Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Pasta with Buffalo Sauce

When I made the buffalo empanaditas for our Fourth of July celebration I found myself with quite a bit of excess filling. I could have made more dough and made more empanaditas, but that would have been a pain. I also didn't have time to do that. I decided to do something a little different with it: turn it into a pasta sauce and eat it later in the week. As sauces go, this one was okay. It could have been a little spicier, but of course I'd been making this for a large crowd of people who may or may not tolerate heat well. Still, it used up the leftovers and avoided food waste, so in that respect I'd call it a success. My husband was also very fond of this dish, so I guess it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

Pasta with Buffalo Sauce (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available)

3 cups leftover filling from Buffalo Empanaditas

2 cups tomato juice

12 ounces whole-wheat pasta, cooked according to package instructions.

Equipment:

• Medium saucepan

1. Combine the empanadita filling and the tomato juice in the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Reduce the juice until the color and consistency are just right – I didn't want mine to be too liquid.
3. Top the pasta with the sauce and serve.

Recipe: Bok Choy Wraps

Recipe Source: Smith, Fiona. Dim Sum. Ryland Peters & Small, London, 2001 p. 39

I have to admit that I really, really hesitated before selecting this recipe for our Fourth of July party. When I sat down and looked at it the finished product seemed to essentially be stuffed cabbage, which was the particular bane of my existence as a child. Still, I needed a recipe that could be eaten as finger food, that tasted good, that involved a vegetable in some way, so this was the way to go. I was also trying to come up with something that was gluten-free, as my friend's daughter was recently diagnosed with celiac disease, but as it turns out hoisin sauce is not a gluten-free product. (It's probably just as well, since this toddler firmly declines to eat anything green anyway.)

I did make a few changes. I doubled the recipe because we were expecting a very full house. I used ground turkey in place of ground chicken because I strongly prefer turkey. I had apparently run out of five spice powder – who knew? – and so had to improvise. I increased the amount of ginger and garlic. While I used Serrano chilies for the green chilies, I did not increase the amount in keeping with the doubled recipe. We were having some guests who really don't tolerate heat well and I didn't want to churn out something they couldn't eat.

Bok Choy Wraps (makes about 48; approx. $0.97/ea)

1 cup basmati rice

2 pounds (approx.) bok choy leaves

24 ounces ground turkey (I like dark meat for ground turkey)

7 garlic cloves, crushed

3 ounces minced fresh ginger

2 Serrano chilies, finely chopped

1 teaspoon ground fennel

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground coriander

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 6-oz cans water chestnuts, finely chopped (who are we kidding, I threw them into the mini-prep, but if you have the time to do it this way then go for it.)

Equipment:

• Steamer
• Large saucepan
• Medium saucepan
• Mixing bowl

1. Boil the rice in water 10 minutes, then drain.
2. Fill the large saucepan with water and bring to a boil.
3. Blanch the bok choy leaves, then refresh under cold water.
4. Combine the remaining ingredients in the bowl and mix well.
5. Put 1 tablespoon filling in the center of each leaf and roll up. Place the cylinders in the steamer basket, seam side down.
6. Steam over boiling water 10 minutes, then serve. This can be made ahead of time and re-heated.

Recipe: Pomegranate Lamb Kebabs

Recipe Source: Cramer, Marc. Imperial Mongolian Cooking. Hippocrene Books, New York, 2003 p. 115

Anyone who knows me knows that pomegranate is probably my favorite fruit. I love pomegranate and everything flavored with it. I was trying to think of a recipe for one Sunday open house and came across this one. It included pomegranate flavor, which was key. It also involved lamb, my favorite meat. It could be started ahead of time (in fact, it had to be started ahead of time) and finished quickly just at serving time. Finally, I was able to re-use a plum sauce I made last year that was really, really tasty.

This recipe made a lot more meat than I had skewers. This was not a major problem. A friend of ours was having a barbeque a couple of nights later – more of an "eat-the-leftovers" kind of deal than anything formal. The lamb was still good, so we brought it. Nothing was harmed by spending an extra couple of nights in the marinade.

I did make a few changes to the recipe. The most significant change I made was adding a half cup of pomegranate molasses to the marinade. I did this because I felt that the pomegranate juice I could get my hands on was too sweet and didn't give enough sourness to the dish. I also increased the amount of garlic and doubled the recipe.

Pomegranate Lamb Kebabs with Tkmeli (serves 8 with some leftovers; approx. $3.42/serving)

4 cups pomegranate juice

½ cup pomegranate molasses

½ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 bay leaf, crumpled

4 garlic cloves, crushed

4 pounds leg of lamb, cut into cubes

2 large eggplant, cubed

1 recipe Georgian Plum Sauce

Equipment:

• Skewers
• Big Green Egg or other grill. You could probably cook these under the broiler in your kitchen if you had to, or in a grill pan.
• Colander
• Zip-top plastic bags
• Bowl

1. Combine the pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses, olive oil, kosher salt, bay leaf and garlic cloves in the bowl and mix well.
2. Put the lamb cubes in a zip-top plastic bag and pour the marinade over them. Refrigerate overnight, turning when you think about it.
3. About half an hour before you cook, salt the eggplant and put it in a colander. After half an hour, rinse off the brown juices.
4. Thread the meat and eggplant alternating on skewers.
5. Grill over medium-high direct heat.
6. Serve with the plum sauce.

Recipe: Beef Bārida (“Meat Crackers”)

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 pp 215-6

I was really kind of leery of this recipe at first. I made it mostly because I wanted to serve a beef bārida for my July class and I figured I should probably test it. This one required ingredients I already had on hand and looked relatively uncomplicated. I was kind of leery of the instruction to "cook the meat in water," which suggested boiling to me. It yielded a piece of meat that was a frankly unappetizing color and had a kind of solid texture. I thought, "Ick." Still, I had to test it out before I could talk about it in class and so out it went.

I'd expected the reaction from my test diners to be lukewarm at best. On the contrary, it was so well received that I had to sneak a piece for myself. The result was the same when I served it during the class in July. People loved this! It was easily the most popular of the four dishes I brought for people to try. Again, this dish is meant to be served cold or at room temperature, so it makes a great picnic or buffet dish.

Meat Crackers (serves about 12 as an appetizer or hors d'oeuvre; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 pounds beef brisket

20 walnuts

2 sprigs rosemary

Pinch of salt

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup olive oil

4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

Various herbs, to taste

Equipment:

• Mini-prep food processor

1. Put the beef in a large saucepan and boil until the internal temperature reaches 180. Remove it from the heat, let it cool and slice it into small rectangles.
2. Meanwhile, grind the walnuts, rosemary and salt together with about a tablespoon of vinegar in a mini-prep food processor. Transfer to a bowl and add the soy sauce and olive oil.
3. Transfer to a platter. Sauce with the sauce, garnish with the egg quarters and sprinkle with the herbs.

Recipe: Buffalo Empanaditas

Recipe Source: Stewart, Martha. Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook. Clarkson Potter, New York, 1999 p. 295

I made this recipe for our annual Fourth of July party, which does not take place on the Fourth. The town of Braintree holds a big Fourth of July celebration the Saturday before the Fourth of July, or before Fourth of July Weekend if the Fourth is on a weekend. The fireworks go off over Sunset Lake and all the families who live near by the lake have parties. This year the celebration happened to fall on our sixth wedding anniversary. We told people that the fireworks were for us. I'm not sure how many believed us.

Anyway, these use the exact same dough as the Escarole and Cheese Empanaditas I'd made a few weeks before. The thing is, the filling yield from this recipe was far too generous to fill all the dough. We saved it and ate it over pasta; I'll post that on a later date. I made a few changes. The biggest change is that I substituted ground buffalo for ground sirloin. It wasn't much more expensive and it looked better. I used canned tomatoes, changed the proportions of the spices, and omitted the pine nuts and dried cherries. I omitted the pine nuts because I couldn't find any (I used walnuts instead), and I omitted the dried cherries because I like neither cherries nor dried fruit.

Buffalo Empanaditas (makes 36; approx. $0.46/serving)

1 recipe empanadita dough from Escarole and Cheese Empanaditas

¼ cup chopped, toasted walnuts

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, minced

2 tablespoons minced ginger

1 pound ground buffalo

7 ounces diced fire-roasted tomatoes

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

1 1/3 cups tomato juice

1 bay leaf

Kosher salt and ground cubeb to taste

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

Equipment:

• Large sauté pan
• Baking sheets
• Small bowl
• Pastry brush

1. Preheat your oven to 375 ̊
2. Heat the oil in the sauté pan.
3. Add the onions and ginger. Cook until the onions are soft.
4. Add the meat. Cook about 2 minutes, breaking up the clumps with a wooden spoon as you stir.
5. Add the tomatoes, spices and bay leaf. Cook until the beef is cooked through, stirring frequently.
6. Add the tomato juice and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat and simmer 12 minutes.
7. Add the walnuts.
8. Roll out your empanadita dough per the recipe referred to above.
9. Fill and seal the empanaditas.
10. Make an egg wash with the egg and milk in the small bowl. Brush the empanaditas with the wash.
11. Bake 15 – 20 minutes. Serve.

Recipe: Turkey Ragout with Red Peppers and Lemon

Recipe Source: Goldstein, Joyce. Taverna. Sunset Books, Menlo Park, 1996 p. 108

I made this for the Sunday dinner that we served the day after our Fourth of July party. It needed to be something that would keep well, because I was not going to have time on Saturday to cook for Sunday and Sunday was going to be spent excavating from Saturday. (Two parties in as many days is possibly a little much.) I chose this because it looked like it fit that bill, and it looked like a great summer dish in its own right.

I did make a few changes. The biggest change was turkey for pork. The original called for pork, but I can no longer eat pork. I don't try to stop other people from eating pork, but I refuse to serve anything I can't eat. How else do I know if it turned out right? Anyway, I used ground cumin for the cumin seeds, reduced the amount of oil called for, used olive oil instead of lard (!) and used Lemony Vegetable Broth for the broth. The dish went over very well. My friend tasted it the day I made it. She dislikes cooked red peppers and yet she really liked this dish.

Turkey Ragout with Red Peppers and Lemon (serves 6; approx. $3.19/serving)

3 tablespoons ground cumin

5 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

2 pounds turkey tenderloins, cut into 1" cubes

4 tablespoons olive oil

4 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into ½" strips

¾ cup dry white wine

¾ cup Lemony Vegetable Broth

1 lemon, sliced as thin as you can get it

Equipment:

• Large sauté pan
• Zip-top plastic bag
• Mini-prep food processor

1. Combine the cumin, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika in the mini-prep. Process to a paste.
2. Rub the turkey cubes with the paste, then place in the zip-top plastic bag and let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
3. Bring the meat to room temperature.
4. Heat the oil over high heat.
5. Add the turkey and brown quickly on all sides. Use a slotted spoon to evacuate the turkey. Work in batches if you need to.
6. Add the pepper strips to the pan. Cook until softened.
7. Add the wine and broth. Deglaze the pan and return the meat and peppers to the pan.
8. Add the lemon slices and bring to a boil.
9. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 25 minutes.
10. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Recipe: Rabbit Barida

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, Ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 p. 214

This past July I had the opportunity to teach a class on cold dishes from the medieval Arab world at a gathering of medieval history enthusiasts up in Maine. The class went very smoothly, much better than I had imagined. (If you're reading this and you were in the class, thank you for making it such a pleasant experience.) I liked the idea of teaching this class because it gave me an opportunity to cook from my favorite cookbook in the whole wide world, medieval or modern. I served some samples in the class; this was one of them. I've also served it at one of our Sunday open houses, mostly to give me a chance to serve it.

Rabbit is kind of an unusual meat in the modern West. I think that might be changing, though. My local Greek market was selling them frozen – not unusual to find them frozen in an ethnic market. Recently I got a phone call from my husband from a large chain grocery store near our house that shall remain nameless. (They remain nameless because they once sold me a rotten duck.) This store was selling rabbit fresh, and lots of it. I'm pretty pleased by this, since rabbit meat is tasty and relatively lean. I will spare you the health benefits listed by al-Warrāq, as they might cause this website to be barred by safe search.

Anyway, I didn't make a lot of changes to this recipe. I try not to when I'm re-creating a medieval recipe. That said, there were some changes that I just had to make. I couldn't chop the rabbit easily and it would make the rabbit more difficult to serve during the class if I had, so I treated it more like a pulled rabbit. The rabbit was roasted on our Big Green Egg – there is no suggestion in the recipe that the rabbit should have been roasted in this manner in period, but we know that they were using a similar tool to roast meat in period and there is no indication that it should not have been used in this case. We rubbed the rabbit with our Greek-style rub, because it works well with rabbit. The vinegar I used was red wine vinegar. The soy sauce is a stand-in for murrī, which was made in almost the same way. Someone else has made murrī following a period recipe and it apparently tastes like soy sauce, and the recipe is similar to soy sauce, so it makes a good substitute. I couldn't get the two different types of asafetida so I used what I had. I couldn't get rue so I used rosemary – very different flavors, but much less likely to cause a harmful reaction. I ran out of caraway seeds and so left them out when I served this to my class. The "different spices" I used were based on personal preference.

The sauce went over decently, but out of all of the meat dishes I served this one was the least popular. It was probably the least familiar to modern Western palates, and the sweet and sour flavor wasn't necessarily to everyone's taste. (It also had to compete with a beef bārida that was incredibly popular, so that probably has a lot to do with it.)

Rabbit Bārida (serves 2 – 3 as a main course; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 rabbit, roasted, carved and cooled. We roasted the rabbit on our Big Green Egg and we think this is the best way of doing it, but there is absolutely no reason you couldn't do this in your oven at home. Roast at 375 ̊until done; if you're using the Egg cook over indirect heat.)

¾ ounce ground cumin

½ ounce ground coriander

1 gram asafetida

3 grams caraway seeds

12 grams olive oil

15 grams sugar

2 whole onions, peeled

Equipment:

• Bowl
• Whisk

1. Carve the rabbit and arrange it on a platter.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Mix well and allow to sit. I probably let it sit about an hour before I served it the first time. For the class, I let it sit an hour and then removed the onions; the sauce continued to sit for a good 48 hours.
3. Just before serving, remove the onions from the sauce. Pour the sauce over the meat and serve.

Recipe: Leftover Party Hash

We entertain a lot during the summer. I enjoy it, I really do. I like the challenge. Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming, though, like when we had our town fireworks party one night and Sunday open house the next day. I originally hadn't really planned to serve much on Sunday, but we got a decent sized crowd so the menu expanded. Of course, I hadn't bought any extra food. Fortunately, I didn't really need it. We had leftover chicken from the party, and leftover barbeque sauce from the party. I don't remember why we had the corn, I think I'd intended for it to be just for my husband and me. Anyway, I combined them to form this tasty one-dish meal.

Leftover Party Hash (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

3 ears of corn, kernels only

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

Pinch kosher salt

Leftover roasted chicken (about 3 cups worth, maybe), shredded

2 cups barbeque sauce

Equipment:

• Wok or sauté pan

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the onion and the salt. Cook until the onion is softened.
3. Add the corn. Sauté until the corn is just softened.
4. Add the chicken. Sauté until the chicken is heated through.
5. Add the barbeque sauce. Cook until heated through.
6. Serve.

Recipe – Lamb Burgers

Recipe Source: Kochilas, Diane. Mediterranean Grilling. W. M. Morrow, New York, 2007 p. 107

I will be the first to tell you that I'm not often a fan of burgers. It's so hard to get them done the way I like them. In fact, there is only one place where I will actually order a burger: Christopher's, in Cambridge. They will serve it to me cooked to my desired degree of doneness (or rawness, to be fair) and I know that I won't get sick from the meat. Even my husband won't cook a burger that rare. Anyway, lamb is different. Lamb has more flavor than beef, even when the cheap cuts are used. It's possible to thoroughly cook a lamb burger and still have it taste good.

I've made this dish twice now – the first time we forgot to take pictures. I made a few changes as I usually do. The biggest change was in omitting the pine nuts, because I haven't managed to find them. I also omitted the butter, because I really don't think it needed more fat. I also increased the garlic, decreased the oil and played around with the spice proportions a bit. I omitted the mint as well to accommodate my husband's food allergy. I added some cilantro to the burgers to make up for it, and to mitigate the parsley flavor.

Lamb Burgers (makes 6 burgers; approx. $1.89 ea.)

6 garlic cloves, crushed

½ teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ cup water

1 pound ground lamb

2 red onions, grated

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

6 burger buns, toasted or not (your call)

Equipment:

• Big Green Egg or other grill (you can cook these indoors if you must, but it won't be very good)
• Food processor makes the grating easier. If you don't have one, use a box grater and a really big bowl.
• Mini-prep mini food processor

1. Combine the garlic, salt, olive oil, tomato paste, spices, thyme and water in the mini –prep. Process to a paste.
2. Prepare your grill for medium-high, direct-heat cooking.
3. Combine the lamb, onions and herbs in the large bowl. Knead until thoroughly mixed (or process, your choice.) Form the contents into six patties.
4. Paint both sides of each patty generously with the paste from the mini-prep.
5. Cook to your desired degree of doneness. I like rare. I am in the minority.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Lamb Chops with Honey Lemon Glaze (Guest Post from Fearless Grill)

Recipe Source: Original

I recently bought a new set of accessories for my Big Green Egg smoker that promises to expand both it's capacity and versatility – the adjustable rig, spider, and sliding grids from the Ceramic Grill Store. This setup, among other things, allows you to cook at different heights in the Egg. By moving the meat closer to the coals (which burn at over 1200 degrees), you can quickly sear a piece of meat, and then move it farther away, with the Egg still set at the same dome temperature, to roast the meat to your desired doneness. For my first cook with this setup, I decided to try something with a glaze, since that would need to be finished at a lower temperature to set the glaze. I had some lamb chops in the fridge that I hadn't gotten around to using yet, and set out to test out my new toys.

For the glaze, I went with something simple, similar to one that I used on some pork chops a few months ago.  I like the match of lemon with lamb, so I used lemon juice instead of the orange juice I used with the pork. I also used fresh garlic instead of the garlic powder I had used the previous time. I also made more of the glaze than I needed to brush on while cooking, so I could drizzle some over the finished chops on the plate.

I really liked the new setup for cooking. It was really convenient to change the level of cooking, rather than having to pull the food out and wait for the temperature to drop after searing. By being able to keep the overall temperature of the cooker lower, I also used a lot less charcoal during my cook. I was a little concerned about the glaze burning, but having the meat much further away from the fire than the standard setup in the Egg made that a non-issue. We liked the way the meat came out. I got a nice sear on the outside cooking low over the flame, and finishing high in the dome let the glaze set up without overcooking the meat. The glaze matched pretty well with the lamb. You could taste all the flavors, but none were overpowering, and it didn't add too much sweetness. I'm going to try the glaze again as a sauce for chicken wings at a party this weekend.

Lamb Chops with Honey-Lemon Glaze (Serves 2. Approx. Cost Per Serving Not Available)

Equipment Required

• Big Green Egg or other grill
• Adjustable rig (optional)
• Long grilling tongs
• Grill brush

4 lamb shoulder chops

Several sprigs fresh thyme, chopped

Sea salt

Fearless Greek Rub (Note: This will make more than you need. Save the rest for use on lamb, chicken, or turkey. It works great on all of them)

3 tablespoons kosher salt

3 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

 

Honey-Lemon Glaze

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 serrano chili, finely minced

3 garlic cloves, finely minced

1. Combine the ingredients for the honey-lemon glaze in a bowl, and whisk to combine thoroughly.
2. Apply the Fearless Greek Rub to all sides of the chops. You can apply it up to two hours before cooking, if desired.
3. Prepare your grill for cooking. In my large Big Green Egg, I set up for direct cooking at a dome temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I put in my adjustable rig and spider to cook at multiple levels. Note that if you don't have an adjustable rig, or if you're cooking on another type of grill, begin by setting up at the highest possible temperature to sear. Then pull the meat out, lower the temperature to 400 degrees, and put the meat back in to set the glaze.
4. Using a grid on the spider close to the coals, sear the chops for 60-90 seconds per side.
5. Move the chops to a grid on the highest level of the adjustable rig. Brush both sides of the chops with the glaze, close the lid, and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. Apply another coat of glaze, flip the chops, and let cook for another 2 minutes. This should give you medium-rare chops. Adjust timing for your preference.
6. Remove the chops from the grill. Put on a platter, pour the remaining glaze over the chops, and sprinkle with the fresh thyme and sea salt.