Leftover Hambone Soup

Ingredients

Hambone
1 cup cooked ham, chopped
1 med. onion, diced
2 carros, diced
1 potato, diced
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 bay leaf

Directions

Pick a pot that is the smallest possible one where the hambone can still lay flat. Fill with water until the hambone is just covered. Add 1 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 min. Discard hambone.

In a skillet, cook the onion and carrot until browned and softened, respectively. Add to hambone broth, along with uncooked potatoes and bay leaf. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Simmer until the potato is cooked through. Add frozen corn and peas at the end, to thaw and warm through. Ditto with the ham, if you're planning on serving the whole pot. If not, put enough ham for each portion in individual bowls and ladle the hot soup over it. (The ham will leach salt and become flavorless if left in the soup for an extended period of time. Keep the ham separate until ready to eat.)

[Based on this recipe.]

Miso Cod

Ingredients
1 lb sablefish / black cod for 3 servings
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake (plus 2 tbsp for rinsing salt off the fish)
4 tbsp white miso
3 tbsp sugar

Directions

Salt the fish and set aside for 30 min. Cut into three generous fillets

To make the marinade, cook the mirin and sake for 30 seconds to boil off some of the alcohol. Whisk in the miso and stir until completely incorporated. Add sugar at the end, and stir to dissolve. Take the marinade off heat and cool to room temp.

After resting for 30 min, use the 2 extra tbsp of sake to rinse the salt off the fish. Do not rinse with water! Pat the fish dry.

Coat each fish fillet in marinade and set in a non-reactive dish. Double saran wrap it.

Marinate in the fridge for 3-5 days.

When fully marinated, take the fish out and smooth off excess marinade. Do not rinse with water! Bake at 350F for 20-25 min.

Summer Fruit Cake

Ingredients
1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter, room temperature (add 1/4 tsp salt if you use unsalted butter)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
spice of choice - e.g. ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon zest
fruit for topping - e.g. berries, plums, apples

Directions

Cream the soft butter into the sugar. Add the eggs, mix well. Add flour, baking powder, mix thoroughly. It will be a pretty thick. Dollop it into a round cake pan lined with parchment (mine's 9 inches, makes for a thin-ish cake around 2 inches high). Spread it out evenly but it doesn't need to push into the edges or be perfectly flat - it will spread and puff during baking.

Dust with your spice of choice. I like a little ground ginger for warmth and mystery, personally; it goes great with blueberries, and with plums. Top with your fruit of choice in a pleasing arrangement. This cake can take a lot of fruit. I've made this with blueberries mixed with chopped rhubarb, delicious. Black plums cut into eights and arranged in a fan, also delicious. Would likely work with frozen raspberries, pears, figs, or peaches. If your fruit is on the sour side, you may want to dust the top with extra sugar. I usually don't because I like the tart pockets of cooked fruit.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 min. The batter will rise up and gorgeously enfold the fruit as it bakes. The middle has a tendency to finish baking in the last 5 minutes, so be sure the middle is fully set before you set it out to cool. Best to take it out of the pan when still warm.

The cake is substantial but not heavy and has a simplicity that really sets off fresh summer fruit. It almost has a cornmeal-like texture, despite having no cornmeal in it at all.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
5 tbsp butter (add 1/4 tsp salt if you use unsalted butter)
1 egg
3/4 cup sour cream (can sub yogurt but full fat sour cream is better)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (can sub zest of half a lemon)
1/2 cup sugar

Dry:
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Directions

After three tries, I think I've finally got this recipe down. I followed Smitten Kitchen's recipe to being with, but her instructions for the yogurt version came out pretty stiff and dry on my first try. The second try, I added a splash of milk to thin the batter slightly and it worked better. The third time, I only had 1/2 cup of yogurt so I put in 1/4 cup sour cream as well. That was the game changer. Full fat sour cream has about 10 times the fat as plain yogurt (14% versus 1.4%). Fat is the answer. MUCH more tender and yummy muffin. So here we go!

Melt the butter. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and combine well. The spices are up to you but I think ginger and blueberries are yummy together. Stir in the sugar as soon as you measure it in - if you leave it, it can clump up.

Dust in baking powder and baking soda. Mix. Gently fold in flour and blueberries - don't overmix here. The batter should be pretty stiff - certainly stiff enough to hold the blueberries in place. If it feels like you're mixing cement, you may need a splash of milk to thin it.

Portion the batter out into a paper-lined muffin tin. Deb of Smitten Kitchen says it makes 9 standard muffins but I get 16 little muffins (or I fill a 12-tray and stick the leftover batter into a mini loaf pan).

I always have to pry the batter out and sort of mound it up. You can go over the lip of the paper liner. It will settle a little in baking but not a lot. I try to sort of push the batter down a little to fill the bottom of the paper liner.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Tops should be toasty and a toothpick should prick clean. If you put in a mini loaf pan with extra batter, leave that in 5-10 more minutes.

These muffins are best hot out of the oven. They taste a bit scone-like and dry the next day but revive nicely in the toaster oven and taste magnificent with a smear of butter.

BC has amazing blueberries so I've been making this recipe with fresh. Deb says you can also make this recipe with frozen. She also likes to sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar for extra crunch and sweetness; I usually skip it.

Carnitas

Ingredients
3 lbs pork shoulder
1 onion, quartered
1 orange, quartered
4 cloves garlic
2 sprigs rosemary
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1/2 cup white wine
[neutral oil, e.g. canola or grapeseed)

Directions

Cut the pork into chunks about 2 inches square. Season with salt and pepper. Place them snugly in the bottom of a dutch oven and nestle the garlic, onion and herbs in among the meat. Squeeze the orange juice over the meat and also tuck the orange pieces in the pot. Splash in some white wine.

(If the pork is very fatty, you will probably not need additional oil. If it's leaner, add 1/4 cup neutral cooking oil to the braising liquid.)

Simmer for 2-3 hours with the lid on, until the meat is fork tender. [Can also do this step in a 300F oven.] Remove the meat to another container and shred to desired size with forks. As you shred the meat, you can discard as much of the fattier bits as you prefer.

Remove and discard the solids (onion, orange, garlic, bay leaves) from the braising liquid . Skim the fat off. Restore the braising liquid to the shredded meat. Adjust seasoning.

Great as a filling for soft tacos, with a dollop of sour cream or avocado mash, fresh cilantro, quick pickled shallots for a little bite.

Stir-Fried Spot Prawns

Ingredients
1-2 lbs live spot prawns
1/3 cup canola oil
ginger, minced
scallions, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
1 tsp sugar

Directions
If you are not squeamish, trim the antennae off the live prawns. (If you are, you can just throw them untrimmed into the wok and it'll be fine.)

Heat a large wok. Add the oil, and toast the minced ginger and scallion a bit. Add the live prawns to the hot oil. Be ready to put the lid on immediately! They will jumps some.

Give it a jostle every 10 sec. When the jumping has subsided, remove the lid. Sauté until the prawns are curled up and have changed color. Add soy sauce, cooking wine and sugar. Continue stir-frying until the prawns are cooked, approx. 10 min cooking time total.

Banana Pancakes for one

Ingredients
1 ripe banana
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla (I swapped it out for Kahlua)
3 tbsp flour
splash of milk to thin

Directions

I used a ricer on the banana but you can also just mash it. Add baking powder and flavoring. Beat in the egg. Add flour, mix in. Thin with milk to desired consistency. (You want it to have body, but puddle out slightly when you spoon it into your skillet.)

Griddle on low in a neutral flavored oil, approx. 3 min per side, until golden brown.

Makes six palm-sized pancakes. The smaller size makes it easier to flip. I use a quarter cup measure as my scoop.

This recipe doubles easily. For larger amounts, know that there are 4 tbsp in 1/4 cup.

Variations: So I started looking at a two-ingredient pancake recipe (banana and egg) and I just couldn't bear to make pancakes without flour, which led me to this recipe. I happened to have milk today, but I also keep powdered milk on hand, which should also work. Probably also thinned out yogurt, non-dairy milks and even water could do in a pinch.

The source recipe claims that you can leave out the baking powder, but the price is some of the fluffy texture. The flour can be swapped with coconut flour for a gluten-free version. And the flavoring is entirely optional. I bet some citrus zest would be delicious too.

Soy-Braised Pork Ribs

Ingredients
Pork back ribs, a full rack
Soy sauce
Chinese Shaoxing cooking wine
Brown Sugar
Fresh ginger

Directions
(Apologies in advance - this is one of my mom's loosey goosey recipes and I also cook by taste and feel.)

Parboil the pork ribs in water for 10 minutes. Discard cooking water and scrub the ribs a little, and rinse them off.

In another pot, heat about 1/3 cup soy sauce, a good glug cooking wine, 2 tbsp brown sugar, a splash of water and three fat slices of ginger. Taste the braising liquid - it should taste faintly sweet and yummy. Adjust to taste, with more water or sugar until you like the balance. (My mom says no, but optional flavorings include scallions, garlic, star anise, black peppercorns.) Place parboiled ribs in the sauce, and stir to coat. The sauce should not come anywhere near covering the ribs, but should be a thin layer on the bottom of the pot.

Simmer on low, covered, for one hour, turning the meat every 20 minutes. Add more water if it looks like the sauce is getting too low, and risks scorching. (Some liquid and fat will render from the ribs.) The ribs should part braise, part steam.

Serve with rice and greens. Don't throw out that sauce! It's great over the rice and the greens. You can also freeze it to give a head start to the next batch of ribs.

My Pantry Staples

Following in Smitten Kitchen's footsteps, I thought it'd be fun to do an inventory of my pantry staples. As a general rule of thumb, I think any recipe you make more than three times a year deserves a stocked ingredient. Items in square brackets are those that I often have on hand, but don't necessarily replenish right away.

RICE AND GRAINS
Thai jasmine long grain rice
Japanese short grain rice
Wild rice mix
[Brown rice]
Rolled oats (for baking, not for oatmeal)
Steel-cut oats (for oatmeal)
[Quinoa]
[Couscous]
[Millet, for congee]

PASTA AND NOODLES
Italian pasta: angelhair, spaghetti/linguine, macaroni
Rice vermicelli
Wide bean noodles (for hot pot)
Japanese somen
[Egg noodles, for tuna casserole]

FLOURS
AP flour
Bread flour (for no-knead bread)
Wheat flour (a small amount kept in the freezer; sometimes I switch to rye)
Cornmeal
[Almond meal, for chocolate fruitcake]

BEANS AND LENTILS
Canned chickpeas / garbanzo beans
Canned red beans (for chili)
Canned Tuscan white / cannellini beans (for soup)
[Lentils, green or French de puy]

MISC CANNED
Canned tuna
[Canned salmon]
Canned pumpkin puree (for pumpkin bread and thickening chili)
Canned whole plum tomatoes
Canned creamed corn
[Tomato paste]
[Canned peaches]
[Canned mandarin oranges]

BAKING
Granulated sugar
[Brown sugar]
[Muscovado sugar]
Baking powder
Baking soda
Instant yeast, sleeves of three packets (mostly for no-knead bread)
Cocoa
Powdered milk (because I don't often have fresh milk in my fridge)
Kahlua (my favorite substitute for vanilla)

OIL AND VINEGAR
Canola
Olive (regular, for cooking)
Extra-virgin olive (a fancy store here has a Persian lime flavor I love, just for salad dressings)
Butter (I only keep salted, and use it even for baking - I just omit the added salt and it's usually fine)
White vinegar in massive jugs (pickling; does double duty as dandelion killer)
Cider vinegar
[Red or white wine vinegar]
[Balsamic]

SALT, HERBS AND SPICES
Regular iodized table salt (for salting cooking water)
Fine sea salt (regular cooking; have sometimes kept fine kosher salt instead)
Seasoning salt (for steak and grilled chicken)
Whole peppercorns
Whole nutmeg
Dried thyme
Chopped fresh cilantro (in freezer)
[Loads of others but these are my go-tos. My garden has fresh mint, rosemary and bay.]

CHINESE
Soy sauce
Chinese black vinegar
Chinese Shaoxing cooking wine
Sesame oil
Cornstarch
Cow Head brand Chinese barbeque sauce
[Oyster sauce]
[Packaged fried shallots]

MISC
Better Than Bouillon, multiple flavors
[Trader Joe's sundried tomatoes in oil]
[Capers]
[Pickles and cornichons]
Dijon mustard
[Mayonaise]
Peanut butter
[Nutella]
[Marcona almonds]
Jam (a berry one)
Honey
[Molasses]
[Maple syrup]
[Ovaltine]
[Hot chocolate mix]
Tea: loose-leaf green, English breakfast, chamomile, fruity, plus misc. assortment of tea bags
Dried currants (for scones; also good in couscous)
[Alpen muesli]
Walker's shortbread
Kettle-cooked potato chips, plain / original / sea salt flavor
Instant ramen
Kraft instant mac and cheese

FREEZER
Boneless skinless chicken thighs, wrapped in packets of two
Breakfast sausage, wrapped in single portions
Thick-sliced bacon
Gyoza
Udon
Spinach
[Peas]
[Trader Joe's white corn]
Bread (sliced)
[Bagels from New York]

EGGS
I *always* have eggs. I go back and forth between white and brown, large and extra large.


* * * * *
Some weird things about my kitchen:

• I almost never have fresh milk. I am not much of a milk drinker, and though I put milk in my coffee, I drink almost all my coffee at work.
• I only have crappy instant coffee. See above. At home, I drink tea.
• I don't really cook with garlic, so I rarely have it.
• I'm a wimp when it comes to spicy food, so all the red pepper flakes and hot sauces in my kitchen were purchased by my mom while she was visiting. She is a fiend for spicy food.
• I have lots of exotic spices and spice mixes. It's one of my favorite souvenirs to buy when traveling - for myself and as gifts.
• I have a very limited baking repertoire. I don't find it relaxing, and I don't do it enough to be very good at it. I also don't like icing or frosting, and never make it. I know, I'm a monster.

Roasted Beets

This is the best method I've come across for roasting beets, which are very inexpensive in the fall but somehow always expensive in restaurants.

Directions

Wrap each beet (whole and unpeeled) individually in foil. Place on a sheet and throw it in your oven at 375 F - no need to preheat. Let the oven run about half an hour after it comes up to temp. Turn the oven off but leave the beets in there until your oven cools down completely.

Keep the beets in foil until you want to use them. They will keep in the fridge for a week to ten days. When you want to use them, unwrap the foil. The beet skin should rub off easily in your hands.

What's great about this method is that, while it takes a long time, it doesn't take a lot of power or attention. In fact, you can turn off the oven and leave the house while the beets finish cooking. And because they're individually wrapped, you can have a salad of one beet every couple of days after one batch of roasting - perfect for a single person.

I really like roasted beets with a mustardy citrus vinaigrette. Goat cheese or chopped nuts go great if you have them.

Pickled Cherries

Adapted from Epicurious.

Ingredients
3/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp whole coriander seeds
[optional: 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes]
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 lb fresh cherries, pitted and halved

Directions
Combine everything except the cherries and the rosemary in a stainless steel pan and bring to a simmer. Add cherries and rosemary, cook for 3-5 minutes.

Transfer cherries and rosemary to a 1 quart mason jar. Pour in enough pickling liquid to cover the cherries. Chill. Can keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

These pickled cherries go great with a cheese plate, or as a topping for vanilla ice-cream. I like just snacking on them too.

Cold Noodles with Peanut Sauce

There's a term for this type of recipe: assimilation foods. It's a recipe adapted to ingredients found in local grocery stores.

Recipe adapted from Luke Tsai, on Taste.

Ingredients
Noodles - whatever you have, from spaghetti to Chinese egg noodles

Toppings:
Cucumber, julienned or grated
Carrot, julienned or grated
Egg - quickly cooked into a crepe and julienned
Cooked ham, julienned
(Options: shredded cooked chicken or turkey, bell pepper, bean sprouts, water chestnut, jicama, snow peas, shredded cabbage, fresh parsley or cilantro, etc.)

Sauce (for 2-4 servings)
1/4 cup peanut butter (Luke says smooth only but I used chunky and it was fine. Tahini would be even more authentic to the original if you have it.)
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
pinch of sugar
hot water to thin

Homemade Irish Cream

I've resurrected Ye Olde Blogge to collect some recipes, so I have them all in one place. I've been cooking a lot since social distancing went into effect, like a lot of folks. Instead of the quick dinners, I've been going back and dusting off those time-consuming, special occasion recipes. Cooking is both therapeutic and indulgent for me, and I guess there's no time like now for a little extra of both.

 Here's one from the holidays, adapted from Smitten Kitchen. No cook, so much tastier than the commercial version.

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1 small can (300 ml) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup whiskey
1 tsp cocoa powder
a dash of vanilla
a dash of Kahlua

Directions
Put a spoonful of cream into the cocoa and make a paste (if you dump all the cocoa straight into the cream, it will clump up). Slowly add more cream until it's thick enough to whisk, then whisk in the rest of the cream. Then whisk in the condensed milk, whiskey and flavorings. (The vanilla and Kahlua add great complexity but can be omitted if you don't like them.)

Will last for over a month in the fridge.

Great as a holiday host/hostess gift. I like it in a post-dinner coffee, while my sister likes it on the rocks. Also makes a killer addition to French toast batter.

Ricotta

This is the recipe from Molly Wizenberg's book, Delancey.

Ricotta is pretty easy to make - the only equipment you really need is cheesecloth. (If you have a candy thermometer, that's also useful but not strictly necessary.)

Ingredients
6-1/2 cups whole milk
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp salt

Directions
Put the three dairy ingredients in a heavy pot (I use my trusty yellow dutch oven) over medium heat. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching. If you have a thermometer, stop stirring when it reaches 180°F. If you don't have a thermometer, I stop stirring when it starts to separate and form a floating layer of curds.

Continue to cook until the curds are clumpy and the whey is mostly clear. Take it off the heat and let set for 30 min at room temperature. Ladle curds over cheesecloth and leave it to drain until desired consistency: soft and creamy, versus a little thicker and stiffer - depends on what you want to use it for. (Don't press on it!)

Add salt. Will last for about a week, but tastes best the first three days.

Full recipe makes about a pound of cheese. Recipe can be halved successfully as well.

Uses: Excellent in lasagna, and in raspberry ricotta cake. Or spooned over toast with a grind of pepper.