As much as I love the flavor of extra virgin olive oil, there are times when you want a little more flavor. Infusing the oil can add a variety of tastes. When you infuse an oil you add herb and/or spices to the oil, heat it lightly and then chill. The flavors you added will meld with the oil.

Infused oils are great for when you want to top ingredients with a kick of flavor. Although you can cook with infused oils, they are primarily used as dressings.

One of my favorite infused oils is extra virgin olive oil infused with garlic and rosemary. I generally make small batches designed to last me a couple weeks. The ingredients added to the oils can sometimes go bad after sitting for a while, but refrigerated, you should get at least two weeks safely.

4 cloves of garlic, smashed, and minced.
1 sprig of rosemary, stem removed, lightly chopped.
3/4 – 1 cup of olive oil.

In a very small sauce pan, add all of the ingredients.

Here is the tricky part. You want to heat the oil slowly to a medium low heat. Just when bubbles start to appear in the oil and it looks like it may start frying the garlic any minute, remove from the heat. Do NOT cook the garlic or rosemary.

Cover the pan and let cool until room temperature for about an hour. It is – (More…)

So it was a pretty crazy week. Spring is finally here and I have been pretty busy getting the herbs outside and planted. There is also the fact that kids have been having half days at school this week. Basically things have been non-stop.

This of course does not relinquish me from my cooking duties (unless I am feeling reckless and let my wife cook 🙂 ). I had some chicken that really needed to get cooked and originally my plan was to fire up the grill and barbecue it with my normal recipe. There just wasn’t enough time to cook all of that and have it on the table at dinner time.

So I decided to whip up this barbecue sauce from scratch and just tasted it as I went along. It came out wonderful and I cannot wait to try it on the grill, but this recipe and technique is for the busy person who really only has time to cook it in the oven (and stove).

Sauce:

1 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of Grey Poupon or other such Dijon mustard.
1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar.
1 small red onion (or shallot), chopped fine.
2 cloves of garlic, minced.
2 tablespoons of Canola oil.
Pinch salt & pepper.

Put the oil in a large skillet and heat to medium. Cooke the garlic and onion until the onion is clear. Cool on a plate (discarding oil) for about 10 minutes.

Add the – (More…)

If you have ever cooked chicken on a grill then the one recipe you are going to need is a barbecue sauce. There is nothing better on a summer afternoon than a plate of macaroni salad and barbecued chicken.

This sauce I found some time ago and adapted to my own tastes. It is a bit sweet and a bit spicy and if you prepare your chicken right, it will be your barbecue sauce for the rest of your life.

I use this exclusively for my barbecued chicken recipe.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup brown sugar (granulated or “brownulated” is best).
1 15 ounce can of crushed tomatoes.
1 cup of cider vinegar.
1 large white onion chopped fine.
7 tablespoons Grey Poupon dijon mustard.
1 teaspoon of salt.
1 1/2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper.

Preparation

Mix all of the ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes.

This recipe can be made ahead of time.

Modifications

Add 1/4 cup of red wine for a richer taste.

Add 1/2 teaspoon more cayenne pepper for more zing.

Add lemon zest to add a bitter sweet tang to the sauce.

If you are going to cook Italian then you must have a good tomato sauce. Tomato sauce is the base of many Italian dishes. Spaghetti and meatballs? You need Tomato sauce. Lasagna, mussels marinara, baked ziti, etc., all require that you start with a good sauce.

Nothing will makes me cringe more than someone using store bought spaghetti sauce in an Italian dish. For those of you outside Italy, New York, and Pittsburgh can somewhat be excused because you probably have never been properly instructed on how to make your own sauce. Fortunately, I have had the pleasure of trying many homemade recipes throughout my years living in New York. I still remember my first Italian food awakening. My father took me to Lombardi’s Restaurant in Gardiner New York. Yes, Gardiner New York, a small town upstate that is blessed with many Italians who moved from the city to live in the suburbs. Mrs. Lombardi made the best sauce I ever had up to that time and from that point forward, sauce from a jar was forgotten.

A good sauce cannot be written down on paper. You must take the basics and add your own creativity to it. With that being said, you need a good place to start. Here is the most basic recipe for Tomato sauce that will get you started.- (More…)