Pistachio Crusted Pork, Ginger Rice, Asian Green Beans

I hope you've been following my family menu for this week on my site Be A Better Cook. Since not all the recpies and photos will make it over there, and this is where I stash details about most things I cook, here are the results from last night.

Menu Plan:

• 
  
  Pistachio crusted pork chops
• 
  
  Ginger Rice
• 
  
  Fresh Beans

Acutal Menu:

• 
  
  Pistachio and Almond crusted Grilled pork chops - our cleaning people came today, and I couldn't bear to mess up the perfect sparkling clean stove. Grilling a piece of meat with a nut crust was risky, and prone to failure. I added an egg white to the nut mixture, and grilled at medium heat, after rubbing the grill with a lot of oil. I lost a good bit of nut crust, but enough stayed on to give a pleasant taste. Got lucky and cooked them to perfect doneness - moist and juicy, last trace of pink disappeared as they rested for a few minutes. Tasty. Should have had a sauce to go with it.
• 
  
  Ginger Rice - Excellent dish. Recipe below. Will make it often, and picky son Alex actually liked it and ate a HUGE portion.
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  Asian flavored steamed green beans - I'd prefer to work with Chinese long beans, and will later this week. I simply sauteed two garlic cloves and a teaspoon of finely chopped jalapeno (left over from rice), then added 2 teaspoons of soy and a drizzle of sesame oil. Kids liked it. Tasted good.



Pork with Pistachio Almond Crust - just hitting the grill



Pork With Nut Crust
Lost some crust on grill, still a nice extra flavor.
The two with the cross-hatches on the right are plain, for Alex

 

GINGER RICE

3/4 cup onion, chopped finely

1/2 cup red pepper, chopped finely

1/2 a large jalapeno, seeded, chopped very finely

2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil

     --- Heat oil over med-high heat, add vegetables, stir and soften

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced

     --- Add to pot, stir a few times, then add.....

2 cups jasmine rice

3 cups water

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

2 tablespoons salt

     --- Add and bring to a boil.

     --- Cover and lower heat to lowest setting. Cook 17 minutes.

The Minimalist, Proscuitto and Eggplant Wrapped Cod and Chorizo Rice

The Minimalist, Mark Bittman's weekly column in the New York Times, is a worthy source of good, straightforward recipes. His creations are perfect for new cooks or people in a rush.

In my opinion most all his recipes suffer the fate of nearly all "quick cooking" approaches - yes they are better than most people's scratch cooking. Sure they are fast to prepare. In Mark's case, they usually are takes on classic recipes. They're certainly far better than nearly all prepared foods. But they suffer in complexity and depth.

What on earth does that mean?

Great cooking is very often the results of two, three or four flavors or flavor transformations. This requires either multiple techniques or multiple ingredients, each of which contribute to the finished result - which - to use the age old phrase - results in a final dish that is greater than the sum of it's parts.

From the mid-1970's to the mid/late 1990's, Pierre Franey published a weekly column, also in the New York Times. It too addressed the needs of the busy weeknight cook. His creations shared in the The 60-Minute Gourmet met and exceeded all the criteria described above. Since all his dishes were essentially founded in classic French technique, he did no lose the multi-layer flavors, despite simplifiying most techniques.

Further, in his 60 minutes, he provided a two or three course menu, not simply one dish.

The biggest knock on his column/recipes is that one needed to be a fairly proficient cook to really be able to make them in an hour. But - like Rachel Ray (same criticism on 30 Minute Meals - you really need to know what you're doing to meet that time limit) - if you are competent, organized (full mise en place) and undistracted (are there three kids running underfoot?) - if all of these requirements are met - you can make a fabulous meal in right about that one hour window.

I think his book Cuisine Rapide is the best representation of his style. As compared to the original two volumes of collected recipes, these recipes are slightly more up to date. They still include a bit too much cream and butter for our current palate, but those quantities can be easily cut back and the recipes still work. I highly recommend grabbing a copy. Though out of print, it's easily obtained online, even new.

This week, Mark offered Proscuitto wrapped Halibut with Pesto. OK, not a bad dish for a quick effort on a Wednesday night. All I needed to do was to replenish my pine nut supply and find some fish. There were no high quality white fish available (Sea Bass, Halibut, etc) so I settled for cod. It would be a little tougher, but as long as cod is not overcooked it too can be almost buttery (and sublime).

But when I got home, quite late, I didn't really feel like going out in the dark to cut basil from the herb garden, and I knew that a simplistic pesto would just be, well, OK. I happened to scan my fridge and saw a jar of marinated eggplant, flavored with mint and capers, leftover from the last weekend's dinner. I knew I had my improved dish.

• Prosciutto and Eggplant Wrapped Cod


• Chorizo and Mushroom Rice

For the fish: Heat oven to 450. On top of the marcal paper used by the deli to separate the proscuitto slices (or waxed paper or saran wrap), lay down three proscuitto slices, overlapping them slightly. Place 3-5 eggplant slices in a line down the the center. Grate a good quality parmesan over the eggplant then center a fish filet across this base. Add a little salt and pepper, then wrap the proscuitto slices around the fish, using the paper to compress the bundle. Melt butter in a small skillet over moderately high heat. Saute for 1 minute, turn fish and turn off heat, while fish packets get 1 more minute in skillet. Place skilled in oven for 4-5 minutes, until fish is cooked through depending on thickness of fish.

For the rice: Saute about 3/4 pound of chorizo in a heavy pot. Remove chorizo and leave 1-2 T of drippings in pot. Saute onion and crimini mushrooms in the chorizo "oil". Add 2-3 T fresh oregano or 1T dry. Add S&P, rice (arborio or short grain is best) and chicken stock. Cover and cook for 17 minutes on lowest heat. Add cooking time if not all liquid has been adsorbed, but don't allow it to get dry. Add reserved chorizo.

Oh - the fish was pretty darn good - worth making again. And re-using that delicious eggplant was an approach worth repeating. The rice? It gets an official AWESOME rating.

Sara's Memorial

Sadly, we're in Chicago for the funeral of my sister in law Sara Lee, my longtime partner in family cooking crimes.

The initial plan for the post-service gathering back at Chip's house was one involving simplicity and prepared foods. However, as Margie and Meghan began planning their trip to Costco, I was compelled to intervene. I mean, this is for Sara, a purist cook - how could we possibly buy trays of prepared appetizers and sandwiches? On the other hand, I wasn't going to cook for 10-12 hours and lose a night of sleep. Actually I wanted to, but was forbidden, appropriately, by Ms. Finn.

So I had the opportunity to mimic "Dinner: Impossible", the Food Network show where a chef is given a last minute catering job that seems impossible to accomplish. Fortunately, my mission was not impossible. We settled on a simple menu, so it was mostly the quantities that could pose a challenge.

• Assorted Sandwiches on Baguettes
  
• Black Forest Ham and Swiss / and Cheddar
  
• Pastrami and Provolone / and Swiss
  
• Salami and Provolone
• Turkey and Cheddar
• "Everything" - all the of above
• Cucumber and Herbed Cream Cheese on Roasted Garlic Baguette
  
• Spanish Summer Rice Salad with Tuna
• Spicy Moroccan Couscous with Dates
• Pasta, Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato Salad with Microgreens

The sandwiches were a big hit, as Margie and Meghan found VERY high quality baguettes at Costco, especially the Roasted Garlic version. In fact, these weren't baguettes at all. They were not a baguette shape - they were more squat and rectangular in nature; and they were not French style at all - despite the "French Baguette" label. They were a peasant, country style loaf - very dense, very high quality with a perfectly hardened rustic crust. If anything I'd think of them as a Tuscan style.

The lesson is, as always, that the quality and/or uniqueness of a bread is the dominant factor for sandwiches, burgers, crostini, etc. And if you don't bake your own, you're well served if you seek out a high quality loaf or roll.

We were expecting 75 to 100 people to stop by Chip's house, and were not sure how many other dishes would be brought, so we wanted to have a very decent quantity of food on hand. Besides, Peter and his Marine friends, Jonathon's baseball friends, and all those Lee relatives would likely party into the night and devour several courses over time. So 16 enormous sandwiches were assembled, using 8 pounds of meat, 6 pounds of cheeses, and a couple Kirby Cukes and cream cheese.

We set up a great family fueled sandwich factory, in which we had cutters, assemblers and slicers. My father in law Pete, not one to participate in many cooking endeavors, was the heart of the factory. Next time we'll convince him to put triple the quantity of meat on the sandwiches, but otherwise, he was awesome.

My son Alex helped determine the meat / cheese combinations, and came up with the all important and quite deliceious "Everything Sandwich". I was inspired to through together a quick herb cream cheese spread, and created the cucumber sandwich, which went nicely with the roasted garlic bread.

Simple Herbed Cream Cheese
- 1/2 pound container of whipped cream cheese
- 2 small garlic cloves mashed with salt
- 2 t dried tarragon
- 1/2 t dried thyme
- Mix and allow to sit overnight.

The rice salad is the standby that I've been making for 10+ years. (I'll link to the recipe sometime soon). I used 5 cups of Berretta Arboria, to make roughly a triple batch. There was plenty left over. Not sure why - it usually goes fast.

The Couscous was the same dish I created two weeks ago (add link here). It's got a nice blend of spiciness from cumin and cayenne, along with sweeetness from dates and cinnamon. I used 4 boxes of couscous, roughly 2 C each. This too was a bit more than was needed.

While pasta with Tomato and Mozzarella is a classic picnic standby, I chose to pretty it up by using very small tube shaped paste - I think I've seen the name tubettes, but this Barilla version was digitalli or something like that. Tomatos were diced small (1/4 inch) to match, and mozzarella also diced small. These choices set the stage for microgreens. the ones I had from Trader Joe's looked to be roughly watercress in nature, but without the tough stems. I was quite pleased with how they looked in the pasta, as it was more interesting to see than strips of basil, though admittedly, they didn't add much in taste. They may have added a little texture, though the stems were very soft and eminently edible. The pasta was tossed with some garlic infused olive oil, plenty of salt and pepper and about 2 oz of a high quality parmesan per pound of pasta. I made 4 pounds of pasta, which was exactly enough. Very little left over.

WTC Returns with a Vengeance

Well, after a long drought, this blog is returning to form. For a discussion of fairly non-feeble excuses for this absence, go here. Why the triumphant tone after abandoning the blog? Becuase this here entry you're about to read is what this here blog is all about.

The Scene: Saturday 5 pm. Ms. Finn and big kids are at church. Me and the 5-year-old Sunshine are at home, charged with whipping up dinner.

The Plan: Cook some chicken. That's it. We've got a couple packages of chicken breast thawing, essentially no other ingredients of note, and it's already 5 o'clock.

First step: Pour a cocktail. I mean you gotta get some inspiration, right?
Second step: Go to the greatest go-to cookbook of all: Cuisine Rapide. It's not really all too rapide, but it's rapide enough. The discovery: Chicken with Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar. I've got garlic and balsamic. Read further: need mushrooms. I've got no mushrooms. OK, we'll do it without mushrooms. Kids don't like them anyway.
Third step: Scrounge around. Hey - whatta you know? There's a bag of fresh sugar snap peas. The kids have never seen them before, so maybe they'll buy in to the "funny looking bean" / "peas inside" thing. Another good angle "they're like edamame but you can eat the pod". It didn't work , but it was a nice try. They had carrot sticks.

Here's the menu:

• Chicken with Garlic, Balsamic Vinegar, Fresh Oregano and Sundried Tomato
• Asian-flavored Sugar Snap Peas
• Herbed Rice
• Carrot Sticks (ha!)

The Results: excellent. The chicken was out of this world, the peas very nice, and the herbed rice among the best I've made to date, even as simple as it really is. Recap of each recipe:

Chicken: The Cuisine Rapide recipe called for dusting the breasts in flour, and old school technique we don't see a lot anymore. However, it created a nice little texture around the chicken, without the down side of egg wash, breadcrumbs, etc. Also kept the breasts from sticking in the very large non-nonstick skillet I used. Lots of S&P helped, especially since I was not planning to finish the balsamic sauce for the kids, so they needed some seasoning. After browning the breasts I added chicken stock, bay leaf, a half dozen garlic cloves and fresh oregano sprigs. Cover and saute for 10 mins. Perfect. Removed chicken for kids, added balsamic and sun dried tomato slices (Amy loved them), and finished the sauce with a touch of butter. Wonderful, wonderful. Kids really liked the chicked - "best you've ever made" from Alex, the pickiest of the bunch. The oregano and sundried tomato were added simply because I had them, and wanted to substitute for the missing mushrooms.

Peas: Steamed them in microwave, 2 min then let sit covered until done. Sauteed shallot, ginger and garlic in oil, added a splash of sesame then tossed with the peas. Not the perfect match for the chicken, but nice and fresh.

Rice: Suateed onion as a base, sauteed the rice as well, then added fresh thyme, fresh parsley, tarragon (I never have it fresh and don't think it grows in our harsh summer climate) and used half chicken stock / half water. I used an Emile Henry ceramic pot that can be used on the stove top, oven or microwave (and dishwasher). Love this pot. The key to this recipe though, was use of a high quality Basmati rice. The one I used was about $5-6 for 4 pounds. Pretty steep for rice, and the price will likely go higher soon with the news of rising rice prices worldwide. But, the texture, nuttiness and appearance are well worth it. This simple dish is really a stunning side that can hold up to and complement most any cuisine. Respect this one.

TTFN - and please wish me luck on staying current on the blog updates.