Onion Confit

Onions slowly cooked down with wine and vinegar to the consistency of jam.  This makes a great condiment to put on pastrami sandwiches, or anywhere else you want to add a sweet onion flavor, and because you cook all the water out this stuff will keep just about forever in the fridge.

1.5 lbs sweet onion, quartered and thinly sliced
0.5 lbs yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1/4 C white wine vinegar
1/4 C honey
1/2 C dry white wine
6 T unsalted butter
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter and cook the crap out of the onions, covered over medium heat, for ~40 minutes (you want them soft), stirring it occasionally.  Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until the mixture almost dries out.

Spanish Garlic Soup

This is about as simple as a soup gets, but still tasty and a wonderful thing for a cold day.

Ingredients:
4 C beef broth
1 T paprika (I like to use a mix of plain and smoked paprika)
6 cloves garlic, peeled and flattened with the side of a knife
4 slices French bread, about 1 cm thick
4 eggs
1/4 t cumin, ground
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil and toast the garlic cloves until golden brown.  Remove the garlic and reserve, crushing it.  Use the oil to brown the bread on both sides, then remove and reserve the bread.

At this point if the bread has absorbed all of the oil you may need to add a little more; briefly cook the paprika and cumin in the oil, then add the broth and reserved garlic.  Simmer for a few minutes, then add the eggs and poach until set.  Add the toasted bread into the soup and serve.

Pork Confit

Pork cured in herbs then slowly poached in fat.  It may not be terribly good for you, but sometimes you have to indulge.  You can make this with either loin or shoulder, with loin being better for things like slicing to put on sandwiches, but if you want to make rillettes you're really going to need to make it with the shoulder.  This recipe is a slight modification of the one from Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn -- THE guide to curing meats, and as the weather gets colder and more suitable to hanging meat to dry, one you should definitely go buy.

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs of pork loin, or 4 lbs if using shoulder cut in to four slices for loin, or cubed for shoulder
2 T kosher salt
3 bay leaves
6 T flat leaf parsley
4 T fresh sage
1.5 T black pepper, ground or crushed
4 T shallots
5 cloves garlic
1/2 t pink salt (insta cure #1, a mix of salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite)
enough fat to fully submerge the meat, preferably rendered duck fat, but lard will also work (at some point I also want to try using fat rendered from beef marrow bones when making stock/glace)

Food processor together the herbs, shallots, and garlic, then add in the salt, pink salt, and pepper and processor briefly.  Rub the meat with this mixture and refrigerate for three to four days.

Remove the meat and rinse off all the seasoning, then dry.  Melt the fat in a pot or dutch oven, add the meat, and bring just to a simmer; the meat must be fully submerged.  Remove from the heat and place in an oven preheated to 180-200 F.  Cook until fork tender, approximately 4 hours for loin, and 4-6 for shoulder.

At this point you can remove the meat and separate out the meat and the juices from cooking, making sure to reserve both.  The meat can be re-submerged in the fat and kept in the fridge for weeks or months (the original purpose of confit was to preserve meat), while the juices can be used as a seasoning for the meat, either mixed into rillettes or sprinkled onto the meat while pan searing.  If you do this with shoulder the juices will also have a considerable amount of gelatin, which helps to produce a rich velvety sauce.  Keep in mind that the juices and the meat will be fairly salty from the curing, so taste to make sure you don't over salt.  The fat can be reused, but again, it will pick up salt.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

The small rich stuffed grape leaves made in the Egyptian style with a yogurt sauce.  This is another fairly approximate recipe, and rolling the leaves can be somewhat difficult if you don't first see how to do it, but the main secret is to make sure that the filling is completely wrapped.  This is also quite a bit easier if you have a large pot with a colander insert as you need something to put pressure on the top of the leaves while they cook.

Ingredients:
Potatoes, sliced approximately 1/4", enough to cover the bottom of the pot
6-7 large cloves of garlic, sliced lengthwise into several large slices each

Grape leaves:
1 large jar grape leaves, drained and rinsed (I typically make sure I have two on hand, you may need some of the second depending on the size of the leaves and how tightly you roll them)
3 lbs of ground beef (it's important that you don't use anything leaner than 80/20, it just won't taste right with lean beef)
~ 4 C of uncooked basmati rice
salt as needed

Sauce:
4 C plain yogurt
one good sized cucumber, peeled, seeded, and minced
6-7 cloves garlic (or to taste), minced
handful dried mint, or to taste

Mix the sauce ingredients, as these need time to blend in flavor.  Mix together the beef, rice, and salt.  Layer the potatoes on the bottom of the pot (these actually aren't typically eaten, they're just there to keep the grape leaves from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot). 
Cut off the small piece of stem from the grape leaves, then trim them to an appropriate size. Most of the grape leaves will be big enough to cut in to 2 pieces (3 for large leaves, but the smaller the piece you cut the harder it is to roll). A small amount of the beef and rice mixture should be put in to the center of the piece of leaf and rolled so that it forms a stuffed cylinder approximately 5-6 cm in length and 2 cm or less in diameter. The filling should be completely wrapped in leaf so it doesn't leak out while cooking.  If you find leaves or pieces of leaves that have holes or are otherwise unsuitable for stuffing, set them aside as we'll need a layer or two of leaves to cover the top.
Do this for all the grape leaves and filling, placing them in the pot in circles so that they form solid layers of grape leaves (make sure to pack them tightly together). When a layer is complete put 6-8 slices of garlic between the grape leaves in the layer, then top with a layer of unstuffed grape leaves.
When you've used all of the filling top with another layer of unstuffed leaves, then pour in enough hot water to more than cover the top of the leaves and weight down the leaves (I usually use the colander insert with something like a pot of water on top of it for weight).  Simmer until the rice is done, approximately 30 minutes (pull a leaf out and test to make sure it's done).
Carefully pour off the excess water, and serve with the sauce.

Baklava with 3 nuts

My recipe for baklava made with a mixture of walnuts, almonds, and pistachios.  This makes an 11"x7" pan, and this is rich enough that it'll feed a small army, or 8 hungry foodies.  This recipe more than most is approximate, just taste it as you go.

Ingredients:
phyllo dough
melted butter

Nut mixture:
Between 1 and 1 1/4 lb of nuts, evenly mixed between walnuts, almonds, and pistachios (I get unsalted unroasted nuts for the walnuts and almonds then roast them, and salted in shell pistachios)
1/4 C sugar
1 heavy t cinnamon
1/4 t ground clove
1/4 t ground cardamom
salt to taste, if using all unsalted nuts

Honey mixture:
1 1/4 C honey
1 1/4 C sugar
5/8 C water
2 cinnamon sticks
6-8 cloves
scant 1/2 t ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350.  Simmer the ingredients for the honey mixture together until syrupy, then kill the heat and allow to cool (remember, it will thicken as it cools).  When it's cool remove the cinnamon sticks and the cloves.

Food processor the nut mixture together, and you may have to work in batches as there's quite a bit of it.  You want small chunks but not powder.

Heavily butter each of eight layers of phyllo and put those in the bottom of the pan.  Add half the nut mixture, then add eight more buttered phyllo layers, then the rest of the nut mixture.  Add another eight layers of buttered phyllo on top.  Cut the top layer into diamonds a little over an inch on a side, and if you want to be fancy push a clove into the center of each diamond (this is removed before eating).  Bake until golden brown (approximately 20 minutes).  Remove and cool for 15 minutes before adding the honey mixture; cool another 3 hours before serving.

Toum, V1

This is an initial pass, modified from a recipe online, but I wasn't completely happy with the meringue-like texture that I got from this one (I could be biased, I despise meringue).  The next time I think I'm going to skip the egg white and add some lecithin as an emulsifier, though the acidity of the lemon juice may keep that from working well.  If the lecithin works it would also make this generally fridge stable unlike something with raw egg in it.

6 cloves garlic
3-4 T lemon juice (to taste)
salt to taste
1/4 C neutral flavored oil
2T cold water
1 egg white

Food processor the garlic, a pinch of salt, and 1 T of lemon juice together.  Add the egg white and processor some more.  Drizzle in half the oil while blending, then alternate slowly adding the lemon juice and the rest of the oil.  At the end add water while checking the consistency, and adjust the salt of necessary.

Sushi Rice

The start to all good sushi and chirashi.

Sushi Rice:
2 2/3 C Japanese short grain rice, rinsed to remove starch
Water appropriate for your rice cooker plus a little (roughly 3 C on the stove top)
note card sized piece of kombu, wiped down with a damp cloth

Vinegar mixture:
1/2 C Japanese rice vinegar
1/4 C sugar
1 t salt

Heat the vinegar mixture until everything is dissolved, but without boiling. Allow to come to room temperature.
Cook the rice the kombu, then remove to a large bowl (preferably non-metallic), discarding the kombu, and allow to sit for several minutes to cool.
Add a small amount of the vinegar to the rice, pouring it on the back of the spatula to spread it, then cut it into the rice. Continue this until you've used all the vinegar; this mixes the vinegar in and separates the rice grains.

Miso Soup

Basic miso soup, but made so much better by using homemade dashi.

Miso soup:
2 Q water
1 - 1 1/2 oz bonito flakes
half a block firm tofu, in large dice
small handful wakame, rehydrated
5 note card sized pieces of kombu
~10 T miso paste (depending on taste and type used, I like a blend of white and red called awase)
small handful thinly sliced green onion

Place the kombu in the water and bring just to a light boil over medium. Remove the kombu and add the bonito, continue to cook until it just returns to a boil, or 10 seconds, whichever comes first, then kill the heat. Allow the bonito to soak for 15 minutes, or until the bonito sinks to the bottom, then strain out the bonito flakes. From this point you can hold the stock (dashi) until ready to make the soup. When you are ready bring the dashi to a gentle simmer, whisk in the miso, then add in the tofu, green onion, and wakame and give it another 30 seconds.

Stuffed Morels

Okay, so it took me months to get around to posting it and morel season is over, but save it for next year.

6 White morels, cleaned and halved lengthwise
Panko

Filling:
1/4 lb spicy breakfast sausage
pinch nutmeg
2 t chopped parsley
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 T butter

Sauce:
Splash dry sherry
1/4-1/3 C heavy cream
1 t dijon mustard, or to taste
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450.  Saute the shallot and garlic in the butter, then add to the rest of the filling ingredients and mix.  Fill the mushrooms with the sausage mixture, mounding slightly, and top with a sprinkle of panko.  The amount of filling that you need will depend on the size of the mushrooms, the ones I had were fairly small.  Place in a steel skillet and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from the oven and remove the morels from the skillet.  Place the skillet over medium heat and brown the juices from the mushrooms if they haven't already browned, then deglaze with the sherry.  Add in the cream and mustard and bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper.  Top the mushrooms with the sauce and enjoy.

Pad Thai

Okay, I finally got around to writing up my Pad Thai recipe:

Pad Thai

Pad Thai that Thai food staple of restaurants everywhere in the US...  This isn't that, the original author says it's the Pad Thai you'd actually get in Thailand, and it's something you'll probably decide is superior as long as you don't mind seafood.  This recipe isn't mine originally, and you should definitely go hit up http://shesimmers.com/ because I'm not going to go into anything like the detail she does, but I have a few changes including those for the lazy, or ingredient challenged - her's calls for banana blossom, which I think I've seen once around here.

So to start, you're going to need a few implements:
a couple of spoons, spatulas, or the like, preferably at least one set up for moving and straining pasta.
A wok or a nice big flat bottomed skillet with some walls.  Cast iron is great, as is anodized aluminum; non-stick would probably work as you're never getting up to temperatures hot enough to damage the teflon.

Noodles:
You need rice noodles, about 3mm wide, but there's some play in that.  Take half a pound of those noodles and dump them in slightly warm water (and a lot of it) for about half an hour.  Make sure you can take any of those noodles and easily wrap it around your finger, but that it's still unpleasantly chewy.  Then give it another 5-10 minutes in the water.  You'll also have a much easier time down the road if you break them up some so you don't end up with a tangled noodle ball while cooking.

The Sauce:
150g tamarind pulp
180g fish sauce
226g palm sugar
60g brown sugar
 This is a lot more than you're going to need for one batch according to this recipe, but the sauce keeps well.

Other stuff:
roughly 1.5 T of shrimp paste in soy oil (this isn't the block stuff you'd use in other Thai dishes)
roughly a cup of slightly crushed roasted nuts (peanut or cashew)
1/4 cup of sliced garlic chive greens (can be left out, but I like them)
slightly less than 1/3 C of small dried shrimp (the little tiny whole ones complete with eyes)
3/4 C extra firm or fried tofu
1-2 C bean sprouts
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
Thai chiles to taste, minced
1/3 C preserved daikon (sweet), chopped (optional, but nice if you can find it)
1/2 lb of chicken or shrimp (if using chicken slice it fairly finely to make it cook more quickly)
Very finely julienned carrot as a garnish (optional, if you can cut it that finely)
A handful of chopped cilantro leaves as a garnish (optional)


Add vegetable oil to the pan over medium high; when a noodle sizzles in the oil you're ready to go.  Add the noodles and approximately 2/3 C of the sauce, as well as the shrimp paste.

Keep everything moving around the pan, and once the pan gets back up to temperature another 30 seconds to a minute and everything should loosen up.

Add in the garlic, chiles, shallot, dried shrimp, tofu, preserved daikon, and shrimp or chicken; you may need to add some more oil.  Now is the important time, KEEP EVERYTHING MOVING.  You need to get the protein cooked, and make sure the noodles soften and loose that unpleasant chew; you may find that you need to add a little extra sauce or a little water.

Check to see if the noodles are about done when the protein is about right; if they're still unpleasantly chewy you want to cover them and cook a little more, adding a little water if necessary.

Kill the heat, add the chives, bean sprouts, peanuts, and carrot and toss to combine.

Serve it up, you might want to include some dried red pepper, lime juice, fish sauce, or, if you're a bad person, some soy sauce on the side.