Eggplant Tomato Sauce with Tortellini

This sauce pairs very well with cheese tortellini – the sauce has some bitter (eggplant) and acidic (tomato, capers) flavors that go with the richness of the cheese.  I could see this dish be great with some pork roast cooked with plenty of garlic until it was falling apart, but that’s where the lazy part comes in…

Ingredients

1 eggplant

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 T Italian parsley, minced

2 T basil, minced

1 T capers

28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

2 T olive oil

cheese tortellini

To Do

1.  Peel and cube the eggplant.  The eggplant has excess moisture that is best removed before cooking, so either salt it – generously sprinkle salt on the eggplant and let sit between paper towels for ~15 minutes, brushing any excess salt away after – or microwave it for a few minutes first.  I’ve never tried to microwave it, but apparently it works.

2.  Saute the eggplant in the olive oil over medium heat for ~10 minutes, until soft throughout and golden.  Add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer.  Add the garlic and let simmer for ~5 minutes until you’re ready to serve.

3.  Meanwhile, cook the tortellini.  A couple of minutes before serving, add the parsely, basil, and capers to the sauce.

Filet mignon with port-cini redux

The method was inspired by Mike’s success with broiling steaks inside since I am usually a fan of grilling.  Except in the middle of January.  

1. Get a cast iron skillet hot as hell.  Make sure the steaks are about room temperature and well coated with olive oil and a little salt.  Also preheat broiler to 400 degrees and throw the broiler pan in there to heat up.

2. Put the steaks on each side for about two minutes.  Transfer to broiler pan and forget about the steaks for about 15 minutes for medium rare.  After this pull them out and cover briefly with foil as the sauce finishes.

3. Add about a Tbsp of butter to the skillet and brown up a chopped shallot and one garlic clove chopped finely.  As these get translucent, add a handful of porcini chopped finely.  Deglaze with about a third cup of port.  Reduce by about half with a half cup of the mushroom soaking liquid (or bullion if you used fresh).

4. This makes a very thin pan sauce, if you wanted something thicker adding a little bit of cream just before pouring over the steaks would be a rich touch, or stirring in a standard flour and oil roux.  Just be sure to whisk the hell out of it.

Villa Antinori Toscana 2004 was a great accompaniment (you want “earthy” with this one) and braised greens a good side dish as well.

Beef Stew (Good Food)

Calorie Estimate: 2100

Prep time: 10 minutes  (+ 20 minutes of occasional stirring)

Cook time: 2.5 hours

My beef stew is the ultimate lazy recipe.  It’s so lazy that I can’t even call it my recipe because all you have to do is open packages.  But, for such extreme effort, you get a tasty, very satisfying meal that reheats excellently.  I won’t claim this is a great beef stew because it isn’t.  It’s good though, and while I’ve had better stews, none were so much better that they’re worth the any-effort they require unless you’re trying to impress somebody.  The recipe below makes for four filling meals.

Tools

• big soup pot with tight lid
• wooden spoon or ladle

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds stew beef (cubed in package)
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 pounds frozen stew veggies (carrot, onion, potato, onion, and maybe celery)
• 3 cans of beef broth (or equivalent in buillion)
• 2 packets of McCormick Beef Stew seasoning (1 is okay)
• splash of olive oil

Optional ingredients

• 1/2 pound mushrooms
• 1/2 pound frozen peas

Method

1. Place a big soup pot over high heat.  Put a splash of olive oil on the bottom of the pan and toss in the meat.  Brown the meat for a few minutes, but don’t worry about it too much—the browning in this dish doesn’t make that much of a difference.
2. Put everything else in the pot and put the lid on.
3. Stir every couple minutes until it gets to a strong boil, and then turn the heat to low.  Make sure nothing stays stuck to the bottom of the pot at this stage.  Stir it a couple more times after you lower the heat, and then walk away for a couple hours.  The time is required to let the meat become tender and release all the wonderful gelatin that gives stew its texture.
4. Eat.

That’s that.  This is one of my favorite meals to make for myself.  Tastes good, no work, fills you up.  Enjoy.

Greek Yogurt Sauce

This sauce is great with a lot of dishes – I put it on everything from grilled vegetables and meats to barbecue sandwiches.  Tonight Diane and I had it on falafel.

Ingredients:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cucumber

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 t mint, minced

1 t olive oil

salt, to taste

To Do:

1.  Peel the cucumber, scoop out the seeds, and finely dice.

2.  Mix the ingredients together.  Add more mint to taste – for some dishes, much more mint (1 T+) may go better.

A note about Tags and such

New contributors, be sure to use the “Post Tags” area on the right when writing a post.  Label the entries with basic cooking method (grilling, broiling, etc), primary ingredient, and maybe a third label if it’s particularly important (“To Try” for new ideas not yet attempted, “risotto” in addition to rice because it’s the proper name of the dish).

This is useful for at least 2 reasons that I know of.  First, within our site, tagging provides for automatic cross-referencing.  Via the “Tag Cloud” and the right side of the main page, you can click on “rice” and get every entry tagged with “rice”.  Assuming we actually keep up with this site, it’ll be nice database of all the recipes we record.

Second, and this is really cool, at the bottom of every published post, the tags for that entry appear.  If you click on a tag there, like “fish”, it brings up a search page with every blog entry on all of wordpress.com tagged with “fish”.  It’s a great way to find out what other folks are up to if you want ideas for something similar but different.

Enjoy.

Grilled whole trout

I have done this one indoors under the broiler before and will comment on that at the end of this post as well.  I was slightly skeptical of grilling white flaky fish but it was a 50+ degree clear sky evening in January and I had just been thwarted from Little Tahoma’s summit, so I was in the mood for a good dinner out doors.  So without further ado…

1. You are looking for a medium-high heat bed of coals.  I always use a chimney about 2/3 full and I am a big fan of the Kingsford with mesquite.  So get that guy going and while you are at it, chop up some eggplant, peppers and a sweet potato.  Marinate the first two in balsamic and herbed olive oil, skewer them and toss them on so that you have something to munch on while prepping the fish.

2. This by the way is unbelievably easy.  Take your skin-on, head-on trout and stuff the body cavity with slices of lemon, fresh thyme and rosemary and a few dots of butter.  Rub both sides of the outside with olive oil.  Lightly, this is just to prevent burning and sticking to the grate.

3. Put the fish on over the coals.  If you are at the right temperature (where you can put your hand above the grate for about 3 seconds before burning) it will take about five minutes one side, and five minutes on the other.  Remove and squeeze the rest of the lemon over the fish, cover with foil and let rest for a few minutes.

4. Eating unboned fish is a bit of an art, and warrants enough mention to be step 4.  Pull back the skin, reserving crispy sections to be eaten with the oh so succulent flesh you are uncovering.  There will be a line lengthwise down the middle.  Stab right there with a fork and pull perpendicular to the line and away from it.  You will get some bones but they should be manageable.  Don’t forget the juicy morsels right behind the head.

So if you find yourself in a similar situation but without a grill available, this turns out great under the broiler as well.  Three to five minutes per side about eight inches from the element is perfect.

We had this with an Argentinian Torrontes and it was perfect.  Any relatively dry, fruity white would be good.

Chicken Cutlets (Very Good Food)

Cook and Prep Time: 40 minutes

Calorie Estimate for the batch: 2500

After 3 years of bitching and moaning about how I couldn’t get a chicken cutlet in Seattle, I broke down and learned how to make them myself.  If I had a deep fryer, they’d rock even more, but they come out pretty damn good on the pan.  Now, all I need is some good honey mustard and bread for a chicken cutlet and honey mustard hero.

And yes, these are not lazy-man friendly either.  You may ask, what happened to lazy cooking?  Well, in a month, after the novelty of stepping up my game has gone away, I’m sure lazy will reassert itself.  Don’t despair.

Tools

• skillet or fry pan
• knife
• cutting board
• tongs
• 4 plates
• some sort of dipping dish for the egg wash
• fork
• fingers

Ingredients

• 1.5 pound skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into strips (you can buy it this way, but it’s cheaper to thin them yourself)
• 1 C italian-style breadcrumbs (I use Progresso)
• 1/2 C romano cheese, shredded
• 2 eggs + 2 T water
• 1 C flour
• garlic salt to taste (1 T ish)
• oil for frying (canola is best, olive can work but you need to be careful)
• kosher salt

Method

1. Cut chicken into strips between 1/4″ and 3/8″ thick.
2. Prep the egg wash: scramble 2 eggs with 2 T of water in a dish suitable for dipping the chicken.
3. Layout the ingredient assembly line, as shown in the picture below.   After the chicken comes flour, then the egg wash, and then the feature coating, made from the bread crumbs, shredded cheese, and garlic salt.  I probably add about a tablespoon of garlic salt.  Basically, I put the ingredients together, mix it up with my hands, and taste.  If it seems like it could use more garlic salt, I put a little more in, mix and taste.   The last plate in the assembly line is for the finished coated chicken.
4. To coat the chicken, work from left to right (err bottom to top, thanks Val).  Take the chicken and thoroughly coat it with flour.  Then dip the floured chicken in the egg mix, being sure to coat it thoroughly.  Then, thoroughly coat (see a trend?) with the seasoned breading and place on the exit tray.
5. After the chicken is coated, get a frying pan going on medium heat with enough oil to coat the bottom at least 1/16″.   This is not the time to be bashful.  In fact, if you’ve got an inch worth of oil, go ahead and deep fry them.  Canola works best since it’s neutral and has a high smoke point.  Olive oil can be used (and it’s usually what I have on hand), but you have to be very careful not to burn the oil and turn it rancid.  On my stove, I can’t go past 6 on the heat without being screwed.
6. When the oil is hot enough, add chicken until the pan is full.  I get 5 to 7 strips per run.  After 2 minutes, flip and cook for 2 minutes more.  I use tongs for handling near the hot oil.  When they’re done, set them aside on another plate (the fourth, unless you wash as you go like I do) with some paper towels to soak up the excess oil.  Salt to taste at this point.
7. It takes me 3 or 4 runs to get through all the chicken.  I usually have to add oil after each batch, and I try to make sure to scrape away any char from the previous batch.  If I had a deep fryer (or felt like setting up a big vat of oil), I’d definitely rather use that.  The chicken cutlets will cook more nicely and it’ll probably give that “Deli” vibe I’m after but can’t seem to get at home.

That’s that.  If they’re not overcooked, they’ll be moist and delicious.  They’re also great cold.  Nominally, a batch this size should last me 4 meals, but I have a tendancy to eat one every time I go near the kitchen, so…

Someday, I’ll keep going and make chicken parm, but these are so good on their own, it doesn’t seem worth the work.  I suppose if I ever get inspired to make 5 pounds at once, then I’ll make some chicken parm.  Perhaps we’ll revisit this.

Broiled Fish and Eggs Breakfast (4-star = Very Good Food)

Cook and prep time: 20 minutes

Care of the New York Times, here’s a recipe for an excellent weekend breakfast.  After skiing yesterday, sleeping for 10 hours, and having this (and an almond horn from Larsen’s), I feel pretty good.  I also need to get better at taking pictures of food if I’m gonna keep this blogging thing up…

Fish and Eggs a la Mike

a la Melissa Clark

Tools

• cast iron skillet
• cutting board
• knife
• spatula

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound rockfish (2 filets) (or any other cheap, fresh whitefish)
• 3 eggs
• 1 T butter
• scallions, chopped
• 2 T capers
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat skillet under broiler for 5 – 10 minutes until smoking hot.  While waiting, prepare the fish for cooking.  If it’s not super-fresh, rinse the fish and pat dry before prep.  Salt and pepper the fish.  Coarsely chop 3 or 4 scallions.
2. Place 1/4 T butter into the hot skillet.  Add fish to skillet with remaining 3/4 T butter sectioned and placed on top of the fish.  Broil fish for 2 minutes (8-10 mins per inch of thickness is a general rule).
3. After 2 minutes, crack three eggs over the fish and broil for 2 more minutes.
4. Plate, add in scallions and capers.  Break egg yolks over the fish to increase the decadence.

Update (January 12)

Pan frying over medium heat works just as well as broiling.  The only difference is the fish needs to be flipped halfway through, and the eggs should be cooked directly on the pan instead of over the fish.  They can be placed on the fish when plated with no noticeable difference.

Broiled Dry-Aged Ribeye (4-star = Very Good Food)

There are two reasons steak houses broil steaks: it’s quick and it creates awesome flavor. I dare say that I think broiling is better than grilling, at least in my hands.

Here’s my second ever home-broiled steak: a 16-oz Niman Ranch dry-aged ribeye I got for Christmas.

Results

Ribeye, pilaf, and Nathan's Duppelbock

Ready for your close up?

Came out pretty delicious, especially the little piece of crispy fat hanging off the edge, but cooking to uniform medium rare didn’t really work out. The steak is so thick (2″) that after browning, it was still raw inside. For those of you who wonder, “where are the vegetables?”, I ate a salad two hours later. I figure let’s not compete with the steak. The pilaf, eaten mostly after the meat, was great for mopping up.

What I did

1. Get steak to room temperature. Rub with olive oil and salt with kosher salt (about 1/2 t per side)
2. Following the guidelines from this website (Lindauer Farms) and previous experience, I placed Nathan’s well-seasoned cast iron skillet dry under the broiler for 10 minutes. Then, after everything was smoking hot, I broiled the steak for 3.5 minutes on each side. This creates excellent color and texture, but doesn’t go too far and burn anything.
3. For a 1″ steak, this is a sufficient amount of cooking, but for this 2″ behemoth, it wasn’t. It required about 10 more minutes in the oven, set to 500 degrees (but I doubt it ever got there). I took the steak out 5 times, cut gently once into the middle to see, meat thermometered it repeatedly until it got to around 120 degrees (not sure if I trust the thermometer), and finally took it out.

It came out quite good (the edges were so awesomely tasty; body under-salted a bit though), but was a little over-cooked in places, as is not obvious from the well-chosen pinup above.

Seeing as I’ve got another ribeye in the freezer, there will be a

Next time

1. Get steak to room temperature. Rub with olive oil and salt with kosher salt (about 1 t per side)
2. For a 2″ thick steak, bake in skillet for 10-15 minutes in a 300-degree oven to get the middle started (up to around 90-100 degrees).
3. Take steak out and tent under foil. Get broiler going.
4. Broil 3.5-4 minutes per side.
5. Enjoy.

The idea is to get the middle going first without worrying about the char. Then, broil it to beauty. Another, related idea is the slow pan cook of a thick steak presented here.

Update (January 11, 2009)

The “Next time” approach isn’t better! It’s still pretty damn good, but not better.  The steak came out a touch over-salted, the fat didn”t crisp up as nice, and the risk of burning during broiling is higher since the steak’s surface temperature is higher at the start.  Broil first, then nervously baking to completion is definitely preferable.

Fried Rice (3-star = Good Food)

Prep time: 12 minutes

My previous attempts at fried rice have been disappointing, but I’ve got 2 servings of leftover boring pilaf, so it was time to try again.  This time, success.

Tools

1. knife
2. cutting board
3. wooden spoon
4. 12″ frying pan (or something like that)

Ingredients

• old cooked rice (about 20 oz by volume == a good sized cereal bowl and change)
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 1/2 onion,  all veggies diced “White Castle”-sized (total, including what was in the pilaf already)
• 2 eggs
• a few tablespoons of sesame oil
• 1T (-ish) soy sauce
• 1t (-ish) black pepper
• (If you’ve got some sort of cured pork, toss that in too at the right stage, depending on if it’s cooked already or not)

Method

1. Finely dice the veggies so they soften quickly.  Smaller than 1/4″ a side is the goal.
2. Heat a splash of oil in a hot pan, then toss in the veggies to soften them for a few minutes. Season with pepper but leave out the salt since the soy sauce brings plenty.  Onions should just start to brown on the edges.
3. Push veggies to the side, mostly off the heat,  and add a few tablespoons of oil until the bottom of the pan is coated with about a 1/16″-thick layer.  Let oil heat for a few seconds (if the pan’s hot, that’s all it’ll take), and then crack two eggs onto the pan.
4. Working quickly, scramble the veggies into the eggs and dump in the rice.  Rapidly stir and fold, making sure to break up clumps.  Add about 1 T of soy sauce (or whatever gives some color and not too much saltiness), stir some more.  Toast for a minute or so, and serve.
5. As long as you don’t care if you warp your pan a little, run it under water while it’s still hot and wash it off with a little sponging.  A hot pan cleans effortlessly.

It came out good, touched up with a little soy sauce on the table.  It’s nowhere near as good as the goose fat fried rice I had in Hong Kong (for which I’ll forever be haunted), but it’s better than Panda Express.  Most importantly, this fried rice is a hell of a lot better than unimproved old rice, and it’s not that much work.