Recipes by Ingredient + Prep – Page 67 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Pear and Mushroom Pizzetta

I like assembling my own pizza at home. I say assemble rather than bake because I buy my pizzettas from Sullivan Street Bakery. I’ve tried their ciabatta bread and their focaccia with rosemary, but my favorite would be their light pizza bianca. A pizza square good for three people costs about $2. I used some ingredients I already had in my fridge. For olive oil, I used the shiso oil I made. Instead of goat cheese, I finished the sheep’s milk cheese I picked up with my lamb earlier in the week. Of course, you can put anything and everything on your own pizzetta.

Ingredients:
1 square of pizza bianca or focaccia bread
4 slivers of pancetta
fresh arugula, rinsed, pat dry
1 small pear, sliced thinly
a handful of bella mushrooms, wiped clean, sliced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
sheep’s milk cheese or goat cheese
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
olive oil

1. Preheat oven at 350Âº. In the meantime, heat some oil in a skillet, sautÃ© onions and mushrooms with the balsamic vinegar. Cook for about 10 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.
2. Prepare pizzetta on a baking sheet wrapped in aluminum foil. On the bread, lay the arugula and top with pancetta, pears and mushrooms. Drizzle some olive oil.
3. Bake in oven for 20 minutes, enough to cook the pancetta and toast the bread.

Grass-Fed Lamb Chops

I was at the market already so it was pretty hard to resist the lamb chops from 3-Corner Field Farm. It’s lambing season soon and they won’t be back in the market until June. I picked up four chops that cost $30 with a big knob of sheep’s milk cheese covered in herbs de Provence. The lamb was just slaughtered and packed immediately–I could tell as soon as I unwrapped them at home. Unlike the chops I buy from my neighborhood grocery store, the meat hasn’t been in storage for a long time and it tasted like it, too.

I cook a lot of lamb at home. I’ve cooked it with Indian spices. I’ve served it with corn pudding. I’ve tried it the Julia Child way. This time, I wanted to keep it simple. I mixed some olive oil and balsamic vinegar with minced garlic and fresh rosemary and brushed it on the chops. I broiled them for about ten minutes per side. They were done as soon as I poked them–soft, but firm. (Remember the meat of your palm right below your thumb.) I took them out of the oven and let them sit for five more minutes to finish cooking while I tossed some greens with the sheep’s milk cheese. We finished a bottle of red Loire wine with it.

Ingredients:
3 grass-fed lamb chops
5 garlic cloves, minced
3 sprigs of rosemary
1 cup balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350Âº. In the meantime, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and marinate the lamb chops in it.
2. When ready to cook, roast lamb chops for 10 minutes per side. They’re perfect when the meat feels like the palm right below your thumb. Remove from oven to a chopping block and let rest for five minutes.

Grass-fed Beef Steak

I tip-toed on freshly-fallen snow at the farmers’ market to buy some grass-fed beef. I stopped by the New York Beef Company tent and met John to ask about what he was offering. My hands were already cold, but I looked through his frozen bags to buy the best-looking steak I can get for dinner. I know everyone’s been on the grass-fed wagon already but unfortunately, I find food items with organic or sustainable or grass-fed or free-range labels expensive. If you’re like me, then you also buy food items at least once a week. They all add up to a very expensive grocery bill each month. Plus, the only farmers’ market easily accessible to me is the one at Union Square, and even though I work downtown, I find it a hassle to stop by.

The New York Beef sells 100% grass-fed steak, prime rib, roasts and other fine cuts of beef. I got a nice steak for about $22. The Dr. covered it with some salt, pepper and minced garlic and broiled both sides until it was tender–poke the meat of your palm below your thumb; that’s how it should feel for medium-rare–and we ate it with oyster mushrooms sautéed in goose fat served on a bed of arugula and mixed greens. A bottle of Cabernet was the perfect match. I realized later that it was John who left me a message last year when I spent $14 on a piece of sirloin steak from Dean & Deluca. If he’s reading this, I hope he’s proud. His beef not only looked beautiful, it was delicious, too.

Ingredients:
1 beef steak
6 garlic cloves, minced
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Massage beef steak with all the other ingredients.
2. When ready to cook, broil beef steak in oven set to high until medium-rare. Theyâ€™re perfect when the meat feels like the palm right below your thumb. Remove from oven to a chopping block and let rest for five minutes.

Related post/s:
Where to get grass-fed beef steak

Chicken and Bacon with Chickpeas and Spinach

I was doing my grocery shopping in Chinatown when I came across a pack of extra small chicken drumsticks. About a dozen pieces were tightly packed for about $1.50. At home, I opened them up and realized they weren’t chicken thighs but the other half of chicken wings–the arms, I call them. I had two packs, 24 pieces in all, and I immediately thought I’d just deep-fry and snack on them. But the temperature outside dropped and the weather called for a thick stew. This recipe requires a lot of ingredients, but fortunately, I already had them in my pantry. If you don’t have chicken and spinach, chickpeas alone make a satisfying meal, as long as it’s cooked in bacon. Just skip the step with the chicken and spinach and top with a fried egg.

Ingredients:
12 pieces chicken wings, halved, rinsed and pat dry with a paper towel
4 strips of bacon
half a bag of chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 bag of baby spinach, rinsed
2 cups chicken broth
juice from half a lemon
zest from half a lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp cumin, grounded
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp honey
a knob of butter
a handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
salt and pepper

1. Sprinkle chicken wings with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven, render fat from bacon until golden brown. Add butter. Brown chicken wings on both sides. Remove chicken from pot and set aside.
2. In the same pot, sautÃ© garlic and onions. Add the chick peas and the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes to cook chickpeas.
3. When broth is slightly reduced and chickpeas are tender, add the rest of the ingredients. Add back the chicken wings. Cook for an extra 5 minutes or until spinach is wilted. Mix well and season to taste.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

At the New York Times Travel Show, I watched Chef Prudhomme make gumbo. I’ve never been to New Orleans, but I’ve always been curious about homemade Louisiana cooking. We recently got a fresh dump of snow in New York City and gumbo was just the right dish to eat for dinner. The secret here is the roux, a mixture of wheat flour and fat. Roux is the basis of French sauces and most Louisiana cooking; burn it and you have to start over. I added bacon to this recipe to use the last installment of bacon I received as a birthday present. I made enough to give back to the lovely people who thought about giving it to me in the first place.

Ingredients:
6 pieces chicken drumsticks
3 pieces of andouille sausage, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
5 slices of bacon, chopped in small pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
a handful of okra, cut into smaller pieces
1 small can of diced tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic
chicken broth
3 tbsps Creole seasoning
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 bay leaves
hot sauce
vegetable oil
salt, pepper

1. Make roux. In a large skillet, heat vegetable oil in medium heat until somewhat smoking. Pour flour and mix with a whisk. Keep mixing for about 15 minutes or until flour is red-orange. This roux is your base. If black spots start to appear in the flour, it means you’ve burnt it. You have to start over. Remove from heat and add all the vegetables and the spices. Keep mixing with the whisk to help cool down the roux. Set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven, render the fat from the bacon. Remove the bacon to a plate. Using the fat, brown the chicken drumsticks. Remove chicken to a plate.
3. Using the same fat and adding a little more oil as necessary, brown the sausages. Add the broth and the tomatoes and add back the chicken, the bacon and the roux.
4. Simmer and cook the chicken while ocassionally mixing to make sure it doesn’t dry up. Add more stock as necessary and adjust to taste using salt, pepper and hot sauce. Add the okra and cook until tender the last 10 minutes.