Californa style beef tacos

When I make stock, it always seems a shame not to use the meat that is strained away in the end, even though it has had the dickens cooked out of it.  For chicken, I use mostly wings and necks, so it isn't that much of an issue.  But for a beef stock, I often buy oxtails, which can be very meaty, and the beef very tender after a trip through the pressure cooker, which is my weapon of choice for producing great stocks without the interminable wait, skimming, and fussing.

I made beef stock the other day in anticipation of roasting a rib roast for Christmas (see above), and I had all of this wonderful shredded beef as a result.  That sent my mind back to my favorite taco joint of all time (Chris will remember this) in Salt Lake City.  Of course I can't remember the name of it because I am increasingly senile, but I certainly do remember the California-style beef tacos, which are much tastier and much lighter than those ubiquitous in most other places, featuring rubbery hamburger drowning in cheap cheese, sour cream, and iceberg lettuce. (Though I will admit that a well-prepared version of that style, minus the  "rubbery" and the "cheap" does have its place in my occasional cravings.)

A California-style taco, at least to my knowledge, as well as a traditional Mexican taco, is served on a soft, fresh corn tortilla, the meat is shredded rather than ground (at least in the ones I gravitate toward), and garnished with little but some chopped onions and cilantro, along with your choice of salsa and a squeeze of lime.  I had my shredded beef, but it wasn't cooked in the aromatics I prefer for tacos, so I doused it with a little of the freshly made beef broth, and added in a handful of chilis, cilantro stems, and salt to infuse the meat.  (I never salt my stocks, so the meat was bland.)  While that simmered, I made some corn tortillas, which isn't difficult, but if you buy, buy the best ones you can find.  Just be warned, making a trip to the Mexican market can take longer than just making the damn things yourself.

The beauty of these tacos is their simplicity and lightness--

no fat added anywhere, and the satisfaction of spicy salsa, 

crunchy onions, and aromatic cilantro

To up the nutritional punch, I made a side of black beans and veggies, with both hot and sweet peppers, onions, cumin, and cilantro.

no added fat here, either--I just simmered the veggies

in a bit of the beef stock, which was already defatted

Sorry for the lack of pics in this post.  Several of the pics I took were too blurry to post.  I am a better cook than I am a photographer.  I don't know why my little point-and-shoot does great on some shots, and so terrible on others.

savory, crunchy holiday treat

During the holidays, when we go to parties or dinners, I like to take along a little home made treat.  But cookies and candy seem problematic to me.  For one thing, everyone usually has an abundance of those already, prefer their own family favorites, and they take a lot of time and labor.  For the past couple of years, I have made spiced pecans, which are smoky-sweet and delicious, but good quality nuts can get expensive.

Yesterday, it occurred to me that there is a little trend going on in the celebrity chef world that I pay so much attention to.  Popcorn with exotic savory flavors, either used as a garnish on a plate, or served as an appetizer.  So I set out to develop a warmly spiced, slightly hot, slightly sweet popcorn that would last a couple of weeks if sealed up, and make a nice gift in a little holiday tin.

I thought that microwave popcorn would make prep super-easy.  The hardest part was finding microwave popcorn that didn't have fake butter flavors, or kettle-corn flavors, or cheese flavors already added in.  I finally did find a brand without added flavors, but I couldn't find any that didn't have added salt.  For that, I was going to have to pop corn the old fashioned way.  I settled on the plain salted popcorn, and omited added salt in my coating.

For 1--3.5 ounce bag of popcorn, I melted 4 tablespoons of butter, added 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of curry powder, a teaspoon of chili powder, about a half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and few twists of fresh ground pepper.

I cooked the spices, sugar, and butter over medium heat,

until the sugar melted and began to bubble

Once the sugar was melted, I added two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, and about a tablespoon of very finely chopped fresh rosemary.  Don't even think about using dried--it will not taste the same, and very likely burn.

fresh rosemary leaves are stiff, and very easy to chop fine

I spread the popped corn out on a silpat in a sheet pan, picked out the kernels that didn't pop, and drizzled the spice mixture over the popcorn, stirring to get everything well coated--don't use your hands to stir unless they are made of asbestos since melted sugar is roughly the same temperature as molten lava.  That went into a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes to dry.

 stirring a couple of times while the popcorn is in the oven

will help distribute the flavor through the popcorn

this stuff was yummy, spicy-sweet, with just a touch of heat--

addictive

leftover extravaganza begins

I had turkey, turkey carcass, veggies (both cooked and uncooked), stuffing, and heaven knows what else filling my fridge, so I needed a leftover meal for tonight's dinner.  I love chicken and dumplings.  I love stuffing.  I thought I had a brilliant idea.  What if I could turn leftover stuffing into dumplings and make a turkey and dumpling soup?  So, I did a quick search on Foodtv.  And sure enough, someone had already done that very thing.  I found a recipe for turkey and stuffing dumpling soup.  The recipe was intriguing, but since I am hard-wired to be incapable of following any recipe, I made a few changes.  I used only fresh veggies (didn't want to muddy up the soup with cooked veggies), added a couple of healthy dollops of leftover mashed potatoes to make the soup more like a creamy stew, and added baking powder to the dumplings to make them puff up a little lighter than they would be with just the addition of egg and flour.

I started out with the turkey carcass last night, simmering it in plain water for a couple of hours, then chilling it in the fridge overnight.  Plucked the meat off of the bones, strained the broth, and reduced it on  the stove without the meat to intensify the broth flavor, and avoid overcooking the meat.

Then I added some carrots cut in batons, and sliced onions, cooking them just until they were barely tender, about 20 minutes.  I added a couple of big spoonfuls of mashed potatoes to thicken the soup and add some richness.

reduced broth with mashed potatoes, carrots and onions cooked just until tender

Next in the pool:  diced celery, chives, fresh thyme, and the turkey--all left over from the big day.  No trips to the store, or the garden.

the celery, turkey, and herbs will heat up in the time it takes to bring 

everything back to a simmer, then in go the dumplings

The dumplings whipped up in the food processor in a few seconds.  For a small pot of soup, I used a cup or so of leftover stuffing, an egg, a small dollop of light cream, a teaspoon of baking powder, and about a quarter cup of flour.  My stuffing was bread-based, but I can't imagine why this wouldn't work with a cornbread stuffing.

The dumplings got rolled into balls the size of the ping-pong variety, and dropped into the soup.  After a few minutes, I flipped them over to cook the other side.  They plumped up nicely, were tender and light, and the veggies in the soup still had a bit of al dente bite to them.  It was a light, flavorful version of the overblown feast from the day before.

I even recycled the dining room flowers to the kitchen table,

and the soup got a bright addition of fresh parsley

turkey dumpling soup comes in for its closeup 

Thanksgiving for 3

This year, Thanksgiving at my house was for Jim, my mom, and me.  It is actually a little daunting to figure out how to prepare a feast for three, without having a mind-boggling pile of leftovers.  GE was giving their employees free turkeys, so there was no paring down there.  We ended up with a 12 pound bird.  In the past, I have suggested cooking a small breast and a leg, but Jim wants to see that whole beast in all its glory, so whole bird it was.  Can't argue with free, anyway.

We have a rotisserie for the grill, and the weather this week was calm and warm, so I decided to do the bird on the grill, just to see how it would turn out.  That meant no drippings for the gravy.  In anticipation of that, I bought a couple of turkey wings and a few chicken drumsticks to make a turkey stock.  I roasted those off on Monday, to make a nice brown stock, complete with roasting-pan drippings.  I made the stock in the pressure cooker, from the meat and bones, an onion, celery, parsley, thyme, and a few whole spices.  The resulting stock was easy to turn into a mushroom gravy that was every bit as good as gravy made from pan drippings, and actually a lot less work.

make-ahead turkey stock made a rich mushroom gravy, and easy clean-up--

no drippings to de-fat, no roasting pan to clean

I'm hacked off at myself for not taking a picture of the bird on its spit, but the end result was a very moist and flavorful bird that required no basting or fussing with.  I put herb butter under the skin, tied  it up to keep anything from flopping around, skewered it, and let the motor do the work.

the bird cooked on the rotisserie was golden brown all over--

I will certainly use that method again

for a veggie, I made my version of green bean casserole.  I made a creamy mushroom soup with a roux, half and half, mushrooms, lemon zest, and a bit of nutmeg, salt, and pepper.  I sliced up some shallots, dusted the rings in cornstarch, and fried them in a few batches in a little pan I have, which meant using less oil, and making less mess.

little frizzled shallot rings--so much better than the canned stuff

my version of green bean casserole--easy to make and

not a can in sight

I made the apple and sage dressing, and the cranberry relish that I love a couple of days ahead, so all I had to do was bake the dressing, and get everything out on the table.  This year I managed to be so prepared that I felt a bit cheated out of my usual turkey day cooking marathon.  All I really needed to do after the turkey was on the grill was make the mashed potatoes and green beans, and dish everything up.

dinner for three--including sliced, canned cranberry jelly,

because both my mom and Jim insist

oops, nearly forgot the black raspberry tart--

I love the rustic look of the free form crust

We still have a pile of leftovers, but nothing out of control.  So tonight I am going to make a turkey stew with dumplings made from leftover stuffing.  I think it should be tasty.  Stay tuned for the leftovers marathon.

baked ziti, really?

Jim was browsing through a Cook's Illustrated magazine I had out on the kitchen table, when he spotted a recipe for baked ziti that he wanted me to make.  Really?  Baked ziti?  The only memory I had of baked ziti usually involved some awful Italianesque buffet table, sporting a dish with mushy, over-cooked pasta coated in dried-out sauce, and topped with a rubbery coat of cheese.  No thanks.  But, the magazine article swore it fixed all of those problems, so I thought, "Why not give it a whirl?"

The basic recipe included both tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, cottage cheese rather than ricotta, garlic, fresh basil, heavy cream, oregano, mozzarella, and Parmesan.  Along with ziti, of course.  I didn't have any ziti, but I did have penne, and plenty of it, so I used that instead.  Jim likes some meat in most of his meals, so I added in some browned hot Italian sausage.

The recipe called for creamy cottage cheese, which is often labeled "country style".  That gets combined with a couple of eggs.

cottage cheese?  I'll give it a whirl--whisked up here with two eggs

The sauce involved sauteing the garlic, adding both tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, oregano, black pepper, and a bit of sugar to highlight the tomato flavor.  I had a few late season tomatoes hanging about on the counter, so I chopped those up as well, and added some sausage I had cooked off earlier.

so far so good--the sauce was nicely balanced.  I added

the fresh basil at the last minute

While the sauce simmered for a few minutes, I whisked a teaspoon of cornstarch into the heavy cream, and cooked that until it had thickened.  Then that is stirred into the cottage cheese mixture.  The pasta gets boiled for about half the normal cook time, so it is VERY al dente.

mozzeralla gets cubed--easier to do if it goes into the freezer for 

half an hour

Once the pasta is cooked, some of everything gets combined in the pasta pot--the pasta, a cup of the tomato sauce, half of the mozzarella, and the cottage cheese.

not particularly appetizing to look at at this stage, 

though it was very creamy

That mixture gets put into a casserole, topped with the remaining tomato sauce, and dotted with the remaining mozzarella, along with a generous grating of parm.  It is then covered with foil and baked for about 30 minutes.

30 minutes in the oven, then the foil comes off

30 minutes more, and the top is crisp and brown

the final dish, after a 20 minute rest, was quite tasty

Okay, so it was good.  But it was complex to prepare, along the lines of a good lasagna in terms of steps and pots, pans, bowls, and mess.  Like lasagna, it can be prepared ahead, and the kitchen mess tackled well ahead of dinner, but if I am going to go to that much trouble, I think I will stick with the more complex and versatile lasagnas I make.   It made a lot.  So we have an uncooked pan in the freezer.  I'll be interested to see how it is after a stint in cold storage...

tender pork chops

Keeping pork tender has gotten more complicated since breeders bred the fat out of pigs during the fat scare of the 80s caused pork sales to dwindle.  As a result, common cooking methods began to yield dry, tough meat that didn't taste of much.  I hate the lemming-like way people respond to public health scares.  There is nothing wrong with reducing the overall fat in your diet, but ruining the quality of a product is not the way to do it.  Nevertheless, I am stuck either figuring out ways to cook the rib chops that Jim loves, or spending a fortune on mail order heritage chops, and that is not going to happen any time soon.

When you don't have fat to help retain moisture in meat, then salt makes a pretty good substitute.  As does buying chops on the bone, which helps protect the meat from high temperatures.  With bone-in chops, I like to "dry brine", which consists of liberally salting the chops on both sides and letting them rest on the counter for about an hour.

osmosis first draws water out of the chops, then

draws it back in where the salt both flavors the meat and 

helps retain the moisture during cooking

After the chops have been brined for an hour, excess salt can just be dabbed away before cooking.  Earlier this year I tried a Cook's Illustrated technique that recommended cooking the chops low and slow, and searing them off at the end to get color.  I couldn't detect any difference, so I am back to browning first, then building a sauce right in the pan and simmering the chops over low heat until they are done.  Being careful not to overcook chops is the second trick for keeping the meat moist and tender.  Chops are done at 145 degrees, and perfectly safe to eat when there is still the barest hint of pink in the meat.

a light golden sear is all that is necessary when the chops

are going to be simmered in a dark sauce

For this preparation, I started with mushrooms, sliced shallots, minced garlic, Madeira, and a demiglace.  If you don't have demiglace, beef or chicken broth will work fine.  I love these little packets of demiglace because they add wonderful body to sauces, don't take up much room in the pantry, and once they are opened, they freeze wonderfully.  I use the veal, chicken, mushroom, and seafood.

yes, I was going to add broccoli to this dish, and no,

it didn't make it in--I found it the next morning in a bowl in

the microwave, where I was going to blanch it before I added it to the sauce

After searing the chops, I removed them from the pan, added a small knob of butter, and sauteed the mushrooms and shallots until they gave up some of their moisture and began to brown.  Then I added the minced garlic for about 30 seconds, just to release its fragrance.  Garlic is very easy to burn.  I then added about a half a teaspoon of thyme and deglazed the pan with about a half a cup of the Madeira, which adds a fantastic flavor to sauces.  I then added a cup or so of water, and a spoonful of the demiglace.

mushrooms take about 5 minutes over medium heat to 

release their moisture and begin to brown

once the sauce is built, the chops go back in and 

simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes

An instant-read thermometer is a great way to make sure the chops don't go above 145 degrees.  Since this is a heart dish, I thought it would pair nicely with whole wheat noodles, but mashed potatoes would be great, too.

the chops, garnished with some sliced green onion,

were tender and moist

Wish I had gotten the broccoli in there, but it was out of sight, and I was out of my mind to put it in the microwave before I was ready to cook it.

savory dressing

I have some catching up to do here, so I will be making several posts in the next few days.  Guess I got a bit lazy about posting for awhile, but I have been cooking, same as usual.

So to start things off in the proper holiday mood, let's talk about dressing, or stuffing as it is often called, though I prefer to "stuff" the bird with aromatics, and let the dressing cook on its own.  I think it shortens the cooking time of a turkey, and lessens the chance of ending up with breast meat the texture of particle board.  Stuffing, or dressing, is the main event for some people, so I like to make it interesting.

First comes the bread.  I choose a hearty bread, like a boule of Italian or French bread, and remove the crusts if they are particularly tough.  The wisdom of the day is to use stale bread because it is drier, but a little research led me to the understanding that staling is not the same as drying, and I have come to the conclusion, mostly by tasting the end product, that cubing and drying the bread in the oven is the best approach to having bread that will absorb plenty of moisture and make for a creamy, rich dressing.

toasted pecans add a nice crunch to dressing,

and they can be toasted in the oven, right along with the bread

The aromatics bring both flavor and texture to a good dressing, and I like to mix it up a bit with apples, onions, and celery.  In the past, I have added dried cranberries, or mushrooms and shallots, or toasted walnuts with dried apricots.  The lovely thing about a dressing is that it can be whatever you're in the mood for.

the appearance of honeycrisp apples in the market steered me

to apples, onion, and celery--a great flavor combination

Chopping everything in a small dice, and sautéing the aromatics in a couple of tablespoons of butter will assure that the mixture will be tender, and release its flavors into the finished dish.    For one round loaf of bread I used one apple, two ribs of celery, and one medium yellow onion.  I had fresh sage in the garden, so I used it, but dried sage will work just fine.  I love the flavor of sage in dressing, so I use quite a bit.  It isn't an exact science, just add as much as you like--or add thyme or tarragon instead, if that is what floats your boat.  For this amount of dressing, I would probably add about a heaping tablespoon of dried, rubbed sage.

beautiful, fresh sage from the garden--

here in South Carolina I will continue to get fresh sage through December 

I tossed the toasted bread with the chopped pecans, a bit of salt and pepper, the sautéed veggies, the sage, and a few grates from a whole nutmeg for the warmth it brings.  Then I stirred in two whole eggs for a binder, about a quarter cup of cream, and about 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth.  Just keep adding broth until you have a soft texture, but not so much that the bread loses its shape completely.  I'm okay with eating uncooked egg, so I just taste the raw mixture for seasoning.  If you are worried about raw egg, sauté a bit of the mixture until it browns up, and taste that to be sure you don't need more salt, pepper, or herbs. 

the prepared dressing will benefit from an hour or so rest in the 

fridge, covered with foil

The dressing will bake covered in foil in about an hour in a 350 degree oven, uncovered for the final 20 minutes.

the crunchy brown bits are my favorite part--

unfortunately much of the crusty top was picked away by

vultures before I had a chance to take a photo

I suppose I must confess that I may have been one of the vultures stealing morsels of the crunchy stuff.  Oh well.  You have to get in there to get the good stuff.