Purple Green Beans and More Risotto

Believe it or not, these purple beans turn green almost the instant they hit boiling water. They are delicious, though, and if they're blanched in boiling, salted water for about a minute and a half, and then refreshed in ice water, they make a lovely addition to a chicken salad that features crisp vegetables, tangy vinaigrette, and fresh mozzarella.

I've said before that good tomatoes are hard to find. But sometimes all you need is a little extra cheese and Prego! It's in there! Flavor, texture, salt, it's all there. Tonight's adventure in risotto involved some weak Roma tomatoes, an accidental cheese spill, and some reassurance from a fellow cheese lover that it would be fine. And it was. Too much cheese? Impossible!

Risotto al Pomodoro (e Formaggio)

Following roughly along with the basic risotto from earlier this week, you can add a few peeled tomatoes just after the onions are soft, and cook them until they become saucy. Add the rice and allow it to absorb the tomato sauce. Add about 6 cups of unsalted chicken broth, as before, ladle by ladle (test the rice occasionally for doneness). When the rice is just tender, finish with butter and olive oil, add a cup of diced fresh mozzarella, a dozen shredded basil leaves, and a half cup of grated parmesan. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately. This dish has the freshness of a margherita pizza with a creaminess that could only come from risotto.

To peel tomatoes, dunk a couple at a time into boiling water for 10-20 seconds. Cut the stem out and peel from the stem end with a knife. Return to boiling water briefly if the skin is being difficult.

Below is a cool, tangy dessert that could go well with your next summertime meal. I had a heck of a time freezing the granita, but it had a clean taste that finished the meal off nicely.

Granita di Pompelmo con Panna

1/3 c water
1/2 c sugar
2 1/2 c fresh grapefruit juice
2 star anise (optional)
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 T powdered sugar

Heat sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Combine with grapefruit juice and pour into a shallow metal pan. Place the pan in a freezer and stir up the ice crystals every 40 minutes or so until completely frozen. Alternatively you can let the juice freeze solid and shave the ice with a spoon.

Beat the whipping cream until it forms soft peaks. Mix in the sugar. Layer glass dishes with whipped cream and granita. You can keep it in the freezer until serving time, though your whipped cream may be more like ice cream. It's a tricky balance because the acid from the juice could turn your whipped cream into cheese if everything's not frozen. Makes 6-8 servings.

Optionally, you could take a batch or two of home brew espresso, sweeten to taste, and freeze as above for a traditional granita di caffe, and it's even better with the layered cream.

Rice Flavored Butter

Risotto might be the easiest way to eat half a stick of butter in one sitting. I did it yesterday before I even realized what I had done, but the fragrant, porridge-like rice dish was so delicious that I couldn't stop eating it. The recipe called for dry white wine, onion and chicken broth, but I had sweet red wine, shallot and bouillon cubes on hand, and it came out just fine. Don't let those little things get in the way of your lunchtime meal.

Start to finish the dish takes about 30 minutes, but these 30 minutes require your constant attention at the stovetop. Have everything measured and chopped before you start cooking the rice, because you'll be stirring it constantly and watching for the magic to happen. During the cooking, the rice gives up its starch to form a creamy sauce around the grains. The end goal is a creamy, tender, fragrant rice that still has its shape but isn't crunchy inside. Once you have the basic risotto down, you can use any kind of stock and add just about any kind of meat, vegetable, mushroom or fish that you want.

Basic Risotto

one pinch (about a dozen) saffron threads
1 cup dry white wine
5 c broth
8 T butter plus 4 T to finish the dish
1 small onion or shallot, finely chopped
2 cups risotto rice (chubby short grain)
1/2 c good quality grated Parmesan cheese
1 T chopped herb or parsley
salt and pepper

Heat the wine with the saffron in a small sauce pan until the threads begin to color and flavor the wine. In a separate saucepan heat the broth until just barely simmering, and keep it hot for the entire process.

In a large skillet over moderate flame, heat the butter and saute the onion for a few minutes until soft. Add the rice and stir until the rice begins to turn opaque. Lower the heat, pour in the saffron wine and stir the rice until the wine has been absorbed. Now add one ladle of the simmering broth and stir continuously until the rice absorbs it all. Continue adding broth by the ladle, stirring constantly, allowing the rice to absorb the broth each time.

After the last ladle of broth, check your rice to see that it is tender inside. If it is still crunchy, continue heating with stirring for a few minutes, checking occasionally. Add a half ladle of hot water if necessary. Once tender, add the finishing butter, herbs and cheese, stirring gently to mix. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with additional cheese for sprinkling.

Makes 4 servings. This recipe can be halved easily.

That's a Tangy Sauce

Any good chunk of meat left to smoke for hours on end will taste great on its own. That fall-apart tenderness and characteristic smoke ring and flavor are why we do this thing called barbecue in the first place. But of course a nice barbecue sauce is always welcome, and I wanted to give a tangy Western Carolina barbecue boost to some smokey ribs. I didn't want the first noticeable taste to be sugar (usually corn syrup in commercial sauces). Here's a rough idea of how it came together. No corn syrup was harmed in the making of this sauce.

"Gonna Make Ya Sweat" Barbecue Sauce

1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup water, more if the sauce is too thick
3/4 cup vinegar (I used sushi vinegar because it's all I had)
1 T molasses
1 T honey
1 clove garlic
1/2 inch fresh ginger root, sliced
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds, ground
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
several dashes of XXX hot sauce
a good shake of cayenne pepper

In retrospect, half the tomato paste would have done the trick, and then the water could have been cut down so that the sauce is more of a tomato-tinged vinegar sauce rather than vice versa. In any case, toss everything into a blender and process until well mixed and smooth. Add a splash of liquid (vinegar or water) if the sauce won't budge in the blender.

Some of the ingredients were just handy and sounded good at the time, like the chili powder and Worcestershire. Omit, substitute or add as you please. The sauce should have a tangy vinegar and chile burn that's eased by the honey and molasses. Makes about 2 cups.

Hot tub! Gonna get ya hot-a!
Gonna make ya sweat! Hey!
Say! Hot tub! Rub a dub in the hot tub!
Rub a dub with me!

--James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party (Eddie Murphy, SNL)

Bad Root Beer, Good Tapenade

The root beer from yesterday is really not so great. There's a little too much ginger, something funky in the aftertaste (maybe dandelion), and it's not sweet enough. A couple of teaspoons of simple syrup fix that last one, but otherwise I'm sticking to store-bought for my root beer fix.

Here's something quicker and a little more fool proof. It's nice as an appetizer or quick lunch; try a few different olives for variety. Chop the ingredients by hand for a more substantial texture.

Olive Tapenade

2 cups of olives, pitted, chopped
1 T salt packed capers, rinsed and chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 anchovy filets (optional), finely chopped
squeeze of lemon juice
2 T olive oil
any good Italian, French or sourdough bread, sliced and toasted crisp

To pit olives, lay a few on a cutting board and press on them firmly with the side of a large knife. Pull out the pits with your fingers. It's a little messy, but you'll find more variety in unpitted olives and they generally taste better. The salted capers have a stronger flavor than their brined cousins; if you can't find them, feel free to substitute.

Combine the olives, capers, garlic, (anchovies) and lemon juice in a bowl. Drizzle in olive oil while stirring until the other ingredients hold together. Spread on the bread on its own or with sliced tomato or mozzarella.

Root Beer, Take 2

My recent obsession with old fashioned root beer is getting dangerous. I can't drive down a country road without gazing out the side window looking for sassafras trees. So to put it all to rest, and before I end up stranded in a ditch, I'm making root beer one more time this summer.

I'm brewing 1.5 L this time, so I've adjusted all my quantities and added a few ingredients based on an old time recipe I found floating on the web. The juniper berries and dandelion root came from a local hippy food co-op. They also sell frankincense and myrrh, which will make an appearance here during the holiday season if I figure out what to do with them.

8 sassafras sapling roots, each about 4" long
1 T juniper berries, crushed
2" fresh ginger root, sliced
1 1/2 tsp dandelion root
5 T sugar
1 T honey
1 1/2 tsp molasses
scant 1/8 tsp dry yeast

Boil the sassafras, juniper, ginger and dandelion in about 3 cups of water for 20 minutes. Strain well and allow to cool to lukewarm. Add sweeteners and yeast, mix well and pour into a 1.5 L bottle. Top up with cool water, cap and shake gently to mix it all together. Stand in a warm room for about 12 hours or until the bottle is very firm to the squeeze. Refrigerate until cold, serve over ice or vanilla ice cream.

I wasn't sure how much "bite" the ginger/juniper/dandelion mixture would have, so I boiled it separately and added it little by little to the sassafras tea. In the end, I used it all because the sugars tamed the bite, so I suggest boiling it all together. I tasted the brew as I added sweeteners little by little to make sure it was sweet enough and not overpowered by molasses. I made it about as sweet as sweet tea because the carbonation and chilling will cut the sweetness a little.

I haven't tasted the final product, but I have a good feeling about this batch. I'll let you know how it goes.

Coffee Talk

I've been putting my stovetop espresso maker to work these past couple of weeks. The results have been tall, refreshing, eye-opening iced coffee drinks that rival anything you can buy at the local coffeehouse or supermarket. In under five minutes you can have a Thai iced coffee, or a grande decaf soy iced mocha whippaccino, or anything else you can imagine.

The coffee makes all the difference, although it's a matter of personal preference. Having tried a few different brands and beans I finally settled on Caffe Kimbo Gold Medal. For half the price of the superpremium brand, it's a nice finely ground medium roast, perfect for the stovetop espresso maker. Instead of being bitter and smokey like a lot of espresso roasts, the Kimbo is smooth, sweet, almost chocolatey. For the strongest, sweetest brew, bring the pot up to a boil slowly, and allow only half the water to seep through the grounds at a trickle. Take the pot off the heat to stop the espresso from getting diluted. It looks like molasses and even has a nice foamy crema on the surface. This small amount of coffee contains all of the essence of the grounds; it's delicious straight with dessert, or in mixed coffee drinks.

Cappuccino

For each serving:
1 shot freshly brewed espresso
1/4 c milk

Bring the milk to a simmer. Remove from heat and whisk milk (or use a milk frother) until foamy. Pour espresso into a warmed coffee cup and top with the hot milk and foam.

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Thai Iced Coffee

2 T sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c freshly brewed espresso
ice cubes

Combine milk and coffee in a glass, top up with ice cubes. Makes one strong serving.

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Iced Mocha Latte

2 T sweetened condensed milk
2 T chocolate syrup
1/2 c freshly brewed espresso
1/2 t vanilla extract
ice cubes
whole milk

Stir together the condensed milk, chocolate syrup, vanilla and espresso. Fill two glasses halfway with ice cubes, pour half the coffee mixture into each, and top up with milk.

What a jerk!

I've suspected this for some time, but it's on a t-shirt, so it must be true. I'm going to substitute bacon for brussels sprouts from now on.

Well, my kitchen has gone from smelling like root beer, to smelling like jerk, to now smelling a lot like mesquite smoke. Here's how it all went down.

When my buddy said he was getting a smoker-grill, I immediately started craving a Jamaican jerk recipe I had read about back in the cold weather months. Today was the day, and with only a couple of hours before grill time, I rushed out to pick up a few essentials and mixed up the fiery paste that would transform a pork tenderloin into an amazing mouth-watering morsel bursting with flavor. The recipe is worth repeating here. The smell was intoxicating, the spicy heat built up a little, but mellowed out into a nice tasty burn. 7 out of 10 on the spice scale. Adjust the number of peppers if you need to.

4 habanero pepper, stemmed
1 bunch green onions, cleaned and chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 T fresh if you have it
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground allspice
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
dash cinnamon
2 T vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 T vegetable oil
1 T salt
1 heaping tsp brown sugar

Put it all in a blender or processer and whirl until blended. This is enough for 2 pork tenderloins, butterflied and pounded to about 3/4" thick. Jab the meat all over with a chopstick or the end of a wooden spoon to form little pockets. Smear the marinade on, making sure to fill the holes, cover it with plastic wrap so the plastic clings to the meat, and refrigerate for a few hours, turning occasionally. Over a medium-hot grill with plenty of wood smoke, it takes about 8 or 9 minutes a side. A bigger cut of meat would be a good candidate for smoking with this marinade.

This was all a prelude to the main course, the amazing and beautiful beer can chicken. Believe the hype, it's all true. This was the most delicious bird I've ever had on the grill. The smoker was hovering around 200 degrees, and we worried it wouldn't be hot enough, but the two hours spent in the mesquite smoke bath were worth every minute. The can of beer up the bird's rear end keeps the moisture up, steaming it from the inside and wetting down some of the dry rub. The smoke is key; it browns the outside and carries the flavorings all the way through the meat.

I am now the proud owner of the carcass from that beer can chicken, and it was pointed out by my dear friend and fan of hearty cold weather food, that it would make a really tasty stock to go into a pot of gumbo. Pure genius. I'll freeze the stock until gumbo season or until my kitchen drops below 80 degrees, whichever comes first.

Sweet Sassy Molassey!

We'll get to the fresh mozzarella in a minute, but first, I want to tell you what I know about root beer. It's delicious in a frosted mug on ice, or poured over vanilla ice cream for a float. But what is it? What is the "root" in root beer? The ingredients tell us nothing: corn syrup, "natural" and artificial flavorings, caramel color. As it turns out, the key is sassafras, the bark of the sassafras root, to be exact. It's worth noting that the root cannot be sold in the States for various reasons, the most likely being that the government cannot distinguish root beer makers from illicit drug makers.

That being said, sassafras is common along roads, meadows and water all through the eastern states. After having no luck in the local parks, I ended up in the Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania. It's beautiful country, plenty of forest, rivers, skiing, waterfalls and, finally, sassafras. It has distinctive leaves, and if that isn't enough, the root beer aroma when you scratch and sniff any part of the plant is a dead giveaway. I dug up a few saplings and chopped the roots off for my first attempt at root beer. Here's what I tried so far.

10 inches of skinny sassafras sapling root
2 cups water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp molasses
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

I boiled the root in the water for about 30 minutes. The two cups reduced to about 1/2 cup, and it was a nice reddish, fragrant liquor. To this I started adding the other ingredients, sampling the whole time, ending at the above amounts.

Fresh ginger or some hops might be better than ground ginger, and the vanilla was a little overpowering. I found one recipe suggesting juniper berries and dandelion root. More roots, slower boil, and some new bitters for next time. I didn't have enough to bottle and carbonate, but when I do, I'll treat it like my homemade ginger beer, using a little yeast and a tight bottle.

My first swing at mozzarella was a miss. Getting curds is the easy part, but having them acidic enough to "spin" into mozzarella is a little tougher than I thought. To half a gallon of whole milk over medium heat, I added 1/2 cup of lemon juice to curdle it. At about 100 degrees F (a little late) I added 1/2 tablet of rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup of water, and I got a bunch of big curds in whey. Pretty promising so far. I scooped out the curds at 105 degrees F, and set the whey to heat up to 175 with a little salt in.

This is where I should have paid better attention to all the warnings about mozzarella, because when I dripped my curds into the hot whey, they scattered and didn't really bother to spin, flip or cartwheel at all. The curds weren't too bad with a little salt. I heated up the whey to almost boiling, skimmed out the ricotta and had that for supper as well.

Next time I'll try adding a little cultured buttermilk to the milk and letting it develop acidity overnight. It has to happen soon - all those ripening tomatoes won't wait forever!

Hip Downtown Cats

The last week has seen blazing afternoon sun heating up the kitchen to a steamy 95 degrees, which means a) no stove or oven and b) staying out as late as possible until the apartment cools down at night. So, we're going fishing.

That's right, midnight catfishin' here on the three rivers of Pittsburgh. You've seen it on TV during baseball and football games, but the view is even more spectacular from the banks of the rivers at night, and the fishing isn't too bad, either. I'm joined by Matt, whose wife Addie loves both cheese and Matt very much, so she let's him out until all hours to fish. Our spot is on the banks of the Allegheny River between the two stadiums, and our weapon of choice is stinkbait.

We bought a tub of commercial stinkbait a while ago with great success. But it smelled SO bad, I didn't know where to keep it anymore. So we're moving on to home remedies: chicken livers and dough bait. The liver nearly got me a 5 pounder the other night, but my ultralight rig was no match for the mighty cat. The dough has been tricky to get right, and I don't want to offend my neighbors with anything ripening in the sun. Here's what I've got so far:

Gumbo Garlic Dough Bait

1/2 c dried potato flakes
1/2 c water
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp gumbo file (just to give the dough a cool name)
enough flour to make a nice dough

If you have some blood from the livers on hand, toss that in, too. Mix that all together, knead it a little, and when it doesn't stick to the hook, use it for chum!

Not for human consumption!

Next time on the Captain's Table I hope we'll be talking about something more edible, something that would go well with all the ripening tomatoes of the world, something like... fresh mozzarella.