Broccoli Soup with Tomato

Actually, it is sort of cream of broccoli but without cream being added. I had a small head of broccoli and pot of ham stock on hand so it wasn’t hard to figure out what I will do with it.

Ingredients:

4 cups stock

1 head of broccoli, stalk and head chopped very fine

1 small or 1/2 large carrot, chopped very fine

1 small onion, chopped very fine

1 baking potato, peeled and chopped very fine

1 tsp. curry powder

2 ripe Italian tomatoes, coarsely chopped.

Bring stock with all vegetables to boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 1 hour. Place pot into sink and liquefy with submersible blender or transfer to blender and liquefy.

Put soup back on burner, reheat and season with curry to your taste.

Pour into individual bowls and garnish with tomatoes.

Veal Shoulder Chops – Osso Buco Style

It has been such a long time since we had Osso Buco, meal that we both love. Reason is simple. We just can’t get 3” thick veal shanks here. Acceptable solution for us is to use thick veal shoulder chop instead. Of course the favorite part of Osso Buco is the marrow, a part that we will have to do without but taste should be similar.

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds bone-in veal shoulder chops

Salt and pepper

2 medium carrots, chopped

2 medium stalks celery, thinly sliced

1 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup canned whole tomatoes in juice

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken broth

1 bay leaf

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel plus additional for garnish

Gremolata:

1 Tbs. grated lemon peel

1 tsp. finely chopped garlic

3 Tbs. finely chopped parsley

Mix till well combined.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In wide-bottom Dutch oven, heat oil on medium-high until very hot. Sprinkle veal chops with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper to season both sides. Add veal chops to Dutch oven and cook 8 to 9 minutes per batch or until veal is browned on both sides, turning over once. Transfer veal to plate once it is browned.

After all veal is browned, add carrots, celery, onions, and garlic to Dutch oven, and cook on medium 12 minutes or until vegetables are lightly browned and tender, stirring occasionally.

Return veal, and any juices from plate, to Dutch oven. Stir in tomatoes with their juice, wine, broth, and bay leaf. Heat mixture to boiling on high, stirring and breaking up tomatoes with side of spoon.

Cover Dutch oven and place in oven. Braise 2 hours or until veal is very tender when pierced with fork. Transfer veal to platter. Skim off fat from liquid in Dutch oven.

Place Dutch oven on burner on top of range, and cook sauce on medium-high about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Add lemon peel and lemon juice and cook 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook noodles till al dente and keep warm.

To serve, pour little sauce on bottom of preheated plates, then noodles, more sauce and then meat. Spoon sauce over veal and place tablespoon of gremolata on top for garnish.

Trippa alla Romana

Roman style Tripe with Penne Rigate

Last Sunday I bought package of beautiful super white beef tripe already blanched and cut into strips so I had to make a decision as to how I will cook them: as usual in a soup (my favorite) or do I try Italian, French or Chinese recipe. Since I wanted my wife to finally try and taste tripe dish I have decided on Roman style where the tripe almost disappears because they are chopped into small pieces and blended with thick tomato sauce. Did she eat it? Yes, and not only that, she wants me to make it again. She really liked it but she would have preferred not to know what she was eating. North Americans have this mental block when it comes to offal, I guess.

This dish is very easy to make but it does take time.

One note to anybody that never cooked tripe before: the tripe shrinks a lot when it is cooked or boiled. See the pictures of before and after boiling. My guess is that volume of cooked tripe is less then half of fresh ones.

Ingredients:

1 lb cleaned and blanched honeycomb beef tripe

1 Tbs. olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp. dried rosemary or 2 tsp. fresh, chopped

1 cup Dry Marsala wine

2 cups chopped or crushed tomatoes

1 Tbs. Balsamic vinegar

2 Tbs. chopped parsley

3 bay leaves

6 whole cloves

6 whole allspice berries

Penne Rigate

1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano

Process:

You have three options to cook the tripe: on the stove in regular pot, slow cooker or pressure cooker. In all cases use salted water and small muslin bag or tee egg with bay leaves, allspice and cloves. On stove top bring to boil, lower the heat and simmer for 2-1/2 hours. Slow cooker low 6 hours and pressure cooker 1 hour.

When soft, let cool so you can handle the tripe and chop into pieces about the size of dime and reserve.

In a frying pan or sauce pan heat olive oil and sauté garlic and rosemary till fragrant.

Pour in Marsala and reduce to 1 Tbs.

Add tomatoes and chopped tripe and simmer for 45 minutes.

10 minutes before serving add balsamic vinegar and parsley and mix till well combined.

Cook penne in salted water till al dente, strain and place on individual preheated serving plates. Pour sauce over pasta, sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Root Vegetable Soup with Ham

This soup is truly a full meal, especially if you use a lot of ham as I did. As is usual with any dish done from scratch the mise en place is a bit tedious because of all the chopping but after that it is a breeze.

Ingredients:

5 cups ham stock

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/3 cup each of chopped onions, carrots, parsnip, green beans

2 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 cup chopped ham

1 cup cooked barley

1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped

1/3 cup Acini de Pepe or other small shape pasta

1 Tbs. chopped parsley

1/ 2 tsp dried basil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbs. chopped parsley for garnish

Direction:

Heat olive oil in heavy bottom pan and add onions and garlic, sauté till translucent. Add rest of vegetables except tomatoes and barley and sauté briefly.

Add hot stock, pasta and bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add ham, barley, tomatoes and parsley and simmer additional 5 minutes.

Check if pasta is cooked and serve garnished with chopped parsley and few drops of olive oil.

Braised Smoked Ham Surprise

This is not a recipe, just an observation of braising process or more accurately put, interrupted braising process.

Late this morning I have decided to braise one of smoked hams that I bought last week on special and then remove all the fat and bones and vacuum pact it and freeze it. So, I put the ham in large pot, poured in water half way up, brought it to boil, covered, stuck a thermometer probe half way in and placed in 350°F oven. The normal braising thing, right? Well, after one hour we had to leave the house for about an hour and since I didn’t want to leave the oven on I took the temperature reading. The pot was sitting on a pizza stone that is always in my oven and infrared gun read 365°F and the meat inside was 68°F (the meat was 36°F when I stuck the probe in). When we came back one hour later I repeated measurements and while the pizza stone went down to 228°F (137°F loss) the meat gained astonishing 60°F – 128°F! When I turned the oven back on it was done at 160 °F in less then half hour. That means that even though I cooked it for 2-1/2 hours, oven was on for only 1-1/2 hour, just a bit over half the cooking time. I think that I am up to something here, don’t you think? Right now I’m braising another ham and will try to repeat the process. Why waste natural gas!

Of course, it is not a mystery at all, just simple physics. After all, even though the oven wasn’t on, the ham was still in 220°F water in a pot that was in turn surrounded by hot air and most likely boiling for a long time so the cooking of the ham continued.
Update:

I have cooked another ham (they were on special J) same way and had exactly same results. After turning off the oven and not opening the door, the temperature kept climbing by one degree a minute for full hour.

Marsala Veal with Cremini and Oyster Mushrooms

This must be one of the easiest veal dishes I’ve done in a while. Once first two steps are done it is just let it be and leave it alone. Being a braise it is also almost impossible to photograph well. Pictures you see in food magazines are staged with almost raw ingredients whereas I take a shot and then eat the “prop” before it gets cold.

I have to admit that I have improvised a bit as the food was cooking and I will include all steps. By the way, my better half has pronounced it as the best veal she has ever had and I have cooked a few in the last 35 years or so.

I cook for two so all my recipes reflect that in ingredients amounts.

Ingredients:

Veal shoulder blade chop

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 onion

Sprig of fresh rosemary or 1 tsp. of dried

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 cup dry Marsala

Chicken stock (to add during braise)

2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms

1 cup oyster mushrooms

1 small carrot, sliced

1 stalk celery, sliced

1 Tbs. cold butter

Salt, pepper

Parsley, chopped

Process:

Coat veal chop in flour and shake off excess.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan large enough to accommodate veal chop on medium high and add olive oil. Place chop in and sear without moving for about 4 – 5 minutes. When golden skin forms turn over and cook another 5 minutes. Remove to plate and cover with foil.

Lower heat and add onions and cook till translucent.

Off the heat pour in Marsala and deglaze all bits stuck to bottom of pan, add rosemary and pepper and return to heat. Reduce Marsala by half.

Return veal to pan with all accumulated juices and add cremini. Make sure that veal is half submerged in liquid at all times. If not, add chicken stock. At this point the meat is not salted.

Meanwhile boil potatoes or noodles for side dish.

Reduce heat to low so that liquids just barely simmer, cover and braise for 1-1/2 hours. Check for liquid level every 20 minutes or so.

Turn chop over and add carrots, celery and oyster mushrooms and salt to taste. Cover and braise another half hour.

Remove chop to plate, debone, cut into serving pieces and keep warm.

To finish, reduce sauce and stir in cold butter cut into 1” pieces.

Serve the veal with sauce on top and with side dish of your choice.

Potato Pancake with Broccoli and Curry

Yesterday I have received a fine shredding disk for my Cuisinart 11 cup Pro food processor (great for making pizza dough) and somehow got craving for latke. What a timing! I had baking potato so all I needed was egg and little flour. When I reached for egg carton I got glimpse of broccoli and decision was made. Since I always add little curry into my cream of broccoli soup I thought that it will go well in pancakes. Great decision! Since it is so quick to make now that I don’t have to grate by hand it is a weekly snack for sure.

To make 2 large or 4 smaller pancakes:

1 large russet baking potato, finely grated

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup broccoli, chopped

2 Tbs. flour

1 tsp. Malaysian or Indian curry

Salt and pepper to taste

2 Tbs. olive oil

Preheat non-stick frying pan on medium high heat with oil.

Mix grated potato with salt, pepper and curry.

Add egg and broccoli and mix till well combined.

Mix in flour and combine.

Pour 1/2 cup of potato mixture into hot pan and spread about pencil thin.

When golden brown on bottom, about 5 minutes, turn over and crisp other side.

Repeat till done.

Serve as is or with yogurt or sour cream.