When I googled sauerkraut flavors I got sauerkraut flatulence … a sign from God? I think so.

March 5th, 2010

At the farmer’s market last weekend, I tasted some raw cultured sauerkraut. The sauerkraut is made the traditional way by lacto-fermentation. In case you are wondering, lacto-fermentation happens when friendly bacteria turn the sugars and starches in the vegetable into lactic acid. The resulting product is preserved, develops a sour flavor and contains beneficial bacteria and added vitamins. And get this: most of the sauerkraut you can buy already made isn’t actually cultured—it’s just shredded cabbage that has been pickled in brine. So the stuff I’ve been eating all this time isn’t really sauerkraut. It’s cabbage pickles. The grocery store has been ripping me off for YEARS. I feel violated.

The farmer’s market vendor had several different flavors, which gave us the idea to make our own flavored kraut. I tried googling “sauerkraut flavors” for inspiration and this is what I got:

Needless to say, my HBO on demand doesn’t work right now and I can’t watch all of my new DVRed episodes of Big Love until I watch season 4 episode 6, but that’s not the point I was trying to make. And that point is: obviously, there is a lack of internet content on this particular subject (flavored sauerkraut, not the hopelessness that is Time Warner Cable … although it seems that lots of people want to know about sauerkraut flatulence). So we decided to wing it.

Taking our inspiration from the farmer’s market kraut, we decided to make traditional sauerkraut with caraway seeds, a lemon dill sauerkraut, kimchi and a spicy jalapeño sauerkraut—which Kelly lovingly labeled “Tex Ass.” Sweet isn’t it?

So off to the grocery store we went to collect our ingredients, including eight heads of cabbage. And thanks to our purchase of eight heads of cabbage, we have now been red flagged us as suspected bioterrorists. Well, maybe not, but you never know what you can get in trouble for in this day and age. When we came home, we got to work shredding cabbage and somewhere along the way I realized I had yet another head of cabbage in the refrigerator (who’s counting? that makes nine, y’all). So we threw it into the food processor. Even with the machine doing most of the manual work, it still took a lot of time to shred all that cabbage.

food processor with cabbage

The hardest working food processor in Austin.

And despite Buster’s best efforts to eat up all of the little pieces we dropped on the floor—because in his tiny chihuahua world, anything that falls onto the floor is most likely special and off limits, therefore he should eat it—when we finished shredding, there was cabbage everywhere.

And here’s a picture of the little angel for you to look at while we clean. Isn’t he precious? And chock full of fiber.

We threw the shredded pieces into my giant bowl from the restaurant supply.

bowl of cabbage

Even after adding sea salt and allowing the cabbage to shrink, it wouldn’t all fit in the bowl at once. There was a really good tip on the blog where we found our basic instructions—salt the cabbage until it tastes “pleasantly salty, like french fries.” Not everyone knows how much salt is enough salt for sauerkraut, but everybody knows what a french fry tastes like.

In a smaller bowl, we combined cabbage with flavoring agents and then stuffed each flavored batch into 1 quart canning jars.

The first bowl got the traditional treatment with a tablespoon or two of caraway seeds. We hit the second bowl with some fresh dill, lemon juice and lemon zest. The third bowl got Korean chili powder, green onions, shredded carrots, fresh garlic and ginger. Finally we mixed up our special Tex-Ass sauerkraut with some shredded carrots, green onions, cilantro, hot sauce, cumin, fresh jalapeno, lime juice and a generous pinch of sugar.

flavored sauerkraut in jars

We stuffed the jars and topped each one with a small narrow glass filled with water to press the cabbage down. It’s important that the cabbage stay submerged in juice as it’s fermenting. Cabbage that’s exposed to air is subject to spoiling.

Then we faced a problem… where the heck were we going to put all of these jars? Somewhere dark with a relatively cool and steady temperature. I emptied a cabinet in the hallway and we put them inside, draped with cheesecloth so dust wouldn’t get into the kraut.

Day 1

The cabbage is producing a definite odor. In fact, the odor is so definite, I was pretty sure we needed to get it out of the house before Shawn smelled it and put and end to our kitchen experiments. So we moved it to the garage into one of those giant coolers that is supposed to keep stuff cold while you’re camping for 7 days. Problem solved. It hadn’t even been 24 hours and the cabbage had already produced a significant amount of juice, and was even producing bubbles on its own. Sort of cool, sort of creepy.

Day 2

The smell is really strong. Good thing we put the jars outside. I was pleased to find that there wasn’t any mold floating on top of any of my jars of kraut. If you find mold, you’re supposed to remove it. The idea of nonchalantly removing mold from something I plan to eat later is sort of revolting. I checked the water levels of each jar making sure there was a good amount of brine on top. A few hadn’t produced enough to suit me, so I added a little salty water to them. From this point on, don’t add any more salty water. The water is going to evaporate some from the jars, but the salt will stay behind. So if you need to add more liquid, use fresh water only. I removed the glasses that were sitting on top, packed down the cabbage and replaced the glasses (after rinsing them and refilling them with fresh water). Then I put them back in the cooler.

Day 3

Everything is starting to smell more and more putrid pungent. Sorry y’all. I’m working on using more appetizing words in my posts.

So anyway, lots of smells going on in that cooler. Hopefully that means it’s working.

Day 4

Day 4 is a milestone. Once I tried to make sourdough starter. I cared for it lovingly for 3 days—stirring, feeding, talking to it softly. I kept it in a safe spot on top of my toaster oven. On day four, I decided to bake potatoes in that very toaster oven … at 400 degrees … for an hour. By the time I realized what happened it was too late. My precious little baby starter was dead. Cooked to a crisp. I never attempted another starter or anything else for that matter that requires careful tending and feeding. This is why I don’t grow plants—only dogs and cats—because plants can’t follow you around and go “Hey lady! I’m drying up! How about some water?”

You know if you are at all worried you will forget to check on your little kraut babies, you have got another think coming. Wait until you smell this. Forgetting to check on fermenting cabbage is like forgetting to feed your cat. Your cat will be up your ass chasing you all over the house as you drag yourself out of bed, yowling in your face up to the very moment that you serve his majesty’s breakfast. The sauerkraut is the same way. Every time you walk by, the smell will follow you … it doesn’t let you forget. So today, I added more fresh water to the jars to replace what had evaporated. And again, we wait.

Day 5

I don’t know what’s going on. The jars are practically bubbling over with what I hope is sauerkraut juice. And, maybe I’m just getting used to the smell, but it actually doesn’t smell all that bad to me anymore. Is that bad? Of course, it could smell like skunks and I would never know … because I can’t smell skunks. It’s my super power. Bear with me people! One more day and we will know how this story ends. And considering I have about 14 quarts of possibly skunky cabbage hanging out in my garage, I hope it ends well.

Then again having to actually eat 14 quarts of sauerkraut could be a disaster in itself. I’m probably not going to have many friends when this is all over.

Day 6

When I came home from work and got out of my car the whole garage reeked of sauerkraut. I opened the lid to the cooler to find that my little kraut babies were bubbling over even more. Our Tex Ass kraut was especially bubbly (that’s right … everything is bigger in Texas) one of them had what appeared to be mold on top. (Don’t worry y’all. The mold turned out to be an ugly green onion.) It kind of made me want to pass out so I demanded that Kelly come over to help me deal with it.

sauerkraut scum

After I let the garage air out it wasn’t so bad. I even worked up the nerve to taste one of the traditional ones. It was awesome. It tasted exactly the way I wanted it to taste. I boiled the lids to the jars (as a precaution … Shawn said I was being overcautious) and I screwed them on, storing them away in the fridge. Shawn wants me to mention that he was more than happy to provide me some space for the kraut in his beer fridge that I bought and that I also supply the electricity to. I would just like to take this moment to say, I am floored by his generosity.

kraut in the fridge

Anyway, I guess that’s about the end of flavored Saurkraut 101. Kelly is on the way over—I left the scummy jars for her to deal with. I’ll post an update later on how each of the flavors taste. We’re cooking some dogs to go with our kraut for dinner tonight.

*Update*

The sauerkraut was great with our hot dogs and beer brats. It was soured just enough and was still very crunchy, which we liked. We cooked some dogs and brats on the grill and then tossed them into a skillet with some Shiner Bock and caramelized onions. Then we served them on toasted buns with lots of kraut.

Later we cooked up some corned beef and made reubens with seedless rye, swiss cheese and kraut. They were pretty awesome.

The kimchi and traditional flavors were almost unanimously the favorites. We stirred some crushed, toasted sesame seeds and a little toasted sesame oil into the kimchi to give it some extra flavor (although, it would have been good without this addition).

The “TexAss” flavor was Shawn’s favorite (he is not a fan of caraway seeds or dill) and it was also the one that soured the least.

I would consider this batch of sauerkraut to be a big success and I would definitely make it again in smaller quantities.

Posted in budget recipes, gluten free, side dishes, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian | No Comments »

Homesick Texan Posole

February 26th, 2010

posole

I never really thought much about making posole until recently. Shawn told me he hates hominy, but of course prior to this, he had only ever eaten it out of a can. Canned hominy is a much different animal than dried. It has sort of a squeaky texture that hominy prepared from the dry state doesn’t have. I had a feeling that this “squeakiness” had something to do with his aversion to it.

For Christmas this year, I gave my parents a Rancho Gordo care package with a sampling of several kinds of their dried beans. When I placed the order, on a whim, I decided to get a couple of packages of their dried prepared hominy. I thought I would use it to make green posole, but then Homesick Texan posted this recipe so, I had to make it.

It was absolutely perfect—the pork fell apart into shreds and the broth was rich and delicious. Okay, so it was almost perfect—my hominy didn’t actually flower because I didn’t allow enough time for it to cook, so it was a little au dente and the kernels didn’t open up the way they should have. But this actually didn’t bother me a bit. I sort of enjoyed the chewiness of the underdone hominy. Next time I would add the dry, soaked hominy at the beginning with the other ingredients rather than waiting a couple of hours as the recipe suggests.

Oh, and by the way, Shawn ate a healthy serving of posole. He said it was good and the hominy didn’t really bother him. Success!

Posted in budget recipes, main dishes, mexican, pork, soup | No Comments »

The Culinary Adventures of Kelly & Kristin: Part 2

February 22nd, 2010

Kristin and I share a culinary bond. Our best weekends are ones when we get to cook something exciting and delicious for people we love. As winter slips away from us here in Texas, we felt the need for one last decadent winter dish. (Did I say winter? I meant a couple weeks of cold disguised as winter to give us a break from our shorts and flip flops.) Deep in the shelves of Kristin’s bookcase is Sunday Suppers at Lucques and within those pages lies a gem of a recipe. Braised short ribs with potato purée, swiss chard and horseradish cream would be our Sunday, err Saturday Supper.

This recipe is simple to make, and will make your friends think you slaved all day over a hot stove when, in reality, the stove does all the work.

We began early that afternoon by searing off the ribs to brown perfection.

Brown Food, YUMMY!

Then you add your Mirepoix to the pan to caramelize in the rendered juices.

Carmelize

Then add your ribs back to the pan, add the liquid, put it all in the oven and forget about it for 3 hours.

Finished Product

(Well, in reality you can’t  forget. The smells will fill your home and make you so hungry, you send your husband and Shawn back to the store for snacks, and they will come home with your requests and 10 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Queso, jalapeno hummus and one too many cookies later, those ribs will be finished!)

Close Up

Braised Short Ribs

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table by Suzanne Goin

6 beef short ribs * we used about 12, we were feeding two country boys okay?

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon thyme leaves, and 4 whole sprigs thyme *we used dried only

1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper

3 dozen small pearl onions *if you are not thrilled by the thought of peeling 3 dozen small onions, a bag of frozen will do

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup diced onion

1/3 cup diced carrot

1/3 cup diced celery

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 cups port *

2 1/2 cups hearty red wine *

6 cups beef or veal stock *

4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley

2 bunches Swiss chard, cleaned, center ribs removed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

*Ladies and Gentlemen, Kristin and I believe that there is no reason one should waste a whole bottle of wine in this recipe. We used just over a cup of red wine, a little sugar, an extra glug of balsamic vinegar and only about 4 cups of veal broth. Even with 12 ribs we had plenty of cooking liquid to cover our ribs.

Horseradish Cream (recipe follows)

Potato Purée/Mashed Potatoes (recipe follows)

Season the short ribs with 1 tablespoon thyme and the cracked black pepper. use your hands to coat the meat well. Cover, and refrigerate overnight. (Whoops, we bought the meat the day of, and well didn’t read the directions before then either. It was still delicious)

Take the short ribs out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking, to come to room temperature. After 30 minutes, season them generously on all sides with salt.

When you take the ribs out of the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. (If you cheated and bought frozen already peeled pearl onions like we did, you can skip the 425 and go right to 325 degrees. Hey, if Ina Garten uses them, we will too!)

Toss the pearl onions with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon thyme, 3/4 teaspoons salt, and a pinch of pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet and roast them about 15 minutes, until tender. When they have cooled, slip off the skins with your fingers and set aside. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F.

When it’s time to cook the short ribs, heat a large Dutch oven over high heat for 3 minutes. Pour in 3 tablespoons olive oil, and wait a minute or two, until the pan is very hot and almost smoking. Place the short ribs in the pan, and sear until they are nicely browned on all three meaty sides. Depending on the size of your pan, you might have to sear the meat in batches. Do not crowd the meat or get lazy or rushed at this step; it will take at least 15 minutes. When the ribs are nicely browned, transfer them to a plate to rest.

Turn the heat down to medium, and add the onion, carrot, celery, thyme springs, and bay leaves. Stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up all the crusty bits in the pan. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables just begin to caramelize. Add the balsamic vinegar, port, and red wine. Turn the heat up to high, and reduce the liquid by half.

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Arrange ribs in the pot, lying flat, bones standing up, in one layer. Scrape any vegetables that have fallen on the ribs back into the liquid. The stock mixture should almost cover the ribs. Tuck the parsley sprigs in and around the meat. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and a tight-fitting lid if you have one. Braise in the oven for about 3 hours.

To check the meat for doneness, remove the lid and foil, being careful of the escaping steam, and piece a short rib with a paring knife. When the meat is done, it will yield easily to a knife. If it falls off the bone, don’t worry, that is a good thing!

We were so hungry, we skipped the following meat steps, and the dish was still a thing of perfection!

Let the ribs rest 10 minutes in their juices, and then transfer them to a baking sheet.

Turn the oven up to 400 degrees F.

Place the short ribs in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes to brown.

Strain the broth into a saucepan, pressing down on the vegetables with a ladle to extract all the juices. Skim the fat from the sauce (if you made these the day before, you will have already skimmed them) and, if the broth seems thin, reduce it over medium-high heat to thicken slightly. Taste for seasoning.

Heat a large saute pan over high heat for 2 minutes. Tear the Swiss chard into large pieces. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil to the pan, and stir in the cooked pearl onions. Add half the Swiss chard, and cook a minute or two, stirring the greens in the oil to help them wilt. Add a splash of water and the second half of the greens. Season with a heaping 1/4 teaspoon salt and a pinch of ground black pepper. Cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently, until the greens are tender.

Horseradish Cream

3/4 cup créme fraîche

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine the créme fraîche and horseradish in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Mashed Potatoes

2 pounds potatoes, scrubbed (We used Yukon Golds)

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick, 4 ounces), melted  (We used about half that amount)

1 cup half-and-half , warmed (We used mostly 2% milk with a splash of half and half)

1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

Ground black pepper

Chives for garnish (optional)

1. Place potatoes in large saucepan and cover with 1 inch water. Bring to boil over high heat; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until potatoes are tender (a paring knife can be slipped into and out of center of potatoes with very little resistance), 20 to 30 minutes. Drain.

2. Set food mill or ricer over now empty but still warm saucepan. Spear potato with dinner fork, then peel back skin with paring knife. Repeat with remaining potatoes. Working in batches, cut peeled potatoes into rough chunks and drop into hopper of food mill or ricer. Process or rice potatoes into saucepan.

3. Stir in butter with wooden spoon until incorporated; gently whisk in half-and-half, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Posted in beef dishes, main dishes | 1 Comment »

The Culinary Adventures of Kelly & Kristin: Part 1

February 21st, 2010

If you have been reading for a while, you might remember this post about my friend Kelly. Recently, Kelly, Jeff and their dogs Cash and Bella moved back to Austin. When I heard the news I was so excited, imagining all of the things we could cook together.

After a fun day out at Bella Vista Ranch in Wimberley with Jeff and Kelly, sampling wine and olive oil, we started to think about recipes we wanted to try. Just a few days prior, I had a conversation with Shawn that went approximately like this:

Me: If I cooked a cow tongue would you eat it?

Shawn: No.

Me: Why not? It’s just like stewed meat. You wouldn’t even try it?

Shawn: I’m not eating tongue.

Me: Not even in a taco?

Shawn: I detest organ meat.

Me: *sulking silently*

So you can only imagine my excitement when Kelly and Jeff mentioned that they had seen the recipe for Beef Tacos de Lengua on Simply Recipes and wanted to try it.

* Fast forward to Super Bowl weekend. *

Never did I imagine that I would be standing face to … uh … face with an actual cow tongue, about to plunge it into boiling water, so that I could cut it up and serve it to my guests at a Super Bowl party.

Cow tongue

Granted, when you serve tongue at your Super Bowl party, the only people who will actually show up are blood relatives, people who live at your house anyway, and the friends who helped you plan the party (Just kidding y’all. If you’re reading this and you didn’t come, I know your reasons were all valid and I completely understand).

But really, you should have seen the look on this woman’s face when I put this baby in my cart at our friendly neighborhood HEB. When you tell people you are cooking a cow tongue—and they go “eeewwww” and you laugh hysterically at their squeamishness and your ability to gross them out (or maybe that’s just me)—you don’t think about what it will actually be like to cook a cow tongue.

So Kelly and I pressure cooked the tongue following Elise’s instructions, cooking it for 1 hour in the pressure cooker instead of cooking it normally for 3 hours. About 20 minutes into cooking it started to smell pretty amazing.

Cooked tongue

An hour later, Kelly removed the tongue from the pot and I peeled it. Yes, I just said I peeled the tongue. Sounds gross, I know, but trust me, you have to get the little taste bud looking thingies off it. The skin was Buster’s favorite part. As I was dangling a piece in the air he snapped onto one end and we played tug of war for a minute until I realized the ridiculousness of fighting with the dog over tongue skin. Needless to say I let him have it.

After peeling the tongue, I sliced it. And at that point we put everything away until the next day. The final step was to brown the meat in oil, and that needed to be done at the last minute. When we went to clean the pots and pans and dispose of the, uh, tongue juice, the broth from cooking the tongue smelled so rich and delicious, we couldn’t bring ourselves to throw it away. Jeff suggested we make it into pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). So, into the pot went some star anise, cloves, a little cinnamon, a handful of coriander seeds and some charred ginger which simmered away while we had a cocktail … or two …

The next morning I warmed up the broth and added some fish sauce. Then I ladled it over bowls of cooked rice noodles, sliced sirloin, sliced onion, green onion and cilantro. YUM! I never would have guessed that a boneless piece of meat would make such a delicious broth.

Later that evening we got out the lengua and Kelly browned it in some oil so it looked like this:

Finished Lengua

Then, we waited anxiously for the guests to arrive. Bella could hardly contain her excitement.

Bella

Neither could Cash. Because he knows a thing or two about tongues.

Cash tongue

Unfortunately we didn’t get a good shot of the final tacos. We cubed the meat and cooked it with a few cans of Herdez salsa verde. You could use whatever salsa verde you like, or even make your own out of charred onions, garlic, jalapenos and tomatillos. The finished product was served inside of warm corn tortillas with a little chopped onion, cilantro, avocado and sliced radishes.

My mother even ate one, despite my dad trying to gross her out by describing the texture as “boingy.” But she was a really good sport. My mother won’t eat a hot dog, but she ate a tongue taco. And she only did it because her baby made it. Of course, Shawn stuck to his word and didn’t eat any. He smoked a pork shoulder roast instead. It was also delicious.

I don’t know that I would want to make beef tongue very often, but it’s really a very flavorful cut of meat and it’s one that is often overlooked. If you’ve never cooked lengua and you’re not squeamish about the idea of it, I encourage you to try it.

Posted in beef dishes, budget recipes, main dishes, mexican | 5 Comments »

Lobster Rolls

November 1st, 2009

I never buy lobsters. Alive is the only way to buy them, and very rarely are live lobsters available in Austin at a reasonable price. So when I saw them on sale for $5.99 a lb, I had to buy some. I snatched up four of the biggest lobsters they had, grabbed another four for my parents, and happily ran home to cook them up.

We ate two of the lobsters for dinner dipped in lemon butter and I chopped up the meat of the other two lobsters to make lobster rolls. I’m not going to give an exact recipe for this, because I don’t know exactly how much lobster meat I had, but this should get you started.

To make a lobster roll, you want to keep it really simple. First, dice the claw and tail meat. I think it’s good to leave the lobster in fairly big chunks so you know what you’re eating. Then dice up some celery. Celery is not the main ingredient, so add just enough to give it some crunch—maybe a rib or two. Then, add enough real mayonnaise (homemade would be great here, but NOT light mayo and definitely not miracle whip) to lightly coat the lobster and celery. Finish it off with some fresh lemon juice and maybe a touch of tabasco sauce. Taste and add salt and pepper if you like. Serve it on the best french bread roll you can find. You can toast the bread if that appeals to you and serve extra lemon wedges on the side.

If you are lucky like me and you are the only one in your household that is even remotely interested in eating a lobster roll, you can eat them for every meal until your lobster salad is gone. I think I was able to make five lobster rolls out of my lobster salad, which used the meat of two 3-4 lb lobsters.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Dad’s Perfect Crab Cakes

September 18th, 2009

Next to fresh steamed lobster, you would be hard pressed to find a dish I would rather eat than crab cakes. This recipe is based on some instructions that my dad gave me over the phone once when I asked him how he makes his “perfect” crab cakes. You could take this recipe any way you like, but personally I like it just the way it is—with just a few flavors added to enhance, but not overpower the crab meat.

I realize fresh crab meat is expensive, but served with a simple mayonnaise based sauce, a side salad and maybe a few wedge fries, a single crab cake makes a fairly decadent meal for one person. NOTE: There is no substitute for fresh crab meat. I wouldn’t even bother with this if you can only get it canned.

Dad’s Perfect Crab Cakes

1 lb of fresh lump or back fin crab meat, picked free of shells

1 large egg

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1 tablespoon roasted red pepper, minced

A few drops of Worcestershire sauce

3 saltine crackers, crushed

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Pinch of salt

8 saltine crackers, crushed

vegetable oil for pan frying

lemon wedges for garnish

1. In a medium bowl, combine the egg, mayonnaise, dijon mustard, roasted red peppers, Worcestershire sauce, 3 crushed saltine crackers, cayenne, white pepper and salt. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary (I realize it has raw egg in it, but I taste it anyway, egg and all).

2. Put the remaining 8 crushed crackers on a large plate. Place a large biscuit ring on top of the crackers and fill it with 1/6 of the crab meat. Press down gently to form the cake. Remove the ring and sprinkle the top of the crab cake with crumbs to coat. Set each crab cake aside until six cakes have been formed and coated with bread crumbs on both sides. Alternately, if you don’t have a biscuit ring, you could form the cakes by hand (make them smaller for appetizer-size portions).

3. Heat some vegetable oil or other neutral oil in a skillet over medium heat. Unless you have a large skillet you will probably need to cook the cakes three at a time. Cook them until the cracker crumbs are golden brown and the cakes are set. You can keep the first three cakes in a warm oven while you’re cooking the second batch.

4. Serve the crab cakes with lemon wedges and your sauce of mayonnaise based sauce.

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Posted in appetizers, main dishes, seafood | 3 Comments »

Daring Cooks: Rice with Mushrooms, Seafood and Artichokes

August 16th, 2009

Here it is, a few days late. For this month’s Daring Cook’s challenge Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes chose the dish Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes from renowned Spanish chef José Andrés.

Although I was very excited to try this dish, I found that I wasn’t ready for another paella-type dish so soon after making tomato paella a few weeks go. I considered skipping the challenge all together, but I’m glad that I didn’t.

I have never cooked with cuttlefish. In fact, I didn’t know people ate them. When I was younger and had a parakeet I used to give him a cuttlefish bone in his cage and he would peck at it (for calcium I think). It turns out cuttlefish is similar to squid. I could have substituted squid for cuttlefish, but Shawn isn’t really a fan of un-fried squid, so I chose mussels instead. Because mussels cook very quickly, I added them at the end of cooking when there was still a bit of liquid left in the rice. I spread them over the top of the rice and steamed them with the lid on the pan for about 8 minutes.

I made the recipe with turmeric instead of saffron, portobello mushrooms, frozen artichoke hearts and I threw in some piquillo peppers for color. I also used canned tomatoes instead of fresh for the sofregit for several reasons: 1. My tomato plants haven’t produced anything worth mentioning for at least a month. Something to do with it being too hot here for the blooms to set; 2. I didn’t make it to the farmer’s market again this week because I had to go put a new battery in my car on Saturday morning; 3. I have been wary of most fresh tomatoes from the supermarket after being traumatized by this horrible story.

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes
From Chef José Andrés’ TV show “Made In Spain” via Olga for Daring Cooks

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Equipment:

1 Chopping Board

1 knife

1 medium saucepan

1 Paella pan (30 cm/11” is enough for 4 people. If not available, you may use a simple pan that size)

1 Saucepan

Ingredients (serves 4):

4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or freezed if fresh are not available)

12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)

1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)

1 glass of white wine

2 Cuttlefish (you can use freezed cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)

“Sofregit” (see recipe below)

300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person ( ½ cup per person) Please read this for more info on suitable rices.

Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)

Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)

Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) – optional

Directions:

  1. Cut the cuttlefish in little strips.
  2. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan.
  3. If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights.
  4. Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths.
  5. Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.
  6. Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes.
  7. Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish.
  8. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.
  9. Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.
  10. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.
  11. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.
  12. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”)
  13. Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Sofregit
(A well cooked and fragrant sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions, and may at times different vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms.)

Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped

2 small onions, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped (optional)

4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)

1 Bay leaf

Salt

Touch of ground cumin

Touch of dried oregano

Directions:

  1. Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.
  2. Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)

Allioli is the optional part of the recipe. You must choose one of the two recipes given, even though I highly recommend you to try traditional one. Allioli is served together with the rice and it gives a very nice taste

Allioli (Traditional recipe)

Cooking time: 20 min aprox.

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, peeled

Pinch of salt

Fresh lemon juice (some drops)

Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Directions:

  1. Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.
  2. Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)
  3. Add the lemon juice to the garlic.
  4. Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.
  5. Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.
  6. Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

José’s tips for traditional recipe: It’s hard to think that, when you start crushing the garlic, it will ever turn into something as dense and smooth as allioli. But don’t give up. It’s worth the extra time and effort to see the oil and garlic come together before your eyes. Just make sure you’re adding the olive oil slowly, drop by drop. Keep moving the pestle around the mortar in a circular motion and keep dreaming of the thick, creamy sauce at the end of it all.

Allioli a la moderna (Modern recipe)

Cooking time: 3-4 minutes

Ingredients:

1 small egg

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (as above, Spanish oil is highly recommended)

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 Tbs. Spanish Sherry vinegar or lemon juice (if Sherry vinegar is not available, use can use cider or white vinegar)

Salt to taste

Directions:

  1. Break the egg into a mixing bowl.
  2. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the garlic cloves, along with the vinegar or lemon juice.
  3. Using a hand blender, start mixing at high speed until the garlic is fully pureed into a loose paste.
  4. Little by little, add what’s left of the olive oil as you continue blending.
  5. If the mixture appears too thick as you begin pouring the oil, add 1 teaspoon of water to loosen the sauce.
  6. Continue adding the oil and blending until you have a rich, creamy allioli.
  7. The sauce will be a lovely yellow color.
  8. Add salt to taste.

José’s tips for modern recipe:
(1) If you do not have access to a hand blender, you can use a hand mixer (the kind with the two beaters) or a food processor. If you use a food processor, you must double the recipe or the amount will be too little for the blades to catch and emulsify.
(2) What happens if the oil and egg separate? Don’t throw it out. You can do two things. One is to whisk it and use it as a side sauce for a fish or vegetable. But if you want to rescue the allioli, take 1 tablespoon of lukewarm water in another beaker and start adding to the mix little by little. Blend it again until you create the creamy sauce you wanted.

Olga’s Tips:
(1) In Spain, rice is not stired as often as it is when cooking Italian risotto. You must stir it once or twice maximum. This tip is valid for all Spanish rice dishes like paella, arròs negre, arròs a banda…
(2) When cooking the alternative style you can change the cuttlefish or squid for diced potato.
(3) If you can’t find cuttlefish or squid, or you’re not able to eat them because of allergies, you can try to substitute them for chicken or vegetables at your choice.
(4) Sofregit can be done in advance. You can keep it in the fridge or even freeze it.
(5) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(6) To watch how Jose Andres cooks this dish click here.
(7) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(8) To tone down the taste when you do it by hand in a mortar, then add an egg yolk. If you want to tone it down in the alternative way use milk or soy milk. Anyway, the best alternative way is the original oil and garlic alone.
(9) Allioli must be consumed during the preparation day and preserved in the fridge before using it.
(10) For help on conversion on metric to imperial, visit this page.

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Healthy Summer Squash Gratin Recipe

July 31st, 2009

I am in love with squash. All kinds of squash. But especially the summer variety. It wasn’t that many years ago that I proclaimed that I could never be vegetarian because I don’t like vegetables. Obviously, that’s no longer the case, but for some reason squash was always different. My memaw used to boil it until it was soft, mash it up and melt cheese over the top. To me, this was comfort food at its finest.

Now, when summer rolls around, yellow squash and zucchini play second fiddle only to the homegrown tomato. Since it came into season this year, I have made it every way imaginable. I’ve made grilled squash, mashed squash, baked squash, two kinds of squash pasta, squash pizza and squash quiche. I’ve even eaten squash in a taco. I have tried every semi-healthy squash recipe I run across, mostly to distract myself from wanting to prepare it this way. And I’m telling you right now, I’m about to give in. Dear lord sweet baby jesus, please save me because I can’t stop thinking about all that cheese.

So in an attempt to further distract myself with another semi-healthy squash preparation, I give you this delicious summer squash gratin, inspired by 101 Cookbooks. The squash comes out light and herby and gets a little bit of crispiness and tanginess from a topping of whole wheat bread crumbs and feta cheese. It was so good, it almost made me forget about that other squash.

Summer Squash Gratin Recipe

1 1/2 lbs of summer squash (yellow squash, or zucchini or both)

1/2 lb of yukon gold potatoes

Herb Mix:

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1/4 cup minced fresh oregano

zest of one lemon

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

Topping:

2 slices 100% whole wheat bread

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt to taste

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Slice the squash into 1/6 inch rounds. Slice the potatoes into 1/8 inch rounds (a mandoline is helpful for these steps). If you can’t cut the potatoes that thin, saute the slices in some olive oil for a minute or two before tossing them with the squash. Since the squash cooks more quickly than the potatoes, the idea is to ensure that the potatoes get thoroughly cooked in the oven.

3. In a large bowl combine the ingredients for the herb mix. Add the squash and potatoes and toss well to ensure that the slices are well coated with oil.

4. Place the bread slices in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to create coarse crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a small bowl and use your fingers to combine them with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt.

5. Pour the mixture into an 8 x 8 glass casserole dish and top with the crumbled feta cheese and bread crumbs. Bake 50 minutes. The topping should be browned and there should be little to no liquid from the squash visible in the bottom of the pan.

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Posted in budget recipes, mediterranean, side dishes, vegetables, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

Daring Bakers: Milano Cookies

July 27th, 2009

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

This was my first month with Daring Bakers and I was pretty excited about it. Nicole gave us the option to make one or both of the cookies. And I know it’s not very daring of me, but I decided to just make the milano cookies. You see, it’s been reaching temperatures of 105 degrees here lately and I had visions of being in a hot kitchen covered in marshmallow goo and freaking out over the ganache coating, which I knew would never set in this heat. Maybe I’ll try in December.

I would normally shy away from a cookie recipe that requires me to get out a pastry bag, but this one was surprisingly easy. The recipe worked perfectly, and I was able to store the cookies in the refrigerator, to make sure the ganache filling would solidify. And although mint milanos are my favorite, I was very pleased with the lemon and orange flavors in these cookies.

The key to being able to get the cookies off the pan is using parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. I also think I undercooked them a little. They should have been crispy and some of them were slightly chewy. Next time I will leave them in a minute or two longer. We served these for dessert at my dad’s 60th birthday dinner with some sweet cream ice cream from Amy’s and they were a hit. Shawn also took a few to share with a woman he works with because Milano cookies are her favorite. I’ve been informed that her husband tried them and liked them so much that he is planning try the recipe himself.

Milan Cookies
 Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies

12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar

7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon extract

1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour

Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 orange, zested

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.

2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.

3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.

4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.

5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.

6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.

7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.

8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).

9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.

10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

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Posted in baking, desserts | 1 Comment »

Keep it Simple Stupid: Tomato Paella

July 26th, 2009

I’ve always been one of those people that has trouble keeping things simple. For special occasion meals I tend to go overboard, choosing recipes that have 25 hard-to-find ingredients and take several days to prepare. The dishes almost always come out great, but sometimes they feel contrived and I’m left too pooped to enjoy the fruits of my labor. But occasionally, I will run across a recipe like this Tomato Paella and I am reminded that sometimes the best dishes are the ones that take little time and allow a few good ingredients to shine through.

I’ve had this recipe stored away for months, waiting for the moment that I had a few extra homegrown tomatoes to use up. When that day finally came last week, I pulled it out and realized I didn’t have any saffron. I had been meaning to order some from here, but there was no way my tomatoes would last that long. So I skipped it, subbing some tumeric instead, and I didn’t miss it.

The only other change I made to the recipe was that I cut the rice in half, thinking that two cups of rice would be too much for just the two of us. In retrospect, I could have eaten the entire full recipe by myself, but it would have taken weeks for my waistline to forgive me.

Tomato Paella
Adapted from Mark Bittman. This recipe depends on good quality tomatoes, so use the best-tasting tomatoes you can find. I would not try making it with those pink, mealy off-season atrocities from the grocery store.

1 3/4 cups water

1 1/2 pounds good-tasting tomatoes, cored and sliced into thick wedges

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 of a medium onion, diced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon sweet smoked spanish paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric

1 cup short-grain rice, such as arborio

chopped parsley for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Toss tomato wedges with a pinch of salt and a generous grinding of pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and set aside.

3. Warm 1/8 cup of olive oil in a medium-sized oven-proof skillet. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the garlic, paprika, tumeric and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and cook two minutes more. Add the tomato paste and cook a minute more.

4. Add the rice to the skillet and cook, stirring until shiny and slightly toasted, a minute or two. Add the water and bring to a simmer as you arrange the tomato slices on top of the rice and drizzle the tomato juices over the pan.

5. Put the skillet into the preheated oven and bake 15 minutes. The tomato skins should be wrinkled and the rice should be browned and crispy around the edges. If you like crispy rice on the bottom, put the skillet over high heat for a few minutes to allow a crust to form. Garnish with the parsley and serve.

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Posted in budget recipes, main dishes, spanish, vegetarian | 1 Comment »

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