Spanish stew with chickpeas, clams, and sausage

We were four tonight at our table: joining us for dinner was Monica (of Gastromonica fame, and one of my favorite cooks and people) and her partner. A high-risk strategy for dinner, B and I decided to try a new recipe from Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook: a Spanish-style stew with chickpeas, clams, and sausage. The meal was sufficiently fantastic that we forgot to take any photographs.

The night before you want this stew, cover 1 ½ cups dried chickpeas with plenty of water, and let soak overnight (beans will double in size). In the morning or mid-day, drain the chickpeas and add a small white onion, one or two carrots, a celery stick if you have one, some bay leaf, some fresh thyme, and 1 Tbsp of salt; cover with water, bring to a boil, and simmer on low 90 minutes. Let the beans cool in their liquids. When you start cooking, drain the chickpeas and discard the veggies.

In the bottom of a large pot, brown 1 lb pork sausage (we used the breakfast links from Highland Hills, as it was all that was left when we got to the market today), crumbled or cut into small meatballs, in 1 Tbsp olive oil. Remove the meat to a bowl, and discard the liquid. Meanwhile, finely mince a large white onion, or, more easily, chop it coarsely and then puree in the food processor.

Add a little more olive oil to the pot and cook the onion until lightly browned. Meanwhile, finely mince (puree in food processor) one fennel bulb and lots of garlic, and add to the onion, along with a little salt. Cook a bit longer, and add one medium-spicy pepper, in small diced, and 1 Tbsp paprika. Also add a handful of small or two medium-large tomatoes, cut into medium dice.

Clean 3 lb manila clams while the vegetables cook.

Finally, stir in the chickpeas and the sausage, and cover and bring back to a simmer. Then add ½ cup white wine, ½ lb young braising greens or chard cut into ½-inch strips, and the clams. Cover and cook five to ten more minutes, stirring once or twice, until the clams have all opened.

While the clams cook, lightly toast some slices of a nice bread, and rub each slice with a clove of garlic. Serve the stew in shallow bowls, with a slice of bread at the bottom of each bowl and the stew spooned over it.

Accompany the stew with good company, fun conversation, and a nice Pinot Grigio (also set out the remaining bread with some butter). After the stew, serve a lettuce salad with a sherry vinaigrette as a palate cleanser.

Open a bottle of fine Moscatel, and move from the dining room table to the living room couch. Set out a plate of figs from the neighbors tree, cut into quarters with a dollop of a nice sheep's cheese on each, and sprinkled with chopped almonds and honey. Conclude the meal with macadamia-and-white-chocolate cookies.

Pork chops, roasted carrots with fennel, and caramelized radishes

Radishes are a bit of a pain, because they are very tasty individually, but you never really want more than one. B sliced a bunch of radishes thin and sauteed them with onions, red wine, and brown sugar to caramelize them.

The roasted carrot recipe came from Cook's Illustrated (November & December 2010). A close paraphrase: "Adjust oven ract to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. In large bowl, combine 1 pound carrots (peeled, halved crosswise, and cut lengthwise if necessary to create even pieces), 1 small fennel bulb (cored and sliced ½ inch thick), 2 tablspoons unsalted butter (melted), ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper; toss to coat. Transfer carrots to foil- or parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and spread in a single layer. Cover baking sheet tightly with foil and cook for 15 minutes. Remove foil and continue to cook, stirring twice, until carrots are well browned and tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a serving platted, and toss vegetables with ¼ cup toasted sliced almonds, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and, optionally, 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley."

While the carrots were in the oven, B roasted the pork chops under the broiler. Before serving, he coated them with more chopped almonds.

Lunch salad with watermelon agua fresca

Cut the flesh of half a yellow watermelon into pieces, and place in a blender. Pulsing, being careful not to cut up the seeds, macerate the melon, and then pass it through a sieve. Combine the watermelon juice with plenty of lime juice (this is vital), a little sugar, and some water, to taste.

Mash a shallot and some salt to a paste in the mortar and pestle; add some lemon juice and olive oil. Slice a bulb of fennel, and toss with the dressing. Divide the fennel between two shallow bowls. Pick two or three small ripe tomatoes from the vine, and add the halved tomatoes to the bowls. Divide in two and add also one carrot, sliced; one stalk celery, cut up; and an eight once tub of cooked salad shrimp.

Later, smile when B makes you a cappuccino with a heart drawn on the top.

Seared ahi tuna with fennel and radishes

My dad loves fish, and particularly barely cooked tuna. For our first of a mere two dinners in Eugene, we made one of our favorite fancy dinners. Press fennel seeds into boneless sashimi grade ahi tuna. Heat a cast-iron pan until it is very hot, and then sear just the outer half-centimeter or less of the fish, leaving the middles that wonderful tuna purple. Slice very thin a bulb of fennel and some radishes, and slice the fish into quarter-inch-thick (or less) strips. Layer the fennel, the fish, and the radishes in the kitchen, and cover with a very strongly shallot-y sherry vinaigrette. Serve with sourdough bread, sage-and-shallot butter, roasted garlic, and an Oregon pinot noir.

Pasta with green beans, fennel, and smoked tuna

Pizza with corn, tomatoes, and fennel

We have yet to eat at Summer Kitchen, but we read their menu every time we wait in line at Ici. A few days ago, their pizza consisted of a combination that we knew we had to try: tomatoes, corn, and fennel. Sure enough, at least when B made it, the pairing was great (so good that we forgot to take any pictures).

Barely seared tuna, sliced thin, with fennel, radishes, and onion vinnaigrette

Composed salad with fennel, beets, and prawns

B and I just got back from two weeks in Spain, so expect a post and slideshow soon. In the meantime, there were a few meals from before we left that must be posted.

For this composed salad, we cooked the beets the way we've learned to from the Alice Waters books: wash the beets well but do not peel them, and wrap them tightly while still wet in foil; place in a hot oven (whatever temperature you need for the rest of your baking that day) and bake for at least an hour, and better an hour and a half; transfer the hot beets to a bath of ice water, and the skins should easily slough off; cut the beets and place in a bowl with some salt and vinegar (no oil!) to marinate for at least half an hour. We boiled fennel greens to make a thin broth, and poached the peeled fennel hearts. We hard-boiled eggs, and also butterflied and briefly boiled prawns. To complete the salad, we dressed lettuce in a garlic vinaigrette, and garnished everything with some capers, kalamata olives, anchovy fillets, and sprigs of fennel. We served the salad with fresh home-made whole-wheat baguette, parsley butter (lots of parsley, some butter, some garlic, some salt, some lemon juice, processed in the cuisinart), and a French rosé.

Rare albacore tuna, with fennel, radishes, and shallot vinaigrette

This was one of our all time most delicious dinners, and we have had some pretty delicious dinners. The recipe comes from Chez Panisse Café Cookbook. We didn't follow it completely, but I'll copy out the recipe for you nontheless:

Rare Yellowfin Tuna with Coriander and Fennel Seed

Since the ingredients are available almost all year, this dish has become a popular and versatile mainstay on the menu. However, it requires the freshest, most pristine tuna you can fine. The tuna is seared very briefly, so the fish remains quite rare, almost like sashimi.

Serves 6 to 8

• 2 pounds center-cut tuna
• 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt
• Cracked black pepper
• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
  
  
• 3 small shallots, diced fine
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 3 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
• Salt
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  
  
• 1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed
• 1 small bunch radishes, trimmed
• 1 small bunch cilantro, tough stems removed
  

Ask your fishmonger for 2 pieces of tuna weight 1 pound each, the pieces about 3 inches in diameter and 8 inches long. Rub the tuna fillets with olive oil and season generously with salt and cracked pepper. In a mortar, crush the coriander and fennel seeds coarsely, until their fragrance is released. Sprinkle the crushed seeds evenly over the tuna, pressing them into the flesh. This can be done several hours before cooking. Hold in the refrigerator.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Carefully place the seasoned tuna in the skillet and sear for 30 seconds on each side. Remove the tuna to a platter and cool for an hour or so at room temperature.

Make a vinaigrette by macerating the shallots in the lemon juice and Champagne vinegar with a good pinch of salt for 10 minutes. WHisk in the olive oil, taste, and adjust the seasoning.

Use a very sharp knife to slice the tuna into even ⅛-inch slices. Place 2 slices side-by-side on each serving plate. Using a japanese manfolin, shave the fennel bulb into thin ribbons and strew them over the fish. Shave over some radish slices in the same way. The result should be a playful mosaic effect. Splash the vinaigrette over the tuna, fennel, and radishes. Add a light sprinkling of salt. Roughly chop the cilantro, scatter it over each plate, and serve.

Squid-ink spaghetti with crab, fennel, and shallot

Chef Freitag, on Iron Chef, for a crab-themed episode against Bobby Flay, made a simple pasta dish: homemade spaghetti, fennel, leeks, and crab. We decided to do her one better.

Begin by making squid-ink pasta. We used three cups semolina, some salt, one oz squid ink, and three eggs. Don't worry that the pasta starts out gray and cement-looking; it will darken with time. Roll out the spaghetti in a pasta press. Squid ink smells fishy, so it goes very well with crab. It's totally water-soluble, but will get all over your hands.



Next clean and shell one cooked crab. Coarsely chop one bulb of fennel, washed, and one bunch spring shallots. Saute the vegetables in olive oil and salt.




Start a large pot of well-salted water boiling before beginning to saute the veggies. When the veggies have softened and the water is roiling, add the crab to the veggies and the pasta to the water, stirring the pasta to break up the clumps. Cook the pasta two minutes, until it floats, drain well, and toss with the sauce. Serve with grated romano.

Butterfish, poached fennel, and bread

We began by mixing and baking the bread, letting it cool a bit before cutting it open. Then we baked the butterfish in leftover rouille, topped with fennel greens. Meanwhile, we sautéed leeks and then added trimmed green beans and quartered fennel bulbs, and simmered the veggies ten minutes in broth.

Leek tart and Autumn salad

We've made this leek tart, from Chez Panisse Vegetables, before, but I don't think I've posted the recipe here. Make a galette dough with 2 cups white flour, 1 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 6 oz room-temperature butter, and 1/3 cup cold water. (Combine dry ingredients, then cut in half the butter, then add the rest of the butter in small pieces and add the water; at best, let everything relax at least an hour, or in the fridge all day, or frozen for as long as you want.) Sauté the whites of three leeks in olive oil with some salt and fresh thyme. Roll out the dough, transfer to a cookie sheet, top with the leeks, and fold over the edges. Brush the crust with an egg wash, and bake 400 degrees F for 45 minutes.

The second dish tonight was a luxurious salad. In the bottom of a large salad bowl, crush three small cloves garlic, and combine with salt, plenty of olive oil, and a splash of sherry vinegar. Then assemble the salad out of:

• One bulb fennel, washed and shaved (the trick is to cut off the stems and then use a vegetable peeler, holding the base of the bulb and shaving from the top down).
• Four heads baby gem lettuce, carefully washed and dried.
• 1/2 pound green beans, tips removed and cut into 1-inch pieces; boil a few minutes, then plunge into ice water a few minutes before drying.
• Four small asian pears, cut into thin slices.
• 1/4 pound shelled walnuts.
• 2 oz shaved romano (or parmesan; use the vegetable peeler).
• Croutons, made by chopping old bread into small cubes, tossing with oil, salt, and dried basil, and baking 10-30 minutes.

Pan-fried sardines and cole slaw

First prepare the cole slaw, since the fish should be served hot. Wash and thinly slice four crisp apples (from storage) and one bulb of fennel, and toss with some lemon juice to prevent browning. In a large fry pan, cook one head kale, washed and sliced: first steam it with the cover on in the liquid clinging from washing, and then saute briefly in olive oil. Finish the slaw with a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and salt, and a healthy handful of golden raisins.

Clean and fillet six sardines, rinse, and coat with rolled outs and then flour. This can take a while if you don't have a lot of practice cleaning fish, but it's supposed to be very fast. Pan-fry in olive oil a few minutes to a side, until the oats start to brown and the meat is cooked throughout. Serve with wedges of lemon.

Baked Pasta with Sardines and Wild Fennel

This recipe is from Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook. We tried it when the Market had sardines for $1.50/lb — as the fishmonger said, the fish is cheaper than the ice it's sent home with. I had never cleaned a fish before, but Joy of Cooking explains the basics, although in fact sardines are much easier to clean than are big fish.

Other than the penne and the whole sardine fillets (skin on, use six fish for one pound of pasta), the casserole has golden raisins (blumped in boiling water), pine nuts (toasted), a puree of blanched fennel tops and some blanching liquid, and a sautee of finely diced fennel bulb, garlic, and onion (we dropped the rinsed anchovy fillets, red pepper flakes, and saffron from the recipe). Serve with wedges of lemon and fresh chopped parsley.

4 November 2008

Possibly our very best dutch-oven dish, this one my boyfriend made as more of an au gratin, with mushrooms, leeks, fennel, cheese, potatoes, and herbs. We also made a lemon pie that night, following a recipe in Cookwise, but the meringue collapsed, making instead a good custard eaten separately. It would have worked had we not followed the instruction, after beating the meringue, to add lemon zest.

1 November 2008

My mom and sister came to visit over Halloween, and we served them poached halibut with fennel, from a recipe in Chez Panisse Vegetables. My boyfriend made a phenomenal leek galette from the same book. We also had black rice.

11 October 2008

My boyfriend made this dinner, broiling the fish with a sauce of ginger, leeks, mint, and mustard. The greens are nettles from La Tercera farm (tasty, but looses its structural integrity easily). The orange mash is sweet potato with butter and rosemary. Mmm.