Recent cooking adventures: barbecue ribs, beer brats, homemade calzones, and penne carbonara

Just because I've been a bit neglectful of the blog doesn't mean I haven't been continuing to cook!

Take a peek at a few things I've been up to lately - beer brats last weekend, then a major cooking marathon of side-by-side barbecue ribs and homemade calzones, then last night's creamy carbonara:



Carbonara is one of the first dishes I learned how to make when I started cooking for myself sophomore year of college. I had never even heard of it, but read an article about Rachel Ray, and how it was a special meal for she and her husband. I loved how it was nicknamed "coal miner's pasta," and I decided to make it myself.

The worst screw up I have ever had cooking this dish was making the mistake of drinking some of the wine while cooking, then laying down on the couch while the bacon and garlic browned. Lesson learned: never walk away from the stove for a quick lie down. Especially not while you are an overworked college student.

I recently had a pasta special at the little cafe next door to my office that was called carbonara but was a really creamy sauce, almost as thick as alfredo.

I decided to try to incorporate a little of that creaminess into my dish this weekend.

Penne carbonara recipe:
(adapted from Rachel Ray)

1 lb pasta (I like rigatoni for this, you can use regular spaghetti. I used penne this weekend), cooked to just before al dente in salted water. Reserve 1 c of the pasta cooking water.
1/3 lb pancetta or about 8 slices of bacon
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp red chili flakes
1/2 c white wine, like pinot grigio
2 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 c heavy cream or half&half
3/4 c shredded or grated Parmesan cheese (can use a mix of Italian cheese)
handful of chopped parsley
black pepper

Fry bacon until not quite crisp. Remove from pan and chop roughly. Drain the fat from the pan. Reserve entirely if you have uses for it, otherwise keep just 1 TBS

Heat 1 TBS bacon fat over low heat, return bacon to the pan and stir in the garlic and red chili flakes. Saute about 2 mins (do not burn the garlic), then stir in the wine. Increase the heat and allow alcohol to evaporate. The liquid will reduce by about half. Turn off the heat.

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and yolks, then slowly stir in about 1/3 c of the pasta water to temper the eggs. Mix in the half&half (if using) and the cheese.

Slowly stir in the egg mixture into the pan sauce, then quickly toss in the pasta. Season liberally with freshly cracked black pepper and parsley.

And, if someone has a good way of reheating carbonara that *doesn't* cause the egg in the sauce to scramble, please let me know.

Dreaming? of my next Disney trip, in just one week!

Pitas, hummus, and falafel dinner - almost like New York

Sunday dinner (clockwise from the pitas): pitas, parmesan couscous salad, hummus (smaller red bowl) w/ paprika garnish, tzaiziki, tahini and falafel.

This was the first time I had ever worked with dried chickpeas, but found it to be just as easy as everyone else has said. I covered them with boiling water and kept them on low heat for a couple of hours. Had I planned far enough in advance, I could have used cold water and just left them over night.

I used half the chick peas to make hummus, which I made using homemade tahini for the first time. About halfway through, I found a full and unopened can of tahini in my fridge, but found I like the homemade version so much better. It's richer and nuttier and less oily. The food processor really was my kitchen workhorse for this meal - and because all of the flavors were blended together, I didn't bother to wash between making the tahini, hummus and falafel mixes. Here's the hummus spread on some bagel pieces:

Next, I rolled my pita dough and let them rise. They're so cute and fluffy.

I also made a tzaiziki sauce with yogurt, cucumbers and dill to serve with the falafel.

Jake caught some awesome light photographing the pitas while they cooled. We just used the grill pan (Jake acted as grill master while I rolled each little pita)

The falafel themselves were a mixed bag. I didn't take the time to chill the mixture as suggested, so they were fairly crumbly. After frying each side for a couple of minutes to brown, I popped them into the oven on a baking sheet for another 10 minutes. The second half of the dough went into the fridge over night, and I baked them for 12 minutes on each side the next day. They held up considerably better, and I was glad not to have all the oil fried into them.

The end result was not as exciting as it had been the weekend before at Karavas Place in Greenwich Village, but still tasty when paired with a couscous and avocado salad.

Recipes:

Hummus:
2 1/2 cups soaked chickpeas
3 cloves garlic
2-3 spoonfuls of tahini (homemade optional)
3 TBS olive oil
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
pinch of salt, to taste

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Squeeze a quarter lemon over (removing seeds) then combine again. Serve with a sprinkle of smoked paprika.


Pitas:
1 packet rapid rise yeast
1 TBS sugar
1 1/2 c warm water
(combine and leave in a warm place for up to 10 minutes until foamy and expanded)
4 c flour
2 TBS olive oil
pinch of salt

Mix yeast with flour and salt then drizzle olive oil. Knead until smooth and elasticky (I do this by hand). Invert a bowl over the dough and allow to rise for up to an hour.
Punch down, then knead briefly and shape into 12 balls. Cover with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise again until nearly doubled in size.
Roll balls until about six inches in diameter and thin. Grill over medium high heat until browned on both sides.
Serve warm.


Falafel
2 1/2 c of soaked chickpeas
1/2 a medium onion
3 TBS chopped cilantro
3 TBS chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
salt/pepper to taste
1 tsp baking powder
4 TBS flour

Combine all ingredients in food processor until coarsely chopped. Use hands to gently shape small golf-ball-sized balls, then flatten slightly.
Optional - fry on each side 3-5 minutes until browned
Transfer to a cookie sheet at bake 12-15 mins on each side at 300 F.
Serve with pitas, tahini, hummus and tzaiziki sauce.

Chicken! Inspired by curry

Ok, so this week's Serious Eats Weekend-Cook-and-Tell was based on curries. 

I was super excited, and by Friday I had my game plan. I consulted with a friend, Shruti (@inothernews), who, being Indian, I consider to be an expert of the curry realm. She gave me 2 awesome looking recipes for shrimp curry. I did a Google search, and found an Indian market a few blocks from my house.

It all went downhill when I headed out to the Indian market and found this: 

Where my market should have been: a Seven Eleven, a Greyhound bus station, and a Chinese restaurant. #Googlefail

I'd like to say that my friendly neighborhood Giant Foods came to the rescue, but let's not kid ourselves. I was able to pick up some mustard powder, but none of the other ingredients Shruti had directed me toward. 

So, back to the chicken. I had these chicken drumsticks I picked up last week at HMart. $7.50 for 18 drumsticks. Yes. I threw 8 of them into the crock pot with some stock and a hodge podge of spices: 8 cloves of garlic, ginger, a ton of kosher salt, white pepper, a sprinkling of garam marsala, some yellow curry powder I picked up from an Ethiopian place, and some chili powder. I let them go until the chicken was nearly falling off the bones. 

The chicken went into the oven at 325 to crisp up the skin, and in a sauce pan, I mixed 2 cups of the crock broth, about 1 1/2 c Greek yogurt and about 1 TBS cornstarch until a creamy, dark yellow sauce formed. 

I also made some rice - sushi rice was all I had in the house (and Giant wanted ridiculous amounts of money for a small sack of basmati), so I made rice with some more of the seasoned broth. 

You've already seen the results. It was delicious! But, sadly, I feel it's ingenuine to my friend - who tried to help my cause - and basically an insult to an entire culture to call my dish "curry." So - chicken and rice, inspired by curry. 

But, for next time, here's the recipe:

Shruti's shrimp curry

2 pounds shrimp, peeled deveined
2tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp pepper, crushed
10 karhi (curry) leaves (if you can get them)
1 tbsp lemon juice
vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, in slivers
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 tbsp paprika
3/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp turmeric (I saw fresh turmeric at my whole foods today!!)
3 hot chilis (less if spice averse)
14 oz of coconut milk.

1. heat few tbsp of oil, when hot, add the mustard seeds , when they are popping, add the curry leaves, if using. then add the onion and garlic, stir fry until lightly browned then add the ginger.
2. add 1 cup of water, turmeric, salt, chilis, coriander and pepper and paprika and cayenne and lemon juice and bring to a boil. simmer for 5 minutes.
3. add the shrimp stir around until they are opaque, stir in coconut milk. heat it through and serve!

dreaming? of *real* Indian food. I think I have a Groupon for an Indian place nearby! 

Knife School!

So last night I finally cashed in on my last Christmas gift from Jake: a knife skills course at Culinaerie, a local cooking school downtown.

I trussed and spatchcocked a chicken, then learned how to supreme an orange, and got complimented by the Chef as she walked by and saw my diced carrot (!) - though it was a bit uneven, it was much smaller and finer than the others around me. I also learned I hold my chef's knife a bit like a spaz and learned to get a bit more control on it. Nice -- sure that will come in handy long term!

What I learned most of all, is that I could not survive in a real chef's kitchen, or therefore, culinary school. I cook so much now, I have developed my own style for things, and am used to using my own tools and my own methods. I dice unevenly. This does not bother me. But my pieces, no matter how tiny, are uneven and would probably be trashed on the spot in a "real" kitchen.

The culinary arts intrigue me - especially after having read Julia Child's memoir, but I'm fairly certain that's not a path for me. I hope to continue taking "recreational" courses that focus on one skill or another, like the knife skills course, simply to learn from a real chef and boost my techniques.

Momofuku inspired ssam

Finally back to the cooking! I finally used a gift card from the end of my last internship and put it toward a big ticket item: the Momofuku cookbook. 

In truth, I've never eaten at a Momofuku restaurant. But after just an initial flip through of the book (which is full of recipes, and also the well-written back story of the chain), I think I'm going to have to make it a destination on my next NYC trip. 

I made ssam tonight - which is the feature of one of Chang's restaurants, and one of the items we made on the grill at mine and Jake's recent trip to Hee Been. Being, as previously discussed, one of the worst Korean's in the world, I couldn't actually explain the differences between bossam and ssamgyapsal - in my eyes, they are both sliced pork belly wrapped in lettuce leaves and served in doengjang or ssamjang and grilled garlic. The term "ssam," as best I know, simply returns to the "wrap" portion of the dish.

Following the direction from the Momofuku book, I prepared the sliced pork belly with salt and sugar. I gave it a few cracks of pepper for good measure.

Pork belly acts a bit like giant slices of bacon. It gets crackly and delicious when tossed on a screaming hot grill pan. The pork belly I bought came with the skin still on. I sliced it off, and threw it into the freezer with my many "for stock" odds and ends.

Most Korean restaurants serve thinly sliced raw garlic with their barbecue dishes. It can be a little intense, so it's common at table-top grilling places for people to throw the garlic on the griddle, like I did here. The garlic grills in the excess fat from the pork, and turns brown and sweet.

Ssam pork, grilled garlic, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste) and lettuce for wrapping. Layer everything inside the lettuce and pop it into your mouth! 

Dreaming? of my future meal-to-be at one of the Momofuku restaurants. 

PS - if anyone can actually explain the difference between bossam and ssamgyapsal, PLEASE do so in the comments! I'm dying to hear the truth on this! 

My kitchen wishlist

One month later, I'm all moved into a great new place, my new kitchen is set up, and I've been cooking like mad.

I haven't been spending as much time perusing the websites of William Sonoma or Crate and Barrel, because, well, I'm pretty much set! (sidenote: this was NOT necessarily the case during #snomageddon when I was literally running out of things to do)

But, the past week or so, I've noticed there *are* a few things I could do with.

So, here it is, my new Kitchen Wishlist:

• apron -- I keep cooking in old T shirts, all of which are now stained or oil splattered. It's becoming a nuisance, and wish I had an apron or two for clothing protection. Needs to be of durable material, so stains won't soak throw, and dark colors, so it doesn't get ruined the first time I use it. 
• Large, wide bowls. With the amount of mul naeng myun, and now pho, I eat at home, I need to stop eating of my mixing bowls (which, is too narrow, and I end up making a huge mess). I had some great ones (OK, they were plastic, but at least the correct shape) at my last place, from the dollar store, but I think they got thrown out. 
• Kitchen timer - I bought a $7 one at Target, and surprise surprise, it broke after about a week. Because my oven isn't that accurate, I just keep a close watch on things anyway, but it would be nice to know HOW LONG things have been cooking for.
• Sugar bowl - I love the tupperware set I have for storing flours, sugar and salt, but there is something that says to me "this is a home" when sugar can be stored in a beautiful little jar or bowl. My mother has a very distinct one, my grandmother has a very distinct one -- it's just something that feels important. And would be convenient. :) 
• Tiles - I recently saw a post about using simple tiles as a pizza stone and to moderate heat in your oven. My oven is notoriously bad for having even heating (as proved Sunday with burnt outsides and wobbly insides on my first attempt at pound cake). The concept of having an accurate and evenly heated oven sounds wonderful.

snOMG! snoMAGGEDON! snoPOCALYPSE!

So, as you may have heard, the entire Washington Metro has effectively shut down for fear of an apocalyptic snow storm that began midday yesterday.

 

My car, as of about noon, Saturday. 

Photo by Jake

Yes, we have about 20 inches of snow so far. What to do? Yes, that's right... cook. I joined the throngs of foolish idiots both Thursday night AND Friday morning and braved the markets - first to HMart (this was the weekend we were supposed to go), then to Giant. As a result of NWS and other "officials" making recommendations that people should prepare for up to 5 days, they of course, began ransacking the stores, stocking up like it was Y2K all over again.

First project: Homemade pho.

I've been on a major pho kick lately, and poor Jake (who does not believe "soup is a meal") has been a good sport, and been dragged from pho house to pho house over and over again.

So, I finally decided to try my hand at making it. I used two recipes as reference texts, one from Serious Eats, and one from Viet World Kitchen (at the recommendation of one of the commenters on the Serious Eats post). I didn't exactly stick to either recipe, and had somewhat mixed results.

First, I did follow the advice of @aqnguyen and charred the onion and ginger first. I'm not sure if this really helped for the ginger, but it sure smelled nice. Additionally, since I do not have a large 12-quart stock pot, I tried to use two small stock pots. But, I'm not sure I had enough bones, onions or ginger for this. My stock, after the initial 2-3 hours, was a bit watery.

The onions and garlic got added to 4 lbs of beef soup bones (as they were labeled at the HMart. Fairly cheap, not a bad buy. And the tendon meat that fell off these was out of this world) and a bunch of spices. Star anise, cinnamon, cloves, white pepper (my addition), crushed garlic cloves - skin still on, and fish sauce (I accidentally bought oyster sauce and substituted). I also had a half bunch of cilantro leftover from tacos, which I split, and tossed into each pot. I split these ingredients among the pots and covered each with water. After 3 hours, I tasted and, although my house smelled amazing, the broth was disappointingly watery.

The stock went back on for another two or so hours. I tried keeping the pots uncovered and at a high boil, in attempt to boil down the stock, and intensify the existing flavors. I also added some salt, and more oyster sauce. I tried transferring most of the bones and seasonings into one pot, to try and intensify the flavors, while allowing the other pot to boil down even further.

Finally, it tasted delicious. I pulled as much tendon and soft meat from the bones as I could. Loaded up my bowl with noodles, raw slices, the tendon...

Then ladled in the boiling broth, bean sprouts, cilantro, pepper slices and lime juice. YUM.

Was it perfect? Of course not. My broth is way darker than it's supposed to be. I strained it many many times, but I know there's still some stuff (broken bits of cinnamon stick, mostly) floating around. 

Was it delicious? Of course!! And it's amazing to have a big bowl of pho waiting for me at any time! I think if I were to make it again, I'd probably buy the soup bones, and boil them storebought stock (there's a good one I get for mul naengmyun that I like) with the spices in a satchet -- but probably not start entirely from scratch again. It took too long, and was kind of a pain! 

Dreaming? of a magically clean kitchen, so I can get to my next snOMG/snoMAGGEDON cooking adventure!!

Empanadas!!

Inspired by a post on Serious Eats today, I tried my hand at empanadas tonight. The recipe for the crust was quick and easy, and turned out to be the most impressive flaky pastry I've tried. 

The filling on SE was a bit less my style, however, as I don't eat raisins OR olives, so I put together a beef-corn-beans-cheese concoction that was equally yummy.

The dough, after scraping it out of the food processor. It's cream cheese based, and smells great. Knead it gently, wrap it up and chill for 30+ mins. I made the filling (ground beef, chopped onions, cilantro, homemade taco seasoning -- salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, chili powder, cumin -- corn, black beans, 2 c of cheese, 2 oz cream cheese) in a large skillet. We have a TON leftover.

When the dough comes out, fold it into a log, and slice into 10 even parts. Roll out about 4-5 inches in diameter. Fill with about 1/4 c taco mix, wet the edges, and fold over to seal. Press the edges down with a fork.

Some recipes call for baking, others call for frying the empanadas. I filled the baking sheet with ones for baking, then fried the last four. I also found the first two I made were too big, and the dough too thin. The warmth of the filling started to melt the dough (see the top two below). Brush with egg wash, prick with a fork to allow steam to escape. 20 mins @350F

While the first batch are in the oven, I heated a frying pan with oil and fried up the last four.

The result was a delicious meal with tons of leftovers! The fried ones, as expected, were hot, flaky and perfect. The baked ones became a little misshapen, but overall were not too bad. The crust does well both ways.

 

  

 

RECIPES:

From Serious Eats:

Cream Cheese Pastry

Ingredients

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling the dough
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Procedure

1. Process the butter, cream cheese, and cream in a food processor, electric mixer or by hand to thoroughly combine.

2. Add the flour and salt. Process until just combined and the dough holds together in a ball. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Divide into 2 pieces. Flatten into disks and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. If the dough is chilled overnight, take it out 15 minutes before rolling out.

Taco filling

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1/2 c diced onion

1/2 can corn

1/2 can black beans

1/3 c chopped cilantro

salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, chili powder, cumin (about 1-2 TBS total)

1 c monterrey jack cheese, shredded

1 c cheddar cheese, shredded

2 oz cream cheese

1. Brown beef in a skillet, add onion and cilantro and spices.
2. Drain and rinse corn, black beans. Mix in with the beef. 

3. Sprinkle with cheese and mix until thickened. 

4. Remove from heat, allow to cool before spooning into pastry rounds.

5. Bake empanadas for 20 minutes at 350 F or fry in shallow pan with oil

Homemade salsa

In a food processor, combine 1/2 bunch cilantro, 2 cloves garlic, 2-3 inch chunk of onion. Pulse until a paste forms. Pour in 2 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes (with juices), 1/2 TBS salt, 1/2 TBS sugar, 1 TBS white vinegar, 2-3 TBS chili oil (or use a a jalapeno). Process until smooth. Squeeze a lime into the salsa.

Three excellent new discoveries

So, I haven't used any of those other ingredients yet, but I tried some new things this week. 

First, shrimp was super cheap at the H-Mart, but I bought too much, and needed to use up the ones left over from the bok-choy dish. Easy: quick boiled these in some salted water and mixed up a quick sauce. 

Equal parts low-fat mayo, sriracha sauce, and horseradish (not the super strong prepared stuff in little jars, I used a sandwich spread). Delicious. No need to keep ketchup in the house for this one! 

Next, I finally learned how to fry tofu without having it all fall to pieces. I used the wok instead of a frying pan, which helped.

Slice firm tofu into 1 inch pieces, dredge in flour or pancake mix (I used some Korean pancake mix I had purchased a while back for making pajun - spring onion pancakes). Fry in small batches in about 1-2 inches oil over medium high heat.
Remove with a slotted spoon, salt if desired while still hot, drain on a paper towel.
These ones went into an amazing red curry (more on that later)

Finally, I took a trip to the Trader Joes near my office, and was able to pick up two things: frozen artichokes (which I can NEVER find anywhere else) and potato gnocchi.

Having never made gnocchi before this is what I came up with:
Boil 1 package gnocchi in salted water, then drain. Keep warm.
Saute 2-3 cloves garlic in olive oil, then add 3/4 package frozen artichokes. When artichokes have softened, add 1 large can of diced tomatoes (drained), 1 c chicken broth (or 1/2 broth, 1/2 white wine), and 2 large handfuls of baby spinach.
Stir in 2-4 TBS cream (optional) and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and shredded basil.

Ingredients I'd love to try

So, I'm feeling in a bit of a cooking rut. I've been making the same things over and over again, buying the same ingredients, and occasionally branching out into a new use of them.

Last year was a pretty good year for me, in terms of learning how to cook new things, and I'm hoping to push the envelope on that again this year.

Here's a short list of ingredients I'd like to learn how to use this year:
* fennel (confession: I don't actually know what this looks like, what it tastes like or if I will like it... But it appears in a number of interesting recipes I've seen lately!)
* greens that aren't spinach or arugula, ie: swiss chard and kale (same confession as the fennel)
* lemongrass -- used in Thai and Indian cooking, mostly, from what I can tell
* fish (OK, I *do* know how to cook fish... I just rarely do it, and even more rarely do anything interesting)

Any ideas or tips for these ingredients?  Would love to hear!

dreaming? of all the new things I might cook this year