Aroma Cucina

Hot Coffee and Farewell to the Mountains

One of the coolest things about being back at sea level is hot coffee.  Water boils at around 180F degrees at Snowbird, where the altitude is 8500 feet at the base, so coffee cooks away in my trusty Moka machine, but it’s not really hot. Food can actually burn on the stove, but not even be close to being cooked, so it can be an exasperating experience to try and turn out a meal.
One of our last meals was a Franco-Italian version of lamb scotto ditto. Scotto ditto is an Umbrian style lamb dish where thin slices of lamb are quickly seared on the grill and you eat them with your fingers while they are scorching hot.  Scotto ditto literally means burned finger.   We don’t have a grill in Utah, so we used the stovetop, and then used a French technique where you burn dried branches of thyme over the meat and let the thyme ash scent the room and flavor the meat. Besides, it’s big fun to light a fire on top of your dinner, just be sure not to do it near a smoke alarm.
If you want to do the scotto ditto thing, get your butcher to slice some lamb shoulder as thin as possible. If you are laughing at the idea of getting a butcher to cut anything, then either track down a good butcher or look for the thinnest possible cut of lamb you can find.  An hour or two before serving generously salt and pepper the meat and layer it with fresh rosemary and bits of garlic. Sear on a hot grill or in a pan and serve. It’s that simple. If you use the indoor pan method you can also deglaze the pan with a bit of red wine and pour over the meat.
If you want the full flame effect, coat a good quantity of fresh thyme with some scotch or bourbon and dry the thyme in the oven.  Lay the dry thyme on the meat, start the bonfire, let the thyme reduce to ash and then eat those lamb bits before they get cold!

We had a great month with lots of fun visitors and plenty of snow and laughs. I’m already looking forward to next year. And Kevin….hope you aren’t too lonely! We’re missing you too!

Steak and Parsley Frites

Steak and Parsley Frites

I’m a bistro girl at heart, or a trattoria girl; occasionally I’m a brasserie girl, especially if there is good charcouterie involved. So, what’s better than a Saturday night bistro dinner at home?  A simple steak frites is comfort food.  The only finicky part is the fries, but take the time to do them right and you will be rewarded with crispy, delicious fries.

I like classic parsley butter on my steak; it’s the only parsley dish that I can serve to my parsley adverse son.  Why on earth does he have such sensitive parsley radar??

Recipe and step by step instructions to get dinner all out at one time are below.

Oxtail

Oxtail

I adore oxtail; it’s rich, meaty and flavorful, just like any meat is that is close to the bone.
I’m also pretty certain that oxtail is really bull tail, which doesn’t sound near as good, but that’s just a guess. I mean, really, how many oxen have you seen lately?

We made a marvelous discovery on Saturday: the Essex St. Market. I remember going there about 100 years ago, and it was dirty and a little bit scary. Now it’s the perfect mix of old and new, there are 2 great cheese guys, vegetables, fishmongers, a voodoo religious guy and Jeffrey’s Meat who looks to be a great new source of meat for me.  When I asked for oxtail, the butcher handed me the whole tail, skinned but whole. Knowing that his knives are better than mine, I had him cut it up into medium size pieces, which was a good move on my part!

I think I was so happy to find this butcher because I’d just lost my local butcher, Dom’s on Lafayette St.  When I first started going there, it was the two brothers, one crankier and curmudgeonlier than the next, but they were excellent butchers. When the older brother died, the younger brother brought in some Chinese butchers and they were good too. When I walked by on Saturday, they were gone, the store is shut down and I was broken hearted as yet another old time butcher had vanished. I’ve said it before, but when you find a good butcher, kiss him, hold him and treasure him (or her as the case may be…our butcher in Montone is a woman…her husband spends far more time flirting than he does with his knives).

Now, without further ado, here is an easy recipe for oxtail braised in red wine.
1 oxtail, cut into medium size pieces
1 carrot
2 stalks of celery
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Fennel seed (1/4 tsp, ground), 4-5 crushed juniper berries, 1 crumpled bay leaf and ½ tsp pink peppercorns if you have some around
Red wine

Dust the oxtail pieces in some flour, salt and pepper.

Sear the pieces in a pan with olive oil and arrange the pieces in an ovenproof casserole that has a lid. Ideally you want a casserole where you can lay each piece flat on the bottom of the casserole, not in layers.

Roughly chop the carrots, celery and onion. Don’t stress over the chopping, but don’t leave the pieces too big. Sweat the vegetables in the same pan that you used for the oxtail, adding a little more olive oil.
When everyone is soft and relaxed in the pot, add the garlic and a bit of salt and pepper and the other spices.

Place the vegetables and spices on top of the oxtail pieces, deglaze the sauté pan with red wine and pour that over everything, adding more wine until the oxtail pieces are covered.
Cover the casserole and place in the cold oven, turn oven to 250 degrees and let braise for at least 3 hours.  Don’t peek, and don’t remove the cover until you are ready to serve.

Before serving, remove the meat and keep warm. Puree the braise juices and the vegetables into a thick, rich sauce which is then added back on top of the meat.
Last night we served it with slivered toasted almonds on top (you could even add almonds to the braise sauce).  Or you could add some color and brightness by finely chopping some parsley and orange peel and sprinkling that on top.
I served it on a bed of cous cous, but polenta would be delicious and so would rice. What ever tickles your fancy. This is good food for a winter evening and the house will smell delicious all afternoon. 

Double Pork Pleasure

Just like one of those wacky descriptions on a Chinese take out menu, it struck me that if a pork chop tastes good, wouldn’t it taste doubly good with some pancetta or bacon on top?
And if roast fennel is delicious, why not add some fennel flowers to it?
Ground fennel seed or fennel flowers act as a fantastic flavor enhancer for white meats. By white meats I mean: pork, chicken, pheasant, squab, guinea fowl, quail, any of those little birdies. The fennel works as a flavor embracer, it doesn’t stand out on its own, but blends and mutates to complement the meat.

Double Pork Pleasure

1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
Drizzle of olive oil

1 porkchop per person
1 slice of pancetta per porkchop
Salt, pepper, ground fennel seed or flower

Layer the fennel, onion and garlic in a roast pan and roast at 350 for 15 mintues. Coat with a drizzle of olive oil. Turn from time to time to prevent stickage and brownage.

Sprinkle salt, pepper and fennel seed onto the pork chops adding the slice of pancetta on top and then place the meats on top of the roasting vegetables.  Continue roasting until the pork chops are done and the vegetables are soft, another 12-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat.

Remove the meat to a warm plate.
Puree the vegetables until smooth, adding any pan juices to the vegetable mix, place the puree onto a plate, lay the chop on top. Eat.

Roast Duck with Fennel

Roast Duck with Fennel Seeds

Rub:
2 Tablespoons salt, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 2 teaspoons  ground fennel seeds

Inside the duck:
½ lemon, and ½ orange, and 2 crushed cloves of garlic

Fennel is used quite a bit in Italian cooking, and it compliments roast fowl very well. Roasting a duck isn’t hard, or scary, or overly messy (if your roasting pan is big enough to catch the grease, and the splatters).  And fennel is a great flavor to play around with.

Combine the ingredients of the rub in a small bowl, then massage the rub all over the bird and let it stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour, or refrigerate over night.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. 

Place the fruit and garlic inside the duck and place on a roasting rack.  Take some washed and halved potatoes and place underneath the duck.

Roast the duck for 10 minutes at 425, then reduce the heat and roast at 350 for about an hour. There are a few ways to check if the duck is cooked. Use a thermometer, the inside temperature should be 165 degrees F, which takes about 30-35 minutes per pound.  Tip the bird and be sure the juices that come out are clear, not bloody, this method is not as reliable as the thermometer, but it’s a good rule of thumb for all fowl.

Serve with some quartered oranges to squeeze onto the meat, and the roasted potatoes. And if Amos is coming for dinner….make extra potatoes!

One course wonder, including salad!

I have a fondness for combining warm meats on top of a cool salad. Something about the greens getting all wilty and soaking up the meat juices, or the richness of meat being cut by a salad. But either way you look at, you get a fork full of contrasting flavor goodness.
Sometimes, you don’t want a multi-course event, but a simple, satisfying one course. And I’m talking about not even having an extra salad plate!

Examples? Last night, while we sat and watched and provided commentary on Rome,  it was a pepper crusted steak, served with some parsley and garlic butter, over greens. With my other all time favorite salad addition: hot, crunchy potatoes. Next time you have some fried or roasted potatoes on your plate, and a salad hanging around nearby, give them a try together. Let me know what you think.  I've posted a  family favorite recipe for  the fried potatoes with thyme and garlic. The cool thing about the recipe is  that you get to use up  all those itsy bitsy little,  interior cloves of garlic that you hate to peel, but don't want to throw away.  See, it was a good dinner to serve because I can't follow all those characters and need HELP! Thanks Deborah!

Recently for lunch, it was warmed left over roast chicken served over greens with a pomegranate-soy dressing.  I think the pomegranate season is officially over, and I’m very sad.
We are in a seasonal fruit black out period now…what’s the next fruit to come along?? Even the blood oranges are over.  I guess its grapes from Chile and bananas from the Chiquita empire for the time being. I hope I’m not prone to scurvy. Sigh.

Chicken in a Salt Crust

Roast Chicken in a Salt Crust

Salt Crust
4 cups of flour
2 cups of coarse grain salt
1  cup of water

Seasoning
Sage
Juniper
Salt
Pepper Corns, lightly crushed
Mustard

1 Chicken

Rinse the inside and outside of the chicken with cold running water.

Make a mixture of 4 -5 chopped fresh sage leaves, ½ teaspoon of whole peppercorns lightly crushed, 3-4 juniper berries lightly crushed and rub this mixture on the inside cavity of the chicken. Truss the birdie so the legs are closed and tight to the body…virgin style.  Now rub the chicken skin with a generous tablespoon of whole grain mustard.  Decorate the chicken with some sage leaves.

Make the salt crust, which is a lot like making play doh. In a large bowl, add the flour and salt and mix together. Also add ½ teaspoon of pepper corns, 3-4 juniper berries and another 4 leaves of finely chopped sage, and mix this thoroughly. Now, make a well in the center of the flour/salt/spice mixture and start adding the water, whisking it in with a fork, and then kneading it with your hand. You are working towards having the mixture will come together in a soft, elastic dough ball, which you can then turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead until you have a smooth, elastic, fun to play with dough, about 4-5 minutes. Not too soft and mushy, but pleasantly pliable. Now you will need to roll out the dough; you can roll it out on some parchment paper or plastic wrap or just use a pastry scraper to lift the dough from the board. The idea is that you are going to encase the chicken in this dough, I have a marble board, so its easy for me to just scrape it up with a pastry scraper; otherwise roll out your dough on something that you can lift up to surround the chicken.  The dough should be about ½” thick and big enough that when you place the chicken in the center, you can bring up the sides to completely encase it. Don’t get too twitchy about the dough, you can patch any holes or gaps with the left over scraps of dough. Do try to be careful to fully encase the bird.
Bake in a 350 oven for 50 minutes, and then let the chicken rest in a warm place (not in the oven…maybe on the stove) for 20 minutes. It’s a good idea to pierce the crust and test the chicken with a thermometer to make sure its fully cooked after the resting period.  It will continue cooking and steaming and this steam time is the secret to this incredibly soft, pillowy chicken.
Remove the crust, discard it…you shouldn’t be eating roasted play doh, and now serve this luscious bird! 

It’s a very cool technique and I’m sure there are lots of variations out there waiting to be discovered.  I want to try making it with a pierced lime or two inside the chicken, along with some chili paste and garlic.
Or maybe just a ton of garlic and parsley.  Or some oranges and thyme. Have fun with it! Let me know how it turns out.

Pork Chops with Pomegranate

Pork Chops with Pomegranate

4 boneless pork chops

Dry rub
1 T Salt,
1/8 teaspoon each of pepper, ginger, coriander, cumin, tumeric, nutmeg, paprika

Olive oil for cooking

Seeds of ½ of a large pomegranate
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely minced
4-5 T ponzu or soy sauce

Garnish
Pomegranate syrup
½ fresh lime

Bring pork chops to room temperature. Mix all the ingredients for the dry rub in a small bowl and then firmly rub both sides of each chop.

Combine the fresh pomegranate seeds, minced garlic and soy sauce.

In a sauté pan, heat pan on high heat, when the pan is hot, add a small quantity of olive oil.  Sear chops on both sides, then turn down the heat to finish cooking.

When the chops are done, remove to warm plates.  Add the pomegranate seed mixture to the pan and deglaze.  Spoon the seeds and sauce over the chop. Use the pomegranate syrup as a garnish on the plate, along with some fresh lime.

Roast tangerine duck

1 plucked duck, feathers taste nasty
1 tangerine whole
1 tangerine, juiced (optional)
2 cloves of garlic
1 sprinkle of thyme
salt/pepper
Grand Marnier (optional)
Preheat oven to 450F
Wash the duck under cool running water, remove any icky bits that might be inside. If you have the duck liver, gizzards, heart, for god's sake, don't throw them out! Reserve these innards and make a lovely sauce, make some crostini, be creative!
Cut the tangerine in half and stuff it into the cavity, along with the two peeled cloves of garlic, give them a light crush before putting inside the bird. Place the bird in a small roasting pan and generously sprinkle the skin with salt, pepper and thyme.  The salt is what is going to make the skin crispy and act as a moisture seal, so be very generous with the salt, rub it in good and plenty.

Roast the bird for about 45 minutes,  when you tip the bird, the juices should run clear, not bloody.

If you would like a little light sauce, warm the tangerine juice and then add a generous shot of Grand Manier, or Cognac or Calvados or similiar strong spirit. Let the mixture come to a boil for a minutes to cook off the alcohol.  When you remove the duck from the oven, carefully skim off the fat, and reserve for later. Add the juice/Grand Marnier to the roasting pan and deglaze the pan. Serve the juice in a small dish along side the duck.
Now, about that duck fat. It's damn good. Strain it and put in a sealed container in the fridge or freezer. Fry some potatoes in it. Frizzle leeks in it. Keep it around until  you make a batch of duck confit.  Saute onions in it. Don't have a heart attack, literally. Your body understands how to break down duck fat much better than it knows  how to break down a McDonald's french fry.  Now, isn't that good news?

Roast quail with prunes

1-2 quails per person, depending on their size
Roast quail with prunes
1 small slice of pancetta or piece of bacon per quail
1 prune per quail
1 clove of garlic per quail
Rub: salt, pepper, pinch of cinnamon, scrape of nutmeg
Chicken stock

Clean, and rinse the birds.  Remove the pit from the prune if necessary, and replace with a peeled clove of garlic. Place the stuffed prune inside the bird's cavity. Rub the birds with the rub...that's why the call it a rub....get it in their good, between the wings, down the legs. Arrange the birds in a roasting dish and cover with a small piece of bacon or pancetta. Add a small amount of chicken stock, about 1/2 deep in the bottom of the pan.  Cover the roasting pan, and roast the birds at 350F for about 30 minutes, uncover and raise the heat  to 400F for the last 15 minutes.  mmmmm.......