Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Courtney's Japanese-theme Marinated Lamb Chops

Beautiful spring night here, with rain predicted tomorrow, so the need to grill. All off the top of my head.

Courtney's Japanese-theme Marinated Lamb Chops
(Serves 2)

4 lamb chops

1 can nameko mushrooms* (juice and mushrooms)
1T Japanese Seasoned Seaweed with Mushroom paste (gohen desuyo shitake nori)
2T dijon mustard
1T lemon juice
*these cans are *really* tiny - maybe an ounce or two at most
(Accompaniment: 2 baby bok choy, grilled)

Mix all the non-lamb chop ingredients (except the bok choy) together. Put the lamb chops in and marinate, turning once or twice, an hour and a half or so.

Start the Egg and preheat the grill (about 4-5 min on full to start and another 4-5 min to heat the grill).

Put the lamb chops on the grill and keep at medium-high. If cooking from frozen (as I was) cook 7 min then flip; 9 min then flip; 6 min then close off the grill. The chops will turn out a nice rare-rare-medium. Adjust cooking times to taste.

If you are cooking the bok choy, add it at the first flip of the lamb and flip it at the second. Or steam it until just done.

Plate the lamb and bok choy. Zap the rest of the sauce in the microwave for 30 seconds (I didn't but wish I had) and spoon next to (see picture at start of post).

Cooking Note: I wanted to grill the baby bok choy and found one thing that may not be suitable to Mechazawa-san. The edges of the bok choy dried out and wilted when the core was cooked properly. I could add foil and be creative to compensate, but the take-away is that I can't just slap stuff like this down on the grill.

Eating notes: Phil just thought the sauce had a nice oil content; I thought it "slime-ified" the way natto does (this is a positive for me). I will buy these mushrooms again, despite their costing like $5 for this outrageously teeny can, just for that effect. We each licked the plate clean (for the sake of politeness, let's say that's a metaphor...)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Courtney's Curried Spleen with Vegetables and Cracklin'

I couldn't find a spleen recipe besides the one I already made, so I created one up on my own, using my 1972 copy of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery recipe for basic Ceylonese curry as a rough guide. I was motivated by people who have suggested cubing various organs and making otherwise normal curry with them, and decided to try this with the spleen. When I cleaned the spleen, the fat just looked too good to waste, so I made cracklin' from it to use as a topping. Courtney's Curried Spleen with Vegetables and Cracklin'
Ingredients:
(Makes about 4 servings)
1 - 2 pig spleens, or a veal/beef spleen. Enough potatoes and carrots to make 2-3 lbs total (see pic above)
1 - 2 Yukon Gold or similar waxy potatoes (see note above)
3 - 4 medium carrots (see note above)
2 lg cloves of garlic
1" piece fresh ginger
1/2 yellow onion
4 md - large button mushrooms
1 t curry powder
1 t coriander
1 t turmeric
1 t mustard powder
1/2 t cayenne
1/2 t salt
1 bay leaf
1" piece of cinnamon
3-4 drops lemon or lime oil (I used lime)
2 c coconut water (found in the juice section in most supermarkets) or coconut milk
2 T ghee
1 t ground cloves
1 t Chinese 5-spice powder (or allspice or something similar)
Coarsely cube the potatoes, onions and carrots. Mince the ginger and garlic. Quarter the mushrooms.

Clean the spleen (pictures here). Cube the spleen and add to the vegetables (see picture above) Throw away the vein. Cut the rest of the fat into 1/2" - 3/4" pieces.

Mix the curry powder, coriander, turmeric, mustard powder, cayenne, and salt. Add the bay leaf and piece of cinnamon to this mixture.

Make the Cracklin. Melt the ghee in a saucepan. When hot, add the cut up fat. Saute over medium-high heat until the cracklin' is crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Turn the saucepan heat down to medium. Add the spleen, vegetables, ginger and garlic and saute 1 min. Add the mixed spices and the lemon or lime oil and combine well. Stir-fry for 4 or 5 minutes, until very nicely fragrant. Pour in the coconut water. Bring just to a boil and then turn heat down to a low simmer. Cover and simmer until everything is very tender, about 1-1/2 hours or so. Remove lid if necessary during last half hour of cooking so that juices reduce to about half, as shown in picture above.

When the curry is done, the sauce is reduced, and the spleen and veggies are tender, remove from heat and stir in the cloves and allspice. Serve, sprinkling the cracklin' on top. If you are serving this for one initial meal plus leftovers, either store any remaining cracklin' separately or just use it all for the first meal (do not mix it in, as it will become soggy).

Eating notes: This was the best curry I have ever made, and among the best I have ever had. All the spices melded well together. The spleen was tender and still tasted like spleen. Adding in the cloves and allspice at the end made my decision not to increase the cayenne sensible. And making the spleen fat cracklin' has converted me to doing the same whenever I have "waste" fat around. The hardest part was not scarfing it before dinner was done.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Courtney's Fish in a Blanket

Recipe:
(Serves 2 very comfortably)

1 Red Snapper or similar fish (ours was just over 2 pounds before cleaning), cleaned but retaining head and tail.
1 pkg (2 pieces) dashi konbu (Japanese seaweed; available at Asian groceries)
1" piece of ginger
1 lg garlic clove
1/2 md yellow onion
1 chorizo sausage
2 meyers lemons
2 lg crimini or comparable volume of other mushrooms
2t Kikkoman or other strong soy sauce
1/4 c coconut oil
1/4 c shredded coconut

Take out the dashi konbu (see pic below) and soak in a large pan for an hour.
Preheat oven to 400F.

Peel and mince the ginger, garlic and onion. Very thinly slice one Meyers lemon and the mushrooms. Slice the chorizo approx. 1/4" thick.

Juice the other meyers lemon and combine with the soy sauce.

Heat the coconut oil on a griddle. Add the garlic, ginger, onion, chorizo, mushrooms and lemon and saute 5 min or so. Add the coconut and stir in.
Stuff fish with as much of the mixture as comfortably fits. Keep the rest warm.

Grease a shallow baking sheet with coconut oil. Put one sheet of seaweed on it; put the fish on that, and wrap the seaweed around. Take the second sheet and lay it on top, tucking it under the fish to stay secure. Leave the head and tail free (see first post picture).

Bake 25 min or until fish just starts to easily flake. Picture below shows it just out of the oven. Heat the griddle holding the remainder. Add the soy/lemon juice mixture and saute until reheated and thickened.

If (as we were) you are serving it to two people: cut the head and tail off (see final picture for disposition). Cut the seaweed along the belly of the fish with scissors. Unfold the fish and cut in half along the backbone area.
Put half the seaweed on each plate. Put one of the fish halves on top of each, skin side down. Put stuffing over. Add reserved stuffing and sauce on top, distributing evenly.
Eating notes: This was truly my own recipe, and I'm rather proud of how it came out. Unexpected combinations and quite good. The seaweed is a bit chewy, but fine to eat. Be very careful of the bones and scales. The scales, especially, can adhere to your throat and be very unpleasant. It also helps, as Alex and Nadja show below, to have a good friend willing to look away when your own enjoyment becomes a bit too enthusiastic.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Stuffed Chicken without Preconceptions

Preconceptions first. Chicken that isn't "fully" cooked is bad. People who serve chicken that isn't so cooked are bad.
Recipe:
(Serves 2)
1 boneless skinless chicken breast (3/4 lb or so)
2T pecan meal
2T parmesan
scattering of marinated mushrooms
1 to 2 oz soft cheddar (I used a stout cheddar) sliced thin
salt and pepper to taste
2 oz sour cream
1/4 c dry white wine
3 - 4 thin slices prosciutto
2T ghee
4 oz frozen cooked zuchhini or summer squash
Instructions: Take one chicken boneless, skinless chicken breast (see picture immediately above) and pound it thin (see picture immediately below).
Mix sour cream, wine, and salt and pepper to taste until smooth.Sprinkle pecan meal over. Dot with mushrooms. Slice cheese and arrange (see next pic). Put grated cheese over. Put prosciutto over. Fold in half, so that if there is a stray "limb" of meat it is folded inside (see pic below).
Heat ghee in heavy pan until very hot. Saute folded chicken 4 min on each side. Plate.

Updated because I forgot about the zucchini!: Add the zucchini to the pan and saute until cooked, about 4 min. Plate zucchini around chicken.

Pour cream and spice mixture into pan and deglaze/reduce until of a nice sauce consistency. Pour over and serve (see first pic).

Eating notes: Phil was not at all amazed that rare poultry is ok and, in fact, good. For me it was a revelation. The poultry was moist and not at all gummy. It clearly was rare meat, but I didn't feel the need to snatch up the plates and rush back to the microwave. I need to think on this some more.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Ketchup Pizza


Circumstances conspire. 1: Pizza fail from the other night. 2: Wanted to get some chicken from the Fresh Fields but realized I had no money so went home empty-handed. 3: Had one more leftover pizza shell. 4: Thought I had some tomato sauce but it turned out to be chili paste.

The result: Ketchup Pizza. Used Lane's Super-Sweet Ketchup (see Eating Notes below) mixed with Thai chili sauce as the base. Instructions: Prepare the pizza crust or be lazy like I was and use a gluten-free (or regular if you're not bothered by gluten) ready-made as directed. Preheat oven to 450F. Mix 1/4 c ketchup, 2T chili sauce, 1T mixed dried herbs, and 4 sliced garlic cloves. Spread over the sauce. Layer over sliced veggies to suit (I used 4 mushrooms and half a red onion; again, what I had on hand). Grate 2 oz or to taste hard cheese over all. If desired, top with sliced meat or sausage (I used spicy Italian sausage). Cook 13 - 18 min or until done to taste.

Eating Notes: Lane's ketchup now tastes really sweet. I'm not sure if it's really all that much sweet-tasting or if because I'm eating far fewer sweets than I used to it's my palate that has changed. But it's a surprise and kind of nice when you think about what to mix it with. I think the ketchup/chili sauce was too obvious/harsh, but I will now start planning for more subtle future uses.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mechazawa-san Meatloaf Love


After too many fails in too short a time, I needed something comforting and reliable. Mechazawa-san to the rescue!!

(Updated to be a bit more useful). We were a bit hungry, so made two individual loaves from a pound of beef. Instructions: Mix the beef with an egg, 1T yellow or brown mustard, 1T Worcestershire (I use Bulldog for meatloaf), 1T sage, 2t cayenne, 1t garlic powder (if you're tired lazy like I was; it would be better if you mince a few cloves and mix them in) and 1/2 c glutinous millet or other cooked grain to soak up the juices.* When you make the individual loaves, remember to put a dent in the middle to retain cooking juices and provide a well for ketchup. Preheat the Egg and the grill. Grill directly on the grill 35 minutes on restrained-high heat (about 400F) for 2 loaves. Plate carefully to retain the juices and pour ketchup over.

Eating Notes: Used my old-time ketchup, which I hadn't had since Lane and I did the ketchup comparison back in February. It definitely will continue to improve, but was much better melded having had a month more to age.

* as a whole grain, millet (as opposed to millet flour) is not on my "good" list, but I've had some to use up. So I've been trying to sensibly process the millet as much as possible before I eat it. This millet ended up being cooked twice - first in the rice cooker and then in the Egg. Also, glutinous millet, despite the sound of its name, is not a gluten grain.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Veal Liver and Parmesan Herb Potatoes


Easy, filling and good.

Instructions: Preheat oven to 425F. Slice russet or similar potatoes 1/2" thick. Take two 1/2" slices out of the middle (widest) part of an onion, or use the roughly equivalent mass from the ends. Layer half the potatoes on a greased piece of foil on a baking sheet. layer the onions on. Season to taste with herbs, salt and pepper. Layer the rest of the potatoes over. Put approx 1/4 c ghee or butter on top in large dollops. Cover generously with grated Parmesan and wrap in the foil. Roast 45 min to an hour.

When done, remove from oven and plate. Heat 2T lard or bacon fat or butter in a heavy fry pan on medium-high heat. Add veal liver and saute 2 min on one side. Flip and saute 1 min on the other side. Liver should still be oozing blood and be nice and rare on the inside. Cut in half and plate.

Veal Cheeks Braised in Tomato


Rehearsal night last night, so easy crock pot dinner - except that I chunked the veal in the pot and forgot everything else! So thanks, Phil, for doing the actual cooking. As it turned out, we still needed to pull it out of the crock pot and put it on the stove for a half hour for it to be edible for dinner, and then I let it simmer a couple of hours more so it would be really good for leftover lunches.

Instructions (or; what I *should* have done): Put veal cheeks in crock pot with one can of tomatoes. Cut a medium onion and a large waxy potato (red, Yukon gold, etc.) into 1" cubes and add. Add some carrots and celery, cut into 1" pieces. Throw in 4 whole cloves of garlic and spices to taste. Cook on low all day.

Updated with photo.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Pizza fail

Went to make pizza on the egg tonight and it was a fail - 25 minutes on the grill and still it wasn't cooked and parts were cold. Because the ingredients were veggies, cheese, and pre-cooked sausage on a pre-cooked crust, it was edible, and we were hungry enough by then to eat it, but it wasn't very good.

Diagnosis:
Egg wasn't fully preheated when I put the skillet on. I think the thermometer also needs recalibration. After 18 minutes the cheese hadn't melted and I decided to give it another 7 minutes. I should have realized this was a major problem and just kept on cooking. I forgot that it takes a long time to heat the iron pan and that when the pan and stuff near it is hot, stuff far away may not be.

Irony:
I still managed to burn my mouth on a bit of tomato paste that had gotten very hot indeed.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Which came first?

Last night had the eggs, so tonight the shad. Another first for Phil and me. Basically, an unremarkable fish but easy and good. Again, I adapted one recipe for the cooking sauce and another for the finishing sauce to end up with...

Basic Broiled Shad with Caper Sauce
(serves 2)

1 shad made into fillets (about 1/2 pound), cut in half lengthwise

For cooking sauce:
1/4 c melted butter
1 t lemon juice
1 t paprika
1/2 t dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste (I used no salt and a bunch of pepper)
parsley (I didn't have any, so I used carrot greens)

For finishing sauce:
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T drained capers
1/2 c dry white wine
Juice of 1 lemon (I used a Meyers lemon)
1/2 c buttermilk
1 t corn starch
1 t cold water
2 T butter

After assembling your mis en place, start the broiler (I used the high setting with the rack positioned about 5" from the heat) make the finishing sauce first.

In a 1-quart saucepan over high heat, combine garlic, capers, wine and lemon juice and cook until reduced 1/3 to 1/2. Add in most of the parsley, reserving enough for a garnish.

Mix the corn starch and water.

Add buttermilk and cook until reduced again by 1/2. Add the corn starch and water mixture and cook until thickened. Remove from heat but keep warm. Picture below shows the sauce keeping warm.Make the cooking sauce and cook the fish next.

Melt the butter and stir in the other ingredients. Line a baking sheet with foil and turn up the edges. Brush some of the sauce on. Put the fish onto the foil and distribute half the cooking sauce over. Broil 3 minutes.
Remove from oven (pic above shows it just out of the oven and before flipping) and carefully turn. Distribute the rest of the sauce over. Broil 2 minutes more. Remove and plate (because Phil and I were having only the fish, I cut each fillet piece in half before plating; see first post pic).

Pour the fish juice remaining on the foil into the finishing sauce and stir gently to combine. Pour over fish. Serve at once.

Eating notes: The fish was a bit pedestrian, and the sauce a bit strong. That said, it was a good combination and worth repeating. I liked the buttermilk (instead of the cream the one recipe called for) but you have to be sure not to panic when it all curdles up and to just keep cooking it until it all melds.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Chesalane Shad Roe



Today I was so happy to be able to make dinner that I decided to do something fun. So (thanks, Lane!) I bought some of the in-season shad roe (see first post pic) at the Fresh Fields and the ingredients to make Lane's Shad Roe recipe. But I wanted something a little more robust. So I looked around and found a Chesapeake Bay Shad Roe recipe that sounded good. Merging the two sounded like an excellent idea, and it was. So in honor of both, I merge the titles as well. Chesapeake gets top billing because both the roe and the recipe apply.

Recipe:
(serves 2)
1 set of shad roe
3T ghee or butter (I used ghee)
3 shallots, minced
5 md button or crimini mushrooms, wiped clean and cut in half
1 decent-sized bunch of parsley, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
1 lemon, sliced thin (Lane insisted I use Meyer's lemons, and after doing so I agree)
1/2 c dry sherry
4 oz creme fraiche or sour cream
approx. 4 oz milk to thin the creme fraiche
1/2 T flour (I used rice flour to keep it gluten-free)
salt and pepper to taste

Mince the shallots and put in a bowl. Chop the parsley and add it but do not mix. Separate the parsley into two approximately equal amounts by lifting out the leaves at the top, leaving more leaves and most of the stems in the bowl with the shallots.

Melt the ghee or butter in a heavy skillet. Stir in the shallot/parsley mixture and cook slowly 1 min. Turn heat to medium, add the mushrooms, and cook 5 min more. Season with salt and a bit of pepper. Arrange the mixture so the roe can sit on top. Carefully add the roe (see picture) cover with the rest of the parsley and lemon slices (see next picture) and pour over the sherry and lemon juice. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. If the lid seals tightly, vent occasionally.

Meanwhile, in a jar or bottle mix by shaking the creme fraiche with enough milk to bring it to a heavy cream consistency. Shake in 1/2 T flour (Phil overshook and made really nice solidified cream; if you do the same, just add more milk and shake again until it's right - it is not a fail).

Preheat your broiler. (I used the low setting, with the rack about 4" from the flame)

When the time is up, carefully remove the roe and lemon slices from the pan, putting the roe on a flame-proof platter and scraping any parsley on top of the roe back into the skillet. Using a slotted spoon, remove and plate the solid parts (parsley and mushrooms).
Reduce the sauce until it is slightly thickened and pour over the roe. Pic above shows the roe with the sauce poured over. Broil 3 min. Put one roe sac on top of each plate of parsley/mushroom mix. Pour sauce over, layer lemon slices on, and serve.

(I was serving this with steamed beans and shiitake mushrooms (see last pic below), so I put the lemon slices on those and not the roe. It worked quite well, and Lane was right that the Meyer's lemons could be eaten, rind and pith and all, without trouble)

Eating Notes: Not being from the area, this was Phil and my first experience with shad roe. We really like it. We both thought it tastes more like organ meat than what our experience with roe (which, essentially, has previously been limited to sushi and caviar) has been. The fact that it is seasonal (see Lane's post linked above for more info) makes it more fun to have. I thought that the combination of Lane's cooking sauce with the Chesapeake recipe finishing sauce worked well. In the future I might add just a touch of curry or something with a bit of a bite, but as it was it was great comfort food.


Can't Talk...Working

Pulled a 12-hour day at my client's site last night and dinner consisted of natto and too much packaged trail mix. Don't know what tonight will bring, maybe more of the same.

Apologies, and will be back as soon as I do something worth blogging about (let alone eating).

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Courtney's Ersatz Bopis

I am honestly a bit tired of seeing apologetic recipes for pig parts. As with the pork kidneys the recipes for hearts almost uniformly praised lamb and veal (and even ox!) parts and said well, if you can't get anything else, pig would probably do. So when I defrosted the pig heart I had on hand (see first post pic), I was determined to find a recipe that called, initially and with pride, for a pig heart.

Fortunately, Filipino recipes embrace the pig, and the whole pig. So I found several basic recipes for Bopis, which can be made with heart or with heart and lungs combined. I had nowhere near all the traditional ingredients, so I adapted it to fit my suburban American kitchen. The result was fabulous.

Recipe:
(serves 2)
1 pig heart (ours was just over a pound)
4 large garlic cloves
1 medium-large onion
1/2 bell pepper
1 hot pepper (I used a jalapeno)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1T turmeric
1 t ground black pepper
salt or patis (Filipino fermented fish sauce; I used salt) to taste
2T coconut oil or lard for frying

Trim the pig heart of excess fat, obvious valves, and the muscly flaps that cover it. Rinse it out well. Boil 30 - 45 min or until a fork poked into the heart comes out easily. Remove the heart and cube it.

Mince the garlic and cube the onion and bell pepper.

In a frying pan or wok, heat the fat and saute the garlic until just brown. Add the onion and pork and saute 2 or 3 minutes more. Add the turmeric, pepper, and salt/patis and stir until coated and fragrant. Add the vinegar and set to medium heat. Boil 5 min without stirring. Add the peppers and stir gently (picture below shows everything added into the frypan).
Boil 8 - 10 minutes more until sauce is melded and vinegar no longer tastes sharp. Serve.Eating Notes: This was excellent sweet and sour in its own right. I think it works very well with heart, but for the squeamish another cut would probably do. We were surprised because aside from the onion and bell pepper there was nothing "sweet" in it. I would definitely make it again and now I'm curious to track down all the Filipino ingredients and do it right.

Update: The reason I didn't link through to the "ur" recipe is because I cribbed this from 5 or 6 different sources. I've added a link above to the Wikipedia article on bopis for those who would like to learn more about the dish.

Pork Adobo

So, I was a the store looking for some pork to make pork adobo and saw some packages of neck parts. My recipe is a variation on the adobo theme. Neck is not normally a cut that I would jump on for this dish, actually, its not a cut I think of at all, really. But I had been thinking earlier that I should try the dish with a fattier cut and bones might be a good idea, too. So I bought about 5 lbs and wondered what would be the result.

Pork adobo

Pork neck pieces
1/2 C cider vinegar
6 T soy sauce
6 cloves garlic
2 T sugar
3 bay leaves
1 t black pepper corn
2 t pickling spice

Separated the neck pieces with a cathartic attack of a meat cleaver. Sliced the garlic into rounds. Put everything in a dutch oven and simmered over low hear for an hour plus. I added a little water and cooked uncovered for another 15 minutes.

This turned out to be a very good cut of meat for this dish. It is not the tidiest or dainty cut. The meat was very flavorful and easily picked off the bones. Served with rice.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Marinated Lamb Chops, Yams and Kale

I fasted today (despite lunch with Lane - sorry to be a stick in the mud but you deserve it for not covering for me by blogging yesterday!) because I just wasn't very hungry. But Phil had no such proclivities and by dinner I was ready to get back to normal so, a full spread of lamb chops, yams with herbs and cheese, and lard-fried kale was made to order.

Instructions for lamb: Make a marinade of about 1/3 c peach preserves, 1/4 c Thai chili garlic sauce, 1/4 c cider vinegar and garlic and pepper to taste (pic below shows the lamb marinating). Marinate 2 hours or so, flipping intermittently and spreading the mixture all over. Heat grill (I was cooking the lamb chops from nearly frozen so used Mechazawa-san). Put lamb on. Cook approx 10 min 1 side; flip and add some marinade and cook 10 minutes more; flip and put on, with any big bits of peach on top of the lamb. Cook another 5 min or so and then pull off, keeping the big bits of peach balanced on top. When plating, lift carefully to keep the big bits of peach on top, and pour any remaining marinade over.

Instructions for yams: Put the yams in a layer on a roasting pan. Grate some cheese (Ok, mom, the grater did do a better job...) and sprinkle over (see pic above). Cover with foil. Bake at 400 for 40 - 45 min.

Instructions for "dinosaur" kale: At about 1-1/2" wide at the broadest part of the leaf, dinosaur kale is very thin. If you are using more broadleaf kale you may want to chop more finely. Chop the kale from stems to top in increasingly longer sections from root to leaf (approx 1/2" at the root end and 2" at the leaf end). Heat 3-4 T lard in a heavy pan. When melted and hot, add the kale stems. Saute 4 min or so and then add leaves. If desired, add some soy or soba sauce. Stir fry until well wilted.

Eating notes: I am constantly amazed at how Mechazawa-san can turn out amazing results from things like frozen-solid lamb chops. Arigatou gozaimasu!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Pork Meatloaf and Asparagus

The asparagus at the coop this week looked wonderful, so had to get some and never mind the cost. For protein and fat, used pork leftover from breakfast to make some very nice meatloaf.

Instructions: Heat your grill (Mechazawa-san, the big Egg, was the choice for us). While the grill is heating, mix 1/2 lb ground pork, 1T good yellow mustard, 1T Worchestershire (I used Lee and Perrins), 1T horseradish, 1 egg, and 1/4 c panko. Once the grill is heated, cook approx 30 min or until done. Steam the asparagus 5 - 7 min. Melt 1/4 c ghee. Plate everything and pour the ghee over the asparagus. Picture shows one serving (out of 2).

Eating Notes: Forgot to let the grill really heat up before putting the meat on, so while it was cooked well it could have benefitted more from the crispy/carbon additions if it had gone onto a really hot grill. Note for future reference.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Lame...but easy and a little fun


Long day and not terribly hungry, so tore open a bag of smoked shrimp and pulled out the wonderful cocktail picks and made a go of it. I used to love these kinds of things (and cocktail umbrellas) when I was a kid - I'd open and close them obsessively, and take them home from the restaurant and play with them until the little paper accordions finally gave out or faded into a sad shade of neutral. They still make anything taste better.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Broiled Catfish with Incredible Sauce


Bought a huge (well, 1.5 lb) catfish fillet because it looked really good. Catfish is not one of my "go to" fish - chalk it up to 7 years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana or just a mental block. But for whatever reason, the fact that I selected a large catfish fillet at the store today was unusual but serendipitous, because it lived up to its oracular suggestions. Adapted the recipe from an industry site for catfish recipes and decided to try it for my purposes.

Recipe:
(serves 2 very generously)
Enough fillet of catfish to make you happy (anywhere from 12 oz to 2 lb)
2 0z. cup of strong espresso (or 1T instant espresso powder mixed with 2 oz water if you have no other choice)
1/4 c butter, melted (I used half-and-half butter and ghee)
1/4 t garlic or onion powder (I used garlic)
1/2 t salt
1/4 c mascarpone cheese or sour cream
1/4 c horseradish
1/4 c capers

Combine espresso, melted butter, garlic powder and salt. Generously grease foil and place on an appropriately sized baking sheet. Turn the edges of the foil up.

Place fish on foil. Brush generously over catfish. Broil 3" = 4" from heat for 6 - 10 min (depending on thickness) checking frequently so that the fish doesn't overcook.

Flip an brush remaining half of sauce over. Broil 4 - 8 min longer or until fish just barely starts to easily flake.

While the fish is broiling, combine the cheese, horseradish and capers into a sauce.

Plate fish. Carefully lift the foil and pour the fish juices into the rest of the sauce, stirring to combine. Pour over and serve.

Eating Notes: This is the best catfish we have ever had (not too difficult since catfish is so frequently breaded and fried to death). It was perfectly cooked, and the coffee butter cooking sauce combined really well with the cheese/horseradish/capers finishing sauce. I will definitely use the coffee/butter combination for other things. Not sure what yet, but it was a winner.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Veal Liver with Dandelion Green Potatoes


Phil was intrigued by the New York Times' Mark Bittman's Green Mashed Potatoes recipe and passed it over. We come at it from differengt perspectives - Bittman is a vegan; I'm an unabashed animal-fat-and-meat-loving omnivore, but our goal is essentially the same. We both want to take simple, real, food and cook it simply.

So, needing comfort on this chilly March evening, we had veal liver with Dandelion Green Potatoes. His calls for boatloads of olive oil and a thick breadcrumb crust; I prefer butter and just a dusting of panko.

Recipe:
(serves 2)

For the Veal:
1 slice veal liver
2 sliced mushrooms
1 large shallot, sliced thin.

For the potatoes:
2 large (approx. 1 lb) russet or other starchy potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1 lb dandelion or other similar greens, bottoms of stems cut off (save for scrap salad).
1/2 c butter
generous pinch of salt
lots of pepper
dusting of panko (Japanese bread crumbs; omit if you want it gluten-free)

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes and salt and boil until nicely cooked, 20-30 min. Remove with slotted spoon and mash, rice, or put through a food mill (I mashed). Bring the pot water back to a boil, add the greens and cook 1 min. Remove, rinse in cold water, squeeze out excess water, and chop. Mash the greens and butter into the potatoes.

Preheat oven to 400F. Put the mixed greens and potatoes into an ovenproof dish. Generously grind pepper over. Dust with panko. Bake 15 - 20 minutes or until panko starts to brown.

While potatoes are in the oven, heat a griddle generously coated with bacon drippings or lard. When the griddle is hot, add the mushrooms and shallots and saute until the shallots are crispy-brown. Push the shallot-mushroom mixture to the unheated part of the griddle, or remove and keep warm. Turn the griddle to medium-low until you are ready to cook the liver.

Once the greens and potatoes are done, remove from the oven. Put the liver on the griddle and cook 1 min on each side. Plate immediately and cover with the mushroom and shallot mixture. Serve 1/4 of the potatoes to each. Save the rest for tomorrow.

Eating notes: Honestly, while this was easy comfort food I would have preferred the dandelion greens cooked separately from the potatoes. There was not enough "bite" to the dinner as a whole for my taste. That said, it was a really good dish and I will make it again, although probably paired with something that has a sharpness of its own so that the meal as a whole has a better balance.

Giving it Away

I'm working at a client's site for a while, so I brought in a sack of snacks - a couple packs of mate (Japanese rice cracker snacks) and Harry and David things - that I won't eat but that I thought were non-offensive enough to give to others. I like my client and the staff, so I just tossed the "Moose Mix" or whatever it was called and similar items that from the ingredients appeared to be code for Death in a Bag.

In addition to the mate: box (opened) of individually wrapped jam-filled cookies; box of six chocolates; individual serving size bag of mixed nuts; box (opened) of seeded crackers. I put them out and have been walking by every 20 minutes to see what is left.

10:00 put all items on the table in the break room
10:20 nuts taken; chocolates opened, 2 taken; entire box (!) of cookies taken
10:40 one more chocolate taken
11:00 one bag of mate gone
11:20 entire box of crackers taken
11:40 one more chocolate gone
12:00 no change; one bag of mate and 2 chocolates still available
12:20 2nd bag of mate taken
12:40 one more chocolate gone - only one left!
1:00 last chocolate still hanging on
1:20 all gone!

I don't want to know who took an entire box of individually wrapped cookies. Or crackers, for that matter, but at least the crackers could have been someone's full lunch. On a related note, I'm glad that as a consultant I don't know enough about office politics to make a guess.

Maybe it's the person who politely opened the chocolates and took only one or two, rather than the whole box of six, who is the outlier, but I prefer to think otherwise.

People may be reluctant to take the last goody unless they really want it, or perhaps the last chocolate did not disappear until after lunchtime because during lunch the room is busy and others would see you take the last one.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Mechazawa-san Pizza


A staple of my "pre-gluten" days was Mechazawa-san pizza done in the iron fry pan on the Egg. Who knows why, but we were craving pizza so revived the practice with excellent results. Instructions: Heat the Egg; make the pizza; cook at about 375F or so for about 15-18 minutes if you're using a relatively thin crust.

This serves 2. The pizza was made with a ready-made rice flour (gluten-free) pizza crust I had on hand, plus tomato paste, sliced garlic, sliced chili peppers, cooked spinach, cheese, fresh tomatoes, and spicy Italian pork sausage.

Eating notes: I like the rice flour crust - it is very thin and crispy and holds up well. People who like a chewy crust will not like it, though. Even though this is a small pizza, I use a whole can of tomato paste (not sauce) on it. It's a bit low fat and all, but I compensate with a lot of cheese and fatty sausage. We may be reviving weekly pizza night...

Smoked Bluefish

I bought two bluefish fillets to smoke. The pair weighed a little over 3 lbs and so served the four of us dinner with leftovers for lunch or snacks or appetizers or another meal. We all love smoked fish, so I don't expect it to last very long.

Smoked Bluefish
2 qts water
1/2 C salt
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C soy sauce
1 T dill weed
1 lemon
sage

Mix water, salt and sugar until the solids are dissolved. Add everything else and mix. I found a couple of sprigs of 'fresh' sage looking forlorn in the basket where I keep my garlic and ginger which was halfway to being dryish, so I crumbled that up and added it to the brine. Soak fish for 8 hours. I have a charcoal Meco water smoker which basically means you can't skrew anything up no matter what you do. Follow directions, it smoked about 2 hours with beech chips as the smoke source.

Oh, and don't use it indoors stamped all over the thing and in all the ads. Uh, ok. I'm also really sick of warnings labels on everything. So, I offer this Frazz which sums up my interpretation of warning stupidity quite well:


Appropriate © to Jef Mallett

Back to the fish. I made a mayonnaise, mustard and horseradish sauce to go with it, I give you no proportions, I just tasted until it worked. And it turned out to be completely superfluous. This is an incredibly simple and tasty way to cook fish.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Goat Chops with Coconut-Oil Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Wanted something easy but a bit fun tonight. So grilled the rest of the goat chops on Mechazawa-san (the large Egg; 40 min from frozen to nicely medium rare) and made some sweet potatoes that turned out really well.
Recipe:
(serves 2 as a side)
One generous sweet potato
Bacon grease or lard or ghee
Coconut oil
Red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 425F. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Grease with fat or lard.

Scrub the sweet potatoes and slice approx 1/3" - 1/2" thick. Place on the greased foil. Put a small dollop of coconut oil on top of each slice. Shake red pepper flakes over.

Bake 5 min at 425F and then reduce heat to 375F and cook 40 minutes more.

Eating notes: With the instructions given, the potatoes will crisp just a little on the bottom and around the sides. If you'd like them to be soft all over, do it at 375F throughout; if you'd like them more crispy, keep the oven hot for 5 or 10 minutes longer.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Lamb Loin Chops

Last night I attacked the first couple of packages of loin chops from the lamb Courtney and I split. You can see the packages sitting in the middle of the picture where they would be sitting in mr. lamb. Conveniently packaged at four per pouch, two pouches fed four people. They were really good and I am glad that all I did was a simple marinade and grill. I don't take picture, so I can't show the well gnawed bones, but they were well gnawed.

Lamb with garlic and rosemary
Lamb loin chops, 2 per person
1/4 C pomegranate juice
1/2 t pomegranate molasses
2 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic
2 sprigs rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Strip rosemary and shred. Press garlic. Mix everything together. Marinate for 30-45 minutes mixing now and then. I added the molasses as a slightly for a slight tart punch and it gave a little caramelized hint to the sear on the surface. I grill over high hear to sear the outside an let my meat baah on the inside. Grill as desired.

Warm weather brings out our desires for extreme simplicity in grilled meats.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Baked Pears



Planned to be talking about something exotic yesterday, but by the time dinner rolled around last night I didn't feel at all like cooking. So we made some grilled pork meatloaf on the Egg that, while yummy, wasn't really worth blogging. So apologies.

This weekend we've been trying to work our way through the Harry and David pears, so both mornings I made baked pears (first pic shows the finished pear as part of today's breakfast).Recipe:
(Serves any even number)

Pears (1/2 pear per person)

For each pear:
2 t unsalted butter (approx)
1 T pecan meal
1/2 t san on tou; or light brown sugar; or maple sugar (not syrup)
1/2 t freshly ground nutmeg
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 375F. Cut the pears in half. If the pears have tough skins, peel. Otherwise, leave skins on.

Using a small melon baller, remove the seeds from the pear. Cut out the stem and blossom. Arrange the pears in an appropriately sized baking dish (covered is preferable but not required; see picture above showing the pears arranged in the baking dish I used).

Using the same melon baller, place one ball of butter in the depression in the pear. Mix the other ingredients together and dust over the pears. Pour 1/4" hot water in the bottom of the baking dish.

Bake, covered with the lid or with foil, for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes more. Serve warm.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Veal Cheeks

Tonight made the veal cheeks from the Halal market. Will try to take "in process" pictures next time - the only one I have shows it plated.

Recipe:
(serves 2 as single-dish meal)

2 veal cheeks, trimmed
2 T lard or other oil for frying

2 carrots, sliced 1/2" thick
1/2 onion, chopped coarsely
4 large crimini or button mushrooms, quartered

1/2 t sage
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t tarragon
1/3 c pecan meal

1/2 c dry sherry or white wine
2 c water
1/4 t salt
msg to taste
generous sprinkling of black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
rice flour or other thickening agent (if desired)

Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 325 F. Combine pecan meal, tarragon, thyme and sage and set aside.

Peel silver skin and trim extreme excess fat off cheeks. Heat lard in ovenproof Dutch oven and sear cheeks 3-4 min on each side. Remove from pan.

Add vegetables and cook 5 min or until onions are browning, stirring constantly. Add white wine, stirring to deglaze, and cook 2 min. Add water, msg, salt, peppercorns and bay. Stir to combine. Return veal to pan.

Cover and bake 1-1/4 hours. Remove veal to roasting pan lined with foil. Coat with mustard and distribute pecan meal/herb mixture over. Broil 2 min and turn off broiler.

Put pan over medium-high to high heat and reduce remaining sauce to about 1/3 cup (Add thickening agent if desired).

Plate the veal, distribute vegetables around, and pour sauce over.















Thursday, March 5, 2009

Dressed Black Bass

More conversations over fish and was convinced to buy a whole black bass. Looked up a lot of recipes for smoking whole bass and they were all outrageously complex. Until I looked at the recipe for the Egg, which (in a nutshell) was essentially 'stick it on a piece of greased foil and close the Egg and come back when it's done.' So that is what we did.

To semi-compensate, I tried to make hollandaise sauce. Major fail, as I wasn't paying attention and the eggs cooked and separated out. So I strained it through a very fine sieve, added the fish juices to it, and used the eggs as a garnish.

Recipe:
(generously serves 2)

1 whole black bass (approx 3 lbs), gutted, descaled and fins trimmed

1/4 c coconut oil
1 leek (white and light green parts)
1/3 c pecans
2 shiitake mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste

Hollandaise sauce (use whatever recipe you have)

Cooking note: If you are using a grill other than a Big Green Egg, don't trust the fish grilling instructions because they will probably dry your fish out. Go wtih whatever your grill manufacturer says.

Smoke fish at 250 for 40 - 45 minutes.

While fish is smoking, make dressing. Heat oil in a heavy pan and add other ingredients. Cook until leeks are done. Remove from heat.

When fish has about 10 minutes left, start the hollandaise. If it fails, strain it through a very fine sieve and use the eggy part for garnish.

Take the fish off the grill and split it in half. You will have to pull out the skull and the spine (see above), and any other bones that don't obviously split in half. Reassemble each half of the fish on a plate. Add the dressing and pour sauce over. Add the garnish if you need to :-).

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Basic Lamb Really Good


Sort of an Ur dinner as one can see. Lamb done on Mechazawa-san (the big Egg) and some broccoli with ponzu (Japanese citrus soy). That's it! Really nice. The lamb was perfectly rare and we just ate it like fried chicken - pick it up and go to town. And yes, we did take the time to lift a glass to the lamb.

Whole Lamb

Here's the whole lamb from Groff's Content! We decided to lay it out lamb-like for educational purposes before splitting it.
The sack underneath is the fat; the bag on top has the bones; the bag by the tail is the intestines.

The nice thing about lamb is that there are not that many unusual cuts, plus it has that useful bilateral symmetry, so dividing it was fairly non-contentious (although reportedly Lane's son was not happy that I ended up with the head) since there were multiples of 2 of everything except the head and organs. Of those, Lane got the tongue and heart and I took the kidneys. On to the cooking.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Carbonade de Boeuf

I love Robert Carrier. His volume 'Great Dishes of the World' is not what one will find in modern cookbooks anymore. He's one of my comfort food chefs. It is bourgeois/country/regional cooking and a solid base for any cooking library. It's cold again here meaning stew.

Carbonade de Boeuf
2 lbs beef (I used a bottom round roast from the cow in my freezer)
2 T lard
4 T butter
4 onions
2 T flour
1 bottle Guinness
salt and pepper
flour for dredging

Cut roast into 1 inch cubes. Slice onion fairly thinly. Dredge cubes in flour and brown in lard in dutch oven in a single layer. Remove to platter and continue until all meat is browned. Add onions to dutch over with butter. Cook over medium heat until lightly browned. Sprinkle 2 T flour over onions and stir. Return beef to dutch oven and mix. Add beer. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Carrier says to serve with spaetzle or potatoes. I served it with thick egg noodles.

This a very simple, very good stew. Good warm comfort food for a really cold night. While the ingredients are very simple, the flavor is more complex than you would expect. Cooking with beer is a wonderful thing.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Corn Elbows with Gizzard Sauce

Rehearsal was canceled but still felt like a Monday night dinner, so made corn elbows with the leftover sauce from last night's curried chicken gizzards and some yellow squash (previously blanched and frozen) from last summer's CSA mixed in. It was so good we each had two bowls. I know I'll regret that much carb intake later, but now....mmmmmm.

Eating Notes: This was our first time trying the gluten-free corn pasta. From the experience with the rice, I cooked it just over 5 min (instructions said 6-8) and it was perfect for us. You can taste the corn. The texture is pretty good, not gummy and it seems like it would hold up to macaroni and cheese or another casserole type dish. But the star was the sauce. It had congealed into a sort of loose aspic in the fridge, belying its high fat content. When it heated, it had a wonderful sheen. Phil noted that in the "old days" pasta sauce used to have a lot of fat in it, but now, no. That certainly was the case in my family, as well.