Investment Cooking on a Sunday

Today I chopped onions before I had my first cup of tea.

For several years, my sweetie and I had separate houses, so a lot of meals were made in my kitchen, and then re-heated/assembled and served in his.  I started devoting my Sundays to making big batches of soups and sauces and pre-cooking things for quick weeknight dinners.

So the first thing I did this morning was cook 2 small onions, 4 cloves of garlic, some dried oregano and a minced chipotle in a little olive oil.  Then I added water, and the black beans that had been soaking on the counter (drained and rinsed).  I brought that up to a boil, and tossed it on a back burner to simmer for awhile.

The hot front burner was turned down and a 10 inch skillet replaced the soup pot. When the skillet was warm, 4 links of hot Italian sausage and 1/2 a cup of water went in.  I covered the skillet and let the water simmer until the links were opaque on top, then flipped them and let them go a few minutes longer.  Those links are cooling on a plate while a second pound cooks.  I've learned to let them cool before butterflying them because you get a smoother, cleaner cut and that smooth surface crisps up nicely when you want to serve it.  2 lbs of sausage will become 14 brown & serve portions in the freezer, and 2 servings for breakfast.

I've sliced some small Yukon Gold potatoes, and those are sizzling in some good olive oil.  Fried potatoes are best cooked low and slow...and normally I don't have patience... but since I'm already puttering in and out of the kitchen this morning, it's a good time to start a batch.  When they're almost done I'll brown up 2 portions of the sausage, and scramble some eggs with spinach and a little bit of feta.

After breakfast is cleaned up, I plan to skin a package of chicken thighs, and nestle them into the simmering beans to cook.  Those will eventually get shredded into the bean soup when I add the rest of the vegetables. I also have a chuck roast thawing, which has a date with a smoking hot skillet, to brown it before it goes into a crock pot with some tomatoes and gets cooked until it shreds apart into a rich pasta sauce.

What do I get from spending half a day in the kitchen?  I get quick sausage dinners where the sausage is really brown and crispy.  I get long simmered pasta sauce in half an hour after work.  And I eat delicious soup for lunch that has 1/2 the sodium and tastes twice as good as anything from a can.

Blender Banana Pancakes - Gluten Free and Multigrain

Using gluten-free flours means that you don't have to worry about making pancakes and waffles tough by overbeating the batter.  Blending helps incorporate air into the batter, and gives you a better texture.   In this recipe, the bananas are completely broken up -- if you like moist chunks of banana in your pancakes, you might want to dice an extra banana and sprinkle some chunks on the pancakes after you pour them.


2 large eggs
4 T of light flavored oil
2 medium bananas, very soft and ripe
~ 1  c. milk

2 T sugar
1/2 t salt

Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
Dash of vanilla extract (optional)
Sprinkle of vanilla powder (optional)


125 grams of 40/60 All Purpose Gluten Free Blend
60 grams of millet flour
65 grams of buckwheat flour
4 t baking powder


Peel the bananas, break them into chunks and place them in a 2 cup measure.  Add enough milk to reach the 2 cup line with all of the banana submerged.  Pour the milk and bananas into a blender.  Add the eggs, oil, and sugar.  Cover and blend until smooth.  Add the sugar, salt, and optional seasonings, and blend again.

You can weigh out all the flours into a single container.  Add about half of the flour to the blender, cover and process.   If there are dry patches stuck to the side of the blender, scrape it down with a rubber spatula and process again.  Blend in the rest of the flour, and then scrape the sides of the container and add the baking soda.  Blend until thoroughly combined - 60 seconds.  (Remember, you can't make these pancakes tough with overblending!)

Cook the pancakes as you normally would. They're ready to turn when bubbles in the center break and the edges are starting to look dry.  If the pancakes get too brown, reduce the griddle temperature so the center cooks before the outside burns.

Turkey Green Posole

Since we were about to move, the Thanksgiving turkey's carcass went into the chest freezer instead of into a stock pot.    I'm off work this week, so I thought it was about time to make some stock.  When I mentioned making turkey stock, my boyfriend asked if I could make turkey posole.

Why yes, I can....


Disclaimer : I make no claim that this is "authentic Mexican posole".  I'm of European descent and none of my ancestors have lived any closer to Mexico than Ohio.  I had never eaten any version of posole before I found a recipe on the web -- and I still haven't tried posole made by anyone else.  (Obviously Columbus, OH needs more ambitious Mexican restaurants.)

I made the turkey broth the way I normally do : turkey carcass, water, onions, carrot, celery, peppercorns and dried parsley flakes (in a little paper tea bag).  Simmer until it looks like stock and the meat is almost ready to fall off the bones.    Salt to taste (it takes a lot). Strain and save the liquid.  Discard the veggies.  Pick the meat off the bones and set aside.   I leave a good bit of meat on my turkey because I usually make at least 2 batches of soup from it.  Today I got almost 5 cups of shredded meat and 14 cups of stock.



4 cups turkey carcass broth
2 - 3 cups leftover turkey shreds

2 poblano peppers

2 Tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3-5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 ~ 2 fresh jalapeno or 1 Tbsp canned diced jalapeno
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground cloves
7 oz. canned diced green chiles
28 oz. canned hominy (yellow or white)

Preheat the broiler.  Cut the poblano peppers in half and remove the seeds.  Flatten the peppers and place them on a foil line cookie sheet.  Place the peppers under the broiler until the skin is bubbled and blackened.  Remove the cookie sheet from the oven, and place it on a trivet or hot pad.  Carefully grab the corners of the foil and fold it up around the peppers, crimping it into a packet, to trap the steam around the peppers.

Chop the onion and slice the garlic.

I prefer to use a fresh jalapeno, because I can control the heat level a little more easily.  Today I had 1 very large pepper - over 3 inches long - so I decided to remove the seeds from 3/4 of the pepper before mincing it.

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until translucent.  Add the garlic and jalapenos, and cook until fragrant.   Open your diced chiles, so they're ready to go in the pot, and then add the dried spices.  Stir until you can smell the spices, and then dump in the chiles (to cool the pot so the spices don't burn).    Add the turkey broth and meat.

Drain and rinse the hominy, and add it to the pot.  Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat.  Simmer for 1 hour to blend flavors.

This makes a soup without a lot of broth.  If you like a lot of broth, you might want to increase the amounts of dried spices and broth.

Gluten-free pizelles

Pizelles are another Italian tradition that I got from my boyfriend's family.  I bought a pizelle iron and made a few batches in December 2010, but in November 2011 I cut wheat out of my diet.  After a year of experimenting with wheat free baking, I realized that a lot of the texture and structure of the pizelle comes from the beaten eggs, so I decided to try a basic recipe, using one of the commercial gluten free flour blends.  The resulting pizelles are very delicate and crumbly, but absolutely delicious.

I substituted the flour by weight, but increased the vanilla content, since GF baked good seem to need a little more vanilla to taste right.


3 eggs
3/4 c sugar
3/8 t salt
1/4 t vanilla powder
3/4 t vanilla extract
220 grams King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Multipurpose Flour
2 teaspoons  baking powder
1/2 c butter, melted

Beat the eggs and sugar until thick and lemon yellow.  Add the vanillas, and then beat in the flour and baking powder, scraping down the bowl as necessary.  (You don't have to worry about overdeveloping the gluten and making the pizelles tough!)  Stir in the melted butter.

Cook according to the instructions of your pizelle iron.  The finished pizelles will be light tissue paper while they're warm -- I slid them onto a wide plastic pancake turner to transfer them to a cooling rack.

Braciole in the Slow Cooker

Several years ago, my boyfriend asked me if I knew how to make braciole.  He hadn't had it since his mother had passed away.  I read a few recipes, prepped one, and brought it over to his house to pop in the oven on date night.  It was very, very chewy.

"My mom always cooked it all day," he said.  "It's not really a weeknight thing."  As soon as I heard that, I knew that this was a job for the Crock Pot.   This takes significantly more prep than your average Crock Pot recipe, and I usually only make it for family gatherings.  The flavor is similar to meatballs, but the flank steak is more intensely beefy than ground chuck or ground sirloin.

If you don't have a meat tenderizer and food processor, you can still make this dish, but it will take more time and effort.  See the note at the end of the recipe.

I can fit 4 flank steaks in my 5 quart oval crock pot.  If you have a round crock pot, you might want to cut each flank steak in half before rolling and tying.

Sorry for the lack of measurements, but this is one of the things where I really don't measure anything, but go by feel.  The stuffing isn't a thick layer -- it's a line of green down the roll that makes infuses the meat with flavor.  You have to have some fresh herbs to get that green bulk, but I usually use a mixture of fresh and dried to keep the cost under control.

2 flank steaks (a total of 2-3 lbs)

Filling
2 - 2 1/2 small slices bread (to make ~ 1 c. fresh bread crumbs) -
1/3 ~ 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan, Asiago, Romano or any other hard cheese (pre-shredded tubs OK).
3 -4  cloves of garlic
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
3/4 oz packet fresh oregano, divided
Dried basil
Dried thyme
Fresh or dried rosemary
Freshly ground pepper
Kosher salt
2 ~ 3 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
1 egg

Butcher's string for tying


Sauce
1 onion finely chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
5 oz (1 "glass") Cabernet Sauvignon or other red wine that goes well with beef
3 oz of tomato paste14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (fire roasted if possible)
14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes (with basil if available --  or add an extra teaspoon of dried basil)
Dried thyme
Fresh oregano (the rest of the packet)
Fresh or dried rosemary (optional)
Fresh, dried, or frozen basil



On a clean cutting board, pound each flank steak until it reduced to about half of the original thickness.  The pounding is faster and easier if you use a 45 blade meat tenderizer first.  I pierce each side of the steak about 30 times before I start pounding, and usually go back to pierce the center a few more times to get it to flatten out.  If you overdo it with the tenderizer, it will pound into hamburger, so it's better to err on the side of piercing too little than too much.

If you have a round slow cooker, cut each steak in half before setting it aside on a plate or cookie sheet.  Wash your hands to prevent covering all of the your tools with slippery beef fat and juices.

To make the filling, drop the garlic cloves into a running food processor fitted with a metal blade, and process until the garlic is all stuck to the side in little bits.  Turn off the food processor and add the bread.  Pulse until the bread is chopped into uniform crumbs.  You may have top open the processor and reposition pieces to get it all evenly chopped.  Fresh breadcrumbs are much coarser than the ready-made ones you buy in a can.

Scrape the bread and garlic into a medium sized bowl.  Pull the leaves off of about 1/3 of the bunch of parsley, and half of the fresh oregano and pile them on the cutting board.  Add any other fresh herbs you're using, and chop them finely with knife or mezzaluna.  Add the fresh herbs and shredded cheese to the filling, along with any dried herbs you like.  I usually use about 1 tsp thyme, 3 tsp dried basil, and a little rosemary.  I sometimes toss in dried parsley as well.  Drizzle a couple tablepoons of olive oil into the filling, and break in an egg.  Stir until everything is evenly mixed.  The filling should be moist but crumbly.  Press the filling into an even layer in the bowl, and score it in half if you're leaving the flank steaks whole.  (Quarters if you cut them in half.)

Set your butcher's twine next to the cutting board, and have a small sharp knife handy -- or cut yourself eight  to ten pieces 8-10 inches long.

Return one piece of steak to the cutting board, with the grain running from left to right.  Season the meat lightly with salt and generously with pepper.  Using your hands, scoop a portion of the filling onto the flank steak.  Spread and pat the filling into a thin layer cover the steak from the edge nearest you to the about 1 inch away from the far edge.  Starting with the edge nearest you, carefully roll the steak up like a jelly roll.    Tie the string around the roll about every 2 inches with a square knot. (4 or 5 ties per flank whole flank steak)   Trim off the dangling ends of string with a sharp knife or scissors.

Fill and roll with the other flank steak.  At this point you can put the braciole in the fridge overnight, or go ahead and cook it.

When you're ready to cook the braciole, assembly all of the ingredients for the sauce.  Open the cans, and chop any fresh herbs you're using now, so they're ready to go.

Heat a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat, and add a thin coating of high smoke-point oil or bacon fat.  Place the braciole into the hot oil, and turn them occasionally to get as much of the surface brown as possible.  If some of the filling leaks out, scoop it out of the oil and toss it into the slow cooker.  You'll have time while the meat is browning to finely chop the onion and garlic for the sauce.  (Again, I usually use the food processor here, to get a fine texture that melts into the sauce.)

When the meat is brown on all sides, transfer it to the slow cooker.  If you have a lot of oil in the skillet, drain some of it off -- a good bit of fat will come out of the meat as it cooks.  Add the onion and garlic to the pan, and stir occasionally to pick up all the browned bits.  Stir in the wine, and allow it come to a boil. Pour one can of tomatoes over the meat in the crock pot.  Pour the other can into the skillet, and add the herbs and tomato paste.  Stir until everything is evenly combined and cook until the sauce starts bubbling, and carefully pour it into the slow cooker.

Cover the crock pot and cook until you can pull shreds off the meat with a fork -- but no so long that the meat has fallen apart into the sauce.  To get a double-batch fully cooked, and falling-apart tender in 6 hours, I usually set the Crock Pot on high for 2 hours, and then reprogram it to low for the next 4 hours.

When the meat is tender enough to pull shreds off with a fork, turn off the crock pot. If there are pools of fat floating on top of the sauce, skim most of it off with large spoon. Remove the braciole from the sauce and set it on a cutting board or platter. Tent it with foil, and allow it rest / cool for a few minutes.  Use a sharp knife and tongs or a fork to cut the string and remove it, and then cut the braciole into 1 1/2 ~ 2 inch pieces with a sharp knife.  The ends probably won't be very pretty, but you'll get some picture-perfect spirals out of the center.   If you're going to serve pasta with the braciole, toss it with some of the sauce.  You can pour the rest of the sauce on a serving platter and arrange the meat on top of it, or pass sauce separately in a large gravy boat or bowl with a ladle.

You don't have to serve this with pasta -- polenta (either freshly cooked or sliced and fried) or mashed potatoes also go well with this dish.

NOTE:  If you don't have a food processor, you can chop, press, or grate the garlic -- or even used frozen garlic cubes.  I don't recommend jarred garlic ever for anything, but if that's what you normally use go ahead.
You can make fresh bread crumbs by grating the bread on the coarse side of a box grater.  I find this a little easier to do if the bread is frozen.

Roasted sausage and cauliflower

I used half hot Italian sausage and hot paprika for a dish with bite.  Tonight I ate it plain with a spoon.  I think tomorrow the leftovers are going to be tossed with some cooked pasta and a little tomato sauce.

3/4 ~ 1 lb Italian sausage (mild, hot, or a mix of the two)
1 head of cauliflower
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 t. paprika (sweet or half-sharp)
1 1/2 t. Italian Seasoning blend

Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a half sheet pan (13 inches x 18 inches) with aluminum foil.

Remove the sausage from the casings, and cook in a skillet over medium heat just long enough to break it up into crumbles. Do not let it brown -- in fact, it's best if you pull it off the heat while there are still a few pink spots.

Trim the leaves and core from the cauliflower, and cut into pieces that would make two bites when raw.  It will shrink a lot in the oven.  Rinse under cold water.

Combine the crumbled sausage and damp cauliflower in a large bowl.  Sprinkle with paprika, Italian seasoning and olive oil.  Toss until the cauliflower is light pink.  Spread on the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Continue baking until you see dark brown edges on the cauliflower, 10 -20 minutes longer.

Rotiserie Chicken Chowder

There are only two of us, so we get several meals out of a jumbo rotisserie chicken.

When I removed the meat from carcass, I tossed the bones into a 2.5 quart sauce pan with an onion, two stalks of celery, 2 carrots, and some peppercorns and rosemary in a tea ball.  I simmered it until bedtime (about 2 hours), salted it to taste, and strained out the solids.  (I saved the bones in the refrigerator since there was still some meat to be picked off.)  I used the resulting stock for this chowder.

2 T butter (or fat from the top of the chicken stock)

1 small onion, chopped

3 small carrots, chopped

3 stalks of celery, sliced

1 ~ 2 cloves of garlic, grated on a microplane

1 large baking potato (~ 8 oz), peeled and diced

2 t Penzey's Fox Point Seasoning

4-6 c. stock, from a carton if you didn't get a chance to boil the carcass

1 1/2 ~ 2 c. of chopped chicken

Freshly ground black pepper

11 oz. can of corn, drained

1/2 ~ 1 c. instant mashed potato flakes

5 oz. can evaporated milk

Heat the butter or chicken fat in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until translucent.  Add carrots, colery and garlic.  Cook stirring occasionally while you peel and dice the potato.  Add the potato to the pot, sprinkle the Fox Point over, and season generously with black pepper.  Stir in the seasonings, and add the stock and chicken.  Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender.  Stir in the drained corn and 1/2 c. of mashed potato flakes and the evaporated milk.   Add more potato flakes if you would like a thicker chowder.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The instant potatoes will make the leftovers thicken up in the refrigerator.  Add a little water, stock or milk before reheating.