Pork and Farro Improv

This is a dish I invented on the fly, and it worked.

What I Used
Two cups uncooked farro
One pound of ground pork
Two big cloves of garlic
Half of a medium-sized onion
A bit of olive oil
A bit of apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper

What I Did
1. Put farro in a three-quart pot and added four cups boiling water.  Then I put that pot on the burner on high until the water boiled again, lowered the heat to simmer, covered the pot, and set the timer for 20 minutes.

2. Stuck a standing colander in the sink.

3. Put a dutch oven on the stove, added enough oil to cover the bottom thinly, and set the heat to a low-medium.  (For enameled cookware, standard advice is to heat with the oil already added.  That's the opposite of the advice for stainless steel.)

4. Peeled and chopped the garlic into little pieces, and the onion into slightly larger pieces.

5. Put the garlic and onion in the dutch oven, and stirred until it began to turn a little bit brown.

6. Added the pork to the dutch oven and broke it up into little pieces and then stirred it and the garlic and onion until everything was light brown.  (At this point, I had a little problem because there was a lot of liquid in the bottom of the dutch oven, so that my pork was going to steam instead of browning further.  So I ran the sink tap until the water was hot, left it running, poured the pork mixture into the colander, and then poured the pork back into the dutch oven with much less liquid--and put the colander back in the sink.  The hot water protected my pipes from clogging with fat.)

7. Continued cooking until the pork was the darker brown that says "Yum.  Cooked meat."

8. Added maybe a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to the dutch oven and stirred everything around in it until it all disappeared into the meat.  I plan to experiment with adding a bit more next time I cook this.

9. Heard the timer go off on the farro and did a chew test to confirm it was nicely soft even though some water was left.

10. Poured the farro into the colander, shook the colander over the sink, and then poured all the farro into the dutch oven.

11. Stirred it all together, tasted, and added a bit of salt and fresh pepper. (For someone on a low fat diet, don't do the mixing. Let them choose the ratio of pork and farro.)

Cinnamon could be a lovely addition. 

Cinnamon with lamb in place of pork would mean heading toward Moroccan flavors. Maybe a few sliced apricots or some golden raisins cooked with the farrow would suit that?

Mushrooms could contribute, though probably not with the cinnamon option, maybe added with the pork rather than with the onion so they don't get cooked to oblivion. 

Other vinegars could be fun, and I wouldn't be surprised if wine or beer also worked nicely.  

Rice in place of farro would be great, or quinoa or bulgur.  

One more idea, imagine using the mushrooms and adding cream or half-and-half after the farro and the meat are combined.  I can't decide whether the vinegar would be a plus or a minus that way, but I'll try both next winter.

Lasagna Classic

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced

12-ounce can tomato paste
28-ounce can whole tomatoes

1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1 bay leaf

15 lasagna noodles of the kind that you boil--basically a pound.

2 eggs
pound of small curd cottage cheese with nothing else in it especially not pineapple
pound of mozzarella, diced

Jean's Cranberry Nut Bread (Half-Ahead Version)

Mom note: you could just do all the steps one after another.  This "half-ahead" approach means that you can move really quickly in the morning if you want to serve this when other folks wake up.  In preparing for company, you can do the first half before the guests arrive and still serve the bread fresh when you're ready.  It is also a great muffin recipe--but I need to figure out the cooking time for that.

Ingredients
1/4 cup frozen butter (yes, really, put a half stick in the freezer for several hours
2 cups floor
1 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking power
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon orange zest
*   *    *
3/4 cup orange juice
1 well-beaten egg
1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped nuts

The Half-Ahead Steps
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and orange zest.

Grate the butter (yes, really, grate it into little bits)

Mix the butter, a bit at a time, into the dry ingredients.

Put them all in a freezer container and seal it.

Shake really well to be sure every thing is mixed.

Put it in the freezer to use in the next month or two.

The Ready-To-Cook Steps
Preheat oven to 350.

Grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan

Put the frozen ingredients into a bowl.

Combine the egg and juice.

Add to the frozen set and mix quickly just to moisten.

Fold in the berries and nuts.

Pour into pan.

Bake for 60 minutes.

Pork following "Pollan's Second Recipe"

Ingredients:

• A pound or so of thin boneless pork chops, patted dry
• An onion, sliced thin
• Four cloves of garlic, chopped small
• Six ounces of shitake mushroom, chopped into bits no bigger than an inch square
• Half a pound of raw green beans, cut in one inch slices on the diagonal
• Grapeseed oil or another oil with a high smoke point (not olive oil or butter)
• Tablespoon of chicken Better than Bouillon
• Tablespoon of soy sauce
• Tablespoon of corn starch
• A cup of quinoa or rice or some other grain you like or have around

Steps:

• Assemble the ingredients, including measuring and chopping
• Put the grain onto cook as per its own directions and set a timer so you don't forget it.
• Measure three-quarters of a cup of water and add the Better than Bouillon and the soy sauce.
• Put half a cup or water in another cup near the stove.
• Put some of the oil in the dutch oven, and heat on the stove until it shimmers--probably a bit below maximum heat, but pretty seriously hot.
• Put one layer of pork chops in the pan and check after three or four minutes.  
• Flip when they are no longer stuck to the bottom of the pan and nicely brown on one side.
• Remove from pan when no longer stuck to the bottom and nicely brown on the other side.
• Do another round if needed.
• Add a bit more oil to the pan and heat for a few seconds
• Add the onion and garlic and stir constantly until you smell them and then a bit longer until you notice that some of the garlic is brown
• Add the green beans and stir constantly until you notice that most of them are a bit brighter green.
• Add a bit more oil and then the mushrooms, and stir constantly until you notice that most of the mushrooms are a darker brown (bonus: the onions are likely to be brown and caramelized and lovely by this time)
• Add the water and use it to deglaze the bottom (meaning scrape gently until the lovely tasty brown stuff mostly comes off the bottom and some of the water has evaporated
• Add the water-Better than Bouillon-soy sauce, stir, and then put the pork chops back in
• Lower heat and cover for maybe five minutes, and then check that you like the green beans (cook more if not, and cook more if Molly is worried about the chops being done.)
• Mix the cornstarch with three tablespoons of water
• Add that to the pot and stir until the sauce thickens nicely
• Check to see if you like the level of soy flavor (add more if not)
• Serve over the grain (you did remember to set the timer and get the grain off the heat, right?)

Meso 'Merican Magic

This is insanely good food: black beans, red quinoa, and yellow corn.  It needs two hours or even a little more, but very little work.

The ingredients are half a cup of black beans, a cup of red quinoa, three cobs of corn, and maybe a small onion and maybe some whole cloves, and a bit of salt.

The Black Bean Part:

• Put half a cup of black beans beans in a pot with enough water to cover, plus an inch
• Bring to a boil
• Remove from heat and wait an hour
• Drain and rinse
• Put back in the pot with enough water to cover, plus an inch, again
• Peel a small onion but don't cut it.  Stick some cloves in the onion. Or don't.  Or don't even do the onion
• Bring to boil, lower heat to a simmer, and cover
• In half an hour, bite one bean to see if it's done
• From then on, use timer to remember to check every ten minutes until done
• Drain (throw away onion and clove if they happened at all)

The Red Quinoa Part (starts after the beans have been cooking for half an hour):

• Rinse a cup of red quinoa
• Put it in a pot with two cups of water
• Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, and cover
• Cook for 15 minutes
• Check to see if the little white rings have appeared (If not, cook a bit longer and check again)
• Check to see if there's water left (If so, drain off the extra)
• Put the lid back on and let it sit for ten minutes to get fluffier

The Yellow Corn Part (starts when you cover the simmering quinoa)

• Peel three corn cobs and break them in half
• Place in a pot with enough boiling water to cover, plus an inch
• Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, and cover
• Cook for five minutes
• Drain
• Cut corn off the cobs.

• Alternative: open a can of vaccuum packed yellow corn

The Combining Part:

• Combine
• Add a little salt

Chicken following "Pollan's second recipe."

Ingredient:

• a pound of chicken boneless chicken thigh, cut into cubes of about an inch
• three cloves of garlic, minced
• one onion, chopped up small
• about a quarter pound of mushrooms
• about half a pound of snow peas
• grapeseed oil (though only because my olive oil bottle was empty)
• a teaspoon of “Better than Boullon” stirred into half a cup of water
• the juice of a lemon, squeezed into the water with the bouillon
• a tablespoon of cornstarch, stirred into three tablespoons of water
• some farro, cooked according to its directions, which are the familiar one cup with two cups water brought to boil and simmered twenty minutes--but rice, guinoa, or anything else that cooks like that will work as well.

Process

• Get the farro started
• Heat the oil in a dutch oven (or big frying pan)
• Brown the chicken pieces at a moderately high temperature in two batches and move to a plate
• Lower the temperature a bit, add the garlic and stir until you can smell it, add the onion and stir until it gets kind of soft, add the mushrooms and a little more oil and stir until they darken a bit.
• Add the liquid and use it to deglaze the bottom of the pan (meaning scrape it gently to get most of the brown bits of flavor to come loose)
• Add the chicken, cover, and simmer for about ten minutes.
• Add the snow peas and simmer for another two or three minutes.
• Add the cornstarch mixed with water and stir until the sauce thickens.
• Serve over the farro or other grain

Footnotes:

• The Michael Pollan part is "Roots browned in fat, then simmered with protein, vegetables, and liquid."  In Cooked, he has great fun working through world cuisines as separated mainly by the choice of which roots: carrot-onion-celery is French, but onion-garlic is Italian and scallion-ginger means you're in Pacific Asia.  It's kind of a master rule that allows for infinite variations based on what looks good at the store or what has been in the fridge long enough that it probably should be cooked tonight.
• I originally planned to use soy sauce rather than lemon juice, but found my jar had vanished. Then I looked for white wine, and had none of that in the pantry.  Lemon was my third choice--a sign of how flexible the recipe really is.   It could also be done with pork.  Or beef.  Probably shrimp.  Certainly broccoli if added a a few minutes sooner.  Or whole green beans.  Or whole chicken thighs and allowed to simmer another ten minutes before adding the vegetables.  If I didn't have soy sauce or wine or lemon juice, I'd probably add some parsley or thyme to the water and bouillon.

• Pollan's first recipe is basically dead animal over slow fire watched by a group of people (often all male) consuming some fermented liquid.

Quick Chicken, Mushrooms, and Rice

This happened this evening, starting with a Martha Stewart recipe and adjusting for ingredients on hand. Since Rebecca approved, I'm making sure I can do it again.

Ingredients
One pound of skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
A cup of white rice

Eight ounces of mushrooms, sliced

Half an onion, diced
Three tablespoons butter, divided into one tbsp and two to use at different moments
One tablespoon olive oil
A tablespoon of dried thyme
A teaspoon of "Better than Bouillon"
Three cups water ready to be heated in your nice countertop kettle

Steps
Turn on the kettle.

Check all your ingredients and do any final chopping.

Put the rice into a pot and use the same cup to measure two cups of water when it boils.  Put pan on the stove over low heat, cover it, and set timer to 20 minutes.

Heat the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a skillet or dutch oven.  Check that it's ready for the meat by dropping a tiny piece in and being sure it sizzles.

Add half the meat, turning it once a minute until it's a pale brown all over and a nicer looking brown in spots.  Remove that meat to a plate.  Repeat with the second half of the meat, including removal.

Add the other two tablespoons of butter and push them around until mostly melted.  Add the onions and stir for half a minute. Add the mushrooms, spread them around pretty evenly, and then stir roughly once a minute for about five minutes.

While the mushrooms brown, put another half cup of hot water in the measuring cup and add the "Better than Bouillon" and the thyme to it. Stir well.

Add the liquid to the mushrooms and onions, stirring well and gently scraping the pan bottom to get the beautiful brown flavor-filled stuff down there to merge into the liquid.  Cook that on medium for two minutes.

Add back the chicken, stir everything together, turn the heat to very low and give it about ten minutes to all merge nicely into shared flavor and matching heat.  Check once to be sure the liquid isn't disappearing, but you don't need much of it since you'll use it mainly to flavor the rice.

Put rice in bowls, add a share of the chicken and other ingredients and enjoy.

(First time through, I actually started with the world's simplest salad: a pile of spinach, a quick drizzle of olive oil, and a  quick little bit of ground salt.  I ate that while the chicken finished, then put the rice and chicken in the same bowl.)

(Martha Stewart used fresh thyme, didn't use the onions, and replaced half the bouillon and water with white wine.  I suspect that would be at least as good.)