What's Cooking (Take Two!)

[Jenise]

Interested to hear your thoughts on modifications to the turkey Bolognese sauce, Jenise.
I've been thinking about a turkey tonnato and I've already decided to have a heavy hand on the poaching broth and a very easy hand on the heat and cooking time and a very long cool in the broth but I am worried that the taste and texture will just not be right. Not that I want it to turn out "just like the real thing". It should be different but just not sure how to alter the flavors of the poach and sauce for a seamless meld. I just don't cook with turkey except at Thanksgiving

I use ground turkey in meatballs, either 100% or blended with other meats, and its the one place where turkey improves texture and is the best meat regardless of any health considerations. I also love it for taco filling. It's those items that got me thinking, why not a Bolognese? Well, the texture was just wrong. It never tenderizes the way beef does, it just seemed like pulverized cardboard, and it doesn't develop in flavor. I had to boost the flavor somewhat by adding and reducing with beef broth, and in the end it still seemed a bit flat so I threw in a generous amount of Penzey's French basil, chile flakes, and dollops of olive oil and cream--IOW, I had to add back fat. The final dish was tasty, but whatever advantages I was trying to realize by using turkey instead of red meat were for naught in light of the additives.

A tonnato could be interesting. For best flavor AND texture I would tend to want to roast instead of poach, but then I've never poached turkey. I presume you'd roll and tie the breast for that?

Exactly what I want to avoid, dry, stringy fibers that won't soften even with long soaking in the tonnato sauce. What I had thought is to roll and tie two breasts then do a poach in a very highly seasoned bath at the lowest possible simmer and quit at the lowest temp stopping before fully cooked and allowing to cool in the bath. Sous vide would probably be great now that I think of it.
Recently did a chicken breast pate like this - poached a breast and then whizzed the chopped pieces with black olives, butter and seasonings. Chilled in ramekins and served with a bed of greens , radishes dipped in Dukkah and warmed bread made a nice lunch.

[Robin Garr]

Small Italian eggplant from the garden, sauteed with onions, green peppers and lots of garlic, finished with tomato sauce and Parmigiano over spaghetti.

[Jenise]

Exactly what I want to avoid, dry, stringy fibers that won't soften even with long soaking in the tonnato sauce. What I had thought is to roll and tie two breasts then do a poach in a very highly seasoned bath at the lowest possible simmer and quit at the lowest temp stopping before fully cooked and allowing to cool in the bath. Sous vide would probably be great now that I think of it.
Recently did a chicken breast pate like this - poached a breast and then whizzed the chopped pieces with black olives, butter and seasonings. Chilled in ramekins and served with a bed of greens , radishes dipped in Dukkah and warmed bread made a nice lunch.

No, they'll only get more stringy from long cooking. You'd be right to stop cooking at just done. Love the sound of that pate, btw!

Tonight was pasta with a bechamel containing lots of fresh porcini and a little bit of bacon. Threw in some sauteed chard (stems and leaves) for a gratuitous green. Dessert was peaches (perfect ones from today's farmers' market) sliced and served over vanilla ice cream.

[Robin Garr]

A plant-based variation on Sam Sifton's Macaroni Milanaise in Sunday's NY Times Magazine: Cavatappi pasta dressed with fresh crimini and dried porcini mushrooms in a scant tomato-Madeira reduction with Parmigiano and Gruyere.

Here's the NYT article, which added ham to the ingredient list and served it as a side dish to lamb chops:

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1016574/ ... naise.html

[Robin Garr]

Fresh garden green beans in a tender frittata with browned onions, garlic and a little green pepper. Or, for David, NO green pepper.

[Jenise]

Just got back from another trip, so haven't been cooking at home. Tonight we're going to have a few friends over for a simple French country summer dinner and a discussion about our upcoming Bastille Day celebration. Everyone's on a diet, so the food will be 'sensible': for a starter, loire sauv blancs with haricot verts served two ways, blanched with garlicky vinaigrette and oven roasted with garlic. For the main course, with an assortment of Bordeauxs, a potato gratin with bacon (thinking of Joel Robuchon's amazing version but scaling back on the bacon fat), a butter lettuce salad a la Bouchon/Keller, and a big bowl of cold fresh bing cherries for dessert.

Last night, we had chicken breasts that wer rubbed wit Mexican oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper, and then roasted. These were served with tater tots and corn on the cob.

I made extra chicken which will be sliced and made into panini with cheddar cheese and (canned) Hatch chilies.

Copper River salmon at Costco..so, it was a nice fish with pepper and garlic rubbed on top, several slices of lemons inserted and grilled on coals. With a crisp Spanish Malvasia, it made for a nice evening.

[Jenise]

Shaji, yum. I have yet to buy any Copper River salmon this year, but it's all over the country now. Good for you for getting in. Sockeye or King? I don't know if the kings are in yet.

[Jenise]

Tonight is the neighborhood wine tasting, and we're featuring New York wines. The free-pours will be two whites and two reds, and the sit-down portion will feature a pair of chardonnays, a dry reisling and a dry gewurz, and then two semi-dry reislings. We're providing grilled sausages and sauerkraut to go with whatever our members bring--I'm making one of the two sauerkrauts. I'm using kraut from a jar which is simmering as I write with gewürztraminer, juniper berries, a ham bone and the brown outer skin of a locally made ham. Half the rest of it is chunked and simmering in another pot with wine and herbs for a jambon and perseille terrine I'm making for next week's French dinner party. Good use of a single ham, which I'm real happy about.

Jenise,
It was Sockeye. I haven't seen the King yet either. I tried the Copper River salmons several years ago and loved it. Every time it crops up in the stores, I never lose an opportunity to buy them. I usually cook them in the oven, but it has been so darn warm this Spring, I went with grilling them over coals!
-Shaji

I took a 9" deep dish pie crust and made a sort of extra-large timbale: sauteed spinach, mushroom, and garlic on the bottom, followed with a hot-saute of chopped sweet red pepper, chopped tomato, sliced zucchini, shredded carrot, grilled shrimp, plenty pesto, parmigiano and one egg to hold it all together.

[Robin Garr]

First caprese of the season! Early-maturing tomatoes and basil from the garden, EVOO, kosher salt and Tellicherry pepper and fresh mozz'.

sm-caprese062614.jpg

A good use for some garden fresh rhubarb. Rhubarb "pudding" Cake based upon NJ's Mom's secret family recipe

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Tonight we steamed 3 lbs of P.E.I. mussels in a combo of clam juice and dry vermouth with onion, garlic, pepper, and fine herbs. We dipped the meat in the broth along with hard rolls. Washed it all down with a 2012 Knapp Riesling. We picked up the mussels yesterday at a local purveyor who picked them up that morning in Boston after being flown in the previous day. Wonderful!

NJ's Blueberry Mascarpone Tart (Based upon a recipe from Linda Lindsay-Stone Wolf Cellars)

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Tonight, we had homemade bratwurst on lentils with vegetables that had been quickly sauteed and then further cooked in a little white wine. That was served with a salad of yellow watermelon, basil, and sauteed padron peppers (which was marred by a less-than-perfect watermelon).

Tonight's dinner will be Punjabi fenugreek chicken and kesari pulao.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Suddenly, I can't get enough mint. So tonight's dinner will be lamb chops marinated in mint-cumin-harissa with a bulgur wheat-pine nut pilaf. There's even a sprig of mint in the glass of ice water here on my desk right now. Chateau Musar, maybe?

Last night, I made meat loaf and mashed potatoes for the French gal who's currently staying with us. (She likes meat and does not like vegetables. Any vegetables.) With that, we had a fruit salad that a friend brought over that had watermelon, blueberries, mint, and walnuts. The mint had time to seep into the melon a bit and it was excellent. We also had fried squash blossoms as a starter and a dessert of chocolate chip cookies and PX sherry.

Not your typical hot weather meal but it turned out very well and everyone enjoyed it.

[Jenise]

Tonight we steamed 3 lbs of P.E.I. mussels in a combo of clam juice and dry vermouth with onion, garlic, pepper, and fine herbs. We dipped the meat in the broth along with hard rolls. Washed it all down with a 2012 Knapp Riesling. We picked up the mussels yesterday at a local purveyor who picked them up that morning in Boston after being flown in the previous day. Wonderful!

So jealous! (My husband's deathly allergic to mussels and clams--I rarely get to have them).

Last night was carnitas quesadillas. To make the carnitas, I slow-cooked a boneless pork shoulder in a Dutch oven until the fat was rendered and the meat shredded easily. I "cheated" on the seasoning, using garlic powder instead of fresh (a really generous amount) and an equally generous dose of Penzey's adobo spice mix. After shredding the meat, I let the Dutch oven cool down and put it in the fridge (this was Saturday when I cooked this) to cool and "cure".

The quesadillas were simple, large flour tortillas, shredded cheddar, some canned salsa (Whole Foods 365 organic medium-one of the better store bought salsas I've tasted), a heaping of carnitas and then "cooked" on the Cuisinart griddler. Served with fresh salsa and a salad of butter lettuce, mache, baby arugula and tomato