Friday, January 31, 2014

Experimenting: scorzonera and jerusalem artichoke gratin

Ok, ragazzi,  Annalena needs to fess up right away.  She could have used a different word for that title, because the vegetable in question has many names, and you probably know at least one of them;  however, she is trying to get her wordsmith friend Professor Hymes to read this  (and she'll hint strongly on facebook too, since he's probably foregoing the Superbowl for reasons of allegiance), and this is one way to do it.

The fun of belonging to one of the CSA's, or food delivery services, etc, is that you never really know what they're going to send you.  Currently, Annalena belongs to  Quinciple, which sends a box every week, with enough food to serve two people, two or three meals.  If you use everything, as Annalena tries to do, this is ultimately a bargain.  And at its best, it leaves you wanting more of some of what they've sent.  True, Annalena will probably never use smoked salt (in the box), again, but this dish...

The list of ingredients referred to an item as "scorzonera."  First, Annalena thought it was cheese, but there was another cheese in the box.  She read on and smiled.  But just a bit.  "Also known as black salsify or oyster plant."  Well, it is called oyster plant because, allegedly, when cooked, it tastes like oysters.

Annalena needs to say that to her, it does NOT taste like oysters.  Not at all.  And she has had it in restaurants, but never worked with it.  So the fact that they actually included a recipe (one of the big pluses of this service, gang, is that they include recipes that use multiple ingredients from the box), for using this product was a good thing.  (Look up a picture of 'black salsify,' ragazzi, and you'll see why it is a vegetable that non-pluses one. )

There were also jerusalem artichokes in the box.  Or, sunchokes, or girasoles.  Another vegetable with many names,  and one that many people do not know.  Annalena knows them well, as the casual reader of this blog will know.  She already had some in her fridge, and now she had more.  They do store well, but not forever.   So, it was time to get to work.  Out came the recipe card, out came the pots and pans and, as Jackie Gleason used to say  "AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY we go."

The recipe said you should use a mandoline for this, otherwise the dish is very tedious.  Annalena could see that.  Buy yourself a Benriner instead, ragazzi.  It costs about 30.00, and it will transform your life.  For a few months, use the guard. It's sharp.

Wash your veggies: a pound of the jerusalem artichokes, and a half pound of the salsify.  Scrape the salsify a bit, but do not peel it.  Then slice them very thin:  1/16 of an inch is what the recipe called for.  You could go thicker, and if you do t his by hand, you probably will.    But before you start slicing, measure out a cup and a half of milk, and get a non-metallic 9x13 inch pan ready, by buttering it.    Know that when you slice the jerusalem artichokes, they will darken, so you may want to do them after you do the salsify.  It will feel like you're slicing forever, but that's because of the repetitive motion.  Annalena was done with all slicing in less than ten minutes.  Now, put half of the jerusalem artichoke slices in the pan, and spread them evenly.   Season with salt and pepper.Follow this with all of the salsify.  Season again. Finish with the jerusalem artichokes. And season.  Press everything down a bit, and now pour the milk over the veggies.  You all know the rule: NO SKIM MILK IN THE KITCHEN. Get about two tablespoons of unsalted butter, break it up into small bits, and put it over the veggies.    Put this in the oven, preheated to 350, for forty minutes.


While this is happening, make some herbed bread crumbs.  You do this by putting about two cups of cubed, stale bread (and Annalena's bread was REALLY stale) into a food processor, with about half a teaspoon of a dried herb that's fresh.  ("Fresh" dried herb?  Yes, ragazzi.  Smell them).  Cube up the bread to small pieces first, and process until you have very rough, uneven crumbs.  They will smell, divine.  BUT WAIT!

Now, after the forty minutes, sprinkle the crumbs on the veggies, and bake for another fifteen minutes.  They will toast up, beautifully, and the smell of the herbs.... Annalena used oregano.  OH, she wanted to dig in and eat this while it was still in the oven.

Gratins made this way are transformed. You lose the milk, and get a thick, creamy sauce from the action of the starch in the veggies.  There is no need for cheese for this, but if you must...

No, don't.  Eat it this way.  With a simply prepared chop or steak.  Or by itself.  And feel proud of meeting a new veggie with an interesting name, eating seasonally, and having a good meal.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Keeping warm and well fed: fricasee of chicken in red cabbage sauce

Ciao ragazzi, Annalena returns.  This time, the delay in writing was very simply because Annalena was cooking favorites that you've all read about already before.  Last week was a week with the roast pork and fennel,   skate wing,  our weekly roast chicken, and a white bean soup with roasted vegetables.  You can find all of those on the blog already, so why repeat oneself more than one already does?

It is cold here in NY:  VERY cold.  All talk of polar vortices aside, it is still VERY FREAKING COLD.  Annalena's vendors did not come to market:  their produce would freeze, and the waters are too cold for fishing.  So, she ventured forth to Whole Foods , which is what she does this time of year, and came back with some ingredients to make a dish that sounds odd, but ultimately, tastes lovely.

Annalena found this recipe in her Marcella Hazan collection.  Now, before you start getting on your high, or not so high horse, and start chanting "red cabbage is not Italian," look at your maps ragazzi.  See how Italy borders German speaking Austria?  And shall we speak of the Alto Adige, where Italians with names like Brugemann come from?  In fact, the Adige had a plebecite last week and called for secession from Italy and reunification with Austria.  It is NOT going to happen, but politics are not our concern here.  Cooking is. So we are going to make a dish that feels much more German than Italian, but rest assured:  if Marcella made it, it's Italian.

It is an exercise in patience, ragazzi. Not "difficult" patience, but this is a dish which takes on the order of an  hour and a half to make.  Your work time is all of about 15 minutes, but it takes time for the "sauce" to develop.  So, get yourself a good book, and get ready to make a delicious, unusual dish.

Here are your ingredients:  2 pounds of red cabbage, a large onion, 4 garlic cloves, olive oil, salt, a half cup of red wine, and 3 pounds of chicken. Annalena used whole legs, because this eliminates the problem of overcooked breasts.  If you do want to use breasts here, note the change that Annalena discusses, courtesy of Chef Hazan.  You want the chicken on the bone, with skin here.

We start by making our sauce.  Slice the onion thinly, until you have a healthy cup - bordering on a cup and a half.  Then you want to slice four cloves of garlic into thin slivers.  Finally, shred the cabbage into fine pieces, as if you were making red coleslaw.  As almost always, there is no need to be surgically precise here.

Get a quarter cup of olive oil in a big saute' pan, and add all your ingredients.  Toss them in the oil, turn the heat to medium, and add a modicum of salt (you have to judge this yourself, ragazzi:  more salt for the salt lovers, less for those who don't.    When the mix begins to sizzle, turn your heat to low, cover the pan, and let this cook for 40-45 minutes.  Every ten minutes or so,  stir the mix.

Now, IF you have room on  your stove (and many of us do not), you can then proceed with the chicken.  As noted, you need three pounds.  For Annalena, this was four, large legs.  The amount is approximate, as you can go to four pounds, and you may very well have that, if you buy a cut up chicken, or cut one up yourself.    Salt the bird, and pat it very, VERY dry. Annalena cannot stress this enough.

When you have room on your stove, put a tablespoon of olive oil in another big pan, and when it's warm, add the chicken pieces.  The leg pieces especially will give off fat - lots of it.  Cook them until they brown well, skin side down. This could take anywhere from five to ten minutes.  Then turn them over and do the same.

Ok, now let's eliminate the pan in which you cooked the chicken, and let's put the chicken into the cabbage, which will have reduced to this soft mass.  Do not put the breasts in yet if you are using them.  Toss the chicken in the cabbage sauce, and add half a cup of red wine.  Put the thing on a low flame, cover it, and let it cook for 30 minutes or so.  Again, as you think about it, turn the chicken in the cabbage.  After thirty minutes, add the breast pieces, and cook the whole thing for another 10-15 minutes.

You've cooked cabbage for about an hour and a half and you know what?  You won't have burned it, it will not have turned to an ugly, grey green mess, your home will not stink of cabbage.  What you will have is a glistening dish that begs for polenta to serve with it.    And you will be feeling "cabbage and chicken.  What a GREAT idea."

So, go forth ragazzi. Annalena is using her new pressure cooker today for the first time.  So far, the house has not exploded, but the day is young

Saturday, January 18, 2014

A little bitter with the sweet: grapefruit bundt cake

Ok, ragazzi, for this one, we're going to stop worrying about nutrition and calories and everything else, and MAKE A CAKE.

Yes, we're gonna make a cake.  And it's going to be a flavor you wouldn't think of for cake:  grapefruit.  That's right, grapefruit. And Annalena means the whole kit and caboodle. the whole grapefruit. Pits, peel, juice, EVERYTHING (except the blossom end).

Now, with Annalena's sudden conversion to health, why a CAKE?  Well, she will explain.  It is very simple. Sometime this weekend, Annalena may be hosting another Anna - an Anna from Italy!  To not be able to offer an Italian lady something sweet with her coffee, is tantamount to spitting on the pope's robes.  No, ragazzi, there has to be a cake in the house.

Annalena, as you undoubtedly know, likes to play with different flavors.  And when she saw this recipe on Suvir Saran's web page, and then went to the link to  the Brazilian site to find it, well... she was hooked.

So this is how they make cake in Brazil?  Now, carini, if you have ever appreciated Brazilians, you will understand the illogic of saying "well if they eat this,  and can look  like that..."

(Incidentally, Annalena has a wonderful story to digress about here.  Years ago, she was doing a lot of work in a suburb of Washington DC called Crystal City.  The name is deceiving in every way.  Well, one of the bright spots was a coffee shop, right near the metro station, run by a very large, very funny, take no prisoners Latina.  The coffee shop had different types of coffee, labelled by their origin. So, one day, Annalena walked in and said "Yes, I would like a large, black Brazilian."  The Latina looked back and said "wouldn't we all, love?")

Ok, back to the cake.  It is actually an orange cake in the original, but Chef Saran used grapefruit.  He used about 3/4 of a grapefruit, Annalena used it all - except the blossom end.  Here we go.  It's easy with a food processor.

Here are your ingredients.  One large grapefruit, a cup of vegetable oil, 1.75 cups of sugar, two cups of flour, 4 eggs, a tablespoon of baking powder, and a  pinch of salt.    You should also use a bundt pan for prettiness, although you could use a springform if you like.  Whatever pan you use, butter it well. REALLY butter it well.  Citrus juices make these kinds of cakes hard to remove.

So you have prepped your pan, and now, set your oven to 350.  Cut up your grapefruit.  Annalena cut it into eight pieces and then each of those, into thirds.  Put the pieces into a food processor, and churn it to the point where you have a fine mass, almost like ground meat.  It will not take long.  Then add the eggs, one at a time, directly to the food processor.   Now add the sugar.  And now, the oil.  Keep the machine working, and get everything uniform.

Stop the machine for a minute and scrape everything down.  Put in the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and again, process to uniformity.  Annalena thinks this will all take you about three minutes to do.  Pour the batter into your buttered pan, put it in the oven, and go do something that takes about 45 minutes to do.  Every now and then, you will get a whiff of those grapefruit oils and you will be SO happy.

At 45 minutes, probe the cake with a small knife to see if any wet bits stick to it.  If the answer is no, the cake is done.

You will need to unmold this if you used a bundt pan, and again, because of the citrus juices, sooner is better than later.  That means it will still be hot.  So, PROTECTING YOUR HANDS, put a plate, or cooling rack, on top of the cake, and flip it over firmly.  If you used sufficient butter, it will come out in one lovely, well browned piece.  If it is not moving, do not force it.  Try heating the pan a bit, or sliding a knife around the edges to get it out.    If you fail at this, and your cake is in pieces, worry not, carino. Simply plan on a trifle that night, and make a pudding to layer with pieces of cake.  You'll be just as happy.

Annalena looks forward to the Anna.  And she looks forward to your reactions to this cake.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

It took a week to make: black bean soup with root vegetables

Now, ragazzi, as usual Annalena is giving you a misleading title.  No, it did not take her a full week to make this soup.  Rather, she wants to provide something for all of you who "just don't have time" to make a pot of soup.

Annalena is not accepting this.  No, no , no.  She made this soup, in three different phases, and at no point did she exert herself for more than about ten minutes.  That is serious. And she has two quarts of wonderful "winter penicillin," as one writer has called it.  

Annalena loves black bean soup.  And it is, again as many have written, the perfect place to express yourself.  If you have cooked black beans, you can make a wonderful soup, which goes in any direction that you feel you want to take it.  This one is fairly classic, and it comes out of Annalena's desire to use up some veggies she had around, and could not think of what else to do with.  She's told that just about any winter root vegetable will go well with black beans.  Try it, and let her know.

Ok, day 1:  let's make the beans.  Get 3/4 of a pound (you could use a pound, but this is what the girl had) of black beans, put them under water by about two inches, and let them soak, overnight.

Next morning, after you pour yourself some coffee, pour out the beans, and put them in a pot with fresh water, and cook them for about an hour.  Taste after forty five minutes, and see if they are going to need more time.  If they do, and you won't be there, turn off the flame and cover the pot. When you come home, taste them again.  They may have cooked some more, and may not have.  In any event, you will probably need somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half of cooking time.  As soon as you turn off the heat because they're cooked, add a couple teaspoons of salt.  And let them sit and cool, before you refrigerate them, covered by some of the liquid.  You should have about six cups.


Day 2 (or 3, depending on your point of view):  time for the root vegetables.  For Annalena, this was carrots, and rutubagas.  She had the rutubagas from her farm box, else she would not have them.  For of rutubaga , Annalena agrees with MFK Fisher:  "down with it."  Use whatever you have, but carrots are really nice as an element.  You want about four cups worth of cubed root veggies:  carrots, celery root, turnips, etc, etc, etc.  Lay them out on a baking sheet, pour on two tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt.  Stir everything together with your hands, and then put them in a 400 degree oven for thirty minutes.  You'll get a little color, not much.  And you're done, for day 2(3).

Day 3 (or 4).  Let's chop up two onions, and about six cloves of garlic.  Pour a tablespoon or two of olive oil in your soup pot, and add the onions while the oil is cold.  Bring the heat to medium, and when the onions start sizzling, throw in a tablespoon of ground cumin and a couple of bay leaves.  This is all Annalena used for seasoning.  When the onions have gone to translucent, add the garlic, and stir it together until  you get a nice fragrance.  Drain the beans, and put them in the pot with the root vegetables.  Add a hot pepper if you like.  Cover everything with water (you'll need about a quart, maybe more), and then bring everything to a slow simmer.

If you like (and this is the way Annalena likes this soup), let the veggies and beans cook until they're soft enough to mash in the pot.  You could also scoop some out and puree it in a blender or such, but Annalena finds this not as much fun as doing it by hand.  If you like the soup more solid, don't bother with this.  Fish out the pepper, and the bay leaves, season to taste (it will need it), and you have two quarts of absolute goodness: winter penicillin, as Annalena has written.

Go for it, ragazzi.  Go through those steps and tell Annalena how much work you did.  Practically none.  So, make this.  It's cheap, it's easy, it's good, it's nutritious.  What more could you want?

Monday, January 13, 2014

All's well that ends well: Chicken thighs with spicy chickpeas

You know that Annalena does this occasionally - a show of hands event.  How many of you have ever gone to the store to buy something, thought you bought it, and then come home and found you had something else?

Honest answers now, ragazzi:  yes, just about unanimity.  Darlings, we are all busy, we are all preoccupied, and sometimes, well, things start happening in our bodies that compel us to get out as fast as possible, if you know what Annalena means.  So, she didn't look very closely when she was buying the chicken for this dish, which called for 3 pounds of chicken thighs, with skin, on the bone.

Instead, Annalena came home with three pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  OH.  That is what the B/S on the package meant (it did indeed say that.  Annalena swears by this).    So, what to do?  Do you go out again, and buy more chicken, hope that you can figure out a way to use the wrong thing, or make do?

Of course, by now you know the answer, and this turned out to be a good thing.

See, in reviewing nutritional information on chicken thighs, Annalena learned that there are 40 more calories - PER THIGH - when they have their skin on them.  WOW.  So, while Annalena is not going to deny anyone his or her right to a nice, crispy skinned piece of pan fried or oven fried chicken,  this dish has so much else going on in it, that the lack of skin was not an issue. She did have to make modifications for the dish, and did so, and it works.  And now, she shares it with you.

As you will not be using chicken with bones and skin, Annalena suggests you start with two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  They will be depressing looking:  dark meat, flat out, a bit messy.  Stick with it, comrade.  If you have the chance, sprinkle them with salt and let them dry overnight in the fridge.  If not, salt them anyway, and also, before the salting step, get them as dry as possible.

Chop up one medium sized onion nice and fine, and do the same thing to two cloves of garlic.  You are also going to need 3 cups of cooked chickpeas.  Annalena's recipe called for two cans.  PLEASE KINDERN.  If you know nothing yet, you know that Annalena wants you to cook those chickpeas yourself.  And you can, and you should.  But if you must... drain two cans of chickpeas and don't tell Annalena you did it (when you cook them  yourself, you can control the texture.  Annalena always finds canned chickpeas mushy).

Finally, you need a quarter cup of tomato paste, and a half a cup of chicken stock, and... now bear with Annalena here:  harissa.  This is a wonderful, WONDERFUL African hot paste, sort of like tomato paste with a VERY VERY VERY big kick.  How big a kick?  Well, the recipe calls for 1/4 cup.  Uh, no.  At least not for Annalena.  If she had used the full amount called for, she would have been on fire.  Control this, depending on how much you like hot food, and how hot your paste is.  And if you don't have harissa, substitute something else with a tomato base.

Let's cook.  Turn the oven to 425.  Then, heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pan (if you were using the full thighs, you'd use one tablespoon, because of the fat that would render out).  When the oil is hot, sear the chicken on both sides, until you have a nice color.  It won't take long.  Put that aside, and add the onion and garlic, and saute' until the onion loses its transparency and goes translucent.  Toss in the tomato paste, and stir it around fast, for about a minute.  It's burning here, and that's a good thing, because next, you're adding the chicken stock and the hot sauce, and stirring everything together before you throw in  your chickpeas (you should have about 3 cups).  Bring this to a simmer, and then put the chicken on top of the beans, put the whole pan in the oven, and leave it alone for 20 minutes - 30 if you use whole thighs.

And you're done.  You should plan on some lemon to squirt over this, and also some very,   VERY bland starch.  Maybe amaranth or quinoa or couscous.

Annalena bets this becomes a standard in your house, especially if you like hot food. And if you're not a chicken eater, well, she found a similar recipe today, calling for firm, white fish.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Don't get fooled again: duck with grapefruit salad

Ragazzi, we're all trying to be healthy and eat that way, aren't we?    And as a result, we all have foods that we KNOW aren't any good for us.  And we avoid them.  You have your list, don't you?  And pork is on it.  Well, we dispelled the pork myth earlier this week, didn't we?  And now, we're going to dispel another one:  duck.

Ok, carini, without looking:  how many calories are there in duck breast, with the skin (which is the only reason to eat it).  Any guesses?  Any numbers?    Ok, get ready:  there are about 1000 calories in a one pound duck breast (which is really half a breast.  Duck breasts are huge, and what you're sold, is a half a breast).  Now, before you start saying AHA ANNALENA!  I TOLD YOU!, as Annalena's grandmother used to yell at her  ASHPETT (which, her Italian American paisani will recognize as "WAIT A FREAKING MINUTE STUPID).  Ok, enough of that.  How many of you think you can actually EAT a whole duck breast?

That many, huh?  Hmmm. Well, Annalena wagers you're wrong.  And now, do the math:  if you take that 1000 calories in a pound and decide you're eating, say, 5 ounces of it, you're putting away 333 calories.  Yes, you are getting  a substantial amount of your cholesterol and fat for the day, but darlings, it is all about balance.  Balancia, balancia, balancia.    So, here, ragazzi, Annalena is going to give you a recipe for a salad that will satisfy your craving for red meat by way of duck, and will not feel ridiculously unhealthy.  Annalena and the Guyman just ate this for lunch. The Guyman removed all the fat from his duck, which meant he ate healthier than  Annalena.  How nice for him.

We have a few components here, and we have variations.  The original recipe called for two cups of cilantro stems (with their leaves), and a cup of mint leaves. Rest assured that Annalena  would be knocking on your door for a place to sleep if she served that salad to the Guyman, who cares not much for mint or cilantro.  Annalena, however, addressed this by using the mixed greens from the greenhouse of the Davester (his favorite post apocalyptic farmer), micro cilantro, and a few mint leaves.  You should vary the greens here as you see fit, but for three people, plan on a good four cups of them, and try to get some cilantro and mint in there in some way.  Add a few sliced scallions as well.  Put them aside for now.

Next, get yourself two nice sized grapefruit.  Annalena prefers the ruby reds, but if you want a nice color contrast, use a white one and a red one.  Cut away the peel, and do the best job you can in cutting them into segments (Annalena has bored you all to death on how she will not do citrus supremes.  If  you can, then please do some and go forth and prosper.  Those can go right into the greens.

Let's now make our dressing.  Get two cloves of garlic, and one of your raspers, or graters, and grate the garlic into a bowl.  Add to it two tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of fish paste,  a tablespoon of grated ginger,  and a tiny amount of sugar, or honey or something along those lines. Also, add a few teaspoons of citrus juice. Annalena was fooled by a bergamot sent to her by the  Citrus Bomb,  and then used lime (since the salad as written was called "Thai duck salad" yet called for lemon).  Use what you got .  That applies to the grapefruit too, ragazzi.  If you have only one grapefruit, use a blood orange, or a cara cara or whatever you have.  You do want one grapefruit though.

Let's cook the duck.  As Annalena said, half of a full duckbreast, of any breed.  She used maillard.    Cut a cross hatch pattern in the fat, trying not to cut the meat.  Then salt it, and let it sit as long as you can.  When you're ready to cook, put the duck, skin side down, in a cold pan.  Turn the heat up to medium, and watch the miracle, as you push the fat out.  After four minutes or so,  hold out the duck and drain the fat.  Then cook for another four minutes.  The skin will get very dark, which is fine.  Now, remove all fat, turn it around, and cook with skin side up, for 8 minutes or so.

Notice how you get almost NO fat.  That's because the meat of the duck is ridiculously lean - and if you look up the nutrition on duck, you'll see that.  After the sixteen minutes, let the breast sit for 5-10 minutes, or even longer.  Then cut it on long, thin slices.  You may be worried, because it will appear very rare.  Don't worry.

When you are ready to eat, toss the duck with the salad dressing.  VOILA.  Those rare spots disappeared, didn't they?  The miracle of citrus cooking:  this is how ceviche works, ragazzi, and it works with meat, too.  Now, stir all of this together, and toss it into the greens.  Annalena finds her God given tools (her hands), work best.  Taste a leaf of salad, because notwithstanding the fish sauce, and the salted duck,  you may find this needs salt.  Add it if you do.

And you have a good lunch for three people, four if you're serving something else.    And you can play with this, ragazzi.  Vary the greens. Vary the MEAT:  Annalena plans to use this model for a steak salad later this year.  Vary the dressing components. Those of you who are hoarding your sricha, or have some hot peppers, and like a spicy salad, might add that.  How about some toasted peanuts or cashews at the end?

Play with the salad.  You'll love it.

Next time around, we will have another round of how to adapt, when you buy the wrong thing.  For now, though, Annalena wants you all to make this duck salad.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Splurge and not so unhealthily: spice crusted pork loin with mushroom gravy

There are so  many food myths that surround us, ragazzi, that it can be very easy to be fooled by what we eat, or don't eat.  Annalena starts with this because she is discussing eating pork.  Some of you do not eat pork as a matter of religious, philosophical, and/or ethical considerations, and that is your choice.  For those of you who are not eating it because "it's not healthy," well, let's visit this question, shall we?

If this question had been posed to Annalena 15 or even 10 years ago, she would have said "yes, pork does not belong on your diet."  But with the advent of heirloom animal husbandry, different approaches to raising and cooking animals, Annalena thinks you'd be surprised at how close it is to other "healthier" choices.

Some numbers.   Annalena looked up the nutrition data for 4 ounce serving of turkey breast, without skin.  What could be better?  Well,  here are the numbers:  the turkey contains 153 calories.  Yes, it contains less than a gram of fat, but... ready for this, ragazzi?  It contains 31% of your daily cholesterol allotment.

Looking at the same quantity of pork loin (assuming you do not eat the exterior fat, which is the same as not eating the turkey skin).  The calories come to 150, and the cholesterol?  To 28%.  Agreed, there is scads of fat in the meat, but how many of you are more worried about your CHOLESTEROL  and  your CALORIES than fat?    Annalena thought so.  So, while she would never advocated eating this every day, nor would she espouse the fact that all cuts of pork are lean and on the healthy side, she affirms that there is a place in your diet for pork, if you like it.

And there is no better way to like it, than this rather simple recipe.  The gravy is a bit more challenging, but only a bit.  You can do this.  You should.  Let's go.

First, you need a small , boneless pork loin roast.  By "small", Annalena means between 1.5 and 3 pounds.  These monsters can come in at 8-9  pounds, so either ask the butcher to cut you a small one, or buy a big one, and store it away for the future in your freezer (this is what Annalena did).

Do as we always do with meat:  rub it all over with salt, and leave it, uncovered, in the fridge overnight.  When  you are ready to cook,  preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Let's make our spice rub:  get two tablespoons of fennel seeds, a tablespoon of anise seeds, and half of a dry, hot red pepper.  Dump out the seeds if you are heat sensitive, leave them if you are not.  Put them all in your spice grinder, and create a powder.    Dump that out on a flat plate, and then rub your roast with a tablespoon of olive oil.  There's more than enough oil.  Now, just roll the roast through the powder, put it in the oven, and let it cook for forty minutes or so.  That will give you rosy pork.  If you are nervous, go for another ten, but no more than that.

The risk of overcooking the pork is balanced by the gravy we're about to make.  First, slice up an onion very fine.  Then, between 1/3 and 1/2  pound of mushrooms.  Wild ones if you have them.  (Annalena used trumpet mushrooms).  You will also need a tablespoon of flour, and two cups of chicken broth, and you may not use all of it.    Put another tablespoon of olive oil in a big skillet, and heat it up. Add the onions, and saute' them to the point where they begin to get translucent.  Add your mushrooms at this point, and a pinch of salt.  Stir things around, and lower the heat.  Keep cooking, stirring occasionally, until you see water come off of the mushrooms, and then evaporate.

At this point, sprinkle a tablespoon of flour over the  vegetables, and stir everything together.  It will be a bit of a mess, but don't worry.  Now get your stock, and add the first cup.  Stir everything around,  and keep it moving.  You'll see the thing begin to almost "gel" from the flour.  You'll probably want at least another half cup of stock to bring it to a point where you feel it's "gravy like," and that's fine.  Just keep adding it, until you have a consistency you like.    Taste it, and add salt and pepper.

Does Annalena have to tell you what to do next? You slice the roast, and pour some of the gravy over it.  Or, slice the roast, and put the slices into the gravy for a minute or two.  Or, you can roast the pork ahead of time, make the gravy, and then slice  the pork and put it in warm gravy.  Lots of possibilities.

Pork loin is certainly not the cheapest food in the universe ragazzi, but it is cheaper than the halibut Annalena did NOT buy yesterday, and everyone needs to splurge every now and then.  YOU CAN DO THIS . Find a special occasion, and make it.  And everyone will fuss and coo about what a wonderful cook you are, and you can smile and say thank you.  Be gracious.  It becomes you.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Cooking a salad: red snapper fillet with fennel and orange

Yesterday, Annalena wrote of using the cupboard to come up with what was, ultimately, a pretty good meal.  Today, she visits another situation:  when what you go out expecting to buy... ain't there.  And what you do thereafter.  In this case, a little research uncovered a recipe that Annalena plans to return to. And she plans to teach it.  It is THAT kind of a recipe.

Annalena and the Guyman have a routine for dinners on Monday and  Tuesday.  Since Guyman rehearses on Monday,  and they eat late, a simple roast chicken and a salad is Monday dinner.  Tuesday follows with fish.  ALWAYS.  The variety of fish will change, depending upon what Shakyamuni Karlin and Bodhisattva Morris have at the market.

Well, hopefully Annalena does not have to tell you this, but fishermen are at the whims of nature.  Bad weather?  Bad seas?  No fish.  Period.  Especially if you are not part of one of the huge fishing fleets that are depleting our waters.  So, ragazzi, Annalena could not go shopping for fish, because the intrepid folks from Long Island had advised her,  she would be wetting her petticoats coming to market, for nothing:  they would not be there.

So, she set out, searching for fish.  During bad weather, carini, this is not so easy to do.  Distribution chains are disrupted, deliveries are not made, and to quote the Rolling Stones  "you can't always get what you want."  Annalena set out on Monday, hoping to find some halibut.  She and the Guyman ONLY eat this when they can't get local fish, because if you are being served halibut on the  Atlantic coast and are told it is local, you are breaking the law.  PERIOD.  So, she went looking at the two fish markets in Grand Central on Monday, for halibut, and came back without it.  There was no halibut to be had.  (As it turns out, this is probably a good thing, because today, when it was available, it was 36.00 a pound.  Annalena was wincing at the 25.00 a pound she paid for red snapper, but at 36, she would have had a temper tantrum in the store). She came home with the snapper fillets and begin thinking  "what the hell am I going to do with this stuff?"  So her research started, keeping in mind what she had in the fridge.

In the fridge were a couple of bulbs of fennel, one of Annalena's favorite vegetables.  They were destined for use in a classic salad of fennel and blood orange.  BUT.... the mysteries of the internet being what they are, Annalena found a recipe for COOKED fennel with oranges, and....RED SNAPPER.  The reviews were good, the recipe seemed easy, and the dish is tasty.

Annalena will NOT lie to you, however, and say this is a very easy dish to make.  You need to have some patience in the kitchen, ragazzi.  It will be rewarded.  She promises.

Here we go.  First, take a look at your bulb of fennel, and if need be, cut away the fronds and the stalks, so that you have only the bare bulb.  Now, cut that into quarters, by first making a longitudinal cut, and then cutting the halves again, longitudinally.  There will be a small piece of what seems to be embryonic fennel in the center of each piece.  Cut that out and discard it, and then cut your fennel quarters into 1/2-3/4 inch strips.  Put them aside for now.

You will also need some fennel seeds.  A healthy teaspoon (rather than the wimpy half teaspoon the recipe originally called for).  Put them on a flat surface, get a strong knife, and chop them up.  It really will not be difficult to do.  Then, get yourself one large, and one small orange.  Ideally, the small orange is a blood orange, but if you don't have one, don't worry.  A regular one will do.  Squeeze the juice from the small orange.  Then, cut the peel and white away from the larger one,  slice it into circles, and then cut the circles into smaller segments.  The original recipe called upon the cook to supreme the orange.  Annalena ain't got no time for that.

Finally, let's look at our fish.  You need to decide how much fish is enough fish for your people.  For Annalena and the Guyman, it's about a pound.  You may need less.  The veggies here, will serve to work with about a pound and a half of fish in total.  Proceed accordingly.   Pat your fish fillets dry - and you do not need red snapper here, ragazzi - and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  Put them aside too, because now, we're going to begin to cook.

Get a big pan out and add a tablespoon and a half of olive oil.  When it's hot, add the fennel, and the fennel seeds.  You will be assaulted by the wonderful fragrance of the fennel seeds.  Keep the heat at medium high, and move the fennel slices around, until you see it beginning to brown. This won't take long - not nearly as long as the ten minutes the recipe called for.    When you get the brown edges, lower the heat, cover the pan, and let the fennel cook and steam until it softens.  All in all, it took Annalena ten minutes to get here, not the 20 the recipe called for.   Sample a piece of the fennel, and add salt and pepper as you see fit.   Take this off the heat, and stir in your chopped oranges.

To the fish!  Very easy here.  Use a NON STICK pan, and add a hefty tablespoon of olive oil. When this is hot, put the fillets, skin side up, into the pan, and leave them be for about 3-5 minutes.  Then, with a pancake flipper or other equivalent tool, flip them, skin side down, for another two minutes.

As Nadia G says, "let's plate this dish."    Put a mound of the fennel and oranges on each plate, and then put a fillet of fish, skin side up, on each mound.  Remember that juice we made?  Well, now pour a bit of it over each fillet.

Y'all have some good eating here.  The taste of the fennel is a little muted, so Annalena would not fear for the "I hate fennel" crowd.

This is good, hearty, seasonal eating, ragazzi.  The Guyman and Annalena had it with oven roasted potatoes, and carrots with ginger and butter.  Make up your own menu, and again, please tell us all what you did.  Annalena thinks you're gonna LOVE this one.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

When the larder is bare: black beans with chicken

Ragazzi, this is an object lesson to all, on the importance of a good "pantry."  Annalena is going to tell you what she made for lunch this past Saturday, when it was so wretched out that the farmers did not come to market, the Whole Foods store was nearly barren,  and the kitchen, was almost too cold to work in.

As you cook, you will learn that you have favorites, and you should always have your favorites around.  You will, too.  That's just natural.  People who love orange juice always have a carton of it in their fridge.  So, too, with ice cream eaters, and so on and so forth.  But there are things, ragazzi, that you really MUST have on hand.  Beans.  Yes, beans.  Or lentils, or both.  ALWAYS  have a few pounds of dried beans in your larder, and ALWAYS  have a few cups of them cooked.  It is SO easy to do this, and it is routine to make more than you can use at one meal.  You know how to cook beans, do you not?  ANY bean (not lentils, though, which are even easier).  Put a quantity of beans in a pot and cover them by a couple of inches of water.  Let them sit overnight.  The next day, drain off the water (there is controversy here, Annalena knows.  She does not re-use the water; however, some will cook the beans in this , with more water augmenting it, and others will do the right thing and use that water for their plants).  In any event, cover the soaked beans yet again with that 2 inches of water, over the top.  The beans may foam, so use a big pot.  Bring the beans to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, and add a healthy teaspoon of salt to every cup of dried beans you started with (a pound of dried beans is about three cups).  You can get "fresh" dried beans from Rancho Gordo, or other places, and "fresh" dried beans will cook up faster than you remember from your childhood days:  maybe an hour and a half, at most.  Then, drain them, and cool them.  If you're not using the beans right away, but have plans for them soon, refrigerate them.  If you have no plans, freeze them.  They freeze beautifully.

Annalena had two cups of cooked black beans in her refrigerator.  She also had something else you MUST have in your freezer at all times:  boneless, skinless, chicken breasts.  Ascolta, ragazzi, Annalena knows that that these are not the tastiest morsels in the world.  Yet, they cook quickly, they are nourishing, they are healthy.  So, she took two of these, and thawed them.  It did not take long, even in the cold kitchen.

An onion - yes, always have a few onions around, a couple of cloves of garlic (again, ALWAYS have garlic around), olive oil  (need she repeat herself), salt, and we are ready.  First, the chicken breasts.  In a non stick pan, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil until it's hot.  Pat the chicken breasts dry, and salt them.  Put them onto the hot pan, and sear them on each side, for 3-5 minutes.  They won't be cooked through.  And that's fine.

Now, add a sliced onion, and as much chopped garlic as you like. Augment the oil to bring it back up to two tablespoons, and start sauteeing.  If you like things spicy, you will have a spice element in the house, and you now add that.  Chili powder, cumin, curry, whatever you like.  This is freewheeling cooking.  When the onions are soft, toss them into a pot with the two cups of beans, and a quarter cup of some liquid, be it tomato sauce, broth, juice, or water.  Just enough to wet things.  Bring this to a simmer, and cover the pot.  While that's bubbling away, slice your chicken breast into thin strips.  It won't be cooked through, as Annalena said, but that's ok, because you're going to add it to the beans now,  cover the pot again, and cook for another ten minutes or so.

This isn't chili, but it's good.  Pile it into a bowl... BUT... another staple:  you should have bottles and jars of the condiments and salsas, etc, that you like.  Annalena has about 40 jars of different things.  For this, she used an apricot salsa, and it did in deed bring back memories of summer.  Not too spicy, but spicy enough.  You could use creme fraiche or yogurt, or you could just leave it alone.  But don't do that.

Annalena and the Guyman had a wonderful meal with some leftover brown rice (Again, ragazzi, overcook your grains and use them for stuff  when you need them).   YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!   And you should do this.  So, Annalena wants everyone to cook up some beans.  NOT canned beans - dried ones.  And then, share with us what you make with them.  Annalena thinks that there are some creative minds out there that will come up with some delicious combinations.  Go to it.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Hunting for chicken: Chicken cacciatore

It is somewhat appropriate that one of our beginnings this year, is this dish.  See, carini, in many ways, this recipe embodies all of what this blog is about.

Let's look at the title first:  "chicken cacciatore."  "Chicken, " of course, is easy, but "cacciatore" is a word you may not know.  Well, it is Italian for "hunter," and the full name of the dish is actually  "pollo alla cacciatore," which you may translate as "chicken in the hunter's style."

Well, what is the hunter's style?  Annalena admits to being puzzled by this, notwithstanding her research.  See, she was first puzzled because the name of the dish suggested it was something that hunters made, while they were hunting.  Well, Italians may steal chicken  ("polli rubati sono i piu saporiti?"),  but HUNT them?  No, that is not what happens.  And she was thrown off more, because the other protein commonly done "alla cacciatore" is rabbit.  Well, rabbit IS hunted, and indeed,  many a hunter will tell you how s/he lived on rabbit until a larger piece of game was brought down.

The truth is, "alla cacciatore" SHOULD be "allo stilo della sposa della caccia"  or  "in the style of the hunter's wife," because in fact, this is supposed to be a dish that the hunter's wife had ready for him when he came back from hunting.

Do not ask Annalena why.  It does not make sense to her why THIS relates more to hunters than to anyone else.  As  you will see.

Ultimately, it is a very simple dish, and of course, we are all about simple here.  It is also a dish that admits of many variations, and Annalena is going to give you HER version and also talk about the others that are out there.    It is, again, a dish that is rather economical, rather easy to prepare and which holds well.  So, you can make it when you have an hour or so in the kitchen, cool it down, and save it for a night when you need a warm, hug-like dinner.

Let us begin.  You need 3-4 pounds of chicken pieces, and Annalena strongly suggests that you use  whole legs.  That's not that many:  you will probably have 4-6 legs in total.  A big frying pan will hold four, so do keep that in mind.  The reason for suggesting the legs, ragazzi, is because you are making a braise or a stew, and the legs will hold better in this than the breast meat will.  The breast meat will inevitably dry out.  Trust  Annalena on this.

The other basics you are going to need are olive oil, onions, garlic, rosemary, canned tomatoes,  and wine.  We will add other items, as we go along.  Just have some pazienza.

If you can, do what we always do with chicken, and salt it and leave it exposed in the refrigerator, overnight.  If you cannot do that, then leave it exposed and salted for as long as you can.  You want this to be as dry as possible, so dry it at the end.

Slice up 1-2 onions into half moons, and then slice them thinly.  Collect yourself a half glass of wine  (for cooking.  Get a full glass for drinking).  The cooking wine can be white, if you feel Northern, or red, if you feel southern, or whatever you have that is opened, and needs to be used.  DO NOT USE rose' and DO NOT use sweet.

Put two tablespoons of olive oil in the frying pan and get it hot.  Put the chicken legs in, skin side down, and do not move them for five minutes or so.  This is why you want to make sure that you've wicked the moisture off of them.  Wet chicken does not brown.  And it will stick to the pan and lose you that lovely crispness.

After five minutes, flip the legs over, and cook them for another three minutes or so.  Then, take them out of the pan and put them aside, just for a minute or so, while we prepare other things.

The other things are a couple of cloves of garlic, which you chop up, the sprigs of rosemary , which you leave whole, and.... see, when Annalena learned this recipe for the first time, she learned it with mushrooms.  Now, she has learned that classic cacciatore has no mushrooms in it, but does have chopped green pepper in it.   Frankly, mushrooms sound more "cacciatore" to her, because you hunt for mushrooms, so she says  "the hell with the peppers, use the mushrooms."  And if, as was the case with Annalena, you have no fresh mushrooms around, get about an ounce of dried mushrooms, and put them under hot water at the start of your cooking, so that they will soften.  When they are soft, chop them up.

Now, let's get back to that pan.  Take a look at the fat in it.  Is there more than when you started?  If so, drain some off.  If not, add some back  (this will NOT be the case:  chicken thighs contain a lot of fat).  Add the onions, with a teaspoon of salt, and cook them until they go to translucent.  It will not take long.  Add the garlic,  and the wine, OFF THE FLAME.  You don't want it to flare up and burn your eyelashes.  Now, back to the stove, ragazzi, and add the mushrooms  (if you REALLY want the peppers, add them too), and cook them for a bit if they're dry, or for about three minutes if they are fresh.  You will have to slice the fresh ones, of course.  Then, finally, add about two cups of canned, chopped tomatoes and then put the chicken back in, skin side up.  Lower your heat, cover the pan, and let it simmer away, for about 45 minutes.

And you've got chicken cacciatore.  And it is good.   Adjust the salt as you see fit, and pull the rosemary out. If you do not care for rosemary, you can use bay leaves, or thyme.  You want something that will give you a "resin" like herbal flavor, so stay away from basil, or dill, or things of this nature.

Traditionally, Annalena has had this with a starter of a simple pasta.  Or polenta.  Whatever you do, ragazzi, PLEASE DO NOT PUT THIS ON TOP OF PASTA.  Why not?  Well, because in all of Italian cooking, there is not a single dish where pasta and chicken are combined (we do NOT consider Olive Garden Italian Cooking.  Please bear that in mind).

So, you have an easy dish which, if there are but two of you, will give you ample leftovers, or excuse to invite someone to dinner.  Of course, you could eat it all.  And if you can, well, why not?

Tomorrow, ragazzi, we're going to look at a case of  "when she got there, the cupboard was almost bare," as Annalena deals with empty shelves, cold weather, and lunch.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

The year begins, with onion soup

BUON CAPO D'ANNO RAGAZZI!  Annalena was quite wound up with the holiday preparations that make us all crazy at this time of the year.  But now, she's baaaaaaaaaaack, and hopes all of you are too.

The time of indulgence is OVER carini.  It's time to get back to basics, with things that are REASONABLE.  For example, and Annalena is very sensitive to this one:  if your resolution is to go to the gym, do not resolve to go every day if you do not go at all right now, for you will fail.  Shoot for twice a week.  If you already go, sporadically,  do not pledge to do five miles of roadwork if you are only doing one, now.  Go for two.  Annalena has pledged to add an extra day of cardio to her gym visits, which are three a week with her awesome trainer Melissa.

On the food level, Annalena would like to suggest that everyone try to make SMALL changes to their eating habits.  If, for example, you are eating red meat four times a week, try to bring it down to three.  Or - here's another easy one for you cooks out there.  Stop eyeballing for a month, and measure.  You will be surprised.

On the healthier eating level, Annalena wishes to start with a dish  that she saw in the New  York Times, courtesy of David Tanis, which she has altered, in a way that she thinks will make things much easier for all of you.  It certainly did for her.

We ALL love French onion soup, don't we?  Now, let us have a show of hands:  how many can say that, the last time they had it in a restaurant, they were satisfied with it?  Certainly not Annalena.  She has responded to it, very often, with "good, but not great. "  She is going to show you, courtesy of David Tanis, how to make a great one,  and make it for so little money, you will just be astounded.

Now, forewarned for all of you:  this is a vegetarian soup. It can be a vegan soup if you leave out Annalena's finish (which is NOT the cheese crust you're used to); however, there is wine in it.  The alcohol will cook away, but if you have no wine in the house, you can't drive the alcohol out of it.  Annalena needs to suggest that you use beef stock if you do not use the red wine, but then... it is not vegetarian anymore.

But let's begin.  First, the onions.  You will need three pounds of  the red ones.  You're using the red ones for color, so please do not substitute the yellow ones.  In her Whole Foods Store, Annalena could get three pounds of organic red onions for 4 dollars.  Peel them, and slice them thin.  This is one where, while you do not need a surgeon's knife, you will want to cut them thin.  As thin as you can.  This will take you a while to do.    Then, peel eight cloves of garlic, and chop them roughly.  Put them aside, and collect also a couple of bay leaves, and some herbs.  Now, the original recipe called for a full bunch of thyme.  Annalena did not have thyme, so she used two branches of rosemary.  This aspect of the dish is one where you have to go with your taste buds.

Let's start to cook.  Get two pans that will fit at the front of your stove going.  Get them hot, and add a tablespoon of olive oil to each of them.  Now, add sliced onions to cover the pan.  Add a sprinkle of salt, and a turn of fresh pepper.  Lower the heat to medium high, and get set for a ten minute cook.  You will want to stir them occasionally, but not that often.  Let's say every two minutes.  Show some patience. Annalena has trouble with this step, but if you are not patient, you will not get good color on those onions you worked so hard to slice.  After ten minutes, dump them into a soup pot.  You're going to have some residue.  Add a cup of water to both pans, and stir, while the water boils off to about half a cup.  Pour this over the onions.  Keep at it until you're done.  You may be there for 30-40 minutes, but that is the nature of this beast.

When you're done, add a cup of red wine, the dry kind .  Any type will do, as long as it's something you would  drink.  Also add the bay leaves, and the garlic.  Bring this to a boil, and cook at medium heat for 5 minutes.  Then, add 8 cups of water, and two teaspoons of salt to this, bring it to the boil, and then lower the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes.

The soup will cook down a lot.  Wait until you're done, and then taste it before you adjust for salt.  Do your best to pull out the rosemary, and the bay leaves.

You're done.  But this is not really a very satisfying main dish as it is.  So, if you want to do cheese toasts on the top, go for it.  Annalena made spaetzle.  Refer back to the recipe so many of you read for how to do it.   Then, run them under cold water, and add them directly to the soup.  You do it this way to keep them from sucking up all the liquid.

You will have 3 quarts of amazing goodness, and you haven't spent much money.  Onions, water, left over wine, garlic.  And then for the spaetzle:  flour, 2 eggs, a cup and a half of milk.    And you can share this with your friends, seduce someone for the New Year if such is your resolution.

Please make this at least once, ragazzi.  It may very well become a regular feature of your winter menu.  And if you doll it up, please let us know what you did.