Ham bone, ham bone

What does one do when one has a leftover ham bone what does one do?  Make ham stock and then thick rustic Brazilian Black Bean Soup.  Serve it with some thick slabs of crusty bread and you have a delectable meal in a bowl.

Brazilian Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 8 ounces dried black beans
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 14 ounces canned chopped tomatoes
• 2 pints ham stock
• 1 ham bone or 2 ham hocks
• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 4-5 pieces each
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons dried juniper berries
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 2-3 sprigs thyme
• 2 Tablespoons rum
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• Sour cream, optional

Preparation

In the morning, put 8 ounces of dried black beans in a bowl and cover with cold water by a thumb's length.  In a stock pot, but the ham bone, onion - including the skin (discard the root end), celery, bay leaves,  juniper berries, and black peppercorns.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer.  Simmer for 2-3 hours.  Cool, strain and chill until fat sets.  Remove the fat before adding to the beans.

Five to 6 hours after the black beans have been soaked, strain and rinse.  Heat oil over medium heat in a 5 quart pan.  When oil is hot, add cumin and cook, stirring frequently, for 30 seconds.  Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.  Add garlic, and cook, stirring frequently for 3 minutes.  Add beans, tomatoes and ham stock and simmer for 3 hours or until the beans are soft. If necessary, add water if it becomes too thick at any time. Stir in rum for last 5 minutes of cooking. Add salt or pepper to taste.  If you like a little creaminess to your soup, puree half of it in a blender and mix back together or use an immersion blender on the whole pot until you have the consistency you like.

Ladle soup into bowls.  Toss the tomato, red onion and cilantro together and garnish bowls of soup with this rough salsa.  If inclined, add a dollop of sour cream to the top.  If you like your meals spicier, add a chopped green chili to the salsa topping. If you have leftover ham, chop it up into bite-sized pieces or smaller and add it to the soup in the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Mint Madness

The world of herbs is a wonderful place. The fresher the better, and most are not hard to grow. One of the easiest to grow and most versatile in the kitchen is mint.  There are numerous varieties to choose from as well...from your standard peppermint or spearmint to those with hints of other flavors such as chocolate mint!  Apple mint has big fat furry leaves with a hint of, you guessed it, apple.  While mint is easy to grow, the downside is that it can take over a flower bed.  I grow it in wild areas, where I don't care what it takes over, or in a container on the deck.  It does fairly well in a container - just make sure to keep it watered and in a shady spot.  I also recommend that when you are purchasing a mint plant, make sure you take a bite of a leaf before you buy.  There are some varieties sold in the big box stores that are tasteless and not worth the effort.  Make sure you have a flavorful one - these tend to have sturdy stems and leaves and have a darker green color compared to, say, the color of basil, although not always - taste, taste, taste - that's the key.  To find the more interesting varieties you'll probably need to visit a real nursery or order online.

In the kitchen mint features in both savory and sweet dishes, as well as making a killer cuppa tea.  I also use mint to flavor simple syrup for sweetening ice tea, hot chocolate, adding a boost to mojitos or watermelon-cucumber-mint margaritas (blog post coming later on this one!).  Making mint simple syrup is, as it is titled, simple.  In a small pan mix 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar, bring slowly to a boil until the sugar is dissolved.  Turn heat off and add about 1/2 cup fresh coarsely chopped mint (normally, when you chop mint you'd remove the leaves first and only chop those, but for this you can chop the entire stem of leaves - a little stem won't matter a bit since you strain it all out).  Let steep for 5 minutes and then strain through cheesecloth or a coffee filter and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.  It keeps about a week or two.  You can adjust the quantities if you just remember 1:1:1/2 sugar:water:fresh mint leaves.

Some of my other favorite ways to use chopped fresh mint are in a spicy minced lamb (or beef) and peas dish from Pakistan, tabouli, shortbread dipped in chocolate, Vietnamese lettuce wraps, watermelon mint sorbet...I could go on.  If any of these pique your interest, just let me know and I'll post about it.

What's your favorite way to use mint?

My favorite summer cocktails – #3

Feeling like a beach vacation?  I know I am, but alas, that is a ways off.  So, maybe instead a quick weekend escape in a bottle? Ok, ok, not literally a weekend in a bottle, but a delicious drink from the beaches of Brazil is the Caipirinha and I find them mighty tasty on a hot summer day.  My husband introduced me to this delightfully lime-y, kick-you-in-the-pants drink after his trip to Recife, Brazil.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lime cut into small pieces (can use a whole lime if small or you want it extra lime-y)
• 1-2 teaspoons sugar (or whatever suits your palate--Brazilians use closer to a tablespoon)
• 2 ounces Cachaça (common brands we find are Pitu and 51 - in a side-by-side taste test we found we preferred 51)
• 1 - 4" sugar cane stick - optional (it's a fun effect if available, but otherwise a stirrer stick will do)

Preparation

Add the lime pieces and sugar to a rock glass.  With a muddler, mash the lime and sugar together, then pour in the cachaça and stir.  Fill rest of glass with ice, add sugar cane stick or stirrer (you'll want to stir the drink as the ice melts). Serves 1.

Now, drink slooowwwwly if at all possible to let that ice melt into the drink and imagine you are sitting on a hot Brazilian beach with the sparkling sea just within reach...

*A note about sugar: the Brazilian version my husband drank had dark raw sugar chunks and a lot more than 2 teaspoons of it, which meant you wanted to stir it often as the sugar started to dissolve.  I prefer my sugar to more fully dissolve so we use superfine sugar.  You could also substitute Splenda or 1/2 Splenda if you're cutting calories. The cachaça does not seem to mind.

Book Review of French Classics Made Easy

image courtesy of Workman Publishing

Having been trained in the French classics, I was excited to see a cookbook that has a modern take on the grand cuisine.  Traditional French cooking in today’s world seems too heavy – lots of cream and butter and not enough freshness in the approach to vegetables and fruits – and definitely too fussy to prepare.  While I still enjoy many of the intricacies of French cooking, the majority of the population are not willing to suffer such exacting requirements.

Richard Grausman has just the right approach to the classics in his revised and updated French Classics Made Easy (Workman Press, 2011).  He has simplified and made the classics accessible to every interested cook from those just starting out to the experienced that are looking for ideas to make life simpler.  For those just starting out there are excellent technique sketches to show you how to truss a bird and use a pastry bag, for example.

For anyone who has used and liked the Silver Palate Cookbooks or Steven Raichlen’s BBQ book series, you will find yourself on familiar ground.  These books, also produced by the Workman publishing house, all have that consistent, easy, approachable style.  The font choices and call-out boxes for additional detail are engaging and de-clutter the page.  I find the recipes in these books easy to follow with the exception of frequent references to other recipes in the book one must look up to complete a dish.

My friend, Holly, and me in Chateauneuf du Pape

For those of us who know French cooking but no longer have the luxury of time due to living the frantic modern lifestyle, the recipes are lovely reminders of those great French dishes.  The recipe for Grausman’s Potato Puffs (Pommes de Terre Dauphine) brought back a fond memory of a dinner in Chateauneuf du Pape in southern France this past summer.  It was a fine summer evening spent with friends out on a terraced restaurant just above the city after climbing around some ruins that were even further above the city.  We had the most divine pommes de terre dauphine.  These savory morsels melted in the mouth with a hint of potatoes, billowy insides and a slightly crunchy exterior.   We could have demolished plate after plateful of them on that warm summer evening.

At the time we did not know we were eating pommes de terre dauphine, but Grausman’s recipe caught my eye and I knew it had to be it.  Excitement had struck.  It’s taken me an entire long week to get the opportunity to try out Grausman’s recipe to resurrect the memories of that fine evening in southern France.  The recipe was simple to follow and only referenced one other recipe in the book. The results were marvelous!  Indeed, I had found the recipe that will remind us of eating beautiful meals on flagstone patios under starry nights with good friends and good wine.

In conclusion, if you are looking for French recipes without all the fuss and fewer calories this cookbook is worth checking out.

Spinach Salad with Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette

In my last post I told you about my African friends who claim that in winter it's just too cold for salads.  Well, it's almost summer and it's definitely time for salads.  With the upcoming week high temps all in the upper 90s I'm looking forward to cold salads, cheeses, fruit and chilled drinks (see my posts on Mango Coolers and Margaritas for a couple of ideas on cold drinks).

One of my favorite salad dressings is a roasted shallot vinaigrette.  I often make a double batch because it's a little more effort than most but so worth it.  How could one go wrong with roasted shallots, garlic and balsamic?  It goes well on almost any salad, but one of best pairings is with a strong green leaf (spinach, arugula, etc.), fruit (berries) and gouda.

Spinach Salad with Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Version 1:

• 2 cups spinach
• 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/8 cup chopped goat gouda
• 2 Tablespoons roasted shallot vinaigrette

Version 2:

• 2 cups spinach
• 1/4 cup sliced fresh strawberries
• 1/4 cup toasted pecans (could use spiced pecans)
• 1/8 cup chopped smoked gouda
• 2 Tablespoons roasted shallot vinaigrette

Toss spinach and berries together with the vinaigrette.  Place on serving dish and sprinkle nuts and cheese on top and serve.

Vinaigrette:

The vinaigrette recipe comes from a Bon Appetit magazine circa 1996.  It's by far our favorite salad dressing. Friends say it goes extremely well on baked potatoes, too!

• 1 cup shallots, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place shallots and garlic in a small glass baking dish.  Add 1/2 cup oil and toss to coat.  Cover with foil and bake until shallots and garlic are tender and golden, stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes. Cool.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer shallots and garlic to a food processor; reserve oil in baking dish.  Puree shallots and garlic until smooth.  In a 8" or 10" heavy skillet add remaining 1/4 cup oil and puree.  Stir over medium heat until liquid evaporates and mixture is brown, about 5-6 minutes.  Cool slightly and return mixture to food processor.  Add vinegar, soy sauce, mustard, and oil reserved from baking dish and process until well blended.  Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Store in refrigerator.  It becomes quite thick, so I either add a little water to the recipe to thin it or make sure to take it out well ahead of time so the oil has time to warm up.