(Thanks to Dave for letting me moonlight on his blog – now my pictures of cooking have a place to live)

I made my first attempt at carnitas in 2006. Seems the traditional method involves a large copper cauldron filled with lard, so that wasn’t going to be practical. While slowly deep frying a giant hunk of pork sounds delightful, my kitchen was not going to accommodate such an undertaking. My approximation was to slow cook a pork shoulder in butter, oranges, sugar, and some spices. After a few hours I cut off the fat and reduced the liquid to a sauce (adding a bit more sugar) After glazing the hunks of meat I threw them into a very hot oven. The result was crusty on the outside, moist on the inside, and all-around a source of delight. I’ve used this basic technique a few times since, varying the spices along the way. The results have always been excellent.

Lately I have tended to avoid the “butter step”: as it seemed superfluous to add a few sticks of butter to an already fatty cut of meat. I haven’t missed it. I also don’t really consider what I make to be carnitas, though it continues to be inspired by those flavors.

Ingredients

• 1 large pork shoulder (I usually use the “picnic shoulder”, about 5lbs raw)
• 1 yellow onion
• 2-4 oranges (or more, to taste — I used about 6 clementines last time I did this)
• 3 cups broth (I usually use chicken, but any tasty broth will do)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or I like to use jaggery when I have it around)
• 1/2 cup Dry Rub (or more, to taste) — you can make up your own, buy one, or use something like what I did in the pictures (all amounts are approximate):
  • 1/4 cup smoked salt
  • 3 TB garlic powder (or even better: use fresh, minced garlic)
  • 3 TB Oregano
  • 2 TB Cumin
  • 2 TB Thyme
  • 1 TB Black Pepper
  • 1 TB White Pepper
  • 1 TB sugar (brown or white)
  • 2 tsp Cinnamon
  • Zest of 1-2 oranges (I used the zest from 5 clementines in these pictures)

Prep Work

1. Zest the oranges, set zest aside to use in your dry rub or to add to the broth
2. Juice the oranges, saving both the juice and the juiced orange carcasses
   
3. (if necessary) mix your dry rub
   
4. Cut the onion into small pieces — I usually quarter it then run through a food processor slicer blade.
5. Dry the meat and, if possible, bring to room temperature

Phase I: Get the Meat Ready To Hang Out

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250°
2. In a heavy dutch oven, heat a couple tablespoons of high heat oil with a bit of salt (I like to use smoked salt for this). Once the oil is just starting to smoke, place the meat in with the fattier side down. Brown it for about 5 minutes, until the fat is nicely browned.
   

   Turn it over and brown the other side for another 3-5 minutes (optionally, brown the other outside edges, but you are just looking to get some nice browning going to flavor your onions and the broth). Once browned, remove the meat and set aside.

   
3. Immediately throw the onions in to brown in the fat that melted off the meat. Stir occasionally until translucent. This should take about 5-7 minutes, but you can let it go for quite a while, as long you don’t burn the onions.
   
4. While the onions are browning, rub the meat with the Dry Rub all over. Be sure the fattier side gets a nice coating, as that will be the side not in the liquid, but save about 1TB of the rub to sprinkle on right before you put the meat in the oven.
5. Once your onions are the way you want them, put the meat in with the fattier side facing up (which allows the fat to drip down over the meat as it melts).
6. Pour in broth to a depth of about 1-2 inches, being careful not to submerge too much of the meat. Then, pour the orange juice over the meat. Sprinkle the remaining TB of Dry Rub on the top of the meat.
7. (optional) Put the juiced orange carcasses on the top of the meat to help everything stay moist.
   
8. Cover the dutch oven and place it in the oven. Let it cook for at least 3 hours, probably 4-5 hours. I sometimes leave as long as 8 hours, though at that point the meat will completely fall apart. About 3/4 of the way through you can remove the orange carcasses and turn the meat over. I like to put a few of the onions on the top of the meat after turning it to be sure it doesn’t dry out.

Phase II: From Tasty to Sublime

1. Remove the meat from the dutch oven and place on a shallow baking pan. Turn your oven to 500° (or as hot as it gets) – you can also use the broiler, but that must be done with great caution, as it’s easy to burn the glaze and get too much of a charred flavor.
   
2. Pour the liquid from the dutch oven into a separator (or just remove the oily top layer yourself), then pour the non-oily bottom layer into a small sauce pan. At this point I like to add the brown sugar or jaggery and/or more orange juice (and sometimes more cinnamon or other spices, depending on the flavor I want for the glaze), but that’s optional. Reduce the liquid over medium heat until it becomes viscous enough to stick to the meat, about the consistency of a gravy.
   
3. While the sauce is reducing, cut the meat into large chunks, removing the larger pieces of fat (unless you love to eat hunks of fat). I usually just discard the fat at this point, but you can save it to cook with beans or whatever turns you on.
   
4. When the sauce is reduced to a glaze, use a basting brush or just spoon it over the meat, coating it as much as possible. If the meat isn’t falling apart (which it usually is) you can try dipping the pieces of meat into the glaze using a slotted spoon. Reserve the rest of the sauce to use over the finished meat as a gravy.
   
5. Put the glazed meat in the 500° oven for about 3-5 minutes. Watch is closely, as the time will vary depending on how much sugar is in the sauce and the moisture content. You want to see just a hint of blackening at the edges, at which point you want to remove it immediately or risk having hunks of char. You can’t really go wrong, so if you get impatient just take it out.

You can serve this meat with tortillas and taco fixings. I also like to serve it over polenta or rice, depending on the spice mix. If you cooked the meat enough, you could probably just go right to “pulled pork” (with or without the glazing step) if you prefer. Ideally, the meat should have a nice crust on the outside and be succulent inside. This meat should keep well for a day or two in the fridge (or even longer).

I was about to make french toast for brunch, when Suzanne says “Why don’t you make a frittata, you could finish up that bit of broccoli.” Why yes, I think, and the mushrooms. And since I had just beat the eggs and cream, and not gotten any further … why not? After all, french toast & frittata are basically the same … up until you have the eggs beaten anyway. Then they start to diverge.

8 eggs
some cream
some red onion, thinly sliced
half a dozen med/lrg mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 head of brocolli, chopped
half pound of peppered bacon
Parmesan cheese to taste, grated

Start by frying the bacon until just crisp. Drain and crumble. By starting with the bacon, you have lovely bacon drippings to use in frying the rest. Saute the the onion. Add the mushrooms, then the broccoli. Cook until they’re just soft. Beat the eggs & cream, season with salt and pepper and pour over the vegetable mixture. Mix in the cheese and bacon. cook over low heat until the egg is set.

At this point, I hear you’re supposed to switch to the oven to finish the dish. Not having made a frittata before, I wasn’t aware of that (I was just winging it), and actually got the thing flipped into another skillet to cook the top, then flipped back onto a plate to serve. Very adept flipmanship, if I do say so. Here it is:

We were looking around in the fridge tonight for something for dinner when Suzanne pulled out a big bag of mushrooms I’d picked up last time I was at Wholefoods. It was a lot of mushrooms. “I could make Cream of Mushroom Soup,” she said. “Yes, please!” I responded.

She started with this recipe from epicurious.com:

Ingrediants

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
3 leeks, halved, thinly sliced (white and pale green parts only)
2 pounds button mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup long-grain white rice
3 1/4 cups (or more) canned low-salt chicken broth
3 1/4 cups canned beef broth
1/2 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Preparation

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add leeks and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Add mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms are soft and dry, about 10 minutes. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Stir in rice. Add 3 1/4 cups chicken broth and beef broth to pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until rice is very tender, about 30 minutes. Cool slightly. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return soup to pot. Stir in cream. Thin with more chicken broth, if desired. (Soup can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly, cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

Ladle soup into 8 bowls. Sprinkle with chives and serve.

Some tweaks were made, largely because she was working with what was around the kitchen.

• 1 leek and some onions instead of 3 leeks
• brown rice instead of white, putting it in earlier
• 4 cups beef broth, and 3 cups vegetable broth
• and of course, using a stick/immersion blender (if you don’t have one … get one

Our produce box this week contained beets, so Suzanne made Roasted Beet Salad with Beet Greens and Feta.

One change was that she tossed the greens into the salad rather than putting then somewhat on the side. With the tossing the feta was coated in the bright pink beet juice… so it goes with beets.

There’s not too much to be said: garlicky, tangy, but most of all: beety! The feta was a nice salty counterpoint.

If you like beets (and btw I love beets and maybe not so coincidentally, Jitterbug Perfume is one of my favorite books), this is well worth a try.

We had guests for dinner tonight, and Suzanne made a stellar risotto. What was the star ingrediants, you might ask. Well… um… squash (hmm) and… kale (gulp).

You might correctly jump to the conclusion that I am not fan of either. You would be largely correct. At least until last night. I’ve never overly liked squash. I’ve tolerated it in some dishes (curries, for example), and mildly enjoyed it in others (notable a tex-mex style squash soup). Kale is another story entirely. I have actively despised it in any form.

So you can imagine that I was skeptical when Suzanne said she was making risotto (yum) with squash & kale (hrumph). But given other things she’d made, I was prepared to be pleasantly surprised. And that I was.

She started with a recipe at Epicurious: Risotto with Tuscan Kale and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds:

Ingrediants:

4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 bunch baby Tuscan kale, rib removed (also called cavolo nero or lacinato kale or dino kale)
4 cups butternut squash, coarsely chopped
4 medium leeks, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (10 ounces)
1/3 cup dry white wine
grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste

Accompaniment:toasted pumpkin seeds

Method:

Make the risotto as usual, adding the squash after having added 2 cups of liquid. Add the kale after all the liquid has been added.

We had some potatoes and lettuce left from a previous produce delivery, some eggs left from saturday’s brunch, some tuna from the fancy food show. And so, after a quick grocery run for a few things we were missing (like anchovies, nicoise olives, etc), Suzanne made Salade Niçoise tonight, loosely based on this Tyler Florence recipe from the Food Network.

The tuna we had was in oil with Jalapenos so it gave a slight heat to the salad. Unusual but nice. It turned out fabulously. Here it is in all it’s glory:

Salade Niçoise

Vinaigrette:

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoons dried thyme
• Sel gris and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, including some from the tuna and anchovies
• jalapenos from the tuna, chopped

Salad:

• lettuce
• some small red new potatoes, scrubbed and halved, boiled
• 3 large eggs, boiled and quartered
• 1/2 pound haricots verts or French green beans, stems trimmed, steamed
• bottle of Tonnino tuna, with oil, chunked
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Sel gris and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pint teardrop or cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup nicoise olives, chopped
• 4 anchovy fillets, chopped
• capers
• green onions, chopped

I ran across this recipe a couple of months ago while trying to find something quick and easy. The dish itself only takes about 5 minutes of prep work, and about 7 minutes to cook.  It’s one of those dishes that tastes ridiculously amazing, despite being very easy to make.

Jamie Oliver’s website has both the instructions and a great video of how to make it, so in an effort to keep the internet DRY, I’ll let you look at those there. I will say this though, the directions in the recipe are different than in the video. I’ve found the video instructions to be better.

Besides that, I wanted to share a couple of tips to help make this dish awesome:

• Use Prosciutto

  You need to use prosciutto for this. Other salted hams just don’t crisp up the same. Wimpy, limp ham drastically brings down the quality of the dish.

• Lemon Zest

  This really makes the dish awesome, but it’s a balancing act. It doesn’t take a lot to overpower the other flavors, but it’s important there is enough of it to meld properly with the cheese. It may take a time or two before you learn how much to add. Also, I think this goes without saying, but use fresh zest.

• Organic Chicken

  Besides the health and environmental reasons, organic chicken is just easier to work with. The standard, non-organic chicken breasts are freakishly huge compared to their organic counterparts. That makes pounding them flat nearly impossible, which is a must for this dish to turn out proper.

Enjoy!

Today’s secret ingredient: Collard Greens.  Um… excuse me… but… WTF?

As you may recall, I got a box of produce yesterday.  In it was Collard Greens. I remember hearing about this stuff from my mother. All I remember was that it was something that ‘the old people’ ate. I’d never eaten it. I don’t recall ever seeing it cooked or eaten. In short, I had no idea what to do with it.

My friend, Suzanne, came to my rescue.  ”It’s good in soup” she said.  I figured that the leek in the produce box would be quite good in soup as well.  And I had leftover red wine in the fridge, and beans & tomato paste in the cupboard. Soup would work. I ducked out to Safeway and picked up some nice mushrooms and cilantro.

Back in the kitchen, I cleaned, thickly sliced and browned the mushrooms (don’t crowd them!). While they browned, I split the leek lengthwise (it was massive) sliced one half in about 1/8″ thick slices, and rinsed it well. Then I trimmed the stalks off the greens, washed & dried them.  I split each leave along the spine, and coarsely chopped them.

When the mushrooms were finished, I quickly sauteed the greens with a bit of salt and pepper.  Into a pot went a can of kidney beans, the mushrooms, and the greens.  I stirred.  I put the leek on to sauté, and added wine to the pot.  The pot simmered while the leek softened.  Then the leek went into the pot, and I topped it up with more wine and some water.  I also stirred in some tomato paste and a bit of salt & pepper.

I let this simmer for a while, before adding coarsely chopped cilantro. It simmered a bit more before being served & consumed.  I had a good picture, but it’s on the iMac that got packed up earlier this evening.

Oh. I should mention that the soup was good.

So, I’m very happy with my first collard greens experience, and am looking forward to opening future produce boxes and saying “WTF?”.

Cod is not really one of my favorite fishes. There are many other fish types that are richer in taste which I enjoy much more than this Atlantic fish.

Still I decided to bake cod that I bought at a local market  today (it is really difficult to find good fish variety in England, specially if you where brought up in Spain).

For this recipe you will need the following ingredients (light dinner for 2 people):

• 2 Cod fillets (boneless and clean)
• 2 tomatoes (I used vine ripened claret tomatoes which have a sweet and juicy aroma)
• 1 onion (in this instance I used a small shallot onion)
• 1 garlic clove
• Dired oregano
• Black pepper
• Salt (I used sea salt flakes; a natural occurring sea salt)
• Virgin olive oil (I was tempted to use my newly acquired ‘2008 Frantoio Gulielmo di Malavalle‘ oil, but I will leave it for another dish)

Preparation

1. Sprinkle the cod filets with the salt and pepper to your taste.
2. Place the fillets on the oiled baking pot.
3. Chop the tomatoes, garlic and onion into small pieces and mix them.
4. Spoon the mix on top of the cod fillets.
5. Sprinkle the top with the oregano.
   
6. Bake at 450ºF for around 30 minutes (possibly less ~20 minutes)
7. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 2 minutes before serving.
   

You could also serve it with a nice mediterranean salad as it will mix very well with the taste of this cod recipe.

I hope you enjoy trying it out as much as I did eating it tonight

This is a great meal for fall or winter. I tend to pair it with Broccoli Raab if I can find it, and wild mushroom risotto.

• 6 T olive oil
• 4-6 lamb or veal shanks – traditional is veal, I’ve had good luck with both
• salt and pepper
• 1 lb of fresh mushrooms – a mix of whatever is available – crimini, shiitake, chanterelle, wood ear, lions head, porcini, the more the merrier, rough chopped
• a few oz of dried mushrooms – porcini, etc
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup each of diced carrot and celery
• garlic minced
• a bay leaf or two
• 2 cups dry red or white wine
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 3 cups or a can of of chopped tomatoes depending on season
• couple of Ts of fresh basil
• couple of Ts of fresh oregano
• Coriander, cumin, other spices to taste

Ideally use a nice dutch oven or something similar . I’ve got a le Creuset dutch oven that I use all the time for various recipes and will last a lifetime, well worth it and it is one of the tools of the kitchen I highly recommend.

Heat the oven to 300 degrees, and get a burner up to med high with the dutch oven or oven proof pot.
Add some olive oil – a few tablespoons.
Season the shanks with salt and pepper, brown them on each side, 10 mins or so and then pull them out.
Add the mushrooms and saute them for a few minutes to pull out the moisture on the stove top, add some salt and pepper. Around 5 mins and pull them off.

Dried mushrooms are a great addition – heat up a cup of water to boiling in the microwave, add some dried mushrooms and let them sit for 1/2hr, strain out the mushrooms, and use the mushroom water along with the broth, strained while you make the dish.

Add some more olive oil, put in the garlic for a minute, until slightly browned, then put in the onion, carrot and celery. Cook til translucent, 7 or 8 minutes.
Put in the wine and bay leaf, bring to a boil, reduce by half or until you don’t get alcohol on the nose while smelling it, but just savory hints of the wine. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes, bring it to a boil.

Add the shanks, salt and pepper to taste. And then place it in the oven to braise for around 3 hours. It will be done when it’s falling off the bone. This is mostly a one pot dish and surprisingly easy, but impressive and great for cold days.