the flank steak was a hit

ML, N and T all loved this grilled flank steak last night and I made a promise to record the contents of my marinade, so here goes.

about (all measurements are approximate, as I didn't measure when I made it) 1/4 c Japanese soy sauce
2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp black vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, minced

I cut the steak in 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces on the bias (so the pieces had two thin edges) and marinated it in this mixture for about 4 hours in the refrigerator.  I removed it, dried off the steaks and let them sit  on the counter for about 1/2 hour.  Grill over high heat.

salvage the squash

I roasted a buttercup squash the other night and the result was pasty, dry and rejected by all.  Today that  squash got a second chance in this soup (loosely based on this recipe):

• 1 medium onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• pinch of curry powder
• touch of cayenne pepper
• 2 tart apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
• 2/3 cup sherry (I would not have though of this, but it is an excellent addition; like white wine in the carrot and ginger soup from Silver Palate cookbook)
• about 3 cups of chunks of roasted buttercup squash (which had been peeled before roasting)
• 6 cups chicken broth (I made this yesterday from chicken necks)
• apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper to taste

Sweat the onion in the butter.  Add the garlic, ginger, curry powder and cayenne and cook for a minute.  Add apples and sherry, bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes.  Add squash and broth, bring to simmer and cook for about 20 minutes until everything is soft.  Puree and add water to correct consistancy.  Balance flavours with vinegar, salt and pepper.

The soup, she is good!

coconut curry soup with fish

I hadn't made enough food for supper tonight, so I whipped this up to fill in the corners.  ML loved it.

• 2 French shallots, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp butter
• pinky finger sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• small pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 carrot, julienned
• 1 small zucchini, julienned
• about 200 g frozen haddock fillets
• about 1/2 cup cooked basmati rice
• juice of one lime
• handful of coriander leaves

Sweat the shallots and garlic in the butter.  Add curry powder and fry for a minute.  Add pepper, ginger, stock, coconut milk, carrot and zucchini and bring to a boil.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Add fish and rice and return to boil.  Cover and simmer for about 10 minute until fish is cooked through and flakes apart.  Add salt to taste (about 1 tsp) and the lime juice and garnish with coriander.

I had baked some sweet potatoes in their jackets while making this soup (about an hour at 400 F) and found spoonfuls of the sweet potatoes complimented the soup well.

cod à l'espagnol

ML has been "jonesing" for white fish, so I made this tonight.  It's from "Cooking With Claudine" by Jacques Pépin, a book I am loving these days.

Mince a bunch of green onions and thinly slice 3 cloves of garlic.  In a deep skillet with a cover, sauté these briefly in about 1/4 cup of olive oil (not EVOO).  Add a zuccini and a green pepper diced medium and sauté for another minute.  Add about 4-5 peeled plum tomatoes seeded and cut in half inch strips, a big pinch of salt (about 1/2 tsp) and a small pinch of saffron (this is important).  Nestle 4 6 oz cod fillets (could be haddock or hake) in this preparation, cover, reduce heat to low and cook for about 10 minutes until cod flake apart.  Season with pepper.  Plate and drizzle with EVOO.

The fish was a beautiful colour and everything was perfectly cooked.  The vegetables and cod release a lot of liquid which become a delicious broth.

lamb and beans, now with more prison

Following a suggestion of PMC, who (these days) is all about cooking below boiling and for a long time, I am attempting a remake of lamb and beans but with no par-boiling of the beans. This is all about one-step cooking. I put a lamb shank, a pound of dry white beans, a few glugs of olive oil, two split garlic cloves, some pepper, rosemary sprigs, thyme sprigs, and coarsely ground pepper into a bean pot. I more-than covered it all with water. I put it in a 200 F (90 C) oven. I am now going to wait 5 hours and see what I get! At or near the end I will have to add a lot of salt.

fresh-lime gimlet

Having run out of tequila, I figured on gin gimlet. Having run out of Rose's (tm) Lime Juice, I realized I had to go with fresh lime. I put a shot of gin and a handful of ice into a cocktail glass. I added the juice from half a lime, plus a tiny pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of maple syrup (yes, maple syrup). I let it sit for a minute and then poured it into a shaker. I shook it hard and let it rest for a few minutes and then shook it and strained it into the glass. I am pleased. I have an intuition that it is all about patience.

oxtail stew

Fry some oxtail (I used half a pound) in butter, turning until it is brown all over. Add mirepoix (finely chopped onions, carrots, celery) and fry some more. Add some thin stock (I used leftover turkey stock from Thanksgiving) and wine and simmer the oxtail for two hours. Add coarsely chopped (chunks of) root vegetables (I used carrot, parsnip, turnip, potato), one heck of a lot of salt, pepper, and probably also thyme and bay leaf. Also add a roux made by browning a few tbsp of flour in a few tbsp of butter. (At this point I let it cool, put it in the fridge, and finished it the next day.) Give it one more hour of simmer until the root vegetables are tender, pull the meat from the bones, mix, and serve.

This came out very, very good with root vegetables in a rich gravy. I made it meat-as-garnish, with much more vegetable than meat, but that is a fully tunable knob. Apparently to make it more Caribbean, you should add tomato, cloves, allspice, and a chile pepper.

French-ish Onion Soup

Chop a bag of onions, toss with melted butter and leave, covered, in a 300 F (150 C) oven overnight to quasi-caramelize them. The next evening, mix these with a few cups of porcini mushroom broth (I used this because it was on hand and much better made from cubes than any beef broth that is cube-based). Add salt and pepper to taste, let it simmer for a little while. Top with a crouton, grated cheese (I used a partially aged gouda) and broil until brown on top. Serves a few. Way fast and easy!

Possible enhancements: The onions only get quasi-caramelized, not fully caramelized, because the closed pot doesn't let them dry out as much as they should; PMC suggests lowering the heat but leaving them in uncovered. Worth a shot! Alan Mooney suggests adding sherry to the broth. Duh!

cabbage and bacon

Cabbage burned (or browned) in butter (or any fat) is just downright delicious, especially in the winter! In what follows I use bacon but you can use butter or olive oil if you are vegetarian or vegan and it works well.

Try out 1/4 pound (or less) bacon, cut into tiny bits. Remove the crispy bacon to a bowl, but leave in the fat. Throw in a chopped onion and cook until soft. Add a half a cabbage, cut into small pieces. Stir it all up with lots of pepper and some salt and leave it there on medium heat until it starts to burn in the fat. Don't stir until it starts to really burn! Turn it once and let it start to burn again.

Now you have options: You can add cooked, drained pasta, a bit of cream, some grated parmesan cheese, and the bacon bits to make "cavolo pasta". You can add all of the above except the pasta to make a cabbage-as-pasta non-pasta dish. You can just mix in the bacon and serve it as a side with anything (like latkes or sausages). Another improvisation that worked well was apples, sautéed with the cabbage.

sweet and sour meatballs

As I was walking around the grocery store yesterday, a pound of ground veal whispered "meatballs" to me. I was thinking Swedish, but ended up making this, which was a huge hit with all: 1 lb ground beef 1 lb ground veal 1 cup bread crumbs 2 eggs 1.5 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 1/2 cup very finely chopped onions I made small (1") meatballs of this mixture and browned them in a 12" pan (they all fit with a little jiggle room). In a large saucepan, I made the sweet-and-sour sauce with the following: 1 cup rice vinegar 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 tbsp ketchup 1 tbsp soy sauce Juice from 14 oz can of pineapple chunks 4 tsp corn starch in a slurry with 1/4 cup water I added the meatballs to this and kept it all simmering. Sauteed a green pepper and a red pepper in the frypan and added this and the pineapple chunks to the sauce. Served over white rice. This hits both the sweet and the sour buttons very hard.