a little zaftig » Suppers

Simple, Perfect Roast Chicken

Laura — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:11 +0000

Cheesemaker Jodi Ohlsen Reed asked me about myself when I first met her. I was nervous, writing about a local gem in Minnesota, my first such piece, and I didn’t expect to talk about myself. I think I said something about it all being a blur, which is not what I meant to say, or at least not how I meant to say it. It was a brief response, a move-along-and-this-is-not-about-me response. But from the look on her face, I gathered something of what she inferred. It has been a blur in some ways, a happy blur of yeast doughs and storybooks and bike rides for kakigori, walks to parks, and steam-filled kitchens and tables full of good food. The details over time are a blur, but I think that’s largely because I was so intent on paying attention in every moment. I remember moments and patterns, how my Honey Girl used to say, “Mama, Yisten” when she wanted to tell me something, or how she thought that you whispered into someone’s nose and would cup her little hands around mine to tell me a secret, how she waited for the sound of my Dear Husband’s footsteps on the staircase every night with sweet excitement. Or how my Sweet Boy would eat a bowl of oatmeal at his little table and say, “Thank you, Mama” when he finished every morning in a still-sleepy voice, how he never ordered the same flavor of gelato twice when we lived in Tokyo —sakura, matcha, anko, ichigo—, and how he danced, freely and without inhibition, whenever and wherever he heard music when he was little. I remember the feeling of holding them in footy pajamas, limp and heavy and ready for sleep, the way our Sweet Boy always patted our backs with his small hands. And the way they both looked so intently at a storybook being read aloud. They were tired years, many of them, years of interrupted sleep and happy-drowsy hours reading and baking and playing. Don’t let them slip by without drinking up every moment.

My Sweet Boy and Honey Girl and Dear Husband have been missing that since I started a business two and a half years ago, and then started this blog. And their recent comments and requests, that I be present in the way I used to be when I wasn’t working, sweet expressions of missing our time together, brought to mind a food writer and cookbook author I met twenty-some years ago. She was fiercely successful, but not present in her life in all the ways that seemed to matter most to me. She seemed so distracted, about everything besides her work, and her children seemed virtually invisible to her, when they weren’t a frustrating interruption. It was a disturbing sight, all of the yelling and hubbub and unnecessary chaos. She seemed so totally consumed by her paid work, something which, in my mind, wasn’t the most important work of her life. So I post less frequently now. The project of the blog can wait. Life is happening, the everyday, the most important bits, what will be, in retrospect, my happy blur.

Chicken Tips:

Chickens fall into several categories, usually labeled fryers, roasters, and broilers. Don’t worry about the labels. You’re looking for a three-pounder, the fryer. Fryers, roasters, and broilers are labeled as such to represent age and resulting size. As in life, younger means smaller and more tender—so you’ll generally find that chickens weighing two and a half to four pounds are labeled as fryers, four to six pounds as broilers, and six to eight as roasters. You can fry, broil, or roast them all, but a fryer, or young bird, I find, makes for the most tender eating. If you stumble on a capon or a stewing chicken, you’ve found a castrated rooster or an older hen, respectively. Not too many cooks today want to buy an old hen to save a little money—and there’s money in young chickens for processors, so they’ve vanished for all practical purposes. I see capons now and then, but I haven’t seen a stewing chicken in a market for many years. I always purchase chickens raised and processed by Kadejan in Glenwood, Minnesota. Their excellent, and humane, practices deliver superior eating, too.

Roasting a chicken should be a simple and stress-free experience. You can do all sorts of things to a chicken, or you can skip them all. The details are up to you. I don’t truss. I don’t stuff. I do turn. But you needn’t if you don’t want to. I turn my chicken twice during the roasting process because I find the meat is juicier, the skin more evenly crisp, and because it emerges from the oven like some kind of bronzed beauty heretofore only seen on food magazine covers, which gives me a little thrill. If you don’t want to turn your bird as she roasts, don’t. The results will still be delicious. At the end of the day, if trussing or stuffing or turning give you pleasure as you cook, then do them. If they don’t, don’t. It’s your dinner. I’ve given directions below for the method I follow, including the turns.

You need to raise your bird above its cooking surface. This is done most deliciously by placing it on a little bed of potatoes, in my opinion. Any kind of potato will do—little new red potatoes, Yukon gold, peeled or unpeeled. It they aren’t baby potatoes, cut them into small pieces so that they cook through during the shortened cooking time. The chicken’s juices will drip down and through the potatoes—or any other vegetable you might use—and create crispy richness. A roasting rack will also do the job.

You don’t need a proper roasting pan to roast a chicken. Any oven-safe pan with low sides that’s just larger than the chicken will work beautifully. Just be sure to elevate your bird in it.

I first read about high-heat roasting a turkey in Jonathan Reynold’s March, 2000 cheeky piece for The New York Times magazine titled, Alice Waters Cooks Her Turkey Too Long. He took his cue from Karen Hess’ piece for The Times in 1974. I applied the principle to roasting chicken.

Simple, Perfect Roast Chicken

Ingredients:
One whole chicken, about three pounds
Salt and pepper
Softened unsalted butter or olive oil

Method:

If time allows, the morning of the day you’re to roast the chicken, remove it from its packaging, rinse it under cool water, and pat it dry thoroughly with paper towels. If its neck and organs are tucked inside the cavity, remove those; they may be used for stock and pan sauce, if you wish. Rest the chicken on a large dinner plate or, if your refrigerator will accommodate, the pan in which you’ll roast it. Allow it to rest, undressed, in your refrigerator until cooking time. This will dry the skin, which makes it crisp beautifully in the oven.

Take the chicken out of your refrigerator an hour before you intend to cook it. If you have less time, give it as much time towards an hour as you can. Allow a bit of extra roasting time if you skip this step. A cold hen takes longer to cook.

Check that your oven is clean and wipe out any bits and drips of charred or dribbled dishes past before you preheat it to 450 degrees F.

If you haven’t in the morning, now rinse the chicken, inside and out, under cool water, and dry her thoroughly with paper towels.

Gently ease the skin up from the breast with your fingertips and rub a knob of soft butter, perhaps two or three tablespoons, or a good drizzle of olive oil under each side. If this seems too fussy, just rub the bird down without lifting the skin. I always do both, as I inevitably have extra butter on my hands.

Liberally season the inside and outside of the bird with salt and pepper. Don’t douse it, but don’t be too stingy, either.

Add a little drizzle of oil to the pan to prevent anything burning on its bottom. Do not add liquid; as it heats, it will steam the bird.

Nestle the chicken into a roasting pan on its side, as if it were taking a little nap and was a side-sleeper.

Roast the chicken for 15 to 20 minutes and remove it from the oven. With a wad of damp paper towels to protect your hand, grab the end of the chicken’s legs and, with one swift and confident motion, flip her to the other side, making a rainbow arch with her legs.

Roast the chicken for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. Remove it from the oven and, using damp paper towels to protect your hand, right the chicken so that it is laying breast up.

Finish roasting until the juices run clear (and not pink) when the thigh is pulled away or pricked, about an additional 10 to 20 minutes for a three-pound hen. A larger hen will take a bit longer. Check it every five to ten minutes.

If you don’t wish to wrestle your hen back and forth through the turns, you may roast the bird, breast up, for the entire cooking time, about 45 to 50 minutes. It will be delicious this way, too. The flipping allows the hen’s juices to drip down through the bird as it roasts and also produces gloriously crisp skin on all sides.

Allow the chicken to rest on a cutting board for ten to 20 minutes before serving.

I like to serve roast chicken with potatoes, roasted or mashed; a vegetable mash such as celeriac; a vegetable gratin such as butternut squash, zucchini, parsnip, or rutabaga; a simple vegetable like peas or wilted lettuce; or, in the summer, with a simple green salad.

Braised Lamb Shanks

Laura — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:16:43 +0000

My grandma was a letter writer. I have sheaves of her letters, all typed and on thin, pale green paper. They detail the buses she took, and in what weather, to the bank, to Mass, to help with the church rummage sale; the breakfasts and lunches and dinners she ate—toast with butter or peanut butter, an egg over easy, a half sandwich, coffee with sugar. I can see her at her desk in my grandparents’ little den, typing quickly and with erect posture, slipping in a piece of correction paper for a letter mistyped, sipping weak coffee from a Corian cup. It seemed natural to me, then, to begin writing letters when I was 18 and starting college. I wrote to my extended family here and there, and then, with some gusto, to my husband’s after we met and married, to friends, and then to my daughter when she went away some eleven hundred miles to college. In the years we lived in England and Japan there were sometimes pages and pages, unopened and sitting on the coffee table when I visited my parents-in-law months later. I didn’t mind. I was happy to record those details, to remember, and to send them off. And sometimes, over years collected in order and tucked away, the letters have become such a lovely record. I have a friendship in letters with my dear friend Susie, another letter writer. We lived in the same building in England for four short months, but we’ve written to each other for twenty-five years. In our house, now, I have a file of my grandma’s letters, and one for Susie’s, lined up like paper soldiers, and a box of all the correspondence between me and my husband—from the first birthday cards we exchanged 27 years ago to long letters written while we were apart: funny, romantic, newsy, the details long forgotten until I open one and am surprised by them and by our youth. And last year my Honey Girl published a book of the letters I wrote to her during her first year of college, more than 200 pages of long-distance love, equally surprising in its bound state. I started this blog as a kind of letter, too.

It occurs to me that letter writing is an old fashioned thing now. I suppose my style of cooking is, too. These lamb shanks are in our regular rotation and one of my favorite things to cook and eat, but it seems they have gone out of fashion, despite the seeming trend in countrified food styling and farmer-centric cooking. When I made these most recently, I had to go to three butchers to gather five shanks. “No one buys them anymore,” all three butchers told me with varying degrees of sadness. If you have never braised lamb shanks, bookmark this and drive wherever you need to to procure some. They are some of the best eating, relatively simple to cook, impossible to spoil, cook largely unattended until you are ready for them, and reheat beautifully.

Because I’m loath to interrupt my life for the blog, I don’t often post savory recipes. Once dinner is ready, I don’t want to wait to share it. I can’t imagine puttering around while the food gets cold. Cooking, for me, is an act of service. It’s pleasurable, sure, but in the end it’s about the people I love. And food photography is a tinkery little beast—a quarter inch here, a quarter inch there—and I don’t have a permanent set-up. I lug a little table in from the backyard, wipe off the snow or rain or dust, and pull out my tripod and camera and mat boards from the office whenever I want to photograph something. I can make breakfast while my family are sleeping or fry up a handful of pancakes after we’re done eating together. And I can bake up a dessert while everyone is away at work and at school or in the evening while homework is tended to. A stack of crispy French toast or a coffee cake already photographed and ready as you walk in the door after school? Well, that’s usually greeted with a certain amount of glee. And I never have to delay shared pleasure for the tedium of photography. So I feel I should offer a little apology to this lamb, which is so poorly represented by these photographs, and to you. These shanks are beautiful when they emerge from the oven. But I ate most of my shank and what remained sat, lonesome in the pot, until I photographed it today. All of the gorgeous brown bits of meat have been picked off and eaten greedily. It looks rather sad today. So imagine a lovely, browned shank with lots of tender meat. In short, don’t let these photographs put you off the dish. Like old letters, it’s a keeper.

Braised Lamb Shanks
Yield: 5 generous servings if you serve the shanks whole, or about 8 servings if you separate meat from bone and serve the dish as a soup; both are equally nice, though the soup makes for a more casual meal

Ingredients:
5 lamb shanks*
3 medium fennel bulbs, diced
4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts diced and rinsed thoroughly
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium fresh tomatoes (in late summer) or 14 ounces drained whole plum tomatoes, seeded, and diced
28 ounces great northern beans, drained and rinsed or 2 c. dried beans soaked overnight in cold water and drained
6 c. chicken stock (homemade or Swanson’s organic)
salt and pepper

*If you can find pasture-raised lamb, it’s worth the price.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Dry the lamb shanks well and season them fairly generously with salt and pepper on all sides.

Heat a large enameled cast iron pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

When it is hot, drizzle in a bit of olive oil.

Place the lamb shanks into the pan and allow them to sear and brown. If they do not fit without crowding, you will need to sear them in batches. Do not crowd the pan. Do not disturb them or be tempted to peek at them as they brown. They will pull away easily when they are ready.

Rotate the shanks, allowing them to brown well before turning again, until all sides are nicely seared and deep brown. This will take about 30 minutes. Time invested in browning enriches the broth and adds tremendous flavor.

Remove the shanks from the pan and place them on a large dinner plate. Allow them to rest at room temperature.

Pour off almost all of the rendered fat from the pan.

Add the fennel, carrot, and leek and season them with a bit of salt and pepper. Saute the vegetables, stirring them occasionally, until the fennel has given off some liquid and the liquid has evaporated, and until the vegetables are beginning to soften and take on a bit of color. As they sauté use a wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits from the bottom and sides of the pan.

Add the garlic and stir for one minute.

Add the tomatoes and beans and stir them into the pot.

Nestle the lamb shanks into the vegetables. This works best if they are placed in a tight row with the narrowest side up.

Cover the shanks with stock. It’s okay if a couple of inches of meat remain above the line of the stock. Season the stock with a bit of salt and pepper and cover the pot.

Allow the stock to come to a simmer.

Transfer the covered pot to your oven. Braise the lamb shanks in the oven until the meat is extremely tender and pulls easily or falls from the bone, about two hours.

Taste the stock and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

At this point you may either serve the lamb shanks whole or as a soup.

To serve the shanks whole, place a shank on a soup plate for each diner and ladle over some of the stock, beans, and vegetables. To serve as a soup, allow the dish to cool a bit until you are able to handle the meat without getting burned. Transfer each lamb shank to a large cutting board; one with a well at its edges is most convenient for this task. Pull the meat from the bone, pull away any sinew and fat, and cut or pull the meat into smaller pieces. Transfer the meat back to the pot and stir it into the soup.

This dish may be prepared a day or two before you wish to serve it. Warm it on the stove over low heat until the stock comes to a simmer before serving.

If I prepare this for the family, we inevitably have leftover lamb on each of our shanks. I pick the meat from the bones and add it to the soup for the next day.

Bread and Jam for Frances & Spaghetti and Meatballs

Laura — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:43:20 +0000

This is the first in a new series of posts. So many of my happiest hours were spent reading to my two children and cooking together. And so many splendid picture books lend themselves to a particular recipe, sometimes more. When my Honey Girl and Sweet Boy were little ones, we walked to the library with our wagon in tow every week. They could fill the wagon as high as was possible with books, and we’d walk home with it wibble-wobbling behind us, with books threatening to topple and held steady by little hands. During the winter, if it was terribly cold or the sidewalks were too icy, we loaded the wagon into the trunk of our car and hauled it into the library. At home, we would work our way through the stacks, setting aside the best books. Then we would read those, over and over and over again, sometimes until my voice was hoarse. Each of us had favorites for the week; our Honey Girl preferred silly books, our Sweet Boy loved books with a lovely music about them, and I favored sweet storytelling. But we all loved that time together on our ratty sofa. “Again, again, again!” my sweet ones would chirp. And I would begin again.

The first book I’ve picked is Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban; I think we must have read it three hundred times. It was my favorite book as a girl, and my two peanuts loved it, too. Frances the badger loves bread and jam, and has interest in eating little else. Her story unfolds over the breakfast and dinner tables of her sweet badger family, and at school, over desktop lunches with her friend, Albert. When Frances grows weary of bread and jam, she is finally beguiled by a plate of her mother’s spaghetti and meatballs. Russell Hoban’s descriptions of Frances and her family, their quiet exchanges, Frances’ and Albert’s lunches, and Frances’ little songs are charming. And Lillian Hoban’s pencil illustrations are tender and evocative. Curl up with it, and then make some spaghetti and meatballs together. And when you eat them, like Frances, make the meatballs, the tomato sauce, and the spaghetti come out even.

Spaghetti and Meatballs
Yield: four generous adult servings, plus leftovers

Ingredients:
1 recipe meatballs (recipe below)
1 recipe tomato sauce (recipe below)
1 pound spaghetti
finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Method:

Make the tomato sauce.

While it simmers, make the meatballs.

When it’s time to add the sauce to the meatballs, bring a large covered pot of water to a boil over high heat.

When it reaches a boil, add some salt and the spaghetti. Stir the pasta so that it won’t stick. Reduce the heat a bit, so that the water will not boil over, but will maintain a rolling boil. Cook according to the package directions, or until it is tender but still has a little bite.

Drain the pasta into a colander.

Plate some spaghetti, top it with a couple of meatballs and a ladle of sauce. Grate some Parmigiano Reggiano over the top.

Tips:
If you can’t find strained tomatoes or passata, you can puree tins of whole tomatoes in a food processor or blender.

You know the child(ren) in your life best, but it’s probably not a good idea to have the very young handle raw meat or roll the meatballs, as they might touch their faces. Raw meat can harbor pathogens. There are lots of other ways they can help with this meal.

Simple Tomato Sauce
Yield: 6 c. sauce

Ingredients:
48 ounces strained tomatoes or passata (pureed tomatoes) (I prefer BioNaturae brand.)
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
A pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
2 t. dried oregano
a handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

Method:

Place all of the ingredients into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir them together, and bring the sauce to a simmer.

Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and allow the sauce to simmer. You will pour it over the meatballs later.

Meatballs
Yield: 15 meatballs

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
4 extra large eggs
1 c. Italian breadcrumbs, such as Progresso
1 t. red pepper flakes (optional)
1 T. fennel seed (optional)
1 c. finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano
salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix them together with your hands until they are well blended.

Using the palms of your hands, roll the mixture into balls a little smaller than a tennis ball.

As you make them, place the meatballs into a large baking dish. (I use a 9×13” glass baking dish.)

Bake the meatballs for 25 minutes.

Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs and bake for an additional 20 minutes. (You may have extra sauce.)

Confetti Chili

Laura — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:55:50 +0000

When I was in college, before college dining halls were paeans to choice, we waited in line to greet the food service ladies as they dished up whatever they had cooked that day. We had dishes like Side of Clyde, Ziti Bake, and Party Rice. Whenever that particular fare was served, my best friend would always say, “Party Rice? Party Rice? This isn’t regular rice! It’s a party!” It was cheesy, but it was funny. The food service ladies would roll their eyes and dish up the Party Rice. Naming this recipe brought back memories of that cafeteria line at St. Olaf College twenty-five years ago.

Chili purists, look away now. This is not a chili that purports to be authentic, bona fide, or pure. It’s a quick, two-pounds-of-ground-beef-and-a-mess-of-vegetables kind of chili, and a good way to work more vegetables into a bowl for your children—or yourself, the kind of chili you might have eaten in a college cafeteria in the early 1980s. (I promise it’s good.) You can give it as much kick or as little as you like. Garnish it with grated cheeses, sour cream, cilantro, lime pickled red onions, salted avocado slices, or a dollop of guacamole.

Chili Tips
To seed and derib a pepper, stand it upright on a cutting board. Slice downward with a curving motion from the stem to the bottom. Turn the pepper and continue until you have removed the center core with its seeds. Trim off any fibrous rib that remains. Then cut the pepper into strips and dice them.

To make this chili milder, choose either the chipotle in adobo or the ground dried chile, or reduce each. To make the chili more fiery, increase their quantities.

Look for chipotle in adobo in smalls tins in the Mexican foods aisle.

Confetti Chili
Yield: about 16 to 20 servings

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
1 large onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 chipotle in adobo, finely minced
¼ c. ground dried chile
1 T. cinnamon
2 poblanos, seeded, deribbed, and diced
1 green pepper, seeded, deribbed, and diced
1 red pepper, seeded deribbed, and diced
1 yellow pepper, seeded, deribbed, and diced
1 orange pepper, seeded, deribbed, and diced
3 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
10 ounces frozen corn
28 ounce tin of whole peeled tomatoes (I prefer BioNaturae or Muir Glen.)
28 ounce tin of diced tomatoes (I prefer BioNaturae or Muir Glen.)
15 ounce tin of black beans, drained
15 ounce tin of pinto beans, drained
15 ounce tin of kidney beans, drained
salt and pepper

Method:

Season the ground beef with salt and pepper and brown it over medium heat in a large soup pot. Drain off the excess fat.

Add the onion and sauté it for a few minutes.

Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about one minute.

Add the chipotle in adobo, chile, and cinnamon, and stir.

Add the poblanos, peppers, celery, and carrots and stir.

Drain the juice from the whole tomatoes into the pan, and crush the tomatoes into the pan with immaculately clean hands.

Add the diced tomatoes and the beans and stir.

Bring the chili to a simmer. Then lower the heat to the lowest possible setting and simmer, partially covered, for about one hour, stirring occasionally. (In a pinch, it will be edible in about 20 minutes.)

Add the corn and simmer for an additional five minutes.

Taste the chili and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

This chili will keep in the refrigerator for about five days.

Winter Supper: Swedish Meatballs, Rot Kraut, Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Fennel and Green Apple Salad with Juniper Berries, & Swedish Rice Pudding with Spiced Sour Cherry Compote

Laura — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 03:56:36 +0000

After two months spent preparing for Christmas, when it’s over the mood in our house is usually a little tired. A long, gray winter lies ahead of us and the magic of Christmas is past. It’s nice, then, to continue the festivities for a few days by making a meal or two like this one. It’s simple, and many of its elements may be prepared ahead, so it isn’t a great deal of work. And it seems to lift everyone’s spirits. Today it is raining of all things! Soon the temperature will fall again and everything will be a sheet of ice. Then another six inches of fresh snow will blanket us, and the temperature will dip to single digits. It’s nice to be gathered around the table with nice food, warm company, and nowhere we need to go.

In the Midwest, recipes for these dishes abound. These are my versions. Tinker happily with them as you wish. There are tips for making the recipes in concert at the end of the post.

Winter Supper: Swedish Meatballs, Rot Kraut, Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Fennel and Green Apple Salad with Juniper Berries, & Swedish Rice Pudding with Spiced Sour Cherry Compote

Dinner Tips
The Swedish meatballs and gravy freeze well. Make them up to a month ahead, thaw them in the refrigerator, and warm them gently on the lowest heat possible, stirring frequently.

When you make the gravy, add the liquids very gradually and stir vigorously to avoid lumps. If you do get lumps, strain the gravy before you add the meatballs.

You may cook the potatoes and hold them in the hot water until you are nearly ready to serve dinner. Then drain them and mash them.

The salad is simple and very quick to assemble. You may make it at the last minute just before you are ready to serve dinner. A benriner is an inexpensive Japanese mandoline. Coincidentally, “Benri ne?” means “Isn’t it convenient?” in Japanese. If you don’t have a benriner or a mandoline, you may slice the fennel and apples with a knife. Just plan more time to do so.

The Rot Kraut may be made up to a week ahead and kept in the refrigerator. In fact, its flavor improves a bit over a couple of days.

The Swedish rice pudding and compote may also be made a few days ahead and kept in the refrigerator.

Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground pork
2 pounds ground beef (80% lean)
12 slices white bread
6 eggs
salt and pepper
1 scant c. whole milk
pinch or two of allspice
pinch or two of ground ginger
pinch or two of freshly grated nutmeg
pinch or two of freshly ground cardamom
butter for frying the meatballs

Method:

In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients until they are just blended.

Roll the meat into balls the size of a pingpong ball.

Heat a very large skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, melt a good knob of butter and fry the meatballs until they are golden brown on all sides. Alternatively, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake the meatballs in a glass or ceramic dish for 45 minutes. Frying produces better flavor, but is more labor intensive.

While the meatballs cook, make the gravy.

Place the cooked meatballs into the gravy and simmer for 30 minutes.

Gravy for the Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients:
8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter
8 T. all purpose flour
1 heaping T. grainy mustard
8 c. beef stock (preferably homemade)
4 c. whole milk, divided
½ c. flour

Method:

In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter.

Stir in the 8 T. of flour and cook for a minute or two.

Stir in the mustard.

Very gradually add the broth, stirring constantly.

Shake one cup of the milk with ½ c. flour until you have a smooth paste. Stir it into the gravy.

Add the remaining 3 c. milk and stir.

Simmer until thickened, stirring contantly.

Add the meatballs and simmer for 30 minutes.

Rot Kraut

Ingredients:
1 head red cabbage, sliced on a benriner or mandoline into paper thin slices
3 slices bacon, diced
1 large onion, sliced thinly
½ c. natural apple juice
½ c. red wine vinegar
3 T. brown sugar
½ c. red wine (not cooking wine)

Method:

In a very large pan, sauté the bacon until it is crisp.

Add the onions and sauté them until they are soft.

Add the cabbage and all of the other ingredients and stir it all together.

Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Lower the heat to lowest possible, cover the pan, and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often, until the cabbage is soft and fragrant.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
5 pounds Yukon gold or waxy potatoes
6 T. unsalted butter
2 c. heavy cream (I love Cedar Summit Farms.)
salt and pepper

Method:

Peel the potatoes and place them in water to cover in a large pan.

Bring the water to a boil over high heat and reduce it to a simmer.

Simmer the potatoes for 20 minutes, or until they are very tender when pierced with a fork.

Drain the potatoes in a colander.

Place the butter and cream in the pan and warm them.

Add the potatoes and mash them with a potato masher until they are very smooth and creamy.

Season them with salt and pepper to taste.

Fennel and Green Apple Salad with Juniper Berries

Ingredients:
2 bulbs fresh fennel
2 tart green apples
a small handful of juniper berries, crushed with a sharp knife
a drizzle of olive oil
2 T. white vinegar
salt and pepper

Method:

Using a benriner or mandoline, slice the fennel and apples into paper thin slices.

Scatter the juniper berries over the top.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar and toss.

Swedish Rice Pudding and Spiced Sour Cherry Compote

Recipes here.

Recipes In Concert

1. Make the rice pudding and refrigerate it.

2. Make the Rot Kraut.

3. Add the whipped cream to the rice pudding and refrigerate it.

4. Make the meatballs.

5. Make the gravy while the meatballs fry or bake.

6. Make the compote.

7. Boil the potatoes.

8. Set the table.

9. Make the salad.

10. Mash the potatoes.

11. Serve the meal.

Beef Brisket

Laura — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:27:41 +0000

Our Honey Girl is home from college! And since she is a consummate carnivore and lover of all things beef, I made a beef brisket for one of her first dinners home. When she and our Sweet Boy were little, they took a turn cooking with me one night a week and planned menus. After a particularly enthusiastic week of cooking during which she planned seven nights of beef—meatloaf, braciole, beef brisket, beef stew, steaks, beef stroganoff, and shepherd’s pie made with…beef—we decided to give her a week or two off! They were all delicious dinners, and she was in heaven, but the rest of us were feeling, well, like we might start mooing if we ate any more beef. Whenever she comes home now, though, I cook some of her favorites, and we all enjoy a bit of a beef festival.

I don’t know why more people don’t cook brisket. At my favorite market they have recently stopped carrying corn-fed brisket, and I’m a little heartbroken over it, partly because I have to make a trip for it now to the fancy schmancy grocery store across town where it is twice as expensive, but also because it is a sign that its popularity is waning. It is a delicious cut, rather inexpensive, and a snap to make. After browning, it braises in the oven until it is fork tender, and it doesn’t even need an occasional prod. It’s practically a one-pot dinner, and I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love brisket. Make it.

Beef Brisket Tips
Ask your butcher to trim up a whole brisket. This can be done while you finish your shopping. It only takes a few minutes.

When you sear the brisket, resist the temptation to peek at it and to fuss with it. You will smell its beefy goodness when it is ready to be turned, and you will see the deep brown crust at the edge. If you lift the brisket, it will not develop a proper crust and will, therefore, not develop excellent flavor. It will pull away from the pan easily when it is ready. If it’s sticking, let it brown a bit longer. It takes about eight to ten minutes per side to brown.

The meat is ready when it is fork tender. If it’s tough, it just needs to cook a bit longer. Don’t worry!

If you have leftovers, warm them over a low flame on the stove. Or remove the brisket from the pan, slice it thinly, return the meat to the pan, warm it over a low flame on the stove, and serve it on farmhouse rolls, perhaps topped with a little horseradish cream, for a delicious brisket sandwich. You can smash the carrots into the sauce and drizzle some on, too. Yum!

Beef Brisket
Adapted from Lil Pachter’s recipe in Saveur magazine
Yield: twelve generous servings

Ingredients:
1 large brisket, 7 to 8 pounds
olive oil for the pan
4 T. dried oregano
¼ c. ground dried chiles
salt and pepper
4 large onions, peeled and sliced thinly
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut in half
14 ounces diced tomatoes (I prefer Bionaturae or Muir Glen.)
4 c. chicken stock (homemade or Swanson’s organic)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

If your butcher has not trimmed the brisket well, take a few minutes to trim most of the external fat.

Salt and pepper both sides of the brisket liberally and rub in the oregano and chile.

Heat a large pan over medium high heat. When it is hot, drizzle in a few turns of olive oil. When the oil is hot, place the brisket in the pan and sear it until it develops a dark crust. Flip it and sear the other side.

While the brisket is searing, peel and slice the onions, and peel and cut the carrots.

Remove the brisket to a plate and add the tomatoes to the bottom of the pan.

Place the brisket on top and pour in the stock. Add the carrots, pushing them down into the liquid. And scatter the onions over top.

Place a lid on the pot and put it in the oven. Braise for two hours.

Carefully take the lid off the pan and continue to braise for another hour.

Place the lid back on the pan and braise for an additional one to two hours, or until it is fork tender.

Slice the brisket and serve it with a few carrots, and some of the onions and tomatoes. I also serve it with boiled potatoes with a little melted butter.

Winter Supper: Beef Stew & Farmhouse Rolls

Laura — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:46:52 +0000

There are a couple of simple keys to making a great beef stew. Buy good beef, brown it really well on all sides, don’t crowd the pan during the process, and don’t move it while it’s browning. If you do that, and mingle it with other best-quality ingredients, you can’t go wrong. This is my favorite kind of supper to make during a busy time of year. It’s a one pot meal with leftovers that last a couple of days. And it’s filling and delicious and everyone loves it. I serve it with farmhouse rolls, either store bought or homemade (recipe later). It’s an easy winter staple.

Beef Stew Tips
It is very important that you not crowd the beef in the pan. It will steam rather than brown if it doesn’t have enough room.

Resist the temptation to fuss with the beef as it browns. You will see the crust forming at the edge of the pieces, so you don’t need to peek at it. If you move it, it will not develop a proper crust.

Browning the meat will develop a lovely, deep fond on the bottom of the pan. A fond is the caramelized drippings and bits of meat that form a crust on your pan as you brown meat.

Deglazing the pan is simply scraping up the brown bits and fond from the bottom and sides of the pan. Use a bit of broth and a wooden spoon to get every last bit. It add tremendous flavor to the stew.

Beef Stew
Yield: about 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:
Olive oil for the pan
2 pounds good stew meat
1 large onion, peeled and cut into a very large dice
6 carrots, peeled and cut into coins
6 yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
8 ounces crimini (or other) mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered
1 T. dried thyme
1 t. culinary lavender
2 bay leaves
8 c. chicken stock, homemade (or Swanson’s organic)
28 ounces whole tomatoes in their juice (I prefer Bionaturae or Muir Glen.)
salt and pepper

Method:

Heat a large Dutch oven or pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, drizzle in a few turns of olive oil.

Add the beef piece by piece, placing them so that they have space between them. Allow the beef to brown without disturbing it until it has a deep golden brown crust and pulls easily from the bottom of the pan. Turn the pieces and brown them on all sides in this manner.

Remove the browned beef from the pan and place it on a plate. Brown the remaining beef and move it to the plate.

Spoon off any excess fat from the bottom of the pan and add the onions. Sauté them until they are soft. Add the carrots and sauté them until they are beginning to soften.

Add a bit of stock to the pot and, with a wooden spoon, deglaze the pan. (See tips above.)

Add the beef back to the pan, the potatoes, the mushrooms, and the thyme, lavender, and bay leaves, and then the stock.

Drain the tin of tomatoes over the pot. Then, with immaculately clean hands, crush the tomatoes over the pot. If you have soft tomatoes, they will crush completely. If your tomatoes are a bit more firm, squeeze out all of their juice and then place the pulp on a cutting board. Finely mince all of the pulp and add it back to the pan.

Season the stew with salt and pepper and simmer it uncovered over very low heat until it is thickened and the meat and vegetables are tender, about one hour.

Taste the stew and adjust the seasoning.

This stew will keep covered in the refrigerator for about four days.

Thin Crust Pizza with Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Friesago, Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Merguez Lamb Sausage, & Fresh Chanterelles and Thyme

Laura — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 01:31:25 +0000

Shepherd’ Way Farms’ cheeses are so sublime it almost feels wrong to cook with them. Almost. I dreamed up this pizza as a vehicle for their friesago as well as their delicious merguez lamb sausage. It shows off their nuanced flavors without masking them. And it’s the best pizza we’ve ever had.

Shepherd’s Way Farms’ friesago is, like all of their cheeses, an expression of the land. It’s a semi-hard sheep’s milk cheese that is aged for at least four months in its black wax skin. It’s flavor profile is not unlike manchego, though it’s much creamier, and it’s nutty, rich, and mellow. Their merguez lamb sausage is made with lamb, pork fat, harissa, fennel, cayenne, garlic, and salt and pepper in a natural sheep casing, and has a warm kick without the fire of a traditional merguez.

My family ate these pizzas tonight and dinner was silent but for a steady stream of grunted expressions of awe. “The cheese is so good.” “The sausage is amazing.” “Mom, can you make this again soon?” my Sweet Boy just asked. And little Annie, our ginger terrier, was so excited, presumably about the lamb sausage, that she jumped up and licked my face. It is good.

Read more about Shepherd’s Way Farms here.

Thin Crust Pizza with Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Friesago, Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Merguez Lamb Sausage, & Fresh Chanterelles and Thyme
Yield: 2 pizzas to serve two to four people

Pizza Tips
This recipe calls for dough to make a very thin crust which is baked on a pizza stone. If you don’t want to fuss with that, or you don’t have a pizza stone, you may use any dough you like. I’ve even picked up a dough ball from my favorite pizza shop and rolled it out. Bake conventional crust on a pizza pan or baking sheet dusted with a little cornmeal in a 425 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crust is cooked through and the cheese is bubbling.

If you are going to make the very thin crust, start with a clean oven. It doesn’t have to be sparkling clean, but you should wipe out anything that might smoke or burn. This pizza bakes at 500 degrees.

Start this recipe three hours before you’d like to eat. The dough takes a few minutes to put together and then rises for two hours. Place a pizza stone in your oven and heat it to 500 degrees one hour before you plan to bake the pizzas. You may also sauté the mushrooms and sausage ahead of time. Then it takes only minutes to assemble the pizzas, and they bake quite quickly.

Ingredients:
½ pound Shepherd’s Way Farms friesago, finely grated
4 links Shepherd’s Way Farms merguez lamb sausage, broken into bite-sized pieces and cooked
½ pound fresh chanterelle mushrooms, wiped clean, sliced, and sautéed in olive oil
a few sprigs fresh thyme picked of their leaves
2 balls very thin pizza dough (recipe below) or other pizza dough
flour for rolling
cornmeal for sprinkling on your pizza peel
a little good olive oil for drizzling on the crust
salt and pepper

Method:

Prepare your dough rounds.

One hour prior to cooking, place a pizza stone in your oven and heat it to 500 degrees.

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat, drizzle in a little good olive oil, and sauté the mushrooms until they are browning in spots and dry.

Remove the mushrooms and add the sausage to the pan. Lower the heat and cook it until it is no longer pink.

Drizzle the dough with a little good olive oil and sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Scatter the mushrooms, the thyme, and the sausage over the dough. Top with the grated cheese.

Transfer the pizza directly to the baking stone by giving it a little shimmy and bake until it is browned, about six to seven minutes.

Pizza Dough Tips
The water must be 105 degrees. If it is too warm you will kill the yeast. If it is too cool, the yeast will not activate. Dip your finger into the water. It should feel just above body temperature and barely warm.

If you don’t have a an electric mixer with a dough hook, just mix the dough until it comes together and then knead it by hand for about ten minutes.

If you do have a mixer with a dough hook use speed two for this recipe.

This is a very wet dough. You haven’t measured incorrectly. Your hands will get sticky with dough when you divide the dough balls. Just get as much dough as possible off your hands before you wash them.

Find a toasty warm spot in your house for the dough to rise. I balance baking sheets on bins of mittens and scarves on the top shelf of my coat closet, which is next to a heating vent.

To freeze leftover dough, oil a sheet of cellophane with a dab of olive oil and place the dough in the center. Wrap it tightly. Then wrap your little parcel tightly in aluminum foil, label and date it, and place it in a freezer bag.

Thin Crust Pizza Dough
Adapted from The Figs Table
Yield: enough dough for four pizzas to serve four to eight persons

Ingredients:
¼ c. whole wheat pastry flour
3 ½ c. all purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur.)
1 packet active dry yeast
1 t. sea salt
2 t. sugar
2 t. good olive oil
1 2/3 c. lukewarm water

Method:

Place the flours, yeast, salt, and sugar in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.

While the mixer is running, gradually add the olive oil and the water.

Allow the mixer to knead the dough until it is firm and smooth, about ten minutes.

Divide the dough into four balls, about 7 ½ ounces each.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place two balls on each sheet and cover them with a damp towel. Let them rise in a warm place until they have doubled in size, about two hours. (You may freeze the remaining dough balls before this step if you are only going to make two pizzas.)

To roll out the dough, dab your fingers in flour and then place 1 dough ball on a generously floured work surface and press down in the center with the tips of your fingers, spreading the dough with your hand.

When the dough has doubled in width, use a floured rolling pin and roll it out until it is very thin, like flatbread. The outer border should be a little thicker than the inner circle.

Pick the dough up with a spatula or the back of a knife, allowing it to fold up almost like an umbrella, and transfer it to a paddle. Do not worry that the pizza is not round. You are looking for an 8- to 10-inch shape, a cross between an oval and a rectangle.

If you get a hole, simply pinch the edges back together

Repeat with the remaining dough balls.

Place the pizza dough on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel and proceed with the pizza recipe.

Fall Supper: Pork Tenderloin with Autumn Sauce, Butternut Squash & Buttercream Potato Gratin, and Dark Magic Gingerbread with Butterscotch Sauce

Laura — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:31:21 +0000

I remember the first day I joined my book group. They had been meeting without additions to the group for about a decade, so I was a bit puzzled about why I had the good luck to be invited. They were smart and well read and covered a wide political and religious spectrum. But most striking was their unconditional support of each other and their honesty. They have taught me a lot over the last three years, but chiefly perhaps that a willingness to be truly honest, to be vulnerable, is a gift. It was my turn to host again today, so I cooked this meal. We laughed and ate and talked and nearly polished off the cake. It is always uplifting to be with friends who, whatever their diverse experiences, set aside time to share.

This menu is wonderfully simple and fairly quick to make. After a quick sear, whole pork tenderloins finish in less than 20 minutes in the oven. Cubes of roasted butternut squash, done in 20 minutes, and boiled buttercream potatoes are mashed together in their serving dish, drizzled with cream, dotted with butter, and topped with Emmenthaler cheese. They bake in the same 400 degree oven for 20 minutes alongside the pork. While the pork and the gratin bake, you stir up a quick pan sauce with the pan drippings, sliced onions, dried fruit, sherry, and a little currant jam and cold butter. It’s all table ready in less than an hour. And the cake and the sauce can be made well in advance. Make it for yourself, for your family, or for a group you love.

Fall Supper:
Pork Tenderloin with Autumn Sauce, (recipe below)
Butternut Squash and Buttercream Potato Gratin, (recipe below)
Dark Magic Gingergbread with Vanilla Ice Cream and Butterscotch Sauce (recipe here)

To make this menu gluten-free, skip the gingerbread and serve the butterscotch sauce over ice cream.

Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:
2 whole pork tenderloins
salt and pepper
olive oil for the pan

Method:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Pat the pork tenderloins dry and season them with salt and pepper. Dry meat browns better.

Heat a cast iron or other skillet over medium high heat. When it is hot, drizzle in a few turns of olive oil.

When the olive oil is hot, place the pork tenderloins in the pan. Do not lift, move, or disturb them.

When they have taken on a crisp brown exterior, turn them and allow them to brown. Sear all four sides in this manner.

Remove them from the pan and place them on a baking sheet. Do not wash the pan in which you seared them. You will use the pan drippings for the sauce.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake the pork tenderloins for 18 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven, tent the pork tenderloins with aluminum foil, and allow them to rest for 10 minutes.

Slice them thinly and serve them with the sauce.

Autumn Sauce

Ingredients:
1 small onion, sliced thinly
½ c. golden raisins
1 c. prunes, chopped roughly
¾ c. sherry
3 T. currant jelly
3 T. cold butter, cubed
salt and pepper

Method:

Heat the pan in which you seared the pork tenderloins and drizzle a bit of olive oil into it.

Add the onions, sprinkle them with a bit of salt and pepper, and sauté them until they begin to take on a bit of color.

Add the sherry and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.

Add the prunes, golden raisins, and currant jelly, and reduce the sauce until it is syrupy.

Add the cold butter a cube at a time and stir the sauce until it is melted for a glossy, rich sauce.

Serve with the pork tenderloin.

Butternut Squash and Buttercream Potato Gratin

Ingredients:
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
2 pounds buttercream potatoes
1 c. heavy cream (I love Cedar Summit Farms.)
3 T. butter, cubed
4 ounces Emmanthaler cheese, grated
salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Bring the potatoes to boil in a large pot of water and cook until tender, or until a knife inserted pierces them easily. Drain them in a colander.

Place the buttnernut squash on a sheet pan, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, toss it together, and place it in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cubes are tender.

Place the squash and the potatoes in an oven-safe serving dish. Mash them a bit with a potato masher and mix them together. Season them with a bit of salt and pepper, drizzle them with the cream, dot them with the butter, and top them with the cheese.

Place them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the top is brown and lovely.

Recipes in Concert

To make all of the recipes in concert:

1. Preheat the oven.

2. Sear the pork tenderloin.

3. Boil the potatoes.

4. Cube and roast the squash.

5. Prepare the gratin.

6. Put the pork and the gratin in the oven for 20 minutes.

7. Prepare the sauce.

8. Allow the pork to rest and then slice it.