Dateline: August 27, 2020 Lamb, taters and cabbage: An Ode to Ireland

I had purchased 2 small racks of lamb from Wegman's a while ago.  I have been waiting for either a break in the weather where I could put the oven on, or a day when it was a) not blisteringly hot, or b) not so windy that the grill would be uncontrollable.   

Today, the weather was too windy, but it was also not so hot.  I found on NYTimes Cooking a fantastic recipe for rack of lamb with crispy potatoes.  click on link for recipe

What was good about it?  Everything.  The schmear on the racks, the crushed spuds, the rosemary, you name it, it works.

To serve with it, I decided to play with the half of green cabbage that was in the fridge.   I trimmed it up, cut into 2 quarters, and sliced it thin, parallel to the base.   

Braised Cabbage with Onions and Wine

Ingredients

1/2 head of cabbage, cored, and cut into 2 quarters.  Slice thinly, parallel to the base 

1 med white onion, halved lengthwise and sliced into thin half moons

4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1/2 fresno pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

salt, pepper

wine or sake

olive oil

Method

1. Heat a large pan or skillet up and add some olive oil.  When hot, add sliced onions and fresno peppers, salt and pepper.  When the onion is softened, add the garlic.  Stir and when fragrant, add the cabbage.  Mix well to coat the cabbage with oil.

2.  Fry/Saute the cabbage until it is softened and begins to brown up.  If it sticks to the bottom of the pan, deglaze with some white wine or sake (use whatever is open or around, but not red wine!  Beer would work as well).  Turn down the heat and cover pan.  Stir occasionally to keep from sticking.  When cabbage tastes good, add some more salt and wine or sake and allow the alcohol and other liquids to evaporate as much as possible.  Add another glug of olive oil and crisp up the cabbage and onions.  If ready before the lamb is finished, turn heat off and cover pan to keep warm.

The coated racks of lamb over the crushed, steamed potatoes just prior to going into the hot oven.

The finished rack of lamb, perfectly medium rare.  I will say, that the schmear on the lamb was superb.  I was unsure if the anchovies, garlic, and mustard would be overpowering.  They were not.  It was an exquisite way to prepare the lamb.  To be sure, I will make this preparation over and over again!  I may even sous vide it so that I can torch it when it comes out of the bath!

And the taters!  Oh, boy, oh, boy.  What a freakin' treat these were.  I steamed them in the Instant Pot for 10 minutes, and then smashed them in the roasting pan.  I poured a little bit of oil over the top along with some Maldon salt and rosemary.  I can't decide which was the best of the night, the lamb or the potatoes!

Your turn to decide!

August 23, 2020 Preserved Meats: Bresaola Week 1 + 2 and UMAI bagging

I've made bresaola before and I thought it was good.  So I ordered an eye round and gathered my cure ingredients together.

Here are a few slices of the finished product.  It is so flavorful and succulent.  A good amount of salt, but not overpoweringly so.  

Ingredients

1 kg eye round of beef, trimmed of all exterior fat

kosher salt, 3 % of meat weight

2 T sugar 

Instacure #2, .25% of meat weight

5 g black pepper, ground

2.5 g fresh rosemary

5 g dried thyme

5 juniper berries

Method

1.  Weight your eye round after trimming, mine weighed 1088 g.

2.  Mix together your cure ingredients.  (1088 x .03 = 32.64 g salt; 1088 x .0025 = 2.72 g cure #2 )

3.  Rub cure all over meat.  I did this in a plastic bag that I was going to store the meat in while waiting in the fridge.  The salt and cure will pull moisture out of the meat and replace it with salt and flavoring.  Cure for 2 weeks, massaging and turning every day.

4.  Remove from curing bag, wash off cure and pat dry.  Weigh it again.  Record weight, you are going to need it.  Then you can tie the meat into a nice tubular shape and coat with a layer of extra flavorings, such as black pepper, and rosemary.

5.  Put into an UMAI Bag and seal tight using their vac mouse system.  On the bag write the weight of the post cured meat.  Figure out the target weight which will be 35 - 40% less.

6.  Put into fridge on a rack so that air can circulate all around it.  The UMAI bags are one-way bags, air and moisture goes out, nothing goes in.  The bags are very tender, so be careful, do not use a rack that has any sharp projections or corners.  Every week for 4 - 8 weeks, weigh the meat.  When it has reached its target moisture loss, you are ready to crack it open and slice thinly for a treat.

Day 1, Week 1 (see above)

Day 4, Week 1 (see below)

The cure is penetrating the meat.  It feels a bit more resistant to the touch, firmer to the finger poke.  

Day 7, 1 week, half way through curing process (see below)

The poke test reveals it is getting quite firm and there is a lot more juice surrounding the eye round.

Today was the day to pull it out of the cure and clean off and seal in the UMAI bag.  

The meat absorbed about 11 grams during the curing process.  The color of the meat was a beautiful raw tuna color.  That is what I was looking for.  

Since I need to wait until it has lost 30-40% of its weight.  I arbitrarily selected a loss of 35%.  That target weight is 714 grams.  

What will I look for in the meat in order to decide if it is ready to eat or not.  Firmness to the finger poke, rosy red color.  

I am not really happy with the seal of the bag.  I know it does not have to be air tight, and over time it will pull away from the meat, but the issue may be I coated the cured meat with pepper and paprika which may inhibit the seal.  The UMAI bags are 1 way bags.  They allow moisture out, but not in.  This is how you can cure things, or age steaks without a dedicated space to hang.  I will monitor the situation for a couple of days, and if it looks like it is not properly sealed, I will wash off the pepper and paprika and reseal in a new bag.

I rebagged this as the seal was not good.  I washed off most of the paprika and pepper, and rebagged it in a new bag.  There was a bit of trouble getting the seal to work, but I persevered and finally, it worked.  I also cut a bit of drawer liner that is breathable and put it on top of the rack in the fridge so that I could prevent any pinholes in the bag.  The bags feel quite sturdy, but are very fragile, apparently!  

Weighed it again, and it was 1063 g, 65% of that is 691 g so that is the target weight.  Should take about 4 weeks.

Today's weigh in:  873 g  Only 200 g left

Photo Op

You can see that the bag is coming away from the meat, that is normal.  It shows that the meat is shrinking and giving off it's moisture.  In handling the bresaola today, it is getting firm on one end and has a lovely pliability when squeezed.  I am getting so psyched about this!

Dateline: August 23, 2020 Chili Verde with some surprises

I have been holding on to some tomatillos for a while, and I checked them in the morning and they were still good!  Yeah!  So it was chili verde time.  Looks like a lot of ingredients, but most of these things you may have already, and most supermarkets are carrying dried peppers these days.

Ingredients

2 lbs pork cut into fairly good sized chunks, more than a mouthful, but less than a fist

2 T lard or neutral oil

2 oz cubed pancetta

2 poblano peppers

1 jalapeno pepper

1 other hot pepper, long and skinny type

1 large onion, cut into wedges, no need to peel, but cut off stem end and clean up root end 

6 tomatillos, papery skin removed and tomatillos washed

1 or 2 plum tomatoes, cut in half

6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

4 dried pasilla peppers, stemmed and seeded

1 dried ancho pepper, stemmed and seeded

2 t dried Mexican oregano

2 t ground cumin

1 t ground coriander

3 bay leaves

2 t salt or to taste

1 t pepper or to taste

2 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, chopped up fine, with sauce

1/2 t chicken adobo granules

1 bunch of greens of your choice, collards, kale, any dark green will do.  Strip off of stem and cut into             ribbons, then cross cut into smaller pieces

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

1 ear of corn, stripped of kernels

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 c tomato sauce of your choice

1 c chicken stock

2 cups vegetable stock

juice of 1 lime

Method

1.  Break dried peppers, if necessary, in half, and put into a container and cover with warm water.  Weigh the dried peppers down so they remain under the water and soak until softened.

2.  Light grill and get it quite hot.  When it has reached at least 400°F, char poblanos, jalapano, hot pepper, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and tomatillos.  Put into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

3.  Remove soaked peppers and split open along a side.  Remove any seeds and ribs that did not get out earlier and place on hot grill to toast up.  When finished toasting, add to bowl with other vegetables.  

4.  Remove charred skin from the poblano peppers, jalapeno, and skinny hot pepper.  Split open and removed seeds and ribs.  Peel garlic cloves.  Put peppers, garlic, onions, tomatoes, tomatillos, and toasted soaked dried peppers into a blender and grind up.  Add some veg or chicken stock if necessary to get the mass moving. 

                                        

5.  Check over pork cubes for any bits of bone or gristle.  Salt and pepper them.

6.  Heat lard or oil in a saucepan.  When hot, add pancetta and cook until it renders its fat.  Add contents of the blender into the hot oil and stir.  Add chicken stock and vegetable stock to the pan and stir well.  Add pork to pot.

7.  Add bay leaves, cumin, oregano, coriander, salt, pepper, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and adobo granules.  Stir and bring to a simmer.  Taste.  Add tomato sauce.  Taste again.  Add salt and pepper if needed.

8.  Add stripped corn kernels, beans, and greens of your choice.  Stir and bring to a simmer again.  Put a lid askew on the pan, and let cook for about 45 minutes or so.   Check once in a while to make sure that the sauce or beans don't stick to the bottom of the pan.

9.  Simmer for another 30 minutes with lid askew.  After 30 minutes, taste again, and add salt if needed, or if more heat is desired, add chipotle adobo sauce or a chopped serrano.  Stir in chopped cilantro and lime juice.

10.  Allow to sit with lid on for about 20 minutes for flavors to meld.  Serve over rice.

So tasty, and it's even better the next day after resting in fridge overnight.

Dateline: August 17, 2020 Vegetable Thai Curry

I made vegetable stock the other day, and there was no room in the freezer to put it, I had to use a good deal of it up.  Vegetable Thai Curry will take care of that with quinoa on the side.

Ingredients

Lots of assorted veggies, some can be raw, some can be cooked.  The cooked ones will go in after the curry is finished.  Raw: Italian eggplant, cabbage, fresno pepper, hot pepper, serrano pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, garlic scapes.  Cooked:  broccoli, potatoes, green beans
1 can coconut milk, put in fridge about 1 - 2 hours before starting to harden up the coconut solids (they will become your cooking fat), DO NOT shake the can, you want the solids on top
2 T or more to taste Thai curry paste, I used red, but green, yellow, panang, all would be good choices, I would not use massamun, but that is a personal choice    
1 - 2 T fish sauce
1 t brown sugar, or palm sugar, or jaggery
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
1 T julienned ginger

kaffir lime leaves

thai basil

2 cups vegetable stock

Method

1.  There is no need to peel the eggplant, however, if aesthetically, you want the peel off, go ahead and peel.  Cut Italian eggplant up into 1 - 1.5 in cubes and put into a colander in the sink.  Salt the eggplant generously and mix will with your hands to be sure that the salt has contact with all sides of the cubes.  

Core and cut cabbage into bite sized pieces.  Cut the fresno peppers into slabs between the ribs, and then stack and slice crosswise into strips.  Do the same with the hot pepper.  I used a very skinny hot pepper, so I did not cut into slabs between ribs, I just cut it in half, seeded it, and then stacked and cut into strips.  Cut the serrano pepper into thin rounds.  Cut the onion into pieces and slice the garlic scapes into thin rounds, they can be thicker than the serano pepper.

2.  Heat sauce pan or wok over medium heat.  Add the hardened coconut cream from the top of.  You should be able to get about 4-5 T of the solids out.  Try to get as much out as you can without taking too much of the coconut water.  A little is ok.  Set the coconut water aside, you will use it later.

3.  When the solids have melted, add the curry paste of your choice.  Stir until combined with the melted solids.  Reduce heat to medium low and cook stirring occasionally until the fat separates.

3.  Add garlic and ginger and stir.  Add onions, garlic scapes, fresno, hot, and serano peppers.  Stir around to coat.  Rinse the eggplant thoroughly to get most of the salt off and to rinse away the bitter juices. Shake off the water and add to the pot.  Stir to coat.  If you use asian eggplants, no need to peel, no need to salt, just slice in rounds and add with onions.

4.  Add coconut water and veggie broth and stir.  Add fish sauce and stir.  Taste.  If not spicy enough, add more curry paste, if too spicy, add the sugar and stir and taste again.  

5.  Cook until the veggies are softened and have absorbed the flavors.  Taste again, adjust to your spice level.

6.  Add kafir lime leaves and thai basil and allow to cook until the eggplant is soft and yielding.

7.  Add cooked veggies and stir and heat until they are warmed up.  My potatoes were small whole ones that I had steamed the other night.  Use a spoon or ladle to smash them up a bit while you are waiting for them to warm up.  They will also supply a bit of thickener to the brothiness.

I cooked the quinoa in the microwave using the veggie stock.  The stock was quite a dark brown color.

8.  Serve over quinoa and mangia

This is a great way to use up bits and pieces of veggies that you have hanging around the crisper bin.  

Dateline: August 15, 2020 White King Salmon and Black Bean and Corn Salad

 I ordered from FD 2 White King Salmon Filet pieces about 8-10 ounces each.  The plan was to grill the salmon and eat it with corn and black bean salad prior to a colleague zoom meeting.

The weather looked iffy, so I opted to pan sear the fish.  I stripped off the kernels form 2 uncooked ears of corn, added 1/2 a diced sweet onion, 1/2 diced mild pepper, 1/2 diced sweet red bell pepper, about a dozen ripe cherry tomatoes cut into quarters, 1 can drained and rinsed black beans, 1 sliced garlic scape, salt and pepper, red wine vinegar, good olive oil.

The salad was fantastic, the fish quite tasty, but for me, the star was the salad.

Dateline: August 14-15, 2020 Chicken Brats! Yeah, Baby

A while ago, I had deboned and froze a bunch of chicken dark and white meat with skin to make chicken brats.  Friday was the day.  I took the meat out of the freezer along with some reserved beef fat and diced it up to make sausage.  

Ingredients

5 lbs chicken meat, both white and dark with skin, diced into 1 inch cubes                                                    1 lb beef fat, diced into 1 inch cubes                                                                                                               4 t kosher salt                                                                                                                                                     2 t ground white pepper                                                                                                                                     1.5 t caraway seeds                                                                                                                                           1.5 t dried marjoram                                                                                                                                           1.5 t ground allspice

Sheep or hog casing, soaked and flushed

Method

1.  Grind chicken through fine disk of a meat grinder

2.  In a large bowl, combine chicken, salt, pepper, caraway, marjoram, and allspice, mix well using your hands.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes, along with parts of your grinder.

3.  Grind mixture through the fine disk again.

4.  Stuff mixture into prepped casings.  Twist into lengths of your choice and prick any air pockets with sterilized sausage pricker.

5.  Place links on a wire rack in the refrigerator uncovered over night.

6.  Cut links apart and either keep wrapped tightly in plastic in fridge for up to 3 days, or vacuum seal and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in fridge prior to use.

7.  Cook as desired to internal temp of 165°F.  Suggested is pan fried or grilled.

I tasted a patty prior to stuffing, and boy, oh, boy, were these tasty.

Dateline: August 14, 2020 Lemon Chicken Pasta with Garden Greens

My friend Rich gave me some preserved lemon marinade and some chimichurri that he made.  I marinaded some chicken thighs in the lemon on along with some olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Ingredients 

Boneless skinless chicken thighs, about 1 - 1.5 lbs  cut into bite sized pieces                                                 Preserved Lemon Marinade                                                                                                                            Olive oil                                                                                                                                                            1/2 lb penne pasta                                                                                                                                           1/2 Sweet Onion cut into half moons about 1/8 inch thick                                                                              1/2 hot pepper, sliced thinly                                                                                                                             3 fat cloves of garlic, smashed                                                                                                                   About 10 yellow pear tomatoes cut in half                                                                                                    Splash of vodka                                                                                                                                               Mixed herbs, I used parsley, mint, basil, and rosemary

Method

1.  In a plastic bag marinate chicken thighs in about 1/3 c of lemon marinade with some olive oil for a couple of hours.

2.  Cook pasta according to package instruction in well salted boiling water.  Cook 1 minute less than suggested time.

3.  While pasta is cooking, heat up a pan large enough to hold sauce AND pasta, add olive oil and marinated chicken thighs and saute until cooked through.  Add onions, peppers, garlic and tomatoes.

4.  While pasta and sauce cooks, chop herbs up, and add to chicken and sauce.

5.  Add pasta and 2/3 - 1 cup pasta cooking water to sauce and cook until thickened and the pasta is cooked through.  Serve.

Sauce ready for pasta

Pasta added in and stirred in the sauce.

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.