LunaCafe » Autumn Leaves

Golden Raisin Mostarda with a Kick

Susan S. Bradley — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:12:16 +0000

Mostarda has been showing up with some frequency on restaurant menus of late and after tasting it for the first time with a succulent grilled pork chop at Nel Centro a couple of years ago, I was smitten. It was LOVE at first bite.

Imagine fresh or dried fruit glazed in a sweet, tangy syrup with a subtle or not so subtle mustard kick. As good as that pork chop was, I could have eaten an entire plate of the mostarda.

Of course, I would need a creamy chevre or nutty white cheddar to go with. Plus maybe a few artisan crackers. And several slices of Olympic Provisions spicy coppa.

This is why I am rarely out of homemade mostarda in the OtherWorldly Kitchen. It’s super easy to make and with a few well-chosen accompaniments, it’s the perfect afternoon snack or simple supper.

Mostarda is an Italian condiment that falls in the chutney or conserve family. It’s made by cooking whole or sliced fruit in a vinegar, sugar, and mustard-infused syrup. The mustard flavor is derived from mustard seeds, mustard powder, or mustard oil.

After you have the basic concept in hand, give your culinary muses full reign. The addition of fresh herbs and hot chile make good sense to me. And the raisins?

Well, it is winter after all, the season of dried fruit. And MauiJim is crazy about raisins. Faced with several bags of Trader Joe’s golden raisins in the pantry and a raisin-hungry man, this lovely mostarda was inevitable.

Golden Raisin Mostarda with a Kick

A tangy, chewy, soul satisfying mélange of plump raisins swimming in a spicy mustard syrup. Nestle a spoonful next to grilled pork, duck, or almost any cured meat; add to a sandwich; or serve alongside a full flavored cheese.

½ pound (1½ cups) plump golden raisins (or half golden and half Thompson seedless raisins)
1 jalapeno chile, halved lengthwise, stemmed, seeded, ribbed, and minced (use disposable gloves)
1 sprig rosemary
½ cup natural process apple cider vinegar
½ cup water
¼ cup wildflower honey
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon mustard powder

In a medium saucepan, add all ingredients and bring to a simmer.
Simmer slowly until liquid is thickened somewhat and the harsh bite of the vinegar has softened. Don’t go too far though or the syrup will be too thick after it is chilled.
Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Remove rosemary before serving.
Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Makes about 1½ cups.

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Mexican Tortilla Soup with Frizzled Tortillas

Susan S. Bradley — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:33:20 +0000

Over the years, I have eaten this much-lauded soup in every restaurant and café I could find it.

I love the concept—toasted chiles, tomatoes, garlic, corn tortillas, and cumin soup base with fried tortillas, avocado, and sour cream embellishments—but not always the execution. Restaurant renditions vary considerably, as do recipes in American Southwest and Mexican cookbooks.

Some recipes use a soup base that is more tomato than stock. Some reverse that with hardly any tomato at all. Others use a variety of chilies, both fresh and dried, but no cumin. Others use cumin, but no chilies.

Some tortilla soups are silky purees, while others are rustic chowders. Some are thick stews, while others are watery broths.

In my favorite version, there is a silky puree with subtle taste and aroma of corn tortillas (the result of cooking these into the soup base), heady aroma of toasted cumin, and textural play of garnishes, such as crispy-fried shredded tortillas, crumbled cotija cheese, avocado, tomato, and sour cream.

When prepared with care and thoughtfulness, tortilla soup is an extravaganza, a completely magnificent meal-in-a-bowl.

From numerous tortilla soup adventures in the OtherWorldly Kitchen over the years, I have hit upon a soup base of caramelized onions, which is the distinction that sets this version apart from all others I have tried. The preparation for this soup begins in exactly the same way as for French Onion Soup.

For a fun evening with foodie friends, serve this soup with this movie or this music.

Mexican Tortilla Soup with Frizzled Tortillas

This lovely soup has a rich, complex flavor and gorgeous silky texture. I sometimes add cooked chicken to the garnishes, but this is unnecessary and even extraneous.

Because this soup requires time and effort to produce, and because it is so singular and satisfying, I always serve it as a main course. As a first course, it’s a hard act to follow.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 pounds onions, peeled, cut in half vertically, and sliced
1 teaspoon sugar

3 dried ancho chilies

6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced or pressed
½ cup brandy, optional
½ cup dry red wine, optional

six, 6½-inch diameter corn tortillas, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 jalapeno chilies, stemmed, seeded, ribbed, and minced

1 tablespoon ground cumin (tastes even better if you lightly toast the seeds in a dry saute pan and then grind them yourself)
2 bay leaves

6 cups vegetable or chicken stock, plus more as needed
3 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or three 14.5-ounce cans chopped tomatoes)

fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

½ cup canola oil
three, 6½-inch diameter corn tortillas, cut into narrow strips

Embellishments
1 cup grated or crumbled cotija cheese, optional
½ cup green onion, chopped, optional
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped, optional
1 avocado, peeled, seeded, chopped or sliced, and quickly tossed with fresh lime juice, optional
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped, optional
1 cup sour cream, whisked to smooth, optional
6-8 lime wedges

Melt the butter, add the onions, sprinkle with sugar, and slowly sweat the onions, partially covered, until they are deep brown. This takes 45-60 minutes, sometimes even longer, depending on the heat level and onions. You will need to stir only occasionally during the first 30 minutes, more often during the next 15 minutes, and frequently in the final 15 minutes. NOTE I can’t overemphasize the importance of this step. If the onions are cooked too rapidly, they will burn; if too briefly, they will not lend the necessary color and depth of flavor to the finished soup. So take your time, cover partially, and sweat the onions until they are deep brown, translucent, and soft.
While the onions are browning, put the ancho chiles into a small, dry sauté pan set over medium heat. Toast for 2 to 3 minutes, turning often and pressing flat against the pan with a wooden spoon. The chiles will soften, puff slightly, and give off a lovely fragrance. Remove from the heat, cool briefly, remove the stem and seeds, and tear into small pieces. Put the chiles in a mixing bowl and cover with boiling water. Let hydrate for 30 minutes, and then drain, reserving 1 cup of the water.
When the onions are brown, stir in the garlic, and then carefully add the brandy and reduce to about 2 tablespoons. Add the red wine and reduce by half.
Add the toasted, hydrated ancho chiles, cut tortillas, jalapeno chiles, cumin, and bay leaves. Heat, stirring, for 2 minutes.
Add chicken stock, reserved 1 cup ancho chile water, and tomatoes. Stir, cover partially, and simmer slowly for 30 minutes.
Fish the bay leaves from the soup. Then, either puree the soup with an immersion blender, or for a super silky texture, in batches in a blender.
Adjust the consistency of the soup by adding additional stock if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
If you have time, cool and refrigerate the soup overnight to develop the flavor more fully. (Highly recommend as it makes a big difference.)
Before serving, heat the oil in a small sauté pan until a drop of water sizzles when flicked on the surface. Fry the tortilla strips, turning with tongs, until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain. Prepare the other embellishments as indicated above.
When ready to serve, reheat the soup if necessary and adjust seasoning if necessary. Ladle soup into individual, wide rimmed soup bowls, and top each serving with cooked chicken and fried tortillas. Add some or all of the embellishments. Serve with lime wedges.

Serves 6-8.

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Check out Gojee Potluck

Gojee is having a potluck and this dish is on the table! Starting on Thursday, January 26, check out the other potluck dishes fellow gojee contributors shared. Go to gojee.com and enter “gojeepotluck” into I Crave. You can also follow #gojeepotluck on Twitter.

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Please leave a comment. Include your blog URL so CommentLuv will automatically link to your most recent blog post. And join me at LunaCafe on Facebook for daily adventures in the OtherWorldly Kitchen. Let’s get cooking! …Susan

Kamut, Kale & Cabbage Soup with Winter Pistou

Susan S. Bradley — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:19:16 +0000

Wet, bone-chilling Northwest winters demand a repertoire of inspired, nourishing, soul-lifting soups. So this January, LunaCafe OtherWorldly Kitchen is all about soup. I’m challenging myself to create four new meal-in-a-bowl soups by the end of the month.

The guidelines are simple. The soups must be complete meals (with the optional addition of a crusty loaf of bread), rely as much as possible on seasonal ingredients, and make everyone who eats them feel that winter is not such a dreary time of year after all.

First up is a riff on Mediterranean Vegetable Soup. This soup is essentially a straight-ahead mélange of onions, leeks, bell peppers, tomatoes, and chicken stock. Nothing to write home about, right?

Wrong! Wait until you taste what happens when the soup is finished with a zippy pistou. French Pistou resembles Italian Pesto—except pistou contains tomatoes, no nuts, and Gruyere, instead of Parmesan.

Both pistou and pesto are based on olive oil and basil. But basil screams SUMMER and that’s not what we need to be reminded of in the depths of winter. So we’re going to swap basil for parsley and green onions and make a Winter Pistou.

Additionally, I swapped kale and cabbage for the green beans and zucchini in the original soup. I kept the white beans and new potatoes, and added the most nutritious of all whole wheat berries, kamut.

Kamut berries are buttery, nutty, and delightfully chewy. I could eat them every day. The berries are much larger than durum (common) wheat berries. Kamut contains less gluten, 20-40% more protein, and more lipids, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals than durum wheat.

Preparing Kamut Berries

Kamut berries need to soak overnight (or at least 4 hours). After soaking, drain, cover with fresh water, and simmer for 40-60 minutes, until tender and pleasantly chewy. The berries will plump to twice their original size. You can freeze prepared berries in 2-cup increments for later use.

Kamut, Kale & Cabbage Soup with Winter Pistou

This flavorful tomato-based soup is loaded with onions, leeks, celery, bell peppers, new potatoes, kale, white beans, cabbage, and kamut berries. It would be delicious if we stopped there. However, we will take this soup into the flavor stratosphere by swirling in Winter Pistou just before serving. To richen the soup even more, you can combine the pistou with an equal amount of mayonnaise, making a kind of herbed aioli in the process.

NOTE Be sure to cook the kamut and beans before beginning the recipe.

Soup Base
2 tablespoons cold-pressed olive oil
2 medium-sized onions, chopped (4 cups chopped)
2 large leeks, white and tender green only, chopped (2 cups chopped)
2 stalks celery, chopped (1 cup chopped)
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
1 large yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
8 cups vegetable or chicken stock, plus more if needed
28-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
6 ounces tomato paste
1 teaspoon thyme leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon rosemary leaves, minced

Vegetables, Kamut & Beans
2 medium-large Red Pontiac (new) potatoes, cut into ½-inch dice (1 pound)
4 ounces kale, stemmed and coarsely chopped
12 ounces regular or savoy cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped
2 cups cooked white beans (in a pinch, canned beans can be used)
2 cups cooked kamut

Winter Pistou (makes 1 cup)
3 large cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup flat leaf parsley, trimmed of stems
½ bunch green onions, trimmed, and cut into 2-inch lengths
6 ounces Gruyere or Emmenthaler cheese, grated
¼ cup cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup best quality mayonnaise, optional

Seasonings:
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
fresh lemon juice

Garnish:
1 cup parsley leaves, chopped
grated Gruyere

Heat the olive oil in a large casserole or soup pot.
Add the onions and leeks and sweat them (cook over low heat with a tight fitting lid so that they cook in their own juices and do not brown) until tender, about 15 minutes.
Add the celery and garlic and cook without browning for another two minutes or so.
Add the red and yellow bell peppers along with the chicken stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, and rosemary.
Simmer together slowly for 20-25 minutes, until the flavors have a chance to meld and intensify.
Add the potatoes to the soup base and simmer until just beginning to soften.
Add the kale and cabbage.
Simmer until vegetables are tender-crisp.
Add the cooked white beans and cooked kamut.
Season soup to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
While the vegetables are cooking, make the pistou by combining the garlic, parsley, green onions, and Gruyere in a processor and puree. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil through the feed tube and process until thoroughly blended.
To serve, ladle into soup bowls and top each serving with a dollop of pistou, and a sprinkle of parsley and Gruyere.

Makes 5-6 quarts; serves 10-12.

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Please leave a comment. Include your blog URL and CommentLuv will automatically link back to your most recent blog post. And join me at LunaCafe on Facebook for daily adventures in the OtherWorldly Kitchen. Let’s get cooking! …Susan

Dry-Cured Breast of Turkey Roulade with Autumn Herbs

Susan S. Bradley — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:24:04 +0000

This Thanksgiving, I give thanks to Zuni Café culinary goddess, Judy Rodgers, for turning me on to dry salt curing.

I had wet brined poultry and pork for years before trying the salt curing process Chef Rodgers describes in The Zuni Café Cookbook.

To compare the two methods, I conducted several tests, and to my palate, salt-curing wins. Although both methods have advantages, you just can’t beat salt-curing for ease and juiciness of the cooked meat.

However, I discovered a caveat later. My tests involved only three ingredients: salt, sugar, and water. For the dry cured tests, I used salt only. For the wet brined tests, I used salt, sugar, and water to cover.

What I had not considered was the effect of swapping water for apple cider or other flavorful liquid. Apple Cider-Brined Tenderloin of Pork with Rhubarb Deglazing Sauce is a case in point. Imagine pork tenderloin infused with the flavor of apple cider. Dry curing won’t produce that result.

So now, I choose the technique based on the effect I am going for. Both techniques produce amazing, yet slightly different, results.

Because turkey is humungous, I almost always choose to dry cure it. It’s easier, requires less room in the frig, and produces excellent results.

But for a breast of turkey, the options are wide open.

I decided to try a salt and pepper cure combined with an herb paste rub. As expected, the texture and flavor are out of this world.

Dry-Cured Breast of Turkey Roulade with Autumn Herbs

You will love this festive turkey roulade, slathered with a zippy fresh herb and mustard paste. Pretty on the plate, this is an great choice for a small Thanksgiving gathering.

one whole breast of turkey, skin, tendons, and fat removed
coarse sea salt in a grinder
black pepper in a grinder

Autumn Herb Paste
1½ ounces fresh herbs: equal amounts of rosemary, thyme, and sage, stems removed (¾ ounce trimmed)
1 ounce fresh parsley, stems removed (¼ ounce trimmed)
4 cloves garlic, peeled, and minced or pressed
zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon fine sea salt

To make the herb paste, in a processor fitted with the steel knife, mince the rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley, lemon zest, and garlic until very fine. Add the mustard and pulse to combine. Then with the machine running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and add the salt to taste. Reserve. (Makes ½ cup herb paste.)
On a sheet of foil, lay the two breast halves, top-side-down, side-by-side lengthwise, overlapping the touching sides slightly.
Lay a piece of plastic wrap over the breast halves and using a mallet, flatten the thick portions slightly to an even depth. Remove the plastic wrap.
Grind salt and pepper liberally over the joined breast halves, and then spread the Autumn Herb Paste evenly over the flesh, leaving ½-inch of one long side clear of paste.
Roll the roast lengthwise and tie at 1-inch intervals with kitchen twine.
Wrap in plastic wrap and frig for 1-3 days.
In a large sauté pan, heat oil and sauté roast to brown all sides. This will
take about 15 minutes.
Transfer roast to an edged baking sheet or roasting pan, and roast at 375°
until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the roast reads
165, about 45 minutes.
Remove from the oven, cover loosely with foil and let rest for 15
minutes.
To serve, cut into crosswise slices.

Serves 4-6.