Writing With My Mouth Full

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.

Boqueria SoHo

171 Spring Street between West Broadway and Thompson
212/343.4255
$70 for three, with drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

I felt like I got the gist of Boqueria SoHo after I stopped by for “dessert” with my brother and sister-in-law during its second weekend. We walked in around 5:45pm to eat an early dinner but were turned away because the bar was full. The maitre d’ refused to seat us fifteen minutes before the official start of dinner service. It seemed like a ridiculous rule only a person with a clipboard would impose, so we went to Snack around the corner instead for a better dinner.

My companions really wanted to taste some Spanish wines, so we returned after dinner to try and score seats at one of the long tables in the middle of the restaurant. We were seated immediately by the beautiful pata negro and a few spots away from a swollen-looking Bobby Flay.

We started with beers on tap before we moved on to the full-bodied red wines. Because we were only there to pick and taste, we shared the Garrotxa goat cheese, the Valdeon blue and the Idiazabal, a smoked sheep’s milk cheese. A smattering of salchichon was thrown in the mix for a few extra dollars. The Brussels sprouts with sausage was a favorite, as well as the roasted green peppers I learned to love while I was in Barcelona.

Two years ago, I said the food at the first Boqueria needed to be more inspired. It’s more refined here in SoHo, but the attitude need not match the neighborhood.

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.

Brined and Roasted Turkey

I’ll take pig any time over a turkey but this year, I thought I’d tackle most of our Thanksgiving menu because it was the first time our family was complete since my brother permanently moved out of the States. My new sister-in-law and our favorite adoptee, Cameron, joined in the festivities. With the homemade stuffing and gravy, I combed through the many turkey recipes online and decided to put two recipes together from Bill Telepan and Alton Brown. Here they are in one, tested with love.

The young twelve-pounder bird cost me almost $40 from Whole Foods so there was no room for mistake: for three days I carefully planned and participated in my first ever brined and roasted Thanksgiving turkey. I made the brine in a large glass pot where the turkey also fit; the glass pot fit in the refrigerator to brine for three days. You can definitely make your brine in a non-aluminum stockpot and just transfer it to a large container where the turkey can fit (also non-alumininum pail or basin) and just store, covered, in a cold place if it doesn’t fit in the fridge. New Yorkers who don’t have a basement can store it on their fire escape. On the day of cooking, give yourself at least five hours to prep and cook the turkey.

Ingredients:
1 12-pound young turkey, unfrozen
1 stick of butter

For the aromatics:
1 apple, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 bunch sage leaves
1 medium red onion, quartered

For the brine:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp juniper berries
1 tbsp allspice berries
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, crushed, chopped

1. Three days before serving, prepare the turkey in brine. Combine all brine ingredients in a large stockpot with enough water to submerge the whole turkey and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Set aside.
2. In the meantime, wash the turkey inside and out with cold water and let sit in a colander to drain.
3. Transfer the brine into a large non-aluminum container and submerge the turkey in the brine. If the turkey is not submerged fully, just make sure that you turn the turkey over 24 hours later to marinade the other side.
4. Early on the day of cooking, remove turkey from the brine into a colander to drain in room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 500º while you wait with the rack on the lowest slot.
5. Prepare the aromatics. Combine the ingredients with 1/4 cup of water in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Set aside.
6. Move the turkey to a chopping block and pat the turkey dry with paper towels, inside and out. Tuck back wings and drumsticks. Using your hands, rub butter and a palm-full of salt all over and inside the turkey. Add the microwaved aromatics inside the turkey. Transfer the turkey on a rack in an aluminum foil-lined roasting pan.
7. Set your alarm for these steps so you don’t forget: Roast turkey for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover the turkey with thick aluminum foil and continue to roast for 1 hour, lowering the temperature to 350º. Remove from oven and carefully turn over the turkey to cook the other side. (I used the aluminum foil as potholders to turn it by hand.) Cover again and cook for another hour. Remove from oven a third time, uncover, and return to the oven for another 30 minutes to brown that side.
8. A total of three hours cooking time later, remove the turkey from the oven, stick a meat thermometer in the thigh and make sure the thickest part of the bird is perfectly cooked. (My thermometer said turkey is 180º.) Set the turkey, still on the rack, on a chopping block and let rest for up to 30 minutes before carving and serving.

Red Pepper Flake Cornbread

This was a last-minute addition to my Thanksgiving menu this year. I’ve been cooking for three days but forgot to plan for a carb–I didn’t know Cameron was going to bring homemade biscuits–so I made my brother run an errand to buy buttermilk and corn at the grocery store in the morning. Cornbread is easy enough to make, but I was intrigued by this recipe because of the spiciness. I didn’t really know how it would translate to bread form.

The final product tasted like regular cornbread–mine came out paler because I used white sugar–but the kick in the end was a nice surprise. It even made my dad cough the first time because it was so unexpected.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbsps butter
1 1/2 tsps salt

1. Preheat your oven to 350º with the rack in the middle slot.
2. In a medium glass bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg and corn together. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until just combined. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute. Pour into a square baking dish. Top with the cornbread batter and level with a spatula. Bake for 45 minutes or until the edges are golden and the center is set. Remove from oven and let rest for up to 10 minutes before slicing into squares.