Brooklyn Forager

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

This challenge excited me greatly as I absolutely love risotto and would like to make my own stock more often.  Check and check! I do tend to stick to my regular Red Wine Risotto with slight variations and so I took this as a sign from the universe to try something new.  I certainly couldn't post twice on the same recipe, not for a challenge!

But I am getting ahead of myself.  First, risotto requires stock.  And I've seen and heard many a time that the better the stock, the better the risotto.  Essentially, I hadn't seen anything yet! I made two attempts to collect a chicken for my stock.  The first stop was an NYC-based gourmet grocery shop that was on my way home from a yoga class.  I was shocked and astounded to see that a 3 lb. organic whole chicken cost well over 16 dollars.  Since organic, all-natural, well-treated chicken is the main way I'll eat it these days, I headed over to my local Trader Joe's.  There, I found a 4 lb. organic all-natural whole chicken for just over 11 dollars.  Much better.

I used the challenge recipe for the stock because I haven't yet settled on a way that I like to do it and I was intrigued by the use of lemon in the seasoning.  I was short on lemon peel at the time, but I did have some dried lemon zest and so that was the one substitution I made.  In went the rest of the seasoning (see recipe below) and off it bubbled for what seemed like forever.  The smells were very enticing. I removed the chicken which pretty much fell apart and used the meat in another dish coming later this week. 

Next came the risotto.  The use of lemon in the stock got my recipe improv mojo going since I've seen several lemon risottos over time that I wanted to try.  I do have the preserved lemons from the last Daring Cooks challenge, but I also wanted to use the brave little sage leaves that have lasted on our window sill winter.  By this time, I'd managed to procure actual lemons and so, sage and lemon risotto!

I used the recipe base recommended for the challenge, and tweaked it based on another that I found online. We didn't have quite as much happy sage on our plant as I'd hoped, so I think you could do with a lot more.  This is also a very subtle soothing risotto.  I knew I'd need to add a little pop to make it a hit in my house, so I sauteed some local hot italian sausage from Bradley's Farm that I picked up at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers' Market and sprinkled it on top of the risotto.  This gave the dish some extra spice that didn't overwhelm the sage and lemon favors.  I don't recommend adding it any earlier as it may have competed with the risotto. 

Chicken Stock

• 1 large chicken 3-4 pounds
• chicken bones 2-3 pounds (I didn't use, but this will make the flavor richer)
• 2 onions, roughly diced
• 1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
• 2 sticks celery, roughly diced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp. peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)
• peel of 1/2 lemon or good dash of dried lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp. allspice

1. Wash the chicken and bones and places in a large stock pot.  Cover completely with water and bring to a boil.  Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface.
2. Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil.
3. Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup or enchiladas!
5. Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At the end you should have around 2 Liters.
6. Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. 
The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.

Sage and Lemon Risotto with Spicy Sausage

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 bunch sage, roughly chopped
• peel of 1/2 lemon
• 12 oz Arborio rice (about two cups)
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
• 1/3 pound fresh hot italian sausage, casings removed

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes until soft and fragrant.  Add sage and lemon peel. 
2. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
3. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
4. Add enough stock to cover the rice by about an inch.
5. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
6. Repeat Step 5 until rice is slightly al dente and cooked through.  In the meantime, saute the sausage in a small pan, breaking into small crumbles.  Set aside.
7. Add lemon juice and pecorino to finished risotto.  Mix well.  Top with sausage.  (Remove lemon peel in the event there will be confusion. I left it in because it was pretty and continued to impart lemon flavor to the dish).

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

This month's challenge from The Daring Kitchen was perhaps favorite so far.  And I've said that before, so I am very hopeful and excited that these challenges will just be more exciting and more fun as I continue.  We were asked to create mezze - a meal of small plates based on mediterranean cuisine, a sort of tapas to reference a small plate meal that many of us are familiar with in New York City.

The menu was up the cook this month, although I was required to make pita bread and hummus, both from scratch.  These were both exciting to me, but most of all was the opportunity to use a cookbook that I received months ago and pored over enthusiastically.  That book is Joanne Weir's From Tapas to Meze - it is a journey around the Mediterranean detailing each country or region's small plate meals.  I love eating this way and eagerly planned the menu all month.

Since the challenge also coincided with Valentine's Day (and Chinese New Year, but that recipe is to come later this week), I prepared a small mezze for my husband to honor his preference for little fanfare and no gifts for this holiday. 

The Mezze Menu

• Pita Bread
• Hummus
• Falafel
• Cucumber and Yogurt Salad
• Tomato, Preserved Lemon and Red Onion Salad

It took me hours to prepare this feast which, in the end, was beautiful because it was simple and healthful and a labor of love.  I started with the sponge for the pita bread, mixing yeast and warm water and flour to get the chemistry started.  I have previously complained about my impatience and lack of typical success in baking.  Bread, however, has been kinder to me and I went forth excited and optimistically anxious.

As my sponge rested, I started the hummus using the recipe provided for us in the challenge (pita and hummus recipes below).  Since the flavor of the hummus was again up to the cook, I decided to go with a spicy roasted garlic hummus - a homemade version of the one that I always picked up in the store. I had roasted a head of garlic earlier in the day and proceeded to add about 8 cloves of the roasted garlic to my chick peas. 

Our hummus recipe encouraged us to experiment with nut butters as a replacement for tahini if we wished.  I'm not opposed to tahini and had even bought a monstrous container of it (since with the snowstorm and a busy week, FreshDirect's 16 ounce jar was the lazy cook's choice - I do know that Sahadi's is a stone's throw away and I'm slightly ashamed).  This little note about experimentation, however, got my wheelings turning.  I've been turned onto sunflower seed butter and had just enough left in my jar to use in the hummus. 

To the mix of chick peas, roasted garlic and sunflower seed butter, I also added a couple of dashes of paprika and one quick hit of cayenne for some added heat.  The rest of the recipe was left intact.  The verdict: The flavors were nice and measured, ones that I knew would work well with the chick peas.  The sunflower seed butter, however, added a density and strong flavor that overwhelmed my other ingredients at times.  I'm not sure how others faired with other substitutions, but I think tahini may be really the best choice if you want hummus.  If you want a chick pea-sunflower seed spread, it was very interesting, indeed.

I also made the two salads and falafel during this time, but in the interest of keeping things a bit shorter and sweeter than they could be, expect recipes to follow in my week of mezze posts. 

With the hummus chilling, I moved on to my pita sponge.  I added salt and olive oil, and then more flour.  My dough required a considerable amount of additional flour to get the right consistency.  Then came the fun part, some fervent kneading and another rest of about an hour and a half. 

Once the dough had gorgeously doubled in size (I really need to make yeast breads more often - it's so fun to watch the science actually work!), I punched it down and separated the dough into two halves, and then eight portions again for each half.  Each portion was flattened into a disc and rolled out into a pita-ish shape.  I found that these shapes were very elastic which, to me, was a sign of a good dough, but also meant that the 8-9 inch discs did shrink as they rested under a towel into interesting shapes.

I turned my oven into a pita-making machine - removing all the racks except the bottom one which held my beloved pizza stone.  At 450F, the oven evoked a mediterranean climate for me which gave me high hopes for the pita bread experiment.  In they went, four at a time.  I found that it took a lot longer than the 2-3 minutes for the pitas to brown and blow up, but they actually did blow up (some did at least).  And even the ones that didn't blow up tasted great as promised and still had the signature pockets inside.  More magical science at work!

It was a lovely feast with lots of leftover bread which has been serving us well as side dishes for all manner of meals.  I don't know when I'll have the time to have an all day pita-making experience again, but I will.  The taste of fresh pita out of the oven is not to be missed!

Pita Bread – Recipe adapted from Flatbreads & Flavors by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Prep time: 20 minutes to make, 90 minutes to rise and about 45 minutes to cook

2 teaspoons regular dry yeast (.43 ounces/12.1 grams)
2.5 cups lukewarm water (21 ounces/591 grams)
5-6 cups all-purpose flour (or more, as needed) (may use a combination of 50% whole wheat and 50% all-purpose, or a combination of alternative flours for gluten free pita) (17.5 -21 ounces/497-596 grams)
1 tablespoon table salt (.50 ounces/15 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (.95 ounces/29 ml)

Directions:
1. In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, and then stir 100 times, about 1 minute, in the same direction to activate the gluten. Let this sponge rest for at least 10 minutes, or as long as 2 hours.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Rinse out the bowl, dry, and lightly oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until at least doubled in size, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
3. Place a pizza stone, or two small baking sheets, on the bottom rack of your oven, leaving a 1-inch gap all around between the stone or sheets and the oven walls to allow heat to circulate. Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).
4. Gently punch down the dough. Divide the dough in half, and then set half aside, covered, while you work with the rest. Divide the other half into 8 equal pieces and flatten each piece with lightly floured hands. Roll out each piece to a circle 8 to 9 inches in diameter and less than 1/4 inch thick. Keep the rolled-out breads covered until ready to bake, but do not stack.
5. Place 2 breads, or more if your oven is large enough, on the stone or baking sheets, and bake for 2 to 3 minutes, or until each bread has gone into a full balloon. If for some reason your bread doesn't puff up, don't worry it should still taste delicious. Wrap the baked breads together in a large kitchen towel to keep them warm and soft while you bake the remaining rolled-out breads. Then repeat with the rest of the dough.

Hummus – Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.

1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
additional flavorings (optional) I would use about 1/3 cup or a few ounces to start, and add more to taste

Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day. 

This was definitely my favorite Daring Cooks Challenge to date.  In our house, we LOVE satay.  And in these leaner times, we often do without as we're avoiding takeout.  How excited was I to find that this months challenge would allow me to experiment at home with one of my favorite things. 

The challenge allowed for us to use any sort of protein (or vegetable if we wanted) to make our satay.  I decided on chicken mainly because of the availablity at the store, again relying on Trader Joe's organic free range chicken tenders.  I also wanted to try beef or pork, but the cuts available weren't ideal at the time.  I am getting ahead of myself, but with this recipe, I will be trying all possible iterations in the future.

Each DC challenge revolves, generally, around a skill or technique.  The technique this month was marinating the meat.  It might sound laughable, since I got to work on this skill while traipsing around New York City seeing my friends and sleeping late and curling up with a book, but I really appreciated the opportunity to think about the components of a marinade and the goals such a marinade is intended to serve.

This marinade is a combination of oil, garlic, onions, ginger, lemon juice, soy sauce, cumin, coriander and turmeric.  I also made the additions recommended to make the recipe more traditionally Thai - extra ginger and fish sauce.  Apparently Thai-style also calls for dragon chilis which I did not seek out, but will next time.  As Cuppy taught us, the acidic elements help to tenderize the meat while the flavor components seep into the meat over the marinating period and really infuse flavor into the meat.  For chicken, which I've said I'm not so terribly fond of, the effect is fabulous.

I let the meat marinate for longer than suggested - about 26 hours.  This was chiefly due to a last minute dinner invite that superseded the need to cook the chicken immediately.  I think this accident of time helped the whole process and I would certainly consider keeping a similar marinade time if I was prepared enough in advance.

The next big step in the process was creating the peanut dipping sauce.  I've been searching for the perfect peanut sauce recipe for at least 6 years when I made it and lost it.  This recipe blended coconut milk (which I believe is key), peanut butter, soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar, cumin, coriander and chilis.  I think the ratio of peanut butter to coconut milk should be higher, but all in all, the sauce was tasty and a great accompaniment to the chicken.

Once the chicken was marinated and the sauce was started, I popped the chicken under the broiler until crispy and browned.  The end result had a beautiful deep flavor with an almost buttery tenderness.  While I may experiment further to find my perfect peanut sauce, I will search no further for a satay marinade. 

I served the chicken and sauce with caramelized broccoli which I wlll write about separately since it was also a great new approach to the vegetable for me.  I am happy to say that we have once again conquered the takeout beast and will be making this dish repeatedly in the future.

Satay Marinade

1/2 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)
1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)

Feeling the need to make it more Thai? Try adding a dragon chili, an extra tablespoon of ginger root, and 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz or 15 mls) of fish sauce. (I keep some premature (still green) dragon chili peppers in the freezer for just such an occasion.)

Directions:
1a. Cheater alert: If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.
2a. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.
3a. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Peanut Sauce

3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)

1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.
2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

The October 2009 Daring Cooks' challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen.  The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.   I can't tell you how excited I was to get started on these recipes.  I love to try recipes from various Asian cultures, but never really tried Vietnamese food on my own.  The trick for this month was to really nail the broth, and the best part is, with a good recipe, it's impossible to fail. 

We were given a short version of Pho Ga (Chicken Pho), but I went with Jaden's longer beef recipe which can be found on her website.  What makes the broth special is attention to detail.  To begin, onions and ginger are broiled very closely to the top of the oven (I used the toaster oven which may not have been ideal, but saved a lot of energy!) until they are nicely charred. This imparts some extra depth of flavor and richness.

While the charring is undertaken, whole spices are toasted to add an additional layer of flavor.  The recipe calls for star anise, cinnamon, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cardamom pods.  I was tempted to add in peppercorns because for me no recipe is a recipe without garlic and black pepper.  I held back in both instances to give the recipe a shot as written.  Also, who am I to judge what a recipe for Pho needs? I've eaten it and enjoyed it, but this was the first time.

Once the spices and aromatics are prepared, they go in the pot with beef bones, fish sauce, sugar and some chunks of meat.  I must say that if I had any idea how good that simmered beef would be, I would have added three times the amount.  I used about half of what Jaden suggested mainly because I didn't get enough when I was at the butcher.  These pieces of meat were some of the best parts of the whole dish. 

I made the broth on a Saturday evening, refrigerated it and then made the Pho on the following day.  I can't say for sure that the broth was even better, but the spices and meatiness really came through once the soup was put together. Most of the work in the broth is waiting and drooling over the simmering pots, so it's silly to say that the broth makes the soup, but it really does.  The extra steps in preparing it from scratch, and preparing it this way were well worth it. 

We used all the traditional (or at least suggested) toppings for the Pho - mint, cilantro, sliced chilis (one Serrano and one Jalapeno from our garden!), bean sprouts and slices of raw skirt steak to cook in the broth.  I took Jaden's advice and made a dipping sauce of chili paste (our Sriracha had turned, so I used sambal olek instead) and hoisin for the freshly cooked pieces of beef.  Delicious. The sauces do also add additional flavor to the soup and once I had a bowl of straight soup, I started mixing a bit in. 

We got 8 good sized meals out of this challenge and easily could have stretched it for more.  I will absolutely be adding this in.  I just wish I had more freezer space to make gallons of the broth to keep around.  Such is the burden of living in Brooklyn.

The next part of the challenge was to make dessert wontons.  Jaden's recipe was for chocolate wontons, but also invited us to get creative.  I made three types of wontons in four shapes.  I made a straight chocolate wonton with 70% dark chocolate, a banana-chocolate combo, and the piece de resistance, a lemon ricotta wonton with blueberry dipping sauce.  These last were inspired by our wedding cupcakes which combined lemon curd, blueberries and lots of buttercream icing.  I struggled to be super creative, but I did enjoy the process of thinking about great combinations to put in the wontons which also turned out to be fascinatingly easy.  I nearly said fool-proof and that's probably dangerous, but as long as you don't over fill the wrappers, you can really put just about anything in them and fry them up.  I can't wait to experiment more in the future.

Voila!, originally uploaded by Brooklyn Forager.

This month, our challenge over at The Daring Kitchen, was to make a Spanish dish called Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish and Artichokes. This was a beautifully simple (a bit heavy on prep, but worth it) and yet yielded some great complexity of flavors.

The key to this recipe is a little bit of planning (and probably a glass of wine as you go). I started with the allioli which was a happy surprise for me. I don't eat anything that is called an "aioli" because my stomach turns at the hint of mayonnaise. The traditional recipe, however, is an emulsion of garlic pulp and olive oil and contains no eggs at all.

Aside from the initial excitement at ingredients, however, I was a bit stumped because the recipe required a mortar and pestle. My first mortar and pestle was left in a previous apartment in a fit of frustration and my current mortar and pestle is an unseasoned molcajete which has a knack for adding volcanic rock to any paste. I improved with a rough ceramic bowl and a Chinese spoon and while the results were perhaps not as perfect as the true method, the consistency was pretty close. (Note: use the freshest garlic you can find. Mine was a bit on the "antique" side and the taste was super strong)

Next up was the sofregit - a stew of sorts including tomatoes, garlic, onions and spices. A simple recipe, but crucial since it imparts most of the flavor to the dish. I would up the cumin since I love the flavor, but the recipe alone builds a nice base for the rice dish itself.

The next step would have been preparing the artichokes. I watched the video provided in the recipe instructions for preparing the artichoke and was horrified to see the instructor carelessly tossing the entire outer portion of the artichokes around the kitchen. I will not waste and am not confident enough with artichokes yet to figure out a better way to improvise. The artichokes will be steamed with another dinner this week and eaten whole.

Instead, I moved on to peeling the shrimp. I wimped out on the cuttlefish, partly because of the eaters in my household and partially because I had a really nice set of shrimp ready to go. I used these interchangeably with the cuttlefish, and I believe this did not detract at all.

The only other substitution I made was to use sherry in place of white wine for deglazing and in my broth. For a number of reasons, I couldn't open a bottle of wine and did not prepare/purchase stock. In place of the water, I used a mix of water, sofregit broth (the recipe makes a lot more than you need, but I ended up using a lot more than the recipe called for), and more sherry. In my opinion, this was really integral to building the flavors. I think broth would have been great, but in place of it, a good mix worked well.

This recipe got rave reviews and will absolutely go into the regular rotation. With a bit of prep work beforehand, this is a fun, festive dish that can actually be put together in relatively good time.