12 things you might not know about Nadia G ... And lots of RECIPES!!!

As a food blogger, sometimes you get ... interesting opportunities. Like a chance to chat with Nadia G host of Nadia G's Bitchn' Kitchen and Bite This with Nadia G.

Possibly the quirkiest of the cooks on the network, I was curious what strange turns the conversation might take.

We were supposed to be talking about Halloween cocktails and appetizers she created for a company called Once Upon a Vine. It's a wine company, so the drinks are wine-related. The other recipes are just fun.

But of course, I bounced her off-track a number of times to make the conversation more interesting.

Things you might not know are that:

• Both of her parents are Italian.
• She was (and still is. Ha!) an only child.
• She got her cooking-show start on YouTube in 2007.
• She prefers white wine to red.
• She once dressed as a "prom zombie" for Halloween.
• Her favorite Halloween candy is ... chocolate. Maybe that's too easy. 
• Her second favorite is what she described as a pressed-powder candy that is sweet and tart.
• She started a cooking show on Canadian TV in 2010 and started on the Cooking Channel in 2011.
• She thinks Montreal bagels are the best in the world. They're smaller and fluffier and more delicate than American bagels, she says.
• For Halloween, her mom once dressed her in a potato sack and cowboy hat, with big red dots on her cheeks - she still doesn't know what that costume was supposed to be.
• She doesn't bake a lot of yeast breads, but she does bake sweet breads. A recent one was and apple bread with home made caramel.
• This year for Halloween, she's going to dress as "dead and rotting Martha Stewart."

Yeah, that last one's going to get me some weird search traffic. For sure.

In any case, we talked about her family, and her career and her recipes. And of course I slipped in the fact that I've got a cookbook coming out next month *Pats self on back*

I stopped just short of offering her a cookbook, because that would have been weird. But now that we're besties, maybe she'll buy one.

Speaking of recipes, I've got a whole lot of her recipes, just for you. I haven't tried any of them yet, but they look pretty good. Or creepy. Or good. Whatever.

The food recipes are below, and wine cocktail recipes are available from The Wine Bar. Click on over. Glug, glug.

One wine-cocktail recipe that sounded pretty good to me was something she called The Witch's Brew. It included pear nectar, which is a little unusual, but not terribly hard to find, as well as some white wine and some thyme.

She said that when creating wine cocktails, you need to make sure the drinks are balanced and that the other flavors don't overwhelm the wine. That makes sense.

Her comment about Halloween food, though, really made me love her. She said that some Halloween food tastes as scary as it looks, with way too much food coloring and sugar. She likes food that tastes good, but still looks creepy.

The one that we talked about a bit - it fits her Italian heritage, and it sounded delicious, and it probably looks super-creepy - is her bocconcini eyeballs. It's cheese, olives, and prosciutto. That sounds tasty, right?

Nadia said that she prefers throwing Halloween parties rather than going out to bars where there are "twits in polyester costumes." Then she admitted that there could be some of those polyester-dressed twits at your own party, but at least they're your friends.

As far as her costume this year, it will involve a pastel sweater, too-high mom pants, and lots of blood and gore. That'll be perfectly appropriate when she's serving these:


Bocconcini Eyeballs with Blood Salsa
Recipe courtesy of Nadia G

For the bocconcini eyeballs:
8 large green olives stuffed with pimento
16 Bocconcini cheese balls
8 slices Prosciutto di Parma

For the blood salsa:
1 can whole San Marzano tomatoes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon aged balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, minced
1 handful fresh flat parsley, finely chopped
1 handful fresh basil, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried Greek oregano
1/4 teaspoon hot chili flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
Freshly cracked pepper

Plus:
Crostini

Making the eyeballs: slice olives into 1/4-inch discs. Place an olive disc in the center of a bocconcini and trace around it with a sharp paring knife. Carve out a 1/2-inch piece of cheese from the outline and place olive slice in the hole. Wrap a slice of prosciutto around the bocconcini eyeball.

Making the salsa: pour whole can of San Marzano tomatoes into a bowl. Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, red onion, parsley, basil, Greek oregano, chili flakes, salt, sugar, and lots of freshly cracked pepper. Mix with hands.

Divide eyeballs into pairs and place on individual plates. Add a couple of tablespoons of salsa to each plate. Serve with crostini.

Note from me: There was no photo for this. I'm tempted to make it JUST for the photo. Or you make it and post it and I'll link to it. Please?


Coffin-shaped Grilled Cheese Sandwiches 
with Melted Taleggio Cheese, Caramelized Onions and Apples
Recipe courtesy of Nadia G

For the caramelized onions:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 red onions, sliced in 1/2 inch slices
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the sandwiches:
1 large loaf sourdough bread
1 McIntosh apple, sliced thinly
4 wedges Taleggio cheese
Sufficient quantity butter

Making caramelized onions: Heat a non-stick pan on medium. Add olive oil, onions, separate them, and salt. Sauté for 10 minutes, then turn down heat to medium-low and cook for another 35-40 minutes, until onions are deep amber in color.

Making the sandwich: Cut sourdough into 1/2 inch slices, then into coffin shapes. Heat a pan on medium low and melt enough butter to coat the pan. Lay down a slice of bread, a cheese wedge, caramelized onions, 3 apple slices, and top with another slice of bread. Press down and cook for 3 minutes, until golden brown. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Remove grilled cheese from pan, and serve.


Milk Chocolate Chip and Maple Syrup Glazed Bacon
Witch Finger Cookies
Recipe courtesy of Nadia G

12 bacon slices, minced
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup unsalted butter, large dice
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Maldon salt, to taste
1 1/2 cup quality milk chocolate, in chip sized chunks
Raw skinless almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Note from me: You'll need witch-finger molds for these, but at this time of year, you can no doubt find them at the grocery store. Off-season, you can probably find them online.

Making the bacon: In a medium frying pan, sauté the bacon until fat has rendered and bacon is crisp. Drain the fat from the pan, and add the maple syrup. Stir to blend, and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes until maple syrup becomes thick. Transfer immediately to a small bowl, and let cool.

Making the batter: With a standing or handheld mixer, blend the butter and sugars for 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the egg, and beat for 1 minute or until well blended. Add the vanilla, and beat for 30 seconds more. Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Add the maple syrup glazed bacon, and chocolate. Stir to combine.

Place almonds into the fingernail part of witch finger molds. Scoop dough into the molds, filling them 3/4 of the way, and bake in the center of oven until golden around the edges (about 9-10 minutes). Remove from oven. Pull the cookies out while still warm and with a paring knife cut off the excess cookies around the finger to shape it. Handle carefully so cookie doesn't break.

Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Spicy Onion Rings
Recipe courtesy of Nadia G

Canola or peanut oil
1 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup corn meal
3 large yellow onions, peeled, thinly sliced in rounds

In a high-sided saucepan heat the oil on medium until it reaches a temperature of 350F.

Making the batter: Combine the cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, dried oregano, dried basil, pepper, and sea salt in a small bowl. Stir to blend.  Set aside.

Making the onion rings: Add the flour and corn meal to a medium bowl. Whisk to combine. Toss the onion rings in the flour mixture to coat.  Deep fry the onion rings in two batches until crispy, and lightly golden (3-5 minutes).  Drain on a paper towel for 1 minute, and then add the onion rings to a large bowl. Add a large pinch of the spice mixture, and toss the onion rings to evenly distribute the seasoning.

Season with salt if desired, and serve immediately.

Crispy Fried Rigatoni “Chips” stuffed Mascarpone 
with Bloody Spicy Raspberry Coulis
Recipe courtesy of Nadia G

For the rigatoni chips:
1/2 lb. rigatoni
Sufficient quantity canola oil
Sea salt

For the filling:
3/4 cup Ricotta cheese
1/4 cup Mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon mint, chopped

For the bloody raspberry coulis: 
1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
1 red chili pepper, halved, seeds and pith removed
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Making the rigatoni chips: Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until partially cooked (about half the cooking time recommended). Drain. Deep-fry the rigatoni in several batches in 350˚ F canola oil until crisp and golden.  Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a wire rack. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Making the herbed filling: To a bowl, add the ricotta and the mascarpone and, using a rubber spatula, blend until smooth. Transfer filling to a piping bag with a small straight tip. Fill each “chip” with the filling.

Making the raspberry coulis: Puree raspberries and their juices, chili pepper and 2 tbsp brown sugar in a food processor.

Dip the rigatoni chips into the “bloody’ coulis and serve.

Thanks to Nadia G for taking the time to chat with me. I feel like we're BFFs now, so feel free to call any time, Nadia! You've got my number!

For some music for your Halloween party, Nadia recommended Once Upon a Vine's Halloween party station on Pandora.

All photos courtesy of Once Upon a Vine. Recipes courtesy of Nadia G. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Yum

Quickfire! What would YOU make on #TopChef?

First, let me admit that I haven't been watching Top Chef since the beginning. Not my fault, though. It wasn't part of my cable package. People were talking about it, and it sounded great, but ... not for me. I felt left out of the conversations. Sad.

Then, suddenly, it was there in my TV lineup, and I was pretty excited to be one of the cool kids again. Since then, I've been watching the new seasons and catching up and watching old seasons.

So when Bravo TV contacted me about blogging about the show, I thought it would be fun. I mean, when I see the quickfires, I always think about what I'd make. Of course, I'm usually thinking in terms of what's in my kitchen rather than a fully-stocked commercial kitchen complete with sous vide machines and tanks of liquid nitrogen.

But it's still a fun sport. What would I make? Could I win?

In episode 4, chefs were faced with two beef primals during the quickfire challenge, and they had to butcher the meat and then cook a dish. Well then. That's a challenge for sure. I like cutting up chickens, but I've never had to cut up a hunk of beef like that. So if I was on that show, I'd have to make up for my butchery weakness.

I'd make ... fajitas!

Sure, it's simple, but a simple dish has fewer ingredients that I could screw up. And since I wouldn't need big pieces, it wouldn't matter if I was a little messy with the cutting. AND, I could use flank steak, skirt steak, flap meat, or any tender cut of meat. Heck, I could scavenge other people's trimmings.

To go with the meat, I'd make a nice little fresh salsa, chop some avocado - or maybe make an avocado cream. And then I'd make a couple little flatbreads.

Cookistry Quickfire Fajitas

1) Find appropriate bits of meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Under-seasoning is always a killer on these competition shows.

2) Find peppers. Bells are nice - the salsa would be hot, so there's no need for more hot peppers. Red and green would make a nice presentation, or yellow and green. Oh! And onion. Run to the pantry for an onion. Slice them all with great skill. If there are nice-looking mushrooms, that would be a good addition. I love mushrooms.

3) Run around madly for a while looking for ingredients or a proper pan.

4) Heat a cast iron frying pan, add oil. Quickly stir fry the peppers and onions (and mushrooms, if I found them).

5) Remove the vegetables from the pan, add the meat, sear quickly. The goal is a super-fast sear on all sides that would leave the center mid-rare. Seriously, in real life I would say medium rare. But all the judges say "mid-rare."

6) Worry on-camera that I might have over-cooked the meat. Does my hair look okay?

7) Pile the vegetables on the little flatbreads I made off camera. Top with the meat. Artfully add the fresh tomato salsa and the chunks of avocado that I prepared off camera.

8) Stand around nervously as my fajitas are tasted. If I cooked the meat correctly, I'd be golden. The salsa would probably be the key, because that's a huge burst of flavor. Would it be too messy to eat? Would I win? Probably not, but with a simple recipe with no major flaws, I think I'd stay out of the bottom three.

What would you make?

Oh! And one last thing! If you're watching the show, you can help keep your favorite chef in the competition. Check out the Save a Chef competition where you can vote via Twitter or by texting. Easy peasy!

And how about a little clip from Episode 6? Here ya go!

I'm required to disclose a relationship between my site and Bravo. This could include Bravo providing me w/content, product, access or other forms of payment.

Yum

MasterChef: The Inside Scoop

The MasterChef finale is coming soon, and I got a chance to participate in an interview with the two finalists, Christine Ha and Josh Marks.

Christine is notable because she's the first blind contestant on the show, but she's also an accomplished cook. In a previous interview, Gordon Ramsay said she had the palate of an angel.

One thing that I've been curious about the show was how all those amateur cooks were able to make some of the more ... precise ... recipes without any recipes in front of them.

I mean, you can cook a soup by taste, but when you're making cupcakes, you need to have a correct formula if you want them to rise and bake properly. I bake a lot, but even so, I need to look up formulas when I make most baked goods.

And I also wondered how much time the participants spent filming the show. On Top Chef, each episode takes two days to film, and they film several episodes each week so the chefs can be away from work for less time.

So how does it work on MasterChef?

I know. And now I'm going to tell you.

The cooks on MasterChef spend six days a week cooking - they get Sundays off - and they're there for 11 weeks. On the cooking days, either they're cooking on the show, or they're in cooking classes. A LOT of cooking classes. And while they don't know exactly what the challenges will be, in the classes they learn things they might use in the challenges.

Josh explained that while there might be a class on making pie crust, they weren't taught how to make a complete apple pie - it was just about making the crust. So it's not like they were taught absolutely everything they needed to know.

During down-time - Sundays and evenings - the contestants also have access to a library of cookbooks. There are enough of each title so each cook could have access to every book. That's a lot of books.

One last secret - Josh is known as the 7-foot chef, and he sure looks tall on television. But is he really 7 feet tall? Almost. 

He's actually 6'11 3/4". Close enough, I think.

The finale of MasterChef will air on Monday, September 10 on FOX. I know I'm going to watch. And I think I'll be cheering for Christine. I really like her attitude - I don't think I've ever heard her say anything negative about her fellow contestants. On the other hand, Josh is from my hometown, Chicago, so I'll also be cheering for him just a little bit, too.

Will you watch? Who do you hope will win?

Yum