Boxing Day 2010

Today I had 5 people over for dinner, including two confirmed meat eaters and a pisco-vegetarian. I have a freezer-drawer full of beef from highland cattle that graze wild in Dutch nature reserves (ordered from Stichting Taurus) so that determined the meat side of the menu.

Hors d'oevres

• Mackerel rillettes 
• Baba ganoujh
• Cranberry Paté
• Cream crackers and melba toast

Starter

• Mimosa spinach salad (with only one mushroom, since that's all I had left! )

Main

• Beef pot pie (minus the cheddar cheese and using Judith Jones pastry recipe)
• Salmon en croute (same pastry)

Sides

• Braised leeks
• Grilled tomatoes

Dessert

• Blueberry Cobbler

The mackerel rillettes, which I made with wasabi instead of horseradish, proved surprisingly popular, and baba ganoujh (Jane Brody's recipe) always goes down a treat. 

I had planned to serve mashed potatoes but forgot to cook them, so I served some bread instead. Both the salmon and the beef pot pie were delicious, although I think the pastry might have been too rich and buttery. I had made the beef stew on Christmas eve and cooked it for another hour today before putting te crust on top. I think the extra wait time did wonderful things for the flavour.

This is the first meal I've ever served in which there were absolutely no leftovers. I rather regret that, I would have liked some leftover beef! I will definitely make the beef again just as a stew. 

Unfortunately, the only pictures are of the braised leeks, which even non leek lovers liked.

Christmas Dinner 2010

The Dutch are not big turkey eaters and they don't tend to eat the same thing every Christmas, although duck, hare, and venison seem to be popular.

Me, I'm a traditionalist and like to have poultry at the center of my Christmas dinner. However, turkey is a bit much for a single person, even with guests, so I'm making chicken. Today's menu:

Mushroom Soup
Dry-brined roast chicken
Bread-potato stuffing

Sweet and sour cippoline onions

Cranberry port sauce

Roasted squash, mashed with butter, salt and pepper

Braised brussels sprouts

Apples in Calvados

Mushroom Soup

This is a lightly-bound soup that depends for its flavour on the mushrooms and a good rich-tasting beef stock, or fond. I use a very good commercial fond, but you can of course use a good home-made stock.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
300 grams mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 red onion or large shallot, sliced in very thin semi-circles
60 ml sherry
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
parsley for garnish

1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil and butter over medium high heat, until the butter foam subsides.
2. Add the mushrooms and sauté until they release their moisture.
3. Add the onion and sauté for another 1 or 2 minutes.
4. Add the flour, sherry, and thyme and continue to cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add the beef fond, and simmer for  15-20 minutes.
6. Serve and garnish with parsley.

Apples in Calvados

This recipe comes from a cookbook put out by the largest supermarket chain in Holland, Albert Hein. It is a simple, light dessert that can be made a bit richer by serving it with ice cream. I got it from my aunt, and she is the one who is making it today.

2 apples
100 ml calvados
1 packet vanilla sugar*
3 tablespoons sugar
grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, ice cold

1. Peel and core the apples and cut them into 6 slices.
2. In a saucepan, bring the calvados, vanilla sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice to a boil.
3. Add the apple slices, lower the heat, and cook gently for 10 minutes.
4. Spoon the apple slices into dessert bowls.
5. Beat the butter into the warm calvados sauce and then pour over the apples.

* If you can't get vanilla sugar, try adding a teaspoon of sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract.

Chicken with Pomegranate

I recently acquired a new item for the kitchen—a lovely enameled cast-iron cocotte from Staub.

Of course, a new pot requires a new recipe, so I decided to break open a tome that has been sitting on my shelves for years and getting no use.

The Silver Spoon is supposedly the Italian bible of cooking, and it contains a huge number of recipes, but the layout and instructions are not inviting. The instructions are written in one long paragraph, which is a pain to follow when you're half way through and need to check something. Worse yet, instructions can be incomplete, unclear, and quantities imprecise. Even for someone who doesn't always follow instructions and quantities to the letter, this can be frustrating.

But it does seem such a waste to have it sitting there, not getting spattered by water, wine, and sauces. So I decided to make Gallina alla Melagrana. Well, actually, I adapted it. The recipe calls for roasting the chicken whole, but I decided to cut it into pieces and braise it in the oven. I also add the soaking water from the soaking the porcini mushrooms, which the recipe does not call for.

The pomegranate was an interesting feature. The seeds are both tart and sweet, and the resulting dish reminded me of having cranberry sauce as an integral part of the chicken. I liked it.

Chicken with Pomegranate

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 chicken, cut into pieces
2 small onions
20 grams dried porcini mushrooms
4 pomegranates
1 cup cream
4 leaves of sage (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Heat half the butter and oil in a casserole, Dutch oven or other dish that can go from stove-top to oven.
3. Fry the chicken pieces, turning them from time to time until browned.
4. Add one onion, whole, to the chicken, sprinkle a little bit of water on it, and roast in the oven for 50 minutes.
5. Put the dried porcini in a bowl and pour on boiling water to cover. Let it stand and soak for 15 to 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, cut the pomegranates into 6-8 segments and scrape the seeds into a pot or large bowl, using your fingers. 
7. Reserve some seeds for garnish and crush the rest with a potato ricer to extract the juice. (Since I don't have this, and my potato masher didn't do a great job, I ended by just squeezing the seeds with my hands and pressing them through a sieve. The seeds still retain a fair amount of flesh so they still look good when added to the dish at the end.)
8. After about 45 minutes, take the chicken out of the oven and add the pomegranate juice, pouring it through a sieve, and reserving the seeds. Return the chicken to the oven.
9. Chop the remaining onion, and sauté it in the remaining oil and butter for about 5 minutes.
10. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid, and add them to the frying onions. Cook for another 10 minutes and then add them to the casserole.
11. After 50-60 minutes in the oven, the chicken should be tender, at which point you can remove it to a plate along with the whole onion. (I like chicken to be very well done and the leg meat to almost slip of the bone.)
12. Chop the onion, and return it to the casserole.
13. Put the casserole on medium heat on the stove, add the reserved mushroom soaking water, and reduce the liquid by about half.
14. Add the cream and sage and heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
15. Pour the sauce over the chicken and garnish with reserved pomegranate seeds. 

Greek Onion-Leek Pie

Last  week I saw a recipe in my daily paper for a onion, leek and feta pie. It sounded really appealing, and it did turn out to be very tasty. The original recipe called for phyllo pastry, but my local Turkish greengrocer didn't have it so I used something similar that they did have. The pastry leaves are less thin and fine but also don't dry out as quickly. You also don't need to use as many layers (2 on the bottom, 2 on the top.)


I think I didn't put quite enough dill in the filling. It really can stand a lot. I also think that this recipe could  do well with one or two eggs added. I reduced the recipe by about one third, but it still ended up being enough for 4-6 servings.


Update: I've now made this recipe a number of times. I've used oval, square, and round dishes, I've made self-contained packets, I've used phyllo dough instead of yufka dejblade (as it's called). I've adopted Kaye's tip of sprinkling sesame seeds between the dough layers. It always works. 

Greek Onion-Leek Pie

10 leaves phyllo pastry
olive oil
2 large onions
2 large leeks
4 green onions
salt and pepper
200 grams of feta cheese
6-8 tablespoons of fresh dill, chopped
3-4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons sesame seed

1. Cut the onions in half and slice them thinly. Slice the leeks in rings, including as much of the green as is tender. Slice the green onions in rings. Sauté the onions in the olive oil at medium heat until translucent.
2. Add the leeks, green onions, and salt and cook until tender. Turn the heat down to medium low and add a bit of water if the vegetables threaten to turn brown. Let them drain in a colander.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
4. Crumble the feta cheese, and mix in a bowl with the vegetables, chopped dill, and breadcrumbs. Add salt and pepper to taste (I like lots of pepper!)
5. Grease a square or oval casserole or baking pan with olive oil. 
6. Working with 1 leaf of phyllo dough at a time, use a pastry brush to lightly oil each leaf with olive oil. Lay 5 oiled leaves in the bottom of the casserole, with the leaves overhanging the sides. 
7. Spoon in the onion-leek-feta filling, smoothing it out. Fold the overhanging phyllo leaves over the filling, and lay the remaining phyllo leaves over top. Tuck the overhanging edges under, then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
8. Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown.

Squash Mushroom Risotto

"I'm late, I'm late", as the white rabbit cried. I have to catch up on some recent recipe experiments, and since we're deep into fall, I'll start with some warming comfort food.

This is another story of leftovers. I had a container of squash, some homemade chicken stock that got defrosted by mistake, and some mushrooms that had seen better days and needed to be used up NOW. I've seen recipes for both squash risotto and mushroom risotto, so that was my inspiration. Risotto is such an adaptable base for all kinds leftover variations. I can imagine it for leftover pumpkin from Halloween (maybe reduce the stock, since pumpkin has a higher moisture content than squash, and use fresh sage as a flavouring).

These days I don't actually follow a recipe for risotto, just a technique, but I provide some standard measurements in this 'recipe'. I'm afraid the measurements are approximate.

Squash Mushroom Risotto

3 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion
3/4 cup risotto rice
1/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups squash
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cups cooked squash
1/2 cup grated sharp cheese (I used aged Gouda)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the chicken stock and keep it simmering as you cook the risotto.
2. Cut the onion in half lengthwise, and chop one half finely and the other half in thin half rings.
3. In a cast iron or non-stick skillet, heat the butter, add the rosemary spring, then the mushrooms.
4. Fry the mushrooms until they start releasing their moisture, then add the onion half rings. Continue to fry until the mushrooms and onions begin to brown. Then set aside.
5. In a heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil and sauté the chopped onions until glassy.
6. Add the rice, stir and cook for a minute.
7. Add the wine, stirring constantly.
8. When it is absorbed, add a ladle of stock, and continue to stir as it is absorbed.
9. Repeat until the rice is almost soft, with just a little bite at the core. It will probably take about 20 minutes and use all the stock to get to this point.
10. Add the cooked squash to the rice, mix thoroughly  and heat through.
11. Fold in the grated cheese until it melts.
12. Remove the rosemary spring from the mushrooms and onions.
13. Serve the risotto topped by the mushrooms and onions.

Out of the Kitchen

There haven't been any new posts for the last two weeks because I've been enjoying real Italian cooking in Turin and Liguria, and Provençal cooking on the Cote d'Azur.

Manorola, Cinque Terra

Of course there were a couple of pizzas, lots of pasta, lots of local wine, a real homemade tiramisu, spicy sausage, local olives, and the aperitivo.

The aperitivo is a Turin institution featuring a drink and some little bites to eat at around 7:00 pm. In many places, those little bites become a complete buffet of tasty offerings. One of the best places we encountered was at Cafe Roberto where you can pile your plate high and get a drink for the princely sum of 7 euros. It included everything from grilled eggplant, variously flavoured focaccios, fritatas, pastas, and risottos to desserts that incuded tiramisu!

Italians tend to eat late and I have discovered that I really can't make it from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm without something to eat, so the aperitivo was my lifebuoy (and that of my companions. I get extremely irritable if I'm not fed and watered regularly! ) After a long day of sight-seeing, walking, and driving twisty-turny roads, settling down with a glass of wine and a little plate full of goodies was heaven.

Turin from Monte Cappuccini

Heaven also included chocolate and ice cream. Turin introduced us to hot chocolate that was closer to a thin chocolate pudding than the milky cocoa drink we are familiar with. It was luscious and gorgeous. And then there were the world-famous Gianduiotti chocolates, and gelatto from Grom.

Turin is home of the Slow Food movement and has a big food and wine fair every two years. It's such a beautiful city, with elegant spacious piazzas and beautiful baroque buildings, that it might be worth returning in 2012 in time for the Salon de Gusto and Terre Madre conference.

Saag Paneer

I love spinach in all its guises—fresh in salads, with a boiled or poached egg and dried potatoes, in soups, and especially in saag paneer, the lovely curry of spinach with homemade cheese. (Apparently saag is any kind of leafy green and palak is more specifically spinach.)

In contrast to most saag paneer/palak paneer recipes I see these days, I don't believe in using frozen spinach or baby spinach for this dish. It needs to cook for a while with some pronounced spices, and for that you need a sturdy spinach. Besides, I  like the greens to retain some of their structure, not to be a green cream. I like the 'wild spinach' that I can get at my Turkish greengrocer. I doubt that it is really wild—it's just robust.

Paneer is easy to make, but I sometimes wonder if it's worth the effort and time it takes to make—it is so bland. In future, I think I might try it with those mini mozzarella balls or some pressed tofu.

Saag Paneer

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 liter whole milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon paprika

1 pound spinach
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves, garlic, peeled and minced
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 chili, minced
1 teaspoon cumin, ground
1 teaspoon coriander, ground
1 teaspoon fenugreek, ground
1 tomato, chopped
2-4 tablespoons cream
1/2 teaspoon garam masala

Method

To make the paneer:

1. At least eight hours before you want to use it, bring the milk to a boil. When it begins to bubble, add the lemon juice, take it off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes. The cheese curds will separate from the whey.
2. Line a sieve with three layers of cheesecloth and position it over a bowl. Pour the curds and whey through. (You can use the whey in soups or for other cooking purposes.)
3. Gather the curds in the cheese cloth and twist to get as much moisture out as possible.
4. Flatten the curds in their cloth into a disk, place on a plate, and put a heavy weight on it. I use a cast iron frying pan. Let it stand in a cool place for 4 to 8 hours. Theoretically the fridge is the best place, but as long as it isn't a really hot day, I think you can get away with it at room temperature. 
5. When all the moisture is pressed out, use the paneeror refrigerate it.

To make the dish:

1. Cut the paneer in cubes.
2. In a non-stick pan, heat the oil and fry the paneer, gently turning it to brown on all sides. 
3. Sprinkle with garam masala and paprika and set aside.
4. Wash the spinach. In a large pot, cook it with just the water clinging to it until it wilts. 
5. Drain, squeeze out the excess water, and chop coarsely.
6. Puré the onions, garlic, ginger, and pepper in a food processor with about half a cup of water, or reserved whey.
7. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium high heat, then add the puréed onion mixture. 
8. Cook, stirring constantly for 10 to 15minutes until the vegetables begin to brown, adding a little more oil if necessary.
9. Add a bit of oil, then add the cumin, coriander, and fenugreek, letting the spices fry for a minute or so.
10. Add the spinach, tomato, and cream. Stir, cover, and turn the heat to low. Let cook for about 15 minutes.
11. Add the paneeer, cover and cook for another 15 minutes. 
12. Sprinkle with garam masala and serve over rice.

Turkish Lamb Eggplant Stew

I live in a neighbourhood with a lot of Turkish and Moroccan people and that means that there are also lots of grocery store, butchers, bakeries and restaurants catering to them (and the rest of us!). They provide a much better range of produce and meat than the general supermarkets, and you can buy spices in packets instead of little jars. (I still miss the Bulk Store though!)

Occasionally when I don't feel like cooking supper for myself, I pick up an eggplant-lamb stew for take-out from one of Turkish restaurants. However, I do find it too heavy on the oil, so I've been looking for a recipe that I can adjust  to my tastes. This recipe is an amalgam of several that I have found. As is my wont, I've reduced the salt.

Since I'm incapable of making a stew for one, or even two, I make a big pot and freeze it in individual portions.

Turkish Lamb Eggplant Stew

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 pounds lamb shoulder, cubed (1-2 inch pieces)
2 large onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 eggplants, diced
2 green bell peppers, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 can tomatoes (12 ounces)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 red pepper, minced
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Method

1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat, and brown the lamb on all sides. You may need to brown in batches.
2. Take the lamb out, and add the onions and garlic, sauteing for a few minutes until translucent.
3. Add the the diced eggplants and green peppers, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, as well as the spices, salt and pepper.
5. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the meat shreds easily with a fork.
6. If the stew is too thin, turn the heat to high and cook uncovered for 5 minutes to evaporate some of the liquid.

Serve with rice or crusty bread to sop up the juices.

What to Do with Fresh Figs

You'd think that after living on my own for over 35 years that I would get the hang of cooking for one, I even bought a cookbook called The Pleasures of Cooking for One, which is a pleasant read and has some good sounding recipes, none of which I've made.

So what got into me to purchase a flat of fresh figs, which bruise easily and don't keep well? Of course I ate a few fresh, but that still leaves 14 figs that I had to use up this weekend. Here's what I did.

Fig Compote
This is another fruit recipe from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. The caramelized syrup is very yummy.

1/2 pound fresh figs
1/3 cup butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons honey

1. Preheat the broiler
2. In a cast iron frying pan, melt the butter, brown sugar, and honey for one minute.
3. Add the figs and cover them with the syrup.
4. Put the pan under the broiler for 5 minutes, and stir the mixture occasionally to keep it from burning.
5. Serve the compote hot over pancakes or porridge.  

Fig Cobbler

I also found a recipe on the internet for a fig cobbler with a cheddar cheese lattice crust, which to me automatically puts it out of the running as a cobbler. I thought the combination of a savoury cheese with the sweetness of the figs might be pleasant, but I was distinctly underwhelmed. I tried to punch it up a bit by adding a smidgen of cayenne pepper to the fruit (which was a nice touch), but the fruit and crust just didn't combine well.

Sun-dried Tomato Focaccia

My newly acquired cookbook, Good to the Grain is providing lots of fodder for kitchen experiments.  One of my faults in cooking is that I rarely follow a recipe exactly, even the first time I try it, and the focaccia made with spelt flour was no different. I followed the flour proportions, but since I had a couple of old dried sun-dried tomatoes lying about that I wanted to use, I incorporated them into the bread as well, and I used the soaking water in the starter.

I am noticing with a number of recipes in this cookbook that the amount of salt required is too high, at least for my kind of salt and my taste. The author, Kim Boyce, always specifies kosher salt, which is really just coarse salt. The brand she uses is Diamond Crystal, which is less salty than Morton's. Since neither of these brands is available in Amsterdam, I just use coarse sea salt. Either this salt is much saltier than her brand, or my taste buds are accustomed to much less salt. Either way, I am now halving all her recommendations for salt, and that is yielding much better results.

Rather than baking one large bread, I divided the dough into 3 after the first rise, reserving 2/3 of the dough in the fridge for future baking.

Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia

Yield: 3 9-inch round loaves
Source: adapted from Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce

This produces a flavourful bread with a nice bottom crust. I think the left-over would make excellet bread for panzanella.

Ingredients

2 sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 boiling water

2 teaspoons yeast
pinch of sugar
1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teasoon salt

2-4 tablespoons olive oil for greasing the pan

Method

1. Soak the tomatoes in boiling water for half an hour until soft and the water cooled down to lukewarm.
2. Reserve the soaking water and chop the softened tomatoes into small pieces, about the size of currents.
3. In a large bowl, mix the yeast, sugar, warm water, and reserved tomato water. Let stand 5 minutes until the yeast begins to bloom.
4. Stir in the olive oil, salt, and flours. Beat vigorously and then turn out onto a floured surface. The dough will be quite soft.
5. Knead for about 10 minutes, adding up to 1/2 cup of flour to keep the dough from sticking.
6. Grease the mixing bowl with some olive oil, turn the dough into it and turn it so the whole ball gets covered with oil. Cover with a tea towel and set aside in a warm spot to rise until doubled (about 2 hours).
7. Generously grease 3 9-inch cake tins with olive oil. 
8. Punch down the dough and gently fold in the chopped soaked tomatoes. Divide the dough into 3 pieces. Using your finger, spread the dough into the cake tins to form round flat loaves. Dimple them with your finger. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for another hour.
9. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake the breads for 22-25 minutes. Let the bread cool slightly before serving. 

My New Assistant

I been, 'n gone, 'n done it. I finally broke down and bought a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It is a thing of beauty and I hope it will be a joy forever.

I've been resisting for years because I don't make cakes that often, and I like kneading bread by hand. And it takes up valuable counter space in a small kitchen. I read about all the nifty attachments that turn it into a grater, a grain grinder, a juicer, a vegetable purée-er,  an ice cream maker, a pasta maker. But I've never needed those things before, so why would I need them now? And the cost!

And yet, and yet. Think of all the things I could make that I've never bothered with before. Breads made with unusual flours that I can grind myself, home-made ice cream, pasta filled with vegetable purées.

So I caved, found an online supplier that sold it for way less than cooking stores, and now I'm in love. I love the design, the weight, the power, the sturdiness, the way it's made, and yes, the colour. So far, I've only used it for bread-making, but I really notice that it is giving more loft to the bread.

I've not bought any of the attachments yet, but I will eventually. First I need to bake some more.