Annalena has written before of how cauliflower seems to be one of those vegetables that it is hard to like. Annalena likes it - she doesn't LOVE it, but she likes it. She loves cauliflower soup, and golden cauliflower puree, but tends not to use the whole, white form. So, when a cauliflower dish catches her eye, she investigates.
MANY years ago, when the seminal restaurant Devi was in its adolescence, Annalena and the Guyman ate a dish called "Mongolian cauliflower." One may fairly ask: what is a dish called "MONGOLIAN" doing in an Indian restaurant. (and by the way, does anyone really know anything about Mongolian food? Annalena has heard of Mongolian hotpot, but has no idea what makes it "Mongolian," or of anything else other than that).
And, there is an answer, and it is based on how things happen in this wide wide world of ours. The word is "immigration" ragazzi. Some day, look at a map. (Indeed, we should all look at maps more often. Our overall sense and knowledge of geography, is very much in decline). Look how close China and India are. Also, look at how big China is: there's an enormous WESTERN part of China, which is fairly underexplored, does not speak Chinese, and has a cuisine rather different than what you and Annalena know as "Chinese food." Well, the borders are close, and there is a large Chinese population in India. How they have been come to be called "Mongolians," is something Annalena does not know; however, what she does know, from her own background reading and her research, is that much of the "Chinese" cooking in this part of China, very much reflects Indian cooking and the cooking of warm weather. There are tomatoes. There is curry. There are hot spices. And so on, and so forth. Look for a Southwestern Chinese restaurant someday, and report back.
When you read this recipe, you will note the use of ketchup, or catsup. HUH???? Well, again, there is a reason. Again, based on her research, and the work of Suvir Saran (who introduced us to this dish), Indian food uses an enormous amount of chutneys. When you get right down to eat, ketchup is not that different from a chutney, especially GOOD ketchup like you can get from June Taylor. Chef Saran speaks of growing up and having samosas with ketchup, when time was tight and chutney was not made. So... an American stable, transmogrified into an Indian dish, called Mongolian.
Ain't it grand, ragazzi? And it's being told by an Italian woman. Let's go forward.
First, a large head of cauliflower, please. Break off the florets, and do not try to be exact. In fact, try to be INexact, because this is so much better with UNevenly cooked pieces of vegetable. Put that aside, and mix together 2/3-3/4 cup of cornstarch, a hefty teaspoon of salt (don't leave this out), a teaspoon of pepper, if you like, and three large eggs. Mix this all together to a heavy sludge. Then, put the cauliflower in with it (make sure your bowl is big enough), and turn everything around with your hands, until it's coated. You can leave that there, while you proceed. This is VERY similar to the "velvet" technique of Chinese cooking.
And you proceed by heating up a goodly inch and a half to two inches of vegetable oil in a deep pan, a pot, or whatever you use for frying. Pull out your thermometer. You need it. When the oil gets to 350, start putting the cauliflower in. Don't overcrowd the pan. You won't be cooking the stuff for too long, so you can afford to make multiple trips. You want the stuff to get slightly golden, with brown spots. As you fry the veggies, move them to paper towels.
Now, the REALLY fun part. In a small pot, dump a cup and a half (Chef Saran called for one cup, but it was not enough when Annalena made it)of ketchup, a couple of finely chopped garlic cloves, a half teaspoon of salt, and some cayenne pepper. "Some" here leaves it to you, ragazzo caro, to choose how hot you want this. At VERY low heat, cook this for five minutes, stirring to keep it from burning (because it will burn).
After five minutes, pour the sauce over the cauliflower (which you will have moved back to a bowl), and stir everything together to coat it.
This is wonderful hot, even better at room temperature. Not so much cold. You should use a fork, but if you are so inclined, chopsticks will be fine.
And there you have it. An Italian vegetable, cooked with American ingredients, from an Indian chef, named after Mongolia. Round the world in a dish. Safe travels, ragazzi.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Feeling fall: Brown butter ice cream
Do you feel it? It's in the air. Temperatures in the morning are in the high 60s, sometimes you don't need the air conditioner at night, and the apples, the celery root, and the butternut squash are beginning to populate the market. It's the time of year which Annalena always thinks of as "purple" in terms of eating locally: in the early spring it's pale green, followed by pink (rhubarb, strawberries), then dark green and red, and pink. Now, with plums, eggplants, and stuff like that , Annalena thinks of it as purple.
Ray Bradbury, in the wonderful "Dandelion Wine," which you should ALL read immediately, has a line about how the grandparents start speaking of coffee instead of lemonade when sitting on the porch after dinner. Now, how much can you pack into one, simple sentence ? It's wonderful. Annalena begins to think of cinnamon, and cooked cabbage, and she pulls out her collard greens recipes.
And the plums. Oh, the plums. Honestly, Annalena cannot say that her favorite fruit, is plums, but they may be the fruit she most enjoys cooking. There are so many kinds, so many colors, and so many textures. Years ago, for a farewell party for her sweety Fred, Annalena made a trio of plum sorbets, each of which was based on a different plum. She could have made an eight pack of them.
Now, all this talk about plums, because it was thinking about plums, and remembering a dish at her bud Ryan's restaurant "All Good Things," that led Annalena to start investigating the idea of a brown butter ice cream.
"Brown butter," for those of you new to the term, is butter melted very slowly, and allowed to brown. It's that simple, except it's not. You have to watch this very carefully when it's happening, and you have to stop the cooking at just about one half shade of brown below what you want, because the butter will keep cooking. If you want to be absolutely pure about it, then you cool it, and take the milk solids off the top, because there will be little burnt bits of milk protein in it. They will look like vanilla beans, but they're not. Annalena doesn't mind them, but if you do, well, you know what you have to do. If you want them out, this recipe winds up taking longer to make, but it's still worth doing. Butter ice cream. Geez. You get butter, cream, milk, and eggs in one dish. Thank goodness you're eating it with fresh plums, huh?
Ok, to make the brown butter. Put a stick of the stuff in a small pot, and heat it very, very slowly. Keep an eye on it. If you use a light colored pan, it is very easy to tell when the butter is at a brown color. You are looking for something akin to a hazelnut. When you get there, pour the stuff into a bowl off the heat, to try to keep it from going even further. Let it cool, while you collect your other ingredients.
You will need a cup of dark brown sugar, six egg yolks, two cups of heavy cream, and a cup of whole milk. You can add some salt to this if you like, or you can use salted butter. Annalena prefers the former, becase that way she can control the saltiness of the final product (if you haven't figured it out by now, Annalena is a control empress).
When the butter has cooled to just slightly warm, mix it, the butter and the egg yolks all together. Get a nice even mix. Then, put this in a pot with the dairy products and cook it to a very, VERY soft custard stage. When you get there, get that off the heat, perhaps by pouring it into one of the bowls you've used already. And then pour it into a container, and let it cool at room temperature.
Annalena needs to say that cooling to room temperature here, is important. It seems that if you put the stuff directly into the refrigerator, the butter solidifies, rather than remaining emulsified, and you get chunks of butter in your dessert. Some of you may like that, but most of us don't.
Then, out comes your ice cream maker, and you know what to do.
Annalena feels this ice cream goes with just about anything, but think about "fall." As she said, plums. Or apples. Or pears. Or a cinnamon cake, or roll. Or, just plain. Enjoy it. Relish the turn of the seasons, together with this lovely song, perhaps Annalena's favorite version of a classic. Thank you, Johnny Mercer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcNE85-aD6s
Ray Bradbury, in the wonderful "Dandelion Wine," which you should ALL read immediately, has a line about how the grandparents start speaking of coffee instead of lemonade when sitting on the porch after dinner. Now, how much can you pack into one, simple sentence ? It's wonderful. Annalena begins to think of cinnamon, and cooked cabbage, and she pulls out her collard greens recipes.
And the plums. Oh, the plums. Honestly, Annalena cannot say that her favorite fruit, is plums, but they may be the fruit she most enjoys cooking. There are so many kinds, so many colors, and so many textures. Years ago, for a farewell party for her sweety Fred, Annalena made a trio of plum sorbets, each of which was based on a different plum. She could have made an eight pack of them.
Now, all this talk about plums, because it was thinking about plums, and remembering a dish at her bud Ryan's restaurant "All Good Things," that led Annalena to start investigating the idea of a brown butter ice cream.
"Brown butter," for those of you new to the term, is butter melted very slowly, and allowed to brown. It's that simple, except it's not. You have to watch this very carefully when it's happening, and you have to stop the cooking at just about one half shade of brown below what you want, because the butter will keep cooking. If you want to be absolutely pure about it, then you cool it, and take the milk solids off the top, because there will be little burnt bits of milk protein in it. They will look like vanilla beans, but they're not. Annalena doesn't mind them, but if you do, well, you know what you have to do. If you want them out, this recipe winds up taking longer to make, but it's still worth doing. Butter ice cream. Geez. You get butter, cream, milk, and eggs in one dish. Thank goodness you're eating it with fresh plums, huh?
Ok, to make the brown butter. Put a stick of the stuff in a small pot, and heat it very, very slowly. Keep an eye on it. If you use a light colored pan, it is very easy to tell when the butter is at a brown color. You are looking for something akin to a hazelnut. When you get there, pour the stuff into a bowl off the heat, to try to keep it from going even further. Let it cool, while you collect your other ingredients.
You will need a cup of dark brown sugar, six egg yolks, two cups of heavy cream, and a cup of whole milk. You can add some salt to this if you like, or you can use salted butter. Annalena prefers the former, becase that way she can control the saltiness of the final product (if you haven't figured it out by now, Annalena is a control empress).
When the butter has cooled to just slightly warm, mix it, the butter and the egg yolks all together. Get a nice even mix. Then, put this in a pot with the dairy products and cook it to a very, VERY soft custard stage. When you get there, get that off the heat, perhaps by pouring it into one of the bowls you've used already. And then pour it into a container, and let it cool at room temperature.
Annalena needs to say that cooling to room temperature here, is important. It seems that if you put the stuff directly into the refrigerator, the butter solidifies, rather than remaining emulsified, and you get chunks of butter in your dessert. Some of you may like that, but most of us don't.
Then, out comes your ice cream maker, and you know what to do.
Annalena feels this ice cream goes with just about anything, but think about "fall." As she said, plums. Or apples. Or pears. Or a cinnamon cake, or roll. Or, just plain. Enjoy it. Relish the turn of the seasons, together with this lovely song, perhaps Annalena's favorite version of a classic. Thank you, Johnny Mercer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcNE85-aD6s
Sunday, August 25, 2013
It's supreme: stoned fruit love
Ah, how many of Annalena's army got the title? It's tricky, but those of you who know her adoration of the Supremes, will recognize the allusion to Stoned Love, one of Annalena's favorite songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rglxw5cbZWY
And what better way to introduce the theme of STONE fruits (as compared to stoneD fruits), than via the Supremes?
This time of year is truly THE time for those of us who love these goodies. "Stone" fruits, for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, are fruits that have a "stone" at their center: cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines. The cherries are gone, but all the others are still here, even apricots, which should have finished by now. It is an odd year. And nothing, and Annalena means NOTHING - is better as a dessert than a piece of a ripe stone fruit: a nectarine for Annalena, please. But if you must do something - and sometimes you do - here is a recipe that fits into the healthy category, courtesy of Nadia G, one of Annalena's heroes. Annalena saw the recipe and modified it.
The hardest thing you will do for this recipe, is shop for spices. You need a vanilla bean, a cinnamon stick, and a star anise. Here is a hint: broken star anises are much cheaper than the whole ones, so buy the broken ones and use half.
Now, mix in a heavy pot, a half cup of water, a third of a cup of honey, a third of a cup of raw sugar (do get this: you'll see it as turbinado sugar too), and your spices. Stir these together and heat them until the sugar dissolves. Now, put that aside for a minute, while you prep the fruit.
"Prepping the fruit" here means, ragazzi, slicing it off the pit. You want about six cups of cut fruit, and use whatever you like. Annalena had all of the above around, including some pluots, and used that. DO know that the softer fruits will dissolve into sauce in this recipe. Try to combine a mix of firmer and softer ones. Plums can be especially challenging to hold together, so make sure that if you want the whole fruit, you buy firmer ones.
For apricots, Annalena cut them in half or fourths if they were large. Peaches were sliced, as were plums , nectarines and pluots. When you have the six cups of them, put them into the spice broth, turn the heat to medium, and cook, for about 6-8 minutes. The fruit will begin to break down, you'll get a thicker sauce, and when it looks soft enough for your taste, stop.
Taste it. You may find an almond overtone, especially if you used apricots. If you are not a big fan of licoricy flavors, when you store this, take out the whole spices. The anise will continue to release its flavor. Annalena is a fan, but not everyone is.
This is meant to be served in a parfait, with sweetened yogurt. Honestly, ragazzi, unless you have a ridiculously strong sweet tooth, Annalena suggests that your yogurt be plain, fat free Greek, with no sweetener at all.
This is what Annalena's looked like, put into a glass which the Guyman's brother David and wife Cyndi gave us many years ago.
Ok, ragazzi, TWO healthy recipes in a row from Annalena? ABBASTANZA. Next time, we're making ice cream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rglxw5cbZWY
And what better way to introduce the theme of STONE fruits (as compared to stoneD fruits), than via the Supremes?
This time of year is truly THE time for those of us who love these goodies. "Stone" fruits, for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, are fruits that have a "stone" at their center: cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines. The cherries are gone, but all the others are still here, even apricots, which should have finished by now. It is an odd year. And nothing, and Annalena means NOTHING - is better as a dessert than a piece of a ripe stone fruit: a nectarine for Annalena, please. But if you must do something - and sometimes you do - here is a recipe that fits into the healthy category, courtesy of Nadia G, one of Annalena's heroes. Annalena saw the recipe and modified it.
The hardest thing you will do for this recipe, is shop for spices. You need a vanilla bean, a cinnamon stick, and a star anise. Here is a hint: broken star anises are much cheaper than the whole ones, so buy the broken ones and use half.
Now, mix in a heavy pot, a half cup of water, a third of a cup of honey, a third of a cup of raw sugar (do get this: you'll see it as turbinado sugar too), and your spices. Stir these together and heat them until the sugar dissolves. Now, put that aside for a minute, while you prep the fruit.
"Prepping the fruit" here means, ragazzi, slicing it off the pit. You want about six cups of cut fruit, and use whatever you like. Annalena had all of the above around, including some pluots, and used that. DO know that the softer fruits will dissolve into sauce in this recipe. Try to combine a mix of firmer and softer ones. Plums can be especially challenging to hold together, so make sure that if you want the whole fruit, you buy firmer ones.
For apricots, Annalena cut them in half or fourths if they were large. Peaches were sliced, as were plums , nectarines and pluots. When you have the six cups of them, put them into the spice broth, turn the heat to medium, and cook, for about 6-8 minutes. The fruit will begin to break down, you'll get a thicker sauce, and when it looks soft enough for your taste, stop.
Taste it. You may find an almond overtone, especially if you used apricots. If you are not a big fan of licoricy flavors, when you store this, take out the whole spices. The anise will continue to release its flavor. Annalena is a fan, but not everyone is.
This is meant to be served in a parfait, with sweetened yogurt. Honestly, ragazzi, unless you have a ridiculously strong sweet tooth, Annalena suggests that your yogurt be plain, fat free Greek, with no sweetener at all.
This is what Annalena's looked like, put into a glass which the Guyman's brother David and wife Cyndi gave us many years ago.
Ok, ragazzi, TWO healthy recipes in a row from Annalena? ABBASTANZA. Next time, we're making ice cream.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
The one that got away: cold cucumber and beet soup
In this chapter, ragazzi, the one that got away was a cucumber. Those of you who grow some or all of your own veggies will know all too well the experience Annalena's colleague Mary had. Every day, she combs her garden, picking squash, cucumbers, etc. All the things which, if you leave them to their own devices, will become vegetables large enough to kill someone. Indeed, Mary had one such squash with her last week, so long that it probably could rival a viper. And she had a very large cucumber which Annalena offered to take off her hands, to make cucumber soup.
Except, Annalena had no idea HOW to make cucumber soup. Well, she had an idea. She just didn't know if it would work. It did , sort of.
The cucumber from Mary weighed in at 1 pound, 6 ounces. Annalena weighed it, and unfortunately, did not take a picture of it. When veggies that you know of as small become that enormous, it probably is time to think of the soup pot. Cooking a cucumber though? Well, truth to be told, cucumbers are really good when you saute' them. They pick up a concentrated flavor, since the water seems to go off. But Annalena was looking to make something that would go alongside a BLT sandwich, which was the planned lunch for she and the Guyman on Sunday . (Those plans have now changed. Such is summer. Friends come first).
So, first, she peeled that bugger, and taking a large spoon, scooped out the seeds. Yes, ragazzi, if you are going to use these mammoths to make a soup, get ride of the seeds. Pureeing is in the future, and the seeds will break down into really unpleasant little bits of flora based plastic (that's what they seem like), which will spoil your dish. Then, cut up the cucumber into chunks. Annalena got just about 2.5 cups of veggie from this beast.
Natural compliments to cucumbers are dairy products, and Annalena had some REAL buttermilk from her buds at Grazin Angus. REAL buttermilk does not have a sour taste, however, so if you want that (and Annalena did), you need some help. So, to a cup of buttermilk, Annalena added a cup of nonfat Greek yogurt. She put all of this into the food processor, with a teaspoon of salt, and a half cup of water.
The food processor was a mistake, and after she tasted the result, Annalena remembered the counsel she had received from Zarela Martinez, many years ago. Food processors cut and tear, which is fine if you want something cut or torn. If you want a puree, you need the blender. So, in it went. A taste of the mix, before it went, revealed that it lacked "something." Clearly, it needed more acid. So in went a shot of white vinegar. This is one, ragazzi, where you have to let your taste buds guide you. Into the blender, at puree speed, with some testing along the way, to see if it was smooth enough. When it was, it still lacked.... something. Annalena thought a bit. Beets. Annalena always has at least one kind of cooked beets in the fridge, so she took out and chopped up about the same quantity of the cucumbers: 2.5 cups. And into the blender they went.
PROBLEM SOLVED! A wonderful, cool soup, which will be adorned with chopped dill at the end.
Now, for those of you so inclined: let us go through this recipe for calories and fat: cucumbers. Snicker.. A cup of buttermilk. Ok, we got some calories there. A cup of non fat yogurt. Let's not be silly. Beets. Did she not say don't be silly? Water. Salt. Dill. And a quart of gorgeous soup. Wanna see the color?
Except, Annalena had no idea HOW to make cucumber soup. Well, she had an idea. She just didn't know if it would work. It did , sort of.
The cucumber from Mary weighed in at 1 pound, 6 ounces. Annalena weighed it, and unfortunately, did not take a picture of it. When veggies that you know of as small become that enormous, it probably is time to think of the soup pot. Cooking a cucumber though? Well, truth to be told, cucumbers are really good when you saute' them. They pick up a concentrated flavor, since the water seems to go off. But Annalena was looking to make something that would go alongside a BLT sandwich, which was the planned lunch for she and the Guyman on Sunday . (Those plans have now changed. Such is summer. Friends come first).
So, first, she peeled that bugger, and taking a large spoon, scooped out the seeds. Yes, ragazzi, if you are going to use these mammoths to make a soup, get ride of the seeds. Pureeing is in the future, and the seeds will break down into really unpleasant little bits of flora based plastic (that's what they seem like), which will spoil your dish. Then, cut up the cucumber into chunks. Annalena got just about 2.5 cups of veggie from this beast.
Natural compliments to cucumbers are dairy products, and Annalena had some REAL buttermilk from her buds at Grazin Angus. REAL buttermilk does not have a sour taste, however, so if you want that (and Annalena did), you need some help. So, to a cup of buttermilk, Annalena added a cup of nonfat Greek yogurt. She put all of this into the food processor, with a teaspoon of salt, and a half cup of water.
The food processor was a mistake, and after she tasted the result, Annalena remembered the counsel she had received from Zarela Martinez, many years ago. Food processors cut and tear, which is fine if you want something cut or torn. If you want a puree, you need the blender. So, in it went. A taste of the mix, before it went, revealed that it lacked "something." Clearly, it needed more acid. So in went a shot of white vinegar. This is one, ragazzi, where you have to let your taste buds guide you. Into the blender, at puree speed, with some testing along the way, to see if it was smooth enough. When it was, it still lacked.... something. Annalena thought a bit. Beets. Annalena always has at least one kind of cooked beets in the fridge, so she took out and chopped up about the same quantity of the cucumbers: 2.5 cups. And into the blender they went.
PROBLEM SOLVED! A wonderful, cool soup, which will be adorned with chopped dill at the end.
Now, for those of you so inclined: let us go through this recipe for calories and fat: cucumbers. Snicker.. A cup of buttermilk. Ok, we got some calories there. A cup of non fat yogurt. Let's not be silly. Beets. Did she not say don't be silly? Water. Salt. Dill. And a quart of gorgeous soup. Wanna see the color?
How can you resist that, ragazzi?
Next time, we're going to look at a very easy, very light dessert that is so much better than it should be, it's ridiculous.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Just good old corn cakes
Annalena is feeling a bit under the weather, ragazzi, so she apologizes for not giving you a witty or interesting or frustrating title this time around. (Remember those categories on "10,000 Pyramid? They'd be things like "It's the normal thing to do," and then you'd find that it's something like "things that end in 'mal." Annalena sort of does that with the titles, doesn't she?).
Notwithstanding her lack of physical stamina today, Annalena does want to give you another recipe that is perfect for this time of year. She saw it in the Times, and immediately saw ways to simplify it for her own uses, and also, for yours. And it allowed her to work with two things that are not her strong point: corn, and pancakes.
Annalena has gone on, several times, about how she doesn't have the same affection for corn that the Guyman does, or that America as a whole does. Well, this year, perhaps a sign of our getting older, or becoming more alike, the Guyman's lust for corn seems to have shrunk, and Annalena has begun to like it more. The result of this, is that there were two ears of cooked corn in the fridge. Annalena was NOT going to throw them out. Yet, she wasn't sure what to do.
Then, David Tanis' column appeared, with a series of recipes to do now that high summer is upon us.
And indeed it is ragazzi. In fact, high summer will continue through the middle of the autumn, whether there is global warming or not. You know that: you can get corn, peaches, tomatoes, etc, all the way through October. But many of these "summer" things peak now. So use them.
Chef Tanis had a recipe for corn blini. It inspired Annalena. BUT... blini are pancakes. And what you don't know, is that pancakes are NOT Annalena's strong suit. She finds them frustrating to make, usually burns them, and ultimately, winds up singing the Peggy Lee song "Is that All there Is?" on the occasions when she does make them. But, she decided to try a few things with the recipe, and ... IT WORKED!!! She will explain how she simplified things, and made them a little less rich than the original called for.
Also, the recipe said that it would make 30 blini. Indeed, if you make these blini sized, which is about the size of a silver dollar, you will get 30. Annalena was looking for something to serve alongside of her curried scallops (anyone want that recipe?), so she made them larger. She got about 18 in total. And that was more than enough for two people. We had about half left over. So figure that if you're making these as a side dish, you will have enough for four. But we won't have enough, unless we start cooking. So, here we go.
You need about 2 cups of corn kernels. Annalena's corn was cooked, but if you have the fresh, raw stuff, use it. Get it off the cob, and make sure you scrape the kernel less cobs with the back of your knife, to get some of the sweet corn milk out of them. Put them aside, while you mix up two, separate things.
First, the dry stuff: easy. Half cup each of flour and corn meal, a teaspoon of baking powder, and half that of salt. The original recipe called for a tablespoon of sugar as well. Annalena left it out. Corn is sweet enough, in her opinion.
Now, the liquid ingredients. Melt half a stick of unsalted butter. Mix it together with a large egg, and a cup of yogurt. Now, on the yogurt, ragazzi, Annalena used non fat Greek yogurt, and her recipe worked really well. Also, you probably know (if not, you should), that a "cup" of yogurt these days, is six ounces. As with coffee, and cereal, etc, corporate America has downsized the portion. The "cup" Annalena used worked well. You might also want some milk handy, because this will help your batter.
What you do now, is take what corn you have , and in a food processor, grind up half of it. In a big bowl, put the dry ingredients in first, and then add the liquid ingredients, and the ground corn, plus the remaining whole corn. Stir it all up together, and let it sit for a few minutes. You are looking for something that is about the texture of thick sour cream. If you feel things are a bit too thick, add milk, by the tablespoon, until you have something the consistency you like. You don't want things running all over the place. It should still be firm.
Ok, now Annalena wants you to melt another two tablespoons of butter, and get out a non stick frying pan. She used a medium sized one, which allowed her to cook four of these at a time. The number you can do at one time, will be a function of how big your pan is . That may sound self evident to some of you. Not to others.
Use a paintbrush, or a paper towel, and dip it into the melted butter. Use it to grease the pan, and heat it, at medium high heat. Add dollops of your batter, about a tablespoon and a half (you can measure to see what this looks like), and put them down on the hot pan. Have a flipper of some kind ready (Annalena used an icing knife), and cook the guys for a minute on one side. You may get bubbles, you may not. This is where Annalena always had the problems. She waited for the bubbles, and burned the things. So, set a timer for a minute. Then, flip, and cook for another thirty seconds. If you did what you were told, and used a non-stick pan, the things will slip right out onto a waiting baking sheet. Off the heat, re-grease your pan, the same way, and keep on keepin on, until you've used up all your batter.
You can make these ahead of time, and reheat them, or you can make them, and pop them in a very low oven (200 or so), until you're done.
They need some dressing up. Chef Tanis suggested thinned creme fraiche, which sounded fine to Annalena; however, she is inundated with yogurt right now, and made a quick sauce of a container (the same size), of yogurt, some tomato chutney, and a few tablespoons of mayonnaise. Sure was good.
They went just fine with some shishito peppers, and the curried scallops.
So, while the corn is still as high as an elephant's eye, if you have leftovers, or just want something different, get out your skilled, mix some stuff together, and fry dem cakes, kid. You'll be happy with them. Annalena guarantees it.
Notwithstanding her lack of physical stamina today, Annalena does want to give you another recipe that is perfect for this time of year. She saw it in the Times, and immediately saw ways to simplify it for her own uses, and also, for yours. And it allowed her to work with two things that are not her strong point: corn, and pancakes.
Annalena has gone on, several times, about how she doesn't have the same affection for corn that the Guyman does, or that America as a whole does. Well, this year, perhaps a sign of our getting older, or becoming more alike, the Guyman's lust for corn seems to have shrunk, and Annalena has begun to like it more. The result of this, is that there were two ears of cooked corn in the fridge. Annalena was NOT going to throw them out. Yet, she wasn't sure what to do.
Then, David Tanis' column appeared, with a series of recipes to do now that high summer is upon us.
And indeed it is ragazzi. In fact, high summer will continue through the middle of the autumn, whether there is global warming or not. You know that: you can get corn, peaches, tomatoes, etc, all the way through October. But many of these "summer" things peak now. So use them.
Chef Tanis had a recipe for corn blini. It inspired Annalena. BUT... blini are pancakes. And what you don't know, is that pancakes are NOT Annalena's strong suit. She finds them frustrating to make, usually burns them, and ultimately, winds up singing the Peggy Lee song "Is that All there Is?" on the occasions when she does make them. But, she decided to try a few things with the recipe, and ... IT WORKED!!! She will explain how she simplified things, and made them a little less rich than the original called for.
Also, the recipe said that it would make 30 blini. Indeed, if you make these blini sized, which is about the size of a silver dollar, you will get 30. Annalena was looking for something to serve alongside of her curried scallops (anyone want that recipe?), so she made them larger. She got about 18 in total. And that was more than enough for two people. We had about half left over. So figure that if you're making these as a side dish, you will have enough for four. But we won't have enough, unless we start cooking. So, here we go.
You need about 2 cups of corn kernels. Annalena's corn was cooked, but if you have the fresh, raw stuff, use it. Get it off the cob, and make sure you scrape the kernel less cobs with the back of your knife, to get some of the sweet corn milk out of them. Put them aside, while you mix up two, separate things.
First, the dry stuff: easy. Half cup each of flour and corn meal, a teaspoon of baking powder, and half that of salt. The original recipe called for a tablespoon of sugar as well. Annalena left it out. Corn is sweet enough, in her opinion.
Now, the liquid ingredients. Melt half a stick of unsalted butter. Mix it together with a large egg, and a cup of yogurt. Now, on the yogurt, ragazzi, Annalena used non fat Greek yogurt, and her recipe worked really well. Also, you probably know (if not, you should), that a "cup" of yogurt these days, is six ounces. As with coffee, and cereal, etc, corporate America has downsized the portion. The "cup" Annalena used worked well. You might also want some milk handy, because this will help your batter.
What you do now, is take what corn you have , and in a food processor, grind up half of it. In a big bowl, put the dry ingredients in first, and then add the liquid ingredients, and the ground corn, plus the remaining whole corn. Stir it all up together, and let it sit for a few minutes. You are looking for something that is about the texture of thick sour cream. If you feel things are a bit too thick, add milk, by the tablespoon, until you have something the consistency you like. You don't want things running all over the place. It should still be firm.
Ok, now Annalena wants you to melt another two tablespoons of butter, and get out a non stick frying pan. She used a medium sized one, which allowed her to cook four of these at a time. The number you can do at one time, will be a function of how big your pan is . That may sound self evident to some of you. Not to others.
Use a paintbrush, or a paper towel, and dip it into the melted butter. Use it to grease the pan, and heat it, at medium high heat. Add dollops of your batter, about a tablespoon and a half (you can measure to see what this looks like), and put them down on the hot pan. Have a flipper of some kind ready (Annalena used an icing knife), and cook the guys for a minute on one side. You may get bubbles, you may not. This is where Annalena always had the problems. She waited for the bubbles, and burned the things. So, set a timer for a minute. Then, flip, and cook for another thirty seconds. If you did what you were told, and used a non-stick pan, the things will slip right out onto a waiting baking sheet. Off the heat, re-grease your pan, the same way, and keep on keepin on, until you've used up all your batter.
You can make these ahead of time, and reheat them, or you can make them, and pop them in a very low oven (200 or so), until you're done.
They need some dressing up. Chef Tanis suggested thinned creme fraiche, which sounded fine to Annalena; however, she is inundated with yogurt right now, and made a quick sauce of a container (the same size), of yogurt, some tomato chutney, and a few tablespoons of mayonnaise. Sure was good.
They went just fine with some shishito peppers, and the curried scallops.
So, while the corn is still as high as an elephant's eye, if you have leftovers, or just want something different, get out your skilled, mix some stuff together, and fry dem cakes, kid. You'll be happy with them. Annalena guarantees it.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Where's the wheat? Gluten free almond fruit cake
Annalena knows that when her readership members have friends who have dietary issues, they work to try to address them, and cook for them. Some are easy: if a friend doesn't drink alcohol, then you simply make non -alcoholic beverages available. Vegetarian? Ragazzi, if you can't find a vegetarian recipe in this collection, you're not looking hard enough. Vegan? Harder, but it can be done. And so on and so forth. Annalena wishes to make clear one of her guiding lights on these issues, however: whether it is a health issue, an issue of choice, etc, she does not stand for, nor does she preach, on issues of dietary choice. With one exception. Veal. See, there certainly is an issue with "those poor calves" being treated badly, locked up in pens where they can't walk, and so forth. Annalena agrees. The same issue plagues EVERY type of protein we eat. Chicken and veal get the most press, but ragazzi, the farming of animals or birds on an industrial scale is horrific. Know your farms. Interestingly enough, Annalena's ragazzi ed amici seem to accept that she does her homework on these things. EXCEPT for veal. Even if the farm raises the animals humanely, many of those who sit at Annalena's table cannot get past the idea of "those poor calves." Well, if you can't, we'll move on; however, do know that half of all calves are born male. Of that half, 95% are destined for slaughter, and pet food, or food for other farm animals, etc. It is true, ragazzi. And unless you are going to give up ALL animal products (which many do) it is simply a "false economics" of your philosophy if you do not eat veal.
Ok, preaching over. Now we go to the recipe. Annalena has a very good friend who is allergic to gluten. Her dear, and much missed friend Ginny, was also gluten intolerant, as she learned late in life. And she is aware of others, including children of friends, who are wheat allergic. Dealing with this issue, is more difficult than you may imagine. There is wheat in most soy sauces, for example: did you know that? Most breads, even if not billed as wheat, have wheat in them. They have to, to rise properly. And for many sufferers of this condition, cooking non-wheat products in, for example, oil, which has been used to fry wheat products, is problematic. It is NOT an easy road to hoe. Hence, when Annalena spotted a recipe that seemed to be readily adaptable to being gluten free, she tried it. And it works. And it is wonderful. And easy. And it is a cake. A true cake.
The recipe started with one of Annalena's favorite chefs, David Tanis, who works at Chez Panisse, and writes a column for the NY Times, which Annalena never misses. Late last week, she was stealing a look at the on line version of the Times, which prints recipes before they appear in the "paper" version of the paper. The recipe that Chef Tanis presented, was for a fig and almond cake. Now, this unites two of Annalena's favorite things in the world, and as she prepares for her annual sojourn to her friends Kevin and Chuck's house, she is putting together her dessert bar. She studied the recipe.
The original called for .25 cups of flour. Yes, that is right: .25 cups. Well, that does sound like very little, but a little is as much as a lot for Celiac's sufferers, and even that .25 could spell the difference between a cake working or not, because cakes need "lift," and "lift" is provided by gluten. Annalena's thinking, as she read through the recipe, however, was that substituting out the wheat flour would be ok, because there are a lot of eggs in the recipe. There is also baking powder: enough to give "lift" even when the flour is gone. And because cooked eggs are strong, there is structure here.
So, she took out the wheat flour, and added potato flour. Would this work without the addition? She does not know but is skeptical. There is always a need for structure, and the potato flour seemed to do so.
Ok, let's get our selves together here, and make a gluten free cake.
We start by melting a half stick of unsalted butter, while we preheat our ovens to 375. Meanwhile, you will need either a cup of almond flour (which is ground almonds), or a cup of unsalted almonds which you are going to grind. The original recipe called for "natural, unblanched, raw almonds." Fine, but Annalena likes toasted almonds, and used toasted almond flour. Use what you like. If you do start with whole nuts, grind them in a food processor, pulsing them. You pulse because the nuts will release oil if you work them too hard. You can also add .25 cup of sugar to the nuts while you're grinding them, to help avoid this. If you use pre-made nut flour, just stir in the sugar. Then add your .25 cup of potato flour, a half teaspoon of baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
Next, let's beat three large eggs, and add the butter to them. Now, drizzle in a couple of tablespoons of honey. Eyeball this, ragazzi, there's not a lot of sweet in this recipe, so if you went overboard, it would be ok. You will get a browner cake though, because honey browns in a way sugar does not.
Take this wet mixture, and stir it into the dry one. You are going to have a very thick, heavy batter on your hands, which did not pour, as the recipe said. So spoon it into a GREASED pan. Annalena liked using her tart pan with a removable bottom, thinking all the time that there are occasions where she wishes she could remove HER bottom, but such is life. Anyhow, get this into the pan.
You are ALMOST done. You now add fruit. The original called for figs, and indeed, this is a good combination. Cut the stems off of the figs, cut them in half, lengthwise, and put the halves, cut side up, all over the cake, pushing down gently. Annalena had a whole lot of apricots which were giving her the stinkeye, so she made two cakes, and used apricots in the other one. Again, lengthwise cutting, and cut side up. After you have festooned the cake with the fruit of your choice, sprinkle about a quarter cup of sugar over it all. Then, into the oven, for 30 minutes.
Wanna see what they look like? Ok, the fig:
And now, the apricot:
Do they not look spectacular ragazzi? And were they hard to make? Annalena thinks not. So, even if you do not have problems with gluten, try these. Use the fruit you have around. Keep in mind that cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots are all related to almonds, so this may be a hint. Play with the recipe. If someone makes it with NO replacement for the flour at all, please let Annalena know how it works out. Or if you use something else. Please share with us. We all want to know.
Ok, preaching over. Now we go to the recipe. Annalena has a very good friend who is allergic to gluten. Her dear, and much missed friend Ginny, was also gluten intolerant, as she learned late in life. And she is aware of others, including children of friends, who are wheat allergic. Dealing with this issue, is more difficult than you may imagine. There is wheat in most soy sauces, for example: did you know that? Most breads, even if not billed as wheat, have wheat in them. They have to, to rise properly. And for many sufferers of this condition, cooking non-wheat products in, for example, oil, which has been used to fry wheat products, is problematic. It is NOT an easy road to hoe. Hence, when Annalena spotted a recipe that seemed to be readily adaptable to being gluten free, she tried it. And it works. And it is wonderful. And easy. And it is a cake. A true cake.
The recipe started with one of Annalena's favorite chefs, David Tanis, who works at Chez Panisse, and writes a column for the NY Times, which Annalena never misses. Late last week, she was stealing a look at the on line version of the Times, which prints recipes before they appear in the "paper" version of the paper. The recipe that Chef Tanis presented, was for a fig and almond cake. Now, this unites two of Annalena's favorite things in the world, and as she prepares for her annual sojourn to her friends Kevin and Chuck's house, she is putting together her dessert bar. She studied the recipe.
The original called for .25 cups of flour. Yes, that is right: .25 cups. Well, that does sound like very little, but a little is as much as a lot for Celiac's sufferers, and even that .25 could spell the difference between a cake working or not, because cakes need "lift," and "lift" is provided by gluten. Annalena's thinking, as she read through the recipe, however, was that substituting out the wheat flour would be ok, because there are a lot of eggs in the recipe. There is also baking powder: enough to give "lift" even when the flour is gone. And because cooked eggs are strong, there is structure here.
So, she took out the wheat flour, and added potato flour. Would this work without the addition? She does not know but is skeptical. There is always a need for structure, and the potato flour seemed to do so.
Ok, let's get our selves together here, and make a gluten free cake.
We start by melting a half stick of unsalted butter, while we preheat our ovens to 375. Meanwhile, you will need either a cup of almond flour (which is ground almonds), or a cup of unsalted almonds which you are going to grind. The original recipe called for "natural, unblanched, raw almonds." Fine, but Annalena likes toasted almonds, and used toasted almond flour. Use what you like. If you do start with whole nuts, grind them in a food processor, pulsing them. You pulse because the nuts will release oil if you work them too hard. You can also add .25 cup of sugar to the nuts while you're grinding them, to help avoid this. If you use pre-made nut flour, just stir in the sugar. Then add your .25 cup of potato flour, a half teaspoon of baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
Next, let's beat three large eggs, and add the butter to them. Now, drizzle in a couple of tablespoons of honey. Eyeball this, ragazzi, there's not a lot of sweet in this recipe, so if you went overboard, it would be ok. You will get a browner cake though, because honey browns in a way sugar does not.
Take this wet mixture, and stir it into the dry one. You are going to have a very thick, heavy batter on your hands, which did not pour, as the recipe said. So spoon it into a GREASED pan. Annalena liked using her tart pan with a removable bottom, thinking all the time that there are occasions where she wishes she could remove HER bottom, but such is life. Anyhow, get this into the pan.
You are ALMOST done. You now add fruit. The original called for figs, and indeed, this is a good combination. Cut the stems off of the figs, cut them in half, lengthwise, and put the halves, cut side up, all over the cake, pushing down gently. Annalena had a whole lot of apricots which were giving her the stinkeye, so she made two cakes, and used apricots in the other one. Again, lengthwise cutting, and cut side up. After you have festooned the cake with the fruit of your choice, sprinkle about a quarter cup of sugar over it all. Then, into the oven, for 30 minutes.
Wanna see what they look like? Ok, the fig:
And now, the apricot:
Do they not look spectacular ragazzi? And were they hard to make? Annalena thinks not. So, even if you do not have problems with gluten, try these. Use the fruit you have around. Keep in mind that cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots are all related to almonds, so this may be a hint. Play with the recipe. If someone makes it with NO replacement for the flour at all, please let Annalena know how it works out. Or if you use something else. Please share with us. We all want to know.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Going green: leafy humus
Now, can Annalena have a show of hands: how many of you have had a try at making humus: hands up please..
Ok, good. Now, let's keep those hands up, if you made it starting with dried chickpeas instead of the canned stuff.
Hmmmm. Good number of you. Annalena is impressed. NOW... How many of you have ever wondered how much or what you could stick into the stuff and still make it taste good?
Ok, well, we're going to get to that topic today here, ragazzi. This is a delicious, easy thing to make, and it does answer the question: what do I do with the leftover greens?
Of course, it presupposes that you have cooked chickpeas in the house. Annalena encourages all of you to keep a ready supply of cooked legumes at all times. You can freeze them, and they freeze well. But not all of us will have the chickpeas handy if we do cook the beans, and frankly, let us be honest: not many of us are going to start from scratch and make them. If you do, however, you will be rewarded with a final product that is much better than you could get if you worked with the canned stuff.
So, Annalena is going to take you through a "from scratch" recipe, and if you do want to use the canned stuff, well, you know where to start. And if you don't, Annalena, as is her wont, will tell you.
You start with half a pound of dried chickpeas. Cover them in a LOT of water, and let them sit, overnight, to rehydrate some.
The next day, change the water (always important with dried beans), and add new water to cover them to about an inch and a half to two inches. Bring the pot to a boil, and then reduce to a gentle simmer, and go read a book. The chickpeas are going to take about an hour and a half, two hours, to cook. Taste them after about an hour and a quarter. If they feel like they are just about done, add a few teaspoons of salt. If not, keep tasting every fifteen minutes, and add the salt when you're getting there. When they are soft enough for you (usually, this means that if you press a cooled one against the roof of your mouth with your tongue, it falls apart), let them cook in their water, because you want them to cook a little further. Soft is better here. When cool, drain them, but keep about a cup of the water, because you'll need it.
Now, to the greens. Annalena had leftover spigariello broccoli. This is sometimes called "leaf broccoli" for a reason:
Doesn't look like regular broccoli, does it? In fact, there are almost no florets, and no thick stems. So you cook it like a hearty green (kale, swiss chard, etc). Annalena gets hers from the Farmers Market (of course she does), but if you want to do this recipe, and don't have access to spigariello, use your favorite green. Cook it as if you were serving it as a vegetable, and then take two cups of the cooked stuff. Let it cool.
Now, we pull out our blender. We also get 3 good sized cloves of garlic, peel em and smash them. Put them in the blender with the chickpeas, and the water, and get it pureeing. You may find that you need to add more liquid, and if so, start by adding olive oil - about a quarter of a cup. If you still need liquid, now add water. Finally, put those greens in, and just puree it until it's smooth, but still has some texture to it. Taste it, and adjust for salt, or olive oil.
This will thicken when it cools, so keep that in mind when you're adding your liquid. If you do decide to use the canned beans, you will want two cans of them, and drain their liquid and wash them. Then you can move directly to the blender stage.
This is very nice this time of year. Sometimes, you just want a tasty bit of something like this. Y'all know what I mean. So, make it. And tell us what green went into your version. C'mon people, get to the kitchen
Ok, good. Now, let's keep those hands up, if you made it starting with dried chickpeas instead of the canned stuff.
Hmmmm. Good number of you. Annalena is impressed. NOW... How many of you have ever wondered how much or what you could stick into the stuff and still make it taste good?
Ok, well, we're going to get to that topic today here, ragazzi. This is a delicious, easy thing to make, and it does answer the question: what do I do with the leftover greens?
Of course, it presupposes that you have cooked chickpeas in the house. Annalena encourages all of you to keep a ready supply of cooked legumes at all times. You can freeze them, and they freeze well. But not all of us will have the chickpeas handy if we do cook the beans, and frankly, let us be honest: not many of us are going to start from scratch and make them. If you do, however, you will be rewarded with a final product that is much better than you could get if you worked with the canned stuff.
So, Annalena is going to take you through a "from scratch" recipe, and if you do want to use the canned stuff, well, you know where to start. And if you don't, Annalena, as is her wont, will tell you.
You start with half a pound of dried chickpeas. Cover them in a LOT of water, and let them sit, overnight, to rehydrate some.
The next day, change the water (always important with dried beans), and add new water to cover them to about an inch and a half to two inches. Bring the pot to a boil, and then reduce to a gentle simmer, and go read a book. The chickpeas are going to take about an hour and a half, two hours, to cook. Taste them after about an hour and a quarter. If they feel like they are just about done, add a few teaspoons of salt. If not, keep tasting every fifteen minutes, and add the salt when you're getting there. When they are soft enough for you (usually, this means that if you press a cooled one against the roof of your mouth with your tongue, it falls apart), let them cook in their water, because you want them to cook a little further. Soft is better here. When cool, drain them, but keep about a cup of the water, because you'll need it.
Now, to the greens. Annalena had leftover spigariello broccoli. This is sometimes called "leaf broccoli" for a reason:
Doesn't look like regular broccoli, does it? In fact, there are almost no florets, and no thick stems. So you cook it like a hearty green (kale, swiss chard, etc). Annalena gets hers from the Farmers Market (of course she does), but if you want to do this recipe, and don't have access to spigariello, use your favorite green. Cook it as if you were serving it as a vegetable, and then take two cups of the cooked stuff. Let it cool.
Now, we pull out our blender. We also get 3 good sized cloves of garlic, peel em and smash them. Put them in the blender with the chickpeas, and the water, and get it pureeing. You may find that you need to add more liquid, and if so, start by adding olive oil - about a quarter of a cup. If you still need liquid, now add water. Finally, put those greens in, and just puree it until it's smooth, but still has some texture to it. Taste it, and adjust for salt, or olive oil.
This will thicken when it cools, so keep that in mind when you're adding your liquid. If you do decide to use the canned beans, you will want two cans of them, and drain their liquid and wash them. Then you can move directly to the blender stage.
This is very nice this time of year. Sometimes, you just want a tasty bit of something like this. Y'all know what I mean. So, make it. And tell us what green went into your version. C'mon people, get to the kitchen
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Marinades revisited: honey and tequilla marinated pork chops
If you were to search this blog for stuff on marinades, ragazzi, you would find that Annalena is not a big fan of them. She has her reasons: many recipes for marinated "X" suggest that the marinade is going to penetrate into the X and bring its flavor throughout whatever you're eating.
That, ragazzi, is not going to happen. Years ago, someone (I believe it was Deborah Madison), proved this to Annalena's satisfaction, by letting different products soak in a very dark colored marinade, for upwards of a day. If that marinade were penetrating, then you would see color movement.
You didn't. And if Annalena recalls, she used products that were somewhat permeable, like tofu. So, if it won't get through stuff like that, how will it get through meat? Or hard and firm vegetables?
Essentially, ragazzi, you can get flavor from a marinade INTO more solid products, by cooking them.
Wait... that sounds like boiling , doesn't it? Indeed it does. Because it is. Or at least simmering. Or pouring hot liquid over something such that it "cooks." The only case of a "marinade" truly penetrating a protein which Annalena knows of, is the case of highly acidic "baths" for things like ceviche, where you use fish, which is itself less dense than meat. And think of the fish you use in ceviche. Scallops. Shrimp. Flounder. Halibut. All of these are "lighter weight" than, say, tuna or swordfish, which are very difficult to ceviche.
If you keep that in mind, and have reasonable expectations as to what a marinade can do, you'll be ok. A marinade will give you flavor ON THE SURFACE of your meat. You might get more of it into the meat if the marinade is very salty, but because you're going to have the meat sit in that marinade for a while, you have to worry about oversalting.
Annalena saw this marinade, on a television show while working out on her hated treadmill. It was used for a skirt steak, but she thought it was better with pork. It sure is good. Here we go. And keep the salt instructions in mind. They're important.
First, to make your marinade, for anywhere from 2-4 thick pork chops on the bone, combine a half cup of olive oil, a quarter cup of tequilla, the juice of four limes (Annalena HATES squeezing limes, by the way), about four cloves of chopped garlic, 2-3 chopped up hot peppers (don't worry about the heat very much. Not much of it will get in the meat), and finally, a quarter cup of honey, and AT LEAST two teaspoons of salt. Stir this all together. Taste it. Does it taste salty? If it doesn't, add more salt. This "brine" should be fairly salty, because the salt is going to carry the flavors into the food. The alcohol and acid from the lime juice and tequila are going to tenderize the meat, the honey is going to cause the flavors to stick to the surface, and the oil is going to help carry the flavors as well.
You want to stir this until the honey is well incorporated. Then, put it in a large plastic bag, add your chops, seal the bag and stir things around. Put the whole thing in a bowl, and refrigerate it, overnight, or leave it on your counter for about 3-4 hours (Annalena prefers the refrigerator option).
When you're ready to cook, heat up a stove top grill and slick it lightly with olive oil. Get it hot, and while it's heating up, pour off the marinade from your chops. Add them to the pan, and cook on each side, for about four minutes. Watch the browning. That's the result of the honey. Then put the whole pan in the oven for another 4-5 minutes, at 375, and then pull it out and let it rest for another five.
VOILA. You will have very well seasoned, tasty chops. More of the flavor gets into the fat of the chop, so you may find yourself on the horns of a dilemma: you KNOW you're not supposed to eat the fat, but...
Well, Annalena cannot tell you what to do on that one, ragazzi. What she CAN tell you, is that if you move those chops to a plate and let them sit, you have an empty grill, and you can slice up some underripe peaches, or nectarines, or mangoes, etc, and grill them too. Just pile em on your chops.
Some good eating here, ragazzi. Annalena served them with pole beans and corn. Make your own menu. Let us know what ya did.
That, ragazzi, is not going to happen. Years ago, someone (I believe it was Deborah Madison), proved this to Annalena's satisfaction, by letting different products soak in a very dark colored marinade, for upwards of a day. If that marinade were penetrating, then you would see color movement.
You didn't. And if Annalena recalls, she used products that were somewhat permeable, like tofu. So, if it won't get through stuff like that, how will it get through meat? Or hard and firm vegetables?
Essentially, ragazzi, you can get flavor from a marinade INTO more solid products, by cooking them.
Wait... that sounds like boiling , doesn't it? Indeed it does. Because it is. Or at least simmering. Or pouring hot liquid over something such that it "cooks." The only case of a "marinade" truly penetrating a protein which Annalena knows of, is the case of highly acidic "baths" for things like ceviche, where you use fish, which is itself less dense than meat. And think of the fish you use in ceviche. Scallops. Shrimp. Flounder. Halibut. All of these are "lighter weight" than, say, tuna or swordfish, which are very difficult to ceviche.
If you keep that in mind, and have reasonable expectations as to what a marinade can do, you'll be ok. A marinade will give you flavor ON THE SURFACE of your meat. You might get more of it into the meat if the marinade is very salty, but because you're going to have the meat sit in that marinade for a while, you have to worry about oversalting.
Annalena saw this marinade, on a television show while working out on her hated treadmill. It was used for a skirt steak, but she thought it was better with pork. It sure is good. Here we go. And keep the salt instructions in mind. They're important.
First, to make your marinade, for anywhere from 2-4 thick pork chops on the bone, combine a half cup of olive oil, a quarter cup of tequilla, the juice of four limes (Annalena HATES squeezing limes, by the way), about four cloves of chopped garlic, 2-3 chopped up hot peppers (don't worry about the heat very much. Not much of it will get in the meat), and finally, a quarter cup of honey, and AT LEAST two teaspoons of salt. Stir this all together. Taste it. Does it taste salty? If it doesn't, add more salt. This "brine" should be fairly salty, because the salt is going to carry the flavors into the food. The alcohol and acid from the lime juice and tequila are going to tenderize the meat, the honey is going to cause the flavors to stick to the surface, and the oil is going to help carry the flavors as well.
You want to stir this until the honey is well incorporated. Then, put it in a large plastic bag, add your chops, seal the bag and stir things around. Put the whole thing in a bowl, and refrigerate it, overnight, or leave it on your counter for about 3-4 hours (Annalena prefers the refrigerator option).
When you're ready to cook, heat up a stove top grill and slick it lightly with olive oil. Get it hot, and while it's heating up, pour off the marinade from your chops. Add them to the pan, and cook on each side, for about four minutes. Watch the browning. That's the result of the honey. Then put the whole pan in the oven for another 4-5 minutes, at 375, and then pull it out and let it rest for another five.
VOILA. You will have very well seasoned, tasty chops. More of the flavor gets into the fat of the chop, so you may find yourself on the horns of a dilemma: you KNOW you're not supposed to eat the fat, but...
Well, Annalena cannot tell you what to do on that one, ragazzi. What she CAN tell you, is that if you move those chops to a plate and let them sit, you have an empty grill, and you can slice up some underripe peaches, or nectarines, or mangoes, etc, and grill them too. Just pile em on your chops.
Some good eating here, ragazzi. Annalena served them with pole beans and corn. Make your own menu. Let us know what ya did.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
The old, the classic, reconsidered: chicken thighs with lots of garlic
Ragazzi, perhaps you know of a French classic "farmhouse" dish. Annalena, who seems to be having trouble with ALL languages these days, will not attempt to render the correct French title; however, it is called "chicken with 40 cloves of garlic." What you are to do is to take a roasting fowl, peel 40 cloves of garlic, and put them under the skin of the bird, all over. You then roast it as usual, and when you serve it forth, the garlic, soft and sweet, is spread on toast to eat with the bird.
It is, to be honest, amazingly good. Peeling 40 cloves of garlic is not for the impatient however, or those with manicured nails. Hence, that is why one has staff.
OOPS. Annalena meant friend.
Well, roasting a bird and stuffing 40 cloves under it is all well and good for the weekend. Recently, David Tanis ( who is rapidly becoming Annalena's favorite in print cook), presented a modified version of the recipe, using what he calls "new garlic."
Now, to explain. MOST of the garlic we use is dried garlic. It is grown, stored, and dried, and it has the strong, familiar flavor we know when we buy it in the store. However, as you will know from this blog, at the start of the garlic season, we have "green garlic," which is one of the Guyman's favorite ingredients. At this time of year, we have "NEW" garlic. This stuff is not nearly as pungent as the dried, is easy to peel, and is very, very good. And that is what you are going to use here. This is a perfect weekday supper. It takes so little time to make, and so little work, you may very well faint from the simplicity. If you do, have someone push some garlic under your nose to resurrect you. Let's begin.
First, preheat your oven to 375, and get a nice heavy pot. You all know that Annalena prefers her Le Creuset, and its perfect for this. You want one which is wide enough to hold 3 pounds of chicken thighs, rather than a whole chicken, cut up , which Mr. Tanis recommends, in one layer. If you happen to remember, let the chicken sit, uncovered and salted and peppered in the refrigerator, overnight. If not, BAD CHILDREN. You will then have to pat the pieces very dry, and we'll get to work.
Chop up enough onion to have two cups of evenly sized pieces. Melt two tablespoons of butter in that pan, at medium high heat, and add the onions. Toss in about a teaspoon of salt, and cook them, stirring every couple of minutes, until they begin to brown. It will take about five minutes.
Meanwhile, get - ready for this, ragazzi? - SIX BULBS of fresh garlic, and slice them right down the middle. It's pretty easy to see where to do it. If there's any stem, cut it away. If you can rub some paper off of them, fine. If not, don't worry, no need to peel.
When the onions are cooked, add the garlic halves. Put the chicken thighs , skin side up, right on top. Add a cup of white wine, a cup of water, and add about six sprigs of fresh thyme to the top. Put a cover on your pot, and put it in the oven for half an hour. In that half hour, the chicken will stew. Then, take the cover off, increase the temperature to 425, and cook for another ten minutes or so, to brown the meat. Truth to be told, however, this is never going to get golden brown. And that's ok
You are left with an EXQUISITE sauce and some very tasty chicken. You can eat it right away, or you can let it sit in the fridge, overnight, and take the fat off the top before you warm it up (Remember that thighs have a lot of fat in them).
To Annalena, all that will do for this is rice, or even better, mashed potatoes. Not too rich here, this chicken, so go to town with your starch. And make sure you savor those garlic cloves. Save the ones you don't eat, and use them somewhere else. Use your imagination, that's what it's for, as the Madonna told us.
MANGIA
It is, to be honest, amazingly good. Peeling 40 cloves of garlic is not for the impatient however, or those with manicured nails. Hence, that is why one has staff.
OOPS. Annalena meant friend.
Well, roasting a bird and stuffing 40 cloves under it is all well and good for the weekend. Recently, David Tanis ( who is rapidly becoming Annalena's favorite in print cook), presented a modified version of the recipe, using what he calls "new garlic."
Now, to explain. MOST of the garlic we use is dried garlic. It is grown, stored, and dried, and it has the strong, familiar flavor we know when we buy it in the store. However, as you will know from this blog, at the start of the garlic season, we have "green garlic," which is one of the Guyman's favorite ingredients. At this time of year, we have "NEW" garlic. This stuff is not nearly as pungent as the dried, is easy to peel, and is very, very good. And that is what you are going to use here. This is a perfect weekday supper. It takes so little time to make, and so little work, you may very well faint from the simplicity. If you do, have someone push some garlic under your nose to resurrect you. Let's begin.
First, preheat your oven to 375, and get a nice heavy pot. You all know that Annalena prefers her Le Creuset, and its perfect for this. You want one which is wide enough to hold 3 pounds of chicken thighs, rather than a whole chicken, cut up , which Mr. Tanis recommends, in one layer. If you happen to remember, let the chicken sit, uncovered and salted and peppered in the refrigerator, overnight. If not, BAD CHILDREN. You will then have to pat the pieces very dry, and we'll get to work.
Chop up enough onion to have two cups of evenly sized pieces. Melt two tablespoons of butter in that pan, at medium high heat, and add the onions. Toss in about a teaspoon of salt, and cook them, stirring every couple of minutes, until they begin to brown. It will take about five minutes.
Meanwhile, get - ready for this, ragazzi? - SIX BULBS of fresh garlic, and slice them right down the middle. It's pretty easy to see where to do it. If there's any stem, cut it away. If you can rub some paper off of them, fine. If not, don't worry, no need to peel.
When the onions are cooked, add the garlic halves. Put the chicken thighs , skin side up, right on top. Add a cup of white wine, a cup of water, and add about six sprigs of fresh thyme to the top. Put a cover on your pot, and put it in the oven for half an hour. In that half hour, the chicken will stew. Then, take the cover off, increase the temperature to 425, and cook for another ten minutes or so, to brown the meat. Truth to be told, however, this is never going to get golden brown. And that's ok
You are left with an EXQUISITE sauce and some very tasty chicken. You can eat it right away, or you can let it sit in the fridge, overnight, and take the fat off the top before you warm it up (Remember that thighs have a lot of fat in them).
To Annalena, all that will do for this is rice, or even better, mashed potatoes. Not too rich here, this chicken, so go to town with your starch. And make sure you savor those garlic cloves. Save the ones you don't eat, and use them somewhere else. Use your imagination, that's what it's for, as the Madonna told us.
MANGIA
Monday, August 5, 2013
The shock of the new: watermelon and peashoot salad
Ragazzi, this tale is more or less one that makes cooking all worthwhile. It is the story of how Annalena was essentially fiddling in her kitchen, came up with something good, but thought nothing of it. Until the reactions came in, including one suggestion to keep this quiet, and not to let restaurants know about it.
Annalena's view? Be her guest. We'll aways know who got there first.
Some time ago, we here in NYC were sweating through a very uncomfortable period of the summer. To say it was hot, is an understatement. Annalena was close to changing her clothes three times a day, without a visit to her gym. And in hot weather, ragazzi, one of the things that refuses to grow - or grows so fast as to be inedible - is lettuce. Every kind of lettuce. As a result, there were no greens for green salad.
Now, there does come a time every year when salad greens are just not as available as you would think, and it is in fact during the summer that it happens. And every time it does, Annalena is unprepared for it. NOT THIS YEAR... NO SIREE. She was ready with, uh, about 4-5 different salads that did not involve lettuce.
And she was sick of them all as the heat wore on.
Heat, however, is a watermelon's good friend, to a point. Watermelon needs very hot weather to grow. And if you were to see some of the melons in the market now, ragazzi, you would know that they are getting more than their fair share of hot weather. Annalena and the Guyman are not big fans of watermelon as fruit, but she was getting ideas about a watermelon salad, with feta cheese, and purslane.
The purslane idea didn't work out. BUT... in the house, there were pea shoots. So, the salad became watermelon, peashoot, and feta cheese. Fantastic.
As the hot weather continued, there were meals where there was cheese involved in the entrees, and Annalena does not like to serve forth two courses with cheese. So she left out the cheese. Know what? The salad was even better.
To the dressing: Annalena knew, somewhat instinctively, that a sweeter dressing than her usual would be necessary for a watermelon salad, so she switched to balsamic vinegar, rather than champagne vinegar. This proved to be a good choice, tastewise. BUT... think for a minute, if you will, of the combination of watermelon, in its red or pink-red form, and dark balsamic vinegar. Not so pretty.
Well, it isn't a staple in her kitchen, but white balsamic vinegar exists. And it works And by using it, you keep the beautiful color of this salad , well, beautiful. And there are ways to gussy it up to, as Annalena will explain. Ready?
You need about a quarter pound of peashoots. That's more than it seems. These guys are light. And a small watermelon. You've seen the "sugar baby " type of watermelons. Annalena thinks you may not be able to get one with seeds, but ask to make sure it's seedless. The seeds aren't a problem, but they're a nuisance. You want one that is slightly underripe, which will make your farmer very happy, since everyone wants RIPE, SWEET watermelon. There is enough sweetness in an underripe one to work for salad. In fact, it's better.
To peel the melon, Annalena cuts a horizontal slice off the bottom, so she can stand it on a surface. Do the same thing at the other end, and then using a big knife, slice down the peel. It's not unlike peeling a pineapple. You'll have an irregular shaped "blob" of red or pink fruit after that. Cut long slices, say about a half inch thick, and then cut them into cubes. You'll be tasting as you go along, let's face it, but you'll have enough. Put this right on top of the pea shoots.
To the dressing, and Annalena's solution. You will need a lot of dressing for a salad like this, so plan on 1/3 cup of vinegars and 2/3 of olive oil. Annalena uses half and half of the white balsamic vinegar and wine vinegar, but if you like sweetness, go all the way with balsamic. A teaspoon of salt as well, please. Shake it all up, really well, and then pour it over the watermelon. Then, gently turn everything together, and you're ready.
It amazes Annalena that something this simple could be this good. But it is. Now, you can "fancy" this a few ways. One is, of course, with the feta cheese. Get the driest, saltiest one you can find. Ricotta salata will work as well. Annalena likes the salad very much with opaline basil - this is the purple one. Just put small, whole leaves in, and don't toss them. Just leave them at top. If she were eating it herself, she'd use hyssop, but this is not a taste to many people's likings, so proceed with caution and save it for your licorice loving friends.
Make it. And remember. This is a GOOD one to make ahead of time. It stands in the refrigerator for HOURS. So make it in the afternoon, let it sit, and then... your dinner salad only awaits your dressing.
Annalena's view? Be her guest. We'll aways know who got there first.
Some time ago, we here in NYC were sweating through a very uncomfortable period of the summer. To say it was hot, is an understatement. Annalena was close to changing her clothes three times a day, without a visit to her gym. And in hot weather, ragazzi, one of the things that refuses to grow - or grows so fast as to be inedible - is lettuce. Every kind of lettuce. As a result, there were no greens for green salad.
Now, there does come a time every year when salad greens are just not as available as you would think, and it is in fact during the summer that it happens. And every time it does, Annalena is unprepared for it. NOT THIS YEAR... NO SIREE. She was ready with, uh, about 4-5 different salads that did not involve lettuce.
And she was sick of them all as the heat wore on.
Heat, however, is a watermelon's good friend, to a point. Watermelon needs very hot weather to grow. And if you were to see some of the melons in the market now, ragazzi, you would know that they are getting more than their fair share of hot weather. Annalena and the Guyman are not big fans of watermelon as fruit, but she was getting ideas about a watermelon salad, with feta cheese, and purslane.
The purslane idea didn't work out. BUT... in the house, there were pea shoots. So, the salad became watermelon, peashoot, and feta cheese. Fantastic.
As the hot weather continued, there were meals where there was cheese involved in the entrees, and Annalena does not like to serve forth two courses with cheese. So she left out the cheese. Know what? The salad was even better.
To the dressing: Annalena knew, somewhat instinctively, that a sweeter dressing than her usual would be necessary for a watermelon salad, so she switched to balsamic vinegar, rather than champagne vinegar. This proved to be a good choice, tastewise. BUT... think for a minute, if you will, of the combination of watermelon, in its red or pink-red form, and dark balsamic vinegar. Not so pretty.
Well, it isn't a staple in her kitchen, but white balsamic vinegar exists. And it works And by using it, you keep the beautiful color of this salad , well, beautiful. And there are ways to gussy it up to, as Annalena will explain. Ready?
You need about a quarter pound of peashoots. That's more than it seems. These guys are light. And a small watermelon. You've seen the "sugar baby " type of watermelons. Annalena thinks you may not be able to get one with seeds, but ask to make sure it's seedless. The seeds aren't a problem, but they're a nuisance. You want one that is slightly underripe, which will make your farmer very happy, since everyone wants RIPE, SWEET watermelon. There is enough sweetness in an underripe one to work for salad. In fact, it's better.
To peel the melon, Annalena cuts a horizontal slice off the bottom, so she can stand it on a surface. Do the same thing at the other end, and then using a big knife, slice down the peel. It's not unlike peeling a pineapple. You'll have an irregular shaped "blob" of red or pink fruit after that. Cut long slices, say about a half inch thick, and then cut them into cubes. You'll be tasting as you go along, let's face it, but you'll have enough. Put this right on top of the pea shoots.
To the dressing, and Annalena's solution. You will need a lot of dressing for a salad like this, so plan on 1/3 cup of vinegars and 2/3 of olive oil. Annalena uses half and half of the white balsamic vinegar and wine vinegar, but if you like sweetness, go all the way with balsamic. A teaspoon of salt as well, please. Shake it all up, really well, and then pour it over the watermelon. Then, gently turn everything together, and you're ready.
It amazes Annalena that something this simple could be this good. But it is. Now, you can "fancy" this a few ways. One is, of course, with the feta cheese. Get the driest, saltiest one you can find. Ricotta salata will work as well. Annalena likes the salad very much with opaline basil - this is the purple one. Just put small, whole leaves in, and don't toss them. Just leave them at top. If she were eating it herself, she'd use hyssop, but this is not a taste to many people's likings, so proceed with caution and save it for your licorice loving friends.
Make it. And remember. This is a GOOD one to make ahead of time. It stands in the refrigerator for HOURS. So make it in the afternoon, let it sit, and then... your dinner salad only awaits your dressing.
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