are great, by the way for grinding and using in place of pepper. Papaya seeds have a wonderful sharp and spicy flavor. For the purposes of this recipe, however, I scraped them out with a spoon and put the papaya chunks into a large stockpot. Then the mangoes—easy to slit just once, then peel with your fingers—went in, a cup of brown sugar, half of a diced red onion, with a minced red and green pepper, honey, curry, red wine vinegar and a splash of fresh squeezed FLORIDA orange juice. I let it boil and then took it down to a simmer for over an hour, sorry about only one thing once I tasted it.

It was very, very good and there was a lot of it, but……

This whole chutney experience had been inspired by a trip to Sur La Table, and I hadn’t come home with any of those cute, vintage looking mason jars to put the chutney in. Sur la Table sells a lot of the Kitchen Must Haves that I talk about in the new book, and thus the field trip since I hadn’t been in a while. Pictured here is a rack of chutneys, salsas, spreads, balsamics, powders, you name it. Being in this place is like opening a wardrobe door into a kind of culinary Narnia, and finding yourself in Ina Garten’s pantry.

Scanning the inventory for potential Christmas gifts (even if it is a bit early), I couldn’t help but want to solve this conundrum for people: what is the difference between chutney and salsa? Because I have to admit that the thick “chutney” I just made was used in part, to mix with a pouch of tuna and scoop up with tortilla chips. It was fabulous, but then again, it was salsa…right?

 
Well, the truth is that while some salsas can actually be cooked, it’s rare to make a salsa on the stove. The chutney/salsa difference lies in the sugar content, too. In order to make chutneys as sweet and sticky as they are, the sugar has to be dissolved via extreme heat into other ingredients, i.e. big ripe pieces of yummy fruit I used today, vinegar and Indian spices. The result is a lot like marmalade: sweet, sticky and thick—and the recipe featured here makes about a quart, enough to pack into clean, sealable jars.

I left Sur La Table without, GASP, buying anything…and maybe those nice looking Mason jars were better left behind this time, since I have big plans for today’s chutney. I am trying to decide if I want to use it on swordfish steaks, take it to picnic with more chips than spoons, or load it into a chicken wrap. Hmm?? Suggestions anyone?

Ft. Lauderdale Fresh Mango & Papaya Chutney

Prep time: about 2 hours

Makes 1 quart of chutney

2 pounds ripe mangoes, peeled, stone removed and diced

2 pounds ripe papaya, peeled with seeds removed and cut into chunks
½ red onion, chopped
2 chilies, one red, and one green, seeds removed and finely chopped
1 cup fresh Florida orange juice
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey, preferably local honey
1/2 cup red wine vinegar  
1 tablespoon kosher salt
11/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Put all of the ingredients, except for the mustard and lemon juice, in a large pot and bring to a boil, about five minutes. 

Once contents in pot are boiling, turn heat to medium for one hour, then simmer for an additional thirty minutes.

Keep on the stovetop for up to 2 hours total, or until the consistency of the chutney resembles marmalade; stir in the Dijon mustard and lemon juice last; mix thoroughly, turn off stove and let cool. Transfer to clean, warm jars and seal or serve immediately.