running with tweezers

toto, tami - tami, toto

My good friend Michael, a fellow foodie who lives in the NYC, told me about a recent dining experience at Bar Toto, located in Brooklyn. When I checked out the menu, I swooned. This was the kind of place I want around the corner from me - cozy, casual, and close.

One dish in particular caught my eye - The Bar Toto Salad. It was described as a "salad of arugula and fresh chopped tomato served over a lightly breaded chicken cutlet". I would be happy with just the arugula and tomato part...but on top of a Milanese-style chicken cutlet! I obsessed in my head about trying to get Bar Toto's recipe but I got impatient and made my own version. It's just as good as I imagined it would be - a great blend of the crunchy chicken buried under tangy and peppery salad.

The Bar Tami Salad - serves 4 (measurements are an estimation seeings as I was winging it!)

4 boneless chicken cutlets - pounded thin

1/4 cup flour for pre-dredging (i find this helps everything stick together. if you can make it work without the flour, go for it)

2 eggs

3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan

2 cups fresh breadcrumbs

salt and course ground pepper

1 1/2 cups chopped cherry tomatoes - i used small Amorosa tomatoes for redness and flavor

2 large hand-fulls of washed and dried baby arugula

a 1/2 of one large red onion cut into thin slices

1 clove garlic - chopped

4 tbsp. nice quality red wine vinegar

2 tbsp. nice quality extra virgin olive oil

extra virgin olive oil for frying

lemon wedges for finish

For the salad:

Add red wine vinegar to mixing bowl and slowly whisk in 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil until blended. Add chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Chop tomatoes into halves or quarters. Slice red onions into thin slices and cut into half moons. Place both in mixing bowl and set aside to allow flavors to combine.

For the chicken:

Place flour in shallow pan. Whisk eggs and put in another shallow bowl. Combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and salt and pepper together in yet another shallow bowl or a plate. This makes your dredging station.

Pour enough olive oil into a skillet to come to a depth of 1/2 of an inch. While you're heating the oil, pound each cutlet and dredge lightly in flour (shaking off excess), egg wash, and then the breadcrumbs - in that order :). Make sure both sides are completely covered. Fry breaded chicken on both sides until golden brown and cooked through - about 4 minutes per side. Remove from oil and place on paper towel.

To plate:

Add arugula to dressing & tomato mixture and toss to coat. Place chicken cutlet on plate and top with a large mound of the salad. Squeeze lemon wedge over each portion and serve.

like beer for chocolate

 

I don't do St. Patrick's Day. Despite the fact that everyone thinks I should be in Riverdance, I'm not Irish. I couldn't be less Irish. St. Patrick's Day is the second biggest "amateur night" for going out - right behind New Year's Eve. Add to that the fact that I don't drink beer and, well, it's just another day to me.

What I *do* do is bake - to the enjoyment of my friends who all have massive sweettooths. Since chocolate is always a crowd favorite, I decided to spin the typical brownie recipe to celebrate this joyous "holiday". No...I did not make green brownies nor are there any green M&Ms anywhere to be seen.

This brownie recipe uses a bottle of Guinness Stout, the King of (Irish) Beers. You don't really taste the beer, exactly. What you end up with is a fluffy yet gooey brownie that's full on chocolate with a slight bite at the end. The texture is phenomenal, which I think is caused by the carbonation in the beer. Whatever the reason, these brownies are an excellent way to celebrate - any day.

Guinness Stout Brownies - makes one 13 by 9 pan

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter - room temperature & cut into pieces

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate - chopped

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

4 large eggs - room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups Guinness - about 10 ounces with the foam removed

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/8 cup confectioners sugar (optional)

- Preheat oven to 375. Line a 13x9 pan with aluminum foil.

- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, and salt until evenly mixed. Set aside.

- Melt butter, bittersweet chocolate, and white chocolate in a double boiler under low heat until evenly melted and smooth. Set aside.

- In a large bowl or mixer bowl, beat eggs and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy - around 3 minutes. Add melted chocolate & butter mixture to eggs, beating until combined.

- Beat reserved flour mixture into the liquid ingredients. Whisk in beer. The batter will seem thin - its supposed to be that way. Drop in semi-sweet chocolate chips.

- Pour mixture into pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let brownies cool to room temperature and dust with confectioners sugar, if desired.

Photo by Tami Hardeman

tuna helper #2: 2 fast 2 furious

I'm back from outside Charlotte and I have to admit - I have no cooking or styling mojo left. Nothing that won't be solved by a few days of R&R (rest and red wine). I'm making this post not because this photo is a vision...because it's not.

I'm posting about my dinner tonight to give a big shout-out to a blog that I visit quite often: Stephen Cooks. As far as recipes and home cooking go, this blog is the bees knees. When Stephen posted about his wasabi pea crusted tuna, I swooned. On my trip this past week, I actually dined on a version of this dish...but knew it could be executed better. I stopped by Whole Paycheck and bought sushi grade tuna for just such dish. I have to say...its pretty fabulous. The flavors of the wasabi peas are killer with the tuna - I added some black sesame seeds to my coating. Rather than a dipping sauce, I garnished my plate with some Rooster sauce - out of sheer laziness - and called it a night.

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled photo standards soon enough. In the meantime, go visit Stephen Cooks. The original recipe for Tuna Crusted with Wasabi Peas can be found here.

the queen of all media

Sunday finds me packing up my tweezers and heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to work on a commercial. Since I'll be away from the kitchen at Chez T for a few days, I thought I would use this occasion to practice something I am so not good at: shameless self promotion.

First up, I am very happy to say that I am on the Internet! My food styling portfolio is up and at'em, thanks to my dear friend James (thank you!). I am slowly but surely getting more images up there...but it's a pretty good start! The images will trade out as I shoot new things and more of my work gets published. There's also a convenient link to this very blog from my personal site.

Next, I will be on the radio next week. You heard me right. I will be tweezing on the airwaves all over...local Atlanta AM radio! WOO! I was invited to be on Tastebuds, hosted by The Taste Network's Brady Lowe. I had the pleasure of meeting Brady this past week and I can imagine that our hour together on air will be informative and entertaining. The topic for Wednesday's show? I have no idea. I'm winging it! There is a link to the station on the Taste Network's site.

I was also given a big shout-out in a recent article written by Tom Maicon, Atlanta food writer & fixture and cruise director over at AtlantaCuisine. In his article about local food blogs, he showers my blog with praise and calls me the Nigella Lawson of the Atlanta food scene. No pressure! This article was also published in The Hudspeth Report, an Atlanta food publication. To top it all off, they published a photo of my cheese sandwich masterpiece!

Lastly, I'm happy to say that I will be contributing on a monthly basis to Good Things, the collective "blogazine" put together by Ali at Something So Clever. Each month, I'll be writing my "Shopping with Tweezers" column highlighting my ten favorite things that month - I have to put all of this mindless stylist shopping to good use somehow, right? There are some great bloggers that take part in Good Things every month & I'm honored to be put in such good company!

rhone-ing the wine aisles

I must admit: this Wine Blogging Wednesday (graciously hosted by Winexpression) snuck up on me. I blame it on the following two things:

a) Work sucked worse than third period French last week.

b) Wine Blogging Wednesday is not a lot different than Wine Drinking Tuesday or Grape Guzzling Friday at Chez Tami.

There's also the matter of my complete ignorance about French wines, red in particular. When I read the theme for this WBW, I dismissed it. I rarely drink French reds...and when I do, they end up tasting like pencil erasers to me. I happened to have this bottle sitting in my wine rack because - yes, I'm embarrassed - I bought it at the Dekalb Farmers Market because the bottle was different and caught my eye - Cellier des Dauphins Cotes du Rhone.

When I thought this might fit the WBW bill, I looked it up online. It's 85% Grenache and 15% Syrah. Should be yummy. I threw it in the 'fridge to chill while I went on my run. I popped it open and tried it by itself. Eh. Sort of fruity and easy to drink. Then, I drank a glass with my beef stew. Yum! I tasted a little pepper and some cherry-ish fruit. At the price point - I think I paid $8 for the bottle - it could easily become a staple in my house for those red meat, no brainer meals.

orange you glad you stopped by my blog?

This month's Weekend Cookbook Challenge, hosted as always by my girl Ali at Something So Clever, was to cook something orange. I hate carrots so that was out. Persimmons? I'm stumped when it comes to them. I started remembering an orange salad dessert in Jamie Oliver's cookbook Jamie's Kitchen. While I love the photos in his books - and I have several of them - I can't say I've made too many of his dishes.

Something light and citrusy was the perfect way to celebrate the incredible weather we've been having in Atlanta. I wore a sundress on Sunday! This couldn't have been easier to make - I think it took me 5 minutes to put together. I did tweak the recipe a bit. Instead of clementines, I used Satsuma oranges that I bought at the farmers market this weekend. I omitted the mint and used Dagoba's chocolate flavored with Lime. It was just noticeable enough to add something to the salad. I'm sure the mint is lovely, too.

Clementine Chocolate Salad - serves 4

8 clementines

1 large handful of slivered almonds

10 fresh mint leaves, finely sliced

6 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons water

seeds from 1 vanilla bean

3 1/2 oz. best quality bittersweet chocolate, shaved

Peel the clementines, slice across thinly and remove the seeds. Arrange on 4 plates and sprinkle over the almonds and mint. Bring the sugar and water to a boil, add the vanilla seeds and allow to simmer until the liquid becomes a light golden syrup. Try not to touch it too much at this stage. Drizzle the syrup over the clementines and top with the shaved chocolate before serving.