Mmmm, Ham

It's been entirely too long and I have no excuse other than apathy and while a deadline for the day job approaches there won't be much more coming. While I'm not a New Year's resolution guy maybe I should have resolved for a post a week, maybe I can make up for it a little coming up.

I did quite a bit of cooking over the holidays. We had Turducken (pics to follow) with more than 20 people and then we had my mom's family over for the holidays with about 24 people attending. Above is a picture of my first ham, a 25+ pound spectacular example of smoked pork goodness. I did very little to it, just adding some cloves and a brown sugar/mustard glaze for the last hour.

But this is an example of the product being great. My dad has been getting these has from "Bert's" a place at Green and Lake streets in Chicago. They only sell commercially a couple of weeks a year and we make sure to always get one for Christmas.

I also did a potato gratin for that party and found an interesting recipe that worked out quite well. I used half gruyère and half swiss to save some money and it turned out quite well. I also doubled (tripled?) the recipe for the crowd we had.

Thanksgiving

It may be cliche, but I do love Thanksgiving. Hanging out, eating and drinking, no expectations about gifts, just a good time. We head to the in laws and my family is also invited, which is great because we don't have to split up the holiday.

I'm doing something different this year, pies and bread. I'll be doing a black bottom pecan pie, a regular pecan pie, corn bread and some dinner rolls. The last couple of years I had been making a cauliflower gratin but I wasn't happy with it last year.


This year's recipes are a stretch for me, I've made one pie before in my life and have only made bread once before too, though I do have a bit of experience with pizza dough.

I'm planning on doing most of the prep tomorrow. I'll blind bake the pie shells, make the dough for the rolls and do everything with the cornbread.

The one point of contention is what to use for the pie crust, shortening or butter. There seems to be two camps on this so I'm splitting  the difference and using half butter and half shortening.

Thursday morning I'll make the fillings for the pies and bake them off. I'll have the rolls on sheet pans ready to go in the oven before dinner is served so they're nice and piping hot too.

Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures to post later. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

To do: Tiramisu cupcakes

Far and away, my favorite dessert is tiramisu. I have made a version of it a couple of times and an ice cream version, which is pretty awesome. Rory today sent me this link to tiramisu cupcakes. One day I will make them and they will be awesome.

Pumpkin turtle bread

An awesome sounding recipe, but again, poorly written. I really might have to try this one though.

A site I like

Need to give props to another cooking site that's does a good job: Food Babies. If you don't know what a food baby is go to urban dictionary.

They do a nice job and give a good mix of cooking and eating out. I made their banana bread recipe yesterday and it was the best I've ever had (sorry mom). I did the naughty recipe and added some chocolate chips. Really, really good.

Notes on poor recipe writing

I can't believe it's been seven weeks since I've posted, time flies when you're on deadline. Sadly I won't be getting any better the next couple of weeks.

I have been cooking but nothing too exciting. The main reason for this post is annoyance. I've been in a cooking rut lately and when I had a few minutes I was looking through the Savuer site to see if there's anything new and exciting when I saw the recipe for a chocolate truffle cake.

A post on my to do list has been my eternal search for a good chocolate cake recipe so this one intrigued me. So I was sad to find it horribly written. But maybe you guys can help me be the judge, maybe I'm n a bad mood or feeling the deadline pressure but I found this recipe really though to get through.

I'm still going to try and make it but come on, writing a recipe isn't that difficult.

Roasted pepper and corn salsa/relish

Since the move to the burbs I have been taking advantage of the Skokie farmer's market. I never really got to any in the city because Rory and I were never up early enough to hit them.

The Skokie market is pretty small, I was hoping they would have someone selling fresh eggs and locally-produced meats but no dice. The produce options are pretty great though. A couple of weeks ago Rory's family came over and I cooked some corn on the grill and made a fresh blueberry cobbler. This week my folks are coming over and I bought some Red Haven peaches for peach cobbler.

I also wanted to try and make my own salsa so I bought just about everything for it at the farmer's market Sunday and was very happy with how it turned out.

6 ears of corn husked
2-red bell peppers
1-orange bell pepper
1/2-large red onion diced
Juice from two limes
1-TBLSP olive oil
1-TSP ancho chili pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste

Prepare your grill for medium low heat.

Roast peppers on the grill over direct heat until they start to turn black and blister. After black and peeling place the pepper in a brown paper back and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Meanwhile take husked corn and place directly over the heat. Watch the corn carefully, a little color is a good thing but you don't want the corn to get too black. It took me a good 10-15 minutes to get the corn where I wanted but the charcoal was pretty low heat. I was being cautious because I hadn't cooked corn on the grill like this before.

After the corn is done set aside and start working on the pepper, peeling the skin off and then removing the seeds and dicing with the red onion. Place the corn on an end in a shallow bowl and remove the kernels with a sharp knife. I used a technique similar to what was described here.

Add the corn to the pepper and onion along with the lime juice and ancho pepper. Taste and salt and pepper to your taste.

I had purchased some tomatoes to put in here too but they weren't quite ripe enough so I didn't use them. This is probably more of a relish than a salsa but it turned out great. The fresh ingredients really popped and I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. I could have added a little more heat to it but that would have been about it. And there's always next time. Also, everything except for the limes were purchased at the farmer's market using locally produced ingredients.

Pork braised in milk

As I said in my last post, my sister gave me The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. As I paged through it I was intrigued by the pork braised on milk recipe. I had seen a similar, maybe the same, recipe mentioned on the Savuer Web site awhile back and decided to give it a shot. It was also incredible easy, requiring just four ingredients, salt, pepper, pork and milk. But I also know it wouldn't be good for my Jewish friends.

Now I've done my fair share of braises in the past, you basically brown the meat, add some aromatics and liquor and simmer. I like the technique because it's pretty easy and makes the house smell really good. Hazan called for a pork rack, a cut that I don't' have easy access too, but she said it could also be done with a pork shoulder, which is what I used.

Her recipe had this braise be a bit more involved than I'm use to. It started with the typical salt and pepper of the meat followed by a quick sear on all sides. Then she had you slowly add the whole milk. she said add 1.5 cups, I did a little more, probably two cups because the piece of pork was a bit bigger, 3.5 pounds, whereas she used one that was 2.5.

Now adding this much milk only brought the milk about half way up the piece of pork, which is what the recipe more or less said. Hazan said you should move the pork around during the process, also adding more milk as some of it cooks off. Also, at various time you should have the lid of the pan slight ajar whereas at other times have it fully on.

This is why it's a more complex braise than others I've done. Typically you brown the meat, add the veggies, add the liquid, bring to a boil, cover turn the heat down and let cook.

All told it cooked about three hours and I used about three cups of milk. The end result was really good. The pork turned out moist and rich wit a complex flavor. I cooked the remaining milk down, removed some of the fat and it made a nice sauce.

On Tap:

I'll be doing some baking next week for Kevin and Katie's showers, Rory's cousin. Mexican wedding cookies, brownies and the crack cookies are on the menu. I've made two changes to the crack cookies recipe too, I now put a little bit of French sea salt on the top before putting them in the oven and add a Starbuck's VIA to the batter when mixing it up.

Porchetta

Savuer posted it's porchetta recipe from the magazine, you can find the link here.

It's an intimidating recipe. Leaving the plastic wrap on and the baking soda to crisp the skin, a lot of techniques I've never used before.

I haven't ruled it out though, I need to swing by the Peoria Meat Market to see what the pork belly will cost me before I make a final decision.

A pork aside, had brunch at the Publican Sunday and was very impressed. The maple braised bacon was a dream, a nice salty/sweet bite of porky goodness. And they made a mimosa with a heffe weiss and OJ that really blew me away as well. I've been for dinner too and while the Publican isn't cheap it's worth a try, great beer and excellent food.

Ad Hoc pork brine

I was given a couple of cook books for Christmas, Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc and Michael Ruhlman's Ratio. I was very excited to dig into both of them, Ratio seems like an easy way to remember how to cook just about anything whereas Ad Hoc just seemed to have some great recipes.

My plan is to post more about these books as I use them, but I did already use the pork bring recipe from Ad Hoc. I wanted to make Rory and I something nice to eat before heading out New Year's Eve and found some nice bone-in pork chop at the store.

My luck with pork brines in the past had been hit or miss but mostly miss. I really hadn't cared for the flavor or didn't really notice it enough to care with some past recipes I had tried. This one was different though.

1/4 cup plus 2 TBLS honey
12 bay leaves
3 large rosemary sprigs
1/2 bunch thyme
1/2 cup of garlic cloves, crushed
2 TBLS black peppercorns
1 cup of kosher sale
8 cups of water

The cookbook recipe call for combining all ingredients in a large pit and bring to a boil and then cooling. I did that, but only added half the water., As soon as the salt and everything was dissolved I added the remaining cold water. You don't have to wait as long to add the meat this way. Also, I hadn't planned well so I needed to get the chops in there sooner rather than later.

I decided to do this last minute so I didn't have any rosemary and used dried thyme. I bring the chops for about seven hours and the results were spectacular. They had a great flavor and were really juicy. You probably don't want to bring them for much longer than eight hours, according tot he book.

I seared the chops in a hot cast iron pan and then put them in a 350 degree oven for another 15 minutes to finding cooking. These chops were pretty thick so if you get thinner ones you might not have to finish in the oven.

Brown Rice, chicken and mushroom casserole

We're going to get anywhere from six to 12 inches of snow in the next day or so in Chicago. After that the temps are going to plunge and we'll be enjoying some sub-zero wind chills.

Typically the only good thing about this type of weather is the food I want to cook. There's a reason the comfort food tag is one of the largest on this site. Casseroles and stews and some of my favorite things to make, but since we're trying to watch the diet once again I can't have free reign like I once did.

But I have found some health alternatives that can fill that need. I saw this chicken and rice recipe awhile back and have made it a couple of times and it's quite good, though I have made a few changes.

I don't use any cream and instead use no-fat sour cream. I have to say no-fat sour cream is pretty nasty stuff on its own but mixed in as an ingredient it works well.

I also substituted brown rice for the white rice. And because of this last part it takes about an hour to cook in the oven.

The results are a tasty and not-all-together unhealthy meal. Do I still want tuna casserole with velvetta, chicken and dumplings and other bad things, such as the beef stew with cheddar cobbler topping? Yes, but it's all about will power and maybe a cheat dinner at some point next month.

Whole wheat pasta

Thanks again to Matt and Alisha for the pasta maker. I made my first batch this week and it turned out pretty good. Though making pasta may seem simple and only require a handful of ingredients, it's the technique that take a bit of time.

3.5 cups of whole wheat flour
2 TSP water
4 eggs
Pinch of salt

That may seem simple enough but it's not. You add all those ingredients to the mixing bowl but then you have to add water or flour based on how the dough comes together. I probably spent a good 15 minutes just making sure the dough was correct, a process that hopefully won't take me as long next time.

And that's just the star, after getting the dough right you need to cut it into smaller pieces and starting feeding it though the machine, considering one batch of dough is cut into six or seven pieces that all need to be separately it though the pasta maker it's time consuming. I easily spent more than an hour from start to finish on this alone.

You need to run each piece through the maker multiple times, one the first setting along you probably need to run it through about five times. It's less after that as you get the pasta thinner, but still a process. Again, having done it once I'm hoping it won't take me as long next time. I was making fettuccine this time and had it on the five setting for thinness, which was a bit too thin, next time I'll stop on five.

After you get the pasta to the desired thinness you have to swap out attachments and put the pasta cutter on. This was easy enough, though I did have some clumping when I had it sitting in the bowl. I did toss it with a little bit of flour but maybe a bowl wasn't the right conveyance for fresh pasta, maybe a platter would be better? If anybody has any advice I would welcome it.

Overall, it turned out ok. I didn't help that I overcooked the pasta slightly. The directions said two minutes but I probably could have yanked it after 90 seconds. I'm looking forward to making some stuffed pastas and some spinich pasta for lasagna.

I served this with some marinara that I made awhile back.

Tomatoes

Before roasting

There was a bumper crop of tomatoes at Ma and Pa Martin's farm this year so I brought home a good five to 10 pounds. I am not a fan of raw tomatoes so I decided I was going to roast them and then make a sauce.

I removed the stems, cut them in half and took out the seeds. I places them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and drizzled with salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic. I placed them in a 250 degree oven for two and a half hours.

Just before I was getting ready to take them out of the oven I diced an onion, some celery, carrot and garlic and started to sautee over medium heat in a dutch oven with a some olive oil until clear.

After taking the tomatoes out of the oven they went right into the dutch oven. I mixed them up a bit, turned the heat down and covered for about 90 minutes. Then I took the stick blender and pureed everything together.

The result was a nice, rich marinara that had some deep flavors. I'm not sure if I'm going to serve it just some pasta or use it as a base for another sauce.

Spinach and goat cheese tartlets

I'm not a big fan of making appetizers, unless it involves make one big portion of something and then simply cutting it down into smaller portions. It's often too much work for too little reward. But this Saturday I made an exception. Rory and I were having a few friends over before heading to a Joe and Sean's wedding and we wanted to make a couple of appetizers.

The Food Network magazine had this recipe for some spinach and goat cheese tartlets and they sounded too good to pass up. Also, since I had never worked with phyllo before I thought this was a good change to try something different.

The phyllo was as much of a pain in the ass as I feared. It was tearing and just not an easy material to work with. Luckily Rory was around to help me out, as she has prior experience. Still I manged to make the little cups and they turned out well.

The filling was also very good. Yes, it's a lot of ingredients but they have a nice deep, complex flavor. You could taste the lemon, the vinegar and the richness of the goat cheese and all it all lead to a satisfying bite.Rory also made her veggie pizza, her signature dish.

Low-fat mac and cheese

I'm a sucker for macaroni and cheese, it's one of my favorite things. While I have made a handful of fancy versions, I will sometimes crave the Kraft blue box stuff as well.

The main problem being mac and cheese typically isn't that good for you, so when I saw this recipe in the latest Food Network magazine I was intrigued. I made a couple of changes from the original recipe, I used a combination of sharp cheddar cheese and parmesano reggiano instead of mostly muenster. I also used whole wheat elbow pasta instead of shells.

The cauliflower did add a really nice texture to the cheese sauce and a little bit of sweetness which was a good contrast to the sharpness of the cheddar. This recipe has a lot of potential, you could add a little Canadian bacon for some protein or maybe some spinach or other vegetables and keep is veggie friendly. I might make this for turducken this year for the vegetarians in attendance.

And yes, I need to start taking more pictures, will try to remember.

Pasta sauce

I had a serious craving for pasta this week and decided to to make Bolognese, well sort of. There is no one way to make Bolognese, the one thing that can be agreed upon is there's tomatoes, onions, herbs and meat, some use pork other use beef. Whether to use wine, milk and some other permutations depends on who you talk to.

I wanted to do something a little different than my usual sauce. My first thought was to use Italian sausage add some beef short ribs, sear them and then let them cook in the tomato sauce with the other goodies. But the short ribs looked like crap and pork was on sale so I decided to go with a two-pound pork roast.

I did a little salt and pepper, seared it about four or five minutes a side and then removed it from the dutch oven. Then I cooked the onions and everything else like usual. After adding the tomato sauce I place the pork back in the pot and let it cook for a couple of hours.

Then I took it out of the oven and let it cool/rest for a bit. I was hoping to shred it and put it back in the pot, but it wasn't at the shredding point so I sliced it and then cut it into stripes and then added it back to the sauce.

It was excellent, the pork had the great tomato, garlic flavor and added some heft to the sauce. I hadn't made sauce like this since last year and it was a nice treat. I tossed the sauce with a whole wheat spaggeti and grated some fresh parm over the top. Alas, I forgot to take a picture.

No, I haven't died ...

I just got married (the four of you regular reader of course know this). That and work had kept me away from my lovely side project which I have been neglecting terribly this summer.

I received some really new fun toys though, some All Clad cookware and an ice cream machine is on the way, so I should be starting the cooking machine up again very soon. There's still a couple of months of grilling left.

Above I posted some food porn, a couple of chicken I BBQ'd awhile back and never got around to posting about. I did a typical compound butter and placed the chickens over indirect heat until they were done. I threw some extra fresh sage and lemon into the cavity of the birds too to keep them from drying out.

Another take on chicken cacciatore

Purists will get all over me for calling this chicken cacciatore, but it's the inspiration for this recipe. It's not very seasonal, more of a fall/winter dish, but I made it last night for the second time and it's a tasty, somewhat healthy meal.

Olive Oil
Salt and pepper
2-pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts cubed (you can also use thighs for a less health alternative)
1-large onion, diced
1-red bell pepper
1-green bell pepper
1/2-pound mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (I like crimini)
1-TSP thyme
1-TSP oregano
1-TSP sage
3-cloves garlic, diced
2-cups brown rice
8-ounce can of chopped tomatoes (I think, medium sized can)
1-cup dry white wine
2-cups chicken stock
1-small can of tomato paste

Heat dutch oven over medium high heat, add oil. Salt and pepper chicken and add to pot, cook until just about done, five minutes or so, remove and set aside.

Add chopped vegetables and cook, stirring every couple of minutes, for about 15 minutes or so until onion are clear and mushrooms are coked. Add chicken back to the pot and add spices, cook for two to three minutes.

Add brown rice and cook for another two to three minutes. Add wine, chicken stock, and tomatoes (not tomato paste), bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and cook for about 30 minutes. Check to see if rice if done, if not let cook for another five minutes or so. Once rice is just about done add tomato paste and combine. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired.

Lemon, thyme cream sauce

First off, this is nowhere near South Beach friendly. The fine folks over at Foodbuzz were giving away pasta so I decided to try some. They sent over some Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti (ravioli) and I decided to make a nice cream sauce.

I have to say, this was awesome. It may be that I haven't eaten real fat food in a few months but this hit on all levels. It as cream and had a good bite to it. This would work with any pasta but complimented the mushrooms really well.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium shallot diced
1/2 TSP dried thyme
1.5 cups of heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Salt and pepper to taste
I package Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti

Bring a pot to of salted water to a boil.

In a saute pan over medium heat melt butter. Add shallots and cook until clear. Add cream, simmer and reduce for four to five minutes. Add lemon juice, stir, add cheese stir. Turn heat to low.

Add Agnolotti to boiling water and cook for four minutes, add to pan with cream sauce and serve.

An awfully good burger

With the weather finally turning decent in Chicago, Rory and I decided to grill a couple of weekends ago. For the first grilling of the season we decided to go simple: burgers.

Now some people may say you need to do all sort of things for a good burger. And it's true, sometimes special ingredients can make some difference. But for a really tasty burger you really only need three things.

First is the beef. You need fat so it doesn't dry out so use an 80/20 mix.

Second and third: salt and pepper.

I bought a little more than a pound of ground beef added a good amount of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, mixed it up, and formed three patties.

I cooked it over charcoal for 3 to four minutes a side, added some nice sharp cheddar cheese, grilled onions and crimini mushrooms on a toasted bun and that's it.

The burger would have been just as good without the onion, mushrooms and cheese. The key is the fat in the beef and not overcooking it. I'm craving one right now just thinking about it.