Strawberries in Orange Caramel Sauce

I fell in love with this recipe a year ago when my friend made it for me. I vowed to make it myself one day and today was that day! It definitely lived up to the hype in my memory. Don't be fooled by the short ingredient list, together they pack a powerful punch of flavor.



Strawberries in Orange Caramel Sauce
Gourmet, May 2008

1 large navel orange
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup Grand Marnier or other orange-flavored liqueur
1/2 cup sugar
1 lb small strawberries, trimmed (3 cups)
Accompaniment:mascarpone or Greek yogurt (regular plain yogurt is great too, makes it taste like strawberry cheesecake).

Grate zest from orange into a small bowl, then squeeze juice into bowl. Add butter, liqueur, and a pinch of salt.

Heat sugar in a dry 10-inch heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber. Remove from heat and immediately add orange-juice mixture. Boil, stirring, until caramel has dissolved and sauce is slightly thickened, about 2 minutes.

Add strawberries and cook, stirring, until heated through, about 1 minute. Serve immediately. Top w/yogurt/marscapone.

Watermelon Lemonade

Tripped over this recipe thumbing through a recent GH mag and tweaked it a bit. Pretty good stuff! Would be even better with a splash of prosecco, melon vodka, cucumber vodka and/or limoncello. I'm just sayin'.

It's a clean, crisp canvas for your libation leanings.



Watermelon Lemonade


5 cups of 1" cubes of watermelon (enough to fill a blender)
1/2 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup super fine/caster sugar

Blend watermelon, lemon juice and sugar until finely pureed.
Pour in pitcher and place in fridge to cool.
Or pour over ice immediately and enjoy!

Herb Roasted Tilapia w/Fresh Tomato Sauce-

If you saw my fresh roasted tomato sauce post the other day, you may have been wondering what other delicious items you could infuse w/your new sauce. My suggestion would be serving under some herb roasted tilapia. Light, quick and easy. Perfect mouthful of summer, even when it's raining outside and the grill is on hiatus--

Herb Roasted Tilapia w/Fresh Tomato Sauce

serves 2

For the sauce:

1/4 large onion, finely minced*

1 clove garlic, finely minced

Splash olive oil

1 cup fresh roasted tomato sauce

3 tbsp fresh chopped herbs, divided

I used:
Small handful basil leaves, 1 long thyme sprig, a few sprigs savory and 5 small mint leaves

Salt & pepper to taste

For the fish:

2 large tilapia filets

1/2 lemon

2 tspns butter

Salt & Pepper to taste

The 1 leftover tbsp of chopped herbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until soft. Add tomato sauce, simmer 15 minutes. Add 2 tbsp herbs, reserving 1 tbsp for the fish. Simmer for a while longer-- 15 to 45 minutes to let the flavors mingle appropriately.

Meanwhile, 15 minutes prior to eating, place fish on roasting pan. Squeeze lemon over top both filets, place bits of butter over each fish, sprinkle w/1 tbsp of herbs, salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes (if frozen) until they flake easily with a fork.

For each serving, place 1/2 cup of sauce in the bottom of a shallow (pasta) bowl. Place fish on top of sauce. Or you can do fish on bottom and sauce on top. Whatever you like! I also like to serve with a side of parmesan couscous and something green like roasted asparagus or a salad.

*I usually chop a whole onion and freeze what I don't use for a recipe. That way I have chopped onions in a pinch!

Pimm's Cup on the Porch

Fizz No. 1 at Acacia started me down the road of longing for a proper Pimm's Cup. So, after fiddling around with a few ingredients, I think I've come up with what I think to be a superbly tasty version. Nothing like a little Pimm's Cup for porch sipping w/friends on a muggy summer's eve to take the edge off.......

Bella's Pimm's Cup for the Porch-

3 large mint leaves

Splash simple syrup

1/8 slice of lemon ( I do quarters )

1" chunk of cucumber

1/2 tspn grated, fresh ginger

1 shot Hendrick's gin

1 shot Pimm's No. 1

Ginger beer

Piece of cucumber shaved w/a vegetable peeler for garnish

Chilled 12 oz beer glass, filled with ice

Muddle mint, lemon, ginger and cucumber in a cocktail shaker. Add a splash of simple syrup, muddle some more. Pour in the shots of gin and Pimm's with a little ice, light shake, strain into glass over ice. Fill rest of glass with ginger beer, garnish w/cucumber shaving. Makes 1 drink. Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

If you are up to your ears in fresh tomatoes from the garden, wanting to do something beyond canning or pickling, I would suggest making a nice roasted tomato sauce. Freezes beautifully and pairs well w/everything from pizza to pasta.

We found ourselves with gobs of homegrown heirloom and plum tomatoes that I used in this recipe.

Fresh Roasted Tomato Sauce-

2-4 lbs fresh tomatoes cut in half

Garlic Oil

Large pinch kosher/sea salt

1+ tbsp chopped fresh savory and oregano

3 tbsp double concentrated tomato paste

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray large sheet pan w/non-stick spray on which you will place the tomatoes on, toss with garlic oil (approx 2 tbsp) and sprinkle w/fresh herbs. Roast for 45 minutes to an hour. Should be starting to slightly caramelize.

Puree roasted tomatoes in blender (for best texture). I also like to pluck the skins off, if possible. Pour tomato puree into a pot lightly coated w/garlic oil, add tomato paste, combine thoroughly and bring to a boil for a few minutes.

I recommend letting it set up overnite in the fridge in order to develop the best flavor for the dish you want to use it in.

This week I picked up some spinach and ricotta ravioli from Trader Joes that I served this sauce over after heating it back up and adding a bit of fresh chopped basil. Delicious!

White Pizza

Nothing makes a hard, long week better than having some of your besties over and chowing down on some white pizza.

I also like to serve it with a side of garlic infused broccolini (thank you for the inspiration Zu's!) which provides a fresh counterbalance to all of the chewy cheesiness.

The pizza is pretty simple and you can adjust according to your own tastes. This time I used pizza dough from Whole Foods, which was good but VERY chewy as it was whole wheat. Sometimes I make my own, last nite I didn't feel like being a hero, I was just trying to feed people ;)

So, I use:

Garlic Oil (make by frying up about 8 roughly chopped cloves until golden in 1 c. olive oil, strain)
Italian Fontina
Parm Reg
Mozzarella
Whole Milk Ricotta
Fresh Herbs, chopped fine- Savory and Oregano from my porch

I hit the dough with oil, pile on as much cheese as you want, sprinkle on some herbs, hit w/some more oil and bake. When it comes screaming hot out of the oven, I hit it w/a few more herbs and pass around the Parm Reg so every one can cheese it up to their own tastes.

A winner, every time!

Fizz No. 1 - Love at first sip....

Last nite, the hubs surprised me with an evening out at Acacia.
I can't believe it's taken us this long to try their new location, but fortunately that's been remedied.

Walking into the restaurant was like coming home to me. Everything I love about a good restaurant experience rushed up to enthusiastically greet me with the bustling, friendly service staff and the clatter/chatter of content diners in this clean, spare, low-lit, house music infused spot. The space is a perfect rectangle of grey, organized by soft barriers of low walls dividing seating sections, a bar area and a curtained area which I'm sure closes itself off to catered events.

We were seated in the banquette section along the far wall. Not usually a fan of such seating (think of the movie Valentine's Day- if you haven't seen it, you should, just for the banquette scene). The tables were far enough apart that you could have decent conversation with no one else's talking intruding.

Hubs got the steak w/roast potatoes, I ordered the sea bass over a parmesan and sweet pea risotto. I was quickly informed they were out and were substituting a rockfish (which I like better any way). The hubs thoroughly enjoyed the steak which had some sort of soy and beef broth sauce. The roast potatoes (fingerling white and purple) were a different story. Hard and undercooked, this is an unforgiveable sin in my book. Esp. when you're paying $5 per micro-potato. My rockfish, however, was pan seared to perfection and my only complaint about the risotto is that there wasn't enough. But, I do appreciate the reasonable portion sizes Acacia puts out so that you may enjoy many courses without overstuffing yourself.

All that aside, the piece de resistance for the evening was their Fizz No.1- a twist on the Pimm's Cup. Hendrick's Vodka, Pimm's No. 1 and Ginger Beer top the list of ingredients. It's brought out in an old-fashioned wide mouthed champagne glass (my personal fav as wel) with a small carafe containing an extra portion of this lovely elixir on the side. The first sip infused my mouth with cucumbery (my word, deal with it) herbal delight. I immediately and greedily wished for a pitcher of this sitting on my table. Marvelous summer cocktail- get thee to Acacia and try it tout suite!

Overall experience was enjoyable (potatoes notwithstanding) and we will be back soon! Keep doing what you're doing Acacia- Richmond needs more like you!