Dateline: May 5, 2021 Cinco de Mayo, Chili Bandera

I pulled some ground turkey out of the freezer and was trying to figure out what to do with it, when I realized it was May 5!  So chili immediately sprang to mind.  So I browsed in the fridge and found 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, 2 small onions, garlic, collard greens and there it was, just add turkey and a can of black beans and dinner was ready.

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey, I used 93% lean

1 green bell pepper, cut into bite sized chunks

1 red bell pepper, cut into bite sized chunks

1 hot pepper cut into slices

2 small onions, diced into bite sized chunks

1/2 a bunch of collards, stripped and cut into ribbons

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 T chili powder

2 t ground cumin

1 t ground coriander

1/2 t epazote

1/2 t mexican oregano

salt and pepper

1 box diced tomatoes, I used Colavita, 12 oz box

couple of glugs of wine, red or white

1 can of beans, rinsed and drained

Oil

1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped

Method

1.  Heat a pan and add some oil to coat.  Brown the turkey.  Add more oil if necessary, and saute the onions and peppers until a bit softened.  Add the garlic and collards.  

2.  Add the tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, coriander, epazote and oregano along with some wine and the salt and pepper.  Stir and cover pan.  Cook over med low heat for 10-15 minutes.

3.  Taste, adjust seasonings and recover.  Cook until peppers are soft, then add a rinsed can of the beans of your choice.  I used black beans.  Top with chopped cilantro and serve over rice.

 

Dateline: April 29, 2021 Clams, Shrimp, Linguini what could be better?

Fresh Direct came through again with their delivery, cockles!  What to do with them.  I had frozen shrimp in the freezer and the clams, why not some pasta.

 

 

I made a base of pancetta, garlic (lots of it), a shallot, and some grape tomatoes.  After they burst and the sauce was kind of soupy, I added the scrubbed clams until they opened.  I removed them and took the meat out of the shells.  Any clam juice went back into the pan.  I added some white wine and tasted for seasoning.  

The pasta water was set to boil and I added the frozen shrimp into the broth to cook through.  They were still half frozen.  When the pasta was cooked, I dumped it into the sauce along with some of the pasta water and stirred things around to coat each linguini strand with the sauce.

Dinner was served along with a salad!

Dateline: April 26, 2021 Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs

I had some chicken thighs that needed to be cooked or frozen, I opted for the former.  I sprinkled Galena Street from Penzey's on the thighs and then put them in the 400° F oven for 30 minutes.

After I removed them from the oven, I added the vegetation, broccoli, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and a green pepper.  Coated them in the fat in the pan, and nestled them around the thighs.  Back into the oven for another 30 minutes. or until the internal temp of the thighs reached 180°F.  Then we ate!

Dateline: April 24, 2021 Experimental Dinner: Air Fried Chicken Thighs

I know, I know, I visited the website Modernist Pantry and saw a demo of air fried chicken, ordered the components and decided to give it a go.

I should have been more attentive to the recipe, there was an error, that I unfortunately didn't notice until after I made the breading..... live and learn.

The error was in printing the weight of the AP flour as 600 g, but it was supposed to be 60 grams.  So I have a big bag of stuff that didn't work out so well.

I brined the chicken first in a buttermilk brine with Worcestershire sauce, powdered hot sauce, salt, pepper, marjoram, thyme, and vinegar powder.  That part went well.  

Next came the breading procedure.  The products that I ordered were Evercrisp and Batter Binder S.  These are designed to 1) hold the batter on the product and 2) provide a long lasting crisp on the food.  Neither worked, which I attribute to the stupid error in the recipe and I will have to try again.

The taste was pretty good, hit of spice came through and the crispy parts were crispy, but the batter did not adhere very well.  The vegetables were good, they were steamed!

I have to admit, the photo makes them look really good!

Dateline: April 22, 2021 Old Fashioned Pot Roast

I bought a large chuck roast that I had thought I would smoke, but the weather was too cold and windy to stand around tending the smoker, so I had to move to another plan......Pot Roast.

Old Fashioned Pot Roast

Ingredients

1 chuck roast or any cut that needs a long time to get tender

Kitchen Bouquet, Kitchen Magic or Maggi Seasoning 

Salt and Pepper

2 large onions, cut into thin half moon slices

2 medium or 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into smallish chunks

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole

2 stalks of celery, cut into smallish chunks

oil

1/2 bottle of red wine

2 c chicken stock

thyme sprigs

Method

1.  Heat oven to 350°.  Coat the entire outside of the roast with the Kitchen Magic or Maggi, painting it all over and getting into all nooks and crannies.  Liberally salt and pepper as you go.

2.  Heat a cast iron dutch oven, large enough to hold the roast and veggies, add oil to the dutch oven and sear the roast well on all sides.  It is best to use tongs as a fork will pierce the meat and allow juices to run out.

3.  When the roast is finished searing remove it to a plate and use 1/4 of a bottle of red wine to deglaze the pan.  You will really need to scrape at the bottom to loosen up all of the fond.  This is a critical flavor building endeavor, do not skip, or God forbid, use a clean pan!  Once the fond is up, then reduce the liquid by half.  

4.  Add in the onions, and cook to soften.  Make sure to stir them around to absorb all of the wine-y goodness at the bottom of the pan.  When the are soft, add in the carrots and celery and saute until they soften up a bit as well.

5.  Make a little nest in the veggies, and settle the seared roast into the pan, pour in any juices that accumulated while resting.  Add the rest of the 1/2 bottle of wine and the chicken stock.  Mix well and bring to a simmer.

6.  Put lidded dutch oven into the hot oven and check on it in about 1.5 hrs.  Flip the roast over and return pan to oven.  Check on it in another hour or so.  The meat is cooked when it is easily pierced by a fork and offers little to no resistance to the fork.

7.  Carefully remove the roast to a clean plate or cutting board and tent with foil to keep moist and warm.  In the dutch oven is the "gravy".  Remove thyme sprigs.  Spoon off as much of the fat as you like, and with a stick blender, grind up everything into a thick-ish "gravy".  

8.  I find that if I cut the roast in half with the grain and then flip that chunk cut side down, then the slices will be cut against the grain and will be more tender.  Depending on your esthetics, you can cut into thick slabs or thin, depending on its tenderness and how the meat cooperates with your knife.  

Dateline: April 21, 2021 Lamb Tajine

We were visiting my mom in North Carolina last week, and prior to that I was not cooking.....that explains the break in posts!

I recently "found" my tajine pan again, so was itching to use it.  I had ordered from Fresh Direct some lamb chunks, and decided on tajine last night.  This was the perfect setting to pull it out and have a go.

I used a Melissa Clark recipe from NYTCooking.  Of course, I had to make a few changes, I didn't have apricots, so I used prunes, I didn't have almonds, so I used a mix of walnuts and pine nuts.  My lamb was without bone, so sue me, as it was boneless, I went with 2 lbs of meat chunks instead of the 3 lb called for in the recipe.

This was pretty easy, and very delicious.  I was concerned that it would be too sweet and possibly cloying, but that was not the case!  I had read some of the notes that stated they felt it was too salty, I used only 1 t of salt at the beginning and probably could have used the 2 t called for in the recipe.  The onions melted down into this delectable thick coating on the lamb chunks.  It was not too sweet.  It was luscious with the rice and the meal was rounded out with a salad.  Both of us were quite happy and it may just become a regular in the rotation.

Dateline: April 5, 2021 Bottarga, Baby, Bottarga

I was reading on Serious Eats about pasta with bottarga.  I had a jar of bottarga in the pantry that I was aching to try.  The article said it would give the taste of the sea to the pasta.  I looked at the recipe, and decided to take a slightly different tactic but incorporate some of the techniques for dealing with the bottarga in my dish.

For those that don't know what bottarga is, it is the salted and dried roe sacs from mullet fish.  You can buy it in whole lobes, or pre-ground up.  I had a jar of pre-ground, so that is what I used.

For my version, I used short pasta, lots of parsley, a sliced red finger pepper, and A LOT of garlic, sliced into not so thin slices.  

Ingredients

2 oz grated bottarga, divided

5 large cloves garlic, peeled and sliced, not too thinly

1 small bunch curly parsley, chopped

1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped

10 flowering chives, chopped

1 red finger pepper, sliced

1/2 c good, flavorful olive oil

1 lb short pasta

Method

1.  In a pan large enough to hold all the cooked pasta, heat the oil and add in the garlic slices.  Allow the slices to slowly brown and soften in the oil, stirring frequently.  You do not want a dark brown, but a golden brown all over the slices.

2.  Add in all but 1 T of the bottarga and turn off the heat under the pan.  Allow the bottarga to steep in the warm oil along with the garlic for about 10 minutes.  In the meantime, bring a pot of water to a boil, add 1-2 T salt, and cook the pasta 2 minutes short of doneness according to the package directions.  

3.  Add the chopped parsleys, finger pepper to the steeping bottarga and stir to combine.  If the pasta is getting close to done, add about 1/2 c of the pasta water to the bottarga pan.  Stir to emulsify and combine well.  Turn on the flame under the bottarga pan.

4.  When the pasta has reached its 2 minutes short of doneness add to the bottarga along with another 1/2 c of pasta water.  Stir to combine and cook until the pasta has absorbed the liquid in the pan.  If necessary add more pasta water to create the texture you like.  Sprinkle on the remaining 1 T of bottarga.

5.  Serve.

This was sooooooo good.  I am now searching the web for more bottarga!  It really had the flavor of the sea, it was not super salty, not fishy, it was just like the sea.  I know that is a very unsatisfying description, but that is what it added to the pasta, the essence of the sea.  Neither of us could stop eating it, even after we had salad, we were still eyeing the pasta remaining in the pan and contemplating another bowl or few bites!  I actually got up around 2 am and had a bowl cold, it was still delicious!

 

Dateline: April 4, 2021 Grilled Steak, Roasted Whole Cauliflower, and Grilled Potatoes

 I had 2 beautiful strip steaks that I wanted to grill.  So I set up the grill and lit a fire hoping to get everything done before it got dark and cold!  I threw a chunk of wood on to supply a little more smoke for the veg.

I oiled the steaks and seasoned with salt and pepper as well as oiling up the cauliflower and seasoning it with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.  I washed up a couple of yukon gold potatoes and oiled and seasoned them up as well.

When the fire was ready, I got it to hold steady at 300°F and put the cauliflower on the grill.  I figured I had about 40 - 60 minutes before it was cooked through and delightfully smokey.  I figured the taters would take about the same amount of time.  They would not fall apart, but get crustier, which is a lovely thing in its own right!

When the veggies were done, I opened up the vents to get the grill hotter, and got it up to 400°F pretty quickly.  I put the steaks on the hottest part of the grill and set a timer for 6 minutes.  After 3 minutes I rotated the steaks 90° for cross hatching.  At the 6 minute mark, the steaks were flipped and rotated again at the 3 minute mark.  I then took its temp and the internal temp was only about 100°F.  So onto their sides the steaks went in 1-2 minute increments.  The grill was getting hotter as the lid was open so a good sear was happening on the edges.  After that I took the temp and it was 120°F, ok getting closer to medium rare.  I put the steaks back on the very hot grill on the less browned side for another minute or two and voila!  Perfect 127° that will rise to 130° as they sit.

The steaks were excellent, I know I usually do sous vide for steak, but I wanted to grill to wake up my grilling chops, if you will.

They were tender, flavorful, nicely seasoned, and quite delicious.  Nothing like meat and taters for an Easter/Passover Dinner.

Dateline: April 1, 2021 What to do with leftover chicken?

We had quite a bit of chicken left over from the buttermilk brine experiment, so I needed to get creative with it.  I decided on Chicken Pot No Pie.

I created a mirepoix of veggies: carrots, green pepper, onion, and sautedd in butter and olive oil.  After the veggies had softened, I added flour and cooked until the raw taste was gone, and then added the left over veggies form the previous night.  I added chicken stock and cooked until the stock thickened and then added in the cut up chicken meat.  Brought it to a boil, and put it covered into a 350°F oven for 45  minutes until hot and bubbling.  I removed the lid, and let some of the liquid cook off to thicken things up a bit, and dinner was served!

I used some herbage in it as well, savory and marjoram, along with salt and pepper.  It was quite passable and satisfying for a chilly evening.

Dateline: March 31, 2021 Buttermilk Brined Roasted Chicken with veggies

I had 2 smallish chickens in the fridge, they needed to be cooked.  I was going to do a taste test between Cook's Venture and a Kosher bird, at least that was the plan.  However, the fridge was packed and I needed to make room.  The smaller bird went into the freezer, and the larger one into the buttermilk brine.  I used Samin Rosrat's recipe.  The larger bird was the kosher one, so I didn't use all the salt in the brine.  I put the bird into a gallon size zip bag and put it in a bowl in the fridge over night.

cut up and ready to eat.

I decided to rotisserie the bird rather than roast in a pan in a hot oven.  That may not have been the best decision...When the chicken was cooked, the skin was still kind of flabby and pale.  To solve the problem, I removed the pan of veggies below the rotisserie, and replaced it with another empty pan and cranked up the heat.  The skin browned up, but certainly nothing like the photo with the recipe.  Next time.....

This is a fabulous chicken recipe.  The bird is flavorful, juicy, and succulent.  I was very happy with the results.  

The veggies were asparagus, little potatoes, onion, 2 types of broccolini, tomatoes, and cauliflower.  Seasoned with salt, pepper and a wee bit of olive oil.

fresh from the oven

roasted vegetation