what have I eaten lately?

​Every Friday night, Brandls Restaurant in Belmar has Fresh Catch Friday. Brandls prepares a special seafood dinner for two for $39. Recently, the special was beer battered cod with smashed cucumber, avocado and Brussels sprouts salad, finished off with a sweet chili sauce. The salad ingredients sounded a bit peculiar, but amazingly enough it was tasty. Perhaps it was the way the chef dressed the ingredients which  didn't let just one be  highlighted, but had them all blended together for a wonderful accompaniment. 

I need a quick dinner for one of my late work nights and Whole Foods had the answer. They had on special asada beef kabobs for $6.99/lb., a savings of $3.00 per pound. I inquired as to their spiciness, but the associate assured me they would be fine. It was a better deal to purchase these marinated beef kabobs with pieces of red, yellow and green peppers, than to purchase the special of boneless sirloin at $7.99/lb. prep them for barbecuing. They kabobs grilled up perfectly in no time at all. The meat was tender and the marinade was spicy, but not hot. Delicious prepared meat from Whole Foods.

Recently I was in the mood for some fried chicken. This spicy-fried chicken recipe is one of Meg Grace’s, who was the chef/owner of Red Head Tavern in Manhattan. I recently discovered that it closed last December. I think what makes this fried chicken so delicious is the brine that the chicken soaks in overnight. The brine has basic pantry items, except for the fresh thyme. You can use dried, however I suggest following the suggestion from the  Martha Stewart website where they write, “Because dried herbs are generally more potent and concentrated than fresh herbs, you'll need less -- typically three times the amount of fresh herbs as dry. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of fresh oregano, you need only 1 teaspoon of dried, since 3 teaspoons equal 1 tablespoon.” The combination of the thyme with the sugar really makes this a flavorful chicken recipe.

My daughter is down for a couple of days, so I tried another new recipe for her and my husband. This is a recipe from the September 2013 issue of Southern Living Magazine for Buffalo chicken meatball sliders. The recipe sounded interesting. Instead of ground chicken, I used turkey, as that's what I already had in my freezer. Some fresh produce items you'll need are celery, parsley, sweet onion, shallot and fresh lemon. From your local food store you'll need fresh ground chicken, crumbled blue cheese, sour cream, heavy cream, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, Parmesan cheese and Buffalo style hot sauce. I keep on hand fennel seeds, black peppercorns, for my pepper mill, and always Parmesan Reggiano cheese.

You do need to plan a  head for this dish. You have to grind the kosher salt, fennel seeds and peppercorns in a spice grinder or pestle. The fresh herbs, cheese and some other ingredients I ran through my food processor to have them finely chopped, then added them to the ground turkey. One the mixture is done, it has to sit an hour before cooking. In the meantime I prepared the blue cheese dressing for the meatballs.

When it was time, I used my cookie scoop to have my meatballs all the same size. They cooked in about 12 minutes. When they were done, I removed them from the cookie sheet and placed them in a cooking dish and drizzled the Buffalo sauce over them, not too much, as it didn't want it overly spicy. Instead of rolls, I picked up some ciabatta bread at the food store. My Buffalo meatballs were a hit. I used about 1-1/2 pounds of ground turkey for three people, and there wasn't a meatball left. Holding back on some of the hot sauce worked for my family. It gave the meatballs enough kick and sauce. However, what I overlooked was garnish of thinly sliced celery, parsley leaves dressed with some Champagne vinegar and olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. That too, would have made for a nice contract of the hot sauce playing off the coolness of the veggies with the oil and vinegar dressing. Next time!