Anyway, pozole. We made this on New Years Day, and honestly, I didn’t take any good pictures of the cooking process. But believe me when I say that this is easy. It follows a pretty common pattern for stews and other braised things:

• heat some oil in a pot until really hotsear some chunks of inexpensive, fatty, slow-cooking meat until they’re browned but not cooked through, then remove
• cook some aromatic vegetables in the meaty fat
• put the meat back in the pot with flavorful liquid
• cook the crap out of it over low heat or in a low oven

So, here you go! Pozole! Although not at all traditional, we serve this with Fritos scoops. You can use tortilla chips, warmed corn tortillas, or decide that you don’t need any corn-on-corn action in this hominy stew, in which case you should really stop reading this and just go back to your sad, carb-less life.

pozole

serves 6 (easily doubled)

adapted from Dad Cooks Dinner

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, in any form (this is sometimes labelled “Boston Butt”, “Pork Shoulder Blade Roast”, or “western ribs”. If in doubt, ask the person at the supermarket meat counter)
• 1 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 2 tablespoons red chile powder (not chili powder – you want ground New Mexico or guajillo chiles. Look in the Hispanic section of the supermarket)
• 1 tablespoon pureed chipotle en adobo, or 1 canned chipotle chile, minced, or 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chiles
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (optional)
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 28-ounce cans hominy, drained and rinsed
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 lime, cut into wedges (for serving)

Directions

Cut your pork shoulder into 1 1/2 inch strips and rub with the salt.

Take your largest Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot and heat it over medium-high heat. Add the vegetable oil and the pork shoulder. Cook until well-browned, about 4-5 minutes, then flip and brown the other side. Remove the pork to a plate and return the pot to medium-high heat.

Add the onions and cook for 7-8 minutes, or until golden-brown. Add the garlic, chile powder, chipotle chiles, spices, and flour. Cook for about 1 minute, or until the garlic is fragrant. Return the pork to the pot and add the chicken stock and bay leaves. Bring the stew to a boil, then lower the heat to low and cover tightly.

Cook the stew over low heat for about 2 hours. You can either do this on the stovetop, stirring occasionally, or you can put it in a 350-degree oven.

After two hours, the pork should be very tender. Remove it form the pot and let it cool for a few minutes, then shred it and return it to the stew. Taste for seasoning – you may need a little more salt. Serve with tortilla chips or Fritos Scoops and lots of lime wedges.

Bread baking is intimidating to a lot of people, and with good reason: it’s not easy to get right. I think that our friend Pamela said it best:

LE PAIN
Bonjour, Je suis le pain. Do you aimez moi!? You vill make le pain now!!!

First, touch me. NON, DO NOT TOUCH ME! Okay fine, you may touch me again. NOW YOU STOP. Ah, d’accord, i vill permit you to massage my soft, doughy body. NOW I MUST HAVE A NAP. you vill now steam me in my hot chamber, mais NE TOUCH PAS MOI. Now I vill lay about for une demie-heure.

BUT! Breadmaking does not need to be off-limits to you and your kitchen. Bagels are surprisingly easy to make at home, due partly to their uniquely dense (and uncomplicated) crumb structure.

“Artisan” breads, like ciabatta, baguettes, pugliese, even foccacia and pizza, often rely on long, slow fermentation (rise) to get that signature open crumb. There’s a lot to talk about here, but the short version is that the wetter the dough, the more open and airy the bread. English muffins are barely a dough – they’re more of a batter. A good ciabatta dough is extremely wet (and a real pain in the ass to work with). Baguettes are a bit stiffer but the dough still has a good amount of water in it. Bagels are at the opposite end of the spectrum: the dough is (relatively) stiff, because a bagel is so dense. The other advantage to bagels is that they usually use the “straight dough” method, which means that you only rise once, and the rising time does not take very long. As a result, you can make a batch of these in less than three hours (probably closer to 2), and of course, a good chunk of that time is sitting around waiting for the bread to rise (“NOW I MUST HAVE A NAP”).

(For more reading on the science behind breadmaking (and lots of excellent recipes and techniques), check out Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice or Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Bread Bible.)

A lot of people will tell you that you need a fancy heavy-duty mixer with a dough hook to make good bread. And yes, that does make things a lot easier (and we love our KitchenAid!). But you can also knead bread dough by hand, or with a food processor. I’m including directions for all three below. For toppings, you can use whatever you’d like – I’m partial to sesame seeds and kosher salt, but you can also do poppy seeds, garlic and/or flakes, or leave them plain. Or I bet you could sprinkle some cheese on near the end of the baking time, or knead in some raisins and/or cinnamon sugar. This recipe is really forgiving and really flexible.

Don’t believe me? Here, look:

There are only four ingredients: bread flour, water, salt, sugar, and yeast. Whoops! Five ingredients. Still, not too complicated.

I normally make bread dough in my KitchenAid mixer, but just to prove that this method works, I made this batch by hand. First step is to combine everything except the salt, and mash it together in a bowl with a wooden spoon. I like this “dough spoon” with a hole in it, but it doesn’t really mater.

Let your unkneaded, salt-less dough rest for 20 minutes and you’ll see that the dough has magically relaxed! This is the autolyse process at work – basically, the gluten strands in the dough are relaxing and lining up, making your kneading work even easier (we wait to add the salt until after autolyse as it slows down the yeast’s work).

Here’s your dough after you’ve kneaded it for 10 minutes. If you don’t know how to knead dough, check out this video:

Then, cover your dough and let it rise until it doubles, which takes about an hour. Isn’t that cool?

Then, you form them, boil them, and lay them out on some kitchen towels to dry. Brush on your egg wash, sprinkle on your toppings, and bake!

Here’s a shot from this morning’s breakfast – bagels ready to be toasted. Look at that nice crumb! That chewy, satisfying dough!

One thing that you will need is bread flour. This is pretty easy to get at any grocery store — don’t substitute all-purpose or whole wheat flour. If you have a kitchen scale, this is the place to use it, as volume measurements are really inaccurate for this kind of thing. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, get one! They’re only about $20 or so. Maybe with that Amazon giftcard that your uncle gave you for Christmas?

Oh, and bagels freeze really well! I suggest splitting them almost all the way, then seal them in ziploc bags and throw in the freezer. You can toast them straight from frozen.

I got this recipe from the excellent Adam Kuban at Seirous Eats. Visit that link for more pictures and discussion of bagel types, boiling methods, etc. Serious Eats is a really great site, and an excellent resource for people at every level of cooking skill and interest. They also have a new book that I highly recommend.

Go make some bagels!

Bagels

makes 12 smallish bagels, or 8-10 larger bagels
adapted from Adam Kuban of Serious Eats

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups (19.25 ounces) bread flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast, or one packet
• 2 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) sugar
• 1 teaspoon (1/2 ounce) kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) hot water
• 2 tablespoons honey (for boiling)
• 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water (for topping)
• sesame seeds, poppy seeds, salt, etc. (for topping)

Directions

Food Processor

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to mix. Turn the machine on and slowly add the water. Adam says “pulse until dough comes together and rides up over the blade, about 30 seconds. Continue processing until the dough becomes satiny and elastic, about 30 seconds more.

Heavy-Duty Stand Mixer

If you don’t have a food processor, use a heavy duty stand mixer (this is what I usually do). I like to take advantage of the process known asautolyse. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar, and water in the bowl of your stand mixer. Knead with the dough hook until a shaggy dough forms, about 1 minute. Let sit for 20 minutes, then add the salt and knead on medium for 7-8 minutes, or until the dough becomes satiny and elastic.

By Hand

In a large bowl, mix the flour, yeast, sugar, and water with a wooden spoon until it becomes a dough-like mass (1 or 2 minutes). Let sit for 20 minutes, then add the salt. Working on a well-floured counter, knead the dough for at least 10 minutes (seriously, set a timer). You’re looking for a satiny, stretchy dough.

All Methods

However you got there, you should have a big pile of slightly tacky, stretchy dough. Dust lightly with flour and place in a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

After an hour, preheat your oven to 400 degrees so it can get nice and hot. Transfer the dough to a clean surface and portion out to 8-12 even balls (12 balls gives you smaller bagels, 10 balls gives you bagels the size of ones you’d get in a bag at the supermarket, and 8 balls gives you very large, coffee-shop style bagels). Roll these into snakes and then form into bagels (see Adam’s post for tips on shaping). Transfer to a floured surface and cover with a kitchen towel while you prepare your water bath.

Fill your widest pot with water and add the honey. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium. Slip 3 bagels into the water and boil for 30 seconds. Flip each one and boil another 30 seconds, then transfer to a clean kitchen towel. Repeat for the rest of the bagels.

Once the bagels  are mostly dry, transfer them to baking sheets, preferably lined with parchment paper. Brush each bagel with some of the egg wash and sprinkle with your toppings. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and taut-looking. Flip and bake the other side for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and cool. Serve split and (optionally) toasted, with butter, cream cheese, smoked salmon, peanut butter, etc!

Bagels keep for a few days in a paper bag. If you want to keep them longer, split them and throw them in the freezer.

I got to talking with my mom the other night about cooking, and the process of learning how to cook. We both agree that it’s too bad that people get too wedded to recipes, as they can get in the way of real, practical cooking. She knows this all too well – at her job managing the kitchen at House of Charities, almost all of their food comes from donations. Here’s a recent article in the Spokesman-Review about her work — the short version is, you don’t always know what you’re going to get, and you have to be flexible:

One perennial challenge is providing protein. But it can be done, Rossi said. The crew started last Monday with three hams. Rossi wanted to use them in scalloped potatoes, but she didn’t have enough cheese. So they used what they did have, whisking together a béchamel – a rich white sauce – and combining it with ranch dressing. They layered in steamed potatoes, diced onions and green peppers.

The three hams became a rich dish for 300 people that day, with at least a little protein for each. The kitchen served the potatoes with steamed broccoli, green salad and dinner rolls. For dessert, [kitchen assistant Ellerie Easterwood] made sweet potato bread pudding.

So while I love my Cook’s Illustrated books, and my ridiculously complicated restaurant cookbooks, and (sometimes) my Bon Appetit subscriptions, it is important to not get too bogged down by recipes. Think instead about food that you like to eat, and (more importantly?) food that you have in your pantry!

Which brings us to dinner tonight. We have an extra chunk of salmon in the fridge that needs to get eaten in the next day or so. We have an enormous bag of scallions from my recent trip to the restaurant supply store. We have a bag of coleslaw shreds from Sunday’s black bean tacos (I occasionally use pre-chopped vegetables like this – they’re a great convenience food, and they’re often on sale. This bag was $1 for about a pound of shredded cabbage, which is a good deal). I have some Momofuku ginger-scallion sauce and red dragon sauce from dinner this weekend. As usual, I have several rows of Asian condiments in the fridge. And I always (ALWAYS) have corn tortillas.

So, I decided to improvise a korean salmon taco, in the spirit of the wildly popular Kogi in LA (and the countless other Asian fusion food trucks that have popped up, including Marination Mobile in Seattle). The fish got quickly marinated in a mixture of rice wine vinger, honey, and Korean chile paste (you can use Sriracha or even Tabasco), quickly broiled, and then stuffed into tortillas with some chile-lime mayonnaise and cabbage shreds. I passed it with “S Dragon Sauce”, which is Sarah’s combination of the Momofuku Red Dragon Sauce and Ginger-Scallion sauce. I’m including the sauce recipe below, but really, this would be great with Sriracha, or maybe some bottled Thai-style sweet chili sauce. Or, hell, pico de gallo.

I used two different Korean chili pastes in this recipe: gochujang and ssamjang. Gochujang is a fermented pepper paste (made from chilies, soybeans, and other things). It is quite spicy, but the spiciness is balanced out by a pleasing funkiness and sweetness. Ssamjang is a paste that includes gochujang as well as some other stuff — aromatics, sesame oil, more bean paste, etc. If you can only find one or the other (or if you don’t want to spend $8 on condiments), get the more complex ssamjang, and use Sriracha, chili-garlic sauce, or another hot sauce if you want more heat.

As always, sourcing some of these ingredients may require a trip to your local international district, if you’d like to use the Korean chili pastes. I have found both gochujang and ssamjang at Uwajimaya and HT Mart in Seattle, and I’m sure they’d be even easier to find at a real Korean grocery. You want to look with the other Korean sauces, and you’re looking for a cute square plastic container, like so:

So, spend some time getting to know your local Asian market, pick up some fish and tortillas, and make yourself some weird fish tacos!

Korean Salmon Tacos

serves 4
red dragon sauce and ginger-scallion sauce adapted from the Momofuku cookbook by David Chang

Ingredients

Salmon

• 2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for brushing the salmon
• 2 tablespoons gochujang, or 1 tablespoon Sriracha
• 2 tablespoons ssamjang, or some extra Sriracha and honey
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, or more to taste
• 1 lb. fillet of salmon with skin, preferably a center-cut piece (so everything is the same thickness)
• a bunch of corn tortillas (figure 3 tacos per person, so 12 tortillas — but you’ll want more if you like to double-stack your tortillas, like I do)
• 2 cups thinly shredded cabbage (or buy a bag of coleslaw shreds)
• spicy mayonnaise (recipe below)
• S Dragon Sauce (recipe below)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
• 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, optional
• lime wedges for serving

Mix 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of honey and set aside for later. Mix the rest of the soy sauce and honey, vegetable oil, gochujang, ssamjang, and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl. Taste for seasoning: it should be pretty salty, but well-balanced with sweet, spicy, acidic, and pungent flavors. Feel free to adjust for your your tastes. Set aside.

30 minutes before you want to eat, marinate the salmon in the mixture you made earlier (I like to do this in a ziploc). Don’t let it sit any longer as it will get too salty and mushy. Preheat your broiler to high and set a rack in the highest or second-highest position. You want the salmon to be about 4-5 inches from the broiler.

Drain the salmon and pat it well with paper towels. Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil and place the salmon on the foil, skin-side down. Rub the top with a bit of vegetable oil and broil for about 4 minutes, or until the fish is stating to brown a bit and it is almost tender when poked with a thin, sharp knife. Take it out and brush the fish with the soy-honey mixture that you set aside at the very beginning. Broil a few more minutes until the fish is done and has a nice glaze. If you have a crappy oven like me and can’t seem to get the fish to actually brown, don’t worry!

Tent the fish with foil. Warm your tortillas and keep them in a clean kitchen towel while you get everything else ready. Line up your chili mayonnaise, sliced scallions, sesame seeds, and S dragon sauce (if using). Make tacos by spreading a tortilla with a thin layer of mayo, then adding a chunk of flaked fish, a handful of cabbage, a sprinkling of scallions and sesame seeds, and a dab of S dragon sauce. Serve with limes and lots of ice-cold cheap beer (and if one of those limes sneaks into the beer, I don’t think anyone would really mind, would they?).

S Dragon Sauce

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup ssamjang
• about 3-4 big scallions (white and green parts), minced (you should have a few tablespoons)
• 1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and minced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• splash rice wine vinegar

Mix the water and sugar in a small saucepan and heat over high until the sugar is dissolved (you can also do this in the microwave). Remove from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir to combine and cool. Taste for seasoning – you may need to add a bit more soy sauce or rice wine vinegar. Set aside for later – this keeps in the fridge for a few days and is great with almost any meat, fish, or noodles!

Spicy Mayonnaise

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (preferably a good-quality mayo)
• 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar, or more to taste
• 1 tablespoons gochujang, or 1 teaspoon Sriracha (or more to taste)
• 2-3 teaspoons soy sauce

Combine all ingredients and taste for seasoning – it should be pretty spicy and have a bit of a vinegary kick. Store in the fridge until you need it.

Shortly before Thanksgiving we were graced with a visit from Pamela. Although the whole weekend was filled with lots of eating and drinking, one of the highlights was dinner at Monsoon. We grossed out our hipster waiter by ordering too much food, laughed inappropriately loud in a small restaurant, and enjoyed some really great upscale Vietnamese food. I ordered the claypot catfish, which was so great that I just had to replicate it at home.

Internet to the rescue! Apparently “claypot catfish” is also known as “Ca Kho To” and is a pretty standard homestyle dish from southern Vietnam. The main ingredients are catfish (sustainable, inexpensive, and delicious), fish sauce (not that scary really), tons of black pepper, and some caramelized sugar. It’s incredibly easy and totally unexpected.

A note on ingredients: You will need fish sauce and coconut juice (not water!), both of which you can find at any Asian grocery and really any bigger grocery store. If you can find it, get some “caramel cooking sauce”, which is just premade burnt sugar. If you can’t find it, you can make your own easily – don’t worry! In Seattle, Viet Wah is my jam now that we live in Capitol Hill, and of course I’ve waxed poetic about HT Mart here before.

Vietnamese Caramel Catfish

serves 4 with a vegetable side dish or salad
adapted from The Ravenous Couple

Ingredients

• 1 lb. catfish steaks (preferred) or thick fillets
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup fish sauce, plus more if needed
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons Vietnamese caramel cooking sauce (or make your own by combining two tablespoons of sugar and 1/4 cup of water in a small saucepan, and boiling until it reduces to a dark brown, about 7-8 minutes)
• about 1/4 cup sliced shallots, and/or 1/2 cup sliced onions
• a 1″ knob of ginger, peeled, thinly sliced into discs, and then cut into matchsticks
• 1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper (about 25 grinds on my crappy Trader Joe’s pepper mill)
• 1 12-oz can coconut juice (not coconut milk)
• 5-6 small dried chiles (like chiles de arbol) or one whole serrano or Thai chile
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced into 1″ chunks
• juice of 1/2 lime, plus more wedges for serving

Directions

If using catfish fillets, cut them into two or three large pieces that will fit snugly in a small frying pan or saucepan (or, if you have it, a heatproof clay pot).

Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a smallish pan that can be covered later. When it’s good and hot, about 1 or 2 minutes later, add the catfish in one layer. Cook for a few minutes until one side is nicely browned, then carefully turn. Add all the remaining ingredients except the scallions and lime and stir things around as well as you can (in my pan, I just had room to sort of tuck things in here and there – that’s fine). Make sure the catfish is at least 3/4 of the way covered – if it’s not, add a little water or more coconut juice.

Cover the pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 20-25 25 minutes, or until a thin, sharp knife slides effortlessly into the fish. Catfish is really hearty, so it will not get tough (even though you’re cooking the hell out of it).

After 25 minutes, check on the fish. It should be tender and the sauce should be reduced to a rich, caramelly glaze. If it’s too thin but the fish is done, remove the fish carefully and boil the sauce down for a few minutes. Add the lime juice and scallions and stir, cooking for another minute or two. Taste for seasoning – it may need a little more fish sauce (or some salt), or it may need more sugar.

Serve everyone a big scoop of rice and a hunk of fish with some of the sauce spooned over the top. Instruct your diners to avoid the chiles, unless you’re a terrible host.

Hello again, blog readers! With school settling into something resembling a routine and all the shininess of the new pup worn off (just kidding), it is time to get back to writing about food.

Pasta All’Amatriciana, as it’s known in Italian, is a great example of a way you can riff on recipes that you may already know. It’s a basic tomato sauce, with some of the fat replaced by bacon and the onions increased and caramelized. Using this same line of thinking, shakshuka is just eggs poached in the same basic tomato sauce with more chilies and some added spices (cumin and paprika). Thinking about food and cooking this way is incredibly helpful, and it is one of the ways that you can get yourself out of recipe-based cooking and into food-based cooking.

Anyway, here you go. Pasta All’Amatriciana, or, if you prefer, pasta with onion, bacon, and tomato.

Pasta All’Amatriciana

serves 4
from Serious Eats

Ingredients

1 large onion, sliced (about 6 ounces)
salt
1 – 4 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
about 4 ounces of bacon, thinly sliced
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 lb. spaghetti
grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Directions

Place the onions in a large skillet and add 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the water is mostly evaporated and the onions are starting to brown (about 2-3 minutes).

Add the olive oil (use the smaller amount if your bacon is very fatty; if it is on the lean side use more oil), garlic, and crushed red pepper. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are browned and everything is fragrant. Add the bacon and continue to cook until the bacon is browned and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes.

At this point, if you have stuff stuck onto the bottom of the pan, add about 1/2 cup water and cook over high heat for a minute, scraping up the fond. If nothing is sticking, don’t worry about it.

Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce to medium-low, cover, and cook for about 20-30 minutes, or until the tomatoes have broken down and the onions have melted away. Taste for seasoning; I usually find that this rich, oily sauce stands up to a fair amount of crushed red pepper. About 10 minutes before you want to eat, cook the pasta in well-salted water (it should taste like the ocean!) until tender. Toss with the tomato sauce and serve, passing cheese and crushed red pepper flakes at the table.

It’s also pretty inexpensive. Here’s a rough cost breakdown:
1 cup polenta — $1
2 cups milk — $.35
salt — pantry
1/2 cup grated cheese — $1
2 shallots — $.50
1 red pepper — $1
1/2 lb. Andouille sausage — $3

TOTAL — $7.85
per serving — about $2

A word on grits vs. polenta. Apparently, they’re pretty much the same thing. At least, that’s what I told myself when I couldn’t find grits at the grocery store. When I looked on Internet after I got home, I was pleased to find out that I did pretty much the right thing. If you can find grits (or “hominy grits”, which are slightly different), go for it. If you can’t, use polenta or coarse cornmeal. I recommend NOT using quick cooking or instant grits/polenta – the regular kind still only takes 20 minutes to make, and if you start it at the same time as the greens you will be done in well under a half hour.

Of course, you can also skip the polenta (if you’re on some sort of wacky caveman diet). You could also slice the sausages in bigger chunks and serve this in between toasted rolls for a really good sausage/peppers/greens sandwich. You get the idea.

Sauteed Andouille and Grits

serves 4
barely adapted from Serious Eats

• 2 cups milk
• salt and cayenne or black pepper
• 1 cup grits or polenta
• about 1/2 cup cheddar or Asiago, grated (optional)
• 1 bunch collard greens, stems removed and leaves cut into 1″ squares
• 1/2 pound Andouille sausage, sliced thin
• 2 shallots or 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 red or orange bell pepper, thinly sliced
• hot sauce, for serving

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to boil and add 1 tablespoon of salt. Add the greens and cook until quite tender, about 8-10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

While the greens are cooking, bring the milk and 1 cup of water to a boil over medium heat and add 1/2 teaspoon salt and either a pinch of cayenne (my preference, here) or a few grinds of black pepper. Stirring constantly, add the grits. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.

Turn your attention to the sausage and greens. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add the sausage (no extra fat needed). Cook, stirring occasionally, until some fat has been rendered out and the sausage is starting to brown, a few minutes (Andouille is already cooked, so you’re just trying to add flavor here – it’s OK if every piece is not browned). Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to the bowl with the greens.

In the remaining sausage fat, cook the pepper and shallot or onion over medium heat until lightly browned and soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add 1 cup water and increase the heat to high. Scrape the bottom of the pan to release any browned sausagey bits.

Add the greens and sausage back to the pan and reduce to medium-low. If the greens are not quite tender from the boiling, you can add a little more liquid and cover the pan so they stew a bit. If they seem good to go, just set it aside until you’re ready to serve. Either way, taste for salt. The greens should be salted enough from the boiling, and the sausage usually has a fair bit of salt – but you will probably need to add another pinch. Don’t go overboard, but remember: under-seasoned food is a crime.

Once the grits are done, stir in the cheese. If the grits seem really thick, stir in a little water as well. Serve a scoop of greens and sausage over a spoonful of grits in a shallow bowl, passing hot sauce at the table.

School has started up again! It feels good to be back – I am in the same buildings this year (minus one), and it already feels 100% easier than it did at this time last year. Everyone says that your first year will be TERRIBLE! and your second year is SO MUCH EASIER! And while I think that my first year teaching went pretty well, I can see what they mean. I already know half of my students, I already know who to talk to to get things done, and I know more of the staff at each school, which makes lunchtime a little less awkward.

Anyway, even though school is back in session it is still HOT here in Seattle. We pretty much feel like this all the time:

So when I went out and did my weekly grocery shopping today, I decided to stop off at the liquor store and get a bottle of Pimm’s #1.

Pimm’s #1 is a gin-based spicy liqueur. It can be enjoyed a number of different ways, but the most popular is the Pimm’s Cup, a delightfully Anglican drink that makes you feel super fancy. It’s also very refreshing. Pimm’s is fairly low in alcohol, so if you want a boozier drink you can top it off with a little bit of gin.

We’ve been enjoying lots of peaches and nectarines at the Hershmossi household this summer, and I’ve gotten pretty particular about my cutting strategy. I prefer to cut stone fruit by slicing off big hunks on either side of the pit, then making smaller cuts on the other two sides, sort of like how you’d cut a mango.

Note that I also like to use a sharp serrated knife for cutting stone fruit (and tomatoes!) since it glides through the thin skin and soft flesh.

Anyway, you can cut your fruit however you want. You can even muddle it in with the ice. Or for a more American take on the Pimm’s cup, omit most of the fruit altogether and top it with only the cucumber. Personally, I like having a real fruit salad in my glass. There’s something delightful about sipping a lightly fizzy, lightly boozy gin drink and then getting to eat some ginned up fruit when all the drink is gone. It’s almost as good as second drink!

Which do you like better? Mr. Cucumber nose…

…or Mr. Cucumber mouth?

Pimm’s Cup

makes 1 drink

Ingredients

• lots of ice
• 2 ounces (1/4 cup) Pimm’s #1
• 1/2 ounce gin (optional)
• a few thin slices of cucumber
• a few thin sliced of orange (rind still on)
• a few thin slices of any (or all) of the following: green apple, strawberry, plum, peach, nectarine
• about 6-10 ounces Sprite, 7up, or ginger ale
• juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
• sprig of mint (optional, but nice)

Directions

Fill a large glass about 1/3 full with ice and add the Pimm’s and gin. Stir to combine. Layer in the cucumber and fruit, saving a slice of cucumber and a slice of orange to perch on the top of the glass if you like. Top with the soda and lemon or lime and very gently stir to combine. Garnish with the mint and serve, preferably with a small spoon or fork for picking out the fruit.

I am taking some baby steps in this direction: I’m trying to do a better job of rendering out chicken and pork fat (leftover from when I roast a chicken, make stock, or trim a pork shoulder). I keep them in labelled jars in the fridge, which makes me feel very much like Ma Ingalls. Let me tell you: you have not had black bean soup until you have had it made with a tablespoon of pork fat instead of the usual butter or vegetable oil. I’ve gotten really excited about fat rendering lately, and even bought 2 pounds of leaf lard from the farmers market yesterday. I picked up a $10 Goodwill Crock Pot, which is currently happily bubbling away with pork fat.

Nose-to-tail extends to vegetables as well. My mom recently hipped me to this cool NY Times article, which has some neat ideas for using produce trimmings that we normally throw out (or compost!). I bought a beautiful bunch of baby carrots at the market the other day that seemed destined for carrot soup. I took this picture after I removed the tops (which I used – more on this later):

Carrot tops have a grassy flavor that reminds me very much of parsley. Also, “carrot tops” remind me of this guy, who I think all redheads resent just a little bit:

Anyway, carrot tops. I always include them in chicken stock, but I didn’t really consider them as a soup ingredient until I saw this recipe from Sydney Oland. She suggests turning the carrot leaves into a light oil to drizzle over a sweet, curried carrot soup.

Now I know that we just did the herbs in oil thing, but with this recipe you really only end up using a teaspoon or two of oil per serving. The extra oil will keep in the fridge for a few days; I suggest subbing it for regular olive oil in your favorite soup or tomato sauce recipe for a nice bright dimension.

I am not the biggest fan of main-ingredient soup (squash soup, carrot soup, potato soup, etc), but this is a really great one. I like how the carrot top oil balances the sweetness from the carrots, which can often be cloying in these kinds of dishes. It’s like nature intended them to be perfect counterparts!

(served with couscous)

Curried Carrot Soup with Carrot Top Oil

serves 2-3
adapted from Sydney Oland

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of carrots with their tops (preferably small, tender carrots), tops removed and saved and carrots washed and cut into rough 1-inch chunks
• a few stalks of flat-leaf parsley (optional, but nice)
• 1 very small clove of garlic
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon butter or more vegetable oil
• 1 small red onion, roughly chopped
• salt
• 1 1-inch chunk of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons curry powder (preferably one with a bit of heat. If yours is sweet, add a pinch of crushed red pepper)
• 2 cups of vegetable stock, chicken stock, or water
• 1 14-oz can of coconut milk (light coconut milk is OK)
• handful of toasted sliced or slivered almonds

Directions

Make the carrot top oil: pick about 1/2 cup of leaves off of the carrot tops and discard or compost the rest. Combine the picked leaves, the parsley if using, garlic, and oil in a blender or food processor and process until completely smooth. Set aside.

Make the soup: heat the butter or oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until melted. Add the onion, a big pinch of salt, and the ginger, reduce the heat to medium and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is wilty and the ginger is very fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Add the curry powder and carrots and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots take on a little bit of color, about 5 more minutes. Add the stock or water and coconut milk, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the carrots are completely soft, about 15 minutes.

Using a blender or immersion blender, puree the soup until it is completely smooth. If you have the time and are willing to wash another dish, strain the soup through a fine strainer (this is optional, but a nice touch). If you want to serve the soup cold, refrigerate until chilled, then taste and adjust seasoning as needed. If you want to serve it warm, wash out the saucepan and return the soup to the heat, warming gently.

To serve, ladle about 1 cup of soup in each bowl and drizzle some carrot top oil artfully on top. Sprinkle the almonds on and eat!

“I want it known that the Moosewood Cookbooks [a series of popular vegetarian cookbooks were merely references, and not the way I cooked…I don’t want your readers to think that you grew up in a “veggier than thou” household.  I think I bought the Moosewood books at yard sales for $1 each, or were given them as gifts.  While I agree there were some great ideas in them, I in no way cooked from those or any other food trend books.

I provided the requisite share of ramen, hot dogs, bacon, mac and cheese and other standard American fare.  I suffered some angst in doing so, but strove for balance.”

So, there you go. Don’t worry, Mom — you were an excellent influence (food- and otherwise), and I love you very much!

___________________________________________________________

When I say “bad vegetarian cuisine”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? I think of things like: too much cumin and/or overuse of curry powder in non-Indian dishes, lots of underdone brown rice, roasted eggplant that has poor texture AND poor flavor, flavorless (and often cheeseless) pestos, and of course the dreaded meat analog — whether it’s a tofu dog or tempeh chili, there’s something really disheartening about “vegifying” a meat dish.

But! I think that most of these notions come from a bygone era of vegetarianism. This is an era that I didn’t really live through, obviously, but I can get a sense of by looking through my mom’s old Moosewood Cafe cookbooks (the newer ones are great, though) and talking to older vegetarian folks who shop at local natural food stores. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of food, really, but I think that it usually falls flat when you’re trying to sell omnivores on the idea of meatlessness.

So when I cook vegetarian food, I tend to look to naturally vegetarian (or low-meat) foods of the world: Mexican tortilla soups with only a few shreds of chicken, Southwestern black bean tacos, Mediterranean falafels, and of course the incredible Israeli dish, shakshuka. There are plenty of other ways to go, of course, but these are my go-to vegetarian dishes.

I was excited when I picked up my copy of Plenty a few months ago. Written by the London-based Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi, Plenty features vegetarian dishes that celebrate their ingredients: fresh produce and interesting beans and grains. There are a few duds in the book, and several weird measurements (7 tablespoons of butter? Call it 8 and let me use a whole stick, Yotam) that always seem to result from cookbooks that have been converted from the metric system. But these are relatively small issues with what I think is an otherwise excellent book for vegetarians and carnivores alike.

Anyway, I decided to try the green couscous out of Mr. Ottolenghi’s book, with a few simplifications and adjustments. I don’t cook regular couscous very much, although I do make Israeli couscous (which is actually a small pasta, I think) quite a bit. Couscous is an excellent grain because it’s delicious and it cooks really quickly – you just soak it in boiling water for 8-10 minutes and it hydrates up and is ready to go. You could use either Israeli couscous or “regular” couscous in this recipe – if you use the Israeli variety, follow the cooking instructions on the package. Both kinds of couscous are readily available at Trader Joes, as well as most well-stocked grocery stores (Fred Meyer usually has it in their bulk section).

This dish also features an herb paste, which is basically a cheeseless pesto. This is one of my other complaints with vegetarian recipes, (and it is particularly prevalent in Plenty): they tend to be pretty oily. I get over this by reminding myself that I’m not eating any additional fat from meat or fish. But if you shy away from the 1/3 cup of olive oil that the dish calls for, I won’t tell anyone if you want to substitute 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil and an equal amount of water. It won’t be as flavorful, but it will still be quite good.

I added chunks of feta to make this a little more substantial. You could also add some cooked chickpeas to turn it into a main-dish salad, or you could leave it as it is to have as a simpler side salad (Sarah pointed out that this would be particularly good with a steak).

Green Couscous

serves 4 as a main dish, more as a side
adapted from Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi

Ingredients

• 1 cup flat leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup basil or mint leaves, roughly chopped (optional – I left these out and it was still great)
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus another tablespoon or so
• salt
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 cup shelled pistachios
• 1 cup whole wheat or white couscous, or Israeli couscous
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cups arugula or spinach, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, loosely crumbled (optional)
• 1 cup cooked drained chickpeas (optional)

Directions

Make the herb paste: using a food processor, blender, or stick blender, pulverize the herbs, oil, a big pinch of salt, and the vinegar. Add about 1/4 cup of the pistachios and pulse until you have a rough, pesto-like paste. Taste for seasoning: it might need more salt or vinegar. Set this aside.

Prepare the couscous: if using regular couscous, place it in a large bowl that you can later use for serving and cover with 3/4 cup boiling water. Cover with a plate or plastic wrap and let sit 10 minutes, then toss with a fork to separate the grains. If using Israeli couscous, prepare per package directions. Set this aside.

Cook the onion: while the couscous is hydrating, heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil, the sliced onion, the cumin, and a pinch of salt. Cook until the onion is browned and wilted, about 5 minutes.

Make the salad: add the herb paste to the couscous and toss to combine. Add the cooked onion, arugula, optional feta and/or chickpeas, and toss well. Taste for seasoning: it may need additional salt, vinegar, and/or olive oil. Serve immediately, or chill in the fridge for a bit to let the flavors mingle. This keeps well for several days.

I stashed most of our haul in the freezer for later (Sarah makes an excellent smoked salmon chowder), but we kept a hunk in the fridge for nibbling on. Yesterday I decided to whip up a Hollandaise sauce for some smoked salmon eggs benedicts.

My dad is the family eggs benedict king – he makes a big breakfast almost every Sunday, especially during the holidays when everyone is back in Spokane. His Hollandaise is really great – it is spiked with quite a bit of lemon juice to keep everything from getting too heavy, as things can get when you’re serving an egg-and-butter sauce on top of eggs and smoked meat. Don’t let anyone tell you you have to make Hollandaise in a double-boiler, either. You can use any small skillet or even saute pan, although a nonstick surface will make things easier. Dad and I both have Farberware nonstick saucier pans sort of like this one (different brand, obviously) – they work great as nothing gets trapped in the corners of the pan.

Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon

serves 4
Hollandaise recipe from Al Rossi

Ingredients

• 1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons)
• 2 egg yolks plus 4 eggs
• salt
• at least 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, plus more if needed (this is about one lemon’s worth, but I do like to measure it)
• splash of white or rice vinegar, or more lemon juice
• 4 good pieces of smoked salmon, lightly flaked (or substitute 4 pieces of Canadian bacon or ham, or substitute a slice of tomato for an equally good – if not equivalent – vegetarian option)
• 4 English muffins

Directions

Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove and set aside.

In a small saucepan, preferably nonstick, combine the egg yolks, a big pinch of salt, and the tablespoon of lemon juice. Set the pan over low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture has thickened slightly. This will take about 3 or 4 minutes and you can tell it has happened when you can drag your whisk through the egg yolk and it leaves a trail that doesn’t fill in immediately.

Still whisking constantly, drizzle in the melted butter. Continue to cook for a minute or two, or until the sauce thickens up a little bit. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed. The sauce should be sprightly, so don’t be afraid to add more lemon juice if you think it needs it.

Meanwhile, poach the eggs. You can use my method from the kale+pasta+egg recipe or your favorite method. I recommend adding a big pinch of salt and a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to the poaching water.

Once you have your sauce and eggs ready, toast the English muffins. If you are using Canadian bacon or ham, I like to crisp it up slightly in a hot pan, but this is optional. Assemble the sandwiches: place the fish or ham on each half of the muffin, add the egg, and drizzle the Hollandaise over everything. Serve immediately, with lots of coffee and orange juice.