Ingrediants:

• Dried medjool dates
• Chorizo
• Smoked bacon
• Tomatoes, finely chopped
• Onion, finely chopped
• Chipotle chilies in adobo, to taste, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 320F.
2. Split the dates end to end along one side. Fill with chorizo and close the date. Wrap in a slice of bacon. Place on a backing sheet with the end of the bacon on the bottom. Repeat for all the dates. Bake for 20-30 minutes.
3. While the dates bake, saute the onion until softened. Add the chili and tomato. Saute until everything is well softened. Blend into a smooth sauce. Keep warm.
4. When the dates are finished baking, place the sauce in a baking dish. Sit the dates in the sauce and serve.

Inspired by one of the challenges from last season’s Hell’s Kitchen, I made a savory & sweet crepe for Saturday brunch. This was a bit of work since the two batters are a bit different. We ended up doing brunch in two stages, with some idle time while I made the sweet crepes. It made for a leisurely, decadent brunch.

We started with a take on bacon and eggs.

1. Fry bacon, taking it out of the pan and setting it aside. Later, when it cools, crumble it.
2. Scramble eggs in the still hot bacon grease, along with some finely chopped onions and sweet peppers.
3. Once that’s done, take it off the heat and stir in a dollop of creme fraiche, some grated aged gouda, and the crumbled bacon. Season as desired.
4. Use this mixture to fill a couple of fresh savory crepes.

Next up was a sweet berry crepe. There were some fresh, local strawberries and blueberries in our produce delivery last week. That’s always great with a sweet crepe.

1. Make sweet crepes. Let them cool before using.
2. Melt a bit of butter in a saucier. Add sliced fresh strawberries and whole blueberries, reserving a few of each for garnish. Simmer until they are sofftened. Add a touch of vanilla extract (I used homemade extract made with a nice brandy) and some Grand Marnier. Simmer briefly, the stir in a few tablespoons of heavy cream or creme fraiche.
3. Get the cooled crepes. Fill each with mascarpone (I usually pipe in the filling). Spoon the hot berry sauce over top the crepes. Top with a large dollop of creme fraiche and the reserved berries.

Wash them well, cut in two across (to give a circular cross section) and slice them really thin (I.e. less than 1/16″ thick). Then deep fry them and sprinkle with salt … Yum!

When I made it this time I used swiss chard as the side, as we had some from our produce delivery.

Chard

• Wash, trim, and chop into thin ribbons (the stems into small chunks).
• Quickly sauté until just tender
• season with sesame oil

Tuna

• Coat the steaks in sesame seeds: white, black, or a mix.
• Quickly sear each side in a bit of oil in a hot pan. A cast iron (plain or enameled) pan works great for this.
• Be careful not to overcook, it should still be pink/raw in the middle.

Potatoes

• Make mashed potatoes.
• Mix in wasabi paste. If you’re mixed the paste from powder, you probably want to make more than you think you might need. It takes quite a bit to give these a nice kick.

That’s all there is to it. And here it is plated and ready to eat.

The latest was especially tasty, and deserving of mention. Mostly it was like the past incarnations: yogurt, banana, mango, ice. Blend until smooth. But today, instead of the usual dollop of honey, she tossed in some dried dates. Not only did it taste good, but it looked great, with flecks of dark brown date giving it a very nice visual texture.

I made my first attempt at carnitas in 2006. Seems the traditional method involves a large copper cauldron filled with lard, so that wasn’t going to be practical. While slowly deep frying a giant hunk of pork sounds delightful, my kitchen was not going to accommodate such an undertaking. My approximation was to slow cook a pork shoulder in butter, oranges, sugar, and some spices. After a few hours I cut off the fat and reduced the liquid to a sauce (adding a bit more sugar) After glazing the hunks of meat I threw them into a very hot oven. The result was crusty on the outside, moist on the inside, and all-around a source of delight. I’ve used this basic technique a few times since, varying the spices along the way. The results have always been excellent.

Lately I have tended to avoid the “butter step”: as it seemed superfluous to add a few sticks of butter to an already fatty cut of meat. I haven’t missed it. I also don’t really consider what I make to be carnitas, though it continues to be inspired by those flavors.

Ingredients

• 1 large pork shoulder (I usually use the “picnic shoulder”, about 5lbs raw)
• 1 yellow onion
• 2-4 oranges (or more, to taste — I used about 6 clementines last time I did this)
• 3 cups broth (I usually use chicken, but any tasty broth will do)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or I like to use jaggery when I have it around)
• 1/2 cup Dry Rub (or more, to taste) — you can make up your own, buy one, or use something like what I did in the pictures (all amounts are approximate):
  • 1/4 cup smoked salt
  • 3 TB garlic powder (or even better: use fresh, minced garlic)
  • 3 TB Oregano
  • 2 TB Cumin
  • 2 TB Thyme
  • 1 TB Black Pepper
  • 1 TB White Pepper
  • 1 TB sugar (brown or white)
  • 2 tsp Cinnamon
  • Zest of 1-2 oranges (I used the zest from 5 clementines in these pictures)

Prep Work

1. Zest the oranges, set zest aside to use in your dry rub or to add to the broth
2. Juice the oranges, saving both the juice and the juiced orange carcasses
   
3. (if necessary) mix your dry rub
   
4. Cut the onion into small pieces — I usually quarter it then run through a food processor slicer blade.
5. Dry the meat and, if possible, bring to room temperature

Phase I: Get the Meat Ready To Hang Out

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250°
2. In a heavy dutch oven, heat a couple tablespoons of high heat oil with a bit of salt (I like to use smoked salt for this). Once the oil is just starting to smoke, place the meat in with the fattier side down. Brown it for about 5 minutes, until the fat is nicely browned.
   

   Turn it over and brown the other side for another 3-5 minutes (optionally, brown the other outside edges, but you are just looking to get some nice browning going to flavor your onions and the broth). Once browned, remove the meat and set aside.

   
3. Immediately throw the onions in to brown in the fat that melted off the meat. Stir occasionally until translucent. This should take about 5-7 minutes, but you can let it go for quite a while, as long you don’t burn the onions.
   
4. While the onions are browning, rub the meat with the Dry Rub all over. Be sure the fattier side gets a nice coating, as that will be the side not in the liquid, but save about 1TB of the rub to sprinkle on right before you put the meat in the oven.
5. Once your onions are the way you want them, put the meat in with the fattier side facing up (which allows the fat to drip down over the meat as it melts).
6. Pour in broth to a depth of about 1-2 inches, being careful not to submerge too much of the meat. Then, pour the orange juice over the meat. Sprinkle the remaining TB of Dry Rub on the top of the meat.
7. (optional) Put the juiced orange carcasses on the top of the meat to help everything stay moist.
   
8. Cover the dutch oven and place it in the oven. Let it cook for at least 3 hours, probably 4-5 hours. I sometimes leave as long as 8 hours, though at that point the meat will completely fall apart. About 3/4 of the way through you can remove the orange carcasses and turn the meat over. I like to put a few of the onions on the top of the meat after turning it to be sure it doesn’t dry out.

Phase II: From Tasty to Sublime

1. Remove the meat from the dutch oven and place on a shallow baking pan. Turn your oven to 500° (or as hot as it gets) – you can also use the broiler, but that must be done with great caution, as it’s easy to burn the glaze and get too much of a charred flavor.
   
2. Pour the liquid from the dutch oven into a separator (or just remove the oily top layer yourself), then pour the non-oily bottom layer into a small sauce pan. At this point I like to add the brown sugar or jaggery and/or more orange juice (and sometimes more cinnamon or other spices, depending on the flavor I want for the glaze), but that’s optional. Reduce the liquid over medium heat until it becomes viscous enough to stick to the meat, about the consistency of a gravy.
   
3. While the sauce is reducing, cut the meat into large chunks, removing the larger pieces of fat (unless you love to eat hunks of fat). I usually just discard the fat at this point, but you can save it to cook with beans or whatever turns you on.
   
4. When the sauce is reduced to a glaze, use a basting brush or just spoon it over the meat, coating it as much as possible. If the meat isn’t falling apart (which it usually is) you can try dipping the pieces of meat into the glaze using a slotted spoon. Reserve the rest of the sauce to use over the finished meat as a gravy.
   
5. Put the glazed meat in the 500° oven for about 3-5 minutes. Watch is closely, as the time will vary depending on how much sugar is in the sauce and the moisture content. You want to see just a hint of blackening at the edges, at which point you want to remove it immediately or risk having hunks of char. You can’t really go wrong, so if you get impatient just take it out.

You can serve this meat with tortillas and taco fixings. I also like to serve it over polenta or rice, depending on the spice mix. If you cooked the meat enough, you could probably just go right to “pulled pork” (with or without the glazing step) if you prefer. Ideally, the meat should have a nice crust on the outside and be succulent inside. This meat should keep well for a day or two in the fridge (or even longer).

8 eggs
some cream
some red onion, thinly sliced
half a dozen med/lrg mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 head of brocolli, chopped
half pound of peppered bacon
Parmesan cheese to taste, grated

Start by frying the bacon until just crisp. Drain and crumble. By starting with the bacon, you have lovely bacon drippings to use in frying the rest. Saute the the onion. Add the mushrooms, then the broccoli. Cook until they’re just soft. Beat the eggs & cream, season with salt and pepper and pour over the vegetable mixture. Mix in the cheese and bacon. cook over low heat until the egg is set.

At this point, I hear you’re supposed to switch to the oven to finish the dish. Not having made a frittata before, I wasn’t aware of that (I was just winging it), and actually got the thing flipped into another skillet to cook the top, then flipped back onto a plate to serve. Very adept flipmanship, if I do say so. Here it is:

She started with this recipe from epicurious.com:

Ingrediants

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
3 leeks, halved, thinly sliced (white and pale green parts only)
2 pounds button mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup long-grain white rice
3 1/4 cups (or more) canned low-salt chicken broth
3 1/4 cups canned beef broth
1/2 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Preparation

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add leeks and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Add mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms are soft and dry, about 10 minutes. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Stir in rice. Add 3 1/4 cups chicken broth and beef broth to pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until rice is very tender, about 30 minutes. Cool slightly. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return soup to pot. Stir in cream. Thin with more chicken broth, if desired. (Soup can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly, cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

Ladle soup into 8 bowls. Sprinkle with chives and serve.

Some tweaks were made, largely because she was working with what was around the kitchen.

• 1 leek and some onions instead of 3 leeks
• brown rice instead of white, putting it in earlier
• 4 cups beef broth, and 3 cups vegetable broth
• and of course, using a stick/immersion blender (if you don’t have one … get one

One change was that she tossed the greens into the salad rather than putting then somewhat on the side. With the tossing the feta was coated in the bright pink beet juice… so it goes with beets.

There’s not too much to be said: garlicky, tangy, but most of all: beety! The feta was a nice salty counterpoint.

If you like beets (and btw I love beets and maybe not so coincidentally, Jitterbug Perfume is one of my favorite books), this is well worth a try.

You might correctly jump to the conclusion that I am not fan of either. You would be largely correct. At least until last night. I’ve never overly liked squash. I’ve tolerated it in some dishes (curries, for example), and mildly enjoyed it in others (notable a tex-mex style squash soup). Kale is another story entirely. I have actively despised it in any form.

So you can imagine that I was skeptical when Suzanne said she was making risotto (yum) with squash & kale (hrumph). But given other things she’d made, I was prepared to be pleasantly surprised. And that I was.

She started with a recipe at Epicurious: Risotto with Tuscan Kale and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds:

Ingrediants:

4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 bunch baby Tuscan kale, rib removed (also called cavolo nero or lacinato kale or dino kale)
4 cups butternut squash, coarsely chopped
4 medium leeks, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 ounces)
1/3 cup dry white wine
grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste

Accompaniment:toasted pumpkin seeds

Method:

Make the risotto as usual, adding the squash after having added 2 cups of liquid. Add the kale after all the liquid has been added.