Baked Rigatoni with Little Meatballs

I was not really in the mood to cook today, but I knew it would't be wise to suggest eating out as we had pizza last night and I feel guilty not cooking 2 days in a row. Livy is at a sleepover and Henry has his friend Callum over for a sleepover and I know pasta would satisfy them since that is pretty much what they would prefer to eat 7 days a week, Henry's faux palio diet aside. While perusing my google reader I came across this interesting tasty looking recipe from Smitten Kitchen. So when it was decided on pasta I remembered I had about 1/3 of a pound of ground beef left from hamburgers Thursday night and decided to make my own version of Rigatoni with Little Meatballs.

For the meatballs I used the ground beef and the tiniest egg I had and some leftover artichoke roast garlic bread soaked in milk along with a grated garlic clove (I grate garlic cloves on my microplane grater) and a few grates of parmigiano reggiano. Pinched off pieces and rolled and dusted with flour and browned in my cast iron skillet heated with olive oil to cover. I removed them from pan and swiped the pan with a paper towel to remove any burnt pieces.

I opened a can of San Marzano tomatoes and scooped out the tomatoes leaving the liquid behind. I put the tomatoes in a roasting pan and sprinkled with olive oil, S & P. Put in a slow oven (350) to intensify and concentrate the flavor.

I added the meatballs back to the skillet with some olive oil, grated garlic cloves. I added the remaining liquid from the can of tomatoes and simmered covered till almost dry. The tomato sauce will become very concentrated. Add the roasted tomatoes to the sauce and reduce any remaining runny liquid.

While your sauce is cooking boil a box of rigatoni pasta. Drain the pasta into a colander and make a simple bechamel in your pot: Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter and add 3 Tablespoons of flour and S& P. Stir and cook about 2 minutes without browning. Slowly add 2 1/4 cups of milk (I used half whole and half nonfat). Whisk vigorously while adding. Bring to a boil stirring. Sauce will thicken. Lower heat and let simmer a few minutes to cook the flour. Remove from heat and whisk in a shake or grate of nutmeg and about 3/4 cup grated parmagiano reggiano.

Put rigatoni in a baking pan with meatballs and sauce. Cover with Bechamel. Bake in 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes until browed.

Buon Appetito

xo

Meyer Lemon Bars

Meyer Lemon Bars just went in the oven. I found the recipe over here. I just checked out the blog lauracarmen.com for the first time yesterday. I found it through a link in my feeder called tastespotting that collects food pictures and links from all over the web and the world. Lots of interesting recipes and very pretty food photography. I recommend you check it out too. Don't look when your hungry!

Lemon Bars are out of the oven and cooled and we just tried them. Livy and I both agree that they are a little bitter. This recipe is different than most lemon bars. The directions have you put a cut up meyer lemon, skin and all, minus the seeds in the food processor and pulse till roughly chopped. This is what caused the bitterness. I should have tasted the skin and pith of the lemon before this step. Next time I will leave this step out and add some extra juice. They are still good enough to eat though!!

Pork Stew

My friend DAnny has been raising 2 berkshire pigs and feeding them on the spent grain from the local micro brewery. The pigs are probably about 600 pounds or more. Just after the New Year Danny slaughtered one pig. The day after slaughter he brought the primal cuts and everything else to my house for a day of sausage making, Headcheese and butchery. He also came with 3 very awesome friends, 2 from the Ukraine and one guy from indonesia. We had a long day of cooking and ended up with some very awesome chorizo,german style sausage, blood sausage and head cheese, cured and smoked hams and proscuitto style ham. We also portioned all the fresh meat into family size portions.

Today I am cooking the cut of pork that would be flank on a beef. It is very marbled piece of meat but a little tough. I chopped the meat into 1-2 inch cubes seasoned with grey salt and seared in olive oil in a very hot pan till very brown and caramelized. Then I added 1 course chopped onion, 5 crushed garlic cloves, 1 course chopped poblano chili and a deseeded serano, and 3 course chopped carrots. I deglazed with a little white wine then added about 2 cups water and a few shakes of oregano. Brought to a boil and simmered about 1 hour. Served over rice.

It was very good with a beautiful and tasty clear broth. The meat was dark and rich and the chile's add just a little sweet, mild heat. The kids loved it and since Henry has decided to go on a Palio diet he ate all his veggies and meat, no rice. Since he doesn't quite understand what he is doing and just wants to be like Dad, it didn't bother him that he followed up dinner with a bowl of cheerios and nutella on whole grain bread sandwich. I think he is having a growth spurt. He is very proud of himself today. He started going to bed on his own and reading himself to sleep. He started book 1 in the Bone Series last night, a graphic novel series, and he so proud that he read over 100 pages since he started. I guess it helps that he is suspended from school and has all the time in the world. Whatever, I am happy he is reading and proud of himself, it is just what the boy needs.

Happy to be communicating to you all again.

xo

Missed You, braising beef, and making prepared horseradish

I'm sorry for not posting for such a long time. I've been cooking quite a bit since I last posted, but I was not able to blog. I think it was a mental thing. I actually purchased half a side of organic grass fed black angus beef from my neighbor in late November and I've made some beautiful braised dishes over the cold, wet winter.

At Christmas I received 2 new cookbooks; Ad Hoc by Thomas Keller and Sunday Suppers at Luque's by Suzanne Goin. They are both fantastic and I've used quite a few recipe ideas for my braises. One I especially loved was the Braised Short ribs from Sunday Suppers at Lucque's. The recipe used balsamic vinegar and a whole bottle of wine. It is served with mashed potatoes, horseradish cream and kale. I followed the recipe as written and it was perfect. For the horseradish cream, I used my own prepared horseradish which I made like this: Peel and clean 1 large horseradish root. The root is a very large hairy root. It is very "hot" so be prepared on inhaling that your eyes may tear. Yikes, but it is worth it. Cut the large peeled root into smaller pieces that you can grate in your food processor. Alternately grate by hand. Change to regular processer blade and process grated root with 1/2 cup vinegar and 1 tablespoon sea salt. Transfer to glass jars and press down, add additional vinegar if necessary to cover.

Another braise I did was my own recipe that I threw together and it came out fantastic. I had a bone in chuck roast from my cow. It was huge, about 8 pounds, 3 inches think and 12 inches in length. I cut it in half and browned it in my le creuset one at a time till very nicely browned. Then I added 1 onion, julienned, 2 celery stalks chopped and about 4 large carrots chopped. I also threw in a very generous handful of peeled garlic cloves. I deglazed the whole thing with a full bottle of red wine and reduced by half, then added about 2 cups very rich beef stock (again made from my cow). I threw in a handful of thyme sprigs, a chile de arbol and covered the pot with foil and a lid. I cooked for 3-4 hours in a slow oven, about 300 degrees. Cooked until it broke easily apart with a fork. I served this with wide egg noodles. My intention was to cook this for my family and a friend's husband and kids while I went to knit night at my friend's. The message got crossed and friend's husband and kids ate before they came. Well, they had 2 dinners that night and my friend Linda really would like me to teach her to cook this for her man. He loved it.

Chicken and Cornmeal Dumplings

It's been a long time since I last blogged, father I; went to Disneyland for 4 days, went to a Mika concert, googled and cooked a recipe for kabocha squash and chicken which I will not dare to repeat here, took care of a sick child and...finally cooked a decent meal!

I buy a lot of organic boneless skinless chicken thighs. At Costco now they have it in pre-portioned packages that I freeze and pull out a package in the morning for that evening. It has the perfect amount of chicken for a family of four, sometimes with a little leftover for lunch the next day.

Tonight I cut each thigh into 3 pieces, seasoned with sea salt and pepper and lightly dusted with flour. I browned the pieces in a little olive oil in the dutch oven a few minutes on each side. Then I added a sliced onion, 3 carrots cut in 1 inch pieces, 2 celery stalks a parsnip and a handful of green beans all in 1 inch pieces. I sauteed the vegetables a bit with the chicken then added about 3 -4 cups chicken stock and a few sprigs fresh thyme.

While the veggies were sauteeing I made dumpling batter:

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

scant 1/2 cup milk

1 egg

Blend the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. You can add some fresh, chopped herbs here if you like, such as chives or dill or parsley.

After the stock comes to a boil, Lower heat, check and correct seasoning and then drop dumpling batter by the tablespoon into pot and cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes.

You can make this dish with bone-in chicken as well. Just let it cook a little longer before you add the dumplings.

Julia Child Cooking Club

My friend Fran recently invited me to join a cooking club that was being formed by a friend Jonna, I was asked to invite a friend and I asked Michelle. Two other women were also invited, my friend Heather and a new friend Patricia. The M.O. of the club is to create a menu based on recipes by Julia Child, prepare them in the host kitchen and enjoy them together. Well, we did that last night and it was a pretty fun and filling night.

Jonna hosted at her house not a 1/2 block from the beach. We started in her lush backyard kitchen so Heather could prepare the creme brulee for dessert while we enjoyed appetizers and champagne and got to know one another. We finally moved it inside to start prepping for dinner. The main living/cooking/dining area is on the second floor so we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset view. My contribution was the cheese course so, no cooking there!! Fran made the main dish of Supreme de Volaille aux Champignons or chicken cutlets with mushroom cream sauce. Patricia prepared Pomme de Terre a l'ail, Garlic mashed potatoes. Both of these recipes are from Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 1 as well as the Creme Brulee. Michelle made Courgette aux Epinards, saute of grated zucchini with chopped spinach, this recipe from Volume 2.

I think everyone used a technique or style of cooking in their dish that they hadn't done before; for example, the potatoes had a roux, the chicken cutlets were just rolled in the hot butter briefly and finished in the oven, with no browning and the creme brulee was completely finished on top of the stove in the pot and not baked in the ramekins. Even the vegetable dish was a little different as the spinach was blanched before cooking and the zucchini was salted and squeezed dry of water.

For the cheese course we had "Haystack Peak" an artisinal cheese from Colorado. It is a pyramid shaped goat cheese, slightly aged, with a bloomy rind. I served it with a jam I made this summer of Local Blenheim Apricots and also a few recently harvested walnuts.

Everything prepared was done well and delicious. Lots of great wine too. My only concern was that there was so much richness in each dish, I could hardly communicate at the end of the night. My stomach was in so much pain. I didn't have to eat as much as I did, but I love food and always eat everything on my plate. Just call me Miss Piggy!

Chicken: In the Style of The Hunter

Chicken Cacciatore means hunter style, the french version is called Poulet Chasseur. The dish should include mushrooms, meat broth or sauce and tomato (sauce). This is a favorite of my family and here is my fairly easy version. I always use dark meat because this is a braised dish and I like what braising does with dark meat, where breast meat will often dry out. If you do use the breast you may want to pull it out early in the cooking process and add it later to finish.

In a dutch oven or large pot add about 2 Tablespoons olive oil and heat pan on high. When hot add seasoned chicken, I used boneless skinless thighs tonight, but you can use bone in just as easily. Brown the chicken pieces well. Add 1 chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots, 1 stalk chopped celery and 3 cloves chopped garlic and about 8-10 sliced mushrooms. Saute a bit and if you like add about 1/2 cup red wine and reduce. I also added dry porcini mushrooms because I had them and they add good flavor. To use dried mushrooms, place a handful in a glass bowl and pour boiling water to just cover. When reconstituted gingerly remove mushrooms and strain liquid into the cooking pot. Add soaked mushrooms to pot.

Add about a cup of chicken broth and a can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed and a sprig of rosemary and a few grinds of black pepper. See my note on canned tomatoes here. Bring to a boil, reduce to low and simmer covered till meat is very tender. Remove meat from pot and reduce sauce to a thicker consistency if necessary. Check seasoning. Serve with creamy polenta.