New York Style Pizza Sauce (Adapted from Serious Eats)

I adapted the recipe below from the Serious Eats New York Style Pizza Sauce recipe.

Ingredients:

1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 medium cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Kosher salt
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and split in half

1 teaspoon sugar*

Instructions:

Blend tomatoes in a blender until slightly chunky.  Set aside.

Combine butter and oil in medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until butter is melted. Add garlic, oregano, and large pinch salt and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, onion halves, and sugar*. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to lowest setting (bubbles should barely be breaking the surface), and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by 1/2, about 1 hour. Season to taste with salt. Allow to cool and store in covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.


* I did not need the sugar in my sauce as the tomatoes were not that acidic but some tomatoes may need it.

Carnitas

I made these for the first time today as topping for taco salad. Yummy and easy!
From How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Ingredients:
2-2.5 lbs boneless pork shoulder
1 T. cumin
2 bay leaves
4-5 peeled and slightly crushed garlic cloves
1 onion, quartered
Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients in a Dutch oven. Cover with water. Bring to a boil. Lower heat such that there is a small bubble. Cover and cook for about an hour. Remove the meat, onions and garlic with a slotted spoon. Cook the liquid down. Add the meat back to the pan and fry the meat so that you get some nice browned edges. Use in tacos, taco salad or as a main dish by itself.

How to get everyone in your family to eat vegetables - Pureed Vegetables

Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

I'm on a pureed vegetable kick!!  We are all inhaling these things almost as fast as I can make them.  LTH likes pureed parsnips the best but he'll also eat without any complaint pureed cauliflower and pureed carrots.  With a little discussion, he also ate the pureed butternut squash.  I wasn't as crazy about it myself though.  We are on our second weekend of me making 3 different pureed vegetables at once.  Then, we had vegetables of the rest of the weekend and for the first part of the following week.  It only took about an hour!

Ingredients:
Most root vegetables will work here.  The ones I've tried are carrots, parsnips, cauliflower and butternut squash.  I want to try turnips and rutabagas.
You can also add different flavorings for each vegetables.  The cookbook recommends the following:
Carrots - ginger, orange juice and orange zest - VERDICT: makes the carrots almost like a dessert
Parsnips - sour cream - VERDICT: not needed - just add a little salt and pepper and you're good to go
Cauliflower - ricotta, nutmeg and Parmesan - VERDICT: I haven't tried the ricotta but they were great without it.  I do recommend the nutmeg.  It's an interesting flavor that makes the cauliflower have more taste.
Butternut Squash - roasted garlic - VERDICT: it needed more!! They would have been more palatable with more roasted garlic.  You live and learn.

Instructions:
Cut the vegetable into 1 inch pieces.  Put into pot with water just to the level of the vegetables.  Bring to a boil and cook for 5-10 minutes until cooked through but not mushy.  Although you can use a food processor or a blender to make these purees, I highly recommend investing in a food mill.  The food mill gets rid of any of the fibrous parts of the vegetables versus chopping them into smaller pieces. In the case of the parsnips, you will greatly appreciate the difference.  Once the vegetable is pureed, add the mix ins discussed above or come up with your own seasonings.

Uses:
We've been using them as our vegetable dish at each meal.  But, I've also heard they can be used as dips for other vegetables or for chips.  They could also be used as a filling for ravioli.  Please post any other ideas!

Bolognese Sauce (at least 3 hours)

Adapted from Lidia Bastianich's recipe in Lidia's Family Table

Note that I halved the recipe and we had it for dinner two nights, two lunches and froze some!!  The recipe below is the halved version.  Also, I used my food processor for all of the processing and it is a huge timesaver for this recipe.

Interesting side note: I work with a guy from Italy.  He told me that in Naples it's said that Bolognese is the perfect meal for doormen to cook as they have nothing else to do but sit and stir.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 cup dry white wine
3 oz bacon
3 garlic cloves
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced in a food processor or finely chopped
1 celery stalk, minced in a food processor or finely chopped
1 carrot, shredded
1/2 t salt, plus more to taste
1 cup dry red wine
1 T tomato paste
1 cup canned tomatoes and juices, crushed
4 to 6 cups chicken broth

Directions:
Put all 2 lbs of ground meat in a large mixing bowl.  Pour the white wine over it and mix it with your hands.  Next, make the pestata - cut the bacon into 1-inch pieces and put them in the bowl of the food processor with the peeled garlic.  Process them into a fine paste.

Pour the olive oil into a heavy saucepan (I used my big Le Creuset pot) and scrape in all of the pestata. Set the pan over medium-high heat.  Break up the pestata and stir it around the pan bottom to start rendering the fat.  Cook for at least 3 minutes, stirring often, until the bacon and garlic are sizzling and aromatic.

Stir the minced onions into the fat and cook for a couple of minutes, until sizzling and starting to sweat.  Stir in the celery and carrot, and cook the vegetables until wilted and golden, stirring frequently and thoroughly over medium-high heat, at least 5 minutes.

Turn the heat up a notch, push the vegetables off to the side and put all of the meat into the pan.  Add the salt.  Give the meat on the pan bottom a few moments to brown, then stir, spread and toss with a sturdy spoon, mixing the meat into the vegetables and making sure every bit of meat browns and begins releasing fat and juices.  Soon the meat liquid will almost cover the meat itself.  Cook at high heat, stirring often, until all of that liquid has disappeared, even in the bottom of the pan.  This will take 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the heat and the width of the pan.  Stir occasionally, and as the liquid level diminishes, lower the heat too, so the meat does not burn.

When all of the meat liquid as has been cooked off, pour in the 1 cup of red wine.  Raise the heat if you've lowered it, and stir the meat as the wine comes to a boil.  Cook until the wine has almost completely evaporated, about 5 minutes.  Now drop the 1 tablespoon of tomato paste into a clear space on the pan bottom.  Toast a minute in the hot spot., then stir with the meat and let caramelize for 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes.  Bring the liquid to a boil, stirring the meat and let the liquid almost boil off, 5 minutes more.

Pour in 2 cups of hot broth, stir well, and add more if needed to cover the meat.  Bring it to an active simmer, cover the pan and adjust the heat to maintain slow, steady cooking with small bubbles perking all over the surface of the sauce.

From this point, the Bolognese should cook for 2-3 hours.  Check the pot every 20 minutes and add hot broth as needed to cover the meat.  The liquid level should be reducing by 1 1/2 to 2 cups between additions;  if it's falling much faster and it takes more than 2 cups to cover the meat, lower the heat to slow the evaporation.  If the sauce level drops slowly or not at all, raise the heat and set the cover ajar to speed concentration.  Stir well at every addition.

During the final cooking interval, you want to reduce the level of the liquid.  At the end, the meat should no longer be covered but appear suspended in a thick flowing sauce.  If the meat is still submerged in a lot of liquid, remove the cover completed to cook off moisture quickly.

A few minutes before the end of cooking, taste a bit of meat and sauce and add salt if you want.

Note that you'll want to spoon off the fat before serving.

Sweet Potato and Leek Soup (with bacon)

Adapted from Picnics by David Herbert

4 slices bacon, chopped
1 leek, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 carror, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 1/4 lb sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
2 pints vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream

Cook bacon over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the leeks, onion, carrot, garlic and sweet potato. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the leek and onion have softened.

Add the vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 25/30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Purée the soup in a blender in batches.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Makes a big pot of soup. I will be freezing for a future meal.

Ancho Pork and Hominy Stew

We had this stew for dinner last night with some warmed corn tortillas and steamed broccoli sauteed with garlic and red pepper.

Adapted from Cooking Light. Original recipe here.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoons ancho chile powder
• 1 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3/4 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound boneless pork chops, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
• 1/2 onion, chopped
  
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (20-ounce) can hominy, drained
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained

Preparation

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; set 3/4 teaspoon spice mixture aside. Add pork to remaining spice mixture in bowl, tossing well to coat.

2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pork mixture to pan; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove pork from pan; set aside. Add remaining 1 teaspoon oil to pan. Add onion and bell pepper; sauté 3 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and continue to saute for 2 more minutes or until you smell the garlic. Return pork to pan. Add reserved 1 1/2 teaspoons spice mixture, broth, hominy, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Partially cover, reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes.

Loubieh Bi Zeit (Lebanese Green Beans)

MTH and I had take out from The Phoenician a few weeks ago. There were some leftover Loubieh Bi Zeit. I thought that DS may like them. He LOVED them! Given that he previously was not as enamoured of green beans, I decided I needed to figure out how to make them. Here's a recipe that I adapted from http://homemade-recipes.blogspot.com. Here is the link to the original recipe.

Ingredients:

olive oil
onions, chopped
garlic, chopped
1 can of green beans (I used half sodium)
1/2 can of tomato sauce
1/2 half lemon, juiced
2 cups of chicken broth or you can use chicken bouillon
Pepper

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan.
   
2. Add onions and saute until translucent.
3. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (no more than 2 minutes).
   
4. Add green beans, tomato sauce, lemon juice, chicken broth and pepper.
5. Cover and cook on low heat for 45 minutes. You can probably cook less and it will be fine.
   

Chicken Paella

My sister bought me some saffron for my Christmas gift this year. It was quite a creative gift. I've been trying to decide what to make with it. Well, a few weeks back, I made chicken paella. One day, I may be brave enough to make a seafood paella but that will be in the future. The dish I made tonight was very tasty. As usual, I loosely followed a recipe that I found online.

The fun part is that I bought the bacon, chorizo and the chicken from a local butcher shop, Belmont Butcher. The even cooler part is that the bacon and chorizo were made and cured at the butcher shop. We had flourless peanut butter cookies for dessert.

Ingredients:
2 slices of bacon, chopped
1/2 lb. boneless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 cups basmati rice
4 cups of chicken stock
½ teaspoon of saffron threads
½ teaspoon of chili powder
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup of corn kernels
½ cup of green peas
1 chorizo sausage

Preparation:
Steep the saffron in heated chicken broth. Fry the bacon until golden (add oil at the beginning as necessary). Remove from pan. Cook the chicken until done. Remove from pan. Add oil if necessary, saute onion until translucent. Add rice and garlic stirring until coated with oil. Add 2 cups of broth and simmer while covered. When liquid has cooked down, add another cup of liquid. Repeat with the remaining cup of liquid. Once rice is almost done, add the corn, green peas, chicken, bacon and the chorizo. Taste and season to taste. Then, serve.

Cuban Picillo Sandwiches (Less than 20 minutes)

Last night, we made these sandwiches for dinner. We thought they would be fun to eat while we watched The Simpson's Movie. I also made some baked sweet potato fries. The sandwiches are supposed to be made with ground pork but I couldn't find any at my grocery store. They had ground lamb and ground veal but no ground plain pork. They also had bulk Italian sausage and other types of bulk sausage which are of course, ground pork. But, they have other spices in them. Anyway, I substituted ground turkey for the ground pork. I'm sure that the ground pork would taste even better. Hopefully, the next time I make these sandwiches, I'll be able to find the ground pork. My plan is to use half ground turkey and half ground pork (they'll be slightly healthier!). Also, the original recipe called for raisins. Neither MTH nor myself like raisins so we left them out. If you like raisins, then you may want to try them. You add 1/2 cup golden raisins with the spices and the tomatoes.

Adapted from Cooking Light, October 2005

1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives
8 (1 1/2-ounce) whole wheat hamburger buns

Cook onion, garlic, and pork in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain and return mixture to pan. Stir in next 5 ingredients (through tomatoes). Reduce heat, and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in olives. Toast the needed buns. Spread about 2/3 cup picadillo mixture on bottom half of each bun; cover with top half of bun.

We had leftovers which I'm sure will taste even better on Monday.

Beef and Veggie Potpie (About 45 minutes)

I made this one a few weeks back. Again, I got the idea from the www.myrecipes.com daily emails. But, as per usual, I didn't follow the recipe word for word. Here's what I made:

olive oil
3/4 pound ground sirloin
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped carrot
dried thyme, to taste
1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup tomato paste
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
7 oz fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef; cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain. Wipe drippings from pan with a paper towel. Heat more olive oil in pan. Add zucchini and next 5 ingredients (through garlic); sauté 7 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Return beef to pan. Stir in wine, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and broth. Bring to a boil; cook 3 minutes. Combine cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl; stir with a fork to get rid of the lumps. Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Bake a batch of homemade or canned biscuits while the beef mixture is cooking. Serve the beef mixture over one or two biscuits. It's an all in one meal with your meat and vegetable!

New Years Day Meal

I tried to be traditional with our meal on New Years. You know, black eyed peas for luck and collard greens for money. Well, collard greens were a bit much for just me and MTH. So, I made wilted spinach with garlic instead. But, we did make the black eyed peas straight from the dried beans. And, we broiled a flat iron steak using a Mexican rub from my friend MAT (the one that lives in SF, formerly MAK). We thoroughly enjoyed making the meal together and then eating it together.

Bean Soup (15 minutes prep with 30 minutes simmering)

This recipe is officially called "North Woods Bean Soup". It's adapted from a recipe in the January 2002 issue of Cooking Light. I've put my changes in italics. This soup took me only about 15 minutes of actual hands on preparation. The rest was just simmering. I was really impressed because I was able to go work out, come home and start the soup, take my shower and then presto - dinner was served!

Ingredients:
1 cup baby carrots, halved
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
7 ounces turkey kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
dried oregano, marjoram and thyme, to taste
black pepper and red pepper flakes, to taste
2 (15.8-ounce) cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
smooth kale

Preparation
Heat a large saucepan coated with olive oil over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onion, garlic, and kielbasa; sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes. Add the broth, dried spices, peppers, and beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

Place 2 cups of the soup in a food processor or blender, and process until smooth. Return the pureed mixture to pan. Simmer an additional 5 minutes. Remove soup from heat. Add the kale, stirring until kale wilts.