Cassoulet

Now I'm getting fancy (or not).  I wanted to use my new dutch oven. A cassoulet is basically a bean casserole or bean stew.  It is French, but French peasant cooking. That means it was designed to be flexible like any homemade stew or soup . Many French versions use duck legs. Other regions use lamb shoulder as the primary meat. All use sausages. In the U.S. we have chicken available.  Working off a recipe from Serious Eats, I made my version..

Looking at the procedure list, this seems insanely complicated.  It's not.  I'm just making a pot of baked pork and beans.  I've browned some chicken and sausages to add to the pot.

Jacques Pepin has a recipe for a 30 minute Hurray! Cassoulet  He uses canned beans. I'm  not sure his is a lot easier.  It's not hard to let a pot bake in a slow oven.

Procedure:
*The night before start 8 ounces of beans soaking.  Add 1 tablespoon of kosher salt to 1 quart of water.
* Cook 4 oz of salt pork. Cut it up into small chunks and cook until crispy. Remove from pan.
* Trim excess fat and skin from 4 chicken thighs and brown in the pork fat. This will render a lot of fat from the chicken.
* Remove most of the fat and add 8 to 12 ounces of sausages to pan.  Cook until they are browned.   Seasoning for this dish will come from the meats.  Salt pork will add salt, so be careful of additional salt. Select sausages like garlic and onion, or Italian.

* Remove the sausages and cook one chopped onion until it is soft. Scrape up the brown fond on the bottom of the pan and add a few tablespoons of wine if necessary to deglaze.




* Rinse the beans and add them to the pan.  Add enough chicken stock to cover the beans. If you are not using homemade stock, see the Serious Eats recipe for hints on how to add a bit of unflavored gelatin to add body to the stock.
* Bring the beans to a simmer and cook for 40-45 minutes.




*Add all the meats back to the pan.  Arrange the chicken skin side up.  Bake in a 285 -300 degree oven for 4 hours.  Check every hour or so and add stock or water as necessary.  The beans should just remain covered.

Serve in a shallow bowl

Shrimp and pasta

This is a quick and easy dinner.  It takes less than 15 minutes start to finish.

At the end of the summer Nancy made and froze little cubes of pesto using basil and other herbs from the garden. It's a good thing a new garden is coming soon, because we are down to the last two cubes.

Procedure for two servings:

Add some pesto and cheese (Parmesan or a blend) to the bottom of a bowl.

Cook 4 ounces of pasta. Drain pasta, reserve about 1/2 cup of cooking liquid. Keep pasta warm.






Heat a mixture of olive oil and butter. Cook shrimp, turning once. Remove to a plate.




Add a dash of white wine to the pan and dump in the cooked pasta. Mix to coat the pasta with the olive oil, butter and wine sauce.

Dump into the serving bowl with the pesto and cheese. Mix, adding a little of the cooking liquid if the pasta seems too sticky. This all could be done in the pan and then plated, but it is easier to mix in a large bowl.

Serve and eat.  We added a bit of left over salad from our previous meal.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, scallions, olives, and feta cheese. Add olive oil, a bit of vinegar, and salt.  The salt brings out the juices and it all marinates together for a great taste.

Braised lamb shanks with mustard and mint

There is an aphorism that a good workman never blames his tools. On the other hand, good tools make any job easier.  Cooking shows often tout the utility and results of a heavy enameled cast iron dutch oven. French versions can and do cost hundreds of dollars.  Lodge makes one that is much less.  I found a "used" one at the Amazon warehouse for about $44.  There are lots of sizes, but this was 4.5 quarts.  That is a good size  for two or four  people.  Seven quarts of beans is too much, even for me.


I picked lamb shanks for the first try.  I started with one pound shanks.  Two just fit into the bottom for browning.

Procedure:

•  Brown the shanks, remove to a plate.
• Add a mirepoix (one onion, one celery stalk, one carrot).  Cook until  the veggies are soft.
• Return shanks to pan,  nestled into the mirepoix
• Add a braising liquid of about 1/2 cup wine, 1/2 cup water, and 1 heaping tablespoon of mustard.
• Top shanks with sprouts of fresh mint (now appearing in the garden).
• Cover pot and place in a 285 degree oven for 3 hours.

• Add sweet potato quarters and additional water if necessary.  (Do not let the pot go dry)
• Cook an additional 45 to 60 minutes.

To make a sauce/gravy remove shanks to a plate and cover to keep warm. Drain braising liquid in to a container.


 Let fat rise to the top (adding an ice cube will speed up the process). Drain fat and use an immersion blender to puree vegetables and broth.

Trout and hush puppies

Trout on the grill - you've seen this method on the blog before.  Nancy and I caught these on a quick trip to the lake.  Spring is in the air when it's warm enough to fish in the bright sun.

To go with these Nancy made some hush puppies - (where does the name really come from?)

From her blog post: SPRING LUCK

I was looking for an old fashioned sweet hush puppy like my grandmother used to make, but times have changed and what I found was from Paul Prudhomme, found here. We had fried trout with the couture hush puppies. Those puppies have onion, green onion tops, red pepper, and only one egg, but after setting for a couple of hours in the fridge, the juices from the vegetables incorporate themselves into the flour and cornmeal and give an excellent texture. Beware these pups are fried, and I used only a film of grease, but they soaked up every bit of that canola oil. Not low calorie, but delicious. (And I did not find one recipe that called for just cornmeal, flour, egg and sugar, like Mom used to make.)

There and back again

I'm still here, and I am still cooking and eating.  So much so that I have not thought much about taking time to photograph and write about all the good stuff passing through the kitchen.


Rather than waiting for the perfect post or best recipe. I'm going to try and get more up.  More is good.


Here's a couple of pics found on the camera from a mild winter day.  Smoked/browned pork country ribs and roasted chiles. Just add chicken broth and hominy for a flavorful posole.

Zukes!

This year I did not grow any zucchini.  My neighbors did. They have kept us supplied with zukes, little tomatoes and hot tabasco peppers.  Finding new things to do with the vegetables can be a challenge.

One standby is a stew/casserole of zucchini, tomato, and onion mixed with some meat.  We have done that with Italian sausage, pork sausage, smoked sausage, hamburger, and even chicken.  The zucchini is so heavy with water it is helpful to roast the veggies first.  Spread some on a cookie sheet and roast for an hour at about 400 degrees.

  Add some sausage and cheese to the mix. Or,  add the veggies to soup broth or a casserole.

Use a grater or food processor to shred whole zucchinis. Put the shredded zucchini in a strainer or colander and add some salt.  Let the water drain out for an hour.  Squeeze out remaining water.  In a bowl mix the zucchini, an egg and enough flour to make a thick batter.  Season with minced onion and hot pepper.  Fry until browned.

If you have additional zucchini place it a grocery bag, wait until dark, ...(you know what to do)

Catching fish - catching up

This summer has been busy.  We've been fishing, and gardening, and cooking, but I have not blogging.  We have re-visited some old favorite recipes and techniques..  Here are some fishing pics:

Nancy is working hard at catching a few trout.  You can see a mess of them on the right.  The usual catch is Rainbows, but I did catch one of Colorado's  native trout - the Cutthroat.

We have enjoyed them grilled whole, fried whole and butterflied.  We had a nice crop of corn this summer.  There is nothing like fresh sweet corn on the grill.  Lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden provided lots of salads.

Removing the bones before cooking takes a little effort, but it makes for a nice presentation.

The trout are just as tasty fried whole.  Scroll down for a previous post on that.