Baked Whole Fish

Posted on by July 9, 2018

By Mary Lynn Davis, before 1999. Transcribed by Tom

Secret – DO NOT measure the ingredients in this recipe carefully. If they are added based on what looks and feels right then the dish will be right.

Ingredients

  • One large fish or thick fillets laid in aluminum foil.
  • Red onion rings sliced about 1/8” thick for about a half an onion of about the right size.
  • Enough fresh mushrooms sliced thin.
  • White wine – at least ½ C plus some for the cook (probably more than ½ C)
  • Melt more than ½ stick of butter in the microwave and add large chopped garlic clove. Use two or more if you like garlic.
  • Thinly sliced lemon after squeezing – see below
  • Spices cited below.

Directions

  1. Put fish in foil. Mop fish on both sides with butter-garlic sauce. Shake on red pepper flakes. Don’t be timid-put some more.
  2. Squeeze a lemon over fish. Slice a lemon thin and arrange on fish. Season with salt and course-ground pepper.
  3. Arrange onion, mushrooms, and artichokes over fish.
  4. Pour juice from artichoke can/jar and wine over the arrangement.
  5. Pull sides of foil around and over fish., pinching ends tightly and top loosely.
  6. Cook on grill or in the oven (about 300 degrees) for about 10 minutes per inch of fish plus 10 minutes for the liquid and other stuff. Example; A 2” think fish would cook for 2×10+10=30 minutes. When is getting close and the juices a simmering, check with a fork and see if it looks done.
  7. Serve from foil with French bread to dredge in the sauce. Serve with wine if cook left any.

Pot Roast, Florentine Style

Posted on by July 16, 2021

Inspired by Stracotto Aila Fiorentina from our copy of The Fine Art of Italian Cooking By Giuliano Bugialli.

Below was edited twice in 2021 to improve on my English and reflect what we have done for years.

The Italian pot roast is one large piece. The chuck or rump is preferred so it can cook a long time (the word stracotto means “Very well cooked”). Some fat must be left on, and, so the meat remains juicy on the inside, it is larded by drawing strips of pancetta through the inside with a larding needle (in Italy, ago lardellatore). The carrot, inserted through the center, helps to flavor the inside of the meat and is aesthetically pleasing when the meat is sliced.

Stracotto is cooked with the full red wine of the area where it is made. Barolo is used in Piedmont, in Tuscany, one of the fuller Chiantis.

  • 2 medium-sized red onions
  • 3 celery ribs
  • 4 carrots
  • 5 tablespoons olive oil
  • Rump roast of beef (about 3¼ pounds), with some fat left on
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • ¼ cup dry red wine
  • 1¼ pounds fresh ripe tomatoes, skin and seeds removed, or 1 can (20 ounces) tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste if the desire is for the marinara to be thick.
  • hot meat broth if needed. If using fresh tomatoes then it likely will not be needed.

Cut the onions, celery, and 3 of the carrots into ¼-inch pieces. Heat the olive oil in a large enameled castiron dutch oven (DO) and add the onions, celery, and carrots. Saute until the onions are beginning to be translucent.

In the meantime, insert a long, thin knife lengthwise all the way through the center of the meat making a large enough slit to insert the carrot. Withdraw the knife and fit the remaining carrot, whole, through the opening made by the knife.

Add more olive oil as needed and the meat coated with flour, salt, and pepper. Brown the meat pressed down through the vegetables so it is on the bottom of the DO. Once it is browned, add the wine, simmering until it evaporates. [Alternate – Brown the floured meat first. Remove the meat and saute the vegetables. Add the meat to the veggies with the flame on low sauteing very gently.]

After 15-20 minutes add the tomatoes and optional tomato paste if you want a thick marinara. Cover and simmer very slowly for about 2-3 hours depending on the size of the meat and quality. Add­ hot broth when needed and turning the meat several times. Taste for salt and pepper.

To Serve it Italian Style

  1. Remove the meat from the DO and place it on a chopping board for 10 to 12 minutes to rest.
  2. Meanwhile, remove the fat from the top of the marinara and reheat.
  3. Cut meat into slices ¼ inch thick. Arrange the slices on a platter and serve, accompanied by the marinera in a gravy boat.

Alternately, and what we usually do, is break the meat into small chunks and serve it with the marinara on top of pasta.

CAUTION – If you serve this to a new girlfriend then she may decide to “own” you, your freedom, and all your worldly possessions. I speak from experience.

Chicken Angelina

Posted on by October 23, 2022

This recipe is based on a dish made in small Italian Restaurant in Addicks on the west side of Houston in the 1980s. It led to Tom working a few Saturday afternoons there as a prep chef where the chef showed him how to cooked a dish for their early dinner before opening. Chicken Angelina was the first dish and the second was with clam, butter and garlic. That very short “job” led to owning many Italian cookbooks and gaining weight.

When he made it for the first time for Mary and Kelley it was a big hit. That eventually lead to Mary owning all his stuff. So, be careful to whom you serve it.

Ingredients

  • Chicken breasts – 4 avg size to serve 4 people.
  • Clarified butter – depends on the size of the skillet and if you use a little olive oil to reduce the chance of burning. At least one stick.
  • Garlic – 3-4 avg size, chopped fine.
  • Brocolli – a full head avg size. Cut off flowerettes into bite size pieces with only enough stem to hold them together.
  • Mushrooms. – Sliced about the thickness of a quarter and about a 1.5 C
  • Hot Pepper flakes.
  • White wine for deglazing the pan and creating the wine-butter-garlic sauce

Preparation

This is a fast dish that I often take too long to assemble. The heat is high– just enough to not burn the clarified butter. Have french bread ready to serve hot with the plate of antipasto or a Ceasar salad before making the chicken.

  1. Boil the angel hair pasta and have it drained before starting below. To make it special boil it in chicken broth.
  2. Add the garlic and pepper flakes to the clarified butter with a little olive oil while it is getting hot.
  3. Lay in a chicken breast in an 8″ skillet and, using the tongs, poke it to cut the grain of the meat helping it to cook quickly. Flip it and poke the other side. Keep the heat up.
  4. Watch for the interior of the meat to turn from raw pink to white then pour a semi-dry white wine around the chicken and the wine will steam up. Turn the chicken over and add some fresh chopped garlic. Remove the chicken to a plate with pasta. When the wine steams it may catch on fire from the gas burner for 5-10 seconds. Then you will have made it like the chef in that little restaurant.
  5. Throw in the broccoli flowerettes and saute them until slightly wilted. Add the mushrooms and saute until they become slightly limber and–if you used white ones–lite brown. [If in this process any garlic becomes browned remove it. If that happens then you took too long to saute everything and likely the heat was too low. This must go quickly on fairly high heat.]
  6. Plate the chicken on one half of a platter and the pasta on the other half. Put the broccoli and mushrooms on the chicken. Pour the wine-butter-garlic pan drippings over the whole plate. Put the plate on the serving counter under heat lamps for the few minutes it takes to make the next plate.
  7. Repeat or use multiple saute pans and make all the dishes for that table at the same time. Serve immediately [after a Ceasar salad or antipasta] and with fresh soft crusted french bread to sop up the wine-butter-garlic sauce that will be left on the platter.

Note – The date of this post was set to be about the time Tom made that famous meal for Mary and Kelley. That was about 10 years after the time in the restaurant.