Halibut and Fall Harvest Saute

   

   

The end of the year brings to a close the harvest and root vegetables that define fall cooking.  And so, last night I put that lonely butternut squash on the countertop and the old parsnip in the vegetable drawer out of their misery.  I shouldn't have waited, for this dish is tasty, easy and a good way to prepare fish.  Too often, we think of a piece of white fish and rice and the need for a sauce.  Dover sole cooked in butter can be nice, but hardly inspiring.  Likewise, a hearty fish stew can be involved and take time with different types of seafood and cooking times.  This meal combines the heartiness of a broth and root vegetables, along with a sauteed fish for a healthy meal.  I found it in Food & Wine, October 2004, and it serves faithfully every fall.  What's more, if you happen to cut up too many vegetables, just put the extras along with a diced leek in another pot and simmer with chicken stock for 20 minutes.  You'll have one of the best soups you've ever tasted.  Serves 2.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter

1 large shallot or half a small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup diced, peeled butternut squash

1 cup diced, peeled potato

1 small parsnip, peeled and diced

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 1/4 cups low-salt chicken stock

1 tbsp olive oil

2 halibut fillets

salt/pepper

2 tbsp flour

Directions:

In a large saucepan, melt 2 tbsp of butter over low heat.  Add the chopped shallot and garlic and cook until softened, abotu 3 miutes.  Add the squash, potato and turnip and cook over medium heat until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the wine, thyme and bay leaf and cook a few minutes until the wine reduces by half.  Add the stock, cover and simmer over low heat until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat until just smoking.  Season the halibut with salt and pepper and then dredge through the flour, shaking off excess.  Add the halibut and saute until golden, about 3 or 4 minutes per side.  Stir in the remaining tbsp of butter to the broth, serve into bowls, and place the halibut on top to serve.

Roman-Style Chicken

     

    

What to do with chicken?  The eternal question.  There are whole cookbooks devoted to chicken recipes, and I own a few of them.  This recipe, from Giada De Laurentiis, proposes braising browned chicken along with prosciutto and sweet bell peppers. Hard to go wrong there and it is quick and delicious.  Capers added at the end can send this dish in a direction of other traditional chicken preparations such as chicken piccata cooked with lemon and capers.  I switch things around, as should you, depending on how I'm feeling any given night.  For example, last night I did not add the recommended diced tomatoes.  No particular reason, just didn't feel like it.  Similarly, many times I will use just yellow peppers, which are a little sweeter than the red peppers Giada suggests adding.  Adding red with the yellow bell peppers make a nice visual presentation, but the taste will be a little different.  Again, up to you.  I do suggest one switch in the preparation order, which I think improves the dish.  Giada recommends browning the chicken first in just the hot olive oil and then cooking the bacon.  I recommend cooking the bacon and peppers along with the garlic first, and then browning the chicken in that fat combination.  You can imagine how much tastier that will be!  Serves 2.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced

3 ounces prociutto, or 2 slices of bacon

1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips

1 clove garlic

2 skinless chicken breasts pound to 1/2 flat

salt/pepper

1/4 cup wine

1/2 a 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 tsp capers

2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Descriptions:

Heat oil in a large saute pan over low heat and cook bacon, onions, and peppers until onions are softened and bacon is browned.  Add garlic and cook for a further minute.  Remove mixture with a slotted spoon to a plate, raise the heat to medium, season the chicken, add and cook a few minutes on each side until browned.  Remove the chicken to the same plate as the bacon mixture and add the wine to the pan, scraping up the browned bits to deglaze.  Return the chicken and bacon mixture to the pan and add the tomatoes, stock and spices.  Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes to finish the chicken cooking process.  Before serving, add the capers and parsley, stirring to combine.

Mustard-Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce

   

    

Roast pork tenderloin always sounds so fancy to people, but it's really a very easy and quck meal to make, even on weeknights.  Just brown the meat in a pan and roast in a hot oven until it reaches 160 degrees.  After you've prepared this a few times, the challenge then becomes to do it a little differently each time.  Mustard is a go to for lamb, and can also go onto pork.  The flavor left is not "mustardy," but does enhance the meat and help whatever herbs you apply stick.  The easy herbs are any of the herbs de provence combination, either those premixed, or thyme, rosemary, etc.  I keep an herb garden for just such purposes.  But, seeking something more, I found this recipe from Martha Stewart's The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook:  The Original Classics.  Her recipe envisions a blackberry-mustard sauce.  I did go as far as adding blackberries, but I did follow her suggestions to add coriander, cumin and ginger to the spice rub mixture.  While my proportions below are not as agressive as Martha suggests, it still came out as a very tasty mid-week meal.  I also like to brown my tenderloin before roasting, which Martha has yet to discover.  I browned the tenderloin first and then slathered it with Dijon and the spice mixture before roasting.  Feel free to reverse the order and let me know how it works.  Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1  1 1/4-pound pork tenderloin

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp ground mustard

1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp dry white wine
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp flour

Directions:
Preaheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat and brown the tenderloin on all sides.  Meanwhile combine all of the spices, salt, pepper and sugar.  Remove the tenderloin to a cutting board and brush 1 tbsp of the Dijon onto the tenderloin.  Sprinkle the spice mixture onto the tenderloin and press to make it stick.  Return the tenderloin to the pan and roast in the oven.  Cook until the pork is 160 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, 15 minutes or longer.  Transfer the cooked tenderloin to a cutting board and cover with foil to keep warm.  Return the pan to the stove top over medium heat and add the wine, scraping the bits off the bottom of the pan to deglaze.  Reduce the wine a bit and then stir in the stock, reducing it by half, about 8 minutes.  If a thicker sauce is desired, mix the flour and 1/4 cup of water in a bowl and whisk into simmering stock.  After a couple minutes more, whisk in the mustard.  Slice pork into medalians and serve with sauce. 
      

"Weeds" with Sausage

   

    

The “weeds” in this sausage pasta dish are so named because of the shape of the pasta. I don’t know what kind of enormous weeds they have in Italy, but I agree with Mario Batali that this pasta looks more like an unraveled, twisted phone cord. Such coiled, hollow pasta is hard for me to fund in local stores, so he recommends fusilli or rotelle, although last night I used a a narrow ziti. The reason this recipe (and picture) from Mario’s Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home attracted me is that Italian sausage and spaghetti was one of my favorite comfort foods as a kid. However, I do not eat it so much anymore because the acid of the tomato sauce upsets my stomach somewhat. I am growing into the place Italians have been always, sauce based on things other than a heavy dose of tomato sauce as the Americans prefer. This sauce does start with a tomato paste base, but its liquid is provided from white wine and milk, along with some of the pasta cooking liquid. It is a wonderful sauce, still extremely easy, but deeper and more flavorful than any jarred sauce. Try it instead the next time you think of sausage and spaghetti.  Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 yellow onion

4 sweet Italian sausage links, removed from casing and broken into pieces

1/2 6-ounce can of tomato paste

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup whole milk

salt/pepper

1/2 pound fusilli or rotelle

freshly grated Parmigiano

Directions:

In a 12- or 14-inch saute pan over low heat, melt the oil and butter and soften the onions for 6 to 8 minutes.  Increase the heat to medium, add the sasage and cook until very brown, about 10 minutes.  Drain most of the fat from the pan and add the tomato paste, stirring often, until a deep rust color, about 5 minutes.  Add the wine, stir, and boil down until almost evaoporated.  Stir in the milk, season with salt and pepper, and reduce the heat to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta until al dente.  Scoop out 1/2 cup of pasta water and then drain the pasta.  Add the pasta to the sauce and toss.  Add some of the cooking water if desired to loosen the sauce.  Divide the pasta among bowls, top with grated Parmesan and serve.

   

Chicken Apricot and Almond Tagine

    

    
I may have mentioned that my favorite spice is cumin and Moroccans do use cumin and coriander in many of their recipes. However, they are famed for their sweet tooth and so many of their chicken recipes will instead use cinnamon and pair it with apricots or raisins, along with saffron and garlic. Either way, it can all go into a tagine, the traditional conical cooking vessel of Morocco which recirculates the cooking steam into the dish as it stews. I own a tagine, although mine is a Le Creuset enameled cast iron. No particular reason for that, I might have even bought it on sale at an outlet store. Even if you don’t own a tagine, you can still make wonderful Moroccan tagines with a Dutch oven or any kind of heavy pot. I make tagines with some frequency because they are easy, fun and quick, often times finishing in the time it takes to cook rice. While I know that the traditional Moroccan pairing is couscous, many times I will make rice instead. That’s just me and the beauty of cooking, make what you like and will enjoy most. The recipe below is from one of my Moroccan cookbooks, Traditional Flavors from Northern Africa: The Moroccan Collection, although all are very similar: start by browning the meat, then soften the onions and vegetables, then add the spices and stock, return the meat and simmer. Ten minutes active time and 30 minutes to a meal. Take that Rachel Ray! Serves 2.
     
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken breasts
1/2 yellow oninon, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large pinch of saffron threads, crushed
1/3 cup slivered almonds
2/3 cup dried apricots
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
salt/pepper

Directions:
Heat oil in a tagine, Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat.  Add the chicken and brown on both sides.  Turn down the heat to low and transfer the chicken to a plate.  Cut the breasts into bite size pieces.  Add the onion and garlic to the pot and cook until softened but not browned.  Stir in the cinnamon for 1 minute.  Add the saffron, almonds, apricots, stock and chicken.  Heat until the stock is just simmering then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Season to taste and serve with couscous or rice.
     

B'stilla - Moroccan Pigeon Pie

   

      

I was recently reminded of a meal I had in Morocco. Earlier on the second day of our trip, we had toured the massive Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and then driven up the coastline to Rabat, Morocco’s capitol. Evening approached as we walked from our hotel to the medina, which in Rabat is quite small. Unfortunately, most of the shops were closed and our dining options seemed limited. However, we did come upon a Moroccan man dressed in a kaftan holding a single lantern. He stood in front of a sign indicating a restaurant, but there was no restaurant in site, only shuttered doors and vacant streets. He did not speak English and could not answer our questions. Instead, he beckoned for us to follow him. With hopes for dinner ahead, we left caution behind and followed this solitary light into the narrow, twisting alleys of the medina. All was dark and quiet around us as we walked, him in his padded shoes and flowing robe, us with only uncertainty. First right, then right again, a left and then a right. Where were we going?  Where was he taking us?  Then, finally a door where we stopped. With a knock a small portal opened - foreigners for dinner, would it be ours or theirs? 

    

With a small tip and thanks we stepped through the door and into another world. The first thing that encountered us was music, traditional drums and stringed instruments, then the warm light of a many lanterned interior, then colors of festooned fabrics and patterned rugs and pillows, then the din of fellow diners, a dozen or more sitting at tables throughout the space, enjoying their conversations and their meals. Finally, the smells of Moroccan spices and cooking: cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, and saffron. Relief was quickly replaced with indulgence in all that surrounded us. On this night I had bastila - Moroccan pigeon pie.  A traditional dish in a traditional setting, it found my pigeons under a sweet and savory crust with onions, almonds, egg, cinnamon and saffron. So why no recipe below? Well, I didn’t particularly like it. It was a little dry for my tastes and there’s not much meat on a pigeon! But, that was an evening that has inspired my Moroccan cooking countless times since. The sights, the sounds, the emotional trepidation and release, all of that can be recalled with our most basic sensory perceptions: smell and taste. It is thoughts like this that inspires me to cook, travel, and perhaps cook a chicken, apricot and almond tagine tonight!

      

Rabbit Cacciatore

    

   

There is a small portion of the frozen food section at my market devoted to surprising me with wonderful cooking ingredients. I know it’s not really just for me, but it is fun to think that, and it is fun to discover what new thing may be there. On one occasion it was partridge, so I made partridge with a chausseur or hunter’s sauce. Many times it's venison.  This past week, it was rabbit, cleaned and cut into pieces. Fall brings the opportunity to cook and enjoy game and different meats, so I thought why not? Needless to say, I don’t have rabbit recipes off the top of my head and had never prepared it before. Braised rabbit came to mind, but sounded boring. So, I consulted my The Silver Spoon cookbook. The Silver Spoon is one of the great treasures of Italy. It is said that The Silver Spoon is most successful cookbook in Italy, the book that has its place in every family kitchen and that every Italian passes on to their children. Not disappointing, The Silver Spoon has over 20 recipes for rabbit, and another 4 for hare. I chose the recipe below for Rabbit Cacciatore. It was really very simple, dispelling any notion that something as foreign as rabbit would be hard to cook. So, next time you see rabbit in the case, grab it and take it home and cook it, you’ll be glad you did. Serves 4.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

1 onion, chopped

1/3 cup prosciutto, chopped

1 rabbit, cut into pieces

3/4 cup dry white wine

1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes

1 tbsp flour (optional)

salt/pepper

soft polenta, to serve

Directions:

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or deep saute pan over low heat, add the onion and prosciutto.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.  Remove the onions and prosciutto to a bowl and add the rabbit to the saute pan.  Increase the heat to medium and brown the rabbit on all sides.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in the wine and scrape up the bits of the bottom of the pan to deglaze.  Return the onions and prosciutto and add the thyme.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, bring to a gentle boil, reduce the heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 45 minutes.  If the cooking juices are still too runny, thicken the sauce by stirring in the flour and simmering a few minutes more.  Remove all the rabbit pieces except the legs, and with a fork, shred or remove the meat from the other pieces such as the neck and back, looking for and separating any bones.  Return just the shredded meat to the stew and stir in.  Serve by plating over soft polenta.

Braised Veal Rolls in Tomato Sauce

      

   
Braising, of course, is a fancy name for stewing a meat, that is cooking if for a fair amount of time partially submerged in some kind of liquid. Beef stew is a hearty and homey brasied meal. It brings a simple, warmness to any winter day. Interest and sophistication comes when beef stew goes to beef bourguignon, both in name and ingredients. Bacon provides a base oil to brown the meat, which is stewed in wine instead of stock or water. On top of these extra layers of flavors, I also love the variety of flavor that can be added by stuffing the meat. Many times, I think of this in the context of stuffing some kind of chop, such as veal chop, and roasting it. This recipe combines the wonderful goodness of a sophisticated stew with added layers of the ingredients in the stuffing. It remains easy to prepare and cook, and the results are to die for.  I paired it with angel hair pasta as in the picture above.  That was just my feeling for the evening, but feel free to serve the rolls by themselves, with a vegetable side, and the sauce ladeled on top.
   
The original recipe, from Mario Batali’s Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home calls for dry red wine in which to braise the meat. Instead, I used a Vaqueyras leftover from the wine I served on Thanksgiving. This southern Rhone region is near to Chateauneuf-du–Pape both in location and taste with its grenache grape base and medium- to full-bodied round and smooth taste, as opposed to a more tannic Cabernet Sauvignon. The former style wine, as with a Burgundy or pinot noir based wine, I think does more to bring out this dish’s flavors, including the ingredients in its stuffing, which is why many translate beef bourguignon into beef burgundy. Anyway, enough geeky wine talk. Just make this recipe and you’ll be glad you did.  Serves 2.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 ounces sliced pancetta, diced
1 yellow onion, sliced
6 thin slices of veal
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted and chopped
2 tbsp golden raisins
2 tbsp grated pecorino romano
1 1/2 ounces sliced prosciutto di parma, diced
1/4 cup chopped italian parsley
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 large egg
1 cup red wine such as pinot noir
1 cup tomato sauce
salt/pepper

Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine the pine nuts, raisins, cheese, prosciutto, parsely and garlic.  Add the egg and mix well.  Season the veal slices on both sides with salt and peper and lay out flat.  Spread a portion of the stuffing mixture in a layer over each veal slice.  Starting from the narrowest end, role up each piece and pierce with a toothpick to hold in place.
In a Dutch oven or deep saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add pancetta and cook for 4 minutes.  When the pancetta starts to brown, add the onions and cook a few minutes to soften.  Remove the pancetta and onions and add the veal rolls, browning on all sides.  Remove the veal rolls and deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add the tomato sauce and the cooked pancetta and onions and stir to combine.  Bring the sauce to a boil, return the veal rolls to the pan and spoon some of the sauce over the rolls.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover.  Simmer for 1 hour, turning the rolls and spooning sauce on top periodically, and adding a little water if the sauce dries out too much.  Serve by plating the rolls and spooning the sauce over the top.
    

Split Pea Soup

    

    

Split pea soup is a comfort food for me and it is also extremely easy to make.  I pair it with with a pork sausage, such as kielbasa, for a hearty, cool weather meal.  Choose the consistency you want by leaving the cooked peas in the broth, or mashing them to create a thicker soup.  Serves 2.

   
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 stalk celery, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound green split peas, washed in a strainer
1/2 link polish kielbasa, chopped
salt/pepper

Directions:
Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat.  Add kielbasa and brown on all sides, approximately 5 minutes.  Transfer the kielbasa with a slotted spoon to a bowl, reduce the heat in the pot to medium-low, and add onion, carrot, celery, garlic and bay leaf, sauteeing gently to soften, 8 minutes.  Add chicken stock, bring to a boil, and then lower heat and simmer covered for 1 hour.  If softer peas are desired, continue cooking up to an additional 30 minutes.  Remove the bay leaf.  If a thicker soup is desired, mash some of the peas with as potato masher.  Return kielbasa to soup and warm a few minutes.  Serve.

Sausage Apple Chestnut Stuffing

    

    

People like to join tribes whenever possible; it's in our DNA, with modern versions including Cowboys v. everyone else, Yankees v. Redsox, CSI v. NCIS and the two guys from Twilight whom I am proud to say that I do not know their names.  When it comes to Thanksgiving, people break into mashed v. sweet potatoes and pumpkin v. pecan pie (I personally am a mashed/pumpkin guy).  When it comes to stuffing, I think people are less confrontational, but we do know what we like.  Options include cornbread, oyster and tradtional, etc.  Me, I'm a traditional stuffing person with my favorite being sausage apple stuffing.  I also like to throw in chestnuts for a seasonal touch.  There is nothing special about the recipes, just pick a good one and start a tradition.  Here is one I use from Epicurious.  Enjoy and do try to eat as much as you can on Thanksgiving Day!

    

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 lb Italian sausage, sweet or spicy, skin removed

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced onions

1 cup chopped chestnuts (from a jar is fine)

1 cup peeled cored granny smith apple

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp fresh parsely, chopped

1 bay leaf

8 cups 1-inch cubed french bread

1 cup whole milk

1 cup low-salt chicken broth

2 tbsp butter, melted

3 large eggs, beaten

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Heat oil in heavy, large skillet over medium heat.  Add sausage, breaking into pieces with a spoon, and saute until cooked through and brown, about 8 minutes.  Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to large bowl.  Add celery and next 7 ingredients to skillet.  Saute over medium heat until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.  Discard bay leaf.  Return sausage to mixture.  Butter a 13x9x2 inch baking dish.  Add bread to sausage mixture.  Whisk milk, broth, and butter in bowl to blend.  Mix into stuffing, season stuffing with salt and pepper.  Mix in eggs, transfer to prepared dish and bake uncovered until cooked through and brown, about 50 minutes.

     

Roast Turkey Secrets

     

    
This is the first Thanksgiving in many years that I will not cook Thanksgiving dinner and that makes me sad.  I love to cook on all the holidays and have recipes and menus for each.  My Thanksgiving menu is traditional with Roast Turkey, Gravy, Sausage and Apple Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans with Slivered Almonds, and Cranberry Sauce.  Although, I am more than happy to share the table with guests who bring their own favorites including oyster stuffing, sweet potatoes (with marshmellows), braised pearl onions, etc.  I love to entertain, strengthening bonds over the giving and sharing of a meal, and holidays can be the pinnacle of that experience.  While I am not cooking this year, I would like to share my keys to roasting a Thanksgiving turkey.  Hopefully, buried in the past that dry bird roasted for hours in low heat until every drop of moisture is drained from its flesh.  Modern cooking techniques are not just fads, but a better understanding and sharing of cooking recipes to allow fine dining at home.  When it comes to turkeys, the two keys are brining and a period of high heat.  Brining allows the turkey meat to soak in and retain moisture that will stay throughout the cooking process.  Likewise, a period of high heat browns the skin and shortens the cooking time allowing less time for the bird to dry out.  The last key is to ignore the little plastic pop out indicator that comes with many birds.  That thing might as well have been made by lawyers, because it will only pop out when its temperature reaches 185 degrees F.  This is way too warm for breast meat, especially since the bird will continue to cook after it is removed from the oven.  The result is a turkey guaranteed to be absolutely cooked, but also quite likely dry.  The brining recipe below is from Emeril Lagasse, but all brining recipes are essentially the same:  salt, brown sugar, citrus, vegetables and herbs.  It doesn't really matter which one you use, just make sure you do. 

Ingredients:
1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
3 oranges
2 lemons
8 sprigs thyme
4 sprigs rosemary
1 10 to 12 pound fresh or completely thawed turkey
8 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oil
2 yellow onions
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
3 bay leaves
5 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup flour
salt/pepper

Directions:
To make the brining solution, dissolve the salt and sugar in 2 gallons of cold water in a non-reactive container, such as a plastic bucket.  Add 2 oranges and the lemons quartered, 6 sprigs of thyme and the rosemary.  Remove the neck and giblets from the cavity of the turkey and rinse the turkey inside and out with cold running water.  Soak the turkey in the brine, covered and refrigerated, for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.
For the turkey, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse well under cold running water.  Pat dry with paper towels inside and out.  Season lightly inside and out with salt and pepper.  Stuff the turkey with 1 onion and orange each cut into 8ths, 1 stalk celery and carrot each cut into 1-inch peices, 2 bay leaves and 2 sprigs thyme.  Loosely tie the drumsticks together with kitchen string.  Tuck the wings under the breast and coat the bird liberally with 4 tbsp melted butter. Place in the preheated oven and roast for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, begin the turkey broth gravy recipe below.  After 30 minutes of turkey roasting time, baste the turkey with 1/2 cup chicken stock, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and continue roasting for another approximately 2 hours until a thermometer stuck in the thigh meat (without touching bone) registers 165 degrees F.  Baste the turkey every half hour with a 1/2 cup chicken stock and begin testing its temperature towards the end.   When done, remove the turkey and place on a platter to rest while the gravy is finished.
For the turkey broth gravy, heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat.  Add the turkey neck and saute until beginning to brown, a few minutes.   Chop the remaining vegetables and add along with the bay leaf.  Soften for a few minutes.  Add 3 cups of stock and 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer until the stock is reduced to 4 cups, about 1 hour.  Strain the stock and reserve until the turkey is finished roasting.  When the turkey is out of the roasting pan, pour off the juices to a glass separating cup.  Place the roasting pan on 2 stovetop burners over medium heat and deglaze with the wine, scraping up the browned bits.  Pour the mixture into the pot with the turkey stock.  Pour the separated turkey juice into the stock.  In a separate heavy sauce pan, melt 4 tbsp butter over medium heat.  Stir in the flour to make a roux and cook for 2 minutes more.  Add the stock, increase the heat to high and stir to remove lumps until the mixture comes to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes to form the gravy.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve.
     

Chicken & Prosciutto Borsetti with Bacon and Peas

     

     

The more I learn about Italian food, the more I learn about the subtleties of cooking, the little things that added together build up to make a dish go from good to excellent. I learned this same lesson racing sailboats on the Chesapeake Bay. A fast sailboat isn’t fast at the beginning, or doesn’t jump ahead at the end, but is incrementally just a little faster so that by the end of the race it has achieved a dominant lead. For Italian food, I think of fresh ingredients, of course vital for any dish. I also think of how less can be more, like less sauce in a pasta dish then you might think. But also proper ingredients, such as pairing the shape and texture of the pasta with the consistency of the sauce, and ensuring that all of the pasta is tossed and individually coated in the sauce. Perhaps in the less is more category are sauces not based on tomatoes. Italians many times will coat their pasta in nothing more than oil and cheese, or perhaps butter and an herb, such as sage. Chicken stock can also be a sauce, though for me it needs help to give me the interest I need in a dish. This recipe pairs a tortellini type pasta (borsetti is my favorite) in a chicken stock-based sauce with bacon and peas. I actually am not a big fan of peas, but I always put them in this dish for their visual color and because I think I should. My favorite part though is the bacon, and any sauce started with bacon will be good with me. This recipe is quick, easy, colorful and hearty. I suggest you give it a try for a quick mid-week meal.

    

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken and prosciuto borsetti, or other desired tortellini
4 slices of bacon, diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
  
Directions:
In a medium pot, boil water and cook pasta. Meanwhile in a skillet over medium-low heat, cook bacon, rendering fat and ensuring bacon is nearly fully cooked. Pour off all but a tbsp of bacon fat and add onion, cooking a few minutes to soften. Add chicken stock and scrape bacon bits from the bottom of a pan. Simmer a few minutes and then add peas, cooking a few minutes more. When the pasta is cooked but still firm, transfer pasta with a slotted spoon to the skillet with the sauce. Turn off heat. Stir into sauce 3 tbsp of grated Parmesan. Serve by spooning pasta and sauce into bowls. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan over bowls.
     

Pork Tikka

   

   

Sometimes a cooking experience is less WOW and more Uh-Oh or Huh? That was the case last night when I tried this pork tikka recipe from my new The Food of India cookbook I’m reading. After posting a site extolling fast-prep Indian food, I thought I might need to get back in the graces of the Indian cooking gods ( which I fear may be many) with a real, authentic Indian dish. Tikka, I have learned, refers to either a cut of meat or a marinade sauce, and this recipe combines both. The cookbook describes it as “Encrusted in spices and mouthwateringly tender on the inside, pork tikka is a popular dish in Punjabi dhabas (roadside restaurants) and street stalls. It is often served with chapatis, roti or naan and chutney.” The marinade is yogurt based, with onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, garam masala and chili powder. With that, I thought why not? I have a container of yogurt I need to finish, naan from the other night, and all the spices already. The marinade is simple, just combine and marinate. The problems came from the cooking process. Don’t get me wrong, the smells from the cooking meat are wonderful, and the end product was tastey, but I never did obtain that beautiful color of the picture above. The recipe calls for heating the oil, and then adding the pork with the marinade and simmering. I did that, but the liquid never seemed to boil off and brown the meat like the picture showed. I ended up removing some of the extra liquid at the end of 20 minutes cooking time to allow the recipe to dry out as the recipe recommends. That just put things on the edge of burning.  The meat was cooked, still juice, but only slightly golden.  Fearing my special spice sauce would turn to cinders, I called it an evening and dug in. Some nights are like that. John 0 - authentic Indian food 1. You may have better luck with this recipe, it will be tastey regardless of its visual imperfections. And luckily, a lifetime of experimenting and several hundred more pages of this cookbook give plenty of opportunity for future success.

   

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, diced
3 inch piece of ginger, chopped
½ tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tbsp garam masala
1/4 tsp chili powder
pinch black pepper
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 large red onion, diced
3/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
½ cup oil
  
Directions:
Prepare the marinade by combining the yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, ginger, spices and yoghurt. Mix and add the pork. Put in a ziploc and allow to marinate in the fridge 2 hours or overnight.
Heat oil in a heavy, large fry pan over medium heat. Before the oil starts smoking, add the red onion, 1 clove of garlic and cilantro. Stir and cook a couple of minutes to soften the onions. Increase the heat to high and add the pork with the marinade. Stir for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium and allow to simmer the juices away, 15-20 minutes. The meat and the dryish sauce will be a rich, dark brown. To serve, season with salt and sprinkle with a little more garam masala.
     

Roast Duck Breast with Pomegranate-Chipotle Sauce

     

    
WOW & OMG - whether you’re an old-schooler or a member of the texting generation, this recipe will inspire such a response. The dish is visually arresting. The picture above does not do it justice. My sauce was deeper, providing a better contrast with redder pomegranate seeds, which I think were more ripe than those in the picture. Similarly, my green beans were not overcooked, and thus more vibrantly green. I was inspired to do this dish, provided in the current issue of Bon Appetit, by the seasonal nature of pomegranates in stores now. The upcoming holidays also inspired me to do something special, and the red and green of this dish make it a potential Christmas-time selection. As wonderful as it looks, it is simple and easy to prepare. The sauce contains just a few ingredients and most of the prep time does not require attention. Similarly, roasting a duck breast is quick and easy. As for taste, what smells better than sauteed/roasted duck fat? The pomegranate sauce seems luxurious and decadent at the same time, and the chipotle spice give an added dimension that would make Bobby Flay proud. Treat that special someone to this recipe and you won’t regret it. Serves 2.
  
Ingredients:
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
2 cups pomegranate juice (such as Pom)
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1/4 tsp ground chipotle
1 ½ tsp balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp ground cumin
salt/pepper
1 6 oz. boneless duck breast
ground coriander
seeds from 1/2 a pomegranate
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. For the sauce, in a medium sauce pan over medium heat, stir sugar into the water until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and boil sugar until syrup is deep amber color, about 8 minutes. Add juice and broth and simmer down until sauce is reduced to 1 ½ cups. Reduce heat to just enough to keep warm and stir in vinegar, cumin, chipotle and salt/pepper to taste.
Score the duck breast by cutting through the fat, but not the meat, 5 times on the diagonal in one direction and 5 more times the other to make a diamond pattern. Season both sides with salt, pepper and coriander. In a medium skillet over medium heat, add duck, skin side down. Cook until skin is crisp and deep brown, about 7 minutes. Turn duck over and cook a further minute. Transfer skillet to the oven and roast: 6 minutes for rare, 8 minutes medium-rare, 10 minutes for medium. Transfer duck to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes. Thinly slice the breast cross-wise. Arrange slices on a plate, spoon sauce over, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds. Pair with green beans cooked with butter and sliced almonds.
   

Raita (Yogurt Dipping Sauce)

    

   

A quick and easy meal for me some nights when I am tired is Indian food.  Indian food can be so exotic and inspiring. Eating it makes me think of traveling to far away places: a Hindu temple carved with posing forms on the outside, tropical beaches and fruits, great Raj forts and palaces, a myriad of sites, sounds, colors and tastes.  While I have a beautiful new Indian cookbook I am reading through at the moment, most recipes are far too involved for a quick evening meal.  As a shadow of a substitute, some of the pre-made dishes found at the grocery store are passable.  A coconut curry simmering sauce for chicken or a heat, open and serve dal (lentils); either with rice can make a meal. Many grocery stores are even selling naan bread. What’s lacking for me though is the yogurt dipping sauce that traditionally accompanies these meals. Indians eat some form of yogurt with almost every meal, and a yogurt dipping sauce provides a cool counter to a spicey dish. Here is my recipe for raita, or yogurt dipping sauce, that will do the trick.

Ingredients:

1 cup plain yogurt
½ a cucumber, peeled and diced finely
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cumin
up to 2 tbsp water

Directions:
Mix all ingredients except for the water. If the sauce is a little too thick for your tastes, add some or all of the water. Serve.

Chicken Tetrazzini

       

   
Every year, the day after Thanksgiving, I make turkey tetrazzini with leftover turkey meat. The creamy goodness of a casserole is always a good cold weather relief. Tetrazzini delivers, along with a nuttiness that can come from the almonds and parmesan cheese. Roasting a chicken yesterday inspired me to try chicken tetrazzini for all the same reasons. While I have a Joy of Cooking recipe I use for the turkey version, I pulled a different recipe to try something new. Giada De Laurentiis always delivers tastey, easy-to-follow recipes and I own several of her cookbooks. The recipe below is largely hers and came out so creamy and good it was hard to stop eating. Try it and you’ll find out why. Serves 4.
 
Ingredients:
5 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts worth of chicken meat, cooked or uncooked
1 6 oz. can button mushrooms, sliced
6 oz. fettuccine
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 tbsp flour
2 cups whole milk
1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/3 cup frozen peas
½ cup grated Parmesan
2 tbsp bread crumbs
  
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Shred any cooked chicken from a previous recipe into bite-sized pieces. Cut into bite-sized pieces any uncooked chicken and saute in a medium saute pan in 1 tbsp each butter and oil over medium heat. Cook a few minutes on each side until light golden. Transfer chicken to a bowl. Add another 1 tbsp each butter and oil to the saute pan and cook the mushrooms until light golden, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil.  After the mushrooms are cooked, add the onion, garlic and thyme and saute until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile add the fettuccine to the boiling water and cook until still firm, approximately 9 minutes. Drain pasta and set aside. Add the wine to the mushroom mixture and simmer down until reduced by half. Transfer the mixture to the bowl with the chicken. In the pot used to cook the fettuccine, melt 3 tbsp of butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.  Allow the roux to cook a minute to cook off the flour taste.  Add the milk, stock nutmeg, salt and pepper and bring to a boil, stirring the mixture to mix out the lumps. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes to allow the roux to thicken the sauce.  Turn off heat, stir in the peas, mushroom mixture, chicken and pasta. Pour the casserole into a 9 inch square baking dish.  Top with the grated Parmesan and bread crumbs.  Bake, uncovered in the preheated oven until golden brown on top and the sauce bubbles, about 25 minutes.

Roast Chicken

   

       

A well-roasted chicken is the mark of a fine cook, according to Julia Childs. Lovers of cooking must also love Julia Childs, if for no other reason than to admire and respect her boundless enthusiasm and pioneering role in bringing fine cooking into American kitchens. I do not have Julia’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” I prefer cookbooks in the modern style with lots of pretty pictures showing how the prepared recipe can look. I also don’t need multiple recipes for aspic. However, I do own and enjoy very much “Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home.” In it, Julia Childs and Jacques Pepin provide their takes on basic french cooking. On a given dish, they each discuss their approaches to the dish and provide their own recipes. The subtle differences between their recipes show how even fine chefs can differ, and how you can and should influence your own dishes to meet your tastes.

Yesterday was a cold, rainy day, and so I decided to fill the house with the incomparable smells of roast chicken. Julia’s approach reminded me of her inimitable way when she noted, “I always give my bird a generous butter massage before I put it in the oven. Why? Because I think the chicken likes it - and, more important, I like to give it.” How can you not smile at that? I gave it a try and found that I may not be comfortable with my chicken sexuality, because I definitely did not enjoy giving the chicken a butter massage. As for the chicken, I did not ask its feelings or opinions of the matter. But in the oven it went after seasoning and stuffing with herbs and lemon slices. I have yet to make the perfect bird, but am getting closer and this recipe will help you too. I like to pair roast chicken with wild rice and broccoli, making a gravy from the pan drippings. The recipe for the latter is also below. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 3-4 lb chicken
salt/pepper
herbs such as thyme, rosemary and/or sage
1 lemon, sliced
3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup white wine
1 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken stock
 
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450o F. Rinse the chicken thoroughly and dry with paper towels. Ensure that the giblets are removed from the inside cavity. Salt and pepper the inside cavity and stuff with sprigs of the herbs and the lemon. Brush the butter over the top of the chicken, especially the breasts and legs. Tie the legs together with string. Salt generously and place in the oven on a roasting pan. Roast for 30 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 350o F for an approximate total cooking time of 1 1/4 hours. The chicken is done when a thermometer inserted into the thy (without touching a bone) reads 175o F and juices from the chicken when pricked run clear.
When the chicken is done, remove from the roasting pan and allow to rest. In a small pan, add the remaining 1 tbsp butter and flour and mix together to form a roux. Allow the roux to cook for 1 minute to cook off the flour taste. Add the stock and stir, bringing to a simmer. Pour off the juice/fat mixture from the roasting pan into a fat separator. Put the roasting pan over a burner on medium heat and deglaze by adding the white wine. Scrape up the browned bits and whisk into the wine. Allow the wine to simmer down to a tablespoon. Pour the wine mixture into the simmering stock. Add the separated chicken juices to the stock and stir. After a few minutes of active simmering, the roux will thicken the stock into a gravy. By this time, the chicken will have rested sufficiently to serve.

Veal Farfalle

      

   

One of my favorite stores is Williams-Sonoma.  I love to go in there and pine over their All-Clad stainless steel cookware.  I know, it's not normal, but they're so shiny!  I could spend hours playing with all of the kitchen gadgets, milling through their spice and sauce section, and seeing what new seasonal items are on display.  Occasionally, I flip through their cookbook collection.  They carry the standard celebrity chef selection, many of which I already own, as well as their own collection of cookbooks.  The recipe below is inspired from a recipe I saw in one of their books, and is quick, easy, and very tastey.  The veal I used was from the veal scallopini cutlets I did not use in a previous Veal Saltimbocca recipe.  Many times, when you buy a packet of veal, you will get full-sized pieces suitable for main dishes, but also smaller pieces you may not want to use for Saltimbocca, Marsala or other scallopini dishes.  Save them for this recipe for a fast mid-week meal.  Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 handfuls farfalle bow-tie shaped pasta

3 tbsp oil

4 small or 2 large thin veal cutlets, diced into 1/2 inch squares

salt/pepper

1/4 cup flour

1 shallot, diced

1 clove garlic, diced

1/2 cup white wine

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Bring water to boil in a medium-sized pot, salt the water and cook pasta for 12 minutes or until cooked but still firm.  Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Season the veal with salt and pepper, and place in a large ziploc bag with the flour.  Shake or tumble the veal to coat.  Remove the veal pieces, shaking off excess flour, and sautee in pan.  Allow veal to brown on one side for a few minutes, then shake pan or flip with tongs to cook the other side a couple minutes more.  When veal is browned all over, remove to a plate.  Add another tbsp of oil if necessary and add shallots.  Cook shallots a few minutes to soften, taking care not to let them burn.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.  Add the wine and deglaze by scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.  Let the wine simmer down to a tbsp and add the stock and stir.  Simmer the stock down to a cup.  The flour in the pan will help the stock thicken.  Return the veal to the pan to reheat, and fold in the cooked pasta, coating the farfalle in the sauce.  Serve in pasta bowls, finishing with grated Parmesan on the top of each.

Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut and Sauteed Scallops

  
One of the most exotic places in the world I think are the Spice Islands. Located in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago, the names are evocative: Moluccas and Banda. Even the word “archipelago” seems exotic to me. I once read a book about the Spice Islands trade and the discovery of entire islands covered entirely in nutmeg or clove trees. The voyages to these places took a year, literally to the opposite end of the earth, and greeting them were South Pacific seas dotted with lush, verdant islands of tropical wonder.
Of course, the reality was much harsher. What sane person would want to ride a small, wooden boat across the ocean for a year, without air conditioning or a bath, only to confront steamy jungles, deadly local populations, and deadlier disease? And I don’t even particularly like nutmeg. Nonetheless, nutmeg is the spice of our fall season used to flavor our autumn squashes and pumpkins. I have several recipes for butternut squash soup and all are hearty and warming. But a new recipe caught my eye as a way to turn traditional fall into an exotic adventure. Another recipe from the “New York Cooks: 100 Recipes from the City’s Best Chefs,” this recipe is from Cyril Renaud, chef and owner of Fleur de Sel on East 20th Street in Manhattan. It pairs butternut squash soup with scallops, and seasons with coconut, in addition to the nutmeg. I cut the nutmeg he recommended in half from 2 tbsp to 1 tbsp and still found it too much. Thus, I recommend only 1 tsp of nutmeg, but add as much as you want. I also could not get my coconut milk to froth as he recommended, so I just added a dollop in the middle of the soup to swirl around to taste. Altogether, something fun and different. Serves 2

Ingredients:
4 tbsp olive oil
6 shallots, peeled and sliced into long, thin strips
1 whole butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/3 cup coconut flakes
1 tbsp nutmeg
2 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 qt milk
8 large scallops
2 tbsp coconut milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350o degrees. In a pot over low heat, heat 2 tbsp of oil, add shallots and saute until translucent. Raise heat to medium and add squash, sauteeing for 10 minutes while stirring periodically. Meanwhile, spread the coconut flakes evenly over a cookie sheet and bake for a few minutes to dry out. Grind the flakes in a mixer to make a powder. Take care not to grind too long or the sugars will congeal and the coconut will stick together. Add the coconut, nutmeg, salt and pepper to the squash. Pour in the milk and bring to a simmer, cooking a further 15 minutes or until the squash is very soft. Strain the squash, reserving the milk, and blend in a blender until a smooth consistency. Add some of the cooking milk if the soup needs more moisture to become a creamy soup. Set aside.
In a medium fry pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil until it begins to ripple. Season scallops with salt and pepper and add to pan, searing on one side for 3 minutes or until golden brown. Turn over the scallops and cook a minute or two longer.
To plate, ladle soup into shallow bowls. Place 4 scallops in each bowl, and spoon a dollop of coconut milk in between the scallops. Serve.

Filet Mignon with Red-Wine Risotto

Some days I might be feeling kind of blue and have a need to find a happy place. Other days are brisk and chilly and I need that warm feeling inside, and sometimes I want to do something special for another. Risotto can fill all of these spaces, physically and emotionally. It’s creamy goodness is so hearty, it warms from the inside out. How can anything started with wine, cooked with broth and finished with butter and cheese not be?

I have entire cookbooks devoted to risottos, but last night I tried a recipe from a new cook book, New York Cooks: 100 Recipes from the City’s Best Chefs. Within, I found this recipe for red-wine risotto. I don’t normally cook risotto in red wine, but a bacon start, port-wine base, and a dollop of mascarpone definitely found my happy place. The original recipe calls for celery root, a root vegetable that tastes mildly like celery but contains less starch than potatoes. I couldn’t find it at my market and so did not include it. Nor could I find brown chicken stock. So, I went with a traditional chicken stock/mushroom stock combination. Feel free to use a different ratio of stocks, or even make your own brown chicken stock if you are feeling extra motivated. Serves 2.

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon, diced
1 tsp garlic, minced
½ small yellow onion, diced
1 cup port wine
2 cups red wine (preferably Syrah)
1 cup short grain risotto rice such as arborio
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup mushroom stock
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt/pepper to taste
2 6-ounce filet-mignon
2 tbsp shaved Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese
1 porcini mushroom, thinly sliced

Directions:
In a medium sauce pan over low heat, add the bacon, garlic and onion and gently cook covered until translucent and tender, 10 minutes. Meanwhile, bring the stock to a gentle simmer in a separate pan. To the onion mixture, add the port and red wine, increasing heat if necessary to bring to a simmer and reduce until ½ cup remains. Add the rice, stirring and cook for a few minutes to incorporate the wine into the rice. Ladle in stock until rice is covered and simmer gently. Stir the rice frequently to help bring out the starches. Continue adding stock as the rice becomes dry, adding, stirring and re-adding for a total of 20-25 minutes cooking time. If stock runs out before rice is tender, use more stock. Ten minutes into the rice cooking time, pre-heat a skillet to medium-high and add 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp oil. Salt and pepper the filet, and add to hot pan when butter/oil is smoking. Sear filets 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium rare. Remove and allow to rest covered loosely with foil for 5 minutes. Turn the heat in the pan down to medium-low and saute the mushrooms while the meat rests. Sir into risotto 2 tbsp butter and grated Parmesan. To plate, spoon risotto into a bowl. Slice the filet into strips and lay on the risotto. Dollop a large spoonful of mascarpone onto the risotto. Place half of the sauteed mushrooms on each bowl. Sprinkle the shaved Parmesan onto the risotto. Serve.