Grilled Show Stopper

George Hirsch May 8, 2025

Try a new spin on an old salad recipe of mine—a great way to impress your guests or enjoy a quick mid-week fix.

This was one of those recipes I did for my PBS grilling shows that made people scratch their heads years ago. Here's the how-to on grilling up a delicious appetizer or side. And it only takes a few minutes! Serve with No Yolk Caesar Dressing.

Grilled Romaine

Makes four servings

chefgeorgehirsch.com | Adapted from Adventures in Grilling, 1996

2 heads of hearts of romaine lettuce, split in half & washed

4 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

6 cloves caramelized garlic

A pinch of sea salt

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, roughly chopped

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Shaved Parmesan cheese

Preheat the grill to high heat.

Cut the romaine heart in half lengthwise, leaving the stem end intact. Soak romaine heads in a bowl of cold water. Brush with olive oil.

Put romaine halves on a hot grill. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side until lettuce begins to blister slightly and lettuce gets a slight char. Turn over and grill for 2 additional minutes.

Remove and plate cut side up. Top each with the remaining olive oil, balsamic, garlic cloves, Parmesan, prosciutto, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Serve while still warm. Optional: Serve with thinly sliced prosciutto.

Note: Serve Oven Fried Garlic Chicken with Grilled Romaine Salad for a perfect meal combo.

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Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins

George Hirsch May 4, 2025

Would you like a bite of old-fashioned-style cake equally suitable for a morning coffee break, mid-day snack, and even dessert. If so, then this is it.

What I like about this coffee cake recipe is that it isn't overly sweet. I created this recipe using all-purpose flour, not cake flour, which makes a denser crumb with a nice texture. The dairy mix of sour cream, yogurt, and milk is a harmonious trifecta that achieves a light and flavorful addition to every slice. Use fresh eggs and butter, and you'll have a hit.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins

chefgeorgehirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

Makes about 18 muffins

For the Crumb Topping:

1/2 cup light brown sugar

6 Tablespoons sweet butter, softened

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Place the butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and vanilla in a bowl and crumble together with your fingers until it forms a crumb mixture. Add in the nuts—reserve and mix the muffin batter.

For the Cake:

1/2 cup sweet butter, one stick softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt

1/4 cup 2% milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon fresh grated orange rind

Lightly grease 18 muffin cups or use paper liners.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (175 degrees C). Note: If using a dark-colored muffin pan, reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Dark-colored pans absorb more heat while baking in the oven, become hotter, and carry heat faster than light-colored pans.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Mix in eggs, vanilla, and orange zest, one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl again.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine sour cream, yogurt, and milk. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately in three stages with the sour cream, yogurt, and milk mixture, stirring and scraping the bowl with a spatula after each addition. Mix until just blended. Do not over-mix.

Add half the batter into prepared muffin cups and sprinkle with half the topping mixture. With the back of the butter knife, swirl the batter slightly to mix the crumb mixture into the bottom of the muffin cups. 3/4 filled. Add the remaining batter, then the crumb topping, and bake.

Bake the muffins in a preheated 350°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until they test done. Cool for 15-20 minutes, and then remove them from the pan.

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Rock Shrimp

georgehirsch April 10, 2025

Rock shrimp, which tastes like lobster, is a member of the shrimp family, a deepwater cousin of the pink, brown, and white Gulf shrimp species. The crustacean gets its name from its rock-hard shell; almost all the harvest is sold peeled. And it can easily be mistaken for a miniature lobster tail with the same sweetness. The shrimp are generally small; the largest size is about 21 to 25 shrimp per pound. Rock shrimp are found in waters from Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and the coasts of California to the Caribbean. It is frozen year-round and fresh from July through November, peaking in September.

Crispy Rock Shrimp Salad w/Microgreens, Mini Heirloom Tomatoes, Pesto, and Garlic Aioli

Makes four appetizers

chefgeorghirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

1 cup mixed vine ripen mini heirloom tomatoes

1 cup of microgreens or mini beet tops

2 cups Rock Shrimp or mini Shrimp

For the marinade:

In a medium-size bowl or dish, add 1 cup of buttermilk or make your own: 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice with regular milk.

A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, powdered garlic, red pepper flakes, dried basil, thyme, and fresh ground black pepper

Place shrimp in the marinade for 15 - 20 minutes.

Drain the shrimp well, but do not dry them. Add them to the corn flour mixture (1 cup of all-purpose flour mixed with 1 cup of extra-fine cornmeal).

Bread each piece of shrimp, coating well in the cornflour mixture.

Preheat a high-sided pan with olive oil to pan-fry. Add shrimp and turn each one when brown. Shrimp is cooked as soon as it browns. Shrimp will cook quickly.

Remove the shrimp with a wire strainer to drain. Do not place it on paper towels or in a crowd, as the shrimp will become soggy. Plate the shrimp with assorted cut tomatoes and microgreens. Finish the salad with a small amount of pesto and garlic aioli for dipping. Top the greens and tomatoes with olive oil.

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Gather 'Round the Grill Cookbook, Vintage (new)

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George Hirsch Living it UP! cooking & lifestyle book

Vision of Spring

George Hirsch March 18, 2025

With spring now upon us it's the perfect time to plan the early spring herb garden.

PLANNING YOUR OUTDOOR HERB GARDEN

Nothing compares to the flavor of fresh herbs in cooking. Now is the time to plan your fresh herb garden for an abundance of flavorful herbs at your fingertips. But before you start digging, there's a little bit of planning to take into consideration.

First, consider the amount of time you have to spend and tend to your garden. If you're a weekend gardener, then a little patch of kitchen herbs is a great start. You can always increase the size of your garden next year. But if you're an avid gardener, go crazy! Add more exotic herbs and fragrant ones such as lemon verbena, lemon grass, pineapple sage, and Thai basil.

Find a good location for your garden. Most herbs need five or six hours of sunlight and soil slightly on the dryer side. Plant close enough to your back door for when you're running from the kitchen to the garden.

Lay out your garden on paper. Think about style. Do you like a formal orderly appearance to your garden or a more natural style? Keep in mind when planning to include walking paths so you can reach to weed and harvest your herbs and keep your feet dry when the ground is wet.

What to plant? If you intend to cook with herbs, list the ones you use most often. If you like fragrant or colorful herbs, ask your local garden shop what grows well in your area. And herbs like a fairly neutral or slightly alkaline soil. If you know your soil is acid, add some lime when preparing your soil.

When planting, try to keep the annuals and perennials separate so that when the end of the season comes, you won't disturb the roots of the perennials when you pull out annuals. Keep taller plants to the back of the border or in the center of your bed and smaller ones near the edges to form borders.

Enjoy my Green Goddess, aka—Sauce Au Vert Recipe with fresh spring chive and parsley.

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13 EPISODES on 4 HD-DVD Disk Set, season one

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Gather 'Round the Grill Cookbook, Vintage (new)

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George Hirsch Living it UP! cooking & lifestyle book

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Colcannon

George Hirsch February 22, 2025

Potato dishes are comforting and crowd-pleasing. They are a great side dish and can easily be turned into a main. This month, it is timely to celebrate the tradition of Ireland with another favorite.

This comforting traditional Irish dish of potatoes and cabbage was more or less created from the plentiful supply of potatoes and cabbage in 18th-century Cork, Ireland. Colcannon is similar to the English's bubble and squeak; only the potatoes are mashed. The other key ingredients were fresh milk, freshly churned butter, and onion. This is a good side dish that can be made quickly with leftover potatoes and cabbage. Serve with smoked ham or corned beef.

Colcannon (potatoes with cabbage)

serves six-eight

chefgeorgehirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

2 pounds red skin potatoes, cut into small pieces

1 cup milk, hot

6 Tablespoons butter

1 cup sweet onion, chopped

1/2 cup leeks, white and pale green only, chopped fine

6 cups green cabbage, finely shredded and braised in corn beef (or chicken) broth

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Boil potatoes for about 15-20 minutes or until tender. Drain and mash potatoes with skins on, adding the milk.

While the potatoes are cooking, melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in a large saute pan. Add the onion and leeks; cook until translucent. Add the cabbage and cover; cook for at least 5 minutes or until desired tenderness. *Combine the cabbage and onion mixture into hot mashed potatoes. Season with fresh ground black pepper. Top each serving with a teaspoon of butter.

* OPTIONAL: add 1 cup of cooked chopped corn beef or ham.

Another popular requested recipe from George Hirsch Lifestyle TV Series is my Mousseline Potatoes. Sláinte!