Paleo-Local Brisket - September 16, 2012

This was a local ingredients version of Sylvia's traditional brisket recipe, substituting in-season fruits and other ingredients for the usual catchup, ginger ale, and Lipton onion soup mix. It was fabulous and even Murray loved it.

3 lb. local grass-fed brisket
2 large onions, chopped
1 peach
1 nectarine
2 pears
1 apple
ground cloves
ground cinnamon
salt
pepper
bunch parsley
few leaves basil (5)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
1 ½ cups prune juice
1 ½ cups water
10 Yukon Gold potatoes, med./small
6 medium carrots

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Pat dry meat. Generously salt and pepper it on both sides. Add 3 tblsp olive oil to heavy pan over high heat. Seer brisket until browned and a little crisp, about 3-4 minutes/side. Remove brisket.

2. Add chopped onions to pan. Add ¼ tsp. salt. Cook on high 3-4 minutes until soft. Reduce to low. Cook for 5-10 minutes.

3. Seed and roughly chop all of the fruit. Also roughly chop bunch parsley (stems removed.) When onions slightly caramelized add the fruit and parsley. Cook on high heat 2-3 minutes.

4. Remove about ⅔ of the onion fruit mixture from the pan. Then add meat to the pan. Add prune juice, water, 3 tblsp. balsamic vinegar, ¼ tsp. of cloves, and ¼ tsp. of cinnamon. Place onion fruit mixture back on top of the meat and cook on high heat until it starts to boil.

5. Cover and put in oven.

6. Peel and quarter potatoes. Peel and chop carrots into 1 ½ “ sticks. Steam them until al dente, about 20 minutes.

Paleo Toe In The Water

I'm just posting here to record a bit of my diet using the guidelines of my dear paleolithic ancestors.
I've been winging it for a week on recipes, and made a few good meals. Generally, though, I end up with greens of some kind cooked in fat, pushed out to the side of the pan, then cooked some more as I cook the main meat or fish dish in the center.

For example tonight's meal:

1. About a pound of local pork sage sausage chopped and put in pan with some butter (just found out I'm not supposed to use this--oops); half onion sliced and put in. 
2. When onions soft, prepped string beans added to center well. High heat about five minutes tossing occasionally. Pushed everything out to the side then, 
3. Added maybe 2T slivered almonds; toasted in middle of pan with light sprinkle of Cayenne pepper. Mixed in, pushed everything out to side then,
4. Added three blue fish fillets, prepared with salt, pepper, and some ground mixed tree nuts and a sprinkling of fresh tarragon. Cooked on high heat, flesh side down.
5. Made sauce with melted butter added to Dijon mustard, cumin, and a dash of Balsamic vinegar. 
6. Served fish topped with more fresh tarragon and spooned mustard-cumin sauce over; beans and almond served on the side (saved the sausage for another meal.) Also served green salad on the side.

I'm working on getting away from the one-pan version, though. Here are some menu ideas I have for this week, based on what's in the fridge and freezer--all local:

• Baked round zucchinis stuffed with ground pork and onions.
•  Grilled pork chops on a bed of grilled apples and celery.
• Sliced cooked tuna with ginger tossed with Swiss chard and ginger.
• Slow-cooked zucchini and ground lamb served on a grilled portabella mushroom.
• Chopped beans and sausage (leftover from tonight's meal) mixed with leftover summer squash, eggplant, and chorizo dish, wrapped in a collard leaf and baked.
• Diced cantaloupe tossed with bacon drippings, crushed cooked bacon, and fresh tarragon.

I'm liking the sound of these and feel like I'm just getting the hang of starting to think in a new language. We'll see if it's lost in translation to the table!

Chicken Pot Pie Happiness

This turned out to be one of the most comforting dishes I've made in a while, and who doesn't want to remember comfort? So here it is. It's loosely based off of a recipe in Best Recipe of Cooks' Illustrated. It's heavy on the carrots and celery (something I don't usually like too much), but was beautifully balanced in the end and worked both in terms of texture and aroma. (My pie did not actually look like this.)

For a 9" pie. 6-8 servings.

Ingredients
pie crust for top and bottom--whatever recipe or prepared version you like

1.25 lb. chicken breast on bone (I used local fresh chicken. So flavorful.)
3 c chicken broth (Used Trader Joe's organic, boxed.)
2T + 4T butter
1 t dried tarragon
1 med potato, peeled and diced to about 1/2 in.
2 T olive oil
3/4 large onion, diced
4 med carrots, diced
5 stalks celery, lightly peeled, dices small (sliced lengthwise 3 or 4 times, then chopped) It will be more celery than the carrots and onion combined.
3T white flour
3t dried thyme
1 1/2 heads garlic, minced (Yes, a lot. Some of mine was a little dried out, so you could use 1 head, but you'll need at least that much.)
1/4 c flour
1/2 c heavy cream

Directions

1. Make (or buy) your pie dough ahead and refrigerate.
   
2. Boil the whole chicken breast in the broth for 8-10 min. Remove chicken to cool. Reserve broth. (I did 8 and it wasn't quite cooked through. Also did this a day ahead because the chicken needed to be cooked.)
3. After chicken has cooled, shred it with two forks. Discard skin and bone.
4. In a skillet, melt 2T butter. Add shredded chicken and tarragon. Mix thoroughly and saute on med-low heat for 2-3 minutes. Leave in pan until needed later. (If you boil chicken ahead, do this later when you're making the rest.)
   
   Preheat oven to 400.
   
5. In a medium pot, boil the diced potato for about 3 minutes. Drain and reserve.
6. In a large heavy pot, heat onions in oil on high heat until they soften. Reduce heat to med-low and add carrots, garlic, and thyme. Heat through. Add celery. Let cook on low for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Make a well through to the bottom of the pot. Add the flour there and stir a bit until it heats. Add the 4T of butter to that and mix in to make paste. Now be patient, letting it heat through and start to turn light brown and smell nutty. Stir occasionally. When it starts to get the wonderful nutty smell (that's a roux!) then stir into all the veggies and heat through for another minute or so.
8. Gradually add the chicken broth, stirring through each time (maybe a 1/4 cup at a time) until it's mixed through and not lumpy at all from the flour. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat.
9. Add heavy cream and the boiled diced potato. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer on low heat for about ten minutes. It needs to reduce to a pretty thick consistency as this will be the pie filling with the chicken added.
   
10. While the filling is simmering, roll out your pie dough and line the bottom of the pie dish. (Once in the dish, you may want to put it in the oven for 4-5 min. to set a little. I did this as my bottom dough was too wet--a frozen one I totally messed up getting in the dish, but it came out fine. I used my own dough for the top--and it was better.)
11. Roll out or prepare top dough layer.
    
12. Add the chicken to the pot and heat/mix through.
13. Ladle the filling into the pie dish until full. (I had about 3/4 cup left--really tasty appetizer eaten with a spoon!)
14. Cover with top crust. Seal edge, and but a few fork holes in the top to let out steam.
15. Place in oven with a baking tray underneath (next shelf down) to catch drips.
16. Bake for 20-25 min. or until top is nicely brown. Remove and let stand for ten or fifteen minutes before serving. It will still be plenty hot!

This pie is a good meal all by itself with maybe a green salad on the side. Good leftovers with a quick reheat in the microwave (no more than 20 sec. for a piece) or put the whole pie dish in the oven at 350 for ten minutes or less.

Simple Bread Pudding

This is an adaptation from the Joy of Cooking version. Made to use up leftover stale bread in the fridge.

9 x 11 baking dish; larger lasagna pan; mixer; bowls, etc.

Preheat to 350. Serves 6-8.

INGREDIENTS

cubed stale bread, about 4 cups, 1/2 in. cubes (I used half old baguette, half white loaf.)
eggs, 4, separated
sugar, 1/3 cup + 2 T + 1t
milk, whole, 3 cups
cider, hard, 1 cup (Doesn't have to be hard.)
raisins, 1/3 cup + 2 T
apple, about 1/3 cup finely chopped (I used 2/3 of a small apple.)
cinnamon, 1/2 t + sprinkle

DIRECTIONS

1. Cube bread in put in large mixing bowl. Prep apple.
   
2. Heat milk to warm, not boiling. When hot, whisk in cider. It will start to curdle, so whisk in quickly and then pour over bread and mix.
   
3. Combine egg yolks with 1/3 cup sugar. Add with 1/2 cinnamon, chopped apple, and 1/3 cup raisins to bread mixture. Combine.
4. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Beat in about 2T sugar. Fold egg whites into bread mixture.
5. Transfer bread mixture to 9x11 baking dish. Top with 2 T raisins, 1 t sugar, and sprinkle of cinnamon.
6. Place 9 x 11 dish in larger lasagna pan. Place in oven. Fill measuring cup with hot water from tap. Pour into the lasagna pan wen it's in the oven to create a bath.
7. Bake at 300F for 40 minutes or until set.
   
8. To remove, use a baster to remove some of the water form the lasagna pan, then lift out the pudding dish. This makes it easier.

It's a very moist pudding because of the apples, but a very nice texture when cooked through since the egg whites add some lift. I served this with maple beef breakfast sausages. Wonderful complement, and you could prepare the dish with sausage pieces in it.

Shrimp Etoufee In A Pie!

This was an adaptation of a basic etoufee but served as one dish (not over rice) and in a pie dish. Looked like a pie, served like rice. Easy to make ahead and reheat or to take to someone's house. Spicey enough for New Orleaneans but didn't exclude others. Here's how it went:

Serves 4 generously or 6 with more normal portions. 9 in. diam. pie pan; 2 in. deep

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c uncooked short grain glutinous rice . (Regular or brown rice would work but the glutoun makes it wonderfully saucy and it serves well)


• 2 med onions, chopped


• 1 bell pepper, diced


• 2 stalks celery, diced


• 5 cl.garlic, minced


• 4 T salted butter + some to butter tin


• 1 T salt 1/4 t cayanne pepper


• 2 t dried thyme + some for sprinkling


• 1 lb. small peeled shrimp (I used cooked shrimp because I had it, but uncooked would be better. Small is important.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350.

1. Cook rice in 3 c water. Boil, reduce to simmer for 25 min. Turn off heat and let sit.


2. Melt butter in large skillet (I use 14 in.) over med heat. Add flour a little at a time, constantly stirring/scraping with flat end of a spatula. Continue scraping over med to low heat for 10-15 min, or until roux forms with a cherry wood or almond color. Med brown roux.


3. Add garlic and heat through. Quickly add onions, bell pepper, and celery before roux gets too dark. Add salt, cayanne pepper, and thyme. Stir through and keep it moving over med to high heat until onions are soft--about five minutes.


4. Reduce heat to low and let cook another five minutes, stirring occasionally.


5. Add shrimp (except for about 20 that you reserve for garnish) and combine, heating though on med heat. (If using raw shrimp, push onion mixture to sides of pan, crank heat to high, add a little oil or butter or oil in center, add shrimp and toss it over the heat for one or two minutes until coooked through, then combine.)


6. Over low heat, add all of the rice, about a cup at a time, combining until evenly mixed. Add 1/4 c vegetable stock to deglaze pan if sticking.


7. Butter the pie pan, then transfer rice-etoufee mixture to pan a few spoons at at time, packing it in as much as you can. It will fill and slightly heap the pan.


8. Garnish with a ring of shrimp around the perimiter and a pinwheel in the center. Sprinkle with crushed thyme.


9. Bake in 350 oven for 30 min.

Variations and changes: Could try not putting any stock in to make it dryer. I thought the whole thing might set, but it got softer, not firmer, in the oven. A long slow cook time might make a more "cakey" etoufee pie, but this was so delicious, it might not be a good idea to mess with it.

Manning St. version of Galician Cocido for Carnival 2011

This is what you might call a strenuous adaptation of the Lalin Cocido from Galicia that John Barlow describes in Everything but the Squeal. I was going with all-local, humanely raised meat, so no snout, trotters, or ears for me, but I got some very good cuts of pork from Cherry Grove and some fine fresh chorizo from Fair Foods. The dish is, I think, as much attitude as cooking: quantity counts, and the main idea is to eat a LOT. We did our best. . . .
Here's what it was (with recommended changes noted):

serves 8 generously

Ingredients:
Pork

4 lb. pork shoulder, chopped into chunks
1 lb. ham, chunked
2 very large ham hocks, cut up or cut up after cooked
1 lb. pork neck bones
1 lb. smoked bacon, cut to 4 in. pieces
15 med. potatoes, washed and whole
dry rub:
3/4 c. rough crushed black pepper (would reduce to 1/3 c.)
1/4 c. + 1 T cumin
1/4 c. + 1 T salt
1/4 c. + 1 T smoked paprika, med (would double this)

Chicken
4 lb. whole chicken, hacked up
4 cups dried chick peas
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. white flour
4 white onions, chopped
1 1/2 c. dry white wine
1/4 t Cayenne pepper

Sausage
2 lb. fresh chorizo sausage, cut in large chunks (3-4 in.)
1 lb. fresh Andouille sausage, cut in large chunks (3-4 in.)
4 bunches (approx. 12 cups loose) turnip or other greens, washed and ripped
2 red onions, sliced thin
1/4 T vegetable oil
1 t sherry vinegar

This was, as recommended in Barlow's book, cooked as three dishes, though some cocidos combine it all.

1. Soak chick peas overnight. Next day, cook for an hour or until soft, then drain.
2. Make the dry rub and cut up the pork. Mix together, coat all pieces in the rub, and store overnight.
3. In batches, brown all of the pork over high heat, then combine all of it in a very large pot.
4. Add 6+ cups boiling water. Bring to boil and then reduce to a simmer, cover and let braise. Check water level after a half hour. Water will come out of the meat and add to the broth. Add more water if needed. Should be brothy. Simmer for 1 1/2 hrs.
   
   
5. Start the chicken by making a roux in a large heavy pot: head the oil, then slowly add the flour, scraping constantly over med. heat until it turns a med. brown and has a nice nutty smell.
6. Add the chopped white onions, combine and saute on med. heat for around five minutes or until all onions are soft. It will get a little stiff at first, then loosen up. Add the cayenne pepper and some salt (maybe 1 t).
7. Make a well in the middle of the onions, turn up the heat to high, and add the chicken, browning and then removing, a few pieces at a time.
8. With all the chicken out, add the wine and deglaze the bottom of the pot.
9. Return all chicken pieces to the pot and add boiling water, about a cup at a time, until you've added about 4-6 cups. It shoudl make a thick broth full of onions.
10. Set to simmer and leave it be, stirring every 20 min. or so. Simmer for 1 hour, and then test for donness by cutting a thick piece in half.
    
    
11. Heat oil to high temperature in a deep heavy pot. Add sausage pieces, and cook until just cooked through. Test by cutting.
12. Add the red onions, and just heat through--about a minute. You don't want them to remain a little crunchy. Remove sausage and onions from the pot.
13. Add the greens to the high heat. Reduce heat to low. Cover and let wilt--about 3 min.
14. Add 1-2 c. water, deglaze the pot, and cover. Steam for 4-5 min. Then remove from heat and drain.
    
    
15. After pork has braised for an hour and a half, add the whole potatoes for the last half hour or until they are soft through. When done, remove the pieces of meat and potatoes with tongs onto a platter. Dowse with the broth and serve with a pitcher of broth on the side.
16. After the chicken has simmered for an hour, remove the pieces, then add in the cooked, drained chick peas. Re-heat the chicken before serving on top of a bed of the chick peas in sause.
17. Salt the greens, serve onto a platter, drizzle with 1 t sherry vinigar, then top with heated sausage and onions. (You will have more sausage than you need for the platter.)

Enjoy!

Lamb Ragout Ravioli Supreme

This is a most extraordinary taste experience because of the intensity of the lamb and the wonderful reduction of flavors that happens when the tough shoulder cut is slow cooked for hours. We used Meadow Book lamb that was boneless. Bone-in will work, but the cooking will take longer.

serves 6-8

Ingredients

Ragout:

2.5 lb. boneless lamb shoulder, cubed to abt. 1 in.

1 L onion, chopped

1 head garlic, rough cut

1/2 c. red wine (I used a Merlot.)

4 sprigs fresh rosemary prepared in 2 sachets

2 T olive oil

salt

Pasta
3 c. white flour

4 eggs

2-4 T heavy cream

Garnish

2T salted butter

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

3T finely chopped fresh mint

Directions
Ragout:

1. Heat oil in heavy pot to hot. Add lamb cubes and brown for 5-10 min. Remove from pot.


2. Add onion and garlic to oil. Cook onions until soft, reduce and cook for 10-15 min.


3. Return lamb to pot. Add wine and 1 rosemary sachet. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer.


4. Let braise for at least 3 hours. Add liquid as needed to keep it from sticking. The idea is to have only a small amount of liquid but to keep it cooking on low.


5. After an hour and again in another half hour, shred the cubes of meat by using two forks to rip each piece in two.


6. About halfway through, take out the first rosemary sachet and put in the second one.


7. At then end, adjust with salt.

Pasta:
Make in two batches

1. Take 1 1/2 c. flour and heap in a pile on work surface.


2. Make a well in the middle.


3. Crack and add one egg to the middle of the well.


4. Use a fork to very slowly incorporate egg into flour.


5. Make another well, add the second egg, and do the same thing.


6. Add abt. 2 T heavy cream to flour.


7. Knead with your hands for a long time--7-10 min.--until the dough is elastic and bouncy in all directions.


8. Cover with plastic.


9. Repeat above for the second half.


10. Wrap both dough balls in plastic and refrigerate for an hour.

Assembling the Ravioli

1. Put on a large pot of salted water to boil.


2. Take one dough ball and roll out to thickness of about 1/16-1/8 in. To do this, roll, lightly flour dough surface, then flip at least 8-10 times.


3. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut a strip of dough about 2 1/2 in.


4. Place 1T of lamb ragout every 3 or so inches down the strip.


5. Cut another 2 /12 in. strip slightly longer. Place it on top, pressing down between the mounds of ragout to seal the dough.


6. Cut into square individual raviolis.


7. Crimp edges with a fork dipped in water.


8. Place on a plate sprinkled with corn meal and layer with corn meal between each layer to prevent sticking.


9. Immerse ravioli in boiling water. Let boil for at least 1:45. Test for tenderness

Service

1. Barely melt 2T butter.


2. Place ravioli in one large layer or two if needed on a large platter.


3. Drizzle melted butter over, then sprinkle on Parmesan followed by mint.