Penney’s Palate

As I was browsing the “Quick and Easy” section of Epicurious I came across this recipe. I thought to my self: “What, no way. This sounds like what I had at Fez (Le Club Fez, a local French/Moroccan restaurant). But this looks way too easy. Oh okay, I’ll try it, but I’m sure it is going to turn out bland and whatever else. There is no way that it is THIS easy to make this dish.” I think that it was in the quick and easy section because even though it has to cook for a few hours, there is only about 15 minutes of preparation before hand. I adjusted it based on the fact that the store only had Lamb legs instead of Lamb shoulder. And I didn’t have any ras-el-hanout, so I found this recipe. I have a “smidgen” measuring spoon, which is slightly smaller than 1/8 tsp, so I used that as my base and added the appropriate proportions of each ingredient. I also left out each ingredient that was already included in the lamb recipe, as I didn’t want to double up on any of the spices.

The result was good. So so good.

Ingredients
2 teaspoons ras-el-hanout
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
3 cups water
2 lb boneless lamb leg, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/4 cups raisins
1 1/4 cups whole blanched almonds
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation
Whisk together ras-el-hanout, salt, pepper, ginger, saffron, and 1 cup water in a 5-quart heavy pot. Stir in lamb, remaining 2 cups water, onion, garlic, cinnamon sticks, and butter and simmer, covered, until lamb is just tender, 1 1/2 hours.

Stir in raisins, almonds, honey, and ground cinnamon and simmer, covered, about 30 minutes more. Uncover pot and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until stew is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes more.

Serve over couscous

For the Roasted Chicken Challenge, Tommy and I started off with a 2.91 pound chicken from somewhere in Piedmont, NC. We decided to do the dry brine as Melanie’s recipe stated. We kept it in the refrigerator for about 7 hours before taking it out. Like Brian’s, it had turned a pinkish color. It looked kind of gross in my opinion, but I forged ahead. We oiled, sugared and peppered the outsides, and added some aromatics to the insides. The aromatics consisted of 1 shallot, 1/4 of a Gala Apple, 1 cinnamon stick, twig of rosemary and a twig of sage. It was baked breast side down for 25 minutes, then breast side up for about 20 minutes (we used our thermometer inserted in the thigh to tell us when the bird was done, which was 175 degrees later).

The end result was a very moist and flavorful chicken. Neither Tommy nor I are big fans of eating small birds from the bone, it just seems like so much effort for so little meat. But it was delicious, and WORLDS better than the rotisserie chickens you can buy from supermarket. I think that the type of chicken that we bought (free range chicken) contributed to its goodness and tastiness. Tommy also made a gravy with the drippings. MMMMMM tasty gravy it was. With only 2.91 pounds of chicken, there wasn’t much left, only about a cup of shredded chicken. We made Paninis with it a week later, which was the wrong choice. It would have been much better used in some chicken salad maybe.

One thing happened with the chicken that seemed a little odd. Tommy and I weren’t really sure of the exact location on the thigh to put the thermometer. We didn’t have much luck with thermometer placement when cooking our two Thanksgiving turkeys, so we weren’t sure how much faith to put in this thermometer placement. We were convinced that our chicken was done when it took about 20 minutes (with breast side up) to reach the 175 degrees. We were even happier when we began carving the chicken and saw that it seemed to be done. However, after turning the chicken around to start on the other side, it was revealed that the thigh piece was not done on the second side. Everything else seemed to be done. So we continued with the carving and threw in the un-finished thigh and remaining carcas back in the oven for 10 minutes, and began eating.

I would roast a chicken again. It was pretty easy but a little time consuming since you have to plan out when to brine it and when to be available when it is done brining. Next time I would be interested in roasting it in a pan with lots of vegetables like Will and Maggie suggested. I like roasted vegetables, and just thinking of the flavor that the vegetables will absorb makes me hungry even when I am full.

I was a little sick this week, so Wednesday I stayed home from work and rested up a bit. Since I was sick, of course I wanted soup. I don’t care for canned soup, and Tommy wasn’t available to make soup for me, so I picked an easy soup recipe that didn’t require much preparation. I browsed through my classic Italian cookbook and found a recipe for Lentil Soup. Having had lentils for the first time only last month and loving them, I decided that this soup was definitely the one. It is somewhere between a soup and an entrée though, because it has a lot of pasta in it. In the end, the pasta absorbs all of the liquid, making it not very soupy at all. But still very tasty, and a good hearty soup for someone feeling a bit under the weather. You can also adjust the liquid portion as well. The recipe called for 9 cups of chicken stock, but I felt that would be a little too strong for my tastes, so I used only 7 cups of stock and 2 cups of water. The lentils are very flavorful, so I think that you could even reduce the amount of chicken stock used even more. It depends on what your tastes are I suppose. I ate this for lunch, and then when Tommy came home, we made Paninis and had a bowl of the lentil soup with our Paninis. The original recipe calls for brown lentils, but I already had French green lentils, so that is what I used. I am anxious to use other lentils for cooking with to see how much of a difference each colored lentil is.

Lentil Soup

Ingredients
1 cup dried lentils (brown or green)
6 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery stalks
2 small carrots
7 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 sage leaf, chopped (or 1/8 tsp dried sage)
1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1/4 tsp dried thyme)
Salt and Pepper
2 1/2 cups small pasta (I used this mini-bow tie pasta, Orzo would work as well. Ditalini or Pastina would work best if you can find it where you live)

Preparation
Put lentils in a bowl and cover with cold water, soak for 2 hours. After lentils are done soaking, heat the oil in large pot. Add the onion and cook until it softens. Add the celery and carrots and cook for 5 more minutes. Add the lentils, chicken stock, water, and herbs. Bring the soup to a boil, then cook over moderate heat (a low boil) for 1 hour. Add salt and pepper if needed. Stir in the pasta and cook until the pasta is done (this is where most of the liquid in the soup will begin to disappear. Eat.

Our refrigerator was getting low on lunch-time leftovers, so last night I made a pan of baked ziti. Instead of my regular recipe, I chose to change it up a bit. I remember reading over a lasagna-style baked ziti in one of my recent Food & Wine magazines, so after a quick search, I had found what I had stored away in my distant memory. Of course, I made some modifications to the recipe based on what Tommy and I like in a baked ziti dish. It turned out to be a nice creamy alternative to the strictly tomato-based ziti that I have made in the past. The creaminess comes from a bechamel (which was pretty plain, I should add more cheese next time, and maybe some salt?).

Lasagna-Style Baked Ziti

Ingredients
3/4 lb ziti
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small to medium yellow onion, diced
1 lb hot Italian Sausage
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp. dried marjoram
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
Salt and Pepper
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup AP flour
2 cups whole milk
1 egg yolk
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and start a large pot of water on the stove (for the pasta). In a large skillet heat the olive oil, then add the onion and cook over medium heat until the onions are soft (about 4 minutes). Add the sausage and cook for 10 minutes or until beginning to brown (break up the clumps as it cooks). Remove from the heat and add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, marjoram, parsley, salt and pepper.

Once the sausage is added to the skillet, add the pasta to the boiling water (use cooking time on box), and start the bechamel: In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Whisk in the milk (it helps if the milk has been warmed instead of being cold) and cook over medium-high heat until the sauce is very thick and boiling, whisking constantly (about 5-7 minutes). Remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolk and cheese (and salt if needed). Stir all but 3/4 cup of the bechamel into the sausage/tomato mixture. Stir in the pasta to this mixture.

Pour the mixture (pasta, bechamel, sausage/tomato mixture) into an appropriately sized casserole dish (I used an 8.5 X 11 inch dish). Then spread the remaining bechamel over the top. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, preheat the broiler and broil the pasta for about 2 minutes, until the top has browned and is bubbly. Let rest 5-10 minutes before serving.

Today I made Amy’s Pulled Pork. Like all crock pot meals, it was easy. Pork, onion, garlic, bbq sauce, turn crock pot on, walk away. I took Amy’s recommendation to use a bbq sauce that I liked. That was a slight problem because I don’t really know what kind of bbq sauce I like. I decided just to browse Harris Teeter’s bbq sauce section and was very excited to find a Peppery Vinegar Eastern Carolina BBQ Sauce. I was very excited. Very, very excited.

It turned out pretty good. It wasn’t quite what you could get at Old Time, or Smithfields, but under the current circumstances of living in SC where they only make mustard-based bbq, it was a pretty good substitute. We ate it with corn on the cob and some corn bread. I’m not good at making cornbread, so I can’t write anything good about it. At least it was edible. I am looking forward to having the leftover bbq on a hamburger bun with some coleslaw tomorrow for lunch. Thanks Amy!

Today I made Amy’s Pulled Pork. Like all crock pot meals, it was easy. Pork, onion, garlic, bbq sauce, turn crock pot on, walk away. I took Amy’s recommendation to use a bbq sauce that I liked. That was a slight problem because I don’t really know what kind of bbq sauce I like. I decided just to browse Harris Teeter’s bbq sauce section and was very excited to find a Peppery Vinegar Eastern Carolina BBQ Sauce. I was very excited. Very, very excited.

It turned out pretty good. It wasn’t quite what you could get at Old Time, or Smithfields, but under the current circumstances of living in SC where they only make mustard-based bbq, it was a pretty good substitute. We ate it with corn on the cob and some corn bread. I’m not good at making cornbread, so I can’t write anything good about it. At least it was edible. I am looking forward to having the leftover bbq on a hamburger bun with some coleslaw tomorrow for lunch. Thanks Amy!

This recipe caught my eye because it was labeled as a quick and easy dish. I am always suspicious about quick and easy dishes, and even more so of quick and easy dishes that do not have a lot of ingredients. I am always concerned that it will be boring and bland. However, this dish was not boring or bland at all. It was quick, easy, and the ingredients were kept at a minimum. The hardest part of this recipe was finding pre-prepared gnocchi. The original recipe calls for dried gnocchi, but all I could find was a frozen bag of gnocchi at Whole Foods. It worked just fine. Tommy and I gobbled this up pretty fast. I think that this will be inserted into our weekly pasta/risotto rotation (usually we eat pasta with sauce or risotto at least once a week).

I am also beginning to like peas more and more in foods. I think that I still do not like the idea of eating peas by themselves, but they tasted great in this dish with everything else. My favorite part was the hint of lemon that seemed to be present in every bite.

Creamy Lemon Gnocchi

Ingredients
1 cup frozen baby peas
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes
1 garlic clove, smashed
Pinch of salt
3 cups packed baby spinach
Zest of one lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 pound gnocchi, frozen or dried
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Preparation
Simmer peas with cream, red-pepper flakes, garlic, and salt in a pan, covered, for 5 minutes. Add spinach and cook over medium-low heat, uncovered, stirring, until wilted. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and juice.

Meanwhile, cook gnocchi in a pot of boiling salted water (follow directions on package). Drain gnocchi and add to the cream and pea mixture. Add the cheese and stir to coat. Plate and eat.

It wasn’t very cold today, but I wanted to make soup anyway. Sundays seem like good days to make soup. I had a frozen ham bone in my freezer left over from our Thanksgiving Ham and I wanted to use it. Split pea soup it was. I had never eaten split pea soup, and I certainly didn’t know what was in it, besides, of course, split peas. Like most soups, it was simple to make. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of taste because in general, I don’t like peas. I found out that split peas don’t really taste like regular green peas. At least not when put in a soup with other flavorful things such as a hambone. I also had some frozen rolls in the freezer that I took out this afternoon to let them rise. Soup and rolls. That was our Superbowl Sunday dinner.

The soup turned out delicious. It was thicker than I expected, but I was okay with that. When browsing recipes for the soup, I noticed that very few recipes included potatoes. I ended up going with a recipe with potatoes, although I think that it would be just as fine without the potatoes. A lot of recipes also included cut up ham instead of a ham bone. I chose just to use the hambone. There were a few bits of ham that fell off of the ham bone, but most of the spoonfuls of soup were without ham. I also forgot to add the sherry at the end. I always forget stuff like that, or garnish at the very end. I took pictures but the soup looks very ugly. I didn’t want to gross anyone out or discourage anyone from trying the recipe based on the picture.

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups water
3/4 lb split green peas
2 sprigs thyme
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tsp tarragon
1 bay leaf
1 ham bone
4 small red potatoes
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 small carrot, diced
1 small celery stalk, diced
1 leek (white and light green parts), chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp Sherry

Preparation
Combine chicken stock, water and split peas in pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the thyme, parsley, tarragon, bay leaf, ham bone and potatoes. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and continue simmering for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Saute the onion, carrot, celery and leak in some olive oil. After the soup has simmered for an hour, add the sauteed mixture to the soup. Simmer for another 45 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and add the sherry just before serving.

This dinner was made possible through the joined efforts of both Tommy and myself. We knew we wanted to eat some fish, but we wanted to eat something more than just fish and rice, so Tommy started searching for a recipe that would be more fulfilling. It took him a few hours, but he finally settled on this one. We modified it a little based on what was available to us at the local fish market.

Overall, the fish was fresh, moist, meaty and flavorful. The fish, kale, and lentil mixture all complemented each other very well. This was the first time that I had eaten lentils too. If you haven’t eaten lentils before, you’re missing out! I LOVED them. Tommy would have preferred a little less mustard taste to the lentils, but I felt that there was just enough mustard. This was also the first time that we steamed fish. I think that it came out perfectly. This dish didn’t take very long to make either. Tommy made the fish and Kale, while I made the lentil mixture, set the table, and poured the wine.

Steamed Grouper with Lentils and Kale

Ingredients
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1 small stalk celery, diced
1/2 cup Beluga lentils, rinsed and picked over (green lentils will work just as well)
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs parsley
1 sprig thyme
1 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoons fresh ground white pepper
1/8 cup Dijon mustard
1/8 cup plus 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/8 cup diced red onion
1 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
1 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 (6-8 ounce) grouper fillets
1 bunch Kale

Preparation
In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoons of the olive oil and add the onion, carrot and celery. Saute the vegetables until just tender about, 4 minutes. Add the lentils, broth and herbs. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the white pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until lentils are just tender.

In a small bowl, combine the Dijon mustard with 1/8 cup of the balsamic vinegar, and 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Whisk until emulsified. Add the bell pepper, red onion, parsley, and green onions, and toss to combine. Add the dressing to the lentils, toss to combine. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Combine the remaining olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl. Brush the fish with the oil and vinegar mixture and season with the remaining teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper. Steam the fish until just cooked through.

Steam the Kale in a steamer, lightly season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Tommy and I had a double steamer, in which we steamed both the Kale and the fish. We started the fish on the top level of steamer. Half way through cooking, we added the Kale to the bottom level of the steamer. We steamed the fish for about 15 minutes, but the fish could have been cooked for probably 10 minutes, ours was a little overcooked.

The steamed fish, Kale, and lentil mixture should be done at about the same time. If this is not possible, make sure that the lentil mixture finishes first and can be kept warm while the fish and greens steam in the steamer.

We served the fish beside a bed of Kale with the lentils on top of the Kale. You could also put the fish on top of the lentils.

Tommy stumbled upon this recipe while he was in Italy for a summer. He made it in his cooking class, and carried the recipe all the way back with him over the Atlantic. It is a very simple recipe that doesn’t require much time or many ingredients. And it is full of flavor. We’ve had it a few times over the past few years. It sits a little heavy on the stomach, so if you’re looking for a lighter meal, this is not the one for you.

Walnut-Gorgonzola Penne

Ingredients
1 lb Penne Pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
4 thick slices of onion, chopped
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1.5 oz Gorgonzola cheese
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preparation
Boil some water and cook Penne according to directions on box.

Meanwhile, saute the oil and onion in a pan on medium-low heat until translucent (about 10 minutes). Add walnuts and saute for another 4 minutes. Add the Gorgonzola and let melt, about 2 minutes. Add the heavy cream and Vegetable Stock and increase heat to medium, cooking until creamy. Add the parsley, Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Add the drained pasta to the mixture and serve.