Cooking

Yes, I am keenly aware that the end of summer and the onset of fall (one and the same, I guess, but the terms seem so different in the emotions they invoke) came and went well over a week ago. But those last few days of September never really feel autumnal unless you’re in New England or Alaska, so the real approach of autumn doesn’t start until October. Even October can be hot and miserable here in Southern California — just ask anyone whose home has been threatened by a Santa Ana-fueled wildfire. And then there was my wedding day, almost five years ago, where at 10am on that early October Sunday morning the temperature was a cool, crisp…. EIGHTY-FIVE DEGREES.

Yeah, I get it. We don’t really have seasons in SoCal. But that doesn’t stop me from loving truly seasonal food.

To me, autumn means stews, and rich soups, and winter squashes, and oh-good-lord-I-don’t-think-I-can-stand-to-eat-more-thing-made-out-of-persimmons. And going even further back into my memory, autumn meant the advent of hunting season, when my grandfather and sundry other male relatives would don blaze orange and tote around rifles while hiking through the woods and stalking Bambi’s dad. This was serious stuff, the hunting was; my grandparents even had a second freezer in their garage to store the butchered meat that Grandpa would bring back from his expeditions. There would venison stew meat, and venison ribs, and so many other cuts that I couldn’t even tell you what-all was in there. I have a distinct recollection of making venison chili with my grandfather once; I also recall someone, maybe my mom, muttering that we should check the chili for buckshot before we ate it.

These days the “hunting expeditions” my grandfather goes on involve donning blaze orange and driving off into the woods to… play pinochle. So my access to venison has been exceedingly restricted. Have you ever tried to find venison in the store? No? Well.. unless you enjoy engaging in futile crusades, don’t even bother. I went to five grocery stores and three butcher shops before I even found someone who would special order it (thanks to Max at The Meat House in Brea for stepping up for me). Six weeks into my crusade I was finally able to bring home two pounds of cherished leg meat. The quest for making Hunter Stew — my first foray of the year into fall foods — was about to begin.

So, OK, let’s be frank. For the most part, stew meat is stew meat. After you add all the other stuff to it, the meat you use is almost inconsequential as long as it came from some kind of mammal. Some meats are gamier than others. (And if anyone ever asks you, “gamy” just means intensely flavored, like beef plus a little bit of liver.) In order of gaminess, it pretty much goes veal/beef/buffalo/wild boar/lamb/goat/venison. Game meat also has a tendency to be leaner, so it shouldn’t be cooked as long. So if you’re dead set on venison, by all means — hunt it yourself, dress it yourself, and dig in, OR find a sweetheart of a butcher who’s willing to bring it in for you at about $15 a pound. This recipe calls for 2 pounds of meat. It’s a dang good stew, but I don’t know if it was worth $30 plus the cost of the veggies and whatnot. Probably would have been just as good with buffalo, which would have been about a third cheaper, or with some grass-fed beef chuck.

And as for sides, well, there’s really only one you need: bread. A good quality, dense, chewy bread. All your veggies and starches are already in the stew, so bread is the only other thing to think about. You could buy a crusty loaf, or if you’re feeling super-ambitious and wanna plug in your bread machine on the same day you haul out that slow cooker, then by all means try this recipe.

HUNTER STEW

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. bacon, diced
• 2 T. olive oil
• 2 lb. venison stew meat (ideally leg meat), trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 t. salt
• 1 t. pepper
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 12 oz. dark beer
• 1 qt. beef broth (ideally reduced-sodium)
• 8 oz. tomato sauce
• 3 Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 turnip, diced
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 small leek, thoroughly cleaned and diced
• 2T. fresh thyme, minced

• 1-1/2 c. whole milk, about 80°F/27°C
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 3 t. kosher salt
• 4 c. “white whole wheat” flour
• 1/4 c. roasted/salted sunflower seeds, shelled
• 2-1/4 t. active dry yeast

Let’s be real: have you ever gone to a Thai restaurant and found *anything* on the menu with turkey involved? No? Me neither. And yet turkey has become a go-to meat for folks here in the US who are trying to reduce their saturated fat intake, their waistline, and/or their carbon footprint. Turkey is everywhere. You can’t escape it. I guess you could try, but then you’d end up eating ham or duck or something else out of place on Thanksgiving. But here we are, on a regular ol’ Tuesday night, and we’re jonesing for Thai takeout. But the only fresh meat in the fridge is turkey breast. No chicken. No beef. No pork. No shrimp.

Oh, and another thing: “satay” refers to the meat being grilled on a skewer, not to the almost-omnipresent peanut sauce that often accompanies the dish. So no, there’s no peanut sauce recipe herein. I hope you can continue to thrive in spite of the disappointment I know you’re experiencing right about now.

OK, let’s do this.

TURKEY SATAY

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 T. ground ginger
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1 T.  sriracha (a hot chili sauce, also known as rooster sauce)
• 1 t.  honey
• the juice and zest of one large, fresh lime
• 1  lb. turkey breast, trimmed and cut into 1″x3″ strips
• wooden satay skewers, or metal if available

Directions

Soak wooden skewers in cold water for one hour, if using. (Skip this step if using metal.)

Mix all ingredients except the turkey and put in a non-reactive, covered container. Lay the turkey strips in the container, cover and shake gently to ensure coverage. Refrigerate for 2 hours or as long as overnight.

Set oven to broil. Cover broiler pan with foil. Remove turkey from the marinade and thread onto skewers, and place on broiler pan, not touching each other. Broil for 15 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking.

Serve with rice and tropical fruits. Green papaya is especially good with this recipe.

That’s sausage and rice to you English-only folks. But for you eclectic, international gourmands, start thinking about what would happen if you did a culinary mashup of Spain, Mexico and Italy. Then get a napkin, fast, ’cause I know your mouth is watering just like mine was when I started cooking up this rich and spicy mélange of arborio rice, chipotle in adobo, and Spanish chorizo.

CHORIZO RISOTTO

INGREDIENTS

• 4 c. vegetable broth
• ¼ c. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 c. arborio rice
• 1 c. dry white wine
• ½ lb. cured Spanish chorizo, diced
• 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
• 3 T. chipotle in adobo, chopped very fine
• 1 c. finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small saucepan, bring the vegetable stock to a boil, then keep warm over low heat.

2. In a large skillet, warm the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until it’s lightly toasted and opaque, about 2 minutes.

3. Add the wine and cook over medium-low heat until absorbed, about 5 minutes. Ladle 1 cup of the stock over the rice and simmer, stirring frequently, until absorbed. Continue to add the stock ½ cup at a time, stirring frequently, until the rice is creamy and tender but still slightly chewy in the center, about 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, cook the chorizo over medium-high heat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir the chorizo, the chipotle in adobo, and half of the green onions into the risotto until combined. Add the Parmesan and season to taste with salt and pepper.

5. Divide the risotto among 4 plates and garnish with additional scallions and Parmesan if desired. Serve immediately.

For those of you who made note that there was a second recipe emerging at the same time as the risotto, I applaud you for paying close attention. (insert smiley-face emoticon here) The roasted veggies you see were the leftovers from a crudité plate from the night before. Everything was tossed onto a large cookie sheet, sprayed with olive oil (thank you, TJs) and seasoned lightly with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Roasted for about 20 minutes at 425º. So easy and so yummy.

I get asked a lot by fellow moms how I get to my mega-picky DS to eat healthy food. To be honest, a lot of it has come with conditioning; he always received Ak-Mak crackers instead of saltines, Cheerios instead of Froot Loops, puffed rice instead of Rice Krispies. There is one thing he loves, though, that is almost invariably unhealthy: french fries. It’s his favorite food. Period. And I’ve tried sweet potato fries, and butternut squash fries, and zucchini fries, all to no avail. Most homemade french fries taste like the ones your mom tried to pass off to you as being “just as good” as the ones from your local fast food joint, but seriously? They were white, watery, and not crunchy at all. So if you want your child to eat a healthier (and cheaper) version of the ubiquitous McSpud, try this recipe on for size.

Some notes before we start, by the way: smaller potatoes work better than large ones for this recipe. I’m also a big proponent of using organic potatoes, because conventional ones are sprayed with a sprouting inhibitor that can’t really be washed off (although peeling the potato does reduce exposure levels dramatically). The potatoes I used to make the batch you see in the photo were purchased from a vendor at the Old Towne Orange farmer’s market (Saturday mornings, 8am-noon, on the corner of N. Cypress and W. Palm).
INGREDIENTS

2 small yellow potatoes (like Yukon Golds) per serving
kosher salt
Canola oil baking spray
DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Put a large cookie sheet in on the middle rack.

2. Scrub clean your potatoes and cut off any eyes or brown spots. Leave the rest of the skin on and slice into 1/8-1/4″ rounds. Then cut each slice into 1/8-1/4″ ribbons. You should end up with a lot of matchstick looking pieces.

3. Put the potatoes in a bowl and salt very liberally. Toss them by hand for a couple minutes, squeezing them gently on occasion, in order to get the potatoes to release some of their water. Once you get completely bored with this part, pat the potatoes with several paper towels until they are as close to bone-dry as you can get them.

4. Wipe out the bowl and return the potatoes to it. Spray the potatoes liberally with canola oil spray and toss them by hand to coat thoroughly.

5. Pull the cookie sheet out of the oven. Place the potatoes in a single layer on the sheet with none of the potatoes touching. Return the cookie sheet to the oven, reduce the heat to 450 degrees, and bake for 15 minutes.  Once baked, pull them out promptly and transfer to a serving plate.

Enjoy!

I like to give credit where credit is due. I don’t always write all my recipes from scratch, and when they’re essentially the same as the source material, I think it’s appropriate to tell you where it came from. So here are a couple cheesy delights from this past week, courtesy of other kitchenistas…

Pimento Cheese Sandwiches (via Tasting Table)

Hot Chili Cheese (via My Daily Moment)

No photos from me on these, since the photos that accompany the original recipes are way prettier than the food I turned out. I don’t know if I’d make the dip a second time, but the grilled cheese sammies we made from that pimento cheese were completely rockin’.

You’ve heard of Hungry Girl, haven’t you? Not everyone has, but everyone should. Lisa Lillien (the HG) and her team have devised a gazillion ways to heat the stuff you love without it inducing a coronary. For those of you on Weight Watchers, she really helps you out by including the Points Plus totals on her recipes and other recommended noshes. I get her daily email blast, and although not all of it appeals to my gourmet side, a lot of it is totally doable — without giving up any taste. In fact, in some cases I think I liked her versions better! What really blew me away, though, was that the DH, the DS, and two of our friends (one who eats anything, and one who won’t touch any vegetation beyond corn and potatoes) scarfed all this stuff down right as it was coming out of the oven. Wish I had made more!

Now, I’ll be real: when I made these recipes, I used actual eggs, not Egg Beaters; some pan spray when it didn’t call for it; and splashes of olive oil in places where it usually shows up in a recipe, but didn’t in this one. With those caveats added in, the recipes were still far healthier than the originals she was replacing, and like I said before… tastier! Check out these three that we tried last night:

When I grow up, I'm gonna be fries!!!

Hungry, Hungry Artichoke Hummus

Butternut Squash Fries and Onion Rings

Before I tell you how great this recipe was, I have to confess: I hurt myself pretty bad in its creation. I had arrived at the making-the-dressing part, and added the oil and lemon juice before I reached for the two spent lemon halves and my Microplane.

Moments later there is some zest in the bowl, but more noticeably there is blood all over my hand.

What the…? I’m not sure where/when my mind wandered off, but fortunately the sink is right next to the chopping block where I am working, and I quickly get everything (hand, tools, remaining lemon rind) washed and rinsed. I grab a towel and put pressure on my thumb. Yikes, it hurts! A closer look reveals that I have completely shredded the side of my nail bed. I can tell this is not going to heal cleanly.

And to top it off, I was working with LEMON, so now the wound’s got acid in it.

For those of you wondering, no — there wasn’t any blood in the pasta, and no — I didn’t continue to use the lemon half that had been bloodied. The lesson, of course, is use a cut-resistant glove when working with this type of tool. Or at least don’t let your brain go on vacation while using it.

Later that night, DH joked about how there’s always a little bit of me in everything that comes out of our kitchen.

INGREDIENTS

–  2 c. orzo (whole wheat if you can find it)
–  1 lb. shrimp, scallops, or calamari, or a combination (I used the mixed seafood from the freezer section at TJ’s); rinsed and patted dry
–  2 c. snow peas, halved
–  12 oz. grape tomatoes, halved
–  8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing ingredients:

–  1/4 cup olive oil
–  the juice of one lemon
–  the zest of one lemon
–  3 garlic cloves, minced
–  1 T. dried Greek oregano
–  1/2 t. ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

In a large pot of boiling water cook the orzo for 6-8 minutes or until just beginning to be tender. Add snow peas and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. Rinse under cold water and drain. Put in large mixing bowl.

In non-stick skillet sprayed with vegetable spray, cook seafood over high heat for 2 minutes or until just done at center. Drain any excess liquid.
Add to orzo in serving bowl. Wait until the this mixture is completely cooled before proceeding. When cool, add tomatoes and feta cheese. Toss to combine.

In small bowl whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, oregano, and pepper; pour over salad and toss well. Chill before serving.

Serves 6.