Penne with Sausage and Red Pepper Sauce

I worked at home today because of icy roads in the morning, so I was around to throw together a quick dinner. People wanted pasta, so they got this:

• 2 hot Italian and 2 mild Italian sausage links, casings removed, broken up and then browned in a 5 qt dutch oven. Remove sausage to a bowl when browned.
• To the pan drippings (with a splash of olive oil), add 1 medium onion (1 inch strips), 4 cloves of garlic (minced), 2 red peppers (1 inch strips) and 12-15 crimini mushrooms (rough chopped) and saute over medium-high heat for a 8-10 minutes until softened and the onions have some color on them. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as a teaspoon of dried oregano as they cook.
• Add the sausage back into the pot along with two 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes.
• Depending on your heat tolerance, add as much crushed red pepper flakes as you want. I added about a teaspoon since the kids were eating this. If making for my wife and I, I would have doubled that.
• Simmer gently for at least a half hour (if time allows) to mellow the tomato out and blend the flavors. This can be simmered for as little as 10 minutes, but the tomato flavor will be sharper if cooked quickly.
• If fresh basil is available, I would chiffonade and add a nice small handful (maybe 1/2 cup) at the very end just before serving.

Serve over penne or any chunky shaped pasta.

This served our family of four with plenty of leftover sauce.

Mushroom Ragout for Pasta

Grace and I were hanging out in the basement the other day with Food Network on in the background, and Rachael Ray made a pasta sauce that was based on portabello mushrooms. I didn't catch the exact recipe, but that night Grace and I tried to come up with something that would be similar. This is what we tried (and it was fantastic over fettucine!).

Portabello chunks

• 6 thick slices smoky bacon, in 1/2 inch slices
• 5 large portabello mushroom caps, in 1 inch by 1/2 inch chunks
• olive oil
• salt
• 1 medium onion (1/2 inch dice)
• 4 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 tablespoon dried sage, rubbed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 cup hearty red wine (like a zinfandel)
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes (with juice)
• 28 oz can crushed tomato

Warm a pan on the stovetop that is large enough to hold everything (I use the trusty 7.25 quart Le Creuset). Add the bacon and cook over high heat until slightly crispy. Remove the bacon but leave the drippings. [Don't drain the bacon, you'll want the flavor]

Add the mushrooms, garlic, onion and a little olive oil and salt into the pan with the bacon drippings. Cook the mixture (medium high heat) until everything has softened, released much of its moisture, and cooked down somewhat.

Add the spices (sage, rosemary and basil) and the wine to the mushroom mixture. Cook for 5 minutes or so until the liquid has reduced somewhat.

Add the cooked bacon back into the pot, along with the diced and crushed tomatoes, and simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes until everything has incorporated nicely.

The result is a nice rustic mushroom ragout. Serve over any chunky shaped or flat pasta.

Kitchen Essentials, and Not

Shockingly enough, somebody actually read this blog and asked me "if you like to cook so much, what would be the top things you would want to have in your kitchen if you were starting from scratch?"

That's actually a fun question to think about, and without wracking my brain too much, and in no particular order, I would choose...

Lots of spices

1. A few good quality knives. You don't need too many, and quality over quantity definitely should be the rule here. Shun, Wusthof Trident, Henckels or the like. Large chef's knife, serrated bread knife, santuko, paring knife (perhaps). A long thin slicer is nice too, but the serrated knife can do that. Minimal number but high quality. I'd love to have a set of Japanese carbon steel crazy-expensive knives, but I've successfully lived without for this long...
2. Le Creuset 7.25 quart round french oven. This is a ceramic coated cast iron covered pot that I use for everything, as it looks nice, performs beautifully, and can go from stovetop to oven to table. Any kind of dish that simmers, braises, or starts on the stovetop and ends in the oven uses this pot. Indispensable.
3. A Cuisinart food processor. I don't bother to use mine as often as I should, but for certain things it can't be beat.
4. Calphalon pots and pans (the original anodized aluminum ones). Again, there are only 3 or 4 that I use often, and they need to be hand washed, but the heavy pans are so much better for controlling your heat. Worth the extra trouble. We finally gave away our other set of Revere Ware stainless steel that could go in the dishwasher, and once we cut that cord I have never regretted it.
5. All Clad stainless steel 12 inch skillet. Nice and big and heavy and not non-stick. Sometimes you need a pan that will sear differently than a non-stick.
6. 12 inch non-stick skillet. And sometimes you do want non-stick...
7. A gigantic stainless steel stockpot; 15 or 20 quart. If you have the impulse every now and then to cook a huge batch of chili or something similar, or you like to cook for a crowd sometimes, there is no substitute for this. I don't use mine all that often, but if you don't have one, you just can't do some things.
8. Kitchen Aid blender. A good quality heavyweight one. Some sauces and bases you just can't do properly without a good blender.
9. A good cutting board. We have a large hardwood Boos Block board that is easy on our knives (but we still use a plastic board for chicken and meats).
10. A well-stocked pantry. This is a big item (and perhaps the most important), obviously, but improvising a meal is much easier if you have a good supply of spices and other pantry staples. We have a pretty big pantry, and use most of what's in there regularly. Large spice selection. Canned goods. Pastas. Rices. Oils. Vinegars. Asian ingredients.
11. Edlund tongs. Various sizes. You can use these for everything.
12. Microplane zester/grater. Box graters stink. Bad blades and cannot clean them. Go with flat graters.
13. Instant read thermometer. We also have the fancy electronic probe thermometer with alarm, etc (which is useful), but this is all you really need.
14. Basic range of kitchen utensils - spoons, spatulas, ladles, etc. Basic but cannot do without. I prefer the hard plastic kind that won't scratch anything and can go in the dishwasher.
15. A roasting pan that can also go on the stovetop for making gravies out of pan drippings.

A well stocked pantry (plus too much other stuff)

This isn't a cheap list by any means, but is the kind of quality stuff that you can buy once (or only a few times) in a lifetime if you take good care of it.

Also, keep in mind that my kitchen interests run to cooking, and not baking. If I were a baker (like my wife), the number one item on the list might well be the big heavy Kitchen Aid mixer. It's a great piece of equipment to be sure, and it gets a ton of use in my house, just not by me...

Secondary list of fun and useful but certainly not necessary things:

• "Boat motor" immersion blender. Nice for making sauces and bases in the same pot you cooked the ingredients in. It dirties a lot less things when you can blend in place.
• Nice simple apple corer. You can do this with a knife, but why bother.
• A carbon steel wok. Now that we have a range that puts out enough BTU's to actually stir fry properly, we get a lot of use out of this.
• Breaking one of my own rules below about specialized items, there are some things that only serve one purpose, but are fun enough to be nice to have around. A paella pan. A fondue set. 

Conversely, there are a bunch of things that a kitchen doesn't need. Some of which would be...

• Almost all gadgets. As part of our kitchen remodel last year, we took a long hard look at all of the gadgets we had accumulated and realized that we have no use for most of them, and never ever use most of them. Many are gone (but some are cool enough to keep anyway...).
• Most electric things. Grab a knife or a whisk and do it yourself.
• Most items that serve only a single specialized purpose. If you check out my list of essentials above, you will see that most of them can serve many purposes. Anything that is good for only one thing is probably not useful enough to take up its storage space (with the above exceptions duly noted).

So, take it for what it's worth. Somewhat snobby to be sure, but if I were starting my kitchen again from scratch, and had the money to do so, this is the direction I would take.

Penne with Sausage and Artichokes

Today being the first day of a week-plus in vacation time over the Christmas holiday season, I had the time to try something different. Recipes from Giada De Laurentiis have always been reliably good in the past, so I picked up her Family Dinners cookbook, flipped through it, and found a recipe that looked to be worth trying. We have in-laws coming to stay for the next few days, so an easy dinner that could be thrown together fairly quickly was exactly what I needed. Penne with Sausage, Artichokes, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (page 147) fit the bill nicely. Prep was minimal, the recipe was quick and easy to follow, and it turned out to be a fantastic meal.

Simmering a sauce of chicken broth, white wine, garlic, artichoke hearts, and sun-dried tomatoes.

Adding the cooked hot Italian sausage chunks and penne pasta...

This was a quick dinner that everyone absolutely loved. The pasta was good, and the sausage and other ingredients made a wonderful rich sauce that would have been good for a much more substantial investment in time or ingredients. Everyone agreed that this recipe was an absolute keeper, and well worth making again. We had it with a simple caesar salad, a good crusty bread, and a nice Mirassou Pinot Noir.

A very good start to my holiday time off...

Moroccan Chick Pea side dish

The Wife and I went to The Gables in Chadds Ford recently for our 22nd anniversary, and I had an absolutely amazing lamb dish; loin of lamb over a bed of chick peas. The dish was clearly north African in influence, with a highly seasoned loin of lamb complemented beautifully by the creamy chick pea side dish. Ever since, I have been wanting to try to recreate the chick pea dish, and tonight I had the chance to make a first attempt at it.

Here is what I tried, out of pure guesswork (chick peas are pretty dense and would need to be cooked for a pretty long time to soften them up the way I wanted them):

• 2 cans of garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained and put into a medium sized heavy sauce pan.
• chicken stock to cover, plus about a half inch.
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• about a half teaspoon each of ground cumin and ground coriander.
• about a quarter teaspoon of turmeric for color.
• half of a red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch very thin strips.

This was brought to a boil and then reduced to a gentle simmer (mostly covered) for about 45 minutes. At the end of the first simmer I added:

• about a teaspoon of salt.
• 8 pitted green oil cured olives, sliced into chunks.
• a pinch of chipotle chili powder.
• some water to bring the pan back to covered.

This was then covered and simmered for another half hour. It was then served with a mustard grilled pork loin, and was a pretty good approximation of the dish I was trying to recreate. Next time around I will cook this very much like this, but will season it a little more. It could use a little more cumin, a little more garlic, and a little more green olive (cut into pieces of maybe 1/6 of an olive instead of chunked up smaller).

This would be a good legume side dish served with lamb, pork, or chicken.

Indian Menu

Everyone in our circle seems to like Indian food, so tonight while the in-laws are here, an Indian dinner has been requested. I am putting together the following:

Chicken Tikka Masala from More Best Recipes (2009, by the editors of Cook's Illustrated). Raita (cucumber yogurt salad) from Mangoes and Curry Leaves (2005) by Alford and Duguid, Chana Dal (yellow lentils) from Indian Cooking (1982, US 1995 revised edition) by Madhur Jaffrey, and the ubiquitous white rice.

Each of the recipes is fairly simple, but take a little time to put together. From my limited experience, this is generally true of Indian food - it isn't difficult, but it isn't quick. I don't consider this an issue, as in the hustle and bustle of a busy life, a weekend afternoon spent putting together a more involved meal is a nice change of pace from my day job.

The Tikka Masala is fairly simple Indian spiced chicken recipe, with the chicken dry-rubbed and then marinated in a yogurt and garlic mixture. I grill the chicken separately, then chunk it up and put it into the sauce at the last minute. The sauce is cream, tomato puree and more spices. It's not a difficult recipe at all, it just isn't something you can throw together at the last minute. The end result is creamy, rich and exotic. The raita is a classic cucumber, yogurt and cilantro side dish that is the perfect cool and creamy complement to the layered spice flavors of the primary dishes. I cannot imagine having an Indian dinner and not having this side dish. Dal, or lentils, can be prepared in a whole bunch of different ways. This recipe is a pretty basic "season and simmer" recipe. Lentils, for those not familiar with them, have texture and flavor similar to a split pea. Not something I would have liked in my younger days, but an older more... well travelled (?)... palette can appreciate them now. This is another basic side dish that we seem to make any time we cook Indian now.

Work - Fiddly. Lots of measuring and chopping and things to remember to do well ahead of time.
Time - Low rating. Indian isn't something that happens quickly. There is seasoning, and marinating, and prepping, and measuring lots of spices... It's good but not simple.
Clean Up - Lots of cleanup. I find that a whole Indian meal uses lots of mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons, etc.
Rating - Very very good meal. But quality comes at a price in this instance in terms of effort involved and all the little things that need to be done to make a whole Indian meal (at least to those of us who don't truly know what we are doing). I can't recommend the output highly enough, but at my level of experience there is an investment involved in getting to the result. Worth it though... For a relaxing part of an afternoon on a weekend day, leisurely making a menu like this isn't something you could do every day, but every now and then it is well worth it.

Asian Sirloin of Beef

Asian Sirloin of Beef over Spinach

We made a staple dish in our household again recently, so it's worth noting here. I am a big fan of Jamie Oliver, as I find his recipes to be straightforward, delicious, and very hard to mess up. Between us and our neighbor buddies, we have made many things out of a variety of his cookbooks, and they are almost always infallibly terrific.

The specific recipe in question is "Sirloin of Beef with Bok Choy, Soy Sauce and Ginger" from page 51 of Happy Days with the Naked Chef. In summary, it's an asian sauced steak over a bed of bok choy. We serve it with plain white rice (although around here we serve practically anything and everything with white rice). It's a family favorite that everyone loves and is very simple and quick to make, making it a perfect weeknight dinner. We make the recipe pretty much by the book, generally using a grilled london broil but sometimes real steaks, and generally substituting garlic wilted spinach when good bok choy is not available. Quick, easy, and delicious. Over the last couple of years, it's probably been one of our most frequently made recipes.

Work - Very low. Mincing a chili pepper and grating some fresh ginger. That's about it.
Time - Under a half hour, with no prep-ahead needed. You need to grill/broil the beef and do a tiny bit of chopping and mixing for the sauce. The sauce can be made while the beef grills. The veggie can be wilted while the meat rests.
Cleanup - Very little, because you aren't using many items. If you can grill the meat outside (as is preferable), even better.
Rating - 8 out of 10 for taste and simplicity. A true go-to recipe.