I Heart Pork

I finally went to Porchetta last week. It opened several months ago, less than a mile away from my apartment - but for some reason I'd never ventured all the way there. I think once I'd passed by and there were too many ppl, and other times, I guess I just thought $9 for a pork sandwich was a bit pricey.

It was worth it. Still a bit expensive, but the little juicy bits of pork cracklings, fatty goodness and herb mixture - yumyumyum. The sandwich is not too large, which is perfect when you're trying not to overeat in the new year. But frankly, I think the $15 plate is a better deal. You get cooking greens, beans, and a hefty portion of porky pig.

Sara Jenkins is almost always there herself, and has wonderful delicious special sides and soups as well. Cauliflower w/ crispy prosciutto and winter lentil when I went. Perfect for a cold winter day. Tiny space though, and be prepared to be crammed inside with a ton of other pork lovers.
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Alton's Amazing Granola

My new discovery? Homemade granola is SO much better than storebought granola.

I've had $11/package granola called "The World's Best Homemade Granola" from Spoon by my office, Penelope's homemade granola with dried fruit overkill, Whole Food's granola, you name it I've tried to find the best kind. I had settled on BreadAlone's $5/bag of organic granola as the best mix of value and taste, but a few weeks ago I tried to make some of my own at home.

I searched for the recipe with the best reviews and the mix of ingredients that I liked the most, and found that Alton Brown's recipe had 161 reviews, almost all five stars. With that in tow, I went home and concocted my own version of his granola. And let me tell you, it is DELICIOUS. Better than any granola you will ever buy at the store, cheaper, and super easy to make. I'm serious. Try it. Or if you're really nice to me maybe I'll make you some. :)

Granola
Adapted from Alton Brown's Granola recipe
With a lot of liberties taken by me

4 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup whole almonds
1/3 cup pecans
1/3 pumpkin seeds
1/3 sunflower seeds
2/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup flax seeds, to be healthy
1/3 cup wheatgerm, to be extra healthy!
1/3 cup + a bit dark brown sugar
1/3 cup + a bit honey (or maple syrup)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried fruit

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, flax seed, wheat germ and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine honey or maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. To get clumps (which I researched myself!) press granola mixture down in to pans lightly, so as to form a thin sheet of the wet granola.

Bake for 30 minutes. Switch sheet pans from top to bottom. Increase oven heat to 275 degrees F, continue baking for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, cool for 10-15 minutes, and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly
distributed.

Yum! I promise you, you won't ever buy storebought granola again.


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Birthday Part II

I forgot to mention - Alli sent me these delicious cupcakes for my birthday from Sugar Sweet Sunshine! They are the best.

There was:
- yellow cake with chocolate almond buttercream
- red velvet cake with chocolate almond buttercream
- red velvet cake with satin buttercream
- pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing

Oh, and yes - I gained five pounds the week of my birthday. It was awesome.


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Birthday Cake & Birthday Lobster

So most food blogs have amazing photos. I, on the other hand, can barely take a non-blurry image on my iPhone. But I figure it's better to have blurry pics than no pics, right?

We made a birthday cake for me on Friday. It was delicious. I also completely made up my own sour cream chocolate frosting recipe - combining two epicurious frosting recipes into one to create a "healthy" dessert, as I called it. We also had a field day at Chelsea Market. I wanted to go on a tour of the Food Network kitchens, but unfortunately they only have those during the week. Instead, we got fresh oysters and live lobster to take home. I love Chelsea market.



Double Chocolate Layer Cake
Adapted from Gourmet, March 1999
Recipe halved to make perfect 8" round layer cake

For cake layers
1 1/2 ounces Callebaut semisweet chocolate
3/4 cups hot brewed coffee
1 cup sugar + a tad
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
3/8 teaspoon baking powder
5/8 teaspoons salt
2 medium eggs
3/8 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cups well-shaken buttermilk (or yogurt)
3/8 teaspoon vanilla

For sour cream chocolate/ganache frosting
1/2 pound Callebaut semisweet chocolate
2/3 cup low-fat sour cream
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Make cake layers:
Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

Make frosting:
Finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan melt chocolate and butter over moderately low heat, whisking until combined. Whisk in corn syrup. Remove pan from heat and add 1/3 cup of sour cream and 1/2 powdered sugar. Add remaining sour cream and powdered sugar until smooth. Add sugar to taste.

Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (depending on chocolate used, it may be necessary to chill frosting to spreadable consistency).

Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides. Cake keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days. Bring cake to room temperature before serving.




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Apple Pie & Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

Goodness, how did I get so behind? It's a full week after Halloween and I'm still posting about what we ate last Friday! Almost done though - maybe because we just ate so much.

Janice had gone apple picking the week before, so we were planning on making apple pie from scratch. I also found a delicious looking whole wheat apple muffin recipe, so we figured, hey, why not??




To be honest, the apple pie wasn't as good as it looked. I think it was something about the pie crust recipe, the type of flour, the way we did it? Who knows - but it looks good in pictures doesn't it?



But the muffins were delicious. Healthy tasting with the whole wheat, light, fluffy, warm - perfect. We made full size ones and mini-muffins. Mini muffins take about 5 minutes less time. It was actually better than the whole wheat apple bread I made before. I think I will try the muffin recipe as bread and see how it is. And even though the pie was a bit of a disappointment, anything w/ Ciao Bella Vanilla Bean Gelato is delicious.




Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour an 18 cup muffin tin and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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Famous NYTimes No-Knead Bread

Excellent bread is just far too easy to come by in New York City to warrant baking your own bread. Even though this was super easy, I was hoping it would be enlightening, hoping it would fill my home with the smell of freshly baked bread, hoping it would bring that extra magic touch to dinner.

Don't get me wrong, it was fun, cool to watch and decently good, but the house smelled like short ribs w/ a whiff of baking bread here and there, I spilled yeast and wheat bran everywhere, and the only one who really LOVED the bread was Jon, aka Linus for the evening. Cool to do it once, but next time I'm hitting up GrandDaisy and getting my favorite olive loaf. Yum.

"Shaggy" dough

After 18 hours of resting

Baking w/ lid on

Baking w/ lid off

Done!


No-Knead Bread
NYTimes November 8, 2006
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
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Daniel Boulud's Braised Short Ribs

So this is what we actually ate for Halloween. I did all the prepwork the day before, so it made the day of much less stressful, and much more fun. Everything made from scratch - from the bread to the apple pie. And all of it delish.

Our Halloween Menu:
NYTimes No-Knead Bread
Daniel Boulud's Braised Short Ribs
Roasted Delicata Squash & Brussel Sprouts
Sauteed Mushrooms
Homemade Apple Pie
Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
Ciao Bella Gelato (okay, that was storebought)

The best part was watching the short ribs transform into the melt-in-your-mouth-falling-off-the-bone deliciousness. I burned off alcohol from three bottles of good wine for the first time, which definitely satisfied the pyro- in me, I beautifully browned the short ribs in my Le Creuset the size a small baby (9quart size!), and I watched the whole thing simmer simmer simmer in the oven. I've decided that oven-braising is much more effective than stovetop braising. Much better heat distribution.

Watch the transformation:
First, you flour and brown the short ribs...

While simultaneously heating and burning off the alcohol. Do you see the blue flames?!

Put the meat aside.

Prepare veggie goodness.


Veggie goodness needs to brown a bit + some tomato paste. Tomato paste lasts forever by the way. The tube I used was from over 6 months ago. Amazing.

Add the wine (and 3 quarts of beef broth)! Bring to a boil.

Simmer in oven for 2-2.5 hours, skimming for fat every 30 minutes.

Refrigerate overnight to separate fat and get best flavor. Simmer down sauce the next day - and voila, there you have it!


Daniel Boulud's Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine

3 bottles dry red wine
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 short ribs, trimmed of excess fat
Salt and crushed black peppercorns
Flour, for dredging
8 large shallots, peeled, trimmed, split, rinsed and dried
2 medium-sized carrots, peeled, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
2 ribs of celery, peeled, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
1 medium-sized leek (white and light-green parts), coarsely chopped, washed and dried
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
6 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
2 bay leaves and 2 thyme sprigs
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 quarts unsalted beef broth
Freshly ground white pepper

1. Pour the wine into a large saucepan set over medium heat. When the wine is hot, carefully set it aflame. Let the flames die out, then increase the heat so that the wine boils; allow it to boil until it cooks down by half. Remove from the heat.

2. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350°F.

3. Warm the oil in a large, heavy, ovenproof pot over medium-high heat. Season the ribs all over with salt and the crushed pepper. Dust half of the ribs with about 1 tablespoon flour. Then, when the oil is hot, slip the ribs into the pot and sear 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until well-browned. Transfer the ribs to a plate. Repeat with remaining ribs. Remove all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the pot, lower the heat under the pot to medium and toss in the vegetables and herbs. Brown the vegetables lightly, 5 to 7 minutes, then stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.

4. Add the wine, ribs and broth to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover tightly and place in the oven to braise for 2 1/2 hours or until the ribs are very tender. Every 30 minutes, skim and discard fat from the surface. (It's best to make the recipe to this point, cool and chill the ribs and broth in the pan overnight; scrape off the fat the next day. Rewarm before continuing.)

5. Carefully transfer the meat to a platter; keep warm. Boil the pan liquid until it has reduced to 1 quart. Season with salt and white pepper and pass through a fine strainer; discard the solids. (The ribs and sauce can be combined and kept covered in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Reheat gently, basting frequently, on top of the stove or in a 350°F oven.)

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