Guinness and Chocolate Cake

A Treat for Saint Patrick



Chocolate? Eh, it's ok but if I had to go the rest of my life without tasting chocolate I wouldn't even miss it. This is not to say I don't like chocolate on occasion and my favorite non-fruit-based dessert is brownies. I've even discovered the pleasures of a small piece of excellent bitter -sweet chocolate with a glass of red wine or beer as a light dessert. Even so, the last 4 oz bar I bought still has an ounce left and has been sitting in my pantry for at least four or five months.

It doesn't surprise me that chocolate is a good match for zinfandel or pinot noir, they contain some related compounds and the tannin in the wine complements the bitterness of the chocolate. What did surprise me when I discovered it was how good beer can be with chocolate — particularly a dark beer such as a porter or stout. Having made this discovery, I wasn't particularly surprised by the recipes I kept running across for Guinness and Chocolate Cake.

It doesn't surprise me that chocolate is a good match for zinfandel or pinot noir, they contain some related compounds and the tannin in the wine complements the bitterness of the chocolate.

Nevertheless, aside from bread I'm not much of a baker and as I said I'm not a chocolate fan. But I wrote an article on cooking with beer last summer and when I write articles focusing on an ingredient I like to feature it in a range of course to give readers an idea of how flexible most ingredients are and I wanted a beer dessert.

I could have done a beer-batter fried apple rings - which sounds really good - or a beer ice cream (another popular option), but I decided to do the cake. There are loads of recipes on the web most of which differ primarily in whether the ingredients are listed in European or American quantities. So I picked one and made it. Four tries later I'd made four delicious cakes all of whose centers fell somewhat. I finally gave up, the cake is just too moist. So I trimmed off the top and made extra icing to fill the dip left. By the way, those pieces you trim off the top? Dip them in Guinness.

Guinness and Chocolate Cake

Cake:
1 cup Guinness (or other stout)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder*
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (make sure it's less than 6 months old for maximum leavening power)
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
Icing:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, place a round of parchment paper on the bottom and butter it, then flour the pan.

Cake:
Place the stout and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth.

Thoroughly combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in large bowl. In another bowl, beat together the eggs and sour cream until well blended. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed.

Finish mixing by folding batter with a spatula until completely combined. Pour batter in the springform pan and bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Place cake on a rack and cool for 10 minutes, then remove the sides of the pan and cool completely.

Icing:
Beat together the cream cheese and sugar. Add cream and vanilla and mix. Spread icing on top of cake to echo the appearance of a glass of Guinness and its head of foam.

*Dutch-process cocoa is acid neutral, if you use something like Hershey's cocoa (which is acid) the cake may not rise properly.

Try Guinness and Chocolate Cake with...
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Steak and Guinness Pie
Shepherds' Pie

Read more...

SG Archive:Corned Beef and Cabbage

A Day without Sunshine



The sun didn't come up yesterday. Or, if it did, I didn't see it. The weather was darkly overcast — the sky a rag of gray flannel stretching from barren treetop to dreary hillside. The wind was cold and gusting, hurling flourishes of rain and ice. It was the epitome of an East Tennessee January day with no color to provide visual warmth or snow to add romance. It was just plain cold and nasty.

There's only one way to deal with a day like that — cook. And I knew just what I wanted.

One of these days I'm going to think of having corned beef long enough in advance to try corning my own brisket. But not this day. A quick trip to the store garnered a three pound packaged corned beef, some potatoes, turnips, carrots, and cabbage.

It was the epitome of an East Tennessee January day with no color to provide visual warmth or snow to add romance.

Back at the house I made a mug of cocoa, rinsed the brisket, and dumped it in my Dutch oven with assorted pickling spices and beer. It went on the stove until it simmered and then into the oven to slowly braise though the afternoon. Filling the house with a thick blanket of savory scent to ward heart and soul against the whisperings of wind and sleet.

Corned Beef and Cabbage
Serves 6 - 8.

1 3 - 4 lb corned beef brisket — trimmed of visible fat
1 bottle of beer
2 tsp mustard seed
2 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp dill seed
1 tsp whole allspice
1 tsp juniper berries
1 bay leaf
3 carrots — peeled and cut into 1" lengths
2 lg. onions — cut into quarters
1/2 head cabbage — cut into quarters
3 lg. turnips — quartered
3 lg. waxy potatoes — cut in half

Heat oven to 325F.

Rinse corned beef and place in a large dutch oven. Add beer, 1 carrot, 1 onion, and all spices. Add enough water to barely cover brisket. Place over medium heat and bring to a vigorous simmer. Cover and place on lower-middle rack in oven.

Cook 1 hour, turn brisket over, and add enough additional water (if needed) to bring level half-way up meat. Repeat 1 hour later.

After 3 hours, remove from oven and remove brisket from broth and set on a plate. Strain out carrots and onions and discard. Add all remaining vegetables, place on stove over medium-low heat, cover, and cook for half an hour or until vegetables are fork tender. Remove from heat.

Slice brisket across the grain and add it back to vegetable mixture to warm up.

I like to serve this with a collection of mustards: Dijon, Polish, honey-mustard, whatever. Then I'll smear one slice of meat with Dijon, another with honey-mustard, and a potato with Polish. The various mustards give each bite a unique flavor.

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Corning Your Own Beef

Be Gorrah!



Corning beef has a long, if not particularly savory, history as a means of preserving meat. You can certainly just salt and dry beef much as hams are cured, but soaking the meat (brining it) in a salt solution became popular during the hay-day of the British Navy when it became a staple on ships. According to Salt: A World History (by Mark Kurlansky) the Irish became particularly known for their beef's longevity and quality. British, German, and French corned beef was regarded as being generally inferior and in fact the British product was called "salt junk" by sailors.. By the way, the "corn" referred to in corning is a reference to the kernels — corns — of salt used in making it.

The standard cut of meat for corning is the brisket, which is a tough muscle with a layer of fat down the center and over the top. Salt breaks down muscle fibers so corning it in a brine that will seep into the meat it a good start on tenderizing it. And salt, through the process of osmosis, also carries the brine's spices into the meat. The brisket is also particularly suitable to the long, slow stewing or braising that is the usual cooking technique.

The Irish became particularly known for their beef's longevity and quality. British, German, and French corned beef was regarded as being generally inferior.

I typically corn at least one brisket a year. I get a small (3 - 3.5 pound) cut and even though that's a lot of meat for one person, I don't mind the leftovers in the least — try corning your own beef for the best reuben you've ever eaten. However, I have this site on Cooking for Two that I manage and although there are lots of foods that are better leftover (corned beef among them) I at least attempt to pay lip service to not cooking enough food to feed four for a week. So I thought about how I might corn a smaller beef.

Buying a brisket and just corning half of it while freezing the rest for another day occurred to me, but right now my freezer is packed so I considered similar cuts of meat and immediately thought of flank steak. Although it comes from the opposite end of the cow, it's also from the belly and shares brisket's long, stringy loosely-spaced muscle fibers. I gave it a try.

It worked beautifully.

Flank steak is long and flat, without the bulk of brisket, so I rolled and tied the steak to produce a piece of meat more similar in shape to a bulky brisket. You can use a commercial pickling spice for flavoring, I always prefer making my own based on a recipe published in Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Note that if you use the flank steak you still need to slice it across the grain which means slicing with the roll, not across it.

If you have the urge to try corning a beef but don't want to take on a big brisket, this is a great option.

You can find the recipe here and my recipe for corned beef and cabbage here.

By the way, I used to cook corned beef in a big pot on the stove top until a Jewish friend suggested using a Dutch oven in the oven instead. The difference was striking. This was many years ago and I don’t recall the specifics but I do remember that not only was the dish more evenly cooked but the flavors were more mellow. These days I use my 6.5 quart Le Crueset Dutch (or French) oven in the oven. Once hot, the cast iron delivers very uniform and gentle heat throughout the cooking process. I now cook all braises and stews in cast iron in the oven.

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SG Archives:Polenta with Two Ragus

What's in a Name?



Seriously Good is kind of an odd name for a blog. It occurs to me it may sound boastful, as though I'm claiming everything posted here is worthy of culinary note in some way. But the truth is that the name refers more to a search for food that is seriously good than an assertion that every recipe included here is due that accolade.

I started using the phrase "seriously good" to refer to those recipes I occasionally ran across or created that I thought were, well, seriously good. A meal that is seriously good demands second helpings, perhaps even thirds. It's something so good you don't want to stop eating it. I sometimes call this "food that hurts" — a reference to the way something sweet can make your teeth ache or something tart make your jaws ache or eating too much can make your belly ache.

I started using the phrase "seriously good" to refer to those recipes I occasionally ran across or created that I thought were, well, seriously good.

I had a friend who described such food as, "so good you want to rub it in your hair." It's food that elicits unconscious moans and sighs. It's extreme food. Not by being outr&ecute;, but by suffusing your sense of taste and smell, feel and sight.

Last night I had such a meal. It looked juicy and appetizing, it smelled marvelous, and the flavors and tastes combined in such a way that it seemed more than the mere sum of it's ingredients. It's a recipe that's been gestating in the back of my head for some time and yesterday it finally hatched.

Polenta with Two Ragus
Serves 6.

1 1/2 c Ragu Bolognese
6 oz provolone — sliced 1/8" thick
6 oz mozzarella — sliced 1/8" thick
Polenta:
2 1/4 c stone ground corn meal
4 c water
1 tsp salt
1/2 c shredded Parmigiano
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 tbsp butter
Mushroom Ragu:
1/2 lb button mushrooms — sliced
1/2 lb sm. Portobello mushrooms — sliced
1/2 lb shitakes —sliced
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp thyme
1tsp white pepper (chosen for it's mild taste)
1/2 c red wine

Make Ragu Bolognese.

Polenta:
While Bolognese is cooking, dissolve salt in water in a pot. Whisk in corn meal and place over medium heat. Cooking, whisking nearly constantly, until polenta begins to thicken. Switch to a wooden spoon and continue stirring until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and stir in Parmigiano, pepper, and 2 tablespoons butter until melted. Allow to cool slightly.

Grease an 8 x 10 casserole dish with remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Spread half of polenta in bottom of casserole. Place a layer of foil over polenta, spray with baking spray, and spread remaining polenta on parchment paper. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Mushroom Ragu:
Place a large, non-stick skillet over medium heat and add mushrooms and sprinkle with salt. Cook stirring frequently, until mushrooms begin to give up their liquid. Drizzle with olive oil and add thyme, and pepper. Continue cooking until mushrooms begin browning. Add wine and cook until most of the wine has evaporated.

Heat oven to 400F.

Carefully remove top layer of polenta and set aside. Spread mushroom ragu over botton layer. Layer sliced provolone over mushrooms. Carefully remove parchment paper from polenta and place polenta on top of current layers. Spread Bolognese over polenta and then layer with mozzarella. Bake until mozzarella browns — about 30 minutes.

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Tikka Masala

Oral-gami



Sometimes a dish unfolds. It unfolds on your tongue, it unfolds on your plate, it unfolds in your nose. And sometimes the unfolding surprises.

When my sister was between 12 and 14 she became fascinated with origami after receiving an origami craft kit for a present. I've no idea all these years later if she was any good, but she was a talented pianist with dexterous fingers well-suited to a task like folding paper. I would sometimes sneak into her room to look at and gently handle her efforts in paper. I recall the bright colors and complex patterns and if I was certain I had a bit of time when I wouldn't get caught I would occasionally unfold one to see how it worked and then carefully refold it. That a square sheet of paper could become a swan or an angel was marvelous.

There is a similarity — a conjunction — between folding paper and cooking. As cooks we begin with an idea for a dish and then carefully fold in the tastes and flavors. A bit of cinnamon forms a crease, lamb contributes stability, cardamom makes an overlay, and garlic forms a shadow-line. Cooking is multidimensional — like origami.

In folding paper the artists take something with two dimensions, and working within those two dimensions, create three dimensions — even four when the angled paper really evokes in the viewer's mind the rounded form it represents.

Over the course of dinner the masala unfolded, the apparent complexity deconstructed as I tasted the structure.

I made Tikka Masala last night. I used chicken but that's not unlike choosing a yellow matt paper as opposed to lamb, which might be a lavender iridescent paper. I might, in fact would, alter minor details in the masala depending on the core ingredient, but an origami artist would also modify certain folds to achieve the desired effect when making a black swan or a white one.

I ate a bite of masala and thought, "Yeh, ok, nothing to write home about." I ate another couple of bites: "Not bad, actually." A few more bites and, "Oh, yeah, the jalapeno is kicking in and the cardamom is perfect." In other words, over the course of dinner the masala unfolded, the apparent complexity deconstructed as I tasted the structure. By the time I finished the entire dish had been laid out like a simple square sheet of paper, and then carefully refolded into the original image. But now completely understood.

Tikka Masala
Serves 6.

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or
2 lb lamb stew meat
Marinade:
2 tbsp cardamom pods
1 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 stick cinnamon — smashed
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 lg garlic cloves; crushed
1 inch fresh ginger — peeled and grated
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 c yogurt
Sauce:
3 tbsp cooking oil (or, ideally, ghee)
2 tbsp cardamom pods
1 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 stick cinnamon — smashed
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 onion — peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic; peeled and thinly sliced
1 inch fresh ginger — peeled and thinly sliced
1 jalapeno pepper; seeded and finely chopped
1 15-oz can petit diced tomatoes
1 cup heavy cream

Marinade:
Cook cardamom pods, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, cinnamon, and cloves over medium high heat, shaking regularly, until seeds begin to pop. Coarsely grind in a spice grinder (I use a dedicated coffee grinder) or mortar and pestle.

Mix spices with remaining marinade ingredients. Thoroughly combine marinade with meat in a zippered bag and refrigerate overnight.

Meat:
Set oven to broil and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Pat meat between paper towels to remove most, but not all, marinade.

Place meat on baking sheet and cook on the second rack from top for 5 - 7 minutes — until lightly browned. Set aside when done.

Sauce:
Note: I really like leaving the spices whole. This is what prompted my thoughts about a dish unfolding. The flavors of all the spices pervade the dish, but biting into a cardamom pod or whole clove is when that flavor unfolds and the craft becomes apparent.

Heat oil or ghee over medium high heat. Add cardamom, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cloves. Cook 5 minutes. (Be sure the fan is running full blast and don't lean over the pan.)

Reduce heat to medium and add onion and tumeric. Cook, stirring, until onions are translucent - about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, and jalapeno and cook one minute longer then add tomatoes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Stir cream into sauce and add meat (if using chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces first). Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes and serve over rice.

Note: I stole a trick from Ree Drummond and colored my rice with tumeric and then added peas. Great idea for presentation.

Try tikka masala with...
Asparagus Parmigiano
Slow-roasted Tomatoes
Buttermilk Pie

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

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Roast Duck

That's Just Ducky



Although I love duck I find it easiest to buy a duck breast at Fresh Market and then pan roast it. Nevertheless, I roasted a whole duck a few weeks ago. Something I hadn't done in several years. It was wonderful. The technique I used is essentially the way duck is prepared for Peking duck (which is a dish and not the same thing as the Pekin duck breed).

Duck is notoriously fatty and while the fat is wonderful stuff you need to draw most of it out if you want an edible bird. When I pan roast breasts I can trim off excess fat and then score the skin and I can do the same thing when cooking legs as in this recipe for Canard au Vin. But it's more problematic for a whole duck.

Duck is notoriously fatty and while the fat is wonderful stuff you need to draw most of it out if you want an edible bird.

The best way I know to do it is to simmer the whole duck after poking holes in the skin to allow the fat to escape as it melts. You'll need a large stockpot and it's a two-part process, but the two parts result in that most luscious of lipids (duck fat) and a wonderful broth you can use for cooking beans or making soup.

Roast Duck
Makes 4 to 6 servings.

1 5-6 pound duck
1 large yellow onion — peeled, trimmed and quartered
2 large carrots — cut into 1-inch lengths
2 medium stalks of celery — cut into 1-inch lengths
Large handful of flat-leaf parsley with stems
12 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 large cloves garlic
2 tablespoons dried orange zest (you can find dried zest in the spice department)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons dried, ground rosemary
1 orange, washed and cut into 8ths
1 small onion — peeled, trimmed and quartered
2 cloves garlic

Defatting:
Remove giblets from duck cavity and cut off wing tips.

Using a small paring knife, poke holes all over the duck's breast, legs and back. Insert the knife at an angle to avoid penetrating the meat — figure you have 1/4 inch of fat beneath the skin on the breasts and thighs and about 1/8 inch on the legs and back — but insert as deeply as possible without making a cut more than about 1/2 inch long.

Place the duck in a large stockpot, add onion, carrots, celery, neck and wing tips. Add enough water to completely cover duck. Remove duck from pot, add parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns and place pot over high heat. Bring to a boil skimming off any scum that forms.

Carefully return duck to pot and bring back to a boil then immediately reduce heat to a simmer. Place a plate with a heavy can on top of the duck to keep it submerged and simmer for 45 minutes, removing any additional scum as it forms but allowing fat to accumulate.

Remove duck and pat dry, being careful to avoid tearing skin. Cool to room temperature. At this point you can move on to roasting, or you can refrigerate the duck on a dish, uncovered, which forces some additional fat out as the skin contracts and produces a crispier skin.

Refrigerate the stock you've made overnight. The fat will rise to the top and you can skim that off and save it frozen for up to a year. The stock can be reduced (concentrated) and used for making gravy (with some of the duck fat) or reserved for other uses (there's no salt in it and it's simply flavored to keep it flexible for other dishes).

Roasting:
If you refrigerated the bird, remove from fridge and warm on the counter for 3 hours. Heat oven to 500 degrees, place an oven rack one level up from the bottom and heat a roasting pan that can hold a roasting rack. Don't heat the rack.

Mix together orange zest, salt, pepper and rosemary. Sprinkle half the mixture inside duck and sprinkle remaining on the outside, patting to make it stick. Stuff cavity with orange, onion and garlic and roast for 30 minutes (rotate front to back after 15 minutes). Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes before carving.

Note: Save the duck bones and the back, add them to the reserved duck stock and simmer it for another couple of hours to make a richer stock. Certainly save the fat for other cooking projects.

Try roast duck with...
Potatoes Savoyard
Beets Dijonaise
Blueberry Crisp

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SG Archives: Lamb Daube

Call Me Sentimental



It's lambing season. At least it is in Missouri where, last Sunday, Clare, one of Susan's ewes, gave birth. Call me sentimental, but when I see a cute little lamb like that it immediately brings to mind images of fields turning green, new buds on trees, daffodils, birds calling for mates, and dinner. Somehow piglets don't affect me the same way — I go straight to thoughts of dinner.

For some reason, a lot of Americans don't like lamb — or at least they think they don't. I suspect they've just never had well-prepared lamb. We don't have a tradition of eating it here and so many people have no idea how to fix it. And, too, lamb has a slightly gamey taste and, for palates used to the insipid blandness of most American beef and pork, lamb is like granola when you're used to shredded wheat.

For palates used to the insipid blandness of most American beef and pork, lamb is like granola when you're used to shredded wheat.

This isn't the case in the Mediterranean countries where lamb and even mutton have a long and honored tradition. Spain, Greece, Morocco, and Turkey are all big on lamb, as is France. For instance, the LaRousse Gastronomique lists more than 130 ways of cooking lamb from the mundane lamb chop (Cotelettes d'Agneau) to lamb's head (Tête d'Agneau a l'Écossaise) — and that's not counting mutton.

I know this because I was looking for a traditional French lamb recipe. In addition to checking LaRousse I did the usual Google scan and looked though Julia Child, Patricia Wells, and the handy-dandy, full-color, for-a-limited-time-only Time/Life Book of Lamb that I got for 95 cents at a used book store. I finally settled on making a daube. You can't get much more traditional than stew because stews have been part of most cuisines since pottery was invented. In addition, it's been cold and snowy here — good stew weather.

Daubes are a distinctly French take on stew. In a daube the meat is marinated with vegetables and herbs in wine for some period of time (I have a beef recipe that calls for marinating for 48 hours). I wanted to do a daube with a Provençal accent and found a number of ideas on the Web and in my books. Lemon is the most common citrus used in Mediterranean cooking, but I found one recipe calling for orange peel that sounded interesting and Child suggested capers and anchovies. I decided to skip the capers and but go with anchovy paste.

To accompany the daube I made mashed rutabagas and fixed an apple crisp for dessert. And wine. I needed wine for the marinade and, just to be contrary, I decided on a New Zealand Pinot Noir. Specifically, I bought a bottle of Dyed-in-the-Wool — it just seemed appropriate.

Daube d'Agneau a la Provençal
Serves 6.

2 lb lamb — cut into 3"4" cubes
1 lg onion — peeled and diced
3 carrots — peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic — smashed
1 orange — zested
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp dried Herbes de Province
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 btl red wine
6 slice bacon
1 can diced tomatoes, 15 oz
1/2 c flour, for dredging
1 c beef stock
1 tbsp anchovy paste

Mix together lamb, onions, carrots, garlic, orange zest, bay, herbs, olive oil, salt, pepper, and wine in a large Dutch oven. Allow to marinate for 3 hours, mixing occasionally.

Heat oven to 325F.

Drain and reserve marinade. Separate meat from vegetables (reserving vegetables) and pat dry. Dredge lamb in flour, shaking off excess.

Lay three strips of bacon on the bottom of a Dutch oven. Sprinkle with half the veggies, add half the tomatoes including juice, add half the lamb. Repeat. Pour in marinade and add enough beef stock to almost, but not quite, cover the mixture. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove and then cover and place in lower third of oven.

Cook for 1 1/2 hours. Remove cover and stir in anchovy paste. Return to oven and cook, uncovered, another 1/2 hour.

The daube was outstanding — seriously good. As expected the anchovy disappeared as an identifiable flavor but brought depth and savor to the dish. (Anchovies can be sly little fishies.) The orange zest was best described as seriously fun. It didn't particularly stand out, but it did quietly and firmly make its presence known and it made me smile every time I noticed it.

The rutabaga, simply seasoned with salt, butter, and a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup, was an excellent accompaniment — a combination of bitter and sweet to supplement the savory stew. The wine? Oh well. It worked fine in the daube but as for drinking it was a bit closer to dye than I would have wished. Drinkable, but only just.

Originally published in February 2006.

Try this daube with...
Mashed Rutabaga with Maple Syrup and Bourbon
Spiced Apples
Potatoes Parmigiano

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Filipino Pulled Pork

South Seas Savor



I plan almost all my meals a week or so in advance. I first began the practice when I was working 60 - 70 hours a week and only had the time and opportunity to cook on the weekends. These days I continue to plan ahead because I have to continually come up with new recipes to publish on Gather, Seriously Good, and About.com as well as less frequent venues. That's a lot of cooking so I'd better be organized.

Because of this plan-ahead approach it's seldom that I have anything other than pantry items in the house that isn't already earmarked for a specific dish. However, last week the local supermarket had a sale on whole Boston Butts. So I bought one and had it cut in half. I knew what I was going to do with the first half, but it took awhile to figure out what to do with the other half.

I quickly found a bunch of closely related articles where cubed pork is braised in soy sauce and vinegar.

For some reason (and I've no idea why) I decided to look up Filipino recipes. To the best of my knowledge I've never cooked anything Filipino before but I quickly found a bunch of closely related articles where cubed pork is braised in soy sauce and vinegar. The idea really appealed to me so I assembled my own version and made it. Absolutely delicious.

My roast was bone-in and instead of cubing the roast I decided to cook it whole. That way the flavor and gelatin from the bone would enrich the sauce. And although most recipes called for braising the meat then browning it, I did the reverse — again to produce a richer broth. Served over basmati rice it was a winner and, although time-consuming, it only needs about 15 minutes of hands-on cooking.

Filipino Roast Pork
Serves 6.

3 lb bone-in Boston butt or pork shoulder
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp cooking oil
2/3 c white distilled vinegar
1/3 c soy sauce
5 cloves garlic — peeled and smashed (left whole)
5 whole cardomom pods
2 bay leaves
1 1/2-inch fresh ginger — peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbsp fresh orange zest
1 medium yellow onion — peel, quartered, and cut into 1/4 rings
2 tbsp sugar

Heat oven to 325F. Generously season the roast with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, then brown roast on all sides. Move roast to a plate and pour excess oil out of pot.

Deglaze the pot with the soy sauce and vinegar, then add a cup of water. Add garlic, cardomom, bay, ginger and orange zest. Return the roast to the pot and add 1/4 of onions.

Bring back to a boil, then cover and place Dutch oven in the center of the oven. Simmer for 1 hour then turn roast over. Cook another hour and turn over again. Cook 1/2 hour then add remaining onions. Cook 1/2 hour longer.

Add sugar to broth and shred roast using a pair or forks in the pot. Taste and adjust seasonings (In addition to salt, I ended up adding about another 1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar and soy sauce.

Serve over basmati rice.

Try this Filipino pork with...
Curried Plantains
Calabacitas
Fried Green Tomatoes

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Zeppole

Fat Tuesday, Italian, Deep Fried



Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday this year. Apparently the tradition behind the name is to use up all your sinful ingredients (sugar, butter, spices) before beginning Lent. In England Fat Tuesday is often celebrated as Pancake Tuesday and a recent press blurb I received noted that beignets are the New Orleans' tradition on Fat Tuesday.

I'm not Catholic — at least not beyond being catholic in my tastes — but I do love food-oriented occasions and I often have pancakes on Pancake Tuesday. But the PR notice reminded me that as long as you have something suitably sinful you have indeed given the occasion it's proper due. (I have a masochistic friend who so enjoyed giving things up for Lent he had to give up Lent for Lent. Ba-da boom!)

I ended up eating half the batch I'd made one after another. By the time I went to bed that night all 30 were gone.

At any rate, when I read "beignet" my mind immediately leapt to zippole. I was teaching a class on cooking with cheese several years ago and needed something sweet using cheese — preferably not something as common as cheese cake. And in casting about I found a recipe for an Italian fritter named zeppole at AllRecipes and featuring ricotta cheese. I ended up choosing something else for the class that didn't involve deep-frying, but I just had to try zeppole myself.

So one morning I made up a batch and I haven't made them since. I ended up eating half the batch I'd made one after another. By the time I went to bed that night all 30 were gone. They were clearly highly dangerous. But that was four years ago so I'm thinking I'll make a batch tomorrow. Maybe they weren't as good as I remember. Maybe, even if they are, I'll have more resistance to them having eaten them once. But if you don't see a fresh post here tomorrow, then I OD'd on ricotta fritters. Send help.

Zeppole
Makes 24 - 30.

2 qt vegetable oil for frying
1 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 c ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 c powdered sugar for dusting

Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 375F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and nutmeg. In a small bowl thoroughly mix the eggs, ricotta cheese, and vanilla. Gently stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until a sticky, fairly thick, batter forms.

Drop by tablespoons into the hot oil a few at a time. Fry until golden brown, about 3 or 4 minutes — the Zeppole will turn over by themselves. Drain on paper towels and dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve warm. Or room temp, if they last that long.

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SG Archives:Pear and Frangipani Tart

Not at all Tart



I polished off the last bite of New Year's duck about 8:30 Sunday night, dumped the dishes in the sink, and made coffee to go with dessert: a pear tart. A few months ago I'd run across a recipe at myhouseandgarden.com that had immediately captured my taste buds. I'd been waiting for the right opportunity to try it and this seemed like the perfect meal for it.

The recipe is simple and straight forward and, as I thought when I first read it, the combination of pear and almond flavors is delicious. To carry through on the almond theme, I added Amaretto to unsweetened whipped cream for the topping.

The combination of pear and almond flavors is delicious.

Over all, it was too sweet for my taste, but I think I could reduce the sugar in the frangipane a good deal without affecting it's cooking characteristics too seriously. It's certainly good enough to make again.

French Pear Tart

3 - 4 ripe pears
— peeled, cut into halves and sliced across, just before baking
Pastry ( pâte sucrée ):
6 oz all-purpose flour
3 oz unsalted butter -- softened
3 egg yolks
3 oz castor sugar
3 - 4 drops vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Frangipane:
6 oz (175g )ground almonds
6 oz (175g )unsalted butter, soft
5 oz caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
2 drops of almond extract
Glaze:
apricot jam
lemon juice

Pastry:
Sift the flour into your food processor then add all the other ingredients. Pulse until the pastry forms a ball. Wrap the pastry and place in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Roll out and put into greased a flan dish (with loose bottom is best). The pastry will be quite delicate and inclined to break up, just press together again, it will not spoil the end result. Return pastry to refrigerator again for 20 minutes

Line pastry with grease-proof paper and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Blind bake for 7-8 minutes. Remove the baking beans and paper and bake for another 5-7 minutes until golden brown.

Frangipane:
Cream together butter and sugar. Add the eggs, ground almonds, sifted flour, and almond extract. Stir it all together. Spoon frangipane into pastry until not quite full. Place the sliced pears evenly on top and bake at 350F for 30 - 40 minutes. When cool, remove from baking dish and brush the glaze over the top.

Glaze:
Heat the jam gently on the stove until it melts. Add the lemon juice and mix in. Push through a sieve.

Try this tart with...
Lamb Daube
Rum-and-cider-brined Pork Sirloin Roast
Canard au Vin

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SG Archives:Apple-Brined Duck Breast

Precedent



It is my firm belief that the most important meal of the year is what one eats on New Year's Day. I'm not referring to the multitude of traditional foods served in various parts of the world such as Hoppin' John in the South, Vietnamese banh chung, 12 grapes in Cuba, or stewed mushrooms in Russia. My belief is it doesn't matter what one eats so long as one eats well. You are, after all, setting a precedent for the remainder of the year.

This year, because I didn't get to do much cooking for Christmas dinner, I paid special attention to what I wanted to fix on New Year's Day. I considered a beef roast because the one my sister fixed was so good and I hadn't quite satisfied my hankering. But another superstition, which I just made up, is that New Years dinner shouldn't include or produce leftovers. That just strikes me as a bad precedent to set. So what to fix?

Duck, that most succulent poultry. Queen of avian edibles. Voluptuous volaille. Amazing anatra.

I wanted something fairly traditional. Something that would look back to past meals while anticipating future dinners. And then I remembered I had half a duck breast in the freezer. Duck, that most succulent poultry. Queen of avian edibles. Voluptuous volaille. Amazing anatra.

I decided to brine the duck. I wanted to infuse it with apple cider and I thought brining would do so more effectively than marinating. Then I figured sauteed apples in a sweet red wine pan sauce would carry the apple tune just a bit further. To accompany it I made a potato gratin and steamed Brussels sprouts simply dressed in butter and lemon juice.

Judging from last night, I should be eating very well in the year to come. I flavored the cider brine with juniper berries and garlic. The result was wonderfully sweet with a distinctly salty edge to it that I liked. The pan sauce of apples sauteed in duck fat with marsala and crushed juniper berries reinforced the milder flavors in the meat.

For the gratin I layered thin slices of under-cooked potatoes and Appenzeller and sprinkled each layer with salt, black pepper, and minced rosemary. The rosemary in the potatoes nicely complimented the juniper in the duck.

The Brussels sprouts did their job, which in this case was mainly to not interfere with the duck or potatoes.

Cider-brined Duck Breast
Serves 2.

1 duck breast (about 3/4 lb) — cut in half, crosswise
Brine:
1 c apple cider
1 tbsp juniper berries — crushed
3 tbsp Kosher salt
1 clove garlic — smashed
Pan Sauce:
1/2 Braeburn apple (or other cooking apple) — peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
1 scallion — peeled and minced
1/2 tsp juniper berries — crushed
3/4 c marsala
2 tbsp butter

Bring cider, juniper berries, and 1 cup water to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and add salt and garlic. Stir to dissolve salt and cool to room temperature. Place duck in a zip-lock bag and add brine. Refrigerate at least eight hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 350F. Pat breast halves dry with a paper towel. Using a sharp knife, score duck skin in a diamond pattern and season liberally with black pepper. Place, skin-side down in a 10" oven-proof skillet over medium heat and brown — about 5 minutes. Turn breast over and cook another three minutes, then place pan on middle rack in oven. Cook for about 15 minutes or until center of breast registers 140 on an instant-read thermometer. Remove to cutting board and tent with foil.

Drain all but 2 tablespoons of fat from skillet. Place over medium heat and add apples, shallot, and juniper. Saute, stirring frequently for 5 minutes until apples are browned and softened. Add marsala and reduce by half, scraping up browned bits. Remove from heat.

Slice duck across grain and arrange on plate. Swirl butter into sauce and spoon apples and sauce over duck.

Try this duck with...
Potatoes Savoyard
Roasted Rutabaga
Baked Baby Artichokes

Originally published 01/02/2006.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | duck | main dish

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SG Archives:Spiced Apple Cake

Don't Panic



A friend of mine celebrated his 6th Annual 42nd birthday this past fall. For those of you unfamiliar with Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Bill, having achieved answerhood, decided to continue to be 42 forever — or at least until the Earth is destroyed to make way for a pan-galactic bypass.

Each year, beginning with his 1st Annual 42nd birthday, Bill has thrown a party and invited his programming buddies, his musician buddies, and any and all 4th dimensional beings who happen to be in he neighborhood. Although Bill has been kind enough to invite me every year, I've always managed to outsmart his blandishments by living somewhere else. Last fall I ran out of other places to be living and so I had to attend.

Each year, beginning with his 1st Annual 42nd birthday, Bill has thrown a party.

I left my towel in the trunk of my car (I like to be prepared for sudden exits) but a number of folks wore theirs and, as you would expect, a few people arrived in bathrobes.

I'm not sure what possessed me, but I decided to bake a birthday cake for the event.

Spiced-Apple Cake (From Williams-Sonoma "Thanksgiving")
Serves 12.

3/4 lb butter — softened
3 tbsp butter
2 3/4 c sugar
3 Braeburn apples — peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2" dice
3 2/3 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 c milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3/4 c unsweetened natural applesauce
6 eggs
Frosting:
6 1/2 c confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 lb cream cheese — softened
2 tbsp butter — softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp brandy

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and stir in 2 tablespoons of sugar. Add half of apples and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden — about 8 minutes. Reserve cooked apples. Add additional 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar to skillet and cook remaining apples. Reserve.

Heat oven to 325F. Position rack in center, and grease and flour 2 9" cake pans.

Sift together flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl mix together milk, applesauce, and vanilla.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat remaining 3/4 lb butter until creamy and smooth. Add the remaining 2 1/2 cups of sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes — stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down sides.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour in three additions, alternating with the milk/applesauce mixture and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat each addition until just incorporated, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Remove from mixer and gently fold in apples.

Divide the batter between the two pans, spreading it evenly. Bake until the center of the cake springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean — 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack and allow to cool for about 15 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the racks and cool completely, about 2 hours.

Frosting:
Whisk together the confectioners' sugar, ginger, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides. Add the vanilla and brandy and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low and gradually add confectioners' sugar. Increase speed to medium-high ad beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

Using a bread knife, make a cut halfway up on one side of a cake. Then, using a length of dental floss, carefully draw it through the cake cutting it in half. Repeat for second cake.

Place a large spoon-full of frosting in the center of a cake plate to keep layer from moving. Place a bottom layer, cut-side down, on the plate. Frost top of layer with 1/4 of frosting. Place top layer on top and frost. Repeat for remaining layers.

This is a killer cake with perfectly balanced flavors. And as you can see, it looks really nice too.

Try this cake with...
Boeuf Bourguignon
Lamb Chops a la Grecque
Milk-braised Pork Roast

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | desserts | apples | cake

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Roasted Cauliflower

A Transformative Dish



Roasting cauliflower totally changes its character, providing a wonderfully nutty undercurrent of flavor. You may wonder at my use of granulated garlic as opposed to fresh garlic, but I've found that the fresh garlic ends up in the pan while the powdered garlic clings to the cauliflower, ultimately providing more garlic flavor.

Recipe here...

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | cooking for two | side dish | cauliflower

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Couscous

Grains of Goodness



I've mentioned before that my mother has always been an adventurous cook. She has her flaws in the kitchen (as do I), but timidity about trying something new isn't one of them. One of the things she started cooking back in the 60s was couscous. I've no idea where she got the idea because it doesn't seem to be one of the popular "foreign" dishes from that period, but it was a regular part of her repertoire. So much so that she bought a couscousiere (see photo, below).

I remember mixtures of lamb or chicken simmering with assorted exotic spices in the bottom of this strange pot as the vapors rose to flavor and gently steam the couscous in the upper part of the device. When she and my father moved into their new house about a year ago I inherited the pot. I wish I could say that I've since then recreated those marvelous odors and flavors in my own kitchen — but I haven't. It's on my list but I haven't done it yet. However, the packaged couscous has gotten much better since the 60s and a couscousiere is no longer needed to produce couscous that isn't a soggy mass more like porridge in character than long grain rice.

My mother has her flaws in the kitchen (as do I), but timidity about trying something new isn't one of them.

These days you can even by 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. For instance, I decided on a mixture of dried fruit for the batch I made to go along with my Cornish Hen the other night.

Couscous with Dried Fruit
Serves 6.

1 pkg plain couscous
1/2 red onion — diced (about 1/3 c)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 c diced dried apricots
1/4 c raisins
1/4 c diced dried prunes
1/4 c diced dried apples
1/2 c Madiera or red Vermouth
2 c chicken broth (or whatever quantity package calls for)
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Place dried fruit in a small saucepan over medium low heat and add enough Madiera or Vermouth to cover. Bring to a simmer, remove from heat, and steep for 15 minutes. Drain unabsorbed wine into a measuring cup and add enough chicken broth to match package requirements. Mix in salt and spices.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add onion, and sauté until onion is translucent. Add fruit. Follow package directions to finish cooking.

Along with the couscous, I glazed some carrots. These I simply cut into 1/4" ovals, parboiled in water until fork tender, and then sauteed in butter to which I'd added about a half teaspoon of sugar. When the carrots were lightly browned I add a couple of tablespoons of vermouth (hey, as long as the bottle was out) and continued cooking until the vermouth evaporated. A bit of salt and the carrots were done.

Try couscous with...
Leg of Lamb
Pork Florentine
Chicken Tagine

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | side dish | couscous

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Glazed Cornish Hens

Small Packages



Succulent Cornish hens are roasted and then coated with a sweet, garlic-flavored vermouth glaze. Despite the mess, you'll want to eat this wonderfully sticky, rich, and juicy bird with your fingers to make sure you don't miss a single morsel of skin or flesh.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother roasting ordinary chicken. Unless you can get free-range chicken (which is expensive even when you can find it) it's barely worth the bother of cooking. The flavor ranges a gamut from bland to flavorless. By the time the thighs are done the breast is usually overcooked. And it takes an hour (or more) to roast.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother roasting ordinary chicken.

Supermarket chicken is fine if you're using it in another dish such as paprikas or you're marinating it. And the individual boneless breasts are convenient for many dishes and if you're not worrying about getting the thighs done then overcooking them isn't a problem. But roasting a whole supermarket chicken? Phfft! The best thing whole chickens have going for them is they're always available.

Not so Rock Cornish Games Hens (aka, Cornish Hens, aka Game Hens). They aren't as easy to find as chicken and, although not up to the standards of free-range chicken, are more flavorful than the usual fowl. And because they're small (less than 2 pounds) they cook in 30 - 40 minutes, and the breasts are seldom overcooked. I fixed one the other night using a recipe from the October 2004 issue of Gourmet.

Cornish Hens with Sweet Vermouth-garlic Glaze
Serves 4.

2 ea Cornish hens — halved lengthwise through breast
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 c sweet (red) vermouth
6 cloves garlic, large — quartered lengthwise
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 c water

Heat oven to 450F and position rack in center.

Pat hens dry and season with salt and pepper. Place cut sides down in a large heavy 1" deep baking pan and roast until just cooked through, about 30 minutes.

In a small, uncovered sauce pan, simmer vermouth, 1/2 cup water, thyme, and garlic for about 10 minutes until garlic is soft. Discard thyme and mash garlic with a fork (or use an immersion blender). While hens cook, reduce sauce to a glaze -- about 3 tablespoons.

When the hens have cooked for 30 minutes, brush glaze onto hens and roast 5 minutes more. Remove from oven, place on a platter, and cover with foil. Add remaining 1/2 cup water to glaze and scrape down sides. Place baking pan over two burners on medium high and add glazing liquid. Simmer briefly, scraping up browned bits. Season with salt and pepper and pour over hens.

I served this with fruit couscous and carrots glazed in red vermouth. Beautiful and delicious.

Try these Cornish hens with...
Couscous with Dried Fruit
Pureed Cauliflower
Roasted Rutabaga

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | cornish hens

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Standing Rib Roast

Fundamentals



When I was editing programming magazines I sometimes had writers object to an assignment as redundant: "Lots of people have already explained a hash sort, why should I reinvent the wheel?" or, "Everyone knows how to do phonetic parsing, it doesn't make sense to do it again." To which my response was, "Trust me, know one has ever explained it the way you can and there are programmers — experienced programmers — who will learn some new take or suddenly gain an insight they were missing when they read your article."

I told them this knowing the article I'd written that received the most response from readers was on a topic computer science majors studied in their first year. And yet the e-mails said things like, "I'd forgotten that algorithm and it's perfect for a project I'm working on." and, "I never really understood why x and y were swapped, now I do." In short, I'd made something old, new again and given it my own spin. And that's why I'm addressing the King of Roasts — a prime rib.

Nomenclature

Enzymic action in the presence of oxygen breaks down muscle fibers (making the roast more tender) and creates more complex flavors (especially glutamates — umami).

There are two sources to the name "prime rib" and in most cases they don't apply to what we cook at home. The primary source is that the beef rib is known as a "primal" cut because it's a fundamental devision of an animal. The ribs from the center section of ribs are the rib primal cut. This cut typically includes 6 - 7 ribs, weighs around 25 pounds, and will serve 12 - 15 people. This large primal rib cut is then often divided into a large end and small end. These are what we find at the store and they are not, by this definition, "prime ribs."

The other source of the name is from the Prime grade. This is the highest grade of beef, well-marbled with fat, and exceptionally tender. You can no longer find prime grade beef in most stores, in fact even choice is getting hard to find. Nevertheless, a Prime grade, well-aged primal rib roast is carnivore heaven.

Given the above, what you can buy in the standard Safeway, Kroger, and even Whole Foods is a standing rib roast — a smaller, lesser-grade roast. Someday you should save up and get a genuine, aged Prime-grade rib roast mail-order just to find out what the fuss is about, but a 3 pound roast from Lobels will set you back almost $150 or about $25/person. And I am serious, if you love beef one day you should try this meat.

However, even if you head down to the supermarket for a Select-grade roast, make the effort to select one with as much marbling in the meat as you can find. The fat strewn through the muscle adds flavor, mouth-feel, and juiciness. I recommend at least a three-rib roast, although I have had some success with a two-rib, large-end roast. But I suggest the larger roast because I recommend aging it. This will improve both it's flavor and tenderness but will reduce the servings by one. (Note: There is some risk here of food poisoning, how much I have no way of determining. The US Government recommends cooking eveything to 160F. It's your call.)

Aging the Roast
Dry-aging beef accomplishes two things. First, some of the water in the roast's juices evaporate. This concentrates flavors just as reducing wine enhances its flavors. Second, enzymic action in the presence of oxygen breaks down muscle fibers (making the roast more tender) and creates more complex flavors (especially glutamates - umami).

Pick up the roast seven days before you plan to cook it. Choose a roast with good marbling and, a thick layer of fat (at least 1/4-inch) over the flesh. If you're lucky enough to have access to a real butcher (even at a supermarket) or to a local supplier you can request this — just be sure to give them two to three weeks warning before you plan to pick it up.

Place the roast on a rack in tray (to promote air circulation and catch any drips) on the lowest shelf in your refrigerator. But avoid the coldest corner which can freeze the roast and prevent aging. Do NOT Cover or wrap the roast. It it's wrapped it will spoil.

Let it sit, just sit, for five to seven days.

Remove from fridge and using a very sharp knife trim off the dried fat and flesh from the meat sides — don't worry about the rib side. And don’t be overly concerned about a pristine appearance with no spot of slight grey flesh or slightly brown fat. By the time it's those minor imperfections will disappear.

Cooking
Restaurants that specialize in "prime rib" typically have special ovens to cook the roasts in. The ovens are large enough to contain several primal ribs at once and are geared toward very slow cooking.

The roast is first blasted with high heat to both begin browning the meat and to kill any surface bacteria. Then they are slowly cooked, sometimes over as much as eight hours, to assure the entire roast is cooked to a uniform rare. Then if someone orders medium rare, medium, or (God forbid) well-done the meat is sliced off the bone and quickly heated to 135, 145, or 160 degrees. You can do this at home.

Recipe
This is as basic a recipe as you can imagine, but if you've followed the steps above you already created a great deal of complex flavor. Don’t futz with the work you've already done. Take it easy.

1 3-rib standing roast
3 lg cloves garlic — smashed
Kosher salt
Black pepper
2 tsp ground rosemary
3 tbsp olive oil

Rub the roast all over with the smashed garlic. Salt generously and warm, covered with plastic, on the counter for 2 hours.

Heat oven to 225F. Season roast with pepper and rosemary.

Heat olive oil in a large, heavy roasting pan over medium high heat. Brown roast on all sides, finishing bone-side down.

Place in lower third of oven and cook until center of roast reads 120F for rare or 135F for medium rare according to an instant read or probe thermometer — 3 to 4 hours. Remove from oven, tent with foil, and rest 20 minutes. There will be almost no carryover cooking, but the juices will redistribute.

Cut roast from ribs, slice, and serve.

I'll leave it to you to decide on sauce or no sauce and what to do with the goodness left in the bottom of the roasting pan. But I like tossing some par-boiled potatoes and carrots into the roasting pan and sticking the pan back in the oven at 400F while I make a port wine demi-glace to grace the meat.

Try this roast with...
Potatoes Savoyarde
Leeks with Anchovy Butter
Cranberry Mousse

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | beef

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Pasta Carbonara

Italian Ecstasy



A number of years ago I spent a week in Italy with my parents. We rented a villa outside of Rome and used it as a home base to explore Rome and southern Tuscany. One morning we visited the ruins of the Emperor Hadrian’s Villa and afterward had a late lunch at a restaurant there. I ordered Fettuccini Carbonara.

This dish had been a favorite of mine since college when I waited tables at a restaurant where it was a specialty. Over the years I’ve made it many times using a recipe based largely on what I remembered from watching the chef fix it. The version I had in Italy was a revelation.

Carbonara has been a favorite of mine since college when I waited tables at a restaurant where it was a specialty.

When it arrived it was a bright lemon yellow. The color turned out to be egg yolks — multiple egg yolks. My version included a single whole beaten egg. What I was served had at least two yolks in it with no whites and no cream. It was unctuously rich and luscious.

The version below is still basically what I’ve made for years, but I learned a lesson about the eggs in Italy.

Fettuccini Carbonara
Serves 4.

8 ounces fettuccini (or spaghetti)
6 ounces pancetta, 1/4" dice
6 egg yolks
2 tbsp olive oil
12 green onions, sliced 1/4" thick
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c heavy cream
4 oz parmegiano — grated
2 oz pecorino — grated
1 tsp salt
Additional salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl mix together egg yolks, cream, and salt.

Add olive oil to a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook, stirring frequently, for two minutes. Add garlic and onion and continue cooking and stirring for one minute. Remove from heat.

Cook pasta, drain quickly, return to pot and add remaining ingredients stirring constantly to prevent egg yolks from curdling. Serve immediately with a healthy grind of black pepper. Fresh asparagus is a wonderful side dish with this meal and a good Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc washes it down nicely.

If you can't get pancetta, you can use ordinary bacon, but ham is a better choice. And if you're feeling rowdy, I sometimes substitute country ham for the pancetta.

Try this Carbonara with...
Baked Baby Artichokes
Green Beans with Anchovies
Roasted Rutabaga

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pasta | italian

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Buttercup Squash Soup

Makeover



Squash soup has been really popular this year — and no wonder, squash soup is a great idea, but too often it fails in execution. It's often banal, watery, and insipid. Something more like flavored squash juice than a true soup with soup's promise of savor, depth, and nuance. Some years ago I had a bowl of soup like that in cooking class and its lack of character irritated me. So I set out to create something more like what I imagined squash soup could be.

I scanned lots of recipes and I figured out why so much soup was watery — squash is watery. So I decided to drain it after it was cooked. So I roasted the squash the day before making the soup then scooped the flesh out into a large sieve set over a bowl. After a night in the refrigerator I had over a cup of liquid in the bowl. I suppose I could have reduced the juice and included it in the soup, but instead I just threw it out.

Horseradish has sort of a grassy flavor that I thought would draw a hard line against the soft flavor of the squash.

Next, I wanted to add a distinct edge to the soup. Cumin or curry powder were too obvious, too predictable. After some thought I hit on horseradish. Horseradish has sort of a grassy flavor that I thought, with it's bite, would draw a hard line against the soft flavor of the squash.

Maple syrup seemed like a sweetening agent that would complement the harshness of the horseradish and I thought buttermilk would add richness without ameliorating the effects of the horseradish and maple syrup.

The result, though not perfect, was mighty good. It was thick, rich, and full of flavor — a very long way from bland or insipid.

Buttercup Squash Soup
Serves 6.

1 butternut squash — 2 1/2 - 3 lb (butternut can be substituted)
1 leek — cleaned and cut into strips
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 c buttermilk
3/4 c chicken stock
2 tbsp maple syrup
4 tsp prepared horseradish
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt to taste

Cut squash in half across equator, clean out seeds, and place cut side down in a baking dish. Add about 1 inch of water to baking dish and cook in a 400F oven until tender — 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Scrap flesh out of squash into a 2 qt bowl — do not mash — and refrigerate overnight. Drain accumulated liquid.

Melt butter in a 2 qt sauce pan over medium low heat and then sweat leeks until translucent. Add 1/2 cup of butter milk, 1/2 cup of chicken stock, and all remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and heat thoroughly.

Puree squash mixture and return to sauce pan. Soup should be thick, but still then enough to require a bowl and spoon to eat. Add additional buttermilk and chicken stock to achieve desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings — in particular you may need a bit more maple syrup depending on how sweet the squash was.

Note: This is much better if soup is allowed to meld overnight in the refrigerator.

Try this Squash Soup with...
Rum- & Cider-Brined Pork Roast
Chicken with 40 cloves of Garlic
Braised Lamb Shanks

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | soup | squash

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Italian Eating

Boot Licking



I love food from the Mediterranean area whether Spanish, Greek, Moroccan, French, or Italian. These cuisines all share elements in common such as the herbs, lots of garlic, lemons, olives, and olive oil and yet each cuisine manages to be distinct and even have distinct regional cuisines. The food served in toe of the boot is not the same as that served in Tuscany, which is in turn different from the Piedmont. But whatever the region, Italian food delights our senses of taste, smell, and sight. Most of the recipes below are traditionally Italian, although with my own tweaks, but whatever the recipe, they all have Italian roots.

Canapé Toppings: Although one of these recipes is based on Greek cuisine (feta, tomatoes, and basil), the other two have a decided Italian spin. One combines prosciutto and goat cheese and the other is for an artichoke tapenade — the Italians do love artichokes. Spread these on crackers, toast points, or bruschetta; open a bottle of wine; and relax.

Fettuccini Carbonara - Quixotic Quest: Fettuccini/Spaghetti Carbonara had been a favorite of mine since college when I waited tables at a restaurant where it was a specialty. Over the years I’ve made it many times using a recipe based largely on what I remembered from watching the chef fix it. Then, number of years ago, I spent a week in Italy. We rented a villa outside of Rome and used it as a home base to explore Rome and southern Tuscany. One morning we visited the ruins of the Emperor Hadrian’s Villa and afterward had a late lunch at a restaurant there. I ordered Fettuccini Carbonara. It was a revelation.

Ragu Bolognese - In the Flesh: Ragu Bolognese is the fundamental recipe behind meat and tomato sauces. But comparing the slow-cooked, handmade version with what most of us experience is like comparing a Rolls Royce with a Yugo — yeah, they're both cars, but riding in a Rolls is completely different from riding in a Yugo. And eating this wonderful sauce on pasta is much closer to the Rolls experience than the Yugo.

Braciole - Harvesting Ideas: Braciole is not a particularly complicated or elegant dish. It's simply a piece of meat — most often beef or veal and sometimes pork — wrapped around a stuffing and then braised. Sometimes it's made using scaloppini in individual portions and sometimes it's prepared as a large roast. But however you do it, you wind up with tender meat and the most luscious sauce imaginable.

Osso Bucco - Hole in the Bone: It had been at least 20 years since I last made or had osso bucco, literally "hole bone." The name refers to the circlet of bone in the center of each section of cross-cut shank. After cooking, the marrow in the center of the bone falls out or is scooped out leaving a circlet of bone — a bone with a hole. Historically the dish is from Milan and was veal braised with white wine, cinnamon, allspice, and bay. My version is less historical but is still based on Italian recipes.

Milk-braised Pork - Simple, Strange, Delicious: Perhaps it's just me, but braising pork in milk seemed like a strange idea to me. It is also such a simple recipe that (pork, milk, garlic, and salt and pepper) that I wondered how much flavor it would have. But Doc Biggles at Meathenge has never steered me wrong, and I did want something new so I decided to give it a shot. This has since become one of my all-time favorite recipes.

Chicken Picatta - And All that Jazz:I've been trying, but for the life of me I can't remember when I first had Chicken Picata nor where. But it seems like it's been a standard in my recipe repertoire forever. It quick and easy, has tremendous flavor complexity. It's also the most popular recipe I've ever posted. Also, I usually have everything I need on hand (I've usually got two or three chicken breasts in the freezer) so I'll thaw the breast in hot water (this is safe for a small piece of meat that's then immediately cooked), pound it flat, and 45 minutes after pulling the chicken out of the freezer I'm eating.

Saltimbocca - Jump in the Mouth: Saltimbocca is an Italian word meaning "jump in the mouth" and is the name of a Roman dish classically made with veal, prosciutto, and sage. It's also sometimes made with chicken or pork and cheese is a frequent addition. I have trouble finding good veal so I usually use chicken, but either is great. Garnish the dish with a couple of fried sage leaves.

Green Beans with Anchovies - Umami, Whoa-o: The Italians love anchovies. For that matter, they're beloved around the Med. Anchovies are high in umami, the fifth taste, the savory taste. Whether pack in oil or salt, Mediterranean anchovies aren't as fishy as the American version, but that easy to deal with, cut back a bit. The purpose of anchovies isn't so much to add flavor as to enhance existing savory flavors and these wee, little fishies do that beautifully. These beans also feature olive oil, garlic, and pancetta — they're way good.

Potatoes Parmigiano - Simple Perfection: I was at the farmers' market and stopped at stall where a fellow was selling potatoes. Aside from the fact he had all his teeth, he was the epitome of a hillbilly. Long and lanky with a long gray beard that would make ZZ Top envious, he completed the picture by wearing overalls. He also had some of the prettiest little Yukon Golds I've ever seen. Although, I came up with this recipe from scratch, it certainly tastes Italian to me.

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

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Greek Caprese Salad

Variation on a Classic



The Italian Insalata Caprese is a tomato salad that originated on the island of Capri. It consists of sliced tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, and olive oil. It's absolutely delicious and well-deserving of its fame. But I like a Greek version of the salad that I make better - in fact it's my standard lunch during tomato season.

Recipe here...

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | cooking for two | salad | tomatoes

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Quick & Easy Chicken

Not so Paltry Poultry



I try to buy chicken from Tracy Monday at the farmers' market on Tuesday. But Tracy isn't always there, and I don't always want a chicken when he is there (and my freezer is already crammed), and these days I find it harder and harder to even afford one of his free-range chickens. So, with qualms, I buy often chicken at the supermarket (although I do go for Sanderson Farms chicken instead of Tyson).

Chicken is a cheap source of protein and chicken is almost infinitely malleable — the white rice of meat. Ii pairs well with sweet flavors and sour flavors. You can marinate it in tequila or braise it in red wine. It's suitable for European, Latino, and Asian dishes. The flesh is low in fat and the fat it does have is delicious. It is, indeed, hard to go wrong with chicken and so I eat a lot of it.

It also cooks fairly quickly — especially the breasts. And yes, I agree the thighs and legs are more flavorful but they do far better cooked slowly in liquid than flash-sauteed in a skillet or baked at high heat in an oven. So here are a few of my favorite quick and easy chicken recipes. Note: All of these can be prepared in 30 minutes or less.

Chicken Breasts with Herbs & Bacon: Back when I was a computer programmer and then editor I would have loved to have had a 9 - 5 job — or so I claimed. A 50-hour week wasn't unusual and even 60-hour weeks were fairly common. One of the first quick and easy recipes I came up was chicken breasts with herbs and bacon. The herbs and bacon add flavor and the bacon also keeps the breast from drying out.

Chicken with Feta Cheese Sauce: I've run across several recipes for chicken with a feta cheese sauce, but they didn't particularly impress me. When I ran across another one — actually one I'd already seen several times -- I suddenly knew what to do. I call this Athenian Chicken because of the feta and because the chicken itself is prepared somewhat like both Chicken Kiev and Chicken Florentine.

Chicken in Parchment: This recipe goes back a ways too, at least as far as SG is concerned. You can tell by the awful photograph that reflects my first photographic efforts. Nevertheless, the recipe is pretty damned good matching the chicken with potato, Savoy cabbage, and onions with white wine, lemons, and garlic in a tidy package that cooks in 30 minutes.

Chicken Parmigiano: I came to Chicken Parmigiano late in life. It's a standard of Italian restaurants and never particularly appeal to me. when I saw it served — overcooked chicken with sodden breading and doused in marinara sauce to hide those faults. But an episode of America's Test Kitchen that featured this classic caught my eye. I didn't make notes or look it up, but as with most Cooks Illustrated recipes it teased out the dish's fundamentals and that I paid attention to. So here's my version.

Chicken Piccata: Since I first this recipe it has consistently been in the top ten. It deserves that. Like Chicken Parmigiano it includes Parmigiano, but as a flavoring, not a primary ingredient. The sauce, made of wine, lemon juice, and capers is an exquisite complement to the chicken and it's coating. Best of all it can be made in 10 minutes — 30 if you have to thaw frozen chicken breasts in hot water. (This is safe provided as soon as the chicken is thawed you cook it to 160 degrees.)

Chicken Stroganoff: This dish cooks in the time it takes the rice it's served on. But it's even faster than that implies. It makes great leftovers which can be zapped in the microwave in 4 minutes. that cuts the time invested in two meals down to 35 minutes combined. It's also seriously savory with the sour cream and I recommend using basmati rice which as a nice nutty element.

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

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Cooking for Two: Yogurt Chicken

Yogurt chicken (chicken marinated in yogurt) is a popular dish throughout the middle-east. I first had it grilled and served on a skewer in Beirut, Lebanon and loved it. Then I had yogurt-marinated lamb on a skewer and loved that too. The marinated beef wasn't as good as the chicken or lamb, but was still pretty good. This recipe calls for sumac, which I can find in the ethnic section of my local supermarket (and Knoxville is not the most cosmopolitan city in the world) so check before giving up on it.

Recipe here...

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | cooking for two | chicken | main dish

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SG Archives: Corn Pudding

Fresh from the Farm



Last Friday night I was planning on making smoked salmon and I thought some corn pudding would be good especially since I'd been to the farmers' market earlier and eggs as well as just-picked corn. I stopped by another market and got some Cruze Farms milk and some Amish butter.

I last had corn pudding at The Hermitage (President Andrew Jackson's home) in Nashville, and though the stuff at The Hermitage wasn't very good it was good enough to remind me of just how good corn pudding can be and just how long it had been since I last made it.

There are probably as many recipes for corn pudding as there are Southern cooks.

There are probably as many recipes for corn pudding as there are Southern cooks. The recipe below is a cross between spoon bread (using corn meal) and the more typical recipe of just a custard of milk and eggs. I like the body the cornmeal adds to the mixture as well as the unadorned sweetness of the fresh corn. This recipe comes from Recipezaar.

Corn Pudding
Serves 6.

6 tbsp butter
3/4 c cornmeal
1 c boiling water
3 lg eggs
2 c milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 c corn kernels

Heat oven to 375F. Put 2 tablespoons butter into 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Place in oven to melt.

Put cornmeal in a medium bowl. Add boiling water and whisk until smooth. Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter and stir until melted.

In another bowl beat eggs until blended. Beat in milk, then stir in powder, salt, and pepper. Beat or whisk into cornmeal mixture, stir in corn.

Pour into melted butter in baking dish and bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and bake 35-40 min longer or until puffed and golden brown on top.

Try Corn Pudding with...
Roast Pork with Rhubarb Compote
Tomatoes Parmigiano
Fried Chicken

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | side dish | corn | corn pudding

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