Dateline: December 31, 2020 Let's Kick 2020 to the Curb. HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY

Since we are not able to party with friends, I wanted to cook something fun and special.  So we are having picanha steak.  This is a South American cut of steak, the sirloin cap, with fat cap.  

If you have been to a Brazilian steak house, you have seen the skewers of beef that is put on the skewer in the shape of the letter C.  That is picanha.  It has a generous fat cap and well marbled beef.  I bought mine from Grand Western Steak in Florida.  I found this outfit through my favorite sous vide YouTube channel, Sous Vide Everything.  This hosts are 2 South American men and a Cuban.  They are absolutely hilarious and have great tips and directions for learning how to sous vide food and how to finish it.

Back to dinner plans.  I ordered some lumpfish caviar and shrimp for a bit of caviar on idli (instead of blinis), shrimp cocktail, then steak and veggies.  

The sous vide of the steaks will take about an hour +, idli will be done shortly before that and the shrimp cocktail will be ready by then as well.  Maybe bubbly, but not sure yet.  Bill is not a fan, and I must say, I prefer cava.

I made the idli, which are steamed rice cakes.  I really love them, they are Indian breakfast food eaten with soup and curries.  I made a pretty platter and put the jar of caviar in the center.  Another two dishes  had chopped scallions and some sour cream.

This is the batter.  I used a packaged dry mix and added water and sour cream.  I read the instructions and they said to add sour curd.  I know in most Indian recipes when they write curd, they mean yogurt, so I assumed sour curd was not yogurt but sour cream.  

Found out this morning that sour curd is still yogurt!

 

Here we have the steaming little rice cakes.  They are steamed in these special idli trays that you can make out the little black plastic knob which unscrews and the trays separate from each other.  I also decided to add a little bit of scallion to some of the rice cakes.  

 

The steamed rice cakes are resting on some paper toweling to remove any moisture.  You can see the little bubbles on the edges of the cakes.  They are sooooooo tasty.  Light and fluffy little delivery bases for anything you can think of.

TADAH!

Now on to the shrimp cocktail.  I did buy a ring of shrimp from Fresh Direct that came frozen.  I defrosted it and then after tasting the cocktail sauce that came with it.  Decided I could do a lot better in that department.  I had some cocktail sauce in fridge, along with horseradish, ketchup, and lemons.  After tasting and adding, I finished up with a pretty good version.

I re-plated the shrimp, and this was the second course!

 

We washed down everything with this delightful Cremant from Alsace, Ginglinger.  It was really tasty!

We were so full that we never ate the picanha steaks!  Don't they look lovely all crisped up and glistening!  We did finish the salad, though!

 

Dateline: December 30, 2020 Brats and Cabbage

I ground and stuffed a bunch of brats on Tuesday, and they were ready to eat.  I decided to poach them in a liquid of a bottle of white wine, a handful of sliced onions, a couple of pepper corns, a crushed clove of garlic, water, 1.5 c turkey stock, and some salt.  I also threw in some of the preserved mandarins that I had made a couple of days ago.  They were still very sweet, and not too salty, time will heal that.

I had a head of cabbage that I cleaned up, split in half, and then cut one half into quarters.  I removed the core and thinly sliced the cabbage.  I cut 1/2 an onion into thin half moons, chopped up 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 orange sweet pepper,  and the rest of the preserved mandarin.  I held .5 c of turkey stock in reserve if needed with the cabbage.

I swirled a bit of garlic oil in a flat bottomed wok and softened the onions and garlic.  When the onions were translucent, I add the cabbage, peppers, and mandarin.  I stirred that around a bit to distribute the wilting to the whole pan.  I added the .5 c stock and lidded the pan.

When the poaching sausages reached and internal temperature of 155-160°F, I added them to the cabbage and mixed everything together nicely.

A very satisfying meal for a chilly evening.  Bill said the texture was perfect for the sausages as was the flavor.  Yeah Me!

Here are the brats in the pan with the cabbage.  I liked the bright citrus blast that the mandarins gave, Bill not so much.  He picked them out of his plate.  Sigh.

Here is my plate with cabbage and brats.  Note the mandarin in the 10 spot on the plate.  I really liked it.  

We finished the meal with some mulled wine that a friend had given us for the holidays.  It was really tasty.  A perfect ending to a midweek meal.

At the end of the YouTube video of Joshua Weissman's Sausage Treatise, there are 3 recipes for sausages.  I made the brats and merguez.  Both recipes are quite good and as I scaled down the recipe, I used his 0.02% salt to total weight of meat and fat to determine the amount of salt I needed to use.  I was happy with how both turned out.  Go ahead, make some sausage!  You can purchase casings on line from The Sausage Maker or on Amazon.  You might also be able to buy some from a good butcher.  I have only worked with salt-packed casings.  They last forever in the fridge.  If you have a stand mixer with a grinder attachment, you are all set with respect to equipment....no more excuses, do it!  Remember, at the rate the vaccine is getting into arms, we will be in lock down for 10 years!

Dateline: December 25, 2020 Christmas Dinner: Turkey and the whole megillah

 We had Thanksgiving at Dianne and Phil's, so  there were no turkey leftovers, the best part of the whole shebang.  I wanted turkey stock, turkey pot pie, left over stuffing, mashed potatoes and assorted winter root veggies.

For the turkey, I dry brined it overnight with a generous amount of salt and left it uncovered in the fridge overnight.  The next morning, I rubbed butter over and under the skin, stuffed the cavity with 2 garlic cloves, 4 onion ends from chopping onions for other dishes, 1 one orange, halved, sage sprigs rosemary sprigs, salt and pepper and a schmear of butter.  I mixed salt and pepper together along with 1/4 t baking powder to help crisp up the skin.  Before putting it in the oven, I injected the breast with homemade chicken stock in about 4 or 5 places on each side of the breast.

I put the bird on a rack in a roasting pan in which I had scattered chopped onions and celery along with a good glug or 2 of white wine and about 2 cups of homemade chicken stock.

I set the oven at 350° because it was an 11 lb turkey and set a timer for 1 hour, before rotating the turkey so that the other thigh pointed to the back of the oven, and set the timer for 1 hr.

After about 40 minutes, I checked and the turkey was very close to being done, I lowered the temp to 325°F and let it continue cooking for the remaining 20 minutes.

Naturally, I DID NOT photo the finished, beautifully bronzed bird, and I hadn't started drinking either!  You can get an idea of the color from the wing joint in the photo.  I made some cranberry sauce the day before, I usually make a chutney style sauce, but one of the people I promised Xmas dinner to can not deal with spice, so I went very straightforward with the cranberries this year.  Just sugar, water, pinch of salt until thick and syrupy.

Neither Bill nor I can have turkey without the Miles Standish Stuffing,  I do cut back on the butter, but pretty much follow the recipe, tweaking over the years.  This year, I used the called for breakfast sausage, and decided it was NOT going to used again, I prefer Italian sausage, either sweet or hot.  I used perlini mozzarella balls to save the cutting mozzarella up.  Next time I will use both containers I bought instead of just one, not gooey enough!

Behind the stuffing is a green bean, mushrooms, and pancetta amalgam that I thought would be tasty!  I sauteed 4 oz pancetta and then added the sliced king and oyster mushrooms and cooked through.  I steamed the green beans in the microwave for 4 minutes and then added them to the pan.  Seasoned, added some stock, and a little rice flour to thicken and tadah!

I love rutabagas.  I am alone in that devotion, but since I cook, well, we get them!  I steamed them first in the instant pot, then mashed into the pan that I had sauteed 4 oz of pancetta and 1/2 a chopped onion until rendered and crispy.  Perfect.

For the mashed potatoes, I steamed them in the instant pot and then riced them into another inner pot for the instant pot.  I added half and half, sour cream, salt, pepper, and butter and mixed well, tasting for salt, and checking consistency.  Adding half and half, butter and salt as needed.

The whole spread below.  I had the panettone that I made earlier for dessert, as well as a chai masala cake that Servet made.  We were very sated and ready for a rousing couple of games of Rummicube!

Dateline: December 24, 2020 Xmas Eve, Ribs and Broccoli Rabe

I rubbed the ribs with a quick dry rub of a mix to chili powder, ancho, chipotle, salt, sugar, paprika, dry mustard, allspice, black pepper, and thyme.  (I forgot to use onion and garlic powder, sue me!)

I roasted them in a hot oven 400° F for 20 min, then reduced temp to 325° for another 45 minutes to an hour.  When temp of ribs reaches over 185° F, they are good to go.  High temp will produce softer and less chewy meat.  Dealer's choice.   

The ribs came out juicy and pulled back from the bone ends.

An animal died, Bill was content!

Pre oven ribs, with an extra sprinkle of salt on top.

                                                     Post Oven, and cut into individual ribs

For the rabe, I sauteed garlic slices until golden brown in olive oil, and then removed.  I added the cleaned rabe, cut in half, to the hot pan and seared them for a little bit.  I added about 1/2 c of stock and cooked them down further.  Before serving, I added back the garlic chips and tossed.

Dateline: December 23, 2020 Meatloaf, Sprouts, Cabbage, and Crispy Taters

I decided to try the FD meatloaf mix based on a recommendation from my friend Jen.  It comes seasoned and ready to load into a loaf pan.  I added a topping that I was hoping would be somewhat spicy, but it turned out to be on the sweetish side instead!  A bit surprising given that the ingredients were Worcestershire sauce, cocktail sauce, Italian hot peppers, ketchup, oyster sauce, and dry mustard.  Strange indeed.

I also made my friend Lyn's Brussel Sprouts with butter and Vegemite.  Bill hates sprouts.  I love them.  He said over dinner, "if you didn't tell me these were sprouts, I would never have known."   High praise for the recipe!  

Sprouts with Butter and Vegemite

Trim and halve sprouts

1 -2 T butter

2-3 t Vegemite or Marmite

water/stock/wine

1.  Heat pan and lightly char sprouts in a dry pan.  This can take a while to get them on both sides.

2.  Pan will get bits of brown in it, this is good.  Use about 2 oz of water, stock, wine to deglaze and steam sprouts for a bit.  When liquid have evaporated, add butter and vegemite/marmite and cook to coat the sprouts.  Add water or stock as necessary to soften the sprouts to your level of doneness.

Braised Napa Cabbage 

1 small head napa cabbage

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

water/stock/wine

1.  Cut the bottom 1 in off of the cabbage.  Make a cut in the base of the cabbage about 1-2 inches long, as if you were going to cut it in half lengthwise, but only go those 1-2 inches.  Grasp both halves and gentle pull the cabbage apart, tearing toward the tips of the leaves.  This splits the cabbage without lots of shredded leaves flying about.  Split each halve again the same way and perhaps again depending on the circumference of your head of cabbage.

2.  Cut the stem portions into about 1/2 inch slices and keep separate from the chopped leaves.  Cut the leaves into about 1/2 inch slices as well.

3.  Heat a pan, and add some olive oil.  When hot, add the onion and saute until softened, add in the garlic and some salt and pepper.  Saute until the garlic starts to soften.  Add the cabbage stem pieces and a sprinkle or two of salt and pepper, and saute until wilted a bit, then add the rest of the leaves.  

4.  Coat the contents of the pan with all of the onion and garlic mixture and allow the leaves to begin to get bright green.  Add about 2 oz of water/stock/wine and bring to a simmer.  Taste and adjust.  Reduce the liquid by 1/2.

Crispy Taters

8-10 new red potatoes, small ones, scrubbed 

salt and pepper

olive oil

1.  Coat a pan with cooking spray and add dried potatoes season with salt and pepper.  Put in a 350° F oven for about 30 minutes, or until taters are somewhat soft.

2.  Smash the taters with a fork so that they split open, add olive oil and put back in oven, but raise temp to 400° F for 15-20 minutes.  The should be crisped on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Drank a lovely Barolo with dinner.  Happy, happy camper!

Dateline: December 22, 2020 VEGAN MEAL, I know, I know.....Creamy Vegan Tofu Noodles

This is a keeper!  I had no idea that it would be this tasty.  It will stay in the rotation.

Creamy Vegan Tofu Noodles  this is a true winner.  The spicy sauce on top, just added that lil sumpin' xtra that made the dish sing.

What I really liked about the recipe is that there were suggestions for substitutions or variations that will totally work.  I will try this again taking it in the Italian direction, but keeping it vegan with the use of nutritional yeast and various herbs.  

The sauce is garlicky, and delightfully creamy, just what one wants on a cold winter's night when FD is late and you need to improvise dinner.

I give it more than 2 thumbs up.  You will need a blender to make the sauce get creamy, but other than that you don't need much more to make this, except tofu and noodles and bits and bobs that you probably have in your pantry.

The red sauce on top is the real star of the show.  I doubled the recipe as I knew it would be good given the list of ingredients!  It's spicy, but not too, luscious and a great foil for the creaminess of the noodles.  You can use any noodle here, spaghetti, ramen, make your own, etc.

I do agree with the comments that you need to watch the addition of water, too little and it's too thick, too much, and it's too thin... use your eyes to tell you when enough is enough!

December 21, 2020 Doro Wat

I came across a recipe for Doro Wat, (Ethiopian Spicy Chicken) and decided to give it a whirl.  Previously, I had made something akin to it, and it was an epic, inedible fail.  It was just too spicy and bitter for me; and I love spicy and bitter, generally.

Reading the comments, I decided to use mostly shallots rather than onions.  That decision was a good one.  I baked the chicken thighs for 20 minutes, removed to a bowl, and proceeded with the recipe of browning the onions before adding the spices.  I also used the last, sadly, of my brodo.

Here is the onion/shallot mixture draining a bit, as per a comment, and the onion/ginger/garlic juice that drained I poured over the thighs sitting in the bowl.

This is the berbere spice mixture.  I couldn't find my cayenne pepper, so I used some dried and ground habanero pepper.  Big no no!

The dish came together well, and had a good consistency and color.  When I tasted the sauce, OMG it was SPICY.  I'm a chili head, but this was over the top, hence the issue with the habanero pepper.  I added a good squirt of honey and it tamed it a bit.

The chicken thighs went back into the pool, got coated with the sauce, and I put it in the oven for about 30 more minutes.

The final dish, served over rice was ok, not bitter, but plenty spicy.  This was the first time, EVER, that the spice level bothered me and NOT BILL.  Normally, I am not wimping out on spice, but this was just at the edge for me, and not in an addictive way.

I think cayenne would have been the way to go and use less than suggested.  I had halved the recipe, but used almost 1 T of habanero pepper, instead of 1/2 T to start.  So the error is strictly mine, not the recipe.

Would I make this again, not sure, it was a nice change from the usual chicken thigh dishes I keep in rotation.  Bill really liked it, and went back for seconds, so perhaps it will make a return.

 

Dateline: December 20, 2020 Slow Cooker Lamb Shoulder with Beans

In browsing through several different recipes for braised lamb, I decided to make an amalgam of several of them plus my own twists.

Ingredients

2 lbs lamb shoulder, either rolled, or in a single piece with or without bone

1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped

3 stalks of celery, roughly chopped

1 large onion, chopped

Gravy Master (optional)

1/2 c white wine

1 tin anchovies

3 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 14 oz can chopped tomatoes

1 - 2 pints of good stock, preferably homemade

1/2 lb dried small white beans, pea or navy beans work well

1/2 preserved lemon, chopped

1 t ground cumin

1 t smoked paprika

Method

1.  Baste the lamb with Gravy Master and season with black pepper only.  Sear well on all sides.  If you use the instant pot, set it to saute, medium heat.

2.  Remove meat after searing, and deglaze the pan with the white wine.  Add onions, carrots, celery, anchovies, and garlic to the liquid.  Stir to combine.  Reduce liquid by at least half.  Cancel and set instant pot on slow cook mode for 5-6 hours

3.  Rinse the dried beans and add to the pan and place the seared lamb on top of the beans.  Add the stock to the pan, to a level that covers the beans by 2 inches.  Add the preserved lemon.  As the meat cooks, taste the broth and if needed add some salt.  It is very likely you will not need any, especially as the preserved lemon is also salty.

4.  Add the can of tomatoes and gently mix things together, sprinkle in the cumin and paprika.  Cover and allow to cook until the lamb is easily pierced by a fork.  

5.  Remove lamb from the pot.  Using a slotted spoon skim out veggies and place into a sauce strainer or colander over a large bowl.  Try to remove as much of the fat as possible along with the veggies, but leave the beans in the pot.  Defat the liquid, reserving the veggies.  In a deep narrow container, place the veggies and the defatted broth from the pot.  Using an immersion blender, blitz the contents of the container to emulsify the veggies, and pour the contents back into the pot.

6.  Remove any strings or netting from the lamb.  Cut the lamb into chunks, removing as much of the fat as possible.  If the meat is very tender, it will shred rather than cut, that's fine, just remove the fat from the shreds.

7.  Add the lamb back into the sauce and cover until dinner is ready.  Serve with either rice or couscous.

Nota Bene:  After 4.6 hours, my lamb was not very tender, so I used pressure cook for 10 minutes with 15 minutes natural release and quick release the balance.  The lamb cooked in the slow cooker for another hour or so.  The preserved lemon added so much to the dish.  If you do not have preserved lemons on hand, you can use orange peel from any thin skinned orange fruits, such as mandarin, tangerine, etc.  The lemon added a heady aroma and a delightful citrus back to the earthiness of the lamb.

No photos, sorry, it was brown, with flecks of white beans floating around in a dark brown sauce.  Not much to see, but it tasted wonderful.  Bill gave it 2 thumbs up, mostly because an animal died for his meal.

Dateline: December 18, 2020 Maple Baked Salmon

 I saw this recipe in the NYTCooking section, and decided after reading the comments, I would try it.  Maple Baked Salmon 

This is a really wonderful recipe for a marinade for the salmon.  I was afraid it would be too sweet, but it was perfect.  Even Bill liked it a little.  He hates mustard.  The maple helped on that front!

I had opened a bottle that just arrived from Last Bottle, a susumaniello.  This is a rare grape varietal that grows in Italy.  It is a lovely wine.  Last Bottle buys of lots of wines and then sells them via the internet. They are based in Napa, CA and have great deals on wine.  The difficulty is that once the lot is sold, you are out of luck.  Sometimes the wine comes around again, or another vintage shows up, but once they sell out, that is generally it.  I love them.  I have boxes and boxes of wine that I have ordered through them stashed around the house, as I am known to quip, "I don't have a drinking problem, I have a buying problem."

So the first glass of the wine led to another, which is why there are no photos of the meal, I only have a photo of the wine bottle!

Despite the wine consumption, the rest of the meal did get made.  We ate the lovely salmon with roasted corn with artichoke hearts and baked potatoes.  It was a two thumbs up from Bill.

Dateline: December 17, 2020 Greens and Beans

I had a fridge full of greens, collards, tuscan kale, and chard.  So I created a quick dish using the instant pot.

Ingredients

Collards

Tuscan kale

Swiss chard

Or any other leafy greens you have or like so that you have approximately 2.5 - 3 lbs all together

3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

1 onion, cut in half thru the root end and then sliced into half moons

1 leek, cleaned and sliced

1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, diced 

1 c white wine or stock of your choice

2 cans beans of your choice, drained and rinsed, (I used pinto beans)

2 oz salt pork or bacon

1 preserved lemon

black pepper to taste

Method

1.  Dice up the salt pork or bacon and add to the heated instant pot on saute low temp.  Render as much fat as you can or want.

2.  After fat has rendered, add onions, leeks, and jalapeno to the instant pot.  Saute until softened, add the smashed and chopped garlic.  Be sure to get up any of the brown bits on the bottom of the pot.  Add the wine or stock to help in this endeavor.

3.  Chop up the preserved lemon and add to the pot.  Stir and add greens.  This amount of greens will fill a 6 qt pot.  Have no fear, stir it around as best you can, lid the pot and hit cancel.  Now choose pressure cook for 5 minutes.  Close the top.  When finished, quick release the pressure.  Hit cancel.

4.  Add the beans and stir to combine.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  Add black pepper if jalapeno is not that hot.  If more liquid is needed, add another glug of wine or stock.  Put pot on warm setting until you are ready for dinner.

As Bill and I were sitting down to eat, I noticed that he wasn't too thrilled, he said that given all the green, he was not sure he would be happy.  Turns out, he did like it.  Would have preferred some animal died, but he ate 2 bowls worth!

It occurred to me that beans, greens, and garlic are part of my top five things that I love.   Once again, I am sure that in a previous life I was Tuscan!

The preserved lemon added so much to the dish.  A brightness, and depth of flavor that if it were not included, the dish would be sorely lacking in flavor.  I did not add any salt as the lemon and salt pork provided all that was necessary.

This could certainly be made on the stove top, but the timing would be different, the greens would never cook in 5 minutes, more like 15-20, depending on how you like your greens!