January 14th

January 14th

I’ve been on the hot and spicy kick and kept it going this evening. We’re lucky to have an amazing Asian grocery nearby and they generally have very good produce. I was there yesterday looking for collard greens for the Ethiopian food I was cooking (which unfortunately they didn’t have) but I did get some baby bok choy, which I like. Most supermarkets have larger bok choy but the baby ones here are always very small, fresh and sweet.

I’m not great at cooking Chinese but I do better than I used to. The biggest problem I used to make was using too many things and muddying up the flavors. I’ve been much more successful at using less ingredients and less flavors and then letting those come through. I opted to make beef and bok choy and wasn’t looking for a particular recipe. I always marinate the meat in soy, sesame oil, Shaoxing rice wine, and conrstarch, and occasionally throw in ginger, although tonight I didn’t. The basic sauce was chile bean paste, ginger, garlic, soy, and a dash of black vinegar.

There are a couple of keys to stir frying. First, get everything prepped. Once you start cooking there’s no time to stop and prep items. Next, use high heat and don’t crowd the pan. I’m a big fan of flat bottom stir fired pans as opposed to traditional round bottom woks. I have a carbon steal one and a non-stick although I seem to go through the non-stick ones in about two years, because the coating doesn’t last well on super high heat. (I buy a couple when I see them on sale because I know I’ll need them).

I cook the meat first, and in batches so it gets a chance to brown and doesn’t stew. If you cook the meat first, don’t cook it all the way through. Use the hottest pan you can to get good color and minimize the amount of time required in the pan. Also, make sure you drain the marinade before you cook it because otherwise the meat will steam in the pan. Once the meet is done, add the vegetables. If you’re doing multiple types, throw in the ones that require longer cooking first. It’s also best to cut things to sizes where they cook in a few minutes. When the vegetables are done, I move them to the side, add the sauce ingredients toss it and then add the meat back in. If you thicken it with cornstarch, throw it in now. Sprinkle some chopped scallions on it, toss it all again and serve it right away with rice.

The dish was moderately spicy but not incendiary. I had a pint of stout with it because the stout has good malt flavors to cut through the spices. The stout is a little drier than I like with spicy food, but still good and low enough alcohol that you can drink a good amount of it. (Hot spices seem to accentuate alcohol flavors in some beers, particularly in lighter bodied beers). Besides I need to drink the stout up since it’s not a long lived style and we’re brewing more porter this weekend. (OK, I know porter and stout aren’t the same, but I don’t drink enough of either one to require one of each on draft at home).

Quick pasta for a weeknight

I had a bad day at work today. Not incredibly bad, but nothing really went right and I ended up going in early and leaving a little late. Still, I wanted a real meal when I got home but I didn’t feel like doing a lot of cooking. Also, I’ve been getting small amounts of grief from one of the maybe six people who read this blog. The complaint was that I don’t write enough entries and there was a mild implication that maybe I skip a lot of nights because I don’t cook something “real” every night, so here’s an example of what I cook when I’m busy but need to eat.

There are a whole variety of pastas that I can make by the time the water boils and the pasta is done. Tonight’s is one of my favorites: pancetta, garlic and a pinch of dried red chile tossed with spaghetti with a sprinkle of parmesan on top. I make my own pancetta, which is actually incredibly easy to do, roughly following Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s recipe form Charcuterie. I don’t bother with the drying. I cure it for about 7-10 days and then cut it into pieces and freeze it. Even with this shortcut method, it’s considerably better than any pancetta you can buy, unless you buy from a real butcher who makes it properly.

So if you have the pancetta, it’s simple. First bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. Next, cube the pancetta (I use about 2-3 ounces for two servings) and then brown it in a pan over medium heat to cook it and render the fat. I normally pour the pork fat off and replace it with olive oil. But that’s dependant on your cholesterol and how much you want to infuriate your doctor. Throw in 3-5 cloves of minced garlic and brown it. Throw in a little crushed, dried red chile and turn the pan off. Cook the pasta, and save about 3-4 oz of the cooking water when you drain it. Toss the pasta and the pancetta and garlic mixture. Add some pasta water to make it all slick and easy to blend. Season it with salt, if it needs it, and some fresh black pepper. Add some parsley if you have it, but tonight I didn’t bother. Dish it out and sprinkle some freshly grated parmesan. Done. Takes about 15-20 minutes and most of that is waiting for the pasta.

Need a vegetable? Have a salad on the side, or do what we did tonight. Have a good piece of fruit for dessert. We had a tiny amount of the Stilton from last Friday left over so we sliced another two pears and divided the cheese. It’s a great dessert and you can’t beat how easy it is.

What to drink with it? Well frankly, whatever you have that won’t get in the way. Simple is the way to go. Tonight I chose a homebrewed dry Irish stout. Stout is very misunderstood. Most traditional stouts, like Guinness and Beamish, are actually fairly low in alcohol. The roast barley gives it a big flavor but many people confuse that with big alcohol. Dry stout is an incredibly food friendly beer. Stout and pasta may not seem ideal, but it was a hectic day, a quick dinner and frankly, it was a fine match. The dry roast quality of the stout cut through the fattiness of the pancetta and cheese and was malty enough for the garlic and chile. Simple easy and dinner was ready in less than 20 minutes. I even had time to start curing another piece of pork belly for more pancetta while it was cooking. Beat that. Cooking a real meal doesn’t have to be hard and it sure beats using a jar of insipid tomato sauce.