What's for Dinner? - Baked Salmon

The rest of the gang is doing their own thing at the moment, and I feel like writing something...so...what was for dinner?

We have been making a lot of recipes from Giada at Home by Giada di Laurentiis since getting it for Christmas, but tonight we went back to an old favorite; Jacques Pepin's Oven-baked Salmon with sun-dried tomato and salsa mayonnaise. The recipe is on page 118-119 of Fast Food My Way (Houghton Mifflin, 2004). Pepin is one of my culinary heroes, and this book is full of easy to prepare meals that we come back to time after time.

2 pound Salmon filet, oiled and seasoned

Everyone in my family loves salmon, and we generally make it one of three ways - on the grill with a hoisin glaze, grilled (plain) with a tomato, green onion and caper relish, or this way. Given that we got another 3 inches of snow between 10am and 3pm today, and that there is now well over a foot of accumulated snow between me and the grill....

Macadamia and bread crumbs

Pepin's recipe coats a (large) salmon filet with a macadamia nut breading and then bakes it in the oven (we go very heavy on the breading). While it is baking, a sun-dried tomato salsa mayonnaise is made using simple store-bought ingredients that combine to make a fantastic sauce to accompany the fish.

Ready for the oven

We served it tonight with an olive oil and roasted garlic couscous and garlic wilted spinach. And a Jacob's Creek 2012 Adelaide Hills reserve Chardonnay. Jacob's Creek is a huge output wine factory, but a good quality one, and this particular Chardonnay is an excellent value.

Done...

Pepin is a brilliant chef (his Techniques book is a chef-wanna-be must have), and this is a fantastic recipe that requires almost no prep, no fuss, has a very short cooking time, and creates a special occasion worthy end result.

So that was what was for dinner...

Sausage and White Bean Cassoulet

This might be my favorite recipe of all time, and is one of the best loved recipes of my family (and friends). A real cassoulet, a peasant dish of southwest France, is potentially days in the making and has all sorts of not-readily-available-in-America ingredients (in terms of animal parts). This recipe, from the long-ago March 1999 Bon Appetit (page 177), is a wonderful shortcut version that is not at all difficult to make, and doesn't take forever.

End result (no bread cubes and un-garnished)

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs pre-cooked smoked sausages, sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch discs or semi-circles. I typically use Hillshire Farms beef smoked sausage and kielbasa.
• 4 large leeks, white and light green parts, thinly sliced.
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped.
• 1 medium apple, peeled and chopped. I use a Granny Smith or similar, as the firmer texture of a "baking" apple holds up better to cooking.
• 1 TB chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 tsp dried).
• 1.5 tsp dried sage.
• 1/2 cup brandy. I generally use a Cognac, although an Armagnac or a Calvados (apple brandy) from Normandy is terrific because of the apple tie-in.
• 28 oz canned diced tomatoes (1 large or two regular cans).
• 45 oz canned white beans, drained and rinsed (3 regular cans cannelini or Great Northern).
• 10 oz frozen baby lima beans.
• 2 cups chicken broth (maybe more...needs to cover the other ingredients in the pot in step 6).
• 3 TB tomato paste.
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves.
• 4 cups diced country style crusty bread, cut into crouton-sized cubes, and a little olive oil. (optional)
• chopped fresh parsley to garnish at the end (optional).

Equipment:

• A large dutch oven or equivalent stove top and oven safe pot.
• A non-stick skillet (only if doing step 8, making croutons).
• A knife.
• A can opener.
• Something to stir with. Pretty simple.

At end of step 4

The recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit).
2. Saute the sausage in the pot over high heat until lightly browned, stirring periodically (perhaps 7-8 minutes).
3. Reduce to medium high heat, add leeks and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or so until softened.
4. Add the apple, rosemary and sage. Stir to combine and cook for a minute.
5. Add the brandy, stir, and simmer 5 minutes. [This is the step at which to inhale deeply and enjoy...]
6. Add the diced tomatoes, rinsed white beans, frozen lima beans, broth, tomato paste and cloves. Season with a little fresh black pepper. Stir to combine (and mix in the big lump of tomato paste). Bring to a boil. [Make sure you are using enough chicken broth to at least mostly cover the other ingredients - see my picture below]
7. Cover, transfer to oven, and bake for 30 minutes.
8. (optional) Meanwhile, cube the bread and saute in a little olive oil to make semi-crispy bread cubes.
9. After 30 minutes of baking, remove the lid from the pot. If doing the optional bread cubes bit (step 8), spread the crispy bread cubes over the top of the cassoulet at this point. Bake uncovered another 15 minutes for a total baking time of 45 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven, garnish if you wish, and serve. Crusty bread and a simple salad are all you need (if anything). And perhaps a nice Cotes du Rhone, Australian shiraz, or similar spicy red...

At step 6

Total cooking time is approximately an hour and ten minutes, and requires very little other than some chopping and stirring. Anyone can make this dish, and the results are amazing. While it may not be authentic in the sense of true rustic French country cooking, it hits the right notes and is evocative of its inspiration.

For comparison, I have pulled Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France (John Wiley and Sons, revised edition, 2005) off the bookshelf. "Cassoulet in the Style of Toulouse" (p. 317) includes as ingredients pork shoulder, ham hocks (or pigs' knuckles), pork skin with hard fat attached, confit (or rendered duck fat), salt pork, sausages, duck legs, etc, etc, etc... Step one of the recipe begins "Two days in advance, season the pork shoulder...". And goes on from there. While this is a fascinating read (as is the whole book), I don't find myself saying "I can do that", or even really wanting to for that matter.

Try this recipe, you'll be glad you did.

Staub Grill Pan

Sometimes a nice little unexpected thing comes along that makes your day. This was one of those.

A few days ago, Amp mentioned that she had been in a Home Goods store and had seen a nice heavy cast iron grill pan that she liked, but it cost something like $50 so she didn't get it. We have been periodically thinking about getting one, since we now have a hood over the stove that can vent properly unlike in the old kitchen. She said it was made by "Steuben, or something like that". I asked if she meant Staub. She said yes, it might have been Staub.

Staub is a very good name manufacturer of cast iron and enameled cookware, much like Le Creuset (the LC dutch oven that we have is my favorite cooking thing). They are high end and expensive. We searched online, found that it was in fact a Staub pan that she had seen, and that it was a current model that was listed on the Williams Sonoma website for $239.

Staub grill pan

She went back the next day, had a choice of red, green or blue (she chose blue), and picked one up for $65. We've already used it a couple times (including the inaugural pork chops above) and love it. It is somewhat non-stick and will season over time, is very heavy so it heats well (and evenly), and does give food that proper grill flavor. Love it!

Vegetable Minestrone Soup

Vegetable Minestrone

'Tis the season to be cooking. With the holiday season upon us and the prospect of many heavy meals to come, we thought it would be nice to whip up a batch of soup to serve as the basis for some lighter meals in and around the red meat fest set to commence shortly...

The basis of this was a Giada di Laurentiis recipe on a Food Network show we saw recently, but we made it from memory, and so I am not sure how closely what we made mirrors her recipe, but it is somewhat close.

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots, medium dice
• 3 ribs celery, medium dice
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled, medium dice
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
• 2 cans (15 oz each) cannelini (white kidney) or great northern (white) beans, drained and split out as noted below
• 1 medium plastic clam-shell package of "Power greens" (mix of spinach, chard and kale I think...)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried crushed rosemary
• 1/4 cup shredded parmesan, or a chunk of parmesan rind
• Beef stock (one of the larger box cartons plus a little more)

The carrots, celery, potatoes and garlic are sweated in some olive oil in a large dutch oven (we used a big Le Creuset enamled cast iron one...my favorite pot).

While the veggies sweat, put about 2/3 of one can of white beans into a blender or food processor along with a cup or so of beef broth and puree them together. When then veggies are done sweating, add the diced tomatoes, the puree'd bean/broth mixture and the remaining white beans to the pot. Add the power greens (spinach/chard/kale), the thyme and rosemary and cover with beef stock. Simmer for 40 minutes or so. If you have a chunk of parmesan rind, add it prior to the simmering, it using shredded parmesan, hold off for now. The parmesan rind is really nice if you have it; it adds a richness and depth beyond what a simple sprinkling of shredded cheese will do (and it's the part of the cheese you can't really eat anyway...). It also adds some saltiness, so let it all cook out before checking for salt near the end.

At the end of 40 minutes, if using shredded parm, add it now and simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Total simmer time is close to an hour, although this is probably longer than you really need to cook the vegetables to doneness.

Test for salt and pepper, seasoning more if needed. Simmer a few more minutes and serve. (Because the carrots float more readily than some of the other veggies, the picture is a little misleading in making it look like chunky carrot soup...).

Beef Stew

We have tried a number of different beef stew recipes over the years, and while some have been good and some have been not so good, we hadn't yet found one that really jumped out as the keeper for this dish. Until now.

Veggies, sauce base, and browned beef

As we continue to make recipes from Grace's subscription to the Food Network Magazine, we noticed a good looking beef stew recipe in the November 2013 issue (p. 210). We made it, and it was fantastic. Since it is readily available for free online (see link above), properly credited, I will repeat it in short form here. The recipe is fairly simple but cooks for a long time.

Ingredients:

• 6 TB olive oil
• 3 lbs beef chuck in 1 inch pieces
• 4 carrots, 1 roughly chopped and 3 in half inch rounds
• 4 stalks celery, 1 roughly chopped and 3 in half inch pieces
• 1 onion roughly chopped
• 1 TB tomato paste
• 1 cup hearty red wine (I used an old vines Cotes du Rhone)
• 2 quarts beef stock
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1.25 lbs russet potatoes, in chunks
• 1 lb mixed mushrooms (cremini, shitake, oyster etc)
• 4 TB unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• chopped fresh parsley

Wine..some for stew, some for me

The meat is salt and peppered then browned in batches. Then the roughly chopped part of the carrot, celery and onion is put in the pot to soften. The tomato paste is added, then the wine. When boiling, the beef and stock and thyme are added to the pot. This is then simmered on low for about two hours to cook the beef to meltingly tender.

After this, they say to strain the beef and veggies into a colander, reserving the cooking liquid. The remaining veggies are then cooked in the liquid for 20 minutes or so. We cheated and simply added the veggies to the pot and simmered for another 20 minutes. Do what we did; you'll never notice the difference. Meanwhile, saute the mushrooms in a skillet for 10 minutes or so, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Lastly, make a blonde roux with the flour and butter, and whisk some of the cooking liquid into the roux. When incorporated, add the roux into the stew, stirring to distribute it. Add the cooked mushrooms. Simmer another 5 minutes or so to thicken the sauce and you are done. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.

Lots of mushrooms

We had this with a nice crusty bread, a simple salad, and the remainder of the bottle of wine used for cooking. And maybe another bottle.

Finished Product

Prep time is maybe a half hour, but total cooking time is around 3 hours, so while this is not a difficult or overly fiddly recipe, it does take a good amount of time. It is well worth the effort. The assorted mushrooms really make a big difference in this richness of the overall flavor. Highly recommended.

White Chicken Chili

Another favorite kids' recipe is White Chicken Chili (p. 365, More Best Recipes, America's Test Kitchen, 2009). I generally make this on a weekend so that we can have leftovers for the work/school week ahead.

The recipe calls for browning chicken pieces, then making a thin salsa-like mixture of onions and different varieties of green chili peppers in a blender or food processor. The blender mixture goes back in the pot with more minced chilis, cumin, coriander and garlic.

Chili and onion base cooking down

This cooks for a while, then some of it goes back in the blender with some white beans, and gets pulsed again to break down the beans. This will help thicken the sauce so you don't end up with soup. The vegetable-bean mixture goes back in to the pot with stock, more whole white beans and the chicken to simmer until done. In the version in the picture I added a diced red bell pepper to add a splash of color.

Final simmering

Total cooking time is close to an hour and a half, but much of that time is different phases of simmering. As far as work goes, there is a decent bit of chopping, and there are a couple of different uses of the blender. It's not a difficult recipe by any means, but does require your attention for good portions of the cooking time. The spiciness can be adjusted depending on the types of green chilis you use. The dish can be garnished the same way you would for a beef chili: green onions, shredded cheese, sour cream, sliced jalapenos, etc.

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving was at our house this year, with Mom and Chris, Dave, Lori, Sarah, Greta and Hailey joining us for a late afternoon dinner.

Grace has been enjoying her subscription to the Food Network Magazine this year, and the November issue was loaded with good looking recipes. We like to try different things as much as possible for most of the side dishes, so we ended up selecting about half the dinner out of that one magazine.

The Meal:

• Turkey - A 22 pound Butterball fresh turkey simply roasted with salt, pepper, butter and oil in a Reynolds oven baking bag. Honestly, I hate cooking turkeys and want as little to do with them as possible. The bag cooking is a no-brainer and leaves the turkey almost infallibly moist and juicy.
• Gravy - Simple pan dripping gravy (with Heinz jar backup)
• Cranberry sauce - Cranberry Relish, Jasper White's Cooking From New England (HarperPerennial, 1989), page 341. I have been making this every time we have made Thanksgiving dinner for as long as I can remember. Sugar (caramelised), cranberries, orange, lemon and ginger. Best made the day before.
• Stuffing - Bobby Flay's Wild Mushroom Bacon Sourdough Dressing. November 2013 Food Network Magazine, page 165. We try a new stuffing recipe most years, and this was perhaps my favorite in recent years.
• Sweet potatoes - Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Bananas with Honey. November 2013 Food Network Magazine, page 157.
• Roasted Potatoes with Sage. Recipe #47 in the "50 Side Dishes" insert booklet of the November 2013 Food Network Magazine. This is a four sentence recipe that couldn't possibly be easier.
• Peas and Corn.

Everything came out well, with surprisingly little last-minute-scramble. It was nice to have everyone together for the holiday. The only down side was that Mom ended the evening not feeling very well and that cut the day short. She's doing fine now, which is terrific, but it did call a fairly abrupt end to the evening (for my side of the family). As the crowd was getting ready to leave, Amparo's sister and her family arrived for round two, and to stay for the weekend. It's very nice to have a bunch of family in the house.