Cure COVID with cabbage?

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Asian Slaw

Can you cure COVID with cabbage? I dunno, but this impromptu Asian slaw came out pretty good.

The other day I needed something healthy and crunchy to go with the last of my Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork. So I pulled a half head of cabbage out of the refrigerator, shredded it on the coarsest side of the box grater, added a little ginger and garlic, some chopped jalapeños for heat and carrots for color, then mixed up a dressing with 1 T cider vinegar (couldn’t find the rice vinegar), 1 T fish sauce, 1 T toasted sesame oil, 2 T neutral oil and salt and white pepper to taste. It was delicious and would have been even better if I could have let it mellow a couple of hours but one of my quarantine cohorts had eaten it by then.

A couple days earlier I was cooking Chinese and made some Hand-Torn Sichuan Cabbage with the first half of that head. I should add that these dishes provide almost instant satisfaction through their ease of preparation, though in most cases they get better with age. And have I mentioned sauerkraut?

My point is this. You’ve got enough on your plate to also have to worry about salad greens wilting or not getting enough roughage in your diet. Just eat cabbage with every meal!

As we mentioned way back in 2012, cabbage is a miracle foodstuff in its versatility and adaptability. “Here is a vegetable that is cheap, available everywhere year round, and prevents cancer. What more could you want, for God’s sake? You don’t even have to wash it; just peel away the top layer and you’re good to go.” Can you cure COVID with cabbage? I don’t see why not.

Over the years our love of cabbage has only grown more profound, as you can discover by doing a search for “cabbage” and “cole slaw” in the sidebar. We like to stock up at St. Patrick’s day when it’s on sale, and a head will be good for a couple of months once you remove the outer leaves, but even at a regular price of a buck a pound or so it’s far more economical than salad greens.

We’ll close with the analogy to the friendly character called the Schmoo, in the classic L’il Abner comic strip, which we cited in the earlier post. To quote Wikipedia, “Shmoos are delicious to eat, and are eager to be eaten. If a human looks at one hungrily, it will happily immolate itself—either by jumping into a frying pan, after which they taste like chicken, or into a broiling pan, after which they taste like steak. When roasted they taste like pork, and when baked they taste like catfish. (Raw, they taste like oysters on the half-shell.)”

Shmoos are imaginary, but cabbage is almost as good and it’s real.

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Recipe: Mom’s Meatloaf

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Moms Meatloaf

Mom’s Meatloaf is good pandemic food because it’s easy to make, hard to screw up, and you’ll probably end up with leftovers for several meals.

Maybe we should call this Many Moms Meatloaf because it combines a number of best practices from around the internet. Feel free to make your own adaptations. Carrots are non-traditional and you can leave them out if you don’t enjoy their crunch, which persists through cooking. Add some sautéed mushrooms if you like. But do be sure to try the glaze which is what ketchup wants to be when it grows up. Makes 8-10 servings.

Ingredients:
2 lb ground chuck or other ground beef with no more than 15% fat content
1 c dry bread crumbs
½ c whole milk
1 egg, beaten
1 c chopped onion
½ c diced carrot
½ c chopped celery
1 T Worcestershire sauce
¾ t Kosher salt
¼ t ground black pepper
For the glaze:
¼ cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
1 T red wine vinegar

Method: preheat oven to 375 degrees. Soak bread crumbs in milk until absorbed. Mix all ingredients except glaze in a large bowl and transfer to a loaf plan or 9×9 inch baking pan. Smooth the top; mix glaze ingredients and evenly distribute. Bake uncovered 55 minutes. Remove from oven and let the meatloaf rest a few minutes before slicing into servings with a spatula.

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Recipe: MaryLou Whitney Cheese Wafers

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers

MaryLou Whitney Cheese Wafers are the creation of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, the gracious woman who was the queen of social life in Saratoga Springs until her passing in 2019 at the age of 93. This recipe was found in a celebrity cookbook by a reader of Steve Barnes’ Tablehopping column. It is presented, as Rod Serling said on the Twilight Zone, for your consideration. We think it is a bit flour-y and could use an egg for binding, a bit of salt and Tabasco, a little longer in the oven at a lower temperature, and maybe a spritz of chopped chives. But the recipe does showcase the potato chip, which of course was invented in Saratoga, and that’s the most important thing. Makes about 20 wafers.

Ingredients:
1 c very sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 stick barely melted butter
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c potato chips (a generic brand, not Saratoga Chips), crushed

MaryLou Whitney Cheese Wafers

MaryLou Whitney Cheese Wafers

Method: combine grated cheese and butter; add flour, then fold in crushed potato chips and mix thoroughly. Shape into 1 inch balls then space them out on an ungreased half-sheet pan. Using a fork, press each wafer flat. Bake in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. “Delicious when served hot with soup, or hot or cold as hors d’oeuvres.”

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Recipe: Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork

Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork, with a spritz of Chili Vinegar

This is the comforting, salty-sweet dish everybody loves, adapted to make Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork. (If you don’t have an Instant Pot you can slow-cook the pork in a crockpot or dutch oven.) It’s actually a bit mild for our taste, but we solve the problem with generous amounts of Chili Vinegar or Nam Pla Prik Manao Kratiem (Thai Crack Sauce). Makes quite a few servings, perhaps 10-12 when served over rice.

Ingredients:
Pork shoulder or leg roast, 4-6 lbs
2 T neutral oil for sautéing
8 or more garlic cloves, chopped
4 or more coriander roots, chopped (use coriander stems if you don’t have roots)
3 cloves
2 whole star anise
¾ t white pepper
1 stick cinnamon
8 slices galangal (Thai ginger, optional)
½ t fennel seeds
2 T soy sauce
2 T oyster sauce
2 T fish sauce
2 t five spice powder
¼ c brown sugar
1-2 c water
Approx 2 T additional fish sauce, to correct seasoning
Approx 2 T lime juice, to correct seasoning
Salt to taste, about a t

Method: Heat oil in Instant Pot on Sauté setting. Cut pork into several large chunks (maybe 3 inches square). Brown in batches, including the meat attached to the bone if there is one. Reserve. Briefly sauté garlic and coriander root and spices until aromatic. Return pork to the pot and add soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Add water; you can use as little as 1 c but we like to use 2 c so the meat will have more contact with the sauce, then cook it down after. Seal and cook on high pressure with natural release 50 minutes if you want pork chunks that hang together, 60 minutes if you want something close to pulled pork.

Coriander Root

Coriander Root. This are longer than usual. The fibrous ends aren’t edible but can be used for flavoring.

When pork is cool enough to handle, remove it from the pot. Strain off as much fat as you like (there will be a lot of fat) with a ladle or by cooling in refrigerator till fat becomes solid. Simmer the juice in a pan (or just return to Instant Pot) till reduced by half. (Skip this step if you used just 1 c water to begin with.) Strain out solids and taste; you may like it just the way it is but we add a bit of lime juice, fish juice and salt at this point.

Unless pork is falling-apart tender, cut it into approx 1 inch bite size pieces. Heat the pork and sauce together in a wok (or do it in stages on the Sauté setting of IP) till it crisps on the edges. Serve hot, over rice.

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Recipe: Thai Chili Vinegar

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Thai Chil Vinegar

Thai Chili Vinegar, made with chopped jalapeños

Thai Chili Vinegar is the white liquid with chili slices floating that’s on the table in every Thai restaurant. It’s a simpler, quicker cousin of our Nam Pla Prik Manao Kratiem (Thai Crack Sauce). Makes half a cup, enough for a group to enjoy with a Thai meal.

Ingredients:
½ c distilled white vinegar
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
one jalapeño or three serrano chilis
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

Method: chop chilis if using jalapeños, slice into thin rounds if using serranos. Add other ingredients and mix well. Serve over roast meats like Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork. Can be used immediately, but the flavor will deepen a bit if you let it sit overnight.

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Quarantining with the Colonel

Posted on May 21, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Kentucky Fried Chicken

Quarantining with the Colonel: how to make your own KFC chicken at home.

Fried chicken is good food for times of self-isolation. It’s crunchy, greasy, bad for you and just as tasty (we think) cold as it is hot. That’s why a lot of folks are quarantining with the Colonel with a takeout box in their fridge. But even better, why not use some of the time on your hands and improve on the originals?

Three bean salad KFC style

Three bean salad KFC style (plus bonus garbanzos)

We have often revisited classic KFC recipes on Burnt My Fingers and some are among our most popular posts. Start with The Colonel’s KFC Bean Salad which makes canned vegetables taste amazingly good and is definitely, unarguably better than the original (since KFC no longer has it on the menu).

Better than KFC Coleslaw

Better-than-KFC buttermilk cole slaw

Also an improvement on the Colonel’s recipe is our Better-than-KFC Cole Slaw, where the secret ingredient is a reduction in sugar. (It’s still pretty sweet.) And if you’re still quarantining on New Year’s Eve (god forbid) try our variation on the bean salad called KFC-Style Black Eyed Pea Salad (AKA Kentucky Caviar).

And what about the chicken itself? It turns out that a cousin to Colonel Sanders (the real one, not the too-young imitation in today’s TV ads) shared the original recipe for the 11 herbs and spices with a local paper. We mixed some up and yep, it’s the real deal. In fact, the way this story quickly disappeared makes us think Yum Brands (the Chinese company that today owns KFC) realized that protesting or suing the guy would only expand its coverage. Mix up a batch and you can have Better-than-KFC chicken (because it will be fresher, and you’ll probably use a better quality chicken product) on demand, plus get creative with other proteins like our Kentucky Short Ribs.

We haven’t tried to duplicate the KFC biscuits which are unctuous but generic (if you like biscuits with your chicken, use butter instead of whatever is in the KFC product and you’ll be pleasantly surprised). And we’re staying far away from those awful potatoes and gravy.

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Highland Park Cafeteria is closed for good

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Outside the Highland Park Cafeteria... good luck finding a handicap spot

Highland Park Cafeteria is closed for good.

We dreaded going on their website, because we feared we would find that Highland Park Cafeteria is closed for good. Their clientele, after all, is very close to the profile of nursing home residents who have been hard hit by COVID-19. And sure enough, “we are saddened to let our loyal customers and community know that Highland Park Cafeteria will not be re-opening.”

To step back, Highland Park Cafeteria has been a tradition in our family for well over 50 years. We don’t get back to Dallas that often but always stopped in when we did. The current management did a wonderful job of restoring the institution to past glory, including a live piano player at peak hours and staff to help you get your pepper sauce if you could not do so yourself.

We’ve written about its history and made our best guesses about their recipes including the squash casserole which is one of the most popular posts on Burnt My Fingers, year in and year out. So it’s good to know that “we are safeguarding the secret family recipes, all 932 of them. So, making no promises — but who knows? Zucchini Muffins may one day make a comeback!”

Portraits of the Presidents at Highland Park Cafeteria

The portraits of the Presidents are lot #50 in the online auction.

But in the meantime, the physical assets of HPC are being auctioned off online. There are many individual lots of tables, chairs and banquettes so you could recreate the dining environment in your home if you wish. The framed pictures of the Presidents are auctioned as a single lot, #50, with a retail value of $6000. These are not the original portraits commissioned by Mrs. Dewey Goodman; those were donated to Highland Park High School when HPC closed the first time, but the replacements have educated and inspired folks waiting in line for decades now.

“One final word – Highland Park Cafeteria is not just tables and chairs and stoves. It is generations of cooks faithfully preparing special recipes and lovingly serving generations of diners.” That’s from the farewell message on the website. If you would like to say thank you, or just maybe pry loose a favorite recipe, email hpcafe2020@gmail.com.

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My first porchetta

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
My First Porchetta

My first porchetta. Potatoes are added ttoward the end, so they can crisp in the delicious pork fat.

A whole pork belly had been languishing in our downstairs freezer for way too long. With no big gatherings on the horizon, it was time to make my first porchetta. And it proved surprisingly easy and successful.

Porchetta is a rolled-up, skin-on pork belly with something delicious inside. As it cooks, the fat renders while the skin becomes a crispy-crackly treat. If you have a good relationship with a butcher, the interior might be loin meat still attached to the belly. More typically, a partial loin of appropriate size is trimmed to fit inside the belly when it is rolled up. Perhaps that loin will be butterflied and stuffed with fennel fronds, broccoli rabe or even orange peels. But it’s possible your belly will have enough meat left on that you can simply score it, season it, roll it and serve an all-belly porchetta.

Taverna Novo Style Porchetta

We served our porchetta in the style of Taverna Novo, our favorite local restaurant, with potatoes in the center of the all-belly slice and some arugula in tart vinaigrette on the top.

That’s what we planned to do with our 12-pound belly from Rolf’s Pork Store in Albany, NY. But as it was curing (a process that takes at least overnight, and possibly longer) we decided we should experiment with some loin meat so we ended up with a franken-porchetta, all belly at one end and stuffed at the other. Kenji Lopez-Alt, the usually reliable source of our recipe, warns against using loin because today’s hogs are raised too lean. But we thought a few hours being bathed in pork fat and spices might fix that problem.

The result was that the loin meat was every bit as good as the belly, having picked up the flavor of the rub. Absolutely no reason not to do this and expand the amount of deliciousness you will end up with. We had actually purchased a whole boneless loin but decided we didn’t need it because the belly itself had more meat than we expected. We cut most of the loin into stew meat; fortunately we kept a 1.5 lb roast from the large end and that became our stuffing. If you follow this route, be sure the grain of the loin meat is in the long direction (front to back of the belly) rather than crosswise which is what you’d get if you simply tossed in some pork chops.

Pancetta Cross Section

Cross-section of our frankemn-porchetta. The darker meat in the center is loin; the black layer is the spices that were rubbed into the belly.

Many people are intimidated by the task of cooking a whole turkey or prime rib roast for a holiday meal because the stakes are so high: overcook or undercook it and you’ll have a public disaster on your hands. Porchetta would seem to be a similar challenge, but it really is easy and Kenji’s recipe is nearly fool proof. We cut our cured rolls into three sections and the other two will be enjoyed at future meals, maybe even with company.

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Recipe: Sourdough Banana Bread

Posted on May 12, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Sourdough Banana Bread

Sourdough Banana Bread

This isn’t banana bread with leftover starter added for flavor interest. It’s sourdough banana bread because sourdough is the only leavening agent and there is no aded sugar, either. It came out pretty good. It’s tart and tangy but with enough sweetness from the bananas to make it a treat. Add some nuts if you like and maybe a ¼ t baking soda if you’re not completely confident in the strength of your starter. Makes one loaf.

Ingredients:
80 g lively starter @60%
125 g water
250 g all purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten
4 or so very ripe bananas
½ c chopped walnuts (optional)
1 T vanilla extract
½ stick (2 oz) unsalted butter, melted
¾ t Kosher salt

Method: make a sponge by combining starter with flour and water in a clear glass bowl. It should be the consistency of 60% starter, with not quite enough liquid to fully mosturize the flour. Autolyze 30 minutes, stir and evaluate, and add a bit more water if there are still dry lumps of flour. Now cover tightly and let sit in a warm place until you can see big air bubbles through the sides of the bowl, which might take a few hours or a couple of days.

Banana Bread Crumb

Sourdough Banana Bread Crumb

Add eggs, mushy bananas, vanilla and salt to a mixing bowl; add melted butter at the end so it doesn’t curdle the eggs. Add nuts if using. Add sponge and mix on low (first) speed until ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Mixture will be quite liquid with some banana bits floating in it.

Turn out into a 9×5 loaf pan which has been greased with butter and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the top comes out clean. Cool and cut it right in the pan into serving slices. Goes great spread with butter or cream cheese and topped with some nice jam.

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Let’s have a pupusa party!

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Pupusa with Curtido

Pupusa Party results. (Yes, this was the only one that turned out good enough to take a picture.)

Looking for something fun to do with your COVID co-confinees? Have a pupusa party! Making a serviceable pupusa turns out to be quite a challenge. But, though your early attempts will be comically inept, you’ll get better with practice and your mistakes will be delicious.

Pupusa Workspace

Mis En Place for pupusa party. It gets messier!

Pupusas are a national dish of El Salvador and a close cousin to the Mexican taco. They use the same lime-treated corn flour base, but instead of getting flattened into tortillas the dough is shaped around a variety of ingredients then griddled. In my travels I’ve had locoro pupusas (locoro is a tropical vine that is hard to find in the US, but you can buy the leaves frozen in some regions), bean-and-cheese pupusas, and “pupusas revueltas” which add meat to the cheese and beans and are more expensive. But because of the difficulty of making these as a novice, you’ll want to go with 100% revueltas.

Overfilled Pupusa

Comically overfilled pupusa

The challenge is in shaping the dough without having it fall apart. It helps to have little bowls of oil and water nearby so you can adjust the dough if it’s too crumbly and dry, and keep the raw ingredients from sticking to your hands or work surfaces. This video shows you how it’s done, and the accompanying text has a good recipe for the special ground pork filling called chicarron. (It’s much closer to carnitas than to fried pork rind chicharrones, but not the same; do take the trouble to follow the recipe exactly.)

Pupusa Progress

Pupusa progress, going let to right. Our results got a bit better toward the end.

The cheese can be good old shredded mozzarella, and the beans El Paso Traditional Style refried beans—one of the few commercial products I’ve found that’s better than what you can make at home. Have an even quantity of each of these three items available, mix up your dough, and get ready to make a great big mess.

The first mistake you’re likely to make is a dough patty that falls apart; cracks around the edges are a telltale sign. Add more water and re-knead. Your next mistake will be putting in too much filling so it oozes out—something you’ll get better about estimating in time. In cooking, cheese is your friend in helping the pupusa stay cohesive as the cheese melts, but then it will stick to surfaces as it cools. I found a good strategy is to cook the pupusas in a skillet with tapered sides so I can slide it out when it’s done. Put it briefly on a paper towel to blot off excess oil, then transfer to a non-stick surface like a silicone mat.

Now you’re ready to eat and share, and I predict you’ll like pupusas revueltas quite a bit. Do take the time and trouble (in advance) to make curtido, the traditional cabbage slaw accompaniment. The recipe in the Curly and his Abuelita post mentioned above is excellent, though I adapted it with a bit of chile. ¡Disfrute!

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