More experiments with tinned fish

I am employed again (yay!), and that means I've fallen behind on almost everything. Especially the laundry, but anyway...

I'm still experimenting with tinned fish and having a lot of fun with with it. I found this recipe searching for things to do with anchovies. Special thanks to my friend Allison for being a guinea pig. 

Our ingredient list:

• 6 oil-packed anchovy fillets
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed (always fun to take a mallet to something 😁)
• ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ cup walnuts
• 3 Tbsp. double-concentrated tomato paste
• 2 red Fresno chiles, split lengthwise, seeds removed
• 3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 3 oz. finely grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
• ½ tsp. kosher salt, plus more
• 1lb. spaghetti
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces

I did run into a snag when shopping: none of the places I get groceries from had Fresno chiles. I must have missed their peak season, which is a pity because I have other plans for a large amount of them.  Fortunately, I usually have a jar of Calabrian chiles in the fridge--this jar was chopped ones--so I used a heaping soupspoon full and then threw in a little more. 

Besides that, I found this was quite easy to make, which makes it good to have when company comes. You don't have to neglect them for long to cook.

Step 1

Cook anchovies, garlic, oil, and walnuts in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often, until walnuts are deeply golden and garlic is just beginning to turn golden, 4–5 minutes. (your kitchen is going to smell fantastic. My guest guinea pig was quite happy) Add tomato paste and cook, stirring often, until it turns a shade darker, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and let cool 5 minutes.

I let it cool closer to 15 minutes. I have had the experience of having too-hot things in the blender. You do not want to know, trust me. 

Step 2

Transfer walnut mixture (including the oil) to a food processor. Add chiles, lemon juice, 3 oz. Parmesan, and ½ tsp. salt. Pulse until a thick paste forms.

Step 3

Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1½ cups pasta cooking liquid.

Step 4

Scrape pesto into a large bowl and add butter, then pasta and ½ cup pasta cooking liquid. Using tongs, toss pasta vigorously, adding more pasta cooking liquid if needed (you may not need all of it), until glossy and well coated with sauce.

I didn't need any additional pasta water besides the original half cup. This emulsified beautifully. 

Step 5

Divide pasta among bowls. Season with more salt and top with Parmesan.

Optional Step 6

Do Ahead: Pesto can be made 5 days ahead. Cover and chill.

This was delicious, filling, but not too heavy, and layers of umami dancing on the tongue. I definitely will be making this again. 

If you try it, let me know!

Turn the world around: Something Briny

Many many changes happening: I just started a new onsite job after 8.5 months of unemployment and 2.5 years of working at home. As you might imagine, this makes for a lot of adjusting. Commuting. Shoes all day. Dry cleaning bills. Ironing. Figuring out what to eat without always having to dedicate an entire day to cooking for a week ahead. I don't want to make cooking feel like a chore.

I also strongly dislike eating the same meal two days in a row. Today, I put the following together, which should get me several lunches on alternating days for a while. Not to mention that between the olive oil and the brine, it's not going to go off quickly

Into a large bowl went

• 1 pound of Orzo pasta cooked al dente (any pasta will do)
• 1 small jar of Capers (rinsed)
• 6 ounces Kalamata olives 
• 6 ounces sundried tomatoes 
• 4 ounces Anchovies, drained 
• 4 Tablespons Olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 2 heaping Tablespoons dried oregano (just one of fresh)
• 6-8 ounces Feta cheese

While the pasta was cooking, I ran the tomatoes, the olives, and the anchovies through the food processor with a little bit of olive oil. Then all it took was stirring the mixture into the pasta, adding a bit more of the olive oil to help me distribute things evenly, then tossing in the cheese. 

This is tasty warm or cold .

Wait, I'm trendy? How did that happen?

My first exposure to anchovies was on a Domino's pizza when I was in college. I didn't care for them at all, and generally avoided them except in a Caesar salad for decades. Several years ago on a very snowy day, a friend served me a salad nicoise with anchovies I enjoyed quite a bit. This past Christmas at East Harbor Seafood Palace, (a delightful Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn), one of the dishes passed around was fried salt & pepper anchovies. These were deep fried anchovies and in the basket were some delicious salted chili pepper slices. I do plan to make salted chiles soon because how could I not?

Fast-forward a bit and I'm trying to a) live on a tighter budget than normal b) eat more fish.  I had recently become a fan of Trader Joe's smoked trout, and wanted to branch out a bit and use other types of tinned fish. So I found myself putting phrases like, "things to do with tinned fish" into search engines, not realizing just how popular tinned fish has become of late. One example is here on TikTok. 

I started with this recipe from the Food Network, and while my results weren't perfect, they were damn tasty, though this was fairly time-consuming. 

First and foremost, the artichokes went into a colander and I gave them a serious shaking and blotting with paper towels. Leaving them to drain,  I made the breadcrumbs.

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 flat anchovy fillets packed in olive oil, drained and finely chopped (this is probably not news to many of you, but chopsticks are great for getting tightly-packed anchovies out of a jar)
• 1/4 cup panko  (I used rice cracker crumbs because my dinner guest is gluten-free. If I do this again, I will use 3 Tablespoons and use the coarsest setting on the grinder instead of a medium one)
• Zest from 3 lemons

Put the butter and anchovies in a small nonstick pan and cook over medium-high heat, swirling the butter and stirring the anchovies until the butter starts to brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the panko and cook, stirring continuously and tossing, until the breadcrumbs are golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl, stir in the lemon zest and set aside.  Easy peasy.

From there, I put the pasta water on to boil and while waiting for it, I grated the garlic with a microplane and chopped the anchovies for the sauce (full ingredient list below). Then I zapped the arichokes on one side in a sautée pan with 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Notes for next time include a) more draining and blotting of the artichokes and b) more olive oil. 

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6 flat anchovy fillets packed in olive oil, drained and finely chopped 
• 5 cloves garlic, finely grated 2 lemons, juiced (I also quartered a lemon to serve alongside, and I'm glad I did so)
• Chopped flat-leaf parsley, optional

The artichokes got a bit scorched because I stepped away a little too long, so I deglazed the pan with some Pinot Grigio before I put the butter, anchovies, and garlic into the pan to complete the sauce. Once the pasta was cooked, I grabbed half a cup of the liquid (should have put in more) and threw that in the pan as well as the drained pasta.

This was rice/quinoa pasta and it soaked up that sauce like it was a premium two-ply paper towel in a television commercial, so while the flavors were there (it needed more lemon), the smooth velvety texture you get from a good emulsified sauce wasn't. I was a bit chagrined, but it still tasted pretty good, especially with extra squeezes of lemon and some red pepper, the latter of which was nowhere in the recipe.

You'll be seeing more from me with tinned fish. How do you like yours?

I lifted a sauce

Something I've learned from Just One Cookbook is that a grated onion can add a lot to a recipe. This recipe is no exception. 

This is a case where I stole the flavors, but not the method. I do not have the knife skills to get pork cut to 1/8 of an inch (3.175 millimeters), and since I had a pork loin in the freezer, I didn't want to spend the $ on a special cut. 

So, a little adaptation. I started with the sauce:

• 1 knob ginger (2 inches, 5 cm for 2 servings; remember to keep half of the ginger juice for marinating the pork)
• ½ onion (remember to use the leftover onion for slicing and stir-frying) 
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp mirin
• 2 Tbsp sake
• 1 tsp sugar

The onion I used was labeled Jumbo Sweet Onion at the store. I happen to love onions. If you like them as enhancers more than you do as a strong flavor, start with one of the ones you get in those red net bags. You can always add more.

If you don't own a ginger grater, I strongly recommend you grab one. They're also good for garlic. I put everything in a small saucepan on low for about fifteen minutes. This was just enough time to  let the alcohol in the sake burn off and the sugar to dissolve. Then I took it off the heat and set up the water bath, with the immersion circulator set to 135 F (57.2 C,  330.4 K). While the water was coming to temperature, I sliced the other half of the onion, and sliced some cabbage as thin as I could get it and set it aside. 

By the time the sauce cooled to room temperature, the water was ready. I salted a pork loin, stabbed it multiple times with a fork. (There was about an inch between stabs), put it in a vacuum bag with 3 Tablespoons of sauce, sealed it, and put it in the water bath. 

Once that was set, I made the sesame dressing to have on the side and stashed it in the fridge. From there, I started the rice, which would take 50 minutes. I watched most of an episode of The Brokenwood Mysteries, and then started cooking the sliced onions in a bit of safflower oil and a bit of the sauce. When the onions were brown on about half the edges, I turned the heat down to low and added the rest of the sauce to the frying pan. 

When the pork had been cooking for 90 minutes, I put some safflower oil in a pan on medium high to prep for searing. I took the meat out of the water bath, added the liquid in the bag to the sauce and patted the loin dry with paper towels. When the oil began to give off smoke, I seared the pork for 30 seconds on each side, then let it rest for five minutes while I added the rice and the cabbage to a bowl and set the table. After the resting, I sliced the pork, added it to the bowl and spooned some sauce over it.

My pork wasn't the crispy delight in the recipe, but I did have fabulous flavors and a great mix of textures.  This is definitely being made again!

Two fish with one stone. And an egg.

 If you've never tried onigiri, I think you're missing out. They're fun, tasty, versatile and highly portable. Recently, I've developed a weekly appointment that brings me past a Japanese market on the way home. In the front, where many people grab a quick lunch to go, is a counter full of onigiri. Even on my limited budget, they're affordable. I also stop here on the way home from donating blood across the street. I find them much more restorative than a small bottle of cranberry juice and a bag of chips.

My favorite fillings are mentaiko, seasoned egg, or bonito flakes. I don't have any mentaiko at home, but now that I can get eggs cheaply at Trader Joe's, I suddenly had an excuse to try to perfect a seasoned egg to my satisfaction (here's a famous example, which I've been tweaking).

So, I marinated some eggs last night. This afternoon, I put a cup of rice in the cooker and then got to work on the rest of the fillings. I also made a spicy tuna salad using the following:

• One 5oz can tuna in olive oil
• Rayu (I bought mine, it's cheap)
• Kewpie mayonnaise
• Shichimi togarashi, my favorite red pepper blend.

These were all mixed in a bowl and set aside. 

For the bonito filling, I used one small packet of bonito flakes, a bit of soy sauce, and about a quarter teaspoon of snipped green onions (I usually use scissors to deal with green onions), and stirred all this together.

Then I waited for the rice and tried to find the right name for a character in a dystopian novel I'm writing.

Just One Cookbook's recipe has the onigiri shaped by hand, which is what I did with the egg, but for the others, I couldn't resist buying some molds. I also pulled out my silicone pastry board. My setup looked like this (out of picture is some kosher salt for my hands):

Using the molds was easy enough. Fill halfway with rice, add filling, keeping it to the center, add more rice, press. The onigiri I planned to eat right away were popped out of the mold onto some nori. The ones that I'd be eating later, got wrapped with plastic and will have the nori wrapped around them later. It would get too soggy if it sat overnight.

Lunch:

I need practice with the egg, I started falling apart when I ate it, but it was still delicious. I think next time I will let a bit more of the marinade into the rice. There was a side of sliced cucumbers with shichimi togarashi, and a small glass of sake. 

One cup dry rice made two of the large triangles, two of the small triangles, and wrapped one egg. I will double the amount of rice I make next time because there's a lot of the spicy tuna filling left. I may be making more this weekend, or it may be eaten with sesame crackers.

Do you like onigiri? What do you like in them?

Well I've never been to Spain...

 but I kind of like the music...

But I digress. I've been tossing around the idea of retiring to Spain, which will take a few more years of working and saving if I can make it happen. In a group I joined about Americans in Valencia, I was pointed to Spain on a Fork and there's a growing list of recipes I plan to make from this fabulous site.

While perusing, I found many recipes for Spanish tortilla, which is only related to the tortilla one finds in Mexico and points south in that they are both round.

The Spanish tortilla is a potato omelette, massively versatile, and, to my surprise, surprisingly light tasting. There are several to choose from on the site. I went with this one because I love an excuse to eat Manchego cheese. 

Since my pan is smaller than the one listed and there's only one of me anyway, I cut the ingredients in half, though what is below is right from the site.

• 3 Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 large onion (I call a large onion 1 cup sliced or chopped)
• 2 cups tightly packed fresh spinach 120 grams
• 2 cups shredded Manchego cheese 470 grams
• 6 cage-free organic eggs 
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 85 ml
• pinch sea salt
• dash black pepper

1. Peel, wash and pat dry 3 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut each one into 4 evenly sized quarters, cut each quarter into 3 pieces and then slice into 1/8 inch (.3175 cm) thick pieces. (I used a mandoline for this and I highly recommend such)  finely dice 1 large onion, grab 2 cups of tightly packed fresh spinach and roughly chop, shred 2 cups of Manchego cheese, crack 6 eggs into a large bowl and season with sea salt & black pepper, whisk together until well combined
2. Heat a large nonstick fry pan with a medium heat and add in a generous 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil, after 2 minutes add in the diced onions and mix with the olive oil, after 2 minutes add in the pieces of potatoes and continue to mix, after 20 to 25 minutes and the potatoes are fully cooked through, start adding the spinach into the pan, add in batches to not over-fill the pan, mix the spinach with the potatoes so it wilts, once all the spinach has been incorporated and wilted, turn off the heat, season everything with sea salt & black pepper, mix so the seasonings are evenly mixed
3. Add the potato mixture into the bowl with the eggs, add the 2 cups of shredded Manchego and mix everything together until well combined, at the same time, make sure to heat the same fry pan with a low to low-medium heat
4. Once well mixed, add the mixture into the pan, make sure everything is in a single layer, after 2 minutes run a spatula through the outer edges to ensure the mixture is not sticking to the pan
5. After 4 to 5 minutes it´s time to flip the tortilla to cook the other side, add a plate that is a little smaller than the pan into the pan, place one hand over the plate and the other hand on the handle, make the flip in one swift motion, slide the tortilla back into the pan, push down on the tortilla to ensure everything is evenly divided and then using the back of a spatula, start compacting the tortilla through the outer edges and into the middle, this gives it that classic rounded edge
1. The flipping was not as difficult as I thought it might be. Keep a firm grip on your plate and you'll be just fine.
6. After another 4 to 5 minutes the tortilla should be perfectly cooked, remove from the heat and transfer into a serving dish, enjoy!

I've made a few of these since. If I have a lot of veggies added like mushrooms and spinach, a 3-egg tortilla can give me three meals. 

Let me know your variations if you try this!

There's no food! There's just ingredients!

I'm sure more than a few of you have yelled that more than once. I do it frequently and this weekend I decided to do something about it. I considered making sous vide egg bites, but a) I am running low on room in my fridge and b) I wanted to stuff the freezer for the future and the jarred bites really should be eaten pretty quickly.

So, why not breakfast burritos? I first came across a breakfast burrito in 1989 in Albuquerque. I was moving for a job from Long Island to Prescott, Arizona. My friend Jason drove with me. He was great company. We mooed at a lot of cows, noted the frequent number of Yellow trucks, and I swear every time we changed states and found a new Top-40 radio station, the Bangles' Eternal Flame came on.

Anyway, our comment at the fast food joint was something along the lines of, "What the f*** is a breakfast burrito?"  Then I was in love. Warm, comforting, convenient, cheesy.

While I'm looking for a job, I'm keeping expenses down, so while I would have loved some chorizo, that will be for a later time. Instead, I grabbed a can of black beans. The whole ingredient list:

• 8 8-inch tortillas (mine came from The Tortilla Factory, and were bog-standard white flour)
• 6 eggs--taken out of the fridge a couple hours before I got going. Cooking with room-temperature eggs just works better.
• 1 can of black beans
• 6 ounces of cheddar, grated. Next time with the black beans, I will get pepper jack
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup green salsa that I found in the fridge
• 3 few shakes of Dave's Habanero Powder (I still don't remember buying this or getting it as a gift)
• 3 shakes of oregano  It might not have been Mexican oregano, but I don't think the Oregano Police are a thing.
• 2 shakes chili powder

A lot of the recipes I looked at had potatoes in them, but I've recently learned how to make Spanish Tortilla  (and I still need to blog about it) and right now, if I'm doing potatoes with eggs, this is how.

I drained the black beans and put them in the largest bowl I had, followed by the green onions, then the salsa, then the spices. Stirred well with a rubber scraper. I started the eggs and alternately kept an eye on the eggs (I always start my eggs in a cold pan on low, gradually increasing temperature to medium-low), and grated the cheese.

When I make scrambled eggs, I do my initial stirring with a whisk once they've been on a the heat for a few minutes. That will usually pull some nice big curds off the bottom. When the mix is about 50/50 curds and runny egg, I switch to a silicone scraper and gently fold them over once in a while. You don't want to scramble them too much. Once I felt they were done, they got stirred into the bowl with all the other goodies.

If you look away from this blog entry when you're making it, please make sure you read this part: Use warm tortillas. They are much more flexible. I zapped mine individually in the microwave for 30 seconds between paper towels. No tearing whatsoever. 

Also this: use a little water (just brush it on with your fingertip) to make the parts of the tortilla stick together when you're folding and rolling.

I spread out my silicone baking mat, lay down a tortilla and put about 1/3 cup of the mixture on the bottom third, and pulled up the bottom like a tab (there's only one of me, I can't take pics of me folding a burrito). Then just like wrapping the sandwiches  I used to make for my school lunches, I folded the sides over so all the filling was kind of in a pocket and then rolled, wetting the top  before I finally sealed it. I let them sit seam-side down while they cooled, then individually wrapped them in parchment paper before bagging and freezin.

My most sincere apologies. I did take pictures, but they came out twelve kinds of terrible.  The burritos themselves are kind of cute and rather trapezoidal. I had enough for 8 burritos and one taco, which was breakfast.

If you try this, please let me know!

Another Nifty Guest Post: Not quite carnitas

It's been a while since I've had a guest post from Ny  and I've been meaning to post this one for a while.  I haven't tried this one yet, but chuck roast goes on sale every so often, and I'm considering doing this on a smaller scale and making some fat quesadillas with it. 

On with the guesting!

So a friend gave me boar loin

I have the world's most awesome friends, I really do. Because of one them, I got to try a boar loin for the first time and I was delighted once I figured out what to serve with it.

When I went cruising for ideas, there were a lot of recipes with a fruit sauce. Black currant and red wine was tempting. I've done that with duck and it came out quite nice. After a lot of searching, I found a recipe and promptly forgot to bookmark it. All I could remember is it contained two kinds of whiskey (and I had both some bourbon and a bottle of Seagram's 7 in the cabinet), mushrooms, and cream. After checking that butter & cream were okay to serve my guest, away I went.

Everything that went in the meal:

In the vacuum bag

• 1.5 pounds of boar loan
• Salt
• Pepper
• Lots of fresh thyme

In the sauce:

• 6 oz crimini mushrooms
• One shallot, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon butter
• Bourbon
• Seagram's 7 (a straight whiskey, more on that later)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Thyme
• Cream
• The juices from the sous vide bags

In the oven:

• a 9x9 casserole dish with a layer of cubed rutabaga
• Salt 
• Papper
• Olive oil  finished with 
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• Parsley

Also on the stove

• 8 ounces trimmed green beans
• these would be blanched in boiling water for about 3 minutes--start testing when they're bright green, then tossed with a little butter & lemon zest.
• 
  

This is going to get long, but it was so delicious, I forgot to photograph it.

More research was needed before I got started as I've cooked pork loin before, but not boar, which is a bit leaner.  If you'd like a good reference for time & temp for pork sous vide, I suggest this page from Serious Eats. Yes, if you keep pork cooking long enough, even at a much lower temperature than you're used to, it will pasteurize just fine. I decided to go for 135 degrees F for two hours. I seasoned the boar with salt & pepper and vacuum-sealed it in a bag with a lot of fresh thyme. Then I got to cutting things up.

I cut up a few small rutabagas into approximately 1-inch (2.6 cm) cubes and set them aside. A little later, I would roast them in olive oil and roast at 425 F (218C, 491K) for about an hour, then toss with a little apple cider vinegar and sprinkle with parsley. 

Next up, the slicing of a 6 oz package of crimini (the ones they now call baby bellas) mushrooms, and the fine dicing of a shallot. I threw the mushrooms into a non-stick pan and turned the heat to medium-low. 

You might have noticed that I didn't add any oil or butter or any other liquid yet. I forget where I picked this up, but I have learned if you sweat your mushrooms when they are dry, they will give you some delightful liquid and their flavor will also be nicely concentrated. Once the mushrooms were reduced in size by half, I set them aside to melt half a tablespoon of butter in the pan. Once melted, I added the shallot, stirring constantly until it was golden brown. Once I hit that point, I added the mushrooms back in, and then a bit of salt & pepper.

Time for the booze! This recipe would be lovely with cognac, but I was low on it, and I had plenty of bourbon and a big bottle of Seagram's 7. If you aren't familiar with the types of whiskey, you can either borrow one of my favorite people or you can read this quick overview. Either one will be educational, though the human factor is much more entertaining.

I started adding the booze one Tablespoon at a time, tasting here and there. I ended up with a 3:2 ratio of bourbon vs straight whiskey. I added enough to cover the mushrooms, turned the heat down, and added cream to cover, and got the heat down to low. Then I set aside 3 Tablespoons of bourbon & 2 Tablespoons of straight whiskey into a measuring cup.

When the sous vide cooking was done, I cut open the bags, removed the loins to a cooling rack that I had prepped on the counter with paper towels underneath it. The juice from the bags got stirred into the sauce. I gently patted the loins dry with a paper towel and heated some safflower oil in a pan on medium-high until it started smoking. 

The loins got seared for a scant minute on each side, then put on a plate and covered with foil to rest. I deglazed the pan with the booze I'd set aside, scraping all the brown bits into the liquid, the poured in the rest of the sauce and turned the heat down.

The beans cooked while the meat rested, which gave me time to pull the neeps out of the oven (I love saying neeps and have it mean something). They got tossed with vinegar and parsely.

From there, it was slice, serve, and enjoy with a bottle of Bordeaux. 

Studio Living: My dishwasher is small, but this was worth it

I have a thing about poultry skin. Generally speaking, I think it's icky. The only exception I delightfully make is for Peking Duck. If I am offered fried chicken, I'm as likely as not to pull off the skin and give it to someone who appreciates it.

I'm not going to argue that cooking with the skin on will make for juicier meat. I also have friends who love poultry skin, so when I found this recipe, the cabbage and bacon and braising intrigued me, I invited one of them over for dinner. Conveniently, he arrived early and I got some assistance, which was much needed due to space constraints, which I'll get into in a bit.

The ingredients are all things I find tasty, though I did make a few adjustments: (I also capitalized Tablespoon in this list)

• 2 1/2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (6 to 8 thighs; 1.15kg) (I ended up with 8, which didn't all fit in my sauté pan, I'll get to that in a bit)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon (15ml) vegetable oil
• 8 ounces (225g) slab bacon or salt pork, cut into 1/2- by 1/4-inch lardons
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced (about 6 ounces; 170g)
• 1 pound finely shredded cabbage (about 1 medium head; 450g)
• 2 Tablespoons (30ml) whole-grain mustard (I added another Tablespoon)
• 1/2 cup (120ml) apple cider vinegar (I added another 2 Tablespoons)
• 1 cup (235ml) homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock
• 3 Tablespoons sugar (I cut this down to 1)
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 sprigs thyme (more like a dozen)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (I completely forgot about this and didn't really need it)

Tasty Blender Tricks: Romanesco Pasta Sauce

Credit for this one goes out to my friend Hilary. Hilary and I worked together at two separate companies. We initially bonded after a pot luck at the first company. She'd brought some utterly fabulous horseradish cheddar and I was the only one who was interested in taking home the leftovers.

So when she sent me this recipe a few weeks ago, I gave it a good read. I am not fond of most squash, though I will occasionally stuff a zucchini boat with meat sauce and top it with a ton of cheese. Generally, I avoid the stuff, preferring other vegetables. 

But the sauce was intriguing. So I made it and I am delighted. Also worth noting: this is vegan and can easily be made gluten-free.

• 2 spaghetti squash (ignored and replaced with  chick pea pasta)
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil (I didn't need the 2 T)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 garlic clove, sliced (might add a bit more next time)
• 16 oz roasted red peppers, drained (some jars are only 14 oz, it's perfectly okay)
• 1 slice of bread, toasted (it's to thicken the sauce and give it body. If you're serving a gluten-free person, some rice crackers would probably do the same thing. If you're not a carb person, I suspect you can either leave it out or throw in a touch of xanthan gum, if you're a person who has xanthan gum in the pantry)
• 1 red pepper flake packet (or 1/2 teaspoon) (I did much more than this, which will be of no surprise to anyone who knows me)
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (same as above, especially considering that I think I bought the paprika at least two apartments ago)
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Fish for breakfast

Fish for breakfast is hardly a new concept. People all over the planet have been doing it since time immemorial, though unless you count lox on bagels, it has never been a regular thing for me.

My first exposure to the concept was from my father, who occasionally liked to fish. He would sometimes zap some smelt in a pan to have along with his fried eggs and toast. I didn't care for smelt when I was a rugrat. 

Now, older and wiser, I do try new things here and there. I also consume a lot of British media, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I tried kedgeree, if only out of curiosity. I mentioned I was thinking of trying it, and my friend Marybeth provided this recipe from the BBC. 

• 475g/1lb 1oz undyed smoked haddock fillet, cut in half  (I didn't have access to haddock, the grocery said they had trout, but ended up substituting salmon, so see the additional instructions below for that).
• 2 bay leaves
• 200g/7oz basmati rice, rinsed in cold water and drained
• 4 free-range eggs
• 100g/3½oz frozen peas (optional) (I plan to us a bit more next time. I adore curry and peas together)
• 40g/1½oz butter
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil (there's a history of sunflower allergy in my family, so I used safflower. Avocado would also do. Light and neutral is whats needed)
• 1 onion, finely chopped (as with the peas, there will be more next time)
• 1 heaped tbsp medium curry powder
• 3 tbsp double cream
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh flatleaf parsley
• ½ lemon, juice only
• freshly ground black pepper

Place the haddock in a large frying pan, skin-side up. Pour over 500ml/18fl oz water, add the bay leaves and bring the water to a gentle simmer. Cook the fish for 8–10 minutes until it is just done and flakes easily. Drain in a colander set over a bowl, reserving the cooking liquor, and discard the bay leaves.

Pour the cooking liquor into a saucepan and stir in the rice. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the rice very gently for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the rice covered for 3–5 minutes more. By this time it should have absorbed all the fish liquor.

While the rice is cooking, bring some water to the boil in a saucepan. Add the eggs and cook for 8 minutes. Drain them in a sieve under cold running water and when cool enough to handle, peel them carefully and set aside. Cook the peas, if using, in a small saucepan of boiling water and drain.

Melt the butter with the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion over a low heat for 5 minutes until well softened, stirring occasionally. Add the curry powder and cook for another 3 minutes, stirring constantly. 

A word about the curry powder. I am quite fond of spicy heat, but I have to say that the extra-hot curry powder I had in the house was a bit much. I will be getting a milder one for the next batch. If you want an assortment to choose from, I am happy to recommend Auntie Arwen's (this is not a paid endorsement, but I'll happily take money for it).

Place the cooked rice into the pan and stir into the onions. Add the peas, cream, parsley and a few twists of ground black pepper.

Flake the fish into chunky pieces and add these to the pan. Gently stir in the lemon juice and cook for 1–2 minutes. Cut the eggs into quarters and place them on top of the rice. Cover the pan with a lid and heat through for 2–3 minutes or until the eggs are warm, then serve.

If not serving immediately, tip the kedgeree into a warm dish and dot with a few cubes of butter. Cover with kitchen foil and keep warm in a low oven for up to 20 minutes before serving.

The instructions I followed at the first step:  To make this dish using hot smoked salmon, swap in 500ml/18fl oz light chicken stock in place of the cooking liquor from the fish. Stir in the hot smoked salmon with the peas.

Raiding the Freezer

I blame the friends who brought carnitas to New Year's Eve. Tender and juicy and then I remembered I had a pork loin in the freezer. I had also made huevos rancheros this week so I had tacos to use up.

So I went poking around the internet, like one does, and found a recipe that intrigued me.  I scaled everything down because my pork loin was much smaller, but kept the proportions the same:

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 lb. pork loin
• 1 cup chicken stock (I had low-sodium in the pantry, so I went with that)
• 1 orange, juiced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 7 oz. can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste 

There are very few recipes where I feel the need to change something. Ask anyone I've ever lived with and they'll tell you I put salt on my salt. I thought I'd be adding some garlic salt to this after it came out of the oven, but nope, nothing needed.

The instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over a burner turned to medium-high heat.
• Sear the pork loin on each side, about 4 minutes per side, until a crust has formed. (I don't really care for my meat crunchy on the outside, so I seared for 3 minutes a aside to get it a brown shade. As you wish) 
• Turn the burner off and add the stock, orange juice, lime juice, and the can of chipotles to the Dutch oven, or transfer the seared loin to a casserole dish and top with the ingredients listed above. (I went for the casserole dish because I didn't have so much pork that I thought it warranted such a huge vessel #StudioLiving)
• Place the lid on the Dutch oven, or cover the casserole dish with foil, and place in the preheated oven for 2-3 hours. When you can pull apart the pork with a fork, it is done. (I went for the full three hours and flipped it halfway through, although keeping it covered kept it plenty moist)
• Taste and add salt and pepper if desired, but I often find that the canned chipotles add enough seasoning. None needed! How delightful!
• If a crispy carnita is desired, spread the pork out on to a sheet pan and turn the oven to high broil.
• Broil for 2-3 minutes, until a crust has formed on the meat. Watch carefully so the pork doesn’t burn.
• Serve in tacos, burritos, quesadillas, or on taco salad.

My carnitas went in a couple of tacos topped with black beans, a bit of salsa verde, sharp cheddar, green onions, and sour cream. I didn't have enough room for the avocados, so those got eaten at the end with everything that dripped out of the tacos. I call that a win. 

Prefolding pic because nobody was handy to hold a folded taco while I took the shot.

This is definitely being made again.

If you try these, let me know. It's rare I have so little commentary on a recipe. This just works!

Dessert for a change (a simple baked pear)

 This one is going to need a little tweaking, but I'm fairly happy with the results, especially considering I was winging it without a recipe.

I like the flavor of pears, but I'm not really fond of the texture. Mostly I use them in smoothies with a lot of chopped or grated ginger (there's usually some in the house, sometimes fresh, soemtimes from a jar), vanilla protein powder, almond milk, maybe some nutmeg, the last idea for which I thank my unofficially adopted little sister Fae.

I've tried a few different kinds and I usually come back to Bosc. I've had them grilled, poached in wine, these have gone over vanilla ice cream or gelato.

This week I figured, why not bake one? It's no secret I loathe the taste and texture of the traditional flour/sugar/salt/water/fat, but really, there's no rule all baked fruit needs to be in pie or tart or turnover. 

If I wanted crunch, I have raspberry granola, and that could be an option for the other pear in the fridge. I like the spices, though, so after some thought, I came up with this.

• One Bosc pear lazily peeled so there's a little left for texture,
• 3/4 Tablespoon of butter
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (I had light in the pantry. Dark would work just fine)
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground ginger
• 2 Tablespoons cream for serving

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F (244 C, 477 Kelvin) first thing. 

The pear was chopped into bits no bigger than a cubic inch. No, I didn't measure, this was purely eyeballed. I tried to keep them similar.

Next, I  used some of the butter to grease a small class baking dish, then put the rest in a ramekin in the microwave at level 5 for 30 seconds to melt it. Pears into the dish, stir with the butter.

From there, I sprinkled on the sugar and stirred again, then shook the nutmeg and ginger jars over the pears a few times. Again with the stirring.

This next bit is where I need to tweak some. I put the pears in the oven, uncovered, and stirred them every ten minutes or so. I think I need to do this at list every fifteen. I didn't really get some nice browning until about 45 minutes in and I ended up turning up the heat a touch towards the end. I will post an update when I do this again.

It also needs a bit more spice, maybe a touch of vanilla. 

They came out of the oven looking like this:

and it is definitely clear that I need some smaller bowls because the serving, which was perfect for one, looked a little lonely in the smallest of the bowls I have.

I finished it with 2 T of cream because I love fruit and cream and I didn't want the sweetness of ice cream to overwhelm the spices. It made for an excellent mouthfeel. 

Quite easy, overall. It could easily be made vegan with a butter substitute (I'm not up on my butter substitu5es), and finishing it with a coffee creamer. Trader Joe's has a vanilla one made with almond and coconut milk that could work, but I'd use only 1 T because it will have extra sugar. Not sure if almond milk by itself would work, but it's definitely worth investigating.

If you try this, please let me know!