Marinated goat cheese with red pepper and herbs

 

Lately I’ve been having fun playing with platters, inspired by the new book that tells you how to build a cheese plate by the numbers. It’s sort of an architectural deconstruction.

I’ve got about 20 platters or trays that I’ve accumulated over the years, so I’ve plenty to play with. I’ve been experimenting with things to take to tonic-on-the-porch nights with friends, but did this simple one just for fun at home in lieu of supper one night.

Main takeaway from actually trying out the techniques: Rivers of cheese are fun. And no matter how big your platter is, if you want it to look as artistic as the photos, you have to exercise great restraint, to the point of impracticality. Obviously, eight crackers artfully tucked into a corner really aren’t going to cut it for a crowd. The premise is you have another platter or basket nearby to make up the shortfall. 

Red Table's Chuck Fred salami, Red Dragon and Deer Creek's the Robin cheese.

 

 

Marinated goat cheese with red pepper and herbs
Adapted from “That Cheese Plate Will Change Your Life” by Marissa Mullen. In addition to her book, you can get inspiration at her website (thatcheeseplate.com) or at her Instagram account.

Note: Unlike most recipes involving goat cheese, you do not want to soften this before slicing or you won’t get clean cuts. Her version involved fresh dill and basil with plain goat cheese, which sounds great. I was just in a rosemary mood and fell for the flavored goat cheese.

Ingredients
8 ounces maple bourbon goat cheese, sliced ⅜-inch thick
½ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary, plus a sprig for garnish
Zest of 1 lemon
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Method
Place goat cheese slices on a platter that has curved or tall sides – something that will contain the marinade.

Mix olive oil, chopped rosemary, lemon zest and crushed red pepper flakes. Pour over goat cheese slices. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for up to 3 hours. Uncover, sprinkle with coarse salt (pink salt or another finishing salt is pretty) and freshly ground pepper. Serve with crackers.

Rating: Lovely on crackers. Just put out a serving spatula that people can use to lift a cheese slice with; otherwise it’s not finger food with all that oil. Keep some sliced French bread nearby to dip into any  remaining oil, which is super tasty.While you could put some of these slices on a combo platter, the amount of oil involved makes it a better candidate for a small platter all its own.

Cherry tomato cheese dip

 

 

This recipe is tomato confit meets fondue, more or less. I ran across this recipe online and realized that it was very similar to the New York Times tomato confit recipe I've blogged about here, only with cubes of fontina cheese tossed in and baked for an additional 5 minutes after the tomatoes are roasted.

The result is indeed very tasty, but like fondue, a trifle messy. It would make a good appetizer dish for a family to gather around to share in a situation where no one fusses too much about cheese strings. Perhaps not so much for your average cocktail party.

The premise is 2 cups of cubed Fontina tossed in with a tomato confit made using about 2 pints of cherry tomatoes, the peeled cloves of a head of garlic, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves, a good drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of coarse sea salt and crushed red pepper flakes. Bake the tomato mixture for 25 minutes at 425 and then add the cheese chunks for an additional 5 minutes.

As it was, we had leftovers. My first thought: Put the leftovers on a Boboli for a quick pizza another night. (Tasty) My second thought, yet to be explored: Put the leftovers between two pieces of good sandwich bread and heat them up in the panini press.

 

 

Grilled onion panini with miso butter

 

In another installment of cheaters always prosper, I gamed this recipe by having a packet of grilled onions in the refrigerator waiting to be used. I always like to maximize any grilling session to get the most out of the coals, so any corners on the grill are a great place to tuck a foil packet of onions, peppers or potatoes to grill along with everything else. Grilled onions make a pretty good stand-in for caramelized onions; they pick up some of that same rich color plus some smokiness from the grill. It's not a one-for-one substitution that I'd use in just any recipe, but they work great on sandwiches like this.

Sometimes in between I forget to think about grilled cheese as a lunch option. I haven't had the Velvetta version in decades. Can one go back, or am I spoiled for life?

 Caramelized onion grilled cheese sandwiches with miso butter
Adapted from “Umami Bomb” by Raquel Pelzel

Ingredients
1 cup caramelized or grilled onions*
3 tablespoons butter at room temperature, divided
1 tablespoon grainy Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon white miso paste
4 slices bread
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Method
Mix 1 tablespoon butter, mustard and miso paste. Set aside.

Spread remaining butter on outer surface of 4 bread slices. Spread miso butter on inner surfaces. Divide cheese and caramelized onions between two slices and top with remaining bread slices.

Toast in panini press or toast on both sides over low heat in a skillet until bread is golden brown and cheese is melted.

*To caramelize, thinly slice 1 large onion and saute over low heat in 1 tablespoon salted butter until caramelized. This always takes way longer than any recipe claims. Splash with malt vinegar. Or do yourself a favor and try my favorite slow cooker method from Lora Brody.

To grill onions, Cut a 15-inch length of tin foil. Put sliced onions in the middle in a not too deep layer. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt (and fresh herb leaves like thyme if desired). Fold foil in half lengthwise, then keep folding down in half again until the top is sealed. Fold in the ends to seal packet. Place on grill slightly off the hottest area for about 30 minutes.

Rating: Yummy. And with pre-caramelized onions, it's a fast fix. We used the sesame-topped Sicilian loaf from Turtle Bread, which worked well here.

 

Cauliflower potato salad

 

This is one of those recipes that I decided to try anyway. While I have nothing against cauliflower being pressed into service as fauxtatoes or a pasta stand-in, at some point the business of twisting things into something they are not (zoodles, etc.) gets a little tiresome. After all, there was nothing wrong with cauliflower hanging out with its veggie friends at the dip bar.

But the recipe called for fresh dill and dill pickles, and I had a certain amount of both that need using.

Cauliflower potato salad

From “Keto BBQ” by Faith Gorsky and Lara Clevenger, as published in the Star Tribune’s Sunday Supper feature.

Ingredients
3 cups cauliflower florets (about 1 smallish head)
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
½ cup minced red onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped dill pickles
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon paprika
2 hard cooked eggs, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Method
Put cauliflower florets in a medium sauce pan covered with a few inches of water. Bring to a boil and simmer about 5 minutes until fork tender. Drain and set aside to cool.

Combine mayo, onion, pickles, mustard, onion and garlic powders, salt, pepper and paprika in a medium bowl. Stir in cooled cauliflower, eggs and dill. Chill until ready to eat. Serves 6-ish.

Rating: It turns out that if you put a cooked white starchy vegetable into a potato salad dressing with the usual ingredients, it turns out tasting like potato salad, and in this case, not a bad one. It’s faster to cook the cauliflower than the potatoes, and there’s no peeling involved, so that’s a plus. It’s a slightly different texture, but that’s not a bad thing, since potato salad can get a tad leaden. I won’t turn my back on potato salad, but this little number has some merit.

Grilled scalloped potatoes

 

It was over 90 degrees when we pulled into campground registration at Gooseberry Falls State Park. The park employee was marveling over the then nearly unheard of temperature. That same temperature elsewhere feels icky at best, but there, the blazing sun was countered by a wondrously cooling lake breeze as we soaked up the sun sitting on rocks listening to the waves crash in after we’d pitched our tent. That was about 4 p.m.

By 5:30, the temperature started its dive. It was 55 and still dropping by the time we got our supper prepared on the camp stove. All I remember was it involved Betty Crocker scalloped potato mix in the interest of ease, and that we ate it in the car to avoid having the food – and us -- lose all heat before we could eat it.

After we shivered our way through dishes and wondered if it was too soon to go hide in our meager Target tent, one of us finally turned to the other and said, “You know, no one here knows us and they won’t know if we just bail and leave.” We quickly pulled up stakes and packed it in, driving to Two Harbors to stay in one of the tiny old-school motels that are still there along 61 as you get into town.

That was many, many moons ago. We have not camped in our tent since outside of a back yard, thus ending our vacation camping era. We had given it a good go over the years, but we realized that North Shore camping clearly called for something more than our $29.99 Target special and the sleeping bags that had gone with us to camp, and we weren’t willing to make the investment for something that we felt we should enjoy, but honestly didn’t. We were destined to be fair weather campers, and the weather and bugs were rarely fair. (Although I do vividly remember hearing our first loon call while we were ineptly attempting to set up our camp stove for the first time after pulling into Mille Lacs campground in a torrential downpour. We wondered who was around to laugh at us since we didn’t see any other foolhardy campers around at that point.)

I recently came across an HGTV video for camping hacks, one of which involved grilled scalloped potatoes aimed at campfire preparation. Flashbacks ensued.

Camp scalloped potatoes

Adapted from HGTV via YouTube video

Ingredients
Oil for greasing foil
2 pounds new potatoes, sliced ¼-inch thick
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (optional)
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt, pepper and paprika

Method
Make two bowls with double sheets of foil, rolling up the edge to form a lip. Lightly oil bottom. Divide potatoes among bowls in overlapping layers. Drizzle cream over the top of each bowl. Sprinkle with shallots, garlic and rosemary. Sprinkle Parmesan over the top. Season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Cover each bowl with another piece of tin foil, crimping edges to seal. Grill for 25 to 30 minutes.

Rating: These things are bliss, even when you just eat them in the comfort of your dining room after grilling outside. At a campground, they would be ambrosia. Nice little crispy potato bits on the bottom with crunchy Parmesan on top with creamy, dreamy potatoes in the middle.

Still not enough to make me take up camping again, but way better than the Betty Crocker mix. 

The drought has done a number on Gooseberry Falls this year. Here's a photo of it in its usual state. Well worth a visit, and thankfully camping is optional.

 

Smoked salmon BLTs

 Sitting on a patio in warm sun, with a cooling lake breeze. Fine people watching, really tasty food. Bonus points for a good beer or wine list and a view. That's pretty much my definition of peak travel perfection, the scene that lingers in memory far longer than anything I read on a historic site plaque.

The cautious return to travel means the return of souvenirs, something besides photos to help you place yourself in that spot in memory. Some people who travel collect state tea towels, snowglobes or shot glasses. Most of our souvenirs are consumable, either brewvenirs or readily transportable food. It's ephemeral, but nothing reminds me more of a particular place than a particular meal in that place.

One the way back from Grand Marais, we stopped in Duluth and joined the lunch line at Canal Park Brewing. We greatly enjoyed the smoked salmon BLTs, along with their admirable beers. So when I got home I made this take on the sandwich, using smoked salmon we'd bought at the reopened Dockside Fish Market in Grand Marais and some Thielen's bacon.

Smoked salmon BLTs
Adapted from the menu at Canal Park Brewery.

Ingredients
4 strips bacon
¼ pound smoked salmon, sliced in half into thin slabs
2 brioche buns or bread of your choice
Guacamole
Sun-dried tomato aioli (see recipe)
1 medium tomato, sliced, lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper
½ a small red onion, thinly sliced
Leaf lettuce

Method
Cook bacon until browned and crisp. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Cut each slice in half.

Over low heat, sauté onion in bacon fat briefly to just slightly soften. Remove from pan and set aside.

Wipe out most of the remaining bacon fat. Toast cut sides of buns in pan. Remove pan from heat and transfer buns to plates.

Spread cut side of the bottom half of buns with guacamole. Spread cut side of the top half of buns with sun-dried tomato aioli. Place four bacon halves on each bottom bun, then top with salmon, tomatoes, onions and lettuce before capping with top half of bun.

Rating: Fabulous. So, so good. Transported us right back to that meal on the North Shore.

 

Sun-dried tomato aioli
Adapted from “Rustic Joyful Food Meant to Share” by Danielle Kartes

Ingredients
1 cup mayonnaise
⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes
⅓ cup Parmesan
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

Method
Mix ingredients well. If you want a smoother mixture, you can mix it briefly in the food processor. It works well either way.

Rating: It was fine as written but I liked it better when I added garlic and reduced the amount of Parmesan involved. I think it’s better when it’s made a day ahead and has more time for the flavors to meld. Very versatile; great on a sliced beef sandwich with pickled onions and arugula.