Tag Archives: cooking for the week

Caldo Verde: Portuguese Greens Soup

Caldo Verde

Another old but excellent and easy one-pot standby, this hearty soup makes a regular appearance at our table every couple of months or so.  As with many of these kinds of peasant soups and stews, there are an infinite number of variations.  I believe at a minimum, the soup calls for some sort of green (kale, collards and cabbage are most common in the recipes I’ve seen cited); some sort of starch – usually potato; some form of allium – onion and or garlic; and finally, sausage.  This time I used broccoli rabe (for the first time ever) and while it turned out delicious, perhaps sticking with sturdier greens is preferable.   I also add tomato (which is not classic) since I like the acidity that comes from this component; other recipes that don’t include tomato sometimes call for the addition of a few spoonfuls of vinegar.  Finally, in this last go-round I eschewed potatoes and included a cupful of pearled (fast cooking) farro. Continue reading →

Share

Pork and Clams – Surf and Turf

Porco com Amêijoas à Alentejana

Surf and Turf.  Land and sea.  Mar y montagña.  A classic pairing that seems to always work so well… I’ve loved this dish for a while now, having stumbled upon the recipe posted on Leite’s Culinaria several years ago… but this dish it seems, has a long and venerable history, originating out of the Alentejo region in Portugal.  The best description I’ve read of the region comes from this personal account by Miguel de Almeida at West Coast Cooking.  His recipe is slightly different from the one I used; indeed, there seems to be an infinite number of variations one can take with this beautiful dish.  At its base it’s hearty, easy and comforting; however, it doesn’t quite work well if you want to gin up a quick weeknight meal.  You want a bit of time for prep and leaving the pork ample time to bathe in its marinade (overnight is ideal), so it’s probably best to attempt this over a weekend or when you’ve got some time.

Oh – and you’ll want to use some sort of stew pot or large-ish dutch oven for this dish. Continue reading →

Share

Tonjiru and Nanohana

Tonjiru and Nanohana, Rice and Pickles

The Asian recipe for this week is Tonjiru – or, Japanese pork and miso soup with root  vegetables.  I’ve made it a couple of times and love its ease, tastiness and generally healthy (are pork belly and “healthy” allowed in the same context?) contents.   I also like this soup since it’s so flexible, and you can add or subtract ingredients to your liking and taste.  For instance, the version below uses sato imo, or taro root instead of potatoes, and omits goubou (burdock root). Instead of just using Akamiso (red miso), add a little of the sweeter Shiromiso (white miso) for balance.  Also, the amounts below are estimates, so please adjust as necessary.   The rest of the meal included nanohana no karashi, or broccoli rabe/ rape flower with mustard dressing, rice of course, and pickles. Continue reading →

Share

Spring Morel Dinner

Farro with Morels and Spring Vegetables

Those of you who know us are aware that DD’s been an avid mushroom forager for a couple of years now.  Through our friend Brian, DD became the proud owner of the seminal Mushrooms Demystified, Mycologist David Arora’s 976-page tome on possibly everything you may want or wish to know about mushrooms in the U.S.A., with a focus on the West Coast.  DD also has Arora’s pocket-book-sized version, All the Rain Promises and More, and has liked it so much as an introduction to mushroom study that he’s given it as a gift on several occasions.  Over the past 2.5 years, my husband has lovingly and obsessively pored over these now dog-eared books, and is pretty much able to identify many fungi based on observed characteristics (cap colour, kinds of gills, whether it stains when bruised, smell, etc.).  DD has successfully foraged for our favourites – Porcini, Chanterelles, black trumpet mushrooms, even Matsutake and many other not-so-prized specimens in-between.  Morels have been his white whale, and until this past weekend, efforts to find them have proved sorely unfruitful.  But, thanks to Hank Shaw of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, DD finally struck morel gold on Saturday. Continue reading →

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Share