Back from the dead!

So the WCN! staff has really let the blog go recently, but it's time to ride again! I will be working on redesigning it, but in the meantime I'll be posting recipes from last night's show later today.

Recipe: Grilled Caesar Salad

Check it out! I'm actually posting a recipe before Jonathan did from last week's show! Although calling this a recipe is really stretching the definition of recipe--the dish is more about technique than ingredients or measurements.

July 6 was What's Cookin' Now's two-year anniversary, and we decided to go Back to the Grill to commemorate our very first show together, when we performed what J called "the ultimate in stunt-grilling"--grilled pizzas. For this show, I wanted to do something summery and delicious, and we've been rocking variations on grilled salads in Sisterville all summer, so I decided to make one of those. I wrestled my battered Weber into the back of my car (the legs fell off, facilitating the wrestling and allowing me to win the match), loaded up my produce into a cooler, and headed for WMMT.

While Jonathan fired up the grill on the back deck (charcoal, newspaper, and a chimney starter eliminate the need for spraying the coals with nasty-tasting petroleum products), I prepped my vegetables. I had an eggplant, some yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, a red onion, some pretty red and yellow and orange bell peppers, and of course, some romaine lettuce. I was going for color and flavor--but you could put anything you want on this salad. I made it again a few nights later and added asparagus.

If you're going to grill eggplant, you need to salt it first to draw out the water so it will retain its shape. I cut mine longways into planks, about a half-inch thick, then sprinkled them liberally with kosher salt and layered them in a colander to drain. This really needs to be done about an hour before you grill, although I fudged and only had about a half hour, and mine came out okay. I cut the squash and zucchini into long planks, too, and sliced the onion into half-inch slices. I cut the peppers in half, removed the seeds and stems, and smashed them flat. I wanted everything big enough to not fall through the grate--you can always cut things up after you grill them.

The easiest way to do this is to throw everything (except the onion--it'll fall apart) into a big bowl and drizzle it with olive oil, then lay it on a hot oiled grill (use a grill brush to clean the grate, and a paper towel dipped in oil and held with tongs to oil the grill), sprinkle with salt (I like to use Goya Adobo), and grill until you get some char on the edges. At that point, if the vegetables aren't tender enough for you, you can lay them on the cooler side of the grill, or wrap them loosely in foil, where they'll steam a bit and soften.

While you're grilling the vegetables, you can make the dressing. Mash one or two anchovies (and if you think you don't like anchovies, please, just try this--they're delicious) and a few cloves of garlic (I think I used three) together with about four tablespoons of olive oil. An immersion blender makes quick work of this and produces a nice creamy dressing. Add the juice of one lemon. Place an egg, in the shell, on the grill for about four minutes, turning it with tongs halfway through. This will coddle the egg--since it won't be cooked through, you may want to use a pasteurized egg. Break the egg into the dressing and blend it until it emulsifies.

Now char the lettuce. If you're serving this with a nice steak, a good time to do this is while the meat rests after it comes off the grill. Cut the romaine heads lengthwise into halves or quarters, depending on how big it is. You want a nice flat surface to char. Brush the lettuce with olive oil. This should be done over fairly high heat, since you want to char the lettuce quickly--it will wilt a bit, but should remain crunchy. Turn it with tongs to char both sides. Remove the lettuce to a large platter, top with the chopped, grilled vegetables, and drizzle with the dressing. Oh, and croutons are nice here--I used some ciabatta rolls, cut into cubes and skewered, then brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and grilled a bit until they were crunchy.

As is the case with most salads, there are endless variations on this recipe. Add potatoes and sliced steak, or garbanzo beans and parmesan cheese. Use only the small inner cores of the lettuce and make little individual salads. Add some herbs to the dressing--it's your call. Happy grilling!

Recipe: Mofongo (WCN! February 2011)

Mofongo is considered the national dish of Puerto Rico, and is the best example of criolla cuisine.  It is sometimes served on its own as a side dish, but it's usually stuffed or filled with pork, beef, or seafood, or topped with a seafood stew.  (Jenny suggested after the show that it would be awesome filled with a ceviche, and as usual, she's right.)

The key technique here is the low-temperature frying of the plantains, low enough that you soften them but don't brown them.  They will get greasy this way, but that's kind of a feature of the dish.  Make sure you let them get good and soft.

Mofongo

8 green plantains, peeled and sliced into 1" chunks
4 oz pork rinds (chicharrones)
6 cloves garlic
salt, pepper, oil

Soak plantain chunks in salt water for 15 minutes.  Dry thoroughly and fry in 325 degree oil for 10-15 minutes or until very soft.  Remove to a colander and let drain until cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, mash up garlic and pork rinds in a mortar and pestle or pilon.  Add salt and pepper. (This dish requires more salt than you'd think. Most versions I had in PR were good but way underseasoned, IMO.)  Add plantains and mash until it all comes together.

Roll into a ball and serve, or make a well in the ball and fill with tasty roasted meat or stew.

Recipe: Arroz con Gandules (WCN! February 2011)

This is one of several Puerto Rican side dishes that can be described as "rice with stuff in it". In particular, this one is served alongside the pork at the lechoneras in Guavate.  One of my favorite bites we had in PR was the takeout container of this we brought with us to the airport to eat before our flight home.

I don't have a whole lot of specific measurements here, but whatever you do will probably work.

Pigeon peas can be found among the Mexican/Hispanic ingredients at your local well-stocked megamart.  So can annatto seeds; to make achiote oil, combine 1/4 cup of the seeds with 1/2 cup of corn or canola oil, simmer for 10 minutes, then strain when it cools.  It will look like yellow food coloring, and will impart a beautiful yellow color to whatever you cook in it along with a subtle flavor. (It's known as the "poor man's saffron".)  You can buy a sazon that's mostly achiote and coriander that's more traditional, but since coriander is generally frowned upon in my household, I use the regular Goya adobo seasoning.

Arroz con Gandules

1 pound medium-grain rice
2 cans green pigeon peas (gandules)
2 onions, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup olives, chopped
1-16 oz can tomatoes, drained
roast pork, diced (however much you have)
achiote oil
adobo seasoning

Heat the achiote oil in a skillet over medium-low heat and add all of the ingredients except for the rice, pork, and gandules.  Saute slowly for about 30 minutes, until it all sort of collapses into a cohesive mass (known as a sofrito).

Meanwhile, rinse your rice until the rinsing water is clear.  Put in a pot and cover with water to a depth of one knuckle over the rice.  Bring to a boil, then add the sofrito, pork, and pigeon peas.  Cover, reduce to the lowest possible heat, and let sit for about 20 minutes or until it's done.  Stir and add more adobo if it needs it.

Recipe: Pernil (Puerto Rican roast pork) (WCN! February 2011)

The Caribbean is full of unforgettable seafood dishes, but when I think of where island cuisine really shines, I think of pork. Puerto Rico is particularly known for its pig, as we found out when we were there in November, from the slow-roasted whole beasts of the lechoneras of Guavate to the smaller roasts you find at lunch counters all over, known as pernil.

This starts with a skin-on pork shoulder roast, the same cut my great-grandmother in Owsley County used to serve up every Sunday after church, with little potatoes roasted golden brown in the drippings.  So this dish reminds me not only of my recent travels, but of those Sundays when I was a kid at Granny Eunice's.  Isn't cooking awesome?

Pernil

1 8-10 pound pork shoulder roast, skin-on
1 quart orange juice
2 sprigs oregano
2 heads garlic
salt, pepper, oil

Place a sprig of oregano and a head of garlic in a 2-gallon Ziploc and smash it up with a hammer.  In a bowl, whisk up 1/2 cup of salt, some pepper, and the orange juice.  Pour into the bag and massage the garlic and oregano into the mix.

Using a sharp knife, score the skin and the meat of the pork in a diamond pattern, like so:

Place in the bag and brine overnight, for up to 24 hours.  Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil and put a rack on it.  Take out the roast, dry it thoroughly with paper towels, and let it sit out to air dry for a couple of hours.

Peel the other head of garlic, pluck the leaves off the oregano, and mash them up to a paste with some salt, pepper, and a little oil of some kind.  (A food procesor would work, but a mortar and pestle or pilon is perfect.)  Spread this over the entire roast, making sure to get it down in the cracks.

Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then at 325 degrees until it hits 180 degrees in the middle.  Take it out and let it rest for 30 minutes.  Don't even try to avoid picking at it.

Recipe: Orgeat and the Mai Tai (WCN! February 2011)

Tiki drinks are a whole geeky subcategory of bartending nerddom, with their own obscure hardware and software.  The ingredients themselves aren't hard to find (for the most part), but they're combined in ways that create a lot of complexity.

One of those ingredients is orgeat (or-zhat) syrup, which originated in France based on barley but is now usually an almond syrup flavored with orange flower and rose water. You can buy some commercial versions, but if there are any good ones they're hard to find and it's really easy to make at home. Kaiser Penguin's recipe was the basis for this one--I haven't changed it much.

Orgeat

(makes about two quarts)

1/2 lb almonds
2 1/2 pounds sugar
8 cups water
rose water
orange flower water (you can find these at the hippie grocery, or at a Middle Eastern or Indian grocery)

Grind almonds as finely as possible in the food processor. (You can use almond flour if you can find it, but it's more expensive that way.) Toast the ground almonds briefly in a dry saucepan, being careful not to burn them. (It happens fast.) Add the water and a pound of the sugar and bring it all to a boil.  Simmer for about ten minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let it sit overnight.

The next day, strain the syrup through some cheesecloth and return it to the saucepan.  Bring to a boil and then stir in the rest of the sugar.  Turn it off, let it cool, then add drops of rose and orange flower water to taste (a little goes a long way).

Store in jars in the fridge.  There will still be a lot of solid in it that rises to the top; just shake it before you use it.  Aside from the Mai Tai (below), you can use it in the Japanese Cocktail--1/2 oz orgeat, 2 oz brandy or cognac, and 3 dashes Angostura bitters, shaken with ice and served up with a lemon twist.  Outside the cocktail world, it's awesome in a Cafe Au Lait, and great with soda water.

--

The Mai Tai is a tiki classic, one of the drinks that put Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber on the map.  These days it has become almost a generic term for anything fruity and rummy with an umbrella in it, which is a real shame.  Cocktails like this one with so many ingredients usually blend together into noise, but the different flavors in this one play off one another so well that the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts.

I've expressed the recipe as a ratio.  As always, I suggest using a kitchen scale for cocktails.  Using 1/2 oz as your "one part" will make enough for two powerful drinks.

Mai Tai

1 part simple syrup
2 parts lime juice
3 parts orange curacao
3 parts orgeat
6 parts white rum
6 parts dark rum (I like Cruzan blackstrap--it's not traditional, but it's tasty)

Shake all ingredients except the dark rum with ice.  Pour over clean ice in a rocks glass.  Using a bar spoon or just a really careful pour, pour the dark rum on top so that it forms a layer on top.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a pineapple chunk on a toothpick and a little umbrella if you have one.  Add a neon-colored bendy straw.  (The straw is imperative, as it needs to be drunk from the bottom.)

Recipe: Sweet Potato Biscuits with Cranberry Butter

I've been chasing the Sweet Potato Biscuit for years, and this is by far the best one I've tried. This is probably because it's not a biscuit at all--it's a quickbread, or a Muffin Method bread in Alton Brown's taxonomy. The large amount of baking powder is necessary to lift the heavy dough. You don't want to stir the sweet potatoes into the dough too well--you want little bits sticking out. The cranberry butter is great with them, but my favorite topping is just plain honey.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

(adapted from Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose)

1 cup mashed sweet potato

2/3 cup milk

1/2 stick butter, melted

2 tbsp sugar

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

Heat the oven to 450 and line a sheet pan with parchment. Mix the potatoes, milk, butter, and sugar in one bowl. In another, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the wet team to the dry team and stir until combined. Using a #40 disher or a couple of spoons, lay the dough out in pieces a little bigger than a golf ball on the parchment. Bake for 12-15 minutes, watching closely for burning on the bottom. Serve hot, and in the unlikely event there are any left, store them in a Ziploc in the fridge and heat in the toaster oven as needed.

Cranberry Butter

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup leftover cranberry sauce

1 tbsp honey

Stir together. Serve alongside biscuits.