Dateline: March 16, 2021 Pork Ragu Maiallino

 I have been obsessed with no tomato pork ragus lately.  I have been wanting to try Maiallino's version for a long time, so what the heck.

I had some pork shoulder in the freezer and pulled it out to thaw a bit so I could cut out most of the fat on the surface and any pockets hiding within.  I cut each piece that I had into thirds, about the size of the shreds that I wanted at the end of the cooking.

Essentially, the pork is braised in a flavorful liquid until tender, then shredded while the liquid is by half.  There will be a lot of liquid, even after reducing, save about 1.5 - 2 cups for another purpose. Enrich with butter, yup, butter.  Oh boy oh boy did it add something fabulous to the sauce.  Throw in a half handful of grated parm, some dandelion greens (recipe called for rocket, did not have but did have dandelion greens), and parsley.  Slide in the shredded pork, and start the pasta water boiling.  

There are no tomatoes and NO Garlic in the sauce.  It is delightful  The suggested pasta is broken lasagna sheets, but I went with calamari pasta rings.  Many broke open so end result was with some wide strips of pasta.

What I would do differently, I would use more stock, I would shred the pork finer and thinner pieces.  Don't get me wrong it was delicious, but less elegant than I would have wanted.  Don't forget to use the lemon juice, it helps cut the richness of the sauce.  Pass the cheese and everything will be very quiet.

Dateline: March 14, 2021 Bill's Excellent Adventure - Mole Chicken Breast Sheet Pan Dinner

Knock me over with a feather, Bill offered to make a sheet pan dinner!  Alan, keep up the pressure!

I had been making mole earlier in the afternoon, and we decided that chicken breast on a bed of veg topped with Mole sauce would be an excellent dinner option.

Bill chopped up the veg:  potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts, onions, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes.  He marinated the bunch in olive oil, garlic, pinto beans, salt, and pepper.  Topped with the chicken breasts and into the oven they went (after putting oil on the chicken, along with salt and pepper).  In the pan I added some chicken stock and white wine, hoping to hurry the veggies along.

After 30 minutes, I slathered on the mole sauce and returned them to the oven to finish cooking through to 160°F (minimum).  Bill's back was bothering him so he was resting while I did this.

20 minutes later, out of the oven it came and we ate.  

The veg under cooked and the breasts were a little dry at the thin end.  But the flavors were very good.  I think next time, veggies in first, then top with breasts. and finish cooking until everything is crispy and cooked through.  The pinto beans got a little crispy crunchy, and extra starchy, I think that they belong on the bottom with everything else protecting them from the oven's drying heat.

Repurposing everything for the next day, I chopped up the remaining chicken added more mole sauce, chicken stock, and a can of chick peas.  Brought to a boil and let simmer until veggies were cooked through and soft.  Delicious.

Dateline: March 12, 2021 3 People Walked into a French Bistro...

Last night Servet came by for dinner and games night.  I was heavily influenced by the Inspector Bruno books I am reading, and by what I had ordered from D'Artagnan.  I ordered rabbit legs.  I have made rabbit once or twice before and found it to be delicious and lean....ergo, let's add cream!

I used a Patricia Wells recipe from her Bistro book, Cafe Des Federations' Rabbit with Mustard Sauce.  To go with it, I made a potato and celeriac layered dish with cream, haricot verte with onions and slivered almonds, a salad (which no one touched), and a cheese course for dessert, supplied by my neighbor who run Brooklyn Larder.

The rabbit was delicious and oh so tender.  I took longer than the recipe stated, but I but it in the oven, covered, to braise for about 2 hours.  Everything was so tasty.  I recommend this recipe highly.  It worked splendidly with the chicken thighs as well.  Everyone went silent around the table....too busy eating to chat!

I also made some stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer.  After cleaning the mushroom, I chopped finely the stems along with a small onion and 3 cloves of garlic.  In a sauce pan, I heated up some butter mixed with olive oil and sauted the onion and chopped mushroom stems along with some salt, red pepper flakes and some black pepper.  When they had given off their water and had reduced that a bit, I then added the garlic.  For a binder, I used panko bread crumbs and enough oil to moisten them up so they would hold together.  For added umami, I added a handful of grated parmesan.  Tasted and adjusted.

For the caps, I put them on a rimmed baking sheet into the oven without stuffing for 3 minutes per side.  I took them out of the oven, allowed to cool a bit until I could handle them, and then stuffed them and returned to the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

There was extra stuffing, which I used to top the casserole.

Up front, I am an impatient cook.  I can not just walk away and let things brown by themselves, I know I shouldn't poke and bother thing that are browning, but I can't help myself.  I browned the rabbit legs and I knew that there would not be enough so I augmented it with 4 chicken thighs.  They came bone in with skin, which I stripped off and then rendered out the fat and saved the crisped skin to chop and sprinkle on the potato casserole.  

What I learned, while the whole grain mustard looks interesting, the seeds separate out and burn, so used a smooth dijon mustard which in turn will adhere to the rabbit/chicken much better.  Use that whole bottle of wine, you heard me, a whole bottle of dry white wine.  I used a sauvignon blanc and it worked beautifully.  I drank a Picpoul with dinner, a little lower in alcohol and a bit of a fizz.

Potato and Celery Root Casserole with Cream

5-6 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced in 1/8" slices (use a mandolin)

1 large celery root, pared and chunked up and sliced in 1/8" slices, use the damn mandolin

1 medium onion, sliced into rings, again on the mandolin

4 large red tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

salt pepper

1 pint heavy cream

grated parmesan cheese

Method

1.  To peel tomatoes, bring a sauce pan of salted water to a boil and get a bowl of ice water ready.  Cut a small "X" on the bottoms of the tomatoes, and put into the boiling water for about 1 - 2 minutes.  Remove and immediately put into the ice water.  When they have cooled down, gently peel off the skin using a paring knife and your fingers.  (Save the water you boiled and use it to blanch the green beans later.)

2.  Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze over the sink or trash.  Using your finger pry out the remaining seeds and set aside until all tomatoes are seeded.  Chop into a 1/2" dice.  (If all of this is too much, then use canned tomatoes, but drain them and reserve liquid to mix with cream.)  Hold in a small bowl

3.  Slice the potatoes and celery root and put into a large bowl of salted water.  Slice the onion and hold on the side in another small bowl.

4.  To assemble the casserole, butter a casserole dish (I used a 9 x 12) and layer first potatoes slices, overlapping in 2 layers followed by 2 layers of the celery root.  Top that with salt and pepper and half the onion slices.  Layer potatoes and celery root again, and top with the tomatoes, salt and pepper, layer potatoes, onions, celery root in a final layer with potatoes or celery at the top of the casserole.  Gently pour in a pint of heavy cream and if you used canned tomatoes, mix the cream with the juice from the tomatoes.  Salt and pepper the top and top with grated parmesan cheese.  Cover with a piece of foil.  Put into a 350° F oven for about 1 hour or so, potatoes should be soft when casserole is pierced with a fork.  Remove foil and let brown in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.  I will help to put the casserole in a rimmed baking pan in case it boils over.  Allow to cool slightly before serving and top with chopped crisped chicken skin.

Note:  If you don't want to bake it this long, then parboil both the potatoes and celery root and layer with the slightly cooked vegetables.

Haricot Verte with Onions, Almonds, and Reduced Stock

1.5 lbs trimmed haricot verte, blanched and shocked in ice water

1 c slivered almonds

1/2 small onion thinly sliced, since the mandolin is out, use it!

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped fine

1/2 c rich chicken stock

olive oil or butter

salt and pepper

Method

1.  In a large frying pan, dry toast the almonds until they color slightly and are crisp.  DO NOT BURN!

Empty into a bowl and hold aside.

2.  In the same pan, heat some oil and saute the onions until they are golden in color and starting to brown.  Add garlic and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes until quite fragrant, but not colored.  Add all of the stock and reduce that by half in the pan.  

3.  Add beans and cook until they are crisp-tender and no longer taste raw.   Cook to coat all the beans in a rich sauce that clings nicely to the beans.  Top with toasted almonds.

Dateline: March 10, 2021 Mushroom Stoop

Once again, I was ordering food from Costco when hungry and planning for some sort of imaginary banquet!  I order 2 huge boxes of mushrooms.....had no concept of how many ounces/lbs were in the container when I ordered...so something had to be done with them....I trolled NYTCooking and found this mushroom soup recipe by Sarah DiGregorio that used the instant pot.  Bingo!  Dinner done. 

This is a good recipe.  Of course, I added my own tweaks....chopped collards with the other vegetables in the pot and parmesan cheese to top along with the scallions.  I did add about 1 ounce of half and half but no sour cream for creme fraiche.  I also didn't have wild rice, so I subbed some barley (I soaked the barley for about 45 minutes to soften it up a bit and hopefully not absorb all the stock).  This is a keeper, neither Bill nor I could stop eating it last night.

I cleaned the mushrooms and quartered them, I like the geometry of that (shoulder shrug).  I diced the celery and carrots into beautiful little cubes along with ribbons of collards.  I did use about 3/4 of an ounce of dried porcini, and a heaping teaspoon of mushroom powder as many comments said that it was a bit bland.  I added the mushroom powder with the flour.  My stock was the mushroom soaking liquid and some homemade chicken and vegetable stock that I made the day before.  The stock was quite gelatinous and full of umami.  Herbage-wise, I used dried thyme.

I would urge people to try this recipe by Sarah DiGregorio.  I have made several of her recipes and they always deliver.  If you don't have an instant pot, no worries, this can easily be done stove top, it will just take a little bit longer.

Dateline: March 9, 2021 Lamb-Ho! Smoker Alert

It was a glorious day, in the 60's, sunny and just aching for a smoke.  I kind of went a little crazy and ordered from Costco and got a boned leg of lamb that I am currently smoking.

The afternoon began with checking up on the smoker, cleaning out the detritus, rust, errant pellets, etc. and I tested it out, and it lit things so I was happy I didn't need to do anything more than that.  

I searched on the web for a recipe for smoked lamb and decided that those that I found were, well, frankly, meh!  So I went to town to create something I would like.

Smoked Lamb with Moroccan Spices

1 5-6 lb boned leg of lamb

8-10 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled

1 T fennel seeds

1 T coriander seeds

1.5 t ground black pepper

2 t sweet paprika

1 T tajine spice powder

1 t salt

neutral oil

1.  Heat smoker to 250° F with wood or pellets of your choice.  I am using maple.

2.  In a grinder, grind up garlic and ginger into smallish pieces, add fennel and coriander seeds and grind again, then add pepper, paprika, tajine spice, and salt.  Grind again and add enough oil to allow the blades to turn and grind everything up to a nice paste.

3.  Rinse the lamb leg.  If it is in netting, carefully peel back the netting half way and trim most of the fat off of that half.  In the pocket where the bone was, smear some of the paste and pull net back up.  Turn lamb roast around and peel the other part of the netting down and finish removing the fat and smear some past inside any bone cavities that may be on that half.  Pull of the netting, push the leg into a semi uniform shape and slather it with the remaining spice paste.

4.  Slice a large onion into 1/2 thick rings and place on the bottom of a foil roasting pan.  Place the lamb on top of the onion slice and let rest for about 1 hr while the smoker settles into its temp.

5.  When smoker hits its temp, add the lamb and close the lid.  This should smoke for about 3-4 hours, depending on your preferred lamb doneness.  Mine has been in for 3 hours and it needs to go longer.  It's just starting to develop a nice bark and get caramelized on the outside.  Smells great!

6.  Allow to rest and carve it up how ever you would like it.

Note:  This was excellent.  I am very proud of myself for concocting it!  It can be made in the oven set at 250° and still be excellent!  

 

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.