Treebeards' Red Beans and Rice

This core staple of Treebeards' menu has given me fits for years. From the early, early days when they would sell the spice packets and then the publication of the first cookbook, I’ve never had great luck with this recipe. The results have been consistently mushy, though the flavor was spot-on.

I’d been especially careful about the stirring instructions to avoid that, but no dice. I’ve given the recipe to others and it worked (or, rather, didn’t work) the same way.

So, I decided to give it another shot with the assumption that the recipe is somehow flawed (no offense, Dan). The obvious suspect was the cooking time of the beans. I reduced the cooking time for the initial simmer down to 1 hr, rather than 1.5. Right off the bat, this gave me the bean tenderness and flavor I was looking for. The “sauce” was a little bit thin, so I think that reducing the amount of water down at least a cup, from 2 qts down to 1.75 would do the trick.

I also used chicken and turkey smoked sausage to cut down on the fat and they taste just fine. So, success.

I've searched around the web to see if there was an update to the recipe (my version is from the 1st edition of their fantastic cookbook, but they're up to the 9th now), but they all seem to have the same times. Maybe it's just me. But I'm happy now.

Hopping John

On New Year's Day, you're supposed to have black eye peas and ham. So, Hopping John is a perfect delivery method.

Many years ago (like, 15), I'd tried the Treebeards recipe, but substituted turkey ham instead of regular pork ham, in an attempt to make it healthier. Blech. I had tried it at least twice that I remember and it was a dry mess.

I decided to give the Treebeards recipe another try, still with the turkey ham, this year. I'll be damned if it didn't turn out to be just about the best, least guilt-inducing comfort food ever.

A few things made the difference this time. First, saute the hell out of the veggies/aromatics, using olive oil instead of butter. Go for a deep rich brown carmelization on them, not just softened. Also, add an extra tablespoon or so of the oil to make up for the fat you're losing from the pork ham. Then, take absolutely seriously the "until tender" instruction regarding the beans. I ended up cooking them for a full hour longer, tasting them every 10 minutes. Totally worked. Score.

Ratatouille

As I mentioned a while back, I have a ton of marinara sauce. But at the same time, I'm watching what I eat pretty carefully these days, which means I can't be eating too much pasta. So what to do?

Somehow, I thought of doing a fake lasagna with some zucchini thin-sliced horizontally, with the Morningstar Farm Grillers Prime or Sausage Recipe Crumbles (or whatever they're called) and some low fat ricotta or cottage cheese. Though I was not too keen on the cheese portion. My neighbor and trainer Heather, pointed out that this is basically rataouille, if I added eggplant and red bell pepper.

Not a fan of that vegetable, by the way. My stepmother is the only person that's actually made me eggplant that I liked and it was seriously fried, so I dunno if that counts.

I decided to give it a shot. The first effort, san eggplant, was really pretty good. I did a bit of experimentation, even trying some eggplant I found at the farmer's market. I got the small zucchini-sized ones (not japanese eggplant, smaller versions of the regular). I think I have a really winner here. After all that, I finally opened a cookbook and found that I was making pretty close to authentic ratatouille.

Oh, and I freaking love my ScanPan saute pan. More on that another day, but my God, it's like magic.

Here's my first shot at writing a recipe:

1 small, narrow eggplant
1 medium yellow squash
1 medium zucchini squash
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 red ball pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt
1 cup marinara sauce
1+ tbsp fresh oregeno
2 tbsp fresh basil

Slice eggplant into thin disks. Place in single layer in a colander (over a paper towel or plate to catch the liquid) sprinkled with kosher salt. Sprinkle kosher salt across top as well. Let sweat for ~45 minutes.

Slice onion and red bell pepper into sticks. Slice yellow squash and zucchini into thin disks. Using the back of a chef's knife or pastry scraper, mash peeled garlic cloves with kosher salt into a paste (salt crystals will act as an abrasive). Mince herbs. At the end of the 45 minutes, pat the eggplant dry with paper towels.

Heat saute pan to medium high. Add olive oil. When oil starts to shimmer, add onions. When onion softens, add mashed garlic. When garlic is browned, add zucchini and summer squash. Heat until both start to soften, turning a bit translucent. Add eggplant and heat until that starts to turn translucent as well. Add red bell pepper. Heat until bell pepper begins to soften. Pour marinara into pan around the edges and sprinkle the herbs across the top. Gently fold in the sauce to the vegetables until heated through.

Serves 4 as a side, 2 as a main course.

* This seems to be all the rage these days. I learned it at the Chopping Block and have since see it on How to Boil Water with Tyler Florence and, yes, America's Test Kitchen

Beef Stroganoff

In trying to decide the menu last night, I remembered I had a bunch of egg noodles left. I'd been curious about Beef Stroganoff for a while, as I've always liked it the few times I had it. Of course, for a basic like this, I went to The Joy of Cooking. I chose the new one just in case.

I was happy to see that it has a nice sauce component, for practice. The sauce starts with a roux which is then reduced a bit. The only difficult part of the process was picking the beef out the onions. I don't mind them and these were awfully tasty. But the recipe said to keep them out and Channing hates them, so I lost this round. I think I did use a too-expensive cut of beef, but the result was very good. The knife skills with meat are very different than vegetables. The clean, rocking motion we were taught just doesn't work the same.

Roasted Turkey & "Gravy"

I had grand plans to follow Alton Brown's guide for the perfect turkey this year. Printed in Gourmet a few years back, it's written exactly as he talks, like it's a transcript or something. The big problem is you realize just how little information there is and how difficult it is to tease out any of it when you need it. Oh, and I think he's really annoying on television, anyway, so reading this article excruciating for me*.

An example of the lack of information? There's absolutely no place where he gives an estimate of how long the cooking time would be. While I appreciate going by temperature only, not telling that info really makes planning meal time difficult.

Fine. I had the intent to brine it until I realized how much of the solution I'd have to make to put the bird in the cooler (many gallons). Screw it. It didn't seem to help last time anyway. Oh, and he doesn't actually have a recipe for the brine. You have to pick it out of the verbiage and it's still missing the point that you have to boil and cool the solution before you soak the bird.

So, I basically used the Roasted Chicken method on this larger bird. I grabbed a fresh 20 pounder at Jewel, so I didn't have to worry about thawing. I would have preferred a more natural bird from Whole Foods. But I happened to spot the chosen victim while on a regular shopping trip and saw that I could save myself an easily 3 hour ordeal.

They were out of sage at Jewel, so I mixed a holiday rub I picked up at Whole Foods into 1.5 sticks of butter. This was rubbed over and under the skin. I also threw a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme, 2 small quartered onions a several smashed cloves of garlic into the cavity and then trussed it up (with twine - the legs were too big for the skin trick).

The only time crunch I faced was getting things out of the oven in time to put in the turkey. Then I remembered my trick from a few years ago - the grill. For the second time, stress just melted away.

The hardest part was regulating the temperature with the grill flame. I did use the Brown trick for browning the turkey:

• Start the turkey @ 500F and roast for 30 minutes.
• At that point, cover the breast with a foil shield and reduce the temp to 350F until done.
  

Easy enough. I found that High on my grill stays at an even 500F and you have to drop all the way down to Low to maintain 350F. This is, of course, dependent on the outside temp, which was about 35F that day. I didn't baste as I didn't want to lose heat.

I was surprised at how fast this cooked. We hit 165F within about 2.5 hours, when I expected about 4. It came out just right, though, so I think I finally got the thermometer right (granted, the thigh on the turkey is a much bigger target). Though it was ready a good few hours before dinner, it held a lot of its heat. I carved in the kitchen and added a touch of heat from the microwave before serving.

There was a downside to the amount of butter, though. I had nothing, I mean nothing, to make gravy with. Just a ton of cooked butter. Yuck. So, at the last minute, I whipped together a wicked veloute sauce. You have no idea how cool it is to be able to say that. It was flawless on the first try.

* Strangely, though, I really like his cookbooks. They have a lot of the science of cooking explained well. But on TV, I find him, well, patronizing, I guess.

Meat 101

Slow lately, I know. I have 6 entries queued up in the "Draft" stage that I need to push through. But in the meantime, I went to another class. This one was funded, in part, by a birthday present I received from my friend, John, so that made it kind of neat.

My Chopping Block course this month was Meat 101. This consisted of working with Beef, Pork and Lamb. The recipe items (and techniques) were:

Red Wine Beef Daube (Stew) [Braising]
Sausage and Mushroom Stuffed Pork Loin [Roasting]
Grilled Lamb Chops 'Scottaditti' [Grilling - obviously]

My God, this was good. Every one of these is on my list to make again. I need to scan and clean the recipes to post them.

Things I learned (which may be mind-numbingly obvious to anyone else):

• When browning stew meat, particularly floured, don't overload the pan. Leave at least a little space between each chunk. Otherwise, you end up with stew-like stuff too soon and no carmelization in the pan.
• Cheaper cuts work better for a braise than an expensive cut like a tenderloin. The less connective tissue, the faster the meat will break down into a mush.
• Like chili, the braise is better the second day, after the flavors have had time to mingle. This is awesome for saving time the day of dinner.
• We browned the beef in bacon fat. If you don't have enough of a given fat for a browning or saute, add some grape seed oil. It's flavor neutral.
• Braising in an oven, instead of on a stove, gives you a more even heat (and less concern about an open flame, from my perspective).
• The longer and slower the braise, the better. We used 350 for 2 hours (due to the class time constraint), but the chef recommended 275 for 5 hours, if possible.
• Do NOT lift the lid during a braise, as it lets moisture escape.
• When searing a stuffed roll, like the pork, start with the "seam" side.
• Use a low or no sodium stock for a reduction (like a sauce). Like with salted butter, the concentration may get too high when the stock evaporates down.
• Raw meat can be out for about 3 hours once it hits room temperature (70F) before the nasty bacteria start to form. The corollary is that buffet items should be taken off the serving line/table at about 2 hours, to be safe.

This was the first class I've ever had at the Mechandise Mart location. I have to say, I think I like the Lincoln Square one better for hand's on. The stoves and ovens are laid out much better for multiple groups. We had three groups crowded shoulder to shoulder when trying to use the burners. Our individual group worked together very well and the recipes lent themselves to swapping out or sharing the hands on parts. We split the prep work so that each person got to work with it. This was particularly useful when we ground out rosemary salt (for the lamb) in a morter and pestle, which it seemed no one had made before and it was easy to pass around the bowl.

My knife and prep skills are definitely getting better. I whipped through the prep very quickly and accurately. That was one of my personal frustrations, driven home by Top Chef when I'd see them finishing entire dishes in the time it would take me to chop.

I did execute the pan sauce (for the pork) well, a definite improvement over the chicken debacle before.

Also, I may need to get a bigger braiser some day, if this method sticks for me. I got one as an extra gift from my mom (they were on a super sale when purchased with a saute pan she was buying me), but it may be a little small for the size of this recipe. A covered casserole would work in the interim.

Chicken Night

Tonight, I went all out with the chicken.

In addition to tackling the Roast Chicken again, I tried the Poulet Saute' Chasseur (Sauteed Chicken with Shallots, Mushrooms, Tomatoes and Tarragon) from the Chicken 101 class. More specifically, I tried the chicken part. I didn't have mushrooms or tarragon in the house, but what I really wanted to practice was pounding the chicken properly.

Wow. The joke just writes itself, doesn't it? Ahem.

There was nothing exciting about the roast chicken except that I did it completely correctly this time. I went by time, rather than temperature only as I did last time. At 20 min/pound, I cooked it for 2 hours, 20 minutes. While the internal temp was insanely high (200-something), it came out really well. I think I over-compensated a bit (though the time was pretty accurate) and I may have been touching a bone when measuring. Again, something to practice.
Instead of my big turkey roaster, I opted for a smaller lasagna pan I had. My roasting rack from our Weber grill fit, so the area of the pan was cut in about half. This made it much, much easier to baste.

We didn't eat the bird that night, but I used the meat the next night tossed with some pasta and spinach. But I tasted pieces of breast and thigh the evening of the cooking and it was decently juicy and taste. And then, of course, the carcass went to stock.

So, for what we did eat. I'd never used the proper technique when pounding out chicken. As I think I mentioned in the Chicken 101 entry, you're supposed to flatten the chicken with strokes of the mallet (strike and pull to the side) instead of hammering it like a nail. This worked really well. For this, you then dredge the breast in a little olive oil and then saute' it (though, really, it seemed more like pan frying).

The "sauteeing" worked out well. As with all things I cooking in a saute or omelette pan, the first one was a wash - a little undercooked for the flour coating on one side (the chicken was fine, though).

I then followed The Joy of Cooking's recipe for gravy which worked out really, really well. From memory, you deglaze the pan with white wine, bring to a simmer and whisk in flour. The thickness of the gravy depends on the amount of flour and the thickening takes a few moments after it's whisked in. It came out a little thick, as I didn't wait long enough, but it was very, very close to perfect.

This is the third time I've ended up with undercooked rice in the last month. I think I just got a bad bag. Like it's too old and dried out or something. I usually don't have a problem with rice at all. Of course, on those (formerly rare) I screw up, I think of Keith on Survivor: Australia who proclaimed he was a fantastic chef and then couldn't make decent rice to save his life.

Grilled Pork Chops with Garlic Lime Sauce

The big problem here, as noted in the menu, was that the meat was undercooked. This was totally a flub on my part. I didn't adequately test it and relied on the times in the recipe. However, I was using very thick (~1") chops, so that threw it all to hell. And they turned out really, really tough, to boot.

Sigh.

And also, the sauce was really way too strong for the rest of the menu. This was a distinct Latin flavor, so black beans, rice and plaintains would be the way to go next time.

They looked nice, though.

Butter Chicken

This was another recipe from the Internet. While this tasted good, it was almost more Italian to me than Indian. I'd had this before when our old neighbor Fuzail made some and shared. He accidently used vanilla yogurt instead of plain and was concerned that it was sweet. Honestly, I could taste a little of the vanilla, but it was still great. Mine was not nearly as smooth as his was. One cheat I used was ~4 cups of tomato puree instead of 4 chopped large tomatos. In trying to smooth out the gravy, I ended up adding more than a cup of cream (instead of 1 table spoon). I don't understand the reference to "beaten cream," since there isn't any reference to that. There might be a step missing from the recipe. So, tasty and recommended, but not what I was expecting.

Aloo Ghobi

This is one of the last of the Chopping Block class recipes. It was, actually, my favorite for eating, but due to the logistics of the class, it's the one I had no hand in the cooking. Jenni and my station partners were really good about keeping us updated on which step they were on, but it's not quite the same. I did get to practice my knife skills from the previous week and I am making progress on breaking my bad habits. It's a shame about the cooking part, because I have been curious about making Aloo Ghobi specifically since I saw the DVD extra of Bend It Like Beckham where the director makes it while her mother and aunt. But this recipe is a proven winner to me, so I'll be giving this one a shot myself, but in the meantime...

ALOO GOBHI
1 cauliflower, cut into flowerettes
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
4 potatoes, large dice
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon garam masala
3 tomatoes, chopped or 1 1/2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons cilantro, rough chopped
Salt to taste

Heat a saute pan over medium low heat and add oil. Saute cumin seeds, ginger and garlic until tender. Add the potatoes, turmeric, chili powder and garam masala. Allow the spices to toast, about 1-2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add cauliflower and simmer covered for 15 minutes (add 1/2 cup of water if too dry). Finish by adding the chopped cilantro and season to taste with salt.

Chicharrones De Pollo

I have to say, this month's issue (September) of Gourmet is absolutely amazing. It's like a mini Latin cookbook. I usually flip through each issue, tabbing the recipes that look like winners. I average around 5 or so each time, though the May issue was a clear winner with 10 or so. This time, wow. Just about everything looks great.

I gave these chicken nuggets a shot as I wanted something comfort foodish that Channing would like while pushing a flavor envelope a bit for him. Also, in the Indian class, I realized that it had been years since I had fried anything and I'd never been very good at breading anything.

The only adjustments I made to the recipe was that I used white rum instead of dark and chicken breast instead of thighs. In the case of the rum, I was working with what I could get. It looks like half or more of our liquor is gone. I got rid of a lot when we moved, but I'm certain I kept the party staples. It's either buried in the storeroom (though I looked) or the workers going through the punch list have helped themselves. Grrrr. So, I had to borrow the rum from the neighbors. The breast substitution was because I just don't like dark meat, period.

The result? Awesome. They have a great, great flavor. I thought that you wouldn't be able to taste the marinade, but it was just perfect. The lime really comes through even after the frying.

I did have to practice a few times on the frying. I think the heat may have been a bit too high, as I was pulling them out based on color at about 4 minutes (a touch over 1/2 the recommended time). The chicken was thoroughly cooked, so that was okay, but there's an adjustment needed.

Breading went well, overall, though I have to look up the two-handed method. I ended up with a lot of the flour mixture built up on my fingers. I also realized just now that I forgot and skipped the step of patting dry the chicken before breading. Oops.

Still, this one's getting a repeat performance. BTW - Chicharrones are apparently usually seasoned fried pork rinds. Yuck. I'm inferring that the flavors are the carry-over from the original.

I'd link to the recipe on epicurious.com, but apparently not all of the recipes are up yet. So, in all of it's copyright flaunting glory, is the recipe. The recent redesign of epicurious absolutely stinks. It's a great on-line resource, but man alive it's slow. I think the direct links to recipes work pretty well, but for cruising through the site, well, you've been warned.

CHICHARRONES DE POLLO
FRIED CHICKEN BITES
SERVES 4 TO 6 (SNACK OR HORS D'OEUVRE)
ACTIVE TIME: 30 MIN START TO FINISH: 1HR

These irresistible nuggets, a specialty of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, are here made with boneless chicken
instead of the usual chicken-on-the-bone.

1/4 cup amber or dark rum
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
About 2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon paprika
ACCOMPANIMENTS: lime wedges; hot sauce

* Stir together rum, lime juice, soy sauce, and sugar in a shallow bowl until sugar has dissolved. Add chicken and stir to coat. Marinate at room temperature 25 minutes.
* While chicken finishes marinating, heat 1 inch oil in a deep 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers.
* Meanwhile, whisk together flour, paprika, and 112 teaspoon salt in a shallow bowl. Drain chicken and pat dry. Dredge in flour, shaking off excess, then transfer to a plate.
* Fry chicken in 3 batches, turning occasionally, until deep golden brown and cooked through, 6 to 7 minutes per batch. (If chicken darkens too quickly, reduce heat.) Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Veal Rolls Stuffed with Spinach and Gruyere

This recipe was the foundation of the meal. I'm not sure what it was the appealled so strongly to me when I saw it in Gourmet. It may have been the presentation, but possibly it was just my love of all things spinach and cheese. Of course, the fact that it was a clear win for serving to Channing didn't hurt.

I honestly don't know if I've ever cooked veal in my life. My mom was one of those that dropped it when she read the first reports in the 70's or 80's about the ranch practices. So, there's a little bit of guilt. Obviuosly, not enough.

You would be really suprised at how hard it is to find veal in Chicago. Heck, I was suprised to find that my local Jewel didn't even have a butcher on site. I think I'd heard that they were being phased out as a cost measure, but hadn't ever seen it implemented. Edgewater Produce has a meat counter, but no veal either. So I had to go to Whole Foods. Not really a bad move, I just wish I'd thought of it more than 120 minutes before serving. I've consistantly found their meat department very helpful. I do want to give the Paulina Meat Market more of my business, but they don't have parking and I was in a time crunch.

These went over great, though I think that I may have overdone them a bit. I think also that the warning about keeping the cheese away from the edges of the veal cutlets before rolling them was dead-on. Making the sauce was complicated a bit with the chunks of cooked cheese that had slipped out.

In flipping through the Food Lover's Dictionary, I found that this was actually a roulade, a stuffed meat roll.

Gnocchi with Chicken in Vodka Florentine Sauce

Okay, this doesn't really count as cooking. It's more heating and assembling pre-made ingredients. But it's tasty and a heck of a lot classier/more impressive than a frozen pizza. We had a friend coming over for dinner and I needed to use the leftover chicken breasts from the Cordon Bleu. There was not enough chicken to base a full meal around and I didn't have a lot of time anyway.

Oh, and despite having a B. Fine Arts in Photography, I am not a food photographer. The result is actually a very attractive pink and green. The big beige thing to the left is a hunk of Tuscan bread with the fava bean bruschetta.

My new thing last night was learning to use the broiler in our new gas Jenn-Air. This one is a little different than those in other stoves I've used; the broiling unit is on the top of the main oven compartment, rather than the shallow drawer below. The upside is that you can adjust the rack if you want to play with the distance of food from the flames. What I can't figure out is, in turning on the broiler, the digital panel asks for a heat level. I played with every button on the panel, but couldn't figure out how to change it. Of course, being a guy, I can't look at the manual. Fortunately, the default is High, which is what I wanted anyway.

I used this to broil the chicken breast, rather than take the extra time to go out to the porch and grill them. It seemed a waste to fire up the whole Weber for only two breasts and it is really, really hot outside these days. In addition to the time savings, I think that the flavor and texture of broiled chicken is better for this semi-creamy sauce. The crispiness and smokey taste of grilled chicken works better for oil-based or marinara-type sauces.

I broiled the breast for five minutes per side, about 3 inches from the broiler flame. I then diced the chicken, which worked out fine, but my friend Joe suggested that shredding it would work even better, as there would be more texture to pick up sauce.

I plan to take the leap and my own gnocchi soon, but the packaged stuff is quite good. Here's something interesting: Gia Russa make a whole wheat gnocchi (which has sweet potato in it), but if you look the nutritional information is actually less healthy than the regular counter part. For example, the Dietary Fiber is about half. Why would you bother? Also, I've been taught that you're supposed to boil gnocchi in small batches. Maybe this brand stinks or I'm using an extra wide mouthed pot, but I've done it both ways several times and I can't tell a lick of difference.

Brands that I used are noted in the ingredients, but obviously not required. Instructions are in sequence for prep and cooking of all ingredients.

Gnocchi with Chicken in Vodka Florentine Sauce

Serves 2 (heartily)

1 16 oz pkg gnocchi (Gia Russa)
1 jar Vodka Sauce (Bertolli)
1 10 oz pkg frozen spinach (Jewel house brand)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Grated Parmesan (for topping)
Ground black pepper (for topping)

Start the water (with dash of olive oil and salt) for the pasta on high flame. Place chicken 3" under broiler flame. Thaw spinach in microwave. Pour vodka sauce into saucepan on high flame - reduce to a simmer and cover when sauce begins boiling. Turn chicken at 5 minutes. Squeeze water from spinach and set aside. Remove chicken after another 5 minutes (10 total). Shred chicken and set aside. When water hits a boil, open gnocci package and spoon the pasta into water.

Note: unlike other pastas of similar sizes, gnocchi splashes when it hits the water. You do NOT want to just dump it in as you would rotini or the like, as you will burn your hand. Use your slotted spoon.

Stir spinach into vodka sauce and re-cover. As gnocchi float to the top of the water (~2 minutes), spoon them out into a colindar to drain. Once all gnocci is done, take the pasta pot off the flame, discard water and pour gnocchi into empty pot. Stir in sauce and shredded chicken. Serve into bowls, top with parmesan and pepper to taste.

Open Faced Chicken Cordon Bleu

I found this in the May issue of Gourmet in their 10-Minute Meals section: Open Faced Chicken Cordon Bleu


While it doesn't clock in at the 15 minutes the recipe claims, it is pretty fast.

Overall, pretty tasty, but edging on the bland side. I suspect that, in large part, this was because I did not get the cutlets down to 1/4" thick. The Jewel chicken breast is insanely thick as it is, so I was happy to get them down to a consistent 1/2".

When sauteeing, I saw that the bottom was getting to the golden brown described in the recipe, but the top was nowhere near done. I flipped them to cook them through, rather than overcook (or burn) the bottom, which worked fairly well.

But I suspect that the sheer volume of the chicken overwhelmed the taste of the ham and cheese.

The spinach and Gruyère are going to make an encore appearance this weekend when I try out some grilled veal roll-ups for which they are the filling.