Habanero Chicken Pasta

Ingredients
Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Penne or some other kind of tasty pasta
Chopped tomatoes - either a 12 oz can or several fresh 'maters
Olive oil
Crushed garlic
Onion - maybe 1/2 of a small one
Habanero pepper - probably just one unless you're sadistic
Fresh thyme - about a teaspoon
Lime juice - from one fresh lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Five easy steps to prepare
1. Heat oil in pan. Rub chicken with lime juice, salt and pepper and cook until skin is brown. Remove chicken from pan and set aside to let it think about what it's done.
2. Add remaining oil to the same pan and cook onions, garlic, thyme and habanero for 2 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes and simmer for 2 minutes.
4. Add chicken breasts and simmer until chicken is throughly cooked. If sauce gets too thick, add a little water or chicken broth
5. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve whole chicken breast with sauce on a bed of cooked pasta.

This is a tasty, simple dish with a slow habanero burn. It's well accompanied by some wilted spinach or a salad. 4 solid stars.

Grilled Pizza

Prior to grill time ensure that the grill itself is greased down with some vegetable oil or olive oil. This will go a long way towards ease of preparation and ensuring your pizza gets into your mouth instead of becoming a cindery, blackened mess.

Brush one side of the dough lightly with olive oil and place the pie oiled side down on the grill until the dough begins to brown (between 5- 10 mins). Once browned - flip the 'za and apply sauce and ingredients. You'll need to take care to apply lightly as a set of soggy toppings may cause the pizza to hemorrhage.

Some suggested combinations -- generally, the rule of three applies to both pizza and omelets - limit your ingredients to maximize flavor. Otherwise, you run the risk of creating a muddled, soupy mess. In the case of pizza - the base cheese and sauce are excluded from the equation.

Ingredient combinations
Pineapple, Roasted Peppers, Feta
Kalamata olives, grilled mushrooms, rosemary
Grilled tomatoes, basil

You get the idea but it's hard to go wrong with good ingredients. The grilled goodness kicks up normal pizza consumption to a new level. 4 1/2 stars - deducting a 1/2 star for the grill burns I suffered as a neophyte pizza flipper. Use your spatula.

Fig Apple Tart

Nut crust:
1 1/3 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t sugar
1 c cold butter, cut into small pieces
3 T ice water
1/2 t apple cider vinegar
2/3 c chopped nuts

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix 3 tablespoons ice water and vinegar in small bowl. Pour over flour mixture. Stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Roll out dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper to 12-inch round. Remove top sheet of paper and sprinkle crust with nuts. Replace paper and roll to 13-inch round, embedding nuts in dough. Invert crust onto baking sheet. Remove top paper and cover crust with fruit, leaving 1-inch border. Fold edge of crust over fruit filling.

Bake at 400°F until crust begins to brown, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375°F; bake until crust is golden brown, about 10 minutes longer. Loosen tart from parchment paper with spatula. Cool on baking sheet.

Notes
The crust recipe is from Epicurious; it has a wonderful crisp and delicate texture. The embedded nuts are a fantastic (and very easy) touch. I always love the look of a "rustic tart" - and it's especially nice here, where the folded-over edge showcases the embedded nuts.

I wanted to use some fresh figs I got at the farmer's market for this dessert, so went for a middle-eastern feel overall: flavored the figs and apples with cinnamon and rosewater, then used pistachios and almonds for the crust. Saute the apples briefly, but don't precook the figs - they're soft enough already.

Perfect! Will definitely make this again, using different fruit and nut combinations (pears and walnuts come to mind, maybe with ginger). Ooh - I just had a thought: how about topping the nut crust with grated chocolate? Mmm...

Miso-glazed fish

We used amberjack last night, but any firm fish steaks would be good (tuna, salmon, cod, halibut). Grilling is the best way to go, but you could use the broiler if necessary.

The glaze consists of:

miso
sake
rice vinegar
sriracha (hot chile-garlic sauce)
sesame oil
grated ginger
sesame seeds.

Marinade the fish briefly in soy sauce, then brush it with the glaze as you put it on the grill. You'll want to the oil the grill first because there's very little oil in the glaze to keep the fish from sticking.

Tasty as the amberjack was, the side dish might have been even better: wasabi mashed potatoes with sake-butter sauce. Yum.

5 stars. Quick and delicious.

Lobster tails!

Ingredients
Lobster tails
Garlic, minced
Olive oil
Black pepper
Salt
Lemon juice

After rinsing and drying, take a sharp knife and "butterfly" the tails down the center of the back leaving the bottom shell intact. Then gently pry open the tail to expose the meat.

Combine the garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil in a sauce pan and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool and marinate the lobster tails for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Butter-Basil-Baste

Melted butter
Garlic, minced
Basil

In the same sauce pan, combine the butter, garlic and basil and simmer 2-3 minutes. When ready to cook, coat the meat with your butter basil baste and grill meat side down for 2-3 minutes until slightly browned. Turn them over onto their shells and cook until meat has lost its transparency and is opaque. Do not overcook. You may baste several times with your butter basil baste while the tails are cooking. Serve immediately.

5 succulent, buttery stars