A quick tour to Puerto Rico

When I opened the fridge to see what meat I had pulled out of the freezer last night, it turned out that it was ground venison. Extra lean venison. And venison is lean to begin with. Also staring me in the face was a container of olive salad that probably needed to be eaten. What am I going to make with olives and ground LEAN venison?

Turns out a trip to a more sunny place was exactly what I needed, in the form of Empanadas de Picadillo. I think almost every culture has some kind of dough or pastry wrapped around a filling. There's the Chinese shu mai, the Polish pierogies, the Italian stuffed pastas, the French filled pastries, the English have pasties, and the list goes on and on. In Latino counties, one of the best known filled dough is empanadas. I didn't grow up eating picadillo, but I ran into it as soon as I started eating Cuban and Puerto Rican food. This mix of ground meat, olives, raisins, and herbs and spices is a mix of salty, sweet, and briny that has your mouth wondering what flavor is next! Wrap that in a flaky pastry dough and you've got a portable snack that really hits the spot.

I looked up a lot of recipes for picadillo, and found that the ones that appealed to me most were Puerto Rican. They all had ground meat, olives, raisins, and sofrito (onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes) in common, but had a lot of differences in the amounts. No recipe credits today because I looked at so many and kind of made up my own. I went with what I had, and added a few things along the way, starting with adding a minced carrot to the sofrito. So I guess it was a cross between a mirepoix and a sofrito. I also didn't have enough raisins, so I diced up a few dried apricots to make up the difference. After I fried it all up with the venison, it looked like this:

In the background, you can see my notebook with the ingredients for the picadillo and for the pastry dough. The dough was a pretty standard one of flour, butter, water, an egg, and some salt. Combined, kneaded, rested in the fridge, then rolled out and stuffed them. After baking them up, they came out like this:

You can see there were a couple of sizes - the large one was the last of the dough scraps recombined and roughly shaped.

What went well: The filling was flavorful and juicy, and the pastry dough was flaky and crisp.
What could have been better: I'd roll the pastry out thinner and bigger next time. There was not quite enough filling in the smaller ones for the amount of pastry dough.

All in all, a successful trip to the island. Today Walter's smoking a pork shoulder, so that'll be the feature tonight! Now, what side dishes should I make???

And, I'm back!

Hi all! I took the weekend off of the computer, but didn't take off of cooking. The weekend seems to be a leftovers / clean out the fridge kind of day, so I'll jump back to Friday.

Right now, Roman Catholics are celebrating lent. One of the things that means for me is that I don't eat meat on Ash Wednesday, or on Fridays during this time. There's definitely traditional foods that we ate during lent, like Chile con Torta (red chile with fried egg white soaked in it - delish!), tuna patties, and potato pancakes. One thing I don't remember much of was tuna noodle casserole, although I'm sure we ate it sometimes. However, as I looked in my fridge and pantry, that was the winning contender for dinner on Friday - but with a twist!!

As I looked up recipes, the things I found in common are pasta, canned tuna, peas, cheese, a bechamel sauce, and some kind of crunchy topping. I also looked up several recipes for macaroni and cheese, because my feeling is that tuna noodle casserole is basically a mac and cheese with some veggies and protein thrown in to make us all feel better; "look, there's peas! It's got a veggie." What I found on my mac and cheese hunt was a recipe in my "Jamie's Dinners" cookbook (Jamie Oliver, (https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/quick-tomato-macaroni-cheese/) that lost the bechamel sauce, which I thought would make it a little fresher. I did not have most of the ingredients, but since I considered this recipe a solid outline, I moved forward.

Some of you might be wondering how I can use this as an outline if I didn't have most of the ingredients. So, here's a small glimpse of how my mind works when I'm cooking something from an "outline"...

"Hmmm, no fresh mozzarella, or tomatoes, or single cream... What do I have? Well, I have some plain goat's milk yogurt, some gouda and cheddar, and some half and half. Wait, do I see sun-dried tomatoes on the back of that shelf? YES!! Needs a vegetable to lighten it up... OOOOOHHH! Frozen spinach!! Look, there's also some smoked salmon in the fridge - In that goes."

Long story short, I boiled some penne. While that was going on, I combined some diced sun-dried tomatoes, about a cup of yogurt, some grated smoked gouda and sharp cheddar, and flaked the smoked salmon in. Jamie's recipe also had some breadcrumbs on the top. I did not have any bread or breadcrumbs, so I crushed up some green-chile spiced potato chips, and voila!!!

Crunchy topping, nicely browned, bubbling on the outside!! But what was waiting under that amazing looking topping???

Oozy, creamy, smokey loveliness, that's what!! I don't know that I'd change anything as it really did come out pretty much exactly as I envisioned it. As you can see, there's a lovely cocktail sitting right next to the served up casserole. We had vespers and it was quite good. If I had to do the drinks over again, I might go with something less boozy. I think a sparkling wine would be great because it would refresh your palate with every sip.

The next adventure could be something a bit more tame. But since I pulled some things out of the freezer and went grocery shopping today, so who knows??!!

So, yesterday went a different direction than I had planned

Remember yesterday when I said I'd be making citrus chicken if I could find the recipe? I didn't find the recipe. But I already had the chicken thawed, so I took a look in our pantry for ideas. Citrus chicken turned into jerk chicken when I saw we had three (3!!!) jars of jerk paste. Jerk chicken still went with the side I'd planned (more on that later), but I couldn't get the idea of roasted citrus out of my head. I thought it would go with the jerk chicken, and maybe make it brighter. So, to the computer I went!! I found an article about roasting citrus on Epicurious.com (https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-roast-lemons-oranges-grapefruit-recipe-article) which seemed simple enough. So, I started the meal prep.

I'm usually pretty good at planning sides, but sometimes I get caught up in the moment, and forget to plan them, like when my sisters and brother in law came to visit at the end of last year. Walter and I had planned to make a brisket, but we didn't talk about what sides we were going to have. As he took the brisket out to rest, my sister Karen asked what sides we were having. He told her to ask me (it's usually my job since he's doing the main event). When she asked me, the blank look on my face told her and Alicia I had completely forgotten about it. I looked around the kitchen and found some potatoes, so mashed potatoes it was. Alicia got on the phone and ordered some mac & cheese from a local restaurant, and I think I found something green to cook in the fridge. It all went off well, which it usually does. We laughed all night, enjoyed the impromptu sides, and the amazing brisket!! Now back to last night...

I turned the oven on and went to the fridge. I pulled out a bulb of fennel that we had, and two oranges, two lemons, and two limes. I sliced all of them up and put them on the baking trays. I also saved the fennel tops to put into the other side - potato pancakes! Here's the pictures of the prepped veggies. I will not be showing a picture of the chicken marinating in jerk sauce - no one wants to see raw chicken!

Fennel with lemon olive oil and salt

Sliced citrus

What's left!

For the potato pancakes, I had leftover mashed potatoes and kale we made earlier in the week so those got re-purposed. I turned them out into a bowl and added about a 3/4 of a cup of smoked gouda, about a cup of yogurt (in lieu of other dairy like milk or cream), an egg, and the fronds from the fennel to echo the flavor of the jerk and roasted fennel bulb.

MMMM, potatoes and cheese!!

I realized that I had no idea how long to roast the chicken, so I pulled out my Joy of Cooking. I swear, you can find almost anything in there! So after roasting, pureeing, frying, here's the finished product!

All the things!!!

Those of you with sharp eyes may notice a biscuit on the side of the plate that wasn't in this post. My Auntie Lorraine made biscuits earlier in the week and sent a picture of them. That inspired me to make some biscuits, and there were two so we had them for dinner.

What was good: The potato pancake was amazing - crunchy on the outside, oozy and soft on the inside. The fennel was crisp tender, the chicken had amazing flavor, and the flavor of the citrus relish really did make the flavors come together

What could have been better: The chicken skin wasn't crispy, so next time I'll broil it for a few minutes after it's done cooking. And the citrus relish, well, it did not turn out as I envisioned. The peels got too hard when it was roasted and ruined the mouth feel of the whole thing.

All in all, the meal was good, but it could have been better. I turned the relish into a marmalade that is AMAZING so it turned out to pretty good in the end. We had a pineapple tequila highball with our dinner, which went really well with all the flavors.

That's probably more than enough for today. I'll see you tomorrow - In the meantime, let's all take care of ourselves and each other.

Why every meal is a new experience

I'm going to jump back in time today because I think this story really shows why I think every meal is a new experience, even the ones I have made before. I learned how to cook by feel and taste. I don't remember any recipes in my family - at least not any that were written down. From cookies, to bread, to every day eating, I remember my Nana making food from her memory and using her senses. One example is biscochitos - an anise sugar cookie that she made every Christmas. She started with a 16 oz block of Morrell lard, and that was the only "real" measurement. She would add the flour, baking powder, sugar, and anise by hand and by eye. She knew when the lard was creamed enough by the way it felt in her hands. She added the flour by feel. Oh, she had a starting measurement because she would have us put flour in the sifter and sift it in - but her measurement was the coffee cup that was in the flour can. Before she died, my family sat with her and measured the ingredients so we could continue to make them, but this is the way I learned how to cook. This is also why it's hard for me to share recipes for things I cook; because every time I make something, I'm kind of making it up.

Fast forward to last week. I made a cherry pound cake because I had some leftover cherries from another dessert I made the week before (that's how a lot of my cooking adventures start, "What's in the fridge?"). I didn't want them to spoil or go to waste, so I decided to make a cake with them. So, I went to the internet and started looking for pound cake with fresh fruit. I sifted through a lot of recipes until I found a few that sounded like something I wanted to eat. So, I picked one, and copied down the basic measurements in my handy notebook, as shown below:

If you can read it, good for you! For everyone else, it basically lists the ingredients I need, the oven temperature, the specific instructions that I wouldn't "know," like alternating the sour cream and flour, and the baking and resting times. That's it. The cake came out exactly like I imagined, and looked just like this:

So it all worked out perfectly! Now here's the problem - I don't remember which recipe I used, and I tweaked the fruit content and make up, and so I will never make exactly this cake again. The next time I make this, it'll be a little different, which I think is why I love cooking so much. I also think it's a kind of metaphor for life. You're never in the exactly the same situation twice - something is always different. Whether it's you that has changed or something else about the situation, you always need to tweak the recipe a little bit. 

Enough philosophy - tonight's new adventure is citrus chicken! Why, because I have some oranges and lemons that need to be used, and I have chicken in the freezer. Oh, and I also saw a recipe for something like this in one of my Food & Wine magazines. Now, where did I put that thing? See you tomorrow!!

A lot has been happening!!!

Like the rest of you, a lot has been happening in my world, some of it good, some of it not so good, all of it a moment to sit back and reflect. One thing that has changed is how I plan what I'm cooking. It's not as easy, or as safe, to decide what I'm going to eat and go shopping frequently for just what I need. And just like everyone else, there's no "let's go out and eat" for a while (although delivery is still a possibility). So, here's how the blog is going to go forward:

1. It's still really important to me that I share what I'm doing and why. The story is a part of cooking for me, so that's not going to change
2. I think that cooking is both an art and a science. For me, the science is knowing how foods taste together, their chemical properties, and the recipes put out by the pros. The art is being able to switch things out because I know how things taste, what I like things to taste like, and flexing the recipes I read based on my personal preferences and what I have in the fridge
3. I really believe in cooking what you like to eat. Lucky for me, I like A LOT of things so there'll be all kinds of different cultures and cuisines featured in my blog
4. Finally, I tend to do research broad to narrow. What that means for me is I read recipes and cook books like others read novels. I will sit on the couch with my favorites, and the internet, and look through the pages. Then, when I'm looking at my pantry, fridge, and freezer, I have ideas swirling around in my brain that can come forward with what I see there.

What all of this means in practical terms is that I will likely be talking about a recipe or several recipes in each blog (I mean, credit where it is due), and then how I made it into something all my own. And of course, there will be pictures!!!

So, on with what I've been doing with my last few weeks! There's been baking and braising, as well as pairing things to drink with them! 

First - PRETZELS!! My husband was working in Germany for 9 months before we met. One of his favorite memories is walking to the train station every day, and stopping for a coffee and a "Brezel mit Mohn," or a pretzel with poppy seeds. So, I made some yeast pretzels using Alton Brown's Homemade Soft Pretzels recipe (https://altonbrown.com/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe/). With baking, I don't make many substitutions - baking is delicate and I'm not that scientific. I did however add my own toppings. Here are some snaps.

Right after the boil - Not that impressive but keep going!

With poppy seeds!

And the finished product!

As I said, I did my own toppings - From front to back: poppy seeds, random German seasoning mix I found in my cabinet, garlic and onion flakes.

What was fantastic - crunchy outside, doughy inside, delicious toppings!

What I would do differently - I twisted the middle too many times on some, and it affected the texture in the middle so I'll be more careful next time. Also, I would bake them a little longer for more crunch.

What did we drink them with? Beer of course! It wasn't a German beer, but it did the trick!

That's it for now - more cooking and baking adventures coming up. If you have a comment or there's something you'd like to see more or less of, let me know in the comments section. Here's to staying well through nourishing our bodies and our souls!