Corn Two Ways

Corn Two Ways

Tonight's dinner is brought to you by my friend, the fresh cob of corn. Corn on the cob is such a good friend that I picked up two ears of it today. As I was putting groceries away, I noticed I had 2 ears of my best friend in the bottom of the vegetable bin. I guess I need to work on my social skills...

The two new ears went in, the two old ears came out. It was actually fortuitous, because I was planning to make a lentil salad, today. I did - and added fresh corn. The second fun dish was a corn fritter of sorts. A burger with chopped fried peppers from the garden rounded out the plate.

First thing I did was cut the corn from the cobs and blanche a few minutes in boiling salted water. Drain, cool.

I probably have 8 or 10 different flours on hand at any given moment, so I pulled down some corn flour and my Italian "00" and went to work. I didn't want to use a whole wheat or other strong flour and mask the corn flavor. Good corn is coming to an end - I want to enjoy it while it's here.

Corn Fritters

  • 1/2 cup white flour
  • 1/2 cup corn flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 3/4 cup fresh corn kernels
  • 1 green onion, minced
  • 2 tbsp melted butter
  • water to make a stiff batter

Mix all dry ingredients with the corn. Drizzle in the butter then add enough water to make a stiff batter.

Fry in s small amount of oil until crispy on one side, flip, and continue cooking until crisp.

Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. A perfect combination!

The Lentil Salad was just as easy.

Lentil and Corn Salad

  • 1 cup lentils
  • 1 cup fresh corn
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 celery stalk, diced
  • 1 bunch green onions, chopped
  • 3 tbsp assorted fresh herbs (parsley, mint, basil...)
  • olive oil
  • red wine vinegar
  • garlic powder
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Cook lentils according to package instructions. Drain and cool

Mix vegetables with lentils, herbs, garlic powder, and S&P. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and a dash of red wine vinegar.

Serve cold or at room temperature.

This is a total clean-out-the-refrigerator type of salad. There are really no wrong ingredients or wrong amounts. It will be a luncheon staple for a few days.

And now I have two new ears of corn to deal with... Maybe a simple corn-on-the-cob will be on the menu in a day or two...

 

by Tim Dineen

Steaks and Lentils

The End of Week Seven

It's been another grueling week at the gymnasium. We've been dealing with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, squats, lunges, and every sort of pain-inducing piece of equipment the Marquis de Sade and the Inquisitors have been able to conjure up.  The good news is it seems to be working. I'm down 15 pounds and Victor is down 14. And we're still eating like kings!

It's a flippin' miracle. Or something.

Rumor has it that going to the gym and exercising releases endorphins that make you feel good and reduces the perception of pain. I would like to call bullshit on this rumor. Getting beat up does not take me to my happy place. I'm doing this good-naturedly. I'm not doing it happily. But, happily or not, it's working - and that is what counts. We're both feeling better. We have more energy. Simple tasks are easier. And we're definitely eating better.

It's been a lot of fun refocusing on the basics - and scaling back recipes. This website has been great at tracing our eating habits all the way back to 2005. I shake my head in horror at the portions we were consuming! The real miracle is we didn't weigh twice as much as we did when we started this. I have pretty much always cooked what I wanted when I wanted - without any thought at all to portion size or calories. It was fun, but it certainly wasn't realistic. And most definitely not sustainable.

I'm liking it better this way.

Our celebratory dinner was steaks and lentils with roasted vegetables - and a fried Italian Long Hot pepper on top. These peppers are scorching-hot. I love it! We just cut the stem off and fry them - seeds and all. A pinch of garlic and anchovies towards the end. H.O.T. I'll be making a nice batch of hot sauce next month as they start turning red.

For the lentils, I roasted golden beets, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic - all chopped relatively small - and then mixed them with the cooked lentils. I added a splash of sherry vinegar, salt, pepper, and some herbes de Provence and stirred it all together. It was great hot - and will make an excellent cold salad, tomorrow.

We're not suffering in the food department.

Victor will head to the gym tomorrow for a solo trek, and I'll be there Sunday for mine - and then Monday starts Week Eight.

Bring it on!

by Tim Dineen

Brussels sprouts

Brussels Sprouts and Fennel

Would you think me weird if I told you my most favoritest vegetable in the world is the Brussels Sprout? Of course you would. Actually, you'd just add it to the list of my many weirdnesses.

But it is true. I love those little green cabbagey globes. Even as a kid I loved them - and that was back when the only way they came was in a little square frozen box. My, how times have changed. Now, you can get them fresh and still on the stalk!

On my last trek down to Gentile's I saw some and it was my impulse-buy of the day. Victor is not a huge fan - definitely not as much as I - so I tend to buy them sparingly. What surprised me about buying them was they were pretty big - and I generally go for the smaller ones. As I said... impulse buy.

Another of my favorite vegetables is fennel. It's something that, like carrots, celery, and onions, is always in the house. So what better thing to do than to combine two of my favorites for dinner?!?

I was originally planning chicken thighs with eggplant - since the eggplants are in overdrive mode, right now, but when I opened the 'fridge and saw the brussels sprouts, the wheels started turning. Next thing I knew, there was fennel, red onion, garlic, and brussels sprouts on the counter. A recipe was born!

I started by browning the chicken thighs in an oven-proof pan. I took them out of the pan and added diced pancetta, and let it brown nicely, Then I added the sliced brussels sprouts, sliced fennel,  sliced red onion, and a couple of baby potatoes.

I cooked everything down a bit and then added a minced clove of garlic and some salt and pepper. Next was about a half-cup of white wine. I cooked that down a bit, added the chicken thighs back on top, and put it all into a 375°F oven for 30 minutes.

Brussels sprouts and chicken

I have to admit, this came out pretty good. Victor loved it - the brussels sprouts didn't taste like brussels sprouts! The fennel and onion really mellowed them out.

And after way too long only buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I'm back to buying bone-in, skin-on thighs. Not only are they half the price, they're also a lot more flavorful and can be cooked in a lot of different ways.

Like on top of fennel and brussels sprouts...

by Tim Dineen

Mexican-Inspired Potato Salad

I love it when recipes create themselves... No thought on my part - the ingredients just make it into the bowl on their own.

That's what happened today with my Mexican-Inspired Potato Salad. I knew I was going to make a potato salad - and I almost always just go for my standby - Mom's.

Today, though, I broke out the mandoline. I sliced the raw potatoes instead of cubing them, and as they went on to cook, I started slicing even more things on the mandoline. I had 4 radishes - pink, red, purple, and white - and I sliced them so thin you could literally see through them. Then it was a carrot - sliced just a tad thicker. Paper-thin red onion moons... And then I saw an avocado on the counter. That began my Mexican Inspiration!

With everything sliced instead of cubed, it wasn't going to be Mom's, no matter what, so into the cupboard I went and grabbed a can of diced green chiles. And the blender.

The chiles went into the salad along with celery and chopped pickles, and the avocado went into the blender - along with some mayonnaise, sour cream, heavy cream, Guajillo Pepper Adobo, and some homemade Hot Sauce. It all got mixed together and dinner was served.

The paper-thin vegetables played well with the thicker-sliced potatoes, and there was juuuuust enough heat to make it interesting. I now envision a few other ethnic makeovers...

Summertime produce and goodies from the yard!

The bacon-wrapped petit filet mignon came from Aldi. They're the perfect size - and inexpensive.

I think we may be back to salads, tomorrow...

We shall see...

by Tim Dineen

Hana's Collard Greens

This is Hana’s recipe. She is a master at improving every dish.

Clean the collards and remove as much of the stem as you like. I would take it out at least until it’s about 1/4 inch in diameter.

Dump the leaves into a quickly boiling pot. A pasta pot works great. Stir once or twice. After five minutes remove from water.

You can wait for them to cool, or cool them under cold water. Then take handfuls and squeeze out as much water as possible, leaving squeezed-out chunks of collards. Chop them on the cutting board to desired size. (1-1.5 inch slices work well for us).

In a big frying pan, cook chopped bacon until crispy and remove. Then remove most of the grease. Add to the pan chopped onions and garlic to suit.

When the onions and garlic are done, add the chopped collards and cook until everything is blended and hot. Add the bacon back to the pan and mix it in.

Have hot pepper vinegar ready to pour over them on the plate.

by Tim Dineen

Sicilian-Style Chicken Agrodolce

Since the demise of the US version of La Cucina Italiana, my go-to recipe magazine has become Fine Cooking. It's an easy-to-read magazine and they actually treat their readers like they have a bit of intelligence. Not a bad start.

They also come up with some interesting ideas for food. Tonight's dinner is compliments of two past issues.

I had a whole chicken in the 'fridge and just wanted to cook up half of it and freeze the other half for another day. I thought braising the chicken would be an easy dinner and set out to look for a recipe.

I have - or, rather, had - a few hundred recipes bookmarked under a "food" folder in my browser. It's my new way of finding and keeping recipes I'll probably never make. I was actually going through them and organizing them a bit - and deleting all of the dead links from who knows how long ago - when I came upon a Fine Cooking recipe I had bookmarked for a Sicilian Pollo Agrodolce - Sweet and Sour Chicken. I decided it was kismet and I printed it off.

A little further down the list was a recipe for Potatoes Boulangère - a potato gratin without the cheese and cream. I think that on any other day I would have made one or the other, but today, I decided to make both. It's a holiday, after all, right?!? Right!

I spent some time going through and deleting things I know I'll never make and creating folders for the other stuff I probably will never make but aren't ready to delete and then it was off to the kitchen...

Chicken Agrodolce

adapted from Fine Cooking

  • 1/2 chicken, cut into 5 pieces
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Flour for dredging
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 small onion, cut into small dice
  • 1 small rib celery, cut into small dice
  • 1 small carrot, cut into small dice
  • 2 Tbs. sugar
  • 2 Tbs. good-quality white-wine vinegar (I used an aronia berry wine vinegar from Jalma Farms in Cape May)
  • 1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers
  • 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
  • 18 grape tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 cup golden raisins
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
  • 2 Tbs. capers

Pat the chicken pieces dry, season them with salt and pepper, and dredge them lightly in the flour.

Heat a-large sauté pan fitted with a lid over medium-high heat and add the 1/4 cup olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chicken pieces (in batches, if necessary), browning them very well on both sides. When browned, remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

Turn the heat to medium and add the onion, celery, and carrot. Sauté until they’re soft and fragrant, about 6 or 7 minutes. Add the sugar and vinegar to the pan and let it bubble for about 1 minute. Add the peppers and tomatoes.

Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them over in the vegetables once or twice to coat them. Increase the heat to medium and add the wine, letting it boil until almost evaporated. Add the chicken stock and bay leaf, cover the pan, and simmer on low heat until the chicken is just about tender, 30 to 35 minutes, turning the pieces once or twice during cooking.

Add the raisins, pine nuts, and capers and simmer to blend the flavors, about 5 minutes. longer. The sauce should be reduced and thickened but still pourable. If it looks too dry, add a splash of chicken stock or water. Taste for seasoning. It should have a nice balance between sweet and sour but not be too aggressive. Add more salt, pepper, a splash of vinegar, or a pinch of sugar to balance the flavors.

Arrange the chicken on a large serving platter and pour the sauce over.

I like braised, saucy dishes and this one has a lot of future possibilities. I can see this with boneless thighs and served over creamy polenta...

Stay tuned.

And then we had the potatoes...

I do have to admit that these wouldn't be my first choice for serving with a dish like this - but I wanted to make them, so I did.

Potatoes Boulangère

adapted from Fine Cooking

  • 1 Tbs. olive oil
  • 3-1/2 oz. diced pancetta
  • 2 cups onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Scant 1 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick half moons
  • 1 cup chicken broth

Heat the oven to 375°F. Heat the olive oil in a medium (9-inch) Dutch oven over medium heat.

When the oil is hot, add the pancetta. Sauté until it just begins to crisp and turn brown, about 4 min.

Add the onions, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally and more frequently toward the end, until the onions are deep golden, about 14 min.

Meanwhile in a small saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil and then remove from the heat.

Add the potatoes to the onions and cook, stirring for a minute or two. Pour the hot broth over the potatoes and onions and bring the pot to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Cover the pot, put it in the oven, and bake for about 15 min.

Uncover the pot, gently and evenly push the potatoes down with a spatula, and continue to bake uncovered until the potatoes are completely tender and have started to brown, about another 25 min.

The potatoes seriously rocked. They may become my new go-to!

So meals are completed for the first day of 2018. Well... other than dessert, that is.

It was a great day to be inside and in the kitchen. And that's where you will probably find me most of the year!

 

 

by Tim Dineen

Canned Cheese

Our neighbors up the street always get a big tray of cookies at Christmas. They're the neighbors who bring the paper up to the porch in bad weather - the thoughtful ones who do things because it's the neighborly thing to do. They're very special people who welcomed us into the neighborhood with open arms when we moved in 17 years ago. The kind of neighbors you don't see very often, anymore.

A couple of years ago, they sent us a can of Cougar Gold cheese from Washington State University as a Christmas gift. Marie and Kay know how much we like food, like different foods, and thought it would be something we'd enjoy.

Canned cheese - who woulda thunk? It turned out to be pretty damned good. I found out WSU is actually famous for their cheeses and developed the ability to can cheese back in the 1930s. They're really good at it.

This year, we received a can of their Viking Dill Garlic. The Cougar Gold is an aged cheddar. The Viking is, according to their website: A gourmet, creamy-white, semi-soft cheese similar to Monterey Jack. With a delicate taste, this soothing sensation melts in your mouth. Its characteristic tiny cracks and high moisture makes it perfect for any dish. The Dill Garlic variety continues with: Dill weed, dill seed, and mild garlic are added to our Viking cheese for an optimal balance of flavor and appearance. Flecks of green and brown provide bursts of flavor in every bite!

Knowing how good the first can was, I figured it needed to be opened tonight and a bit of it made into scalloped potatoes. I figured correctly.

I do have to admit that it was a bit strange the first time I opened a can of cheese - that was supposed to be cheese and not some plastic cheese-food product in an overpriced gift basket. But after the first taste, the strangeness went away and all I wanted was more.

Same with the cheese, today.

I made a simple white sauce, added some cheese, a splash of hot sauce, a splash of worcestershire sauce, and a bit of S&P. I thinly-sliced potatoes on my mandoline - go buy one, they're worth it - and mixed it all together in a buttered casserole. 375°F oven for about an hour - covered for 45 minutes, uncovered for 15 - and they rocked!

It went with a grilled tri-tip roast and broiled zucchini topped with parmesan. It was a fun dinner with lots of great flavors.

Thank you, again, Marie and Kay for a fantastic gift. You're on the cookie list for 2018!

 

by Tim Dineen

More from the Garden

We're finally starting to see some ripe tomatoes - and the green beans are going crazy! We have two blue lake beans and two purple bush beans out there. The purple ones are easy to pick - they're purple. The blue lakes blend in with the stems and leaves making them more difficult to see. They're delicious - but a pain in the ass.

Let's face it - Farmer in the Dell, I'm not. Our little plot needs a lot of work - I can't even imagine twice as much, let alone an actual farm. Once, maybe 30 or 35 years ago, I worked all day with my sister, Arlene, picking honeydew melons in Marysville. I was reasonably young and in reasonably good shape. It almost killed me. I couldn't fathom doing it day-in and day-out for the pittance migrant workers get paid.

I read today that more Mexicans are returning to Mexico than are coming north to work the fields. Some California farmers are paying a lot more for workers - who typically work 50-60 hours a week. Others are letting crops rot for lack of skilled labor to pick. The realities of using minorities as scapegoats.

In the fields picking, sorting... I did it one day. One. No, thank you.

I'll bemoan our little plot and then remember what it was like that one day years ago. Suddenly, it's not so bad!

Today while I was working, Victor made a great green bean and tomato salad with cherry tomatoes from the plant that just decided to grow. It also had thinly sliced red onion, hard-cooked eggs, and freshly-shredded cheese. He made a vinaigrette of olive oil, sherry vinegar, anchovies, garlic, and S&P.

Totally awesome.

It was served with a lightly-floured whitefish, fried in butter and olive oil and a sauce made of white wine, capers, parsley, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Totally awesome, part deux.

It's great being married to a man who loves to cook.

And farm.

 

 

 

by Tim Dineen

Tapenade

I think I have to stop watching cooking shows. I just made tapenade. Again.

The other night we were watching cooking shows on TV - Martha Stewart, I think - and she made a tapenade. I don't recall what she did with it, but I do remember thinking that it would probably be awesome mixed into roasted potatoes.

Last month I saw Jacques Pepin make a tapenade and stuff it into chicken breasts and made that. I'm thinking that somewhere along the line, I like tapenades...

Funny, because as a kid, I was not an olive-eater. I was always an adventurous eater, but olives eluded me. No idea when the olive bug bit me, but I've made up for however many olives I didn't eat, growing up.

We had a bunch of marble-sized potatoes, so I decreed they would be perfect, tonight. And what a shock. They were!

I didn't exactly follow a recipe for the tapenade - I mean - it's olives and capers and anchovies and garlic and stuff - so here's an approximation of what I did:

Mixed Olive Tapenade

  • 1 1/2 cups assorted olives (I used kalamata, oil cured kalamata, California black olives, and giant Chalkidiki olives)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 3 anchovies
  • 2 tbsp capers
  • 1 green onion
  • 4 large leaves fresh basil
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • black pepper

I put everything into the food processor and pulsed until it was properly chunky.

I prefer more texture to my tapenade, so I don't process to paste like some folks like to do. It's a personal preference, but if you're making it and make it into a paste, I'm still eating it. As an afterthought, I probably could have squeezed a bit of lemon into it. Maybe next time.

As for the potatoes, I oiled them and put them into a 425°F oven for about 15 minutes and then just added some of the tapenade and mixed it all about.

It was goooooood.

With the starch set, vegetable and entree were next.

More clean out the 'fridge time...

A simple salad of a can of kidney beans, green onion, watermelon radish, yellow zucchini, fresh fennel, basil, oregano, thyme, S&P, olive oil, and sherry vinegar. Mix and eat.

I had ribs in the 'fridge, so ribs it was.

They received a quick marinade of soy sauce, bourbon, honey, toasted sesame oil, a pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper. I baked them in the oven and then finished them on the grill.

It was a riff on a recipe I saw online. They were okay. I'd omit the cinnamon, next time, though, and up the bourbon.

All-in-all, though, a successful dinner.

And there's leftovers!

 

by Tim Dineen

Pork with Robiola

Several years ago we donated a few hundred cook books to the local library book drive. That left us with only a hundred or so downstairs - since there's no room upstairs to keep them. A hundred flippin' cook books. It's rather ludicrous on one hand - but on the other hand, these are the books I keep going to for inspiration. They're mostly the classics - Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Lidia, of course, Vegetarian Epicure, Greens, Moosewood, Chez Panisse, Marcella Hazan, Joy of Cooking, and a pretty beat up copy of Better Homes and Gardens. Along with those hundred books are a few dozen copies of La Cucina Italiana magazine, Cooks Illustrated, Bon Appetit, and a couple of old Gourmet magazines - and a file folder of recipes I've cut out of magazines and have never done anything with.

I'm not really obsessive. Really.

Okay... maybe a little. The odd thing about it all, though, is I really don't follow recipes very well. I read them, get ideas, and then make something - often completely different from what I originally read.

And the hard part is translating what I did to paper - or - electronic media. Whatever.

Like tonight's dinner...

Someplace, somewhere, I saw a recipe using Robiola Cheese - a cow, sheep, and goat milk cheese from Italy. It sounded really good - and I promptly forgot about it. Today, I was at the grocers, and saw a half-round of Robiola cheese. It was one of those OMG! moments! I picked it up without even looking at the price or really knowing what I was going to do with it. I'm usually a reasonably-savvy shopper, but sometimes... Fortunately, I didn't have to take out a second mortgage for it - it was pretty reasonable.

UNfortunately, I got home and started searching for that robiola recipe - and couldn't find it. It doesn't help that I really don't remember what the recipe was, but I'm semi-reasonably sure I'd recognize it if I saw it, again. Maybe. Or maybe not.

What I did find was a recipe for Pork Loin with Robiola - Lombatine di maiale con robiola - on the La Cucina Italiana site.

Here's the translated recipe:

La Cucina Italiana Magazine

Pork Loin with Robiola

La Cucina Italiana Magazine

  • 4 pork loin 450 gr
  • robiola 100 gr
  • yogurt 50 gr
  • butter 50g
  • 1 orange
  • 1 egg
  • stewed onions
  • bread crumbs
  • flour
  • mild mustard
  • mixed pepper
  • chopped parsley
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt

Melt the butter with whole orange rind and a good grinding of pepper mixed. When it is melted, add a pinch of chopped parsley, turn off and let cool. Mix the soft cheese with the yogurt and the cold use butter, formed a Salametto and wrap in baking paper. Put it in the freezer for 30 '. Brush the mustard loins on both sides, then roll them in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Cook them in a pan with hot oil. Add salt and serve with a Salametto washer robiola and stewed onions.

First, you'll notice that mine looks a bit different. The recipe was actually for a robiola compound-butter that was placed atop the cooked pork chop. I was using a pork tenderloin and wanted a more pronounced sauce - not a cold butter.

I did spread a bit of dijon mustard on the pork scallops before flouring, dipping, and bread crumbs, but the sauce was wing-it. I melted a couple of tablespoons of butter in a small pan, added half the cheese - maybe 3 ounces - and let it melt. I stirred in the grated rind of 1 lemon, a handful of chopped parsley, and a handful of chopped chives - and a hefty pinch of pepper.

Yumlicious.

A fun primi needs a fun secondi so I did a search for patate and found a really interesting potato torta - Torta di Patate. I had the ingredients for the potato cake itself, and had a bag of spinach that needed using. To work I went.

La Cucina Italiana Magazine

Potato Cake

La Cucina Italiana magazine

  • milk 250 g
  • potatoes 200 gr
  • Dry homemade bread 150 gr
  • beans 120 gr
  • 3 eggs -
  • a tomato -
  • butter -
  • flour -
  • basil -
  • extra virgin olive oil -
  • salt -
  • pepper -

To prepare the cake of peeled potatoes and cook the potatoes in boiling water for 15-20 ', then drain and sieve. Private bread crust and ammollatelo in milk. Mix the potatoes with the slightly squeezed bread, eggs, a big dollop of chopped basil, salt and pepper; pour the mixture into a mold (ø 22 cm) greased and floured. Bake at 160 ° C for 25 '. Slit tomato, sbollentatelo for half a minute and remove skin; remove the seeds and cut it into cubes. Trim the green beans and boil them in boiling water for 6-8 '. Drain, cut into bobbins and toss in a pan for 3-4 'in a thin layer of oil. Remove from the heat and add the diced tomato. Remove from the oven and cover the cake with green beans and diced tomato.

I made the potato cake pretty much as written, except I used three small individual molds. Presentation is everything, right?!?

I sauteed shallots in a pat of butter, added the spinach, a splash of white wine, and some S&P. Done.

The main thing you need to remember when doing a Google-translated recipe, is that Google does not translate recipes very well. Another thing is European recipes do not give the step-by-step detailed instructions the modern American cook has gotten used to. They start off on the premise that you know where the kitchen is.

And ya need to know Metric. I have a little electronic scale that can be set to just about anything from grams to ounces, pounds to kilograms - and it was under $10. You can Google temperature conversions...

In the meantime... I think it may be time to revisit some of those books downstairs... There's a feast awaitin' us, I just know it!

by Tim Dineen

Steaks and Baked Beans

It's pushing 90°F out there. That's 32°C for the rest of the world. However you measure it, though, it's hot. And muggy. Pretty typical for the July 4th weekend, around here.

But that's okay, because 1) we have central air, and 2) we can grill in any weather. It really doesn't matter. The grill is completely covered, so even though it's hot, there's no direct sun on me.

I can handle it.

Thunderstorms are in the forecast for fireworks, tomorrow night. I've seen a lot of fireworks in my time, so I'm not too bummed. And the fewer the fireworks, the happier the dog.

But on to dinner...

The steaks were excellent - nice bone-in strip steaks. The bone really does enhance the flavor and I liberally doused them with some barbecue rub from Kansas City. Potato salad from last night along with a new recipe for baked beans.

For years, now, we have made the chipotle baked beans my sister, Phoebe, makes - a recipe she originally got from Cooking Light magazine. I just found another Cooking Light recipe in the July 2017 edition that is nudging it off its pedestal.

They're good. Really good. Smoky, spicy, sweet, boozy... all the proper flavors. I halved the recipe because Nonna doesn't eat beans, but I could have doubled it just for the two of us. It really did come out that good!

The recipe calls for a slow cooker, but, since we don't have one of those things, I just cooked them in a 250°F (120°C) oven for a few hours. Did I mention they came out really good?!?

Bourbon Peach Baked Beans

adapted from Cooking Light Magazine

  • 3 bacon slices, chopped
  • 2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 lb peaches, peeled and finely diced (about 2 cups)
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup bourbon
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 2 tsp chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • S&P to taste

Cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Stir in remaining ingredients. Place in a covered oven-proof casserole and bake at 250°F (120°C) for about 3 hours. Serve hot or at room temperature.

You can also put the cooked bacon and remaining ingredients into a slow-cooker and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

The peaches pretty much just disintegrated into the dish, adding a sweet texture to the sauce. The chipotles sneak up on you, and the smoky paprika makes everything a-okay in the world. This is definitely the way to celebrate a holiday when you're not celebrating a holiday.

And we have peach pie for dessert.

 

by Tim Dineen

Mini Cheese Cakes

We were watching Jacques Pepin the other night and he made a mini-cheese cake / souffle that really looked interesting. Jacques is another of my most favorite chefs. No pretense, no huge ego - just really good, sound cooking and technique. I really like how he credits all of the various jobs he has had over the years for making him a skilled cook, today. Things he learned at his parent's restaurant when he was a kid, things he learned working for Howard Johnson's, things he learned in school. Taking things from one place and being able to adapt them elsewhere is important. One of the things I liked most about opening hotels all over the USofA was learning new ways to do things and tweaking them for the next property. Lots of different experiences, seeing different ways of doing things, and just being open to new ideas makes us all better people.

I also like how he doesn't get flustered when things don't go right. The episode with the mini cheese cakes, his daughter was supposed to butter the souffle cups and then coat them with bread crumbs. The reason for the crumbs is to easily get them out of the cups when cooked. She did butter them but as he was filling them, he realized they hadn't been crumbed. He just said that if they don't come out, they can serve them in the cups. No big deal.

And that's an important thing to remember about most things in life - it's no big deal.

Like the recipe calling for 6 oz souffle cups but we only have 10 oz souffle cups. And I only wanted to make two because Nonna sure wasn't going to eat one. I cut the recipe in half, used 10 oz cups, and they came out stellar! Oh - and the recipe calls for whipped cream cheese and I only had half a brick. No big deal.

 

This took about three minutes to make and a mere 20 minutes in the oven. Ridiculously easy - and ridiculously good.

Light and delicate, rich, rich flavor, totally satisfying. I used an aged roquefort for the dish and it really shone. I would imagine just about any good cheese would work - maybe even my favorite traditional French brie - but the roquefort was so good, I may not mess with success.

Jacques served them on a bed of arugula as a salad. I just did them as a simple side dish and the recipe was easy to cut it in half for the two of us. I'm sure it would be easy enough to double for a crowd, as well.

I also mixed the cheese into the batter, because I think that's how he did it on the TV show. You can't screw it up, so do it as you see fit. It's no big deal.

Mini Savory Cheese Cakes

Jacques Pepin

  • 2 teaspoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs
  • 1 cup (one 8-ounce container) whipped cream cheese
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese, like Stilton or Roquefort

Preheat the oven to 350. Generously coat four small (3/4-cup) soufflé molds with the butter. Divide the bread crumbs among the molds and coat the bottoms and sides heavily with the crumbs, pressing them onto the buttered dish so they stick.

Put the cream cheese in a medium bowl and add the eggs, sour cream, salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the parsley. Mix well with a whisk and divide among the soufflé molds. Sprinkle the crumbled blue cheese on top of the cream cheese mixture in the molds. Top with the remaining 1 tablespoon parsley.

Arrange the molds on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes. The cheesecakes will still be slightly wet and soft in the center. Let cool for 10 minutes before unmolding.

Delish.

 

 

by Tim Dineen