Poached Monkfish with Lemon Sauce - Fish pg.178

As I've said before, we love fish and we eat alot of it. This is a recipe that I've made about 10 times and it's always been fantastic. We have a small farmers market near us every Saturday and the fish monger always has monkfish. It's expensive, but worth it in my humble opinion. This recipe also calls for leeks, which are so yummy - I'll always jump at the chance to try a recipe that includes them!

The recipe is simple and straightforward. I've never strayed from Mr. Bittman's instructions and don't think I ever will (with this recipe at least).

Paprika Roasted Chicken, Broccoli Raab with Garlic and Braised Potatoes, HTCE pgs. 270, 343 and 644

I worked from home yesterday after it snowed about 10 inches here in Inwood. I never left the house and decided to make a cozy home cooked meal for Ben (my husband who is becoming a Bittman devotee) for when he got home out of the cold.

Ben and I often roast chickens on Sundays, but I've never done it on my own. I'm a bit squeamish about chicken innards, but felt brave and convinced myself I could do it, with Bittman's guidance of course! We normally use an adjustable metal rack, but Bittman's recipe just calls for a cast iron pan. I used my trusty Le Creuset (what would I do without you??) dutch oven. The recipe was so simple and easy and came out amazingly. First, heat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the deep pan or dutch oven inside after five minutes. Remove the innards (let's not talk about that part!) of the chicken, sprinkle one tablespoon paprika over the chicken and drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil on top and massage the entire bird. Place rosemary sprigs on top of the bird. Once the oven has reached 450, pop the bird in the (very hot--be careful!) dutch oven. If you were a sane person, that would be it for about an hour. If you are anything like me, this is just the beginning.

On to the broccoli and potatoes. Although Bittman's recipe for both the potatoes and raab were simple, it was just too many pots for a Monday night. In the future, I think I will jsut toss some potatoes and carrots at the bottom of the dutch oven (to roast in the juices) and make a salad. But, that's not what I did. You live and you learn.

I've been wanting to incorporate more greens in my diet ever since reading Doris' post about kale and reading Bittman's "Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating." I liked the taste of the recipe, but both Ben and I found the raab to be a little bitter (turns out broccoli raab is a relative of the turnip!) for our palate. I think in the future I will stick to regular broccoli (even though broccoli raab is not related to broccoli, but instead is a descendant from a wild herb)or kale. But, I digress. As I said, the recipe was simple. Blanch the raab for 3 minutes, plunge in ice water, remove and squeeze the excess water. Bittman says the raab will keep in the fridge for up to two days at this point, so it could be a good food to make ahead of time for quicker meals on those crazy weeknights. Next, add a little olive oil to a pan and add garlic slivers, letting them soften a bit before adding the raab. Cook until garlic is tender and slightly golden.

I made the potatoes at the same time--which is where I got in a little trouble-- the food came out perfectly, but I felt a bit harried. I like cooking to feel a little more creative and relaxing, almost meditative. I'm still learning how to deal with multiple pots at once.

I will definitely make these potatoes again. Basically all you do is peel and cut up the potatoes into chunks. Add olive oil to a skillet or braising pan (I used this, my second favorite pot/pan. Thank you wedding registry!) then add one small onion diced and saute until soft. Add potatoes until slightly golden and then pour in 2 cups broth. Let simmer for about 25 minutes, et voila, one of the most amazing tasting potato dishes I've ever made. Ben and I ate the meal while sitting on our cushions in front of the coffee table in the living room. He and the cat could not get enough. Fortunate for us, the recipes we used serve 4 and we are only 2.1 (Kali our cat is very small), so we will have plenty of leftovers for tonight.

Delicious.

Butter Almond Cake, HTCE Anniv Edition, p.913

I needed a simple gluten free birthday cake to make with my granddaughter so I tried this recipe. There was no flour necessary, just ground almonds. I put them in the Cuisinart until they became "mealy" as instructed by Bittman.
I combined the butter and nut mixtures.
We beat the egg whites with sugar until they were stiff, combined everything in one bowl and then poured it into the prepared pan.
A word about preparing the pan. I had a 10" spring form pan ( one of the three Benjamin brought back from college!!) and put plenty of butter in before I sprinkled some flower all around. The parchment paper was a great idea. It made everything so easy to remove when it was finished baking.
It didn't come out as high as I thought it should have. It was really too thin to slice and make into a layer cake. Next time I will make two of them. After removing the cake from the spring form pan, I plated it and lined the sides with foil so that it would be easy to spread the ganache icing all around. Of course removing the foil got a little messy but I figured the decorations would cover any big mistakes. My granddaughter was able to sprinkle flowers and place the letters on the top. Not a bad job considering how uneven it was. The icing was a Chocolate Ganache, HTCE Anniversary Edition, p.920. It was perfect with the nutty almond cake!
Happy Birthday and Bon Appetit.
clare.

Polenta Pizza with Pancetta (Bacos) and Spinach, NYT Feb 17

Clearly there was something in the zeitgeist this week regarding polenta. And before anyone starts getting foodie all over my arse, yes--I used Bacos instead of Pancetta and that's OK by me. I don't eat meat and I actually thought the Bacos would be a better substitute than soy bacon (I don't like any I've tasted very much). If anyone has a better suggestion for a smoky, salty vegetarian substitute--PLEASE let me know.

OK, now that that's off my chest, I made Bittman's breakfast Polenta Pizza and had it as a light dinner. Silly that I made the whole recipe because Bruce is away in Michigan this weekend and my neighbors are on vacation. So I had an entire cookie tray full of polenta to deal with by myself.

The good news is that this was yummy warm out of the oven (and the slices lifted easily right off of the tray) and even yummier this morning as a late-morning breakfast. There's plenty left, too--so Bruce can gorge himself when he comes home.

I think when I make this again I will try it with other cheeses (see Doris' post) or maybe just use a little less gorgonzola.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but take my word for it, this is an easy and delicious dish.

Basic Polenta, Version I, HTCE, p. 187

I made this polenta as a side dish for a dinner party I hosted. (I also served chinese style pork spare ribs, basic boiled kale, mashed sweet potatoes, cole slaw, and Terence made fake baked beans). I am never sure whether to call this dish polenta or grits because as far as I can tell, they're fundamentally the same thing. It's basically corn meal cooked in a liquid and at then end, cheese is added to it. Polenta, of course, sounds fancier than cheesy grits, so I'm posting this recipe under "polenta". Plus I followed Bittman's Basic Polenta recipe (Version I) when making them. One modification I made to the recipe which makes it much less Italian, and much more American is instead of using parmesean or blue cheese as is specified in the recipe, I used an aged cheddar. Sometimes, when T & I are feeling very lazy, we'll make a batch of this polenta and at the very end, mix in some kale and have a one-bowl dinner.

Penne with Butternut Squash, TMCH, p. 56

Butternut squash is one of my favorite winter vegetables. It's beautiful, flavorful, and healthful. Bittman's recipe for penne with a butternut squash sauce turned out to be absolutely incredible. Processing the butternut squash in the food processor rather than grating it by hand is a huge time saver. It also adds an additional bonus to the dish because the processed pieces are not all exactly the same size. So when cooked, because of the variation in size and shape from being processed rather than grated, they cook to different levels of doneness. The smaller pieces are cooked all the way down, yet the larger pieces are still al dente. I found this to be one of the best parts of the dish because you could really taste the squash and also enjoy different textures.

Instead of finishing the recipe with 1/2 cup of pasta water, I followed one of the "with minimal effort" suggestions and finished it with heavy cream. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of heavy cream, but I found that 1/4 cup was more than sufficient. The cream really helped boost the flavor and texture of the dish. We had the pasta with a nice arugula salad. The salad is dressed with a simple honey balsamic dressing (whisk together honey & balsamic vinegar, no oil is needed). The sweetness and tanginess of the dressing brought out the sweetness of the butternut squash. This was one of the most delicious dinners I have made in quite some time!

Basic Boiled Collards or Kale, p. 562

I grew up on an entirely different set of vegetable from what you can find in an American super market. Only recently have I started seeing some of these “exotic” vegetables (Chinese water spinach, snow pea shoots, and Chinese long beans) being served in non-Chinese restaurants. But these vegetables, along with about 15 – 20 others, mostly different types of leafy greens, were staples in my family. Needless to say, since we hardly ever ate American vegetables, I am unfamiliar with many of the vegetables you find in regular grocery stores. For example, I had never eaten a turnip until I had them at my mother-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving one year. We also never ate beets, parsnips, chard, collards, or kale. Don’t get me wrong, we shopped in the local Shop Rite for groceries. But my parents would drive into Chinatown pretty much every weekend to buy Chinese vegetables and various other ingredients only found in Chinatown.

As a result of being exposed to all these leafy greens, I have a great love for them. Imagine the amount of intrigue kale held for me when I first noticed it at the grocery store. I had always wondered about how it would taste, but the Chinese value the tenderness of a vegetable and kale doesn't look particularly tender. Yet, I was still intrigued because it is so green and frilly. (I like frilly things.) So I decided to bite the bullet and purchased two bunches of kale to serve for a dinner party.

It just so happened that 3 of my cousins and one cousin-in-law were coming to dinner and it turned out that none of them had ever had kale either. I boiled the kale using Bittman’s recipe, and tossed it with some sautéed garlic and olive oil at the end. I think all of my cousins really enjoyed it. And now I think I’m ready to introduce kale to my parents and hope that they will assimilate this very healthy American vegetable into their diet.