Expedited Deliciousness, and no leftovers

I got a new cookbook for Christmas and you all need to go out and get it, stat. I start with a bias here because I've always been fond of Mark Bittman, but his new How to Cook Everything Fast is a whole new level. One of my biggest problems is that I'm just not a speedy chef, and when I make something new or interesting - or even something I've made many times before - we often end up with a later dinner than I'd like. So I was really excited to see this book - he covers many cuisines and basically just simplifies things. The book starts with helpful resources like substitution suggestions, and then he's off and running.

The other night, with snow in the forecast, I was craving Bolognese. Now anyone with a drop of Italian blood knows a decent Bolognese simmers for a good long time, and it was already mid-afternoon by the time I had this idea. So I checked HTCEF, and voila - Spaghetti with Nearly Instant Bolognese. I tweaked the recipe a bit based on what I had on hand and a few other things, but followed his process for the most part. The result, while a stray from traditional, was delicious. Not to toot my own horn...much...but I was kind of impressed with myself. The ingredients are things you mostly have on hand or can sub easily, making this a great late-afternoon-cold-weather-lazy quick dinner.

The slowest bit was the chopping, and Bittman recommends doing that while the meat simmers (or even, if you are already multi-tasking here, just pop them all in the food process for a sec). I chopped ahead of time but that's just my preference and it did add time doing it my way. This, like the baked chicken & squash soup menu from last week, has two things cooking at once so you can adjust a little as you see fit; the pasta is an approximate timeframe and if you're using a thinner pasta you'll want to wait till the sauce is reducing the wine before you put the pasta in the water, then do a quick salad while those two finish off. The cooking was so quick that I didn't get to take pictures, and then it was so good that leftovers went out the window too.





Meg's Nearly Instant Bolognese
Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Fast
Should serve 4...but don't expect leftovers with less people!

Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
Olive oil
~1 lb ground meat (I used turkey because it was there, the recipe suggests meatball meats - beef/pork/veal, so whatever you have on hand should work)
1 small onion or equivalent shallots
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup tomato paste (if you only happen to have, say, a can of diced tomatoes, that's fine too, and particularly with a drier meat like turkey you can use the whole can)
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup of cream (which I didn't have, so used a splash of milk)
Pinch of dried thyme
Dash of cayenne (optional; not enough to make it spicy - just enough to brighten the flavors, and people might not even realize it's in there)

Pasta (shape & size of your choosing)
freshly grated parmesan

Get the pasta water going (don't forget to salt it! This is an overlooked but important step and your noodles will thank you). Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium high and add a glug of oil (about a tablespoon or two, not a ton). Once the oil is hot, add the meat and cook, breaking it up with a wood or silicone spoon. While that cooks, trim and finely the carrot, onion, garlic, and celery. As you finish each toss it into the pan to cook with the meat. Once everything is in there, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Once the meat is fully cooked and the veggies are softened (about 10-15 minutes), add your tomato product of choice, and sprinkle with the thyme and cayenne if using. Let it cook for a minute to heat through, then add the wine and scrape the pan as you stir it in. (NOTE: at this point, add the pasta to the boiling water if you are using a thick noodle like a fettucine that takes 10-11 minutes to cook.)

Let the wine bubble and cook until it has reduced (about halfway is the guide Bittman uses). Add your cream/milk at this point and turn the heat as low as it will go so you don't boil the milk. (NOTE: this is when to start cooking your pasta, if using a fine noodle, as you only have a few minutes of cooking left)

After a couple minutes you can turn the heat off under the sauce. Drain your pasta now. Bittman recommends tossing the pasta in with the sauce and serving that way; I prefer to plate the pasta and top with the sauce. Your call. Either way this is the time to add the parmesan, although full disclosure - I put the cheese on the table, and when we tasted the dish it was so flavorful we both completely forgot about the parmesan.

Buon Appetito!

Sunday Suppers: The 45-Minute Edition

(Caveat, because I hate all those 30-minute recipes that have tons of prep time - this could have some prep time. A little planning can offset that, though. Read on...)

So it was 4:45 on Sunday. Rainy, gloomy, dark. A miserable January day, except warmish, which had the odd effect of being more irritating because, well, JANUARY. I didn't want to go out to the store but hadn't planned a thing for dinner. Most nights, I'm good with cobbling something together and seeing what happens, but Sundays...well, it's Sunday Dinner. It ought to be a higher bar, in my opinion. But I wasn't open to going outside, so that left...the freezer. A dark and mysterious place, with many well-intentioned but since-forgotten packets.

And what to my wondering eyes...oh right sorry. January. Habits and all that.

So I poked around and found some forgotten chicken things and some cubed squash from a few CSA pickups ago. I don't know about you all but in the fall we went CRAZY with the squash, roasting it six ways to Tuesday. So that's good and all...but I'm kind of over it. I was feeling like soup, but a low-complication soup. Google to the rescue! I merged a couple recipes, and got this. This soup was flavorful and creamy, but with limited actual creamy ingredients and a relatively short cooking time. The biggest complication, frankly, was waiting for everything to defrost. I made kale chips to pass the time. And full disclosure about the squash: I used both butternut and Hubbard squash, because that's what I had. Delicata might work too, although I think acorn would be too savory. Butternut just sounds better in the title than "Any Squash You Have Soup," don't you think?

The chicken is one of my go-to's - easy, comforting, and aromatic, if maybe not 100% healthy as it basically cooks in its own fat. But whatever. I stuck that in the oven, and made the soup while the chicken cooked. Add a quick salad, and you're done. If you think of this the night before and pull everything out of the freezer, you dodge the only complication. (Yes, this assumes you have squash in the freezer. If you don't and this sounds good to you, keep an eye out for it - you can chop and freeze it raw very easily.) The particular seasoning combination in the soup is just right for January - the allspice and clove have a lingering holiday-ish aroma, but the cumin takes that and gives it an almost Middle Eastern spin to get you out of the rut.

45 Minute Sunday Supper: Baked Chicken Things & Butternut Squash Soup

Chicken:

Bone-in Chicken Thighs (2 per person, roughly)

Seasoning of your choosing

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking dish (like a Pyrex or that depth, not a baking sheet) with foil. Place your desired number of chicken breasts in there - I've done as few as two and up to 6, but it's really more about how many you want and will fit in your dish without crowding them. Generously sprinkle your preferred seasonings on them - I prefer Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt, as it seems to hit all the right poultry notes and is good and salty. I confess to not really knowing what's in it, though. I would think if you wanted something fresher you could use any good poultry friendly herbs, and some salt and pepper. Anyway: coat it, and stick the dish in the oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes (or a few minutes more if you like the skin particularly crispy).

While the chicken cooks...

Butternut Squash Soup

1/4 cup chopped onion [*prep shortcut: shake in some dehydrated minced onion. Works fine with all the liquid.]
~2 1/2 tablespoons butter
4 cups peeled and cubed butternut (or other winter) squash
2-3 cups chicken stock
Generous dash of allspice
Generous dash of ground cloves
Generous dash of cumin
Generous pinch of dried thyme
Something cream-based (in my case, it was about 3 tablespoons of leftover whipped cream cheese and a dash of milk. Got some heavy cream left from a holiday recipe? Dump it in. I'd probably draw the line at eggnog, though...I imagine, since this is more of a texturizer than a flavor add, you could make this healthy fairly easily - maybe some greek yogurt (plain), or even a chunk of ripe avocado. Play with it!)

In a large saucepan or stockpot, melt the butter. If using fresh onions, saute until tender. If using dehydrated: add about half a cup of the stock and the dehydrated onions, and let cook for a few minutes. Add squash, the rest of the stock, and all seasonings. Bring to boil, then lower heat to a brisk simmer and cook 15-20 minutes, or until squash is tender.

Add whatever creamy ingredient you've chosen and give it a little stir. Puree the whole thing with a stick blender, leave on a gentle simmer for a few minutes to get back up to hot, and do NOT boil. 

Your chicken and your soup will probably be done at about the same time - but you have flexibility here. The soup can hang out on a low simmer for a few minutes if you need it to, and the chicken can stay on keep warm or even come out and rest while the soup finishes or while you throw together your salad.

Thoughtful winter cooking in the sprawl zone

We're staying in more than we used to lately. Suburban living, I guess. And without a steady supply of fresh Alaskan salmon (or, this time of year, Dungeness crabs), I find myself running out of recipes faster than usual. I'm also trying to be a healthier and more environmentally thoughtful cook - at least marginally - which knocks out some of the recipes I grew up on (no offense intended to my mother -- we just worry more and maybe know more now about what impact certain foods have).

We've also joined a CSA, which has been an interesting experience in a Northeast winter. This CSA approaches winter with a massive root cellar and a greenhouse, so while the root and vine veggies aren't that different from what you might find in the grocery, freshness-wise, they are hyper-local and organic, and also sometimes out of my comfort zone. The greens are a revelation. Living in the PacNW, I got through winter by buying jumbo tubs of salad greens, never doubting they would last as long as I ate them consistently. Here, it's another story. No matter which brand and which grocery they often are slimy very soon after opening, and buying the loose greens is often just as much a depressing process. Lettuce from the farm, though? Crisp, fresh, and sweet, and lasts as long as I need it to.

Anyhoo, I digress. The other night found us with a significant surplus of squash (half a butternut, plus a ginormous Blue Hubbard), and some dark thick-leaf Asian greens which for the life of my I can't tell you the name of. I rummaged in the freezer for some protein and turned up some pork cutlets, and the following ensued.

Menu:

• Balsamic Rosemary Pork Cutlets
• Butternut Squash Puree
• Sauteed Greens

The cutlets were maybe a touch overdone - the sear wasn't good enough initially, so cooking them through took longer than planned, but the flavors were good. The puree was a little chunky, due to my lack of interest in transfering the whole thing to a food processor, but still tasty, and the greens were darn good. (I approached them like collards and it worked out great - lesson of the day, it's safe to guess and wing it sometimes)

Balsamic Rosemary Pork Cutlets

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaf, chopped (I saw this too late and used dry, and it was fine.)
• 1 lb pork tenderloin, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices (or a bunch of cutlets - it's essentially the same thing and allows for quantity adjustments
• Kosher salt & fresh black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup canned chicken broth
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium high heat.

Sprinkle pork on both sides with rosemary, salt, and pepper.

Add to pan and sear for about 3 minutes on each side, or until a good bronze is there. Remove the pork from pan and set aside.

Combine broth, vinegar and honey, stirring with a whisk. (NOTE: these are porportions. If you're making less, just reduce accordingly - it's a general guide more than anything else.)

Add to pan, scraping to loosen browned bits, and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes or until reduced and thickened somewhat.

Return pork to pan, turning to coat, and cook until thoroughly heated (you can use a meat thermometer here if you don't trust your eyeballing, but watch carefully as cutlets can go from moist and tender to overcooked and tough very quickly.)


Butternut (and other squash) Puree

• 2 whole Butternut Squash, Halved And Seeded (or whatever squash you have laying around, in the amount you want to eat - leftovers are fine.)
• 6 Tablespoons Butter, cut into pieces (approximate)
• 1/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup (also approximate, to taste)
• Dash Of Salt
• Ground Cinnamon, For Sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the squash halves, cut side down, on a baking sheet and roast for 30-40 minutes or until fork-tender. Cool briefly to avoid burning your hands, and then scoop out the innards into a bowl and add butter, syrup, and salt. Mash with a potato masher OR puree with a food processor. Spread into a small casserole dish and sprinkle with cinnamon. Keep warm in the oven until serving, then serve by the spoonful! (Or just mash into a bowl, cover it in foil, and set aside. We stuck in the microwave for insulation, OBVIOUSLY not turning on the microwave with metal in there.)

Sautéed Greens

• One bunch dark greens like collards, or in this case Google suggests I probably had yokatta na
• Olive oil
• herbal mix - some garlic, thyme, etc. I used an herbed oil. 
• salt
• crushed red pepper

Rinse the greens thoroughly and pat dry. Remove the stems and spine, leaving you with a pile of half-circles. Roll them into a long tube and chop, leaving you with 1-inch wide strips of leaf. Toss in a bowl and set aside.

Heat a skillet on medium-high, and add a glug of oil. (Not too much, maybe a tablespoon or two - depends on how many greens you're using, but you don't want a ton of oil. Just enough to slide around the pan.) When the oil is shimmery, add the greens and salt them, adding a sprinkle of the crushed red pepper. Toss continuously with tongs - they will wilt very quickly, and as soon as they do, remove from the heat and set aside till you're ready to serve plates.


The greens were a sort of bed for the pork, with the squash along side. It was all quick and easy, and surprisingly good.

That one time where we accidentally drove to winter

It's been quite a couple of days, friends. So we went to Yellowstone on Sunday -- really beautiful, well worth the price of admission. Waterfalls and steaming slopes of hot spring-laden rock and herds of bison and elk wandering about.

Then, we left the park.

(Dramatic pauses for a reason)

We took US 212 out of the park, the far northeast entrance - the one going the way we were headed. I didn't notice till we were well en route the map's note about how the road is closed in the winter. This may seem irrelevant as it was August 31st but living in the shadow of the Cascades and Olympics, I know this is not generally a good sign and that winter is more of an elevation difference than a season in the West. I didn't think too much of it, though, and figured we'd be fine. Well, we were, but that's probably because EPH was driving and he is much less inclined to panic. We were cruising along, headed up a series of switchbacks through what the map told us is known as Beartooth Pass. (At the time I hypothesized that this was due to the jagged silhouette of the mountain but now I wonder if people get stuck and eaten up there) As we climbed, I was a little nervous about the extremity of the switchbacks, as well as the odd tendency to NOT put guardrails next to sheer drops. But it was beautiful so I tried to not worry, and EPH was driving slowly to keep me calm. Early on we noticed that there was snow at the top of the mountain - again, very far up so didn't dwell on it. But then the snow got closer...and closer...and the GPS elevation told us we were passing 10,000 feet and suddenly the snow was along the road and the "fog" was extremely dense and the ground all around was covered in thick frost. Keep in mind we're still on extreme switchbacks and we're in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal at all - rural Montana. This is how survival movies start, amirite?

Then it got scarier -- we had to go DOWN the other side. Still switchbacks, only now we notice the road surface itself is, uh, shiny. So we're going down twisty windy roads, on the side of a mountain, on ice-covered roads. We're going super slow and I'm praying every prayer I know while mentally alternating with swearing a blue streak, and we're hoping that a) we stay on the road and b) nobody comes along behind us and can't slow down in time and we both go off the mountain.

Needless to say, since I'm typing this we clearly survived, but in my head I was definitely running through the various provisions and blankets in the truck and thinking I might actually have to use them. Scary. Pro tip - AVOID BEARTOOTH PASS if driving in/out of Yellowstone!!!

Just inside the western edge of North Dakota.

Not long after, though, we encountered more bison - these were just roaming free near a rest stop. Amazing.

So, that was Sunday. Monday we got to Fargo, which was surprisingly adorable, and where we had a fantastic dinner in a place called the Beefsteak Club. Check it out if, for some odd reason, you are in Fargo. The next morning EPH hopped a flight off to work, and I drove on. My adventures, such as they are, in the next post.

Homer lost patience with this road trip business and spent some time sulking. 

A follow up, which is totally unlike its preceding post

I don't normally just repost somebody else's blogging - seems lazy and vaguely cheaty - but this seemed important. I was talking previously about how we're all in the winter funk - how food is not fresh and cooking is not fun and we are generally cold, grumpy, and uninspired (maybe I'm projecting a bit). I gave you a warm and somewhat wintery meal. Today, in my perusal of favorite blogs, I swung by Smitten Kitchen...and saw that Deb was feeling pretty much the same as I - but had a very different approach. I now want fresh fruity drinks, and you should too. Read, drink, and enjoy.

Blood Orange Margaritas



picture via Smitten Kitchen

We all need a little kick right about now

So. Here we are, most of the way through February. (Yes, really. That happened.) You are back in the crazed day-to-day with no warm and fuzzy holidays in sight, it's still cold and gross out for most of you, and spring break, for those few of you that can actually still do that, is way too far off. The early winter appeal of cooking great grand meals for cozy nights has faded entirely, and it's still too early for most fresh and interesting produce to inspire. You want dinner, and quickly, but still something interesting, and probably something frugal. Turns out, this exists - and it mostly uses things you're likely to have on hand, and if not can be substituted to a certain extent.

I'm a fan of this pork cutlet recipe - it's easy, it's fast (honestly, 30 minutes start to finish - and more like 15 if you take shortcuts) and it's got a little kick to keep it from being too boring, and you can easier adjust the amount of kick for your particular audience. I like to practically crust the cutlets in pepper when I sear them and not skimp on the red pepper in the sauce, but that's just what works for me.

Generally, the ingredient amounts - at least in my experience - are really just suggestions. I don't think I've measured anything any of the times I've made this, probably because it's a recipe for 4 and I've only made this for 1 so far - at least before tonight, when I cooked up a whole batch of 6 cutlets, which once again is not precisely what the recipe calls for. So yes, very adjustable!

Bonus: the recipe calls for wine, so if you're going to open a bottle anyway...

Spicy Italian Pork Cutlets
(adapted from Allrecipes)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 4 boneless pork chops, pounded to 1/4 inch thick [*I've never actually pounded - first time the cutlets were already pretty thin, the second time I just sliced them off a loin I had defrosted. Also worth noting that my cutlets tend to be small, so I allow two per serving.*]
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced [*shortcut option: garlic paste works fine although maybe isn't as interesting a presentation at the end*]
• 1 large tomato, diced [*another shortcut - I tend to make this with canned diced. A bit more sodium but much faster and you get more flavorful juice in the recipe*]
• 1/3 cup chicken broth [*roughly*]
• 1/4 cup dry white wine [*again, roughly - whatever looks good to your eye. Also, I stand by the rule of not cooking with cheap junk wine - you're going to have to do something with the rest of the bottle, so use something you'll drink, or pull a Martha Stewart and freeze leftover cubes for...I don't really know what. I feel like frozen wine would just complicate a recipe, particularly one like this. But whatever floats your boat.*]
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley [*I always forget this. It's still good.*]
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat roughly 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat - just drizzle some in - you're not deep-frying, so adjust for the number of cutlets you're making. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper, and sear very quickly on both sides - it'll finish cooking later, so don't overdo it here. Probably a good idea to have a splatter screen handy, too. Remove from the pan, and set aside.
2. Heat the remaining olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat, and saute the garlic about 30 seconds - probably less if you're using paste. Mix in the tomato, chicken broth, wine, parsley, and red pepper flakes. Cook and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes.
3. Return the pork chops to the skillet, and continue cooking 5 to 10 minutes, to an internal temperature of 145 degrees F (63 degrees C). Serve pork with the tomato and broth mixture from the skillet. [*it's worth noting that when I first printed this recipe the safety guidelines for pork hadn't been changed yet, so it said 160 degrees - but the exact same cooking time. Either way I found this to be too long - it was 4 minutes at most in my case. There's room for error since it's in liquid so won't get TOO tough, but keep any eye on it - it's going to be an individual judgement call, since getting a meat thermometer into a thin cutlet is easier said than done. It also is affected, obviously, by how long you sear it earlier in the recipe, so be quick about that.*]

The original recipe suggests putting this with buttered noodles - I put it over a pile of whole wheat couscous from Trader Joe's, which soaked up the extra broth nicely, and was probably healthier - plus, if you start it at the same time as you first begin this recipe, it's done at about the same time with minimal effort required. All it really needs is a decent-sized salad along side and you're set.

The pork, it is roasted. And then some.

So, it's November. Clearly, this is not gardening season...at least not in Seattle, so we're skipping that part of my re-learning curve for a few months. It IS Dungeness crab season...at least, it should be...and it's comfort food season. What sounds more comfort food-y than a roasted pork loin? Nothing! Well, plenty of things...but last week pork loin was it. It was on sale in massive cuts at my grocery...minimum: 8 pounds of pork! I live alone. 8 pounds was clearly excessive, so I now have 3 2-lb cuts in the freezer. What happened to the other one? Well, that's a matter of opinion, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The first challenge was finding a roast pork recipe that involved neither fruit (apples/raisins/etc) nor onions. I'm not opposed to fruit, and certainly have no shortage of fruit at the moment, but...fruit with pork always seems to make me just want more roasted fruit and less pork. Also I really hate cooking with onions. Truth be told I'm not super fond of eating them, either.

A little digging around produced this deliciously garlicky sounding recipe (copied in full below). I had all the required ingredients in-house, which is no small thing for me, and this even gave me an excuse to use something I had grown on the back patio (rosemary). I got home from work and got to it, stabbing the pork and lining the pan and crushing some recently dried rosemary. I popped it on the rack, set the timer, and put the whole thing in the oven. For the following two hours my apartment smelled AMAZING, if a little garlicky. It came out, and I sat down to a very attractive dinner.



I took the first bite...and knew immediately something had gone awry. The flavors were perfect - rosemary and garlic but neither in an overpowering way - but the meat was surprisingly overdone. Why? Well, if you already looked at the recipe and read my post carefully, you probably thought "wait, why is she putting this thing on a rack?" Indeed, why? There was no mention of a rack in the recipe. #fail. 

So, fellow chefs: remember, just because you're roasting something doesn't mean there's a rack involved. Now, to be fair: my ever-patient boyfriend (henceforth referred to as "EPB") tried to assure me that it was delicious, not at all overcooked. So either he was being kind or I like my pork juicier than it's supposed to be...who knows? Either way: I'll try this one again.

Roasted Pork Loin (source: AllRecipes, Kathleen Burton)

Serves 8 (although those seems like pretty small servings to me); Prep time 20 minutes, Cook time ~2 hours

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
2 pounds boneless pork loin roast
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup white wine

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Crush garlic with rosemary, salt and pepper, making a paste. Pierce meat with a sharp knife in several places and press the garlic paste into the openings. Rub the meat with the remaining garlic mixture and olive oil. 

Place pork loin into oven, turning and basting with pan liquids. Cook until the pork is no longer pink in the center, about 2 hours. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Remove roast to a platter. Heat the wine in the pan and stir to loosen browned bits of food on the bottom. Serve with pan juices.