Kibbeh

No, I did not fall of the face of the earth after getting the tzatziki done yesterday. But I did become friends with my couch after eating supper and really didn't move for about 7 hours. I mean, I got up to get more Tang and I moved my thumb occasionally to change the channel. But no real movement.

I had to get this posted today, though, as I have Lebanese peeps from WV to impress. And impress them I will (hope to do). It's not a site I knew before yesterday, but I have to believe the recipe from Green Prophet is somehow a legitimate expression of kibbeh goodness. I mean an environmental blog focus on the Middle East? They have to know bulgur and lamb.

Let me take this paragraph to remind you this lamb was purchased from a Maryland producer at the 32nd Street Farmer's Market in Baltimore. Fewer than 30 miles as the crow flies from my apartment and I can have fresh, locally produced meat. I'm slammed with work, you are too. But I can get up early on a Saturday morning and spend what good, quality meat is worth to have the real deal in my freezer and fridge.

Whipped up the outside layer of lamb, bulgur, and onions and pasted it in the food processor. Sauted the stuffing of lamb, pine nuts, onions, cumin, coriander, mint (No, no allspice. I didn't have it). Stuffed, fried on four sides about 10 minutes total, finished in a 350-degree oven for about 7-8 minutes. ATE!!!!!

Look what I saw when I first sliced one of these little footballs of goodness open...

Yeah, I was definitely excited about that look. Crispy and bulgur on the outside with juicy lamb and the crunch of pine nuts inside. A cool little hit of tzatziki over it all and chewy pita with which to sop it all up.

I'm not sure I got it all right. Like I said, I altered the recipe to fit what I had on hand here and wasn't in a position to head out to the store yesterday.

I have to say that while the recipe indicated you can go with beef instead of lamb. I dunno if I'd go there. I mean, I'm usually all for substitutes, but that just wouldn't have enough ooomph. You'd essentially have bland meatballs with crunchy bits. Not what I'd be into folks. I'm just saying. Lamb is good.

Tzatziki Twist

You can find all sorts of recipes and definitions for tzatziki. The basics are pretty much a yogurt-based sauce popular from the Middle East to old Persia. Cuts heat on some dishes; adds smooth, creamy texture to others. In India, you'd call it raita. Same concept.

I have some sitting in my fridge right now that's a bright, smooth, creamy, and spicy blend. I'll be making lamb kibbeh later (thaw lamby, thaw) and wanted to give the tzatziki components time to blend together. Since the lamb will be mint, pine nuts, currants, cumin, and corriander; I still need a little heat to the dish.

Enter the Garlic. The primary ingredients are, of course, the yogurt, cucumbers, mint, and lemon. But raw garlic provides such a great small burst of spicy heat that I just grabbed for it and started mincing without really planning much out in terms of recipe. Apparently, I was not alone in this line of recipe-thinking.

I ended up with a fairly measurable set of ingredients so you can try it out sometime if you're so inclined.

I got a bit zesty in the process of making this...since I am now the proud owner of two (count 'em two) microplane zesters. I am geek, hear me zest! That's right, I'm proud of my little shaved lemon skin. Which is really what you see in that picture. Lemon skin. Ewww. I'm the friggin' Hannibal Lector of fruit. What is wrong with me??!!??

Ahem. Moving on.

So yogurt, which I didn't take a picture of...it's yogurt? Check. Garlic? Check, Check. Lemon zest? Check to the Checkity.

What am I missing here?

Of course! Mint!

Sadly, the local mart did not have fresh mint (they did have lovely fresh rosemary). So I have a jar of dried mint now. I hope I don't get sick of kefta and kibbeh this winter.

A pinch of salt here, a turn of the pepper mill there. And you have tzatziki. Or at least some version of a yogurt sauce that I will call tzatziki (in part to practice my typing and get better with the "z" key. it's just too easy to spell raita on the keyboard without looking!)

Garlic, Lemon & Mint Tzatziki

2 cups plain yogurt (or greek if you can get it)
1 cup peeled, seeded, diced cucumber
Zest of 1 whole lemon (about 1 T)
Juice of 1 whole lemon (about 2 T from my juicy version today)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T dried mint
Salt and pepper to taste.

This one's easy. Measure it, chop it, squeeze it, put it in a bowl, stir it up. Taste and adjust.

Rosemary Dijon Potatoes with (perfectly) Poached Eggs

Ahhhhh, blizzards. And the good fortune to head to the store the day before with the intention of buying half n' half. As you know, all I really need to survive the storm is half n' half for my coffee. And I had coffee. And a bottle of Woodford (mmmmmm). And a couple bottles of wine. And dry pasta and canned tomatoes. I was set. I didn't need a thing. Except half n' half for my coffee. And I'd be able to ride the storm out no problem...

$200 later I had a 37-course menu planned for Snowpocalypse that might be one of the more ambitious multi-day cooking extravaganzas I've contemplated.

Ground lamb and homemade kielbasa are thawing now. You'll like what I have in mind.

That ham steak and those short ribs won't last long either.

But I woke up this morning without a breakfast plan.

Walked into the kitchen and saw the little taters sitting there just lookin' precious. So I took a knife to 'em and sauted with onion, fresh rosemary, and garlic...in bacon drippings of course.

Since I knew poached eggs were going to be a part of the meal, I went ahead and started the water on to simmer. This is a ridiculously long process on an electric stove. Gave me time to contemplate the 'taters. And the Dijon I had purchased for Snowpocalype (intended to pair solely with that kielbasa, but I'm a multi-use kinda guy).

And you know I did get that half n' half after all. So there was that to pour into the mix and deglaze. That's right! I deglazed with half n' half. You got a problem with that?

If you do have a problem please click here to provide your comments to the management team and we will be sure to reply in an appropriate and timely manner.

I'll leave you with one final point and then on to the recipe...Pay close attention to this next photo. It is what your poached eggs should look like. Always. I've written about this elsewhere, but wanted to make sure you were aware that poaching eggs is serious business.

When you poach, you want a simmer. Just a simmer. Pour in a dash, like maybe a teaspoon and a half for a 4qt stockpot full of water to help the whites set quickly when you put egg to water. Crack the egg into a ramekin, bowl, or some other container. Tilt the container and pour the eggs slowly out into the simmering water/pour some of the water into the container. Slide the egg out slowly. Good simmer? Three minute max to a perfectly soft-poached egg. It really should jiggle when you remove it.

Now on to the sauce.

Rosemary Dijon Potatoes

1 cup diced small yellow wax potatoes
1/2 cup diced red onion
3 cloves minced garlic
2 T fresh chopped rosemary (reserve a pinch for garnish)
Grease from 2 strips bacon, cooked and removed
4 T Dijon mustard
1/3 cup half n' half (or heavy cream, milk, whatever, you could use chicken stock or water here really, the mustard will give most of the body the sauce needs)
Salt n' pepper to taste

1. Get your bacon started while you dice and mince and prep. When it's cooked remove the bacon and pour off all but about 2 T of the grease.
2. Add the onion and potatoes and saute on medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes, adding salt to sweat the onions. Add in the garlic and rosemary and toss through. Continue sauteing until the potatoes begin to crisp around the edges and cook through.
3. Add in the Dijon and stir through, then pour in half the liquid and deglaze the pan. Stir in the rest of the liquid as you remove the pan from the heat.
4. Plate it. Garnish it with fresh rosemary. Eat it.

I ate the bacon as I was cooking. You could crumble it back into the potatoes if you like.

Soon Again - And A New Project

I just bought two pounds of ground lamb...and there will be pine nuts, cumin, mint, cariander, clove, and greek yoghurt in my future and yours.

Also peep on the gorgeous beef short ribs in my freezer (or at least envision them). They'll swim with the carrots/onion/creminis/and cabernets soon enough. WV-ground yellow cornmeal in the cabinet you say? Polenta I retort!

There is a hamsteak that will render tender, and also get going with some red-eye gravy.

Also, I'm writing more these days, just not here. New project. You should read it. Start here. Continue here at 97 MealsPerHour. If you like the snarky bits of the geek, you'll like this. The nostalgia and the actual kitchengeeking I do will stay here.

Brilliance

Here is my though about food this morning. And it's not mine. Ruhlman wrote it. Carol Blymire said this part:

Americans are being taught we’re too stupid to cook and it’s simply not true.

Get up on it people. Go to the store this weekend. Buy food. Food that requires YOU to do something to it.

Go into your kitchen. Use the stove.

Good on you Mr. Ruhlman.

In practically every single cookbook produced today, the message is, buy this book because we show you easy things to make fast. Only takes a second. Whether it’s Rachael’s 30-minute meals or the quick-and-easy columns in the food magazines. That’s all we hear. Real cooking is hard and difficult so here are the nifty shortcuts and tips to make all that hard stuff quickly and easily.

It’s the wrong message to broadcast (unless you’re a prepared foods exec, in which case you want people to go on believing cooking is difficult—they want your money!). We’re not too stupid and lazy to cook.

If you tell me you don't know how to cook...then focus on this.

The World’s Most Difficult Roasted Chicken Recipe

Turn your oven on high (450 if you have ventilation, 425 if not). Coat a 3- or 4-pound chicken with coarse kosher salt so that you have an appealing crust of salt (a tablespoon or so). Put the chicken in a pan, stick a lemon or some onion or any fruit or vegetable you have on hand into the cavity. Put the chicken in the oven. Go away for an hour. Watch some TV, play with the kids, read, have a cocktail, have sex. When an hour has passed, take the chicken out of the oven and put it on the stove top or on a trivet for 15 more minutes. Finito.

It really is that easy folks. Side dish for that, you say?

Take 4 large potatoes (and for the purposes of this lesson, it really doesn't matter what kind of potato) and cut them in to chunks of about the same size (skin or no skin, your choice). Put them in a pot with cold water. Bring it to a boil and let it go there for 5-8 minutes. Stick a fork in a chunk, if it's easy to do, turn off the stove, drain the water, throw a few chunks of butter, a pinch of salt, and a glug or two of milk in. Mash.

No really. There's nothing else too it. And I will not even give you directions for cooking frozen peas to go along with that. You're a smart cookie. You'll e-mail me if you have questions.

Garlic/Tarragon White Bean Spread

When you have a family dinner on Christmas Eve, and you're me...you invite your friends over during the afternoon to have wine, cheese, charcuterie, and dips. And if you're not me and don't do that now...start. It's a blast.

Me mate Carl, Tina who doesn't have a burger named after her, and Smiling Wendy-Doll came over right when Seester and Broder-in-Law arrived with nephew Gus (the 95-pound Velcroberman Lap Dog). We chatted and ate and drank for a couple hours and had a grand time.

There was Jahrlsberg; a mild, soft cow's milk, and a semi-soft sheep's mild with crushed red pepper. There was a picante wet salami and a peppered dry salami. There was curried pea dip, which is the bee's knees.

And then there was the white bean spread. I just wanted to make sure there were options. And I didn't have veggies.

Have no fears. I had a pantry, tarragon for the main course, and some of the world's strongest pre-peeled garlic.

And I had a food processor.

For a LARGE party...

Garlic/Tarragon White Bean Spread

2 small cans Great Northern Beans
1 small can Garbanzo Beans
1 small can large butter beans
6-8 large cloves garlic, minced
3 T fresh tarragon, chopped
2 t kosher salt
1 t fresh cracked black pepper
4 T olive oil

Simple is the theme this holiday. Put it all in a food processor and blend until smooth. You ca garnish with a bit of shredded fresh tarragon too. I went sea salt pita crisps for dipping. Vegetable, especially peppers, carrots, and celery, would be good options too.

Lemongrass, Cilantro & Orange Vinaigrette

I have made a Radiccio/Endive salad in the past and paired it with an orange vinaigrette. It's tasty. Bitter and sweet salad. Sweet and tangy dressing.

Couldn't do it this time. Why you ask? Let's take a trip in the not-so-wayback machine.

Fast forward to the recent past. WholePaycheck, December 23. 4:30pm. That's right, I braved it. And found everything I needed except -- parsley and whole cloves of garlic (REALLY???) and endive. Fortunately for me, cilantro was next to where parsley, baby bok choy was next to where endive should have been and right next to the radiccio, and lemongrass was near the tarragon I needed for the main course of Christmas Eve dinner (more on the meal in toto in a separate post).

I'd never used lemongrass before. But I knew I liked it, and that it would pair well with my planned dressing, and that there should be at least one 'new' recipe on a menu heavy with traditional dishes. I was right, and you'll have a hit salad dressing because of it. Of course, since you know me, you know that I didn't actually measure any of this as I was making it...but we'll get past that.

The dressing was a blast, and the salad is one of those rare creations that, even after dressing, holds up through the fridge for the next day as well.

Lemongrass, Cilantro & Orange Vinaigrette

2 T mined lemongrass
2 T chopped cilantro
2 T minced shallot
4 T fresh squeezed orange juice
6 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Simple. Mix it all together until some of that emulsion action happens. This ought to make enough for a medium head of radiccio and two good-sized bunches of bok choy.

There you have it folks (and peeps who blew up the Facebook asking for a recipe), fresh and tasty for the winter months and then some.

One addition could be some crushed peanuts over the salad. Seester and B suggested some chili-garlic grilled shrimp on top to make it a meal to itself. I support this kind of thinking.