Passionate Home Cooking

Tagliatelle with a Lamb Ragu Steeped in Red Wine

2012-02-07T17:00:00.001-05:00

2 Lamb shanks (1 ½ pounds)

4 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Large onion, chopped

2 Cloves garlic, chopped

14 Ounce can diced tomatoes

1 Small can tomato paste

2 Carrots, diced

1 Rib of celery, diced

1 Bay leaf

Pinch crushed red pepper

1 Teaspoon chopped rosemary

Black pepper

Salt as required to correct the seasoning at the very end

1 Teaspoon sugar

Pinch each of sage and oregano

½ Bottle red wine

1 Cup of water

1 Pound of tagliatelle or wide egg noodles

Garnish

Chopped Italian Parsley

Pre-chop the vegetables. In a Dutch oven, add olive oil until hot. Brown lamb shanks on all sides. When brown, remove shanks then add the chopped vegetables (except garlic and diced tomatoes). Sauté vegetables until onion begin to clear. Add garlic and cook 1 minute while stirring. Add tomato paste and rest of the herbs, and pepper. Stir for four minutes. Add tomatoes. Add wine. Return shanks to pot. Add bay leaf and additional water so liquid comes up on the shanks a bit.

Let the covered pot come to a low boil and place in a pre-heated oven at 300 F for 3 hours or more. About 2 hours in, check the water level adding more if necessary. Cook until lamb falls off the bone. Taste the sauce. Add a bit of sugar, and salt until properly seasoned. Serve over tagliatelle cooked al dente on a generous platter. Garnish with parsley.

Wor Wonton Soup - A Chinese Treasure

2012-02-02T11:38:00.004-05:00

Wor mean “everything” and can easily be a complete meal. When my wife is sick, she makes me make this soup. Fortunately, I often have several bags of wontons ready frozen for a quick preparation.

Wonton Filling

¼ Cup chopped shallots

½ Pound ground pork

1 Teaspoons peanut oil

1 Tablespoon Tamari soy sauce

1 Teaspoon sherry

2 Teaspoons cornstarch

1/8 Teaspoon salt

1 Teaspoon white pepper

2 Teaspoons peeled, minced ginger

2 Cloves minced garlic

1/3 Pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled, deveined

1 Package wonton wrappers

This makes 55 or more won ton. When making these, line the plate with parchment paper and space prepared wontons slightly separated so the do not stick to each other. Freeze what is not needed in a plastic zip lock bag shed of as much air as possible. Serve 6 or more wontons per portion if using a dinner bowl or 2~3, if a smaller bowl is a first course.

Constructing Wontons

The round wrappers are the easiest to use. Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of the wrapper. (See picture.) Wet your finger in a bowl. Rub an arc along the outside edge of the lower half of the wrapper, Fold the lower edge so it exactly meets the upper edge of the wrapper, which will fold the wonton in half. Press the edges together firmly to seal. Wet the right-wing edge of the wonton and fold it over a finger to join the left-wing. Now press firmly along the joined edge to seal. Continue making wontons until the filling is used up.

Broth

6 Cups chicken broth or stock, filtered

2 Scallion greens, thinly sliced

1 Small clump of cilantro, chopped coarsely

1 Baked thick marinated boneless pork chop, baked to medium rare then thinly sliced in strips

1 Small chicken breast, thinly sliced into strips, pounded flat, marinated

1/4 Pound sliced cremini mushrooms, sautéed in butter

1 Teaspoon sherry wine

1 Teaspoon soy sauce

Blanched julienned Napa cabbage (white section only), optional

Water chestnuts, optional

Blanched carrot slices

Stock Thickener

1 Tablespoon wonder flour

2 Tablespoons butter

1 Teaspoon mushroom soy

1 Teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet

Drippings from baking pork chop

3 Tablespoons of chicken stock

Prepare this in the fry-pan and quickly fry the chicken strips.

Pork Chop marinade

Red food coloring

1 Teaspoon Rice vinegar

1 Tablespoon Hoisin

2 Teaspoons Tamari

Chicken Marinade

2 Teaspoons Tamari

1 Teaspoon chicken stock

½ Teaspoon minced ginger

You will need large Chinese soup bowls, one for each person

Make the filling in a food processor and refrigerate for several hours ahead. If the wonton wrappers are frozen, let thaw 3 hours while still wrapped.

Marinate the pork in its marinade. Marinate the chicken in its marinade.

Use fry-pan and a tablespoon on butter to fry the sliced mushrooms. Toss to cook evenly. Set mushrooms aside in a bowl. Add a tablespoon peanut oil to same pan, bring to high heat and quickly fry the chicken strip a minute on each side. Set chicken aside with mushrooms.

Make stock thickener in the fry pan. Add butter over medium heat and when melted, add flour and stir to make a roux. Cook while stirring several minutes. Add chicken stock, mushroom soy, Kitchen Bouquet, drippings from pork chop. Cook several more minutes.

When pork is cook, cool some. Remove pork from pan for slicing. Deglaze pan with a tablespoon or two of chicken stock. Save in a small cup. Slice the pork into thin slices and retain with mushrooms, and chicken slices.

Peel carrot and slice thinly, the cross cut 2 inch diagonal end cut sections. Blanch carrot when you later cook the shrimp. Peel, and devein shrimp.

Bring chicken stock to a simmer.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the carrot and Napa Cabbage slices in a strainer basket and lower into boiling water. Cook until al dente. Remove strainer basket and cool vegetables under cold water. Divide blanched vegetables into each serving bowl. Add a pinch each of chopped cilantro and sliced scallion green to each bowl. Place shrimp in a strainer basket and lower into boiling water. Cook shrimp until orange. Remove strainer basket and cool shrimp under cold water. Divide cooked shrimp into serving bowls.

Bring pot of water back to a bowl. Place required quantity of wonton on a strainer and lower in water. Do not let them stick to bottom of pan. As the wontons come back to a boil, add a glass of room temperature water. Allow wonton to return to the boil. Use a strainer or slotted spoon, place required quantity of wonton into each serving bowl. Place some pork, and chicken, and sautéed mushrooms in each bowl, add thickener to chicken stock. Ladle simmering stock into each bowl to cover the wontons.

Kay’s Perfection Roast Chicken and Potatoes

2011-12-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

Chicken is a staple in many house holds. If you eat chicken once a week for sixty years, you may end up cooking 3120 birds and you may have spent more than 140 days cooking them based on 1 hour per bird. You might as well learn how to do it simply and achieve a PERFECT BIRD where the wing tips crunch like potatoes chip, the skin is a dark brown and crackling crisp, and the whole bird is succulently juicy especially the breast and the whole bird extremely flavorful. The magic of the recipe is the heat of the oven. The bird will cook at 500 F for 1 hour. The potatoes will have absorbed some of the juices of the chicken. This is a meal fit for kings. I rate this recipe with 5 stars! Boy could my mother cook a chicken!

The regime of very high temperature cooking requires being aware that it is rather easy to burn ingredients if they are not suitable to this heat. Do not pepper the bird or the potatoes as the pepper will just burn. Do not substitute margarine for butter as it too will just burn. Do not use a seasoned salt as ingredients in it will also burn.

1 Free range frying chicken (3 ½ ~ 4 ½ pounds)

3~4 Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into wedge shaped slices not too large

1 Stick of melted unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon olive oil

Salt

Pepper (after the bird is cooked)

Pre-heat the oven to 500^o F. (That is not a mistake - 500!)

Wash chicken well and dry it thoroughly inside and out with paper towels. Remove any excess fat from the cavity flaps. If the cavity opening is too closed down, remove some of the flaps with a sharp knife. The cavity opening should be larger than a golf ball to allow heat to enter. This is vital to correct cooking.

Wipe the bottom of a glass roasting pan with olive oil. (Do NOT line the pan with tin foil.) Cover the bottom of the pan with cut up potatoes wedges. Salt these.

Place the whole chicken on top of the potatoes in the center of the pan. Pour the melted butter over the chicken and the potatoes. Salt the chicken. Roast in center oven rack for one hour until the bird is a dark golden brown.

Remove the bird to a platter and arrange the potatoes around it. Using a spoon, pour some of the juices over the the potatoes. Now pepper the bird and the potatoes. Garnish with a few sprigs of rosemary. Serve on the table. Use kitchen shears, a sharp knife and thongs for serving. Let stand 8 minutes before carving.

If you have more guests, double the recipe but for best results, use two pans. You may split the chicken down the breastbone and through the back and cook the haves atop the potatoes wing tip up. Then each serving is a half a chicken per person and no further carving is required.

Don’t mess with the heat although, the first time, you will be tempted to turn the oven down, it would be a mistake. Don’t try to stuff the bird either. You may think that a single 4 pound bird is plenty to go around but everyone will want seconds!

Rock Cornish Game Hens

2011-11-26T12:49:00.000-05:00

Cornish game hens are a small domestic chicken that weigh 16 ~ 24 ounces and may actually be male or female. Cornish game hens are available fresh or frozen year around and taste similar to chicken. For the chef, their smaller size makes them ideal to serve one per guest. These are often served stuffed, but are best roasted unstuffed for a uniform result and stuffed after they have been cooked. Wild rice mixtures make a good dressing.

    1 Rock Cornish game hen per guest
    Melted butter
    Peeled carrots, chopped
    Celery, chopped
    Quartered whole onions
    Salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Line bottom of roasting pan with chopped carrots, celery, and quartered onions. Wash and pat dry hens. Tuck wing tips under so they do not burn. Salt and pepper inside and outside of hens. Liberally butter the outside of the hens and place them on the vegetables. Roast in oven. Baste birds every 15 minutes with additional butter. Roast until the birds are golden brown and the juices form the bird's cavity runs clear. Using latex gloves, dress the birds with your prepared dressing. Set roasted birds on a warm platter. Garnish the platter with a green vegetable like peas or green beans.

Pan sauce
    1 ¼-Cup white wine
    ½ cup chicken stock
    3 Tablespoons port
    1 Tablespoons sherry
    3 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into patties used to mount the sauce

Remove roasting pan to stovetop and apply high heat. Add white wine, chicken stock, port and sherry. Stir the pan contents pressing down on vegetables with a spoon. Cook for four minutes stirring all the white. Strain the sauce into a frying pan. Reduce a little more if too loose. When thickened, remove from heat. Add patties of cold butter and swirl the sauce until the butter has melted. Pour sauce over the games hens.

Fine Dining Like Royalty

2011-11-08T18:28:00.000-05:00

In former years, patrons could be treated like royalty in a fine dining establishment where white table clothed booths and tables filled an opulent room framed by tuxedoed waiters poised patiently ever attentive for the hint of a look or a nod from a patron. Busboys and waiters alike would slip around silently, and a missing fork or dropped spoon would reappear out of nowhere. Someone would scrape any breadcrumbs that had managed to appear between a changes in course. Glasses were refilled and wine poured. Waiter would retire unobtrusively five or more feet back where they could observe if they were again needed. A woman’s menu had no prices because that would be too impolite. It was somewhat ritualistic that a patron would wait for the waiter to place your napkin in your lap. An expected visit with polite chatter with the Maitre ‘D would happen at least twice maybe more times at every table. A good Maitre ‘D remembered your face and said “nice to see you again.” A great Maitre ‘D not only knew if you had been to the restaurant before but looked your name up from your reservation or from when you were initially seated. He would greet you with affection by name. If you were drinking wine, the sommelier would visit to see if they could be of service. They knew every dish in the kitchen and knew what the chef recommended as wine with that plate and they could tailor the selection to a price range you suggested.

Courses where delivered from charts and every dish, of every course, was covered with a silver domed server. Salads were served with an ice cold fork on a cold plate. If you ordered oil and vinegar or a Caesar salad, often, the dressing was made at your table the way you like it. The table was set with real silverware and the correct forks, knives or spoons were either already present or changed according to what you ordered. Butter on the table was decoratively molded and on an iced butter boat. Everyone had four types of glassware. If you ordered a fine bottle of wine at dinner, you maybe offered Havana cigars from their fancy humidor. A purposed cart and dessert waiter while supervised by the Maitre ‘D. would attend a special dessert prepared at the table

I am fortunate to say that my wife, Vicki and I attended quite a few of these memorable restaurants. Today’s trend in less ostentatious, less fancy, fewer staff, toward more affordable. If you can get that old style experience, know that it is an increasingly rare event that should be savored. It is certainly great to be royalty, even if it is only once.

Macaroni and Cheese

2011-10-18T16:20:00.000-04:00

Muenster Cheese

It is hard to think of a more satisfying comfort food than macaroni and cheese. The cheeses, other than Velveeta, may be finely chopped in the food processor if they are cold. The thin rind on the Muenster is edible and may be left on while chopped, though quite salty from its briny wash while aging. No additional salt is added to the cheese sauce as the cheese are already salty. Velveeta cheese has little flavor but it is a processes cheese that melts well and that helps make a creamy sauce.\

White Sauce
5 Tablespoons sweet butter
4 Tablespoons Italian style “00” flour or Wondra Flour
Pinch or 2 of sweet paprika
1 Teaspoon onion powder
1 Teaspoon white pepper
Pinch of red pepper
1 Teaspoon sugar
3 Twelve-ounce cans evaporated milk as required (see text)

Macaroni
1 Pound uncooked elbow ribbed macaroni (Barilla)
Salt for cooking the macaroni (see text)

Cheese for Cheese Sauce
Yellow food coloring as required
4 Ounces finely chopped Muenster cheese³
6 Ounces finely chopped Tillamook Medium Cheddar¹ cheese
6 Ounces finely chopped Hoffman super sharp cheddar² cheese
3 Ounces Velveeta, chopped into small cubes by hand
8 Ounces Sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a shallow 9 by 13 baking pan.

Cook macaroni in 4 quarts of boiling lightly salted water. When just al dente, drain and rinse several times while gently stirring with cold water to arrest cooking. Place in a large mixing bowl.

Make sure all the cheeses are cold so they are easier to chop. Prepare cheeses and retain.

Melt butter in a heavy bottom pot over low heat allowing butter to foam. Add flour to the butter and cook on medium a bit but don’t brown. Whisk in 2 cans of the milk. Cook on medium low while whisking for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, Strain sauce if you have any lumps. Whisk in sugar, sweet paprika, onion powder, and white and red peppers to taste. Add chopped Velveeta cheese and slowly heat to melt stirring frequently. When the Velveeta cheese has completely melted, add the other cheeses and add additional evaporated milk as sauce thickens. Whisk in yellow food coloring a few drops at a time until the sauce has the desired shade of yellow. The sauce should be very thick. When cheese is completely melted, pour over cooked macaroni, add sour cream and mix well. Correct seasoning to taste. Turn out mixture into greased 9 x 13 baking pan and level the filling.

Bake, uncovered in center rack for 30 minutes.

Note:
1. Any large block premium medium cheddar that taste good (nominally these are expensive).
2. Substitute any premium good tasting extra sharp premium cheese - The flavor, after all, stems from the cheese.
3. This is not the French version of Muenster but the milder and less expensive Wisconsin, New York or Vermont versions.

Kae's Melting Moments - Cookies

2011-10-16T10:19:00.000-04:00

2 Cups flour

2 Teaspoons baking powder

½ Teaspoon salt

½ Cup powdered sugar

1 Cup sweet butter

1 Teaspoon vanilla

Optionally, 1 teaspoon almond extract or almond oil

Lemon Icing

Powdered sugar

Lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Yellow food coloring added until icing is lemon colored

Finely minced lemon zest

Cream sugar and butter, then sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix with butter mixture until well mixed. Refrigerate until easy to handle (2 hours is plenty). Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Form small rounds of dough and flatten with a fork coated with flour on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F for 10~12 minutes.

When cool, ice with lemon icing that is made to taste.

Maude's Old Fashion Chocolate Fudge

2011-10-15T14:43:00.000-04:00

I do not know Kae’s (my mother) friend Maude but this simple recipe looks like a fun project for the grandkids and Grandma or Grandpa.

12 Marshmallows (some also for kids to eat)

¾ Cup evaporated milk

2 Cups sugar

1 Cup walnuts

6 Ounce package of chocolate chips

1 Stick (1/4 pound) salted butter

1 Teaspoon vanilla

Combine Marshmallows, milk and sugar and bring to a boil. Stir and cook seven minutes once boiling. In a heat proof bowl, add chocolate chips and butter. Pour over boiling mixture and beat until well mixed. Stir in nuts. Turnout mixture into a butter pan and cool overnight.

Sichuan (Schezuan) Pepper aka Prickly Ash

2011-10-11T14:36:00.004-04:00

This pepper is not actually a member the pepper family. It has a unique aroma and flavor that is neither hot nor pungent; rather it has lemony flavor and creates a tingly numbness in the mouth that enhances chilies usually used with it. Only the outer husks are used; the shiny black seeds are discarded as they have a hard gritty sand-like texture. Husks are stemmed then toasted before mortared or ground then added to the dish just before serving.

Sichuan pepper are one of the traditional ingredients in the Chinese spice mixture five-spice powder and also Japanese shichimi togarashi, a seven ingredient seasoning often found as a shaker on the condiment tray of your Asian noodle shop. Shichimi togarashi is made typically with equal parts each of ground red chiles and ground sansho (berries of the prickly ash tree related to Sichuan pepper) plus one portion each of the following: dried orange or yuzu peel, black sesame, white sesame, ginger, and nori flakes.

Due to their lemony undertones, this pepper works well with duck, chicken and fish.

Sichuan culinary history reaches all the way back to the Ba and Shu kingdoms in the 21st to 5th centuries BC. During the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), a 50 volume cookbook was published. Despite its reputation to the contrary, not all Sichuan food is red-hot. Of the eight major culinary cuisines in China, Sichuan cuisine is perhaps the most popular throughout the country and across the world.

Gong Bao Ji Ding (Kung Pao Chicken)

This dish may well be the world's most popular Chinese dish and is a excellent show case for the Sichuan pepper flavor. It is also one of the few Chinese dishes that have largely remained authentic yet served worldwide. A blend hot, sweet and sour, this delightful chicken dish is also quick to prepare. The chicken slices easier if it is slightly frozen. Note that when the chilies are left whole, the dish is less hot than in they were broken up. For this reason, I use whole arbor chilies that are quite hot.

2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin bite sized pieces

3 Cloves of garlic, minced finely

1 Tablespoon finely minced peeled ginger

Whites of 5 scallion, sliced on the diagonal into 1 inch lengths

2 Tablespoons peanut oil

Handful of whole dried red chilies (show courage)

1 Teaspoon toasted ground Sichuan peppers added just before serving

2/3 Cup roasted peanuts

Marinade:

2 Teaspoon Tamari (less salty) soy sauce

1 Teaspoon sweet rice wine or Shaoxing wine

1½ Teaspoon cornstarch

1 Teaspoon seasoned rice vinegar

1 Tablespoon water

Sauce:

2 Teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 Teaspoon cornstarch

1 Teaspoon Mushroom soy sauce

1 Teaspoon Tamari soy sauce

2 Teaspoon Chinkiang (Black rice vinegar) or seasoned rice vinegar

1 Teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 Teaspoon Marin

1 Tablespoon chicken stock or water

Pick out any black seeds or stems from a tablespoon of Sichuan pepper berries. Heat a small pan until hot and toast pepper berries until fragrant (30 seconds or so). Turn out into a mortar or grinder. Grind into a not too course grind. Set aside.

Prepare garlic, ginger, and scallions. Assemble the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

Cut the chicken into thin bite sized pieces. Thin strips cook quickly and maintain tenderness when flash cooked in the wok. Add the marinade ingredients and stir in the chicken pieces. Let marinate 15 minutes.

Into a hot wok, add peanut oil and then toss the whole chilies until fragrant. Drain then add and stir-fry chicken for several minutes until nearly fully cooked. Now add the ginger, garlic, and spring onions and stir-fry another minute. Stir the sauce ingredient then add to wok. Continue to cook. As soon as the sauce has thickened, mix in the peanuts. Remove from heat and sprinkle with ground Sichuan peppers. Serve immediately.

Very good with plain steamed Jasmine rice.

The Good Life

2011-10-10T17:37:00.000-04:00

Photo by Steve Salkow

Perhaps one of the greatest things I ever ate was fresh tuna Sashimi at Mama's fish house on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The fish was speared that morning by one of the restaurant's two divers. This welcoming place, and Maui's Favorite Restaurant, is located on Maui's North Shore. The view though the open windows under the shade of the coconut palms is this gorgeous curved Kuau Cove featured in this photograph.

Sashimi is the epitome of simple. It is raw fished sliced into mouth sized pieces that is served with fragrant hand-grated wasabi-root and a soy dipping sauce. It is a bell ringer reminder you do not need fancy to make wonderful!

Another favorite dinner is simply fresh oysters in their half-shelves, horseradish, Tabasco and a handy bottle of fine Russian vodka. Pretty hard to beat.

Baking Biscotti (Italian for Biscuit)

2011-09-19T14:03:00.000-04:00

These twice cooked Italian cookies make for a good holiday gift. Traditionally biscotti are with almonds although pistacios are also frequently used. These hard crusty cookies in Italy are served morning or evening with a "una bella tazza di caffe".

Italian Biscotti Jars

These instructions are more for process preparation than as a recipe. Cookies are to be cooked on parchment paper on a doubled walled cookie sheet. (The double wall prevents burning and gives even results.) To get consistent results, pipe lines of dough in even adjacent rows, apart from each other. Use full circle pipe nozzle. Allow for expansion between rows as well at the ends. The rows may be 4-6 pipes wide necessary to make a biscotti 3-4 inches wide. Traditionally the cookies are long and thin.

Even though baked twice, the initial baking should be thorough. Once baked to a golden brown or to the point that a toothpick inserted comes back dry and clean, allow cookies to cool. Slice into 3/4 inch cookies with a sharp serrated knife. Separate to allow an even second baking and re-bake cut side down to drive out remaining moisture. Cool and store in air tight container.

Typical recipe for 100 cookies

1 Cup sweet butter

5 Eggs

4 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon of baking powder

1 Tablespoon baking soda (helps over come acid of lime juice)

2 Teaspoons vanilla

2 Cups chopped blanched almonds (page )

2 Cups sugar

Zest of lime

1 Cup fresh squeezed lime juice

Salt

1 Cup candied ginger, chopped finely

Bake 375 F for 20 minutes. Second baking, cut side down, 375 F 10-15 minutes.

Flat Enchiladas Enchiladas Chatas in 3 minutes!

2011-09-13T13:56:00.003-04:00

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

Flat enchiladas are very popular in Sonoran Mexico, Arizona and New Mexico where they are also called enchiladas montadasor (mounted) and may be topped with one or more fried egg. In this recipe, there is no frying, so these enchiladas are quicker and have fewer calories than the conventional rolled variety. Since these are cooked on their own plate, there are no pans to cleanup. This recipe works very well in the microwave but may be cooked in a 425 F oven until bubbly hot. (Use a potholder to grab the plate.) A great sauce will make a great enchiladas but it can be made a day, week, or months ahead of time and kept frozen until needed.

4 Tablespoons La Milpa Enchiladas Sauce (Chile Colorado), warmed

3 White corn tortillas

4 Tablespoons white melting cheese 50% each Monterey jack and queso fresco

Garnish

Chopped iceberg lettuce with tomatoes slices, tossed in a vinaigrette

Chopped green onions

Chopped cilantro

Fried eggs if desired.

Assemble enchilada: Place 1 tablespoon of enchilada sauce on a microwave/oven safe plate and top with a tortilla. Spoon over tablespoon of enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with cheese and add next tortilla, add more sauce and cheese. Top with last tortilla, follow by another tablespoon of enchilada sauce then cheese. Microwave 3 minutes on high. (Alternately, preparre several servings and bake in 425 F oven. Let rest 1 minute then garnish plate with lettuce, tomatoes, and scallions, chopped cilantro, and optionally, fried eggs.

see

La Milpa Enchiladas Sauce (Chile Colorado)

2011-09-13T13:51:00.001-04:00

La Milpa, Milpitas Calif

2 Dried Ancho or pasilla chiles

Optionally, add 2 level teaspoons of hot New Mexico ground chile powder if you want a hotter sauce or 2 dried hot guajillo chili. Add additional arbor peppers if you want even more heat.

2 ½ Cups chicken stock

1 Large clove of garlic

3 Tablespoons rendered pork fat

2 Tablespoons white all purpose flour

Pinch of ground cumin

Optionally, pinch of ground Mexican oregano

¼ Cup cream or half-half

Salt

Pinch or two of sugar as required - see text

Break open chili pods discarding stems, internal tissues and membranes and seeds. (Optionally washed chiles, shake off excess water, then toast in hot dry pan 30-45 seconds until fragrant.) Soak chili pods in hot water for 60 minutes until soft. Discard water. Place in blender with 2 ½ cups hot chicken stock and 1 large cloves of garlic. Add optional hot New Mexico ground chili powder if required. Process until very finely blended, maybe 2 full minutes. Strain results through a sieve using a wooden spoon and reserve sieved chili stock. Make a roux by blending 2 tablespoons of the pork fat and flour and cook it on low until it is a medium brown color. Remove from heat. Whisk in sieved chili stock, cumin and cook on stove over very low heat for1 hours adding water or more chicken stock as needed. Taste the sauce for heat, and if not spicy enough, add more ground HOT chili powder. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Correct salt and add sugar and cream as required. The amount of sugar should not be perceptible and is used to just take any bitter edge off. Salt will also help moderate the biter undertones. The cream or milk serves to mellow the sauce.

Wente’s Corn Madeleines

2011-09-03T11:00:00.005-04:00

The Mexican assistant-chef at Wente Vineyard made these and gave the recipe to my mother at the same period in the 1970’s that pastry chef Dana Forkas worked her magic there.

Williams and Sonoma Non- Stick Pan

5 Tablespoons each of white and yellow cornmeal

1 1/3 Cup A.P. Flour

¾ Teaspoon baking soda

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 Teaspoons salt

2 Tablespoon sugar

2 Medium eggs

1 ¼ Cup buttermilk

½ Cup melted butter

½ Cup red peppers, seeded, minced

½ Cup onion, minced

½ Cup fresh corn kernels (from 1 ear), steamed 10 minutes

Preheat oven to 425 F. Prepare two greased madeleine pans. Combine and mix well dry ingredients. Add the liquid ingredients and then peppers, onion, and corn. Mix on low speed until uniformly well mixed. Pipe mixture into madeleine pans, filling the molds about 3/4 full. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the edges have browned. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a rack. Serve warm.

Simplest Potato Salad

2011-08-29T10:37:00.000-04:00

For the nutritional value, potatoes are inexpensive and available year round. Potatoes are a good source of vitamin C, vitamin B6, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber. This is a no frills recipe:

Steam assorted varieties of fingerling potatoes until just fork tender. Refrigerate until cool or cold. Slice on the diagonal. Garnish with tomato slices and a pinch of basil. Dress with oil and vinegar and salt and pepper.
Voilà - tastes as good as it looks.

Lori’s Stuffed Italian Tomatoes - Pomodori Repieni al Forno

2011-08-28T13:38:00.001-04:00

Lori’s recipe is a favorite of mine. When summer came and the tomatoes were at the peak season of their season, these little beauties were quickly consumed no matter how may were made.

1 Cup uncooked long grain white rice

6 Tablespoons of non-filtered extra virgin olive oil.

8 Large vine ripen tomatoes (Early Girl is a great variety)

1 Teaspoon ground black pepper and some salt

6 Large cloves of very finely chopped Italian red garlic

1 Large bunch of Italian parsley chopped fine

Cut the “lid” off the tomatoes and retain. Being careful not to pierce wall of tomato, hollow out tomato cores with a spoon and retain pulp. (I use a small sharp knife tip run around the inside edge of the tomato, followed by an X-shape cut through the core not deep enough to pierce the bottom of the tomato, the follow up with a spoon.) Reserve the tomato pulp. Add tomato pulp, pepper, garlic, rice, and salt all together. Squeeze tomato pulp through your hands to break it up. Stuff tomatoes with mixture but make them flat on top. Cover each tomato with its own tomato lid and place in a shallow glass-baking dish. Drizzle tomatoes with oil.

Cook very slowly for 4 hours on 325 F. Baste the liquid that runs in the pan back over each tomato, starting at 30 minutes and every 30 minutes there after. After three hours, test rice with a fork, if still too hard, add a few teaspoons of water to each tomato top. When cooked, and cooled, transfer to a serving platter. Drizzle with your best tasting olive oil. Serve lukewarm. Garnish platter with a few large springs of parsley.

Note:

1. For this recipe, the rice will be slightly crunchy in spots as not 100% of it completely cooks by this method. I think it is part of why I like these so much. As an alternative, in the first 15 minutes of cooking, the stuffed tomatoes are covered with tin foil, the rice gets cook completely but the tomatoes and the rice both seem overcooked and often the tomato may split. It is only through very slow cooking that produces an intense tomato flavor and gets so sweet.

Cooking from Scratch

2011-08-19T16:19:00.000-04:00

First, there was darkness, and, then a BIG BANG… 19 billions year went by, mankind’s ancestors crawled out of the mud. Not long after that, they published The Joy of Cooking. Viola, we were soon cooking with confidence. Why you say? Because Irma Rombauer had written down easy to follow information and how-tos for the home chef. Soon we were off confident we could render squirrel, opossum and raccoon so armed with the confident words of this conversational cookbook.

Super markets and more cookbooks later almost anything is practical although a few of us may hesitate to stay up so late at night as be afforded the opportunity for opossum. Cooking from Scratch is quite satisfying. Tara Stolz, a blogger from Florida points out there is “not much that can't be made at home, better and/or cheaper. And, of course, she is right as rain! (http://cooking-from-scratch.blogspot.com)

My friend Bob Kong called me one afternoon and threw down a challenge – did I have a recipe on preparing caviar. His friend Larry had given him a seventy-five pound sturgeon. I quickly searched The Joy of Cooking and found a recipe. I called Bob back with the good news. I said I would help. Turns out, Bob had heard Larry incorrectly; the fish was too big for Larry to weigh but the roe weighed 75 pounds. We did not get out of the kitchen until three in the morning. The effort, nonetheless, was a great satisfaction. We had the best caviar I had ever tasted. Bob gave me 10 pounds of the finish product. I served some to my father who said not only was it as good as Beluga. but it was the first time in his life where he actually had as much caviar as he wanted at one sitting.

Chèvre is French for Goat (revised)

2011-08-17T14:05:00.023-04:00

Greek Feta cheese has a distinctive salty, tangy flavor and crumbly texture. The world of cheeses have many similar cheeses yet newspaper foodies exult only feta. This cheese is made from sheeps milk, or from a mixture of sheep and goats’ milk There are thousands of alternative cheeses.

For topping pizza or making a salad, there are endless alternatives that are worth trying. Many of these have less salt, which in the case of salt restrictive diets make the healthier choices:

Teleme (smooth-tart flavor without the salt), Bryndza (one of the softest crumbly type of cheese, Queso fresco (less slat), Queso cotija, fresh Mizithra (contains less salt), Montrachet (texture is softer, moister and it contains less salt).

Many French cheeses simply blow my socks off. Buche de Chevre (La Buchêtte chèvre) is a cheese that is sharp and tangy near the rind becoming successively richer and creamier towards its center. From salad to pizza, to stuffed quail or chicken breast, there is little time to try all the cheese possibilities. When our family visited France, we found every single town made their own wonderful cheeses.

Often we seem to get stuck in a rut. Should we always use cream cheese for cheese blintzes? How about a variation on the ricotta in lasanga? Should all cannoli made with mascarpone? Why not a goat cheese cheesecake? I am wondering what a cheese blintze would be like made with a rich and creamy French Reblochon cheese?

Death to the 30-Minute Meal

2011-06-26T14:50:00.001-04:00

I marinate steak longer than that. You come home worn out, everyone’s hungry, what to do next!

In Italy, where life is no different from here, their habits are tuned by centuries of traditions to their advantage. We move to the patio where the table looks out on the garden. Unceremoniously, the chef brings to the table a half of bottle of wine, a cutting board, half a loaf of bread, a knife, some salami, some cheese, a tin of olive oil and a handful of basil leaves freshly pinched from the garden. Grandma yells at the kids to go wash their hands. Soon a clanging of glass, silverware and small plates is heard as elbows bend and heads bob munching the savory offerings. A big pot of water with a pinch of salt goes on the stove. Grandpa is opening another bottle of wine. The sound of laughter echoes from the patio. Grandma sends one of the kids around back to pick a small bowl of ripe tomatoes from the garden for a sauce while she crushes fresh garlic and slices some pancetta on a cutting board for a sauce. There is no sense or urgency; after all, the city traffic has been horrendous- but now we are home- “siamo a casa” where life is good. We have the family.

The Old Bath House Restaurant Basic Souffle

2011-06-23T11:49:00.000-04:00

The Old Bath House, which closed in 2005, was a landmark romantic location in Monterey, California with great food, service and great wines. The Old Bath House looked out over Lovers Point over the Monterey Bay. You order this dessert at the start of the meal and saved room in anticipation.

7 Ounces butter (14 Tablespoons or 1 stick plus 6 Tablespoons)

1 Cup flour

1 Cup milk

½ Teaspoon cream of tartar

¾ Cup cream

1 1/3 Cups sugar

12 Egg yolks

12 Egg whites

Photo by Bob Aronson

Butter and sugar a soufflé mold and pre-heat oven to 375 F.

Combine butter and flour in a sauce pan and heat on very low heat to make a roux¹. Over medium heat, add milk and cream, stir until thickened. Add sugar and allow to thicken again. Remove from heat and whisk in egg yolks. Beat the egg whites with ½ teaspoon cream of tartar until stiff peaks form and are they are shiny. Mix a spoonful of the egg white into the batter to lighten it. Next, fold in the remaining egg whites in the batter. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.

For a chocolate soufflé add 14 ounces melted chocolate and 1/3 cup of dark rum when the mixture is off the heat, before adding the egg yolks.

For strawberry soufflé, add ½ cup of strawberry puree and 1/3 cup of Johannesburg Riesling when mixture is off heat, before adding the egg yolks.

Note:

1. roux is a mixture of flour and butter

Waking the Palate - Appetizers Pave the Way

2011-06-10T12:56:00.000-04:00

The appetizer is akin to a symphonic overture setting the stage for what’s to follow. Olives, capers, lemon, olive oil, crunchy bread, garlic, cheese, wine, salty, tart, spicy, sour can help start ringing the dinner bell. Appetizers have become a very important part of social life and facilitate our coming together.

When the weather turns unbearable, “grazing on appetizers” is highly appealing and can be completely extemporaneous. The diversity of savory dishes and a simple salad can be imminently attractive to your guest. It is more informal that a sit down dinner and easier on the chef. It has no set start or stop time and does not carry the more formal obligation to reciprocate. No rules, no place settings, no correct salad fork, just fun with friends.

As a chef, it is your chance to show your creativity not necessarily preparing all, or for that matter, any on the offerings but assembling a culinary collection of foods and wines that you find interesting and fun. Glorious summer is upon us.

Try a soft Chèvre (goat) cheese, which has a more pungent flavor than a cream cheese but a similar mouth feel. It pairs exceptional well with herbs, toasted nuts, cracked black pepper, onion and garlic or may be topped with a fruit like grilled mango on a bruschetta.

Cream of Tomato Soup to the Rescue

2011-06-07T11:18:00.000-04:00

This is a quick and easy tomato soup to rescue a sick friend when you need "first-aid soup" straight away. It is made with fresh tomatoes but, if not available, use organic low-sodium San Marzano tomatoes (30 oz can.) The best of these are imported from Naples Italy and the can will bear the DOP mark.

4 Large fresh sweet tomatoes from your garden
1 Carrot, chopped fine
1 Small onion, chopped fine
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Cup chicken stock
1 Teaspoon of triple concentrated tomato paste
¼ Teaspoon white pepper
1/8th Teaspoon garlic powder
1/8th Teaspoon of red pepper (more if you like soup spicy)
1 Tablespoon gravy flour
1/3 to ½ Cup heavy cream
Juice from one half a lemon, if soup tastes too flat
Sea Salt to taste

Sauté the carrot and onion in 2 tablespoons butter on medium in a tall sauté pan until the onion is translucent. Add can San Marzano tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato paste, garlic powder, white pepper, red pepper. Blend soup with a post blender until smooth. Cook for twenty minutes. Add 1 tablespoon gravy flour. Boil a few minutes to thicken. Taste. Correct seasoning by adding sea salt, additional pepper in needed and taste again. If too flat tasting, add lemon juice as required. Taste again. Add 1/3 to ½ cup heavy cream.

Stir and serve with a few wedges of toasted buttered whole grain bread.

Pizza Dough and Baking Pizza on your Grill

2011-06-01T13:37:00.007-04:00

In my book, Generations of Passionate Home Cooking, I explain in detail the process of producing a good sourdough starter/sponge. On the leeners web site they go over the process in some detail using their Goldrush Sourdough Starter. Superior pizza dough is like Nirvana – it is a trifecta of taste, chew, and smell. Like all things exceedingly worthwhile, it requires the best ingredients.

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 Cup of sourdough yeast sponge

1 Tablespoons SAF Red Instant yeast

Optionally, 2 tablespoons King Arthur Pizza Dough Flavor

1 Cup of King Arthur’s Italian-Style Flour (“00” milled) (8.5% protein level) more as required

3 Cup of King Arthur Artisan Organic All Purpose Flour

1 + 1 Teaspoons salt added at two times

Bottled drinking water

Great flavor olive oil

Combine flours and mix well. Early in the morning, pour the sponge (1 ½ cups of it) into your work bowl. Add yeast, half the salt, 1 cup of flour and bottled drinking water until the mix is loose. Let this stand covered with a wet cloth for an hour.

Now stir in 3 cups of flour with the other half of the salt with a paddle or by hand until the dough is still a little sticky. This is moisture dependent. Adding more liquid allows more flour. The flour should be added a little at a time. Add a little more "00" flour if needed

Now hand-knead the dough or mix it with a dough hook setting the speed to low for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is somewhat smooth and elastic. If doing this with a mixer, do not add too much flour. The dough should be somewhat sticky else, it will be too dry. If necessary, add back gradually a little water until the consistency is just right.

Coat the insides of a clean stainless steel or glass bowl with a film of great olive oil. Now turn the dough in it to coat it all over. Now cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a wet towel and set it in a warm place to rise for an hour, or until it doubles in volume. You may place the bowl in the refrigerator overnight. The cold retards the whole operation but an extra day develops further character and nutrition. You pickup where you left off the previous day, once the dough has come back to room temperature.

When double in volume, punch down and knead until the dough is glossy and fully elastic. Cover and let rise again to twice volume. Punch down the dough and divide it with a knife or scissors into four or six equal balls, depending on the size pizzas you are making. Dust dough ball in flour, shake of excess. Roll out dough ball very thin trying to keep the thickness uniform on parchment paper larger than the pizza. You may stack the “blanks” on their parchment paper, one of top of another until ready to make pizza. Assemble pizza per recipe and trim parchment paper to just larger than the pizza. Place pizza and its parchment paper on cooking stone using a batten. Don’t have a batten you say? A double walled cookie sheet is very stiff and will work fine as a batten. You also use the batten to retrieve the cooked pizza by sliding the parchment paper onto it.

Watch video for more information.

Making Homemade Pizza on the Grill

Poor bread is forgotten, bread from a great baker endures

2011-05-31T01:03:00.002-04:00

I used to dine 2~3 times a week at an Italian restaurant in the San Francisco bay area called Piacere. A very nice Kurd man who quickly became a good friend ran it. I worked nearby at a lucrative consulting position with a local high tech firm. The bread his place was outstanding and so was their garlic-basil and balsamic dip that was redolent with the perfume of fresh cold-pressed unfiltered green olive oil. After several years, much to my surprise, the restaurant started making their own mediocre focaccia and ditched their splendid garlic-basil and balsamic dip. As it turned out, the bread and dip was SO OUTSTANDING, patrons would fill up on it. Dessert sales went up 23% after the stopped offering the great bread, and frankly, as good as the desserts were; I sure missed the bread and dip.

Moving out of the Bay area to North Carolina was a real experience. French and Italian breads here are hardly represented in the super market. Softer breads, cornbreads and biscuits are more readily available. For the baker, artisanal flour made from hard spring and winter wheats that characterize chewy European and Italian loaves is scarce as hens’ teeth. The Old Red Mill on Highway 68 does turn out decent hi-gluten flour that makes a loaf of French bread but it lacks the chew of Italian flour.

I am avidly looking at the North Carolina Organic BreadFlour Project with the hopes that great flour and breads flourish here as well as they have elsewhere in the nation. On their blog spot, I read of the Annual Asheville Bread Festival where several of the recent competitions have also been instructors at the San Francisco Baking Institute and continue to be highly respected teachers, consultants, and writers. Asheville, NC even looks like it grew up in San Francisco.

Is Making Bread at Home Hard?

Residual Heat in Roasting - Getting Good Results

2011-05-29T11:21:00.000-04:00

We are not talking radioactive fission products after shutdown but in principle, the concept is similar. The amount heat stored in a roast is proportional to the roasting temperature and the roast’s size. This means the roast must be removed from the oven at an internal temperature lower than desired final temperature. The residual heat is at the surface and successively less toward the center. The roast’s initial center temperature when removed from the oven will go up as the roast rests. The blue arrows in the chart show the direction of residual heat as the roast rests, while the moisture flow in the roast is just opposite as the roast’s protein molecules relax. Typically, resting times for a large roast is 20 minutes or more while a smaller roast maybe 10 to 15 minutes.

Looking at the figure again, the bands of color also represent a gradient of doness. For roasts roasted at high temperature, the outer rings may be well done, while successive inner layers are increasingly rarer. The secret restaurants use to get prime rib almost uniformly rare inside-to-out is to roast the meat at a low oven setting. In my cookbook, we use 220 F. which results in this uniformity. The temperature rise after resting for a 15 pound roast is only 4 degrees.

Miso is Good Food

2011-05-28T13:31:00.001-04:00

Miso is a Japanese product made by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt using the fungus Aspergillus oryzae. The most typical miso is made with soy. Miso is showing up practically everywhere thanks in large part to the Asian-pacific rim cuisine but also because it is so flavorful. Marinades, sauces, glaze, pasta and soups of all sorts have leveraged its versatility. Even the famous Delmonico fine restuarant is selling their Sweet Miso Marinade.

There are many versions of Miso but they generally fall into red, white, and Hatcho Miso with less water and salt content and made near Okazaki castle in Japan. Red miso is aged over a year the color of this miso changes gradually from white to red or even black. White miso is the most popular miso and is made with rice, barley, and a small quantity of soybeans and has abbreviated fermentation. The taste is sweeter than red miso but has less umami.

Miso, when fresh, has a shelf life and will be found in the refrigerated section of the Asian market. This is not to say that it is not available dried or unrefrigerated. I particularly like combining shallots, fresh minced ginger, and a good demi-glace when making rich sauces with miso but when doing so, I strain the results. Miso combines well with dashi soup stock and flecks of quality toasted nori.

Miso Sauce

1/3 Cup sake

1/3 Cup Mirin

¼ Cup a good sweet white miso (South River brand®)

1 Teaspoon seasoned rice vinegar

1 Teaspoons brown sugar

1 Teaspoons fish sauce (optional)

1 Teaspoon Thai black soy sauce

3 Tablespoon of sweet butter, cut into patties

In a frying pan, reduce sake, Mirin with the white miso over medium-high heat by half. If you are baking a fish, add the run off juice from the pan when the fish has cooked. To finish, stir in the vinegar, sugar, (fish sauce if you like) and black soy. Take pan from heat and mount the sauce by swirling in the butter. Correct the seasonings. Garnish with fresh herbs.

Blowing Eggs and more

2011-05-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

When I was a child, the resident bully would say, “Go suck an egg”; while I was not sure what that meant exactly, I was sure that it was unfriendly. Later one Easter I found you could blow an egg to empty its’ shell for decorating. Pretty neat I thought.

Last year, I saw someone blowing a hard-boiled egg right from its shell. The secret is one makes a small opening in the fat end of the egg about the diameter of your thumb and a small “blow-hole” in the pointy end. If the boiled egg is rolled a little to loosen the shell from the egg, a strong lung full can blow an egg right from its shell. Make sure you cup the large end to catch the egg. This works best if the eggs are five or more days old.

Nutritionally the egg is a good deal for the money. The egg is America’s original fast food and can expedite many a meal when a quick solution is needed. Did you know that there is one egg-laying hen for every person in the United States and each egg is turned over by the sitting hen about fifty times per day so the yolk will not stick to the sides of the shell?

My family had roaming chickens at our Rustic Canyon home in Southern California and on the Appian Way farm in Rome, Italy. I have been spoiled with the best natural eggs chickens can lay. These eggs not only look better they taste better too. The best breakfast I ever had was farm-fresh eggs cooked with a touch of cream in butter topped with fresh shaved truffles.

“Love and eggs are best when they are fresh.” - Russian proverb.

Shirred or Baked Eggs (Oeufs en Cocotte)

One of my favorite ways to eat an egg is soft-boiled turned out over torn bits of buttered toast. Shirred or baked eggs results are similar to a soft-boiled egg with less fuss and muss. This is a great way to cook eggs if you are serving a large crowd. Butter oven-safe cups or ramekins and add a small patty of butter. Break two or three eggs into each cup without breaking the yolk. Top the eggs with a teaspoon of heavy cream, some salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 350 F. Have a kettle handy with very hot water. Place cups in a bain-marie adding the hot water half way up on the ramekins from the kettle. Bake until whites are set but yolks are still soft 15 to 20 minutes. Serve cups/ramekins on a plate reminding guests the cups are very hot. Garnish with fine chopped chives.

Sancocho de Siete Carnes - hola amigos!

2011-05-25T11:15:00.000-04:00

Santo Domingo Stew Sancocho de Siete Carnes

Sancocho, although made in other countries is to the Dominican Republic as paella is to Spain. This traditional stew is normally a fairly rustic dish but reaches its culmination in this seven meat (siete carnes) version which is said to represents the seven islands of the Canary Islands where the dish originated. Sancocho recipes vary as much as paella recipes – every cook has their own. This recipe is for 10 or more people. This take a very large pot. Ones with a heavy bottom are best to spread the heat. Like the best of the French stews, this recipe realizes its great complexity of flavors from the plenitude of the meats and other ingredients. The traditional recipe uses cassava root which has some concerns (see note 1) You may leave cassava root out, if you prefer.

1 Pound lamb neckbones or use sawn leg shanks

1 Pound Longaniza⁴ pork sausage

1 Pound pork shoulder

2 Pounds chuck or 7-bone pot-roast

1 ½ Pound chicken thighs and wings

2 Pounds of pork ribs, sawn

2 Small smoked ham hocks

4 Lemons, halved

4 Cloves garlic

4 Tablespoons of olive oil

2 Large bell peppers (one red, one green), coarsely chopped

½ Pound of cassava root¹ cut into ½ inch thick pieces

2 Large yellow onions, chopped

½ Pound of yam², peeled cut into fork sized chunks

½ Pound of eddoes or malanga root or, peeled cut into fork sized chunks

½ Pound of peeled Yukon potatoes peeled cut into fork sized chunks

3 Green plantains, 2 are cut peeled cut into fork sized chunks, 1 is shredded

2 Cups beef, vegetable or chicken stock

½ Teaspoon of Mexican oregano

½ Teaspoon of thyme

1 Tablespoon of Spanish smoked paprika (pimentón)

½ Teaspoon of sage

½ Teaspoon of ground coriander

1 Tablespoon of red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon of lime juice

1 Tablespoon grated orange rind

1 Tablespoon crushed red pepper

4 Fresh tomatoes, seeded and chopped coarsely

Garnish:

Chopped cilantro

Sliced avocados

Steamed Jasmine rice

Cut the larger meat pieces into smaller chunks. Wash beef, lamb, pork in several changes of cold water and pat dry. Rub meats and chicken with lemon. Set broiler to high. Toss meats and chicken with a little oil. Broil meats and chicken, in batches, while periodically turning pieces until all sides have browned. Place browned meats and chicken into large Dutch oven or pot. Score ham hocks on all sides with a sharp knife them add to pot. Add garlic, onions, bell peppers, oregano, paprika, thyme, sage, coriander, vinegar, lime juice, crushed red pepper, 2 cups of stock, 1 quart of water. Simmer for 1 ½ hours with lid on. When meats are near tender, add root vegetables and the chopped and grated plantains. Add more water when necessary. Simmer until everything is tender.

Thickening the Stew

Separate out some on the root vegetables to purée then add to the stew to thicken it. Now add chopped tomatoes and grated orange rind. Simmer until the stew is thick. Correct the seasonings.

Garnish with chopped cilantro, slices of avocados and a generous portion of steamed Jasmine long grain rice.

Notes:

1. The cassava root (also called yuca or manioc) is long and tapered with a firm flesh with a rough brown outer rind similar to a potato. Yuca is a popular starch in the Caribbean and is an important ingredient for sancocho. While good as a thickener it is not very nutritious additionally and it must be cooked for a protracted period to drive out any volatile residual traces of cyanide which also suggests a well ventilated kitchen.

2. Yams here refer to tropical South American white yams not the larger African variety which is huge. The tuber is roughly cylindrical in shape, the skin is smooth and brown and the flesh usually white and firm. A large number of white yam varieties exist with slightly different characteristics.

3. Spanish smoked paprika or pimentón is one of the essential ingredients in Spanish cooking and adds depth to this dish.

4. Longaniza is a popular Spanish-style mild pork sausage.

Generations Of Passionate Home Cooking Work in Progress

2011-05-24T16:22:00.006-04:00

Yes I am still working on a new book Generations Of Passionate Home Cooking featuring international cusine. It will be initially in black and white and a 6 by 9 inch hardbound edition of 700 pages. I hope to also EPublish a very affordable downloadable PDF color version. See a preview of the Table of Content.
For more about the book, please visit: http://www.passionatehomecook.com/