"Wines that Pair with the Fabulous Flavors of Summer" & Recipe for Porcini Dusted Hogfish from Chef Chris Miracolo!
Chef Chris Miracol |
"Summertime, and the livin' is easy"... not to mention really hot! In keeping with the season, this month's installment of our "Savor the Summer" series at Max's Harvest featured "Wines that Pair with the Fabulous Flavors of Summer."
Summer in Florida (and most other parts
of the country recently) isn't really the ideal time of year for those
tannic Cabernet Sauvignons or oaky Chardonnays - especially if you are a
fan of the light, refreshing flavors of Summer cuisine. In keeping with
the evening's theme, we traveled around the globe sampling wines from a variety of countries perfect for enjoying during the sultry Summer months.
Our vinous lineup was once again paired with the phenomenal cuisine of Chef Chris Miracolo.
Chef tailored each Summer-inspired dish to suit the nuances of each of
our featured wines to create this truly mouth-watering menu:
Reception
Stuffed Pluots with Goat Cheese, Candied Pistachio and
Sherry-Black Pepper Bacon Marmalade
Poema, Cava Brut NV
1st Course
Bluepoint Oysters, Pickled Ramp, Grapefruit-Pink Peppercorn Mignonette
Pfaffl Grüner Veltliner "Austrian Pepper" 2009
2nd Course
Rock Shrimp & Boursin en Croute, Tarragon Butter & Micro Herb Salad
Michel Redde Sancerre "Les Tuilieres" 2012
3rd Course
Porcini Dusted Hogfish, Celery Root Puree, Blueberry-Champagne Sauce
Louis Jadot Chateau des Jacques Morgon 2009
4th Course
Chipotle-Pomegranate Palmetto Creek Farms Pork Shoulder Roast with
Braised Collards & Creamed Corn Bread
Robert Oatley Shiraz Mudgee 2009
Dessert
Mango Upside Down Cake with Key Lime Ice Cream & Strawberry Chips
Michele Chiarlo Moscato d'Asti "Nivole" 2010
Following dinner, guests voted for their favorite dish of the night and Chef Chris kindly agreed to share the recipe with The Glamorous Gourmet readers. The winning dish was the delightfully creative Porcini Dusted Hogfish with Celery Root Puree & Blueberry-Champagne Sauce.
Everyone was blown away by the unexpected yet delicious flavor
combination and how perfectly the dish paired with the Louis Jadot
Chateau des Jacques Morgon, a light-bodied red with lovely flavor and
structure. So without further ado, I'm happy to share Chef Chris's
recipe with you:
The Winning Recipe: Porcini Dusted Hogfish with Blueberry-Champagne Sauce! |
Porcini Dusted Hogfish with Celery Root Puree & Blueberry-Champagne Sauce
Courtesy of Chef Chris Miracolo, Max's Harvest
Fish
4-7 oz Hogfish Fillets, skin on scaled (may substitute halibut or other light white fish)
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1 tbl fresh chopped thyme
Kosher Salt to taste
Freshly ground Black pepper
2 fl oz grapeseed oil
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Celery Root Puree
1 celery root, peeled and cut into 1” cubes
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground white pepper
Salt to taste
2 oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Blueberry-Champagne Sauce
6 ounces blueberries, rinsed and stems removed
½ cup Dry Champagne
1 Tablespoon Champagne Vinegar
Watercress for the plate
Heat oven to 325°F. Place porcini
mushrooms on a baking sheet and toast in oven for 10 minutes until
fragrant. Cool to room temperature and place in a coffee/spice grinder
and mill until a fine powder. With a small knife score skin in a
criss-cross pattern ½ apart from each other being careful not to cut too
deeply into flesh. Dust fish fillets with salt, pepper, thyme and
porcini powder. Set aside.
Place celery root in a large pot of
salted water and boil until soft (Approx 30 minutes). Strain and place
in food processor. Puree until smooth while adding nutmeg, pepper and
butter through hole on top. Set aside.
Place blueberries, vinegar and champagne in a sauce pot over medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside.
Heat a large skillet over low-medium
heat with oil and butter until butter just begins to turn brown. Place
fillets in pan skin side down one at a time. Adjust heat to ensure you
do not burn mushroom powder. After a few minutes turn fish over and
sauté on other side. Remove fish from pan. Pour blueberry sauce into pan
to deglaze.
Place 4-5 watercress sprigs on each
plate, place celery root puree atop watercress, Place fish skin side up
atop puree and spoon pan sauce over fish and around plate. Serves 4.
I hope you enjoy this delicious recipe
and a big thanks to Chef Chris for sharing it with us! Please check out
the video above for even more fun photos from the evening. We hope you
can join us for the final dinner of our "Savor the Summer" series on Wednesday, August 1st featuring the exquisite Provencal rosés of Chateau d'Esclans. For more information or to make a reservation, please call 561-381-9970. Hope to see you there!
Cheers,
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011
A Bastille Day Meal: Frisée Aux Lardons and Honey Fleur de Lys!
Bastille Day Fireworks! |
The French refer to it as "Le Quatorze Juillet" and in the US the Fourteenth of July is known as Bastille Day which commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789.
The
Bastille was a fortress-like prison used by the King and Queen to
imprison those who challenged their authority and was viewed by many as a
symbol of all that was wrong with Royalty. Finally, on July 14, 1789, a large number of French citizens
gathered together and stormed the Bastille. Just
as citizens of the United States celebrate the signing of the
Declaration of Independence as the beginning of the American
Revolution, so the French celebrate the storming of
the Bastille as the beginning of the French Revolution. Two
days after the storming of the Bastille, the King officially recognized
the tricolor flag; the blue, white and red said to symbolize liberty,
equality and brotherhood. Festivities and official
ceremonies are held all over France. The oldest and largest regular
military parade in Europe is held on the morning of 14 July, on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, French officials and foreign guests.
For the occasion, I prepared a French-inspired meal that brought the Champs-Élysées to Chez Miskew! During our visit to France in 2009, one dish we could never get enough of was Frisée Aux Lardons - a salad comprised primarily of frisée
lettuce, bacon (aka lardons) and a poached egg with a perfectly oozy,
runny center. The dressing for the salad is comprised mostly of bacon
fat obtained from browning the salty nuggets of bacon - mon dieu! Once the bacon is browned, shallots, Sherry vinegar, olive oil and fines herbes are added to the fat to create a deliciously tangy, sinful concoction that is the perfect dressing for the hearty frisée.
Once the salad is assembled, it is topped with a perfectly poached egg
and the runny yolk serves as part of the delightful dressing for this
heavenly pseudo-salad. The recipe I use is from The Balthazar Cookbook which is chock full of amazing French recipes from one of my all time
favorite restaurants in New York City! Every trip to NYC requires a
mandatory visit and this cookbook is a must for those who enjoy French
Bistro style food.
Frisée Aux Lardons |
Steve & Frisée aux Lardons - Le Meurice Hotel, Paris! |
For our Bastille Day dessert, I baked these lovely Honey Fleur de Lys cookies that are extremely easy to make. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the ingredients, the key is to bake the cookies until they are a deep, rich brown color. They taste alot like the burnt sugar topping of creme brulée which I, quite frankly, adore yet they are not as sweet. I saw this recipe on The Cooking Channel show "French Food at Home" with Laura Calder and loved the cute Fleur de Lys shape. I ordered my cookie cutter from eBay and a few days later Voilà - Bastille Day treats!
I hope you enjoy this Bastille Day menu and I would love to hear what you think of these recipes. Also, what is your favorite French dining experience or what French-inspired recipes do you like to prepare?
Frisee Aux Lardons
from The Balthazar Cookbook, Keith McNally, Riad Nasr & Lee Hanson
Ingredients
6 slices of stale brioche
4 heads of frisée, cored, rinsed, spun dry, and torn into bite-size pieces
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 pound slab bacon (rind removed), cut into 1/2-inch lardons
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
3 tablespoons fine herbs (parsley, chervil, chives, and tarragon finally chopped together)
6 large eggs
Sea salt
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Trim the crusts from the bread cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Place on a sheet tray and bake in the oven until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Shake the pan halfway through to toast evenly. Combine the croutons in a large bowl with the clean frisée.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Trim the crusts from the bread cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Place on a sheet tray and bake in the oven until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Shake the pan halfway through to toast evenly. Combine the croutons in a large bowl with the clean frisée.
Prepare the pan for poaching the eggs: Fill a wide-straight-sided saute
pan with water (about two-third fulls) and add the tablespoon of
vinegar. Over a medium-high flame, bring to a gentle simmer, and adjust
the heat to maintain it.
In a dry skillet or saute pan over medium heat, brown the lardons well
on all sides, about 10 minutes. Add the minced shallots and continue to
cook for 2 to 3 minutes, to soften and lightly brown them. Without
pouring off the fat, add the 1/2 cup of vinegar to the pan. Bring to a
boil, using a wooden spoon to scrape any delicious bits that have
caramelized on the surface of the pan. When the vinegar has reduced by
half, about 3 minutes, turn off the flame. Add the olive oil, salt and
pepper, and stir well to combine. Pour this warm vinaigrette with bacon
into the bowl of frisée, along with the croutons and fine herbes. Toss
well to combine. Divide the salad among 6 serving plates, piled into
small heaps.
Crack the eggs, one at a time, into a small saucer and then slide them
into the simmering water. Poach for 4 minutes, resulting in a set white
and a cooked but runny yolk. With a slotted spoon, scoop out the poached
eggs, one at a time, drain, and position on top of each pile of frisée.
Sprinkle with crunchy sea salt (like Maldon)
and a few turns of a peppermill. Serve immediately. Serves six
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011
Dine on Paris' Left Bank Tonight with Patricia Wells' Bar de la Croix Rouge Assiette Saint-Germain!
Recently, I posted a recipe for Cilantro-Flecked Heirloom Tomato Soup from James Beard award-winning author and Francophile, Patricia Wells' latest cookbook, Salad as a Meal: Healthy Main Dish Salads for Every Season. I really loved the simple, yet amazingly flavorful soup and thought I'd try a few more recipes from her latest project.
The title of the second recipe is a bit of a mouthful, but don't let it scare you! The Bar de la Croix Rouge Assiette Saint-Germain is as casual as it is mouth-wateringly delicious! The dish is named after one of Wells' favorite haunts on the Left Bank of Paris, Bar de la Croix Rouge, and it's most famous tartine, Assiette Saint-Germain. Assiette, or "assortment" in French, describes this dish very accurately; it is essentially a playground for the palate, consisting of an open faced roast beef sandwich, sliced cornichons, ripe tomatoes and a soft bed of fresh salad greens. The beauty of this dish is in the details, Wells provides recipes for homemade bread, mayonnaise, roast beef, cornichons and salad dressing which really elevates this essentially common dish to the next level.
The title of the second recipe is a bit of a mouthful, but don't let it scare you! The Bar de la Croix Rouge Assiette Saint-Germain is as casual as it is mouth-wateringly delicious! The dish is named after one of Wells' favorite haunts on the Left Bank of Paris, Bar de la Croix Rouge, and it's most famous tartine, Assiette Saint-Germain. Assiette, or "assortment" in French, describes this dish very accurately; it is essentially a playground for the palate, consisting of an open faced roast beef sandwich, sliced cornichons, ripe tomatoes and a soft bed of fresh salad greens. The beauty of this dish is in the details, Wells provides recipes for homemade bread, mayonnaise, roast beef, cornichons and salad dressing which really elevates this essentially common dish to the next level.
Let
me start by saying, I did not make everything from scratch. Instead of
making the bread, I bought it from my local store (Publix, not
Poilane!), likewise with the cornichons and roast beef. I did however,
make the mayonnaise and salad dressing myself. I followed the recipes
for both and was very impressed with the results! I love to make my own
salad dressings and the Creamy Lemon-Mustard dressing was
really delicious. Making the homemade mayonnaise was also pretty easy
and so much more flavorful than what you find at the grocery store.
Wells also recommends using imported French mustard which was well worth
it, it had exceptional flavor and complemented the flavors of the other ingredients beautifully. Once the homemade portions of the recipe are completed (whichever ones you choose to make), the assemblage is a snap.
Per Wells' suggestion, I served the assiette with a Beaujolais, the 2009 Georges Duboeuf Belles Grives Morgon.
Beaujolais is a wine producing region located just south of Burgundy
proper featuring wines made from the Gamay grape. They are made using
carbonic maceration, a method that extracts very little tannin from the
grapes making the wines very light and easy to drink. Beaujolais are
reasonably priced with Cru Beaujolais, the highest classification of the
wines of this region, generally retailing for under $20. The top ten
villages included in the "Cru" classification are Brouilly, Cote de
Brouilly, Regnie, Morgon, Chiroubles, Fleurie, Moulin-a-Vent, Chenas,
Julienas and Saint-Amour. The 2009 Morgon was a delicious pairing with
the assiette with its juicy tart notes of violets, plum and cassis.The next time you feel like dining on the Left Bank of Paris without leaving the comfort of your own kitchen, give this delicious recipe a try. Whether you make one or all of the homemade ingredients, I think you will really enjoy it. I'd love to hear what you think!
Cheers,
Bar De La Croix Rouge Assiette Saint-Germain
4 thin slices Multigrain Sourdough Bread, toasted**
1 tablespoon salted butter
1 tablespoon Homemade Mayonnaise**
24 ultra-thin slices rare roast beef**
2 handfuls of soft salad greens
Creamy Lemon-Mustard Dressing**
4 ripe red tomatoes, cored and slices crosswise
16 Cornichons, cut into thin slices, for garnish**
Imported French Mustard, for garnish
Spread the warm toast with the butter and mayonnaise. Top with the slices of beef. Cut each slice of toast crosswise into 6 slices. Arrange on each of 4 large dinner plates.
In a large bowl, combine the greens and the dressing, coating with just enough dressing to coat the greens lightly and evenly. Arrange the salad alongside the tartines. Arrange the tomatoes alongside, and drizzle with a bit of dressing. Garnish with the cornichons and serve with a jar of imported French mustard. Serves 4
**The recipes for these items are also included in the cookbook!
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2011
Sweets for your Sweet: Three Fabulous Valentine's Day Dessert & Wine Pairings!
Here
are three fabulous pairings that are guaranteed to satiate your
sweetie's sweet tooth. There's a little something for everyone: decadent
Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Cakes, "cheeky" Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly and a classic Crème Brûlée.
For the chocolate lover, you can't go wrong with these Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Cakes from "Savor the Moment" (click link for recipe). I know I have raved about them before, even featuring them in my Kitchen Confidant article in the Sun Sentinel but, hey, what can I say, they are AWESOME! Pair these chocolatey babies with a Brachetto d'Acqui,
a sparkling wine from Italy's Piedmont region that's rife with flavors
of strawberries and rose petals and a delightful sweetness. It is widely
available as well, so be sure to check your local wine store.
Not really a chocolate lover? Why not try this unique and fruity dessert, Slut-Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly (recipe below). This Nigella Lawson
creation is delicious and conveniently can be made the day before and
lovingly chill in the fridge until you and your mate are ready to
indulge! Use a fruity-style Chardonnay for this recipe, but pair it with
a late harvest Chardonnay or a little gem of a wine, Quady Red Electra. The
Electra is a California Muscat Wine and, while not readily available,
can be ordered directly from the winery. I just love it with this
dessert!
If you are looking for something more classic this Valentine's Day, why not go with the Coco Chanel of desserts, Crème brûlée (click link for recipe). This recipe from the Barefoot Contessa
is perfection with the addition of vanilla extract and Grand Marnier.
You can also make this recipe the day before and impress your loved one
by whipping out your kitchen torch and caramelizing the sugar just
before serving! Pair this deliciousness with a Sauternes, a French dessert wine that's a blend of Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and/or Muscadelle grapes that have been affected by Botrytis cinerea
aka "noble rot". This bacteria causes the grapes to shrivel,
concentrating their delicious flavors and leading to a wine with a
heady, wonderful sweetness.
I really hope you enjoy these pairings, and remember that basically, the
key to pairing wine with dessert is that the wine should be at least as
sweet as the dessert...if not sweeter. Hope you and your Sweetie have a
very Happy Valentine's Day!
Cheers,
Cheers,
Slut-Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly
1 750ml bottle good fruity Chardonnay
3/4 pint raspberries
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
5 sheets leaf gelatin
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Heavy cream to serve
Place the wine and berries in a bowl and allow to steep for half an hour. Strain the wine into a saucepan and keep the raspberries to one side. Heat the wine with the vanilla bean until nearly boiling and leave to steep on one side for 15 minutes.
Soak the gelatin sheets - which you can find in the supermarket these days - in cold water for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, after removing the vanilla bean, reheat the wine and stir in the sugar until it dissolves; allow to boil if you want to lose the alcohol. Add a third of the hot wine to the wrung out gelatin sheets in a measuring cup and stir to dissolve, then add this mixture back into the rest of the wine and stir well. Strain into a large pitcher.
Place the raspberries, equally, into six flattish, clear glass serving bowls, and pour the strained wine over the top.
Allow to set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, though a day would be fine if you want to make this well ahead, and take out of the refrigerator 15 minutes before serving.
Serve some heavy cream in a pitcher, and let people pour this into the fragrant, tender, fruit-jeweled jelly as they eat. Serves six.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010
"Quick" Coq Au Vin and a Fabulous French Red!
The other night, my friend Tony Ventura, wine writer extraordinaire and fabulous cook, mentioned he was making Coq Au Vin
on a very snowy night in Buffalo, NY. With the cold weather finally
upon us here in South Florida, I quickly asked him if he would be kind
enough to share his recipe - I just knew it would be a good one. Wow,
was it ever!
He shared a quick version of the classic French recipe which is a rustic, braised, chicken dish made with wine, mushrooms, and lardons (bacon). While Coq Au Vin is typically made with Burgundy, many regions of France have their own variations using their local wine including coq au vin jaune (Jura), coq au Riesling (Alsace), coq au Champagne, and so on. The most extravagant version is coq au Chambertin, but this generally involves Chambertin more in name than in practice. I have to say, the recipe was delicious, extremely easy to make, taking about thirty minutes from start to finish. I served it over egg noodles and it was the perfect dish for a wintery night in Buffalo or Delray Beach!
Despite the above-mentioned suggestions, I used a red wine from Southern France, specifically the Languedoc's Minervois AOC. The 2006 Gérard Bertrand Minervois is a blend of 50% Syrah and 50% Carignan, rife with blackberry and roasted coffee with hints of mocha on the finish. The wine has great minerality, indicative of the region's soils, ample tannins and a food friendly acidity. It was a nice match for the Coq Au Vin and a great value as well! What's not to love about that?
So do yourself a favor and hit the store tonight, pick up the few ingredients you don't already have in your fridge and treat your family or friends to a delicious French dish. Also be sure to check out Tony's fabulous wine column "Tony's Tastings" on the website Ciao Italia with MaryAnn Esposito. Thank you, Tony!
Bon Appétit,
Coq au Vin (Rapide)
From Debra F. Weber, Your Guide to French Cuisine.
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 Tablespoon olive oil
12 oz. cremini mushrooms, quartered
1/3 cup diced Canadian bacon
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
PREPARATION:
1. In a large zip-lock plastic bag, combine the flour, thyme, and salt. Add chicken and shake to coat.
2. Over med-high heat in a large non-stick skillet, heat oil. Add chicken and cook until browned ~ about 8 minutes. Remove.
3. Add mushrooms and bacon and sauté 2 minutes.
4. Stir in the wine, broth and tomato paste and cook 10 minutes.
5. Return chicken to the pan; cook 8 minutes.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2010
"Breakfast at Stephanie's" A Deliciously Decadent Morning with the Girls!
I recently invited some girlfriends over for a morning of delicious recipes from "Savor the Moment." Breakfast on Sunday is probably one of my favorite meals of the week and the girls were sweet enough to come on over to Chez Miskew and help me out with some dishes from "Savor the Moment's" decadent Bread & Breakfasts chapter!
I went with a "Breakfast at Stephanie's" theme, giving everyone their own tiara and a CD with songs from Audrey Hepburn movies including "Moon River Cha Cha" from Breakfast at Tiffany's, a new favorite, and "Think Pink" from Funny Face - perfect tunes for chilling out on a Sunday morning. We also wore our tiaras throughout breakfast - I think Holly Golightly would be proud!
The menu consisted of Honeydew Mimosas (pg. 101) followed by a buffet of Ham and Cheese Strata (pg. 102), French Toast Baked in Honey Pecan Sauce (pg. 97), and Tropical Fruit with Mango Cream
(pg. 107). Fortunately, most of these recipes could be made the night
before and popped in the oven shortly before the girls arrived - gotta
love that!
The Ham and Cheese Strata
is a mouth watering mixture of French Bread, ham, Cheddar and Parmesan
Cheese, eggs, half and half and Dijon mustard that you can assemble the
night before and bake in a springform pan for about 1 1/2 hours. I cut
the ham into thick cubes to give some nice texture to the strata. When
you pop the springform off this baby, it is a sight to behold! Golden
brown, crispy edges studded with chunks of ham and melty cheeses - YUM!
And it tastes as good, if not better, than it looks.
The French Toast Baked in Honey Pecan Sauce was also delicious with its praline topping and accompanying Honey Butter.
I'm not the biggest French Toast fan but I reeeeeally liked this
recipe. Maybe it was the fact you could also do most of the prep the
night before, but I think it had more to do with the flavor
combo. The French bread "marinates" overnight in a mixture of eggs, half
and half, brown sugar and vanilla and awakes to a warm reception in a
350 degree oven where it bakes atop a mixture of butter, brown sugar,
honey, maple syrup and pecans until puffed and golden brown. The result
is some pretty phenomenal French toast with the perfect amount of
sweetness.
In
light of the previous two recipes, I thought I should probably throw in
a token "healthy" dish to ease the guilt so I went with the Tropical Fruit with Mango Cream.
As it turns out, this recipe calls for most of my favorite fruit
including mango (obviously), nectarines, kiwifruit, pineapple and
honeydew melon. It also called for passion fruit which unfortunately was
not to be found in Delray Beach this particular day. Also, for the
Mango Cream, in lieu of the kirsch, a clear, colorless fruit brandy made from distilled cherries, I used Chambord,
a raspberry flavored liqueur, and it turned out just fine. This is the
only dish of the three you will be making the morning of, since neither
the fruit nor the Mango Cream holds up too well overnight. This dish
also made a beautiful and delightfully colorful presentation and the
fruit with the Mango Cream definitely had me going back for more -
delicious!
My husband, Steve, was kind enough to rock out some fabulous batches of the Honeydew Mimosas for us girls. They were delicious and a beautiful, light green color that went down veeeeery smoothly - thanks, Hon! All in all it was a fun and delicious Sunday morning. Thanks to Carrie, Lee Ann and Reagan for your taste-testing help and for wearing tiaras throughout the entire breakfast. I've included the recipe for the Ham and Cheese Strata below, but you're going to have to buy a copy of "Savor the Moment" for the rest of the deliciousness. Enjoy!
XO,
Ham and Cheese Strata (pg. 102)**
1 loaf French bread, cubed
1 pound ham, cubed
1 pound Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 green onions, chopped
15 medium eggs
2 egg yolks
4 cups half-and-half
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Combine the bread, ham, Cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, and green onions in a large bowl. Beat the eggs, egg yolks, half-and-half and mustard in a medium bowl. Pour over the bread mixture and stir until moistened. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or longer.
Stir the mixture and pour into an oiled 10-inch springform pan; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 325 to 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, covering with foil if necessary to prevent overbrowning. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Place on a serving plate and remove the side of the pan. Cut into wedges and serve. Serves twelve.
**Better me than you cooking tips!
- I baked the strata at 350 degrees so it could bake in the oven with the French Toast. It cooked for about 1 1/2 hours
- I cubed the ham into big chunks to give it some nice texture
- Be sure to run a knife around the inside of the springform pan to loosen the strata before unlatching it
My husband, Steve, was kind enough to rock out some fabulous batches of the Honeydew Mimosas for us girls. They were delicious and a beautiful, light green color that went down veeeeery smoothly - thanks, Hon! All in all it was a fun and delicious Sunday morning. Thanks to Carrie, Lee Ann and Reagan for your taste-testing help and for wearing tiaras throughout the entire breakfast. I've included the recipe for the Ham and Cheese Strata below, but you're going to have to buy a copy of "Savor the Moment" for the rest of the deliciousness. Enjoy!
XO,
Ham and Cheese Strata (pg. 102)**
1 loaf French bread, cubed
1 pound ham, cubed
1 pound Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 green onions, chopped
15 medium eggs
2 egg yolks
4 cups half-and-half
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Combine the bread, ham, Cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, and green onions in a large bowl. Beat the eggs, egg yolks, half-and-half and mustard in a medium bowl. Pour over the bread mixture and stir until moistened. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or longer.
Stir the mixture and pour into an oiled 10-inch springform pan; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 325 to 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, covering with foil if necessary to prevent overbrowning. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Place on a serving plate and remove the side of the pan. Cut into wedges and serve. Serves twelve.
**Better me than you cooking tips!
- I baked the strata at 350 degrees so it could bake in the oven with the French Toast. It cooked for about 1 1/2 hours
- I cubed the ham into big chunks to give it some nice texture
- Be sure to run a knife around the inside of the springform pan to loosen the strata before unlatching it