Recipes by Ingredient + Prep – Page 28 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Vermicelli Noodles with Summer Vegetables and Peaches

The Edible magazines you see at farmers’ markets are usually a good source for recipes using seasonal ingredients. I picked up Edible Piedmont while I was in North Carolina and adapted Sandra Gutierrez’s peach salad recipe. The peaches in Raleigh were ridiculously sweet and juicy. I only had a carry-on luggage with me, but I ended up lugging two shopping bags full of produce back which included a large basket of ripe peaches.

Whenever I travel, I make sure to stop at the local markets. Besides checking out the interesting and local produce, markets make good people-watching. And where there are working people, there’s usually food. It was no different in the North Carolina State Farmers’ Market. I ate sweet, sweet corn, fleshy sprite melons and cantaloupes, ripe heirloom tomatoes and picked on all kinds of plums, all for half the price of what they would be in New York City! I ate most of the peaches as they were, but with the remaining pieces, I made this salad to beat the summer heat.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup of rice vinegar
2 tbsps sesame oil
a knob of ginger, peeled, grated
1 Thai chile, halved
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt
pepper
ice bath
1 package vermicelli noodles
2 scallions, chopped
2 ripe but firm peaches, pitted, sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, seeded, thinly sliced
a handful of cilantro, roughly chopped

1. Make the vinaigrette. Combine the rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, chile and garlic in a blender and blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Set aside until ready to use.
2. Boil some water in a pot. While waiting for the water to boil, soak vermicelli noodles in cold water for about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside. Add to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Drain and transfer to an ice bath. Drain again and dry with paper towels.
3. Assemble the salad. In a large bowl, toss the noodles with the vegetables and the peaches. Splash with the vinaigrette and mix until well-combined. Serve or chill before serving.

Savory Fig Tart with Rosemary and Stilton

This recipe was republished by The New York Times from A Good Appetite: Ripe for Autumnâ€™s Hearth and it was one of those recipes I saved because it just sounded so deliciously savory. While I was in Raleigh, North Carolina for the weekend, I picked up a pint of figs from the farmers’ market and I immediately thought of making this even though August just began.

The weather the last two days has been bearable and I can’t stop thinking about how it’s almost autumn. I just started seeing tomatoes in the market and the peaches and nectarines are aplenty–how could there be figs already? I’m not ready for summer to be over yet!

I picked up a box of frozen puff pastry from Whole Foods and let it thaw on my way back to my apartment and while I was prepping the rest of the ingredients. I had Roquefort in the fridge, but I didn’t want to stray too much from the original recipe, so I bought a wedge of Stilton to make sure I get it right. I eliminated a pinch of sugar and forgot a splash of sherry vinegar–the former to add sweetness and the latter to caramelize the onions properly–but I think I didn’t screw it up too much because everything came together perfectly.

Ingredients:
2 tbsps unsalted butter
oil
1 large white onion, sliced thinly
2 sprigs rosemary, removed from stem
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
flour for dusting
1 box frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 pint fresh figs, cut in half
a small wedge Stilton cheese, crumbled
a handful of pine nuts

1. In a large skillet over low heat, melt butter with oil. Add onions and rosemary. Cook, tossing occasionally, until onions are limp and golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes. (Add a splash of sherry vinegar here and scrape off the brown bits from the bottom of the pan when caramelizing.)
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and egg until smooth. Stir in the onions.
3. Preheat oven to 400º. Line an 11 by 17-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Transfer to baking sheet.
4. Use a fork to spread onion mixture evenly over pastry while letting excess egg mixture drip back into bowl and leaving a 1-inch border. Arrange figs, cut-side up, in even rows on onion mixture. Scatter cheese and pine nuts over figs. Use a pastry brush to dab edges of tart with egg mixture. Gently fold over edges of tart to form a lip and brush with more egg mixture.
5. Bake until pastry is puffed and golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove to rest at room temperature before serving.

Goan Pork Curry

Using the Pork Balchao recipe in the 500 Indian Recipes book I picked up for $5 several months ago while waiting for the Dr. to show up for our date, I satisfied a spicy curry craving I was having. Balchao is a spice mix from Goa in which spices are mixed with vinegar and sugar for a spicy-sour-sweet flavor. It’s popular for pickling fish and prawns–I assume to keep before the time of refrigerators–and was brought by those colonizing Portuguese to India’s coastal town.

Pork cubes or stew meat are good for this recipe. I had bought a shoulder thinking I was going to make tacos for the weekend, but changed my mind and ended up slicing the meat off the large bone. There was no harm in stewing the bone with the meat–it just added flavor to the sauce. Boil 2 cups of chicken broth in a separate pot and throw in 2 cups of couscous while you’re at it if you can’t get your hands on some fresh nan.

Also, starting with this post, I have re-ordered the way I list ingredients. They used to be by what I deemed as main ingredients first, down to the seasonings; now they are ordered by when in the process they are used. I realized I was always grouping ingredients in recipes I am inspired by with their coinciding steps–this way, I hope you prep the ingredients in the same order, too. I’ve also included water when needed, something I also skipped because I assumed kitchens always have a sink, but it helps with your mise en place.

Ingredients:
oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 knob of ginger, peeled, crushed
4 pieces dried chiles
1 short cinnamon stick
4 cloves
2 tbsps cumin
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 red onion, sliced thinly
half of a pork shoulder, chop in chunks
2 beefsteak tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsps turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1 cup of warm water
4 fresh curry leaves, optional
salt
1 tbsp white sugar
a couple of splashes of cider vinegar

1. Using a mortar and pestle, crush together chiles, cinnamon, clove, cumin and peppercorns. Set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until garlic is browning a bit. Add the crushed spices and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant.
3. Add half of the onions and sautÃ© for another 30 seconds. Then add the pork, tomatoes, turmeric and chili powder. Mix to combine everything well. Add water and lower the fire to a simmer.
4. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, with some ocassional stirring, until pork pieces are tender.
5. Using a small skillet, heat a little oil and fry the rest of the onions with curry leaves, if using. Set aside on a plate lined with paper towel.
6. When pork is almost done, stir in sugar and vinegar with some salt to taste. Add a splash of water if it’s too spicy. Simmer for the last 5 minutes just to combine all the flavors.
7. Ladle in shallow bowls and top with fried onions and curry leaves. Serve with rice, couscous or fresh nan.

Salmon-Cucumber Summer Salad

I very rarely cook with salmon because there are always more exciting fish in the market, but my goal is to not use the oven this summer and I could only think of making a salmon salad to keep the kitchen cool. Kirby cucumbers are always good for this sort of salad because theyâ€™re fresh, crispy and sturdy enough when chopped and mixed in with other ingredients.

I originally made this without any carbohydrates, but after the first taste, it needed something heftier so I could make it an entire meal in itself. I found a leftover bag of Trader Joeâ€™s mixed grains in the pantry and added that to the salad after a couple of minutesâ€™ boil. For this recipe, feel free to use the same or any other grain available that wonâ€™t take too much of your time to cook and fluff.

Ingredients:
1 salmon fish fillet, patted dry with a paper towel
2 cups of mixed grains like barley and/or orzo
1 Kirby cucumber, sliced thinly
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
2 sprigs scallions, chopped
2 sprigs parsley, finely chopped
juice from lemon
oil, salt, pepper

1. Using a non-stick skillet, heat some oil. Sprinkle both sides of the salmon with salt and pepper. When the pan is smoking a little bit, lower the fire and add the salmon. Cook for 6 minutes without moving it and gently turn over using a spatula. Cook the other side for 5 minutes. Remove to a plate, let cool and put in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Heat a small pot of boiling water to cook the grains. Set aside to cool down.
3. While the salmon and the grains are cooling, assemble the salad by putting all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Toss to mix completely with lemon juice.
4. Remove the salmon from the fridge and flake the meat with a fork. If you left the skin on, it should be pretty easy to tear up in smaller pieces. Toss in with the vegetables. Little by little, toss in the barley so you have about the same portion as the salmon but not too much that the carbs overwhelm the vegetables.

Braised Pork Belly with Bok Choy

If I knew braising pork belly for three hours would keep me awake to help me get over my jetlag, I would have cooked days ago! I was having this insane craving for Chinese food since I came back from Tanzania. It was very specific, too: I wanted that Dongpo’s Pork taste that’s pan-fried and then braised for several hours to thicken the sauce, but with limited use of the stove as much as possible. I think my body is still asking for all the calories I burnt while I was hiking Kilimanjaro for six days; all I can think about is rice, food, meat. I’m ravenous–nothing new–and always feeling hungry even more so now.

You can use a Dutch oven here to braise as usual, but I felt like using my clay tagine just because I haven’t used it in a while. It’s smaller than any of my Le Creusets and I felt like it kept the pork all jammed in with all that braised sauce. The quantity of liquids may deter you here, but you can always add rice wine during cooking if you think it’s too salty–nothing some pickles and white rice can’t tone down while eating.

Ingredients:
2 pounds of pork belly
1 bunch of bok choy, thoroughly washed, separated
1 large ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 1/2 cups of rice wine
1/2 cup of soy sauce
6 tbsps of brown sugar

1. In a large pot, cook the pork belly with enough water to submerge them. After the water boils, time for two minutes and then turn off the heat. Remove the pork belly to a chopping block and slice in 1-inch thick pieces.
2. Layer the bottom of a medium-sized Dutch oven with the scallions and ginger. Top with the pork belly. The scallions will keep the pork from sticking to the bottom when braising. Pour in the liquids and sprinkle in the sugar.
3. Cover and simmer for at least two hours, checking every 30 minutes to move the pork around. During the last 15 minutes of cooking, layer in the bok choy–they will wilt quickly enough for every leaf to fit–and cover to cook. Turn off the heat, mix everything together and serve with rice.