Leftovers:Making the Most of Pork

This is the first in a series of articles/recipes that demonstrate a featured recipe and then offers a schedule and additional recipes to use the leftovers. The featured recipe does require some time and, sometimes, effort but the leftover recipes are all quick and easy enough for a weeknight meal. This week we'll make the most of a pork loin roast.

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Valentine's Menu

Please be Mine



Last year Valentine's Day was the big event on my About.com web site, Cooking for Two. The week before I had more hits than either the week before Thanksgiving or the week before Christmas. Not too surprising I suppose, even childless couples are more likely to spend those two holidays with family, but Valentine's Day is made for two. In the hope that this year will prove to be the same I've devoted a good deal of attention to it and I figured, while I was at it, that I'd provide a V'day menu here as well.

Because the Saint Valentine on whom the holiday is probably based (there were actually two or three Saint Valentines) was likely Turkish, I thought an Eastern Mediterranean menu would be appropriate, beginning with Fried Chick Peas.

Fried Chick Peas: I first had these in Italy and developed my recipe based on that experience, but chick peas are beloved throughout the eastern medierranean and I've since learned that similar recipes are popular in Turkey and Lebanon (and likely other areas). You can make these up in advance as they're good even a day later, but they're so quick and easy I prefer making them just before eating them. Note: They would be delicious with a dry sparkling wine.

Veal with Feta Cheese Sauce: I developed this recipe one night after cooking a cooking glass on Veal with Artichokes. I had a couple of veal scalopini left over but was out of marinated artichokes, so I tried making a feta cheese sauce. It was excellent, particularly served over pasta. This would be equally good made with chicken cutlets if you don't eat or can't find veal.

Glazed Carrots: Tese carrots are first steamed, and then glazed in butter, lemon juice, and mint. It's a very Mediterranean flavor combination and, you might consider adding a pinch of cumin or ground coriander to the pan. Besides, the bright orange carrots and green mint are gorgeous on a plate and you want to think about plating on special occasions.

Green Beans with Anchovies: This recipe is actually an adaptation of an Italian recipe for broccoli raab. But it works beautifully for green beans as well and because the umami in the anchovies enhances the other savory flavors on the plate as well as the beans they make a great general addition to the meal. And if beans don't appeal, the raab is really excellent and for that matter so is spinach.

Key Lime Mousse: This light, refreshing mousse would make an excellent ending to this meal. After the salt of the feta, and savor of the pancetta and anchovies a cool, refreshing, creamy mousse is hard to beat. If you can't find key limes, Persian limes also work. A tip on juicing key limes, cut them in half and then use a garlic press to squeeze out the juice.

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Super Bowl Munchies

Although I suppose it's possible for me to be less interested in the Super Bowl than I am, but it's hard to imagine and this coming February 7 I'll probably watch a movie. Nevertheless Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest "food consumption" event in the US - second only to Thanksgiving. So just in case you are a football fan or married to one I thought I'd offer some ideas for munchies to eat on game day.

Deviled Eggs" I adore deviled eggs and am quite capable of eating half a dozen (three whole eggs) at once. So I don't make them very often. There are two keys to deviled eggs, the first is to use older eggs (at least two weeks old). Older eggs are far easier to peel than fresh eggs because the membrane attaching the shell to the white weakens with age (and note, eggs will easily keep a month in the refrigerator so the eggs will be perfectly fine).

Sausage Balls: I used to make sausage balls every year around Christmas when I was growing up, and the I completely forgot about them until a couple of Christmases ago. They were every bit as greasy and delicious as I remembered. I got to thinking, they'd be a great addition to the Super Bowl because although they're best hot, they're also good at room temperature.

Feta-stuffed Peppers: These little bites are not only delicious, but they're easy to make and as good at room temperature or cold as they are warm. Because of their ease and flexibility they’re one of my favorite picnic foods in addition to being a great amuse Bouche. You can also substitute chèvre for the feta and use other herbs.

Stuffed Mushrooms: Instead of being stuffed with crab or shrimp these muchrooms are stuffed with pancetta, sun-dried tomatoes, and Parmigiano. I developed this recipe for a particular client and they were a real hit at her party and at subsequent parties when I've served them.

Hummus bi Tahini: I make up a batch of hummus for snacking on about once a month. Sometimes I eat it on pita triangles and other times on carrot or celery sticks - and I'm above just sticking my finger in it and sucking on my finger. My recipe is a bit tart and slightly spicy and I'm addicted to it.

Sausage Rolls: Sausage rolls are a fixture in English pubs - or at least they were when I was in England. And although my great love was Cornish pasties sometimes I'd get a couple of sausage rolls as a snack, and they were my standard breakfast when I was attending highland games.

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Spirited Cooking: Keep Some Liquor In The Kitchen

At the moment, my liquor cabinet is a bit bare, having been depleted by the holiday cooking season. We had bourbon cake and rum balls, plum pudding and fondue — and let's not forget the eggnog. In addition to wine, I have some rum, vodka, Amaretto and Triple Sec left. But not long ago, the cabinet was packed with tequila, bourbon, Calvados, brandy, vermouth, Scotch and even more wine — all of it mostly dedicated to the pan and not the glass. In fact, I seldom drink anymore, but the various forms of spirits still have a prominent place in my cooking.

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Soup & Sandwich

A Match Made in Heaven



I've already confessed my love for sandwiches on several occasions. And it's true that a sandwich alone can be a complete meal depending on what's on it. But sandwiches have a natural co-partner: soup. A good match between soup and a sandwich can result in an extraordinarily good meal, for example, a grilled cheese and a bowl of tomato soup is something most of us remember from our childhoods &mdash and well we should as it's classic pairing of unctuous cheese, butter, crisp bread, and rich soup.

There are other equally good matches, though perhaps none so classic, and these are a few of my favorites.

Clam Chowder — It's Chowdah, Baby: Year's ago I set off on a quest for the perfect New England clam chowder. I ate bowls of it in San Francisco; Eugene Oregon; and Seattle, Washington and was unsurprised they were un-exceptional (wrong coast) but I had high hopes when I moved to the East Coast but I was still disappointed in most cases. But eventually I gathered enough data to make an honest effort at my own recipe. I won't call this perfect, but it's among the best I've eaten.

Country Ham Panini — Feelin' Country: A good chowder includes some pork. It could be bacon, lard, fat-back or even salt-back, but the background pork flavor is an essential element of great chowder. The last time I made a batch I'd made a recent trip to Bentons and so had some of Alan's "prosiutto" - his country ham slice paper thin. I made a panini. Crisp, salty, cheesy. I couldn't have chosen a better match for clam chowder.

Gumbo & mdash; Laissez le Bons Temps Rouler: We tend to think of gumbo as a New Orleans soup — or, at most, a Louisiana dish. But it's real origins are blend of African and French cuisine and so it's found wherever the French kept slaves, which includes most of the Caribbean islands. In fact the best gumbo I've eaten was at a Caribbean restaurant in Sacramento that's owner/chef was from Haiti. Of course, add rice and gumbo is meal in itself with meat, broth, vegetables, and starch. Nevertheless, sometimes a sandwich rounds it out beautifully.

Muffaletta — Interesting: New Orleans has two "most" famous sandwiches — the Muffaletta and the po' boy. And don't get me wrong, a good fried oyster or shrimp po' boy is mighty fine, even deeelicious. But to me no sandwich says New Orleans like the Muffaletta. And the olive mix is a wonderful contrast to the deeply savory gumbo. I've found it best, though, to have a big mug/small bowl full of gumbo and an entire quarter Muffaletta so that instead of the sandwich backing up the soup, the soup backs up the sandwich.

Ciopino - A Common Pot: Ciopino is a fish soup developed by Italian fishermen in the San Francisco area. Like all such dishes, it's composed of by catch - the fish caught during the day that probably won't sell. It's a close relative (in both flavor and history) to the famous French bouillabaisse. And like all such soups it's easy to make. Just cruise down to your local fish market and buy whatever looks good as well as bones and such-like to make the stock. Add the fish and serve.

Roast Pork Sandwich - Magic Sandwich: Unlike gumbo, ciopino isn't heavy. Nor does it already contain pork so a pork sandwich is a great match. My local equivalent of Whole Foods (Fresh Market) sells a very good sourdough bread and since sourdough starter died (God rest it's yeast and lacto bacillus) I've relied on them for that particular bread choice. Though I call for a Kaiser roll in this recipe, sourdough is a better pairing with the ciopino and complements — the red onion and pickled daikon.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | soup | sandwich | recipe collection

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Winter Pairings

East Tennessee, like most of the rest of the country, has been frozen solid for the past 8 days. It's only been above freezing once and it was 15 when I got up this morning. Which makes it perfect weather for soups and stews. I made a big pot of each during the week, and it wasn't easy deciding what to make. Soups and stews are among my favorite foods and it's especially hard to beat the smell of one of them simmering and the scent of bread baking in the oven. Here are few of my favorite stews paired with some favorite winter vegetables.

Boeuf en Daube (Beef Daube): French daubes are a perfect example of a peasant dish that deserves a place of honor in any cook's repetoire. These are stews or braises where the meat is typically marinated in wine with onions, carrots, celery, and few herbs for 12 to 48 hours before being gently cooked in the marinade. Serve it over anything from mashed potatoes to polenta that will soak up the marvelous cooking liquid.

Leeks with Anchovy Butter: Leeks are in season roughly from December to March (although like everything else, they can now be found throughout the year) so now's the time to be eating them. They also seem to me to be a supremely French vegetable. This particular recipe is a really great match for the Beef Daube because the anchovies bring umami to the plate heightening not only the flavor of the leeks but also of the daube.

Lamb Tagine with Figs and Prunes: Tagine, the vessel and meals, are Moroccan — meaning Arabic — meaning the spices can be surprising to Western palates. Mostly because Arabs use a lot of spices we've come to associate with sweet dishes: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger… Our Western association isn't unreasonable, these spices do indeed complement sweet flavors, but Arab cuisine often adds sweet tastes to savory dishes and so it's not unusual to find fruit or honey paired with chicken and accented with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Couscous with Dried Fruit: Tagines are traditionally served over couscous. These days you can buy pre-flavored couscous. I suppose I should try a package or two but I never have because by the time I get to the store I already know what I want my couscous to taste like. If this seems like too much fruit when combined with the lamb tagine, leave out the fruit and substitute steamed cauliflower and brocolli. For that matter, roasted cailiflower would also make a great side dish with the tagine.

Chicken Paprikas: Paprikas is a solid, rib-sticking, Hungarian steew that, like many such dishes, improves with age. It's unusual with its spikey flavors of paprika and dill rounded off with sour cream. I made the batch featured here on a freezing winter day in New Hampshire for a visit by my parents. I figured on a cold winter night after a day in airports and planes it would be the prefect supper served over egg noodles dressed with butter and fresh dill. It was.

Braised Red Cabbage: On that particular frigid New England night I paired the paprikas with red cabbage braised with apples. Cabbage is another popular food in Hungary (and throughout eastern Europe) and I love the way the sweetness of the apples works both with the cabbage and the paprikas. The intense purple color is also a beautiful and festive addition to the plate.

Technorati: Food | recipe collection | kevin d weeks | seriously good

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Christmas Menu 2009

A Different Take on Christmas



I got an email a week or so a go from someone telling me they decided to have fondue for Christmas dinner. They were tired of the over-the-top production that goes along with most Christmas feasts and just wanted to have a simple but exceptional meal and had settled on fondue.

Fondue is indeed a simple meal — you melt cheese in wine and then dunk bread in it. Which is not to say in any way that it is simple in flavor and satisfaction. But for me it's not an exceptional meal as I can't imagine getting through the winter without making at least one and usually two batches of it. For me an exceptional meal is one I've never made before or it I have it was some years ago.

Fondue isn't an exceptional meal as I can't imagine getting through the winter without making at least one and usually two batches of it.

But I like the man's attitude and agree with him completely, fondue is an excellent Christmas dinner — especially if there are only four people to serve. So I got to thinking — how might I make this dish that I consider essentially comfort food exceptional? I'm not sure if this menu is quite there yet, but it's damned close. The flavors and tastes all work together, it makes a festive looking plate, and it's only 30 minutes work for a dish that most people find exotic.

Note, this a feast of nibbles. The fondue is in the center, but is greatly enriched by the other little munchies around it.

Fondue: This is a traditional cheese fondue. A blend of Gruyere and Emmentaler give it a definite edge, tossing the cheese in flour and shaking off the excess provides exactly the right thickening/binding at exactly the right moment, and sauvignon blanc comes close to the acidity of the Swiss wines typically used. Stay away from corn starch - it ruins the texture. And the kirschwasser is served separately - for dunking

Beet Salad: These luscious beets are equally good served cold (as I would do in this meal) but use olive oil instead of butter. I'd go for red beets (if I can't find the peppermint-striped beets) but golden beets would also be pretty on the plate - cook the beets a day early. As a cold beet salad, toss some mesclun with chilled beets before serving. Red and green — hey it's Christmas!

Prosciutto-wrapped Clementines: Yep. That's all there is to it. Peel a half dozen clementines, wrap them in a shred of proscuiutto, and serve. The sweet-tartness of the clementines is a perfect foil for the savory-saltiness of the ham. On the plate you've got more red and some orange. Jeez this is getting festive. Hmmm, what next?

Deviled Eggs: I wanted to bring something slightly bitter in at this point and casting about in my mind I found dill, which is mildly bitter. I also adore deviled eggs andI'm quite capable of eating half a dozen at once — so I don't make them very often. But I usually at a good bit of fresh dill to my deviled eggs and I thought they would be delicious with fondue.

Poached Pears: Finish the night with a dessert as simple as the rest of the meal. Pears Poached in red wine. Pears are almost out of season, but a little searching can still turn up some good ones. One of my favorite recipes is this one. Use Madeira for a red color and I like serving it with mascarpone on the side.

Technorati: Food | recipe collection | kevin d weeks | seriously good | menu | Christmas

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Kitchen Windows: Duck Famously Fatty, Simply Delicious

I don't recall when I first ate duck. I know it was a roasted duck, but I don't remember any of the details of its preparation. I was probably 13 or 14 and far too distracted with adolescence to pay attention to what my mother was experimenting with this time. However, I clearly remember loving its rich flavor and wonderful fattiness. I also recall the potatoes roasted in the duck fat in the roasting pan.

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Technorati: Food | recipe collection | kevin d weeks | kitchen window | duck

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Quick Holiday Main Dishes

Take it Easy



The demands on your time and attention reach a frenzy in the period beginning Thanksgiving week and ending New Year's Day. You have office and private parties to attend or host, shopping to do, cookies to make for swaps and your kids, and the two big feasts bracketing the holidays to prepare. Typically the last thing you want to do is spend a lot more time preparing meals. Often, you turn to more take-out food, order in pizzas, and picked up prepared meals at the supermarket.

But although these options may save time, they increase expense during an already expensive time of year and they're not particularly satisfying. So I thought I point out some recipes that can be made, a la Rachel Ray, in 30 minutes or less. Even better you won't have to put up with me talking about "sammies" or "evoo." I'm quite content to refer to things by their actual name.

Dale's Minute Steak: This is one of my standard last-minute meals. Quick, easy, and tremendously savory, this recipe is based on Dale's Steak Seasoning. I don’t ordinarily put steak sauce on good steak because it tends to hide rather than highlight the flavor of the beef, but I have no qualms about putting steak sauce on minute steaks or ground beef and this is a case in point. Figure this will take 30 minutes if you slice your own mushrooms.

Veal with Feta Cheese Sauce: One year I did several cooking demonstrations on one of the local TV stations. I never got any business out of the spots and they were a lost of trouble, so I quit doing them. Nevertheless the key was choosing something I could prepare in five minute (not including prep time) and I came up with this recipe. It's takes five minutes to cook and only about 5 minutes to prep.

Lamb Steak with Gremolata: Gremolata is a simple combination of parsley, garlic, lemon zest, olive oil, and salt and pepper traditionally served on Osso Bucco. It's particularly good on lamb, but also complements steak and chicken. Careful, though, the next morning you'll still be tasting it. The gremolata takes five minutes to make the the steaks should cook in no more than 15 minutes.

Austrian Pork Chops: This recipe is nothing extraordinary. I was in the supermarket and picked up a package of boneless chops and wondered what I might do with them. Then I bought some Jarlsburg and some sauer kraut and voila, a meal. These chops are amazingly good for being so quick and easy. It takes 15 minutes to make, maybe 20 if you've had a couple of cocktails before starting.

Schnitzel: Schnitzel (or breaded pork cutlets) are popular and frequent fare at local meat-and-threes. A "meat-and-three" is a small homey restaurant that offers a meal consisting of a meat and three side dishes. These places do mostly lunch business so being able to serve their customers in a hurry is a key to success (the other is not poisoning their customers, quality is a distant third). However, you can make these at home in 20 minutes.

Chicken Piccata: This is not only my favorite last minute, quick recipe, but it seems quite special, is wonderfully piquant, and is the most popular recipe I've ever published. I usually have some chicken breasts in the freezer, lemons, capers, and vermouth on hand. Thawing the breasts adds 30 minutes (you can safely thaw a boneless breast in hot water if you immediately cook it) to the prep time, but they cook in five minutes max including the sauce.

Technorati: Food | recipe collection | kevin d weeks | seriously good | quick and easy | main dish

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Party Hors d'Oeuvres

It's party season and most of us will be invited to at least one party where we have to take something and my favorite things to take - whether it's to a cocktail-style party or a dinner party is hors d'oeuvres. Hors d'Oeuvre literally means "out of hours" — a reference to the fact these flavorful tidbits are not eaten at a meal. Traditionally the French don't snack or eat at all outside of mealtimes at which time they sit down and have a proper meal (although a proper meal may simply be a croissant and cup of coffee), so these little treats are eaten outside of meals — outside of proper eating times.

Some of these recipes can be completely prepared in advance while others only need a few minutes in an oven. These are all finger foods, suitable for eating with no fancier implement than a cocktail napkin.

Enticing Empanadas: Empanadas, at least the finger-sized version, are primarily a Latin American dish. I only found one Spanish recipe in my searching — which surprised me. They certainly make nice two-bite morsels suitable for munching with a glass of sherry or wine and, because I was catering a tapas party, I though it would be easy enough to create a recipe that tasted more of Spain than Honduras or Cuba so that's what I did.

Duck Rillettes: Rillettes are made from confit, which is some kind of meat (rabbit, pork, goose, or in this case, duck) slowly cooked — eseentially poached — in fat and then pounded into a paste. Confit is an old method of preserving meat, very much a peasant dish in origin and rillettes, spread on bread or crackers, is a great and simple way to enjoy it.

Sausage Balls: I was nine or 10 when I got the assignment: make sausage balls. I suspect I brought it on myself. My memory from so long ago is fuzzy but I seem to recall lobbying my mother to make them one Christmas (she must have made them the previous year) and, as she was wont to do, her response was, "If you want them, you make them." I've made them every year since then — making them the only dish I've ever made so long and so consistently.

Humus bi Tahini: Every time I make humus I'm reminded of an elegant (there's that word again) Lebanese lady who once told me I made the best humus she'd eaten in the US. She said, "It's tart, but not sour. It has good garlic, but not too much. I like the 'pepperness.'" Here is a dish that couldn't be more humble or more common. But it also has an elegance of flavor. Serve with crudities and triangles of pita bread.

Stuffed Mushrooms:
I developed this recipe for a client who has both celiac disease and an allergy to shell fish. I didn't have to make stuffed mushrooms, but I'd fixated on the idea of mushrooms being part of the overall mixture of finger foods I was making — and important pasrt of the complete picture of flavor, texture, and temperature. So I skipped the bread crumbs and subbed pancetta and sun-dried tomato for the shrimp or crab. Delicious.

Southern Pâté: I can't abide most liver (I do like foie gras) so I usually avoid pâtés. But I came across a liver-free recipe a few years ago and decided to tweak it into a recipe for a Southerm pât&eactue;. It turned out beautifully. I've served it with rye cocktail bread and with toast points, but I like it best with little bite-sized biscuits.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | party | tapas meze

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