Spaghetti Bolognese

Don't underestimate the importance of white wine in this recipe. It's flavor is really highlighted after a long simmer. I've tried this with whole milk and 2% but this time used heavy cream. Of course, this time it was most similar to restaurant bolognese that we've had. I bet if I used a higher fat beef, it would be remarkably greasy like restaurant ones. I prefer this version. If you use lighter milk, the dish seems more vegetal and summer-y. This was the stick to your ribs version.

I do not recommend using the food processor for the veggies to cut down prep time. It ends up watery and it's difficult to judge the reduction of the milk and wine.

This has always been a favorite dish for my toddler 1)because it's spaghetti and 2) the sweetness of the wine and veggies. I think of it as healthy because of all the veg, but the cream probably counteracts that.

Spaghetti Bolognese

5 tbsp butter
1-2 carrots, minced
1-2 celery stalks, minced
1 onion, minced
1/2 lb ground veal
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb lean ground beef
1 c heavy cream
1 c good white wine
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes in puree (Cento is good)
S+P
Parmesan

Melt butter in large heavy bottomed pot. Add all veg and sweat about 3 min. Add meat and cook until no longer pink, breaking it up with a spoon as it cooks. Add cream and cook until the milk has evaporated (clear fat will remain). This take about 15-20 min. Add wine and cook until wine evaporates (10-15 min). Add tomatoes. Simmer for about 3 hrs on low low low. My books recommend a flame tamer if you have more than a few bubbles coming to the surface. Homemade flame tamer didn't work so I just turned the heat on and off a few times. I still have yet to find this flame tamer in 2 different grocery stores. Must try William Sonoma, I guess.

Pineapple Upside Down Challenge

Assumptions going into the challenge that I have now thrown out the window: Pineapple Rings are requisite for this cake
Maraschino Cherries will make it taste like cherries
Cast Iron always sticks when not seasoned


The winner: Cooks Illustrated
Family Cookbook recipe

Although this one was not as attractive, the cake was much moister and the topping gooey-er. Had I followed their advice on using chunks of pineapple instead of rings, I might have avoided the center sinking. This was my first attempt ever at this cake and it was fairly simple and straight forward.

I resorted to this recipe rather than the all-powerful Best Recipe because I wanted to save a pot and knew I was making two cakes. The first time I made the topping for Best Recipe (follows) I threw it away because it seemed so wrong. I consulted this recipe and it had a completely different approach. Now I know that if the pan is too cool when you put in the topping, you will get crunchy praline-type chunks in it and they are not pretty. Although my nephews did sort of fight over who would get the big chunks. So seeing that the Best Recipe may not be all that and being limited by the number of eggs in the fridge, I proceeded the rest of the way with the cake part of this one.

The loser: Best Recipe

This one was more complicated by far. It involved whipping egg whites, 3 large bowls, and corn meal. I can say that the biggest drawback was the cornmeal. What were they thinking? At only 3 tbsp, you can definitely tell it's in there and not in a good way.

The coolest trick about this recipe was that it's made in a cast iron skillet. I was very skeptical about using mine since it is far from seasoned and only a year old. But it came out without sticking and made beautifully flared sides on the cake. The whole cake was much drier. Could that be because I over whipped my egg whites? I forgot to put sugar in them until they were already soft peaks so it got stiffer than I'd hoped for.

Baby Food Adventures Begin

My baby started solids a few weeks ago on her 5 month birthday. Because rice cereal is so blah, we went for some super ripe banana. She appreciated the freshly mashed version on a spoon, but much prefers to grab it and gnaw on it like a big kid. She's also a huge fan of baby Mum Mums and screams when they break or when they're gone. So far we've attempted lots of fruits because no one sells stage 1 vegetables and I ain't pureeing and straining anything that much. Once she gets to chunkier textures, we'll break out the Annabel Karmel recipes that I made for her brother. It's only fair since he got quite the gourmet baby food.

Gerber Organic and Earth's Best are our Stage 1 staples but they are a bit limited in their selection. Sprout Organics (by my fav Tyler Florence) look and taste delicious but the quantity is too big for her right now. We'll be living off of them in MN next week though since they're easily portable and not in glass jars.

A side note: Big brother ate some raw carrots wrapped in ham and dipped in honey mustard. He's been a tad picky about vegetables lately (beans being the only ones he'll eat) so I was so psyched that he liked raw carrots. Thank you to Piper from school who has been eating them for a year and who he always talks about.

Wasabi Pea Crusted Tuna Steaks

This is a fast and pretty dish. The wasabi part is mostly about color and crunch so I'm still working on a way to make the flavor come through a bit more.

Yes these tuna steaks are huge, but you have to realize that we're a meat and potato family and we never have trouble wolfing down fish. Aren't the colors pretty (despite my awfully out of focus camera)?

Tuna Steaks
2 tuna steaks 1"+ thick (if you use one big one, don't cut it before cooking)
1/4 C wasabi peas
2 tbsp black sesame seeds
2 tbsb sesame seeds
2-3 tbsp panko bread crumbs (if you don't have panko, just skip the bread crumbs and use more sesame seeds)
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
s+p
Special sauce (below)

Leave tuna in fridge until you have everything else ready. If it comes to room temp, you'll risk overcooking it which is like eating a $30 can of tuna.

Crush peas in Cuisinart or gently in a Ziploc. They'll tear the bag easily so use a heavy skillet instead of a mallet to crush them.

Make special sauce.

Combine crushed peas with both sesame seeds and panko on a plate. S+P the tuna steaks on both sides. Press into crust mixture, making sure to get the edges.

Heat oil in a 12" nonstick skillet on med high for several minutes to ensure a good sear when the tuna hits the pan. Add tuna and cook on each side 1-2 minutes. Set a timer! when they're done, remove immediately from pan to stop cooking.

Special Sauce
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C soy sauce
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp grated fresh ginger (optional)

Put all ingredients in small sauce pan and simmer for 10 minutes or until desired thickness. So easy and goes well on everything.

Mole Enchiladas

Mole is not simple. Mole is not easy. It is two days of gathering ingredients and cooking during naps. This really counts as slow food. I wasn't really even a fan of mole until I cooked it for the first time. There are so many unexpected ingredients and techniques that you realize how complex and artful Mexican cooking really is. I couldn't trust anyone but Rick Bayless to show me with love and affection the intricacies of this dish. I combined a version of his mole sauce with the Cooks Illustrated Carnitas recipe to make some dandy enchiladas.

Back to Mole: 20+ ingredients, all fried up in one skillet in a special order. I can't even begin to recount the Bayless method of Mole but I'll give you an idea of the ingredients. The reason it's special and different than other sauces is that it's thickened with nuts and breads. No other method or cuisine uses this idea as far as I know.

Mole Sauce
lots of dried chiles: mulatos (CM never has these), anchos, pasillas, and canned chipotles
sesame seeds
coriander
almonds
onion
garlic
corn tortilla
stale white bread
tomato
chocolate/cocoa powder
pepper
cloves
aniseed (I skip this every time because I never have it)
cinamon

Carnitas
While the mole is the highlight, it should also be noted that the carnitas are fantastic in many ways. It's the easiest recipe for pulled pork that I've tried and the flavors are so delicate that they go with everything. For example, I put some in the collards and black-eyed peas to make a hearty soup the night before the mole magic.

Pork
1	(3 1/2-to 4-pound) boneless pork butt , fat cap trimmed to 1/8 inch thick, cut into 2-inch chunks
	Table salt and ground black pepper
1	teaspoon ground cumin
1	small onion , peeled and halved
2	bay leaves
1	teaspoon dried oregano
2	tablespoons juice from 1 lime
2	cups water
1	medium orange , halved

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine pork, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, cumin, onion, bay leaves, oregano, lime juice, and water in large Dutch oven (liquid should just barely cover meat). Juice orange into medium bowl and remove any seeds (you should have about 1/3 cup juice). Add juice and spent orange halves to pot. Bring mixture to simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until meat is soft and falls apart when prodded with fork, about 2 hours, flipping pieces of meat once during cooking.

2. 2. Remove pot from oven and turn oven to broil. Using slotted spoon, transfer pork to bowl; remove orange halves, onion, and bay leaves from cooking liquid and discard (do not skim fat from liquid). Place pot over high heat (use caution, as handles will be very hot) and simmer liquid, stirring frequently, until thick and syrupy (heatsafe spatula should leave wide trail when dragged through glaze), 8 to 12 minutes. You should have about 1 cup reduced liquid.

For the enchiladas, I tried white corn tortillas for the first time. They were very tender and easy to roll without warming them. But, they did not hold up in cooking. This could be because I didn't spray them with pam as I usually do to make them roll easier or because they're just generally softer.

To complete the meal,
Monterrey Jack
Queso Fresco
Jasmati Rice
Black beans with Lizano (Costa Rican Ketchup)

Clearly I was wiped out after this effort because I forgot to take a picture of my beautiful work. Also drank this with an amazing Robert Sinskey Pinot Noir that went well with the slow heat of the sauce.

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BBQ chick and Collards

Since the Indoor Root Beer BBQ (see post) was such a hit with E as leftovers, we decided it would be a good choice for our newly instated Sunday family dinner. So with baby in the bumbo on top of the dining table eating a teething ring and E in the booster 20 minutes before anything was out of the oven, we have hopefully started a tradition.

Apparently you can't mess the stuff up either. In my haste to grocery shop during naps today, I forgot that I even needed to make the BBQ sauce. So, I substituted the juice of 2 limes for both the orange and lemon juices and skipped the zest altogether. It wasn't as sweet as the previous version, but tasted very similar otherwise.

For the chicken, it seems that once you brine the chicken, it's impossible to overcook or mess up. I subbed canola oil for the melted butter and it worked the same. I am very glad that I started making my notes on the blog though because I would not have remembered the cooking temp or the cooking time.

The side for this meal was collards with black-eyed peas. The BEP's were suggested because of the toddler's love of anything in the bean family and because we had a leftover pork rib and chop from Perry's on Friday night. I make this with any type of leftover pork and it's so good. You can also alter the ratio of bep's to collards if you like one or the other better.

Black-eyed Peas and Collards
1 can black-eyed peas
1 bunch Collards
1 smoked ham hock
1-3 sliced of bacon, cut into 1" pieces
1 chopped onion (optional)

Wash collard greens and remove tough spine. Cut into 1" strips.

Throw all the pork-type ingredients in a large pot to brown. Add onion and sweat for 5 minutes (if using). Add 4 cups water to pot and bring to a boil. If you have time, this makes a great pork stock so it can simmer for an hour or so. Add collards and cover. Braise for at least 1 1/2 hours until greens are tender.

Drain BEP's and add to pot. Warm for 5 min and serve as a soup or as a side.

Fajita Salad

It's no secret that we have fajita salad about once a week. There are exactly 2 ingredients that make this salad amazing and without them, you should probably just order pizza. They are: HEB pre-marinated fajita meat (beef or chicken, both excellent) and caramelized onions. We started adding the onions last year in an effort to make our "fat girl salad" more healthy. The key ingredient used to be Tostitos Hint of Lime chips (and lots of them). So you can see how the healthiness of the salad quickly went south by adding tons and tons of tortilla chips.

Fajita Salad

HEB pre-marinated fajita meat
Salad bag (Romain or other crunchy lettuce, not baby lettuces)
1 recipe Caramelized Onions (below)
1 avocado
1 tomato
Mexi Cheese blend or Cotija if you're being fancy
1/2 c Pace salsa
1/4-1/2 c Ranch dressing

Everything is self-explanatory except the onions which are super important. So I'll add some additional notes on them.

Caramelized onions
1 tbsp canola oil (not EVO, it's too smoky)
1-2 onions, sliced thin
2 tsp granulated sugar

Heat oil on med high heat in a 10-12" skillet. Add onions and toss in oil to coat. Leave them alone for at least 5 minutes. The trick is to disturb them as little as possible so they get nice and brown rather than stir fried. When you start, they'll look like this:

ONce they get slightly browned, stir in sugar and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Don't stir again for another 5-10 minutes and they'll start to look like this:

These are almost done. I like mine cooked-the-crap-out-of because I don't like raw onion whatsoever. So at this point, you can sort of pile them together and let them keep warm so that their last little bit of rawness goes away. And yes, this pan did come clean. This was the first time I'd used my stainless pan and it actually gets clean easier than my anodized ones. All you need is to deglaze with some vinegar and if that doesn't work, make an abrasive paste with salt and baking soda.