Dateline: September 4, 2020 Pasta Norma, Sorta

I had 3 big eggplants that needed to be cooked.  I didn't want babaganoush, or curry, I wanted pasta.  I checked out a couple of recipes on NYT Cooking website, and combined the best aspects of 2 or 3 and came up with a very satisfying dish.

Ingredients

3 eggplants, cut into about 3/4 to 1 inch crosswise slices

1 onion, minced

3 sprigs of thyme

a HUGE mess of cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 jalapeno, seeded and minced

olive oil

salt and pepper

3 cloves of garlic, smashed

4 oz pancetta

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, drained and juice reserved

1 T calabrian pepper paste, optional

1 lb pasta of your choice, I used farfalle

Large handfuls of mixed herbage, I used basil, parsley, mint and chives

1/4 lb ricotta salata, cut into small cubes

Method

1.  Light a grill and let it get quite hot.

2.  Heat the oven to 300°F and on a sheet pan pile the onions.  Coat with a bit of olive oil, top with salt and pepper and the thyme sprigs.  On top of that pile the halved cherry tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper and if necessary add a little olive oil.  Into the oven they go for about 1 hour.  Check on them, you want them to start to shrivel and give up some of their juices.  Adjust temp accordingly.

3.  While grill is heating, brush, or use your fingers, the eggplant slices with some olive oil.  Hold until grill is hot.

4.  Grill the eggplant until the slices are deep brown on both sides.  Cool them for a bit and then dice into 1/2 cubes and hold.  

5.  In a pan large enough to hold the tomatoes and eggplant comfortable, heat some olive oil and add pancetta.  Saute until the pancetta gives up most of its fat and is just starting to brown.  Add drained cubed tomatoes, pepper paste, and garlic.

6.  Set up a big pot of salted water for the pasta.  Bring to a boil and cook pasta when sauce is just about finished for the recommended al dente time.

7.  When tomatoes have shriveled and the edges browning a bit, dump the entire sheet pan of stuff into the pan with the pancetta.  If more liquid is needed add some, or all, of the reserved tomato juices.

8.  Chop the herbs and hold.

9.  In a bowl large enough to the pasta and the sauce, put 1/2 the sauce, 1/2 the herbs, and 1/2 the ricotta salata, top with the pasta, on top of the pasta add the balance of the sauce, herbs, and diced cheese.

10.  Serve immediately

Of course, guess who forgot to take a photo of the finished product, this gal!  This was very tasty.  The grilling of the eggplant added a nice flavor profile, and the pepper paste a necessary kick.  The layering in the serving bowl works well because this is not a "saucy" dish.  All things are about the same size and blend together nicely.  You could use cubed mozzarella, or grated romano cheese, but the ricotta salata was perfect in its saltiness.  

Even Bill, who really does not like eggplant, enjoyed it and grew to like the contrast of the charred thicker skin on the eggplant cubes.  It was given 2 thumbs up!

Dateline: September 3, 2020 Fresh Yellowfin Tuna

As luck is running these days, there was a knock at the door last night just after we finished dinner.  At the door was Eugene with a BEAUTIFUL loin of yellowfin tuna which he caught the night before.  It never fails, I order swordfish and Eugene will show up with a big hunk of tuna either that day or the next.  It's a beautiful thing.

I decided to grill it and put it on a nicoise salad of sorts.

Ingredients

Tuna steaks

olive oil

salt and pepper

Handful of yellow pear tomatoes, halved

2 yellow beefsteak tomatoes, cubed

jicama, cubed

1/2 sweet onion sliced thinly

3 waxy potatoes, steamed and sliced

green beans, steamed and cut into pieces

1/2 jalapeno pepper, minced

1/4 fresno pepper, minced

1/2 orange sweet bell pepper, cubed

herbage, I used parsley, basil, mint, chives, and thyme, chopped finely

sherry vinegar

olive oil

Method

1.  Prep tuna, lightly oil both sides and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

2.  Light grill get really roaring.  When it reaches a temp of about 400°F, damp down vents, and clean grates.

3.  Assemble salad douse liberally with sherry vinegar and mix well.

3.  Grill tuna 2 minutes on a side.  No more!  If you have thin steaks, then only 1.5 minutes.  You can always heat them up more, but once they are toast, they are done!

4.   Slice enough tuna for the salad and reserve any remaining steaks.  Add olive oil to salad, as well as salt and pepper.  Toss well.  Add tuna sliced on top and serve.

Dateline: September 2, 2020 Swordfish, Farro, Cauliflower and Salad

 I ordered FreshDirect Swordfish, again.  When they rate something 5 stars, don't think about it, just order it.  It will be fabulous, unless, of course, you don't like that food to begin with!

I wanted to keep it relatively simple, as it was raining, so I would have to cook it indoors.  

Into the InstantPot went the 1 cup of farro, rinsed well, and 1.25 cups of water, along with a nice glug of leftover white wine.  Shut it up, and hit pressure, high, for 12 minutes.  Perfect!

For the cauliflower, I cleaned up the head, and sliced it into thick steaks.  Then I oiled them with olive oil and a nice coating of salt and pepper and into a 450°F oven they went.  I reduced the oven to 400°F after they went in.

Salad was beautiful yellow beefsteak tomatoes, cored and chopped into 1/2 dice, sliced onion, diced jicama, a few cherry tomatoes for color, and cucumber.  Sherry vinegar and olive oil finished it out.

For the garnishing the fish, I finely minced the other half of onion, diced a yellow bell pepper, a bit of hot pepper, 3 cloves of garlic, smashed and mashed with a bit of salt for grit.  Now I collected some herbs from the garden, basil, parsley, thyme, mint, and chives.  These all got minced up as well.

In a frying pan large enough to hold the fish in one layer, heat up some oil.  Pat the fish dry, and coat with a little bit of oil and salt and pepper it to taste.  When the pan is hot, add the fish.  You want to cook it only long enough to get a nice brown crust on the bottom side, so don't play with the fish, let it sit in the pan and just wait!

Turn the fish, and brown the other side.  These were very thick steaks, so I also checked with a thermometer and the fish was at about 125-135°F when I removed it to a waiting plate.  Into the pan went the onions, peppers, and garlic.  These were sauteed until they softened.  The minced herbs went in, along with a bit more oil and the remnants of the preserved lemon marinade from the other night and the juice of 1/2 a lime.  Combine together and add the fish back in, brownest side up, along with any juices that have accumulated.  Lid the pan and turn the heat to simmer.  Depending on how done you like your swordfish, you may just turn the heat off and lid the pan.

When the cauliflower has browned up a bit and can be easily pierced with the tip of a knife, it is dinner time.

Dateline: September 1, 2020 Chicken Thighs and Greens

I had a hankering for lemon, preserved lemon, and decided to take one out of the jar in the fridge and blitz it with 3 big cloves of garlic and a bit of a hot pepper that was in the brine.  After it was ground up, I added some olive oil and blitzed again.  A chunky luscious puree was the result.

   

This puree was then the marinade on chicken thighs and added to collards and kale cut into ribbons with 1/4 an onion thinly sliced, plus some olive oil and hot pepper flakes.  Oh my, this was tasty.

I grilled the thighs over a hot fire and they got beautifully browned and crisped edges.  These were naked thighs so I had to be careful about letting them cook too long.  Stringy thighs might work on 

models, but not on a dinner plate.

Speaking of dinner plates, I ate on Uncle Ho's face!  Not to disrespect him, but his face is everywhere on the set of commemorative plates we bought in Hanoi.

This dinner turned out fabulously.  Bill, who really does not see lemon as an essential ingredient, found the greens to be wonderful...had multiple servings!  That's my indicator on the like or no like meter.  I even got him to put some of the surplus marinade on the crunchy salad.  I thought it was an exquisite addition with that extra hit of salt and tart.

Dateline: August 31, 2020 Cleaning out the Fridge! Vegetarian Red Curry with baked Spicy Tofu

I realized that the situation in the fridge had become untenable.  I had veggies in all corners of it, and each at a different level of "goodness".

Out they all came, and those close to their maker were set aside, those that already were shaking hands with their maker were tossed, and those still on this side of heaven were put back for another day.

What I had to work with:  a very small head of cabbage, 3/4 of a yellow bell pepper, a couple of hot peppers, onions, scallions, and a tomatillo.  Bingo!  Red curry with veggies and rice noodles.

Red Curry Vegetables and Rice Noodles 

Ingredients

1 14 oz container of firm or extra firm tofu

1 cup homemade or store bought spicy bbq sauce

1 large onion, sliced into thin quarter moons

1 tomatillo cut into small chunks

1 yellow bell pepper cut into thin strips

1-2  hot red peppers, seeded and cut into thin strips

1 small head of cabbage, cored and cut into thin strips

1 bunch of scallions, sliced cross-wise into rings

1 small jar of red curry paste

1 can coconut milk, chilled without shaking

fish sauce

1 T shrimp fry paste  (Indonesian ingredient, optional)

1 T coconut oil

2 servings of rice noodles, I used a fresh brand, but any rice noodle will do, just prepare according to directions on the package

Method

1.  Press the tofu to remove as much water as you can.  I find wrapping it up in lots of paper towels and pressing down on it gently with my hands several times does the trick.  Unwrap from paper towels and turn the block on its long side and divide into thirds, so you have 3 one-half inch blocks.  Cut the blocks into 1/2 cubes.

2.  Pour 1/3 of the sauce into a plastic bag, add 1/3 of the tofu cubes.  Be gentle, do not break up the cubes.  Add 1/3 more of the sauce and another 1/3 of the tofu, followed by the last third of each.  Gently distribute the sauce all around the tofu and put into fridge for at least an hour.

3.  After an hour pre heat oven to 400° F and line a sheet pan with sides with either a teflon cooking mat or parchment paper.  I used a mat.  Gently tumble the tofu cubes onto the paper or mat and spread them out in a single layer.  Put pan into oven for 15 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 15 minutes.  There should be no watery residue on the paper or mat.  If there is, put back into oven for a bit.  Remove from oven and if any residue has burned, gently pry away from the cubes.  Take those burnt bits, if they are NOT bitter, you can stop fussing and just all burnt bits and all in later.  

Crispy tofu bits separated from burnt bits

4.  I used my instant pot but not for pressure cooking, just for saute and slow cook in the pot.  Melt the coconut oil and add the ENTIRE jar of the red curry paste along with the shrimp fry paste.  I used Roland brand curry, which is not very spicy, to my taste buds, if you are using a Thai or Indonesian brand, use smaller amounts and add more to your liking.

5.  Mix the curry paste with the coconut oil until well combined.  Allow to cook on low until the fat separates from the mixture.  Spoon in the coconut cream from the can of coconut milk trying not to take any of the liquid beneath it.  Reserve what remains in the can of coconut milk.  It will get added later.

6.  Mix well and allow to cook on low until the oil separates again.  When that happens, add the vegetables and mix well and cook until softened.  

Veggies on their way to being softened up

7.  Add coconut water from can and mix well.  Taste.  If too spicy, add a bit of sugar to cut the spice.  If not spicy enough, add some more hot peppers.  Add fish sauce if the salt level is too low for your.

8.  Prepare the rice noodle according to the package, and then add to the curry.  Mix well.  If more liquid is needed, add water or broth to get the consistency you like.

9.  Put cooker on slow cook for 30 minutes.  Serve with tofu bits and thinly sliced cucumbers on top.

Just before adding the noodles

For Bill and I this had a perfect spice level, enough to get us both sniffing and reaching for tissues, and not so spicy that we couldn't eat more!

 

Dateline: August 30, 2020 CHORIZO

As per usual, I had a delivery from FreshDirect and I had a big ole pork shoulder coming.  I had been thinking about making chorizo and decided Friday was the day.  

Mexican Chorizo Recipe  click on link for recipe from Serious Eats

I made a few changes to grind size and number of grinds, but other than that, it was a written.  I ground the meat through a large plate, added the cold vinegar, and then ground thru a medium plate before stuffing into casings.

Another change I made was to cube the meat and fat up add the spices and let rest over night in fridge before grinding on Saturday.  Sure made the house smell good.  After filling the casings, I left them on a rack over a pan to air dry over night.  Sure made the fridge smell good.  I cut them apart, and portioned them into bags to be shared with neighbors.  I only made 3 lbs of chorizo, now thinking back, that seems stupid!

The over night rest really help set the deep reddish brown color associated with chorizo.  Good enough to eat raw!  Well, perhaps not.

Beautiful color, no?

Just before sealing them up!

Happy Sausaging!

 

Dateline: August 29, 2020 Almost Vegetarian Mexican-ish Stew

I had a hankering for a Mexican Style stew and thought of beans, peppers, corn, and tomatillos...All available in fridge or pantry.  I also had about 7 ounces of uncased chorizo which would add some flavor to the party as well.

Mexican-ish Bean and Chorizo Stew

Ingredients

3/4 cup each of three different type dried beans, I used greek white beans, caballero, and cranberry

6-7 ounces uncased chorizo

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1 Fresno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 large onion, minced

3-4 large tomatillos, chopped

salt and pepper

1 T Mexican oregano

1-2 T dark chili powder

1.5 t chipotle chili powder

1 t ground cumin

1/2 t ground coriander

sprinkle of adobo seasoning

28 oz tomato sauce, marinara type or one 28 oz can crushed tomatoes 

2-3 c water

3 ears of corn stripped of kernels

Method

1.  Either soak the beans overnight, or using a pressure cooker, cover with 3 inches of water and bring to a boil.  Boil 2 minutes and remove and let rest for 1 hour.  (I used an InstantPot for this entire recipe).  After 1 hour drain and rinse the beans.

2.  Heat the InstantPot on saute, medium heat, and when hot add chorizo.  Cook until most of the fat has been rendered, and remove to a small dish.

3.  In the rendered fat, add the onions, tomatillos, and hot peppers and saute until softened.  Add beans, tomato sauce, chili powders, cumin, coriander, oregano, adobo and salt and pepper.  You may need to add about 1 or 2 cups of water here.  You don't want to get the burn message!  Change the setting to pressure cook, high, for 23 minutes.  

4.  When time is up, allow 10 minutes of natural release and quick release the rest.  Stir well to keep things from getting too thick at the bottom.  Taste the sauce, and check the beans.  Take 1 of each type of bean that you used out and cut in half.  If there is ANY white regions in the beans, add corn kernels and return to pressure cook for another 10 minutes.  Natural release for 10 minutes again, and check the beans again.  

If your beans were completely cooked, then add corn kernels and put InstantPot on stew for 20 minutes.

Taste for seasonings.  Serve with steamed rice.

Dateline: August 28, 2020 Ribs with Sauce, Broccoli, and Crunchy Salad

My order from FreshDirect came this morning.  In it were 2 racks of pork ribs and a boneless pork shoulder.  The shoulder was cut into two 3+ lb. chunks.  One frozen for another purpose, to be decided, and the other chopped up and mixed with chorizo spices waiting to be ground.  Tomorrow's project!

Tonight, I took one of the racks of pork ribs and coated it with a pig rub variation.  

Rib Rub II

Ingredients

1 T guajillo chili powder

2 t kosher salt

1 t ground cumin

1/2 t ground coriander

1 t dry mustard

1 t smoked paprika

1 t ground black pepper

white wine/shoju/sake

Tomato Based BBQ Sauce for Ribs

2 c tomato sauce, preferably homemade, with any bay leaves removed

1/3 to 1/2 c cider vinegar

2 T chili powder

1 T agave syrup

1 T molasses

salt to taste

Methods

1.  Mix rub ingredients together well, set aside.  Set oven to 350° F.

2.  Dry off ribs, and remove membrane from bones.  Trim off any excess fat and freeze for sausages!

3.  Rub the rub all over the ribs, coating each side and edges and rubbing in well.  Place in a shallow sheet pan and put into oven for 1 hr and 10 minutes.  At about 35 minute mark, pour enough wine/shoju/sake into the bottom of the pan to create a shallow lake.  This will create a moist environment where the ribs will steam as well as roast.

4.  While the ribs are cooking, get a sauce pan and add 2 cups homemade tomato sauce (preferably a marinara sauce or equally straight ahead tomato sauce).  To the saucepan, add a good glug of the cider vinegar, chili powder, and the agave syrup.  Stir well and taste.  Add salt, vinegar, more agave or chili powder.  Bring to a slow simmer.  Use an immersion blender to blend everything together.  Taste again.  Add molasses and another glug of cider.  Stir and bring to a simmer again.  Reduce to thicken.  Taste and adjust, if necessary.

5.  After 70 minutes, pull ribs out and coat the top with a couple of hefty tablespoons of the sauce.  Coat the ribs evenly.  Raise the oven temp to 500° F and return ribs to over for about 15 minutes or until the sauce has set and is beginning to darken on the meat.  

6.  Remove ribs to a cutting board and separate them into individual ribs.  Serve with the remaining sauce on the side.

Uncut and waiting for the main event

Cut up and ready to eat

Sauce to the left, and broccoli, steamed to the right

Go to crunchy salad, cucumbers, onions, celery, peppers, tomatoes dressed with sherry vinegar and olive oil

The ribs were really, really tasty.  Easy eating, little resistance and nicely spicy.  I am usually not a sauce girl, ever, but the mood struck me as I was hunting through the fridge and saw the containers of tomato sauce from the other night.  It was an excellent stroke of genius, I might add.  Sweet, just barely, tart, moderated, spicy, pleasantly, and thick!  Will try the sauce again in the future.

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!