Lamb Barbacoa

Mixed with peach salsa on Paratha

It has been cold here in Oakland the past couple of days. I decided to use the slowcooker to make a nice hot meal.

I found a recipe for Beef Barbacoa on The Kitchn a blog I follow.  This was super simple and turned out delicious!

I had gotten some lamb neck at the farmer's market in Marin, so I replaced the beef with lamb neck. The only problem was the recipe called for 5-7 lbs of beef, and I only had 1-2 pounds of lamb neck. In my infinite wisdom, I did not decrease the chipotle peppers and instead added the whole can! Big mistake! It was so spicy my colon was begging for mercy!

I ate the barbacoa that night with lots of good rustic wheat bread to soak up some of the spice.

After burning a hole through my colon, I decided to dumb it down a bit. I roasted a chicken and shredded the chicken meat off of it, and added that to the lamb...Ah, much less spicy, but it still packed a spicy and delicious punch.

I made some fresh tortilla with duck fat and peach salsa and ate this barbacoa with that! It was delicious!

Even with just the one pound of meat, it took Robyn and I a week or so to get through it. I got 5 distinct meals out of it, stretching this one dish out for a whole week:

Lamb Barbacoa with bread (1st night)
Lamb Barbacoa with tortillas and peach salsa (2nd night)
Lamb Barbacoa with Paratha (3rd night)
Shredded chicken with Barbacoa sauce and Paratha (4th night)
Spicy tomato sauce (5th night)



The 2nd night, I chopped up some peaches, tomatoes, red onions and lime juice for a quick peach salsa and had it with green chili tortillas.

The 3rd night, I cooked up some paratha and then used the meat as a filling for that! What a delicious combination! Indian and Caribbean!

The 4th night, I roasted a chicken and shredded some meat off of the chicken and combined it with the remainder of the sauce. I then used the chicken as a filling for tacos.

The 5th night, I took the remainder of the sauce and added it to tomato sauce which was very delicious!

Oh my god I just thought of another use: mix it with shredded chicken and use it as a filling for tomales!


4 Chipotle peppers (from a can), plus all the adobo sauce it sits in
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 red onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 head garlic, peed and cloves smashed
5-7 pounds of beef brisket or lamb neck
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Juice of 4 limes
1/2 cup cider vinegar
4-6 cups  rick dark chicken stock or lamb stock
5 dry bay leaves
Peach salsa
Paratha or tortillas

Chuck the chipotle peppers, cilantro, red onion and garlic in a food processor for a few pulses, until the ingredients are combined, but retain some of their texture.

Add the meat (beef or lamb) to the bottom of the slowcooker. Pour the chipotle/cilantro/red onion mixture on top of the meat.

Add the cloves, salt, lime juice, cider vinegar and bay leaves.

Add the stock, you want the meat to be submerged in the stock. Put the lid on and cook on HIGH for 4 hours.

I like to prepare everything in the crockpot and leave it in the refrigerator. This way all the spices infuse into the meat and help it break down.  Then, just before bed, I turn the crockpot on.

The recipe on The Kitchn recommends cooking it on HIGH for 4 hours and WARM for for 6-8 hours. I didn't do that--I just let it sit on LOW overnight for 10 hours (I put it in around 10pm, took it out around 8am the next morning). But I was using lamb neck instead of beef brisket, and I had less meat than the recipe required.




Either way, it turned out delicious!

Cutting a Pineapple

When I was going to school in Hawaii, one of my favorite snacks was fresh pineapple! I went to a party once, and someone had cut up a pineapple in the most fantastic way and sprinkled Li hing mui powder on it. It was delicious!

I never learned how to cut up a pineapple that way until I met Jill. She is a fantastic cook (and came up with the Baked Tofu recipe I use). She cut the pineapple up in such a way to reduce the amount of waste! It was fantastic.

Next time you get a pineapple, try cutting it up this way! Happy eating!







With a sharp knife, start shaving off the top thick layer of skin on the pineapple. The idea here is to minimize the amount of sweet juicy flesh you cut away, so really go thin! As you cut, you should be able to see "the eyes" of the pineapple.

Once all of the first layer of pineapple skin is off, examine the pineapple. Hopefully, there are no brown or soft spots, indicating rot. If there is a bunch of rot, then you will have to throw the pineapple away! :( But, if there are a few brown spots just carve them out of the pineapple with the knife.

When looking at the pineapple, you should see all the eyes there. Now, those eyes are not very tasty at all, so you will need to remove them. If you look closely, you can see that the eyes of the pineapple line up diagonally cross the pineapple. In the picture to the right you can trace an imaginary diagonal line of eyes from the top right corner of the picture to the bottom left corner of the picture.

Select one of those diagonal lines with eyes on them. Take you knife and turn it so it creates a sharp angle. Make a small incision about a 1/4 of an inch on one side of one or two of the eyes. On the opposite side of the eye, make a similar 1/4 inch incision. Remove and discard that piece of pineapple flesh. The eye should be completely removed, with angled incision marks in the pineapple.








Your pineapple incision should look something like this:
















Here is a closeup of the incision:




















Continue the process of making small, shallow, diagonal cuts until all or most of the eyes of the pineapple have been removed. Keep the same angle throughout the pineapple. In the end you should get a pineapple which looks like a spiral staircase has been carved through it. It should be free of the tough outer skin and any eyes. It should look something like this:

Here is a closeup of those incision lines. As you can see, all the skin and eyes have been removed, leaving only the soft, sweet flesh with a minimum amount of waste! The diagonal lines combine and form a spiral. 

Cut off the top tall grassy part of the pineapple. Take your knife and position it in the center of the flat top the pineapple. Cut down with a strong powerful stroke, cutting the pineapple in half, lengthwise. You should now have two halves of one pineapple.

The next step is to remove and discard the core of the pineapple. It is hard and somewhat bitter and you don't really want to eat it or cook with it. Flip one of the cut halves, so that the flat part is facing you. The core will be in the center. With a sharp knife, make a deep angled incision across the length of the pineapple on both sides and remove the core. I have been trying to think of uses for the core. Currently, I cut the core into chunks and I am keeping them in a jar with vodka to see if I can make pineapple infused Vodka.

Take the cut pineapple half and cut it into slices. Eat immediately or store in your refrigerator.

If you have fresh strawberries and raspberries, make a berry sauce and serve it with the pineapple for a delicious dessert. I like to sprinkle mine with Li Hing Mui (mentioned above) or chili pepper and salt! Delicious!

Eggplant Chermoula with Israeli Couscous and Yogurt

This recipe is a variation on Chermoula aubergine with bulgar and yogurt by Yotam Ottolenghi. You find his recipe here.  I substituted bulgar with Israeli Couscous.

Ordinarily, if I am going to eat vegetarian, I prefer south Indian food. Maybe it is just comfort food. So, when I saw this recipe I was skeptical. Maybe I had one too many poorly made vegetarian meals in the college co-op I lived in....

The eggplants are scored, a North African rub of spices (known as the Chermoula)  is applied and the eggplants are then roasted. A delicious sauce of Israeli Couscous (which are slightly bigger than tapioca pearls) and yogurt top the roasted eggplant. The softness of the roasted eggplant matches the texture of the Israeli Couscous for a pleasant, unexpected and delicious dish!


Ingredients
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt
2 medium Italian eggplants
1 cup Israeli Couscous, cooked
Fresh coriander, chopped
Fresh Mint, chopped
5 or 6 Green Olives, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped Moroccan preserved lemons (optional)
1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (or use the juice from the Moroccan preserved lemons)
Greek Yogurt
Feta cheese


Preheat oven to 350 F.

Chermoula
Mix together the garlic, cumin, coriander, chili flakes and paprika, preserved lemons 2/3 of the olive oil and half a teaspoon of salt  in a separate bowl. I also think a dab of Harissa in there would be tasty, although I have not used Harissa in this recipe...yet.

Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise. Score the flesh with a sharp knife in diagonal criss-cross lines. Be careful to only cut through the flesh, and do not piece or cut the outer skin of the eggplant (the outer skin will help the eggplant retain its shape when you bake it).

Take a dap of olive oil and rub the eggplants down on the scored flesh. Take the chermoula mix you just made and rub it evenly onto the scored flesh of the eggplants. Place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 40 minutes@350 F, or until the eggplants are soft.













Meanwhile, heat a saucepan and add the Israeli couscous to the hot pan. Dry roast the Israeli couscous for a few minutes, stirring constantly, until the Israeli couscous takes on a light tan color. Add water to cover the couscous lightly and boil the couscous. Stir the couscous constantly making sure that none of the couscous stick to the bottom of the pan. Test the couscous periodically, adding more water if necessary. When the couscous gets to the consistency you like, remove from heat and drain.

Transfer the couscous to a bowl. Add the coriander, mint, green olives, green onions and Moroccan preserved lemons (if you have them). Add the fresh lemon juice, or  the juice in the Moroccan preserved lemons (again if you have them) . Salt to taste (if you are using Moroccan preserved lemons, you wont need much salt). Mix everything together, making sure all the ingredients are well incorporated.

Remove the eggplants from the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature. Place one half of an eggplant on a plate. Spoon the couscous on top, spoon a little yogurt on top of the couscous, sprinkle with chopped coriander and drizzle with olive oil. Crumble a little feta on top for flavor!

Zuppa di Fagioli with Rosemary Oil

Pork and beans! Its the best combination. This soup is best in winter--it really warms you up! I was in Marin last weekend and stopped by a farmer's market where I picked up some very tasty ham hocks.

The weather here in Oakland is all crazy. I made this one night and it was just perfect!

The key to this recipe was the rosemary oil and fresh fennel! Delicious!

I got this recipe from David Tanis's A Platter of Figs.


Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 large onions, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 bay leaves
4 cups dried white beans, picked over and rinsed
2 lbs smoked ham hocks
12 cups water
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, ground fine in a mortar
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper
Fresh rosemary (optional)
1 teaspoon Rosemary Oil
Rustic Bread (Toasted)


Directions

To speed up the process, I shave all the meat off the ham hocks first.

Warm 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat.

Add diced onions, and cook gently for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and bay leaves and cook for a minute more.









Add the white beans and the ham hocks (meat and bone). Cover with water and bring to a boil. Gently simmer for a hour, stirring occasionally. Skim off any surface foam as it appears.


































Add the ground fennel, red pepper flakes and a good spoonful of salt. I like to add some fresh rosemary and oregano at this point, although that wasn't in David Tanis's recipe.












Cook 1 hour more, or until the beans are tender but not mushy and the pork falls off the bone. Remove the bone.

Season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle with a little bit of rosemary oil and serve with rustic bread.

Delicious!

Thai Green Curry with Chicken and Eggplant

When summer comes and it gets hot outside, nothing feels better than a nice spicy Thai curry. Maybe because the spices make you sweat, and that cools you off. I think it is the irresistible combination of soft chicken, sweetness of coconut milk and the pungent aroma of kaffir lime leaves. Despite growing up eating Indian food at home, I prefer Thai curry in all its different glorious flavors (red, green, yellow) to any other type of curry, even Indian curry or Japanese curry!

There are a hundred variations on this dish. You can make it with fish, chicken, beef, vegetables. It doesn't matter-it all tastes good.

The key to this dish is taking a small amount of coconut milk and adding all your spices and flavoring agents for the curry to the coconut milk. Its best to start with the eggplants and then your chicken (as opposed to chicken and then your eggplants). This way, the eggplants will achieve the right amount of softness (you want them soft, but still with some structure). Then slowly cook your meat in the flavored coconut milk. As with all coconut curries, you do not want the milk to boil vigorously--just a simmer will do! Once all the vegetables and chicken have cooked, add the remainder of the coconut milk for a quick finish.

Of course, having homemade fresh green curry paste really makes this dish, but that is really time consuming. You can find curry paste in most Thai or Asian grocery stores, and they work good. I use a brand of curry paste called Mae Ploy, which is available at most Asian grocery stores. Now, ordinarily, I am not a fan of prepackaged foods. This Mae Ploy is different. It is really good and super simple.  I even found it in Japan when I was living over there! It comes in a plastic tub and the curry paste is in a plastic bag inside. Similar to a pastry piping bag, I cut off one small corner and then gently squeeze out the paste. Mae Ploy carries a variety of flavors-I have green, red and yellow in my refrigerator and use them for different curries.





Ingredients
1.5 cups unsweetened coconut milk (1 can)
1 tablespoon green curry paste, or to taste (I prefer Mae Ploy brand)
1 stalk lemon grass, bruised and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 kaffir lime leaves, cut into thin slivers (use a pair of scissors)
2 Japanese eggplant, cut into cubes
1 cup rick dark chicken stock (8 cubes)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced into strips or cut into cubes
2 cups bamboo shoots
2 red tomatoes, cut into wedges
15 fresh basil leaves, cut in half
Fresh cilantro for garnish

Directions
Turn your gas onto medium heat. Place your wok or pot on the range to heat up.

Pour a bit of coconut milk into the wok and swirl it around so it covers the wok thinly (around 1/3 of a cup)

Let it heat for a few seconds until a little bubbly.















Add the curry paste and lemon grass and stir until the aroma is released, about 1 minute.

Add the chicken stock, fish sauce, sugar, turmeric and lime leaves. Bring to a light boil and reduce heat to a simmer.













Add the eggplant cook for a few minutes until the eggplant becomes soft. You do not want the eggplant super soft, to the point where it is mushy. Nor do you want the eggplant hard. Japanese eggplants work best for this, as they retain less water. Chinese eggplants are the next best thing. Italian eggplants really are not suited for this dish-they have too much water in them.












Add the chicken and cook until it turns white, around 3 to 5 minutes.
















Add the remaining coconut milk,  bamboo shoots and tomatoes. Continue to simmer for 3 minutes, until the vegetables are hot. Adjust the temperature as necessary to insure that the coconut milk does not come to a vigorous boil.

Remove from heat and stir in the basil.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice. Garnish with cilantro

Mint Pesto

This is a great variation on traditional Pesto and great if you have an overly active mint plant like mine! This goes as a sauce for Lemon Braised Chicken.  I got this recipe and the Lemon Braised Chicken recipe from a blog called The Kitchn, which I highly recommend!

Ingredients
4 cups packed mint leaves
 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
Freshly ground salt and pepper

Blend all of the ingredients in a food processor until finely chopped.



Store in the refrigerator with plastic wrap completely covering and touching the surface of the pesto to prevent oxidization. I made the mistake of just putting a glass jar over over a small bowl, and my mint pesto went all brown :(

Lemon Braised Chicken with Beans and Mint Pesto

Robyn found this delicious recipe on a blog called The Kitchn.

It is reminiscent of a rustic French Cassoulet, but with a twist of lemon and half the time to prepare. A delicious combination of chicken legs,  flageolet beans and lemon zest is sauteed and then baked in a dutch oven. A generous sprinkling of breadcrumbs gives it a crisp finish. The recipe can easily be cooked in a crockpot or a slowcooker.

I used my new LeCrouset Dutch oven and it worked out fantastic!Its absolutely delicious!

Ingredients
1 lbs small white beans such as flageolet
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves minced
1 small onion diced
2 lemons
2 lbs boneless chicken thighs or drumsticks
Salt and pepper
4 sprigs fresh thyme or lemon thyme
Mint Pesto
3 Sausages, cut
Homemade bread crumbs


Place the dried beans in a bowl of water and soak at least overnight (preferably for 24 hours). Add more water as the beans start to absorb the water. Drain the beans and set aside.

Dutch Oven method
Heat the oven to 350 F.

In a large Dutch oven or heavy  ovenproof pot (4 quart or larger), heat oil over medium heat. Add
garlic and onion and stirfry for 5-7 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the drained beans and give it a good stir. Turn off the heat.

With a vegetable peeler, carefully peel one of the lemons. Peel it in wide strips, making sure not to get any of the bitter white pith, you only want the flavorful yellow top part. Add the shaved lemon peel to the pot and stir. Add cut sausage. Juice the lemon and add the juice to the beans (You will use the second lemon later on).












Pat the chicken dry (you don't need to wash the chicken) and lightly salt and pepper it. Lay the chicken on top of the beans.
















Add water to the pot, until the beans are covered. The water should come up just below the chicken. Lay the thyme springs on top.
















Turn the heat to high and bring the water to a simmer. Cover the pot and put it into the preheated oven.

Bake at 350 for 1.5 hours until the beans are very creamy and tender.














Remove from oven and add homemade bread crumbs. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the whole pot. Put back into the oven for an additional 15 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are toasty.















Slow Cooker Method
Cook the garlic and onions as above. Stir in the beans. Transfer everything (beans lemon peel and chicken) to a slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 8 hours then proceed with the remaining steps.

Remove the chicken from the pot and plate it. Remove the thyme stalks. Zest and juice the second lemon. Stir the zest and the lemon into the beans.  Shred or chop the chicken and place on top of the beans. Serve with good toasted french bread or rustic wheat bread

Top with mint pesto and serve.

Strawberries

Strawberry fields forever!

I think John Lennon and the Beatles really captured an axiom of the gardening world. Because you want to make anything with strawberries, you really need fields and fields of strawberries!

I just have 2 small rectangular boxes for my strawberries.

I planted these last year in April 2011 or so. They were also a big dissapointment! Despite watering and fertilizing religiously, I got 1 small strawberry in August or so. That was it for the season! They grew a lot, but no fruit!

I left them in the boxes over the winter and they did not look so good...all the leaves looked dead and dried up, and no fruit.

As spring began, I decided to clean them up: I cut off most of the vines and leaves that were growing and trimmed them down considerably (they were almost dead anyway).

I still decided to keep them, just to see what happened.

I am sure glad I did!

This spring they came back with a vengeance! Maybe they are late bloomers and really need a year to get going...I really don't know. I do know that I have been having fresh strawberries every other day or so. And they taste sweeter than anything I have every tasted in a store or even from a farmer's market or CSA! I guess plucking and eating them at the right time really pays off!

The only thing is I wish I had more! 2 small rectangular boxes doesn't yield a great many strawberries, but they are so sweet! I put a few on top of mom's cheesecake!