This is a reasonable approximation of the Garden Gimlet at Sea Salt. Of course, any suggestions for improvements would be welcome. Proportions for a single gimlet are as follows:
1 shot gin
1 shot basil syrup
juice from 1 lime
juice from 1/2 cucumber
some amount of ice
The basil syrup and the cucumber juice could probably use some further instructions, so here they are:
Basil Syrup
If you buy fresh basil at the supermarket, chances are you've had the experience of buying one of those big boxes of basil, using about a quarter of it, and having the rest go bad in your refrigerator. Instead, I suggest the following: take one cup of sugar, one cup of water, and whatever basil you have left over. Put them all in a pot and bring the whole mess to a boil until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let steep for about 30 minutes. Remove the basil. Ta-daaaa! Basil syrup.
Cucumber Juice
This is legitimately a pain unless you have some sort of fancy juicer. I don't, so I've only done this a couple times. Peel the cucumber and chop it into pieces. Put the pieces in your food processor and... process them... You want to turn the cucumber into mush. Once you have mush, strain it through a cheesecloth to get juice. There's got to be a better way, but so far I've been too lazy to figure out what it is.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Vegetarian Black Bean Chili
Largely cribbed from Deborah Madison's Green's Cookbook, but Deborah Madison is way more hard-core than I am, so she does things like make her own chili powder and peel tomatoes. I mean really. Peeling tomatoes? Who has the time? Also, I often forget the salt.
It seems that chipotle chilis come from a can. You do not want to use the entire contents of this can. Usually I'll open a can, take the chilis I need, and save the rest in the freezer in little plastic baggies. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll throw the leftover adobo sauce into the chili. Though you want to be careful. If you use the cayenne, a strong chili powder, spicy paprika, two chipotle chilis, and pour in the leftover adobo sauce, you get something quite hot. If you want a particularly mild version, use one chipotle chili and no cayenne.
2 cups black beans
1-3 bay leaves, depending on freshness
4 tsp cumin seeds
4 tsp oregano
4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 yellow onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced or squished through a garlic press--man I need a garlic press
1/2 tsp salt
1 28 oz can tomatoes
1-2 chipotle chiles, chopped
Soak the beans overnight. Or, if you're me and you've forgotten to soak them overnight, cover them by a couple inches with water, bring them up to a strong boil, then turn the heat off and let them sit for an hour while you chop the vegetables. Drain them and cover them with fresh water, this time adding the bay leaves, and bring them up to a gentle simmer. Check on them periodically to make sure they're still covered with water, and give them a stir to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Toast the cumin seeds in a sauce pan over medium heat. When they're starting to color a little bit, add the oregano. Shake the pan to keep the oregano from scorching. You're waiting for a strong smell that is not yet a burning smell. Note: this smell exists for about fifteen seconds before the oregano actually burns--you do not want the oregano to burn. Once the oregano is starting to smell, turn off the heat and add the paprika and cayenne, shake it all together in the pan for another few seconds, then dump it into a spice grinder (or coffee grinder) and give it four or five two-second pulses.
Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat and add the onions and the salt. Cook the onions until they stop tasting like raw onions. Raw onions are gross. Now add the chili powder, ground spices, and garlic and cook for another five minutes. Add the tomatoes and chipotle chilis, and if you have just opened a new can of chipotles, go ahead and throw in the adobo sauce. Simmer this mixture for another fifteen minutes. Then find some way to transfer this into the pot with the beans.
Continue to simmer the whole thing together until the beans are soft enough to be edible. The longer the chili simmers, the more the flavors combine and the better it will be. Deborah Madison suggests another hour or so, but you're probably pretty hungry by now, so let's compromise and call it fifteen minutes.
It seems that chipotle chilis come from a can. You do not want to use the entire contents of this can. Usually I'll open a can, take the chilis I need, and save the rest in the freezer in little plastic baggies. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll throw the leftover adobo sauce into the chili. Though you want to be careful. If you use the cayenne, a strong chili powder, spicy paprika, two chipotle chilis, and pour in the leftover adobo sauce, you get something quite hot. If you want a particularly mild version, use one chipotle chili and no cayenne.
2 cups black beans
1-3 bay leaves, depending on freshness
4 tsp cumin seeds
4 tsp oregano
4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 yellow onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced or squished through a garlic press--man I need a garlic press
1/2 tsp salt
1 28 oz can tomatoes
1-2 chipotle chiles, chopped
Soak the beans overnight. Or, if you're me and you've forgotten to soak them overnight, cover them by a couple inches with water, bring them up to a strong boil, then turn the heat off and let them sit for an hour while you chop the vegetables. Drain them and cover them with fresh water, this time adding the bay leaves, and bring them up to a gentle simmer. Check on them periodically to make sure they're still covered with water, and give them a stir to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Toast the cumin seeds in a sauce pan over medium heat. When they're starting to color a little bit, add the oregano. Shake the pan to keep the oregano from scorching. You're waiting for a strong smell that is not yet a burning smell. Note: this smell exists for about fifteen seconds before the oregano actually burns--you do not want the oregano to burn. Once the oregano is starting to smell, turn off the heat and add the paprika and cayenne, shake it all together in the pan for another few seconds, then dump it into a spice grinder (or coffee grinder) and give it four or five two-second pulses.
Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat and add the onions and the salt. Cook the onions until they stop tasting like raw onions. Raw onions are gross. Now add the chili powder, ground spices, and garlic and cook for another five minutes. Add the tomatoes and chipotle chilis, and if you have just opened a new can of chipotles, go ahead and throw in the adobo sauce. Simmer this mixture for another fifteen minutes. Then find some way to transfer this into the pot with the beans.
Continue to simmer the whole thing together until the beans are soft enough to be edible. The longer the chili simmers, the more the flavors combine and the better it will be. Deborah Madison suggests another hour or so, but you're probably pretty hungry by now, so let's compromise and call it fifteen minutes.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Bow Ties With Sausage, Beans, and Kale
The pasta, not the popular men's accessory, but feel free to make the substitution, and by all means let me know how it goes. This is largely Jeanne Kelley's recipe from http://www.cookinglight.com/, but I made a few edits. Among other things, her recipe called for canned cannellini beans. I'm sure that would work just fine, if I weren't a huge snob.
1 cup dried cannellini beans
1/2 lb bow tie pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped (I use yellow onions, because they are cheap)
1/2 lb hot Italian sausage (about 3 links), cut into bite-sized pieces
1/3 cup julienned sundried tomatoes
6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or half of one of Papa's little red chilis)
1 bunch kale
Soak the beans for at least four hours--I never remember to soak them overnight, but four hours will do it. Start water for the pasta and for the beans. Both need to cook for about fifteen minutes. If you time it just right, everything comes together at the end.
Heat the olive oil in an electric skillet. Add the onion, and cook until it starts to soften just a little bit. Add the sausage and sun dried tomatoes, and cook until the sausage is browned on all sides. Add the garlic and cook for one minute more, then add the chicken broth, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Add the kale, stir until it wilts in, and then cover and simmer for five more minutes, or until the kale is soft enough to eat. Add the pasta and beans and you're good to go.
1 cup dried cannellini beans
1/2 lb bow tie pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped (I use yellow onions, because they are cheap)
1/2 lb hot Italian sausage (about 3 links), cut into bite-sized pieces
1/3 cup julienned sundried tomatoes
6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or half of one of Papa's little red chilis)
1 bunch kale
Soak the beans for at least four hours--I never remember to soak them overnight, but four hours will do it. Start water for the pasta and for the beans. Both need to cook for about fifteen minutes. If you time it just right, everything comes together at the end.
Heat the olive oil in an electric skillet. Add the onion, and cook until it starts to soften just a little bit. Add the sausage and sun dried tomatoes, and cook until the sausage is browned on all sides. Add the garlic and cook for one minute more, then add the chicken broth, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Add the kale, stir until it wilts in, and then cover and simmer for five more minutes, or until the kale is soft enough to eat. Add the pasta and beans and you're good to go.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Chicken à la King
Nothing special about this. More solids than most cookbook versions. Check them out if you just want sauce with the occasional chicken morsel. Sort of like Chicken and Mushroom Bisque.
1-2 tbsp. butter
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper or 1/4 cup pimientos, chopped
Serve over rice. I won't judge you if you want to impress somebody by using puff pastry. Toast is also OK, particularly for leftovers. Noodles too, but don't push it, huh?
I'm assuming you have leftover chicken. If you do, compare yours to the amount here and adjust the other amounts accordingly. If you're planning to make this starting with raw chicken...um, I don't know, I never have. Cook it first, I guess.
1-2 tbsp. butter
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper or 1/4 cup pimientos, chopped
2 tbsp. butter (see note below)
3 tbsp. flour
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 - 1/2 cup cream
1-2 shakes Tabasco (optional)
~2 cups cooked chicken, cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 egg yolk
2-3 tbsp. dry sherry
If you've never cooked with red pepper before, remove the seeds and the whitish ribs on the inside. And the stem end.
Note: There are two places where you use butter: to sauté the mushrooms and pepper, and to make the roux. I know standard recipe practice would be to just list butter once and then give instructions about which part to use when, but I just can't keep track of that. I always end up dumping all the butter in at the first point and making some kind of mess. So I listed them separately.
Sauté the mushrooms and red pepper in butter. When the mushrooms are done, the pepper will still have a little crunch, which is fine. Or, use pimientos instead of red pepper and say goodbye to crunch. Set aside.
Melt the second bolus of butter and heat to foaming. Add the flour and whisk to get a roux. You only have to eliminate the raw flour taste, but I go further to brown the roux lightly so the dish leans very slightly in the direction of New Orleans. If you keep going the roux will become dark brown and eventually burn. Stop before that.
Add the stock and stir until the sauce is thickened. If you start with cold stock, it can take forever to thicken, so here's what I do: I put the stock in the microwave before I start making the roux. Then I cook the roux until the stock is boiling. Then when I pour the stock in, the sauce thickens in like twenty seconds. Blend in the cream. Season with salt and pepper and (optionally) Tabasco.
Add the mushrooms and pepper back in and add the chicken. Beat the egg yolk in a bowl and mix in a spoonful at a time of the sauce. This is supposed to keep the egg yolk from scrambling if added directly to the sauce, which sounds gross so I've never tried it. Once you've added two or three spoonfuls of sauce, blend it back into the pot. Add the sherry just before serving. If you have some parsley, sprinkle it over each serving, but Genevieve and Elizabeth hate that.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Veggie Tourtière
I don't know whether I'm actually allowed to call this dish tourtière, but I made it working largely from a tourtière recipe, so I figure the name fits. Recipe for pie crust still forthcoming.
1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped finely
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 cup frozen corn
2 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
2 large potatoes, mashed
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Pastry for 1 two-crust, nine-inch pie
Sauté the onions and mushrooms butter. Add to the mashed potatoes, along with the corn, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Cook on low heat until warm, adding water if necessary to keep it moist. Pour into pie shell, cover with pastry, and bake at 375 degrees for about an hour or until brown.
Tourtière
This is the recipe that Maman sent me about a year ago, and it works fairly well. I subbed in a pound of ground pork and a pound of meat loaf mix last night. I suspect that the actual proportions of the meat has very little to do with the success of the dish, though if the meat you use is too lean, you may have some issues with dryness. My advice is to keep a can of chicken broth on-hand to toss in if things start looking too dry, but you probably won't need it. Recipe for pie crust forthcoming.
1 1/2 pounds ground pork
1/2 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped finely
Salt and pepper
2 large potatoes, mashed
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
Pastry for 1 two-crust, nine-inch pie
Cook the meats in their own juices until they're a uniform grey color. Don't brown the meat. Add the onion, salt, and pepper. Simmer on low heat until the onion starts to look soft and cooked. Maman's recipe says one hour, but I've found that this is overkill. Ten to fifteen minutes should be plenty. Add the potatoes to the meat and add cinnamon, allspice, and ground cloves.
Allow to simmer, covered, on low heat for about half an hour, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. (If it looks like it's getting unpleasantly dry, add some chicken broth, but not too much or the crust will sog.) Note: I used this half hour to start the pie pastry. Making the pastry takes more than half an hour, but you can use the extra time to let your filling cool a bit so it will be easier to put into the pie shell.
Pour the filling into the pie shell, cover with pastry, and heat in 375° oven for 1 hour or until brown.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Clam Shaush Pashta
Dudes! This is actually my recipe!
OK, so out in the real world, its Linguine con Vongole, and it's supposed to be made with genuine clams. You have to deal with the shells, and drain out all the sand, and all that. Thank you, I'll have the nice people at the restaurant do that, most of the time.
Or, at the other extreme -- and it's not like there's much in between -- it's a can of Snow's clams with the packing juices and "1/4 teaspoon dried parsley". And maybe some cream on the odd theory that a "white clam sauce" must require it.
So I'm going to be snotty and plebeian at the same time here. Canned clams, but real ingredients. No sand, but actual preparation. There is a middle ground where you buy cooked (maybe frozen) clam meat at your local shellfish purveyor, but unless you live in Oakland or your Trader Joe's happens to have it, go with the can.
If you've got a bigger crowd, you can stretch the same sauce over a pound of pasta. If you've got a really really big crowd, start doubling up on the cans of clams and bottles of juice, until you get to such a huge crowd that you need those giant cans (clams and juice both) that are weirdly labeled something like "#2". Just keep the proportions roughly correct, and remember that you'll need a HUGE pot to boil the pasta in and a very large pot just for the sauce.
3/4 lb. pasta
2 tbsp. olive oil
2-3 anchovies, mashed
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
A few shakes dried red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 8-oz bottle clam juice
1 10-oz. can whole baby clams (I use Geisha)
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/8 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese (optional)
I've put pasta first in the ingredients because if you use some really gnarly thick pasta, you'll have to get it going before anything else; on the other hand, if you use capellini (and this dish does work with capellini), you need to throw it in at the very last minute, when the sauce is all but done. Anyway, boil the water first. You never know; someone might have a baby.
Chop/mash the anchovies and pop them into a skillet (9 in. or so). Press on them with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula to flatten them out. Then add the olive oil and turn the heat on low while you prepare the other ingredients.
When the anchovies have pretty completely dissolved into the oil, add the garlic and turn the heat up a little. Then just keep stirring until the garlic smells cooked instead of raw. It will look a distinctly awful greyish-brown at this point.
Add the wine and turn the heat up to a full boil. Add the dried basil and the pepper flakes. Stir regularly. You're ready to move on when enough of the wine liquid has boiled off so that it's thick and soupy. Careful: if you turn your back on it for two minutes at this point the remaining liquid will boil off and you'll have burnt crap at the bottom of your skillet and be stuck with takeout Chinese.
Add the clam juice and about a third of the fresh basil. Keep the heat high, stirring until you get back to the soupy appearance again. At this point you can add pasta cooking water (don't forget to scald yourself pulling it out of the cooking pasta) to thin the sauce and then boil down more. This cycle can go on for hours if you have a thick pasta that requires long boiling; make sure you have a friend check that you haven't just gone into a coma.
When the pasta is within about three minutes of being done (for capellini, about two minutes before you put it in), add the clams and the second third of basil. Keep the heat high and add water as necessary.
Drain the pasta (but do not rinse) and return it to the pot. Now, if you are confident that the amount of sauce matches the pasta exactly, add the sauce to the pasta along with the remaining basil; otherwise, dress the pasta with a little olive oil, add the remaining basil to the sauce, and get everyone to table. (And turn the burner under the sauce off!)
Serve with parsley and optional cheese sprinkled over the top.
If you find you have too little sauce, you can add a little more pasta water and boil vigorously for a minute. This even works with the dregs of the sauce, maybe adding a little more olive oil as well.
Other optional additions: olives, capers, cheese in the sauce. You can add a tablespoon or so of butter to get a slightly thicker and richer sauce. Earlier (about when you add the clams), some claim a tablespoon or two of vodka smooths the sauce out, as long as you boil it enough to cook away the hard alcohol. If you must add vodka, I think it is probably better to add it to the guests rather than the sauce, but whatever.
OK, so out in the real world, its Linguine con Vongole, and it's supposed to be made with genuine clams. You have to deal with the shells, and drain out all the sand, and all that. Thank you, I'll have the nice people at the restaurant do that, most of the time.
Or, at the other extreme -- and it's not like there's much in between -- it's a can of Snow's clams with the packing juices and "1/4 teaspoon dried parsley". And maybe some cream on the odd theory that a "white clam sauce" must require it.
So I'm going to be snotty and plebeian at the same time here. Canned clams, but real ingredients. No sand, but actual preparation. There is a middle ground where you buy cooked (maybe frozen) clam meat at your local shellfish purveyor, but unless you live in Oakland or your Trader Joe's happens to have it, go with the can.
If you've got a bigger crowd, you can stretch the same sauce over a pound of pasta. If you've got a really really big crowd, start doubling up on the cans of clams and bottles of juice, until you get to such a huge crowd that you need those giant cans (clams and juice both) that are weirdly labeled something like "#2". Just keep the proportions roughly correct, and remember that you'll need a HUGE pot to boil the pasta in and a very large pot just for the sauce.
3/4 lb. pasta
2 tbsp. olive oil
2-3 anchovies, mashed
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
A few shakes dried red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 8-oz bottle clam juice
1 10-oz. can whole baby clams (I use Geisha)
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/8 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese (optional)
I've put pasta first in the ingredients because if you use some really gnarly thick pasta, you'll have to get it going before anything else; on the other hand, if you use capellini (and this dish does work with capellini), you need to throw it in at the very last minute, when the sauce is all but done. Anyway, boil the water first. You never know; someone might have a baby.
Chop/mash the anchovies and pop them into a skillet (9 in. or so). Press on them with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula to flatten them out. Then add the olive oil and turn the heat on low while you prepare the other ingredients.
When the anchovies have pretty completely dissolved into the oil, add the garlic and turn the heat up a little. Then just keep stirring until the garlic smells cooked instead of raw. It will look a distinctly awful greyish-brown at this point.
Add the wine and turn the heat up to a full boil. Add the dried basil and the pepper flakes. Stir regularly. You're ready to move on when enough of the wine liquid has boiled off so that it's thick and soupy. Careful: if you turn your back on it for two minutes at this point the remaining liquid will boil off and you'll have burnt crap at the bottom of your skillet and be stuck with takeout Chinese.
Add the clam juice and about a third of the fresh basil. Keep the heat high, stirring until you get back to the soupy appearance again. At this point you can add pasta cooking water (don't forget to scald yourself pulling it out of the cooking pasta) to thin the sauce and then boil down more. This cycle can go on for hours if you have a thick pasta that requires long boiling; make sure you have a friend check that you haven't just gone into a coma.
When the pasta is within about three minutes of being done (for capellini, about two minutes before you put it in), add the clams and the second third of basil. Keep the heat high and add water as necessary.
Drain the pasta (but do not rinse) and return it to the pot. Now, if you are confident that the amount of sauce matches the pasta exactly, add the sauce to the pasta along with the remaining basil; otherwise, dress the pasta with a little olive oil, add the remaining basil to the sauce, and get everyone to table. (And turn the burner under the sauce off!)
Serve with parsley and optional cheese sprinkled over the top.
If you find you have too little sauce, you can add a little more pasta water and boil vigorously for a minute. This even works with the dregs of the sauce, maybe adding a little more olive oil as well.
Other optional additions: olives, capers, cheese in the sauce. You can add a tablespoon or so of butter to get a slightly thicker and richer sauce. Earlier (about when you add the clams), some claim a tablespoon or two of vodka smooths the sauce out, as long as you boil it enough to cook away the hard alcohol. If you must add vodka, I think it is probably better to add it to the guests rather than the sauce, but whatever.
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