Strawberry Infused Vodka

I'm not a fan of cold rainy weather in the spring, but it has one benefit: great berries. A couple weeks ago, Wifey went to the local farm stand and brought home some of the best looking strawberries I've seen since, well, last year. Large, plump, and juicy, the berries worked great in my first attempts at strawberry vinaigrette, and strawberry syrup (Bryers Vanilla anyone). I may have issues, but I had to make some strawberry infused vodka for chilling on the hot summer days.

Strawberry infused is the second of the three infusions I ALWAYS make each year, apple cinnamon and blueberry (in a month or so) are the others. Like the apple-apple I often drink strawberry in a martini glass, but a snifter's worth after dinner is really nice.

Ingredients

• Strawberries
• Sugar
• Water
• Vodka

Tools

• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Infusion Jar
• Pan
• Stovetop

Infuse It
I use the same basic process as the Apple-Cinammon infusion: clean and cut fruit and fill jar with fruit and vodka. To enhance the strawberry flavor, I add a little simple syrup to the jar with the berries and vodka.

Simple syrup is, unsurprisingly, simple to make. For my 204oz jar, I make about 3/4 cup of syrup. Bring a quarter cup of water to a boil in a small pan, then stir in a half cup of sugar and stir continuously until the mixture is clear. That's it; let it cool a little and pour the syrup over the berries with the vodka.

Let the mixture sit for at least a week, then strain and serve. Keep any extra in the refrigerator so it stays fresh and can be served at a moments notice.

Finger Steaks with Jalapeno Mashed Potatoes

This is another “stolen recipe" which also happens to be from Graiziano’s. They serve it as lunch, dinner, or as an appetizer without the potatoes. I like to make it on Sunday’s with fresh bread and meat, and also because it takes a little more time to cook than I have after work.

Ingredients

• Baking potatoes
• Jalapenos
• Butter
• Milk
• French bread
• Steaks
• Mushrooms
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Paprika
• Seasoned Salt

Tools

• Pot for boiling potatoes
• Grill or oven safe pan for cooking steaks
• Oven or toaster oven
• Torch?
• Knives
• Cutting boards
• Insta-read thermometer

Hot Pepper Mashed Potatoes

The mashed potatoes take the longest to cook. Peel the potatoes, cut them into chunks and place them in a pot of cold water. Try to make the potato chunks the same size so they will cook at the same rate. Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender and drain them.
While the potatoes are boiling, roast the peppers. I prefer jalapenos, but you could use any pepper, or use crushed red pepper flakes, which is what the restaurant uses. Coat them in oil and either put them on a grill, directly on a gas burner, broil them in an oven, or torch them. I used the broiler setting in the toaster oven this time. Cook the peppers until the meat is tender. Jalapenos have a thin skin which will blister and may black. Peel off the skin and dice the peppers, discarding the stem and seeds.

Mash or whip the peppers into the potatoes with butter, milk, salt and pepper. Use just enough milk and butter for the potatoes to be fluffy. I made three pounds of potatoes and used about 3 tablespoons of butter and ½ cup of milk.

Finger Steaks

Mushrooms

Chop and sauté mushrooms in butter (tastes better) or oil (better for you). I season my mushrooms with salt, fresh ground pepper, seasoned salt, and garlic powder. I often cook the mushrooms first, leave them in the pan, and heat them right before serving.

Garlic toast

Like the potatoes, the garlic toast takes a while to make, and like the mushrooms, they can be made early and set aside. Cut a loaf of French bread into slices about a half inch thick. I cut mine on a bias to get a slightly longer piece. Butter both sides of the bread and season both sides with garlic powder and paprika. Similar to roasting the peppers, there are multiple ways to toast the bread. I put them on a sheet pan and into a 350 degree oven until they are browned, and turn them over to brown the other side. You could also put the pieces in a toaster oven, or toast them on a grill.

Steak

I’ll go into my theory of steak making later this year in another post, but the bottom line reads: simple is better. You can use almost any cut of boneless steak. I use NY Strip steaks, but filet works well, and London Broil could be wonderful. Prep the steaks by seasoning them on both sides with salt, fresh ground pepper, and season salt. Normally I grill my steaks, but it was raining so I pan seared and oven finished the steaks, which uses a similar heat profile to how I grill. Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees and heat a cast iron or other oven safe pan on the stove over medium high heat. Grease the pan with butter or oil and cook the steaks for 1-2 minutes per side, then put the pan and steaks into the oven (if your pan isn’t oven-safe use a separate baking pan). Bake the steaks for about 8-10 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads the temperature you prefer your steaks. I like medium rare or medium which is from 135 – 145 degrees. Remove the steaks from the pan and allow them to rest on your cutting board for 3-5 minutes. The rest period is important for the steak to be more flavorful, and to prevent the juices from running out of the meat and soaking the garlic toast. Slice the steak, on a bias again, and place each slice on a piece of garlic toast.

Serve and enjoy.

Flying Fish Exit 16 - Hop Heads Rejoice

Wifey and I go to at least three "beerfests" each year and consequently we drink more craft beer than macro-brews anymore. Cherry Hill, NJ (local to me) based Flying Fish brewery's beers fill most of my pint glasses, especially since they stated making their Exit Series beers. As a Jersey native, I love the concept of the exit series: "a multi-year brewing experiment to brew a series of beers as diverse as the great state of New Jersey. These big beers–in size as well as flavor–will celebrate each exit of the state-long artery that connects us." Flying Fish brews one batch of each beer and releases them in wine sized (750ml, 25.9oz) bottles and that's it. Well, it was supposed to be it, but Flying Flying fish recently re-released the first one, Exit 4 (an American Trippel and Flying Fish's nearest exit), in 12oz bottles (nice). There's no word on if Exit 11 (Hoppy American wheat and the best beer I've ever had) or Exit 1 (Bayshore Oyster Stout and brewed with 100 NJ oysters), will also see the 12oz treatment. Please guys, more Exit 11.
The liquor store near us Canals of Berlin received their shipment of the fourth and newest release, Exit 16 (Wild Rice Double IPA), today and we bought some to try. The Exit 16 website gives the brewers notes:

"Although usually identified with landfills and pipelines, the Hackensack Meadowlands is an amazingly diverse ecosystem providing vital animal and plant habitat. In a nod to a once common food plant here, we've brewed this beer with wild rice. We also added organic brown and white rice, as well as pils and pale malts.
'Rice helps the beer ferment dry to better showcase the five different hops we added. Lots and lots of them. We then dry-hopped this Double IPA with even more-generous additions of Chinook and Citra hops to create a nose that hints at tangerine, mango, papaya and pine. This beer pairs extremely well with spicy foods and all kinds of seafood. And of course, it's quite enjoyable all by itself."

All the rice and hops yield a formidable beer at 8.4% alcohol by volume. The beer carries a deep straw color typical of an IPA. For a beer with a higher ABV the head holds nicely. The aroma hints of citrus and light tropical fruits. The citrus continues through to the taste, but only for a moment; then the hops takeover. After a second or two on the tongue the beer gets really bitter, but that's expected from a double IPA, and the bitterness lasts for a looooong finish. While double IPAs aren't my cup of tea, Exit 16 is a really good beer.

Broiled Flounder Triple Threat

The seafood counter at my local supermarket had some very nice JUMBO flounder, so I picked up a piece for dinner. Since one filet weighed in at over a pound, I knew I would have to cut it in some way to make portions for both wifey and I. I thought a flounder tasting dish would be nice, and I came up with the "triple threat." I portioned the fish into six pieces and cooked it three different ways: two classic and one not.

Oil/Lemon
Broiling fish coated in oil and lemon is a simple, yet highly tasty, preparation. I seasoned the first piece with salt (always kosher), pepper (fresh ground), parsley, and basil. Then I coated it with olive oil and squeezed fresh lemon juice over it. To keep it moist and add more lemon flavor during cooking, I put a round of lemon on top.

Panko breaded
Breaded fish, either broiled or fried, is a staple at many restaurants. Instead of regular bread crumbs I used panko flakes. Panko breaded foods tend to have a slightly crunchier feel since the flakes are bigger than standard bread crumbs. To prep, I simply seasoned the fish with salt and pepper, dipped it in an egg wash, and then coated with panko.

Cocktail sauce
I accompanied the breaded flounder with some cocktail sauce (on the side, of course). I like my cocktail sauce simple and strong; no lemon or hot sauce here. Quality horseradish is the key, and I only use the best: Kelchner's. From Pennsylvania, Kelchner's only distributes to the Mid-Atlantic but you can mail order from their site. To make the perfect cocktail sauce, add some horseradish to a bowl and mix in ketchup until it isn't too hot for you. Simple, but only good with quality ingredients.

Parmesan encrusted
While my Italian heritage screams at me not to combine fish and cheese, my American upbringing says WTF, try it. For the last piece of flounder, I went little more daring, and used the leftover shredded parmesano/reggiano from the weekend's caesar salad experiments as a topping. I seasoned with salt, pepper, and Old Bay; then topped the fish with the cheese. Simple, yet different. Why the old bay? Why not? Plus flounder doesn't have a lot of flavor and I thought it would compliment the cheese.

Broiling
Not much is easier than broiling flounder. Preheat the broiler, set the rack about 5 inches from the heat (second rack down in my oven) and broil on a cookie sheet until the fish is opaque, but not quite flaky. You don't want to cook all the way to flaky, because that is actually overdone. Since you can't see the fish in the broiler, you have to time it. My fish was HUGE (3/4 inch thick) so it took about five minutes to cook. Regular pieces of flounder only take a minute or two. I also put a piece of parchment paper on the pan to keep the fish from sticking.

Results
The flounder came out perfectly cooked: opaque, moist, and easy to pull apart. The five or so minutes of cooking time was enough to just brown the panko flakes and melt the parm. Another minute or two would have given a better browning on both, but likely over-cooked the fish. One end of the parmesan pieces were thinner, and a little dry. All three tasted great, and Wifey said she liked the panko crusted the best because the different textures of the fish and breading gave a better mouth feel. She also said I made the cocktail sauce too spicy, but she always says that.