A way to cook greens

A friend asked me for some suggestions for simple recipes that can be done in the course of the daycare/workday scramble; we call them desperation dinners. Here's one we got from a Martha Stewart Good Food issue sometime ago and now it's a regular part of our repertoire. Greens are pretty bountiful this time of year and thought I'd toss this in.

Saute in this order in a large wide (ca. 6 qt) pan (serves about 3-4):
1. sweet italian sausage with a little olive oil
2. a huge pile of greens (we use swiss chard most often), add some water and cover for ca. 10 minutes till the greens wilt to your desired tenderness),
3. toss in freshly toasted pinenuts, raisins and cooked pasta (1/2 lb dry).
4. add more olive oil, salt and pepper and serve. It's good warm to room temperature.

It's amazing how much greens condense when cooked so it's a good recipe to use up those bountiful subscription greens.

food greens swiss chard desperation dinner

The Butt

Last weekend I made some pulled pork. My favorite cut to use is the picnic roast, another part of the shoulder. Unfortunately, the only thing I could get was a 6.2 lb butt roast (bone-in of course). The first time I learned what a butt roast (or boston butt or blade roast) was, an energetic butcher placed both hands on my latissimus dorsi to describe exactly where the butt and picnic roast were. I was quite happy the butt roast was a misnomer.

I used the same rub I use for ribs and smoked this using Royal Oak lump for 10 hours running at about 225F +/- 25F. I did one mop with cider vinegar and unlike past times, I smeared a bit of bbq sauce (just commercial stuff) over the exterior one hour prior to taking the roast off to rest an hour before pulling. I then mixed the meat with a bit of my own sauce composed of ketchup, cider vinegar and smokey rendered pork fat (5:1:1). It was quite a meal. We made sandwiches with pulled pork, colelsaw, pickles and sauce.

I posted this to remind me a 6.2 pound butt roast produced an adequate yield for 8 hungry adults with a bit leftover. Happy 'qing this weekend.

Vesuvius

I used to strive for bubbles on my pizzas and, more the better. The other night, I stretched a 500 gram ball of dough to about 14-15" diamater, covered it with a dish towel and played with Frankie a while before topping it. Then I topped it with a simple tomato sauce, mozzarella and a bit of reggiano (kid special) and popped it in the oven. It practically exploded with bubbles. I think it was the long rest that did it. It was pretty cool looking. Just thought I'd share.

food pizza method

Frankie's First Pizza

Friday nights are becoming pizza night in our house. It's the end of the week, we're a bit tired and need a fix for dinner. I prepped the dough Thursday night and tossed it in the fridge. I took it out about an hour before dinner while I preheated the oven (to 550F). I plopped the dough out of the rising container and start pressing it into a 15" round (500 grams dough).

Frankie got into pressing out the dough into a circle and flapping it over and over. Great technique. She did pretty good. We had a nice round pie with her help. And that thing on her wrist is a compass she got from some happy meal (but we won't admit we got it at Wendy's the night before).

Bees and Salad Dressing

I think Alton Brown's Honey Mustard dressing is the best ever. It's a simple mixture of honey, Dijon Mustard and rice vinegar. I can make it on my electronic balance in a minute. It's calorically dense but the amount needed to bring a salad to life is scant. As good as it is, I couldn't help tampering.

Here in Columbus, we have The Bee Lab cranking out honey in different types and textures (you can mail order it on their site, check out the creamed honey!). So, using Sunflower honey, and, because I was in a rush the other night for dinner, I used yellow mustard because it was faster to squeeze into my salad dressing bottle, and the usual rice vinegar to make an outstanding variant on Alton's recipe. Give it a shot. Or try any substitution to the general recipe of honey, mustard & vinegar and see what you get.

Honey Mustard Dressing
Honey, 5T (100 grams)
Mustard, 3T (45 grams)
Rice Vinegar, 2T (30 grams)
Shake until uniform. Use sparingly.

Deep Dish Pizza

In all my baking years, I've never made deep dish pizza. When we lived in Evanston, we used to frequent Giordano's for a sausage "topped" deep dish. These things are built upside down and are a hearty meal indeed. I used essentially Emeril's recipe with a few modifications. I didn't have any semolina flour on hand and left it out. I will repeat it including the semolina. But, duty calls, it's Friday night and the gang demands pizza. Also, my pizza sauce is much simpler and milder than the sauce of that wild man "Bamming!" everything in sight. He's a scary man.

Dough
water, cold, 200 g
olive oil, 25 g
salt, 5 g
honey, 5-10 g
unbleached white flour, 300 g
Fleischmann's instant active dry yeast, 2 t
Kneaded 5-6 minutes in my bread machine, rounded the dough and let sit in the fridge. I did this the night before we used it.

My Thick Sauce
Simmered "6-in-1" brand chopped tomatoes, a couple slivers garlic, olive oil (ca. 1-2 T), oregano, salt and pepper. There is always a stash of this in my freezer. I use a pretty thick brand of tomatoes and usually don't use paste. If the brand of tomatoes used is thin, just cook it down.

Assembly of Pizza
The oven was preheated to 450F (I always preheat excessively). The dough (about 500 g) was warmed about an hour. I punched it down and let it sit on the counter in a squat ca. 8" disc covered with a moist towel for about 20 minutes. It was then stretched to a 14-15" circle. I chose a heavy duty aluminum 10" diameter cake pan. Because of the high temperature and long duration baking (450F/30 minutes), I thought a dark pan would burn the crust; hence, the choice of shiny aluminum. The dough was draped over the pan and allowed to come over the edge a bit. I let it rest again for a few minutes and began topping in this order: sliced mozzarella, crumbled sweet Italian sausage (raw), tomato sauce and parmesan cheese and baked it in the center of the oven for 30 minutes. I originally intended to use 400 grams of dough per 10" pie but ended up using the full 500 grams. That resulted in the huge wave-like crust. Next time I might end the crust at the pan's edge.

Results
I've been known to take freshly baked bread and launch it out the back door when I'm not pleased with the results. This was not one of those occasions. Trish, Frankie and I attacked this with a small salad on the side and there was some left over. I thought it was pretty awesome. Too much crust and all. Next time, I'll use less dough (like I mentioned earlier) and also use the semolina flour that was called for in the original recipe. I suspect that will result in a more appropriate crackly-crisp crust. But overall, a success. Wish you could've joined us.

Tofu "Meat"balls? - just say no!

Update:
Below is a proposed experiment. I won't use the term "miserable failure" because I'll just get more hits than I'm comfortable with but I think you get the gist. Tofu just doesn't have that fleshy, moldable feel like meat and all it did was crumble and never held together despite the milk and egg and cracked wheat. Oh well, cheap experiment. The turkey ones were made in short order so we could have something to eat during the week. Yum. Can't wait. And, neither can Frankie, they're her absolute favorite.

---

Original Post:
This is more of a note to myself than it is something you might find interesting (but just in case, here it is).

Cooking lately has been more for utility than show. However, I thought of something I have to try. Usually, recipes that try to substitute tofu for meat fail miserably (at least in my hands). That's the result I get when I've attempted some Moosewood preps. Texture just isn't right.

One of my recent modifications to the meatball was so good, I almost got a copyright for my site, I (and the gang here) liked them so much. Basically, I modified the mouthfeel of ground turkey with cracked wheat. And when I made them again more recently, I accidentally added more liquid than usual and had to add a ton of cracked wheat to get them to stick together. I was worried at the time but they turned out pretty awesome. You can't detect the presence of the cracked wheat yet they don't taste like ground turkey either. I made this modification because ground turkey is just too soft a protein and feels too, too . . . just can't describe it. Too tender and soft I guess. From the title of this post, I guess you know where this is going.

Here's my next recipe creation:
tofu, 1/2 lb, firm, crumbled
egg, 1
parsley, bunch, chopped
onion, 1/2 finely diced
milk, couple tablespoons
salt & pepper
enough cracked wheat to keep 'em together in golf ball-sized lumps

How will I cook them? Those who cook meatballs are in two camps: sear the exterior followed by braising and the lazy braisers. I'm a braiser. Just plop them in a basic tomato sauce and simmer for a couple hours. That's how I'll do these.

Why bother with this if I'm NOT a vegetarian? Curiosity mostly and I have this love/hate relationship with vegetarian cuisine. I find it challenging to get good flavors without the aid of meat. I'll let you know how they turn out.

My few minutes of fame.

See me on Weber Nation. I'm Dave from Columbus. TV spots start Monday.

Just Chips

Last night, I couldn't resist.

One strategy we've tried to calm the Frankster into sitting quietly at dinner (b'fast and lunch are no problem, dinner is nuts) is to give her a small quatity of something she really likes, an appetizer of sorts, to get her in the mood to eat (blackberries, Goldfish Crackers,, etc.). Last night, just before dinner, I attacked a russet with our mandoline slicer, plugged in the fry baby and tossed 'em in. They were tasty. Didn't quite work though. All she wanted was the chips. She ended the meal standing on her Learning Tower, eating a bowl of Chex. Hmmm, why does this seem familiar.

Anyway, it's amazing how wonderful a chip can taste when it's made with good oil, fried at the perfect temperature and actually tastes like a potato.

Deep Dish Help

The other night on FoodTV, I saw this episode of Unwrapped on Deep Dish Pizza. I was so salivating. I saw one prep by a pizza guy (business) in Chicago who built this pizza in the following order:

-dough in a cake-like pan slightly up the sides
-slices of mozzarella
-sausage raw!
-tomato sauce
-Reggiano with some oregano
-baked for 20 minutes (didn't say the temp - I'm guessing around 400F)

Two things have me baffled. The type of pan. It looked silver on the portion the pizza touched and blackened from use everywhere else => where do I get one of these? And, raw sausage?

Anyone have any good - tested - preps for Chicago-style deep dish pizza?

I got an itch and I'll be taking the plunge this weekend. Leave any assistance in the comments. Thanks. I'll save you a piece.

Next Project

Why the obsession with the baguette? It's quick and it cools quickly. Although it's tempting to eat bread when it's warm, it's a no-no. The loaf is supposed to cool completely before cutting in and eating. That's probably the biggest reason I like the baguette shape. Good crust to crumb ratio and with all that surface area, it cools quickly - all the way to the center.

So, speaking of daily bread, can I optimize what I have to have a loaf in the oven in the time it takes to preheat it (say 20 minutes) or can the loaf be ready and proofed as I walk in the door; preheat, slash the top and go? A neighbor of mine asked me the other day about freezing dough. I had never done it but it put a thought in my head that won't go away. I figure it's just a matter of experimentation to get the thaw/final proof time and temps. It's got to be better than those torpedoes of overly-conditioned crap from Pillsbury. Here's my initial plan. Although this plan only has two rises, they're each pretty slow. I think it'll work. But, unlike most real scientific literature, I'll actually disclose the results whether it works or not. Failures are always more instructive than the successes.

1. Mix baguette recipe and machine knead for 15 minutes or so and plunk in fridge for first rise (12-24 h).
2. Scale dough to dinner size loaves, ca. 400 g (320 g post-baking weight); good for a small family.
3. Form into loaf shape and place on baguette pan or other cylindrical holding device (lined with freezer paper) and cover loosely with plastic.
4. Now, the tricky part. Remove from freezer in morning before work and leave on counter probably in the pan it'll be cooked in and covered with something that doesn't touch the surface of the dough (so it won't stick). It might have to be sitting on parchment in the bread pan too to prevent it from adhering to the pan too tightly because the pan's perforated.
5. Come back 8-10 hours later, slash top and bake away.

I'll be thinking about this for a while. Chime in with any suggestions in the comments.

Baguette, it's the speed

Last Sunday night we had our favorite meal: bread, cheese and salad. My baguette was on its game that night. I used olive oil (ca. 5 grams/500 g dough) which is not what I usually use as the source of "catalytic shortening" and made it with no overnight delays; just a straight dough, machine kneaded and a heavy yeast charge of Fleischmann's instant active dry (ca. 2 t). It was absolutely killer. It was voluminos with a razor crust and tender interior (but not Wonder brad type tenderness) and excellent flavor.

I realize anyone reading is bored with my daily bread obsession but I depicted a few of the key observations of a great end product. In the first image there's a good indication of the result of powerful oven spring. The final slash opened wide during the initial moments of baking. In the second image is the crackled, mosaic-like crust that occurs in the first minutes of cooling out of the oven. Finally, the third image is the cross section of the sliced loaf. Not big holes but not too fine either (again, not Wonder bread). Yeah, it's the result of yeast and it's not as virtuous as starters and all that but I guarantee even a Frenchman (or woman) would enjoy it.

It was great the next day too. The "next day test" for me is important. A good loaf should be good the next day even if a bit drier and slightly stale. The flavor should still be good. I was disheartened the last time Trish and I went to France. We were staying with a friend and actually had a couple loaves in Dijon which looked great but tasted only mediocre and the next day they just weren't that good. But the loaf was from the Supermarche. Sorry for the digression. I just wanted to point out a few endpoint observations that aren't included in original prep.

My new read, it's Saucy

My most recent find in new food blogs was by Molly at Orangette. She writes a fun story culminated by a classic but modified recipe. She's now writing for a new site called Saucy. Her first contribution's, worth a read.

Frankie and I make focaccia

Saturday, I wanted to do a quick focaccia to accompany dinner. I intended to do something different but I got distracted, tossed something together and liked what I came out with. Instead of herbs and a bit of Reggiano on top, I just mixed some tarragon, basil and rosemary (all dried) into the dough and topped it with just a skim of EVOO. Prior to tossing it in the oven, we had to dock it (put lots of indents in the dough so it doesn't come out like a big pita). That's where Frankie's skill was especially useful. She pounded the surface of the dough quite handily just before I tossed it in the oven. This image is us looking at in the oven. If you look carefully, you can see our reflection.

Herbed Focaccia, free form
water, rt, 200 g
olive oil, ca. 20 g
unbleached white, 300 g
tarragon, rosemary, basil, ca. 1 t each dried
honey, ca. 10 g
salt, ca. 5-6 g
Fleischmann's instant active yeast, 1.5 t

0. Preheat oven to 450F.
1. Dough cycle for kneading and first rise.
2. Squashed and rested 20 minutes.
3. Pushed dough out to ca. 10" diameter circle and let rest 20 minutes.
4. Docked by pounding little fists over the surface.
5. Painted surface with olive oil.
6. Baked (on parchment) about 15 minutes till golden brown. Mmmmm, here's a final pic.