Dateline: March 7, 2021 Sheet pan #7 Merguez over Vegetables

We had a zoom that could run a little long, so I had to put dinner on the table easily and something that would cook while we talked....Sheet Pan!

I took the homemade merguez out of the freezer and chopped up some random clean out the veg draw veggies.  I created a paste to mix in the veggies by using preserved lemon, garlic, smoked paprika and olive oil.  Mashed it up good and slathered it all over the tray.  I placed the sausages on top along with some canned tomatoes and put it in the oven.  After 1/2 hour, I added to drained and rinsed cans of chickpeas, turned the sausages over and put it back into the oven for another 1/2 hour.

Seasoning Paste

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 preserved lemon, finely chopped

2 - 3 t smoked paprika

olive oil

black pepper to taste

1.   Mix the garlic, lemon, paprika, and pepper together and chop some more to incorporate the flavors.  Add enough oil to make it somewhat spreadable and slather all in and around the veggies before adding the sausages.

chick peas and another 1/2 hr

ready for the oven

I finished off the dish with a sprinkling of chopped parsley... like a little black dress and pearls.

I have really fallen in love with adding tomatoes to the sheet pan dinners.  They get kind of jammy and the flavor is really intensified.

Dateline: March 5, 2021 What to do with 1/2 a turkey breast? Sheet Pan Dinner #6

I had 1/2 of a turkey breast left over from last nights Indian Night.  What could I do with it quick, as we were on a zoom call until 7 pm. 

I sliced the breast into 4 1-in  thick cutlets, cut up a mess o' potatoes and cauliflower.  These got dumped on a sheet pan, oiled up, salted, peppered and then I realized that the meal was too white.  Yes too white in color, so I made a space between the potatoes and cauliflower and added in 1 lb of trimmed asparagus spears then oiling and salting them as the other veggies were.  I oiled the cutlets and salted and peppered and then realized I had 1/2 a packet of a spice mix from Pensey's that should be used.  I sprinkled that over every thing.  The cutlets went over the asparagus and it was still too white for me, so I grabbed a pint of grape tomatoes and sprinkled them all over the pan.  The palette of the eye was now somewhat soothed.

Into a 400° oven it went for 30 minutes.  By 8 we were sitting down to eat.  Noice!

Dateline: March 4, 2021 Indian Night

On a phone call with friends I said I was making Indian food that night, Lyn asked what was on the menu.  I rattled off a list of dishes that I was jonesing for, such as dal, turkey vindaloo, palak paneer, aloo gobi or aloo jeera, and Bill stopped me in my tracks and said, "That's a lot of food for 2".  Sadly, he was right, and I pared the menu down to turkey vindaloo, palak paneer, and rice.  

I used a new vindaloo recipe that I was not too thrilled with, it lacked the depth of flavor that I usually get when I make pork vindaloo.  I attribute this to the microwave browning of the onions and garlic.  Needless to say, I will not share that particular recipe as it did not meet my incredibly high standards of practice.

My issue with the vindaloo was that it was orange....I know, I should not judge a dish by its color, but it was really jarring to me....I've only eaten vindaloos that are a deep greenish brown.  The dark color is because you brown the onions until they are a very dark brown and the spice mix is dark in color, and perhaps just the hint of some molasses darkens things up.  The vinegar sharpness was also quite pronounced.  While I like the vinegar in a vindaloo, I feel it should be amalgamated into the total and not discernible along with each other element.  Sadly, the sum of the parts did not live up to my expectation.  Next time, I will not take short cuts and use Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for pork vindaloo instead and sub in the poultry for the pork.

The palak paneer recipe was a good one, and I've made it before.  It's from Urvashi Pitre's Indian Instant Pot Cooking.  The ingredients are what you may already have around the house, frozen spinach, onions, garlic, ginger, canned tomatoes, hot peppers, etc.  The only ingredient that may be somewhat esoteric is the paneer.  You could easily substitute firm tofu and the dish would be just as tasty.  It helps to have an Instant Pot, but this can be done on the stove top without much thought, it might even be better that way!  Another important tool for this is an immersion blender.  It makes the puree-ing of the spinach much easier than loading the hot stuff into a blender and doing it that way.  

The left overs are also delicious the next day, so if you make tons, it's good eating.

Dateline: March 2, 2021 Korean Rotisserie Chicken with Vegetables

After yesterday's lack of spice, I was really wanting a good dose today.   There in the fridge was a lovely little chicken just begging to be marinated in something and twirled around the oven on a spit.

For the marinade:  3 T gochujang, 3 cloves chopped garlic, 1 T dark soy sauce, 2 T sesame oil, 2 T white wine or water.  Mix well and slather all over chicken after putting it on the spit.  (If no spit, then it can be split open and spread on a backing sheet, or just placed whole on baking sheet.  Rub the vegetables,  with oil and a generous amount of the spice marinade.  

The surrounding vegetables were broccoli, cauliflower, celeraic root, and cherry tomatoes.  Be sure to salt and pepper both the chicken and veggies.  The sauce will be quick spicy at this point and you may think it too spicy, if so, add 1 t sugar or agave syrup to tame it a bit.  

Roast at 350° F and after 40 minutes, raise temperature to 400° F for another 1/2 hour.  Test the inner thigh of the chicken to be sure it has reached at least 180° F.  If you split the chicken, your timing will be different, the chicken will cook faster, so cook for 30 at 350° before bumping up to 400° 15-20 minutes.

The cherry tomatoes came out nice and jammy, they added just enough moisture to keep the veggies from burning.  The marinade on the veggies, however, did get a bit charred, but it added some textural and flavor interest.

Finished Chicken

Roasted Veggies

Dateline: March 1, 2021 Sheet Pan #5 - Empty the Fridge and Cover it in Bacon

 I had a ton of vegetation that needed to be used up, rutabagas, brussel sprouts, carrots, celery, broccoli, onions, garlic, collards, kale, and bacon.

Everybody got chopped and mixed with a spice mix from Penzey's called Florida, which was mostly salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, and a touch of sugar.  I layered the spicing as I placed the veggies in the roasting pan.  I ended up shaking a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes over top, and a can of cannelloni beans.  As I contemplated the product, I realized that what it needed was bacon, so 4 slices were laid on top and into the oven it went.

When it was done, my test was were the rutabagas soft, out it came, and only then was it apparent that there was a TON of it.....

I thought it was a bit bland, but Bill really liked it.  I felt that I had been really wagging the spice lately, so this was a welcome switch up.

Dateline: February 28, 2021 Orange Beef Redux

I had a package of beef strips in the freezer and decided to make orange beef again.  I used the NYTimes Sam Sifton recipe again, as a framework and riffed on it.   

The riffs this time were adding more vegetables, broccoli again, green bell peppers, onions, and red finger peppers and jalapeno.  The big change was kind of Koreanifying it but sauteeing until crispy some dduk rice cakes.  These are the finger thickness 2 inch round rice cakes that are sold in asian markets either vacuum packed or frozen.  These were vac packed.  I grabbed a couple of handfuls from the package and cut them into thirds so they would be these crispy nuggets coated in orange sauce.

I proceeded as the recipe says by making the sauce.  I did not make it very sweet, I used about a 1 inch chunk of rock sugar instead of 1/4 c of light brown sugar as I don't like it when chinese food is too sweet.  It did not totally dissolve, so there was even less sugar.  I added an ounce of shaoxing wine as well did not reduce it by half.

For the woking bits, I fried the rice cakes first until crispy and held them in a bowl lined with paper towels.  I then fried the beef strips in 2 batches until they were nicely colored and crisp on the outside.  I used 3 T of cornstarch 1/2 t baking soda, and 1/2 t of salt in the dredge.    As the meat cooked I removed it to the same bowl as the rice cakes.  

1 precooked the broccoli florets in the microwave for 2 minutes and left them in there until there were needed.

Next I stir fried some extra ginger slices, dried red peppers until fragrant and then I added the onions and bell peppers.  Stir frying them until they got a little bit of color.  Then in went the broccoli, beef, rice cakes they got all mixed together.  Lastly I dumped in the sauce and cooked until well coated and heated through.  Dinner is served.

Dateline: February 26, 2021 Osso Buco and Gremolata

Fresh Direct had a lovely sale on osso buco, so I bought 3 packages of it.  Each package held 2 nice pieces.

Firstly, I patted each piece dry after taking from the package, and tied each on up like a lovely package.  

This was a waste of my time, because as soon as they went into the dutch oven to brown, the strings came off, so, either I have to learn how to tie meat better, or I need to get thicker pieces so I can tie in 2 locations rather than 1 place.

The finished plate with polenta and gremolata

Osso Buco with Gremolata

Ingredients

6 veal shanks cut into 2 inch rounds

2 large carrots sliced into thick rounds (I will blitz this at the end to emulsify the sauce.  You can chop                              finely and no emulsification necessary)

4 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch chunks, see above

1 large onion, cut into large dice, see above

3 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped, see above

1/2 bottle of drinkable white wine

1/2 can tomato paste

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with juice

1 - 1.5 quarts of good chicken or beef stock, I used chicken as I prefer the lighter finished product

3 bay leaves

2 large sprigs of thyme

salt and pepper

1/4 c all purpose flour seasoned with salt, pepper and granulated garlic 

1 piece tangerine peel, left whole

Oil for browning

Method

1.  Dredge each shank in the seasoned flour, shaking off excess.  Why?  So it doesn't burn in the oil.  Heat oven to 350°F

2.  Heat a large dutch oven and add oil.  When hot, add shanks and brown well on all sides.  This will need to be done in batches.  Hold the browned shanks on a plate.

3.  After the browning is finished, clean out the pan with a paper towel held by tongs.  Why?  You don't want the burnt bits of flour in your sauce, nor do you want the oil that burned those bits.  There will be some fond on the bottom of the pan.  You want brown or dark brown fond, not black.  Try to get as much of the black up as you can.

4.  Add fresh oil and add onions, carrots, and celery and a pinch or two of salt and pepper.  Saute and use the veggies to help pull up the fond on the bottom of the pan.  Add the garlic.  When most of the fond has come up, there will be stubborn spots, then add the 1/2 bottle of white wine, I used Damn Good Chard, it is very drinkable and nicely buttery.  Really work to get up those stubborn spots of fond and let reduce until its syrupy.  Clear a space and add the tomatoes paste and cook until it has a brick color instead of dark red.  Mix into veggies well.  Add a splash more of wine to loosen things up and then add the tomatoes with their juice.  Stir well.  Add 1 qt chicken stock.  Mix well.

5.  Put the browned shanks on top of the veggies in a single layer, if possible.  Push down on them and add enough additional stock to cover, if needed.  Add the bay leaves, thyme sprigs, and tangerine peel. Bring to a simmer and cover and place in a 350°F oven. 

6.  After 2 hours check on the shanks, they should be bubbling away nicely, lower temp to 300°F and recover.  In another hour, check again, shanks should be falling away from the bone. You want to keep those bones, there's good marrow eating in there!

beautiful silky sauce

7.  Remove pan from oven and turn oven off.  Remove shanks carefully from the pan to a separate clean plate or 2.  You want to keep them together as best as possible.  Remove the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.  If any bones have come free, remove them as well.  Using a stick blender, blitz the veggies to get a lovely thick sauce.  Taste and adjust spices.  Carefully replace shanks into the blended sauce along with any juices and bits of veg that may have clung to them.  Cove the pan and return to the cooling oven until dinner time. 

carefully returned shanks 

Gremolata

Chop together a long of parsley, lemon zest, salt, and garlic until it forms a paste and squeeze a bit of lemon juice in and mix well.  Serve with the Osso Buco.

This is a paste that is heavily redolent of garlic.  It completes the meal.  The braise is mild and this gremolata really picks it up.  Very addictive, and does not store well.  So make only what you will use in that particular meal.

Dateline: February 23 - 24, 2021 EVERYTHING BAGELS

I have been wanting to make bagels and I finally, said, do it!

So on Feb. 23, I got out the bread flour, the bread salt, the high gluten flour, the whole wheat flour, diastatic malt powder, yeast and molasses and went to town.

I followed the article in the NYTimes, How to Make Bagels that was published a couple of weeks ago. The process is not difficult, it will take 2 days and a lot of space in your fridge overnight.  Luckily, I have an outdoor deck which served as a de facto fridge until I made dinner that night, which freed up room in the fridge for the 2 sheet pans of bagels waiting to be taken to paradise.

Pre initial rise

Post Rise, pre shaping

The shaping consisted of cutting the risen dough into 12 - 13 equal sized pieces, I made 13 4-ounced sized lumps.  Each lump was shaped into a ball and then after 5 minutes, rolled by hand into a cigar shape about 9 inches long.  The ends of the cigar should be tapered so that the width of the bagel is consistent.  Take the tapered ends and roll them under your palm with the dough around your knuckles for a few seconds so that the ends will stick to each other completing the round.

Put a sheet of parchment paper that has been lightly greased and place the bagel rounds on them, 6 to a sheet pan, so you will need to have 2 ready to go.  Cover the sheet pans with plastic wrap and cover with a dampened towel and put into the fridge, on the deck, for at least 4 hours, or up to 24 hours.

Boiling and coating comes next.  I did not have malt syrup, but I did have diastatic malt powder and I used that instead with a tad of molasses for deepening the color of the boiling liquid to the color as described in the article.

I filled a bowl with 30 g of the assorted seeds and/or salt that were called for, I used black sesame, poppy, caraway, granulated onion, granulated garlic, and maldon salt.  I think next time I will used dried minced onion and garlic.

The boiling liquid comes to a boil, have a spider or skimmer near by because you will need to skim off the foam that is on the surface as the water boils.  I was able to get 4 bagels in the water bath at a time.  It's about 30 seconds a side and then they come out of the bath and are coated in the everything mixture.

These are then baked in a 450°F oven for 20-25 minutes.  What I found was that was too long, the first batch was in for 22 mins and came out very dark, the second batch was in for 20 mins and came out the same color.  I had convection on, so perhaps that makes a difference.  Maybe next time I will lower temp to 425 or 400 when I use convection.  

just out of the oven

blurry look at the crumb

The taste was divine and had a lovely chew to them.  As they got older, they got chewier and denser, so keep in mind there is no preservative in them, and therefore, they will not last as long as bakery ones.

It was a satisfying 2 day project and certainly kept me off the streets!

Dateline: February 23, 2021 Vegetarian Couscous Redux

I had been jonesing for that couscous dish again.  I had in mind some tweaks, and so, I did it.  The original recipe is a Melissa Clark Creamy chickpeas and pearl couscous .  This version used collards, tuscan kale, chickpeas, cannelloni beans, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, plum tomatoes, canned tomatoes, preserved lemon, garlic, shallot, red wine, balsamic vinegar, chicken stock, and of course, pearl couscous.

I started as Ms. Clark suggests, pre-roasting the tomatoes, shallots, wine, vinegar in a 450° F oven.  While that was going on, I chopped the collards and kale, preserved lemon, roasted peppers, sun dried tomatoes, and heated the stock.  I then added in the couscous, greens, beans, lemon, peppers and tomatoes and the boiling stock.  Mixed well, covered with foil and back into the oven it went for about 20 minutes.

The feta got drained and chopped in the meantime and after the 20 or so minutes, it got added into the casserole and mixed in.  Foil was removed and it was back into the oven for a final cook.  I went a few minutes longer than suggested because there was a bit more soupiness as I didn't drain canned tomatoes and used more couscous than called for.  Final dusting of cilantro and dinner was done.  This was still delicious.

Dateline: February 22, 2021 Rotisserie Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

I had a very cute small chicken that needed cooking.  I wanted rotisserie chicken, so I stuffed the cavity with some fennel stalks and fronds and a tiny half onion left over from another night.  For the vegetation over which the chicken would slowly rotate I had some cubed up rutabaga, aforementioned fennel, onion, brussel sprouts, red bell peppers, carrots, and a couple of small white potatoes.  

Everything got chopped up and doused with olive oil, garlic, red finger pepper, and a chopped up preserved lime.  Yes, a preserved lime.  I tried out preserving citrus fruits other than lemons in saline solution and have limes and oranges sitting in the fridge.  The limes add a level of sourness that the preserved lemons do not.  In judicious amounts it will work.  Because I preserve mostly Meyer Lemons, the sharpness of the acid was a bit of a surprise when I tasted a tiny piece before dumping it into the veggies.  In the finished product, it did not overpower at all, in fact, it seemed to be a factor that pulled everything together a bit tighter.

As I was prepping things for the meal, I was also making chicken stock.  I read an article in Cook's Illustrated that discussed the differences between bone broth and stock.  Who knew, I have been making bone broth for 30+ years, OG hipster here!  It seems that the big difference is the amount of collagen that is present in the finished product.  Bone broth has lots of it, stock, not so much.  How do you know if you have collagen in your stock/broth, let it cool after cooking.  Does it set up, and look like Jello, you have a lot of collagen in that batch.  You can always cheat and add powdered collagen to a finished product to duplicate that particular umami-ness.

As a music history professor would tell us, "Label that digression in your notes".  Back to the chicken.

I rubbed it with some oil, and salted and peppered it, ran the skewer through, tightened the prongs and poked the end through the hole in the back of the oven.  I never had a built in rotisserie in an oven before, I will never be without one going forward.  I started the temp at 400° F for about 35 minutes, or until you could smell the chicken.  I lowered the temp to 350° F and added a cup of chicken bone broth to the sheet pan below.  Set the timer for another 30 minutes, and voila!   Chicken-y nirvana with unctuous roasted veggies with a touch of char to them.  It hit every bell for me!

Roasted Veggies

Rotisserie Chicken