Flashback Friday - Dinner: An Improvisation

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on July 1, 2011.

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It's fairly unusual that I don't cook something from scratch on the weekend, but every once in a rare while, I take a break. One recent Saturday, Mr Minx whipped up some spaghetti and meatballs, and on the following day I heated up some leftovers. And when I say "heated up some leftovers," I really mean "created a whole new dish with some pre-cooked items." I like to play with my food, and rather than eating leftover baby back ribs as is, I thought I'd gussy them up a bit.

What I really wanted to make was a banh mi sandwich, but I was too lazy and it was too hot to take a stroll to the grocery store for a baguette. Once I had that stuck in my head though, it was hard to shake. In addition to the pork, I had a bulb of fennel in the fridge, which I thought might make an adequate stand-in for the pickled daikon or radishes I would ordinarily put in a banh mi. Particularly if I used some of the plethora of licorice-y tasting Thai basil that was currently growing on our back porch as garnish. It was starting to sound like a plan.

There was just that bread issue to tackle.

In lieu of bread, I decided to make rice flour crepes. I should have just gone with the flour tortillas we had and called the dish "tacos," because the crepes were a disaster. It took about half the batter before a small crepe was successfully produced, and by that time, I was thoroughly discouraged.

Our dinner was supposed to look like this:

Instead, it looked like this:

I ended up slicing all of the crepes into ribbons and stir frying them with the pork, adding fish sauce, sugar, garlic, lemongrass, Sriracha, and ginger to the pan. The "noodles" were then topped with a handful of pickled fennel, some pickled carrots, plus cilantro, mint, and Thai basil. It was good, but not what I wanted.

If you want to try making rice crepes - or rice crepe noodles, here's a recipe:

1 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Scoop out 1/4 cup at a time onto a hot, greased non-stick skillet over high heat, swirling the pan so the batter forms about a 6" circle. Cook about 30 seconds, then loosen the crepe with the edge of a spatula, flip, and cook the other side for 30 seconds longer. That's easier than it sounds! Warning: make sure not to slip the spatula under the crepe more than half an inch or so, because when you remove the spatula, the crepe will tear. Just ease it around the outermost edge until the crepe is loosened, then work the spatula under the whole thing and flip it.

Stack crepes on a plate as you make them. Cursing optional. Roll around fillings, or if broken, use like noodles. Serves 4.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Dinner: An Improvisation

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on July 1, 2011.

It's fairly unusual that I don't cook something from scratch on the weekend, but every once in a rare while, I take a break. One recent Saturday, Mr Minx whipped up some spaghetti and meatballs, and on the following day I heated up some leftovers. And when I say "heated up some leftovers," I really mean "created a whole new dish with some pre-cooked items." I like to play with my food, and rather than eating leftover baby back ribs as is, I thought I'd gussy them up a bit.

What I really wanted to make was a banh mi sandwich, but I was too lazy and it was too hot to take a stroll to the grocery store for a baguette. Once I had that stuck in my head though, it was hard to shake. In addition to the pork, I had a bulb of fennel in the fridge, which I thought might make an adequate stand-in for the pickled daikon or radishes I would ordinarily put in a banh mi. Particularly if I used some of the plethora of licorice-y tasting Thai basil that was currently growing on our back porch as garnish. It was starting to sound like a plan.

There was just that bread issue to tackle.

In lieu of bread, I decided to make rice flour crepes. I should have just gone with the flour tortillas we had and called the dish "tacos," because the crepes were a disaster. It took about half the batter before a small crepe was successfully produced, and by that time, I was thoroughly discouraged.

Our dinner was supposed to look like this:

Instead, it looked like this:

I ended up slicing all of the crepes into ribbons and stir frying them with the pork, adding fish sauce, sugar, garlic, lemongrass, Sriracha, and ginger to the pan. The "noodles" were then topped with a handful of pickled fennel, some pickled carrots, plus cilantro, mint, and Thai basil. It was good, but not what I wanted.

If you want to try making rice crepes - or rice crepe noodles, here's a recipe:

1 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Scoop out 1/4 cup at a time onto a hot, greased non-stick skillet over high heat, swirling the pan so the batter forms about a 6" circle. Cook about 30 seconds, then loosen the crepe with the edge of a spatula, flip, and cook the other side for 30 seconds longer. That's easier than it sounds! Warning: make sure not to slip the spatula under the crepe more than half an inch or so, because when you remove the spatula, the crepe will tear. Just ease it around the outermost edge until the crepe is loosened, then work the spatula under the whole thing and flip it.

Stack crepes on a plate as you make them. Cursing optional. Roll around fillings, or if broken, use like noodles. Serves 4.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Octopus

In this episode, Kathy tackles a fearsome multi-legged sea creature...and wins!

--Kathy

This post was originally published on January 19, 2015.
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Octopus

I didn't grow up eating octopus. To tell the truth, it seemed a little odd to me. But then every restaurant started serving calamari, which became an octopus gateway food for me. Of course, I still didn't have the opportunity to try octopus until I was well into my adult years, but when I did, I loved it. Now I order it every time I see it.

I've heard tales that it takes a long time to tenderize, so I imagined hours and hours of boiling, braising, or simmering. In reality, it takes no more long to cook than, say, beef stew. Less time than short ribs, or baking a turkey. And small octopi take less than an hour. So what's the big deal?

When I saw small octopi in the frozen seafood section of our local Weis Market, I knew it was time to take some home and cook them myself. Our cookbook, Baltimore Chef's Table, features an octopus recipe from Grille 620 in Ellicott City. I've tasted it, it's delicious, but as we don't have a dutch oven or grill pan in our tiny kitchen, I borrowed the idea but changed it up a bit. (As I usually do.) I boiled the cephalopods with lemon and garlic until tender, and then seared them in a screaming hot saute pan to get a little texture. I also added fennel and onion to the beans, and a bit of smoked paprika to the vinaigrette, to mimic the smoky flavor the meat might pick up on a grill.

For my first time cooking octopus, it was a huge success. Next time, I'll seek out a larger specimen.

Octopus with Cannelini Beans and Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette

1 lb octopus (can be one or two whole)
2 lemons, cut in half (divided use)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
Red pepper flakes
Extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 bulb fennel, cut in half and sliced thinly
1 15-oz can cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon honey (I used lemon blossom honey, but any neutral honey will do)
Juice of 1 lemon
Smoked paprika
Salt, and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place octopus, 1 lemon (squeeze the juice over the octopus and toss the halves in too), the garlic, and a big pinch of red pepper flakes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then turn heat down a bit. You want an active simmer. Continue to simmer until a knife inserted into the neck of the octopus pierces the flesh easily, about 45 minutes. Remove octopus from pot and place into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Over medium heat, cook the onion and fennel in a splash of olive oil and pinch of salt until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the drained beans and stir to combine. Heat until beans are warmed through.

While beans are cooking, place the honey in a small bowl. Using a fork or small whisk, blend in the lemon juice. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil, stir to emulsify into a vinaigrette, and season with a big pinch of smoked paprika, plus salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Remove octopus from refrigerator. Separate the legs from the head. If the head is large, cut into 2 or three pieces.

Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large saute pan and heat until nearly smoking. Carefully add the octopus (it might splatter). Cook for a couple minutes per side, to warm through and add some crispy browned bits. Add the second lemon, cut side down, to the pan, to brown the cut sides and to warm the juice.

To serve, place the beans on a serving plate. Top with octopus. Drizzle vinaigrette over all. Garnish with lemon halves; use them to add a bit more tangy lemon flavor.

Serves 2-4.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Chicken in Peanut Sauce with Fennel Slaw

I really need to make this peanut sauce again.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on May 4, 2011.
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Chicken in Peanut Sauce with Fennel Slaw

I was sick with a nasty stomach flu a couple of weeks ago and missed out on the weekly trip to the grocery store. By Tuesday, I usually have some vague idea in mind of what I'm cooking on the weekend, but that particular week I had no desire to think of food at all, apart from bananas, crackers, and ginger ale. By Friday though, I was feeling much better and was actually hungry, so I thought I'd mosey on over to the Giant on Saturday to pick up some ingredients for dinner.

Nature had other plans, opening up the heavens and flooding us with rain. I scratched the idea of walking to the grocery store and instead looked in the freezer to see what fell out on my foot.

We were going to eat some cholesterol on Sunday, so I wanted to make something that was at least somewhat light. And after several days of bland food (including un-buttered toast and un-sauced pasta), I wanted to eat something that had bright, vibrant flavors. Asian flavors. All we had in the freezer that wasn't lamb or beef was a packet of chicken thighs, which was going to have to do the trick. There was a lone fennel bulb in the fridge, and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter left in the jar. These seemingly disparate ingredients, when matched with coconut milk and sundry Asian condiments, made for a delicious and somewhat exotic dinner.

The peanut sauce recipe makes quite a lot. Store leftover sauce in a lidded container in the fridge and use as a pasta sauce or as a spread for a BLT.

For some reason, my camera recorded the pale green shade of both
fennel and cucumber as a pale fuchsia, which I corrected in Photoshop.
Look closely at the fennel on top and you'll see some pink remains.

Peanut Sauce:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
salt
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 15 oz can coconut milk minus 1/2 cup, well shaken (use half cup in banana bread recipe)
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper flakes or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely minced cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium pan. Add onion and cook on medium heat until lightly browned, about 12-15 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes. Set aside. Reserve pan.

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together coconut milk, peanut butter, soy, ginger, Hoisin, honey, and red pepper flakes. When mixture starts to bubble, turn heat to low and add lime juice and reserved onion and garlic. Stir to combine and cook for about 15 minutes, until flavors have melded. Season with sesame oil, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1.5 cups chicken stock

In pan reserved from cooking onions, add chicken thighs and stock. Bring stock to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer chicken, covered, for about 45 minutes, until quite tender. At the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to high in order to evaporate the remaining stock (if there appears to be a lot, pour it out) and to brown the chicken a bit (there should be enough residual oil/chicken grease to do so).

Fennel Slaw
1 fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Chilli paste with Sweet Basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients. Taste for seasoning. Allow to marinate for an hour or so before serving.

To serve:

Place chicken thigh on a bed of rice or some other nice starchy thing. Top with a generous dollop of peanut sauce and a handful of fennel slaw. If you'd like, garnish with some chopped scallion and carrot slivers.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Not Quite Nashville Hot Chicken in a Biscuit

There's this thing called Hot Chicken that is popping up here and there, even in Baltimore (at least at KFC). This specialty of Nashville, Tennessee is typically marinated in spices, breaded, fried, and then coated in a cayenne-rich paste or oil. It's red in color and definitely hot.

Spicy hot food releases endorphins, feel-good chemicals that make us want more. At least, those who can tolerate heat. Some people are just crazy with the amount of capsaicin they are willing to ingest. Us, not so much. While we enjoy hot foods, we're not "chileheads" by any stretch of the imagination. So while I did spice up this fried chicken a bit, it's still quite enjoyable by all and sundry. If you are a chilehead, feel free to add more cayenne to the chicken coating and to the sauce. Hell, add it to the biscuit, if you want.

Really, though, this post is more about making dinner with what we had on hand rather than going along with a food fad. I've been really lazy recently, not thinking ahead about what we're going to eat when it's my turn to cook (the weekend). And when Saturday comes, I'm digging through the freezer, hoping we have some good raw materials to work with. Thankfully, we usually do. This time, we had packages of boneless skinless chicken thighs. We also had three sweet potatoes hanging around (Mr Minx doesn't like them particularly) and a bulb of fennel that I had purchased on impulse the week before. I've made hash before with those same ingredients (and it was pretty good) but I hate repeating myself. I thought I could hide one of the sweet potatoes in a batch of biscuits, and fried chicken seemed like a good thing to put in one of those biscuits. With slaw on top, using fennel rather than the typical cabbage.

I have a somewhat embarrassing confession to make: I was a fried chicken virgin until the middle of last year. Oh, I've eaten my fair share over the years, but I'd never cooked it before. I was afraid of making a greasy mess while stinking up the house and ending up with either burnt or raw chicken. Last year, we wrote a book about Maryland cuisine and including a version of Maryland fried chicken was a must. At long last, it was time to get over my fear of frying. I purchased a cast iron skillet.

Maryland fried chicken is shallow-fried, then steamed. It's just as crispy-coated and moistly delicious as deep-fried chicken, only it's not nearly as messy. Or smelly. Once I figured out the proper cooking times (a lot of published recipes don't allow nearly enough time for the coating to brown) and got the technique down, I felt like a chicken frying pro. It was easy, and results were delicious.

If you're a novice, try my recipe. If you don't want spicy chicken, just put some salt and pepper in the flour. Don't worry about buttermilk soaks or egg washes or anything else. Just seasoned flour, chicken, and hot oil. And a cast iron skillet.

Spicy Chicken Biscuit Sandwich with Fennel Slaw
BTW, I used to love those crackers, Chicken in a Biskit, even though they don't taste like chicken nor particularly like biscuits.

For the biscuits:
1 large sweet potato
1/3 cup half and half, plus more
1 3/4 cups AP flour, plus more
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons of cold salted butter, cut into small pieces
Melted butter for brushing tops

For the fennel slaw:
1 large bulb fennel
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives (can use whatever onion you prefer)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice wine vinegar
1-2 teaspoons agave syrup or superfine sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

For the chicken:
6 boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, cut in half
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cayenne
Fat for frying (lard or vegetable oil, or a combo of the two)

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 or more tablespoons of your favorite hot sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch salt

To make the biscuits: Peel the potato and cut into 1" chunks. Place in a pan and add water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn down to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Drain pot and mash potatoes. Pack mashed potato into a measuring cup. You should have one cup of sweet potato. If you have more, eat the rest. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Once sweet potatoes are cool, add the 1/3 cup of half and half to them and stir to combine. Combine the 1 3/4 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, stirring well with a fork. Add the butter and combine with your fingers, a pastry blender, or two knives, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Gently fold in the sweet potato, adding a dribble more half and half if the dough seems too stiff, a pinch more flour if it seems too wet.

Flour your hands well and grab small handfuls of the dough. Gently roll into a ball, then flatten into a fat disc. Place discs on a parchment-lined baking sheet--touching if you want soft sides, not touching if you like crispier biscuits. You should be able to get between 9 and 12 biscuits, depending on how big you make them. Brush tops with a little melted butter. Place in preheated oven and bake for 12-18 minutes (depending on how many you made; bigger biscuits need more time), until light golden brown and firm to the touch. Remove biscuits to a wire rack until ready to serve.

To make slaw: You can do this while the sweet potato is boiling. Cut stalks off of bulb, retaining some of the fronds. Rinse well and cut off any discolored bits on the outermost layer. Cut the bulb in half and make a triangular cut at the bottom to cut away the core. Grate the fennel with a hand grater or a food processor. Remove fennel to a large bowl; chop the fronds and add to the rest of the fennel. Add the chives.

In another bowl, combine the mayo, rice wine, and agave syrup or sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you like your slaw). Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

To make chicken: Combine flour with salt and peppers in a plastic zip-top bag. Place the chicken pieces in the bag, one at a time, and shake to coat with flour. Place coated chicken on a plate to rest.

Heat 1/4-inch of fat in a large, heavy-bottomed, frying pan (a cast iron skillet is ideal) over medium-high heat. Put the chicken pieces in the hot fat and cook for about five minutes without disturbing them, until crusty and browned on the bottoms; turn each piece and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Turn the chicken over again, cover the pan partway, turn the heat down to medium, and allow the chicken to steam for 8-10 minutes. A meat thermometer stuck into the meatiest part of the chicken should read no less than 165°F. Remove the cover and cook an additional couple minutes on both sides if it hasn’t browned to your liking.

Drain chicken on paper towel-lined plates. Salt and pepper pieces as soon as they come out of the pan.

To make sauce: combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To serve: Split biscuits with a fork. Top with a piece of chicken, a dollop of sauce, then a big spoonful of the slaw. Close biscuit and eat. Repeat.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Fennel Marmalade

Fennel marmalade seems so hipster-ish, doesn't it?

--Kathy

This post was originally published on July 28, 2010.
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Fennel Marmalade

During the latter part of the week I usually start to mentally go through the contents of our fridge and attempt to plan the weekend's dinners. This past week, I knew it was going to be too damn hot to take an impromptu walk to the grocery store, which meant I needed to utilize the ingredients on hand. Luckily, we had plenty of goodies in the larder: fennel and asparagus in the fridge and several kinds of meat and fish in the freezer.

For Saturday, I settled on making something with the fennel and pork chops. Fennel marmalade came to mind. I don't know why, but I want to make jam out of everything these days (see  Jam, Bacon and Jam, Red Curry).

It was pretty simple and turned out very well.

Fennel Marmalade

olive oil
pinch salt
1 small onion, cut and half and sliced thinly (about 3/4 cup)
1 fennel bulb, sliced in half, cored, and sliced thinly (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
grated zest of one lime

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat Add onion, fennel, and salt. Cover and cook until onion and fennel start to wilt, about 10 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Pour in the orange juice and reduce heat to the lowest setting. Simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture starts to seem dry while the fennel is still on the crunchy side, add a few more dribbles of orange juice. Do not let the mixture burn.

After 45 minutes, add the rest of the brown sugar and raise the temperature. The mixture should bubble and caramelize. When most of the moisture seems to have evaporated, take the marmalade off the heat. Stir in the lime zest.

Place marmalade in a jar or a covered bowl in the fridge until ready to use. Makes about one pint.
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I served it on top of simple sautéed pork chops that had been marinated in a bit of soy and crushed garlic for a couple of hours. On the side, I made a bulghur salad with asparagus, red and yellow tomatoes and a green cayenne pepper from our garden, scallions, mint, lime juice, cumin, goat cheese, and olive oil.

In hindsight, polenta might have worked better with the pork chop, but I thought the combination of hot pork chops and hot corn mush might be too much for this humid weather. Mr Minx thought it the cold salad was fine, so what do I know?



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Fennel and Asparagus Salad

Some people consider "salad" a pile of leafy greens topped with cukes and tomatoes and glopped with dressing. And ok, that's a very American-style salad, but it's just one of many. I consider pretty much anything bound together in a vinegary sauce and eaten cold to be a salad, whether it involves, grains, pasta, or meats in addition to veg and fruit, or even all of the above.

Poke around in your fridge and cupboard to see what you have on hand. I almost guarantee (almost, because you might be one of those people who keeps nothing but beer and yogurt in the fridge and cereal in the cupboard) that you have the makings of a salad.

We always have some sort of veg, and even if we don't have anything fresh, there's always frozen green beans and corn and a can of at least one kind of beans in the cupboard. And I'm a vinegar fanatic, so salad dressings are a snap. Vinegar + mustard + oil + seasonings in any combination you like makes the perfect dressing for you. I also like to add a bit of sweetness to my dressing, particularly if the vinegar I've chosen is very pungent, like the sherry vinegar in this fennel and asparagus salad I made one night when we had both in the fridge and needed something green to go with dinner.

Fennel and Asparagus Salad

1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pinch garlic powder
Pinch smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 bulb fennel, cored and sliced very thinly
8 spears asparagus, trimmed and sliced thinly on the diagonal
5 chive blossoms

Combine first seven ingredients in a small bowl and beat vigorously with a fork to combine. Put the sliced fennel and asparagus in a bowl, pour over the dressing, and toss well. Tear apart the chive blossoms and add to the bowl. Toss again before serving.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pretzel Rolls

While I'm a pretty adventurous cook, baking still scares me a little. I'm not a scientist by any means, and baking is a pretty science-y thing. If one doesn't follow directions exactly, chances are, things might not turn out the way they should.

I bake bread now, but only with the almost fool-proof technique found in Artisan Baking in Five Minutes a Day. My first attempt at bread, 20 years ago, was so bad, I haven't tried any other recipe. Until I decided to put on my big-girl apron and tackle soft pretzels. The dough required very little handling, so maybe I couldn't mess it up too badly. And I thought it might be nice to eat sandwiches on homemade pretzel rolls while we watched the commercials during the Super Bowl.

The recipe, which I found in an old Better Homes and Garden special baking magazine, called for twisting the dough. That part didn't turn out so well. When I lowered the twists into a pot of hot water with baking soda, they untwisted. The end result was a bit uneven-looking, as you can see from the photos. And, they fell apart once we crammed a sausage into them. But...they tasted pretty damn good.

We ate them with smoked kielbasa topped with a honey pickled mustard seed mayo, fennel slaw, caramelized onions, and tomato jam.

I'd make them again, but wouldn't bother with the twist part. I'd just shape the dough into 6 long rolls before the 30 minute rise and leave them that way for the dunk in soda water.

Pretzel Rolls (adapted from Better Homes & Gardens Fall Baking 2013)

3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/3 to 2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 cups hot water
1/2 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water
Coarse salt

Heat milk, water, and sugar until just warm (110°F). I used a microwave, but you can use a saucepan over low heat. Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook. Sprinkle with the yeast and let stand for a few minutes until foamy. Add 2 1/3 cups of flour, the butter, and salt and beat on low speed until combined, 2-3 minutes. Turn speed to medium-low and beat an additional 8-10 minutes, until a soft dough forms. Scrape bowl as necessary. If the dough seems too sticky, add the additional flour. When the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto a dry surface.

Knead dough a few times, shape into a ball, and place into a bowl that has a bit of olive oil in it. Turn the dough to coat with oil, cover bowl, and set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment.

Punch risen dough down and divide into six portions. Roll and stretch each portion into a 12" rope. (OR, just make fat 6" - 8" long rolls.) Place each on prepared baking sheet. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Fold each piece of dough in half, then twist twice. (OR, just skip the twist if you made the fat rolls.)

In a deep dish or pot, add the water and the baking soda, stirring to dissolve soda. Using a slotted spoon, lower dough twists into water for 10 seconds, then drain on paper towels. Arrange drained twists on prepared baking sheet.

Beat egg and water together in a small bowl. Brush over dough twists and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 12-15 minutes until deeply browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 6 rolls.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Octopus

I didn't grow up eating octopus. To tell the truth, it seemed a little odd to me. But then every restaurant started serving calamari, which became an octopus gateway food for me. Of course, I still didn't have the opportunity to try octopus until I was well into my adult years, but when I did, I loved it. Now I order it every time I see it.

I've heard tales that it takes a long time to tenderize, so I imagined hours and hours of boiling, braising, or simmering. In reality, it takes no more long to cook than, say, beef stew. Less time than short ribs, or baking a turkey. And small octopi take less than an hour. So what's the big deal?

When I saw small octopi in the frozen seafood section of our local Weis Market, I knew it was time to take some home and cook them myself. Our cookbook, Baltimore Chef's Table, features an octopus recipe from Grille 620 in Ellicott City. I've tasted it, it's delicious, but as we don't have a dutch oven or grill pan in our tiny kitchen, I borrowed the idea but changed it up a bit. (As I usually do.) I boiled the cephalopods with lemon and garlic until tender, and then seared them in a screaming hot saute pan to get a little texture. I also added fennel and onion to the beans, and a bit of smoked paprika to the vinaigrette, to mimic the smoky flavor the meat might pick up on a grill.

For my first time cooking octopus, it was a huge success. Next time, I'll seek out a larger specimen.

Octopus with Cannelini Beans and Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette

1 lb octopus (can be one or two whole)
2 lemons, cut in half (divided use)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
Red pepper flakes
Extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 bulb fennel, cut in half and sliced thinly
1 15-oz can cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon honey (I used lemon blossom honey, but any neutral honey will do)
Juice of 1 lemon
Smoked paprika
Salt, and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place octopus, 1 lemon (squeeze the juice over the octopus and toss the halves in too), the garlic, and a big pinch of red pepper flakes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then turn heat down a bit. You want an active simmer. Continue to simmer until a knife inserted into the neck of the octopus pierces the flesh easily, about 45 minutes. Remove octopus from pot and place into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Over medium heat, cook the onion and fennel in a splash of olive oil and pinch of salt until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the drained beans and stir to combine. Heat until beans are warmed through.

While beans are cooking, place the honey in a small bowl. Using a fork or small whisk, blend in the lemon juice. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil, stir to emulsify into a vinaigrette, and season with a big pinch of smoked paprika, plus salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Remove octopus from refrigerator. Separate the legs from the head. If the head is large, cut into 2 or three pieces.

Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large saute pan and heat until nearly smoking. Carefully add the octopus (it might splatter). Cook for a couple minutes per side, to warm through and add some crispy browned bits. Add the second lemon, cut side down, to the pan, to brown the cut sides and to warm the juice.

To serve, place the beans on a serving plate. Top with octopus. Drizzle vinaigrette over all. Garnish with lemon halves; use them to add a bit more tangy lemon flavor.

Serves 2-4.



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Pâté

Who would think that mashed-up chicken livers, butter, and seasonings would be so incredibly good? I suppose I would, since I ate deep-fried chicken livers as a kid (I ate anything).

I was feeling ambitious one Saturday morning so Mr Minx and I cranked out fennel marmalade, bread dough, preserved lemons (for a much later post), babaganoush, and chicken liver pâté. The marmalade I've made before, and you can find the recipe here. It was a nice sweet accompaniment to the pâté, but it still needed a bit of tart acid in the form of cornichons. (I love how spell-check wants "cornichons" to be "unicorns.") The bread, made with my favorite recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, was the perfect foil for the spread. And that pâté was made from Clementine owner/chef Winston Blick's recipe.

Want that recipe? Well, you'll have to wait until Baltimore Chef's Table comes out next year. It'll be in there, along with dozens of other terrific recipes from local Baltimore Metro-area chefs. We're so excited about this book - it's going to be great!

Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Spicy Fish Soup

Over the years, I've likely posted several variations on this recipe, but I think it's one well-worth sharing. Why? Because: 1) it's so simple; 2) it's so good; 3) it can be altered to your whim.

Put a cup of chopped onion and a sliced bulb of fennel into a soup pot with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until veggies are wilted and maybe beginning to brown slightly. If you like garlic, stir in a couple of cloves, minced, now. Add a 15oz can of chopped tomatoes and their juices and two bottles of clam juice + 2 clam juice bottles of water. Or a bottle of clam juice and a fish bouillon cube (Knorr makes these) + water. Or, if you want to go vegetarian, about 4 cups of your favorite veggie stock/bouillon. If you have leftover tomato paste/Thai red curry paste etc., add about a tablespoon of that here, but if you don't have it, no worries. (I scraped out the last of a jar of Maesri chilli paste with basil leaves.) Squeeze in a bit of Sriracha, turn the heat up, and bring the soup to a boil. Once it boils, lower the heat, cover the pot, and simmer for at least 30 minutes so the flavors meld.

Meanwhile, prepare your seafood: shell and devein shrimp; check your crabmeat for shells; cut your fish into thumb-sized pieces. Taste the soup - if it seems flavorful enough, add your seafood. Turn up the heat and cook until the fish or shrimp just turn opaque. (Crabmeat only needs warming.) If you're going the vegetarian route, small cubes of extra-firm tofu would not be out of place here, but you could also add more vegetables, like corn, okra, or greens. Taste the soup again and fine-tune the flavors with salt and pepper, more Sriracha, a bit of lemon juice, a dribble of agave syrup or honey.

Serve soup with crusty bread. Yum.

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RisOATto

I used to hate oatmeal. Hate it. I didn't much see the point of eating sweetened wallpaper paste, so I avoided the stuff. Then I discovered steel cut oats. They have a completely different texture from rolled oats and while they soften (a bit! not entirely!) when cooked and form a goopy porridge, I don't find it to be at all unpleasant. What I do find unpleasant, however, is the long cooking time and the fact that it tends to boil over a bit, even when I make it in a rice cooker.

While I have issues with hot oatmeal, I've always loved cold oatmeal - aka muesli. While the oats soften in cold milk, they never achieve the gluey texture I dislike so much. Eventually I realized that the reason for this is because the oats in muesli - once combined with milk, spices, dried fruit, and nuts - remain undisturbed. That is, there's no stirring. So I tried that trick with cooked oatmeal - I brought salted water to a boil, added rolled oats, and turned of the heat. After 10 minutes or so, the oats had absorbed all of the water, became soft, but didn't release any of their yucky mucilage. With a little brown sugar and cinnamon, or a spoonful of Nutella - yum. It's what's for breakfast just about every weekend.

Now that I'd figured out how to make fast oatmeal I actually enjoy, the can of steel cut oats became neglected. That is, until I decided that starchy oats might work in a risotto-type preparation. I cooked them up exactly the same way, first toasting the grain in a combination of olive oil and onion, then adding stock a bit at a time. The end result, while not an exact replica of risotto, was very very good, and a nice change of pace.

Oatmeal "Risotto" with Roasted Vegetables

2 lb assorted vegetables such as asparagus, fennel, cauliflower, carrots, edamame, brussels sprouts - trimmed, cleaned, and cut into approximately 2" pieces (edamame and asparagus can be kept whole, brussels sprouts halved)
olive oil
salt
5 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 cup steel cut oats
grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 400F. Place vegetables into a foil-lined 9 x 13 baking dish. Drizzle with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a generous pinch of salt and toss vegetables to coat. Place pan in oven and roast for 60 - 90 minutes until all vegetables are tender and caramelized. Every 15-20 minutes, use tongs to rearrange vegetables (move ones on the bottom to the top). As vegetables become cooked, remove them from pan and set aside (for example, asparagus will be cooked after 30 minutes or so).

About 30 minutes before veg are finished, place chicken stock in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer.

In a large skillet or sauté pan set over medium heat, cook onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until onion is translucent. Add oats and stir to coat with oil. Cook, stirring frequently, until oats start to smell toasty, 4-5 minutes. Turn heat up to medium-high, add a ladle-full of simmering stock to the oats and stir until most of the stock has been absorbed. Proceed as for risotto, adding a ladle of stock at a time and stirring frequently until stock is absorbed. After about 15 minutes of cooking and stirring, the oats will not have any more starch to release, so you can start adding stock by the cupful and covering the pan. By the time all of the stock has been added and most of it absorbed, the texture of the oats should be tender with a slight chew. At this point, stir in a couple tablespoons of Parmesan and the butter.

Ladle oats into a shallow bowl and top with a portion of the roasted vegetables.

Makes 4 servings.

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Fennelicious

With a hurricane threatening and a full bag of Trader Joe's langoustine tails in the freezer, I knew I'd have to whip up a pre-storm dinner with them or essentially flush an Alexander Hamilton down the toilet. We also had three Cubanelle peppers from the garden and a bulb of fennel from the grocery store. I was pondering the combination when Mr Minx suggested that I think Thailand. Genius! Our container garden was overflowing with the licorice-y Thai basil, which would be a great reinforcement for the similarly-flavored fennel. Additionally, we always have a jar of Thai chilli paste with sweet basil in the fridge, so I didn't have to try particularly hard to get Thai flavors in the dish.

Rather than cook the whole fennel bulb, I reserved some of it in order to make a raw salad, to add yet another licorice-y dimension. It was a delicious combo, one which made me realize just how much I love the flavor of fennel, particularly when it's cooked. (Oddly enough, I don't like licorice candy at all, and am not all that hot on Italian cookies, either.)

Fennelicious Thai Basil Shellfish

4 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
1 bulb fennel, cored and sliced (divided use)
canola oil
3 Cubanelle or Italian frying peppers, cored, deseeded, and sliced (if you don't have the Cubanelles, you could add a small amount of ripe bell pepper; too much, however, might drown out the much more-delicate fennel flavor)
1 carrot, chopped into matchsticks (divided use)
1 heaping tablespoon Thai chilli paste with sweet basil
1/2 cup Thai basil leaves (divided use)
1 tablespoon finely minced cilantro
10 ounces medium shrimp or langoustine tails
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon agave syrup
salt
steamed rice, for serving

In a large sauté pan, heat a bit of oil and add scallions and about 2/3 of the fennel. Cook until vegetables soften, about 5 minutes. Add peppers and 2/3 of the carrots and cook an additional 2-3 minutes until peppers wilt. Stir in chilli paste, half of the basil, and cilantro. If using shrimp, add to skillet and stir fry until shrimp turn pink and opaque - 3-5 minutes. If using langoustine tails, add to skillet and heat through. Before serving, stir in remaining basil.

While vegetables are cooking, toss 1/3 of fennel and carrots with the rice wine vinegar and agave syrup. Season with salt to taste.

Serve stir fry over rice and top with fennel salad. Serves 2-4.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Dinner: An Improvisation

It's fairly unusual that I don't cook something from scratch on the weekend, but every once in a rare while, I take a break. One recent Saturday, Mr Minx whipped up some spaghetti and meatballs, and on the following day I heated up some leftovers. And when I say "heated up some leftovers," I really mean "created a whole new dish with some pre-cooked items." I like to play with my food, and rather than eating leftover baby back ribs as is, I thought I'd gussy them up a bit.

What I really wanted to make was a banh mi sandwich, but I was too lazy and it was too hot to take a stroll to the grocery store for a baguette. Once I had that stuck in my head though, it was hard to shake. In addition to the pork, I had a bulb of fennel in the fridge, which I thought might make an adequate stand-in for the pickled daikon or radishes I would ordinarily put in a banh mi. Particularly if I used some of the plethora of licorice-y tasting Thai basil that was currently growing on our back porch as garnish. It was starting to sound like a plan.

There was just that bread issue to tackle.

In lieu of bread, I decided to make rice flour crepes. I should have just gone with the flour tortillas we had and called the dish "tacos," because the crepes were a disaster. It took about half the batter before a small crepe was successfully produced, and by that time, I was thoroughly discouraged.

Our dinner was supposed to look like this:

Instead, it looked like this:

I ended up slicing all of the crepes into ribbons and stir frying them with the pork, adding fish sauce, sugar, garlic, lemongrass, Sriracha, and ginger to the pan. The "noodles" were then topped with a handful of pickled fennel, some pickled carrots, plus cilantro, mint, and Thai basil. It was good, but not what I wanted.

If you want to try making rice crepes - or rice crepe noodles, here's a recipe:

1 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Scoop out 1/4 cup at a time onto a hot, greased non-stick skillet over high heat, swirling the pan so the batter forms about a 6" circle. Cook about 30 seconds, then loosen the crepe with the edge of a spatula, flip, and cook the other side for 30 seconds longer. That's easier than it sounds! Warning: make sure not to slip the spatula under the crepe more than half an inch or so, because when you remove the spatula, the crepe will tear. Just ease it around the outermost edge until the crepe is loosened, then work the spatula under the whole thing and flip it.

Stack crepes on a plate as you make them. Cursing optional. Roll around fillings, or if broken, use like noodles. Serves 4.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Chicken in Peanut Sauce with Fennel Slaw

I was sick with a nasty stomach flu a couple of weeks ago and missed out on the weekly trip to the grocery store. By Tuesday, I usually have some vague idea in mind of what I'm cooking on the weekend, but that particular week I had no desire to think of food at all, apart from bananas, crackers, and ginger ale. By Friday though, I was feeling much better and was actually hungry, so I thought I'd mosey on over to the Giant on Saturday to pick up some ingredients for dinner.

Nature had other plans, opening up the heavens and flooding us with rain. I scratched the idea of walking to the grocery store and instead looked in the freezer to see what fell out on my foot.

We were going to eat some cholesterol on Sunday, so I wanted to make something that was at least somewhat light. And after several days of bland food (including un-buttered toast and un-sauced pasta), I wanted to eat something that had bright, vibrant flavors. Asian flavors. All we had in the freezer that wasn't lamb or beef was a packet of chicken thighs, which was going to have to do the trick. There was a lone fennel bulb in the fridge, and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter left in the jar. These seemingly disparate ingredients, when matched with coconut milk and sundry Asian condiments, made for a delicious and somewhat exotic dinner.

The peanut sauce recipe makes quite a lot. Store leftover sauce in a lidded container in the fridge and use as a pasta sauce or as a spread for a BLT.

For some reason, my camera recorded the pale green shade of both
fennel and cucumber as a pale fuchsia, which I corrected in Photoshop.
Look closely at the fennel on top and you'll see some pink remains.

Peanut Sauce:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
salt
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 15 oz can coconut milk minus 1/2 cup, well shaken (use half cup in banana bread recipe)
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper flakes or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely minced cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium pan. Add onion and cook on medium heat until lightly browned, about 12-15 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes. Set aside. Reserve pan.

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together coconut milk, peanut butter, soy, ginger, Hoisin, honey, and red pepper flakes. When mixture starts to bubble, turn heat to low and add lime juice and reserved onion and garlic. Stir to combine and cook for about 15 minutes, until flavors have melded. Season with sesame oil, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1.5 cups chicken stock

In pan reserved from cooking onions, add chicken thighs and stock. Bring stock to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer chicken, covered, for about 45 minutes, until quite tender. At the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to high in order to evaporate the remaining stock (if there appears to be a lot, pour it out) and to brown the chicken a bit (there should be enough residual oil/chicken grease to do so).

Fennel Slaw
1 fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Chilli paste with Sweet Basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients. Taste for seasoning. Allow to marinate for an hour or so before serving.

To serve:

Place chicken thigh on a bed of rice or some other nice starchy thing. Top with a generous dollop of peanut sauce and a handful of fennel slaw. If you'd like, garnish with some chopped scallion and carrot slivers.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Fennel Marmalade

During the latter part of the week I usually start to mentally go through the contents of our fridge and attempt to plan the weekend's dinners. This past week, I knew it was going to be too damn hot to take an impromptu walk to the grocery store, which meant I needed to utilize the ingredients on hand. Luckily, we had plenty of goodies in the larder: fennel and asparagus in the fridge and several kinds of meat and fish in the freezer.

For Saturday, I settled on making something with the fennel and pork chops. Fennel marmalade came to mind. I don't know why, but I want to make jam out of everything these days (see  Jam, Bacon and Jam, Red Curry).

It was pretty simple and turned out very well.

Fennel Marmalade

olive oil
pinch salt
1 small onion, cut and half and sliced thinly (about 3/4 cup)
1 fennel bulb, sliced in half, cored, and sliced thinly (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
grated zest of one lime

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat Add onion, fennel, and salt. Cover and cook until onion and fennel start to wilt, about 10 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Pour in the orange juice and reduce heat to the lowest setting. Simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture starts to seem dry while the fennel is still on the crunchy side, add a few more dribbles of orange juice. Do not let the mixture burn.

After 45 minutes, add the rest of the brown sugar and raise the temperature. The mixture should bubble and caramelize. When most of the moisture seems to have evaporated, take the marmalade off the heat. Stir in the lime zest.

Place marmalade in a jar or a covered bowl in the fridge until ready to use. Makes about one pint.
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I served it on top of simple sautéed pork chops that had been marinated in a bit of soy and crushed garlic for a couple of hours. On the side, I made a bulghur salad with asparagus, red and yellow tomatoes and a green cayenne pepper from our garden, scallions, mint, lime juice, cumin, goat cheese, and olive oil.

In hindsight, polenta might have worked better with the pork chop, but I thought the combination of hot pork chops and hot corn mush might be too much for this humid weather. Mr Minx thought it the cold salad was fine, so what do I know?

Chicken with Fennel

During our weekly trip to the grocery store, I picked up a couple of bulbs of fennel because it looked nice. Come Sunday, I had no idea what to do with it, but I thought maybe I'd use it with chicken. There were some Chinese sausages in the freezer; that also sounded good with chicken, but then I couldn't reconcile the sausage with the fennel. It might have worked, who knows? But then Mr Minx mentioned "preserved lemon" which inspired me to make something Moroccan-ish.

Not pretty, but pretty tasty. I've never before eaten fennel that has been cooked for such a long time - it was succulent, slightly sweet, absolutely wonderful. The chicken was tender and the spice mixture added a nice sharp bite, as did the tang of the lemon.

I would imagine that this would work with regular lemon as well, just make sure to slice it very thinly and put it in the oven with the fennel and onion at the start of cooking time, so it will get tender.

Chicken with Fennel and Preserved Lemon

olive oil
2 fennel bulbs, sliced crosswise
1 small onion, halved and sliced
handful of sliced mushrooms (optional)

1 preserved lemon, halved, seeds removed, and sliced
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 T Ras el Hanout (recipe follows)
salt and pepper to taste

sliced almonds, toasted (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Drizzle the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan with olive oil. Add fennel and onion to pan, top with mushrooms and drizzle with more oil. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove pan from the oven and stir the vegetables. Top fennel with chicken pieces. Sprinkle half of the Ras el Hanout on one side of chicken, turn chicken and sprinkle the other side with the remainder of the spice mixture. Scatter preserved lemon on top. Turn oven temperature down to 350F and place the pan back in oven for approximately 45 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are quite tender and limp. There should be quite a bit of juice in the pan - make sure to spoon this over your starch of choice.

Serve with rice or cous cous. Serves 2-6.

Ras el Hanout

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
I teaspoon turmeic
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix all spices together well and store in a covered container.

Mini Pork Roulades with Spicy Maple Mustard Glaze

What to do with a couple of thinly cut boneless pork chops? Make a roulade! Sounds fancy, but it's really pretty simple.

A stuffing was made with a sauté of finely chopped carrot, celery, mushrooms, onion, and fennel, a few pieces of not-quite-stale wheat bread torn into chunks, and a few spoonfuls of stock. The meat got pounded to an even thinner state with my trusty mallet, the surface covered with chilled stuffing, and the whole thing was rolled up and secured with toothpicks. They were then seared in a non-stick skillet with a bit of olive oil.

After about 10 minutes of cooking on medium-high heat, turning them a few times to make sure they were done all the way through, I added a glaze made from 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, and a heaping teaspoon of sambal oelek. As the sauce bubbled and thickened, I mounted it with a tablespoon of butter.

The salad on the side is simply thinly sliced raw fennel, Granny Smith apple, the juice of one lemon, salt, a bit of sugar, and a sprinkle of fennel seeds.

I always worry about the end result when I get experimental like this, but I'm happy to say that all of the flavors and textures worked well together. The stuffing was rich, the sauce was sweet but not too, and the tang and crunch of the salad was a nice counterpoint.