Beef Paprikash

• 1 lb stewing beef cut into 1″ cubes
• 3 medium yellow onions, sliced (end to end)
• 2-3 large red bell peppers OR any assortment of sweet and spicy peppers, thickly sliced. I used 1 sweet red bell pepper, 3 red mexi-bell chillies, 2 red cubanelles chillies and a red anaheim chilli which together provided mild to moderate heat. Add more chillies or red pepper flakes if you like it hotter.
• 12 oz small mushrooms, halved or quartered if large
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 1/2 t very good quality sweet Hungarian or Spanish paprika, divided
• 2 1/2 t very good quality smoked Hungarian or Spanish paprika. divided
• 3/4 t crushed (but not ground) whole caraway seeds
• 2 bay leaves
• 2-3 T all purpose flour, divided
• 4 C beef broth
• 1/3 C red wine
• 3 T tomato paste
• 1 quart jarred tomatoes
• 1/2 C full-fat sour cream at room temperature
• fresh dill

Toss the beef with 1 1/2 T of flour and 1/2 t each of sweet and smoked paprika. Brown in a large cast iron pot/dutch oven in 2 batches to prevent overcrowding. Remove and deglaze the pot with some of the red wine, adding the liquid to the set-aside beef. Sauté the onions until well browned and then add in the garlic, mushrooms, peppers/chillies and caraway seeds. Cook on medium-high until the mushrooms and peppers start to soften and brown a bit. Remove and set aside. Deglaze with the rest of the red wine and add in the tomato paste and paprika. Cook until the tomato paste thickens up significantly and begins to caramelise and darken. Add in the tomatoes, beef broth and reserved veggies, beef and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer and cook at least an hour or until the beef is very tender. Thicken the sauce with 1-2 T of flour mixed with cold water and then added slowly to the liquid, adding more flour if needed to thicken the sauce. Cook until thickened and then remove from the heat. Whisk in the sour cream. Serve with buttered spätzle or other egg noodles and garnish with fresh dill.

Thai Chicken Wings

6 lbs chicken wings, cut into wings and drumette pieces and tips reserved for making stock.

Marinade:

3 lemongrass stalks, white parts only
3 coriander roots, or 1/2 bunch of coriander/cilantro including stems
1 1/2″ piece of galangal, peeled. Replace with ginger if unavailable, or use both.
4 garlic cloves
4 shallots
zest of 1 lime, juice of 2
sriracha or thai chillies to taste
1 T coconut cream (from top of coconut milk can) to help a paste form. A little vegetable oil will also work.

Place all in a food processor and blend until a fine paste forms. Rub thoroughly onto chicken wings and then add 1 C coconut milk and stir to coat well. Let sit overnight or at least 2 hours.
Grill on medium heat until well browned and slightly charred on each side, about 15 min. per side. Do not over cook or you will dry out the meat. Feel free to baste the wings with the remaining marinade as they grill, making sure you cook them thoroughly to avoid any contamination.

Though these taste great on their own, you could also make a peanut sauce to dip them in.

Serves 6-8

Gong Bao Chicken

This recipe is loosely based on this one at Food52.com but has been altered quite a bit.

Chicken Marinade:

• 5 chicken thighs, boned and skinned
• 1 T beaten egg
• 1/4 C corn starch
• pinch salt
• 2 t rice wine (chinese cooking wine OR sake will work here)
• 2 t Japanese white rice vinegar
• 2 t grated fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced

Remove as much visible skin and fat from the thighs as possible and cut into 1″ cubes. This is much easier if the thighs are slightly frozen. Put into a large bowl and add all the marinade ingredients and let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients, or do early in the day and place in the fridge until ready to fry.

• 1/2 C unsalted, roasted peanuts
• 12 scallions, chopped into 1-inch pieces, dark green separated from white/light green parts
• 2-3 sweet bell peppers, red, orange and/or yellow, diced into 1″ inch squares
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 5 t grated ginger
• 8-12 dried red chiles, crushed with your hand
• 4 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns, semi-coarsely ground

Sauce:

• 1 C water or low-sodium stock and/or rice wine
• 3 T dark soya sauce, I like a tamari here (all-soya Japanese soya sauce)
• 2 T brown sugar
• 3 T Chinese black rice vinegar or 3/4 T each of white wine , red wine and balsamic vinegars
• 2 T cornstarch

Whisk all ingredients together and set aside.

Fry the chicken in 3-4 batches in the bottom of a very hot wok (425°F+) until light brown and crispy in about 1/4 C peanut or canola oil. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Clean out wok and bring back up to a high temperature.  In a couple T of high-temperature, neutral oil (peanut, safflower, canola), very quickly sauté the bell peppers, peanuts, white parts of the scallions, garlic, ginger, half the Sichuan peppercorns and chilli peppers until the bell peppers are seared but still very crunchy. Add back in the chicken to reheat and then add in the sauce, adding water/stock/rice wine as needed to keep the sauce from getting too thick. Add in the green parts of the scallions and remaining Sichuan peppercorns just before serving. Serve with steamed rice and garlic sautéed green beans or pea pods. Serves 5-6

Sweet & Sour Pork Spare Ribs

Have your butcher cut a slab or two (depending on how many people you’re feeding) into several 1″ wide lengthwise slices so that you can cut them apart and have 1″ x 1″ (approx) riblets. But don’t cut them apart just yet!

First you need to season them with a dry rub made of:

• kosher salt (not too much, as the sauce itself is quite salty)
• freshly ground black pepper
• ginger powder
• garlic powder

Rub this liberally on the ribs and then grill over medium high heat until the outside is nice and well done with bits of lovely charring, but the inside is still raw-ish. All you’re doing here is giving the ribs flavour, not cooking them (like browning a roast in a skillet before you roast it in the oven).

At this point you want to cut the ribs into nice little bite-sized pieces – which would be impossible if we hadn’t had the butcher slice through the bones for us. Like I said, you want to have pieces of about 1″x1″ or so – smaller is ok too.

Place all the cut up riblets into a large, very deep roasting pan and add this sauce:

• 1/2 C water
• 1/2 C dark brown sugar
• 1/4 C ketchup
• 1/4 C white or rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 C low-sodium Japanese soya sauce – Kikkoman works well here
• 2 T corn starch

For 4-5 lbs of ribs you’ll need a quadruple batch of the sauce, or so. You want just enough so that the sauce doesn’t quite cover the ribs. You can make less sauce than you think you will need and then add one more batch if you really need more. Whisk all ingredients together and pour over the ribs.

Bake in a 350°F oven for approximately 2-2 1/2 hours, stirring every 45 minutes and removing the lid for the last half hour. Essentially you want to bake it until the connective tissues break down and the meat is very tender and coming off the bone, but not totally falling apart. I usually just take the lid off whilst I’m making the rice after having baked for 2 hrs, and once the rice is done, so are the ribs.

Serve over steamed brown or white rice and with any veggie. I like steamed broccoli or garlic sautéed long beans. What this turns out to be is basically umami meat crack. It’s severely addicting.

Vegetarians might make something similar with firm tofu or even tempeh and this sauce, though of course you couldn’t bake it as long else it would fall apart.

Orecchiette with Rapini

This dish is known in Italian as Pasta con le cime di rapa and is a very popular dish in Southern Italy (Puglia) and Sicily. That link will send you to my former room-mate’s blog, who initially introduced me to the dish, originally wrote this recipe, and whose instructions I used in this recipe, with a few changes of my own.

• 2 bunches rapini (aka broccoli rabe). If unavailable use broccolini, or a mixture of broccoli and spinach, chard and/or turnip greens.
• 1 lb. orecchiette, preferably artisinal
• extra-virgin olive oil, to taste
• several cloves of garlic, minced
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• 1 – 2 C of hard cheese: parmigiano reggiano, pecorino romano (preferred), finely grated. I usually do a mix of the two.
• fresh Italian parsley, roughly chopped
• kosher/sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 3/4 C breadcrumbs, toasted
• zest of 1 lemon

Put a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil. Rinse the broccoli rabe and cut off the harder, thicker portions of the stem, keeping the leaves,  florets, and tender stems. Cut the greens crosswise into short ribbons an inch wide. When the water boils, empty in the box of pasta and cook until pasta is barely al dente. Half-way through the pasta’s cooking time, add in the rapini. If you like your greens softer, you can add them in earlier, even before you add in the pasta. I prefer mine still crunchy to soft.

Meanwhile, mince the garlic. Sauté on low in a few tablespoons of olive oil with the red pepper flakes, fresh cracked pepper, and kosher salt until the garlic’s and pepper flakes’ flavours are released. (Do not let the garlic brown or it will become bitter!)

Mix the breadcrumbs with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and toast in a small frying pan over medium heat, mixing often until evenly toasted. Once it starts to toast, it goes very quickly, so be sure to keep an eye on it!  Allow to cool slightly, season with a little kosher salt, and then mix in the lemon zest.

As soon as the pasta is done, drain and mix in the garlic, red pepper and olive oil, along with a few handfuls of cheese and the salt and pepper. Add more olive oil and cheese until the pasta is nicely coated. Serve with yet more cheese, parsley, toasted lemon breadcrumbs, and olive oil.

This dish is great with a nice white wine like a Sauvignon Blanc or even a mild Chardonnay.

Grilled Zucchini and Mushroom Pasta al Forno

1 lb whole wheat spaghetti

2 lbs of zucchini cut into thick slices about 1″ (I used 2 globe zucchini)
extra virgin olive oil
garlic powder
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

1 lb crimini mushrooms, roughly chopped
vegetable oil
butter

1 large onion, diced, divided
5 garlic cloves, minced, divided

2 large cans diced tomatoes
1/2 C dry white wine
red pepper flakes
1/4 C fresh basil chiffonade
1 small jar capers

mixture of white Italian cheeses* such as:
mozzarella
parmigiano reggiano
fontina

Sauté on medium heat half of the diced onion in about 1 T each of olive oil and butter and until softened, adding kosher salt to sweat the onion. Add in red pepper flakes to taste as well as the drained capers and half of the minced garlic. Once the garlic is soft, add in the wine and cook until nearly evaporated. Add in the tomatoes and their juices and lower the heat. Simmer all ingredients on low until ready to assemble in a large casserole dish, adding a little water as needed to keep the sauce rather thin but still flavourful.

Brush your zucchini slices with olive oil and season liberally with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and garlic powder. Grill until very well done where you have very intense grill marks and it is rather soft – which makes it important to have thick slices else it will fall apart.   I like to grill until just before it becomes burnt – this really intensifies the flavour of the zucchini and gives the end dish a very nice smokey flavour.  Allow to cool and then slice into 1/2″ wide strips.

Heat a cast iron pan which has a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in it until very hot. Add mushrooms and sauté until well browned. Lower the heat to medium low and add in the other half of the diced onion, rest of the garlic, a couple tablespoons of butter and season with salt and pepper. Continue to sauté until the onions are soft, being careful to not let either onions or garlic burn.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Boil spaghetti until it is just underdone – remove and drain before the al dente stage because it will continue to cook in the oven.

Take the sauce off the heat and add in your chiffonade of basil.

Layer in the casserole dish a few ladlefulls of sauce, about half the pasta, then more sauce, 3/4 of the mushrooms, 2/3 of the grilled zucchini, 1/2 the cheese and then the rest of the pasta, the rest of the mushrooms and zucchini, the remainder of the sauce, and finally top with the last half of the cheese.  Bake in a 375F oven for about 25-40 minutes until the cheese is browned and the sauce is bubbly.  I garnished the top with a small handful of basil flowers I stripped off the stem from my basil plants.

*In any baked pasta dish I like a mixture of at least three cheeses – a nice melty cheese like mozzarella or havarti, a salty robust hard cheese like parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano, and a medium, full-bodied cheese like fontina. I used what I had on hand which was: mozzarella, havarti, parmigiano reggiano, and extra sharp white cheddar, and it turned out very well indeed.

Asparagus Soup

5 spring onions (aka welsh onions) with large white bulbs about the size of a golf ball (not green onions/scallions with their tiny bulbs)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium potato, diced very finely
2 lbs asparagus
1 small bunch Italian parsley, tied up with kitchen twine
8 c water or chicken stock
1/2 C sour cream
1/2 C whole milk or evaporated milk
juice of 1 small lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Salted boiling water, for blanching
ice water bath

Sauté the onion, garlic and potato until softened. Prepare the asparagus by snapping off the woody ends and reserving for the stock. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil and blanch the top part (non-woody) of the asparagus spears for 3-4 minutes, afterwards plunging immediately into an ice water bath to halt cooking.

Add water or broth to the soup pot as well as the woody asparagus ends and the twined-up parsley. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook on low for about 45 minutes. The liquid should have reduced by about 1/3. Remove the woody asparagus ends and parsley and discard. Add in blanched spears which have been cut into small pieces. Cook until the asparagus is softened and then remove the soup from the heat. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes at which point purée in a blender in batches, adding the sour cream to one of the batches. Add all the soup back into the pot along with the evaporated milk, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste, and keep warm on the lowest setting, being careful not to let it boil or get too hot lest the acid in the lemon juice curdle the cream/milk. If desired, you may also pass the puréed soup through a sieve before returning to the pot and adding the lemon juice, in order to filter out any bits of asparagus stem, onion or potato skin that didn’t blend.

Serve alongside buttered freshly baked bread.

Asparagus and Tomato Quiche

This recipe was based heavily on this one.

Crust:
3/4 C white flour
3/4 C whole wheat flour
1/2 very cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 t salt
1 egg, beaten
1-2 T very cold water

Filling:
1 lb fresh, small green asparagus
1 T butter
1 T lemon juice
4-5 quite small tomatoes (plum or cherry size), cut in half
1/4 C chopped parsley
1/4 chopped chives
3 eggs
1 C crème fraîche or whole-fat sour cream
1/3 C grated sharp cheese (aged white cheddar, aged gouda, parmesan, etc.)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the salt into the flour and cut in the cold butter with a pastry cutter until it the butter is evenly dispersed into the flour. Add in the beaten egg and 1 tablespoon of the water. Mix very gently until it comes together in a ball, adding more water if needed. Cover with plastic wrap and put into the fridge to rest for at least half an hour.

Once the dough has rested, remove it from the fridge, and roll it out gently into a circle about 1″ (2.5 cm) larger than your tart pan. Place it over your pan and gently press it in place and up the sides of the pan, cutting off the excess with a knife. Bake in a 400°F oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly whilst you prepare the filling.

Wash and trim the ends of the asparagus (use one as a guide and snap it with your fingers, cutting the rest where the first one naturally snapped off). Sauté in a medium-hot pan in butter for 5 minutes, turning every so often just so the asparagus begins to just barely cook. Add the lemon juice and a sprinkling of kosher salt and black pepper. Layer the asparagus in the crust, cutting the spears down to size if necessary. Mine just barely fit with a few heads peeking out, which is fine. Cut the tomatoes in half and even distribute over the asparagus.

Mix the chopped herbs into the crème fraîche and season with salt and pepper, then add in the eggs. Mix until just combined and then pour over the asparagus and tomatoes.

Bake at 350°F this time for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and then add the cheese and return to the oven and bake for 15-25 minutes more until the egg has set and the cheese is bubbly and lightly browned. If the crust is getting too browned and the cheese isn’t quite browned, go ahead and place it under the broiler for a minute or so.

Notes: I used sour cream because I couldn’t find any crème fraîche in the horrible small town I live in. Crème fraîche is preferred, but sour cream will work fine. Any sharp cheese would work on top of this, I just happened to have a nice, very sharp white cheddar on hand, so that’s what I used. I used garlic chives in this (because that’s what’s in the garden) but any chive or scallion would work, you’d just want to slice the scallions very, very thinly.

Chipotle Pulled Pork Enchiladas

This recipe makes approximately 20-24 medium-sized enchiladas or enough to fill two 9×13 pans

3 lb pork roast, preferably bone-in, with some marbling

Sauce for the pork:
1 14 oz can tomato sauce
1 large yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped
2 T adobo sauce
1/4 C cider vinegar
2 t smoked paprika
2 T brown sugar
1 1/2 T spice mix (see below)
1 t oregano
3 bay leaves

Enchilada sauce:
3 14 oz cans tomato sauce
15-20 small dried chilli peppers
3 garlic cloves
2 t oregano
1 1/2 t cinnamon
2 t – 1 T spice mix (see below)
1 T smoked paprika^*
1 T sweet paprika (Spanish or Hungarian)^*
juice of 1 1/2 – 2 limes
kosher salt to taste

Enchilada filling:
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 lb shredded Monterrey or Monterrey-Jack cheese, divided
1 12-14 oz can black olives, pitted and sliced
10 scallions, chopped
1 1/2 – 2 bunches cilantro, chopped

2 dozen medium-sized corn tortillas

Spice Mix^†:
2 T cumin seeds
2 T coriander seeds
1 1/2 t allspice berries

To make the pork, sauté the onion and garlic in some olive oil until soft and slightly caramelised. Meanwhile, toast your spice mix in a dry sauté pan over low heat until the spices are fragrant and just barely begin to smoke. Remove the spices from the heat and grind into a fine powder. Add the can of tomato sauce and the rest of your spices and sugar to the pot and simmer on low for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, rub the outside of your pork with kosher salt and a generous amount of the spice mix (the cumin, coriander and allspice), and brown the roast in a very hot (preferably cast iron) pan until well browned on all sides. Place the pork and sauce into a slow-cooker and cook until very tender and falling apart – tender enough to shred with forks – around 5.5 hours on high, 8-10 on low.

To make the enchilada sauce, soak the dried chillies in about 1 1/2 C hot water for an hour or so until softened. Depending on how hot your chillies are and how spicy you want your sauce, you may want to remove some or all of the seeds. They’ll be strained out at the end, but they still contribute quite a bit of heat (depending on type of pepper you use). I like to use the smaller red chillies which are pretty spicy, and I leave about 1/4 of the seeds in. Once the chillies are soft, put them, along with the soaking water, into a blender and blend until completely puréed. Then pass the mixture through a sieve to remove all the seeds and pulp. Lightly sauté the garlic being careful to not let it burn or scorch. Add in the three cans of tomato sauce and the chilli sauce and the rest of your spices. Simmer for about 15 minutes, adding the lime juice at the very end. Let cool and set aside until you assemble your enchiladas.

Once the pork is done, remove it from the sauce and shred it with two forks. Reduce the sauce down (removing the bay leaves) in a saucepan on the stove until there’s just enough to keep the pork moist and juicy, but not overly liquidy when added back to the shredded pork.

At this point, preheat your oven to 375-400°F (depending on whether you’ve got convection). Put some of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of each pan and begin to stuff your enchiladas. I put down a spoonful of the meat, then beans, cheese, olives, onion and lastly the cilantro. Roll and lay into the pan seam side down. Do this for both pans, top with equal amounts of the sauce. I usually have left-over olives, scallions and cilantro and I top the enchiladas with this and then add about 1/4 lb of cheese to each pan.

Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until the cheese is lightly browned and the sauce is bubbly.

Serve with sour cream, guacamole, Mexican rice and fresh pico de gallo.

^*Some people will refer to smoked paprika as Spanish paprika which can be confusing. While smoked paprika is an originally Spanish product, “Spanish paprika” is simply paprika from Spain. Make sure your smoked paprika is actually smoked as “Spanish paprika” can be sweet, spicy or smoked. I said use Spanish or Hungarian paprika for the sweet paprika because they’re usually very good quality, high flavour paprikas, unlike what is often sold in N. American grocery stores as paprika which turns out to be a flavourless red dust. See this article.

^†If you don’t have whole spices (and I highly recommend you try them!) go ahead and use pre-ground spices to taste. All the amounts are approximate anyhow because I never measure when I cook – I just throw in what seems appropriate and adjust to taste.

Curried Citrus Yoghurt Chicken with Pineapple & Tomato

2 large chicken breasts, skinned and boned

Marinade:
2 C whole milk yoghurt
2 T Indian style meat rub
juice and zest of 1 medium lemon
juice and zest of 1 medium orange
kosher salt to taste

2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped
4 large garlic cloves
2″ piece of ginger, peeled
1 1/2 T curry powder
1 15 oz can of pineapple
1 12 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 C chicken stock
1 T garam masala
3 T flour

Slice the chicken breasts into 2 inch long, 1/2 inch wide strips like so. Ish.

Arrange the marinade ingredients into dishes so you can photograph them. The lemon isn’t pictured because I already juiced it, and after I did so it fell apart and looked nasty, so I threw it away. But you get the idea. I used fat-free yoghurt because that’s all we had in the house, but I’d go for the full-fat stuff normally. The spice mix in the bottom left is the rub, which in this recipe isn’t actually rubbing anything/one.

Pour the yoghurt into a medium mixing bowl, add the juices, half of the zest, the spice mix, and some salt. Taste it to make sure it is seasoned well enough, but not too much (as this marinade is going to be added to the rest of the dish at a later point, and you don’t want to oversalt).

Mix the marinade together and add in the chicken, stirring to make certain the chicken is well covered with the marinade.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate from anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days. This time I just did it for a couple hours.

Now get the rest of your ingredients out.

Peel the garlic and ginger, chopping the ginger into garlic clove-sized chunks and place both into your food processor (or blender).

Chop the onions into similar sized chunks and do the same.

Grind/purée until smooth. Clearly, this isn’t there yet.

And now it is. Nice and smooth. Beauty, eh.

Heat a large dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pan and add in a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil.  Heat on medium-high until warmed and add in the chicken, being sure to drain as much of the marinade off as possible.

Fry the chicken in batches until well browned.

Once you’ve browned all the chicken, you might want to add the whole amount back to the pan just to caramelise the coating a little more.

Meanwhile, mix up your chicken stock and pineapple juice making 3 cups of liquid. I love the Better Than Bouillon product (which comes in a ton of different flavours), though it’s saltier than the broth you can buy in the carton (which I do often use), in this case I just cut back on the salt I add to the recipe.

Remove all the chicken from the pot and add in the onion, garlic, and ginger mixture, the curry powder, and a little salt.

Sauté for several minutes until it becomes well browned and a fair bit of the liquid reduces out.  Once it starts to stick too much add in the tomatoes, chicken broth, and pineapple juice.  Be careful when you add in the tomatoes and make sure you don’t accidentally dump the tomato can lid into the pot and then grab it with your bare fingers. Because you know, it’s kind of hot in there. So yeah, don’t do that.

What you should do is add in the chicken and pineapple at which point it should look pretty much like this:

Pineapple!  Also add in the leftover yoghurt from the marinade.

Don’t forget to add in the rest of the orange and lemon zest.

Add the flour and a little cold water to a mason jar, put a lid on it, and shake until completely combined. No lumps!  Add to the sauce and then simmer for about 45 min – 1 hour.

Simmering:

Once it’s thickened up nicely, add in the garam masala about 1-2 minutes before you serve it.

Yay, you’re done! Now EAT.

I served this on a bed of brown rice (becuase it has more flavour and is better for you) alongside some buttered broccoli. Not very Indian I suppose, but it’s my favourite veggie, so suck it.  This would also be fantastic garnished with some chopped cilantro. I would’ve but I didn’t have any, and I made up this recipe because I was specifically cooking only from ingredients that I had on hand.