Study Abroad Preparations

I'm busy putting the finishing touches on the study abroad trip I am co-leading during Spring semester. I've got rail passes in hand, hotel reservations made, sumo tournament tickets purchased, and plans for company and cultural visits galore. There's always a worry that there's something I've missed, but I think we're going to be OK...

Summer Meals:

Well, now that fall semester has started, it seems the appropriate time to update a few dinners we had toward the end of the summer. I'll start with some garlic and rosemary crusted lamb chops and cold avocado soup.

The soup was "souper" easy (sorry). I sauteed up some onions and garlic and then added some low sodium vegetable broth, a chopped ripe avocado, a chopped up stalk of lemongrass, and a pinch of paprika. I let that simmer away for a little while, hit it with the immersion blender, and chilled it down in the fridge. To serve, I topped it off with a couple slices of roasted red pepper. It was a nice, crisp way to start off the meal.

Next, I did a roasted half rack of lamb that I crusted with a paste of rosemary, garli

c, and sea salt. Again, this was super easy. I just coated the lamb with the garlic and rosemary mix, seared it for a couple minutes over high heat and then put it in the oven for 13 minutes to get the internal temp up to 135. Slice and serve.

The story I need to tell here, though, is about the serving dish. While we were in Japan this summer, I bought a number of pieces of ceramics and glassware that will be seen here in coming weeks. This wasn't one of them. This piece is actually a sashimi serving plate that Mina's sister's husband's mother (my mother-in-law-in-law?) made. We were visiting their house for a local festival when my interest in Japanese ceramics came up and she opened up a cabinet in the kitchen and said, "Take whatever you want!". There must have been 200 pieces that were all handmade and all gorgeous. While I am sure she'd be shocked to see lamb served on a dish meant for fish, I think it looks great.

Anyway, I served this lamb with a Lyeth Cabernet Sauvignon that was simply fantastic for just under $10.

Duck!

On our return from Japan I jetted off to a conference in Chicago, but had a few days to spend with the 'rents before coming back up to Syracuse for the fall semester. While in Cleveland we went down to the West Side market to pick up some pork bellies and also to get some duck breasts so that I could cook a dinner. I poked around the internets and came across a recipe that looked like it would work well, so gave it a try. The meal was a nice team effort.

First course: Cold Summer Squash Soup (the Lovely Mina). This soup was incred

ibly easy to make. We sauteed up some onion and garlic, added some peeled, seeded, and chopped zucchini and yellow squash, and some chicken broth. This boiled down until the squash were tender, then we hit it with the immersion blender and chilled it. We served it with some chives as a garnish.

Side: Barley Couscous with Olives and Cilantro (Mom). A pretty straight fo

rward dish except that we used barley couscous as opposed to regular. I thought this had a deeper, "woodier" flavor than plain couscous.

Side: Roasted Peaches with Balsamic Glaze (Me). Another super easy dish that sounds tougher than it is. The glaze was 2 parts soy sauce to 1 part lime juice (the original recipe was for 1 cup of soy sauce, which seemed excessive to me. I started with 1/4 cup), some grated ginger, a clove of grated garlic, and a few drops of sesame oil. This gets reduced, strained, and chilled. I quartered a couple of fresh peaches and sauteed them in some of the duck fat that rendered from the breasts (next) until they were tender and caramelized. I then spo

oned the glaze over the top of them.

Main Course: Seared Duck Breasts. Incredibly simply preparation, though the first step of leaving the breasts uncovered, skin side up in the refrigerator for several hours is key. I am not sure where I learned this trick (probably Alton Brown), but since the refrigerator is so dry, this helps in leaching some moisture out of the duck skin and aids in the crisping. Just before cooking, I scored the skin of the duck breasts, seasoned them up, and then seared them over medium heat with just a little olive oil. Enough fat renders from the duck that you wouldn't need any oil at all if you were using a non-stick skillet (though, as we know, you can't make a pan sauce in a non-stick skillet!). Anyway, just let the breasts cook away skin side down for 8 minutes or so, checking them periodically to be sure the skin isn't burning. Give them a flip and continue cooking until the internal temp. reached 130-135 degrees. Slice on the bias and serve.

The nice thing about this meal is that you could go red or white on the wine without issue. The peaches would go nicely with a crisp white, while the duck itself would be beautiful with a pinot noir or a zinfandel. A fruity belgian beer would also be an inspired choice, I think.

More Ramen:

We're back from Japan and I've got another photo of ramen to upload (yes, I did eat things other then ramen, but I am just not as excited about those as I am about the soup).

Ok, so this time is a Pork Bone/Soy Sauce ramen that I had in the Lovely Mina's hometown of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. I'd had a couple of beverages prior to arriving at the shop, so you'll have to forgive me for not remembering the name...In any event, the chances of any of my loyal reader(s) ever getting to Iwaki for a bowl of soup are pretty small, I imagine.

In any event, this was a heck of a bowl of soup. The marriage of pork bone soup and soy sauce base was lovely, as was the addition of cabbage, which I had never seen before. The crispness was appreciated. We found that adding a dollop of "toubanjan", a Chinese hot bean paste, was key for this soup. It added a complexity that the base soup was missing. Plus, it was spicy!

With an order of gyoza, this was a fabulous way to end an evening out.

Ichiran Ramen in Shibuya:

Here in Japan on a research trip, I need to get my ramen jones on. I figure to eat ramen at least 5 times in 4 weeks, which will mean I'll easily surpass my yearly required salt intake in those 5 meals, but it will be worth it.

First stop was a place called Ichiran (there's now a Manhattan branch) that is an outpost of traditional Kyushu Pork Bone Soup Ramen in Tokyo. I'd been to the original Ichiran in Fukuoka with my brother years ago, so this was a nice start to the tour. They let you choose your noodle doneness, the amount of garlic, spiciness, and really importantly the relative "thickness" of the soup. I went all out and got the strongest soup possible. No messing around here.

One of the really interesting things about the shop is that they put you in individual stalls to eat, rather than seating you at a counter or tables. You never see any of the workers. It's a bit like visiting a Ramen Love Hotel, actually. I suppose the rationale is that you'll slurp your noodles to your heart's content if there's no chance of being observed in your revelry. Works for me.

Anyway, I had my soup and a soft boiled egg and it was wonderful. The noodles had just the right amount of spring to them and the soup was nicely balanced. The Chashu pork was tender and sweet. No complaints at all. Next stop on this will be some Pork Bone/Soy Sauce Ramen, which I think is the king of Ramens. I'm hoping to find the best of the best on our return to Tokyo on Friday. Good times!

Dinners Out the Yin-Yang:

As a recent comment points out, it's been a while since I posted and I have backlog of dinners to report about. So, here goes. We'll start with the most recent and go from there.

Hickory and Applewood Smoked Pork Shoulder - This was my project for this past weekend. A

 week of watching grilling specials on FoodTV had me wanting to get outside to spend some quality time with my Weber. Anyway, I picked up a 3 pound hunk of pork shoulder at

 Wegmans the other day. Saturday night I rubbed it down with a mix of salt, pepper, garlic powder, 

onion powder, paprika, celery seed, cumin, and coffee (the last three items I ground down in my mortar and pestle). Sunday I fired up the grill, generally using about 15 kingsford briqu

ettes to maintain a temperature between 225 and 260 degrees F. I also soaked some hickor

y and some applewood chips in water for about 30 minutes and put them on top of the first two sets of coals to provide some extra smokiness. You're looking at about 90 minutes per pound of pork shoulder to get it up to an internal temperature of 185 degrees F. Mine cooked from about 1:00 to about 5:00 on the grill and then I took it inside to finish it in the oven (250 degrees) while I prepared the rest of our meal. Q purists will shudder at this move, I suspect, but I figured that I'd gotten all the smoke penetration I was going to get in those first several hours and didn't want to deal with going in and out of my apartment to check on the meat and fire while I was doing other

things. Anyway, once the meat hit 185, I pulled it out of the oven, let it rest for a while, and commenced shredding wit

h a couple of forks. Look at the smoke ring in the first picture there! Bliss!

For sauce, I whipped up a combination of ketchup, cider vinegar, worcestershire sauce, molasses, grated garlic and grated onion, and chili powder. I also sliced up some poblano pepper that I had smoked for the first 90 minutes of the time the meat was on the fire and added that for a little oomph. All in all, this was a fantastic meal and one of those things that's so inexpensive (the meat was $0.99 per pound) that you can't believe it tasted that good. We had some cole slaw on the side.

Mahi-Mahi in Herbed White Wine Sauce with Grilled Lemons:

OK, this one was from a couple of weeks ago. The sauce started with some sauteed onion and garlic, to which I added fish stock and white wine in roughly equal parts (the original recipe called for bottle clam juice, which I had forgotten to buy at the store...). I added thyme and oregano to this and let it steep on very low heat while I prepared the rest of the meal. The fish was simply salted and peppered and pan seared. The lemons were sliced very thin and caramelized over low heat as well. To finish the sauce, I added some butter at the end. Over the fish I sprinkled some walnuts that I had roasted, some sliced roasted red pepper, and finally some fresh chopped flat leaf parsley. I had a Washington State Dry Riesling (Covey Run) with this.

More to come from my archives of the last couple weeks.

"Bluto: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Otter: Germans? 

Boon: Forget it, he's rolling." - Animal House

Anyway, I am rolling. A couple more good recipes to report on today as I sit with a cup of coffee listening to The Be Good Tanyas.

First up is a modification of an epicurious.com recipe for veal chops with white beans and spinach. First, rub your veal chops with a mashed up clove of garlic and then salt and pepper them and cook them in a skillet over moderately high heat for about 4 minutes per side. They should be about medium rare at that point. Nice and pink on the inside.

The next step is the beans and spinach. Add a little olive oil to the skillet and saute up some  garlic. Add your white beans and spinach along with 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar

 (apple cider vinegar would also be nice in this, I think). Then, add about 1/2 cup of chicken stock that has 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch whisked into it. Stir this around in the pan with the beans and spinach as a way of deglazing and picking up the goodness that is left over from searing the veal chops. The sauce should come together pretty nicely. A minute or so before you think it's ready, add a teaspoon or so of chopped, fresh rosemary. Salt and Pepper to taste and drizzle a little of the sauce over the veal chops. The vinegar and rosemary are what really make this dish. They add a brightness that is really unexpected.

The original recipe for veal chops with radicchio is here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Veal-Chop-with-Radicchio-White-Beans-and-Rosemary-109029

The next recipe is my take on pot au feau. I was poking around the freezer a

nd noticed that we had some scraps of italian sausage and turkey breast, so I decided to experiment and this is what I came up with. I sliced up some garlic and about 1/4 pound of turkey breast and sauteed them up in a cast iron dutch oven. To this, I added about 3/4 of a chopped up sweet potato and 1/4 cup of white wine to deglaze. Then, I added chicken broth to cover, the green end of a leek, a bay leaf, and some dried thyme and parsley and put the lid on the pot to let it simmer until the potatoes were cooked through and tender.

In the meantime, I fried up the italian sausage and sliced it up and then quickly sauteed some

 sliced up brussel sprouts in the fat rendered from the sausage. This, a 4 oz. salmon filet that I

 had sliced up, and half of a can of red kidney beans went into the pot about 10 minutes before serving. At that point, I also pulled out the leek tops and the bay leaf. Ladel the soup into serving bowls and top with a little grated parm.

I had a nice 2006 Las Locas Granache-Syrah from Spain along with this dish. This was a surprisingly versatile dish. The flavors were bold enough to hold up, but I think a dry white or a dry rose would have worked equally well. 

"Spring is Here, Spring is Here / Life is Skittle, Life is Beer..."*

Well, a couple of interesting dinners to post today. Things have been pretty busy with school, Model UN, and a trip to St. Simon's Island for Spring Break, so I've not had a chance to get these posted. Anyway, these are a couple of nice Springtime dishes that should go over well with my reader(ship).

First, from Food & Wine magazine is a penne pasta dish with asparagus and fresh peas. We had a surprising warm snap in the middle

 of March that prompted me to look for something light and green to make for dinner and this happened to be in the most recent issue of the F&W magazine. As the recipe suggests, I really do recommend fresh peas and they really only need to go into the dish at the very end so that the residual heat from the pasta cooks them just slightly. I was satisfied with the recommendation of a Sauvignon Blanc to go along with this. For sure, you wouldn't want an oaky Chardonna

y, but a Pinot Grigio or a Viognier might be an interesting alternative choice. Here's the recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/penne-with-asparagus-sage-and-peas

The other recipe is a White Turkey Chili that I found on the Epicurious.com website. 

White Chili is one of those things that, at least for me, I remember exactly where I had it for the first time. It was at the Pufferbelly Restaurant in Berea, OH and we were there for a Father's Day

 or Easter brunch, if my memories serves. Anyway, white chilis are such a change of pace from the usual tomato based chili recipes and this one was fantastic. I ground up my cumin seeds fresh in a mortar and pestle and I think that added a really nice brightness to the flavor. I le

ft the jalapeno out because the Lovely Mina isn't a fan of really spicy food, but then added it in to my chili at the table. I really recommend this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/White-Turkey-Chili-4560

It was chili, so a cold, crisp beer was the obvious drink of choice. If I was going to have a wine with it, I think I would have chosen something red to deal with the cumin.

* Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, by Tom Lehrer