Dinner, Dinner, Dinner.....I have no idea!

Lightning Fast Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients
2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined - tails left on
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 small onion, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup shrimp stock, recipe follows
2 tablespoons cold butter
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
Lemon slices, for garnish
Rice, as accompaniment

Directions
Season the shrimp thoroughly with salt and pepper. Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add enough oil to lightly coat the pan. Add the shrimp and quickly saute until just starting to turn pink, but not cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the onions and saute just until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Add the lemon juice, white wine, and stock, and reduce by 2/3, about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp back to the pan and swirl in the butter. Finish with the parsley and check for seasoning. Garnish with lemon slices and serve over rice.

Tip of the Day: Wine and Chocolate Tasting Party

A tip for a fun evening of “gourmet entertaining”: Host a chocolate and wine pairing party. There are so many different pairings to explore. Bars today, truffles tomorrow, nuts next month. Get together a tasting group: every month someone else can plan and host. You’ll be the envy of everyone else in town. Rahul at Bialystok & Bloom can help you pair flavors together. Enjoy!

What to have for dinner Friday Night?

For a stress-free Friday night after a really long week, we're having "easy baked salmon". This is it:

Ingredients
2 lbs. salmon
1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
1 lemons, thinly sliced
1/4 cup melted butter Preheat oven to 350°F.

Directions
Wash salmon; pat dry and sprinkle the cavity with lemon pepper. Season to taste with salt. Place sliced lemons and onion insides cavity. Place salmon on a large sheet of aluminum foil and drizzle with melted butter. Seal the foil and bake 1 1/2 hours, or until salmon flakes easily. Serve hot.

Tip of the Day: Keeping the Grey Away

When boiling new potatoes or cauliflower add a 1/4 of a lemon to the water - this will stop them from gowing grey and keep them white so they can be used later.

Thursday Night Crunch: No time, what's for dinner?

Children and adults alike love baked quesadilla, either plain or with chicken, steak, spinach or another ingredient.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
•4 flour tortillas
•3 cups shredded cheese, Mexican mixture
•1 cup salsa
•Sour cream
•(Optional) Cooked chicken (strips or cubes), steak or other meat
•(Optional) Guacamole

Preparation:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.Take a piece of aluminum foil that is big enough to cover a cookie sheet front and back. Center it on a cookie sheet.
3.Place two tortillas side by side on the foil. Sprinkle cheese evenly on both tortillas.
4.(Optional) Place strips of chicken, steak or other ingredient on top of the cheese.
5.Spoon about half the salsa over the top, making a very light layer.
6.Cover each stack with another tortilla.
7.Bring the sides of the foil together around the quesadillas, sealing the foil at the center of the cookie sheet. Crimp the edges of the foil to seal along the side of the cookie sheet.
8.Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Open foil carefully. Slice each quesadilla in quarters and serve with sour cream, remainder of salsa and guacamole (if desired).

Tip of the Day: Banish Blandness

Use high notes to banish blandness, for a gourmet touch. Just a few drops of vinegar, lemon juice, or other acid perk up favors and add contrast. Stir some rice vinegar into a risotto, lemon juice into cooked broccoli, or balsamic vinegar into braised chicken. Sparkle up chili with a splash of red wine vinegar. For dessert sauces, add sea salt or chili to caramel or dark chocolate. In just a few seconds, you've enhanced the whole dish.

What to have for dinner tonight?

You can pretty much throw whatever vegetables you want into the stew, and you can replace the white fish with any seafood. The tomato sauce will be light, and full of flavor. Even the kids will eat this!

Mediterranean Fish Stew
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion (diced)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
chili flakes to taste (optional)
1 bulb fennel (sliced)
1 red pepper (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 cup white wine
1 (28 ounce) can diced plum tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound white fish (such as haddock, halibut, etc., or any seafood)
1/2 cup fresh herbs such as parsley and basil (chopped)

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in the pan.
2. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 6-10 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and chili pepper flakes and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
4. Add the fennel and red peppers and saute for a few minutes.
5. Add the white wine and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Add the tomatoes, oregano, paprika, salt and pepper, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
7. Add the fish simmer until cooked, about 5 minutes.
8. Remove and mix in the fresh herbs.

Tip of the Day: Candied Walnuts

Many Customers ask how we make our candied walnuts which we use in various specials. Below are the details:

Candied Walnuts
(makes 1 1/2cups)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups walnut halves
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (optional)

Directions:
1. Spread the walnuts out in a single layer on a baking sheet.
2. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until nice and toasted, about 5 minutes, and set aside. (Watch them carefully.)
3. Melt the sugar in a sauce pan and wait for it to turn a nice shade of amber.
4. Add the walnuts and mix to coat.
5. Pour the walnuts onto a sheet of parchment paper, quickly separate them, sprinkle them with the salt and let them cool.

Dinner Tonight: Easy, Fast Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon margarine
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers, drained
8 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.In a small bowl mix the soup and sour cream; set aside.
3.Melt margarine in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add onion and chili powder, and saute until tender. Stir in the chicken, chile peppers, and 2 tablespoons of the soup mixture. Cook and stir until heated through.
4.Spread 1/2 cup of the soup mixture in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas, and place, seam-side-down, in the baking dish. Spoon remaining soup mixture on top, and sprinkle with cheese.
5.Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving Calories: 353 | Total Fat: 16.9g | Cholesterol: 50mg

Tip of the Day: Less Salt

A sneaky trick that is better for your family's health is to take a small piece of tape and cover over half of the holes in the salt shaker on the inside of the lid. Less salt - healthier hearts

What to have for dinner tonight?

mushroom stroganoff (cheap and cheerful)
This is a great recipe for anyone who likes hearty meals and is on a shoe string, and it's really low fuss as well.

You will need:

About 750g mushrooms
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3/4 cup frozen peas
200mL cream
250 mL red wine
2 tablespoons paprika
spring onions/parsley for garnish
2 tablespoons butter
Salt

What to do:

Melt the butter in a large frying pan over moderate heat. Dice the onion and garlic into small cubes and fry them gently in the butter until they've started to brown slightly. Prepare the mushrooms - wipe off any soil and quarter large ones, halve medium ones and leave small ones whole. Add them to the softened onion and garlic mixture. Sprinkle all of the paprika over the top and stir well. Leave to fry for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through. Reduce the heat. The mushrooms should be coloured and softened.

Add 200mL of the red wine and leave to simmer for ten minutes. Add the cream and stir. Reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, for around 40 minutes (checking it every so often). The liquid should have thickened and reduced.

Five minutes before you're ready to serve, add the remainder of the red wine, and the frozen peas, and stir well. Simmer for another few minutes then serve!

Season to taste and serve topped with chopped onions or parsley and with basmati rice (and garlic bread, if feeling decadent!).

Tip of the Day: Keeping Knives Sharp

A knife loses its sharpness when the fine tip of the cutting edge gets knocked slightly out of alignment. But how do you determine when your knife needs to be sharpened? Put it to the paper test.
Is it sharp? To determine if your knife needs to be sharpened, put it to the paper test:

1. Hold a folded, but not creased, sheet of newspaper by one end.

2. Lay the blade against the top edge at an angle and slice outward. If the knife fails to slice cleanly, try steeling it. If it still fails, it needs sharpening.

Bring Back Sunday Dinner

Hey, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for twenty guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh?... And a little bit o' wine. An' a little bit o' sugar, and that's my trick.--Clemenza teaching Michael to cook. The Godfather, Part I.

Many Italian-Americans on the East Coast refer to tomato sauce that is cooked with meat (pork and/or beef) as “gravy.” To make it correctly takes hours, and where we grew up, every Italian-American woman with any pride started the gravy at breakfast to be ready for 2:00 Sunday dinner.

Sadly, these Sunday dinners today are now few and far between; it seems old-fashioned. Who’s got 6 hours to make the Sunday dinner? Most of us are too busy; today we are a “30-minute-meal” society. But then I think, weren’t our mothers busy too? How did they do it? Today I rolled up my sleeves and rolled out some meatballs. Here it is.....



Italian "Gravy"
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
4 sweet Italian sausage links
3 (28-ounce) cans of San Marzano tomatoes
1 large onion
2 whole garlic cloves
3/4 cup red wine
1 tsp crushed red pepper
Salt, to taste
7-8 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

Meatballs:
1 pound of ground beef (I used lean)
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt and black pepper, to taste
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup canola oil

1 pound of pasta
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Gravy:
In a large heavy pot over medium-low heat, warm 1 Tbsp olive oil and add sausages. Cook about 4-5 minutes on each side, or until browned all over; remove from heat.

Pour the San Marzano tomatoes in a large bowl, and crush them with your hands (or use a food mill if you prefer).

Heat the second Tbsp of olive oil in the same deep pot; add garlic cloves and saute for about 2 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove and discard garlic. Pour in the tomatoes (with their juice), red wine, crushed red pepper, and salt. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, for about 35-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meatballs:
Find your spouse or children or other suitable companion, then...

Place the meat in a large bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, cheese, and parsley. In a small bowl, beat the egg with some salt and pepper; add to the meat mixture. Mix the ingredients with your hands until the consistency is moist and the meat holds together well. If it’s too dry, add some water or another beaten egg. If it's too moist, add more breadcrumbs. Once the consistency is right, using your hands, roll the meatballs into 1 ½ inch balls. It should make about 22-24 meatballs.

Mix the olive and canola oils in a large skillet over medium heat. Fit as many meatballs in the skillet as you can without overcrowding so you have room to turn them. Cook about 2-3 minutes until browned, then turn over and cook another 2-3 minutes, until all sides are evenly browned. Place on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb any excess oil. Repeat as necessary.


The meatballs can also be baked if you prefer not to fry them. To bake them, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place meatballs on a tinfoil-lined baking sheet (for easy clean up) and cook for 20 minutes, or until browned.


Add the cooked meatballs and sausage to the gravy after it has simmered for about an hour. Simmer for an additional 60 minutes (or up to several hours if you want to be authentic). If the gravy becomes too thick, simply add small amounts of water or water mixed with a bit more red wine.

In the meantime, cook pasta in salted water according to the directions until al dente. Once cooked, add the gravy, top with meatballs and sliced sausages, and sprinkle with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and fresh basil.


"Hey, I can't eat this crap. Bring me some pasta with gravy and meatballs.”
-Paulie Walnuts to Italian waiter after being served a plate of seafood pasta while visiting Italy. The Sopranos.

Tip of the Day: Sizing up Garlic

The size of a clove of garlic can really make an impact on your cooking due to the intense flavor. Find out the amount one clove produces when minced.
•Small clove yields: about 1/2 teaspoon
•Medium clove yields: about 1 teaspoon
•Large clove yields: about 2 teaspoons
•Extra-large clove yields: about 1 tablespoon
Regardless of size, don't forget to remove any green sprouts from the center of the clove, which can add an unpleasant bitterness.

What to have for dinner tonight?

This thick soup could be served with just a salad. Everyone in your family will love this!
Prep Time:15 Min /Cook Time:1 Hr/ Ready In:1 Hr 15 Min



Ingredients
9 baking potatoes
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups whole milk
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup bacon bits, divided
4 green onions, chopped
10 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream

Directions
1.Prick potatoes with a fork and cook in the microwave, 3 or 4 at a time, and scoop out the flesh (while the others are cooking).
2.In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in flour and cook about a minute. Whisk in milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in potatoes, salt, pepper, 1/3 cup bacon bits, 2 tablespoons green onions and most of the cheese. Cook until thoroughly heated. Stir in sour cream and heat through. Serve topped with remaining bacon, onions and cheese.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving Calories: 440 | Total Fat: 27.2g | Cholesterol: 81mg

Tip of the Day: Perfecting Chocolate Cupcakes

Do you find that your cupcakes form odd peaks, which makes frosting difficult? Try playing with your oven temperature. Just 25 degrees could make a difference in your chocolate cupcake recipe. Baked at 375 degrees F, cupcakes can sometimes form odd peaks. Baked at 350 degrees, they form domed tops that are much easier to frost.

Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! We have always loved the start of a brand new year. Hopes are high, dreams are cast...and everyone gets a fresh start. Most of all, we want to thank you for your continued friendship and support. Bialystok & Bloom exists because of you! We look forward to sharing our love of cooking with you more than ever in the coming years.

Drool over this.....