Ham Hock with Potatoes and Apples

The proud Hock o' Ham

What was I saying about "proteins with stuff"? Well, this certainly qualifies. Actually, this recipe alone could be the reason why I still call myself a proud meat-eater. Apart from the fact that this dish takes forever to make (no last minute weeknight dinners here), this dish has little to complain about.

The featured meat is what is usually termed in my world a ham hock, but is to the Brits apparently a pork knuckle. Who knew? Anyway, it's one of the cheaper cuts of meat around and just one of these puppies will easily feed three people. You have to make sure to get the uncured kind for this recipe. This took a bit of searching for me, but it will let the flavors of the caraway seeds and garlic really shine through. Nothing, however, will explode if you can't find one and must use a cured one instead. Such is life, right?

This recipe combines all things British and American in my mind. A ham hock will quintessentially be Yankee fare, but the "roasting" element of this recipe does waver towards the British side of things. It also (as a bonus) features a make-your-own-pork-crackling element. Well, if I wasn't sold before...

Nigella Lawson, also, the reigning sultry queen of the British kitchen must be thanked for this recipe. Oh Nigella, the things you do for us. All while wearing revealing clothing.

Ingredients

2 tsp sea salt flakes (or 1 tsp pouring salt)

1 tsp caraway seeds

2 garlic cloves, crushed or grated

2 pork knuckles (also called hocks), rind scored

2 onions, peeled and sliced into rounds

2 eating apples, cored and quartered

4 baking potatoes (or 1kg/1lb 2oz other main-crop potatoes), cut into quarters lengthways

500ml/17fl oz good-quality amber or dark beer (not stout, I used Wychwood amber beer)

500ml/17fl oz boiling water

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Put the salt and caraway seeds into a bowl, add the minced or grated garlic, and mix everything together. Rub the pork knuckles with this mixture, getting right into the slits in the scored rind.

Make a bed or platform of the onion slices in the bottom of a deep-sided roasting tin. Sit the pork hocks on this onion layer and cook them in the hot oven for 30 minutes.

Take the tin out of the oven and quickly arrange the apples and potatoes around the pork knuckles. Carefully pour over 250ml/9fl oz of the beer, aiming for the pork knuckles so they’re basted as the liquid is poured into the tin. Return the tin to the oven, turning this down to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Continue to cook at this lower temperature for two hours.

Turn the oven up again to 220C/425F/Gas 7, pour the rest of the beer over the pork knuckles, and continue to cook at the higher temperature for another 30 minutes.

Take the tin out of the oven and transfer the apples and potatoes to a warmed dish. Lift the hocks onto a carving board, leaving the onion and juices in the tin.

Put the tin on the hob over a medium heat and add the boiling water, scraping any burned onions up from the bottom of the tin using a wooden spoon to de-glaze the tin and make a gravy.

Meanwhile, take the crackling off the pork knuckles and break it into pieces. Pull apart or carve the meat and pile it onto plates with the apples and potatoes. Pour over the gravy and serve with some German mustard.

Curried Fish with Zucchini

I think I'm reaching the point where I might just need to have a "Bittman" category to my blog. Here I was, thinking the man had given up the food blogging lifestyle, and he goes and releases not just one but a number of different recipe-themed posts. And he just happened to write an entire entry on fish just when I was looking for a way to use up all the frozen fish in my freezer.
Thanks, Bitty. Thanks.
But still, I can't fault him for his ridiculously easy preparations. This fish dish took me all of 5 minutes. Well, ok 8 1/2, but who's counting?
Even though he mentions nothing about what to serve it with, I do recommend putting this one on top of rice. The coconut milk and water combine to make a rather soupy consistency and to mop up all that flavor, you need some starch.
The recipe (if it can even be called that) is fairly basic and doesn't really feature any of the heat that is de rigueur in my household. So, if you dare, ante up the heat and throw some cayenne or red pepper flakes in with the curry. The coconut milk will really reduce the straight-up heat but it will make for a nice inherent smokiness to the dish which made it all the better. 

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil 
1 onion, chopped
2 zucchini, cut into large pieces or rounds
1 1/2 lbs white fillet of fish (whichever you please)
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp cayenne (optional)
1 tbsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup water
cilantro  (for garnish)

Method

Sauté 1 chopped onion and 2 chunked zucchini in oil for 5 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon ginger and 1 tablespoon curry powder (or to taste, if you are using the cayenne or red pepper flakes, add them here). Cook for a minute, then add fish.

Add coconut milk and water.

Cook for 5 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

Serve on top of rice. Garnish with cilantro.

Honeyed Prawns, Sausage and Polenta (Faux Shrimp and Grits)

If you've ever been to the South (yes, with a capital S), then more likely than not you've heard of the wonder that is shrimp n' grits. Like most of their cuisine, it's based on simple hearty flavors....with lots of butter. No no, that's not doing it justice (not being from the South myself). There's such a richness of tradition in southern cooking that it's hard for a poor non-southerner like myself to describe it accurately. Many of its iconic dishes are based on what used to be the food of the poor- what was left over or what could be acquired cheaply. Grits, rice and beans, ham, collard greens, all these things started out as what you could make easily and cheaply. No longer. Give those people a few hundred years and you get one of the best (and perhaps most definitive) cuisines of the US.

For me, nothing represents the best of Southern cooking like shrimp and grits. Ostensibly simple, it involves a base of grits (for an explanation on this, see earlier posts lamenting its absence in England), topped with a hearty portion of shrimp/prawns and sausage cooked in a special blend of seasonings. The dish is one of my all time favorites. But alas, re-creating it authentically over in England is a bit far-fetched. So I resorted to the usual grits substitute: polenta and worked with what I had in terms of sausage (hunter's sausage in this case) and shrimp (all I could find were the tiniest little things I had ever seen). If I ever make this recipe again (more than likely), I would search high and low to find sizable prawns, the tiny things I could find did not do the trick. Regardless though, it was absolutely delicious and still had a tinge of the authentic to it. The sweet currants in the polenta with the spicy/savory sauce for the protein were a great combination. A great twist on the old Southern standby.

Ingredients
For the prawn/sausage marinade:
4 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Sea salt
1 pound large, peeled, and deveined prawns
2 links, hunter's sausage, sliced thinly

For the polenta:
1 cup polenta
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) corn kernels, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup currants
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
Sea salt
Black pepper

For the topping:
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons capers
Hot sauce (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Butter an 8 x 10-inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm) baking dish. Oil a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Set the pans aside.

2. To make the marinade: Combine the tomato paste, honey, lemon juice, olive oil, hot sauce, garlic powder, and a pinch or two of salt in a medium bowl. Toss the prawns and sausage with the marinade. Set the bowl aside, giving it a stir every few minutes.

3. For the polenta: Bring 3 cups cold water to a boil in a medium stainless-steel pot. Add the polenta. Cook seven minutes, stirring often. Remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, mix the corn (completely thawed if frozen), currants, honey, butter, and thyme. Stir in the polenta, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Add polenta mixture to the buttered baking dish. Spread evenly with a spatula, and place in the oven to bake for 35 minutes.

6. Spread the prawn/sausage mixture evenly onto the oiled baking sheet. After the polenta has baked for 25 minutes, add the prawns to the oven, alongside the polenta. Place both pans on same rack if possible; otherwise, place the baking sheet on the lower rack.

7. Bake the prawns for five minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and flip all of the prawns over. Return to the oven and bake an additional five minutes, until the polenta is slightly browned and the prawns are pink and firm.

8. Remove the prawns and the polenta from the oven. To serve, scoop individual servings of the polenta onto plates. Lay a few prawns over each serving, then top with crumbled feta, fresh parsley, and capers. Drizzle with a few lashings of hot sauce, if desired.

Tortellini Gratinata with Mushrooms and Parsnip "Bechamel"

Baked pasta. Pasta casserole. Hot dish. All things I associate inherently with America. I swear, within each American there's some pale distant memory of a potluck at which either your mother or your neighbor's mother insisted on bringing her "world famous" tuna noodle casserole. Or baked pasta. Or...well, you get the idea. I'm fairly sure this memory never took place in reality; however, the fact that I spent my formative years in the MidWest makes the likelihood of the above even more plausible. Nothing says comfort food like some baked pasta.

Which is why, when my mother smuggled me an American copy of this month's "Bon Appetit" magazine and I saw they were doing an entire feature on the glorious American dish, I had to dust off my Midwestern genes (and jeans) and get to cooking. The promise of a faux parsnip "bechamel" sauce got me on this one. I had no idea what they were talking about but it turned out that the parsnips replaced the flour in the bechamel, keeping the thick consistency of the sauce but giving it an earthier if still starchy flavor. It was a win all around.

I also recommend getting bold with your tortellini in this recipe. The magazine called for either plain or cheese tortellini. Bah! I went with some sort of wild mushroom and stuffed sausage tortellini and in my opinion (humble as it may be), it made what can be a very bland dish (hey, we are talking about baked pasta here) into something with a little more subtlety. 

Ingredients
2 large parsnips, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
2 1/2 cups whole milk, divided
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
large pinch of grated nutmeg
4 1/2 tbsp butter, divided
1 1/2 lbs baby portobello mushrooms, or chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
2 packages tortellini (of whatever kind, should be around 18-24 oz.)
6 oz. creamy Gorgonzola cheese, cut into small pieces
1 cup chorizo sausage, cut into small pieces

Method
Cook parsnips in a medium saucepan of boiling salted water until very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. Place parsnips in same saucepan along with 1 1/2 cups of milk. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Add 1 cup of milk, 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and nutmeg to saucepan. Blend again.

Place saucepan over heat again and simmer until reduced to about 3 cups, whisking often, about every 5 minutes. Season bechamel sauce to taste with salt and black pepper.

Melt 2 1/2 tbsp. butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary. Saute until mushrooms are brown and tender, 6-7 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400F. Butter a 12-cup capacity baking dish. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain pasta, return to pot. Add remaining 2 tbsp of butter and toss to coat.

Stir in mushroom mixture and cut chorizo. Transfer pasta to prepared baking dish. Spread bechamel sauce over; sprinkle with Gorgonzola, then remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.

Bake pasta until heated through and sauce is bubbling, 18-20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes and serve.

Lamb Meatballs with Cilantro-Mint Chutney

My household was never a meatball household. We ate plenty of meat, don't get me wrong, but for some reason the spherical shape was not one preferred by my mother.

It was only at a party, when I was exposed to the wonders of Nigella Lawson and her glorious pseudo-Moroccan lamb meatballs, that my mind was changed forever. It's the blend of spices that takes the morsels to a new level entirely. These meatballs became a staple of weeknight dinners and, now that I'm home for the holidays, I have decided to preach the gospel of meatballs to my mother.

Much to my surprise, a Southwest cooking magazine was ALSO featuring a lamb spiced meatball for their December issue. Now, I don't want to accuse anyone of plagarism, but they are strikingly similar. At least Sunset magazine upped their game a bit by putting a cilantro-mint chutney with them. Personally, I can eat these meatballs all by their lonesome, but the chutney was a nice accompaniment. No matter where the recipe came from originally, I recommend these to all.


Mini lamb meatballs (cilantro-mint chutney recipe follows)

Makes 40 (or thereabouts)

Ingredients

1 tsp. cumin seeds (or ground cumin if you prefer)

1 tsp coriander seeds (or ground)

1 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cinammon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 lb. ground lamb

3 tbsp. semolina 

1 large egg

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

Method

Toast cumin over medium heat until fragrant, 3-5 minutes. Grind in a spice grinder and put in a medium bowl. (If using ground spices, just combine all in a bowl and skip the spice grinder bits)

Grind coriander and fennel and add to the bowl with remaining spices, salt, lamb, semolina, and egg.

Mix gently.

Chill mixture in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

With wet hands, form chilled meat into 1-in. balls and set on a baking sheet.

Heat oil in a heavy 12-in. nonstick frying pan over medium heat.

Fry meatballs until well browned all over, 8-10 minutes total. Transfer to paper towels.

Serve hot with cilantro-mint chutney on the side.

Cilantro-Mint Chutney

Ingredients

4 tbsp. low-fat Greek yogurt

1 tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp minced serrano chile

1 tsp minced ginger

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups loosely packed cilantro

1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves

1 cup chopped onion

1 tsp. lemon juice

Method

Put all chutney ingredients in a food processor and whirl until smooth.

Add more lemon juice if you like.

Spoon into a serving bowl.