Writing With My Mouth Full

Ham Hock and Apple Soup

Who ever said pork and apples make a good combination? Maybe it’s because the tartiness of the fruit cuts through the pork’s fat and the sweetness of a good piece of pork complements the apples. I’ve used the pairing several times before but nothing beats this soup from April Bloomfield, chef of the Spotted Pig.

Our mouths watered when we saw a short clip of this soup from the chef’s cooking class. The Dr. and I raced to see who would cook it first. I won, but only because I stayed in all Sunday afternoon to spend five hours of prep and cooking time. Time well spent, I say, as it yielded six servings for two days.

Ingredients:
For ham hock and stock:
3 pieces brined ham hocks
half a gallon apple cider
1 bay leaf
4 peppercorns

For soup:
5 medium carrots, diced
2 medium parsnips, diced
8 pieces of small potatoes, chopped
1 apple, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsps whole grain mustard
oil, salt, pepper

1. Prepare the ham hock and stock. In large stockpot, combine ham hock and stock ingredients, plus enough water to cover. Simmer for about 3 hours or until meat is falling off bone.
2. Remove ham hock and reserve the broth. Pick meat off the bones with two forks. The meat should come off easily. Set the meat aside. Discard bones.
3. When ready to make the soup, heat some oil in a large Dutch oven. Add garlic, onions, carrots and parsnips and cook under medium-low fire until golden brown and soft, about 40 minutes, to concentrate the flavor.
4. Add salt, potatoes and apples. Cook until potatoes are soft. Add ham hock meat and reserved broth and cook for 20 minutes on low until vegetables are broken down. This will help thicken the soup. Ladle in bowls and top with a dollop of mustard to serve.

Cilantro Chicken with Avocado and Tomato Salsa

I stole this tomato salsa recipe from the Dr.’s mother after she left a jar of it in his fridge during her visit from California. I’ve never had salsa with apple before but I thought the tartiness lent to the blandness of the tomatoes and the kick of the cilantro.

But because there’s never tortilla chips at home, I prepared it as a side salad for a main dish. I made it to our neighborhood grocery store after its Sunday shopping peak when most of the produce shelves have already been ravaged. No oxtails, no short ribs, no pork chops; I was forced to buy some chicken thighs instead. I stuffed them with cilantro so that there’s an element of surprise when you bite into them–also to use the cilantro leftover from the salsa. Whether or not you have avocados, you’ll have a complete meal especially if you serve it with rice.

Ingredients:
8 boneless chicken thighs
half a bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
1 tbsp cumin, grounded
2 ripe avocados
oil, salt, pepper

For the salsa:
4 beefsteak tomatoes, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
the other half of the cilantro, finely chopped
1 gala apple, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
salt

1. Prepare the salsa. Combine and mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Season with salt. Transfer to a pickling jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Preheat the oven 350º. Prepare the chicken. Combine and mix the cilantro and cumin in a small bowl. Drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Lay out the chicken pieces and stuff with cilantro-cumin mix. Each chicken only needs a tbsp or so of stuffing.
3. Using a large skillet, heat some oil. Brown both side of the chicken pieces. Use an iron press if you have one to keep the stuffing inside the chicken while frying. Gently turn over to brown the other side using tongs. Transfer to a baking dish and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
4. To serve, arrange the baked chicken over a bed of rice. Scoop some of the avocado meat on the side and top with tomato salsa.

Sardines with Fennel

I started doing my grocery shopping at Grand Central Terminal Market since Iâ€™ve begun my work commute to Connecticut. Most days, I go straight down to SoHo to swim anyway and I can pick something up before I head to the gym via the 6 train. Last week, Pescatore Seafood was selling fresh Portuguese sardines. I never see them in the city so I got excited and bought four pieces for about $9. Sardines are a great source of heart-healthy omega-3 fats but they get a bad rep because most people think they stink. If you buy fresh fishâ€”any kind of fish at allâ€”they really shouldnâ€™t smell fishy. The guy behind the counter cleaned and gutted them, leaving the heads on per my request. I then walked down the hall to buy a fennel bulb from Greenwich Produce.

When I got home, I found some golden raisins that I had bought a few weeks back for another recipe and my last big bulb of onion by the windowsill. Breadcrumbs were also in order because I imagined Lydia Bastianich would use them to keep the sardines intact while cooking. I couldnâ€™t get them to stick to the fish, so I decided to stuff them instead. For those who want a heavier version of this meal, serve with bucatini pasta cooked al dente and drizzle with olive oil before serving. It was a good dinner for me with a dry bottle of Meulenhof 2008 Riesling. It raised a few eyebrows the next day during lunch, but then again, you have to like food so much to get excited by just seeing fresh Portuguese sardines at the market.

Ingredients:
4 fresh sardines, cleaned, patted dry using paper towel
1 cup bread crumbs
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 red onion, quartered
a handful of golden raisins
1 cup of vegetable broth
1 tbsp fennel seeds
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large skillet, heat some olive oil and cook the onions until they are soft. Add the fennel, fennel seeds, raisins and a little of the broth. Stir occasionally until fennel pieces are soft. Add more broth if the skillet gets dry before the fennel is completely cooked. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Meanwhile, cook the sardines. In another skillet, heat some oil. While oil is heating, stuff the sardines with breadcrumbs. Fry the sardines by gently placing them in the skillet. Cook the other side after about 7 minutes by turning them over gently using a flat heat-resistant spatula. Serve by putting the fennel in a nice shallow dish and top with the sardines. Sprinkle with leftover breadcrumbs and raisins.

Beet and Watercress Salad in Juniper Vinaigrette

I know my pantry is well-stocked, but it still surprises me sometimes when I find an ingredient that I’ve forgotten about and it turns out it would work with whatever I’m making. For this salad, from Los Angeles’ Street Restaurant, I needed juniper berries to make the dressing and I was surprised to see a small jar of it from the time I pickled a pig’s head. Really.

I’ve used them ever since for my pickles, but I never thought of them as part of a salad dressing. As soon as I smelled the aroma while crushing them, everything came together. How come I’ve never made a juniper vinaigrette before? I needed an apple and I found half an uneaten apple wrapped in Saran in the fridge. Walnuts? Leftovers, too. If you have raisins around, toss those in, too.

I don’t expect you to roast one beet for this salad, of course. Use your time wisely and roast a bunch of beets so that they’re ready for the week. I simply stored them in the fridge and made the salad two more times. One bunch of watercress served two people. For more dressing, just double up and refrigerate the leftover for up to a week.

Ingredients:
1 large golden beet, washed, dried with paper towel
1 bunch of watercress, thoroughly washed, dried with paper towel
half an apple, chopped
a handful of walnuts, toasted, crushed

For the juniper vinaigrette:
1 tsp juniper berries, crushed using a mortar and pestle
lime juice
oil, salt, pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Wrap the beet in aluminum foil and place on a roasting pan and roast for about 1 hour or until tender. When cool, peel and cut them into 1-inch chunks.
2. While the beets are roasting, make the vinaigrette: put all the ingredients in a glass jar with a screw top and shake to mix.
3. Assemble the salad by tossing the beets with the watercress and apple in a salad bowl. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and dust with the walnut pieces.

Related post/s:
I really pickled a pig’s head, see?

The Grocery

288 Smith Street between Sackett and Union in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
718/596.3335
about $125 for two, without drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

We were in Brooklyn to visit friends who were house and dog sitting while on vacation from San Francisco. When it was time to eat dinner, another friend–a Brooklynite–quickly suggested The Grocery. It’s one of his favorite haunts but he has never visited in the summer when the garden is open, so when we arrived we asked to be seated out back to enjoy the warm summer breeze.

The Grocery’s staff works from a kitchen half the size of a New York City apartment’s. You can imagine how tight it was in there to maneuver but somehow they make it work because they churned out some of the best meals I’ve had this summer. And I do not say churn lightly: we waited for almost thirty minutes to get our appetizers. The waitstaff were so busy running the front and the back that it took twenty minutes to get the menu. We had to order wine with our food because she forgot to show us the wine list while we waited for her to reappear to give us glasses of water.

Because we haven’t seen our Californian friends for a while, we didn’t mind the wait even though we didn’t have anything to drink. We passed the time catching up and talking about our respective lives. We realized we had been waiting too long when the youngest member of the family behind us whined so loudly about being hungry–they were already seated when we came in to wait for fifteen minutes to complete our party.

But when the food came, the short-staffed restaurant delivered as if they worked out of a professional and very spacious kitchen. The slow-rendered duck breast was superb in caramelized red wine sauce with baby carrots and beet greens. I would most likely wait another forty minutes to eat this again. The toasted farro salad was a nice break because of the summer greens in a very interesting sorrel vinaigrette that gave the dish a kick and acidity. The roasted beets were nothing new, but they were perfectly cooked. One of my favorites was the fried artichoke because of its texture. The little crunch lent beautifully to the escarole and the Parmesan. For dessert, I was very happy to get the wild strawberries with the buttermilk panna cotta. You can’t get small and tart strawberries from supermarkets anymore, so I was very pleased that they featured them unadorned. The warm peach cobbler made everyone else happy as we took turns scooping it out of its ramekin.

At the Grocery, the wait time is longer than I want it to be but the food showcases the season’s best and the cooks in the kitchen make up for the service that needs sharpening.