Tagliatelle with a Lamb Ragu Steeped in Red Wine

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

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

 

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!