Recipe: Maghmour (Lebanese Moussaka)

Posted on August 25, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Maghmour

Maghmour (Lebanese moussaka).

Maghmour (Lebanese Moussaka) is quite different from the Greek moussaka most of us are familiar with. Turns out there are many versions of moussaka through the middle east and the Greek version is a French/Greek hybrid introduced in the 20th century. This one came from the Forks & Foliage blog and it’s delicious for its rich tomato flavor and the textural pleasure of slightly crunchy chickpeas combined with tender eggplant and an intense sauce. Makes about 3 cups.

Ingredients:

For the eggplant:
2 medium eggplants, about 2 lbs
1 t Kosher salt
¼ c extra virgin olive oil

For the sauce:
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
10 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
Kosher salt
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and cored and coarsely chopped
1 ½ c tomato sauce
1 c cooked chickpeas
Fresh cracked black pepper, a generous crank of the peppermill, maybe ½ t
Dried mint (optional)
Cinnamon (optional)
Cayenne or chili powder (optional)
Allspice (optional)
Chopped flat leaf parsley for garnish

Maghmour in Pot

You want the Maghmour to cook down to the point liquid has been fully absorbed but the dish is not dry.

Method: preheat oven to 425 degrees. Using a peeler, zebra stripe the eggplants into alternate peeled and unpeeled strips. Cut into 1 inch cubes. Toss with oil and salt and spread out on a sheet pan. Cook in oven 25 minutes or until tender.

While eggplant is roasting, make the sauce. Heat olive oil in an oven-proof pan and sauté onion and garlic over medium heat until translucent but not brown or crispy, 5-8 minutes. Mix in chickpeas, tomato, tomato sauce and spices including any optional spices.

Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees. Add baked eggplant to other ingredients in the pan and mix thoroughly. Heat the pan in the oven for 20 minutes until the sauce has reduced. Cool and serve cold or at room temperature with pita or crusty bread and other mezze, adding a garnish of chopped parsley if you like.

About the optional spices: there are many versions of this recipe online, most adding cinnamon and possibly allspice, some with a touch of heat, some with the additional element of dried mint. I kept mine simple for the first batch and I’m glad I did because I had some really excellent tomatoes. But this dish is a keeper and I will try variations in the future.

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Recipe: Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp

Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp

Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp comes from the excellent onolicious blog, which we’ve visited in the past. Kathy points out this is actually “local” fusion food rather than a traditional Hawaiian dish, but she uses that name because it’s what people are looking for and so do we. Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp is served from competing food trucks at a famous surfing outpost on Oahu and the competition is really about how much garlic you can use with the eater coming out a winner. Makes 4 servings, or 1 maybe.

Ingredients:
1 lb peel and eat shrimp from the supermarket (the ones that have the veins removed but not shells)
¼ c chopped garlic cloves, about 1 head of peeled garlic, or maybe more!
4 T butter
2 T flour: all-purpose, rice or mochiko
1 t paprika
1/4 t cayenne
1 t Kosher salt
1 T olive oil

Method: sauté chopped garlic in butter until it is soft and fragrant but NOT crispy. Pat the shrimp dry and dredge in a mixture of flour, salt, paprika and cayenne. Heat olive oil in a second skillet (or use the same skillet, reserving the shrimp and butter to a bowl) and cook shrimp until crisp and pink, 2 minutes or so per side. Combine with garlic butter, toss to combine, and serve over rice.

Hawaiian Shrimp Skillet

Shrimp a-sizzlle!

*Mochiko flour is the stuff used for making Japanese mochi dumplings. It’s ground from glutinous “sticky” rice. Use if you have it but regular rice flour (which we used) or all-purpose flour should be find since it’s simply a medium for breading.

“DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO EAT THE SHELLS?” A chain serving this dish in mainland shopping malls has very low Yelp ratings because they don’t remove the shells before serving. Breaded and seasoned, the shells are delicious! Try it and feel free to de-shell (or remove the tail) while eating.

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Recipe: Jacques Pepin Vinaigrette

Posted on August 17, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Jacques Pepin Vinaigrette

Jacques Pepin Vinaigrette, deconstructed.

Jacques Pepin Vinaigrette came from his very entertaining Facebook channel. Frustratingly, there’s no way to locate specific recipes but if you scroll through the feed you’ll find some gems, like this old episode of Jacques and Julia Child making hamburgers. (She called him “Jack” and yes, she was fluent in French.) But back to the recipe, he uses less vinegar than we would but the extra mustard more than offsets the extra oil for a very nice balance. Makes enough to dress a large family size salad.

Ingredients:
1 t garlic, very finely chopped
1 t good Dijon mustard
¼ t Kosher salt
Couple grinds black pepper
1 T red wine vinegar
4 T good olive oil

Summer Salad Jacques Pepin

Summer salad with red onion, fennel bulb, shiso, cherry tomato dressed with Jacques Pepin Vinaigrette.

Method: chop the garlic on a cutting board, then sprinkle salt on top and grind the flat of a chef’s knife against it to break garlic down further; use the edge of the knife to slide salt and garlic into a bowl. Add other ingredients and whisk thoroughly to combine. Build your salad on top of this, toss, and add garnishes as desired.

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Recipe: Lamb Curry (Rogan Josh)

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Lamb Curry

Lamb Curry (Rogan Josh).

Lamb Curry (Rogan Josh) comes from the generally excellent Indian Instant Pot Cookbook and has a pleasing combination of warm spices. However, I very nearly burned it because the recipe does not have enough liquid to generate pressure. (Most IP users say you need a minimum of 1 cup of water; some say 1 ½ c if using a larger size Instant Pot.) Solution: cook it in a Dutch oven or slow cooker. Makes 4 servings and can be doubled for a crowd.

Ingredients:
1 c onion, chopped
2 t garlic, chopped
1 t ginger, grated or fine chopped
½ c Greek yoghurt*
2 T tomato paste
1 t paprika
1 t Garam Masala
1 t salt
½ t ground turmeric
½ t ground cinnamon
¼ t grated nutmeg
¼ t cayenne pepper
1 lb boneless lamb, cut into 1 inch cubes

Method: combine all ingredients except lamb and mix well. Add lamb and toss thoroughly to combine. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. Cook over low heat in Dutch oven or slow cooker until lamb is very tender, at least 2 hours. Serve Lamb Curry (Rogan Josh) with rice.

*The Indian Instant Pot Cookbook recipe had 1/2 c yogurt and 1/2 c water.

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Recipe: Onion Jam

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Onion Jam

Onion Jam.

I wanted to reproduce the Divina Onion Jam I bought at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco and was mostly successful. This stuff is intense; use it sparingly on a sandwich or serve on a charcuterie plate with a nice runny brie. Makes 1 cup maybe.

Ingredients:
2 large onions, peeled and sliced thin to yield 4 c sliced onions
¼ c neutral oil
Kosher salt, a generous pinch
Black pepper, a few grinds
¼ c white sugar
1/3 c vinegar: red wine, balsamic, distilled or a combination
2 bay leaves (optional)
Sprig of rosemary (optional)
Sprig of thyme (optional

Method: heat oil in a cast iron skillet and sauté onions at medium heat, stirring frequently. They will wilt, then gradually turn light brown as they caramelize. Regulate heat so the onions do not crisp. When they have reduced by half, move onions to the edges of the skillet and add sugar in the middle. In a few minutes it will begin to bubble then turn light brown as it caramelizes. Stir as needed to keep sugar from sticking or burning.

Divina Onion Jam

This is the jam I was attempting to duplicate. It’s lighter in color because they used distilled (i.e. white) vinegar. It’s about $8.50 on Amazon which is not a bad price when you see how much your onions will cook down.

Toss to combine onions and sugar and add salt and pepper and optional herbs. Add vinegar and fold into the onion mix. It will reduce gradually. Turn off the heat and fold some of the onion over the herbs to absorb their flavor; leave the pan on the warm stove till the liquid has evaporated. Remove the herbs and serve the onion jam immediately or transfer to a storage container. It should keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

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My cole slaw obsession (and frustration)

Posted on August 1, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Russell Cole Slaw

Russell’s Deli in Ballston Spa, NY feeds my cole slaw obsession with a serving that’s perfect in size and flavor balance.

Long term readers know I have a deep and abiding relationship with cole slaw, bordering on obsession. One of the most popular recipes on this site is the garlicky Vincent’s cole slaw that was served at a sadly departed Dallas seafood place. I tried for years (and am still trying) to duplicate the sour slaw served at the Highland Park Cafeteria. When you get me wound up, I will tell you that cole slaw (and cabbage in general) is a miraculous and almost perfect food.

But when I order cole slaw in a restaurant or fast food place, that obsession often leads to frustration.

Obviously, when coleslaw is available, I will request it. (If a sandwich or entree comes with a side of french fries, I will ask if I can substitute cole slaw.) And the experience leaves me disappointed just as often as I am delighted. The first problem is portion size. Many places unashamedly serve you cole slaw in a 2 oz condiment cup and advertise it as a salad included with the meal or charge extra for what should be considered a no-fee condiment. A proper serving should be the size of an 8 oz container, loosely filled, which amounts to about 1/3 pound.

Deli counters let you choose your portion size but can ding you on price. At today’s prices, cabbage and carrots (which typically appear in the commercial mixes) are both under a dollar a pound. How much should I pay you to chop, mix and dress it for me? I’ll spend up to $5 per pound without a second thought, but my town has one place that gets $7.49 and another $9.95 a pound. And we’re not talking NYC overhead here.

New Way Cole Slaw

This serving of coleslaw from New Way Lunch in Glens Falls, NY is lovely to look at but tastes like it came from a processed tub.

Plus, a surprising number of places do not know how to make coleslaw. It’s either underseasoned (a good fast food cole slaw needs the right amount of salt and a pinch of sugar) or dipped out of a processed tub. I happen to like those supermarket tubs and buy them occasionally, but don’t want to pay an up charge for you to dip it for me.

I like to keep an eye out for foodservice ingredients when I am standing in the ordering queue, and I believe I have seen a Hans Kissle cole slaw dressing at more than one establishment. It is not currently on their website, so maybe I am mistaken or perhaps you need a secret code to order. But these places dish up the proper foodservice cole slaw I am looking for.

There is also a Hans Kissle cole slaw sold in prepackaged tubs, just like my local supermarket’s house brands, but there are no outlets locally where I can buy it. (Once upon a time I found a special on mini-cups and liked them, but the store that had them doesn’t today.) Hans Kissle’s headquarters are in Haverhill, MA somewhere north of Boston so maybe it’s time for a road trip.

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Trader Joe’s Premium Peeled Garlic

Posted on July 29, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Trader Joe Peeled Garlic

Trader Joe’s Premium Peeled Garlic. Fresh package on the left, 3-month old package on the right.

I use a lot of garlic when I cook. I hate peeling garlic. Ergo, I use already-peeled garlic cloves. I have tried several brands from Asian markets and also the Spice World brand, which is sold at my local big box store. The price is great, currently $4 for a pound of the Spice World. But the cloves start to deteriorate as soon as the package is opened and by the time I’m halfway through most of the cloves are moldy. Of course I’m too cheap to just throw them away at that point, but trying to find usable cloves among moldy ones is not a lot of fun.

Trader Joe Peeled Garlic

A closer look at a sealed packet of Trader Joe’s garlic. No mold!

Recently I was traveling and picked up a package of Trader Joe’s Premium Peeled Garlic. I’m a fan! It’s $2.49 for only 4 ounces which does not sound like the kind of thing a cheapskate would go for, but I brought the remainder home with me and am still using it three months later. The package contains several smaller packets of a few garlic cloves each, sealed in what is not quite a vacuum pack but definitely has had some air removed and maybe neutral gas pumped in? (No, they’d have to say that on the label.) That’s why the garlic can stay fresh, though the cloves are viable for a while if you have leftovers after the little packet is opened.

Trader Joe’s Premium Peeled Garlic is “grown in California” which is a bonus if you’re concerned about buying fresh food from an overseas source that has reached your produce shelf at the end of a long journey. Look for it among the refrigerated items in the produce section.

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Food for Thought: What’s Annie Cooking

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Annie Tuna Salad

Mom’s tuna salad from What’s Annie Cooking.

What’s Annie Cooking is a hobbyist food blog written by Annie Slocum, a home cook in Denver who says she was heavily influenced by time living in San Francisco. She loves to read and collect cookbooks, and the typical recipe is one in which she borrows from a cookbook (with credit) and adds her own variations.

Annie Curry Shortbread

Curried Shortbreads from What’s Annie Cooking.

The recipes are really appealing and match the flavor sensibility of Burnt My Fingers readers (at least this one) quite nicely. We discovered the blog searching for the recipe for Annie Somerville’s corn stock in Fields of Greens (our own copy is in a box somewhere after a move) and found her recipe for the stock on its own, then converted to Green Corn Soup.  Next up was her mother’s tuna salad which includes frozen peas, stuffed olives, hard boiled eggs and chopped nuts… a winner. We are also tempted by Curry Shortbreads which are just what it sounds like… a savory treat like classic shortbread but with curry flavors.

Annie is not very prolific: she posted one recipe in July 2023 and one in June after a hiatus since March 2023. But the blog has been going on a long time, back to 2011, so there’s plenty to choose from. Maybe if we try some of these recipes, and comment on them, she will post more often. Check it out!

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In search of the elusive chuck eye steak

Posted on July 20, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Chuck Roll Schematic

To find the elusive chuck eye steak, look for a roast matching the configuration of Rib 5.

I was lucky in my experiment breaking down a chuck roast that I got one with a nice chuck eye steak included. This is by no means guaranteed. According to this source, there are no more than 2-3 chuck eye steaks per side and you can expect that some of these will be harvested and sold as such. That’s one reason the chuck roasts I saw on sale were so mysterious to me: couldn’t find the elusive chuck eye steak because it wasn’t there.

Also lucky, this week Certified Angus boneless chuck roasts dropped to an irresistible $3.99 a pound at my local market. You can’t go wrong at that price because if you don’t get the cuts you want you will still have some nice stew meat or you can turn the scraps into a pot roast. I took the attached diagram from Texas A&M to my butcher case and spent a good hour perusing the roasts (to the irritation of the butcher who was restocking).

It’s now clear I’m looking for a roast with a cradle of fat and a clear separation below a steak at the top. I’d lucked into such a roast previously and found another today. A roast without such delineation is going to be from further forward on the animal and will provide some good eating (the roast I grabbed yesterday somehow yielded a nice flatiron) but not the elusive chuck eye.

If you want to research further, here is the scholarly article that yielded the above diagram. This article ranks beef muscles for tenderness. This industry fact sheet has another tenderness ranking. (The longissimus, which makes up the chuck eye steak, is oddly not among them.) Or you could just do what I did: buy a bunch of meat, get out your knife and your cutting board, and dig in.

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Breaking down a chuck roast

Posted on July 14, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Chuck Roast

This is the chuck roast we’re breaking down. Note the seam between the eye and the denver where we’ve already pulled it loose by hand.

I used to sell meat for a living (Allen Brothers, Niman Ranch mail order) yet for the life of me I cannot reliably break down a larger cut of beef. Part of the problem is that the roasts marketed by butchers tend to be irregular and look nothing like the neat diagrams you might find on a website like Certified Angus Beef; the best stuff is separated into steaks and chops and the roast is what’s left over.

But, with spare ribs $10.99 a pound (bones included), chuck eye steaks $7.99 and boneless chuck roast $5.99 a pound at my local supermarket, it was time to give breaking down a chuck roast a try. With the roast pictured above (this is a crosswise cut looking toward the front of the animal) it’s easy to visualize it being attached to its more costly neighbors, the rib eye and the short ribs. You can see the chuck eye in the middle, and at least one denver (the butcher’s term for boneless short ribs) at the bottom. At the very top is the (not at all tender) mock tender and that long piece at the bottom might or might not qualify as a second denver.

Chuck Roast Separated

Chuck roast, separated.

And here’s what we got after we broke it down. At the top is the chuck eye, which we immediately fried up and enjoyed. Below that are the two denvers. At the right are the mock tender and other bits that will go into stew or be ground into burgers. The very modest amount of fat and silver skin (from the top of the denver) which we removed is at bottom right.

Next time I might try a bone-in chuck roast, which is in some ways more difficult but also easier because the bone gives you a reference point. I am inspired by the Bearded Butchers videos on TikTok, though lately they’ve been into waygu and various gadget cuts. How about you?

 

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