Winter ham and vegetable soup

Yesterday morning, I started out to make a big pot of pea soup using the ham bone from Christmas. I put the ham bone in the pot, and started adding ingredients, when I discovered I was almost out of peas. I thought I had a whole two pound bag of whole green peas, but all I had was about a cup of whole yellow peas. Oh boy, that’s not good. Then as I searched my cupboard, I found a little bag with about a cup of navy beans, and another with almost a pound of red lentils. Well, all together, that will work.

I also had lots of vegetables left from a Christmas veggie tray. The veggies were laying on a layer of Boston lettuce. I chopped up a bunch of the veggies including the lettuce, and added it all. The soup ended up real good, with lots of ham  pieces which fell off the bone and broke apart. Here’s how I put this together.

1 large ham bone, with meat, fat and some skin

Lots of water

1 cup whole peas

1 cup of navy beans

3/4 lb. of red lentils

1/2 cup of onion flakes

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/2 cup of chopped grape tomatoes

1/2 cup of chopped orange bell peppers

1 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped Boston lettuce

1 cup of chopped celery

1 tsp. thyme

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce

Preparation

Place the ham bone into a large soup pot. My ham bone had a section of skin on it, as well as some fatty portions. Leave it all on the bone, and just add it as is. Add plenty of water to cover it by a good margin. Let that start to come to a boil, and then add the beans, peas and lentils. Add about a half cup of onion flakes, the red pepper flakes and the bay leaves. Next add the chopped vegetables. Now if the pot gets too full, before all the vegetables are in, just let it simmer uncovered, so it evaporates enough to fit the rest of the veggies in.

Once the vegetables are in, add the thyme and cumin. Stir and let that simmer very gently, with the cover mostly or completely on the pot. Let this simmer for about four hours, but stir often. As the cooking progresses, chunks of ham, fat and skin will fall off the bone. Use your spoon to break up the skin and fat into smaller pieces as you stir. Even the skin will be tender and tasty by the time the soup is finished.

After about four hours, it should be nice and thick. Now you want to have one more half hour of simmering, where you taste and adjust the seasoning. I added the Worcestershire sauce, some more thyme, and I think about half a teaspoon of oregano. When it is adjusted, turn the heat off and you are ready to serve.

Serving

The number one rule with serving a soup like this, is you need to have homemade bread, still warm from the oven. I had a loaf in the oven when I turned the heat off the soup. When the bread was ready, I had thick slices of bread with melting butter, along with a couple bowls of soup. I had pickled herring for an appetizer. I didn’t bother with a salad, because the salad went into the soup pot. Just about any wine will go with this dinner.

Catfish broiled with mushrooms

I was in the mood for a lighter dinner Monday night, so I pulled a huge catfish filet out of the freezer. Now in my younger days, I loved fried fish, and cajun style fried catfish is amazing. But my tastes have changed to the point where I actually prefer broiled fish. I won’t turn down a good fish fry, but this is now my preferred way to serve it. What’s even nicer, is that you don’t have to thaw the fish before you cook it.

For broiled fish, I like to use Slap Ya Mama Hot, to season it. I have found that if you use a milder cajun seasoning, to get some 'hot', the finished fish gets a little too salty. A nice dusting of the Slap Ya Mama Hot, and you get just enough hot without too much salt. 

The mushrooms added a nice touch. Here’s how I put this together. You can cook several filets and it won’t change the recipe. Just add more mushrooms.

Frozen catfish filets

Cajun seasoning (Slap Ya Mama Hot)

Oregano

Olive oil

Butter

1 cup of sliced mushrooms

1 clove of garlic

Preparation

Make sure you choose a cast iron pan, that is big enough to hold the fish. If you don’t start with frozen fish, you’ll have to reduce the cooking time. Heat that and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Set the frozen fish in the pan, and sprinkle the top of the filet with a light dusting of the cajun seasoning, and then a spec of oregano. Drizzle olive oil over the fish, and place the pan under a hot broiler. Broil for about five minutes.

By now the fish should be thawed. Gently turn the fish over, sprinkle a little cajun seasoning on this side, and set two tablespoons of butter on top of the fish. Return to the broiler. After a few minutes, add the mushrooms and garlic around the fish, and continue broiling.

When the mushrooms have softened, shove them together in a line, and turn the fish over, so it sits on the mushrooms and garlic. Add one more tablespoon of butter, and broil until the top of the fish just starts browning. It should be perfect, moist and steamy inside. You are ready to serve.

Serving

I served my catfish, covered with the mushrooms, next to a big pile of steamed brown rice. Alongside that, I added a pile of steamed, buttered, mixed vegetables. You also want warmed homemade dinner rolls, and a nice German Riesling. This dinner really hit the spot.

Pinto bean soup

One of the things I love about fall and winter is making soups. I make big pots of it, and then let it sit outside over night to cool. I usually don’t have room for a huge pot of soup in the fridge, so the deck, at 30º works well. 

I actually started making this on Friday afternoon. I pulled a meaty bone out of the freezer, from the smokey pork roast my neighbor contributed to our Thanksgiving feast. I made a stock out of that, and then let it cool outside Friday night

Saturday, as soon as my newsletter was done, I strained the stock and started on the soup. That night, I had some neighbors and friends over for dinner. The soup was a big hit. Here’s how I put it together.

1 meaty pork roast bone, smokey if possible

Lots of water

1 lb. of pinto beans

1/2 cup of onion flakes

2 bay leaves

3 stalks of celery

1 large onion

1 thin red hot pepper

3 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. cumin

15 oz. can of RoTel tomatoes

Adobo seasoning

1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce

Preparation

Sometimes I make this without making stock first, and just add the bone to the soup, but this time, I made stock. On the day before, take the large smokey bone from a pork roast, and set it in a huge stock pot. Add plenty of water to cover, about a teaspoon of adobo seasoning, a quarter cup of onion flakes and the bay leaves. Bring that to a boil, reduce it to a simmer, and let it go for four hours. Set the stock in the fridge or out on the deck to cool over night.

Also the night before, sort the pinto beans and discard anything that isn’t a bean. Place them in a dutch oven, and add enough salted water, to cover them by at least two inches. Put the lid on, and let them soak until the next day. 

On soup day, place a colander over a big soup pot, and strain the stock into the pot. Start the stock boiling on the stove. Pick all the smokey pork off the bone and add that to the soup pot. Drain and rinse the beans and add them to the stock. Once the soup is boiling, add the chopped onion, and celery. Dice the hot pepper and add that as well. Add the oregano, one teaspoon of thyme, and the cumin. When this comes to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer.

This will need about four hours simmering. After about 2 hours, you’ll want to stir often. Taste it, and adjust the seasoning. I eventually added two more teaspoons of thyme. Also, at the two hour mark, add the can of RoTel tomatoes. 

After about four hours, the soup should be nice and thick. Taste it again for seasoning. I added a little more adobo and a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, which adds a feeling of depth to the flavor. When the seasoning is adjusted, you are ready to serve.

Serving

Saturday night we had roast chickens, mashed potatoes, cream gravy, mixed vegetables, a huge salad, and homemade bread with my soup. We all overate and had a great time.

Broiled rack of lamb served with pasta

I needed coffee the other day, for both home and the office. That led me into making a mistake. On my way home to let the dogs out at lunch time, I stopped into Trader Joe’s while I was hungry. That is never a wise thing to do. 

I picked up my coffee, and couldn’t pass up an eighteen dollar rack of lamb. I knew that was too expensive, but I was in the store unsupervised, and added it to my basket. Next I bought greek olives and some wine. While I was looking at the wine, an employee asked me if I needed help, and I replied, “Oh yeah, I need a lot of help … just not with the wine.”

That evening, I broiled the lamb, and made a pasta sauce in the lamb drippings. Even if I have no self control, I do have a way with lamb. Dinner was excellent. The lamb was perfectly medium rare, and the pasta had a cheesy garlicky lamb flavor. Here’s how I put this together.

1 frenched rack of lamb

Cajun seasoning

Olive oil

White pepper

3 cloves of garlic

1 cup of white wine

1/2 tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. snipped fresh thyme

Couple of shakes of Worcestershire sauce

8 oz. can of tomato sauce

1/2 lb. seashell pasta, cooked and drained

1 cup grated Italian parmesan cheese

Preparation

Take the lamb out of the packaging and rinse it, then pat it dry with paper towels. Rub it with olive oil, and then set it in a oven proof skillet, meaty side up. Season it generously with cajun seasoning. Grind on some white pepper, and set it under the broiler. Make sure you have pasta water on to boil.

Now this part is hard to convey with specifics. You want to stop broiling when the inside is still rare, and let it slowly rise to medium rare. First broil the lamb so it just chars on the top. Turn the lamb over and sprinkle this side with cajun seasoning. Return and broil until that side chars. Add the wine to the pan, turn the lamb over and broil for a few more minutes. By now the skillet should be sizzling, with occasional spurts of flame. Turn it over one last time, give it one more minute in the broiler and remove it. 

Set the lamb on a plate, near the oven vent to keep hot. Set the pasta in the pasta water to cook. Place the skillet on the stove, and start the liquid simmering. Smash and mince the garlic, and add that to the skillet. Stir and let the wine reduce by half. Add the oregano, the Worcestershire sauce, and a few snips of fresh rosemary. Add the tomato sauce, and stir to blend in. Simmer gently for about five minutes, and then turn off the heat. When the pasta is done, drain it and place it in a bowl. Splash on some of your very best olive oil, and stir in the cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and distributed throughout the pasta. You are ready to serve.

Serving

You can easily make this dinner for two. I opted to make it a single serving portion. Slice the lamb into three or four portions, and arrange them on a plate. Add a pile of the pasta, and then douse it with the sauce. Sprinkle on some grated cheese. Now add a bowl of olives, a crisp tossed salad, a wedge of Asiago cheese, and some homemade bread and butter. I opted for Chianti as the wine.

Turkey minestrone soup

I had such a big crowd for Thanksgiving, that I didn’t have much turkey left, from the twenty pound turkey I served. I had about enough left for one hearty turkey sandwich, and this soup. Although the turkey looked like it was sliced clean, there’s still a lot of meat on the bones, plenty for a soup like this.

This is a soup for when you can have it on the stove all day. I made it on Saturday, and finished it off yesterday. If you still have a turkey carcass left, you should make some soup. If you don’t have time until the weekend, put it in the freezer until then. 

I also had a bunch of carrots, celery and cherry tomatoes leftover from a vegetable tray. They all got used up here. This turned out great. Here’s how I made it.

Stock

1  turkey carcass

About two gallons of water

Adobo seasoning

1/2 cup of onion flakes

2 bay leaves

2 stalks of celery, broken

2 large onions, chopped

1-1/2 cups of chopped celery

1-1/2 cups of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped cherry tomatoes

1 can of tomato paste (or 2 cups of leftover pasta sauce)

1/2 tsp. basil

1-1/2 tsp. thyme

1 chunk of cheese rind (from Italian Parmesan)

15 oz. can of great northern beans

2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1-/2 cups of seashell pasta

Lots of grated Italian Parmesan cheese

Preparation

The first step in making this soup, is to make the stock. I started mine at 8:00 in the morning. Place the turkey carcass into a very large stock pot. I broke mine in half, so it would fit. Add a lot of water. I didn’t measure, but it was at least two gallons. You want to cover the bones completely. Next add the onion flakes, celery stalks, a sprinkle of adobo seasoning, and the bay leaves. Bring that to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Let it simmer gently, for about four hours.

Now it’s time to make the soup. Grab a large soup pot, set it in the sink, and put a colander over it. Carefully pour the stock into the colander. You may have more stock than you need. Pour the extra into a bowl and freeze it. Once the bones have drained, set the colander over the empty stock pot to cool, and then set the soup pot ,with the broth, on the stove. Bring that to a boil.

Now, adding the vegetables may be difficult, because the soup pot might get full before they are all in. No worries. This is going to cook for another four or five hours. I added half of the chopped onions, celery and carrots, and then let that boil for an hour. While that is going on, pick all of the meat off the bones. Even little bones will still have some meat attached. I got about three cups of turkey meat. Add that to the soup, and eventually the rest of the onion, celery and carrots, along with the cherry tomatoes.

After another hour, stir in the tomato paste or pasta sauce, and then add the thyme, basil, and cheese rind. Add the can of beans as well. After about four hours, taste and adjust for salt and pepper. I added a good sprinkle of adobo seasoning. 

About an hour before serving, add the pasta and the Worcestershire sauce. Let that simmer for the final hour, taste and adjust for salt, and serve.

Serving

Add about a quarter cup of grated Italian Parmesan cheese on each bowl of soup and stir it in. Have plenty of Tabasco on the table. Saturday, this soup was served along with a pasta made from smoked pork. We also had plenty of homemade bread and lots of wine. It was a  great dinner!

This year's roast turkey with giblet gravy

Thanksgiving is always fun for our clan. We had 20 people gather at my Lisle abode. Dinner was a massive feast. It consisted of roast turkey, a slow roasted picnic ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing (or dressing) mashed rutabaga and carrots, mashed baked sweet potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, mac-n-cheese, a salad, homemade breads, pumpkin pies, and apple pies. 

I pulled the twenty pound turkey out of the refrigerator around 9:30 in the morning, to bring it to room temperature. I just lightly seasoned it, and it spent about 4-1/2 hours in the oven. I don’t get fancy with turkey. Here’s how I roasted it.

20 lb. turkey with giblets

4 tbs. of butter

Adobo seasoning

Poultry seasoning

Olive oil

Onion flakes

Bay leaf

1 quart of water

Flour

Chicken broth

White pepper

Preparation

About  forty five minutes before you plan to put the turkey in the oven, take it out of the fridge, and remove the packaging. I never buy a frozen turkey because I keep my refrigerator so cold, that it would take almost a week to thaw. The extra expense of a fresh turkey is worth it to me. I found that sometimes they really try to hide the giblets. I expect to find them in the cavity, but all I found was the turkey neck. After looking around, I found the bag of giblets in the neck opening. 

Place the giblets in a sauce pan, and add the water, about a quarter cup of onion flakes, and the bay leaf. Bring that to a boil, let it simmer for about an hour, then let it cool. Save it for the gravy.

Preheat the oven to 350º. Place the turkey in a rack in a large roasting pan. Rub the turkey with olive oil, and then dust the top of it with the adobo seasoning. Sprinkle on some poultry seasoning, and grind on some white pepper. Cover the turkey with aluminum foil. Set the turkey in the oven, and start it roasting. 

After about two hours, remove the foil, and baste the turkey with some of the drippings. Baste the bird about every half hour. The general rule is about 20 minutes per pound, but different ovens vary in the actual temperature. Aim for 165º or 170º as the coldest internal temperature reading. It took a little longer for my turkey to reach the proper temperature.

Remove the turkey when the internal temperature is reached, and set it on a carving board to rest while you make gravy. You’ll probably have more turkey fat than you’ll need for gravy, but maybe not. I made a half gallon of gravy, and it was all gone by the end of the meal. 

Set the roasting pan so it straddles two burners, and start it sizzling. Chop up the giblets and add them to the fat. Sprinkle on enough flour to absorb the fat, and then add first the strained broth from the giblets. Stir and then add chicken broth, a little at a time, until the gravy is thinned out to the right thickness. Let it simmer for a minute more to make sure it right, and then pour it into a huge bowl. 

Have someone carve the turkey for you, while you enjoy a glass of wine, and then ring the dinner bell.

Serving

The hardest part about serving a feast like this, is finding room for all the food. We had a ton of food, lots of wine, lots of beer, and lots of laughs.

Saturday night leg of lamb

On Friday, I made a trip to a grocery store in Naperville because they had bone-in leg of lamb on sale for only 3.99 a pound. These days, that’s a great price. All day long Saturday, I was looking forward to a good lamb dinner. Finally, just about the time our blizzard stopped, I pulled the lamb out of the fridge, and seasoned it up.

When you have a good lamb roast like this, you don’t want a heavy hand with the seasoning. It is important to let the wonderful lamb flavor shine through. A little garlic under the fat, will be plenty, along with a little dusting of cajun seasoning. Saturday night, I had my neighbors over for dinner, and I got rave reviews. Here is how I prepared the lamb.

5 lb. bone-in leg of lamb

1 large clove of garlic

Cajun seasoning

White pepper

Thyme

Olive oil

Sea salt

Flour

Water

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

Preparation

About a half hour before you plan to start cooking, pull the roast out of the fridge, and set it in a cast iron pan, fattest side up. Take a large clove of garlic and cut it into little slivers. Use a sharp knife, and insert the garlic slivers through the fat, into the meat. Once they are all inserted, rub the roast  with olive oil, and then season it with a light dusting of cajun seasoning, a little thyme, and some white pepper. Sprinkle the lamb with some sea salt, and then let it sit for a half hour at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350º. Set the roast in the oven. The usual guide is twenty minutes per pound, but well before that time is up, start taking internal readings with an instant read thermometer. Lamb should be roasted medium rare. Despite what the cookbooks tell you, you should take the lamb out of the oven when it has an internal temperature that just reaches 120º. At that point, the lamb is rare, but if you take the roast out, set it in a warm place (usually near the oven vent) for about ten minutes, it will be perfectly medium rare when you slice it.

Set the lamb on a serving plate, and set that by the oven vent so you can make gravy. Set the cast iron pan on the stove over medium high heat. Sprinkle on enough flour to absorb most of the fat, and it become a slurry. Stir and cook the wet flour mixture for about three minutes. Season it with salt and white pepper, and if you like, a little adobo seasoning. Start adding water, a little at a time, to make a gravy. Take a rosemary sprig, and snip it with a scissors over the gravy. Stir that in. When you think you have the thickness right, let it simmer another minute, you may need to add a spec more water. When the gravy is a nice thickness, you are ready to serve.

Serving

We served our sliced roast lamb next to a pile of mashed potatoes. Smother both with gravy. Add a pile of mixed vegetables, and some homemade bread and butter. I had a medium bodied Cabernet Sauvignon to go with dinner.  Sorry about the sloppiness of the photos. I forgot to snap them, until my second helping. Thank goodness there was still some left.

Pizza with Kalamata olives and imported provolone

The other night I had a craving for pizza. As I was driving home, I wasn’t sure if I had enough cheese to make one. I knew I was completely out of Mozzarella. I did a mental inventory as I drove. I really didn’t feel like making a stop at the grocery store. When I remembered I had a block of imported Italian Provolone, and a few slices of Colby and Pepper-jack, I knew I was good to go.

I started making the dough when I arrived home. As I did, I remembered I had some imported Kalamata olives as well. The earthy taste of the Kalamata olives along with the extra sharp Italian Provolone really made this pizza tasty. This ended up being one of my favorite pizzas. Here’s how I made it.

2 cups of unbleached bread flour

1/2 tsp. of salt

1/2 tsp. honey

Extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs. yeast

1 cup of lukewarm water

8 oz. can of tomato sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Splash of Tabasco

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. of oregano

8 Kalamata olives, sliced off the pits

Several slices of Pepper-jack cheese

Several slices of Colby cheese

2 cups of freshly shredded Italian Provolone

White pepper

Corn meal

Preparation

Place the flour, salt, honey, about two tablespoons of the extra virgin olive oil, and the yeast in your mixing bowl. Add the water and bring the dough together with your dough hooks. Adjust with extra flour or water if needed. Knead the dough for about a minute or so. Set it aside while you put the sauce together.

Place the tomato sauce in a bowl. Add about a tablespoon of your good olive oil to it. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and the oregano. Give it a splash of Tabasco and a final stir.

Place the dough on a floured surface, and use your fingers to work it into a sixteen inch circle. Don’t measure, just guess. It really doesn’t matter, right ladies?  Slide the dough into t a pizza pan that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Roll the edges up to form a crust.

Pour the sauce on to the pizza dough, and spread it out evenly, with a spoon. Add some sliced Pepper-jack and Colby slices around the pizza. If you don’t have those, other types of cheese, Swiss, Cheddar or whatever you have, will work. Add the sliced Kalamata olives evenly. Now, add the shredded Provolone. Sprinkle the top of the pizza with some fresh ground white pepper, and bake the pizza in the oven at 410º for about twenty minutes or so. 

When the pizza is golden brown and bubbling, it is ready. Remove it to a cutting pan, and top it with a splash of your very best extra virgin olive oil and a little more white pepper. Wait five minutes before slicing.

Serving

With pizza, you should probably have a big tossed salad. I didn’t bother that night. I just served this pizza as a single serving portion. What can I say? I was tired and hungry. Any light bodied red wine will work.

Chicken soup with pasta

I don’t know why it is, but on Sunday’s, I really become lazy. Maybe it is because most Saturday nights I have my neighbors over for dinner, and sometimes it goes late. Whatever the reason, I don’t get much done on Sundays. This past Sunday, I did a few chores in the morning after my newsletter, and then spent most of the day with a book, reading by the window.

Early afternoon, I decided to make a chicken soup. I had meaty chicken bones, that were left after I carved the chicken for dinner Saturday. Since I was only making soup for me (about four servings), that was enough. This is a two part soup. First I make a stock out of the bones, then I pick the meat out of the strained bones, and make a soup with the meat and the stock. Here’s how I did that.

Meaty carcass of a roast chicken

2 quarts of water

1 large bay leaf

Adobo seasoning

1/4 cup of onion flakes

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Oregano

Olive oil

1 large carrot, chopped

2 stalks of celery with leaves, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. Hungarian paprika

1/2 tsp. ground savory

1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

1 tsp. flour

1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce

Fresh ground white pepper

Pinch of saffron

1 cup of lasagna noodles, broken up into small pieces

Preparation

Step one is to make the stock. Place all of the chicken bones, with the meat attached in a dutch oven. Add at least two quarts of water, then add the bay leaf, a generous sprinkle of adobo seasoning or seasoned salt, the onion flakes, the garlic powder, and about a half teaspoon of the oregano. Bring that to a  boil, reduce to a bare simmer, and simmer partially covered, for at least an hour.

Once that flavorful stock is ready, and all the vegetables are chopped, strain the stock into a bowl. Let the chicken bones cool. When it is cool enough to handle, go through and pick off all the meat and set it in a small bowl. Pick through the bones carefully because there is a lot more meat in there than you think. Once you get all the meat off, you are ready to start on the soup.

Put the dutch oven back on the stove, and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the carrots, onion and celery. Stir and let that sizzle until it softens. Add the chicken and sprinkle on the, savory, paprika, poultry seasoning and flour. Stir until everything is sizzling, and then add in the chicken stock. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and the saffron. Let that simmer for an hour, partially covered.

Taste and adjust the soup. Mine needed more adobo, white pepper, and even a few onion flakes. I also added another teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce for a little depth in the flavor. When everything is right, stir in the broken lasagna noodles, simmer for twenty minutes and you are ready to serve. 

Serving

I served this very simply. I had a loaf of white bread made with honey, that was still hot from the oven, which I sliced thickly and slathered with butter … and several bowls of this soup. Simple but good.

Cheesy baked eggplant

Over the weekend, I invited my neighbors over for dinner. I made a simple garlic marinara sauce, a loaf of homemade white bread, a pizza style anchovy bread, sausage and peppers, and this baked eggplant.

Why do people find this scary?

Many people look at eggplant as a mystery. What the heck do you do with that strange purple thing? This is a great way to solve that dilemma. 

The secret to eggplant is using good olive oil, which will impart its flavor on the eggplant. The other secret to this recipe, is to use good imported Italian Provolone, Pecorino Romano, and Italian San Marzano tomatoes. With ingredients like that, how can the eggplant not taste good?

1 large or two smaller eggplants

Lots of salt

Extra virgin olive oil

4 large cloves of garlic

28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

5 large basil leaves

White pepper

1 cup fo flour

Italian Auricchi Provolone

Italian Pecorino Romano

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Preparation

An hour or two before you plan to cook, peel the eggplant, slice it lengthwise, and cut those slices in half. Heavily salt both sides of the eggplant slice, and set it in a colander. Repeat until all slices are salted and stacked in the colander. Place a plate on top to weight them down, and set the colander over a bowl. This will drain the bitterness out of the eggplant. You’ll be surprised how much liquid comes out.

The tomato sauce for this is very simple. Place about a half cup of very good olive oil in a medium sized sauce pan and heat it. For goodness sake, don’t measure, just guess. Peel the four garlic cloves, and smash them with the blade of a metal knife (one loyal reader did this with one of those expensive porcelain knives, and broke it). Add the smashed, but still whole garlic cloves to the oil. Now don’t brown the garlic, but as it sizzles, remove it from the heat, swirling it, return it for more sizzle, and so on, until the garlic softens. Remove and discard the garlic.

Place the San Marzano tomatoes in a bowl, and using your hands, squeeze them, and break them up. This way, they still have more texture than regular sauce. Add this to the hot oil and bring to a simmer. 

Take the five basil leaves, stack them, roll them up, fold the roll in half, and slice that razor thin with a sharp knife. Add the basil to the tomato sauce. Taste and adjust the sauce for salt and pepper. Turn the heat off.

Wipe the salt off the eggplant slices, and set them on a plate. Heat a small cast iron pan, and add about an inch of extra virgin olive oil. Place the flour in a bowl. In batches, rub each slice with the flour, and fry them in the oil. Turn them over, and when it is nicely golden brown, set it on a plate lined with paper towel. Repeat until all the slices are fried. Grate about a cup each, of the Provolone and the Romano.

Spoon a little of the tomato sauce into a baking bowl, or small casserole pan. Add half of the eggplant and then top that with more sauce, and half of the grated Provolone and Romano. Add the rest of the eggplant, the rest of the Provolone and Romano, the rest of the tomato sauce, and top that with about two cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese. Press the shredded cheese down, so it gets down into the sauce. Bake at 390º for about thirty five or forty minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is browned.

Serving

What a meal! Pasta with a garlic tomato sauce, cheesy baked eggplant, fresh bread, anchovy bread, sausage and peppers, olives, and lots of wine. 

Anchovy and olive oil bread

Saturday night I had a big dinner of pasta marinara, baked eggplant, sausage and peppers, olives and this anchovy bread. I know, as soon as I say the word anchovy, I lose most of you. Anchovies bring a hiss out of most people, kinda like holy water and Dracula. That’s too bad, because I love anchovies, and I really love this anchovy bread.

I’ve made this a few different ways over the years. One of my favorites, is to put the anchovies and oil only on one half of the dough, fold the other half over, cut some slits in the top, and brush the dough with lots of olive oil, before and after it is baked. 

Today’s recipe is a little simpler than that. It is basically a pizza, topped with anchovies, and lots of olive oil, and, when it comes out of the oven, a little bit of cheese. The result is a salty, anchovy flavored bread. It is a little bit crisp, due to the oily bread being toasted in the oven. Here’s how I put this together. Use only your very best olive oil on this.

2 cups of unbleached flour

1 cup of lukewarm water

1 tbs. yeast

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. honey

Extra virgin olive oil

1 tin of anchovies in olive oil (buy a good brand)

Fresh ground black pepper

Corn meal

1/4 cup of grated Italian Provolone

Preparation

Place the flour, water, yeast, salt, honey, and two tablespoons of your best olive oil, in a mixing bowl. Bring the dough together with your dough hooks, and adjust with a little extra flour or water if needed. Knead the dough for a minute or so, and let it rise for about forty five minutes in a warm place.

Knead the dough again, and on a floured surface, work the dough into a large circle, about sixteen inches or so. Slide the dough into a pizza pan that has been sprinkled with lots of corn meal. Roll up the edges of the dough to form a crust. Let it rest for about ten minutes. 

Open the tin of anchovies, and distribute the filets evenly on the pizza dough. Pour the oil from the tin evenly over the dough. Add about two tablespoons of your very best olive oil evenly on top of the bread surface. Tilt the pan, this way, then that, so as to let the oil spread out on the top of the bread. Grind some black pepper over the top of the bread. Bake it at 400º for about twenty to thirty minutes, until the bread turns a light golden brown.

Remove the bread to a pizza cutting pan. Drizzle a little more of your best olive oil over the top of the bread. Sprinkle that good imported Provolone on to the top of the bread. Let it rest for about ten minutes before slicing.

Serving

I served this anchovy bread with a cheesy, olive oily, baked eggplant. We also had a garlicky marinara sauce over pasta, sautéed sausage and pepper, and a bowl of assorted olives in olive oil. The wine was a large double bottle of Chianti. It seemed like the dinner guests were very pleased. Some passed on the anchovy bread, but that’s to be expected. It’s a special dish, made for just those few who appreciate it.

Mixed seafood scampi

I was in the mood for something different the other night. I’ve been eating a lot of roasts, steaks and chops lately, and I searched through the freezer for a change of pace. I remembered I had a half pound bag of mixed seafood. This consists of shrimp, calamari and scallops. I wasn’t in the mood for a tomato based sauce, so I decided to go with a butter garlic sauce instead.

Now you can make this with all shrimp if you want, or all calamari, or all scallops too. Heck, you can also probably make it with bluegill filets as well. 

This is a simple recipe, nothing fancy. Leave the arbol pepper out if you want, or just use a pinch of red pepper flakes. I can’t believe I am still picking arbol chile peppers out of my garden in late October. While I have them, I’ll use them. 

Here’s how I put this together. This was a single serving portion for me. If I was making this for two, I’d double the recipe … but that’s just the way I am.

1/2 stick of butter

1 tbs. Olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

2 arbol chile peppers, sliced (or red pepper flakes)

1 cup of white wine

1 tsp. fresh oregano leaves, or 1/2 tsp. of dry oregano

1 tsp. fresh ground white pepper

Sprinkle of adobo seasoning

1/2 lb. frozen mixed seafood

Sea salt

1/2 lb. thick spaghetti, cooked and drained

Extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

This will cook fast, so start by putting some salted pasta water on to boil, so that the water is boiling when you need it.

Heat a large skillet, and melt the butter. Add the olive oil, garlic, and red pepper.  Carefully let that soften, but don’t brown the garlic. You want it to just get sizzling and fragrant. I would remove the skillet from the stove, as it sizzles, return it when it stops, and repeat. 

Once the garlic has softened, add the white wine. Bring that to a boil, reduce the heat so it just simmers, and let it reduce by half. Add the oregano, sprinkle on the white pepper, and a bit of the adobo seasoning. 

If the water isn’t boiling yet, wait until it is, then add the pasta to cook. Once the pasta is simmering, add the frozen seafood to your skillet. Turn up the heat to bring it back to a simmer, and stir. Let that simmer for about five minutes. Taste and adjust for salt. Turn off the heat, if your pasta isn’t ready yet.

Drain the pasta, Place it in a large pasta bowl, and drizzle it with your best olive oil. Pour the seafood sauce over the pasta and toss. You are ready to serve.

Serving

I served my pasta in a big bowl, with a little fresh ground white pepper sprinkled over it. I added a bowl of seared broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and onions, which I sprinkled with a bit of cajun seasoning. 

Now, all you need is fresh baked homemade bread with butter, and open a chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, and you can ring the dinner bell.

My effort to duplicate Amish wedding bread

Thursday, I attended an Amish wedding. The daughter of one owner of a pallet mill I work with, married the son of the other owner. I’ve worked with the daughter for about ten years over the office phone. 

I’ve never been to an Amish wedding before. First, I’ll say that the Amish wedding service is unlike any I’ve encountered. The scripture selections are about the same for any Christian wedding, but the style of singing and the volume of singing, is unlike anything I’ve experienced. 

The service started at 8:30 AM Eastern time, with three German wedding songs, each was about twenty minutes long. Each started with one minister chanting a line, then the whole congregation started in, with a two part harmony. It almost sounded like an ancient chant, with parts of the song getting very loud. At times it would quiet down, then the minister would chant another line, and the whole congregation would start in again. It was clear that they all knew the words.

Next, there was two sermons and a scripture reading. There was an interpreter for the little non-Amish section. Finally, around 11:00 AM, the wedding vows were exchanged. Then elders of the Church gave comments regarding the sermon and the advice for the newly weds. 

Around noon, we broke for a meal. This was a big meal, as there were over 500 people attending the wedding. Dinner consisted of warm Amish bread, mashed potatoes and gravy, Salisbury steak in a cheese sauce, a fruit salad, a huge mixed salad, and ranch dressing. 

The bowls were passed, one for each side of the table. Just about when you thought you were finished eating, fresh bowls of the whole dinner were passed again. Finally, a dessert of ice cream and chocolate cake was served. My recipe is just a guess, but it comes pretty close to the flavor of the Amish bread they served at the wedding.

4 cups of flour

2 tbs. of brown sugar

1 tbs. molasses

1 tsp. of salt

2 tbs. of room temperature butter

2 tbs. instant yeast

2 cups of water

Preparation

Place the flour, sugar, molasses, salt, butter and yeast in a mixing bowl. Add the water and bring the dough together with your dough hooks. Adjust with a little more water or flour, until you have a moist dough that you can just knead with floured hands. Knead it for a minute, and let it rise for about an hour.

Knead the dough again, and set it into a loaf pan. Let it rise for another half hour, and brush the top with a little melted butter. Bake the loaf for about 45 minutes at 375º, or until it is golden brown, and sounds hollow, when you knock the bottom with your knuckles.

Serving

Friday night, I served my version of that Amish style bread, with lots of butter. I also made homemade chicken and dumplings, along with a salad, and a cold crisp off dry hard cider.

Sautéed chicken and mushrooms over rice

The other night, I made a simple dish of sautéed chicken and mushrooms in a white wine sauce with fresh thyme from my garden. 

This cooks fast, and tastes great. The hot pepper is strictly optional. I have a ton of them in my garden and I’m enjoying them while I still have them. I like a little bite, and the arbol pepper is just the ticket for that. Here’s how I put this together.

1 boneless, skinless chicken thigh

Olive oil

1/2 tsp. white pepper

2 large shallots, sliced razor thin

1 arbol pepper, chopped (optional)

1/4 lb. of shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 cup of white wine

1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

Wondra gravy flour

1 cup of water

Worcestershire

Sea salt

Preparation

Heat a large cast iron fry pan, and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Butterfly the chicken thigh open, and set it in the pan, inside down. Sear that for a minute and turn it over. Give it another minute, and then use a sharp knife to chop it into bite sized chunks. Stir and let that sizzle for a minute, and then move the chicken towards the center of the pan and sprinkle it with the white pepper. Place a saucepan lid, just large enough to cover the chicken, over the chicken, and directly on the cast iron. Let the chicken steam for a couple of minutes.

Remove the cover and add the shallots, red pepper, and the sliced mushrooms. Stir and let that cook until the mushrooms have softened. Add the white wine, and the thyme leaves. Scrape up anything that has stuck to the pan. Stir and let the wine reduce by at least half. Sprinkle the chicken and mushrooms with a heavy dusting of the flour. Stir to absorb the flour, and then add the water. Bring that to a boil, and reduce it to a slow simmer. Sprinkle on some Worcestershire sauce and stir. Simmer until the sauce has a nice gravy thickness. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper, and you are ready to serve.

Serving

I served my sautéed chicken and mushrooms over steamed brown rice. I also set out a bowl of steamed, buttered broccoli, and some homemade dinner rolls. I popped open a medium bodied red wine from Spain, and dinner was perfect. Don’t bother asking about leftovers. They made a great second helping!