Category Archives: Winter

Celery Root, Potato and Apple Mash

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Celery root (celeriac) is a knobby, homely-looking root vegetable with mild celery flavor that pairs deliciously with apple and potato. Cutting the dense-textured celery root into smaller pieces than the potato ensures both finish cooking at the same time. Use any variety of apple for this recipe. I picked up the trick of simply mashing the potatoes and other veggies with a whisk from Jennifer Shaertl’s clever book, Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens. Serve with our Spiced Pork Roast, Simplest Roast Chicken or Crispy Duck Breasts with Maple-Bourbon Sauce.

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Super Succulent Five-Spice Pork Shoulder

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This ridiculously simple dish is a riff on Carnitas de Lia, another of an endless variation of “dry braises” you can make with your own mix of spices. I like to top bowls of Simple Udon Soup with a generous mound of shreds, or serve an Asian take on fajitas with scallion pancakes, plum sauce and griddled scallions.

2-1/2 tablespoons five spice powder
1 tablespoon coriander
½ to 1 teaspoon ground Szechwan pepper
2 tablespoons kosher salt
3–4 pound boneless pork shoulder roast

Preheat oven to 275. Mix together spices and salt in a small bowl. Take pork out of its netting and rub the spice mixture all over, getting it into the nooks and crannies.

Place pork in a Dutch oven, cover and bake in the oven for 3–1/2 to 4 hours, until pork falls apart with the touch of a fork.

Serves 12

Note: If you’d like to crisp up either medium-sized chunks or fully-shredded meat, saute in a bit of the pork fat or canola oil.

Chai-Spiced Amaranth Pudding

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Bulk-bin buys are the basis for this recipe, starting with amaranth seeds, a high-protein grain, along with golden raisins, pistachios, and the fancy salt for the brittle. Cooked amaranth has a gelatinous quality that lends itself to pudding. If you have a chai spice blend on hand, substitute 1 teaspoon for the cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. This pudding caused a little controversy in our household. I loved the flavor and aroma of the warm spices. Richard liked the texture, but would have preferred it plain, without the spices–”like a proper English pudding.” Of course, not too many English puddings are made with amaranth, but a version of this sans spices would be a kid- and Englishman-friendly dessert.

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Creamy Millet with Blueberry Compote

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If you haven’t tried millet, this recipe from Rebecca Katz’s The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen (Celestial Arts) is a great introduction. As she notes, it looks very similar to quinoa, and it’s also gluten-free and a good source of protein. Millet and orange have anti-inflammatory properties, while spices like allspice, cardamom, ginger and cinnamon aid digestion. Coconut oil has antibiotic properties (you can find it with the other oils in health-food stores), and blueberries are rich in cancer-fighting phytochemicals. This is a nice make-ahead breakfast–just stir in a little extra almond milk and warm it up in a saucepan over gentle heat. It’s a powerfully nourishing start to your day.

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Crispy Duck Breasts with Maple-Bourbon Sauce

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We’ve adapted this tasty maple-bourbon sauce from Hank Shaw’s award-winning blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. This sauce also works nicely with wild turkey, boar or pheasant. The duck breasts will render quite a bit of flavorful fat, which many chefs consider to be the platinum standard of cooking fats. Don’t throw it away! Instead, strain the fat through a fine-mesh sieve and use it in place of other fats (butter, oil) in other recipes. It will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.

4 boneless duck breast halves, skin on
Sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons bourbon
1/4 cup chicken stock
1-1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon Sriracha hot sauce
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Sage sprigs, for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 F. Place a foil-lined baking sheet in oven.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Trim any excess fat from edges of duck breast halves; set aside. Score the duck skin and fat in a diamond pattern. Season duck with salt and pepper. Place duck skin-side-down in pan, and cook 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, add reserved trimmings of duck fat to the pan, and continue to cook 15 minutes until the skin crisps and the fat renders out.

Remove the duck to a work surface; dust the skin side of duck with sugar. Place duck skin-side-down on preheated baking sheet. Bake 7 minutes or until meat is medium-rare. Remove from oven, turn duck skin-side-up, and cover with foil. Let stand 10 minutes.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the rendered duck fat (strain and reserve remaining fat for another use).

While duck stands, heat the skillet over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, and cook 5 minutes or until dark golden-brown. Stir often and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.

Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the bourbon, then return it over medium-high heat. It will thicken and sputter. Stir well, and start adding the stock, whisking constantly. When the sauce boils, whisk in the maple syrup and Sririacha. Let this simmer over medium heat for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and let the sauce stop bubbling. Whisk in the cream. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Slice each duck breast half across the grain. Garnish each plate evenly with the sauce. Garnish with sage.

Serves 4

Short Rib and Cremini Ragu

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If you love fork-tender ragu, add short ribs to your repertoire. Back home in Missoula, Montana, on the search for local meat, I met Scott Barger of Mannix Brothers’ Grass Finished Beef, a fifth-generation cattle rancher in the Blackfoot Valley. He said that cuts like short ribs often end up going into their ground beef, simply because folks don’t know how to use them. Like many tougher cuts, short ribs require a longer cooking time for the connective tissues to melt. When they do, the meat becomes fall-apart tender, infusing the sauce with an incredible richness. This ragu can be served two ways: with the rib portions intact over our Creamy Corn Polenta, or you can remove the ribs from the sauce, and once cool enough to handle, shred the meat, discarding bones and excess fat. Toss the meat sauce with a long pasta noodle like fettuccine or tagliatelle.

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Spicy Sauteed Rainbow Chard with Golden Raisins

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Rainbow chard’s vibrant orange, red and magenta stems are too pretty to toss into the compost. They have a crunchy texture similar to celery and add a colorful confetti-like cheer to this speedy saute. Serve as a side dish with, well, just about anything (it’s especially tasty with our Spiced Pork Roast) or toss with hot pasta and goat cheese for meatless entree.

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Baked Penne and Cheese with Mushrooms

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I love homemade macaroni and cheese  (or, in this case, penne and cheese) and wasn’t about to let a sprained wrist get in the way. Pre-chopped onions and mushrooms, pre-shredded cheese, and a garlic press meant I could make this without picking up a knife. A speedy sprinkling of toasted wheat germ takes the place of bread crumbs. You can use any vegetables and any blend of cheese you like–experiment to change up the flavor!

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Lamb Tagine with Preserved Lemon, Dates and Bulgur

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North Africa meets the Middle East in this Moroccan-inspired lamb tagine. Ras-al-hanout (translation: “head of the shop”) is a fragrant Moroccan spice blend of cinnamon, black pepper, cumin, coriander, ginger, cayenne, cloves and allspice. You can find it, along with preserved lemons, at gourmet stores, Middle Eastern markets and some large gourmet supermarkets (I found both at Whole Foods). In this dish, whole-grain bulgur stands in for traditional couscous.

lamb-tagine-bulgur1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound lamb stew meat or shoulder roast, cut into 1-inch pieces
Sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ras-al-hanout
1 cup water
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped pitted green olives
1/4 cup chopped preserved lemon
1/4 cup chopped pitted dried dates
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup fine- or medium-grain bulgur
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add oil to pan. Generously season lamb with salt and pepper. Add half of lamb to pan, and cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove lamb from pan. Repeat with remaining lamb.

Add onion to pan, and saute 2 minutes or until tender. Add garlic, ras al hanout, salt and pepper; saute 30 seconds or until fragrant. Return lamb to pan. Add water and oregano. Cover, place in the oven, and bake 1 hour. Add chickpeas, olives, preserved lemon and dates. Cover, and bake an additional 30 minutes or until lamb is fork-tender. If the lamb needs more time, put it back in the oven for 15 minutes or until it’s fall-apart tender.

While the lamb cooks, bring chicken stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add bulgur. Cover, remove from heat, and let it stand for 10-20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide bulgur evenly among 4 plates. Top evenly with lamb mixture. Sprinkle evenly with parsley and cilantro.

Serves 4

Sandra’s Guatemalan Pollo en Jocon

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“Hola, Lia. I promise you more to come but here is a recipe of a chicken in tomatillo sauce typical of Coban in Guatemala. It is called Pollo en Jocon (pronounced, ho-kon) and is traditionally served over rice, with warm corn tortillas. It is a stew, so you serve it in bowls–the rice in the bottom, then spoon the sauce all over it. I hope you like it. I particularly hope your darling little girl enjoys it.”

~ from Sandra Gutierrez, The Culinary Latinista™, food writer and cooking instructor

pollo-en-jocon

20 large tomatillos, cleaned of husks, rinsed and dried
1/2 large yellow onion, sliced into thick slices
2 green onions
1 green bell pepper, quartered
1 plum tomato
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 Serrano chiles
1 bunch cilantro (about 3 cups, packed)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 (3-4 pound) chicken, cooked, deboned and shredded (about 7 cups) * [see below for instructions]
1/2 cup reserved chicken broth (from cooking chicken)

Set a dry skillet—preferably cast iron—over high heat. Working in batches, add the tomatillos, yellow onion, green onions, bell pepper and plum tomato, roasting them until they are charred all over. Set them inside a large bowl, as they are readied.

Roast the unpeeled garlic, making sure to char the skins well. Peel the roasted garlic and place the roasted pulp with the other vegetables. Roast the serrano chiles on all sides, remove the seeds and stem, and add the chiles to the vegetables.

Working in batches, puree the roasted vegetables and the cilantro in a blender until smooth, adding enough reserved chicken broth to help you along.

Heat the oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the tomatillo sauce and stir well. You should hear a sizzling sound when the sauce comes into contact with the oil—watch out for sputters. Lower the heat and simmer sauce for 2 minutes. Add the cooked chicken and the remaining chicken broth, stir well, and simmer the stew for 15 minutes. Serve over steamed white rice.

Note: the stew can be completely prepared ahead of time, chilled, and re-heated before serving. It also freezes beautifully for up to 2 months.

Serves 6

* Lia’s note on cooking the chicken: Place the chicken in a large pot with two scallions and 2 smashed cloves of garlic, and cover with cold, salted water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat (it will take a while) and skim off any foam that has risen to the surface. Then lower heat to medium-low (it should still be bubbling, but not very vigorously) and cook for 50-60 minutes, the legs and wings should come off easily when grabbed with tongs. Remove the chicken (reserving the liquid), let cool enough so you can handle it, then remove the skin and bones and shred the meat.