Easter Lamb

Next Sunday will be Easter, a time of renewal and rebirth, a harbinger of spring, and lengthening days with the sun moving higher into the sky.  The daffodils are up, as is our garlic, the ice is off the lake, and while sugaring is still ongoing, the buds are starting to appear on the trees, so the end is in sight. 

Easter, a moveable feast, falls on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox, thus is moves around from late March to late April each year.  Passover roughly coincides with Easter, and fell on the full moon on April 30^th  this year.  Both religious holidays are a time of feasting, celebration, family and friends. 

In many regions early spring vegetables like asparagus, fiddleheads, mushrooms and ramps are appearing, and sprightly lambs frolic in the barnyard and peeping chicks are scurrying beneath a warming light.   Plants are germinating in flats in a sunny window and the parsnips have been dug. 

Not everyone likes lamb, the meat of sheep.  Some dislike the smell, which primarily emanates from its tallowy fat while it is cooking, and some find the taste of the meat is too strong.  Our local lamb is usually one month old to twelve months at slaughter, but in other countries they eat mutton and hogget, older sheep, both male and female up to four years old or more.  These latter types are stronger in flavor than the lamb locally produced.  New Zealand lamb, often killed at four months, is quite mild in taste, and only available frozen.

Sheep are grass eaters, but are often finished with grain over the last month before slaughter, producing a fine-grained flesh.  As the animal ages, its flesh gradually changes from a pale pink to a dark red, and its flavor intensifies.  As a red meat, it likes to be cooked rare (125 degrees) to medium (160 degrees) or anywhere in between.  Legs and racks should be allowed to rest for 15 minutes or so before carving to allow the meat juices to redistribute themselves, resulting in a moist, juicy serving.

Lamb chops are cut from the loin, the most prized chops, and can be pan-fried, broiled or grilled, and from the shoulder, which require braising to become tender.  The shoulder and shanks are also braised, and result in luxuriant sauces, which thicken themselves when reduced.  Ground lamb can be combined with pork and beef, made into lamb meat loaf, grilled as burgers, or made into a meat sauce or meatballs.  In the Italian section of Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, meat markets sold the lamb head to the Italian grandmothers of the neighborhood, along with whole baby lambs for Easter dinner.

As lamb is somewhat fatty, traditional accompaniments like mint jelly are meant to “cut” the fat, and in other cultures lemons, wine, vinegars, and dried fruits like quince and apricot are common with lamb.  We think of garlic, rosemary and thyme to flavor our lamb, but anchovies are used in Italy and paprika in Spain and Portugal.  Lamb is raised worldwide and eaten throughout the Europe and the Mediterranean, the Arab and Muslim lands, India, Australia and Africa, so it is a universal food. 

Sometimes we have ham at Easter, but this year it’ll be lamb.  Yum!

Raised doughnuts & new maple syrup

When I was growing up, we had six maple trees lining our lawn, and Dad tapped them every spring.  We kids rushed home from school to help gather the buckets for Mom to boil down the sap in her turkey roasting pan, straddling two burners on her stove, until the syrup sheeted, and the wall paper was starting to droop around the kitchen.   New syrup always meant raised doughnuts, and this was the only time of the year that Mom made them for us.  Still warm, puffy doughnuts and lightly heated new maple syrup…do I need to say more! 

The doughnut, sometimes donut, is fried dough, although there are baked doughnuts.  They are made in one form or another all around the world.  Many lands and cultures have their own variations on the theme, from the French beignet and the Italian bomboloni, to meat-filled samosa, the cala, with rice and nutmeg from Trinidad, or the Isreali sufganiyah. 

American doughnuts come in a large variety and are often glazed, frosted or powdered.  Some are stuffed with jelly, fruit or custard, or made with cider in the fall during apple season.  Potato doughnuts are sometimes referred to as “spudnuts,” and the crueler is a twisted bar of doughnut dough, often rolled in caster sugar while still warm.   Old-fashioned doughnuts were spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and sometime cardamon.  

Doughnuts may be leavened by baking powder or baking soda, which make a denser doughnut, or by yeast, which makes them light and fluffy.  Doughnut dough is moist, enriched with eggs, sugar and fat, resulting in a moderately sticky dough, lending to their light, springy texture when cooked. 

Yeast-raised doughnuts can be made for any weekend morning breakfast, if you like to get up in the morning.  They rise fast in a warm kitchen and can be prepared in 2 hours or so, if made in a stand mixer.  

Doughnuts are cooked at a moderately hot 365 degrees, in plenty of oil.  When the high moisture dough hits the hot oil, it quickly produces steam, which in concert with the leavening agents and any beaten egg, puffs up the doughnut to airy lightness before the outside gets too hard.  The lighter yeasted doughnut rides higher up in the oil than its baking powder brethren, requiring that it be turned over after a minute or so, but leaving a lighter band about its circumference where the outside gets cooked less. 

One word of caution on deep-frying doughnuts:  do not over crowd the pan and allow the oil to drop in temperature.  Soggy, greasy doughnuts are not only not good for you, they don’t taste very good either.  Not that properly cooked doughnuts are “good” for you, but life isn’t worth living if you can’t indulge a little bit now and again.  And spring sugaring season with the new maple syrup only comes once a year, so why not pair it up with the warm goodness of a yeast-raised homemade doughnut…I ate three in a row!

Yeast-Raised Doughnuts

1 ½ cups milk

2 ½ oz (1/3 cup) vegetable shortening

2 Tbl instant yeast

1/3 cup warm water (95-105 degrees F)

2 eggs, beaten

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

23 oz AP flour, plus some for dusting the work surface

Peanut, canola or vegetable oil for frying.

Place the milk in a saucepan and scald.  Place the shortening in your stand mixer bowl and pour the milk over it.  Set aside.

In a bowl, place the yeast in the water and allow to dissolve 5 minutes.  When the milk in just warm, add the yeast mixture, the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg and half the flour.  Mix with the paddle starting slowly but increasing the speed to medium until everything is well combined.  Turn off the machine and add the rest of the flour.  Incorporate slowly, then increase the speed to medium until well combined.  Switch to the dough hook, and knead at medium speed for 5 minutes or so, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough into a well oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for an hour or until double in bulk.

On a well floured surface, turn out the dough and pat or roll out to 3/8 to ½ inch thick.  Cut doughnuts with a well floured doughnut cutter, placing the rings ½” apart on a parchment paper lined sheet pan.  Cover with a tea towel and let rise 30 minutes or so. 

Preheat the oil in a rondeau or Dutch oven to 365 degrees.  Carefully turn each doughnut over, placing the top-side down in the oil.  Don’t crowd the pan or allow the oil to fall in temperature.  In 1 minute, flip each doughnut over, cooking the other side 1 minute.  Drain on a rack over paper towels.

Toss with sugar or glaze in 10 minutes or so, when slightly cooled.  Or serve with warm maple syrup.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs)

At the moment we seem to be having an early start to spring, however considering it’s only mid-March I don’t think old man winter is completely out of the picture yet.  With Town Meeting behind us, many are planting tomatoes and other plants for their summer gardens.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, it isn’t only this column that advocates eating local foods to the greatest extent possible, as more and more places are promoting themselves by advertising that they sell goods produced in our immediate area.  Restaurants pride themselves on using locally produced fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, cheeses and the like on their menus.  More and more area grocery stores are emphasizing their array of products that are either indigenous to the area, or that some enterprising farmer is growing and developing a local following for.  It’s a good, healthy trend, and it’s happening across the country.  Farmers’ markets are abounding and are more crowded then ever as those that love good, healthy food can now satisfy their cravings while seeing their friends and neighbors in the relaxed atmosphere of these weekly gatherings.

For those that want a steady stream of local agricultural products, farmers offer CSAs, an acronym for Community Supported Agriculture.  A CSA is a form of cooperative where local buyers contract with a local farmer to share in the risks and rewards of the farmer’s production.  Usually the CSA buyer receives a regular distribution of the products available from the farm on any given week.  These products may be fruits and vegetables only, but many CSAs now include the possibility of meat, eggs, flowers or started vegetable plants, and dairy products, be it cheese, butter or milk, raw or pasteurized. 

In the CSA system, the buyer prepays for a summer’s harvest, receiving their weekly distribution either at the farm or sometimes at the farmers’ market.  This new relationship that brings consumers into direct contact with the producer builds a stronger bond between them, resulting in the farmer being able to concentrate more on production of products their consumers want, and less on food waste and financial loss. 

Buyers do not purchase a set number of pounds or pieces of a specific product, but share in the farmer’s production when their products are at their peak of ripeness and flavor.  The benefit to the buyer is having a steady stream of seasonal produce, or other farm products, while knowing that their dollars are working locally.  The farmer is freed up from marketing their products and can focus on the care and production of their plants, soils, crops, animals and fellow workers.  It’s a win win for all involved.

CSAs are designed to provide as much or as little of the farmer’s production as the individual or family needs on a weekly basis, so they can be customized to your individual situation.  There is some risk to the buyer in that weather or pests may damage or limit production, but this risk is spread over a larger number of participants in the CSA approach, while otherwise falling only onto the producer.  If it helps the farmer, it helps the buyer.

So consider buying a CSA from your local farmer.  Its good for you, good for the farmer, and good for our local economy.  

Stews

I keep finding different cuts of beef in my freezer that I purchased at the farmers’ markets last fall, and as it’s only March, it’s still stewing season.  Today it is a sirloin tip cut from the round, and I’m going to make a beef stew…the only question being, which beef stew recipe to use. 

Cooking meat and/or vegetables in water, or other liquid medium such as stock, wine, beer, milk or pureed fruits or vegetables, has many advantages.  The liquid imparts its heat rapidly and evenly, its temperature can be easily adjusted, it carries flavor from the item being cooked, and ultimately it becomes the sauce when the cooking is complete.  In stewing, the liquid should be maintained at a low temperature (i.e. 150-180 degrees) for a relatively long time to allow the breakdown of the meat’s collagen into gelatin, which aids in the thickening of the resulting sauce.  This low temperature method also prevents the meat from exuding all its juices and becoming dried out. which occurs around 150 degrees.  However, all the collagen won’t be dissolved until 160 degrees plus, so close attention to the doneness of the meat is important for a succulent stew.  One way to help achieve this result is to place the cooking vessel in an oven at 225 degrees, uncovered or with the top askew.  If covered, the liquid will come to the boil and you risk drying out the meat.  It is advisable to allow a stew to cool before serving to not only allow the meat to reabsorb some of the liquid lost during its cooking, but also to allow all the flavors to meld together.  As we all know, stews always taste better the next day.

While there are blanquettes and fricassees that are “white” stews, if using beef or lamb one should brown the meat quickly and thoroughly before introducing the cooking liquid.  Through the Maillard reaction, which differs from caramelization as sugar is not the primary element changing color, meats brown as a chemical reaction between their carbohydrate molecules (which include sugars) and amino acids occurs, resulting, as one of its by-products, in a brown color and intensification of flavor, and brown food tastes best.

While a stew can be as simple as meat and sauce, it more frequently includes a number of diced aromatic vegetables like onions, carrots and celery sautéed into a mirepoix or soffrito.  These become one of the flavor bases of the stew when cooked in the same fat as the meat was browned in.  In addition, many meat stews include vegetables like potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips and the like which braise along with the meat, and a can of Italian style tomatoes is always a welcome addition.  Sometimes flour is introduced after the meat has been browned and the mirepoix cooked to add body to the final sauce, but a slow reduction in the liquid cooking will also produce a lightly thickened sauce just through evaporation.

PS Since writing this bit on stews, I cooked this beef at a low oven temperature for 2 hours with the top of my Dutch oven ajar, and found the beef to be tough.  Additional cooking at a lazy simmer tenderized the beef, but didn't seem to materially dry it out.

Chowder

We had a wonderful piece of cod from the Holy Mackerel fish store in Fairlee the other night, but the whole fillet was more than we could eat in one meal.  I dutifully removed the thickest pieces for dinner and reserved the balance to make a fish chowder the next day. 

Chowder is a New England tradition, although we can’t lay exclusive claim to it, as its origins were probably European, given that the word “chowder” is a derivation of the word chaudiere, an iron pot French settlers brought to New England and the Maritime provinces of Canada.  Upon arriving in the new world, the settlers soon met the local Micmac Indians, one of whose main sources of protein was the local clams, which were ubiquitous.  With an appropriate cooking vessel and an abundance of clams, the origins of chowder were set, and logically onions and potatoes were soon added to the pot, and milk followed shortly thereafter.

While one can concoct a chowder from any variety of fish, shellfish, or vegetables, usually the only meat would be some sort of cured pork, like bacon or salt pork, although ham hocks or even minced ham is are sometimes used.  In New England it is traditional to include sautéed salt pork, onions, diced potatoes, thyme, bay leaf, hard shell clams (be they quahogs, cherrystones or little necks) and milk and/or cream, with a parsley garnish.  I don’t advocate the use of flour to thicken the chowder, although a lot of places make a roux as part of the chowder-making process and produce a chowder that is so thick it’ll hold a spoon upright.  In my recipe, the broth is thickened by the starch given off by the boiling of the potatoes, and the addition of crushed saltines, or Vermont hard crackers, when the soup is served.

As one proceeds south from Boston, however, the chowder starts to change.  In Rhode Island they don’t add milk or cream, but they do add some tomatoes (part of their Portuguese culinary tradition), thus they have a reddish clear broth.  Further south in New York, Manhattan clam chowder includes not only tomatoes, but also herbs and no milk.  To New Englanders, this concoction “is only a vegetable soup, and not to be confused with New England Clam Chowder, nor spoken of in the same breath.” 

One can make their chowder with their clams either in their shell or not.  If you are using large hard shell clams like quahogs or cherrystones, it is probably best to steam them in their shells and, after the shells open, remove the clams and chop them up before adding to the chowder, along with their juices.  If using little necks or count necks, they can be steamed open right in the chowder and make an attractive presentation in a large soup bowl.

Chowder doesn’t have to include clams, as there are fish chowders, corn chowder and vegetarian chowders, with the latter often featuring beans and/or corn.  In the summer, fresh corn and Maine lobsters make a fantastic chowder, and a recipe is posted on the blog under the corn articles from last summer. 

Three Onion Fish Chowder

Serves 4

3/4 lb fresh cod, cut into 1' pieces

6 oz. salt pork, cubed

1 onion, chopped
1 leek, washed and cut into rounds
1 shallot, chopped fine

1 Tbl olive or canola oil

3/4 lb red Bliss potatoes, cut in half if small. cubed in larger
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 bay leaves

1 cup milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

Freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbl minced parsley

Vermont crackers or saltines

Saute the salt pork in the oil until crisp.  Add the chopped onion, leek and shallot and saute 5 minutes until soft, but not colored.  Add the potatoes and stir them around in the fat before just covering with water.  Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.  Add the fish cubes and cook gently for 5 minutes.  Add the milk and cream and bring back just to the simmer.  Remove from the heat and garnish with the parsley.  Give each serving a sprinkling of the black pepper.  Serve with the crackers.

Chili

Chili is a spicy meat stew, which originated in the North American southwest, probably in Texas, but possibly in Mexico.  Texas makes claim to chili con carne, literally “peppers with meat,” and their legislature has designated it as the official state dish, so let’s give Texas the credit for inventing it.  Mexico’s claim on chili is supported by the fact that most of the peppers used in chili came from Mexico, but the dish is not part of their culinary tradition, and, therefore, the nod goes to Texas.

Chili is made with chilies, peppers from the nightshade family, and most often from the genus Capsicum, which include a pungent chemical, capsaicin, which gives chilies their heat.  The capsaicin is primarily concentrated in the chilies’ seeds and placenta, the white pithy membrane that bears the seeds.  By removing these seeds and the placenta, the heat of the pepper is greatly diminished.

Chili is one of those dishes that people love to argue about, particularly about what ingredients one uses in their chili.  In Texas, chili is made without any beans or tomatoes, which many people believe to be an intricate part of any good chili.  In Texas the chili may contain no other vegetables besides the peppers and the beef, either cubed or ground, however it also commonly includes onions, garlic, and cumin, and frequently masa, used as a thickening agent.  Outside of Texas, it is not uncommon to find that beans, usually red kidney beans, are added, and most people also associate the inclusion of tomatoes as a staple in any good chili recipe.  By some accounts, beans were added by Cincinnati cooks, and many popular chili recipes now include beans as a standard ingredient.  You might get incarcerated in Texas if you include them, so pick your chili fights carefully.

The meat used in most often beef, however venison is not unusual in rural areas, and turkey and chicken are used in concert with great northern beans for while chili.  Mexicans make a chili verde, a green chili, which includes pork stewed in a chicken broth with tomatillos, garlic and roasted green chilies.  Vegetarian chili may contain such items as tofu or some textured vegetable protein, but corn and beans combine to form a whole protein, so their inclusion is fairly common, although many other vegetables show up, including squash, mushrooms, carrots, beets and/or parsnips. 

Most northern people tend to use chili powder as the seasoning in their chili, although dried chilies are available and enterprising cooks will seek them out for use in chili.  If you choose to do so, or use fresh chilies during their growing season in the summer, protect yourself by using gloves to handle the peppers.  A small amount of capsaicin, which is oily and hard to wash off surfaces, whether your hands, knives or cutting surfaces, left on your fingertips can cause immense irritation if rubbed in the eye, so be careful. 

You can control the heat of your chili when using the peppers by removing the seeds and the placental tissue.  If you like it hotter, leave them in.

Beef & Sausage Chili

20 Servings

¼ Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 lb. Onions, coarsely chopped

1 lb. Italian sausage, removed from casings

4 lb.  Beef chuck, ground

2 tsp. Pepper, ground

1 12 oz. can Tomato paste

1 ½ Tbl. Garlic, minced

1 ½ oz. Cumin seed

2 oz.  Chili powder

¼ Cup Dijon mustard

2 Tbl.  Basil, dried

2 Tbl.  Oregano, dried

3 lbs.  Canned Italian-style tomatoes, drained

¼ Cup Burgundy wine

1/8 Cup Lemon juice

¼ Cup Fresh dill, chopped

¼ Cup Italian parsley, chopped

1 ½ lb  Red kidney beans, soaked and cooked

5 oz. Black olives, pitted

Heat the oil in a large kettle.  Add the onions and sauté over low heat for 10 minutes.  Crumble in the sausage meat and ground beef and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the meats are well browned.  Skim off any excess fat.

Lower the heat and add the black pepper, tomato paste, garlic, cumin seed, chili powder, mustard, salt, basil, and oregano.  Add the drained tomatoes, Burgundy wine, lemon juice, dill, parsley and the cooked kidney beans.  Stir well and simmer 15 minutes.

Correct the seasoning and add the olives, simmering 5 more minutes.

Garnish with sour cream, chopped onions and grated cheddar cheese.  Serve with beer.

Poutine

Poutine is the French-Canadian dish that is comprised of French fried potatoes with cheese and rich gravy.  What type of French fry, what type of cheese and what type of gravy is where different purveyors and devourers of this “heart attack on a plate” find room for individuality, to say nothing about what additions one can include under the same name.

First off, it seems that poutine is a Quebecois invention, originating in the Montreal area in the 1950s.  Various stories abound about the combination of French fries and cheese, but it seems that the gravy was added later to keep everything warm. 

Traditionalists will tell you that the French fries need to be a standard cut from Russet potatoes.  No steak fries, no shoestring potatoes, no curly fries or wrinkle cut, and no frozen fried potatoes.  Pommes de terre frites are made by deep-frying the potatoes in 325 degree oil for 3 to 4 minutes before draining them and allowing them to cool.  At this point they are limp, uncolored, but cooked through.  When all the potatoes have been precooked, the oil is reheated to 375 degrees and the potatoes are fried a second time until golden browned and crisp.  After draining on paper towels, they are lightly salted while still warm.  These fried potatoes are crisp on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside.

Next is the question of the cheese.  In Quebec the fresh cheddar cheese curd is the standard.  This cheese is so fresh it squeaks when you chew into it. Ideally it is not more than 1 day old.  If this curd were to become standard cheddar, the curd would be salted, packed into molds, and aged in a cave for a number of months before being released for sale.  Some poutine purveyors use mozzarella, Cheese Whiz, shredded cheddar, American, Swiss or Gruyere. 

Last is the question of what type of gravy one uses.  The standard is chicken or turkey gravy, mildly spiced and seasoned with pepper.  Some places use veal gravy, which has a more neutral taste but greater mouth feel, or duck gravy.  Usually beef or pork gravy is avoided (unless you are at a Tunbridge Fair French fry cart). 

In Montreal they like to take poutine to another level, so some restaurants offer it with bacon, the Tunisian lamb sausage merguez, Montreal-style smoked meats, shredded turkey and peas.  The real fancy places take it way over the top with foie gras, caviar and even truffles. 

Other cultures have their own variations on the poutine theme.  In Italy they add a meat and tomato sauce to fried potatoes.  Sometimes they add sausage.  In Greece they top their potatoes with vinaigrette, feta cheese and gravy, and in Mexico they have carne asada fries consisting of shoestring potatoes, carne asada (roasted beef cut into strips), guacamole, sour cream, cheese and pico di gallo, the condiment made of chopped tomato, onions, hot chili peppers and lemon juice.  In NY they have “Elvis fries” with mozzarella and brown gravy and cheese fries are usually made with American processed cheese or mozzarella.