Heidi Cooks Supper

This Blog is Moving!

2010-04-11T10:36:00.000-04:00

This blog is moving to its new home: http://heidicookssupper.com/! Head over there to see newer posts starting Monday, April 12, 2010.

Cider-Maple-Dijon Pork Chops: Another One-Pot Oven Meal

2010-03-03T10:57:00.000-05:00

Here's a meal you can start with frozen pork chops, put in the oven, and ignore. Maple syrup and mustard are surprisingly good flavor partners for pork. Add some apple cider and cider vinegar and you have a wonderfully tasty concoction for bringing flavor to boneless loin pork chops and assorted vegetables.

Ingredients:

2 boneless loin pork chops
1 shallot or other mild onion, thinly sliced
8-12 mushrooms, sliced
2-3 carrots, sliced
2-3 stalks celery, sliced
1/4 cup maple syrup, preferably Grade B
1/4 cup apple cider
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2-3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Procedure:

Lay the shallot or onion slices in an 8" x 13" glass roasting pan.
Place the frozen or thawed pork chops on top of the onions.
Layer the other vegetables around the pork chops.
Mix together the maple syrup, cider, vinegar and mustard and pour over the chops and veggies.
Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350°F for 30-45 minutes depending on how frozen the pork was.
Uncover the pan, flip the pork chops and spoon the juices and some of the veggies over them.
Return to the oven for another 30-45 minutes.

The cooking time for this is imprecise. The long cooking time enables the pork chops to become tender and the vegetables to soak up some of the flavors. The only thing to watch is that you don't let the liquid boil away. If it seems to be loosing too much liquid, recover the pan for the end of the cooking.

Fat-free Cream of You-Choose-the-Vegetable Soup

2010-03-02T13:19:00.003-05:00

Good looking asparagus is hitting the supermarket shelves. Like many folks, hubby Bill doesn't like asparagus so it doesn't end up on the supper plate. I love it and I love soup for lunch so Cream of Asparagus Soup is on the menu.

It's easy to make a fat-free cream of vegetable soup. The basic ingredients are

a vegetable, either raw or roasted, such as asparagus, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, etc.
fat-free broth, either chicken, beef, or vegetable
fat-free evaporated milk
salt, pepper, and a dried or fresh herb mix
a flour and water slurry to thicken

Procedure:

Cut the vegetable into chunks and place in a large sauce pan.
Sprinkle on the herbs.
Cover with broth and bring to a boil.
When the vegetable is partially cooked, whir with an immersion blender.
Add the evaporated milk and simmer for several minutes.
Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
Add the flour and water slurry and simmer a few more minutes to thicken.
Whir again with the blender to get any flour lumps, missed chunks of vegetables, or dried herb bits.

Serve. This is even better the next day. I just had a bowl of Cream of Asparagus soup that made my tummy very happy. It had in it:

1 pound of asparagus, washed, tough ends discarded, and broken into 1-2 inch pieces
1 carton Swanson's lower sodium fat-free beef broth
1 can Carnation fat-free evaporated milk
1 tsp. Penzey's Herbes de Provence
sea salt and freshly ground Alessi mixed peppercorns
3 Tbl. white flour mixed in 1/2 cup water

I am not sponsored by any brands. The only reason for listing them here is so you can know what I used if you want to replicate what I did.

Buckwheat No-Knead Bread

2010-02-23T10:45:00.006-05:00

When I start a loaf of no-knead bread, I stand over the bowl and contemplate what is available to throw in it. When the resulting loaf is particularly good, Bill says, "Why don't you put this in your blog so you will remember it?" Well, the present loaf fits that category! We just got a new box of various flours and cerials from Barry Farms so yummy buckwheat breadmakings hit the bowl.

Measurements for no-knead bread need not be precise. As you make loaves you will develop your own feel for flour/water proportions. A relatively dry dough makes a denser bread. A wet dough rises higher and results in very moist bread. I vary according to whim.

Ingredients:

2 slightly rounded cups bread flour
1 slightly rounded cup white whole wheat flour
1 slightly rounded cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup buckwheat cereal
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 envelope instant yeast
2 1/2 cups water

Procedure:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Use you hands if necessary to get all the dry ingredients fully incorporated in the dough.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a cold oven with the light on.
Let rise for 3-4 hours or until doubled in size.
Stir down to redistribute the yeast.
Flop the dough into a pan lined with parchment paper.
Cover loosely and let rise again for a couple of hours
Remove the risen loaf from the oven and preheat to 440°F
If you are using an uncovered pan, loosely place a sheet of foil on top to prevent the top from getting too brown.
Bake 30 minutes with the cover on and 20 minutes with the cover off.
Remove from pan and peel off parchment paper to cool.
Voilà! Sweet, dark, buckwheat bread.

Maple Bacon Pork Loin

2010-02-17T16:09:00.007-05:00

Whole boneless pork loins were on sale. You can slice the loin into chops or roasts or a combination of the two in a jiffy! Just don't think you can do this with bone-in loins as I did. (Once! The results were quite ugly. I needed a band saw!).

The most recent loin turned into a 4-supper-servings roast (with enough leftover for a sandwich) and 16 thick chops. We cooked the roast this weekend and the chops are packed in meal-sized portions in the freezer. We only have the over-the-fridge freezer so there's a constant battle against freezer burn. My most recent efforts have involved the Ziploc vacuum bags which do seem to help. I'll keep you posted.

Ingredients:

1 boneless pork loin roast about 4 inches in length
bacon slices sufficient to cover the roast
2-3 tsp. rubbed thyme
2-4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper
1/2 cup maple syrup, divided (use Grade B syrup if possible)
1/4 cup cider vinegar
Optionally, several baby or fingerling potatoes

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 375°F
Place the pork fat side down in a glass roasting pan.
Finely chop the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper together until the garlic is about the size of sesame seeds. Alternatively, whir in a small food processor.
Rub the seasonings on all the exposed surfaces of the pork.
Liberally coat the seasoned roast with 1/4 cup maple syrup, trying not to dislodge much of the seasonings. I find a silicone barbecue brush works well for this.
Wrap the pork in bacon, tucking the loose ends of the bacon under the meat.
Cover with foil and roast for 30 minutes.

Optionally, scatter the potatoes around the base of the roast.
Remove the cover and roast another 30 minutes.
Mix together the remaining 1/4 cup maple syrup and the cider vinegar.
Remove the foil from the roast and coat it with the syrup-vinegar mixture.
Roast another 30 minutes. Poke the potatoes and check the roast temperature to make sure they are both done. 160°F is a safe internal temperature for the pork.
Let the roast rest 5 minutes or so and then slice to serve. Droozle a teaspoon or two of the pan liquid onto the slices. Optionally, break the potatoes open and put some pan liquid on them, too.
If you have leftovers, wrap the meat and save the pan liquid in a separate container so it, too, can be reheated.

Moist! Moist! Tasty! Pork! Bacon! Maple syrup! What's not to like?

A Proof Box Right Under My Nose!

2010-02-17T10:45:00.001-05:00

"A warm place would speed up the no-knead bread," me thinks.

In need of a proof box, in this all-electric house. And who has a stove with pilot lights anymore? A dear friend, an army chaplain, made cookies for the troops using Easy Bake Ovens when she was stationed in Iraq. But I need something big enough for a loaf of bread. I've heard of folks using heating pads but the time I tried that the heat was too uneven. Ponder, ponder, cogitate, look it up on the web ...

Eureka! If you have a light in your oven, you have a proof box! Why I couldn't put two and two together in my own head I don't know. But isn't that why we foodie bloggers love the web? Put 'rise dough in oven' in the Google search box and you'll find lots of suggestions for using your oven as a proof box. So, even if you don't have a light in your oven, all is not lost. Instructions are given for all sorts of work-arounds by our fellow foodies.

Cream of Asparagus & Gruyere Soup

2010-02-14T16:12:00.001-05:00

Sometimes simple with a few tasty ingredients is the way to go. This soup takes about 10 minutes to assemble and is delicious.

Ingredients:

1 bunch thin asparagus (8-16 oz.), tough ends snapped off
1 can fat-free evaporated milk
1 milk-can (see previous ingredient) chicken broth
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated
salt, white pepper & sugar to taste

Procedure:

Cut the asparagus into 1/4 inch long pieces.
Place the asparagus in a covered dish and microwave on high for 3 minutes.
Add the can of milk and can of chicken broth to the asparagus.
Cover and microwave on high 5 minutes until very hot.
Sprinkling a bit of cheese at a time and stirring constantly, incorporate the cheese into the hot soup.
Taste and adjust flavors with salt, white pepper, and a pinch of sugar.

Serve immediately. The cheese will settle to the bottom as the soup cools so stir again if the soup must sit or if reheating.

Cinnamon Biscuits without the Drive Thru Line

2010-02-13T14:30:00.003-05:00

We're fans of Jiffy Buttermilk Biscuit Mix. The biscuits are great whether made with water, milk, or, best of all, buttermilk. They're good plain, baked with chunks of cheese in them, or as fluffy soup dumplings. But on a weekend morning they are great for cinnamon biscuits.

Ingredients:

1 8-oz. box buttermilk biscuit mix
1/2 cup water, milk, or buttermilk
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 Tablespoons flour
2 wedges Laughing Cow Lite Swiss Cheese (alternatively use cream cheese or Neufchatel)
2 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 400°F
Mix biscuit mix and water until the mix is moistened
Roll the biscuit mix out into a 12-inch square
Mix the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour into a paste and spread it out on the square of dough
Roll the square up and use the palms of your hands to flatten the ends so that it is a neat cylinder
Cut into 8 slices and place them in an ungreased pie plate, baking pan, or glass cake pan.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
Mix the cheese, milk and powdered sugar into a loose glaze. Spoon this over the hot biscuits.
When cool enough to "inhale" them, do so.

Butternut Squash and Salami: Sweet & Savory!

2010-02-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

Here in the U.S., the common way to embellish butternut squash involves lots of sweetness like brown sugar and marshmallows. Don't get me wrong, I like a good tooth-aching, carmelized, gooey butternut squash casserole as much as the next person but, when paired with a savory topping, butternut squash is wonderfully sweet on its own. It's also a much healthier base for "Italianate fixin's" than a bowl of pasta.

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash, washed
2-3 ounces sopressata or other good dry-cured salami,cut into fine dice
8-10 mushrooms, sliced
several handfuls baby spinach, julienned
1-2 ounces grated parmesan
1/4 cup fat-free evaporated milk, divided
2 Tablespoons butter (optional)

Procedure for the squash:

Place the butternut squash in a glass roasting/lasagna pan.
Roast in a 400°F oven for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until the squash is quite soft and the skin looks a bit dimply like it has a cellulite problem.
As soon as the squash is cool enough to handle, cut it in half lengthwise.
Discard the seeds and stringy goo.
Scoop the rest of the squash meat into a bowl and mash with 2 Tablespoons evaporated milk and two tablespoons butter. Do not salt or pepper it. The salami will take care of the flavor.
When ready to serve, heat briefly in the microwave.

Procedure for the topping:

In a medium sauté pan, briefly cook the salami until some of its fat has been released.
Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until the mushrooms are slightly colored but have not yet released their liquid.
Add the spinach and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the spinach has lost its raw color.
Add 2 Tablespoons evaporated milk and simmer to reduce.

To serve:

Mound the butternut squash on the plates.
Spoon the salami and veggie mixture over the squash.
Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
Serve.

Yum.

VERY Tasty Turkey Patties

2010-02-08T11:51:00.002-05:00

Nothing like adding fat to improve the flavor of ground turkey — or anything else for that matter. These turkey patties were juicy and tasty and ... okay, so they weren't particularly healthy but they were good!

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey
3-4 slices pre-cooked bacon
2-3 ounces cheddar cheese
1 Tbl. mustard
1/4 cup bread crumbs, Italian flavored if you have them.
1-2 Tbl. olive oil

Procedure:

Finely dice the bacon and cheese.
With your hands, mix turkey, bacon, cheese, mustard and bread crumbs.
On a clean surface, smooth the meat into a 1/2 inch thick sheet.
Using a wide-mouthed glass or round cookie cutter, cut equal-sized patties. Remold the scraps until all has been used for patties.
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
Sauté the patties 3-4 minutes per side.
Remove patties from the pan and drain on paper towels.
Serve.

This made 9 "old-fashioned glass" diameter patties.

UPDATE: This is more than one meal for us so we got to test them as leftovers the next night. We "nuked 'em in the nuker." A few seconds in the microwave, enough to hear them sizzle, brings them back to moist and tasty. I can see mass-producing these for the freezer the next time ground turkey is on sale!

Quick Fish & Corn Chowder

2010-02-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

I've been hankering for some nice warm fish chowder. Last night was a "teaching night" but fish chowder is one of those things you can throw in a pot and pretty much ignore. When the potatoes are soft, it's done.

Ingredients:

8-10 ounces frozen fish fillets, thawed a bit and cut into bite-sized pieces. Haddock loins work well here.
3-4 slices pre-cooked bacon cut crosswise at 1/4 inch intervals.
1 leek, white and light green parts only, sliced and well washed.
Several baby or 2-3 medium new potatoes, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces.
1-1 1/2 cups frozen corn
2 cups chicken broth
1 can fat-free evaporated milk
Freshly ground black pepper.

Procedure:

Put all the ingredients in a large covered sauce pan.
Simmer. When the potatoes are soft it's done.
Serve.

Now, was that easy or what? And warm, and creamy, and satisfying on a winter evening.

Clementine Chicken

2010-02-02T14:44:00.003-05:00

Those wonderful boxes of clementines are too cheap to pass up this season of the year. But, oh! How can we consume them all? Why not tuck chicken into a bed of clementine slices for a citrus-y, aromatic roast?

Ingredients

Chicken parts
Clementines, well scrubbed and sliced
Salt and lemon pepper
For option 2: 1 cup mixed wild and brown rice
For option 2: 2-3 stalks celery, sliced
For option 2: 2-3 carrots, sliced
For option 2: 6-8 mushrooms, sliced
For option 2: 1/2 tsp. rubbed sage

Procedures

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Line the bottom of a roasting pan with clementine slices. End slices should be placed so that the flesh is facing the chicken.
Lay the chicken, skin side up, in a single layer on the clementine slices.
Salt and lemon pepper the chicken. Use black pepper if preferred.
Cover the chicken with another layer of clementine slices.
Bake one hour.

Serving option 1 — Roasted chicken:

Check chicken for doneness. Serve skin on, reserving couple of the better looking clementine slices for garnish.
Optionally, discard remaining clementine slices and make a gravy of the pan juices by adding a "knuckle" of flour and butter to the juices and simmering until thick. Adjust the gravy seasonings with salt and pepper.

Serving option 2 — Clementine Chicken, Mixed Rice & Vegetable Bake

Discard the orange slices
Set aside the chicken to cool
Pour the pan juices into a glass measuring cup and add enough water to make two cups.
When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones, discarding the bones, skin, cartilege, and fat. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces. Optionally, reserve the breast supremes for another meal.
In the roasting pan left from baking the chicken, spread the rice on the bottom of the pan.
Scatter the vegetables and chicken on top of the rice.
Pour the juice over rice, chicken and vegetables and scatter a bit of rubbed sage on top.
Cover with foil and bake at 350°F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the rice is done.

Carnitas meets Cuban Sandwich - Pulled Pork and Annatto Paste

2010-01-25T10:40:00.001-05:00

The other day I picked up some Annatto (Achiote) paste from the expanded Hispanic offerings at the nearby Food Lion. Many of us consume annatto without being aware of it. Annatto gives many cheeses their orange hue, some cheddars, Muenster, etc. Since it is a natural ingredient it is not often listed on contents labels. When used more heavily, it not only adds an orangy-red color but the slightly peppery-sweet flavor often gracing enchilada sauces and the like. There are some lovely pictures of the annatto seed, pods, and flower on The Perfect Pantry blog.

Well, as followers of this site know, we now have a freezer-full of pulled pork and I've been ad lib-ing no-knead bread varieties. We had Swiss cheese and some bread-and-butter pickles in the fridge. So supper the other night was pulled pork and swiss cheese on no-knead french bread, a paean to the Cuban sandwiches I used to get in New York.

Ingredients for two large sub-shaped sandwiches:

8 oz. pulled pork
2 tsp. annatto paste
2-3 Tbl. catsup
1-2 Tbl. tomato paste
1-2 Tbl. chopped cilantro (optional)
1-2 Tbl. cider vinegar
salt & pepper

8-12 slices bread-and-butter or dill pickles
2-4 slices Swiss cheese
2 submarine rolls or french bread

Procedure:

Preheat the broiler
In a medium skillet, mix and quickly sauté the first seven ingredients
Slice the rolls lengthwise
Spread the meat mixture on the bottom half of each roll
Top meat with pickle slices
Cover with Swiss cheese slices
Place the four roll pieces (two with the meat, pickles & cheese, two bare) face-up on the broiling pan
Broil on a middle rack just long enough for the cheese to melt and the bare roll parts to toast
Place the bare tops on the filled bottoms
Optionally, flatten the sandwiches with a rolling pin for a bit of authenticity
Serve while still hot

Absolutely Easiest Pulled Pork, Or What to Do When Pork Shoulders are BOGO

2010-01-19T11:10:00.000-05:00

A pork explosion has happened at our house! Fresh butts (shoulders) were buy-one-get-one this week and since we were all out in the freezer, I took two home. Now, wrestling two of them meant it was going to be tricky trying to turn them over every 45 minutes like I usually do without eventually burning myself by splashing the hot brine. So, I decided to experiment and it worked great! No rub this time. Just brown sugar, sea salt, a splash of cider vinegar, and beef broth.

Ingredients:

pork butt(s)
sea salt (2-3 teaspoons per butt)
brown sugar (1 Tablespoon per butt)
cider vinegar (1/4 to 1/2 cup per butt)
beef or chicken broth sufficient to fill each roaster to 1 inch deep

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 275°F
Wash any bone dust off each butt and place each, fat side down, in covered roasting pan(s)
Spread salt and sugar on top of each butt
Pour in the vinegar and broth, making sure not to wash the salt and sugar off the top.
Cover and roast 5 hours.
Remove butts from the brine and let cool.
When cool enough to handle, shred the pork discarding any fat.
Divide into meal-sized portions and freeze.

Later use can be as simple as thawing in the microwave and slathering with barbecue sauce. That and a frozen veggie makes a very simple meal for a busy night.

The Difference an Experienced (Jaded?) Palette Makes

2010-01-02T14:16:00.001-05:00

My sister sent us 4 fillets mignon from a famous mail-order steak place for Christmas. Bill and I had two of them Christmas weekend and were, frankly, unimpressed. Yes, they were well aged and tender but didn't taste like much. Is it because they really didn't taste like much or because we are used to eating tougher cuts which develop more flavor like flank steak? Anyway, we had two more steaks to eat this weekend so I decided to pull out a recipe I had fond memories of from long ago.

The recipe for tournedos Renata is from The International Color Guide to World Cookery, a 1970s hodge podge of what were to me then, exotic, vaguely European recipes. The steaks are seasoned with salt, pepper, marjoram, and thyme. The mushrooms are cooked in brandy and cream. Thirty-plus-years-ago, I was WOWed -- or so it says in my handwriting all over the recipe.

Last night, I was bored. Looking back, I think I was wowed then and bored now because it was different from the food I grew up with. Cooking mushrooms with butter not margarine, real garlic, cream, and brandy would have been a new taste sensation for me. Not now. Now, this is pretty basic.

I've got to give that book credit. It taught me to make a tower of profiteroles aux chocolat and that pasta could be made from scratch -- although its cannelloni filling tasted like really high quality Alpo. It started me on the cooking adventure that continues to this day.

So, I will keep my well-worn copy of The International Color Guide to World Cookery, not so much for its recipes but for its memories.

No Knead Bread Update

2009-12-31T17:13:00.001-05:00

It's been months since we bought a loaf of bread. No knead bread is now part of our regular routine. I do still vaguely measure the flour and water but otherwise I mostly dump handfuls and dollops of ingredients in the pot. I've found that not preheating the pot avoids too dark a crust and we like to have something sweet in our bread.

If you need encouragement to try it, watch Jacques Pepin make what is the simplest of versions. His requires a better no-stick pot than I have!

My basic formula is:

2 cups bread flour
2 cups other flour or combination of flours
1 envelope fast-acting yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/4 cup sugar or other sweet ingredient
Other additions as desired
2-2 1/2 cups water

The basic method:

Stir the chosen ingredients in a large bowl until moistened.
Cover with plastic wrap.
Ignore 6-10 hours.
Stir down.
Re-cover and ignore for another 1-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Flop dough into a greased pot with lid.
Bake 30 minutes with the lid on.
Remove the lid and bake another 20 minutes.
Remove from pan and let cool on a rack or stove element.

Flours:

I use King Arthur bread flour. Not only is it readily available in local grocery stores but it is bromate-free.
Whole wheat flour is easily obtained at the grocery store.
More unusual flours include semolina flour, rye flour, oat flour, potato flour, graham flour, buckwheat flour, and the like. These are less likely to be found in grocery stores. I order from Barry Farms which has an amazing variety of flours. When I get my order, I transfer the flour from the plastic bags into disposable plastic containers. I then cut the labels off the bags and tape them to the tops of the plastic containers with transparent packing tape. These stack well and, being translucent, make it easy to see how much I have left of each kind.

Other ingredients:

White sugar, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, honey, etc.
Corn meal, rolled oats, wheat flakes, oat flakes, etc.
Dried or finely chopped fresh dill, rosemary, etc.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc.
Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, roasted sunflower seeds, etc.
Raisins, minced garlic, olives, etc. (Add these wetter ingredients at the "stir down.")

So, each time I make a loaf of bread, I improvise depending on what strikes my fancy. We love variety.

Anadama lemon rye is 2 cups bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup rye flour, 1/2 cup corn meal, the zest of a lemon, and molasses for sweetening. It's also good without the lemon.
Sesame seeds go well on a bread made of 3 cups bread flour, 1 cup semolina flour, and white sugar.
Dill goes well in bread made with 2 cups bread flour, 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup potato flour and white sugar.
2 cups of bread flour, 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of buckwheat flour, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and dark brown sugar makes a wonderful grainy bread.
Make chewy homemade hamburger rolls by using all bread flour and shaping the dough into rolls to rise after the stir down. These take less time to bake.
Here's no knead cinnamon rolls.

Right now, there's a 1/2 bread flour, 1/2 rye flour dough rising with some spices in it (ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger), sweetened with honey. This should make great toast for breakfast tomorrow!

Chorizo & Italian Sausage, Olives, Spinach, & Red Pepper Pasta

2009-12-29T10:38:00.002-05:00

Our local grocery stores are starting to carry more of what are considered around here "ethnic" items. In other words, venturing into extensive stocks of Latin American and Asian ingredients. Yay! Recently, the local Publix has started to carry fresh chorizo-flavored sausage in addition to their Italian-styled. This recipe uses one of each to create a salty-peppery Mediterranean flavor akin to sugo alla puttanesca but with sausage instead of anchovies and capers. It was great made with roasted red pepper sauce and orecchiette (AKA "little ears" pasta)

Ingredients:

1 6-inch link Italian flavored fresh sausage, removed from its casing
1 6-inch link chorizo-flavored fresh sausage, removed from its casing
10 oil-cured olives or other strong dark olives, pitted and cut in several pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch squares
1 package of baby spinach, well washed
1/2 cup roasted red pepper sauce, tomato sauce, or spaghetti sauce
2 servings pasta, water & salt
2-4 Tbl. olive oil
grated parmesan to garnish

Procedure:

Start the pasta in boiling salted water
In a large sauté pan or skillet large enough to hold all the ingredients (including the pasta), crumble and sauté the sausage. If the sausage is very greasy, drain. Otherwise, keep the sausage fat in the pan for flavoring. If the sausage is very lean, add 1-2 Tbl. olive oil.
Add the olives and red pepper and sauté 2-3 minutes
Add the spinach and a ladle or two of the pasta water.
Sauté until the spinach is wilted.
Add the sauce and heat through.
Drain the pasta and toss it with the other ingredients.
Drizzle 2 Tbl. of olive oil over the whole and lightly toss again.
Serve with parmesan sprinkled on top.

Portobellos with Sausage Stuffing

2009-12-26T14:25:00.004-05:00

We needed a smallish meal to place between the luscious carnivore extravagances of the holidays. This recipe stretches one link of grocery store Italian sausage to flavor a great meal for two.

Ingredients:

2 portobello mushroom caps
1 Italian sausage link (approximately 6" long by 1" diameter)
1-2 shallots, finely minced
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely minced
1/2 cup Italian-flavored bread crumbs or plain bread crumbs and Italian herb seasoning
1/2-3/4 cup grated parmesan, divided
1 egg
3-4 Tbl. olive oil, divided
romaine lettuce
salad dressing

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 425°F
On top of the stove, heat 2 Tbl. olive oil in a largish oven-proof skillet
Remove the stems from the portobello mushroom caps, taking care not to break the caps, and mince the pieces of stem
Scrape the gills out of the mushrooms with a spoon and discard them
Squeeze the sausage meat out of its casing and break into small pieces
Sauté the sausage meat, onions, garlic, and stem pieces until the meat is done
Add the parsley and sauté just long enough for the parsley to wilt
Remove the meat mixture to a bowl large enough to mix the stuffing, making sure to get as much as possible out of the skillet
Coat the portobello caps inside and out with olive oil and place open-side down in the skillet
Bake for 8 minutes
Let the meat mixture cool and then mix in the bread crumbs, half the cheese, and the egg to make a stuffing
Remove the mushroom caps from the oven and flip them so that the open side is up
Mound the stuffing on top of the mushrooms and top with the remaining cheese
Bake another 15 minutes
Make a salad of dressed romaine lettuce on each plate and place the stuffed mushroom on top.

A complete and satisfying meal! And it dirties only one pot ... and a knife, the cutting board, a bowl to mix the stuffing and to dress the romaine, ...

Easy Almond Crescent Shortbread Cookies

2009-12-25T13:03:00.004-05:00

My mom's recipe for almond crescents made a 5-dozen cookie batch and would require wrestling the stand mixer to the counter. So, I've experimented with 1/2 a batch using the food processor. Makes 1 cookie-sheet full of cookies (2 dozen + a couple).

Ingredients:

1/2 + 1/3 cups (5/6 cup)flour
1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds
scant 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt (less if you use salted butter or margarine)
1 stick unsalted butter, slightly softened but still colder than room temperature
1/2 cup or as needed powdered sugar

Procedure:

Pulse flour, almonds, sugar & salt in the food processor until the ingredients are well mixed and the almonds are chopped.
Add the stick of butter cut into pieces.
Pulse and whir until it moves past the crumb stage and starts to form a dough.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
Using a knife, cut the dough into about 2 dozen small pieces and roll each into 2 1/2 inch logs and shape each into a crescent. If some of the cookies are larger than others, pinch off the excess and form the scraps into additional cookies.
Bake 15-18 minutes until golden with slightly browner edges.
Let cool on the paper.
When cool, roll each in powdered sugar.

Over the years, I've found that parchment paper is the solution for great cookies. I have had lousy luck with cookie sheets and have scraped char off the bottoms of many a cookie. A layer of parchment solves this problem! Magic! Golden brown cookie bottoms!

Haddock and Veggies with Crunchy Bread & Almond Topping

2009-12-21T20:50:00.000-05:00

A tasty one-pot oven meal. Fish with veggies & a tasty stuffing-like topping.

Ingredients:

2 haddock fillets
8-10 large mushrooms, sliced
2- 3 carrots, sliced
1-2 shallots, chopped
3-4 sprigs fresh dill, large stems discarded
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1Tbl. mustard
1 Tbls. olive oil + olive oil in a spritzer (or cooking spray)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 cup bread crumbs, divided

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 400°F
In a food processor, whir the shallots, dill, yogurt, 1 Tbl. olive oil, and 3/4 cup bread crumbs to make a lumpy stuffing
Lightly oil a glass lasagna pan or shallow roaster
Layer the sliced mushrooms on the bottom of the pan
Spread the carrot slices on top of the mushrooms
Put the fish on top of the vegetables
Crumble the stuffing and distribute it to cover the fish and vegetables
Sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs over the top
Spritz with olive oil to provide some fat to help the topping brown
Bake 30-40 minutes until topping is golden brown, the fish is flaky, and the veggies are cooked.

Serve with a slotted spatula to leave behind excess mushroom liquid.

Almond Crescents: Christmas Cookies My Mom Made

2009-12-18T13:19:00.000-05:00

Tis the season for cookies! But I think it would be healthier for me if I wrote about them more than making & eating them. Everybody grew up with different Christmas cookies. In some cases, the cookies were similar but the names were different. My mom's Snickerdoodles were pretty much identical to my friend's mom's Snippernoodles. (Snippernoodles! Harrumph. What a silly name. Snickerdoodles is obviously a better name. ☺)

So, in the spirit of the season, thought I'd share some from my mom's recipe box. As she will want me to point out, she didn't invent the recipes but the sources are lost to history.

So, here's the first in a series of Christmas cookie recipes: Almond Crescents! This results in a very short, rich, small but satisfying cookie. I can smell and taste them as I type. Such memories!

Ingredients (to yield about 5 dozen cookies):

1 2/3 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup shortening (The recipe, in handwriting that might be my paternal grandmother's, specifies 1/2 Spry shortening, 1/4 butter, and 1/4 margarine but we almost always made them using all margarine.)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup ground blanched almonds
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Procedure:

Sift together flour and salt
Cream shortening (butter, margarine) with the granulated sugar
Add almonds and flour, mixing well
Chill the dough for 30 minutes or more
Preheat oven to 350°F
Roll the dough into 1/2" diameter rolls, 2 1/2 inches long
Place the rolls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bend to ressemble crescents
Bake 15 minutes and allow to cool on the sheet
When cool, roll in confectioner's sugar

Yummy. Maybe I will make 1/2 a batch before the season's over ...

Ground Nut Soup: Vegan Peanut Butter Soup

2009-12-16T10:59:00.001-05:00

Ground nut soup is to grandmothers across Africa what beef stew is across the US. Every family has its favorite. Every country from Ghana to Sudan has local variations. When the ground nut came across the Atlantic, the dish became a Southern classic, peanut soup. There are no real rules except for the presence of the ground nuts which, in the US, are easily obtained in the form of peanut butter.

Yesterday my vegetarian and vegan friends were here for lunch so I threw together some warm and tasty soup from what was in the cupboards. I had store-brand all-natural peanut butter on hand, making the flavor a bit milder than soup made with the national brands of peanut butter. In fact, it didn't taste like peanut butter but rather like nuts. As with most soups, the proportions are up to you based on taste.

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbl. olive oil
A large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 stalks or inner stalks & heart of celery, coarsely chopped
2-3 carrots, washed & trimmed but not peeled, coarsely chopped
2"-3" knob of ginger root, peeled, trimmed, & finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
4-6 cups water, divided
1/2 cup catsup
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 can beans (e.g. kidney beans), drained and rinsed
Several springs cilantro, finely chopped
1-2 teaspoons cumin
Sea salt to taste

Note: if you use sweetened peanut butter or tomato sauce instead of catsup, you may want to skip the molasses.

Procedure:

Heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot.
Over medium heat, sweat the onion, carrots, celery, ginger root, and garlic until the onion is translucent.
Add half the water and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
With an immersion blender or in the food processor or blender, lightly whir the vegetables and water until thick with some chunks of vegetables remaining. If you don't have the equipment for this step, chop everything more finely at the outset.
Add the remaining water, catsup, molasses, and peanut butter.
Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to meld flavors.
Add cilantro, cumin and salt, adjusting the seasonings to taste.
Simmer another 5-10 minutes.
Serve.

5-Minute Pork Cutlets for a 10-Minute Meal

2009-12-10T14:11:00.001-05:00

Here's a very easy and quick meal. Pork tenderloin can be very dry and bland but cooked quickly it's flavor is enhanced with the butter, salt & pepper. You could certainly dress this up with a dollop of something. Roasted red pepper couli? Fig balsamic sauce? A dill mustard from the Mustard Museum? Whatever's at hand.

Ingredients:

boneless pork tenderloin
steam-in-bag frozen vegetables
1-2 Tbl. butter or olive oil
Salt & pepper

Procedure:

Cut 1/2-3/4" slices off a boneless pork tenderloin or get boneless loin chops.
Remove the "silver skin" or other membranes surrounding the pork.
Pound lightly to make 1/4" thick cutlets.
Preheat a skillet with a bit of butter or olive oil on medium high heat.
Start a steam-in-bag of veggies in the microwave.
Salt & pepper the cutlets
Sauté the cutlets about 2 minutes per side.
Remove the veggies from the microwave.
Serve.

Ta da! About 5 minutes to prep and 5 minutes to cook.

Lightweight Jiffy Mix Soup Dumplings

2009-12-10T13:50:00.000-05:00

Having not grown up with dumplings in soup, I'm not really in favor of gummy dumplings. But after many pleas from hubby, I decided to try a two-step cooking process. It worked! The dumplings were moist yet fluffy!

Ingredients:

Hearty soup. I used leftover ham & pea soup that I didn't whir with the blender so it had nice chunks of carrot in it. Most any stew will do.
Jiffy buttermilk biscuit mix. Of course you could do homemade biscuits but why when these are so easy and fairly inexpensive?
Water for the biscuit mix.

Procedure:

Preheat the oven as indicated for the biscuit mix.
Bring the soup to a boil on top of the stove. Use an oven-proof pot with enough room to add the dumplings.
Mix the biscuit mix & water as instructed on the box.
With floured hands, roll the dough into 16 balls (similar in size the smallish meatballs).
Flatten each ball to a small 1/2" thick disk.
Drop the disks, one at a time, into the boiling soup, distributing them throughout the surface.
Carefully move the hot pot into the oven and cook as indicated on the biscuit mix box.

As you drop the disks of dough into the soup, they will sink. Almost immediately, they will start to float. By the time you take the soup out of the oven, all the dumplings will have floated and the soup will be covered with a soft layer of light dumplings!

With preheating & preparations, this takes just 20 minutes to prepare. Allow a little extra if you need to thaw the soup. Stick to your ribs good!

A Sweet Vegetarian Curry over Brown Rice

2009-11-28T20:04:00.002-05:00

My vegetarian dinner guests came back for more. One had three helpings and I liked it, too. A tasty, sweet, and not very hot curry. If you like it hotter, add a hot pepper or two.

Ingredients:

2 cans chickpeas, drained
1 can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable broth
1 large, sweet onion, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1 large parsnip, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1-3 carrots, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch pieces
2 white potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch pieces
2 bell peppers, 1 green and 1 red, cut in 1/2 inch squares
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon garam masala
2 teaspoons cumin
salt & pepper to taste

Procedure:

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, deep skillet with a cover.
Sauté the onion until translucent and slightly carmelized (about 10 minutes).
Add the rest of the vegetables, including the garlic, and the vegetable broth.
Cover and steam until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork (about 20 minutes).
Add the chickpeas, coconut milk, honey, garam masala, cumin, and ground pepper.
Simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
Adjust the taste with the salt.
Serve over brown rice.

Alton Brown's Baked Brown Rice to the Rescue

2009-11-27T19:25:00.002-05:00

As much as I like the flavor and chewiness of it, I've mostly avoided cooking brown rice. I just don't like feeling strapped to the stove for 45 minutes to an hour, making sure it neither boils over or scorches. I usually ended up serving it before it was really done or adding too much water, resulting in a mushy mess.

But I needed brown rice to go under the vegetarian curry to serve my non-carnivorous friends. So, to the internet to find an easy and fool-proof way to make brown rice, one that needed little or no attention as the rest of the last minute Thanksgiving dinner preparations were underway.

Alton Brown's baked brown rice recipe to the rescue! For once I followed the recipe pretty closely with the exception of using olive oil rather than butter to avoid animal products for my vegan friend. I just made another batch using butter to go under tonight's leftover turkey & gravy. Yummy.

My method varies from Alton Brown a teeny bit, for example, using the microwave to heat the water in the dish I will cook the rice in. You need steady hands to get the shallow dish of hot water out of the microwave without sloshing. So use your best judgment and avoid getting scalded!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups brown rice
1 Tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups water

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
In an 8-inch square glass baking dish, microwave the water, butter or oil, and salt until hot.
Stir to assure the salt is fully dissolved.
Add the rice and distribute throughout the pan.
Cover tightly with foil.
Bake for one hour.
Remove foil and fluff the rice.

No watched pot. No boiling over. No clumping. Just perfect brown rice.

Thank you, Alton! Brown rice will now be a frequent player in my cooking!

Easy Baklava made with Walnuts, Sesame Seeds & Olive Oil

2009-11-25T17:19:00.009-05:00

Making baklava is surprisingly easy. When made with olive oil, it's also vegan, which is important for one of tomorrow's guests. Although often made with butter, making baklava with olive oil instead is also traditional because it is in line with religious eating traditions in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East from whence it comes.

The phyllo:

"No one" makes phyllo dough from scratch. For fun, check out this video showing how it's made. Widely distributed brands like Athens Fillo are found in the freezer aisle of the supermarket. This recipe calls for half a 1-pound box (1 sleeve of 2) which means we will have the other half to make savory turnovers with some leftover Thanksgiving turkey later in the weekend. The other sleeve of dough will keep a good long time in the freezer if we eat all the turkey first.

The Olive Oil Pump:

I find the easiest way to distribute oil on the phyllo sheets is to use a sprayer. I have a Pampered Chef kitchen spritzer I've nursed along for years but there are also lots of similar beasts on Amazon. Don't expect an oil pump to make a fine aerosol but they do a good job of making a little oil go a long way. I keep mine filled by the stove and use it whenever I want to keep things from sticking. When it clogs, I soak its parts in hot water and detergent and then run them through the dishwasher.

Ingredients for the base:

½ pound of phyllo dough, thawed as explained on the package
1 pound shelled walnuts
8 ounces sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup sugar
olive oil to moisten phyllo

Ingredients for the syrup:

1 cup honey
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
juice of one lemon

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Finely chop the walnuts (about 20 brief pulses of a food processor)
Mix walnuts, sesame seeds, cinnamon, cloves, and ½ cup sugar in a dry bowl.
Lay a sheet of phyllo on the floor of a 9"x13" glass baking pan.
Spritz with oil. You needn't soak the sheet with oil -- just a light spritz.
Repeat until your have a base of 4 spritzed sheets.
Cover with 1/3 nut mixture.
Repeat 4 sheets of phyllo, spritzing each, and 1/3 nuts twice more.
Cover with and spritz each of the remaining sheets of phyllo.
With a very sharp knife, cut into 1½" squares or diamonds. It is important this be done before baking.
Bake 40 minutes.
As the phyllo and nuts finish baking, simmer the syrup ingredients for 10 minutes in a non-reactive pan.
Discard the cinnamon sticks and spoon the hot syrup over the hot baklava in its pan, making sure to cover the entire top.
Let rest to stick together.

This baklava is drier and crumblier than others you might have had. I find it less cloying than some. You may want to make more syrup to have a wetter pastry.

You can easily replace the walnuts and/or sesame seeds with other nuts, seeds or dried fruit to your taste.

And, of course, you could gild the lily by serving it warmed with vanilla ice cream ... but not tomorrow. Our guest is vegan and it's bad enough we're going to eat turkey in front of her!

No Knead Cinnamon Buns with Laughing Cow Icing

2009-11-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

A friend called recently to wax rhapsodic about the cinnamon he ordered from Penzey's. Being about out of cinnamon myself, I decided to place an order. We're celebrating the arrival of the box with cinnamon buns made using the no-knead bread method to start. Yummy!

Ingredients:

4 generous cups bread flour, all-purpose flour, or a combination
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ cup granulated sugar, divided
1 envelope rapid-rise yeast
2 cups water
¼ cup butter (sweet or salted according to your taste)
1 Tbl. cinnamon. I used Penzey's Korintje Indonesia Cinnamon.
2 wedges Laughing Cow Light Swiss Original cheese (or 1½-2 ounces cream cheese)
2 Tbl. milk
¾-1 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar

Procedure:

Combine flour, salt, half the granulated sugar (¼ cup), and yeast in a large bowl.
Stir in the two cups water to make a ragged dough.
Cover and let sit 4-6 hours to rise.
On a slick, well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin, shape the dough into a rectangle and roll until ¼" thick.
Melt the butter and brush it on the dough rectangle.
Sprinkle the cinnamon and the remaining ¼ cup of granulated sugar on the rectangle.
Starting with the edge closest to you, roll the dough up as you would a bedroll.
Slice the rolled dough into 1-1½" slices.
Arrange the slices cut side up in greased 2-3 inch deep baking dishes. You can either space them or place them next to each other depending on whether you want them flatter and crisper or soft and pull-apart.
Let rise 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven until golden, 30-40 minutes.
Mix the cheese, confectioner's sugar, and milk to make a loose icing and distribute this over the still hot rolls.
Let cool in the pans.

This makes a light, tender cinnamon roll.

Lemon Pepper That Doesn't Taste Like Lollipops

2009-11-17T12:19:00.000-05:00

I was just discussing some turkey meatballs with a young friend. When I said I used nutmeg and lemon pepper to give them flavor, she looked dubious. You see, her previous experiences with lemon pepper tasted more like pepper and lollipops.

I've had that experience, too. And it's not a pleasant one. Too many lemon-pepper mixes anymore seem to be flavored with whatever they use in lemon drops rather than having that nice lemon rind taste.So, I've taken to ordering Alessi Lemon Pepper online, six bottles at a time. I just gave her one because six bottles will last me months! (Years?)

She and I then looked at the ingredients, the first being salt. So it's really "lemon salt & pepper." Hmmm. Salt is a preservative. So, would microplaned lime zest with salt & pepper be a handy thing to have in the spice cabinet? And orange rind? Clementines when they come in season? Hmmm. I think I am building up to an experiment or two or three.

Perky Turkey Meatballs

2009-11-15T19:05:00.003-05:00

Here's a formula for turkey meatballs with sufficient flavor and bite to stand up against most any sauce you put with them. Tonight, we had them with peas and rice flavored with mushrooms, shallots, curry powder and yogurt. I'm looking forward to having them over dilled carrots in a paprikash sauce. Ooh, they'd also be good in a wedding soup. Yum. Luckily, I made enough for several meals.

Ingredients:

1-1½ pounds ground turkey
1 egg
½-¾ cup bread crumbs, optionally use seasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon pepper
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 Tbl. olive oil
½ cup chicken broth

Procedure

Thorougly mix turkey, egg, bread crumbs and seasonings. This is most easily done with your bare hands although a potato masher will work, too.
Roll the mixture into ¾"-1" balls
Heat olive oil in a large skillet with a lid
Brown the meatballs on at least two sides but do not worry at this stage on cooking them all the way through
Pour the chicken broth into the pan and cover letting the meatballs steam to finish cooking all the way through
Remove the meatballs from the pan and drain.
Use immediately or store for later use.

When you remove the meatballs from the pan, you can start your sauce in the pan. For example

Sauté finely chopped mushrooms and shallots
Add frozen peas, rice, water and curry powder
Simmer until the rice was done
Stir in some plain yogurt
Add turkey meatballs and warm through

Add the peas later if you want them bright green.

Quick Ham and Beans Inspired by Fannie Farmer

2009-11-13T10:00:00.006-05:00

I've had a facsimile edition of Fannie Merritt Farmer's Boston Cooking School book for many years. It's pages are yellow and brittle not much fun to page through anymore in it's awful condition. So I was very happy to find that Bartleby.com makes it available online!

In her recipe for Boston Baked Beans, she says, "The fine reputation which Boston Baked Beans have gained has been attributed to the earthen bean-pot with small top and bulging sides in which they are supposed to be cooked. Equally good beans have often been eaten where a five-pound lard pail was substituted for the broken bean pot." [emphasis mine]

Well, if that isn't an invitation to flexible cooking, I don't know one! So, last night, a can of navy beans and some ham turned into a quick and delicious one-pot meal.

Ingredients for two servings:

1 can of beans — I used navy beans but you could use another kind
6-8 ounces of ham — I used leftover picnic ham AKA smoked Boston butt AKA shoulder ham
Several stalks of celery — enough that this will be your prime vegetable for the meal
1 large sweet onion
2+ tablespoons mustard
2+ tablespoons ketchup
2+ tablespoons molasses
2+ tablespoons broth or water

Procedure:

Cube the ham
Coarsely slice the celery and onion
Drain the beans
Put the ham, celery, onion and beans in a covered oven-proof casserole
Mix the mustard, ketchup, molasses and broth (or water) as a dressing
Pour the dress on the other ingredients and stir to mix thoroughly.
Bake, covered, at 350°F approximately 1 hour or until the flavors have melded and the vegetables are soft.

With such a simple recipe, you can adjust the ratio of ingredients to suite your taste. Want some bite? Add a little horseradish, use a hot mustard or add a little hot sauce. Like it sweet? Increase the molasses. Last night, I "leaned heavy" on the mustard using AJ's Walla Walla Sweet Onion Mustard with Smokey Bacon that I got in our most recent order from the Mustard Museum.

No-Knead Anadama Lemon Rye Bread

2009-11-11T22:19:00.004-05:00

Anadama bread is a New England recipe including cornmeal and molasses in the dough. Optionally, rye flour is added to the white flour.

One of the folks who turned me onto cooking is my friend Jaylyn. Back when I was serving boiled meals to my guests, she had already conquered bread making. Every weekend she'd make what she called "Anadama Lemon Rye." It was a wonderful dark, moist bread.

Here's a formula for a no-knead anadama lemon rye.

Ingredients:

2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
zest of one lemon
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 envelope rapid rise yeast
1/4 cup molasses
2 to 2 1/4 cups tepid water

Follow the basic no-knead bread procedure:

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl
Stir the molasses into the water to make it easier to distribute
Stir the water and molasses into the dry ingredients
Cover and let rise approximately 8 hours, give or take a few hours
Stir down, cover and let rise again for 2 hours, give or take an hour
30 minutes before you plan to cook the bread, preheat a covered pot for baking the bread in a 450°F oven.
Lightly oil the hot pot and flop the batter into it.
Bake 30 minutes, covered, at 450°F
Remove the cover, lower the oven temperature to 440°F and bake an additional 20 minutes.
Remove the bread from the pot and cool on a rack.

Chicken & Rice Base: A Pre-Cooking Shortcut

2009-11-05T08:28:00.009-05:00

I'm still on the hunt for meals that can be thrown together on "teaching nights." A few weeks ago, boneless chicken breasts were on sale so I decided to try a pre-cooking experiment.
"Chicken & Rice Base" is a meal-sized bag of frozen, pre-cooked chicken and rice waiting for veggies & flavor. It can serve as the base for soup, a casserole, or what we call "glop" around here, too thick to be called a soup or stew.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken breasts or other raw chicken
Rice
Chicken broth or water

Procedure:

Steam the chicken until thoroughly cooked but not tough.
Cook the rice in broth or water.
Let both rest until cool enough to handle.
Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
Freeze together in meal-sized portions for later use.

Some uses for chicken and rice base:

Simmer it in chicken broth until hot. Add lots of diced roasted red peppers and sundried tomato pesto in a jar. Simmer a bit more. Finally, add some freshly grated parmesan or other hard cheese.
Sauté mushrooms, onions and garlic in olive oil. Add baby spinach and a bit of broth. Cover and let the spinach soften. Add thawed chicken and rice base, salt, pepper & nutmeg and heat through.
Sweat chopped carrots and celery in a little olive oil, add chicken broth and chicken & rice base. Throw in fresh parsley, salt & pepper. Voilà, chicken & rice soup!
Thaw the chicken and rice base in the microwave. Add plain yogurt flavored with some garam marsala, curry powder or just cinnamon. Finally, add golden raisins and slivered almonds. Vaguely south asian chicken and rice. With cucumbers and onions in vinegar as a side, you have a meal.

There are unlimited possibilities. Homemade convenience food without the salt and mystery ingredients of store bought.

Onion-Free "Cream" of Chicken-Mushroom-Spinach Soup

2009-11-01T12:53:00.027-05:00

Nothing like hot creamy but low-fat soup for a cold and rainy day. This soup is allium-free for those of us who have onion allergies but is still tasty and satisfying. Where did the cooked chicken come from? It's out of the freezer from the 10 lbs. of chicken legs that were on sale.

If you don't have a stash of meal-size bags of pre-cooked chicken in your freezer, cut some off a pre-cooked chicken from the deli counter at the grocery store. In a pinch, you could use the bagged, pre-cooked chicken breast or even canned chicken.

Ingredients:

2 Tbl. flour
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
2-3 Tbl. olive oil
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
8 oz. cooked chicken dark meat, diced

2-3 cups chicken broth

1 pkg. baby spinach leaves or julienned larger spinach leaves

1 can fat-free evaporated milk

Salt and white pepper

Optionally, a dash of nutmeg or other preferred spice

Procedure:

Place the flour in a small bowl or mug and mix in 2 Tbl. water until a smooth paste is formed. Slowly add up to 1 cup of water mixing slowly to prevent lumps as much as possible. Let this sit while you prepare the vegetables. Most of the lumps will disappear by the time you are ready to use this flour and water slurry.

In a large soup pan, sauté the diced carrots and celery in the olive oil until the celery is translucent and the carrots are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté for an additional 5 minutes, covered, or until the mushrooms release some of their liquor.
Add the flour and water mixture and bring back to temperature for another minute until some of the rawness is removed from the flour.
Add chicken and chicken broth to cover. Bring back to temperature and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
Add spinach, bring back to temperature, and simmer another 2-3 minutes, until spinach reduces.
Add the fat-free evaporated milk. Season to taste with salt and white pepper and optional seasoning. Bring back to temperature and simmer slowly for another 5 to 10 minutes, being careful not to scorch the soup on too high a heat. Serve.

This results in a relatively thin soup base. To make a thicker soup, skip the flour and water step but add raw rice or noodles when you add the broth. Simmer longer until the starch is cooked. Then add the milk. Cornstarch can also be used to thicken soup but it tends to get gummy when you reheat leftovers.

Yummy, warm, with green leafy veggie and little fat. What's not to like.

Onion-Free Cooking

2009-10-31T20:05:00.007-04:00

My sister called the other night, complaining that so many of my recipes, especially the soups, start by sautéing onions in olive oil. I should be sympathetic. She, my mother, and I share a list of food allergies including onions, tomatoes, chocolate, etc. Each of us reacts differently or more or less severely to our allergens but my sister reacts most to members of the allium family (onions, garlic, etc.)

So, this is the first posting with information about onion-free cooking. First, a replacement for the first step in so many recipes, the sautéing of onions.

Suggestion #1: substitute sautéed carrots and celery (or parsnips and celery for a light-colored recipe)

The French start many classic recipes with a mirepoix. A mirepoix is minced and sautéed onions, carrots, and celery. Some cuisines use variations of this. For example, the "Holy Trinity" of Louisiana cooking is like a mirepoix except that the carrots are replaced by bell peppers.

As Julia Child said in her The Way to Cook (Knopf, 1994), “The mirepoix is one of fine cooking’s great inspirations, an all-purpose flavor enhancer made of finely diced and sautéed carrots and onions,and often celery and ham. Used in sauces, with braised vegetables like celery, or with chicken breasts poached in butter, it imparts that real ‘je ne sais quoi’ of sophistication to anything it is associated with. You may want to triple or quadruple the recipe,since a mirepoix keeps nicely in the freezer.”

Oh, bless Saint Julia! It hadn't occurred to me that I could pre-make the base sautéed vegetables for a recipe and save valuable weekday evening time!! Gotta try that.

Meanwhile, back to onion-free cooking. Since a mirepoix is adjusted for different recipes, why not substitute the other two members of the mixture if you must avoid the onions. You are not trying to make fake onion flavor rather you are using slightly carmelized carrots and celery to perform a similar task. If you want to preserve the whiter color for your recipe, replace the carrots with parsnips.

Suggestion #2: Use parsley by the bunch

Both flat-leafed parsley and curly parsley can add flavor to recipes when used in bulk. Like many green vegetables, their flavors mellow with cooking. So, if you are making an onion-free soup, put a finely chopped whole bunch (minus the thicker stems) of parsley in it.

Flat-leafed and curly parsley have two very different flavors. Flat-leafed parsley is the milder of the two and is a staple of Italian cooking.

A lot of grocery stores shelve the two parsleys with the cilantro so be careful to know which you are buying. Cilantro can also add a wonderful flavor but it is very different from either parsley. If your grocery story is bad about labeling, just sniff the bunch. If it's cilantro you will know it by its pungent aroma.

Cilantro is also known as coriander leaves, or Chinese parsley. It is used in many cuisines and provides the aromatic flavor in a good restaurant salsa.

The next batch of soup I make will be without onions to provide "proof of concept." There's a head of cauliflower in the fridge needed to be roasted for soup.

Oven Flank Steak without Marinating

2009-10-24T22:10:00.003-04:00

Flank steak is really tasty. Of course, often it's because of the marinade. I've been wondering what a plain flank steak would be like and decided to make as plain and easy a flank steak as possible. Just salt and pepper and a hot oven. That's it.

I already had the oven at 450°F for a loaf of bread. During the last 20 minutes of the bread cooking I threw in the iron grill pan to heat it up. When the bread came out, I cooked the steak.

Ingredients:

1 flank steak
Enough olive oil to lightly coat the pan
Salt and pepper

Procedure:

Salt and pepper both sides of a flank steak and let it come to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 450°, placing an iron grill pan in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a grill pan, use a broiling pan with a rack.
Lightly oil the hot pan with a brush.
Cook the steak for 5 minutes on each side (total 10 minutes).
Remove the steak from the pan, tent with foil, and rest an additional 10 minutes.
Slice thinly across the grain.

This results in a medium rare steak that tastes of beef. Beef. Plain beef. A nice treat. We had it in sandwiches on the freshly baked and still warm bread. It was white bread with some dill in it.

We now have half a flank steak left over that is not already flavored with a marinade. This means some of it can become fajitas while the rest becomes Chinese stir-fry. No pre-set flavors to worry about. We could be really bad and make sandwiches of slices fried in butter. No, no, that would be really bad. Steak and eggs for breakfast? Hmmm. So many possibilities.

Potato Leek Soup, Vegan Style, Garnished with Roasted Red Peppers

2009-10-24T18:13:00.003-04:00

A couple of friend were over here today, he's a vegetarian and she's a true vegan. So, vegan soup was on the lunch menu. This potato leek soup was nice and creamy despite its no-animal-products condition. It takes about 1/2 hour total to make this soup.

Ingredients:

4 well-scrubbed, thin skinned potatoes
4 cups vegetable broth (I used 1 container of Swanson's veggie broth but you could use homemade stock or veggie bouillon.)
3 large leeks, white parts only
2 Tbl. olive oil
several sprigs curly parsley
3-4 cloves garlic
salt
pepper (I used Alessi lemon pepper)
roasted red peppers to garnish

Procedure:

Cube the potatoes and put in a large soup pot
Cover the potatoes with the broth and boil until the potatoes are soft
Cut the ends off the leeks, slice in half lengthwise and then slice into 1/2-3/4 inch slices. Wash thoroughly.
Sauté the leeks in the olive oil until soft.
Add the leeks to the potatoes & broth
Using an immersion blender (or in a blender or food processor) whir until smooth
Finely mince the parsley and the garlic and add to the soup
Simmer slowly until the garlic loses it's raw bite
Serve hot or cool.
Garnish with a spoonful of coursely chopped roasted red peppers

Roasted Red Peppers on Homemade Bread: Easy You Say?

2009-10-23T10:47:00.005-04:00

Yup, I do say easy. We haven't bought bread since I found the wildly popular no-knead bread formula and with locally grown red peppers so cheap in the grocery store it'd be a crime not to roast them.

So, in the picture is my bag of a dozen roasted red peppers and some fresh oat bread. We've ordered oat flour and other goodies from Barry Farm Foods in Ohio. Hubby Bill first discovered them when looking for rye flakes and wheat flakes as alternatives to oatmeal.

I've been alternating oat bread with rye bread using their flours. The special flours seem expensive until you compare the price to buying bread in the grocery.

The basic formula I use for the bread is:

2 cups bread flour
2 cups oat flour, rye flour, or whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats, rye flakes, or wheat flakes
2 Tbl. brown sugar or molasses
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 envelope of rapid rise yeast
Optionally, add a flavoring like caraway seeds to the rye, sunflower seeds to the whole wheat, etc.
2 1/4 cups water

Procedure:

Mix the dry ingredients (including sugar if using) in a large bowl
Stir in the water (with the molasses stirred into it if using)
Cover and let rise approximately 8 hours, give or take a few hours
Stir down, cover and let rise again for 2 hours, give or take an hour
30 minutes before you plan to cook the bread, preheat a covered pot for baking the bread in a 450°F oven.
Lightly oil the hot pot and flop the batter into it.
Bake 30 minutes, covered, at 450°F
Remove the cover, lower the oven temperature to 440°F and bake an additional 20 minutes.
Remove the bread from the pot and cool on a rack.

Voilà! Bread.

For the roasted red peppers:

Preheat the oven broiler to high and move a rack to the top-most position. Keep the oven door ajar to make the broiler element stay on.
Halve and remove the seeds and white membranes from the peppers.
Place, open side down on a foil lined cookie sheet and flatten with the palm of your hand.
Broil the peppers 10-16 minutes until the skins are black. Don't panic. You indeed do want almost all of the skin to be black and brittle.
Remove from the oven and let the peppers steam in their own heat by bunching the foil.
When cool enough to handle, slough the skins off the peppers.

Voilà! Roasted red peppers.

See? Easy peasy. The bread measurements and rising times need not be precise. The peppers will look ugly when they come out of the oven. They are supposed to. You can't lose.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

2009-10-19T00:04:00.004-04:00

Peeling and seeding a butternut squash is a lot easier after it's been roasted. And just as roasted cauliflower makes a wonderful soup, roasted butternut squash is a great base for soup.

Procedure:

To roast a butternut squash, leave it whole but poke a few holes in the skin with a fork. Put it in a shallow pan and roast at 400°F for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the squash is very soft. When the squash has cooled, remove the stem, skin, seeds and "strings."
In a soup pot, sauté a chopped onion and minced garlic in olive oil until translucent.
Add the roasted squash and cover with fat-free chicken broth.
Use an immersion blender to purée the mixture.
Optionally add a can of fat-free evaporated milk.
Add ground or rubbed sage, salt and pepper to taste.
Heat through.

So warm and creamy you just want to float away in a pool of it and yet, except for the olive oil, fat free.

Faux Cassoulet: Quick & Low Fat White Beans & Sausage

2009-10-14T18:59:00.003-04:00

A real cassoulet is made rich with duck confit. Made by salting duck leg meat and then submerging it in duck fat, confit is one of those things I read about, nod, and then decide is never going to happen in my kitchen!

A low-fat, quick faux cassoulet is a good supper for a cold and rainy night. It's also a one-pot meal.

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbl. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 heart of celery, sliced (about 1 cup)
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
6-8 oz. fat-free turkey kielbasa, sliced
1 can white beans
2-3 Tbl. sun-dried tomato pesto or tapenade
1/2 cup white wine

Procedure

In a large saucepan, sauté the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent
Add the parsley, kielbasa, white beans, pesto or tapenade, and wine
Simmer slowly for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.

And, yes, that's all there is to it.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup for a Rainy Evening

2009-10-13T10:34:00.003-04:00

Roasting vegetables really brings a depth of taste to them. Roasting cauliflower before making soup results in a deep, rich taste to the soup that can't be beat.

You can roast the cauliflower ahead of time while cooking other things in the oven and save it in the fridge for several days, making the soup when you are ready for it. I have not tried freezing the roasted cauliflower but that might work as well.

To roast the cauliflower:

Cut a cauliflower into flowerettes, discarding the leaves and the toughest part of the central stem.
Toss the cauliflower in olive oil, salt and pepper.
Roast until brown around the edges.

Note: I didn't list a time or a temperature. That's because you can roast the cauliflower while you are cooking other things. For example, I roasted it the other night while cooking a sirloin tip roast, some potatoes, and mushrooms. The cauliflower was in the oven at 375°F for about three-quarters of an hour.

A higher or lower temperature, what else is in the oven, etc., will affect the time needed. This is not rocket science. You are going for slightly toasted but still moist cauliflower. It does smell like cabbage as it cooks so I am not sure I'd roast it while baking an angelfood cake. You wouldn't want the cake to smell like old socks!

To make the soup:

In a soup pot, sauté minced shallot and garlic in olive oil.
Add a peeled and cubed potato and the roasted cauliflower.
Cover with chicken broth.
Simmer until the potato is cooked.
Purée until smooth.
Optionally add a can of fat-free evaporated milk.
Adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper.

Using an immersion blender to mix in the evaporated milk results in a very thick and creamy soup. The roasting of the cauliflower adds a real depth of flavor. I'm going to have the leftovers right now.

Whole Grain No-Knead Bread for Sandwiches

2009-10-08T08:20:00.004-04:00

Bill requested a bread more suited for a peanut butter sandwich to bring to work. No-knead bread with added grains and more yeast forced to cook in too small a pot resulted in a tall, dense, moist, whole-grain bread great for sandwiches or the toaster. The Queen of Hearts is there for scale.

Ingredients:

2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. brown sugar
2-4 Tbl. roasted unsalted sunflower seeds, roughly chopped
1/4 cup rye flakes
2 1/4 cups water (the rye flakes will soak up the extra water)
1 envelope rapid-rise yeast
oil for greasing the pot

Procedure (basic no-knead bread method)

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Add water and stir to make a sticky dough.
Cover and let sit 6-8 hours to rise.
Stir down.
Cover and let sit 2 hours for second rise.
Thirty minutes before the second rise is finished, preheat a covered pot or casserole in a 450°F oven.
When the second rise is finished, remove the hot pot and oil lightly to prevent the bread from sticking.
Flop the bread into the hot pot, cover.
Bake 30 minutes at 450°F.
Uncover and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes until the interior of the bread reaches 210°F.

This recipe filled, some might say "overfilled" my 1970s Copco iron casserole. My intention was to force the no-knead bread into the shape I wanted for sandwiches. It worked fine. I did need to remember to grease the inside of the lid as well as the pot because the rising bread came right up to it but this forced the top of the loaf into a nice, flat shape, waiting for ham and cheese or PB&J.

What's a Daisy Ham? A Boneless Picnic.

2009-10-07T07:40:00.007-04:00

Now, is that a strange post title or what?

Well, a bit of research finds "the etymology of daisy ham" in the Dictionary of American Regional English, findable via Google books.

It seems Daisy wasn't a brand name, although it was coined by an Armour employee after watching the boneless picnic ham rolls being made in Boston's Faneuil Hall. He thought a cross section of the roll looked like a daisy. I imagine this was because the ham was not ground but instead was simply boned and shaped into a roll.

In the 1970s, daisy hams were commonly in Southern New England grocery stores. They weighed about two to five pounds and were three to four inches in diameter. They were wrapped in a plastic tube. All you had to do to fix one was open up the plastic, dump the ham into a pot, cover it with water, and boil.

It was the perfect meat for my earliest entertaining. It was cheap. It was boiled, a culinary talent I had mastered at that point. It was boneless so you didn't need a good knife or carving skills to serve it.

Click here for how to cook a picnic ham AKA smoked Boston butt AKA shoulder ham.

Picnic Ham for a Connecticut Yankee in the South

2009-10-06T21:23:00.006-04:00

Our local grocery stores are suddenly full of picnic hams! This Connecticut girl is thrilled! I grew up eating picnic hams. A New England boiled dinner of picnic ham, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots was the meal I made for my first "dinner party" in my tiny first apartment with the 6' x 3' kitchen!

A picnic ham is a pork shoulder, smoked to make it taste like ham. It may also be called a "daisy ham," but I remember that Daisy was the brand name of a boneless picnic ham roll available in the 1970s, though I haven't found confirmation of that memory yet.

So what did we do with picnic ham this week? We're getting multiple meals out of it. It may be a cheap piece of meat with a good deal of bone and fat to throw away, but it is inexpensive and flavorful and goes a long way.

Procedure:

Rinse off the picnic ham to remove any residual bone "saw dust."
Place in a covered roaster.
Pour in water to about 1 inch deep.
Cover and roast at 350°F for 25-30 minutes a pound.

That's all there is to it.

Meal #1: Freshly cut ham, warm from the oven, a frozen veggie.
Meal #2: Left over ham, nuked with red potatoes
Meat for meal #3: Awaiting its turn in the freezer
Meal #4 with enough left over for lunch: Pea soup

No Knead Bread Experiment #6: Bread Flour

2009-10-06T20:32:00.008-04:00

Bread flour has more gluten than all purpose flour. Gluten is the elastic that gives bread toothiness. I like a slice of bread that you have to chew! So, I broke down and bought a bag of bread flour. I felt a little like I was disappointing an old friend.
You see, I had a dear departed friend who was a great bread baker. Julie told me firmly that there was no reason not to use all-purpose flour for bread. Her bread was wonderful. You know, some people just have a way with bread. But I never had her talent.
And besides, the whole idea behind no knead bread is its laziness. You don't need to knead. You don't need to have the loving touch for the dough of a bread baker like Julie. So, bread flour and time. A poor replacement for watching my late friend work the dough as she would spout off to me about what was up in library-land.

Back to the results: the bread flour resulted in a very chewy bread with a solid crust across it's top. It is darn good but I think it would have been further improved with a scissor-cut or two to shape the top and maybe a bit hotter oven. I think I've gone too far in my effort to avoid the slightly singed taste of my first loaf of no-knead bread. This last one could have used a bit more char.

But it's darned good bread!!

No Knead Bread Experiment #3-5: Ways to Make it Not Work

2009-10-03T13:16:00.002-04:00

Okay, like I often do, I leapt to the conclusion one could do anything to the no knead bread recipe and still get a great loaf of bread. Wrong. I got too enthusiastic adding stuff to the basic formula and have ended up with three less-than-satisfactory but informative results.

Experiment #3: Yogurt-Dill Attempt

With this experiment, I replaced about 1/3 cup of water with chopped-dill-in-a-tube and plain Greek-style yogurt. The dough did not rise as much as previously and the resulting loaf was heavy and a little gummy. Ugh. The taste was fine so I think this still deserves some experimentation. I think I went overboard with the yogurt.

Experiment #4: Olive-Garlic-Rosemary Attempt

You want to kill it? Try this method. Add finely chopped kalamata olives, minced garlic, and minced fresh rosemary to the basic mix. It looked great when I went to bed, rising nicely with the usual holey look. Next morning, it had turned into a batter. Not a dough, a batter.

I decided it wasn't really going to turn into a risen loaf of bread so spread it in a preheated lasagna-style pan with the intention of seeing if it could be turned into savory biscotti. After the first half hour of baking, I cut it with a pizza wheel into strips and tossed the strips back into the pan for the second baking. Passable biscotti resulted. Again, fine flavors but not real bread.

To correct this one, I think I will try what some recommend which is not adding things to the dough until after the long rise.

But the savory biscotti have definite potential! This deserves more exerimentation.

Experiment #5: Sweet Cinnamon Bread

To this recipe, I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar and about 3/4 tsp. cinnamon. It was okay but not great. It needed some whole wheat flour to improve its flavor.

I am also guessing that my recent attempts were affected by using a different flour brand, one light for biscuits without enough gluten for bread. The next grocery trip will bring home different white flour, some gluten powder, and something more flavorful like whole wheat flour, rye flour, etc.

Still-in-all, no-knead bread is so easy and so inexpensive that I see no reason to abandon it. We like good, chewy bread and in lieu of easy access to a great Italian bakery like one finds in Boston's North End, this will have to do.

Food History Time Sinks

2009-10-02T08:15:00.002-04:00

I've been having fun lately reading such titles as The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken (Laura Schenone), Risotto with Nettles (Anna Del Conte), A Thousand Years over a Hot Stove (also Laura Schenone), and, of course, My Life in France (Julia Child). I'm on the look out for another good foodie memoir. Meanwhile, hubby found me this great web site and evil internet time sink! Hey, it's lifelong learning so it can't be all bad, right?

"The Food Timeline" is just that, a timeline of food events each linked to either a page about the topic with links or directly links to another great site. Not only is this a wonderful, wonderful site but the icing on the cake is that it is a librarian who made it! That makes this librarian feel all warm and fuzzy.

I cannot do better than to quote from her site:

"Who is Lynne Olver? A reference librarian with a passion for food history. She works at the Morris County Library, Whippany, NJ. Since March 1999, she's welcomed 15 million customers and answered 20,000 food history questions. Free. Why? Because public librarians are dedicated to connecting people with information. [emphasis added] From elementary students seeking recipes for state reports to master chefs recreating historic menus."

So, take a chance to enjoy Lynne's labors and click to learn about the origins of italian sausage with a link to the Istituto Valorizzazione Salumi Italiani's history page or be led to ...

Where was I? I was trying to choose another link to show you and got lost in the wealth of it all! That was quite a while ago ... Yup, a time sink but, oh, such a tasty, wonderful time sink! Go to http://www.foodtimeline.org/ and enjoy!

No Knead Bread Experiment #2: Better Results

2009-09-29T09:30:00.004-04:00

I couldn't believe the coincidence last night! There was Alton Brown on "Good Eats" throwing together a loaf of no-knead bread as I had loaf number two sitting on the counter begging me to have another slice.

Unlike the last one, this loaf practically flew out of the pan (as opposed to being stuck like concrete) and has a wonderful golden bottom crust (as opposed to a slightly singed, thick brown bottom). I also made this one a bit bigger to have a loaf that would be taller and last for a few days of lunch sandwiches. It still has the wonderful chewy crust of the original with no real effort.

Ingredients:

4 cups flour
2 cups tepid water (boiled and cooled to remove chlorine)
1/2 tsp rapid-rise yeast
1 rounded tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

I used less salt and the bit of sugar to satisfy our preference for a less salty, slightly sweeter bread.

Follow the preparation procedures previously posted here. Basically:

Mix the ingredients
Let them sit, covered for about 18 hours
Flop out onto a board and use a spatula to bring the bottom around to the top
Let sit 15 minutes
Flop into a foil hammock.
Let sit 2 hours
Flop into a preheated pan and bake, first covered, then uncovered.

The chief variation I tried here was adjusting the temperature, time and the pot I baked it in.

This time I tried a combination of a spring form pan and a larger covered pot. I was not going to have to chisel this one out of the pan! I preheated the covered iron pot but not the spring form pan. I lined the spring form pan with parchment paper brushed with olive oil.

I flopped the dough into the line spring-form pan and then plopped that into the hot covered cast iron beast in the oven. This was probably overkill. The bread wasn't stuck at all to the paper or the pot. So I think the next time will see me going back to the original cast iron pot but oiled with a disk of parchment thrown into the bottom.

To try to take care of the over browning, I set the oven to 430°F instead of 450°F (my oven has digital controls). I set the initial covered baking for 40 minutes instead of 30 followed by the fifteen minutes uncovered. The thermometer showed the interior of the loaf to be over 210°F at that point.

Yummy.

So, next time I think we are about ready for another loaf of bread, I will do experiment #3. And this time it will get some flavoring added to it. Dill, ya think?

Just a little geographic fun ...

2009-09-29T09:25:00.002-04:00

I'm fascinated to see where folks are who visit this blog and thought you might be, too. So far, visitors have come from 21 countries (listed at right -- when the novelty wears off I'll move it to the bottom of the page). The web really has made the world a seamless place!

Lahey/Bittman's No-Knead Bread: Experiment #1

2009-09-27T11:07:00.009-04:00

We have been Panera addicts but, sadly, they recently decided to fluffy-fy their bread and remove the flavor from their other baked goods -- at least it seems that way to us. I guess they are chasing the market that likes supermarket baked goods. Meanwhile, our local Publix (supermarket) is starting to have more "artisan breads." So we are not totally in the wilderness when it comes to good bread -- but almost.

I'd heard rumbles of a "no knead" bread recipe and decided it was time to do research. The recipe now in wide distribution was initially published in 2006 in the New York Times in a column by Mark Bittman. Bittman had gotten the recipe from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery. Many have tried it and claimed it fool-proof so I thought I'd give it a try.

People experimenting with this recipe have developed all sorts of variations and recommendations. Although said to be "fool-proof," flour, ovens, pans and the like vary. I decided to try a loaf sticking pretty closely to the original recipe.

The bread produced by this recipe is a boule with even holes throughout and a wonderfully crunchy, toothsome crust. It wasn't perfect but after the recipe I will tell you why and will suggest what my next experiment will be with this WONDERFUL, MAGIC, NO WORK recipe!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon double-acting yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups water (boiled and cooled to tepid if your tap water is heavily chlorinated like ours is)

Procedure:

In a deep, large bowl, mix the dry ingredients thoroughly and stir in water until all flour is moistened. The dough will be a shaggy mess at this point.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 18-24 hours. The dough will slowly grow until it more than doubles. The dough will be a sticky, hole-filled, bubbly mess at this point--and remains so until you bake it.
With a wet spatula and wet hands, flop the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Use the spatula to fold in the edges of the dough. This breaks up some of the larger bubbles and pulls the dough bottom around to the top.
Cover lightly and let sit on the board 15 minutes to rest.
Place a length of foil across a large salad bowl as one would a hammock between two trees. Flatten the foil against the bottom and sides of the bowl leaving the ends of the foil draped over the bowl edges. You have now made a hammock for the dough.
Flop the dough into the foil-lined bowl and cover loosely, leaving plenty of room for rising.
Let the dough rise an additional two hours.
About 1 1/2 hours into this last rise, set the oven to 450°F and put a covered casserole or dutch oven in to preheat.
When the dough is done rising and the oven and pan are hot, use the foil hammock to flop the dough into the pan, wiggle the pan to center the dough, cover and bake for 30 minutes.
Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes.
Take the loaf out of the pan and cool on a rack.

Evaluation of Exeriment #1

Yum! We've gotta do this again! It's as easy as it seems.
The loaf was a bit salty for us since we eat few prepared foods and don't use much salt. Next time I will use less. This is a bit of a surprise since others have said they needed more salt in theirs.
It stuck to the pan and took some serious convincing to get out. Next time I will follow the recommendations of some and put a sheet of parchment in the pan or I might even experiment with putting a spring form pan in a larger cast iron pan.
The interior was just a smidge underdone. I didn't believe my old thermometer which said the internal temperature was only 200°F. Some of the web pages said to make sure the interior reaches 210°F. Next time I will increase the length of time in the oven to make sure the inside gets done.
The bottom crust was just a bit dark and too thick. I think my oven may run a bit hot and so, after reading about the effect of temperature on crust in Bernard Clayton's The Complete Book of Breads, next time will see me setting the temp a bit lower. I may also deflect some of the radiant heat by putting a cookie sheet on the lower shelf an inch or two under the dutch oven.

And then I will report back with experiment number two. Word on the web is that you can use different flours and other additions and get variations that work wonderfully. I'm anxious to try the version that says replacing some of the water with a bit of plain yogurt results in a slightly sour bread with a better texture for sandwiches.

Some folks cook it in cast iron, others in glass or pyrex. All that matters is that the pot is covered. It is being covered that makes the wonderful crust.

I'm headed back in the kitchen for another slice. It really is a wonderful way to have fresh bread without much work or flour flying all over the kitchen.

Tzatziki, Raita, Maast-o Khiar, Jajik: Cucumber & Yogurt is a Good Idea

2009-09-19T18:33:00.002-04:00

Cucumber in yogurt is a salad staple in many cuisines, from Greece, across the Middle East and on to India. Each country has its own favorite way to make this creamy, cooling side dish.

The basics:

Pare a cucumber
Add flavorings
Dress with plain yogurt
Chill to let flavors meld

The flavorings:

Every culture and seemingly every family has favorite flavorings for cucumber yogurt salad.

Garlic and salt are almost ubiquitous additions.
Green ingredients include chopped dill weed, cilantro, parsley, mint, or scallions.
Very thinly sliced onions add bite.
Spices such as pepper, cumin, turmeric or other spice may be added.

Simple or complicated?

The choice is yours.

Peel the cucumber. (Or not.)
To assure the yogurt does not get watery, remove the seeds from the cucumber, salt and let drain for 30 minutes before preparing the salad. (Or not.)
Use good quality Greek yogurt that has been drained. (Or not.)
Stir some flavorful olive oil into the yogurt. (Or not.)

For a quick, weeknight sauce to serve with rice and chicken, I like to

slice a peeled and seeded cucumber,
add store-brand plain low fat yogurt, chopped fresh dill weed, finely chopped garlic, salt and white pepper
Stir.

I tend to make this first so that by the time the rest of supper is ready it has sat long enough for the flavors to meld a bit. No, this doesn't result in the most scrumptuous tzatziki/raita/maast-o khiar/jajik you ever had, but it's a great quick side dish!

Fresh Refrigerator Pickles: One Cucumber at a Time

2009-09-19T17:56:00.004-04:00

The inventory of the roadside veggie vendor near here depends on what his farming friends in the low country of South Carolina have. This past week, he had pint baskets of cucumbers and one of them came home with me. I like cucumbers but who wants to eat the same veggie several days in a row? Small, one-cucumber batches of fresh pickles to the rescue, each with different flavors.

This recipe needs no canning and can be done at the drop of a hat. It is completely flexible.

Step 1: Make brine for the pickles.

The sweetness and sourness of the pickles depends on the brine. If you look at recipes in books or online, you'll find great disparities among the ingredient ratios.

You can choose how to proportion

Water
Vinegar
Sugar
Salt

I am happy with

2 cups of water
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup of sugar
2 tsp. salt

This is about enough to cover 2 separate 1-cucumber batches. This makes a sweet but not cloyingly sweet pickle that is tangy without being too sour.

Bring the brine to a boil and stir to fully dissolve the sugar. I do this in the microwave.

Step 2: Prepare the vegetables

Slice, cube or other wise cut the cucumber into pickles shapes. Layer in a covered dish with the flavors you have chosen for the pickle.

Consider the following combinations:

sliced cucumber, sliced yellow onion, chopped garlic, fresh dill
cubed cucumber, sliced red onion, cinnamon stick, peppercorns
Slice cucumber, squares of red bell pepper, slice sweet onion, whole coriander seeds

Step 3: Pour brine & refrigerate

Pour the hot brine to cover the vegetables and spices. Cover with cling film and refrigerate.

These pickles can be eaten as soon as they are cold but they improve in flavor over the next few days, by which time they will probably be gone.

This recipe can serve as the basis for pickling other vegetables, e.g. zucchini, summer squash, sweet potato slices, cauliflower, etc. Have fun experimenting!

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

2009-09-01T17:56:00.018-04:00

Phew! I found that little slip of paper I had written the roasted red pepper sauce formula on! Red bell peppers were 89¢ each at the Piggly Wiggly today so it's time for another freezer-stocking project!

Freshly roasted red peppers are one of life's great pleasures. They are smooth and sweet and bear absolutely no resemblance to jarred red peppers. And they go on or in anything! Fish, pasta, potatoes, chicken, you name it! Frozen, red pepper sauce keeps that wonderful flavor around to be used at a moment's notice.

The pictures are from an 8-pepper (quadruple) batch.

Ingredients: 2 red bell peppers, roasted and peeled 1/4 cup white wine 1/4 cup chicken broth 1 medium red sweet onion, roughly chopped 1 Tbl. olive oil 1 Tbl. minced garlic
Procedure for roasting the peppers: Preheat the oven broiler and move a rack to within 4 inches or so from the element or flames Line a cookie sheet with foil. Cut the red peppers in half and remove the stem, seeds, and whitish membranes. Place the pepper halves skin side up on the foil and press them with the palm of your hand to flatten them. They will break a bit as you flatten them and will not lie completely flat.
Broil the peppers until the skin is almost totally black char but the meat is still moist. Keep the door of the oven ajar so the broiler element will stay on. These were broiled for 10 minutes, turning the tray half way through.
Remove from the oven and gather the foil up around the peppers to form a sealed sack to steam them.
When the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the meat of the pepper. At this point, the roasted peppers are ready for use. I usually slice them into narrow strips. If moved to a sealed plastic bag, they will keep in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days.
Procedure for the coulis (sauce): Sweat the chopped onion in olive oil until translucent and starting to carmelize. Add the garlic and sauté another minute. Pour the wine into the pan and stir to deglaze. Simmer to reduce the wine by half.
Add the roasted and peeled peppers and stock. Simmer 10 more minutes to thicken. When cool enough to do so, purée
The red pepper sauce can be served hot or cold. It will keep refrigerated for several days. It can also be frozen in meal-sized amounts for later use. It's bright red and pretty and tasty and will impress the heck out of your friends.

Ceci con Tonno -- Chick Peas and Tuna

2009-08-29T10:54:00.004-04:00

Before summer comes to an end, there are more opportunities for salad-centered suppers. Ceci (garbanzos) con tonno is my favorite variation on fagioli (cannellini beans) con tonno. Both are very simple and flexible dishes.

A purist would start with dried beans but it's much faster to start with a can of beans. Try different brands of canned beans until you find your favorite. Each brand is quite different. For this recipe, I prefer Bush's Garbanzos because they are crunchier and drier than other brands but you might prefer another brand.

Ingredients:

1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 can tuna, drained
Chopped celery, onions, bell pepper, sweet pepper or other vegetable to taste
Italian dressing

Procedure:

Toss the ingredients and and serve or let sit for the beans to soak up a bit of the dressing.

Easy peasy. Use whatever kind of tuna you prefer. Use any beans you like. Vary the veggies. Vary the dressing. This is an extremely easy main dish salad.

A Word About Rosemary

2009-08-25T11:21:00.003-04:00

Growing up, the ancient jar of dried rosemary came out once a year to flavor the creamed onions for Thanksgiving. Oh, we loved the flavor of those dry, prickly little pine needle pieces! Of course, we had no idea that fresh rosemary was so much better or so easy to have at hand. Fresh rosemary is actually soft! Not at all like eating pine needles!

This, I learned from my dear friend, Jaylyn. Jaylyn, a great cook who serves dinner for 12 at the drop of a hat, has had a rosemary shrub-let growing in her Boston kitchen window for years. This way she can grab a fresh spring whenever she needs one. Here in South Carolina, I have my pot of rosemary out on the front steps year-round.

It's as easy to grow as a cheap shrub. Give it occasional water and its happy. If you live far enough south to leave it outside, you may not even need to water it. Nothing beats being able to pop outside and grab fresh rosemary whenever I want it.

Now, if only dill and basil were that easy ...

Slow Cooked Salmon for a Busy Weeknight

2009-08-24T22:02:00.012-04:00

During the semester, I teach online several times a week at dinner time. Bill works a more normal schedule. He can't wait until I'm done to eat or he's up too late. This makes it difficult to cycle enough fish into weekday meals. I'm always on the hunt for ways to have fish ready for him and waiting for me. So, with a bit of hunting on the web, I found the solution: bake frozen salmon slowly!

Ingredients:

Frozen salmon fillets for two, partially thawed if they need to be cut to fit the baking dish
1 large Vidalia (sweet) onion, thinly sliced
3-4 sprigs rosemary
1/4 cup fig balsamic sauce*
oil to grease the baking dish
salt and pepper

*You might substitute for the fig balsamic sauce:

cranberry sauce cut with some balsamic vinegar
a flavored mustard
pesto
red pepper coulis
olive tapenade
or anything else that strikes your fancy

Procedure:

Oil the inside of a covered baking dish
Line the dish with half the sliced onion
Lay the salmon on top of the onion
Salt and pepper the fish
Lay the rosemary on the fish
Cover with the rest of the onion and the sauce. To more heavily flavor the salmon, put the sauce directly on the salmon and the onion on the very top.
Cover and bake in a 225°F oven for about 1 hour.

The salmon is well done but still moist. I wouldn't cook fresh salmon this way but it's a great way to cook frozen salmon that doesn't need watching at all while it cooks.

Honey Lemon Chicken with Yogurt and Cucumber Salad

2009-08-18T10:39:00.008-04:00

This is a vaguely Eastern Mediterranean meal and a fine way to use some pre-cooked chicken. It has three parts: lemon zest rice, lemon-honey chicken, and yogurt-cucumber salad. The rice is aromatic, the chicken is sweet, and the salad has a kick from raw garlic.

Ingredients for two servings:

8 oz. pre-cooked chicken
1/2-2/3 cup rice
Juice and zest a lemon
2-3 Tbl. honey
1-2 tsp. cumin
1 cucumber, seeds removed and sliced
1 small container plain yogurt (fat free okay)
1 Tbl. fresh dill, chopped fine
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt & white pepper
water or chicken broth to cook the rice

Procedure:

Rinse the rice in a colander with running water and set aside, covered with water to soak for 10 minutes
Zest the lemon and set aside
Squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl big enough to hold the chicken.
Add honey and cumin to the lemon juice and stir.
Adjust the lemon juice : honey : cumin proportions to balance the flavors.
Toss the chicken in the mixture and set aside
Pare, seed and slice the cucumber
Toss the cucumber with the yogurt, minced garlic, dill, salt and white pepper. Set aside to meld the flavors.
Rinse the rice one more time, drain and cover with water or chicken broth so that the liquid is about 1/4 inch above the rice.
Cover and bring the rice to a boil and then reduce to low and let simmer about 10 minutes, until the liquid disappears.
Turn off the heat but keep covered and let steam until the rice is done, about 10 minutes.
Warm the sauced chicken in the microwave.
To serve, pile rice in center of plate, spread chicken over the rice, and spoon the cucumber salad around it.

Enjoy!

Caesar salad with Crisp Shredded Pork

2009-08-17T19:38:00.005-04:00

This is something different to do with shredded pork, something that doesn't involve any barbecue sauce. Imagine that!

This has three basic ingredients:

Shredded pork
Romaine lettuce
Caesar salad dressing

Procedure:

Fry the shredded pork in a dry fry pan. Add a little olive oil if you must but the object is to make the pork a bit crispy. Watch it carefully so it doesn't burn and stop before it is all crisp; leave some soft and juicy.
Cut the romaine leaves into crosswise strips
Toss the hot pork, romaine, and dressing.

That's it. Now, if you, like me, don't happen to have Caesar dressing in your fridge, you can create a reasonable substitute by cutting mayonnaise with bottled Italian dressing and adding some good grated cheese. Tonight's salad dressing included:

Mayonnaise
Bottled red wine vinegar and olive oil dressing
Some jarred basil pesto
Freshly grated Asiago cheese

Easy & yummy!

Chicken Leg Quarters: True or False Economy?

2009-08-16T20:50:00.003-04:00

If 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters yields 3 pounds of meat (skin, bones & fat removed), is it as economical as it seems?

The 10 pounds of chicken was 59¢ a pound or $5.90 for the bag of leg quarters. So that means the resulting 3 pounds of chicken meat was actually $1.97 a pound cooked.

Now, let's see how that compares to the cost of boneless white meat chicken. Boneless skinless chicken breasts lose 1/4 to 1/3 their weight depending on how they are cooked. So, pound for pound, they would need to be somewhere between $1.32 and $1.48 a pound to equal 59¢ a pound leg quarters.

But is this comparing apples and oranges? Probably. White meat is healthier for you. Dark meat makes tastier salads and soups. Some recipes only work with one or the other so I will always be buying both. Still in all, I feel better about the time and mess of skinning and boning all those leg quarters if they really are cheaper per pound than boneless skinless breasts would be.

Pulled Pork & Pulled Chicken at the Same Time

2009-08-13T19:03:00.009-04:00

Another semester of teaching at supper time is fast upon us so it's very fortuitous that lots of meat sales are going on. I had already bought a fresh roasting chicken at one store yesterday but today found both pork shoulder (Boston butt) and 10 pound bags of chicken legs on sale well less than a dollar a pound. In an attempt to save time and energy, both mine and the power company's, I decided to research slow-roasted chicken to see if I could cook it with the pork. Low and behold, 4 1/2 to 5 hours at 275°F works for both the pork and the chicken.
Ingredients for many meals worth of meat:

1 roasting chicken
1 pork shoulder roast (Boston butt)
1 cup of rubbing mix (made following your own whims)
1/2-3/4 cup cider vinegar, white wine, or other suitable acid
1 cup beef or chicken broth

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 275°F
Wash the chicken and remove whatever is in the cavity
Rub both the pork butt and the chicken all over with the rubbing mix. Throw some rubbing mix inside the chicken.
Put the pork butt in a Dutch oven and cover
Put the chicken breast side up in a roasting pan
Roast the chicken and the pork for one hour
Remove chicken and pork from the oven, flip the chicken and pour the vinegar and water around the pork
Cover the pork and put them both in the oven for another hour
Every hour, take them out and flip both the pork and the chicken over. Baste the chicken inside and out with the pan fat.
At about 4 1/2 hours check the chicken to see if it is done. You don't want it to get too dry.
Sometime between 4 1/2 and 5 hours, remove both the chicken and the pork from the oven and let cool.
When cool enough to handle but not cold, shred the chicken and the pork and discard fat, bones, skin, etc. It is easier to separate the meat and the fat while they are still quite warm.
Divide into meal size amounts and freeze.

So, this afternoon, while I was on the computer, 10 meals worth of meat got cooked! And for less than $1 meal for two.

Although famous barbecue experts live and die by their secret formulas for the spices they rub on their meats, exactitude is less important when you are not smoking things and especially when you are essentially braising the pork.

To make a rubbing mix, in the bowl of a food processor, dump

brown sugar
garlic powder
onion powder
paprika (smoked if you have it)
salt
pepper (of whichever type you prefer)
dry mustard
cumin
and whatever else strikes your fancy

Whir the mixture to thoroughly mix it and break up any lumps. Rub.

This time I "leaned heavy" on the brown sugar and added some lemon pepper that is too lemony to use straight. It added a sweet brightness to the meat this time. Another time I might go more toward aromatics like cloves and coriander.

You can purchase pre-mixed rubbing spices but you can be more liberal in your application with homemade because you can amass larger quantities of some of the less expensive spices like garlic powder and onion powder. Also, your home mix is likely to be less salty.

Enjoy! Now, let's think of something interesting to do with that 10 lb. bag of leg quarters!

Pecan "Crusted" Haddock Nuggets

2009-08-11T21:12:00.012-04:00

These might better be called pecan "mushted" haddock. Tasty but not as intended. So, to save you all from trying this method:

Preheat oven to 400°
Optionally, toss quartered mushrooms in a bit of salad dressing and start them to roasting while the oven preheats and you prepare the fish.
Cut still frozen haddock loins into chunks.
Dip the haddock into salad dressing that has had oil added to it.
Roll the dipped haddock pieces in pecans, cornmeal, salt and pepper that have been whirred in the food processor.
Put them in the pan next to the mushrooms and roast 16 minutes.
While the fish is cooking, make a green salad lightly dressed with the same dressing.
Arrange it all nicely on a plate and sigh because the fish, though done and tasty, is not the least bit crusty.
Go back to the drawing board.

This tasted fine but was just too mushy. I gathered information from the web before trying this like a good doobee but it just didn't work as intended.

I read an exposé once that said many cookbooks are published without anyone ever really testing the recipes. I believe it. Many's the time I've tried something that did not work at all. Sometimes, of course, it's a lack of skill on my end but oftentimes it's that the temperatures and times given just do not work. So, if you try something and it fails miserably, sometimes it is the recipe because you, not the recipe's author, may be the first one to actually try it! Don't despair.

And if you like mushy pecan coating on haddock, this is the recipe for you!

Easy Hamburgers & Sweet Potato Oven Fries Redux

2009-08-09T19:52:00.011-04:00

This time with pictures & just salt & pepper on the "fries." We served them with sweet gherkins and some tasty honey-dill mustard. Preheat an iron grill pan in a 400°F oven.
Peel the sweet potatoes & cut into french fry size.
Toss the potato pieces in 2 Tbl. olive oil and season as desired. Lay in a single layer on a roasting pan. Roast in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Flip the potatoes and return to oven.
Put the hamburgers on the grill pan, only oiling the pan if you are using very low fat burgers. Roast in the over for 8-10 minutes. Flip the burgers and roast another 6-8 minutes and check for doneness. Continue to cook until they reach the desired doneness. The USDA recommends 160°F for ground beef but remove the burgers from the oven at a slightly lower temperature because the temperature will continue to rise. When the burgers are done, the potatoes will be done, too.

The previous post on hamburgers and sweet potato fries is here.

Fig Balsamic Sauce

2009-08-08T19:23:00.009-04:00

My next door neighbor, the one who keeps me supplied with basil, offered me some fresh figs from the tree at her family farm. They were fresh and ripe and ready to be made into a sauce. Figs with balsamic vinegar is an italian classic. This sauce starts with that idea and some inspiration from epicurean.com, among others.
The aim is small containers of sauce that can be stored in the freezer and taken out to perk up a chicken breast or pork chop with some fruity goodness. It will be a good sauce for fruits, vegetables and salads, too. Drizzle some over chunks of good parmesan for a sumptuous appetizer or as part of a cheese course.

I imagine you could do this with dried figs, rehydrated with hot water, if fresh figs are not at hand. How about a sliced strawberry with a little stream of this and a tiny glass of champagne as an amuse-bouche? Over a lychee? Cauliflower! I'm salivating here!

Ingredients: 1 cup fresh figs, stemmed and quartered 1 sweet onion, roughly chopped needles from 2 sprigs rosemary 6-8 whole cloves 2 Tbl. olive oil 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 1/2 cup honey
Procedure: In a non-reactive saucepan, sweat the onion, rosemary and cloves in the olive oil over low heat until the onions are soft but not colored. Add the figs, vinegar and honey and bring to a simmer.
Let simmer on medium low for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and let the mixture steep for 20 to 30 minutes.
Whir briefly with an immersion blender or in the food processor and strain through a screen to remove the biggest pieces of skin, rosemary and cloves.
Using a rubber spatula, stir the sauce against the screen until only the dry parts are left behind.
I used a turkey baster to squirt the resulting sauce into 2 oz. containers I picked up at a party store, filling 12 containers with enough sauce left over for the cook, me, to have over some fruit before I tackle cleaning up.

Chicken and Rice with Carrots, Mushrooms, and Dill Yogurt Sauce

2009-08-06T19:10:00.013-04:00

This is a great follow-up meal to the Dilly Chicken and Potato Salad we had the other night because it uses up the extra cooked chicken and the leftover dill and yogurt. It takes its inspiration from recipes for Turkish rice and for a Turkish carrot, dill and yogurt salad.
Ingredients (amounts can be adjusted easily):

1 pre-cooked white meat chicken fillet, cut in bite-sized pieces
1 finely minced shallot
8-12 sliced mushrooms
3-4 carrots, sliced
1 cup white rice
1 to 1 1/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup plain yogurt
several sprigs fresh dill, finely minced
2 cloves garlic
2 Tbl. olive oil
salt and white pepper

Procedure:

Put the rice in a colander and rinse with cold water. Then put the colander in a deep bowl and fill with hot tap water to cover the rice. Let this soak while you cut the mushrooms and shallots.
In a pan with a lid, heat the olive oil and sauté the shallots and mushrooms for a few minutes.
While the shallots and mushrooms are cooking, slice the carrots and cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
Rinse the rice once more with cold water.
Add the chicken, carrots, rice and chicken broth to the pan and stir.
Cover and as soon as it comes to a boil, turn it down to simmer. The rice will take less time than usual to cook because it has already soaked up a lot of water, perhaps a little as 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it.
While the mixture is cooking, finely mince the dill and the garlic.
Stir the dill, garlic, salt and white pepper into the yogurt.

When the rice is done, move the pan off the heat and let the steam continue to fluff the rice for about 5 minutes. Serve the rice mixture with a dollop of yogurt sauce on top.

Play with the proportions to fit your druthers. Next time I'll probably use less rice and more yogurt. We really liked the yogurt sauce!

10 Pounds of Chicken Legs @ 59¢/lb.!

2009-08-05T21:21:00.008-04:00

Every once in awhile the Piggly Wiggly (don't you love that name for a grocery store chain!) has ridiculous sales in the meat department! This week it was big bags of fresh chicken leg quarters. You can get lots of meals and lots of variety from such a haul!

To cook that amount of chicken takes several roasting or lasagna pans. When I wash the chicken parts I do try to remove the biggest globs of fat so I can just set the chicken quarters on the floor of the pans. Don't crowd the leg quarters.

Washed, trimmed of fat, with salt and pepper on them, the quarters bake up tasty and moist at 400°F for 45-60 minutes. Check the internal temperature of the thighs to assure the chicken is fully cooked. The USDA recommends cooking chicken until it reaches 165°F.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, it's time to "disassemble" it. I sort it into three piles:

bones headed to the stock pot,
skin & fat headed to the trash, and
meat headed to the freezer in meal-sized zipper bags.

Chicken dark meat is too strong for some folks when eaten plain but it holds up well in soup and as pulled chicken in barbecue sauce. And it makes a great base for chicken salad sandwiches.

Oven Grilled Bone-In Pork Chops

2009-08-04T19:17:00.003-04:00

I'm becoming more and more enamored of my enameled cast iron grill pan. It's great for quickly cooking chops and as described in a previous post, hamburgers. A lightly oiled, pre-heated grill pan allows you to cook meat without much preparation work.

To oven grill bone-in pork chops:

Preheat a grill pan in a 450°F oven.
Wash the chop to remove any "bone saw dust" and pat dry.
Season the pork chops on both sides. Simply salt & freshly ground pepper work wonders.
Lightly brush the hot pan with olive oil.
Put the chops on the hot grill pan and return to the oven for 5-8 minutes.
Turn the chops over and return for another 5-8 minutes.

At 5 minutes per side the pork may not be fully cooked near the bone. At 8 minutes a side, it may be ever-so-slightly over cooked. The thickness of the chops affects the time needed. Testing the chop with an instant read thermometer can help you decide how long to cook the chops.

The National Pork Board tells us that trichinosis is not the problem it was when my mother learned to cook pork. Trichina is killed at 137°F. Both they and the USDA recommend cooking pork chops to an internal temperature of 160°F to kill the other nasties that might be lurking. On the other hand, the FDA's HACCP (Hazard Assessment Critical Control Point) for pork is 145°F for 10 seconds.

This is where individual choice comes in. The lower temperature is juicier, the higher temperature is safer. Only you can determine your "RBCP" (risk-benefit comfort point).

Dilly Chicken & Potato Salad the Easy Way

2009-08-04T01:16:00.003-04:00

What cooking method will keep boneless chicken breast from getting too dry and "boiled" potato from getting too mushy? Steaming!

We don't steam things much anymore and often use the microwave instead but microwaving boneless chicken breast often results in something raw in the middle and leathery on the ends. Microwaving a potato removes a good deal of its structural integrity.

For this meal, I steamed both chicken and potato in the same pot for the same amount of time, let them cool, and made a dill-laced main dish salad with moist, not chewy, chicken and potatoes that held together when I stirred in the dressing. Bill said, "You should do this one again!"

Ingredients for two meal-sized servings:

1 boneless chicken breast fillet
1 large new potato
1 cucumber
2 Tbl. chopped fresh dill (or one tsp. dry dill)
3 Tbl. honey mustard dressing
3 Tbl. plain yogurt
salt & pepper to taste

Procedure:

Cube the potato.
Optionally, cut the chicken fillet in half or thirds to fit better in the steamer.
Place the chicken and potato pieces in a steamer over water.
Bring the water to a boil and then simmer until the chicken has lost all signs of pink or has reached an internal temperature of 165°F and the potatoes yield to a fork but are not yet mushy.
Remove the potatoes & chicken from the pan and cool in the refrigerator.
Peel, scoop out the seeds, and cut the cucumber into bite sized pieces.
Finely chop the fresh dill.
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and chill.

How long it takes to steam the chicken and potatoes will vary with the size of the pieces. I used fairly large chicken breasts cut in thirds and largish pieces of potato and cooked them for 20 minutes. After the first ten minutes I checked the temperature of the chicken and made sure there was enough water not to worry. You don't want your steamer to boil dry. You may ruin your pot as well as your meal!

Scooping the seeds out of the cucumber serves two purposes. It prevents the cuke from watering down the dressing and it lessens the after dinner eructations (although the latter may just be wishful thinking). Alternatively, use a "burpless" cucumber.

I threw an extra chicken fillet in the steamer so I now have the chicken pre-cooked for another meal. I sense chicken pasta salad in our not-so-distant future!

Return to Gnocchi: The Continuing Search for Pillowy Dumplings

2009-07-30T14:42:00.059-04:00

Those of you who have been following my efforts to make gnocchi know that my last attempt at reaching gnocchi nirvana was more like gnocchi meets scrambled eggs. Not that I don't like something that resembles a cheese omelette but not exactly what I had in mind. So, here we go again, this time with pictures to document the attempt.

And this time, we got it right! Soft, melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi!

Microwave 1/2 gallon of whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized!) for 15 minutes.
If there is evidence of boiling, remove skin from the top. It will easily stick to a spoon. Don't try to get it all.
Pour in 1/3 cup vinegar, in this case cider vinegar. Note, the color of the vinegar will affect the color of the curds. It will start to curdle. These pictures are after about 15 minutes.
Let it sit to curdle. If after an hour or so, the whey is still white like milk, give it a stir to redistribute the vinegar and another 3 minutes in the microwave to bring it back up to temperature. Do not microwave too long at this stage or your cheese may become rubbery.
It is ready for the next step when it is cool enough to handle and the whey looks like chicken broth.
For draining, I use a screen strainer in a collander in a bowl. I don't do this directly over the sink because I don't want to risk losing the cheese.
Periodically tilt the bowl over the sink to get rid of the whey. Save the whey if you have a use for it.
Tilt the strainer, holding the cheese with a spoon to get all the separated whey out. In the past, I used muslin instead of the screen strainer and wrung the ball of cheese out. This made it too dry and rubbery. Your cheese should resemble ricotta.
Transfer the cheese to a dry bowl and stir about 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 egg.
Sift and stir in 1 cup of flour about one quarter at a time.
The dough you will end up with is quite sticky.
To form the gnocchi, use two teaspoons, a bowl of sifted flour, and something to make grooves in the gnocchi. I use the back of a tile. Even poking your thumb in a gnocchi will give it someplace for sauce to cling so don't let shaping them intimidate you.
Drop dough by spoonful into the flour and sweep flour on top of it. Then shake off the excess flour and roll into a rough ball. This picture shows, among other things how hard it is to take a picture with one hand!
Flatten the resulting ball on your grooved surface. Then lift it on one edge to roll it off the grooves.
Gently pick up the gnocchi by its ends and they will flatten as you transfer the gnocchi to a lined cookie sheet.
When the gnocchi are frozen they can be moved to plastic bags or other storage container. Keep the gnocchi frozen until you are ready to cook them.
To cook the gnocchi, place them in gently boiling water and when they float move them to the sauce of your choice. Allow the gnocchi to continue to cook in the sauce for another 3-5 minutes. Here, the gnocchi are shown in homemade pesto with mushrooms, summer squash, a minced shallot, and flat-leaf parsley.

Tweaking the Easiest Hamburger Meal

2009-07-30T11:33:00.004-04:00

After many years of making pan-cooked hamburgers that were dry, hard on the outside, too raw in the middle, I am so happy to discover oven grilled hamburgers! The first time I tried them the result was exactly medium burgers, no pink but still juicy. This time I aimed for the rare side of medium with just a blush of pink. Nailed it.

Procedure:

Place ridged grill pan in oven and preheat to 450°
Lightly brush hot grill pan with oil to prevent sticking
Place 3/4 inch thick burgers on pan and return to oven for ten minutes
Flip burgers and return to oven for another 6 minutes

In the same time it takes to roast the burgers, you can roast some vegetables. Here's what we had as our side dish:

Ingredients:

Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
Mushrooms, stems trimmed and halved if largish -- make them about the size of the sprout halves
Dried herb mix, salt & pepper, e.g. McCormick Italian Seasoning, ground sea salt, and Alessi Lemon Pepper.
Olive oil

Procedure:

Place trimmed and halved veggies in a single layer on a broiling pan, roasting pan, or cookie sheet with sides.
"Droozle" a bit of olive oil over the veggies
Sprinkle on the herbs, salt & pepper
Stir to coat the veggies and the bottom of the pan -- I use my hands for this
Roast in a pre-heated 450° oven 10 minutes
Stir and roast another 6 minutes

This make such an easy supper!! In thirty minutes or less,

Turn the oven on and put the grill pan in.
Prepare the veggies.
When the oven is at temperature, put the veggies in, brush oil on the hot grill pan and add the burgers
Leave alone in the oven for 10 minutes
Flip the burgers & stir the veggies
Leave alone in the oven for 6 minutes
Supper!!

What could be simpler?

The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken by Laura Schenone

2009-07-23T12:32:00.007-04:00

This is the first of a series of postings describing books with food as a central theme. Foodie reading is a special treat. The ads for the new movie, "Julie & Julia," remind me how much I enjoyed Julia Child's posthumously published My Life in France, which I will blog about another day.

I often have a foodie non-fiction book in the car for those times when a little reading is in order. Time spent waiting for doctors is dramatically shortened by escaping into tales from the "Kitchen Sisters" about hidden kitchens. China and Glass in America, 1880-1980, which was published to complement the Dallas Museum of Art exhibit "Table Top to TV Tray," is a coffee table book too big to read in bed but great for short stints in a comfortable chair.

I recently finished reading The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken by Laura Schenone. Part an investigation into the making of authentic Genoese ravioli, part travelogue, part self-reflection, it's a wonderful book. I enjoyed it so much I'm now reading her A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove. She's made a YouTube video that demonstrates the making of the ravioli. Watch it to bring life the rhythm of rolling the pasta and the sound of the dough slapping the table.

Full citation: Laura Schenone. The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: a Search for Food and Family. 1st ed. (New York: Norton, 2008) 343 p. ISBN10: 0393061469 ISBN13: 9780393061468

Hamburgers & Sweet Potato "Fries" in the Oven

2009-07-22T01:13:00.007-04:00

Here's a meal that takes very little prep time and only thirty minutes in the oven. Burgers and fries are not exactly "good for you" but letting the burgers grill up out of the grease and making sweet potato fries in the oven is a healthier version.

I used Za'atar to flavor the fries. Za'atar is a variable mixture of herbs, often with thyme as a base, used in Middle-Eastern cooking. I've spoken before about buying spices while on vacation. I got this bag of Za'atar at a Lebanese grocery store while visiting friends in Los Angeles.

Ingredients:

Sweet potato
Ground beef shaped into hamburgers about 1 inch thick
Za'atar or other herb mix for the potatoes
Salt
Olive oil

Determine amounts by how many servings you want. For two servings I used one large sweet potato and two four-ounce burgers.

Procedure:

Place an iron grill pan in the oven if you have one (If you don't have an iron grill pan, forego preheating the pan and use a broiling pan with a rack.)
Turn on the oven and preheat to 400°
Peeled the sweet potato and cut into french-fry shaped pieces about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick
Toss the sweet potato in olive oil to coat.
Toss the coated potatoes with Za'atar and salt to taste
Place the potatoes in a single layer on a baking pan
When the oven is up to heat, cook the potatoes for 10 minutes
By this time your grill pan should be very hot. Use a barbecue brush to "paint" the grill pan (or rack) with olive oil to prevent sticking.
Place the hamburger on the oiled grill pan or rack and cook in the oven for 10 minutes.
Flip the burgers and the potatoes.
Cook another 10 minutes (30 minutes total for the potatoes, 20 minutes for the burgers)

It this point, the burgers will be medium well-done and the potatoes will be soft and slightly carmelized. We put some honey dill mustard on the burgers. Yum.

Haddock & New Potato Casserole with Pesto

2009-07-21T12:31:00.004-04:00

On teaching nights, Bill comes through the door just as I am setting up the web cam and logging in for live sessions with the students. The simplest suppers for these nights involved me hollering toward the front hall as he arrives, "Nuke some hot dogs and a bag of veggies."

I'm ever on the hunt for suppers that I can prepare ahead of time so he can grab his helping while I'm explaining the bibliographic universe. My helping will be sitting somewhere ready to warm up when I come stumbling offline. Hardest has been figuring out ways to get fish (other than canned tuna and salmon) into teaching night rotation.

Last night's effort worked out pretty well. It was a firm, warm casserole wherein the haddock was mild and tasty. I do love a good Maritimes sea food chowder so I started with fish, potatoes, and evaporated milk.

Ingredients for two large servings:

2 servings partially thawed haddock loins or other strong fish
1 medium onion, a sweet Vidalia works well here
2 small servings new potatoes
1 can fat free evaporated milk
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup jarred pesto
salt and lemon pepper

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350°
Use a "big half" of the pesto to grease the inside of a shallow baking dish
Add the bread crumbs to the greased dish and shake to coat the sides, spreading the excess bread crumbs to cover the bottom with a shallow layer of bread crumbs and pesto.
Slice the partially thawed fish into 1/2 inch thick pieces and layer on top of the bread crumbs.
Sprinkle with salt and lemon pepper.
Cut in half and thinly slice the onion. Layer it on top of the fish.
Thinly slice the new potatoes. Layer these on top of the onions.
Gently pour in the evaporated milk.
Using a brush or your fingers, coat the potato slices with the remaining pesto.
Bake about 1 hour or until the potatoes are done.

The evaporated milk, with the help of the bread crumbs, turns in to a kind of custard. The fish is very mild. The onions are soft. And the potato slices are are a wonderful topping.

I told Bill what time to turn off the oven. He ate while I bellowed to my unseen online students. My serving was sitting in the still warm oven when I finished class ready to be vacuumed off the plate. Yummy.

Tonight is not a teaching night. I think it's a good time for hamburgers and other food that requires attention.

Chasing Fluffy Gnocchi

2009-07-18T15:15:00.007-04:00

Each batch of gnocchi comes out looking a bit better and they really don't take very long to make, even making cheese from scratch. And with each batch of cheese I make, even that becomes easier.

Oh, drat. We just ate them. They disintegrated a bit in the water and then they felt grainy like an overcooked scrambled egg. Blech.

Today's variation on the hunt for the fluffiest gnocchi tries to use absolutely as little flour as possible, partly because I am going to share these with a friend who is a carb phobe and partly because I'm guessing that the less flour in them the fluffier they will be.

I use the grooved back of a ceramic tile for getting the grooves on the gnocchi. My father bought the tiles many years ago as pizza stones in the oven. Anything with grooves will do.

So, from start to finish, here 'tis.

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon skim milk (not ultra-pasteurized)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 egg (and a 2nd egg if needed)
1 oz. finely grated parmesan
salt, white pepper & freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup flour (most of this will be discarded at end)

Procedures:

Pour the milk into a large microwaveable container
Microwave the milk on high for about 15 minutes until it is very hot but not boiling over
Pour the vinegar into the milk and let sit 30 minutes
Reheat in the microwave on high for another 5 minutes
Let sit another 30 minutes or until cool enough to handle -- at this point the milk should have separated into curds and whey
Pour the mixture into a colander lined with muslin or a few layers of cheese cloth and let drain.
Wring the cheese in the cloth until it is quite dry.
Whir the homemade cheese, parmesan, egg and seasonings in the food processor. If the mixture remains in crumbs, add a second egg. The mixture should be stiff enough to leave the sides of the blender and form a lump.
Sift the flour into a small bowl for rolling the gnocchi.
Spoon up enough dough to make a 3/4 inch ball and drop it into the flour.
Roll the dough in the palms of your hand to make a ball, shaking off the excess flour.
Place the ball of dough on your grooved instrument (tile, fork, etc.) and flatten the ball a bit.
The gnoccho should now be shaped somewhat like a raw cookie that has been flatted with a fork, flat side up. Pick up one edge of it and roll it on itself.
Place each gnoccho on a lined cookie sheet and freeze.
When the gnocchi are completely frozen, move them to a plastic bag.

To cook the gnocchi, boil them in plenty of water just until they float. Then place them in the sauce of your choice and let them finish cooking a little in the sauce.

This batch made 28 medium large gnocchi. If you use low fat or whole milk you will have more cheese and therefore more gnocchi.

I will let you know when we eat this if we've finally accomplished the ethereally light gnocchi I've read about but never really experienced, truth be told ...

In a word, NO.

Mashed Cauliflower: Soft White Food but Healthy

2009-07-18T00:40:00.005-04:00

I love soft white food. Grits with butter and cheese. Mashed potatoes made with cream and topped with butter. Fettucini alfredo. Creme brulee. The list goes on. But I do attempt to keep my circumference less than my height so healthier soft white food is welcome, too.

Mashed cauliflower and light Laughing Cow cheese wedges (any flavor) come to the rescue. A whole head of cauliflower only has about 100 calories, depending on size. Three Laughing Cow light wedges have only have 35 calories each. A quarter cup of skim milk is only about 20 calories. With a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg these make a large bowl of yummy creaminess with about 225 calories in the whole bowl! If, like me, you like a touch of sweetness in your veggies, add about a teaspoon of brown sugar. A rounded teaspoon of brown sugar only adds about 20 calories.

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower, green leaves and central stem removed
1/4 cup milk
3 wedges light Laughing Cow cheese
salt, pepper & nutmeg to taste
optionally 1 rounded teaspoon brown sugar

Procedure:

Roughly chop the cauliflower and place in a microwave-safe bowl
Sprinkle a little bit of water on the cauliflower to provide some steam
Cover and microwave until soft, approximately 5-6 minutes
Add the milk and cheese and mash or whir with a stick blender.
Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg & sugar (if desired) to taste.
If necessary, heat briefly in the microwave to bring back to serving temperature.

Bill and I find we can polish off a whole head of cauliflower between us served this way. The other night, the cauliflower accompanied some salmon patties.

Good Neighbors Make Good Pesto

2009-07-17T18:28:00.004-04:00

I live in a row of town houses where the sun shines brightly on the front steps all afternoon. My next door neighbor is much better about watering plants than I am so she raises a crop of basil out front each summer. She doesn't cook much. I make the pesto and keep us both supplied. It's a great partnership.

Traditionally, pesto is basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, and olive oil. I also add a little salt and pepper. This works out okay for frozen basil but I'm not sure what effect the salt would have on pesto stored at refrigerator temps.

Thanks to adventurous chefs, the definition of pesto has expanded to include many variations on the theme. Right now my freezer has both traditional pesto and a spinach/parsley variation.

I also use pesto in a tube when I just need a small squit. My refrigerator door usually has a partially squeezed tube of Amore Pesto Paste (and a variety of other Amore tubes). I used to have to hunt for it but now it's easy to find in grocery stores. When fresh pesto isn't around, Classico jarred pesto works well, too.

But no pre-packaged pesto compares to home made fresh pesto. Frozen home made pesto stays bright in flavor and color for a few months if well packed.

Ingredients (Measurements for pesto are all "to taste":

Fresh basil leaves -- freshly picked is noticeably better than produce section basil.
Pine nuts
Parmesan cheese
Several cloves of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground sea salt & black pepper (optional)

Procedure:

Cut the parmesan in cubes and then whir in the food processor until evenly cut into small granules of cheese. Place the cheese in a bowl large enough to hold all the pesto.
Wash the basil well and keep only the fresh, bright leaves.
Smash and peel the garlic cloves, removing the hard ends if needed.
Whir the basil, garlic cloves and pine nuts in the food processor with just enough oil to keep things moving. You may need to do this in batches.
Add this slurry to the cheese and mix well, adding olive oil as needed to make a wet paste.
Add salt and pepper if desired.
Divide the pesto into meal-sized portions to freeze and store.

There are a variety of freezing/storage options. You can make pesto cubes in ice cube trays and then wrap each cube and store in plastic bags. You can use small disposable plastic food storage containers. My latest method involves small (bathroom sized) disposable plastic cups and clear plastic wrap. The advantage of these small cups is that a small amount of hot water on the outside and the pesto slips right out into the pan for cooking. The lidded plastic cups restaurants use for dressing would be great.

Try these variations for pesto (olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper are a constant):

baby spinach, flat leaf parsley, romano, and nutmeg (no nuts)
cilantro, a hard Spanish cheese like manchego, and pine nuts
Curly parsley, parmesan, and walnuts

Home made gnocchi tossed in home made pesto. Ahhhhh.

A produce guy told me the local commercial farmer's market sells basil to restaurants by the pound year round. I'm thinking this will need investigation when the front porch crop runs out.

Kneadless Pasta!!!

2009-07-10T11:42:00.002-04:00

I had a hankering for some fresh pasta but really didn't want to haul out the Kitchen Aid and didn't feel like hand kneading, so a quick search found a wonderful solution on The Second Pancake. What a great blog!

Their recipe involves just few pulses of the food processor and gathering the resulting particles of dough into a ball!

We're going to have fresh pasta more often around here thanx to Tim and The Second Pancake -- as soon as I find the missing crank for my pasta roller!

Chinese Dumplings - Jiǎozi - Gyōza

2009-07-06T17:13:00.005-04:00

A friend across the table had some pretty good looking potstickers on her plate the other day and this reminded me that we haven't had any Chinese dumplings in the freezer in a good long time. I had 1/2 a cabbage in the fridge and was headed to the grocery store anyway, so time to make gyoza!

Two fellow grad students, one from Taiwan, the other from Bangkok, taught me to make dumplings many years ago. We used to wait for very cold days so we could fill the back of a pick-up with trays of fresh dumplings to freeze. Like many filled dumplings from around the world, the filling is flexible. Lots of veggies not only add flavor but stretch the meat. We eat too much meat around here so this is not a bad idea.

Ingredients (amounts are flexible):

1/2 head of green cabbage, or a full head of nappa or bok choy
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch cilantro
a 2-inch knob of ginger root
4-6 cloves of garlic
1 pound ground pork (or chicken or turkey)
2-4 Tbl. soy sauce
About 100 wonton skins (usually found in the vegetable case in the grocery store)

You can use fewer wonton skins and make meatballs of part of the mixture by rolling balls of it in bread crumbs and frying.

Procedure:

Mince cabbage, green onions, cilantro, ginger root and garlic in batches in the food processor and dump in a large bowl.
Mix the vegetable mix, ground meat and soy sauce with your hands until well blended.
Place a spoonful of filling on each wonton skin and fold to seal.
Freeze flat on lined cookie sheets.

Note that I am not going to explain in detail how to fold these. That's because I am terrible at it. I dip my fingers in a bowl of water and wet two adjacent edges of the wonton. Then I fold it in half to make a triangle, smushing the air out and sealing the edges as best I can. Not a pretty sight. But the shape does not affect the taste so no need to shy from making them.

You can use a variety of different methods to cook these. Steam them. Boil them in chicken broth for wonton soup. Steam and then saute for pot stickers. If you are feeling very naughty, deep fry them.

Merging Quark & Gnocchi in Search of the Ultimate Melt-in-Your-Mouth Dumplings

2009-07-06T16:57:00.004-04:00

Now, tell the truth. How many of us have ever had gnocchi that truly melted in our mouths? I read of gnocchi that are "cloud-like pillows" and compare that vision to my tasty little dumplings. They're good ... but "cloud-like?" Hmmph. So I've been experimenting and I'm getting closer to gnocchi that truly melt in my mouth.

The closest I have come so far to "melt in my mouth" was a batch made with a balsamic vinegar/skim milk quark. I used the microwave to make the quark and rung it out until very dry. Then I used very little flour. They look like uncooked ginger snaps but they taste wonderful and do indeed melt in your mouth!

The next experiment was with whole milk quark soured with half rice vinegar and half lemon juice. Again, I used very little flour. The result is ever so slightly rubbery but not at all heavy.

So, the next gnocchi experiment will be with skim milk and white wine vinegar. I'm just guessing that it is the fat content in the milk that is causing the rubberiness.

Each batch took 1/2 gallon milk, about 2/3 cup acid, one egg, scant 1 cup sifted flour stirred in, and flour for dropping the pieces in to roll.

Since the dough is very wet, I don't use the "roll-a-rope" method. Instead, I drop the dough by the spoonful into the bowl of flour. Then I pick up the dollop and roll it into a ball. Finally, I shape it and place it on a lined cookie sheet to freeze.

Gnocchi is Quick to Make in Small Amounts

2009-06-22T10:15:00.006-04:00

As I've continued trolling the web for gnocchi info, I've seen lots of recipes that talk about setting aside hours for making them. And yes, if you intend to stock your freezer with many meals worth it can take a good while, just like making lots of Christmas cookies. But if you keep the batch small, it is suitably quick for an after-work supper. Starting with just one large potato in the microwave is the trick. I started at 5 and we had sweet potato gnocchi sauced and on the plate in a leisurely hour and a half -- including sitting, cooling and cooking times.

Ingredients for the gnocchi:

1 large sweet potato, peeled and sliced
1 egg
flour in about equal proportion to the amount of sweet potato when mashed
Salt, white pepper, and nutmeg (freshly ground)

Procedure (I do the first five steps all in the same bowl):

Place the peeled and sliced sweet potato in a covered dish and microwave until mashable (approximately 6-8 minutes). Do not add water.
Gently mash the sweet potatoes with a fork or hand masher. Use a potato ricer if you have one.
Let the mashed potato cool enough so that it will not cook the egg (20 minutes or so).
Add the egg, salt pepper and nutmeg and mix well with a fork. DO NOT use an electric mixer or a blender. The more you "beat up" the potatoes, the more flour they will need to form gnocchi.
Using a sifter, start adding flour to the potato about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Use as little flour as possible to make a sticky ball that you can remove from the bowl.
Divide the ball of dough in four and chill for 20-30 minutes to stiffen a bit.
Remove a quarter of the dough and, using as little flour as possible, make 3/4 inch balls and shape each of these as desired. I roll them across the grooves on the bottom of an oven tile I use for cooking pizza. I've been known to "stamp" them with the tenderizing end of a meat hammer. Use your imagination. A simple thumb dent works, too.
Place the gnocchi on a plate or cookie sheet leaving room between them. Either cook immediately or freeze.

Sweet potato gnocchi have a wonderfully mild taste with a hint of sweetness. One large sweet potato resulted in 50 good-sized gnocchi (4-6 servings depending on whether they are the main ingredient in supper).

To make sauced gnocchi for supper:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil the gnocchi until they float.
In a large pan with a cover, lightly saute chopped vegetables in olive oil.
Add flavorings such a jarred pesto or tapenade, chopped garlic, etc.
Finish the veggie sauce with a knob of butter if desired.
Add the cooked gnocchi to the veggie sauce and stir.
Cover and let simmer slowly for about 10 minutes to assure that the gnocchi lose their "flour taste."
Serve with freshly grated cheese.

Last night it was sliced mushrooms, diced red pepper, and chopped baby romaine that was starting to wilt. Use whatever needs to be taken out of your veggie drawer. The cheese was Asiago. Yummy.

Kielbasa & Leeks in Mustard Cream

2009-06-06T19:09:00.004-04:00

This tastes a good bit richer than it is while using skim milk and low-fat turkey kielbasa. Sometimes the low-fat sausages lack a bit of oomp. This recipe compensates for that by adding a creamy sauce. This isn't low fat but it's lower than it could be and not so rich as to be heavy.

This dish will vary greatly depending on your choice of mustard and starch. The combination of the onion-y sweetness of the leeks with a smooth honey mustard is yummy. We used some homemade potato gnocchi for the starch.

Ingredients (for two servings):

2 servings of kielbasa, e.g. 1/2 a package of low fat turkey keilbasa, sliced into disks
2 leaks, white & light green parts only, halved sliced and washed
1-2 Tbl. butter or margarine
1-2 Tbl. olive oil
1-3 Tbl. mustard -- adjust according to the strength of the mustard
1/4 cup (scant) milk
1-2 oz. grated parmesan cheese
2 servings starch (cooked gnocchi, potato, or pasta)

Procedure:

Melt the butter or margarine and olive oil in a large skillet until sizzling.
Sauté the leeks and kielbasa until the leeks are soft.
Stir the mustard and milk into the leeks and kielbasa to make a sauce and cook to thicken.
Stir in the cooked starch to coat with the sauce
Gently stir in the grated cheese and serve.

That's it. From fridge to plate in only a few minutes.

Quark is Not Just a Subatomic Particle

2009-06-05T11:07:00.005-04:00

The FreeDictionary has two definitions for "quark." The first: "Any of a group of six elementary particles having electric charges of a magnitude one-third or two-thirds that of the electron, regarded as constituents of all hadrons." The second: "A soft creamy acid-cured cheese of central Europe made from whole milk." Guess which one I've been playing with!

Quark is simply milk heated, soured by acid, and wrung out. Quark spread on toast is to die for.

There are many sets of instructions for quark on the web and I've made two batches so far trying to develop quark-making skills.

First, you must get milk that is not ultra-pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurized milk has been heated to such a high temperature that the proteins in it will not form a curd. Local milk brands are less likely to be ultra-pasteurized than more widely distributed brands. The container should tell you whether the milk is pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized.

The acid can be anything. My first batch was made with a combination of lemon juice and rice vinegar. The second batch was all lemon juice. Acidity varies. If at first your mixture doesn't want to separate, heat it back up and add more acid.

It can be flavored with anything. The second batch made with all lemon juice was flavored with the lemons' zest. I'm looking forward to trying lots of other sweet or savory additions.

Equipment needed to make quark:

a heavy sauce pan for heating the milk
a spoon for stirring occasionally to prevent scalding and to break the skin that forms during heating.
a thermometer or a good sense of when the milk is 180°-190° Fahrenheit.
A sieve or collander with lined cheesecloth or muslin.
Something to catch the whey.
Something to wrap the cheese in (e.g. freezer paper, waxed paper, plastic wrap, etc.)

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized milk)
1/3-1/2 cup acid (e.g. lemon juice, vinegar, etc.)
salt (optional)
flavoring (optional)

Procedure:

Heat milk slowly in a heavy saucepan to 180°-190° Fahrenheit. Try hard not to scald the milk on the bottom of the pan. If you do scald the milk, be careful not to scrape the bottom when you stir it.
Remove from heat and add the acid, stirring once.
Cover and let sit for an hour or more. By this point, the milk should have turned into a slurry of milk solids and clear liquid. If the liquid is still milky, add more acid and reheat.
Strain the liquid through the cloth, catching the curds and discarding the whey. At this point you can add the salt if desired.
As the draining slows, form a ball by gathering and twisting the edges of the cloth. The more you wring, the dryer and crumblier the cheese will be.
Form the cheese into the desired shape, wrap and refrigerate.

That's all there is to it.

My first batch, which I had to reheat and add vinegar to when the juice of one lemon wasn't acidic enough, was smoother than my second batch. The second batch tasted wonderful being made all with lemon juice and having had the lemon zest added to the hot milk but I think I should have added just a touch of sugar to it as well. I am going to do another experiment to see if the second heating results in the smoother cheese. So far, I've only tried whole milk but some web sites say you can use low fat milk as well.

Imagine making a "vinegar batch," chopping up some oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes adding them before you shape the cheese. Serve this with some of the tomato oil drizzled over it as a spread for crackers. Yum.

The Gnocchi Saga Continues

2009-05-26T17:27:00.006-04:00

Recipes for ricotta gnocchi on the web seem even easier than potato gnocchi. Of course, not being satisfied to simply follow a recipe to the letter, I decided to violate a few "rules" others had set down.

First rule to be violated: Use fresh whole-milk ricotta and drain it overnight. I used part-skim ricotta from the supermarket and didn't drain it.

Second rule to be violated: Carefully mix the egg and ricotta by hand, adding very little or even no flour. I used the food processor and flour about equal in weight to the ricotta.

Potato gnocchi must be made without blending or processing the potatoes because to do so breaks the cell walls of the potato, setting the water loose. More water means more flour which means heavier gnocchi.

But, if careful and limited pulsing of a food processor can make pie crust, why not try it for ricotta gnocchi?

You need a fairly large food processor to make this recipe. I have a 1980s vintage model that refuses to die.

Ingredients:

15 oz. container part-skim ricotta cheese
1 egg
zest of 1 lemon
1-2 ounces freshly grated parmesan or other grating cheese
Salt and white pepper to taste.
1 1/2 to 2 cups sifted flour

Procedure:

Quickly mix the first five ingredients in the processor.
Sift 1/2 cup flour into the processor and pulse briefly on slow speed to mix.
Repeat step two until the dough is stiff enough to form a ball. Use as little flour and as little pulsing as possible.
Remove the dough from the processor and divide into four balls. Wrap and refrigerate briefly to help firm the dough for handling.
Taking one ball from the refrigerator at a time, divide it and shape it into stubby rolls about 3/4 inch in diameter.
Cut the rolls at 3/4 to 1 inch intervals and roll each piece into a ball. Shape the ball by rolling it over fork times, whisk wires, or other surface to make grooves.

Store and prepare to eat as with the potato gnocchi in the previous post.

How to Use a Whole Bag of Potatoes

2009-05-24T22:21:00.007-04:00

There are only the two of us, so I generally buy potatoes only as needed. Bill has been swooning for lack of mashed potatoes, which really are best made with baked russets. Summer is no time to turn on the oven for just two potatoes. If I just microwaved them one or two at a time, inevitably some poor, lost potato would end up sprouting in the bottom of the veggie bin. What could I do with a bag of 13 good-sized russet potatoes that would allow me to bake them all at once? Time for some new cooking experiments.

The web came to the rescue with many seemingly simple recipes for potato gnocchi. Gnocchi are little Italian dumplings. Like dumplings everywhere, they can be made from a variety of ingredients, a simple version using potatoes, flour, eggs and salt. The pictures of web versions can be a bit intimidating because they seem so evenly shaped. Mine might more appropriately be called "malfatti," Italian slang for poorly shaped dumplings or pasta. No matter, they were very tasty.

Ingredients:

Cooked russet potatoes, still warm, skins removed.
1 egg for each two medium-large potatoes
Enough flour to make a dough you can handle.
Salt to taste

Baked potatoes are drier than boiled resulting in less flour being needed to make a dough. Less flour means more potato flavor. Measurements and proportions vary with the weather, size and moisture of potatoes and eggs. I had seven biggish potatoes, 4 large eggs, and added about two-and-a-half cups of sifted flour to get a sticky dough that left the sides of the bowl.

Procedure:

Mash or grate the potatoes by hand. Do not blend or process them. Using a blender makes the potatoes runny which would result in more flour being needed and heavier gnocchi.
Mix the egg into the potatoes.
Work in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough leaves the side of the bowl and can be handled.
Refrigerate the dough a few minutes to stiffen it a bit and make it easier to handle.
To shape the gnocchi, roll pieces of dough into snakes about 3/4 inch in diameter and cut into 3/4 inch pieces. You may then roll these pieces into balls and roll the balls across the tines of a fork, holes of a grater, or wires of a whisk to make ridges in the gnocchi that will better hold sauce.

If you are going to freeze the gnocchi, place them separated from each other on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once they are completely frozen, put them in meal-sized plastic bags.

To cook the gnocchi, whether frozen or not, bring a pot of water to a boil and gently put the gnocchi in one or two at a time. Make sure the pot is big enough that your gnocchi can poach without touching each other. At first the gnocchi will lie at the bottom of the pan. Move them gently to make sure they are not stuck. Wait until they float and then remove them from the water.

At this point, gnocchi become a wonderful canvas to be painted with sauce, pesto, butter, whatever strikes your fancy.

Yummy!

Dilled Chicken Croquettes with Mushrooms and Creamed Leeks

2009-04-18T21:25:00.011-04:00

If the word croquette is new to you, think in terms of something smaller than a crab cake but bigger than a meat ball. A croquette usually has a crumb coating.

I first had a puddle of creamed leeks at a wonderful restaurant in Cleveland. I've been thinking about them ever since. I decided to try the simplest of preparations: just simmering in skim milk. Bill said, "Try to remember this recipe!" So here we go.

Ingredients for two servings:

1 boneless chicken breast half, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill or 1 tsp. dried dill
1 shallot, minced
1 or 2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs, divided, 1/3 cup for the mixture, the rest to roll the croquettes in.
1/2 cup or more sliced fresh mushrooms
3 Tbl. olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, julienned
1/2 cup milk (any fat content)
a few grinds of nutmeg
white pepper
salt

Procedure:

With a cleaver or large knife, chop the chicken breast until it is not-quite minced. Although ground chicken may be used in this recipe, the chopped chicken provides a more interesting consistency.
Stir together the chicken, eggs, dill, 1/3 cup bread crumbs. Add salt & white pepper. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the bread crumbs to swell.
Slice the mushrooms and sauté in 1 Tbl. olive oil
While the mushrooms are cooking, form croquettes of the chicken mixture and coat in the remaining bread crumbs.
Remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside.
Add the rest of the olive oil to the pan and heat.
Brown the croquettes on all sides but do not worry whether they are cooked through at this point.
Remove the croquettes from the pan and place on a microwave safe plate.
Pour any remaining olive oil from the pan but do not wipe the pan.
Put the julienned leeks in the pan and and cover to allow them to steam a bit.
Add the milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg to the leeks and simmer until the leeks are tender and the milk is somewhat reduced.
Heat the croquettes for 90 seconds in the microwave to make sure they are thoroughly cooked through.
To reheat the mushrooms, stir them into the leeks.
Arrange the croquets on the plates and spoon over the leek and mushroom mixture making sure not to waste any of the thickened milk.

If you want to make this look more impressive, reheat the mushrooms for a few seconds in the microwave. After spooning the creamed leeks on the croquettes, spinkle the mushrooms on top.

Yummy Ham & Split Pea Soup

2009-04-15T00:49:00.007-04:00

Hams were on sale last week for Easter. We've been making meals of a very tasty smoked bone-in ham since Friday. By tonight, we had gotten to the bone with a bit of meat left on it. No sense wasting any of it! Time for pea soup.

Split pea soup doesn't take much work and is done in about an hour. If you don't have a leftover ham bone, a ham shank or even a smoked turkey leg will work.

Ingredients:

2 cups green split peas, washed
ham bone with some meat
6 cups water
3 or 4 carrots, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
salt & pepper

Procedure:

Put all ingredients in a large soup pan, covering as much of the ham as possible with the water.
Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally to bring the peas off the bottom of the pan.
After about 45 minutes, remove the ham and let it cool about 15 minutes while the soup still simmers.
Whir the soup with an immersion blender.
Cut the remaining ham off the bone and add it back to the soup.
Add salt & pepper to taste.

That's it. Smooth, warm, and creamy and all it has in it is water, ham, and veggies.

Good but Almost Ruined by a Rookie Mistake

2009-03-31T20:58:00.005-04:00

I used curly parsley as the leafy green tonight but made the mistake of briefly rinsing it rather than giving it a good wash. GRIT!! Blech. The food was yummy but the occasional crunch of grit was disconcerting. Next time, the curly parsley will be treated to the same thorough cleaning as celery and leeks! Lots of soaking and swishing.

But the otherwise delicious dish at right is chicken and mushrooms over cheese polenta (corn meal mush). If you've saved a few cheese shavings, sprinkle these on top.

Ingredients (for two servings):

Cooked chicken from one largish breast half, boned and cut into smallish chunks
2 Tbl. olive oil
1/2 cup or more coarsely sliced or chopped mushrooms
1 large shallot or small mild onion, julienned
1/2 jalapeño or other hot pepper, seeds removed and inner membrane removed, then diced. Delete or add more to suit your taste
1/4 cup chopped, oil packed sun-dried tomatoes or sun-dried tomato pesto. I used Classico Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
1/4 cup white wine or chicken broth
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 cups water
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
salt, pepper and nutmeg

Procedure:

Heat the olive oil in a medium sauté pan
Sauté the mushrooms, shallot and jalapeño
Add the chicken and sun-dried tomatoes or pesto and heat through
Add the parsley and wine or broth. Simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

While the chicken mixture cooks, make the polenta (corn meal mush)

In a medium sauce pan, bring the water to a boil. Slowly pour in the cornmeal, whisking constantly.
As soon as most of the lumps are gone, turn off the heat and whisk in the cheese.
Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Serve the chicken over the polenta. Warm, tasty, with a little bite from the jalapeño. Hopefully, yours won't be gritty! Ours won't next time. Lesson learned.

Last Minute Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2009-03-31T16:47:00.006-04:00

They are sweet; add a little brown sugar and they are decadently sweet. They can be cooked using almost any method from microwave to stove top to oven. They are even good raw. They feel wonderfully starchy yet, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, sweet potatoes are better for you than broccoli!

If you need to hurry along sweet potatoes, they take well to being microwaved and mashed.

For two helpings of decadent mashed sweet potatoes:

1-3 sweet potatoes (depending on size)
1-2 Tbl. butter
1/4 cup milk
2 Tbl. brown sugar
Salt & white pepper to taste

Procedure:

Peel and thinly slice the sweet potato. The thinner you slice it the easier it will be to mash.
Place in a covered microwave bowl with about 1/3 cup water.
Microwave on high, covered, about 15 minutes, until the water has almost disappeared and the potatoes are soft.
Mash remaining ingredients into the sweet potatoes.
Microwave another minute to bring back to temperature.

In the picture it's served with pulled pork that has been heated with a mustard-based barbecue sauce typical of the South Carolina Midlands.

Green'n'Leafies

2009-03-29T19:24:00.007-04:00

Green, leafy vegetables, the darker the better, may just be the healthiest things we can eat. I am not a rabbit so I strive to hide, disguise, and otherwise alter green leaves in a lot of my cooking.

Heidi's Hints for Tastier Green Leaves:

Most salad greens can be eaten cooked.

Sauté mushrooms and add julienned Romaine or other leafy green for a minute or two. Baby Arugula (Roquette) is a great veggie to throw into soup or pasta.

Hide spinach in strange places.

When making meatloaf or meatballs, whir spinach with the egg and other flavorings in the food processor. The meatloaf will be moister and you'll never taste the spinach.

Parsley is a vegetable not a decoration.

Use whole bunches of fresh parsley (flat-leaf or curly) to add flavor and color to a pasta dish.

Cabbage and its relatives only stink if you abuse them.

Do not boil cabbage. You heard me. Do not boil cabbage or Brussels Sprouts or Savoy or any other member of the cabbage family. Sauté, stir fry, steam, roast, or eat them raw. They taste much better and do not smell.

Save boiling cabbage for times when you want to get rid of houseguests.

Oo-oo! Moist Chicken Breasts!

2009-03-29T18:48:00.007-04:00

Both pork butt (shoulder) and bone-in chicken breasts were on sale this week. Since I needed to have the oven at 250° for several hours for the pulled pork, I wondered about cooking chicken breasts at that temperature.

I love the internet. A little searching and you can find answers to all cooking-related questions -- or almost all. I Googled slow roasted chicken and found a variety of recipes. A little adaptation and we had some of the moistest chicken white meat I've ever cooked.

Ingredients:

Large bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves
A sauce or marinade to spread on top and flavor the basting juices.

Tonight, I used about 1/2 cup of SAN-J Mildly Spicy Thai Peanut Stir-Fry and Dipping Sauce for four good-sized breast halves.

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 250°.
Place the breast halves skin-side up in a roasting pan.
Coat them with the sauce.
Baste with the pan juices about every 45 minutes or so.

Start checking to see if the breasts are done at 3 hours. They should be done by 4 hours. If necessary, a minute in the microwave can remove the last of the interior rawness without drying out the chicken meat. Just don't microwave too long or it will become chewy.

Giving Elegance to a Veggie -- Lemon Butter Breadcrumbs

2009-03-29T16:32:00.004-04:00

Here's a quick way to make microwaved green beans, asparagus, or broccoli luxurious. For two to three servings:

While the veggies are cooking, melt a tablespoon of butter in a small skillet.
Add 1/4 cup of bread crumbs and gently sauté until lightly browned.
Add the juice of half a lemon. Optionally, add half the zest as well.
Heat through but do not allow to burn.
Toss the vegetable with the bread crumbs and serve.

Yummy!

Only for Asparagus Lovers: Spargel Ragoût

2009-03-29T15:47:00.006-04:00

Spring is sprung and the asparagus at the grocery store is looking better and better. Although not much beats asparagus washed, quickly microwaved, and topped with lemon butter, Spring is the time of year for asparagus stew -- Spargel Ragoût. This recipe came down through my father's German relatives and has been modernized (and probably "Americanized") over the years. Don't be shy with the nutmeg.

Ingredients:

2 pounds asparagus
2 Tbl. butter or margarine
2 Tbl. flour
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 Tbl. ground nutmeg (Use less if freshly grating the nutmeg.)
Salt & pepper
Brown or white rice, cooked, to serve as a base for serving the stew.

Preparation:

Wash & break asparagus into 1 inch pieces, throwing away the tough ends.
Boil the asparagus in two quarts of water flavored with 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. nutmeg until just tender. Drain, reserving both the water and the asparagus.
In the same pot, melt the butter and add the flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper, and 1 tsp. nutmeg. Cook while stirring to make a roux.
Slowly pour the reserved asparagus water into the roux, stirring to avoid lumps. Bring to a simmer.
Separate the eggs, beat the whites until stiff.
Mix egg yolks, ground meat, bread crumbs, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper, and 1 tsp. nutmeg.
Fold beaten egg white into meat mixture.
Drop meat by spoonfuls into the simmering asparagus stock.
When the meat is done, return the asparagus to the pot.
When the asparagus is hot, serve the resulting stew over cooked rice.

As the title says, only for asparagus lovers but if that's you, you'll love this.

Ground Chuck Bounty

2009-03-22T18:47:00.006-04:00

Ground chuck was on sale for less than $2/pound, the problem being that the minimum amount was 4 pounds. With only two of us to feed, a way to use this bounty of cheap meat was needed. So, time to feed the freezer again!

We need meals that can be nuked when I have to teach at supper time and I think it's safer to pre-cook any mixture including ground meat. So, when all was said and done, 4 pounds of ground chuck, 4 eggs, some bread crumbs, and a variety of flavorings yielded 8 meals of meat servings for two, ready to be eaten with a short stint in the microwave.

Ground chuck has a higher proportion of fat than other ground meats but much of that can be cooked off. Thus, no olive oil was added to these, unlike meatloaves and meatballs made with ground turkey or chicken, where the olive oil is needed to add the flavor strengthening of fat.

Meatloaf is a wonderful place to hide a green leafy vegetable like spinach. We all need to eat more dark green leaves and this is a good way to slip them in where they aren't even noticed.

INGREDIENTS

Ground chuck separated into 1 pound lumps (each pound results in four servings)
1 egg for every pound of meat
A different set of flavorings for each pound of meat
1/4 pound of baby spinach or a bunch of parsley for each pound of meat
1/3 cup bread crumbs for each pound of meat.

PROCEDURE

Preheat oven to 375 for meatloaves.
Decide what ingredients you will use to flavor each meatloaf or set of meatballs.
Whir the egg, flavoring ingredients, and spinach or parsley in a food processor until well chopped.
In a large bowl, knead together a pound of meat with each one-egg mixture.
Shape into meat loaves, meat balls or patties.
Bake meatloaves until internal temperature reaches about 165°. Sauté meatballs or patties until no longer pink inside.
Allow to cool and freeze in meal-sized portions.

Among the flavoring ingredients that work well added meatloaf are

herbs like basil, dill, or cilantro,
exotics like sundried tomatoes, pitted olives, jarred pesto or tapenade
vegetables like carrot, onion, celery, or shallots
sauces like ketchup, mustard, horseradish sauce, or barbecue sauce
Spices and garlic

Use your imagination to combine two or three of these together, for example

garlic, chopped basil and sun-dried tomatoes
Mustard, carrot and dill
Cilantro, olives and bell pepper

Then, all you need do for supper is pull out a meat loaf and heat it in the microwave. Add a bag of frozen veggies or a salad and voilà.

Chicken Soup -- You'll Never Eat Canned Soup Again

2009-03-22T13:03:00.010-04:00

Chicken soup with carrots, celery, red bell pepper & whole wheat ziti served in a covered dish made by Taylor Smith Taylor, one of many twentieth-century Ohio dinnerware makers.

One of the natural by-products of roast chicken is chicken soup. Another roast chicken, another batch of chicken soup. I tend to make a relatively small batch of soup. One of the reasons making soup gets a bad name is because we tend to make a bucket of soup and then get tired of it.

This is an easy recipe but not a quick recipe -- although most of the time you are ignoring it.

INGREDIENTS

The broth:

The remains of a roast chicken. Ours usually has the wings and a leg or two left on it. The more meat left on it, the more meat your soup will have.
1 large carrot cut in 2 inch pieces, wider parts split in two
1 or two stalks of celery cut in 2 inch pieces
1/2 a medium onion cut in quarters
a handful of fresh parsley
2 or 3 bay leaves broken into pieces. If your bay leaves have been sitting around for awhile, use more of them.
Salt & pepper.
Water to cover.

The soup:

2-3 cups chopped vegetables of your choice, e.g. carrots, celery, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc.
2 servings of a starch, e.g. noodles, potatoes, rice, dumplings, gnocci.
More salt and pepper if needed.

PREPARATION

Break the chicken carcass into pieces, breaking a few bones in the process.
Place the broth ingredients in a large saucepan or stock pot and cover with water.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours.
Let cool until safe to refrigerate.
Refrigerate until cold -- I usually do this overnight.
Scoop the fat off the cold broth and discard.
Remove the large pieces from the broth and put aside.
Strain the broth through a mesh strainer to remove the rest of the solids.
Rescue the meat from the solid pieces and return it to the broth.
Discard the rest of the solid pieces, they have given their all to the broth.
Bring the broth and meat back to a boil and add the chopped vegetables and starch. Note: you may want to stagger adding these ingredients depending on how long they need to cook. I like to put the starch in raw so it soaks up some of the broth and thickens the soup.
Simmer until everything is done to your liking.
Adjust the seasoning. You may need to add more salt at this point.

Can one vary this? Certainly. Add garlic. Use an herb other than parsley. Do this with a turkey carcass. Add peanut butter and you have ground nut stew, a West African dish. Add a Granny Smith apple and curry powder and you have Mulligatawny. Add a little extra water at the beginning and you can save some of the broth for other uses. Just don't use too much water or the broth will be weak.

You may be starting to note a lack of tomatoes in this blog. Yes, you could add a can of tomatoes to this soup and in previous years I may well have. But I am now allergic to tomatoes and use them very sparingly. I'm also allergic to onions but there are some things I am unwilling to give up!

Napa & Mushrooms "Orientale"

2009-03-17T19:16:00.003-04:00

Many meals around here comprise a serving of meat and a nuked veggie. Veggie boredom has set in. To add variety, sauté a mixture of veggies with a splash of salad dressing. Tonight's combo is sliced mushrooms, napa cabbage, and Newman's Own Lighten Up Sesame Ginger Dressing to add an Asian tang. This was a great side dish for roast chicken.

(By the way, tonight's episode of easy chicken roasting experiments used the same method as discussed in an earlier post but setting the temperature at 425° and the timer for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Done to a tee!)

Ingredients for two servings:

4 oz. sliced mushrooms
4 cups Napa cabbage, sliced thin
vegetable oil for sautéing
1 Tbl. bottled sesame-ginger salad dressing

Preparation:

Heat oil in a sauté pan on medium high.
Saute the mushrooms until slightly browned but not until they release their liquid.
Add the sliced cabbage and saute approximately 1 minute.
Toss in the dressing and heat through.
Serve immediately with a slotted spoon to drain excess liquid.

Tangy, tasty and it's not another nuked bag of green beans or corn niblets!

Tuna à la King for a Cold & Rainy Night

2009-03-15T19:22:00.008-04:00

We didn't do the big grocery shopping trip this weekend -- too busy watching DVDs of a British series that never hit our public TV station -- so it was scrounge around to find something quick but warm and tasty. A couple of frozen patty shells, an envelope of tuna, and a can of fat-free evaporated milk became a warm and tasty treat.

INGREDIENTS for two large servings:

2 frozen patty shells (These are little crowns of puff pastry, the most well-known made by Pepperidge Farm and available in the supermarket. Toast will do in a pinch.)
2-3 cups diced fresh vegetables (For example, tonight's combo was 1/2 vidalia onion, 1/2 large red bell pepper, 1 stalk celery, and 1 carrot.)
1 can fat free evaporated milk.
Olive oil for sautéing the vegetables
2 Tbl. butter
2 Tbl. flour
Salt, pepper, and nutmeg
1 envelope of tuna (5-7 oz.) (If you use canned tuna, make sure it is well drained.)
2 Tbl. curly parsley or other fresh herb, finely chopped

PREPARATION

Cook the patty shells as indicated on the package. Try to time these so they are done when the sauce is ready.
Sauté the finely chopped vegetables in the olive oil until they are slightly softened and a bit translucent.
Meanwhile, make the cream sauce. Melt the butter in a sauce pan big enough to hold all the ingredients. Add the flour a little at a time while whisking to avoid lumps. Cook for about 1 minute to cook the flour.
Gradually add the evaporated milk, whisking while you do so.
Add salt, pepper & nutmeg to taste. You now have a cream sauce.
Stir the tuna, sautéed vegetables, and parsley into the cream sauce and let cook for about one minute, stirring to prevent it from scorching on the bottom. If it does scorch a little, just leave the scorched part on the bottom of the pan when you serve.
Serve the tuna à la king over the patty shells.

Voila. Altogether, including preheating the oven and chopping the veggies, this took about 25 minutes.

Trust but Verify. Unless it's Chicken.

2009-03-13T20:02:00.011-04:00

In the case of chicken, don't trust anything but your eyes. Don't trust recipes. Don't trust a thermometer. Trust your eyes after you have massacred the chicken with a knife. Undercooked chicken is as dangerous as a pit viper!

I'm on a quest to find a relatively foolproof way to roast a broiler/fryer; one that's not much harder than picking up a precooked chicken at the grocery store. So, with whole chickens on sale this week, I decided to try a method that seemed likely.

The recipe said, wash & season the chicken, put it on a rack in a cold oven set for 400°, and let it cook for 1 hour. I had rubbed the outside of the chicken with olive oil and sprinked it with salt and lemon-pepper. To assure a moist result, at 30 and 50 minutes I opened the door and quickly misted water in the oven with a spray bottle.

After one hour I removed the chicken and stuck in my quick-read thermometer to make sure the chicken had reached the recommended internal temperature of 165°. It had. I'm showing the thermometer in the breast but I also checked a thigh. Clear juice came out of the hole the thermometer made.

But when I picked up the chicken, pink juice poured out. When I cut into it, even the breasts were slightly pink inside. Back to the drawing board.

Luckily, we were only feeding two tonight. I nuked the breast meat for 90 seconds to make sure it was done but not tough. It stayed moist and was quite good.

The rest of the chicken went into a pot of water with parsley and green onions to boil for a soup base. It's bubbling away right now.

So, what do you suggest I try next? Shall I raise the temperature or extend the time?

Quick Pork & Veggies in One Pot

2009-03-11T19:35:00.007-04:00

Pictured in a covered vegetable dish made by American Limoges of Sebring, Ohio. Shape: Triumph. Decoration: Vermillion Rose.

Pork loin, Brussels sprouts and red bell pepper.

This supper is tasty, colorful, and quick to put together. It uses a few tablespoons of bottled salad dressing and minced garlic to add flavor. The combo below can serve as a framework for any similar combination of vegetables, meat strips, and salad dressing, each tasting very different.

Resist the urge to throw the garlic in too soon. You don't want it to burn!

Ingredients for two servings:

2 boneless loin pork chops
12-20 Brussels sprouts (depending on size)
1/2 large red bell pepper
3-4 Tbl tangy bottled salad dressing. Pictured made with Newman's Own Lighten-Up Sun Dried Tomato Dressing
2-4 cloves garlic
2 Tbl olive oil

Preparation

Slice the pork into thin strips, easiest done while they are only partially thawed
Toss the pork strips and salad dressing in a bowl to marinate while you do the other steps
Cut the bottoms off the Brussels sprouts and cut them in half, discarding any leaves that are dark and readily fall off
Seed and cut the red pepper in bite-sized squares
Finely mince the garlic

Cooking

Heat the olive oil in a large sautée pan (with lid) on medium heat
Sauté the sprouts for about three minutes
Add the red pepper and sauté for a minute or two
Add the garlic and sauté for one minute
Add the pork and sauté for 5 minutes
Cover, turn the heat down to medium low, and let simmer in its own juice for another 2 or 3 minutes.

When the sprouts are softened but still a bit crunchy, serve.

So, Mom said, "What's a Microplane?"

2009-03-11T15:18:00.004-04:00

I'm very lucky to have a proofreader in the family. If you see a mistake here, it's most likely because Mom hasn't caught it yet or I haven't kept up with her corrections. Recently, after seeing me mention one, she asked, "What's a Microplane?"

Now, I'm a kitchen gadget junkie of the first order and I've accumulated lots of kitchen toys over the years -- some useful, some just taking up space. The Microplanes fall into the useful category. In fact, the Microplane has made zesting a lemon a 30-second job around here.

I have three different sizes of Microplane but if you are considering getting your first, I'd recommend the one in the middle of the picture. It works equally well for grating cheeses and citrus zests. I've had mine for several years and throw it in the dishwasher. It seems just as sharp as ever.

In finding the link to Microplane for you I discovered they have a full line of gadgets! More to lust after. Maybe I should help the economy? Oh, no! They have an outlet link with seconds! Bill, honey? Hide my wallet!

Cinnamon Crumb Cake

2009-03-10T18:07:00.003-04:00

When I first moved away from Connecticut in the 1970s, I longed for the cinnamon snack cakes that weren’t available in my new home. So, with much trial and error, I developed this recipe for a dense and moist cinnamon crumb cake. It’s best made with a stand mixer and baked in a bundt pan. It’s a firm cake more akin to a coffee cake or pound cake. It travels well. If you need to carry a cake to work, this one can be stood up on its side in a book bag without falling apart!

Preheat oven to 350° Farenheit.

BATTER

Add ingredients one at a time. Mix thoroughly between each addition.

1 stick margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
8 oz. sour cream

Sift together:

3 cups of flour (measure the 3 cups before sifting)
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Alternate adding dry ingredients to mixer with

1/4 cup milk

Mix together thoroughly. Batter should be almost thick enough to creep up the beaters.

CRUMBS

Work with your fingers:

1 stick margarine
1 cup flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbl Cinnamon

The crumb mixture will resemble moist beach sand.

ASSEMBLY

Grease & flour the bundt pan.
Layer in 1/3 crumbs, 1/2 batter, 1/3 crumbs, 1/2 batter, 1/3 crumbs.
Pat gently to seal the last layer of crumbs to the batter.
Bake about 40 minutes.
Let the cake cool at least 30 minutes before removing it from the pan.
Slice to serve.

Mushrooms, Leeks & Brussels Sprouts with Lemon

2009-03-07T19:21:00.006-05:00

One way to add variety to veggies is to mix them. We had these with leftover turkey meatloaf. The richness of the veggies makes up for the leanness of the meatloaf. Don't be scared of the brussels sprouts. They are delicious if they aren't overcooked!

For two servings:

4-8 mushrooms, washed and sliced
8-10 brussels sprouts, washed, bottom removed, and halved
1 large leek, white & light green part, sliced and soaked in a bowl of cold water to remove any grit
2 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1/2 lemon, zest and juice

1. In a large sauteé pan, put butter and olive oil on medium heat. Allow them to heat while you prepare the mushrooms.
2. Add sliced mushrooms and allow these to sauté while you prepare the brussels sprouts.
3. Add the brussels sprouts to the mushrooms and give them a stir. Let this sauté while you prepare the leeks.
4. When the grit from the leeks has settled, carefully scoop the floating leeks into the pan. Water clinging to the leeks helps create the sauce. Let this sauté while you prepare the lemon.
5. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir and sauté for a couple minutes until the sprouts are softened but still crunchy.
6. Spoon artfully over whatever else is on the plate.

Hint for using a lemon over several days: Don't cut it open. For this recipe, I scraped one side of it with a micro-plane for the zest and poked a fork in the lemon to get some juice. The wounded lemon is now back in the fridge to help another meal.