Ricotta - White Wine Sauce

Hello all,
Tonight I'm going to share a quick, tasty sauce that I've made a few times now.
I'm going to give you the general recipe for the sauce, and then list a few variations that I've tried.

Sauce:

• Olive Oil
• 2-3 Cloves of Garlic
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 - 1 1/2 cup White Wine
• A few splashes of white wine vinegar
  
• 6-8 Heaping tablespoons of ricotta cheese
  
• Parmesan cheese
  
• Oregano
• Basil
• Fennel
• Salt/Pepper to taste

1) Saute the garlic, onion, spices (expect salt) in the olive oil.
2) Add the white wine and vinegar and simmer for a few minutes.
3) Slowly stir in the ricotta a few spoonfuls at a time and simmer gently.
4) Once all the ricotta is added, add the Parmesan cheese and salt and simmer for 5-6 more minutes, until it thickens slightly. While it's simmering, taste it and see if it needs more salt and pepper (it probably will).
5) Serve over pasta.


That's it! Now, it'd be a fairly boring dish as is, so I've added a few veggies to help give the sauce a bit more body. I've tried adding peppers and broccoli to the sauce by sauteing them in with the garlic/onion/spices. I've also added spinach into the sauce by sauteing it quickly just before adding the white wine. Both have been pretty tasty.

So, basically, I've given the basics for many tasty dinners! Please experiment and leave any more tasty combination you find in the comments!

Curry coconut squash soup

Soup is perhaps my favorite way to consume squash, although I didn't discover this until recently. This dish was surprisingly easy, considering I had to use the blender.

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and diced into 1" polyhedra
1 ginormous carrot (or 2 large ones), peeled and sliced roughly
1/2 white onion, roughly chopped

Boil until soft. (20-40 minutes)

These go into the blender. I had to split it into two batches, and to each batch I added:

1 pat butter
juice of 1/2 clementine
1/4 can lite coconut milk
1 glorg maple syrup (~1 tbsp)
maybe 1/4 c pecans
4 spoonfuls plain yogurt
some salt
some pepper
~1 tsp curry powder (use your judgment)
enough of the water used to boil the veggies to fill in most of the voids

Soupify. Reheat if necessary.

Pesto pasta with brussels sprouts and sun-dried tomato, roasted cauliflower

This wasn't meant to be an entropic dinner.

On the way home from work --tired and brain-fried-- I had it in mind just to cook some pasta and mix it with pesto for a quick, simple dinner. But by the time I got into the kitchen, some of my creative impulsiveness had returned and I was able to whip up the following:

Pesto pasta with brussels sprouts and sun-dried tomatoes

1/2 box rotini pasta, cooked and drained
1/4-1/2 cup pesto
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
~15 brussels sprouts
olive or grapeseed oil
paprika
black pepper
salt

Rinse and halve the brussels sprouts (after removing the "stem"). Sprinkle with paprika and black pepper. In a small frying pan, heat ~1 Tbsp oil over medium high. When hot, add sprouts and fry for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the outsides have browned. (Alternatively, you could broil or grill the sprouts) Combine with pasta, pesto, and tomatoes and return to heat if necessary. Add salt to taste.

Notes: I'm discovering that brussels sprouts are among the most underrated vegetables; buy them fresh (not canned) and roast or brown them and they are quite fantastic! For the pesto, add it a large spoonful at a time until it tastes right to you. I used pesto we made this summer with our bumper basil crop, which I found to be more lightly flavored than most, so I went with around 1/2 cup.

Roasted Cauliflower

1 cauliflower
4-5 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp sweet vinegar
ground cumin
dried oregano
salt

Rinse cauliflower and remove core (or cut into small pieces). Drizzle with 2-3 Tbsp oil and toss lightly (or brush, if using the head whole). Sprinkle with oregano, cumin, and salt and bake at 450F for 45 minutes, or until tops are golden brown. Meanwhile, combine 2 Tbsp oil with the vinegar and ~1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp oregano. When cauliflower is done, remove from oven and cut into pieces if necessary. Shake dressing well, pour over cauliflower and stir.

Notes: most of the credit for this dish goes to Meghan, who co-writes a cooking and wine blog with her husband Doug (my former colleague). Her version is slightly different, but as she mentions, you can be pretty creative with the sauce/seasonings you use. For the vinegar, I used Trader Joe's Orange Malbec Champagne Vinegar (or something like that), which is quite sweet and fruity as vinegars go. You could do just as well with a wine vinegar or some lemon juice and a little sweetener.

Beet Soup, Fried 'taters, and Tomato Salad

Not the most adventurous of experimentation tonight, but each of these is a bit of a twist on some established recipe.

Beet Soup

I actually followed a recipe for the most part -- from the excellent 12 Months of Monastery Soups, but with a little alteration at the end.

1 qt water
1 bouillon cube (I used vegetable)
2 beets, cubed
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced (I added this myself)
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar (I used raw sugar)
salt and pepper
garnish (see below)

Combine the water, bouillon, vegetables, oil, and sugar in a soup pot and cook over med-low for 30 minutes. Add the salt and pepper and cook for 10 more minutes. Blend the soup in a blender (it'll take 2 or more loads) and return to the pot. Heat for 5 minutes and ladle into bowls. The original recipe called for chopped fresh dill and scallions as a garnish, neither of which I had, so I substituted a drizzle of truffle oil and a sprinkle of dried dill weed, which seemed to turn out just fine.

Salt 'n' Vinegar Fried Baby Potatoes

A classic twist on a classic! Or something like that...

~2 cups baby potatoes perhaps cut in half or quarters
vegetable oil
1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
salt
1 (maybe 1 1/2) Tbsp white or white wine vinegar

Heat a little oil in a frying pan over medium, then add the potatoes. Fry, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 12-15 minutes. Turn off burner and add the vinegar and rosemary while stirring. If the vinegar does not all absorb or evaporate after a minute, drain the excess, then add salt to your taste. I used Holy Smokes' smoked salt for extra awesomeness.

Tomato-Lemon salad

OK, I based this one on the classic tomato-basil-mozzarella-olive oil-balsamic vinegar salad, but replaced everything except the tomatoes with a related item. I'm not going to say it's better than the classic dish, but I'm not going to say it's worse, either!

2 tomatoes, diced
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
a couple generous pinches of shredded parmesan cheese
a small glug of grapeseed oil (only because I used the last of our olive oil in the soup)
fresh cracked pepper

Mix.

Blackberry-Jalapeno hot sauce

One of my goals each summer (since last year anyway) is to prepare a batch of hot sauce. Of course, being an entropic chef, I can't just go with one of the tried-and-true recipes to be found online; nope, it's time to get creative!

This particular recipe started forming in my mind when I found the purple jalapeno plants in our garden were beginning to produce some moderate yields. The deep purple color just begged to be paired with a dark, flavorful fruit, so I picked up some blackberries to give the sauce its body. As I continued to form the sauce in my mind, I kept coming back to something dark, rich, and complex... maybe akin to a fruitier version of Pickapeppa. So, I thought: let's start with some onions and garlic, sauteed until well-browned, then blend in the peppers and berries, some balsamic, a toss of raisins, maybe a spoonful of cocoa, and finally some cardamom to keep things fresh.

Then I thought that maybe I oughta get the peppers nice and smoky by grilling them with some smoke pellets. That, as I will point out later, was probably a mistake.

Here's what I ended up using:

8 small purple jalapenos, skewered and grilled with smoke pellets
2 large red jalapenos, skewered and grilled with smoke pellets
1 poblano pepper, skewered and grilled with smoke pellets
1/2 pint blackberries
1 small white onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, minced
~1 Tbsp grapeseed oil (any light oil will do)
~1/4-1/2 cup dark raisins
~3 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
~5 Tbsp white vinegar
~1 Tbsp cocoa powder
seeds of 5 cardamom pods, ground

I took care of the grilling first, keeping the grill closed to make a smoke chamber for ~10 minutes, then opening it up and putting the peppers closer to the coals to blacken the skins. Once cool, the peppers were peeled and set aside with seeds and ribs intact. Meanwhile, I sauteed the onions with the oil for ~10 minutes on medium-low, then added the garlic and continued cooking for about another 10 minutes until both garlic and onion were nice and brown. The onions and garlic went into the blender along with the peppers, blackberries, raisins, cocoa, and cardamom, until everything was just blended. Then I added the vinegars bit by bit, blending with the highest setting between additions, until the consistency was something like a thin BBQ sauce and the sauce tasted sufficiently acidic (a glass of milk was kept handy to cleanse my palate between tastings!) When the sauce was ready, I strained it to remove the seeds (pepper and blackberry) and put it into a sterilized pint jar, which it filled perfectly.

As I mentioned before, I'd probably skip the smoking step if I were to do it again. I severely underestimated the amount of smoke these peppers would absorb (my previous smoking experience has been with meats and potatoes). Probably just grilling them would have been enough, maybe a dab of liquid smoke later on depending on flavor. Apart from the overpowering smokiness, though, the sauce seems to have turned out pretty well. I'm letting it mellow in the fridge for a bit, hoping the flavors blend some more, so we'll see what it's like in a couple of weeks. At the very least, I should be able to salvage it by incorporating it into a large batch of BBQ sauce.

Sweet'n'smoky corn-tomato chili

It's that time of year: tomatoes are ripening furiously, we've got corn up to our, uh, ears, and the hot chili peppers are coming into full bounty. That means there's only one thing to do: make salsa!

Oh! and chili!

Two things to do: salsa, chili, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope. Three things!

Ahem.

Anyway, chili. Some people will insist that true chili is little more than spicy ground beef in a smoky sauce... none of these fancy vege-tables like beans and tomatoes. Personally, I think that's great if you're going to put it on a hot dog or some nachos, but I'm much more open-minded when it comes to chili by the bowl.

In this sense, chili is the perfect dish for the entropic chef, because you can sneak almost anything into it and still have it come out tasting pretty good. In Cincinnati, they even make it with cocoa and cinnamon, a trick I've tried a few times with pretty good success. But for today, I'm going back to basics, more or less.

Ingredients:

5 large tomatoes (the riper, the better)
3 jalapeno-style peppers
4 ears of corn
1 medium onion, chopped coarsely
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into thin 1" strips
3 cloves garlic, minced
chili powder
ground cumin
ground coriander
salt and pepper
optional:
ground beef/turkey
kielbasa
1 can kidney beans
whole coriander (maybe a dozen seeds)

Before we delve into the chili, though, we've got to do a little prep work. I actually did this the night before, at the same time as I was making a grilled dinner.

Skewer 3 jalapeno-style hot peppers and grill them until their skin turns dark-brown and blisters. When cool, slice in half, remove the skin and scrape out the seeds. Three peppers will give your chili a little kick, stopping just shy of providing an actual "heat" sensation. If you like your chili hotter, leave some of the seeds in.

You'll also want to grill the corn. There are several methods to do this, but it's basically a trade-off of how much work you want to do and how good the finished product will be. You want a nice browning-blackening of a good portion of the kernels, but the entire cob should also be cooked through. What I've found seems to work is first to peel away all but the last couple layers of husk, then peel those down but don't remove them from the ear. Clean up all the silk, then carefully fold the attached husks back up to cover the ear. Soak the ears in water for ~30 minutes, then place on the grill directly over the coals (or flames, if that's your bag). Depending on how hot your grill is, you'll need to turn the corn every 2-5 minutes. When your corn has some nice fire marks on each side, remove and cool. Slice the kernels off the cob.

OK, now on to the chili itself. If you don't mind bits of tomato peels floating around in your chili, simply core your tomatoes and chop them up. Otherwise peel them first and then do the same. Place the tomatoes in a large pot and cook over medium. Meanwhile, drizzle ~2 Tbsp of vegetable oil into a skillet and saute the onion and red bell pepper over medium until the onions are translucent. During the last two minutes of sauteing, add the minced garlic. Add the entire pan to the tomatoes. At the same time, add the grilled pepper halves (either whole or sliced) and the corn. Generously add chili powder -- a tablespoon at least. It's hard to overdo chili powder in chili. Add ground cumin and ground coriander to your taste (I think I did about a teaspoon of each). (Note, if you are using ground beef or turkey, I'd recommend adding half or more of the spices into the meat itself while it browns, and add the cooked meat to the chili at this point, along with the rest of the spices.) Let simmer for 10 minutes and taste the broth. Decide if it needs salt or pepper or more roasted chili seeds for heat. Simmer for 10 more minutes, then add beans, kielbasa, and/or whole coriander seeds if you want any of these. Finally, let simmer for another 10-20 minutes and then serve.

Some notes: I actually split the chili into two separate recipes after adding the corn and spices, so as to make a vegetarian version for my wife and an omnivorous recipe for myself. They were basically the same except the veggie chili contained beans, while mine had kielbasa and whole coriander instead. Kielbasa might seem like an odd choice, but true to the theme of this blog, it was what I had around and ready -- actually it was the leftovers of the previous night's grilling. For the coriander seeds, I actually used green ones from the cilantro plants in our garden -- the flavor kind of splits the difference between the freshness of cilantro and the sweet citrusy flavor of the dried coriander.

I was actually surprised at how sweet the chili turned out, especially without any added sugar or other sweetener. Starting from fresh, ripe tomatoes set the stage, and using a large amount of sweet corn along with the red bell pepper only increased the sucrosity. If that's not your thing, I'd say cut back on the corn, or add some lime juice, lemon juice, or white vinegar. But I personally had no problem with the way things turned out, so I'm counting it as a success, even if slightly unintended.

Salads and stir-fry

Farmshare season is in full swing, which means we've got veggies out the wazoo! And with the recent heat wave, I've been loathe to use the stove any more than necessary. Thus: salads.

Fresh pea/tomato salad
1 medium tomato, cubed
~1 cup fresh peas (1 pint unshelled)
1-2 Tbsp sour cream
fresh mint, chopped (2-3 leaves)
fresh dill weed, chopped (to taste)
lemon pepper/salt

Beet-feta salad
4 small beets, cut into bite-size slices
a handful of mustard greens, finely chopped
~1/4 cup sour cream
~1/4 cup feta cheese
honey to taste (I used 1-2 tsp)
a dash of vinegar

As always, you can adjust the amounts to suit your taste or your actual veggie supply. I thought both salads ended up tasting pretty good for my basically having made them up on the spot, but I'm sure they could be tweaked to become even better.

Now we come to one of my classic standbys for dealing with vegetables: veggie stir-fry! I like stir-fry because it's easy and works with just about any veggies you have around. The featured ingredient for this week: snow peas!

1 pint snow peas
2 carrots, julienned
1/3 of a medium white onion, cut into petal shapes
1/2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
~6 inches of garlic scape, finely chopped (or a clove or two of garlic)

Pour a little olive oil and a dab of sesame oil into a frying pan and heat until medium-hot. Add veggies and seasonings and cook just until the onions lose their sharpness, stirring frequently. About halfway through cooking, add about a tablespoon of brown bean sauce (or soy sauce) and a couple dashes of mirin. (Mirin is a somewhat sweet sauce made from sake; a pinch of brown sugar or a dime-sized dot of honey should be fine as a substitute).

Vegetable Polenta

Hello everyone. I know it's been awhile, but I'm still here and still cooking! Last night I made a tasty vegetable polenta that I thought I'd share with you.

Polenta:
2 Cup Corn Meal
8 Cup Water
A Dash of Salt

Vegetable Topping:
2 Purple Scallions
1 Garlic Scape
2/3 Tsp. Crushed Garlic
1 Head of Broccoli
1 Zucchini
1 Summer Squash
1 Handful of Frozen Bell Pepper strips
The juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup White Wine
A splash of balsamic vinegar
Breaded eggplant cutlets
Basil
Oregano
Salt and Pepper
Aged Asigao Cheese

Polenta:
Beat 2 cups of water into the corn meal. Slowly add the mixture to 6 cups of salted boiling water while stirring. Cook, with stirring, until the mixture thickens. Then reduce the heat, cover and cook for 5 more minutes.

Vegetable Topping:
1) Mince the bulbs of the scallions and the garlic scape. Slice up the zucchini and squash and break down the broccoli.
2) In a sauce pan, saute the garlic, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, minced scallion and garlic scape.
3) Add the zucchini, squash, peppers, and broccoli and continue to saute.
4) After a few minutes, add the lemon juice, wine, and balsamic.
5) Add a sprinkling of the cheese and toss the mixture to fully coat the vegetables. Allow the sauce to cook down.

In a seperate pan, fry up the eggplant cutlets.

Serve the vegetable mixture on top of an eggplant cutlet on a bed of polenta. Sprinkle more cheese on top and enjoy! You won't need to use all of the polenta in this recipe, so you can save the rest to use later.

Scallion Waffles and Kohlrabi Fries

OK, as promised, a new update from one of the main authors here at Entropic Kitchen. Dinner tonight was scallion waffles, kohlrabi fries, and (leftover) greensy salad with strawberry vinaigrette. Now, I have to admit that I got the waffle recipe online and actually followed it; it's easy to mess up on anything remotely bread-like, so I tend not to be too experimental when it comes to baking, etc. But in my defense, I came up with the concept of scallion waffles on my own before looking up a recipe, and had I not found one, I would have gone ahead with a regular waffle recipe with added scallions. But without further ado:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
1 cup finely chopped scallion
coarsely ground black pepper (optional, Derek's addendum)

Mix all the dry ingredients except scallions. Seperately, whisk all the wet ingredients until uniform. Then stir wet and dry mixes together just until blended (clumps are OK) and finally stir in the scallions. Waffleize as you would any other waffle.

They were very good plain, but I topped a couple of them with a bit of freshly made strawberry jam for variety. (Sidenote: Chris and his girlfriend were over yesterday and we made jam and it is fabulous!)
------
The kohlrabi fries were born out of a comment my wife's coworker made, suggesting that kohlrabi might make a good french-fry vegetable. So on a whim I decided to see if this was true. I peeled and sliced a kohlrabi into fry-sized rectangular prisms and let them cook on medium high in about 1/4 inch of canola oil. After 10 or 15 minutes, they were quite brown, but soft, not crispy. At this point I began to suspect there was more to french fries that just a simple deep fry -- after all, the stuff you get at Mickey D's has been cooked already, then fried again in the restaurant. Taking a quick peek on the internet, it seems like double-frying is the way to go, so perhaps that will be a project later on. I also suspect I may have had the temperature too high, as a couple of pieces were still slightly uncooked in the middle, despite the dark brown on the outside.

Anyway, a quick salting and pat-down to remove excess oil and there they were. Kohlrabi, dark-brown and shrively, but similar enough to potato fries that I was encouraged. The flavor was a little strong, slightly turnipy, and not unpleasant, but in combination with the squishy texture just didn't seem worth the work when fresh, raw kohlrabi is so tasty and potato fries can be had at nearly any restaurant.
------
Finally, this was a leftover from yesterday's dinner with Chris and his +1, but we had a salad consisting of greens, chopped veggies (broccoli, cucumbers, turnips and scallions), craisins and feta cheese. For the dressing I mixed together

(approximately)
4 Tbsp salad oil (something nutty is good; I used walnut and grapeseed oils)
6-8 Tbsp vinegar (I used honey-champagne vinegar)
strawberry jam to taste (I used probably 2 Tbsp or so)
dash of salt and pepper

The jam was still in the process of being made (I yoinked a couple of spoonfuls from the big pot on the stove) so it was nice and fresh! Obviously, the more of it you add, the sweeter and more strongly flavored your dressing will be.

Well that's it for tonight. What about you? Do you find yourself cooking more now that fresh summer produce is readily available?

Guest Post: Prenatal Chicken Parm

Note: today's post was written by Steve, whose other excellent musings may be found here. Look for more regular updates from your usual suspects soon, now that summer produce season is in full swing.

As far as cooking goes, I’ve never been huge on experimenting. I always find myself following recipes rigidly, panicking if I’m even five seconds late to pull something from the oven. I haven’t the know-how to throw in a mixture of spices to create a new flavor. Probably one of the most dangerous experiments I’ve tried in the kitchen so far was leaving a cup of mushrooms out of a recipe (solely for the fact that I don’t like mushrooms). I love cooking, but I’ve never been comfortable deviating from written recipes.

This morning, I woke up and went to the kitchen to find that it had been quite some time before someone had restocked it. No cereals, an excessive amount of oatmeal, and just one egg (two if you count the one that was cracked inside the carton). Deciding I wasn’t in the mood for oatmeal, I thought I’d give the egg a shot. But I had eggs yesterday and the day before that, why should I do simple eggs again?

While searching through the nearly-empty fridge for something to do with this egg, I came across a nearly-empty bag of mozzarella cheese. I’ve thrown cheese on eggs before, usually cheddar or American, but mozzarella doesn’t taste good on an egg by itself. Then, my eyes came across a nearly-empty jar of spaghetti sauce.

Prenatal chicken parm, I thought to myself. Or would it be pre-natal? Let me tell you, it’s weird to find yourself going to Wikipedia to look up what a common egg is.

So, I threw some bread in the toaster and started to fry my egg as I usually do (over-hard). After I flipped the egg, I threw a small handful of mozzarella cheese on top and tried to spread it around as much as I could without burning myself. Then, I spooned some of the spaghetti sauce on top of that. I’m wondering if I should have done the cheese and the sauce in reverse order, since I had no way of telling when the cheese was melted underneath the sauce.

After a minute or two, I took the egg out of the pan and sandwiched it between two slices of toast (nice and brown for that crisp breading taste). I would have loved to have paired this meal with a glass of grape juice (because hey, it’s Italian), but all I had in the fridge was a nearly-empty carton of orange juice, so that had to do.

I took a bite into the sandwich, and immediately realized I had put too much sauce on the egg. Excessive sauce aside, it tasted quite good. I couldn’t taste the egg as much as the sauce and cheese (in retrospect, I essentially made a small pizza with a fried egg in it), but the overall flavor was still pretty good. Just as I expected, the cheese in the middle of the egg wasn’t quite melted, but that cold portion only lasted one bite. Maybe this dish deserves a little less disgusting name than “prenatal”, I thought.

Granted, I know this isn’t exactly Entropic Kitchen material. I’m nowhere near as dangerous with my food experimentations as Andrew, Chris, and Derek are. I guess if there’s one thing I learned from my experience, it’s that you don’t have to be Emeril Lagasse to have fun with your food. Experimenting is good every once in a while, no matter what degree you go to.

Side note from Derek: I was quite relieved to find that Prenatal Chicken Parm was not in this family of recipes.

Food Pilgrimage

I love a good food party. There are a number of approaches: the first is the carefully planned, elegant dinner party. The second is the social/finger-food party. This second type is really good if you pick your food right. Crepes are good for this, as you can just have a bunch of fillings, like cheese, caramelized onions, veggies, chocolate, etc, and everyone can just go crazy. Taco parties can be similarly fun.

The final type of food party is the one I like most, but requires some like minded friends to be the most enjoyable. This is the food-pilgrimage. You go on a quest to find divine inspiration in the holy grounds of the farmers market, or the health foods store, the local cheese shop, or anywhere where people care passionately about the food they are selling. You go without premonition or preconception about what you are going to cook, the journey will tell you.

Today I went on a pilgramage with my flatmate Gabe, and we headed to the Ferney-Voltaire farmers market, and the local cheese shop. We bought the following: blood oranges, avocadoes, herloom tomatos, pasta with black truffle, local asparagus, chicken, and fresh bread. Some nice looking pears for a tart too. Oh and the cheese... We got some gruyer that I think we will use for a black trumpet mushroom cream sauce to serve with the chicken, asperegus and pasta. But then just as a treat, we also got a raw milk brie ripened with truffles inside! And a delicious blue cheese blue de le something or rather (Bleu d'Auvergne). It was creamy smooth and the right amount spicy/pungent, like a good stilton.

So we had a wonderful lunch of the fruit, bread and cheese, and coffee. Tonight we will feast! The last step of the food pilgrimage often involves figuring out how to cook everything, but I feel up to the challenge. I'm going to go for a run now, just to prepare my appetite, but I will let you all know how it goes!

Smoked ginger-wasabi pork and stuffed yellow peppers

Ah, the weather is warm and that means it's grilling season! Tonight's meal: smoked pork cutlets and stuffed pepper (also smoked).

I started with three smallish, thin pork cutlets. First, I rubbed some ginger-wasabi spice mix/meat rub onto the cutlets. If you don't happen to have access to a World Market, a mix of the following will probably cut it pretty close:

-mustard powder
-brown sugar
-salt
-garlic powder
-ginger
-pepper
-wasabi powder

After the rub had been applied, I stuck the cutlets in a plastic bag and drizzled a teaspoon or two each of white wine vinegar, olive oil, and maple syrup and mooshed the bag around a little before sealing and setting aside.

For the pepper stuffing, I started with about 2 inches of old baguette, sliced into 1-cm cubes (yeah, yeah, mixed units, I know). Then, I added some dried herbs (sage, savory, and rosemary) and onion powder plus salt, black pepper, and some red pepper flakes. As a binder, I used a a mixture of melted butter, melted cream cheese, and milk. After stirring it up, it didn't seem quite wet enough, so I added a splash of vinegar and white wine, which I think made the whole thing come together nicely (some egg probably would have been suitable here as well, but I didn't have one on hand). After soaking for a half-hour or so, into the hollowed-out yellow pepper it went!

I fired up the grill using some hardwood charcoal and a packet of smoke pellets. Both the pepper and the porks went onto the upper rack so as not to get too much direct cooking, as I was going for the slower smoke treatment. I let it cook for about half an hour with the top vent on the grill closed so as to trap the smoke in the cooking chamber. The end result was smoke-darkened but still juicy pork, and a deliciously browned stuffed pepper!

Sauerkraut Hotdish

Hey folks, it's been a while since anyone updated, so I thought I'd share a quick and easy recipe that's been a staple of my family for years: sauerkraut hotdish. Now, anyone who's not from the North Star State may not be familiar with the term hotdish. No, it doesn't have anything to do with a sizzling platter, it's just our way of saying casserole.

I'm not sure how popular casseroles are outside of the upper midwest, but back at the homestead, they're everywhere! So much so that my home ec class in high school had an entire unit on making them, where I learned the four parts of a casser- erm, hotdish. Of course, that was 12 or so years ago, so I forget exactly what the parts are, but I do know beyond a doubt that there's four of them! Probably something like:

-starch (rice, pasta, potatoes, etc.)
-binder (cheese, cream of X soup, sauce, etc.)
-meat
-vegetable

The typical way to make a hotdish is to blend the four parts together, add an optional topping (bread crumbs, cheese, etc.) and bake for about an hour. As you can see, the possibilities are pretty much limitless as far as experimentation goes.

Anyway, sauerkraut hotdish is wonderfully simple, consisting of:

-1 package wide egg (or eggless) noodles (10-16 oz, I think)
-1 lb sausage of your choice
-1 8 oz can sauerkraut
-black pepper to taste

Boil the pasta, cook the sausage (if necessary), then combine it all together! If the pasta has gotten cold you can reheat it on the stove or in the oven.

Now, I realize that this may not academically qualify as a hotdish (no binder, no baking, and sauerkraut kind of stretches the limit of the term vegetable), but I don't care. That's just what it's called, and anyone who disagrees with me can go make me a ham sandwich! If you're really hankering for a saucy hotdish, I suppose a light cream or cheese sauce can't do any harm.

Traditionally, the sausage used was homemade by my dad and his brothers -- it was a loose (no casing) ground-pork-based sausage with some mild seasonings and plenty of liquid smoke. In lieu of the good stuff, you can use I think pretty much any sausage you want. Most recently I used kielbasa, and it turned out great. Oh, and don't let the sauerkraut scare you off -- the rest of the dish dilutes the strong flavors that turn most people off of it. If you're still worried, try starting with 4 oz and adding more if necessary.

An Italian in Asia

So, I've been told that you can't have pasta everyday! Blasphemy, I know, but we'll humor them. Today's recipe is an Asian inspired stir fry, with a colorful mixture of vegetables and some delicious beef on the side. I served it over some rice, but Asian noodles could be substituted if desired.

So, lets get started:
RICE:

• 1 cup rice
• 3-4 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 cups water (just under the 2 c line, actually)

Put the vinegar and oil in the pan, add the rice and stir it around. Heat it on medium high heat for ~1 minute, then add the water. Stir, cover, and reduce heat to low. Let it cook until most of the water is absorbed. (It should still be steaming, but you shouldn't see any liquid bubbling around, and the rice will appear moist.)

VEGGIES

• Vegetable Oil
• Toasted Sesame Oil
• 3 Cloves Garlic - Crushed
  
• 2/3 small onion (the rest of the onion will be used later)
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp dried basil leaves
• 2/3 lb Chopped asparagus
  
• 1 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 2 handfuls frozen green beans
• 1 large handful frozen mixed chopped peppers
• Soy Sauce
• Rice Vinegar
• Sesame Seeds
• Sriracha, cayenne pepper, and black pepper to taste

1) In a large sauce pan, saute the garlic, onion, and basil in the mixture of oils (~3:1 vegetable:sesame).
2) Once the onion is translucent, add the vegetables and saute in the mixture.
3) Add enough soy sauce to almost cover the veggies.
4) Add in a few splashes of rice vinegar, the sesame seeds, Sriracha and peppers.
5) Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

BEEF

• Vegetable and sesame oil
  
• 1 medium piece of steak, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic - crushed
• the rest of the onion from previously
• 1-2 tsp. ground ginger
• Soy Sauce
• Rice Vinegar
• Sesame Seeds
• Sriracha

1) In the mixture of oils, saute the garlic, onion, sesame seeds and ginger.
2) Make sure the oil is really hot, and add the steak.
3) Once the steak has browned, add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sriracha
4) Boil until the sauce has thickened.

And that's it! Take a deep breath and serve the veggies and beef over the rice. Enjoy!

Weekend sauces

One of my most common culinary experimentations is whipping up some sauce to put on sandwiches. The other night, we were having salmon burgers (breaded, frozen -- basically a fancier Filet'o'Fish). I wanted to zip things up a little, so I whipped up a creamy mustard-dill sauce to put on it:

some mayo
dried mustard (a generous amount)
a pinch of saffron threads, crushed
dried dill
black pepper
a few drops (or more) of lemon juice
a touch of horseradish
salt (optional)

I thought it added the perfect complement to the sandwich, especially with the arugula, tomato and yellow bell pepper slices that were also added. My wife declined to have any, as she doesn't care for horseradish (I thought I could sneak it by her, but her heightened sensory perceptions were far too sharp to allow that!). But I'm sure she would have agreed, right honey?

Also this weekend, I was let in on the recipe for the Heins family super-secret Easter ham sauce. Now, it's well-known in my family that the big secret behind the secret sauce is that there is, in fact, no standard recipe, but I wasn't really aware of the exact ingredients until yesterday. So at the risk of being left out of the collective wills of my relatives, here's the low-down:

Throw a glug or two of corn syrup into a sauce pan. Add some brown sugar and/or maple syrup and heat on low, stirring until dissolved. Add your favorite mustard a couple of squirts (or spoonfuls) at a time until the sweet-sour ratio is to your liking. Dry mustard and a dash of white wine vinegar can be used in a pinch. If you want, a sprinkle of cloves or nutmeg finishes the sauce nicely.

Chili or Why France Needs More Heat...

So I made chili last weekend with friends. I love chili, I like to serve it with cheese and tortilla chips (and sometimes with guac too, as you can see). The chili was very tasty, but not hot enough, the green chilis they have here are not like those used in southwest (nor south-asian) cooking... se la vie. On the bright side, in France I can enjoy my chili with a nice Cote de Rhone for about 1/4 of what one would spend in the states. Its not a bad pairing either, as you need something round and full to stand up to the chili.

Here is my preferred chili method:

Saute (or roast) peppers and onions in olive oil, with some whole cumin seeds. Add spices and garlic when the peppers and onions are a bit charred/browned. Add canned chopped tomatoes (with all the liquid) and a bit of rice. Cooking it this way makes the rice soak up the tomato and spices. Then add the canned beans, simmer for a few more minutes and I usually season to taste with salt, cider vinegar and molasses. I don't usually use much molasses (or vinegar), but it adds a special flavor. The chilis and spices are key. Poblanos or Anaheim peppers are both peppers that are not too spicy, like a more delicious bell pepper, if you can find them. Once again dried ancho pepper is sweet and a bit smokey, and mild. Habaneros are super spice, but are also delicious, with a tropical citrus flavor. These are my three favorite peppers.

Trifecta Chili

2 - 8 oz cans black beans

2 - 8 oz cans tomatoes

1/2 cup rice

1 large onion

1 red bell pepper

1-2 poblano peppers (or 1 green bell pepper and 1 small hot pepper)

1 habanero (seed unless your mouth is made of asbestos)

3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons canola or olive oil

1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds

2 tablespoons ground coriander

2 tablespoons ancho pepper (or chili powder)

1/2 teaspoon oregano

soy sauce, cider vinegar, and molasses to taste

Pine Nut Caution

The risotto from a few days ago seems to have given me a mild case of Pine Mouth, where everything I eat has a slightly bitter aftertaste. Looking around at some blog comments, it seems like there's been a spate of complaints recently about the pine nuts from Trader Joe's, which is where I bought mine.

The cause hasn't been determined yet, but it doesn't appear to be related to pesticides or contaminants, and the effect seems to disappear after a few days. Not everyone is affected, either -- my wife ate the risotto and is doing fine. It seems to stem from certain strains of nuts that come from China or Korea, so I'm definitely sticking with nuts with European origins in the future.

Ancho chili and Fennel

So this post might seem lame because I'm not going to really say anything new. But last night I had the same "drunken french-lentil soup" as mentioned previously. It was so hearty, rich and delicious that I would probably now label it as my favorite soup of all time. I think the ancho chili powder and the sauteed fennel and carrot are really what make the flavor so complex and satisfying. They now sell ancho pepper in most supermarkets, you should go out and buy some, it will make everything you make taste better. Its not very hot at all, rather, it has a rich, deep sweet, slightly smokey flavor. You can use it anywhere you would you use paprika or chili-powder.

So this time I added garlic and 1/4 teaspoon whole fennel seeds to the sautéing process, and added 2 diced potatoes with the lentils. All very good additions, the potato was good with the lentils. We had fresh Ciabatta and good olive oil and pepper with the soup. It may seem strange to say this about soup, but it was one of the best meals I've had this year.

Two Posts in a Day!?

That's like... totally tubular, man!

Anyway, risotto. I had made a simplified version of it once before, but Andrew's post certainly piqued my interest in giving it another try. I enjoy very much savory grain-based dishes, particularly when they include some form of fat: macaroni and cheese, fried rice, pad thai, couscous, etc. Risotto seemed a logical choice.

Andrew covered the preparation pretty well, so I won't go into that too much. For the stock I used 1 can of chicken broth combined with a prepared cube of vegetable bullion. I also added a couple tablespoons of mirin -- sweetened Japanese cooking sake to give it a bit of a sweet flavor. After sauteing the onions for a couple of minutes, I added chopped portobello mushrooms as the main veggie, plus some julienned carrots (OK, baby carrots) to add a little color, some raw pine nuts, and a clove of minced garlic. Then, in turn, the risotto, the white wine, and finally some dried dill and savory. The final ingredient before adding the stock was to throw a few chopped scallions in there -- again, mainly for color as the flavor had cooked out of them by the time it was finished.

Andrew didn't specify which part of the lemon should be used, so I added the juice and zest of about 1/4 of one, as well as some fresh ground lemon-pepper (available at Trader Joe's for $2!). I admit I was a bit skeptical as to how the lemon flavor would fit in with the rest of the dish, but it was actually quite good! I shall never doubt you again, Andrew! For the dairy, I split the difference between the cheese and cream by adding about 1/2 cup each of parmesan and cream cheese, with a little milk to loosen the consistency up a bit.

Overall, I'd deem it a success! While chowing down, it struck me that some water chestnuts would have fit in quite well with their crispiness, so perhaps I will try that next time, see how it goes.

Simplicity In Eating, or What to do with Smoked Salmon When You Were Raised 2000 Miles From The Ocean

In retrospect, maybe it wasn't the best idea to start blogging a couple of weeks before a conference. Not only was I away in Oregon for a week, I spent the week or two prior to the conference trying to run those last experiments and prepare my presentation, so I didn't have time to cook anything that required more than a milligram of thought.

I always try to bring my wife something unique from the place I go when I have to travel without her, which usually ends up being food. Among the items brought back from Oregon was a package of smoked Pacific salmon -- something I haven't had the opportunity to really try before, at least as far as I can recall. I was a bit unsure what to do with it, and although I have a little bit of experience cooking with fish, I'm still not as adventurous with them as I am with most things, since the flavor is more likely to clash with anything I might try to concoct than say, beef or chicken.

So I decided to keep things simple. The salmon was pulled into little bits with a fork and sprinkled onto a toasted sesame bagel with a layer of cream cheese, along with some chopped scallions and some freshly-ground black pepper.

Man, was that a good idea!

The salmon had a strong but rich smoky-fishy flavor that was perfectly underlaid by the smoothness of the cream cheese, with the scallions offering *just* enough contrast with their clean, sharp taste.

There are times when I love to just throw all sorts of flavors together and see what comes out, but it's easy to forget that most foods have a whole assortment of flavors just on their own, like the salmon in this case. Sometimes it's great to go the route of simplicity, pairing the ingredient with a couple of complementary flavors or textures, but letting the complexity of the food do the flavoring for you. I expect to be doing more simple eating as we move into summer with its abundance of fresh, seasonal fruits and veggies.

2 More Tasty Dinners

Hey all,
Here's a couple more tasty recipes that I've come up with in the past few days. The first comes with rave reviews from my girlfriend. It's a bit similar to the first recipe I posted, but it tasted quite a bit different. Well, without any further ado, lets get started:

Pasta in a Fire roasted tomato, red wine sauce

• 1 large can of diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
• Olive oil
  
• 2 cups red wine
• 1 medium onion
  
• 2 Tablespoons minced garlic (~6-7 cloves)
  
• 2 small hot peppers (1 jalapeno and 1 red fresno)
  
• Several Handfuls frozen green beans
• Several Handfuls frozen peas
• a Handful of frozen chopped peppers
  
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  
• 3-4 Tablespoons Oregano
• 3-4 Tablespoons Basil
• 1-2 Tablespoons Fennel
  
• 1-2 Tablespoons Rosemary
• 3 frozen breaded eggplant cutlets
  
• 1 Splash liquid smoke
  
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese
• Mozzarella cheese
  
• Pasta

Sauce
1) In a large pot, brown the garlic (save a little for the eggplant), onions, hot peppers, and spices.
2) Once browned add in the frozen veggies, and let cook several minutes.
3) Add in the tomatoes, wine and vinegar, and liquid smoke. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4) Let simmer on low heat while the eggplant and pasta cook.

Eggplant
1) In a frying pan, brown some garlic and the eggplant cutlets.
2) Once browned, spoon some of the sauce into the pan, and let simmer for several minutes until the eggplant is done (We like eggplant nice and soft, so if you like it firm, let simmer for a shorter amount of time.

Serving
Stir some of the sauce into the pasta to prevent it from sticking.
Layer the eggplant over the pasta and cover with the sauce.
Sprinkle mozzarella and Parmesan cheese over the top and Enjoy!

Note: The sauce came out really spicy, so be warned! If you don't want spice, you can cut down on the hot peppers.


Tuna in a Lemon White Wine Sauce

• Olive oil
• 1/2 Large garlic clove minced
• 2 Tbs. Basil
• 2 Tbs. Oregano
• 2 Tbs. Onion Powder
• 1 Tbs. Hot pepper flakes
  
• 2 cans Tuna in water
• 1 1/2 cup white wine
• 3 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
• 1 Handful frozen chopped peppers
• 1 Handful frozen broccoli
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• 3-4 Tbs. toasted pine nuts
  

1) In a medium frying pan, brown the garlic, hot pepper, and spices.
2) Add the white wine, lemon juice, vinegar, frozen veggies, and tuna and simmer for several minutes.
3) As the mixture is simmering, add in the pine nuts, Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.
4) Serve over pasta and enjoy.

The pine nuts could be omitted, as the sauce turned out very flavorful, slightly overwhelming the pine nuts' flavor.

That's all for now folks! See you next time.
-Chris

Alchemy and Spices

Some parts of cooking are largely chemistry: baking for instance, is helped by quite precise quantities of ingredients which cause vital reactions to occur: browning/caremelization, rising, are all wonderful pieces of precise microbiology.

Spices... are not really like that at all. Their character varies wildly based on how they grown, what variety they are, how finely they are ground, how fresh they are, not to mention what they are mixed with! Brown mustard seeds, toasted whole, are pleasantly nutty and mild and are often used in curries. Lightly crushed they impart a similar but more robust flavor to whole grain mustard, perfect for vinaigrettes. Finely grind those suckers, and add just the smallest bit of water to make a paste, and you've got seriously delicious fire at your fingertips!

For this reason, you should only ever take the spices given in recipes as a rough guide. Instead, smell your spices and know their flavor, taste them, and taste your dishes. This is not just chemistry, this is art. I divide spices (and herbs) roughly into two categories: those that easily blend with other flavors, and the misfits, that are delicious, but can fight for dominance with some other flavors, and must be used more carefully. Here are a few of my favorites (a limited list for now).

Friendly spices

• Coriander: My absolute favorite, this has a delicate, lemony floral aroma, a bit of nuttiness but none of the bitterness of its frequent partner in crime: cumin. It is delicious in EVERYTHING. I'm serious. A bit of oregano, coriander and chili pepper, are great for a tomato sauce. Creamed soups: coriander. Savory baked goods? Coriander. Really. Everything.
• Black Pepper: Fresh ground pepper has a lovely flavor of pine and earth (grind some into olive oil to taste its flavor at its most vivid).
• Sweet Pepprika: Doesn't go in everything, but has a nice sweetness that goes with tomato sauces well.
• Chili Peppers: Not true for all chilis (particularly not smoked ones), but used with a light touch, a bit of spice can lift a dish without being obtrusive to the other flavors.
• Others: parsley, dill, celery seed

Assertive Spices

• Cumin: With peppers or onions, this gives a rich bitter sweet flavor that is one of my favorates, but is not subtile.
• Sage: Delicious and dangerous, very good with winter squash, but too much can easily ruin a dish, and it clashes with other strong flavors (like cumin or chipotle, for example)
• Others: Cardomom, mint, actually most spices are in this category. I'd recommend focusing on one at a time when playing around.

Middling: Mustard, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme. These spices have a lot of friends that they work well with, but fight with some others.

By the way, I have been cooking, but I thought it would be more fun to just think about spices tonight. So I indulged myself. I had fun, I hope you did too. Let me know if you liked it, and how you think about food! Goodnight.

Sorry for the delay!

Hey all,
Rest assured I haven't forgotten you. Sorry for the delay in posting new stuff. Life has been crazy the last few weeks, as I'm getting ready for a research conference, and I haven't really been cooking much. Things should improve in two weeks and I'll be back to tastiness! I may be able to share a couple of things before then.
Until then, the ideas are percolating!
-Chris

Man up... and Risotto

I've always thought that phrase was a bit sexist and stereotypical. But it does describe what Derek and Chris should do with this bog, since I'm sure they are producing lots of tasty things that they are not sharing with us.... just saying...

I made the same risotto as last weekend for a few of my Boston area friends, and it was quite tasty, so I figured this was a good time to talk about risotto:

Gruyere and Fennel Risotto

butter and olive oil (~2.5 T. combined)

1-2 cups diced carrots (about 3 small carrots)

1-2 cups diced fennel (about 1 medium bulb)

1-2 cups onions (1 large or 2 medium onions)

1-2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed (optional)

1.5 cups risotto rice (arborio is easiest to find in the US)

1+ quart vegetable stock (water and a bit of soy sauce works in a pinch)

1/8 - 1/4 cup dried mushrooms (optional, but Porchini are by far the best)

1/2 -1 cup dry white wine, or sherry or vermouth

1/2 T. dried thyme

3/4 cup parmesan, or 1 1/4 cup gruyere

1 T. fresh dill, or chives.

a bit of lemon

salt and fresh ground pepper

Risotto is very easy once you learn the basic formula, and very amiable to experimentation.

Have the stock (or water) simmering on a burner next to the risotto.

Saute the onion in the oil/butter, and after a minute or two, add any other vegetables, and the garlic. When they are lightly browned, add the rice. Sauté the rice for a minute or two, this is important. Add the wine and stir till it is absorbed. Add any dried herbs (or pungent fresh herbs such as thyme or sage) now.

For the rest of the process, you will add the stock to the rice, several ladles at a time, but then allowing the liquid to be absorbed/evaporated before adding more. Cook on medium high heat, there should be a pleasant sizzle happening. The first time you do this, it is recommended that you use a non-stick pan, and stir frequently. This process encourages the rice to release starch, which gives the risotto its creamy texture. The way to tell if risotto is done is very similar to pasta. It should not be hard, but still have some bite to it, creamy yet still firm.

Stir in the cheese, lemon, salt and pepper. Some recipes finish with cream as well, I think this is unnecessary, but of course its up to you. You will likely not need much salt because of the salt in the cheese and stock, possibly none if you are using bouillon. It is vital to taste your risotto before serving. It may need salt, or citrus, or even sugar.

The easiest way to use dried mushrooms is to simmer them together with the stock.

I love risotto, it is so creamy and fulfilling. It is one of those things that takes a bit of time, but is pure love in edible form...

Other risotto ideas: saffron and seafood; porchini+fresh mushrooms; sausage + fennel; ale, aged cheddar and leeks. A plain white-wine / parmesan risotto is also an excellent side dish to meat or fish (saffron is delightful especially with fish).

I wish you all delicious meals, and lovely cooking companions. Goodnight.

Chicken, Risotto, and the Wonder of Onions

I had a lovely dinner last night with some friends, and I experimented with cooking meat (recently switched from vegetarianism to occasional omnivorism). I made a vegetable-Porchini risotto, and chicken and green beans with a light white-wine dill sauce. My love of risottos is too expansive to be held in this post, and will be saved for another day. The chicken was easy and delicious, so I thought I'd share (serves 3-4):

Chicken and Green Beans with White Wine and Dill

• 2 T. butter
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 lb. chicken breast, cubed (other forms of chicken would work t00)
• 1/2 - 3/4 lb green beens, trimmed and halved
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1.5 cups dry white wine (or 1 cup and 1/2 a lemon added at the end)
• fresh dill or other herbs, salt or soy sauce and pepper to taste.
• 1 T. flour

Brown the chicken on medium or medium high heat in a wok or large saute pan. When lightly browned, add the green beans and garlic. Cook for ~4 more minutes, until the vegetables are a bit browned but still crisp. Add the white wine and let steam off for a few more minutes. Add the flour to the liquid in the pan, making sure to stir this in quickly. Add the herbs and other seasoning to taste. Simmer for one more minute then serve with rice or pasta.

I've had some other cooking stuff on my mind too, so I present:

Entropic Cooking Primer #1

I made pasta with browned onions and tomatoes two nights ago. At first I wasn't going to write about it, because it seemed to be just too simple, but it was just delicious. I decided the dish illustrated a parallel between science and cooking.

Entropic cooking principles:

• If there are multiple ways to do the same thing, the simplest is often best.
• If you are going to test a phenomenon, its best to only change only one thing at a time.

So lets talk about a simple way to make pasta that can be varied easily and simply. Browned onions... Really..... Thats all.

Take 2-3 medium onions with a tablespoon or two of olive oil and fry them on high heat (maybe medium high if you have a serious gas burner). They should really be sizzling, but not so much that oil is splattering around. Only stir every few minutes, the key is to let them get nice and browned. This is important, because they will end up with a delicious, slightly smoky caramel flavor if you do it right. Any pan works, cast iron or aluminum will require more stirring, but are easier to get the onions to brown, non-stick you need to let the onions sit longer to get a bit of a crust. This process takes about 10 minutes, but the time isn't so important.

Bam! You can has pasta. Try these variations:

• Parmesan Cheese and fresh ground pepper. Adding a bitter green vegitable at the end of cooking the onions can be particularly delicious, such as broccoli rabe or arugula.
• Red peppers. Cook these with the onions, added a minute or two later. Add 1/2 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar to the pan and let it cook off. This is good with browned chicken too.
• As a pizza topping. Up the balsamic content of the last suggestion, and cook 5-10 minutes longer, adding a little water if necessary. Good in crepes or sandwiches too, particularly with goat cheese.
• A first step to soup/stew. For example, the lentil soup from my last posting.

I think I use browned onions in about 50% of everything I cook. You can puree them and put them in a sauce (barbecue, or some spicy asian style sauce). Its important to note the lack of garlic here. I love garlic, but its hard to perfectly cook both at the same time, as garlic really likes lower heat and a bit more oil, which isn't ideal for the onions. Its also nice to sometimes highlight one flavor in a reciepe, as garlic and onions each have such a lovely character. Bon appetit!

A tasty Dinner and some great comfort food.

Hello everyone. This is Chris here, another member of the Entropic kitchen team, with a couple of tasty recipes to share. The first is something I concocted a little while ago, while the second is an old family recipe (All Italian families have a few) for a great comfort food!

So, without further ado, let's get started:

Pasta in a Fire roasted tomato, red wine sauce

• 1 large can of diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
• Olive oil
  
• 2 cups red wine
• 1/2 large onion
  
• 2 Tablespoons minced garlic (~6-7 cloves) <- I love garlic, so this could be cut down to personal taste
• 1/2 Roasted Jalapeno pepper
  
• 1 zucchini
• 1 cup fire roasted corn (we used frozen stuff from Trader Joe's)
• Several Handfuls frozen green beans
• 2 Hot Italian Sausage Links - removed from their casings and crumbled
  
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  
• 3-4 Tablespoons Oregano
• 3-4 Tablespoons Basil
• 1-2 Tablespoons Fennel
  
• 1-2 Tablespoons Rosemary
• 1-2 Tablespoons Parsley
• 1 Splash liquid smoke
  
• Salt and pepper

1) Dice the onion and roasted jalapeno. Saute these in olive oil with the garlic, oregano, basil, rosemary, and parsley (hold a bit of the garlic and onion back for use with the sausage). After a few minutes, slice and add the zucchini. Let cook for several minutes until the garlic browns and the onion becomes translucent.

2) Add the two cans of diced tomatoes, the red wine, and the vinegar to the mixture followed by the frozen vegetables, fennel, liquid smoke and salt and pepper (add to taste). Let simmer for ~10 minutes stirring occasionally.

3) In a separate pan, brown the sausage in olive oil with the remaining onion and garlic. Once browned, drain off most of the fat and add some of the sauce from step 2. Let simmer for ~5 minutes.

Serve over your favorite pasta with Parmesan cheese!
Note: If you're not cooking for vegetarians, the sausage could be browned along with the zucchini in the first step. For us, we used some of the vegetarian sauce to coat the pasta and served the sausage containing sauce on the side.

Not too hard, right?

Alright, so maybe you had a bad day, or just don't feel like getting too fancy. No problem, here's a bonus recipe for a dish that always cheers me up. It's great for a cold winter day too.

Pastina and Eggs

• 1/3 - 1/2 pound Pastina
• 3 eggs
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt and Pepper

1) Boil the Pastina until tender.
2) Strain the pastina, return to pot and add the eggs. Cook, with stirring, on low heat until the eggs have cooked.
3) Add Parmesan, salt, and pepper to taste.
4) Enjoy!

Absolutely delicious, and very simple, what more can you ask for?
Enjoy.

Drunken French Lentil Soup

Hello, this is Andrew, the contingent of the Entropic Kitchen that happens to be living in France for the moment. Being in France has been very conducive to cooking, because there are some great ingredients around here, and well... because I'm poor and the French don't believe in the concept of a cheap restaurant.

Anyhow, I love trying to cook french food, although the french do not appreciate whim and the entropic principle of cooking adequately... I had some good beer, and thought, this would taste really good in a lentil soup with tasty vegatables. And I really love an excuse to drink while cooking.

Herbed Fennel-Pilsner Lentil Soup (Drunken French Lentils)

2 small fennel bulbs, chopped (one VERY large one)
2 cups diced carrot (about 2 carrots)
3 medium onions, chopped

2 cups dried lentils (preferable little french green lentils
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 bottle of pilsner (I used a german pilsner, pilsner urquell would be good, or a mild ale)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

4 cups water? - I didn't measure

1 t. thyme
1 t. dill
1 1/2 T. ground coriander
1/2 t. ancho pepper (or chili powder)
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 cup soy sauce (delicious sacrilege)

2 tablespoons pesto
salt + pepper + balsamic vinegar to taste

Saute onions in oil over high heat in a large pot. As they are translucent (just about to brown) add the fennel. Stir only every few minutes to let the veggies brown. When the onions are browned add the carrot and sauté for a minute more. Then add the beer and the vinegar. Stir and let steam a minute, then add the water, soy sauce, lentils, herbs and spices (except the pesto), and some pepper. Boil, then simmer covered on medium-low heat for 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

Add the pesto, and season to taste, its good to a dash of vinegar/lemon at the end too.

This was such a success, so tasty with good bread. Fennel is an under appreciated vegetable, and I think its subtle richness is what goes so well with the tang of the beer. Good night!

Slow-cooked BBQ-ish chicken

Ah, the joys of having a slow-cooker! Just throw some stuff in the pot, wait a few hours, and voila! Dinner!

Here was the plan: chicken slow-cooked in BBQ sauce with some vegetables.

Here was the problem: no BBQ sauce handy. I know, I know... I should lose my guy badge for being caught without some sweet smoky BBQ goodness, and I really have no defense.

So, I decided to whip up something approximating BBQ, using roughly:

1/4 cup ketchup
4 Tbsp "pizza sauce" (canned tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic powder, herbs)
3 Tbsp red wine
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp truffle oil
a few shakes of liquid smoke
dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard seeds

It turned out a little liquidy, but flavorful. Not exactly something you'd find in Memphis, but a half-cousin perhaps.

Anyway, this went into the slow-cooker with:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (still frozen, yay procrastination!)
3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium white onion, chopped

4 hours on high and BAM!

Adequacy.

It wasn't bad, but not a result I'd aim for in the future. The sauce ended up tasting more like Sloppy Joe sauce than BBQ, and it actually went quite well with the sweet potatoes and onions, but the chicken sort of blanded everything out. A marinade was probably called for here, or "pulling" the chicken so that the sauce could permeate every fiber -- but both of those would have taken more time.