STUFFED CELERY: Sedani Ripieni

CHEFS I FOLLOW:

CHEF NASH
Brunei's finest! I am inspired with this vibrant chef's thoughts that I can't get enough! Refreshing insights on latest techniques and his stories is a fresh of breath air (at least to me). He's my unofficial consultant on chef issues I face with this Batali project
DRIFTLESS APPETITE
Husband and wife tandem which gave me great insights on Southwest Wisconsin cuisine, places to see and best of all great tasting, easy to follow meals. Check out their Paella - -so yummy good! This is where I hang out -- when I am bored with Italian cooking
FRANK FARIELLO
Lawyer by day, chef by night! See his passion for authentic Italian cooking! Home cooked food is always the best (and I agree your honor!). He is my unofficial guru that I lean on whenever I have brain freeze from these Mario recipes
Rouxbe Online Cooking School
Great resource for wishful-thinking chef like me with easy to follow procedures. I am still thinking if I should enroll in their class (maybe later after I finished a project at work).
SWEET FREAK
Traveling is one of my passion and so happy to came across with this gorgeous gem who has the same interest as I do - Sweets and Paris (what's not to like?).
WHAT'S COOKIN ITALIAN STYLE CUISINE
Want real italian cooking from a lovely chef who shares great memories from her childhood? I only visit a handful of websites - -and she's definitely top in my list (I'm her daily food stalker - so to speak )!

08/16/2009

Sunday madness! We got the newspaper, I finished the OLIVE OIL AND ORANGE CAKE: Torta di Arancia ed Olio..so what's next? LUNCH - It's only 9 am and I am thinking of food again.

My daughter said - -I need new pans --Hmm..great idea! Are my pans falling apart? I have this thing about maximizing the lifespan of my possessions to make the money spent worthwhile, but this daily cooking is just creating marks in my teflon pans. Okay, maybe we can still use those for another month, let's pretend we didn't saw the marks ... for now..let's kill the Batali --I mean -- get lunch going!

Cool! This antipasto is like making regular meatballs but with the flexibility of serving it as an appetizer or with rice (I'm asian -- sorry I love my regular meals with rice). Great idea for the celery since it was boiled previously so the taste that teen hates (whatever it is) is not there anymore.

I noticed that Batali food does a lot of frying -- aggghhh - - " NO LIKEY THE FRYEEEE" -Too greasy, good thing it's olive oil and not butter like the french dishes I know.

Mario Batali's version: Page 64

Maria Belinda's version:
Okay, I followed the instructions until the frying stage until golden brown. At that point - I placed it on top of paper towel and served in the table immediately.
I stopped on where I have to cook garlic and tomatoes with olive oil and place the fried stuffed celery back to the pan. The teens are getting tired of the tomato taste in their food so we compromised that this will be a simple stuffed celery (for now)
4 ribs of celery (cut into 2.5 inches)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs, store bought (Mario used day old bread which he soaked in milk and squeezed dry)
1 lb ground beef
3 large eggs (1 for the meat mixture, the other 2 for the coat)
salt and pepper
chopped italian parsley
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
MB STOPPED HERE:
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 ripe tomatoes (peeled and chopped)

HERE'S HOW: