A SIMPLE TACO TO REMEMBER

Posted in Pizzas & Small Dishes, Pork by sallybr

December 14th will be forever tainted as one of the saddest days for the United States. Unspeakable tragedy, unbearable pain for all those involved in the shooting at Newtown. One full year has passed. Very little improvement in gun laws has been made. This is not a politically oriented blog, so I’ll leave it at that. But, it is up to each of us to never forget what happened and put pressure on Congress to act.

I would like to recommend a fantastic article from the Nicholas Kristof, “The Killer Who Supports Gun Control“. Thank you, Farine, for bringing it to my attention.

One of the boys whose life was cut short was so fond of tacos that he hoped to one day work in a “taco factory”. To celebrate his memory, I am sharing a recipe for a simple, but tasty taco today. This one is for you, Noah.

HOUSTON-STYLE CARNITAS
(adapted from Homesick Texan)

3 pounds of pork butt, with plenty of fat
1 cup of orange juice
juice of 1 lime
3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of salt

Cut pork into strips (three inches by one inch), add to a large pot with the liquids and salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered on low for 2 hours. Do not touch the meat.

After two hours, turn heat up to medium high, and continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the pork fat has rendered (about 45 minutes). Stir a few times, to keep pork from sticking to bottom of pan.

When pork has browned on both sides, it’s ready (there will be liquid fat in the pan). Serve either cubed or shredded (pork will be tender enough that just touching it will cause it to fall apart).

Serve it over rice or use it as a filling for tacos with your favorite toppings.
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Share it with someone you love…
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If you want to learn more about the lives of the children and adults who lost their life in December 14th, 2012, visit “My Sandy Hook Family”.
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The grown-up world has failed you horribly and still does.
(from Farine, in her letter to Noah, June 2013)

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11Dec2013

LIGHT RYE SOURDOUGH WITH CUMIN AND ORANGE

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Where are the virtual fireworks when I need them? After months of neglect, my sourdough starter was brought back to the kitchen! I actually tried baking bread once a few weeks ago, but when I attempted to revive the sourdough “chips” I had prepared, the resulting starter refused to cooperate: it was sluggish, slow, not at all vibrant. This time I went back to my frozen little balls of starter and they jumped right back into action. For my first bread made in the Supernova, I chose a recipe from TxFarmer, who runs two blogs, one in Chinese and another at The Fresh Loaf Forum. She is very creative and always pushes the boundaries of sourdough baking. Without further ado, this is the first bread born in the confines of our new oven…

LIGHT RYE SOURDOUGH WITH CUMIN AND ORANGE
(slightly adapted from TxFarmer’s recipe)

*Makes 1 X 700g loaf

Levain
68 g dark rye flour
54 g water
4 g rye starter at 100% hydration

Mix and rise at room temp for 12 to 16 hours.

Final Dough
386 g bread flour
9 g salt
grated orange peel from 1 large orange
fresh orange juice from 1 orange plus water to 245 g
1/2 Tbsp cumin powder
122 g levain mixture

Mix everything except for salt, autolyse for 40 min. Add salt and knead in a KitchenAid type mixer at medium speed for 4 minutes.

Bulk rise at room temp (~78F) for about 2.5hrs, with stretch and fold at 30, 60, and 90 minutes.

Pre-shape into a ball, let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then shape and place in a floured banneton for the final rise.

Proof until the dough springs back slowly when pressed. It took me 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Bake at 450F for 40 to 45 minutes, the first 25 minutes with steam. Let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This is a bread that screams for a bowl of chili, and that is exactly what I made on a Sunday afternoon. I used our favorite recipe that simmers on the stove top for hours, but we did not touch it until next day. That chili is good on the day it is made, but it turns into spectacular the day after. Plus, what can be better than arriving home from work on a chilly Monday, and have dinner basically ready and waiting for you?

TxFarmer description of this baby was spot on, by the way. The orange gives it a slight hint of sweetness, but the sourdough character of this bread is there. The cumin is the touch of genius that makes this loaf superb with a bowl of chili or any type of spicy stew. I could not have chosen a better loaf to inaugurate our Supernova!

I am submitting this post to Susan’s Yeastspotting…

ONE YEAR AGO: Homemade Calziones

TWO YEARS AGO: Plum-Glazed Duck Breasts

THREE YEARS AGO: Holiday Double-Decker

FOUR YEARS AGO: New York Deli Rye

9Dec2013

BRAISED FENNEL WITH SAFFRON AND TOMATO

Posted in Side dishes, Vegetarian-friendly, Veggies by sallybr

This side dish is elegant and luscious. Perfect to pair with chicken, pork or a mild fish like cod or sea bass. But, if you prefer to walk the vegetarian path, enjoy it over farro, barley, or as we did, a colorful quinoa. Add a hearty loaf of bread, and you will be all set…

The recipe is published in Vegetable Literacy the latest cookbook from Deborah Madison. Lisa from “Lisa is Cooking” wrote a great review about the book a few months ago, and shared a recipe from it, check it out by jumping here. Deborah Madison has the amazing ability of bringing the best out of the most humble vegetable. I do not own a copy of this particular book (bravely resisted so far), but her classic Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is part of our collection.

The recipe is available online, just click here.

Definitely the most important advice is to take the time to brown the fennel well, that will ensure a deeper flavor in the end. I don’t recommend this dish for those who have issues with fennel, because its flavor is very prominent. I crumbled goat cheese over the braise, allowing it to melt down in the liquid, and right before serving added the greens from the fennel, minced. As the recipe states, if your fennel bulbs came without the tops, use parsley instead. My main modification from the published recipe was to squeeze a little lemon juice all over, and reduce slightly the amount of tomato paste. I thought three tablespoons seemed excessive, so I added only two. Capers and saffron are fantastic together, by the way.

Because we have nothing against a little meat with our veggie goodness, a boneless, grilled chicken breast was part of our dinner too. As far as looks are concerned, I suppose a fully white quinoa would have been better, but the bag of tricolor quinoa acquired months ago at a Trader Joe’s was winking at me from the pantry. I spooned a little of the braising sauce over the chicken, so that it all got tied together in a beautiful caper & saffron glory!

Dinner is served!

ONE YEAR AGO: Revenge of the Two Derelicts

TWO YEARS AGO: Grilling Ribbons

THREE YEARS AGO: Peppery Cashew Crunch

FOUR YEARS AGO: Baked Shrimp and Feta Pasta

7Dec2013

A BLOG AWARD!

Posted in General by sallybr

Last week Mimi from “Chef Mimi” blog posted about several awards she’s received this year, and as she described her views on awards and the type of rules associated with each one, I found myself smiling and agreeing with her all the way… We do have quite similar views on the issue, and we both wrote posts clarifying them. You can take a look at my own views by clicking here. But, what I did not expect was that she nominated me for a super cool award, the Blog of the Year 2013, and handed me not one but three stars at once! Here is my badge, folks:

The instructions for this award are simple:

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2013’ Award

2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ the blog(s) with their award.

3 Let the blog(s) that you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them – (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges!)

4 Come over and say hello to the originator of the ‘Blog of the Year 2013’ Award via this link – http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/

5 You can now also join the ‘Blog of the Year’ Award Facebook page – click the link here https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear/ and share your blog posts with an even wider audience.

6 And as a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog … and start collecting stars…

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So, having shared all that, I will open an exception and pass this three-star award to one blogger, Sawsan from Chef in Disguise. She blogs from Jordan, and adds so much to the food blogosphere with her knowledge of cooking, her amazing photography, posts that are thoughtfully composed and go a lot deeper than simply sharing a recipe. I always look forward to a new post by Sawsan, and often wonder how a woman with a very busy life – she is a orthodontist and has two young kids – can find the time to compose such high quality posts. I don’t know how she feels about awards, and will totally understand if she prefers not to forward them, but this is just my little token of appreciation to a wonderful woman!

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And now, let me thank Mimi once more not so much for the award, but for her words about my blog, which meant a lot to me. Of course, stating that I have a “killer accent” did not hurt either. Every foreigner HATES his/her own accent, and I am not an exception, so a different perspective on it is more than welcome! 😉

6Dec2013

THE STORY OF MY FIRST CREME BRULLE

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

The year was 1991. I was in Paris (for the first time) all alone to take part of a workshop to launch the sequencing of the genome of Mycobacterium leprae. In those days sequencing the full genome of any organism was a daunting task, and I was thrilled to be a tiny part of that initial effort. I had two free weekends to explore the city. One sunny Saturday I walked for about 6 hours with a stop for lunch in a small bistrot. I asked for a gratin dauphinoise. Halfway through lunch, I bit into something very hard. It was a piece of broken glass that somehow found its way into the gratin! My French was rudimentary, but I felt I needed to inform the waitress because someone could get hurt from it. I did my best to communicate, and was absolutely non-confrontational. It is actually very hard to be confrontational if you are not fluent in a language, did you know that? Also impossible to tell a joke, so do not try that in French until you can read Proust without the help of a dictionary. 😉

The waitress was livid! She profusely apologized, offered to bring me another meal, but I told it was not necessary. She then said a bunch of things too quickly for me to comprehend, ended with a question that I also could not quite get, so I just smiled. I thought she was going to bring me the check and call it a day, but instead she came back with the owner of the bistrot, who asked if I had ever had crème brûlée. Crème quoi???? She opened a huge smile, went back to the kitchen, and returned with a tray. On the tray, a small dish, a bowl of sugar, and…. a blow torch! She caramelized the sugar right in front of me, filling the room with that unique aroma, and handing me the best dessert I had ever tasted in my 31 years of life! Unforgettable! And, they did not let me pay a single franc for anything!

Crème brûlée became my favorite dessert, I tried it at every opportunity since then, but they never quite matched my first encounter. There was something about hitting the exact proportion of sugar crust to the smooth custard underneath, or maybe it was just the full experience, the fear of speaking up about the glass in my food, and the unexpected reward… Who knows?

My version joins the French classic of my past with a Canadian-American flavor I’m quite fond of: maple syrup.

MAPLE CRÈME BRÛLÉE
(inspired by a recipe from Jacques Torres)

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 vanilla bean
1 whole egg
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
7 tablespoons maple syrup
Turbinado sugar to caramelize the top

Heat the oven to 325 F.Pour the heavy cream and half-and-half into a saucepan and place over medium heat. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and scrape the seeds from the skin, adding them to the simmering cream, together with the leftover bean.
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Scald the cream by heating it until bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan. Remove from the heat.In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole egg, egg yolks, maple syrup and sugar until well blended. Continue to whisk while slowly pouring the hot cream into the egg mixture and whisk until the mixture is smooth and homogenous in color. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the vanilla bean pieces and any pieces of cooked egg.
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Add the custard to ramekins filling them almost to the top. Bake in the heated oven inside a large baking pan with hot water coming up halfway up the sides of the molds. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Check after 35 minutes, the custard should tremble slightly when shaken, forming a little wave in the center of the ramekin, but not on the edges.Remove the molds from the water bath and place on a cooling rack for 30 minutes. Then refrigerate for 2 hours (or for to 3 days) before serving.

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At serving time, sprinkle each custard homogeneously with turbinado (or demerara) sugar, and caramelize with a torch. Alternatively, you can broil the surface, but be very careful not to melt the custard underneath the sugar crust. You can serve right away or refrigerate again.
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ENJOY!

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to print the recipe, click here

In 1991, I fell in love with Paris. The love only kept growing stronger.
Paris will always be my home away from home…