Coconut Chicken with Potatoes - Indian Batata Murghi

Coconut Chicken with Potatoes - Indian Batata Murghi

Batata Murghi is a coconut / potato / chicken dish from the Maharashtra state of India.  Maps of India and the Maharashtra state are included below for those of you who like a sense of place when hearing new names!

I'm not necessarily fond of Coconut, but this dish is one of the best meals I've ever cooked.  Last night we had it with Aloo Chokha and it was an amazing family meal with my father and wife and children.  I offer my version of it here, though it can be found elsewhere on the internet.  My version takes it's base inspiration from Raghavan Iyer's book 660 Curries - the gateway to Indian Cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 can (14 ounces) of unsweetened coconut milk.
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger or ginger paste
2 tablespoons unsalted or salted dry roast peanuts
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
5 large cloves of garlic or 2 tablespoons of minced garlic from a jar
4 to 6 fresh green Tai, cayenne, or serrano chilies (if you want it hot) or 4-6 Anaheim Chilies if you want it mild, stems remove and seeded.
8 chicken boneless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds from green or white pods
1 or 2 cinnamon sticks (each 3 inches long broken into smaller pieces)
2 tablespoons of peanut or canola oil
2 large potatoes chopped into 1-inch cubes
1 big red onion, sliced or chopped
1 handful of chopped cilantro

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a blender puree 1/2 of the can of coconut milk, ginger, peanuts, salt, turmeric, garlic and green chilies.  
2. Put the chicken thighs into the puree you just made, cover, and refrigerate for as long as you can, up to over night.
3. Heat a skillet to very hot and add the coriander seeds, cardamom seeds, cinnamon sticks and heat about 30 seconds, tossing and shaking. You want it to get nice and reddish brown.  You are roasting the spices, and it's going to smell amazing.  Let the spices cool for ten minutes and then blend together into a powder in a coffee grinder.
4. In a large pot, heat the peanut or canola oil until smoking, and the potato cubes.  Cook stiring often until the potatoes turn brown, usually between 6-12 minutes.  Remove the potatoes to a bowl.
5. In the same pot, now cook the onion until it is good and golden brown, 4-10 minutes.  Remove the onions.
6. Remove the chicken from the marinade (reserve the marinade, you will need it later). In the same pot, brown the chicken thighs, about 3 minutes to a side.  
7. In the same pot, add the potatoes, onions, reserve marinade, other half of the coconut milk can, and the handful of chopped cilantro to the chicken.  Stir well.  Simmer on very low heat for 15-25 minutes, mixing every once in a while.
8. Serve immediately with hot rice.

Aloo Chokha - Spicy Mashed Potatoes Indian Style

Aloo Chokha - Spicy Mashed Potatoes

You can look up a good Aloo Chokha recipe on the internet fairly easily. It is Indian style spicy mashed potatoes.  My version, inspired by Sanjeev Kapoor in his How to Cook Indian cookbook, is below.  I cook this for my family, and at first my children were 'disturbed' at the different color of the mashed potatoes.  They were dubious... to say the least, but one taste and they realized how good they were.

INGREDIENTS

6 small potatoes, boiled and mashed.
2 tablespoons of mustard oil or vegetable oil*
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds (crushed)
2 dried red chilies, stemmed and crushed
3 medium red onions, chopped fairly fine
3-4 green chilies, stemmed, seeded, and chopped. (Use Serrano for heat or Anaheim for mild flavor)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground roasted cumin
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed, or 2 tablespoons of minced garlic from a jar
1 teaspoon amchur powder (dried mango powder)
1 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Chop, boil, and mash the potatoes.  Set aside.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil.  When smoking, add the crushed coriander seeds and crushed dried red chilies. Cook for just a 10-15 seconds, 
3. Add the onions, green chopped chilies, ground coriander, ground roasted cumin and saute until the onions are golden brown (3-8 minutes depending on your pan and heat.)
4. Add the garlic and stir.
5. Add the mashed potatoes and mix well.
6. Add the amchur powder and salt and mix well.
7. Serve hot!

*I don't use mustard oil very often.  It adds a specific flavor to the food, but it's hard to get so I just use vegetable oil.  If you do get mustard oil, make sure you get the oil specifically for cooking, and get it 'refined' instead of filtered.

Chicken in Cilantro

Chicken in a Cilantro, Spinach, and Mustard Sauce

This chicken recipe is inspired by the version in Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick & Easy Indian Cooking.  It produced one of the most uniquely tasting meals I’ve ever had and was a hit with my family. A definite repeat contender.

INGREDIENTS

• ¼ Cup of Vegetable Oil

• 3 bay leaves*

• 6 green cardamom pods

• 1-inch stick of cinnamon (broken up).

• 5 whole cloves

• 2 dried red hot chiles whole

• 2 pounds of boneless chicken**

• ¼ cup of Raisins (This is part of Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe, and I include it here for her sake, but I don’t use the raisins.)

• 6 tablespoons of plain yogurt

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• Freshly ground pepper

• ¼ teaspoon of Cayenne pepper

• 2 tablespoons of chopped minced ginger or ginger paste

• 1-2 green chilies.  (If you want it hot, use Serrano or Jalapeno, if you want it milder, use 2 big Anaheim chilies.  I use Jalapeno for hot, and Anaheim for mild.  Serrano has less flavor to me and is just more for ‘heat’.) 

• 2 cups of chopped Cilantro leaves (Loose)

• 1 bunch of fresh Spinach Leaves (Washed, and stems trimmed)

• 3 tablespoons of mustard (probably a brown mustard like Gouldens, Dijon, etc, but you can use regular yellow mustard (and I have) if you need to).

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a wide skillet, heat the oil. 

2. Add bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, cloves, and red chilis.  Cook for a10 to 15 seconds, until the bay leaves start turning brown. This goes quick.

3. Add the chicken pieces, and brown on both sides (this is usually about 3 minutes per side. If you use the thighs like I do, it goes really quick).

4. Add in the raisins (if you are using, I don’t), yogurt, 1 teaspoon of salt, fresh pepper and cayenne. Stir well.  Bring to a simmer.

5. Simmer on low gently for 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, put the ginger paste into a blender and add green chilies and cilantro.  Blend until chunky, then add the spinach.  Using spatula to push it down if you have to blend until you have a nice chunky puree.  You don’t want to liquefy it.

7. Add mustard and an extra dash of salt if you want to the green creamy mixture.  

8. When the chicken is done, 15 minutes or so, add the green sauce to the chicken directly.  Stir it up.  Bring to a simmer again, cover and cook a bit more, maybe 10 minutes. 

9. Take out the bay leaves, the cardamom pods, pieces of cinnamon and whole cloves and whole chilies (if you can find them).  

10. Serve immediately, usually with rice.

A note on the spices – Indian cooking often starts by putting spices into hot oil, which creates a great aroma in the kitchen. In this recipe, we use bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, and chilies.  This is the more ‘authentic’ way of doing things and offers a different taste.  Having said that, if you don’t have these items, you can still cook this whole recipe and get a very similar taste, by using normal Spice Island brand spices.  Do it this way:

Ingredients

3 Bay leaves 

• 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom

• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon of ground cloves

• ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• 1 teaspoon of onion powder

• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder

Mix the spices together and rub into the chicken well with your hands.  Heat the oil, and brown the bay leaves as above, and then brown the spice rubbed chicken.  The rest of the recipe goes as normal.

*There are Indian Bay leaves and there are regular Mediterranean bay leaves (which are the common ones you get in the United States grocery stores).  When I make this recipe I use the Mediterranean version available in the USA.  Some Indian Cookbooks are going to suggest you special order the Indian Version.  As of the time of this writing, December 28, 2013, I have never done so, just using regular bay leaves.

**Madhur Jaffrey uses a whole chicken here cut into pieces, but I almost never do that.  Instead I prefer boneless chicken thighs for all my meat.  Sometimes I’ll use chicken breasts, but less and less so.

Chicken and Andouille Smoked Sausage Gumbo - Polish Kielbasa

Cooked this soup the other day, and it's the second time I made it. First time was 10 years ago and I can't remember much of how it turned out only that I never made it again, so that tells you something.  This one was quiet a bit different than what I remember, and from all reports from my family, was very good and should be cooked again.  The inspiration for this Gumbo came from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen.  

Ingredients
3-4 pounds of boneless chicken thighs
Salt
Garlic Powder
Cayenne
1 Yellow Onion Diced
1 Red Bell Pepper Diced
3-4 Stalks of Celery Diced
Flour
Salt, Garlic Powder, Cayenne
Vegetable Oil for Frying
Chicken Stock (Probably 7-8 cups worth)
Garlic
1 pound of Polish Kielbasa. I use Hillshire Farms.

I'm a huge fan of Polska Kielbasa. My mother used it all the time and I love it.  Not many people I know eat it though, but once they taste it in my food they can't get enough.  I use in my famous Jambalaya as well.  Great stuff.

Here is how to cook this great Gumbo:

Start by  seasoning the chicken as you see fit.  We suggest salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, but it doesn't matter.  Then dredge in flour that has also been heavily seasoned.  Flour should be orange in color!  Then fry in the oil till done, about 5 minutes per side.  Remove and drain on paper towels.

Now the core of the gumbo is the ROUX.  If you want to spend some time online looking on how to make a roux, I would think that was a good idea. I'll give you a basic idea here:  Drain off all the oil but leave the crumbs and bits in the pan.  Pour 1/2 a cup of oil back into the pan, and heat it till it's freaking super hot!  Then slowly whisk in (be careful, very hot and scorching) 1/2 cup of flour.  Keep whisking until roux is dark red brown, then add the diced vegetables. Be careful it doesn't burn here.  I've burned it before, so you have to start over if you screw this up. 

Then cook the vegetables, 5 minutes.  In a separate pot, heat the chicken stock (I made mine using a pressure cooker via the Modernist Cuisine method, which provided amazing flavor. I think there is a recipe for it somewhere on this site.  Let me look.  Nope.  But there is this:  Brown Pork Stock.  That will teach you the basics.  I just put a lot of chicken legs into a pot, filled it with water, added onions, celery, and pressured cooked it for 2 hours.  Amazing stock! And the chicken meat from the leg was great in the Gumbo.

Anyway, heat the stock to a boil, then add by the spoonful the roux.  When that's done, chop up the chicken and add it to the pot, add the sausage (chopped up) and garlic, then simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.  There you go, you have gumbo.  Salt and Pepper it to taste.

One day I should make a study of Gumbo and cook a lot of different versions.  But for now, this was great and eaten heartily by everyone. I poured it over white rice.

Leek and Potato Soup

Leek and Potato Soup

There are a lot of basic recipes for Leek and Potato Soup.  The best one I've eaten in a while is a very simple version inspired by Julia Child.  We cooked this tonight it got rave reviews.  I will definitely cook this again.

4 Cups of chopped leeks (white parts and tender greens)
4 Cups of diced potatoes
8 cups of water (Make sure to use water, not chicken broth).
2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 cup of cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

1.  Chop the leeks and wash them thoroughly of dirt - Add to large soup pot.
2.  Dice potatoes, add to soup pot.
3.  Add water to soup pot
4.  Add Salt
5.  Bring to a boil.
6.  Simmer 30 minutes
7.  Add soup to a blender or food processor and blend till smooth.  This has to be done in batches.
8.  Add soup back to pot. 
9.  Add cream
10.  Salt to taste
11.  Heat and serve immediately.

Amazingly simple and tasty.  Damn.  A great meal.

Sookhe Masale ka Murg - Dry Masala Chicken - Indian Food

Sookhe Masale ka Murg - Dry Masala Chicken - Indian Food

By Pushpesh Pant

Last night my son pulled this book out of the pantry and said: What is this?  It's like 1000 recipes of food!  How can there be that many different recipes of ANY cuisine.  American's don't have 1000 different versions of their food!

We laughed about it.  Obviously Indian Cuisine has a lot more different choices than we do... but it does seem to be a bit much to say 1000 recipes.  And you wonder how many of these recipes have actually been tested in home kitchens.

So today, we took one of the recipes in the book, altered it some with different spices using the Sous Vide cooking method, and tried it out.  Here is what we did and I'll report the results after:

Ingredients
7 Chicken Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Canned Sliced Jalapenos 
1 teaspoon of New Mexico Chili Powder
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon on aniseed seeds
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of white pepper
1 teaspoon of red pepper
1 teaspoon of black pepper
canola oil
ghee
heavy cream
salt

1.  Mix the spices together in a bowl and then pat with your hands into the chicken breasts.
2.  Place the chicken pieces one each with 2 slices of jalapenos and 2 teaspoons of canola oil into a zip lock bag using the water displacement method to get all the air out.
3.  Preheat our Sous Vide waterbath to 62 degrees Celsius.
4.  Put the chicken into the water bath for 1.5 hour.
5.  Heat the Ghee in a frying pan.
6.  Remove the chicken (reserve the juices from each bag) and cook the chicken in the hot ghee for about 1 minute per side.
7.  Blend the juices and jalapenos in a food processor.
8.  Heat the blended juices in a small pan over the stone until hot, adding a little touch of heavy cream at the end.
9.  Salt the sauce to taste. It should be pretty damn hot from the jalapenos.
10.  Serve chicken pieces with basmati rice and lemon wedges, pour sauce of all.

So... How was it?  It turned out really great.  1 of 1000 recipes in the book is pretty good, though you should know we altered it so much I'm not sure it resembles the original much.  Having said this... I don't know that I will ever make it again. It was great, but didn't leap out as overly incredible. I will cook this 'type' of meal again, chicken with chilis, sous vide, basted in ghee, but I will probably change the spice mixture quite a bit as I go.

Jan Smith's Cooked Salsa

My Mom made what I consider the best salsa in the world. I just loved it.  She cooked it, and canned it, and I loved it.  God rest her soul. I finally found something resembling her recipe in her notes.  I gave this a try, and the first time out of the gate it was good... but I'm thinking of ways to tweak it, which I will mention below:

• 4 Lbs of Tomatoes (I used Petite Cut Hunts Canned Tomatoes) - Fresh would probably be better, unless you get those nasty tasteless bastards.  If you use fresh, cut them up in the Cuisinart.  
• 2 Onions Minced (Cuisinart)
• 1 Red Bell Pepper (Red ones are sweeter.  They say they taste the same as green ones but that is bullshit.  Red ones are more expensive, but red ones ARE sweeter.
• 1 Small Can of Diced Green Chilis (I would definitely increase this next time and use a large can.  It was just too small).
• 1  Jalapeno chopped (I would use a small can of diced Jalapenos next time)
• 1  Tbsp of Garlic Minced
• 1/8th a cup of Lemon Juice
• 1 Tablespoon of Salt
• 1 Handful of Cilantro (I'm thinking of add this after I cook it)
• 1 Tablespoon of dried Oregano
• 3/4 cup of distilled white vinegar (I might try a bit LESS of this next time)

In a large pot combined it all and bring to a boil.   Cover and simmer 5-10 minutes.  That's it!

So there it was.  Great salsa.  When I try it again adjusting things here or there, I'll let you know how it turns out.

October 28th Week Dinner Planning 2013

October 28th Week Dinner Planning 2013

Taking inspiration my beautiful wife I have three recipes ideas planned for this week and I would like to take you along on my journey as we explore various different versions of them, choose what we are going to do, and then see what the result turns out to be.

The three inspirations are as follows: Vermont Common Cracker Chicken with Cracker Custard Sauce, Basque Chicken and Shrimp in Wine, and Navajo Tacos.  The basic inspirations for these meals came from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Seasoned America.

Bouquet Garni

My mother used Spice Islands Bouquet Garni in so many of her dishes that it just became a staple.  This post will describe the mixture, and where and how I use it.

Unfortunately, Bouquet Garni as a spice mixture is no longer made by Spice Islands, so if you want to buy it you will have to look at other brands.  (More on that later.)

My mother had a set of cookbooks called The Gourmet Cookbook, published by Gourmet Books, Inc.  I have the revised edition, first published in 1965 (though my version is from the Ninth Printing, 1981:

This book used Bouquet Garni a lot, and described it thusly:

Bouquet garni is the French term for a bundle  or faggot, of seasoning vegetables and herbs, tied with string for easy removal from the pot.  the bouquet garni usually includes celery, thyme, and bay leaf, and some times includes fennel, leeks, marjoram, tarragon, and other herbs and vegetables as specified or as desired.

Wikipedia tells us this:

The bouquet garni [bukɛ ɡaʁni] (French for "garnished bouquet") is a bundle of herbs usually tied together with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients, but is removed prior to consumption.
There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most recipes include thyme and bay leaf. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may also include parsley, basil, burnet, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Vegetables such as carrot, celery (leaves or leaf stalks), celeriac, leek, onion and parsley root are sometimes included in the bouquet.

Sometimes, the bouquet is not bound with string, and its ingredients are filled into a small sachet, a net, or even a tea strainer, instead. Traditionally, the aromatics are bound within leek leaves, though a coffee filter (or cheesecloth) and butcher twine can be used, instead.

Most defnitions include the idea of tying them together, or putthing the herbs into a satchel.  The Bouquet Garni I use is actually a spice mixture which you just shake or measure into your recipe.

The version is use comes from The Spice House:

Literally meaning a bouquet for garnish, this mixture of basil, marjoram, rosemary, summer savory, thyme, tarragon, Greek oregano, Dalmatian sage and dill weed 

So that's what I use.  The best way to get the most arromatic experience from it is to melt some butter, add diced onions and a bit of fresh chopped garlic, and then sprinkle the onions and garlic with this mixture.  The smell is amazing and the rich taste superb!

P. F. Chang's Mongolian Beef Stir Fry

P. F. Chang's Mongolian Beef Stir Fry

Friday night my lovely wife choose to take me to the Dragon Star Chinese Restaurant here in Heber City Utah.  It's run by a husband and wife team, and the location leaves a lot to be desired, but we've always enjoyed the food.  Anyway, one of the choices we choose was Mongolian Beef.  Their version had a ton of vegetables in it, and was spicy.

Fast forward to last night, being Sunday night, September 15th, 2013, and I had a taste for Stir Fry.  So I searched around and got a few recipes from here and there, including some cookbooks. The mix mash of recipes I used and found are enough for this to be unique, but it does resemble the P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef more than it does the Dragon Star Mongolian Beef. In other words, it's more sweet than spicy.  Here is what I did, and it turned out great. Unfortunately, in today's day and age, I forgot to take pictures of the food and prep, so it will all have to be in your imagination.

INGREDIENTS

2 teaspoons of vegetable oil. I used Crisco Brand.
1 Tablespoon of Ginger (I had a tube of Garlic Paste from Gourmet Garden)
1 Tablespoon of Garlic (I had a jar of Minced Garlic from Spice World)
1/2 Cup of Soy Sauce (Kikkoman)
1/2 Cup of Swanson's Beef Broth (use water if you don't have broth)
3/4 Cup of Dark Brown Sugar
1 cup of Vegetable Oil
1 lb of flank steak
1 carrot
1 onion
1 bell pepper
3-4 stalks of celery
1 handful of peanuts
Dash of Seasame Seeds
1 bunch of green onions
1 Zuchini
1/4 cup of corn starch

Start by putting 2 Tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a pot and heating it over high heat.

When the oil is hot add a tablespoon of minced garlic and 1 tablespoon of minced ginger.

Stir the garlic and ginger around for a second, till it get really arromatic in your kitchen.  Smells amazing.  30 seconds or so.  Then add the soy sauce and beef broth (or water).  Then stir it all up.  Then add your 3/4 of a cup of Brown Sugar and dissolve it.  

NOTE: My wife thought it was too sweet, but my boys liked it the way it was.  If you think it might be too sweet, cut the brown sugar down here.

Cook for about 2-4 minutes, until the sauce thickens.  Take it off the heat and set it aside.

Now cut up or flank steak.  We did chunks, which I wouldn't recommend up on reflection.  I would do thin little wafers.  Then dip the steak in corn starch so it's dusted with the stuff and let is sit in the cornstarch for 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.  Then you can deep fry it in the Vegetable Oil (New Pan).  I also think you could just fry it instead.  I think I ended up over cooking it. I would do this lightly if I were you.  Just flash fry it in some oil when I do it again.

Combine the beef with the sauce in a pot and heat.

In another pan with a little oil, stir fry the vegetables.  I started with the carrots to get them cooking a bit before adding everything else.  It was a nice mess of vegetables when I was done.

Add the vegetables to the pot of meat and sauce, stir, and it's ready to serve.  Don't forget the Sesame seeds and peanuts.  

Serve over noodles or rice.  We used Wel Pak Chow Mein Stir-Fry Noodles Chuka Soba:

Delicious!  

Rick's Swiss Steak

Rick's Swiss Steak

My brother Rick has this recipe for Swiss Steak that is ridiculously good.  In fact... so good, that I tend to eat it until I'm sick every time.  Literally. It's not really funny, but I honest eat too much and get kind of sick.  Here we go:

INGREDIENTS
1-2 lbs of 7 blade chuck steak - Cheapest cut of meat you can get basically.
1 Large Onion
1 Tablespoon of Minced Garlic (fresh or the stuff from a jar)
Flour
Ground Pepper
Season All Season Salt
Worcestershire Sauce
Tabasco Sauce
Kitchen Bouquet Gravy Mix (1 Cap full)
Bouquet Garni
1 8 oz can of tomatoes
1 can of Mushrooms or a package of Mushrooms
2 Cans of Beef Broth
1 Cup of Burgundy Wine
1/2 pound of Butter

Mix some flour (1/2 cup to a full cup) with loads of ground pepper and seasoned salt).  Till the color of the flour is almost orange..  Then, on a wooden surface, with a mallet, pound the hell out of the meat, beating in the flour mixture.  Flatten that meat out.

When you are done, brown the meet in 1/2 inch deep melted butter.  Lots of butter.  Remove the meat.

Then add Onions and Garlic and cook for 5-10 minutes. You might have to add more butter here.  Then add the mushrooms, and Bouquet Garni.  Cook till onions are clear.

Then add the meat back into the mixture along with the 2 cans of beef broth, the can of tomatoes, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, tobacco, Kitchen Bouquet Gravy Mix, Red wine, and simmer for 1 hour or more.  Season to taste if it's not already perfect, and add as splash of Burgundy just prior to serving.

Microwave Baked Potatoes

Microwave Baked Potatoes

I'm guessing there are at least 1000 web pages describing how to do this, but I want to write it down for my own posterity.  

I'm in Utah, so these times are for an elevation of about 5,604 ft!

I take four big ass potatoes, scrub them, poke them with a fork, and then Microwave them 12 minutes.  Sometimes I do it 6 minutes at a time and turn them, sometimes I'm lazy and don't.  Doesn't actually seem to matter one way or the other.

While I do that I heat up my oven on Speed Convection setting to 450.  Once the potatoes are done cooking in the microwave, I throw them in the oven for 25 minutes. Most recipes will say 20, but I'm higher altitude and I like em crispy!

Don't give me mushy potaters.  Don't do it!

June 20th, 2013 - Carnitas - Pressure-Cooked Pork (4 Stars)

June 20th, 2013 - Carnitas - Pressure-Cooked Pork**** (4)

Enjoying playing with my new Pressure Cooker from Kuhn Rikon, I can tell you that these carnitas were a big success with my wife and kids last night.  I'll give you the low down on how I made it right here and I want you try it, and I want you to give me you variations as well as your response if you follow this recipe.

Carnitas are generally made by cooking pork slowly... oh so slowly.  Well... we can quicken this process considerably by using a pressure cooker, and we don't lose a single bit of the magic.  So the foundation of this recipe is the pressure cooked pork... 30 minutes... but the ingredients that go with it can obviously vary considerably.  Below I have a recipe that is inspired by the Modernist Cuisine at Home book.

Ingredients
Pork Shoulder cut into small cubes - 3 lbs
Pork Stock - 2 cups (recipe is on the link)
Achiote Paste*  (see note below) - 1 tablespoon
Chipotle chili powder - 1 teaspoon

*Achiote Paste can be store bought, or you can click on the link and find the recipe I used to make it myself.

Add the cubed meat and the stock to pressure cooker and heat till you get 1 red bar.  Cook for 30  minutes, starting the timing when it reaches 1 bar.   When it is done, open the pressure cooker (I put it in the sink and run room temperature water on it to depressurize it quickly) and strain the liquid into a separate pot.  Add 1 tablespoon of the Achiote Paste and the Chiptotle powder, and cook on high for 25 minutes, stirring constantly.

The meat will come out perfectly cooked, tender beyond imagination.

NOTE: At this point, you have a rick stock which you can add any various seasonings too.  This recipe uses the Achiote Paste and some chili powder, but there are hundreds of variations here that you can use.

Cooking the liquid on high for 25 minutes reduces the liquid to a thick syrup.  At that point, add the meat back in and cook on high for 5-6 minutes.  

They you are done!  Season it as you see fit, with things like salt, lime, cilantro, chili powder, etc.  We put the carnitas in warmed tortillas with a bit of salsa and sour cream and cheese.

RESULT:  The meat was so tender, and it tasted so good by itself.  It was really amazing.  The whole thing with cheese in a tortilla was just as good.  This recipe literally has the possibility of becoming a 5 star meal. 

I do plan on trying the pressure cooker version with my Red Chili Rojo recipe which I have (but hasn't been blogged yet).  Basically I would pressure cook the meat the same way (to make it tender) and the sauce would be more liquid with a straight Cumin / New Mexico Chili Paste.  I think that might happen soon and I'll let you know how it turns out.  

As always, your comments are welcome and desires, and so are variations!

June 20th, 2013 - Thursday - Achiote Paste

June 20th, 2013 - Thursday - Achiote Paste

While making Carnitas I found a recipe that included Achiote Paste. I looked on Amazon and found some, but didn't want to wait for it to get here.  So instead I went with my daughter to a few local Mexican Markets, and found some Achiote Seeds (Annatto Seeds) as well as a block of the paste.  When I got home I decided to make my own paste.  Here is the recipe, inspired by the Modernist Cuisine at Home book.

Achiote Paste
1/4 Cut of Annattoo Seeds
3 teaspoons of Ground Annatto (Achiote) Powder.
2 Dried New Mexico Peppers, stemmed and mostly seeded (I left a lot of seeds in)
1 Tablespoon of Black Peppercorns
1/2 Tablespoon of Cirander Seeds
1 Teaspoon of Cumin Seeds
1/2 Tablespoon of Dried Oregano
1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice
8 Whole Cloves
1/2 cup of orange juice
2/3 cup of white wine vinegar
1/4 cup of lemon juice

NOTE: The recipe I used also includes 3 tablespoons of chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon of tequila.  Both of which I didn't use this time.

Put all the dried stuff in a coffee grinder and grind to a powder.  Add to a blender, add the liquids, and blend.  There you go! Makes a lot more than you need in the Carnitas recipe, so save it in the fridge. I have no idea if it freezes.

June 19th, 2013 - Wednesday - Brown Pork Stock - Pressured-Cooked

June 19th, 2013 - Wednesday - Brown Pork Stock - Pressured-Cooked

These mad Modernists are mad about pressure cooking.  Remember those magical machines that made so much sound in the old days when we were children?  Well we are bringing them back.

Today... my Kuhn Rikon Pressure Cooker arrived from Amazon:

The first thing we made with it was some rich brown pork stock.... Instead of boiling water for hours, we did it in an hour!

Ingredients

Pork Short Ribs - 1 lb
Neutral Oil - 2 tablespoons
Ground Pork -  .5 lbs
Neutral Oil - 1/4 cup
Water - 4 Cups
White Whine - 1/2 Cup
Carrots Sliced Thinly - 1 Cup
Yellow Onion and Onion Skin - 1 Cup
Leek - White Parts Only - Sliced - 1 Leek Bulb
Italian Parsley - Handful of sprigs
Fresh Thyme - 2 big sprigs
Fresh bay leaf - 1 leaf

What to do good folks?  Bake those ribs for 45 minutes (in a bit of oil) at 400 degrees in the oven.  Brown them good.  Then put the 1/4 cup of oil in the bottom of your pressure cooker, heat it it up, and brown that ground pork.  Add the water, whine, carrots, onions, leeks, parsley, and herbs... and then the browned short ribs.  I think I added a bit of extra water.

Seal the pressured cooker and heat at 1 bar for 1 hour.  You can go longer for sure, the longer the better actually... but you'll get a nice good stock after 1 hour.  

When you are done, depressurize the cooker with room temperature water and then strain the vegetables out... and you have wonderful stock....

WAIT A MINUTE!!!!

What about that pound of short ribs????

Exactly!  I took those ribs and slathered them with sauce and slapped them on my outdoor grill for 10 minutes and... you guessed it... AMAZING RIBS.  HOLY CRAP!  

The sauce is used is worth mentioning for a second.  It was Stonewall Kitchen - Maple Chipotle Grille Sauce.  And... it was okay.  I'm not saying it's bad, I'm not saying it's good.  It was okay on the ribs.

So you will soon see a 'rib' recipe coming from me... and it's going to be 1 hour in the pressure cooking followed by 10 minutes on the grill and it might just be incredible, because these were so good.... so tender... perfectly cooked ribs.  Now I need the best BBQ sauce I can get and we'll see where we end up!  Looking forward to that, and I hope you are too!  

As always... your comments are welcome!

June 8th - Cook's Illustrated Cookbook - Tuscan-Style Garlic-Rosemary Roast Pork Loin

June 8th - Cook's Illustrated Cookbook - Tuscan-Style Garlic-Rosemary Roast Pork Loin - One of the definite joys I get in this world is putting together a good meal.  Good meals are a combination of a lot of things, not the least of which is the foundation of intention that goes into them.  We appearing humans have a lot of energies running through us, and being an artist in any realm means sensing, balancing, and transmitting those energies out into the world in a form or expression. 

Cooking is one such expression.  Not many people would tell you to learn to breath and to use energies of intention and purpose in your cooking... but I will!  Through meditations of various sorts, I gather energies in my body and transform them into useful forms so I can express my art (in this case, good cooking) with ease.

Enough about all that, let's talk about Tuscan Style Pork!  So I had this boneless Pork Loin in my freezer from Costco, and I decided to finally use it!  And I looked around at a bunch of recipes and came up with some ideas.  I'm listing the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (from the Cooks Illustrated folks) in the title because they gave me the inspiration for the garlic and rosemary.  

Now let me tell you about this meal.  It turned out absolutely fabulous, a real treat.  We ate it with the family last night out on the porch and it touched us all emotionally.  That's what the best meals do, right?  There are some things I think could be improved.   For instance, I think the roast loin could be cooked Sous Vide and we would have had more tender pork cooked perfectly all the way through.  That's what I'm going to try next time.

So here we go...

We started with about a 4 pound pork loin.  Cook's Illustrated folks tell you to use one with bones, but I didn't have one with bones, so there wasn't much I could do about that.

Brining the Pork

There is a method in the book where you submerge the pork in a brine liquid in the fridge for 2 hours... I didn't do this.  Instead I used my handy syringe and injected salt water brine into the pork in many places.  I've never really figured out if this works very well.  The Modernist Cuisine folks do it all the time.  I've got to eventually learn about brining, because I really know next to nothing.  Never the less, I injected salt water into the pork.

Paste - Garlic - Rosemary

So next I made a paste of 2 tablespoons of minced garlic (I got mine from a jar, but you could use fresh), three or four sprigs worth of fresh rosemary leaves chopped up, a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and some pepper and salt.  

Brown the Loin

I patted the Pork Loin dry and heated some Olive Oil.  I then browned the Loin fat side down in the oil for a 5-10 minutes.  I took the loin out and set it on the cutting board.  I cut holes in the loin with my knife and stuffed it and slathered it with the Paste.

In the Pan

In the pan with the olive oil and the juices from the pork, I heated it up, added 2-3 more sprigs worth of rosemary leaves, then an onion (I used a red onion of all things) and cooked them down a bit.  Then I added white wine.  I used Pinot Grigio, which I don't think is a 'dry'  white wine.  Well, maybe it is, I found a Blog about it:  Wine Folly.  Yes indeed Pinot Grigio is a dry white wine.  What do you know?  Though they suggested I use a Chardonnay for Pork.  Oh well.

I cooked this mixture together till the wine reduced and tasted amazing.

Dutch Oven

In a dutch oven I layered in some carrots.  Then put the pork loin on top of the carrots. I then added the white wine mixture of onions.  I think added a few more splashes of wine.  Then I put the whole thing in the oven at 275.  I wanted to cook it slow.

It would be at this point where next time I'll put the whole thing in a bag and Sous Vide cook it slowly to the perfect temperature of 140 degrees

In the oven I had a hard time getting to 140, I had to eventually increase the heat to 325, and then it over shot the 140 mark to 155 which is overcooked.  Damn it.  (It still tasted wonderfully, but we can do better and I'm convinced Sous Vide is the way to do it!)

You take the roast out and let it sit for 15 minutes, best covered in tented foil.

Sauce

So I heated some olive oil while the roast was sitting, and added 2-3 more sprigs of rosemary to the oil and four small shallots chopped up!  Then I slowly added Chicken Broth, probably 1-2 cups, maybe more, then boiled it. I added the accumulated juices from the pork as well as lots of the juice from the wine mixture the pork just cooked in.  I cooked this mixture for 5 minutes or so and it was the most wonderful gravy.

Carrots and Onions

So the carrots and onions that the Pork Baked in were a side dish and the carrots just tasted AMAZING.

Mashed Potatoes

My daughter made Mashed Potatoes which went with the meal perfectly!

We ate outside with the family and it was just wonderful. One of the better meals.  Just so perfect.  I will say again however that next time I'm Sous Vide cooking it so the meat is just perfect. 

[I'll let you know one day when I do that and come back and add a link to this post pointing to the new recipe]

Again, this was a fantastic meal.  Thanks to the folks at Cook's Illustrated for some of the ideas that inspired this!

May 29th, 2013 - Wednesday - Modernist Hamburgers

Modernist Hamburgers****

So last night I did indeed make the Modernist Hamburgers! There are a ton of variations on this... and I didn't use most of them.  But I will tell you what I did.  This is something I definitely will make again, and I will certain refine it greatly.  I took the base of the recipe from the Modernist Cuisine at Home book.

I bought 9 Angus Beef 1/2 pound premade patties at Smith's Grocery.  I asked them if they could grind me a specific mixture of meat I wanted, but they needed me to buy 14 lbs of the stuff to make it worth while.  So I'm going to have to invest in a grinder.  Without that I just bought the premade patties.

I salted them and put them in refrigerator for 1 full hour (covered with saran wrap) while I heated the water bath to 55 degrees Celsius.  I prepared 9 small zip lock bags, putting a teaspoon of vegetable oil in each one.

At the end of the hour... took the meat out of the refrigerator and put one each in the nine zip lock bags.  I dipped the bags in a pot of water to get all the air out (this is explained in depth in the Modernist Cookbook).  Then i put them right into the water bath.  I let them list there for about 2 hours. It said it takes about 45 minutes for them to be done, but... i let them sit longer. It doesn't hurt.  They can't get overcooked.

I got some buns, painted them with melted butter, and browned them under the broiler. I managed to overcook them slightly.

Then I pulled the hamburgers from the bags, dried them, and dropped them in a basket of boiling Vegetable Oil to deep fry them for 30 seconds.  I took them out, patted them dry, salted them again, and put a piece of cheese on top (I used Tillamook Sharp Cheddar).  Once all six were deep fried, I then put them under the broiler with the cheese for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.  It melted the cheese nicely.

Then... we took them out and started building our burgers.  The reviews were outstanding... but there are a few areas I want to explore to expand on the taste.  First I want to grind my own meat and use my own meat blend. I want to season the meat as I want to season it.  I want to make homemade hamburger buns as the Modernists suggest. I want to try grilling the meat instead of deep frying when ti comes out of the water bath.  I want to use a Modernist Cheese making method for cheese! Yes, I know... quiet ambitious!  We'll get there and I'll report on it all!

Till then, this version was fantastic.  Perfectly cooked meat with condiments was just amazing.

May 28th, 2013 - Chef Paul Prudhomme Tradition - Sausage and Spinach Jambalaya

So we cooked a couple Chef Paul Prudhomme recipes from Seasoned America last week and I decided to go ahead and just make my own... an on the spot recipe made by me.  It turned out so good, I was told I needed to include it as a repeat (4-5 Star) recipe in the Smith Family Cookbook!

We are going to called this meal: 

Sausage Jambalaya****

Jambalaya's are traditional meals from Louisiana (Creole) that have French and Spanish influences.  The basic idea is to cook meat and vegetables, add stock and rice, and cook.  That's the basic idea, and I do this with a lot of variations. This is a sausage variation, with the strange addition of spinach...

SEASONING MIX
1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon of Onion Powder
1 teaspoon of Salt
1 teaspoon of black ground pepper
1 teaspoon of white pepper
1 teaspoon of red cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 teaspoon of rosemary
1 teaspoon of ground pasilla 

Now we won't use all the season mix, but this is the ratios I used.  

INGREDIENTS
1 tube of Jimmy Dean Sausage (Regular)

4  Evergood Hot Link Sausages Louisiana Brand (Slice them up) - I got these at Costco.

1 red bell pepper (you can use green, I think the red taste better)

4 stalks of celery (chopped)
1 handful of baby carrots or just 2 big chopped carrots
1 bunch of green onions
1 bunch of spinach (washed and stems cut off)
1 cup of rice
1 can of diced tomatoes
Chicken Broth

DIRECTIONS

I started by browning the Jimmy Dead Sausage in a big pot. I added 2 teaspoons of the seasoning mix.  Once cooked I added the sausage (sliced).  I cooked that a few more minutes.  Then removed all the meat to a paper towel lined plate.

I then added to the same pot (with the sausage fat in it) the diced bell pepper, celery, and carrots.  Add 1 o 2 more teaspoons of seasoning mix.  Cook about 5-7 minutes, till you feel the vegetables look good.  Then add the diced green onions cook a minute, then add the can of tomatoes... cook another minute, then add the cup of rice and cook 3-5 minutes, till the rice is good and brown.  Then add the spinach (washed and stems cut off) add the ground sausage and Louisiana hot links back into the pot and then add stock.  I think I added 6 cups of chicken stock, but you'll have to figure this out for yourself, as you want a good amount. 

Bring to a boil...

Then cover and simmer 20-30 minutes. I had too much stock so I had to simmer longer.

It was... AMAZING.  4 stars. I'll cook it again, and we'll see if it eventually becomes a classic, a 5 star family recipe!  Let me know how it turns out, and let me know the variations you make.  This was a keeper.

Next we have Modernist Hamburgers.... that's for tonight!  Hopefully the recipe will come tomorrow!