Fried Plantains

There's a fantastic Venezuelan place in Norwalk, CT, called Valencia Luncheria. I was there the other day an indulged in a side of fried plantai
ns. Kinda reminded me of eating at the Venice Cafe on Pestalozzi by the brewery in Soulard/Benton Park back in St. Louis.



Anyway, while I'm working on getting to know the folks at Valencia and maybe learning some of their tricks, I've given fried plantains a go. They turned out okay.

Ingredients:
Neutral Vegetable Oil (enough to cover half-way up the plantains)
2 plantains (they tell me green are better)
2 cups cold water (for soaking)
cinnamon (for dusting)
dash salt

1. Peel the plantains and coin slice them up into pieces around half an inch thick. It's important to make sure they're close in thickness so that they fry evenly.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan on a medium/low flame.
You can go 1 of two ways here. You can either fry em until they straight through, browning each side, dry them on paper towels, dust with a bit of cinnamon and serve with honey or sour cream or go to step 3.
3. Fry lightly until golden on each side (a couple minutes for each) remove from oil, pat dry, and soak in cool water for a few minutes.
4. Remove from water, pat dry, and fry again until each side's browned (about 3-4 minutes a side.

Peppercorn Steak with a Honey-Dijon Cream Sauce

This is my variant on a popular French steak dish called steak au-poivre, which is a peppercorn encrusted steak often pan-cooked with butter. The sauce is a simple cream and butter sauce with some other stuff mixed in to thicken it and make it delicious.

Hands-on Time: 15-25 minutes.
Hands-off Time: none
Serves: two

Gear:
12-inch frying pan
oven/toaster

Ingredients:
1-2 12oz steaks (precooked weight)
6 tbsp butter (3/4 a stick)
-- cream
1 tsp honey
1-2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup pepper

1. Either roughly grind or (if you have a mortar and pestle) crush the pepper. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can grind the stuff between two strong, well fitting bowls, or put the peppercorns on a plate and crush them with the bottom of a bowl.

2. Toss two tablespoons of butter into a pan on medium heat.

3. While the butter is melting in the pan, press the desired amount of pepper into each side of the steak.

4. Put the steaks into the pan with the melted butter and turn to medium-low heat. Cook to desired rareness, but check step 5 so that you’re in sync Depending on the cut of the meat, 5 minutes on each side for rare, 7 minutes for medium, and 10 minutes for well done.

5. When you flip the steak over, toss a tablespoon of butter into a small frying pan on medium heat.

6. When it melts and begins to brown, add 1/4 cup of cream, and mix that up well.

7. Add a tablespoon or two of Dijon mustard (depending how much you like Dijon mustard), and the teaspoon of honey and turn to low heat.

8. When the steak is ready, put it on a plate and pour off the fat from the pan, but save the drippings.

9. Stir the drippings from the cooked steak into the sauce pan.

10. Pour the sauce over the steaks.

I wish that I had learned this recipe earlier because it’s so easy to make and involves so few ingredients and dishes for clean-up. Everybody whose eaten my version of this traditional dish loves it.

Dried Cranberry/White Chocolate/Almond Scones

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups of white, all-purpose flower (and more for dusting)
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/8 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of honey
2 handfuls of white chocolate chips
4 handfuls of dried cranberries
3 handfuls slivered almonds
1 1/2 cups cream (beaten)
1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of honey (for wash)


1. Grease a baking sheet (the spray stuff works well) and preheat oven to 375.°

2. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and honey, together in a bowl, then throw in the chips, cranberries, and almonds.

3. Stir in the whipped cream until the dough reaches an uniform consistency.

4. Dump the mess out onto a lightly floured surface and work it with you hands for a bit.

5. Tear off handfuls and shape the dough into chunks about the size of small hamburger patty and between 1 1/4 to 2 inches thick. Space a few inches apart on the baking sheet.

6. Melt the 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter with the honey (a microwave and coffee mug works great), then brush the top of the scones with the wash.

7. Bake at 375° for about 20-25 minutes (until the tops reach a uniform golden brown with a slightly darker brown at the edges of the cracks in the surface.

8. If the scones are too moist for you taste, crank the oven down to 325° and leave them in for another 10 minutes or so.