Veal Braised Meatball & Rice

Again, I'm trying to get the"meatball" right.  Not a triangle.  Not burnt.  Not overdone.  Not tough.  I went to my favorite cookbook, All About Braising by Molly Stevens and tried the Polpettone Braised in Tomato Sauce and it came out so beautifully.  Then, I took the braising liquid and made the Tomatoey Rice Pilaf on the next page which was even better.



Polpettone Braised in Tomato Sauce

Braising Sauce
3 Tbl unsalted butter
1 lg yellow onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 cups tomato juice
2 cups chicken stock

Meatballs
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk
3/4 whole-milk ricotta
1/4 cup Parmesean
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 large egg, beaten
s & p
1 1/2 lbs ground veal

1) Braising Sauce: Heat butter in large skillet over medium.  Add onion, celery, garlic and cook stirring until soft and translucent, not browned, about 10 minutes.  Season lightly with s & p.  Add bay leaf, tomato juice, and stock.  Simmer, stirring for 15-20 minutes.

2) During sauce simmer, make meatballs:  Combine bread crumbs and buttermilk in small bowl.  Stir to moisten and sit 5-10 minutes.  In medium bowl, combine ricotta, Parmesean, parsley, egg, s & p.  Add bread crumbs with buttermilk and stir until mixed.  Break off hunks of veal and gently knead the meat in to blend, don't overmix.

3) Shaping the meatballs: Using a 1/3 cup measure, scoop out veal mixture and shape into ball.  Arrange on a platter.

4) Braise: When sauce ready, reduce the heat to medium low and lower meatballs into skillet.  Spoon sauce over each, cover pan and low simmer.  After 20 minutes, turn meatballs and spoon sauce over.  Simmer for 35-45 more minutes.  Sit off heat for 5 minutes.

Tomatoey Rice Pilaf

About 1 cup leftover braising liquid
1 cup chicken broth
s & p
2 Tbl unsalted butter
1 cup long grain white rice

1)  Heat oven to 350.  Measure braising liquid and add enough stock/water to equal 2 cups.  Taste for S & p and season lightly.

2) Melt butter in a deep skillet or wide saucepan over medium heat.  Add rice, stir and saute until grains are coated with butter and you hear faint crackling sound, 2-3 minutes.

3) Pour in braising liquid and bring to simmer.  Cover tightly and slide into oven to bake until rice tender, 30-35 minutes.

4) Let sit, covered, for 5 minutes and stir before serving.



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Chocolate Pudding

I have no recollection where I got this recipe from, but I'd never made chocolate pudding and it seemed like a good idea.  Needless to say, it was a hit.


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Roast Chicken w Soy & Butter

How gorgeous does the skin look on this chicken?  And, yes, I ate a lot of it.  It was perfectly crispy on the outside and moist and yummy on the inside.  This has officially bumped by Maple-Cumin Roast Chicken as my new favorite.  It's from Saveur magazine as Christian Delouvrier's Roast Chicken with Herbed French Fries.  Warning:  It's a LOT of butter.


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Avocado Breakfast

How good does this look?  I'm on a mission to find various delivery vehicles for avocado for me and for Shelagh.  This is my favorite so far.  I thought eggs with black beans, cheddar, and avocado was the best.  Then, I thought that slighly warmed avocado in a lovely Tortilla soup was the way to do it.  Now, I'm sold with some delicious fresh bread lightly toasted, smeared with chunks of avocado, and topped with a lovely poached egg!  Had it 2 weekends in a row.

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Miso Romesco

Food and Wine does this "ingredient of the month" thing and in February, I think, they put the spotlight on Miso.  Whenever I see miso glazed on a menu, I order it.  It carmelizes so beautifully and is so especially good on fish.  I bought it to try some mediocre recipe and it's been in my frig.  I've had a feeling it could be used for so much and it lasts forever.  I figured I'd start with this romesco, which I used for pasta, of course, although I did have the cauliflower on the side at the same meal.  I ended up freezing the rest of the sauce.  It was very easy to make and froze nicely.


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Creamy Braised Parsnips w Sage

Oh, how I miss you, Everyday Food magazine...
Creamy Braised Parsnips with Sage came out lovely.  Just haven't had a lot of parsnips this year which is too bad.  Had a hard time finding them for this recipe for several weeks.  Worth it though!


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Pasta Carbonara

Have always wanted to and never made Pasta Carbonara.  Saw it in Saveur magazine, along with a "next day" type recipe to make it into a Spaghetti Pie, and decided to give it a whirl.  Super easy and everyone liked it (I had them at "bacon") although no leftovers for the 2nd recipe.


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Roasted Lemon Chicken, Spaetzle, & Dijon Brussel Sprouts

I don't really have recipes for this stuff.  The Spaetzle went over terribly.  It really wasn't good, but it's a heavy carb and was tossed in butter, so who am I to say no.  The dijon brussel sprouts were heavenly.  Usually I just saute them with onions and some salt, but the mustard + some butter was great.  The chicken was done stovetop in the cast iron and finished with lemon slices on top in the oven.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/11/dijon-braised-brussels-sprouts/

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Zucchine Ripiene (Stuffed Zucchini)

These came out delicious.  Saw them in Saveur magazine and had to try them.  They were easy and just as good on day 2 as the day I made them.  I did tweak a few things from the original recipe.  I used just chopped pancetta as I didn't have any prosciutto.  I used wheat instead of white bread.  Finally, I didn't have any fresh basil or parsley so I used dried parsley only.  I have a problem buying herbs.  I grow them in the summer so they are free.  In the Fall, the ones I want to use - rosemary, thyme, sage - are still growing so I'm all set.  By Winter, I'm pissed I have to buy them, in principal, yet not pissed enough to grow them inside where I actually would have to water them. 

Next time, I'd do this by cutting the zucchini length-wise and making "boats", I think.  This is the "before" shot.  The after had tomatoes over the top and between them, but that pic came out blurry.  Again, shitty iPhone 3 camera. 

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Escarole Soup

Needed to throw some healthy meals into our mix for the New Year.  Every Wednesday is Macaroni & Cheese night (sanity for me, happiness for the kids).  This Escarole Soup from Saveur Magazine was simple and came out so deep and flavorful.  I love escarole and this could definitely be made with or without the meatballs.  I only had 2/3 of a lb of beef so I made less meatballs and it was plenty.

Avocado Citrus Salad

I used the recipe from the current issue of Everyday food for Avocado Citrus Salad as the idea for the below salad, but I changed some things.  I used 2-3 clementines instead of an orange and a grapefruit (Joe doesn't like grapefruit).  I used sliced thin red onion instead of radishes and I added in cucumbers.  Also, I had some balsamic lime vinagrette from Gwyneth Paltrow's book that I used for dressing.  I just love the arugula + avocado + clementine combination.  I'm a very lazy salad preparer.  I love to eat salad and I hate to make it.  This was so good.  I'll make it again tonight probably since I have leftover avocado, washed arugula and dressing ready-made.


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Burgundy Mushrooms

I love the Pioneer Woman website/blog/cooking extravaganza.  Now she is on Food Network and so I watched her make Xmas dinner last week and was determined to make Burgundy Mushrooms.  Imagine cooking mushrooms for 9 hours!!!  Look how dark and rich these look???  They were heavenly and my house smelled so good all day.  I think they actually might have been a tad too rich (which takes a lot for me to say).  I halved the recipe and probably should have reduced the time - I did cut out the last 2 hours, but I should have cut more or just made the whole recipe.  We had these with Roast Beef and garlic-parmesean mashed potatoes last night. 


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Winter Veggies

I tried 2 new veggie recipes to try to plow through my leftover CSA December share vegetables.  Both were delicious!
From Everyday Food, this month I think, I started with Roasted Beets with Orange and Thyme. Very simple...I didn't have fresh thyme so I used dried.  Beets are definitely one of my favorite vegetables I've only tried recently.  Looking forward to more beet experimentation.


Glazing Vegetables - This was on the Saveur Magazine's "100 Favorite Things" this month.  It was a loose instruction which included the following steps:

1. Cut veggies uniformly and make a single layer in a saucepan
2. Add a few tablespoons of butter, some salt/pepper and a pinch of sugar.  Almost cover with water.
3. Lay a piece of parchment paper on top and simmer until the water cooks off, shaking pan now and then.  (Realizing right now that I also covered it with a lid...hmmm...wonder if this changed things). 

I combined carrots, parsnips, and turnips and these came out so rich and soft and delicious.  Butter is the elixir of life.


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Chicago Beef Stew

Back to food...I've been cooking the bare minimum home cooking to get us by through the holidays.  I'm back to meal planning and winter cooking (my favorite).  This beef stew was in the last month issue of InStyle.  Normally I wouldn't put much stock in a recipe from this magazine but it was from Stephanie Izzard, my favorite Top Chef contestant/winner.  I had high hopes but I also had a funny feeling that a beef stew with a set of sweet ingredients (fruit) wouldn't work for me.  It didn't.  It seemed off to me from the printed recipe through the stages of cooking.  Solid effort though. 


Look at all the fruit in here - it's a whole pineapple, an apple, and a pear.  I thought the apple/pear would be in there for their pectin to thicken things up a bit.  It was way too much though...the pineapple flavor overpowered all the other stronger flavors - wine, stock, worcestershire, fish sauce, balsamic, tomatoes, etc.  There was also 2 cups of apple cider.  Perhaps this set of flavors would have worked better with chicken?  I don't know...the proportions seemed off to me.



This is the dish with all ingredients added in prior to the big simmer step.  Seems off, but I was hoping a lot of the liquid would cook off and reduce so that it would look more like the picture in the magazine.  No online link.


This is the dish almost finished after 4 hours of simmering to break down the beef chuck. Does the liquid/non-beef proportion to beef seem way off? Of course the kids didn't like it either. They are thrilled that Wed is Mac & Cheese night to make up for this debacle.


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Potato, Kale & Sausage Soup

Had some Kale and Potatoes from the weekly share and love soup this time of year.  Searched real quick online and got a Food & Wine recipe for Potato, Kale, & Turkey Sausage soup.  Used chicken sausage and a little more broth than they stated and it came out nice.  Need some fresh bread for this to eat instead of the spaghetti at the school spaghetti dinner tonight (ew).




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Roast Chicken Diavolo

Everyday Food came out with a special issue this summer that was very much like the original magazine, but focused on seasonal summer food and cooking.  I made the Roast Chicken Diavolo the other night which called to spatchcock the chicken (remove the backbone, spread the chicken out and press down for faster cooking).  I had seen my mom do this with a chicken in a class I did with her last year and just hadn't done it myself yet.  It was easy to prep and much easier to cut up than a full roasted chicken.  The recipe I followed was pretty good, but I over salted the outside and couldn't eat the skin, which while disappointing was not the worst thing for me with my high cholesterol.  Recipe is not online yet, but here is what I did:

Roast Chicken Diavolo

• 1 Tbl finely chopped rosemary
• 1 Tbl finely chopped oregano
• 2 whole dried chiles de arbol (I skipped this)
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest + 1 Tbl lemon juice
• s & p
• 2 Tbl + 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 whole chicken
• 2 red peppers cut into 1/2 inch strips
• 1 lg yellow onion cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch wedges
• 1/2 cup dry white wine

1. Preheat oven to 425.  In small bowl, stir together rosemary, oregano, chiles, lemon zest and juice and pepper. 
2. Lightly coat a 9x13 baking dish with oil.  Place chicken in dish, skin side up.  Spread herb mixture over chicken and under skin of breast.  Season with salt and drizzle oil over it as well.
3. Roast chicken on upper rack, 10 minutes.  Meanwhile place peppers and onion on a baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tbl oil.  Toss to coat and arrange in a single layer.  Add s & p and put on middle rack. 
4. Add wine to chicken.  Roast 20 minutes.
5. Remove pans from oven.  Transfer veggies to pan with chicken arranging around bird.  Roast until skin is golden about 20 minutes.  Rest for 10 minutes. 

Braised Scallions & Braised Celery

I had to do something with the CSA celery and scallions I've had for awhile.  So, last week on my cooking extravaganza before the "hurricane", I went nuts cooking the veggies out of my frig.  Also, I had to clean the frig - it was disgusting in there.  The local farm celery was so fragrant and small, I wanted to cook it delicately and get the most flavor out of it.  I went to the old school Time/Life cooking series for Vegetables and found a recipe Stewed Celery, Michigan-Style.  If I hadn't waited so long to do something with the celery I think it would have been a little less tough.  The dish came out good either way.

 

 

Stewed Celery, Michigan-Style

• 2 large bunches celery
• salt
• 3 Tbl butter
• 6 scallions, trimmed and most of the green  parts removed
• 1 small garlic clove, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups chicken or beef stock
• pepper

1. Separate the celery ribs, then remove the tops.  Wash the ribs and cut into 3 inch lengths.  Throw celery into boiling water and cook, uncovered, for 3 minutes.
2. Bring stock to a boil. 
3. Melt butter in saucepan then add scallions, garlic, and celery. 
4. Pour in the stock and cook, covered, over low heat until veggies are quite tender (about 30 minutes), adding more stock if necessary.
5. When done, the stock should have cooked away entirely.  Season with salt before serving.

And, because the scallions came out so yummy in the celery dish, I did close to the same thing with the remaining, huge bunch of scallions I had as well.

 

 

Braised Scallions with Anchovy & Garlic

• Large bunch scallions, slice in half lengthwise if not of uniform size to others
salt
3 Tbl butter
1 small garlic clove, sliced thin
3 anchovy filets
1 1/4 cups chicken or beef stock

1. Melt butter in saucepan then add anchovies.  Saute until melted and broken down.
2. Add garlic and then add scallions after garlic is fragrant. 
3. Pour in the stock and cook, covered, over low heat until veggies are quite tender (about 15 minutes).
4. Season with salt before serving.

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"Whole Buttered" Onion Soup

 

From Rozanne Gold's Radically Simple book that I copied while at my mom's about a year ago...  Just made it yesterday while trying to cook through the veggies in my frig pre-hurricane.  I got a nice few hours in and made several new things.  This soup came out delicious!  I changed a few things.  I had 2 huge fresh white onions to make 1/2 the recipe.  I didn't have Madeira, so I used Marsala.  Finally, I had more pulp than thin soup, so instead of reserving the pulp to put on top I just mixed it all in.  My house smelled wonderful last night.
"Here's a radical new way to make onion soup. There's no slicing, dicing, or stirring. Instead, whole butered onion bake for 4 hours, oozing luscious juices that caramelize like toffee."

3 pounds medium yellow onions, about 10

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced thin
3 tablespoons Madeira
1-1/2 tablespoons wildflower honey or truffle honey
sprigs of fresh chervil for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Peel the onions. Place in a 6-quart Dutch oven. Top with the butter.
2. Cover and bake 4 hours, until very soft, turning the onions after 2 hours. Transfer to a large bowl.
3. Pour 4 cups water into the casserole and scrape up the browned bits. Add to the onions.
4. In 2 batches if necessary, puree the onion mixture in a food processor until very smooth. Pour through a sieve placed over a medium saucepan. Mash down to extract all the juices. Save the pulp.
5. Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the Madeira and honey. Simmer 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
6. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a dollop of onion pulp and chervil. Serves 4

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Braised Leek, Garlic Scape, and Camembert Pizza

What to do with Garlic Scapes?  Use them like scallions, I've read.  I had some leeks and camembert as well so pizza it is.  Made this a few nights ago after the kids went to bed before a dough I had went bad.  So delicious.  First, I sauteed the leeks in olive oil and butter and then braised them in chicken broth for a good 20 minutes.  Then, I assembled the pizza with pesto on the bottom, some mozzarella, the leeks, some camembert slices and sprinkled the top with chopped scapes and parmesean.  Bake for 10 minutes and TA-DA!  Delicious pizza for snacking while setting up my 20+ series passes on my new Verizon Fios system installed that day!  Good thing I wrote them down before we unplugged the old DVR.  Goodbye, TiVO.  I have loved you and will miss you.

Rhubarb Compote

What to do with 2 lbs of Rhubarb?  Well, you could make a pie or some strawberry rhubarb jam.  Or, you could chop it all up, throw it in a pot with some water and sugar and cook it down into a sauce.  And, then dip everything in it including the below pork chop.  Came out yummy and was lovely with the braised baby bok choy I had leftover from last week's CSA bag.  Which is good b/c I didn't make it in time to pick up this week's bag.  V. Annoying.