Sicilian style spaghetti with eggplant

I am sorry for not posting more. It has been a while and there's been a lot going on. I've been cooking a lot, just not posting so often.

Over the weekend, I was in the mood for a good spaghetti dinner.  I picked up an eggplant and some Pecorino Romano cheese. This is a very simple meal, of fried eggplant and spaghetti, but it really hits the spot. Two tips for making this sauce, use San Marzano tomatoes, and don’t cover the saucepan. Also use your very best olive oil. The few simple ingredients really shine in this meal. Here is how I prepared it.

A medium eggplant

1 cup of flour

Onion salt 

Extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

Half teaspoon of red pepper flakes

28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

12 basil leaves

1 cup of shredded Pecorino Romano cheese

Spaghetti, cooked and drained

Preparation

About an hour before you start cooking, Wash the eggplant and slice it in quarter inch slices, lengthwise. Salt both sides of each slice and set the slices in a colander. Place a lid on the slices, and set a couple tomato cans on the lid. Let the eggplant drain for about an hour.

When the eggplant is about 45 minutes into its rest, empty the tomatoes into a bowl, and use your hand to break them up. Heat a medium saucepan, and add enough olive oil to give a heavy coating. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Let that sizzle, but don’t brown the garlic. After about a minute add the tomatoes and stir. Let that gently simmer, uncovered, while you cook the eggplant.

Place the flour in a zip lock bag, and sprinkle in some onion salt. Rinse each eggplant slice, and pat it dry. Heat a medium cast iron pan and add about a quarter inch deep of extra virgin olive oil. Shake an eggplant slice in the flour and add it to the hot oil. Add enough slices to fill the pan in a single layer. Brown the eggplant on both sides, and drain them on a paper towel. Repeat with the remaining eggplant slices.

Chop and add the basil leaves to the tomato sauce. Put your spaghetti on to cook. While the spaghetti is cooking, turn the heat off the sauce, and sprinkle on half of the Pecorino Romano cheese. When the spaghetti is al dente, you are ready to serve.

Serving

Place a mound of spaghetti on your plate. Add eggplant around the spaghetti. Cover the spaghetti with lots of sauce, and sprinkle on the remaining shredded Pecorino Romano cheese. I just had this with some olives and a nice Rosso wine.

Cauliflower soup with smokey pork

On Saturday, my friends John and Deb came down to visit, along with part of their clan. I was just making pizzas for dinner, but I decided to make a batch of soup as well. This is mostly a vegetable soup, with the addition of a little smoky pork and some bacon. This is pretty easy and quick, as soup goes. It was a big hit. Here is how I made it.

3 thick slices of bacon, chopped

2 tbs. of butter

1 leek, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 head of cauliflower, broken up

2 cups of broken broccoli

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 stalk of celery chopped

3 bay leaves

Water

1 tbs. cumin

Quarter teaspoon of chipotle

1 tsp. oregano

1 cups of shredded smokey pulled pork

2 tbs. chicken bullion

Maggi seasoning

Worcestershire sauce

1 cup of heavy whipping cream 

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat a large dutch oven, and add the chopped bacon, along with the butter. Add the leek and the onion and stir. Let that wilt down and begin to brown. While that is happening, break up the cauliflower. You can include some of the leaves and most of the core. Add the cauliflower, the broccoli, bell pepper, celery, pulled pork, bay leaves and then add enough water to cover. Bring that to a boil, cover, and simmer for about fifteen minutes.

By now the vegetables should be real soft. Remove the pot from the stove, and remove the bay leaves. Use an immersion blender to puree the vegetables and meat. Return to the stove, and bring the soup back to a simmer. Add the cumin, oregano, chicken bullion and cream. Let that simmer and reduce for about a half hour, stirring often.

Now is where your judgement comes in. Taste the soup. Add several dashes of Maggi seasoning and Worcestershire sauce. Stir and taste the soup again. Adjust for salt and pepper, and if you think it’s necessary, with other seasonings.

Serving

We had lots of cheese, sausage, veggies and fruit out, and then this soup preceded sausage pizzas. All of that was accompanied by either wine or beer, lots of laughs, and good conversation.

Turkey barley soup with noodles and lentils

After Thanksgiving dinner, the question becomes, what to do with the turkey carcass? My answer is soup!

Over the weekend, I went to work on the turkey carcass, first removing all the meat I could get off of it. Then I broke the carcass in half, put it in a stock pot, and made a big pot of turkey broth. 

Later I strained the broth into a soup pot, and started making this thick porridge. After the soup cooked down a little, I added in mashed rutabaga and carrots, some peas, and barley. I let the soup cook down so that it was nice and thick.

Here’s how I made the soup.

Stock

Turkey carcass

Lots of water

4 bay leaves

Half cup of onion flakes

3 stalks of celery, broken

Half teaspoon of celery seed

Half teaspoon of garlic powder

Soup

Lots of turkey stock

4 stalks of celery, diced

1 large onion, diced

Quarter cup of onion flakes

1 bowl of turkey meat, cut from the carcass

1-1/2 cups of mashed rutabaga and carrots

Half cup of barley

Half cup of red lentils

1 cup of frozen peas

Teaspoon of oregano

Teaspoon of thyme

Adobo seasoning

Maggi Seasoning

Worcestershire sauce

1 cup of small pasta shells

Preparation

Now the secret to this soup is reducing the volume of liquid by long simmering, just about all day. Once you have the stock, in the soup pot, you won't be able to fit all the ingredients in the pot, so you cook the soup down, and add ingredients as it is reduced. You end up with a real thick porridge.

First make the stock. Pick all the meat off the carcass, and set that aside in the fridge. Break the carcass in half, set that in a large stock pot, and add water to completely cover the bones. Set that on the stove on high heat. Add the bay leaves, onion flakes,  broken celery stalks, the celery seed and garlic powder. Throw in a spec of salt too. Bring that to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, partially covered, for two hours. Strain the stock into a large soup pot.

Set the soup pot on the stove, bring the stock back to a simmer. My stock was almost to the top of the soup pot. I added  the celery, onion, onion flakes, thyme, oregano, and let that simmer for a half hour, uncovered. That gave me a little more room in the pot, so I added the lentils and barley. About a half hour later, I added the turkey meat, and the frozen peas. About a half hour later, I added the rutabaga and carrots. Stir well to mix that in. Continue simmering for another hour, but now stir every fifteen minutes or so, to keep stuff from sticking. 

Splash on several shakes of Maggi seasoning and Worcestershire sauce. Stir that in and taste. Start adding adobo seasoning (or plain salt) and adjust until the salt is right. Add the pasta shells, and simmer for a final half hour. By now the soup should be nice and thick. You are ready to serve.

Serving

Last night I had a large bowl of this porridge, along with a turkey sandwich made with homemade bread. My niece gave me an American micro-brewed Kolsch (a light German style beer), which went perfect with this.

Poblano peppers stuffed with smokey pork

I stopped at the Mexican market in West Chicago, on my way home from the office last week. I wanted to get the things I need for making burritos out of my leftover smoked pork. Then I saw the beautiful poblano peppers they had on sale. I did a quick change of recipe in my head, and picked up a few other ingredients. 

When I arrived home I started in on these. This came out great, and despite the way it sounds, it is very easy to make. Start to finish, I was eating in less than an hour from the time I pulled into the driveway. Here is how I prepared this dish.

3 poblano peppers

2 cups of smokey leftover roast pork, shredded

Olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped fine

3 Tabasco peppers, sliced (or red pepper flakes)

Half teaspoon of cumin

Pinch of oregano

Worcestershire sauce

Soy sauce

Half pound of shredded Quesadilla cheese

PAM cooking spray

7 oz can of Mexican salsa (San Marcos)

Steamed rice

Preparation

Wash and place the poblano peppers on a baking sheet, under the broiler. Broil these so that the skin is charred and blistered on all sides. Place the peppers in a bowl just big enough to hold them, and cover it with a plate. Let those steam and cool.

Put your rice on to steam. Preheat the oven to 385º.  Shred the pork and set it in a bowl. Heat a medium oven proof skillet and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the onion and the thinly sliced hot peppers (or red pepper flakes). Stir and let that soften, but don’t brown the onions. As soon as the onions are softened, add the pork, the cumin and oregano. Stir that in. When everything is hot, sprinkle on a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and a dash of soy sauce. Stir for a minute, and turn off the heat. Place that into a medium bowl and stir to help it cool.

When the peppers have cooled enough to handle, gently peel off the charred skin. When it is most all off, slit the pepper down one side, open it up to remove the seeds and stem. Fold it back over, and do the same to the other peppers. By now the pork and onion mixture should have cooled to just warm. Add half of the Quesadilla cheese to it and stir.

Spray the skillet that cooked the meat with PAM. Lay one pepper in the skillet, open it, and spoon in the pork and cheese mixture. Fold the pepper closed, and turn it seam side down. Repeat with the other two peppers. Space the stuffed peppers evenly in the skillet, and spoon the leftover pork mixture around the peppers. Pour the can of Mexican salsa over the peppers, and sprinkle on the remaining cheese. Bake in the hot oven until the cheese is completely melted, about ten minutes. Finish under the broiler to brown the cheese.

Serving

Place a mound of steamed rice on your plate. Add a stuffed pepper or two, with lots of the sauce. Pick out a lively, citrusy white wine. Vinho Verde from Portugal is my favorite. Ring the dinner bell!

Minestrone soup with chicken

Saturday was a rainy day. I had wanted to unload my truck and get it cleaned up, but the rain put a damper on that. So, instead, I made soup. I made a stock from bones in the freezer, but the beans were canned. The chicken carcass I had in the freezer had lots of meat left on it. I used that to make the stock, and then cut the meat off the bones, and added that to the soup.

That night, my neighbors came over for dinner. I got pretty favorable reviews on this minestrone. It went real well with the lamb I roasted. Here is how I made the minestrone. 

1 meaty chicken carcass from roast chicken

Water

1/4 cup of onion flakes

3 bay leaves

4 stalks of celery, broken

1/2 tsp. adobo seasoning

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. chicken bullion

Olive oil

1 large carrot, cubed

3 stalks of celery, sliced

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 serrano pepper, chopped

1/2 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. smoked paprika

15 oz. can of pinto beans

1 pound can of Blue Runner red beans

10 oz. can of RoTel tomatoes

1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables

Worcestershire sauce

Maggi seasoning

4 small branches of fresh rosemary

1 cup of small pasta shells

Preparation

For the stock, place the chicken carcass in a stock pot, and add enough water to completely cover the bones. Add the onion flakes, the broken celery, bay leaves, adobo seasoning, cumin, and the chicken bullion. Bring that to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for one hour.

Strain the stock. Remove all the meat from the bones, chop that and set aside. Heat a large soup pot and add just enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the carrots, onion, sliced celery, garlic and serrano pepper. Stir and let that sweat down. Sprinkle on the thyme, oregano and smoked paprika. Once the onions have softened, add the chopped chicken. Let that gently cook for about five minutes and add the stock.

Bring the soup to a boil, and let it simmer uncovered, for about a half hour, to reduce the volume. Add the pinto beans, and then stir in the Blue Runner red beans. Stir well, and let that simmer for another half hour. Add the RoTel tomatoes, the mixed vegetables, a few dashes of the Worcestershire sauce, and a few more dashes of the Maggi seasoning. Simmer for another half hour, and add the rosemary branches and the pasta.  Simmer for a final half hour, but stir often, and keep the heat low, to avoid scorching. Taste and adjust the minestrone for salt, using adobo seasoning.

Serving

Serve big bowls of this soup, with some grated Parmesan cheese. We also had medium rare roast lamb, roasted potatoes, gravy, fresh homemade bread and lots of butter. A hearty Zinfandel would be best with this.

Chicago style Italian beef ... made with leftover roast beef

Last week, I did a beef roast, long and slow, over charcoal and wood, until it hit medium rare perfection. Even though I overate when I served it up for dinner, I still had a lot left. Another night I turned it into Chicago style Italian beef. 

Ok, I admit, I cheated. Italian beef is supposed to be braised so long that it almost falls apart, and the ‘juice’ is full of that great flavor. Instead, I started at 5:00, and by 6:15, I was eating a very good version of an Italian beef sandwich. 

This is a great way to use up leftover roast, and it came real close to the authentic flavor of ‘A beef with hot’. Here’s how I did it. The picture right below is just after I added the liquid, but before it was simmered and reduced.

At least a pound of medium rare roast beef

1 large onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, cut into strips

Olive oil

About a quart of water

1 tablespoon of beef bullion

Teaspoon of flour

Quarter cup of the brine from Peperoncini

2 teaspoons of oregano

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

Quarter cup of onion flakes

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

Cajun seasoning

Adobo seasoning

Hearth baked hard rolls

Preparation

Heat a large skillet and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the chopped onion and bell pepper strips. Let that start to sweat down. While that is cooking, slice the roast beef as thin as you can, and then cut the slices into strips. Add that to the skillet, along with the oregano, garlic powder, onion flakes, and smoked paprika. Sprinkle on the flour and stir until all the flour and seasonings are well distributed. Add the water, beef bullion, and the brine from a jar of Peperoncini pickled peppers. 

Bring that to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and very gently simmer, uncovered, for at least an hour. Taste and adjust the flavor with cajun and adobo seasoning. By now, the liquid should be reduced and very flavorful. You are ready to serve.

Serving

Slice open a few hearth baked hard rolls, and pile on the beef, peppers, and onions. Get some of the ‘juice’ with it. Give the beef a sprinkle of cajun seasoning, and top with some hot giardiniera. Pop open a little Italian red wine, and you are good to go!

Beef roasted over charcoal and wood

Sunday, I was enjoying the cool summer day. My first order of business was to mow two front lawns. It wasn’t even 70º yet, and that made for nice mowing weather. After that, I was in relax mode. Around noon, I lit the grill.  I had a four pound beef roast and I wanted to do that nice and slow on the grill. I set my chair out by the grill, and grabbed my Kindle. It made for a nice afternoon.

I served the beef, slice thin, with lots of gravy, which had a great smokey flavor. Here’s how I got it ready to serve.

Four pound beef roast

Cajun seasoning

Wondra gravy flour

Quarter teaspoon of oregano

Half teaspoon of smoked paprika

Adobo seasoning

Water

Preparation

Pick out a beef roast with a nice layer of fat on it. Place that in a oven proof pan, fat side up. Season it on all sides with a generous amount of cajun seasoning. Let that sit at room temperature for about an hour.

Prepare the grill by placing a large pile of charcoal on one side. Light the charcoal with a propane torch in a couple of places. Give that some time for the charcoal to get hot. While that is heating up, gather some hardwood branches. There is a dead apple tree just down the river from me, and I broke off a branch to supply flavor.

When the coals are hot, place the pan with the roast on the opposite side of the grill from the coals. Add a couple of hardwood sticks, and close the lid. My roast took about three hours to reach medium rare perfection. Cooking time will vary, as much by the shape of the roast, as it will by the heat of the fire. As it roasts, occasionally turn it. Every twenty minutes or so, add more hardwood sticks, to keep the smoke up, and if necessary, more charcoal. When an instant read thermometer just hits 120, bring the roast in.

Set the beef on a plate, in a warm place. Place the pan with the drippings on the stove over medium heat. Sprinkle on enough flour to almost absorb the fat. Add the oregano and smoked paprika. Stir that for a few minutes to cook the flour. Add water, a little at a time, to thin out the gravy. When you think you have the right thickness let it simmer a minute to see if it needs more water. Taste and adjust for salt with the adobo seasoning, and you are ready to serve.

Serving

Slice the beef nice and thin, and then pile several slices on a dinner plate. Add any juices from the cutting board over the sliced beef. I didn’t have potatoes, but I did bake some leftover pizza dough from Saturday, into a small loaf of bread. I put several slices of bread next to the beef, and covered them with gravy. I also had a salad and some grilled yellow crookneck squash to round out the meal. The wine was a nice Zinfandel.