MITCH IN THE KITCHEN

red cabbage and carrot slaw

I’ve been into shredded things and crunchy raw vegetable salads lately. Here’s one more for each of those categories. The weather’s finally warming up a tiny bit, and I’m ready to transition from heavy, nap-inducing meals to lighter things. In between all the cookies and ice cream anyway.

1/4 of a medium head of red cabbage, sliced into thin shreds
1 medium carrot, shredded
1/2 small bulb shallot, thinly sliced
handful of chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 teaspoon honey
a few squeezes of lime juice
2 teaspoons olive oil
salt
black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper

Combine yogurt, honey, lime juice, olive oil, salt, and peppers to make dressing. Toss with other ingredients.

gingersnaps with lemon ice cream

milkmadeicecream:

Back to that ice cream sandwich idea. Here’s one we whipped up with lemon ice cream and gingersnaps. I love love love the combination of lemon and gingery baked goods (I used to keep a box of Carr’s ginger lemon creme cookies at my desk, and we’d eat these whenever we could in Berkeley). The lemons were grown by a friend in San Diego, and hand-imported in economy class by my personal fruit smuggler. The hardest part about making these is not eating all of the cookies and ice cream before they’re ready to be sandwiched together in perfect harmony.

<00, Mitch

shortcut chicken tinga

This is without a doubt the tastiest thing I’ve ever made with leftover cooked chicken. Thank you Rick Bayless for the recipe, and John for having the presence of mind to look it up as I chopped some onions thinking I could wing it.

Tinga is a Pueblan stew made with meat (pork, chicken, or beef), chipotle chiles (smoked jalapeños), and tomatoes. The recipe calls for 6 hours of slow-cooking, but we used cooked shredded chicken, let it simmer for about 30 minutes, and it tasted juuuuuust fine. You can also go the traditional route by starting with raw meat and letting it soak up all the flavorings as it cooks. Added bonuses are minimal prep work and a short list of very accessible ingredients. And it’s great for feeding a crowd.

(adapted from Rick Bayless, Mexican Everyday)

2 medium (about 1/2 pound) red or Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I left this out)
half of a 3-pound whole roasted chicken, meat shredded
15-ounce can of whole or diced tomatoes in juice (preferably fire roasted, but if not, it’s ok)
1 to 2 canned chipotle chiles, sliced 1/4-inch thick (seeded if you want it mild)
2 teaspoons of the adobo sauce from the canned chipotles
several dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (the Mexican kind if you have it)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 medium onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick
decent amount of salt

My stovetop version:
Put everything in a large pan (break up the tomatoes) and bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low and cover, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes.

If you have a slow-cooker:
Spread the potatoes over the bottom of the slow-cooker and top with a 1-pound piece of boneless pork shoulder, boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or boneless beef chuck. Mix tomatoes and their juice with the chipotles, adobo, Worcestershire, oregano, garlic, onion, and about 3/4 teaspoons salt. Pour the mixture evenly over the meat and potatoes. Cover and slow-cook on high for 6 hours. Spoon off any accumulated fat before serving. You could also double the recipe; might as well if it’s going to take several hours.

If you don’t have a slow-cooker but have a Dutch oven or other heavy pot:
Lay the meat in the pot and top with the potatoes. Cover with sauce mixture, set the lid in place and braise in a 300-degree oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until the meat is tender. Might as well double the recipe for this method too.

When you’re ready to eat you can top the tinga with a few ounces of freshly fried Mexican chorizo (casing removed and totally optional). Serve with warm tortillas, crumbled cotija cheese, and sliced avocado. Or sandwich it all in some crusty bread.

celery salad with peanut dressing

Ah, my first real snow day here in New York. I narrowly missed previous two major storms of the season by escaping to the warmer climes. Classes have been canceled today, and the exam I was ready to take this morning has been postponed until next week. It’s too bad I have an assload of studying left to do for another exam next week, because this is a perfect day to curl up on the couch with a big pint of chocolate stout and burn through my dusty batch of Netflix DVDs.

I have also resisted the urge to make a batch of cookies and/or (most likely would’ve been “and”) a huge pan of something else baked and gooey but cheesy (like macaroni and cheese, or lasagna, or a deep-dish pizza). Instead, I had a sandwich and a light and crunchy celery salad. There is still one more meal left in the day though…

5 celery stalks, thinly sliced crosswise
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 very small shallot bulb, finely minced
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon olive or vegetable oil
salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper (optional)
water (just enough to thin the peanut butter out a tiny bit)
raisins

Combine everything except the celery and raisins to make the dressing. Then toss with the celery and raisins.

lasagna

Are you sick of all this fresh pasta yet? Because I’m not. Newly engaged and timelessly awesome friends Valentina and Chris came over for dinner and men’s figure skating last weekend and we nearly polished off an entire 9 by 13-inch pan of lasagna while gawking at Johnny Weir.

I put a lot of stuff in this lasagna. It was a little bit improvised and by no means traditional. And it took a long ass time to make, but it was well worth it. You could go a million different directions with this, but from what I’ve read, Bolognese purists use only meat sauce, a white sauce, and spinach pasta sheets.

Meat sauce
Fry 3 ounces of finely chopped pancetta in a large pan with a little bit of olive oil over medium heat. Remove and leave rendered fat in the pan. Add 1 medium onion, 2 celery ribs, and 1 medium carrot, all finely chopped. Season with salt and pepper. When onions are translucent, add about 1 to 1 1/4 pounds ground meat (beef, pork, veal, turkey, or a blend). Brown meat, breaking up chunks. Add 4 cloves minced garlic, about 1 cup chopped mushrooms, a big pinch of thyme, and 1 small can of tomato paste. Mix it all up pretty evenly. Add about a cup of dry white wine, a cup of broth, and a cup of milk. Let simmer for about an hour. (This part can be done ahead of time.)

Other ingredients:

Fresh pasta sheets (homemade or store-bought), cooked in boiling salted water for just a few minutes (unless you’re using the no-boil stuff)

Béchamel (besciamella, white) sauce - Melt 3 tablespoons of butter, add 3 tablespoons of flour and whisk until smooth. Season with salt, pepper, and a bit of nutmeg. Gradually add about 2 cups of milk, whisking until smooth. Cook until thickened, stirring often.

About 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of spinach, blanched

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spread some bechamel on the bottom of the baking pan. Top with sheets of pasta. Add a layer of spinach and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle about 1/4 of the bechamel on it.

Cover with another layer of pasta, arranging sheets perpendicular to the first layer. Add meat sauce, bechamel, and another layer of perpendicularly-placed pasta. (You can repeat and make more layers if you want.) Pour remaining bechamel over the top.

Cover pan with foil and bake for about 40 minutes.

Remove foil and top with about 8 ounces of thinly sliced low-moisture mozzarella (not the really white fresh kind) and/or a bunch of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Bake for another 15 minutes, or until the top is bubbly and brown. Sometimes I get impatient and crank the heat up to 450 until the cheese gets brown enough. Let sit for 15 minutes before digging in.

lemon meringue bars

These pretty Meyer lemons are from John’s trip to San Diego last month. They’re a cross between true lemons and some type of orange, so they taste a little sweeter than “regular” lemons. While I’ve made limoncello, hot toddy ice cream, and lemon-shaped lemon pancakes with lemon curd in the past, I thought I’d try something different this time: lemon meringue pie. I used this recipe, which calls for an un-fussy graham cracker crust. Then I put everything in a 9 by 13-inch pan instead of a pie plate and called it “bars” instead of “pie”.

The result? Weepy, under-whipped and under-baked meringue. Sigh. I’ll have to take another shot at this sometime.

meatless sandwiches

One of my favorite things about working from home is making fresh lunches for myself. (My other favorite thing about this arrangement is not having to wear pants.) Instead of soggy sandwiches that have been sitting on my desk all morning, I can enjoy warm, toasted bread and not pay like $7 for it at some deli. You already know about my beet and goat cheese sandwiches. Here are two more that are vegetarian- (and airplane- and office- and wallet-) friendly. They don’t emit embarrassing smells the way hard-boiled eggs and tuna do, and they cost no more than about $2.50 each to make.

Hummus and Stuff (photo above)
Smear hummus on both sides of a multi-grain roll. I like to leave a border around the edges so that the hummus doesn’t all squish out when you take a bite. Add sliced peppers (and/or cucumbers… anything crunchy and not too drippy, basically) and sliced sharp cheddar cheese or crumbled feta. And maybe some olives?

Broccoli Rabe and Mozzarella (photo below)
Saute a lot of broccoli rabe with olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Pile on a sesame roll with sliced fresh mozzarella.

spaghetti alla puttanesca

Yummy dish, dirty name. “Whore’s spaghetti” has a sauce made from easy pantry items: canned tomatoes, olives, capers, red pepper flakes, and anchovies. Wikipedia includes three theories for how spaghetti alla puttanesca got its name:

• An Italian restaurateur found himself with hungry guests who had dropped in late at night. The ingredients he had on hand were limited, but his guests insisted that he use whatever garbage was around (using the word puttanata, which translates to “garbage” but comes from the word for “whore”). Interestingly, this origin story (the last-minute improvisation) is also thrown around for Caesar salad and the reuben sandwich, to name a few.
• Back in the 1950s, brothels were state-owned in Italy (wha??). Prostitutes were were only allowed to go to the market once a week, so they had to create meals using odds and ends from the larder.
• This is a dish that’s easy, quick, and cheap enough for prostitutes to whip up in between turning tricks.

Well, it’s easy and tasty enough for us ordinary non-prostitutes too. Though my John (omg get it? gross) and I over-achieved a bit by making fresh spaghetti with that brand new pasta machine that I can’t get enough of.

gougères

I think I have a new favorite thing to bake. Gougères are a savory pastry made with pâte à choux (the stuff used to make cream puffs and eclairs) and Gruyère cheese. John and I take the “serve fresh out of the oven” instructions very seriously; we can wordlessly polish off a hot tray of these in record time.

This recipe is from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of several fine cookbooks and food magazine subscriptions I received over the gift-heavy months of December and January.

1 cup water
6 tablespoons of butter (3/4 stick) cut into pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of nutmeg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups finely shredded Gruyère cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Bring water, butter, and seasonings to a boil in a 1 1/2 or 2-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan. Boil slowly until the butter has melted. Meanwhile, measure out the flour.

Remove water and butter mixture from heat and immediately pour in all the flour at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spatula or spoon for several seconds to blend thoroughly. Beat over moderately high heat for 1 to 2 minutes until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and the spoon, forms a mass, and begins to film the bottom of the pan.

Remove saucepan from heat and make a well in the center of the paste with your spoon. Immediately break an egg into the center of the well. Beat it into the paste for several seconds until it has absorbed. Repeat with the rest of the eggs, mixing in one at a time until the paste is well blended and smooth. Mix in 3/4 cup of the cheese.

Scoop small spoonfuls of the paste (about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter) about 2 inches apart from each other on baking sheets (you’ll probably need 2). Top gougères with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until puffs are golden brown and have doubled in size.

Remove from the oven, and pierce each gougère with a small knife. I think this is supposed to let steam escape so that the puffs don’t get all soggy. Set in the turned-off oven and leave the door ajar for 10 minutes. I don’t know what this last part does or how necessary it is, but I had the patience to do what Julia Child instructs, and the result was good. Then stuff your face with these delicious little things.

Instant update from Miguel D:

if you want to do it up one step, after piercing and setting, fill each gougere with uber-decadent sauce meuniere or bechamel, or even just any simple white cheese sauce.

broccoli rabe with pressed tofu and oyster sauce

I really like the way bitter greens taste with oyster sauce. The steamed greens you order at sit-down Chinese restaurants usually come lightly doused with this slightly glossy viscous brown condiment and nothing more.

I threw leftover broccoli rabe from pasta night together with leftover tofu from my zha jiang mian dinner into a hot pan with garlic, ginger, oyster sauce, and sesame oil to make a quick and easy single-serving dish to go with some rice. That dark blob on top is Yank Sing chili sauce, which also happens to be my favorite condiment for dumplings.