Chicken Two Ways

This weekend was Battle Chicken at the Raihala household. Susan bought a smallish roaster, and also not quite 2 pounds of chicken breasts. How to create two totally different meals out of the same meat? Hmmm…

Almost immediately, I decided I was going to do a riff on a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, “French Farmhouse Cookbook” by Susan Loomis. If you are new to French cooking, and want to give it a go, get yourself this cookbook. I have used it more than any other cookbook I own in the last 5 years or so. It is absolutely wonderful.

My plan was to make a simple pizza crust dough, and wrap the whole chicken in it, along with sautéed leeks on the bottom, and bacon on top to provide some more flavor for the bread wrapping. I made the pizza dough and got it rising, and then I started the chicken by browning it in a large sauce pan in a bit of olive oil to render some of the fat and to brown the skin. I chopped 4 leeks and got those sautéing in olive oil as well.

When the pizza dough was ready after a rise of about 2 hours, I took it out of the bowl and rolled it out big enough to wrap around the whole chicken. I put the leeks on the dough, and then placed the chicken on the leeks. I put the bacon on the breast of the chicken, and then pulled the dough around the chicken and sealed it. I was really proud of how it was looking, and took some pictures. Then everything went south on me in a big way.

I started to pick up the chicken to place it in a baking dish, and noticed to my horror that the dough was sticking steadfastly to the counter. I gently tried to pull the dough-wrapped chicken up, and instantly ripped the bottom off, with hot leeks spilling all over my counter. After some R-rated commentary on my part, I did my best to get my temper back in check, and threw the chicken in the pan, sans the bottom part of the dough. I pushed the dough and leeks on the counter top, and threw that on top of the chicken, and threw the whole thing into the oven.

I decided to throw myself into the accompanying salad. I had gotten some nice baby spinach at the grocery store, so I wanted to do something with that. I dry-toasted almonds, pecans, and walnuts until the almonds were turning a nice brown on the outside, and then threw them into my Cuisinart mini-prep and chopped them until they were not totally minced into sawdust, but a bit bigger. I put the nuts on the spinach, then whisked together some walnut oil and balsamic vinegar. I poured that on the salad, and then put on some parmesan cheese. The salad turned out quite nice, although I did get a bit carried away with the amount of nuts I put on the salads.

The chicken itself turned out pretty darn good, if not very pretty. The meat was super moist after having cooked inside the dough, and the bread surrounding the chicken was delectable, with flavors of leek, chicken, and bacon.

On Sunday, I needed to do something with the chicken breasts. I had decided I was going to do something Indianish with them…something spicy and creamy with rice. I put a chopped jalapeno, a bunch of cilantro (about a cup and a half), a bunch of mint (about ½ a cup), 3 garlic cloves, an inch of peeled ginger, ½ cup of almonds, and two roma tomatoes into my Cuisinart and pureed the whole mess. It looked a lot like pesto, so I added a cup of plain yogurt, and blended that until it was smooth.

I grabbed my biggest skillet, and begin sautéing the chicken breast (that I had cubed) in some butter. I let that cook for a while, and then added one large chopped onion, a pound of quartered little red potatoes, and one red pepper. I let that cook for a bit, and then added a can of coconut milk and the pureed sauce from the Cuisinart. I threw in 2 teaspoons of Vindaloo seasoning (from Penzeys) and let that simmer for a while. After about 20 minutes I tasted the sauce, which was a little bland, so tossed in some salt and another 2 teaspoons of the Vindaloo seasoning (I had intended on also using some Garam Masala, but a alas, I was out). I kept simmering that until the sauce thickened nicely, and then served it over rice with homemade naan.

It all turned out pretty good. Not too hot; just enough spice to keep it interesting, and nice creamy sauce to go with the rice. It wasn’t exactly what I was going for, but then, I’m not exactly sure what I was aiming at, anyway. Maybe some chopped tomatoes should have in with the onions and peppers. I was also thinking that perhaps just a hint of ancho or chipotle chile powder could have given it a hint of smoke and spice; a little Indian-Southwestern fusion. Maybe next time….

Battle: Cooking Light!

So, last Sunday, I decided I’d cook something light, since I’m normally a bit heavy-handed when it comes to oil, butter, and fat, and I was already making a fairly heavy dish with pork on Saturday night. I figured I’d do something with fish…some nice light filets. While at the grocery story some nice catfish filets caught my eye…yes, that will do, I thought. Maybe my spicy sweet potatoes would go nicely…and a spicy pecan topping on the catfish…yes, that would do the trick…it was all coming together nicely.

I sautéed the sweet potatoes in butter, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, and ancho chile powder, with a hit of sea salt. I fried the pecan topping in butter and ancho chile powder. I sautéed the catfish in, you guessed, it butter. It was all incredible tasting, but even I felt a bit nasty after eating it. My wife sat back after the meal and proclaimed that I simply couldn’t cook “light,” that I was simply incapable. Here is the actual conversation, as she captured it in her blog, “Questioning My Intelligence” (the “me” being my wife Susan):

Me: George, you are incapable of cooking light.

George: Yes, I can!

Me: No, you can NOT.

George: Nonsense. You’re only saying that because I never have. Name that movie I’m paraphrasing.

Me: Princess Bride, of course. And that’s my point. You’ve never done it because you’re not capable.

George: I’ve just never tried to cook light. I’ve tried to cook delicious. Besides, beans and rice was my idea.

Me: That’s not cooking. That’s making rice, heating up canned beans, and mixing them together. The recipes you invent are never light. Besides, I’m always the one fixing beans and rice, not you.

George: I made light oatmeal cookies when we lived in Boise.

Me: Yes, I suppose you did. [Note: We left Boise in 2000.] But you are not capable of cooking a light meal.

George: You are trying to use reverse psychology on me. You’re challenging me.

Me: No. I truly believe you are simply incapable of cooking light.

George: I made you a delicious salad a few months back.

Me: It was wilted with bacon fat, had a pound of crumbled bacon on it, and an egg fried in bacon fat. NOT light.

George: You are evil. I’m going to make you eat turkey. Next weekend, you’re eating light. I don’t know how, but I’m going to do it.

Me: No, you won’t.

George: Yes, I will. How many meals have to be light? Just one? Surely just one. One would prove you wrong.

Me: True. But you can’t do it.

George: Yes, I will. But just once, to prove you wrong.

And so the challenge was on. I, of course, was not about to take this sitting down. I would make her eat crow if I had to boil a chicken breast and serve it plain over white rice. But, the key was to make something delicious and light at the same time.

I hit upon the idea of grilling or broiling some chicken breasts, making a mole sauce, and serving the chicken over rice, with slices of fresh avocado and tomatoes on top. The only problem was, I had no real idea how to make a mole sauce. So I grabbed Mark Bittman’s “The Best Recipes in the World,” and looked up chicken with mole. Turned out he has two recipes, one with a mole sauce made with chocolate and pepitas, and another with just almonds. Hmmm….I wanted to use chocolate to make my sauce rich, yet light (if I could), but the almonds sounded really good, too.

I decided to make a hybrid of the two recipes. It turned out my wife had bought some chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, I thought, so still good for “light”), but I got a couple more packages since the recipe called for a 3-4 pound chicken. I browned the chicken thighs in olive oil, and then sautéed onion, garlic, and cilantro in the left over oil and chicken fat. My wife had suggested removing the skin from the chicken thighs, but in my heart I knew that the skin would add some nice depth of flavor to the sauce. So much for lightness….sigh…my wife smirked knowingly.

After the onions had softened, I put the chicken back in the pot, and added some cinnamon, thyme, tomatoes, and chicken broth to cover. Meanwhile, I toasted a cup of blanched almonds, a chipotle chile, and two ancho chiles in a dry skillet. When those where nice and toasty (the almonds turning a light brown on the sides and chiles were making popping noises), I tossed those in the pot and let it all simmer for about 40 minutes. Once the chicken was nicely tender, I removed it and put the pot on highish heat to reduce the sauce a bit. I tossed in one ounce of unsweetened chocolate and let that melt, and let it reduce a bit more. Once the sauce was nicely thickened, I pulled out my hand mixer and pureed everything, and then tossed the chicken back in the pot. I served it over rice, with a touch of sour cream (light, natch), and it was, dare I say, fantastically good. But not light. Dang. Round one to Susan….I went for full flavor over light, and while I wasn’t too broken up about it since it had turned out so nice, I was still a bit annoyed that I hadn’t proven her wrong…I was capable of cooking light and delicious!

So, today, it was back to square one in the cooking light battle. For tonight, I had a nice lean piece of London Broil and some asparagus, so I decided to try and make a light stir fry. I sliced the beef really thin and trimmed all the fat, and marinated it in black bean garlic sauce, red garlic chile paste, sriracha sauce, teriyaki, and soy sauce. I let that sit for about 45 minutes while I got the rest of the dinner going.

I took two bunches of scallions, minced 5 cloves of garlic, and minced an inch and half piece of ginger (peeled and minced), and sautéed that in two tablespoons of oil (one each of canola and peanut), along with a couple pinches of red pepper flakes. I then took 1 bunch of asparagus (woody stems snapped off, and sliced into 2” pieces) and added it to the wok, and stir fried that until the asparagus was getting tender. I then added the meat mixture, and let that cook for a while.

After about 10 minutes, the meat had released a fair amount of moisture, so I added some pre-cooked linguini noodles to the wok, and added another tablespoon each of the black bean garlic sauce and the red garlic chile paste. I let that all simmer for about 20 minutes until the noodles were nice and hot and had absorbed the meat juices and the added sauce and paste.

To cut to the chase, it turned out quite nice, with the only fat added being the initial two tablespoons of oil (and that was for 1.5 pounds of meat and a bunch of asparagus). I didn’t think it would be enough, but it really was…it didn’t need any more oil at all. The end result was a very nice dish that wasn’t overly oily. I’m not sure I would characterize it as “light,” but it wasn’t fatty and it was very tasty. Susan declared that I was capable of cooking light, so round 2 went to me!

Green Pork Masala Korma

For Sunday's dinner, I decided to do something with an inexpensive pork roast.  I picked up a large Boston Butt, and as I wandered the aisles of my favorite grocery store, I started to think about an Indian dish I had made with cilantro, mint, and jalapeno.  That sounded good, so I grabbed those items, plus a couple cans of coconut milk.

On Sunday, I cubed the pork fairly large (2" cubes) and browned it in several batches.  Meanwhile, I took the mint, cilantro, 4 garlic cloves, a jalapeno, the juice from one lemon, and pureed that in my food processor.  After the meat was browned, I fried my spices:  Garam Masala, cardomom, cinnamon, and some Vindaloo powder.  Next came the pureed cilantro and mint mixture, and I sauteed that for a while.  I threw in the meat and the coconut milk, and then decided that a some nutty flavor would also be nice.  I washed the food processor, and then put in about a cup of cashews and a cup of plain yogurt.  I processed that, and threw it in the pot.

I let the pork simmer for a couple of hours, and made some Naan to go with the dinner.  I used a bit more yogurt than the recipe calls for, because I like the flavor of the Naan with the extra yogurt.  The dough was nice and soft, and rose nicely.  I changed tactics with my Naan this time, though, by deciding to cook it on a pre-heated stone (500F for 30 minutes) instead of on a buttered cookie sheet.  I also rolled it out a bit thinner than I normally do.

The pork masala korma was very nice...although I was hoping that the pork would have been a bit more tender than it was.  Maybe another hour would have made it spoon tender.  The naan turned out very nice, with a bit of crispiness that is normally not there.  The cashew/yogurt mixture gave it a nice nutty flavor that went well with the mint/cilantro/jalapeno puree. 

Battle Bell Pepper...and the winner is...the salad??!!

So, I hit my favorite market in Springboro, Ohio, and try to figure out what I'm cooking for the weekend.  I had pretty much decided that for Battle Bell Pepper I would make a couple of dishes...a pasta dish and a roasted red pepper coulis on some chicken, but then I thought about what I would cook on Sunday.  I decided to do a tart on Saturday, and cook something with more meat on Sunday. 

So, I headed to the meat department to see what they had for Sunday, and saw a beautiful Boston Butt roast.  I grabbed that, not really knowing what to do with it, and decided to go with a tart for Saturday night.  I had most of the ingredients I needed for the tart, but I realized that I needed something to go with it...a nice spinach salad, perhaps?

A spinach salad sounded good, but a wilted spinach salad sounded even better.  I went to the meat counter and got a 1/4 pound of bacon to go with it, with some other thoughts starting to coalesce about that salad. 

I got home, and sliced thin 1 1/2 large onions and 4 bell peppers.  I put those in a large skillet with a 1/8 cup olive oil, tossed the mixture to coat everything with the olive oil, and then covered to start the cooking process.  I also made the dough for the tart shell, and let that rest on the counter.  With that done, I let the onions and peppers cook until thoroughly caramelized, and then pre-baked the tart crust.

As the onions and peppers were cooking, I mixed together some ricotta, goat cheese, and parmesan cheese for coating the tart shell.  When the tart shell came out of the oven, I let it cool a bit, and then covered the tart with the cheese, and then put the onions and peppers on top of that.  I threw on some cubed pepperoni for some spiciness, sprinkled on some more parmesan cheese, and then covered the whole thing with another piece of pastry dough.  I popped that in the oven, and then turned to the salad.

I hard cooked some eggs, washed the spinach and chopped the bacon.  I popped the bacon into a skillet and let that start to cook and render the fat.  When the bacon was done, I turned down the heat, spooned out the bacon, and then threw in a handful of pecans.  I dusted those with some Chipotle chile powder, and let the pecans saute for a while.  Meanwhile, I took one other red pepper, and minced it. 

I filled some large pasta bowls with the spinach, and then poured the pecan and hot bacon fat on top.  I threw on some minced hard cooked egg, the minced red pepper, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  I tossed all that, and served it while it was nice and hot.

So, to make a long story short, Susan loved the salad.  It really was good...too good, really.  It was a meal in and of itself.  That salad along with a baguette and some really good butter would have been plenty for dinner.  But, I had worked hard on the tart, so I insisted that we have at least a bit of it.  I really liked it, but Susan was right...it was very dense and rich.  It would have been good by itself, but following a wilted spinach salad, it was just a little too much.

So there you have it....the salad that was little more than an afterthought turned out to be a bigger hit than the main course!

Battle Bell Peppers!

So this weekend, the secret ingredient for my challenge is:  Bell Peppers!  Susan got me 3 peppers, an orange, a red, and a yellow bell pepper.  The possibilities are endless, but already, I've got some ideas. 

I have always loved roasted bell peppers, so I'm thinking of roasting the red pepper, then putting it into the food processor with some garlic and olive oil, and making a sort of roasted pepper coulis.  I bet that would go great over some sauteed chicken thighs.  I could even put the coulis in the pan I cooked the chicken in, and make a nice pan sauce.  But what to do with the other peppers?  I'm betting those would be awesome cooked down with some onion in olive oil and oregano, until they were nicely caramelized, then served over pasta with ricotta and parmesan cheese.  Or, I could serve that over polenta.  There's also this recipe in Lynn Rosetta Kasper's "The Italian Country Table" that has this great recipe that I've always wanted to try involving braised peppers with pork and polenta.

Or, maybe I could caramelize the peppers and onions, then pile them on top of the ricotta cheese in a tart shell, and make a pepper tart. 

Dang, this is gonna be harder than I thought...

More tomorrow after I cook something.

Somedays, It Just All Goes Sideways...

Ever have one of those days in the kitchen where absolutely nothing goes right? I had one of those days today.

To be sure, I was very ambitious today...Susan wanted manicotti, and since that's a pretty simple dish to make (using this awesome recipe from Cook's Illustrated), I decided to get a little nutty and make some other stuff, too.

First, I decided to make bread. I set a sponge, although I knew I wouldn't have much time to let it sit. It was mainly an experiment to see if it would make much difference to my bread, so I mixed a cup of flour, a cup of water, 1/4 teaspoon of sugar, and one packet of rapid-rise yeast. I covered that with plastic wrap, and put it in the sun to sit for a while.

With that done, I headed to the store to get the stuff for manicotti. This is where things started to go awry. The Cook's Illustrated manicotti recipe calls for using no-boil lasagna noodles instead of tubes, which works out great...no trying to stuff tubes of slippery pasta, just slather some filling on a lasagna a noodle and roll it up. You let the no-boil noodles sit in almost boiling water for five minutes, then let them cool, and they are perfectly pliable and easy to use. However, the store didn't have the normal Barilla noodles, but these really thick noodles that said they were no-cook noodles. I grabbed 'em and headed for home.

I had also decided to make my own ricotta cheese instead of relying on store bought (although I did get an emergency backup tub of ricotta). Earlier this year I had made Indian Paneer cheese, and it had been pretty easy, so I figured it would be simple to make ricotta.

I got home and poured a gallon of milk into a large stockpot, and set it on medium high. I also juiced some lemons for curdling the milk at the appropriate time. I got the milk hot, and poured in the lemon juice, and stirred. And stirred. Nothing...no curds at all. Crap...is it too cool? I jacked the heat up. Seeing as how I needed to get my bread dough going, I asked Susan to help out while I mixed my sponge with some more flour and water. Susan stirred, and stirred, and started getting tiny little curds.

I finished up the bread dough and got that rising, and then back to the ricotta. What was only supposed to take 1-2 minutes was taking forever. Susan got the milk near boiling, and then stopped stirring. Now large curds started appearing. We poured the mixture into a cheese-cloth lined colander, and let it sit. The recipe said to just let it go for a minute to keep the ricotta creamy, but it looked really watery, so I turned my attention to other things.

Well, that was a mistake, because when I came back to it, it was really thick...much thicker than ricotta normally looks. I popped it into a container anyway, and slid it into the fridge to cool. With that, I needed to start going on the sauce and the noodles, and form the bread into loaves so it could rise. I got that done, and started preparing the sauce while Susan got going on the filling. I also got some water boiling to par-boil the lasagna noodles.

After my baking stone was nice and hot (500F for about 30 minutes), I slashed my nicely risen bread loaves and slide them into the hot oven. I tossed in a cup of water into the oven for some steam for a nice crust, and then turned back to the noodles. I poured the water into a baking dish, and then slide the noodles into it. The noodles were really thick, but I figured that since they were no-boil, they would be fine. I pulled a noodle out and laid it on a towel to dry a bit, and noticed that it felt stiff still. I tryed to roll it, and it snapped...not pliable at all. Crap. I let the noodles sit for a bit longer in the water, and then pulled one out. Now they were pliable, but when I bit into one, it was totally raw in the middle and inedible. Not good. I put a large stock pot full of water on the stove, and figured I would try and boil them a bit longer.

Susan started making the filling for the manicotti, and after checking out the store bought ricotta with the homemade stuff, decided that the homemade ricotta was just fine. It hadn't really gotten too thick after all, and really tasted better than the tub of ricotta from the store.

I figured it was time to check my bread by this time, and they were....turning black?? What the? Oh snap...the oven was still at 500F, not the 400F the bread should cook at. I quickly turned the oven down, and covered the bread with foil, and checked my watch. I decided to yank the bread out at the 30 minute mark, rather then the 40 minutes they normally take.

Back to the noodles...my water was boiling, so I figured I'd grab some noodles and boil them for a bit, around 2-3 minutes, just to make sure that they were edible. I grabbed some noodles, and...they were all stuck together after sitting in the water too long. Dang it!! OK, I was done with these stinkin' noodles. I started a new batch of water and asked Susan what she wanted...penne or farfalle. Instead of rolling up the filling, I was going to just mix the filling with the pasta in the baking dish, pour the sauce on top, and then cover with Parmesan.

Well, I had earlier pulled my bread, and let it cool a bit. Despite the temperature mix up, it looked pretty good. I sawed off a piece, buttered it, and gave it to Susan. I make myself a piece, and took a bite. I instantly realized something was not right...it was strangely bland. What on earth?? I had thought I would get more flavor from the sponge...what had gone wrong? I asked Susan...she agreed it was a little bland. I started going over in my head how I had made the dough, and that's when it hit me...no salt. I had never added salt to my dough. Adding a sprinkling of sea salt to the top helped, and added a nice crunch, but that was the last straw. I had been in the kitchen from 2:30 until 6:30, and nothing had gone right.

Fortunately, the farfallicotti turned out pretty good...it tasted just like manicotti, so dinner was still good despite the lasagna noodle debacle. Still pissed about the bread, though....

Weekend Challenge, Part #2

After making the calzones, it was on to Saturday. Susan had bought regular chicken thighs, not the boneless, skinless kind, but no matter; those are awesome, too. At first, I thought about cooking them in a bunch of liquid, and throwing rice in the pot with the chicken to cook, but that really didn't sound all that hot to me. So I started thinking about something with pasta instead.

I wanted to go simple, with few ingredients, so I heated up some olive oil in my La Crueset dutch oven, and browned the chicken thighs with plenty of salt and pepper. Once those were done, I added about 3 tablespoons of butter to the oil and let that cook and brown a little bit. To that I added 4 medium onions, chopped, and 2 red peppers, also chopped. I stirred to coat them in the oil/chicken fat/butter, and then put the lid on the pot. I cooked the onions and peppers until they were nicely caramelized, taking the lid off towards the end to reduce the liquid. I put the chicken thighs back in, and then added a 28-oz can of diced tomatoes. That didn't look like quite enough, so I threw in another 14-oz can. I let the simmer for about 3 hours, and then served it over penne with copious amounts of parmesan.

On Sunday, I had a smallish pork roast to contend with. I initially considered cubing the meat and braising with rice and beans in a southwesterny sort of way, but then it turned out that Susan had forgotten to get me any chiles. Plus, after braising the chicken, I kind of wanted something different. So, I took the pork roast (a 2.6 pound bone-in picnic roast), rubbed him all over with olive oil, and then salt and pepper, and let it sit out to come up to room temperature.

After a couple hours, I pre-heated my grill and threw the roast on high heat to sear it on all sides. As that was going, I started my potatoes. I took about a 1.5 lbs of red potatoes, diced them (about a 1 inch dice), and tossed them with olive oil and two cans of artichoke hearts in a large meat roasting pan. I slid that into a 350F degree oven.

Once the roast was seared nicely, I turned off the right side burner, and slid him over, intending to cook the roast over indirect heat, like I do with ribs. The roast was a bit fatty, and I didn't want flareups. Unfortunately, when I stuck in my instant read thermometer about 45 minutes later, I got nada. Since the potatoes were rapidly reaching readiness, I turned the right side burner back on, turned all the burners to med-low, and put the roast over direct heat.

Once the potatoes were fork tender, I liberally coated them in parmesan cheese, and slid them back into the oven. I took the roast off the grill, and let it rest while the potatoes were cooking. It had a very nice crust from the grill, and looked really good.

In the end, the roast turned out very flavorful, although there wasn't as much meat on it as I had thought. No matter, the left overs and bone are going to become part of some navy bean soup this week. The potatoes were good, although both Susan and I agreed that the artichoke hearts didn't really add anything. They tasted fine, but the potatoes would have been just as good without them. So, they are going to get combined with some ground lamb, sauteed with a bit of cinnamon and cumin, along with a can of diced tomatoes, and make some sort of Greekish/lambish potato thing.

This Weekend's Challenge...

So, this weekend brings a new challenge...instead of going to the store and buying all sorts of awesome ingredients to play with, I get to use just what we have on hand (within reason, of course...we needed some meat and a few staples). So, it's time to peer into the pantry and figure out what the heck I'm gonna do.

Tonight will be an easy layup. I have shredded mozzarella and tomato sauce left over from last weekend, so tonight I'm making homemade calzones, with my crust rising as we speak. Not sure about Saturday and Sunday, but I did notice we have a lot of canned beans...pintos and black beans, so I'll likely be doing something with those. We have plenty of pasta and rice, and some potatoes as well, so lots of stuff to play around with. Susan got the cheapest meat she could find, so I'll be working with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and a small pork picnic roast (at $2.49 a pound, no less!). So, we'll eat good, save some money, and clean out the pantry, all in one weekend!

Roast Chicken & Gnocchi; Homemade Pizza

So, this weekend, the one thing my wife really, really wanted was homemade gnocchi. Not sure why she was craving it, but when I asked her what she wanted me to cook for her this weekend, that was what she wanted. Always happy to oblige, I immediately started thinking about the possibilities.

The first thing that sprang to mind was a simple brown butter sauce with sage. I’ve never tried it before, but it always seemed like a surefire winner with the gnocchi. But that left open the question of what to serve with it…that alone really isn’t a main course. So I started thinking along the lines of a Bolognese sauce. Not an Americanized spaghetti sauce, mind you, but an authentic Bolognese sauce, starting with a mirepoix of celery, onions, and carrots, and slowly coaxing maximum flavor from ground pork, beef, and maybe veal or lamb. A real Bolognese has no oregano or garlic, or any of the other seasonings we typically associate with that sauce. Nor is it overly tomatoey…my favorite Bolognese sauce recipe is from Saveur magazine (number 110, April 2008), which is “Anna Nanni’s Ragu alla Bolognese.” It is fantastic, and has only 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. It is utterly sublime over homemade gnocchi. But I digress…

I floated the idea of the gnocchi with the Bolognese sauce with Susan, and got only a lukewarm response. Her tummy doesn’t respond well to too much rich foods, and I think she was hoping for something a bit less fatty. Hmmm…back to the drawing board for me. I thought of all the things that go great with gnocchi…fontina cheese, pesto, etc….and I figured they all would be a bit too rich for this weekend.

So I started thinking about chicken…perhaps roasting one, and having the gnocchi on the side. But what to do with the gnocchi? Then it hit me…why not pull the chicken out of the roasting pan, and then put the gnocchi into the drippings, toss, and then roast? And, perhaps throw some fresh sage leaves into the mix? Susan also wanted asparagus to go with her chicken, so I figured I could parboil the asparagus, blanch it, and then throw it into the gnocchi / chicken drippings mix, and roast until hot.

By the way...if you've never made gnocchi before, I'll let you in on a secret....never boil your potatoes....bake them instead. I once tried to quickly boil small chunks of potatoes, and ended up with water-soaked potatoes. There wasn't enough flour in the world to bind the mashed potatoes into a dough that I could roll into gnocchi...it all had to get tossed. Then I read a recipe that had you bake the potatoes, let them cool, peel them, mash them, and combine with flour...that worked way more better, and I've never looked back. So, never boil, always bake, and add just enough flour to bind the potatoes, and you will have wonderful gnocchi.

That is essentially what I did, and it turned out pretty darn good. Except for the sage…that was waaaaay too strong. Normally, when I use fresh sage when I roast a chicken, I throw it on quartered red potatoes, and let it cook the entire time…that way the flavor is milder and the leaves are crispy and good. This time, after only a few minutes of cooking, the sage was raw and overpowering…I found myself shoving them to the side of the plate (as did Susan, who is usually a fresh sage freak). The gnocchi, though, immersed in the chicken juices, was very flavorful. So next time, I’m going to forego the fresh sage, and just use the chicken drippings to flavor the gnocchi.

Tonight, we decided to do homemade pizza. I used my favorite recipe for the crust, from “The New Best Recipe,” from the folks who do “Cooks Illustrated” magazine. I threw the dough together in my Cuisinart, and let it rise in a warm oven for about an hour. I had a couple toppings in mind…a leek/onion/tomato mixture for Susan and I, and a straightforward cheese pizza for my son Nick. I had also promised Nick that he could help, so he was very excited about cooking with Dad.

After getting the pizza dough started, I cleaned and chopped the leeks and onions. I threw those into some hot olive oil with salt and fresh ground pepper, and let that caramelize. I got Nick started with a very simple tomato sauce for his cheese pizza…a single can of tomato sauce with another can of tomato sauce, combined with a bit of garlic salt, some summer savory (‘cause I was out of oregano!), some dried basil, and a hit of fresh ground pepper. Then I had Nick form his pizza crust (see the pics). We pre-baked the crust on a hot stone (heated at 500F for about 45 minutes), and after about 5 minutes, pulled it from the oven, sauced it and cheesed it, and then slid it back in to finish.

While Nick’s pizza was cooking, I got going on the other pizza. I formed it, and got it on my pizza peel, and stabbed it several times to keep it from puffing. When Nick’s pizza was done, I slide mine in, and decided to go chill out by the computer with a glass of Pinot Noir. I waltzed back into the kitchen, and almost had a heart attack…my pizza dough had puffed to almost 5 inches in height! Egads! I pulled it immediately, and attacked with a fork. Fortunately, I was able to deflate it without too many issues, and started topping it. I poured the leek and onion mixture over it, and then added sliced roma tomatoes. I covered those with parmesan cheese, then shredded mozzarella, and finally a handful of dried basil. I slid that into the oven, and cooked until the cheese started to brown a bit.

It turned out pretty good. The tomatoes could have been a tad thinner…the slices were a bit thick, but overall, the complete package was fairly tasty. Nick’s cheese pizza was really good…I threw on some parmesan on that as well, and the final product was really good. It all reminded me how easy and good homemade pizza can be.

Pork Chops, Potatoes & Apples, and Asparagus

As part of the "Iron Chef" gig for this weekend, my wife got some gorgeous thick cut, bone-in pork chops from our local butcher, Greg's Meats in Springboro, Ohio (yes, we have a local butcher, and the meat there is fantastic...its nice to have his shop as an option as opposed to just what they have in the local grocery stores). She had also gotten some potatoes and asparagus, and now it was up to me to come up with something.

Initially, I was just thinking about grilling the chops and roasting the potatoes, but that sounded sort of boring. As I was leafing through a "Food and Wine" magazine, I came across a recipe for an orange and herb marinated pork loin. Hmmm...that sounded pretty good. I had done a pork roast using orange juice as a marinade before, and it had turned out pretty good. So, I decided to go with that with the chops, and I decided to do something different with the potatoes as well. For some reason, the notion of combining apples with the potatoes kept coming back to me...I knew I had read about it somewhere, and the notion sounded intriquing. I mentioned it to Susan, but she sort of wrinkled her nose at the idea. That set me back a bit, but I was not to be put off. I googled "apples and potatoes" and came across several hits that combined those two unlikely pan-mates.

So, I grabbed a bowl and whisked together 1/4 cup olive oil, 1-2 cups of orange juice, 4 medium cloves of garlic (smashed through a garlic press), some dried parsely, 1 teaspon cumin, and salt and pepper. I put the 3 pork chops into a large zip-lock bag and poured the marinade in, and then set the bag on the counter. Now, it was off to the store to get the rest of what I needed.

I went to my local grocery store and got some apples, fresh rosemary, a nice Austrian Gruner Veltliner white wine, and some more beer (I was down to only 2 bottles...the horror!). When it was time to start cooking, I peeled,cored, and cubed 3 Granny Smith apples, and combined them with 1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes, which I had cubed rather small (about 1/4 inch dice). In a large sauce pan, I melted 3/4 stick of butter of medium heat, and when that was bubbling, I added the apples and potatoes. I tossed the mixture in the butter to make sure they were all coated, and then added 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary. I put the top on the sauce pan since I figured it would take a while to cook, and preheated my grill for the pork chops.

When it was time to put the pork chops on the grill, I pulled them out of the baggie, and poured the marinade into a small sauce pan, and turned the heat up to medium high, and then added 2 tablespoons of butter. I figured that the marinade would make a nice pan sauce after I had boiled and reduced it a tad.

With that I got the pork chops going on the grill, and then prepped my asparagus. I decided to do that simply....tossed with a bit of olive oil and salt and ground pepper. Once I flipped the pork chops, after about 5 minutes, I threw the asparagus on. I pulled the chops off the grill after they had been on about 12 minutes or so, and let them rest for about 10 minutes.

Everything turned out rather well. The apples cooked far faster than I had anticipated, even though I had cubed them at least twice as large as the potatoes. In the end, the apples pretty much disintegrated, coating the potatoes in an apple mush. As unappetizing as that sounds, it actually tasted pretty good, with the apples lending a distinctly tart, slightly sweet (I purposely used the Granny Smiths to avoid adding too much sweetness to what should be, in my mind, a savory dish) flavor to the buttery potatoes. The marinade reduced to a nice, rich, orangy sauce that I poured over the pork chops, which came of the grill at just the right moment. The only part that didn't turn out quite as I had planned was the asparagus, which was a bit cold. Next time I'll put the asparagus on while the pork is resting, as it doesn't take long to cook or cool down.

Southwestern Baked Pasta

Well, I did largely what I wrote yesterday. First, I did my chopping...I minced 4 cloves of garlic, 2 onions, 2 red peppers, and 2 jalapenos. I grabbed my trusty La Crueset dutch oven, and heated about 3 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat until it was shimmering. I put in the garlic and sauteed that until it was fragrant, and then put in the rest of the vegetables. I sauteed those until they were nice and caramelized, about 20 minutes, with a nice fond on the bottom of the pan. Then I started rummaging around the spice cabinet. I grabbed a small pyrex dish and put in 1 tablespoon of cumin, 1 tablespoon of ancho chile powder, 1 tablespoon chipotle chile powder (both from Penzey's), and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. I mixed those in the pyrex dish, pushed the vegetables aside, and dumped them into the pot. I fried the spices for a few minutes, and then added 1 lb burger and 2 chorizo sausages (with the skins removed). I broke up the meat with a wooden utensil, and once it was browned, I added 2 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes and one can of tomato sauce. Once that was in, I gave it a good stir, added 2 teaspoons of oregano, and turned the heat down to medium-low.

I let that simmer for a good hour, in order to let the sauce thicken a bit. In the interim, I cooked a box of farfalle pasta. Once that was done, I drained it and then put the pasta into my lasagna pan. I dumped the pot of sauce into the pan, and then stirred to combine. I minced a bunch of fresh cilantro, and sprinkled that over the top, and then spread two 8-oz packages of shredded colby-jack cheese over the top. I slide the pan into a pre-heated 400 degree oven, and baked for about 45 minutes (I pulled it out just as it appeared the cheese was starting to brown in spots, and the whole thing was bubbling).

I served it with a generous dollop of sour cream...it was really good. If I had to do it over again, I would probably just do one jalapeno...it was fairly hot. Not terribly so, but there was some definite heat. I might also be tempted to kick up the smoky flavor a bit by using a can of chipotles in adobo sauce rather than just rely on the spice. But all in all, it turned out pretty well. Hopefully, tonight's excursion with pork chops will be as good!

Ah, the Possibilities

So, on Friday morning, I told my wife I wanted to cook this weekend (as I do just about every weekend). I also told her I wanted to do the “IronChef” thing…she goes to the store and comes back with stuff that looks good to her. I have to make something out of it. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post what she got, and what I’m thinking so far with what she brought home. Here’s what Susan came home with:

Colby/Jack shredded cheese
1 lb burger
2 chorizo sausages
2 lbs thick cut pork chops
2 jalapenos
Cilantro
2 red peppers
Asparagus
Red potatoes
Yellow onions

I’m also allowed to use whatever we have in the pantry or fridge, which includes canned beans, pasta/noodles, rice, canned tomatoes, garlic, and canned chicken broth.

So, I’m thinking for tonight I’m going to utilize the burger and chorizo to make a baked southwestern pasta dish. Maybe sauté up some garlic, onions, peppers, and jalapenos in some olive oil, then add the burger and chorizo, brown that, and then add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes and simmer for an hour. Once that is reduced to a nice thick sauce, boil some pasta, mix it with the sauce, put in a baking dish, sprinkle some minced cilantro over the top, cover with the shredded Colby/jack cheese, and bake until the cheese is almost browning.

Not sure what to do the pork chops yet. Considering just grilling them and serving them with roasted asparagus and the potatoes, although I also saw a great recipe that involved marinating a pork loin with orange juice and garlic, and roasting. I also have this idea of pairing the potatoes with apples with grilled pork chops….

I’ll post tomorrow to let everyone know how things turned out.

A Southwestern, Chickeny, Tomatoey-Type Thing

So it was IronHomeCook time again in the Raihala household this weekend, and my wife presented me with her ingredient: Diced tomatoes with green chiles, two 14-oz cans worth. Hmmmm…immediately I began thinking of something southwestern…I mean tomatoes and green chiles? How could it be anything but?

However, my brain went completely to mush, and I just couldn’t think of anything. I was frozen with indecision or any clue as to how to proceed, so I made….pizza. That gave me another day to think about what to do with the tomatoes with green chiles. Not just any pizza, mind you, but with a homemade dough and excellent Boar’s Head pepperoni. I even made homemade tomato sauce (although I got carried away with the garlic and nearly made my beautiful pizza inedible).

The next day, I grabbed my cookbook, “The Feast of Santa Fe,” which has the bestest Indian Fry Bread recipe you’ve ever tasted, and started looking for inspiration. It started coming to me, and by and by I had an idea of where to start, and what to use. My wife had also purchased boneless, skinless chicken thighs (which I dearly love…they are cheap at $3.99/lb, and to my mind and taste buds, are far, far better than chicken breasts, which can dry out so easily, has less flavor, and is usually a lot more expensive), so I figured I would use those. I also had three dried ancho chiles (I think they were anchos, but then I’ve had them for a fairly long time) that needed to get used, and some good chile powders from Penzey’s, so I decided to just start with the chicken and move on from there.

I poured some olive oil into my trusty La Crueset dutch oven, and heated it over medium heat until it was shimmering. I dropped the first set of chicken thighs into the pot and browned them with salt and pepper, being careful with the heat so as not to burn the nice fond that was forming. It took four batches (Susan had bought three packs of thighs), and after it was all done I had a very nice fond on the bottom. I threw 4 minced cloves of garlic into the oil, and then thinking about some of the Indian recipes I’ve made, I decided to fry the spices with the garlic for a bit before adding anything else. I dumped in the three ancho chiles that I had stemmed, seeded, and ground in my Cuisinart Mini-Prep, a tablespoon of cumin, a tablespoon of more Ancho Chile powder from Penzey’s, and a ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. I added a bit more oil, and then started stirring. The spices combined with the fond on the bottom to form a rich, dark glaze. I threw in 2 chopped onions, and stirred them in with a bit more oil. I was thinking of adding a bit of liquid to deglaze the pan before the fond burned, but I wanted to sauté the onions, not boil them, so I turned the heat down a tad, and figured that the onions would release enough liquid to deglaze the pan anyway. That is exactly what happened, and after about 10 minutes I had deglazed the pan and browned the onions.

I dumped in the diced tomatoes, the browned chicken thighs, and a can of chicken broth so that the liquid covered the covered the chicken, and reduced to the heat to medium-low for a slow simmer. I let that cook for about an hour, and then added a pound or so of quartered red potatoes. I let that cook for another hour, and when the potatoes were fork tender, I decided to experiment a bit. I was thinking about mole sauces, and figured I was pretty close to one with what I had, so what would happen if I threw in some unsweetened chocolate to make my sauce even richer? However, it turned out we didn’t have any….phooey! But, Susan told me, we did have unsweetened cocoa powder…maybe that would work? Delighted, I grabbed the cocoa, and was considering how much to put in when I thought that perhaps I should try it out on a small bit of sauce before potentially ruining a fairly large amount of food with an ill-conceived idea.

I grabbed a small stainless steel bowl and ladled in some of the sauce. It smelled and tasted wonderful…the flavor was rich and deep. I threw in a teaspoon of cocoa, and….couldn’t taste a thing. I threw in more…still not really doing it for me, so I dropped in a large dollop and stirred like crazy. Eagerly, I raised a spoonful to my lips, and tasted. It was….nasty. Gack…I was overwhelmed with raw chocolate flavor. Clearly, I have a bit to learn about making mole sauce. I decided to not mess with an already good thing, and just served it as it was, being very glad that I had decided to try the cocoa on a small scale before hand.

Anyway, here is the recipe, which I am calling my Southwestern Chickeny Tomatoey-Type Thing, because I don’t know what else to call it.

3 to 3.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
3 dried ancho chiles
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon ancho or chipotle chile powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 onions, diced
Olive oil, as needed
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes with chiles
1 can chicken stock or broth
1 lb small red potatoes, quartered

-Brown the chicken in batches in the olive oil, sprinkling each batch with salt and freshly ground pepper
-Saute the garlic in the olive oil after the chicken for about 1 minute
-Fry all of the spices with the garlic in the oil…add another tablespoon if it looks too dry
-Add the onions; sauté until browned; use the released liquid from the onions to deglaze your pot
-Add the chicken back in and the tomatoes
-Add the can of chicken broth
-Simmer for approximately an hour; add the potatoes
-Simmer for another hour, or until the potatoes are fork tender and the sauce has reduced a bit
-Can garnish with cheese and sour cream, and also good with tortillas…but also just good as it is!

A Foul Ball and a Home Run

(Click on the picture for a larger version.)





This weekend I decided to try and cook a bit more frugally than I normally do. We have a grocery store here in the Dayton area called Dorothy Lane Markets, and they are wonderful. They have the best produce, great meats, wine, cheese…you name it, they have it, and good quality, too. Problem is, their prices are pretty exorbitant as well. I spent almost $100 a couple of weekends ago on three dinners. So, this weekend, I decided to try and cook Saturday, Sunday, and Monday dinners (with leftovers) for $50. I knew that in order to do so would require less expensive cuts of meat, and no expensive ingredients. So, no $20 a pound prosciutto or pancetta or Parmagiano Reggiano, no leg of lamb, and definitely no exotic ingredients like walnut oil (which is fantastic drizzled over greens with a fried egg, but I digress).

So, whilst in the shower Saturday after my bike ride, I started coming up with good but inexpensive food. I didn’t have a load of time to cook, so it couldn’t be slow food, either. For Saturday, I came up with a completely grilled dinner. This turned out quite nice. I butterflied a whole chicken, rubbed him all over with olive oil and salt and pepper, and threw him on the grill. Next, I did the same treatment to some red onion sliced thickly, cored and halved tomatoes, and a bunch asparagus (olive oil and salt and pepper is a fantastic, simple preparation for almost anything grilled). I timed everything so that the chicken came off first and rested for a bit, and then grabbed all the veggies off the grill. I diced the onions, and threw them and the tomatoes into a bowl with 6 oz of goat cheese and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese (the cheapo Kraft kind), and then threw in hot farfalle pasta, and mixed it up. I served the asparagus alongside the chicken. It all worked out better than I thought it would, with the pasta being wonderfully creamy and tangy with all of the goat cheese.

For Sunday, I decided to try my hand at some fish, something I don’t cook very often. Fish is tricky, for me anyway, and I’m almost never totally happy with the results. But I knew we could get some inexpensive cuts of fish, maybe some nice white filets such as catfish (my wife ended up buying some very nice Tilapia), so I figured that would be on tap for Sunday. I figured I would throw some pecans that I had in the freezer into my Cuisinart, chop them fine, and then mix them with some cornmeal and some chile powder to spice things up a bit. I also wanted a side different from potatoes or pasta or rice. So, I settled on sweet potatoes; I’ve never cooked with them before, and they just sounded good and different.

I threw a handful of pecans in the Cuisinart, and kept pulsing until they were minced very fine…almost like pecan flour. I put them in a bowl, and threw in about 2 tablespoons of cornmeal. To that I added 2 teaspoons of Penzey’s Ancho Chile powder. I didn’t want to get too nutty with the spices, and overwhelm my nice Tilapia filets. I whipped 3 eggs together, and dunked my first filet into the pecan mixture. It turned out great, a nice even coating of pecan mixture on the filet. The next filet, though, was problematic…the egg from the first filet had dripped into to the pecan mixture, so the second filet got coated in big chunks instead of a nice, even coating. That wasn’t the worst of my woes, though. After filet number two, I had nothing left for the third filet. Luckily, Susan suggested we use some bread crumbs, and I jumped at the idea…it would be perfect for my son Nick, and I didn’t have time to make more of the pecan mixture.

For the sweet potatoes, I decided that instead of just baking them, I wanted to go for a sweet/salty/spicy thing. So, I took my two sweet potatoes, peeled them, and sliced them into quarter inch rounds. Then I took about 4 tablespoons of butter, and melted that over medium-low heat in a large sauté pan. When the butter was melted, I threw in about 1 ½ tablespoons of brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt. I let that all cook for a bit, and then threw in the sweet potatoes, and tossed to cover with the butter mixture. I left that on medium and let that cook as I tended to the fish. I melted 1 tablespoon of butter in a large cast-iron fry-pan, and popped the fish in.

The actual cooking did not work out as planned. My sweet potatoes got done a lot faster than I thought they would, so I had to take them off the heat and cover them so that they didn’t get too squooshy (that’s a technical cooking term). The fish were taking far too long just pan-frying, so I took my wife up on her suggestion to pop them under the broiler to speed things up. That worked like a champ, and got the fish done quickly.

To make a long story short, the fish was just OK….more like a foul ball than an actual hit. The pecan coating was far too bland…I hadn’t put enough of the chile powder in to get past the pecan flavor. If I had to do it over again, I would put in at least a tablespoon of the ancho chile powder, some cayenne, and some sea salt.

On the other hand, the sweet potatoes were fabulous. They had exactly the sweet/salty/spicy kick I hoped they would have. Those were an absolute home run. Some of the rounds developed this awesome brown/buttery exterior with a soft interior, and had some of the sea salt stuck to them for a very nice salty crunch. While I could have gone for a bit more heat and salt, my wife Susan loved them just the way they were.

So there you have it…one foul tip and one out of the park. One of these days I’m going to try that fish again, only this time, I’ll make more of the pecan mixture, put in more spice, and also put into a rimmed baking sheet so that the egg from one filet doesn’t goober up the next filet.

Best Cooking Tips I

There are cooking tips, and then there are cooking tips. The best ones can literally transform your cooking. Others may not change your cooking, but maybe they take an otherwise odious task and make it easier. Herewith are just a few of my favorites, in no particular order:

1. Brown your meat in batches. For years I would read recipes that said to “brown” or sear the meat, so I would heat some oil and then dump all of my meat into the pan. Of course, the crowded meat would touch and release steam or something, and it would all turn a nasty grey color with absolutely no browning. This mystified me until I read that to really brown your meat, you need to make sure its not touching. This works like a champ. I don’t know why, it just does. It takes a bit longer, but the meat will develop a nice brown crust, and you will develop a nice fond on the bottom of your pan, just dying to be deglazed to add to the flavor. So, carefully place your meat in the pan about ½ to 1 inch apart, take your time, and brown in batches…it will make all the difference, I promise.

2. Smash the garlic clove before you try to peel it. For years I hated trying to peel garlic…inevitably I would get cloves that absolutely defied my attempts to peel them, with my fingernails digging small divots into the garlic as I attempted to remove the skin. Then I read about taking the flat of your knife and smashing the garlic, which loosens the skin and makes it easier to peel. I gave it a try and eureka! It was so much easier. Now I no longer dread having to peel even droves of garlic cloves.

3. Use coarse corn meal to dust your pizza peel. This is what makes the difference between sliding your dough effortlessly onto your hot stone, or watching helplessly as the dough sticks and your toppings slide on the hot stone, erupting in dense smoke. The first time I tried to make pizza, that is exactly what happened. I had no idea that you had to put something on your peel to make the dough slide. Today I use coarse ground corn meal like polenta, and it works awesome. Plus it gives your pizza crust a nice, crunchy, nutty flavor.

4. Fond is your friend (with two corollaries; go easy with the heat, and deglaze that pan!). When you cook something nice and easy, say a bunch of diced or sliced onions and minced garlic in a bit of olive oil, you get a nice, deep brown coating on the bottom of your pan. This coating, called a fond, contains wonderful flavors. Now, if you jack the heat up, it will scorch and turn black and taste, well, burnt, but if you keep sautéing on a nice medium heat, it will develop very nicely. Of course, unless you deglaze your pan, there it will stay, so at some point you need to add some moisture to your pan, and then scrape with the flat edge of a wooden utensil. This will dislodge all the nice bits from your pan and add them to whatever you are cooking. Needless to say, the more ingredients you carefully sauté, the more complex flavors you will build.

Those are just the first four I can think of off the top of my noggin…at a later date I’ll post more. But I’ll bet there are a lot of folks with some great tips out there. So, what are your favorite cooking tips? Send them in, either via e-mail or comment, and I’ll cut and paste them into another column.

Pandas and Dreams of Noodles

OK, I’m not ashamed to admit that I got my inspiration for two of my more successful dishes from the movie, “Kung Fu Panda.” You have to love a movie with the quote, “There is no charge for awesomeness…..or attractiveness.” Anyway, I’ve always wanted to cook some asiany (I just made that word up…maybe asianish?) noodles, and so after watching Po the Panda and his father (a goose for some reason…this never gets explained in the movie) cook and serve noodles, I really, really wanted to make some noodles. Much like why a panda might have a goose father, I can’t explain why. Just watching computer-generated noodles made me want to make some…I can’t explain it. There is a scene early in the movie when the goose father asks Po, “You had the noodle dream?” after Po lies about dreaming about noodles, when in reality he had dreamed about Kung Fu. I, however, did have the noodle dream, and I was determined to make some tasty noodles.

I took my dreams about noodles to my cookbook shelf, and started perusing my book, “365 Ways to Cook Chinese.” I wasn’t looking for a recipe per se….just some ideas for what ingredients might go well with each other. I often find it helpful to look at recipes, and just see various combinations. Hmmm…yes, yes….ginger, carrots maybe, perhaps some chili garlic sauce. I wanted my noodles to be spicy, and I wanted them to have some protein, so I knew I wanted there to be some meat in there, too. Eventually, I took my vague noodle ideas, and just went to the store.

At the market, I meandered up and down the aisles, looking for inspiration. Knowing that the asian equivalent of mirepoix is ginger, garlic, and scallions (GGS), I grabbed a nice hunk of fresh ginger, a head of garlic, and a couple bunches of scallions. Some very nice organic carrots caught my eye, and so I grabbed those, too, unsure of what I would do with them. At the meat cooler I spied some nice ground pork…yes, that would do nicely…no prepping! I headed home with my haul, and set to work.

I peeled and cut the carrots into lengths, and then shredded them in my Cuisinart. I took the ginger, peeled it, and minced it, then did the same with the garlic. I also sliced the scallions small, and well up into the green (screw that “light green parts” bit…there’s a lot of good flavor with even the dark green parts). After I had prepped, I pulled out a stock pot and got some water heating for the noodles.

I pulled out the wok my mother-in-law Dianne had bought me for Christmas, and got to work…I heated some oil, and then on a whim threw in a dash of red pepper flakes, since I really love spicy asian food. When the oil and red pepper flakes looked ready, I threw in the GGS, and sautéed that for a bit. Next came the carrots, which I cooked until I deemed them tender, and then threw in the pork. I let the pork cook until it was mostly done…maybe some pink left, but not much.

Next, I did something that I thought would be good, but wasn’t sure…I cracked 3 eggs and threw them in, and then stirred the whole mess while the egg cooked in the hot food. I then threw in some of Asian ingredients I had lying around… chili garlic sauce, sesame oil (not much…that stuff is powerful), some soy sauce, and some sherry cooking wine. I stirred that up, and things were looking good. By this time, my noodles were done, so I drained those, and then sprayed them with cold water to keep them from sticking together. I threw the noodles into the wok, and then tried cutting them with a knife to make them more manageable. My wife saw me struggling, and suggested using scissors…this was pure brilliance, and worked like a champ. Things looked a bit dry, so I threw in a bit of chicken broth, and let things heat for a while, and then served. It was, if I may so, fantastic. My wife absolutely loved it, and insisted I cook it for anyone who came to the house.

Since then, I’ve made that dish a number of times. I like to put on “Kung Fu Panda,” cook my Noodle Dream, and then watch the movie while eating dinner in the family room. I have recently been dreaming about noodles, though, and had noodles on the brain when I talked with my wife about our dinner plans for last Sunday. Susan wanted a roasted chicken and potatoes. She likes the way I do it, with fresh sage leaves shoved under the skin, surrounded by cubed red potatoes and quartered onions tossed in olive oil, and with fresh rosemary branches scattered on top, and salt and fresh ground pepper over all. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Po and those noodles. I wanted to experiment again. So once more I checked out the same little cookbook, went to the store, and came up with something similar, yet different. I used a very inexpensive cut of beef and sliced it thin (you can either use a really, really sharp knife to do this, or slightly freeze the meat). I marinated the thin slices of beef in some cornstarch, some vinegar, sherry cooking wine, and Sriracha sauce, while I sautéed the fresh asparagus. I then cooked the beef in some hot peanut oil that had been flavored with some minced garlic, ginger, and scallions. It turned out very nicely as well, although I should have used more asparagus…it cooked down farther than I thought it would, and it ended up a bit more “beefy” than I had intended, but still pretty darn good.

My beverage of choice with either dish (as it is with anything fairly spicy) is usually a cold beer, such as a Blue Moon wheat with a hunk of orange or an IPA, or if I feel like wine instead, perhaps a nice, chilled Sauvignon Blanc.

Here are the two recipes (both are quick and easy):

“Noodle Dream”

Canola or peanut oil
Pinch red pepper flakes
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1” piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
10-12 scallions, chopped
4-5 small, organic carrots, peeled and shredded
1 lb ground pork
3 eggs
1 ½ tbsp chile garlic sauce
½ tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sherry cooking wine
1/3 cup chicken broth
¾ lb fettucine or linguini

- Cook noodles in salted water, drain and rinse well in cold water; cut into 1” to 2” pieces with scissors
- Heat ¼ cup oil in a wok or large sauté pan
- Add first 4 ingredients; sauté for 3-5 minutes
- Add carrots; sauté for 4-5 minutes
- Add ground pork; break up with cooking utensil and cook until pink is nearly gone
- Add 3 eggs; stir to cook and combine
- Add next four ingredients; stir to combine
- Add cooked noodles, pour on chicken broth
- Stir well and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes or until noodles heated through

George’s Spicy Shredded Beef and Asparagus Noodles

1 ¾ lb London Broil or similar inexpensive, lean beef
2 tbsp cornstarch
1-2 tbsp Sriracha sauce
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp sherry cooking wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp canola oil
2 bundles asparagus (about a pound or so); cut into 2” pieces with a diagonal cut
Pinch red pepper flakes
3 tbsp peanut oil
2” piece fresh ginger; peeled and minced
4-5 medium to large garlic cloves; minced
3 bundles scallions (about 15 or so); chopped
2 tbsp black bean garlic sauce
2 tbsp chili garlic sauce
1-2 tbsp Sriracha sauce
1 lb fettucine or linguini

- Cook noodles in salted water, drain and rinse well in cold water; cut into 1” to 2” pieces with scissors
- Slice the beef very thinly (about 5mm; you will need a very sharp knife), and then halve the slices and cut them so that the beef is about ¼” x 2”
- Combine the cornstarch, Sriracha sauce, red wine vinegar, sherry cooking wine, and soy sauce, and toss with the beef; set aside
- Heat the canola oil in a wok or large sauté pan, and toss in the red pepper flakes
- Add the asparagus; sauté for about 5-7 minutes
- Remove the asparagus and the oil (I simply poured the contents of the wok into a wire basket set over a metal bowl).
- Add the peanut oil to the wok and heat
- Add the ginger, garlic, and scallions; sauté for 3-5 minutes
- Add the beef; sauté for about 5 minutes
- Add next 3 ingredients; sauté for 5 minutes
- Add noodles, toss, and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until noodles heated through

Note: My cooking times are really approximations, as I normally cook until it looks right to me. By all means, adjust your cooking times as necessary for how you like your food!

Gadgets

Hello, my name is George, and I’m addicted to gadgets. It started off with the small stuff, like those little Avocet 20 cycling computers that just told you your speed and your distance…two data points, that was it. Then they came out with computers that also calculated average speed, max speed…more data, and I was hooked. Pretty soon I was scoring heart rate monitors from Polar, and it was all over. Now, thanks to triathlon, I have multiple heart rate monitors, GPS watches, cycling power monitors, aero carbon wheels, 4 bikes, cool sunglasses…you name it, I probably have it. And a bike ride is no longer a bike ride…no, it’s an excuse to gather data. After work I hopped on the bike and went for a nice 20 mile ride. No, strike that; I went for 20.05 miles in 58’03”, at an average speed of 20.7 mph, max speed of 35.9, elevation gain of 1,024’ during the ride, average power output of 214 watts, and max watts was 822. Yeah!! That’s what I’m taking about. Oh, almost forgot…average heart rate was 151 beats per minute, max was 164.

Cooking is also gadget intensive. There are so many things to lust after…nice knives, great cookware, blenders, mixers, scales, utensils, cutting boards, food processors, hand mixers…dozens and dozens of things to go gaga over at the local cooking store (and I have a pretty cool one….Cookswares in Springboro, Ohio). But, there are some gadgets that I turn to time after time, and some that I have pretty much given up on. I’m not going to go into necessities like knives and pots and pans here (that will be another essay), but I’d like to wax poetic for a bit about some of those single use items that have turned out to be singularly useful.

Possibly the absolute bestest, greatest gadget I own is my Chef’s Choice 130 electric knife sharpener. Oh sure, it was something like 130 bucks or something, but oh man, it was worth every penny. Before I got it, I would struggle with dull knives, and then I would grab the sharpening stone, and struggle to put a decent edge on my gorgeous Henckels knives. One Christmas, the Minister of Finance, also known as my wife, Susan, tired of my whining about sharpening the knives, allowed me to purchase the Chef’s Choice. Ever since then, I have had razor sharp knives. Knives that slide through a tomato without so much as stretching the skin…you cooks know what I’m taking about here. So sharp, it was an ½ inch into my thumb before I even knew what was going on. But I don’t care…5 stitches is a cheap price to pay for always perfectly sharp knives. Hate dull knives and hate breaking out the stone even more? Tired of trying to hold that perfect 30 degree angle and put a nice bevel on the edge? Disgusted that after 30 minutes it still won’t slice a piece of paper? Grab a Chef’s Choice and never look back. Just watch where you’re putting your thumb whilst cubing chili meat. Just sayin’….

While I was down at Tyndall AFB in 2005 working in the Air Operations Center for nearly 5 months, my wife bought me some cool stuff from the Pampered Chef as a “welcome home” present. The thing I turn to all the time? The freakin’ apple corer. Seriously. I love that thing. I used to dread staring at a boatload of apples that needed coring and peeling. It was such a pain to carve the core out…now, 2 seconds and that sucker is cored. And even better, it works great on tomatoes. I have a great recipe that calls for cooking halved tomatoes in some olive oil, but you have to core them first. Before the corer arrived, I had to do tomato surgery with my knife. Now, it takes two seconds. I love it.

Then there are those gadgets that appear to be the answer to cooking awesomeness, but then they leave you feeling empty and looking for more. Like looking for more heat. My crazy expensive digital meat thermometer, for example. Last year at Christmas I decided that no more would I wonder if my prime rib was done or not. I was tired of guessing, of timing, and checking, and timing some more, only to over cook the roast. So I again convinced the Ministry that this was a needed, nay, required expense, unless she wanted to eat gray and nasty beef. Susan, being a serious carnivore who likes her cow to flinch a little when she cuts it, gave in, and off I went to the cooking store. I returned, and ceremoniously plugged the little sucker into my beautiful rib roast, set the temp that I wanted it to beep at me, and turned to other important things, like drinking beer. Sure enough, it beeped, and I pulled the roast out of the oven, let it rest for a bit, and then began carving. What the??? It wasn’t even close to being done. The inside was blood rare and cold. Even Susan wrinkled her nose at how rare it was. That has now happened to a turkey, and I swear, that thing has to be at least 20 degrees off. I don’t believe I’ve used it since.

Then there was the double-bladed herb mincing thing with the matching cutting bowl. Herb mincing heaven, or so I thought. Except for the small fact that the blades are too close together so that the herbs clog up in there, even garlic, and it’s a real treat to snake a finger up between the two über-sharp blades to unclog it. I’m not really sure where it is anymore.

But, being an addict like I am, I will inevitably fall victim to the next cool thing that catches my eye at the store. In fact, I think I’m already smitten. For some reason, I am convinced that life will not have much meaning anymore until I can snag one of those cool Santoku knives. Don’t ask me why, I just need one. Seriously.

Grilled Eggplant + Chickpeas = Yum!

So I did largely what I described in my last post. I dumped the grilled eggplant in the Cuisinart, 2 cloves of garlic, and a can of drained chickpeas. Swirled in some olive oil, and blended for about 30 seconds. Gave my wife Susan a taste, and she astutely suggested some lemon juice. Threw in about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, copious salt and freshly ground pepper, some more olive oil, and blended for another 30-45 seconds. The result was a very nice flavor, with the smoky grilled eggplant coming through very nicely.

My pita bread puffed very nicely, and we had a nice dinner with the warm pita bread, the eggplant/chickpea mixture, and browned hamburger (with garlic and just a hint of cinnamon) on top. Add a nice Beringer Pinot Noir, a little jazz in the background, and it was very, very nice.

Cooking Simple, Part II

Yesterday I promised I would let everyone know how my "creations" turned out. The pasta with the pork was pretty darn good, if I say so myself. It had a tad less sauce than I would have liked, so next time I'll use a smaller baking dish and less noodles. The bread was also decent, but I forgot to slash the loaves before baking, so they sorta came out in some funky shapes. But, I thought the flavor was good, and what's better than fresh bread straight from the oven?

Tonight, I've got to do something with eggplant. Here's what I'm thinking...I'm going to slice the eggplant into 1" thick "steaks," brush them with olive oil, and dust them with salt and ground black pepper. Then I'm going to throw those bad boys on the grill and cook them. Once the eggplant is done, I think I'll cube it up and throw in the Cuisinart with a can of chickpeas and some olive oil, maybe some garlic (haven't decided yet). Susan also bought a pound of hamburger, so taking a cue from an article I read in Saveur magazine on hummus, I'm going to brown the hamburger in a little olive oil, maybe some garlic thrown in, and just a hint of cinnamon (sounds weird, I know, but its a very interesting flavor with meat). I've also got some pita bread dough rising as we speak, so I'm going to bake those up (first time ever...I hope they turn out), and then scoop some eggplant/chickpea stuff on top of warm pita round, and then spoon a dollop of the hamburger on top. That's the plan...we'll see how it turns out!

Cooking Simple

Cooking simple…honest food…layering flavors…those are the words that I live by when I cook. I like to take good, flavorful ingredients, and try to create something using as few ingredients as possible. I think that’s why I like French cooking so much…tuck into a well-executed Boef Daube someday, and take in the exquisite flavors; then realize that they are created with just a few ingredients. Red wine, bouquet garni, some excellent bacon, and a relatively inexpensive beef roast. Cook it all correctly, serve over some hot egg noodles, and you have Provence in a bowl. Add some olives as a garnish if you will, but the basic flavor is complex and delectable. Sop up the fantastic juices with a hunk of crusty French baguette, and a sip of good red wine…heaven!

I’ve never really understood the chefs who try to create unbelievably complex food, using as many weird and unobtainable (to the home cook) ingredients as possible. I have a cookbook that features recipes by noted chefs, and there is one recipe for a smoked salmon napoleon that is fussy in the extreme. I’ll bet it tastes pretty good, but where the heck am I going to find pickled papaya, or the time to make it? Or spend the time and money just to make the herbal oils and herbal juices that are required? The dish has at least 40 ingredients and just about as many steps…this seems like total overkill to me, or maybe “showing off” (and growing up in Minnesota, bragging or showing off was either a federal crime or heinous sin, maybe both!). I’m sure a professional chef has all sorts of low-paid minions that can assist putting this thing together, but my admiration goes to the chef who takes easily obtained ingredients and creates magic with them. Like the French….

Oh sure, sometimes I like to get a little nutty and combine a lot of ingredients, like when I am experimenting with creating the perfect cassoulet (wait…that’s French, too, isn’t it? We seem to have a trend here…). But by and large, I like to start with a few ingredients, lovingly sauté, brown, or braise them, and slowly coax as much flavor as I can out of a cheap cut of meat, an onion or two, some garlic, and maybe some tomatoes. I am a big believer in slow food…you can take almost anything, and as long as you don’t try and cook it in 10 minutes, you can slowly extract the maximum flavor from each ingredient. It may take three hours, but it’s almost always worth it.

Take tonight for example….my wife and I have started a weekend tradition. She goes to the store and gets whatever suits her fancy…a red pepper here, a pork roast there, some onions over here. In our version of “Iron Chef,” I have to take what she has brought home, and using whatever we have on hand in the pantry and the refrigerator, cook something edible (and hopefully delicious). So today, this is what I did…I grabbed a boneless pork roast from the fridge, and sliced off the large hunk of fat covering the bottom. Knowing that pork fat is the best fat in the world, I threw the fat into my beloved La Crueset dutch oven (thanks Mom for this awesome pot!!) and slowly rendered it. I cut the pork into 1” cubes, and browned it in the pork fat, with salt and ground pepper (being careful to brown in batches, and not steam the pork into yucky greyness…one of the best cooking tips I’ve ever come across…never let your meat touch if you’re trying to brown it). After the pork was nicely browned and removed, I had a great fond built up on the bottom of my pot. I added 3 diced onions, 2 diced peppers, and 5 minced garlic cloves. I slowly cooked those for about 20 minutes, deglazed the pot with juices coming out of the onions and peppers, and continued to slowly saute until the fond had built back up and I had nice caramelized onions and soft peppers. I put the pork cubes back in, and dumped in 3 cans of petite diced tomatoes and a can of chicken broth (yes, I know I should be making my own chicken stock, but I’m just too damn lazy).

Anyway, that is simmering away as we speak. After a couple of hours of simmering, I’m going to remove the pork and shred it in my Cuisinart with the plastic blade, and then combine the shredded pork with the remaining tomato sauce, some cooked farfalle pasta, a bunch of Parmesan cheese, and bake it in the oven until the Parmesan is nicely browned. I’ve also got some home-made bread rising…I figured if I could invent a pork something-or-other, I could also try and make some bread on the fly. So I took 4 cups of King Arthur bread flour, 1.5 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and a packet of rapid-rise yeast, and combined it in my Cuisinart. I put my water on hot, put about 2 tablespoons (I say “about” ‘cause I just eye-balled it) of extra-virgin olive oil (Colavita…the best deal in olive oil I can find) into a Pyrex measuring cup, and then added 1.75 cups of hot water to the oil. I started my Cuisinart, and slowly poured in the hot water, until I got a ball to form, and the dough appeared like it might come apart if I kept adding liquid (I had about a ¼ cup of liquid left that I didn’t add to the dough). Anyway, I let that knead for about 30 seconds, stopped the machine, then took the dough, put it onto the flour-dusted counter, and covered it with a bowl. In a little bit, I’m going to heat my baking stone to 500 degrees for 30 minutes, shape my dough into two baguette-sized loaves, and bake them on the hot stone.

Hopefully, it will all work out in the end. I’ll post tomorrow on the final results.