Lenten Gruel...or a fairly tasty vegetarian mushroom soup

I know, it has been since forever that I actually posted a recipe. I am probably a bit rusty. Well, let's give it the old college try:

This is the soup I brought to the St. Anthony of Padua Event last night. It was pretty good. It would have been better with a brown goose stock, but Friday in Lent and all that.

First, you want a decent vegetable stock:

leek tops (washed - you don't want mud in the stock)
a carrot, chopped
celery leaves, chopped
three peeled garlic cloves
two bay leaves
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
a handfull of dried porcini mushrooms
half a teaspoon of black peppercorns.

Cover with cold water and simmer for a couple of hours.

Make a packet our of parchment and fill with mushrooms (I used crimini and shiitake, but fresh porcini would have been ideal), a few unpeeled cloves of garlic, a few sprigs of thyme, and a dash of Extra Virgin OIive Oil,
and roast for 45 minutes to an hour in a 375 degree oven.

Strain stock into another large pot.
Throw unpeeled quartered waxy potatoes (I used about seven good sized reds for a large pot) into the stock and boil until the potatoes are soft.

While they are boiling, thinly slice the white and pale green bottoms of two or three leeks. Place them in the bottom of your soup pot with a generous splash of water, a teaspoon of salt, a dash of vinegar (white wine or rice is best - I was out of both and used apple cider vinegar, which was fine) and a Tablespoon of unsalted butter. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Take the lid off the leek bottoms, add a dash of sugar, raise the heat and reduce the liquid. Pulverize the leeks with the mushrooms (be sure to take the garlic out of the peels and to remove the woody stems of the thyme, and pour the liquid off into your stock) in your food processor or food mill. You want them as smooth as you can get them.

In small batches pulverize the potatoes and the stock, stirring them into the soup. When everything is smooth and mixed, return the soup to the stove. Add salt (you will probably need to add quite a bit, as the potatoes soak it up), three Tablespoons (or so) butter or cream, a dash of vinegar (I used balsamic for this stage), a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and freshly cracked pepper. Adjust. It it is too flabby, add vinegar. If it is too sharp, add butter or cream. If it is flat, add salt, etc.

Serve with French bread slices that have been brushed with EVOO and toasted, and a sprig of thyme.

I would pair this with a dry, minerally white wine.

Okra!

I like okra, but whenever I suggest making it for dinner, Melanie has always said, "yuck! That slimey stuff" so I pass since I don't want to cook a dish just for one. Well, it has been building to a boiling point, and I decided to cook okra, even if I am the only one who is going to eat it. So, I bought a bag at the local farmers' market and fixed it up in a Cajun style, with some modifications. Melanie liked it so much she asked me to put some in her lunch today.

Finely dice an onion.
Dice a red bell pepper.
Coarsely chop a few tomatoes, reserving the juice.
Mince three cloves of garlic.
Slice your bag of okra into quarter inch rounds.
Fry up your onion and bell pepper in a mixture of bacon fat and olive oil.
Add the garlic and okra.
Fry to coat everything with oil.
Season with pimenton agridulce (or cayenne, if you want to be a purist).
Add the tomatoes, the juice from the tomatoes, a generous pinch of Mexican oregano, and a splash of dry white wine or dry white vermouth.
Cover and let simmer.
Serve with barbecue, sliced melon, grilled peaches, and a bold fruity red like a Sierra Nevada foothill zinfandel (we actually had an Amador County barbera, which was a good pairing).

Recipes for Moving Days

The title of this post is the Google search that led someone to this site.

Let me offer three:

1. Order out for Pizza (delivery of course)

2. Take out Chinese

3. Taqueria

Otherwise, look, your kitchen is in boxes. You don't want to create clutter nor anything that needs cleaning. Just get something fast, cheap and easy. Chances are there is a taqueria near you that sells good food cheaper than you can buy the raw ingredients. Take advantage of that. Be sure to get cold beer, too. You will want that.

Carne Asada

I made a simple carne asada the other day, which was really good and pretty easy.

You start with thinly sliced beef flank (your best bet is to go to a Mexican butcher and ask for carne ranchera). Rub it with pimenton ahumado (I used the Dulce, but the Agrodulce is fine, too. You should always have a tin of both around), allspice, garlic, cinnamon, pepper, cumin, and Mexican oregano. Scatter onion slices and cilantro sprigs over it and douse it in beer. Let it sit for at least two hours, although overnight is better.

Grill it over a hot charcoal fire (hardwood chunk charcoal is the best for this).

Serve with hot tortillas, salsa, guacamole, crema, chopped cilantro and onion, radishes, and cold beer.

Pork Chops

I made pork chops tonight. I use a paste rub (pimenton, garlic, oregano, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, clove, dried ginger, pepper, fennel seed, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, bay, whatever else strikes my fancy at the moment), browned them in olive oil with minced ginger, added some orange marmelade, vermouth and tamarind syrup, lowered the heat and simmered them till they were done.

I am not getting more specific, because you should experiment. The thing is: balance sweet, spice and tart. Finish with salt.

For sweet (sometimes it can be combined with tart) you can use orange juice, triple sec, Coca Cola, pineapple juice, pomegranite reduction, whatever. Try to keep it fruity: currant preserves are nice, as are prunes or apricot lekvar.

For tart you have myriad vinegars to choose from, dry table wine, sherry, lemon juice, lime juice, cranberry reduction, etc.

For spice, be sure to have ginger and allspice in there, but anything else is up to you and your nose.

If you want to have fun with salt, try rosemary or lavender salt.

Pork is a great food that can go both ways, wine-wise. Or should I say, all three ways, since beer often works too. For a red, I recommend something fruity and not too refined. A zinfandel or shiraz is perfect. For a white, try something crisp like a Gruner Veltliner or an Alsatian riesling or a Bonny Doon Malvasia Bianca. You can pick up the fruit of the dish, or you can pick something minerally to offer a counterpoint.

For a starch, go simple: plain rice, pilaf or oven roasted potatoes.

Serve a simple salad, and you have a meal.

Salsa Verde or The Formula for any Salsa de Molcajete

I am showing how to make a salsa with tomatillos, roasted garlic, and chipotles. You could use the same formula, and use roasted tomatoes for the tomatillos, haban~eros for the chipotles, just fresh garlic instead of roasted garlic, etc. Use your imagination, as the Purple Lizard says. Just keep in mind that if you use tomatoes, you may need to add some lime juice to boost the acidity.

Proportions are to taste, because the intensity of flavor varies so much depending on where the thing was grown, when it was grown, how much water it had, etc.

1. The first step is to roast the tomatillos. First peel off the papery husks, and wash the sticky goo off of them. Put them, along with the unpeeled garlic cloves, in a pan and stick it into a 375 degree oven. If you are using fresh chilies, roast them, too. If you are using dried chilis, toast them, then rehydrate them, but generally dried cilies go into fried salsas, so we will discuss their handling in the upcoming entry for enchilada sauce:

2. Grind up a couple of cloves of fresh garlic with some salt in your molcajete. Now, you might think that you can do this in any order, but any Mexican cook will tell you that you must do things in this order (if you are substituting ingredients, just substitute the ingredient in the proper place). If you have never used your molcajete, you will need to season it by grinding up some dry rice in it and throwing it out and repeating until there are no more little bits of rock and black sand in it:

3. As the tomatillos soften (you want them to be mushy), remove them from the oven:

4. Now, grind up your chilis, in this case chipotles (with a little splash of the adobo they were packed in):

5. Add the roasted tomatillos and grind them up with the rest:

6. Taste, correct for salt, fire, acidity (you will probably have no problems with enough acidity using tomatillos). Ready for chips!

Of course, this is the salsa I use to simmer chicharrones in. Just heat up a small pan of this, add pork rinds and a little splash of chicken stock and cook until the rinds are soft. Serve on hot corn tortillas with freshly chopped onion and cilantro. Accompany with ice cold beer and some conjunto music!

Recipe update...

I did not cook anything last night, rather I heated leftovers. So. No recipe. No photos.

Tonight, however, we will be having enchiladas. I should document this.

More on Whale Cuisine.

I am going to devote this post to pointing you in the direction of other places where they know a thing or two about cooking whale.

First, this one from Norway.

Second, if you speak Norwegian: This looks like some tasty stuff. Or you can go to Anders Jacobsen's blog to see one of these recipes in Englisch"

Third, for those of you who just like liquid whales, is a recipe for a blue whale. Watch out, as anything that is one part vodka, and five parts sweet stuff is a recipe for a hangover.

Fourth, another from www.highnorth.no, featuring an interesting European game preparation.

And, finally, whale pie.

Now, I have never eaten whale, so I have no idea what it tastes like, and no idea what method of cooking is best. I have eaten manatee, and I would have cooked it differently than it was served in the tapas bar in Spain where I had it.

Therefore, I neither endorse nor warn you off of any of these recipes, should you find yourself with a whale steak in your icebox.

The Perfect Martini

I have probably talked about the perfect martini before. I probably said that some other proportion of gin and vermouth was ideal.

The thing is, it all depends on the gin.

Right now I am using Bombay, just plain Bombay, not Bombay Sapphire. So I am making it with these proportions:

2 shots gin.
1/2 shot vermouth.
splash of ice water.
Shaken, so ice crystals form.

In my chilled glass, after pouring out the ice water, I put a few drops of Scotch and swirl. If it is just a few drops I do not pour it out. If it is more than a few drops I pour it out. I strain my martini into the glass.

Perfection.

Now, if I were to use Bombay Sapphire, I would use just a quarter shot of vermouth. If I were using Rear Admiral Joseph's, I would use a full shot. If it were Tanquerey, I would probably use a half shot, depending on whether I were adding an olive or a twist (more if an olive, less for a twist).

If I were using vodka, well, forget it. I don't do that.

Beef and goat cheese lasagne

This came about because I had a lump of pasta dough that was not enough to make a pot of linguine or any straight pasta. I knew it was enough for a lasagne, since I used its other half for that purpose a couple of days ago (with mushrooms, gruyere, cream, and white truffle oil). I also had a few ounces of goat cheese, some Monterrey Jack, and two pounds of ground beef (alright! Dinner without having to go to the grocery store!).

So, the first item was to whip up a semi-ragu:

Fry a quarter of a pound of finely chopped pancetta in EVOO. Add a few crushed and peeled cloves of garlic as it nears completion.

Add a finely diced onion and fry for a minute or so.

Add a finely diced carrot and a finely diced stalk of celery. Fry.

Add your ground beef, a generous splash of dry marsala, a cup or two of brown chicken stock, a cup of milk, thyme, oregano, Worcestershire Sauce, a box of Pomi tomatoes, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, pepper, and bay and cook for about an hour. As it nears completion, adjust for salt and acidity.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Layer your lasagna (reading from base to top):

Bottom: thin layer of meat sauce
Fresh pasta
Sauce
Goat cheese in lumps. Grated jack and/or gruyere and a bit of grated reggiano parmiggiana
Fresh pasta
Sauce
Cheese blend. Freshly cracked pepper.

In oven. It is done when it smells right and the cheese on top is browning beautifully.

Remove from oven. Let sit for a couple of minutes (it is about the temperature of hot lava anyway, and it needs to reabsorb juices). Cut, top with freshly diced parsley, and serve with a hearty red wine.