Cheesy Cauliflower Soup with Ham

It's embarrassing to see how long it has been since I posted here. The reality is that I've been finally been broken by my family. :-) I've been giving in to their desires for burgers and take-out pizza and and the other boring-but-easy foods that they prefer. However, it is really hard for me to resist a beautiful head of cauliflower, so last night I made a rich and delicious cauliflower soup. Here's what I did:

Cheesy Cauliflower Soup with Ham

1 large head cauliflower

3 Tbsp. butter

1 small onion

1 leek (white and light green parts)

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

1/2 bottle beer (about 1 cup)

6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/2 tsp thyme

1 cup diced ham

4 oz sharp cheddar

4 oz cream cheese

1 to 2 Tbsp. finely minced parsley

salt and pepper

Cut cauliflower into small florets. Finely dice or chop the other vegetables. Melt butter in large soup pot. Saute the onion, leek, carrot, and celery until tender, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add cauliflower and stir to coat with butter. When the cauliflower is hot and just beginning to soften, add the beer, chicken broth, and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, until the cauliflower is very tender. Roughly puree the soup with an immersion blender. Add ham and continue to simmer while you shred the cheddar cheese. Stir in the cheeses until they are melted. Stir in the parsley. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Eat.

I might have used dill, which I love, instead of parsley, but my daughter doesn't like it. A little mustard might be good in it.

Make your own soup. Have fun with it. Although I have written this down as a recipe, I didn't follow any recipe. It's more fun to just concoct your own soup based on what you have in the house. If you are new to soup making, read a few recipes so you get an idea of the appropriate proportions, then experiment a little. 

Perfect roast beef

When I was young, I used to save the recipe pages from the New York Times Magazine. I was hopeful and naive back then. I even bought some pomegranate molasses (it's still in my pantry, 15 years later).

The fact is, the New York Times Magazine recipe page usually has only a limp, dampish grip on reality. However, I have to report that not only was it useful for the first time ever, but it was transformative. I don't think I will ever make roast beef any other way again.

Roast beef (adapted from The New York Times)

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Mix 1 Tbsp. kosher salt, 1 Tbsp. fresh ground black pepper, about 1 Tbsp. minced garlic (2-3 cloves), 1 Tbsp. olive oil, and about 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper.

Rub the mixture all over a 3 lb. beef roast (a cheap cut like bottom round, eye of round, etc.). Place it in a cast iron skillet, fat side up.

Roast for 5 minutes per pound. (I suggest you add a few minutes if the beef is straight from the refrigerator; I cooked a cold 3.2 lb roast for 20 minutes and it was perfect.)

The important part:

Turn off the oven.

DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN!

Leave the roast in the oven for 2 hours.

It will be perfectly rare all the way through, which is important for round roasts. They become tough if cooked to medium.

The Times suggested serving the roast with "Henry Bain sauce," a gussied-up steak sauce from Louisville. I made it because I had exactly 1/3 cup of chutney in my fridge. It was pretty good and should keep a while.

Henry Bain Sauce (adapted from the New York Times)

1/3 cup mango or peach chutney

4 Tbsp. A-1 steak sauce

4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

4 Tbsp chili sauce

2 Tbsp ketchup

Few drops Tabasco

Mix everything together in a small pot and cook on medium heat until it thickens slightly. Cool and refrigerate.

• 
  

Pea Soup Anderson

I have no idea who "Pea Soup Anderson" was, but I am told that a neighbor called me this when I was about 3 years old because I liked split pea soup.

Well, I still like a good split pea soup, and here's the one I made last night, using the last bits of our New Year's ham. It was pretty darn good and I'm sure Anderson would approve.

Split Pea Soup

1. Rinse and pick over a bag of split peas (1 lb, I think, but I didn't check). Put them in a large pot with a leftover ham bone. Cover the peas and most of the bone with about 2 quarts water and a (14 oz) can of chicken broth. Bring to a boil.
2. While the pot is heating, dice 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 parsnip (or 1/2 of one if large), and 1 stalk celery, and mince a large garlic clove.
3. When the pot is boiling, skim off as much as possible of the scum that rises to the top, then add the vegetables and a bay leaf. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for about an hour.
4. Dice a large russet potato and whatever leftover ham you have (I had about 2 cups of diced ham) and add them to the pot, along with salt and pepper to taste (go light on the salt, because you are adding ham). If your ham bone was very meaty, remove it, cool it, dice the meat, and return both meat and bone to the pot. Cook at a simmer at least another half hour, uncovered. Remove bone and bay leaf and serve (or save for tomorrow; this is the kind of soup that tastes even better the next day).

   

Cooking up a storm (after the storm)

Sandy, Sandy, Sandy. You crazy gal. You wiped out our electricity for most of a week, and with it our refrigeration and our electric range. Luckily, the house was so cold that we really didn’t lose much food. I have eaten – and survived eating – shrimp in restaurants that were less fresh than the ones I cooked from our freezer the day after the power returned.

My first official act on the day the power came back was to put up a pot of beef stew. The miscellaneous meats that had been in the freezer were cooked over the next couple of days, including a big pork loin roast. Last night, as another storm raged, I made some delicious old-fashioned Cantonese-style pork chow mein. This is the soupy kind; if you want less sauce, reduce the amounts of chicken broth and cornstarch mixture by half.

Roast pork chow mein

8 oz Cantonese dried egg noodles

Peanut oil

About ½ lb roast pork

1 small onion

1 clove garlic

8 oz mushrooms, rinsed and wiped dry (try to use large ones)

1 small head bok choy

1 can sliced bamboo shoots

1 can low-sodium chicken broth

salt to taste

2 Tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in ¼ cup cold water

Soak noodles briefly in cold water (I don’t know why, but the package said to do this!), then cook them for 2 minutes in boiling salted water. Spread them out on a large plate to cool and dry.

Meanwhile, slice onion in strips. Cut the pork into strips about the same size. Mince the garlic. Remove any coarse stems from the mushrooms, slice them horizonally into disks, then stack the disks and cut them into strips. Wash the head of bok choy, then slice it horizontally. Open the cans.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of peanut oil in a large nonstick frying pan or wok. When the oil is hot, add the noodles. Cook them until they are crispy and golden on one side, then turn to cook the other side. The noodles on the inside should remain soft. Remove the noodles to a plate.

Add a little bit of oil to the pan if needed. Saute the onion briefly, then add the pork, garlic, mushrooms, bok choy, and bamboo shoots. Stir-fry until the vegetables are wilted, then add chicken broth and salt to taste. Stir up the cornstarch mixture, then add it to the pan. Cook, stirring, until the mixture is thickened. Serve it on top of the noodles with soy sauce to taste.

Cheap? Check. Fast? Check. Good? Maybe.

The family and I seem to be parting ways on the Cheap. Fast. Good! Cookbook. I  cooked from it the past two nights, and while I thought the results were very tasty family meals and lived up to the cheap and fast qualification, my daughter rejected both and my husband ate them with no comment, picking out the vegetables. My son, of course, wouldn't go near either.

The first was "Souped-up Chicken Stroganoff," basically just a nice, easy, doctored-up-canned-soup sort of dinner.

Souped-up Chicken Stroganoff, adapted from Cheap. Fast. Good! by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross

1 lb. fettuccine
2 cups cooked chicken, cut in bite-size chunks
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bag (16 oz) frozen broccoli spears or pieces (I used spears)
2 Tbsp. dry sherry, Marsala, Madeira, or port wine (I used port because my husband drank the cooking sherry!)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1-2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup sour cream (I used reduced-fat)
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Boil water in a large pot and cook fettuccine according to package directions. You can add the frozen broccoli to the pasta after 7 minutes of cooking as per the original recipe and then continue cooking until the fettuccine is done (about 6 minutes). However, I found that the fettuccine didn't cook well that way, so I suggest cooking the broccoli separately, perhaps in the microwave.

Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet on medium heat. Add the onions. When they begin to soften, stir in the mushrooms and garlic. When all the veggies are soft, add the wine and cook for 1 minute. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir in the mushroom soup and Worcestershire sauce, then add the chicken and cook until the mixture is well heated. Stir in the sour cream. If the sour cream is reduced fat, do not let the mixture boil after it is added. Season to taste with salt and a LOT of black pepper. (Trust me on this.)

Drain the pasta and broccoli. Place pasta on each plate, arrange broccoli spears on the pasta, then top it all with chicken and sauce. Alternatively, if the broccoli is in pieces, just mix it in with the chicken and sauce.

Serves 4. (I hate when a recipe says 4 servings and it only means 4 servings for not very hungry people or 4 servings if something else is on the menu. This will serve 4 hungry people. I have a lot left in my fridge.)

If you want to try this one, I think wide egg noodles would work better than the fettuccine. Also, I would just throw it all together and not have to worry about the noodles sticking together. I think the amount of broccoli is a little high; a 10 oz box should be fine. The amount of chicken and everything else is flexible, of course.

Last night, I made "Fisherman's Seafood Creole" from the same book. It doesn't have the depth of flavor of Emeril's Shrimp Creole, which is pure heaven - I made it myself for my birthday this year - but it doesn't have the stick of butter either. (I don't think that's a coincidence.) It would also be better with shrimp, but my husband is allergic.

Fisherman's Seafood Creole, adapted from Cheap. Fast. Good!

1 1/3 cups rice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped (I used red, because I had it)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp finely chopped cooked bacon
1 bay leaf
1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 (14 oz) can stewed tomatoes (I used diced + a little sugar)
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
12 oz firm fish fillets, boned and skinned
1 cup frozen sliced okra (optional; I used more like 2 cups because it was what was left in a bag in the freezer)
Tabasco sauce to taste

Bring 2 2/3 cups lightly salted water to a boil; stir in rice, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 20 minutes.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and green pepper, and cook until the onions are translucent and the veggies are beginning to soften. Stir in garlic, bacon, bay leaf, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper, then tomatoes and tomato sauce. Heat to a boil.

Cut the fish (I used frozen individually-wrapped tilapia fillets from BJ's) into chunks. Add the fish (and okra, if using) to the skillet, cover it, and cook about 4 minutes, or until the fish is nearly opaque. Season with Tabasco to taste, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the rice is done.

Spoon rice into large shallow bowls and top with the seafood mixture. Those who like more heat can add Tabasco at the table.

Serves 4, but not if they really like it and are hungry. You'll have to give them a big dessert. :-)  See, isn't that more helpful? Actually, I would suggest adding more fish; the amount fairly skimpy as written.


As I said, I thought both these meals fit the bill of cheap (even the one with fish was probably less than $10 total), fast (neither took more than half an hour) and good. As for my family, maybe I just have to go back to expensive, slow, and only so-so.

Menu planning

This is something I am supposed to do.

Every so often, I get efficient and plan a week's menus, but most of the time my menu planning is a haphazard, last-minute affair jumbled out of whatever is in the fridge and pantry, recipes I have seen and food I have eaten, energy and time costs, and the all important question of whether my family will eat the food. Sadly, this last is the biggest problem. My husband can't eat seafood, can't or won't eat beans, won't eat anything spicy, and prefers not to eat anything outside his comfort zone. My son will eat plain pasta, pizza, fried chicken, steak, burgers, and peanut butter sandwiches. I don't think I left anything out of that list. My daughter is pretty easy; she will try most things and enjoy many. However, she has a strong bias against soup, my absolute favorite food to cook and eat. Me, I like everything except lima beans and cottage cheese, and I'm not sure about the lima beans.

However, if Flo is to be thrifty, she must plan menus. Here's what's up for the next few days:

Tonight (my children's half birthday): Steak, baked potatoes, salad, and probably half a cake. :-)

Tomorrow: Chicken Stroganoff with fetuccine (from the Cheap, Fast, Good! cookbook), using up the on-sale split chicken breasts I poached on Saturday (the broth was used in a cauliflower-cheese soup)

Next: Fish Creole with rice, same cookbook, using up some of the tilapia that has been in the freezer a while

Saturday: Beef goulash (using up some frozen beef cubes), noodles, green beans

Sunday: Seashells with tuna and Dijon cream from the Cheap...! cookbook again

My son will eat only the steak and plain fetuccine from this list, so I will give him hamburgers or peanut butter sandwiches on the other nights. :-(

I will let you, my millions of loyal fans, know how all these things turn out and whether I have the stamina to keep planning.

Best sandwich

My son loves to watch Man vs. Food (even though he only eats about 4 different foods himself) and we recently saw that the show had named the roast pork sandwich from DiNic's at Reading Terminal Market the best sandwich in America. I haven't had a chance to try the original yet, but I used some leftover roast pork to do a quickie approximation of it last night.

I mixed up a packet of Knorr Roasted Pork Flavor Gravy (that I bought on purpose for the occasion) and added generous shakes of Italian seasoning and garlic powder. While the meat heated in the gravy, I sauteed some chopped broccoli rabe with garlic in olive oil. Because broccoli rabe is a dry vegetable, I added some water after the initial saute, then covered the pan for a few minutes.

Finally, I warmed a "steak" roll (a long roll used for cheesesteaks, for those outside the region) and filled it with pork and gravy, broccoli rabe, more gravy, and provolone cheese. It was heavenly. I can easily understand how a serious version of it won the Best Sandwich title.

Flo's back, and she's getting thrifty

OK. As soon as I decided that I would blog every day, I realized that I couldn't possibly do that and stopped blogging altogether. Makes perfect sense, right?

However, my convoluted thinking and neuroses have deprived the world of my culinary insights for nearly a year, and I owe it to my legions of fans (or at least to the two or three people who might read this) to make a comeback. I'll be signing autographs after the blog.

Because our financial situation has not been great, we recently made the long-overdue decision not to eat out at all -- not that we did it very much or at very expensive places, but still, that's an obvious way to cut expenses.

So my new bible has become an excellent cookbook called Cheap, Fast, Good! by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross, who are also known for Desperation Dinners! I've been starting to plan meals more effectively, going through my favorite supermarket's sale circular along with the cookbook for ideas. I'm also trying to use up odds and ends that have been hanging around the refrigerator and pantry for a while.

Last week I bought a huge piece of pork loin on sale and made the cookbook's Savory Pork Pot Roast. This gave me a delicious broth with which to make Super-Saver Tortilla Soup and Twice-Cooked Pork Stir-Fry from the cookbook.

The pot roast itself was a mixed success. The meat was delicious, but even after 12 hours in the slow cooker, the veggies were just barely done and didn't taste very good. Next time, I will do it without veggies and serve the pork with rice on the side. And there will definitely be a next time. These meals worked out so well that before the sale ended, I picked up another roast for the freezer.

Savory Pork Pot Roast (adapted from Cheap, Fast, Good!)
About 4 lb. pork loin roast (I had a 5.5 lb loin end roast, from which I cut off the bony flap, saving it in the freezer; the original recipe specifies a 3 to 3.5 lb boneless pork loin roast)
(4 medium red potatoes)
(2 medium onions)
(2 ribs celery)
(3 carrots)
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dry white wine (or apple juice)
1/4 cup ketchup
Juice of 1 lime (I used about 2 tbsp. from a squeeze bottle)
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt

Trim excess fat from meat and place the roast in a large slow cooker. Peel and cut up veggies, if using (no need to peel potatoes if they look good). Add veggies to the pot.

Whisk together all the other ingredients and pour the mixture over the meat. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low all day (10 hours for a bone-in roast, less for boneless. Slice half the roast to serve; reserve the rest for another recipe. Save the broth for soup.

Super-Saver Tortilla Soup (adapted from Cheap, Fast, Good!)
About 3/4 lb. boneless, skinless, chicken thighs (or breasts)
2 tsp. olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
3 cups broth from Savory Pork Pot Roast
1 can (14 oz.) low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup bottled salsa of choice
Tortilla chips
Sour cream (reduced fat is fine)
Shredded cheese (I used a bagged reduced-fat Mexican blend)

Heat oil in a 4-quart soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and saute, stirring occasionally. While onion cooks, cut chicken into bite-size chunks and add them to the pan. Cook until the chicken is nearly done. Stir in cumin.

Add pork broth, chicken broth, and salsa. Cover pot and cook 5-10 minutes more, until soup is very hot and chicken is completely done.

Ladle soup into bowls and top with crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, and cheese.

A week's worth of good old-fashioned home cooking

If home cooking is like this...

I cooked a roast beef the other day - just a cheap eye of round, cooked rare - and I left it out overnight by mistake. As the kitchen is fairly cool this time of year and it didn't look or smell bad, it's dinner tonight. And here's real-life home cooking in action: I sauteed some onion in a bit of oil, added a little tomato paste and cooked another couple of minutes. Next in the pan was some leftover turkey gravy - the kind from a packet and itself on the verge of going bad - along with a cup of water and a beef bouillon cube. I brought it to a boil, then seasoned it with a little thyme, nutmeg, and black pepper until it tasted good, added the beef and a very old pork chop, both sliced thin, and it's cooking away. I think it will taste good; let's hope it doesn't kill us. To accompany, leftover green beans (with browned butter and almonds) and probably noodles.

Other meals this week: last night was intended to be penne with vodka sauce. Unfortunately, we had no vodka, and I couldn't find the cream that I am 100% sure I bought on my last shopping trip. So it was penne with vodkaless sauce and a weird salad on the side that only I liked. It was the easiest fennel salad Epicurious listed that contained ingredients I had on hand. It was supposed to be pretty much all white - fennel and celery and fresh mozzarella, dressed with lemon, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I think I'll do it again without the mozzarella.

Earlier this week, I tried a new way (for me) of cooking salmon, that I found on AllRecipes. Marinate the salmon a little while in olive oil, lemon, fresh garlic, salt, parsley, thyme, and dill (if desired), then bake it in the marinade, covered. I found it too lemony and too garlicky, but it was well received by the other salmon-eaters, and I think I'll tweak it and do it again. Very easy.

Isn't home cooking exciting?

Even more turkey...and a real turkey of a meal

I like turkey leftovers so much that I cooked another turkey this weekend. I kept it simple: no stuffing, no fussing. I did put butter under the breast as some recipe assured me that it would make for wonderfully moist breast meat. However, there was no discernible difference in the finished product and I won't bother with that again. I salted the bird, put broth in the roasting pan, threw the neck and giblets in the broth, and put half a lemon and some garlic in the bird's cavity. It smelled wonderful, but again, no discernible difference in the finished product.

Even before dinner, I took all the meat off the bones, threw bones, drippings, skin, and giblets into a soup pot with water to cover, and started cooking the broth (with no additions this time). I even left it cooking overnight (on low), then brought it to a boil again in the AM before I strained and cooled it. I'll make soup with it today.

The next dinner was a "King Ranch casserole" to use up a bag of stale tortilla chips that had been in the pantry a looooonnng time. The recipe was pretty much straight from the Joy of Cooking and the same or similar recipes are on Allrecipes. It was pretty good.

Last night's dinner didn't quite work out, shall we say. I made pork chops with sauerkraut and apples, but instead of just making it the way I thought it should be made, I followed a recipe from Allrecipes that called for a huge amount of brown sugar. I would normally just add a little sprinkle. What the heck, I thought - maybe the kids will like it better if it's really sweet (not really thinking that one kid wouldn't eat it under any circumstances, and the other doesn't even like sweet foods). It was disgusting. I almost never throw food out, but this had to go. Note to self: you do better when you just cook. Forget all the recipes, already!

This doesn't count as cooking

Well, I promised myself to blog about everything I cook, boring though it may be. In this case, it's not only boring but embarrassing. Two nights ago, I opened two cans of Campbell's cream of chicken soup, added some milk, heated it with cooked chicken, added a few seasonings (pepper, nutmeg, fresh parsley), and served it over Pillsbury biscuits that I bought because I wanted to use a BJ's coupon. The peas served on the side had been in the freezer too long. I do get points, however, for poaching a couple of enormous chicken breasts and getting a nice batch of broth out of it.

Last night wasn't much better. London broil that didn't sear properly because I had put Worcestershire sauce on it, baked potatoes (hard to mess those up), and salad from a bag because it was on sale and there was a coupon (which I forgot to use).

Dear readers (if any), this is now going to be more like a reality show than I anticipated.

Thanksgiving and its aftermath

I cooked a complete Thanksgiving dinner this year. Most years, I cook sides and we go to my parents' house, where they make the turkey, and my youngest brother bakes rolls and pies. This year, that brother and his new bride could not come until Sunday, hence the dinner at my house, with my dad and sister in attendance.

I was excited for the chance. I made up a pretty menu and a cooking schedule for the day, which worked well except for the turkey seemingly taking longer than it should have, the result of my never investing in a real meat thermometer and the little pop-up not popping up. It didn't matter; it was a traditional meal and the turkey was overcooked in the traditional fashion.

It being well after Thanksgiving now, I'll just share what I thought was the most successful recipe: the best sweet potato casserole I've ever made. I got it from Allrecipes, but made some small changes. I only made half a recipe, but I'll give you the larger amount.

Classic Sweet Potato Casserole
5 sweet potatoes (no size given in original - I used 4 small ones for half a recipe)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Bake sweet potatoes until fairly soft (this can be alongside the turkey). Cool slightly, then scoop them out into a large bowl and mash them.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.
Mix the mashed sweet potatoes, salt, first 1/4 cup butter, eggs, vanilla, spices, white sugar, and cream. If you use an electric mixer, the strings from the sweet potatoes will wrap around the blades and will be easy to remove and discard. Put the mixture in the baking dish.
In a medium bowl, combine the softened butter, flour, brown sugar, and pecans. Mix with a pastry blender or your fingers to the consistency of coarse meal. Sprinkle over the sweet potato mixture.
Bake about 30 minutes, until the topping is crisp and lightly browned.

Now, what do you like to do with the leftovers? I like the leftovers so much that when we don't have T-day dinner at our house, I always cook a turkey a few days later so that I can have leftovers.
I like turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce and cole slaw. This year, I put a little stuffing on the sandwich, as I had seen on restaurant menus, and it was delicious (it was a sausage stuffing, very well seasoned).
I always make broth from the carcass and use it for a mushroom, leek, and barley soup.
And I love to make James Beard's turkey hash recipe from the stuffing, although I don't use anywhere near as much butter as in the original! Here's what you do (I'm not looking at the recipe so it may be wrong in some major or minor way): saute some onion, garlic, and green pepper in butter. Add cold leftover stuffing and turkey and cook it until it is hot and soft. Mix in some almonds and black olives (yes, you heard me), then pour in some heavy cream (or half-and-half if you don't want to overdo it quite that much). Cook it down a bit, stir in some parsley, and serve. Sometimes I leave out the olives and almonds, but this year I had some around and they are good in it, even though I don't like canned black olives. Both are better sliced than whole in this.

Beans and greens

Love 'em both.

My mother never cooked any dark leafy greens other than (rarely) spinach, so I had no idea how delicious I would find them in adulthood. I also love most legumes; my husband hates them, however, and has no love for anything green, so beans 'n' greens is a treat I cook for myself alone.

Here's how to make the combo delicious. I got this from Rachael Ray, who got it from her Italian grandpa. They did it with escarole and cannellini beans, but I do it with pretty much any greens and often use chickpeas.

Heat some olive oil in a deep saute pan or pot (don't skimp for this one...use at least a couple of tablespoons if you have a bunch of greens). Add lots of minced or sliced garlic (several large cloves) and cook it for about 30 seconds until it is sizzling and fragrant. Dump in your sliced greens...bitter greens like dandelion or turnip and/or any miscellaneous cabbage-family greens like the kohlrabi tops I used today (mixed with dandelion). Kale is probably too tough, but you can use it if you cook long enough. I don't usually use chard or beet greens, however; they are too mild and sweet for this treatment. 

Let the greens cook down a bit (they will shrink a lot as they wilt), then season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, add a can of cannellini beans or chickpeas (well rinsed to minimize unfriendly gastric disturbances) and a can of low-sodium chicken broth or equivalent volume of your own chicken stock (1 1/2 to 2 cups).

Cook until greens are done to your liking, then serve it with grated cheese and good bread. You can keep your pizza and spaghetti; this is my favorite Italian food.

What to do after you roast a chicken

I've finally figured it out, although only within the past year or so. It was not part of the kitchen lore passed down to me from my mother; in fact, I had to teach her.

Cookbooks will tell you to make a pan sauce after you roast a chicken, but I've done this maybe twice in my life. We're not a gravy kind of family. So if you don't make a pan sauce, there's a big greasy mess to clean up after you roast a chicken. Here's how to reduce the mess and get more out of your chicken.

After the meal, remove as much meat as you can from the bird and refrigerate it. Break up the carcass and throw it into a 3-quart pot along with all the skin and the gnawed-on drumsticks from dinner. Add all the accumulated juices from platter and roasting pan. Finally, add water to the roasting pan (about 2 cups), scrape up any bits remaining in the pan (heat it briefly if necessary to get them up), and pour this into your saucepan. Add more water if needed to cover the bones. Bring this to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer it for several hours (until bedtime approaches).

In the meantime, you can wash your roasting pan. Then, about a half-hour before you go to bed (or after at least 2 hours), pour the contents of the saucepan through a strainer, discard the bones and skin, let the broth (yes, now it's broth) cool a few minutes, then refrigerate it uncovered overnight. The next day you can remove the hardened fat and you will have chicken broth to use in cooking.

My next project is to begin saving all veggie scraps for broth, as recommended by Jacques Pepin. I'll keep you posted.

Fajitas

Blogging two days in a row! Flo is on a roll. Actually, Flo's family has left the building and she is able to keep a thought in her mind for more than 10 seconds. OK, let's lose the third person. Flo finds it hard to keep it up any longer...

Actually, I often (being fairly food-obsessed) think of writing something here, as I often think of so many other things I want to do or ought to do, but I usually get distracted and forget. At least the Internet has made it possible to answer -- before I forget them -- some of those interesting random questions that pop up during the day. (I would give examples, but since the last random thing I looked up was Antonio Banderas' birthday, maybe I'm not the best person to do so. I'll get my son to do it. Oh no, maybe not -- he's moved off of obscure facts about the French and Indian War and on to obscure facts about Disney Cruises.)

Wait, this was supposed to be about fajitas...and the reason I'm writing this down is that they were good, best I've ever made, and I don't want to forget what I did. Basically,  this is a modified version of the recipe in that old reliable, The Joy of Cooking.

Cut 1 lb. beef into strips (it's supposed to be skirt steak or flank steak, but I used round because I had it). Mix together about 3 Tbsp lime juice, 1 Tbsp corn oil, a minced garlic clove, 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper, and 1/4-1/2 tsp ground cumin. Stir the beef in, and let it marinate at room temperature for half an hour, mixing occasionally.

Cut 2 medium onions into strips, along with some peppers, any combination of colors. I used pieces of green, red, and yellow, totalling about 1 large pepper in quantity.

Heat a little oil in a skillet on medium heat until quite hot. Lift the beef out of the marinade and sear it in the skillet until no longer pink. Pour the marinade into the pan with the beef and let it cook briefly while you wash out the bowl. Dump the beef and marinade back into the bowl.

Add a little more oil to the pan, and saute the peppers and onions, along with a goodly amount of salt and black pepper (I think JOC said a teaspoon of salt and 1/2 tsp pepper; I used half that much). When the veggies are tender, add the meat and juices back to the pan and heat briefly. I also added some chopped cilantro at this point, because I had it.

Serve with warmed flour tortillas (to wrap the meat), salsa of choice (I will boast that I had my own homemade salsa that I canned last summer!), sour cream, and, if you like, shredded cheese. Guacamole is good too, but I didn't make any.

Cottage pie

I had some leftover mashed potatoes and some ground beef that needed to be used, and thought, "Aha! I will now make shepherd's pie for the first time ever!" However, it turns out that shepherd's pie is made with ground lamb and the same dish, when made with ground beef, is called cottage pie. Either way, it's not exactly a favorite of mine, but I thought perhaps the assembled multitudes might eat it. I ended up with the leftovers for lunch the past two days, and it wasn't half bad. Of course, the pouring rain today made it easier to eat British.

As best I can recall, here's the way I made it, after perusing about 6 recipes, no two alike.

Brown 1 lb. ground beef in a bit of oil. Pour off fat. Add a chopped onion, a large carrot in small dice, and a parsnip, also in small dice (just happened to have this on hand). Saute until veggies are slightly tender. Stir in a couple teaspoons dried thyme, about 1/8 tsp sage, a pinch of cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons flour (this is because I intended to use beef broth in the next step, not beef gravy). Add a generous glug of Worcestershire sauce, a squirt of ketchup, a can of beef gravy (if, like me, you don't have the broth that you thought you did), and a little water because if you added the flour in the last step your mixture is now too thick. Cook this a little longer (or until thick, if you did use broth). Dump into 9" square baking pan or similar. Heat 2 cups leftover mashed potatoes in the microwave and spread them on top. Sprinkle with about 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar and bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Some recipes include peas. I served peas on the side. If you have a stiff upper lip, I suppose this is a pretty good meal.

Gail's special salad

This has been my mother's go-to salad since the Cretaceous period. She makes it slightly differently but the following is my way. Amounts are variable according to your taste and what you have around.

For one very large serving (this is something to really fill you up without a lot of calories):

Lettuce (cut or torn bite-size; I use red leaf lettuce and plenty of it)
Several scallions, chopped
A chunk of cucumber, seeded and sliced
Several large radishes, sliced
Half a large tomato or a whole small one, cut in chunks
A hard-boiled egg, mashed with a fork (salad is still good without this)
A 3 oz. can of Italian chunk light tuna in olive oil, flaked but not drained
White wine vinegar to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the above in a bowl. Eat it.

Buffalo chicken cheesesteak

Yes, it's been a long time since I posted anything. Many apologies to anyone who actually cares. I usually contemplate writing down my cooking escapades in the morning, a time at which I have a chance of actually being productive and useful. So I decide against this particular waste of time and go waste my time on something else.

However, I could not rest until the world was informed about the delicious Buffalo chicken cheesesteak I made last night. Daughter and I love to go to Hoagie Haven in Princeton whenever fate makes it possible, and we always split a Buffalo chicken cheesesteak. I've tried before to make it at home, even going so far as to make my own blue cheese dressing, but I didn't have complete success until last night. Mine is not a duplicate of Hoagie Haven's, but it may be -- dare I say it? -- better.

Hoagie Haven makes its sandwich on a whole loaf of Italian bread from Italian People's Bakery. I didn't have time to go there, so used a supermarket loaf, which I halved lengthwise as it was too wide. Next time I'll try to get the real thing.

HH cooks the chicken on a griddle and chops it in situ, a la the traditional cheesesteak method. I can't do that, so I seasoned and floured a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts and sauteed them in a bit of oil. They were very thick, so I covered the pan toward the end of the cooking time, something I don't usually do. Although this ruined crispiness, it increased juiciness, and I may try it more often. Then I sliced the cooked chicken and piled it on the bread. I topped it with Buffalo chicken sauce (3 Tbsp. melted butter, 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar, 2 Tbsp. hot sauce -- Crystal brand in this case -- makes a little more than is needed). Next came shredded iceberg lettuce and thinly sliced yellow onion that had been soaked in cold water, along with sliced tomato on my half. The whole beautiful mess was then topped with Marie's light blue cheese dressing. Junk food deluxe!!

Brisket and latkes for Chanukah

There are many ways to cook brisket. As far as I know, they're all delicious.

Here's what I did tonight. Although it wasn't the ultimate brisket for my taste, the husband and daughter loved it, and daughter says I have to make it this way every time.

Salt and pepper the brisket on both sides, and place it fat side up in a large slow cooker. Thinly slice three onions and lay them on top of the meat. Top with a can of whole berry cranberry sauce and a bottle (12 oz) of chili sauce. (Get the last little bit of sauce out of the chili sauce bottle with a little water; this is a useful technique for ketchup, pasta sauce, etc., for those of you who never thought of it.) Lightly mix the sauces, put on the lid, and cook all day on low.

Remove the brisket, let it cool slightly, and slice it. Meanwhile, puree the gravy with an immersion blender. If it's too thin, put it in a pot, dissolve some cornstarch (1 to 2 Tbsp) in  a little cold water, add cornstarch mixture to gravy, and boil it until thickened. Put gravy back into slow cooker and add sliced meat back to it. Let it sit about 10 minutes before serving.

Now, on to the latkes (I was ambitious tonight!).

I could add commentary on latke-making techniques here, but for brevity, I'll just tell you how I made them this time around and that they were good.

Shred four good-sized potatoes on the fine side of a box grater. (I used a yellow all-purpose variety, but russets are probably a little better.) Wrap the shredded potatoes in a clean dishtowel and squeeze out the liquid into a bowl. Let the liquid sit a few minutes, then pour it off, carefully leaving the potato starch at the bottom of the bowl. Put the potatoes back in the bowl, then add two finely chopped onions (grated is better but too much trouble for me). Mix in two eggs, a teaspoon of salt, and several grinds of pepper.

Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a large skillet until shimmery and very hot.  With a large wooden spoon, scoop up about 1/4 cup of potato mixture at a time and slide into oil as patties. Cook until edges are very brown, then flip and cook other side. Drain on paper towels, and keep warm in a 250-degree oven until all are done.

Latkes are traditionally served with sour cream and/or applesauce. My daughter prefers ketchup.

Happy Chanukah!

Chicken soup, two ways

I have received a request for my chicken soup recipe. Alas, I cannot take credit for this delicious and incredibly useful recipe, as it is by Pam Anderson, from her book Perfect Recipes for Having People Over.  In name-dropping mode, I am proud to report that in the Six Degrees of Separation game I am only two degrees of separation from Pam, as I know at least two people who are former parishioners of her husband, one of whom, a great lady in her own right, called her "a great lady." You will surely agree when you try her soup or other recipes. :-)

Pam Anderson's Chicken Noodle Soup
2 quarts chicken broth (I use Swanson Natural Goodness or reduced sodium)
1 store-bought roast chicken, meat picked from bones and pulled into bite-size pieces, bones and skin reserved
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 large onions, cut into medium dice
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into rounds or half-rounds, depending on size
2 large celery stalks, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 cups egg noodles (the very wide "homestyle" noodles are particularly nice for this)
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 cup frozen green peas (optional)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional but good)
salt and pepper

Bring broth and 4 cups water to a simmer in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add reserved chicken bones and skin, reduce heat to low, partially cover, and simmer until bones release their flavor, about half an hour. Strain broth into a large bowl; discard bones and skin. (At this point, if you have time, you can chill the soup and discard fat; because this is a chicken soup for when I'm in a hurry, I usually use my trusty fat separator.)
Return pot to burner set on medium-high. Add oil, then onions, carrots, and celery, and saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Add chicken and broth and bring to a simmer.
Add noodles and thyme. Simmer until tender (according to noodle package directions). Stir in peas and parsley, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.

Now this is very definitely not Jewish chicken soup, and as I am an authentic Jewish mother, I have my own way of making chicken soup. And I don't usually make it like my own Jewish mother, although her soup is superlative. She uses more carrots and far less green stuff and ends up with a nicely golden soup. Mine has a greenish tint, I'm afraid, but I like it.

Jewish chicken soup is usually served as a clear broth with matzo balls or noodles, perhaps with a couple of slices of carrot floating in the soup for color.  You can make very good matzo balls by following the instructions on a box of matzo meal. It's important to refrigerate the dough for exactly as long as directed.

Florence's Jewish Chicken Soup
1 chicken, plus any extra necks/wings/giblets you may have saved (I keep a bag in the freezer)
3 large carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
1 or 2 parsnips, peeled and cut in chunks
2 celery stalks, cut in chunks
1 large onion, peeled and quartered
1 clove garlic, peeled and lightly crushed (optional)
1 bunch parsley, washed
1 small bunch dill or half a large bunch, washed

Place the chicken in a stockpot and cover it with water by about an inch (2 to 3 quarts). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer and skim away the proteinaceous scum that has risen to the top. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and several grinds of pepper or a few peppercorns, then add all the vegetables, lay the bunches of herbs on top, partially cover, and cook until the chicken is well-done (joints very loose), maybe 45 to 60 minutes (not sure of timing, alas).

Remove the chicken from the pot. Allow it to cool enough to handle, then remove the best meat (breasts, legs) and return the bones and the rest to the pot. Cook two more hours. (Alternatively, you can cook the whole chicken longer and skip this part, but the chicken will be really overcooked and less usable. To get a flavorful broth and a whole usable chicken from a supermarket bird, you have to start the soup with half chicken broth/half water.)

Strain the broth twice, the first time just to get out all the cooked bones and veggies and the second time carefully, through a fine strainer or a double layer of cheesecloth.
Remove fat, either by chilling or with a fat separator. Correct seasonings and serve with matzo balls or noodles (the noodles can be cooked in the broth if you like, but matzo balls are best cooked separately in salted water). Enjoy.