hibernation and full bellies

this is the time of year i like to hibernate.
if i can, i find a warm, sunny spot in a window
and curl up, sometimes with a book, sometimes
with a movie, often with a blanket for a little nap.
it's always good to have a full belly before settling
into a winter's hibernation of any duration.
here's what works for me...

Split Pea Soup with Chorizo
Makes enough for 6

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter/olive oil mix
1 onion, vidalia would be great, diced
a few cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 lb chorizo sausage
1 lb split peas
some white wine
6 cups chicken stock
fresh thyme sprigs
S.P.

Make the Soup: Sweat the mirepoix of onions and garlic in the butter/oil mixture. Meanwhile, peel the chorizo of it's skin and pulse it in a cuisinart until crumbly. Add to sweated mirepoix. Saute for a couple of minutes until some of the chorizo fat starts to render. Add the peas, wine, stock and fresh thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cook for about an hour, stirring occassionally, until peas are soft. You may need to add water or stock during the cooking process as the peas soak up the broth. I personally prefer a slightly looser consistancy to my split pea soup, but the choice is yours. Season with S.P. at the finish.

Note: Croutons are an essential piece to this soup. Seriously. And, they are super easy to make.
Take a nice loaf of something yummy...think pumpernickel or a great chewy sour dough...
cut some perfect medium sized dice, gently toss with melted butter, S.P. and bake at 350 or so until golden and croutony. Sprinkle liberally on your soup.

Another Note: Any kind of sausage works in a split pea soup. I chose chorizo because I am deeply involved in a love affair with the stuff (a year and counting) and many other things Spanish including the mother country herself.


Some people might say that lightly dressed (I'm thinking white balsamic and evoo) salad greens would round out this simple meal. Who am I to quibble? It's just that salads are so NOT rugged hibernation foods.

But Brownies certainly are...

Serendiptious Brownies
Makes a half sheet pan which sounds like a whole lot, but they freeze REALLY well, if they last that long.

A little story before recipe revelation.
I co-teach culinary arts at our local high school with my friend Brian.
The kids are great but sometimes a little dopey.
A few years ago, we asked a couple of them to find a recipe for brownies and bake some, which they did.
But in typical fashion, they didn't read the recipe through. They prepared the batter properly, but used the wrong sized pan...a half sheet pan rather than an 8 inch square...a huge difference!
But, they were surprisingly good. Chewy and flavorful, but a bit too thin. So, we played with the recipe a bit and serendipitously, created a really amazing brownie, which we now sell everyday from our class kitchen. The brownies have continued to evolve. More on that below.


Ingredients:

3 sticks of butter
12 oz semi sweet chocolate, by weight
1 7/8 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 T real vanilla

Make the Brownie Batter: Melt the butter and chocolate in a medium sized bowl over a double boiler. Meanwhile, Measure out the dry ingredients into a smallish bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla in separate but large-ish bowl. Add melted chocolate mixture to egg mixture. Add flour mixture last. Spread into prepped half sheet pan (spray the sides lightly! with Pam and place a half sheet of parchment in the bottom of the pan). Bake for approximately 17 minutes in a 350 oven or until edges pull away from side. Center should feel firm to the touch.

More on the brownie evolution revolution. This recipe is really tweakable. You can tweak the batter by adding cinnamon, instant espresso, ginger, etc. OR you can play with toppings. For example, a little more than midway through the baking process, you can press chopped candy bars...at school, we've used kit kats, twix, butterfingers, peanut M&M's...onto the top of the partially baked brownies. We have plans to use reese's peanut butter cups, baby ruth's, marshmallow and graham crackers for a s'more variation, cheesecake batter for a marbled effect. Follow your gut (which won't be hard to do if you eat as many of these as you will be tempted to!).

Crazy Quilts and Tweakability Factor

i had been meaning to sew a crazy quilt for alex,
the daughter i don't have,
as a graduation gift,
since june.

i finished it yesterday.
i wish i had remembered to photograph it to post here.
it was one of my better ones.

crazy quilts are
seemingly random pieces of fabrics,
purposely and thoughtfully sewn together to create
a story of sorts, if done well...

...not unlike the dishes we create out of
seemingly random ingredients,
purposely and thoughtfully thrown together to create
a story of sorts, this one for our taste buds to tease out,
if done well.

and as no two crazy quilts are ever exactly alike,
the same is true of the dishes we create,
even when we start with the same basic recipes.

i like to tweak basic recipes to see how many really good
variations i can come up with.

here is one very tweakable recipe to play with.
feel free to take it and create your own story.
more to come.


Amazing Mac and Cheese
Makes Enough for Many

Ingredients:

Pasta Mixture:
2 T butter
2 T flour
1 qt heavy cream
1 cup white wine or stock
2 lbs of pasta
1 1/2+ c sharp white cheddar, grated
1 c gorgonzola, crumbled
1/2 cup parmesan, grated
1/2 cup romano, grated
1/2 lb cream cheese, Philadelphia Brand, please!
S,P

Bread Crumb Topping:
6 slices white bread
3/4 stick butter, melted
S,P

Make topping: Pulse bread in cuisinart until crumbly. Add butter, S,P.

Make the pasta mixture: Cook pasta. While pasta is cooking, make the béchamel, the french term for cream sauce. Melt butter over medium lowish heat.. Whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk in cream and wine or stock. Let simmer for a minute or two. Set aside. Drain the pasta…leave it a little on the wet side, and put back into pot. Add cheeses and warm sauce. Stir until cheese is nicely mixed in. Season with S and P. Taste. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Transfer to buttered baking dish (13 x 9). Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake at 375 F for about 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden.

Note: Can make to the point of tossing with cheeses and cream to be baked later. If the mixture seems to dry, add some chicken stock or wine.

Another Note: The gorgonzola adds just the right amount of saltiness…it’s not very gorgonzola-y.

Yet Another Note: I like to cover the baking dish first with saran wrap and then with tin foil. It helps to prevent the mac from drying out. Carefully remove the foil and saran and pop back in oven for a few minutes to brown the crumbs.

The idea is that the starch from the pasta will thicken the sauce, so the sauce can be somewhat on the thinner side. I prefer my mac and cheese to be a little saucy (like me) as opposed to really thick and pastey (not me at all).

Tweakability Factor:

This recipe lends itself very well to variations.

First, you can add all sorts of things to the pasta mixture itself as garnish: rosemary ham, bacon, peas, roasted garlic, pulled pork, buffalo chicken, caramelized onions, braised short ribs to name but a few. The sky's the limit.

Or, you can play with the cheese combinations.

Plus, you can tweak the sauce by adding various seasonings, flavorings to compliment your pasta variation.

And, you can change your crumbly topping by adding cheeses and seasonings to variable bread crumbs (rye, wheat, panko, sourdoe, triscuit, etc) that also compliment your pasta variation.

eg. For a Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese with Blue Cheese Crumbles, you would marinate the chicken in buffalo wing sauce (essentially, hot sauce mixed with melted butter), grill and shred when cool. Fold chicken into pasta mixture. Top with crumbs tossed with blue cheese.

Eat.

Forty Eight

number of years aged.
like a great cheese.

it has been said i am "older than dirt"
...Michael Bergman, aged 7
i don't know about that, but what i do know is
life is good.
how can it be otherwise when feasting on
great food and great wine with great friends.

this is what we ate to celebrate this old woman.

Warm Goat Cheese Goo with Saffron and Fennel Seed
Makes enough for 6 piggies or 4 hogs
Adapted from a Bobby Flay recipe.

Ingredients:
2T butter
2T flour
2 cups milk or half & half
2 cups grated sharp cheddar
8+ oz goat cheese, crumbled
generous pinch of saffron
generous pinch of fennel seed
S.P

Make the Goo: Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour to make roux. Cook for a minute or so. Slowly whisk in milk and cook until slightly thickened. Take off the heat and add cheeses and spices.

Bake the Goo: Pour into an ovenproof dish...I use a 4 by 8 inch ceramic dish, Bobby uses an 8 inch cast iron pan...and bake until bubbly and goldenish, about 5 minutes or so in 375 degree oven. Serve right out of the oven with yummy chips, crispy crackers or crusty bread.

Note: You can drizzle with a parsley, basil, cilantro or chive oil or even dollop with a roasted poblano puree when it comes out of the oven, if you happen to have such things hanging around in your fridge. I would even have been tempted to put chorizo in it if not for the next course...


Steamed Mussels Swimming in Chorizo Cream
Overfed 6 people

Ingredients:
4 lbs of mussels, debearded and scrubbed
2T butter
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, finely diced
2 cups white wine
1/2 lb of chorizo, skin free
couple of sprigs worth of fresh thyme leaves
1 quart of heavy cream
S.P
chopped parsley

Make the Sauce: Pulse the chorizo in a cuisinart until crumbly. Transfer to medium saucepan and lightly saute for a minute or two to start to render some of the fat. Add 1 cup of the wine and let reduce for a few minutes. Add the cream and the thyme and reduce by nearly a half. Taste and season. Set aside.

Steam the Mussels: In a heavy pot (think le creuset), gently saute the shallot and garlic in the butter. Add the mussels, give a gentle stir and add the remaining wine. Cover and let steam until the mussels are just open, about 5 minutes or so. Don't overcook them...you want them to be nice and plump. Discard any mussels that have not opened. Spider the mussels into a pretty serving bowl. Strain the mussel broth into the chorizo cream and pour the finished sauce over the mussels. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Overeat, with lots and lots of crusty bread.

Note: There are a million variations of great mussel recipes. Another that we absolutely love slathers the mussels in a gorgonzola cream sauce which would be made similarly, using some of the mussel steaming mirepoix (garlic and shallot) to start the sauce, adding and reducing wine, adding and reducing cream and finishing with crumbled gorgonzola. Season with S.P and any herb/spice that strikes your fancy...i love fennel seed in just about anything, but who doesn't?

new year, new me.

nah.
same me, slightly tweaked.
trying on old ideas, see how they fit.

here's one i've been toying with for years, re-inspired recently by an old friend.
a cookbook.
initially, i thought a recipe a day but, old enough to know, realistically unrealistic.
as it is, measurements will be largely unscientific.
some of this, about this much of that.
taste.
you'll know when it's right.

Fig and Blue Stuffed Pork Tenderloin Wrapped with Bacon
Cider Butter Sauce
Warm Lentil Salad

Makes 4 small plates

Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin
½ lb plus blue cheese, crumbled
7 dried figs
1 clove garlic
1 sprig worth of fresh thyme leaves
S.P

5 slices bacon, partly rendered

2 cups apple cider
½ cup chicken stock
¼ cup white wine
¾ cup butter, cubed
S.P

½ lb pardina lentils (small, greenish, hold shape when cooked)
4 cloves garlic
¼ cupish extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of Fennel Seed
chopped parsley
S.P


Render the bacon: Place on sheetpan in 350 oven for about 5 minutes. Fat will start to render but bacon should not be crisp. It needs to be pliable enough to wrap the pork later.

Make stuffing: Plump dried figs in cider in small sauce pan over low heat. Remove figs and small dice. Add to crumbled blue cheese along with garlic, thyme, S.P

Stuff Pork: Carefully, ram a steel (the point rod that is used to hone a knife) down the center of the tenderloin. Push the stuffing inside without over stuffing. Go from both sides. S.P the tenderloin and sear in hot saute pan with a bit of olive oil til brown. Set aside to cool. When cool, wrap with bacon slices.

Make lentil salad: Gently simmer lentils til still slightly crunchy...15 minutes or so. Cool under cold water. Drain well. Meantime, saute minced garlic in ½ the EVOO for 1-2 minutes on low heat. Pour over lentils. Add remaining ingredients. Set aside.

Finish: Roast bacon wrapped pork in 400 oven for about 15 minutes. Remove and let rest. Meanwhile, finish sauce: Strain the reduced cider into clean sauce pan. Add the wine, stock and strained pan juices and heat on low flame until simmering. Whisk in chunks of butter until sauce thickens. Season with S.P. Slice the pork into ¾ inch slices.

Plate: Spoon a portion of the lentil salad onto center of plate. Place two of the slices, slightly overlapping, against the lentil salad. Ladle the sauce over the pork slices. Garnish with a bit of the chopped parsley.

Eat.

Note: The pork can be done ahead to the point of finishing in oven. Lentils can be done ahead as well. The only thing that does not hold well is the sauce. It will break if you try to reheat it...but it can be done up until the point of whisking in the butter so, all in all, a pretty good do ahead dish. And easily doubled, etc. for larger crowds.