Dateline: November 6, 2020 Fish Tacos!

Eugene came through with some unsolicited fish!  He dropped off 2 beautiful whole fish.  I believe he said they were black fish, but I could be wrong.  He did say that they are his favorite 

I fired up the grill, made some salsa and chipotle mayo yogurt sauce and we had dinner!

The tacos were delicious!  I was so happy, it was a warm day, and this made it feel like summer all over again!

For the salsa, I just chopped up some tomatoes, onion, tomatillos, cilantro, jalapenos, and added lime juice and a little of the sauce from the chipotle in adobo.

Fish was grilled with salt and pepper.  They were already skinned.

Dateline: November 7, 2020 Porchetta and Sweet Victory

Servet was finally finished with his quarantine after visiting Turkey for several months.  So, out of the freezer came the pork belly and the pork loin.  Porchetta!  I used Scott Rea's guidance here.  He has a wonderful step by step how to on YouTube.  

Firstly, I had to do a little bit of trimming up, there were some bone ends and chunks of cartilage that needed to be removed.  I then followed his recipe with my twist.  I did not want to butterfly this as I was rolling it around a pork loin.  

Before putting the herb mixture on top, I scored the skin side in a crosshatch pattern so that it would render and crisp up.  I topped the belly with the herb mixture and rolled it around the loin.  I tied it up with twine, rubbed salt into the skin and let it sit on a rack in the fridge over night.

Yesterday, it came out of the fridge and went into a hot oven to brown up before dropping the temp and slow roasting it until it was done.  

This is after the initial high heat.

Here is the final beast.

Carved and ready for devouring

Roasted delicata squash

Braised cabbage with bell peppers.

Dateline: November 1, 2020 Roast Pork Collar With Tomatoes and Shallots

I forgot about this one.... lots of photos too!

I needed to get into the freezer and make some space, out came the porcelet collar and onto the roasting pan it went.  Just coated with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic.  To the pan, I added the last of the tomato crop and a couple of sliced shallots.

The netting will come off after cooking.

I steamed some broccoli and made a salad, and ta dah!  Dinner was ready.

The tomatoes and shallots came out all jammy and really delicious.

The pork came out wonderfully moist and tender!

Dateline: November 4, 2020 Steamed Fish with Thai Garlic Shallot Sauce

I had a couple of Black Cod fillets that needed to be cooked.  I wanted Thai and no coconut milk.  I saw a garlic shallot sauce in a cook book and decided that steamed fish would go well with it.

The bad news is that we were so hungry by the time we could eat dinner, I didn't take a snap of the food.  Didn't change the taste, thought!

Garlic Shallot Sauce  Ken Hom's recipe

5 dried red chilies

2 T vegetable oil

100 g peeled garlic, finely chopped

100 g shallots, finely chopped

1 T shrimp paste

2 T fish sauce

2 t sugar

4 T water

Method

1.  Soak chilies in warm water until softened, drain and chop finely

2.  Heat a wok and add oil.  When hot add chilies, garlic, shallots, and shrimp paste.

3.  Stir fry for 2 minutes and then add the fish sauce, sugar, and water.  

4.  Continue to cook until garlic and shallots are cooked through.  Hold aside

Steamed Fish

Any firm flaky fish will do

julienned ginger

sliced scallions

thai basil leaves

Method

1.  Bring pan of water to a boil.  On a rack place the fish, sprinkle ginger and scallions over and top with basil leaves.

2.  Put rack into pan of water, cover and let steam until it begins to flake at the thicker places.

3.  Serve 

I served this with steamed green beans and a salad.  We were both amazed at how delicious the sauce was.  It really popped on the fish.  Sorry there were no photos!  But here is a photo of Ken Hom's sauce!

Dateline: November 1, 2020 Moussaka and Roasted Cauliflower

Once again, I had something in the fridge that needed to be used.  Ground Lamb.  I had thought about Keema, or lamb burgers, but, then, I had an inspiration, Moussaka!  I had 2 eggplants, check.  Had lamb, check.  Had tomatoes, yogurt, onions, garlic, etc.  A done deal.

Ingredients 

2 Eggplants, sliced into 1 inch rounds

1 lb ground lamb

1 inch cinnamon stick

1/2 t marjoram

1 red onion, chunked

3 cloves garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1 T spicy turkish pepper paste

1 T tomato paste

1 t calabrian pepper paste

1 t Aleppo pepper

1 can diced tomatoes, divided

1/4 c dry red wine

1/4 c red wine vinegar

1 c chicken stock

1 c yogurt

1 whole egg

1/4 c crumbled feta cheese

about 6 slices low fat mozzarella cheese

fresh bread crumbs

Method

1.  Set oven to 400°.  Put eggplants on a silpat mat on a baking sheet pan and spray lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle just a bit of salt on them.  Roast for 30 minutes, then turn them over, turn oven off, and let sit for 10 minutes.

2.  Grind cinnamon stick and marjoram in a spice grinder until they become a fine powder.  Hold aside.

3.  Put onion and garlic into a food processor and pulse until finely ground.  

4.  Put large saucepan or skillet on high heat and add olive oil.  Add onions and cook until wilted and water is evaporating.  Do not brown.

5.  Add ground lamb, cinnamon and marjoram to the onions and garlic.  Break up lamb as it cooks.  When it loses its raw color, add 1 cup of the canned tomatoes, pepper pastes, Aleppo pepper, salt, black pepper, wine, vinegar and stock.  

6.  Bring to a boil, and lower to a steady simmer, you want to reduce it so the final product is not soupy.  Set the oven to 350°.

7.  Take the remaining part of the can of tomatoes, about 1/2 c, and grind in the food processor until it is homogeneous.

8.  In a mixing bowl, put yogurt, feta, about 3 slices of the mozzarella torn into bits, egg, salt, pepper, and the ground tomatoes.  Mix together well.  Add about 2-3 T of fresh bread crumbs and mix again.  Set aside.  It will thicken up as it sits.

9.  Coat a 8 x 12 pan with cooking spray and sprinkle about 2-3 T of bread crumbs on the bottom of the pan.  Layer about 1/3 of the eggplant slices on top of the crumbs, then cover with about 1/3 of the lamb sauce, and another layer of eggplant, then sauce, etc.

10.  On top of the last layer of sauce, add the thickened yogurt topping.  Spread to cover the entire casserole dish.  On top, add slices of mozzarella cheese and some bread crumbs.  Spray the top with cooking spray.  Set casserole pan on the silpat mat used for the eggplant and put the entire pan into the oven for 30 minutes.

11.  After 30 minutes, check on its browning.  If it needs more, then rotate the pan 180° and put it back in for 10 more minutes.  Remove and let sit for about 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

Nota Bene:

This tasted very good.  I was a little skeptical, but am a believer now.  Even Bill liked it, mostly because it was not "eggplanty".  I liked the interplay between sour, heat, and lusciousness.  A Definite keeper.  I served it with roasted cauliflower which was a good choice as it did not compete with the moussaka.

The addition of the pepper pastes really gave depth to the lamb so that it could carry the blandness of the eggplants and the vinegar added just the right touch of tartness.  Thank God there are leftovers.... yumminess during the week too!

Dateline: October 29, 2020 Egyptian Kebabs and Cranberry Beans with Butternut Squash

I had to cook the kebabs.  They are a prepared product from FD and they are fabulous.  Redolent with cinnamon and spices, they do evoke our trip to Egypt.

I made the bean recipe from a couple of days ago again, except using cranberry beans and butternut squash to stand in for the escarole.  As the beans were larger than the white beans I used the other day, I opted to set the Instant Pot for 33 minutes rather than 30.  Still using the natural release.  They outcome was good, but not as slam-bang delish as with the white beans.  More than likely that was because I RAN OUT OF GARLIC...no kidding, I only had granulated.  So, that I was I used.  The squash did not provide the sweetness of the carrots in the early rendition, but did add a lovely color interest.

I used a leek for the onion and as I usually do, doctored the sauted veggies with some of the pesto I made the previous day.  

The leek sweated nicely and when it was mostly melting onto itself, I added in the thinly sliced butternut squash that didn't get added to the beans. 

As it cooked down, I realized that it would benefit from some additional flavors, so I drizzled in some of the pesto from the previous day and a touch of the calabrian pepper paste.  

I browsed through the fridge and found a couple of slices of cooked red cabbage from the other night and chopped those and dumped them in.

Here is melange that will be added to the beans after they finish cooking and are drained.  The final product did need salt, but was still quite tasty.

There was one catastrophe.  I cooked the kebabs on a plancha on the stove.  Except there was not a deep enough rim to catch the grease.  Consequently, much of the fat ran off the plancha onto the stove top.  No fire, but annoying.  Didn't effect the taste of the resulting kebabs.  

Dateline: October 30, 2020 Indonesian Beef Rendang

There were several Indonesian recipes in the NYTimes Food section on Weds.  The Beef Rendang caught my eye.  I ordered some beef chuck cubes from FD and some lemongrass.  Everything else was in house, or so I thought.  I didn't have enough of the long red hot peppers, so I did a little fast substituting and used some drying sishito peppers, a couple of serrano, 2 reddening poblanos and a single red bell pepper for color. Just enough to make the 4 oz. amount called for in the recipe.

Everything got ground up in the ninja and ended up looking like this.

I did use a pinch of citric acid to keep the color and provide a bit more sour than the lemongrass.

Here are the rest of the ingredients ready for the pot.

On the left is the coconut milk.  I had 1 can of milk and 1 six oz can of cream.  I figured that would suffice.  I wanted to break up the cream into the milk.

On the right are the aromatics, bay leaves, lemongrass stalks, lime leaves, and beef.  All of this plus the spice paste went into the coconut milk.

Everybody into the pool.  I had tasted the sauce, and it had a bitter overtone, so I added some agave syrup to try to balance it out.  It needed a bit more after cooking for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, the beef was tender and it had reduced a little bit.  The lemongrass has given its all as have the bay and lime leaves.  

The pooling fat is very visible.  Haven't decided if I will get most of it out, or wait until after things have browned. It will be easier to spoon off the fat once the sauce has been absorbed into the meat and the meat fries in the remaining fat.

Just thinking about eating this later tonight makes my mouth water.

October 28, 2020 Roasted Buttermilk Chicken

I had a quart of buttermilk that needed to be used.  I don't remember why I ordered it, but there it was!  I saw on NTYCooking a roasted buttermilk recipe from Samin Nosrat and jumped at it.   

I doctored the brine a little with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, granulated onion and garlic, and a couple of rosemary sprigs.  It has been in the fridge for almost 36 hrs.....

This was a wonderful recipe!  

Bill exclaimed at the first bite, "this is wonderful, soooo moist".  He is a white meat guy, so this meant a lot.  

I did wipe off the top of the bird after it was in a pan.  This allowed it to brown up fabulously.  When I make it again, I will put the chicken on a bed of veggies so that the back can get delicious as well.  Dead easy and sooo delicious.

October 26, 2020 Chicken Thighs and White Beans

 I had a package of chicken thighs in the fridge and figured I should cook them.  I wanted something interesting and relatively easy.  I wanted some beans too!  I know, I know, I think I was a Tuscan in a previous life.  I Love Beans!  And not just for their music!

I was perusing the NYTCooking app, and saw a bean recipe with broccoli rabe from Melissa Clark.  I didn't have any rabe, but I did have escarole.  Bingo!  This made the best beans I have ever done in the Instant pot. Only change I made was to cook under pressure for 30 minutes and allow to release naturally.  Hands Down.  The texture was smooth and luscious, and the addition of carrots and rosemary provided some contrasting flavor and color.  It is a keeper.  The thighs were inspired by this recipe.  Bill does not like mustard, tant pis, but I decided to use my preserved lemon marinade instead of mustard.  I had red cabbage and red onions!  

This was a most satisfying meal.  We were both happy and smiling.  The beans were my fave, where Bill favored the chicken.  

Before

Silky Beans

After

October 23, 2020 Dal and Vegetables

I was jonesing for indian food.  It was getting late, and we had a zoom call at 6.  Instant pot to the rescue!

I grabbed some moong dal, and cleaned out the fridge of veggies: 1/2 a head of cabbage, celery, bell peppers, zucchini, onions, garlic, ginger, jalapenos and a can of tomatoes.  Dinner!

I first rinsed the dal and held on the side.  I chopped the veggies into large pieces so that they don't disintegrate.  Even with my large pieces, most of the veggies were now sauce!

Spices:  cumin seeds, mustard seeds, turmeric, Kashmiri chili powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, garam masala, and veggie masala powder.

0

Method

1.  Make garlic ginger paste by putting equal amounts of garlic and ginger into a mini processor and grind to a paste.  Hold on the side

2.  Heat instant pot on saute and when hot add 1-2 T of ghee (or olive oil) and then add cumin seeds and mustard seeds.  Let sizzle until they start to pop.

3.  Add garlic ginger paste and let sizzle a bit.  Then add turmeric and chili powder and stir to combine.  Cancel saute.

4.  Add dal to the pot and mix well, add veggies and try to mix as best you can.  

5.  Sprinkle 1 - 2 T of the vegetable masala mix along with ground cumin and coriander.  Dump 14 oz canned tomatoes over the top, try to stir and rinse can 1/2 can  left over wine and 1/2 can water and add that to the mix.  

6.  Close lid, set pressure for 8 minutes.  Let pressure release naturally

7.  Taste.  It may need salt depending on your masala mix.  Adjust and enjoy.