Braised Beans with Broccoli Rabe, Grilled Chicken and Other Things
rich, saucy, licorice-y fennel seed to accentuate the sweetness of the caramelized onions, creamy and buttery from the beans, slightly bitter from the broccoli rabe.
I’ve been taking photos of all the food I’ve been cooking lately, with some interesting results. I’ve come to realize, for example, that I use a lot of the same ingredients over and over again. Zucchini comes to mind… Not that there is anything wrong with that, but when I look at all the photos back to back, the colors are all the same, it compels me to try and come up with something different. Hence this dish.
I started out by slicing some older larger onions into fairly chunky pieces, crosswise, so they wouldn’t melt away while being caramelized, melted some butter and let it start to almost brown before tossing in the onions, and then I just let them sit and develop a nice color.
I keep my nose on things when I’m not looking because I’m too busy chopping up the rest of my ingredients, you can tell when the onions start to brown and it’s time to give them a toss, because the air in the kitchen starts to smell of caramel.
This is what it looked like after I tossed in the broccoli rabe, I didn’t blanch it first because I wanted it to stay really crisp, but I did separate the stems from the more delicate florets since the latter would cook much faster and should be added closer to the end of cooking.
Once the stems started to get that gorgeous green color, I tossed in some minced garlic, let that cook very briefly just enough for the aroma to come out, and followed it with some chopped tomatoes (canned, Muir Glen are the best).
I left them to simmer for a while on low heat, to break down while I ground up some whole fennel seeds and tossed those in, followed by a can of white beans, cannellini or northern will work. I also threw in the florets I’d set aside from the rabe at this point. I left that to simmer on low low heat for a good while, until the thickest stems were tender but still pretty crunchy.
I’d butterflied my chicken breasts and marinated them for a couple of hours in some balsamic vinegar, brown mustard, olive oil and salt and pepper so I just grilled them up on high heat while I was waiting for the rest of the meal to finish cooking.
The whole thing topped off beautifully with a bit of parmesan and a hunk of sourdough baguette (because the sauce is the best part). It worked out great: tasty and different colors from the rest of my album.
Filed under Recipes | Comment (0)Forced creativity
It seems I always come up with better dishes when I force myself to work with what I’ve got lying around the house instead of running to the store. Limitations seem to sharpen my creativity. Inevitably potent ingredients that I bought months ago, like shrimp paste or fenugreek or anchovies are called upon. What comes out is more surprising and (usually) more pleasurable than the predictable patterns of cooking I tend to fall into when I have a blank slate. Both from the standpoint of eating, and preparing the food.
So I’ve been purposefully creating this situation for myself. Most recently it gave birth to some fairly tasty ravioli. I’d bought a large bag of semolina a while back for a bread recipe, it’s been taking up space on my counter ever since, and I’d just finished reading the ricotta article on Bittman’s blog and was looking for an excuse to make some.
For the filling, I ended up sauteing some onions and garlic and minced carrots along with some chicken breast, and finely diced some pepper-coated salami for extra punch, threw all of this in my food processor and then folded it into the fresh ricotta with a good helping of parmesan.
Sorry for the awful photo, messy hands.
The ravioli turned out very tasty, but a bit too thick (or ‘rustic’ as I prefer to call them). Next time I’ll use more regular flour and less semolina to make the dough a bit more delicate. I don’t have a fancy pasta attachment for my kitchenaid, and ended up rolling it out by hand which may have had something to do with the flawed texture as well.
I threw together what was supposed to be simplified tomato sauce, but ended up adding anchovies, as well as some breadcrumbs because it just tasted too watery. It turned out great, and worked pretty well with the ravioli, though butter, sage and parmesan would have been more appropriate perhaps.
There were 4-5 raviolis left over that I reheated in some beef broth the next day for lunch, and they turned out much better, less tough.
Filed under Rants, Recipes | Comment (0)Paella with Chicken & Chorizo
rich flavor from the chicken, nutty from the toasted rice, full of tomato, smokey and tangy from the chorizo, slightly herbal, slightly sweet, peppery, with hits of sharp saltiness from the olives
I was extremely proud of the way this dish turned out, it was really delicious, even though I ended up getting the wrong kind of rice. Parts of the rice ended up overcooked, and other parts ended up crispy. You’d think that this would be lethal to the recipe, but the richness of the flavors came together so well, that the flawed texture of the rice was easily overcome. I also resisted the urge to buy a new paella-specific pan, using instead a heavy-bottomed pan that was on hand, which probably had something to do with the uneven cooking of the rice as well.
Here are the ingredients:
- tomato paste or several roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped, or a combination of the two
- meaty green peppers of some sort (you can use jalapenos if you want some spice, or just green bell peppers
- onion
- garlic
- saffron (several threads steeped in a bit of warm water)
- medium-grain white rice, rinsed with one change of water
- chicken or other meat broth
- chicken thighs or other dark meat (you can use white, but it’s just not as flavorful)
- chorizo sausage, chopped
- olives, green or black, or both
- whatever green vegetable you like, peas are traditional, I used green beans, I’d advise against broccoli because the cabbage-y flavor would be too strong, okra would be great
- dried oregano
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
You can really play with the proportions of the ingredients for this dish, the only measuring that is important is the ratio of broth to rice, usually the package of rice will have instructions, but as a rule of thumb, 1 cup of rice needs 1.5 cups of liquid.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Start by searing the chicken thighs separately in a cast iron or other heavy skillet, to make sure the skin is crispy, and most of the fat melts off, and also to help them along since dark meat on the bone takes a while longer to cook.
Meanwhile in your ‘main’ paella dish (make sure it’s ovenproof) cook the chorizo in a bit of olive oil, and once that starts to brown add the chopped onions. Stir thoroughly scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Once the onions start to become translucent, add the chopped peppers, stir thoroughly and let everything cook for a few minutes until the peppers and onions get some color.
Add in the garlic and let it cook briefly, about a minute.
Add in the tomato, along with the saffron threads and the water they’ve been steeped in, incorporating everything thoroughly. You can add another tablespoon or so more water if the paste is too sticky. Turn down the heat and let the resulting mixture cook for a few minutes, stirring periodically.
This is a key part of getting the correct flavor - by letting the paste cook for a while, you allow the acidity of the tomato to mellow and help concentrate the umami. This is especially important if you are using fresh tomatoes instead of paste. Make sure you keep adding water a tablespoon at a time as needed in order to avoid the mixture drying out.
Once the onions and peppers have started to break down, add in the rice, salt, pepper and oregano, a bit more olive oil, and stir quickly and thoroughly to coat the rice in the tomato mixture. Stir in the green beans, and nestle the chicken amongst the rice.
Pour the chicken stock over the rice.
Place the pan in the oven, and cook uncovered until the rice is tender. Do not stir, but you can add more liquid if all the stock absorbs and the rice still isn’t cooked through.
To serve, shred the chicken and place a bit of the meat on top of each portion. Enjoy!
Filed under Recipes | Comment (0)Slow-cooked Chicken in a Clay Pot with Winter Vegetables
Taste: clean, strong chicken flavor, herbal, fresh from the lemon, slightly earthy from the paprika, buttery from the potatoes, sweet and rich from the carrots
It’s not in my nature to slow-cook food, I’m too spur of the moment and I like to fiddle with my food too much, but every once in a while, it’s nice to be able stick something in a pot and let it do its thing for a few hours.
Slow cooking leaves the food incredibly juicy and tender, and because it usually requires a tightly sealed vessel - you can’t afford to loose moisture otherwise your food will dry out or burn - this method effectively concentrates flavor and preserves more of the nutritional value of the food. Cooking things over the course of a few hours also has the added bonus of gradually steeping your whole house in luscious aromas, drawing the occupants to peer longingly through the oven door like a troupe of slightly sad zombies. Continue reading »
Filed under Recipes | Comment (1)UmamiTV Episode #0A is Here!
Marjoram Chicken Soup
Apparently there are certain dishes which you’re not supposed to use when ‘entertaining.’ I’ve got several cookbooks which caution that certain recipes aren’t for guests. Well, I wasn’t aware of this distinction until recently and I’ve been serving non-guestworthy foods to my guests for a long time, shockingly no one has ever called me out on it. Continue reading » Filed under Recipes | Comment (0)Taste: Chickeny, bursting with umami, herbal flavor from the marjoram, slightly lemony and caramel-y from the onions.
Beet & Greens Salad with Sauted Chicken and a Garlic Yogurt Dressing
Taste: Sweet and earthy from the beets, a bit of bitterness from the greens, herbal, acidic and buttery from the dressing, pungent from the fresh garlic, the chicken lends a saltiness and richness and keeps the flavors grounded.
You can use canned beets for this, though somewhere down the line I’m sure I’ll roast some and see the contrast. Continue reading »
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