Sambal

Sambal is a a a beautiful, fresh Indonesia barbecue sauce and condiment. I charred all of the ingredients under the broiler to deepen the taste. It was suggested that it be served over chicken or fish. We had it over lamb for the winter solstice.

Jeremy's roasted sambal

Two bell peppers and two chilies, I used red yellow and two jalapenos.
Roast using flame or broiler, steam in a covered bowl or in a brown paper bag. Run under water to remove skins, adjust the heat by how much seed and membrane you remove.

Roast three cloves garlic (unpeeled) and five shallots (peeled) under the broiler till slightly charred.

Cut a large tomato in half and char under the broiler.

dice and blend all ingredients to make a smooth sauce.

Move to a saucepan and heat to a gentle simmer add a tablespoon of sugar and salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy

A Tale of Four Roast Chickens

So I've been playing with roast chicken recipes over the past three years or so looking for that elusive combination of speed, convenience and flavor. I have four winners that hit on at least one of these aspects and of those four one truly clear winner.

I'm assuming folks know that all these can be adjusted and seasoned to your own and your family's tastes..

This ain't cooking for rookies...
Deconstructed Roast Chicken

This is a strange one, great flavor and skin but a pain in the ass.

1) Preheat the oven to 425
2) Place Chicken Directly on the rack, trussed if you know how.
3) Place a roasting pan on the rack beneath the chicken
4) in the roasting pan place a cup of chicken broth and thickly sliced french bread
5) turn the chicken every 20 minutes till done, replentish the broth as necessary to keep the bread from burning.
6) rest the bird and carve, serve each portion on a bit of the bread.

Standard Roast Chicken

From Good housekeeping or whatever. Good recipe, tastes like childhood, lots of work long cooking time.
Good gravy and skin

1) Preheat oven to 500
2) Add chicken in a roasting pan on a rack and reduce heat to 425.
3) cook til done

Cast Iron Skillet Chicken

Fun and quick without much hassle, not great skin but great flavor, the fastest chicken that you will ever cook.

1) Preheat oven to 425
2) Heat your cast iron skillet over medium until water sizzles
3) put the chicken breast side up into the skillet and then the whole thing into the oven, it will be done in 30 minutes.

Do someting with the pan drippings, yummy

Blasted Chicken

My favorite, intense flavor, good drippings, high heat, good skin.

1) Preheat oven to 500.
2) Stuff the bird with your favorite herbs
3) Put into a roasting pan and roast for fifty minutes.

I started breast down and turned halfway through, seemed to work great.

Hope ya'll have fun trying some of these out..

The Brooklyn Grinder Lives...

I kicked of this blog with rant and some sadness about the end of my current favorite sandwich shop. Well, no fear, the folks who own the Blue Dog cafe a few blocks north of the Grinder bought it and made it into the Blue Dog Kitchen complete with all the recipes of the Brooklyn Grinder. Its now so crowded all the time that its hard to get in. Good for them, bad for me.

Tuna recipes and foodie stuff....

I've been reading too much food stuff on the internet:
http://www.thepauperedchef.com/ and http://www.seriouseats.com/. Serious eats has a bit about making pizza on a preheated cast iron skillet under the broiler....pretty cool. Please enjoy...

There are two tuna things that have caught my fancy in the last two months: One is the Italian version of Ceviche and the other is a great summer pasta dish if you can stomach spending the money on really good canned tuna.

Incidentally the tuna for both of these recipes came from Joe and Joyce Malley, fishing vessel St. Jude. here in Seattle. http://www.tunatuna.com/ Please give them lots of business. Local people with such integrity about there food, sustainability and quality deserve our support. I also can't say enough about Joe's knowledge about fishing and the ocean. Things that are very dear to my heart.
I'm considering a farmer's market piece and I think that I will cover them in more detail when I write that.

Summer Tuna and Pasta

1 large handful fresh parsley, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons capers
the juice of one large lemon
Good quality olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
two cans of good quality tuna, Italian oil packed or some such expensive tuna

one package of bow tie or other flat pasta.

Don't drain the tuna..

Mix the parsley, capers, lemon juice and tuna together. Add pepper and more salt than you think you need. Add the tuna and break it up into large chunks. If the tuna is packed in water add 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil. Combine thoroughly and set aside.

Cook the pasta and drain well.

Fold the pasta in the sauce, mix well and serve.


Italian style ceviche with tuna

This recipe demands a high quality tuna. If you are in Seattle find the Malley's at a farmer's market and buy their tuna loins. Otherwise develop a good relationship with your fish seller to get the highest quality tuna that you can get.

One pound of tuna to serve 2.

Cut the tuna into large chunks about an inch thick.

In a bowl mix one tablespoon of olive oil and the juice of two lemons.

place all of the tuna into the bowl and give it a quick toss so that its lightly coated.

Divide the tuna on to seperate plates, Season with salt and pepper and return to the refrigerator for about fifteen minutes.

Serve with a salad and good, crusty bread...

Enjoy..

Cool Korean Style Marinade

Shoyu
Honey
Garlic to taste or as much as you can stand
Green Onions chopped
One jalapeño seeded and chopped depending on how hot you like it
fire oil
Sesame oil
Rice wine vinegar

Mix until the honey dissolves

Tofu and Greens ( For Imelda)

Tofu and Greens

2 blocks firm tofu
Two bunches of kale or preferred green
One small yellow onion minced
Soy sauce
Mirin
Ginger
Garlic
Green onions
Chili flakes
Brown sugar
Vinegar (rice wine, cider, red wine)

Create Marinade

1 cup soy sauce
1 TBS mirin
1/4 cup vinegar
Minced Garlic to taste
Shredded or minced ginger to taste
1 tsp chili flakes
Chopped green onion
1 TBS sugar

Combine and dissolve sugar

Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch strips and marinate for one hour

Drain tofu in a colander and reserve ther rest of the marinade

Heat peanut oil in a wok and sear the tofu in small batches until heavily browned.

Clean the wok add more oil.

Cook the onions until soft and add the greens

Toss until slighted wilted

add a splash of the remaining marinade and steam till tender

Return the tofu to the pan and toss together until heated through

Serve over rice

Reduce the rest of the marinade in a pan and serve as a sauce on the side

Salmon Teriyaki (serves 2)

Make a basic teriyaki sauce,
Simmer and reduce over Medium heat.
Cook two cups of rice.

Prep 1 pound salmon fillet.
Salt and pepper generously on both sides.
Cut deep slits into the skin side.
Broil skin side down 8-10 inches from the heat.
Halfway through cooking flip the salmon and finish skin side up.
Move the rack as close the teh element as possible and crisp the skin.

Serve over rice, drizzle with the sauce and enjoy.

Valetine's Dinner

Gnarly Head Old vin Zin
Boneless lamb roast seared and finished int he oven til medium rare
Roasted Asparagus tossed in Salt, Pepper and olive oil
Roasted red potatoes tossed with roasted garlic and fresh feta..

Good stuff though I over cooked the potatoes while trying a new method. America's test Kitchen suggested steaming in foil and then roasting...one side of the potatoes got too done.

Whole foods is expensive but boy some of their products are awesome. The fresh feta is the best that I have ever had...

Two great dinners

Sunday- Tortilla Soup

2.5 pounds tomatoes-cut in half
1 large onion-finely diced
minced garlic to taste-recipe said 3 cloves I am more inclined to 5 or 7
2 poblano peppers-cleaned
1 golden bell pepper-cleaned
1 pound ground chicken
chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper
tortilla chips
Avocado
One lime

1. Put the tomatoes and the peepers on a baking sheet and broil on high until slightly blackened.
Remove, turn and blacken the other side.. 5-8 minutes per side..watch closely.

2. While the tomatoes and peppers are roasting heat some olive oil in a dutch oven to barely smoking. Cook the ground chicken or turkey until done through, breaking it up as it cooks. Salt and black pepper to taste. Put into a bowl and set aside.

3. Let the peppers and tomatoes cool, pull the skins, (run under cool water if necessary) and crush roughly, add to the chicken or turkey.

4. Cook the onions, carrots and garlic over medium heat until soft.
5. Add the tomatoes, chicken and peppers to the pan and cover with chicken broth.
6. Simmer over low heat for 30 to 50 minutes and check seasoning
7. Serve with diced avocado and chips.


Monday- Seared Boneless Pork Chops with Kale and Baked Potatoes
2 Boneless pork chops
1 bunch of Kale
1 Yellow onion sliced
3-5 cloves garlic smashed and diced
Red Flake pepper
Granulated garlic
Dry mustard
Sweet sherry
Sugar
Kosher salt
2 baking potatoes

1. Create a brine
4 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons of kosher salt
1/4 cup sweet sherry
1 tablespoon sugar
one tablespoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons of granulated garlic

Mix in a plastic container until everything dissolves, add the pork chops, cover and refrigerate for two hours (or cheat and poke holes in all sides of the chops and refrigerate for one hour)

Clean and pierce the potatoes with a fork, rub with oil and kosher salt and bake in a 375 degree oven for roughly one hour.

Clean the kale
Saute the garlic, onion and red flake pepper until it is soft and fragrant, add the kale and saute until wilted. When ready to serve, toss with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

To cook the pork:
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat until water sizzles on contact. Add the pork to the pan and sear 4-5 minutes on all sides until a nice crust forms. Finish in a 400 degree oven until a meat thermometer reads 140..rest before serving.

The Demise of the Brooklyn Grinder (A sandwich odyssey)

I heard news this morning that that my current favorite sandwich place is up for sale. The Brooklyn Grinder makes top notch soups, salads and sandwiches, including grinders, on the north end of University Way.

Folks that know me well are aware that I'm a bit of a sandwich junkie. Always looking for the perfect Italian, the well made sub or grinder that drops me back for a moment into those subs of my childhood, DeAngelo's or Ricotti's was the great rivalry. One could also get great hot sandwiches from pizza places.

So I've been all over Seattle looking for that perfect sub. I have made a few myself, giving some moments of sanity to Tina and I when we worked in the group home together. Safeway sourdough, fresh baked and inconsistent as hell. I sometimes would take fifteen minutes picking out the right loaf, looking for that perfect balance of soft and crusty.

The SUBS on 50th and University has always been good to me. Their Italian choices come oh so close to home. Under the old management the quality was inconsistent enough that I got one or two bummer for every ten or fifteen good ones. Its now under new management and I have not been there enough to judge the quality.

Jersey Mike's in Renton by Ikea is my other preferred place. Slice the meat fresh, olive oil and vinegar and the right spices gets the good East Coast Flavor but its too far for me to get to on a regular basis. http://www.jerseymikes.com/

Bringing me back to the Brooklyn Grinder. Great food, rock and roll with the owner in a band. A solid hot Italian grinder, home made potato or pasta salad. I finally found a place that hit the spots I was looking for and now its for sale. I'll miss it and its great owners too. Back on the sub hunt for me.

More on sandwiches some other time..