Char Shui

(Recipe adapted from Eileen Yin Fei Lo)
2 ¼ pounds moderately fatty pork shoulder or butt
1 ½ tbsp. dark soy sauce
1 ½ tbsp. light soy sauce
1 ½ tbsp. honey
1 ½ tbsp. oyster sauce
2 tbsp. shao Hsing wine
3 ½ tbsp. hoisin sauce
½ tsp. five spice powder (I like Penzey’s brand)
black pepper to taste
red food coloring (optional)

Cut meat into strips 1 inch thick and seven inches long. Using a fork, tenderize meat by piercing all over. This also allows the sauce to penetrate.

Mix marinade ingredients into a ziplock bag large enough to hold meat.

Place meat in bag, mush it all around in the marinade so it is all covered, then push out all of the air, seal bag and leave it in the refrigerator for twenty four hours.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place roasting rack on rimmed cookie sheet, and drape meat over it. Roast for 20 minutes, until the meat is done. Baste the meat as it cooks a couple of times with some of the marinade. Allow to cool after it is done, then cover and refrigerate until needed.

Tangy Red Lentil Soup With Niçoise Olives

Once a month, when I know I'm going to be home for a couple of hours, I make a big batch of rich chicken stock, using the Edna Lewis method. Last week there was an article in the NYT about how making stock is (supposedly) too much work, results in too many pots to wash and is altogether not worth the effort. Along with the article they listed a number of soup recipes in which the bones cook right along with the soup, instead of requiring the separate step of making stock first and then soup later.
This was one of those recipes, and I'm here to tell you, people: TAKE THE TIME TO MAKE A BIG BATCH OF STOCK ONCE A MONTH WHILE YOU'RE WATCHING A VIDEO OR CONDITIONING YOUR HAIR. There is no substitute in terms of depth of flavor. I had to triple the amount of tomato paste called for and add a whole mess of salt to this recipe just to give it flavor. Other than that, it was pretty good. A nice occasional change from our Turkish red lentil standard. The olive garnish is very cute.

1 large celery stalk, finely chopped
1 large carrot, unpeeled, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
1 small can tomato paste
1 pound red lentils, rinsed
1 pound chicken backs
4 thyme sprigs
2 lemons, halved
1/4 cup whole niçoise olives.
Pimenton, for garnish
1. In a 4-quart saucepan, combine celery, carrot, onion, garlic, olive oil and salt. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook 1 minute. Add lentils, chicken backs, 8 cups water and thyme, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until lentils have broken down, about 30 minutes.

2. Discard thyme sprigs. Remove chicken backs, remove meat from bones, chop meat and return meat to soup. Using an immersion blender, partially purée soup. Taste and add salt if needed. Ladle soup into bowls, squeeze in lemon juice and serve topped with olives.

Yield: 8 servings.

Lighter Potato Gratin

This was a major hit. Bill is now fully on board in regard to the superiority of the Yukon Gold potato.

Onion mixture:
1 Tbsp butter
1 big onion, sliced thinly
3 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped finely
Salt and pepper

Bechamel:
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk (I used skim)
1 tsp red chili flakes
Salt & pepper

4 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly (approximately 1/4 inch rounds)


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter an 8x8 inch baking dish.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook slowly until caramelized. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in another pan, prepare the bechamel sauce/white sauce by melting the butter, blending in the flour & adding the milk gradually while stirring constantly till the mixture thickens, 3-4 minutes. Add salt, pepper and red chilli flakes and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Arrange half of the potato rounds in a layer, slightly overlapping in the baking dish, and season with generous amounts of salt and pepper. Spoon half of the onion mixture over the potatoes. Repeat to make a second layer with the remaining potatoes, season, and sprinkle the rest of the caramelized onions over the top.

Pour the white sauce as evenly as possible all over the potatoes.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed, potatoes are tender and the surface is golden/lightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes before serving

Hertzberg Boule

I've been baking fresh bread every few days since the Hertzberg book arrived. Let them eat sammiches!

Makes four 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.

3 cups lukewarm water
1-1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (1-1/2 packets)
1-1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6-1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method
Cornmeal for pizza peel


Mixing and Storing the Dough

1. Warm the water slightly: It should feel just a little warmer than body temperature, about 100°F. Warm water will rise the dough to the right point for storage in about 2 hours. You can use cold tap water and get an identical final result; then the first rising will take 3 or even 4 hours. That won't be too great a difference, as you will only be doing this once per stored batch.

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container or food-grade bucket. Don't worry about getting it all to dissolve.

Boule

3. Mix in the flour—kneading is unnecessary: Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient measuring cups, by gently scooping up flour, then sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula; don't press down into the flour as you scoop or you'll throw off the measurement by compressing. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor (14 cups or larger) fitted with the dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook until the mixture is uniform. If you're hand-mixing and it becomes too difficult to incorporate all the flour with the spoon, you can reach into your mixing vessel with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don't knead. It isn't necessary. You're finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. This step is done in a matter of minutes, and will yield a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.

Allow to rise: Cover with a lid (not airtight) that fits well to the container you're using. Do not use screw-topped bottles or Mason jars, which could explode from the trapped gases. Lidded plastic buckets designed for dough storage are readily available (see page 14 of the book). Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approximately 2 hours, depending on the room's temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature. So, the first time you try our method, it's best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or at least 3 hours), before shaping a loaf.


The scoop-and-sweep method gives consistent results without sifting or weighing. It's easier to scoop and sweep if you store your flour in a bin rather than the bag it's sold in; it can be hard to get the measuring cups in a bag without making a mess. Also: Don't use an extra-large 2-cup-capacity measuring cup, which allows the flour to overpack and measures too much flour.


Relax! You do not need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as traditional recipes.


Boule
On Baking Day

5. The gluten cloak: don't knead, just "cloak" and shape a loaf in 30 to 60 seconds. First, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal (or whatever your recipe calls for) to prevent your loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven.

Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough, using a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won't stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it's not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30 to 60 seconds.

6. Rest the loaf and let it rise on a pizza peel: Place the shaped ball on the cornmeal-covered pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest on the peel for about 40 minutes (it doesn't need to be covered during the rest period). Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking ("oven spring").

7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450°F, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.

8. Dust and slash: Unless otherwise indicated in a specific recipe, dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1/4-inch-deep cross, "scallop," or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.

9. Baking with steam: After a 20-minute preheat, you're ready to bake, even though your oven thermometer won't yet be up to full temperature. With a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Because you've used wet dough, there is little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or "sing," when initially exposed to roomtemperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor, texture, and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

10. Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days: You'll find that even one day's storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the 14-day storage period. Refrigerate unused dough in a lidded storage container (again, not airtight). If you mixed your dough in this container, you've avoided some cleanup. Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them. We often have several types of dough storing in the refrigerator at once. The dough can also be frozen in 1 pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.


VARIATION: HERB BREAD.

Follow the directions for mixing the Boule dough and add 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves (2 teaspoons fresh) and 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves (1 teaspoon fresh) to the water mixture.

You can also use herbs with the other bread recipes in this chapter.

Creme Brulee

This really couldn't really be any easier, but it never fails to impress. (And Bill likes playing with the butane torch.) Niall says people like creme brulee because its vanilla pudding you get to order in French -- i.e., familiar comfort food dressed up as a sophisticated dessert. We surprised Gloria with creme brulee on V-Day this year. A hit!

9 egg yolks
3/4 cup superfine white sugar plus 6 tablespoons
1 quart heavy cream
1 vanilla bean


Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, cream together egg yolks and sugar with a whisk until the mixture is pale yellow and thick.

Pour cream into a medium saucepan over low heat. Using a paring knife, split the vanilla bean down the middle, scrape out the seeds and add them to saucepan. Bring cream to a brief simmer, do not boil or it will overflow. Remove from heat and temper the yolks by gradually whisking the hot vanilla cream into yolk and sugar mixture. Do not add hot cream too quickly or the eggs will cook.

Divide custard into 6 (6-ounce) ramekins, about 3/4 full. Place ramekins in a roasting pan and fill pan with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until barely set around the edges, about 40 minutes. You may want to cover loosely with foil to prevent browning. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Transfer the ramekins to the refrigerator and chill for 2 hours. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar on top of each chilled custard. Hold a kitchen torch 2 inches above surface to brown the sugar and form a crust. Garnish with cookies and fresh fruit. Serve at once.

Variation: Before dividing into ramekins: add 3 ounces of shaved dark chocolate for chocolate creme brulee; add 4 slices of crystallized ginger for ginger creme brulee; add 3 slices of orange peel for orange creme brulee. Let steep 20 minutes to infuse the flavor. Strain out the ginger and orange peel before baking.

Lemony Shrimp with White Beans and Couscous

Adapted from Real Simple
Photo by Kan Kanbayashi

1 10-ounce box couscous (1 1/2 cups)
2 cups chicken broth
Kosher salt, cayenne pepper and pimenton to taste
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
4 scallions, chopped
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 15.5-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed
3/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
Juice of 2 lemons

30 minutes before cooking, marinate the shrimp in half the lemon juice and the spices.

In a saucepan, bring 2 chicken stock to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Cover and let sit off heat for 5 minutes; fluff with a fork before serving.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and scallions and cook for 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring, until they begin to turn pink, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the beans, parsley, lemon juice, the remaining butter, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes. Adjust for seasoning. Serve with the couscous.


Yield: Makes 4 servings

Sticky Spiked Double-Apple Cake with a Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce

The photo of this outrageous and unparalleled cake came from Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn, but the recipe itself is pure Regan Daley. SO moist. SO good. A new favorite.

1 cup raisins
1/3 cup brandy
1 cup unsulphured dried apple slices (if only rings are available, cut them in half)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (preferably freshly ground)
1-1/2 cups tightly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
2 medium sized tart cooking apples, such as Northern Spy or Rome Beauty, one peeled, one unpeeled, both cored and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Additional unsalted butter, at room temperature, for greasing the pan

Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce (recipe below) warmed slightly, to serve.

In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the brandy for 45 minutes. Add the dried apple slices and macerate for a further 15 minutes. Do not drain!

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9 x 13 inch pan and line the bottom and up the two long sides with a sheet of parchment paper, letting the paper hang over the edges by an inch or so. Lightly butter the paper. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves together into a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl with a hand held electric mixer or whisk, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend both sugars. Add the eggs and beat on medium speed until thickened and pale, about 2 minutes with a machine, 4 to 5 minutes by hand. Add the cooled melted butter and mix to blend. Fold in the dry ingredients in two additions, mixing just enough to moisten most but not all of the flour. Add the dried fruit and brandy mixture, chopped pecans, and diced fresh apple, then fold them into the batter with long, deep strokes. Don’t fret about the ratio of fruit to batter — there is a remarkable amount of fruit but it bakes into a wonderfully chewy cake.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and set in the center of the oven. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until the center springs back when lightly touched, a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a wire rack and cool. This cake keeps beautifully, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to 5 days, although it is best within 2 or 3. Serve warm or at room temperature with a healthy pour of the warm Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce. Makes enough for 10 to 12 people (or 2, if you give them a couple of days ...).

Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce
Makes about 2-1/4 cups

1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup tightly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup heavy cream (36%)
2-1/2 tablespoons brandy

Combine the butter, sugars and cream in a small, heavy bottomed saucepan. Stir this mixture over low heat until the sugar dissolves, then increase the heat to medium and bring the sauce to a very gentle boil, stirring all the while. Cook 5 more minutes, then remove from the heat and stir in the brandy or other liqueur. Serve immediately, or cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. To rewarm, either microwave the uncovered sauce on low power or transfer the cold caramel to a saucepan and stir over low heat until warm.

Serves 10 to 12

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

These cookies, which were baked in honor of Marianne's birthday, led to a moment of extreme pride for Bill as I handed him a hot cookie while he was sitting on the couch, watching the football game with his feet up last Sunday. He said he felt like calling up all his friends to brag about how good he's got it. Uninterrupted football plus hot cookies equal one happy Toles.
Marianne liked them too, and she's a much tougher critic.
Before I started meddling, this was an Alice Medrich recipe.
Alice writes:
"These cookies are especially delicious if you chill the dough overnight before baking. And for the best cookies of all - that is, the ones that are brown and crunchy at the edges and chewy in the centers - eschew parchment paper, silicone-coated pan liners, and/or cushioned pans, and simply bake on unlined, ungreased baking sheets."

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 t. salt
2 large eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
2/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips, chunks or morsels
1 cup (4 ounces) finely chopped pecans
1 cup raisins

Mix the flour and baking soda together thoroughly. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, sugars and salt. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened, then stir in the chocolate, nuts and raisins. If possible, cover and chill the dough for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the dough from the refrigerator to soften.

Scoop up level tablespoonfuls of dough and place them 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake, rotating the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to bak about halfway through the baking time, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown at the edges and no longer look wet on top. Use a metal pancake turner to transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely. (The cookies keep, in a tightly sealed container, for several days.)
Makes about 60 cookies

Blue Kitchen's Roasted Cauliflower and Dill Soup

For the full story on how this lush and hearty soup came into being, check out Blue Kitchen's fascinating site at www.blue-kitchen.com. I made a few strategic adaptations to punch up the flavor: more garlic, with the tiniest little bit stirred in right before serving, twice as much dill, more pure chicken broth -- but essentially it's still Blue Kitchen's creamy Polish-inspired cauliflower soup, and it is absolutely fantastic.

1 head of cauliflower broken into florets, about 6 cups
3 carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, minced and then pounded into a paste
5 cups chicken stock
2/3 cup chopped fresh dill
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and toss to coat. Spread into a single layer in a large roasting pan [or onto a large baking sheet with a rim] and season with pepper. DON’T add salt at this point. Roast vegetables in the middle of the oven until tender and golden brown, stirring occasionally, for about 35 - 45 minutes. Remove from oven. The soup can be made a day ahead up to this point; cool vegetables slightly, then cover and refrigerate.

Peel and chop onion and garlic while the cauliflower mixture roasts. When it’s ready, heat a large, heavy pot or dutch oven over a medium flame. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and sauté onion until softened and translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add 95 percent of the minced garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add cauliflower mixture to pot, along with broth and water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low to let soup simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Toward the end of this time, carefully ladle out 3 cups of cauliflower and broth and purée it in a food processor or blender. Avoid puréeing any of the carrots with the cauliflower and broth. Return the purée to the soup pot and stir to blend. Remove from heat, stir in the fresh dill and the last little bit of the minced garlic and adjust for seasoning. Serve hot.

Beatrice Ojakangas's Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns

I've been following Beatrice Ojakangas's baking books for so long, I feel like I know her; like we're family. Before Peter Reinhart and Jim Lahey had even learned to say poolish, Beatrice Ojakangas was already an expert in the field. She grew up baking bread every day on a working farm in Minnesota, immersed in the Scandinavian traditions of baking, and with the innate talent and curiosity of a natural innovator. Beatrice understands bread so thoroughly from a hands on perspective, that all of her instructions are clear and simple - a rarity in books about serious bread baking. Processes that become hopelessly complicated in other writers' hands (like sourdough, for instance. As soon as someone mentions percentages of hydration my brain shuts right off) are revealed to be as easy as stirring together a cup of this, a cup of that, and waiting for three days. Now that's what I'm talking about. Her recipes are so well-tested that you cannot fail if you follow her directions. (That means you, John!)The hamburger buns? Perfect.
1 packet active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water, heated to 105 to 115 degrees
1/2 cup milk, scalded and cooled to 105 to 115 degrees
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups a ll purpose flour
In a large mixing bowl, disolve yeast in warm water. Let stand for five minutes until the yeast foams. Add the milk, butter, sugar, egg, whole wheat flour and salt. Blend well. Add the all purpose flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about five minutes. Wash the mixing bowl, grease it, and put the dough in the bowl, turning it over to grease the top of the dough. Loosely cover with a towel and set in a warm place. Let rise until doubled in size, about one to one and a half hours.Punch down and divide dough into 12 balls (24 for dinner rolls)
Space 3 inches apart on a greased baking sheet and flatten slightly. Let rise for one hour.
Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. (20-25 minutes at 375 degrees for dinner rolls)

Overnight Steel-cut Oatmeal

1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup raisins or dried blueberries
3 cups water
1/2 cup milk
cinnamon, to taste
maple syrup or brown sugar, to taste

The slow cooker saves the day again! (Or at least it saves the thirty minutes we would normally take to make steel cut oatmeal for breakfast.) This method works best if you turn on the slow cooker before you go to bed. This way your oatmeal will be finished by morning. In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients and set to low heat. Cover and let cook for 8 to 9 hours. Stir and serve.

Perfect Brown Rice

"Cooking brown rice, or at least cooking it well, is tricky. The goal is to soften the texture of each grain's fibrous bran coating—a process that takes longer than that called for in the cooking of white rice—without causing the rice to become mushy. Unfortunately, the labels on most packaged brown rice recommend an ineffective method that suggests boiling water and rice in a two-to-one ratio, then allowing the mixture to simmer for 40 minutes or more, until all the liquid is absorbed. We followed those directions and ended up throwing away more than a few pots of unsatisfying rice. What we ultimately found is that brown rice looks and tastes the best when it has been boiled and drained like pasta and then steamed in the small amount of moisture that remains in the pot. The boiling cooks the rice, while the subsequent steaming allows the grains to retain their integrity and come out light and fluffy."

1 cup short, medium, or long-grain brown rice
Kosher salt, to taste

1. Rinse rice in a strainer under cold running water for 30 seconds. Bring 12 cups water to a boil in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid over high heat. Add the rice, stir it once, and boil, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Pour the rice into a strainer over the sink.

2. Let the rice drain for 10 seconds, then return it to the pot, off the heat. Cover the pot and set it aside to allow the rice to steam for 10 minutes. Uncover the rice, fluff with a fork, and season with salt.

This recipe was first published in Saveur in Issue #111