Condiment Fiend

In case you haven't noticed, I like condiments. I don't mean plain ol' ketchup, mustard, and mayo, though I like those, too. I mean all of the various salsas, sauces, and salads that make a plain serving of meat or vegetables more exciting. I've posted about them here before, most recently my nutty crunch sauce. Another post waxed rhapsodic over chili crunch/crisp. There was also my post on dips, many of which could be used as a sandwich condiment or sauce for meat, fish, or eggs. I love relishes like caponata, fennel marmalade, green tomato relish, pineapple relish, and rhubarb mostarda. Then there's all the potentially weird stuff like bacon jam, pickled figs, beet ketchup, red curry jam, blueberry ketchup and BBQ sauce, pea pesto, quince butter, sriracha BBQ sauce, and spicy miso dressing.

"So what does one do with all these condiments clogging up the fridge?" you ask. If you have watched any sort of cooking show, particularly the competition variety, then you will have heard chefs talk about acid. Some dishes just need a little spark to bring out all the flavors. Like lemon juice on fish. Condiments can add not only acid, but also sweetness and/or texture to a dish that might otherwise be bland. Take something like a pan-sautéed boneless, skinless chicken breast--I can't think of anything more unexciting than that. But put it on a bed of caponata, a savory-sweet relish of eggplant, celery, onion, and tomato, and things start looking up! A corn salsa would also work wonders to alleviate boredom. And, unlike America's favorite sauce to glop on everything from pizza to chicken wings--Ranch Dressing--caponata and corn salsa are made with vegetables. What? They act as a sauce and can also be a side dish if you put more on your plate? Mind blown! 

pork tenderloin with romesco salsa, smashed potatoes, green beans

One of my all-time favorite condiments to make is romesco sauce. A blend of roasted peppers and tomatoes thickened with bread and nuts and flavored with garlic, vinegar, and paprika, romesco is super easy to make in a food processor. My recipe is here. The photo above shows a looser version of romesco, billed by Food & Wine as a "salsa." The recipe calls for the usual suspects, minus bread, plus additional liquid. While I liked the texture of the sauce, which poured rather than dolloped, I didn't find it to be as flavorful as my usual version. The tablespoons of both salt and smoked paprika seem excessive, but they are necessary. 

You don't have to make your own condiments; these days there are plenty of specialty food brands that are making them for you. I'll be featuring some of my favorite store-bought condiments in upcoming posts, so stay tuned.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Dry-Rubbed Cauliflower "Wings"

I know this blog is rife with recipes for my favorite cruciferous vegetable, but I'm going to add one more: dry-rubbed cauliflower "wings." Why "wings?" Because the word is more appealing than "chunks," "blobs," or even "florets," and because the recipe was inspired by a local restaurant's chicken wings. 

I've used this dry rub on both wings and other chicken parts. The whole cumin and fennel seeds create a unique flavor combination that would also work on pork ribs, steak, and even fish. However, we're trying to eat more vegetarian dishes at Casa Minx. Cauliflower is my favorite meat alternative because it's nutrient dense, low in calories, and full of fiber. Plus its relatively neutral flavor works with most kinds of seasoning. If you're thinking, "blech! I hate cauliflower," well, you should probably stop reading.

The amount of savory spices in this recipe calls out for the balance of a rich and creamy sauce, so I served it with a homemade blue cheese dressing made with one of my favorite blues, Point Reyes Original Blue. Use your favorite; even the pre-crumbled stuff is fine. If you don't like blue cheese, then try feta. And if you are one of those weirdos that likes ranch dressing with their chicken wings, then omit the cheese entirely and increase the amount of TJ's Green Goddess seasoning to a full teaspoon. Taste for seasoning before adding more salt, as the GG already contains salt.

There's not a lot of either heat or sweetness in this recipe, so if you'd like a bit more of both, a drizzle with hot honey might make you happy. (I recommend Runamok Chipotle Morita honey.) 

Dry-Rubbed Cauliflower "Wings" with Bleu Cheese Dressing

For the cauliflower:

1 batch dry rub (recipe follows)

1 large head cauliflower

3 T extra virgin olive oil

1 batch blue cheese dressing (recipe follows)

To make the cauliflower: Put the dry rub into a gallon-sized plastic zip-top bag.  

Trim off the tough green leaves from the bottom of the cauliflower and discard. Rinse the head and shake dry. Trim into florets, keeping small ones (1 1/2" and smaller) whole and cutting larger ones in half or quarters. Place the florets into the zip bag with the spices, zip the bag, and shake to distribute the spices. Open the bag and add the olive oil (more, if your head of cauli was particularly large). Push out the air, re-seal the bag, and shake it around to distribute the spice mix and oil as evenly as possible onto the cauliflower. (You could also do this in a large bowl, using your hands to toss the spices and vegetable together, but the bag is much neater.)

Put the bag in the fridge to marinate.

About 90 minutes before you're ready to eat, preheat the oven to 400F. 

Line a large baking sheet with foil and dump the bag of cauliflower onto it. Arrange the florets so they are more or less evenly distributed. Place tray in oven and bake cauliflower for 20 minutes. Remove tray from oven, and turn florets over with tongs. Put back in oven for another 15-20 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender but not mushy, and browned.

Serve hot, with blue cheese dressing.

For dry rub:

1 T sweet paprika

1 T smoked paprika

1 T whole cumin seed

1 T whole fennel seed

2 t salt

1 t dried thyme

1 t Urfa Biber or your favorite chili flakes

1/2 t onion powder

1/2 t garlic powder

1 t ground black pepper

1/4 t ground white pepper

To make dry rub: Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

For bleu cheese dressing:

1/4 c sour cream

1/4 c mayonnaise 

2 ounces crumbled blue cheese (I used Point Reyes Original Blue)

1 T fresh lemon juice

1/2 t Trader Joe's Green Goddess seasoning

Pinch kosher salt

Pinch ground white pepper

To make dressing: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Use a fork to combine, crushing the cheese into small bits to distribute through the dressing. Refrigerate until ready to use.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Spicy Saucy Goodness

I put this on everything. You should too. It's based on a recipe from Chef Annmarie Langton, formerly of The Queen Truckstaurant. She used her version on her crab cake tacos, so it was made it in a larger quantity than one might need at home. I fiddled around with the recipe and came up with one I can make in varying amounts with ingredients in my pantry, and I make it to taste according to what I plan to serve it with. 

Spicy Saucy Goodness

Perhaps you find recipes without exact amounts annoying, but that's mostly how I cook. Sorry (not sorry).

A few tablespoons of your favorite mayonnaise (I like Duke's), sour cream, Greek yogurt, or a combination of all of them

Smoked paprika

Chipotle chile powder

Garlic powder

Real maple syrup 

Lime juice

Kosher salt

Glop some mayo in a bowl. Let's say you use the equivalent of 1/4 cup. To that, add about 1/4 teaspoon each of the smoked pap and the chipotle powder. Stir it in well. Dip your pinky in the mix and taste. Is it smoky? is it spicy? If yes, you're good. If no, then add a bit more of each and stir again. Add a pinch of garlic powder and stir it in. Now add about 1/2 teaspoon of the maple syrup. Please don't use pancake syrup. Add a big squeeze of lime juice. Stir the sauce again and taste again. Is it sweet? is it tangy?  If yes, you're good. If no, then add a bit more of each and stir again. Yeah, you get it. You might need to add more spice or smoke once you have the acid and sweetness in there. Does the sauce taste pretty good but still seem to be missing something? Time to add a pinch of salt. Stir it in well, wait a few beats for the salt to dissolve, and taste again. Keep doing all of the above until you get a sauce that tastes good to your palate. If all the various powders are starting to make your sauce seem too thick, then add a dribble of water. If you feel like you've gone way too far with the seasonings, add a little more mayo. 

Dollop on crab cakes, tacos, crab cake tacos, burgers, roasted vegetables, etc. or use as a dip for french fries or crudités.

Wait - stop the presses! 

I was about to hit "publish" on this post, but I discovered a shortcut to spicy mayo deliciousness (as if it wasn't already easy) and wanted to share it. Around Thanksgiving time, I bought several jars of jams from Blake Hill Preserves. (Though they didn't want to send me the samples I requested during Fancy Food Show time, I'm not bitter. But I never forget.) Anyhoo, their savory jams sounded interesting and I thought they'd be a good addition to the large scale cheese board that was to be our Thanksgiving dinner. I have also found them valuable for use in recipes that need a little zhuzhing up. A few teaspoons or so add a subtle sweetness and a punch of flavor--Blake Hill Roasted Garlic Savory Jam is especially useful in this regard. 

So, back to the sauce. 

Instead of using the smoked pap, chipotle powder, garlic powder, and maple syrup, I found that using a teaspoon-ish of both the chipotle & maple and fresh tomato jams in a quarter cup of mayo/yogurt/sour cream does the trick nicely. You may still need to add a pinch of lime juice and salt. Last time I made this, to have on tacos, Mr Minx requested that we save the last tablespoon of unused sauce so he could put it on his lunch sandwiches. Yeah, it's good.

Give it a try. If you do, please let me know in a comment.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Crunchy Stuff

I stumbled upon SAUCE UP Almond Crunch Sauce while perusing Amazon for chili crisp. Like chili crisp, it's a sweet and oily combination of fried alliums and chiles, but also contains chopped almonds and a bit of dried thyme. It's different and delicious and adds a whole 'nother level of texture to dinner. But as much as I like this product, this post isn't going to exhort you to buy it. It's going to encourage you to make your own. 

What I've been doing is to finish most of the jar, then add my own nuts, seasonings, and oil to extend the product. This stuff comes in handy when I have a dinner planned that might be somewhat lacking in texture variety, perhaps braised chicken with rice or potatoes and green beans. Thought it might be perfectly tasty, there's nothing exciting texture-wise in that dish. It needs a little crunch to zhuzh it up, give it a little spark. Sometimes I'll make up a type of dukkah, a dry blend of spices and nuts that originated in Egypt. And other times, I want something a bit oilier.

I keep a variety of both raw and roasted nuts in the freezer. Some nuts, like hazelnuts, go rancid in a ridiculously quick amount of time. Others I just don't consume fast enough. Freezing keeps them fresher for a much longer stretch of time. I may grab a couple ounces of roasted almonds or sunflower seeds which I toss into a sandwich bag and bash into smaller pieces with a meat tenderizer. These go into the mostly empty sauce jar along with a pinch of kosher salt and a glug of olive oil. Depending on the flavors of my meal, I might stir in a pinch of za'atar and toasted sesame seeds, or curry powder and nigella seeds, or toasted fennel seeds and dried oregano. For heat, I like adding a bit of Urfa Biber (a Turkish dark burgundy chile flake with a somewhat smoky flavor) or Aleppo pepper. I stir and taste and reseason, and when it tastes good, I put the jar in the fridge. (I always keep my jar in the fridge, so the nuts and oil stay in a cool and dark place, to stave off rancidity.) 

Recently, I decided to use TJ's Gluten-free Battered Plant-based Fish Fillets in tacos. Honestly, I find the average fish taco to be incredibly boring, so I would never order one in a restaurant. Battered fish (or vegan fish) is bland. Tortillas--especially commercial ones--are bland. Slaw might be vinegary, but raw cabbage is boring. Basically, the usual mayonnaise-based (more blandness) topping is left to do all the heavy lifting, flavor-wise, and it doesn't do a particularly good job of it. At least there's a bit of texture going on with the cabbage and hopefully the fish batter doesn't go completely soggy before being consumed. To me, what this dish needs to be more appetizing is a sauce that is both crunchy and spicy. An almond crunch sauce with a Mexican vibe.  I combined a little olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a goodly amount of Tapatio Picante Seasoning with freshly toasted and cooled pumpkin seeds (a small handful) and cumin seeds (1/4 teaspoon-ish) to make a textural condiment that added just the right amount of extra pizazz to dinner.

Need more than a rough guideline? Here's a "recipe." If you try it, or something like it, do let me know in the comments.

Homemade Savory Nut Crunch

About 4 ounces of your favorite nut(s) and/or seed(s), which may include: roasted and unsalted almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, and sesame seeds, broken into pieces roughly 1/4" - 1/8"

Enough neutral oil or good olive oil to moisten the mixture without making it liquidy, a tablespoon or so

A pinch or more to taste of dry herbs and savory spices of your choice, such as thyme, oregano, za'atar, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, curry powder, jerk seasoning, nigella seeds, etc.

A pinch of kosher salt

Pepper flakes, such as Urfa Biber, Aleppo, gochugaru, Ancho, etc. (optional)

Combine everything in a bowl, stir and taste. Add more of anything or everything depending if it's too dry or not salty enough. You could also add a tiny bit of sweetener (sugar, honey, maple syrup) - a quarter teaspoon or so, if it seems appropriate. Garlic or onion powder would also not be out of place here, though I don't tend to add either. 

Store in a covered container in the fridge. 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.