Pumpkin Soup with Cran-Apple Relish (Vegetarian)

I realize it's no longer the fall, but I really wanted some pumpkin soup this week.  And this is one of my favorites, in addition to the new pumpkin shrimp bisque I discovered last year.  It's very simple, and the garnish is awesome.  I'm pretty sure it would go well on other things too, but haven't figured out what just yet.  For a touch of class, drizzle some honey over the top - people will think you went to culinary school, even when you just took a bunch of things out of cans and stirred them together (I'm pretty sure this is what some pros do anyway).

Pumpkin soup!

Pumpkin Soup with Cran-Apple Relish

based on a Rachael Ray recipe

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 fresh bay leaf, or 2 dried
• 2 ribs celery with greens, finely chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons hot sauce (I used Frank's, or you could use Tabasco), or to taste
• 6 cups vegetable stock
• 1 (28-ounce) can cooked pumpkin puree
• 2 cups heavy cream (I use 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup half-and-half)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Relish:

• 1 crisp apple, such as McIntosh or Granny Smith, finely chopped
• 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries, chopped
• 1 teaspoon chili (or chile) powder
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Most of the ingredients, after starting the onion and celery.  This all comes together quickly.

Heat a medium soup pot over medium to medium high heat. Add the oil and melt the butter. Add bay, celery, and onion. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper. Cook 6 or 7 minutes, until tender. Add flour, thyme and hot sauce, to taste, then cook flour a minute. Whisk in stock and bring liquid to a bubble. Whisk in pumpkin in large spoonfuls to incorporate it into the broth. Simmer soup 10 minutes to thicken a bit then add in cream and nutmeg. Reduce heat to low.

Stir in the flour after cooking the vegetables, and you end up with something like a roux - this will thicken the soup

While soup cooks, assemble the relish: combine apple, onion, lemon juice, cranberries, chili powder, honey and cinnamon.  I used the same chile powder that I use in my beef chili - a mix of dried peppers without the other ingredients found in chili powder.  Didn't seem to make a huge difference, so use whatever you've got.  I used a low quality chili powder from a can once and it actually did ruin this, so be sure to use something decent, and don't go overboard.

This garnish is arguably the best part of the soup

Remove bay leaves from soup and pulse with a stick blender to puree the sauteed vegetables.  Adjust seasonings in soup and relish and serve soup in shallow bowls with a few spoonfuls of relish and a drizzle of honey.

Slow Cooker Beef Chili

If you've been following the posts, you might have noticed that I'm an avid fan of the pressure cooker.  Well, I recently inherited an old Crock Pot, and thought I would try out the slow cooker method for a change.  They're both very convenient tools - one lets you cook very quickly, and one lets you cook quite lazily.  However, even with the slow cooker's appeal of turning it on and leaving for the day, I had to do a lot of prep work to get the final product to come out to my liking.  You can't just throw everything in there raw and have it come out perfectly, after all.

So I made my standard chili recipe, which is an amalgam of different recipes loosely inspired by that of Dinosaur BBQ up in Syracuse, NY.  They have a cookbook I highly recommend, with tons of other good stuff.  I browned the meat, put everything in the slow cooker, and headed off to work.  And sure enough, when I came back at the end of the day, it was chili, and the house smelled fantastic.

Let me head a few of you off at the pass here - I recognize that putting beans in my chili makes it not officially 'competition ready' chili.  I further recognize that ingredients such as cinnamon and brown sugar may seem strange in a classical chili recipe.  But I also recognize that up where I am, this far away from Texas, I can call practically anything with beef, tomatoes, and chile peppers a bowl of chili, and nobody's going to hogtie and brand me.

It's chili!  Be excited.

Slow Cooker Beef Chili

From a variety of sources, assembled by me

• 2 tablespoons olive oil -- (up to 3 tbsp)
• 2 pounds boneless chuck or round -- cut in 1" cubes
• 2 tbsp garlic, minced
• 3 cups coarsely chopped onion
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 dash crushed red pepper flakes
• Fresh chile peppers to taste (I used 2 serranos)
• 1 28 oz can tomatoes with juice, coarsely chopped, or 28 ounces plum tomatoes, peeled
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds, ground
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 3 inch stick cinnamon, halved
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 tbsp chile powder*
• 1½ tbsp brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1-2 cups cooked red kidney beans (optional)
• 2 tablespoons finely ground yellow cornmeal or tomato paste (optional)
• 1 cup tightly packed, minced fresh cilantro
• grated cheddar cheese, as a garnish (optional)
• sour cream, as a garnish (optional)
• finely chopped onions, as a garnish (optional)

*What is chile powder?  How is it different from chili powder?  Well, "chile" is Spanish for pepper (capsicum, not what you grind up and pass with salt) - think bell peppers and habaneros and such.  "Chile powder", therefore, refers to ground up chiles, nothing more.  "Chili powder", on the other hand, is a pre-mixed spice blend typically containing, among other things, cayenne, salt, pepper, cumin, and, strangely enough, chile powder.  To make chile powder, gather up your favorite dried chiles and put them in a coffee grinder.  I recommend pasilla, guajillo, and ancho peppers, all of which can be found at Latin markets.

Trim meat of excess fat.  If you're using fresh tomatoes like me, slice a small 'x' in the top of each one and plunge into boiling water for 60 seconds, then immediately into ice water.  Then just peel the skins off!

To peel a tomato, slice an 'x' into the bottom of a tomato and boil for 1 minute...

...then immediately plunge into ice water.  See how the skins fall off?

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy skillet (preferably cast iron).  Over medium-high heat, brown the meat in 2-3 batches.  Remove to a platter and set aside.  Do NOT attempt to brown all of the meat at once; I have re-enacted this mistake for your benefit, and include a photo showing you exactly why you shouldn't.

This would be an appropriate amount of meat to brown at once

This is too much meat.  Do you see all of that liquid boiling under the meat?  Guess what - you're now steaming your meat, not searing it.  Not to mention that all of that delicious meaty goodness is escaping from the meat rather than being 'sealed in', a misnomer but still the easiest way to explain what you want.

Adding more oil if necessary, saute the garlic, onions, green pepper, and hot pepper (if desired) for 3 minutes, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add the browned meat and aromatics to the slow cooker and add the tomatoes and beef broth, pouring some of the liquid first in the sauté skillet to deglaze and get all the juicy bits off the bottom if separate pan was used in first step.  Stir in the spices and salt.  Put the chili on low, and cook for 6-8 hours.

Serrano peppers before mincing.  I use a spoon to remove the seeds and membrane, which is where the heat is concentrated.  Did you know you can take the membrane out of a habanero and it's mild enough to eat with ice cream?

Chile powder.  It's just chiles - no other spices.  You're thinking of chili powder.  Don't mix those up.

Vegetables being sauteed before adding to the slow cooker.  This is mostly to lift the browned meat bits off of the pan.

Once everything's already been mostly cooked, go ahead and finish it in the slow cooker for another 6-8 hours.  This old guy behaved like a champion - perfectly tender in 6 hours on low.

Test the beef for doneness.  If it is not sufficiently tender, crank the heat to high and cook for another 30-45 minutes.  When done, remove the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks.  Stir in the kidney beans (if desired) and cilantro.  If the chili is too thin, gradually whisk in the cornmeal or tomato paste until thickened.

You can garnish this however you like, but I like cheddar cheese, cilantro, sour cream, and raw onions.

Slow-cooked chili, garnished simply with cheese and onions

Spicy Black Bean Soup, or Beans: Nature's Digestive Nightmare

I'm not sure what it is about black bean soup, but my dad and I both seem to really enjoy it.  Maybe because we're Italian and it's a latin thing, or maybe because it's rich, fairly healthy, and not overly pungent.  A good black bean soup, to me, has a nice backbone of garlic and spices, but isn't overwhelming in any way.  It's served warm but not hot, and it's not pushy what you do with it - you can eat it as a dish or as a side.  It just exists to make you happy, which this recipe did for me.

I found a recipe for a basic black bean soup, but it called for canned beans.  And I wanted to start from scratch, using staples common to latin america that I knew I could keep for a while and pull out of storage at a moment's notice down the road.  So I made my version from dried beans, which requires some advance planning.  It also calls for cooking the beans with kombu, a form of kelp seen most commonly in recipes for dashi, which is the base for miso soup.  Kelp is one of the main culinary sources of glutamic acid (related to MSG, the condiment we all love to hate), and plays a strong part in the history of the word "umami", which many food lovers have been hearing a lot recently.  Cooking beans with the kombu will leach out some of the glutamines from the seaweed, and will give your vegetarian soup additional savoury notes without having to add chicken broth.

Now, as some of you may know, beans often pack a hidden surprise with them, in the form of awkward moments for you and your company a few hours after dining.  This is because beans contain a large amount of oligosaccharides, which are chains of roughly 2 to 10 simple sugars (such as glucose and fructose).  The human digestive track doesn't typically contain many (if any) anti-oligosaccharide enzymes, but the intestines do.  So guess what?  When those complex sugars find their way to the intestine, it's like Cinco De Mayo down there for your intestinal bacteria, and they just go to town.  And if you've ever made beer or bread before, you know that multiplying, festive bacteria create gas, and hopefully you can figure out what happens next.

Why We Should Keep Eating Beans

Fortunately for us, mankind recognized five things about beans a long time ago:

1. Beans are really healthy for you, containing high amounts of fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates, folate, and iron.  Along with lentils, they should be a staple in every vegetarian's diet, providing many of the necessary amino acid constituents that are otherwise hard to find in most vegetables.
2. If you eat a lot of beans, you can actually condition your body to break down their complex sugars.  It's a tough love campaign, but it will happen.
3. There are ways to cook beans that can remove a number of these complex sugars.  More on this shortly.
4. There are natural and man-made products to help with your crippling, post-bean gas.  These include products like Beano, and herbs that fall under the category of "carminatives", meaning prevent formation or they facilitate expulsion of gas.  This includes epazote, cumin, coriander, anise, and even pepper.  Side note - the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has decreed that "carminative" is his favorite word.  I'm not making this up.
5. Maybe it's worth it to just eat the beans and deal with the hand you are dealt afterwards.  Because, like my mom always said, "when life gives you lemons, just shut up and eat your damn lemons."

So How Should I Cook Beans so My Dog Will Stop Trying to Crawl Under the House After Dinner?

You may have heard a number of methods - soak them, soak them in distilled water, boil them for an hour, soak them AND pre-boil them, spin them in a bag over your head while throwing chicken bones on the floor and chanting, and so forth.  So I figured the best way to lay this one to bed was with actual, no-kidding data collected by Turkish researchers and published in the Pakistan Journal of Nutrition (where apparently this kind of thing is relevant).

In "The Effect of Soaking and Cooking on the Oligosaccharide Content of Sekera Dry Bean Variety (P. vulgaris, L) Grown in Turkey", by I. G. Sat and F. Keles, Pak. J. Nutrit. 1 (5): 206-208, 2002, many of the methods above are compared in terms of initial and final oligosaccharide content.  This included raw and soaking over a variety of lengths of time, cooking for different lengths, and cooking with or without a pressure cooker.  And here's the final breakdown, ranked from the most gas to the least:

Bean Gassiness Levels, Highest to Lowest

• Raw
• Cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min
• Soaked in distilled water 12 hr and cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Soaked in distilled water 18 hr and cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Soaked in 0.5% NaHCO3 (baking soda) solution 12 hr and cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Soaked in 0.5% NaHCO3 solution 18 hr and cooked in boiling water (60 min)
• Soaked in distilled water 12 hr and pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min
• Soaked in distilled water 18 hr and pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min
• Soaked in 0.5% NaHCO3 solution 12 hr and pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min
• Soaked in 0.5% NaHCO3 solution 18 hr and pressurized cooking (121 C, 15psi) for 30 min

So clearly, the best solution to reduce the gas-causing sugar content is to do EVERYTHING, which I'm not prepared to do.  They go on to say that soaking in the alkali solution may destroy B vitamins, and propose using tap water as a good compromise.  So I'm prepared to use my pressure cooker after having soaked the beans for 12 hours, which I consider to be a fair compromise.  By the way, if any budding scientists read this and thought "how the heck can I boil something at 121 C?" since water boils at exactly 100 C, well, that's the magic of cooking under pressure!

That was a lot of science.  Let's go through a recipe and make it worth your while.

Spicy Black Bean Soup

This one's all me, baby - a Frankenstein recipe from many places

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped red onion
• 1 4-ounce can diced mild green chilies
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeño chili with seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 1-pound bag black beans, soaked overnight in cold water
• 1 4"x8" piece of kombu kelp (found at asian grocery stores)
• 2 cups canned low-salt vegetable broth
• ½ cup red wine
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 lime
• 8 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• Sour cream
• Tortilla strips / chips, or corn tortillas and enough oil to fry them

If you're soaking your beans, put them in a large bowl of cold tap water.  Soak for 12-18 hours as directed by the Turkish folks above.  Then DRAIN this water - don't use it, or you're just going to end up with the same result as if you hadn't soaked them.

The soaked beans in the pressure cooker, along with the kombu for some extra flavor enhancement

Now place your beans and the kombu in a pressure cooker, bring to temperature, and cook for approximately 30 minutes.  The first few times you do this, err on the side of overcooked, but you can gradually reduce this if your beans start falling apart because they're overcooked.  You want them to have some bite, but not dissolve completely (unless you're into that sort of thing).

The beans after they've cooked for 30 minutes.  Check them to make sure they're cooked through; if not, boil for a few minutes

While beans are cooking, heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, green chilies, garlic, jalapeño, and cumin. Sauté until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Have this mixture at the ready. 

How could these ingredients possibly do you wrong?

Once beans are cooked through, remove the kombu, and add the mixture from the pan to the bean pot along with the broth, tomato, and wine. Bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer (not under pressure) until the flavors blend, about 15 minutes. Puree 3 cups soup in batches in blender. Return puree to same pot. 

If you want to get really fancy, take some corn tortillas and cut them in strips, then fry them in a little canola oil for 30 seconds and drain on paper towels.  Use these as a garnish - they make a world of difference and add some class to your soup.

Fried corn tortillas, as a garnish

Add 6 tablespoons chopped cilantro to the soup, season to taste with salt and pepper, and squeeze in lime juice.  Ladle soup into bowls. Top with dollop of sour cream, tortilla strips, and remaining 2 tablespoons cilantro.

Black bean soup, sans gas-causing sugars, garnished as I saw fit

Caramelized Onion and Horseradish Pork Sandwiches

As I mentioned in another post, I had a stack of recipes calling for leftover roasted pork loin, and this one sounded like the most savoury of the lot. So after doubling up on the meat to have enough to get me through my leftover experiment, I went ahead and attempted this sandwich recipe.  This calls for caramelizing onions, which is not always an easy task.  The trick is to cook over low heat for a long time, so you don't end up with fajita-style onions that are charred.  You want to get the sugars in the onion to caramelize without burning.  Believe me when I tell you that this requires patience, but that it is worth the effort.

Do yourself a favor on this one - go find good bread.  There's no point in caramelizing onions for an hour if you're going to use Wonder bread.  Though I suppose they're going bankrupt anyway, so maybe when you find this recipe you won't even know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, a good crusty French boule or Italian loaf will do the trick.

Serve with something fried, like these mushrooms, and send your taste buds on vacation

Caramelized Onion and Horseradish Pork Sandwiches

from Cooking Light, September 2004

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cups vertically sliced onion (about 1 1/4 pounds)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream
• 2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
• 1 (8-ounce) loaf French bread, halved lengthwise
• 1 cup torn red leaf lettuce leaves
• 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced roasted pork loin (about 8 ounces)

This gives you a feel for how thinly I sliced the onions - about 1/4"

A pork loin, going out with dignity - by way of the electric knife

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Not high, probably not low either but it's too late now. Add onion and next 6 ingredients (through garlic) to pan; cook 30 minutes or until onions are golden, stirring occasionally. This took me an hour of careful monitoring, but if you're really good I bet you can do it in 30. See my time lapse photos below to get a feel for what's going on.  Remove from heat; let cool.

Let's take a journey through caramelizing these bad boys.  This is about 2 minutes in.

14 minutes in.  Keep stirring!

27 minutes in.  Things should start sticking a bit more by now, so you need to keep monitoring.

52 minutes in.  Probably could have stopped by now, but I was still cooking so I let them go a bit more.

59 minutes after starting.  No black bits in the onions = win.

Toast the sliced bread. Warm sliced pork loin if you prefer a hot sandwich. Combine sour cream, mayonnaise, and horseradish; spread evenly over cut side of bottom half of bread. Arrange lettuce (I omitted this - too healthy) over the now mayonnaise-laden bread half (the mayo will prevent the bread from getting soggy). Arrange onions and roasted pork over lettuce. Top with other half of bread. Cut stuffed loaf into 4 pieces and serve.  If you want to get really crazy, add some gruyere cheese and feel your arteries clog in one last meat- and cheese-laden blowout.  Imagine a ham and cheese sandwich on steroids, because that's what you'll end up with.

Roast Pork Loin with Shiitake and Leek Compote

I found a recipe allowing me to repurpose a single roasted pork loin dish into five other good sounding recipes, but the basic pork dish didn't sound like a winner.  So I went digging around until I found a good starting point that I would want to actually try.  This dish consists of a pork loin seared and roasted over a bed of leeks and mushrooms, fairly simple to prepare and loaded with flavor.  Plus, the pork is mildly flavored on its own, so you can use it for other dishes afterwards as you see fit.

The roast before boiling down the compote

Roast Pork Loin with Shiitake and Leek Compote
Gourmet, January 1995

• 1 large leek (white and pale green parts only)
• 1-pound center-cut boneless pork loin (mine was about 2 pounds, but I used it for other things afterwards)
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter or olive oil
• 1/2 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded, caps cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• Garnish: fresh parsley sprigs

The setup.  I found shiitakes at an asian grocery store for much cheaper than the megamart

Cut leek crosswise into 1/2-inch slices and in a bowl soak in water to cover, agitating occasionally to dislodge any sand, 5 minutes. Lift leek out of water and drain in a colander.

Leeks are notoriously dirty.  Don't skip the step of soaking them, and then lift them out instead of dumping them out (the dirt will have sunk to the bottom of the bowl)

Trim any fat from pork. Season pork with salt and pepper and pat with 1 tablespoon chopped parsley. In a 10-inch oven-proof non-stick or cast-iron skillet heat butter or oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and brown pork loin, turning it. Transfer pork to a plate.

Brown the pork loin.  Cast iron helps hold the heat for this.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

In fat remaining in skillet cook mushrooms and leek with salt over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add wine and broth and bring to a boil. Put pork on vegetables in skillet and roast in middle of oven 40 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted in center of pork registers 160°F.

Mushrooms and leeks before cooking

Mushrooms and leeks, after cooking.  Again, I highly recommend cast iron on this, or else they might stick/burn or require a ton of oil

Transfer pork to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes. If vegetable compote is too thin, cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until almost all liquid is evaporated. Stir remaining teaspoon chopped parsley into compote.

Pork and leek compote, served here with roasted vegetables

Slice pork thin and serve, garnished with parsley, with compote.

Mushroom Bolognese

This dish is an interesting twist on a standard bolognese, which is usually made with beef.  Don't be fooled - this isn't even a vegetarian recipe.  It's got ground pork, rendering it unsafe for both vegetarians and people keeping kosher.  I consider it a gateway dish to a carnivorous lifestyle - take the meaty flavor of mushrooms, and introduce some pork in there.  Kind of like using electronic cigarettes to get started on smoking.  Anyway, it's another recipe poached from Cooking Light, so at least it's fairly healthy.  Having a food processor will save you a few minutes; using a meat grinder instead of just buying ground pork will add them back.  And of course, since I refuse to learn my lesson, making your own pasta will tack on another hour or two.

Mushroom (and pork) bolognese

Mushroom Bolognese
from Cooking Light, October 2010

• 1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms (I used a mix of wild mushrooms)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 8 cups finely chopped cremini mushrooms (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup white wine (I use dry vermouth)
• 1 (14-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 10 ounces uncooked whole-wheat spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Combine porcini and boiling water in a bowl; cover and let stand 20 minutes or until soft. Drain porcini in a colander lined with a paper towel over a bowl, reserving liquid. Rinse and chop porcini. Chop your button mushrooms and onions separately, and have everything ready.

Still looking for opportunities to use the food processor.  I got an uneven cut on these, but it worked out okay

This is the bulk of what you need to make this dish, plus some tomatoes, wine, and milk

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and pork; cook 10 minutes or until pork is browned, stirring to crumble pork. Add cremini mushrooms, garlic, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook 15 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring occasionally. Add porcini; cook 1 minute. Add tomato paste; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add reserved porcini liquid and wine; cook 1 minute, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking up tomatoes as necessary. Stir in milk; cook 2 minutes.

Brown the meat.  I might use cast iron next time

After cooking the button mushrooms, add the chopped rehydrated porcini.  I used a mix of wild mushrooms

The mixture, after simmering for 30 minutes but before adding the milk

Cook pasta according to package directions, adding 1 tablespoon salt to cooking water. Drain. Toss pasta with sauce; top with cheese and parsley.

P. F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I'm pretty sure that the lettuce wraps at P.F. Chang's put them on the map.  Not only are they awesome, but they're an interesting way to convince people that iceberg lettuce has any value in this world (yeah, I went there).  So naturally, rather than having to put on pants to enjoy lettuce wraps, I've been attempting to live the dream at home over multiple attempts at a copycat recipe.  Well folks, I think I've got it.  Close your eyes, imagine you're sitting at an exotic Chinese restaurant near a giant brass horse and staffed by surly white teenagers, and you won't know that you're not at Chang's.

Lettuce wraps, the way they were meant to be experienced

P. F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps (copycat recipe)

from Food.com, modified slightly by me

• 1.5 tablespoons oil (canola and a little sesame)
• 1 boneless skinless chicken breast, diced or ground
• 1/2 cup water chestnuts
• 1/3 cup mushrooms (I used button mushrooms)
• 1/4 yellow onion, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4-5 leaves iceberg lettuce (I used Boston bibb lettuce)

'Special' Sauce

• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sriracha
• 1/2 tablespoon hot mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon hot water

Stir Fry Sauce

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.  Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.  Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.  Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.  Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

Dice the onions, water chestnuts, and mushrooms.  Or, if you have one, pulse the onions and garlic until the onions are at a medium chop, then add the mushrooms and water chestnuts and pulse a few more times to get everything to the right size.  Dice the chicken, or use ground chicken if you can find it.  I spun mine through the food processor, but only because I just got it and have been desperately trying to use it for anything that will fit in there, such as overripe fruit, old Christmas ornaments, or expired credit cards.

Take that chicken for a spin in the food processor to save time

Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.  Stir-fry the chicken for 4 to 5 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove chicken from the pan and allow oil to heat again.  Keep oil hot in the pan, adding another drop if necessary.  Once the pan is hot again, add the chicken back in along with the garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms.  Add the stir fry sauce and sauté the mixture for a couple minutes.

You don't even need a wok for this recipe - just sauté the chicken, then add in the vegetables and sauce.  It's pretty easy.

Just make sure to reheat the pan between the two steps, so you're not boiling the vegetables.

Immediately transfer to a serving plate along with the lettuce "cups".  If you want to get really fancy, you can fry some maifun rice stick noodles in hot oil as the bed for the noodles, but I tried this once and didn't have much luck.  Top with the "Special Sauce", and enjoy!

These were long gone before the steam was done coming off that plate

Artichoke Ravioli with Roasted Tomatoes

Since my recent food processor acquisition, I've been itching for excuses to try it out, and a ravioli filling seemed like a good idea at the time.  That's right, ravioli - the wonton of the Italian world.  For some reason I had been avoiding making ravioli for years, figuring it would take too long.  But I found a good sounding recipe, bought all my ingredients, and many hours later I had produced something moderately resembling ravioli.  Granted, it looked absolutely nothing like the pictures I saw online, but with a second pass I believe it can be tweaked significantly to improve the presentation.

The recipe was stolen and adapted from Gourmet magazine, but I have changed it per reviewer guidance after having made it, to include more filling, different flour, and adjustments to the cooking process.  If you want, you can use my earlier recipe for semi-semolina pasta, or you can just use this slightly different recipe, which worked just fine and had the right ratio of dough to filling.  See the end of the recipe for an interesting substitution.

Hey!  I make you the Ravioli!

Artichoke Ravioli with Roasted Tomatoes

Adapted heavily from Gourmet magazine

For the pasta:

• 1 1/2 cups semolina flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons water
• All-purpose flour, for dusting

For the filling:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 small onion, chopped (3/4 cup)
• 14 oz frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and patted dry
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 1.5 ounce finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 extra large egg yolk, or 2 medium
• 3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten with 2 teaspoons water (for egg wash)

For the assembly:

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 4 medium plum tomatoes, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 ounce finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/2 cup)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Tools for the job:

• Pasta roller (essential)
• Basting/pastry brush (essential)
• Food processor (recommended for dough, essential for filling)
• Ravioli crimper (optional)

Blend flour, eggs, salt, and water in a food processor until mixture just begins to form a ball, adding more water, drop by drop, if dough is too dry (dough should be firm and not sticky).  Process the dough for 15 seconds more to knead it.  Transfer to a floured surface and let stand, covered with an inverted bowl, 30 minutes to 1 hour to let the gluten relax and make rolling easier.

Getting the dough ready.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of the final dough, but I assure you it's quite boring to look at.

Heat butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté onion, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 6 minutes.  Add artichoke hearts and sauté, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes.  Add garlic cloves and saute with mixture for final 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Saute the artichokes with the onion and garlic, to go into the filling

Transfer all but 3/4 cup artichoke mixture to cleaned bowl of processor (reserve remaining artichoke mixture in skillet), then add cheese, parsley, red pepper flakes, yolk, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and pulse until mixture is coarsely chopped.

Cut pasta dough into 4 pieces, then flatten each piece into a rough rectangle and cover rectangles with an inverted large bowl.  Make sheets for ravioli following pasta roller instructions (setting #5 on Kitchenaid rollers).  What?  You don't have a pasta roller?  Well, why are you making this?!  When done, the dough will be a smooth sheet, approximately 24-30 inches long (that's 60-75 cm, for you crazy metric people).

The ravioli sheets, ready for my further pleasure

Put a sheet of dough on a floured work surface and drop 1 1/2-teaspoon (I'm done converting) mounds of filling 1 1/2 inches apart in a row down center of one half of sheet.  I'm not going to tell you how to make your ravioli - you can make them into circles, or squares, and make them small or large.  I made 8 per sheet, 4 by 2, cutting each sheet in half first so I could drape it over afterwards.  What I should have done was trim the edges down a little, because they were still so huge that each one took up most of my plate, with not enough filling out at the edges.  So I guess I might try circles next time, as the original recipe suggested.

Lay out the filling in a way that seems appropriate.  I went for 8 ravioli per sheet - you could do 6 circles, there's no magic here.

Brush egg wash around each mound, then fold other half of sheet over filling.  Press down firmly around each mound, forcing out air (air pockets increase the chance that ravioli will break during cooking.)  Cut pasta (between mounds) with cutter into 3-inch rounds, or squares, or whatever you want to do.  Line a large shallow baking pan with a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and dust towel with flour, then arrange ravioli in 1 layer in it.  I'll tell you what you shouldn't do - don't use a WET paper towel and let the ravioli sit too long.  Make more ravioli with remaining pasta dough, 1 sheet at a time, and remaining filling, transferring ravioli to lined pan.

Apply the egg white wash around the filling.  This will act as a glue for the layers

Drape the other half of each sheet over the top, press out the air, and crimp with a ravioli crimper (or a fork).

And now, some prep work: put an oven rack in middle position of the oven and preheat to 400 °F.  Lightly butter a large baking dish.  Bring a 6- to 8-quart pot of salted water to a boil. 
Roast the tomatoes on a sheet pan until softened, about 10 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 350 °F.

While tomatoes are roasting, add ravioli to boiling water.  Stir carefully to separate, and, adjusting heat to keep water at a gentle boil, cook until pasta is just tender, about 6 minutes.  Transfer with a slotted spoon to a colander.  Amazingly, while this dough will cook as fettuccine in about 2 minutes, it takes much longer when assembled in ravioli form, even when rolled just as thin.  So don't skimp on the cooking time, but don't overdo it either.

Boil your ravioli for 6 minutes.  Note the presence of wine to help this process along.  It IS Italian cooking, after all.

Transfer half of the ravioli to large baking dish and top with half of artichoke mixture, half of tomatoes, half of cream, and half of cheese.  Repeat with remaining ravioli, artichoke mixture, cream, and cheese.  Sprinkle with salt, and black pepper.

Layer your ravioli with the toppings and bake for 15 minutes.  You'll have to deconstruct this before plating - I might do single layers next time, and will update the recipe accordingly.

Bake, uncovered, until ravioli is heated through and cream is bubbling, about 15 minutes.  Serve by separating ravioli from each other and plating with artichoke and tomato mixture.  Garnish with black pepper and more fresh Parmesan cheese.

Tip: if you want to make your life REALLY easy, give up on making dough and just buy some wonton wrappers from an Asian grocery store.  They're almost exactly the same, and will buy you back an hour of your life.  Will anyone know the difference?  Probably not, unless they're fresh off the boat Italian, and they're not going to let you cook for them anyway.  Just take them to the Olive Garden where, if I understand the ad industry correctly, all Italian immigrants love to be taken.