Quick gravlax

Gravlax is a Nordic dish consisting of raw salmon cured in salt, sugar, and dill. Gravlax is usually served as an appetizer. Lox is a fillet of brined salmon. The American English word lox is derived from the Yiddish word for salmon.

Most techniques involve  two sides of a fish. Each filet is covered with a salt/sugar mix.  Herbs, often dill, are added, and the two side are pressed together and allowed to cure for several days. It is simple to make.

Here's an easy recipe from Laura Calder: Gravlax, baby step by baby step.

But, if you don't want two pounds of lox, there is another way. This is based on Jacques Pepin's recipe.


* Start with a good piece of salmon - I used wild-caught sockeye salmon.

* Freshwater fish can harbor parasites and should be frozen (in a deep freezer) before curing. I started with a frozen filet. They are processed as they are caught and frozen in vacuum packs.

* It is not difficult to cut frozen fish with a wave edge knife.I cut a one pound filet into some serving portions..

*The tail end and the ragged front were reserved for gravlax.


* While still semi-frozen, slice thin pieces of the fish.
* On a clean plate or platter, scatter 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and sugar mix.
* Lay the slices on the salt/sugar without disturbing it.




* Sprinkle another tablespoon of the cure mix on top of the slices.

* Add some fresh dill, red onion or a variety of spices.






* Cover with plastic, weigh down with another plate, and refrigerate for 2 or 3 hours.

* Blot with a paper towel. Serve with bread or crackers.

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

Hot Dog !

There is a reason the term Hot Dog! is an expression of excitement and pleasure. I like them.  Plain dogs in a steamed bun are good.  Add a little yellow mustard and sweet relish and it's a real treat.

The variations are almost endless.  I made a couple of my favorites for lunch yesterday.  I started with beef hot dogs and toasted buns (toast both sides). 

Dog #1 - leftover homemade chili and shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

Dog #2 - icebox dill pickle, sweet banana peppers, chopped green onions, tomatoes.

How do you like them?

Easy, cheap, and, slow.

While I was looking back on old blog posts to find my first Daily Sentinel link, I came across my first recipe post.

Easy, cheap, and, fast - What a man wants in a good recipe

I was going to title this post “Simple recipes for simple guys“, but She-who-must-be-obeyed gave me one of those looks. So, I hope she likes this.

Note to my male readers: A man’s ability to cook an edible meal and clean up afterward is an attribute highly valued by women.

There is no shortage of cooking shows, magazines and websites. So I say, “why not me too?” Too often recipes are unnecessarily complicated. There are too many ingredients, and too many pans. So let’s simplify it.

A couple of things stand out for me from that first post. It's still true that the ability to cook is a highly valued attribute.  It's also true that there is no shortage of  cooking shows, magazines and websites.  In fact the right hand column of this bog has a link that will list all the Grand Life Recipes  and the recipes are also aggregated on Grand Life Cooking.

But cooking is more than just following recipes.  After practice and trial and error efforts some skills emerge.  Some technique is important. And imagination is always the secret ingredient.  Can you imagine the taste?  What would it taste like if you added a bit of that spice?  Only practice gives a cook that.

Chefs are tasked with inventing a dish and then replicating it exactly the same night after night.  When you go to your favorite restaurant you often order something you have had before and you know exactly how it should taste.

A Cook is different. A good cook  can put together a good meal with items on hand.  General guidelines can serve as well as a detailed recipe.

Yesterday, She-who-must-be-obeyed said, "It's cold out - some bean soup would be good".  There are four or five bean recipes on this blog, and thousands on the internet.  But as the lady said, it's really cold out right now and this is the soup made from what's on hand. I did not want to go out to the store.

Recipe #48 Hambone, red bean and lentil soup.

Red beans and ham

1 cup (8 oz) red beans
3/4 cup red lentils
1 can diced tomatoes (with onion, celery and green pepper)
1 ham bone
water
splash of blackstrap molasses
dash of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper

That's the recipe list because that's what I had. I often use stock rather than water, but neither homemade nor canned was available. Fresh veggies were in short supply too. I often start with a Mirepoix (onions celery and carrots), but I had a can of tomatoes with stuff in it.

After you have cooked a few pots of beans you know what to do.  Beans take a long time at high altitude whether you pre-soak or not.  I just started these dry right after lunch.  Cover the beans with a couple of inches of water and bring to a boil - then let them simmer.  A couple of hours before dinner add the ham bone and some lentils.  The lentils will cook faster than the beans and fall apart to thicken the soup.  In the last hour sample the broth and add salt and pepper. Remove the bone and chunk up the meat.  Fifteen minutes before serving add a couple of tablespoons of blackstrap molasses (if you have it) and a few shakes of  Worcestershire sauce.  Blackstrap molasses is not particularly sweet, but it does add a nice complex flavor.  The cornbread muffins are straight out of the Jiffy cornbread box. 

I used only half a package of beans because there are only two of us. The general rule is 1 cup of dry beans yields 3 cups of cooked beans.  Note that the lentils have disappeared into the broth. I was using a five quart pot so I made 2½   or 3 quarts of soup. That's enough for dinner and lunch the next day.

Fidget Pie

Meat pies are part of traditional British cooking. Fidget Pie was once a common fall dish. It uses fall produce, apples and potatoes and ham.

Meat pies are often made to use up leftovers. In that case, recipes amounts are merely suggestions. For fidget pie, use roughly equal amounts of ham, apple and potatoes, but don't be too fussy about it. I did not weigh ingredients.

Recipe #35 Fidget Pie

1 pound ham
1 pound apples
1 pound potatoes
1 small onion
1 prepared pie crust
chicken bullion cube / stock
apple cider
salt, pepper, sage, and nutmeg

Slice the ingredients. Place a layer of potato, apple, onion, and ham in the dish. Season each layer with a bit of salt and pepper. Original recipes also call for nutmeg and sage. Alternate additional layers until the dish is full and the ingredients are used up. The dish shown is a 1 1/2 quart casserole.


Cut a ring of dough and place it on the rim of the dish. This will help secure the top.

Make a slurry by mixing 2 tablespoons of flour in a cup of stock or bullion or cider. The liquid will thicken to a gravy as the pie cooks.





Cover with the top round of dough. Cut a hole in the center to allow steam to escape. Add bits of the remaining dough to make a decorative pattern.

Bake at 350 for about 1 hour. Remove when the top is nicely browned.

Four Bean Stew

It's four beans because that's what I happened to have on hand. My mixture consisted of red lentils, black-eyed peas, small white beans , and red beans. It could just have easily been 5 or 6 different kinds of beans. Back in 2007, I posted a recipe for ham and black eyed peas. I think I've added to my cooking skills since then. So, here my 2010 recipe for ham and beans stew. I'm calling it a stew because it is thicker than a soup. We cooked a a shank end ham for the holidays. The nice thing about a ham is that so many meals can be made, there is lots of ham for sandwiches, and the bone anchors a great soup or stew.


Recipe #34 Ham and mixed bean stew

Ham bone
1 pound cooked ham
2 cups mixed dried beans (about one pound)
1 chopped onion
1 chopped celery stick
1 chopped carrot
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cooking oil

(1)Soak the beans first. This hot-soak method is from the Central Bean company page.

After sorting and rinsing the beans, in a large pot add 10 cups of water for each pound (2 cups) of dry beans. Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 or 3 minutes, remove from heat, cover and stand at least 1 hour (quick-soak method), but preferably 4 hours or more; maximum 24 hours. (The longer soaking time is recommended to allow a greater amount of sugar to dissolve, thus helping the beans to be more easily digested.) Whether you soak the beans for one hour or several, discard soak water; rinse beans and pan. Return beans to pan, add fresh cold water to fully cover the beans.

The sugar they are refering to, is the undigestable sugars that can cause gas. This method reduces those sugars and softens the beans. Long cooking also reduces the problem.

(2) When the beans have soaked and are ready to cook add a small amount of oil to your cooking pot. Cook the chopped vegtables. Add the chunks of ham and the bone. If you have a few peieces of the rind with attached fat, throw those in the pot too. A little fat will add a lot of flavor.

(3) Add the rinsed and soaked beans. Add only enough water to cover the beans. Add the molasses and sugar. These will help maintain the structure of the beans as they cook. Simmer gently for 3 or more hours. Cooking times vary, some recipes give times of one or 1 ½ hours, but the high altitude of Colorado generally requires more time.

(4) When the beans are cooked to your liking, remove the bone and larger pieces of meat. Cut meat into bite sized chunks. Before returning the meat to the pot use a stick blender to puree some of the beans. This will thicken your dish and give a nice texture to the soup/stew.

Corned Beef

Dinner last night was cabbage, parsley buttered potatoes, and corned beef. Have you ever thought about the name? The term "corned" beef comes from the English use of the word "corn," meaning any small particle (such as a grain of salt).

Often a brisket is the cut of choice, but other inexpensive cuts, like round or chuck, can be used. The key is curing the beef with a mixture salt, sugar and the pink salts: sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite.

It is the last that gives corned beef and pastrami its pink color. Pastrami is just corned beef that has been rubbed with a spice mixture and smoked.

So what is the big deal about this dinner? This time I cured the beef myself. The Morton salt company sells a mix for home curing. There are two advantages to doing it yourself. The first is that smaller cuts of meat can easily be cured. And secondly, you are in control from the very beginning. You can spice it just the way you like it.

I think I'll try some bacon next.