Rouge Valley Royal Riviera Pear Salad

Received a lovely box of beautiful pears for Christmas! Made a delicious salad to complement our dinner. Omitted the champagne vinegar, walnut oil and blue cheese. Still, it was good.

For the dressing:

1/4 cup Champagne Vinegar (used TJ's white balsamic which is fine)
1 Tb Dijon
1 Tb honey
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
3/4 cup walnut oil (used canola- a little heavier but innocuous)

Blend using whatever method you prefer. I like a detachable whisk and whir it up real quick in a pint or measuring glass then cover with Press 'n' Seal wrap.  You could put it in a jar, shake and save for later. It will need shaking again.

For the salad:

1 head of butter or other lettuce, washed and dried (a bag of mixed greens heavy on spinach is good)
2 Ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced thin. (I left the peels on)
2/3 cup blue cheese (omit unless you are really hungry or this salad is not part of a large meal)
2/3 cup candied nuts or toasted walnuts (Trader Joe's sells 5 oz. packages of "Very Crunchy, Lightly Sweetened" candied pecans)

Arrange salad on plates or compose in a large bowl.
Offer guests to apply their own dressing or just toss it in the bowl.
Place fans of pear slices on lettuce. Crumble blue cheese evenly on top.
Drizzle the dressing generously over the salad. Sprinkle with nuts and serve at once.

Sorry no pics for this one- but you get the idea. It was Christmas rush! The dressing a versatile for any salad. Try using goat cheese crumbles/adding lemon zest to brighten it up. Dried cranberries or fresh strawberries would be good, too!

Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Stock from Leftover Carcass

Now that I am working full-time, my cooking has become convenience-based.
We all go through phases of inspiration and well, phases of survival mode.

The other day I was going to roast my own chicken but they were around $10 each. Rotisserie chickens were half the price and already cooked! No brainer.

Here, I am using the carcass to make stock in the slow cooker. I am doing this overnight. Hopefully it won't be too much of a pain to deal with in the morning!
In the morning I will strain the broth and refrigerate it. After work I will bag it for the freezer.
Hopefully the flavor is great! My guess is that it will be even better since it will simmer for hours in the crock pot :)   

Ingredients

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• 1 chicken carcass
• 2 carrots
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 medium onion
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme and a (optional) generous pinch of sage
• 1 tablespoon whole peppercorns

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• Break the chicken bones so marrow can add flavor. I used boning shears but a heavy, sharp knife will also work.
• Turn a large crockpot on high and set the timer for 10 hours. 
• Put all the chicken parts in the crockpot. Save the meat for another use. (Chicken pot pie?)
• With the carcass in it, fill the crockpot 3/4 full with water.
• Chop (no need to peel) the carrots into large chunks. I happened to use organic baby carrots so no chopping required.
• Roughly chop the celery and the onion and add to the large crockpot.
• Cover, leave on high for 2 hours, then to low for 8 hours. If you are going to sleep the cooker should automatically go into the "keep warm" mode after it's done, which keeps the temperature at safe levels.
• Carefully pour the liquid gold through a sieve set over a stock pot, pressing on the parts. Cover and refrigerate the liquid gold, discard the solids.  
• Chill the stock in the fridge and later skim off the top layer of fat.
• Put the stock in baggies, label with date and amount (I like 1 and 2 cups), then freeze.

Dim Sum Dip

This is a great dip!
Use for things like scallion pancakes, crab rangoons, gyozas, etc. It is drinkably good!
Go easy on the sesame oil since the flavor is strong; adjust to your liking.

The first 4 ingredients are staple pantry items.
I also keep pickled ginger which can be finely grated/chopped in a pinch.
I go out to the garden for the green onions/chives (they are easy to grow and are useable even in winter).

• 2 tablespoons sriracha (red rooster)
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon fine grated ginger
• 1 green onion (scallion or chives), finely chopped

Japanese-Style Baked Mussels

I confess that I am a mussel lover. You know, that lowly cheapest of all shellfish to be found in New England. I spent a whopping $$ $2.99/lb recently. All the mussels I purchase are raised on seashore farms in P.E.I.
There is a scallop dish I will never forget, where they were baked in scallop shells in a richly delicious mayonnaise sauce. This was my inspiration plus I am obsessed with Asian flavors as of late.

Buy 1 lb. mussels per piggy person. 
If watching waistline (this is laden in fat), use half.
Also a useful recipe for passed h'orderves.

For an entree, serve with favorite pasta, in my case, linguine. Use the extra sauce to blend into the pasta. Sprinkle fresh herbs/greens over the pasta or use to decorate the plate. It is very rich and benefits from this touch.  

Ingredients

• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon gingerroot, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, minced
• 1/2 lemons, juice of
• 1 1/2 teaspoons wasabi, prepared (it comes in a tube!)
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 whole green onions, sliced fine
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (homemade is best)
• 3 tablespoons tobiko (flying fish roe, optional)
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 lb mussels
• panko, Japanese bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to: Broil, top heat, 500°. (Broil function in toaster oven worked great.)
2. Prep ingredients: Steam mussels or cook in saute pan, just until they open up and you can access the meat. Save the steam water and freeze to use for fish chowder. Once cooled, pull meat from mussels and coarsely chop. Pick out the best mussel shell halves and place in a large metal dish or one that can handle the heat. Fill each shell neatly with a 1/2 -1 tsp of meat.
3. For dressing and cooking: Combine all ingredients. Place about a drizzle of dressing over the meat. Sprinkle with a little panko bread crumbs over the sauce. Broil until bubbly and lightly browned. Remove from baking pan and top with snipped green onions or chives.

Cider Doughnut Muffins

Cider Doughnut Muffins
Yields: 17 regular muffins
Find the perfect muffin liners :) I used classic white.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbs apple cider
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1 2/3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup milk
idea: in centers of muffins, add a tsp of minced apple mixed in sugar & cinnamon
Topping –
3 tbsp butter
6 tbsp cinnamon-sugar mixture (looks good with turbinado or a coarse sugar)
I used a 1:3 cinnamon-sugar ratio

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (375 degrees F if using a dark, non-stick tin). Place baking cups in a 12-cup muffin tin and lightly grease the insides. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, thoroughly whisk together butter, oil, sugars and apple juice concentrate. Add eggs, beating to combine, until mixture is smooth. Stir in baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.
Add the flour to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. Stir to combine well.
Spoon or scoop batter evenly into muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into one of the center muffins comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool 10 minutes.
Melt butter for topping. Dip the tops of each muffin into the butter, then roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place on a cooling rack to cool completely.

**Of course, taster-approved. Inhaled. Dinner-time replacement (with a hearty, healthy smoothy to complement). 3 friend recipients enjoyed, 1 in return gave apple cake. I rewrote the above recipe to improve it with additions of whole wheat flour and diced apples so it will definitely be revisited. 'Tis the season! 

Tom Kha Gai

 This recipe is truly from the archives, when my interest in cooking was first sparked.
It came from a Thai restaurant in my hometown of Hanover, MA. I think I was in high school at the time and definitely well over ten years ago.  Food memories are some of the best.
I raved about this soup so much that the owner, who was super friendly, brought out the recipe for me to copy down! It was scrawled on the only scrap paper available: an advertisement for a newly opened nail salon.
I never got around to making this recipe until now...
It is so easy to buy this soup at any Thai restaurant. Now that I know how easy it is to make it (despite the coconut part, in which case you can use canned), I am all over it!

There are also many Asian markets around here that sell the "exotic" ingredients. Truthfully, you can go without them (except for the lemongrass). Also buy some quality fish sauce (which is, mmm, fermented anchovies). 

My little man was desperate to open and drink from a coconut. That's how this all started. Sure enough, I bought one and did my internet search on how to handle it. You can use canned but after reading about all the health benefits of fresh, try it if you have a food processor or blender and a sieve!

Coconut Processing:
Of the three divots on the bottom, one of them is soft enough to pierce with a knife and drain the water. We both drank it and found it delicious (way better than the prepackaged stuff). The next challenge is cracking the nut open. I hammered away using a knife but any hammer would be fine.
The annoying part is scraping the meat out. I used a knife which was easier on smaller pieces but I also learned there are special curved coconut knives.
Make sure to exclude the outer bark and rinse the meat to exclude it. As you cut the meat off, put it in a food processor or blender. Process the meat for a minute. Pour in 1/2 cup boiling water and process another minute. Allow to sit for a bit. Come back to it and add 1 cup boiling water and process for 5 minutes. Strain into a 2-cup measure (or bowl) via a sieve (preferably lined with 2 layers of cheese cloth). Squeeze the coconut to release as much juice as possible. Refrigerate until using, up to 1 week. My coconut yielded 2 cups of milk.

Tom Kha Gai (chicken coconut soup)
1 cup chicken stock
2 stems lemongrass, outer leaves removed and sliced lengthwise in half
2" galangal (or ginger root), peeled and sliced
3 kaffir lime leaves, torn into small pieces (don't stress it if you can't find them, use more lime juice)
1/2 lb chicken cut into thin 1 x 1/2" strips and cooked
4 oz mushrooms (traditional is straw but any small fresh mushrooms are fine)
3 Tb lime juice
2 Tb fish sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
2 c. coconut milk (preferably homemade for maximum health benefits)
4 red bird's-eye chilis, bruised (or reduce to taste and/or use other hot pepper)
cilantro leaves to garnish (optional)

Pound chicken into very thin cutlets. I used tenders. Season with salt and pepper and cook in a skillet over medium high, until done. If using tenders, remove the tough tendon when cutting up.
Pour chicken stock in pot, add lemongrass, galangal or ginger, and kaffir leaves. Bring to boil over medium heat.

Add chicken, mushrooms, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar.
Simmer slowly, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Add coconut milk and chilis. Bring almost to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove the lemongrass and ginger. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve. Beware, the chilis are HOT!

Kale and Scallion Negimaki

Today we had a Labor Day family cookout and these tender morsels were the perfect, pre-burger appetizers.
They are quite rich (though I gobbled down three).
I'd like to experiment with other cuts of meat. 
I pounded the meat into 2" x 1/2" slices.
Recipe adapted from FoodandWine.com.

1.   2 Tb soy sauce (recipe suggests milder tamari but don't go out of your way to buy it)
2.   2 Tb mirin
3.   3/4 Tb miso (I prefer white but recipe suggests red)
4. 1/2 Tb sugar
5. 1/4 tsp sesame oil
6. 1/4-inch-thick slices of tenderloin steak (3/4 pound or less), pounded 1/8 inch thick
7. 1/4 pound kale, stems discarded
8. green onions 
9. Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

1. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, mirin, miso, sugar and sesame oil. Spread 1 teaspoon of the mixture on each side of the beef slices. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Reserve the remaining marinade to drizzle over the cooked rolls (so do not contaminate).
2. In a saucepan of salted boiling water, cook the kale until bright green, 2 minutes. Drain.
3. On a work surface, lay out a slice of beef with a long side facing you. Place 3 green onions slice across the lower edge. Top with some of the kale. Roll the meat up over the filling very tightly. Secure the roll with a toothpick or two. Repeat with the remaining meat, onions and kale.
4. Prepare a grill or preheat a grill pan. Grill the rolls over high heat until charred, 2 minutes. Brush the rolls with some marinade and grill for a few seconds more, until glazed.
5. Transfer the rolls to a work surface. Discard the toothpicks. Cut the negimaki into 1-inch lengths (or not, if you use smaller pieces). Transfer to a platter, cut sides up, and drizzle with the remaining marinade. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.