Dateline: March 22, 2021 Sheetpan Merguez Redux

Another nap ate into prep time for dinner, I think it is now a nasty habit which is playing havoc with my sleeping at night.

What was in the freezer -- ah, merguez sausage, done.  Veggies in fridge, done.  Ok sheetpan dinner coming up.

I used for the veggies, brussel sprouts, baby peppers, red cabbage, green cabbage, collards, carrots, butternut squash, broccolini, and onions.  Chop into reasonable pieces, coat in olive oil, salt, and pepper and top with frozen sausages and throw into a 350°F oven for 45 minutes.  At 30 minutes, turn the sausages over to brown on the other side and set the table.

Fresh out of the oven

plateful of goodness

These sheetpan dinners are getting more frequent, perhaps because I am taking long naps in the afternoon.  Just saying, it's a possibility, but not causal.

Dateline: March 21, 2021 Korean Squid and Scallion Pancake

The squid had to be used, and I was pressed for time....why?  Because my nap took longer than I thought it would.  So I only started to prep this at about 6 pm and we had a 7 pm zoom call.

I used Melissa Clark's Scallion Pancake with Squid recipe.  Pretty straight forward, I had all the ingredients and didn't need to finagle anything!  The squid was beautiful, once again from Fresh Direct.  Bodies were cut into rings and tentacles were cut in half.  Batter ingredients were measured and prepped and pan was heated by 6:45, so in went half the batter and it cooked up nicely.  Then came the hard part!

I used a straight-sided pan, which was very stupid of me.  A sloping sided pan would have allowed the spatula to get under the pancake much more easily.  The pancake broke up and had to be turned in pieces.  Not a problem in terms of taste, but presentation of a lovely dish was out of the question.

The taste was quite nice, in fact, very good!  In the future I would add more liquid than the called for 2 cups.  The batter was very thick and that may have caused the turning issues as it wasn't going to flow into itself and create a solid surface.  The dipping sauce was very good and accented the seafood quality perfectly.

finished messy product, but the taste was great

These were quite filling, we ate 1 and half of the second one and were both quite full.  I realized looking at the photo I did add a sliced red finger pepper for something interesting, as well as 1 chopped leek.

Dateline: March 20, 2021 Rotisseried Chicken on the Grill -- Welcome to Grilling Season

So I was going to make some squid, but I didn't know when Bill was going to be getting home, so I went with chicken on the grill....not just any chicken, but done on the ROTOQ-360, as my first foray into the grilling season, which seemed fitting on the equinox.

I coated the chicken with Galena Street rub from Penzey's.  Inserted the prongs and wound it up about 40 times.  I am thinking that in future, I need to wind it up for more that 50 times, it took longer on the grill, and I had to use the crank to wind it up again.

In the little pan that comes with the ROTOQ I put some little potatoes, mini peppers and broccolini with dusting of salt and pepper.  The got coated in chicken juice and Galena Street as well.  I took it off the grill when the thigh reached 180°F and the breast was around the same temp.  The chicken was very moist and perfectly cooked.  The veggies were not over done.

Chicken

veggies

Dateline: March 18, 2021 Corned Beef Hash and Poached Eggs--Breakfast for Dinner

 It seemed like the thing to do, make hash from most of the leftover corned beef.  I have never made corned beef hash before.....I rescued the remaining veg from last night, chopped up the potatoes and carrots and then realized I would need a lot more "stuff" to make a meal of it.  I chopped an onion and a couple of small potatoes and took the eggs out of the fridge.  

I heated a pan and added the onion.  When it softened up a bit, I then added the raw potatoes.  Lidded it and went to do something else.  In returning to the pan, the onions looked lovely, but the potatoes were still quite raw.  How do you solve that?  I figured I needed to steam them so I added 1/2 c of water to the pan, lidded it up again and did something else.  Returning I found they were still very firm, so another 1/2 c of water and closed it up again.  All of this is happening over 15-20 minutes or so.  On the third check, the potatoes were almost done, so they would finish up when I added the rest of the stuff.

Into the pan went the cooked veg and the diced up corned beef.  I lidded it and got out a smaller frying pan to poach the eggs.  In thinking about the eggs, I was longing for a poached one.  So that's what Bill got too!  I filled the pan with water, added a couple of T of white distilled vinegar and a pinch or two of salt.  I left it on a low heat because I didn't want to fight waiting for a rolling boil to simmer down.  I turned my attention to the eggs.  How was I going to get them into the pan so that they didn't spread all over.  Aha!  I got out 4 small metal bowls, contemplating should I cook the eggs directly in the little bowls.  I decided against that idea, and cracked and put one egg into each little bowl.  

I checked on the hash again, smashed up some of the bigger chunks of meat and mixed things together.  I didn't salt because the meat was pretty salty on its own, but I did pepper things liberally.  I hash was sticking to the bottom of the pan.  I could scrape it up easily, so back to the water and I added a couple of splashed over the heavily browned spots and began to scrape them in earnest.  As soon as it came up in one spot, it got crusted over in another.  I decided to add about 1/4 c stir it around, and lid again and lowered the heat, hoping that the steam would loosen up the crusty bits.  It worked!

Now was time for the eggs.  I stirred the water in a circle to get a whirlpool going, but not a really strong one, and tipped in the first egg.  The white spread a tiny bit, but I coaxed it back into place, I nudged the egg from the bottom so it wouldn't stick, and repeated the process 3 more times.

I used a slotted spoon to remove an egg and placed it on a wad of folded up paper towel to absorb any vinegary water that was clinging to the egg.  Put them into a dish and, voila, we had dinner ready.

corned beef hash

poached eggs

Dateline: March 17, 2021 Slainte, Y'all! Corned Beef and Cabbage and Irish Soda Bread!

I had a very large corned beef in the fridge that I got at costco, and was planning to make pastrami, but it is just too damn cold out to baby sit a smoker.    

I got a text from my friend Jeri, and she asked if I was making soda bread.  And bingo, I thought, why not.  I used Martha Rose Shulman's whole wheat with raisins and walnuts, but I subbed in pine nuts and currants instead as that was what I had.  I also used powdered buttermilk and water.  Worked just fine!

Beautifully brown loaf that smelled wonderful and tasted even better.  A keeper!

The corned beef and cabbage comes from NYTCooking as well, Sarah DiGregorio recipe.  I've made it before in the instant pot, this time in the oven.  It smells good.  I am not sold on the use of Riesling as the braising liquid.  It definitely smells sweet when I open up the pot.  

After three hours, I flipped the piece over, it was about 6.5 lbs to start, and after trimming off most of the fat, I guess it was around 5.5 or so.  Still a big hunk of meat.  At about 4 pm, I stabbed the meat and it was almost tender, so in went the veggies, and the lid was closed again for the last 1.5 hours.  This photo is taken after that 1.5 hours.  It sat on the stove for about 15 minutes to cool a bit and then we ate.

Nota Bene:  This soda bread is some of the best I have ever eaten, so good that Bill said yes to me making it again the next day.  The currants and pine nuts are a perfect combo - slightly sweet fruit and buttery nuts.

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!