Sunday, February 27, 2011

Recipe 62: Braised Pinto Beans

Bam! I am not big on pinto beans usually, they are often flavorless, but last night and today, I worked Emeril magic on these beans and created a near delicacy. The recipe calls for fresh pinto beans, which are no-where to be found in Michigan in winter, so I picked up a pound of dried pinto beans and soaked them overnight in water. I was careful to drain them first thing in the morning; I've had beans mold in their water before. I must confess, beans are not a strong point of my cooking repertoire. I've tried the quick-soak method, and they stay crunchy; I've tried the overnight method and they've stayed crunchy or as above, molded. But I'm not a girl to be beaten that easily. I may scream and complain along the way, which I didn't this time; but I will not be beaten by beans.

So, how do you make pinto beans worthy of asking for seconds, or having for dinner alone? You add some key flavorful ingredients that work great as a soup without the beans. First, you slice and cook or cook and slice applewood-smoked bacon. Then you add some diced onions and a clove or two of minced garlic. Next you add some finely chopped cilantro stems. With that, mince and toss in a jalapeno. You can take out the ribs and seeds if you don't want too much heat. Beans handle the heat well. Then you add a pinch or two of sweet paprika and a couple pinches of salt. Stir this occasionally until the onions are soft, about 3 minutes.

Now you add the beans and the chicken stock or broth. Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook uncovered for an hour, or until the beans are tender. It took a little longer than an hour to make these beans tender. James and I ate the rest of dinner, then tried the beans again and they still weren't ready. I turned them off while we watched worst cooks at his house. When I went to bed that night, they still weren't ready. I did taste the braising liquid, and as I said above, it would make a great soup.

In the morning, they felt softer, but I decided I was done playing games with the beans and re-heated them to a boil. Then I let them boil for a few moments, between 10 and 20. Then I cooked them on low heat for about an hour again, around 3 instead of between 1 and 2 on my stove. They came around after the application of extra heat. Finally! I got to taste them. Excellent.

I even divvied up a portion for James when he stopped by. I haven't gotten his take on them yet. I had my nephew's band concert to attend this afternoon and have been a little busy since. I did remember later that some chopped cilantro and oregano leaves were supposed to be added to the beans before serving, so I added them. It wasn't night and day, the braising sauce stood up well on its own, but it was still good.

As I said before, I'd eat the braising sauce as a simple soup. Though at one point when smelling it, I thought the only thing missing is a ham hock. The recipe is so versatile I'm tempted to make it again with the cranberry beans I have and add celery and whatever other vegetables need to be used. After all, I have a bit of applewood-smoked bacon that needs to be finished off.

I will definitely make this recipe again, and share it with others. Another plus, its budget friendly, especially if you find the bacon at the farmer's market in the summer, vacuum-packed. However, unless I wait till April when this batch is gone, I may be visiting my local butcher's shop. The recipe only calls for four ounces, so you get some breakfast goodies, or any of many other uses that can be found for bacon. Enjoy!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Recipe 61: Homemade Pasta with Pancetta and Chanterelles

So, first question, for those of you who are not schooled in the culinary arts...what are chanterelles anyway? I even went back to this question a time or two as came across this recipe and even in preparation for it. I finally looked it up. Chanterelles are a dainty and curly wild mushroom. Please get a trained field guide to identify your own, I'm only going by what they look like dried. The recipe called for fresh, but no one had them. So I spent more on mushrooms than I do on meat for a week, sometimes two and I prepared to make this recipe.

Next, hand-made pasta-I did want to use the ravioli, but it was all gone. This sauce could be really good over the sweet potato ravioli. Back to the hand-made pasta. I don't own a pasta roller, its all by hand. These are the days a girl learns what she's made of and begins to feel like the tea bag she pours hot water over in the morning. I began making the dough on Tuesday night, but due to some form of failed time management, it became too late to work with it. I refridgerated it overnight, and last night,the pasta didn't wish to be worked. I'm not sure if it hadn't come up to room temperature enough, or if it was too dry. I did use gold medal wheat flour as that was what I had on hand. I didn't purchase Red Fife Flour from Anson Mills. I thought about it, but it would take time to get here, and the local grocer's provide Bob's Red Mill-which I could have used. However, I had a bag and a half of wheat flour on hand, and decided it would be fine enough. I started the pasta over tonight, and decided to work it through from start to finish. Luckily, a kind-hearted friend had pizza and offered me some as my stomach began to growl shortly after I started. Its much easier to pound pasta dough for ten minutes on a full stomach than on a growling one. Alas, I'll get back to the recipe.

I find recipes to be a little tricky sometimes. They rarely ever say set aside 3 good hours for this recipe or work on this 10-15 a day for three days in a row. I love the cooking adventure, but sometimes you wonder if the author/cooks realize how helpful these details would be. If you haven't noticed by now, Hand-made, Hand-rolled pasta is a long process. And I'm wondering if my ten-minute kneading knuckles will forgive me in the morning for doing this to them again and if my shoulders will consider continuous rolling of pasta dough right down to the size of a dime a work-out or a punishment. However, if you have worked up a good mad and can envision someone's face in pasta dough, or simply wish to carve it in, you will most likely be successful in making dime-thin pasta. Me, I had already had a fair amount of stress-relief and gave considerable thought to borrowing my seven year old niece who rolls out paper thin tortillas every time. But just like life, pasta must be conquered with a plan or a good bout of madness.

Right, so you've heard about pasta twice now-and I think I'm done with the pasta parts of this for a while. So, now, onto the good stuff, pancetta. Fatty, salty, yummy, bacon or side pork taken to an entirely new level. If you cannot find pancetta, you can use side pork. Pancetta is even slightly more tender, and you can tell the difference, if its cooked well. Its more work to cut into a quarter inch dice than I thought, but I think I need to sharpen my knives. I'm not entirely surprised there, I do use them often. It leaves me tempted to go buy my own Giada Santoku knife. But alas, knife woes aside, I crisped the pancetta and set it aside. I added the olive oil and minced shallots to the pan and sauteed until slightly wilted. I added the chanterelles and some fresh thyme leaves and sauteed another moment. Then I poured in the white wine and let it reduce.

Meanwhile, my water was boiling for the pasta, so I dropped it in to cook while the wine reduced by half. The recipe had more wine than I did tonight, but not much more. Once the pasta was ready, I I scooped it into the strainer and began the second batch. Then I added heavy cream to the sauce and sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. And I removed the second batch of pasta to cool with the first.

When the sauce was ready, after about ten minutes, I tossed the pasta with it, and tasted, pretty good. I like all things going into the sauce, so I'm not surprised that I like it, but the flavors work together very well, better than I expected. I'm always pleased when that happens. I expect this will make a very good lunch over the next couple of days.

And with a little planning, and effort, and a few minor sacrifices-dried chanterelles instead of fresh, and kneading two batches of pasta because I can be a perfectionist, I made myself a lovely batch of lunches I would never had made were it not for this book and this blog. The flavors still mingle very well on my tongue, though my shoulders are deciding they may have been pushed a little hard. But with a little TLC and some planning and guidelines, it looks like my life is starting back on the track I want it on. There will still be work and planning such as with the pasta dough, and sometimes having to give the dough itself some TLC before your knead it for ten minutes straight, but when you put your heart into it, you get the most out of it.

I will definitely make this dish again, just not this month;-).
Until we meet again,

Tatiana

Monday, February 21, 2011

Recipe 60: Charred Chayote Soup with Adobo Shrimp

Yum, yum, yum, wow! I want another bowl. I better get tomorrow's dinner started, this meal isn't lasting through lunch tomorrow.

I'll begin with the Chayote squash, as I've never worked with it before and the recipe begins with it. I had to peel it, half it, and seed it. It peels like an apple. The inside is honeydew melon color as the light green outside suggests. The seed is like a pit but not as tough nor as big as an avocado pit. Easiest squash I've ever worked with. It has a very crisp taste, even roasted for charring and after being paired with adobo and crushed red pepper. Its a perfect carrier for these spices. Its also small and easy to cut, and has a slightly shorter cooking time.

The recipe called for a grill pan. I did not have a grill pan, nor did I feel like borrowing a grill to use in 6 more inches of snow. I decided to simply cook the squash on the open rack of my oven. I didn't get them quite charred, maybe the heat was too low or I didn't cook them long enough, but they still had a good, crisp flavor. Now that I see they are a member of the cucumber family, it explains the texture and flavor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote

While the chayote were cooking, I defrosted the semi-cheater shrimp. I'm not big into peeling them, so I bought them peeled and deveined already. It worked for me. I added salt to the shrimp-hopefully not too much, then 2 tsps of adobo sauce from chipotle peppers. Looks like I'll be having spicy egg muffins in the morning, with cheese. The shrimp get set aside until you are almost ready to serve the soup, they don't take long to cook.

Then I melted butter, diced onions, sauteed for three minutes, minced garlic and sauteed for 30 more seconds, and tossed in the ground cumin a little early, but it worked out. I took the saute off the heat when I realized I was supposed to have the squash diced-1/2 inch and set aside. I diced the squash which was almost ready and had a great flavor even without being perfectly charred. Then I added the chicken stock and the squash and the dash or two of crushed red pepper flakes, and brought it all to a boil. Once it got to a boil, I simmered for about 8 to 10 minutes, then added in the shrimp. I cooked for a couple of moments until the shrimp were tender and barely remembered to chop the tablespoon of cilantro to add in when I was ready to serve.

I then tasted a shrimp and the soup then both together. Wonderful, near perfection. Yum, yum, wow, or in the words of young Kayla's favorite song: Boom, boom, pow. And yes, to be completely cheesy, I gotta get it.

I added the sour cream and found a nice creamier element which slightly thickened up the soup. I'm not sure if this is perfection, but its damn close, and now I'm going to have more.

I will definitely be making this recipe again!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Recipe: 59 Carmelized Cane Syrup Sweet Potatoes

This recipe has sticktoitiveness-the ability to stick to anything it touches and not let go. Since it uses a cane syrup, it sweetens everything in its path along the way. What's not to love. It helps that I love sweet potatoes and finding new things to do with it. Oh, and mom and grandma's marshmallow covered sweet-potato casserole, step aside. There's a new sophisticated dish in town that the kids will want to eat too.
Sorry, Grandma, I still love your pineapple upside-down cake, your hugs when I'm hurt, and I wish you were here. Now, back to the recipe.

This is almost too easy, but don't worry, it's not. Its still worth it though. Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch rounds. Buy thinner sweet potatoes, otherwise you will have to half the sweet potato lengthwise in order to get through it. The potatoes I got weren't too bad, just don't buy the rutabaga size.

I drizzled the Grapeseed oil in the pan, which James was kind enough to share with me this past weekend (I was going to barter cumin he wanted, but he had already bought some a couple of weekends ago). Then I arranged the sweet potato slices in a single layer and salted them. Next, I turned over each sweet potato and drizzled a little more Grapeseed oil (Canola oil can be used instead), and salted side 2, then I placed them in the oven at 400 degrees. Next time I will start the oven when I start peeling potatoes, not as I'm arranging slices in the pan. It wasn't bad though. However, I've never carmelized sweet potatoes before, and they didn't look quite done at the half-hour point. I should have checked the bottoms, or turned them half way through cooking. I let them cook five minutes more.

They did end up black on the bottoms, but I went on with the recipe. While the sweet potatoes caramelized, I put together one of the sweetest combinations I've ever seen. 1/2 a stick of butter, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar and 1/4 cup of cane syrup, and a cup of pecan pieces. Emeril recommends Steen's Cane Syrup, which was not at meijer. He also suggested you can use a combination dark corn syrup and molasses. I found another brand of cane syrup in the world food aisle at Meijer, Lyle's Golden syrup-ingredient: cane sugar syrup. It smells very sweet when you pour it. I stirred the mix and set it aside until the sweet potatoes were ready.

I pulled the sweet potatoes out of the oven, slightly more charred than the picture shows, and since they were what I had and I was out of pecans, it was what I was working with. I placed the potatoes into the casserole dish and poured the syrup mix over the potatoes, turning to coat well. I put the casserole dish back in the oven for another half hour, and pulled it out when it was done. It almost reminded me of a praline pecan sundae, but orange.

I let them cool five minutes, and scooped out a bowl of them. If you are making this for a family, make two batches. You will need it. I had to walk away and was grateful for a phone call from an old friend from college or I might have eaten the entire dish.

I was also surprised that this dish didn't come across as overly sweet, but it is nice as a treat, but on a regular basis, this dish could ruin any diet. And yet, there is enough nutrients in sweet potatoes, that its worth killing the diet for once in a while.

I will definitely make this dish again. I like the sticktoitiveness, and even when I screwed up the sweet potatoes, they accepted the syrup with grace and made for a delicious side dish with dinner, yet were good enough to be a main event on their own. Next time, the sweet potatoes will get to caramelize for only 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Bon Appetit!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Recipe 58: Marinated Blue Crab Claws

I try to follow each recipe exactly in this cookbook, one for the true recipe experience and two, because you never know when the substitution creates a problem or if its just the recipe. However, I did not have a crab-boil, its winter, and I've never really cared for shelling crab meat, though I do love to eat it fresh. Also, the crab at Meijer looked like it had been frozen too long. I must confess, I cheated and bought a 1 lb. can of premium wild-caught crab. I'm sure the fresh would have been better, so I'll have to try it again during crab season.

Being marinated, this takes a standard approach of olive oil and red wine vinegar, add in some fresh squeezed lemon, chopped green onions, minced shallot, minced celery, chopped fresh parsley leaves, chopped fresh basil leaves, minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, chopped fresh oregano leaves, thinly sliced pimento stuffed green olives, salt, fresh ground black pepper a dash or two of hot pepper sauce, and 1 # cooked blue-crab claws, outer shells removed.

I've developed a new habit cooking with Emeril-I buy at least one lemon every week, often two or three. He squeezes lemon into everything he can. Though I did put the lemon in the oven to warm it up and nearly forgot to add it. I thought the parsley was going to kick my butt when I was chopping it. I like stiffer leaved plants, I think. Of course I may have been tired of chopping and mincing when I got to the parsley.

The instructions are simple, and this recipe is quick, excluding time to boil the crab legs. Chop, mince, and squeeze, mix everything but the crab with a whisk. Add the crab, let the party get warmed up for six hours, and when the party goers get sleepy, you find they're a little stronger than you expected, but good. This is not one of my top ten Emeril recipes, but I will try it again, with fresh crab when it warms up. I did try it on cracked wheat bread for a sandwich for dinner, and found that worked really well. I may turn the rest into crab cakes. I just have to make the bread crumbs for this. I honestly think this will make a very good crab cake recipe, its just a little strong without the bread, even on crackers as the appetizer or hors d'oeuvre its supposed to be.

I will make this recipe again to try it with fresh crab instead of canned, and maybe I'll research the crab-boil idea and invite some friends for this as well. I'm not sure this will go onto the make it often list, though it was quick and easy, but I know the shelling of crab claws is generally not so rapid. Now onto some more sweet potatoes;-)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Recipe 57: Sweet Potato Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter

With proper attention and care and willingness to see the beatings through, Heaven. Without, it has serious potential to be hell. This recipe has a fair number of firsts for me, first for making pasta(hand-rolled even, as I don't have a machine), first for having mascarpone cheese(that was the least of my derprivations as a child), and first for making a recipe from this cookbook as a single woman. This is off the top of my head.

I'm sure most of you know or have figured out what's going on, if not, I broke up with my famed sous-chef this past week. Its been a hell of a week, to say the least. I was going to take a break and prepare four Paula Deen recipes this week, Thai food, for James, for Valentine's Day. However, due to one hell of a stressful week, a loss of female support through a favored membership I can not afford, nor justify; a great deal of disappointment and a lost relationship over a stupid forced decision, I have taken the break this previous week and will be back at it next week.

I admit, if I had finished this recipe and written this blog before 7 or 8PM this evening, I may still be entirely blaming myself. Since I'm not, I'll get onto my firsts and do my best to be fair to both parties in this matter. If you have a vested interest in either party, I'll warn you now; I'm not certain I'm entirely capable of being fair right now. I could simply not mention him, but he still plays a part in this piece.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes-another first for me, easy and good. Place sweet potato on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, roast at 350 degrees for one hour turn half-way through. Let cool until cool enough to handle. When cool enough to handle, or when pasta dough is rolled out, mix with 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese(a new favorite), and stir until cheese is no longer visible. Yummy stuff.

I learned how to make pasta dough tonight, and its fairly simple, flour-including half cake flour, oil and eggs, add a little (very little) water if its dry. I mixed the pasta, formed a ball, and kneaded it for ten minutes. While kneading it, and feeling some of the therapeutic value of kneading dough, I've figured out why the Italians invented the pasta dough and the bread! They had to make dinner when their husbands pissed them off and they needed to beat the living crap out of something. After ten minutes, you don't feel like killing them so much when you know they were wrong too. Then you bag it or wrap it in plastic and set it aside for a half hour while the sweet potato finishes cooling.

After a half hour or overnight in the fridge (but warmed back up to room temp for rolling out), you get to imagine anyone's face you'd like to see steam-rolled being run over by your rolling pin. I was not at this point by then, I'd been too busy laughing at a friend's children. So, you divide the dough into four sections and run it through a pasta machine a few times--a couple on each setting getting smaller each time. Earth to Emeril-I do not have a pasta machine. I saw no note on how thin to roll it out. Internet, here I come. Hand rolled pasta thinness? Dime size. Oh, dear, that's thin. I need to borrow my youngest niece who at 7, is much more machine than I am, and rolls dough paper thin. Its up to me, at least they're small sheets.

I taste the sweet potato and mascarpone mix as I prepare to create my filling mounds, and decide this is a very good mix. I'll be making this mix for mashed sweet potatoes sometime too. I drop teaspoonfuls onto the pasta and forget to rim the edges with water. I top them and decide to rim them with water if needed after I cut them out. For the ones that don't line up perfectly, I do rim them with water. Some I simply run water over the sides to help them seal. Then I press the fork tines down onto the dough and find joy as they look like pretty, well-formed, but near perfect homemade ravioli. I bring the water to a boil, or close. Its getting later, I'm getting slightly impatient, and I don't wait. So I toss in the first batch and pull them out, probably too soon. They have to go back in, with the second batch. I often underestimate my time frame for these recipes. When they come out of the water and cool a bit, I taste one, near perfection. I did use my Christmas gift, the wonderful colander scoop spoon for this. It saved me finding my standard colander and clearing out the spot in the sink where I finishing dishes. Thanks, Denise!

I'd actually use wheat flour in my dough as opposed to white flour with cake flour. Keep the cake flour, just mix it half and half with the wheat flour. I believe I've grown used to more flavor than plain white flour is capable of providing. The sweet potato filling is excellent, and strong enough to pull off a more robust flour flavor.

Then I wonder where the stick of butter goes. I look for the sage too, didn't use that either. I turn the page, and voila. Melt butter chunks in pan until brown on the edges and nutty-smelling, swirl butter off of burner, add sixteen sage leaves and cook until crispy 1-2 minutes. The ravioli is supposed to be divided into four to six bowls and the sage butter poured over it. I'm not sure I got it quite nutty enough, but better as sage butter than burned. It was still excellent.

I will definitely make this recipe again, probably with a whole wheat flour to see how well it works. Maybe even tomorrow night, since I have a ton of mashed mascarpone sweet potatoes left, and love ravioli. Of course, I could eat healthy and skip the ravioli shells. We'll see;-).