Spinach and Green Bean Gumbo

I was not going to blog about this one but it was just so good! I threw it together from what I had around using a Green Gumbo technique.

Spinach and Green Bean Gumbo

1 tablespoon lard, butter or Wesson oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 quarts stock or water
2 bay leaves
Cajun seasoning to taste (start with a tablespoon)
hot sauce to taste (start with 1 teaspoon)
salt and pepper to taste
2 bags (or bunches) spinach
2 cans green beans, drained (or frozen or fresh)
1 15 ounce can whole tomatoes with their juice
cooked rice for serving

Heat the fat or oil over high heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, green onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown.

Add the water or stock, bay leaves, Cajun seasoning, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Add the spinach (in batches if necessary to give them a moment to wilt before adding more), beans and tomatoes. Return to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the spinach is done to your liking.

Re-season if necessary and serve over cooked rice.

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Rhubarb Braised Chicken Thighs

This is a recent Chowhound.com recipe offering. I imagined it being sort of sweet and sour in nature. In fact it was simply savory and delicious. You can learn more about rhubarb at rhubarbinfo.com.

Lately I have been getting very into rhubarb. It is a flavor of my childhood. My Gramma always had some growing by the garage. She used it in bars, as ice cream sauce and in pies. We would eat the raw stalks dipped in cups of sugar.

As usual, this is written as cooked with what I had on hand.

Rhubarb Braised Chicken Thighs

8 chicken thighs with bones and skin
salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup orange juice
1 pound rhubarb, chopped

Rhubarb, chopped

Preheat oven to 375°F. Season chicken generously with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in an ovenproof pot over high heat until shimmering. Put in 1/2 of the chicken, skin side down and brown for 5 minutes.

Flip the chicken and repeat on the other side. Remove chicken to a bowl and repeat with the other half of the chicken.

Reduce heat to medium and remove all but 2 tablespoons of fat. Add the onions, cardamom and salt and pepper to taste.

Saute until the onions soften. Pour in the wine, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to release any browned bits

and reduce the liquid by half. Add the stock, honey, orange juice, chicken pieces (skin side up) and any accumulated juices to the pot.

Put the pot in the oven. Cook until the thighs are cooked through, about 35 minutes. Scatter the rhubarb in the pot and cook for 15 minutes longer.

This chicken was delicious and savory and I wish I was eating some right now!

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Chicken Giblet Etouffee

Etouffee is a saucy Cajun dish served over rice. It is like a thicker version of gumbo. Add tomato to etouffee and you have sauce picante. The etouffee method is endlessly debatable and indeed is in Cajun country. It is commonly made with shellfish or chicken. Shrimp, crayfish or chicken pieces can be used with better results if you are not fond of offal.

Chicken Giblet Etouffee

lard, butter or Wesson oil
1 pound or so chicken gizzards, livers and/or hearts (in any combination)
Cajun seasoning
3 tablespoons flour
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 beer - not hoppy
3 bay leaves

Heat 2 tablespoons lard over medium high heat in a large skillet. Season giblets with Cajun seasoning and brown giblets about 3 minutes a side in batches so as not to crowd them.

Add lard between batches if necessary. When the giblets are nice and brown, remove them to a bowl. Keep the livers separate if using because they will need a much shorter simmering time than heart or gizzards.

Reduce heat to medium, Add lard to the skillet to make a total of three tablespoons. Add the the flour and Cajun seasoning to taste and cook, whisking constantly, until the flour is bubbly and brown.

Add the onion, bell pepper and celery and cook, stirring frequently, until the veggies are softened and the onions are translucent.

Reintroduce the hearts, gizzards and any accumulated juices to the skillet. Add the beer and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to  low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Add the livers if using and simmer another few minutes until the liver is cooked through (if it wasn't already).

Serve over rice. I find it delightful but it certainly is for those with a fondness for giblets!

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Grilled Corn

Grilled Corn

As long as you have the grill going, you might as well do everything on the grill. Grilling corn is easy. It steams in its own husks.

Soak un-shucked ears in cold water for an hour. Place over hot coals for 25 minutes, turning every 5 minutes. The husks will be somewhat blackened, which looks cool. Then you pull back the husks (the silk comes with it, very handy). Still lookin' cool.

Slather with butter and sprinkle with salt and enjoy!

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Carnitas

I was looking for a recipe for what I think of as carnitas, pork that is slow cooked and then browned in some way. My original version of Authentic Mexican 20th Anniversary Ed: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico by Rick Bayless had a technique for slow-frying, slowly simmering country ribs in lard and then cranking up the heat and frying them to a light golden brown. The meat can then be eaten or cut off the bones and used in tacos (or however you like). We did both.

Carnitas

2 pounds lard
country ribs
salt
strips of zest from 2 key limes
1/4 cup water

Melt the lard over medium heat.

Season the pork with salt and submerge in the lard. Add water. You'll want the pork to be cooking at a low simmer.

Cook this way until the pork is barely tender, about 40 minutes. Crank the heat up to high. The remaining water (if it hasn't all evaporated) will come to a rolling boil.

At some point the water will have boiled off and the bubbles will have gotten smaller and the lard will look clear. Now you're cooking with grease!

Cook this way until lightly golden brown and remove to a draining rig. Immediately sprinkle with salt. At this point you can eat them like pork chops or cut up in tortillas.

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Refried Beans

If you are buying canned refried beans you are cheating yourself. Beans are easy to make. They are nutritious and pinto beans are practically free.

We've experimented with several different dried pulses and even 15 bean soup blend. They all taste different and they all taste great.

Refried Beans

Beans, lower left. Vaca Frita, lower right.

1 pound dried pinto beans
1 onion chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon oil or lard
water
salt
4 rashers smoky bacon, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced

Sort beans to check for any rocks or little dirt clods. Dirt will make your beans taste like dirt. Place them in a slow cooker. Add water to about 3/4 shy of the rim of the crock. Add oil or lard and onion if using. I prefer it, my wife does not. The beans will be good either way. Set cooker to high.

Beans, right. Pork Shoulder, left.

After 6 hours the beans should be cooked but they can be left to cook for as long as 10 hours. If they are new beans (this year's crop) they will take less time so it's best to check them for doneness periodically. Add salt to taste and let cook for another 1/2 hour or so.

I do not soak my beans. The only advantage I can see to soaking them is a quicker cooking time. You have to plan ahead either way and this way I can start my beans in the morning instead of the night before. I hear that beans can be successfully cooked in salted water but I haven't experimented with that yet. I do know that an acidic environment (like chili) will result in beans that will never cook.

In a large soup pot over medium high heat, cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, until it is browned and has rendered its fat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly until aromatic (almost immediately). Add the beans and some of the cooking liquid. Reserve the rest of the cooking liquid of the beans need thinning as they cook.

Mash the beans with a potato masher as they are coming to temperature. When they are simmering, reduce heat and cook down some if too thin or add cooking liquid if it gets too thick. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary.

You can use this refrying method with canned pinto beans. Although it's not as good as homemade, it's way better than canned refried beans. You can also stop short of the refrying process and serve the beans whole in their juices.

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Squash Ravioli with Sage Butter

The filling of this stuffed pasta is a little sweet from the browned onions, the honey and the squash itself and the sauce is super savory consisting of nothing more than butter and fresh sage. The filling was inspired by this recipe from this book. The pasta dough was all @ruhlman. Home made pasta dough is easy and fun to do

Squash Ravioli

For the pasta;

9 ounces flour
3 eggs

For the filling;

1 cabocha (or whatever winter squash you like) pumpkin, halved and seeded
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons grated parmigiano-reggiano
2 teaspoons honey
1 cup stock or white wine
salt to taste
grated parmigiano-reggiano for serving

For the sauce;

6 tablespoons butter
18 fresh sage leaves chopped (this is Saveur's ratio but you can use more or less of either)

Pasta.

Mound the flour on the counter or table and make an indentation for the eggs. Crack in the eggs and begin working the flour into the eggs and breaking up the eggs with your fingers. Eventually you will have a cohesive mass to begin kneading by pressing the dough firmly with your palm, folding the dough in half and repeating . Ruhlman's directions are to do this until it has a silky texture, 5 - 10 minutes. I am not sure what is a silky texture. I split the difference and knead for 8 minutes. Press the dough into a disc. Cover it with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes to an hour. The dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours.

Filling.

Preaheat oven to 375°F. Bake the squash cut side down on a baking sheet covered in foil until tender. Mine took about 45 minutes but I gave it an hour so it was downright soft. Remove and cool to a handleable temperature. Remove the skin. Add pulp to a bowl and mash. Beat in the egg yolks and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook until soft (10 minutes). Add red pepper flakes, cinnamon, cheese, honey, stock and salt and cook for 3 - 4 minutes. Mix in the squash-egg mixture, cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.

Ravioli.

Cleave pasta disc into 4 quadrants. roll each as thinly as possible.

This is facilitated with a pasta roller but I have used a rolling pin. It works.

Put generous tablespoons of filling a couple of inches apart on one piece of dough.

Moisten the dough around the filling with a finger dipped in water. Place another piece of dough atop this one and press around the filling to seal. Cut into squares.

I used a pizza cutter. I also managed to pour my finger dipping water onto the first batch necessitating some fast action and a bit more flour to render them usable.

Sauce.

Heat butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add sage and cook until golden brown.

Putting it all together.

Boil the ravioli in lots of salted water for about 3 minutes. Drain, plate and drizzle with sage butter and sprinkle with cheese.

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