Homemade Orecchiette with an Onion Sherry Sauce & Herbs

*So I saved this image 4 times with 4 different rotations. No matter how I saved the file, it would not upload the photo properly. It always put the rosemary sprig to the right. Never facing up. Very odd. So that's why the pic is a little cockamamie.**

This dish is my paean to the Onion. Onions are one of the most obvious and available vegetables around. Cheap too. Usually they are used as the starting point for sauces or an addition to a marinade or the supporting role in a mirepoix. I discovered the magic of slow-cooked onions one Christmas when I decided I was going to make French Onion Soup. I dug through a slew of recipes and decided to meld 2 of them. One recipe called for cooking just the onions and butter for an hour. It was an old cookbook and had never thought to cook an onion for that long but I gave it a try. After 45 minutes of watching these onions go from eye-tearing white to a luscious caramel color I was hooked. They become so sweet and that raw intense onion flavor becomes nuanced. Cook onions this way and you will never forget the taste.

Orecchiette was the first pasta I ever made by hand. It was pretty rustic looking but fun to make and the name always struck me: “little ears”. Bill Buford writes about this pasta in “Heat” when he was chronicling the adventures at Mario Batali’s Babbo and I know it has a much more storied past than that. Mixing the dough, rolling it into ‘ropes’ and making the orecchiette only took about 45 minutes and I made this work with the recipe because the onions take a long low and slow cooking.
You don’t need any fancy machines or tools for this pasta which is another reason I like it so much. Plus, the ‘little ears’ cradle the perfect amount of sauce.


Orecchiette

½ Cup warm water
¾ Teaspoon Sea Salt
1 ¼ Cups Semolina Flour
1. Stir together water and sea salt in a bowl until salt has dissolved. 2. Form a well with the semolina and slowly add the water. Incorporate the water with the flour using a fork. Add more water as needed. Once all the water is included you should have an elastic dough ready to knead. 3. Cut half the dough and roll it into 2 ropes. Slice these into quarter-inch thick pieces. 4. Flour your hands and press your thumb down into the center of the pasta. Make one circular rotation pressing lightly on the pasta. That should be enough to form a ‘little ear.’ If you are difficulty on a counter top, place the pasta in the palm of your hand and use your other hand to shape. Continue until all your pasta is made.

Onion Sherry Sauce

2 Onions
3 Tbls Butter
½ Cup Sherry
¼ Cup Chx Broth
1 Tspn chopped, fresh Thyme
1 Small Sprig of Rosemary, chopped fine
Salt & White pepper*

1. Halve the onion then slice it in long, thin strands.
2. Add to a large skillet with the butter. Put the flame on low. Cover for fifteen minutes. Uncover and continue to cook for 25 minutes on low heat. The onions should be soft and browning.
3. While the onions are cooking, in a separate pot pour in all the liquid and reduce by half. Add a bay leaf if you like.
4. Add the thyme and rosemary to the onions along with a few pinches of salt and pepper. Add half the sherry/broth mixture. Stir. Let the liquid reduce slightly and add the rest of the mixture.

Finish
1. Bring salted water to a boil. Add orecchiette. Cook until al dente. This usually takes about 4-5 minutes because of the hard semolina flour. Taste one before you strain.
2. Once strained add the orecchiette to the Onion Sherry sauce. Coat well and serve. Sprinkle with some extra diced herbs

Salamagundi or Pirate Stew

I have an obsession with pirates. So when I was down in Key West recently, and had the chance to visit Pat Croce’s Pirate Museum, I jumped all over it. For anyone remotely interested in pirates this is the spot. They house the only pirate treasure chest that was filled with treasure in salvaged existence. They also have one of two pirate flags known to exist in the world.


The Museum also has a recipe for ‘Salamagundi’; the last meal ‘Black Bart’ Roberts ate the day he was fatally shot in battle against the British Royal Navy and a common dish aboard a pirate ship.


As you may have guessed “cuisine” on any sea faring ship was not gourmet. However, this dish is similar to Beef Burgundy in the sense that it’s a long braise with a wine-centric marinade and vegetables. Its also a perfect winter stew.
The original recipe I found calls for turtle, fish, chicken, pig, cow, duck and pigeon. The marinade consists of spiced wine, herbs, palm hearts, garlic and oil and is to be accompanied with hard-boiled eggs, anchovies, pickled onions, cabbage, grapes and olives.
Unless your on Grand Cayman, you cannot eat turtle meat. Everything else is pretty easy to find, for “pigeon” use squab. I didn’t but you can.
Just a heads up, this dish from start to finish takes 4 hours.

1lbs “Beef for Stew” aka brisket or rump
2 Duck Legs (Save the breast meat for another use)
3 Chicken Thighs
¼ Lbs Codfish Cheeks*
Vegetable oil
1 Onion, chopped
1 Cup each of chopped Carrots & Celery
6 Radishes, cubed in half or quarters
5 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 Tbls Clove
5 Sprigs of Thyme
1 Sprig Rosemary
1 Tbls Peppercorns
1 Bottle of Red cooking wine
1 Quart Beef Stock
1 Cup Chx Broth
½ Can of Hearts of Palm
1 Tspn Cinnamon

Accompaniments: Crusty bread for soaking up the stew

That’s a laundary list of ingredients. Ready, set, GO:
1. In a 4-5 gallon pot brown all the meat (chicken and duck first then the beef). If you start to notice the bottom getting dark brown lower the heat.
2. Take out all the meat and reserve. Throw in all the chopped fresh veggies; onion, celerey, carrots, diced radishes. Brown in the same oil that you just browned all the meat in. Add more oil if needed. Cook the veggies for 5 minutes on med-low heat. Deglaze the bottom of the pot with 1 cup of beef stock. Scrape up all that browned goodness on the bottom of the pan with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
3. Add all the meat back into the pan except for the chicken. Add the chicken in the last hour of cooking. I will remind you again.
4. Make a boquet garni with cheese cloth: add the clove, thyme, rosemary, peppercorn. Drop it into the pan. Also, add the 1 tspn of cinnamon
5. Pour in all the remaining broth, stock and wine. Make sure all the meat is covered by the liquid. If it’s not add more wine or stock to cover.
6. Braise for 2 hours on low heat. There should be the slightest of simmers going on in that pot. After the 2 hours add the chicken and hearts of palm. Cook for 45 more minutes then add the cheeks/fish. Cook for 15 more minutes and serve with a crusty piece of bread for soaking up all that good stew.

This should yield about 3 quarts of stew. Freeze some and eat the rest.

*Codfish cheeks are hard to find. I had frozen them from a time when I was going to make a bouilliabase. I ended up not making that when I was supposed to and had these leftover codfish cheeks. The cheeks cook in less than 2 minutes and are very mild. If you can’t find the cheeks use a very mild-tasting fish; halibut, mahi-mahi

Red & White Wine Jams

There are sometimes when a bottle or bottles of wine are not finished in my apartment. This is rare, but after a big party there tends to be a few bottles of red left over that no one drinks and would otherwise go bad. I usually freeze the wine and use it for cooking in some vague future. That stockpile of frozen wine has built up. Thus these wine jams.

Wine and cheese, butter and popcorn, lamb and rosemary…these are a few of the iconic examples of ‘flavor pairings’; spices, libations or food combinations that enhance each other dramatically. You can pair almost any cheese with any kind of fruit preserve and its good! These jams just make it better.

Sauvignon Blanc, Chamomile & Pear Jam

Yield: 12 ozs.

5 Bosc Pears
1 ½ Bottles of White Wine (Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Riesling)
½ Tbls Whole Coriander Seeds*
1 Tbls Whole Cardamom Pods
½ Vanilla Pod
½ Cup of Sugar
2 small Bay Leaves
1 Tbls Loose Chamomile Tea

1. Peel Pears and core. Coarsely chop and put into a small empty boiling pot.
2. Pour in the wine/s (you can use a blend of these 3 wines or just one varietal. I only used sauvignon blanc and it turned out great.). Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape the interior. Add the pod and scrapings into the wine and pears. Now put the stove on medium heat.
3. Shell the cardamom pods and crush the seeds with a mortar and pestle. Reserve.
4. Bouquet Garni: In a cheesecloth combine chamomile, bay leaves and cardamom pods. Secure the bouquet garni and add to the wine and pears.
5. Add the whole coriander plus the crushed cardamom seeds. Crank up the heat. Reduce by half.
6. After the pear/wine mixture is reduced by half, add ½ cup of sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon. At this point you should taste the jam. It maybe too tart, add more sugar. If you find that too much liquid is left in the pot AFTER you have added the sugar, reduce further. Add more sugar until the sweetness you desire is reached.
7. Chill and place in a jar

*I left the coriander seeds whole because once they cook for so long they soften up. Biting into a softened coriander seed with the pears is delicious. Plus it looks good in the jam. If it’s not your idea of ‘good’ then just grind it up in a mortar and pestle.

Pair this jam with a sheep’s milk Parmesan, Manchego or Gouda. Works well with roasted pork, Seared Wild Striped Bass or Black Cod or simply on toast in the morning.



Zinfandel, Herbs de Provence & Mixed berry Jam

Yield: 1 Quart
Time: 45 minutes-1 Hour

1 ½ Bottles of Zinfandel or Primitivo
½ Bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon
4 Containers of Blueberries*
2 Containers of Blackberries
½ Container of Raspberries
3 Tbls Herbs de Provence
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cinnamon Stick
4 Cloves
½ Tbls Allspice
2 bay leaves

1. Rinse all the berries and place into a 5-quart pot
2. Pour the wine into the pot. Turn the flame up to med-high heat.
3. Bouquet garni: Cinnamon. Cloves and bay leaves. Drop this into the simmering wine and berries. Add the Herbs de Provence.
4. Crank up the heat and reduce by half. Add sugar. If the mixture is still loose cook down further and stir with a rubber spatula keeping an eye on the heat. Do not allow the bottom to burn.
5. At this stage taste the mixture. If it is too tart, add more sugar. Remove the bouquet garni.
6. Chill and jar.

*Blueberries have pectin in them which is a natural gelatin. However, I used one Tbls of Knox dissolved in warm water and added it to the mixture before I chilled it.

Pair this with a Chicken liver pate or your turkey leftovers or cheese or toast or…you get the idea.

Chicken Liver Paté

My first experience with chicken liver pate was at the French Culinary Institute. A classmate of mine, Long Xiong was sautéing a ton of these nasty looking organs, and in a separate pot he was boiling all manner of trees and leaves. It was all chucked into a food processor and pureed. He spread it on toast points and I was reluctant to eat it, which usually isn’t my M.O., but I did and it was one of those tastes I’ll never forget.

A year and a half later, on Thanksgiving Day 2008 I tried to replicate Long’s pate. It was different but still lip-smackin’ good. It’s perfect with toast points and wine jam!

Ingredients

1 Quart Chicken Livers
2 Branches Rosemary
6 Branches of Thyme
6 Sage Leaves
2 Bay Leaves
1 Pint Heavy Cream
½ Large Yellow Onion, chopped fine
1 Cup Sherry or Port Wine
Salt & Pepper

Yield: ½ Qt. of Pate

Procedure:

1. Pour the cream, bay leaves and herbs into a boiling pot. Reduce by half on high heat.
2. While the cream is reducing, heat up some vegetable oil in a skillet until the surface is rippling. Sauté the chicken livers on med-high heat until the bottom side caramelizes (appx 5 minutes or less) flip and brown. Once both sides are browned, remove the chx livers from the sauté pan, lower the heat and add the chopped onions. Sprinkle with salt and sauté. Once the onions begin to brown, pour off any excess fat and deglaze with the sherry or port wine. Reduce by half on high heat.
3. In a large food processor, add chx livers, onion/sherry reduction, ¼ small teaspoon of salt and pepper. Pour in the reduced cream. Puree for 1 minute. Taste and adjust.
4. Set in chilled ramekins and place in the refrigerator for an hour.

Pan-Seared Chicken with Rutabaga Puree, Bacon & Diced Scallions paired with Cisco Breweries ‘Pumple Drumkin’ Spiced Ale

The Rutabaga. It’s gnarly looking and huge; bigger than the most feared pirate ever to sail the seas. Plus it’s really fun to say “Roo-tuh-bay-guh”. Root Vegetables are one of my favorite foods and an inside joke with my girlfriend and one of her best friends Meghan…I got shellacked on my birthday and came home ranting and raving about “Roo-OOT VEH-JUH-tuh-BullS” which I used to make a ravioli stuffing for culinary school on a previous night. I then, drunkenly started cooking under the watchful eye of my very concerned lady and demanded that everyone eat the ravioli stuffing. “No” was not an option. Anyways, I had never seen a rutabaga until recently at the Union Square Farmers Market. I had to have the biggest one and figure out what to do with it later.

When a chef doesn’t know what to do with something he or she usually puree’s it or it ends up in your Sunday brunch frittata as Anthony Bourdain points out in ‘Kitchen Confidential’.

Rutabaga pureed is like a smoother, richer mashed potato. However, it can have that bitter turnipy taste. To dull that bitterness down add a peeled potato (Big-ups to Sharlene for that trick), then either give the potato to the dog or chuck it out. It’s a worthwhile sacrifice. I am now a Rutabaga convert and found my enthusiasm is shared by such seemingly insane organizations as: The Advanced Rutabaga Studies Institute & The Mangold Hurling Association who has been known to use Rutabaga’s for their competitions.

Beer pairings are popular right now and with the ever-growing number of microbreweries there are many selections available to you in a myriad of flavors. During the fall and winter pumpkin ales abound in the supermarkets. One you won’t be able to find (unless you’re in Nantucket) is the ‘Pumple Drumkin’. It is a super tasty spiced ale with few equivalents. Dogfish Head’s Pumpkin Ale is fantastic and could be substituted with this dish. Cisco Brewers make the usual styles of beer in an unusually delicious manner. The brew master, Jeff, is top notch and I urge anyone who enjoys microbreweries to check this one out. It is worth the traveling time.


Ingredients:

Chicken
½ a Chicken, skin on (for one dish)
Salt & Pepper
Vegetable Oil

Rutabaga Puree (Yield: enough for 4 dishes)

1 Large Rutabaga
1/8 Tspn Nutmeg
1 Tspn Cinnamon
¼ Tspn Allspice
Salt
2 Tbls Salted Butter
1 Potato

Garnish
2 Strips of bacon per dish
1 Bunch of Scallions

Rutabaga Stock*
Coriander
Black peppercorns
2 bay leaves

Procedure:

1. Cut off all the skin of the Rutabaga. Also, you should notice a white layer of flesh that is between the flesh and the skin about an 1/8 of an inch thick, cut that out too. Cut the rutabaga into cubes and place them in a 5 Quart pot filled ¾ of the way with water. Peel a potato and cut it in half. Add that into the water with Coriander Seeds, Whole Pepper corns and 2 Bay leaves. Bring to a simmer until the rutabaga can be easily pierced with a knife. Remove the rutabaga but keep the water simmering. Discard the potato. Reduce the rutabaga stock by half, strain and freeze for later use.
2. Remove the cooked rutabaga and place in a large food processor. Add spices. I used more nutmeg than an eighth of a teaspoon but season it according to the way it tastes good to you…which means, “taste and adjust”. Keep warm.
3. Dice up the scallions on a bias and start cooking the bacon.
4. While the Rutabaga is cooking, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add veg oil to a large sauté pan and put on med-high heat. When the oil is rippling and searing hot, add the chicken, skin side down to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes and check to see how golden brown the skin is, if it doesn’t look crispy delicious, then keep it cooking on that side. (Check the bacon.) Once the chicken is golden, flip it and cook for a minute and a half. Take the chicken out of the pan and let rest.
5. Spoon the Rutabaga puree onto a plate. Slice the chicken between the drumstick at the joint and plate. Garnish with bacon and scallions.
6. Drink with the ‘Pumple Drumkin’

*The Rutabaga stock is so sweet and delicious that it should not be thrown away. Use it for a chicken soup or Miso soup.

The Hybrid Hangover Remedy; The Bloody Oren

Ahh tomatoes. An American icon and blessedly good to eat. The tomato is one more reason to love the summer. Red, luscious and lusty, Tomatoes are loaded with Lycopene . A powerful antioxidant. Tomatoes turn quickly, especially if you keep them in the refrigerator. They are a warm weather fruit and the coolness of the fridge expedites deterioration so keep them on the window sill or chill just before using. Bloody Mary mix is easy to make and its delicious without the booze. Its great in the morning whether you're fighting off the effects of a long night celebrating or simply as a wake-up jolt brought to you (in this recipe) by the zing of Sriracha and the twang from umeboshi's.

The Bloody Oren, named after Oren Ishii from 'Kill Bill', uses japanese pickled plums and the plum vinegar. Robbie Swinnerton boasts that umeboshi's are the culinary equivalent of taking a cold shower. "The abrupt, searingly tart, tangy salty taste jolts the eyes open, shakes the stomach awake, sandpapers off any staleness from the taste buds, and gets the day off to an unforgettable start." The umeboshi's "powerful acidity has an alkalinizing effect on the body, neutralizing fatigue, stimulating digestion an promoting the elimination of toxins. In addition, umeboshi is said to help the liver process excess alcohol and be an antidote for food poisoning" (1). I have tested out the hangover claim and I have to say its damn good. Comprable to the "Hair of the Dog" method.

2 Large Jersey or Beefsteak Tomatoes
1 Cup Water
2 Umeboshi
1 Tbls Umeboshi Vinegar
1/2 Tspn Sriracha
1/4 Tspn Celery Salt
4 Celery Stalks, skinned
1/2 Tbls Worstechire
3 Tbls Lemon Juice
2 Scallions

1. After you've skinned the celery and trimmed the scallions put the tomatoes, umeboshi, celery and scallions into a food processor. Puree. Strain that through a fine mesh sieve. Reserve 4 Tbls of the tomato/scallion/ume mixture.
2. Add the remaining ingredients plus the 4 Tbls of reserved puree into the mixture and shake.

Tomato-Blueberry Bruschetta & Carrot Miso Canapes

The two titans of the summer season; blueberries and tomatoes are in abundance at all the farmers markets right now. I wanted to make some bruschettas for a party I was having and did not want to do the usual tomato, garlic, onion thing. Blueberries were close by and I was up in Maine a few weeks ago, tasted the first of the season on a hiking trail, and decided to roll with it. The combination was delicious. Garlic and blueberries though? First I blanched a bulb of garlic. Then I roasted the hell out of it, used three cloves and saved the rest. It was the right balance. The Fleur de Sel lends a subtle enhancement to the herbs de provence.

Tomato-Blueberry Bruschetta

1 Baguette
2 Tomatoes
1 Pint Blueberries
Juice of 1 lemon
3 Garlic Cloves, Roasted
Fleur de Sel
Herbs de Provence
Extra Virgin Olive oil

1. Slice the baguette into thin slices. In a small bowl, mix ½ cup olive oil and a few generous pinches of the herbs de province together. Lay bread slices on a cookie sheet. With a cooking brush or spoon, drizzle the mixture over the toast points evenly. Toast in the oven until golden brown. Allow them to cool on the side.
2. Wrap up the 2 cloves of garlic into aluminum foil, sprinkle with olive oil and roast at 500F for 10-15 minutes.
3. Dice up the tomato into small cubes. Drain excess water.
4. Halve or coarsely chop (depending on time and how fancy you want the bruschetta to look) the blueberries.
5. When the garlic is finished, puree it with the lemon and some olive oil.
6. Mix all the ingredients together except for the Fleur de Sel and spread on the toast points. Sprinkle salt onto the bruschetta.


Carrot Miso Canapés with Diced Scallions

I recently went to a David Chang chef demonstration at FCI. The kitchen at Ko was painted as a chef’s dream where new flavors are created using a myriad of techniques spanning Asian, Spanish and French cuisine. He’s not too far off the mark given the uber-positive reviews of culinary heavyweights like Ruth Reichl. One of the flavor combinations Chang’s team uses at Ko for vegetables is an equal mixture of sherry vinegar, miso and butter. It’s one of those tastes that when you taste it is branded into your gustatory memory. The combination is simple and brilliant. For canapés though it is too strong. So to dilute the intensity of the flavors I added a pureed carrot and almond milk. It makes a great spread for anything. Even as a sauce for pasta.

1 Tbls Butter
1 Tbls Sherry Vinegar
1 Tbls Miso
1 Large Carrot or 2 small thin ones
3 Tbls Almond Milk
Scallions
Baguette

1. Bring water to a boil. Peel and trim the carrot. Boil until soft.
2. Slice baguette and toast. Reserve and set aside.
3. Dice the scallions thinly and on a bias.
4. Heat up butter and Miso. Whisk together. Once melted and combined whisk in sherry vinegar.
5. In a food processor add all the ingredients except for the baguette and scallions. Puree.
6. Spread the mixture on the toasted slices and garnish with the scallions.