A side trip to Thailand

I saw a recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Anything, or is it everything?  I am not sure.  Anyway, he had a recipe of how to cook chicken wings six ways.  We were ready for a non med night, so we opted for Thai.  I didn't take any pictures...

Thai Chicken Wings:

Toss chicken wings in olive oil and roast at 350 for 30 minutes.  Turn and baste, pour off excess fat and roast for another 20 minutes.

In a bowl mix 2 tbsp peanut butter along with 4-5 tbsp coconut milk, 1 tbsp curry and 1 garlic clove, minced.  Add enough coconut milk to make it pourable.  (The next time I will add some sriracha to give it a little something extra).  Toss sauce with chicken wings. Bake at 450 for another twenty minutes.

We served this with a vegetable green curry  (From the Thai Kitchen bottle, using the recipe for the sauce right from the label, which is getting a little too small for Sanford...using whatever vegetables you have in the fridge.  We used zucchini, red bell peppers, onions, garlic and mushrooms) along with some good old white rice.

Back to the pressure cooker

This week and last we have been cooking a lot of old standbys.  Roast chicken with potatoes, onions and carrots.  Roasted pork loin with potatoes, onions, and carrots.  You get the picture.  One thing I did differently this week was add the pressure cooker into the equation.  Peel and chop the potatoes and carrots.  Put a cup of water or so in the pressure cooker and a steamer basket.  Pressure cook them for 3 minutes.  Place cooker under cold water (carefully) to reduce pressure quickly.

Then when putting everything in the pan to put in the oven, gently toss the potatoes and carrots with olive oil and season.  Then cook just like you would for the raw potatoes and carrots.

It is amazing.  It didn't matter when the roast took 25 minutes (pork) or 1 hour (chicken) the potatoes and carrots remained perfectly tender in the middle and nicely caramelized on the outside.  Magic.

Dukka for dinner

I wanted to make some red lentil Egyptian soup, so I decided to go ahead and try to make the whole dinner Egyptian inspired.  I know very little about Egyptian food, so I apologize if I am way off base here.

First, the Red Lentil Soup.  There is one of these recipes in just about every cookbook.  It is reminiscent of mullagitawny.   Heat a couple of tbsp olive oil in a pan.  Add 1 chopped onion and cook  until soft.  Add 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, some red pepper flakes to taste.  Stir for about 30 seconds.  Add 1 cup rinsed red lentils, 1 peeled and chopped carrots, a can tomatoes, chopped, and 4 cups chicken stock.    Cover and cook for about 30-40 minutes.  Puree using immersion blender.  Add juice of 1/2 lemon.  Stir. 

While the   lentils are cooking, heat some more olive oil in a pan.  Add thinly sliced onion to the pan and cook on low until softened and browned, about 15-20 minutes.

Garnish the soup with the onions.

Next the Dukka

This is a spice blend I had never heard of before.  It seems that there are as many ways to make as their are people making it in in Egypt.  So, again, I used what I had on hand.  I find it a little addictive.  This can be ground as coarse or as fine as you like.  Mixed with olive oil, it's great to dip fresh baked pita bread.

Toast each of the nuts/seeds separately.  (This is a pain in my rear, but each recipe I saw specifically mentions this, so I did it.

1/2 cup nuts (I used 1/4 cup almonds and 1/4 cup hazelnuts)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup coriander seeds
1/8 cup cumin seeds

After the nuts cool, place in food processor with 1/2 tsp salt and fresh ground pepper.  Store in refrigerator.

My Dukka in action.

There wasn't anything specific to do with the dukka online.  So I cut up some chicken breast.  Tossed it with olive oil and the dukka and pan sauteed it in some olive oil.  I served it alongside roasted cauliflower with cumin (I may be getting a little boring with my meals), feta and tomatoes tossed with olive oil and more dukka sprinkled over the top and some fresh pita.

Sunday night supper club: Japan

Speake:  Japanese beef and scallion rolls:  (from Gourmet)  Blanch 12 small scallion, then put in ice bath.  Take 1 pound flank steak.  Cut on a 30 degree angle into 12 piece.  Pound until very thin.  Salt.  Roll the scallions in the flank steak.  Tie with kitchen twine.  Set aside.  Meanwhile mix 1/4 cup saki, 1/4 cup mirin, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sugar.  Pour over meat rolls and let marinate x 15 minutes, turning to coat.  Dry them and cook in 1 tbsp vegetable oil until browned on all sides.  Set aside.  Pour marinade into hot pan.  Reduce until syrupy.  Cut strings off of rolls and pour over rolls.

Mary Beth and Pete:  Tuna Poke. 

1.5 (+/-) lbs. sashimi grade tuna
2-2.5 avocados
Juice of 1.5-2 lemons
1.5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon chili pepper flakes
3/4 cup chopped scallions
 
Combine in a bowl and refrigerate. Then put it on a

 pretty plate that someone left at your house, 

and let everyone stand around and "poke" your tuna. Delish!

Kingsleys salad, again recipe pending.

Sammy's marinated pork.  Again, no recipe.  There was a magical outcome when this pork and the Kingsley salad, along with some plain white were all mixed together.

The lovely Mary Beth.

Our gracious host, Pam

Sanford and Andy

Computer and Japanese food.

Miss Emma Kingsley

Mr. Finn Kinglsey

Beautiful Olive.

To finish, Pam made some wonderful tempura, including green bean, sweet potato, zucchini, and shrimp!

Dinners this week.

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The first dinner was roasted chicken with tahini sauce.  (This was right up my alley.  I have been loving these flavors)  The only complaint from my family was that I didn't make enough food.  The second night was spaghetti and meatballs.  I love my homemade noodles but sometimes I prefer the toothiness of dried pasta.  I read an article that suggested dried pasta with sauces that are tomato or olive oil based and fresh noodles with cream sauces.  Sounds like a good guideline.

Roast chicken with Tahini sauce (from Gourmet).

Season chicken (I used thighs and legs) with salt and pepper.  Brown in a cast iron skillet in a couple of tbsp olive oil.  Put in oven and roast for 30 minutes.  Tahini sauce:  In a little food processor mix 1/3 cup tahini, 1/3 cup water, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tsp sugar (or to taste) and salt to taste.  Process.  If too thick, add more water.  Set aside.

Serve chicken with roasted cauliflower (tossed with cumin, olive oil, salt and cooked at the same time as the chicken), tomatoes, and feta.  I used have added some seasoned chickpeas to the plate so everyone would have been a little more satisfied!

Spaghetti and meatballs.

I used buccatinni instead of spaghetti.  For the meatballs, a pound of ground pork and ground beef, some fresh toasted bread crumbs, a couple of eggs, some dried thyme, dried oregano, parsley, salt and pepper.  Mix.  Make into small meatballs. Bake 14 minutes at 350 degrees.  (Mine were a little dry, damn grass fed beef.  Next time I will add a little olive oil so I get a better brown!)

For the sauce I sauteed a couple of onions until soft.  Add 5 minced garlic cloves.  Season with whatever dried herbs you like.  I usually get a little herb happy, but that is the way I like it.  I use oregano, basil, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper.  I had some sundried tomato paste and anchovy paste, so I added a squirt of each.  Deglaze the pan with wine.  When the wine is gone add 3 cans tomatoes.  (Here's where I got spoiled last year.  I used plain old canned tomatoes from the grocery store.  The more expensive San Marzano tomatoes are well worth the extra money for tomato sauce.  I am never satisfied with my grocery store sauce any more).  Anyway, use a stick blender and make almost smooth.  Add some sugar and red pepper flakes to taste.  Simmer at least 20 minutes.  Add meatballs and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.  We served with garlic bread and salad.

Chicken and rice, Spanish style

Sanford has a difficult time calling this paella.  It is true that it doesn't have the depth of flavor that we got when we made paella last summer on the grill.  But this definitely was tasty.  And, it took less than an hour to make, which makes it perfect for a weeknight meal.  Sam loved it.  Jack thought it was "ok".  The recipe is from The Essentials of Mediterranean Cooking.  At the end, I will tell you how I will change it the next time I make it.

Chicken and rice

Put 4 saffron threads in 2 tbsp hot water and set aside.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil.  Cut 2 bone-in, skinned chicken breast into 8 pieces.  Brown in oil.  Remove.  Cut 1 link chorizo into half moons.  Brown for about 5 minutes.  Remove.  Add 1 chopped onion and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add 1 chopped tomato and some chopped ham.  (It called for serrano which we could find, so substituted coppa).  Cook another couple of minutes.  Add 2 cups arborio rice and stir.  Add saffron threads and hot water along with 4 cups chicken broth.  Season with salt and pepper and 1 tsp sweet paprika and stir.   Place chicken on top and sprinkle the chorizo on top, along with some 1 inch green beans, 2 cups chickpeas, 1/2 cup baby peas, and 1 chopped roasted red pepper.  Bring to a simmer, cover and cook 20 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave covered for another 10 minutes.  Serve with a squeeze of lemon.

The next time I will chop the chorizo into small diced pieces.  I will add the onion to it, not remove it so that it continues to flavor everything a little better.  I will also add 5-6 minced garlic cloves with the onions.  When I add the seasoning, I will add a little red pepper flakes.  Although it was tasty, it needed a little punch.

Pork CHops and Lamb chops

The pork chops were placed in a brine for a couple of days.  Then the lamb and pork chops were placed in a marinade consisting of olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and basil, and a tiny bit of fennel seed and red chili flakes, and a tad of rosemary.  They were left in a marinade for a couple of days, then grilled to perfection.  We served it with sliced tomatoes, roasted cauliflower, feta, olive oil and Isreali couscous.  To make the couscous we sauted some onion and squash until softened.  Add chopped garlic and the couscous.  Then add chicken broth and cook covered until tender.