Shopping Day Finds

I have seen small packages of cut up beef (and pork and veal and lamb) neck semi-regularly at our local stores, but this weekend's pass through Hannaford was the first time I have seen packages of whole beef neck:

This is marvelous meat for stock, and can also be used for fantastic soups. Given the weather we've been having lately, I might be tempted to smoke a whole one.

Now, this post is tardy (as are a number of others I've been meaning to write up) so that lovely pile of meat may be all gone by now. The nice thing is, if a supermarket can get this once, they can get it again, and they will if enough of us ask.

Mint Tea Muffin Bread

I already posted the recipe (more or less) during last summer's Battle with the Mint, but what I didn't have then were photos:

To make a loaf instead of muffins, make the batter the same way, but pour it into a greased loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes instead of 30.

Yes, this is what I'm passing off as today's post.

Shopping Day Finds

It was a good weekend at our local supermarkets.

First, I was delighted to find Hannaford had chicken feet again.

I missed out the last time -- I'd been ordered not to bring home any large packages of odd ingredients for a while -- so the fact that I have now seen them there a second time means if we keep asking for them, Hannaford will keep getting them.

So, what, you ask, do you do with chicken feet? Well, you can deep fry them and pop them into your mouth, bones and all. The Chinese love that, apparently, but after trying it at a dim sum place in Boston, I can't recommend it.

No, if you're like me, you want to use them to make stock. Much of what I keep saying about pig's feet applies just as well to chicken feet -- tons of connective tissue that melts when simmered -- so they will make some of the best chicken stock you've ever had. You can use them on their own or with whatever gnawed-on chicken bones you have accumulated.

The second find of the day was in the deli counter at Price Chopper. I have been mourning the fact that they do not carry mortadella anymore, but my grief was lessened when I saw this:

Head cheese is various cuts of meat, mostly from the head, boiled until tender and then jammed together into a form that can be sliced into lunchmeat.

It is sooooooo good! For those of you reflexively going "ew," know this: My four-year-old wolfed down a slice and promptly demanded more. If that finnicky little beast likes it, so will you.

 

A Pot of Black and Tan

I should have made this post last week. I couldn't, though, because I hadn't thought of it yet.

This post of for people who have just cooked a big hunk of corned beef by braising it in Guinness and water and maybe some beef stock all afternoon, and are wondering what to do with the cooking liquid.

You probably fell into that category last night, and will probably not fall into it again for a while. The thing is, you don't need to wait until next St. Patrick's Day to make corned beef braised in Guinness. You can, in fact, make it whenever you darn well please. I'm not going to suggest you make corned beef this weekend just to get the cooking liquid. I will suggest, humbly, that you make it more often and then keep this recipe in mind.

So, anyway, you've just had a nice dinner of corned beef and cabbage and there's all this rich, malty, beefy, salty cooking liquid sitting in the pot. Oh, it would be such a shame to pour all that flavor down the sink!

This is where being an obsessive stockpiler of canned beans comes in handy. Toss four or five cans of beans into the cooking liquid -- you want the liquid level to remain over the beans. If you are lucky enough that you have two stray leeks on hand, chop them up and toss them in. No leeks? A couple onions will be good.

This is where you're probably expecting me to recommend throwing in a pig's foot, eh? Well, you're right! It's not strictly necessary, as the liquid has been absorbing brisket juice all afternoon, but it will still add a little something. So, if I've convinced you to start keeping pig's feet in the freezer, toss one in!

Bring the whole kit and kaboodle to a boil, slide it into the oven at 225 and leave it there overnight.

(Mine started at 11 p.m. and came out of the oven shortly after 7 a.m., though the oven was turned off an hour or two prior to that by somebody who didn't realize there was a pot in it.)

End result: A big pot of rich, meaty, salty beans, good for stretching out the leftover corned beef or just being eaten on their own.

This dish was named before I saw the end results, based on what I expected it to look like when long-cooked white beans nestled in the reduced remnants of the beefy Guinness. The end result was actually just plain tan all around, but I stuck with the original name.

(For those of you preparing to write indignant emails about how I shouldn't have named it that at all, yes, I know my history. Have another drink, listen to the song and leave me alone!)

The older the violin, the sweeter the music...

Since we're running right smack into town meeting, I don't know how much posting I'm going to do this week.

To hold you folks over, here's Harold McGee on eating canned food that's gone past its expiration date.

Ditalini Tandoori

So, like I said yesterday, sometimes a braise leaves you with a whole lot of liquid that you don't need to serve with the meat.

As easy as it might be to toss out that liquid, you'd be wasting a whole lot of flavor. Don't pour it down the drain -- cook with it.

I had a plan for the liquid from that tandoori turkey. As soon as I pulled out the drumsticks, before even sitting down for dinner, I was going to pour in a can or two of chickpeas into the pot, toss in a pig's foot (because, why not) and slide the whole thing back into the oven at 275 for three or four hours. The result would be combined with whatever rice was left over and give me a few lunches.

At the last minute, I discovered that the two cans of chickpeas I could have sworn were in the pantry had vanished. I did, however, have a box of ditalini -- one of those really small pastas.

So, the pig's foot went in the pot, which went back in the oven just before dinner. Two hours later, all its gelatiny goodness seemingly cooked out, I tossed the foot and added a cup of pasta and brought the mixture to a boil.

I have found, when cooking with a very low ratio of liquid to pasta, that the pasta takes up to twice as long as normal to cook. You also need to keep stirring to make sure it doesn't burn, and stand ready to throw in some more water if the liquid cooks down too fast.

Once the pasta is done -- al dente is just fine, take the pot off the heat. You may, depending on how much there is, want to spoon or skim off some of the excess fat.

The result here was a spicy, meaty mass of pasta that went great with some rice to stretch it out, and a pot of wonderfully flavored liquid that did not go to waste.

Tandoori-spiced Braised Turkey Legs

Smoked turkey legs were all the rage a few years back, and still turn up at some festivals.

Braising them can be even more fun than smoking them, and more practical in the dead of winter. The drawback to braising poultry rather than smoking it is that would have to take care to get the skin crispy. This (as we have discussed before) is most easily accomplished by cooking them in an open pot, with as much of the skin above the liquid as possible.

For a while, now, I’ve been thinking I should try smoking turkey after marinating it in tandoori paste, but went with this braise when inspiration struck on a day that was not particularly grill friendly.

It is my usual practice, when I make braises, to use the liquid as a sauce. In this case, I let the marinated meat stand on its own and held on to the liquid for a second dish – you’ll have to tune in tomorrow if you want to find out what that wound up being.

You will also note that I did not bother trying to brown the turkey. I took one look at the drumsticks, with their curvy shape, and decided the time that I would have spent getting grease burns while cursing the meat for not lying flat against the pan would be better spent watching television. The oven browned the skin just fine.

I served this with coconut rice and sliced cucumbers in a ginger-mint sauce. The ginger-mint sauce is still a work in progress. I’ll get it to where I can post it eventually.

 

Tandoori-spiced Braised Turkey Legs

• 6 turkey legs
• 3-4 large spoonfuls of tandoori paste (As long as my supply of Patak’s holds up, I expect I will continue to be too lazy to make my own.)
• Rice vinegar
• Olive oil
• 2 onions, sliced lengthwise
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• butter

Place the turkey legs in a large Ziploc bag with three or four spoonfuls of tandoori paste. Thin the paste with some vinegar and olive oil, seal the bag and jostle it until the marinade covers the meat. Refrigerate for at least two hours (three or four would be even better), picking up the bag and jostling it every half-hour or so.

In a pot wide enough to hold the turkey in a single layer (like this one), melt a pat of butter in a little oil and sweat the onions. Add the bay leaf and garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute. Place the turkey in the pot and pour in the marinade with enough water to come one-third to one-half of the way up the sides of the turkey legs.

Cook for about an hour, checking to make sure the skin doesn’t burn, then drop heat to 325. Cook for a total of two hours.

Remove and serve.

Reserve the liquid for the recipe in tomorrow's post.

Apricot-stuffed Roast Pork Loin

There is something to be said for second choices.

Apples and pork is a more classic combination, but I had all these dried apricots to use up. Apricots go so much better with lamb, but it’s been one of those months and pork is just so much cheaper.

So, this dish was a marriage not of love, but of necessity. Still, it turned out to be a happy one. I had planned to include ginger in the filling, but forgot amidst the usual kitchen bustle. It was still good.

This can be done on a much smaller scale with pork tenderloin, though you’ll want to mince up the apricots somewhat smaller than you need to for a hunk of regular loin.

When roasting and then eating pork, don’t be afraid of a little pink. Overcooking pork was a sad necessity once, but trichinosis isn’t nearly the issue it used to be. Pork is not, in fact, the other white meat.

Apricot-stuffed Roast Pork Loin

• 1 two-pound pork loin roast
• 2 medium onions, diced small, plus two more, sliced thick.
• 1 handful of dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 1 large dash of cumin
• Dry vermouth
• Salt and pepper
• Butter

Preheat the oven to 475.

Sweat the diced onions in some butter, seasoning with salt and pepper, then add the apricots and cumin.

(This is where I would have grated in the ginger, if I hadn’t spaced it)

Cook, stirring, until the onions begin to color. Then splash with the vermouth and cook until the liquid is almost entirely gone. Remove from heat and set aside.

Now we’re at the hard part. Place the roast on a cutting board, fattier side down. Make a lengthwise cut down the center of the roast, going about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through, but not all the way.

Open the roast like a book and then make similar lengthwise cuts on the sides, so that there would be a cross running through the center of the roast if you folded it back up again. Open the halves up the way you did the center, and spread the apricot-onion filling around the inside of the roast.

Now, fold the roast back up and tie it closed. If you can’t get your hands on proper kitchen twine, unwaxed dental floss will work.

Take a small roasting pan or skillet and scatter the thickly sliced onions across the bottom. Pat the roast dry, season it liberally with salt and pepper and place it atop the onion slices. Slide the whole thing in the oven.

After 10 to 15 minutes, the roast should be sufficiently brown. Drop the heat to 350 and cook for another half-hour. The internal temperature was headed toward 150 when I took mine out.

Remove from oven when done, set aside and cover with foil. Let the roast sit 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Slice tableside and serve. The onions from the bottom of the pan can serve as a condiment, if needs be.

I served this with ginger-date rice and cider-glazed carrots (though with dry mustard and fancy Spanish paprika in place of the ginger).

Ginger-Date Rice

I’m starting to have a lot more fun with rice. There may be a post or two on risotto in our future.

Meanwhile, this was inspired by a chutney I used to make and conceived to accompany a pork roast – more on that later.

I love dates with pork. The earthy sweetness works well with the richness of the meat. This would work with a braised shoulder, stewed hocks, tenderloin or a larger roast.

Ginger-Date Rice

• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1 medium-small onion, diced small
• 1 small hunk of ginger, perhaps half the size of your thumb
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled
• 12 pitted dates, roughly chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• butter
• salt and pepper

Sweat the onion in some butter over medium-high heat, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Add the dates and grate in the ginger and garlic. Cook, stirring, for another minute or so and stir in the rice.

Cook for another minute or so, until the ingredients are mixed and the rice has taken on a shiny quality. Then pour in the stock, stirring.

Bring the pot up to a boil, then drop the heat to low and let simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, adjust seasoning if necessary, top with a pat of butter and let sit, covered, for another 5 minutes.

Fluff and mix in the now-melted butter and serve.

Morcela and Rice

This is a great excuse for you to try morcela, of which Price Chopper had a whole bunch in stock this weekend.

It is also a great way to dispose of that extra rice you (by which I mean me) always seem to wind up with after ordering Chinese food.

This is one serving. Scale up as needed.

Morcela and Rice

• Half a stick of morcela
• Leftover rice (Maybe about a cup -- I didn't measure. It was most of one of those little Chinese food cartons.)
• A small pat of butter

Slice the morcela and cook it in the butter over medium-high heat. When it starts to firm up, add the rice. Cook, stirring, until the rice is warmed and coated with the juices from the sausage.

Eat while contemplating making more rice so you can do the same thing with the rest of the package of morcela.