Veronica's Test Kitchen

A feast of kababs!

The hubby and I are the type of people who would drive hours just to eat a certain dish we crave. Years ago, this was Persian kabobs and we would make a day trip up to Tyson’s Corner in the D.C. area to dine in a restaurant called Shamshiry. Then, one Christmas, his sister gave us a cookbook called The New Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij and it was then that we decided to try our hand with the kabab recipes in the book.

We never went back to Shamshiry.

This preparation is the specialty of the “Hungry” Hubby. It’s kind of a signature dish of our household. It’s useless sometimes to prepare something else other than kababs for our guests because the look of disappointment is so evident if the grilled meat dish is not on our menu.

I really wanted to have a picture of a plated kabab dish complete with step-by-step instructions for preparing the rice. Believe it or not, there were two professional photographers at our dinner party - my brother and a family friend. But alas, the aroma of the sizzling meat was too great that the vultures could not wait to descend.

Fillet Kabab

Kabab-e barg

 

  2        lb              tenderloin                        

  1        large              onion; peeled,sliced

  2        tsp              olive oil                         

  1        tsp              black pepper; ground

  2        tbs              lime juice (fresh)                

  2        tsp              Salt                              

  1/4     tsp              saffron; ground,dissolved in water

  1/4     cup                    yoghurt                           

8 roma tomatoes

Basting

 

  2        tbs                      Butter                            

  2        small                 lime juice (fresh)                

  1/2     tsp                      Salt                              

  1        tsp                    black pepper; ground

Cut meat into 3 by 4 by ¼ inch pieces and place in a large glass or Pyrex dish with cover. Add onion, olive oil, pepper, lime juice, salt, saffron water (if desired) and yoghurt to the meat. Mix well. Cover the meat and marinate for at least 24 hours. Turn the meat in the marinade twice during this period.

Thread each piece of meat onto the flat, sword-like skewer, leaving a few inches free on both ends. Spear the tomatoes on separate skewers.

For basting, combine oil, the juice of 2 limes, and salt and pepper in a small saucepan. Keep warm.

When the grill is hot, brush the tomatoes and meat lightly with the baste. Place the tomatoes on the grill first, then place the skewered meat on the grill. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes on each side, turning the skewers frequently. The meat should be seared on the outside, pink and juicy on the inside.

Serve with chelow ( saffron steamed rice) and garnish with tomatoes. Sprinkle sumac powder if desired.

Ground Meat kabab

Kabab-e kubideh

  2        lb              ground beef; twice ground

  2        tsp              Salt                              

  1        tsp              ground pepper                     

  1/2     tsp              baking soda                        

  1        large              onion; peeled,finely grated

Basting                           

  2        tbs              Butter; melted

  1/2     tsp              lime juice (fresh)

12 flat 1-inch skewers

sumac for garnish

In a warm mixing bowl, combine meat and the rest of the kabob ingredients. Knead with your hands for about 5 minutes to form a paste that will adhere well to cooking skewers. Cover the paste and let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Using damp hands, divide the meat paste into 12 equal lumps about the size of oranges. Roll each into a sausage shape 5 inches long and mold it firmly around a flat, sword-like skewer. Cover and keep on a cool place.

For the baste, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add a pinch of salt and lime juice.

Arrange the skewers on a hot grill, keeping in mind that the ground meat should not touch the grill. After a few seconds, turn the meat gently to help it attach to the skewers and prevent it from falling off.

Grill the meat 3 to 5 minutes on each side, and brush with baste just before removing from the grill. Avoid overcooking it. The meat should be seared on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside.

Slide the meat off the skewer and sprinkle with sumac. Serve with chelow (saffron steamed rice).

Yoghurt-cucumber garnish

Mast-o-kiar

1 pint of yoghurt

salt pepper to taste

1 tbs dried mint

1 tsp dried tarragon

½tsp dried rosemarr

1 cucumber, skinned and diced into small

Crush the dried herbs in your hand and mix together. Add the yoghurt and the cucumber, salt and pepper.

Cooking Notes:

            Eating notes. Let me just describe how this is eaten. Make a mound of rice on your plate and carve a well in the middle. Drop a piece of butter, cover with the rice and let the butter melt. Sprinkle with sumac if desired. Traditionally a raw egg yolk is thrown into the mix but we stopped doing this. Get a piece of grilled tomato, sprinkle with sumac, salt and pepper and mash it down a little.  Add the kabobs and enjoy!

            We make our rice with a crispy crust called tah-dig. The crust is great to enjoy with the yogurt mixture.

The Fillet kabob is pretty straightforward to make like any shish-kebab. The book suggests sirloin but we find that tenderloin from Costco tastes the best. There is no need to get prime cuts for this because it is going to be marinated.

The ground meat kabab on the other hand has a significant degree of difficulty to prepare. This is my favorite kabab. Use ground meat that has fat in it – don’t even think of using those 97% fat -free type, 80% is pretty good. If you master the method of preparing this you shall be revered by your friends as a kabab master. The meat should not be too cold when you mount them on the skewer. Have a bowl of water beside you to dip your hands in to prevent the meat from sticking them. Gently shape the ball of ground meat along the length of the skewer. Make sure that it is spread evenly so it will cook properly. As if skewering this is not hard enough, grilling it is just as tricky. This is normally done with no grates on the grill. But we chose a grill that will let us lay the skewer without the meat touching the grate too much. Timing in turning the ground meat kabob is essential because you do not want one side to cook too much that it will detach from the skewer. We do get some casualties from time to time , but our guests love this fallen kababs as impromptu appetizers.

With the weather getting warmer, I can’t wait for the next round of kababs!

* the sword-like skewers are available in Iranian/Persian stores.

Look Honey - no tomato sauce

To be honest, I am not that familiar with Italian cooking as I am with French. For some reason whenever the “Hungry” Hubby talks about pasta I always think marinara, alfredo or butter and garlic sauce. After taking the French Cuisine Boot camp at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) last year, we have wanted to take an immersion course in Italian cooking – maybe a culinary tour to Italy is in order. Until then, we decided to learn from the pre-eminent teacher of old-school Italian cooking, Giuliano Bugialli.

Giuliano was teaching a three-day Italian cooking class at Tante Marie – we were signed up for the first two. He was a slender, short man with a raspy voice and looked like he was in his seventies. I wonder how well he could hold the attention of a crowd of 35 chatty people. All doubts about his teaching abilities were dispelled once he took center stage. The man was a born teacher. In between dishes, he would pepper some humor in his lessons like the story of a person who called him after reading one of his books:

     “ Mr. Bugialli your pasta recipe is delicious but I found it was quite difficult to incorporate the eggs into the flour.” Apparently when the recipe said whole eggs, the guy included the shells.

Or the time when a student of his went home to try one of his techniques to repair a broken sauce and called him later:

    “Giulliano, the cold cream worked perfectly to pull the broken sauce together, texture is great but what do you do about the taste?” The student used Ponds cold cream.

     Whether his stories were true or tall tales, they managed to get the class engaged. He would also taunt us repeatedly about his use of salt.

            “Why you Americans so afraid of salt”, he says as he scoops up a palmful and throws it into his sputtering leek sauce.

What really impressed me about Bugialli is his ease at making pasta – he is literally poetry in motion as he handles the pasta dough. As he stretches and twirls it in the air - he makes it look so easy and encouraging for one to dust off the pasta roller that has been sitting unused in one's pantry.

      Just look how long he stretched the pasta without breaking at the thinnest setting for the roller – isn’t it amazing?

            The recipe I have below assumes a knowledge of how to make pasta from scratch – as the recipe does not go into the details of this. I must say when I saw this dish being assembled I told HH that it did not look appetizing – all those leeks. But after my first bite – I quickly finished my plate and went back for more. The sauce was there to highlight the pasta - it is not the main star – you savor the tacconi and the nuances of leeks in its entirety and the leaves of fresh basil is a must. I have not made this recipe myself – yet.

            I will never look at dried pasta the same again.

Tacconi o Maccheroni ai Porri

Tacconi with Leeks by Giulliano Bugialli

For the sauce:

6 large leeks, all the green part removed and the white part sliced into thin rings, left soaking in a bowl of cold water

4 tbs (2 ounces) unsalted butter

4 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

About 2 cups completely defatted chicken broth, preferably homemade

For the pasta:

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

4 extra-large eggs

3 extra-large yolks

A pinch of salt

To cook the pasta:

4 quarts of completely defatted chicken broth, preferably homemade, coarse grained salt if needed

To serve:

4 tbs (2 ounces) unsalted butter if needed

15 springs Italian parsley, leaves only, finely chopped

Whole leaves of fresh basil

Abundant fresh basil

Prepare the sauce:

Heat the butter and the oil in a large casserole over medium heat. When the butter is melted, drain the leeks, add them to casserole and season with salt and pepper. Saute leeks for about 15 minutes, stirring every so often with a wooden spoon. Cover casserole and cook for about 40 minutes stirring every so often and adding broth as needed. By that time leeks should be very soft and a rather thick but smooth sauce formed.

Prepare the pasta with the ingredients and quantities listed above, but let the dough rest, wrapped in a cotton dish towel for 20 minutes. Stretch the layer of pasta to a thickness of less than 1/16 of an inch; on the pasta machine take it to the last notch. Use a pastry wheel to cut the layer of pasta into 2-inch squares and let them rest on cotton towels until needed.

Bring a large pot with the broth to a boil, add salt if needed, then the pasta and cook it from 1 to 3 minutes, depending on its dryness. Drain the pasta and add it to casserole containing the leek sauce, still over low heat. Mix very well and add the butter if needed. Sprinkle the parsley over and mix again. Transfer contents of casserole to a large warmed serving platter, sprinkle the cheese over and serve hot, with a few leaves of fresh basil over each serving.

And here's a picture of Giuliano, Mary Risley (Tante Marie owner) and HH.

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And the rest of my Cupcake tasting in San Francisco :

Citizen Cake

Verdict: I was really disappointed after all the hype surrounding Elizabeth Falkner’s book. The chocolate cupcake was dry and the frosting was typical- at $3.50 I expected more. The chocolate-mousse devil cake was unimpressive either.

Miette

Verdict: By this time my tastebuds were rebelling against chocolate and I wanted something lighter. This yellow-butter cupcake was good but nothing extraordinary – it was very pretty though. The light chocolate frosting was better than Kara’s cupcake.

That Takes the Cake

What I want to bring to attention is this little shop that just opened (according to our friends in San Francisco) in the Cow Hollow district. We were on our way home when our friend suggested one last stop – by this time I was near a sugar coma. It was just a few blocks from his house so he dropped me off so I can do my investigation. It was a very cute store with a few tables – a lot of cupcakes to choose from but I chose 4 minis, two flavors - Chocolate peanut butter cups and banana cupcake.

Verdict: After dinner, I was ready for some sweet tasting. The Chocolate PB cups were devoured before I could have a taste but my friend said that it was delicious. I had a bite of the banana cupcake expecting nothing special but I was pleasantly surprised at how fresh and light it tasted. Great cupcakes, finally!

A Return to Cooking

A bouillabaisse is a traditional French seafood stew, so I know a lot of purists are going to go up in arms when I call this dish chicken bouillabaisse. But why am I so brave in declaring this so - because this dish is from a well respected chef: Judy Rodgers and it is in her book, my perennial favorite: The Zuni Cafe cookbook. So I dare any of you to slam this, now. *wink*wink*. And seriously, people if you don’t have to this book on your bookshelf yet…get it now. Seriously.

(sorry, I’m in Grey’s Anatomy withdrawal , I just had to let it out)

I have made this dish countless of times before but this past winter my feet seemed to have gotten so entangled with that of the macaron's that savory dishes are almost a rarity in the kitchen these days. It’s not that I’m not inspired, there are a lot of dishes I want to try but most of them take time (i.e. I still need to finalize my recipe for duck confit) and some of them does not look pretty at all plated (like the delicious Katsudon – I really need to make this again but if you all can’t wait for the recipe, I got it here).

This bouillabaisse is not hard to make at all. Don’t sweat it if you did not exactly measure ¼ cup of dry wine or 8 oz of yellow onion. Most of these are just guidelines and everything could be adjusted according to taste.

Now the aïoli was a different matter. I tried it twice and failed miserably – meanwhile my French bread was screaming at me to take a look at it so I finally had to ask the “Hungry” Hubby to whip the garlic mayonnaise into submission.

Chicken Bouillabaisse

From Judy Rodger’s Zuni Cafe

• 4 chicken legs (about 8 ounces each) or a 3-pound chicken, back removed and quartered
• 8 oz. sliced yellow onion ( 2 cups, about 1 medium onion)
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt
• 1 bay leaf
• A sprig of thyme
• 1 small dried chili
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• ¼ cup coarsely chopped drained canned tomatoes or 1/3 cup chopped, peeled, ripe tomatoes
• Pinch of saffron threads
• 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 4 small slices chewy peasant-style bread, about ½ inch thick
• About ½ cup aïoli (recipe to follow) or 1 garlic clove peeled

Season the chicken 12 to 24 hours in advance:

            Trim the excess fat, then season the chicken evenly all over with salt (we use ¾ teaspoon sea salt per pound of chicken). Cover loosely and refrigerate.

            Combine the onions with the oil and a few pinches of salt in a 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently so they do not color, until the onions are nutty-tender and translucent and have fallen to half their former mass, about 5 minutes.

            Add the bay leaf, thyme, and chili, breaking the pod in half if you want the bouillabaisse to be a little spicier. Add the white wine and boil for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, saffron, garlic, and chicken stock and bring to a simmer.

            Add the 4 or 2 chicken legs and bring back to a simmer. Skim any foam. Adjust the heat to maintain a quiet simmer and cook uncovered for about 1 hour, stirring once or twice. If using cut-up chicken, add the breasts after about 30 minutes of cooking time. The chicken should be quite tender, but not falling off the bone.

            Meanwhile, grill or toast the bread. Spread each warm slice with about 1 tablespoon of aïoli, if using, and place in a warm bowl.

            Lightly skim the surface of the bouillabaisse, then raise the heat and boil vigorously for 1 minute. Place a piece of chicken on each toast and moisten with the golden, oniony broth. Offer remaining aïoli as garnish.

Aïoli

Makes a generous ½ cup:

• 1 or 2 small garlic cloves, peeled
• A few pinches of salt
• 1 egg yolk
• About ½ cup mild-tasting olive oil

Cut the garlic into a few pieces and then pound them in a mortar. Add the salt. It should act as an abrasive and help you smash the last solid bits of garlic. Add the yolk and stir with the pestle to amalgamate. Still using the pestle, work in the oil, a cautious trickle or a few drops at first, gradually increasing the flow as the yolk becomes tacky and opaque. As the yolk reaches saturation, the mixture will make a satisfying clucking sound.

If you add a few drops of water to the Aïoli, it will whiten and soften, allowing you to add more oil, which you may choose to do so if you find the garlic remains too aggressive with only ½ cup of oil. (1/2 teaspoon water will bind an additional ½ cup oil.)

Cooking Notes:

            As I’ve said the bouillabaisse is very easy to make just make sure to season the chicken ahead of time so the flavor migrates all the way to the bone. I added more than a pinch of saffron though. Unlike the recipe I always thought saffron should be added only in the last 10 minutes of cooking. So I added some in the beginning and more at the end until I acquired the lovely golden color of saffron.

            I have no picture of the aïoli. Even HH had a problem with it, we had to rescue it by starting another batch with another yolk and working in the broken one with the hand mixer since both our hands and arms got tired – as memories of the past aïoli-making come back to haunt us. The emulsion was not perfect, more like oily mayonnaise but again – it tasted phenomenal.

            Because the French bread was freshly baked, we did not toast it at all. We merely smeared the crusty bread with the mayonnaise and dipped it in the saffron broth.

            The HH and I agreed that this meal was very satisfying not only for our bellies but for our soul. Everything was homemade – though not perfect – each bite almost seemed like an affirmation of our love for food …and for each other.

A New Fish in Town

Ever get tired of eating the same old salmon, tilapia or sea bass? Well maybe not. How about the news that mercury is in most of our fish that tends to shadow the good healthy Omega 3’s found in them?

Enter Kona Kampachi - a type of yellowtail fish raised in the immaculate waters of the Big Island of Hawaii.  Here they are reared with no growth hormones and in a sustainable environmentally sound aqua culture. The fish is touted as having no detectable levels of mercury and is high in Omega 3’s. But does it taste good?

I was recently offered to try Kona Kampachi. The fish arrived well packaged and on ice. The first thing I observed upon unpacking it was that there was no discernible fishy smell - a sign that it was very fresh. It was caught fresh earlier in the week and was processed immediately for shipment. The filets do have bones in them so the “Hungry” Hubby had to find and pick them out.

The HH and I decided to just pan-fry one fillet. It was quite huge and enough to feed 3 people. We wanted to taste the essence of the fish and decided that all the seasoning it needed was salt and pepper. In handling the fish, it was obvious that it was as fatty as a salmon could be. But again, does it taste good?

You bet it does! I have never quite tasted a fish like it. The flesh was rich as a salmon’s but it had the flavor of a white fish much like a red snapper or a tilapia but sweeter and meatier. And the fish had a layer of fat in the belly area that you usually do not get in Supermarket fillets. This is where the most satisfying part of eating the fish comes from and I suspect where levels of Omega 3s are the highest.

A fish this good does come with a price but looking at the whole picture it is not more expensive than a Chilean Sea bass that you would get from a reputable Seafood market. The other added but significant cost would be the shipping that could be more than the price of the fish.  They are harvested every Sunday for delivery during the week to ensure freshness.

As much as I love Kona Kampachi, I must say I would save this for special occasions. But if I do see it on the a restaurant menu, I will not hesitate to order it.

A soup called Bak Kut Teh!

The mercury dipped significantly in the past few days and soon we’ll be seeing temperature below 30 F in Virginia. Days like this make you want to just cozy up at home and eat something brothy and hot. I knew exactly what I wanted – Bak Kut Teh - that legendary concoction served at hawker stalls in Penang, Malaysia. It is traditionally made with spareribs, tofu skins, dried shitake mushrooms, bulbs of garlic and an herb packet that will flavor and tinge the broth in a rich dark brown color.

I have never tasted this soup before. But one look at Chubby Hubby’s blog late last year had me obsessing about this pork bone soup for over a year now. Yes, it’s one of those dishes. A dish that you have never tasted but having seen it in a perfectly composed photograph and reading an accompanying ode to it - you are forever bonded to the promise of a soul-satisfying soup.

Hope came through the lovely Bee -she has the recipe on her delicious blog, Rasa Malaysia. There was one problem- a spice packet of Bak Kut Teh herbs was required and it was not a simple one that you can go to your local supermarket to put together. But the food blog world is very helpful and Bee offered to get me a couple of Bak Kut Teh herb packets next time she visits Penang.

Early November, I got a message from Bee that she was back and she had my Bak kut teh packets! To say that I was thrilled was an understatement when the package had arrived. As I opened the box, the scent of licorice immediately hit me and I raised one bag to my nose to further inhale this familiar smell that I have missed so much from my growing up years.

And then the sight of goji berries, also known as wolfberries, transported me back to my childhood days when my dad always made what he called “beef muscle meat soup with 7 herbs.”  One of the 7 herbs/spice was the goji berry. I was prone to the usual cold weather health problems and the soup had medicinal properties that would improve stamina and resistance against the chilly season. My dad would seat me down at the table and made sure I finished my soup without cheating (I think one time I ran into the kitchen and dumped everything in the garbage when I thought no one was looking).

“ You don’t have to eat the meat, just drink the soup.” He would say. The soup did not taste bad at all; it was just that when I was a child all I wanted was fried food.

Hmm…I wonder if Bak Kut Teh have health properties too? 

The ingredients of the herb packet are in their Chinese name so I will list them as is:

• Kui Chee Phean
• Chuan Xiong
• Gan Cao
• Qi Zi
• Shu Di
• Tong Wei Phan
• Dang Shen
• Yok Kui

This pot of hearty goodness is so easy to put together. You basically throw everything into the pot – the herbs go into an herb pouch or I guess you can fashion one with cheese cloth- cover the ingredients with water about 4 to 5 cups, bring to a boil and then simmer for about 2 hours. At first I was tempted to put a lot of soy and salt in it but then I remembered that this was supposed to be a soup. So I tasted it again, and that’s when I discerned the subtle flavors of the herbs/spices. After the seasoning of salt, soy, oyster sauce and white pepper I let the pot simmer for another 20 minutes.

Dinnertime could not have come sooner. I eagerly ladled the soup, some mushrooms and falling-off-the-bone pork ribs on my awaiting plate of steaming white rice. After that first bite, I understood right away why this dish is the stuff of hawker legends. The broth is infused with a flavor that is not overpowering but so addictive – slurping is definitely required. The pork ribs in the meantime have been transformed into quite the guilty pleasure of fat and fork-tender meat. I did find that a little dab of fish sauce here and there threw this dish further over the top delicious!

Can you all tell I am still in awe of what I had just eaten?

The only ingredient that was missing was the tofu puffs. I was not able to make a trip to the Asian supermarket and tried to make do with baking some extra-firm tofu – uh that didn’t turn out so well. I did not fry them because the last time I tried that I ended up with a lot of oil splatter on the wall that did not please the “Hungry” Hubby at all.

I’ll be sure to include that the next time I make Bak Kut Teh, which will be in two weeks. I think I’ll also add some bean curd sheets, I think they will go very well with the meat bone soup.

For those of you that have the Bak Kut Teh herbs available in your area, the recipe and a wonderful collage of the ingredients are on Bee’s blog.

And Bee, I know you just got back, but I hope next year, before winter you will make a trip again to Penang, for I know I will be running out of my stash of Bak kut teh herbs by then.

J