Monthly Archives: December 2012

Lamb Recipes

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rackoflambMany people shy away from cooking lamb for an array of reasons. Some people don’t like it. Others think it is “fancy” food, and it’s true, certain cuts of lamb can be expensive. Some just may not have a clue how to cook it.

I am a big fan of lamb, especially of the pasture-raised, local, grass-fed variety. The meat is tender and flavorful, providing a nice break from routine. The good news is cooking lamb is no more difficult than preparing any other meat.

Some find lamb gamey in flavor. The best way to remedy this is to trim away the fat before you eat it (but not before you cook it – the fat is essential in cooking lamb), and to provide some vinegar, garlic, or herbs as a counterpoint to cut through the flavor. The gaminess also depends on the cut you choose. Lamb chops and leg of lamb tend to be a bit gamier, which is why so many people pair them with mint sauce. Rack of lamb or rib cuts, on the other hand, are tender and delicious without a hint of game.

Today, I will offer you two ways to prepare lamb. Both are simple and delicious. The “fancy” preparation I save for special occasions – though it is shockingly easy to prepare. The other I will often serve for regular meals.

Leg of Lamb with Roasted Garlic and Shallots

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
  • 2 tablespoons dry oregano
  • 3 cloves garlic, pressed through a press
  • Three bulbs garlic (or more)
  • Six shallots (or more)
  • Drizzle olive oil
  • One leg of lamb, butterflied with bone removed
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • Chopped, fresh rosemary

Method

  1. Pour vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, and oregano into a bowl and whisk. Marinate lamb in this for 4-6 hours.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  3. Slice the tops off of the heads of garlic and halve the shallots. Place them in a baking dish, cut side up and drizzle with olive oil.
  4. Cover with foil and roast for 90 minutes, until garlic and shallots are soft.
  5. Raise oven temperature to 500 degrees.
  6. Squeeze garlic and shallots out of the dried skins into a bowl and mash together.
  7. Lay lamb out on the counter and season with salt and fresh cracked pepper.
  8. Spread garlic and shallot mixture over surface of butterflied lamb.
  9. Sprinkle with chopped rosemary.
  10. Roll lamb into a roast and tie with butcher’s twine.
  11. Season outside of lamb with salt and pepper.
  12. Place in roasting pan and put in oven for 10 minutes to sear lamb.
  13. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and cook until lamb reaches an internal temperature of 130 degrees, about an hour (or longer for larger cuts. Check temperature regularly).
  14. Allow to rest 20 minutes before carving and serving.

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

Ingredients

  • One stick of grass-fed butter, softened
  • 6 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh thyme
  • One rack of lamb, Frenched
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Combine butter, garlic, almond meal, parsley, and thyme to form a loose paste.
  3. Score the fat on the rack of lamb crosswise, avoiding cutting all the way through to the meat.
  4. Season rack of lamb with salt and pepper.
  5. Press bread crumb mixture onto fleshy side of the rack of lamb, covering the meat entirely but leaving bones exposed.
  6. Place in a roasting pain, crust side up.
  7. Roast for about 30 minutes, until a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the lamb reads 135 degrees.
  8. Allow to rest 20 minutes before cutting and serving.

Serve with an earthy Pinot Noir or French Burgundy (made from Pinot Noir), which is a classic food/wine pairing. Favorites include Martinelli Pinot Noir from California or a Domaine Serene Pinot Noir from Oregon.

Italian Burgers

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burgerThe three day weekends that sandwich summer in the United States send Americans to the grill in large numbers. One of the most common foods for summer grilling is the humble hamburger. Basic burgers are pretty simple. Shape some ground beef into a patty, add a little seasoning, and grill away.

I enjoy a good, basic hamburger as much as the next guy, but sometimes I want something just a little different. Our local farmer’s market offers up grass fed beef hamburger with a little something extra. They grind beef and bacon into the same batch of meat, so you don’t have to grill the bacon and put it on top. It’s right in the burger! You can find this little bit of sheer genius at the farmer’s market in Olympia, Washington, or you can ask your butcher to give it a try. Ask them to grind sirloin and bacon at a ratio of 75%:25%. It’s pretty tasty stuff, and grills up juicy and delicious. If you happen to be in possession of your own meat grinder (don’t laugh. Kitchen Aids have meat grinding attachments), then you can even do it yourself.

My favorite burger, however, is a departure from the traditional burger. The Italian burger mixes sweet or hot Italian sausage (your choice depending on taste preference), hamburger, pesto mayonnaise, fresh mozzarella, and a rustic bun of some type. I like ciabatta for it, but mini baguettes work well, too.

Italian Burgers

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. each bulk Italian sausage (sweet or hot) and ground beef (20 percent fat keeps it from drying out)
  • 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
  • 1 cup Italian bread crumbs (or gluten-free bread crumbs plus 1 tablespoon each garlic powder and Italian seasoning)
  • 2 Tbsp. dried oregano
  • Fresh mozzarella (you can find it in the deli section of most grocery stores – fresh mozzarella is packed in liquid), sliced (eliminate for gluten-free)
  • 6 rustic buns such as ciabatta or mini baguettes (or gluten-free buns)
  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
  • 1 container pre-made pesto or homemade (recipe available here)
  • 1 cup mayonnaise (commercial or homemade)

Method

  1. Mix meat, egg yolks, 2 cloves garlic, bread crumbs, and oregano until well combined. I mix with very clean hands to make sure it is well integrated.
  2. Shape burgers to fit your buns and grill or saute until done. Do not overcook.
  3. In the last few minutes of cooking, top with mozzarella until it melts.
  4. While burgers cook, slice buns lengthwise and brush with melted butter containing one clove of minced garlic.
  5. Broil the buns for a few moments to brown (or toss them on the grill for a few moments, cut side down). Alternatively, you can grill your buns and then rub them with a lengthwise sliced clove of garlic to give them a light garlic flavor.
  6. Combine mayonnaise and pesto. Spread the mixture on your buns.
  7. Top with burgers.

These burgers go great with a spicy Zinfandel or Syrah, or you can choose a more traditional Italian wine such as Sangiovese (the grape found in Chianti).

Sweet Corn Chowder

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cornchowderOne of my favorite weekend activities is a trip through the farmers’ market. I enjoy watching the produce offerings change throughout the seasons, starting with tender baby greens in early spring, progressing to glistening berries in June, to colorful vegetables like radishes and carrots throughout the summer, finally winding down to fragrant apples, squash, pumpkins and heartier winter vegetables in October and November. Regular walks through the farmer’s market show you the natural progression of the food harvest cycle, and allow you to find ways to eat seasonally as earlier generations must have done in the days before produce was shipped all across the country and available year-round.

This week’s offerings are among my favorite of the summer. Ears of sweet corn, small red potatoes, sweet onions, fennel, colorful heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and summer squash. Finding corn on the cob at the farmer’s market is bittersweet. It means the end of summer is quickly approaching, giving way to the crisp days of autumn and the start of the new school year. In a month or so, my urge to cook apples will kick in, and my kitchen will be filled with applesauce, pie, and spicy, crunchy apple crisp.

I have found the perfect meal to make the most of the seasonal vegetables available at the farmer’s market right now. While sweet corn is, of course, amazing by itself on the cob, tossed on the grill, and then lightly buttered, if you’re looking for another way to serve it while incorporating much of the other seasonal bounty, then I suggest making a sweet corn chowder.

Sweet Corn Chowder

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound thick cut pepper bacon, diced
  • 2 sweet onions, diced
  • One carrot, peeled and diced
  • One stalk fennel, diced (if you don’t like fennel, you can replace this with celery)
  • 1/4 cup flour (or sweet rice flour for gluten-free)
  • 8 cups gluten-free chicken stock
  • Diced red potatoes (2-3 medium or several small)
  • 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
  • 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (or to taste – this is optional, but I like a little kick in the chowder to complement the sweet)
  • 4 ears sweet corn, husked and cut from cob, with juices reserved.
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream (optional – eliminate for dairy free)
  • Salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Method

  1. In a large stock pot, cook bacon until it is crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil. Reduce heat to medium high.
  2. Add onion, carrots and fennel to the pan and saute stirring occasionally until vegetables soften and start to caramelize, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add flour to the vegetables and stir constantly to keep it from sticking, about 2-3 minutes.
  4. Add chicken stock, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to remove any brown bits on the bottom. Stir constantly for a few minutes until flour and liquid are well combined and liquid starts to simmer and thicken slightly.
  5. Add potatoes, thyme, and red pepper flakes. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes soften, about 1o to 15 minutes.
  6. Add bacon, sweet corn and juices and simmer for a few minutes to soften corn and incorporate flavors.
  7. Add heavy cream, and stir to incorporate.
  8. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the chowder with a crusty bread and a dry Riesling (Columbia Cellermaster’s Riesling is a great choice), unoaked Chardonnay, or a Pinot Grigio.

Delicious Things to Do with Shrimp

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shrimpShrimp is a great protein to work with. It’s naturally low in fat, easy to handle, and has a sweetness that even people who aren’t fish fanatics enjoy. While it can be a bit expensive, there are ways to allay the cost. For example, purchasing it unpeeled and peeling it yourself is cheaper than purchasing it peeled and deveined.

Most of the shrimp you find in the grocery store is pre-frozen. It holds up well to flash freezing, and I’ve found that often the difference between the bags in the freezer section and the shrimp at the fish counter is they’ve thawed it for you. Once thawed, you need to use it pretty quickly. That’s why I buy the bags and thaw them myself when I’m ready.

Preparing to cook shrimp is easy. Take the bag out of the freezer, leave it sealed, and place it in a sink of cold water. Change the water every 30 minutes until the shrimp is thawed. Next, pull the shrimp out of the bag and give it a quick rinse to remove any remaining ice crystals. Let it drain in a colander for a few minutes, and then peel and devein it. There is a small vein that runs along the back of each shrimp. Just slit the membrane above the vein with a sharp knife, pull it out, and rinse it away.

Shrimp has an affinity for garlic. The bite of the garlic blends beautifully with the sweet, salty flesh of the shrimp. For a quick meal, heat a little olive oil in a pan, toss in the shrimp for a few minutes until they pink, and then toss in garlic for about 30 seconds. Taste for seasoning, and add salt if necessary.

I have several favorite ways to prepare shrimp.

First, I really like grilling it on sugarcane skewers. You can purchase sugar cane swizzle sticks online at Melissa’s Produce and cut them into small skewers. Grilling the shrimp on the sugarcane enhances the sweetness, and only takes a few moments over a hot, oiled grill. As soon as the shrimp turns pink, I glaze them with a rum based glaze containing equal parts rum and sugar, a little dijon mustard, some cinnamon, a dash of vinegar, and turn or two of fresh cracked pepper. I simmer those ingredients together until syrupy and taste for seasoning. Once brushed on the shrimp, I allow it contact with the heat for just about a minute a side.

Baked scampi makes an amazing blend of flavors between shrimp, garlic, and citrus. I marinate my shrimp for a few minutes at room temperature in a mixture of white wine and olive oil at a 2:3 ratio with a little black pepper. While the shrimp marinates, I combine softened butter; bread crumbs (I prefer panko); minced garlic, shallot,  parsley and rosemary; lemon zest, and an egg yolk into a crumbly topping. I spread the topping on the shrimp in a baking dish and bake it at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes until the shrimp pinks. Then, I blast it under the broiler for a minute or two to make the topping crunchy. This is delicious served on angel hair pasta.

If you like Mexican flavors, I make shrimp mojo de ajo with mushrooms. To create the mojo de ajo, place a saucepan with 1 to 2 cups of extra virgin olive oil on the stove top on the lowest temperature you can get it. I actually make the heat even less direct by placing a ring of rolled foil between the bottom of the pan and the burner. Add several cloves of chopped garlic (about one head per cup of oil), and allow it to simmer (but never boil) on the stovetop for an hour or longer. This gently cooks the garlic, making it extremely sweet and flavors the oil. Add a pinch of chipotle for a hit of spice. Saute quartered button mushrooms on the stovetop until they begin to brown and then add the shrimp. Once shrimp begins to pink, add the garlic and olive oil mix to finish cooking. Add a squeeze of lime juice. I serve this with tortillas, rice, pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream so people can build their own burritos.  Making homemade guacamole is easy. Chop two soft avocados and add one minced jalapeno (no seeds), 1/2 minced red onion, a few tablespoons of chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice, a pinch of salt, and a minced clove of garlic (or put through the garlic press). Stir, keeping some avocado chunks in the mix, and taste for seasoning.

Wines for shrimp: Shrimp has an affinity for crisp, mineral whites. I really like a good German Riesling with all of these recipes, because the acidity holds up well to the spices and sweetness of the shrimp. Try a Kabinett Riesling, or for something a little sweeter, try a Spatlese.

Seared Scallops with Mushroom Risotto

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risottoI may have mentioned before that I have a habit of reverse engineering meals I enjoy in restaurants so I can make them at home. After my reconnaissance missions to wonderful eateries around the area, I head into the kitchen where I play with ingredients until I achieve reasonable facsimile. No restaurant is immune. I’m just as likely to attempt to reverse engineer an Applebee’s quesadilla burger (Tanner’s favorite, and I just made it the other night!) as a fancy schmancy meal from Snidely McSnooty’s.

One of my favorite restaurant meals comes from the Lobster Shop in Tacoma. Our whole family enjoys visiting the restaurant along the water on Ruston Way. When they have it, we almost always select the center cut king crab legs (thank you Sig Hansen!), but when those are not on the menu, I’m all over their weathervane scallops with mushroom risotto. The risotto is creamy and earthy while the perfectly seared scallops are sweet and tender. I’ve made the dish several times at home, adapting it as I go along. While it’s never quite the same twice, I can give you a basic recipe. Try it at home. You’ll be glad you did!

Seared Scallops with Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

  • 2 packages of dried porcini mushrooms (you can find them in the produce aisle at the grocery, usually right by the regular mushrooms)
  • 7 cups of chicken stock
  • 1/2 stick unsalted butter (or 4T duck fat for dairy-free)
  • 1/4 lb pancetta, chopped
  • One onion, minced
  • 1-1/2 cup Aborio rice
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 2 to 3 cups assorted fresh mushrooms, sliced ( I like crimini and chanterelles)
  • 3 to 4 Tbsp. dried or chopped fresh thyme
  • Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
  • 1 cup hard Italian cheese (I like parmigiano reggiano or asiago – or omit for dairy-free)
  • 3 Tbsp. heavy cream (omit for dairy-free)
  • Salt to taste
  • One pound of large sea scallops
  • Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • 2 Tbsp. clarified unsalted butter
  • 1/2 scallop, minced
  • Dash of white wine
  • 1 cube unsalted butter, cut into 1/2″ pieces and chilled.
  • Dash heavy cream

Method:

  1. Heat chicken stock to boiling. Add dried mushrooms and set aside to soak for about two hours.
  2. Remove mushrooms from the stock and chop. Set aside. Strain dregs out of stock and reheat the stock on stovetop to simmering.
  3. Heat a large, heavy pot over medium heat. Melt butter (or duck fat) in pot until it begins to bubble.
  4. Add pancetta and cook until crisp, stirring occasionally.
  5. Add the onion, and saute until it softens, about two to three minutes.
  6. Add rice and saute, stirring constantly to toast rice and coat it with oil, about two minutes.
  7. Add wine, stirring constantly.
  8. Add mushrooms and thyme after the rice absorbs the liquid from the wine, and immediately begin adding stock.
  9. Add stock about one ladleful at a time, stirring constantly. Constant stirring will help develop a creamy texture, which is especially important if you are omitting cheese and butter. As the rice absorbs the liquid, add another ladleful. After about 15 to 20 minutes, the rice should be el dente. You should have about one cup of stock left.
  10. Stir in cheese until melted, and then add 3 Tbsp. heavy cream (omit this step for dairy free). Stir to combine. Taste for seasoning, and add salt and pepper as needed.
  11. Set scallops to drain in a colander.
  12. Heat a 12″ saute pan over medium-high heat on the stovetop. Add cold clarified butter or duck fat to the hot pan, and allow it to heat to bubbling.
  13. Meanwhile, pat scallops m completely dry with a paper towel and season lightly with salt and pepper.
  14. Place scallops in the pan and do not move or touch them. Do not overcrowd the pan, or scallops will not sear. If you must, cook them in two batches.
  15. After scallops have been in contact with the pan without moving for about two minutes, use tongs to peek at the bottom side of one. If it is browned and caramelized, then flip the scallops. Sear the other side.
  16. Remove scallops from the pan and place them on a plate, tented with foil.
  17. Return the pan to medium heat and pour the remaining stock into the pan, carefully scraping the browned bits off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add a dash of white wine.
  18. Add shallots, and allow to simmer until liquid reduces by about half or a little more.
  19. Whisk in one of the 1/2 inch pieces of butter. When it is fully incorporated, whisk in a few more. Continue to whisk butter in a few pieces at a time until it is all added (omit this step for dairy-free and instead reduce stock further until desired thickness).
  20. Whisk in a dash of heavy cream (omit this step for dairy free).
  21. Spoon risotto onto the plate. Top with sea scallops, and spoon the pan sauce over the top. Serve immediately.

This is good garnished with steamed asparagus, or serve it with a simply dressed salad of mache or spring greens. For a wine, have an earthy Pinot Noir, which pairs perfectly with the mushrooms and sets off the sweetness of the scallops nicely. I enjoy Oregon Pinot Noirs. Try one of Argyle Winery’s Spirit House Pinot Noir or their very affordable Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

Perfect Steakhouse Steak

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Steak dinnerHere’s the thing about cooking steak. Sure, it tastes pretty good most of the time no matter what you do to it, but there are methods you can use that render it otherworldly. It’s the reason steakhouses are so popular. They have equipment that allows them to cook the steak to the perfect level of doneness, with a caramelized brown crust on the outside and the perfect juicy, pink interior.

Many people find these results difficult to achieve at home. I started experimenting with a method Cook’s Illustrated recommended for cooking filet mignon and found it transfers well to all steaks, especially thick ones.

I am a huge fan of Cook’s Illustrated. Even if you never cook one of their recipes, reading their magazine and cookbooks from cover to cover will provide you with an amazing cooking education.

What Cook’s Illustrated recommends to make perfect filet mignon is to par-cook it at a low temperature oven and finish it with a sear on a very hot stovetop. For a 1 to 1-1/2 ” thick filet mignon, 20 minutes at about 275° F does the trick. For other cuts like thick cut rib-eyes or porterhouses, you will need between 30 and 45 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the steak. When you remove them from the oven, they should be slightly browned on the outside but still have a distinctly pinkish cast. A quick touch to the steak should be quite soft and yielding, but not squishy.

I like filet mignon for its tenderness, but I am not a huge fan of its flavor. Because of this, I feel it is a steak ripe for a good pan sauce. I like to make mine with a tawny Port-tarragon sauce.

Filet Mignon with Port-Tarragon Sauce

Ingredients

  • 2 to 4 1-1/2″ to 2″ thick filet mignon steaks
  • Salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
  • 3 Tbsp. clarified butter
  • 1/2 to 1 shallot, finely minced
  • 1/4 to  1/2 cup tawny Port
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter, cut into 1″ pieces and chilled so it is very cold
  • 2 to 4 Tbsp. chopped fresh tarragon

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 275° F.
  2. Place steaks on a rack placed over a baking sheet and season with salt and fresh cracked black pepper.
  3. Cook steaks for 20 – 25 minutes.
  4. Heat butter in a saute pan over high heat. If you like, you can also use grapeseed oil. Though it lacks the flavor of butter, it has a high smoke point.
  5. Saute steaks for two minutes on each side without moving them until it is time to flip them.
  6. Remove steaks from pan and set aside, tented with foil.
  7. Reduce heat to medium and deglaze the pan with Tawny port, taking care to scrape all of the browned bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon.
  8. Add shallot and allow to simmer until liquid is reduced and syrupy. It should coat the back of a spoon.
  9. Whisk in butter, staring with one piece and allowing it to fully incorporate before adding a second. Add 3-4 pieces of butter separately, and then add a few at a time, whisking continuously, until butter is incorporated and sauce is thick and creamy.
  10. Remove from heat and stir in the tarragon.
  11. Spoon over steaks, and serve immediately.

Serve with a nicely aged Cabernet Sauvignon or Bordeaux blend wine. A young Cab may be a bit too heavy for the delicate sauce. A personal favorite is Spring Valley Uriah, a Washington State wine that incorporates a variety of Bordeaux varietals in a Merlot base. Januik Winery, another Washington State winery, also makes consistently good Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

Homemade Mayo – How to Make it and Why You Should

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mayoIf you’ve ever looked at the ingredients on the back of a commercial mayonnaise, you might be surprised to find chemicals, preservatives, and high-fructose corn syrup (HCFS). In fact, “light” mayonnaise that contains lower amounts of fat often incorporates an array of surprising ingredients your great grandmother wouldn’t have even recognized as food. From commercial mayonnaise, here are a few ingredients on the label: CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA, SUGAR, HCFS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS.

While I receive kind of scary letters from the corn growers PR people when I mention HCFS in an article or blog post, I feel I must here. HCFS is an artificial sweetener made from fructose and sucrose. It has been linked to the growing obesity problem, and it is always best to limit all forms of sugar, including HCFS. Some experts believe HCFS is even more responsible for obesity than table sugar because of the way your body processes it, and some evidence suggests it contributes to liver scarring and cirrhosis. As with everything, the key is moderation. Unfortunately, because HCFS (more recently called corn sugar, but don’t let the new label fool you. It’s still HCFS.) is so ubiquitous in processed foods due to how cheaply it is produced and how plentiful it is, the negative health effects may prove to be exponential.

Homemade mayonnaise, however, contains only a few natural ingredients that just about everyone recognizes as something you can eat: egg yolks, oil, acid (lemon juice or vinegar typically), and salt. If you’d like to flavor it, you can add chopped fresh herbs, citrus zest, minced fresh garlic, or chipotle. Making it is an easy process. You can use your blender, a whisk, or a food processor. I’m going to describe the food processor method here, although it is easy to adapt for any equipment once you know the process.

Homemade Mayo

Ingredients:

  • Yolk of one egg
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons acid (lemon juice, lime juice, red wine vinegar, white vinegar, etc.)
  • 1 cup of oil (macadamia, olive oil, avocado oil)
  • Pinch to 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method:

  1. Place egg, acid, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Process a few seconds to combine.
  2. Your food processor should have a tube in the feed chute you use to push vegetables in. In the removable circular tube in the middle, there should be a small hole in the bottom. Fit the tube into the feed chute, and turn on the food processor. Pour a few drips of oil in the tube with the processor running. When that oil has been incorporated in the mayonnaise, pour a little more. Next, fill the tube with the oil and let it run in a slow stream into the egg mixture as the processor continues to run, until you have incorporated all of the oil.
  3. That’s it. Making mayonnaise is quite simple, and the homemade product tastes fresh and delicious. If you do not have the round feed tube with the small hole in the bottom, or if you are using a whisk, then you need to begin incorporating the oil very slowly while whisking constantly. Start with a drop or two of oil, add another drop or two, and then begin to add the oil in a very thin, slow stream while whisking constantly. If you add the oil too quickly, the mayonnaise will fail to emulsify.

Variations

  • Chipotle-lime mayonnaise: Replace at least 2 teaspoons of acid with fresh squeezed lime, add 1/2 tsp of lime zest, and a dash of dried chipotle.
  • Lemon-basil mayonnaise: Replace 2 teaspoons of acid with lemon and add 1/2 tsp of lemon zest. Roughly chop seven a small bunch of fresh basil and process it with the mayonnaise at the end to blend.
  • Garlic mayonnaise: Use red wine vinegar for your acid, and add the full 1/2 tsp of salt.Take one to two cloves of fresh garlic and put them through a garlic press. Put them in with the egg mixture and pulse the food processor to blend. Proceed to add your oil as instructed.

Tips

  • Mayonnaise will keep up to one week when tightly covered and refrigerated.
  • Use the freshest eggs possible.
  • You can use whole eggs, which creates a lighter, less creamy mayonnaise. You may need to adjust your oil slightly, so keep an eye as you process to determine when it is done.
  • If your mayonnaise fails to emulsify the first time you try it (and occasionally I still have a batch go awry), try it again, adding the oil just a little bit more slowly and making sure you do not stop whisking or processing as your incorporate it.
  • You can incorporate other oils such as extra-virgin olive oil or walnut oil; however, remember they are very intensely flavored. If you do use these oils, I suggest only adding a few tablespoons to 1/4 cup of them in order to avoid overpowering the mayonnaise.

Getting creative with the acids you use will change the flavor and character of your mayonnaise.

Smoked Baby Back Ribs

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ribsby Karen Frazier

Everyone has their own way of making ribs, and some of them are pretty darn good. I enjoy my ribs tender, juicy and smoky with a hit of heat. At worst, ribs come off of the barbecue dried and stringy. When well done, however, they can be a thing of beauty.

In our house, we take our ribs very seriously. We begin the journey to perfect ribs the night before, and when rib day dawns, we plan to be home for at least five hours, carefully tending the ribs as they cook low and slow on a smoky gas grill.

If you’re in a hurry, don’t try this at home. If, however, you’re willing to wait for a good thing, then by all means give this rib grilling process a try. You’ll be very glad you did.

Step One: Choosing Your Ribs

You can use this process with either baby back or spare ribs. I prefer the baby back, which tend to be more flavorful and tender than the spare ribs. Find the meatiest racks you can – some meat cutters really skimp. Watch for bones showing through the meat. If you see them, you just may have skimpy ribs. The place with the meatiest baby backs I’ve come across? Costco. I plan for a half rack per female, a 1/4 rack per kid (except teens), and a full rack per teen or man. I usually have leftovers, but these ribs reheat well.

Step Two: Brining – The Night Before

Brining is the best thing to happen to grilled meat since the invention of barbecue sauce. It adds moisture and flavor into the meat, helping to prevent drying as you cook them. To make a brine, I add 1/2 cup of kosher salt (or 1/4 cup table salt) and 1/4 cup of Swerve sweetener per gallon of water. Find a large container or a cooler and fill with as much brine as you need to soak your ribs. Brine them for one hour the night before you plan to cook them.

Step Three: Rubbing – The Night Before

Remove ribs them from the brine, and dry them off. Then, use generous amounts of rub on both sides of the ribs. Wrap the ribs in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Many commercial rib rubs exist. I don’t like them. They tend to be over-salty and not nearly as flavorful as a rub you make yourself. While my rib rub differs based on mood, I have a basic formula I follow using dried herbs and spices.

Two tablespoons each:

Cumin
Salt
Oregano
Chili powder
One tablespoon each:
Ground black pepper
Ground white pepper
Four tablespoons each:
Swerve sweetener
Sweet paprika
One teaspoon each:
Cayenne
You can adjust your proportions, double it, triple it – whatever you need to do. Plan on about 1/4 cup of rib rub for each rack.

Step Four: Smoke – The Night Before

If you use a regular grill, smoke preparation also begins the night before. Choose wood chips or chunks you like, and set them to soak overnight. I prefer chuks to chips for their ability to smoke longer, and applewood for its subtle flavors. You probably have a favorite. I don’t recommend hickory, which I believe is too aggressive at asserting its own flavor into the ribs.

We have a smoker, which we use to smoke our ribs. We keep it low and slow – about 275 for about four or five hours.

Step Five: Barbecue Prep – Rib Day

Congratulations! You’ve made it to rib day and you are mere hours away from the best ribs of your life. For a gas grill, set it on the lowest temperature possible, and close the lid. You want to heat it to a consistent temperature of about 275 degrees, where it should remain for most of the day. The key to ribs is low and slow. Once the grill reaches a temperature of 275 degrees, turn off one of the burners, leaving the other on low. This should allow you to keep the ribs at consistent temperature.
Make foil packets in which you place your wood chips. We like to set two or three foil packets around the grill for full saturation. Place slits in the top for the smoke to escape, and grant easy access so you can add more wood chips as needed. Place the packets underneath the grill plates and allow them to heat as you preheat your grill.

For a smoker: Turn it on to 275. Bam! You’re done.

Step Six: Cook the Ribs

If you own a smoker, this section is pretty short: smoke your ribs, low and slow, at about 250-275 until they fall off the bone (about 4-6 hours). If you own a grill, read on.

If you own rib racks, use them. This keeps the ribs from direct contact with the grill and facilitates the development of tender, fall-off-the-bone meat. You can find them at many kitchen speciality stores, and they are quite inexpensive. Otherwise, place ribs on the part of the grill where the burner has been turned off. You are going to use indirect heat to grill your ribs.

Close the lid and walk away. Every 30 minutes, check the temperature of the ribs to make sure they are still grilling low, and rotate the position of the ribs so they cook evenly. Check smoke packets to see if supplies need to be replenished, as well. Have a beer and wait.

At between 3-1/2 and 5 hours, the ribs should start to get really tender. Poke them with a fork, or give the end of a rack a small twist with tongs and see if it is falling off the bone. When it is, they’re done.
We usually stop here and eat our ribs; however, I know many people really, really, really like barbecue sauce or glaze. If you’ve carefully tended your smoke and barbecue temperature, however, these ribs will not need them. They should be smoky, sweet, and juicy.

Still, if you absolutely must, proceed to step seven.

Step Seven (Optional): Glaze the Ribs

I actually love my ribs with just the dry rub and no glaze. If you brine them and keep them on low and slow, they will be tender and moist.

If you like your ribs a little wetter, then glaze them. You could use commercial barbecue sauce, although what a waste of perfectly good ribs that would be. You could also make your own barbecue sauce, as I outlined here. However, I believe even a homemade tomato-based barbecue sauce will overwhelm the sweet smokiness of these  ribs. Therefore, if your ribs must be covered in something other than deliciousness, I recommend making a glaze.

How do you make a glaze? Add:

  • A base liquid (chicken stock, wine, beer, cola, or something)
  • Something sweet (stevia, Swerve sweetener, honey)
  • Acid (balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, etc.)
  • Salt
  • A dash of heat (cayenne, jalapenos, red pepper flakes, hot sauce)

Simmer it altogether on the stove until it becomes syrupy, tasting to adjust flavor. Brush the glaze on the ribs and stick them under the broiler for a few minutes to set the glaze.

Crockpot BBQ Beans

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beansI’m not going to lie. There are days when cooking is not an option. While I’ve managed to find ways to spend less than an hour in the kitchen cooking most meals, some days that is not even in the cards. I had a meal planned for today – a pork roast beautifully brined, artfully flavored with a sweet/spicy rub, and cooked low and slow in the oven until it was fork tender before I brushed it with a sweet maple glaze.

The best laid plans, however. We were invited to a barbecue tonight, and Jim has to work. Whenever there’s a barbecue, my friends ask me to bring one thing: my beans. I have to admit, they are pretty darn good and never quite the same way twice because I pretty much dump a bunch of stuff together, stick it in the crockpot, and let it cook all day.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

Since I had the roast that needed to be cooked today, I stuck it in one of my crockpots with some barbecue sauce. It is currently becoming pulled pork for Jim’s next few work meals. I like to make my own BBQ sauce. Though I can’t tell you proportions (I dump), when I make BBQ sauce it may contain some (or all) of the following: Muir Glen organic tomato sauce, tomato paste, liquid smoke, smoked paprika, whiskey, chili powder, cayenne, minced garlic, minced onion, vinegar, minced shallot, salt, fresh cracked black pepper, pepper flakes, molasses, brown sugar. Typically, I start with tomato sauce and paste, liquid smoke, garlic, onion, paprika, vinegar, chili powder, whiskey, and molasses or brown sugar in a pot on the stove. Then I start tasting and adding stuff, and I let it simmer and thicken. Usually it comes out pretty well.

Beans for the Barbecue

My beans that are so popular at barbecues don’t actually have a recipe. I learned basic concepts from Etta Kirk, a family friend, and then I started to adapt them. My process is typically pretty similar each time, though proportions vary widely and sometimes I get creative and toss in something extra like a little whiskey or liquid smoke.

Ingredients

  • 1-2 large cans of your favorite commercial baked beans. I like Bush’s country-style.
  • 1 can of kidney beans, drained
  • 1 lb. of ground beef, browned
  • 4-5 slices of bacon, browned and crumbled
  • One sweet onion
  • One each red and green peppers
  • 2-3 jalapeno peppers, seeded
  • Several cloves of garlic
  • Barbecue sauce (see above) (around 1/2 cup)
  • Dijon or sweet hot mustard (usually a couple tablespoons)
  • Brown sugar or molasses (about 1/4 cup)

Method

  1. In a large crockpot, mix baked beans, kidney beans, ground beef, bacon, barbecue sauce, mustard, and brown sugar or molasses.
  2. Roughly chop vegetables and place them in the bowl of a food processor with garlic. Pulse the processor for several one second pulses until vegetables are finely minced. Add them to the beans and stir well.
  3. Cook in the crockpot on high for four hours or low for eight hours.
  4. The best part about this is you can create it to your taste. Make your own BBQ sauce, or choose your favorite commercially prepared offering. Processing the vegetables and garlic to a nearly pureed state makes them spread their flavor through the beans, giving it a hit of nice heat. You can also put the beans in a foil baking dish, cover them with foil, and cook them on the barbecue for several hours as you cook low and slow meats such as ribs.

Farm Fresh Eggs

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eggsMy friend Kathrynn Saari is a genius at coaxing food from the earth. She’s always been a source of garden delights, but after a recent move to property large enough to raise chickens and keep bees, she’s become my regular supplier of farm fresh eggs. For just $3 per dozen, I get two cartons of eggs at the end of every week, and frankly, I can’t wait for the honey.

For those of you who have only ever tried supermarket eggs, I urge you to seek a source from the farm. Many people do not realize it, but eggs at the grocery store (even the organic ones) are several weeks old by the time they make it to your refrigerator. While this makes them ideal for hard boiling (older eggs peel much more cleanly than fresh eggs), there is a payoff in flavor and color.

The eggs I get from Kathrynn have been plucked from beneath the butts of chickens hours earlier. They arrive in a colorful array – white, brown, blue, and sage green. Just looking at them in a carton is a delight. When I crack one open, the yolk is a deep sunshine-colored orangey-yellow that is so much more intensely pigmented than a store-bought egg. They also typically have a higher yolk to white ratio, rendering anything you make from them silky and delicious.

Just last week, I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies from these wonderful eggs. Jim assures me they are the best chocolate chip cookies he has ever had, and he’s not really a fan of that type of cookie. He’s more of an oatmeal raisin man. Still, the cookies were spectacular. Although the eggs are slightly smaller than a supermarket egg, I used the normal amount. The result was cookies that rose to a spectacular height. Yesterday, I made zucchini bread with them. I have never made a quick bread with such a perfect, moist crumb.

Baking aside, farm fresh eggs make homemade pastas tastier and more velvety, homemade mayonnaise richer, and taste delicious when you feature them in humble scrambled eggs. Since I’m currently working with beautiful vegetables straight from my CSA box, I also enjoy a really good frittata. With farm fresh eggs, they are even better than you could image.

Heirloom Tomato and Zucchini Fritatta

Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp. unsalted butter
  • 1/4 zucchini, sliced
  • 3-4 thick slices heirloom tomato
  • 3 Tbsp. (or more) of grated cheese. For this, I enjoy Asiago.
  • Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
  • 3-4 leaves of fresh basil, torn into small pieces
  • Pinch of sea salt

Method:

  1. Set oven to broil.
  2. Whisk together eggs until well combined.
  3. Whisk in heavy cream, and black pepper to combine.
  4. Heat an oven-proof saute pan on the stove top over medium-high heat, melting the butter in it to prevent sticking. Use more butter if necessary.
  5. Pour egg mixture into pan. As the eggs begin to set up around the side, gently work them towards the center with a spatula and tilt pan to distribute unset eggs.
  6. When eggs have mostly set, remove from heat. Arrange zucchini and tomatoes on top. Sprinkle with grated cheese.
  7. Place in oven under broiler, watching carefully. Cook for just a few moments, until frittata puffs slightly and cheese melts and begins to brown.
  8. Remove from oven.
  9. Slice into wedges.
  10. Drizzle each slice with olive oil, and sprinkle with basil and a little sea salt. My son will also tell you that drizzling these with truffle oil in place of olive oil makes the frittata even better.
  11. Serve immediately.