Time warp

I feel like I'm living in a time-warp.  We went from a (very brief) empty nest with minimal food on hand and meals out on the fly to having a couple large men and me in the house all the time, eating three meals and multiple snacks every day. Meal planning is back in my life, and these dudes are SO thankful for the food that's served.

We are - you, me, all of us - adjusting to this bizarre new reality, and I am trying not to let the scary state of the world get too deeply in my head.  And there is something comforting in knowing we are ALL going through this.  I feel so badly that Dylan is begin robbed of his freshman year in college and then I think, every college freshman in America is going through the same thing!  And Noah is temporarily laid off, and I feel so badly, and then I realize, so were 10 million other Americans. I don't know why that's comforting, but it is.  So I try to stay thankful for my work and my house and focus on the next meal and the next cocktail to get me through the day.  That's about all I can muster, honestly;  food and cocktails.  Projects, even books elude me right now, but the cooking and the drinking are in full force around here.

April in Chicago break my heart every single year - it's still bare and cold out there.  I don't know why I ever expect it to be any different.  So you lucky/sane ones might be turning your attention to spring vegetables and the grill but I"m still making straight up hygge food over here.  Like, for example, the noble meatball.

In difficult times, one can always make some meatballs.  You cannot go wrong.   These are my current faves.

Turkey Pesto Meatballs

2 lb ground turkey breast

1-1/2 cups  plain bread crumbs

1/2 cup basil pesto

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

2 eggs whites

 Mix it alllllll up

Form the meatballs.  It made about 2 dozen meatballs.

Bake them at 375 for about 25 minutes

 I made a quick spaghetti sauce but you could easily buy a jar of sauce.

minced an onion and sauteed it and some garlic

 added about 1tsp oregano and basil

 threw in a large can of whole tomatoes (smoosh them up)

added a 14 ounce can of tomato paste and refilled the can with water

Simmer for a while - at least a half hour but longer is always better with tomato sauce

Dump the meatballs in the sauce

 I like to serve them up on slider buns but you could make grinders, on top of spaghetti, whatevs.

We also roasted up a head of cauliflower - cut into florets, toss with S&P and a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  Roast at 400 for about 20 minutes, tossing every five minutes or so.

Yay!

And because eating out is not allowed these days, which is sad (although we do take-out at least twice a week to support our local restaurants.  Yes, it's all because we're so supportive and not because I don't want to cook more than four times a week.  It's true!), I am obsessed with  my favorite Bluestone salad so attempted to made a Kale Quinoa Salad of my own

Wash and trim some kale.  Fold it along the spine, cut the spine out (sounds so aggressive) then cut the kale crosswise, into strips. I used one large bunch of kale

 cook up a cup of quinoa per instructions

 toast some pecans or almonds or walnuts which you hopefully/jubilantly find in your pantry

toast them a pan for a couple minutes at medium heat -turning often.  DON'T WALK AWAY

grab some craisins

 dice a couple avocados

 grate some parmesan with the adorable but highly impractical cheese grater you have.
or use pre-shredded if you don't want to grate the shit out of your fingers.

 Assemble it all.  Make a lemon vinaigrette.  

1 part fresh lemon juice, 2 parts olive oil, good dash of salt and pepper.

Toss.  Enjoy.  It is sublime.  

Stay safe, y'all.

Sunday Funday

Sunny, crisp fall Sundays fill me with joy.   Sundays, as I've blogged before, are just so packed with memories for me.  Opera and omelettes and football or golf - it's the Sunday soundtrack of my childhood.  I love perpetuating those sounds and smells and, for me, having a Bears game on while prepping some hearty meals is a little slice of October heaven.   This Sunday, while Dylan and I watched an incredibly exciting and devastating Bears game, I got to work.

This  week's menu:  Caldo Verde and a giant vat of homemade spaghetti sauce.

Caldo Verde is one of my favorite soups and it's awesome in the fall - packed with yumminess like kale and potatoes & sausage.  This time I used turkey sausage but any type of cooked sausage will do.

 Head up about 3Tbsp olive oil

sautee 2 large chopped onions and about 3 cloves chopped garlic until translucent, about 5 minutes on med-high

 thinly slice two large russet potatoes. 

I LOVE my mandolin. Thanks, Christy!

Add the potatoes and sautee under med-high heat for two minutes, stirring constantly.

 

  Meanwhile, prep a bunch of kale. 

 

  Wash it, remove the tough spine (fold each piece in half and just cut it off,) then thinly slice the pile of leaves.  set aside.

 Add 6 cups chicken broth or stock to the onion/potato situation.  (You could use vegetable stock and faux-sausage if you roll that way.)  Cover and reduce to a simmer and let cook for 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

At this point you can use a hand blender and pulverize the potatoes, if you like the soup more like a bisque, or just leave it as is, with the potatoes still somewhat intact but soft.

 MEANWHILE, back at the ranch, get yourself about a pound of cooked sausage.  You can get kielbasa or andouille or just cook up some turkey sausage, as I did here. 

Thinly slice the cooked sausage & add it to the soup, then let it heat to temperature, about 5 minutes. 

Then add the whole pile of kale you've cut into small ribbons/strips, stir into the soup and let it heat until kale wilts, about two minutes.  IT'S SO GOOD!

Next, I made a gigantic pot of my favorite spaghetti sauce. 

 Cook up 1 lb ground beef, 1lb spicy pork sausage, 2 tsp chopped garlic and two chopped onions until meat is cooked up and sausage is broken up into small pieces.

 Drain the disgusting fat.  Give some to your doggie he/she will adore you.

 Add all the things:

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp basil

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 large can tomato paste

1 can beef broth

1 lg can crushed tomatoes

1 lg can whole tomatoes, broken up by hand

fill one of the large cans with water to rinse out and pour that into the mix.

 simmer forever and ever.  Add a couple tablespoons chopped fresh parsley.

 ahhhhhhh, Sunday.

 my football watching buddy. One needs support when watching a loss like this one.

Then?  If you're really, really lucky, you get to invite over your friend Lindsay's two adorable sons Milo & Archie, aged 3&5, for dinner.   

 How lucky am I? 

More Instalove

So as I mentioned last time, I bought an InstaPot.  The thing is incredible.  And a tad scary, so I decided that I would make all of our meals in the InstaPot for the first two weeks, at least.

I am in love.

It's miraculous, truly.  I'm pretty good at planning meals but with the InstaPot, you really can throw a meal together in no time.  It's wild.  I made spaghetti and meatballs and the entire prep time, including making the meatballs and cooking the pasta and the sauce, was about 20 minutes.  Total.  You sear the meatballs then basically throw the raw pasta and the ingredients of spaghetti sauce in the pot and close the lid, set the timer and say a prayer then, voila, you have cooked pasta and a yummy sauce and meatballs 12 minutes later.

I've made pork fried rice, sweet potato and kale soup, sausage & peppers - all with a max prep time of 20 minutes.  Hard boiled eggs are perfect in 6 minutes - you just set the timer and walk away.  Sweet potatoes are glorious in 10 minutes.   Rice is a snap - there's a rice setting and you throw all the stuff in, set the lid and it is perfect. Every time.   It's bizarre.   How does it do that, exactly?

According to the website, Fastcooking.ca
Pressure-cooking is a cooking method that uses steam sealed in a pressure cooker, which is a special airtight cooking pot.  Sealing a liquid such as water, wine, stock or broth in a pressure cooker traps the vapour that rises from the liquid.  This in turn raises the pressure inside the pressure cooker along with the maximum temperature that the liquid can reach.  The increased temperature and pressure significantly speed up the cooking process.  The pressure infuses the hot steam into the food.  Pressure-cooking can cook foods in 1/3 the ordinary time on average and often over 10 times faster.  Compared to a microwave, the food tastes considerably better and compared to slow cooker, only takes a fraction of the time.

Ohhhhhhh.  I get it. Kinda.  It's a miracle!  At least a cooking miracle.  and I love it.

To try out a recipe my friend Margie sent to me, we invited some of our favorite family peeps over.  I figured they'd be polite if it sucked.  Plus, we love Cal & Rob. 

Cal is my first-cousin-once-removed.  IE, her mom Patti is my first cousin, and one of my favorite people on earth, AND a new grandmother!  Congrats, Mimi!!  But I digress. We are lucky enough to have Cal and her fantastic fella Rob over with some regularity.

Many Instapot recipes are awesome in their speed and simplicity - this is not one of those.  But we had a lovely night and what I, in no humility, thought was a killer meal.

Spicy Korean-style Pork Shoulder

This required some exotic ingredients, most of which I had on hand, some of which I had to buy.  Which is fine, because I want to make this meal every day for the rest of my life.  But I'll settle for weekly.

 

This is the rub for the pork:  garlic, brown sugar, chili flakes, salt & pepper.  Um, yum.

 

Smear it all over pork, then let it sit for a while. Then sear it in batches, then slow cook it for 7 hours or pressure cook it. For 90 minutes.  This is the miracle of the pressure cooker. 

While pork cooks, prepare barbecue sauce: In a small pot, warm peanut oil over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger, and sauté until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Set sauce aside. (It can be made up to 1 week ahead and stored in the refrigerator.)

After you're done with the sauce, prepare your cucumber salad. 

 

Let it marinate for at least 30 minutes.

When the pork is done, let it cool then shred it and lay it on a lined baking sheet.

 Mix in the bbq sauce and a couple tablespoons of cooking liquid. 

Broil it for a couple minutes to crisp it up, then serve on slider buns w/ the cucumber salad &  chips.  Really yummy.

 

 And then? Invite your first cousin-once-removed and her adorable boyfriend and have yourselves a feast!

Pressure Cooker Spicy Pork Shoulder

by Melissa Clark

For the pork:

• 5 garlic cloves, grated on a Microplane or minced
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
• 1 tablespoon Korean chile flakes (gochugaru) or other chile flakes (Maras, Aleppo or crushed red pepper)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, more to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 5 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into two or three pieces

For the sauce:

• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 4 garlic cloves, grated on a Microplane
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
• ⅓ cup gochujang (Korean chile paste) or other chile paste or sauce such as Sriracha
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Asian fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

For the sesame pickled cucumbers:

• 6 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced (or about 4 cups sliced cucumbers)
• 1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds

For serving:

• Cooked rice or toasted slider rolls
• Kimchi (optional)

Preparation

1. To prepare pork, combine garlic, brown sugar, chile flakes, salt and pepper. Rub marinade all over pork. If you have time, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour to up to 24 hours. Otherwise, proceed with recipe.
2. Set electric pressure cooker to sauté (or use a large skillet). Add pork in batches and sear until browned all over, about 2 minutes per side. Add 3/4 cup water to pot (or to skillet to deglaze, then move to pot), cover, and set to cook for 90 minutes on high pressure. Or cook in a slow cooker for 5 to 7 hours until tender.
3. While pork cooks, prepare sauce: In a small pot, warm peanut oil over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger, and sauté until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Set sauce aside. (It can be made up to 1 week ahead and stored in the refrigerator.)
4. Manually release steam. Let pork cool until you can handle it, then shred it into bite-size pieces. Pork can be made to this point up to 3 days ahead.
5. While pork cools, strain liquid from bottom of pot. Pour off fat (or chill liquid, then scoop off solidified fat with a spoon). Reserve.
6. Prepare cucumbers: In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except sesame seeds, and let sit, tossing one or twice, for at least 20 minutes. Stir in sesame seeds.
7. When ready to serve, heat broiler. Toss pork with sauce and 1 to 2 tablespoons cooking liquid — just enough so pork is evenly coated but not wet or runny. Spread mixture on a rimmed baking sheet, and broil until crisped on top, 2 to 3 minutes; it will char in places, and that’s fine.
8. Serve pork over rice or on slider rolls, with cucumbers and kimchi, if desired.