Brined pork shoulder

Ingredients:

1/2c salt

1/2c sugar

Pork shoulder, preferably skin on and bone in

Mix the salt and sugar. Rub all over pork shoulder. Let sit in the fridge at least over night, preferably 24h. 

Drain liquid from pan and rinse out. Replace pork shoulder in pan, skin side up, put in oven at 250*f. 

Cook 8 hours. 

Remove from oven and try to at least remove it from the pan before eating the whole thing. 

From Momofuku by the amazingly talented David Chang

Potato Boulangere

Ingredients:

3 small russet potatoes

2 small yellow onions

2 tbsp butter 

2 tbsp olive oil, plus some for oiling the pan. 

Salt

Pepper

Adapted for two people from The James Beard Foundation

Preheat oven to 375*F. 

Oil a small 4” dish. 

Thinly slice your onions and potatoes. If you have a mandolin, that’s the best way to do it, but watch out for your fingertips! I used a knife because our mandolin is MIA. 

Cook the onions with the butter and olive oil until they’re soft and golden. I didn’t know exactly when this was, but stopped when it was about here. 

Start with a layer of potatoes until you can’t see the bottom of your dish. Add a layer of onion and some salt and pepper. Keep going until you’re out of potatoes and onions or until you have the stack as tall as you want it. 

Add water to the dish until the top layer of potatoes are just covered. (All the way up over the top layer. I didn’t do this and the top layer dried out and were sad.)

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are all the way soft. (For me, that was actually about an hour.) Then serve. 

Peruvian Ceviche

From Ceviche by Martin Morales

Ingredients

8 limes

1/2in fresh ginger

2 tsp amarillo chili paste

1/2 tsp salt

1lb fresh fish (original calls for sea bass, I get whatever the fishmonger says is freshest for ceviche)

1/2 large red onion, very thinly sliced

1 sweet potato, baked, peeled, and cubed 

1 clove garlic, minced

1 habanero, minced

Bake your sweet potato until soft. Remove from oven and cool, then peel off skin and cube into 1/2”-1” cubes. Set aside for now. 

Thinly slice the red onion. Let sit in bowl of ice water for 10 mins to remove some of the bite. Again, super important. Don’t skip. Drain and dry the onion. 

Mix the lime juice and sliced ginger, let sit together for 10mins. Remove and discard ginger. Add 2 tsp Amarillo chili paste. This really makes the dish, do not skip it. 

Cube the raw fish into relatively same size as sweet potato chunks. Add garlic, onion, habanero, sweet potato to fish cubes. Pour lime juice mixture over the top, and stir all together to mix. Let stand 2-4 minutes. You will see the fish change colors as though it’s been cooked because now it has been. (If you like cilantro, which I do not, this is where you would toss in some chopped cilantro.)

Enjoy with corn chips or straight out of the bowl. Very refreshing! 

Sourdough country white loaf

Ingredients:

65g bubbly starter

300g warm water

12g white sugar

15g melted butter

500g flour

9g salt

Oil to coat the pan

From Artisan Sourdough Made Easy which is super awesome, even if you’re just getting into making bread. 

Using your scale, add all ingredients to a large bowl. Usually I mix the starter and the water together before adding the other ingredients, but that’s your call. 

Mix with your hands. It’s fun! Or, if you have kids, I bet they would love this part. (Wash your hands first, everybody!!!)

A loose dough will begin to form in the bowl. Some parts will be really wet. Other parts will be ashy. It’s your job to combine the two. It will look like this. 

When the ashy bits are mostly gone, your dough will look like this. 

Cover it with a damp towel (not Saran Wrap, not the glass top that normally goes on my now-bread-mixing-bowl-formerly-casserole-dish) because it needs to breathe, and leave it alone for an hour.

After it rests for a while (it doesn’t have to be a hard and fast hour - when ever you walk by and remember works), remove the dough from the bowl. 

It will probably look something like this. 

I use a pull and twist method to stretch it out and build up the gluten. Stretchy dough = happy gluten. What I do looks sort of like this, but do whatever you want. Slap that bad boy on the counter and knead if that’s your thing, but really this should take maybe 30 seconds. A minute at most.

 

Here you can see I’m literally just wrapping it around my fingers. 

Then pulling it off my fingers.

And smooshing it into a ball shape. 

Tada! Ball. Sort of. 

Ball in bowl. Cover back up with your beloved damp (yes, keep it damp!) towel. 

Do this every few hours/as you remember to or walk by. The dough will spread out in the bowl. Sometimes it doesn’t want to come out of the bowl. This is normal. 

At this point you’re probably close to going to bed. It’s been about 3-4 hours since you started the loaf. Cover it with your damp towel and either leave it on the counter overnight or in the fridge. Both work. 

Now it’s the next morning! Hooray! Time to stretch and fold the dough again while you wait for your coffee. 

Good morning, dough. You sure puffed up a lot. 

It might look like it’s screaming underneath. That’s ok. Stretch and fold!

Another hour or so later, take the dough and plop it onto a floured surface. Then dimple it with your fingers to get all the air bubbles out. Fun fact! You get to go this with focaccia also!

Then fold it in half hot-dog way, nestle your hands behind it and pull it towards you in a sort of rolling motion to make a dough-log. 

When the dough-log looks smooth-ish, tuck the ends underneath and go oil up your baking dish. 

Now we wait for it to rise about an inch above the top of the dish. Usually it takes 3-4 hours. Mine took forever today because it was cold in my house. Your mileage may vary. The pic above was at 9:30ish am. The one below is at freaking 3:30pm. I gave up waiting. That’s ok. We aren’t in GBBS and Paul Hollywood isn’t coming to my house to critique my bakes. Sadly. Pop this bad boy into a preheated 375* oven for 40-45 mins. 

See you in 40 mins bread! 

Damn, I wish I had a window in my oven door. 

When your alarm goes off, open the door and we see what we see. This is my loaf. Not perfect but tasty! 

Wait about 10 mins and slide that sucker out of the pan. 

Even if yours doesn’t look fancy, if it tastes good, that’s what matters. I once made a loaf that came out looking like a doughnut. Not sure what happened. Ate it anyway. 

Happy loaves to you all!

Pan steak and green peppercorn sauce

Ingredients:

8 oz steak

1 tbsp oil

Salt and pepper

Small shallot, minced fine 

1/2 c brandy

1/4 c cream

1/4 tsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp green peppercorns 

1/4 tsp thyme

Salt to taste

Put the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Pt steaks dry and season liberally with salt and pepper. Put steak in pan and cook without moving/touching for 4 mins per side. (Rare. For medium do 5-6 mins.) move steak to plate to rest. 

Add shallot to pan the steak was just in until browned. Add the brandy and milk, until simmering, stirring constantly to get up all the browned steak-bits. Reduce heat to simmer, add in vinegar, any drippings from the resting steak, peppercorns, and thyme. Stir until sauce coats the back of the spoon. Add to steak and enjoy. 

Spanish red onion and orange salad

Welcome back to my food blog. It’s been a hot minute. 

Ingredients:

4 oranges

1 small (!!) red onion

2tbsp vinegar (your choice - I have an use strawberry for this, apple cider vinegar works great, and so does lemon juice instead)

6tbsp olive oil 

Small can black olives, sliced 

2tbsp sunflower or pumpkin seeds, toasted

A few mint leaves, chopped

Salt

Black pepper

Peel orange with a knife, slicing the top and bottom off, and then removing rest. Segment orange out, removing the outer casing. I use a knife for this since it’s easier than trying to peel everything yourself. 

Alice the red onion into thin strips. Mix together in a bowl with the orange segments, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, olives, and chopped mint. 

In a jar, combine the oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Shake vigorously (with lid on) to make your vinaigrette. 

Dress salad and serve. 

Shoutout to Spain Recipes for this great recipe. 

Potato and Leek Soup

An Irish classic that also incorporates my love of blended soup.  What's not to like?  You can make this a vegan recipe really simply by using a vegan butter substitute.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 mins

Ingredients:
3 medium potatoes
3 leeks
2 quarts vegetable broth
1 tbsp butter
salt to taste

Slice the leeks, using only the white and light green parts.  Rinse them in water to remove any sand that may be hiding in the leeks.  Saute the leeks in the butter over medium heat until they are translucent, about 10 to 15 minutes. 

Peel and slice the potatoes into small cubes.  Add the potatoes and broth to the leeks.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium.  Simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

Let soup cool, then blend in a blender.  If you try to blend the soup while it is hot, the pressure will blow the lid off of your blender and possibly burn you while making a huge mess.  No fun.  You can skip the cooling step and blend in the pot if you have an immersion  blender.

Reheat the soup and serve.

Feeds 8.

Strawberries and Chevre

This is a really simple recipe that I usually do as a dessert or for a healthy breakfast.  It's quick, easy and tastes great without any extra sweetener.

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 0 mins

Ingredients:
6 strawberries
1 oz chevre
(Really, that's it.)

Remove the green tops from your strawberries.  Slice the berries.  Put into a plate or a bowl.  (No need to arrange nicely unless you're trying to impress people.)

Scrape at the chevre with a fork so that it falls off in little clumps. 

Eat.

Feeds 1.  Use a pint of strawberries to feed 4 to 6 people.

Orange Peel Beef

The bones for this recipe come out of "Basic Asian" by Schinharl, Dickhaut and Lane.  I've tweeked it a little bit, and it's always been a big crowd pleaser.  I enjoy it for the robust flavor and that I only have to dirty up one pan to make it.  Two if you count the rice cooker.

Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb beef roast (I typically use a London Broil)
4 green onions, top bits sliced
1 1/2" piece of ginger, grated
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/4 c soy sauce
1/2 c beef broth
1 tbsp sugar
1 c orange juice
1 bunch broccolini

Slice the beef into thin, bite-sized strips.  This is a lot easier to do if you slightly freeze the meat before you cut it.  (This was an awesome tip.  It's one of many in Basic Asian, so it's well worth the few bucks you'd spend on it.)

Heat the oil in a pan over med-high heat and cook the beef in small batches.  You don't want to do it all at once because it won't brown well.  When each piece finishes cooking, place it on a paper towel lined plate to absorb some of the oil.  Finish cooking the meat.

Pour all the liquid ingredients and the sugar into the pan you cooked the beef in.  Make sure the heat is high at this point.  This will deglase all the yummy beef bits that stuck to the pan while the beef was cooking.  Bring all ingredients to a boil.  When the sauce coats the back of your spoon, toss the meat back in along with the broccolini.  Mix everything together, cooking for another minute or two.

Serve.  (Great side dishes with this are steamed brown rice or noodles.)

Serves 4

Mint Lemonade

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5 mins

I first had this on a hot day in Kuwait City at a fantastic Lebanese restaurant.  It's a cool and refreshing type of lemonade that just asks to be sipped on a porch on a warn evening, and is rather reminiscent of a virgin mojito.  Google can help you find anything, and this is the website that first gave me the recipe.

Ingredients:
Juice of 8 lemons (about 12-14 oz of juice)
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
2 bunches of mint (or more to taste)
3 cups water
18 ice cubes

Juice the lemons, straining out any seeds.  Pour into a blender.

Heat 2 cups water and 1 cup sugar to boiling, stirring constantly, to make a simple syrup.  Add this to the lemon juice along with the extra 3 cups of water, mint and ice cubes.  Blend until frothy and green.  Ice cubes should be completely crushed.

Serve.

Makes about 4 tall glasses worth.

Yellow Split Pea Soup

According to my cookbook, The Swedish Table by Helene Henderson, (where you can find this recipe in whole and not from my occasionally lacking memory... and many other delicious ones to boot) yellow split pea soup is the national dish of Sweden and everybody there eats it for dinner on Thursdays.  Even the King.  It's a story I like, although I can't guarantee it's authenticity.  And I have to say this dish is just the thing on a cold, blustery day like today.  I've made this a bunch of times, and it's just as good vegan as it is with the ham.

Prep time: 1 day (dried split peas must soak overnight!)
Cook time: 3 hours

Ingredients:
3 c yellow split peas
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, sliced
2 celery stalks, chopped
6 cups water (or chicken broth if not using ham shank.  For vegan use veg. broth.)
1 ham shank (omit for vegan)
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
tomatoes and bacon bits for garnish (omit bacon if using ham shank or going vegan)

Soak the split peas overnight in cold water.  Swish your hands around in the peas once and a while and pull out any pea shells that float up.

Saute the copped veg. in the olive oil for about 5 mins or until onions begin to brown.  Then add the peas, bay leaf, broth and ham shank (if using).  Bring to a boil for ten mins.  Then reduce heat to medium and simmer for three hours.

After soup has simmered, let cool and remove ham shank and bay leaf.  Discard the bay leaf.  Blend the pea soup.  (Don't do this while the soup is hot unless you have an immersion blender.  The hot soup can blow the lid off your blender, burn you and make an awful mess... I guarantee it isn't fun.)  Remove meat from ham shank and chop. Integrate into soup.  If not using ham shank, brown bacon until crispy, chop and add to top of each soup bowl as garnish.  Cut cherry tomatoes as garnish for bowls and add to bacon.  Serve.

Makes a good 12 servings, but freezes really well for quick meals at a later date. 

Brown Braised Onions

Brown braised onions are one of my favorite side dishes. I can eat them all by themselves. Who needs a main dish when you've got onions simmered in butter, wine and broth? I found the recipe in a marvelous cook book by Julia Child. However, since I can't find it now I'm doing this basically from memory. It worked pretty well.

Prep time: 30 mins (I'm slow at peeling pearl onions)
Cook time: 45 mins

Ingredients:
1 bag pearl onions
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 c beef broth
3/4 c red wine
1 tbsp butter

Directions:

Cut the tops and the bottoms off of your pearl onions. Since they look best and hold up best whole, do your best not to slice through the layers lengthwise when you're peeling the outer layers off.

In a pan where all the onions can touch bottom, simmer the herbs, onions, butter and 1/4 cup of the red wine. When the wine has reduced to the point that it would coat the back of a spoon, add the beef broth. Repeat until all the wine and broth has been used.

The onions are finished when the last of the liquid has simmered down to a sauce.

Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings as a side dish.

Beef and Guiness Stew

I was feeling the need to revisit a trip I took to Ireland in 2009, and this recipe was a fantastic way to do it. Everybody loved it, and there were no leftovers! The brined green peppercorns may be somewhat unusual, but they make the dish. You can find them in most grocery stores next to the capers and other pickled items.

Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 3 hours

Ingredients:
2 lbs stew beef cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 16 oz can Guinness
1 qt beef broth
8 red potatoes, cubed
3 tsp brined green peppercorns, drained and coarsely chopped
3 carrots, cut into 1" pieces
2 sprigs fresh thyme
salt to taste

Add beef and olive oil to pan over med-high heat. Brown beef, then add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 3 hours or until broth has reduced to a nice sauce and beef is tender. Serve immediately. Biscuits make a nice side, or do as the original calls for and turn into a potpie. Feel free to make this dish a head of time and reheat. It's even better the next day!

Serves 6.

This recipe was adapted from one I found here.

Baba Ghanoush

Baba Ghanoush is a middle eastern dip similar to hummus. Don't let the eggplant frighten you. It's pretty much just a vehicle for the lemon and garlic tastes. It goes well with pita chips or tortilla chips or crackers or sliced vegetable.

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 40 mins

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant
1/4 c lemon juice
1/4 c tahini
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt to taste
olive oil

Okay, first off, the tahini. Most Americans don't just have this laying around. It's a middle eastern sauce made with sesame seeds and sesame oil, and is super easy to prepare at home. In a blender combine: 4tbsp sesame seeds, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 c tepid water and 1 tsp sesame oil. Blend till smooth. I used the recipe found here, but had to increase everything to get stuff above the blender blades.

Pierce the skin of the eggplant several times. You can use a fork if you want, but I find the tip of a knife works better. Roast it at 400 for 40 minutes or until soft. Peel off the skin, slice it into moderate sized chunks and pop the eggplant into the blender with the lemon juice, sesame seeds (more than the ones you used in the tahini)and garlic. Blend until smooth.

Chill.

When ready to serve, add olive oil on top and salt to taste.

Feeds at least 6 as an appetizer.

I found this recipe here.

Chevre Cheesecake

Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1.5 hours

I've always loved chevre. It's a goat cheese that is softer and sweeter than feta and is wonderful either as a butter substitute or mixed with berries. It makes a fantastic change from regular-old-cheesecake and doesn't require as much sugar because of its natural sweetness.

Crust ingredients:
2/3 c graham cracker crumbs
2/3 c Nilla Wafer crumbs
1 tsp honey
5 tbsp melted butter

Combine the graham cracker crumbs and the Nilla Wafer crumbs with the honey and the melted butter in a mixer. This will form a doughy like mixture. Press into a 8" spring form. (If you don't have a spring form, line a round cake pan with tin foil. This will let you lift the cheesecake out of the cake pan.)

Bake in a preheated oven at 325 for 13 minutes.

Filling ingredients:
8oz cream cheese
1 lb chevre goat cheese
1/2 c sugar
1/16 tsp salt
1/3 c sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 egg yolks
1 egg

Mix chevre and cream cheese in a standing mixer until softened and combined. Add the sugar and salt slowly, making sure to scrape down the sides. Add the sour cream, vanilla and almond extracts and lemon juice. Slowly add the egg and yolks. Mix for another 5 minutes or so until completely smooth.

Bake in a preheated oven at the following temperatures for the following times.
375 -- 15 mins
325 -- 30 mins
200 -- 30 mins

Cool to room temperature and then chill for 2 hours before serving. Use strawberries as garnish if desired.

Makes 8 servings.

This recipe was adapted from one found in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 25 September 2008. You can find the original here.

Fantastic French Dip

Everything is better with garlic and onions. I came up with this recipe myself. It's easy enough that anyone can make a perfect sandwich every time and only dirties one pan.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 2.5 hours

Ingredients:
2lbs beef roast
1 head garlic
2 yellow onions
10 sprigs fresh thyme
seasoning salt
1.5 qt beef broth
Swiss Cheese
Sandwich rolls

Peel and smash the garlic with the side of a knife. Slice onions into thin strips. Place both into the bottom of a Pyrex (or similar) baking pan.

Trim excess fat from the beef roast. Coat in seasoning salt and place atop the garlic and onions.

Add the beef broth and thyme sprigs.

Preheat oven to 500. Roast for 10 minutes, then decrease heat to 300 for two hours.

Remove roast from oven and set beef aside to rest on a cutting board for at least 10 minutes.

Remove and discard thyme sprigs. Strain onions and garlic from the au jus and reserve.

Blend onions and garlic into a paste using food processor.

Toast sandwich rolls with a slice of Swiss cheese on each.

While the rolls are toasting, slice the beef into thin strips using either a meat slicer or a sharp knife. Quickly place beef onto melted cheese and spread the garlic and onion mixture onto the half of the roll that does not have cheese. This will ensure the meat stays in the roll.

Serve each with a bowl of the au jus.

Serves 6 easily.