Sasha's Kitchen: Chopped Apple Salad & Meeting Bobby Flay

I had the privilege of receiving free tickets to attend the New York Food & Wine Festival again this year, courtesy of ShopRite, as a Potluck featured blogger.  I had the opportunity to taste lots of fabulous foods, and try out many of ShopRite's new products that their tasting pavilion.  In addition, I had the opportunity to have a photo taken with and of course meet one of my favorite chefs from the Food Network - Bobby Flay.  As a huge fan of cooking his recipes over the years, and watching him on Iron Chef America, I got him to sign a copy of his Bar American cookbook, and since then I've been cooking tons of recipes from it that we have really enjoyed. Here's the first recipe of several that we enjoyed trying out from his new cookbook.  It's a crisp, chopped apple salad with blue cheese that is healthy and perfect for fall!

Chopped Apple Salad (recipe adapted from Bobby Flay)
4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch dice (I used granny smith apples)
5 oz baby spinach (the original recipe only calls for 2 oz but I like more)
2 large heads of belgian endive, thinly sliced crosswise
1 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
1/2 lbs crumbled blue cheese (about two cups)

Pomegranate Vinaigrette
3 T pomegranate molasses
2 T red wine vinegar
1 heaping T dijon mustard
1 T honey
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil or canola oil

Combine the ingredients for the salad and toss in the vinaigrette. Happy fall!

Sasha's Kitchen: Chopped Apple Salad & Meeting Bobby Flay

Sasha's Kitchen: Osso Buco

For my most recent braised meat dish, I decided to make some osso buco California-style. This is another cookbook review recipe, which I found in Tyler Florence's new cookbook,  which I received as a guest at the ShopRite blog panel welcome dinner (and got my copy signed by Tyler Florence).

Anyhow, this dish is a traditional Osso buco, which also incorporates elements of california cuisine. The idea of topping wine-braied veal with a kumquat-cranberry gremolata is a bit unusual and takes some getting used to. But it is really terrific, and much to my surprise, it was a great complement to the dish.  I confess that I don't really care for kumquats (I don't like eating the skin, which is how you eat a kumquat), so I substituted clementines.  Thus, with my various adaptions, below is the recipe that I used to create this California-style osso buco.

Tyler Florence's California Osso Buco with Tangerine Cranberry Gremolata (adapted by Sasha)
1 cup flour
4 2 inch pieces of veal shank
extra virgin olive oil (I omitted using any butter with this dish)
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks (diced)
zest of one lemon
6 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 bottle California Zinfandel (or Brunello, Cabernet Sauvignon)
2 cups low sodium beef broth
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

Gremolata
1/4 cups pine nuts
1 cup clementine or tangerine slices
1/4 cup dried cranberries
2 T chopped parsley

Coat the veal with flour and season with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a Dutch Oven, and add the veal shanks, searing on all sides. Set veal aside.

In the same pot, add the carrots, celery, onions, garlic, bay leaves, lemon zest and parsley. Cook for about 15 minutes. Then, nestle the veal shanks back into the pot and add the bottle of wine. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until the wine reduces by half.  Add the beef broth and the tomatoes. Cover the Dutch Oven and transfer into an oven heated to 375. Cook for 1.5 hours, then uncover the pot and cook for another half hour. The braised veal should be very tender, and fall off the bones.

To make the gremolata, toast and puree the pine nuts in a food processor. Fold in the clementines, garlic, cranberries and parsley.  Serve on top of the braised osso buco, in a bowl.

Sasha's Kitchen: Osso Buco