Super Food Side Dish

Brussel Sprout Hash

Brussel Sprouts; which in recent years have been deemed a super food, are my absolute favorite vegetable!  I crave them like many people crave sugary sweets.  In fact, I would much rather eat a brussel sprout than a candy bar or a cupcake any day.  I have been eating brussel sprouts all of my life.  When I was young, my mother would cook brussel sprouts at least once a week.  She would steam them and serve with a simple preparation of vinegar and butter and unlike most kids, I was in heaven every time these miniature cabbages made an appearance on my dinner plate.

Brussel sprouts are in fact of the same species as cabbage and in the same family as collard greens, broccoli, kale and kohlrabi.  They are incredibly high in vitamins, minerals and fiber. All of these attributes make this the perfect side dish for someone like me who also loves the flavor, texture and heartiness of this incredible vegetable.  

I started preparing brussel sprouts many years ago in a number of different ways before their recent and sudden rise to fame in the televised culinary world.  One morning, while still laying in bed where I dream up most of my creations, I decided that I was going to create a recipe with brussel sprouts combining several of my favorite ingredients and call it a brussel sprout hash.  And this is what I came up with...

 Here I have brussel sprouts, chorizo sausage, chickpeas, red pepper flakes, olive oil, chicken broth, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

First, I start by slicing my brussel sprouts 3 to 4 times lengthwise depending on the size of the sprout.  I cut them this way to reduce the cooking time.

Next, I remove the casing from the sausage and break it apart into small chunks.  This sausage is made locally at A Wee Bit Farm located in Orland, Maine; which produces natural free range meats. You can purchase it at The Portland Food Co-op on Congress Street in Portland, Maine.

In a large non-stick pan, I cook the chorizo rendering the fat and all of it's amazing flavors for about 5 minutes.  When the sausage is fully cooked, remove from the pan and set aside leaving the rendered fat to cook the brussel sprouts in.

I add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and then add my sprouts. I season the sprouts with a teaspoon of sea salt and cracked black pepper and saute them until they start to brown.  When the sliced sprouts are nicely browned on each side, I add a half a cup of chicken broth and a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, reduce the heat, cover and steam the brussel sprouts for 3 to 5 minutes or until they are fork tender. **Note - if you do not like spicy dishes, you can replace the red pepper flakes with a couple of dashes of smoked paprika.  This changes the overall flavor profile of the dish a bit but it is still delicious.  Smoked paprika is one of my favorite spices to use.

Once the sprouts are sufficiently steamed, add back the chorizo sausage and a 19 ounce can of chickpeas.  Toss all of the ingredients together and finish with about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.

You can serve this as a side dish with so many different meals.  Personally, I can and have eaten this as a meal on its own when I am cooking for myself.   I realize there are good number of people who absolutely detest brussel sprouts.  My theory is that their hatred of them stems from how they were prepared and served to them as children. I have managed to get some of these people to try my brussel sprout hash.  I am happy to say that I have been able to change the minds of a number of brussel sprout haters with this recipe.  

If you are one of the many who have hated brussel sprouts all of your life, I challenge you to try this recipe.  This is the perfect combination of spicy, salty, sweet, tangy and earthy flavors.  I promise this will change the way you feel about this vegetable.

Enjoy!

Down East Asia

Egg Drop Soup

One of the reasons I love Asian food so much is for the medicinal and healing properties many of the ingredients used in the preparation of it have. Now, I am not talking about the ever popular Chinese take out food; which I also enjoy on occasion.  I am talking about authentic Asian cooking.  One of my favorite things to make at home is Asian soup. While you will find many of the soups that I make on a Chinese take out menu, they are not nearly as fresh and tasty as the ones I have made here in my kitchen.  

Egg Drop soup is a simple but incredibly flavorful soup that I make quite often.  The medicinal ingredient featured in this delightful soup is ginger. Ginger has many healing properties; the most well known being it's ability to help aid in digestion.  It also works as an anti inflammatory and also helps to strengthen your immune system. A good helping of this soup can make the long and brutally cold winter and the numerous illnesses that come with it, just a little bit easier to endure. 

The ingredients

Here I have low sodium chicken broth, low sodium soy sauce, sesame seed oil, white pepper, salt, two large eggs, two medium carrots, a small head of broccoli, ginger root and corn starch.

First I start cutting the carrots into small thin matchstick pieces.  I take just the tops of the broccoli florets and break them apart into small pieces. You do not typically find vegetables in egg drop soup but I like to add them for the texture and crunch.  Finally, I peel a good size knob of the ginger root to grate.  Ginger can be difficult to grate because it is so fiborous but freezing the ginger will make grating it a lot easier.  

Next I pour 4 cups of the low sodium chicken broth into a pot, add 1/8th cup of the soy sauce, grated ginger and bring to a boil.

While you are waiting for the broth to come to a boil, prepare the two eggs by breaking the yokes and lightly running a fork through them several times. I like to add a couple of drops of sesame seed oil to help separate the yokes.  

Next I prepare a slurry by combining 1 tablespoon of  corn starch and one tablespoon of water.

When the broth has come to a boil, slowly stir in the slurry and add the carrots and broccoli.  Bring back to a boil for another minute or so.  

Finally, add the egg by slowly pouring it into the broth.  Stir with a fork as you are adding the egg so it will separate and feather as it hits the hot broth.  Once the egg is completely incorporated,  add about a tablespoon of sesame seed oil, salt and white pepper to taste.  Remove from heat and serve.

While this is one of the easier Asian soups to make, by no means does that diminish it's flavoful and comforting qualities.  I have prepared this a number of times for people who were recovering from an illness. Whether or not it cured them, I can't really say but I can tell you with complete confidence that it sure did put a smile on their face and I hope it will bring a smile to your face as well.

Enjoy!

Foraging for Maine's finest

Pickled Fiddleheads

 

It is a rare and special treat to find these fabulous ferns still kicking around a Maine kitchen this time of year.  If you do find them, they are usually frozen.  Some people I've talked to have never even considered pickling their fiddle heads and found it down right strange that I would suggest such a thing.  Well, I am here to tell you that not only do I think it is one of the best ways to preserve these curly green gifts from nature to enjoy throughout the long winter months, it is also one of the most delicious ways to prepare them.  I bought some a couple of years ago through The Portland Food Coop and I have been hooked on them ever since.  

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the long standing Maine tradition of steaming fiddleheads with salt pork and slathered with butter to serve. To many, it is the only way to eat them and anything outside of that would be sacrilegious. For as long as I can recall, my family has gone foraging for fiddleheads in the springtime.  As I remember it, the very short period of time one had to harvest as much as they could possibly eat in a year was precious.  My father and my grandparents would set out every spring within the couple of weeks that the fiddleheads were prime for picking and bring back bushels of them.  In my young child's mind, the first day of the harvest was like a national holiday.  The memory of it makes me smile each and every time I sit down to enjoy a plate full of these precious greens.

I am not an authority on canning by any means so I will not be giving instructions here on how to can fiddle heads.  You will find instructions all over the internet from better sources as to how to can various different food items properly.  I have only just started to experiment with canning in the past 5 months or so.  Before then, I had only ever done quick refrigerator pickles, dilly beans and various other quick pickled products.  You can prepare quick refrigerator fiddleheads with this recipe as well.  The ones that I have posted here are canned.  Since one of my goals in the relatively near future is to create a specialty food product of my own, I decided to take a pickling and preserving class and have been experimenting ever since.

Here is the recipe for my pickled fiddleheads

1 pound of fiddleheads

2 quarts of distilled or cider vinegar

2 quarts of water

1/2 cup of pickling salt

1/4 teaspoon of black peppercorns

1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

2 cloves of crushed garlic

To prepare the fiddleheads, blanch them in boiling water for at least 5 minutes or until you are satisfied that they are no longer raw.  Raw fiddleheads can and will act as a natural laxative to put it mildly.  

Remove the fiddleheads from the boiling water and immediately plunge them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

To prepare the pickling brine, add the vinegar, water, and salt to a large pot and bring to a boil for two to three minutes.

Place the 2 cloves of crushed garlic, black peppercorns and the red pepper flakes in the bottom of a mason jar then fill 3/4 of the jar with the blanched fiddleheads.  Pour the brine down over the fiddleheads into the jar leaving at least a half inch of head space to the rim. Repeat for as many jars as you are able to fill.  If you are doing a quick refrigerator pickle, cover the jar and let stand until cooled and place in the refrigerator for at least a couple of days to allow the fiddleheads to absorb all of the delightful flavors of the brine.  If you are canning the fiddleheads, prepare your jars however instructed by whatever canning authority you choose to follow. 

Whatever method you decide to use for pickling, if you are a fan of fiddleheads, this is sure to become one of your favorite ways to enjoy them! As the time for foraging fiddleheads approaches each spring in the years to come, I hope that this recipe as well as the classic fiddlehead preparations of yesteryear will bring a smile to your face as they have mine!

Down East Asia

Asian Pork Balls with an orange, Sriracha chile, hoisin sauce and sesame oil glaze

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I have a passion for cooking Asian cuisine.  I have spent the better half of the last decade preparing Asian dishes at home and for at least the first five years, many of my attempts were complete failures.  I was determined that I was going to learn this culinary art form and I was going to do it amazingly well.  Once I figured out the basic ingredients and understood the all important concept of layering of flavors, I worked tirelessly at getting my technique and timing down.  I failed time and time again but I continued to experiment and I am pleased to say that I have become somewhat proficient in cooking this cuisine that I love so much. I am so excited to be able to share some of my favorite Asian recipes with you in this segment of my blog that I have decided to call Down East Asia.

This is one of my favorite party appetizers.  They are fun little bite size treats packed full of flavor.  As a meal, you could serve these with some fried rice or even accompanied by an egg drop or hot and sour soup; all of which I promise to post recipes for at a later time.

Here are the ingredients for the pork balls

I have a pound of ground pork, 2 cups of thinly sliced cabbage, about 4 or 5 ounces of shiitake mushrooms, 2 large eggs, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 inch piece of ginger, low sodium soy sauce, sesame seed oil, sugar, sea salt, white pepper, Chinese five spice and corn starch.  You can also add 3 to 4 scallions or spring onions if you like them.  I unfortunately hate anything in the onion family so I do not include them in any of my dishes.

To start preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In  a medium size sauce pan, sauté the cabbage and mushrooms in a tablespoon of peanut or olive oil.  Season the cabbage and mushrooms with about a half teaspoon of sea salt and cook until the mushrooms have softened and the cabbage starts to become translucent.  Remove from the pan, spread the mixture out on a plate and set aside to cool.

While the cabbage and mushrooms are cooling, you can add all the other ingredients to the ground pork.  First start by adding 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper (black pepper works just fine as well), add one whole egg and just the egg white of the 2nd large egg, two cloves of garlic minced or grated, 1 inch piece of ginger grated, 1 and a half tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce, a half table spoon of sesame seed oil, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and a couple dashes of Chinese five spice. Before mixing, add the cabbage and mushrooms and mix thoroughly with your hands until all ingredients are incorporated.

To form the balls, take enough of the pork mixture to fit in the palm of your hand and roll into bite size portions. Place the balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  You should have enough of the pork mixture to make 20 to 24 pork balls depending on how small you make them.

When you are done rolling the balls you can prepare the glaze.

Here are the ingredients for the glaze

In a small bowl add the juice of a whole fresh squeezed orange, a quarter cup of hoisin sauce (I have also used oyster sauce for a more savory glaze), 1 teaspoon of rice wine vinegar, a half tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of Sriracha chile sauce, a teaspoon of sesame see oil, and a tablespoon of sesame seeds. Set half of the glaze aside for dipping later and use the other half to brush over the pork balls prior to baking.  Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake for 20 to 24 minutes depending on the size.  

To serve, break apart the leaves of a large head of Boston lettuce and place a pork ball in the middle of each leaf.  Drizzle some of the reserved glaze and sprinkle with additional sesame seeds.  Before eating, wrap the lettuce leaf around the pork ball like a tortilla and dip into the remainder of the glaze.  All that is left to do is let your taste buds take in all of the incredible layers of flavors and textures packed inside this little ball of sweet, salty, spicy, and tangy goodness!

I promise you this recipe is sure to be a big hit at any gathering you host or attend.  I hope you enjoy them as much as my family, friends and I have!                      

Bang Island Mussels with a fennel, saffron & black peppercorn broth

I chose this dish for my first post because it is one of my all time favorite appetizers and it reminds me of summer; which I think we could all use a little taste of right now.  For me it is the ultimate Maine dish. It's simple yet elegant and it is a great starter for almost any meal.  I have made these at home, over a camp fire in Moosehead and sitting on the beach at Pine Point watching the sunset on a hot Maine summer night.  This dish is so easy, you could make them just about anywhere.

These are Bang Island blue mussels farmed and harvested right here in Casco Bay.  They are some of the best in the world and you will find them on the appetizer/starter menus of many restaurants throughout the State of Maine.  There are a million different ways to prepare the broth but today I have chosen to use a few of my favorite ingredients to pair with these blue beauties.

Here I have Chinese rice wine, black pepper corns, sea salt, sweet cream butter made with sea salt, saffron, a whole sliced fennel bulb, lemon, garlic and pea shoots to garnish.

The first order of business is to clean your mussels.

I have 4 pounds of mussels that I purchased at Harbor Fish Market on Custom House Warf on Portland's waterfront.  I am cleaning them by soaking them in water and a splash of rice wine vinegar.  Any vinegar will do but I always have rice wine vinegar on hand.  I let them soak for about 10 to 15 minutes and then I rinse and remove them from the water.  I inspect them and discard any that are already open or cracked.  If they have opened or have been cracked prior to being cooked they may no longer be alive and are not safe to eat.

While the mussels soak I start to prepare my broth.  In a large dutch oven, I add 3 cups of water, a table spoon of Chinese rice wine, a table spoon of sea salt, a table spoon of  fresh cracked black pepper and a couple of pinches of the saffron threads.  A little bit of saffron goes a long way; which is perfect because it is expensive!

After rinsing and inspecting my mussels, I add them to the seasoned water and top them with the sliced fennel bulb, two cloves of garlic, a half a stick of butter, the juice and the zest of the lemon, and a little more fresh cracked pepper and sea salt.  I add these ingredients on top of the mussels rather than to the seasoned water below so that all of the flavors drip down into the mussel shells as they begin to open while being steamed.  

I cover the dutch oven and steam the mussels over medium high heat until all of the shells have opened.  With a couple of large spoons I give the mussels and other ingredients a quick toss to incorporate all of the ingredients and let them steam for a few seconds longer.  I remove the mussels from the pot and leave the broth to simmer and reduce for another 5 minutes or so.  

To serve, place a good helping of mussels into individual bowls or small crocks, ladle the broth down over the mussels in the bowl and garnish with some fresh pea shoots.  The combination of the clean crisp broth with the freshness of the pea shoots and the briny goodness of the mussels will bring just enough Maine summer to your taste buds to get you through the rest of this grueling winter.

I hope you enjoy!