Easter dinner

At a loss for what to serve this evening for Easter dinner (should be something a little more special than most Sunday dinners), I embarked on a journey so frightening, no one should ever have to withstand such torture: I started cleaning out our fridge and freezer. I chucked from the bowels of our chiller chest ingredients that I'm sure had expired with the last administration, left-overs that I thought would be just delicious when reheated (but haven't gotten around to reheating in forever), and things that had so much freezer burn, they were asking me for aloe.

But as the light of the refrigerator started breaking through the rush-hour of left-over congestion, I found some items that were of more recent history, that I could toss together into our impromptu Easter dinner this evening: oxtail, duck fat, and a quarter of a left-over bottle of cabernet sauvignon that we opened just this week (still good, I tasted it).

While I wondered exactly how much could go wrong with any dish that starts with duck fat (not required, just my call), I pulled out a bit of flour, salt, pepper, pasta, onions, and carrots. And with these items in hand, light finally shining through the shelves again, I recalled that delectable dish of oxtail ragu I had at Batali's Eataly and found my little taste of heaven this evening. We served this dish alongside a fresh lettuce salad from our garden (yay!) and pickled beets. If at all possible, cook the oxtail for a minimum of 2 hours. The marrow in the oxtail does amazing things for sauce that would be rendered impossible otherwise.

Keep in mind, the ingredients list is what I had on hand from our freezer and in the fridge. The basic required ingredients are those outlined in the first three groups of ingredients.


Rigatoni with Oxtail Ragu
Oxtails (I had about 6 measly little pieces, about 2" long and ranging from 1" to 3" in diameter)
Flour for coating
Salt/pepper

Duck fat (I used about 1.5T)
Carrots, chopped (4 smallish ones is what I used, not the huge carrots)
Onion, chopped (1 large or 2 small)
Garlic, 4 cloves
Ground beef (about 1/4 lb)

1.5c red wine (I used cabernet sauvignon)
1 vegetarian boullion
3/4 can of plum tomatoes, with juice
Pasta (I used rigatoni, but pappardelle, fettucini, or other wide pastas would work as well)

(optional, but this is what I found in the freezer and tossed it in)
1 sweet Italian sausage, casing discarded and broken into little pieces
1 hot Italian sausage, casing disgarded and broken into little pieces

1. Season the oxtail with salt and pepper, and coat with flour (just enough to coat is plenty). Discard any left-over flour.
2. Heat duck fat in pan until lightly bubbling, but not smoking.
3. Brown floured oxtail on all sides. The right time when you can remove the oxtail from the heat is when the meat has pulled back from the edge of the bone. Remove from heat, and set aside.
4. Saute onions, garlic, and carrots until onions are translucent.
5. Add ground beef, break into little bits, and saute.
6. Add red wine to deglaze the pan. Take care to scrape up all browned bits from the oxtail.
7. Add oxtails, and let mixture simmer until red wine reduces to about half.
8. Add tomatoes, optional sausage, and bouillon. Stir to dissolve bouillon.
9. Bring mixture to a boil, and reduce heat to steady but gentle simmer (bubbles at the surface). Let simmer for about 2.5-3 hours, stirring every so often to make sure the sauce isn't sticking to the bottom, and mashing the plum tomatoes against the side of the pot. The ragu will reduce by about 2/3 (you'll have 1/3 left). Season to taste, with salt and pepper.

*You'll know when the texture of the sauce is right. It thickens wonderfully as the bones and marrow cook.

Cook the rigatoni right before serving (add some salt to the water to help flavor the pasta). Serve, and enjoy.

...and in other news, our fig tree has created some fruit!

Mystery Cake

When my dear cousin Yawen and her husband stayed with us most recently, an unexpected side benefit rained upon us. Besides just reconnecting with family, her company yielded gifts from afar, via her friends visiting from Taiwan. Of particular note - a package of fried rice cakes.

Fried rice cakes? Kinda like Quaker rice cakes, but, like, a bajillion times better.

So when my father saw the package of cakes, he first got very excited about this little visit of not-oft-seen product from the other side of this planet. And then, he explained their use (as I was expecting them to have a taste more akin to styrofoam):

"You know what you do? You make chicken soup. And you have to serve it when it's still really, really hot, and you put the rice cake on top."

This advice came from the same father who I remembered, from my youngest years, making me ramen with a scrambled egg and fresh scallions, a late-night snack that I still seek out with the right Taiwanese Tung-I ramen wherever I can find it. The same father who explained to me when I asked him for the recipe for the Chinese chicken and dumpling soup I loved so much growing up that it wasn't a recipe that was worth sharing, as it really was the food that his family ate because they were poor (the poor's food or not, it is damn good, and I still can't get my dumpling mix just right). The same father whose oily rice and eight-treasure porridge are revered by all his family friends, including those who own restaurants, and by me as well as my miniaturized clones.

So I looked at those rice cakes with more optimism, took his loose instructions, and tried it tonight. Soup. Hot. Rice cake on top. Right.

The recipe came out well. And the rice cakes were way tastier than I expected. You find the rice cakes I'm talking about some time you're in an Asian grocery store, you gotta pick them up and try them out. It's a cool and new experience, and a delicious one at that all the same. And don't get discouraged by the long list of ingredients - it's really not too difficult, since some ingredients are (OH HORROR of HORRORS!) canned ingredients.

Soup with fried rice cakes
1 chicken breast sliced
1.5t corn starch
1/4c water
1t salt
1t white pepper pepper
1T sesame oil

Assortment of veggies - I used the following this evening:
2 carrots, sliced on diagonal
4 small radishes, sliced
1 Chinese mushroom
1c dried lily flowers
1 can sliced bamboo, drained and rinsed
1 can straw mushrooms, drained and rinsed
1 can baby corn, drained and rinsed
1 can water chestnuts, drained and rinsed

1c fresh snow peas
1c fresh bean sprouts
1/2 baby bok choy per serving

2 cherry tomatoes per serving, cut in half
Jalapeno, sliced (optional)
1-2 fried rice cakes per serving

Sesame oil
SaltWhite pepper

1. Dissolve corn starch in the water.
2. Mix the corn starch mixture with the chicken, as well as a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Set aside for minimum 10 minutes.
3. Heat sesame oil in pan. Add chicken and saute until opaque.
4. Add enough water to cover chicken.
5. Add carrots, and bring to boil.
6. Add remaining vegetables through water chestnuts in sections (arrange in stockpot as separate sections of vegetables, as opposed to mixing all vegetables and throwing it all into the pot together). Add enough water to cover. Bring to boil.
7. Taste soup, and add sesame oil/salt/pepper to taste. Once flavor suits your taste, add the bok choi, bean sprouts, and snow peas on top, arranging in groups in the same way as the previous veggies.
8. Serve by arranging the bowl in the same manner - grouping servings of the veggies and chicken separately from each other, and laying the bok choi on top. If you'd like to have the spicy heat in the soup, add your jalepeno slices at the bottom of the bowls.
9. Pour on enough soup to cover all your ingredients (and release the oils from the jalapenos), add the sliced cherry tomatoes (adds a little fresh tang against the smoky weight of sesame oil), and throw on a fried rice cake. Serve immediately, and enjoy!

Baby2 initially had his doubts - but then upon my insistence he tried a bite, and never looked back.

Ham on the Fly

So when my father brings food down to us from PA, it comes in two variations of the same theme: tons of Chinese from one of our family friends' restaurants (and our favorite when it comes to Chinese food anywhere); or tons of food of other varieties. Of late, he had brought us a whole smoked garlic chicken from Amish country, and a honey ham. In one weekend. Granted, we love honey ham, but an entire ham is not easily consumed by our little family. Maybe when Baby2 is a teenager, it'll come in handy; but for now, it's become the obstacle in the fridge. (And, as for the smoked chicken, not my favorite, so it may go the way of the dodo bird.)

That said, this evening I was going to take the ham and do a simple meat and potatoes meal that would make Hubby proud. But upon finding that our drawer was empty of potatoes, Hubby had a *ding* brilliant idea: carbonara. Would it work without the smoked flavor of prosciutto or pancetta? We were going to find out. Fast recipe? You bet.

We took 2 slices of the ham, and Hubby chopped it into smidgen pieces. Then we followed the classic methods for preparing carbonara. Result? Yums ingested by all, even by our most doubting Baby1. And never mind Baby2 - he inhaled the pasta like he was made in Italy. He even delved into the ham - and for him, in our house, that's an accomplishment.

As for the ham... alas, it may survive to fight another day. There are only so many times I can serve ham before it becomes, ahem, a ham of boredom.

Carbonara
2 thick slices ham, chopped (about 1.5 cups worth)
3 large cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1/2 onion, diced
1/2c white wine (we used *OMG* fatty chardonnay)

Bucatini (hollow spaghetti - not the easiest to pick up on a fork, but damn it tastes good) - we used a whole pack (serves about 6-8)

3 eggs, whisked to frothy
4 springs broad leaf parsley, leaves only, finely chopped
Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated (about 1c worth)

Salt/pepper to taste

1. Start by sauteing the ham in the pan, to draw out as much oil as possible; and start up a pot of water for the pasta.
2. Add onions and garlic to the ham, and saute until fragrant. Add freshly ground black pepper and wine, and saute on low heat in the pan until the wine has just about evaporated - and nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan.
3. Once the water is boiling, add a generous sprinkling of salt. Add pasta, and cook the pasta.
4. While the pasta is cooking, and while you keep an eye on your ham mixture, break 2 eggs into a large mixing bowl, where you'll mix the pasta. Whisk until frothy, then stir in chopped parsley and parmigiano reggiano. NOTE: if the wine in the ham mixture evaporates too quickly before your pasta is done, turn off the heat before you scorch the hell out of the mixture, take it off the heat, and lid it to keep in as much moisture as possible.
5. Drain the pasta once al dente, and add to egg mixture. Stir at once, to allow the heat of the pasta to cook the eggs a bit and let any residual pasta water mix with the eggs to create a thick sauce.
6. Add ham mixture, and stir well. Add a little salt (kosher's best for adding at this point, as the broad nature of the salt coats the pasta well without over-sodiumizing your dish) and pepper to taste.
7. Serve hot, preferably with a fresh garden salad.

Thanks to Hubby's ingenuity, we averted a typical man-meal. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but hey - I'll take carbonara any day over ho-hum meat and potatoes.

Caribbean taste, DC dank

Mangoes.

The color, the smell, the texture - they always bring me to that happy little place of clear water lapping white sand, colorful drinks with umbrellas, warmth, sun, relaxation. They turned a dish I cooked one evening into the opposite of these rainy, cold spring days and nights we've had of late (though this cold wet weather has done wonders for my late-set bulbs in the garden!). And can I mention - it was easy! This recipe serves a family of 4 easily, and can extend to a table of 6. Set aside about 15 minutes for intense mise en place, and about 45 minutes for cooking/stewing time.

There are variations you can try, particularly with the fish and seafood additions (or omit them all together for a completely vegetarian option) and with the amount of heat you'd like the dish to have. The mango, however, is a required ingredient. It just added the perfect touch of sublime sweetness to the dish without overpowering. And while it may be vegetable-heavy, a crisp side salad, with or without dressing, is a great balance for the heartiness of the dish.

(this dish came out so well, even Hubby who hates eggplant and mangoes agreed that it was good)

Fish stew
Olive oil (about 3T)
4 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
4 sprigs each cilantro and broad-leaf parsley, leaves only, finely chopped (total of between 1/4 and 1/2c)
1 large yellow onion, chopped into 8ths
2 large carrots, thickly sliced
1/4 American eggplant, chopped into large pieces (1"x1"x1" pieces)
1/2c of broth or water
1 mango, sliced (select a firm mango with some color, not mushy. You want sweetness, but not disintegration.)
1 can (64 oz) whole plum tomatoes, crushed
Salt/pepper
Oregano
Paprika

Red chili pepper flakes (optional)

White basmati or jasmine rice, cooked

Enough shrimps to serve
Squid, sliced (pre-sliced frozen calamari is good too!)
Fillet of tilapia, seasoned on both sides with just salt and pepper. We used just 1 fillet, but you could do 2 or 3 if you'd like. Best option is to be US-sourced, farm-raised. Try other fish as well - red snapper is a good option for Caribbean flavor.

1. The rice...if you use a rice maker, you'll need to tackle the rice first so that it'll be ready when you're done cooking. If not, you may be able to tackle the rice at the end, right before you add the fish to the dish. I sprinkled in a pinch of salt and added chopped parsley and a teaspoon of olive oil, but it's up to you. Plain rice is just as nice.
2. Warm up the oil in a saute pan (with cover) large enough to be able to hold the combined total of the ingredients.
3. Add parsley, cilantro, and garlic, and saute until just fragrant. Take care to not burn the garlic - it makes the oil and the garlic bitter. If you burn the garlic, start over.
4. Add chili pepper flakes to this mixture if you'd like a lot of heat. If not, add the pepper flakes later in the cooking process, right before you add the seafood.
5. Add onions and stir well to coat. Cook the onion until translucent - but make sure to keep the heat low enough to not burn the garlic!
6. Add the carrots and eggplant to the pan, and stir well. Follow with the mango slices, and stir well to coat. Add 1t of salt, and the water or broth, and cover to steam for about 5 minutes.
8. Add crushed tomatoes with about 1.5t of oregano. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to low to simmer for about 30 minutes. Gently stir the mixture every so often to ensure it's not scorching on the bottom.
9. Taste the stew base - add salt/pepper if necessary.
10. Add shrimps and squid to the mixture, and stir well. Lay your tilapia on top, and let steam for about 4-5 minutes, until it flakes easily. Sprinkle on a bit of paprika for some color.
11. Serve immediately, with rice on the side.

This dish would go wonderfully with mango martinis, margaritas, mojitos, or caipirinhas. Not necessary, but it's yummy!