Dateline: August 13, 2020 For Alan and Lyn, Tofu Baked with Stir Fry Fridge Left Overs

 I discovered baked or grilled tofu quite by accident.  I mistakenly ordered from FreshDirect and found I loved their lightly baked cubes.  I expanded on their idea and tried slabs.

Ingredients

1 14 oz box of tofu

The marinade can be taken in any direction you wish.  I went in the Chinese direction marinading in grated ginger, soy, sesame oil, garlic and Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp condiment, heaps and heaps of it.  This Chinese condiment is the greatest thing in the world.  It is spicy, salty, crunchy and just plain DELICIOUS.  I buy this in big jars and it sits on my counter to be thrown into anything that needs a little salt, crunch, spice, etc.

You could take it in any direction, slather it with a Thai Chili paste of your choice, a mole sauce from Mexico, any thing you can think of will be just great. 

Tofu is basically flavorless and easily absorbs the flavor of the marinade that you use.  

Method

1.  Mix your marinade together.  Components that are necessary:  acid, salt, fat, spice.  Taste your concoction, is it balanced?  Does it lend itself to flavor something that just brings texture to the party?  If not, keep playing until the marinade is to your liking.  It will be THE major component that you are tasting at the end, make it please you.

2.  Cut the block of tofu into thirds along the long side edge of the block.  Each slab should be about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch in thickness.

3. Pour your marinade into a resealable plastic bag.  Add your tofu slabs and gently massage the marinate into them without breaking them apart.  They are tender little things and can fall apart easily if your are too rough.

4.  Put bag into frig until dinner time.  The longer it sits, the better.

5.  Ready to bake?  Preheat oven to 350°F .  Put a tiny bit of oil on a baking sheet, and put the three tofu slabs onto top of the oil.  Any marinade that remains in the bag, divide among the 3 pieces.

6.  Put baking pan in oven and bake for about 45 - 60 minutes or until the edges of the slabs are nicely browned or even charred all around.  Turn pan half after about 30 minutes for even cooking.

7.  Serve.

I served this with a stir fry of collards, bok choy, onions, sweet peppers, and anything else that was hanging around in the frig.

Soften collards and bok choy

Add sweet peppers and sauce ingredients

Final product after adding a small amount of corn starch slurry to tighten up the sauce.

A most satisfying meal.

Dateline: August 9, 2020 Beautiful Day for a Pig Smoke

 I had a pork butt that needed to be cooked.  There was no room in the freezer, so I had to smoke it....really, that is the reason I tell myself.  

I rubbed worcestershire sauce all over and then followed that with a pig rub.  When the smoker hit the sweet spoke of 225° F, in went the butt, bone to the back, and it has been smooth sailing ever since.  As of this writing, the butt has been in the smoker for 3 hours and it about 120° F at the moment, only 75-80 degrees to go!  That should take the rest of the afternoon and possibly to early evening.  All depends on the stall and how long it lasts.

The pig rub recipe:

1/2 c brown sugar - I used demerara                                                                                                              1/2 c paprika                                                                                                                                                  1/4 c kosher salt                                                                                                                                              1/4 c chili powder                                                                                                                                          1/4 c dry mustard                                                                                                                                            2 T Old Bay                                                                                                                                                    1 T black pepper                                                                                                                                            1/2 t each ginger powder, cayenne pepper, cumin

Mix together and store in a tightly sealed jar.  Makes enough for many racks of ribs or a couple of shoulders.

Small snafu:  While I was doing yoga, the hopper ran low on pellets, rookie mistake, and I only noticed when I checked the temp of the meat and saw that the smoker temp had fallen to the same temp as the meat....oops.  Fixed and it is back on line happily chugging away with the shoulder now at about 155° F

Should be hitting the stall soon, and God willing, we should pass through it in a couple of hours. Bill is off at the store getting tortillas and other fixing, we will be eating tacos tonight!    

Update:  By 8:30 pm, the butt was only at 160°F, I made an executive decision and took it off the smoker, and put it into a 230° oven.  At 11:30, it hit the target of mid 190's - 200° sweet spot.  I removed it, and unwrapped.  The bone pulled out in one clean motion.  Using tongs, I broke up the meat and put into a bag, and put in fridge for Monday night dinner.

I did taste a bit, and thought it needed salt.  We will see.

Dateline: August 8, 2020 Grill Simple: Black Cod, Green Beans, Broccoli, Romanesco

I ordered 2 lovely pieces of Black Cod, or Ling Cod, or Sable Fish from FreshDirect.  The flesh is white, flaky, and unctuous and freakin' delicious.

I have broiled it in the past, with a miso glaze.  Today, I just wanted salt and pepper and would grill it.

The grill has been tuned up.   I love this company, Char-Grill, I wrote to them a while ago asking if they made replacement parts for the extra support at the base of the grill that helps hold the ash pan in place, along with the clips on the side.  They do not make one, so they shipped me an entire bottom section, gratis.  The other day, I got busy.  I had to dissemble the old bottom, keep all the screws together, remove all hardware and clips and then put the thing back together again with hurting myself, mentally, or physically.  I did scuff up my knuckles a bit, but that was the only injury.  The grill looks great, but the ash pan is really shot, so I ordered another one.  Pretty soon I will have a completely new grill!  Sort of like a facelift, of sorts!

Everything was just lightly oiled and sprinkled with salt and pepper and placed on a hot grill at differing times.

The beans were grilled on a copper grill mat and the other veggies were subjected to the raw heat of the fire.  

Fish readied for the grill, just oil, salt and pepper

Veggies were grilled first, as they could take the warming up of the temperature of the grill without overcooking!

Beans are done, and the broccoli and romanesco are starting to char nicely.  Next on goes the fish.

Can you hear the sizzle of the fish?  I can.  The fish cooked until it flaked but was still translucent along the line of pin bones cutting vertically thru the center of the piece.  

The flakes come off easily and are so luscious.  There is a lot of fat in this fish, which is what makes it good for you!  The end product needed nothing else, no lemon, no chimichurri, nada!  A delightful dinner was had al fresco.  Plus a glass or two of a nice chardonnay, and I was a very happy camper.

Dateline: August 7, 2020 It's a crappy day here, so Let's Eat Indian Food

I have been cooking for about 2 hours,  and dinner is ready, way too early for us to eat.  I will make myself a drink after writing this up and sit and relax and ponder the downright English weather we are experiencing today, 75° F and cloudy.  Our British friends are experiencing 100° F weather.... no fun.  

On the menu is Turkey Tenderloin Achari, Sweet and Sour Bhindi (Okra), and red lentils with cabbage and onions.

I am totally psyched about dinner tonight.

Recipe for Achari

Recipe for Bhindi

Recipe for Lentils and Cabbage

Bhindi

Turkey Achari

Red Lentils with Cabbage and Onions

Lordy, we are eating good tonight!

Dateline: August 6, 2020 Today's Project: When a storm gives you downed fruit, you make chutney

The aftermath of Isaias brought tomato plant destruction and devastation.  One plant was totally stripped bare and broken off on the main stem, another had the living crap knocked out of it and toppled over.  Many of the green fruits were knocked to the ground and harvested, for some project or hopeful ripening.  My neighbor harvested her white grapes pre-storm and gave me about 1 qt of them.

I have had in my brain some combo of green tomatoes, grapes, and hot peppers.  Bingo!  I will make a spicy jam/chutney out of them.

Ingredients

2 cups de-stemmed grapes

2 cups washed green tomatoes, mine were pear shaped

1 t neutral oil, I used avocado

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

1 fresno pepper, minced

1/2 onion, diced

1/4 - 1/2 c cider vinegar

1/4 c sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 t yellow mustard seeds

1/2 t brown mustard seeds

1/2 t nigella seeds

1/4 cardamon seeds

4-5 whole cloves

4-5 allspice berries

pinch hot pepper powder of your choice, I used ancho and chipotle

pinch of salt

1 t pectin, if needed

1/4 t calcium powder

Jars to store the jam/chutney in

Method

1.  Heat a saucepan that can hold everything comfortable and accommodate a stick blender, and film with a slight layer of oil.  When shimmering, add spices and cook until fragrant and mustard seeds begin to pop.

2.  Add onion, garlic, peppers and cook until fragrant.

3.  Add grapes and green tomatoes and stir around to coat in spices, onion, pepper, and garlic.  Add vinegar starting with 1/4 c and cook until grapes and tomatoes start bursting and giving off their juices.  

4.  Using a potato masher, mash up the fruit mixture and taste.  Adjust seasonings if necessary.

5.  When mixture has started to get a tiny bit thick, blend thoroughly with a stick blender.  Taste again.  Add sugar and stir to dissolve.  Taste again, if necessary, add more vinegar.  You want this to be spicy, and more tart than sweet.  Cook a little while longer.  

6.  If the mixture does not look to be getting thick, remove cinnamon stick and add 1 t of pectin powder, and 1/4 t calcium powder.  Using the stick blender again, incorporate the powders completely into the jam/chutney.  Taste and adjust.  Bring to a boil and cook for about 1-2 minutes.  Let cool for about 5 minutes

7.  Using a canning funnel, fill the jars with the jam/chutney and allow to cool completely before refrigerating.  This is a fresh chutney not a processed on, so it must be stored in the fridge. 

Ta-Dah!

Dateline: August 2-4, 2020 Merguez Sausage

I bought 2 small lamb shoulder roasts, about 2 lbs each, from FreshDirect to make lamb merguez sausage.

The recipe was from Home Sausage Making, Cathy Barrow's merguez recipe.  I can't export the recipe to this blog, but I will type it up.

Ingredients

20 ft lamb casing, or 10 ft medium hog casing

4 lbs boneless lamb shoulder

1 lb pork fat (I used beef fat)

8 cloves of garlic, minced

3 T kosher salt

2 T paprika

1 T dried oregano

2 t ground coriander

2 t ground cumin

2 t anise seed

2 t ground cinnamon

2 t cayenne pepper

1.5 t ground black pepper

1/4 c red wine (I used white with a splash of red wine vinegar)

1/4 c water

Method

1.  Prepare the casings by soaking in warm water with a splash of vinegar and rinsing.

2.  Cube up lamb and fat in 1 in. cubes and sprinkle with all spices except wine and water.  Mix well and refrigerate for minimum 2 hours, or preferably overnight.

3.  Grind through small disk.

4.  Add water and wine and mix well with your clean hands until it is a little sticky.  (This is developing the bind.)

5.  Stuff into your casings.  You can make 10 in lengths, or like I did, large coils.  Tie off the ends, and prick any air bubbles.

6.  Place sausage on a rack in a baking pan and refrigerate uncovered overnight.

7.  If you made links, but them apart.  The sausage can be refrigerated for 2 - 3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months.  Thaw in refrigerator overnight before using frozen sausage.

8.  Cook using the method of your choice, to an internal temperature of 160° F

Ground meat ready to be cased

Lamb merguez waiting to cure in fridge overnight

Full disclosure, I forgot to put in the garlic.  Even without the vampire repelling ingredient, these were excellent sausages.  I will definitely make them again and again!

How did I use the sausages

I could not grill them because the remnants of Isaias were barreling through Brooklyn.  So I pulled out the instant pot, 2 cans of garbanzo beans and some collards and this is what I came up with.

1 lb merguez sausages

2 Cans garbanzo beans

1 bunch collard greens, stripped off of stem and julienned

3 scallions, sliced thin, held aside

1 red onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped

2 roma tomatoes, halved, seeds squeezed out and diced

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t ground coriander

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1/4 ground cloves

1/4 t tumeric

1 t chili pepper of your choice, I used alleppo

1 large handful mint, chopped 

1 large handful parsley, chopped

1/2 lime, juiced

1 t ground sumac berries

1.5 t kosher salt

avocado oil

flaky salt to finish

~1 T oil sausages were cooked in to finish

Method

1.  Drain and rinse chick peas.

2.  Heat InstantPot on saute on medium heat level.  When hot, add avocado oil, red onion and garlic.  Saute until fragrant.

3.  Add cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, and tumeric and saute to bloom the spices.  Add beans and chicken stock mix well.  Add collard greens.  Mix well.

4.  Add kosher salt, chili pepper, and chopped tomatoes.  Mix well, taste and correct seasonings, if necessary.

5.  When collards are softened and cooked, add parsley, and lime juice.  Mix well, taste and correct seasonings, if necessary.

6.   Heat a large pan with lid that can hold the sausages in one layer over high heat.  Add small amount of oil of your choice.  When the oil shimmers, add sausages, reduce temperature, and cover with a lid.  When sausages are browned on one side, carefully turn over and brown other side.  You can add a couple of ounces of water to steam the sausages after flipping.  Cook until water has evaporated and second side is nicely browned.  Use an instant thermometer to check that temp is at least 160 F.  

7.  Remove sausages, add some of the oil to the beans.  Mix well.  Taste and finish with flaky salt, reserved scallions, mint, and sumac.

Even without garlic, these were excellent sausages

 

This was far better than you would think.  The beans and collards blended together perfectly and the "sauce" clung to everything.  The mint added a nice brightness, but got overshadowed by spices after a while.

Dateline: August 2, 2020 Had a Hankering for Pasta, Found the Perfect Recipe

I had a bunch of cherry tomatoes, gobs of mint and a hankering for pasta.  As I was perusing the NYT Cooking App, I saw Melissa Clark's "Pasta with Burst Cherry Tomatoes"

This is a gem of pasta dish.  Everything was on hand or in the freezer, pasta, pancetta, tomatoes, ricotta, scallions, garlic, and mint.  The dish is easy, quick and so tasty.  Strangely enough, I did not vary from the written recipe.  So glad I did not.  Both Bill and I were very pleased with the results and it will go into regular rotation.

Here the sauce is being created, after the pancetta has rendered its fat, remove to a dish lined with paper towels.  Then add garlic, hot pepper flakes, salt, and pepper and cook until fragrant.  Add tomatoes and cook until they are collapsing.  I threw in the largest slices of scallion after the tomatoes had burst.  Drain and add pasta, some pasta cooking water, if it looks dry, I used about 3 T, and finish cooking the pasta.  Add the mint and scallions.  Lower the heat, mixing until the mint has wilted.  

Dress with a drizzle more of oil, and flaky salt.  Plate and add a dollop of ricotta on top.  

Enjoy!  It really is a true winner!  I could see swapping out the mint for basil but the mint was not overpowering, it was just a slight hint in the background.  Yummers!

Dateline: July 25, 2020 Kielbasa, Cheese, Grilled Salmon, Asparagus, Broccoli, Salad, Fruit Salad, and Guacamole

So, sometimes things are just too darn weird for words.  I got an order from FreshDirect this morning, Bill went down to fetch it.  When he came back into the house, he said, "wow that's sure is a lot of avocados!"  I respond, "I didn't order any avocados".  I checked my order, and yup, that was true.  I did not order any.  I have accidentally added items before, and been surprised to see 15 jars of oil pack tuna.  However, this was not the case.  There were over 50 2-pack boxes of avocados, ready to eat just sitting in their own FD bag.  I assumed that they were meant for a restaurant or other business.  That was about $250 worth of alligator pears!

I called customer service, and said what was sitting on my kitchen floor, after the rep stopped laughing, she said, "let me check to make sure you weren't charged."  I was not.  She asked me to hold while she was trying to figure out where they should have been delivered.  Humming quietly to myself.  She came back on and said, "where are the avocados now?"  "In my apt", I respond.  "Oh, throw them away.  We can not take them back, they have gone inside.  If you were on the street, we could have had the truck come and pick them up.  But because they have been inside your building, we can not accept them.  Eat them, give them away, throw them out, you can do what ever you want with them."

So, 47 boxes of avocados went downstairs to the staff, and any neighbors who want them, and I kept 3 boxes.  This is why we are having guac!

You can't make this stuff up!

Everything for dinner will be grilled, except cheeses, salads, and guac.  I have prepped all the veggies, salads, and solids that go in the guac already.  So when Servet gets here, we can get down to the serious business of deciding what to drink and enjoying the glorious weather on the deck.  When we decide we want to eat, out come the fixings, and voila, stuff is ready to throw on the grill, or throw into a bowl, etc.

I kind of like having everything prepped and ready to roll.  Allows me to relax and enjoy the rest of the day.

With everything prepped, cooking went one-two-three and done, however, I forgot to take any photos.  Sigh, one margarita with a muddle of mint and salt and I can't remember what to do!

I seasoned the salmon with only salt and pepper on all sides and some cooking spray.  The grill was screaming hot after cooking the veggies, so the fish and kielbasa cooked quickly.  The fish was quite tasty, skin nicely crisped up and a beautiful medium doneness.  

The fruit salad didn't get eaten for dessert as we were too full from the guac and ezme that Servet made.  Ohhhh that was delicious.  He is going to send me the recipe.  Ezme is a Turkish finely chopped spicy vegetable salad.  I order it from a local Turkish take out and love it.  It's the freshness of the veggies and the spiciness of the added condiment that is addictive.  I learned last night that Turkish spice paste is not the same as harissa.  It can be faked by using tomato paste and a "handful" of Alleppo pepper (Servet's measuring phrase).

 

Dateline: July 22-23, 2020 Perfecting Kielbasa

I had a very large pork shoulder in the freezer that I took out on the morning of July 22.  By that evening, I had completed making kielbasa minus the smoking.  As I started to cut the shoulder up, I found out that it was NOT boned!  I had to cut around the bone in a half frozen hunk of meat and take care not to cut my fingers off with the boning knife.  No accidents!  

After freeing up the bone, I cut up the pork belly.  It came with skin on, which it never has done before, so after thinking about it, I decided to take the skin off.  Why you ask?  Because pork skin unless shatteringly crisp is awful to chew on.  And in an otherwise tender sausage, a gnarly bit of chewy is not very appetizing.  So off came the skin on the belly as well as the skin on the shoulder.  I saved the skin in case some day I have a big vat of hot oil that is begging for chicharones to be made.  

I used the same recipe as before, Homemade Polish Kielbasa, by Hank Shaw.  I did a few things differently than I did on the first go round.  I let the sausages sit in the fridge over night on a rack to allow the casings to fully adhere to the filling.  I also added about 2 teaspoons of yellow mustard seeds to the spice mix.  I did not have the abundance of pork fat that I had in the first go, so I added some beef fat from brisket trimmings that I had in the freezer along with about a pound of pork belly.  In all I had about 10-11 lbs of sausage that needed to be stuffed.

I did have a couple of blow outs while stuffing.  It was one casing that blew out 2 times.  It was responsible for the short guy in the center of the top picture below.  

This was the output from Wednesday night.  As you can see, there is quite a bit of sausage here.  About half will be given away, if I can do it when Bill is not looking!

This morning, I got up and set up the smoker.  And put these bad girls in there.

It is critical that the sausages do not touch each other because that will result in a spot that the smoke will not get to.  This means a "white" spot in an otherwise reddish sausage.  

Here are the finished ones:  

You can clearly see the color change, and I think that is a result of overnight resting and proper smoke coverage.  The last batch were much paler.  The proof will be in the tasting.  When Bill and I sampled some of the sausage pre-stuffing, we were both happy with the flavors.  The overnight sit only will enhance those flavors and the smoke will provide them another layer of flavor.

Every batch is a learning experience.  I learned that being totally prepared ahead of your start is essential as is prepping your equipment.  The tedious part is the cutting up of the meat and grinding it.  

I have a bunch of chicken in the fridge that I was thinking of turning into sausage this weekend.  What I learned from the turkey sausage is that fat is a necessary element.  I have both white and dark meat with skin on and if I think there is not enough fat, that I will grind up a duck breast along with the chicken to help out the lean-ness problem.

Tasting Notes:  

This sausage was delicious!  I know, I know, I say that about everything I cook, but in this case it is not hyperbole!  I like the texture of the coarse grind, the snap of the casing, and the flavor.  We ate a good deal of a very big ring last night, and Bill finished off the remains for breakfast!

Dateline: July 19, 2020 Smoked beef ribs, hurry up style

I had taken a 4-bone package of beef ribs out of the freezer, perhaps a little too late to fully smoke on the grill.  I coated the bone side with Willy's One-Derful rub, and on the meat side, I used Detroit Barbecue Rub that a friend had given me.

This got onto the smoker around 1 pm, which meant that dinner would be pretty late.  

I pretty much just sat around outside dead-heading flowers and trimming the trees.  I would escape into the house to cool off and then go back with water in hand.  

By 6 pm, it was clear that I needed to goose up the temp if we were going to have dinner before midnight.  I pushed it up to 350° F and hoped they would not dry out.  Luckily, when the meat reached about 180° F, I was willing to pull it off and use more than our teeth to eat them!  

all rubbed and ready for smoker

Bad girls off the grill

Check out the smoke ring

They were not quite tender enough, but very tasty and thoroughly enjoyable.  Lesson learned:  you can push your smoker around, it will do what a smoker has got to do!  Get over your timetable!

We ate it with grilled corn on the cob and crunchy salad.