Inspector Poirot and the case of Gigot a la Moutarde

There are a few dishes that will instantly take me back to my childhood.  Pork with whisky soy sauce and sour crème.  London broil with Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes, and my mothers chicken soup.  But this one was my favorite.  After some detective work that made me feel like Inspector Poirot, that had my mother go through books, only to find that very recipe I needed was unreadable due to wine spillage (must be a Fash family gene), I found myself at the library going through a Julia Child cookbook.  Gold.  After a quick trip to the photocopier I was home free.  I have made this a few times and the only thing I can say is…good lord that is good… and sooooooooo simple.  Funny, how the simple things are always the best.  I would not go so far as to call this peasant food, but it is so simple, and if your history is as poor as mine (unless it comes to the American corporatocracy and how it has fucked the world… and us) it just may well have been.

I made this for 20 friends for new years eve dinner.  I made two legs, but I will give you the recipe for one 5lb leg as that just seems more reasonable.

Take a 5lb leg of lamb.  Mine had the bone out to make for faster carving whilst trying to serve 20 hungry people, but a bone in cut is more flavor packed.

First make the mustard coating.

Take ½ cup of Dijon mustard

2tbs of soy sauce

clove of garlic mashed

1 tsp of minced rosemary

¼ tsp of powdered ginger

and mix together in a bowl.  Then beat in:

 

2tbs of olive oil to make a crème.

 

Paint the leg of lamb with this magic sauce and let sit or a few hours to take in the flavor.  I like to leave it for at least three or four.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and cook for about one to one and a half hours.  Think less about the time and more about the internal temperature.  Lamb is so beautifully tender, that overcooking it should have you tossed in the clink.  I use a digital thermometer to measure and yank it out at 140 degrees F as it will still raise an extra five or ten degrees after it comes out.  Let it rest for 15-20 min and slice that puppy (or lamb) up.

This is one of those amazing winter/autumn dishes that just sings when it is with roasted veggies, especially parsnips.  Thank you Mum!

 

Lentil Potato Curry Crazy

Curry.  Maybe it is my English roots, or the fact that I have a sick addiction to Indian food… ohhh how I love a lamb vindaloo, but tonight was a big batch of vegetarian curry.  Many people have the wrong idea about Indian food.  Its going to be too spicy.  It is going to be fatty and unhealthy.  Sure I have ventured into some “authentic” Indian eateries and walked out pissed off about a bunch of mushy crap.  But good Indian food, and I mean from people that know what they are doing, can make some fantastic dishes with not 10, not 5, but 0ne or two spices and some great healthy and fresh ingredients.  Indian food to me is an art in blending spices and layering of flavors.  My father, now retired, has all the time in the world to let a good Indian curry simmer and develop.  For myself, time is a little harder to come by which is why I have not experimented too much with this line of food.  But on occasion, I will set into the kitchen with a goal of spice and aroma that leads me to some sort of curry dish.

So in the theme of the month, eating on the cheap, curry is a super way to add tons of flavor to legumes and starches, without breaking the bank.  I poked around at some recipes and stuck my head in the pantry and found some things that worked quite well if I do say so myself.

I sort of went at tonight’s dinner with a blank notepad and a bunch of stuff I had on hand.

1 cup green lentils

4 potatoes (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)

3 tablespoons of curry powder

2 dried habanero peppers (from last years crop)

32 oz of diced tomatoes

one red onion

4 cloves of garlic

3 cups water

salt and pepper

-Bring the water to a boil in a big stew pot and put in the lentils with one tablespoon of the curry powder to cook for 15-20 min.  Add the potatoes and tomatoes to the lentils and simmer.  Heat up a pan and add oil and the sliced onion and saute till soft, then add the minced garlic till aromatic (maybe a minute or two more).  Add this to the big pot and add the rest of the curry powder and some more water to cover the potatoes.  Crush the dried habanero’s and stir in.  Let simmer as low as possible for 45 minutes.  Taste and season.  Done.  Wait, what was I saying about simmering all day!  I had some long grain rice on hand, so I served the curry over the top.

The whole house smelt amazing.  Curry will do that, and of course I made myself a extra large helping that caught me off guard, but the food region of my brain was doing all the talking.  Lentils, potatoes and rice are very filling.  So I have a good amount left, which will come with me for lunch that I will serve over the veggi cutlet I have left over from two nights ago ( I love leftovers.  Sometimes they are even better than when you make it fresh!)  I do believe that this whole curry set me back about $3.50.  This was dinner for two and at least another 4 or 5 servings.  Man, at this rate I can retire in a few months.  Come to think of it.  How come every high school does not offer a “eating at college on a budget” cooking class?  I mean when it come to push comes to shove (please read: when it comes to food or booze), we all know what a college student chooses… freshman and sophomore year anyway.  Maybe I am onto something.

Day One: Veggi Cutlets

So here we go.  30 days, $5 a day, what will come of it?  Will I be sick of beans or will I find new, and inexpensive ways to feed the family while putting money aside for all of the other things a new home owner needs to deal with (and there are many).  So after a super weekend of helping friends join in heavenly matrimony up in Sonoma, sipping great wines and apparently gorging myself on lamb, wild salmon and fresh from the farm produce, I sat down last night to write out a list for the week.  As far as I can tell, I have always been that guy who wanders the aisles looking to see what strikes my fancy or what beautifully marbled piece of meat there is to work with.  So entering the store with a list of items that I had to stick with was something of an oddity.  But I did it.  I did not find everything I needed, but then again, the week is young.  I spent a total of $44, but this included enough lentils to get me through 30 days as well as some spices and oil that I was in need of, that will last far longer than my 30 day experiment.  So right off the bat I realized that as much as a solid spice rack is fun to play with, it is a necessity for the manipulations of the legumes I hope to create.

Tonight turned out well.  Veggie cutlets were the springboard into the cheap eats program (if anyone has a better name for this next 30 days… please offer it up).  I pieced together a vegan recipe, that turned out to be super filling, very healthy, tasty and only cost $2.50 for dinner for two and lunch for us both tomorrow.  Yes $2.50!  Where the hell have I been dropping my hard earned paycheck up to this point?  So I amassed the following items on my counter and got to work.

2 cups garbanzo beans

1 cup of oatmeal (spin through the food processor till a bread crumb consistency)

4 tbs olive oil

1/2 cup vegetable broth

4 tbs soy sauce

6 garlic cloves (minced)

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried sage

I mashed the garbonzo beans and oil in a bowl with a spoon,  combined the oatmeal, thyme, paprika and sage in a second bowl and mixed.  I added the beans and the dried ingredients together and blended then added the veggi broth and soy sauce and worked it in together. I let the moisture get absorbed into the mix for a little while and then made 6 patties.  In an oiled pan I fried them for 12 minutes a side till they were golden brown and aromatic.  I placed them with a simple spinach, onion and vinaigrette salad on a plate and gave them a try.

Yummy.  But they could of used an aoli or yoghurt sauce on top to give it an added dimension and a bit more moisture.  But for a first attempt they were pretty damn good and way below my budget.  So these will be kept in the rotation for sure, and with some kind of sauce, these will be a real hit.

10 Year Thai Rolls

10, maybe even more, years ago I ate a Thai roll that was yummy.  Not a foggy idea why, but today… I thought of it and all I wanted to do was have another.  As I sat at my desk working, my thoughts would inevitably drift to this combination of pork, mint and plum that was ohhhh so good.  But I knew that I was only a short stroll into what the ingredient list actually was.  Ten years is a long time, especially when it has to do with a Thai roll that I ate ten years ago in Ithaca New York of all places.  At the time I was living with Chris who definitely helped fine tune some of my culinary skills.  I can recall a number of times he would pass through the kitchen as I was proudly creating something, only to shove his head in the fridge or make a slight adjustment that made whatever I was making a hell of a lot more impressive (he was training to be a chef… and is now dealing the the world of wine in the Portland Area).  So why now?  Why on a random wednesday in July, many years in the future, would this one thing, this one afternoon of eating, thrust its seemingly ordinary head back into my life.  Shit, I am not Freud, I have no idea.  But what I did know is I wanted, no… I needed this damn pork-plum-mint-wait…wait…wait, peanut, bean threads.. ok its coming back to me.. or I am making stuff up that sounds good?……….. roll.  What was I doing?  I grabbed the trusty Iphone and shot Chris a text.  Nothing.  I left work… Nothing… I walked the aisles at the shop…and there it is.  The reply.  So simple.  Like the roll itself.  Clean, fresh and so simple.  It read “Mint, basil, cilantro, peanuts and coq sauce, aka siracha. Good luck!”  There it was.  All of a sudden I was back in that small kitchen on that second floor apartment on Delaware Ave, Ithaca New York.  As my luck would have it, all I needed was basil (my plant has yet to allow me to pick anything) and mint.  Everything else was at home or, thank you tara, been given to me.

I prep the goods. Julienne the carrot and marinate it in rice wine vinegar. Chiffonade the mint, basil and cilantro. I slice the pork tenderloin into thin slices and season with salt and pepper.  Then heat a pan with peanut oil and toss in the pork and sear, later to add a healthy dose of siracha.  The smell is sooooooo good.  Place a big chunk of bean threads into a pan and pour boiling water over and cover (4 min later, drain).  Julienne a plum and crush some peanuts in the mortar and pestle.  Now all that is left to do is heat water to soften the rice paper wrappers and build the dream.

Lets just say the first two were a great lesson in balance and proportion.  They needed something, or did they need less of something.  Well it took two rolls to get what I was looking for.  A combination of juicy pork with some heat, some tangy yet crispy carrots, the fresh punch from the herbs, and the sweet juice from the plum, all wrapped around the bean threads that needed the dusting of crushed peanuts to  just tie everything together.

So there I was.  Ten years, 2,694 miles (I checked it on mapquest thank you very much), and a million meals away from the last time I ate this, yet it was all right there.  Funny how food will do that.  Take a day that starts out like all the rest and somehow, for whatever reason, transport you back in time and across the globe to a place and time that made you smile.  This is why I love food.  And this is why I keep on cooking.  What will tomorrow bring?  I will just have to wait and see!  And so will you.

Gazpacho for Randi Watson

So poor field hands in Spain sucked down bowls of this stuff to stay cool during the hot summer months.  I get my hands dirty in the garden every so often, but I can do with some gazpacho (going with the spanish spelling as they just were the victors of the world cup…England…England.. anyone there??) at almost anytime of the year, but when it gets toasty this is what I crave.  I recall growing up with my father whipping this up in the sweltering connecticut summers for lunch.  Now that he lives out in the desert it is almost a safety measure to have a big bowl topped with some home made croutons from stale bread lightly cooked with olive oil and nothing more than a dusting of salt and pepper.  Something about that oily crunch that makes the pureed veggies so much better.  Anyway, after the longest and coldest warm-up to summer I have had since moving to Southern California (Can I have my money back please) we finally saw the sun, and the heat kicked in.  The subconscious brain clicked into gear and I found myself loading the basked with red and green peppers, cucumbers, red onions and a few other bits and pieces and heading home.  By the time I knew what I was doing I was deciding if I should add another clove of garlic or not.  Careful here.  The garlic is like a gremlin and gets crazy over night.  What was a hint of garlic in the evening, is a lady deterrent come the next day.  Into the blender went a big cucumber, a red and a green pepper, a red onion, three cloves of garlic, a good splash of rice wine vinegar (for a little sweet, sweet tang), a big splash of hot sauce (or whatever is in the cupboard… or to make your own see earlier post), top up with some veggie juice (I recommend boathouse farms), and fire up the blender.  As that thing is turning a garden into the Ganges, toss in some salt and pepper and start adding extra virgin olive oil.  this gives the gazpacho some body.  Tada, summer lunch and its damn good for you.  Did any high fructose corn syrup sneak in?  Any fat? Hell no.  This is good peasant food, simple and clean.

So why the Randi Watson reference you ask… well first off.. shame on you for not recalling Eddie Murphy’s finest film, “Coming to America” (stop here and add it to #1 on your netflix cue as its a true comedy classic), but a fine friend named Randi asked for the recipe and I have been sloooooooooooow to deliver.  Here it is Randi and tell me if you make changes that make it better.

So here is the long of the short… or the short of the long.. get some fresh veggies, blend them to hell, leave a little of each for a fine dice to sprinkle on top, and please make sure to make fresh the fresh croutons.  Summer is finally  here in Socal.  It’s healthy, tasty, and for those of you on a budget.. its cheap.  enjoy.

Healthy Start

So this time of year everyone is professing their far stretched new years resolutions.  I am going to exercise more.  Eat better.  Save money. Watch less TV. Be more patient.  (Mine is to contribute to this blog on a more regular basis… oh, and all the others I just mentioned).  But how hard it is to say goodbye to those tasty, yet unhealthy treats that every now and again we just have to have.  I have an answer.  KALE.  Kale?  Yes, you hear correctly.  I have a weakness for crispy potato chips.  It must be the way the salt and fat is delivered on a convenient finger manipulatable platform that also has a wonderful crunch.  Whatever the reason, the important fact is that they are not good for you if you consume them frequently.  But here is where kale comes into the mix.  Kale is a beautiful relative of the cabbage that was eaten widely throughout europe up until the middle ages.  It lost a bit of its prominence till World War II, when England and it’s Dig for Victory campaign, promoted its cultivation due to its nutritional value and the ease in which it can be grown.  Bursting with antioxidants and its anti -inflammatory properties, make this a great healthy food item.  But how the hell do we get from greasy potato chips to healthy kale.  Well, turn them into chips and you get the taste of the chip, with the health of the kale.  It is easy, cheap and super fast.  Here is a simple recipe to make some oven baked kale chips, but by all means, the British know what they are doing, so look around and find other ways in which to incorporate it into your weekly rotation.

KALE CHIPS

Bunch of Kale

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

 

Heat oven to 300 degrees F.  Cut the Kale in half and remove the tough stem.  Toss in a bowl with olive oil and salt and pepper, and bake in the over for 45 minutes on a baking sheet.

Mike’s (soon to be) Famous Stuffing

Not to bash American tradition or whatnot, I mean I have lived in the States for the past 26 years, but what is with these bready stuffing that comes to life around the holidays.  If there is any room left after engulfing turkey, potatoes, veggies and all the other sides, what made sense about shoving in heaping mouthfuls of bread.  Growing up with parents that love to cook and did it every night, i have many wonderful memories of great dishes.  Yet one of the few that has always come to the forefront was my fathers super stuffing.  While yes, there is some bread in it, it is mostly onions and pork.  Combine this with sage and garlic and the pearly gates have been opened.  I can not recommend these little flavor bombs enough, and take my advice and double… no triple the recipe as they become even better and more delicious the day after.  Check out the recipe and let me know what you think.  I do have to give ALL the credit to my father, Mike, for passing this one down to me.  Enjoy!

1 package of unseasoned pork sausage (8 links)

4 slices of bread (left out for a day or so to stale)

1 red onion

2 cloves of garlic

3-4 pinches of dried sage

salt and pepper

1 egg

 

**cooking fat or stock to cook them in is a big plus!!!

Pre heat oven to 350˚F (if cooking other things in the oven adjust the times accordingly)

Dice the onion in a food processor (needs to be finely chopped).  Sauté in a pan with a little oil.  Careful not to burn but just brown.  About half way through browning, add the diced garlic.  Put the stale bread in a food processor to make into fine bread crumbs.  In a bowl combine all of the ingredients and mix well.

Make into small patties.  Heat the cooking fat or oil (if making a turkey use some of the drippings/juices for this) add patties.  Cook for 3-5.  Turn and place into the oven for 25 min.

How Lo(Cal) Can You Go

Atlantic salmon in the Pacific? African fish raised in Asia yet eaten in America? Pineapple in New York in December?  The web of commerce is growing longer and stronger with reckless abandon and almost no one is stopping to think of the consequences.  Yes, if you look around you can get almost anything at any time of the year in this great city of ours (LA).  But when it comes to food, should you?  The Los Angeles Times food writer, Russ Parsons, has vocalized the movement of eat sustainably and locally that began back in the 70’s by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame.  Actually, eating locally and sustainable was the ONLY way to eat until just a few decades ago.  Nowadays, massive factory trawlers are fishing in the farthest and most inhospitable portions of the globe to provide food for our tables, and we rarely stop to think of how it got here and at what cost.  

So what type of seafood would you eat from our local shores?  Santa Barbara spot prawns (Pandalus platyceros) are some of the best seafood one can find and they are caught within hours of your plate.  Actually, despite the name, Santa Barbara spot prawns can be found at depths up to 1,600 feet all along the West Coast of America.  The fishery began in the 1930’s when they were accidentally caught as bycatch for octopus.  The fishery was slow to start and spot prawns were only a minor catch fetching no more than $2 a pound through the late 70’s and 80’s.  They were caught using bottom trawlers that had massive amounts of bycatch including many rockfish species that are now in serious trouble.  Furthermore, these bottom trawlers were destroying the very habitat that the spot prawns needed to survive.  In the 1980’s traps were introduced, and in 2003 bottom trawling was outlawed.  While the traps caught far less shrimp than the bottom trawlers, they did not destroy the habitat, reduced bycatch tremendously, and sent the spot prawns price per pound skyward, where today the fisherman can get $12 per pound.  Today there are only 30 fisherman in California licensed to catch spot prawn. These fishermen operate small dayboats, which ensure the money supports the local economy and not some far off multinational corporation that has little connection with the interests of the community. 

The benefits don’t stop there.  The Santa Barbara spot prawns have to be eaten within a few hours of death as they release an enzyme that turns their flesh to worthless mush shortly thereafter.  These small dayboats, run by local fisherman, are the only ones to ensure that this very tasty crustacean will make it to your kitchen still alive and in all its fine epicurean glory.  The peak season is now, but they can be found from February through November at local seafood or Asian markets (I am a lazy blogger… I know).

Santa Barbara Spot Prawns Roasted in Spiced Salt

(serves 2)

•            1 tablespoon black peppercorns
•            2 whole allspice
•            1 bay leaf
•            ½ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
•            ½ teaspoon ground paprika
•            1 pound of Santa Barbara Spot Prawns
•            7 cups of salt*

*Using a coarse salt will make it easier to crack the crust after roasting.                              

Heat the oven to 400 degrees and place the oven racks on the top third and bottom third of the oven.  In a spice grinder (I use my cleaned out coffee grinder) grind the peppercorns, allspice, bay leaf, red pepper flakes and paprika into a fine powder.  In a large bowl, pour the spice mixture over the spot prawns and toss to coat evenly.  In a separate bowl, add salt and 1¼ cups (or a bit more if needed) of water and mix to create the texture of slushy snow.  Line a baking tray with tinfoil and put down a ¼ inch deep layer of the salt mixture large enough for all the prawns to lay in a single layer without touching one another.  Mound the rest of the salt on top making a smooth even layer covering the prawns completely.  Roast for 18 minutes on the bottom shelf, remove from oven and let cool briefly.  Chip or crack around the base of the salt crust with a heavy spoon or knife and lift the top off carefully.  With a dry pastry brush, brush off any remaining salt crystals from the prawns.  Slice lengthwise and serve over julienned cucumbers in a rice vinegar vinaigrette (rice vinegar, olive oil in a 1:3 ratio respectively, fresh ground pepper) Serve immediately.  

Bacon Wrapped Halibut

Halibut…. my favorite fish… to eat…. goes well with so many different flavors and cooking techniques!  I wooed my wife years ago on our first date, by cooking her a halibut with white wine, capers, lemon, scallion number that struck gold.  more on this one in a later post.  But the only comment i can recall from that evening was how impressed she was that i warmed the plates.  who wants cold food when you are lost in “get to know you” conversation?  But i digress.  tonight i took some Alaskan Halibut that was given to me by my good friend Bobbi, who’s son just took a trip to Alaska fishing and brought me back some halibut and a really yummy looking piece of Wild King Salmon!  But i was lazy tonight so i just cut the halibut into 1″ slices and wrapped it in bacon.  I partially cooked the bacon in the pan so it would be crispy with out drying the fish when i put it on the BBQ.  Jammed a toothpick through and viola!  Easy dinner.  And can you go wrong with bacon?

Halloumi Heaven

So who thought that in the middle of Skanor, the southern region of Sweden, I would learn about a fabulous Cypriot cheese.  One of my wife’s good friends from youth, Christel, and her husband Thomas, who is a wonderful chef and is still active in the food world, invited us over for dinner.  The first course was a wonderfully fresh salad of tomatoes and watermelon topped with a grilled, yes grilled, cheese that has a firm texture but a wonderful salty and smoky flavor.  The saltiness of the cheese went so well with the sweetness of the watermelon and the acidity of the tomato that I had to ask what it was.  well I do believe on my third or fourth inquiry I finally remembered the name.  Halloumi, a goat and sheep milk cheese originating on the island of Cyprus.  Due to its higher than normal melting point, it can be grilled or even fried.  So after tasting the super cheese in the last place I would think to find it (thats why people that like food always have something fun to share) I had to search for more recipes.  

What I found was a wonderful and super easy vegetarian recipe that may even fool some of the carnivores out there and is a perfect summer grilling treat.  I paired this recipe with rosemary and garlic chicken and grilled squash… yum.

Whisk together: 6 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of fresh mint (minced), 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard, and one finely chopped garlic clove.  Brush this mixture onto a head of romaine lettuce that has been quartered lengthwise, and onto a red onion that has been cut into 1/3″ rounds.  

on a medium hot grill grill the romaine and onion for a few minutes each side and set aside.  slice the halloumi block into 1/2″ slices and grill for 3 min a side.  Place the onion rings on top of the romaine and place the grilled halloumi slices on top and enjoy… thanks Thomas and Christel, this cheese is here to stay.