Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Posts Tagged ‘Cooking’

These are really simple to make and really delicious to eat Really. Just take a few tablespoons of Dijon mustard and mix with a half teaspoon of fresh thyme. Sprinkle pork chops (these are Saratoga chops) with salt and pepper and spread one side with mustard mixture. Grill 5 minutes, turn, spread with more mustard mixture, top chops with a sprig of rosemary, and grill another 5 minutes or till done.

I really really love this recipe. I am a vinegar fiend, for one thing, so I love the vinaigrette, and it’s healthy – couscous, veggies and herbs – it uses grilled veggies, which are heavenly, and it makes use of lots of fresh herbs from my garden. Later in the summer, when I have my own peppers, I’ll be using those, too. This goes great with any grilled meal, and can be served warm or at room temp.

Couscous with Grilled Vegetables and Champagne Vinaigrette

Couscous
1/2 cup couscous
1 cup chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and quartered
1 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and quartered
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and quartered

Vinaigrette
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 tbsp. fresh thyme, minced
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Chop one onion slice. Heat 1 tbsp. EVOO in a saucepan and saute the chopped onion and minced garlic for a few minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add couscous, stir, and turn off heat. Let sit till broth is absorbed and couscous is tender.

Insert toothpicks sideways into remaining onion slices, to hold them together on the grill. Toss onions and peppers with 2 tbsp. EVOO, salt and pepper. Grill 8-10 minutes or until tender. Dice into 1/4-inch pieces.

In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, thyme, half the parsley, salt and pepper. Whisking constantly, drizzle olive oil slowly into the bowl. Combine grilled vegetables with couscous, drizzle with dressing and toss to mix thoroughly. Sprinkle with remaining parsley.

I love all kinds of Italian food, and I’ve been wanting to try osso buco, aka Italian Braised Veal Shanks, for ages, so this blog event, hosted by Marie of Proud Italian Cook and Maryann of Finding la Dolce Vita, seemed like the perfect time to make it.

This is one of those long, slow-cooking dishes that I like to make on Sunday afternoons, when I have a lot of time for cooking dinner, and especially when it’s cold outside. Braised dishes are so satisfying on days like that, and this one was no exception.

Dan gave me a copy of “The Best International Recipe,” a cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen, for Christmas in 2007, so I made their recipe. OMG, it was so good – absolutely delicious. I made the classic saffron risotto to go alongside it and served it with a green salad and some crusty bread to sop up the juices. I hope everyone at the Festa Italiana enjoys it as much as we did!

Osso Buco

Veal Shanks
6 1-1/2-inch thick veal shanks (8-10 oz. each), tied around teh middle with butcher’s twine (so they don’t fall apart during cooking)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tbsp. vegetable oil
2-1/2 cups dry white wine
2 medium onions, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 medium celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
2 bay leaves

Gremolata (topping)
3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 tsp. minced lemon zest
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Place an oven rack in the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Season the shanks with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Brown half of the shanks on both sides, about 5 minutes per side, reducing the heat if the pan begins to scorch; transfer to a bowl and set aside. Off the heat, add 1/2 cup of the wine to the Dutch oven, scraping up the browned bits, then pour into the bowl with the browned shanks. Return the pot to medium-high heat and repeat with 2 more tbsp. oil and the remaining shanks. Add another 1/2 cup wine and transfer to the bowl.

Add the remaining 2 tbsp. oil to the pot and return to medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions, carrots and celery and cook, stirring occasionally until soft and lightly browned, about 9 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the remaining 1-1/2 cups wine, broth, tomatoes and bay leaves. Add the browned shanks with any accumulated juices, increase the heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot, transfer to the oven and cook until the meat is easily pierced with a fork, but not falling off the bone, about 2 hours.

To make the gremolata, stir together the garlic, lemon zest and parsley in a small bowl.

When the shanks are cooked, remove the pot from the oven and the bay leaves from the pot; stir in half of the gremolata. Season with salt and pepper to taste and let stand, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove the shanks from the pot, cut off the twine and place the shanks in six individual serving bowls. Ladle some braising liquid over each shank and sprinkle with the remaining gremolata. Serve.

And another week whizzes by! I think it must be the cold we had last week – I was in no mood to do anything but come home from work, make and eat dinner, and curl up on the couch wrapped in a blanket. I need a laptop.

Anyway, today, it’s 69 degrees already in southeastern Virginia, so I have a lot more energy to do more than just conserve heat on the couch. So here’s my contribution to Thursday Night Smackdown: The Valentine’s Day Cliche Edition – Chocolate Fondue.

I need to practice taking pix more, dang it. Too many of these came out blurry.

Dan and I typically don’t celebrate (St.) Valentine’s Day – I mean, I’m not Catholic and I love Dan every day, not just one day a year. But I guess I’m feeling lovey-dovey this year since we will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in June. Awwwwww!!!

I don’t know why I don’t make fondue more often – it seems like such a pain, but it’s really easy once you get going. No more difficult than anything else I make regularly. Dan brought home this book for me some years ago – “The Book of Fondues,” by Lorna Rhodes. I’ve made a few recipes from it, but we definitely need to get into it more.

Dan actually made the fondue (see why it’s so easy?), but I told him how, so that counts, right? It was really good. We ate it with strawberries and bananas; other good dippers would be brownies, pound cake, and other fruits like pineapple. Definitely give it a try.

Mocha Chocolate Fondue

8 oz. semisweet chocolate (we used 4 oz. semisweet and 4 oz. dark chocolate chips)
1 tbsp. instant coffee granules (we don’t drink instant, so we left this out)
2/3 cup whipping cream
3 tbsp. Tia Maria (we used Kahlua to get that coffee flavor)

Break up chocolate (or use chips) and place in fondue pot. Add coffee granules, if using, and whipping cream, and heat slowly until melted, stirring constantly. Stir in liqueur and beat until smooth. Place over burner at the table and serve. Makes 6 servings.

It’s shaped like a heart! Awwwww!!!

This month’s topic for the food blogging event Tasty Tools, hosted by Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures, is measuring tools. I’ve had this push-up-style measuring cup for years now. It’s very handy for measuring semi-solid, sticky ingredients like peanut butter, jams and jellies, mayonnaise and sour cream.

You set the cup to the measurement you need, use a spatula to put the ingredient in the cup, then push up the plunger and use the spatula to scrape the ingredient into your bowl, saucepan, whatever. No muss, no fuss, and you get all of the ingredient easily into your dish.

Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines. I especially love Thai spring rolls – I could eat them every day for lunch, particularly if I had this delicious dipping sauce to go with them. The push-up measuring cup makes it really easy to measure the peanut butter for this sauce.

Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce

1 tbsp. brown sugar
3 tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
1/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup cream of coconut
2 tbsp. Thai sweet chili sauce
1/2 tsp. sriracha Thai hot sauce
1 tsp. lemongrass powder

In a small saucepan, over medium heat, cook and stir all ingredients till smooth. Serve with spring rolls or chicken satay.

Thanksgiving is absolutely my favorite holiday, so I had a great time yesterday and Tuesday getting ready for the big feast. Not so big, actually, since it was just Dan and me this year. But it was great

I’ve had this fear of making turkey gravy for several years, but now – yay! – I’m over it. I think one year, I didn’t cook the flour-fat (roux) mixture enough, because the gravy tasted floury, and after that, I convinced myself I was no good at sauces. So my mom came for Thanksgiving several years in a row and I told her the gravy was her job But she and Leo have gone south on the Intracoastal Waterway already this year, so I had to do it myself.

Luckily, earlier this week, I got an email from America’s Test Kitchen for make-ahead gravy, from a Cook’s Country magazine recipe. It called for roasting turkey wings (I couldn’t find them, so I used necks) with chopped carrots, celery, onions and garlic and using the roasted veggies to make stock for the gravy.

Oh. My. God. It was so good, I went back today and bought more necks so I can make more stock. It was so good, I’m going to make soup tomorrow with the next batch. Yum.

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

Makes about 2 quarts

6 turkey drumsticks, thighs, or wings
reserved turkey giblets
reserved turkey neck
2 carrots, chopped coarse
1 head garlic, halved
2 ribs celery, chopped coarse
2 onions, chopped coarse
Vegetable oil spray
10 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups dry white wine
12 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Table salt and ground black pepper

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Place giblets, neck, drumsticks, carrots, celery, onions, and garlic in roasting pan, spray with vegetable oil, and toss well. Roast, stirring occasionally, until well browned, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (I set my oven to 400 and checked after 1 hour; I think 1 hour and 20 minutes would be enough).

Transfer contents of roasting pan to Dutch oven. Add broth, wine, and thyme and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until reduced by half, about 1 1/2 hours. Pour through fine-mesh strainer into large container (discard solids), cover stock with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until fat congeals, at least 2 hours.

Using soup spoon, skim fat and reserve. Heat 1/2 cup fat in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until bubbling. Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, until honey colored, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in stock, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Gravy can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.) Reheat gravy in saucepan over medium heat until bubbling.

This is my contribution to Tasty Tools: Roasting/Braising Pans, hosted by Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures.