Tag Archives: Cooking

Passatini

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Passatini Soup

Let me start this post by stating that, when I was a boy, my Mom was the coolest Mom on the block. After I’d spent a morning hard at play, manufacturing Creepy Crawlers with my Mattel Thingmaker, guess what she served for lunch? Worms. That’s right, WORMS! How cool was that? Granted, we didn’t have actual worms for lunch but we did have passatini, a far more appetizing and tasty alternative. Sometimes called passatelli, passatini are noodles, of a sort, made with bread crumbs & cheese instead of flour and lightly flavored with lemon rind and nutmeg. The noodles themselves are extruded using a special press, a large-holed ricer, or a meat grinder. Once made, they can be added immediately to a pot of boiling stock or placed in single layers on baking sheets to be frozen. After a couple of hours, the now-frozen passatini may be gently placed into a container and stored in an area of the freezer where they won’t be disturbed. As you may have guessed, these noodles are more delicate than most and care needs to be taken when storing them. On the other hand, this recipe can be halved easily, thereby eliminating the need for freezing altogether. Whether freshly made or previously frozen, a steaming bowl of passatini is a meal fit for the coldest of Winter’s days. And if you happen to be serving children of a certain age, you, too, can be as cool as my Mom.

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Passatini Recipe

total time: approx.  30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 cups bread crumbs
  • 1 to 1 1/2 cups grated cheese (parmesan or romano)
  • 1/2 tbsp lemon rind
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • chicken stock (vegetable stock may be substituted for a vegetarian diet)
  • grated cheese for serving

Freshly Pressed

Directions

  1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  2. Add eggs and mix until a dough is formed. (I use my stand mixer and paddle attachment.)
  3. Form into a ball, cover, and let dough rest for 10 minutes.
  4. Using a large-holed potato ricer or meat grinder, extrude the passatini and place in a single layer on baking sheets, to be used immediately or frozen for later use, as explained in my comments above.
  5. Bring a pot of stock to boil, add the passatini, and reduce to a medium simmer. When the passatini begin to float, cook for 3 to 4 minutes more and serve.
  6. Be sure to have grated cheese available for you and your dinner companions.

Variations

I’ve seen recipes for passatini that include ground meat and even bone marrow, although I’ve never tasted them prepared in that way. I like my worms just the way they are.

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Marinara Sauce

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Spaghetti Squash Marinara

It seems that there are as many marinara sauces as there are cooks on TV. Everyone has a version and all that I’ve tried are equally good. Today I’d like to share a recipe that I learned from a PBS cooking show some 20 years ago.  I’ve long-since forgotten the show/chef’s name but I learned this marinara to serve with a very special lasagna. (You can find the lasagna recipe HERE.) Like any good marinara, this sauce can be used in any number of dishes.

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Marinara Sauce Recipe

total time: approx.  1:45

Ingredients

  • 1 – 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 – 15 oz can tomato sauce
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 3 carrots, diced or grated
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 tsp dried marjoram
  • 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 cup dry red wine

Directions

  1. Add oil to a medium sauce pan and heat over a medium-high heat. Add pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes.
  2. Place carrots, celery, and onion into a food processor and run until well-chopped. (This will prevent large chunks of carrot, celery, or onion in your sauce.)
  3. Add chopped carrots, onion, & celery to the pan and sauté until the mixture just begin to caramelize, about 8 to 10 minutes. (If you like, add sliced mushrooms midway through.)
  4. Add garlic, season with salt, pepper, & parsley and sauté for 2 minutes.
  5. Add crushed tomatoes, sauce, marjoram and wine. Stir to thoroughly combine.
  6. Bring to boil, reduce to a soft simmer, and cover.
  7. After 45 minutes, remove cover and continue to simmer for another 45 minutes.
  8. Add basil just prior to serving.

Variations

This sauce originally accompanied a lasagna recipe that included mushrooms. That’s why mushrooms aren’t among its ingredients. If you intend to use this recipe for something other than that particular lasagna recipe, feel free to add mushrooms –sliced or otherwise — about 5 minutes after the carrot, onion, & celery have been added. Continue sautéing as indicated above.

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Gobbi (Cardoni)

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Whether you call them gobbi, cardoni or cardi, in Italian, or cardoons, in English, this vegetable may look like celery — on steroids! — but don’t be fooled. Gobbi are actually a distant cousin of artichokes and their tastes are surprisingly similar. Moreover, like the artichoke, gobbi have thistle-like characteristics which must be dealt with before serving.

Gobbi

To begin, you may need to discard one or two of the outer stalks if they are too large or have been badly bruised. Like celery, the inner stalks of the bunch will grow lighter in color and more leafy as you get closer to the center. Although some may enjoy the leaves, my family does not and trims them away. The back of the stalks have long filaments or strands running their full length, similar to celery. These, too, may be trimmed and a vegetable peeler can handle them. The last parts of the vegetable to be trimmed are the stalks’ edges. A knife or vegetable peeler will get the job done. Once a stalk is trimmed, it should be cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces and then placed in a bowl of cold, acidulated water. (That’s a fancy term for water into which the juice of a couple of lemons has been added.) This will help keep the pieces from turning brown as you trim the remaining stalks. Once trimmed, you’ll need to address gobbi’s inherent bitterness, which reportedly grows stronger as the plant matures. This can be easily countered by blanching the pieces in boiling, salted water. The length of time required depends upon your taste preference, for the longer they’re blanched, the less bitter they become. You may wish to let them go until they are just about fork-tender. Personally, I don’t mind a little of the bitterness to remain. The rest of the recipe is easy enough to follow.

If you’ve glanced at the recipe below, you may have noticed that it is practically the same as was described in an entry that detailed Mom’s method of cooking Vegetables. So, why a separate post for this one? Well, gobbi are seasonal, arriving in groceries & markets around Thanksgiving and leaving shortly after New Year’s Day. Whenever I see it, I’m reminded of the Christmases of my youth. Unfortunately, it’s been some time since I’ve come across gobbi in a supermarket, the last being 4 or 5 years ago. That time, I bought what little was available and shared my find with Zia. This year, out of the blue, I found it in no less than 4 markets. Why the sudden surge in availability is beyond me but I did take advantage of the situation. As often as I could, I bought some, cleaned & blanched it, and then froze it for future meals. Admittedly, I may have overdone it but, then again, who knows whether it will be back next year? I might as well feast on it while I can. Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be sure to bring some to Zia, too.

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Gobbi Recipe

total time: approx. 30 minutes (includes prep time)

Ingredients

  • 1 head of gobbi, trimmed, cut, & soaking in acidulated water
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, sliced
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Gobbi Sautéed with Tomato & Garlic

Directions

  1. Place gobbi into a large pot of boiling, salted water. Return to boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer.
  2. When the gobbi has reached the desired tenderness and taste, remove from heat and drain away the water. To retain its green color, the gobbi may be placed immediately into an ice bath.
  3. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for no more than two minutes before adding the blanched gobbi. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
  4. Continue cooking until the gobbi are fork-tender and heated through.
  5. Serve immediately.

Variations

  • The recipe, as written, is pretty straight-forward. I like to include a little tomato, “for color.” Just after adding garlic to the frying pan, I’ll add either some diced tomato, a little tomato paste, or, as pictured above, a few cherry/grape tomatoes that have been halved. A little chopped onion or shallot may be added, as well, but if you do,  sauté them for a few minutes before adding the garlic.

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Fiocchetti

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Fiocchetti

I was trying to find a recipe when I ran across one that I hadn’t thought about or tasted in decades. Fiocchetti are a sweet treat that Mom would make for us kids on occasion and I’ve just learned that they’re a popular item throughout Italy during Carnivale. (Who knew?) Depending upon where you are in Italy, fiocchetti  may be called: “chiacchiere”, “manzòle”, “bugie”, or “risole”. No matter what you call them, basically, they’re all the same: thin strips of sweetened dough that are deep-fried and coated with sugar. After reading that description, you can probably guess why Mom only made them for us “on occasion” and no more often than that.

“Fiocchi”

The word fiocchetti is derived from the word fioccho (pl. fiocchi) or ribbon(s). The strips, if left alone before frying, do indeed look like pieces of ribbon. Mom, however, would pinch each strip in its center, making them look like over-sized farfalle. She referred to them as either angel wings or bow ties. I can remember eating one, alone in my room, that I had stolen from the stove top while Mom was distracted. (Yeah, like a six-year-old would be able to pull off anything in that kitchen with Mom standing right there.) It was a recurring theme in our house. Mom would be cooking some treat and we three juveniles would be falling over each other trying to steal away a sample or two. It’s a wonder that any of them ever made it to the table.

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Fiocchetti Recipe

total time: about 90 minutes, includes 60 minutes for dough to rest.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus as much as 1/4 cup more
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp rum
  • 1 tbsp confectioners sugar
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • oil for frying
  • additional confectioners sugar

Directions

  1. Mix together all ingredients and combine as if making pasta. Form a large ball.
  2. Put 1/4 c flour on work surface and knead dough, using as much of the flour as necessary to create a smooth and shiny dough. This should take about 10 minutes
  3. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
  4. Roll out dough until very thin and cut into strips about 6 inches long and from 1 to  3  inches wide, depending on your preference. If you like, pinch the center of each strip to create a bow-like shape.
  5. Deep fry in hot oil that has reached 350*. It should only take a minute or two for them to turn golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels.
  6. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar before serving.

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Mom’s Chicken (that’s not really) Cacciatore

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I Dig It Mom's Way

Traditionally, pollo alla cacciatore (hunter-style chicken) features chicken, pan-braised in a tomato sauce with mushrooms, served over pasta, very often spaghetti. I say “traditionally” because this is not the cacciatore Mom made. Her recipe did not result in a tomato sauce and Mom never served this dish over pasta. Although I will agree with the purists who’ll be quick to point out that this is not a true cacciatore, I very much prefer it Mom’s way if, for no other reason, than that I already make a number of tomato-based sauces. Making another one with chicken holds little interest for me. All of this doesn’t mean that tomatoes aren’t used in this recipe. I’ll add a diced tomato or about a tbsp of tomato paste “for color,” as Mom would say. Additionally, this recipe uses chicken thighs with the skin-on and bone-in because the combination adds so much flavor to the final dish. Of course, you may use whatever chicken parts you wish, with or without skin or bones, but your choices may affect cooking times. Use an instant read thermometer when in doubt. If you do not wish to use wine, one cup of chicken broth/stock may be substituted.

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Mom’s Chicken (that’s not really) Cacciatore Recipe

total time: about 75 minutes.

yield: 5 or 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg chicken thighs (5 or 6 thighs), with bone-in and skin-on
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 slices of bacon (or 1/4 lb. of pancetta),  chopped
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 large yellow or sweet onion, halved and sliced
  • 3 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 bell pepper, cut into strips
  • 8 oz. crimini or button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tomato, diced, or 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 – 3 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 1 cup white wine (or low-sodium chicken stock/broth)
  • 3 tbsp capers (optional)
  • 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan with lid over medium heat. Add bacon/pancetta and cook until crisp and the fat is rendered. Remove meat from pan and drain over paper towels.
  2. Meanwhile, season chicken with salt & pepper. Place flour in a plastic bag, place 2 chicken pieces in bag, and shake to coat. Remove chicken to a plate and repeat until all the chicken is coated with flour.
  3. Once the bacon/pancetta has been removed from the frying pan, increase the heat to medium-high and add the chicken pieces, skin-side down. Sauté until chicken is lightly browned, about 5 – 6 minutes, turn the chicken pieces over, and sauté until they, too, are lightly browned — another 5 minutes or so. Remove chicken to a plate.
  4. Remove all but about 3 tbsp of oil from the frying pan. Add the onion and begin sautéing. Lightly season with salt & pepper. Use a wooden spoon to clean the pan’s bottom of the brown bits. (These are where the flavor is.)
  5. After about 5 minutes, add the garlic & bell peppers and continue sautéing.
  6. After 5 minutes more, add the mushrooms.
  7. 5 minutes later, add the tomato/paste and sauté for 2 – 3 minutes. Season lightly with salt & pepper.
  8. Return the bacon/pancetta to the pan, season with the rosemary, return the chicken to the pan, and add the wine.
  9. Bring the pan to a boil before covering and reducing heat to medium-low.
  10. Continue cooking for 45 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. (Use an instant read thermometer if in doubt.) Periodically, throughout the cooking, slightly shift the chicken pieces to prevent their sticking/burning. If the pan looks too dry, add a little water/chicken broth.  A few minutes before serving, sprinkle the capers over the pan’s contents. Taste the sauce to see if salt or pepper is needed.
  11. When finished cooking, remove to a serving platter and garnish with parsley.

Variations

Strictly speaking, I do not have any variations for this recipe. It’s pretty much the same recipe that Mom used. Where we part ways is in the serving. As was mentioned earlier, Mom never served her cacciatore over pasta.  On the other hand, I’m a pasta fanatic and I’m always on the look-out for ways to include pasta in a meal. For me, this recipe is delicious when served over wide noodles that have been buttered and lightly sprinkled with freshly chopped parsley. And on those extremely rare occasions when I’m not in a pasta mood, I’ll serve it atop polenta. Either way is aces in my book.

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Cherry Tomato Sauce

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Grape Tomatoes

After years of renting, buying my home meant that I could finally grow tomatoes and, for the first few Summers, I grew only Roma (plum) tomatoes. Come August, I’d start making pasta sauce using my very own crop. I never had enough of them to make a big pot of Bolognese, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make a sauce. Several years later, I started growing cherry tomatoes along with the Romas. I soon learned that these little tomatoes made a very good sauce and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Before getting to the recipe, let’s talk about some of the ingredients. The recipe starts off with the rendering of either bacon or pancetta. I keep both in my freezer door. If I wish to use bacon for this recipe, I unwrap one end of the bacon package and, with a sharp knife, cut three or four 1/3 inch strips off of the end. When cooked, these will separate into smaller pieces, similar to lardons. When I buy pancetta, I ask for two or three slices about 1/3 of an inch thick, but what I actually receive are slices anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. For this recipe, I use 1 or 2 pancetta slices, depending upon their thickness. Speaking of bacon, it is a source of salt for this recipe, as is the pasta water added in the end. This is why I do not salt the dish until the very end. Similarly, the red pepper flakes bring heat and I wait before using any pepper in the dish.  As for the tomatoes, I’ve used a variety of types with this recipe. The advantage of using cherry or grape tomatoes, however, is that they are relatively good tasting all year-round, unlike their normal-sized cousins. As for the rest of the ingredients, use as much or as little as you like. In other words, make the recipe your own. Vegetarians, for example, would omit the bacon/pancetta but may need to add another tbsp of olive oil. And lastly, as always, the wine is optional.

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Cherry/Grape Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipe

total time: approx.  30 – 45 minutes

Ingredients

Grape Tomato Sauce

  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, or more to taste
  • 2 – 3 slices of bacon, or, 1 or 2 slices of pancetta, diced large – omit if vegetarian
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 3 – 4 cloves garlic, diced or grated
  • 3 oz. (approx) red wine
  • 6 or 7 button or crimini mushrooms, sliced, or more to taste
  • 2 – 3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 – 3 cups cherry tomatoes (approx 3/4 lbs), grape tomatoes may be substituted
  • 3 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped – more for garnish
  • grated parmesan cheese
  • salt & pepper, to taste
  • 1 lb pasta

Simmering Sauce

Directions

  1. Fill a large pot (at least 4 quarts) with water and place over high heat. Once boiling, add salt and cook your pasta, timing it to be ready when the sauce is cooked to your liking. The pasta should be slightly undercooked and will finish cooking when it is mixed with the sauce. Reserve 1 cup of the water in which the pasta was cooked.
  2. Place olive oil in a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat.
  3. Add pepper flakes to frying pan and cook for 2 minutes. Add the bacon/pancetta and cook until fully rendered, about 6 minutes — less if not frozen.
  4. Add onions and cook until translucent, about 5 – 7 minutes.
  5. Add garlic and continue cooking for no more than 1 minute. Do not burn the garlic.
  6. Add the wine and reduce until most has evaporated.
  7. Add mushrooms and sauté for about 5 more minutes.
  8. Add tomato paste and sauté until the air is scented with the smell of roasted tomatoes, about 2 – 3 minutes.
  9. Add the tomatoes, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.
  10. Check the pan after about 5 minutes to see if the tomatoes have started to burst. When about 1/3 of them have burst, use a potato masher or broad wooden spoon to carefully smash all the tomatoes. The tomato juices are very hot and will burn if allowed to squirt on you.

    Pasta Fresca

  11. The sauce is now ready when you are. Its taste will vary depending upon how long you allow the tomatoes to cook.
  12. Add the basil and parsley and stir. If necessary, add some of the reserved pasta water so that your sauce has the consistency that you prefer.
  13. Season with salt & pepper, to taste.
  14. Add the cooked pasta to the frying pan, mix to coat, and cook until pasta is al dente, about 1 – 2 minutes.
  15. Serve immediately, garnished with parsley and parmesan cheese.

Variations

I’ve seen variations of this recipe prepared by a few of TV’s chefs. Rachael Ray added a twist that I first saw a few years ago. She roasted the tomatoes before adding them to the other ingredients. Although I do not remember her specifics, I pre-heat my oven to 425*, place the cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet, sprinkle them with a little olive oil, and mix them by hand to help coat them all with the oil. The tray is placed in the oven and the tomatoes roasted for about 20 minutes or until they burst. I then remove the tray from the oven and add its contents to the frying pan instead of the raw tomatoes. This is an alternative definitely worth trying.

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Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

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New ShellsLet me be clear about something. I love stuffed pasta shells. A cinch to make, they are the perfect blend of ricotta cheese, spinach, & pasta. I realize that some may feel that the same could be said for lasagna and they’d be correct, for the most part. My family’s lasagna recipe, however, doesn’t include ricotta, making it relatively unique, as far as lasagna goes. What’s more, we use very little ricotta in other recipes so these shells are a real stand out. In my last post, I described making ricotta and shared a recipe that yields about 2 pounds of the cheese. Well, that’s a lot of ricotta, as I soon found out. When all was said and done,  I had filled four 9 x 9″ aluminum cake pans with 12 shells apiece. (1 tray was destined for the oven; 2 for delivery to friends; and 1 was frozen.) I used that cooking experience as a guide for today’s recipe and halved the recipe, using 1 pound of ricotta. By the way, if you’re vegetarian or limiting red meat in your diet, use a marinara sauce instead of one with meat.

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Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Shells Recipe

total time: about 90 minutes. yield: about 24 shells.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound fresh ricotta (1/2 of home-made ricotta recipe)
  • 1 – 10 oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach, cooked and well-drained
  • 1 c grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 quart pasta sauce, marinara or meat-based
  • water
  • 1 box jumbo pasta shells, cooked following package directions, reserved in cold water.
  • 1 cup grated mozzarella, or more to taste

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350*. Butter one9 x 13″ baking dish/pan.
  2. Place ricotta, spinach, parmesan cheese, eggs, salt, and nutmeg into a bowl and combine, either by hand or using a stand mixer, until well-blended.
  3. Add about 2/3 of the sauce to the baking dish with a little water.
  4. One by one, fill each shell with 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp of the filling mixture and place in the baking dish.
  5. When the tray is filled, drizzle remaining sauce over the tops of the stuffed shells. Sprinkle with mozzarella and cover with aluminum foil.
  6. Place on oven’s center rack and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for 15 minutes more.
  7. Remove from oven, let rest at least 5 minutes, and serve.

Variations Instead of spinach, cooked & chopped Swiss chard or broccoli rabe (rapini) may be added to the cheese before stuffing the shells. For a cheesier dish, use a few tablespoons of chopped, fresh basil or parsley in place of the spinach.

Notes

Extra shells may be frozen using either of 2 methods:

  1. Perhaps the easiest way to freeze them is to place the stuffed shells on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Place the tray in the freezer and, after at least 2 hours, remove the shells and place in a container suitable for storage in the freezer. I wouldn’t suggest freezer bags because the pasta shells get rigid when frozen and bags may not offer enough protection. When you wish to cook them, treat the frozen shells as you would fresh and place them in a baking dish filled partway with sauce. Cover with foil, pace on center rack, and bake for 1 hour in a pre-heated 350* oven. After 1 hour, remove foil and insert tip of knife into the cheese of one of the shells in the middle of the tray. After a few seconds, remove knife and feel tip. If it’s just warm, cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes more. If the knife tip is hot, continue baking, uncovered, until the cheese on top is to your liking. If the knife tip is cold, the cheese isn’t heated. Put foil back onto the tray, cook for another 15 minutes, and test again.
  2. Alternately, you can prepare the shells in a tray as normal but put them in the freezer instead of the oven. Later, place them, covered with foil, in a 350* pre-heated oven for 1 hour. Refer to the prior note for testing the shells for doneness.

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Vegetables (Verdure)

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While growing up, Mom introduced us to a number of vegetables, with varying degrees of success depending upon the person. (Yes, I’m looking at you.) For the most part, she used one method when cooking vegetables and it’s pretty much the same as is used throughout Italy. I mention this, particularly the latter part, because we Americans tend to like our vegetables to be cooked but with some crispness retained. Well, not to disappoint anyone, but I’ve eaten my way across Italy a few of times and I’ve yet to be served a vegetable that was cooked al dente. It’s just not done, I’m afraid, but that doesn’t mean that the dishes aren’t tasty or are any less desirable. Besides, some, like kale or rapini, may be a little bitter while others, like Swiss chard, may have ribs or stems that are a little tough. This method of cooking will cut some of that.

Rainbow Chard

Although the recipe below mentions Swiss chard specifically, it’s the technique and not the vegetable that’s important. Briefly, you bring a pot of salted water to boil, blanch the vegetable for a few minutes, and sauté it in garlic-flavored extra virgin olive oil. Now, if you’ve watched any televised chefs, you’ve seen them do this, or something very similar, but they will place the vegetable in cold water after blanching. This will insure that the vegetable retains its brilliant color and, if I’m entertaining, I’ll do it, too. But I don’t entertain every night and placing them into an ice bath just adds another step and more time to my dinner prep, not to mention another dish to clean. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t chill ’em if it’s just Max and me for dinner. Being color blind, he’s not likely to object.

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Swiss Chard

serves 2

total time: approx.  30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 – 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1  bunch of Swiss chard.
  • 1 small yellow onion, sliced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Add olive oil and garlic to a medium-sized frying pan and heat at medium until the garlic begins to brown, a few minutes. Discard the garlic, add the onion, and sauté until it becomes fully translucent and before caramelization starts.
  2. While the garlic is flavoring the olive oil, fill a medium sauce pan with water and bring to a boil.
  3. Meanwhile, clean and prep the chard. Leave as much of the stems as you find palatable. Separate the stems from the leaves and chop the stems into pieces no larger than one inch long. Rough chop the leaves into pieces slightly larger than you would for a salad.
  4. When the water boils, add the salt and then the chard stem pieces. The length of time the stems stay in the pot depends on how crisp you like them. The less time they boil, the more al dente they’ll be. A little before the stems are cooked to your liking, add the chard leaves to the pot.
  5. After 2 minutes, strain everything out of the boiling water and add to the frying pan with the onion. Be careful: the oil may splatter when it comes in contact with the wet chard.
  6. Raise the heat to medium-high, season with salt and pepper, and sauté the chard and onions until cooked to your liking. Serve.

Variations

Rather than list variations, here are some of the vegetables that can be cooked utilizing this method: rapini, asparagus, kale, broccolini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, cabbage, and even brussels sprouts. Some, like rapini or kale, may need more time sautéing, while others, like brussels sprouts will, also, need a lengthier time in the boiling water. You should skip the blanching altogether when you’re cooking delicate greens, like baby spinach, frisée, or arugula. Whether to include onions or, as pictured, a little tomato, is up to you and learning to flavor olive oil with garlic before sautéing is a neat trick. So, go ahead and give ’em a try. Let Common Sense and your own palate be your guides.

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Turkey Stock

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At the time of this writing, Thanksgiving is upon us and I just spent a half hour in the kitchen, preparing a pot of turkey stock. Unlike this year, I usually host a small group for Thanksgiving and try to get as much done ahead of time as possible. Now, just because I’ve made other plans for this holiday doesn’t mean that I’ll be without turkey sandwiches after the holiday, for that just wouldn’t do. For me, the days following Thanksgiving are reserved for sandwiches –or sammiches, if you prefer — of turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, stacked high and topped with lettuce and mayo, and surrounded by two slices of whatever bread struck my fancy at the bakery, if I haven’t baked something myself. As I’ve often told my Thanksgiving guests, those sandwiches are the reason for my hosting the dinner every year and I make sure that they all go home with enough leftovers to make at least one sandwich of their own. So, even though I’ve made other plans for this Thanksgiving, I’m going to pick a day and cook myself a mini-turkey dinner. Rest assured that while I’m dining on a small roast turkey breast, dressing, and cranberry sauce, I’ll be dreaming of the turkey sammiches that are sure to follow. Anyway, back to the turkey stock.

I’ve found that by making the stock a few days ahead, I free up a burner on my stove on the Big Day and it’s one less thing to worry about. Not only that but having a couple quarts of turkey stock sure does come in handy. I use some of it to make the gravy; I combine some with white wine and use it to baste the turkey the first few times; and I, also, use it when I’m preparing my stuffing/dressing. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I take a small amount, 1/4 to 1/3 cup, and heat it in the microwave. When I’ve finished carving the bird and all the meat is arranged on the platter, I use this bit of piping hot stock to moisten and re-heat the platter’s contents — but don’t over do it. The object is to moisten, not drench. Do it right and your guests will marvel at how moist the bird’s breast meat is.

Ready for the Freezer

Because I use it to prepare the gravy and stuffing, I want my stock to mirror the turkey’s flavoring as much as possible. To that end, I season the stock with the same spices that I use on the bird. I, also, sauté the vegetables and turkey parts in an attempt to mimic the flavor of roasting. Speaking of the turkey parts, I found out, years ago, that the turkey neck wasn’t large enough to give me enough stock. That’s when I began buying turkey wings and using them as the base of my stock. One package should be large enough to give you at least 2 quarts of stock. That’s more than enough for my purposes. (I usually freeze the leftover stock and make a delicious risotto on a cold day in December.) A couple of years ago, I began using smoked turkey wings (thank you, Tyler Florence!) and the stock has become all the more flavorful. If you can find them at your local market, by all means give them a try.

The stock that I made earlier today — that formed the basis of this recipe — used 3 smoked turkey wing sections, about 2 lbs., and 3 quarts (6 pints) of water. The resulting stock was fine for my purposes but, had it been weak-tasting, I would have reduced it further by simmering it a while longer. Lastly, salt and pepper were used sparingly, so that I can better control the seasoning in the “end-dishes,” namely the gravy, stuffing/dressing, and turkey basting liquid.

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Basic Turkey Stock Recipe

total time: approx.  3.5 hours

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs turkey wings, smoked if available
  • 2 – 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, cut into large chunks
  • 2 carrots, cut into chunks
  • 2 celery stalks, leaves included, cut into chunks
  • 3 garlic cloves, smashed
  • 4 – 6 parsley sprigs
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 1/8 tsp poultry seasoning
  • 1/8 tsp ground sage
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 3 quarts water

Directions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery, season lightly with salt and pepper. Stir occasionally while sautéing until the vegetables are lightly carmelized, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and reserve.
  2. Season turkey wings with poultry seasoning, sage, and lightly with salt and pepper before placing in the stock pot. Sauté until browned, about 4 – 5 minutes, turn over, and repeat.
  3. When the turkey is well-browned, add the garlic to the pan and cook for a minute or so. Add the cooked vegetables, the remaining herbs, and the water to the pot. Bring to a boil before reducing to a low simmer. Periodically skim the film off of the surface. After 2.5 hours, taste the stock and adjust seasoning, if necessary. Continue to simmer for an additional half hour.
  4. After simmering for 3 hours, take the stock off of the heat to cool somewhat. Remove the turkey wings and reserve. Pour stock through a fine mesh strainer and discard the cooked vegetables and herbs. Refrigerate the stock.
  5. Once the stock is well-chilled, the fat should have risen to the top and can be removed relatively easily. Remove the fat before storing the stock in air-tight containers in the refrigerator, for a few days, or in the freezer, for a few weeks.

Variations

Aside from using smoked turkey in place of raw wings, there are no variations to this recipe. There are, however, a few things that you can do with the boiled turkey meat. Once the bones are removed, it can be used, as-is, for sandwiches or added to a few other ingredients to make turkey salad. Of course, you can leave it on the bone and have a nosh later that night while watching TV.

Note: The day after Thanksgiving, remove all the turkey meat from the bones and use the carcass to make stock. There’s no need to add the herbs (rosemary, thyme, poultry seasoning, or sage)  and you may need to use an additional quart of water, depending upon the bird’s size. Since the bird is already cooked, the soup will not need to simmer for 3 hours. I usually cook mine until the stock tastes “right.” That may mean allowing it to reduce a bit, depending upon the bird’s size and amount of water used.

The Last Word: Earlier, Max added to his already lengthy resumé when he “tasted” the turkey stock as it cooled atop the stove. He must have liked it because he returned to it as soon as I left the room. Needless to say, I’ll be heading to the grocer’s tonight and starting up another pot of stock tomorrow.

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Slow Cooker Beef Stew

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Yes, you read that correctly: beef stew is next on the agenda. We’ll get to that but first I’ve got some ‘splaining to do. One of Chicago’s grocery chains has closed selected stores around town, renovated them, and is now re-opening each in grand style. One such re-opening occurred recently in my neighborhood and, of course, I attended and brought a friend. While there, he took advantage of one of the sales, buying a 4 lb bottom round beef roast. As you may already know, this cut of beef is not particularly well-marbled and isn’t the most tender of cuts. As such, it responds well to stewing or braising and is perfect for slow cooker stew. My friend asked if I had a recipe and I sent him this one in an email. Since I have the recipe handy, I might as well include it here now rather than later.

Before I share the recipe, however, we should probably look at a few of the ingredients. First off, I tend to avoid the grocery’s beef that’s pre-cut into chunks and labeled “beef for stew”. When I make stew, I prefer pieces that are 2 – 3 inches in size and those that are pre-cut are usually about half that size. So, I buy a 2 – 3 lb chuck, top round, or, as already mentioned, a bottom round roast. Once I get home, I cut the roast into chunks the size of my choosing. Of course, if you prefer smaller pieces, by all means go for it.

Zia and six-month-old Max.

Next, let’s look at the vegetables. If you’re considering making stew in a slow cooker, chances are you’ll be setting it up before leaving for work. Unless you have a sous chef, the last thing you’ll want to do is spend time chopping and cleaning your veggies. That’s why I recommend a small bag of new red or Yukon gold potatoes,  frozen pearl onions, and organic baby carrots. Only the potatoes need washing and everything can be thrown into the slow cooker as-is. If you prefer, feel free to use any type of carrot, potato, and onion that’s available. Just be sure to cut them into approximately equal-sized pieces so that they cook evenly.

Last to be mentioned is the wine. Although I use a few ounces of wine in this recipe, it’s not necessary and can be skipped, if you like. This isn’t boeuf bourguignon, after all. If you live alone, like I do, opening a bottle of wine just to use a few ounces in a recipe isn’t practical. I certainly don’t want to drink the rest with my dinner and watching it degrade on a counter or in the fridge is not the answer. I’ve found that the mini bottles of wine — about 5.5 ounces each — are the perfect solution. Our supermarkets sell them in sets of four and offer a variety of grapes. I buy one set of red and another of white. If a recipe calls for wine, I can use one of these bottles and have little, if anything, left over. Granted, these wines aren’t going to be of the same quality as those found in my wine rack but, then again, I’m not about to open an expensive bottle of wine just so that I can pour a few ounces into a stew. I’ll leave it for you to decide whether to use wine and, if you do, which one to choose. A general rule of thumb, however, states that if a wine isn’t good enough to drink, one shouldn’t cook with it. So, avoid the “cooking wines” at your grocery.

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Slow Cooker Beef Stew Recipe

yield: 6 – 8 servings

prep time: approx.  30 minutes

cook time: 8 – 9 hours

Ingredients

  • One  2 – 3 lb beef roast, cut into 2 – 3 inch chunks (less expensive cuts of meat are fine for this recipe)
  • 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small package of new red or Yukon gold potatoes.
  • 1/2 small bag of organic baby carrots
  • 1 package frozen pearl onions
  • 1/2 package (about 4 oz) button or crimini mushrooms, quartered (more/less may be used according to your preference)
  • 1 small bottle (5..5 oz) red wine
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 – 4 sprigs of thyme
  • One 32 oz. box low-salt, fat-free beef stock
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Spray the inside of the slow cooker with your favorite cooking spray.
  2. Place olive oil in a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat.
  3. Meanwhile, use paper towels to pat dry the beef chunks, season them with salt & pepper, and place them into the now hot frying pan. DO NOT CROWD. The pieces should not touch each other or they will steam and not brown. You may need to do this in batches. Do not disturb the meat. After 3 minutes, gently lift one piece to see if it has browned. If not, return the piece as it was and wait another few minutes before checking again. Once it is browned, turn it over, as well as all the other chunks in the pan, Repeat this process until all the meat is browned on all sides. Remove the meat and place in the slow cooker. If needed, add a little more olive oil to the frying pan before browning the 2nd, or 3rd, batch of meat.
  4. Remove the frying pan from the heat, add the wine, and return to medium heat. Use a wooden spoon to scrape off any residue from the pan’s bottom. Once the pan is “clean,” reduce heat to low.
  5. Sprinkle the flour on top of the meat in the slow cooker. Add the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
  6. Add potatoes, carrots, onions, and mushrooms, in that order, to the slow cooker.
  7. Season with 1/2 tsp salt & 1/8 tsp pepper (more/less if you prefer).
  8. Pour the now-heated wine over the slow cooker’s contents.
  9. Add enough beef stock to cover the beef chunks. It’s OK if some of the mushrooms or carrots are above the liquid.
  10. Set slow cooker on “high” for one hour and then “low” for another 7 hours. Alternately, you can set your cooker on “low” and cook for 9 hours.
  11. Remove bay leaves & thyme sprigs before serving.

Variations

Although not really a variation, I have made this recipe but without the potatoes. I then serve it over a bed of plain rice or one of buttered, wide egg noodles. Before doing so, I check to see if the gravy is thick enough for serving this way. If not, I use a slotted spoon to remove most of the cooker’s content’s to a platter, leaving the liquid behind. Turn the cooker to “high” and while the gravy heats, mix a couple tbsp of corn starch into about a 1/4 cup water. Add to the slow cooker, stir thoroughly, and heat on “high” for 10  minutes before returning the stew meat & veggies to the cooker. By the time everything is heated through, another 5 – 10 minutes, the gravy should be thick and ready to serve.

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