The london broil marinade was a bit east-meets-west, which I enjoyed quite a bit, and the salad was simple, fresh and delicious.

Crispy Arugula Salad
1 bunch of fresh, fairly mature arugula (baby arugula is great, but less peppery)
green pepper
radishes
green pepper
fresh white button mushrooms
fresh thyme

dressing:
lemon juice
champagne vinegar
olive oil
dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Make sure you wash and dry your arugula. Rip the largest leaves in half so the diner does not need a knife to eat the salad, and go with whatever ratios you like for the other ingredients. My salad had enough for two people: half a green pepper, 3 radishes, and 5 button mushrooms.

For the dressing, I used half a lemon, an equal amount of vinegar, a dab of mustard (like an eighth of a teaspoon), a pinch of salt and pepper, and olive oil to taste.

Addition: if you have time to mince up a shallot and let it sit in the lemon juice and vinegar for a few minutes before finishing the dressing, I highly recommend it.

London Broil

4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp of chopped fresh rosemary and winter savory
salt and pepper
soy sauce
cumin

I like to tenderize my london broil (usually a cut of Round) — which entails just putting the meat between two pieces of plastic wrap and giving it a few good bangs with a heavy pot.

For the marinade, wash and dry several sprigs of winter savory (use fresh oregano or thyme if you don’t have savory — I’m now addicted to it and plant it every year) and one big sprig of rosemary, and finely chop the herbs. Then smash the garlic cloves, remove the skin and mince. On both sides of the london broil, spread the herbs, a dusting of cumin, a drizzle of soy sauce, a healthy pinch of black pepper, and a small pinch of salt (given that the soy sauce is salty, I think it is better to go light at this point and taste for salt after grilling). If you have time, cover and put back in the fridge for a few hours. Otherwise you can let marinate at room temperate for 30 minutes or so.

Grill to preference (I like medium rare), let rest for a few minutes, then slice thin.

When it gets hot, I tend to go for whites and roses rather than red wine, so I paired this with a dry Riesling.

Now the only question is whether I let Lisl have any leftovers, or greedily keep it all for myself!

The following measurements are a rough approximation:

1 lb ground lamb
thyme leaves from 5 or 6 fresh sprigs
1 tsp kosher salt (halve this if you use table salt)
large bunch of parsley, finely chopped
zest from 1 lemon
several grindings of fresh pepper

Combine the ingredients in a bowl with your hands, and form into meatballs about 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter. I made 9 meatballs from 1 lb of ground lamb. Grill them, turning periodically so that multiple sides of the meatball get seared and it starts to firm up. I did not find that these needed a sauce, but a bit of fresh lemon juice, or a sauce of lemon juice mixed into greek yogurt might be nice.

Make sure you wash your lemon well before zesting, since they are often sprayed.  I’ll also note that lamb can be really hit or miss in the U.S. A lot of lamb sold here is too old, which I didn’t even realize until marrying an Australian and realizing how good lamb is down under. We do not eat lamb that often, but when we do, we get it from a very good butcher who works with carefully chosen local farms.

It is so nice to have grilling season back upon us. In many cases, our jobs as cooks is to get out of the way and let the food and fresh product do the talking.  Here are notes from Saturday’s dinner, when we had a few guests over for Lisl’s birthday.

Three Bean Salad

1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of garbonzo beans (chickpeas)
1 can of black beans
4 ears of corn
4 sweet peppers (multiple colors if possible), cut into bite sized pieces
1 red onion, diced
1 bunch of spring onion, diced
Large bunch of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
Large bunch of cilantro, washed well and chopped
limes
lemon
salt and pepper
olive oil
champagne vinegar

I make this salad slightly different every time, but my basic routine is the following.  Carefully wash the canned beans in a colander, drain and add to the bowl.  Cook each ear of corn, still in the husk, in the microwave for 2 and a half minutes, then remove husk and take kernels off with a knife once cool enough to touch.  Dice the spring onions, using all of the green part, and toss it in with the diced red onion, tomatoes, jalapeno and sweet peppers ( I like using a mix of red, green, orange and yellow).

Dress the salad by taste.  Stir in the cilantro, juice from 1 lemon, juice from 3 or 4 limes, a sprinkle of olive oil and champagne vinegar (but go light on the oil and vinegar — you want the citrus to stand out).  Add salt to taste, and add some freshly ground pepper. Depending on how juicy your limes are, the number of limes you want to use will vary.

I like dressing this ahead of time so everything absorbs some of the citrus flavor.  This is a great, hearty and bright salad for serving a large number of people.

Pork Tenderloin Marinade

Large handful of parsley, chopped
Several sprigs of fresh oregano, leaves removed and chopped
4 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of fresh pepper

I made this marinade for use on three pork tenderloins — the amounts are ballpark but you can’t really go wrong here.  With a mortar and pestle, mash up the garlic and herbs.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients then rub all over the pork.  Cover and place in the fridge for several hours, then grill by searing the pork and then cooking on a cooler part of your grill until the meat hits the right point of firmness.

Side note: I was cooking on my brother-in-law’s grill the other weekend and I was reminded how difficult it is to work with unfamiliar equipment. I totally overcooked the chicken.  On my own grill, where I know how and where heat distributes, I was really pleased with getting these tenderloins perfect.  Lisl laughed and said it shows just how tough those Top Chef challenges are when they get thrown into crazy circumstances.

Shallot & Lemon Salad Dressing

There’s nothing rocket science here, but I’m addicted to the following salad and dressing and figured I would make a note of it:

Mince up a big shallot (or more than one shallot) and let the shallots sit for 20 to 30 minutes in the juice from 1 lemon and a couple splashes of champagne wine vinegar.  Then wisk in some olive oil, a dab of dijon mustard, and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Toss over a bunch of baby arugula (rocket), with some nice tomatoes and maybe some sliced mushrooms or red pepper. Can’t beat it.

Addendum

I’ve had Disqus installed on my tech blog forever and I *finally* have it installed here.  I much prefer the threaded comment system and after a few goes, it looks like it has imported all the old comments.

Theoretically, I should experiment more with dry rubs but, well, it’s just… for me, this stuff is like the grill equivalent of crack.  Crack and pork. Pork and crack. I play around with ratios and leading actors, but I always come back to the same basic cast of characters.  When these players hit the stage of Fleisher’s berkshire pork, spectacular things happen.

If you are looking to shut down all table conversation, and revert your guests to a neanderthal state of grunting and gnawing, try the following:

Buy two racks of (berkshire if possible) pork spare ribs for every 3 people.

With a mortar and pestle, grind up:
1 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp yellow mustard seed
1/2 tsp black pepper

Then stir in:
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp kosher salt
heaping tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp dried oregano

I sometimes use pre-ground cumin, but I really like using the seeds for the coriander, mustard seed, and black pepper for that extra texture.  I also will note that I don’t bother removing the membrane on the bottom side of the ribs.

Rub the spice mixture all over the ribs, then place them in a suitable holder (I use a baking dish), cover with plastic wrap, and return to the fridge for 6 hours or more (overnight is ideal).

You can cook these with indirect heat on the grill, or with low heat in the oven.  In this case, it was raining, so I baked these on broiler trays (so any melted fat didn’t pool) for 3 to 3.5 hours at 250F degrees.

That’s it. Easy peasy. Dig in caveman!

Urgh gllrgh mmmmmmmm

The ribs before cooking

Additional notes: I usually don’t use oregano with this dry rub, but really enjoyed it here.  Another good spin is to add some heat with cayenne or red pepper flakes.

Summertime has finally come, although here in the Catskills the spring rains have decided they like hanging around. They enjoy our company in the afternoons. That, or they’re out to kill everyone’s tomato plants, and doing a good job of it too. We are just finishing a week vacation here in “slightly-upstate” New York, and while work and mozzies invaded quite a bit, it has been quiet and beautiful. (if you don’t speak Oz, mozzies = mosquitoes)

The farms have been fighting with the weather – what a tough profession farming is, subject to the whims of weather.  I was really looking forward to the return of fresh roma beans at our local farm, but the wet weather has left them tough and unenjoyable, resistant to even a long stew in tomato sauce.  The cucumbers have suffered even worse, including the little kerbys.

Still, the chard, wax beans, and golden zucchini are all beautiful, and I have high hopes for the corn season. I was glad to see Gill’s farm stand open for business.  Here is my first payload:

Given the onslaught of work (trying to get a new venture off the ground in this environment is not a simple task), I have only had time to cook oldies but goodies, rather than creating new dishes.  With summertime eating, I also tend to go simple — fresh salads and well-seasoned meat cooked on the grill.

A dry rub of smoked paprika, ground coriander, salt, and brown sugar was a smashing hit with our niece visiting from Sydney.  We have also been playing around with chimichurri-like green sauces to go with flank and skirt steak, some with parsely and some with cilantro.  My favorite so far was the following:

Cilantro Green Sauce (chimichurri inspired)
large bunch of cilantro (fresh coriander)
2 cloves of garlic
1/3 of a hot jalapeno
pinch of salt
1 tbsp of olive oil
red wine vinegar and rice wine vinegar to taste

You can finely mince everything and combine with the liquids, or just use a food processor (which is what I did last night).  The bite of the vinegar and the heat of the jalapeno are a fabulous complement to a flank or skirt steak, well seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked to medium-rare on the grill, and sliced thin across the grain.

I also love making twists on lemonade.  Last summer I had fun freezing watermelon cubes and using them instead of ice.  This year I did a similar thing, but with more of a mohito-making approach.

Lemon-limeade with Watermelon and Spearmint

Juice 4 or 5 lemons and 2 limes, and place in a large jug.  Add mint leaves from several sprigs of spearmint or regular mint.  Add in 1 lime, washed and quartered.  Cut a half-inch slice from a watermelon half, and slice into 1/2 inch cubes.  Add in 3 tbsp of sugar.  Mash everything up.  Pour in cold water and ice, then taste for the amount of citrus juice and sugar, adjusting to taste.

When summertime arrives, as it did in gorgeous fashion this weekend, a lot of my cooking shifts outside to the grill.  If you are the same, and looking for ideas, here are two different flavor profiles you might find interesting: grilled lamb and feta meatballs with a yogurt mint sauce, and a ginger, mustard seed and soy sauce marinated london broil (aka flank steak).

Grilled Lamb Meatballs w Yogurt Mint Sauce

I have really been enjoying working with ground lamb recently.  It is fabulous to use when stuffing an eggplant or zucchini, or you can grill little patties mixed with spring onions and ground cumin.  But right now, this recipe below is tops in my book:

Meatballs
1 lb ground lamb
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh oregano and winter savory
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup crumbled greek feta cheese

Sauce
4 heaping tbsp of greek yogurt
2 tbsp of finely chopped mint
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste
olive oil to taste

Combine the lamb, herbs, salt and feta in a bowl and thoroughly mix it all together with your hands (if you do not have fresh winter savory, just use oregano, but I have to say that fresh savory is one of my favorite discoveries this year).  Shape round meatballs of 1.5 inches in diameter; as you can see, I ended up with 14.  Grill them on a medium hot grill.  They do not take very long to cook, but you will want to hover over them with a pair of tongs to turn them to brown a few sides, and to move them when the inevitable flare-ups occur.   Take them off when they are medium. You can feel doneness with a finger or the tongs — don’t let them get too hard, i.e. overcooked! Use a set of tongs that will be gentle on the food, i.e. does not have jagged claws of death.

Lisl (who is the lamb expert in the house, being Australian) had the idea of serving these with a yogurt-mint sauce and the pairing worked marvelously.  Just stir the yogurt, mint and lemon juice together in a bowl, and add a pinch of salt and 1/2 tbsp of olive oil.  Add more salt and olive oil to taste (I probably ended up at about 1 tbsp).

London Broil Marinated in Ginger, Mustard Seed, and Soy Sauce

I love working with “london broil”, which is an American term for round steak, usually 1 to 1.5 inches thick, marinated and then typically cooked under the broiler or on the grill. This is a cheaper, tougher cut of meat, which benefits from being tenderized, cooked to medium-rare, and thinly sliced.  The leftovers are always marvelous for sandwiches.  As you can see, the marinade included more than ginger and mustard seed, but a title can only be so long.

1.5 lb london broil round steak
1 large knob of ginger (about 1.5″ thick, 2″ long), finely chopped
1/2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
8 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
soy sauce

With a mortar and pestle, coarsely grind up the mustard seeds, coriander seeds, and peppercorns.  Stir in the brown sugar and salt.  On a dish or tray large enough to hold the piece of beef, scatter down half of the ginger and half of the spice mix.  Lightly drizzle a little bit of soy sauce around.

Rinse the beef and with paper towel, then place on the tray, on top of the ginger and spices.  Scatter the remaining ginger and spices on top, and again lightly drizzle with soy sauce.  With your hand or a utensil, smear some of the marinade mixture on the sides as well.  Cover the tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. You can also just marinate the beef in a plastic bag, but I prefer this method since I know a tray won’t leak!

Cook on a hot grill, between 2 and 5 minutes a side depending on how hot your grill gets.  Remove when it feels medium-rare to the touch, and let rest for several minutes on a cutting board before thinly slicing across the grain (important!) and at a 45 degree angle.

I served this with some baby potatoes roasted in foil on the grill (with olive oil and rosemary) and asparagus.  A green salad with a lemon-olive oil dressing would also be a nice complement.

Of course, it always helps to work with great meat.  That’s Josh Applestone, from Fleisher’s in Kingston, breaking down a Berkshire pig for a pork loin I tried smoking on my gas grill with hickory chips (verdict: fine, but a roast would have been better. I don’t think my grill contained the smoke well enough).

I’ll leave you with a picture of thyme flowers growing in a pot outside our kitchen door. I wish I had a picture of the Eastern Phoebe tending a nest over our dining room window.  It took me forever to pin down whether it was a Flycatcher, Peewee, or Phoebe since it was rather skittish.  A longstanding bird geek, I love my Sibley guide.

If you are like me, and have used your ramp whites for pickling, then you have a whole bunch of delicious ramp greens to use before too much time passes.  Here is a really simple thing to try that got a great response from Lisl:

Chicken, Ramp and Hot Paprika Skewers
Chicken breasts
Ramp greens
salt
pepper
hot hungarian paprika (or a mix of paprika and chili powder)
olive oil

If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in cold water.

Place chicken breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap on a sturdy surface, and thin them to 1/4 inch or less by banging with the bottom of a heavy sauce pan (cast iron has *so* many uses!).

Cut into slices 1.5 inches thick and about 4 or 5 inches long. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then place a ramp green on top, roll it up, and place on the skewer.  If you end up with some smaller pieces of chicken, just cut them into squares about the same height/width as your rolls, cut up some ramp greens to about the same size, and alternate chicken and ramp green on the skewer, packing together closely.

Sprinkle both sides of the skewer with a little more salt, pepper, and a liberal amount of the hot paprika. Flip and do the same for the other side.  Let rest for 20 minutes or so.

Ideally you will cook these on a hot grill, but in my case my grill is not totally fixed, so I broiled them right up under the heating elements in the oven for just over two minutes a side.

Serve by drizzling e.v. olive oil on top, and with a slight sprinkle of coarse sea or kosher salt.  The ramp flavor really comes through and it all works together nicely. Don’t forget the olive oil at the end!

Rainy weekends call for tinkering in the kitchen. Tinkering, however, runs smack up against one of the hidden catches to having children.  They never tell you this beforehand, for fear of putting you off.  It belies description, this 10th circle of hell, this other-worldly zone of chaos, sugar, and tears.  See, just a few words and you already know what I am talking about: children’s birthday parties.

Like Sartre’s No Exit, you cannot escape.  The unwritten rule is that your child has to go to every birthday party of every other child in his or her class.  And (warning: you cannot escape this either), those children have to come to your child’s party too. They, and by “They” I of course refer to SPECTRE, who after some market testing decided to rebrand under the code M.O.M.S. … They insist on attendance, but (wait for it) they want you to take the kiddo. It’s right there in the M.O.M.S. 21st Century Handbook: when facing suicide mission, find patsy to take the fall.

Fear not. With almost catlike powers of resurrection, I have emerged from these experiences, emotionally scarred, occasionally paint splattered, and usually hard of hearing.  Kitchen tinkering has been disturbed, oh so unjustly, but it has taken place as it can.  This weekend’s journey took us through the beginnings of pickled limes, slow baked dry rub pork, and the stuffed cabbage that kept on giving (subject of another post).

Like many these days, I am interested in the DIY world of charcuterie, pickling, etc.  I dug up this recipe on Cookstr for pickling limes, and am 3 days into the process.  I’m not actually going to be able to taste the results for another month, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  The recipe brought to the fore once more just how difficult it can be to write cooking instructions.  You try to make things clear and simple, and questions pop up from every which way.

In my case, the recipe called for 10 limes. How big? Are the jars to be stuffed tight (well, I’m apparently supposed to stir it for 6 days)? OK, stir all the spices and salt into the bowl… do I need to try to get every last bit of salt from the sides of the bowl once the limes are in the jar?  And in my case, 2.5 cups of olive oil was not enough (I added more).  Did I do something wrong? Hopefully no to the latter, because I am charging ahead and will fill you in on the results in a month if they don’t poison me!

Slow Baked Dry Rub Pork

I was forced to do another “tinker” move with some beautiful country style pork ribs I had picked up at Fleishers. My grill is out of action while I wait for some parts, so I was lamenting what to do with the meat.  Then I realized, you can cook meat on indirect heat for ages on a grill, so why not in the oven?  Result: the meat came out melt-in-your-mouth beautifully, and now I’m wondering why I’ve never done this before as an alternative to broiling and braising during the off season.

First step is to whip up a dry rub for the meat.  There are a million directions to take a dry rub, but here is one mixture that you want to grind all together:

Dry Rub
1 tsp salt
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 dried bay leaf

Rub the ground spices all over the meat.  Place the meat on baking dishes and into the oven set at 275F.  Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, then flip and lower heat to 250F.  Continue baking for another 3 hours, flipping about once an hour, and periodically basting the tops of the meat with the melted fat.

For this to work, you don’t want meat that is too lean. As you can see in the above picture, the pork I was using had a lovely amount of fat (and Fleishers pork in general is less lean than typical US supermarket pork). Another idea I had for this kind of dish was to lay some smoked bacon strips around the pork in the baking dish, and regularly baste the tops of the meat with the melted bacon fat.

Say hello to my li’l frennes, sacrificed to the lime pickle.

I had thought that the re-emergence of warm weather would put me in a vegetarian mood, harkening back to those wonderful Food Blogga salads from last year.  That was before I made a stop into my favorite butcher, Fleishers.  So much for being leaf-eaters. We devolved into fully fledged T-Rex.

Josh Applestone (Fleisher’s proprietor — should it be a requirement to be in the food business with a great last night like that?) gave me a great deal on two monster porterhouse steaks (bottom left in that pic), which were between 2 and 3 inches thick.  Fleishers’ beef is entirely grass fed, and while some argue that “corn finishing” improves marbling, I love the flavor of grass-only, and tend to be fairly minimal with how I treat cuts like this.  I got some hickory chips going, salted one side, seared for 2 minutes with salted side down, salted the top side, and flipped for another 2 minute sear, then moved them on the grill to cook with indirect heat and smoke until done.  The thickness of the steaks required a little more time, and the meat came out beautifully. Three of us shared one of those monsters!

One thing I like to do during grill season is play around with the flavors and concept of a “burger”.  Two examples from this weekend:

• Take some ground lamb, add finely chopped red onion, a finely chopped spring onion (including all the green part), a sprinkle of cumin and some salt. Form small patties and grill. Serve with a sauce of ketchup, with some lime juice, chili powder, and freshly chopped cilantro mixed in.
• Go the herbal route and mix some ground lamb and pork together, a finely chopped spring onion (including all the green part), salt, and a bunch of fresh thyme or oregano.  Grill and serve with a slight squeeze of lemon juice on top.

We didn’t survive solely on meat, however.  I broiled ramps with olive oil and kosher salt, made my favorite grilled mushrooms, and there were other supporting-actor veggies.  I also threw together a refreshing little salsa, which we ate on toasted bread and with chips.  I don’t know that it deserves a recipe, because really it’s just:

Chop up tomatoes, tomatilloes, green pepper, red pepper, jalapeno pepper, red onion, garlic, a ton of cilantro, and mix together with some salt, freshly squeezed lime juice, rice vinegar and white wine vinegar to taste.

Once you start eating it, it’s hard to stop.

I was also pleased to cross two things off of my “must do” food list (care of the Adams market in Kingston — why the hell can’t we have a market as good down in Westchester?).  I finally got ahold of some fresh fava beans (believe it or not, I had never worked with them before), and I also found winter savory at the garden store and planted some in the herb garden.

That picture above is the pod from a fava bean.  It has the coolest puffy foam padding on the inside.  I have to wonder if packaging engineers have studied it for replication.  I ended up working them into a nice salad, but my grand idea for their use got stymied by parental duties. Ah, kids.

Winter savory is an herb I’ve used in dried form, and it is referenced often in books on southern french cooking.  I have never seen it fresh in a market, so was tickled pink to spot the young plants.  The fresh leaves are absolutely delicious (along the same lines as oregano and marjoram, but different), and I can’t wait to work with it. The deer better stay away!

Finally, lest you forget that it is still only April(!), I’ll close with a shot from this gorgeous thicket of forsythia I discovered in the Rye nature reserve.

But before I talk about the recipe, I had a question for you foodies out there — I know that Alice Waters inspired, well, everybody, but who do you consider was particularly influenced by her within the following generations of leading chefs ?

Swiss Chard Gratin

Adapted from The Wednesday Chef who adapted from Alice Waters. This amount serves about 4 as a side dish. The use of a cast iron pan in making this dish reduces washing up!

1 bunch of swiss chard (8-10 large leaves)
1 cup breadcrumbs
unsalted butter
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp flour
1/2 to 1 cup milk
pinch of ground nutmeg

Tear up some bread and make pea-sized breadcrumbs in a food processor. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a large cast iron pan and lightly brown the breadcrumbs over medium heat. Remove and set aside in a small bowl.

Preheat oven at 350F.

Get some lightly salted water boiling in a large pot. Wash the chard and cut away the stems. Thinly chop the stems (just like chopping celery). Place the chopped stems in the boiling water and cook for two minutes, then add the green leaves of chard, and cook for another three minutes, then drain in a collander and press some of the excess moisture out of the leaves.

Add 2 tsbp of butter to your cast iron pan and saute the diced onion over medium-low heat until it turns translucent. Remove the chard from the collander, loosely chop, and add to the cast iron pan. Add some salt and continue sauteing for several minutes.

Add the flour and stir in well. Then add 1/2 cup of milk, the pinch of nutmeg, and stir and cook for another 5 minutes. You want the mixture to be moist but not soupy, so continue to add small increments of milk as you go to keep the proper level of moisture.

Remove from heat, and taste for salt. You can optionally add a little more butter here (say 1/4 tbsp cut into small pieces and sprinkled around). Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top evenly and place in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

Let’s just say that I did not leave leftovers.

Dry Rub Pork

I continue to experiment with dry rub combinations. Tonight I removed sugar all together and combined roughly equal portions of mustard seed, coriander seed, cumin seed, black peppercorns, and salt in a mortar for grinding. I rubbed the spice mix on the pork and let the chops sit for about 40 minutes before grilling — searing on high heat for 2 to 3 minutes a side and then moving to indirect heat on the grill for a few minutes more (these were big chops). The result was very good.

Dinner all combined was the grilled pork chop, side of chard gratin, and a side of some roma beans boiled for 2 minutes on the side and a touch of salt — all paired with a nice Malbec.