Recipes by Ingredient + Prep – Page 40 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Pork Roast, Gorgonzola, Pear and Walnut Bacon Sandwich

Ah, Internet, you kill me. It sucks to be laid off for the second time in eight years especially if it’s from a job you actually like. But shit happens, yeah? The good thing is that I can wake up without scurrying out the door and I can devote some time to the art of making sandwiches for lunch. Take for example this afternoon: leftover pernil that I carved from the bone, Gorgonzola from Di Palo Selects, a lone pear from the fruit basket on the coffee table and a handful of walnuts from a can of assorted holiday nuts; I threw in three slices of bacon in there for good measure.

This sandwich is not for the faint of heart. Substitute the pork with sweet ham and add some spicy arugula to make a sweet-salty version.

Ingredients:
leftover pork roast, chopped
3 slices of bacon
half a pear, sliced thinly
a small chunk of Gorgonzola, sliced
a handful of walnuts, crushed
4 slices of whole wheat bread
a small knob of butter, melted in microwave

1. Cook bacon. Using a skillet, cook about 4 slices of bacon until crisp. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Set aside.
2. Using the rendered bacon fat in the same skillet, heat up pear slices. Remove to same paper towel-lined plate.
3. Assemble sandwich. On a chopping board, spread one side of each bread slice evenly with some melted butter using a pastry brush. With buttered sides down, spoon some pork roast on two slices of bread and top with Gorgonzola slices. Add bacon and pears and sprinkle with walnuts. Feel free to moisten with leftover bacon fat. Layer with remaining bread, buttered side up.
4. Place large skillet over high heat and brush remaining butter. Reduce heat to medium-low and add sandwich. Using an iron grill press, put on top of the sandwich and press. Cook until browned and crisp on both sides, about 4 minutes a side. Transfer to a platter lined with parchment paper. Cut in half and serve.

Pernil, Pork Shoulder Roast

I texted Lily when I saw a $9 pork shoulder at Fairway: what do I need to make pernil? Pernil, or roasted pork shoulder, is a Latin dish served as part of a feast, usually with rice and beans. I grew up in Washington Heights with my Dominican friends and have always eaten pernil at their birthday parties. Years have passed and they’ve all moved out of their parents’ houses and I haven’t had a decent pernil since.

Thankfully for Lily’s birthday this past summer, she decided to keep it low-key and invited us to her mother’s house. I thought I ate the best pernil there. Her mother even wrapped some leftovers for me to take home because I couldn’t stop picking from it even after dinner was over. My friends’ parents are all too familiar with the Asian friend who raves about the roasted pork.

This is in preparation for Christmas Eve dinner. My first try didn’t come out as tender as I would have liked: Lily’s version melts in your mouth and it’s impossible to slice the meat because everything just falls off the bone. I’ve revised this recipe and made some corrections. I’ll be ready to try it again for my birthday dinner and I’ll make Lily proud.

Ingredients:
1 pork shoulder, no more than 5 pounds
1 head of garlic, peeled, crushed
4 tbsps cumin, grounded
a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce
salt, pepper

1. Marinate the pork shoulder. Score the pork with a sharp knife and insert garlic cloves in every nook. Splash Worcestershire sauce all over the pork. Using your hands, liberally rub the pork with cumin, salt and pepper. Put in a large container and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
2. When ready to cook, heat oven to 300º. Remove the pork from the refrigerator and let rest at room temperature until oven is ready. Roast pork for 3 hours on a rack in an aluminum foil-lined roasting pan filled halfway with water, turning every hour until meat is tender. Add water to the pan as necessary.
3. Remove pork from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes before cutting it up.

Squash and Potato Gratin with Manchego Cheese

I missed it when The Times first reported it last week: the Maya Schaper Cheese and Antiques store in the upper west side is going to be replaced by a coffee shop because of soaring rents. Good thing then that the Dr. and I stopped by today to buy some cheese. The Dr. picked up a beautiful stinky blue cheese while I walked around gasping at the prices of the Rococo-style plates I’d very much like to afford and own. I tasted the cheese he bought and got my own sliver, and I also picked up a Manchego because I wanted to use the butternut squash that has been sitting on my window kitchen sill since the last Supper with Strangers. (It was still good.)

I like baking gratins because they’re so easy. They’re a nice addition to a dinner setting: you get your starch and in this case, your vegetable, too. I love the hint of salt and savory in this recipe even though it’s a creamy baked dish. It went perfectly well with a pork shoulder roasted for three hours.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled, chopped lengthwise, sliced thin
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, sliced thin like coins
2 cups Manchego cheese, shredded
1 pint heavy cream
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsps fresh thyme
a small knob of butter
salt, pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400º. In a saucepan, bring cream and garlic to a simmer. Remove from heat and set aside, stirring occasionally to keep the top from gelling.
2. Butter a 9″x13″ shallow baking dish. Spread the sliced butternut squash out in a single overlapping layer. Sprinkle with some of the salt, pepper and thyme and then about a third of the grated cheese. Top with half of the sweet potatoes, building a new overlapping layer. Again sprinkle with some of the seasonings and another third of shredded cheese. Use the last of the potatoes to make one final layer and top with the remaining cheese. Pour over the garlic cream mixture, distributing evenly.
4. Bake the gratin. Cover the dish with foil and bake on the middle rack for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, move the gratin to the top rack of the oven and bake, uncovered, for an additional 20 minutes. The top should be nicely browned and the vegetables soft. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Lamb Shank in Ras-El-Hanoot

I am so sick of turkey leftovers that I’m going to gag if I think about it one more time. After the gym tonight, I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up one lamb shank from the meat department. Surprisingly, one piece came out a little under $7.50 versus the exorbitant Whole Foods price I always tsk-tsk at.

This recipe is from Janna Gur’s beautiful cookbook, The Book of New Israeli Food. She’s well known as the editor of Israel’s leading food and wine magazine, Al Hashulchan Gastronomic Monthly, so I thought the recipes would be hard to make. I was surprised at how easy to understand they were even though I’m not familiar with Jewish customs.

Ras-El-Hanoot, or “Top of the Store”, is a Moroccan spice mixture used to season meat. Apparently, every spice vendor has his own secret formula on how to make it. In this version, I’ve eliminated 1 tbsp of aniseed because I just didn’t have any, so I doubled the fennel seed measurement instead. You can certainly substitute aniseed with one star anise plus a pinch of allspice powder.

This lamb dish is one leftover I wouldn’t mind having again and again.

Ingredients:
1 lamb shank
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
5 sprigs of parsley, chopped
1 quart chicken stock
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 thyme sprigs
salt, oil

For Ras-El-Hanoot mixture:
2 tbsps paprika
2 tbsps fennel seeds
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp coriander seeds

1. Make Ras-El-Hanoot mixture by crushing all the ingredients together using a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil over medium heat. Rub salt all over the lamb. Add the lamb shank and brown on all sides. Remove from pot when done.
3. In the same pot using the remaining oil, sauté garlic until brown and onions until soft. Add carrot, celery, parsley, bay leaf, thyme and the Ras-El-Hanoot mixture and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Return the lamb to the pot and bring to a boil again. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 1 hour. Turn over the lamb and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the meat is almost falling off the bone. Uncover the pot and cook for another 15 minutes to thicken the sauce.

Turkey Bacon Porcini Sandwich

I thought I would have more leftovers from Thanksgiving to make a week’s worth of lunch. But everyone in the house liked this sandwich so much, I was able to make them only two times before we ran out of leftover turkey. The sourdough and the porcini mushrooms were extra ingredients from the homemade stuffing I made. I ended up clearing our fridge out before the holiday weekend was over.

Ingredients:
leftover Thanksgiving turkey, sliced, heated in the broiler
4 slices of bacon
4 porcini mushrooms, chopped
sourdough bread, sliced, toasted

For onion relish:
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/8 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1. Make onion relish. In a saucepan, boil the onions in water until soft. Remove from heat and drain. Return to the pot and add brown sugar, red-wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar. Simmer in low fire until liquid is thick–I had this simmering until I was ready to assemble the sandwich. Stir occasionally.
2. Cook bacon. Using a skillet, cook about 4 slices of bacon until crisp. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Set aside.
3. Using the fat in the skillet rendered from the bacon, sauté mushrooms over medium heat until soft, about 4 minutes.
4. Assemble sandwich! Lay toasted bread halves on a chopping board. On one half, spoon the onions and top with the turkey and onion relish. Top with the other half and hold together using a toothpick.