Monthly Archive for March, 2008

Bright and sunny lemon linguine

Published
by
marc
on March 25, 2008
in Pasta and Side
. 0 Comments

Bright and sunny lemon linguine

This simple dish was inspired by Mario Batali’s Bavette Cacio & Pepe. The list of ingredients may make it sound like a boring side, but try a bite and you’ll want to turn it into a meal.

I go for a slightly healthier take on Batali’s dish replacing some butter for olive oil and adding some lemon zest for a little bit of sunshine.

This goes nicely with some Ratatouille.

8 oz linguine
1 Tbs olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 C freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 Tbs unsalted butter (optional)

Boil the linguine according to package directions and drain well.

Toss with the rest of the ingredients and serve immediately

Similar posts

Cherry Coke braised “ham”

Published
by
marc
on March 23, 2008
in Dinner, Dinner party, Meat, Pork and Winter
. 5 Comments

Cherry Coke braised “ham”

I’m one of those people that associates holidays with certain types of food. Thanksgiving=turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce; St. Patrick’s Day = Corned beef boiled potatoes and cabbage. Easter then is… no surprise… ham. There’s a particular recipe I’m actually quite fond of in Nigella Lawson’s Feast: Food to Celebrate Life for a Coca Cola Ham. Braising the ham in Coke reduces the salt content, softens the meat and adds a pleasant sweetness that’s simply irresistible.

The problem with ham of course is that they tend to come in 20lbs hunks and are not so conducive to NYC apartment cooking. My solution, while quite unhealthy, tastes better than ham, comes in any size you want and is cheaper than ham. I picked up a 3.5 lbs slab of smoked bacon from my favorite butcher Florence Prime Meats for around $13.50 and after a few hours braising in 275 degree oven, it came out mellow, melty and delicious. I’ve adapted Nigella’s recipe for this blog.

2-3 lbs slab of smoked bacon with skin
3 Tbs cherry jam
1/4 C dried cherries
1 vanilla bean split in half lengthwise
15 whole cloves
2 liter bottle of Coke

1 Granny Smith apple peeled and sliced
1 small head of cabbage cored and shredded

Put the bacon in a large bowl and cover with water. Put it in the fridge overnight to reduce the amount of salt.

Put the rack in the lower position and preheat your oven to 275 degrees.

Place the bacon into a heavy pot that it will fit snugly into (you may want to cut it into 2-3 smaller pieces). Add the jam, vanilla, cloves, and cherries and pour enough Coke over to cover the pork.

Bring it to a boil over the stove, cover and put it in the oven until the meat is fork tender (about 3 1/2 to 4 hours).

Remove the bacon from the braising liquid and place it skin-side up on a rack over a baking sheet and tent with foil.

Skim off the fat from the braising liquid and strain half of it into a sauce pan. Boil this until it is a nice syrupy sauce.

Put the cabbage and apples into the other half and simmer until both are tender about 30-40 minutes

When you’re ready to serve, move the rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Uncover the bacon and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the the skin is nice and crispy.

Serve immediately with reduced braising liquid drizzled on top along with some of the braised cabbage and apples.

Update: One thing to keep in mind, this is a lot of cola, so if you’re having this as a late dinner, you might want to use caffeine free Coke.

Similar posts

Pickled plum and ika salad (Ume ika somen salad)

Published
by
marc
on March 23, 2008
in Appetizer and Japanese
. 0 Comments

Pickled plum and ika salad (Ume ika somen salad)

Whether it’s in an Izakaya (Japanese tapas bar) or a more refined Kaiseki(where 14 courses is the norm) restaurant, Japanese people are into having a variety of small plates. Like Spanish tapas, these aren’t really big enough to be considered a course by American standards and the idea is to order a bunch of dishes. For people like me that can never decide what they want, this is works out nicely:-)

This is a little salad I made up out of some stuff I had left over in the fridge. The crisp sweet pear, the creamy ika and salty tangy pickled plum balance each other out nicely. If you’re squeamish about ika or it’s hard to find in your area, you could always replace it with some calamari rings seared in olive oil. The asian pears could be substituted for a sweet crispy apple and while the pickled plum isn’t really substitutable, you can find it on the internet (do a search for “umeboshi”).

1 large Umeboshi (pickled plum) seed removed and minced
1 tsp olive oil
2 oz sashimi grade ika (squid) sliced lengthwise into “noodles”
2 Tbs asian pear cut into small cubes
2 shiso leaves rolled and cut into very thin ribbons

Prepare the dressing by mixing the umeboshi and olive oil. Add a bit more olive oil if it seems to pasty.

Add the squid, pear and shiso leaves and mix to combine.

Serve immediately. This also goes well on slices of cucumber.

Similar posts

Steamed and salt cured uni

Published
by
marc
on March 23, 2008
in Appetizer and Japanese
. 0 Comments

Steamed and salt cured uni

So sea urchin might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I made this the other day and it makes for a simple appetizer.

Uni’s creamy, uniformly rich texture makes it a bit like the foie gras of the sea (minus the animal rights abuses). I like to give it two different treatments to add a bit of contrast. Half of it is steamed in mirin (sweet japanese cooking wine) while the other is cured between pieces of kelp with sea salt. The resulting sweet/briny, firm/soft, hot/cold juxtapositions add some much needed contrast to this tasty morsel.

I usually opt of the cheaper Uni for this preparation since size and color uniformity is less important (just make sure it’s fresh).

1 flat of Uni
2 pieces of rehydrated dashi kombu (kelp used to make stock)
Sea salt of good quality (like Fleur de Sel)

Fold a paper towel in half twice and lay a piece of konbu on top. Sprinkle an even layer of salt down on the kelp and lay each piece of uni on top in a single layer until you’ve gotten half way through the uni, or you’re out of space. Sprinkle another even layer of salt on top of the uni and cover with another piece of kelp and another folded paper towel. Repeat with more kelp and salt if you have more uni, otherwise put it in the fridge to cure overnight.

When you’re ready to serve, get your steamer ready to steam. Put half the uni in a ramekin, or other shallow heat-proof dish and add enough mirin to generously coat each piece. Put it into the steamer for about 5-10 minutes or until the alcohol has burned off and the uni is cooked.

When it’s done, take the cured uni out of the fridge and gently mix with the steamed uni. Serve a small amount to each person with a glass of cold sake.

Similar posts

Strawberry buttermilk ice cream

Published
by
marc
on March 20, 2008
in Dessert
. 8 Comments

Strawberry buttermilk ice cream

Strawberry buttermilk ice creamCraving desert, but with no eggs or milk and not enough strawberries to make a sorbet, I thought I might just have to be healthy tonight… Then I spotted a carton of buttermilk! I’ve also been meaning to try using sweetened condensed milk in an ice cream to make it extra creamy, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

It didn’t quite turn out how I thought it would taste, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some interaction between the sweetened condensed milk and the buttermilk makes this a dead ringer for strawberry cheesecake. I might even try adding some graham crackers next time:-)

2 C buttermilk
1/2 C sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 C strawberries diced

2 Tbs sweetened condensed milk

Whisk the first 4 ingredients together and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Dump it into an ice cream maker following the manufactures directions.

When the ice cream is done, swirl in 2 Tbs sweetened condensed milk. Serve soft or throw it in the freezer for 30 minutes to set up more like store bought ice cream.

Similar posts