Sasha's Kitchen: Superbowl Special - Turkey Chili

I really haven't eaten a lot of chili over the years - I guess I generally assumed I wouldn't like it with all those beans. But, last weekend we went over to a friends' house to watch the Jets-Patriots game and they made a delicious turkey chili. I did eventually get the recipe, but not before I attempted to replicate it with my own recipe. Remarkably, the two recipes were quite similar, and I have come up with this fusion that I will share as the perfect Super Bowl recipe. I really love the use of turkey in chili, as it is much healthier and more to my liking than the traditional meats used in chili. In addition, the toppings here are key - I used nonfat sour cream, grated cheddar cheese and sliced avocado as the toppings here, along with some tortilla chips of course. The tomatoes and beans are all from the delicious shipment of canned goods that I got from ShopRite. So this is the perfect recipe to watch the big game!

Sasha's Turkey Chili
1 T olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 lbs lean, ground turkey
1/4 cup ancho chili powder
2 bay leaves
1 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 28 oz can of while tomatoes
2 1/2 cups of low sodium chicken stock
15 oz can of white beans
15 oz can of black beans
handfull of chopped cilantro
top with grated cheddar, diced avocado and fat free sour cream

To make the chili, first heat the oil and saute the onions until light brown and tender, which should take about 10 minutes. I also added a bit of fresh red pepper here, but I think it didn't really need that. Add the oregano and cumin and stir. Increase to medium high heat and add the ground turkey, stirring to cool, and breaking it up into small pieces. Stir in the ancho chile powder, bay leaves, cocoa powder, cinnamon and a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Puree the can of tomatoes and mix in the chicken stock and the tomatoes. 

Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Towards the end of the simmering (it will reduce, like risotto), discard the bay leaves, and add the two cans of beans and simmer until the flavors are mixed together. You will want to be sure to drain and wash the beans before adding them. Serve warm, with fat free sour cream, chips, sliced avocados and grated Vermont cheddar.

Sasha's Kitchen: Superbowl Special - Turkey Chili

Sasha's Kitchen: Banana Pecan Muffins

I love muffins.  They are perfect for breakfast, brunch or any other time of day.  And they can be easy to make, and much healthier than cupcakes.  I like to make my muffins with canola oil, rather than butter so they are healthier.  My favorite muffins are blueberry muffins and banana nut muffins.  I created my own recipe for banana pecan muffins a couple weeks ago that worked out just perfectly.  I made these in my mixer to combine the ingredients, but you really can make this recipe without a stand mixer. I made these for a saturday or sunday brunch, but the rest of them were enjoyed over the remainder of the week as perfect snacks.

Sasha's Banana Nut Muffins
7 T canola oil
1 1/4 milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 pureed bananas
2 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sugar
1 T baking powder

To prepare these combine the dry ingredients.  Beat the egg well with a fork and combine the egg, followed by the canola oil, banana puree and milk.  Stir in the pecans.  Fill a silicon muffin pan with the batter (which should be enough to make a dozen muffins).  Bake in an oven preheated at 350 for about 20 minutes.

This is an easy baking recipe (and when I say easy I mean it, coming from the gourmet chef who still always screws up peeling hard boiled eggs) and is one kids are sure to love, too.

Sasha's Kitchen: Banana Pecan Muffins

Molly D's Kitchen in Seattle: Pork Hash

When I was a kid, after school we used to take our pocket change to the manapua man who parked his truck outside the school. I love a good manapua, but for me the real draw was the pork hash, because they cost only a quarter each. They were an especially large version of the juicy, open-ended pork dumplings, and one or two made a cheap and filling snack much more satisfying than anything from the convenience store down the street.

Pork hash is available all around the islands, and like many local dishes, it’s a bigger, heavier, and more strongly flavored version of a daintier Asian dish. In this case it’s a lot like a Chinese siu mai, and while it might be argued that siu mai are just as flavorful, pork hash are generally bigger and a solid mass of pork rather than pork combined with lighter shrimp. They’re also pretty easy to make, involving few specialty ingredients and no real dumpling-wrapping skills. The following recipe results in a mild savory flavor, and at the very end I include ideas for additional ingredients to mix in or condiments to serve alongside the pork hash.

This recipe (based on one from alohaworld.com) is easy and very forgiving, but it uses two techniques, dumpling wrapping and steaming, that some readers may not have tried before. For those who have not, after the instructions there is a longer description of how to wrap the pork hash and set up the steamer. This is a good recipe for novices because neither the wrapping nor the steaming needs to be precise: There’s no expert crimping or sealing to do and even if they don’t look pretty they’ll taste good, and they won’t suffer terribly if you leave them in a little long. (Just make sure the raw meat is cooked through!)

Pork Hash

1 lb. ground pork

2 eggs, beaten

3 stalks green onions, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can water chestnuts, drained and minced

3 T oyster sauce

1 package won ton/dumpling wrappers*

oil to coat wrappers

*Mine are round dumpling wrappers maybe 4 inches in diameter, but square is fine and you can’t really go wrong as long as they’re mostly wheat flour and water. I find them in the frozen section of an Asian supermarket.

1. Combine all ingredients except wrappers and oil.
2. Add about 2 tsp of meat mixture into dumpling wrappers (give or take, depending on size of wrappers) and bring sides up to surround.
3. Coat wraps lightly with oil to prevent sticking.
4. Place in steamer and steam for 15-30 minutes depending on size of pork hash. (Not sure when it’s done? Take one out and cut it open.)

Variations

• This particular batch I made with half ground chicken and half ground pork and it turned out very well, probably because the mild chicken didn't compete with the pork. Beef might work, but it might not quite match up with the oyster sauce, especially if that cut or cow is at all “livery” or gamey tasting. You can also substitute minced shrimp (a great dim sum pairing with pork) for some of the meat. Larger pieces of shrimp tend to not stick to the meat mixture, so if you want to include some, don’t go overboard or it might not hold together.
• Other ingredients for the meat mixture could include diced lap cheong (I’ve had great results with that one), char siu, or minced cilantro. Anything that would work well in pork-based dim sum is fair game.
• These have a nice flavor on their own, but it’s mild. If you want a dip, try Chinese hot mustard or a vinegar-based hot sauce.
• For those who (like me) aren’t eating much gluten, try steaming the filling in a heat-safe bowl inside the steamer, and remember it’ll take much longer to cook. The resulting “meatloaf” is not nearly as fun to eat, but it’s very tasty and you can chop it up to put on top of rice or noodles, maybe with some sesame oil. If you want no gluten at all, leave out the oyster sauce and perhaps use wheat-free tamari, sesame paste, minced dried shrimp, or a flavorful Chinese condiment you like.

Technique: Stuffing Dumpling Wrappers

• After defrosting wrappers I leave them in the fridge until I start cooking so they don’t have a chance to get gummy and hard to work with.
• I keep some water in a bowl under my hands and wet the “wrapper” hand before I pick up each wrapper so that I don’t have dry edges breaking as they pleat around the filling
• To stuff, either cup one in the palm of your hand, add filling, then squeeze around sides to get folds of wrapper to stick to filling; or make a “c” shape with your hand and push center of wrapper into the hole, so your hand is already squeezing the sides. 
• You’re not trying to seal this (it ends up open at the top, like a little cup), so you don’t have to have perfect technique. They’re a bit easier to work with, though, if you err on the side of too little filling rather than too much.

Technique: Steaming

• I have a bamboo steamer, but metal is fine too and you can probably even use a little fold-up steaming insert, you just might have to steam in more batches.
• Set up a wok or large pot that your steamer will fit inside. If it’s a dedicated steamer it will have its own lid so the pot doesn’t have to completely encase the steamer, it just needs to be wide enough that you can set the steamer into it over the water.
• I want to keep food out of the crevices of the bamboo, so in each tray I lay down a big leaf of lettuce, heat-safe plate, or piece of foil; if I’m using a plate or foil I make there is a bit of space on the sides for the steam. Your steamer might not require this step.
• When you’re ready to steam add a couple inches of water to the pot, as much as you can without having the boiling water touch the bottom of the food. (If you’re using a steamer basket and want to get it higher off the bottom of the pot, you can coil up a wad of foil or use some other heat-safe metal item to raise it up further.)
• Turn the heat to high, and check the water level every so often (this may require lifting up the steamer) so it doesn’t boil dry.

Placing Pork Hash in the Steamer
Left to their own devices the wrappers will stick to the steamer and to each other, so you have to oil anything that will come into contact with the wrappers. I’ve tried two approaches:

1. Brush oil around each wrapper when you finish stuffing it. Advantages: You can nestle the pork hash right up against each other, which allows you to steam more at once, and they hold each other up and come out in nice cylinders. Disadvantages: It takes longer to set up and is messier.
2. Just oil the lettuce/plate/foil and then space the pork hash out so they don’t touch (and stick to) each other. Advantages: Setup is faster and neater. Disadvantages: You have to steam them in more batches, they spread out more, and if they bubble up over the edges of the wrapper they get sloppy, so they don’t look as nice. I don’t mind the spreading on its own but I don’t like it when they bubble over, so again I err on the side of under-stuffing. 

You can always try a batch, or even just a few, then adjust your technique for the next batch. Aside from keeping some water in the pot, you can go as fast or as slow as you like.

Technique: Pan-Frying Pork Hash

The photo that accompanies this post was taken the day after I made the pork hash, when I pan-fried them as I would potstickers. If you want to do the same:

1. Heat a pan with one or two tablespoons of oil on medium heat. When pan is hot, set pork hash on their flat bases, with a little space between them so they don’t stick to each other.
2. Fry pork hash without moving them until you can pick one up without any sticking and see that it is crisp and golden.
3. Add a couple tablespoons of water to the pan and cover, allowing just a bit of steam to escape.
4. When water is evaporated and edges of wrappers are pliable (because if you’re using leftovers, they’ll have dried out a bit in the fridge), uncover and allow to cook for a couple more minutes until bottoms are crisp again.

To read about Eric's Chinese-style pork dumplings, too, click here.

Molly D's Kitchen in Seattle: Pork Hash

Sasha's Kitchen: Date Spread With Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese

This recipe is a favorite spread or hors d'oeuvre in my house, even though it was never intended as such.  In fact, this started out as a Passover recipe for my Seder plate and evolved into something that I enjoy year-round.

I was raised in the Ashkanazi (of Eastern European descent) Jewish tradition, where Charoset, a traditional Passover food, is always made with apples, walnuts and wine.  I always enjoyed eating Charoset this way and never thought of making it any other way until I met my husband Brad, who has some Sephardic Jewish relatives on both sides of his family (Sephardic Jews include those from various Middle Eastern countries, as well as Greece, Spain and Morocco).  I learned that making Charoset with dates is actually a pretty common Sephardic tradition.

It happens to also be a delicious recipe.  After making it for my family this past spring when we hosted a Passover seder, I decided to make the recipe again (after Passover had ended) and served it on crackers with Humboldt Fog goat cheese, that we purchased at nearby Bierkraft.  This wound up being my husband's favorite snack!  The combination of the Humboldt Fog with the dates is a dynamic duo.  Another note here: if you like goat cheese, you must try Humboldt Fog - it is absolutely my favorite cheese, and is a thousand times better than any ordinary goat cheese. 

Here's the recipe for the spread, which is quite simple, thanks to my mother-in-law, Lynne.

1 lb pitted dates, chopped finely
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups warm water
6 to 8 T sweet wine (depending on how you like it, so make to taste)
1 tsp cinnamon

Soak the dates and raisins in the water for about half of an hour.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat in a saucepan.  Simmer for 30-60 minutes, stirring often.  Keep simmering until this gets to the consistency of a chutney.  When it is done, allow it to cool to room temperature.  Then add the wine and cinnamon and puree in a food processor.

Serve with Humboldt fog, on a water cracker.  The leftovers store well in tupperware.

Note:  All photos are my original photographs, except for the photo of the cheese from the public domain, available at http://www.pdphoto.org/.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the spread served with the cheese and crackers, but below is a photo of it on my Seder Plate.

Cheese

Sasha's Kitchen: Date Spread With Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese

Sasha's Kitchen: Asian Infused Blue Point Oysters On The Half Shell

Oysters make the perfect small plate, appetizer or snack.  They are actually very easy to prepare, if you live near the coast and have access to freshly caught oysters, because they really don't need very much garnishing to prepare.  My favorite oysters are the small, bite-sized ones, like Blue Point and Kumamoto.  Kumamoto oysters are actually a Japanese import that are widely cultivated in the Pacific Northwest.  Blue Point oysters, are a local Long Island catch, and thus, my choice for preparing this appetizer.  To learn more about oysters and different types of oysters, click here.  Don't forget that you will need a shucker as well.

For my small plate, I wanted to create a bite sized fresh ocean treat with an asian infused marinade or dressing.  Accordingly, here are the ingedients I used:

2 T olive oil

2 shallots, diced

2 cloves of garlic, diced
A bit of non-spicy chile, like anaheim chile (about 2 T)

1 tsp sugar

2 T soy sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 T champagne vinegar

2 T lime juice

1 T chopped cilantro

6 small oysters of the Blue Point variety (or use whatever your local catch is)

The cilantro, soy sauce, champagne vinegar and sesame oil in this dressing will give your oysters an asian infused feeling.  To prepare this recipe, heat the olive oil with the shallots, garlic and anaheim chile until soft for a couple of minutes.  Add the sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar and champagne vinegar over heat for about a minute.  Then add the lime juice and cilantro and allow to cool.  Then spoon the dressing over the Blue Point Oysters.  Perfect.   This is a simple eye catching appetizer or snack.  Just make sure that you only use a fresh local catch and prepare the same day that you purchase. 

I should mention that normally you shuck an oyster with a special oyster knife or shucker.  However, I just has my local fish guys at Ocean Fish Market in Park Slope shuck and half-shell the oysters for me, which was really much easier.

oysters

Sasha's Kitchen: Asian Infused Blue Point Oysters On The Half Shell

Sasha's Kitchen: German Street Pretzels & Braised Beer Short Ribs (from Marcus Samuelsson)

As part of doing this project, I am trying to experiment with new types of cuisines, new culinary experiments and new cultural influences in my food. I had heard quite a bit about the Chef Marcus Samuelsson, and I decided to purchase and review his new cookbook, New American Cuisine, in a series of posts over the next several weeks.

Marcus Samuelsson, a well known American chef, was born in Africa (Ethiopia) in 1970 and, after tragically losing his mother at a young age, he and his sister were adopted and raised in Sweden. He currently lives in the United States, where he is currently an advisor to the Institute of Culinary Education, in New York. He came to New York in 1991 to serve as an apprentice at the Scandinavian restaurant, Aquavit, where he eventually became executive chef at the age of 24. He subsequently has published numerous books exploring his cultural and culinary roots, including a Scandinavian Aquavit Cookbook and an African cookbook.

Samuelson's new cookbook, A New American Cuisine is intended to be a cross-section of the culinary influences that make up the melting pot that is America. It includes influences of his multi-cultural background, as well a mixture of the the variety of cuisines and ethnic traditions that have become part of American society. What's interesting is that his recipes aren't really German, Japanese, Ethiopian, Creole or French per se, but they often mix different culinary influences and it is this that make them distinctly American. Really, then there is no such thing as American food without adding a cup, dash and a pinch of the different ethnic and cultural traditions that make up America. We have become such a melting pot that we don't even notice it that our cuisine seamlessly mixes these influences, just like we do in our everyday lives.

With that background, it is not surprising that the President invited Marcus Samuelsson to be the guest chef at his first state dinner (yes the very same state dinner that was crashed by the wanna-be reality TV stars). The link above includes a full discussion of the state dinner and menu.

I decided to try two of his German-American Dishes: Beer Braised Short Ribs (page 277) and Caraway Pretzels (page 117).

Beer braised short ribs are a dish I have been meaning to try as I am not crazy of the other short rib braises that I have tried that use a very heavy tomato sauce. Samuelsson describes his beer braised short ribs as having been influenced by the Germanic traditions he discovered in Milwaukee, but they are purely American (rather than simply German) because of the Asian influences in his recipe.

The recipe, found on page 277 of his new cookbook is as follows:

2 T red Chile paste
3 pounds beef short ribs
1/2 cup of soy sauce
4 cups beer (I used a lager, Blue Point Toasted)
q tsp salt
3 T olive oil (I used truffle olive oil)
2 red onions, diced
one three inch piece of ginger
3 bay leaves
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup mirin
2 T ketjam mains (An Indonesian soy sauce; I substituted regular soy sauce)
1 T honey
2 scallions
1 T butter
I also added a couple handfulls of carrots, which were delicious with the braise




First, I smeared the chile paste on the short ribs, as Samuelsson instructs, in a baking dish. I added a mixture of the beer (1 cup of beer, although he only says to use 1/2 a cup, and 1/4 cup of soy sauce). I allowed this to marinade for 4 hours, rotating the ribs once.

Next, I heated the truffle olive oil and sesame oil in my Le Creuset Dutch Oven (I love Le Creuset and it is so pretty; I wish it was cheaper). I added the garlic, ginger, bay leaves and onions and sauteed. Then I added the ribs, beer, rest of the soy sauce, chicken stock and mirin and brought to a boil. We cooked for about two and a half hours at 350 F (he says 300 F but we wanted it done a little faster).

After the braise was done, the ribs were removed and we prepared the sauce by mixing 2 cups of the remaining liquid with 1 T honey, 2 T soy sauce, another 1/2 cup of beer, 1 tsp salt and the butter. Then I added the scallions. The sauce was delicious with the ribs and had a beautiful color. You could taste the flavors of the beer, but without the alcohol. This was great because it didn't have the heaviness of most tomato-based braises.




We also made his recipe for Caraway pretzels, on page 117, which are supposed to be similar to German street pretzels. These were delicious and came out perfectly the first time.

1 T dry active yeast
1 T dry active yeast
2 T sugar
2 T brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp plus 1 T salt
4 cups flour
1 T baking soda
1 egg plus 1 T water for wash
2 T cheddar cheese
1/4 cup caraway seeds

First, I combined the yeast (I used more - 2 packages of 1/4 oz each, and I suggest that you do the same), water and sugars and let the yeast activate for a few minutes. Then I combined this mixture in artisan mixer with the flour and 2 1/2 tsp salt to form a dough.



Samuelsson says to let this rise overnight - but I didn't want to wait that long, which is why I added the extra yeast and my dough rose just fine in about 3 hours. The I divided into 10 balls (he says 12, but I only made 10 perfectly sized pretzels). I rolled it out and shaped into pretzels after printing out a picture of a pretzel from the Internet to use as a model.

Then I let them rise for about 45 minutes, as he instructs in his cookbook (they didn't change much), and then boiled in water with the baking soda, much like is done with bagels. I boiled for 20 seconds or so on each side. Before baking at 400 F for 20 minutes, I did the egg wash and sprinkled with healthy amounts of lowfat cheddar cheese and caraway seeds.

20 minutes later, the end result were some delicious German pretzels, which were a big hit. We have some friends living overseas in Germany now who are visiting for the holidays and I plan to test them on our friends tomorrow night and see how they measure up to the real thing (if my husband doesn't eat them all first!).






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Sasha's Kitchen: German Street Pretzels & Braised Beer Short Ribs (from Marcus Samuelsson)