Bourbon Braised Pork Ribs

Some friends of ours cooked this for us this winter while on a ski trip. Naturally we immediately incorporated it into the repertoire as a great easy, hearty dinner.

Serves 8-10

8 pounds meaty pork ribs
8 ounces honey
Two 29 ounce cans whole stewed peeled tomatoes
1 handle bourbon
Canola oil for braising.
Tony Chachere's or other seasoning salt blend to taste
Lemon juice if needed

Brown pork ribs in batches in a large, high-walled pot (high-walled so that you don't get splattered too much). Set each batch aside.

Once all pork has been braised, add back into pot, add bourbon, tomatoes and honey. Use a knife or potato masher to roughly cut the tomatoes. Simmer for 1.5 hours. Add more water as necessary, but eventually reduce to a thickish sauce.

Serve over brown rice. Serve with cole slaw or kale salad with blue cheese buttermilk dressing.

Turkish Chicken Skewers

Serves 2-3 (0.5 pounds chicken/person)

• 2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 lemon, sliced into 3 mm rounds
• 6 garlic cloves, cut in half, smashed with flat end of chef's knife
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp tomato paste (if you didn't have it, you could probably use ketchup--don't tell anyone)
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp EVOO
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1.5-2 pounds chicken, thighs preferably, as they take the marinade better. Cube into 1.25" squares, roughly

Equipment: 6 chicken skewers

If short on marinade time, pre-heat oven to broil. 

Add pepper flakes, paprika and water to a medium sized mixing bowl. Mix and let sit for 5 minutes to form a paste. Add in all remaining marinade ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add chicken, and let sit as long as you can. I have done this as little as 1/2 an hour, and as long as 2 hours. More would probably be good, but still good as is. 

Once chicken is marinated, slide chicken onto skewers. Be careful not to skewer your fingers. *IMPORTANT* Between each piece of chicken add 1 slide off lemon to the skewer. The lemon slices will char, and slightly caramelize during the broiling, and provide an amazing condiment to the chicken. Once all chicken is out, fish out the garlic chunks, and wedge them in between the chicken and lemon slices. 

Place on a broiling pan on the highest rack in the oven. Broil 5-6 minutes on each side. 

Serve immediately. 

Red Lentil Dal

Serves 4

Adapted from "Indian Regional Classics." We love this dal. Most dal at U.S. Indian restaurants is made with brown lentils, and just doesn't get the wonderful creamy texture this gets as a result. There is a very slight kick from the turmeric, but if you wanted more you could add some cayenne or other red pepper. But try it as-is first.

• 1 1/4 c. red lentils
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 3 cups water
• 4 tbsp butter (or ghee)
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 4 large garlic cloves, thickly chopped
• kosher salt to taste

Bring the lentils, turmeric and water to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until a pea soup texture is achieved. Stir occasionally. Cook longer if needed, add water if needed.

While lentils are simmering, make ghee. Bring a very small (8" or so) frying pan to medium-high. Add cumin seeds and toast, swirling the seeds occasionally to prevent burning. You'll know their done when they start to smell toasty-cuminy, and are several shades darker. Add the 4 Tbsp butter or ghee. Melt, and when foaming subsides, add garlic. Saute garlic until fragrant, and turning slightly golden (a few minutes). 

Add butter/ghee to the lentils, and mix in thoroughly. Add kosher salt to taste. 

Pasta with Arugula Pesto and Seared Sea Scallops

Serves 4 (with leftover pesto)

Pesto

• 5 ounce packaged washed/dried arugula
• 1 ounce parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated
• 3 cloves garlic--skin still on
• Large 1/3 cup raw walnuts
• 4-6 T EVOO
• Large pinch of salt

Pan-roast the garlic. In a small saute pan,  heat 1 tbsp canola oil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high and add the garlic cloves. Turn each piece of garlic every few minutes till quite brown on all sides, but not black. This will roast the garlic in about 10 minutes.

Place walnuts in food processor and pulse until coarse-grained. Add everything else except EVOO and salt. Pulse till all is coarsely ground. Add 4 T oil, and pulse till you achieve correct pesto consistency --pretty fine, but no where near a paste. You should be able to distinguish individual grains. Add more EVOO if you need it, and salt to taste.

Scallops
12 U-10 sea scallops (U-10 means 10 scallops/pound or under, so this is a LOT of fish).

Only use fresh scallops. Frozen will retain too much water and will not caramelize. Check scallops and remove attaching muscle if still present. If you have time, place scallops in a strainer and let them desiccate further. Individually dry each scallop with a paper towel. In a non-stick pan, heat 1 Tbsp of canola oil over high heat (canola oil is better than other oils for searing, b/c it has a higher smoke point, so you won't smoke up your house or burn the oil). Reduce heat to medium high and add scallops. Cook 1.5 to 2 minutes each side, or until you get a nice caramelization.

Assembly
Cook pasta according to package directions (or better yet, make your own :). Reserve some of the pasta liquid. Strain pasta, then toss with 1/2 of the pesto. Add a few Tbsps pasta liquid if it appears too dry. Add more pesto if you would like something richer. Place scallops on top (sorry, pretty obvious on that one). 

Drew’s Goat Cheese-Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

Serves 4

 

Our friend Drew made these when we visited her and her husband in southern Oregon. We liked them much better than the fried versions we had in Italy.

 

• 16 2.5” – 4” zucchini flowers
• 4 ounces of goat cheese; we had regular Cyprus Grove, but I would like to try it with their “purple haze” which has some very floral herbs in it
•  4 cloves garlic sliced into about 2 mm slices
• 1 sprig fresh thyme, leaves removed and roughly chopped
• 2-3 T EVOO
• Cracked pepper and kosher salt to taste

Saute the garlic in the olive oil until it is browned. The garlic is actually more of a condiment than something integrated into the dish, this brings the sugars forward, and it is actually sort of chewy as a result, almost like a garlic candy. If you were making this for a pasta, you would think that you’d burnt the garlic—that’s exactly what you’re going for here, an almost burnt preparation.

 

While the garlic is sautéing, add stuff the zucchini flowers with the goat cheese.

 

Once the garlic has reached the desired doneness, remove the garlic from the garlic from the olive oil with a slotted spoon or other straining device.

 

Return the EVOO to a high heat, and sauté the zucchini flowers briefly, just enough to get the goat cheese kind of melting.

 

Remove and plate the zucchini flowers. Divide the garlic among the four portions. Sprinkle the thyme leaves and a small amount of salt and pepper over the top.

 

Goat cheese-stuffed tomato with pistachios and balsamic vinegar

This is borrowed from Crispi 19, a fish restaurant we went to in Rome. It was a very nice, fresh summer appetizer.
Serves 4

• 4 vine-riped tomatoes, with tops removed, and seeds scooped out.
• 10 ounces soft goat cheese, I used 5 ounces of plain goat cheese, and 5 ounces of "Purple Haze" a goat cheese with herbs, lots of fennel
• 1-2 ounces pistachios, optional
• ground black pepper to taste
• a few tablespoons good balsamic vinegar
• frisee, arugula or basil to garnish

Places the pistachios in a food processor (small bowl), and process till desired granularity. Remove pistachios and mix goat cheeses in the food processor, this will have the effect of whipping it and lightening its density. If you are using pistachios, add them back in, but process just to mix.

We had very chalky goat chesse with ours, and it was nice, the chalkiness was a good counterpoint to the tomato. When I do this, I will probably did this, I placed each tomato on a salad of greens with balsamic dressing. I also served it with gazpacho.

Gnocchi with Buffalo Mozzeralla, Pesto and Arrabbiata Sauce

Inspired by a lunch dish we had in Rome at Ciampini at the top of the Spanish steps. You must do both sauces, as the arrabbiata is not sufficient.

• 1 recipe arrabbiata sauce, similar to this
• 1 recipe gnocchi
• 1/2 recipe pesto (really, you should make the full recipe, and just save the rest for use in another dish)
•  2 four-ounce buffalo mozzeralla balls, cut into a 1/2" dice

Separate the gnocchi into four bowls. Divide up the mozzerella cubes between the four bowls, and intersperse with the gnocchi. Divide up the arrabbiata sauce between the four bowls, and gently stir to mix into the gnocchi--gently, because the gnocchi is very prone to breaking, and if you don't do it gently, you'll have mashed potato soup. Spoon 1/2 to 1 tsp-sized dollops of pesto onto each of the four bowls, around 10 dollops per bowl should be sufficient.

This was a huge hit at our house. It is very rich without actually being very high fat or caloric. It's a tad on the labor-intensive side, given the gnocchi and the two sacues, but if you make the pesto the day before, and use half of it for something else, it will feel less-so.