Chicken in Riesling

    

    
These days, we all want to be special, do something special or feel special.  Perhaps we're insecure, or bored, or in need of a thrill.  In cooking, it's that special ingredient, say a Southwestern chili powder, an indulgent ingredient like pork fat, or maybe a decadent ingredient, such as foie gras.  Perhaps it's a special preparation - remember sous vide? Or ingredients from a special place, on a farm, organically raised, cage free, locally grown, any more stereotypes I'm forgetting?
   
This recipe is special for what's not in it.  And, by that, I don't mean fat, or sugar, or gluten, antibiotics, processed this or refined that.  No, this recipe has bad, as in good, things like wine, butter, carbohydrates and cream.  But really, there's not much more beyond meat and vegetables.  That seems to cover the main food groups: meat, vegetables, dairy and wine.  Yes, from this simplicity, true greatness is formed, greatness through simple goodness.  Refined comfort food maybe, simple certainly, even quick and easy.  One pot too if you are into that.  Through this recipe you learn how to create beautiful flavor without beautiful people from beautiful places - it's caramelizing, deglazing, wine, and braising, seasoning and herbs.  There's not a lot more to good cooking then that.
    
Ingredients:
1 chicken cut into pieces
salt, pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp butter
1 leek, diced
2 shallot, diced
1 carrot, cut into 1 inch pieces 
1 cup dry white wine
1 lb small red potatoes, peeled
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
     
Directions:
Rinse and dry the chicken pieces.  Season with salt and pepper.  Heat oil with 1 tbsp butter in dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Brown chicken, in batches if needed.  Remove to plate.
Poor off fat from pot, then add remaining 2 tbsp of butter.  Add leeks, shallot, and season, cooking 5 minutes until soft.  Add chicken, skin side up, any juices from the plate and wine.  Simmer until liquid is reduced by half, about 3 minutes.  Cover and braise the chicken, about 20 minutes.  
While the chicken braises, add potatoes to a pot of water with salt, bring to a boil and cook until just tender, about 15 minutes.  Drain the potatoes in a colander and then top with parsley, turning over the potatoes to coat.  When the chicken is done, stir in the cream, warm and adjust the seasoning.  Add the potatoes and serve.
     

Not Momofuku Cod with Miso Sauce

 

   
Momofuku...MomoFUku...MomoFUKU...MOMOFUKU!!!  I just like saying that word, Momofuku.  The owner of the eponymous group of restaurants chose it because of another bad word it sounds like, and that word rolls of the tongue too.  I like to say it as would a B movie samurrai: short, clipped, strong - MomoFUKU!  The restaurants by that name are Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssiam, and Momofuku Ko.  Apparently, there are more, but I don't follow that scene closely enough. Those I do follow hold the chef David Chang and his craft in high regard, and on that basis I purchased his cookbook.  
   
On this night, I thought of preparing a meal with his cookbook, hoping to use some cod I had in the fridge.  Unfortunately, the name Momofuku was also chosen in honor of Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese-Japanese inventor of instant Ramen noodles.  So, while David Chang's noodle-based recipes are world-class, they offer little hope for my cod filets I want to saute with a nice sauce. And, thus, a common dilemma is confronted.  We aspire to fashionable dishes and restaurants, but they may not fit our ingredients list, patience or skill-level.  

Still, that is no reason to prepare another chicken breast.  Searching further for a way to marry my cod with Asian fusion, I was saved by celebrity chef Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa.  His signature dish is black cod in miso.  Simple, elegant, flavorful, this was a dish I could do.  Its zen simplicity relied almost solely on cod, miso and sake.  Elegant in the preparation it suggested and I accomplished with ease.  Flavorful as I found at a sublime level, savory, unctuous, perhaps even that mystical flavor of unami.  

The original recipe from Nobu: The Cookbook displays just the piece of fish and dots of marinade.  I needed more than that for my special meal.  I chose a side of shiitake mushrooms, simmered in sake, as well as a bed of sauteed leeks, which I already had and needed to use.  Again, I also sauteed these in a little sake, and their color expressed well in the overall pallet of this meal.  Lastly, I kicked up the cod a little with a top crust of black sesame seeds.  Am I guilty of leaving the zen and embracing the bling?  I don't know, but that doesn't really matter.  I made it my own.  I do know that this meal tasted fabulous, the miso marinade reduced provided a perfect complement to the fish.  Momofuku will save for another day. Serves 2.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sake
1/4 cup mirin (a sweeter and less alcoholic version of saki available in most Asian sections)
2 packets of miso soup mix
3 tbsp sugar
2 filets cod
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
1 leek, white and light green parts sliced into thin rounds
2 cups shiitake mushrooms
1 garlic clove, minced
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp vegetable oil
salt/pepper
    
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Mix 1/4 cup of sake, the mirin, miso soup mix and sugar together to make a marinade.  Place it and the cod filets in a plastic Ziploc bag and marinate 30 minutes. Towards the end of the marinating time, warm 2 tbsp of butter in a medium pot over medium-low heat.  When melted, add the leak, 2 tbsp of sake and a little salt and pepper. Cover and soften the leeks, taking care not to allow them to brown.  Similarly, add the other 2 tbsp of butter to a medium saute pan and melt over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms, garlic, remaining 2 tbsp of sake and a little salt and pepper.  Cook the mushrooms allowing them to soak up the sake.  
   
Heat an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.  Remove the filets and pat dry, reserving the marinade.  Sprinkle the sesame seeds over one side and press in to adhere.  Add the vegetable oil to the hot pan and when smoking, add the cod filets.  Allow the filets to saute for a few minutes and then put into the oven to roast.  Meanwhile, add the marinade to a small sauce pan over high heat and reduce to the consistency of a thick sauce. Check the filets in 5 or 10 minutes using a meat thermometer stuck into the fish for a few seconds and then held up to your tongue.  If it feels nice and warm, the filets are done.  Plate by placing the leeks down first and cod on top.  Spoon out the sauce and add the mushrooms on the side.  
   

Grilled Cuban Pork Tenderloin

   

 
Sometimes I just feel Cuban.  Do I actually know what that means?  No, not really.  But it's not about what I know.  It's about what I feel.  And tonight, I feel the night sounds of mambo echoing in the neighborhood.  I feel an open shirt searching for a cool breeze.  I feel the sweat on the side of my drink, dripping like the small of my back. 
  
And the smell, the smell is pork, grilling, caramelizing the lime and orange, the cumin, the oregano.  A Cuban pork recipe has all of these elements. Rice and beans goes on the side. The important thing is what's inside.  Not the pork, you.  Feel good, and it will taste good.  Feel like a Cuban by eating like a Cuban.  Serves 2
    
Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
    
Directions:
Trim any fat or silver tendon from the tenderloin.  Mix all of the ingredients in a Ziploc bag and add the tenderloin.  Seal and allow to marinate, from 30 minutes to overnight.  Heat a grill to medium-high.  Remove the tenderloin from the marinade and reserve.  Pat the pork dry.  Brush with 1 tbsp of canola oil and place on the grill.  Brown on 2 sides, a few minutes each, and then turn to an uncooked side.  Cover and turn the heat down to medium or 450 degrees if measurable.  Roast the tenderloin for approximately 10 minutes, longer if needed, until a meat thermometer shows the roast at 155 to 160 degrees.  Remove the roast and cover with foil, allowing the meat to rest and lose any remaining pinkness while still remaining juicy.  Meanwhile, bring the reserved marinade to a boil in a small pan over high heat.  Reduce by half or more to thicken to a glaze.  Add some sugar if desired to sweeten.  Slice into medallions and serve, topped with the glaze.
    

Turkey Meatballs and Pasta in Cream Sauce

     
 

    

What do our meatballs say about us?  Seriously, can you tell a person by their meatballs?  How many of us even admit we like meatballs?  Are they for kids, or low brow?  It's like meatloaf, the ultimate comfort food, and literally, little round meatloafs.  Are you a person that likes a traditional American meatloaf, you know the kind with ketchup?  Do you use beef, or have you graduated to a beef, veal, pork combination?  Do you grind this yourself or were you happy to discover that many meat cases are now carrying this pre-made?  Have you ever bought those Swedish meatballs at Ikea?  Have you ever actually eaten them?  Have you ever bought those gross turkey meatballs in the frozen section?  Do you feed those to your kids?

My choices reflects the person I want to be.  A beef meatloaf is good, but something I long ago abandoned in search of something healthier, and not as rich.  The Italians already knew this, and thus their lighter beef, veal, pork combination, but that can be a hassle.  I've tried turkey meatloaf, but have yet to overcome the blandness in taste and lack of fat.  I've tried herb combinations, traditional Worcestershire sauce-based and Italian with cheese.  Never been able to wrap my meatloaf in bacon, all that fat is why I don't do a beef meatloaf, and besides, I like my bacon crispy.  This recipe, from Cottage Living 2008 has it all:  turkey for health and convenience, garlic and onion for savoriness, Parmesan for that Italian feel, not just mushrooms, but shiitake mushrooms for a little sophistication, a cream sauce for a little indulgence, and my personal favorite, fusili bucatini, or what I call phone cord pasta.  So, whatever this may mean about me, know that my meatballs taste good.  Serves 4.

    

Ingredients:

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/3 cup milk

4 tbsp olive oil

1 cup scallions, minced

1 1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp ground pepper

8 oz shiitake mushrooms, sliced

2 tbsp flour

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 large egg

1 lb ground turkey

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 tbsp minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 lb dried pasta, such as fusili bucatini, cooked according to package directions

    

Directions:

Combine the breadcrumbs and milk in a small bowl and let soak 10 minutes.  Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add 1/2 cup scallions, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.  Add the flour, stir in and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the broth, whisk to combine, bring to a boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, combine 1/2 cup of the Parmesan, 1/2 cup scallions, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, egg, turkey, garlic and parsley in a bowl.  Add the breadcrumb mixture and mix together, ideally with your hands and fingers, to combine.  Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large fry pan over medium-high heat.  Form the meat mixture into 1 1/2-inch meatballs and fry in the pan.  After browning the meatballs on a couple of sides, transfer to the simmering stock mixture.  Cover and simmer another 10 minutes.  Add the cream and stir in 1/2 cup of Parmesan.  Add the cooked pasta and toss to combine, simmering a couple of minutes if needed to reheat.  Serve.