Thawing Frozen Meat Faster

This is news we can use. How to speed up the process of thawing frozen meat. I have wondered if this was a safe way to thaw meat. Now someone has done the experiments and figured out that, yes, this works and you won't give yourself food poisoning in the process. I have often used cool tap water. This was the recommended method for thawing that I learned in culinary school. But, obviously, things go quicker if you thaw the meat in hotter water. Cool water thawed steaks in 20 minutes. Somewhat hot water thawed them in 11 minutes. As comparison, it took 18-20 hours to thaw similar steaks in the refrigerator. You won't achieve these quick thaw times in your kitchen unless you have an immersion circulator that keeps the water temperature consistently hot (Look Ronnie! Another use for David's immersion circulator!) but even starting with 125 degree F water will speed things up.

One caveat: this method has only been tested in fairly thin cuts like chicken breasts and 1" steaks. The testing hasn't been done on large roasts so isn't recommended for big cuts.

You can read the whole article in the New York Times: A Hot-Water Bath for Thawing Meats

Really easy basic broccoli

I have been making this very tasty and easy broccoli recipe for years. I made it recently at my brother-in-law's house. My sister-in-law's niece said it was the best broccoli she's ever eaten and insisted on the recipe. I hesitate to call it a recipe because it is so simple. I imagine she isn't the only person who would love an easy week-night vegetable dish. In my house, 2 heads of broccoli feeds 4 people. Your broccoli mileage may vary. We love broccoli.

Simple Garlic Broccoli
(serves 4)

4 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
2 heads of broccoli, broken into florets and stems peeled and cut into slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp salt, or more to taste

Heat 1 Tbl olive oil in a large skillet with a cover over medium heat.

Add garlic and saute until fragrant but not browned.

Add broccoli and toss to cover with oil. Add 2 tbl water,  which should immediately create a lot of steam. Cover and steam broccoli for 5 minutes, until crisp-tender. I like my broccoli not too crunchy and not too soft which takes about 6-7 minutes in high altitude Boulder. 5 minutes is about right at sea-level.

Remove the cover, turn up the heat to medium-high and cook another minute to evaporate most of the water.

Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbl olive oil and salt. Serve immediately.

Spinach-Buttermilk Soup with Mini Meatballs

Do you ever buy a quart of buttermilk only to use a couple of cups? What to do with the rest? You can make more pancakes, of course. Here's another way to use up 2-3 cups of buttermilk. It's a rather unusual recipe. I can't recall seeing anything similar anywhere else. It is very tasty and a vibrant shade of green. It gets a nice tang from the buttermilk. This soup also freezes brilliantly. I adapted this recipe from one in Half a Can of Tomato Paste and Other Culinary Dilemmas by Jean Anderson and Ruth Buchan. It's long out of print but you can get a copy used from the usual places. I love the concept of this cookbook - recipes and tips for using up odds and ends of ingredients that languish in your pantry or refrigerator.

Spinach-Buttermilk Soup with Mini Meatballs
(serves 6-8)

Mini Meatballs
½ pound Ground Pork
½ pound Ground Turkey
1 cup Soft Fine Bread Crumbs
1 small Onion, minced
¼ cup Grated Pamesan Cheese, optional
3 Tbsp Anchovy Paste, optional
½ tsp Salt , omit if using Parmesan cheese and/or anchovy paste
⅛ tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 pinch Ground Nutmeg

Spinach-Buttermilk Soup
2 large Onion, peeled and chopped fine
3 Tbsp Butter
2 10-ounce Packages Frozen Spinach, either leaf or chopped
5 ¼ cups Chicken Broth
2-3 cups Buttermilk
⅛ tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 pinch Ground Nutmeg
Salt, to taste

Prepare the meatballs first. Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly then shape into 1" balls. Arrange them in one layer on a sheet pan. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours, or until the meatballs have firmed up.

While the meatballs are chilling, prepare the soup. In a 4 quart saucepan or soup pot, saute the onions in the butter over medium heat until they are nicely browned. Add the frozen spinach, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for about 30 minutes or until the spinach is very soft.

Puree the onion-spinach mixture in a blender with 1 cup of the chicken broth. You can use a food processor but the texture will be smoother if you use a blender. Return the pureed onions and spinach to the saucepan and add the rest of the chicken broth. Cook on the low, covered, while the meatballs chill.

Drop the meatballs into the soup. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, just to maintain a simmer, for 45 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through.

Reduce heat to low, and add buttermilk, pepper, nutmeg, and salt and heat just to serving temperature. Do not boil as the buttermilk may curdle.

Link to PDF of Spinach-Buttermilk Soup with Mini Meatballs

Lamb Espresso

I just read this in the NY Times: "In January, the United States Department of Agriculture released figures showing that domestic lamb production is at an all-time low, down 13 percent over just one year. On the ranch and on the plate, beef cattle are elbowing out sheep by a little more each year. The average American now eats over 60 pounds of beef annually, but consumption of lamb is just over 1 pound per person."

Beef over lamb? Not in my house! My mom loved to cook lamb. I'm not sure how we afforded it, but we ate lamb chops a lot. Maybe it was a lot cheaper back in the 60's and 70's. That's surely why I developed a long-standing love of lamb - early and frequent exposure.

Traditionally, mint jelly is served with lamb. Maybe people don't really like the strong flavor of lamb and mint covers it up. My mother never served mint jelly and I am not a big fan. Everyone in my house liked the flavor of lamb and gobbled it up.

This recipe is from a cookbook called America's Best: A National Community Cookbook. It was published in 1983, and contained recipes from cooks throughout the country with a special emphasis on recipes from ski country. Its sales raised money for US Ski Team. You can get a copy used for next to nothing. In keeping with the ski theme, the recipes are rated Beginner, Intermediate and Expert, just like ski trails (and they use the circle, square and diamond shapes next to each recipe, just like ski trails). I think my mom bought it for me because a) she thought it was an awesome cookbook, and b) I had just learned to ski. And, it is an awesome cookbook with lots of very solid recipes. Lamb Espresso would be the best of the best, in my opinion.

Lamb Espresso
(serves 8)

1 4 pound Leg Of Lamb
3 cloves Garlic
2 tablespoons Dry Mustard
2 tablespoons Ground Ginger
Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 10-ounce Jar Currant Jelly
⅓ cup Tawny Port Wine
½ cup Brewed Espresso Coffee, or very strong regular coffee

Preheat  oven to 350℉.

Cut 3 slits in lamb and insert the garlic cloves.

In a small bowl, combine the mustard, ginger, salt, and pepper and rub this mixture over the lamb. Place the lamb in a roasting pan and bake for 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine the jelly, wine, and the coffee and mix well. Bring to a boil over high heat and stir until the jelly is dissolved. Reserve.

Baste the lamb every 10 minutes with the sauce, until the lamb is the desired internal temperature (about 50 minutes more for medium-rare). Total roasting time is 90 minutes.

Allow lamb to rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Link to PDF of Lamb Espresso recipe

Southwestern Matzoh Ball Soup

Southwestern matzoh balls, jazzed up with some fresh chiles and julienned carrots

It's nearly Passover, friends. Now, being the unobservant Jew that I am, I have not cleaned out every speck of chometz (that would be bread-like products that aren't Kosher for Passover, and believe me, that definition is extremely broad). I did wash the floor today, which is pretty good in my house. I do believe in the restorative power of matzoh ball soup however. And after washing the floors, I need something restorative.

This is quite an old internet recipe, at least in terms of the age of the internet (it is not, however, the oldest one I have, which dates from 1982). This recipe came from rec.food.cooking which was the grand-daddy of internet recipe sites. It was a mishmash of people, with some definite likes and dislikes. Which led to some pretty interesting flaming but also a lot of interesting food.

This recipe is from Susan Hattie Steinsapir who was a frequent contributor to the group. I believe she lived in Southern California and she passed away at some point during the heyday of rec.food.cooking. But, she is not forgotten as I think about this lady I never met every Passover when I pull out her unorthodox version of matzoh ball soup.

Southwestern Matzoh Ball Chicken Soup
(serves 4)

A classic recipe from the days of rec.food.cooking with some enhancements from me. I added the black pepper and cumin. If the jalapeno is not very spicy, I like to add a teaspoon of very finely minced serrano chile or a pinch of ground dried chipotle chiles to spice things up a little. I also use tequila rather than vodka sometimes, for a little Nuevo American twist.

2 tablespoon Oil
2 large Egg
½ cup Matzoh Meal
1 teaspoon Salt
⅛ teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
⅛ teaspoon Ground Cumin
2 tablespoon Finely Minced Onion
1 teaspoon Finely Minced Jalapeno
1 tablespoon Minced Red Pepper
2 tablespoon Tequila or Vodka
6 cups Chicken Broth
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, dill or parsley

Beat oil and eggs together. Add matzoh meal, salt, onion, jalapenos, red pepper and vodka. Stir to blend thoroughly. Refrigerate covered for 15 minutes.

Bring 2 quarts of salted water to a boil. Reduce heat so that water is boiling gently. Drop 1" size matzoh balls (they will swell as they cook) into the water. Cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove and drain. At this point, you can chill the matzoh balls and reheat them in the chicken broth when you want to serve them.

Add the matzoh balls to chicken soup and simmer for 5 minutes (20 minutes, if chilled) before serving.

This recipe can be doubled but only use 3 eggs.

notes: This dish will serve 6 as part of a big Passover meal. By doubling the recipe and thereby decreasing the percentage of eggs, you end up with slightly denser matzoh balls. A single recipe results in very light and fluffy matzoh balls while a double recipe results in somewhat denser matzoh balls. This is based on personal observation making a double and single batch in the same day.

Link to PDF of Southwestern Matzoh Ball Chicken Soup

Pork Green Chile with Farro

One of my daughter's favorite foods is BBQ Pork Shoulder (see my post on North Carolina BBQ). This is not a small chunk of meat. One half of a shoulder runs 6-7 pounds. I try to invite as many people as I can to help us eat it, which isn't terribly hard. But, still, there are usually plenty of leftovers when you cook up a 7 pound hunk of pork. I didn't shred up all the meat last time, so I was left with a chunk of pork. This is where it ended up.

Don't worry about trimming all the fat off the pork as you cut it up. As you brown the pork, it will render out and add great flavor to the dish.

Depending on where you live, finding the frozen green chiles may be difficult. If you can't find them, you can substitute roasted fresh chiles, like Anahiems or Poblanos. I would not use the canned ones; they don't have the right flavor. And this dish really does depend on the flavor of the chiles.

Farro is an old Italian grain, a relative of spelt. It's showing up in more places these days. I got a bag of it at my local CostCo. One clear advantage of farro is that it cooks up quickly, in just 15 minutes. It has an appealing chewy texture and it doesn't get gummy like brown rice. It's an excellent addition to the whole grain shelf. Rice would certainly be a more traditional choice with green chile but I so love the chewiness of farro that I used it instead.

Pork Green Chile with Farro
(4 servings)

1 tbl Vegetable Oil
3⁄4 pound Leftover Cooked Pork Shoulder, diced
1⁄2 medium Onion, finely chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 tsp Ground Cumin
2 tsp Flour
12 ounces Frozen Diced Green Chiles, mild or medium, depending on your heat preference, thawed
1 1⁄2 cups Water
1⁄2 cup Frozen Corn Kernels
1⁄2 cup Frozen Peas
1 cup Frozen Green Beans
2 tsp Kosher Salt, or to taste
1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 cup Farro

Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Saute pork in oil until browned. Remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon and reserve.

And onions and garlic to pot and saute until onion is translucent. Add cumin and flour. Cook for another minute. Add green chiles and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer.

While the chile is cooking, heat 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the farro, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes until the farro is tender, but still chewy.

Once the farro is cooking, add the corn, peas, and green beans to the green chile. Continue simmering while the farro finishes cooking.

Drain the farro after 15 minutes and add to the chile. Add the browned pork, salt and pepper. Cook for another 5 minutes to reheat the pork.

Link to PDF of Pork Green Chile with Farro recipe

Parmesan Cheese - Save those rinds!

Real Parmesan cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano, is expensive stuff. It's a lot cheaper in and around Parma, costing 1/2 what it costs at CostCo, which is the best price I've found in my neighborhood. I would have brought home a whole wheel but that's a heavy hunk of cheese to drag around Italy. And if you are not in Italy, it's not exactly cost effective to jump on a jet.

So, you want to get your money's worth. What? You don't buy real Parmesan cheese? Yes, it is a luxury item but a little bit goes a long way. There's a reason Parmigiano Reggiano is called the King of Cheeses. Its nutty salty flavor is irreplaceable. Though Romano and Grana are worthy cheeses, they are not Parmigiano. American imitations of any of these Italian cheeses are poor imitations, made in vast quantities and sold for next to nothing (relative to the real thing). Don't do it! Buy the real McCoy and use every bit of it.

That means the rinds too. They freeze great; they will last forever in the deep chill. Even if they have dried out in the fridge, keep them. They are fantastic added to soups. Not only do they add great flavor, they are a wonderful textural addition. Every bit of the rind is edible with proper treatment. The rind is just dried-out hard cheese. After long cooking in a soupy environment, the hard cheese turns into this gooey, unctuous deliciousness. The best use of the rinds, then, is immersion is a brothy soup such as a minestrone, or a long-cooking tomato sauce. It does take a while for the cheese to rehydrate so you need to give the cheese enough time to soak up moisture and melt into a tasty goo.

Here's a simple minestrone from the excellent book, Fagioli by Judith Barrett, on beans done the Italian way. Those Parmesan rinds will go to good use here.

Minestrone of Chickpeas (Cicerchie)
(serves 6)

2 cups Chickpeas
1 rib Celery, finely chopped
1 medium Carrot, finely chopped
½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 medium Red Onion, finely chopped
3 Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and cut into a small dice
6 chunks Parmesan Cheese Rind
Salt And Black Pepper
6 Plum Tomatoes (About 1 Pound), cored, seeded, and chopped
15 stems Flat-Leaf Parsley, leaves only, finely chopped
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for garnish

Soak chickpeas in cold water overnight. Drain and discard the soaking water. Rinse under cold water and drain again. Combine the beans with the celery, carrot, and 10 cups of cold water in a heavy 6 quart soup pot over medium-high heat. When the water begins to boil, lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 to 2 hours, until the beans are tender.

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and potatoes and cook, stirring, about 5 minutes; add to the beans. Add the Parmesan rinds. Continue cooking about 30 minutes longer. The beans and the rinds should be quite tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the tomatoes and parsley and cook 5 minutes longer. Serve with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Link to PDF of Minestrone of Chickpeas recipe