I wrote up a strawberry rhubarb compote recipe last year.

 

Omit the strawberries.  Add the seeds of 4-5 (green) cardamom pods, freshly ground.

 

That is all.

I like fennel, and have been using it in a lot of different ways lately.  A dish of rabbit (braised?  confit?  i can't remember) with really thinly shaved fennel/celery salad was a revelation, though.  Slice it thin enough and it becomes light, crispy, and refreshing.  The celery adds to the effect.  I wanted something to contrast with that, though, so made this simple salad with olives to contrast the cool flavors and crisp texture.  Omitting the celery made it seem earthier, dirtier, more direct.

 

a head of fennel, shaved as thinly as possible

15-20 pitted black olives, roughly chopped

champagne vinegar

good olive oil

salt and pepper

 

Add vinegar, salt, and pepper to a bowl.  Slowly pour in the olive oil, whisking as you go to emulsify it.  Combine the fennel, olives, and dressing, and serve at room temp or a little below.

 

I served it as a main course under halibut fillets, cooked really simply with salt and pepper, but it's equally good on it's own as a salad.

 

 This has been the winter of cauliflower - in soups, but mainly just plain, roasted.  Roasting brings out a depth of flavor that it just doesn't have otherwise; if you haven't tried it, you should.  Lately, i've been looking for other things to do with it once it's roasted - this one turned out well, is super easy, and is versatile.

 

a cauliflower

approximately equal quantities of diced shallots, golden raisins, and pine nuts

white wine vinegar

 

Preheat your oven to 425.

Slice the whole cauliflower into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices, and toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Roast the cauliflower, turning occasionally, until browned.  Chop roughly.

 

In a dry saute pan, toast the pine nuts over medium heat, tossing occasionally.  Remove them, add some olive oil, and saute the shallots until soft.  Add the raisins, toss, then add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar.  Allow it to reduce by 1/2 or 2/3, then add the toasted pine nuts back and toss again.

 

You can serve them together as a veggie side dish, as a bruschetta topping, or tossed together with loads of parmesan (and some of the pasta water) as a pasta sauce.  Awexome.

 

 

I've never been a huge fan of southern style greens, though it's possible i've just never had good ones.  So i never buy kale, and haven't got a clue how to cook with it.  Turns out the first attempt to do something with it worked out well; this soup was tasty, hearty, and could easily make a meal.  Kale's texture works well here, making the soup seem more substantial.  The real star of this version was the bacon, though - rich, meaty, incredibly smoky chopped bacon ends from Don & Joe's.

 

2 ounces bacon, diced

a 14 oz can of cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

a bunch of kale, washed thoroughly and chopped roughly into bite size pieces

half an onion, in large dice

a quart of chicken stock

two cloves garlic, minced

a splash of white wine (optional)

 

Heat a pot and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  Saute the bacon until crisp, and turn down the heat.  Saute the garlic and onions until soft, then deglaze with the wine, if you're using it.  Add stock and beans, bring to a boil, and cook 10-15 minutes.  Add the kale, cook for an additional 3 minutes or so, and serve.  If you feel like grating some parmesan over it, making croutons, or adding another splash of good olive oil, all the better.

 

There's something really funny about giant sandwiches.  And about how people go crazy for giant sandwiches.  I like the foot high sandwich on normal bread, but the 6 foot sub is even better.  Images of bad office parties abound, but can we recapture the giant sub as our own?

We threw a Super Bowl party on the weekend, and it was the perfect excuse to bust one out.  Who turns down a giant sandwich?  The bonus here is that a small chunk of it goes a long way, so people eating wings, nachos, and a pile of other stuff can still enjoy it without stuffing themselves on one thing.

 

a baguette

 

grainy mustard

 

3 pounds short ribs

a carrot

a rib of celery

half a medium yellow onion

a couple of cloves of garlic

2 cups beef stock, red wine, water, or a combination of them

 

The day before, heat olive in a medium saucepan and brown the ribs over high heat, in batches.  Remove them, lower the heat, and saute the carrot/onion/garlic/celery.  Add the beef back, add stock or wine and herbs.  Bring to a boil, and reduce to a really slow simmer.  Cook, covered, for 3 hours or so, until the beef is fall-apart tender.  Refrigerate overnight. 

 

The next day, preheat the oven to 400.  Remove the layer of fat on top and reheat in an open frypan.  Shred the meat, remove bones, and cook (turning often to keep beef moist) until the liquid is mostly evaporated.  Allow to cool slightly while reheating the bread briefly in the oven - depending on the bread, you may want to sprinkle some water on it to keep it moist.

 

Slice the baguette in half, and cover one side with mustard.  Toss the beef mixture again to evenly coat it with the sauce, taste for seasoning and correct it if needed, and fill the baguette.  Slice into approx 2 inch lengths, and enjoy.  Or don't - if someone can eat the whole thing, they get it for free.

 

Additional toppings optional - pickle slices? a tiny bit of old cheddar and some roasted red pepper strips?  red onion?  I'm sure there are plenty of ways to improve it, but it doesn't need anything - it's fantastic as is, with no distractions from the beefy goodness.

 

Pork is good.  Multiple pork is even better.  The pork confit seemed like it might be too rich to eat as the main component of a meal, so this got invented as a way to build a lighter meal around such a rich element.  The port confit is the complicated part; the rest of it's straightforward.  Each part is great on it's own or as part of a simpler dish, if you don't feel like putting the whole thing together, or want to mix and match.

 

1 pound pork confit

 

a medium cauliflower

2-3 tablespoons champagne vinegar

4-5 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon sugar

 

1 pound mixed mushrooms

1 leek

a glass of red wine

1/2 a cup or so of chicken or beef stock (optional)

a 2-3 pound pork loin roast

 

Break up or cut the cauliflower into small florets, reserving the rest for some other use.  Pour vinegar into bowl with some salt and pepper, and gradually add olive oil, whisking as you go to emulsify it.  Set aside.

 

Chop the leek and mushrooms.

 

Preheat the oven to 400, and heat a heavy 12" skillet over medium heat.  Sweat the leek in olive oil, add the mushrooms, and cook until they stop giving off water.  Add the wine and stock, and reduce by at least half.  Season the pork loin, add it to the pan, and transfer the pan to the oven.  Roast until done, about an hour, setting a pot of water on to boil at some point.

 

Remove the pork and mushroom/leek mixture and set aside to rest in foil for 10-15 minutes, with any liquid left in the pan.  Put it back over medium high heat.  Form the confit into 8 patties, add a bit of fat to the pan, and sear the patties for 1-2 mins each side.  Drop the cauliflower into the pot of water.  Slice the pork into 8 thick slices, top with some of the mushroom mixture, and a confit patty.  Drain the cauliflower, toss it with the vinaigrette, and serve around the pile of porky goodness.

 

The word confit gets thrown around a lot, to the point where it's technical meaning sorta gets lost.  So, actual confit is both a means of cooking and a preservation technique - meats are cured and cooked in their own fat, making them storable (in fat) for a long time.  Fruit is cooked with sugar, infused and covered to the point that it, too, can be stored for a long time.

 

When i hear "confit" i think duck - tasty, tasty duck.  Discovering that Don and Joe's sells duck confit at $10 for 2 legs has made me a very happy man.  But discovering that i could buy a few pounds of pork shoulder and turn it into pork confit, at least temporarily, has made me even happier.

 

2 quarts lard

a 3 pound pork shoulder roast

1 tablespoon juniper berries

1 tablespoon (whole) allspice

2 bay leaves

1-2 tablespoons kosher salt

pepper to taste

a shallot

a couple of cloves of garlic

 

Bash up the juniper and allspice in a mortar and pestle, or grind in a coffee grinder.  Crumble the bay leaves, and add along with the salt, pepper.  Mix/bash/whatever a bit more.  Mince the garlic and shallot and add them, and mix/bash/grind very briefly.  Rub the spice mixture into the pork, and leave (refrigerated) overnight.

 

Remove the pork from the fridge, remove as much of the garlic/onion/berries mixture as you can, and dry thoroughly with paper towels.  Preheat your oven to 300.  Find a pot that is just barely wider than the pork shoulder but somewhat taller.  Melt the lard, and add to a pot with the pork - you should have enough lard to submerge the pork completely.  Cover the pot (i left the lid slightly ajar), put in the oven (over foil to catch any bubbling over, just to be safe), and cook for 4-6 hours, checking occasionally to make sure that your oven's not on fire.  Remove the pot carefully, and leave undisturbed for an hour or so, to cool.  Remove the pork, and savor it's fatty goodness.  If you're eating immediately (or within the next few days), you're done - drain off more fat with paper towels, if you like, and serve whole or shredded.  The confit can be reheated in an oven or saute pan.  To store for longer, jar it under a layer of lard.

 

After the pot of lard has cooled, strain it a couple of times and put it back in jars, saving it for the next time you want to make yummy, yummy pork confit.

 

 

Remember how i said there's nothing to my baking repertoire outside banana bread and chocolate chip cookies?  You'd think those'd get boring after a while, and you'd be right.  So how can i leverage my incredibly narrow skills, and make something different enough that i want to eat them all, and not share them with anybody?  Here's how:

 

1.  Go buy Trader Joes mini chocolate peanut butter cups.

2.  Make the standard tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, substituting the peanut butter cups (and cutting the salt down to a pinch...there's enough in the peanut butter, but you need a tiny bit in the dough, too).

3.  Thank mamster.

The best part of this recipe is that you've pretty much got it there, in the title...

 

2 duck breasts

a half-glass of a full-bodied red wine

2 Tablespoons decent quality balsamic

 

Preheat your oven to 400, and heat a medium saucepan.  Score the skin on the duck breasts, dry both sides with a paper towel, and season them generously.  Cook fat side down for about 4 minutes, then turn and put the pan in the oven for 3-4 more minutes.  Remove, let the duck breasts rest, and spoon almost all of the fat out of the pan.  Put the pan back over medium heat.  Add the wine and balsamic, scrape up any brown bits, and stir as the sauce reduces.   Remove the sauce to a bowl, let cool slightly, correct the seasoning, and serve with the duck breasts.

 

 

 

Damn - best one pan weeknight dinner I've made in a long time.  I think this is a relatively traditional combination of ingredients in some chunk of Italy, but i made it up as i went so who knows.  Either way,

 

a chicken

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

a bunch of spinach

a handful of toasted pine nuts

a handful of golden raisins

a glass of white wine (like everything else i've made lately, apparently)

 

Preheat your oven to 400.  Cut the chicken into 8 serving pieces - drumsticks, thighs, and each breast quarter cut in half with wing tips removed.  Wash, dry, season, and dry again.  Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan, and sweat about half of the chopped garlic.  This might be better if you use a couple of whole cloves, instead, and remove them before proceeding.  Brown the chicken, in batches if necessary.  Put the pan in the oven to finish the chicken.  Meanwhile, wash the spinach and drain.  Cook in another pan, using just the water left from washing.  When the chicken's done (after 15-20 mins), put the pan back on the stovetop over medium heat and remove the chicken to rest.  Add the wine to the pan, scraping up any brown bits, and reduce a little.  Add the raisins and spinach, and cook, stirring, for a minute or two.  Add back the chicken to reheat, and serve on top of the spinach, sprinkled with pine nuts and sauced with the pan juices.

As much as i like the elaborate, there's something even better about cooking that takes 3 ingredients and about 45 seconds to create something stunning.  Like this.

 

a chunk of gorgonzola or other blue cheese

twice that much butter, or a little less

a little pepper.

 

 

Combine, mash together, and refrigerate.  Cook the perfect steak, rest it, and top with the butter mixture.  Great red wine NOT optional.  Damn.  If you have other ideas on how to use this stuff, let me know...

I don't know from desserts, but i needed to make something that worked for a vegan friend *and* for friends on a detox diet that forbade a bunch of other random stuff.  This seemed like a good idea, and turned out tasty, light, and subtly-flavoured.

 

6 bosc pears, peeled (but leave the stems on, for the cute factor, and cut a slice off the bottom so they'll stand upright when you serve them)

a glass of white wine

a few tablespoons of honey

1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract

a cup or so of water

 

Chuck everything in a pot, cover it, bring to a boil, and simmer (covered) for 10-15 minutes, until the pears have softened.  Remove the pears, stand them up in bowls.  Turn the heat up, uncover the pot, and reduce the liquid down to a syrup.  Cool it to eatable temperatures in an ice bath, if necessary, and pour over pears.

 

Holy crap - make this and eat it. 

 

1 large or 2 small heads of fennel

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 anchovies, chopped

red pepper flakes

 

chop the fennel into chunks.  Blanch it for a few minutes - let it soften slightly, but leave it a little firm.  Drain.  Heat a generous amount of olive oil and saute the garlic, anchovies, and red pepper flakes for a couple of minutes, mashing up the anchovies a bit.  Season generously, add the fennel, and saute for 3-4 minutes, mixing well. 

 

Serve hot or at room temperature - goes great with finnochiona.

 

1-2 pounds shrimp, shelled, with shells reserved for stock

a glass of dry white wine

half a yellow onion, diced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

6 or so cups shrimp stock

arborio rice for 6 (i only know how to measure this out by handfuls that feel like a serving each)

a pinch of saffron

2-3 tablespoons minced parsley

 

Shrimp stock: boil shells from a couple of pounds worth of shrimp with enough water to cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Add onion/carrot/celery/bay for a more complete stock, or just use the shrimp shells.  I tend to underseason stocks and make up for it when i use them, but feel free to season this fully since you're unlikely to reduce it.

 

Risotto: This is a fairly standard risotto, with the addition of tomato paste at the beginning, and omitting butter/cheese at the end.  Heat stock in a covered pot until simmering.  Steep saffron in stock for a few minutes.  Heat a large saute pan, and sweat onions in a generous amount of olive oil until softened.  Add rice, and toast, stirring, for 3-4 minutes.  Add the glass of wine, and let it cook away while stirring.  Continue to stir as you add the stock, one ladleful at a time, letting it boil away each time before adding more.  Continue for 15 minutes or so, then start tasting the rice to see if it's done.  When it's close, add a ladle of stock and the shrimp, turning the heat to high.  The goal is to cook the shrimp and finish cooking the rice at about the same time.  The shrimp will give off some liquid, so don't add too much more stock until they're nearly cooked and you know you need it.  Stir in most of the parsley.  Add stock to get to whatever level of runniness you want (it'll firm up as it cools and the rice absorbs a bit more liquid, so make it a little too runny to start), plate, and garnish with the remaining parsley.

 

 

 

To serve 8:

 

For clams:

6 pounds manila clams

a 14 oz can of tomatoes, chopped

parsley

white wine

a shallot

a couple of cloves of garlic

 

For polenta:

1 1/2 cups fine or medium polenta

butter

 

To cook clams:

Rinse the clams, discarding any open ones.  Mince the shallot and garlic.  Heat a pot large enough to hold everything, add a generous pour of olive oil, and saute the shallot and garlic, seasoned w/ salt and pepper.  Add the tomatoes and their juices, saute briefly to reduce the juices a bit.  Add a splash of wine, and let reduce a bit.  Add a handful of chopped parsley and the clams, cover, and steam 5-6 minutes.  Uncover - the clams will have released a lot of liquid; you can reduce this broth, but it's just as good as is.

 

Meanwhile, to cook polenta:

Bring a pot of approx 7 cups water to a boil.  Mix in polenta, stirring, and keep stirring while cooking for 7-10 minutes.  Add a big hunk of butter (half a stick?  maybe a little less, if you want to go for super-healthy), and generous amounts of salt and pepper.  Stir to incorporate and melt the butter.

 

Serve by ladling a blob of polenta into each bowl, and topping with clams and broth, distributing each evenly among the bowls.

 

 

Easily modified, obviously, but here's a version that worked out well for me:

 

2 pounds cod

a jalapeno, and a similar, medium-hot, red pepper

a shallot

a few limes (# will vary based on their juiciness, see below)

 

a cucumber

an avocado

 

Dice the fish into 1/2 inch pieces, and finely dice the shallot and (seeded) peppers.  Mix together in a non-reactive bowl, add salt, and add lime juice to cover, tossing as you go to expose all surfaces to the lime juice.  I needed 6 large, fairly juicy limes.  Leave for 4-6 hours, tossing occasionally.

 

Seed and finely dice the cucumber about a half hour before serving.  Squeeze out as much water as possible, on paper towels, then lay out on fresh paper towels.  Just before serving, halve and thinly slice the avocado.  Lay out a few slices of avocado per plate, and distribute the cucumber evenly among the plates.  Drain the fish mixture (trying to preserve the shallots and peppers, as much as possible) and top the cucumber with it, and serve.

 

Serves 8, as an appetizer.  A little cilantro would be good, either mixed in with the fish (at the end, after draining), or just for garnish, but not needed.  Salting the avocado might be good too, esp with a few grains of a big, chunky sea salt.

A little old fashioned, ridiculously easy, but absolutely required for Christmas around my house...

 

4 ounces good white chocolate

10 small candy canes

 

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.  Bash candy canes with a meat mallet.  It's easier to do while they're still in wrappers - unwrap after and combine with slightly-cooled chocolate.  Spread to desired thickness and refrigerate, then break into small pieces (reuse of the meat mallet is optional).

 

Mmm...Christmas, for about 2 minutes of active effort.

Good parm cheese

Fresh rosemary

 

Preheat oven to 350.   Grate a bunch of parmesan, mix in a handful of rosemary leaves.  Drop in piles on a cookie sheet, like cookie dough.  Bake until edges get golden.

 

Easy enough for you?

 

You can also make little cups out of these, by taking them out before they're too done and draping them over something round, so they solidify in the shape you want.  Fill with whatever.

Sounds sorta bizarre, but incredibly good and simple/quick to make.  Indian, in theory, but good as a vegetable side dish for western meals, too.

 

a pound of green beans

1/4 teaspoon of turmeric

2-3 minced, seeded serranos

a teaspoon (or a little less) of salt

unsweetened, shredded coconut

 

Shred the beans.  Wash them, and add them (with wash water still clinging to them, or add a little water separately) to a small pot.  Add everything else, and combine.  Cook, covered, over fairly low heat for 10 or so minutes, until flavors combine and beans are as tender as you want them.