Author: jennifer-pullinger

Tuna is one of the more popular ways to serve up fish on the family dinner table, but come on. You can do better than the average, uninspired tuna-fish sandwich and tuna casserole, right? The Millmont Grille has a recipe that will expand your tuna horizons. Millmont serves fish specials every day, and General Manager Troy Berge says the garlic-citrus marinated tuna is “one of our favorites.”

Berge says the restaurant, located behind Barracks Road Shopping Center, tries to present each fish dish in a “new, flavor-forward manner.“ The wasabi aioli in this recipe adds a piquant taste to the already flavorfully marinated tuna.

Millmont Grille’s Garlic-Citrus Marinated Tuna

Marinate 10 8 oz. tuna fillets for 24 hours in:
8 cups olive oil
1 cup roasted garlic cloves
1 1/2 cup lemon, lime, and grapefruit juices
1 Tbs. salt
1 Tbs. pepper

Char-grill for eight to 12 minutes and then drizzle on the wasabi aioli (see recipe below).

Wasabi Aioli
2 oz. green wasabi powder
1 cup cold water
1 cup mayonnaise

Combine wasabi and cold water, then mix in the mayo thoroughly. Serves 10.

Grits are making a comeback. This typically breakfast staple was the culinary highlight of the March of Dimes’ (www.marchofdimes.com) recent Signature Chefs Auction benefit at the Doubletree Hotel. Entrées featuring grits made an appearance twice, including Treetops’ mouthful of a dish: braised venison with apple-bacon bleu cheese grits, roasted butternut squash and haricots verts. Also on the benefit’s menu was Lafayette Inn’s (www.lafayetteinn.com) Shrimp and Grits, which executive chef Gil Zentgraf says is simple to make. “Once you get the component parts made [the grits and the barbecue sauce, which are the most time-consuming], the rest is putting it in a frying pan and getting it done.”

It’s a dish steeped in the African-American Gullah culture, located in the low country of South Carolina and Georgia, where traditional cooking is still a way of life. “The South Carolina Gullah shrimp and grits has been around forever,“ he says. Zentgraf creatively amended the recipe to make it even more of a Southern signature dish of this Stanardsville restaurant: He added barbecue sauce and Southern Comfort.

Lafayette Inn’s Shrimp and Grits

prepared grits (see recipe below)
barbecue sauce (see recipe below)
clarified butter
bell pepper, cut into strips
onion, frenched
8 21/25 shrimp
1 oz. Southern Comfort
scallions, chopped

Add some clarified butter to a hot, 8" sauté pan. Put a handful of sliced onion and pepper strips into the pan. When the vegetables begin to wilt, add the shrimp and toss. Remove from heat and add the Southern Comfort. Return pan to stove and flambé. As the flame dies down, add two ounces of barbecue sauce and simmer until the shrimp have cooked through.
Put a dipper of grits in the bottom of a soup plate. Arrange shrimp with the tails up around the grits. Place vegetables in the center of the grits and drizzle sauce around the outside of the grits. Garnish with chopped scallions and serve. Yields one to two servings.

For the grits:
1/2 gallon whole milk
1/2 lb. butter, salted
2 cups grits, white corn, stone ground
1 pint heavy cream

Pour milk into a 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Add butter, cut into chunks, and grits. Bring to a boil while stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to allow grits to simmer. Add heavy cream and stir. Remove from direct heat and place grits in a bain-marie (a double-boiler). Allow grits to thicken, about 20 minutes. Serve.

For the sauce:
2 lbs. brown sugar
2 cups molasses
1 pint cider vinegar
garlic (measure 1/2 cup of whole cloves,
   then chop)
1/4 cup cracked black pepper
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. cayenne
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups mustard, yellow-hotdog style
1 gallon ketchup

Add sugar, molasses, and cider vinegar to stockpot over medium heat. Stir until the sugar melts. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer while stirring, until the sauce comes together.

Already regretting that wish you made for colder weather during the smoldering 90 degree days last summer? If you’re craving the hazy days of late August and weekend trips to the beach, then the Lazy Parrot Grill in Pantops Shopping Center has the remedy.

Their tropical retreats come in glasses, though: They’ve dreamed up a range of fruity beverages that will make you think you are on the beaches of St. Tropez—or at least the Outer Banks. But don’t get any ideas from the names of the specialty drinks, which are “not names you’ll find anywhere else,” says owner Kevin Kirby. Seagulls don’t really like rum.

Seasick Seagull
(Specialty Drink)
16 oz. hurricane glass
    filled with ice
1 oz. of your favorite vodka
1/2 oz. Parrot Bay
    Coconut Rum
1/2 oz. Whalers
    Banana Rum

Add ingredients and fill hurricane glass with equal parts orange juice and pineapple juice. Float Grenadine on top and garnish with your favorite fruit.

Club Lazy
(Specialty Shooter)
1 oz. Parrot Bay
    Pineapple Rum
1/2 oz. triple sec
2 oz. sour mix
splash of club soda

Shake well and strain into a 5 oz. shooter glass.

Lost Cherry Isle
(Specialty Margarita)
1 1/2 oz. Corazon
    Silver Tequila
1/2 oz. Cherry Pucker
sour mix
light splash of orange juice

Salt the margarita glass. Shake well and pour. Garnish with lime.

There are a thousand ways to dress up pasta. You can cook it the traditional way with meatballs and marinara sauce or as a healthy vegetable medley sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Better still, why not be like Will Farrell in Elf and pour the hot condiment of the season—maple syrup—on your pasta, then top it off with marshmallows, swirly twirly gumdrops, and peppermint sticks? But let’s not get silly. This recipe, courtesy of the Blue Bird Café on West Main Street, is for classy affairs. Blue Bird’s sous-chef Rich Ridgely says while this dish is simple it “has a mouthful of flavors,” which no doubt come from the diverse mix of ingredients including feta, artichoke, sun-dried tomato, and asparagus. Even Randy from A Christmas Story would clean his plate if served this savory dish.

Blue Bird Pasta with Smoked Salmon

2 cups penne pasta, pre-cooked 
4 artichoke hearts, quartered
1/4 cup sun-dried tomato, julienned
16-20 kalamata olives
8 asparagus spears, blanched, cut in 1" pieces
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 red onion, julienned
2 oz. olive oil
2 oz. white wine
1/2 cup feta cheese
salt and pepper to taste
6 pieces smoked salmon, thinly sliced, rolled into flowerettes

In a medium sauté pan, heat the olive oil until it shimmers in the pan using a stir-fry method. Add the artichoke, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, asparagus and onion. Constantly stir until vegetables are hot and bright. Add the white wine and garlic, tossing and simmering for three to four minutes on medium heat. Add the feta cheese and pasta. Toss and distribute well for two to three minutes on medium heat. Turn off the heat and season, remembering that feta cheese is quite salty. Divide into equal portions on plates and top with three salmon flowerettes each. Or top it with your protein of choice such as tofu, steak, shrimp, scallops or chicken. Yields two servings.

Tired of cooking the same old boring meal of burgers and French fries? Well, toss des frites and roll up your sleeves to make this quick and simple dish from the menu of Downtown restaurant Petit Pois. Moules Marinières is a “classic French bistro dish,” says Brian Helleberg, owner of Petit Pois—it’s a dish that is as popular in French restaurants as the Eiffel Tower is on a tourist’s itinerary. And you will indeed be traveling if you make this, if only with your taste buds: About the only thing this recipe has in common with traditional, Paula Deen-style Southern dishes is the butter. Lots and lots of butter.—Jennifer Pullinger

Petit Pois’ Moules Marinières

1 1/2 cups onions
1 1/2 cups fennel
2/3 cup carrot
2/3 cup celery
head of garlic
fresh bay leaf
bundle of thyme, approximately 15 sprigs
300 ml crème fraîche or heavy whipping cream
4 lbs. live mussels
1 liter white wine
1 lb. of butter

Finely dice the onions, fennel, carrot and celery and sauté with a little bit of butter. Separate the cloves from the head of garlic and dice. Once the vegetables are tender, add garlic and sauté some more. Add the fresh bay leaf and bundle of thyme. Add one liter of white wine and let it reduce by one half. Then, add crème fraîche or heavy whipping cream. Bring to a boil. Add the live, cleaned and debearded mussels. When the mussels pop open they are done. Add the butter. Allow any whole butter that remains to emulsify. Spoon out the mussels and ladle the butter sauce over the meat. Garnish with parsley and serve with grilled bread topped with chopped parsley.