Why not try it myself? Almost every recipe had the same proportions, so here's what I ended up with:
16 green jalapeños. Fairly small to medium size, some with striations. I seeded the jalapeños but left some in the mixture.
Chop jalapeños and throw in a blender. Add
1 cup cider vinegar. Blend thoroughly. Add to big saucepan (my 3 quart cup was barely enough). Add:
1 cup cider vinegar
5 cups sugar (recipe called for 6 cups, I made it 5).
The result was extremely sweet. Quite green. Next time, try blending in all the seeds (Just stem them and throw them in).
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving pierogies
Pierogies are not my food. They belong properly east of the Elbe, and have migrated primarily to the colder climes in North America. Because my eventual migration from the Sonoran desert to northern latitudes involved contact with Polish and Ukrainian communities, I became properly introduced to this holiday standby. I'm not entirely certain where this potato dumpling necessarily traces its origin, or if some variety exists in all peasant cuisine where the potato predominates. I do not doubt it. But this is the year we embark on making pierogies a holiday tradition.
Ingredients for filling:
10 red potatoes, peeled
1 big big big white onion (or 2 small ones. Improvise)
about 12 ounces of cheddar, grated (we cut this down based on sight)
Boil potatoes until soft. Chop the onion FINE. Sharp knife please. Saute the onion in butter for about five minutes, until soft and translucent. Mix with potatoes and grated cheese and make a mash. No big lumps, but some texture is nice. Salt and pepper to taste.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Ingredients for filling:
10 red potatoes, peeled
1 big big big white onion (or 2 small ones. Improvise)
about 12 ounces of cheddar, grated (we cut this down based on sight)
Boil potatoes until soft. Chop the onion FINE. Sharp knife please. Saute the onion in butter for about five minutes, until soft and translucent. Mix with potatoes and grated cheese and make a mash. No big lumps, but some texture is nice. Salt and pepper to taste.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Monday, November 21, 2011
linguini with clams
This is one of those potential dinner party standbys.
2 pounds smallneck clams, scrubbed
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup olive oil
8 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
cracked pepper
red pepper flakes
juice of 1 lemon
handful of parsley
Check clams; throw live ones into a saute pan with the white wine. (I had to add more wine, but I compensated by boiling the wine down to reduce a little more.) Over medium high heat, kill the clams. Begin removing them when they pop open and drop them in a mixing bowl. I found here that you do have to wait for them to really pop open--they will die early but may not necessarily be cooked thoroughly. I found the whole process took about 5-8 minutes.
Strain the sauce through a cheesecloth and fine mesh sieve. I had to do this twice, as the grit is quite fine that comes out of it. Definitely double up the cheese cloth. If you let the broth settle in the pan and poor slowly, much of the silt will settle at the bottom and you can avoid it altogether.
Warm the olive oil. (If you are not using tomatoes, then use 1/2 cup olive oil.) Add the garlic and sautee until golden. If using fresh tomatoes, then add them now and saute for an additional five minutes. (I used fire roasted tomatoes, so I skipped this step). Add the reserved clam broth and lemon juice. Simmer for about four minutes over medium-low heat, until reduced. Add the cracked pepper and red pepper flakes. Taste sauce and adjust seasoning.
Drain pasta and add it to the frying pan. Add the clams in their shells and any juices that may have accumulated. Toss well over low heat for one minute to coat the pasta. Transfer to a bowl and add a handful of Italian parsley. Toss gently.
Thoughts:
The sauce came out powerful. Avoid adding extra wine next time, which I did because I was worried 1/2 cup would not cook the clams properly. control lemon juice. The acid provides a nice balance to the richness of this sauce, but can quickly overpower it.
I must learn more about cooking clams. This sauce really was easy to prepare, but I am so inexperienced with clams that I am not even certain how the perfect clam should taste. At least one recipe claims that once the clams open, they are cooked. However, some of the clams opened but were still a bit gummy and reluctant to leave their shells. This left me to wonder if you have to wait until they completely pop open, rather than just break open by a 1/4 inch or so. A second question is whether to cover the pan with a lid in order to trap the steam. Recipes seem conflicted on this.
2 pounds smallneck clams, scrubbed
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup olive oil
8 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
cracked pepper
red pepper flakes
juice of 1 lemon
handful of parsley
Check clams; throw live ones into a saute pan with the white wine. (I had to add more wine, but I compensated by boiling the wine down to reduce a little more.) Over medium high heat, kill the clams. Begin removing them when they pop open and drop them in a mixing bowl. I found here that you do have to wait for them to really pop open--they will die early but may not necessarily be cooked thoroughly. I found the whole process took about 5-8 minutes.
Strain the sauce through a cheesecloth and fine mesh sieve. I had to do this twice, as the grit is quite fine that comes out of it. Definitely double up the cheese cloth. If you let the broth settle in the pan and poor slowly, much of the silt will settle at the bottom and you can avoid it altogether.
Warm the olive oil. (If you are not using tomatoes, then use 1/2 cup olive oil.) Add the garlic and sautee until golden. If using fresh tomatoes, then add them now and saute for an additional five minutes. (I used fire roasted tomatoes, so I skipped this step). Add the reserved clam broth and lemon juice. Simmer for about four minutes over medium-low heat, until reduced. Add the cracked pepper and red pepper flakes. Taste sauce and adjust seasoning.
Drain pasta and add it to the frying pan. Add the clams in their shells and any juices that may have accumulated. Toss well over low heat for one minute to coat the pasta. Transfer to a bowl and add a handful of Italian parsley. Toss gently.
Thoughts:
The sauce came out powerful. Avoid adding extra wine next time, which I did because I was worried 1/2 cup would not cook the clams properly. control lemon juice. The acid provides a nice balance to the richness of this sauce, but can quickly overpower it.
I must learn more about cooking clams. This sauce really was easy to prepare, but I am so inexperienced with clams that I am not even certain how the perfect clam should taste. At least one recipe claims that once the clams open, they are cooked. However, some of the clams opened but were still a bit gummy and reluctant to leave their shells. This left me to wonder if you have to wait until they completely pop open, rather than just break open by a 1/4 inch or so. A second question is whether to cover the pan with a lid in order to trap the steam. Recipes seem conflicted on this.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Guinness braised short ribs
Ingredients:
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
6 short ribs (2.18 pounds)
2 pints Guinness
1 cup beef broth
2 carrots
Italian parsley
Finely chop onion and shallot and set aside. Preheat oven to 325.
Generously salt and pepper the short ribs. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven until shimmering. Brown the beef ribs. Most recipes say to flip only once, but I did it twice, to get three sides of the beef browned. It took a total of about six minutes, and would likely have been longer if using more ribs.
I then turned the heat off of the Dutch Oven and removed the beef ribs to a plate. I let the oil cool down for about five minutes while I deglazed the dutch oven with a wooden spoon. Then I dropped in the onions and shallots and stirred vigorously to soak up the oil and fat. They softened in about three minutes, and did not burn. I then added the guinness and the beef broth, and dropped the ribs back in. After bringing the broth to a boil, I dropped it in the oven. They sit in the oven for one and a half hours before any vegetables that one would like go into the broth. It cooks for another half an hour more after that.
The base of this recipe could easily take six more short ribs (four pounds worth). I don't know if changing the amount of beef would change the cooking temperature or anything of the like, but I doubt it. The beef ribs were almost completely submerged in the dutch oven, making me wonder if I could have gotten away with about half the amount of braising liquid. We shall see.
The ratio is my own. Most recipes invert the ratio, making it 2:1 beef broth to beer. But I want this to be different.
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
6 short ribs (2.18 pounds)
2 pints Guinness
1 cup beef broth
2 carrots
Italian parsley
Finely chop onion and shallot and set aside. Preheat oven to 325.
Generously salt and pepper the short ribs. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven until shimmering. Brown the beef ribs. Most recipes say to flip only once, but I did it twice, to get three sides of the beef browned. It took a total of about six minutes, and would likely have been longer if using more ribs.
I then turned the heat off of the Dutch Oven and removed the beef ribs to a plate. I let the oil cool down for about five minutes while I deglazed the dutch oven with a wooden spoon. Then I dropped in the onions and shallots and stirred vigorously to soak up the oil and fat. They softened in about three minutes, and did not burn. I then added the guinness and the beef broth, and dropped the ribs back in. After bringing the broth to a boil, I dropped it in the oven. They sit in the oven for one and a half hours before any vegetables that one would like go into the broth. It cooks for another half an hour more after that.
The base of this recipe could easily take six more short ribs (four pounds worth). I don't know if changing the amount of beef would change the cooking temperature or anything of the like, but I doubt it. The beef ribs were almost completely submerged in the dutch oven, making me wonder if I could have gotten away with about half the amount of braising liquid. We shall see.
The ratio is my own. Most recipes invert the ratio, making it 2:1 beef broth to beer. But I want this to be different.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
A Sour Season
Our holiday cocktail will be the sour. Amaretto and bourbon are the starting points here, but I am hoping to introduce at least a couple of others this time around. Stay tuned.
brussels sprouts
Having long endeavored to get my wife to eat brussels sprouts without success, our meal two weekends ago was a revelation. We visited No. 246 and sat at the "chef's table," which amounts to four stools pulled up to a counter looking across the crowded kitchen. The chefs certainly do serve you, experiment on you, joke with you, and otherwise make you feel like an insider while you watch the merry cacophony of dishwashers, station cooks, sous chef, and executive chef pile about. I thoroughly enjoyed No. 246 and will return, although I will probably insist upon the chef's table yet again. My only complaint was that they fed us too much, a fact they acknowledged frankly, just before continuing to feed us.
But I digress. The point is that they served a beautifully prepared hangar steak along with roasted brussels sprouts. The sprouts were sauteed and then baked, and the chef, when queried, just said "vinegar and oil, that's all it takes." He is a liar, but then again all these chefs are. I missed the preparation somehow, so I could not even report back how long they sauteed, what kind of vinegar they used, or how long they roasted.
So I try it now. Today in fact. I took a couple handfuls of brussels sprouts, washed them, stemmed them, cut an X on the base to facilitate cooking. In the small dutch oven I sauteed them for five minutes in 2 tbsp of butter, then sea salted them and peppered them and stuck them in the oven for fifteen minutes at 350 (preheated, of course).
This approximates Julia Child's preparation method, except that I did not blanch the brussels sprouts first.
The result was passable. The sautee produces chips--leaves of the brussels sprouts that drop off and harden in the oil. More do so during roasting, and I think it worth adding butter during the roasting process, as the butter browns quickly and is absorbed even more quickly. If you pull out the crispy leaves before roasting it, more crispy leaves will form, and they will likely not burn.
Next time we will cut these in half before sauteeing. Otherwise, this is close to being a money dish to go alongside either light or red meat.
But I digress. The point is that they served a beautifully prepared hangar steak along with roasted brussels sprouts. The sprouts were sauteed and then baked, and the chef, when queried, just said "vinegar and oil, that's all it takes." He is a liar, but then again all these chefs are. I missed the preparation somehow, so I could not even report back how long they sauteed, what kind of vinegar they used, or how long they roasted.
So I try it now. Today in fact. I took a couple handfuls of brussels sprouts, washed them, stemmed them, cut an X on the base to facilitate cooking. In the small dutch oven I sauteed them for five minutes in 2 tbsp of butter, then sea salted them and peppered them and stuck them in the oven for fifteen minutes at 350 (preheated, of course).
This approximates Julia Child's preparation method, except that I did not blanch the brussels sprouts first.
The result was passable. The sautee produces chips--leaves of the brussels sprouts that drop off and harden in the oil. More do so during roasting, and I think it worth adding butter during the roasting process, as the butter browns quickly and is absorbed even more quickly. If you pull out the crispy leaves before roasting it, more crispy leaves will form, and they will likely not burn.
Next time we will cut these in half before sauteeing. Otherwise, this is close to being a money dish to go alongside either light or red meat.
Paella
I adapted a New York Times recipe for Paella that worked quite well. I chopped up half a big onion, four garlic cloves, a load of green beans, leftover red pepper, and two Tappy's Heritage tomatoes, after seeding and pulping.
I simmered 4 cups of chicken stock to get it warm (since my stock sits in the freezer, this would have been necessary no matter what.
In the dutch oven, I warmed oil and then sauteed the onion. After five minutes, I added garlic, peppers, and salt and cooked for a couple of minutes before adding 1 Tablespoon of tomato paste and 1 Teaspoon of sweet paprika. After blending, I added the rice and blended it in.
After a couple of minutes of cooking the rice grains, I added the tomatoes, which included the quartered Tappy's heritage and a couple of handfuls of cabernet grape tomatoes. Then cooked for about five minutes.
Time to add stock. I brought it to a boil, dropped it to a simmer, and cooked it for fifteen minutes or so, until the stock had evaporated.
I used jasmine rice, which is what we had. It's a medium grain, so it worked fine.
I simmered 4 cups of chicken stock to get it warm (since my stock sits in the freezer, this would have been necessary no matter what.
In the dutch oven, I warmed oil and then sauteed the onion. After five minutes, I added garlic, peppers, and salt and cooked for a couple of minutes before adding 1 Tablespoon of tomato paste and 1 Teaspoon of sweet paprika. After blending, I added the rice and blended it in.
After a couple of minutes of cooking the rice grains, I added the tomatoes, which included the quartered Tappy's heritage and a couple of handfuls of cabernet grape tomatoes. Then cooked for about five minutes.
Time to add stock. I brought it to a boil, dropped it to a simmer, and cooked it for fifteen minutes or so, until the stock had evaporated.
I used jasmine rice, which is what we had. It's a medium grain, so it worked fine.
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