If it were the last food on earth

I finally figured out what I'm making for Valentine's Day and it's not chicken marsala (even though I have a great Cook's Illustrated recipe for it).  I was setting up Good Eats to record and noticed the show on Coq A Vin was scheduled for tonight.  I'd already watched that episode but remembered being fascinated by making a dish that used not one cup, nor even one bottle but TWO whole bottles of wine!  Two bottles of Pinot Noir to be exact. 

So, I am making the Coq A Vin.  (Coq = chicken and vin = wine)  Now, should I use Alton Brown's version or Julia Childs'?  Whichever one I decide on, I already know I will not be using pearl onions....

There are few, very few - probably less than six - foods I cannot STAND!  Among them are pearl onions, liver, and dandelion greens (another story for another day).  I would probably starve before I'd eat any of these - especially pearl onions.  I like sour little cocktail onions, and I love crispy rakkyōzuke  (a type of tsukemono or Japanese pickle) which are a tiny, sweet whole onion often served with Japanese curry.  But pearl onions...these must have been invented by the devil himself.

They pop when I bite into them and are just generally nasty.  I can't stand them.  I would apologize to all of you pearl onion lovers but realize my disdain for them means more for you!  You can keep your pearl onions!  ICK!!

P.S. I love every other type of onion known to man especially spring onions and Walla Walla Sweets (I ordered a 10# case from Cavalli's Onion Acres in Walla Walla, Washington for a ridiculously cheap price - about $12 including shipping. www.bmi.net/cavalli/ Check them out!) 
     

The Musical Fruit

Beans, beans the musical fruit

The more you eat, the more you toot

The more you toot the better you feel

So let's eat beans with every meal

No, Benjamin Franklin did not coin that sweet ditty, but he really did say, "Fart proudly," so I felt compelled to include it.

Beans, also known as legumes (because they are of the family Leguminosae or alternately Fabaceae) are, in a word, the bomb.  They are probably the most versatile, nutritious, delicious, cheap, easy to prepare and rather (in my opinion) underestimated and underappreciated (and most joked about) little powerhouse of a food - dried beans, that is.  ("Green beans" are immature beans eaten, usually whole, while the pod is still tender and before the little beans inside have been given a chance to ripen and dry.)

According to the U.S. Dry Bean Council (never knew there was such a thing), the thirteen most popular dried bean varieties grown in the US (mainly in the midwest) are Baby Lima, Large Lima, Black, Blackeye (yes, the black-eye pea is really a bean), Cranberry, Dark Red Kidney, Light Red Kidney, Garbanzo (aka chickpea), Great Northern, Navy, Pink, Pinto and Small Red.  Of course, there are a bazillion other types of beans (including fava beans which I heard are fabulous with a nice Chianti), but these are the most commonly consumed.

So, where was I going with this?  Oh yeah...Beans - nutritious and delicious - aside from having lots of fiber (thus giving them their symphonic side-effect), are packed with a perfect blend of protein (16 grams per cup) and complex carbohydrates along with a fair dose of calcium, potassium, folate and even a dash of iron.

I've already touched on bean soup, so I'd like to share another of my new favorite bean recipes compliments of another of my favorite no-nonsense cooks, Mark Bittman.  This one actually came from my Runner's World magazine (yes, I run - just very slowly) but also is in his cookbook Kitchen Express (of which I have a copy - it's great).  I was hesitant at first to use smoked sausage in a stew but figured it was good enough for my gumbo and finally made the recipe as is.  It was hearty and delicious and loved by all! 

 

Cassoulet with Lots of Vegetables
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound Italian sausage, bone-in pork chops, duck breasts, or chicken legs, or 1 pound of a combination of meats
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
2 leeks or onions, washed and sliced (I used leeks)
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch lengths
3 celery stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I omitted the celery because I didn't have any at the time and I'm not a big fan of cooked celery except in clam chowder)
2 medium zucchinis, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups canned tomatoes (and juice), chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
2 bay leaves
4 cups canned white beans, drained and liquid reserved in case needed (or frozen like I wrote about a few posts ago)
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (preferrably homemade from your squirreled away stock of stock in the freezer)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add meat and cook, turning until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and drain off all but two tablespoons of fat. Turn heat to medium, add garlic, leeks or onions, carrots, celery, and zucchini; season with salt and pepper. Cook five minutes, or until softened. Add tomatoes and juice, meat, and herbs. Bring to a boil. Add beans and boil again, stirring occasionally; reduce heat so mixture bubbles gently. Cook for 20 minutes, adding stock or bean liquid when mixture gets thick. Fish out meat; remove bones and skin and chop into chunks. Return to pot and add cayenne. Warm through. Serves four.

CALORIES PER SERVING: 580
CARBS: 82 G
PROTEIN: 40 G
FAT: 11 G

(Thanks to http://americanbean.com/ for all the fabulous bean facts.  Check it out - there's tons of information and some great recipes at the site!)

Luv me sum leftovers - Part I

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450 degrees.

Take:
-1 loaf ciabatta bread, split
-2 thin sliced sweet onions, carmelized (soften with 1T olive oil and add 1t of fresh ground black pepper, 1/2t kosher salt, 1T Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce)
-About a 1 pound chunk of leftover pork loin roast sliced super thin (layer on top of onions in pan after adding sauce and heat through, flipping once to coat with yummy goodness)
-8 slices swiss cheese

Layer meat, onions and cheese on bread, close sandwich and wrap securely in foil (sprayed with cooking spray).  Place on cookie sheet and top with hot pizza stone (yes, you can use a panini press but this works just as well and all the gooey goodness stays inside the foil).  Bake for 10 minutes, unwrap, slice into six pieces and eat. 

I suppose this is akin to a Cuban less the mustard, ham and pickles that I did have but decided to not use.  Whatever you want to call it, it was DELICIOUS!  (and there are no leftovers left over from the leftover, so I can't show you the final product)

Julia & Alton

I watched Julie & Julia a few nights ago.  It melds the stories of Julia Child (what a cool lady!) and a middle-aged woman in a culinary rut who starts a blog documenting her efforts to hone her cooking skills by making all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I'm certainly no Julia and while I am not in a rut (nor do not consider myself "middle-aged"), I know my skills could use some honing.  (If you remember, I said my baking was subpar.)  I went to the library (fabulous place - all the books you need and more - for free) and checked out Julia Child's Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques & Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking and Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food: Food+Mixing+Heat=Baking.  

Now, the other night I was talking to a friend, and she asked me if I'd ever made anything so good but then forgotten how I'd made it.  I told her the answer to that was yes, all the time - because I was a "mash together a recipe or two and then add a bit of this and a bit of that because I had ideas how to make it better" cooker.  I further described my cooking style as "Throw a Bunch of Stuff in a Pan and It Tastes Great."  On the FIRST PAGE of AB's baking book in the FIRST PARAGRAPH it says, and I quote, "'Cooks' who enjoy facing a pan and tossing in 'a bit of this and a bit of that' usually get away with it as long as they don't burn the meat or forget to put water in the rice..."  (Yes, I've since searched my kitchen for hidden cameras.)
 
That may explain my baking handicap - either that or my oven is on crack (AB says all ovens lie) - or both.  While I've made excellent cakes from scratch and can throw down a tasty quick bread or pan of muffins in no time, my breads, pie crusts and biscuits, in a word, stink.  

The rest of the first chapter goes on to explain why precision is essential to successful baking.  Precision.  I think I can handle that.  I have a Salter Aquatronic Electronic Kitchen Scale that measures grams as well as ounces (and mililiters and fluid ounces) and a mathematical mind (I did teach myself trigonometry after all), so I intend to use this book - and whatever Julia has to say in hers - to be a better Good Cooker.  I don't think I will make a souffle any time soon, but I may attempd the herbed Italian loaf again.  I'll keep you posted. 

Compliments and Quandaries

My husband gave me probably the nicest compliment ever the other night.  He said that no matter how crappy his day is at work, he knows he can always look forward to coming home and having a great dinner.  Wow.  That is a pretty heavy responsibility.  I guess the old adage, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach," is true. 

Honestly, though, I've found this to be true for both men and women (and small rescue dogs).  Try taking food to work or just putting a bag of candy on your desk.  Suddenly everyone is your friend.  There are worse ways to win people's affections.  Food is a great icebreaker; in fact, I was attending a class not too long ago (about how to run and organize an effective board of directors - what I do in my real life) and the instructor told the group to never run a meeting without having food - even a bowl of m&m's will grease the skids and warm the hearts.  

Hmmm...back to hearts again.  Valentine's Day commeth and I traditionally make a big, fancy dinner for my husband as my "gift."  I stew over what to do each year and choose and reject many candidates until I pick just the right thing.  I've made everything from homemade gyros (including the flat bread and the tzatziki sauce) to my personal favorite - Alton Brown's Strip Steak with Pepper Cream Sauce (but I used filet mignon).  It was AMAZING (and the reason I still have a nearly full bottle of Hennessy Cognac in the cupboard next to the Apple Brandy I bought to make a delectable apple cake and the coconut rum I bought for my pineapple upside down rum cake - yummy).  By the way, the first time I made this dish, it was perfect.  The second time I almost set the kitchen on fire and burned off my eyebrows when reducing the cognac.  Oops.          

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/strip-steak-with-pepper-cream-sauce-recipe/index.html

But, this year I have a quandary.  I need to make something new and fabulous and not just for the family; we are having a friend come in to town for the weekend and I have never cooked for her.  I have yet to decide what it will be and should break out the Cook's Illustrateds and have a look.  Perhaps chicken marsala?  Why not!  I have room for yet another partially used bottle of booze in the cupboard.   

Take Stock

Tonight I made chicken and wild rice soup for dinner with the leftover whole roast chicken I baked last night (recipe below) in my cast iron dutch oven (which by the way was amazing, tender and moist.  I will definately make whole roast chicken in the dutch oven again.  It was just an experiment but one that went really well).

Back to the soup - I started with a mirepoix (chopped carrot, celery and onion sauteed until soft in a bit of butter or olive oil), 2 bay leaves, 1t of dried thyme, 1t fresh ground black pepper, 1T Kosher salt, 1 cup of wild rice, 2 quarts of water and two of homemade stock (and the chopped chicken).  It was delicious - I'd say, largely inpart because of the stock.

I used to rely on Swanson's broth (in the can - I still use it from time to time in a pinch) but got brave a couple years ago because of Alton Brown and started making my own stock.  I use the pieces parts of the chicken - neck, guts, wing tips, etc - and simmer them down, strain out the bones and floaters, and freeze for later.  Having good stock always at the ready became somewhat of an obsession, and I now have a freezer full.  I started having the butcher save me his backs and necks and even boil down the carcass of whole baked chickens and turkeys after the meat is picked off.  If you remember, I also made duck stock for use in my New Year's Day stuffing.  And, yes, I did use this most recent roast chicken carcass to make another pot of stock I just finished squirreling away in the freezer. (PS - fried turkey carcasses are not fit for stock - icky - and smoked turkey stock must be marked as such because it can't be used as readily as other plain stock).

Alton Brown uses a bunch of herbs and veggies in his stock - and I did try his recipe - but I am pretty happy with my plain poultry stock.  It also appeals to my thrifty side because it is pretty much free.  Maybe instead of stocks and bonds, I can save money with stocks of bones. 

Roast chicken: Rub - 1T kosher salt, 2T Hungarian paprika, 1t ground black pepper, 1t white pepper, 1t cayane pepper, 1t dried thyme, 1t onion powder, 1t garlic powder ground together in my spice grinder (aka coffee grinder).  Pat all over the chicken and put in the fridge for a day in a gallon zip-lock.  Add 1T olive oil to dutch oven, add the chicken, lid and bake for three hours at 250 or until done (180 degrees or until juices run clear)

Confessions of A Good Cooker

I have a confession. I feel I must be honest here because I don't want to continue this blog under false pretenses. Yes, I do cook from scratch (most of the time) and rarely buy "prepared foods" and "convenience items." Yes, I can apparently cook just about anything I put my mind to. But I must confess something. Obviously I'm no Martha Stewart. Not even remotely. Because...I am a terrible baker.

Bread and pie crusts are the bain of my existence. If I use my bread maker, I am reasonably certain to be successful, but from scratch...bah. I am almost guaranteed to screw it up. Someone far back in my lineage must have really irked the Pillsbury Doughboy or something.

Today I followed a recipe - to the letter - for herbed Italian bread. I weighed my flour and proofed my yeast. All looked good until I tried to form the dough into a round loaf. I felt like Br'er Rabbit fighting the Tar-Baby. It stuck to both my hands - fronts and backs and between my fingers - a sure sign I added too much water or not enough flour. Who knows.

I finally succeeded in making a decent shape and let it rise. I got my razor and cut the cute little lines in the top and popped it in the oven. As if the earlier events weren't bad enough, my loaf cooked to a beautiful golden brown in TEN MINUTES. Temp was right, oven rack was on the right level. Who knows. I turned the oven down and checked the loaf in another ten minutes. It was then approaching Russian rye status. The internal temp was no where near 200 degrees, so I decided to try and save it by turning the loaf over. I had nothing to lose. Alas, it was stuck to the cooking stone even though I "liberally sprinkled corn meal" on the stone. I guess my dough was still too moist - either that or I really am cursed. Who knows. After carefully prying around the edges, I was relieved to feel the loaf pop loose. I picked it up to flip it over and discovered the middle still stuck to the stone. More scraping freed the gooey blob and I put the loaf back in the oven for the final ten minutes.

Was it pretty? No. Was it delicious? Yes. Will I try bread from scratch again any time soon? Who knows.

(PS - I might as well admit I also...use...jar sauce. I've tried to make spaghetti sauce from scratch and it turns out ok, but I prefer the flavor and convenience of the stuff in a jar. That's not to say I just open the jar, heat it up and dump it on. No, I do fix it up a little - add sauteed mushrooms or onions, extra herbs and garlic, meat, shredded zucchini, etc. But, I once told a fellow cooker of my secret shortcut and she looked at me like I just told her I used real dirt in my dirty rice. Bugger.)