Taste With The Eyes

Tomato Carpaccio with Peter Luger Steak Sauce

Legendary Peter Luger Steak House is now open at Caesars Palace Las Vegas marking their first U.S. location outside of New York. Operating for over 135 years, it is often regarded as the pioneer of the American steakhouse experience.

The menu at Peter Luger Steak House is famously simple and focused, highlighting its signature dry-aged steaks. The menu also features classic steakhouse sides, such as creamed spinach, German fried potatoes, thick-cut bacon, as well as sliced tomatoes and onions.

Peter Luger Steak House Las Vegas

The tomato and onion side dish at Peter Luger Steak House is a simple yet iconic offering. It features thick slices of ripe tomatoes and large, sweet onions, arranged on a plate and served with their signature steak sauce.

The combination of the fresh, juicy tomatoes and mild onions provides a refreshing contrast to the rich and hearty steaks. It’s one of the restaurant’s most well-known accompaniments, celebrated for its straightforward but bold flavors.

Here, my Tomato Carpaccio was inspired by that side dish. Red ripe heirloom tomatoes and sweet Vidalia onion are lightly covered with the steak sauce where capers, olives, and anchovies add extra flavor, texture, and interest.

Tomato Carpaccio with Peter Luger Steak Sauce According to Linda Eckhardt’s Guide to America’s Best Foods: “This is the best. Their own steak sauce is not only great on steak, but also served on slabs of red ripe tomatoes. You can’t do without this. They only began selling their sauce after customers begged. We love this sauce on hamburgers. We love it on chicken. The taste is somewhere between cocktail sauce (it’s spicy with horseradish) and traditional steak sauce (being a rich brown color).”

Tomato Carpaccio Recipe

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Andouille Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo Soup

This recipe is similar to the one I posted last month. For Jimmy Buffett Day, I shared my version of his sister Lucy Buffett’s Summer Seafood Gumbo. Here, the gumbo is finished with smoky, creole-spiced Andouille Pork Sausage instead of crab, and more shrimp stock for soupier style.

“Gumbo Soup” is a term sometimes used to describe a thinner version of gumbo. It has the same ingredients and flavors as traditional gumbo but with a more broth-like consistency, closer to a soup than a stew. Both ways are excellent, just a little different.

Andouille Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo Soup Recipe

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Simple Summer Sea Bass

☀️ 🐟 Simple Summer Sea Bass 🐟 ☀️

How about a colorful dinner that is summery, sustainable, super-easy, and super-tasty? Last summer I shared a simple Grilled Swordfish over a Tomato Cucumber Salad that became quite popular, this summer it’s Chilean Sea Bass over Summer Vegetable Couscous.

Rich, melt-in-the-mouth Chilean Sea Bass aka Patagonian Toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) is simply delicious and almost impossible to overcook due to its flesh high fat content.

And, yes, it is after Labor Day, but it is still officially summer for a few more weeks, and still over 100°F here in Vegas every day… Yesterday was the 70th day reaching at least 105°F in 2024.

Chilean Sea Bass over Summer Vegetable Couscous Recipe

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Jimmy Buffett Day and His Favorite Gumbo!

The Florida House of Representatives created an official day to honor the icon earlier this year, passing legislation to declare August 30th as “Jimmy Buffett Day.”

The resolution seeks to celebrate the life and music of Jimmy Buffett, whose “free-spirited life and significant contributions to national and state culture are commended and celebrated.”

“Jimmy Buffett honed his art as a singer-songwriter in the bars of Key West,” the resolution states. “And the laid-back island lifestyle of the Florida Keys was the foundation on which he built his signature tropical rock sound.”

Jimmy Buffett Day and His Favorite Gumbo!

🦐🦀Lucy’s Signature Summer Seafood Gumbo🦐🦀

“Honest to God, when Jimmy comes to my restaurant, he orders gumbo. He loves gumbo. He can get anything else anywhere else. But he can’t get a good gumbo just anywhere,” said his sister, Lucy Buffett.

“My grandmother’s old-fashioned gumbo is a crab and shrimp gumbo with tomatoes and okra—what some people call a summer gumbo,” Lucy Buffett said. “It’s still the one I make most often.”

Summer Seafood Gumbo Recipe

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Fresh Fig Salad with Fig Vinaigrette

Fresh Fig Salad with Fig Vinaigrette
Arugula, Prosciutto, Bleu Cheese, Toasted Pine Nuts, Basil

It’s fig season! Fresh figs combined with peppery arugula, crispy prosciutto, pungent bleu cheese, toasted pine nuts and a fruity vinaigrette – this fig salad offers a harmonious balance of sweet, salty, peppery, nutty, and tangy flavors. And the figs add vibrant color to this salad. Their deep purple or green skin and the rich, pinkish flesh insides are perfect for creating a stunning summer dish.

There are hundreds of varieties of figs in the world with several grown in California:

The Black Mission Fig was named after the mission fathers who planted the fruit as they made their way north along the California coast. It is famous for its distinctive flavor and deep purple hue.
The Kadota Fig is the American version of the original Italian Dattato. It is thick-skinned and is a beautiful amber color when ripe.
The Brown Turkey Fig is purplish-brown in color with green shades around its neck. The pulp is an amber color and it has a very mild flavor.
The Calimyrna Fig is known for its delicious nut-like flavor and tender, golden skin.
The Sierra Fig has a light-colored green skin with a fresh, sweet flavor like a Riesling.
The Tiger Fig has a light yellow color with unique dark green stripes and a bright red-purple interior fruit with fruity, raspberry, citrus flavor.