It’s Cookin’ https://www.itscookin.com Improvisational Cooking for Everyday Life Wed, 15 Dec 2010 07:14:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.32 Kale with Seaweed and Ginger Recipe https://www.itscookin.com/2010/12/kale-with-seaweed-and-ginger-recipe/ https://www.itscookin.com/2010/12/kale-with-seaweed-and-ginger-recipe/#respond Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:00:39 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=249 How to cook Lacinato Kale

I have been experimenting with cooking Kale for a few years now and keep finding it to be one of my favorite green vegetables for side dishes, salads or even stand along dishes like the suddenly popping up everywhere kale chips that are in every health store in town these days. This bitter green seems to be much less common than other standard salad or side counterparts like spinach, arugula or Swiss chard, but is extremely versatile and is very easy to make.

One of my favorite ways to cook Kale is simply boiling it in water with a dash of vinegar and a pinch of salt for no more than 4-5 minutes, as in this kale and seaweed recipe below. Then you can dress it up more or less with anything you like from simple oil and lemon to nuts, chili flakes or anything that you might enjoy.

Kale with seaweed and ginger

Ingredients:

1 Bunch of Lacinato Kale

1 Tablespoon of dry Seaweed

few slices of pickled or fresh ginger

Tablespoon of sesame oil

Juice of ½ Meyer Lemon

Optional: Sesame seeds, Chili flakes

Take a tablespoon of dry seaweed, put it in a cup and reconstitute it by pouring boiling hot water over it. Let it stand for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a 3-4 qt saucepan bring ½ of a pot of water to boil. Add a dash of salt and a tablespoon of vinegar and add Kale. Boil no longer than 4-5 minutes. Drain in the colander, making sure there is no access water left.  Add reconstituted seaweed and thinly sliced ginger on top and squeeze lemon juice over kale and dress with sesame oil. Additionally, you can sprinkle toasted sesame seeds and / or chili flakes over this dish.

Tips & Tricks:

Do not overcook Kale – it will turn rubbery and chewy as well as loose its’ color. You need to use a dash of vinegar in your water and dress with lemon first to prevent kale from discoloration.

You can get dry seaweed in Whole Foods or any local Japanese store. You don’t have to use seaweed – skip it altogether and use olive oil instead of sesame.

I usually serve this for dinner with pan-roasted halibut, salmon or other fish and seafood. It also works very well as a side to a slice of pizza

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Red Quinoa Salad https://www.itscookin.com/2010/06/red-quinoa-salad/ https://www.itscookin.com/2010/06/red-quinoa-salad/#respond Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:55:05 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=243 How to Cook Quinoa

Cook quinoa as instructed on the package or:

Combine 1 cup red quinoa & 2 cups water, bring to boil, turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until water absorbs.

redquinoa

Ingredients:

Black beans ¼ can

3 springs of freshly chopped mint

½ cup of feta cheese

¼ cup of chopped green or kalamata olives

1 – 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

1 tbsp of freshly chopped dill or green fennel

½ tsp salt

Pepper to taste

Let the quinoa cool for just a few minutes. Toss all the ingredients together with quinoa and season well with salt, pepper or a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve with flaky white fish like cod or halibut, chicken or a vegetarian course.

Tips & Tricks:

Watch out for salt and add it slowly – both olives and feta cheese are salty and will add flavor to quinoa salad once they are mixed in.

Add a splash of olive oil or balsamic vinegar or both to the salad – experiment with flavors and herbs you like.

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Cooking Pan Roasted Halibut w/ Zucchini Crudo, Cous Cous and Swiss Chard https://www.itscookin.com/2010/05/cooking-pan-roasted-halibut-w-zucchini-crudo-cous-cous-and-swiss-chard/ https://www.itscookin.com/2010/05/cooking-pan-roasted-halibut-w-zucchini-crudo-cous-cous-and-swiss-chard/#comments Sat, 29 May 2010 22:09:41 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=226 Cooking with Carl Mindling

I met a fellow foodie Carl Mindling at our favorite wedding networking event – Martini Madness – that a friend and a great San Francisco wedding coordinator Duncan Reyes puts together. My wife Lisa Whalen is a San Francisco wedding photographer and we frequently go to wedding professionals networking events together, and through these events have met a number of individuals who truly appreciate the “art” of entertaining, and share my love of all things food & wine related.

I was immediately intrigued when Carl Mindling approached me a few months ago about an idea of creating dinner parties together. I love cooking and I love collaborating with others and immediately saw so much creative potential in this idea.

So after we picked our dinner date (May 15th) and invited some of our friends we shortly started brainstorming ideas about what to cook and the theme of the dinner. I volunteered to cook fish and host the party at my place (which later I decided to move to my great friend Robin’s house – THANK YOU,  Robin!!)

I love cooking fish – as most of my close friends know I am a huge sushi fan, and some of my favorite meals have centered around yummy slabs of salmon or tuna… But for this dinner I wanted to cook a less fatty, sleeker white fish. First I thought I would make a sea bass with beurre blanc, but once I got to the store I realized that wild halibut was fresh and in season. So I picked out eight great fillets for eight great friends whose company I really enjoy.

I shortly realized that I never really cooked halibut the way I envisioned it done for this dinner party. I’ve  made a few good recipes before including Halibut with Cabbage and Shitake Mushrooms and Halibut crusted with herbs and nuts, but I really wanted to make something new – something that would be exciting for me as well as for my guests. So a few days before our dinner I experimented and just took a few of my favorite flavors and tried to imagine what would put a Mediterranean twist to cooking this fish. And here we are:

Pan Roasted Halibut

Pan Roasted Halibut

Ingredients:

Combine in a bowl:

3 tbsp Olive Oil

Juice of 1 Lemon

1 tsp of Capers

Chopped Mint

½ Thin sliced Jalapeno

2 Rosemary twigs

2 tsp of white balsamic vinegar

½ tsp honey

Salt & pepper to taste

To Do’s

I marinated the fish in this dressing for a few hours.

First time I made this fish I enclosed it in parchment paper and baked it to perfection for 12 minutes. But for our dinner, I wanted more of a classic presentation, so I first seared the fish in a dash of oil on one side to get a golden crust, then finished it in the oven on a bed of fresh fennel. I enjoyed the more tangy flavors of jalapeno and capers working together with the earthy rosemary and the bright and fresh mint. Carl made perfect cous-cous to go along the fish, which we put on a bed of simply boiled (about five minutes) swiss-chard.

Here are a few more pictures from our dinner:

Cous Cous by Carl Mindling

Cous Cous by Carl Mindling

Zucchini with olives and mint

Zucchini with olives and mint

Tomato, Olives and Mozzarella Skewers by Carl Mindling

Tomato, Olives and Mozzarella Skewers by Carl Mindling

Tips & Tricks:

Before searing the fish, make sure to remove it from the sauce and pat it dry. Fish must be dry when it hits the pan, otherwise it won’t sear.

Make sure the pan is perfectly preheated; otherwise the fish will stick to the pan. I used my All-Clad copper-core saute pan to really control the temperature, and not overcook the fish so I could get a crispier edge. Cast iron skillets will give a slightly moister but equally great feel to the fish. Please spare the fish and your guests the torture of non-stick pans!

Sear on just one side for 3-5 minutes and bake at 450 for 7-8 minutes, its better to undercook, then overcook the fish.

I use grape seed oil for searing because it has least flavor of all oils, has one of highest heat indexes and doesn’t flavor the fish too much (as it will occur with olive oil)

Swiss-Chard: Boil water, add teaspoon on salt and add chard. Boil for 5 minutes, remove, drain access water and season with a splash of fresh squeezed lemon juice, a dash of olive oil, salt pepper.

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Zucchini Fritters with Cheese https://www.itscookin.com/2010/02/zucchini-fritters-with-cheese/ https://www.itscookin.com/2010/02/zucchini-fritters-with-cheese/#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:44:15 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=218 I came across a version of these fritters in one of the Italian cook books I have at the house and gave it a try primarily because it seemed like a quick, fun recipe to make and I had all the ingredients on hand. (Which is basically just zucchini and cheese!) I came up with a sauce for it, which to me made this already perfect dish even better. Over the past few months I have been playing around with it, adding this and that, substituting things and trying to perfect it. Here is one of the best variations I came up with. These are perfect as appetizers, party food or just snacks.

Zucchini Fritters

Zucchini Fritters


Method: Sauté, pan fry


Ingredients:


2 eggs


½ cup flour


½ cup breadcrumbs (panko or Japanese breadcrumbs seem to work best)


1-2 Tbsp Parsley


2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese


3 Tbsp fresh Ricotta cheese


2 Medium Zucchini


Salt and pepper


Sauce:


2 Tbsp Mayo


1 ½ Tbsp Sour Cream (you can skip that and add more mayo instead)


2 tsp light mustard


1 tsp curry


½ tsp cumin


½ tsp paprika


1 tsp capers


Dash of hot sauce


Few teaspoons of cream or milk to make a sauce thinner (if needed)


Beat the eggs in a large bowl, add flour, parsley and breadcrumbs and mix well. Add cheeses and mix. Then shred zucchini (with a hand shredder) and keep mixing until your batter is smooth and well integrated. Add a dash of baking powder (optional) and let rest for about 15 – 20 minutes or longer.


Preheat a sauté pan or a fry pan on medium or medium high heat until hot and add some Canola oil to it. You want a decent amount (2 -3 tbsp or so) enough to cover the pan. Using a tablespoon shape fritter dough into small round portions and lower into the hot pan and sauté on one side for 3-4 minutes, then 2-3 minutes on the other side. You should have a nice dark golden sear on each side. Serve hot with the sauce as an appetizer or just finger food.


Tips & Tricks:


I use Trader Joe’s sweet and sour mustard – it seems perfect because it’s light, flavorful and doesn’t overpower the sauce. Don’t add strong mustard here: skip completely if needed.


For crying-out-loud, don’t flip these back and forth – I hate to see people do that to food. When you sear something you let it develop a crust (a sear) by leaving it alone and letting brown in the pan. If you fear burning, lift up one side lightly to check and flip if done.


Cookware: Cast iron skillet for moister fritters or heavy gauge stainless steel for a crisper seared edge. Both are good just a slightly different result.


I always add a little cream / milk to delude the thickness of the sauce. But you definitely don’t want to add too much. Play around with it to see what works best for you.


Variations: For a sharper, stronger taste add some blue cheese or Gorgonzola instead of ricotta. Feta cheese will work beautifully as well. I recently made these with a mixture of Gruyere and cheddar and really liked the chewier and “cheesier” feel of those cheeses. Play around with herbs and other ingredients. Adding sautéed jalapenos (you have to sauté those first, otherwise they will be too crunchy) yielded a really good result. Try coriander, curry, paprika and other spices.

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Cooking Halibut with Cabbage and Shitake Mushrooms, in Parchment Paper. https://www.itscookin.com/2009/10/cooking-halibut-with-cabbage-and-shitake-mushrooms-in-parchment-paper/ https://www.itscookin.com/2009/10/cooking-halibut-with-cabbage-and-shitake-mushrooms-in-parchment-paper/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:53:05 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=200  

I will say it right off the bat –  the original dish is from the menu of one of my favorite hang-out spots in Carmel, CA, called Flying Fish Grill. If you live on the west coast – get your ass there NOW (make a reservation before you go – this ain’t Olive Garden) It is a spectacularly unique seafood place with an Asian twist, an interior and décor as unique as the menu and a fabulous local wine list. Flying Fish cooks this a bit differently than I do (sauce, etc)  – so try their fish if you can, as it is simply outstanding!  (my recipe is an interpretation of the original, so if you have an opportunity to try the real deal, go for it)

 

The reason I decided to play around with their recipe in the first place is because I had never cooked halibut before. For over 30 years I thought I was allergic to white fish and recently discovered I actually no longer am. So, in short, I needed to test a few things out about halibut before experimenting with my own recipes: cooking time, temperature, texture, sauce ideas and oiliness of the fish. I wanted to work off of a recipe I knew I liked and that “worked” before plunging into my own improvisations. In fact, my  #1 piece of advice for entertaining guests is this: never cook something for guests you’ve never cooked before. It’s a sure way to make an ass out of yourself.

 

Halibut is a very firm, lean, large flake fish with practically no specific scent other than the freshness of the sea (provided you know how to buy fish!) It is in fact ideal for any sauce you can imagine, since it easily absorbs flavor. Since trying this out, I’ve experimented with many more variations of roasted or broiled halibut with pesto, preserved lemon, simple soy, ginger and chilly or just nuts and herbs.  

  

Halibut Cooked in Parchment Paper

Halibut Cooked in Parchment Paper

 
Ingredients: 

 2 lb Pacific Halibut, cut into 1/2lb filets

¼ head of cabbage

shitake mushrooms (2 per filet)

Soy sauce, dash or rice vinegar

Fresh Ginger minced

Sesame oil

Salt, Pepper

Few chilly flakes or Japanese pepper

 

Parchment Paper

Method: Bake / Broil

Cookware: Oven, Pizza Stone or Cookie sheet

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Sauce: Combine 3 tbsp soy sauce, a ¼ tsp of minced ginger, dash of vinegar and a dash of sesame oil & chilly flakes, season with pepper.

Wash filets, pat dry and salt generously with salt. Set aside in  fridge for up to 3 hours, pull out about 30 minutes before you start cooking. First thing you gotta do is get the parchment paper ready: Take a large square of paper and cut a heart shape about 3 times larger than the fish filets. Fold the sheet in half. Take a teaspoon of sauce and smear a small amount (about the size of the filet) on one side of the folded parchment paper. Cut cabbage into 2 inch slices & slice the shitake mushrooms. Arrange cabbage in a square, mimicking the shape of the filet, then add shitakes and finally the fish. Top with a few dashes of sauce. Fold second half of the parchment paper over the cabbage, mushroom and fish stacks and roll up the edges around the heart, (starting at the bottom of the “heart”) until you have a semi-circular looking shape to the parchment. Repeat with the rest of your fish and place parchment packages on a pizza stone or cookie sheet. Cook the fish for 10 minutes at 500 degrees for a perfectly cooked filet. Do not overcook; texture of the fish must be soft and creamy inside.

 

Serve with Asian style cole slaw, wild rice or noodles, or just a simple vegetable stir fry.

 

Tips & Tricks:

 

The most important thing about fish is avoiding overcooking: simply cook less time than you estimate. In my experience,  10-12 minutes for a 2” thick filet of halibut or salmon yields the best results.

 

Selecting fish: I buy my fish on farmers markets (my #1 preference) or Whole Foods (my #2 preference), unless I detour to Half Moon Bay or a real fish market. My experience with conventional supermarkets is: you just can’t trust them. Sometimes the fish is good, sometimes it’s not. If you decide to go via the Safeway route ask to smell the halibut – it should smell like ‘nothing.’

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Zucchini & Jalapeno Cornbread https://www.itscookin.com/2009/07/zucchini-jalapeno-cornbread/ https://www.itscookin.com/2009/07/zucchini-jalapeno-cornbread/#respond Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:55:23 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=196 I love cornbread for its’ versatility, simplicity, all around party applicability, and its’ ridiculous ease of preparation. In fact if you don’t know how to bake or cook, cornbread is just the thing for you to prepare. Got a large bowl and too little time? You can make it! Just toss all that stuff in the bowl, mix it up, and let it stand a few minutes. Next, pour the mixture into a heavy cast iron skillet (my personal preference) or a earthenware dish and throw it in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. That’s easy right? No? You can try the sawdust special in your local grocery store instead, but … I will stick to this one.

Cornbread

Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 & ¼ cups of all-purpose flour

1 & ¼ cups of polenta or cornmeal

Pinch of salt

3 large tablespoons of sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs beaten

2 teaspoons of melted butter

1 & ¼ cups milk

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

2-3 medium or 1 super large zucchini

1 or ½ cup Jalapeno (depending on how spicy you prefer)

¼ cup of roasted pine nuts

Method: Bake

Cookware: Cast Iron Skillet (10 in)

Cut zucchini into small cubes and sauté with a pinch of salt and pepper in cast-iron skillet until golden brown. Set aside.

In large metal bowl combine flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, baking powder and mix well. Slowly add milk, beaten eggs and butter and keep mixing with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and elastic looking. Add ¾ cups of cheese and cooked zucchini and mix it up.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Preheat lightly oiled cast-iron skillet and pour in the mixture. Bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle cheese on top and return to oven for another 5 minutes. Cool and serve. And there you have it – cornbread. Yep, it’s THAT easy.

Cornbread

Cornbread

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Pike Baked Moscow style https://www.itscookin.com/2009/06/pike-baked-moscow-style/ https://www.itscookin.com/2009/06/pike-baked-moscow-style/#comments Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:13:07 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=191 This Central European classic dish is complements of my Mom & Dad, as they actually go fishing for pike, which is a vicious and strong fish with a torpedo-like shape and big, sharp teeth. It is fairly hard to fish, as it tends to fight as you try to get it ashore. I remember years ago my grandfather telling me that catching a pike is tricky and you gotta ‘tire’ it for hours in water before you get it out. Here in the United States it can be found in the Great Lakes and other larger lakes. However, I strongly suspect that in your case, a trip to a fishmonger or a grocery store would do.

If you can’t find pike, you can try substituting it with catfish or other flaky, low-fat, lean-meat white fish.

This dish itself embodies central European approach to making food  – simplicity of ingredients and preparation methods, including the sour-cream sauce, widely used for cooking throughout eastern and Central Europe.

Ingredients:

4-5 pike fillets

4-5 potatoes cut into ½ inch round slices

1 large onion thinly sliced

white mushrooms –  around ½ pound

¼ cup chicken or vegetable broth

6 ounces sour cream

bay leaf

salt & pepper, nutmeg

white wine

The Prep:

1. Cut potatoes into ½ inch slices and fry in olive oil or butter for about 10 minutes until half-done.

2. Sauté onions for a few minutes until translucent in a heavy sauté pan, then add mushrooms and cook together until mushrooms turn golden brown. Set aside.

Sour Cream Sauce:

Mix ¼ cup of any stock (vegetable or chicken broth) with 6 ounces of sour cream and simmer it until it gets thicker.  Add nutmeg, bay leaf, pepper and pour a splash of dry white wine into the sauce.

The Fish:

An average-sized pike (5-6 pounds) should be cut into filleted pieces.  Add salt and pepper, then fry the fish in vegetable oil until it gets a brown gold crust.  Put the fish in the center of the baking pan (you can use ceramic or earthenware) and surround it with slightly fried potatoes cut in circular slices. Cover the fish with fried mushrooms and onions, and then drown the stuff with sour cream sauce with nutmeg.  Bake the fish in the oven for 25 minute at 375-400 decrees.

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Trumpet Mushroom & Truffle Oil Risotto https://www.itscookin.com/2009/05/trumpet-mushroom-truffle-oil-risotto/ https://www.itscookin.com/2009/05/trumpet-mushroom-truffle-oil-risotto/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 05:53:06 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=181 Recently I have been experimenting a lot with Risotto. From trying different stocks / fumes (which are always the soul of your risotto) to playing around with various combinations such as basil, sun dried tomato & pine nuts, or fennel, saffron & mushroom, or perhaps shrimp stock, chilly and sun dried tomato, my personal discovery is this: less is more. My recent favorite is a simple risotto with finely diced sautéed fennel root, butter and pine nuts. Sometimes I top it with a few dashes of truffle oil or Trumpet mushrooms sautéed in butter. Risotto is one of the dishes that definitely benefits from butter. Whereas I still use it sparingly I usually add around 1-2 teaspoons for the proportions below.

Risotto

Risotto


1 ½ cup of Arborio Rice
4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock or shrimp fume, or water or mushroom infused liquid *
1 cup of cheap light white wine (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, etc)
¼ cup of toasted pine nuts
1 cup of diced fennel root
1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese
Trumpet Mushrooms
Butter, Salt, Olive Oil, Truffle oil (optional)


Methods: Sauté, Simmer, Fry
Cookware: Heavy Stainless Steel or Copper Sauté Pan.

Preheat a large Sauté Pan, Rondeau or a cast iron braiser pan. Sauté fennel on medium heat in butter and oil for around 5 minutes, adding a pinch of salt, making sure fennel is translucent and tender but not browned. Add a bit more butter and stir in rice. Coat rice in butter and sauté, stirring constantly, until rice turns translucent and absorbs the fat. This process should take 2-3 minutes or so. Make sure not to brown or burn the rice. Slowly add the wine and keep stirring risotto until wine is almost completely absorbed.

The trick with making risotto is to never let the pan get quite dry and never drown the rice in liquid. Start slowly adding warmed up stock a ladleful at a time to your risotto, stirring constantly, making sure (whatever you do – please make sure of that!!!) that you do not let the liquid dry out completely. Your rice should always be covered with a little liquid. Keep repeating these steps, stirring constantly and watching risotto until all stock is absorbed. (25-30 minutes, depending on choice of cookware) Right before the stock is all absorbed, preheat a copper or cast iron skillet to med-high heat.


Slice a few trumpet mushroom in half and slice some more in thinner 1 ½ – 2 inch slices. Sprinkle with salt and sauté in butter and oil, turning the large mushrooms only once on the side, thus browning them well. Meanwhile finish risotto, by adding a little bit more butter and Parmesan cheese. Let the butter melt, stir in all the cheese and make sure all liquid is “almost all” absorbed. I always leave a little liquid in and take risotto off heat – it will absorb completely in the next 5-10 minutes as it stands. Finish the mushrooms, making sure they are golden brown on both sides. Stir in the thinner mushroom into risotto, and add the thicker pieces on the top, to garnish the dish. Stir in freshly toasted pine nuts. This is the time to add a few drops of truffle oil. I recommend you taste your risotto as is prior to doing it, as you might not like the strong flavor of truffles.


In any case, if you choose to use truffle oil, add just a dash and maybe only to half of risotto. You should serve it immediately, don’t let it wait too long.

Tips & Tricks:

I use, and only suggest using, heavy cookware made of cast iron, copper or tri/ 5 ply steel. (sauté pan is my choice, although I also use a enamel coated cast iron rondeau – shallow sides, wide shape)


Non-stick pans are bullshit: they are too light, burn your food and are not healthy for you. If you use something that is too thin and light, odds are it will burn your risotto or your liquid will evaporate too quickly, leaving risotto too al-dente (not fully cooked, in plain English)


If you let your pan get dry the starch of rice will burn, causing it to get clumpy and sticky.
If you drown the pan in liquid, rice will get mushy. You gotta keep the perfect balance, always adding liquid slowly, warm and never letting the rice dry out completely.


Stock is important – care to make your own, homemade, good tasting stock. Store bought stocks are usually an over-salted, dried out cubes or sodium-ridden powders not worth cooking with. I don’t salt stock when I make it.

Salting rice is important – it does something to make it taste better.  I usually add around a teaspoon for the proportions above.


* Take dried mushrooms (porcini, etc, be careful with shittake as they are highly flavorful) pour a cup of hot water over them and let stand for an hour. Use water as part of stock.

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My Tomato Sauce https://www.itscookin.com/2009/04/my-tomato-sauce/ https://www.itscookin.com/2009/04/my-tomato-sauce/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:53:15 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=175 I’ve got a bunch of my friends asking me how come my tomato sauce tastes so rich and has such a rich deep flavor. I am going to go over a few tricks here, but put it short and sweet: I do not put too much stuff in my tomato sauce, and I stew it for hours. Ok, I hear people talk about how they cook tomato sauce (that is sauce for pasta, gnocchi, pork) and I get scared. I mean sometimes there is a list of ingredients that tops a vegetable isle in Whole Foods! It’s tomato sauce. Period. Not tomato and pepper sauce, not tomato, pepper, onion, sausage and whatever else sauce. Not to say there is something wrong with those sauces – they are just not a TOMATO sauce!


My most important tricks to making a rich, thick and flavorful tomato sauce that is as old-world Italian as it gets are very simple:


1. Superb Tomatoes, like San Marzano, or other good Italian brand plum tomatoes in their own juice, unsalted, nothing else added to them. Please check to see that there is nothing added: stores these days love adding all kinds of shit to canned food.


2. Few other ingredients / spices. I actually make different combination practically every time I cook my sauce, but here is my classic recipe.

My Tomato Sauce

My Tomato Sauce


Ingredients:

San Marzano tomatoes (1 large can)

Fresh basil leaves (8-10) or a tsp of dried basil, or tsp of dried oregano, or both.

A decent amount of olive oil (2-3 tablespoons)

1 tsp salt + 2 tsp of sugar (adjust that to your own taste)

2 tsp of tomato paste dissolved in ½ cup of water

¼ cup of red wine

(If, and only if I want to make it spicy for shrimp and other seafood dishes, I will add 1 – 2 dried chilies)

3. Process tomatoes using a food processor. Do not dice, cut, chop, whip or blend your tomatoes. Just use a good old-fashioned food mill!

4. Stew it for around 6 hours on low heat.

5. Use the right saucepan. I use 2.5 mm thick copper 2.5 qt saucepan – there’s something about copper pots – they just make sauces creamier. Cast iron saucepan, like Le Creuset will do quite well also, along with maybe a very heavy-duty stainless steel pot. DO NOT use light cookware to make this: it will most likely burn the sauce.

Process:

I heat the oil first, making sure it’s hot but not smoking. If I choose to use a chilly I will add it now and leave it for a few minutes on lower heat to infuse the oil. If not, I will add processed tomatoes and bring them to a light simmer, add basil /oregano, salt and sugar. Add tomato paste & wine, close the lid with a slight crack to it to allow some evaporation and stew for 5-6 hours, stirring at hour intervals or so.

This sauce is great on:

Pasta, gnocchi, polenta, toasted baguette, pork or chicken.

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Hummus https://www.itscookin.com/2009/03/hummus/ https://www.itscookin.com/2009/03/hummus/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:27:13 +0000 http://www.itscookin.com/?p=153 Let me start by saying that most hummus found in conventional stores tastes dreadful and has very little to do with the original hummus you can taste in the Middle East.  Store bought hummus is usually improperly mixed, overloaded with an unnecessary bunch of cliché ingredients (like garlic and peppers, everything but good chick peas) and costs 3-4 times more than if you were to make it yourself.

I lived 3 years in the Middle East and tried hummus everywhere from Palestine to Jordan to Israel and it has nothing to do with the crap you get in conventional stores. In fact, the only good commercially sold hummus I know of is made by a company called “Sabra.” Usually you can find it in your local Middle Eastern market. Not strangely so, it’s the same brand they sell all over Middle East.

Hummus is a spectacularly easy dish to make and takes just a few minutes – all you have to do is mix some stuff up and “dress” it later for serving.
Why is it called “hummus”? – It means garbanzo beans in Arabic and other languages, and as you’ll see from the recipe, Garbanzo beans (also known as chick peas) is THE main ingredient in Hummus!

Hummus

Hummus



Equipment: Blender or Food Processor (food processor is better)

Ingredients:

1 can  (about 1 ½ cup) of cooked garbanzo beans (chick peas)
1 ½ large tablespoon of Tahini (sesame paste)
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp of salt
Olive oil (1-2 tbsp)

In food processor or blender process garbanzos with a little bit of water added. Add water slowly to best control desired consistency. It’s your choice to make it creamier or chunkier – both are great. Add tahini and mix well. Add salt and lemon juice and olive oil. Mix. Taste and adjust salt and lemon juice to personal taste. Keep in mind that it will taste stronger (better!) after hummus stands for a few hours in the fridge. Serve with pita brad or pita chips.

Making Tahini Sauce: (optional, for dressing)

Take a tablespoon of tahini and slowly keep adding and mixing in milk or cream until a thin sauce is formed. You want to make sure the sauce slides off spoon, but is not too runny. Add a pinch of salt. Mix. Add on top of hummus when serving.

Dressing a bowl of hummus:

Take a bowl put some hummus in it and a bit of olive oil along the edges of the bowl. Take a spoon and spiral it down the down from outer to inner edge – that should spread oil equally. Put any of choice, or any of your own on top:

Here are my favorite combinations:

Paprika & Zatar (Jordanian Thyme Mix)
Tahini Sauce & chopped parsley
Toasted pine nuts and paprika or parsley
Diced black olives & olive oil
Roasted garlic
Garbanzo or fava beans
Raw egg & salt (if you are an adventurous type)

Tips & Tricks

Home cooked garbanzos usually give a better result, but the whole point is that you can make this dish in 5 minutes, so I usually end up using canned beans as instead. However, quality garbanzos make substantially better hummus – I buy mine in a Middle Eastern market, where I also but Zatar (mentioned above) and Tahini.

The amount of water will have to be more if using a blender. Ideally hummus should be well processed, with no large chunks in it.

Buy Tahini in your local Middle Eastern or Persian market –- they will rip you off in Whole Foods and tahini will never taste as good as “from the source.” It should cost around $3 – $5 per medium sized jar.

Personal trick – never add anything more than mentioned here to hummus while making it – always add it after the hummus is done, during the “dressing” stage. Why? There are hundreds of things you can add to hummus quickly and easily and thus you can have a great variety of flavors available from one batch if you stick with the basic recipe and enhance portions of the batch later on with other ingredients. (some examples are above under “favorite combinations”)  I usually make hummus a day or at least a few hours in advance. It tastes better if it “sits” in the fridge for a bit.

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