RoccoDiSpirito.com

Grab the Good Life with Rocco DiSpirito

December 22, 2005 - WOR 12/22/05

WOR 12/22/05

***IMPORTANT***
Rocco's Cookware has RETURNED to QVC! Please go to:

ROCCO'S KITCHEN

Grab The Good Life everyone! Today is all about you and your calls at 800-321-0710! Anthying goes, give us a call!

Rocco: Hi everybody. Let's talk latkes a little bit. I get a lot of questions about latkes. I went to La Esquina last night – it's a restaurant that's a bit hard to get into. If you can't get into the restaurant in the basement (I believe it's open from 12:00 pm to 2:00 am), you can get into the Taquito Stand, right on the corner of Kenmare and Lafayette. If you want really good tacos, the real deal I mean, this is a great place to go. It's open 12:00 to 4:00 I believe.

Let me tell you guys something to do for Christmas. Uptown Prime is this thing I've been talking about; they sell all kinds of great stuff, meet and meat products. And they have these Kobe beef steaks – Kobe beef is one of the finest delicacies on the planet. If you order by 3:00 p.m., because you are a WOR listener, you'll get it delivered in time for Christmas. Just go the website – Uptownprime.com and click on the microphone up in the corner and type in the password "Foodtalk", you will get the free burgers and the overnight shipping. Or you can call them at 1-877-9UPTOWN and make sure you mentioned Food Talk. Kobe is the best – you can cook it real quick and serve it as raw as you can eat it. It's very rich because it has that incredible fat marbling.

Greg from Sea cliff Long Island: Rocco, I want to contribute to the "get Mikey a winter coat fund". And listen Rocco, the next time you run out of gas and you can't find a gas station, get to an auto parts store and get some of that STP, the carburetor cleaner, and throw a couple of cans in there to get you to the first gas station. Now two pet peeves with restaurants.

Rocco: Okay, tell me.

Greg: Why can't they get a table with three legs so they don't rock?

Rocco: I agree with that pet peeve. Now it's not about three legs, you need four legs with the little adjustments. Now if you go to a place like Balthasar, Keith McNally – this guy is very detail-oriented. There is not a single table there that rocks because he got special bases and made sure the floor was nice and flat.

Greg: And my pet peeve #2 – put a pepper grinder on the table.

Rocco: Well, I agree but in New York City, the tables are so small they are always looking for ways to save space.

Ronnie from Long Island City: Hi Rocco. I want to make manicotti crepes – can I make them three days in advance?

Rocco: Yes, crepes will keep for a long time in the fridge. It's basically just coagulated brown flour. Professional chefs make crepes and freeze them by the hundreds. They freeze very well and they defrost almost immediately. Now when you freeze them, you have to either put a piece of butter between them or parchment paper cut to the size of the crepe. If you just want to keep them in the fridge, you can keep them there for two months.

Ronnie: And let me tell you, Mike is great on the phone and he's great on your show too. But he has to play some nice Italian music here – not that rock all the time.

Rocco: Well we'll try to accommodate you Ronnie. Thank you so much and Merry Christmas.

Corinne from Long Island: Hello Rocco. Do you remember me? I met you in the Hamptons in August, you were at a club and I gave you my card that we have a Greek-Italian…

Rocco: I remember. You have long curly hair. Are you a belly-dancer?

Corinne: I'm the one who said I know how to belly-dance.

Rocco: So what are you cooking for the holidays?

Corinne: We're doing a leg of lamb, you know we have that middle eastern Greek background. And we're also going to do Cornish hens. And then a bunch of veggies, string beans almandine, red potatoes…

Rocco: It all sounds very good. Happy holidays to you and your family.

Kevin from Middle Village: Hey Rocco. My wife's making a prime rib for dinner and I want to get a nice, good crust with herbs on it. It's semi-boneless.

Rocco: Semi-boneless –that means it just has the ribs. Okay. Does it have a nice cap of fat on it?

Kevin: Yes.

Rocco: Okay good. Now take whole rosemary and whole thyme stalks, mix it with whole black pepper, lots of the big sea salt – mix that all together with some olive oil to make a thick paste and just lay it on top of the meat an inch thick.

Kevin: Sounds great. Now does the meat get infused with that?

Rocco: Oh yes, it will infuse the meat with a fragrance, the salt will season it..

Kevin: Great. Now how about something different with broccoli besides garlic and oil?

Rocco: Okay, take your florets, cut them small, and toss them in a bowl with cream and gruyere cheese or Swiss cheese, then put it in a casserole and just bake it. Maybe a little lemon juice in there just to balance it. Something a bit more Mediterranean – flash sauté the broccoli, then make a little red pepper pimento vinaigrette (red wine vinegar, chopped up pimentos, some capers and pine nuts) then put that on top before you serve it.

Kevin: Wow, that's great Rocco. Thanks.

Rocco: You're welcome Kevin. Now, last night I had these charred string beans at La Esquina, done in a very hot, thin wok. No fat whatsoever, just a super hot wok and they burned the outside of the string beans until they were black. Blackened string beans with a little bit of salt on it and they were extremely good. Now let's go to Debra in Manhattan.

Debra: Hi Rocco. I found a porcini mushroom stuffing recipe as a side dish to serve with turkey and I was looking for some other veggies to put with that.

Rocco: How about some acorn squash. Get a couple of acorn squash, split them and bake them in the oven with a little bit of sea salt, some olive oil and a little bit of molasses, and then just serve them halved or quartered. Actually, the porcini mushroom stuffing right inside those little cavities in the squash would be great. You can even put a little bit of egg in there and then stuff the squash and slice it like a pie…

Debra: Sounds delicious, thank you. Have a wonderful Christmas.

Rocco: Happy holidays to you too Debra. Now let's go to Maryann from New Jersey.

Maryann: I'm here to do something special to win a toaster oven. I'm going to sing a song – here we go.

Rocco: Thank you for singing that. And have a wonderful holiday. Let's go to Lillian from Suffern, NY.

Lillian: I love listening to your show Rocco. And aside from that, it's my 80th birthday today.

Rocco: Well happy birthday to you Lillian. And thanks for calling. Let's go to Pat from New Jersey.

Pat: Hi Rocco. I need some sort of mushroom side dish.

Rocco: Oh yeah, I like vinegared mushrooms as a matter of fact. Just get regular button mushrooms or whatever mushrooms you like, cut them in halves, put a little bit of oil in a super hot pan sauté them quickly, and cook them until they're brown on the outside.
Then deglaze them with white wine vinegar, remove them from the pan and put them in a bowl. If liquid starts to drain out, remove that and reduce it. Toss it with chopped tarragon, chopped shallots and red wine vinegar, and then take the mushroom liquid that you reduced and add it back in there. Toss and serve at room temperature.

Thank you so much for calling Pat and all the best for your holidays and happy New Year.