The Spaghetti with Pancetta, Sage, and Mushrooms

This recipe I had saved in my Epicurious recipe box for a while. Since I had fresh sage on hand from my last entry, I figured I could use it in this. As well I have a ton of spaghetti from a big sale the Key Food had a while back, so I'm making a lot of spaghetti. If you don't like spaghetti you can go to hell.

This tasted great and I pretty much followed the recipe to the letter. However, I have to say the colour put me off a little. Not entirely sure why, but probably because I'm not used to reddish-brown pasta. Still, all the mushrooms, the wine and broth reduction, and of course the pancetta were fantastic.

Reducing the wine and beef broth actually took the most time. 

Crimini and baby bellas coupled with some white mushrooms for this one. I used about half the recommended butter. You can see it and the fresh herbs in the background along with the chopped pancetta.

Everything comes together saucewise. 

Finishing up the pasta in the sauce itself. 

The finished product. Tasty and lovely. 

Your soundtrack for this entry: Cathedral - Corpsecycle. 

The Tomahawk Chops

It's no secret that I don't have a grill. There's not even a courtyard in my building I could use. So when I get the opportunity to jump over to someone else's joint and use theirs, I definitely hop to it. My now former boss had a housewarming/going away party (it's complicated) this weekend. To see him off I got a pair of tomahawk chops for the grill.

The grill I had to work with. It was fantastic. There you can see the chops front and centre, with some Argentine-marinated skirt steaks to the left, pork sausage behind, and roasting corn on top. 

These are the wonderful chops. They are HUGE. This was a little over four pounds of meat, rubbed down with olive oil, and then sprinkled liberally with salt and pepper. When I want great meat of all kinds I hit up the International Meat Market in Astoria. My friend Sal always jokes that this is actually a bar down the street whenever I say I shopped at the meat market. The butcher who cut and frenched these chops was nothing if not an artist of the highest caliber.

The final product. 

Your soundtrack for this entry: Michael Jackson - Rock with You.

The Za'atar Lamb Chops and Golden Crusted Brussels Sprouts

I came so close to making fish. Then it was almost another pasta. Then I figured just because I love pasta, you dear readers would think that's all I could make. Bah! The lamb caught my eye and the lamb's what I made. My arteries probably hate me now, but who needs them?

So, what's za'atar? Until a few months ago I didn't know either, but the Thrifty Sifter made some of her own and conveniently left it at my place. Essentially it's a Middle Eastern equivalent to salt and pepper in that it's the spice. Serious Eats has a more in-depth za'atar description. It goes great on meat, as I proved to myself last night.

Overall this was an extremely simple dinner to make.

Ingredients for lamb chops:
- lamb chops
- fresh ground pepper
- salt
- za'atar

Ingredients for brussels sprouts:
- brussels sprouts
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- shaved parmesan

To paraphrase Heidi Swanson, whose golden crusted brussels sprouts entry I perused, this isn't much of a recipe. Hell I would barely consider the above a list of ingredients. You can essentially follow her directions for the brussels sprouts. The only change I really made was using shaved parmesan.

Also, you should take her advice about using small sprouts. I'm battling a cold and don't feel so hot, so I rushed through the grocery store produce section instead of hitting up my regular United Bros. Fruit Company across the street. Some of my sprouts were on the large side and, yes, they burned and didn't make it to the final plate.

The lamb chops are a simple affair, too. Sprinkle salt on both sides, grind pepper on both sides, and dust both sides with za'atar. Let sit for 15 minutes or so, then sear them in a skillet over medium heat to desired doneosity. Let them rest a few minutes and serve. 

And yeah, even though I'm sick, I had to have a beer with dinner. That's a Hop Noir from Peak Organic, a black IPA. NOM!

Your soundtrack for this entry: Ghost - Ritual.

The Spaghetti Alle Vongole

Late last month the Thrifty Sifter and I took off to Tuscany for a week of fun in the hills and walking the streets of Florence. We also made a pit stop in Ferrara to see some old family friends. I'll do a feature on some of the food we had there in a future post.

Of course, I brought back about ten pounds of Tuscany near my middle and still had a hankering for pasta. It's also the case that I eat entirely too much pork and beef and wanted something non-chicken. Enter the desire for a clam sauce.

This recipe was adapted from the May 2011 issue of Bon Appetit. About the most difficult part of it is waiting for the clams to open.

Ingredients:
- Kosher salt
- spaghetti
- 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes (I used my own dried chilis.)
- 1/4 cup of dry white wine
- 2 pounds of littleneck clams, scrubbed
- 2 tablespoons of flat leaf Italian parsley, roughly chopped

First hint: really scrub those clams under cold running water. I worked in a seafood restaurant for several years and I can tell you this is hugely important. You want to get all the nooks and crannies so you don't end up with grit. Who likes grit? Not me!

Here you can plainly see I went and used way more than two tablespoons of parsley. I like parsley. While you're prepping this, bring about 3 quarts of salted water to a boil in a 5 quart saucepan. If you don't know the measures, put enough water in a big one to cover the pasta. The cooking time will vary, but boil the pasta for about six minutes, which is a few minutes from tender. This is your second hint: really do this. Otherwise you'll overcook the pasta. Then drain and keep a half cup of the liquid in reserve. 

These are my temporary scrubbed clam friends hanging out in a coffee mug. No grit. No brains, neither.

While you're boiling up the pasta, you should get started on the clam sauce. Pre-heat a large skillet on medium, add three tablespoons of the olive oil once it's piping. Add the garlic and stir until it's on the golden side of golden brown. Then add the red pepper flakes and stir for another 15 seconds or so. Add the wine, then the clams, and crank the heat up to high. Cover and cook until the clams opens to release their briny juices. That's probably about six minutes. As the clams open and give up the ghost, use some tongs to pull them out and set aside. 

Here are several other things you can do with tongs. 

Hello clams!

Add 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta liquid to the skillet, bring it to a boil, and add the pasta and continue to cook on high. Toss the pasta to coat thoroughly while it cooks until the pasta is al dente and absorbs some of the flavour of the liquid. 

Put the clams back in along with any juices and the parsley. Combine thoroughly. If it seems a little dry, add some more reserved pasta liquid. Transfer to bowls and drizzle with remaining olive oil. 

I'm quite pleased with this dish. 

Your soundtrack for this entry: Garbage - Big Bright World. 

The Next Try at Pork Chops

After the first try at pork chops, it's taken some reading to get me on to my next try at pork chops. I got a little recipe. Wanna hear about it? Here we go!

Ingredients:
1 - one teaspoon white pepper
2 - one tablespoon hot paprika
3 - two tablespoons salt
4 - two tablespoons fresh ground pepper
5 - one teaspoon fresh sage, chopped
6 - two boneless center cut pork chops
7 - four tablespoons olive oil
8 - half cup all purpose flour

Mix the first five ingredients in a large bowl. Brush the pork chops with two tablespoons of olive oil total. Coat with the spice mixture. Put the flour in a large plate and dredge the chops.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Also heat the other two tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet on high. Brown the pork chops two minutes per side. Transfer chops to the oven and cook for ten minutes. Remove from oven and let rest.

Am I going to fry up the chops or my fingers?

Okay, it's just the chops.

I served the chops with some scallion kimchi. In the end the chops were great, though I'm still not ready to make them for other people. I also would use scallion kimchi sparingly. It's very strong.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Ghost Brigade - Clawmaster. 

The Bison Ragu

This entry, like the previous ones and the next three or so, were all off-the-cuff recipes I came up with while standing in the grocery store or riding the subway or into my empty fridge. This one came to me at work while eating lunch.

Ingredients:

- olive oil
- four cloves garlic (minced)
- half a yellow onion (chopped)
- salt
- pepper
- one pound ground bison meat
- 12 ounces diced tomatoes with basil (opened)
- 4 dried chilies with seeds removed and roughly chopped
- spaghetti (enough for however many people decide to show up)

First make sure you set up the water to cook the pasta. I'll assume you can time this right alongside the sauce because you're not a dunderhead.

Heat the olive oil at medium-high. Add garlic and onions and cook about five minutes or until the onions are translucent and the garlic is slightly brown. Then add the ground bison, season with salt and pepper, and brown. If there's a lot of liquid left over when the meat is browned, drain some of it.

Next you're going to add the tomatoes and chilis. Mix thoroughly and simmer for ten minutes.

Add the sauce to the pot with your drained pasta and mix. Whatever you do, do not let the cat get in the pot!

Your soundtrack for this entry: Björk - Play Dead. 

The Ciambotta

Ciambotta (or giambotta) is an Italian vegetable stew. Most of my personal Italian knowledge is of Northern Italian fare, so I've explored a lot of Southern Italian food in the last few years.

Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
- 3 carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 1/4 pounds eggplant, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 (28-ounces) can whole tomatoes in juice, drained, juice reserved and tomatoes chopped, or 1 3/4 pounds fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 2 red bell peppers, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 3/4 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 1/4 pounds zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
- 3/4 pound boiling potatoes (about 2 medium), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces


Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat until it shimmers. Add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. Cook until tender (about ten minutes).


The eggplant comes next. Mix it in and cook for an additional ten minutes until tender. 


Add the tomatoes and bell peppers, reduce heat to low, and simmer uncovered for fifteen minutes. 


Finally, add the rest of the vegetables and simmer uncovered for thirty minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Your soundtrack for this entry: The Soviettes - Ten. 

The Seafood Dinner with Turnips

So, yeah, I've been eating too much bacon since I gave up keeping kosher. Something like three times a week worth of bacon. When I wandered into the Thrifty Sifter's C-Town Grocery Store and discovered that they have an excellent fish selection (even grouper!) I decided to make an all-fish dinner.

Appetizer - Spicy Garlic Shrimp
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 dried chilis, but in half lengthwise and seeded
- 12 to 16 jumbo shrimp or large prawns
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil

At the outset, I'm going to recommend leaving some of the seeds in as we could barely taste the spicy. Also, I know I made a no-no below with the garlic as it wasn't all the same size. I keep forgetting to bring my whet stone over to the Thrifty Sifter's house to sharpen up her cutlery.

At any rate, pre-heat your pan, then add the oil. When it's shimmering, add the chilis and garlic. Cook until just before the garlic starts to turn brown.

Add the shrimp or prawns. Stir-fry for 8 - 10 minutes.

Serve and eat! We ate this while I was cooking up the swordfish.

This swordfish. I bought all the main ingredients without consulting a recipe, so we had to figure them out on the fly. Having worked in a fish restaurant for nearly five years, I can cook most any seafood without a recipe, but prefer to try new things. Here we hit up Epicurious for pan-roasted swordfish steaks with mixed peppercorn butter. The Thrifty Sifter made up that butter for me while I was making the shrimp. She's a great chef de partie.

Cooking them up top of the stove in hot oil for three minutes.

And after they come out of the oven, they are fantastic! Wouldn't change a thing about these.

The side here is braised turnips with poppy seed bread crumbs. I would cut the lemon juice in half here as I found them to be too lemony. The Thrifty Sifter felt they were just right. 

Your soundtrack for this entry: Judas Priest - Breaking the Law. 

The Pomodoro

Sunday is the day to get shit done around the house. In the summer, who wants to spend a long time over a hot stove? Well, I do, but on this particular day I didn't. After all, I spent the whole afternoon doing a deep clean of the apartment and it's heartbreaking to end up having to clean that kitchen twice in one day.

Here I minced three cloves of garlic and diced an onion. Then I cooked them in two tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of salt, and a half a teaspoon of pepper over medium-high for about 5 minutes (until they were translucent, but not brown). Then I added some Pomi Chopped Tomatoes and brought to a simmer. Finally I added four tablespoons of roughly-chopped fresh basil and let simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

If you don't know how to cook pasta by now, you probably drool on yourself.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Coheed and Cambria - Ten Speed (Of God's Blood & Burial).

The Cod Bruschetta

Did you ever look at bruschetta and think, "Gee, that could be three times larger with a cod fillet on it?" Me neither, but we'd both be stupid for not trying it. I don't remember where we got this recipe, but here's how it goes.

Ingredients:

two - eight ounce cod fillets
four ripe plum tomatoes on the vine, diced
half a medium red onion, diced
two cloves of garlic, minced
one clove of garlic, whole
fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
one teaspoon salt
half teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup of olive oil
two slices of peasant bread

Heat olive oil in a large skillet at medium. Add the garlic and onions. Cook until tender. Add diced tomatoes, salt, and pepper and cook until soft. Keep warm and let stand.

Meanwhile, bake the cod fillets on a lightly-oiled cookie sheet for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

As the cod cooks up, toast the peasant bread. Rub whole garlic clove on each once toasted.

When cod is finished, place an even heap of tomato mixture on either piece of bread. Then lay cod on top.

Serve with a smile or get beaten by your guests.

Flaky!

Nommy!

Your soundtrack for this entry: Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five.

The Spicy Steamed Mussels

Way back before I started keeping kosher I loved mussels, particularly steamed. So when I recently gave it up, naturally the first treif food I turned to was mussels. Steamed in a fantastic white wine and garlic sauce in St. John's, Newfoundland, no less! I've had it a couple of ways now, including Portuguese style. That one's a real treat at the Clam Broth House.

This was my first attempt at making them and I grabbed a recipe from Epicurious. All in all the sauce was good. Unfortunately I got a batch of poor-quality mussels, which kind of ruined the experience for me. Next time I'll make sure to hit up one of the 30th Avenue fish markets.

Setting the table. 

Happy little mussels. Well, I suppose if they could feel happiness it wouldn't be happening at this particular moment. 

Still, I ended up cleaning my plate. 

Then the Thrifty Sifter and I went to see Thor. Don't bother; it's rubbish.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Type O Negative - Everything Dies.

The Red Headed Steak and Roasted Veggies

I'm calling this one the Red Headed Steak because it's basically just a steak and I wanted to spice it up. While I myself am a red head, this steak literally is, too, as it's seasoned licentiously with red pepper flakes.

This one was a quickie as I was still cat sitting Tricky the Cone Head.

This dish started out with a 400 degree preheated oven and some mixed veggies tossed in salt, fresh ground black pepper, and olive oil. Here I had young, fresh asparagus, broccoli, and cauliflower (with some carrot tops). Roast in the oven for 35 minutes.

While the veggies are a-roastin', give ye olde steak a nice seasoning with salt and fresh ground pepper as well. Then apply a volcano god's portion of crushed red pepper flakes. I mean, you want to rival Mount Aetna on this puppy. Well, I do anyway. 

When the veggies are about 25 minutes through cooking, pre-heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the oil and, when shimmering, lay that bad-boy steak on. I give it about two minutes per side. 

Alongside this I toasted up a couple of thick, delicious slices of sourdough bread. Those I topped with some shredded parmesan and, while I was at it, decided to put some shredded parmesan on top of the veggies, too. 

And no, I don't tend to trim the fat from the side. I like the flavour it adds and cut around it. If the recipe really called for trimming the fat, I would, and in cases where I have guests who I know prefer not to have fat on their chops, well, I'm an abiding host. 

Your soundtrack for this entry: Normandie - Bomber.

Also, I've redone and begun using my old web site Axes & Alleys. I don't promise that it will be frequently updated yet, but that's the aim.

The Chicken with Mirepoix, Yukon Potatoes, and Green Beans

Yesterday I had a great ride through Astoria. It was our first nice weekend day in seven or eight months. Still chilly...not quite warm enough for kickball, but good for a ride. Half the ride was documented from my Instagram account. If you see things of interest and photograph same with pre-selected filters created by others applied to them, feel free to friend me.

After the ride, which I chose over the gymnasium 'cause being stuck inside to exercise when it's that great outside is dumb, I wanted a healthy dinner. Knowing I had the ingredients for mirepoix in the house and having not made chicken in a while, my decision was made! Stumbled upon a bag of yukon gold, blue, and red skin potatoes. Completed the meal with green beans!

Ingredients:
- one small yellow onion, diced
- two medium carrots, diced
- two celery ribs, diced
- two tablespoons unsalted butter
- two tablespoons fresh thyme
- half pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- one cup of green beans, trimmed and halved
- four cloves of garlic, minced
- one cup of sauvignon blanc
- half cup chicken stock
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil

Minus a few details, any photograph of mirepoix you see will look essentially like this. 

Here I pre-heated my oven to 400, coated the potatoes in fresh thyme and olive oil,  coated with salt and pepper, and put in the oven for about 35 minutes. These are obviously small potatoes. While I was cooking these I prepared the rest of the meal.

I always want to shout "GREEN BEANS!!!" when I'm done prepping. Much like I shout "TOAST!!!" when I hear the toast pop up. 

My cast iron skillet is well-seasoned, but I wanted to get some buttery flavour in there. 

Once I melted the butter, I added some seasoned (in salt and pepper) boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Now, I've heard that the chicken "cutlet' is a terminology peculiar to New York City or New England. If any experts out there would like to let me know the distribution and origin of the term "chicken cutlet" in comments, it would be much appreciated. 

Browning the chicken on the other side. 

Remove chicken, deglaze with the wine, then add the chopped mirepoix. 

Steamed the hell out of these green beans. Put the minced garlic underneath, then covered for 15 minutes over simmering water. 

After 15 minutes, add the chicken back to the skillet. Cook an additional ten minutes. 

When you're done, you have a beautiful, flavourful, healthy meal prepared in less than 40 minutes.

Your soundtrack for this entry is: SABABA - Pelvic Exam.