Musings on Macaroni

I like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. But I add extra salt. I think I like fancy macaroni and cheese as well, but it is rarely as good as I hope it will be. I don't eat it if it has pork in it, which is often in restaurants. My friend Marina made a really good one for her kids with leftover cheese from a New Years Eve party that was pretty damn good.

I think I like the idea of crumbs on top, of something crunchy. It should have black pepper. Shouldn't have mushy pasta...I will continue to muse on this topic. Any suggestions are welcome...

Could start with this from Gourmet (may he rest in peace) magazine:

Macaroni and Cheese

Serves20

• Active time:35 min
• Start to fnish:1 1/4 hr

August 2007

The toasted crumbs on top have a cheesy crispness, and the pasta beneath is creamy and rich. Kids will appreciate the individual servings, but the recipe makes plenty, so why not pour the extra into a baking dish to feed the ravenous parents?

For topping

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 2 cups panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs) or 3 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from 6 slices firm white sandwich bread)
• 1/4 lb coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

For macaroni and sauce

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 5 cups whole milk
• 1 lb coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (6 cups)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 lb elbow macaroni

Make topping:

• Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.
• Melt butter, then stir together with panko and topping cheeses in a bowl until combined well.

Make sauce:

• Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in flour. Cook roux, stirring, 3 minutes, then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes. Stir in cheeses, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth. Remove from heat and cover surface of sauce with wax paper.

Make Macaroni:

• Cook macaroni in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 4 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain macaroni in a colander. Stir together macaroni, reserved cooking water, and sauce in a large bowl. Transfer to 2 buttered 2-quart shallow baking dishes.
• Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

Cooks’ notes: Topping can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.
Half of dish can be baked in 10 (6- to 8-ounce) ramekins for children (with remaining half baked in a 2-quart baking dish for adults).

Recipe by Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez

Indian Autumn Soup

I continued my summer CSA habit with the monthly CSA box...my last pick up was three weeks ago, and I wanted to make use of some of the longer lasting veggies before they passed the peak of perfection.

I rough chopped three small onions and caramelized them over medium high heat with some kosher salt. Then I added three chopped cloves of garlic, one peeled and chopped celeriac root, and three ribs of celery. Mixed it all up. Added 6 CSA carrots, chopped large and about 2/3 of a butternut squash, unpeeled. Covered it all with liquid - you can use any or all of veggie/chicken stock (I don't use chicken if I plan to eat with yogurt) and water, some more salt and a lot of black pepper.

Now what made it Indian? Well, the spices, of course!

I usually add a mix of Indian spices that I bought at Patel Bros. Supermarket in Jackson Heights (a large Indian grocery) for a ridiculously low price, but I hope to be moving house soon, so I surveyed my spice rack and found some old mix of curry spice that was very nice but a few years old. I heated about two teaspoons of oil in a small pan and added about three tablespoons of the curry mix - I figured it was older, so it wasn't as potent, then added it into the soup. Cooking spices in hot oil is key to release their flavors and develop them as well. What I should have done is add them in to the onions and garlic before I added the other veggies, but I forgot...whoops! Also, I added about 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ginger powder.

Simmered for 30 minutes, then pureed with an immersion blender and continued cooking on very low for another hour, but probably not necesssary. Serve with yogurt and cilantro chutney from the Indian grocery.

Beef Short Ribs, Potato Latkes and Chunky Apple Sauce

Beef Short Ribs

The first time that I made short ribs, I think I spent over $100...I invited friends over to my parents' house, used two bottles of quite good wine in the braise, spent about $40 on the actual ribs...they were good, and that was fine, but it was an ordeal.

I also made a lavender infused pumpkin flan, and I have not idea where the recipe is, although I've been actively looking.

I've made them a few other times, and I think I've refined the recipe to be simpler, less expensive, less fatty, and quite delicious.

Beef short ribs - I bought three pieces from my butcher. I asked him to cut 'em up, and each of them produced three pieces of meat on the bone. It was about 4 lbs, cost $17, and will serve at least   people.
Onion - I used one large one. Or two medium ones. Large dice
Carrots - 2 - large dice
Celery - 2 ribs, large dice
tomato paste - half a small can
thyme - 1 teaspoon, dried
rosemary - .5 teaspoon, dried
salt
pepper
red wine - 2 cups
water or broth

Step one - wash the meat, dry it and cover it with way too much kosher salt and pepper. Get a large and heavy pan, and heat it up. Place the pieces of meat in the pan and brown it very well, on all sides. DON'T crowd the pan. A lot of fat will release, and you should pour it off. I got over half a cup of fat! Take the meat out and place it in a dutch oven. (You could do all the cooking in the dutch oven, but I needed the extra space of the large pan to brown the meat.)
In the same pan, start cooking the onions, then add the carrots and celery. Add some salt and pepper. Add the tomato paste and cook it a bit, mixing it well with the veggies.
Add some wine and mix well, so all the yummy brown comes off the pan. Pour it over the meat in the dutch oven. Add more wine and water/stock/broth to cover the meat. Cover with the lid and cook it at 300 degrees for three hours. You can cook it faster at 375 for two hours, or longer at a lower temperature.

IMPORTANT STEP!!! Take the meat out of the liquid and cover both the liquid and the meat and store them in the fridge. After a few hours, remove the AMAZING amount of fat on top of the liquid. You can then leave the veggies whole or puree them with an immersion blender. Add the meat back in and heat it on the stove.

You could serve it over mashed potatoes or just as a stew. I served them with potato latkes. Recipe:

2 large potatoes, grated. Use the large holes on a box grater.
2 medium onions, i whirred them in my mini food chopper, that comes with the immersion blender.
1 egg
salt
black pepper
2 heaping teaspoons of flour
olive oil

Mix it all up and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Heat up the oil to medium high, drop small tablespoons of mixture avoiding some of the liquid that the mixture has given off. Cook a few minutes on each side until nicely browned. Serve with apple sauce and short ribs.

Mama makes this apple sauce - peel, core and quarter two lbs of apples. Place it in a heavy pot. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, small pinch of salt, two cinnamon sticks and a teaspoon of vanilla. Cook it over medium heat until it starts breaking down but it still chunky.

Orange and Mint...

Not oranges, but orange colored veggies. Pumpkin or sweet potato with mint is one of my favorite flavor combos. I first tried it in a little Afghani restaurant in Arlington, VA...my friend and I ended up ordering an extra order of lamb chops for dessert...and they had a pumpkin dish served with yogurt and dried mint leaves...loved it!
Yesterday my friend Hashem mentioned his mom bakes samosas, instead of frying them. And when I got up this morning, I evaluated the kitchen contents and found two sweet potatoes...I looked up recipes in my Jewish vegitarian cookbook...and then I figured out what I was going to make:

Sweet Potatoes, Feta and Mint Pies
I used a recipe for Sephardic Oil Pastry Dough, which was .5 c of oil, .5 c of lukewarm water, 1.5 tsp kosher salt, and 2.75 c of flour. Mix oil, water and salt, then add one c of flour. Stir to combine, then add in more flour until it forms a dough. Wrap in plastic and hold for 30 minutes - 2 hours. Super easy. Comes together in about 2 minutes from beginning to end.
I used muffin pans, lightly greased. I took little balls about the size of a walnut and rolled out circles between two pieces of saran wrap. I fitted the dough into the muffin cups and then filled them with:

2 sweet potatoes, steamed in the microwave until tender, mashed with some feta, Parmesan cheese, no salt, black pepper, some minced fresh mint from my window box and a big teaspoon of dried spearmint.

Added a little flat disk of dough on top, and baked about 35 minutes at 375.

Nice!!!

Cleaning out the fridge = Provencal Lamb and Chickpea Stew and Indian Veggies

This has always come easily to me...I can survey the contents of a fridge and/or pantry and come up with stuff. Here's how I riffed this time. It's all about techniques and building flavors.

Today, mindful of the fact that we have a CSA pick up tomorrow and a semi full fridge, I decided that it had to go. The contents of the fridge, that is. Eric and I like to bring lunch to work with us and have some dinner options prepared when we are too tired to cook.

I had soaked and cooked a pound of organic chick peas, and they were in the fridge in their liquid. Also in the fridge were sad celery, a small head of cabbage, leftover ratatouille and a piece of lamb I had bought last Friday. An onion was in the bowl on the counter top, and a single potato was also available...so, here we go:

1. Provencal Lamb and Chickpea Stew
Base - aromatics - I had one red onion E and I had bought at a farm stand last week. A rough chop and into some hot olive oil in the bottom of a small dutch oven. I trimmed up the sad organic celery and chopped about half a cup finely, adding that to the onions after they had gotten a little color. Let that soften, added salt. In went the leftover ratatouille, which was squash, onion, zucchini and tomato with lots of basil. Some fresh rosemary from my window box, but it hasn't been growing too prolificly (isn't that a word?) so I supplemented with some dried. A glug of white wine that wasn't doing anything else in the kitchen. I heated a saute pan smokey hot, added a few drops of olive oil (canola would've been better) and seared my piece of lamb on both sides, salting it well beforehand. I laid that on top of the veggies, covered it with water and then added about two cups of beans and some of the cooking liquid. Bring to a boil, bring down to a simmer, and I'll let that go about 2-3 hours until the lamb falls apart.

2. Indian veggies. I shredded the cabbage and smashed/rough chopped 4 fat cloves of garlic. I would've liked onion too, but I was out. Ditto bell peppers or carrots.
In some hot oil, I "bloomed" about 1.5 teaspoons each mustard seeds, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Added the garlic and a handful of cabbage. Added the same amount turmeric and twice the amount of some nice curry powder that was a bit old (that's why so much), then about 3-4 tablespoons tomato paste (from the tube, lasts longer than opening a can) cooking it well directly on the heat before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. That would be the rest of the cabbage, tossing to cover it all with spices and flavor. There was salt, and a little more oil as it was getting dry. Then some chili flakes, a handful of dried cranberries and the rest of the beans and their liquid. I'm also thinking about chopping and adding the potato, but I may be too lazy to do that. Will be done in about 20-30 minutes.

She still cooks.

And there is even a new book.

I've been sniffing around a volume called Olive Trees and Honey; A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World.

I haven't had a chance to peruse extensively yet, because I went directly to the borscht.

See, E had decided to make borscht a few weeks before and it came out watery and tasteless. So, the first step in Russian Jewish cooking for me, call Mama! She asked why I was cooking borscht, as it was 10,000 degrees outside. I told her it was cold borscht. She then instructed me to boil an egg, boil a potato, have some sour cream, traditionally some chopped cucumber...

-BUT, Mama, how do you make the actual BORSCHT!?!

-You buy it, of course!

Yes, reader, you heard me...my mama, along with cousin Olga, Eric's parents, and all Russians I know buy their cold borscht in glass jars that look like this:

This couldn't be! I had organic beets from the CSA, and I was on a mission! I reviewed some recipes on the internet, but when this  book arrived from Amazon, I was so pleased to read their entire BORSCHT SECTION!
Of course, I can't ever follow a recipe properly, but very strongly based on this book and conversations with my mama, I present:

Cold  Borscht
It's light, refreshing and tasty.

2.5 lbs of beets. I prefer smaller ones, think they have nicer flavor.
one large onion
either: sour salt/citric acid OR lemon juice OR apple cider vinegar - to taste - depends on the flavor you like. I use about 3/4 teaspoons of citric acid, or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
kosher salt, about 2 teaspoons
sugar, I use 3 heaping teaspoons. you could also use splenda, but I think this small amount is just fine
fresh ground pepper

garnishes: hard boiled egg, sliced or roughly chopped, chopped cucumber, sour cream or greek yogurt (make sure it isn't non-fat, that won't give great results. I would try to use at least 2% or even full fat for this), chopped dill and a boiled potato, peeled and chopped.

Peel beets and cover with water in a pot. Add in the onion, whole. Add the citric acid, if using. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 45 minutes, until they are soft. Add the salt, sugar, pepper and lemon juice/vinegar if you are using those. Cook another 10 minutes. Remove the beets and taste the liquid. If it tastes thin, then raise the heat and let it cook down and the flavors concentrate (that is the step I am doing right now!)
Meanwhile, chop or shred the beets. If you have a food processor, that would be a great use of it! Return then to the soup liquid, discard the onion.

You can serve this hot or cold.

Hot, add a few cubes of boiled potato, a dollop of sour cream or full fat greek yogurt and chopped dill.

If you serve it cold, you can include chopped cucumbers as a garnish, as well as some sliced egg. And all the stuff above.

I Love You-sobuco...Ossobucco & Polenta

Well, today is my pre-Valentine celebration...I wanted something a little bit elaborate, but not overwhelming in either time or impact...if it's a romantic celebration, you don't want to be sitting around on the couch rubbing your tummies after the festive meal! Knowing that I had the Saturday free, but wouldn't have time to market, I took half an hour on Friday afternoon to make a little menu and order up some FreshDirect to arrive Saturday (today) morning. I love New York City! Not my usual M.O., but after heavy snow and 13-15 hour days this week, I'll take a little help, even if I paid a $20 premium (the higher prices and delivery fees).

I want to note that to me, cooking and fussing in the kitchen IS relaxing. If it's not, please don't force yourself!

So, I decided to make something special, something you don't whip up on weeknight. Something that might be a special treat...and remembered Eric requesting Ossobuco! I looked at a few different recipes, found a few cool ideas, and had it in the oven at noon today.

OSSOBUCO - Serves 4 people. (Or however many shanks you get)

4 Veal Shanks - this is a cut that goes through the bone. As a bonus, the bone is full of marrow, a frightening but intriguing substance! The easy first reaction is YEEEEATCH! but many people love it - it is rich, complex, and definitely something special!   Now about buying your shanks...ideally you'd go to a butcher, and get 4 that are the same size, because it looks better asthetically and people don't fight over how gets the bigger piece. However, I received two large and two small ones, and it made no difference whatsoever. The cooking time doesn't really matter, because they are braised until they are practically falling apart!

Anyway, these shanks - try to bring them to room temperature before you cook them. Wash them up, dry them off, and salt and pepper both sides generously. You can tie them around with kitchen twine if you have it handy, but it's find without. Tying them adds a bit to the presentation cause the round shape is preserved better during cooking. I did not. Heat your oven to 300 degrees F. Many people lightly flour the shanks, which isn't a bad idea, but the flour sometimes burns a bit, so I opted not to.

optional but oh so nice - duck bacon, chopped. I used three slices. Or some porky product, but I don't want to know about it. Duck bacon is becoming more easily available. If you don't have a store near you, you can get it through the mail here. So, for duck bacon, chop it up, and cook it in a dutch oven or a heavy oven-safe pot over medium heat until all the fat melts and you have little nuggets of deliciousness. Pull out the nuggets and refrain from eating them. Leave the fat in the bottom of the dutch oven with enough olive oil to coat the bottom (about 2 Table) or use 2 T of olive oil, heated until smoking and ...

Brown your shanks. if they don't all fit at once, do them in shifts. You are not cooking the meat, you are browng it. Remove then from the pan and reserve. Turn your heat down to medium low and add the onion, with a large pinch of salt. Stir it around, and let it cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occassionally. The onions will get lightly browned, sweet, and soft.

Add:
One large onion, diced small
One carrot, diced small
One rib celery, diced small
Two large cloves garlic, chopped - use fresh, please!
1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 2 teaspoons fresh
ditto thyme
2 bay leaves
and cook another 5-10 minutes, then add the following and bring to a slow boil over medium high heat:

2 Tablespoons tomato paste
salt and pepper - kosher and fresh ground is preferable
half a large can San Marzano tomatoes with juice - I find the San Marzano labeled tomatoes to be delicious, but you may like others. Just use a good quality tomato, without any added herbs or spices.
1 cup dry white wine - I used a Portuguese vino verde
2 cups good chicken stock

Simmer about ten minutes, then add in the cooked bits of (duck) bacon, the shanks, make sure they are mostly covered by liquid, then cover and cook in a 300 degree oven for 3 hours. Check and make sure the meat is super tender, if not, it is no problem to cook for a lot longer. Put it in for another hour. If you want, you can put it at a lower temperature and cook even longer for even more tender meat. When it is done, remove the shanks, and bring the remaining contents of the pot to a boil. Simmer to reduce, remove bay leaves, any large springs of thyme or rosemary, and cook until it is slightly thickened.

Traditional topping is a gremolata, which is lemon zest, garlic, and parsley. one lemon, zested, a bit of orange zest, 1 small clove of garlic, crushed with a press or with a side of a knife and then chopped (fresh), 2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley, splash olive oil, pinch salt, few grinds of black pepper. I used blood orange rind, which has a tiny bit of bitter flavor. I don't usually like bitter flavors, but they balance other flavors really well in small amounts.


I am serving this over a simple polenta.
1 cup polenta or corn meal
2 cups water
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
1 T chopped chives

Mix corn meal and one cup of water in a bowl to create a slurry. Bring the rest of the ingredients to a boil and then stir in the corn slurry. Cook over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon every then minutes. Stir in chopped chives. I find that this reheats really well in the microwave. Comes out super creamy and delicious, a little plain on it's own, but delicious as a foil to flavorful sauces. You can also add a bit of grated Parmesan cheese or alternatively, leave out the chives and top with something sweet (I like agave nectar or maple syrup plus ripe banana!).



Serve Ossobuco over polenta, topped with gremolata.