cia – Page 84 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Kale, White Beans and Sundried Tomatoes

I had sushi with Stacie of chowbaby the other week and she told me about this quick yet nutritious dish she makes for her baby, Isaac. You gotta pay attention to a one-year old who eats kale; he’s sure to go places. Today, kids just don’t eat the bland slush we grew up with. Companies like chowbaby offer flavorful and exciting dishes made of organic ingredients frozen in convenient pouches which you can just heat up when needed. Can you imagine eating Moroccan couscous with raisins when you were a year old? Thank the stars for innovative and creative moms who think of solutions such as chowbaby to create future foodies everywhere. Anything good for baby Isaac is good enough for me.

Ingredients:
2 bunches of kale, leaves picked from the stalks, thoroughly washed
1 cup white beans, soaked overnight
2 cups sundried tomatoes, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
oil, salt, pepper

1. Heat some oil in a large Dutch oven. Sauté garlic until light brown. Add kale in batches and toss until wilted. Add white beans and tomatoes with 1 cup of water. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes to cook the beans and reduce the liquid.
2. When beans are soft, add balsamic vinegar and turn up the heat. Toss until the vegetables are covered with the vinegar.

Braised Ham Hock with Fennel

I woke up early to stop by the farmers’ market before work on Wednesday. I wanted some fresh bacon so I said hello to Mike from Tamarack Hollow Farm. He still remembers me as the girl who ordered half a suckling pig and a whole goose almost two years ago, and for that I remain loyal. With my nice slab of bacon, he also introduced me to a healthy-sized ham hock and rattled a recipe. I didn’t write it down but four days later, I made up a recipe using the three words I still remembered: fennel, tarragon and braise.

Braising is something I love to do during the colder months. Even though I used potatoes and beans in this recipe, the fennel and the tarragon made it more spring than winter. Instead of red wine, I splashed half a cup of the Austrian Gruner Veltliner I picked up from the store because of its beer cap and chubby bottle. The combination made a warm yet bright dish perfect for spring.

Ingredients:
1 fresh ham hock
1 bulb fennel, sliced thinly
3 sprigs of tarragon, stemmed
1 1/2 cup of white beans, soaked overnight
1 leek, chopped
a handful of baby carrots
4 white potatoes, peeled, quartered
1/2 cup of white wine
salt, pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Meanwhile, in a heated large Dutch oven, brown all sides of the ham hock until it has a nice golden color. Remove to a plate.
2. You should have some oil rendered from the ham hock. If there’s not a lot, add some oil and heat it up. Sauté the leeks until soft. Add the potatoes and cook until slightly brown. Add the tarragon, fennel and baby carrots and cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add the wine and the beans. Let simmer until the liquid evaporates a little. Add the ham hock in the middle of the vegetables. Cover and braise in the oven for 1 hour. After an hour, turn the ham hock, cover again and braised for another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the pot rest, half-covered. When ready to serve, slice off the meat from the bone and serve with the vegetables.

Fette Sau

354 Metropolitan Avenue near Havemeyer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718/963.3404
about $60 for four, with a gallon of beer, without tip
♥ ♥

In case it hasn’t been obvious, I love pork. I was having a bad day and all I wanted was to get a couple of drinks where I can sit outside and enjoy the warm weather. I wanted to forget, even for just a few hours, that a family member was in the hospital. I wanted good food so that I can feel happy in my stomach and then stronger in my heart to accept whatever bad news that may come next. I was even willing to take the L to Brooklyn to find that kind of comfort, as far away from Bellevue Hospital as I could.

I was with great company including Scott Gold, the author of The Shameless Carnivore: A Manifesto for Meat Lovers, and we talked about the experiences he wrote in his book during his quest to eat 31 kinds of meat. (I don’t want to ruin the book for you but among my favorites are the hunting for squirrels, salivating for the caribou and spitting out the bull’s penis.)

He shared his stories as we picked on the oh-so-moist and fatty brisket, spicy and snappy pork sausages and the perfectly cooked pulled pork. We couldn’t deal without some veggies so we also ordered the broccoli and the potato salad–both helped cut the fattiness on our palates. The baked beans were barely touched but I saw through the empty glass gallon of beer by the time we wiped our hands clean with Wet-Naps.

German for “greasy sow”, Fette Sau not only provided a great place to enjoy the warm night air, it also gave me a chance to appreciate and enjoy what was around and in front of me: enjoyable company and a happiness-inducing plate of pork.

Tomatillo Sauce

I’ve made salsa verde before using different kinds of greens: parsley, mint, basil and capers. This version fits its Spanish name more because it uses tomatillos, those green tomatoes you see in your grocery store covered in an onion-skin husk.

Ingredients:
8 tomatillos, thoroughly washed, halved
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 Jalapeño peppers, stemmed, seeded, chopped
1/4 tsp sugar
juice from half a lemon
salt

1. Place tomatillos cut side down on a baking sheet. Place in broiler for about 8 minutes to lightly blacken the skin.
2. When done, pulse together all ingredients in a food processor. Season to taste with lemon juice and salt. Transfer to a large container with a seal. Let cool to room temperature before storing in refrigerator.

Pickled Ramps

In a week’s time, New York City has gone from spring to summer. Temperature was up 76 last week and I wore shorts to work. Good thing the produce at the farmers’ market was still in spring mode because I couldn’t have celebrated the warm weather without having my first ramps of the season. I got my early batch from Whole Foods for $19.99 a pound. F that! A bigger bunch in Union Square was $2.50 each when I stopped by the next morning. Because I was able to afford a few bunches, I decided to pickle them.

Make sure you wash and clean the ramps thoroughly. From the farmers’ market, the roots were intact. I cut them off and washed them with the water running; the onion skin from the stalks easily came off. I cut off and only left about an inch of the greens. I set the leaves aside for another recipe. Shichimi togarashi is a Japanese spice mix used to flavor soups and noodle dishes. You can buy a small bottle from Sunrise Mart if you’re in Manhattan, or else make your own.

Ingredients:
4 bunches of ramps
2 cups rice-wine vinegar
1 cup white sugar
salt

For the shichimi togarashi:
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp sesame seeds
3 curls of orange peel
a very small knob of ginger, peeled, crushed
1 sheet of nori

1. Bring all the ingredients, except the ramps, to a full boil in 3 cups of water until sugar dissolves.
2. In a pickling jar, place cleaned ramps and pour in the pickling juice. Using a small tea cup as weight, make sure that the ramps are completely submerged. Let cool to room temperature.
3. Seal jar and store in the refrigerator for about 5 days.