02.04.10
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Leftovers, Meats, Mexican, Pork and Ham, Sides at 7:42 pm by julie
You know, I’ve never been able to buy pork shoulder from my regular grocery store, which is such a shame because there is such a proliferation of braising recipes I want to try that call for it. Costco carries whole ones, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to purchase quite such a large chunk of meat for our little family, considering our limited freezer space, and the same goes for many of their enormous cuts of beef. However, we’ve had pretty good luck cooking their boneless country rib options in both the pork and beef. I seem to be accumulating quite a few recipes for dealing with these cuts, so look for quite a few posts discussing them in days to come.
My go-to recipe for dealing with these pork ribs in the past few years has been braising it Hawaiian style. But I think one of my new favorite applications is making carnitas. The recipe couldn’t be simpler. Essentially you braise the meat until it is meltingly tender and all the liquid has evaporated, then you sear it a little bit in the fat that is left behind, to give it even more flavor and texture. I served with homemade flour tortillas, jack cheese and a simple rice salad with corn and black beans, but you could take the toppings in any direction you like, or use the meat for quesadillas, burritos or what you will. Frankly, thinking back on this pork is making me hungry, so I won’t drag out the post any longer… dinner time!
Pork Carnitas
3 lb boneless pork shoulder or country ribs, lightly trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes (leave some fat on)
Olive oil
Water
1 T salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium white onion, diced
2 tsp ancho chile powder
Salt and pepper
Drizzle a heavy wide pan (I used my big red Le Creuset) with olive oil, season the pork with salt, pepper and ancho, and sear on all sides. Pour in just enough water to cover the meat, add the garlic and onion, and bring to a boil, uncovered. When the liquid reaches a boil, lower the heat, and continue to cook at a gentle simmer until all the liquid has evaporated, about two hours. At this point, the meat should be cooked through but not falling apart. Lower the heat a little more and continue cooking the meat until all the fat has rendered out of it. Keep turning the meat until it is lightly browned all over, about 15 more minutes. Makes a lot, but the leftovers are possibly even tastier than the first day.
Source: Slightly adapted from Food Network.
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06.14.09
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Meats, Pork and Ham at 11:51 pm by julie
It’s time for the second Daring Cooks challenge, chosen by Jen of use real butter—potstickers! Now, I’ve made pork potstickers several times before, and I’ve even made my own wrappers, but my folding technique was less than stellar, and I’m always up for an opportunity to practice. When it came right down to brass tacks (read: a few hours ago for dinner), all I had on hand was a huge pork loin and some broccoli, so I improvised on the filling pretty extensively, but I think it worked out alright.
I quickly made the dough, which was very simple but required a few extra tablespoons of water to become supple, and let it rest under a damp towel while I made my filling. For this, I halved the filling recipe and minced up some pork loin in my food processor rather than in the grinder, as it was a pretty small amount of meat. I also steamed some fresh chunks of broccoli, heavy on the stems, quickly chilled it in an ice bath, and minced it up to go in the filling along with some rehydrated shiitakes (popped into the boiling water leftover from the broccoli for a few minutes), garlic, ginger, soy and sesame oil.
My rested dough was just a touch on the sticky side, so I kept bench flour on hand and dusted my rolling pin pretty regularly as I rolled out the wrapper rounds. This part was hard, mostly because Nolan kept trying to storm the kitchen to get into everything and then protested at high volume when his daddy came for the interception. Jen’s photos finally helped me get the hang of the pleats, and I turned out some decent looking potstickers in very little time at all.
I used the pan frying method to cook my potstickers, partly because I don’t have a bamboo steamer basket, and partly because I really like the way the bottoms of the ’stickers crisp up in the skillet. I would have liked to make a creative dipping sauce to go with them, but I was pressed for time and just reached for our Ginger People sauce instead.
These were good, but I like my old potsticker filling recipe better; of course, I didn’t really give this one a fair shake because I had to improvise so many of the ingredients. Still, it was a tasty meal, and helped me get over my slight paranoia about using raw pork in the filling. I also really liked the dough recipe, and finally feel like I am getting the hang of folding them, at least a little. I think I could do it more justice if I cut my fingernails and wasn’t in such a rush to get back to the wailing baby. It made quite a few potstickers, enough for the two of us for dinner with half a dozen leftover in the fridge and a plateful in the freezer—and I could have made lots more with my excess pork filling if I had felt like making up another batch of dough. Thanks so much, Jen, for sharing! And check out all the elegant dumplings at the Daring Cooks Blogroll.
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04.14.09
Posted in Baby Food, Cuisines, Dinner, Leftovers, Meats, Mexican, Pork and Ham, Sides, Veggies at 3:11 pm by julie
I owe Molly Stevens big-time. Not only did she write a great book about braising, which is one of my very favorite ways to deal with meat, but the woman knows how to make cooked carrots taste great. I myself am no friend of cooked carrots: they get mushy and overly sweet with that same flavor that I dislike in sweet potatoes and squash. The thought of carrots cooked with brown sugar or ginger gives me the shivers, just a little bit. But I trust Molly with carrots because the glazed ones that accompany her Zinfandel-braised pot roast were a revelation to me: very savory with only a trace of sweetness, cooked to the perfect degree of doneness between crunch and mush. So I decided to break into a fresh jar of ground ancho from Penzey’s, and give this recipe a try. It came together quickly, even though I used full-sized carrots split down to baby carrot size, and the honey and spices hit just the right balance with the natural sweetness of the carrots. I do admit that I left out the jalapeño, and my tongue thanks me.
To go along with this vaguely Tex-mex recipe, I decided a batch of scallion-sour cream corn muffins was in order. Turned out I didn’t have quite enough sour cream, so I snuck some of Nolan’s cream-top plain yogurt in to make up the difference. These were pretty good basic muffins, though I personally prefer to slather my warm cornbread with butter and honey, and couldn’t bring myself to do it thanks to the green onions. Nolan was a big fan of the entire meal, but he particularly liked the muffins. The next day I started breaking one up into bite-sized pieces for him at lunchtime and had to run out of the room for a moment to help Jeremy; when I came back not 30 seconds later, Nolan had ditched the little bites and was happily noshing on the entire muffin like a big boy, buried in crumbs. Now I just break them into halves or quarters for him instead.
We also got some pretty fantastic leftovers out of the pork, which was good because there was just over a whole tenderloin left. I made my homemade tortillas, upping the quantity slightly because we go through them pretty quickly; sauteed some peppers and onions; and added thin slices of pork just to heat it through. Add some cheese, sour cream, what have you, and you’ve got some darn good pork fajitas. I should also note that Penzey’s is really onto something with those little samples they send along with their online orders. It can be a little hard to imagine how a particular spice blend will smell and taste over the internet, and those samples really help. I find myself reaching for the sample jar of southwestern spices almost every time I make Mexican food now, and I strongly suspect that when I run out, I will be adding it to the next order.
Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Carrots
Please note that I adjusted the cooking method on the carrots here, due to timing and a few cautionary reviews about mushy carrots.
1 pound carrots, peeled, halved or quartered, cut into 5″ sections
2 T water
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 T butter, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp ancho chile powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp coarse kosher salt
2 1-to 1 1/4-pound pork tenderloins
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ancho chile powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp coarse kosher salt
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
For carrots: Arrange carrots on a large rimmed baking sheet. Whisk water and all remaining ingredients in small bowl; pour over carrots and toss to coat. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Toss to coat before continuing.
For pork: Preheat oven to 400°F. Roast carrot mixture for about 10 minutes while cooking off the pork. Meanwhile, stir oregano, cumin, chile powder, smoked paprika, and 1 teaspoon coarse salt in small bowl; rub mixture all over tenderloins. Heat oil in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork to skillet and cook until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.
Remove tray from oven and place pork with the carrots in a single layer around it. Roast uncovered until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of pork registers 145°F, stirring carrots occasionally if beginning to caramelize, about 18 minutes. Remove pork from the oven and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes; meanwhile, check carrots for doneness and return to the oven while the meat rests if not yet tender.
Transfer pork to work surface. Cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange carrots on platter. Top with pork slices, drizzling any pan juices over.
Source: Slightly adapted from Epicurious.
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03.28.09
Posted in Baby Food, Beef, Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Italian, Meats, Pastas, Pork and Ham, Sausage at 10:27 pm by julie
I’m a bit late in posting the March 2009 Daring Bakers challenge. I made it with plenty of time to spare, but have been very busy with company this week (more about that in the days to come) and haven’t had a chance to write up a post until now. The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.
I was a little surprised by this choice of recipes, as it didn’t feel so much like a baking challenge as a cooking one to me, but maybe it is connected with the upcoming launch of the Daring Cooks. I’m not complaining—I will take any excuse to make good Italian food, and for that matter, the cannelloni I made last month for Valentine’s Day had a very similar construction. I actually have some leftover ragu bolognese in the freezer from that meal that I had been planning to turn into lasagne with homemade spinach pasta, oddly enough, but in the spirit of the challenge, I made up a fresh batch following the recipe provided.
The first step for making the ragu was tracking down the meats called for. I had to make a few compromises in this department due to availability: I purchased a small chuck pot roast, some veal scalloppine, and a mild Italian sausage, plus prosciutto and sliced pancetta. The chuck, veal and prosciutto went through my trusty grinder while the pancetta and mirepoix sauteed, and soon enough I had a pot of ragu percolating slowly on the stove.
When the ragu was nearly done, I set to work on the pasta. I make quite a bit of fresh pasta, but with several hours already invested into this meal, I decided against kneading and rolling out this pasta by hand. I used fresh baby spinach and chopped it up in my food processor before mixing into the dough. With two extra-large eggs, the dough was much too dry to come together, so I added a third egg and had to compensate with quite a bit of extra flour as well. I mixed it up in my stand mixer, but did a bit of hand-kneading near the end to ensure the correct consistency. The color was astonishingly beautiful, perfect for early spring.
Once the dough had an opportunity to rest, I divided it up and ran it through my pasta roller—over and over again. I rolled it as thinly as possible, which turned out to be setting 5 of 8, as it tended to tear when I went up to a 6. I think the little bits of spinach in the dough were to blame there. Whenever I make pasta, I wish I had a drying rack or even more counter-space for draping the rolled sheets.
I rolled pasta and boiled it all at once to save a bit of time, but it makes for quite the juggling act. I cooked a few sheets at a time, with a colander set in a large bowl next to the stove. While they cook, I roll out the next batch; then I scoop out the cooked pasta into the bowl-nested colander with a spider, quickly fill the bowl with cold water at the sink, drop the next batch of pasta in the hot water, drain the cooked pasta and lay it out on towels, and roll the next few noodles. I tried having an ice bath ready and leaving the noodles in it for a longer time while rolling and cooking more, but I found that the water warmed up too much from the heat of the pasta, and I ended up with squishy noodles that tore if I just breathed too hard on them.
I think I got at least 6 or 7 layers into my casserole dish. It took much more Parmesan than the recipe called for, but I used all the bechamel and had a cup or two of ragu leftover. And I had a ton of extra pasta, which may have in part been because of the additional egg and flour I ended up using. I cooked off all the pasta and used it a few days later to make another dish, which I’ll post about soon.
The finished lasagna was absolutely delicious. We’re so used to lasagnas that are laden down with ricotta and gooey mozzarella cheese—you eat a piece and as tasty as it might be, it sits like a lump in your stomach. This lasagna felt so light in comparison, but it packed a big punch of flavor. It took most of the day to make, but I was lucky enough to have my mom visiting us and she patiently kept the baby entertained while I worked. If not for her, I would definitely have had to split this recipe up over two days to save my sanity. I won’t be making it again anytime soon, but I’m very glad to have tried it, so many thanks to our hosts for their unusual choice. Be sure to look through the Daring Bakers blogroll to see all the other lovingly crafted lasagnas out there.
I am a member of the Theta Class of Daring Bakers, inducted in July 2007. Below is a list of previous challenges:
Strawberry Mirror Cake – July 2007
Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart – August 2007
Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns – September 2007
Bostini Cream Pies – October 2007
Tender Potato Bread – November 2007
Traditional Buche de Noel – December 2007
Lemon Meringue Pie – January 2008
French Bread – February 2008
Perfect Party Cake – March 2008
Opéra Cake – May 2008
Danish Braid – June 2008
Filbert Gateau – July 2008
Chocolate Éclairs – August 2008
Lavash Crackers and Dip – September 2008
French Yule Log – December 2008
Tuiles – January 2009
Chocolate Valentino and Ice Cream – February 2009
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06.24.08
Posted in American, Baby Food, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Pork and Ham at 10:21 am by julie
Finally it is starting to feel a bit like summer around here! About time, too, since it is the end of June…
Even though I have very little time for cooking of late, I’ve made a few dishes that are definitely going on our hit parade. This easy braised pork dish is one of them: it requires very little prep time, and the result is an outstanding balance of savory, salty, sweet and spicy, with a touch of heat and a luxurious mouth-feel. You will want to serve it over rice to soak up all that lovely sauce—even more so with the reheated leftovers!
I didn’t have any Chinese five-spice, which I have had miserable luck tracking down in grocery stores, so I made my own makeshift blend based on Pim’s recommendations. Needing so little, I just did pinches of freshly grated star anise, ground cassia, coarsely crushed sichuan peppercorns, ground cumin, clove, and coriander, but I will certainly make a larger amount with whole toasted spices, if I ever get a spice grinder.
Hawaiian-Style Braised Pork Ribs
3 1/2 lb boneless country-style pork spareribs, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
3 T vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 T chopped peeled fresh ginger
12 oz low-salt chicken broth
1/3 C soy sauce
1 T dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 1/2 T cornstarch
Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add 1/3 of pork to pot and sauté until brown, about 6 minutes; transfer to bowl. Repeat with remaining pork. Add garlic and ginger to pot; sauté 1 minute. Return pork and any juices to pot. Add broth, soy sauce, sugar, crushed red pepper, and five-spice powder; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until pork is very tender, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Scoop out about half a cup of braising liquid and whisk it together with cornstarch in a cup to dissolve; mix back into pork. Simmer until gravy thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Season with pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly and chill. Rewarm over low heat.)
Source: Slightly adapted from Epicurious.
Update 7/27/08: Jeremy brought home 6.5 pounds of boneless pork ribs from Costco yesterday, so I made a double batch of this braised pork for dinner (and many many leftovers) tonight. I got some Chinese 5-spice from Penzey’s recently, and used a quarter teaspoon of that and added cumin, coriander and Szechuan peppercorns to it for my personal blend. I also used chicken stock that I made last night from a rotisserie chicken carcass. It came out beautifully, just like the first time, and I served it with stir-fried red cabbage from the accompanying Epicurious recipe, adding a bit of garlic to the ginger.
Update 2/10/09: Braised meat makes excellent meals for Nolan because they come out so perfectly tender. He ate lots of this pork broken up a bit and mixed with rice and veggies.
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05.30.08
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Pork and Ham at 12:27 pm by julie
I don’t like ribs. They are way too much work and mess for hardly any payoff. They don’t fill you up, you have to gnaw on the bones (which gives me the willies), and you always end up with sauce smeared in the corners of your mouth. I only bought pork babyback ribs last week because they were on sale at the grocery store, and I wasn’t much looking forward to cooking them. However, I set to work on a recipe from the May 2008 issue of Gourmet in order to finally get some use out of my bottle of black vinegar, substituting the babyback ribs for spareribs.
Well, I loved this recipe. Unabashedly. I gnawed rib bones, people. It took me a while to finish, because I had to do it in stages as Nolan’s temperament allowed, but we ended up with a saute pan full of sticky, chewy, aromatic ribs that were quickly devoured with platefuls of rice. If I’d known how good they were going to be, I would have considered doubling the recipe. I meant to steam some veggies to go along with them, but there just wasn’t time; I weighed my priorities and made white chocolate ice cream and brownies instead (recipes forthcoming, maybe tomorrow).
Pork Ribs with Black Vinegar Sauce
I think this sauce, simmered down to glaze consistency, could be adapted to work with many cuts of pork or chicken, maybe even salmon… I certainly intend to give it a try in other applications myself.
2 lb pork spareribs or babyback ribs, cut into individual ribs
1/4 C cornstarch
About 12 cups peanut or vegetable oil for frying, divided
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
2 T very thin matchsticks of peeled ginger
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
2 T Chinese Shaoxing wine or medium-dry Sherry
1/3 C reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/3 C Chinese black vinegar
1/3 C reduced-sodium soy sauce
Blanch ribs in a 4-quart pot of boiling water 4 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Whisk 1/2 teaspoon salt into cornstarch in a large bowl. Add ribs, cover bowl with a plate, and toss.
Heat 3 inches oil to 400°F in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot, then fry ribs (in batches if necessary) 5 minutes per batch. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook garlic, shallot, and ginger, stirring occasionally, until pale golden, about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and cook, stirring, until dissolved, about 1 minute. Add wine and boil 1 minute. Add ribs with broth, vinegar, and soy sauce and simmer, covered, stirring and turning ribs occasionally, until tender, about 1 hour.
Transfer ribs to a platter. Boil sauce, whisking, until thickened and emulsified, about 2 minutes; pour over ribs.
Source: Slightly adapted from Epicurious
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02.25.08
Posted in Dinner, Meats, Pastas, Persnickety Bits, Pork and Ham at 3:03 pm by julie
I’ve been neglecting the blog again, and yet I keep taking photos of what we’re making and planning out my posts, so I’m going to try and play catch-up this week. Actually, I had a legitimate excuse for the first few days: a silly cooking-related injury.
I decided to make stuffed pork chops for dinner one night. I’ve done rolls and stuffed thin cutlets, but I’d never stuffed a piece of meat pocket-style before, so this was a first, and I was very pleased with the result of my knife skills. I was able to keep the side opening an inch or less wide, so that it could be easily resealed with a single toothpick. Once the seared chops were in the oven to finish cooking, I started in on some Marcella-style green beans with Parmesan, parboiling and then setting them in cold water. By that time, the pork was cooked. I set the skillet of chops back on the stovetop, grabbed the colander of drained beans, and turned around to deposit them in another pan on the back burner, grabbing the handle of the skillet with my left hand to move it out of my way.
You can see where I’m going with this. I’m usually very good about getting out my silicone handle cover, but I was being absent-minded, and before I knew it, my hand was alight with pain. I (quite literally single-handedly) finished off the pan-sauce for the chops and a very simplified version of the green beans while gripping a big bag of ice cubes for dear life in my throbbing hand, but had no appetite anymore, not to mention insufficient means of cutting into a big pork chop, generally a two-handed operation. The chops and green beans ended up in the fridge for a few days, before I could muster up enough good will to tackle them again.
Since I’m not a fan of reheated meat, I didn’t bother trying to reheat the chops whole. Instead, I diced them up into chunks (fondly admiring my stuffing handiwork in the process, as you can see from the top photo), and reheated that with the remains of the pan sauce and green beans, adding some chicken stock and a splash of cream to get a more fluid consistency. Served over farfalle, it was a satisfying conclusion to a painful experience. And believe you me, it’s an experience I don’t intend to duplicate anytime soon, stuffed pork chops or no.
Mushroom-Stuffed Pork Chops
I used thick boneless chops from Costco for this recipe, shallots in place of onion, and some rather stale whole wheat sandwich bread because it happened to be on hand. My mushrooms were a mix of dried mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped, and I ended up not needing all the filling for that number of chops, probably because I seriously doubt I could have shoved 1/2 C of filling into a single chop.
4 pork loin center chops boneless or bone-in, trimmed
3 T vegetable oil
1 C cubed (1/4-inch) bread
1 onion, chopped
2 C thinly sliced mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
2 T minced fresh parsley
1/2 C white wine or chicken stock
1 C sodium-reduced chicken stock
1 T all-purpose flour
1 T butter, softened
Slash edges of pork chops to prevent curling. With knife held horizontally and starting at rounded edge, cut wide pocket in each chop. Set aside.
In large ovenproof skillet, heat 1 T of oil over medium heat; fry bread, stirring often, until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl. Add 1 tbsp of the remaining oil to skillet; fry onion, mushrooms, garlic and half each of the salt and pepper over medium-high heat until onion is softened and mushrooms are golden, about 6 minutes. Add to bread along with parsley. Let cool. (Make-ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.) Stuff about 1/2 cup of the stuffing into pocket of each chop. Secure with toothpicks. Sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper.
In skillet, heat remaining oil over medium-high heat; brown chops. Transfer skillet to 400°F oven; roast until juices run clear when pork is pierced and just a hint of pink remains inside, about 15 minutes. Remove to platter; remove toothpicks and tent with foil.
Add wine to skillet and bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring and scraping up any brown bits; boil until evaporated, about 3 minutes. Add stock; bring to boil. In small bowl, blend flour with butter; whisk into stock and simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 3 minutes.
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01.10.08
Posted in Appetizers, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Meats, Pastas, Pork and Ham at 5:10 pm by julie
We made a run by LifeSource the other night for some essentials, and I decided, upon seeing the huge organic Napa cabbages, to make pork potstickers for dinner again. We made our way around to the refrigerated cases last, and lo and behold, no wonton wrappers in sight. Turns out they hadn’t been selling, and are no longer kept in stock—good to know, but not much help to a woman with the makings for potstickers already in her shopping cart. When I got home, I sat down and decided to try making the wrappers myself. You can use wonton wrappers as substitutes for fresh pasta in ravioli recipes, so how different could it be from making pasta dough?
Not much! I started with this recipe as my base, but halved it, using an egg white instead of a halved whole egg. My primary concern was producing a dough that wasn’t too sticky, and I ended up having to add quite a bit of flour to get something that didn’t leave residue on my fingers when I gave it a pinch. Next time I will add less water more gradually. The dough ran through my pasta maker up to the finest setting without a hitch, and I made sure to sprinkle the sheets very liberally with bench flour to keep them from sticking to the counter-top and each other. I overlapped them and covered them with a damp towel while making the potsticker filling, and they stayed nice and pliable until I was ready to fold my stickers. I just uncovered a few at a time, as I was ready for them.
The dough behaved very well, and definitely felt similar to the commercially-produced wonton wrappers I’ve used in the past. It was a tad softer, but that just facilitated folding and pinching into shape (a good thing since I don’t have a clue what I’m doing in that department!). I made about a dozen at a time, because that is all that would fit in my little nonstick pan. They responded to steaming and panfrying just as they should, with a good chew on top and a crisp brown crust underneath. The amount of dough I made produced almost exactly the right amount of wrappers to use up all the filling, amounting to about 3 dozen potstickers. They were so tasty that Jeremy commented, while tucking away his second helping, that now we won’t have to worry about finding wonton wrappers at the store anymore. I guess that’s true, but it wouldn’t hurt to look—potstickers are fiddly enough as it is, thanks!
This is my somewhat unorthodox entry for Presto Pasta Night #45, hosted by the lovely Ruth.
Wonton Wrappers
1 large egg white
About 1/3 C water
1 C all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour and salt. Add the egg white and mix with the paddle attachment over medium speed, slowly adding water until the dough forms a ball. You may not need all the water. Continue beating the dough with the paddle for several minutes, or remove from the mixer to knead by hand. You want a smooth elastic dough that isn’t sticky, so adjust the flour and/or water content by increments as necessary. Mine was rather more pliable than my usual egg pasta dough. Note: This was not a large amount of dough, so I didn’t bother with my dough hook.
Cut the dough into four equal parts and run through a pasta maker up to the thinnest setting, or roll out by hand using a liberal amount of bench flour. Cut the sheets into roughly 3″ squares, and make sure they are well sprinkled with flour on both sides before stacking or overlapping to prevent them from melding together again. Use immediately or cover for a short while with a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Makes about 3 dozen squares, enough for me to use up nearly all of the spectacularly delicious filling from Shawnda’s recipe, here. Or use in any recipe that calls for wonton wrappers.
Source: Adapted from AllRecipes.
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12.05.07
Posted in Dinner, Meats, Pork and Ham, Sides at 3:31 pm by julie
For some reason, this week I keep picking out recipes that require the use of more egg yolks than whites, so I’ve been scratching my head, trying to figure out what to do with the leftover whites. My usual egg white recipe is coconut macaroons, but since I’m making something with coconut for a holiday party at the end of the week, that seemed like overkill. Meringues seem obvious, but they aren’t our favorites. All my other brainstorms involved chocolate, and I feel like I’ve been eating too much of that lately.
Then it hit me: a savory soufflé. I’ve never actually made a soufflé before, savory or otherwise (and yes, my first instinct was to look up the chocolate soufflé recipes…bad Julie), and I found one that called for just the right number of whites. My approach was just to dive in without thinking about it too much, because I didn’t want to give myself time to worry about messing them up. As James Beard said, “The only thing that will make a soufflé fall is if it knows you are afraid of it.” So I forced myself not to worry, and my little goat cheese soufflés actually came together very smoothly, and puffed respectably to boot.
I was a little concerned that my white sauce base was too thick, because it pretty much turned to wallpaper paste as soon as I added the milk (eight minutes, my eye). My fluffy cloud of beaten egg whites, by comparison, looked much too voluminous to fold in successfully, but somehow it happened. The hardest part turned out to be timing everything so that the rest of the meal was ready to plate when the soufflés were done. I recruited Jeremy to be my food photographer so that I could keep working while he documented the inevitable rise and fall.
And the taste? Jeremy described it as being like a fluffy omelet, and I’d say that’s about right. They were nicely savory from the goat cheese, and very airy even after deflating. They would make a great brunch or lunch dish, especially since the base can be made in advance. Unfortunately, the two of us couldn’t quite eat them all and didn’t think they would keep or reheat with any dignity, so Freyja got an extra treat with her kibble.
Goat Cheese Souffle with Thyme
2 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 T unsalted butter
1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C milk
2 T dry white wine or water
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp minced anchovy
3 1/2 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1 tsp thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 large eggs, separated, plus 3 large egg whites
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 1-quart soufflé dish. Add the Parmesan and turn the dish to coat it with the cheese.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour and cook, whisking, until blended. Whisk in the milk, wine, mustard and anchovy paste and cook, whisking, until the sauce is smooth and thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the goat cheese and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the egg yolks. Scrape the soufflé mixture into a large bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface. (The soufflé can be prepared through this step and refrigerated overnight. Bring the mixture to room temperature before proceeding.)
In a large stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold one-third of the beaten whites into the soufflé mixture; fold in the remaining whites until just a few streaks remain.
Gently scrape the mixture into the prepared dish. Bake the soufflé in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until nicely risen and browned on top. Serve at once. You can also prepare this soufflé in 6 6-oz ramekins; bake for 15-18 minutes.
Source: Slightly adapted from Food and Wine.
To go with the soufflés, I made some quick-cooking pork tenderloin medallions with a mustardy pan sauce. I got the tenderloin sliced, smushed (with my new meat mallet
—love it!) and seasoned, the shallots chopped, and the water boiling for the steamed broccoli before folding the egg whites into the soufflé batter and filling my little ramekins. The pork cooked so quickly that it was ready to go when the soufflés came out all puffy.
Pork Medallions with Mustard-Caper Sauce
1 8- to 10-oz pork tenderloin, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
1 T butter
1/4 C sliced shallots
1 C canned low-salt chicken broth
2 T whipping cream
1 1/2 T drained capers
1 T coarse-grained Dijon mustard
Using meat mallet or rolling pin, flatten pork rounds slightly to scant 1/2-inch thickness. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork to skillet and sauté until brown and cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer pork to plate. Add shallots to skillet and stir 1 minute. Add chicken broth and cream. Boil until sauce is thick enough to coat spoon, stirring up browned bits, about 3 minutes. Mix in capers and mustard. Return pork to sauce. Simmer mixture until pork is heated through, about 1 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve. Serves 2, can easily be doubled.
Source: Epicurious
We both really liked this meal. Like I said, I finished the sauce for the pork while Jeremy snapped photos of the soufflés for me. Then I sent him off with his plate while arranging and photographing my own. Two or three minutes later, when I sat down with my plate to start eating, I glanced over at Jeremy and realized that he had already inhaled every bite of his dinner and was on his way back to the kitchen for another soufflé. I guess I should have made more pork!
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11.18.07
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Polish & Hungarian, Pork and Ham at 2:01 pm by julie
As picky as I am, there are a few cuisines that have just clicked with my palate right off the bat. The first, as you could easily guess from paging through my blog, is Italian, largely because of its use of clean, simple flavors, unmixed courses, and general lack of heavy spices (I know the food of some Italian port cities rely more heavily on spices, but those aren’t my favorites). The other, which I chalk up to the German-Polish portion of my mishmashed European ancestral heritage, is Northern and Eastern European food, which just screams comfort food to me. Too bad that wasn’t yet the case when I spent a month in Germany at the age of 15 and ended up living primarily on fried potatoes and onions…
There used to be a really great little Hungarian restaurant named Paprika’s in Salem, just a few minutes’ drive from our house. I don’t think there was a single thing there, familiar or not, that I didn’t enjoy trying… well, if you twisted my arm, I’d say that the cold cherry soup would have needed a lot of getting used to. Anyway, it closed a few years back and I was really bummed. In order to get my fix now, there is only Gustav’s in Portland (yummy, reasonably priced German food; the one by Washington Square is far superior to the one in Clackamas) and Novak’s Hungarian restaurant in Albany, which I have yet to convince my husband could be worth the drive to try out.
Thus, every so often, I have an urge to make spätzle and schnitzel, goulash or chicken paprikash, or pierogies. (Actually, all of those are sounding good right about now!) One of the dishes I kept trying to convince myself to make was cabbage rolls, but every time I thought I was feeling up to it, I chickened out. My principal concern was getting the cabbage leaves off the cabbage whole, and I pictured myself ever so carefully removing leaf after leaf only to end up with a pile of shredded leaves I could only use for a sauteed side dish. This time, though, I refused to talk myself out of it.
I read several methods for cabbage leaf removal, including boiling, freezing, and steaming, and ended up going with the latter. As it turns out, removing the leaves whole wasn’t my problem. That would be paring or trimming down the thick part of the stem and the base of the leaf while leaving enough area to wrap a nugget of meat filling. I kept ending up with leaves that were limp in the top half and not flexible enough in the bottom half, even after thinning the stems and cutting a small triangular notch from the base. I ended up having to steam the individual leaves to get more flexibility, and that worked alright, I guess, since I was able to make a dozen or so rather small and lumpy cabbage roll-esque bundles. All I can say is, start with a big cabbage, or use two, because I was getting down to some pretty small leaves for the last few rolls.
As for the recipe itself, I did a modified version of a Wolfgang Puck recipe that I found on the Food Network website. I ground a thawed pork loin and ground that for the filling, and I was very happy to use up the last of a loaf of roasted garlic bread for the crumbs (Jeremy keeps getting multiple loaves of fresh bread from Costco, and it’s very hard to eat them all before they go stale, particularly the savory sort that can’t be used for French toast). I had more filling than cabbage leaves to roll, so I used it for meatballs; they just got tucked in around the rolls, and fared beautifully. Other than that, my main modification was to remove the rolls and meatballs from the pan after cooking and puree the sauce with a good dollop of sour cream, because the sauce looked so thin to me and I had some sour cream on hand to use. It worked out perfectly, and made so much sauce that if I had been thinking straight, I would have saved it to serve as a main course pasta sauce in the next night or two.
So were the cabbage rolls worth all the trouble? I’m not so sure. They tasted great over mashed potatoes, and we both really enjoyed them. But the cabbage leaves and bundling were so time consuming (and not a little frustrating) that I think next time I will just make meatballs of the filling, cooked in the sauce, and served with a side of sauteed cabbage and much less fuss. At least now I can say that I’ve conquered cabbage rolls, though.
Cabbage Rolls with Tomato-Sour Cream Sauce
Stuffed Cabbage Leaves:
9 slices white bread, crusts removed, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 C milk
1 1/2 lb ground pork (or some combination of pork, chicken and lamb)
1 T dried parsley
1 tsp dried sage
1 T finely chopped garlic
1 T sugar
1 1/2 T salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 large green cabbage
Paprika Tomato Sauce:
5 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 C diced onion
1 T finely chopped garlic
1 T tomato paste
4 tsp sweet paprika
2 C chicken stock
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp dried sage
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 C sour cream
Make the filling for the Stuffed Cabbage Leaves: Put the bread cubes in a small mixing bowl, add the milk, and leave the bread to soak until it is completely saturated. Squeeze out the excess milk with your hands; discard the milk and add the soaked bread to a large mixing bowl with the meat, parsley, sage, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper. Mix well, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate.
Steam the cabbage for 5-10 minutes, until the outermost leaves are pliable. After removing several softened leaves, you will likely need to continue steaming the inner leaves. Peel off at least 12 leaves total. Holding each leaf rib-side up, pare the thick part of the rib to flatten it. If necessary, cut a small triangular notch from the thick base of the stem, or steam the individual leaves for a minute or two more to soften the base. Place a small handful of filling in the center of each cabbage leaf. Fold the sides of the leaf over the filling, overlapping them slightly, and then, starting at the stem end, roll up the leaf into a compact bundle. Set aside.
Meanwhile, make the sauce: Preheat the oven to 400F. Heat a large heatproof saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, onion, and garlic and saute until the vegetables are translucent. Add the tomato paste and paprika and saute briefly. Then, stir in the chicken stock, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, sugar, and sage. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Arrange the stuffed cabbage leaves neatly in a single layer in the saucepan. If you had more filling than cabbage leaves to fill, use the rest to make meatballs, and tuck them in around the rolls. Bring the sauce back to a boil. Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake until the bundles are cooked through and firm to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes.
Use a large spoon to transfer the rolls to a platter or storage container. With an immersion blender, puree the sauce together with the sour cream. Serve the cabbage rolls with mashed potatoes, rice or spaetzle to sop up the luscious sauce.
Source: Adapted from Food Network.
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