Grab the Good Life with Rocco DiSpirito

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April 5, 2005 - April 5, 2005

Food Fight, The Omelette! WOR 04/05/05
This week's winner gets to cook with Rocco live on the Air this Friday.

E-Mail Questions WOR 04/05/05
Q: The mysteries of Gelatin.
A: Gelatin requires blooming, has to sit in tepid water for a few minutes to allow the gelatin particles to enlarge. If you put boiling water on top of gelatin it will ruin it. If a recipe asks you to bloom gelatin in boiling water, they are wrong. Always use tepid water to bloom.
If you are vegetarian use gelatin made with Agar Agar, which comes from seaweed.
Q: Barley soup for Passover.
A: It is very important to start by soaking the barley overnight, and then the following day, prepare the soup. Use a combination of canned Swanson chicken and beef stock. Cook your barley in the stock, at this point you can add lamb, beef or veal bones. Towards the end of the cooking add the mushroom. However, Barley is not kosher and cannot be eaten on Passover. You can substitute barley with some mini matzo balls.
Q: Is something wrong with the recipe for Easter Cookies in Rocco's Italian American Cookbook?
A: Yes, we are very sorry, it is missing 4 cups of flour.

Baking Bread WOR 04/05/05
In order to make the perfect bread at home you have to create a steam oven effect. To do this put a pie tin filled with water in your oven. This will create steam which will give the crust of the bread a chance to gelatinize. Parmesan oregano bread is great for an open faced roast beef sandwich. Use your favorite Italian bread recipe and to it add oregano and freshly grated parmesan cheese bake it in the steam oven you created at home!
Horseradish is a great compliment to roast beef. The horseradish that comes in jars is great. It has an intense flavor. You can use freshly grated horseradish, but you won't get the same intense flavor. However, don't use horseradish if you are going to use parmesan oregano bread.

Fish for Children! WOR 04/05/05
Children love anything deep fried! Crab, lobster, shrimp and cod are amazing for frying. Make a simple tempura batter, dip your seafood into it and fry it. It's that simple.
Basic Tempura Batter:
Rice flower
Seltzer water
Regular water
Ice cubes
Method: Mix it all the ingredients together, coat your fish with the batter, and then immediately deep fry it in a very hot pot with oil. You can even pour more batter on it while they are cooking.

How about sweet and sour fish? Glaze your fish with some miso or soy. All children love this!

Portobello Mushrooms WOR 04/05/05
Peel the skin off the top of the mushroom and cut out the dark veins on the bottom. Season with salt and pepper and grill them or cook them quickly in a pan. At the end put some balsamic vinegar and olive oil on top and serve with some bitter greens such as frisse or curly endive. No need to marinade the mushrooms. Portobello have a lot of flavor and are very tender. Don't spend more than 5 minutes preparing this!

Sugar Substitution WOR 04/05/05
How much sugar can you safely cut out of a recipe? You can remove a lot of sugar from a recipe and replace with Splenda. Check out the Splenda box to get accurate conversions. The Splenda website is a great resource for recipes, conversions and substitutions for all your baking needs.
Splenda

Food Fight! The Omelette. WOR 04/05/05
1. Maryanne from New Jersey gives us the recipe to her grandmother's Sicilian omelette. Here is what you do: you take four large eggs and add to that half a cup of Italian flavored bread crumbs, one cup of grated parmesano regiano, oregano, black pepper, one cup chopped parsley. On the side brown 1/2 medium sized onion in hot olive oil, pour egg mixture over the onion/olive oil and with two forks she would fold in the egg into the onion mixture. At the end it would almost look like a loaf of bread.

2. Annie from Staten Island gives us her recipe for an omelette/frittata made with day old Italian bread. Put 6 eggs in a bowl add grated Romano cheese, freshly ground black pepper, salt. Tear day old, stale, Italian bread into cubes and add to the bowl. Scramble it all together. Add to a pan coated with olive oil. Cook just like a frittata, flip it over in one lump, and serve in wedges.

3. Doris from Staten Island gives us her recipe for a dinner omelette. Take three slices of bacon cut into pieces and put it into non stick pan. Brown the bacon and add small amount of cut up onion and put it in just before bacon is done. In the mean time beat your eggs and pour it over the mixture. Cook the eggs without scrambling it, then fold in some Swiss cheese. It tastes just like a quiche. A great trick is to add a bit of flour and water to your egg mixture, this prevents the egg from being too soft.

Food Fight winner is Annie from Staten Island!! WOR 04/05/05
She chose to cook with Rocco Live on Friday! They are going to make one of Rocco's five minute meals; Parmesan encrusted chicken breast with broccoli rab and molten provolone.

You can all cook along with Rocco on Friday; here are the ingredients you need:
(4 servings)
4 pieces of chicken breasts (5 ounces each), sliced very thin
8 ounces provolone, sliced
1.5 cups corn flour
3 eggs
1 and half cups of broccoli rab
Salt, pepper and oil to cook with
Cost:$17 for four people

Chocolate Cake made with Splenda WOR 04/05/05
Here is a great chocolate cake recipe courtesy of the Splenda Website.
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups SPLENDA's Sugar Blend for Baking
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups Nestle's TOLL HOUSE¨ Baking Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup water or coffee
1 1/2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk

1. Preheat oven to 350¨F.
2. Coat two eight-inch cake pans with cooking spray. Dust with flour. Set aside.
3. Beat butter at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add SPLENDA¨[[[[[[[[a Sugar Blend for Baking, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla; mixing until blended.
4. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
5. Combine water or coffee and milk. Set aside.
6. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until well blended. Add water and milk and mix on low speed until well blended. Add remaining flour mixture and beat at medium speed of an electric mixer until smooth.
7. Spoon batter evenly into prepared pans.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and cool on wire racks.

Chocolate Cake

WOR Basic Fluffy Yellow Cake 04/05/05
In order to bake the perfect cake make sure your oven is at the right temperature. Always use an oven thermometer.
Genoise is one of the most basic cake recipes. It always comes out light and fluffy. Here is the recipe:

1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Method: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350¨F. Butter cake pan. Line bottom of pan with a round of wax paper or parchment, then butter paper. Dust pan with flour, knocking out excess.
Sift together flour and salt. Beat together eggs, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until tripled in volume and thick enough to form a ribbon that takes 2 seconds to dissolve when beater is lifted, 7 to 8 minutes in a standing mixer or 14 to 16 minutes with a handheld.
Resift flour mixture, one third at a time, over batter, folding in gently but thoroughly with a rubber spatula after each addition. Stir together butter and about 3/4 cup batter in a small bowl until combined, then fold butter mixture into batter gently but thoroughly.
Pour batter into cake pan and bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes.
Transfer cake in pan to a rack, then run a thin knife between cake and side of pan and cool cake, about 20 minutes. Invert cake onto a platter with a lip and peel off paper.