Ganbaru Cook!

Thanksgiving 2011 II: Turkey Pot Pie from Leftovers

2011-11-27T08:48:00.001-05:00

The reason I enjoy hosting Thanksgiving is that I love to cook. But as much as I love preparing the staples for the annual feast day, I love even more repurposing the leftovers into something completely different from its original turkey day incarnation. And this year I got big mileage out of my 18 pound turkey as my guest list dwindled from the expected fourteen down to just nine people, two of whom are barely 13 years old and not big eaters. The best way to illustrate the meal and leftovers is with a PowerPoint slide actually:

Thanksgiving Redux: How one meal was reinvented into six different incarnations (click to enlarge)

We always have a ton of vegetables at our table so soups, pot pie, shepherd's pie, etc. are a natural progression from the Thanksgiving meal. Because I cut the backbone out of my turkey I had the back plus the neck to make turkey stock for the gravy. There was so much stock, however, that Mom didn't use it all for the gravy, and I didn't even have to use any turkey bones to make the vegetable soup the next day. In fact it's Sunday now, and I've just cleaned the carcass enough to make stock that I will freeze in ice cube trays for future use in soups and sauces that call for chicken stock.

From the diagram it's clear that the turkey pot pie was the catch all for the most ingredients and that the turkey itself was used in the most dishes. No surprise there at all. For some reason, it didn't occur to me to put any cut up turkey into the vegetable soup, probably my body telling me to keep things as light as possible the day after the big day. I have to say though that as the primary cook, I had no time for breakfast as I was so busy from the moment I got up, so calorie wise I probably ate less on Thanksgiving than usual, even with pie and ice cream for dessert. Certainly I was nibbling and tasting in the kitchen, but my other T-Day strategy was to fill my plate with vegetables on the first go round and then go back for turkey and stuffing and gravy. Then we always take a walk after dinner and before dessert.

Missing from the menu side of the list are steamed broccoli (my aunt's must have vegetable), apple pie, and black pepper ice cream. I gave my sister the vegan all of the broccoli to take home, but I wish I'd made it into a pureed soup of broccoli and potatoes. That would have been so easy to have simply made in the blender and would have used the potato gratin that had been made with cream and spread the calories into a healthy soup.

My other imperative post Thanksgiving is to eat down the fridge as much as possible. Leading up to the big day my fridge was packed with ingredients, then with leftovers. I'm loathe to throw food away so even the meatballs my aunt insisted on making will probably be made into minestra mariata. My freezer was quite packed to begin with, so some of the dishes, like the gumbo used a quart of creole sauce I'd made and frozen at summer's end, and the chilaquiles will be made from frozen homemade tortillas that didn't turn out so successfully. I'm also going to use some fresh black beans that have been waiting patiently to be cooked. The gumbo and chilaquiles are a good reminder that the leftover reincarnation should be something so dissimilar from the original dishes that the meal in no way feels like leftovers at all.

I've blogged on other occasions about chilaquiles and gumbo, so today I'll give the breakdown on my pot pie. It works on many levels, one of which was preparing it in the same casserole dish that I'd used for the potato gratin, meaning I didn't even have to wash nor dirty another baking dish! I'd also used frozen pie pastry from earlier in the year with the chocolate pecan pie. There was a smidge leftover that was just right for topping the pot pie. Since this dish is made of leftovers and who knows what you may have on hand, the instructions are more about the assembly and don't really contain precise measurements for some ingredients. Everything is already cooked basically, so just taste your combination and adjust the seasonings as necessary.

Turkey Pot Pie

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl combine
leftover veggies from Thanksgiving,
cut into similarly sized pieces if necessary (i.e. green beans should be cut to about an inch to fit on a fork. Large pieces of squash or fennel should also be fork sized. I used carrots, brussel sprouts, radishes, turnips, sweet potatoes, fennel, green beans, mushrooms, scalloped potatoes, etc.)
a cup or two of cubed leftover turkey and
enough leftover gravy to moisten the mixture
(you may have to heat the gravy to loosen it enough to mix with the veggies). Season to taste with
salt and pepper and
a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, thyme, sage, etc (optional)
Pour the mixture into an appropriately sized casserole or baking dish so that the veggies almost reach the top rim. Roll out a
portion of pie dough*
to cover the casserole. The rolled out dough needn't completely cover the vegetable contents. Bake your casserole in the oven for 45 minutes, checking at 30 minutes and rotating to ensure even browning. When the gravy is bubbling and the top is nicely browned (whether using pie crust or mashed potatoes), your pie is ready. Let cool slightly for maybe 10 minutes then dig in!

In lieu of the pie dough you could also make a shepherd's pie using leftover mashed potatoes. Warm slightly in the microwave to loosen the potatoes then top the vegetable and turkey mixture with a spread of mashers and dot with small pieces of butter.

Thanksgiving 2011 I: Canned Cranberry Quince Chutney

2011-11-23T10:48:00.000-05:00

So the first Sunday in November this year was one of those watershed moments in my evolution in food appreciation. Brian and I attended a barter fair out at Mountain View Farms in Purcelville, VA, and not only did we get to visit one of our favorite farms from our local farmers market, we got to meet other like minded farmers and non farmers alike who are just plain into locally grown food. What is a barter fair you might ask? Well, quite simply it's like a farmers market where the producers trade amongst themselves rather than using cash to buy from each other. Kind of quaint in that it hearkens back to a time when communities quite willingly helped each other out by trading goods and services rather than selling for cash. Indeed, Shawna, one half of the Mountain View Farming couple, was taking names and email addresses for people who would be willing to "deposit" time into a barter services "bank" where you could get an hour of someone else's time if you have some skill that you are willing to give for the same amount of time.

For us, we got drive out to the Virginia countryside on a beautiful sunny afternoon as the sun was setting this first day of eastern standard time. We arrived at dusk, set ourselves up in the farm shed next to all the other producers and I got a quick lesson in Marketing 101. I found out first hand what it's like to make and produce food that will appeal to others and how important presentation is to the whole deal. I learned immediately that people who grow their own food and raise their own chickens don't want to consume marshmallows at all, even homemade ones made with real vanilla beans! Although, popular with the kids, Brian had smugly and correctly predicted the marshmallows would be a no go, but he still worked hard at moving them off our table!

What proved to be very popular were my home canned jams and chutneys, all made throughout the year from produce I'd get in season at the 14th & U Farmers Market. I buy and can throughout the season so that I can make an occasional batch of my favorites to give away at Christmas or as hostess gifts when we're invited somewhere for dinner. This year as I've been traveling so much to and from California, I completely missed my usual canning of peaches, blueberries, and green beans, but I still had the following to offer:

Tomato rhubarb chutney
Cranberry quince chutney
Quince conserve
Cherry preserves from The Cook and the Gardener, see below. These were billed more as a sauce since the batch was rather thin
Strawberry rhubarb jam with star anise, inspired by this crepe dessert recipe
Strawberry vanilla jam

And what we traded for in exchange! I feel like I received way more than I gave: canned items such as mushrooms in oil with lemon peel, pickles, Cambodian style kim chee, cherry jelly, hot sauce, and asparagus; produce such as garlic, rhubarb, and fresh herbs; a five pound chicken; homemade sourdough bread; cilantro pesto; and beef bones for making stock. In fact, we hosted our good friends for dinner and featured many of the items we'd received as well as some of my own canned products we'd kept for ourselves.

With the home canning, it turned out that for once I was ahead of the curve on a food trend. We were listening to Marketplace Money on our drive home from North Carolina post-Thanksgiving last year and heard some sardonic commentary on how home canning is the new raising-your-own-chickens-for-the-fresh-eggs! I may have been late to the table on locavorism and making my own homemade ice cream, but I started canning in 2006 and haven't looked back since!*

My first canning experience came about under somewhat sad circumstances actually. After my father's funeral around Labor Day in 2006 I stayed with my mother for another week and a half after everyone else had gone back to their normal lives. I'll never forget that end of summer feeling that hits the air in New Jersey much sooner than it does down here in Washington, DC. Wanting to occupy my time besides going to the gym or watching TV (I couldn't concentrate enough to read), I cracked open a cookbook I'd happened to bring with me, Amanda Hesser's award winning . This is a cookbook for reading, organized as it is by month with recipes and stories of Ms. Hesser's stint as a cook at La Varenne, Anne Willan's cooking school in France. The gardener in the title was a crusty old Frenchman whom Amanda had to win over to get him to share both his wisdom and his garden's bounty. In fact, if one wanted to learn to cook seasonally, this is about the best cookbook I could recommend because it's not organzized by course, but rather by month, and basically what's in season in France is also in season in the northeastern U.S.

Now, I don't even find the thought of canning at all daunting anymore. And, as Nigella Lawson says, if the process of doing something gives one pleasure then its pursuit is worthwhile for its own sake. Some things have turned out better than others, but many items get special mention every year from various friends who've enjoyed a jar of something that they've shared or recently finished. And I'm not about putting up enough of anything to make it through the winter. We still go to stores and buy at the farmers market through the winter, although I haven't bought a jar of jam in over five years. So if I get seven jars of something (enough to fully utilize my home canning basket insert), that's plenty for this home cook. And really, canning is not something you have to constantly attend to if you have good, heavy duty pots and pans that don't scorch, such as All-Clad, Le Creuset, or Staub. I would recommend buying or borrowing a canning set, which I received from my mother after she watched me attempting to can using her stockpots and kitchen towels that summer, as recommended by Ms. Hesser on page 177 of her cookbook.

Below is the cranberry quince chutney recipe from Food & Wine last year. This proved to be my most popular offering, so I'm glad I'd doubled the recipe. The quince conserve is also delicious and makes use of a fruit most people are not so familiar with, but you may be able to find at your local grocery store in the fall. In fact I just saw some rather small but healthy looking quince at Harris Teeter yesterday when I went for my Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza. For detailed home canning instructions I'd go to Ball's website for more information. I've provided some shorthand instruction based on my years of experience, but you definitely want to be overly cautious, well prepared, and sanitary when canning food that is not going to be refrigerated, especially when you're giving it away to other people! Of course many things that can be canned can also be frozen or refrigerated.

Cranberry Quince Chutney

Ingredients

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 small onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 star anise pod
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
3 quince (8 ounces each)—peeled, cored and finely diced
1 Granny Smith apple—peeled, cored and finely diced
One 12-ounce bag fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup golden raisins (or equivalent amount of dried cherries, cranberries or, apricots [chopped])

Directions

In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion, ginger, garlic, allspice and star anise and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the sugar, vinegar and 1 cup of water and bring to a simmer. Add the quince, apple, cranberries and raisins and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thick and jammy, about 25 minutes. Discard the star anise. Serve the chutney warm or chilled.

Makes about 3 pints. The chutney can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or canned as follows:

Canning Instructions

Wash your water bath container and lid with warm, soapy water. Rinse thoroughly and then fill with enough hot tap water to cover the tops of the jars by an inch. Cover and set over high heat to bring to a boil. It will take a while.
Meanwhile, wash the bands, lids, and jars in warm soapy water and let air dry on a clean towel or clean dish rack.
Fill a tea kettle with water and also bring it to a boil then keep on a simmer.
Prepare the recipe according to the directions and let cook for the needed time.
Meanwhile, place the empty jars in the rack and set above the water bath. (Always sterilize an extra smaller sized jar or two in case your recipe makes more or less than estimated. You might not have enough to fill a pint but enough to fill a 12, 8 or 4 ounce jar.) Fill the jars with the hot water from the tea kettle and slowly lower into the waterbath and cover. Jars filled with liquid will easily immerse into the water bath. Empty jars will float and move around annoyingly. You can use tongs to control the immersion, just be careful of getting too close to the hot water. Let the jars stay immersed as the water boils, which will sterilize the jars.
Place the lids in a small saucepan and cover with an inch of the simmering water. This will soften the rubber seal to complete the actual canning. Home canning kits come with a magnet for easy removal of the lids from the hot water.
As your recipe nears doneness, place a ladle and and a canning funnel (if using) in the boiling water bath for sterilization.
When the recipe is ready, uncover the water bath, raise the rack of jars above the boiling water. Uncovered, the water will likely stop boiling but that's OK, just keep the burner on high. Lift a jar from the water bath and empty the water back into the water bath. Place the jar next to the stove, insert the funnel, and using the sterilized ladle, fill the jar leaving a quarter inch of head space (i.e. a quarter inch of empty space between the top of the food and the top of the jar).
Place the funnel into a clean coffee mug or something similarly sized. Using a clean paper towel, wipe the top of the jar clean of any food residue. This residue is what could spoil even if you canned properly so it's important that the top of the jar where the seal forms is CLEAN! Remove a lid from the simmering water and place on the jar. Screw on the band without overly tightening and set aside.
Repeat filling the jars until you've used up all the chutney. Any partially filled jar can be refrigerated rather than canned.
As you remove the last jar from the water bath, replace the lid to bring the water back to a boil. Place the canned chutney back into the rack and lower into the boiling water. Let process in boiling water for 15 minutes. That is, if the water isn't boiling when the jars are immersed, don't start the timer until the water is at a rolling boil.
Remove the processed jars from the water and let stand on a cutting board or your counter. Listen for the lids' popping sounds as the seals are formed when the jars start to cool. This can take several hours but usually occurs within minutes of the jars coming out of the hot water. If the lid does not seal, i.e. you can push it down but it pops right back up, then the jar will not seal and it should be refrigerated. Otherwise, label your jars, store in a cool place, and impress your friends with your homesteading talents.

*Actually that sentence is not entirely true. As soon as I started hitting the Dupont Circle Freshfarm Market in the summer of 2005 following a pivotal trip to Switzerland, I became a locavore, perhaps a bit late to that party, but then locavore wasn't Oxford's word of the year (therefore making it passe) until December of 2007. And making the homemade ice cream certainly coincided with my then newfound farmers market dedication. I mean blueberry cheesecake ice cream is as good a way to preserve fresh bluebrries as jam, no?

Rick Bayless's Caldo de Pollo Ranchero

2011-11-03T19:50:00.000-04:00

Caldo de Pollo Ranchero

A perfect fall soup, garnished with Thai purple basil and asiago! (Con permiso!)

The homemade tortillas were NOT successful, but make for attractive styling. Besides, that's what chilaquiles are for!

I believe that the designation of "ranchero" in the Mexican kitchen means "ranch or farm style" in the sense that the dish is simple and rustic and could easily be prepared to serve a crowd of ranch hands at the end of a hard day's work. Rick Bayless's Caldo de Pollo Ranchero is as much chicken soup comfort food as any mom's could be, and it's a wonderful dish for early fall when summer vegetables are available but on the wane and the temperatures start to drop. Indeed with the last corn, green beans, and summer squash for the year, this soup was my kiss goodbye to summer 2011.

Just in case I may have thought my uppity self in charge of that determination, Mother Nature weighed in giving Washington, DC and the whole northeastern part of the country this past weekend an abrupt taste of what's in store for winter. An October snowfall that was a dusting in the city, left greater accumulations out toward the Shenandoah and up to a foot of snow in northern New Jersey where my mother lives and left tens of thousands of north-easterners without power for Halloween! Of course, no wintry mix is going to deter yours truly from hitting the farmers' market. Indeed, since attendance was so sparse, my 12:00 saunter down to the market revealed to me what I've been regularly missing out on: an abundance of offerings that are usually seen only by the pre 10 am folks!

I loved Rick Bayless's Mexico: One Plate at a Time and the PBS series that featured the recipes. It was a rather highly scripted production with Rick starting the episodes in the U.S. and then seeming to bop down to Mexico to put the food in context and then heading back home to complete the preparation. Rick really wanted to teach the genius of la cocina Mexicana, not just demonstrate a bunch of recipes adapted for the American palette. For that reason, his cookbook is not necessarily for weeknight meals (though there is Mexican Everyday), depending on the recipe. Usually I reserve a Sunday afternoon to embark on one of his culinary adventures, and the result is always worth the effort.

However, the reason I went to this dish for lunch following my market trip was that 1) I didn't have to make my own chicken stock as the first step and 2) I had leftover roasted chicken as well as braised cabbage and carrots from the previous night's dinner that simplified the preparation that much more. In fact, the recipe I'm presenting here is surely an adaptation of Rick's because I used what I had on hand, which is not what is in his list of ingredients in all cases. I've embarked on the soup to nuts preparation, usually when I've been away from my own kitchen but since we're talking about making chicken soup, it's certainly enough to capture the spirit of the recipe, especially when one's main goal is to get something hot and delicious on the table on a cold day. Surely it's hard to go wrong here if you're using what you like/have on hand. If you'd like, please compare my truncated version to the whole enchilada, which is blogged about over at The Gluttonous JD, a Chicago law student with a passion for all things food.

My mental image of how this dish would have been eaten has a bunch of men in cowboy hats sitting around a fire and being served up bowls of this soup in enamel coated metal bowls. Because the chicken meat is not torn from the bone and the corn is not cut off the cob, you might have to eat this dish with a fork, knife, AND spoon plus your hands. For eating indoors or with company, you might want to tear the chicken off the bone and cut the corn off the cob, but of course that is up to you.

Incidentally, the importance of sharp knives was brought home when I was cutting the kernels off the cob for this soup. My usual tip is to prop the husked piece of corn on one end and cut corn off part of the cob that is touching the board, then flip the cob over and cut off the rest of the corn. This usually results in less corn on the counter and more on the cutting board. However, the cause of corn flying all over is actually very simple: the knife is dull. Now you may have just given the blade a few swipes on the sharpening steel, which is helpful and hones the blade, but it's not nearly as good as getting your knives professionally sharpened. I got all three of my Wusthof knives sharpened for free at Sur La Table during an October promotion, but the normal price is just $1/inch, so for less than twenty bucks I could have had this done years ago! The knives are almost scary sharp. They cut through onions, tomatoes, baguettes, etc. like a dream. With minimal pressure, the knife will slip into whatever's being cut and then the weight of the blade does the rest. Those corn kernels fell neatly to my cutting board like I've dreamed of, with nary a one on the counter.

So what follows is my simplified adaptation of Bayless's Caldo de Pollo Ranchero. Please refer to the The Gluttonous JD if you'd like to make your chicken stock from scratch to start this recipe. Otherwise take a little help from the store and use a rotisserie chicken and prepared chicken stock to get this recipe going in the fast lane.

Caldo de Pollo Ranchero
adapted from Rick Bayless's Mexico: One Plate at a Time

Pour
2 quarts of chicken stock
into a five to six quart soup pot and bring to a simmer over medium to medium high heat. As the liquid comes to a simmer, add
1 large onion, finely chopped (reserve a quarter to half a cup for garnish if you're OK with a raw onion garnish, otherwise put all the chopped onion into the pot)

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram (I used a teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (again, I used about a teaspoon)
1 pound of tomatoes, half inch diced (I've also used a 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes with their liquid in a pinch)
1 pound of small new potatoes, halved or quartered to be of uniform size (I used about a pound of assorted small red, purple, and yukon gold potatoes halved and quartered for a very attractive presentation)
2 to 3 carrots, peeled and cut into half inch rounds and
kernels from two large ears of husked corn.
Add
2 teaspoons of kosher salt and
fresh cracked black pepper to taste and
simmer for about 25 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Then stir in
half inch cubed pieces of cooked chicken (skinned breast and/or dark meat if you have it) and
1 cup of chopped, blanched green beans (I also had leftover half a head of braised cabbage that I added as well). Let simmer for a few minutes then taste and adjust the seasonings of salt.
Garnish as you please with
chopped scallions, chopped onion, sliced rings of jalapeno, chopped cilantro, queso fresco, etc. (I went very nontraditional and used purple basil, pickled jalapeno, and fontina, pictured above.)
Buen provecho!

"Massaged" Kale Salad

2011-10-23T07:49:00.022-04:00

Massaged Kale Salad

Photographed in the nick of time!

My but it's been a long time since I've blogged here! Seems I only get to blogging once Thanksgiving arrives then I get too busy over the remainder of the holidays! Not that I haven't wanted to post a recipe or two but with work travel and our trip to France this past summer, I've been pouring my time and energy more into Yelping reviews of places I've been rather than blogging about meals I've prepared. But then something happens that knocks one's socks off because it's such a simple recipe, uses an innovative technique, tastes delicious, and what do you know, it's also chock full of superfoods and is also incredibly healthy.

The epiphany happened at this past Saturday's farmers' market at 14th & U right in my own little neighborhood at my favorite farmers' market. A local blogger was giving out samples of a salad she'd made with ingredients from right there at the market that day, the name of which is intriguing enough on its own—massaged kale sounds so intimate—but then of course it also tasted like something you'd definitely want more of, probably going back until the serving dish is empty, because why not? One can't really overindulge in a superfood salad, right?

Looking at the kale salad, I thought the greens must have been blanched or something. They still looked curly but had gone from that ashy green of fresh kale to the forest green of flash cooked kale. Ah, but in actuality, there was no cooking involved whatsoever, unless you count toasting the nuts in the oven, which I didn't bother with myself, and I don’t know if the nuts used at the market had been toasted at home and brought with or just chopped up on the spot. The kale itself had gone from raw to looking cooked by being massaged with salt until the point that the salt wilted the kale enough to eliminate its raw toughness.

So the massaged kale salad looked appealing, but then I got hit with a wallop of deliciousness with the apples, nuts, dried fruit, and a touch of goat cheese. There’s something about cruciferous vegetables (anything in the cabbage family including kale, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, et al) and their affinity with sweetness like that found in apples and dried fruit. In fact, one of the versions of cooked kale I like to make has the same ingredients—minus the goat cheese—and I believe that dish is Catalonian in origin. The flavor profile of the kale salad then was something familiar though its raw texture was completely new to me. I have to wonder if this recipe arose from the raw food movement actually. Hmmm…

There's also something inherently pleasurable for me in using my bare hands in the kitchen, whether it's kneading bread, making meatballs, or fluting a pie crust. Now I can add massaging kale to that mix of tactile kitchen pleasures and learning through the sense of touch when a certain food becomes "ready." The original recipe recommended a five minute massage, so I set my timer and got in there with my hands. Truthfully, the kale had reduced to one half to one third its original volume in about 2 minutes, but I kept going another thirty seconds because I couldn’t believe that raw kale had changed so dramatically in so little time. The salt really did its magic! I used two teaspoons of salt, which may have been too much and the reason the greens transformed so quickly. Perhaps with just a teaspoon of salt the massage would have taken longer, but I’ll find out next time.

Using salt for a quick pickle of raw vegetables is a technique I first experienced in a cooking class in Japan, where we made a carrot salad whose first step involved salting julienned carrots for a bit until the carrots would become soft. Readers of this blog may remember my favorite coleslaw recipe involves softening the cabbage with salt for up to four hours as one of the first steps after the shredding. Even making preserved lemons is another way of letting salt, one of the most ancient preservatives in the world, do its thing. So the concept of wilting the kale with salt instantly made sense to me. I just couldn’t believe how simple it actually was. Next time I’ll probably rinse the salted kale in my salad spinner to eliminate some of the lingering saltiness.

I was so struck with tasting this salad at the market that I decided on the spot to make it for lunch. Having forgotten to buy lettuce at the farmers’ market, I actually used the salad on a smoked turkey sandwich in place of the lettuce—it was “salad” after all. But then we finished off the rest of it because it was just that good. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to take a picture of my plate because I knew a blog posting would be in the offing.

Of course it’s the massage technique that is the star of this recipe. For that reason, one shouldn’t get caught up in the particular ingredients of the recipe in any case. You’re just making salad—or kale slaw if you will—so put in what you like and have on hand. Instead of dried cranberries as in the original recipe I used pomegranate seeds, since I had half of one left over from making a fruit salad earlier in the week. Any nut would make this salad sing, and already planning to serve for a dinner party I might make it with toasted pine nuts. Indeed with its colors, the salad seems like a perfect dish for Christmas with the greens, the dried cranberries (or pomegranate seeds in my case) plus the apple. I defy anyone not to love this dish that is both delicious AND healthy!

Massaged Kale Salad

With great thanks to A Bikeable Feast and Ibti for making this salad at the market and opening up a whole new world of cruciferous salads/slaws to me! Here is my heavily annotated recipe, written thusly to encourage you to make this salad with whatever you may have on hand that you might enjoy as part of this salad.

Ingredients for four servings

a handful or two of nuts or seeds, toasted (optionally) and chopped if necessary (I used almonds and didn't toast; pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds would not need to be chopped obviously; flax seeds are too minuscule to use here)
kale, tough stems removed, leaves chopped, rinsed, and dried somewhat (it's hard to say how much kale to use here. I usually buy kale and other greens tied and bunched together and I know that two bunches make 4 cooked servings. However, I started with one bunch for this recipe which filled my salad bowl before I started the massage. So the best measure might be "a decent sized salad bowl full of raw chopped kale.")
1 teaspoon kosher salt, a bit more if needed (two teaspoons was too much because a bit too much saltiness got into the kale, although the massage time was cut in half from Ibti's 5 minute recommendation. Then again that could have been because of my man hands.)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 -2 tablespoons vinegar of your choice (I used plum wine vinegar, but again, use what you like/have on hand. Apple cider or balsamic is recommended in the source recipe, but sherry or another wine vinegar, etc. would work just fine.
half a medium red onion, diced or sliced thin (to take the sharpeness out of raw onion, cover the sliced onion for ten minutes with vinegar or with water and a teaspoon of sugar; rinse, then pat dry lightly. Onion flavor, yes, onion breath, no! Or just use a sweet onion like a vidalia.)
One medium apple, cored and diced or cored, quartered and thinly sliced crosswise into quarter circles (kohlrabi or pear would make an apt substitution here, or go exotic and try a fall fruit like persimmon)
a handful of dried cranberries (any dried fruit will do here: chopped apricots, raisins, dried cherries, etc.; I happened to use fresh pomegranate seeds actually)
a few turns of fresh cracked pepper (you probably won't need any more salt)
a few pieces of goat cheese (or chunks of feta or shavings of a hard cheese like parmagianno or manchego) to garnish

(Optional) Toast the nuts or seeds of your choice on a cookie sheet or in an oven proof skillet in a 350 degree oven for 5 to 8 minutes, longer if they're large pieces like walnuts. Set a timer but let your nose be your guide. If you can smell them, they're a minute or two from ready. I prefer toasting in the oven to the stovetop because they require less attention and you don't have to keep moving them around in the pan. Once when toasting pumpkin seeds they went past toasted and I thought I smelled bacon cooking before I realized the seeds were in the oven. They were still edible even on the dark side of toasted.
Sprinkle the teaspoon of salt over your kale and toss lightly to distribute. Again set your timer for 5 minutes and then get in there and massage the kale by squeezing the cut pieces to soften and allow the salt to wilt the kale. ( I wonder if the same effect could be achieved by drizzling the salt over the kale and then just let it sit on the counter for a few hours to macerate. Hmmm...) Very quickly the kale's color will change to a forest green, the pieces will soften, and the volume will reduce by more than half. Your salad bowl that was once heaping with greens will be reduced to a few large handfuls of greens. For me this transformation took about two minutes. But if you're reluctant to manhandle your greens or better yet, if you've got the kids helping you, let it go the for the full five!
Optional step: Rinse the wilted kale. Taste the wilted kale and if you think it's a tad salty, give the wilted greens a rinse in cold water and spin dry in your salad spinner. You do have one don't you? You really should if you want to dress any salad properly and shaking in a kitchen towel is far less effective. Because I used the two teaspoons of salt, there were two tablespoons of very salty liquid that I poured out of my salad bowl after the massage, so the rinse would have been a good idea had I not been so hungry and impatient.
Drizzle the olive oil and vinegar over the greens, add the remaining ingredients except for the cheese, and toss to combine and thoroughly dress every leaf of kale.
Serve on individual plates and garnish with the cheese of your choice, or leave the cheese out to make it vegan.
Devour with the full knowledge that not only are you eating something delicious, it's also damn good for you!

Thanksgiving 2010 II: Herbed Stuffing with Celery Sausage, Dried Cranberries, and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

2010-11-27T08:52:00.007-05:00

I should have taken a picture of this dish because I was so pleased with how it came out, especially because I didn't really follow a recipe. I'm blogging about it now mainly because I want to record the recipe in case I ever want to make it again! To me, it had all the essentials: meatiness from the sausage, flavor from the aromatics, sweetness from the dried cranberries, and texture from the crispy croutons, plus an added punch of texture and umami from toasted pumpkin seeds.

After the pre-Thanksgiving Splendid Table program I'd listened to on NPR in which New York Times food writer Melissa Clark had broken down the stuffing essentials, I figured I had the basics pretty much down. She emphasized that stuffing must at a minimum include the classic mirepoix of onions, carrots, and celery and of course dry bread (this is basically my Mom's stuffing, which goes into her bird and is always delicious when flavored with turkey stock she makes from the neck and giblets). Additional flavor can be added from sausage, bacon, prosciutto, oysters, etc. and crunch from some kind of nut, preferably toasted. The mixture is then moistened with some flavorful stock or broth and either stuffed into the bird for even more heightened deliciousness or cooked in a separate dish, which is required if you're doing a vegetarian version for some of the guests at your table. Cooking a stuffed bird adds to the turkey cooking time, but cooking outside the bird means one more thing has to go into the oven, where space may be at a premium.

Originally I'd conceived of stuffing my acorn squash with this stuffing, hence the idea of using pumpkin seeds instead of another nut like walnuts or pecans. The pumpkin seed idea came from watching a new Food Network show, Mexican Made Easy, in which the hostess used toasted pumpkin seeds (or was it pine nuts?) in a brussel sprout preparation, which just seemed so New World to me. Pumpkins seeds toast much quicker in the oven than other nuts BTW. I put in my first half cup and set the timer for 15 minutes, thinking they'd be done in about 20. Ha! After just 8 or 9 minutes the kitchen started smelling like bacon or roast chicken oddly enough. It wasn't until something smelled like it was burning that I remembered my pumpkin seeds in the oven! Fortunately I had more on hand, which I toasted in the oven for only 5 minutes and they were perfect. The first batch was put out as a finger snack which everyone kind of liked actually so I guess they weren't burnt black and inedible, just dark brown and kind of smoky. Likewise the addition of the dried cranberries was also an homage to another quintessential fall food from the New World. Apples, raisins, or currants might have likewise been used but the cranberries are a natural complement to the Thanksgiving table, which you may really appreciate if their only other presences is in that tired old canned cranberry sauce.

At its core, stuffing is like a savory bread pudding. So of course the quality of the bread matters. I've a good friend who bakes a fresh sandwich loaf of white bread just to make his stuffing. In the past I've preferred to make cornbread stuffing with a homemade herbed cornbread that my mother absolutely loves and nibbles at even as I'm trying to let it dry out for the stuffing. Combined with about half a baguette, the cornbread stuffing rocks. However, I was able to get a bag of dried out herbed croutons at the farmers market that were perfect for the bread portion of the stuffing. The bread has to be dry if it's to absorb the stock, so if you start with a fresh baguette, you have a chance to add your own herbs and toast the bread in the oven to make sure it is suitably dried out.

Herbed Stuffing with Sausage, Dried Cranberries and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
Serves 10-12 as a Thanksgiving side

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 bag of herbed croutons if available, else half a baguette, cut into 3/4 inch cubes and left out to air dry for 1 day
4 tablespoons of olive oil, divided
1 pound of sausage (celery, sage, or Italian)
1 large onion, diced
2 large carrots diced
2 large stalks of celery diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups of stock, plus additional if necessary
1 egg
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Toasting the Pumpkin Seeds and Optionally, the Baguette: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the pumpkin seeds in a skillet or metal pan large enough to hold the seeds in a single layer. Let toast in the oven for 5 minutes, checking after 3. When you can smell the seeds they're about ready and will have turned from dark green to golden brown. For the croutons, in a large mixing bowl combine 1/4 cup olive oil with a heaping tablespoon of an herb mix such as poultry seasoning, herbes de provence or any other combination of dried herbs you may like. Toss the dried bread in the herb oil mixture to evenly coat the pieces. Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes. After 10 minutes stir the croutons around and continue baking for another 10 to 15 minutes. When lightly browned, turn off the oven, leave the door slightly ajar and let the croutons cool and dry out in the oven.

Brown the sausage and vegetables: Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a wide skillet or saute pan. Remove the sausage from the casing if necessary and brown for 5 to 8 minutes, breaking up the sausage into smaller and smaller pieces while moving it around to brown evenly. Keeping as much oil in the pan as possible, remove the sausage from the pan using a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl large enough to mix the stuffing. Heat the pan over medium heat and add the diced onion stirring to coat with the oil in the pan. Cook over medium heat until translucent, about 7 minutes. Add the carrots and celery to the pan, adding all or part of the remaining two tablespoons of oil if necessary to coat them as well. Let cook until softened, about another 7 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. De-glaze the pan with half a cup of chicken stock, using a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Reduce the liquid by half. Transfer the vegetables and any residual liquid to the bowl with the sausage.

Finishing the Stuffing and Baking it Off: Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Lightly butter a 9 inch square baking dish. Toss the croutons, pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries with the reserved vegetables and sausage. Break the egg into a separate bowl and mix with a fork or a whisk. Whisk the egg and stock together and combine with the vegetables, croutons, and cranberries. Stir until the bread is evenly moistened but not soaked. Spread the mixture into the buttered baking dish, pressing down to absorb the liquid. Bake uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes until browned and crispy on top. Let cool slightly and then serve on the side with your perfectly roasted turkey, some gravy, and some cranberry chutney!

Thanksgiving 2010 I: Three Sisters Stuffed Squash

2010-11-26T07:46:00.012-05:00

Saturday before Thanksgiving: main ingredients for squash stuffed with beans, corn, and mushrooms served on Thanksgiving Day and roasted mini cauliflower with apples, caramelized onions, dried cranberries, and dill served the night before were purchased at the farmers market

It was about three years and 65 blog posts ago that I began Ganbaru Cook around Thanksgiving 2007. How time flies! For the food obsessed, Thanksgiving is the big kahuna, and this year we happily found ourselves at Brian's cousin's house in North Carolina for the second year in a row. Yay! We love spending time with her and her hubby outside Charlotte as they're a laid back couple just like we are. What started out as dinner for just the four of us turned into dinner for six when friends from their golf club were invited at the last minute. The more the merrier, which also gave you-know-who another excuse to add to a menu that was already more than ample, I assure you.

So here was the menu for the day. Items with an asterisk (*) were either brought or prepared by your itinerant blogger.
Appetizers:
Monocacy ash goat cheese* with cranberry quince chutney*
Boursin cheese
Crackers
Spicy pickled green beans*

Dinner:
Roast breast of turkey (we had numerous discussions about the required cooking time for turkey but Epicurious had the best guide based on stuffed/unstuffed and preferred oven temp. The turkey packaging would have guaranteed a dry bird, recommending three hours for an 8 pound bone-in breast!)*
Ham
Smashed red potatoes
Stuffing with celery sausage, cranberries, and toasted pumpkin seeds*
Corn pudding
Slow cooked green beans
Acorn squash stuffed with leeks, beans, corn and mushrooms (pictured)*
Jellied cranberry sauce
Onion gravy*

Dessert:
Apple pie (homemade)
Carrot Cake (not)
Vanilla ice cream
Cool whip

I hadn't done Thanksgiving at home since 2008 when we last hosted my family, but since we'd taken an extended family trip to Florida in September it only seemed fair to spend this holiday with Brian's family. I'd bought the cauliflower and acorn squash at the farmers market this past Saturday wanting to make both for Thanksgiving this year because last year I missed having something orange at Thanksgiving (either squash or sweet potatoes) and more veggies are always a good idea since the meal can be so carb centric with the stuffing, potatoes, and biscuits. When we finally listed all the dishes in mind for Thursday, Brian's cousin "Stacy" balked at having so many items on the menu, so the roasted cauliflower with apples, onions, cranberries, and dill was prepared on Wednesday night along with meatloaf and black rice, which worked out fine as the oven was going to be crowded enough already on Thursday.

I didn't bring any recipes or cookbooks with me this go-round deciding to let my memory and the ingredients themselves determine preparations. Along with my santoku, carving set, fat separator, kitchen scale, French press, and oven thermometer (you're reading a blog post of the food obsessed don't forget), I also brought along my own all-purpose fennel spice rub, a quart of homemade chicken stock, and caramelized onions, the last of which were a god send for when I got lazy and didn't feel like chopping and sauteing another onion. In fact anything you read about preparing a big feast like Thanksgiving will advise doing ahead as much as possible and the onions caramelized in a slow cooker over 12 hours are a no brainer. I used them in the roasted cauliflower in lieu of fresh sliced onion and minced them into my gravy and stuffing as well and still had plenty to freeze for a French onion soup I'm envisioning this winter.

The other dish I wanted to contribute was a squash dish on the three sisters theme: corn, beans, and squash. As these are foods that Native Americans grew together, they are natural complements when cooked together too. Last fall I was somewhat obsessed with the concept and realized at the the time that with winter squash instead of summer, a three sisters dish belongs on the Thanksgiving table. I'm most proud of this dish because I winged it. It's also substantial enough to be a vegetable main for any vegetarians at your table and omitting the cream cheese would make it vegan. The three main steps below (roasting the squash, preparing the stuffing, and finishing in the oven) can all be accomplished in stages and need not be completed at the same time.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Mushrooms, Corn and Beans
Serves 8

4 small to medium acorn or delicata squash, halved, seeds removed
olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Filling:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
8 to 10 shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed, and then quartered
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, halved, washed, and sliced crosswise into quarter inch pieces
1 fennel bulb, cored and diced
2 tablespoons finely chopped sage
1 cup of stock, white wine, or water [I used a combination of wine and chicken stock]
1 cup of beans, canned, frozen, or fresh [I used a combo of fresh garbanzos and frozen shelled edamame]
1 cup of corn
2 ounces (about 1/4 cup) of cream cheese, softened to room temperature, or sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish (optional):
16 sage leaves
1/4 cup olive oil

Pre-cook the Squash: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil onto each squash half and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the squash flesh side down in a single layer in a large baking dish. [I squeezed mine into a 13 x 9 pan.] Pour about half an inch of water into the pan and place on a rack in the middle of the oven. Roast for 30 minutes and remove from the oven. Let cool in the pan until able to handle. [I prepared mine the night before and left at room temperature covered with waxed paper as there was no room in the fridge!]

Prepare the filling while the squash is roasting: Heat the olive oil and melt the butter in a wide skillet on medium high heat. Add the mushrooms in a single layer and let cook undisturbed for 5 minutes until lightly browned on one side. Stir and let cook undisturbed for five minutes more. Add the leeks, fennel, and chopped sage and stir to combine. Add more oil if necessary so the vegetables are lightly coated. Season with salt and pepper and let cook until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. De-glaze the pan with the wine or stock, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan using a wooden spoon. Add the beans of your choice and the corn kernels. Reduce the heat and let simmer 10 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half and the beans and corn are cooked or heated through. Turn off the heat, let cool slightly, and stir in the cream cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. [Can be prepared a day ahead. Let cool to room temperature and then cover and refrigerate.]

Finishing the dish: When cool enough to handle spoon the vegetable stuffing into each squash half, distributing evenly and mounding as high as possible. Cover with aluminum foil and return to the 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Optionally, garnish with whole or crushed fried sage leaves (optional next step) or other chopped fresh herbs such as parsley or chives and serve immediately.

Optional fried sage leaf garnish: This is a two-for-one deal as you are creating sage oil, which can and should be reserved for other uses (I used mine in a spice rub for the turkey breast), in addition to the crispy fried sage leaves. In fact the quarter cup of olive oil is only the minimum amount to use. If you'd like additional sage oil for dipping bread, garnishing a soup , or making a salad dressing, by all means use more oil and more sage leaves and even the stems to infuse the oil. To simply make the sage leaf garnish, heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a skillet or wide saucepan. Add the sage leaves in a single layer and let cook until they no longer sizzle, about 3 minutes. Carefully remove to a plate lined with a paper towel and let cool to room temperature. These can be prepared a day ahead and stored in an airtight container. To make sage oil, to the same pot or skillet, bruise a few sprigs of sage in your hands by rolling them into a loose ball. Add to the heated oil and let sizzle for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let the sage and oil infuse by cooling to room temperature, about 1 hour. Discard the sage sprigs and store the reserved oil in the refrigerator in a jar. To kick it up a notch, you could also fry a clove or two of unpeeled garlic or strips of lemon or orange peel along with the sage or any other fresh herb such as basil, thyme, or rosemary. Let your palate and your menu be your guide!

Coleslaw with "Creamy" Buttermilk Dressing

2010-10-28T14:28:00.000-04:00

Regular readers of this blog (you know who you are, right, Mom?) will likely have discerned that my culinary emphasis is on flavor and creativity in the kitchen first and foremost. Healthfulness certainly comes in third after simplicity, which is also of great importance to me. To my partner of 18 years, however, healthfulness is undoubtedly number one. He exercises like mad and seeks to fuel his body with only things that are "good" for him, whatever that means! Having lived that lifestyle I can respect it, and frankly, many benefits of his dogged exercise regimen accrue to me directly, as many friends of mine who've seen pictures of Brian at the beach note with envy! Although I exercise a lot less nowadays, I believe that through mindful eating and an active lifestyle everything will balance out. I therefore will not categorically eliminate foods from my diet that are deemed unhealthy by the food police. I just (try to) exercise self-control and move towards healthful--and of course flavorful--alternatives.

For that reason my partner and I recently discovered that we enjoy eating vegetarian dinners one or two nights of the four to six dinners we make at home every week. We didn't declare that we want to give up red meat (that means bison in our house anyway, not beef) or anything. We just decided that we wanted to move in a positive direction towards an alternative. Partly this was born of wanting to eat less meat and save a big chunk of our weekly farmers market food bill as it can cost a bit of coin to buy chicken and meat from local producers only. But mostly the idea was born out of trying to ensure that the produce we'd purchased would be used up over the course of the week and there would be nothing lingering over into the next week and cutting into that week's farmers market haul. Even worse would be letting good food go bad for never having gotten around to preparing it. So many recipes, so little time!

Eating what is on hand all goes along with another predominant kitchen ethos of mine to eat down the fridge every week anyway. Most of us go to the market (whether a farmers market or a supermarket) and buy a week's worth of food and stuff it into the fridge, freezer, and pantry. Supermarket shoppers want to avoid going to the dreaded grocery store because it's usually such a hassle, and we farmers market goers usually have one shot a week on the weekend to bring home the week's ingredients for who knows what meal. Then, because we've packed everything into the fridge/freezer/pantry, we can't see or remember what's already been purchased and may end up letting it go bad, having to buy more of what we already had on hand! Eating down the fridge is the only way to combat this tendency, unless you're in the habit of buying on a daily rather than a weekly basis. However, with that approach, I just don't think that food that's been shipped from some central distribution center is going to be as fresh as what you can get at the farmers market, which was most likely picked the day before and will therefore have a longer shelf life in your fridge than what you might buy from the store anyway.

So this week's eating down the fridge challenge was to use up half of a very large head of cabbage whose other half was sauteed and simmered to make a sublime cabbage and rice soup/cabbage risotto for one of last week's vegetarian dinners. I had my favorite coleslaw with apple, fennel, and dill on my mind, but was also wistfully remembering the colesaw I'd had over Labor Day weekend at my sister-in-law's parents' house. She had made a slaw with mayonnaise that perfectly complemented the BEST SMOKED PULLED PORK SANDWICH I'VE EVER TASTED (pardon my shouting but that's how good that sandwich and meal under the stars were that evening)! My own slaw is healthy and vegan and delicious (are those listed in the wrong order?), but her version made with mayonnaise had something to say about what makes for a great coleslaw and I think the Hellman's real mayo was the most vociferous!

Apparently sister-in-law's mayo based slaw was in the recesses of my mind when I was contemplating my half head of cabbage when another foodie friend of mine said that he'd made his own interpretation of a turnip and apple slaw recipe in which he wanted to use up the bounty of turnips he'd gotten from our farmers market this past Saturday. Mindful that I also had some turnips to use up I asked for the recipe, which he shared, but that recipe also linked to another cabbage and turnip slaw recipe that had a buttermilk dressing.

The author of the buttermilk slaw recipe decried how heavy on the mayo many coleslaws are so she wanted a creamy dressing not laden with mayo. Hence her buttermilk slaw, which was a revelation to me! I think this is technically a ranch dressing, but it's not heavy at all, and is quite close to Ellie Krieger's take on the same riff, which would therefore make it Brian (my partner) approved. Frankly, I would make this dressing for any salad, not just coleslaw. I would even substitute yogurt, which we always have on hand, for the buttermilk, which I only had on hand so that I could make cornbread to serve at the women's shelter with the chili we made this past Monday. Since I have half a bottle of buttermilk still on hand, this dressing will be made again in the near future, along with some muffins or biscuits or something to use up the rest of that buttermilk (eating down the fridge as usual).

Brian howled when he saw me using mayo at all, even though mine is reduced fat. He started haranguing me about good fats and bad fats even though I was making the concession of low fat light mayo, which I normally wouldn't advocate but it has half the fat of regular mayo and a third of the fat of olive oil even. Those are my only arguments when he starts to balk at the thought of mayonnaise passing his lips. I should just buy the Hellman's Real, which at least has a recognizable list of ingredients!

I also like to make coleslaw because it's a good excuse to pull out my food processor and use its slicing and shredding accessories. Of course all of that slicing and shredding could have been done by hand but I don't award points just for doing something by hand. Simplicity demands the use of the processor, plus you get a finer shred with your knuckles intact. Maybe I could have used my mandolin to get matchsticks of the turnips, but I just shredded those and sliced the carrots and radishes. Unfortunately I didn't photograph my slaw but linked is a picture borrowed from the web. Below is my take on this delicious coleslaw, Joy of Cooking style:

Coleslaw with "Creamy" Buttermilk Dressing

Serves 6 to 8

In a bowl large enough to mix the coleslaw, whisk together
1/2 cup of buttermilk
3 tablespoons of mayonnaise
2 tablespoons of cider vinegar and
1 teaspoon of honey [I omitted]
until smooth. Season to taste with
salt and pepper
and set aside.

Using a sharp knife, quarter and core a
2 pound head of cabbage.
Rinse and trim the the tops and bottoms of
5 to 8 radishes
4 to 6 turnips [hakurei recommended] and
2 large carrots.
Using the slicing disk of a food processor with a large work bowl, thinly slice the cabbage and radishes. Peel the carrots. Using the shredding disk, shred the turnips and carrots. [Note: empty the food processor bowl as needed so that the sliced and shredded contents do not push up on the disk possibly cause your processor to seize up in its cover, which happened to me once and rendered my processor inoperable. Miraculously, Kitchen-Aid replaced it for free!] Combine the vegetables with the dressing and sprinkle with
1 teaspoon celery seeds.
Mix thoroughly and garnish with your choice of fresh herbs such as chopped
parsley, chives, cilantro, tarragon, or dill.

A Revisit to Summer's Quintessence: Tomato Tart with Corn, Basil, and Chevre

2010-10-10T22:10:00.000-04:00

It was nearly a year ago that I blogged with profuse apologies about making a corn and tomato galette over the first weekend of November. I'd just discovered a blog with the full monty of beautiful food porn called Alexandra's Kitchen. Her photos are just so gorgeous that I just wanted to start making her recipes on the spot, they looked that delicious. While the result of my November undertaking was pretty damn good, I've been wanting to revisit the same recipe all summer long this year to atone for having made the dish in the fall when both tomatoes and corn were past their prime. This tart is for me the quintessence of summer's bounty, but I guess I'm just too busy going to the beach to actually make it in the summer!

Well, this past weekend was fall by the calendar yet sunny and warm during the day. And having bought on Saturday what is probably the last of the season's corn at the farmers market (this corn is not for eating off the cob but rather cooking in soups and in my favorite succotash that I will probably use as stuffing in some globe zucchini as a final good-bye to summer, but I digress) along with some pretty nice looking tomatoes, I knew Sunday morning had to be a revisit to this corn and tomato galette. (I know, late to the party again, but truth be told I was only able last year to make the galette in November because I'd bought corn and kept it past its prime in the fridge for two weeks! And while it was still good enough to ccok and eat, this recipe deserves quality ingredients--and a nice side salad, and the warm sun on your cheek as you enjoy it with a bellini to capture the summer's best offerings.)

As per my usual of late in maintaining my ethos of "eating down the fridge," I was also inclined to make this recipe because I had two cheeses in my fridge I wanted to make good use of before they might go bad, in this case goat cheese and ricotta I'd purchased at the farmers market the previous week. Having made this recipe just once and blogged about the result, I'd thought that it had a layer of creme fraiche on its bottom that was then layered with sauteed corn and onion before being topped by the thick tomato slices. Only after I'd made the crust did I realize that my memory had failed me slightly in that I was combining the ingredients for Alexandra's quiche recipe, which has homemade creme fraiche, with the ingredients for the tomato galette, which has no cheese base but has lots of grated cheese either above or below the tomatoes. No worries! A quick whisk to combine the chevre and ricotta on hand with a dash or two of goat's milk and an egg, some dried thyme, and salt and pepper and I had a beautiful cheese bed upon which to lay my sauteed corn and onion and the sliced tomatoes.

Also, I keep referring to this recipe as a galette, i.e. a free form tart that is not baked in a special pan. The ingredients are laid in the middle of the rolled-out dough, leaving a two inch border that is then folded and pleated over the contents to form a rustic tart that is baked and sliced up almost like a thick piece of pizza. However, I wanted to make the dish in my rectangular tart pan which I'd bought for an asparagus recipe of Jamie Oliver's that is delicious but a bit too much work so I've only ever used the pan once before. Added bonus is that rolling the dough out into a rectangle vs. a circle is rather easy so getting the dough to fit into my tart pan was quite easy. Ironically, Alexandra's galette recipe was a redux of her original tart preparation, which she had first made in a round tart pan. What with the addition of my cheesy base layer, I guess I can call this recipe my own for my return trip, which I happily present below. Also, do yourself a favor and double the pastry recipe, which I foolishly did not do. I can guarantee that you'll want to make it again for this recipe or a quiche or even a peach pie!

Tomato Tart with Corn, Basil, and Chevre

Serves 4 to 6

Pastry recipe

Adapted from Alexandra Stafford's adaptation from Fine Cooking, August 2000

1-1/4 cups (5 oz.) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (1-1/2 oz.) fine yellow cornmeal [I used masa harina as I tend to buy medium rather than fine corn meal]
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
6 T. (3 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
3 T. olive oil
1/4 cup ice water

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Cut in the chilled butter using a stand mixer, a food processor, or a pastry blender until it’s evenly distributed but still in large, visible pieces. Add the olive oil and ice water a tablespoon at a time and mix until the dough begins to come together. It should still be separate crumbs mostly. Gather the dough with your hands and shape it into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. [Tip: It's best to make this dough the day before you need it because of the blind baking step which adds to the prep time. If impatient like me you can place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes and then put in the fridge until ready to use.]

Filling

1 large and 2 small to medium ripe tomatoes (about 1 pound total) cut into 1/3-inch slices, lightly salted and draining on paper towels as you go about preparing the onions and corn
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 large red onion, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Kernels from 2 ears of corn (generous 1 cup) [Tip: to cut corn off the cob without the kernels flying everywhere, hold the ear upright on your cutting board, but start cutting halfway down the ear, rotating to remove all the corn from one half of the ear; turn the ear over and repeat for the half you were holding. Voila! Corn on the cutting board (mostly) and not on your counter, plus your fingertips are well away from your knife blade!]
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bunch basil coarsely chopped to yield about 1/2 cup
8 oz. soft cheese such as goat cheese or ricotta
2 -3 Tbs. milk
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste.
1 recipe cornmeal pastry (see above)
1/4 cup grated semi-hard or hard cheese, such as manchego or parmesan
Garnish of your choice: chopped parsley, chives, basil or scallion, optional

Adjust an oven rack to the center position and heat the oven to 375°F.

Prep the onions and corn: Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until softened but not browned, about 10 min. Season with salt and pepper. Add the corn and cook another 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and mix in the garlic and chopped basil, letting the mixture cool in the pan.

Blind bake the tart shell: Meanwhile, if it's been long enough to firm up the dough, roll it out on a floured surface until big enough to fit your tart pan. Transfer the pastry to your tart pan and fit it into the sides without stretching. Trim off any excess and if necessary patch the dough where needed by moistening the edge with water and fitting the extra piece into the bare spot. Prick the bottom all over with a fork and lay a piece of parchment paper larger than the tart pan into the bottom. Fill the parchment paper with pie weights (I use about a pound of beans and rice reserved for this purpose) and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove the parchment and pie weights to a bowl and let cool for use another day. Return the tart to the oven for another 10 minutes until it becomes golden brown. Let cool slightly. [Tart crust can be prepared a day in advance. Wrap the tart pan in plastic wrap once cool and store at room temperature.]

Prep the chevre base layer: Whisk together the goat cheese, egg, thyme, salt and pepper with 2 tablespoons of the milk until a smooth spreadable consistency. If too thick, add some milk a little bit at at a time until the mixture is spreadable like cake frosting. Spread the cheese mixture into the bottom of the slightly cooled tart crust using a rubber spatula or the back of a spoon. Layer the onion and corn mixture on top. Pat the tomato slices dry with a paper towel and arrange decoratively on top of the corn mixture. Fit the tomatoes snugly without overlapping as they will shrink as the tart bakes. Sprinkle or grate some parmesan or other cheese over the top of the tomatoes.

Bake and serve: Bake until the crust has browned and the tomatoes have roasted and shriveled slightly, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Slice the tart and serve with the herb or scallion garnish of your choice (which I forgot to do as you see in the picture below cuz I was so eager to taste this bad boy).

Ina Garten's Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream

2010-09-30T12:40:00.000-04:00

The other day I offered to bring cupcakes to work for a co-worker's last day celebration. Volunteering for this duty turned out to be fortuitous on many levels as I'll explain below, but let me tell you that these bad boys turned out to be a frabjous (word of the day on my Droid dictionary app) treat enjoyed by all. Moist and chocolatey, they're a great thing in a small package, somewhere smack in the middle of cake-like and fudge-like, which is a description so often used to describe brownies. They're moist AND light without being dense. In fact, because the chocolate in this recipe comes from Hershey's syrup and uses only one cup of flour, the batter was much thinner than I expected,* but they came together just fine.

The cupcake trend--shops galore, cupcakes in lieu of wedding cakes, etc.--has more than worn out its welcome in my book. But because I get so tired of being subjected to the many store bought items that come into the office, and because the person leaving was someone I'd worked with closely over the last few months, I wanted to make the gift a bit more personal, and so I volunteered.

Mind you I was more than a bit tired perusing my cupcake repertoire after dinner the other night because I'd been out to the Washington Nationals' p enultimate home game the night before in which they beat the Phillies the day after the Phillies beat the Nats to clinch the NL East title. I only had enough mojo to settle on a cupcake recipe of Ina's though I did not intend to make the chocolate ganache frosting (video here) she recommended to go along with them and couldn't even make her peanut butter frosting as we were out of peanut butter! Since my partner Brian warned me (correctly) that tahini might not be a good substitution for the peanut butter in this instance, I had to find an alternative that was quick and easy and wouldn't use an excess of butter since most of mine was frozen. I was too tired to find a frosting recipe to go with but resolved to find something on the web that would use chocolate hazelnut spread, i.e. Nutella, and went to bed, planning to get up at 5:00 the next morning to start baking. (Personally, I've always done better getting up early rather than staying up late when I need extra hours to get something done.)

Very often when I offer to bring something to share it's because I've a benign ulterior motive to make use of something at home that I have in excess or that I want to use before I forget about it and it ends up at the back of the cupboard, expiration date long since overdue! I went a bit crazy at Chocolate World at Hershey Park over the summer and hadn't used any of the special dark cocoa powder I'd purchased, not to mention the cinnamon chips! But the clincher for me was that this particular cupcake recipe uses neither cocoa nor melted chocolate but rather chocolate syrup, Hershey's recommended.

As it happened, I'd also purchased Hershey's special dark syrup and was dismayed upon first using it and looking at the ingredient list that it's sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. "Corn sugar" is not something we consume unless it comes with the corn itself, so I was more than happy to use up almost all of this chocolate syrup to make cupcakes for my co-workers. I'd never seen this particular type of chocolate syrup anywhere before which made me buy it, and according to some of the reviews on Amazon, it's apparently hard to find and somewhat expensive (I think I paid $3-$4 for 22 ounces). Even Wal-Mart won't tell you what the price is unless you're willing to go to one of their stores with the UPC in hand!

Reading some of the reviews, I wonder now if it was this special dark syrup that made the cupcakes so delicious. One person said of this syrup that it's "chocolate syrup for adults. It is not overly sweet, with a rich chocolate taste, but not bitter as you usually imagine dark chocolate to be." That is exactly how my cupcakes tasted. So I was definitely pleased that I was able to use up nearly all of this special dark syrup and I'm sure it made better cupcakes than the canned version of the syrup recommended by Ms. Ina.

Deciding to use the chocolate syrup and to make Nutella frosting were based on a similar line of thinking on my part of wanting to "eat down the fridge" as it were. I've always loved Nutella, especially after a trip we took to the Netherlands a few years back for a bike trip and learned to appreciate how the Dutch and other Europeans use it to spread on bread and bananas for breakfast and snacking just as we Amerians do with peanut butter. But the chocolate hazelnuttiness of it all just makes it seem so much more sophisticated! Still, I have been known to let it languish on the shelf and one time had to throw a jar away as it smelled and tasted way off. I think people let items in the pantry, fridge, and spice rack accumulate for fear that when something is needed it might mean a trip to the store. This "bird in the hand" mentality--which I first heard from my grandmother I'm sure--leads to holding onto things rather than letting them go so new things can come into your now opened hands. Besides, I know that I have a well stocked pantry/fridge/spice rack so I'm just not afraid of making substitutions.

In looking for the Nutella frosting recipe I found a website dedicated to this foodstuff that had numerous recipes in honor of World Nutella Day on February 5th each year. Who knew of this annual commemoration and didn't tell me? I've already marked my calendar though! I found one frosting recipe that only used 5 tablespoons of butter, a cup of Nutella, and a cup of confectioners sugar, as opposed to other recipes that used more sugar and butter. However, it also called for cream which I didn't have. Thanks to the internet, I learned that cream can be substituted in a recipe by using butter (I ended up using the whole stick) and whole milk. Voila!

As it happened, a friend gave us another brand of chocolate hazelnut spread that requires refrigeration so I was all too happy to use up all of the Nutella on hand plus more than half the jar of the other spread, which means I'm nearly ready to buy new when I see it on sale or I see another brand that I might like to try. So, here is my take on one of the many Barefoot Contessa cupcake recipes with Nutella frosting on top just for fun.

Chocolate cupcake by way of Hershey Park and Nutella.

Chocolate Cupcakes Made with Hershey's Special Dark Syrup

Adapted from the Ina Garten's recipe found on the Food Network

Makes 12 [my recipe produced 16 cupcakes actually*]

Ingredients
1/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
11 fluid ounces chocolate syrup (recommended: Hershey's)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions

Line muffin pans with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in the chocolate syrup and vanilla. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Don't overbeat, or the cupcakes will be tough.
Scoop the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 30 minutes, or until just set in the middle. Don't overbake! Let the cupcakes cool thoroughly in the pan.

Nutella Frosting
Courtesy The Unrepentant Carbivore for World Nutella Day
Makes more than enough for 16 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup Nutella
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature [I used a whole stick...]
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream [...and used 2 tablespoons whole milk instead of the cream]

Place the confectioners' sugar, Nutella, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

* Egads! The cooking time to bring this chocolatey magic together was 15 minutes longer for me than the recommended time. But that's because I printed this recipe in 2006(yes that means I'd banked this recipe for four years!), and my printout says 16 ounces of chocolate syrup. However, on the FN website today 11 ounces of syrup is in the recipe. No wonder my batter was so fluid and I got four additional cupcakes out of the recipe! I even had to increase the oven temperature for the last 15 minutes and was going to therefore recommend 350 degrees for the duration rather than 325. However, with less syrup in the batter, the cupcake batter won't be so wet and might finish baking in 30 minutes. Still, no one complained about the results, which were more than worth the time and effort.

Winter Comfort Food I: Molly Stevens' Braised Stuffed Lamb

2010-02-10T07:14:00.012-05:00

It's winter on the East Coast and it's supposed to be cold I always say! But DC has been walloped with three storms in 8 days making this winter the snowiest on record ever. The capital of the free world has been shut down for four and a half days as I write this, and we have been hunkered down in our condo for seven days!

At the beginning it was all fun and novel. There were tweets for mass snowball fights at Dupont Circle and other locales. Brian and I went cross country skiing out our front door and were interviewed by journalists from Finland and Belgium. I was even photographed by the AP! Back before the cabin fever set in, we even decided to have some friends over for dinner on the Saturday night of Snow-pocalypse. No one would be going out to the movies or to any bars or anything. So why stay home watching the tube when you can hang out with friends over some cozy comfort food?

Comfort food usually involves two things: the oven and foods from childhood, including Sunday suppers like roasted chicken, meatloaf, casseroles, etc. and for me, especially something braised in red wine using my French (nee Dutch) oven. And so it was that I consulted my braising bible (All About Braising by Molly Stevens) and my freezer to see what might intersect. I was thinking about revisiting my EDF (eating down the fridge) meal of beef burgundy which I love to make, but the freezer only gave up a ham and a boneless lamb leg, which I'd bought last summer (gasp!) imagining I'd be grilling it with a yogurt marinade. Molly's recipe for the lamb is actually the cover recipe for her cookbook. It was a little less complicated than the ham recipe that calls for madeira, which I don't have, while the lamb preparation called for a red wine braise, and our wine cabinet is still full of bottles received at our annual holiday party.

Molly's braised lamb stuffed with herbs was an uncomplicated preparation with simple, accessible ingredients. Most braised meat dishes follow a simple five step cooking process:

Brown the meat on the outside and set aside
Cook the aromatic vegetables (usually, onions, carrots, garlic, etc.)
Deglaze with wine and stock and reduce
Return the meat to the pan and simmer for two plus hours until the meat is super tender
Finish the sauce by reducing and thickening if desired

Normally I like to do a braised meat dish a day ahead, letting it cool in its braising liquid and really soak up the flavors. A simple reheat before serving and no one would complain about being served leftovers. This post cooking marinade guarantees tenderness and full umami as most braised dishes do indeed taste better the next day. But Friday evening was taken up with baking bread, so I decided to just make the lamb the evening it would be served. Give yourself a good 45 minutes to prepare the stuffing, brown the lamb, saute the veggies, and reduce the braising liquid before the dish is to go in the oven for its two and a half hours. Molly doesn't recommend it here, but I also decided to marinate the lamb in red wine for almost a day. Not a requirement but just my take that marinading up front is also beneficial.

Molly's recipe calls for a 5 pound boneless leg of lamb, while I had on hand a frozen 3.25 pound boneless leg. I kept all her proportions the same for the aromatics and the stuffing, figuring that any extra sauce would make a delicious soup the next day (which it did with aplomb with a simple addition of some additional aromatics, stock, tomatoes, leftover green beans, and leftover penne!).

The only substitution I had to make was curly parsley for flat leaf. I never buy curly parsley! Who would have thought that my local Yes Organic Market would have had a run on the flat leaf parsley during the storms? Herbiage not withstanding, here is this very simple and delicious meal, perfect for a cold winter night. Serving it with polenta and green beans couldn't have been homier!

Herb Stuffed Leg of Lamb Braised in Red Wine

Adapted from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

Yield: Serves 6 to 8

Cooking Time: 2 to 2 ½ hours

Ingredients

One 5-pound boneless leg of lamb (plus reserved bones, sawed or chopped into 1-inch pieces; optional); [Mine was just 3¼ pounds]
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

The stuffing:

½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley; stems reserved [I had to use curly!]
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, mint, rosemary, and/or sage (in any combination) [I used all except the sage]
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon ground allspice

The braise:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion (about 8 ounces), coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme, mint, rosemary, and/or sage (the same combination you used in the stuffing)
2 bay leaves
Reserved parsley stems from the stuffing, torn into 4-inch lengths
1 cup dry red wine
2 cups lamb, veal, or chicken stock, homemade or store-bought [I happened to have a combo of homemade beef and lamb stock that I'd made after Christmas using bones from a rib roast and a leg of lamb.]

Directions:

1. Trimming the lamb: open the lamb out flat, fat side down, on your work surface. If there are any especially thick spots, make a lengthwise incision with a knife, without cutting through the meat, and lay it open like a book. You want to get the meat as even in thickness as possible while keeping it intact. Season the cut side generously with salt and pepper.

2. The stuffing: in a small bowl, combine the parsley, mixed herbs, shallot, garlic, and allspice. Stir until evenly mixed together.

3. Stuffing and shaping the lamb: spread the stuffing over the cut side of the leg of lamb with a rubber spatula [I used my hands]. Press the stuffing into the meat with your hands to make it adhere, and spread it around so that it covers the entire inside surface. Roll the lamb up into a cylinder, and tie it neatly and snugly with kitchen string. Season the outside of the meat with salt and pepper. (The lamb can be prepared to this point and refrigate for up to 18 hours before braising. When you are ready to braise the lamb, remove it from the refrigerator, and let it sit at room temperature while you heat the oven.)

4. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

5. Browning the lamb: add the oil to a heavy lidded Dutch oven or braising pan just large enough to hold the lamb (5-quart), and heat it over medium-high heat until it simmers. Lower the lamb into the pot with tongs, and brown it evenly, turning to brown all sides, until mahogany in spots but not at all burnt, 10 to 12 minutes total. Transfer the lamb to a platter. Add the bones to the pot if you have them, and brown them as best you can without charring, turning them ever 4 minutes, for about 12 minutes. Set aside with the lamb. Pour off all but about 1 tablespoon of fat from the pot. If the bottom is at all blackened, wipe those bits out with a damp paper towel, doing your best to leave behind the caramelized juices.

6. The aromatics and braising liquid: return the pot to medium-high heat, add the onion and carrots, and sauté, stirring, until beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir it in with a wooden spoon so it coats the carrots and onions. Add the teaspoon of herbs, the bay leaves, and parsley stems. Pour in the wine and bring it to a boil, stirring and scraping with the spoon to dislodge all those wonderful caramelized bits stuck to the bottom of the pot from browning the lab. Boil to reduce the wine by about half, about 2 minutes. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Continue to boil, stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes allowing the flavors to meld.

7. The braise: return the lamb to the pot, along with any juices that have seeped from the meat, and tuck the bones, if using, around the meat. Cover with a piece of parchment paper, pressing down so the paper nearly touched the meat and the edges extend over the sides of the pot by about an inch. Then put the lid in place, and slide the pot onto a rack in the lower third of the oven. After about 15 minutes, check to see that the liquid is simmering gently, not aggressively. If it’s simmering too vigorously, lower the oven heat 10 or 15 degrees. Continue to braise, turning the lamb with tongs and basting once or twice, until the meat is fork-tender and cooked through, 2 to 2 ½ hours.

8. The finish: transfer the lamb to a carving board with moat or platter to catch the juices, and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Strain the pan juices into a saucepan, and skim off and discard excess fat – there may be as much ½ cup, so it’s a good chance to use your gravy separator, if you have one. Bring the sauce to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes t concentrate the flavor and thicken it some. Taste: if it tastes too brothy, boil for another 3 or 4 minutes. Taste again for salt and pepper.

9. Serving: remove the string from the lamb, pour any juices that have accumulated on the carving board into the sauce, and carve the lamb into ½ inch slices. Arrange the slices on dinner plates or a serving platter, and pour over enough sauce to moisten. Pass the remaining sauce at the table.

Note on working ahead: The lamb can be seasoned, rolled, tied, covered, and refrigerated up to 18 hours before braising (steps 1 and 2) [I simply marinated mine in the red wine.]

Absolutely the Last Gasp of Summer: Alexandra's Tomato Galette

2009-11-03T15:44:00.009-05:00

It's completely inappropriate to blog about a tomato and corn recipe in November. I know. However, if you're a huge summer tomato fan and a lover of fresh corn--as I am as a proud New Jersey native--you love both of these foods and you seek to celebrate them, especially when they get together, as in this wonderful end of summer soup. But when I discover a recipe this good (even in the fall when even the farmers market purveyors will tell you that the corn and tomatoes are past their prime), I have to blog!

So what can I say? I'll start by saying, "Mea culpa," and then offer profuse apologies for recommending a recipe that you really shouldn't make until next July. Second, this is late because I'm backed up in my blog postings by about three weeks (you should see all my draft posts awaiting publication!). And third, I can truthfully claim that I made this recipe from ingredients bought at my local farmers market in mid October, thus allowing me to adhere to my locavore orthodoxy.

As mentioned in my previous blog posting, I have a few new favorite blogs, among them Alexandra's Kitchen, which was mentioned in the Bitten column as (drum rolls please) "The First Featured Reader Blog." I clicked on over and was seduced by the beautiful photography and immediately wanted to make the quiche (and homemade creme fraiche) but then I realized I had on hand the corn and tomatoes to use and settled on the tomato galette with cornmeal pastry while my creme yogurt-ized itself into creme fraiche. Of course then I saw a link to the artisan bread and I thought, "Thank God it's the weekend otherwise I'd have to lose sleep to get through all these recipes that are on her first page alone!"

So Friday night a couple weeks ago was devoted to making the galette and the bread dough, which worked out fine really. Once I'd made the corn meal pastry, I switched to the bread dough while the pastry rested, and then let the bread dough do its rise while I went about sauteing the onions and corn for the galette. By the time the galette came out of the oven, the dough had completed its rise and was placed in the fridge to rest until baking the next morning. (Incidentally, you know you're more than slightly food-obsessed when you're glad to have no plans on a Friday night so that you can have an intimate evening at home with both pastry and bread dough.)

Since I'd a mind to make the quiche that Sunday, I doubled the corn meal pastry dough rather than make dough from scratch twice in the same weekend. (Unless I have dough in the freezer I usually double any pastry recipe to save time when I next want to bake something that needs a crust.) The recommended quiche pastry does not have corn meal in it all, but I had every confidence that the galette recipe would be perfectly fine for both preparations since I love corn meal biscuits and cobblers and such. Turns out my corn meal had some critters growing in it, so I had to throw it out. I don't blame the producer at all just because I haven't been making enough polenta and corn bread lately. My fault entirely! But fortunately I had some masa harina which I used in the same proportion and it provided the same corn flavor. The dough seemed a bit wet, but once it rested for an hour (or more actually as I was multitasking away), it rolled out beautifully.

I almost wasn't going to reproduce the recipe here and just direct you to Alexandra's recipe. Her writing is witty and her photos are amazing. But I feared my gentle readers might abandon me for greener pastures. So you may click over to her space if you promise to click back. (Just kidding.) So here is a recipe that I would ask you to make next summer if you can wait! It really is so delicious with heirloom tomatoes, corn, and the corn meal crust that you'll be glad you decided to wait. I promise!

Tomato and Corn Galette

Adapted from Alexandra Stafford's adaptation from Fine Cooking, August 2000

Heirloom tomato slices in place atop the corn, onion, and basil mixture

1-1/4 cups (5 oz.) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (1-1/2 oz.) fine yellow cornmeal [I used masa harina]
1 tsp. sugar
1-1/4 tsp. salt
6 T. (3 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
3 T. olive oil
1/4 cup ice water

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/2 bunch basil or tarragon, washed, dried, and coarsely chopped, (to yield about 1/2 cup); plus 10 whole leaves
Kernels from 1 ear of corn (about 1 cup)
1 recipe Cornmeal Galette Dough (see above)
1 large or 2 medium ripe tomatoes (about 3/4 lb. total) cut into 1/3-inch slices, drained on paper towels
3 oz. Comté or Gruyère cheese, shredded [I used manchego actually and I'd be hard pressed to think of a cheese that wouldn't work well here.]
1 large egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp. milk or cream

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan, preferably nonstick, over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 10 min. Season with salt and pepper. Add the garlic, chopped basil, and corn and cook for 30 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside to cool.
Adjust an oven rack to the center position and heat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet, preferably one without sides, with kitchen parchment. (If your baking sheet has sides, flip it over and use the back.)
Roll the dough on a floured surface into a 15-inch round, lifting the dough with a metal spatula as you roll to make sure it’s not sticking. If it is, dust the surface with more flour. Transfer it by rolling it around the rolling pin and unrolling it on the lined baking sheet.
Spread the onion and corn mixture over the dough, leaving a 2-inch border without filling. Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer over the onions and season them with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the cheese over the tomatoes. [Here's where Alexandra's pictures don't match the recipe instructions as her beautiful heirloom tomatoes are clearly visible in the finished product. I followed her written directions and topped the tomatoes with the cheese.] Lift the edges of the dough and fold them inward over the filling, pleating as you go, to form a folded-over border. Pinch together any tears in the dough. Brush the egg yolk and milk mixture over the exposed crust.
Bake until the crust has browned and the cheese has melted, 35 to 45 min. Slide the galette off the parchment and onto a cooling rack. Let cool for 10 min. Stack the remaining 10 basil leaves and use a sharp knife to cut them into a chiffonade. Cut the galette into wedges, sprinkle with the basil, and serve.

More Blog Inspirations and Improvements

2009-10-22T17:08:00.015-04:00

Another of my cell phone pics of great pumpkins galore!

Last week I was so proud of myself for having updated the look of my little blog from summer to fall with more seasonal colors and a picture of pumpkins taken at Jones Family Farms in Connecticut. Then this past Friday's Bitten column, which I didn't see until Monday, pointed out a blog with jaw-dropping photography and food styling. Talk about food porn to drool over! Puts my little cell phone pics like the one above that I was sooooooo proud of to shame! And dammit, don't you know this blog--Alexandra's Kitchen--is so well written that my mouth was watering as I considered how I might be able to work her quiche recipe--which is adapted from the Tartine cookbook--into my rotation as I cannot wait until Sunday brunch.

Quiche though? I thought that quiche was out in favor of fritata (no crust to make, chill and roll out, right?), but now quiche is probably back in in some sort of retro way and I missed the article in the Times that Wednesday! Well then quiche it shall be, perhaps for dinner on Friday? On top of that Alexandra's quiche uses creme fraiche which is footnoted in case you might want to make your own, and who wouldn't? The food lust is taking over! You have to check out Alexandra's photography page too BTW for a veritable centerfold of food porn! My only consolation is that, like me, Alexandra doesn't necessarily post often.

Leonor de Sousa Bastos' Flagrante Delicia is another exquisite blog, this one from a Portuguese pastry chef whose work is seductively photographed by her blog partner, himself a professional photographer. Somehow Alexandra's Kitchen led me to Flagrante Delicia (perhaps via Serious Eats?) but I don't feel like retracing my history to get the exact link. The first recipe I saw was her yogurt cake garnished with pomegranate seeds that looked luminescent! I mean, yogurt cake? With pomegranate seeds? Come on! Of course I will be preparing!

So I've updated my humble little blog with some links to some other preferred blogs and food sites, as well as a search and RSS subscription. All of which is humorous to me as this blog is most likely read by a mere handful of stalwarts, so who's going to subscribe? I like Aaron Kagan's take on the whole blog thang with this quote from his blog Tea and Food:

"I don't describe this process [making steak] because I feel that it's the best, or even because I want others to follow my technique, which isn't even "my" technique but something I once read somewhere. I share this information in the democratic and confessional spirit of food blogging: this is what I do, know that, and now go do what you do."

Most people who even respond to my blog postings do so via my Facebook/Notes links, and I'm sure as many of my friends are as pissed off at my food obsessions as other friends may be intrigued. So to anyone reading this, my sincere thanks for indulging my musings and reading my indulgences!

A Good-bye to Summer's Bounty: Lynn Alley's Three Sisters Stew

2009-10-21T00:02:00.011-04:00

These three sisters--corn, beans, and squash--really rock it when they get together! I love food names like this that tell a bit of a story, like moros y cristianos for Cuban black beans and rice. The three sisters were often grown as a trio by Native Americans in parts of North America. Corn is the eldest sister who allows the beans to climb while the broad leaves of squash shade the soil, keeping it moist and blocking weeds from seeing the sun.

It was last fall, perhaps after a visit to the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian, that I first heard of the three sisters. The cafeteria in this museum is probably the best--and most expensive--on the National Mall (the National Gallery of Art also has good eats IMHO) and features regional dishes inspired by the original inhabitants of the Americas. Was it a three sisters casserole that caught my eye that day? I can't quite remember, but I began bookmarking recipes last October, mindful that I would be revisiting this dish in my future.

The recipes that I found, however, seemed too hybrid Italian. One used a sage pesto with pine nuts and another was a pasta casserole for two. But a couple of days ago a co-worker and I were discussing his love of home cooked beans from scratch vs. the can. There's really no debate. Sure it's easy to open a can and no pantry should be without a few cans of beans like chickpeas, cannelinis, and/or black beans. But cooking beans oneself from dried beans is laughably simple, not to mention healthy and affordable. So he got me thinking that I too should be economizing and making beans from scratch, especially because it can all be done in the slow cooker while I'm out for the day.

Serendipitously I found a recipe in The Gourmet Slow Cooker Volume II for a three sisters stew, full of New World ingredients (i.e. Mexican) only. The other thing I liked about this recipe is that Lynn doesn't recommend soaking the beans overnight nor doing the quick soak (bring beans to a boil for a couple minutes then turn off the heat and let sit for an hour or two). While it's not a big deal to remember a day ahead that tomorrow is bean cooking day, I may not know until I've gotten up in the morning that I want beans for dinner that night so the soaking window might be closed.

There is debate among the culinary cognoscenti about the necessity of soaking anyway. Any authentic Mexican cookbook will not recommend the soak. Recipes I've seen from Europe as well as conventional wisdom usually insist on the soak. Rick Bayless scoffs at the idea and he's got the whole of Mexico to back him up. Without the soak, the beans may take longer to cook, but cooking beans isn't like cooking pasta in that the cooking time may vary widely depending on the beans themselves and how old they are anyway (older beans may take longer to come to doneness). I wasn't concerned though because I put the beans in my six quart slow cooker at 8:00 in the morning and knew that I wouldn't be home until after 6:00 so ten hours had to be long enough and it was.

Perhaps my beans were a bit overdone because some of them had given up a lot of starch and really thickened the stew beautifully IMO, but I could still see whole beans. That might also have occurred because I used both black beans and pink beans and probably different types of beans cook at different paces. If I were making a dish where most beans had to be kept whole, the super long cook might have been an issue, but that didn't matter for making a stew. In fact I was tempted to add a chopped up square of baking chocolate a la Tyler Florence to add even more silkiness, but refrained since I was interested in trying the dish as written since it was my first time preparing.

A lot of Amazon reviews for Lynn's slow cooker recipes criticize her for adding steps of grinding spices or browning meat or sauteing onions and garlic on the stove top. When slow cookers first became popular in the 1970s in the heyday of "convenience cooking" (when I was growing up incidentally), the "dump in all your ingredients in the morning and come home to your delicious dinner at the end of the day" was the selling point and this mentality has persisted to this day in some quarters. However, the slow cooker is not a magical cooking vessel. The end result depends on the quality of your ingredients and the steps taken to ensure a delicious result. This may often necessitate doing part of the preparation on top of the stove. Anyone who's made chili in a slow cooker is probably used to this idea as ground meat always has to be browned before adding. And if you're using preground spices, I'd just use the same amount as for whole. Whenever I measure whole seeds, I never level so a rounded teaspoon of whole seeds approximates closely enough a level measure of the same spice in my experience.

Now I'm going to sound like a hypocrite because I did not follow my own recommendation! I did not brown the onion at all, but just added it right in with the beans and chicken stock in the first step. The Three Sisters Stew is nearly a dish that follows the 1970s ethos of dump it all in and come home to a delicious meal. This was a move of pure laziness as I was trying to get to work and hadn't given myself enough time to saute the onion. I can't say that the dish suffered at all, but I'll attribute half of that to the quality of my spices and other ingredients from the farmers market. But browning meat? That is a step that should never be omitted.

Finally, this recipe defied other bean hegemony in addition to the no soak. I added marinara sauce to the beans from the beginning. Now I'd always heard that cooking beans in acidic liquid keeps them from reaching doneness, so I was skeptical of cooking the beans with a tomato based sauce, but no worries, mate! Perhaps ten hours was enough to overcome the situation, perhaps it was never a problem to begin with!

Three Sisters Stew
Adapted from Lynn Alley’s The Gourmet Slow Cooker Volume II: Regional Comfort-Food Classics
Makes 4 to 6 servings

2 cups dried pinto, Anasazi or red beans, rinsed [I used a half pound each of black and pink beans]
8 cups water or stock [I used chicken stock]
1 cup tomato or marinara sauce
1 tablespoon olive or corn oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 tablespoon canned chili in adobo sauce, with sauce
1 poblano chili, seeded and chopped [I used two poblanos]
2 cloves garlic, chopped [I used 5 cloves of roasted garlic that I happened to have on hand]
1 pound chorizo sausage, sliced [I used 12 ounces of chicken and turkey habanero sausage, obviously not included for a vegetarian stew]
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, crushed [next time I'll toast the spices before crushing]
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 ears corn, cut into 2-inch lengths [I trimmed the kernels off the cob instead because it's easier to eat that way]
2 zucchini squash, sliced [1 pound of trimmed mini patty pan squash would do nicely here as they hold their shape after prolonged cooking]
1 cup beer
Salt and pepper to taste
chopped cilantro, optional
sour cream, optional

Combine beans, water and tomato sauce in the slow cooker. Heat oil in large saute pan over medium-high. Saute onion for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned. [I’m a total hypocrite for not doing this step but I was pressed for time!] Transfer to the slow cooker; add chilis and garlic. [Next time I might just add the whole sausages at this step to let them steep in the stew, but maybe they would add too much salt and/or acidity] Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours, until the beans are very tender.

Brown chorizo in a saute pan over medium-high heat, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain. Add the chorizo, cumin, coriander, chili powder, corn, zucchini and beer to the cooker and continue cooking for 1 hour, until the zucchini is tender and the corn is cooked. Season to taste with salt. Serve hot, garnished with cilantro and sour cream.

Chris Kimball's Sweet and Sour Apple and Fennel Coleslaw

2009-10-19T16:52:00.012-04:00

This past Saturday in Washington, DC was rainy and reportedly a record cold day, but that didn't stop me from getting up early and eager to hit the farmers' market after a four week hiatus. Having recently "eaten down the fridge," I had every excuse to replenish my stocks and as unseasonably cold as it was, the slow cooker would be part of the plan. I made a small list and looked up some recipes and found one that I'd made more than a year ago (Carolina pulled pork barbecue) and one that had been on my mind for over a year (three sisters stew).

The three sisters stew (corn, squash, and beans) is something that I will blog about more extensively after preparing the dish, but suffice it to say that I was very glad that so late in the season I was still able to get corn and zucchini. The pork shoulder for Carolina barbecue had to come from my favorite meat purveyor at the market who has actually spoiled me as far as pork products are concerned. Farm raised and succulent, I imagine his pork products taste the storied way pork used to taste before the pork industry decided to lean pork out and market it as "the other white meat." I know that I'll be building my pork and bacon reserves over the next four weeks because once the market finishes for the year the weekend before Thanksgiving, I won't be buying any pork again until the spring. Sniff!

Having spent the long Columbus Day weekend in Asheville, NC and enjoying some really good Carolina and Texas barbecue at Ed Boudroux's, a place in the heart of Asheville recommended by a friend, I was happy to come home and try my hand once more at a very simple slow cooker preparation. This provided an excuse to make my signature hamburger buns and my favorite coleslaw recipe using apples and fennel. Chris Kimball's coleslaw recipe always gets rave reviews because it has some ingredients that people aren't expecting like apples. He has another Asian coleslaw recipe that I also like to make that has a spicy peanut flavored dressing.

Kimball caused a bit of a stink in the food blogosphere recently regarding his take on the demise of Gourmet, which was published in the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times. Personally I've never had a problem with the man, having enjoyed his appearances on morning television and NPR on various occasions, and America's Test Kitchen is an old school PBS stalwart of a cooking show that's all about the technique and not about the glam. But he really dissed the current state of food writing and concluded his piece with a decidedly elitist tone and even had the nerve to presume the views of the deceased Mme. Child after name dropping that he was a neighbor and frequent guest at her home. Since I'm not in the big leagues with my personal little blog space, I can's say that I took offense, but others certainly did and Amateur Gourmet as well as Serious Eats had pretty good rejoinders old guard vs. the new.

Kimball's opinions on the publishing world vs. the blogosphere notwithstanding, his coleslaw recipe is pretty simple and never fails to impress. The technique of using salt to draw out the moisture and wilt the cabbage is one I first saw in Japan in a cooking class I took there. Having made this slaw so many times over the years, I have adapted certain parts of the recipe to make it my own, the most significant being the use of dill instead of tarragon, and the addition of bell pepper, carrots, and radishes, which just makes the slaw more flavorful and visually appealing.

Coleslaw with Apple, Fennel, and Dill
Adapted from Chris Kimball's Sweet and Sour Slaw with Apple and Fennel as demonstrated on Martha Stewart's old TV show

Makes about 10 cups

1 pound (about half a medium head) green cabbage, finely shredded [savoy or Chinese cabbage works nicely because they hold the dressing nicely]
1 medium head fennel, thinly sliced (about 2 1/2 cups)
2 large carrots peeled and thinly sliced in rounds
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped [I used a whole onion]
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons rice-wine vinegar [I used apple cider vinegar]
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon celery seed [my addition]
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch pieces [any firm apple will do and I don't necessarily bother peeling]
1 sweet bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow) cut into 1/2 inch pieces
6 radishes thinly sliced
2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon leaves [replaced by 1/3 cup chopped dill]
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Toss cabbage, with salt in a colander or large mesh strainer set over a medium bowl. [Chris just has you wilt the cabbage with the salt, but I like to also wilt the fennel and carrot at the same time] Let stand until cabbage wilts, 1 to 4 hours. Rinse under cold running water (or in large bowl of ice water if serving slaw immediately). Press, but do not squeeze, to drain; pat dry with paper towels. (Can be stored in a resealable plastic bag and refrigerated overnight.)
Stir together honey, vinegar, oil, mustard, and celery seed in a medium bowl and set dressing aside.
Toss the cabbage, fennel, carrot, apple, pepper, radishes, and tarragon [I prefer dill] with the dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper. [You probably won't need much salt.] Cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

New look for the blog!

2009-10-17T08:37:00.008-04:00

The look of old

Inspired by a page over at the Smitten Kitchen and after a friend told me that some of the pumpkin pics I'd taken with my cell phone looked like magazine quality, I decided to change the look of the blog to go with the season. Summer veggies are out and the fall look is in!

Kim O'Donnell's Eating Down the Fridge Challenge

2009-10-09T07:07:00.014-04:00

Readers of this blog might remember a couple of posts about "eating down the fridge." The idea first came to my attention via Kim O'Donnell, formerly of washingtonpost.com who used to host a weekly chat and blog about all things food related. Kim has moved on to another cyber space called True Slant where she continues her mission.

In the spring of this year Kim challenged her Post readers to eat down the fridge by foregoing the weekly shopping ritual--except for essentials--and making meals from the contents of the fridge, freezer, and pantry. "Essential" is subjectively defined: my essentials (coffee, milk, OJ, yogurt, olive oil) might not seem like a requirement to someone else, but the point is to minimize the weekly grocery haul and just consume what you already have on hand.

For the fall EDF challenge Kim invited guest bloggers to write about their EDF challenges and perspectives, and yours truly was the Friday blogger. You can read my dispatch and then think about how to incorporate the EDF ethos into your own weekly shopping and cooking habits. EDF is a money saving idea in these hard economic times, but it's also a way to clean out the kitchen clutter and start afresh. Think of it as fall cleanup as we transition from summer's dwindling abundance of corn, tomatoes, peaches, and zucchini to fall's harvest offerings of butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and apples. As you eat down your own fridge/freezer/pantry, substitutions are indeed encouraged (no fresh oregano for that sauce? try some dried thyme instead).

EDF dinner with with wine

My own experience of the latest round of EDF was to host a French inspired dinner last Saturday using mostly contents from my freezer: boeuf bourguignon using a beef sirloin tip roast, parsley buttered noodles from frozen homemade pasta dough, haricots verts using green beans bought at a Connecticut farmstand, and tarte tatin using frozen homemade pie crust and apples picked two weeks earlier. I also extended my focus to my wine cabinet and opened a special bottle of 1997 Ferrari-Carano Cabernet Sauvignon in the spirit of the WSJ wine writers' "Open that Bottle of Wine Night." Every year they challenge readers to stop saving that special bottle and open it to share with friends and loved ones. We finally got to enjoy a bottle we'd bought seven years ago and it was a sheer pleasure enjoyed with good friends over a delightful evening that cost next to nothing as we made dinner from ingredients we mostly had on hand.

Risotto with Radicchio and Red Wine

2009-09-06T10:34:00.002-04:00

There is really no reason to be intimidated by risotto. The technique is quite simple and once you make a couple of decisions about whether to cook it over high heat vs. low--which bears on how you prefer to arrive at al dente for your risotto--you're laughing! If you like the risotto very al dente, I'd say cook it on high for a rigorous boil and near constant stirring. If you like your risotto less al dente and don't feel like constantly stirring, cook it over medium to medium low heat and let the rice do its thang.

This risotto recipe resulted from my stepping up to the Eating Down the Fridge/Freezer/Pantry challenge that took place on one of my favorite food blogs, A Mighty Appetite on washingtonpost.com. The concept is simple really. Hold off on buying most groceries beyond your essentials (milk, coffee, eggs, produce, or however you choose to define "essential") and cook with what you have on hand from your fridge, freezer, pantry, and spice rack. If you can't see the back of your fridge/pantry/freezer and haven't used your curry since the last time you made vindaloo before the millenium turned, it's time to eat down your fridge, folks! In a larger sense it's about not being wasteful in these tough economic times when we are all mindful of where our money is going and trying to get the most out of a dollar. I'd had a half head of radicchio and some leftover wine that I wanted to use and this is the perfect recipe for both.

As is my usual way, I have consulted multiple sources with the resulting recipe being a hybrid of two different recipes. The main recipe is Faith Willinger's who is one of the leading proponents of Italian cooking, especially in the style of Tuscany where her husband is from. I bought her book Red, White & Greens years ago after hearing her interviewed on NPR. After I became a devotee of my DC farmers market nearly four years ago, I perused her cookbook anew, finding many delicious preparations in which vegetables are the star, though the dish may not be vegetarian. She recommends making the recipe below with white wine and endive, but informs us that radicchio can be used instead of the endive.

The Risotto al Cabernet Michael Chiarello made in an episode of Easy Entertaining was one of those recipes that stuck with me because I knew I would want to try it sometime. I usually make risotto when I have a bit of leftover wine and since we drink more reds than whites, I tend to have more bottles of red to use up and the mind turns to ragu bolognaise and such. I especially like Chiarello's recipe because you can prepare the risotto up to a point and then finish it up by heating and thinning with the red wine. This technique makes the risotto a make ahead possibility when entertaining since it can be completed just before serving.

Risotto al Vino Rosso con Radicchio
Adapted from Faith Willinger's Red, White, & Greens: The Italian Way with Vegetables and Michael Chiarello's Risotto al Cabernet
Serves 4 to 6

4 tablespoons olive oil (and/or butter)
1 small onion, chopped [can also subsitute leeks or shallots if preferred]
1/2 head radicchio, halved, cored, and cut into strips (or 2 Belgian endive cut into strips)
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup arborio rice
3/4 cup wine [I'd suggest red wine for the radicchio and white for the endive]
5 cups or so simmering stock
1/4 to 1/2 cup of wine that you'll be having with dinner, or leftover
1/2 cup grated Parmagianno-Reggiano
2 tablespoons butter, optional
chopped herbs, such as chives or parsley, optional

Bring your stock to a simmer over low heat on a back burner. If finishing with butter, set aside in a small dish and allow it to soften as you prepare the risotto.
Heat the olive oil/butter over medium heat and add the chopped onion. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to coat and soften the onion without browning for about 5 minutes. Stir in the radicchio and stir until wilted, about 3 minutes.
Add the rice. Stir to coat, adding oil if necessary, and cook stirring as needed until the rice turns opaque. Some grains may brown lightly which is also desirable.
Deglaze with the wine, stirring to loosen any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Ladle in about 1 cup of stock. Here is where you decide if you want to give the risotto your undivided attention and cook on medium high with frequent stirring (Ms. Willinger's preference) or cook on medium low with less attention and only occasional stirring. Both methods will take about 20 minutes so it depends on YOU. If you're a multi-tasker in the kitchen like me, you may want to simmer the risotto on medium low as you go about other preparations. In either case you add enough stock--usually 1/2 to 1 cup or so--to raise the liquid level to about half an inch above the rice. As the stock is absorbed into the rice, the level of the liquid will be about the same as the rice and you will hear some sizzle from the bottom of the pot. At this point, add more stock--a 1/2 cup to 1 cup at a time--and give a stir making sure the rice does not stick. It is the repeated adding of liquid and stirring that releases the starch from the rice and makes the risotto creamy before even adding melted butter, cheese, or cream. It's really no different from cooking old-fashioned or steel cut oats which can be made deliciously creamy via a slow simmer.
After the third addition of stock, season with salt and pepper, mindful that the addition of Parmesan cheese at the end will also contribute some saltiness. After 15 minutes and/or the fourth addition of stock, you may want to taste the risotto to see how close it is to doneness. Risotto should not be completely soft like cooked rice. It should be toothsome, i.e. al dente, such that there's a bit of resistance when chewed, although it should not be crunchy at all. It should also have a loose consistency, although Mario Batali likes to serve it soupy.
Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan and butter if using. Finish with a half cup or so of wine which you can stir into the pot or add smaller amounts to each person's dish as it is served. Garnish with chopped herbs if using. Buon Apetito!

Battle of the Cornmeal Biscuit Cobblers!

2009-08-27T15:49:00.005-04:00

This post has been a year in the making as last year I came upon two different recipes for fruit cobblers, one in the Washington Post and the other in Gourmet. Both are delicious and simple, my two main criteria for nearly any recipe I'm willing to try. I like these recipes because they're about technique and because they are both made with a cornmeal biscuit topping, which seems especially appropriate for spring and summer desserts.

Gourmet's cobbler above, Washington Post's below

I say these recipes are about technique because once you decide which type of biscuit topping you prefer--either drop biscuits or cut biscuits--you can put any sort of fruit combination underneath and just keep the proportion of fruit and sugar the same. If cooking stone fruit, I'd recommend the cut biscuit recipe technique as the fruit cooks a bit before you add the biscuit topping. Then add the biscuit topping of your choice and 30 minutes later you're golden. If cooking very ripe fruit, berries, and/or rhubarb, I'd follow the drop biscuit recipe technique and just cook the fruit and the biscuit topping of your choice all at the same time. In either case just make sure that the fruit is cooked and tender--but not overcooked--and the biscuit topping is a nice, golden brown.

Both dishes are impressive and simple, but I must say that the cut biscuit cobbler makes a slightly more attractive presentation than the rustic presentation of the drop biscuit cobbler. So if you want to be a rock star at the next neighborhood picnic, for a marginal additional effort, I would make the Gourmet recipe--as I did last year when I first made this dessert for a family picnic and my aunt couldn't believe that I'd made it! Puh-lease! My partner's family was also impressed this past weekend when we brought out our contribution to his family's picnic (where we also brought a delicious apple and fennel coleslaw with dill, but that's for another post). However, if you want to whip up something quick for surprise dinner guests, the drop biscuit recipe will more than satisfy, even if you use frozen fruit, I promise!

Whenever I make biscuits, I always use buttermilk or yogurt as the liquid component and add a half teaspoon of baking soda to the dry ingredients. The cut biscuit recipe calls for heavy cream, which would doubtless add richness, but you can reduce the calories and still maintain flavor by using buttermilk or yogurt. Vanilla or honey yogurt would even work here. The baking soda reacts immediately with acid in the buttermilk or yogurt, and the baking powder acts in the heat of the oven to aerate the biscuit, muffin, cornbread, etc. So adding baking soda and extra acid makes the leavening "double acting," and who doesn't want their baked goods to rise nicely? Of course baking powder is actually one part baking soda, one part corn starch, and two parts cream of tartar, which acts as the acid.

So I'm going to attempt to show here the two recipes, first the toppings and then the fruit portion and then the instructions. Hopefully it won't be too confusing. Needless to say, fresh whipped cream, creme fraiche, or vanilla ice cream are obvious accompaniments to this delicious dessert!

Fruit Cobbler with Corn Bread Crust

Adapted from Corn Bread-Crusted Strawberry and Rhubarb Cobbler, by Stephanie Witt Sedgwick from The Washington Post, May 7, 2008 and Stone Fruit Cobbler, by Lillian Chou from Gourmet, June 2008.

Drop Biscuit Topping:

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder [plus 1/2 teaspoon baking soda]
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup low-fat or regular buttermilk [or yogurt]
1 large egg, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Cut Biscuit Topping:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal (not stone-ground)
2 teaspoons baking powder [plus 1/2 teaspoon baking soda]
Rounded 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream, divided [I used 1 cup of yogurt, plus 1 tablespoon half and half]
2 teaspoon sugar

If making the cut biscuit topping, especially with stone fruit that will be pre-cooked without the topping, I would make the biscuits first and refrigerate them on a plate so that the dough can rest and the butter can harden after handling. As the butter melts in the oven, steam will form small pockets that will help the biscuits rise. Otherwise for the drop biscuit recipe, I would cut up the fruit first and add the sugar to get it dissolved and the sugary syrup forming with the fruit.

For both biscuit recipes:
Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, mixing well.

For the cut biscuits:
Blend in the butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 1 cup of buttermilk [or cream] and stir just until a ball of dough forms. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and lightly dust with flour, then roll out with a floured rolling pin into a 1/2-inch-thick round (about 10 inches in diameter). Cut out biscuits with lightly floured cutter. If necessary, gather scraps and re-roll once, then cut out more biscuits.

For the drop biscuits:
Whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter in a large measuring cup. Add to the cornmeal mixture and stir just until combined to form a thick batter.

Fruit filling for stone fruit such as plums, nectarines, peaches, or apricots [Gourmet doesn't recommend using fuzzy fruit like apricots or peaches because they should be peeled. Of course they don't have to be peeled if you don't want to]:

3/4 to 1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 pounds mixed stone fruit, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges (8 cups)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of 1 lemon or lime or half an orange
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pint blueberries or blackberries [optional, but especially delicious with peaches or nectarines]
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract [optional]

Fruit filling for very ripe stone fruit, rhubarb, and/or berries (such as strawberries or raspberries):

2 to 2 1/2 pounds of fruit cut into 3/4 inch pieces (about 6 to 8 cups)
3/4 to 1 cup sugar, depending on how sweet the fruit is to start with
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of 1 lemon or lime or half an orange
1/2 teaspoon almond extract [optional as far as I'm concerned]
1 cup to 1 pint of blueberries or blackberries, frozen if necessary [optional, but I just think that dark berries go perfectly with peaches and nectarines]

For both fruit filling recipes:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss together the filling ingredients in a large bowl. Spread out in a 3 quart glass or ceramic baking dish

For the fruit filling for stone fruit such as plums, nectarines, peaches, or apricots:
Bake until just bubbling, 10 to 15 minutes and then follow either of the instructions below for either cut biscuit or drop biscuit topping.

For the rhubarb, berries, and/or very ripe stone fruit:
For the cut biscuit topping, arrange biscuits 1/2 inch apart over the filling. Brush tops with remaining half and half, then sprinkle with sugar. Bake until topping is golden and fruit is bubbling in center, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool about 30 minutes and serve warm.

For the drop biscuit topping, spoon the topping over the fruit; it should not completely cover the fruit. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the topping begins to brown and fruit juices are bubbling at the edges of the cobbler. Transfer the baking dish to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes and serve warm.

Mark Bittman's Farfalle (or Penne) with Gorgonzola and Cherry Tomatoes

2009-08-08T22:46:00.003-04:00

An Italian-American friend of my sister schooled me at Christmas dinner a few years ago: Italians don't eat pasta. Rather than call a dish "pasta with spring vegetables" or "pasta with lemon shrimp" the dish should be identified by the type of noodle, i.e. "farfalle with spring vegetables" or "linguine with lemon shrimp." My brother also works with someone who went off on him when my brother described some dish as "pasta with broccoli" and his co-worker shouted at him, "It's cavatappi with broccoli!" Point taken then! I gladly defer to my Italian-American fellow citizens of New Jersey (I've seen the Real Housewives of NJ)! I think most folks get this with the names of many familiar dishes like linguine with clam sauce, baked ziti, and lasagne. In each of these dishes the noodle defines the dish as much as what accompanies. And besides "pasta" is just Italian for "dough" and that is not what you are making and serving. You're serving a dish that uses a particular noodle that should be named.

Mark Bittman's Farfalle with Gorgonzola and Cherry Tomatoes is an easy dish that can be made winter or summer. Often cherry or grape tomatoes are the only acceptable choice in the winter when other fresh tomatoes are only a summer memory. At the height of summer there are so many colors and varieties of cherry tomatoes that this dish seems perfect for a quick summer supper. As with most recipes, the ingredients can be readily substituted depending on what you may have on hand (feta for the Gorgonzola, watercress or spinach for the arugula, milk for the cream and so on). There's certainly no reason to make this dish the same way twice if you don't want to!

Penne with Gorgonzola and Cherry Tomatoes
Adapted from Mark Bittman's recipe in the New York Times, January 24, 2007
TOTAL TIME 30 minutes
YIELD 6 to 8 servings [or 4 servings if using only 8 ounces of farfalle]

Ingredients

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup half-and-half, cream or milk [I used nonfat milk and added some butter]
1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola or other good blue cheese
1 pound farfalle or other pasta [I used only a half pound of penne]
2 cups arugula trimmed of very thick stems, washed, dried and chopped [I used a bunch of watercress, including the stems]
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half [I used cherry tomatoes from my garden]
Freshly grated Parmesan to taste, optional

Preparation

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. In a small saucepan gently warm the half-and-half and Gorgonzola just until cheese melts a bit and mixture becomes thick; chunky is O.K. [If using watercress as I did, you might want to stir it into the cheese sauce to soften the stems a bit. Or not; nothing wrong with a bit of crunch.]
When water boils, cook pasta until it is just tender but not mushy. Drain and return to pot over low heat.
Stir in Gorgonzola sauce along with arugula, tomatoes and a healthy dose of black pepper. Stir to combine, taste and add salt, if necessary, then serve immediately, with grated Parmesan if you like.

Happy 4th of July: Rose Levy Beranbaum's Hamburger Buns

2009-07-04T18:27:00.007-04:00

I confess I am a frustrated bread maker with aspirations of greatness (delusions of grandeur?). With my usual kitchen confidence, I've tried to approach the making of yeast breads just as I do other kitchen endeavors: If I see someone else make homemade pasta, pie crust, or focaccia, I'm thinking, "If he/she can do it, so can I!" And yet with the yeast breads I haven't practiced enough to the point that when I start out to make pizza or something, I approach it with the confidence that comes with experience. That sort of realization that comes with, "Well, maybe I've never made borscht before, but I've cooked soup so many times, how hard can it be?"

Sure, I've made pizza with dough from scratch--both in the oven and on the grill--and I've generally been pleased with the result, but I want to become a confident bread maker, thank you very much! I so admired a friend I met while teaching English in Japan who grew up on a farm and even in her tiny Japanese kitchen regularly baked her own bread in a countertop oven. That's the kind of confidence that comes when you're at someone else's house and you move into the kitchen to "whip something up" and you amaze friends and family with your proficiency. That may sound like a high bar, but preparing food is all about sharing with friends and family (not that one shouldn't treat oneself with the same high regard as one would treat a guest) and nothing shows the love more than taking the time and effort to make something for friends that you know they'll love.

Three things occurred about two years apart that put me back on the path to moving from breadmaking apprentice to journeyman. Prior to Memorial Day in 2007, there were the usual articles about making hamburgers in the Washington Post food section and included was an article by Rose Levy Beranbaum on making hamburger buns from scratch. At the time, I scoffed at the notion! Even if you don't want to buy the wonder bread white hamburger rolls that we all grew up with, nowadays there is such an assortment of whole wheat, potato and other rolls, why bother making them from scratch?

I had fallen into the typical line of thinking held by those who are outside another's zone of passion. As anyone who pursues a hobby knows, there will always be detractors questioning the value of the effort versus the value of the result. Needlepoint may be the last hobby on earth I'd choose to pursue, but I hope we can all admire a beautifully crafted endeavor by someone else even if it's not something we would pursue ourselves. Nigella Lawson has the best refutation for such detractions you might encounter: if the process of doing something gives one pleasure, that is reason enough to do it. And because breadmaking is so tactile and of course the aroma of bread in the oven will lift anyone's mood, what could be more pleasurable?

Fast forward to Memorial Day 2009 when we were staying with our friends at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and planned to barbecue turkey burgers one night. My friend John is the master bread baker. In fact his partner Colin has long since forgotten what a sandwich on store bought bread tastes like because they always have a bun in the oven (or in the freezer). He has a KitchenAid mac daddy stand mixer at both of his homes and makes bread as easily as other people make a bowl of cereal. Naturally there would be no store bought hamburger buns that night! And as with watching the cooking shows and thinking I can do anything just as well as any of them, the spark went off and I knew I'd be making homemade hamburger rolls myself this summer. Plus I know he swears by Ms. Beranbaum having adopted her breadmaking technique from The Bread Bible, which differs quite a bit from the simpler technique published in the paper. Having successfully pulled off these delicious buns, I know that store bought buns are just not in my future anymore.

And finally, the New York Times had its July 4th food article breaking down the elements of the perfect burger to its three primary components: the burger, the bun, and the condiments. Their conclusion about the best hamburger bun was that a brioche bun was best. Their recipe for the brioche bun called for bread flour whereas Ms. Berenbaum's uses the ubiquitous all-purpose flour. I've no doubt though that I'll be returning to the brioche recipe sometime soon.

Rose Levy Beranbaum's Best Buns
adapted from the Washington Post, May 23, 2007

There's little that I can add to Ms. Beranbaum's instructions since I'm rather a bread novice. I love how she gives such detailed and descriptive instructions. I can say that I consulted other bread recipes to see what proportion of flour would be used if I used an envelope of yeast--which is what I had on hand--instead of the instant rapid rise yeast she recommends. Some day when I really get into making the yeast breads, I may start buying different kinds of yeasts that I might measure with the spoons, but for now it's an envelope at a time.

Makes 8 hamburger buns but also makes a mean turkey sandwich as well!

Ingredients:

3 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour, plus more as necessary

1/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast, such as rapid-rise or bread machine yeast [I used one envelope which is equivalent to 2 1/2 teaspoons, which John says is the typical amount used for most bread recipes]

1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

1 1/3 cups room-temperature water

1 teaspoon mild honey, such as clover [I used maple syrup]

1/4 cup olive oil

3/4 cup toasted mixed seeds, such as cracked flax, sesame, poppy, sunflower and pumpkin (optional, and I didn't use)

Milk or water, for brushing the tops of the buns (optional, I used half and half)

1 tablespoon sesame seeds for the topping (optional, but I used)

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, whole-wheat flour and yeast, then the salt. Add the water, honey and oil. Using a mixer with a dough hook on medium speed, or by hand, knead the dough for 7 minutes (10 minutes by hand) until smooth and springy. The dough should be soft and just sticky enough to cling slightly to your fingers. If it is still very sticky, knead in a little flour [I kept checking mine and added about 1/4 cup additional whole wheat flour in three or four increments]. If it is too stiff, spray it with a little water and knead it. Allow the dough to rest, covered, for 20 minutes and then knead in the seeds, if desired.

Set the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and lightly spray or oil the top of the dough. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot. Allow the dough to rise for about 1 hour or until it has doubled. (The indentation from a finger stuck into the center of the dough should remain.)

If you plan to bake the hamburger buns the next day, press down the dough and place it in a large, oiled resealable plastic food storage bag, leaving a tiny bit unzipped for the forming gas to escape, and refrigerate it. Take it out of the refrigerator about 1 hour before shaping.

When ready to shape the dough, set it on a very lightly floured work surface and form it into a log. With a sharp knife, divide it into 8 equal pieces. (If you prefer very large buns, you can divide the dough into 6 equal pieces.) Shape each piece into a ball by cupping your hand over the dough and rotating it. It works best if you use only as much flour as you need to keep the dough from sticking. A little resistance helps to form a round ball. Keep the balls of dough covered with damp paper towels to prevent drying; allow them to rest for 5 minutes.

Transfer the dough balls to a parchment-lined baking sheet or inverted sheet pan, leaving enough space between them to allow for a 4-inch bun. Flatten the balls to a height of about 1 inch. (If the dough is very elastic, you can flatten them again after 15 minutes of rising.) If using the sesame seeds, brush the dough lightly with milk or water and sprinkle with the seeds. Cover the balls with a large inverted plastic box or with plastic wrap lightly coated with baking spray, and allow them to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until almost doubled; when the dough is pressed gently with a finger, the depression should very slowly fill in.

While the dough is rising, set the oven rack toward the bottom of the oven and place a baking stone or baking sheet on it. Set a cast-iron skillet or heavy baking pan on the floor of the oven or on the lowest shelf. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees for 45 minutes or longer.

Mist the dough with water, quickly but gently set the baking sheet on the hot stone or hot baking sheet, and toss 1/2 cup of ice cubes into the pan beneath. Immediately shut the door and bake 15 minutes. Rotate the pan front to back and bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until the buns are golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. (An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center will read 200 to 210 degrees.) Transfer the buns to wire racks until they are completely cool or barely warm.

TIP - Food Processor Method:
Refer to the instruction booklet for your model to determine the maximum amount of flour allowable. Chill the water. Place the whisked flour mixture in the work bowl fitted with the steel blade. With the motor on, add the cold water and oil. If the mixture doesn't come together after 10 seconds, scrape down the sides and scrape the dry part into the moist part.

After the mixture comes together, continue processing for 1 1/2 minutes until a smooth, elastic dough is formed. If it does not clean the bowl, pulse in a little extra flour. Transfer the dough to a counter and knead it for 10 seconds to equalize the temperature. If adding the optional seeds, allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes and proceed as above.

Chicken alla Parmagiana My Way

2009-03-13T07:37:00.001-04:00

I love chicken parmesan but I never order the gooey, overly cheesy versions found at most restaurants since coming up with this version. I made this last night with some really delicious creamy mozzarella, but I missed the smoked mozzarella that I usually favor here. My recipe uses all the typical components but instead of frying the breaded chicken breasts in oil, I crisp up the breadcrumbs by broiling the breaded chicken breasts for a few minutes, then topping with the sauce and the cheese and putting it back under the broiler. The result is a much lighter variation of the original with all of the crunch. I've grown to prefer the meaty almost bacon like flavor of smoke mozzarella in most situations that call for mozzarella since discovering a purveryor at my farmers market, but any kind of mozzarella will do, whether artisanal or pre-shredded from the bag.

This is one of those rare recipes of my own that I posted to Epicurious in my own recipe box. When I first started making this I sort of enjoyed bashing the heck out of those breasts using a frying pan. Now I just butterfly them open which is a lot less hassle.

Chicken alla Parmagiana
Serves 4

2 chicken breast halves, about 12 ounces each
salt and pepper
1 cup flour
2 eggs beaten with 1 tablespoon water or milk
1 1/2 to 2 cups bread crumbs or panko bread crumbs seasoned with 1 tablespoon dried thyme or oregano
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, optional
2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce (homemade is ideal)
4 ounces smoked mozzarella, cut into 6 to 8 slices

grated parmesan, optional
chopped parsley, optional

First, pound out the chicken breasts to a half inch thickness. I place the chicken breasts in a zip top bag or between to sheets of plastic wrap and whack at it with a small fying pan. Pounding out chicken breasts can be enormously stress reducing but don't be too overzealous as you want to keep the breast in one piece. Alternatively carefully butterfly the breast halves by slicing them in half: place your hand on top of the breast, place the knife blade parallel to the cutting board and carefully slice into the breast but not all the way through. Open the breast like a book and you've got a butterflied breast, as demoed here on Youtube.

Place an oven rack at the second level down from your broiler element (assuming you've got an oven like mine with the broiler element in the top of the oven) and turn on the broiler. Line a large baking sheet with foil and smear with a thin film of olive oil if you feel like it. Season each chicken breast generously on both sides with salt and pepper. Set up your breading station in three large flat bowls or baking dishes: first flour, then the egg, and finally the bread or panko crumbs. Drizzle a tablespoon or so of olive oil over the bread crumbs and mix in before dredging. This will help the bread crumbs to crisp up nicely. Dredge the flattened chicken breast in flour on both sides and shake off the excess. Next, coat the same piece in the egg wash, letting the excess drip off. Finally, lay it in the bread crumbs. Use your fingers to spread bread crumbs on top of the chicken breast, pressing down to make sure the crumbs stick and that the breast is completely coated. Place on the baking sheet and repeat with the other flattened chicken breast. Drizzle the top of the chicken breast lighltly with olive oil if desired.

Broil the two breasts for five minutes, keeping an eye on them to make sure they brown but do not burn! Turn them over and broil for another three minutes on the second side. Remove from the oven.

Spoon about 1 cup of sauce all over each chicken breast and lay the slices of mozzarella on top of the sauce. Place the chicken back under the broiler for another two to three minutes until the sauce is heated and the cheese is melted and browned slightly. Remove from the oven and move the chicken to a cutting board. Cut each piece in half, garnish with grated parmesan and parsley if using and serve immediately with a side of spaghetti, sauteed broccoli rabe, and a glass of chianti! A red checkered tablecloth is also optional. Buon Appetito!

Break Out the Pasta Maker: Jamie Oliver's Pappardelle with Braised Leeks and Dried Mushroom Pangrattato

2009-03-09T17:22:00.022-04:00

Jamie Oliver is another kitchen genius who keeps simplicity at the fore when providing cooking instruction. I have recorded and saved every episode of his Food Network show Jamie at Home. His cooking style is just fresh and innovative and completely unfussy. I can hardly believe it's been over a year since I first made his recipe for "cheat's" pappardelle with braised leeks, which is pure poetry. When I saw the Food Network episode where he made this recipe. I stopped what I was doing and stood in rapt attention as he explained what he was cooking. The ingredients are so basic, as is the technique. But the final dish is sublime.

Jamie loves his veggies especially given that his show is centered around his garden. Occasionally I fall in love with vegetables myself. There was the year that I started cooking Brussel sprouts and amassed quite a repertoire of sprouts recipes that never failed to impress my guests. I would then regale them with how much this poor vegetable has been abused if all one remembers is boiled frozen sprouts from one's youth. My sister's then boyfriend who grew up hating sprouts himself had a transformative experience when I served him roasted sprouts with chili powder. The outer layers had become so crisp that they most reminded me of chili fried potatoes and I'm not lying. Another year after buying a 5 pound head of cauliflower at the farmers market and using it to make cauliflower soup, it was another light bulb moment as I felt as though I was tasting this typically bland white vegetable for the first time, which brings me back to my mantra: so many recipes, so little time!

And now, the leeks. They're great grilled, braised or as the base for soup. Who would have thought that something from the alium family could yield so many possiblities? But then thinking about onions themselves, they are also delicous in the same way as leeks, perhaps with just a bit more bite. Leeks don't have nearly as much of the sulfur compounds that form sulfuric acid and make you cry. In Japan, leeks are the preferred "onion," and what we think of as onions are basically called "round leeks." When combined with wine and stock as in this recipe, leeks yield a unique flavor that is so soft and subtle, no wonder the first step in the French Women Don't Get Fat regimen is a weekend of leek broth!

Readers of this blog know that I am mad about braising, the slow cooking method that tenderizes whatever is being cooked even as it maximizes and concentrates flavor. I've also adopted the technique advocated in my first ever braised ribs recipe as well as by my braising maven Molly Stevens of placing a layer of parchment just above the top of the food being cooked to trap steam and condensation closest to the food. Rather than use parchment, in this recipe Jamie Oliver uses thinly sliced prosciutto to the same effect. The prosciutto will shrink as it cooks so it won't form a completely intact layer, but needless to say, the flavor of the prosciutto will meld with the leeks. This was the part of the recipe that stopped me in my tracks with my jaw agape. It was just so simple and delicious looking! Jamie said that the Italian chef he learned the recipe from would discard the prosciutto after it had done its work, but Jamie makes it part of the dish and why the hell not?

And finally the pangrattato, which my online dictionary translates as "bread crumbs." I believe it was Mario Batali on a food network episode who once said that in lean times Italians used crisped up bread crumbs as a substitute for grated parmesan or some other hard cheese. A layer of crispy bread crumbs atop mac 'n' cheese, roasted cauliflower, or even meatloaf just adds that right bit of crunch to give a dish just the right finish. Jamie jazzes this dish up with some pulverized dried poricini which add an earthy note to the bread crumbs. And as I am taking part this week in Eating Down the Fridge/Pantry, I was happy to make use of a package of dried porcinis that had been bought on sale who knows when! My method for preparing the pangrattato differs from Jamies only in that I whiz the bread crumbs, garlic and mushrooms in the food processor with the olive oil so that the oil is evenly distributed. I then cook the whole mixture in a hot saute pan, the same one that will subsequently be used for the leek braise.

And one more thing before I get to the recipe. This recipe made me want to break out my hand crank pasta machine that I received as a gift more than 15 years ago. Jamie recommends cutting fresh lasagne sheets into pappardelle, but I've never seen fresh lasagne sheets for sale and making fresh pasta in the food processor is one of those things that I learned to do long ago that I'd put aside for a decade or so. Now it's back in the mix though I confess I want to replace my hand crank pasta maker with the Kitchen Aid version! Jamie reasons that making the dish with fresh pasta allows you to create a dish that's more personal (and of course) more impressive than using store bought pappardelle or some other noodle. But homemade pasta is one of those things you can make once and get a couple of meals out of by dividing the dough and freezing half of it. The second half of my pasta dough will be used to make fettuccine for some dinner guests who will be dining on chicken alla parmagiana when they come over later this week.

Pappardelle with Braised Leeks and Prosciutto with Crispy Porcini Pangrattato
Adapted from Jamie Oliver
Serves 4 to 6

For the Pangrattato:
1 small handful dried porcini mushrooms [I used all of a 1.4 ounce package]
1/2 ciabatta bread, preferably stale, cut into chunks [I pulled out two whole wheat hamburger buns from my freezer that I wanted to get rid of as part of Eating Down the Fridge]
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed [I didn't crush mine as I minced them in the food processor with the bread crumbs]
1 sprig fresh rosemary [I roughly chopped the rosemary and pulverized with the bread crumbs]

For the main event:

5 big leeks, outer leaves trimmed back, cut in to half inch pieces, and washed well
Olive oil
2 good knobs butter, divided [I used 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter]
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
A few sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked
A small wineglass white wine
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pint good-quality vegetable or chicken stock
12 slices ham, preferably Parma
2 (8-ounce) packages fresh lasagne sheets [I made homemade pasta using 4 eggs and used half the dough as a first step; 16 oz of dried pasta is a fine alternative also]
All-purpose flour, for dusting
2 handfuls freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

Optional First Step: If making the pasta from scratch, in a food processor fitted with the steel blade place 400 grams of all-purpose flour and 4 large eggs. (According to Mario Batali, Italians make pasta from scratch this way using a ratio of one large egg for each 100 grams of flour. Two egg yolks can be substituted for one whole egg, which I did to replace one of the eggs) Add a half teaspoon of salt and pulse to combine until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal. Stream in 1 to 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive until a ball of dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a minute or two. Divide and wrap each half separately in plastic. Leave one piece to rest on the counter while you go about making the rest of the dish and refrigerate or freeze the other piece for later use.
To make the pangrattato: Whiz the mushrooms and bread with a pinch of salt and pepper in a food processor until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic cloves and the rosemary and cook for a minute, then fry the bread crumbs in the oil until golden and crisp. Keep shaking the pan - don't let the bread crumbs catch on the bottom. Drain on paper towels, discard the rosemary and garlic and allow the bread crumbs to cool. [The only thing I did differently when making the bread crumbs was I minced the garlic in the food processor. With the machine running, I dropped the garlic cloves into the food processor until finely minced. I then scraped down the bowl and added the cubed bread and dried mushrooms to pulverize. I streamed in a tablespoon of olive oil to moisten the crumbs and then added this mixture to the saute pan, no additional oil needed.]
For the braised leeks: Wipe out the saute pan with a couple of paper towels and heat over medium high heat. Add the oil and butter, and when you hear a gentle sizzling add the sliced garlic, thyme leaves and leeks. Move the leeks around so every piece gets coated. Pour in the wine, season with pepper and stir in the stock. Cover the leeks with the slices of Parma ham, place a lid on the pan and simmer gently for 25 to 30 minutes. Once the leeks are tender, take the pan off the heat.
For the pappardelle: Bring a big pot of salted water to the boil. Lay the lasagne sheets [or the rolled out pasta] on a clean working surface and sprinkle with a little flour. Place the sheets on top of each other and slice into 1/2-inch strips. Toss through your fingers to shake out the pappardelle, then cook in the boiling water 2 minutes or until al dente. [If using dried pasta, cook al dente according to package directions.]
The finish: Remove the prosciutto from the saute pan, slice up and stir back into the leeks. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then stir in the Parmesan and the rest of the butter [I had a bit of crumbled gorgonzola to get rid of--Eating Down the Fridge--so I threw that in also]. Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the cooking water, and add the pasta to the leeks. Add a little of the cooking water if need be, to give you a silky, smooth sauce. [I found that I had a lot of liquid still in the pan so I mixed in some bread crumbs to absorb the liquid.] Serve quickly, sprinkled with some pangrattato, extra Parmesan and any leftover thyme tips. Serve the rest of the pangrattato in a bowl on the side.

Molly Stevens' Coq au Vin

2009-03-02T19:40:00.000-05:00

Today was a snow day up and down most of the east coast--though the DC school's chancellor is loathe to ever call a snow day--so thoughts turned to comfort food. A half finished bottle of cabernet sauvignon meant some sort of wine braised preparation and I knew it would involve my Dutch oven and turning on the oven. I was leaning towards hunter style chicken (either the Italian cacciatore or the French chasseur), chicken stemperata, or coq au vin. Having made and enjoyed boeuf bourguignon a couple of weeks ago, Brian was eager to try chicken cooked in wine, though I was leaning towards Mario Batali's chicken stemperata, which is a delicious chicken braised in wine with all kinds of vegetables and olives that I blogged about last year.

The preparation for the French dishes boeuf Bourguignon and coq au vin couldn't have been more similar, even though for the beef I followed Julia's and Jacques' recipe from Cooking at Home and for the chicken I used a recipe from Molly Stevens' All About Braising. Once again I looked up Julia's recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking and chose to go with Ms. Stevens because the preparation was not only simpler, but also quite similar to Julia's revised Bourguignon technique in J & J Cooking at Home. I barely changed anything except that I cooked the mushrooms and onions together rather than separately in the same way as I did for the Bourguignon. I also did not place the aromatics and herbs into the cheesecloth as J & J describe in Cooking at Home, but in the future that will be my method going forward. Having the bits of chopped onion and carrot in the final sauce was tasty but I liked the smoothness of the Bourguignon sauce vs. the coq au vin sauce. This dish was delicious when first prepared for dinner, but was of course even better the next day for lunch, proving once again that making a braised dish is the perfect justification for serving leftovers to company!

Just a quick word about the "coq" in coq au vin. In France, the dish may be prepared using a rooster (coq = cock) or a stewing hen. American supermarkets are not likely to have either for sale. The stewing hen makes the most sense to me really in that a braise is really a slow cooked dish using a tough cut of meat. As the meat cooks collagen and connective tissue are incorporated into the sauce thickening it naturally with the gelatin that forms. Stewing hens if you find one are most useful for making stock, and as I've never cooked one, I'd just take the easy route and use a roaster, and not the stewing hen, especially if you plan to make and serve the dish in the same evening. The dish will finish quickly and the meat won't be tough. On the other hand if you feel like making the dish in a slow cooker with a stewing hen, let me know how it turns out!

Coq au Vin
Adapted from Molly Stevens' All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking
Serves 4 to 6

4 ounces slab bacon, rind removed and cut into 1/2 inch dice [I used 5 slices of unsmoked bacon]
1 4 to 5 pound chicken cut into 8 pieces, wing tips, back, neck, and giblets (except the liver) reserved [I quartered my chicken and separated the wings from the breast. I did not reserve the other chicken pieces for cooking in the stew as directed. I always reserve those pieces in my freezer for making chicken stock at a later time, which on this day I was making during the day in my slow cooker]
salt and pepper [I used fennel spice rub]
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon paste
1 bottle of dry, fruity red wine
2 garlic cloves smashed
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
1 cup chicken stock

10 ounces pearl onions, about 15-25, fresh or frozen and thawed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter and/or olive oil
3/4 pound cremini mushrooms [I used 10 ounces of assorted portobello, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms]
course salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons brandy

1 tablespoon butter at room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Prepare the bacon and chicken: In a 6 to 8 quart Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium high heat and then add the bacon, stirring occasionally until the fat is rendered and the bacon pieces have become crisp, about 5 to 7 minutes. While the bacon is cooking, salt and pepper the chicken all over and then dredge in the flour, shaking off the excess. Remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside. Add half the chicken in a single, uncrowded layer skin side down and let brown well on the first side without moving it, about 5 minutes. Check to see that a nice crust has formed, and then turn the pieces over to brown the other side, about another 4 minutes or so. Remove the browned chicken to a platter and repeat with the second batch.
Prepare the aromatic veggies for the braise: Lower your oven rack to the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Pour off all but two tablespoons of the accumulated fat in the pan and return the pan to medium high heat. Add the onion, carrot, and the garlic cloves and cook until soft and slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook with the vegetables for a minute or two. Deglaze the pan with one third of the bottle of wine, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the rest of the wine and bring to a boil. Add the thyme and bay leaf. [I'm lazy and just tied together 6 thyme sprigs and added to the wine and vegetable mixture. The thyme leaves will come off into the liquid.] Reduce for about 15 minutes to about a cup and a half of liquid. [I confess I started with half a bottle of wine and just skipped the wine reduction to no negative consequences.] Add the cup of stock and bring to a boil. Ladle out about 3/4 cup of the braising liquid and reserve for cooking the mushrooms.
The braise: Add the bacon and chicken back to the pot, including any accumulated juices on the platter, with the legs and thighs on the bottom and breast on top. The liquid should only come up about half way or so to the level of the chicken but that's OK because braising is about the simmering and the steam that is trapped in the Dutch oven to cook the meat. Cover the meat with a piece of parchment paper larger than the diameter of the pot. Push down on the paper so that it is just above the top of the chicken and cover the pot with its lid (the edges of the paper will overhang the pot). Place this pot into the oven and bask in the aromas of this dish as it simmers away. After 15 minutes, check the pot to make sure that it's not boiling too rapidly. Adjust the oven temperature down or up to maintain a simmer. After another 30 minutes, check the chicken again and stir everything around so that the pieces on top are immersed in the liquid and the pieces immersed are now on top. The total braise should take about 60 and 75 minutes.
The mushrooms and onions: While the chicken is braising in the oven, prepare the mushrooms and onions. Heat the butter and/or oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms, stirring to coat with the oil and butter. Let cook for 5 minutes undisturbed. Check a mushroom to see if it's browning nicely, and if so stir the mushrooms around and let them cook for 4 more minutes. Meanwhile, if using fresh pearl onions (as I had to), bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Blanch the onions in boiling water for 1 minute and remove to a bowl of ice water. Trim off the ugly part of the onion root, keeping the onion layers in tact as best as you can. Squeeze on the onion skin to pop out the onion pearl. You'll probably have to sacrifice a layer of onion, but it's not worth the frustration to try and peel just the outer layer. Trim the other end if necesary. Set the onions aside on paper towels to dry as you finish the mushrooms. Stir in the pearl onions and season the combination with salt and peppers. Let the onions caramelize and cook with the mushrooms for 8 more minutes, stirring once or twice so that the onions brown evenly. Deglaze the pan with the reserved braising liquid, scraping up all the browned bits and bringing to gentle boil. Stir in the brandy and ignite if you're feeling dramatic, otherwise just cover and reduce to a simmer for 5 more minutes. (Note: NEVER pour the brandy directly from the bottle, especially if cooking over gas as the alcohol could ignite and cause an explosion. Best to pour off the measured amount and add just the amount needed.) Remove the lid, raise the heat and reduce the liquid to a quarter cup or so. Put the mushrooms and onions aside until ready to finish the dish.
The finish: Remove the coq au vin from the oven and place the chicken pieces on a plate. When cooled slightly, strain the sauce and vegetables into a fat separator, reserving the vegetables. Or alternatively, strain the vegetables and braising liquid into a bowl using a sieve and skim off some of the fat using a wide flat spoon. Return the de-fatted liquid to the Dutch oven and bring to a boil. You should have about two cups or so. Combine the softened butter with the flour and stir to combine into a beurre manie, making sure there are no flour lumps. Whisk the beurre manie into the liquid and boil for a few minutes, thickening the sauce. Add the chicken, reserved vegetables, mushrooms and onions back to the pot to reheat everything. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings with additional salt and pepper if necessary. Serve the chicken with the onions and mushrooms on your favorite platter, garnished with parsley and pass the sauce on the side.

This dish is perfect with a simple starch side like mashed or boiled potatoes. Haricots verts would complete the picture perfect French bistro dinner! Voila!

Marvin Woods' Roux, Creole Sauce and Seafood Gumbo

2009-02-25T11:05:00.003-05:00

With Mardi Gras this past Tuesday, Lent is upon us, and thoughts turn to the cuisine of New Orleans. Last year I made a delicious ham and shrimp jambalaya, but this year building on my success with a turkey gumbo the day after Thanksgiving that my family literally could not wait for me to finish before they started dipping spoons in for a taste, it was gonna be gumbo. Gumbo is a delicious stew with no hard and fast rules beyond whether one chooses okra (I found some that I had frozen in my freezer) or file powder (ground sassafras leaves) as a thickener in addition to the required roux. Like choucroute, gumbo is great for using sausage, poultry and leftover meats, and like paella it's great for combining sausage and seafood, though poultry could also be a welcome addition. I knew that I would be making a seafood gumbo with andouille sausage and I wanted to serve it with some New Orleans beer that I found at Bassin's MacArthur Beverages, a full service liquor store on my way home from work.

Making gumbo Marvin Woods' way requires some preliminary steps like making roux and the creole sauce, but those steps can be done well in advance. I made my roux and creole sauce on a Sunday and then made the gumbo for dinner on Thursday, but the dish could easily be started and finished in a few hours. Non-southerners tend to balk at the slime factor associated with okra (which makes it a natural thickener), so I used okra in the sauce and served some homemade spicy pickled okra as a garnish on the side with the final dish.

The secret to the success of this gumbo is the creole sauce, which though uncomplicated to prepare, does have a lot of ingredients and you'll note that most of the vegetable and herb ingredients in the sauce are again used in the gumbo. The recipe I followed is from Woods' The New Low-Country Cooking, which is full of so many delicious southern preparations. I preferred Woods' recipe to any I've seen including the one offered by one of New Orleans' biggest proponents, Emeril Legasse in one of his cookbooks. I also love making the roux in the oven, completely eliminating having to stand over it stirring as the roux progresses from blonde to nutty brown. This step I completed while making Sunday breakfast. If you decide to make this recipe in a single day, you'll need about double the amounts of the vegetables and herbs called for in the creole sauce, which will save a bit of time prepping if you cut it all up at once.

Seafood Gumbo
Adapted from The New Low-Country Cooking by Marvin Woods

Roux:
Makes about 1 1/4 cups

This recipe will make twice as much roux as needed for the gumbo. The leftover amount can be refrigerated for up to a month and is an excellent base for making smothered green beans and potatoes.

2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat until it starts to turn a light brown, keeping an eye on it so that it doesn't burn. Whisk in the flour, combining it with the butter until there are no lumps. Place the skillet in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes checking it every 15 minutes or so until the roux turns the color of peanut butter.

Creole Sauce:
Makes about 3 quarts, which is twice the amount needed for the gumbo

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sliced okra (fresh or frozen), about 3/4 pound
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 white onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 cup fresh or frozen corn [I used half a can]

2 1/2 quarts vegetable or chicken stock
1/2 cup brown roux
1 cup canned whole plum tomatoes [I used a small can of diced tomatoes]
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh thyme
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh sage
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Thai curry paste or garlic chili sauce
1 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
salt and pepper to taste

In a 6 to 8 quart heavy-bottomed stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the vegetables (celery through corn) and cook until softened, stirring occasionally for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and bring to a slow boil.
When the liquid is boiling, remove about a cup and mix it with the roux, forming a smooth paste. Whisk the roux mixture back into the pot of simmering vegetables. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, hot sauce, herbs, chili powder, cayenne, chili paste, and black pepper and simmer for 15 minutes, reducing the liquid somewhat. Taste and check the seasonings, adding more salt and pepper as necessary. Using a handheld blender, puree the sauce in the pot (or transfer in batches to a blender or food processor). Use the sauce immediately or cool, cover and refrigerate for up to 7 days, or freeze for up to two months.

Seafood Gumbo:
Serves 6 to 8

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 links of andouille, about 12 ounces [my addition]
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped [I was out of onion and used 3 leeks]
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 to 3 sliced serranos, finely chopped

1 cup fresh or frozen corn [I used half a can]
1 1/2 cups sliced okra (fresh or frozen), about 3/4 pound
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 tablespoons fresh sage

6 cups creole sauce, about half of the above recipe
1 pound striped bass cut into 1 inch pieces [I used tilapia]
1/2 pound mussels, scrubbed and debearded [we love mussels so I used 1 1/2 pounds, especially as I omitted the crabmeat]
1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 pound crabmeat, picked over
salt and pepper to taste
steamed rice

In an 8 quart stockpot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Cook the andouille sausage until browned on one side and turn to brown the other side, about 8 minutes in total. Remove the sausage to a plate and reserve. Add the celery, onion, and peppers and cook until softened about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to medium and stir in the corn, okra, and herbs, cooking another 5 minutes. Add in all the seafood and stir gently, cooking until the shrimp has just turned pink. Pour in about 6 cups of the creole sauce and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile slice the sausage links diagonally into 4 or 5 pieces and add to the gumbo. Serve the gumbo over steamed rice, perhaps with your favorite hot sauce on the side.

Mario Batali's Braised Lamb Shanks

2009-02-23T13:07:00.002-05:00

Readers of this blog probably know that braising is one of my favorite ways to cook, especially certain vegetables like leeks and cabbage and of course beef cuts like ribs and roasts. For almost a year and a half--probably ever since I got my braising bible, All About Braising by Molly Stevens--I had been inquiring for lamb shanks at my farmers market, to no avail. I don't know what first turned me on to these lamb cuts, but I knew they were in my future. Unfortunately they were always sold out or just not available every time I went to the market. Finally I got a yes back in December and I tucked those two shanks into my freezer knowing that some winter Sunday I would get back to those babies.

Well Oscar Sunday was the day! It was one of those Sundays where I just wanted to be in the kitchen. The day started with a pancake breakfast that included scrambled eggs called migas and also included making Marvin Woods' roux and creole sauce in preparation for a Mardi Gras gumbo to be made later in the week (but that's for another blog entry). But the highlight of the day was to be the braised lamb shanks, which I'd planned to simmer in the oven while working on the creole sauce on top of the stove.

The only dilemma was what recipe to follow. Before Christmas I'd bought Two Dudes One Pan: Maximum Flavor from a Minimalist Kitchen because of the chapter on Dutch ovens that includes a delicious looking recipe for braised lamb shanks with fennel, carrots, and onions. I was all set to go with that preparation until I looked through Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, and found the braised lamb shanks with orange and olives. After some back and forth, I had to go with Mario because I continue to be intrigued by braised dishes that include fruit and meat, especially after falling in love with my first ever braised ribs recipe (note my review from 1/27/06). The combo of meat cooked with kumquats, prunes, or apricots along with some piquant elements like olives or capers offers a rich balance of flavors that smells mouthwatering as it cooks. The orange rind lost most of its bitterness and became completely edible and delicious after stewing in the delicious sauce.

As with the beef Burgundy I'd made for Valentine's Day, I wanted to make the dish early enough so that it could cool and marinate in its juices before a quick reheat just before serving. This was easily accomplished as the braise only took 90 minutes or so. Plus the lamb shank is a fatty and tender cut with tendons and collagen galore. The cooked meat was very tender and the sauce thickened beautifully. Next time I will use my fat separator to eliminate some of the fat before serving, however.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Oranges and Olives
Adapted from Molto Italiano by Mario Batali
Serves 4

4 lamb shanks [As this was my first time cooking lamb shanks, I only bought two so that I could learn more about cooking this cut. I kept the other ingredient amounts the same though]
salt and pepper [I used salt and fennel spice rub]
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 red onions, chopped
12 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled [rough chop if you feel like it]
1 navel orange cut into 8 pieces [I used a blood orange whose flesh completely dissolved into the sauce]
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup gaeta olives [I used pitted kalamata and green olives]
1 cup dry white wine [I used vermouth]
1 cup homemade marinara [I used jarred sauce, but a small can of diced tomatoes with their liquid would do]
1 cup chicken stock [I used vegetable]
zest of one orange

Season the shanks all over with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil to medium high in a Dutch oven and brown the shanks about 8 minutes before turning once to brown the other side another 8 minutes. Remove to a platter. [My shanks were a bit longer than the diameter of my 5.5 quart Le Creuset Dutch oven--which made me want the oval version--so next time I'll be using my mack daddy All-Clad 8 quart stockpot, which I really only break out on rare occasions to feed a crowd, but it can also go in the oven.]
Lower your oven rack to the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. [Mario says 375, but I follow Molly Stevens and usually braise at 325, which I often end up lowering down to 310.] Remove all but two tablespoons of oil from the pot, reduce the heat to medium, and add the chopped onions, garlic cloves, and orange pieces. Cook stirring occasionally until the onions have softened, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the marinara, stock, rosemary and olives and bring to a boil for a few minutes to allow the sauce to come together.
Add the shanks back to the pot and reduce to a simmer. The shanks should not be fully immersed in the sauce, only about halfway or so. Cover the shanks with a piece of parchment paper larger than the diameter of the pot. Push down on the paper so that it sits just above the top of the shanks and cover the pot with its lid (the edges of the paper will overhang the pot). Place in the oven and bask in the aromas as this dish does its magic. After 15 minutes, check that the meat is not simmering too vigorously and adjust the temperature as necessary to maintain a slow simmer. After the meat has been in the oven for 45 minutes, turn the pieces over and cook for another 45 minutes until the meat is fork tender.
Remove from the oven and place the shanks on a serving platter to rest for 10 minutes. If desired, strain the sauce into a fat separator, reserving the cooked vegetables to garnish the shanks. Pour some of the de-fatted sauce over the shanks and pass the rest on the side. Finally, garnish your platter with the orange zest.

This dish cries out to be served with something like couscous or polenta (my choice this past Sunday), but boiled or mashed potatoes would do just as nicely. Buon Apetito!

Valentine's Day Dinner: Boeuf Bourguignon

2009-02-15T02:00:00.003-05:00

Last Valentine's Day was memorable to me because my partner cooked for me, which was a pleasant surprise and a lesson for me in letting go of my control freak kitchen tyrant. This year was a different story as we were entertaining my partner's father and his girlfriend over Valentine's Day which happened to be the Saturday of the long Presidents' Day holiday weekend in 2009. Granted spending Valentine's Day with one's parents is not my idea of a romantic evening, but truth be told I place too much emphasis on this day of forced romance. And as I love to cook and entertain family and friends, the day worked out fine as far as I'm concerned. Brian and I still snuck in some romance, believe me! And I got to use up some of the many bottles of wine we got for Christmas this year!

Braising is to winter what grilling is to summer: the best way to prepare meats when you want to capture the essential flavors of the season. As with any cooking technique and the right cookbook (Molly Stevens All About Braising is my bible), you can explore the world and really improve your culinary repertoire. Having made the beef Burgundy (the English name is so much easier to type than the French one) for Valentine's Day this year, I'm contemplating what to make next, perhaps braised ribs or sauerbraten. In fact, I just heard from my beef purveyor, Blue Mountain Beef, and I'll be getting another beef sirloin tip roast and anticipate making ropa vieja or daube de boeuf next.

Three things inspire me to cook: 1) watching cooking shows, especially those on The Food (-porn) Network, 2) learning to appreciate other countries through food culture, and 3) exploring cooking techniques that include the possibility of buying new equipment, such as a grill (gas or charcoal?), an ice cream maker, a Dutch oven (which Le Creuset refers to as a French oven not suprisingly!) etc. My partner bought me my first Le Creuset piece for Christmas years ago, and it is a true work horse in my kitchen helping me to turn out everything from gumbo to fried chicken (better than cast iron), to sauteed collard greens. But this heavy pot really turns out the best oven braised dishes, with its tight fitting lid and enameled cast iron. In fact to avoid scorching my simmering marinara on the stovetop, I've taken to simmering it using the Dutch oven in a 325 degree oven. I use this beloved piece of equipment so frequently that I don't even question how expensive it was ($140 6 or 7 years ago) and in fact owning this piece of cookware has certainly inspired me to explore recipes like pork loin braised in milk, real baked beans, and coq au vin. I even kept a Christmas gift I'd bought for my brother (Two Dudes, One Pan) because leafing through it I found the section on the Dutch oven and wanted to try the recipes myself, especially the braised lamb shanks! (Don't worry though. I did get him a gift that he seemed to love, the Watchmen graphic novel.)

The last time I made beef burgundy, I'm sure I made it in my slow cooker, which is another piece of invaluable kitchen equipment that I'll rhapsodize on someday. I followed the recipe in The Gourment Slow Cooker and consulted Julia Child and Jacques Pepin's version for notes. The dish turned out fine, but I think I may have been at a point of my culinary progression where I didn't fully appreciate the utility of the Dutch oven vs. the slow cooker. I mean it's just easier to make things in the slow cooker compared to the oven, but lately I'm starting to think that my slow cooker only cooks on high and I very much did not want to boil the meat but gently simmer it. Molly Stevens, my braising guru, doesn't even own a slow cooker and doesn't recommend making any of her recipes using one. (The cooking elites eschew convenience which is why you'll never see Ina Garten melt chocolate in a microwave let alone make a dish in a slow cooker! That's what Sandra Lee and Paula Deen are for!)

I was familiar with Julia's and Jacques' beef Burgundy recipe from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home and recalled that the doyenne had written a recipe sidebar that recommended making the dish over the course of a few days so that it won't seem like so much work. "Simmer the stew the next day while you are eating dinner or playing tennis..." LOL!! However, anyone who's ever made chili knows that it tastes better the next day so I did want to at least cook the meat a day ahead. Plus, the less one has to do on the day the dish is served the more time spent with guests and the less stress all around. We should all strive to be happy in the kitchen, rather than striving to serve the perfect dish.

I also liked how the mushrooms and pearl onions are cooked separately from the meat. Because I knew we'd be out sightseeing all afternoon on Valentine's Day, I was pleased that I was able to saute the onions and mushrooms (as well as make profiteroles for dessert) in the morning and just add them to the pot and put the whole shebang in the fridge to steep and meld all day. Brilliant!

Finally, I'm somewhat surprised at how many foodies are blogging about Julia's boeuf Bourguignon from 1961's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as if a recipe from 1961 needs no enhancement. I'm sure Julia herself did not always make the dish the same way if she's like anyone else in the kitchen who's always tweaking recipes. I had to search high and low for someone who's following the more contemporary incarnation of this classic recipe found in Julia's and Jacques' collaboration, which is a pretty simple beef braise unlike Ina Garten's update on the classic found in her first cookbook using beef tenderloin (gasp!). I did find one blogger who's way more enthusiastic about the 1999 recipe than the 1961 version (and took great pictures), and he agreed with me after having made the 1961 recipe just once that the extra steps involved do not make the extra effort worthwhile.

I also cut out the step of boiling the salt pork because I started with plain old unsmoked bacon to prepare the lardons. I also used way less than a bottle of wine--perhaps a cup and a half at most--because from reading Molly Stevens and from following the steps in cooking my first ever braised dish the liquid should only come up 1/3 to half as high as the level of the meat so as to cook the meat partly by a gentle a simmer and partly by steam. Next time I might take an additional optional step to reduce a bottle of wine down to a cup and a half or so, but I just used an unfinished bottle of cabernet sauvignon, not the recommended Pinot Noir, but definitely a full-bodied red! I would estimate I added only about three cups of liquid to my Dutch oven, including the liquid from the canned tomatoes.

To keep the steam level no higher than the top of the meat, use a piece of parchment larger in diameter than the Dutch oven (or possibly foil but I wouldn't choose foil because the acid in the sauce can react with the aluminum and leech into your dish) to create a barrier that will collect condensation and drip back onto the meat, basting it as it cooks. Using this technique you'll want to turn the meat so that the parts in the liquid are exchanged with the parts outside the liquid every 45 minutes or so.

One last thing: the cut of meat is obviously very important in this preparation. Though chuck is recommended for its fattiness, connective tissue, and price, I used a beef sirloin tip roast which was recommended by my butcher and I was beyond pleased with the result. Because beef sirloin tip is not fatty and does not have a lot of visible connective tissue, I was quite concerned that my dish would be tough and dried out. Google led me to this chowhound thread that had some good cautionary advice and success stories as well as confirmation that slow cookers may not be the best choice for a braise like this.

As this is one of those dishes that tastes better the next day, I would recommend cooking it in stages, starting the evening before you intend to serve this dish, if not sooner. Without further ado, here is my take on this delicious recipe:

Boeuf Bourguignon
Adapted from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home
Serves 4 to 6

2 tablespoons olive oil
5 or 6 slices of thick cut bacon (5 ounces), cut into half inch pieces [they recommend salt pork for the lardons which requires a ten minute boil to reduce its saltiness before cutting and sauteeing; see Belm Blog for reference]
One 3 to 4 pound beef sirloin tip or chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat and cut into two inch cubes, approximately 2-3 pieces per person [I used a fairly lean beef sirloin tip roast so I left most of its fat in place and used those pieces to nibble at various stages; packaged stewing meat is NOT recommended]
salt and pepper

1 large onion diced
2 large carrots, cut into 1/4 inch circles [they recommend peeling and dicing but there's no point to that because these veggies and herbs are all discarded]
6 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
3 bay leaves
A handful of parsley stems and leaves
10-12 garlic cloves lightly crushed with skins left on

1 large tomato, cored and chopped [I used a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes]
1 1/2 cups sturdy red wine, pinot noir or chianti recommended [I used cabernet sauvignon]
1 to 2 cups dark stock [I used super dark homemade chicken stock, but beef stock makes the most sense]

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
8 to 12 ounces cremini, button, or shiitake mushrooms (or any combination), halved quartered or whole (uniform size); or all mushrooms sliced thick
20 to 40 pearl onions, thawed and drained if using frozen, otherwise you'll have to blanch and peel fresh ones (step 5 below)
1 teaspoon of sugar [optional IMHO and I did not use]
salt and pepper
3/4 cup braising liquid, stock, or water
1/4 cup brandy [not in J & J's recipe]

2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup red wine [optional IMHO, but frankly I forgot this ingredient]
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Optional first step: While browning the bacon and prepping the meat, reduce your wine to 1 1/2 cups in a small saucepan placed over medium high heat. This step is not at all necessary but if you planned to use a full bottle of wine--which I think is twice the volume needed-- you could instead reduce a bottle of wine on the stovetop as you're cooking the bacon and meat. There's nothing wrong with heating the wine in any case because it will come to the boil more quickly when added to the braising pot. To kick it up a notch you could throw in some bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme sprigs, parsley etc., but that really is guilding the lily! (Strain out and discard the herbs before using the wine though!)

Prepare the meat: In a 6 to 8 quart Dutch oven heat the olive oil over medium high heat and then add the bacon, stirring occasionally until the fat is rendered and the bacon pieces have become crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside. Pour off all but two tablespoons of the accumulated fat in the pan and return the pan to medium high heat. Salt and pepper the cubed meat all over and add half the meat or so in a single, uncrowded layer and let the meat brown well on the first side without moving it, about 5 minutes. Check to see that a nice crust has formed, and then turn the pieces over to brown the other side, about another 4 minutes or so. Remove the browned meat to a platter and repeat with the second batch of meat.

Prepare the veggies to add to the braise: Lower your oven rack to the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. While the meat is browning, in a large square of cheesecloth, pile the chopped onions and carrots, the smashed garlic cloves, the bay leaves, and the parsley and thyme sprigs. Tie this off by tying the diagonally opposite corners together. I had to unfold my cheese cloth to make a big enough square and as there were gaps in the bundle, I flipped it over onto another piece of cheesecloth the same size and tied it again to ensure no spillage of the veggies. It's important to tie tightly as these veggies will shrink as they cook.

The braise: When the second batch of meat is done browning, pour in half of the wine to deglaze the pan. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the rest of the wine and the chopped tomato. (If using canned tomatoes add the tomato liquid as well.) Add the bacon and first batch of beef back to the pot, including any accumulated juices on the platter. Move the meat to one side of the pot and add the vegetable bundle to the pot. Add just enough stock to bring the level of the liquid no higher than halfway up the level of the meat and bring to a simmer. Cover the meat with a piece of parchment paper larger than the diameter of the pot. Push down on the paper so that it touches the top of the meat and cover the pot with its lid (the edges of the paper will overhang the pot). Place this pot into the oven and bask in the aromas of this dish as it simmers away. After 15 minutes, check the pot to make sure that it's not boiling too rapidly, which will toughen the meat. Adjust the oven temperature down or up to maintain a simmer. After another 30 minutes, check the meat again and stir it around so that the pieces on top are immersed in the liquid and the pieces immersed are now on top. The total braise should take between 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Check the meat at an hour and a half to see if it is tender by gently squeezing with your tongs. If you meet resistance, continue cooking another 30 minutes, but if it feels soft, your dish is done. Remove the pot from the oven and let cool to room temperature in its liquid, about two hours. Discard the parchment paper and place the pot into the refrigerator overnight. Check the meat the next day. It will likely have tenderized as it cooled in the liquid. Recall that through the process of osmosis, if the meat is dry, it will absorb liquid--and flavor--as it moistens in the liquid. This is yet another reason to make the dish a day in advance. Theoretically, you could start and finish this dish 3 hours ahead of serving it, but you'd miss out on letting the meat cool and steep in its cooking liquid. Grilled meats certainly benefit by marinating before cooking, and braised meats benefit by marinating after cooking!

The mushrooms and onions: This step can be performed whenever you feel like it: a day before you do anything else, while the meat is braising in the oven, the next morning (worked best for me), or about half an hour before serving the dish. If using fresh pearl onions (as I had to), bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Blanch the onions in boiling water for 1 minute and remove to a bowl of ice water. Trim off the ugly part of the onion root, keeping the onion layers in tact as best as you can. Squeeze on the onion skin to pop out the onion pearl. You'll probably have to sacrifice a layer of onion, but it's not worth the frustration to try and peel just the outer layer. Trim the other end if necesary. Set the onions aside on paper towels to dry while you prepare the mushrooms. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add the butter and when the foam subsides add the mushrooms, stirring to coat with the oil and butter. Let cook for 5 minutes undisturbed. Check a mushroom to see if it's browning nicely, and if so stir the mushrooms around and let them cook for 3 more minutes. Stir in the pearl onions and season the combination with salt and pepper (and the sugar if using). Let the onions caramelize and cook with the mushrooms for 8 more minutes, stirring once or twice so that the onions brown evenly. Deglaze the pan with the braising liquid, stock, or water, scraping up all the browned bits and bringing to gentle boil. Stir in the brandy and ignite if you're feeling dramatic, otherwise just cover and reduce to a simmer for 5 more minutes. (Note: NEVER pour the brandy directly from the bottle, especially if cooking over gas as the alcohol could ignite and cause an explosion. Best to pour off the measured amount and add just the amount needed.) Remove the lid, raise the heat and reduce the liquid to a quarter cup or so. Put the mushrooms and onions aside or in the refrigerator until ready to finish the dish.

The finish: Remove and discard the bundle of veggies from the braising pot, squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Remove the chunks of meat to a dish and bring the leftover liquid to a boil. You should have about two cups or so. Combine the softened butter with the flour and stir to combine into a beurre manie, making sure there are no flour lumps. Whisk the beurre manie into the liquid and boil for a few minutes, thickening the sauce. Add the meat, mushrooms and onions back to the pot to reheat everything. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings with additional salt and pepper if necessary. Because beef Burgundy is a wine-based dish, you may want to splash a quarter cup or so of red wine into the dish right before serving to re-emphasize the wine flavor component. Use whatever wine you'll be having with dinner. Serve the meat with the onions and mushrooms on your favorite platter, garnished with parsley and pass the sauce on the side.

This dish is perfect with a simple starch side like mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, or buttered noodles. Haricots verts would complete the picture perfect French bistro dinner! Voila!

Profiteroles with Blood Orange Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

2009-01-26T09:11:00.003-05:00

In the winter my dessert focus switches to citrus, chocolate, or nut based desserts from stone fruits and berries of the summer and apples and pumpkins in the fall. It's so great that certain fruits like citrus and kumquats are in season in the winter. And this dessert that I served following a dinner of Molly Stevens' version of Marcella Hazan's rendition of pork loin braised in milk was quite impressive if I do say so myself.

Profiteroles, like crepes and shortcakes, are something that it's just worth it to take the time to make every now and again so that you can freeze some of them for a quick, but impressive dessert for some future occasion--like say when your partner invites a gym buddy over for an impromptu dinner. The profiterole recipe I use is from three different Food Network sources: Emeril, Ina, and the defunct Cookworks plus Julia Child's and Jacques Pepin's Cooking at Home. They vary in the amount of butter, whether milk or water is used as the liquid of choice, and whether to mix the eggs in by hand, using the stand mixer, or in the food processor. It's always nice to have choices. I chose to use skim milk--which is just watery milk anyway--and the whole stick of butter, since we're talking dessert!

The blood orange ice cream is my adaptation of Joanne Weir's from Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country. I remember watching this PBS series back in the late 1990s and learning to appreciate how Weir used California ingredients to construct a uniquely Mediterranean culinary style. I like to make her ice cream recipe as a seasonal homage to blood oranges, which have become so ubiquitous in the winter. In the winter, I always buy a few every week to add to salads or to make mimosas. Weir's recipe calls for tangerines, which I suppose are abundant in California, but I can't remember the last time I had one since we now eat clementines more than any other citrus in the wintertime.

I love making ice cream because you can always use some seasonal fruit or just good old chocolate. It's also the kind of thing--Iron Chef notwithstanding where someone is always churning out exotic ice creams in under an hour--that has to be made in advance and is therefore ideal for entertaining. Plus ice cream obviously keeps for weeks in the freezer if one is not overly indulgent! The steps are simple and the results sublime! I don't keep the bowl of my ice cream maker in my freezer so that must be frozen at least 36 hours in advance. The custard must be made and chilled, preferably overnight. When cold, it must be poured into the ice cream maker, and the frozen custard must then be placed in the freezer to harden for a few hours. All in all I take two days or so to pull off making ice cream.

When I got my ice cream maker a few summers ago, I went on a tear making different recipes but have now settled on the relative proportions of liquid (milk, half & half, and/or cream) to eggs (yolks vs. whole eggs) to sugar. I follow these proportions no matter what the recipe calls for unless I'm making sherbet or other ice creams that don't call for eggs: 2 cups half and half, 1 cup milk (whatever kind you drink), 6 to 8 egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar. Part of the reason for using 3 cups of liquid is that I freeze the ice cream in quart containers, and I've learned that starting with just 3 cups of liquid ensures that when the ice cream is made and the volume increases, it will fit into a quart container--with just the right amount of excess to have a taste as soon as it's made! I've tried to make lower fat versions of this ice cream using milk and whole eggs, but the texture is just not creamy enough. Ironically using cream rather than half and half creates a custard that is too fatty when frozen and leaves a fatty residue on the spoon as you're eating the ice cream. Eew!

Profiteroles with Blood Orange Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

Pate a Choux for Making Profiteroles
Adapted from multiple sources, makes 18 to 28 depending on size

Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Combine
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
in a medium sized saucier or saucepan and bring to a boil to completely melt the butter. Reduce the heat to medium low. Using a wooden spoon, mix in
1 cup all-purpose flour
stirring constantly until a ball off dough forms and pulls away from the bottom and sides of the pot, about 2 minutes. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or a food processor fitted with a steel blade) and let cool slightly. Crack
4 eggs
into a bowl, leaving the yolks intact. With the stand mixer on medium, add the eggs to the dough one at a time, fully incorporating the egg into the batter after each addition.

Transfer the dough to a piping bag. Onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat, pipe dough out in 1 to 2 inch mounds (considering the size of your ice cream scoop), leaving at least 1 inch between each because they will expand as they bake. Wet your fingers and push down the top of each mound to smooth out the tip that may have formed when you moved the pastry bag away from the mound. Bake for 20 minutes and rotate the pan. Lower the oven to 350 degrees and continue baking for 15 to 20 minutes more until golden brown. Turn the oven off and let the profiteroles cool (and dry out) in the oven with the door slightly open. When completely cool, store at room temperature in an airtight container or freeze in a ziptop bag until ready to use.

Blood Orange Ice Cream
Adapted from Tangerine Ice Cream recipe from Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country, makes a generous quart

3 blood oranges
2 cups half and half
1 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar

6 to 8 egg yolks, depending on how rich you want it
Juice from one blood orange, about 3 to 4 tablespoons
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur

Remove the zest from one blood orange and reserve; squeeze the juice from the zested orange and reserve separately. Remove the peel from the other two blood oranges, avoiding the bitter white pith as much as possible. In a saucier (ideal if you have one) or saucepan, combine the orange peel, half and half, milk, salt, and sugar. Scald, stirring to ensure that the sugar is dissolved, and turn off the heat. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks to a uniform consistency. Scald the milk mixture again. While whisking the egg yolks with one hand, slowly ladle in a half cup or so of the milk mixture using your other hand. Repeat this one more time, whisking the bowl contents constantly while ladling in the milk mixture. This tempering of the egg yolks warms them slowly so that they don't scramble when added to the milk mixture. Add the tempered egg yolk mixture back to the saucepan with the rest of the milk mixture and turn on the heat to medium. Stir constantly in a figure 8 motion with a wooden spoon until the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon (170 degrees). Strain the custard into a 1 quart pyrex measuring cup or bowl. Whisk in the orange zest, orange juice, orange liqueur, and vanilla extract. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard and refrigerate overnight or until well chilled. With the ice cream machine running, pour in the custard and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. When ready, transfer to a quart container and freeze for a few hours until hard.

To serve the dessert, cut the profiteroles in half and scoop on the ice cream. Cover with the top half of the profiterole and drizzle with chocolate sauce. Voila!

Mark Bittman's Pasta with Summer Vegetables and Lavender

2008-09-03T10:34:00.002-04:00

My partner and I like to dine vegetarian once a week. It's partly a response to rising food costs and a desire to eat less meat and reduce our impact on the environment. Having grown up in an omnivorous Seventh Day Adventist family, eating vegetarian once a week or being served a vegetarian meal on occasional weeknights was nothing new to me in concept. But because we're both so into working out, the idea of reducing our protein consumption at dinner (and post-workout for Brian) was something we were hesitant about but also willing to try.

I say we partly eat vegetarian once a week because of course even more important for me, it became an opportunity to explore cookbooks, websites, and recipes using fresh ingredients and seasonings that would have to be full-flavored if we were willing to forgo animal flesh. What's the fun of culinary explorations if new cookbooks (or cook's tools) can't be researched and eventually purchased? Incidentally my new thing is to check out cookbooks from the library before buying. In the past I'd hear or read about a new cookbook, add it to my Amazon wish list, check it out at Barnes & Noble, and if I liked it well enough after repeated perusals, I'd buy it. I do like nice pictures in my cookbooks--of the food not the author--and try to limit my library to cookbooks that I know I will use for more than just one recipe. Ina Garten, Mario Batali, and Nigella Lawson are outstanding in this regard. Amanda Hesser is the outstanding exception.

Now I go through almost the same research process except that I will borrow the object of my attention from the library, read it at home, mark off recipes, and actually cook from it a few of times before making my buy decision. For this reason, I thought I wanted to buy Dorie Greenspan's Baking: from My Home to Yours after hearing her on NPR making pie or cake or something with Michele Norris. After checking out her book and making her lemon poppy seed muffins to acclaim, I never found another recipe that I wanted to try. I have Nancy Baggett's All-American Dessert Book that pretty much covers the same territory as Dorie though Dorie is an admitted Francophile. So even though I loved hearing her on the radio (also on The Splendid Table talking about mortars and pestles) and enjoying her lemon yogurt cake, which is my all purpose cake to make in a pinch, I've concluded that Dorie won't be joining my library, as her two outstanding lemon recipes are of course available online.

Conversely, this is exactly how Veganomicon entered my collection. I'd read about the authors in my favorite Washington Post food blog, which recommended this vegan cookbook so I got it from the library along with ones I found by Deborah Madison and Peter Berley. The intro chapters in Veganomicon on equipment and pantry items were so well written that I was immediately intrigued. The chapter on appetizers was so full of great ingredients and fresh approaches that I was sold and bought it last week. I admit I have yet to make the first thing from this cookbook (breaking my own rule of the test run), but I have complete confidence that the recipes and cooking techniques will be winners.

All of this brings me to Mark Bittman's wonderful recipe of Pasta with Vegetables and Lavender that I found this past weekend. I tagged it in Delicious (could there be a better named site for tagging recipes found on the web?) and made it last night and was astounded that lavender could so well perfume and flavor a pasta dish. I love this recipe because of its unusual use of lavender (Note, I just reheated this for lunch and folks sitting near me all came over to find out what smelled so delicious!) and its use of vegetables that I always have on hand in the summer: zucchini, red pepper, and carrots. In the past I've used lavender to make an infused simple syrup, ice cream, and a vinaigrette that is beautiful on potato salad or for marinating chicken, but never with pasta. Bittman is right in warning us to go easy with this key ingredient though he annoyingly doesn't recommend specific amounts. I overdid it with the lavender on some chicken that I served to guests that was way too strong (oh well!), so I know that a light touch is necessary here, about 1 teaspoon (not heaping) of dried flowers. A lavender garnish at the end is all you need if you think the flavor is not quite enough.

As this is a pasta with vegetable dish, you can up the proportion of veggies and decrease the amount of pasta, and end up eating more of the wonderful veggies and less of the refined white flour for a lot fewer calories, which is exactly what Bittman advised in another column, even though that is not the Italian way. In fact, a red bell pepper, a zucchini, a yellow squash, the carrots, plus the lavender would give you almost all the colors of the rainbow, and it occurs to me that this combination would make a wonderful vegetable side dish without the pasta. I used yellow zucchini, green bell pepper and a carrot to great success, and am contemplating what other mild vegetables could be subsituted. Green beans maybe? Also he recommends grating the squash and pepper as well as the carrot. But I used the slicing disk on my food processor for the squash and pepper and then grated the carrot because I didn't want the squash and the pepper to make everything too watery or mushy.

Farfalle with Vegetables and Lavender
Adapted from Mark Bittman

½ pound of pasta, such as farfalle, orechiette, or gemelli
2 or 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin or crushed
2 medium zucchini or summer squash (about 1 pound), trimmed
2 medium carrots, peeled and trimmed
1 bell pepper (use whatever color you prefer), cored
2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (enough to completely coat the bottom of your sauté pan)
1 teaspoon fresh or dried lavender flowers, plus additional for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Add the pasta and cook until al dente (i.e. just barely tender, which is usually one minute less than the recommended cooking time.)
Meanwhile, slice the vegetables thin, using a food processor, mandolin, or knife. Pour the olive oil into a large unheated skillet and add the garlic. Turn the heat to medium and gently cook the garlic until it starts to turn golden, stirring occasionally. (Cooking the garlic this way will both infuse the oil with the garlic flavor and minimize the possibility of it burning and becoming bitter.) When the garlic turns golden, add the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add the lavender, crushing the flowers in your fingertips to release their fragrance. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies barely soften, just 5 minutes or so.
Hopefully the pasta will be nearly done just as the vegetables are nearly done. (If you start cooking the garlic right after you add the pasta to the boiling water, the timing should be right.) Drain the pasta, reserving some cooking water. Add pasta to vegetables and continue to cook, adding water as necessary to keep mixture moist.
Taste, and add more lavender to taste; it should be distinctive but not too strong. When pasta and vegetables are tender but not mushy, adjust seasoning for salt and pepper, garnish with a couple of lavender flowers if you have them, and serve. A nice crisp sauvignon blanc would be really nice with this dish.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Pat Muldoon's (Mom's) Chicken Noodle Soup

2008-05-12T16:32:00.001-04:00

This post is about the healing powers of food. While my usual posts are about other people's recipes that can be linked to on the web, this post is about my "mother-in-law's" recipe for chicken soup (in quotes because even though my partner and I have been together 16 years on May 18 this year, we've never had a ceremony; referring to his family as in-laws just simplifies things really). Much has been written, both anecdotally and scholarly, about the curative powers of chicken soup. This past weekend I witnessed the phenomenon first hand as a soup that I prepared for my partner not only nourished his ailing body, but lifted his spirits as well.

First a little background: My partner was riding his bike to a meeting last Tuesday and was hit broadside by a car, an SUV actually. The accident knocked his right hip bone out of the socket and broke the socket bone that is one half of the ball and socket that comprises the hip joint. Once his hip bone was put back in place, he had to lie in bed on his back for three days until he could be operated on to fix his broken hip. The recuperation back to walking without crutches will take up to eight weeks. I'm confident he will be running by Labor Day as he was in excellent shape before the accident and is eager to get back to his level of activity as soon as possible. I'm fond of quoting to him one of my favorite lines from Spider-man 2, Aunt May to Peter Parker: "You're not Superman, you know." Of course, Brian just won't accept that he isn't actually Superman, which is why he usually pushes himself so hard physically and why I know his sheer determination will lead to a much faster than normal recuperation.

His surgery was on Friday, three days after his accident. I'd been spending so much time at the hospital that over the course of five days ending Saturday, I'd had seven of ten meals in the hospital cafeteria. Tired of the cafeteria food and missing being in my own kitchen, on Saturday morning I was determined to do two things, head out to my local farmers market that was starting that day for the year, and to make some homemade chicken soup a la Pat Muldoon, Brian's mother whom we lost in 2001. Going to the farmers market with my father-in-law and seeing the farmers that I've missed all winter, was medicine for my spirit. Everything looked so fresh and everyone was so happy to be back in business. The first strawberries of the season cried out to just be eaten raw. Asparagus will be grilled and also made into a risotto. Rhubarb was combined with tomato to make a favorite chutney. Rest assured strawberry ice cream and strawberry rhubarb shortcakes are coming soon.

The chicken soup is really more method than recipe, but observing my mother-in-law prepare this soup one winter day over Christmas week, I was shocked at its simplicity. My mother never made chicken soup from scratch. She used to make a mean chicken and dumplings, but plain old chicken noodle soup was usually Campbell's. Pat decided that chicken soup was just what we needed on a cold winter day. I watched her like a hawk and was so surprised at her secret ingredient, nutmeg. Brian has always loved his mom's soup and since she's no longer with us and Mother's Day was this past Sunday, I wanted to bring her strength and spirit into the room where Brian was recuperating. It worked like a charm because he always loves when I make this soup and even if I vary his mother's recipe, he's pleased to know that I made the effort to learn to make one of his favorites from childhood. So the soup was working on many levels that Saturday.

But on Monday, the day after Mother's Day Brian was uncomfortably waiting around for some radiological tests and had a bit of an emotional breakdown. Thinking about his mother, and the soup, and the love I was trying to share, he was overcome. He started crying thinking about all that he'd been through and how lucky he was to have survived. But the trigger was thinking about the soup, this dish so familiar from his childhood that is just ridiculously simple to make:

Brian's Mom's Chicken Soup for the Soul

In a six quart stock pot, place
2-3 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves (about 2 1/2 pounds)
and cover with cold water by an inch.
Place on medium heat and bring to a slow boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook uncovered for about 40 minutes, skimming off any foam that accumulates. If you'd like to make a more flavorful stock, you can add roughly chopped vegetables such as
1 small onion (optional)
1 medium carrot (optional)
1 stalk celery (optional)
but I think you can just add these veggies to the soup itself rather than at this stage where they are only used for the stock and then discarded.
When the chicken breasts are cooked remove from the stock pot to a bowl and cover with stock. Let sit at room temperature until cool enough to handle. Allowing the chicken to cool in the liquid will keep the breast moist.
Meanwhile, add to the stock pot
1 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 large stalk celery, diced
and bring to a simmer for about 10 minutes.
Bring 2 quarts of salted water to boil and cook
8 ounces of noodles/pasta (such as egg noodles, orrechiete, orzo, tubettini, etc.)
to al dente.
Once cool, remove the skin from the chicken and the meat from the bones and cut into a medium dice. Add the chicken and the reserved liquid back to the soup pot. Add
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
to the soup and taste to addjust the seasonings accordingly.
Add
2 to 4 tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs (such as parsley, thyme, or cilantro)
to the soup, reserving a small amount for garnish. Brian LOVES dill so that's what I used.
Drain the pasta and add to the soup. Serve immediately with additional herb garnish if desired.

Miso Glazed Tilapia: A Valentine Supper

2008-02-14T17:03:00.000-05:00

After a week of somewhat heavy meals that included Giada's honey ricotta cheesecake for dessert one night, I was ready for something light for Valentine's Day. Fortunately I knew we had tilapia waiting to be defrosted and was planning to poach it in carrot juice and serve on a bed of greens a la Jerry Traunfeld from the Herbal Kitchen. Arriving home a bit later than usual, I walked into the kitchen and was surprised to find my partner cooking away. He was making some chicken gyoza potstickers and edamame that he'd found in the freezer and was looking on the internet for a way to prepare the tilapia Asian style.

In these situations, I must supress my inner kitchen tyrant (but I'd planned on making something else!) and just let things flow. Most times I really love cooking with my partner. He doesn't mind chopping and cleaning up as we go. But sometimes, I just want him to do what I tell him to do or to get out of my way! After 15 years, I can heartily attest that the forceful approach does not work with him. So, the ancillary benefit to me when we cook is to learn to let go. Cooking can be about so much control: of ingredients, temperature, seasoning, timing, etc. I may think that I know what needs to be done next, but I have to consider my words and tone very carefully when trying to influence him in the kitchen, lest he completely leave the cooking to me and he ends up feeling alienated in our own kitchen! I have to remember that cooking is something I really enjoy and have definite ideas about, but I want to include him in this activity that I love so much so that he can feel the love and success of putting food on the table and getting the love for his efforts. So props to him for starting dinner without checking with me first!

His choice for an Asian style dinner was particularly romantic, because we lived togther in Japan in a postage stamp of an apartment for nearly three years at the beginning of our relationship. Japanese food and style are a sentimental favorite for us. So I whipped out my Washoku by Elizabeth Andoh (the title of which literally translates to "Japanese meals or Japanese food") and discovered a simple miso glazed fish recipe that was perfect for the tilapia at hand. I was immediately reminded of the first time I had miso glazed cod at Nobu in South Beach (which apparently is no longer on the menu according to the website), and again was kicking myself for not coming back to this preparation more regularly, especially given my tribulations with cooking cod. Most recipes for this dish call for marinating it for up to 3 days, but Andoh-san thankully includes an "impatient" marinade perfect for the weeknight cook. Leafing through her 2006 IACP award winning cookbook, I was pleased to find recipes for eggplant, a vegetable I fell in love with while living in Japan. I'd bought many last summer at my local farmers market and made some delicious preparations, but never went farther east than Thailand in any of my recipe wanderings. Now I can't wait for next summer to try some of these Japanese recipes.

So here is my take on this delicious fish preparation. Andoh-san goes into much greater detail on some of these steps, so I would refer to her excellent cookbook if you have the interest to learn more. But for a simple weeknight preparation, my instructions below with modifications will suffice.

Saikyo Yaki, Miso-Marinated Broiled Fish
Adapted from Washoku by Elizabeth Andoh

4 to 6 fish fillets, 1 1/2 pounds to 2 pounds [any fish that you like, such as salmon, is suitable. Cod is typical but I used tilapia]

Impatient Marinade:
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup sweet, light miso, preferably Saikyo miso [I confess I used mild Korean miso]
2 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon sake [I had to substitute brandy]
1 tablespoon freeze dried yuzu peel, pulverized, or grated fresh citrus zest [I used lemon and orange zest]

Rinse the fish and pat dry with paper towels. [Personally I never rinse meat products since Diana Kennedy said on the Today Show that it's not necessary. Plus you never see anyone on the Food Network follow this practice.] Place the fish on paper towels and sprinkle both sides with salt. Let stand for 5 minutes, or until it "sweats." Blot away the excess moisture.

Now here is where I diverge from Andoh-san greatly. She recommends wrapping the fish in a single layer in a double layer of cheesecloth and then coating that cloth with the marinade for at least 20 minutes or up to 1 hour in the fridge. The cloth is then removed (thus removing the marinade) and the fish is ready to go under the broiler. The marinade can actually be reused and the cloth rinsed and dried for the next time. Not having any cheesecloth, I just cheated and slathered the marinade on the fish and popped it into a 400 degree oven for 12 minutes. If you want the crust toasted you can always just pop the fish under the broiler for a minute or so. The marinade is salty, but oh so delicious with the citrus notes from the zest!

Chicken Chilaquiles: How to turn leftover chicken and tortilla chips into a Mexican casserole

2008-02-01T14:04:00.001-05:00

For me half the fun of cooking is the clever re-invention of a dish into something totally different using leftovers. For this reason alone, though I'd been cooking half the box of pasta long before Mark Bittman said to, I've started cooking the whole pound knowing that with what's left over I can use other leftovers like chicken or vegetables to make soup or a frittata or a simple side or whatever. That's why it's particularly great to make something in the beginning of the week knowing you'll have enough left over to create another meal from something you've "prepped" in your own kitchen earlier in the week. This was the original premise of Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller on the Food Network, though she's deviated from the original format these days.

In this vein, I confess that half the reason I volunteer to cook Thanksgiving dinner is that I know I'll get at least two meals out of that leftover turkey (chili, pot pies, shepherd's pie, turkey divan, etc.) before I even make the turkey soup from the bare bones of the carcass! And besides even though you think you'll never want to eat again after stuffing yourself at Thanksgiving, you and yours will need something to eat on Friday too! So get comfortable with making leftovers. Not every delicious meal has to be made from scratch, but the satisfaction of making a delicious meal from leftovers is a timesaver that every cook should embrace.

Which brings me to the purpose of this post: chilaquiles. The Italian dish panzanella, though it has been dressed up by all manners of chefs into something approaching high cuisine, was originally conceived as a way to use up stale bread. As the Italians don't want to waste their day old bread, Mexicans don't want to waste their day old tortillas. When the cook finds herself with leftover tortillas from the day before, it's time for chilaquiles. Unless you've recently made enchiladas, you probably won't have enough corn tortillas left over to make this dish, and when making a dish from leftovers, it should not be necessary to go the store for any additional ingredients. But I wouldn't use fresh tortillas to start with anyway because it requires an added step of frying the tortillas to make them crisp, which drags out the whole process and seems inherently messy and unappetizing. The really quick way to make this leftover dish is with your favorite brand of plain old tortilla chips, all the better if they're a bit old and stale and not suitable for dipping into guacamole. I searched my usual sources and discovered that chilaquiles can be made with eggs as a breakfast dish, which reminds me of another dish I learned to make--called migas--also from Mexico. It's another great way to use stale tortilla chips or the broken bits at the bottom of the bag by simply adding them to scrambled eggs. You won't need any salt and you won't believe how delicious this dish will taste. Thanks to Rosa Mexicano for that recipe and teaching me about the genius of la cocina Mexicana.

So consider making this dish when you have leftover chicken (or turkey or chili or pork roast, etc.), a nearly full bag of tortilla chips, some salsa, some sour cream, and some cheese (five ingredients). Done. Finito. Bastante! My recipe is closest to Rick Bayless's from Mexico One Plate at a Time, but uses the bag chips in lieu of the fresh tortillas. He uses salsa verde from tomatillos rather than using the typical tomato salsa. I happened to have some salsa verde frozen from the last time I made Rick's grilled chicken with salsa verde, which is a foundation sauce of Mexican cuisine and a great alternative to salsa roja. Here, Joy of Cooking style is this twenty minute meal.

Chilaquiles Verdes
Four Servings

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In the bottom of a 3 quart casserole dish (9x13 is too big) spread
2 cups (3 ounces) of tortilla chips
Crush the chips somewhat so that the bottom of the dish is covered. Spread on top
1 cup (8 ounces) of leftover chicken, cubed
Spread
1 1/2 cups tomatillo salsa (or 1 1/2 cups tomato salsa)
over the chicken and dollop with
4 tablespoons of sour cream
Repeat layering one more time with all of the above ingredients. Top with
1/2 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, etc.)
Cover with aluminum foil and bake in center of oven for 15 minutes. Remove foil and broil for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving. If desired, garnish with
chopped cilantro, chopped scallions, chopped jalapeno, or additional sour cream

The French Take on Beer, Brats, and Sauerkraut: Julia Child's Choucroutre Royale

2008-01-23T13:47:00.000-05:00

Isn't it funny how to our ears the French language just sounds so elegant? If you were to tell a friend that you were serving Choucroute Royale for Super Bowl Sunday, no doubt eyebrows would be raised in disbelief! "What kind of haute cuisine is that to serve the beer and pretzels crowd?" "I thought we'd be having chili like last year!" But wouldn't your friend be just as surprised to learn that choucroute (shoo-kroot) is simply French for sauerkraut? The "Royale" part I've no idea, but it could just be Julia's way of making sauerkraut sound even more classy by jazzing it up with more than just plain old sausages. This is all so reminiscent of that conversation in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction between the John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson characters about how the French call the banally named "Quarter Pounder with cheese" "Royale with cheese?" Instant cache! (Mon Dieu! Can I pepper any more French words into this intro?)

I was very happily led to this preparation by searching on the Food Network website for recipes that use juniper berries. I'd bought juniper berries from Penzeys Spices to make Molly Stevens' Sauerbraten, and even though I'd gotten a small container, I still wanted to use them up. I'm still working on that effort two years later, but the folks at Penzeys say that whole spices in the seed form last up to two years unlike the six months to a year for herbs and ground spices, so I've still got this winter for a few more recipes. That same search, incidentally, led me to Emeril's Chicken Simmered in Beer, discussed in an earlier posting.

Based on the success of Emeril's chicken and Julia's sauerkraut I can definitely say that there is an affinity for beer with juniper! I love using beer in cooking chili and other one pot meals, and the choucroute is a dish that cries out to be prepared in the slow cooker. In fact, I started this dish in the afternoon prior to going out bowling with my sister's family thinking we could all come back and enjoy this crowd pleaser together. Unfortunately the big dinner party didn't work out, but Brian and I certainly had a great hearty dinner that was made even better by eating it with Firehook Bakery's hearty dark multigrain bread with Dijon mustard. Needless to say this the kind of preparation that is even better the next day. I also used two other Food Network recipes--one by Emeril and another by Food Network Kitchens that describes a slow cooker preparation. Both had some good ideas including using gin instead of or in addition to the juniper berries, so here is my take, with Julia's recipe as the foundation.

Choucroute Royale (Braised Sauerkraut)

Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child and Simone Beck

One 28 ounce can of a good German brand of sauerkraut

1/2 pound chunk of bacon or 8 slices good turkey bacon (Louis Rich NOT recommended)
1 tablespoon olive oil

3 to 4 pounds of various kinds of browned meat such as:
Roast pork
Pork chops
Smoked pork loin
Ham
Sausages
kielbasa
Duck
Chicken thighs
Smoked turkey

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 large onion sliced thick

The following tied in cheesecloth:
4 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs of thyme
6 peppercorns
10 juniper berries lightly crushed (or add 1/4 cup gin to casserole)

1 ½ pounds baby red potatoes
2 cooking apples, cored and cut into eighths.

1 bottle of beer
Enough chicken stock (up to 2 cups) to raise the liquid level to just below the top of the vegetables

Prepare the sauerkraut and bacon. Drain the sauerkraut and soak in cold water for 15 to 20 minutes as you prepare the vegetables and meats to add to your dish. If using chunk bacon, slice into half inch cubes. If using bacon strips, slice into half inch pieces. In a wide sauté pan, cook bacon in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until crisp to render the fat. Remove bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel and reserve.

Brown the meat. Brown any sausage or kielbasa that you are cooking for five minutes on each side until well caramelized but not necessarily cooked through as the meat will finish cooking in the slow cooker. Season any pieces of meat--such as pork chops or chicken thighs--that you want to cook with salt and pepper and brown for about five minutes on each side. Again, you’re not cooking it through just browning it well. At this point you could sweat the onions and sauté the carrot chunks, but I don’t think it’s necessary because, again, they’ll just cook in the slow cooker with everything else and softening them first will only add marginally to the final dish.

Taking the sauerkraut by small handfuls, squeeze out as much water as possible, picking it apart to separate the strands and place in a six quart slow cooker. Mix in the onions, carrots, and baby potatoes and bury the herbs and spices into the veggies. Pour in the beer and enough stock to come just below the level of the sauerkraut. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Layer in the browned meats, sausages, smoked meats, and bacon, and apples. Cover and cook on low for at least four hours. Serve as you get hungry and can no longer resist the siren call of this dish. It's delicious with pumpernickel or some other dark multigrain bread spread with country Dijon mustard.

A Healthy Breakfast: Gregg Avedon's Apple-Walnut Protein Pancakes

2008-01-21T21:45:00.000-05:00

Let me say up front that I hesitated to blog about this recipe because most people are turned off by food that sounds too healthy. Hearing about such recipes makes some people somehow feel inadequate or contrary and causes them to tune out when they should tune in. If that's your reaction, fine. I'm not here trying to force anyone to cut calories or eat more healthully. But these pancakes are healthy, delicious and as easy to make as any other pancake recipe I've seen. And really, my mission as the Ganbaru Cook is simply to blog about what I'm preparing and how I've made others' recipes my own; that's my only agenda I swear!

My partner and I are health conscious about what we eat, though he is certainly more disciplined than I. For years we have worked out together at Results the Gym; taken active vacations cross-country skiing, hiking, and biking; and striven to eat mindfully and healthfully. Yes, I love to cook, but his desire to not eat butter, cream, lard (a minor point of contention on that one, but that is a future post), mayonnaise, etc. moderates what dishes I'll try and how I'll modify certain recipes to make them palatable to him and better for us both. However, I always eat for flavor first and healthfulness second. Everything in moderation, nothing in excess (hopefully)! Brian, however, is the converse: Eating healthfully first and foremost is his philosophy, and it's a bonus when it tastes really good. He is rarely tempted by sumptuous, rich foods--not even my homemade organic ice cream--and almost always makes healthful food choices; he's in fantastic shape so props to him!

Over the years we have both enjoyed reading Men's Health Magazine and I was pleased to receive from the publishers of Men's Health a cookbook by Gregg Avedon, who's been on the cover of the magazine--usually shirtless--twenty times! Gregg writes a cooking and nutrition column for the magazine and has compiled more than 150 recipes into a book, Men's Health Muscle Chow: More Than 150 Meals to Feed Your Muscles and Fuel Your Workouts. It's what you'd expect in a cookbook for guys: simple recipes designed for maximum workout benefits, strategies for simple prep and clean up, and an eating plan to cycle how you eat so that you can lose fat, gain muscle and look your best. Gregg is quite the nutrition and supplement expert. His list of foods to eat for maximum workout benefits is comprehensive and I'm pleased to say that we already eat 90% of what he listed.

Perusing the cookbook flagging recipes as usual and remembering that I've got a container of lowfat ricotta from the farmers market that I need to use, I latched onto the Apple-Walnut Ricotta Protein Pancakes. (Also on the menu this week is a chicken dish by Jamie Oliver that has a ricotta herb mixture stuffed under the skin.) Let me admit upfront that I've had inconsistent results with various pancake recipes. I like them light and fluffy, but have had them at various times dense, undercooked, or flat. I have no doubt these shortcomings are in my method, not the recipes themselves in most cases. When we lived in Japan, a friend used to make pancakes for himself and his wife every day for breakfast! Needless to say his pancakes were perfection. He even used orange juice as the liquid instead of milk, and when he last visited he made us the pancakes and wrote down the recipe. But mine have never achieved his level of greatness. When entertaining for breakfast, he would make a stack of 8 inch pancakes, buttering each layer and then serve them like a gateau of crepes, that is, sliced like a cake into wedges. What a happy memory!

So I latched onto the Apple Walnut Protein Ricotta Pancakes (hereafter ricotta pancakes) knowing I had all the ingredients on hand. Of course I first had to consult other sources for ricotta pancakes and found one by Giada De Laurentiis and another by Tyler Florence. Giada's is basically her riff on dressing up pancakes using a pancake mix as the base. Tyler's starts off with roasting the apples for 45 minutes and whisking egg whites to stiff peaks, which is too involved considering I was making breakfast and wanted to eat ASAP. The odd thing about Gregg's ricotta pancake recipe in the book is that it has apple in the title, but no apple in the ingredients. I couldn't find online any published errata for the book, but I found a similar recipe on the Men's Health website, linked to above. That version uses apple-flavored whey protein powder where the book specifies vanilla protein powder. And here I was expecting to add chopped or grated apple! Because I was determined to have apple in my pancakes, I decided to dice and saute a fuji apple for a few minutes in vegetable oil (yes I was tempted to use butter, but managed to forbear!). The diced apple could have been added to the batter, but I just added a couple of tablespoonfuls to each pancake as soon as I poured the batter. Any leftover apple I just added to my maple syrup.

Because the online version is different enough from the one in the book, I basically used Gregg's recipe as an inspiration for my own adaptation below. Gregg's recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour, another uncommon household ingredient, unless you do a lot of baking with an eye toward healthful baked goods--like the Food Network's Ellie Krieger who makes some delicious triple chocolate chip cookies with whole wheat pastry flour. I had on hand Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix (which contains whole wheat pastry flour actually) that I used, but any pancake mix would do just as well. Keep in mind that pancake mix has leavening (baking powder and/or baking soda) in it already, so adding more leavening will almost guarantee light, fluffy pancakes.

Unless you're into weight training, you probably won't have whey protein powder on hand either though it is sold at Whole Paycheck. One scoop of the GNC brand of vanilla whey powder we favor is about 1/3 cup, so you could just use that much additional pancake mix in its place. A few tablespoons of wheat germ plus additional pancake mix to equal 1/3 cup might also do the trick, but I haven't tried that myself.

Normally I would not specify brands or lowfat or nonfat, which you can of course subsitute for nonfat or full fat. But this time I wanted to show the nutritional breakdown for 1 pancake, so I had to be specific about the ingredients I used, which I plugged into Fitday.com to determine the nutrient breakdown.

Apple and Walnut Protein Ricotta Pancakes
Adapted from Men's Health Muscle Chow by Gregg Avedon
Makes 6 super healthy 5 inch pancakes

vegetable oil, a tablespoon or two as needed
1 medium apple such as golden delicious, granny smith, or fuji, peeled, cored and diced

Dry ingredients:
1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain pancake & waffle mix
1 scoop GNC vanilla whey protein powder
1/2 cup plain instant oatmeal
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Wet ingredients:
1/3 cup part skim ricotta cheese
3 large egg whites (I saved the yolks to make blood orange ice cream)
1/3 to 1/2 cup of lowfat buttermilk

Butter, optional
Maple syrup, optional

Pre-cook the apples. In a small frying pan, heat about of teaspoon of vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the diced apple, stir to coat with the oil and saute for about five minutes to soften and lightly brown the apple. It's important that you use an apple for cooking as some varieties for eating turn to mush when cooked. Not a disaster but I'm going for having a chunk of apple in every bite of pancake.
Make the pancake batter. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and use a whisk to combine. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl (use 1/3 cup of buttermilk to start) and whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix just until combined. The batter can be slightly lumpy. If the batter is too thick add more buttermilk as necessary (I needed half a cup), but the batter should not be too thin either or the pancakes will spread too much when the batter is added to your skillet and you could end up with one huge pancake instead of two or three smaller ones.
Prepare to make your pancakes. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees to keep the cooked pancakes warm as you prepare the rest. Heat your largest nonstick skillet over medium heat and add about a half teaspoon of oil. Use a paper towel to spread the oil around the pan and remove any excess. Repeat between each batch of pancakes to spread the oil and remove any pancake crumbs. Reduce heat to medium-low.
Make your pancakes. Use a 1/3 cup measure to spoon the batter into your skillet. Place a couple of tablespoons of apple chunks onto the uncooked side of your pancakes. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on the first side until golden brown on the bottom and carefully flip to cook for 2 to 3 minutes more on the second side. Place the cooked pancakes on an oven proof plate and keep in the oven while you cook the rest of your cakes.
Serve them up! Garnish the pancake stacks with any leftover apple and serve.

I will say that these pancakes are sweet enough without any added sugar in the batter, but who the hell eats pancakes without syrup (or butter either)? Gregg Avedon apparently, but he doesn't eat these cakes with eggs and bacon on the side as a Sunday breakfast with the family. They're more like a quick post workout meal as he makes them before hitting the gym. So in the nutritional analysis below I did not include butter or syrup. How much you use or whether you use those at all is entirely up to you. Just know that 1 tablespoon of real maple syrup (the only kind worth eating) has 52 calories (13.4 grams of carbs) and one pat of butter has 36 calories (4.1 grams of fat). I probably used 3 tablespoons of syrup and one pat of butter on mine.

Per pancake (I ate three but two would have sufficed; we also had two scramble eggs, two slices of turkey bacon, and a half grapefruit):

Calories: 141; Fat: 6 grams (36% of calories); Saturated fat: 1 gram; Carbohydrates: 14 grams (36% of calories); Fiber: 2 grams; Protein: 10 grams (28% of calories); Sodium: 231 mg

Using up some leftover bottles of beer: Emeril's Chicken Simmered in Beer

2008-01-19T18:22:00.000-05:00

As the excess of red wine inspired Mario's Chicken Stemporata, the beer taking up room in my fridge is pushing me to find recipes that use beer. Definitely one of the benefits of having our annual holiday party is the alcohol that comes our way! As we don't drink wine or beer with dinner every night, the bottles do last a bit but I do try to use them, and I'm especially determined to free up the space that the beer is taking up in my fridge!

So I found in my four inch binder (!) of downloaded and printed recipes one that I'd forgotten, Emeril's Chicken Simmered in Beer. I'd originally downloaded it seeking to use up the juniper berries I'd bought for making sauerbraten, a braised beef comfort food that I look forward to making every winter. (Ironically the sauerbraten that I favor is by my braising maven, Molly Stevens from an appearance she made on Sara's Secrets after her award winning All About Braising was published, but that appearance wasn't actually what prompted me to explore the world of braising, it was a braised beef rib dish that rocked my world and showed me a world of braising that I had to explore, accompanied by my beloved Le Creuset "French oven")

Incidentally another delicious dish that uses crushed juniper berries is Choucroute Royale, braised sauerkraut with meat (bacon, pork chops, kielbasa, duck, bratwurst, you get the idea), potatoes, and apples that I found on the Food Network by none other than the doyenne of TV cooking in America, Ms. Julia Child (and the oft-forgotten Simone Beck). Emeril also has a good recipe for this dish that must be Alsatian considering its ingredients. I would surely serve this winter comfort food if I ever found myself hosting a super bowl party (which frankly is an unlikely prospect). Choucroute Royale is a perfect slow cooker recipe and is surely unexpected as most folks favor chili on that Sunday.

Pardon my digressions. Emeril's recipe for Chicken Simmered in Beer is what this post is supposed to be about. Not much to comment on really though it is a flavorful dish. I finished the sauce with organic lowfat sour cream and was quite pleased to spoon it over my preferred wild rice blend. One surprise was that the flavor of the spicy Cajun seasoning I used was basically absent amidst the other flavors, so next time I'd probably use my go to season all, fennel spice rub. I had all the ingredients except for the gin, which seemed redundant to use with the juniper berries anyway. I just increased the number of berries used to 10 rather than 6. I also just used two bone in chicken breast halves rather than a cut up chicken. Oh, and I finished the braise in the oven for 30 minutes at 325 degrees as I'd cooked the dish using my other beloved Le Creuset casserole dish.

Chicken Simmered in Beer

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, from New New Orleans Cooking, published by William and Morrow, 1993.

1 (4-pound) chicken, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into 8 pieces [I used two HUGE chicken breast halves, 2 ½ pounds total]
Essence, recipe follows [I used Penzey’s spicy Cajun seasoning]
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter [didn’t use]
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh parsley
6 lightly crushed juniper berries
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
8 ounces small button mushrooms, or large mushrooms, quartered, wiped clean and stems trimmed
3/4 cup sliced shallots
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons gin [didn’t have so I used 10 juniper berries]
1 (12-ounce) bottle lager beer
1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves

Hot white rice, accompaniment
Hot French bread, accompaniment

Lightly season the chicken on both sides with Essence [or seasoning of your choice].

In a large braising pan, heat the oil and melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the pan and cook until browned, 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Make a bouquet garni: In the center of a 6-inch square piece of cheesecloth, place the bay leaf, thyme, parsley sprigs and juniper berries. Draw up the sides to form a pouch and secure with kitchen twine. Set aside.

Sprinkle the flour over the oil and drippings in the pan and cook for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms, shallots and garlic, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 2 minutes. Add the gin and cook until almost evaporated. Add the beer and bouquet garni, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the chicken is tender, 45 to 50 minutes. [Alternatively complete the braise in a 325 degree oven. Check for doneness after 30 minutes and remove from the oven or continue cooking as warranted.]

Discard the bouquet garni and add the creme fraiche.

Stir to incorporate and simmer until warmed through (do not boil). Adjust the seasoning, to taste and sprinkle with the parsley.

Place the rice in the center of 4 large plates and top each with 2 pieces of chicken. Spoon the sauce over the top and serve immediately with French bread on the side.

Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Yield: about 2/3 cup

Seafood Paella a la Jose Andres via Kim O'Donnell

2008-01-16T05:57:00.001-05:00

I love reading the food blog A Mighty Appetite by Kim O'Donnell on the Washington Post's website. Kim has a relaxed writing style that makes me feel like I'm hearing a story as told by my cool cousin. She's not as familiar as a sibling, but we know each other well and she's always doing really cool stuff and has great stories to tell. On Tuesdays, she hosts a weekly What's Cooking? web chat on the Post's website in which people write in with food related questions. I really feel a part of an online community by commenting on her blog and posting questions in her chats. Especially when she actually answers a question of mine, I really feel a kinship. I've weighed in recently on how to make polenta as well as what kitchen essentials a bride should register for.

Her blog the other day was about paella, arguably Spain's most famous dish. I'd only made it once before after I'd bought my supremely versatile Le Creuset casserole from TJ Maxx and hadn't attempted it since. I remember making it on a Sunday and it stretched into a time consuming kitchen adventure, the kind where people are sitting around wondering, "Why isn't it ready yet? Does he know what he's doing?" Incidentally, you may be tempted to think you need a "paella pan" to make this dish, but this is just not so. Tyler Florence has said that he uses his roasting pan--the one that most of us only dust off for the Thanksgiving turkey--when he's making paella for a crowd (which is what I will use when preparing this dish for company, as I look forward to doing soon). And I was served paella in Miami in a cast iron skillet, so any of your favorite, wide saute pans is a good choice. (I will admit that I bought my LC pan envisioning paella but this pan is well worth its cost and has become one of my most versatile kitchen pieces. I use it regularly for braising, poaching, sauteing, roasting, etc., even though at this point it's only been used for paella twice.)

Kim's recipe, appropriated from mega-chef Jose Andres (his restaurants include DC hotspots Jaleo, Cafe Atlantico, Oyamel, and Zaitinya) is simple enough even for a weeknight if you're not overly carnivorous. Besides, I'd been wanting to try making paella anyway because I took a vegetarian cooking class over the summer in which the main dish for the evening was a vegetarian paella. Incorporating some of the elements from that paella, I took the liberty of sauteing a bell pepper and an onion before cooking the garlic. Because I had in my freezer shrimp, sea scallops, and chorizo, I knew that I could use those in place of/in addition to some of the ingredients in Kim's recipe. Paella recipes I've seen usually call for browning all manners of protein, including chicken, rabbit, sausage, and various shell fish which can take over an hour, so I knew that limiting myself to only seafood and sausage would take less than ten minutes.

The only odd thing about Sr. Andres's recipe is that it instructs you to cook the shrimp beforehand and then add it back to the liquid so that it ends up being cooked for more than twenty minutes! While the shrimp did not come out rubbery it was certainly well cooked, shall we say. I learned from watching Robin Miller making grilled shrimp with citrus dipping sauce on the Food Network the other day that well cooked shrimp is C shaped, while overcooked shrimp is O shaped. Mine was definitely O shaped but it wasn't completely rubbery. Next time I might just add it raw near the end of cooking the rice so that it remains tender or cook it initially and then just add it at the end to reheat through.

It is critical that you do not stir the rice after it has cooked for the four minutes as Kim exhorts in her instructions. Even though you're using arborio rice, you're not making risotto! Once the ingredients are well combined, the rice has to be immersed in the simmering liquid so that it can absorb the flavorful stock you've made and cook to al dente.

Another critical ingredient in this dish is of course the saffron. Now I'd been using some inexpensive Badia brand saffron that I bought at a Latino market around the corner from me. Never really appreciating what saffron added, I decided to purchase some of the medium grade Spanish Coupé Saffron from my preferred spice vendor, Penzeys. Once again I proved to myself that the quality of the ingredients matters! A half teaspoon of this wonder spice perfumed the dish and the kitchen and made our mouths water! NOW I get it with the saffron! I also recognized it as what I love about bouillabaisse, that delicious seafood stew from Provence. I'm now on the search for other dishes in addition to risotto that use this spice.

Seafood Paella

As taught to Kim O’Donnel by Washington chef and cookbook author Jose Andres and adapted by me. I’d tried to annotate Kim’s recipe with my method, but it got too confusing so please refer to Kim’s posted recipe for additional ideas on making this dish.

Makes 4 generous servings

Ingredients

3 cups water, clam juice or stock (chicken, seafood, or vegetable)
4 sprigs of thyme
2 links of chorizo, about 8 ounces cut into ¾ inch pieces
12 ounces shrimp, shelled and deveined, and chopped if desired (reserve the shells of the shrimp if shelling yourself)
1 pound sea scallops

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/4-1/2 tsp. saffron
1/2 cup white wine
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups short-grained rice, such as Bomba, Calasparra or Arborio

Method

Flavor your stock. Combine water or stock with thyme and shrimp shells (optional) in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and keep stock on the stove, at a simmer.
Pre-cook the protein. Heat up the paella pan over medium high heat and add olive oil. When the pan is hot, add the chorizo, browning it well, about 2-3 minutes each side. The point here is to get some caramelization on the chorizo not to cook it through because you’ll be adding it back to the paella to finish cooking later. If there is room in your pan without crowding anything, add shrimp and sauté for about 2 minutes each side until opaque, pink, and C shaped. Remove the chorizo and shrimp to a plate as they are done and add some of the scallops and cook for 2 to 3 minutes each side. The scallops will give up a lot of liquid so make sure the pan is hot and not too crowded otherwise you’ll end up steaming rather than searing. Remove the scallops and set aside with the chorizo and shrimp.
Cook the aromatics. Add more oil if necessary and cook the onion and pepper for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point if the bottom of the pan is looking too dark, add a few tablespoons of the simmering stock and deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits with a wooden spoon. When the liquid has evaporated, add the garlic and sauté for about a minute until fragrant.
Deglaze. Add the white wine and thoroughly deglaze the pan at this point, reducing the wine slightly. Add the canned tomato and let it cook for at least five minutes, until the color has transformed from red to a more golden, orange-brown shade and much of the liquid has evaporated forming, a gravy like sauce. Add the bay leaf and saffron. If you’re using good quality saffron you’ll know at this point because the dish will come alive with the distinctive mouth watering fragrance of saffron!
Combine the components. Return the seafood and chorizo to the pan. [Note: you may add only the chorizo at this point and add the seafood at the end of cooking the rice.] Add stock. Bring up to a boil. Salt well. You want the mixture to be slightly salty. This is your last chance to add salt before the rice is added.
Cook the rice. Add rice and set timer for 24 minutes [Kim specifies 14 minutes but that wasn’t long enough for my dish]. For the first four minutes, you may stir gently. After this point, reduce to a simmer and NO MORE STIRRING OR TOUCHING. Otherwise, you will have a gummy rice concoction. (This is also why you cannot add salt at this stage.)
Finish the dish. Add seafood if you haven’t yet. Reduce heat rather than add more liquid if you find the paella absorbing liquid too rapidly and the rice isn’t cooked enough. The end result should be on the dry side, by the way.
Prepare to enjoy! Turn off heat and let sit for at least five minutes. Serve to the delight of your dining companions.

Ina Garten's Free Range Chicken with 20 Cloves of Garlic

2008-01-14T15:01:00.000-05:00

We got a free range chicken at the Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago, mainly at urging of my super health conscious partner. The bird looked a bit scrawny at just three pounds, but I guess I need to purge myself of the image of the Perdue oven stuffer roaster. Anyway with my cabinet full of wine, I knew I could find some chicken recipe worthy of this bird and I settled on Ina Garten's Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic. I love this episode of her show. It's a typical episode where Ina and her gay entourage are hanging out and then decide to make a meal to go with watching a French movie later in the week. Ina decides to make a main course that sounds like it could ward off all the vampires in Transylvania. But recall that in your vampire lore it's raw garlic that's used to ward off the undead. Cooked garlic, especially whole cloves, takes on a toasted richness that is worlds away from its raw component and is delicious. As I was only using one chicken, I cut the recipe in half basically and was quite pleased with the results of my chicken with 20 cloves of garlic. Two small heads yielded 20 cloves, but I'm certainly sure you can count out 20 cloves if you're only using one chicken!

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic
by Ina Garten from Barefoot in Paris, Copyright 2004

Yields 6 servings

3 whole heads garlic, about 40 cloves
2 (3 1/2-pound) chickens, cut into eighths
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons good olive oil
3 tablespoons Cognac, divided [I used regular brandy]
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Separate the cloves of garlic [place the head of garlic upside down on your cutting board then whack therapeutically once or twice with a saucepan or skillet] and drop them into a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds. Drain the garlic and peel. Set aside.

Dry the chicken with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. In batches, saute the chicken in the fat, skin side down first, until nicely browned, about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn with tongs or a spatula; you don't want to pierce the skin with a fork. If the fat is burning, turn the heat down to medium. When a batch is done, transfer it to a plate and continue to saute all the chicken in batches. Remove the last chicken to the plate and add all of the garlic to the pot. Lower the heat and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, turning often, until evenly browned. Add 2 tablespoons of the Cognac and the wine, return to a boil, and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pot with the juices and sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Cover and simmer over the lowest heat for about 30 minutes, until all the chicken is done.

Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sauce and the flour and then whisk it back into the sauce in the pot. Raise the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of Cognac and the cream, and boil for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste; it should be very flavorful because chicken tends to be bland. Pour the sauce and the garlic over the chicken and serve hot.

My Italian Muse: Mario Batali's Stemperata di Pollo

2008-01-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

More than any other food luminary on TV, my cooking style has been most influenced by watching Mario Batali. Of all the themes that run through his show, Molto Mario, the one that I most adhere to is the concept embodied in the word that--to the derision of some and the raison d'etre for others--became the New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year for 2007: locavore. Though he is by now no means the first, Mario has been consistently emphasizing for years that the use of fresh local ingredients will make the food that comes from your kitchen stand out from the food that comes from everyone else's. He has said on his show that every Italian believes that what grows locally or is produced in their region/town/village is indisputably the best, because of the soil, the air, the water or the whatever particular to that place. Even the organic produce from Whole Paycheck (picked who knows when/where and shipped to your store waiting God knows how long for you to buy it) will wilt when cooked and compared to what you can prepare from local ingredients.

There really are two parts to this chauvinistic concept: 1) what's grown here tastes best and 2) of all the things grown locally, what's now in season is what you should be eating. This "here and now" concept is now somewhat strange for many Americans. The wisdom of the past of eating what's in season, canning or preserving it for the winter, and awaiting its arrival next year is something we've long since gotten away from. People eat strawberries year round and serve asparagus at Thanksgiving. But I can say that getting into the habit of buying local seasonal produce will certainly make you appreciate what you have right now because you know it will be gone in about two months, just about the time you'll be getting tired of it anyway. Every year I eagerly await the asparagus at my farmer's market every spring as I get tired of winter squashes. Then I go through my battery of asparagus recipes a couple of times and then I'm done with asparagus for the year, thank you very much. Adopting the here and now approach to choosing your foods will also sensitize you to the reality that foods cooked and eaten out of season just don't taste right. The memory of the fully flavored fresh springtime asparagus keeps me from wanting it any other time.

The closest I myself have come to this blessed chauvinism occurred when I lived in Sendai, Japan teaching English in the 1990s. The Tohoku region I lived in was famous for its rice, called Sasanishiki, which was priced accordingly expensively. The Japanese are as proud of their rice as Italians are of their semolina pasta. My students would proudly claim that their rice was considered among the best in Japan. To this American, rice was rice. It's such an inexpensive staple food in the U.S. that the idea of paying a premium or that one rice was better than another was ludicrous to me, reared as I was on the cheap supermarket long grain rice of my childhood. But living there for three years I learned to appreciate that yes, rice matters! And the year that the rice crop was meager and the Japanese had to (gasp!) import foreign rice from the U.S. and Thailand, the rumors were rampant about its inferior taste and quality. (I'll never forget the looks on my Japaneses guests' faces when I had the audacity to serve them Thai rice with dinner! What the hell was I thinking?)

My theory is that Americans, as a nation of immigrants, believe that what the world has to offer will (and should) come to our doorsteps. Look at our greatest city, New York. Everyone knows that anything and everything that's been done somewhere else first is available somewhere in New York City (and most other world class American cities as well). We're always on the lookout for what's new somewhere else and making it our own somehow. Indeed, with so many people from so many countries adding their own to our mix, we're able to pick and choose what we want to explore whenever we want to try it. But this "world is my oyster" mentality makes us forget that oysters are only in seaon in months with "r" in them. If you wait to have something only once a year, when you do have it, you will surely appreciate it.

But back to Mario. I got a boatload of red wine at Christmas, so I was perusing chicken recipes and came across Stemperata di Pollo in Mario's Molto Italiano. I've never seen the episode where he cooks the dish and had also considered a recipe he calls Pollo all'Americano or Pollo al Vin Cotto, both of which I've made and loved before, but I felt like trying something new and the Stemperata had tons of veggies. The stemporata of the recipe name is the past participle form of a verb that means "stamp" as in stamp down and refers to how the olives are split open for use in the recipe, presumably to remove the pits.

I confess I did not have the potatoes called for, but I did have parsnips. And as I read recently on the Washington Post that parsnips were the starch of choice in Europe prior to the arrival of the New World potatoes, I felt comfortable with the substitution. The recipes calls for carrots also, which I did not have so I added a rather large peeled and cut up sweet potato. With these additions, my meal needed no additional starch, and I think I served it all with broccoli rabe on the side. Mario is not such a purist that he wouldn't mind my substitutions and my ingredients did come from the farmers market! I also used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, so my sauce needed to cook down to thicken nicely. A dredge in flour prior to browning the chicken would help with this. Mario expects that the chicken will be done with just a fifteen minute simmer, but I had really thick breasts that needed about 25 minutes. Next time I'll probably finish the braise in the oven at 325 degrees for about a half hour.

Chicken Stemperata: Stemperata di Pollo

Recipe courtesy Mario Batali

1 (3 1/2 pound) chicken, cleaned and cut into 8 serving portions [I just used two bone-in chicken breast halves]
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes [I substituted 3 large parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks]
2 red, yellow, or orange peppers, cored, seeded and cut into medium strips
1 stick celery, cut into large pieces
2 small unpeeled eggplants, cut into large cubes [I didn’t have any eggplants, sorry, Mario!]
2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds [I substituted a large sweet potato cut into large chunks]
2 tablespoons salt packed capers, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup whole pitted Sicilian olives (the green variety)
4 fresh plum tomatoes, cut into large pieces [a 14 ounce can of chopped tomatoes will do fine; drain if you want but I just added the whole can]
5 whole chiles [obviously to taste, I used a hot chili paste that Mark Bittman showed how to make on his NY Times podcast]
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1/4 bunch each fresh chopped mint leaves and parsley leaves [no mint on hand so I used marjoram]
Pinch chile flakes [see whole chiles above]

Pat the cleaned chicken dry, and then season the pieces with salt and pepper. In a 12 to 14-inch saute pan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil until hot but not smoking. Carefully add the chicken pieces and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.

In the pan with the chicken drippings add potatoes [parsnips], peppers, celery, eggplant, carrot [sweet potato], capers, olives, tomatoes and whole chiles. Toss together. Add the wine [and hot chili paste if using] and chicken, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes [up to 25 minutes really] until chicken is cooked through. Remove from the heat and stir in chopped mint, parsley and a pinch of chili flakes.

Transfer the cooked stew to a serving dish and allow to cool to room temperature before serving. [Hot out of the oven works just fine too.] Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and serve.

Weeknight Dinner: Cod with Fennel and Tomato

2008-01-04T13:03:00.000-05:00

I'll be right up front about it: I like Rachael Ray. Especially after seeing her chefography and learning more about how she made it to where she is, I give nothing but props to the woman. But it seems that the food world is divided about whether to love her or hate her for her success. Talk about schadenfreude! She's never claimed to be any more than she is: a talented home cook who found her success on television, not unlike Paula Deen and Ina Garten. (I have one friend for whom I've vowed to surprise him with one of her dinners because he finds her dishes and her show so wholly unappetizing.) Her Betty Rubble giggle can be annoying, her dishes take anyone but her longer than 30 minutes to prepare, and her "desserts" leave more than a bit to be desired. But I like perky and she's got it. Plus she obviously has an army of people working with her now to keep coming up with more and more recipes to fill her books, magazines, and TV shows. Her food style quotient has definitely increased to being well beyond the queen of burgers!

But I owe her real props for teaching me how to make delicious cod, a food with which I have a love-hate relationship: my partner loves it, and I hate it. Actually hate is too strong a word, but let's just say that when I'm doing the shopping, cod is not on the list, though I'm a huge fan of cooking and eating almost every other kind of fish and seafood. My partner, proud New Englander and Connecticut Yankee that he is, loves the stuff, even when I overcook it, which until recently was 90% of the time. I had resigned myself to admitting that "In cooking as in life, one should play to one's strengths," to paraphrase Nigella when she appeared on Oprah a couple of years back. The corollary to that is to then not play to one's weaknesses, so I was perfectly happy to be a cook who can't make a good piece of cod. Really tilapia, flounder, and halibut were perfectly interchangeable in the category of white fish as far as I was concerned, tilapia and halibut being my favorites.

Of course quality of ingredients is the first step to cooking success so we spent a bit of coin for cod at Whole Paycheck one evening, believing that it wasn't me but the fish from the Giant grocery store upending our fish dinners. So not wanting to make a dinner that was both mediocre and expensive, I sought new recipes and have found three by Ms. Ray that finally produced more than satisfactory--I even daresay delicious --results. Maybe it's because she grew up on Cape Cod in her early years, but the woman can cook her fish! The first recipe was oven roasted cod crusted with herbs, which produced the crisp exterior and moist fish that I'd been wanting for years. The second was last night's dinner, cod poached in the oven with fennel and tomato. And Rachael's third notable dish is a bit fancy but also delicous: cod with burst grape tomatoes, parsley-mint pesto broth and roast fingerling potato crisps. Each of these recipes was dee-lish, producing tender and flaky cod that wasn't rubbery in the least.

So here is my take on Ms. Ray's oven poached cod, which she calls by a slightly different name (I didn't have any dill). I'm pleased to present this recipe because after serving it to my partner in November, I decided what I really needed to do was to start blogging about some of the recipes I like to make, as I mentioned in my first ever Ganbaru blog. Incidentally, I'm very particular about time and temperature when cooking cod. I make sure that my oven is hot enough using my oven thermometer and I use a timer to follow the cooking time to the second to reduce the risk of over cooking.

Cod with Fennel, Dill and Tomato, by Rachael Ray

4 (8-ounce) portions cod fish
2 wedges lemon
Salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 bulb fennel, quartered, core cut away, thinly sliced
1 small to medium yellow skinned onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 (15- ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
Black pepper
A few large sprigs, in tact, plus 2 tablespoons chopped dill [I substituted chopped fresh marjoram with tasty results; thyme would probably be another good subsitute]

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Rinse fish and squeeze lemon juice over it. Season the fish with a little salt and reserve.

Heat a large oven proof pan over medium heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, fennel and onion and season with salt. Saute fennel and onions 7 to 8 minutes then add white wine and reduce a minute, then add broth. Add tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Set fish into pan and spoon juices over the cod. Add a few sprigs dill [or another fresh herb of choice] to the broth and set the pan into the hot oven to cook. Cook 12 minutes, until fish is opaque. To serve, arrange cod on plate, top with vegetables and chopped fresh herbs for garnish.

Happy New Year: Rachael Ray's Cauliflower Soup

2008-01-01T16:13:00.004-05:00

So we're back from Lake Placid after a whirlwind of holiday gatherings, skiing, and a last ditch New Year's party that really rocked to ring in 2008! I can't believe that I know people who have a complete dance floor and DJ setup in their basement! After ten days on the road, needless to say there was really no food in the fridge except a few onions and an anemic looking head of cauliflower. In fact "dinner" on New Year's Eve after a nine hour drive home from Lake Placid and before heading out to a party (yes, that would be after the nine hour drive) was a Freschetta frozen spinach and mushroom pizza which really wasn't bad actually.

But today, New Year's Day I was back in my own kitchen--not exactly well rested as I'm an inveterate early riser regardless of when I go to bed at 3:00 a.m.-- with my own utensils feeling eager to whip something up and I remembered Rachael Ray's cauliflower soup. A quick perusal of the recipe and the only ingredients missing were celery and milk, both of which I consider optional in this instance actually. This is a soup I love to make with cauliflower from the farmers market usually. I swear when you smell the cauliflower being sauteed you'll think you discovered some new vegetable, such is the difference between the farmers market produce and what is sold at the grocery store. In fact making this soup the first time with a huge head of cauliflower from the framers market, I fell in love with cauliflower as though I was tasting it for the first time. The soup was immediately incorporated into my Thanksgiving menu as an appetizer folks could serve themselves while waiting for the main event.

Seeing as I also had some leftover white wine, I used it in place of the milk to deglaze the pan before adding the chicken stock (which I make every couple of months and have on hand as concentrated frozen cubes in the freezer). I wish I'd had a bigger head of cauliflower because after we served ourselves for lunch there were just about two cups of the soup left, which is half as much as I usually freeze whenever I make soup from scratch so that the next time the fridge is empty I can just defrost a homemade soup from the freezer. Anyway, here is Rachael's soup with my embellishments:

Cauliflower Soup, by Rachael Ray

Coarse salt and coarse black pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter (or use EVOO)
2 small heads cauliflower, or 1 large, cut into small bunches of florets (Don't worry about the florets, just core the cauliflower head and chop it up into a rough 3/4 inch dice)
3 ribs celery and leafy tops from the heart of stalk, finely chopped (optional as far as I'm concerned)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves (I'm too lazy to strip leaves off thyme when making a dish like soup, so I just tied the sprigs together and tossed them into the soup. most of th leaves will fall of the sprigs and then you just remove the bundle before pureeing)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 quart vegetable stock (I used chicken stock)
¾ cup white wine (my addition)
1 cup half-and-half or whole milk (optional, IMHO)
Hot sauce, optional (I cut up a fresh jalapeno and sauteed it with the veggies)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves or chives, for garnish (any chopped fresh herbs such as chives, thyme, oregano can be used as a garnish in any dish really)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, for passing at the table, optional (I didn't add any cheese)
sour cream (my option as a garnish, a tablespoon of which I stirred into the hot soup to add creaminess)

In a large pot, heat up the olive oil and/or 2 tablespoons of the butter, over medium heat. Add the cauliflower and stir with a wooden spoon. Add celery, onion (jalapeno if using) and thyme and cook for 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Push the vegetables to 1 side of the pot. Melt 1 more tablespoon of butter in an empty area of the pot and add flour to the butter. Cook for 1 minute, stirring the flour in the butter. Deglaze the pan with the white wine scraping up the delicious brown caramelized bits on the bottom of the pot. Mix in chicken broth (and half-and-half if using). Bring up to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Puree soup using an immersion blender, food processor or blender and return to pot. Rachael likes to leave it a little chunky. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary.

Garnish soup as desired with chopped herbs, sour cream, or grated cheese. Enjoy!

Boxing Day Dinner: Tomato Rhubarb Chutney

2007-12-26T11:31:00.002-05:00

My partner's aunt hosts her extended family on the day after Christmas, which for us means three big roast beast meals in a row, starting with Christmas Eve. I didn't really contribute to any of the preparation of the delicious glazed ham dinner meal, which also included oven roasted butternut squash with apples, steamed green beans with plum tomatoes, baked potato with sour cream, salad with grapefruit and avocado, and carrot cake for dessert. But I did present my hosts with a pint of tomato rhubarb chutney that I'd made in the spring when rhubarb came into season.

I think of the tomato rhubarb chutney as my first chutney because the first "chutney" I ever prepared was Martha's cranberry chutney. But now looking at her recipe, I see that because of the addition of nuts, Martha's chutney is actually a conserve. I've had a bear of a time finding a link to Martha's "chutney" because I got it from the Food Network's site before they gave Martha the ax when she became a convicted felon. Martha's cranberry chutney does have a good amount of cider vinegar and it's that sour in addition to the sweetness that to me defines a chutney. But do the nuts make it a conserve? Is there a distinction or is it a hybrid? Does anyone really care?

Here's a recipe for pork chops with rhubarb chutney that ran in the Washington Post in May of 2006. It comes from Elinor Klivens and it uses some some of the chutney to marinate the pork chops and to make into a pan sauce to serve on the side. Usually I just grill the chops with my favorite fennel spice rub and then just serve the chutney on the side on its own. The chutney is also delcious with pork tenderloin, chicken, salmon, cheese, etc.

Pork Chops with Tomato Rhubarb Chutney

by Elinor Klivens

4 servings

With boneless pork chops and some made-in-advance Tomato Rhubarb Chutney, it's a simple matter to create this savory entree. Serve with sauteed cabbage or baked sweet potatoes.

Four 5-ounce boneless pork chops (may substitute thick slices of pork tenderloin)

1 cup Tomato Rhubarb Chutney (recipe follows)

1 tablespoon corn oil or other flavorless vegetable oil

1/3 cup chicken broth or reduced-sodium chicken broth

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Chopped cilantro or chives, for garnish (optional)

Place the pork chops and 1/2 cup of the Rhubarb Tomato chutney in a resealable plastic food storage bag, then seal and squeeze to evenly coat the meat. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Shake off the excess chutney from the pork chops and reserve the marinade in the bag. In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until it is hot but not smoking. Sear the chops, turning occasionally, until they have browned on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Add the chutney reserved from the marinade and the chicken broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the chops are cooked through and the chutney mixture has thickened and deepened in color. Add the remaining 1/2 cup chutney to the skillet and cook, stirring, just until heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the chops with the chutney pan sauce spooned over the top. Garnish with cilantro or chives, if desired.

Tomato Rhubarb Chutney

Makes about 3 cups

This flavorful chutney recipe makes more than you need for the pork chops. Use what's left over to enliven almost any curry or grilled or roasted chicken, duck or pork.

Since the chutney is stored cold, it does not require processing in a boiling water bath. It will keep for up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator. It also may be frozen in plastic containers or sturdy glass preserving jars for up to 6 months; thaw in the refrigerator before using.

1 tablespoon chopped red or yellow onion

1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger root

1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds

3 sprigs thyme (or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme)

1/2 tablespoon orange zest

1/2 teaspoon crushed allspice berries or cardamom seeds, pods removed

Generous 1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 3/4 cups 1/2-inch pieces rhubarb (about 3/4 pound well-trimmed stalks)

1/4 cup coarsely chopped dried cherries or whole golden raisins

1 large firm tomato, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped

In a lidded, medium nonreactive saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the onion, ginger, mustard seeds, thyme, orange zest, allspice or cardamom, salt, sugar and vinegar. Bring to a boil and cook, covered, for 3 minutes. Add the rhubarb and cherries or raisins and stir. Reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, for 3 minutes. Discard the thyme sprigs, if using. Add the chopped tomato and cook, uncovered, for about 3 minutes or until it is just cooked through but still holds some shape. (The chutney may seem somewhat fluid, but it will thicken a bit when cooled.) Store, refrigerated, in tightly capped glass jars.

Christmas Day 2: What goes (and doesn’t go) into (Alton Brown's) basic tomato sauce

2007-12-25T20:17:00.000-05:00

So on the Sunday two days before Christmas I was at my mother’s planning on running around with my partner getting some last minute things for meals and gifts. Of course, me being me, and with the breakfast dishes not yet cleared from the table no less, before I went out for the day I asked my mother if she’d thought about what to make for dinner. She being she, Mom had not actually given any thought to lunch let alone the following meal. Me being me, I had of course decided that a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs would be fairly quick and easy and would in no way compete with any of the roast beast dinners to follow over the next three days.

So when I got home, admittedly feeling a bit tired and cranky, Mom said to me, “They [the ones that rarely cook and don’t offer to clean up] don’t want meatballs. How about a meat sauce instead?” Remembering all I’d heard and read about making the holidays a pleasant family experience, I said smiling, “That's fine with me” and started to make my sauce. Then my mother asked me what I would put in it. “Onion, garlic, carrots, and celery,” I replied. “Celery? And no pepper?” she asked, eyebrows furrowing. “Yes that’s always the base for my sauce.” Then my older brother walked into the kitchen telling me, “There’s no carrots and no celery in sauce!” And then my mother who loves pepper, realized she couldn’t put her ingredient in either because my brother HATES cooked pepper and has since he was a child. So, backing away from the cutting board I told my brother, “Well if one doesn’t like how someone else is going to prepare the sauce, maybe one should just make the sauce himself!” And, shockingly, he agreed without protest. The man knows what he likes and how to make it!

I was actually glad to not have to make the sauce because I wasn’t in such a good mood after having to defend my recipe for sauce and instead proceeded to make sautéed tatsoi and mustard greens and garlic bread with mozzarella. Plus, my brother is actually a good cook, especially when he’s preparing some of his favorite foods. We couldn’t be more different in our tastes, habits, likes and dislikes, but I have to admit that I probably got into cooking because of him. (Isn't it amazing how the first born affects the ones that follow?) Even though I had a cheap imitation of an Easy Bake Oven that actually required no “baking” (if one can call cooking by a light bulb baking) and the results of which tasted like chemical cleaner and couldn’t even be dressed up by the frosting packet included, my brother received an actual cookbook for his birthday or Christmas one year. He was the first aspiring chef in the family and because of him all three of us kids were introduced to the wonders of cinnamon toast and sugar cookies that we could prepare ourselves at last!

His meat sauce was a bit watery and could have stood another couple of hours of simmering or more tomato paste, but was actually quite delicious and reminded me of my mother’s. (Incidentally, when I make sauce nowadays, I finish it in a 325 degree oven so that it can cook down without fear of scorching on the stovetop.) But I explain all this preamble to get to the discussion that occurred on Christmas Day. We had my younger sister’s best friend as a dinner guest who I learned for the first time had an Italian-American grandmother. So we got to talking about what goes into sauce and I posited that I always start my sauce with a sofrito (what the French call mire poix) so the base always includes onions, carrots, and celery! She laughed and said that her grandmother would never put celery into her sauce (or as she called it, gravy), and sorry, Mom, no pepper either. Just onions, garlic, and perhaps carrot. I countered that I was following marinara recipes from the Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis and Mario Batali and no one is more Italian-American than they. But inwardly, I doubted my recipe. Was I, the inveterate food purist, using an inauthentic recipe for making basic tomato sauce? A quick search of the Food Network’s website showed that yes I had adulterated the recipe for sauce by using the celery which Mario and Giada did not use. Further perusal showed that the celery idea came from Alton Brown’s pantry tomato sauce which is pretty much the method that I follow and Alton ain’t got the I-talian bona fides.

But! The base for meat sauce (Bolognese) is in fact different from the base for basic tomato sauce (marinara), at least if one uses the Food Network or Epicurious as a source. The two recipes that I follow for ragu Bolognese, Mario's and one from Epicurious, both use onion, carrot, and celery as the base and milk in the sauce. Even Giada has two versions of Bolognese--one using leftover turkey and the other using ground meat--that use the onion, carrot and celery (but no milk). And frankly, when I've made sauce, whether with meat or without, I've just used the same base. So sue me!

While I’m not sure if the base for meat sauce should be the same as the base for marinara sauce, I suspect what I'm finding is the usual variation on a familiar recipe which is so typical of Italian cooking. I must admit that I’ve even adulterated Alton’s recipe with parsnips (HERESY!) when I’ve been in a situation where I have no carrots. I also spice it up with a good amount of red pepper flakes OR even jalapeno. And Alton’s method of separating the canned tomatoes from their juice and boiling the juice down separately is a great way to thicken the sauce. You can of course reduce that liquid in the same pan with the rest of the sauce as it cooks, but following Alton’s method you’ll start off with a nicely thickened tomato base that is started at the same time as you're sweating the veggies. Once reduced, the liquid will not give you a watery sauce at all and you won’t need any tomato paste. I also skip the oven roasting of the tomatoes. This certainly would add flavor, but if that’s what you like, save a step and another dirty pan and just buy fire roasted canned tomatoes. So here's Alton's recipe with my embellishments.

Pantry Friendly Tomato Sauce
by Alton Brown and adapted by me

2 (28-ounce) cans whole, peeled tomatoes
1/4 cup sherry vinegar [or balsamic]
1/4 cup sugar [optional and certainly to taste]
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
2 ounces olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained [optional, IMHO]
1/2 cup white wine
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

In a sieve over a medium non-reactive saucepot, strain the tomatoes of their juice into the sauce pot. Add the vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes, oregano, and basil to the tomato juice. Stir and cook over high heat. Once bubbles begin to form on the surface, reduce to a simmer. Allow liquid to reduce by 1/2 or until liquid has thickened to a loose syrup consistency.
Squeeze each tomato thoroughly to ensure most seeds are removed. Set the tomatoes aside.
Cut carrot, onion, and celery into uniform sizes and combine with olive oil and garlic in a large turkey size roasting pan [or a 6 quart Dutch oven] over medium low heat. Sweat the mirepoix until the carrots are tender and the onion becomes translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and capers to the roasting pan. [Or deglaze the Dutch oven with the veggies with the white wine; add the tomatoes and the tomato juice reduction to the vegetables and skip paragraph 4.]
Place roasting pan on the middle rack of the oven and broil for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Tomatoes should start to brown slightly on edges with light caramelization. Remove the pan from the broiler. Place the pan over 2 burners on the stove. Add the white wine to the tomatoes and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes over medium heat. Put the tomatoes into a deep pot or bowl and add the reduced tomato liquid to the tomatoes.
[Cook the sauce on low covered with the lid slightly ajar. Stir occasionally to avoid scorching the bottom. Alternatively, cover your Dutch oven tightly and cook in the middle of a 325 degree oven for at least half an hour, until thickened somewhat.] Blend to desired consistency using an immersion blender, food processor, or blender and adjust seasoning.