August 2008 Archives

We've recently introduced two new categories here at Cook Local. The first, is the CSA category. We subscribed to a CSA this summer and we've been getting tasty local choice food boxes each week from Growing Washington. If you belong to a CSA (and especially if you belong to Growing Washington's CSA), these recipes feature ingredients that you will likely get in your weekly boxes.

The second category is for all those people out there who want to cook, but just don't have the patience or the confidence for a complicated recipe. The EASY category contains recipes that are just that. Easy. Some of them will have only a few ingredients, some of them will have more than a few. However, none of them will use a complicated technique, or require you to recognize when whipped cream is at the soft peak stage or force you to clarify butter or go through fifteen steps just to get ready to put something in the oven.

The EASY recipes are designed for people new to cooking or for people who just don't want to think much about cooking. The most we'll ask you to do in an easy recipe is chop up some stuff, cook meat until it isn't pink, set a kitchen timer, or stir a pot a few times. I've added a few recipes to this category already, but it might take me a week or so to go back through all of the recipes we've posted over the past couple of years and update them all. Keep checking back for new easy recipes.

This post goes out to the homies of mine who are 'too impatient' to cook.  You know who you are.  This recipe is the easiest thing in the world and needs only a Pyrex oven dish.  No measuring, no spoons, nothing.

I don't remember how I found this recipe.

I don't remember why I picked this recipe out of all the others on the page.

That said, I've made this recipe for many, many people.  Not one person has had a bad thing to say about it, unless you count 'My god, how many calories are *in this???*'

I have to admit, this recipe has never come out quite right since the first time I made it.  It comes out great, don't get me wrong, it just doesn't come out quite as well.  The first time, this dish had a lovely crust of cheese with no breaks and the bottom 1/8th inch of chicken was caramelized. 

But even with the 'not as good as the first time'-itis, this dish is excellent to share with friends, especially those you want to impress.  It is very 'fire-and-forget', makes you look like a good cook and will score you points.

Unless the person you're cooking for is trying to lose weight.  In which case, try the green beans with sausage.

But, otherwise....

Amazing Chicken

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Honey
• Butter
• Bread Crumbs
• Shredded cheese

You'll note there aren't any actual amounts for those ingredients, because the recipe is a bit.. vague. 

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Arrange chicken in a pyrex dish. I'd recommend lining it with tinfoil.  It'll clean more easily.
3. Melt some butter, mix in some honey and pour it over the chicken.
4. Cook for 30 minutes.
5. While it's cooking, melt some more butter, mix in some breadcrumbs.
6. Coat chicken with the butter/bread crumb mixture.
7. Cook for 20 minutes.
8. Cover with shredded cheese.
9. Cook for 10 minutes.

That's really it.

Type of honey?  Whatever you want.  We use agave nectar, which isn't local, but better for my blood sugar.

Type of bread crumbs?  I usually used italian style, but, this last time, I used home made bread crumbs made out of some emmer freezer rolls.

Type of cheese?  Whatever floats your boat.  So long as it's shredded and melts nicely.  I generally found that a normal shredded cheese bag was big enough, and the mexican blends very tasty.

I also highly recommend having a nice pile of rolls handy to sop up the drippings in the pan, aka Ambrosia Sauce.

And to that homie?  We expect you to invite us over for dinner and make this dish.  We'll bring a side and dessert.

If my Italian grandmother saw how I used to make Pesto, she'd probably wave a rolling pin at me! You see, like many people, I used to throw a bunch of basil leaves in a blender with some garlic and a few pine nuts, and then drizzle in some olive oil, all while blending and emulsifying to my heart's content.

There wasn't much wrong with this pesto. It was Fine. Easy. Plain. Most of all it was homogenous. This really isn't the way that most of Italy makes pesto. True pesto should not be blended, it should be crushed. You can make it with a mortar and pestle as they do in Italy, or you can use a chef's knife and finely chop the basil. Either way, the texture and flavor are very different from blended pesto.

This was my first attempt to make pesto without a blender and I admit, I wimped out at using the mortar and pestle. I stuffed a reusable bag full of fresh basil from the local farmers market booth (Growing Washington to be exact) and picked up some nice garlic from Anselmo Farms. After that I was on my way.

Fresh Pesto Without a Blender

• A bag of fresh, organic basil
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Pine Nuts
• Parmesan cheese (a block, not the cheap pre-grated stuff)

1. Get a large cutting board and lay out your basil. DON'T WASH IT! Fresh, organic basil will turn black and slimy if you wash it. Gently spin it in a salad spinner to remove any dust or dirt. Remove any large stems.
2. Use a chef's knife and chop the basil. You can do this with a rocking motion back and forth. This isn't the easiest skill to muster, but once you've got it, you've really got it. I reduced this big pile of basil to chopped in less than 7 minutes.
3. Set the basil aside and repeat the process for anywhere from 2 to 5 cloves of garlic depending on size and taste preference.
4. Chop a good handful of pine nuts (Note: These are optional).
5. Mix all of the chopped ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
6. Add olive oil. The amount is very personal, but I probably added a good quarter cup or more for 3 cups of basil leaves.
7. Using a microplane grater, grate the Parmesan cheese into the bowl, mixing as you go.
8. Throw in some sea salt to taste.
9. Serve as a topping for bread or crackers or over pasta.

Patricia's Notes: I really enjoyed this basil. Having the minced leaves be differing sizes really gave the pasta an authentic look. Taste the pesto after you mix it up. Some basil varieties have a subtle sweetness to them. Mine did not. Since I was craving that sweetness, I mixed in about a teaspoon of sugar right at the end and felt that really added to the flavor. Next time, I'll also add some crushed red pepper for a little heat.

A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, was complaining to me the other day. He watches a lot of Food Network TV and his complaint was that he could never make any of the recipes he saw on these shows because he didn't have twelve different types of pans, four whisks, parchment paper, three mixers, two blenders, ten different knives, and a corn cobber.

That got me thinking. What do I consider are the basics of home kitchen equipment? If you're going to be setting up a new kitchen, or have decided after years of takeout to finally start cooking, what do you need?

Well, here's a list from someone who cooks at least 5 days a week.

1. Kitchen-Aid Mixer: Yep. The big stand mixer. While you can get by with a hand mixer, the stand mixer will let you do a lot more without having to stand there holding the thing the whole time. I use mine to make cookies, bread dough, butter, whipped cream, and just about anything else that can be mixed.
2. Two good prep knives: All you really need are two knives. Your first knife should be a paring knife. Useful for cutting in a small space, like taking the tops off of peppers or tomatoes for stuffing. The second good knife should be a chef's knife. This can be used for cutting meat or veggies and is particularly good for mincing garlic and onions once you get your technique down. I made fresh pesto with it just tonight (look for that recipe tomorrow!).
3. A cheap bread knife: Sometimes you just need a serrated knife. If you're cutting bread or even cake, a serrated knife will cut very well.
4. Two cutting boards: Sure, you can get by with one, but really, it is a lot easier to have one to use for meat and one for veggies. Ours are inexpensive Ikea cutting boards that come in two colors. Red is for meat/chicken/fish and white is for veggies/breads/anything else. Wood is best, but plastic will do.
5. Wooden spoon: Plastic or metal are fine, but I like the feel of wood. It won't scratch your pots and pans, it can be used to scrape up little browned bits when deglazing, and it just looks classic. I love the fact that after you've used one for a while it gets a little discolored and "worn".
6. Measuring cups and spoons: No need to get all fancy here, although I'm partial to the angled measuring cup and the collapsible measuring cups and spoons. You do actually need both wet and dry measuring cups though. While you can use one type for everything, using a liquid measuring cup for dry ingredients can actually cause some inaccuracies in measurements.
7. Three types of pans. Non-stick pans are a lot easier to work with, but there have been some concerns lately about their safety. I still use mine, though I do need to do more research. If you choose non-stick for the soup pot and sauce pot, go with stainless steel for the skillet or fry pan. Why? So you can make sauces and reductions that utilize browned bits of just about anything. It is difficult to have the ability to deglaze a pan when the pan is non-stick.
1. Skillet or fry pan: Great for toasting nuts, omlettes, morels, or even a grilled cheese sandwich. If you get one that has a lid and is oven safe,
2. Soup pot: This one's pretty self explanatory. Soup. Get at least 5-6 quarts.
3. Sauce pot: Again, pretty self explanatory, although a 2 qt sauce pot can also be used to steam vegetables and boil pasta.
8. Two large prep bowls: If you're making cookies, you'll need a bowl for the wet ingredients and a bowl for the dry ingredients. Don't bother with smaller prep bowls unless you want everything to match well, just use your serving bowls for smaller things like egg whites or yogurt.
9. Cookie Sheet: The air-pocket cookie sheets are all the rage, but while they are a great idea in theory, they just don't work out very well. Then get water in them quite easily and once that happens, when you put them in the oven, they will actually distend while cooking. Just get a cheap cookie sheet. If you end up replacing it in three years, you're only out $7 or $8 dollars.
10. Pyrex or Baking Dish: You can use glass or stoneware, but a baking dish will let you make fish, chicken, or vegetables in the oven. A small square one is perfect for one person, but for a family, go for a larger one. Many come with lids, so that can double as a storage dish.
11. Cooling Rack: Whether you're making bread or cookies, a cooling rack is a lot of help.
12. Trivet: Otherwise known as a hot pad. Something you can set on the counter under a hot dish.
13. Pot Holders: Yes, this seems self-explanatory, but get a few. If they get wet, they don't insulate as well from the heat, so you'll need a backup.
14. Instant Read Thermometer: It doesn't have to be digital, or the remote type that you can leave in the meat. But a cheap instant read thermometer will help you determine whether your steak is rare, medium, or well done (or raw).
15. Fire Extinguisher: Get one rated for kitchen fires (aka grease fires). No matter how good of a cook you are, I will wager that at some point in your life, you'll set something in the kitchen on fire. I know I have. Whether you turn on the wrong burner, let something go too long, or get a dish towel just a little too close to the stove, it will happen. Kitchen fires can spread quickly, so have the extinguisher somewhere handy and check the expiration date every year, probably when you check your smoke detectors.

Next week I'll go into some of the more specialty tools that you might want if you're moving on from some basic recipes to more advanced things like pureed soups, sauces, and souffles.

...

My wonderful husband has taken over the keyboard to add the following four items, although you won't be able to get them in a store...

1. A measure of patience.  Cooking takes time.  Even the best of recipes won't be immediate.  Trust me, you'll want this.
2. A sense of adventure.  The joy of cooking isn't just in making what you know how to make, it is in discovering new and wonderful things to cook and bake.  Be ready to jump out of your element and make something new and different.  Which leads to...
3. A sense of humor.  You will fail.  I fail.  My beautiful and talented wife, excellent cook that she is, fails.  It happens.  Be ready to laugh at those failures and, if they are totally and complete inedible....
4. The phone number to your favorite delivery restaurant and their menu.  Because when you fail, you probably won't feel like cooking something else.  Unless, of course, it was only part of the meal that you failed at.  But you know what I mean.

 For the past few weeks, we've been receiving absolutely delightful wax beans in our Growing Washington CSA box. I love fresh wax beans, in all colors (purple, green, and yellow recently). Usually I'll just steam them and serve them with a little butter, but John wanted something with a bit more kick the other night and so he found this delightful recipe from The Inquisitive Palate. We were  actually able to make this recipe completely local except for the ginger root and the salt and pepper, though we had to adapt it slightly.

Even if you follow the recipe to the letter, however, you can still come out ahead on the local scale since the majority of the ingredients are available from local farms and producers. Let's see what we need.

• 1 pound fresh wax beans: We got ours from Growing Washington, but they are available at any number of farm stands at the Seattle Farmers Markets.
• 4 ounces pork sausage: We splurged and bought Mangalitsa ground pork. You can use Skagit River Ranch's pork as well, or pork from Sea Breeze, but really, the Mangalitsa does have an amazing flavor.
• 3 scallions: These came from Growing Washington as well.
• 5 cloves of garlic: We got these from Anselmo Farms.
• 2-3 teaspoons of ginger root: This came from the grocery store and probably from Mexico.
• Hazelnut Oil: We get our hazelnut oil from Holmquists. The original recipe called for peanut oil though, which would also work very well.
• 10 dried chili peppers: One of the local farms last year sold bags of dried peppers. We bought several and have been using them up all winter and spring.
• 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns: The original recipe called for China Szechuan peppercorns, but we just used green peppercorns from the store.
• 1/4 cup dry Sherry: This wasn't local at all, though we left it out the first two times we made it and I'm not sure the dish really needed it.
• Salt

So, now that you know all about the ingredients, on to the recipe!

Trim the tops of the wax beans and if they are long, cut them in half.

Cut the scallions diagonally in one inch pieces.

Slice the garlic cloves and mince the ginger.

Cut the tops off of the chilies and if you don't like much heat, remove the seeds. I don't usually because this dish is really best when it is very spicy.

In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the wax beans and cook until the beans have started to caramelize and brown in spots. Remove the beans with a slotted spoon and add just a tad bit more oil.

Reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic and ginger root and stir for a good solid minute. You'll know how long to cook them because the aroma they give off will be amazing. Add the chilies and the peppercorns and cook for another minute.

Now add the ground pork and stir frequently, breaking up the pork into small bits and cooking it until all of the pink is gone.

Turn the heat back up to medium high and add the wax beans back into the mix, along with the Sherry (if you're using). Cook for a minute or two longer, just to heat up the beans and reduce any liquid in the pan. Season with salt and serve!

Our notes: You can really have this dish as a complete meal. You only need two dishes, a cutting board, a knife, and a cooking spoon. Cook in the wok and have a large serving bowl ready to hold the beans while you are cooking the pork and then use that same dish for serving. If you are using Mangalitsa or Skagit River Ranch pork, you won't have a lot of fat and the fat you have will be healthier for you than the fat from the pork you get in the grocery store. So even though this dish is a bit greasy, it isn't at all heavy. Serve this with some crusty bread.

Years ago, before John, before farmers markets, and before food writing, I thought a pig was a pig. Pork chops, ground pork, sausage, tenderloin... it's all pig. And one pig is much the same as any other pig, right?

Nope.

First of all, you've got pastured pigs. Skagit River Ranch is our go-to farm for just about every type of meat. Their cows, pigs, and chickens roam the farm, foraging. Only the chickens ever get grain, but that's just a small portion of their diet. They spend their days hunting and pecking for whatever pleases them.

Their cows are never fed grain. Ever. Not grain finished, not supplemented... absolutely none. Their pigs are "happy pigs". They eat a lot of veggies from their farm and in general are healthier than just about any pig you could ever find. I think I've commented before that many times a recipe will ask us to "drain the fat" and there's hardly ever any fat in the pan.

Mangalitsa pigs though, are a completely different breed. They are primarily from Hungary and the Balkans and are descended from wild boars. These pigs have a thick curly coat. They need a lot more room than most domestic pigs though, so they can be more expensive to keep. The meat is supposed to be some of the best pork in the world. Meat from Mangalitsa pigs has more than twice the amount of marbling that an average cut of pork has, and since the pigs are raised naturally, and humanely (meaning they are almost always outdoors, and are raised in a manner that does not require that they get hormones or antibiotics).

The place we bought our Mangalitsa pork from is a relatively new stand that showed up sometime last year at the University District Farmers Market. Wooly Pigs imported some of these Mangalitsa pigs and have been raising them the way they have been raised in Europe. Wooly Pigs even went to Austria to learn how to raise these pigs from the head of the Mangalitsa Pig Breeder's Association. They learned that there are actually two different ways to raise pigs: for roasting and for curing. Most farmers just raise pigs for roasting/cooking. Raising pigs for curing requires a much stricter level of control over the diet of the pigs.

Wooly Pigs has sold their meat to restaurants such as The Herbfarm and The French Laundry and recently they even sold some pigs to The Herbfarm so the restaurant can raise the pigs themselves for the ultimate level of control over the end product - their cured meat.

But this is a lot of text to just tell you that we bought some absolutely amazing ground pork for a recipe. Look for the recipe later tonight.

I'm actually getting tired of relying on my cookbooks. When you're a food writer as a side gig, you do a lot of cooking and you (I) can tend to get into a rut of relying on just a few of your favorite cookbooks for all of your recipes.

So lately we've tried to come up with our own recipes at least once or twice a month. So far we've been pretty successful. In fact, I'd say that the majority of recipes you'll see here over the next couple of weeks will actually be our own creations.

Tomatoes have been ripe and ready at the farmers markets for the past few weeks. One of our favorite vendors sells tomatoes easily the size of a coffee mug. They're HUGE! The first picture is actually one of the smaller tomatoes I've seen there and it's almost the size of my hand!

After staring at them for a few weeks, we decided to try to stuff them. We've experimented with stuffed peppers a few times. The stuffed cherry bombs worked out great, but stuffing a pepper with much other than cheese (or maybe bacon) just doesn't do it for us. So we figured, why not tomatoes?

We set about looking for a few other ingredients.

First, we went to Skagit River Ranch and got some hot Italian sausage.

Next, we picked up some purple peppers.

After that, some garlic and onions.

Lastly, we went over to one of the Artisan cheese vendors, Estrella Creamery. We picked up some provolone style cheese from them and we were on our way.

Then there is some chopping, some cooking, some stuffing, and some eating.

But since you'll probably want a little more info than that, here's what you'll need.

Stuffed Tomatoes a la Eddy

• 4 large tomatoes
• 3-4 hot Italian sausage
• 1-2 purple peppers
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium sweet onion
• 1/4 pound Provolone cheese

1. Use your GarlicZoom to mince the garlic.
2. Dice the onions and peppers.
3. Take the sausage out of its casing.
4. Cook in a large skillet until it is no longer pink. If you're using pastured pork, or are lucky enough to have Skagit River Ranch sausage, don't drain the fat - that is if you can even find fat. Otherwise, you might want to drain a little bit off.
5. Add the peppers, onions, and garlic and cook for another few minutes.
6. Remove from heat and cool slightly in a bowl.
7. With a paring knife, cut the top off of each tomato and hollow out as much of the inside as you can. Be careful not to cut through the skin, particularly on the bottom.
8. Take 4 slices of the provolone and reserve them.
9. Cube the rest of the cheese and mix in with the sausage mixture.
10. Stuff the tomatoes.
11. Grill them in a grill pan (or bake) for approximately 10-15 minutes.
12. Place the slices of provolone on top of the tomatoes and grill until the cheese has melted.

This recipe was a big success. Unlike stuffed peppers, which don't impart a lot of flavor to their stuffing and are generally extremely dry, these tomatoes were moist and incredibly flavorful. I don't even like to eat tomatoes in their whole, non-sauced form, and I think I ate every bite of both the tomato and the stuffing. I'm not sure what else could have made this recipe better. Next time I might add some minced hot peppers as well as the bell peppers (or maybe even instead of).

Last year I finally realized that I could no longer say I didn't like vegetables. However, I certainly didn't take my new found like of vegetables to any sort of extreme. It was a while before I found a squash recipe that I liked, and it took another full year before I managed to find a recipe that I liked that used what I think of as the worst, most vile, why-on-earth-did-anyone-ever-think-these-were-edible root vegetable ever: Beets.

Yet for as long as it took me to find a beet recipe I liked, somehow, now I can't get enough of them. Yes, really! I've been making beets once a week for the past month now! I have a bunch in my fridge right now that I've been dying to make all week.

I am convinced that one of the reasons that I've started to like beets is because the beets I've been using are from my amazing CSA: the Growing Washington's Local Choice Food Box.

We've been shopping at the farmers markets often enough that many of the farmers know us by name now. We've watched our meat vendor's daughter grow up before our eyes and have a great relationship with the Growing Washington folks. They work hard (a lot harder than I do certainly) and they are always a joy to talk to at the markets.

The beets we'll use today are chioggia beets. I chose these because they are supposed to be slightly more mild in flavor. I figure if I'm going to eat something that tastes like dirt, I want it to be the mildest dirt possible.

So, onto the recipe!

Step 1: Get yourself some beets. Any sort of beets will do, but the chioggia beets are nice and mild, though any sort of baby beets will be pretty sweet as well.

Step 2: Get yourself some other sort of root vegetable. Purple potatoes make a dramatic dish, as do turnips.

Step 3: Dice all of the vegetables. The more you hate beets, the smaller the pieces of beet should be.

Step 4: Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Step 5: Add the beets and whatever vegetables you've diced.

Step 6: Cook until the veggies have shrunk a bit and look a little crispy and caramelized.

Step 7: Eat.

You can season the mix while it's cooking. I've tried salt and pepper, which worked pretty well. Paprika was even better though. A little bit of bourbon would also be a nice addition while cooking. Whatever you add, you want it to be slightly sweet and possibly smoky to mesh with the sugar in the beets. Hey, don't look at me like that! Trust me, when cooked down enough, these beets are really SWEET!

Ok, so occasionally I'll get a piece of beet that is a little bigger than it should be and that piece still tastes a little like dirt. But overall, this is a fantastic recipe for a vegetable that so very often gets nothing but dirty looks.

I don't bake cookies very often. John can't eat a lot of them, and while I could always bring them to work, I just can't justify baking cookies repeatedly and only eating two or three of them (though I'm sure my coworkers would like it if I did). But for the past few weeks, I've been craving a really good cookie. You know... one of those melt in your mouth, ooey-gooey, soft and chewy, perfect cookies? The type that usually doesn't exist anywhere but in your mind? Well, I can now report that they exist and are almost ridiculously easy.

This recipe came from the New York Times. It has been getting rave reviews and has been posted on any cookie or dessert blog worth its salt. Since I want to be worth the new Murray River salt my dear husband just bought me, I need to post them too. This recipe isn't local, but it's amazingly tasty.

Chocolate Chip Cookies That Will Amaze Your Friends (from the New York Times)

• 2.5 sticks of butter
• 1.25 cups light brown sugar
• 1 cup PLUS 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups MINUS 2 Tbsp cake flour
• 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.25 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/5 tsp coarse salt
• 1/25 lbs semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Sea salt

1. In a stand mixer, combine the room temperature butter, the light brown sugar and the granulated sugar. Use the paddle attachment and cream everything until it's light and fluffy. You might have to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Add the vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, baking soda and baking powder, and salt with a whisk. You actually do want to use coarse or kosher salt. I know it sounds odd, but the coarse salt is part of what just makes this recipe perfect.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture. Do this in at least two batches otherwise the flour will end up EVERYWHERE!
6. Mix in the chips and transfer the dough to a bowl.
7. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours, but preferably 36 hours.
8. Now wait.

Dah-dah-dee-dah-dah-dah-dah... dah-dah-dee-dah-dah-dee-dah-dee-dah-dah.

Zzzzzzzzz.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Snoooooozzzzze.

Zzzzzzzzz.

Beep! Beep! Beep! COOKIES!

1. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it warm slightly on the counter.
2. After about 20 minutes, preheat the oven to 350.
3. Use an ice cream scoop and scoop out large balls of dough. You only want to put about 6 cookies on a silpat lined cookie sheet.
4. Sprinkle each of the cookies with cracked sea salt.
5. Bake for 15 minutes. The cookies won't look completely done, but trust me, they are.
6. Let the baked cookies cool for about 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer them to wire racks.
7. Repeat.

Now, at this point, you've probably tried one, yes? If not, I'm surprised. Very surprised. Hot cookies are one of life's greatest joys. However, these cookies aren't best when hot out of the oven. They're best at room temperature. Eat some yourself, bring some to work. Your coworkers will thank you. Again, and again, and again.