We first had this meal in Florida at Carl’s house.  He is a great chef!  He had caught fresh red snapper in the Intracoastal Waterway and used some of it to make this seafood bisque.  I unfortunately do not have fresh red snapper so I get tilapia from Publix and make this imitation of Carl’s dish.  Served over rice with a big side salad this makes a delicious dinner.  The recipe can be scaled according to the number of diners.  I use one small piece of tilapia per person and if I am making this for more than four people I add another can of the soup.  BTW, Tom always wants me to make enough so there are leftovers.  He uses them for breakfast served over a toasted English muffin or over grits

ingredients for four servings:

• one onion, diced
• package of sliced mushrooms
• one can Campbell’s Cream of Shrimp soup
• one small package of tailless shelled shrimp
• 4 small fillets or three large fillets of tilapia (or other white fish of choice) cut into large chunks
• sour cream
• grated mozzarella cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

cooking instructions:

• saute the onion in a small amount of olive oil until tender
• add mushrooms, soup and shrimp
• stir over medium heat until everything is evenly distributed
• add the fish chunks and gently cover with the sauce
• cover pan and let simmer until the fish is done, about 10-15 minutes
• add a big dollop of sour cream and a large handful of the grated cheese, stir gently to combine
• let simmer covered for another 5-15 minutes
• add salt and pepper to taste

Serve over rice with a big salad and sliced warm French bread.

Last night Laura decided she wanted fondue for dinner. She wanted to try something other than the oil-based fondues we had done in the past, so she decided to try a bouillon-based one instead. It was a resounding success. Here’s what we did…

Ingredients

• 2 14 oz cans of Swanson’s Beef Bouillon
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
• pepper to taste
• 1 package Lipton onion soup mix
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 2 cups water

Combine all in a fondue pot and simmer on stove until ready to transfer to the table.  Our little fondue pot wouldn’t quite hold 2 cups of additional water, so we added enough to fill the pot, then added more as the bouillon evaporated off during the course of the meal.

Meats

This works best for beef, but it also works well for seafood.  Here’s what we used…

• 1/2 lb beef  (we used a couple of small ribeye steaks)
• 1/3 lb shrimp
• 1/3 lb small scallops
• 1 bowl baby bella mushrooms

Shrimps and scallops we left whole.  The beef was cut into bite-sized pieces.  The mushrooms were cut depending on size, but we found that quartering them made them cook a bit better in the broth.

The flavors were spectacular.  The beef and mushrooms worked best, but the seafood was also tasty.  We found that it helped to have some additional salt and pepper available. We served this with a small spinach side salad.

The unused broth can be refrigerated and reused. Take a small sliced onion and sautee’ it in a pan so that the rings fall apart and caramelize. Reheat the broth, adding the caramelized onions and slices of provolone cheese. This turns the leftover fondue into an excellent French onion soup.

I’ve been tinkering with this recipe for quite awhile.  I think I might have finally gotten it right.   My previous attempts resulted in something that was too sweet, or just completely unpalatable.  My goal was to make something that still retained the characteristics of a martini, and not just be a chocolate shake with vodka.  Here’s the final result…

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz vodka
• 1/2 oz Godiva Chocolate liqueur
• 1/2 oz cream liqueur (Bailey’s, or similar.  Kahlua would probably work, too.)
• 1 dash creme de menthe

Combine ingredients in a martini shaker over ice and shake.  Pour into a standard martini glass and garnish with shaved chocolate.

We’ve got to come up with a better name for this. We tried recreating the rum punch from Riverside Grill in Vero Beach, and this is our own variation thereof…

Ingredients:

• 1 oz coconut rum
• 1/2 oz banana rum or banana liqueur
• 1 oz light rum
• 3 oz pineapple juice
• 1 dash of Grenadine for color

Combine ingredients over ice and stir.

We didn’t see everything that went into the drinks at Riverside, so we had to make our best guess.  Instead of Grenadine they used a splash of cranberry juice, which made theirs a bit more tart.  Laura and Amy added just a bit of orange juice to theirs for more citrus, but the recipe as listed above still tastes great, is smooth, and will knock you on your rear end if you’re not careful.

I love trying new places to eat. I especially like it when we discover a new recipe that we can replicate at home.  Such was the case with the insalata caprese served at Risibisi in Petaluma, California.  As presented at Risibisi, this is architectural cuisine at its best – stuff stacked on other stuff.

Ingredients:

• One small block of soft mozzarella cheese
• Pesto  (we used some store-bought stuff)
• One medium tomato
• Balsamic vinegar
• Mixed greens
• Salt
• Pepper

Procedure:

Slice the tomato into thick slices and coat with salt and pepper.  Lightly roast in a a pan to bring out the flavors.  Place the roasted tomato slices on a place and top with mixed greens.  Slice the mozzarella block into pieces that will cover the tomato and greens.  Put a dollop of pesto on each piece of cheese.  Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the salad.

The image above is the dish as presented at Risibis.  When we recreated this at home, we didn’t have mixed greens, so we used romaine lettuce.  It worked just as well, and tasted good, but just wasn’t as pretty as what we had at the restaurant.

[tags]insalata caprese, recipe, mozzarella, tomato, pesto, balsamic vinegar[/tags]