Loin Lamb Chops (Marinated)

Lamb, poor lamb. It is one of the most tender of meats but lots of people just don't like its flavor. In the summer, when I'm cooking for a crowd, Lamb Souvlaki is always a big hit. Some folks say, "I usually don't like lamb, but this is delicious!" Now why is that? Well, it's the marinade! The Greeks have been cooking lamb for millennia and they have perfected a beautiful marinade for lamb. In fact, I believe it is very lamb-centric. Beef Souvlaki is what you usually find at a restaurant, but I'm not sure the marinade works with beef. Chicken Souvlaki just makes me shudder. Sorry to those of you who replace everything with chicken ;)

Summertime Grilling Legs of Lamb for Souvlaki

Now let's consider the Lamb Loin Chops. They are those little T-bones, usually cut about an inch, or more, thick. They are succulent and tender and really can be grilled just as they are. Two chops makes a nice serving. Here I have combined the heavenly flavor of souvlaki marinade with these chops! You get a meal that can be thrown together very quickly, if you remember to marinate them overnight!

Ingredients:

This inexpensive Olive Oil works fine for marinade

4 thick loin lamb chops

Marinade:

1          lemon

1/4       cup      chopped green pepper

1/2       medium onion, chopped

1          clove    garlic, chopped

2          tsp        oregano

2          tsp        salt

1          tsp        pepper

1          cup      olive oil

Mix marinate ingredients together and pour over lamb chops in a container just large enough to hold them. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator. 

Take out at least an hour before you're ready to cook them. Clean off marinade pieces.

They could be grilled, but this is not grilling season on the Niagara Frontier, so I will oven broil them. You should prepare your broil pan with some non-stick spray, although you probably won't need much, since the marinade oil coats the lamb so well.

Everybody's broiler is at a different height from the food, so my timing is for my broiler. Unless you put your rack real low, about 6 minutes per side should give you a perfectly even pink interior. You can check with an instant-read thermometer if you're worried.

My broiler height, the flash hid the flame! 

Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil, and let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Here I have served each chop on a slab of feta. The flavors work very well. In the picture I have cooked some brown rice with small carrot dice and then stirred in some fresh parsley and freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Also shown are a couple spears of pineapple soaked in Grand Marnier. (Wintertime fruit!)

Serve with a crisp white Greek wine!

CHARLIE CAMPANELLE

Charlie Campanelle was my grandson’s closest friend, back when they were about 8 or 9 years old. When I saw Campanelle (little bells) pasta in the store one day, and also had a leftover strip steak to reinvent, I decided to make a dish named after Charlie and have him over for dinner. My grandson Sean loved the meal, but we were never able to schedule a dinner to feed it to Charlie! He’s moved away now, so it will be forever a meal never tasted by its epitome! This is a very savory and delicious dish. The sauce is not quite Italian, not quite beef stew, and it is not quite obvious that it hides leftovers! Certainly you could use any leftover meat with this: even add peas or beans!


Campanelle Pasta (bell)



Charlie & Sean when they were imps





Ingredients:



½ lb Campanelle pasta

4 Tbs Olive Oil

4 oz Pancetta, diced

½ Onion, minced

1 stalk Celery, diced

1 small Carrot, diced

1 clove Garlic, minced

1 shot Brandy

½ cup Dry Red Wine (something you would serve with steak)

4 Ripe Plum Tomatoes, peeled & chopped*

2 tsp dry Basil

1 Tbs Sugar

Freshly grated Nutmeg

1 Qt Beef Stock (preferably your own)

1 grilled Strip Steak

1 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce

2 Tbs Flour

2 Tbs soft Butter

¼ cup fresh Parsley, chopped

¼ cup fresh Basil, snipped into small pieces

Freshly Grated Pecorino Romano

Salt & Pepper

Most of the Ingredients

Method:

1 Dice pancetta and all vegetables, but keep garlic separate. Remove fat or gristle from the steak and slice into quarter-inch thick pieces.

Slice and Dice!

Bring oil to moderate heat in a deep fry pan. Sauté pancetta, onions, carrots and celery for about five minutes, stirring regularly. Now add garlic and stir for a few minutes.

Saute the pancetta & veggies

2 Add Brandy and let alcohol boil off, or ignite and burn it off. Add tomatoes, sprinkle with some salt and cook vigorously until they have completely broken down. (* This is not tomato season on the Niagara Frontier, so I have substituted a 1 pound can of high quality chopped tomatoes.)

break down tomatoes

3 Now add the wine, stock and Worcestershire and a little more salt if the stock is unsalted. Bring to a boil and add the meat, dry basil, nutmeg, sugar and some pepper. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for two hours.

Sauce ready to simmer

4 Meanwhile, mix butter and flour thoroughly to form a paste. Also snip fresh parsley and fresh basil.

Fresh Herbs and Butter-Flour

5 Toward the end of the simmer, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the Campanelle, cooking as advised on package (probably 10-11 minutes) but do not overcook or the bell shape will be lost!

6 Just before the pasta is finished, whisk the butter-flour paste into the sauce to thicken. Then add the fresh herbs and correct seasoning.

7 Drain the pasta and either add it to the sauce, mixing thoroughly and plate it this way, or place pasta on a large platter and pour the sauce over it.

Charlie Campanelle (the meal)

8 Serve with the same wine (I chose a lovely Barbera d’Asti here) and grate Pecorino Romano cheese over the dish.

A REFLECTIVE MOMENT

Just a breather here before my next recipe. Yesterday we buried my Uncle Ted. He was 95 years old and had a complete, zestful life. (btw, attending the funeral was his older brother who is now 98!)
This sad day led me to reflect on some very happy times I had while growing up. Thinking back on those days, I can remember spending summers at his house with my cousins Bob & Dale who are 2 and 1 year older than me, respectively. I'm sure I didn't spend entire summers there but the memories are so strong that it certainly seems that way.
And then something hit me! I had two wonderful uncles who were great cooks! In the days when I grew up, the only cooking models were women. But I had two uncles who told me (albeit only through their example) that men could cook, should cook and could be good cooks! The fact that I was mentored in this way had never occurred to me before. Wow!


Uncle Ted



Uncle Ted, of course, loved grilling, making sausages and gardening fresh vegetables, to mention only a few of his "foodly" activities. His was such a powerful personality that he made me want to try something I had never even dreamed of eating before, especially when I was much younger.

Uncle Frank

My Uncle Frank was from Louisiana and had a very laid back personality. His wit was deep, sometimes requiring a long time for me to laugh out loud (the original lol), suddenly getting the point of some comment he made hours or days before. Every Sunday morning, after church, most of Uncle Frank's relatives would visit his house where there were two huge restaurant sized kettles of tomato sauce simmering away on his large stove. Uncle Frank's sauce was stupendous! Made only from his own tomatoes, canned from his large garden, and filled with everything from pork hocks to whole chickens! It was a flavor unlike anything I have ever eaten. I would eat two bowls of spaghetti at his house and then come home for my mother's, much more tame (although equally enjoyable), sauce. Noon at Uncle Frank's and then 3o'clock at our house. I'm surprised I was such a skinny kid!



Me, a few years ago



Below is a picture of Uncle Ted talking about food with my wife Sandy and me, back in 1985.

I just needed to get all that out of me before I could continue with recipes. I hope, in the months to come, I will be able to invent a recipe for each of these favorite uncles.

BRAISED GAME HEN PERNOD

Perhaps this appears to be a strange combination or a "no-no" for people who dislike the anise flavor of Pernod. Don't be put off by this. The Pernod ends up blending well with the other flavors and is so subtle you are left with a, "Mmmm... what is that ingredient?" reaction.

 You will need about 1 to 1½ cups of chicken broth. But the good news is that most fresh game hens come with giblets included. Sometimes the frozen ones don't, so you'll have to check. If you have no giblets then any chicken or vegetable broth will do, although commercial chicken broth is sometimes too "chickenee". If you have giblets, then make your own broth by adding about half a medium onion to 2 cups of water and the giblets. Let cook uncovered for 1 or 2 hours and it will reduce to 1 or 1½ cups.



Making Broth



Main Ingredients



Ingredients

1 Cornish Game Hen

1 Onion, diced

1 Celery stalk, diced

1 Carrot, diced

2 Carrots, halved

½ cup Rice

1-1½ cups Vegetable or Chicken Broth

¼ lb Pancetta, diced

¼ cup Pernod

1-1½ cups White Wine

1 Tbs Parsley, minced

cornstarch

salt & pepper

olive oil


Equipment

Dutch Oven just large enough to hold hen

small Fry Pan for Pancetta
2 or 3 Qt Sauce Pan for the gravy (Can be used to make broth, then rice, then gravy!)

Method

 Prepare vegetables. Diced veggies are for a bed in the Dutch Oven, so they can be chopped and added right away. Carrots halved will be added when the hen is, so set aside. Parsley can be minced and placed in a small bowl to await usage.

Bring 1 cup of the Broth to a boil. Add the Rice and stir with a fork. Then simmer with lid on constantly for 25 minutes*. Remove lid and fluff up rice with a fork. There still will be liquid in the pan. Turn off burner and let rice sit, covered, for 5 or more minutes until all liquid is absorbed. *While rice is cooking for the first 25 minutes, gently sauté the Pancetta in a small amount of olive oil. Stir often. When rice is finished, stir in the Pancetta, Salt and Pepper, and enough Parsley to make a colorful complement to the Pancetta. Add the rest of the Parsley to the veggie bed in the Dutch Oven.

Pancetta

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
While oven is preheating, rinse hen and pat dry. add the Pernod to the cavity and slosh around. Season cavity with Salt and Pepper. Use a little more salt than you think necessary.

 Stuff hen with rice mixture and tie up to seal. Retain the left over rice. Place hen on bed of vegetables and place carrot halves around it. Then pour in any unused Broth, White Wine and water, if necessary, to bring liquid just up to the bottom of the Hen. Place lid on Dutch Oven and bake at 350 for 1½ hours. After one hour, check on liquid level.

Ready for the Oven

Place left-over Rice mixture in a small ovenproof crock and place into the oven during to last 10 - 15 minutes to reheat.

When Hen is done, carefully remove it and Carrot halves to an ovenproof plate or pan and place back in oven. It will brown nicely while gravy is made. You might want to cover Carrots with a little foil, to keep them looking plump.
Strain braising liquid into sauce pan and correct seasonings. Make a gravy placing pan on medium heat and whisking, in a thin stream, a mixture of cornstarch dissolved in water. Bring to gentle boil whisking (and adding) until desired thickness is attained.
With a large knife or kitchen scissors, carefully cut the Hen in half by splitting the breastbone and backbone. Place the half Hen on Carrot halves, one Hen on each of two plates, add extra Rice around Hen and drizzle with a little of the gravy. Serve remaining gravy on the side.


Game Hen Pernod

Serve with a not-too-dry White Wine, Vouvray would be a good choice. Dave

SEA BASS à la GRECQUE

This is not an authentic Greek recipe. The combination of spinach fettuccine, feta cheese and olives left me with a Greek feel. It is a meal for two that is pretty quick to prepare if you have the correct ingredients on hand. You certainly can substitute many ingredients based upon your supply or taste. It won't taste quite the same, but I'm sure it will be just as good.
Sea Bass, flash-frozen at sea, is available in most high-end supermarkets. Of course, if you can go to the docks and get it just off a boat, so much the better!
I used fresh basil as my herb because I have large quantities on hand at this time of year. Fresh parsley would be good. Try fresh sage or fresh thyme!
Since you are adding so much flavor to the sauce, a can of supermarket sauce would probably work. This is tomato season on the Niagara Frontier, so I have my own fresh sauce on hand.
Basic Steps: Sear Fish, Cook in Sauce, Serve with Fresh Pasta. Simple!

Ingredients:
2 6oz. fillets of Sea Bass
1/2 small Leek
6 small Mushrooms (I used Crimini)
1/2 lb. fresh spinach fettuccine
2 cups Tomato Sauce
crumbled Feta Cheese
handful of pitted Greek Olives
Brandy
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Sea Salt and freshly ground Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Peanut Oil
dusting (searing) Flour
fresh herb

Equipment:
4 Quart Pan for the pasta
Small Cast Iron Fry pan for the Fish
Deep-sided pan, with lid, for the Sauce (Fricassee Pan is perfect)

Method:
1. Thaw the Sea Bass (if frozen) according to package instructions. Thoroughly dry the fillets with a paper towel.

2. Trim off heavy green top and bottom edge of leek. Clean leek carefully by slitting down one side and washing inner folds to remove all sand and dirt. Slice into thin rings. Clean mushrooms and, if small, quarter them.

3. Heat a little Olive Oil in the sauce's pan and saute leeks and mushrooms until mushrooms start to color.
4. Add a splash of Brandy, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Sprinkle in the pepper flakes. Let the Brandy cook down for a few minutes and add the Tomato Sauce. When the sauce comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, with the lid on. Check sauce every few minutes and stir. Partially cover with lid or remove lid entirely to allow sauce to reach desired thickness.
5. Meanwhile, bring three quarts of water to a boil. If you are using fresh pasta, it will cook in about 3 minutes! So keep this in mind as you count down to the final assembly of the meal. Keep the simmering water on standby until needed in step 8, when you will quickly bring it back to a boil and add the pasta.
6. Dust fillets with flour on both sides. Shake off excess.
7. Bring two tablespoons of Peanut Oil to almost smoking and add the Sea Bass. After about 4 minutes, turn over and brown the other side for another 4 minutes.

8. Place Sea Bass in simmering sauce and place lid on pan. After 4 minutes carefully turn the fish over. At this time add the fresh pasta to the boiling water.

9. When pasta is ready, drain it. Place fish on two warmed plates, sprinkle on some feta cheese, and keep warm for 2 or 3 minutes.

10. Add pasta to sauce and mix thoroughly, adding the olives.
11. Place fettuccine on plate next to Sea Bass and spoon a little sauce over the fish. Sprinkle fresh herb on the pasta.

12. Serve, accompanied by fresh home-made bread and a glass of Greek white wine!

Pasta "Norma"

Why should I begin my blog with the posting of a famous Sicilian Recipe? After all, one easily can find this in any number of cookbooks or in a Google search. Maybe it's because I prepared it last night. That's good enough for me. Also, I have a few twists you might not have seen before. It improves the recipe. I don't eat lousy food.

This is the season for fresh basil, eggplant and tomatoes. PASTA CON LA NORMA!  Oh, you don't like eggplant?? You will the way it's prepared here. Guaranteed.

First the Ingredients:

One Half pound Penne pasta
One or Two pounds of fresh, ripe Tomatoes.

      Plum tomatoes are best but not necessary.

One Half or One Quarter Onion (depends on how large it is)

Two cloves of Garlic

about Two ounces of Pancetta

One Medium or Two small fresh Eggplants (firm and shiny)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (see method)

Large bunch of fresh Basil leaves

Salt and freshly ground Pepper

Cinnamon Sugar (mix equal quantities of Cinnamon and Sugar)

Firm Cheese (I use Reggiano Parmigiano. Traditional is Ricotta Salata)

Next, the Utensils:

You will need a 4 quart pot for cooking the Penne, a large fry pan (with a cover) for the sauce, a large deep-sided pan for frying the eggplant, a colander and a bowl that will fit under it.

Next, the Method:

Step 1: Peel the eggplant and slice on the bias to produce oval slices about 1/4 inch thick. Place these in a colander and cover each layer with a liberal amount of salt (I use course sea-salt). Set the colander in a bowl. Put a small plate on the eggplant and a weight on the plate. Leave this at room temperature for at least an hour.

Step 2: Remove the tomatoes' peels by lowering them into boiling water for a minute, carefully lifting them out and peeling them under cold running water. The peels will easily slide off.

handy wok strainer

Step 3: Prepare Onion, garlic and pancetta

Step 4: Chop these ingredients into small dice.

Step 5: Prepare the eggplant. After at least an hour you will see dark and bitter juices in the bowl under the eggplant. Discard this juice and wash off the eggplant, squeezing them dry in batches of 4 slices, between paper towels. After all the eggplant is de-salted and dried, heat enough oil in a deep-sided pan to allow the eggplant slices to "float." Make oil HOT. Add eggplant slices, do not crowd, (two or three batches will be necessary). If it splatters, you didn't get slices dry enough. (Remember the saying about water and oil!) Fry until colored, turning once. Drain eggplant on paper towels. Sprinkle slices with Cinnamon-Sugar while they are still very hot.

notice cinnamon-sugar

Step 6: Now in another pan, saute onion, pancetta and garlic in a little olive oil until transparent.

While this is happening, chop the tomatoes.

Then add tomatoes and a couple teaspoons of salt sprinkled over the tomatoes. This will help break them down.

tomatoes added

After sauce is boiling nicely, add some freshly ground pepper (to taste), lower the heat and cover the pan until the tomatoes completely collapse. This will take less time the riper the tomatoes are. Meanwhile have the pasta water coming to a boil.

"wet" sauce

Step7: After tomatoes are broken down, remove lid and raise the heat a little. Correct seasonings. You want to evaporate almost all the liquid. Add the Penne to the boiling pasta water and cook according to package instructions. If the sauce finishes before the Penne, just lower the heat to simmer, or turn it off.

finished sauce

Step 8: While the pasta cooks, cut up the basil with kitchen scissors. (My grandmother would have torn small pieces off with her fingers!) Also create thin pieces of cheese. There's a tool for this, but I use a potato peeler. I already have too many tools.

Final Step: Drape eggplant slices around edges of two bowls. Reserve a few of the smallest pieces. Drain pasta and place in the bowls. Add reserved eggplant slices. Add sauce. Sprinkle basil over everything. Top with cheese slices. Pour a glass of good Sicilian wine and enjoy!

Pasta "Norma"

There are three rules to remember with fresh basil: never cut it with a knife, never cook it, and you can never have too much!!

love, Dave.