Dateline: December 7, 2020 Beans, Greens, and Other Things

I was really jonesing for some beans.  I know, that is a very weird thing to be longing for, but I can't help it.  I think I was Tuscan in a former life.  

I had a left over rotisserie chicken, but didn't want to deprive Bill of his brekkies.  So I went sort of vegetarian.  I did use some of the brodo that I made over the weekend.

I chopped up a leek, the half of onion from the other night, a handful of collard leaves, a couple of bok choy, garlic, and 2 cans of cannellini beans.  I separated the leaves from the stems with the collards, and sliced into ribbons and halved those along the rib line, then I also separated the leaves from the stems of the bok choy, and sliced the leaves in ribbons and chunked up the stems for crunch in the "stew".  I chopped 3 cloves of garlic roughly.

Into a large shallow lidded casserole I sauted the leeks and onions until softened, added the garlic and salt and pepper.  After a few more minutes, I threw in the stems and more salt and pepper along with some herbes de Provence.  Here is where the stupid thing happened, I know you were waiting for this!  I grabbed a bottle of open wine from the counter, never looking, assuming it was the open white... but no, it was the open red.  Glug glug glug into the casserole, no going back now!  I got the brodo out of the fridge and added 3 cups.  Lidded the pan, and let it go for a bit.  I dumped the greens and the 2 cans of drained and rinsed beans in, mixed it all up and tasted for seasoning.  All was good.  I let it go until the collards turned dark green and that was dinner.

The look of disappointment on Bill's face, was, well, priceless.  He would eat it, but stated, "I want animals to die for my plate."  Turns out, the concoction was quite good.  We each were going back to the dish for more.

Above are the leeks and onions softening and at right, is the bok choy stems prior to the red wine mishap.

Here are the chopped bok choy stems waiting to go into the "pool"

 Likewise, to the right are the chopped leaves of the collards and bok choy cut into ribbons

Below, the finished product with the red wine disaster!  Oh, I had a few veggies left over from the rotisserie chicken and threw those in as well.

Dateline: December 4, 2020 Chili Verde with Pork over Rice

I had a big chunk of pork shoulder that I had cut into 1/3 - 2/3 pieces, I used the 1/3 piece in an instant pot recipe on Tuesday.

Today, we are having Chili Verde.  I love Chili Verde.  The silkiness of the pork, the lusciousness of the sauce, wonderful.

Chili Verde with Pork

3 lbs pork shoulder, cut into chunks and trimmed of most of the fat

2 ancho chilis, seeded, stemmed, and split

1 dried jalapeno, seeded, stemmed, and split

1 lb tomatillos, peeled and cut through the equator

1 large onion, cut in half through the root end

4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

2 serrano chili peppers

1 lb tuscan kale, stripped and chopped into manageable pieces

1 qt good stock

salt and pepper to taste

1 T mexican oregano

1 T ground cumin

1 t ground coriander

1 t dried granulated shallot

1 chipotle pepper in adobo, chopped with accompanying sauce

Method

1.   Heat a cast iron comal or skillet, place anchos, jalapeno, and serranos on the comal.  Add the tomatillos cut side down, onion cut side down, and garlic cloves.  When peppers have become pliable and their color changes slightly, remove to a hot water soaking bath.  Use a cup or plate to totally submerge the toasted dried peppers.

2.  When the remaining vegetables have gotten some char, remove to the body of a blender and add soaked peppers, not soaking liquid.  Add 1 pint of broth and blitz until smooth; blender will break down garlic skins.  You may need to scrape down sides of blender and/or adjust the blades if things get hung up.  Pour contents of blender into a pan large enough to hold all the chunked up meat.  Add the kale, meat chunks, spices, chipotle pepper in adobo, salt and pepper.  I used an instant pot, you can do this in an instant pot, or in a dutch oven.

3.  Mix well and set instant pot to pressure cook, low pressure for 20 minutes.  After twenty minutes, use natural release and mix well.  Hit cancel.  

4.  Set instant pot to slow cook, 3.5 hours, low temp.  Leave lid of instant pot ajar to facilitate evaporation.

5.  Taste, adjust seasonings and reduce further if wanted using the saute function..

Dateline: December 3, 2020 Asian Fusion Mushroom Melange

I was in the Farmer's Market and saw these fabulous yellow oyster mushrooms at one of the stalls.  I bought a bag.  Yes, a paper bag filled with the mushrooms.  I now had to figure out what to do WITH those mushrooms as well as the 3 other kinds that were in the fridge at home!

I was going to attempt a moo sho mushroom recipe that I saw on NYTCooking site, but opted instead to free-hand it and put whatever I came up with over rice.

I had some dried cloud ear mushrooms, some sliced baby bellas, some gray oyster mushrooms, and some king mushrooms.  The cloud mushrooms got soaked and then sliced into thin strips, the king mushrooms got sliced lengthwise into 3 or 4 planks, and the oyster mushrooms were torn into bitesized chunks.  Add to the mix slivered ginger, crushed garlic, sliced serrano pepper, 1/2 onion, 1 leek, and leftover green beans.  The onions, garlic, ginger were first sauteed for a bit with a teaspoon of shrimp paste, then the mushrooms and serrano were added and mixed about, and finally a pint of mixed bone stock I made the day before.  (I labeled it Brodo!  It is really delicious and oh so gelatinous.)  I flavored it with some gochujang paste, some rice vinegar, green beans, and fish sauce.  An asian mishmash of flavors.  

It had a definite kick and both Bill and I were sniffling through dinner,  Thank goodness I made lots of rice!  The gochujang is sneaky, it starts out tasting sweetish, and then, wham, the heat hits full force.  Yum, pass the tissues, please.

The above photo is before the brodo went into the mix, and before gochujang.

Dinner ready and delicious.

Dateline: November 19, 2020 ROTOQ-360 Test Spin

I have been trolling and backing things on Kickstarter for a couple of months.  My backings range from pillows to exercise equipment.

A recent product was just delivered.  ROTOQ-360!  I have been doing the happy Homer dance.  In the box came the basic set, motor, stand and rotisserie spit, but wait, there's more, a circular cage, a shish kabob wheel, a sausage wheel, and a rectangular cage.  I am in heaven.

Tested it out a whole chicken on the grill.  

You can see the motor unit on the left, which is wound up prior to cooking.  There is a drip pan below the chicken, and then the frame which holds the motor and spit.

I learned some things during the test run.

1.  crank up the motor fully before the cook

2.  center the food on the spit to facilitate rotation

3.  do not truss the bird

4.  If it's cold out, it will take longer than you think.

The final product was beautifully crisped and browned and was perfectly cooked.  It was juicy and moist.  Just plain yummy.  I used my friend Lyn's suggested brussel sprouts recipe.

Brussel Sprouts with Marmite

Brussel Sprouts

2 T unsalted butter

2 t marmite or vegemite

salt and pepper

Method

1.  Halve the brussel sprouts and steam for 3-4 minutes.  Place on a towel to dry off a bit.

2.  Heat a large pan and add the sprouts.  Char them a bit on all sides.

3.  Add butter and marmite and swirl around the sprouts until they are all covered and cooked through completely.  Sprinkle with pepper.  

4.  Taste before salting as marmite or vegemite is quite salty.  You may not need any further salt.

These were really good.

Thank you, Lyn!

Dateline: November 16, 2020 Cauliflower Crust Pizza, Two Ways

I impulse purchased a box of cauliflower pizza crusts.  I also had some canned clams that were almost past their best by date.  Voila, clam pizza.  Ok, that takes care of one of the crusts, there are 2 in the box, and you can't just save one crust.....The second pizza was a pesto based, onion, mozzarella, and romano cheese pizza.  

To keep the crust from getting soggy, I drained the juice from the clam cans and saved it in the freezer.  I dumped the clams into a bowl, added a T of olive oil, sliced red onions, mashed garlic and some calabrian peppers.  I spread a thin layer of olive oil on the crust and topped with the mixture above, spreading it into all corners of the crust.  A little bit of sliced onion left and some pesto were sprinkled on top.  Into the oven it went.

The box said to bake at 425° for 7-9 minutes.  I did 7 minutes.  The outside edge of the crust was cracker crunchy, but the bottom of the crust in the middle was not as satisfyingly crispy.  While the cracker quality of the crust was a nice switch up from regular pizza crust, it was not a replacement.  The cauliflower crust passed the skeptics test.  Would I buy it again, probably not, but it wasn't horrible.  In a pinch I would use it.

The second pizza was pesto on top of the crust followed by sliced red onions, little mozzarella balls, called perlini, and some romano cheese.  A few remnant onion slices were put on top along with additional dribbles of pesto.

The second pizza came out better.  It was crustier, however, the taste of pizza #1 was better.  I think that was because of the calabrian peppers which added a nice zip to the clams.

The pizza on the left is the clam pie and the one on the right is the pesto mozzarella pie.  You can see that the pesto pie is darker in the crust than the clam pie.

Dateline: November 14, 2020 Steamed Fish and Greens

I had some tilapia that I wanted to make something asian-y.  Was leaning toward chinese, but had a zoom with some friends and they got my mind heading toward thai.

I have some Indonesian Shrimp Paste.  It is stinky and salty.  It adds just the right amount of both of those umami ingredients to delight the tongue.

I started with the aromatics: shrimp paste, onion, garlic, ginger, onions, celery, and added in some thai chilis.  I stripped the collards and chopped it into bite size pieces along with tuscan kale.  The bell peppers and bok choy were cut into manageable pieces and stir fried after the aromatics.  This was topped by the shredded greens and a little bit of water.  On top of the greens I placed a steamer tray.  Then the fish, that I divided into 2 fillet halves, cutting down the center line, was added on top.  I covered the wok and let the steaming veggies cook the fish.  

When the fish was opaque, I removed the steaming tray, and tested the greens.  I added some fish sauce to round out the flavors and served.

I think that I overcooked the fish, because it was a bit mushy. Next time, I may pan fry the fish to maintain its integrity.

Bill really liked it.

The photo above is the aromatics and the bok choy.

Here is the steamer tray.  Note the jerry-rigged handle.  A bolt with 2 lock nuts.

Finished plate full.  There was enough heat in the greens to allow the fish to be the blander foil.  The greens themselves were terrific.

Dateline: November 13, 2020 Chickpea Stew

It is clean out the fridge night.  I found a great inspirational recipe on NYT Cooking by Melissa Clark,
Moroccan Chickpeas with Chard .  Of course, I made a few changes.  Why?  Because I didn't have a turnip, but I did have a kabocha squash.  I didn't have chard, but I had kale and a quarter head of cabbage.  I had chicken stock that I made and chickpeas and all of the spices necessary.  Oh, another trade out, I didn't have 2 T of tomato paste, so I used all I had and augmented with harissa.  I also didn't have 2 hours, so into the instant pot things went and we will see how it comes out.

This stew was excellent.  The flavor was fantastic.  It will be in the rotation!  I have been eating it once a day for several days now.  Still in love with it.  

I forgot to put in the preserved lemon and apricots...happens when you drink before eating anything.  So, I added some lemon juice.  It really made a difference.  That extra acid was perfect.  Didn't miss the apricots.

Dateline: November 10, 2020 Beef Jerky

I had wanted to try to make beef jerky for a while.  The idea was sparked by perusing the Modernist Pantry website and seeing vinegar powder and soy powder!  So I ordered some along with hot sauce powder.

Easy Teriyaki Jerky, I followed their weights and measures, but added 2 t of hot sauce powder to the mix. After marinating for the 8 hours, I put the flank steak slices into the dehydrator.

I set it to 160°, and let it go for the suggested 6-8 hours.  I did get up a couple of times during the night to check on it, and munch a little.  The first taste was quite spicy, but as the meat dried, it became less prominent.

In the morning, I packaged it up into containers!

Ended up trading one container for some koji spores.  A neighbor makes sake! And gave another container away to a friend.  That left one container to enjoy.  I will definitely make this again.  

What did I learn?  

I sliced the meat too thin.  I cut the flank steak against the grain on the bias, which made lovely, almost, paper thin slices, which when dehydrated, were less satisfying.  So next time, a little thicker.  I did like the bias cut.

The marinade in the recipe is quite good, not too salty.  When measuring things out, 60 g of soy powder looked to be a ridiculous amount, but it was perfect.  The white vinegar powder left no doubt about what it was.  It could be smelled across the room once the bag was opened.  This is perfect for adding tang but not hydration.  

Hot sauce powder is hotter than expected.  Will use judiciously going forward in other dishes.

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.