Cooking from the Pantry

Melissa Clark has a great series in the New York Times about cooking from the pantry, and luckily her pantry is very similar to mine. One of her suggestions is to make a basic Pasta Puttanesca and add canned tuna to it. This seemed like a great idea to me, so I made it last night and it was good.

Pasta Puttanesca can be made without a trip to the store if you have the following: pasta, canned tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, olives, capers, and parsley (or other fresh herbs). I keep large quantities of all of the above, so I can always make this dish, and while I don’t always have tuna, I do now due to limiting my shopping trips. 

For two people, this meant about 5-6 ounces of pasta, a small can of tomatoes, as many anchovies as you like—I used three—several cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of capers and ¼ to ½ cups of olives--mine were Kalamata, chopped. Melinda makes hers with a bottled pasta sauce, which would mean even less cooking. I cooked the sauce for about 15 minutes, adding the tuna towards then end. Then I added the cooked pasta to it (and pasta water could be added here if needed), and sprinkled chopped parsley and basil on top. Served it with parmesan, and had enough for someone’s lunch today.

Chicken Divan

I had some broccoli in the fridge the other day and had just unfrozen a very large chicken breast, so I was thinking about what to do with them. I faintly recalled a recipe from my youth (though I am not certain my mother actually made it; I may have just read about it) using those ingredients, and with a little trial and error found some recipes on Google. Now the traditional recipes all seem to call for cream of mushroom soup, and some also include mayonnaise (!!), but I thought I could make a good enough version with a béchamel sauce, with some parmesan on top. So I did, and it was pretty good comfort food, much needed in these times.

Next time I will blanch the broccoli only for a minute, instead of the 4 minutes I did, since it cooks quite a bit when the dish is in the oven. I cut the chicken breast into several thin pieces then floured them and browned in butter and olive oil. I also sautéed 3-4 large mushrooms and then deglazed the pan with 2-3 Tb of sherry. I layered the broccoli, chicken and mushrooms in a gratin dish and poured the béchamel on top—made with about a cup of milk and ¼ cup of heavy cream. Then sprinkled parmesan on top and baked for 25-30 minutes. This could also be done with a firm fleshed fish, such as halibut, and it’s similar to my halibut Florentine, but with broccoli instead of spinach.

Bread Making #2

Yesterday I worked on baking bread. I added some of the started I had made to my current baguette recipe, and it turned out okay, though the sour dough taste was faint--more next time. I also tried a new recipe for whole wheat bread--we have run out of bread!! It was also okay, so I will post picture of the results.

More Garden Therapy

Last week I potted up the herbs I bought at The Garden in Woodbury. The chives from last year made it through the winter in the pot, which I put on my screen porch. I also put rosemary, lemon thyme, and basil in small pots on my kitchen table. Looking forward to real spring and summer!

Last Pot Roast of Year?

Earlier this week I made what I imagine will be our last pot roast of the year. When the weather is warmer, we move to the grill! This was a small chuck roast, slightly under two pounds, as I had used part of it earlier in a beef stew (my favorite in Julia 1, which doesn't require browning!). Here are the ingredients:

2 pounds chuck roast
olive oil for browning meat
2 carrots, sliced or julienned
1 chopped onion
thyme, salt and pepper
1 Tb tomato paste
1 cup red wine
Beef broth as needed
4 ounces sautéed mushrooms

I marinated the meat in the red wine for several hours, turning once, and then dried it and browned it in the pan I planned to cook it in. I then briefly cooked the onion in the pan (possibly added a bit more olive oil?) and then poured the wine marinade into the pan, scraping up the browned bits. I put the meat back in and added enough broth to come nearly to the top of the meat, the tomato paste, and about 1 tsp. of thyme, plus salt and ground pepper. After about 2 1/2  hours of cooking I added the carrots and a bit more broth and wine. I had already sautéed mushrooms, so I added those after three hours and continued cooking several more minutes to warm them up. It would be nice to add parsley at the end for color, or green peas, but I didn't this time.

Now I plan to take the leftover pot roast and turn it into Beef and Barley soup. First, I will soak about an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms in very hot water. Then I will sauté another onion, along with a couple of carrots, two celery stalks, and one chopped potato and add the pot roast (cut into small pieces) and its remaining gravy and vegetables. I will probably add about 2 cups of beef broth and 2 cups of water (including the mushroom soaking water, strained through a paper towel), 1/2 cup of pearled barley and the chopped (rinsed and drained!) dried mushrooms. I will probably also add about 1 Tb of tomato paste, mostly for color. The soup needs to cook for about 30 minutes, until the barley is tender. I like to serve it with a spoonful of sour cream.

Bread Making

I have not come up with a good loaf of bread using my starter. The taste has been pretty good, but the bread has been too dense, and of course bread made with just flour and water doesn't keep long. Today I added a bit of the starter to the french bread recipe I have been using (modified version of the recipe in Volume 2 of Julia Child, substituting about a cup of whole wheat flour for some of the white and much less complicated loaf formation). If good, I will post a picture later. I will also add some of the starter to a very basic whole wheat bread recipe and see how that works. Stay tuned...

Sheet Pan Chicken with Potatoes, Leeks, and Arugula

These days I do a lot of my chicken cooking on a sheet pan, sometimes with a whole chicken and sometimes with just thighs, usually bone-in. Last night I cooked Melissa Clark’s sheet pan chicken with potatoes, leeks, and arugula, but since I didn’t have arugula, I used finely shredded kale—and it worked. It’s supposed to be served with yoghurt with grated garlic, but I forgot to put it on the table—dish was fine without it.

Her recipe is for 4 but since I had a whole chicken and there are just two of us here, I halved the other ingredients in her recipe. I will make a curry or Moroccan chicken dish with some of the leftover chicken, probably the latter since the chicken was marinated in olive oil and harissa. I cut the whole chicken into 8 pieces, removing the backbone, and the timing is about the same as with chicken thighs, maybe just a few minutes more. Here are Melissa’s ingredients for 4:

1½ pounds chicken thighs (My chicken was about 3 pounds)

1¼ pounds small Yukon gold potatoes—I used 3 smallish ones—cut in half and thinly sliced

2 leeks cut in half length-wise and thinly sliced (white and light green, I used one large one)

4 Tb olive oil

¼ tsp ground cumin

2 Tb harissa

grated lemon rind from ½ lemon

3-4 ounces arugula (I used finely shredded kale)

1 cup plain yoghurt with one grated garlic clove

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Marinate the chicken and potatoes for at least 30 minutes in 3 Tb of the olive oil mixed with the harissa and cumin, and add the remaining olive oil and lemon rind to the leeks. Spread the chicken and potatoes onto a large sheet pan and bake for 15 minutes. Loosen the potatoes with a spatula, and spread the leeks over all. Cook another 25 minutes or a bit more if using a whole chicken. Remove from oven and spread the greens over the top. When using kale, I mixed them into the potatoes and juices to coat completely and put it back in the oven for a couple of minutes. That seemed to work. Serve with the yoghurt on top—though I forgot! 

If you can't find harissa, you might try some other type of hot pepper sauce but use a bit less. If I don't have leeks, I do this with yellow onions, and they are fine too. Her recipe adds dill at the end, but I rarely have it. Do give it a try if you have some.

Garden Therapy

It's not really spring weather here, but on April 1 I went to the Garden in Woodbury and bought herbs, lettuce, arugula, and bulbs. Yesterday I planted most of them in some pots, for a bit of spring on my porch--it was great therapy, and I recommend it. My daughter said she bought $20 worth of pansies, just because they were available at the side of the road. It's disappointing not to be able to go to the garden center and wander around looking at plants. but the Garden was happy to take an order over the phone and bring it out to me. I hope they can keep doing it!

Caldo Gallego

Caldo Gallego is one of my favorite soups, and I make it at least once a month, 9 months a year. I pretty much use any kind of greens I have—this time it was radish greens and finally shredded kale since there weren’t enough of the radish greens. Here are the ingredients I used:

2 thick slices of bacon cut into ½ inch pieces, or use pancetta if you have it

¾ cup dried white beans (I used great northern, but canned beans also work)

2 medium Yukon gold potatoes (Idaho works too), cut into ½ inch dice

1 large white turnip, ½ inch dice

6-8 ounces chorizo sliced ¼ inch thick (I used pre-cooked, fresh better)

about 6 ounces chopped greens (turnip traditional)

water or chicken stock as needed.

Cook the beans with water to cover by about 2 inches, time will depend on how fresh the beans are. Mine were old, so I had to add more water and they probably cooked for nearly 2 hours! While beans are cooking, cook the bacon until almost done and then add the chopped onion. Cook until onion softens and then add potatoes and turnip. At this point, I added the beans and their liquid to the pot to finish cooking, but wait if using canned beans or if your beans are already soft. Add about 2 cups of water and/or broth.

Cook the vegetables for about 20-25 minutes and then add the chorizo and chopped greens (and canned beans if using). Add more water or broth if needed and cook until the greens are tender—kale takes a bit longer than others.

Can you make this vegan or vegetarian? Maybe, though the bacon and chorizo add most of the flavor! But you might try one of the Beyond Meat hot sausages, and add some additional hot pepper. And maybe bacon bits? It might work...

Leftovers for dinner

For three nights last week, we had leftovers for dinner. One night was just a quart of split pea soup I had frozen a couple of weeks ago. Nothing to do but heat and serve! Another night I took some leftover pasta sauce (also frozen), a tomato meat sauce with sausage and a bit of ground beef. It also had a small amount of onion, carrot and celery, along with mushrooms, a kind of bolognese. I browned another crumbled sausage with about a half cup of chopped fennel and then added the pasta sauce, a half cup of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and about 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste. I keep a tube in my refrigerator--handy! Also a bit of water. It was pretty good!

I finally used up the pork tenderloin from earlier in the week, maybe 3-4 ounces, in a Asian-style stir fry. I chopped up the pork and marinated it in a mix of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sherry and sherry wine vinegar. I then sautéed some chopped vegetables--2-3 mini peppers, 6-7 white mushrooms, a carrot, a scallion, and a wedge of purple cabbage, plus some more garlic and ginger and some red pepper flakes. When the vegetable were tender, I put in the pork and its marinade and then added some more soy sauce, and about 2 teaspoons of cornstarch dissolved in more sherry. Served with brown rice, it wasn't bad. But after all the leftovers, Tim go a steak last night!

Bread making

A few days ago I mentioned that I was trying to make a sourdough starter just from the air. Well, yesterday I completed my first loaf, and it was moderately successful. It had some sour dough flavor but was a bit denser than I might have liked--the final rise was probably not quite enough.

For this loaf, I followed a recipe in the Greens cookbook, cutting it into a third so as not to waste too much flour. After the starter had been fermenting for three or four days, I made a sponge using about half of the starter and flour and water--in this case all whole wheat. Because my house is cold, I let the sponge sit for nearly 24 hours, rather than the recommended 10-12. Then I added more flour (bread flour this time) and a small amount of yeast, kneaded it into a dough, and let it rise for several hours--this rise was pretty good. The pictures below show the starter about after about 3 days and the finished bread. When I get a loaf I really like, I'll add a recipe!

Bread, after dinner

Starter

A very good cake recipe with FRUIT

This recipe comes from the former acting Superintendent of Schools in Darien, back when I was on the school board there. I included it here years ago, and have made it more times than I can count. A major change today, since I have no fresh fruit, is the use of frozen berries, mostly black berries and blueberries, and the recipe below is just as Darrell Lund wrote it.

Here is a simple but very good cake recipe in which you can use virtually any kind or combination of fresh fruit.

3/4 cup sugar
8 tbsp. butter or substitute
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs or equivalent (eggbeaters, etc.)
1/4 cup mixed sugar and cinnamon (I use a crystallized brown sugar for added texture)

1.  Butter a 9" spring form pan
2.  Cream butter and sugar
3.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and eggs and process thoroughly
4.  Spread dough in spring form pan
5.  Add fruit
6.  Sprinkle with mixture of sugar and cinnamon
7.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 60 minutes (I place cake in lower shelf of oven)

Be very generous in your use of fruit. Press them into dough (which is quite soft). Fresh raspberries are particularly good, as are blueberries. You really can use virtually any fruit, including those from cans or jars when not available fresh. It tastes lightest and best when eaten about 30-45 minutes out of the oven.

The Salad Issue

The Fenton household usually has a side salad for dinner, and during the summer often makes salad a main course, Nicoise salad being the favorite. But at this time of year, there are two or three basic versions, which are now being modified due to less frequent shopping trips.

The first thing to consider, is the salad dressing. I use only olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard (but not always), salt and pepper. Growing up in California, I had salad for dinner most nights, and not just iceberg lettuce. We also had romaine, red leaf, and butter (Boston) lettuce in our salads, along with green onions, tomatoes, radishes, and cucumbers. Salad dressing was olive oil (no extra virgin back then) and red wine vinegar—never any bottled dressing in our house.

I still occasionally make salad dressing the same way when I am in a hurry, lightly coating the salad with oil and then adding vinegar, usually red wine, to taste along with salt (a bit of Malden is nice) and ground pepper. For prepared dressing, I put a scant tablespoon or generous teaspoon of mustard in a jar and mix it thoroughly with about 2 tablespoons of vinegar and a big pinch of salt. Often I mix a couple kinds of vinegar, red + sherry +balsamic for example. Then I add olive oil approximately three times the amount of the vinegar and shake the mixture well. I taste, then add more of whatever it needs—vinegars vary in strength! After tossing the salad—not too much, you don’t want to drown it—I add more salt and ground pepper.

Winter Salad #1

I like to use at least 5 different types of lettuce (or other greens) in my salad, so the first version includes endive and radicchio and 3 or more of the following: arugula, romaine, red leaf, Boston, escarole (especially now as it keeps well and is useful in soups too), frisee, watercress...you get the idea. To the lettuce mix I add chopped apple (about ¼ for two), thinly sliced fennel, chopped nuts (usually walnuts) and dried cranberries. If I have some blueberries, I might through those in as well, and in California I also substituted the firm persimmons for the apple. To this salad I add a good sized hunk of blue cheese, usually the inexpensive Gorgonzola sold at Costco, but stilton is great too.

Heads of lettuce keep much better than the mixes, so I don’t usually buy mixed lettuce unless I am having a big dinner party. However, this winter I have made one exception: I have occasionally bought power greens, which are also useful for soups and stir-fries. For this particular salad I sometimes add a bit of Seka Hill Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar—you can find it if you live in California!

Winter Salad #2 uses a similar mix of lettuces, but I don’t find it absolutely necessary to use the endive. To the lettuce I add whatever of the following I have on hand: scallion or shallot, cherry tomatoes, fennel, cucumber (English ones seem best in the winter. Look for unusual ones in the summer!), avocado, radishes (and don’t forget the greens), celery, carrots, artichoke hearts, you get the idea. I like to have at least 3 or 4 additions. However, according to Marcella Hazan you should not mix carrots and cucumbers in the same salad! This salad also usually gets cheese, as I love it in salad. Sometimes blue, as above, but also parmesan, goat cheese, ricotta salata, or other odd bits.

Other Ideas? Well, I do like a caesar salad, or a variation on one. For me this means croutons, parmesan cheese, anchovies, lemon juice instead of vinegar. For lettuce, in addition to romaine I might use radicchio and escarole and I have also been finding red romaine recently. Baby kale or thinly sliced kale will also work. I do use raw egg in my caesar salad, but if you want to avoid that, you can try making a dressing with lemon juice, mayonaise, and olive oil.

I will have more on salad when spring and summer arrive: Greek salad, asparagus salad, tomatoes and mozzarella, gazpacho salad and more. But for now, especially with pandemic related shortages, stick to things like radicchio, romaine, endive (wrap in paper towels!), escarole, kale and other hearty greens. The picture shows my collection of vinegar and one night's salad. I try to always use California Olive oil, though not a lot is available here. Olive Ranch is good, though.

Wild Mushroom Risotto & Swordfish Provencal

Late yesterday, I decided to cook the frozen swordfish and pair it with a wild mushroom risotto. I still had a few fresh mushrooms, which weren’t going to last forever, and I went back and forth between using arborio rice and farro, but ultimately picked rice, as easier to time—and I have more of it! Since I am cooking for only two, the quantities below are small, but could easily be doubled for 4 or 5, or in the case of the risotto to make it a vegetarian main course.

 Wild Mushroom Risotto
 First, I soaked about ¼ ounce of dried mushrooms in very hot water for about 30 minutes, while working on other prep. I used about a quarter pound of white mushrooms, sauteed in butter and olive oil (either one alone is fine) along with the white part of a scallion (saving the green for garnish). I rinsed the dried mushrooms under running water (and saved the water (filtered through a paper towel) for use in the risotto), chopped them, and added them to the fresh mushrooms for the final few minutes of cooking.

 Now for the risotto. Someone, maybe Mark Bittman, suggested that you don’t really need to stir the risotto constantly. By adding boiling liquid about a half cup at a time, you can walk away and work on other parts of the dinner or watch the news. I was using 2/3 of a cup of arborio rice, so I added about 1½ cups of water to the mushroom liquid and brought it to a slow boil.

 I sauteed the rice in about a tablespoon of butter and a half-teaspoon of salt until lightly coated and then added a finely chopped small sweet red pepper (really just for color) and about ¼ cup of white wine (vermouth works too, or skip this part). Then I started adding boiling liquid, stirring well after each addition. Before I was done (after about 30 minutes, you need to taste it to determine doneness), I had probably added an additional half cup of water. When the rice was almost done, I stirred in the mushrooms, and then the saved scallion greens and about two tablespoons of chopped parsley. I like some parmesan cheese on my risotto, so I used a microplane to grate a bit on top. There was more than enough for two side-dish servings— and some lunch today.

 Ingredients:
2/3 cup arborio rice
3 tablespoons butter and/or olive oil, 2 for the mushrooms
4 ounces fresh mushrooms
¼ ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 scallion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 small red pepper, about 2 tablespoons finely chopped (optional)
¼ cup white wine or vermouth water

I wanted to make the swordfish recipe very simple since the risotto had several steps. This is a winter version of a summer recipe I use when cooking swordfish on the grill, but still not grilling weather here in Connecticut. I also served a small salad. Look for more on salads tomorrow. My daughter Laura says it’s my superpower!

Swordfish Provencal (Winter version)
10 ounces swordfish
¼ cup diced tomatoes—mine were fire-roasted
8-10 chopped olives, I used green but black would be good too
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 chopped scallion
1 tablespoon of olive oil
splash of white wine (or water)

Brown the swordfish in the olive oil, about 4 minutes per side and remove to plate to finish sauce. Deglaze the pan with wine or water, then add all the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine well, adding additional wine or water if needed. Pour on top of fish.

Back in Connecticut

A lot has happened in the seven years or so since I last signed in! After my mom died in 2014 and my two daughters had babies a year later, we decided to move back to Connecticut, rather than make quarterly cross country trips. So here we are, in the northwest corner of Connecticut, a few miles up the road from our daughter's weekend house. We are living in the village of New Preston, in the town of Washington, less than two hours from New York City, where we still have a small apartment in Jackson Heights (Queens). But for now, with New York ravaged by this terrible virus, we are here--as is our daughter and her family. With not much to do, and no one to see, I am spending a lot of time thinking about food, and making some too. Yesterday, it was baguettes--I am experimenting with how much non-white flour I can use--and Pasta and Bean soup. I basically modified a Williams Sonoma recipe I found on line, using ingredients at hand. I am trying to shop only every two weeks, though I usually do it at least twice a week. So I am using my freezer and getting creative when it comes to salad, which normally we would have every day. Escarole anyone? Adding to my current culinary restrictions is that both of my daughters have decided not to eat meat or poultry, though fortunately they are still eating fish. So I had been doing a lot of experimentation with fish and seafood for awhile, with some positive results (which I frequently try out on my neighbor Diana, who also does not eat meat). Right now, after a conversation with my sister-in-law Beth, I am trying to make a sourdough starter from the air, using directions from the Greens cookbook. Basically just mix flour and water and leave it out for a couple days. I'll let you know how that works! For stocking your pantry in these trying times, I highly recommend Melissa Clark's suggestions in the New York Times. I have just about everything she recommends, though not as much frozen spinach as I would like, since my store was out of it last week) and probable not quite as much canned fish, though an almost full 24-ounce jar of anchovies from my last trip to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. While there, I also bought a pound of dried mushrooms, exceedingly helpful since fresh ones don't last too long. But I've also used some frozen ones, and they're not too bad. I'm not sure what she said about canned tomatoes, but I also have a lot of those, diced, whole, fire-roasted, plain. Davis, California, was a wonderful place to live for many reasons, but especially the food. We had an amazing farmers' market that was open year-round (here they are only seasonal), a fabulous food coop, and two branches of the small Nugget food market chain, along with Trader Joe's and Costco (in Woodland). Here I do most of my shopping at two small connected grocery stores, which have a lot of organic products, and the larger of the two a good fish counter. There's also a great natural foods store in Woodbury, about 25 minutes away, though I tend to shop closer to home. And of course there's a Costco, but about a half hour so we only get there every six weeks or so (or when we run out of toilet paper). Sadly, no Trader Joe's! So that's it for now. I still haven't figured out what to cook for dinner. Maybe a stir-fry with some left over pork tenderloin? Or some swordfish, which I have in the freezer? I think Tim is getting sick of my cooking, as he passed on the bean soup last night, and it was pretty good. I froze the rest, minus any pasta, for another time. So stay tuned...