Needing to clean out my freezer in preparation for receiving a quarter of a 4-H pig in a month, I’ve been working diligently to discard old stuff that I’ll never use and cook up things that have been hiding in corners. I had this nice 2-pound boneless pork loin roast, but what to do with it? I turned to my newest favorite grilling book: The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen. Sure enough, he had several pork loin recipes. This one fit the bill since it didn’t require me to run to the grocery store. All I needed was garlic (yup), rosemary (yup, out of the garden, in abundance), salt, pepper and olive oil. How cinchy is that?

Ideally you’ll want to marinate this roast for a few hours with the herb-garlic mixture all over it, but I didn’t have the time. I’d forgotten to defrost the roast until about noon the other day, so soaked it in cold water (all sealed up) for several hours. Some parts of the middle were still a bit on the frosty side, so I opened up the roast (which is a procedure in the recipe anyway) and let it sit at room temp for about 20 minutes.

photo, from Raichlen’s The Barbecue Bible, showing how to butterfly a pork tenderloin. I used the same technique for a pork roast.

The recipe indicates using a mortar for grinding up the herb mixture, but I had frozen little cubes of garlic to use (pureed) and it took no time at all to mince the fresh rosemary. I just minced and minced and minced with my long santoku knife, then mashed in the garlic, salt, pepper, and finally the oil. It took no time at all to make. I’m including a photo of a page in the cookbook about butterflying the meat. The meat I had was from Costco, and it was already rolled. I opened it up (it was already butterflied), but then you cut shorter pockets in each side (in the fat side of the loins) – not all the way through, and leaving ½ inch at each end. So it’s a kind of slot. To stuff the herbs into. You slather half of the mixture on the inside edges, reform the roast, tie it up (I used those nifty reusable baking rubber bands), then slather the remaining herbs on the outside.

We decided to rotisserie the roast. My DH warmed the grill to high, and between us we positioned the rotisserie prongs in the meat and started it up. You can also do this over indirect heat on the grill itself (positioning a drip pan under the grill, however). It took about 70 minutes for our roast to reach 160 degrees F. We removed it, let it rest for about 5 minutes while I quick-like arranged the artichoke half I’d just pressure-cooked, and a nice green salad. I had meat from the inside of the roast – it was delicious – absolutely mouth-filling with the garlic and rosemary. Loved it. DH had a slice from the outside, and he thought it was a bit overdone. Next time I’d remove the roast at 155 degrees F. and let it sit. And I’d push the pocket to almost the end, so only the very outside slice would be without some of the herb mixture in it. I might also make a sauce to serve with this – a pan sauce would be easy enough to do. Maybe just chicken broth, rosemary and garlic, perhaps some chopped up dried apricots. Boiled and thickened, then with some added butter just at the end. Just a thought. I’ll be making this again, in any case.
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So, there was a blurb by John Willoughby in June’s issue of Gourmet that almost missed my radar. Here’s the blurb quoted from the magazine:

Myth: Searing meat at the beginning of cooking helps seal in the juices.

Facts: Despite its impressive heritage (Escoffier himself espoused the concept), this well-known axiom is completely false. In his book The Curious Cook, food scientist Harold McGee explains how he cooked a series of identical steaks with and without initial searing, then measured the moisture loss from each. The results were clear – the seared steaks actually lost a bit MORE juice during cooking. There is, however, a very good reason to give meat a nice, hard sear when it first goes into the pan. Thanks to a chemical process called the Maillard reaction, it creates literally hundreds of new flavor compounds that give the meat a much deeper and more complex flavor.

 Thank goodness for that last sentence; otherwise we’d be eating gray meat from hereon in. But, they missed one other ascetic – meat just plain LOOKS better when it’s been marked or seared, don’t you think? Photo above is our favorite grilled beef: Ribeye Steaks with Amazing Glaze.

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In preparing a dinner for guests the other evening I wanted something bright green on the plate. Regular broccoli didn’t sound right. Zucchini would have worked, but I wanted something brighter. Lots of other veggies flitted through my mind, but none seemed just right until I thought about broccoli rabe. Seems like it’s only been the last 5 years or so we can even FIND broccoli rabe (rapini) in our regular markets. Sure enough, found some easily enough. I always thought broccoli rabe was just young broccoli, but according to wikipedia, it’s its own genus, more related to a turnip than broccoli. Mine sure looked more like broccoli, so I wonder if our stores are selling young broccoli or broccolini and just calling it rabe (or raab, or rapini). Mine didn’t look anything like the photograph at that site (theirs is mostly leaf; mine was mostly stem).

In my rush to get dinner on the table, though, I forgot one step. I followed the recipe just fine from step two on. I just forgot to blanch the rabe beforehand, so it was a tad bit on the crunchy side. Still good, but the stems were a bit firm for my taste and everyone else’s, for that matter. But I like the preparation – garlic, red pepper flakes, some chicken broth and pancetta. I didn’t use the pancetta because it would have been superfluous with the Zinfandel Sausage Sauce with pasta I’d made. Hopefully next time I’ll remember to blanch it first! I definitely liked the sauce on the rabe and it was quite easy to make once you start.
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It was several years ago that Joanne Weir was making regular circuits of cooking schools. That’s when I first discovered what a kick-in-the-pants she is. I think she’s just about my favorite cooking instructor. As she teaches, she maintains a lively monologue about the different dishes, and about everything else under the sun. She teaches week-long classes in Italy, France and Spain too. Oh, if only our dollar and the euro were a bit more aligned I’d be on a plane to attend one of those European cooking vacations. She also has a PBS cooking show, but none of her spark shows through on it, in case you’ve watched it.  Joanne also teaches classes in her home in San Francisco (for a very small group) which sounds like fun too. But it’s also not a bargain. Alas. I’ll just have to stick to reading her cookbooks, of which I own many.

This recipe was one she served at a class some years ago. It’s from her book, Weir Cooking in the City. At this evening class, she whipped it up first thing so we could have some little something in our tummies while she prepared all the other dishes. I really liked it a lot. It’s spicy (from the cayenne), spreads nicely (as long as you let it the cheese or the finished dip sit out at room temp for half an hour before serving) and attractive (with olives or Italian parsley sprinkled on top). I’ve made it at least half a dozen times. You do need to like Feta cheese, however, and in this case she recommends buying barrel-aged Feta (sheep’s milk) if you can find it. Our local grocery carries it, and I’ve also purchased it at Whole Foods. But if all you can find is regular Feta, use it. It’s served with hot pita bread (not toasted, just hot), so you need to eat it immediately; otherwise the pita is cold. Not all bad that way either, but the bread is supposed to be served hot. This dip is EASY – takes less than 5 minutes to prepare once you have the ingredients out.
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Searching through my salad recipes the other day, I rounded up about 5-8 recipes that I’ve made before (but prior to when I started photographing all my cooking) or haven’t made, but want to. As soon as I saw the piece of paper this recipe was on, it flooded back fond memories. Back in the days when I was working. Once in awhile we’d have a potluck lunch. We had some goooood cooks amongst our staff, and I count a number of my favorite recipes as products of those potlucks. Among them, that I have blogged about: Vicki’s Harlequin Pinwheel Cookies, Kathy’s Monterey Scalloped Potatoes, Kathleen’s Almond Custard. Others that I haven’t blogged:  this, Joanne’s Syrian Bread Salad. Also her Triple Chocolate Cookies. And Debbie’s Apple Pie. Or yes, Kathleen’s Pretzel Dessert, and Eileen’s Pineapple Cream Cheese Dip. Audré’s Curried Deviled Eggs. And on and on it goes.

Joanne is Swedish by heritage, and the last I heard, she was living outside Paris with her hubby and family. She used to kid herself that she’s a SAP, a Swedish American Princess. She married a successful businessman, who happens to be Lebanese by heritage. So Joanne learned to cook a lot of Lebanese dishes including this salad, which is often called fattoush (pronounced fah-toosh). Joanne brought it to several of our potlucks, and we all loved it. It’s tart (from the lemon juice dressing), crunchy (from the pita) and altogether very refreshing (from the combo of cucumbers, green onions, tomatoes, parsley and mint). It also has the addition of zahtar. Since I assume that some of you don’t know much about zahtar, you’re about to be educated.

Zahtar is to the Middle East like curry powder is to India. Meaning that it’s ubiquitous to that region. But, zahtar is also a combination of herbs and spices and can be different from one cook to another, just like curry powder. If you’re interested in a lot of history, read Wikipedia’s explanation of zahtar. But suffice to say that zahtar is generally a mixture of oregano, hyssop, marjoram and thyme. My zahtar (that I buy from Penzey’s) contains sesame seeds, sumac (which gives it the red color), thyme and salt. So, you can see how different purveyors will make a different product.

The salad is very easy – providing you have the fresh lemon juice (check), the pita (check), the mint (I prefer fresh, check), tomatoes (check), green onions (check), and parsley (Italian, check). I always have the other stuff on hand (lettuce, in this case romaine, cucumber, garlic, scallions, olive oil, zahtar and ground allspice). Since I’m a huge fan of lemon juice in salad dressings, there’s no question I love this salad. The original recipe didn’t indicate it, but I toast the pita bread pieces in the oven for about 4-6 minutes until just beginning to turn golden brown. That way they’re a bit crunchy in the salad.  I also prefer the fresh mint (a lot of it, actually, and I use more than the recipe indicates). The two recipes Joanne gave me had one with fresh and one with dried. So, your choice. Although the salad is called a bread salad, the pita chips aren’t predominant in the salad. It’s a green salad, but with the lovely crunch of toasted pita chips. And the delish lemon dressing. And mint. Well, you all got it. I love this salad.
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I know, the name is odd, isn’t it? I suppose I could just change the name and claim the recipe as my own, but that’s not fair to the originator of this sauce, so I’ve always referred to it by her title. It’s not just any old spaghetti sauce, as we’d be likely to call it, and surely Camille Stagg meant for us to take notice. This isn’t your ordinary red – either the wine OR the sauce. Camille Stagg is a well-known journalist, travel writer, and must live in Chicago, as she’s written a book about gourmet haunts in that town. She consults with some wineries and wine distributors (clubs), as I found other recipes listed by her in a couple of places on the internet.

Many years ago we used to have two bottles of wine delivered to us each month by a small company up in Emeryville, California. And each month the wine purveyor included a write-up about the wines in the box, AND a recipe suitable for that wine. Likely this recipe came in with a box of zin, since it calls for the wine in the recipe. It sounded so intriguing, I had to try it. We were going to have a wine tasting at our home a week or so later, and I asked each guest couple to bring a bottle of wine and food to serve with it. Specifically, they were to bring something that would complement their wine type. We stood around our kitchen island with 4 (small) glasses of wine in front of us, and sampled food with each wine. It was fun, and we really liked this sauce.

Having not made this for several years, I had to refresh my memory about what was different about it (it uses nearly a whole bottle of zin for 5 pounds of sausage). Once you combine the sausage, onions, mushrooms, garlic and seasonings, you can either simmer it on the range, or put it in a crockpot for long, slow simmering. I did the latter and kept it at high for about 4 hours to help boil off the wine. The sauce is thin to start, and must be simmered down to reduce it. Obviously, it’s a heavy sauce, redolent with the winy taste, and complemented with a large quantity of mushrooms. It’s an extremely dark-colored sauce – zin wine certainly stains nearly anything it touches anyway, so the meat takes on the dark red color as well. You can use your own combination of sausage – the recipe calls for half hot and half sweet. It’s zesty, I’ll give you that! Zinfandel is a zesty wine in and of itself – most people describe it as spicy. And the hot/spicy sausage ups the ante. If you don’t like spicy sausage, use all sweet Italian. This freezes well. Over the years I’ve increased the recipe volume – you can certainly halve it easily enough. I like to have leftovers to freeze. Linguine is my pasta of choice for this. I also increased the amount of wine in the recipe, but not by much.
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Strawberries are on the wane here in Southern California. They’re really at a peak of ripeness and sweetness, though. So I bought two big boxes of berries to use for a company dinner. First I made my much-loved Strawberry Gazpacho. Since I’ve written it up before, you can click on the recipe title above and get to the original posting for it. With super ripe berries, the gazpacho had a wonderful sweet taste.

The remaining I used in the dessert. No longer do I have the original recipe for this. My notes, though, tell me it was in a Sunset Magazine. Since I found it listed in one of my military officer’s wives’ cookbooks dating back to about 1968, I know it’s at least that old. I even remember when I first made it – I was living at Whidbey Island, Washington – learning to cook and enjoying the compact kitchen I had in the small but new home I was living in at the time. Strawberries make their entrance there in late May or early June (my recollection anyway) and once the main crops were picked, the fields near Oak Harbor opened up for people to pick their own “jam” berries. But even those were very tasty; they were just small. Perfectly ripe, however.

Making this over the years (but not for at least 15-20) I’d forgotten some of the procedures, and had to refresh my memory. My typed up recipe also contained an error; fortunately, however, I recognized something was missing and went to look it up on the internet. I found several sources for this recipe, and with the exception of two ingredients, they were all the same. The differences were in the original recipe too, as I recall. This can be made with frozen berries if you want – in which case you decrease the amount of sugar. A more recent version suggested using Cool Whip instead of heavy cream if you prefer, so I included that in my recipe, although I’ve never made it that way.

First you make a sweet crumb mixture. While it’s baking you can work on the filling (strawberries, lemon juice, egg whites and heavy cream or Cool Whip). Once the baked mixture is cooled and crumbled up well, 2/3 of it is sprinkled on the bottom of a 9×13 pan. I stuck that in the freezer while I finished up the filling. The recipes all said to combine the berries, the egg whites, sugar and lemon juice and whip it all up until soft peaks form. I thought that sounded so very odd – the sliced berries would be totally decimated. I wanted them to remain in a more solid form, so I only folded in the berries at the end. Then you combine the whipped cream or Cool Whip with it, carefully spoon it over the crumbs in the pan, sprinkled the remaining crumbs on top and freeze. When ready to serve, you can decorate the square with some additional strawberries, even drizzle some strawberry juice around the plate.

What I did forget was that once frozen, this dessert needs to defrost a little bit before you even attempt to cut it up. Ten minutes out didn’t seem to be enough time. It still cracked in odd directions, and is hard to eat. It still tasted good, but with mostly frozen chunks of berries in it, it really needs that defrosting time to make it easily edible. None of the recipes I found online indicate that, and it’s been too many years since I made this to remember. So, whatever method you use, fresh or frozen berries, cream or Cool Whip, this is a refreshing dessert, and really quite easy to make.
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It was time, again, for me to bake something for my DH(dear husband)’s Bible study group. I flipped through the options and came upon this one, which was very simple. That’s what I needed, as I was short on time. And I had one big Braeburn apple waiting to be utilized in something. I was supposed to use a Granny Smith, but I didn’t have one. Braeburn would have to do! There was only one problem. The recipe was mostly in metric (milliliters and grams). I managed, primarily because I have a kitchen scale that will convert the two. Good thing since I was rushing.

But for you, my friends, I’ve made it easy. I went to a website and did all the conversions for you, so you needn’t worry about having a special scale to compute the measurements.

As for the scone, it was very nice. A drier kind of scone, but since this is from a European blogger, she likely likes a drier type recipe. I tend to prefer a more tender crumb but that’s just my personal preference. Don’t misunderstand – it was delicious. I liked it. And I liked that I just plopped it onto a large baking tray (Silpat lined) and scored the top. Didn’t have to pat it out and cut rounds. The apple contained within the dough (which is mushed into it after it’s mixed up in the food processor – see, I told you it was easy) gave it a nice moistness. The fellows nearly ate the whole thing, but we had enough for breakfast instead of toast. I’d make this again just because it’s so very easy.

The recipe came from a blog I read regularly – Buerre et pain – and she got it from Morning Bakes, a breakfast baking cookbook by Linda Collister. I did have to make another adjustment – I didn’t have any whole wheat flour, so substituted additional all-purpose. I’ve altered the recipe for that, but you can substitute about ½ cup of the whole wheat if you’d like. And I’ve included just a tad more butter in the mixture than was called for in the original. Once the round is patted out, you sprinkle the top with some demerara sugar – I used turbinado. That gave each wedge a nice little crunch. I liked that part. I’ll make this again! You can also split a wedge and toast it, although the scone is very crumbly – even more so the second day.
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You won’t find very many recommendations on this blog for frozen foods. Especially fish. Although Trader Joe’s stocks a wide variety of frozen fish, I’m usually disappointed. The fish is usually watery and cooks up dry and not all that tasty. But I was stopped in my tracks when I saw this box of Morey’s Wild Caught Alaska Salmon (I think I bought it at Trader Joe’s, not Costco). I rarely buy farm raised salmon, or hardly any other farm-raised fish. After watching a documentary some years ago about how those poor creatures are raised in very confined beds, having to eat their own poop, I consciously decided not to buy the stuff. So, when I see a label that says wild caught, I home in.

In the photo above you can see the cooked product (larger photo). In the photo that I inset at the left you can see the exterior of the box and down below are two of the individually sealed  fillets. When you defrost it, it’s ready to cook, marinated and everything. There are six in a box. Remove the fillet from the plastic sack and place on a baking sheet (I lined it with foil), bake 15-22 minutes and you’re done. It was very nice. I overcooked it a little bit (18 minutes), but the flavor was delicious. I suggest you try it, if it’s available near you.

And now I’ll tell you about another product I buy via mail order. Albacore Tuna. For some years we’ve been warned about the mercury in tuna, so I started buying tuna from Carvalho Fisheries (Pacific Northwest) because they only catch small albacore tuna. These fish are still young, so haven’t ingested as much mercury. Carvalho’s tuna is deliciously tasty stuff. It’s what I use when I make Joanne Weir’s Sicilian Tuna Salad.

Yes, it’s expensive. Certainly more money than we pay at the grocery store for albacore (the albacore hold more mercury than other of the tuna species). But their tuna contains a fraction of the mercury as we’d get from the grocery store brands. I buy it by the case and it lasts me many months.  But then, I only make tuna salad sandwiches every couple of months. I also buy Carvalho’s smoked albacore. A special treat. I have fond memories of time with family friends years ago. He used to catch tuna and have it smoked. It was a frequent offering for appetizers – with small rings of red onion and Ritz crackers. Delish. (tuna photo from Carvalho website)

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Last week we invited a friend over for dinner. She’s trying to eat healthy, so I decided to skip the main course and make a hearty appetizer, a soup, a salad, and low calorie dessert. In the last few days I’ve posted all the recipes from that dinner: Layered Hummus & Eggplant Appetizer, a cool Cream of Cucumber Soup, this salad, and Lemon-Ginger Frozen Yogurt served with the cookies that Kathleen brought along to share with us – Cashew Caramel Cookies. I had a stack of salad recipes to choose from, but thinking through the flavors and textures in the other dishes, I decided this salad was the best fit. I had several poblano (also called pasilla) chiles in the produce drawer that needed to be used.

The salad itself is cinchy. It’s just the poblano chiles that take a bit of time, but not all that much. I cut them into large semi-flat pieces, removed the stems and seeds, laid them flat on a foil covered tray. I sprayed them with olive oil spray, then broiled them for about 8 minutes on the first side, and about 3-4 on the 2nd side. Once roasted, let them cool so you can handle them, then cut up into bite-sized pieces. The recipe indicated peeling them; I didn’t. Set aside and add later. The salad itself is nothing but greens with a simple salad dressing (balsamic and oil, cumin and coriander) that takes no time at all to concoct.

The recipe comes from Katherine Kagel, the owner of Café Pasqual’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of my very favorite restaurants.

If I make this again I will add some other texture to the salad – it was too “soft” for me. I like crunchy stuff in my salad. But I didn’t think this one wanted radishes or celery or carrots. You want to taste the chiles – they are the star player in this salad. But I think I would add some peppered pecans, which I make every once in awhile anyway. If I’d had some on hand, I’d have added them. They’re so very simple to make. The salad was very good – I liked it. Relatively easy too.
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