Dateline: January 13, 2021 Moroccan Chicken Tagine

I was in Kalustyan's and saw this packet of Tagine spice.  Brilliant, I thought, I have whole chicken legs at home that need to be cooked.

The recipe on the back of the package was simple and it turned out fantastic.

Ingredients

4 whole chicken legs, or assortment of dark meat chicken parts, with or without skin

2 onions, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 c pitted green olives, I used pitted castelvetrano  olives

Olive oil

2 T tagine spice mix

saffron, optional, just a sprinkle of threads

juice 1/2 lemon

2 small preserved lemons, chopped

2 T chopped coriander

Salt to taste

1 cup chicken broth

1 14 oz can of beans, I used pinto

Method

1.  Heat tagine or large casserole on stove, add 2-3 T olive oil and saute onions and garlic until soft.  

2.  Sprinkle over the onions and garlic 2 T of spice mix, saffron threads, lemon juice, and preserved lemons.  Mix together.  

3.  Add chicken parts to the pan and spread green olives over them, pour in the chicken broth and cover with lid.  Simmer until chicken is cooked and tender.

4.  If you used skin on chicken, then after it is cooked, put under the broiler for about 5-8 minutes until skin is browned and crisped up.

 

Dateline: January 10, 2021 Red Curry Salmon

I had some salmon from FD and wanted something other than seared!  I had a ton of veggies that needed to be used, so why not do a Thai Red Curry.  

Vegetation

 

Beautiful Salmon

Ingredients

2 salmon fillets, with or without skin.  I skinned mine

1 large red onion, chopped

several carrots, colors good

1 orange bell pepper, cut into bite sized chunks

1 green bell pepper, cut into bite sized chunks

2 or 3 cloves of garlic

1 can coconut milk, kept in fridge

1 bunch kale or collards, stemmed and sliced in ribbons

2-3 T red curry paste

1 t shrimp paste

Juice of 1 lime

stock, wine, or water

Method

1.  Remove can of coconut milk from fridge, and carefully spoon the thickened coconut cream off the
top and put into a large sauce pan.  Heat pan over medium and allow the coconut cream to bubble away.

 

After a bit, all of the water will have evaporated from the coconut cream and it will sound different in the pan.  At that point, add the curry paste and shrimp paste and stir to combine with the coconut cream. Simmer gently until the oil starts to separate out.

 

 

2.  Add the harder veggies (carrots, celery, etc) and stir to coat with the curry.  Cook for a few minutes, then add the softer veggies (onions, bell peppers, kale or collards), stir to combine with the curry and other veggies. 

 

3.  Add in the balance of the can of coconut milk, the lime juice and some stock, wine, or water.  Stir to combine and allow to cook until tender.

4.  Break fish up into large pieces and add to the pan when the veggies are tender.  Stir gently, and allow to come to heat.  When the salmon is cooked through, dinner is ready!

 

 

 

Dateline: January 9, 2021 PICANHA!

Servet came over and I cooked the picanha via sous vide, then torched the outside fat side to perfection with my NEW toy, S.A.F.E flamethrower.  I have been trolling Kickstarter, and have found many interesting projects to invest in, the ROTOQ, this torch, etc.  The torch acronym stands for Sears All Foods Equally.  It is a beauty, and does a much better job than the other torch I have been using.

Perfectly rare

Beautifully torched exterior

We rounded out the meal with grilled asparagus, baked potatoes, and this lovely layer cake that I made.

I bought this little layer pan kit from Michael's and decided I had to try it out last night.  I am not an accomplished baker, so every time I make something, I learn where I made my mistakes!  I have always thought that bakers were too fussy, trimming edges, brushing crumbs, evening layers, etc.....well, I learned the hard way that these "idiosyncrasies" a valuable tools of the trade.  The layers I baked had domed a bit, so with a serrated knife, I trimmed the tops down, but did not trim the edges.  One choice for the filling between the layers was a poor one.  I had 2 jars of toppings, one salted caramel, the other a chocolate salted caramel.  The plain salted caramel was a poor choice.  It tended to spill over the edge, and threatened to allow the layers to slide.  The other sauce, was like concrete, it held the layers together like glue.  The next learning bit was in icing the cake.  Because I did not trim enough of the dome off, there were large gaps between layer edges which had to be filled with frosting, chocolate buttercream from Nigella Lawson.  Here is where the second issue with the salted caramel came into play, because it was running down the side of the cake, the frosting was not adhering to it.  So I had to constantly back fill the holes and hope that I had enough frosting to cover the top and sides!  Live and learn!  The cake was a little 6 inches in diameter and 5 layers tall.  A cute cake, and I hope I can master it going forward.

Dateline: January 8, 2021 Lamb Chops and Roasted Root Veggies

The other day I was surveying the fridge, and decided that things had to be made to take up less space.  I had a couple of turnips, a huge rutabaga, some orange bell peppers and left over broccoli.  Chop up some onions, add garlic, and voila, dinner side dish.

As you can see, I cubed up the rutabaga and turnips, splashed some olive oil on them, and added some salt, pepper, cumin, and coriander.  Into a 400° F oven for about 40-50 minutes, keep checking, until they were crisped and deeply browned.  All of that turnip-y smell and flavor had disappeared and you were left with a crunchy exterior and a creamy interior!  A miracle!

Next step, get out the wok, and heat up some oil, fry the onions, peppers, and garlic until softened, add a little stock and some chopped preserved lemon, and lastly the broccoli.  Perfect.  A delightful side, if I do say!

step 1, cubes 

finished veggie side

The lamb chops were seasoned with salt and pepper and broiled for 5 minutes on the first side, and about 3.5 minutes on the second.  They were perfectly cooked.  Rare, but not raw, cooked to the bone and delicious too!

 

Dateline: January 4, 2021 Homemade Merguez with Vegetable Stew

I made some sausages, brats and merguez, the other day and after eating vindaloo for 2 days, we needed a break  So out of the freezer came the merguez and I raided the fridge for suitable vegetation for a morrocan stew-ish kind of thing.

I browned the sausages and after browning them, I sweated some onions and garlic.  

Sausages

sweating the onions

Once that had softened, I added some stock and wine to deglaze the pan.  Next went in quite an interesting array of veggies, some orange bell peppers,  string beans, broccoli, preserved mandarin, collards, and cabbage.  

start of the veggie melange

veggies in Instant pot

I used the instant pot because it would be easy and quick.  And, only 1 pan to clean!

I seasoned the stew with harissa and sumac as both of those were in the sausages along with salt and pepper.  

The final dish was pretty darn good, not necessarily InstaGram worthy, but pleasing to the eye and the palatet.

Dateline: January 2, 2021 Pork Vindaloo and Aloo Gobi

 I was seriously jonesing for some spicy food.  I had ordered from FD 3 pounds of pork stew meat.  What arrived was beautiful large chunks of pork with very little excess fat.

I used Mahdur Jaffrey's recipe for pork vindaloo and Urvashi Pitre's Aloo Gobi.

This is one of my absolute all time favorites!  I love a vinegary peppery vindaloo, not super burn-your-mouth vindaloo, but one with a distinct vinegar flavoring.  Many recipes call for cider vinegar, or white wine vinegar, I prefer white distilled vinegar personally.  As I had a TON of couscous left over from last night, no need for rice.

Ingredients

2 t whole cumin seeds

2-3 hot dried chillies

1 t black pepper corns

1 t cardamom seeds

3 in cinnamon stick

1.5 t whole black mustard seeds

1 t fenugreek seeds

5 T white vinegar

1.5 - 2 t salt

1 t light brown sugar

10 T vegetable oil

2 med onions, sliced into half moon rings

1.33 c water, divided

2 lbs boneless pork cut into cubes

1 in cube fresh ginger peeled a

1 small head garlic, cloves peeled

1 T ground coriander seeds

.5 t turmeric

Method

1.  Grind cumin seeds, chilis, peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon, mustard, and fenugreek in a spice grinder until fine.  Put in a bowl and add vinegar, salt, and brown sugar.  (I used 1/2 t molasses instead, I like the darker flavor).  Mix and set aside

2.  Heat oil in a wide pan (use a pan large enough to hold the pork) to and fry onions until brown and crisp.  Remove with slotted spoon and put into a jar of a blender.  Add 2 -3 T water and blitz until smooth.  Add to spices and vinegar.  This is your vindaloo paste.  Make double or triple and freeze rest for another day!

3.  Pat meat cubes dry and in a spice grinder add garlic and ginger with a little water, if necessary, and process to a paste.

4.  Reheat pan and add pork cubes a few at a time and lightly brown in batches holding in a clean bowl.  

5.  Add garlic ginger paste to pan after finishing up the pork cubes and stir for a few seconds, add coriander and turmeric and stir for another few seconds.  Add pork and any juices in the bowl, as well as the vindaloo paste.  Add 1 c water, stir well to coat.  Bring to a boil and reduce flame to a simmer.  Cover and cook until pork is tender.  Be sure to stir a few times as the sauce will be thick.  Feel free to add more water or stock so that it doesn't scorch.

plain old left over couscous

Aloo Gobi - potatoes and cauliflower

Dateline: January 1, 2021 Let's eat that Steak!

After being too full to eat the steak from NYE, I made some couscous and brussel sprouts with butter and vegemite to go with the steaks...

Quite yummy.  This was a great way to start the new year!

Steak sliced

sprouts!

couscous

 

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!