It's canning season!

We found a bushel of tomatoes at our market for $20. What deals have you been finding?
Even our cat got into it. So did NPR.

I find little patience for canning. I can see the allure of it, but to me it just sounds like I'll be on my feet in front of a hot stove all day and, given the layout of our kitchen, swiveling back and forth between the stove and the countertop with hot jars for hours and hours. However, I don't mind sitting next to the a bag peeling tomatoes that have been quickly boiled. Mark doesn't mind the actual canning process, which means we have an excellent working relationship.

We ended up with many, many quarts of tomato sauce, whole tomatoes, and crushed tomatoes. Then we bought MORE tomatoes and made many, many half pints of salsa (5 lbs tomatoes roasted with 3 lbs onions and 2 lbs jalapenos; seasoned and pureed).

We also found some beef soup bones in our freezer and decided to roast the heck out of them with some carrots, celery and onions. Then we tossed that into a pot of water and some white wine with fresh parsley and boiled it away, adding more and more water as it reduced and reduced. We got about two quarts of thick, dark, beefy stock.

Apples next!

Making the Most of it: Rapini-tossed pasta

A couple months ago, when the sun was still out and the grill was always on, we purchased two amazing lamb shoulder steaks from our Hannewald's for a dinner feast. We featured these with grilled farmer's market peppers, a freshly made mint and parsley sauce, and grilled corn polenta cakes.

The polenta cakes were by far the featured player this night. We sauteed some finely diced onions and garlic in a skillet with a bit of butter, then added two ears of fresh corn into the mix to cook very lightly. We added some dried seasonings to our tastes. Meanwhile, we cooked some polenta according to the directions on the package. When the polenta was nice and thick, we stirred in the corn and then poured the whole pot of polenta into a greased baking dish to set.

When set, we then cut it into little squares, brushed them with oil, and plonked them on the grill next to the meat. The meat, which was minimally seasoned, was a perfect companion to these savory bites of corn -- on the grill, the cakes got a nice sear on the outside. They were also great heated up the next day.


Needless to say, with the size of those lamb steaks, we had a lot left over. In fact, we had an entire steak left over. When we returned from the farmer's market with a big bunch of rapini (broccoli raab), we made a pasta with the veggies and lamb as a nice, finish-your-leftovers meal. Rapini is one of those bunches of greens at the market--kale, swiss chard, and other leafy guys I see fall into this category too--that I was not quite sure what to do with for the longest time. This year, we have been enjoying a bounty of leafy greens, thanks in part to a wonderful "eat local" cookbook we picked up earlier this summer. (Also in part to some trial and error with different types of recipes. You have to learn somehow, right?) Anyway, this meal ended up great. Here's how we did it.

• Cut the thick, woody stalks off of a large bunch of rapini (I would guess that we had about a pound or so). Wash the leaves well.
• Boil the rapini in some lightly salted water till the stalks are tender. Then, take it out of the water and cool it under cold water. When it' cool enough, wring out all the water from the leaves.
• Boil your spaghetti according to the package.
• Meanwhile, roughly chop the rapini (think chopped spinach). Chop up some garlic, too.
• Heat some olive oil, throw in the garlic (you can also add onions, and red pepper flakes should you desire) and then the chopped rapini. Season it to your tastes and really coat it well. This is where we added our leftover lamb, chopped up into small pieces.
• When the spaghetti is done, drain it. Toss the rapini mix into the spaghetti and maybe drizzle some more olive oil over all of it to get it going. Serve with a nice squeeze of lemon and lots of parmesan.
  

You can see that this dish is quick and easy. Omit the lamb and the cheese, and you have a vegetarian, lactose-free meal. Tasty and flexible - excellent!

Mediterranean birthday feast

A certain somebody had a birthday this summer, and due to so much traveling and general life craziness, he decided that he preferred a quiet celebration at home on the birthday night (a more raucous celebration came that weekend, instead). Mark's birthday last year featured a surprise party and a Senate cake, so this year was hard to top in terms of excitement. So, I did a little sleuthing and ended up creating a 5-course birthday dinner for the birthday man.

It all started when we were discussing ideal vacations while stuck in traffic during one of our road trips. It turns out that my personal vacations involve going to places and eating lots of food; in turn, I asked Mark where int he world he would like to go eat. When he said, "The Mediterranean," a little lightbulb flashed above my head. (Granted, this evening would have been much more difficult if he had said "Africa," or someplace very specific like "the foothills of Romania." The Mediterranean is an area that offers a multitude of wonderful flavors that we already enjoy, and offered some tasty options for a surprise meal for a birthday night.

To make it easier on myself, I used recipes found online. For many dishes, I found multiple recipes and combined them to enhance flavors or make things easier on myself. I found a mix of different recipes then played around with the different options until I found a workable order, progression of flavors, as well as what would work best with timing in the kitchen given our limited space and my limited number of hands (sometimes two is just not enough). So, when we sat down to the table, we went on a little trip.
We "landed" in Greece for hors d'oeuvres. Bourekakia melitzanas -- three cheeses rolled up in eggplant, breaded and deep fried. (See sample recipe here.) I mixed feta and pecorino because that's what we had on hand, and made a blend of evaporated milk and flour, and seasoned the cheese mixture with dill and oregano. I sliced half an eggplant really thin, fried them till soft, then rolled them up with the cheese and put them aside while I focused on the other dishes. Right before dinner, I dipped the eggplant into an egg mixture, rolled in breadcrumbs, and shallow fried until golden brown and crunchy. A quick drain on some wax paper, and they were ready to go -- crunchy on the outside, creamy cheese on the inside (and still good reheated the next day).

The second leg of our trip was to France, where I unveiled pissaladière (sample recipe here). This involved slicing up a few large onions and cooking them down with a mix of herbs, butter and vinegar, spreading the cooled onions on a thawed out puff pastry, and dotting with black olives and anchovies--think of it like a pizza without cheese (although some recipes suggest adding parmesan). Because pissaladière can be served at room temperature, I made this earlier on in the day and kept it under a cake cover on the dining table until it was time to eat. I know some folks think anchovies are not a food option, but the wonderful thing about this tart is that you can customize it to your tastes. I happen to love anchovies because they work so well to bring out subtle flavors in dishes (Caesar salad, anyone?), and Mark enjoyed the burst of saltiness they added to the somewhat sweet, caramelized onions.

The next stop was the main dish from Spain, a fairly classic paella (sample recipe here). I waited until the last minute to cook this, letting the rice simmer away while we enjoyed the first two courses/countries and bringing the whole pan hot to the table for us to dig in. For this, I simply went to the seafood counter at the grocery store and explained that I was making paella for two, and was promptly given a large handful of clams and mussels, as well as some shrimp, and a chorizo a few steps down at the butcher counter. Since I didn't have an actual paella pan, our large skillet made do with all of the flavors. (This was also another reason why timing the cooking was important, since we only have a limited number of pots and pans and I knew that one would be overflowing with rice, seafood, chicken and chorizo.) This dish was a smash hit, especially served with an Algerian tomato and cilantro salad, dressed with lemon and red chilis. The lemon complimented the flavors in the paella, as did the tomatoes and the freshness of the cilantro.


So, there we have Greece, France, Spain, and Algeria... time for our fifth course and country. Of course, it had to be BIRTHDAY CAKE. But what birthday cake would fit well with this meal? Something that fit well with all these flavors, and is in my head "generally" Mediterranean, is olive oil cake. Some people say it's Portugese, others say it's Tunisian - I say, it was cake, it fit with the theme, and it was super easy to do. Of course, this was made in advance -- the first thing of the day, which is my rule of thumb on birthdays. This way, if the cake is ruined for any reason (salt instead of sugar, uneven baking, burning, dropped it on the floor, dog ate it) you can have plenty of time to make another one.

So, orange and olive oil cake, with a recipe taken from another neighborhood blogger, was fun to make and delicious. Yes -- the recipe calls for an entire orange, peel and and all, to be blended into this cake (this is fun, because a lack of a food processor means I got to take an immersion blender to an entire cut up orange). Just trust me - pick a good orange, make sure it's clean in the ways you want it to be, like no pesticides, organic, etc., and do it. And yes, no butter, milk, or anything -- just olive oil. And YES, this cake is delicious, extremely moist, fluffy, surprisingly refreshing. And yes, it may possibly make your heart beat a little faster if you eat a big slice... so eat with caution and share with many people. The orange adds so much flavor to the cake, particularly because it goes in zest and all, and the olive oil adds a richness like pound cake. Sesame seeds also add a slight hint of nuttiness. Some people suggest serving this with powdered sugar on top, but this was already sweet enough as it is. In retrospect, this cake would be delicious with the mint tea recipe listed on the Algerian recipes web site mentioned earlier.

There you have it! A couple of new LPs and this birthday treat was a blast for the birthday boy, who gladly procured a bottle of Italian wine to accompany the dinner. Each course was jauntily served with a "postcard" naming the dish and its country of origin.

For next year's birthday, though, I'm totally screwed.

Camping Food!

We feel the need to welcome you back to the blog after another long spell between posts. And really, what better way to welcome you back to the end of summer as we look forward to fall than to offer some thoughts and recent experiences on camp food cooking! Helen and I just completed a wonderful camping trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and enjoyed a variety of tasty camp cook cooking.

Thanks to our friend Shanna, we had a giant hunk of flank steak to bring with to our campsite; we also brought along a couple of bags of bacon, some canned beans, a couple of other random items (and some soup and stew in case we had massive failures).

Our first lovely evening camping featured a dinner of seasoned flank steak, potatoes, carrots and brussel sprouts. We wrapped all the delicious ingredients up into tin foil and placed them on the handy-dandy grill grate that flipped over the fire pit. One potential pitfall of cooking all your ingredients in a tin-foil package is that some items may cook more quickly than others - we encountered this problem as the diced potatoes you see in the background of the above photo were not diced finely enough to cook quickly enough to match with the beef. Overall, the dinner was absolutely lovely and a true indulgence on our first night of camping together.

Our handy-dandy flip-over grill grate and Helen's fine fire-building skills are featured above.

No weekend breakfast is truly complete in our minds without some bacon, so we brought along a couple of ziploc bags of frozen bacon to cook up on our not-so-chilly mornings. For quick morning cooking, nothing beats a single burner propane or Iso-Pro camp stove. We were able to quickly heat up water for coffee, cook bacon, cook pancakes and heat up more water for oatmeal with a couple of twists of the wrist (to connect the fuel) and a single click to light the flame.

After breakfast, our Sunday eating featured a couple of items that we didn't bring camping. Following a lovely hike and scenic drive we entered the "quaint" town of Glen Arbor and enjoyed a nice sit-down lunch at a local eatery. Our discerning eyes, and rumbling stomachs, led us to a spot that offered local beer and menu items that featured adjectives such as "wild-caught" and "organic grass-fed." Conveniently located across the street was a little grocery store where we purchased some Boar's Head Beef Franks (in natural casing) for later consumption.

Our Sunday dinner was perhaps our simplest (and possibly our most quintessential camping) meal. Skewered hot dogs, can o' beans and S'mores for dessert. I don't need to say anymore. Ya'll know it was delicious - but we can HIGHLY recommend the Boar's Head hot dogs for any future grilling or camping experience. We also prepared our lunch for the next day on Sunday night, using more flank steak, brussel sprouts and carrots. With proper dicing technique - everything cooked wonderfully evenly and we enjoyed the fruit of our efforts on the Lake Michigan shore Monday afternoon.

Lamb and Halloumi skewers

I don't think anything pleases my neighborhood butcher more than when I walk up to the counter and say, "I'm craving lamb." On one such day, he supplied me with a generous bundle of lamb cubes to celebrate the grilling season and satiate my craving for ovine flavors.

I then continued to wander the grocery aisles in search of something to accompany the meal -- a few yellow potatoes, and some fresh tomato. Then I saw a new cheese display and, after some digging in the softer cheeses section, came up with a piece of halloumi cheese.

Halloumi is a wonderful, versatile cheese that I find satisfying because of its "meatiness," a chewy bite not unlike a big piece of fresh mozzarella or paneer. It has a high melting point so a lot of people grill it. This also means that you can pretty much flavor it any way you like.

So, the cheese was cubed and thrown into a bowl with the lamb, tossed with salt, pepper, a good douse of olive oil, some dried thyme (we had run out of oregano) and, if I remember correctly, a dash of cayenne and/or cumin. After about an hour, we threaded these on to skewers and threw them on the grill on high heat.

I decided that some crispy, garlicky potatoes would be a nice companion to the grilled meat. The potatoes were blanched in some boiling water, then sliced into disks and put into the a large, really hot skillet. The trick is to oil the pan well and let the potatoes just sit, not unlike cooking hashbrowns for that nice crunchy exterior and buttery interior. The potatoes were then seasoned generously with salt, pepper, and chopped garlic. Once these were done, we took them out and tossed them with fresh cut tomatoes and some basil from our garden.

Meanwhile, the grill was looking very happy. The fat and juices from the lamb were flavoring the cheese, which was standing up nicely to the flames underneath. To serve with the lamb, I grabbed a one handful of flat-leaf parsley and one handful of mint, then pureed this with olive oil and a good squeeze of a big lemon.

The result was a really wonderful, fresh dinner. Lamb kebabs, when cooked just right (e.g., don't cut your cubes too small!), offer tender bites of meat bursting with juices that blend well with the milder taste of cheese. The parsley/mint puree added a tangy, refreshing note to the dish and brought out that familiar combination of lamb and mint, a combination tried and true to bring out the flavors of both meat and herb. The crunchy potatoes contributed more texture to the dish and the basil went really well with the rest of the herbs on the plate. Just proof that tried and true combinations (lamb and mint, basil and tomatoes, fresh herbs, garlic and butter, lemon and olive oil) are always guaranteed to help satisfy any craving you might have!

Global Comfort Food 2

Following on previous thoughts about global comfort foods, I thought I'd share another favorite with you: pad thai. This stir-fried noodle dish is a national dish of Thailand, and its name implies simplicity: pad thai, or phat thai, merely means "Thai-style fried noodles."


Learning to cook pad thai was, for me, a necessity - my cravings for it were often sudden, and usually late at night at very inopportune times. Not only was it getting troublesome having to locate pad thai in a rush before restaurant closing times, but I also disliked having to pay $10 or more for something stir-fried. So, when I found a Thai recipe book forgotten on my mother's bookshelf the last time I was at home, I imported it all the way back to the US and, now, can enjoy pad thai whenever I want.

Here's what it takes (from Chalie Amatyakul's "Best of Thai Cooking"):

-Flat rice noodles (We buy the boxes by "A Taste of Thai," and use the whole box because it provides us with ample leftovers. But, half a box is probably more manageable.)
- Protein (prawns, tofu, beef, etc.)
- Handful bean sprouts
- Red chillies (or dried, whatever you have; quantity based on your taste. I suggest 2-3.)
- Shallots (1-2)
- Fish sauce (a couple tablespoons; adjust for your personal taste)
- Sugar (again, a couple tablespoons; adjust for taste)
- Tamarind paste (adjust for your taste. You can buy tamarind paste pre-made at some stores. I found a brick of tamarind pulp at my local Indian grocery store for about $1.99, which is fantastic because you can just cut off what you need and it doesn't need to be refrigerated. If you're using a brick, cut off a bit and soak it in water, making a paste with your fingers.)
- Lime juice (about half a tablespoon; adjust for your personal taste)
- Veggie oil

Soak the noodles in hot water until they are soft, then prep your protein if needed (such as washing and peeling your shrimp). Place the chillies, shallots, fish sauce and sugar in a big mortar and pestle and pound, then add your acids: tamarind and lime. Mix it all well till it's all smooth.

Next, heat the oil in a wok or large skillet. When it's really hot, add the sauce (watch for splatters!) and stir-fry for a few minutes, until you get a really nice fragrant smell from it. At this point, add your protein and stir fry in the sauce till just about done, then add your drained noodles.
You can season it all with something else you like, like sesame oil, or soy sauce, black pepper, etc. If things start to stick, add water to it. I like to serve this with fresh cilantro and lime; if you have any fresh chilli, that would add a nice counterpoint. You can also add fresh chopped peanuts if you like that crunch. (Usually by this point, it smells so good that I just want to eat it and can't be bothered.)

Another thing I like to do is, before I stir fry anything, add some oil to the wok and add some scrambled egg to make a sort of eggy pancake. Once the egg is cooked, you can lift it out of the wok and, when it's cooled, cut the egg into strips and toss it into the stir fry when it's all done.

As you can see, this dish allows you a lot of flexibility in terms of your tastes - more salt, more heat, more sour, depending on the amount of chillies, fish sauce, tamarind, lime, and whatnot that you can add. This, for me, makes a great comfort food because you can tailor it to your mood!


This dish is hugely comforting to me. Not only can you curl up with a hot bowl of stir-fried noodles (and thus not have to worry about scalding yourself with soup), but the flavors are truly a wonderful blend: tart lime and tamarind, savory egg and whatever protein you choose, fresh bursts of cilantro and, if you wish, crunchy peanut and bean sprouts. Even better? I can eat bowls and bowls of this and not worry about it being too unhealthy (e.g. filled with cheese, butter, etc.). If that's not comforting, I don' t know what is.

Summer Grilling: Pork Belly and Rainbow Trout

Since it took us about four frustrating hours of assemblage to put together the grill we bought back in the day, I think it's justified that we break out the grill as soon as the snow begins to melt outside (or even sooner). Here are two delightful dinners we've charred, seared, and crackled so far this season, along with the seasonal veggies we've either grown ourselves or purchased from our local farmers.

The first was a grilled pork belly with peaches and arugula.

As soon as our garden yielded its first full leaves of arugula. For this, we bought a pound of pork belly from our wonderful butcher, and marinated it for a few hours in the fridge (for ideas on marinades: here and here). If I remember correctly, this involved some honey, soy sauce, pepper flakes, and other spices, as well as minced shallot and garlic. This combination made it especially nice with the peaches, but so would a sort of Southwest, cumin-y sort of blend with a nice salsa on the side (pineapple, anybody?)

Make sure you get the grill nice and hot, because the fantastic thing about grilled pork belly is the crackling--the crispy, seared skin that pops and bubbles when you put it directly on the heat. We didn't achieve this as much as I would have liked this time around, thanks to a debate about how much charcoal we should put in the grill -- but next time...!

For the salad, we simply cut up a peach, placed the slices on a bed of arugula, cracked some pepper on top and drizzled with a bit of olive oil and sweet balsamic. The result: sweet, juicy peaches and balsamic, with savory, crunchy pork and the peppery taste of arugula!

Our second memorable grill feast so far was just the other night, when Mark biked down to the market and returned with a one-pound fillet of rainbow trout, tomatoes and corn in his bag.

For this meal, we decided to go with pretty simple flavors, letting the grill and the natural flavors of our herbs and veggies do all the work. We seasoned the fish with pepper, salt and fresh thyme from the garden, placed the whole thing on a piece of aluminum foil and set it on the grill for about 10 minutes (until the meat started to flake). The nice thing about this was that when it was time to serve up, the fish came away from the skin very nicely.

We also grilled up some tomato halves, garnished with strips of fresh garden basil...


Grilled garlic scapes...

Fresh corn on the cob...
...and potatoes tossed together with a little cheddar cheese, spring onion, and salt and pepper and packaged in aluminum foil to finish off on the grill (par-boiled first for faster cooking).

I would highly recommend doing a simple fish grill in the summer sun. While the fish may seem pricey, it's well worth it (especially if you can find it on sale like Mark did), especially when served up with the sweet, seasonal vegetables around right now. And, if you are restrained enough to have left over fish afterwards, you can treat yourself to a nice trout (or salmon, whatever) hash breakfast the next day!

Goodness gracious - great cuts of pork!

So, last night, I was at our local market to pick up some boneless pork chops for a stir-fry I was doing with our garden's green beans and our little bag of mushrooms in the basement. While the meat counter fellow was wrapping up my boneless pork chops - he asked if I had ever tried pork sirloin - I didn't even know there was pork sirloin! He said that he loves it and it gets accolades from the customers - so I got 1 cut at $4.99 a pound and grilled it up tonight.

My only comment is: Goodness Gracious! That's one damn fine cut of pork at $4.99 a pound. I thought I had tried ever cut of pork possible - given my previous forays into a group purchase of a whole hog - but I was wrong, and I'm damn glad I was wrong! This cut is a bargain and delicious on the grill!

I'm enjoying it with some grilled corn on the cob and a salad of arugula and radishes from the garden with a bit of balsamic and olive oil. My highest marks go to this cut of pork and the accompanying veggies. I hope you get a chance to enjoy it as well.

Our Bountiful (hopefully) Summer

Helen and I are lucky enough to be renting a house with a bit of land that has, at various times, been considered a garden. Last year, I spent a good half of a day pulling shoulder-high weeds and tilling to turn it into a usable plot of land for tasty veggies. As neither of us had ever been the proud parents of vegetables before, and as we didn't start renting the place until June 1st - we just kind of threw stuff down into the ground without a rhyme or reason (other than what we wanted to eat) and we hoped for luck with what stuck.

Things turned out quite fortunately for us, as we had a bounty of cherry tomatoes and peppers last year, but little else. Our beets were over-watered, varmints ate many of our leafy greens and most of our herbs went unused or didn't survive the transfer to pots inside for the winter.

This year, things are different! Helen spent a good chunk of time this winter delving into books on gardening from the local library. Turns out, reading about optimal vegetable placement is a great break from dissertation work. From this research, and our vegetable preferences, she produced not one, but two(!) drafts of where (and when) we would plant our hopeful bounty. And so, come spring, armed with a map; grit and determination; potting soil; organic, composted cow poo; and a shit-ton of seed packets: we embarked on our epic (well, epic on a small scale) gardening journey.

We started growing flowers (Marigolds, Cosmos and Daffodils) indoors under clear plastic domes in March. These flowers are supposed to be particularly effective at warding off unfriendly invaders, like rabbits or ground hogs. We also started lettuce and arugula indoors- but those didn't take off all that well. That being said - the air in the bedroom we started the plants in was noticeably nicer to breathe.

Our first successful crop were snap peas. Pictured below. We started them in April, as they can take a frost, and soon we had little pea plants ready to climb. But, what were we to do - we had no trellis for them to climb upon. So, off we went to Downtown Home and Garden to pick up some 5' bamboo sticks and trellis netting. You can see the result below - it actually works quite nicely, very flexible and easy to position each pole by each pea plant. The peas are now going like gangbusters and they taste delicious! We also planted spinach in between the two rows of peas, and those have graced our plates on a few occasions - as has the arugula we started in mid spring.

We also planted onions and shallots in the back corner of the garden in April - these hardy fellows can also take a frost, and we look forward to pulling them out of the ground some day soon to use in, well just about everything we cook. An added bonus is that we can pull them early to use as green onions in stead of running off to the store to buy a whole bunch when we really only need two or three. Around the onions, we also planted two varieties of radishes and tasty tasty beets. The radishes are just starting to be ready to pull up, but the beets will take a while to mature - as the fast growing radishes ended up towering over the beets rather quickly. We hope they'll make some speedy progress as we pull up radishes and onions to eat. So, in our little 3' X 6' back corner, pictured below, we should have a bounty of onions, shallots, radishes and beets.

The rest of our planting had to wait until late May, when the last chance of frost had passed. However, we got a head start on a beans by planting seeds in peat cups indoors. These peat cups disintegrate after time in soil, so it was a piece of cake to plant 3 burgeoning bean plants around six 6' tall wooden stakes around the perimeter of the garden. The beans are now climbing nicely to the upper heights of each pole and many of them have started flowering. Also in the garden, but not pictured are a number of starter heirloom tomato plants and pepper plants that we bought at various plant sales in the area. Interspersed amongst these delicious (and currently fruiting and flowering staples) are a variety of herbs including cilantro, parsley, basil, oregano, thyme and mint. We've also been planting new rows of radishes, beets, spinach, lettuce and arugula every 3 weeks or so, so that we have a supply of leafy greens and tasty roots throughout the summer and fall.

So, that's the garden - but wait! We're not done. Along the side of the house are a couple of beds, previously over-run by irises and lilies. We dug up all the bulbs from one of them last summer, and have been using that as a carrot and garlic patch. By planting marigolds around the perimeter, we've mostly kept the local cat and rabbits from eating these morsels up. But why stop there? On the deck, we're growing 3 satellite squash plants and another tomato plant. And finally, during one of my parents' whirlwind visits to us- my mom brought us 4 little strawberry plants that transplanted wonderfully and give us tasty little sweet snacks.

Its been a wonderful experience to start gardening, and really, after everything is prepped and planted, we have a wonderful bounty that will keep us well stocked on fresh veggies throughout the summer and into the fall. We are both amazed by how much we were able to put into a 7' X 12' plot, and we look forward to applying the lessons learned in the years to come! Look for posts in the future detailing the results of our bountiful (hopefully) summer.

Global Comfort Food

I've been thinking a lot about comfort food lately. Probably because it's spring and unpredictable temperatures can lead to frosty nights; spring means the end of the the school year and you can feel the stress palpitating in the air; mostly because I just enjoy the big bits of savory food that make everything--your belly, your life--seem right. As a result I have always been a big proponent of comfort food in its various iterations: the thick mashed potatoes on top of glistening minced meat in a baked shephard's pie; the creamy, chewy mac and cheese bites, even better fried in breadcrumbs the next day; a hot dog with all the fixings (yes, I find this comforting).

I have recently begun to think about some of the the more "adventurous" things we've cooked at home as comfort food, and post here various iterations of these culinary warm fuzzies as things to think about when you're looking to make your stomach give that satisfying something that just makes you go, "Yeaahhhh." One of the things about comfort foods, however, is that what makes you go, "Yeaahhhh" is often a pound or so of cheese, or butter, or other guilty pleasure. My hope is that these culinary trips around the world for different comfort foods will provide us with something a little more weight-friendly.

How do you define a comfort food? For me, it's in the type/speed of cooking -- it either needs to be a quick and easy meal that you can enjoy right away, or a longer, slower method for the oven to warm you up while the smells permeate your house. Comfort food is also starchy -- pasta, rice, noodles, or grains of some sort to soak up some delicious flavors and provide that filling bite and full belly at the end. Lastly, comfort food has flavor -- a taste that lingers with you after you've chewed and can surprise you. (This, for example, is why bacon, ham, or tomatoes elevate mac and cheese for me.)

We've been posting a lot about curries lately and this is no exception. It's also a good way to introduce this series of "Global Comfort Food" posts. I had a distinct craving to make biryani, which indicated that it was a comfort food of some sort. Again pulled from our trusty 660 Curries book, this recipe was simple to make and delicious.

What makes a biryani a biryani is that the sauce, usually cooked in intense flavors, is prepared separately from the rice, then cooked together afterwards. In this case, this South Indian recipe involved cubes of lamb shoulder marinated for several hours in plain yogurt and a blend of spices, including paprika, masala--a "hot mix" of many different spices itself--and turmeric.
(An interesting side note on marinades: there is a lot of debate/science behind types of marinades for meat--perhaps the subject of a more detailed post down the line--and the consensus seems to be that dairy-based marinades, in their enzymatic essence, do excellent work of tenderizing meats.)

Basmati rice was cooked and flavored by ghee, saffron, and other whole spices (again, once you stock your pantry with the basics for many Indian recipes -- cinnamon sticks, cardmom pods, mustard seeds-- you are set to go), then mixed in with the lamb and put in the oven until the lamb was tender and cooked through. We served this with a little bit of raita--a yogurt accompaniment--on the side. For this one, we mixed some finely chopped radishes, mint and cilantro into a bowl of plain yogurt with some salt for flavor.


The result was pure comfort: a steaming hot, hugely fragrant dish with layers of flavors. The rice was delicate but the meat was savory and offered great bite, and the raita added a creaminess with some satisfying crunchy, fresh flavors from the vegetables within. Consider this a delicious, healthy, and fairly easy alternative for those cooler nights when you want to curl up on the couch with a bowl of something hot and comforting!

All about Brad

We like food, friends, dogs, and challenges - so when our friends Brad and Jessie came by to eat dinner the other week, it was a good night. The dog part of the equation was Murray, a darling little, rescued dog that is a magnet for Jessie's affections. (Poor Murray was in the process of potentially being renamed, so Teddy, Bowie, Sully, and Buddy were all thrown at him at various points to see if anything stuck.) Brad is an avid FLD reader (who seemed keen on having a post about him), and he and his wife are fellow graduate school compatriots, so commiserating over our dubious humanities-based futures over curry with physical science-based Mark seemed like a good idea.
The "challenge" with this curry dinner was that it was to be all veggie, no seafood or meat. I put challenge in quotation marks because, for all you entertainers out there, curry is a great family-style meal that you can put out for vegetarians and know that it will taste great. Mark and I busted out our handy 660 Curries cookbook and picked some recipes we thought looked good. The winners were a grilled eggplant dip, chickpeas with spinach, cauliflower and potatoes, saffron rice, and naan.

The eggplants were grilled outdoors (why not enjoy the weather when you can?), then peeled and smashed with a chili-garlic mixture. Since this was more of a spread-like mixture, we decided to eat it with some sort of bread - and we wanted to take another stab at homemade naan. Previously, we had made naan in the stove, under the broiler I think, but this time we put a pizza stone on top of the grill to get nice and hot, and threw the pats of dough onto the stone for a few minutes. Some parts got a bit charred and the texture was cracker-like; we'll need to practice this naan-making thing more in the future.

Chickpeas came out of a can and were mixed with some spinach and mustard seeds, along with a blend of spices. The flavors were light and layered, but I would use fresh chickpeas because sometimes the canned ones are a bit too mushy. We also used baby spinach but I would use the curlier, larger spinach leaves that hold their shape more and add more flavor to the dish.
The cauliflower and potatoes were, like all the other curries in the book, easy. After cutting up a head of cauliflower, it went in a large wok with seasonings, tomato sauce, and cut up potatoes. After about 20 minutes, everything was fork tender and ready to go. It was garnished with fresh cilantro at the end, which added a nice freshness at the end. I think this dish might also go well with the addition of cashews or some other nut to add a level of crunch to it.

And, the saffron rice - rice stirred in to hot ghee (clarified butter) and then a teaspoon of saffron threads thrown in to coat. Water and salt were added in, and in about 10 minutes (while the cauliflower was cooking), the rice was done and ready to be fluffed up and served. The saffron adds a really nice, delicate flavor to the rice that, I feel, brings out the flavor in the curries a lot more. Lastly, there is nothing like the flavor of mango to add that last sweet flavorful note to your meal as a simple dessert.
The meal turned out pretty tasty, overall, and had a lot of different, fun elements to it, including sitting out by the grill, maneuvering balls of naan dough around, and smelling all of the different curries and sauces come together in the kitchen. The dog did an excellent job of hanging out, our cat did an excellent job of avoiding the dog, and no one felt the slightest bit guilty for having a curry feast on Easter Sunday (although hot cross buns were our other dessert).

There is nothing like a full belly, some bottles of wine and beer, and good company to make you forget about job markets, housing markets, and any other dwindling market that has you down!

Salmon dinner

On weeknights when we feel the need for lighter fare or something different, we often turn to fish. Fish is an easy way to add some variety into our dining, and we have no qualms about searching the racks in various stores for those pre-packaged, frozen fillets for a quick dinner when we need one. A few weeks ago, we pulled out some salmon and, as it thawed in the kitchen, began to brainstorm ways in which to cook it.

I had remembered seeing a Giada De Laurentiis episode back in the day for Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with a pea puree. It was one of those lazy days surfing through the channels and coming up on a Food Network show where things begin to look so good you end up drooling on the couch. Giada's recipe calls for a piece of fried salmon on top of a parmsan-y pea puree in a lemony broth:
To add a little more interest and "oomph" to the dish we decided to encrust the salmon in potato. We first shredded the potato, slathered the salmon in a roasted pepper mustard we had in the fridge, and rolled the fillet in the potato. We seasoned it with salt and pepper and fried it till golden brown, then flipped it over and finished it in the oven for a few minutes till the fillets were cooked through.
This was a good refreshing take on salmon, given our usual tray-baked or grilled approach. The potato crust is something to try with other fish and whatever mustards you like; this fillet would have been great with lemony, garlicky potatoes or some fresh arugula.

Well done, Charlie.

Well, spring time is here and we've been busy getting back into the dirt in the garden behind our house. What have you all been up to? Our spare bedroom has become a greenhouse for indoor starters, mostly flowers (cosmos, daisies, marigolds) for cover in the garden, along with some basil plants, green onions, chives, and satellite squash plants that will take some extra time to grow before transplanting. We just added some arugula and lettuce up there as a recent addition and they are coming along nicely under their little plastic dome.

Outdoors, cool-weather crops like peas, spinach, beets and carrots have been planted along with our onion sets and garlic. We may have jumped the gun in planting so early, but we'll see what happens - right now some seedlings are up from the soil so, so far so good!

One of the things that really launched us into spring was the acquisition, after a period of research, of a quarter of a steer that will hold us through the summer. Mark found a wonderful farm in Mason, MI - just outside of Lansing - an organic farmer raising free-range cattle, goats and chickens, ready to take some steer to butcher. After heading out west in Michigan earlier that day with some friends (hooray for labor summits in the middle of nowhere), we brought them along down to Mason on the way home to help us with the beef.

A quarter of a steer was anywhere from 150-200 lbs hanging weight, so we ended up with a few huge packages of ground hamburger, enormous chuck, sirloin and rump roasts, ribs, steaks, and other tasty cuts. Split between us and four other friends who love beef like we do, everyone received about 27 lbs of processed meat for $100... definitely a cost-per-pound bargain given what some organic, free-range meat costs in stores. Plus, we knew the date it was butchered and processed, our farmer got all of the proceeds, it went straight from his house to ours, and I had the chance to name our bovine Charlie in a move of farm-to-table appreciation.

A quarter of a cow, by the way, can fit into the trunk of your car no problem:

But yes, I was saying earlier that this really launched us into spring. I should say that our visit to the farm was accompanied by snow flurries and gusty, freezing winds; back down in Ann Arbor, however, a minor cold snap passed quickly and the next day brought clear skies and temperatures in the 70s, along with the presence of our good friend Dan. How can you pass up this opportunity?


We bust out two pounds of ground beef and celebrated the good fortune with an impromptu barbecue. A big bowl of guacamole, grilled asparagus, and big, thick, butter burgers (my blend of secret spices and accompanied by a pat of butter in the meat) topped with aged cheddar, lettuce and tomatoes. Thanks Charlie, and see ya, winter!

A quick weekend thought on wine

I've never really been able to figure out why some wines last better overnight than others, or for that matter, which wines its best to buy "fresh" vs. "aged." On the second point, I just tend to let the producers and the wine buyers set things up for me. But on the first point, I finally learned something useful today thanks to the excellent economics blogger, Felix Salmon - via UCLA via some paper on google docs.

So, after the most random and rambling intro ever - what I learned - and what makes sense - is that organic wine doesn't keep well overnight. A major problem though, is that getting certified to be organic costs a lot of money, but having an organic label, means your wine gets sold for less. So, many wine makers go organic - and nix the sulfites - but don't label their bottles as such. Which, may mean that you open a bottle of non-labeled organic wine one night, and find it quite awful the next.

Given this information, I suggest you follow my rule of thumb and finish your bottle of wine the night you open it - whether you're drinking alone or with a lover or friends - drink that wine down, or be ready to use it for cooking tomorrow.

Valentine's Day 2010

This past Valentine's Day we decided yet again to eschew the overpriced-yet-prix-fixe, often hurriedly cooked (the horrors of overbooked restaurants trying to speed up turnover), and sometimes uninspired and not-very-romantic-when-fifty-other-couples-are-trying-to-do-the-same-thing Valentines dinners around town, and figured that we should make it our own annual home cooking tradition.

Given that last year we had, on the last minute, grabbed some lamb shanks from the farmer's market, we turned to shanks again. Our butcher had some lovely veal shanks on display in the counter and the braising angels sang out loud - Ossobuco! We picked up some fixings to go along with it and quickly found we had a two/three course meal all set to go. Then we wandered down to our town's love-child, Zingerman's Deli, to browse around (OK, really I wanted to eat some free bread and sample olive oils to help fuel me for the walk home). A quick stop at the gelato counter and we VERY quickly fell in love with their Chocolate Balsamic Strawberry gelato, fresh from the creamery.

The menu: California dried figs wrapped in bacon; baked brie with honeyed walnuts; ossobuco with balsamic white beans and salad; gelato.
1. California figs wrapped in bacon. We had done this before for a Thanksgiving feast, but with Medjool dates, which are syrupy sweet and squishy. Figs, delicious and often overlooked, provided a similar flavor but less sweet and more bite. Mark wrapped about 1/2 to 3/4 a slice of applewood bacon around each date, and put it in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes.

2. Baked brie with honeyed walnuts. Seriously, the easiest, "fancy" thing you could do in a hurry. We just picked up a small wheel of brie, plunked the whole thing in an oven-proof dish, threw some walnuts on top, drizzled honey over it, and put it in the oven with the figs. You can imagine all the other things you could put on top of it - more figs, currants, different kinds of nuts... the options are endless. You know it's done when you can press it (gently!) with a spoon and it looks soft and squishy. We ate this with the bacon figs, some crackers, and grapes... then took a break to relax our bellies before the next course.
3. Ossobuco (veal shanks). Ossobuco has to be one of the heartiest, melt-in-your-mouth stew-type foods out there. The way these shanks are cut, the marrow in the bone begins to melt and mix into the sauce as it braises, making the whole thing velvety and gelatinous.
There are many variations of ossobuco - traditionally, it is braised in white whine with herbs and broth, with whatever flavors (mushrooms, balsamic, marsala) that you like. Other varieties include a tomato-based sauce, which is what we used. The process was to us, at this point, almost intuitive - the same as any other braising dish you might cook: browning, veggies, flavor, liquids, braise.

So, first, we tied the shanks (we bought two, which was more than enough) up with twine. Eventually the meat will fall off the bone, but it helps to have them fairly uniform to start. We seasoned them with salt and pepper, then covered them with a light dusting of flour and browned them in a dutch oven. When those were nice and brown, we took those out.

Then, veggies: the go-to celery, carrots, and onions. Stirred up with tomato paste, then with the shanks added back in to get all the flavors going in the pot. Then add your liquid - whatever broth, wine, or sauce you like. I believe we added some white wine (maybe a cup), reduced it to half, then put in our tomatoes (a large can of stewed whole tomatoes would work too) and cut it with broth. Either way, you want to make sure there is enough liquid to reach almost all the way up (about 3/4) up the meat you are cooking. We also added a mix of sage, cloves, and rosemary into the liquid and let it go for about 2 hours.
When the shanks were done we sprinkled it all with a simple, rough gremolata - a mix of fresh chopped parsley, minced garlic and lemon zest. This might seem to some like adding more work to tedious cooking, but the lemon really made the flavors SING - plus the parsley helps add even more fresh taste to a very meaty dish. On top of adding flavors, the yellow and green really make the dish a lot prettier.

3. Balsamic white beans and salad. This was probably the most time consuming dish to make given that we bought dried cannellini beans and had to soak them for most of the day. One cup of beans will yield enough soaked beans to feed about three people, so measure accordingly. Of course, we made too much and ended up eating beans with everything for a couple days... But anyway, we soaked the beans then boiled them a little while with olive oil and seasonings in the water. Then we drained them, and sauteed them up with some shallots, diced yellow bell pepper, and lots of garlic. Then, we deglazed the pan with balsamic and added more and more until we liked the taste. We served this on top of a simple greens salad.
4. Gelato! Zingerman's describes their balsamic strawberry gelato as "fresh strawberries macerated for two days in syrup made from reduced balsamic vinegar, then blended with dark chocolate gelato." Perhaps we shall find a way to make this at home... because it will be easy for us to burn a hole in our pocket buying this gelato gold from Zingerman's.

So there we have it - another Valentine's Day 3 course meal (or 4, depending on how you look at it!)!

660 Curries

For a while, Mark and I had been trying to ignore a non-descript butcher's package in a freezer plainly marked, "shoulder." All we knew about it was that a) we had probably bought it during a day at the market when we decided to do some major re-stocking, and that b) it was dirt cheap: probably about a 1.5-2 pounds of meat for $3.50. Finally, on a lazy-ish weekday night, we decided...it was time. We hauled it out of the freezer, and upon inspection realized it was goat shoulder. What to do with a goat shoulder? In came Rhagavan Iyer's 660 Curries!

This is a great, easy-to-follow recipe book that has enabled us to enjoy curry at home many times now. So far, the recipes we've gotten out of this book (the "rule" we follow is to try not to cook the same curry twice!) has allowed us to have fragrant, spicy, and surprisingly quick Indian meals at home. We made naan, rice, and curry from this book and the result was restaurant-worthy (well, close enough) curry. If you think that take-out for two would cost about $30 (curry plus fixings), this curry seriously only cost us the price of the meat, since we had all the other ingredients on hand. That's curry for $3.50! While we're not usually in to posting recipes here, I thought we could share what we did the other night, since it was a great success.

(Don't be daunted if you don't cook Indian food very often. If you commit to it and stock your pantry with the right spices (cardamom, garam masala, cloves, etc.) you'll be set for many other dishes.)

Vinegar-Marinated Lamb with Potatoes and Mustard Seeds
Coriander seeds, fennel seeds, black peppercorns - 2 tsps each
1 tsp cumin seeds 1 cinnamon stick (broken into pieces)
1 lb leg of lamb, cut into 1-inch cubes (again, we cut up our shoulder into cubes and also kept the bones for cooking)
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar, cider vinegar, or malt vinegar 1.5 tsps kosher salt 1 tsp cayenne 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 small, coarsely chopped onion
4 slices fresh ginger (about 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, 1/8 inch thick)
4 large cloves garlic 1 pound russet potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes 5 tbsps canola oil 1 tsp black or yellow mustard seeds
15-20 medium sized curry leaves (if you can't get these, don't worry, it will still taste great)

1. Combine the coriander, fennel, peppercorns, cumin, and cinnamon in a grinder until it looks like finely ground black pepper.
2. Empty the blend into a bowl with the lamb, vinegar, salt, cayenne, and turmeric. Stir to combine and then refrigerate, covered, for at least one hour or as long as overnight. The vinegar tenderizes the meat and helps it absorb the spices.
3. Combine the onion, ginger, and garlic in a food processor and mince.
4. Wash/drain the potatoes, dry with paper towels.
5. Heat 2 tbsps of oil into a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Toss in potatoes and fry until crisp and honey-brown on the outside, but still undercooked (10-12 minutes). Take the pan off the heat.
6. Heat another 2 tbsps of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion blend and stir-fry till light brown (3-5 minutes). Then add the lamb and its marinade and cook, uncovered, till the meat is seared (12-15 minutes).

7. Pour in 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Cover and lower the heat, stirring occasionally, until the lamb is fork tender (about 30 minutes)
8. Stir in the potatoes, garnish with cilantro, and continue to simmer until the potatoes are fork tender (about 5 more minutes).
9. Heat one more tablespoon of oil in a small skillet, and add the mustard seeds. Cover and cook until they have stopped popping (about 30 seconds). Remove from heat, add curry leaves. Add this to the curry, stirring to blend the flavors.

To be honest, we forgot to put the potatoes aside and just simmered everything all together for about 30 minutes, and the starch from the potatoes worked to thicken up the sauce it cooked. We also skipped the mustard seed and curry leaves step. We cooked this with the "Salt-crusted Grilled Flatbread" (naan) and "Dirty Rice with Caramelized Onions", a blend of cardamom, cloves, and pepper cooked with browned onions. It was a fantastic curry, with a nice spicy kick to it -- and was just as good as leftovers!

Chocolate Custard Pie

Y'all may notice that we like pie here, see for instance, our pie party from last year. I also happen to love, I repeat, LOVE, chocolate - see for instance my chocolate cherry bombs. I love chocolate so much that one of my dreams is to one day roast my own cocoa beans and make chocolate confections from scratch.

What, therefore, could be more up our alley than Chocolate Custard Pie?!?!? It was a simple addition to our semi-impromptu Super Bowl Sunday feast - and really, it was mainly a feast that just happened to occur on the same day as the Super Bowl. I think folks payed attention to maybe the last 4 minutes of the game.

Back to the matter of pie though - I knew I wanted to make some sort of chocolate pastry item, and after rejecting cakes as being well, too cakey, I finally found a custard pie recipe that I felt I could trust. Speaking of trust, and recipes, I've found that I'm less and less inclined to use recipes off the interwebs unless it is from a chef, or a magazine (like Gourmet or something) that I trust. As much as it pains me to say - I do trust recipes from Emeril Lagasse - its not like he's going to put some rubish recipe out their for folks to cook and hate. So, I went with his Chocolate Meringue Pie recipe as my guide.

We had a pastry crust left over from the aforementioned pie party in the freezer, so I defrosted that and worked a bit more water into it and then blind baked it in a pie shell early Sunday afternoon. I followed Emeril's recipe for the custard filling fairly rigidly - next time I'll take some liberties - but left off the meringue topping. After letting the custard cool a bit, into the pie tin it went. I had a fair bit of custard filling left, so I put that on into another baking dish and let both of them cool for a couple of hours. As a fun little experiment - I crushed some previously frozen raspberries and spread them across the top of the crust-less custard dish and then baked it for a spell. I, and others, like the baked custard a bit better than the pie, but both were hits - especially with the raspberries.

Cider-Braised Pork Belly

A quick post to share yet another braised pork belly recipe - a nice departure from the wine- and tomato-based recipes we like to rely upon.

With a need/desire to cure more bacon and eat delicious pork, we hopped down to Sparrow's for some pork belly only to find that there were whole sides of belly (10-12 pounds) in the butcher case. For only $25 for an entire side of belly, we said, "Why not," wrapped up the whole thing, and hauled it home.

About half of that belly went into our Sunday "superbowl" dinner meal to feed about 10 people. Because we thought about it in advance, we were able to marinate/cure the belly for a day before actually braising it, which allowed the meat to take on more flavors. We scored the skin and fat of the belly, then rubbed the whole thing down with a mixture of salt, cloves, star anise, pepper, and cinnamon.

(A note about spices: stuff like this works best with whole spices, which pack a lot more flavor, don't you agree? One of the good things about our move this summer was that we ended up with some doubles: double microwaves, double ice cream scoops, and also double coffee grinders. One of our coffee grinders now resides in our spice cabinet to grind up fresh herbs and spices as needed.)

Anyway, the rubbed down belly (mmmm, belly rub) sat in the fridge overnight, then the next day was browned in the cast iron dutch oven, then joined with some carrots, celery (fennel would work VERY nicely but I forgot to buy it at the store), onion, leek, and bay leaf. Once those were nicely stirred up we added enough of our Wasem's apple cider to cover and let it simmer, simmer, simmer away -- adding more salt and pepper as needed. (You may consider adding some apple cider vinegar for an extra kick.) When it was tender we took it out and put it under the broiler for a few minutes to get the skin more crackly. There's just something fantastic about those explosive pops as crackling gets going in your oven!