03.08.10
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Meats, Poultry, Veggies at 3:21 pm by julie
I’m always looking for new ways to cook chicken, especially recipes that are quick to make. Nolan loves chicken stir fry, so I make that pretty frequently with a basic recipe, adding or subtracting depending on what veggies and flavorings I’ve got on hand. But variety is the spice of life, so here are three stir fry variations we’ve tried out recently.
First up is a chicken satay stir fry with a peanut butter based sauce meant to emulate the dipping sauce used for satays. I don’t really care for peanut sauce, but Jeremy does, and we had most of the ingredients on hand, so I thought it was worth giving it a shot. This recipe was alright, although the peanut butter still gives the sauce a little strange texture for me; at least it wasn’t spicy. I did have to use orange juice from concentrate, and dried zest in the rice. I also substituted broccoli for the snow peas.
Next up is a recipe that looks remarkably similar, but tasted completely different. It was based on a Real Simple recipe that seemed to be a cross between a soup and a stir fry, based on all the liquid and the direction to simmer the chicken and veggies in it. For me, the Brussels sprouts were what really set the recipe apart, but a liquidy sauce didn’t appeal to me, so I made some adjustments.
Chicken and Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1 tsp Chinese 5-spice
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 carrots, thinly sliced on the bias
8 oz Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 C unseasoned rice vinegar
1/4 C soy sauce or tamari
3 T brown sugar
1 C homemade chicken broth
1 T cornstarch, plus 2-3 T water
Toss chicken with 5-spice and saute in a hot wok or skillet with a little oil, until opaque. Add the onion, carrot and Brussels sprouts, then add ginger and garlic, and saute just until fragrant. Then add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and chicken broth, and simmer until broth has reduced slightly and vegetables are tender-crisp. Add cornstarch slurry, and continue to simmer until sauce has thickened. Serve over rice.
This recipe is in some ways similar to the last. I adapted this recipe because Jeremy just wanted something like teriyaki and broccoli, and I wanted to incorporate the sweetness of some fruit juice into it. Usually I’d reach for orange juice, but we were out, so instead I used some of the big bottle of pomegranate-blueberry juice we’ve been making into smoothies. It actually came out pretty well, and may be worth repeating, with the ginger toned down a bit (it was pretty strong!).
Pomegranate Chicken Stir Fry
2 T olive oil
1 T brown sugar
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 Tbsp minced shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T grated ginger
1 tsp dried orange zest
1 tsp Chinese 5-spice
2 T soy sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 C pomegranate-blueberry juice
1 C broccoli florets, steamed
1 T cornstarch, plus 2-3 T water
Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sugar and stir, using a wooden spoon, until sugar darkens just slightly. Toss the chicken pieces with the 5-spice, add to the skillet and stir well to coat. Cook chicken for a few minutes until the outside of the chicken pieces turn opaque. Add the shallots, garlic, ginger, and orange zest; cook, stirring, for a few minutes until shallots and garlic have softened a bit. Add the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and juice. Bring to a simmer and allow to cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is slightly reduced. Add cornstarch slurry, and continue to simmer until sauce has thickened. Toss with broccoli and serve over rice.
Source: Adapted heavily from eHow.
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02.08.10
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Poultry, Sides, Veggies at 10:17 pm by julie
This was a good use for boneless chicken and some basic pantry ingredients. It is a riff off of traditional Chinese red cooking, which takes its name—and its color—from gentle braising in soy sauce and brown sugar; afterwards, the braising liquid is reduced almost to a syrup that gets tossed back together with the meat. This recipe calls for red wine in place of the traditional shaoxing, which helps to underline the color. The recipe calls for thigh meat, but I used breasts because that was what I had, and it worked out fine; I also used shallot in place of the green onion. The sauce, once reduced, packs a big punch; it was a little salty for our taste due to the soy, so I think we might tone that down a touch next time. I served my chicken with rice and some mildly Asian roasted carrots.
Double Red-Cooked Chicken
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 tsp five-spice powder
2 1/2 C dry red wine
6 large scallions—white and light green parts cut into 2-inch lengths, dark green tops finely chopped
1/2 C soy sauce
1/3 C light brown sugar
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 T finely grated fresh ginger
1 dried red chile (or a pinch of red pepper flakes)
1 T sesame seeds
In a large bowl, toss the chicken with the five-spice powder.
In a large, nonreactive saucepan, combine the wine with the scallion pieces, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and chile and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce the heat to moderately low and add the chicken. Simmer until the chicken is just cooked, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken and scallions to a plate.
Boil the cooking liquid over high heat until it is reduced to about 1 cup and glossy, about 12 minutes. Return the chicken and scallions to the saucepan and stir to coat with the sauce. Transfer to a bowl. Garnish with the chopped scallion tops and sesame seeds and serve.
Source: Food and Wine.
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01.24.10
Posted in Beef, Breakfast, Cookies & Candies, Dessert, Dinner, Meats, Persnickety Bits, Pies & Tarts, Poultry, Quick Breads, Sides, Veggies at 7:34 pm by julie
It’s been a few months since I’ve managed to post anything on the blog. I wish I could use the busy holiday season as my excuse, but that really isn’t the case. In truth, I’ve been faithfully cataloging our meals by date, complete with edited photos and recipe notations. However, when it comes time to write up a finished post, I stall out trying to find some way around the admission that most of the food I cook these days is purely utilitarian. I cook largely from the pantry because getting to the grocery store is often problematic, and my pantry is stripped to the basics for financial reasons, so most of the time I feel like the little Dutch boy, constantly plugging the gaps in my recipes with substitutes. I’m also trying to cook for, and around, a 22-month old who is simultaneously going through a picky phase and cutting his 2-year molars. I like to say that cooking is the only hobby I can make time for these days, but it’s not true if I define the hobby aspect as pushing my boundaries with new ingredients and techniques. It’s all I can do to get a coherent meal on the table these days, and writing it in black and white on the blog just drives that point home.
I know I’m not the only one out there whose financial and family responsibilities sometimes overshadow the fun parts of cooking, so I’ll try to get past my writer’s block and get back to the posts. They may not always be exciting or challenging, but hopefully they may help some people who are in a similar predicament. I’ll start by filling in a few of the gaps since the holiday season.
We didn’t cook Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving this year. We were invited up to eat with my husband’s relatives, and shared a great day with them. Nolan ate heartily and had a fantastic time sharing toys and kisses with everyone there. I brought along a batch of whole wheat-walnut butterhorns, a loaf of pumpkin bread with a banana cream swirl (leftover cannoli filling, actually), and two pies, white chocolate pecan and cinnamon crumble apple. We came home with just some the desserts leftover, and the refrigerator almost seemed haunted by a lack of turkey and sides; the extra pie disappeared far too quickly for our health.
About a week later, I gave into my itch and made a mini-Thanksgiving dinner centered around a roasted chicken. I used some pre-mixed turkey brine to flavor the chicken, but miscalculated the percentages, because the chicken came out extremely salty, so much so that the gravy I made from the drippings was nearly inedible. At least it was just a 4-lb chicken, and the sides helped balance out some of the overseasoning: steamed broccoli, apple and onion cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, pureed sweet potatoes with sherry and fried onions, and yeasted pan rolls left over from a previous meal. We didn’t much care for the stuffing, which was a little dry and gritty for our tastes, but I may not have added enough liquid. I liked the sweet potatoes quite a bit because they walked that line of sweet and savory; Jeremy thought they were good, but left off the fried onions. For dessert, I made a caramelized walnut tart that was very tasty and roundly appreciated. I should note that all of these items were made from the freezer and pantry.
The week before Christmas, Jeremy came home from Costco with an 11-lb turkey. I admit that my heart fell when I saw it, because we had talked about doing some sort of beef roast for Christmas dinner, and I thought he was changing the menu without a consult. As it turns out, there was just such a good deal on turkeys that he couldn’t pass it up: something like $10 for a turkey that size. This time I avoided the brining, and rubbed my turkey with miso butter; I also baked a loaf of bread in advance so we would be able to have our standard slow cooker stuffing, and tried out a carrot souffle since we were out of yams. The turkey made for great leftovers and stock, but was generally forgettable. The carrot souffle was interesting and worth making again with a few tweaks. I didn’t have sharp cheddar so I just used medium, which costs less. Although I minced the onion as finely as possible, we found their texture to be unpalatable in the otherwise smooth souffle, since they are added raw after the carrots are pureed, and didn’t cook through in the oven; next time I would either grate the onion on a microplane, saute it minced, or possibly cook it along with the carrot. It would definitely be a good change of pace for us from time to time, though, since I always seem to be working my way through a big bag of organic carrots from Costco.
I wasn’t able to make my Daring gingerbread house in December because I ran out of most of my baking spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and vanilla), and needed to save what little I did have on hand for edible baked goods, like molasses spice cookies. The latter were addictive, made from my last little bit of freshly ground whole spices, plus organic molasses and demerara sugar. I also made my personal favorite, pecan snowballs, and tried out some cinnamon-kissed chocolate oatmeal cookies from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking.
With all those cookies in the house, we forsook a fancy dessert to go with our Christmas dinner, which was made all the more festive by my parents’ arrival at the airport at 4pm on the very day. I had anticipated making as much of the meal in advance as possible, and splurging on a beef tenderloin roast that would take less than an hour to cook, but the cost of a standing rib roast was so much more reasonable that I adjusted the plan. The roast was dry-brined overnight in the fridge, and removed to room temperature as we walked out the door for the airport. Upon returning, we opened presents and nibbled on stuffed mushrooms and fresh bread with white bean hummus until the roast and fixings were ready. I went with a porcini jus, sweet potato puree with goat cheese and truffle oil, mustard roasted potatoes, and the cream braised Brussels sprouts that I’ve made for my folks before. The roast beef came out delicious and perfectly cooked, the Brussels sprouts vanished in a flash, the roasted potatoes were adequate, and Jeremy thought the goat cheese masked the flavor of the sweet potatoes (which may have been why I thought they were pretty good).
The leftover prime rib made for excellent sandwiches in the days after Christmas, but the most interesting meal we had was not one I cooked. My father was kind enough to share his new speciality with us: ebelskivers. He’s made many varieties of these tiny round pancakes, both sweet and savory, usually with a dollop of filling hidden inside like a treasure. This time, he filled the ebelskivers with a cinnamon apple filling, and topped them off with powdered sugar. They made perfect, tender little bites, and we all loved them, so much so that I really wish I had an ebelskiver pan now.
That pretty much brings things up to speed. Since Nolan started cutting his 2-year molars just after New Years, he’s barely been eating at all. Suggestions on how to fatten up a scrawny toddler greatly appreciated!
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11.24.09
Posted in American, Beef, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Sides, Veggies at 5:34 pm by julie
This meal came from wanting barbecued boneless beef short ribs on a shorter time frame than my usual oven-braising method. Jeremy was skeptical, but they were very meaty cuts without too much fat or connective tissue, so I thought I could get away with grilling. They tasted great and I thought they were pretty tender in the end, though of course nothing beats braising in that arena.
The last time we went to the grocery store, I got some sweet potatoes just because my husband likes them. Personally, I still really have a hard time eating them, but I’m working on it, and I think this recipe helped a lot. The sweet potatoes are cubed, simmered and sauteed, then tossed with caramelized onion, spices and a splash of sherry vinegar. They had a good balance: tender but not mushy, flavorful without being overly sweet.
Darned Good Grilled Ribs
This recipe seems to call for using a gas grill with a lid and adjustable temperatures. All I’ve got is an electric tabletop model that has no on/off switch, much less a temp control. I just turned my ribs a lot and covered them with foil.
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C smoked paprika
1/4 cup sweet paprika
2 1/2 T kosher salt
2 1/2 T freshly ground black pepper
1 T granulated onion
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 lb boneless beef short ribs, connective tissue removed
1 C thick barbecue sauce
In a medium bowl and blend together both sugars, paprikas, salt, pepper, granulated onion, and cayenne. Sprinkle the short rib pieces liberally with this mixture until coated on all sides. Let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Oil the grill racks. Preheat your grill using all burners set on high and with the lid closed for 10 to 12 minutes. Place the beef ribs on the grill, close the lid, and reduce the heat to medium. (I just covered my meat with aluminum foil because I use an electric countertop grill.) Turn the ribs every 3 to 5 minutes or so, so that every side gets slightly caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes total, or a bit less if your ribs are small. The ribs should yield easily to the touch, not unlike a medium-rare steak or the way the tip of your nose feels. Reduce the heat a little more and brush the ribs with the sauce. Cover the grill and let cook for a minute or two for the sauce to set up, and then continue to turn and brush until all sides of the ribs have been glazed. Remove to a platter and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, covered with foil. Serve.
Virginia Pruitt’s Perfect Barbecue Sauce
1 large onion, chopped
1 C sugar, white or brown
1 C ketchup
1/2 C distilled white vinegar
1/4 C yellow or Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 C Worcestershire sauce
Mix all the ingredients together in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and slowly bring to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes. Thin with water if it gets too thick. Serve on anything your heart desires. Pour into an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks. Makes about 2 cups.
Source: Epicurious.
Sweet Potatoes and Caramelized Onions
2 large Spanish onions
3 large sweet potatoes
4 T butter
1 T olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, slivered
1/4 C water
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar
Salt and pepper
Peel and chop the onions. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat in a large heavy frying pan or 4-quart pot. Sauté the onions slowly over medium heat until they are turning amber, then darker brown – about 15 minutes. Once the onions are caramelized, add the sweet potato chunks and garlic. Continue cooking over medium heat, turning up the heat a little if the potato does not brown at all. Cook until the potatoes are also slightly browned and golden.
Add the water, turn the heat to low, and cover for about 10 minutes, or until the potato has softened. Remove the lid, turn the heat back up, and add the ginger, paprika, and salt and pepper to taste. Splash with vinegar, and sauté just a little longer, then remove from the heat and serve.
Source: The Kitchn.
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10.04.09
Posted in Dinner, Meats, Poultry, Veggies at 3:16 am by julie
I made this meal back in July or August when zucchini were plentiful, and I had a guest coming over. It was very flavorful and the marinade was quick to prepare in advance; all I had to do when we started getting hungry was toss everything on the grill and make up a pot of quinoa. Grilling zucchini is also a good way to handle it texture-wise, because it cooks quickly and tends to retain some toothiness rather than turning to mush.
I did make several adjustments to the original recipe to use what I had on hand. The marinade called for fresh lime juice, but I ended up using ponzu (the soy-free sort) instead. I’d love to try it again with lime as the ponzu had a pretty delicate flavor against the hoisin. I also omitted the sambal oelek because I can’t handle that level of heat, and used only boneless skinless breasts.
Hoisin-Ponzu Grilled Chicken and Zucchini
1/4 C plus 1 T grapeseed or canola oil
1 T minced garlic
1 T peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 C hoisin sauce
1/4 C ponzu
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 boneless chicken breasts
1/4 C white parts of scallions cut 1/8 inch thick, plus 2 tablespoons julienned or chopped green parts, for garnish (optional)
1 large or 2 medium zucchini, ends trimmed, sliced lengthwise into fat spears
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Two hours or up to 24 hours in advance (the longer, the better), combine about 2 cups of the Hoisin-Lime Sauce with the chicken and scallion whites, and toss well; reserve some marinade for garnish. Marinate, refrigerated, turning the chicken at least once. Thirty minutes before cooking, add the zucchini, and stir to coat well.
Prepare a grill and heat to hot, or preheat your broiler; spray a broiler pan with nonstick spray or coat the grill with 1 tablespoon of grapeseed or canola oil. Remove the chicken from the marinade and grill or broil it, turning once, until the juices run clear when the meat is pierced with a fork, 8 to 12 minutes for breasts.
About 5 minutes after the chicken has begun to cook, add the zucchini and cook, turning once, until brown, about 8 minutes total. Transfer to a cutting board.
Slice the zucchini and chicken breasts on the diagonal and arrange on a serving platter. Drizzle with the remaining Hoisin-Lime Sauce, and garnish with the scallion julienne, if using.
Source: Adapted from Simply Ming: Easy Techniques for East-Meets-West Meals
, by Ming Tsai.
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09.28.09
Posted in Beef, Bread, Dinner, Dips & Spreads, Leftovers, Meats, Sides, Veggies at 6:05 pm by julie
I’m still not sure where the summer went. I’ve been meaning to post these recipes from our 4th of July dinner for several months now, but there always seems to be something pulling me away from the computer, and I just realized I haven’t posted anything but Daring Baker challenges . Time for a little catch-up. Our little sticky bun is now eighteen months old (!) and can walk, run, dance, climb, and almost reach stuff on the kitchen counters. He makes off with all of my Tupperware containers, and likes to help me unload the dishwasher, even before I’ve gotten the chance to run it, so a lot of our meals are prepared either very quickly or in short increments throughout the day. But he is still a very good little eater, and can handle practically anything thanks to his sparkly new molars and canine teeth. Not quite all of them had come through yet when I made these meals, but that didn’t stop him from eating lots and lots of thinly sliced beef and mashed potatoes.
We usually don’t buy filet mignon, but as long as we were splurging, I took the extra steps of crusting our steaks with ground porcini mushrooms and topping them with gorgonzola-garlic butter. To round out the meal with some greens, I made haricots verts with a shallot vinaigrette, and stirred some ribbons of wilted chard—courtesy of a friend’s prolific garden—into the mashed potatoes.
Porcini-Crusted Filet with Gorgonzola-Garlic Butter
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
6 1-inch-thick filet mignon steaks
2 T butter
4-6 cloves of garlic, skins on
1 T olive oil
1/4 C (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2 oz crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1 T chopped fresh parsley
Process dried porcini mushrooms in spice grinder to fine powder. Transfer powder to plate. Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper. Press steaks into porcini powder to coat both sides well.
Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat, and add garlic cloves. Toast cloves, turning frequently to avoid burning, until tender. Remove from the heat, cool until you can handle them, and peel off the skins; they should come off easily. Mash garlic into a paste with your knife or a garlic press, and mix in with the butter, cheese and parsley. Refrigerate until needed.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add steaks to skillet and cook to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer steaks to plates. Spoon rounded tablespoon of gorgonzola-garlic butter atop each steak and serve.
Source: Epicurious and Epicurious.
The next day, I made a batch of rustic potato bread with some of the leftover mashed potatoes. This is a recipe from Macrina Bakery that I’ve used before with gargantuan results, so I knew that I would be able to get more than one boule from it. I ended up dividing it into a 4 sandwich rolls and a standard loaf, all imbedded with decorative flecks of chard. Split, toasted and spread liberally with leftover compound butter, the rolls made perfect vehicles for our extra filet, which I sliced thinly and slathered with caramelized onion for a sublime sandwich and a perfect end to the holiday weekend, if I do say so myself.
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06.25.09
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Seafood, Veggies at 2:20 pm by julie
The more perceptive among you may have noticed the casual inclusion of zucchini in a previous post. I’ve always struggled with the texture and blandness of zucchini, but I’ve decided that this will be my year to come to terms with summer squash, and I’ve already made a good start. There wasn’t a whole lot in the way of fresh produce at the farmer’s market yet, being a little early, but I came home with pints of strawberries, bags of wild mushrooms, a mound of fresh dill, and three large zucchini (it’s a little early for them too, I know; I think they were locally grown in a hothouse). The lamb kebabs was my first effort to integrate zucchini into a meal, and it worked out pretty well. The quick marinade I used gave it some flavor, and grilling made it nice and tender without turning to mush.
But that only used up one of my three zucchini. That left one for Z-P muffins, and one for… something else. I wanted to put my new kevlar glove, courtesy Mother’s Day, to work, so I decided on halibut wrapped in paper-thin slices of zucchini, which required the use of my mandoline. I’m not really happy with the one I have—it doesn’t have a kickstand base, and there is a big hook on one end for the hand-grip (which I no longer need thanks to my handy-dandy glove) that gets in the way when I have to slice something long, like zucchini for instance. Half of my strips were consequently sort of mangled, but I got enough nice ones to wrap my fish with, and the rest took a spin in the food processor to become muffin fodder.
As for the fish, I used chunks of wild halibut, seasoned with kosher salt, lemon pepper and sprigs of fresh dill. The zucchini strips formed a little packet around the fish, keeping it moist as it sauteed but adding very little flavor or texture of its own. I turned up the heat at the end to give the zucchini a little color, and served it with garlic-mashed potatoes and a quick white wine-butter sauce.
Zucchini-Wrapped Fish
2 (6- to 7-inch-long) zucchini, trimmed
3 T extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus additional for brushing
16 fresh basil leaves, or sprigs of fresh dill
Lemon pepper
4 (6-ounce) pieces halibut or salmon fillet (preferably wild), skinned
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 C white wine
2 T white wine vinegar
4 T heavy cream
8 T butter (1 stick)
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
Shave zucchini lengthwise into very thin ribbons with peeler, or use a mandoline.
For each piece of fish, arrange about 5 slices of zucchini on a work surface, side by side, overlapping each slice by half. Brush zucchini with oil, then lightly season with salt and pepper. Lay fresh herbs across center of each group of zucchini slices.
Pat fish dry, then sprinkle with kosher salt and lemon pepper and arrange crosswise on zucchini, covering herbs. Top each piece of fish with more herbs, then wrap zucchini around fish, overlapping ends. This can be done several hours in advance, if desired.
Put 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet and swirl to coat bottom, then arrange fish, seam sides down, in oil. Lightly brush tops of zucchini and fish with oil.
Cover skillet and cook fish over medium heat, without turning, until barely cooked through, 6 to 9 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets (fish will continue to cook from residual heat). Turn heat up to medium high and continue to cook just until the zucchini begins to brown, then carefully turn and brown the other side slightly.
Transfer fish to plates, then deglaze the pan with the white wine and vinegar. Simmer the mixture until practically all the liquid has evaporated, then add the heavy cream. (If the cream is not being used, the same amount of another liquid, such as water, should be added, or the sauce will be too thick.) Cut the butter into 1-inch cubes, and add them to the wine reduction, whisking continuously until all the butter has been incorporated. Don’t let the sauce boil or it could break (as mine did, partly because I had no cream—oh well, it still tasted good.)
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05.01.09
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Salads, Seafood, Sides, Veggies at 10:27 pm by julie
I sent Jeremy to the store for a few end-of-month pantry staples, and he came home with lamb shanks and halibut steaks. We usually get fillets because fish bones still sort of wig me out, but steaks are definitely more affordable. The recipe I chose, potato-crusted halibut steaks, came together without too much difficulty: I was able to flip them without losing the potato crust and only doing minor splash damage to my hand. The caper-anchovy mayo binder added some great flavor to the fish, but I could take or leave the wine-based sauce; it was difficult even to taste it, and I’ve left it off the recipe below.
To go along with the fish, I made an unusual salad of sauteed red cabbage and wilted spinach in a balsamic vinaigrette which hit the perfect note—heartier than your standard salad, more interesting than cole slaw, with a tang and slight sweetness that set off the savory fish, and a much-needed burst of color on the plate. The cabbage and pancetta got pretty dark on the bottom over the medium heat called for, so I’ve adjusted the recipe slightly to compensate for next time. In all, this was a pretty impressive meal, the sort that would be excellent served to company.
Potato-Crusted Halibut Steaks
1/4 C mayonnaise
1 T chopped drained capers
4 flat anchovies, rinsed, patted dry, and chopped fine
six 1-inch-thick boneless halibut steaks (each about 7 ounces)
3/4 lb russet (baking) potatoes (about 1 1/2)
2 T olive oil plus additional if necessary
Preheat oven to 400°F. and lightly oil a shallow baking pan. In a small bowl stir together mayonnaise, capers, anchovies, and salt and pepper to taste. Pat halibut steaks dry and season with salt and pepper. Spread mayonnaise mixture evenly on top of steaks.
Peel potatoes and quarter lengthwise. Grate potatoes coarsely, preferably using a food processor. Do not rinse or squeeze potatoes. Immediately pat a heaping 1/4 cup potato evenly on mayonnaise mixture on each steak. (By moving quickly, you avoid letting the potatoes brown, and the starch from shredding them will help adhere them to the fish. I also didn’t bother peeling my potatoes.)
In a 12-inch non-stick skillet heat 2 tablespoons oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Carefully arrange 2 steaks, potato sides down, in oil and cook, pressing down occasionally with a slotted spatula, about 5 minutes, or until potato is golden brown and cooked through. Carefully invert steaks (potato sides should be up) and season with salt and pepper. Repeat procedure with remaining steaks, adding more oil to skillet if necessary. Bake steaks in pan in middle of oven 10 to 15 minutes, or until just cooked through.
Source: Epicurious.
Red Cabbage and Warm Spinach Salad
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp honey
1 1/2 T balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 C pine nuts (I used sliced almonds)
2 oz sliced pancetta (Italian unsmoked cured bacon), chopped
1 lb red cabbage, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 (5-oz) bag baby spinach, any tough stems discarded
Make vinaigrette: Mash garlic with salt to a paste. Whisk together garlic paste, mustard, honey, and vinegar, then add oil in a stream, whisking until emulsified.
Make salad: Toast nuts in a dry large heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until beginning to turn golden, about 2 minutes. Remove nuts and add pancetta; cook until browned and crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove pancetta and add cabbage; cook, covered, over medium low heat until wilted and just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add spinach, stirring gently until it just begins to wilt. Remove pan from heat. Add vinaigrette, nuts, pancetta, and toss.
Source: Epicurious.
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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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04.13.09
Posted in Baby Food, Breakfast, Dinner, Lamb, Meats, Quick Breads, Sides, Veggies at 7:46 pm by julie
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter yesterday. Ours was pretty low-key, since the little man is not yet of an age to appreciate Easter egg hunts and jelly beans. Instead, I kept busy cooking while Jeremy watched a baseball game with Nolan.
First things first: I wanted to make some sort of Easter bread this year, but I decided to go the easy route and make a quick muffin version of hot cross buns rather than the yeasted sort. I chose the recipe from the King Arthur Flour Cookbook, and afterwards noticed that their website shows a different recipe for hot cross muffins that actually does incorporate yeast. It would be interesting to try that out sometime to compare and contrast. In any case, I made a few adjustments to the recipe I used, substituting blood orange juice for rum and dried cranberries and cherries in place of the more traditional golden raisins and candied citron; I also added about a tablespoon of blood orange zest to the batter, and used the juice instead of milk in my glaze, which gave it a lovely pink color. The muffins came out alright: Jeremy and Nolan seemed to think they were pretty good, but I found them to be kind of dense and dull, never mind my distaste for dried fruit in baked goods. I noticed the same quality in the doughnut muffins I made from the same cookbook, and after a number of other mixed results, this is definitely not my go-to baking book, much as I would like it to be.
For dinner, you know we had to have lamb. I’ve been braising most of our legs these past few months, so I mixed it up this time and did a roast. We get the boneless ones from Costco, so I smeared the inside with rosemary and garlic mixed with a little olive oil, tied it up, and slathered the outside with a mixture of softened butter (3 T), Dijon mustard (1 T), and rosemary (1 T); then it went in the oven at 450F for almost an hour and a half. Seems like our poor little oven always takes longer cooking big cuts of meat than the resources suggest. While it rested, I made a quick jus by deglazing the de-fatted pan drippings with white wine and a bit more Dijon, and threw on some potato pancakes to go with the meat. The idea was that the shredded potatoes were reminiscent of nests (or Easter grass, or whatever), in an abstract sort of way, at least. To save myself some dishewashing from another side dish, I sliced up and blanched a fistful of asparagus spears, chilled them in an ice bath, and mixed them into my potatoes. It worked out well, and the asparagus got nicely caramelized where it touched the cast iron. Next time, my only adjustment will be to slice the asparagus on a steeper bias, because the little chunks I cut sometimes escaped while shaping and flipping the pancakes. Nolan liked the lamb and loved the potato pancakes, last night and maybe even more today, as leftovers.
Potato-Asparagus Pancakes
2 eggs, beaten
4 medium russet potatoes (about 8 ounces each), peeled and shredded using the largest holes of a hand grater (yikes—or in the food processor!)
1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/4 C grated onion (pop it in the food processor with the potatoes)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
about 8-10 spears of asparagus, woody ends snapped off and cut on the bias about 1/2″ wide
1/4 C olive oil
Boil a small pot of salted water and cook the asparagus just until they are tender when stabbed with a fork, 2-3 minutes. Remove to an ice bath, chill, and drain.
Combine the eggs, flour, salt, and pepper, stirring to blend. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the potatoes and onions. (You can just use your hands, or, as I do, load some shredded potato into your ricer with the smallest holes and squeeze. Once you’re done, you can poke at the potato starch that settles at the bottom of the liquid–entertaining!) Add the potatoes and cooled asparagus to the egg mixture, mixing well; hands work well here.
In a large cast-iron skillet, heat some of the oil over medium-high heat. Spoon the batter by quarter-cupfuls onto the hot skillet, flattening them with the back of the spoon. Fry until the bottom of the pancakes are nicely browned – between 3 and 5 minutes; flip the pancakes and cook for about 3 minutes longer. Repeat for the remaining pancakes, adding oil to the skillet as needed.
Drain on paper towels, salt while hot, and serve immediately.
Source: Adapted from Bette’s Oceanview Diner.
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