Lentil Soup with Ham
Like a turkey, the biggest reason to cook a ham is for the bone. I love making soup. Leftovers are great, sandwiches are great, all-the-other-things-you-can-make-with-leftover-turkey-or-ham are great. But The Soup is The Best. Especially when it's really cold outside.
For a ham bone, bean soup, split pea soup, or lentil soup come immediately to mind. It's almost a free meal. And soup is flat-out one of the easiest things in the world to make.
We chose lentil tonight. There are lots of lentils in the cabinet. Red, yellow, brown, and a few pounds of French green lentils (lentilles du Puy) I picked up at Atlantic Spice. I went with the French lentils tonight, although any will work. These hold their shape and don't disintegrate like some of the others do - both a plus and a minus when making soup.
Lentil Soup
- 1 ham bone
- 2 qts chicken broth
- 1 qt water
- 1 cup diced onion
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 2 1/2 cups lentils
- salt
- pepper
- 1/2 tsp herbs d'Provence
- 2 bay leaves
- splash of Tabasco or cayenne pepper
Saute onion, celery, and carrots in soup pot. Add broth, water, and bone. Simmer about an hour.
Remove bone. Add lentils and herbs.
Cut any remaining meat from bone and add to pot. Simmer until lentils are cooked through, 20-30 minutes, depending on type of lentils.
Add a splash or two of tabasco. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Hit the pot with an immersion blender for a few spins to thicken a bit.
Serve with warm, crusty bread.
There are a million-and-one variations on lentil soup. You can add tomatoes, you can add a bit of balsamic vinegar, it can be vegetarian, vegan, thick or thin. You should note that lentils take longer to cook in salty or acidic liquid, so add your salt and tomatoes, vinegars, etc., after they are cooked.
And not only are they good, but they're good for you, too. Lentils are high in fiber, protein, folate, amino acids, antioxidants, iron, magnesium and zinc. They are also low in fat.
Andouille and Langostino
I have been having more fun going through and posting the recipes that have been coming in from my email and Facebook plea. Holiday Cooking. Most of us have to do it - or at least some of it. What a concept to have a whole bunch of fun recipes from fun people posted in one place! If you haven't sent one in, yet... well... do it! And take a look at the ones already there!
Fun, indeed!
But I digress...
It's a bit cold outside, so I thought something a bit hot would warm us up, inside. Andouille sausage will do that - especially if you add just a bit more spice to it!
This was a total throw-together meal. I sliced andouille sausage and placed it in a skillet with a bit of chopped onion. I added a splash (literally) of red wine to deglaze the pan and then added a can of diced tomatoes in juice. When it was hot I added a chopped bell pepper, a pinch of thyme, a splash of Tabasco, and a bit of salt and pepper.
I then added a handful of langostino and heated them through.
Served it over mahogany rice.
Sausage was spicy, peppers were still crunchy, sauce was flavorful and just hot enough...
It was a great almost-New-Orleans-style dinner with lots of crusty bread to sop up the juices.
Spiral-Sliced Ham & Potato Pancakes
Every now and again I have to get a bone-in ham so I can get a ham bone. Lentil, navy bean, or split pea soup is the real reason for having a ham in the first place. I loves me soups.
And I like ham.
I picked up a quarter-ham (which is still way too much ham for just the two of us) and then played clean-out-the-refrigerator for the rest of dinner.
We had leftover mashed potatoes from a few days ago that I specifically asked Victor to save so I could make potato pancakes. He laughed and said his Uncle Rudy always wanted the leftover mashed potatoes to be saved for the same reason - and never made them. The not so subtle implication was that I wasn't going to, either.
He was almost correct. I had forgotten all about them until Victor was looking through tupperware for lunch.
He found The Potatoes.
I immediately announced we would be having them for dinner! It was almost as if I had planned it all along. We both knew I hadn't.
But I did make potato pancakes for dinner with the ham!
To about a cup and a half of potatoes, I added a hefty couple of tablespoons of flour and 1 egg. A pinch of salt, pepper, and garlic powder, mixed well, and they went into a hot skillet with a bit of olive oil.
The brussels sprouts were merely cut in half and sauted.
Tomorrow I think I will bring Victor's mom over a bit of ham when I do her shopping and package a bit up for the freezer.
I think Victor should make lentil soup with the bone on Tuesday. He just finished his fresh pasta for tomorrow...
Chicken Parmigiana
There's something about a breaded chicken cutlet that just makes my tummy smile. I like them in just about any fashion or mode. Highly seasoned, simple with sauce, plain, fancy. With cheese, without. I'm not that picky. I like 'em.
But when a chicken cutlet gets hooked up with homemade sauce and slices of parmesan cheese under a blanket of melted mozzarella... well... my tummy does more than smile - and the rest of me is pretty happy, as well!
That was tonight's dinner. Served with ravioli and broccoli drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I used the cheesy sauce in the pan for the ravioli. We waste nothing!
Very simple. Very quick. Very good.
I made a Pear and Raisin Pie for dessert tonight, too!
I bought a frozen crust.
More on that, later...
Franca's Clam Chowder
When we were honeymooning on Cape Cod at our friend Dana's, her sister Franca made her famous Clam Chowder for us one night. Franca's chowder is the real thing. She starts with local clams in the shell and spends the day in the kitchen. The result is nothing short of spectacular.
We received a large container of the base to bring home with us. The base merely needs cream and a check for seasoning to finish it off. It has been sitting in the freezer awaiting the proper time to come forth. Tonight was that time.
The Eilers clan prefers a thin chowder, and while I adored every drop we ate that night on The Cape, when I make chowder, I tend to thicken it a bit. I understand this is sacrilege, but we're 300 miles away. They can't get us tonight.
And the chowder was perfect. Delicious. Wonderful. Thick or thin, this chowder rocks! It has a rich clam flavor that you just can't get from bottled clam juice or canned clams. It really is stellar.
Just the dish to start off the first night of Hanukkah. (ooops!)
Which reminds me of a story from a few years back...
When I worked at UCSF, one of my jobs was to answer the comments and suggestions from the "Suggestion Box" in the Moffitt Cafe. I posted about 20 questions and my responses in a bulletin board by the Nutrition Services office down the hall from the cafe. For the most part I ignored the %$#@# comments but I always included at least one snarky comment - and gave it a professionally-snarky response. It was always fun to watch the crowds gather around the board and see their reaction to my latest epistles...
So one day I receive a comment from a woman who was incensed that we put salt pork in our New England Clam Chowder. She went on at great length about how we were deceiving our Jewish customers who can't eat pork and that we were pretty much condemning them to hell because of our insensitivity. She was extremely rude to put it mildly.
I was just so sweet in my response. I explained to her that salt pork or bacon was an integral ingredient in clam chowder dating back to the beginning of time. It was used in the original Fannie Farmer cook book of 1896 and was a completely traditional ingredient. Every recipe called for it and while it was true we did not have a huge sign stating it contained pork, we generally did not alert people to ingredients that were supposed to be in a dish.
I thanked her for caring so much for our Jewish customers that she would take us to task for including pork in our clam chowder. I then informed her that in all probability having pork in a clam chowder probably wouldn't be an issue to most Jews as they would most likely not be eating a soup make from shellfish in the first place.
It was the most fun job I have ever had.
Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, and Peas
Ask Victor what his favorite meal is, and he will invariably say "meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas." Not even Italian meatloaf. Just plain ol' basic meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas. And basic is the key. Nothing fancy. No exotic herbs and spices. Just meatloaf. That's not to say that an exotic meatloaf would go unappreciated. We've made them and they've gone over quite well.
But basic works.
There's no real recipe or set amount of anything.
- ground beef
- chopped onion
- garlic powder
- bread crumbs
- catsup
- mustard
- an egg or two
- worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper
Form into a loaf and bake.
It really is the most basic a meatloaf can be.
I've probably told this story a bazillion times, but the "Bayshore Diner Blue Plate Special" plates came from the Westin San Francisco Airport. They were a going away gift when I transferred to Indianapolis to open that hotel. The Bayshore Diner was the main hotel restaurant set up as a '50s Diner with jukeboxes, hostess in poodle skirts and roller skates. Typical over-the-top hotel stuff. (That restaurant is long gone and a stylish bistro is currently the main hotel restaurant.)
As we were developing the menu, meatloaf was an automatic. Problem was, our extremely talented German Executive Chef couldn't make a basic American meatloaf to save his soul. They kept coming out looking like perfect pâtés, terrines, or forcemeats. Definitely not what one would expect paired with mashed potatoes and peas. It took a while but we finally brought him around. And in the meantime, we had some great meals!
But back to tonight's dinner...
It's great that we both like basic meatloaf and it's equally great that we both like lumpy unpeeled mashed potatoes. No muss, no fuss, and all the good potato-peel nutrition balances the butter and fat in the gravy! Well... in my mind, it does. Have I ever mentioned that I am not a dietitian?!?
At least we don't have a clean-your-plate rule.
We need to save room for dessert.
Turkey Soup
This has to be the best part of Thanksgiving... well... besides all the other best parts, that is... It's hard to top a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce and stuffing on squishy white bread, but the turkey soup is something I look forward to the minute I start thinking about a turkey.
It's a childhood-memory-thing. Soups were definitely a mainstay growing up and I can see that big oval pot my mother used to cook down the carcass and make her soup. Everything went in it. Just as I make it, today...
I started by simmering the carcass all day yesterday. I threw in a couple of bay leaves, a quartered onion, skin and all (the onion skins help make a nice, deep-colored broth) and the ends of celery and carrots, and a bit of sage. Those trimmings you'd probably toss make for great soup stock.
After straining it, it went into the 'fridge. Today, I scraped off the thin layer of fat and started heating it.
To the pot I added about 3 cups of turkey gravy and then chopped carrots, celery, potatoes, a lot of turkey meat, and all those partial bags of frozen vegetables... peas, corn, green beans, and spinach.
A bit of salt and pepper was the only seasoning it needed.
Soup really may be the easiest food to make - and in our house, at least - the perfect comfort-food when the weather starts turning cold.
I froze half the broth for another soup, another day. I haven't made Mulligatawny in quite a while.....
Sweet Potato Casserole
This is a perfect example of how thought-process-to-meal actually works, sometimes...
I was going to make a cassoulet of sorts for dinner. A quick version. We were decorating and I just wanted to get something in the oven I didn't have to think about. I had a pork tenderloin and a couple of Hungarian sausages that were thawing, pulled down the beans, crumbs at the ready...
And then I opened the 'fridge for butter. And saw the leftover dressing.
The cassoulet started morphing into something completely different. ::: insert Monty Python tagline here :::
There were two big sweet potatoes in the potato basket. I started thinking of layering things...
Into the casserole dish went a layer of stuffing. A bit of gravy went on top just to keep it moist. Atop that went the sliced Hungarian sausages. The pork tenderloin went back into the 'fridge.
I peeled and sliced one of the sweet potatoes and layered it on top. I drizzled it with about a quarter-cup of maple syrup, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, covered it, and put it in the oven at 350° for about an hour and fifteen minutes.
I purposely used the sausage instead of turkey (or the pork tenderloin) to make it seem less a Thanksgiving leftover and more a stand-alone casserole. It had the flavors of fall - with just enough of a twist to make it unique.
I can see a lot of variations on this theme.....
The Day After
The upside of not hosting a holiday dinner is the chaos, confusion, and dirty dishes are all at someone else's home. The downside is all the leftovers are there, too. I like holiday leftovers. So, today, we created our own.
The day after Thanksgiving... Black Friday. Shoppers frenzy. We don't leave the house.
This is Christmas Decorating Day!
We're definitely a couple of Santa's Elves when it comes to decorating. It's just a lot of fun. We have so many decorations it's frightening. There's a dozen huge plastic bins in the basement, plus all the stuff that doesn't fit in bins- the wreaths, and all that stuff... It's a lot of work just getting the bins up the stairs.
And then the fun starts as we open each one and go through every Santa, every ornament, and figure out where they're going to go this year.
This year is especially different because we rearranged the whole living room after finally getting drapes for the front window. Everything needs a new home.
We're crazy, I know, but it's a fun sort of crazy.
So... in-between hauling bins upstairs, emptying them and bringing them back down, I had to deal with our lack of leftovers.
I cooked a turkey. And dressing. And gravy. And mashed potatoes...
A feast.
I had made cranberry sauce on Wednesday and pumpkin rolls yesterday.
A feast, indeed.
The turkey came out great. I broke the whole carcass down, packaged the meat, and have the carcass simmering away right now for a big Sunday Soup - my favorite part of Thanksgiving - other than the sandwiches tomorrow...
There's also pumpkin pie in the 'fridge for later.
But not too much later... I'm ready for bed.
Jerk Pork Chops
Tonight's dinner was definitely one of those to there and back again meals. I really wasn't sure what I was going to cook. I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer and I wasn't going to be home right away after work.
I needed to stop by Victor's mom's house and pick up her prescriptions to drop off at the Acme pharmacy. Acme. Usually my least-favorite store.
I dropped off the prescriptions and started aimlessly wandering the store. I had the sweet potatoes at home, but that was it. Pork goes with sweet potatoes, so I wandered over to the meat department and picked up a couple of boneless pork chops. I then headed to the produce section. I was standing in the middle of the produce section, totally lost in thought when one of the employees asked me if I needed any help. I laughed and said I was just lost in thought. I wandered around a bit more and standing there, another employee asked me if I needed any help. If you ever need to go into the Witness Protection Program, don't go grocery shopping with me. People either ask me if I need something or ask me if I work there. Anonymity and grocery shopping do not go together.
I finally decided on an apple and some broccoli.
Armed with my goodies and a crossword book for Nonna, I headed to the self-check where I ran into a friend from work. Small-talk and small purchases and we were on our merry ways.
When I finally got home and started dinner, I decided that sweet potatoes called for jerk pork chops. I like the spicy blends of island fare, but don't often make it. No particular reason... I have all the various herbs and spices at hand. I just don't often blend them together.
I would imagine there are any number of jerk seasoning recipes out there, but I tend to lean towards thyme, allspice, cayenne, and onion. The recipe is an approximation. It's teaspoon/teaspoon/half-teaspoon measurements that can be translated to tablespoon/tablespoon or cut to less.
Jerk Seasoning
Mix together:
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less, to taste)
It's pretty simple to pull together with spices most folks probably already have in the kitchen. And it does invoke that island taste!
I rubbed it liberally on the chops and seared them on the stove top and then put them into a 350° oven for about 15 minutes.
Before the chops went into the oven, I peeled and cut up a sweet potato, mixed it with a cut up apple and into the oven it all went. When they came out I drizzled it all with a bit of maple syrup.
Steamed broccoli finished the plate.
It definitely worked. The chops were juicy and really flavorful, the apples worked perfectly with the sweet potatoes, and maple syrup... well... maple syrup makes everything better.
The Pumpkin That Keeps On Giving
Not quite 4 weeks ago I roasted and pureed a fairytale pumpkin. A big fairytale pumpkin. After making pumpkin pies, pumpkin cupcakes, chicken with pumpkin, pumpkin butter, and pork with pumpkin, I decided pasta with pumpkin needed to be done. Pumpkin is just so versatile. You can do anything with it.
So I started out with the rest of the sage sausage I bought yesterday for the sausage gravy. I browned it off, added a couple of cups of pumpkin puree, maybe a quarter-cup of heavy cream (clean out the refrigerator) and about a half-teaspoon of dried sage, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Served over butternut squash ravioli.
Creamy goodness.
I'm lovin' that pumpkin, which is a good thing... I have pumpkin for days in the freezer... More pies, pumpkin rolls... and I really need to do a pumpkin soup...
Yeah... definitely lovin' it!
Chicken-Fried Steak
Ever since that deep fryer walked into this house, I've wanted to make Chicken-Fried Steak.
Chicken-Fried Steak and I have a long history. My mom used to make a variation, but I think she made a brown gravy. And I definitely had it in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club. Frozen, pre-portioned steaks, deep-fried to a shoe-leather consistency and then held on a steam table. With a white paste called country gravy. We lost that war. In no small part due to the food, I'm sure.
But the chicken-fried steaks I remember the best were at Lyon's in Daly City - with my parents.
Back in the day, Victor and I had dinner with my parents probably once a week. We'd have them over to the house for a quick meal on any given day of the week. They were always the perfect guests - 90 minutes tops from walking in the door to dinner to saying good-bye. They liked to take us out, and the restaurant of choice was always Lyon's. Actually, it was often the default restaurant after the first choice - Joe's of Westlake. My father was of the opinion that there was no reason on earth that he should have to call a restaurant and make a reservation. He would show up and expect to be seated. Having worked in the business for more years than I care to count, I'd gently explain that every person of his age and generation within a 25-mile radius was descending upon Joe's at the exact same time. A little advance notice wouldn't hurt.
Alas, he chose not to listen to his Number Two Son. When we were inevitably informed that it would be a 40 minute wait, we were back in the cars and up the road to Lyon's. No wait.
We had grown up with Lyons. I knew the menu backwards and forwards. And 9 times out of 10, I would order the Chicken-Fried Steak. Looking back, I don't remember it as being all that overly-delicious. It was good, but I think ordering it became more of a tradition than a desire. Pop would ask if I was having the Chicken-Fried Steak and I'd say Yeah. Once in a while I'd throw a curve-ball and order a burger or a French Dip, but the Chicken-Fried Steak was my mainstay.
The secret to a good restaurant-style Chicken-Fried Steak is that they're deep-fried, not pan-fried. It makes all the difference. I've pan-fried them in the past but they're just not the same. So tonight, the deep-fryer came out.
Chicken-Fried Steak with Sausage Gravy
- tenderized steaks
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
Season flour with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic powders. Dredge steaks in seasoned flour, milk, back into flour, into the egg, and back into the flour. Let set for about 30 minutes.
Deep-fry and smother in:
Sausage Gravy
- 4 oz bulk sausage (I used a sausage seasoned with sage and garlic)
- 2 tbsp flour (from flouring steaks)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Brown sausage in skillet. Add flour and mix well. Cook slightly. Add milk and cook until thickening. Add heavy cream and cook until thick and creamy.
It was everything I wanted it to be - and more. And just like at Lyon's, it was more than I could eat. Cybil had her share and there's lunch tomorrow.
And OMG this is so not good for you! Even in small doses this is a heart attack waiting to happen.
So I have had my Chicken-Fried Steak fix. Lyon's is gone and so are Mom and Pop. This is one meal that will serve me better as memories. Really fun, very special memories.