the curse of leftover ham

Easter is fast approaching, and with it comes the inevitable curse of leftover ham.  That is, if you are a traditionalist, and serve ham for dinner.  I am, and I bought the smallest ham I could find at WF, which weighs in at just under ten pounds.  With just Jim, my mom, and me that is A LOT of ham.  I don't know about you, but I can eat only so many ham sandwiches.  So last night, I sliced off a bit of the ham in anticipation, and made a hash.

Hash is a great way to use leftovers, and a good way to get a variety of vegetables into your diet.

for my hash, I used hot red pepper, leek, sweet bell pepper,

and fresh Vidalia onion

I started the veggies along with diced ham, in a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil shimmering over a medium burner. I was cooking them in a new 14-inch cast iron French pan.  Yes, I loved the 10-inch one so much, that I bought a larger version.  The pic on Amazon doesn't show it, but the 14-inch titan has a very nice "helper" handle on the side opposite the main handle.  It is a monster, and it is gorgeous.  With cast iron, you really never need to go much over a medium heat.  Once the veggies and ham had started to brown, I added a couple of cups of shredded potatoes and started heating some water, with a couple of teaspoons of salt and a couple of tablespoons of vinegar.  The vinegar help poached eggs to stay together in nice, tight little orbs.  It also helps if you have very fresh eggs.   I brought the water just up to a slow simmer.

poaching eggs is a really easy and healthy way to cook the wonder orbs

Poached eggs are done in about 4 minutes, but you can hold them for a long time in cool water, then just drop them into simmering water for a minute to heat them up.  They are done when the white is completely cooked, and the yolk is still soft to the touch.

I added salt and pepper to the hash,then spooned a cup of the hash in the center of the plate, and added a poached egg.  I added a bit of salt and pepper to the egg, garnished with a bit of chopped parsley, and dinner was served.

a pretty, simple way to use leftover Easter ham

the new pan in action -- I decommissioned several old pans when this baby arrived

new love in my life

All these years I've been obsessed with cooking, and I've never owned a cast iron skillet.  I have enameled cast iron pots, and every size and variety of pan you can imagine, but cast iron never won my heart.  I know people swear by them, but when I would look at them, they looked awkward with their thick walls and stubby handles, and I never bought one.  I'm sure I have missed out on a superb cooking tool.

The other day, I think I found MY version of cast iron.  It's called a mineral pan, and referred to as "steel" in several places, but it is 99 percent iron.  Watching yet another foodie show, this one a "best of" affair with Alton Brown, I saw this pan.  The restaurant was purported to have the best mac 'n cheese in the states, and the chef said he had searched far and wide for a way to get a baked-like crust on mac 'n  cheese cooked to order.  He finally settled on a French cast iron pan.

My new pan, after use #2

I am in love.  After cleaning off the wax coating, and seasoning the pan with peanut oil, it is already slicker than owl snot, as they inexplicably say down in Texas.  The idea is for it to get black, the way cast iron does, and after making a burger with a lovely brown crust, and then some hash browns this morning, my pan is on its way to the dark patina I am after.

inaugural run -- even on day one, the melted cheese just wiped right out of the pan

So, enough about the new toy, but I will close up by saying they run small.  I bought the 10 inch pan, but I bet it isn't even eight inches across the bottom, so the measurement must be from rim to rim, and the pan flairs quite a bit.  If I continue to love this pan, I'm sure I'll be buying more of them in larger sizes.  The good news is, in the world of cookware, they are not really very expensive.  The De Buyer one I bought was under 50 dollars.  If they last forever, it will have been a good investment.

shrimp with an Indian twist

I was in the mood for something a little different last night, so I settled on a little riff on a Bobby Flay recipe I saw for flatbreads served with a chickpea puree and a cilantro pesto.  It featured a lot of Indian flavors -- cilantro, tahini, chick peas, garlic, and lime -- but it certainly wasn't a traditional dish.  Bobby's recipe called for grilling the flat breads and shrimp, then layering the bread with the puree and shrimp, and topping with the cilantro pesto.  I wanted more of a complete meal, so I added sliced onion and red bell pepper as well.

The purees were a little ingredient-heavy, but nothing too complicated, and mostly stuff I had on hand.  They were simple to prepare.  Just a matter of dropping the stuff in a food processor and giving it a whir.

all of the ingredients for the pesto went in the processor

The pesto was an odd mix of flavors, but it worked.  It had both cilantro and spinach, along with a couple of cloves of garlic, toasted pine nuts, a little bit of parmesan, a couple of tablespoons of lime juice, and olive oil.  One mistake I made was to not mellow the garlic a little before adding it.  The pesto was delicious, but packed a huge garlic punch, and consequently a little heart burn in the evening.

It was too late to fix that in the pesto, but I did fix it in the bean puree.  A great way to take the edge off of raw garlic is to pop it in the microwave for about 15 seconds.  The heat slightly, very slightly, cooks the garlic cloves, and it also makes them very easy to peel.

I used cannelini beans instead of chick peas in the bean puree, because I love their very creamy texture and their pale yellow-white color.  I just rinsed out the food processor, and added the beans, a couple of cloves of mellowed garlic, about a quarter of a red onion, the juice of a lime, about half a chipotle pepper, a tablespoon of honey, salt and pepper, and half a cup of tahini.  It made a really delicious hummus-like puree.  In fact, I will probably come back to this combination of ingredients to make a hummus.

a pair of sauces for the grilled shrimp

The shrimp prep was very simple.  I just seasoned the shrimp and vegetables with salt and pepper.  I put the flatbreads on the grill first.  I don't mind making my own, but the packaged naan breads from the store are really quite good, so I just grabbed a package of those.  I put the veggies on as well, to get them caramelized, because the shrimp cook so quickly.

a few minutes head start on the veggies will give you

nicely caramelized onions and peppers

the naan came off and the shrimp went on

Shrimp will cook in just a couple of minutes a side, and they are very easy to overcook and turn to little chunks of rubber, so it's best to pay attention while they cook.  I know the meal sounds a little complicated, but really, the prep was so easy, I had everything ready in less than half an hour.

the bright, garlicky sauces were delicious with the

tender shrimp and soft naan

citrus, citrus, and more citrus

My favorite part of any citrus fruit is the zest.  There is so much fragrance and flavor in the zest, while the flesh of the fruit is mainly acid.  Acid is very useful for brightening a dish, but the zest is a different story.  It contains the essence of the fruit.  One of my favorite ways to use citrus is in salads.  Yesterday, I made a chicken salad with the bright addition of lemon zest and juice.  Microplane graters are the bomb for removing citrus zest.  If you don't have one (or two, or three) get one.

some typical graters -- my favorite is the long skinny one

I made a chicken salad.  The chicken was already vacuum-packed for the freezer, so I cooked it sous vide, at 165 degrees.  It came out of the pot very tender.

simple, and oh so good

Into the chicken went diced celery, minced shallot, the zest and juice of one lemon, toasted almonds, a bit of  light mayo, and salt and pepper.  Oh yes, and a handfull of minced fresh dill.  A simple, and very delicious, chicken salad.

 a very happy thing to have in the fridge

 sandwich art can be very simple

eggplant revisited

Jim really likes eggplant Parmesan.  I really hate making it because it makes such a mess.  The eggplant has to be battered with flour and egg, then breaded with some sort of crumb.  Then they have to be fried.  A sauce has to be made, then the whole thing layered up and baked.  I have to admit that it is tasty, and the kitchen can be cleaned up while it bakes, but I am not motivated to make it very often.

So I decided to try and reign in the multiple steps a little, at least for mess.  This time I did have motivation.  I had a refrigerator full of odds and ends vegetables, half a jar of spaghetti sauce, half a ball of fresh mozzarella, and an eggplant.  I decided to try breading and baking the eggplant instead of frying.  Still a process that created some mess, but the dishes for the breading could go in the dishwasher, and the top of the stove wouldn't be an oily mess.  I skipped the initial dip in flour, which helps the crust adhere during frying, and simply coated the eggplant in egg with a little milk and pressed it into seasoned panko breadcrumbs.

I seasoned the panko with salt, pepper, and fresh oregano;

the oregano in my garden is growing like crazy

I sprayed the crumbed eggplant with a spritz of olive oil (easier and more even than drizzling, so I keep a spray bottle of olive oil on hand).  

it baked up brown and crisp -- success without the mess

Yes, I had a jar of pasta sauce in my fridge.  I usually make my own sauce, but this stuff is good, and I was trying to win a sales contest at work, so I bought two jars myself.  I had a leek, shallots, red sweet peppers, and mushrooms, so I really boosted the vegetation in the meal by sauteing the veggies along with some garlic, then simmering them in the sauce .

pasta sauce is a great place to boost the vegetable content of any meal

From there, it was just a matter of layering the cooked eggplant, fresh mozzarella, and sauce, and baking it for 20 minutes or so while I tidied up the kitchen--a much easier task now that the frying stage was out of the picture.

all layered up, with a final grate of a little parm

20 minutes in the oven produced a vegetarian feast and a tidy kitchen

I couldn't tell a bit of difference between the fried eggplant and the baked version, so this will be my "go to" recipe down the road.  Good thing, because we will be growing eggplant in the garden this year.

marsala overload

Not quite sure how this happened, but I managed to end up with three, count em, three bottles of marsala wine in the liquor cabinet.  A fortified wine that will last for ages in a cabinet, marsala makes a fabulous egg yolk-based dessert sauce, called sabayon by the French and zabaglione by the Italians.  It is delicious served over fresh berries.  But I don't make much in the dessert realm, so I wanted a way to use the stuff in a savory dish.

Enter the simple chicken dish called Chicken Marsala.  I haven't made it in ages, but it is a tasty dish with a light sauce that is good served over pasta or mashed potatoes.  There are both dry and sweet versions of marsala, but in general, for cooking, I prefer the sweet version.  It is not overly sweet, and seems to be more mellow when cooked.  Chicken marsala couldn't be more easy.

some sliced mushrooms, a couple cloves of garlic and some chopped chives

garnish some chicken cutlets with a savory sauce

Chicken cutlets are simply chicken breasts that have been cut lengthwise into thin slices.  For really fast cooking, I like to pound them even thinner, until they are about a quarter-inch thick.  They get seasoned with salt and pepper, then dredged in a bit of flour.  They get cooked in a couple of tablespoons of shimmering hot olive oil until they are a light golden brown.

about three minutes a side does the trick

Once the chicken is brown, it comes out of the pan, and in go the sliced mushrooms.  Once they have cooked down a bit, the garlic gets added (I usually just push it through a garlic press) and sauteed for a couple of minutes.  Then in goes about a half a cup of marsala, and a half a cup of chicken broth for a serving for two.  A couple of tablespoons of butter stirred in at the last minute enriches the sauce.

The sauce simmers until it reduces a bit -- if it is too thin

I add a teaspoon or so of the flour left from dredging the chicken

That's as hard as it gets.  Once the sauce has reduced and thickened a bit, the chicken goes back in for five minutes to warm up, then the whole mess goes over a bit of pasta or mashed potatoes, or can simply be spooned onto a plate.  If you are serving it bare, a slice of good garlic toast is nice for sopping up the extra juices.

In my case, I had that leftover squash pasta dough in the freezer, so I rolled a few noodles and piled the chicken marsala on top, then garnished with the chopped chives and some minced parsley.  Beautiful!

the chicken was tender and moist, one advantage of pounding the breasts thin

the unthinkable

We did, well... the unthinkable... last night.  After seeing it on a Mario Batali show, I coated a rib eye with lard (yes, you read that correctly--unadulterated pig fat), rosemary, and loads of garlic, mixed into a paste.  Mario was visiting a NYC eatery with wonderful steaks, and that is what they did.  I must admit, it gave the steak a marvelous crust and the flavor of both the garlic and the rosemary.

To compliment the steak with some Italian flair, I rethought a Tuscan kale dish I posted here earlier.  The one I made with gnocchi made from squash.  This time I made the squash into pasta.

a kobucha squash, roasted for about an hour, made a nice puree

To the puree, I added a teaspoon or so of freshly grated nutmeg, along with a teaspoon of salt, and an egg.  The squash had a lot of moisture, so the puree took quite a bit of flour.  In fact, enough flour to make pasta for four or so meals for two people.

the dough was very supple, and a pretty, subtle shade of yellow

this tray full of cut pasta was made from just a third of the dough --

I froze the other two thirds

Because it took so much flour, the flavor of the squash was subtle, but it was definitely there, making it the perfect foil for a saute of Tuscan kale, mushrooms, onions,and fresh sage.  I first sauteed the mushrooms and onions in a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then added the kale, 1/2 a cup each of chicken broth and white wine, and cooked it until it just wilted.

I had a fresh sweet onion on hand--look for fresh onion in the spring;

they have a subtle flavor and are very tender

Tuscan kale is my favorite--it cooks in just minutes and has a nutty, not too bitter flavor

The light sauce and tender greens made for an interesting pairing with the crusty steak.  Be sure and try adding sage to greens some time.  Not too much, as it is a strong herb, but the flavor pairing just sings.  

to make up for my sins with the pig fat, I served a modest 

4 ounce portion of well-rested meat

Okay, so here's the kicker.  I will do the lard coating again.  It really did make a nice crust on the meat, and most of it finished its life in the bottom of the grill pan.  I can get fresh local lard from Whole Foods, it is actually lower in saturated fat than butter, and I use it seldom and sparingly.  All self-justification, I know, but the pleasure of a well prepared meal trumps portion size for me every time.  Maybe, to add some smoke flavor to the party, I'll try rendered bacon fat next time...

STUFFFED

Jim really loves big, fat pork chops.  And since I have been working some evenings he has been buying a few.  I had one left in the fridge, which meant just not quite enough for two, and way more than one person needs to consume.  So that lead to a stuffed chop.  I had on hand goat cheese, frozen spinach, and sun dried tomatoes.  Coupled with a little garlic, that made for a classic stuffing.

a quick saute with some olive oil married the ingredients together

Frozen spinach actually has an advantage over fresh in this sort of application.  The spinach can simply be thawed, and wrung dry of all its excess moisture.  Spinach has a lot of excess moisture.  Just wring it out like a dish cloth. 

Once the garlic was light golden and the tomatoes were soft, I added a third of a cup of goat cheese, off the heat, and stuffed it all into a pocket cut in the chop.

a few minutes in a saute pan and 15 minutes in the oven cooked this monster

The stuffing brings moisture and interesting flavors to the chop.  I served it with some baby potatoes sauteed with onions and chipotle peppers.

why are my pics all blurry all of the sudden?  

I've been frustrated lately with my photography.  Time for a new camera, and some lessons on using it....

reviving a classic

I had thought that working at making creative, desirable food presentations in my new job would juice my creativity for cooking at home.  Oddly enough, it has had the opposite effect.  Part of it may be the hours.  Working until six or seven o'clock makes coming home and pulling out all the stops on dinner a little difficult, and hard on my already tired feet.  Jim is usually hungry and ready to eat by six or six thirty.  So dinner on those nights has become a bit more utilitarian than what is typical for me.  As a result, I have resolved to make creativity a priority on nights I am not working.  And last night was one of those nights.  I was stumped for something new to do with what I already had in the freezer -- the typical steak and chicken assortment.

So, I decided to do something old, instead.  Steak Diane used to be very popular in the seventies, but as with most dishes that are just a bit too popular, had gone the way of cherries jubilee and baked Alaska.  I dusted off an old recipe, and discovered the preparation to be fairly ingredient-heavy, but with an intriguing set of aromatics.

for the most part steak Diane is the basics --

garlic, shallot, mushrooms, parsley, and a garnish of chopped green onion

The intriguing  ingredients were brandy, mustard, and Worcestershire.  I hadn't used Worcestershire in anything in ages.  I will be bringing it out more often in the future.  It brought a wonderful, spiced fragrance to the sauce.  To update the recipe a bit, I decided to grill the steak rather than saute it, and to use a grainy mustard rather than the more staid Dijon.  The dish starts with sliced mushrooms sauteed in just a tablespoon of butter, along with salt and pepper.  Once they began to brown, in goes the shallots and garlic, which cooked for another couple of minutes.  Then the fun began.  I added a quarter cup of brandy and lit it on fire.

flambe is fun, used often in restaurant kitchens, and 

relatively little at home

Once the flame had burned down, I added a couple of teaspoons each of cream, grainy mustard, and Worcestershire, along with a quarter cup of beef stock I had on hand, though I think water would have worked just fine to thin the sauce a bit.  It smelled heavenly.  I took it off the heat, and stirred in the green onions and a bit of parsley.

While Jim grilled the rib-eye, I simmered a cup of peas in a little water, salt and pepper, just until they were warmed through, and most of the water was evaporated.  Then I added some chopped chives and parsley, along with a tablespoon of butter, and pureed the whole thing right in the pan with an immersion blender, but a food processor or blender would work too.   It is officially my favorite way to eat peas now.  The color is gorgeous, it makes a bright addition to the plate, and it is much easier to eat than a pile of orbs skittering around the plate.  It also opens up a bunch of ways to flavor peas.  I may try lemon and fresh mint, or green onions and thyme, or maybe tarragon and champagne vinegar.

the creamy, spiced sauce was a great foil for the meat,

and the peas balanced out the meal

Maybe there are some other old classics worth dusting off down the road.  I may have to pull out some older cookbooks and do a little reading...

turning tidbits into treasure

I don't know about you, but I seem to end up with odd assortments of food left in the fridge and the freezer.  A single chicken breast half.  A bit of ham -- not enough for a sandwich even.  Three or four mushrooms begging to be used.  A knob or two of cheese...

A meal fails to suggest itself to me until the idea of a unifying element suggests itself.  Enter the simple, but oh so delicious crepe.  Crepes are simplicity themselves.  They whip up in seconds in a blender.  The batter can rest for an hour or a couple of days.  Leftovers freeze perfectly.  They are thin little wonders of ingredient-unifying simplicity.  A couple of eggs, a cup of flour, a bit of milk and water, and a pinch of salt is all it takes.  A non-stick pan with a thin smear of butter will cook up a dozen in a matter of minutes.

the thin batter is just a quick whir away with a blender

a pile of crepes, ready for filling

Feeling experimental, I decided to cook my lone chicken breast half "sous vide".  The technique, long popular in European restaurants, involves sealing the ingredients in a vacuum sealer, and maintaining the water temperature at the exact temperature you want the food to cook to.  Using a candy thermometer, I brought the water up to 160 degrees.  It wasn't very difficult to maintain it there.  I sealed the breast in a bag with some salt, pepper, thyme sprigs, and lemon slices.  The idea behind the sous vide temp is that food will not overcook, because it will never exceed the temperature of the water.

the chicken cooked up tender and flavorful -- 

once the temp came up to 160, it was easy to maintain

From there, the filling was a snap.  I was going for a Chicken Cordon Bleu flavor profile, because I had the ingredients on hand, and I used to adore a Cordon Bleu crepe at a little French bistro in Erie.  I sliced the ham into little batons, and sauteed that with some mushrooms.  I added the sliced chicken, some salt, pepper, and a little thyme and chopped chives, and the grated gruyere cheese.  I bound that all together with a few tablespoons of the cream I had leftover in the fridge.

The filling was simple and tasty

I made a simple salad of arugula with a parmesan peppercorn dressing, filled the crepes, put a little of the sauce on top, and ran them under the broiler.  They made a delicious and pretty presentation from a few odds and ends in the refrigerator and freezer.  I will make a point of thinking about crepes more often, and I will certainly be trying my hand at other sous vide applications.

who would know that this is a plate full of leftovers?

The kale experiment continues

I have just about decided that the lacinato kale that Whole Foods carries has become my favorite green.  Also known as Tuscan kale, it's dark green, pebbly leaves cook up to tender morsels that are a very pleasing color to the eye.  Inspired by an Anita Lo dish published in the Wall Street journal, I took a shot at my own version.

The dish involved Kabocha squash, which didn't seem to be around this time of year, so I substituted butternut squash.  The WSJ recipe called for simply slicing and roasting the squash, but it also mentioned that Anita makes gnocchi out of it for the restaurant version, so I decided to roast my squash and make gnocchi.

don't often use the gnarly cleaver, but it is

perfect for splitting open a squash

Roasted for 45 minutes or so in a 350 degree oven, the flesh is ready to puree.

I added nutmeg, salt, and freshly ground white pepper to the puree

then I folded in two beaten egg whites

As before, I chose to omit the egg yolk from my gnocchi, and beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, folding them into the seasoned puree, which created something like a mousse.

Into the airy mousse, I incorporated just enough flour to form a soft dough

I rolled that dough out into "ropes" and cut off little gnocchi squares.  I had never tried sauteing gnocchi before, and the article said that is what Anita does at Annisa, so I gave it a whirl.  I sauted the little pillows in butter until they were golden brown, then drained them over paper towels.

 The sauted gnocchi turned out golden brown, and tasted great,

but they were a little too chewy

Though I wasn't particularly pleased with the texture of the gnocchi, I really loved the taste.  Jim and I are not huge squash fans, and I didn't know if we would care for the strong squash punch from the roasted slices of squash in the dish.  The gnocchi were a good way to get the vegetal sweetness of the squash without letting it overpower the whole dish.

The sauce was simplicity itself.  Sliced wild mushrooms, Tuscan kale with the center rib removed, and the leaves sliced.  A little bit of chicken stock, salt, pepper, fresh sage, parmesan, and a last minute swirl of butter.  It came together in just 15 minutes.

I had criminis in the fridge, and I bought a handful of shitakes--

sauted in a whisper of olive oil, they added a meaty texture to the dish

in went the gorgeous kale, along with a little salt and pepper,

and  some chicken broth-- I added a bit of white wine as well

Some sliced fresh sage goes in, and then a last minute swirl of butter to thicken the sauce a bit.  Parmesan gets shaved on top, and dinner is served, along with a nice thin slice of garlic toast, made with garlic infused olive oil.

A pretty dish, loaded with vegetables and interesting flavors

I will certainly revisit this dish in the future.  Since I wasn't all that happy with the texture of the gnocchi, I think next time I will make pasta out of the squash.  And for the next go around, I will use more broth for a moister sauce.  But all in all, the dish had a simple and lovely flavor profile -- making it very worthy of future tweeks.

I am doing a door-knock dinner tonight with some shrimp and scallops in the freezer.  I am thinking that the kale I have left will make another appearance, as might some arugula and red peppers.  Stay tuned for further updates on the kale experiments...

getting the "smoke" into beef brisket

I have been MIA for a couple of weeks.  Got knocked back by a bad cold that is still lingering on, though much improved from two weeks ago.  We went on a ski vacation to Purgatory, CO, and I spent the entire week coughing and sneezing, and nearly 4 days of the trip with my first serious bout of laryngitis.  I was reduced to writing on a legal pad with a marker to communicate to anyone.  Needless to say, it was not my best vacation ever.  But while I was there, my contribution to the Super Bowl Sunday snack-fest was another take on the little brisket sliders.  I know I have written about them before, but this particular preparation is a bit different than the last.  Since the brisket is cooked in the oven, I wanted to see if I could get more "smoke" flavor into the beef.
Toward that end, I made a wet rub of two minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, including a tablespoon or so of the sauce.  To that I added a half a tablespoon of ground cumin, half a tablespoon of ground garlic, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of pepper, and 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika.  That got rubbed on the meat.  In the interest of minimal mess, I slide the brisket into an oven bag, and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

Since there are always more chipotles in even a small can than I typically use in a single preparation, I minced up the remaining peppers, poured them into a freezer bag, and froze them flat.  That way, when I want some chipotle, all I have to do is break off a chunk and toss the bag back into the freezer.

Sorry for the lack of pics here, but I wasn't thinking too clearly, and didn't think to pull out the camera.  I do have a photo of the test run brisket I did here in Greenville a couple of weeks before.  I haven't used oven bags much in the past, but they will make more frequent appearances from here on out.  The meat cooked up tender and brown, and there was no pan to scrub.  Two thumbs up in my opinion.

Once the brisket had marinated, I pulled it out of the fridge, cut a few slits in the top of the oven bag, and cooked it for about 4 hours in a 300 degree oven.

the end result was a tender, smoky, spicy brisket

Topped with a bit of simple vinegar slaw, and served on a pretzel roll, the meat made for a satisfying little slider sandwich.

great to eat with one hand while cheering on Pittsburgh --

too bad I couldn't cheer -- not even at a whisper...