09/22/10
So tonight it was an Hungarian Goulash, with pork, caraway, sour kraut and sour cream. It was adapted from a Joy of Cooking recipe, and delicious. I cook like a peasant. Tomorrow, it will be scallops in cream and basil with pasta. It too will be delicious. Pasta sauce II. It's all simple stuff, peasant stuff. It's meals from the home economy. Soup craft.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Pasta Sauce.01
09/20/10
I promised a simple pasta sauce. This is basic.
1 6oz can tomato paste
1/3 cup of dry red wine
2/3 cup of water
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoons (heaping) minced garlic (1/4 teaspoon powder)
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil (very important).
Mix all of the above together in a sauce pan. Bring to a slow boil. Reduce heat to low and let simmer to blend the flavors. Fifteen minutes is good. An hour is better. Add liquid as needed. Serve with spaghetti or linguini. Top with one cup of freshly grated Parmesan and Romano Cheese. Magnificent.
Now here’s the thing. My simple pasta sauce has more body and flavor than all of the sauces on my grocer’s shelves. It’s an honest thing and not overbearing with salt. The above serves two hungry American pasta eaters or four first course Italian diners. Take you choice and your style.
We had the above American style, with roasted chicken legs, pasta, sauce and cheese. Beautiful.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Prelude to Pasta
9/16/10
This is headed in the direction toward crafting pasta sauce. With that in mind here is brief tour of my grocery store.
There are: 24' of shelves devoted to salad dressing; 32' of canned soup; 12' of sauce and gravy mixes; 16' of pasta sauces; 16' of "hamburger helper" kits; 8' of "stove top stuffings"; 8' of "Home Style Bakes"; 16' of refrigerated entries; and 116' of frozen entrees.
All of these food products can be made with basic ingredients from a well stocked pantry, spice shelf, refrigerator and freezer. For the most part they can be made as quickly. In every case they can be made much better.
The primary advantage consumer food products -- they are a simple, mindless solution to the problem of what's for supper. In a consumer society, marketers identify a problem (what's for supper?) and offer the solution (frozen pizza).
The obvious disadvantage is most of these solutions are not very good. But worse a fundamental human experience is severely diminished. Cooking is a creative human endeavor. When the cook is replaced by a manufacturing process, a piece being human is lost. In the world of consumer products, the human connection between the cook, what's for supper and those gathered at the table becomes razor thin. A part of our social order is lost. A bit of household and household economy are eroded away.
With this, know where this blog is going. It’s an attempt to put a stop to the erosion and recover that which has been lost. Soup craft extends far beyond making a fine pot of soup. But there is time. The next couple of posts will be a more detailed consideration of pasta sauce and a few recipes too. Thanks for joining me.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Swedish Meatballs in Review
Swedish Meatballs in Review:
9/12/10
Yesterday’s Swedish meatball recipe was based on an Alton Brown recipe from the Food Network. Three things set it apart: condensed cream of mushroom soup never entered the equation; it was nicely spiced; and the incorporation of milk soaked fresh bread crumbs bordered on genius.
The bread and milk made them light and moist. As for the spices, I cut the amount of salt and pepper in half -- a good move. Now we get to the condensed cream of mushroom soup issue. While I use it in a few recipes, too often it’s a copout, overly salted substitute for a real cream sauce.
A real cream sauce is a simple thing to make and can be made as quickly as preparing the sauce from canned soup. The key is real cream. Consider this sauce for poached scallops. Without going into great detail, after the scallops a poached in bit of dry white wine and set aside, heavy cream is simply added to the poaching liquid, brought to a boil and reduced until it will coat the back of a spoon. It is then simply seasoned to taste with salt, pepper and basil to taste. Nothing can be more simple.
The beauty of heavy cream is that is can be boiled over direct heat without scorching. It can be additionally thickened to an almost paste like consistency with either a roux or whitewash thinned to a desired consistency with either milk or stock. Forget about the jars of Alfredo sauce and the powdered sauces for scalloped potatoes.
In retrospect this is the approach I would have taken for the Swedish meatball sauce. I did not follow Alton Brown’s recipe to the “T”. He called for mixing the flower into the pan drippings and whisking the flour in to create a roux then adding the beef broth and cream to finish the sauce. While my variation was alright, I wasn’t thrilled with it. Next time I will begin with cream to create the sauce.
9/12/10
Yesterday’s Swedish meatball recipe was based on an Alton Brown recipe from the Food Network. Three things set it apart: condensed cream of mushroom soup never entered the equation; it was nicely spiced; and the incorporation of milk soaked fresh bread crumbs bordered on genius.
The bread and milk made them light and moist. As for the spices, I cut the amount of salt and pepper in half -- a good move. Now we get to the condensed cream of mushroom soup issue. While I use it in a few recipes, too often it’s a copout, overly salted substitute for a real cream sauce.
A real cream sauce is a simple thing to make and can be made as quickly as preparing the sauce from canned soup. The key is real cream. Consider this sauce for poached scallops. Without going into great detail, after the scallops a poached in bit of dry white wine and set aside, heavy cream is simply added to the poaching liquid, brought to a boil and reduced until it will coat the back of a spoon. It is then simply seasoned to taste with salt, pepper and basil to taste. Nothing can be more simple.
The beauty of heavy cream is that is can be boiled over direct heat without scorching. It can be additionally thickened to an almost paste like consistency with either a roux or whitewash thinned to a desired consistency with either milk or stock. Forget about the jars of Alfredo sauce and the powdered sauces for scalloped potatoes.
In retrospect this is the approach I would have taken for the Swedish meatball sauce. I did not follow Alton Brown’s recipe to the “T”. He called for mixing the flower into the pan drippings and whisking the flour in to create a roux then adding the beef broth and cream to finish the sauce. While my variation was alright, I wasn’t thrilled with it. Next time I will begin with cream to create the sauce.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Swedish Meatballs
9/11/10. Tonight it will be Swedish meatballs. A friend of mine who raises grass fed beef says about forty percent of the animal winds up as ground beef. It only makes sense then, if one is to eat beef about forty percent should be ground beef. Ground beef can become more than hamburgers, chili and hamburger helper stews. Meatballs fall into that category. It’s all in the spices. Here it’s a combination of nutmeg and allspice.
Swedish Meatballs:
¾ lbs. ground beef
¾ lbs. ground pork
2 slices of bread
¼ cup of milk
2 egg yokes
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup of finely chopped onions
1 tablespoon of butter for sautéing the onions
Tear or chop the bread slices into small pieces mix them with milk in a mixing bowl large enough for all of the ingredients. Let the bread and milk soak and sauté the onions in butter until soft. Let the onions cool to room temperature then ad to bread milk mix. Mix the spices into the egg yokes then addd to the mix. Add the ground beef and pork and mix thoroughly. Form into 1 to 1 ½ inch balls and brown in batches in skillet set at medium high in 2 tablespoons of canola oil or lard until nicely browned on all sides about 7 to 8 minutes per batch. Reserve cooked meatballs in an oven proof casserole to a two hundred degree oven.
For the sauce:
2 14.5 ounce cans of low sodium beef broth
½ cup of heavy cream
¼ cup of flour
Thoroughly mix the flour with ½ can of beef stock for a white wash. Drain the excess fat from the skillet and the deglaze the skillet with remaining beef broth. Bring the broth to a hard boil then slowly add the whitewash while vigoriously mixing with a whisk. Once the sauce has thickened add the heavy cream. Continue to cook until the sauce has reached the desired consistency. Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour over the meatballs and bake in a 250 degree oven for 40 minutes to an hour then serve over noodles.
Swedish Meatballs:
¾ lbs. ground beef
¾ lbs. ground pork
2 slices of bread
¼ cup of milk
2 egg yokes
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup of finely chopped onions
1 tablespoon of butter for sautéing the onions
Tear or chop the bread slices into small pieces mix them with milk in a mixing bowl large enough for all of the ingredients. Let the bread and milk soak and sauté the onions in butter until soft. Let the onions cool to room temperature then ad to bread milk mix. Mix the spices into the egg yokes then addd to the mix. Add the ground beef and pork and mix thoroughly. Form into 1 to 1 ½ inch balls and brown in batches in skillet set at medium high in 2 tablespoons of canola oil or lard until nicely browned on all sides about 7 to 8 minutes per batch. Reserve cooked meatballs in an oven proof casserole to a two hundred degree oven.
For the sauce:
2 14.5 ounce cans of low sodium beef broth
½ cup of heavy cream
¼ cup of flour
Thoroughly mix the flour with ½ can of beef stock for a white wash. Drain the excess fat from the skillet and the deglaze the skillet with remaining beef broth. Bring the broth to a hard boil then slowly add the whitewash while vigoriously mixing with a whisk. Once the sauce has thickened add the heavy cream. Continue to cook until the sauce has reached the desired consistency. Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour over the meatballs and bake in a 250 degree oven for 40 minutes to an hour then serve over noodles.
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