Celery Root Hash with Andouille

Sometimes one has to make do with what one has. And sometimes it's not all that much.

Usually I plan weekend dinners a couple of days in advance. Until the time comes that I don't. Sometimes I get so busy, things get away from me, you know? And it's usually those times that I open the fridge and find....nothing. Or in this case, one celery root and two andouille-style chicken sausages. 

I love celery root, but usually eat it raw, shredded into a nice remoulade sauce, or mashed with potatoes. Bo-ring. I wanted to do something different with it, and the andouille sausage prompted me to make something with a New Orleans bent. Down there, the flavors of celery + bell peppers + onion = the Trinity. I had something celery flavored in the celery root, so I needed the onion and pepper part. We didn't have any fresh bell peppers, nor did we even have a jar of roasted red peppers hanging around. What we did have was a big jar of pickled peppers.

At this point, I had decided to make a hash with the celery root and andouille and some onion, but those peppers wouldn't work there. Instead, I decided to make a ketchup of sorts with a bit of tomato paste, to add a bit of bright acid to the dish. And of course hash needs a poached egg!

Celery Root and Andouille Hash with Red Pepper Ketchup

For the ketchup:
Pickled sweet red peppers
Tomato Paste
Salt
Sriracha

For the hash:
2 tablespoons bacon fat or olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1 medium celery root, peeled and diced
1 potato, peeled and diced
2 links andouille sausage, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

To make the ketchup: Place the equivalent of a whole pepper into the bowl of a food processor or mini prep. Add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and puree. Taste for seasoning and add salt. Add a generous squirt of sriracha too, to spice it up a bit. Remove to a covered container and refrigerate until ready to use.

To make hash: Heat bacon fat or oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion, celery root, and potato and stir to coat all of the vegetables with the fat. Turn heat down to medium low, cover the pan, and cook until vegetables are browned and tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Add sausage and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Serve topped with a soft-boiled or poached egg, a sprinkle of chopped scallions or parsley, and some of the ketchup on the side.

Serves 4.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Savory Oatmeal

I have never been a big fan of oatmeal. The snotty, somewhat gelatinous texture always turned me off. Fortunately, my mother never liked it, either, so she didn't force us kids to eat it. In fact, Cream of Wheat ruled in our house, at least until I hit school age. Because I usually had a hard time waking up in the morning, instant oatmeal was occasionally called into play to get me fed and out the door, pronto. (We tried instant Cream of Wheat, too, but that was like eating sawdust soaked in hot water. Truly horrible stuff. My mind can still conjure up the malevolent taste of the apple cinnamon flavor.)

I managed to go decades without ever touching oatmeal again, but when the spectre of high cholesterol loomed, I thought I'd give the stuff another chance. Mr Minx was also of the yay Cream of Wheat/nay oatmeal way of thinking, but he was willing to give it a try as well.

The snotty texture of oatmeal is due to the whole boiling and stirring technique of cooking. With those two elements eliminated, the stuff is actually quite palatable. Turns out, oatmeal just needs to rehydrate, and that can be done quite efficiently with the heat off. Just bring water to a boil, turn off the heat, and stir in the oats. Allow them to rest for 10 or 15 minutes and they will absorb all of the water without getting slimy.

I first tried savory oatmeal at Blue Grass Tavern. It was served as an accompaniment to a sausage-stuffed quail topped with a poached egg and hot sauce. A riff on breakfast, if you will. I liked it, but wasn't sure if I should try it at home. But I realized I was getting tired of the usual weekend breakfast of either oatmeal with Nutella or oatmeal with maple syrup. Out went the sweet stuff and in went some cheese and hot sauce. The usual pat of butter was replaced with a spoonful of bacon fat. And it was delicious.

Savory Oatmeal

1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon bacon fat or butter
1 heaping tablespoon grated cheese
Sriracha
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Splash milk

Place 1 cup of water in a saucepot and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and stir in oats. Cover pot and walk away for about 10 minutes. If the oats haven't absorbed all the water after that time, give them another few minutes.

While oats are "cooking," place bacon fat or butter and cheese in a bowl. Top with hot oats and stir well. Season with sriracha, salt, and pepper to taste, and add a bit of milk to the bowl to loosen the texture a bit.

Serves 1










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Saigon Remembered

We were going to spend the day in Fells Point, but my allergies were kicking my ass so much, I couldn't walk and breathe at the same time. And there's lots of walking to be done in Fells Point. So we stayed home. I scrounged around the medicine cabinet and found a decade-old Sudafed, which I popped while cursing the fact that the stuff is hard to get a hold of these days. Fkn meth addicts. Eventually I was able to breathe well enough to walk from the parking lot to a restaurant, so we discussed where we should go for dinner. Not to Fells Point, since Towson and environs were so much closer. Granted, there's not as much choice for good grub in the 'burbs, but we do ok.

One restaurant we hadn't been to in ages had moved to a new location a couple years back, so it seemed like a good idea to revisit the place. Saigon Remembered, once across the street from the Senator Theater, is now in a shopping center on Cranbrook Road in Cockeysville. The new digs are smaller and prettier, simple and elegant with light colors and white tablecloths. The menu seemed less voluminous than in the past. I once found it a bit intimidating, but now it was easy to navigate.

I knew right away that I wanted their grape leaves appetizer. Absolutely nothing like the familiar Mediterranean preparation stuffed with rice and sauced with lemon, the Vietnamese version is stuffed with tender marinated beef before being skewered and grilled. While not as charred as the ones I've eaten at Saigon Remembered in the past, these were still delicious, especially when dipped in the little ramekin of nuoc cham. Nuoc cham is the ubiquitous dipping sauce of Vietnam, made with fish sauce, garlic, sugar, and rice vinegar and/or lime juice. It's savory, sweet, and tangy all at the same time and perfect with pretty much everything on the table.

That include the rolls that we also ordered. Saigon Remembered has a large selection of the soft rice paper-wrapped rolls that are sometimes called summer rolls. They are typically filled with vermicelli noodles, herbs, and a protein or two. We chose grilled shrimp for ours, and I must say I was a bit disappointed. While Mr Minx seems to have received a whole shrimp in his roll, mine was mostly noodles. For $7.50, I expect a bit more, especially since I can make these at home fairly easily.

We also tried the papaya salad, which was quite different from the spicy and sour Thai version we are used to. At Saigon remembered, the shredded green papaya has a sweet, but not spicy, dressing, and includes a generous amount of both medium shrimp and bits of pork, plus the unexpected addition of Thai basil. The accompanying dish of nuoc cham and giant fried shrimp chips added punches of extra flavor and crunch.

After we polished of our appetizers, we headed on to entrees. I ordered the golden crepe, which I had never had before. It was huge and resembled a giant omelette. The crepe itself was light and crisp, embedded with bits of shrimp and onion and filled with a plethora of bean sprouts. The filling was a bit bland, but livened up when I added the nuoc cham, pickled carrot and daikon, and Thai basil on the side.

Mr Minx went for the chicken in a clay pot. The chicken and black mushrooms over a layer of steamed rice were bathed in a rather pungent and savory ginger sauce, without a hint of the sweetness we're used to in Vietnamese food (keep in mind we've never been to Vietnam!). I'm not sure how I felt about the dish, but Mr Minx seemed to like it quite a bit.

I remember being disappointed when Saigon Remembered closed its doors a few years back, mostly because of the terrible loss of those beef-stuffed grape leaves. But now I can rest assured I can have them any time I want, along with a plethora of other Vietnamese dishes. Next time: pho.




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Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers

We have a ton of stuff on our freezer. Other than ice cream, I mean. There are several quarts of gumbo from Cajun Kate's, leftover pork shoulder from that 8-lb behemoth I cooked last month, half a roast duck from the Great Wall grocery store in Catonsville, a leg of lamb, pasta sauce, various types of sausages (chorizo, andouille, lap cheong, hot dogs), ground beef, a skirt steak, bags of nuts, yeast, coffee, and bread, and more. And this is one of those standard above-the-fridge freezer jobbies, not a big ol' chest freezer. (So don't believe me when I say we have nothing in the house to eat. What I really mean is that there's nothing that I feel like defrosting and cooking.)

There was a pound of ground chicken in there too. I can't remember why we bought it exactly, maybe to make some laab, but there it was, looking slightly freezer-burned, buried under a pile of other foodstuffs. I determined that if it was not indeed funky with freezer burn, I'd make chicken burgers with it. And not just chicken burgers, but Thai red curry chicken burgers. We had two open jars of Thai Kitchen red curry paste in the fridge, and I've been looking for a way to use the stuff up. We also had a partial jar of  Maesri "chilli paste with basil leaves" and a jar of sliced Kaffir lime leaves. I love that chilli paste stuff and have used it in a number of things over the years. As for the lime leaves--have you noticed how difficult they are to find in the supermarket? And when you do find them, you have to use them right away or they'll go bad? Then I found sliced ones in a jar at H-Mart. They're not quite as powerfully-flavored as fresh, but they'll do in a pinch. And I think their flavor is an essential match to red curry paste.

So...back to the burgers. Ground chicken can often be unpalatably dry, so I always add some chia seeds soaked in water to add moisture. The omega-3 boost doesn't hurt, either. The curry paste also helps to make the meat moist. In fact, the raw mixture will be very moist, so don't be anal about trying to get perfectly round patties. Refrigerate them for a while before cooking so the flavors meld and the patties firm up a bit.

These were a big hit. The burgers were not only moist, but also super flavorful. We ate them both on bread and as-is with a salad, using the special sauce as dressing.

Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers

2 teaspoons chia seeds soaked in 1 tablespoon water
1 lb ground chicken
1 tablespoon coconut milk powder
4 teaspoons Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste
2 teaspoons finely minced Kaffir lime leaves
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to incorporate the chia and curry paste. Form into patties, between 4-8, depending on the size of your rolls, number of guests, or appetite. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour so the flavors will meld.

Heat canola oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. When hot, add the chicken patties. Cook for 4 minutes on the first side, then flip and cook an additional 3 minutes.

Serve with Special Sauce.

Special Sauce

3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Maesri Thai chilli sauce with basil
1/2 roasted red bell pepper, diced
2 scallions, white and green part, chopped

Combine all ingredients. Serve with Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers.










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