Ridiculous Pasta

We started getting boxes of organic produce again. Turns out, there's a service in delaware - Door to Door Organics.

The first box arrived on Monday. I love this kind of stuff, it's kind of an Iron Chef Challenge. What do I do with the box o' food? Tonight, it's ridiculous pasta. I'm calling it that because I took what should be "simple" - a butternut squash and spinach pasta recipe, and elaborated on it until it was kind of over-the-top. Overall, it was worth it.

By browning most of the squash ahead of time, you can make a nice sauce from the remaining squash, but the part you sauté ends up being firmer and plays a real role in the meal, rather than becoming kind of a soupy sauce thing. This is how I ended up cooking the recipe, after tasting it, I would probably have increased the amount of mushroom in the sauce, as well as tomato paste, and probably topped it with some crushed hazelnuts.

Ingredients:

• Smallish Butternut Squash (1.5 lbs), peeled and cut into 1/2" dice
  
• 2 portabella caps, gilled and cut into 1/2" cubes
  
• 1 leek, washed and sliced thin (white and light green parts)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 c dried cranberries
• 2/3 c dry white wine
• 1 c chicken stock
• 1t dried sage
• 4T unsalted butter
• 2T tomato paste
• Olive Oil for sauteeing
• 2c spinach
  
• 1 lb pappardelle pasta (I made mine from scratch)

Preparation:
Heat a large frypan. Sauté the mushrooms in batches so to not crowd the pan (that way they brown better), until they're softened and browned, approx 3-5 minutes, turning halfway through. Remove to a bowl.

Sauté approximately 3/4 of the squash cubes (I used the neck of the squash here, as it cubes up more prettily), until fork-tender, approx 8-10 minutes. Remove to the same bowl as the mushrooms.

Sauté the leeks and garlic for 3-5 minutes, until softened. Add the butter, let it melt and brown a little bit. Add the wine, and scrape up the browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken stock, sage, tomato paste, reserved squash, and cranberries. Adjust the salt, add a little bit of red pepper or black pepper if you desire. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, and let it simmer for approx 30 minutes, half-covered, until the cranberries and squash are mooshy.

Meanwhile, prepare the pasta however you want. Did I mention that I made mine from scratch? Oh yeah, I did. Well, I'm mentioning it again. I'm pretty cool.

Once the squash has cooked through and the pasta has drained, moosh things up a bit, then pour the sauce into the pasta cooking pot (or some other handy pot - my frypan wasn't big enough to assemble the dish). Add the spinach and cook for a few minutes over low heat until the spinach is wilted. Mix in the sauteed mushrooms and squash, as well as the pasta. Toss with cheese to taste. Eat.

Delicious Oven-Baked Potatoes

This is a simple way to treat potatoes. It is a deliciously different preparation from a baked potato or mashed potatoes. They're all good, but after having mashed potatoes so often, it's a nice break to have some simple oven fries.

It scales indefinitely, but plan on about 1 baking potato per person (4-6 fries per person) for a meal.

Line a large metal baking dish with aluminum foil. Preheat the oven to 450.

Take some large russet baking potatoes - these things have the high starch content that makes them into good fries. Cut them lengthwise into 4-6 slices. Toss with approx 1t olive oil, 1t salt, and 1/2 t savory herbs (I use my Uncle Bob and Aunt Lindell's magic herb mixture). Go crazy here - paprika, pepper, cumin, whatever. Try and pick a flavor that will contrast with whatever your main dish is, as the fries will be used to soak up leftovers from the plate.

Lay out the potatoes, skin side down in the dish. Don't crowd them - you don't want them to touch each other at all, or they'll be all mooshy.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until they're well-browned.

Optionally, after they're done cooking sprinkle freshly-grated Parmesan cheese on them and return to the oven for 2 minutes.

Mustard and Horseradish Chicken

This is a quick-and-easy recipe you can modify as you see fit. I sort of threw it together out of several other recipes I'd read. The mustard sauce would be just as good on pork chops, probably.

Mix together:

• 3T dijon mustard
• 1/2t dry mustard
• 1T horseradish
• 1/2 c chicken stock or white wine
  
• 1t thyme
• 1/2 t salt (to taste)

You will also need:

• 1.5 lb boneless chicken, either 3-4 breasts or 5-6 thighs.
• 2T vegetable oil
• 1/2 onion, sliced thinly
  
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2T heavy cream
  

Heat a skillet over medium-high until it's ready to sear. You can tell if you add 1/4 t of water to the pan and the water doesn't really bubble, but instead holds together and floats like a ball of mercury on the pan. Here's some instructions about how to do it.

Add 2T vegetable oil to the pan.

Sear boneless chicken pieces in batches, taking care to not crowd the pan, approx 2 minutes per side. Remove to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the mustard mixture to the pan, then return the chicken to the pan. Simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through (probably about 5-10 minutes). Add the cream to the sauce and mix everything together.

Serve over noodles, or the Delicious Oven-Baked Fries that are forthcoming in a later post.

Peanut-Cucumber Salad

1/4 c lime juice
1 1/2 T fish sauce
1 1/2 T sugar
1 large jalapeno chili, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cucumbers, halved, seeded, thinly sliced
3/4 c sliced red onion
3 T chopped fresh mint
3 T chopped peanuts

Mix. Serve. Enjoy.

Hungarian beef stew

This is a Hungarian-American fusion version of paprikash, with some Bulgarian influences thrown in.

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 lb of beef chuck, cubed
1 T paprika
1 c beef stock
1 t balsamic vinegar
1/2 c diced tomatoes
1 T flour
1 T butter
1/2 c sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion and garlic over medium heat until they start to brown, about 15 minutes. Add the bay leaves, paprika, stock, vinegar, tomatoes, and beef. Simmer, covered, at low heat for 90 minutes, until the beef is very tender.

Melt the butter in the microwave, mix in the flour. Add the flour/butter mixture to the stew and simmer for 5 minutes, until it thickens. Remove from heat, mix in the sour cream.

serve with potatoes, noodles, or bread as desired.

Autumn Risotto

This is a nice, subtle but still delicious risotto that we kind of put together out of ideas and ingredients that were laying around.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium size butternut squash, about 2 lbs dry wt. Peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2" dice
• 1T butter
• 1T extra virgin olive oil
• 8-12 fresh sage leaves, washed and patted dry
• 1 medium onion, cut into small dice
• 1/2 c white wine
• 6c chicken stock
• 1 lb arborio rice
  

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan (I used my big stock pot), mix in the olive oil. Fry 8-12 fresh sage leaves in oil/butter for about a minute to release oils and crisp them up, then remove and set aside for garnish.

Add the onion, saute until translucent (5-8 minutes).

Meanwhile, heat 6 c of chicken broth to a bare simmer in a separate pot.

Then add the squash to the onion and saute for about 5 minutes, then add 1 lb arborio rice and saute for 60 seconds, mixing everytning together. Reduce heat to med-low. Add 1/2 c white wine and let simmer and absorb until mostly dry again. Then add hot chicken stock about 1/2 c at a time, stirring frequently and letting the rice absorb most of the liquid before adding the next batch.

Once the rice is tender (you'll probably use all the chicken broth, but maybe not), remove from heat. Add 3 oz graded parm and 1/2 c heavy cream, salt and pepper to taste, and stir well. Garnish with reserved crispy sage leaves and chopeed hazelnuts if desired.

Pork and Hominy Stew: Mexican Style

Okay, so I've no real clue what makes something "Mexican-style". But "Pork and Hominy Stew" is kind of a boring name, and this is a recipe I actually invented myself, based on some ideas I had about what would taste good. So, if you've got any suggestions for a name, I'm all ears.

Commentary: Pork is a real pain to stew, in my opinion. Almost all the pork you find in the supermarket is really lean, and doesn't stew well. It dries out really, really quickly, leaving you with very unsatisfying meat. I use 'Country-Style Ribs' most of the time in applications like this. Country ribs are usually ribs that are cut from the blade end of the pig, and have a lot of meat and some random bones in them. They're pretty fatty, which is why I use them. I've also used shoulder roasts here. The trick is: just don't use loin, unless you know something about stewing pork that I don't.

Also, be really careful with your chorizo. It's very variable in saltiness and spiciness. I strongly recommend precooking a little bit and tasting it before you decide on final spices. As it is, that's why I don't recommend a full use of chicken stock, since full sodium chicken stock and a salty chorizo would probably oversalt the dish.

Hominy, for the uninitiated, is corn that has had its hull washed off with lye. It comes in cans and can usually be found in the Latin section of the grocery store. It is really good in things like this, and it makes a good standin for beans in a lot of recipes (Chrissy doesn't like beans). You could probably use corn pretty easily in this recipe - Hominy is less sweet, but corn would be good here too.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs fatty pork (country ribs, shoulder roast), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1.5" cubes. Reserve a few large bones if possible.
  
• 1 lb chorizo sausage, loose (take it out of the casing and cut it up)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2c assorted veggies (Chrissy doesn't like peppers, so I usually use yellow squash and carrots here, but a mix of squash, carrots, red and green bell peppers would work fine)
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced and seeds removed
• Pork Rub: 1t each Cumin, Coriander, Salt, Sugar, Sage
• 1/4c flour
• 1/4c Oil
  
• Stock Spices: 1t each Cumin, Coriander, Cayenne Pepper, Sage, Thyme
  
• 1/3 c lime juice
  
• 4c water
• 2 chicken bullion cubes
• 2T tomato paste
• 2T fresh cilantro, chopped
• 28 oz can Hominy, drained
  

Preparation:

1. Toss the pork cubes with the Pork Rub, then with 2T flour. Heat 2T oil in a large stockpot (I used my big Le Cruset). Brown the pork over medium-high heat for about 3-5 minutes. Don't cook it through, just brown it. Remove the pork to a holding area.
2. Add enough oil to the pan to make approx 2T of fat, heat it to shimmering on medium-high. Whisk in the remaining 2T flour, and keep whisking until the roux is lightly browned.
3. Add the onions and saute until softened but not browned (4-6 minutes)
4. Add the garlic, chorizo, chipotle, and veggies, saute for 5 minutes to soften the veggies and brown the sausage.
5. Add the Stock Spices and saute for 1 minute to wake them up.
6. Add the lime juice, water, bullion, tomato paste, and bring to a simmer.
7. Reduce to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the reserved pork bone (guilty secret: I also toss in a reserved piece of pork lard at this point)
8. Taste for seasonings - adjust for the salt, based on how much salt came from your chorizo.
   
9. Add the cilantro, hominy, and reserved pork, and simmer for about 12 more minutes. This part is critical. If you overcook the pork cubes, they'll still get dry. If that happens, keep on simmering it for a while longer, and shred them.
10. Remove the pork bone (and the lard!) before serving. Serve on hot rice, with some jack cheese melted on top.
    

And there we have it. My first real original recipe. Now, someone's going to tell me that I just re-invented some common recipe, I'm sure, but I still feel proud of it. I'd be even prouder if someone DID tell me that, since I'm not sure how many people actually read this.

ALSO: This stuff is GREAT leftover. The scale (3 lbs of meat!) is pretty big because I like cooking up a ton of it and having it for lunches. Don't store the rice with the stew in your tupperware, though, since the rice will soak up all the stew liquid.