Dinner For !6 Friends Julie Bessler's Auction Benefit . Auction Highest Bidder Ken Feinman (Thanks Ken)

Donations For Julie

Participants:

Deana and Tom Corrigan
Mike and Laurie Dau (Hosts)
Pauline McNamee
John Meulstee
Adam and Jackie Boxman
Al  and  Shana   Ferraguti
Ken and   Sarinia Feinman
Bill and Heather    Rookstool
Jeri and Henri Gutner (Cooks)

Menu:

Mediterranean Salad

Shrimp Avocado and Hearts of Palm
Ingredients for 8 People

enough greens (of your choice- I used mixed greens from Costco)
2 medium ripe avocado chopped
1lbs cooked and peeled shrimp
1 can of  hearts of palm sliced
1 chopped green apple
1 small red onion chopped
1/2 cup of celery chopped
For dressing
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 lemon juice
1 dash of hot sauce
Directions
for the sauce mix all ingredients
refrigerate till reaady to use.
You can very ingredients as your taste requires
e.g. more lemon, less or no heat
You end up with homemade Russian dressing.

Directions For the Salad:

Place the greens equally divided in eight salad plates.
Add the rest of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix
with the reserved refrigerated dressing.
Scoop equal measures to each salad plate and serve.

Cioppino:

Julie Bessler Auction Benefit

Cioppino is an Italian-American seafood stew that most likely originated on fishing boats as a one-pot meal that fishermen would cook up for themselves from the catch of the day. Despite its humble simplicity, it is gloriously alluring and impressive looking, with chunks of fresh fish and shellfish piled in a tomato-rich broth fragrant with garlic, herbs and aromatic vegetables.

Serve it with a hunk of crusty Italian bread. (Sour Bread is preferred)

Make Ahead: The clams need to soak in cold water for 1 hour. The soup base can be made and refrigerated up to 3 days in advance; reheat until barely bubbling, then add the seafood.

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INGREDIENTS

• 12 littleneck or Manila clams
• 1 lb mussels
• 2 clean squid cut in rings plus tentacles (optional on the tentacles)
• One lobster cut up in pieces (as many pieces as servings)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (may substitute 1 teaspoon dried)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 14 ounces canned, no-salt-added diced tomatoes, plus their juices
• 3 cups homemade or no-salt-added fish stock *
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (optional), depending on the saltiness of your fish stock
• 8 ounces peeled and deveined large (raw) shrimp
• 1 pound skinless halibut fillet or fresh cod, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

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DIRECTIONS

Soak the clams in a deep bowl of cold water for 1 hour, so they can discharge any grit. Discard any clams that do not close when gently tapped.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Once the oil shimmers, add the onion, celery and bell pepper; cook, stirring, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, bay leaf and crushed red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato paste until well incorporated, then add the wine. Increase the heat to medium-high; bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes with their juices, and the fish stock * See note about fish sock on the bottom ; once the mixture returns to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until the ingredients have melded and the mixture has slightly thickened. Add the pepper, then add salt if needed.

(At this point, the soup base can be cooled and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.)

Lift the clams out of the water to drain them. Add to the soup base; cover and cook until the clams begin to open same with the mussels, 5 to 7 minutes. Gently stir in the shrimp and fish and calamari. Increase the heat to medium; once the mixture begins to bubble at the edges, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, just until and fish is just opaque and all of the clams and mussels  have opened, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf and any unopened clams or mussels.

Divide among individual wide, shallow bowls. Garnish with the parsley; serve hot.

Serve with Crusty Italian Bread, or Sour Dough

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RECIPE SOURCE

Adapted from registered nutritionist and cookbook author Ellie Krieger.

Tested by Henri Gutner

Email questions to henri@gutner.com.

Instructions on how to make home made fish stock for this recipe

Six cups of water

2 cubes of fish boullion (Knorr)

¼ cup vietnamese or thai fish sauce

1 small onion peeled and halved

The tops of the celery from above recipes

Some Parsley sprigs from the parsley bunch you have from the above recipe.

Put all these ingredients in a large pot of boiling water.

Add the shrimp and the calamari from the above recipe till shrimp turn pink.

Turn Heat off . Take and peel the Shrimp and the calamari reserve in the

Refrigerator till you need it for recipe above.

Pass the liquid through the collander to discard the remainder solids and

Save your fish stock.

Caneloni a la Rossini

16 Caneloni
Ingredients For the crepes
4 eggs
1/2 lb all purpose flour
2 cups cold milk
dash salt
oil spray        

1. Directions:
2. Heat a small frying pan and spray oil
3. with a ladle pour enough mix to cover the bottom of the pan
4. spreading the mixture by by swirling it around . It should be
5. very thin. After a minute flip it if you dare or just turn it around using a fork
6. or the tip of yous fingers. (practice flipping when you don't have any guests-
7. once you learn, you can do omelettes and all kind of other stuff)
8. 15 times, If you don't get 16 altogether, your crepes are to thick.
9. Cover crepes with wet towel or wet paper towels save in fridge covered also with plastic film so edges do not dry up. Can be done day before if stored properly.

Filling:
4 10 oz frozen spinach
1 lbs Riccotta Cheese
1 Cup shredded Parmeggiano
1 Cup shredded Mozzarella
1 beat egg
1 pinch nutmeg
salt pepper
Directions:
Beat the egg if you had not done yet, Mix with the three cheeses. Add the thawed (and squeezed
spinach, trying to get rid of all the water and moisture as possible) Keep on mixing the ingredients
add the salt pepper and nutmeg. Fill the reserved crepes with the mixture making them all even
roll them and put the seem facing down on a 13x9 pan (two pans needed),


Rossini Sauce:
to come
Ribs
to come

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients

1

package (12 oz) bacon

1 1/2

cups chopped onion

6

 cups chicken broth 

3 lb baking potatoes,

2/3

cup butter

3/4

 all-purpose flour

4

cups milk

1

teaspoon salt

1

teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1

container (8 oz) sour cream

2 1/2

cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (10 oz)

Directions

1. In 12-inch skillet, cook bacon over medium heat 6 to 7 minutes or until crisp; drain on paper towels. Crumble bacon; set aside. Reserve 2 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Cook onion in bacon drippings over medium-high heat 6 minutes or until almost tender.

2 . Bake the potatoes till tender. Let them cool till you can handle  them, cut them half scoop them and save till next step.

3. In 6-quart Dutch oven, mix onion, broth and saved potatoes. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cook 10 minutes.

4.  Meanwhile, in same skillet, melt butter over low heat. Stir in flour with whisk until smooth. Cook and stir 1 minute. Gradually stir in 2 cups of the milk. Pour milk mixture into potato mixture. Add remaining 2 cups milk, the salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with whisk, until mixture is thickened and bubbly.

5. Stir in half of the bacon, the sour cream, 2 cups of the cheese and 1/2 cup of the green onions. Cook until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted. Evenly top individual servings with remaining bacon, 1/2 cup cheese and 1/4 cup green onions.

Beef Brisket to be made the night before

INGREDIENTS:






For the Rub

5 cloves of garlic peeled and smashed
1 Tsp of Kosher salt (Sal Gruesa)
2 Tsp of Rosemary (crush the with your hands)
1/4 cup of EVOO
1 Tsp of smoked  Paprika
1 Tsp of Thyme


The Rest

4 to 6 Lbs Beef Brisket (it shrinks)
Black Pepper
5 Large carrots cut in slices
3 Celery Stalks cut in slices
3 Large onions (1 sliced  2 Chopped)
2 cups of Red Vino
1 lg 15.5 can of diced tomatos
3 bay leaves
2 TBL flour

Directions:

On a mortar smash the garlic with the pestle and add the kosher salt to it and continue mashing till you have a paste, add the rest of the rub ingredients saving 1/2 of the oil to rub the meat with. then stir to combine it all.


Once you rub the meat with the oil and some crushed pepper add all the rub paste all over both sides of the meat. Don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty.


Sear the meat in a large frying pan (even if it overflows the pan make sure it is all seared).
set aside.

In the same pan you can add a bit of olive oil or if you have some bacon fat and do a mirepoix.
In other words saute the 2 chopped onions celery and carrots till onions are translucent and the other vegies are softer.

Place the miepoix in the bottom of a roasting pan the meat on top of that and the sliced onion
on top of that.

Spread the can of tomatoes around the meat and then add the vino add the bay leaves last.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 3 hours at 325 (you can do this the day before).

Let it cool and cut across the grain with an electric knife. While meat is out of the pan

and if you did this the night before, get rid of the solidified fat. If you didn't try to skim the fat now.

Transfer the liquids to a bowl leaving the solids in the pan.

Add the brisket to the pan with the veggies.

If you want a thicker gravy , mix two tbl of flower with 4 tbl of either wine or water and added to
the gravy. Pour the gravy over the neat and cook for another hour.


Serve with mash potatoes and something green