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Secret Ingredient Meatballs Simmered in Sauce

2012-01-28T13:00:00.000-05:00

Somehow, and I don't know how, but I have never made meatballs for Matt. I've seduced Matt with risottos, braciole, ragu, sausage and peppers, stuffed shells, lasagne, and presented him with a panoply of cured meats and cheeses. But somehow, in over four years of cooking for the man who hasn't met a meat dish he doesn't like, I had overlooked this basic Italian-American workhorse. I don't even have an excuse, for I have the perfect meatball recipe from my mother (which is of course her version of her mother's, with an addition from my dad's mother). And, as is not only my right, but perhaps a family imperative, I put my spin on the recipe: a secret weapon of flavor and fat by adding in some italian sausage to the mixture. This amps up the flavor complexity, and the pork fat adds great mouthfeel and unctuousness to the meatballs.

The key to making these meatballs moist and tender, but not falling apart, is to mix the meat mixture thoroughly, but gently. Here's a general tip: don't knead the meat, but using your fingers, move the mixture around and then lift some up and fold over. Try not to use the heal of your hand too much, it's all in the fingers.

There are a few ways to cook the meatballs, but by far the best is to pan cook, then simmer in sauce. When deglazing the pan, use some good wine. If you have found yourself without wine proper, as I did yesterday, call your mother for advice. Okay, no really, I called my mom for advice, and her suggestion was to use a small splash of Marsala and couple splashes of dry Vermouth (two fortified wines I keep in the pantry). Brilliant suggestion, and perhaps what I will do regularly, but if you don't have those, but have some red or maybe white wine, then use that! We took the meatballs and made meatball subs atop rolls with melted mozzarella...which was heaven. And now these meatballs will be entered into the regular rotation, a fact that has brought great joy to Matt.

For the meatballs:

1 pound ground beef
1/4 pound Italian sausage, casing removed (hot or sweet)
1 egg
2 garlic cloves, minced
generous 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
3/4 tsp dried basil
2 pinches dried thyme
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chicken broth (or water)
2/3- 1 cup bread crumbs (fresh homemade are best!)

To make the meatballs:

In a large bowl, whisk together egg, garlic, parsley, dried herbs, salt and pepper, and broth.
Add beef and sausage, mixing together gently until sausage is distributed in the beef.
Start adding the bread crumbs, 1/4 cup first, mixing gently and thoroughly, then adding more until the mixture is malleable, and will hold into a ball when molded.
Turn mixture out onto a board, divide into four quarters, then divide each quarter into five pieces, rolling each piece into a ball, for a total of 20 meatballs.

For cooking meatballs and the sauce:

2 TBS olive oil
a few splashes of wine
1 small onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
scant TBS dried basil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flake (optional)
28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)

To cook the meatballs and make sauce:

In a 5-7 quart dutch oven or other large heavy bottomed pot, heat 1 TBS of the oil over medium heat.
Add onion, and cook until softened.
Add garlic, stir for about 30 seconds until fragrant.
Clear a spot in the pot, and add the basil and red pepper flake, and cook for a minute to bring out flavor.
Add can of tomatoes, rinse out can, and add half the can's worth of water.
Bring to a simmer.
Meanwhile, in a wide skillet, heat the other TBS of oil over medium-high heat.
Add the meatballs to the skillet, browning nicely all around. As the meatballs are browned, sink into the simmering sauce. Make sure to give the meatballs space in the pan to brown, so they don't steam, but get a good caramelization. You will need to do this in batches, probably three.
When meatballs are all browned and placed in sauce, pour off fat from the meatball-cooking pan.
Keeping the heat where it is, add a few splashes of wine to deglaze the pan. Pour the deglazing liquid into the sauce.
Simmer sauce for about an hour, or until sauce is the right consistency (at least 30 minutes to ensure full cooking of meatballs).
Serve in a sub, over pasta, over polenta, or in a bowl with some bread on the side.

Fig Jam, Beer-melized Onion and Brie Pizza

2012-01-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

What to make with cheese leftover from New Year's Eve, some pantry staples, and some homemade pizza dough in the freezer for a dinner beside the fire pit in the backyard? A super fun, sweet and salty very awesome pizza. Every component of this pizza is unique and tasty and necessary. Feel free to not beermelize, but only caramelize your onions if you don't do beer. But otherwise, substitutions will just get you a totally different sort of pizza. And don't even think of using dried rosemary for the fresh, it just won't do. Because we've had such a mild winter, I still have living, green rosemary in my garden, which is a blessing. But if you don't have a garden with said hardy rosemary...just buy some. Absolutely worth it. The pizza dough I make creates a 12" thin crust pizza. Which is the perfect amount for Matt and I to split for a meal. If you use a smaller or greater quantity of pizza, adjust the other ingredients accordingly. I made some fig jam back in December, but a quality store-bought jam made with only figs, sugar and pectin will absolutely suffice. I removed the rind on the brie because although completely edible and just fine at room temperature, I find that when heated, the rind on brie stays at a not-so-appetizing chewy/hard level.

If you do not have a pizza stone and peel, make this however you would normally make a pizza in your house. But I highly recommend you look into the awesomeness that is a pizza stone.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough
1/4 cup Fig Jam
1 very large onion, sliced thin
4 ounces malty beer
6 ounces brie, rind removed, sliced and/or cut into pieces
1 tsp fresh Rosemary, finely chopped

Process:

Heat pizza stone in oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a splash of olive oil over medium-high heat in a sauté pan and add onions and a pinch of salt.
Cook onions, stirring occasionally until beginning to turn golden.
Drop heat to medium-low and continue to cook until onions begin to brown.
Add beer and cook, simmering over low heat until beer is evaporated.
Remove onions from pan to help cool to the touch.
Stretch out pizza dough over cornmeal on a pizza peal.
Spread out fig jam with your fingers over pizza dough.
Spread out onions over pizza dough
Put pizza into oven, and cook until lightly brown.
Remove pizza, place brie slices around, and return to oven until brie is bubbly and melty.

Braciole

2012-01-14T15:42:00.001-05:00

This is my version of my mother's recipe, which is her version of her mother's recipe. Which means all is right in the world when I make this. Matt loves this dish, almost more for the sauce than for the little bundles of beef (which are ridiculously tasty on their own by the way). But you can't make this sauce stand alone- it requires the braciole component and the hour of simmering to achieve its complex, addictive, roll-your-eyes-way-back-in-your-head deliciousness. If you are new to braciole, it is pronounced [bruh-ZHOLE] (rhymes with pole). Just like the endless arguments as to what goes in to tortellini, or how to make a Bolognese sauce, there are myriad ways to make braciole, not only from region to region or town to town, but one house, to the one across the street.

Since braciole has so many variants, there is definitely flexibility in this dish. Don't like the piquantness of Pecorino Romano? Use some Parmigiano or Grana. Have a pal, spouse or kiddo who can detect the faintest wisp of the evil "spicy"? Leave out the red pepper flake. If you don't do pork or wine in your house, you can omit the pancetta from the braciole filling (which is my addition anyways, not in my grandmother's original), and you can omit the wine in the sauce, but do deglaze the pan with a little water or tomato juice before adding the diced up tomatoes. Now, you'll wind up with a different tasting dish from mine, but it will be yours and tasty just the same...because making the changes your house likes is exactly what family recipes are good for.

I use San Marzano tomatoes here, worth the extra $ in my opinion for this dish. In many sauces, I use fire-roasted tomatoes, but that layer of flavor would be lost in this dish (although if you are omitting both the wine and the red pepper flake, then you might want to use them). You can serve the braciole as is for a second course after a soup, light pasta or risotto with minimal sauce, reserving the extra sauce for another purpose; serve the braciole over fettucine or other pasta, but my favorite way to serve this is in a bowl with the sauce, topped with a little cheese and with lots of crusty homemade bread for mopping up the sauce. If there are only a couple of you in your house, go ahead and make the whole dish. Makes great leftovers out of the fridge and the freezer.

Serves ~ 8 (3-5 rolls each)

For braciole and paste:

2 pounds beef bottom round (ask your butcher to slice it into thin ~ 1/2" slices)
2 oz pancetta, cut into chunks
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs (homemade if you have 'em!)
4 TBS pecorino romano cheese
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
~1/2 olive oil

To assemble:

Cut slices of beef into pieces the size of a playing card. Using a meat mallet, pound slices to a thickness, of just under a 1/4"
Place pancetta and garlic into a mini food processor and buzz until a paste forms. (If you don't have a mini food processor, very finely chop both pancetta and garlic)
Mix together pancetta, garlic, bread crumbs, cheese and basil.
Drizzle olive into mixture until a pasty consistency.
Put a spoonful of the braciole paste onto one piece of beef. Roll the beef slice up around the paste, tucking the sides along the way. If one side of the beef slice is wider than the other end, start at the wider end to facilitate tucking the sides to enclose the paste. Close each roll with a toothpick (two if needed).

For sauce:

1 TBS olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
scant TBS of dried basil
1/2 tsp red pepper flake
1/2 cup red wine (something you would drink)
1 28-oz can diced San Marzano tomatoes

To cook braciole and sauce:

In a wide, deep sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
Season the beef rolls with a light sprinkling of salt and some grinds of black pepper
Place rolls into pan and brown deeply on all sides. Do not crowd the pan, do this in two or three batches if needed to give the rolls space to brown.
Set beef rolls aside.
Drain off excess fat from pan, leaving about 1 TBS in pan.
Drop heat to medium and add onion and garlic.
Cook onion and garlic until softened.
Push onion and garlic aside and add basil and red pepper flake, stirring for about a minute.
Deglaze pan with red wine, and simmer for a few minutes.
Add tomatoes, and add half a can's worth of water.
Stir together, return braciole to pan and sink into sauce
Simmer for about an hour, until braciole are tender and sauce has thickened.

Asian Pear, Almond and Farro Salad with Sesame Sichuan Pepper Dressing

2012-01-07T07:50:00.001-05:00

At Christmas, we received a lovely gift of gorgeous Asian Pears. Other than peeling and eating as is, I was looking for a fun way to incorporate them into a dish. It's been such a mild winter, we figured we might as well keep grilling. After perusing Matt's new grill cookbook, we settled on grilling Sichuan-spiced loin lamb chops (we have amazing local lamb in our freezer, having shared a whole lamb with my mom this fall). Needing a side dish for the chops, I put together this salad, which is tangy, sweet, savory, and refreshing all at once. Definitely be sure to use canola or another neutral oil in addition to the sesame oil in the dressing. Sesame oil is so potent if you use all sesame, you won't taste anything else. Sichuan pepper isn't a pepper at all, but the husk of a teensy tiny fruit. Buy it whole and grind it yourself, its aroma dissipates quickly. If you don't have any, you can use fresh ground black pepper or Aleppo pepper, which will alter the flavor a bit, but still be tasty. I buy slivered almonds already toasted from Trader Joe's, and keep them in the freezer to prevent them going rancid. They warm up within about 5 minutes, and make a great crunchy addition to the salad. Don't combine the sriracha with the dressing ingredients, or it will over power it. Stir in the sriracha at the end. The amount does not make the salad too spicy, but if spicy isn't an option for your family, you may want to grate some garlic into the dressing and add a squeeze of lime juice to perk up the dish.

This will serve 2-4 people as a side dish.

Ingredients

1 cup dry farro
1 asian pear, peeled and cored, 1/4" dice
1 small stalk celery, thinly sliced, and a few celery heart leaves, chopped
2 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
2 TBS champagne vinegar (or rice wine vinegar)
1 TBS sesame oil
3 TBS canola oil
1/2 TBS grated shallot
1/2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp ground Sichuan pepper
pinch of kosher salt
1/2-1 1/2 tsp sriracha or other chili-garlic sauce

Process

Cook farro as per package instructions (pearled and semi-pearled varieties cook faster), drain and let cool for a few minutes.
In a small bowl, combine vinegar, oils, shallot, honey, Sichuan pepper and salt and whisk until emulsified.
Combine farro, asian pear, celery, scallions and almonds in a large bowl and toss together with dressing.
Stir in sriracha and serve.

Lentil and Sausage Salad

2012-01-01T14:44:00.000-05:00

What does a good Italian girl do when there's a Patriots game on at 1:00 on New Year's Day, thus throwing a wrench into the traditional lentil and sausage meal to start the New Year? Improvise and create a game-friendly-on-the-couch munchie with the necessary components. You can make this salad without making the game-friendly version, or, with very little extra effort create a single-bite game-friendly munchie that will achieve the goal of lentils and sausage on New Year's Day. The salad is dressed exquisitely with a gentle, but tasty dressing, and the sausage, whether you use hot or sweet is cooked to minimize greasiness and maximize flavor. The prep on the lentils may seem onerous, but I have never cooked lentils in a manner other than this that will create tender, buttery and wholly intact lentils (thanks to Cook's Illustrated for the method). You can do the brining step up two days in advance, refrigerating lentils after draining the brine.

For the Lentils:
Preliminary Brine:

1 cup lentils, picked over
4 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1 teaspoon salt

Cooking:

5 garlic cloves, whacked with knife to loosen skin, and peeled
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chicken stock (homemade or low sodium)
2 cups water

To brine:

Combine lentils, salt and water in a bowl and let sit for an hour.
Drain

To cook:

Preheat oven to 325
Combine lentils, garlic, bay leaf, water and chicken stock in a small dutch oven or medium sauce pan. Cover and place in the oven for 40-60 minutes, until lentils are tender. Drain and toss with dressing and vegetables immediately.
While lentils are cooking, sauté carrots and onions in a little olive oil until softened. Toss with dressing and drained lentils.

For dressing:

1 TBS balsamic vinegar
2 tsp whole grain mustard
1 TBS grated shallot
pinch kosher salt
few grinds black pepper
1/4 extra virgin olive oil

For sausages:

1/2 pound sausage links, hot or sweet
1/2 cup beer

To cook sausages:

Prick sausages all over with a fork and place in a pan with beer and cover. Heat over medium heat until simmering, and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Drain sausage of all liquid and fat, place back in pan over medium heat and brown slightly on both sides until cooked through, about 5 minutes total.

To finish as one-bite munchies:

Fill pre-baked phyllo cups (available in freezer section of grocery store) with a TBS of lentil salad.
Top each cup with a 1/4" disk of sausage
Heat in a 350 oven for about 5 minutes and then serve.

To finish as a salad and/or with leftovers from one-bite munchies:

Chop sausage into bite-sized pieces and toss with lentil salad.

Serve warm or room temperature. If you have fresh thyme or tarragon, chop up a TBS or so and add, but the salad will be just as tasty without. Will make great leftovers, stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days.

Shrimp and Garden Salsa Tacos

2011-08-03T13:12:00.003-04:00

Walked out to the garden this morning and came back in with a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes, a small zucchini, and a serrano pepper. After some brief thought, I remembered that I had corn tortillas and cilantro in the fridge, and shrimp in the freezer. I didn't have any great expectations of this dish, figured it is the beginning of many this-is-what-got-out-of-the-garden today meals now that August is here and the garden is pumping out abundance. However, Matt and I inhaled these so quickly I had to be very proactive to get a photo taken! The garden salsa is so simple, it is elegant. The dish altogether is fresh, light and very fast to put together. There's no cheese, no sour cream, no lime juice. And guess what...it doesn't need any of those. I kept thinking there was going to be something missing, but with every bite I took I tasted shrimp and the bounty from my garden. Which is exactly what I wanted this dish to be.

Makes 2 servings of 3 tacos each.

To make Garden Salsa, toss together following and let sit for 5 minutes:

10-15 cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, grape tomatoes or combo, sliced in halves and/or quarters
half a medium/small zucchini, soft center and seed removed, roughly diced
half a serrano pepper, stemmed and seeded, minced
1 TBS chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp kosher salt
few grinds of fresh black pepper

Ingredients for Shrimp Tacos:

12 oz. raw, shelled and deveined 31-40 count (medium) shrimp
1 TBS olive oil
2 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp chopped fresh oregano or 1/4 tsp dried
1/4 tsp Aleppo Pepper (or smoked paprika, or red hot pepper flake)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
a few grinds of fresh black pepper
6 corn tortillas

Process:

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add garlic, and cook garlic until lightly browned all over, turning as needed, then discard garlic
Add shrimp all at once.
Add seasonings.
Cook over medium heat, turning once or twice for 3 or 4 minutes, or until shrimp are cooked through.
Using a slotted spoon put shrimp into a bowl.
Heat tortillas in microwave or regular oven until pliable
Serve shrimp and garden salsa in tortillas

Vindaloo Lamb and Farro Salad

2011-05-10T14:04:00.001-04:00

I picked up some Vindaloo Seasoning awhile back and thus far had only used it in some stirfries. I also was in possession of some high quality ground lamb from Brookfield Farm in Walpole, NH thanks to Mom. I was looking for something to do with the ground lamb that wasn't meatballs and wasn't saucy (i.e. requiring one to be at the table with a napkin). The dish I've created here is a one dish meal, something you can eat in comfort on the couch without worry about a mess, or in Matt's case today, munch on while brewing beer. In terms of this being a dish with a traditional Indian seasoning, this dish is in no way traditional, however I used some classic combinations to piece it together, lamb and farro pair well, as do lamb and mint, and the almonds and golden raisins align nicely with the vindaloo seasoning. The dish is good for leftovers if heated up slightly (cold ground lamb can get a bit greasy), and this is also super fast. If you use pearled farro, you can have this dish ready in about 20 minutes.The quantities below create about 4 servings.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup farro
olive oil
3/4 pound ground lamb, preferably local and sustainable
1 TBS Vindaloo Seasoning (I like Penzeys)
1 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup red onion, small dice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup slivered toasted almonds
6-8 leaves of fresh mint, sliced into thin ribbons (aka...chiffonade)
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Process

Cook your farro according to package instructions to a doneness of al dente, adding a teaspoon of salt to the water. Depending on what sort of farro you have (regular, pearled, semi-pearled), this could take between 15 and 30 minutes of cooking time.
When farro is cooked, drain and place in a bowl, add a TBS of olive oil and toss.
Meanwhile, while farro is cooking, brown the ground lamb over medium high heat in a little bit of olive oil. Half way through browning, mix in the vindaloo seasoning.
Combine lamb, farro, celery, red onion, golden raisins, almonds, mint and salt and toss well.
Serve warm, or refrigerate and reheat slowly in microwave before serving.

Pasilla Chile, Pork and Mushroom Tacos

2011-05-06T18:40:00.003-04:00

As it seems to be lately...the dishes aren't always the prettiest, but oh the flavor is amazing. Rich, bold, layered with earthy flavor, you'll wonder why you haven't been eating tacos like these for years. Just enough heat to know you're eating chile-infused pork and mushrooms, but not so much that you can't taste all the other components. Don't forget the sweet onion and cilantro as garnishes, those two touches really bring the dish together. This is not a quick dinner, except that it makes great leftovers which make a super fast meal, so if you invest a little time when you can, you'll be reaping the benefits for a few meals. You can also stop after making the pasilla paste, refrigerate and then continue making the tacos anytime during the next week. I created this recipe by adapting and combining a couple Rick Bayless methods and recipes. This recipe now rivals a beer braised turkey (I subsitute 2 pounds chicken thighs) taco recipe for our favorite tacos.

Recipe makes enough for 12 tacos, serving 4-6 people

For the pasilla paste:

Ingredients

12 good-sized garlic cloves, skin on
4 ounces dried Pasilla chiles, stemmed, seeded and cut open
2 tsp Mexican oregano
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Process

Heat a dry cast iron pan to medium heat, place garlic cloves in pan and dry toast for about 15 or 20 minutes, turning a few times, until soft, fragrant and blackened in spots. Set aside to cool, remove skins, and roughly chop.
Using same cast iron, toast chiles a couple seconds per side, pressing down with a potato masher or flat metal spatula, then add to a bowl of hot water. Continue toasting all chiles until done. Then let chiles sit in hot water for 30 minutes, and then drain chiles, reserving 2/3 cup of liquid
Put chiles, garlic, spices and reserved soaking liquid into food processor (or blender). Process until you get a smooth puree (you'll have to scrape down the sides a few times).
With a rubber spatula, work puree through a size to remove any bits of skin or seeds.
At this point, you can continue to make the tacos, or seal the paste in a container and refrigerate up to a week.

For Tacos

Ingredients:

1 TBS olive oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder/butt, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pasilla Paste from recipe above
1 1/4 cups beef broth, low sodium
8 ounces white button mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
corn tortillas

For Garnish

sweet onion, very thinly sliced
chopped cilantro

Process

Heat olive oil in deep saute pan or dutch oven over medium high heat.
Brown pork pieces in 2 or 3 batches so you don't crowd the pan.
Set aside browned pork.
Add Pasilla Paste to hot oil, and cook for 5 minutes or so over medium high heat, stirring regularly, until pasilla paste is reduced and thickened.
Add beef broth and stir in.
Add mushrooms, pork and cilantro.
Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until sauce is thickened to a degree where it won't be sloppy in tacos, and the pork is tender.
Check for seasoning. Likely you will not need to add salt, but if you used homemade beef broth, you might.
Serve in corn tortillas with plenty of sweet onion and cilantro.

Spicy Cheese Biscuits

2011-04-02T09:19:00.002-04:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that in addition to bacon, some of the other recurring themes are: spicy and cheese. Lately, our spicy of choice has been sriracha. These biscuits are drop biscuits, which means no rolling or cutting or anything involved. All you need is a bowl, measuring utensils and a mixing spoon. Also, since you cook these atop parchment paper, you don't even have a baking sheet to scrub.

Now, some measurements you'll have to guesstimate. For example, I've never seen a 2/3 tsp measuring spoon. What I do is use a heaping 1/2 tsp, and it works just fine. Although this is baking and usually that means precision, in this recipe you have some wiggle room. For sour milk, simply measure out regular fresh milk and put in a splash of cider vinegar and let sit while you prepare everything else. I use gorgonzola crumbles, but any blue cheese will work. If you aren't a fan of blue cheese, then use an equal amount shredded gruyere, young provolone or young cheddar. In fact, if you want a simple and deliciously airy cheese biscuit, but aren't a fan of spicy, then just omit the sriracha, everything will be fine.

I usually make 4 biscuits for us two for either a snack or along with soup, and those are the proportions listed first in the recipe. I've put in parentheses proportions for making (8 -or- 12) biscuits.

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour (1 1/2 -or- 2 1/4)
1/2 tsp baking powder (1 -or- 1 1/2)
2/3 tsp sugar (1 1/3 -or- 2)
1/4 tsp baking soda (1/2 -or- 3/4)
1/3 tsp salt (2/3 -or- 1)
2 TBS cold unsalted butter (4 -or- 6)
2 ounces gorgonzola crumbles (4 -or- 6)
1/3 cup sour milk (2/3 -or- 1)
1 1/2 tsp sriracha (1 TBS -or- 1 1/2 TBS)

Process

Preheat oven to 450.
Stir together dry ingredients.
Cut butter into a few pieces, and using fingers cut the butter into the dry ingredients by smooshing the butter between your fingers and the dry ingredients. You want to achieve a pebbly texture, where there are still tiny pockets of butter. It is important that your butter be refrigerator cold when doing this step.
Stir in cheese
Whisk sriracha into sour milk, and pour into other ingredients.
Stir until just incorporated.
Drop onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet (or two sheets if making 8 or 12) in 4 (or 8 or 12) equal mounds.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until nicely browned and golden.
Cool on a rack for about 3-5 minutes before eating.

Mushroom and Farro Soup

2011-04-02T08:34:00.002-04:00

Sounds boring, right? Just a bowl of brown healthy things. And well, the reason there isn't a photo is that it looks like a bowl of brown healthy things. This is not a visually stunning soup, and I couldn't get a photo that made it look like anything but brown. But oh the flavor! This is a savory, mouthwatering, umami bomb. And healthy and simple to boot.

This recipe calls for beef stock/broth. I don't cook enough beef with bones or use beef broth/stock often enough to make cooking it at home a cost-effective measure. I used Swanson's low sodium beef stock (comes in the tall carton). I then used a a cup of water to cut it. However, if you have homemade beef stock that isn't too rich, just add a fourth cup of stock instead of the cup of water.

I used pearled farro, which cooks much faster than regular farro. But you can use either kind. If you use regular farro, extend simmering time to about 40 minutes, or what the package suggests for cooking time.

This soup pairs wonderfully with Spicy Blue Cheese Biscuits, the baking time of which is the same as the simmer time on the soup.

This serves four, but you can easily double the recipe.

Ingredients

1/3 cup dried porcini (they will sit loosely in the cup, use about 1/3 of a 1 ounce package)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white wine
2 TBS butter
1 onion (size of a baseball), diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 fat garlic cloves, minced
12 ounces white button mushrooms, rough chopped into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
1/2 TBS tomato paste
3 cups low sodium beef stock plus 1 cup water
1/3 cup pearled farro

Process

Bring 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup white wine to a boil. Pour over dried porcini and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
Melt butter in a 4 quart pot over medium heat.
Add onion and carrot and saute until onion becomes a little golden.
Add garlic and cook for about a minute, being careful not to brown it.
Add chopped button mushrooms, and cook, stirring regularly until most of the liquid is thrown from the mushrooms.
Meanwhile, drain the porcini mushrooms through a coffee filter (this removes any grit). Reserve soaking liquid and finely chop the porcini.
Push ingredients in pot to sides and add tomato paste into center of pot. Cook for a few minutes, to caramelize tomato paste, thus adding layers of flavor. Stir into other ingredients.
Add beef stock plus water and the reserved soaking liquid from the porcini and bring to a strong simmer.
Add pearled farro and porcini, and simmer strongly for about 15 minutes.

Chicken with Mustard and Mushrooms

2011-02-18T19:15:00.001-05:00

Invented this tonight, and we are two happy happy people having eaten it. Tangy and uplifting, with a brightness from fresh herbs, but grounded to the earth from the mushrooms...this dish has it all. It also has flexibility. Don't have dill? Use some thyme. Don't like dark meat? We like chicken thighs, but you can make this with whatever chicken parts you like, although if using breasts, you will likely need to lower the simmer time, and make sure they don't dry out. You could also cut up a whole chicken and multiply the sauce by 3, and make this for a crowd. For speed's sake I usually serve dishes like this over a quick cooking pasta (mini farfalle cook in 7 minutes), but you can serve this easily over rice or cous cous or quinoa, or...you see my point. By cooking a significant amount of mushrooms in the sauce, you also gain a vegetable serving without an extra pan or effort.

The important components to this dish, aside from buying quality chicken from a responsible source, are the choice of mustard, the choice of wine and using fresh herbs to finish the dish. The mustard I use is one of my favorite go-tos: Raye's Winter Garden. This is a stone ground brown mustard with dill, garlic and celery. To echo the dill, I used fresh dill as my finishing herb. If you use a dijon-style mustard, you might prefer thyme as your finishing herb. You have lots of flexibility here for flavor profiles. Also remember the rule about cooking with wine: If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it. Make sure you pick a dry wine, that you enjoy the taste of.

Serves 2 for a light dinner (easily multiplied, although back off on the water by half when multiplying)

Ingredients

2 large or 4 small chicken thighs, bone-in, skin on (or other chicken parts that you like)
flour
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
8 ounces white button mushrooms, quartered
1 large shallot, small dice
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 TBS brown or dijon mustard
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper
2 tsp chopped fresh dill (or thyme)

Process

Dredge chicken thighs in flour, and season with salt and pepper. Shake off excess flour.
Heat 1 TBS olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat.
Place chicken thighs in skillet, skin side down first, and brown deeply on both sides, and then set aside on a plate.
Add mushrooms to pan and cook until browned and all moisture is thrown off.
Add 1/2 TBS olive oil and shallot to pan, saute until shallot starts to soften.
Add wine, mustard and water to pan and scrape up any browned bits.
Return chicken to pan, skin side up, and bring sauce to a simmer.
Simmer for 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and sauce is reduced and thickened.
Serve over pasta, sprinkled with fresh dill.

Breakfast Tacos

2011-02-03T12:45:00.001-05:00

A few months ago we went out to breakfast at the Penny Cluse in Burlington, VT and I had some delightful breakfast tacos with chorizo. Matt also talked about how his favorite breakfast used to be a breakfast burrito, so I knew I had to step up and create something to appease us both. Breakfast tacos are a common dish these days, traditionally made with chorizo and served to staff in many restaurants around the country. But, chorizo made with good pork isn't cheap, and so not a frequent visitor to my pantry. But I always have quality bacon! There's only one slice of bacon per serving here, so this isn't an unhealthy dish. In fact, two tacos are less than 500 calories, with less than a third of those coming from fat. There's also lots of dietary fiber and protein. The reason I know this, is that the dish was so delicious the first time I made it, I saw it becoming a frequent visitor to our table, and I was curious if that would be wise. A little label reading, research, and math told me we could have this any time we wanted!

The trick to this dish is how to cook the eggs so they are creamy. No rubbery or crumbly eggs in this house! Whether you like your eggs on the dry side or the wet side, if you cook them over very very low heat, you will have creamy, fluffy, beautiful eggs. Eggs are mostly protein and if you cook a protein hot and fast, it will dry out too much and get tough. You want to cook eggs slowly, stirring regularly.

Although I've been making these for a few months, I hadn't considering blogging the recipe, until my sister asked me if the recipe was on the blog, because she wanted to make them. However, I didn't make these today, so no picture, but soon! Meanwhile, Allegra wanted the recipe and so you get it too! The recipe is easy to double or triple depending on how many people you have.

For two servings- two tacos each

Ingredients

2 slices thick cut bacon, cut into bite size pieces
3 eggs, beaten together well with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper
1/2 can drained and rinsed black beans (or other canned bean)
4 taco-sized tortillas (flour or corn)
0% greek yogurt
salsa

Process

In a small non-stick pan, cook bacon over medium heat until crispy. Remove from pan and place on a paper towel, leaving rendered fat in pan.
Lower the heat under the pan to the lowest level possible and add the eggs, stirring slowly and gently, but regularly to scramble the eggs and have them cook evenly.
Just before the eggs are done, stir in the beans, to heat through.
Heat the tacos in the microwave or regular oven until pliable.
Divide egg and bean mixture into tortillas, and sprinkle each one with 1/4 of the crisped bacon.
Serve with greek yogurt and salsa.

Spiced Lentils with Mushrooms and Chard

2011-01-29T12:54:00.002-05:00

The first time I made this dish I was deep in the throws of a nasty head cold, and it was a blessing since it didn't require any fancy knife work, and packed a good punch of sinus-clearing flavor. The recipe is from last month's Food and Wine, and the first time I made it, since my sense of taste wasn't picking up subtleties, I made the recipe as is. It was good, and Matt inhaled it (always a good sign!) but today I tweaked the recipe a bit, made it less watery, more focused in flavor by stepping things up a bit, and used white button mushrooms instead of shiitakes, because, well...they taste good and are a heck of a lot cheaper, especially when bought loose. This dish is insanely healthy, so if you want to eat a ton of it and turn the below recipe into 2 servings, knock yourself out.

Although it may seem like an optional condiment, the sriracha as a finishing touch really brings this dish together with a sweet, puckery spiciness. The picture is of my serving, so just a few dots of sriracha on mine, but Matt's looked like lattice work, with long lines of sriracha stretching across the bowl. The only wild card here in terms of how fast the meal is on the table, is how fast your lentils cook, which can vary depending on age. The older the lentils, the longer they take to cook. Also, if you have to entertain vegan people and non-vegan people simultaneously, this dish will make everyone happy. If you aren't entertaining vegan people, toss a poached or fried egg on top to gild the lily. If you aren't light eaters, definitely add the egg, and some nice bread on the side too. Maybe a rye with some sharp cheddar along with it...but I digress....

Serves 4 modest meal-sized servings (and makes great leftovers!)

Ingredients

1 cup green lentils
1 bay leaf
2 TBS olive oil
1 pound mushrooms (white button, shiitake, crimini or mixture) stems removed, caps sliced 1/4 inch thick
kosher salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
a few (and then a few again) grinds fresh ground black pepper
1 medium bunch chard (green or red or rainbow), stems and ribs removed, cut into ribbons
Sriracha

Process

Put lentils and bay leaf in small pot, cover with a couple inches of water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat very low and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. This will take 20 to 40 minutes, so start testing after 20 minutes so you don't overcook them.
Meanwhile, prep the mushrooms and chard (this is what makes the dish quick, if your lentils cooperate and cook quickly).
In your widest saute pan with sides, or big pot with a wide bottom, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.
Add the mushrooms, sprinkle on a couple big pinches of kosher salt, and cook, stirring regularly, until all the liquid is thrown from the mushrooms, and most, but not all liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are tender.
Add garlic and spices and cook for a minute or so, stirring.
Add chard ribbons, and stir into mushroom mixture, until wilted. (depending on how big your pan is, you may need to add the chard in handfuls, stir it down, then add another handful and so on).
Drain lentils, discard bay leaf, and add lentils to chard and mushroom mixture.
Serve with sriracha at the table.

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup with Roasted Garlic

2011-01-26T15:51:00.004-05:00

Are you craving a super silky incredibly flavorful soup? Something that welcomes you back in from shoveling the driveway from another snowstorm? Looking for a bright and cheery way to illuminate the long dark days of winter? I give you: Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup with Roasted Garlic. I love pureed vegetable soups that are healthy, full of intense flavor, and velvety, silky, or creamy (but without any cream!). Being winter, butternut squash soups are all over food blogs and magazines. Matt is crazy about sweet potatoes and I had some rosemary and sage leftover from yesterday's veal stew with mushrooms (a Marcella Hazan recipe) and a half a butternut squash from last week's crispy chicken with golden raisin and butternut squash compote from Food and Wine Magazine. I also still had one quart left of vegetable stock in the freezer, so this was a no-brainer today!

You will need:

6-8 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 TBS olive oil or butter (I prefer butter, but olive oil will work, and it is healthier!)
2 medium onions, diced (1 1/2 cups)
1 pound butternut squash (half of one medium squash), peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch dice
3 small/medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh sage, with two or three leaves
1 quart vegetable or chicken stock
freshly ground black pepper
kosher salt

What you will do:

Heat a cast iron or stainless steel skillet over medium heat.
Place garlic cloves in dry pan and pan roast, turning regularly, until cloves are soft and very fragrant, they will likely get a few black spots.
Remove garlic cloves from pan and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a heavy bottomed 4 qt pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
Add onion and a few pinches of salt, lower heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent.
Add squash and sweet potato to pot, and sweat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes
Add stock, rosemary and sage sprigs.
Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer soup for about 15 to 25 minutes, or until squash and sweet potato are very tender.
Remove pot from heat and remove rosemary and sage sprigs, discard.
Peel roasted garlic, removing any burned parts and tough stems.
Place garlic and soup into a food processor (you may need to do this in batches if your processor is less than 12 cups capacity, alternatively, use an immersion blender in your pot).
Process until silky smooth.
Season with black pepper and salt to taste, a couple grinds and a pinch at a time.

The Tuna Salad Sandwich

2011-01-24T13:39:00.002-05:00

I know, I know. What's so exciting about tuna salad? Well, usually, not a lot, but with this tuna salad, you'll be singing a new song! Modified from the filling for Roasted Pepper Tuna Rolls from Lidia Bastianich, this has fast become a favorite to make, even if I'm not making the pepper rolls.

In the past I've made tuna melts with a tuna salad including water packed tuna, celery, shallots and lemon juice. And I love the classic flavors in that, but THIS tuna salad needs no melty cheese to make you swoon. What mustard you use in this salad is very important, so pick wisely and select something multidimensional. I like to use Raye's Wintergarden Mustard, which has a touch of dill and garlic in a mellow, but flavorful medium brown mustard. While you are eating this tuna salad, it is soooo good, that you plan to make it again for lunch the next day, before you finish eating the sandwich in front of you. If you make a double batch, this keeps excellently in the fridge for a week, easily.

For two large sandwiches~

With a fork, mix together in order, until a few small chunks of tuna remain, but the salad is mostly uniform

1- 5 ounce can of oil-packed tuna, well drained and flaked into pieces
scant TBS capers, drained, rinsed, and finely chopped
1/2 TBS apple cider vinegar
2 TBS Mayonnaise
generous 1/2 TBS mustard
2 TBS chopped parsley
a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper

Serve up on a baguette or a ciabatta roll. Along with all his other bread recipes, I'm especially crazy about Jim Lahey's stecca recipe for sandwich bread, which is the nicely browned half-stick of "baguette" in the picture, sprinkled with a little Maine Sea Salt.

Mixed Chile Chicken Enchiladas

2011-01-21T17:22:00.003-05:00

The sauce used in these enchiladas has unfathomable depth. I'm talking rich layer upon rich layer, insane amounts of flavor. Using half New Mexico chiles and half Guajillo chiles, you arrive at a sauce bearing a bright, tip of the tongue, tantalizing introduction, followed up by a dark, eye-roll inducing, earthy, smoky relationship. The perfect sauce. The recipe is my slight modification of a Rick Bayless recipe. I knew I wanted to fill the enchiladas with chicken (tons of shredded chicken in the freezer!), but I had to kick up the chicken a touch, in order that it would stand up flavor-wise to this amazing, taste-bud party, extravaganza of a sauce. A little onion and cilantro with the chicken and cheese, and ecco, the perfect filling. These make great leftovers, so be sure to make the whole recipe, even if there are only a couple of you!

Makes 4 to 8 servings of 2 to 4 enchiladas each

For the sauce:
Ingredients

6 garlic cloves, skin on
2 ounces dried New Mexico Chiles, stemmed, seeded and cut open
2 ounces dried Guajillo Chiles, stemmed, seeded and cut open
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1/8 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 cups broth (preferably homemade, chicken or vegetable)
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Process

Heat a dry cast iron pan to medium heat, place garlic cloves in pan and dry toast for about 15 or 20 minutes, turning a few times, until soft, fragrant and blackened in spots. Set aside to cool, remove skins, and roughly chop.
Using same cast iron, toast chiles a couple seconds per side, pressing down with a potato masher, then add to a bowl of hot water. Continue toasting all chiles until done. Then let chiles sit in hot water for 30 minutes, and then drain chiles, discard liquid.
Put chiles, garlic, spices and 2/3 cup of broth into food processor (or blender). Process until you get a smooth puree (you'll have to scrape down the sides a few times).
With a rubber spatula, work puree through a size to remove any bits of skin or seeds.
In a medium or large heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium heat until a sprinkle of water sizzles.
Add puree and cook, stirring constantly for about 5- 10 minutes to let sauce cook and reduce (it will darken). Taste after 5 minutes, if raw taste of chile is gone, you're all set, if not, continue to cook.
Add remaining broth, set heat to low and simmer sauce for at least 30 minutes, until the consistency of cream soup. This will take 30 to 60 minutes, depending on your pot and your stove. If you've been simmering for 30 minutes and the sauce is too thick, add a little more broth.

For Enchiladas

Ingredients

One large onion, very thinly sliced
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 pound shredded chicken
2 TBS chopped cilantro (plus more for garnish)
1 pound monterey jack cheese, shredded (or grated on the large holes of a box grater)
16 taco-size tortillas (corn or flour)

Process

Heat oven to 350.
Heat olive oil over medium- high heat, add onion and salt. Drop heat to low
Cook onion slowly, until translucent, but still with a bit of texture.
Take pan off of heat.
Mix in chicken, cilantro and two-thirds of the cheese. Divide in half, and then those sections in half again, and then again and again. This way you can "eyeball" a 1/16 of the filling for each enchilada
In a baking dish, ladle enough sauce to lightly cover the bottom (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
Heat tortillas (in oven or microwave) until pliable.
Fill each tortilla with 1/16 of the mixture and roll tightly. Place seam side down in baking dish.
Continue with all tortillas and then cover with remaining sauce.
Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. (At this point, you can put enchiladas in the fridge to be baked off later in the day, or the following day).
Cover dish with aluminum foil, and place in oven for 30 minutes.
Remove foil and continue cooking for 10 minutes
Let enchiladas cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Sprinkle cilantro on top and serve.

Sweet Sriracha Wings

2011-01-16T18:14:00.000-05:00

Chicken wings were on sale at Whole Foods today, so I thought I'd buy some and surprise Matt with a fun dinner. We shared a pound and a half of wings for dinner. That's it. Probably should have eaten a salad too, but whatever...next time! I put together this recipe after a little research into other non-fried chicken wings. Matt said that the desired crispiness of fried wings was there, and I agreed. Matt (who is the champion kitchen cleaner around here) also liked something else about these wings other than the mind blowingly awesome flavor, crisp outside and juicy inside: super easy clean up! If you don't like my sauce suggestion below, you could always just toss the wings in some buffalo sauce and call it a day as well.

So, it is a little late to make these for today's big Pats game day, but since I'm sure they'll be playing next week...plan ahead accordingly! :)

The following recipe makes enough for two very hungry adults not eating anything else (except maybe a salad, to you know, balance things out).

For the wings:
Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds wings (if the wing is still attached to the drumstick, separate, although often you can buy wingettes and drumettes together, already separated)
2 TBS flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika (wow, I put this in everything these days!)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450
Put flour, salt, pepper and paprika in a large ziplock bag and shake to mix.
Add wings.
Close bag and shake to coat wings all over with seasoned flour.
Cover rimmed baking sheet with foil (this is the easy cleanup part!) and lightly oil with olive or vegetable oil
Place wings on foil-lined baking sheet, drizzle or spray a little oil atop each wing
Place in oven for 45 minutes until browned and crispy.
Turn wings at 30 minute mark and 15 minute mark.

For sauce:

Ingredients:

2 TBS unsalted butter, melted
2 TBS jalapeño jelly, melted (careful melting this in a microwave, it melts very quickly!!)
2 TBS Sriracha

To prepare wings to serve:

Combine sauce ingredients in a large bowl.
Add wings
Toss to coat wings in sauce
Consume whilst making mmmm noises and marveling that you don't have 3 quarts of oil to clean up, or a pan to scrub or anything more than washing a bowl and a couple plates....

Fried Pickles

2011-01-14T15:58:00.003-05:00

This is a favorite treat of Matt's and it only takes about 30 minutes to assemble and cook. And if you happen to be the proud owner of stylin' fry baskets (like we are thanks to my cousin Aurelia), you can also make this treat extra festive on a random day. If you happen to keep panko bread crumbs around your cabinet, this treat also can be made with what you have in your fridge and cabinets. For our fried pickles, I use pickles made by my mother; specifically, dill cucumber spear pickles and spicy dill bean pickles (the skinny ones in the photo are the dill beans). But you can use any pickles, preferably in a stick/spear/wedge shape. I've tried frying pickle chips, but the centers get soggy almost immediately after getting out of the oil. If you have whole cucumber pickles, just slice into spears or halves before frying. You can eat them plain (as I like to do) or dip them in your favorite dressing or dip (Matt dips them in blue cheese dip, quelle surprise).

The process is pretty simple. Line up 3 pie plates/cake pans, or similarly shaped vessels. In first vessel put seasoned flour (see below). In second vessel beat a couple eggs together until uniform. In third vessel, place panko bread crumbs.

First, blot off extra brine from pickles, but do not blot completely dry. Dredge pickles in flour, shake off excess flour. Coat pickles in beaten egg. Coat pickles in panko. Place on a plate to ready for frying.

Heat 1 1/2" of canola or peanut oil in a deep saute pan over medium heat. Using a deep fat or candy thermometer, heat oil to 350 degrees. Do not touch tip of thermometer to sides of bottom of pan when taking temperature reading, or your reading will be off. Gently place a few pickles into oil and fry for 30 to 60 seconds, using chopsticks to move pickles around and flip over if necessary. When they reach desired deep brown color, remove from oil with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels on a cooling rack placed over baking sheet. Only fry a few pickles (3 to 6 depending on size of pickles and size of pan) at a time, if you add too many, you will crowd the pan and the pickles won't cook properly. Since you aren't "cooking" the pickles, remove as soon as they are browned nicely, and they'll be perfect.

For the seasoned flour, mix together the following ingredients with a fork:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp ground chipotle

Masala Chickpea Stew with Bacon

2011-01-11T12:13:00.000-05:00

Invented this chickpea stew for lunch today. Most of the spices are Indian, so I'm calling it a masala. I only made enough for the two of us, in case we didn't like how it came out, and that was unwise. Below is what I'll make in the future to give us leftovers. This is the sort of dish that you know will taste ten times better the next day. You could leave the bacon out and make this vegetarian, but the dish leans toward the sweet side, so the smoky salty addition is nice. Also, unless you are a vegetarian, it is less than an ounce of bacon per serving, so that's not too unhealthy (or so I keep telling myself). I liked mine with a dollop of greek yogurt, Matt preferred his without. But don't forget the squeeze of lime!

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

3 ounces bacon, diced
1 large onion, chopped
2 small/medium carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/8" half moons
2 fat cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp ground chipotle
1 28-ounce can, diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted
2 TBS chopped cilantro
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
lime wedges, for finishing

Process

In a 4 qt. heavy bottomed sauce pan, render out bacon over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon and set aside.
Add onion and carrot to pot and cook over medium low heat, stirring regularly until onions start to brown and carrots start to soften.
Add spices and garlic, stir in pot for about a minute, toasting spices.
Deglaze pan with a few TBS of water.
Add can of tomatoes, including liquid.
Bring sauce to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and stir in cilantro
When sauce begins to thicken, add chickpeas.
Stirring regularly, continue simmering until most liquid is evaporated and chickpeas are warmed through
Sprinkle bacon over top, and serve with a squeeze of fresh lime.

Artichoke Tapenade

2011-01-07T10:17:00.003-05:00

Made from ingredients you probably have in your fridge and pantry, this tapenade is an impressive and easy appetizer to toss together. Inspired by a Mario Batali recipe, what I like about this tapenade, is the ease of ingredient access. Sure, you could seek out super fancy and expensive olives for this. And if you do, enjoy! The type of olive you choose for a tapenade certainly will make your tapenade different from another's. At some point, I might like to try to make this with picholines, a favorite green olive of mine. However, I have found that sourcing picholines can be tricky. I usually only see them as part of an olive medley, or they have already been seasoned a flavored beyond their sweet, slightly woody delicate flavor.

Anyways, the olives I used for this are your basic jarred green olives. I used Sicilian ones from Pastene, but look in that section of the grocery store and you'll see Sicilian, Queen, Manzanilla from various brands. All will work here and are very affordable. To pit the olives, use the heel of your palm to squish the olives hard, so that the flesh comes loose from the pit.

It is very important to squeeze the artichoke hearts to remove as much liquid as possible. Just put them in your fist and squeeze. Otherwise you will have soupy tapenade.

Ingredients- makes 2 cups of tapenade

1 can artichoke hearts, drained, then squeezed well of all excess liquid.
1 cup of pitted green olives
1/2 TBS capers, drained and rinsed very well
1 garlic clove, minced
juice of half a lemon
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
4-5 TBS extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Put all ingredients into food processor and buzz until mostly smooth
With food processor running, pour in olive oil slowly until desired tapenade texture is achieved

Serve on baguette toasts or water crackers. You can also take a few tablespoons and blend into softened goat cheese for a yummy fun spread.

Vegetable Stock

2011-01-07T09:44:00.000-05:00

I run out of homemade chicken stock very quickly. One batch of risotto, a couple soups and sauces, and poof! It's gone. Although I'll used boxed or canned stock when I run out, I don't really like to. I'd have to roast a chicken every week to get enough stock, especially in the winter when I'm making stews and soups and such. And since I only buy sustainable, humanely raised, not-cheap chicken, I only do roast a chicken about once, maybe twice a month in the very dark months of winter. Also, sometimes I cook for vegetarians, and having vegetable stock around for soups is needed, and every time I needed vegetable stock I would buy a box of it. Of which, the Imagine low sodium vegetable broth isn't bad. But it isn't cheap, and I thought I could probably make something better.

So, I needed an affordable, flavorful, robust stock that can stand in for chicken stock proudly. A vegetable stock that is not wimpy. The key to this is LOTS of ingredients, and most importantly, mushrooms. Mushrooms give a meat-y, earthy, umami flavor that gives the stock a good backbone (pun intended).

Instead of just throwing in big pieces of vegetables, you want to chop everything, and then brown the vegetables before adding the water. This process releases more flavor and makes a richer stock.

This will make two quarts of stock, but feel free to double the recipe. Basic guideline is 2 quarts of water to 1 quart of veggies.

Ingredients

1 cup celery hearts/ribs, chopped
Two small carrots, chopped
1 cup onions, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, quartered
3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp kosher salt
stems of one bunch of parsley
one bay leaf
5 or 6 whole peppercorns
5 or 6 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 quarts water

Directions

Drizzle a little olive in a medium or large heavy bottomed pot, heat over medium heat.
Add celery, carrots, onions, mushrooms and garlic to pot. Sprinkle with teaspoon of salt.
Saute over medium heat, stirring regularly, until vegetables soften, start to brown, and little bits are sticking to bottom of pot. This should take about 10 or 15 minutes. If medium heat on your stove is causing this to happen more quickly, lower the heat.
Add parsley, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and water.
Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer very gently for about an hour. Unlike stocks with bones, this stock does not like hours and hours of simmering. An hour will get you all flavor you're going to get.
Put into containers and store in the fridge for one week, or put into freezer.

Black Bean Soup in Five Minutes

2011-01-07T09:23:00.002-05:00

This is our new favorite soup. I got the idea from another food blog, and made it mine. One of the lovely things about the soup besides it's amazing flavor and texture is that if you pick the right salsa, you know exactly what you are eating. For two people, make the recipe below and serve with a salad and some bread or tortilla chips (my mom suggested quesadillas on the side, which is a great idea). Or double the recipe, have just a big bowl of soup each, leaving one serving for someone for lunch the next day.

Our preferred salsa is Green Mountain Gringo Salsa, the Roasted Chile kind. You can identify all the ingredients, there is nothing that isn't real food in GMG Salsa. We love it, and with the beans it is great.

You can use vegetable broth, chicken broth, or even water. Whatever you have around. I would use water only in a pinch, because you want the liquid to add flavor to the soup. I used homemade vegetable broth when I made it the other night, and will again tomorrow when I make this for company. (Yes! This soup is so delicious and pretty, it is company-worthy, and fun by putting out different garnishes to choose from.)

The garnishes are optional, and you have lots of options. I would do at least one garnish, even if it is just some cilantro, but none are necessary, this is a super flavorful soup.

Ingredients

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup salsa
3/4 to 1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Optional Garnishes

Shredded cheese (sharp cheddar is great)
Cilantro
Diced avocado
0% Greek yogurt
Crushed tortilla chips

Directions

Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender, start with 3/4 cup broth and add more if needed to reach desired soup consistency
Blend until smooth
Pour into pot and heat over medium heat
Eat

Pollo al Vin Cotto aka Winey Chicken

2010-12-07T08:29:00.002-05:00

For Thanksgiving I intended to roast a lovely capon. However, my butcher didn't come through and so I had to quickly rethink my plan within 48 hours. Luckily, the recipe I landed on was amazingly delicious, comforting, and somehow elegant and rustic simultaneously. I found the recipe for Pollo al Vin Cotto in a Mario Batali cookbook, and although I stayed mostly true to the ingredient list, I found Batali's instructions lacking, and so using the ingredients and basic method, I changed things up a bit. Also, I adapted the recipe to make it good for leftovers, and easy to prepare ahead. Instead of using a single cut up chicken as the original recipe called for, I used all chicken thighs, for we prefer dark meat and I happened to have a bunch in the freezer. This recipe served 5 people as part of a multi-course holiday meal, with leftovers for dinner for 2. This certainly isn't a quick weeknight dinner, and in the ingredient list may seem daunting, but for a special Sunday or holiday dinner, totally worth it. To make it easier, this is certainly a dish to do all of your prep in advance and have everything lined up and ready to go. As for making good leftovers, the sauce of course became more complex after a couple days.

Ingredients for vin cotto:

4 1/2 cups red wine (use something basic, but definitely drinkable)
1/2 cup honey
2 cinnamon sticks
3 cloves

To make vin cotto:

Combine ingredients in your big pot. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Stir occasionally until liquid is reduced to one cup. This will take over an hour of simmering. You can do this the day before to save time.

Ingredients for chicken and sauce:

3 1/2 pounds chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on, seasoned with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup vin cotto
olive oil
1 large onion, large dice
2 carrots, diced
1/2 cup green olives, chopped (large ones, packed in brine only)
3 generous TBS golden raisins
1 TBS capers, well rinsed, dried
1 generous TBS pine nuts, toasted
1 generous TBS almonds, blanched and toasted
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar

To make chicken and sauce:

In your big pot (heavy-bottomed, such as a dutch oven), heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
In batches, so as not to crowd the pan, brown the chicken thighs on both sides, do the skin-side first.
Put browned chicken aside.
Lower heat to low and add onion and carrot to pan. Cook, stirring regularly, until onion and carrot is caramelized, and browned all over.
Add 1/2 cup of the vin cotto and use it to deglaze the pan.
Return to chicken to the pot, nestled into the vin cotto, and cover pot. Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, until chicken thighs are cooked through. Then remove chicken again and set aside.
Add remaining vin cotto, raise heat, and reduce liquid by half.
Add olives, raisins, capers, pine nuts, and almonds. Stir to coat.
Dissolve sugar into the red wine vinegar, then add to sauce.
Raise heat and simmer hard to reduce sauce to a glaze.
Add lots of freshly ground black pepper, and taste sauce for balance, add salt if necessary, although it shouldn't be thanks to the capers and olives.
Remove skin from cooked chicken and place onto a baking sheet
Return skinless chicken to pot, covering each piece with glaze to coat and cover pot to keep warm.

Ingredients for finishing chicken:

cooked, buttered orzo (cooked from 10 oz. dry orzo)
chopped parsley
high quality extra virgin olive oil
red pepper flake

To finish the chicken for service:

In a 400 degree oven, roast chicken skin until crisp (about 5 or 10 minutes). Roughly chop, place in a small bowl to serve alongside chicken.
Spread buttered orzo on a large platter. Place chicken atop orzo.
Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with parsley and red pepper flake.

To prepare ahead:

After removing chicken skin, refrigerate.
After coating chicken thoroughly in glaze, pack tightly in an air-tight container.
Scrape glaze in a separate air-tight container.
When ready to serve, heat glaze and chicken together over very low heat, perhaps adding a TBS or so of water to rehydrate glaze.
Proceed with service preparation.

Roasted Squash, Spicy Chicken and Caramelized Onion Risotto

2010-11-15T06:42:00.000-05:00

I know the picture isn't beautiful, but I'm not a photographer, and risotto isn't exactly photogenic. But trust me, this is a powerhouse of taste! Sometimes piecing together a meal from the pantry and fridge is good enough, and although perhaps tasty, not going to be called back to the show again anytime soon. And then there are dishes that after a long day of working hard (me at work, Matt showing the yard and leaves who's boss), come together in such a way as to boggle the mind. This dish has just enough (but not too much) spicy heat to warm up on a fall day, the creamy comfort of risotto and the sweetness of roasted squash and caramelized onions.

I used a medium delicata squash for this, but use whatever squash you have and like. You can easily double or triple this dish of course, but as usual, my proportions are for two people. I'm going to presume, for purposes of efficiency, that you already know the process of making a basic risotto. If not, please see my Green Apple and Bacon Risotto for instructions.

Take your delicata squash and halve it lengthewise. Drizzle with oil, generously grind on black pepper, sprinkle on some kosher salt and generously sprinkle with dried thyme. Roast in a 425 oven for 20 minutes, or until tender. When cool enough to touch, remove skin and chop into 1/4" chunks

Take a 1/4 pound of boneless skinless chicken thighs and trim off any excess fat (this should be about two thighs of medium size). Season generously with Northwoods Fire Seasoning (or your personal favorite blend of hot peppers and herbs and salt). Pan cook over medium heat in a nonstick pan (don't bother adding any oil) until cooked through, about 10 minutes. When cool enough to touch, chop into 1/4" chunks.

I used more onion than usual in proportion to rice to increase the flavor presence of the onions. I used a medium onion (the size of a baseball), finely chopped to 2/3 cup of rice.

Start your risotto normally, melting butter and olive oil together, but instead of just sweating the onions until translucent, caramelize them. Do this slowly, you want golden brown onions, not black or burnt. When about half of the onions have a caramel color, proceed with toasting the rice, adding the white wine and cooking off, then adding chicken stock incrementally and stirring regularly. When the risotto is tender and creamy, turn off the heat and stir in the squash, the chicken and a 1/2 cup of grated grana padano cheese or parmigiano. For this risotto, due to the oil on the squash and the unctuousness of the chicken, I do not add butter at the end, only the cheese.

Sausage and Squash

2010-11-11T13:50:00.000-05:00

I got the idea for this from an article on Salon, that involved butternut squash. I had a beautiful delicata squash from my mother's garden, and a couple hot Italian sausages I took out of the freezer last night for today's lunch. This is insanely simply, and a perfect fall lunch for two (multiply appropriately for more!).

Ingredients:

2 large sausages
olive oil
1 Delicata Squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds and pulp removed, then cut into 1 1/2" slices, do not peel squash
pepper
kosher salt

Directions

Set oven to 425.
Put olive oil in an oven-proof pan and heat over medium low heat.
Prick sausages all over with a fork.
Slowly brown the sausages on all sides, letting the fat ooze out into the pan.
Remove sausages from pan, set aside.
Put squash pieces into pan, and cook over medium low heat a few minutes per side.
Grind a generous amount of fresh pepper over pieces, and a slight sprinkle of kosher salt.
Place sausages back in pan.
Put pan into oven for 15-20 minutes
Half way through cooking, flip squash and sausages, but if you forget, no big deal.

Serve with some high quality crusty bread.