Mike's Table

Pimento Cheese

mike — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:15:37 +0000

Have you ever had pimento cheese? An important caveat: have you ever had home-made pimento cheese? That neon colored sludge from the supermarket absolutely doesn’t count–that’s the stuff that gives pimento cheese a bad name. That junk forces anyone who doesn’t live in the south to think pimento cheese is somehow vile stuff. The real deal is not even close. Its nothing short of incredible really. Its a mix of sweet, sour, tart, rich, creamy cheeseiness.

Pimento cheese is actually very simple to make and uses a mix of other cheeses as a base (so don’t worry, you don’t have to make cheese from scratch for this). The end result is a cheese that is easily used as a dip or a spread. I like to fill omelettes with it and to use it as a topping on both burgers and sandwiches. Other common uses are on crackers and as the filling for grilled cheese sandwiches. Its works well in spreadable form

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Strawberry Bundt Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

mike — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:02:03 +0000

This post is a little later than I’d like it to be seeing how strawberry season has come and gone by me. My love of strawberries is no secret. When they’re at their peak, I’ve packed away several pounds (maybe four or five? Seriously. I love strawberries) a week just for snacking (forget the baking). So this is one of those tasty desserts you can go to when you need a break from inhaling strawberries by the pound: a berry scented bundt cake topped with a rich, strawberry cream cheese frosting.

This was delicious and very strawberry-ish. I would be happy just eating the frosting (and shamelessly licked the bowl clean. Very clean). My only disappointment was that the cake was a little denser than I would have liked–I’d consider lessening the amount of strawberry puree (e.g. by half a cup) in the cake so that it might rise more and take on a lighter texture. As is, the texture is more

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Penne with Seared Chicken Breast and Green Garlic Pesto

mike — Fri, 28 May 2010 02:33:20 +0000

I’m a little late on posting this recipe since green garlic season may have already come and gone (some of you might still find it), but that brings us right over into garlic scape season, so its an easy substitution to make! If all of that flew over your head, you’re missing out on something great and need to try it as soon as possible (more on that in a moment). So what did I do with this bit of tasty spring produce? I made a simple green garlic pesto to highlight green garlic as the star of the show in this pasta dish.

If you’ve never heard of green garlic before (or scapes, which are kind of similar but are in fact, different), they’re actually pretty interesting. Unfortunately, you probably won’t find them at your grocery store, but you should have better luck at a farmer’s market. Simply put, green garlic is garlic before it has fully matured into a

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Asparagus Risotto with Poached Eggs

mike — Sun, 02 May 2010 16:13:51 +0000

After the doldrums of winter, each new week of spring is like a food reawakening for me. In the past few weeks, a number of my favorites have started popping up again at the farmer’s market, and as I always do, I tend to overindulge as if these vegetables won’t make a reappearance at the same time again next year. Today’s meal focuses on one such vegetable: asparagus.

Risotto has become something of a go-to meal for me (and if you’re afraid of making it, don’t be–trust me, its easy. Try this. Now). Its fairly easy to make and provides a rich, makes-you-feel-so-good canvas to work with, no matter what the goal. I thought creamy, cheesy goodness was the perfect place to highlight asparagus.

The risotto packs a double punch of asparagus: a lightly boiled asparagus puree is mixed into the rice (also adding a nice green tint) and the tender tips are steamed by the rice in the final moments of cooking,

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Cardamom & Peach Cheesecake

mike — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:25:27 +0000

This is that time of year where I get antsy about food. Its spring-time–the birds are chirping, the sun is out, and it feels like summer is just around the corner. So where’s the spring-time produce?! I know its too soon for the kinds of things I’m craving, and this is exactly why its always a good idea to preserve a bit of the season–to abate such cravings until nature has a chance to catch up. So today’s dessert: a sweet, creamy, cardamom perfumed cheesecake, topped with cardamom-scented peach preserves.

I’ll be honest: I’d forgotten about these peach preserves. They were buried in the back of my pantry, but when I found them, I needed to finally dig in (peach season is one of the things I’m anxiously awaiting, after all). They were simple to make (many months ago), and I remember from sampling a bit how wonderful they tasted–sweet, peaches at their peak, finished with that je ne sais quoi you

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My First Serious Attempt at a Vegetable Garden

mike — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 01:31:41 +0000

Pardon the brief diversion from the usual format, but since I have a bully pulpit…plus, its ultimately food related, so this isn’t too tangential.

So now that I live in North Carolina, a state known for agriculture (long days, long growing season, large variety of things that can be grown here, etc), I thought it was about time that I get serious about that vegetable garden I’ve been talking about for a few years now. I’ve made some pitiful attempts in the past (a patio with about 20 different potted plants all crammed next to one another in pots that were way too small), but I thought I’d try to do things right this year. Its still early, but we shall see–I have high hopes for eating something from my backyard this year…hopefully its one of the plants I put in the ground and not a rabbit trying to get to them before I do.

Early in March, I cleared a 10×10 patch of

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Sriracha Chicken Wings

mike — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:31:52 +0000

Wings are the kind of comfort food I don’t eat often enough, but when I crave them, I can pack them away. They don’t require much of an introduction–all the wing lovers out there know just what I mean. This is the kind of food where you want to plop yourself down for awhile, make a sloppy mess of yourself, and just indulge. They’re (to use a terrible cliche) finger-licking good and incredibly easy to make.

While the traditional tabasco (or Frank’s red hot)-based buffalo sauce is good, I prefer what I consider a more interesting sauce. For this recipe, I opted for a tangy, sweet heat in the sauce with one of my favorite ingredients: sriracha. Combined with some other Asian flavors (ponzu–a citric soy sauce–and a dab of hoisin), you’ve got something just as easy to make and far more interesting than straight tabasco/cayenne pepper and vinegar (my two inspirations here).

As for the wings themselves, to me, if you’re making

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Chicken in Tarragon Mustard Cream Sauce

mike — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:32:54 +0000

I don’t use mustard very often, but absolutely love it in sauces. Something about a well done mustard sauce is intriguing to me as it can take on many forms–sharp and tangy, rich and hearty, or just downright elegant. This was another such delightful experience for me: a simple chicken breast sauté, coated with a light, sumptuous mustard cream sauce with tarragon.

Don’t let the simplicity in preparing this dish fool you–the flavor is fantastic and it would fare well if you’re cooking for guests. The chicken is simple–nicely browned, tender on the inside–and the sauce has a rich tang, accentuated by the anisey, spicy notes you get from tarragon (a great foil to completing this sauce). Heck, I could enjoy the sauce straight and could definitely see using it in pasta dishes (if thinned out with a bit of stock). There’s a mix of smooth dijon and the gritty texture you get from coarsely stone ground mustard (which I also

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Fried Chicken and Andouille Gumbo

mike — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:46:03 +0000

When Mardi Gras rolls around, I think of three dishes: King Cake, Jambalaya, and today’s meal: gumbo. If you’ve never had a good gumbo, you’re missing out–it is one of those quintessential Cajun/Creole stews that every chef can put their own personal touch on. The one commonality across them all is that it will keep you going during the winter months being so rich and hearty.

In this particular rendition, I chose a classic combo: chicken and andouille sausage (compared to a lighter, butternut squash-centric version I did in the past).

A whole chicken is poached to make a fresh batch of stock, then shredded, strongly spiced, fried, and combined with fried, smoky andouille sausage. The stew is thickened with both okra and a nutty, smoky, milk chocolate colored roux. Simmered with a mix of some classic Creole vegetables and spices yields an incredibly intense stew that tastes incredible. The gumbo takes on a nice, almost velvety texture with how thick it becomes–rich, smoky,

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Dal Makhani (Indian Butter Lentils)

mike — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:31:28 +0000

If you like Indian food and you haven’t heard of this dish before, you may not have been paying attention. You’re likely to see this on the menu at many Indian restaurants and you also might recognize a close cousin (also very popular)–murgh makhani, a.k.a. butter chicken. This a vegetarian take on the same general dish–slowly simmered lentils (a.k.a. dal) and beans in a spiced, tomato curry enriched with a generous helping of cream and butter.

While this Punjab curry is strongly spiced, like its chicken counterpart, the richness of the dish counteracts the heat a good bit, making it a good candidate even for those who might be timid around Indian cuisine. There’s a classically spiced backbone with notes of ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves, and yet the slowly simmered lentils combined with the generous cream/butter combo yields a final product that has an almost contradictory sumptuous, smooth, almost velvety mouthfeel. I don’t tend to call many an Indian dish

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