Eye for a Recipe

If you have had your fill of holiday turkey, ham and roast beef, try this delicious pasta with mussels in a spicy tomato sauce from the Holiday 2011 issue of Food and Drink. Arrabbiata is the Italian word for angry, but you can tone down the heat in this dish if you wish by reducing the amount of hot pepper. The recipe calls for San Marzano canned tomatoes, which taste better than regular canned plum tomatoes, so use them if you can find them. Penne rigate has ridges, meaning the sauce will cling to it, but regular penne would be fine. Be sure to discard any mussels that won’t close before cooking and any that aren’t open after cooking.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

The ingredients in this recipe that may contain artificial ingredients include the pancetta and tomatoes. Use nitrite-free bacon and a brand of tomatoes that contain only tomatoes (or tomatoes and salt).

Cut pancetta or nitrite-free bacon into thin strips

Garlic, hot peppers, onion and parsley

Saute bacon until crisp

Saute onions

Add tomatoes and cook until thick

Mussels Penne Arrabbiata

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 oz thinly sliced pancetta or bacon, cut into thin strips

1 onion, thinly sliced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 hot red pepper, thinly sliced

1 28-oz can San Marzano tomatoes

12 oz penne rigate

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 lbs mussels, scrubbed

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley and/or basil

Preparation:

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add pancetta and sauté for about 3 minutes or until crisp; use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate, leaving oil in pot. Add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and hot pepper and sauté for 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and bring to a boil, breaking up tomatoes and scraping brown bits from pot. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring often, for 10 to 15 minutes or until thick.

Meanwhile, cook penne in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 11 minutes or until al dente. Drain well.

Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper, keeping in mind that mussels and pancetta will add salt. Stir mussels and half of the pancetta into sauce. Cover and boil gently for about 5 minutes or until mussels open. Discard any that do not open.

Divide penne among warmed serving bowls. Ladle sauce and mussels overtop. Sprinkle with remaining pancetta and parsley and/or basil. Serves 4.

From the Holiday 2011 issue of Food and Drink

This delicious side dish will be finding its way onto our table for Christmas dinner. These are not your typical Brussels sprouts – they are not boiled, nor do they turn that odd green colour that boiled or steamed sprouts tend to. Simply shred the sprouts in a food processor, sauté them in a pan that has just been used to crisp pancetta or bacon, and then combine with currants, maple syrup, mustard and the pancetta. Delicious!

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

To avoid additives and preservatives, use a nitrite-free bacon, currants without sulfites added and an all-natural mustard, such as President’s Choice Old-Fashioned Dijon.

Saute pancetta or bacon until crisp

Saute shredded sprouts in bacon fat, then toss with other ingredients

Shredded maple-mustard Brussels sprouts

Ingredients:

2 lb (907 g) Brussels sprouts

8 oz (225 g) pancetta or bacon, diced

1/4 cup (60 mL) dried currants

3 tbsp (45 mL) maple syrup

3 tbsp (45 mL) grainy mustard

1/2 tsp (2 mL) pepper

Preparation:

Trim ends of Brussels sprouts; remove any discoloured leaves. In food processor and using blade attachment, shred sprouts. Set aside.
In large skillet or wok, cook pancetta over medium heat until crispy, 8 to 10 minutes. With slotted spoon, transfer to small bowl.

Add sprouts to pan; cook until wilted, 8 to 10 minutes. Add currants, maple syrup, mustard, pepper and pancetta; toss to coat. Serves 10.

From the December 2011 issue of Canadian Living

This new find from the October 2011 issue of Real Simple is easy to make, tasty and colourful. Just coat chicken pieces (I used skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs) in a brown sugar-soy-lime juice sauce and roast until done. Meanwhile, toss red cabbage, carrots, scallions, mint and ginger with a quick dressing. I omitted the carrots and the slaw was still very tasty. I served the chicken and slaw with roasted potatoes. This recipe is perfect for a quick weeknight supper.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

To avoid additives and preservatives in this recipe use tamari instead of soy sauce, which often contains MSG and sodium benzoate. Be sure to use fresh lime juice – concentrates include artificial ingredients.

Dissolve brown sugar in soy sauce and lime juice

Add chicken pieces, turn to coat with sauce and place skin-side down; turn once during cooking

Roast chicken until cooked through

Meanwhile, combine ingredients for red cabbage slaw

Lime and soy-glazed chicken with red cabbage slaw

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

6 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 ½ to 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces

¼ head red cabbage, thinly sliced (4 cups)

2 large carrots, coarsely grated

4 scallions, thinly sliced

½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves

1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

kosher salt and black pepper

Preparation:

Heat oven to 400° F. In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, stir together the sugar, soy sauce, and 3 tablespoons of the lime juice; add the chicken and turn to coat. Roast, skin-side down, until the sauce is simmering, about 10 minutes. Turn the chicken skin-side up and roast, basting occasionally, until cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes more.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss the cabbage, carrots, scallions, and mint with the ginger, canola oil, sesame oil, the remaining 3 tablespoons of lime juice, and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Serve with the chicken. Serves 4.

From the October 2011 issue of Real Simple

This recipe from the February 2008 issue of Bon Appetit features a delicious sauce of shallots, Armagnac, prunes and thyme. Brown the chicken and remove it from the pan, leaving a lovely fond in the bottom. Add the shallots, Armagnac (I used regular brandy, which was fine), stock, prunes and thyme and bring to a boil. Add the chicken back in and simmer until cooked through. Remove the chicken again, stir vinegar into sauce, season and pour the sauce over the chicken. This is a tasty weeknight meal and would also be great for a casual dinner party.

Avoiding additives and preservatives

The items in this recipe that could contain additives and preservatives include the prunes, chicken broth, and sherry wine vinegar. Look for prunes without sulfites added and an additive-free stock such as Imagine brand. Instead of sherry wine vinegar, try a balsamic vinegar containing only naturally occurring sulfites. I use Acetaia La Bonissima Balsamic Vinegar of Modena (Green). It is reasonably priced and imported by Sarafino in Uxbridge. You can find a list of where to buy Sarafino products in Ontario at http://www.sarafino.com/wheretobuy.html

Boil prunes in Armagnac

Brown chicken well on all sides

Brown shallots

Add broth, prunes and thyme sprigs

Return chicken to pan and simmer until cooked

Chicken with Shallots, Prunes and Armagnac

Ingredients:

1 cup large pitted prunes (about 20)

2/3 cup Armagnac or other brandy, divided

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 4-pound cut-up free-range chicken

12 large shallots, peeled

1 ¼ cups organic chicken broth

3 large fresh thyme sprigs plus 1½ teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon Sherry wine vinegar

Preparation:

Boil prunes with 1/3 cup Armagnac in small saucepan until almost all liquid is absorbed, about 3 minutes. Cover and set aside.

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Add to skillet, skin side down; cook until browned, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to plate. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons drippings. Add shallots; cook until browned in spots, about 5 minutes. Add remaining 1/3 cup Armagnac; boil 30 seconds, scraping up browned bits. Add broth, prunes, and thyme sprigs; bring to boil. Add chicken in single layer, skin side up, and any accumulated juices. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 17 minutes. Transfer chicken to plate.

Stir vinegar into sauce; simmer until thickened, 3 minutes. Remove thyme sprigs. Season with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over chicken. Sprinkle with chopped thyme. Serves 4.

From the February 2008 issue of Bon Appetit

If you love spicy food, you’ll love this Sri Lankan Devil’s Chicken from the October 2011 issue of Canadian Living. Drumsticks marinate briefly in salt and turmeric before being browned. The heat comes from a tomato-vinegar-cayenne-garlic sauce, dried hot peppers and fresh hot peppers. I used dried cayenne peppers, fresh cayenne peppers and a habanero, but you could use jalapenos or hot banana peppers if you want to tone down the heat. The recipe calls for curry leaves but I could not find them; the recipe was great without them. Don’t substitute curry powder, as its flavour is much different than that of curry leaves. This recipe is a keeper – spicy and delicious!

To avoid additives and preservatives in this recipe, make sure the vinegar, tomato paste, turmeric and paprika don’t contain colour, sulfites or other artificial ingredients.

Marinate drumsticks in salt and turmeric

Grind dried hot peppers

Chop hot peppers, scallions and add a cinnamon stick

Make tomato-vinegar-cayenne-garlic-paprika sauce

Brown drumsticks well

Saute onions, peppers and spices

Return chicken to pan

Simmer until the chicken is done

Sri Lankan Devil's Chicken

Ingredients:

8 chicken drumsticks

¾ tsp (4 mL) salt

½ tsp (2 mL) turmeric

¼ cup (50 mL) malt vinegar or cider vinegar

4 tsp (18 mL) tomato paste

2 tsp (10 mL) granulated sugar

1 tsp (5 mL) cayenne pepper

1 large clove garlic, minced

½ tsp (2 mL) hot paprika

5 dried red hot pepper

3 tbsp (45 mL) vegetable oil

2 cups (500 mL) chopped onion

3 green onions, cut in large chunks

1 red finger hot pepper, thinly sliced

1 green finger hot pepper, thinly sliced

10 fresh curry leaves

1 cinnamon stick

2 cups (500 mL) chopped tomato

Preparation:

Pat chicken dry. Combine chicken, three-quarters of the salt, and the turmeric; cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Stir together vinegar, tomato paste, sugar, cayenne pepper, garlic, paprika, remaining salt and ¼ cup water. In mortar with pestle, pound dried hot peppers until broken. Set hot peppers and vinegar mixture aside separately.

In wok or large skillet, heat 1 tbsp of the oil over medium heat; brown chicken, in batches if necessary, about 15 minutes. Transfer to plate.

Increase heat to medium-high; add remaining oil to pan. Sauté chopped onion until golden, about 5 minutes. Add pounded hot peppers; stir in green onions, red and green hot peppers, curry leaves and cinnamon; cook until vegetables are softened, about 2 minutes.

Add tomato; return chicken and any accumulated juices to pan. Stir in vinegar mixture; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Uncover and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.

From the October 2011 issue of Canadian Living

I recently purchased a copy of Essential Pépin, Jacques Pépin’s new cookbook. It features more than 700 of his favourite recipes from his 60-year career, updated for today’s cooks. It also includes a three-hour DVD that shows Pépin demonstrating cooking techniques. I have been sampling a few recipes from it (and my friend Allan Stanley just received his copy, so I’m looking forward to hearing what he makes). The best recipe I have made so far is this Lamb Couscous, which is wonderful. It features a delicious harissa sauce, melt-in-your mouth lamb, and fig-studded couscous. It’s a delicious meal to share on a chilly fall night.

I used my own recipe for harissa; it follows the Pépin version. To avoid additives and preservatives in this recipe, make the harissa from scratch and make sure the chickpeas are all-natural (such as President’s Choice Blue Menu brand). Make sure the butter does not contain colour (such as Gay Lea unsalted butter) and that the figs are sulfite-free (I used Aurora brand for this recipe).

Make the spicy harissa from scratch

Simmer the lamb in water and spices

Meanwhile, cut up the vegetables

Add the vegetables to the lamb

Simmer the lamb and vegetables together until they are tender

Stir figs and couscous to coat with butter before adding water

Lamb Cousous

Ingredients:

Harissa

2 ounces dried Ancho chiles (6-8)

5 cups water

8 garlic cloves

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp tomato paste

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

(Ingredients for alternate version:

4 tbsp sweet paprika

2 chipotle in adobo, minced, plus 1 tsp adobo sauce

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 tsp ground cumin

4 tsp ground caraway

4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing)

Stew

1½ lbs very lean boneless lamb, preferably from the shank or shoulder, cut into 1½ inch chunks.

3 cups water

5 garlic cloves

1 piece ginger (about the size of the combined garlic cloves), peeled

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp homemade or store-bought harissa, or to taste

1 large onion, 8 oz., sliced

8 oz. kohlrabi or large white turnips (about 2), peeled and cut into 1½ inch chunks

1 small butternut squash (about 12 oz.), halved, peeled, seeded and cut into 1½ inch chunks

1 small eggplant (about 8 oz.), trimmed and cut into 1½ inch chunks

2 carrots (about 3 oz.), peeled and cut into 1½ inch chunks

1 ripe tomato (about 8 oz.), halved, seeded and cut into 1-inch dice

1 medium zucchini (about 6 oz.), trimmed and cut into 1½ inch chunks

1 16-oz. can chickpeas (don’t discard liquid in can)

Couscous

1¾ cups water

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 2/3 tbsp (1/3 stick) unsalted butter

2 cups instant couscous

4 oz. (about ¾ cup) dried figs, but into ½-inch pieces

Homemade or store-bought harissa for serving

Preparation:

For Harissa

Drop the chiles into a bowl with the water. Set a plate on top to hold the chiles underwater and let them soak for at least 3 hours or overnight. Remove the chiles from the water; reserve ½ cup of the soaking water. Pull out and discard the stems and seeds and cut the chiles into 1-inch pieces. Place some of the chile pieces in a mini-chop or blender with some of the garlic, some of the oil, and a little of the reserved chile-soaking water and process until pureed. Remove to a bowl. Process (in batches if necessary) the remainder of the peppers with the remainder of the garlic, oil, and soaking liquid and combine with the puree in the bowl. Add the tomato paste, salt and cayenne, mix well and put in a jar.

(If making alternate recipe, simply combine all ingredients)

For Stew

Put the lamb in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot and add the water.

Puree the garlic cloves and ginger in a mini-chop or food processor (you should have about ¼ cup) and add to the Dutch oven, along with the cumin, salt, tomato paste and 2 tbsp harissa. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil gently, covered, for 45 minutes.

Add the onion, kohlrabi or turnips, butternut squash, eggplant and carrots, return to aboil, and boil gently for 15 minutes. Add the tomato, zucchini and chickpeas, with their liquid, return to a boil and boil gently for 15 minutes longer. The stew can be made ahead to this point and reheated before serving.

For the Couscous

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan and add the salt and pepper.

Melt the butter in a larger saucepan. Add the couscous and stir until the grains are coated with butter. Stir in the figs, the mix in the seasoned boiling water. Stir well, cover, and set aside for about 10 minutes.

At serving time, reheat the stew if necessary. Pour 1 cup of broth from the hot stew into a serving bowl and add about 3 tbsp harissa (depending on how much heat you want). Stir well and place the harissa on the table so guests can add it to the stew if they wish.

Fluff the couscous and mount it on individual plates. Make a well in the centre of each mound and fill with a few pieces of meat and vegetables and some of the juices. Serves 4.

From Essential Pépin

The October 2011 issue of Real Simple provides recipes for four weeks of easy dinners. Some I wouldn’t want to try (salami and Brussels sprouts pizza – no thank you) but several are very good, including Pork Chops with Roasted Beets and Oranges. Pork chops are quickly pan fried and served with beets and oranges tossed with arugula (three of my favourite things). I cheated a little bit on the prep, in that I thought peeling and cutting up beets before roasting them would be very messy. Instead, I roasted the whole beets earlier in the day, then peeled them, cut them into wedges and kept them in the fridge until dinnertime. I then warmed them through in the microwave; you could also add them to the oranges while they are roasting. I also added a little feta to the salad. Be careful not to overcook the chops, or they will become tough.

Some news I’d like to share – a recent Eye for a Recipe post was included in Bon Appetit’s “What People Are Cooking” blog. You can view it at http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2011/11/lamb-tagine-with-chickpeas-and.html#entry-more

Season pork chops with oregano, thyme, salt and pepper

Toss roasted beets and oranges with arugula; I also added feta cheese

I served the chops and vegetables with roasted mini potatoes

Everything in this recipe is natural, so no need to find additive-free ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 pound beets, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch wedges (to roast whole beets in advance, see directions below)

4 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt and black pepper

2 oranges, cut into large chunks

6 cups baby arugula (5 ounces)

4 bone-in pork chops (1 inch thick; about 2 pounds total)

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Preparation:

To roast whole beets, wrap them individually in foil, place on a baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees for about an hour. Large beets may take longer to cook through. Unwrap beets and insert a sharp knife to ensure they are tender all the way through. When beets are cool enough to handle, rub off skins with a paper towel. Cut peeled beets into wedges and refrigerate until needed.

If cooking the beets according to the recipe, heat oven to 450° F. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the beets with 3 tablespoons of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Roast until beginning to soften, 13 to 15 minutes. Add the oranges to the baking sheet and roast, tossing once, until the beets and oranges are tender, 15 to 17 minutes more (if you have pre-roasted the beets, warm them in the microwave or oven and add at this stage). Add the beets and oranges to the arugula and toss to combine .

Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season the pork with the oregano, thyme, and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper and cook until browned and cooked through, 7 to 9 minutes per side. Serve with the beets and oranges. Serves 4.

From the October 2011 issue of Real Simple