Recipes by Ingredient + Prep – Page 39 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Porcini Mushroom and Somen Noodle Soup

I haven’t been in the mood to cook even though I’ve been spending a lot of time at home. But while inside the Grand Central Terminal Market earlier, I was inspired to go back to the kitchen after I saw a small container of really fragrant dried porcini mushrooms on sale for $3.50. I turned to soup-making after assessing the contents of the cupboard, and whadayaknow, I had a porcini-flavored dried salami in stock: I chopped a few small slivers and used them as extra topping to this very earthy broth.

Ingredients:
1/4 lb dried porcini mushrooms
half a bundle of somen noodles
3 small potatoes, cubed
1 red onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
a small knob of Piave cheese
salt, oil

1. Soak dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups of lukewarm water for about 20 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain and save the water. Roughly chop soaked mushrooms and set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil. Sauté garlic until brown and onions until soft. Add potatoes, rosemary and thyme and cook until potatoes are browning.
3. Add the mushrooms and the mushroom-flavored water and simmer for 10 minutes. Add 2 to 3 more cups of water, depending on how much broth you want. Season liberally with salt because the broth will be bland, but the salt will bring out the mushroom’s earthy flavor. Keep in low simmer until potatoes are cooked and all the flavors are incorporated.
4. Throw in somen and stir for 3 minutes; this will quickly cook the noodles. Turn off heat and let remaining warmth finish cooking the noodles. Ladle in bowls and shave cheese on top before serving.

Almond Financiers with Orange Zest

It was like my personal heaven walking in JB Prince, the service and bakeware store on 31st Street between Madison and Park Avenues. It’s been on my list to stop by but I have been unable to until this week because they’re only open on weekdays from 9 to 5. Their Web site sucks so I didn’t expect much from the store, but it was immaculate when I walked in. I touched everything I could touch, especially the Fat Duck and the El Bulli books. The sous vide machines were all lined up in a row and baking sheets and pans of all sizes hanged by clips. Just seeing the individual serving pieces made of plastic and bamboo made me want to throw a huge amuse-bouche party.

It’s amazing what I get to do while unemployed. There are so many errands, I don’t know how they got done when I had a job. The past week alone, I ran all over the city finishing all sorts of businesses while also going to job interviews, seeing people I haven’t seen in a while and watching movies in the middle of the afternoon. If I didn’t have financial responsibilities, I swear I’d be enjoying this time more so than I did eight years ago when the Web first broke my heart. Heck, I’d be in Singapore with my brother and his wife, blowing through my savings and traveling all over Asia. Fuck, I hate being an adult!

But back to reality: I wanted to check another thing off my Things-To-Do list which is to start experimenting with baked goods. (You understand that I didn’t say “baking”, right? Because I’m a little bit of a pussy and I’m afraid of commitments.) I received a nice, hefty birthday gift certificate from a few friends and, though I already know it will go towards the Kitchen Aid Pro with sausage, pasta and ice cream maker attachments, I’m saving it until I’m ready to use it like a pro.

Financiers came to mind after scouring through my many cookbooks and realizing that it’s one of those basic French recipes that don’t require the use of an equipment. But because I’m also precise, I splurged on a $15 financier silicone mold–which explains the trip to JB Prince. I tried different flavors for my first batch of batter. I divided it into three small bowls and in one, I mixed in a tsp of ground coffee. In another, I added orange zest; I added finely chopped dried cranberries to the last batch. (Add your own flavor in Step 3 below.) After baking my first-ever financiers, I let them cool completely so as not to bother them in their molds until they were set. When I revisited them, they were basically popping themselves out of the molds and I didn’t have to turn them over. I have to say that my favorite were the ones with orange zest. This recipe makes twenty two-inch financiers in one mold tray.

Ingredients:
a handful of raw almonds
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup of flour, sifted
2 egg whites
1/3 cup of butter
zest from a small orange
another small knob of butter to coat the molds, melted in the microwave for a few seconds

1. Preheat oven at 360º. Meanwhile, make your almond meal. In a food processor, process almonds until powdery. It’s okay that’s it’s grainy.
2. Make your beurre noisette. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low fire. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes, or until light brown and nutty-smelling. Set aside.
3. In a medium glass bowl, combine sugar and almond meal. Fold in the egg whites and mix well with a fork. Add the melted butter and continue to mix together. Stir in the flour and the orange zest and make sure everything is well-combined.
4. Butter your financier molds using a pastry brush. Pour the batter in each mold, filling it up just to the brim. Place batter-filled mold on a baking sheet. Bake for 18 minutes. Your financiers will puff up a bit and will get slightly crusty and golden on the edges, but soft on top. Remove from the oven and cool completely before turning them over on parchment paper.

Pork Roast Thai Green Spices

This Jamie Oliver lamb recipe may seem to require a lot of ingredients but once you have them, all you need to do is toss everything together to marinate the meat. I substituted the lamb with pork roast and served it to guests for my mother’s 61st birthday. I didn’t even use salt because all the herbs were enough to give the roast a delicious Thai-inspired flavor. You’ll find how amazing the lemongrass smell lingers in the meat even after several reheats of the leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 pork roast, bone-in, about 5 pounds

For the marinade:
1 stalk lemongrass, cut in short pieces, smashed
10 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
1 medium-sized knob of ginger, peeled, sliced
half a head of garlic, minced
half a bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
4 Thai chilies, chopped
juice from 3 limes
olive oil

1. Marinate the pork roast. Pat pork roast dry with a paper towel. Transfer to a large glass container that you can use to marinate. Stir together the olive oil and lime juice in a small bowl and drizzle all over the roast. Stuff every nook with garlic and herbs. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight.
2. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 425Âº. Remove the pork from the refrigerator and let rest at room temperature until oven is ready. Place an empty aluminum foil-lined roasting pan in the oven while the oven is pre-heating. When oven is ready, transfer the roast to the pan and cook for 45 minutes.
3. Reduce heat to 325Âº and roast an additional hour, or about 10 minutes per pound. Using a meat thermometer, the thickest part of the roast must be around 130Âº. Remove to a chopping block and let stand for half an hour before carving.

Roast Leg of Lamb

For the love of meat, Jake Dickson of Dickson Farmstand worked in several farms, a butcher shop and a slaughterhouse. All the effort paid off and he thought of a brilliant business plan: buy your upstate produce online and pick it up in the city from the back of his truck. I bought a boneless leg of lamb from Ehrhardt Farm in Jersey Hill, one of the highest elevations in Tompkins County, New York.

I also ordered a package of fatty bacon and ground pork but I’ll focus on the leg of lamb so that you can replicate it for your end-of-year dinner.

Ingredients:
1 4-pound boneless leg of lamb, tied up with butcher’s twine
salt, pepper

For marinade:
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
oil, pepper

1. Marinate lamb. Pat leg of lamb dry with a paper towel. On a chopping block as a work surface, drizzle olive oil all over the lamb and rub with pepper. Stuff every nook of leg of lamb with garlic and herbs. Transfer to a large glass container that you can use to marinate. Combine orange juice and white wine in a small bowl and pour into the container to marinate the lamb. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight. Make sure you turn over the lamb after several hours to soak the other side.
2. When ready to cook, remove the lamb from the fridge and let rest at room temperature. Arrange two racks in the oven: the middle rack to hold the lamb and the lower rack to hold a roasting pan to catch the drippings. (Spread chopped carrots, parsnips and onions in the pan for some roasted veggies to go with the lamb.) Preheat oven to 425º. Place the empty aluminum foil-lined roasting pan in the oven while the oven is pre-heating.
3. Cook the lamb. Remove the lamb from the container and pat dry with paper towels. Generously salt and pepper all sides of the lamb. Place directly on middle rack of the oven; the roasting pan below will catch the drippings. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 300º and roast an additional hour, or about 10 minutes per pound. Using a meat thermometer, the thickest part of the lamb must be around 135º for medium-rare. Let stand for half an hour before carving. Use just the drippingsand/or the roasted veggies to serve with the lamb.

Pasta E Fagioli, Italian Pasta and Beans Soup

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring,…
Are you kidding me? Whoever the author was wasn’t in my parents’ house on Christmas Eve. It’s definitely not quiet in ours right now: my mother is vacuuming, my father is moving stuff around and I’m simultaneously getting the leg of lamb and pork roast ready for our noche buena, clanging around the kitchen.

I’m not a regular churchgoer, but you can count on me to attend Christmas Eve mass even if it’s cold outside and boring inside. Because it’s also the eve of my birthday, I’ve always found mass quite comforting before I turn a year older. Wherever I am, I make it a point to attend mass for my birthday. After mass, we dive in for dinner and eat until a little after midnight–Christmas Day itself is just recovering from the night before.

This pasta e fagioli recipe, or “pasta and beans” in Italian, is a hearty (and affordable!) filler to keep the hunger pangs away at least until after church, but not too heavy that you would want to skip the main attraction on the dining table. I used Goya pinto beans here because one package was on sale for 99 cents and substituted the Parmesan cheese for Manchego.

Ingredients:
1 cup pinto beans, soaked overnight in water
2 cups mini penne pasta
4 slices bacon, chopped
3 large beefsteak tomatoes, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 sprig of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
Manchego cheese
salt, pepper

1. Drain the water from the soaking beans. In a large saucepan, add 3 cups of water and bring the beans to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for an hour, or until tender. When done, transfer beans and water to a large container and set aside.
2. Using the same saucepan, cook the bacon until crisp. Add the garlic and sauté until light brown. Add the onions and sauté until translucent. Add the herbs, carrots, celery and tomatoes and stir to combine. Cook until carrots are tender.
3. Return the beans and the water to the saucepan and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add more water if you want more soup. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Add the macaroni and simmer for another 10 minutes, or just enough to cook the pasta. Stir occasionally. Ladle into bowls and grate cheese on top before serving.