A Life, Lived

Zuppa Osso Buco

This week was Sheri's turn to select the recipe for the Sunday Slow Supper group to play with. She selected the category of 'other' and I was anxious to see what 'other' was. I thought that we had most possible categories selected but wouldn't you know it, there was one more that we hadn't though of.

Sheri wrote:

Several years ago when my kids became interested in more than pizza,chicken fingers and Mac n Cheese, they used to watch the Food Network and print out recipes they wanted me to make. Of course it is not Osso Buco, but it is a really tasty dinner on a cold, wintry night. It is quick to put together and the ingredients are usually on hand. Since my family likes protein and they tend not to think of Soup as dinner, I usually double the amount of ground veal (making larger dumplings) and the egg noodles, while using 1 1/2 X the liquid. We especially love the Gremolata topping. This will easily serve 6 - 8.

The recipe that Sheri posted was Rachel Ray's Zuppa Osso Buco. Now apparently Rachel Ray has her own invented word (That. I. Shall. Not. Use.) for a soup that in her mind is heartier than a normal soup. In fact, in her mind it is a cross between a soup and a stew. In her mind this is a new category of food. In her mind she is eminently qualified to invent a new category of food to cover off this soup.

Enough.

It's soup. It's good. It's quick. It is also the first Rachel Ray recipe that I have ever made. We LOVED it. I won't be racing out to make more Rachel Ray recipes nor shall I purchase her cookware.

In case you haven't picked up on it I don't much like Rachel Ray. Anyone that perky is either possessed, on drugs, or ill. Sometimes the TVs at the gym are turned to the food network and she pops onto the screen. I'm not diabetic but within 5 minutes I'm searching for insulin. Too cheerful and perky. When I'm sweating my ass of on the treadmill perky just won't do.

I also think that she is not a very good cook. She has no formal training, and it shows. For those of you who are interested her story can be read here. Now I'm not saying that you need to be a formally trained chef to know how to cook - because there are scads of brilliant cooks out there who never darkened the doors of le Cordon Bleu. However, if you're going to go on TV and teach others to cook some good formal chef techniques wouldn't hurt. Celebrity=chef  . . . I will spare you my food network rant.

Anyway. I made a Rachel Ray recipe. It is Sheri's fault.  As it turns out, We LOVED this recipe. SIGH I didn't want to but I did. It reminded me of my favourite Italian Wedding soup (without the greens). It was easy to make, tasted wonderful, and I would certainly make it again with minor modifications - as indicated in the recipe below).

Thanks Sheri for turning me on to this brilliant soup!

Zuppa Osso Buco

Veal Dumplings:
1 pound ground veal  (I used ground chicken to lower the fat/calorie content)
1 large egg, beaten
1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs, a couple of handfuls
1/4 cup, a generous handful, grated Parmigiano or Romano
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it
Coarse salt and black pepper

Soup:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 carrots, peeled
2 ribs celery and their greens
1 medium yellow skinned onion, peeled and halved
Coarse salt and pepper (I added no salt)
1 fresh or dried bay leaf
1/2 cup white wine (I used 1 cup)
1 (14-ounce) can white beans, cannellini, drained
1 (15- ounce) can diced tomatoes in puree or coarsely ground tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock, available in re-sealable boxes on soup aisle (I used 4 cups of low-fat, and 50 % reduced sodium broth)
2 cups beef stock, available in 1 cup small boxes on soup aisle (I used 3 cups of low-fat, and 50 % reduced sodium broth)
1 cup egg pasta, broken egg fettuccini or medium egg noodles (I used fussili)

Gremolata: (NOTE - this is a classic topping for Osso Buco - the wonderful slowly cooked veal shank recipe from Milan)
2 cloves garlic, cracked away from skins
1 (2-ounce) tin flat fillet anchovies, drained
Handful flat-leaf parsley, about 1/4 cup loosely packed
1 lemon, zested

Crusty bread, to pass at table

Combine the veal and the next 5 ingredients then reserve mix and rinse off your hands. (some chopped garlic would ahve been nice in the 'dumplings' - would someone explain the difference between a dumpling and a meatball?)

Heat a medium soup pot over medium to medium-high heat. Begin to chop veggies while pot heats up: dice carrots into 1/4 inch pieces, chop celery and onion. Add extra-virgin olive oil to hot pot and carrots. Turn carrots to coat them in oil and add celery and onion as you get them chopped up. Work near the stove so you can chop, then drop into the pot. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and a bay leaf. Stir vegetables and cook 5 minutes to begin to soften. Do not let vegetables brown, reduce heat if necessary. (With classic cooking you want to really cook these down - this is where the floavour comes from. I cooked the veggies for about 15 minutes on a low heat.) Add the wine and cook for 1 minute. Next, add beans and tomatoes and stock to the pot. Put a lid on the pot and raise heat to high. When soup boils, about 3 minutes, add 1-inch balls of veal dumplings directly to the pot. When you are done adding the veal, stir in the egg noodles. (greens would have been good in the soup - I'd add a few cups of spinach, chopped kale, or arugula here)

Simmer stoup for 6 minutes to cook noodles and meat dumplings. Adjust seasonings and turn the heat off, then let stoup stand a couple of minutes.

Pile garlic, anchovies, parsley and lemon zest on a cutting board and finely chop the mixture, then transfer to a small dish.

Serve stoup in shallow bowls with a couple of teaspoonfuls of gremolata on top. Stir the gremolata throughout the stoup and pass crusty bread at the table for dipping and mopping.

Photo Hunt - Daily

This week's Photo Hunt  theme is daily. I debated my options - a picture of me doing the daily chore I hate - shaving  . . . perhaps a sunrise from Maine and a sunset from California as in the 'sun rises in the east and sets in the west daily'. When I was looking for a good sunrise picture from our trips to Maine I found this one and decided to use it instead.

Paul practicing the daily choses at the Hancock Shaker Village in MA.

Yes, the cow is plastic. It was enough though for Paul do develop a new appreciation for farmers.

---

Lots of the slow travel  community members also photo hunt when they aren't traveling. You can find their posts by clicking the links below. 

• Old Shoes, New Trip
• Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings
• My Place in the Sun
• Churches in Venice – Mosaics, Marble, and Miracle-Working Madonnas
• Palmabella's Passions
• What I Really Think
• shave Ice and Gelato
• Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!
• Keep your Feet in the Street
• Postcards from the Trail
• Cooking at the Whistlestop Cafe
• Candi's Corner
• Trekcapri's Blog
   

Ground Beef and Sauerkraut Soup

There are a few food bloggers out there who have never let me down - I know that when they post a recipe and rave about it then I should make it. No questions asked. Kalyn from Kalyn's kitchen is one of those bloggers. When she posted this easy sounding soup recipe back in January I immediately book marked it for later use.

I've seen other versions of this soup on the net - full of thick slabs of smoked meat or smoked sausage. I really appreciated the efforts that Kalyn had taken to lighten it up. One of the many things I enjoy about her recipes is the way she makes them light without sacrificing the flavour! I'm sure that these other soups are just fine but these days I'm trying to cut the fat and sodium from our diets. Kayln came through!

We made this soup on a rare cold day this winter (I won't discuss this past week) and it was just the thing to put a smile on our faces!

Thanks kalyn.

Ground Beef and Sauerkraut Soup

1 lb. very lean ground beef (less than 10% fat)
2-3 tsp. olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 T minced garlic
2 cups homemade chicken stock
2 14 oz. cans beef broth
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
1 14 oz. can sauerkraut with juice (we used more because we LOVE sauerkraut)
1 cup water
1 T brown sugar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
3-4 dried bay leaves
3 T minced parsley or 1-2 T dried parsley
1 tsp. rubbed sage
fresh ground black pepper to taste

In heavy frying pan, heat 1 tsp. olive oil, add ground beef and brown well, breaking into small pieces with turner. This will take as much as ten minutes but don't rush the browning step.

While ground beef browns, combine chicken stock, beef stock, canned tomatoes, sauerkraut, Splenda or brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, parsley and sage in large stock pot. Bring to a low simmer.

When beef is well browned, add to soup in pot. Deglaze pan with a bit of the soup liquid, scraping off any browned bits, and add to soup.

Wipe out frying pan and add other 2 tsp. olive oil. Saute onions 2-3 minutes, until starting to soften, then add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes more. Add to soup, reduce heat under soup pot and let soup simmer at low heat about one hour. After an hour, taste for seasoning and add water if soup seems too strong. Simmer 15 minutes more if adding water. Season to taste with fresh-ground black pepper before serving. Serve hot, with sour cream if desired

Sour Grapes - Russian Style

The journalistic world is a'flutter today over comments written about Canada and the Vancouver Olympics by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey for an editorial in the Russian propaganda rag Pravda. In his editorial, published PRIORto Canada's historic (and bloody satisfying) drubbing of the Russian hockey team, he denigrates Vancouver, Canada, and the olympics.

Here is a sample of some of his opinions:

Vancouver is not fit to hold the Winter Olympics.

We all know Canada has problems with the future lines drawn on Arctic maps and we all know Canada lives in the shadow of its larger neighbour to the south.

The abject cruelty shown by Canadian soldiers in international conflicts is scantily referred to, as indeed is the utter incapacity of this county to host a major international event, due to its inferiority complex, born of a trauma being the skinny and weakling bro to a beefy United States and a colonial outpost to the United Kingdom, whose Queen smiles happily from Canadian postage stamps.

Maybe it is this which makes the Canadians so…retentive, or cowardly. So it is not exactly a huge surprise to have international skating experts from the four corners of the Earth criticizing the decision to award the Men’s figure skating Gold medal to the US athlete Evan Lysacekv over the reigning Olympic Champion Evgeny Plushenko, whose superior performance was inexplicably ignored.

Everybody who knows anything about Olympic skating, Winter Olympic sports and international politics will infer from the pitiful and dangerous conditions provided by the Canadian authorities, which already caused one death, that Vancouver is mutton dressed as lamb. Take off the outer veneer and the stench is horrific.

There you have it. Proof that any idiot can have an opinion and get it published somewhere. Mind you, any of my American friends who have ever watched FOX news or listed to Sarah Palin already understand this grievous modern phenomenon. Actually, Maxime Bernier's latest musings about climate change would also fit into that category.

Let's just examine these complaints as it were.

The website’s main athletic complaint is about a short-notice drug test issued to Russian skier Natalya Korosteleva. It neglects to mention that VANOC organizers have no input into the drug-testing regime of any particular sporting body. Drug tests aren't effective if people have ample notice that they will be tested.

One has to wonder why she refused . . . hmmmmmmm . . . need I suggest more?

It also impugns us for the decision to give the gold medal in men’s figure skating to American Evan Lysacek over Russian Evgeni Plushenko – as if we had some say in that, either.

Now about that cruelty allegation. Dear lord, how anyone in Russia could lob that pile of brown, smelly stuff at Canadians is besides me. Yes, as with all nations involved with a conflict or two over the years there have been an issue or three. None of these could ever compare to the actions taken by the Russian bear over the years.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey is clearly a pinhead.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey obviously never learned how to write a proper paragraph either.

Never willing to rest, I googled Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey. My lord. The stuff by him that is available on the net is frightening. Anti-semitic, pro-Russian, anti-Israel, pro-terrorist activity, anti-American . . . his work seems to pop up in the most questionable of places. No doubt he is chief speech writer for Hugo Chavez.

Bancroft-Hinchey lists his training as a song-writer. Who knew penning the odd pop tune qualified one to make sweeping political statements? I do love the way journalism works in this era.

On a happy note, this was before we kicked the Russians out of the rink in hockey. I can only imagine the frothing of the mouth taking place while Bancroft-Hinchey sits at his keyboard today. What a shame we couldn't kick HIM in the ass too!

Tuscan Cake with Citrus Compote

It's rare for me to try a recipe from a magazine as soon as it has arrived in the house. I generally have a huge pile of things to try so something would have to look pretty impressive in order for me to place it immediately on top of the cure. The March Cooking Light magazine featured a recipe that immediately caught my attention.

This light cake recipe is essentially a citrus cake made with olive oil instead of butter.  It has the added heft of cornmeal. In fact, it reminded me a good deal of the citrus olive oil cake that the Sunday Slow Bakers made a few years back.

The cake gets even better with the added bonus of a citrus compote. I'm not normally a fan of grapefruits but this was delicious. The compote wasn't very sweet and had just the right amount of spice from the allspice (you wouldn't think 1/8 of a tsp would have a great impact but it did!)

All in all, this was a great dessert. Everyone LOVED it.

Tuscan Cake with Citrus Compote

1/2  cup  sugar
6  tablespoons  extra-virgin olive oil
2  large eggs
1  tablespoon  grated grapefruit rind
1 1/2  teaspoons  grated lime rind
1/2  teaspoon  vanilla extract
1  (6-ounce) container plain low-fat yogurt
5.6  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1 1/4 cups)
1.5  ounces  fine yellow cornmeal (about 1/4 cup)
3/4  teaspoon  baking soda
1/4  teaspoon  baking powder
1/4  teaspoon  salt
Cooking spray

Compote:
2  large red grapefruit
4  large oranges
2  tablespoons  fresh lime juice
3  tablespoons  honey
1/8  teaspoon  ground allspice

Preheat oven to 325°.

To prepare cake, place sugar and oil in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed for 2 minutes or until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add rinds, vanilla, and yogurt; beat until combined.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour and cornmeal into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to oil mixture; stir with a whisk just until combined. Pour batter into a 9-inch spring form pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 325° for 30 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove sides from pan. Cool cake completely on rack.

To prepare compote, peel and section grapefruit and oranges over a medium bowl, reserving juices; place sections in another bowl. Combine reserved juices and lime juice in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Stir in honey and allspice; reduce heat, and simmer 4 minutes or until syrupy. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Pour over fruit sections; toss gently. Chill. Serve compote over cake.

Smoked Paprika Roasted Salmon with Wilted Spinach

One of the first supper recipes attempted by the Sunday Slow Suppers group was Amy's brilliant baked chicken with a wonderful smoked paprika rub. Some of the group were stymied as to where they could find the essential ingredient - the smoked paprika. Finally someone referred them to the McCormick spices website. It was here where I saw this recipe and though 'my lord, that looks good'. I quickly printed it off and added it to the constantly growing pile of recipes I want to try when the time presents itself.

 

Here the salmon is cooked with a sweet-smoky rub featuring smoked paprika, brown sugar and cinnamon which complements salmon's moderate flavor and moist meaty texture. Served on a bed of sautéed spinach, this dish makes a lovely presentation for entertaining.

 

It also tastes REALLY, REALLY, REALLY good!

Smoked Paprika Roasted Salmon with Wilted Spinach

 

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided

2 teaspoons thyme Leaves, divided

2 pounds salmon fillets

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 bag (10 ounces) fresh spinach leaves Mix orange juice, 2 tablespoons of the oil and 1 teaspoon of the thyme in small bowl. Place salmon in glass dish. Add marinade; turn to coat. Cover. Refrigerate 30 minutes or longer for extra flavor. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix brown sugar, smoked paprika, cinnamon, orange peel, remaining 1 teaspoon thyme and sea salt in small bowl. Remove salmon from marinade. Place in greased foil-lined baking pan. Discard any remaining marinade. Rub top of salmon evenly with smoked paprika mixture. Roast 10 to 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in large skillet on medium heat. Add spinach; cook 2 minutes or until wilted. Serve salmon over spinach.

Redesign the Hot Dog?

You know that today was a slow news day when this story started to make the rounds. Apparently some idiot doctors have decided that we need to throw out a hundred or so years of tradition because children might choke on a hot dog.

I shall file this under the category 'stupid'. If I had such a category.

Redesign the hotdog, doctors urge

Hot dogs need to be redesigned so they aren’t potentially lethal to small children, American pediatricians said Monday in a new policy statement.

“We have laws and regulations that require warning labels on toys that pose choking hazards,” said Dr. Gary Smith of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the lead author of the policy published in the current issue of Pediatrics.

“There are no such regulations on high risk foods, and children are much more likely to put food in their mouths than a toy.”

The highest risk food is the hot dog, Smith said. Its size and shape means it can wedge itself tightly into a child’s throat, entirely blocking air passages.

“If you were to design the perfect plug for a child's airway, you couldn't do much better than a hot dog,” he told the Star. And unlike other risk foods such as grapes and popcorn, however, hot dogs are man-made and manufacturers can easily change their shape, he said.

Other risky foods for small children include grapes, popcorn, hard candy, carrots, pears, apples and celery.

In Canada, about 44 children age 14 and under die every year from choking and another 380 are hospitalized, according to SafeKids Canada. Almost half of those cases are from choking on food.

SafeKids concurs with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation to slice hot dogs lengthwise. The pediatricians go one step further, calling for a new shape for the dogs.

“No parents can watch all of their kids 100 per cent of the time,” Smith says. “The best way to protect kids is to design these risks out of existence. There is nothing to stop you from redesigning the hot dog. Safety sells. Someone can create a safety dog that isn’t round and airways-sized.”

Sweden has had age-labelling on foods for infants and young children since 1979 and warning labels on prepackaged shelled peanuts since 1981, Smith noted.

Janet Riley, president of the U.S. National Hot Dog & Sausage Council, told The Associated Press she agrees with the need for education, and points out more than half the hot dogs sold in the United States have warnings to parents to cut them into small pieces.

“As a mother who has fed toddlers cylindrical foods like grapes, bananas, hot dogs and carrots, I 'redesigned' them in my kitchen by cutting them with a paring knife until my children were old enough to manage on their own,” Riley says.

Smith disagreed. “Just telling people to be careful or blaming the parents is an uninformed approach.”

The pediatricians are calling for:

Warning labels on foods that pose a high choking risk
A recall of food products that pose a significant choking hazard
The establishment of a nationwide food-related choking-incident surveillance and reporting system
A commitment from food manufacturers to design new food and redesign existing food to minimize choking risk, to the extent possible

In the meantime, the policy recommends parents and caregivers:

Do not give children younger than 4 any round, firm foods unless they have been cut into very small pieces. Cut hot dogs lengthwise and cut grapes into quarters.
Do not give toddlers other high risk foods, such as hard candy, nuts, seeds and raw carrots.
Never let small children run, play or lie down while eating.
Keep coins and other small items out of reach of young children at all times.

In my day parents watched their children to make sure that they were safe whilst eating. It wasn't expected that the entire food industry would change the shape, size, texture of all foods to make sure that wee Johnny or Sally didn't turn blue and keel over whilst gnawing on an weiner.

Now in the interest of full disclosure . . . I like hot dogs. I don't eat a ton of them or anything but I do appreciate a well-made one. I like my hot dog round too. . . .

I understand that as a society we know things that we didn't know when I was a kid. Frankly, it is a miracle that I lived to the age of 9 in a smoke filled chevy with no seatbelts. Sure we need to protect kids from misfortune - dear lord, if we don't who is doing to care for me while I'm in an old-aged home.

I'm not sure that I want to be cared for by a kid who had to be protected from all of life's little challenges. i want to be cared for by someone who is tough. Someone who has faced challenges, met them head on, and didn't choke on the freaking hot dog!

As one might expect, such a story elicited some lovely comments:

• Isn't the best way to protect kids simply to not feed them garbage that has no nutritional value? Should we redesign pickles and carrots too because of their shape? The world doesn't need to be designed around a three year old, thank you very much.
• What will the future be like? Everyone being fed pur?ed food only after signing a waver? Come on people! You cannot save your children from all evils in this world. Teach them how to eat their food properly (and slowly) and there won't be a problem. You can't design all "risks out of existence." Kids need to learn for themselves, and that includes how to each their food properly.
• We should bio engineer babies to have much larger or much smaller throats and air passages. As well the death penalty should be reinstated to punish parents who do not properly supervise their children and/or feed them too much junk food. Also , maybe regulation and penalties for the companies that manufacture these highly dangerous food products. By the way, did you know that the fall of the roman empire can be attributed to the high mortality rate among young romans who ate sausages.
• Very young children need to be watched when eating solid food - no matter the shape of that food. After a certain age if your child is incapable of (or simply ignorant of) the adequate mastication techniques required for survival then the fault does not lie with Oscar Meyer.
• ... and while we're at it, we should take the wheels off our cars to prevent them from hitting people.

Dear lord. Lots of laughter over hot dogs today. I am a happy man.

Goat Tagine with Fennel and Olives

Yes, I did type GOAT!

One of the interesting things about being a member of a cooking group is that sometimes you get your ass kicked way out of your food comfort zones. Most of us have these irrational notions of things we like and don't like  . . . often formed without any factual evidence (which is why I suggest that they are irrational). I am sure that this is a remaining vestige of childhood. Of course, this is likely why a similar ability to have strong opinions without any factual basis revisits us in old age (or any age if one is a particularly rabid conservative).

Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that I was not chuffed at all about the prospect of eating goat. Goat was gross. I don't know how I knew that, I've never knowingly eaten goat, but it was gross nonetheless.

This week was Deborah's turn to select the recipe for the Sunday Slow Supper group to play with. She selected the category of slow cooker (although I braised in the oven instead) and her selection was a Moroccan themed recipe that she found on one of her favourite blogs: Figments. When Deborah first posted it I was convinced that she was off her rocker or had been indulging in her famous home-made hooch.

I quickly decided that I would make the recipe with lamb and continue along in my non-goat eating ways.

As I amassed the ingredients for the recipe (AKA hunted for preserved lemons) I changed my mind. The entire point of belonging to a food group is to expand boundaries (but hopefully NOT my waistline). So with that in mind I went off to search for goat.

I was advised on the Chowhound discussion boards that there was a butcher not far from my office where I could find goat. On Friday I took a walk, explored an area of the city I hadn't really hung out in very much, got some exercise, and found some goat.

Kensington Meats only had full goat legs and Rosa (while sweet) would not hear of cutting the shanks off of all of the legs and only selling me those. She looked at me as if I was on drugs - kept pointing the the shank end and saying 'no meat, no meat'. She wasn't far off in her evaluation. I ended up buying two legs for $ 33. Rosa cut the legs into chunks so I had 8 'shank' sized pieces.

When I explained to mom that I was making goat for dinner on Saturday it wasn't long before she was down for dinner. She was more willing to make that leap than I was. Suddenly this was a great adventure for us all.

Yesterday the house was full of the most wonderful smells. When I served the goat up we sort of sat and stared at it for a minute or two. It smelled wonderful but no one wanted to taste it. Finally Paul was brave. He survived so mom and I dug in.

Amazing.

It was far less 'gamy' than lamb can be. In fact, goat was downright delicious.

Who knew? Obviously the millions of folks around the planet for whom goat is a regular food choice were on to something. Why had they kept this such a secret?

Of course they hadn't. I have just been so stuck in my ways all of these years that I had been missing out. Bad Jerry. Bad!

I've had Moroccan food before and loved the spice combination. If you missed my Moroccan chicken pie around Christmas time you should check it out. The post is here. I think that I need to experiment a bit more with the cuisine of North-west Africa.

We served the goat tagine on a bed of couscous to which I added chopped dried apricot, green onions, and toasted pine nuts.

Thanks Deborah for pushing open my food boundaries a wee bit more . . .

Goat Tagine with Fennel and Olives

6 meaty goat shanks
Sea Salt
Freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced in half lengthwise, then into 1/4-inch slices lengthwise
2 medium bulbs of fennel, cut in half lengthwise, then into 1/4-inch slices lengthwise
1 large pinch of saffron threads, lightly finger-crushed
6 medium garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons freshly toasted, ground coriander seed
1 teaspoons freshly toasted, ground cumin
2 teaspoons freshly toasted, ground fennel seed
3 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup fresh tomato peeled and chopped, or good boxed/canned chopped tomatoes
4 cups of chicken stock or water
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro), stem and all, tied with butcher string
1/2 cup oil-cured olives
1 large preserved lemon, rinsed and quartered

Preheat oven to 375.

Salt and pepper the goat shanks. Brown them over medium-high heat in a large, deep casserole that will fit all the meat and go in the oven. Remove shanks from the pan.

Add olive oil, onions and half the fennel and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the saffron, garlic, ginger and all spices and cook another 5 minutes.

Add the honey and tomatoes and cook a few minutes.

Add stock and tuck shanks back into pot along with the cinnamon stick and tied cilantro.

Bring to a simmer.

Cover and braise in the oven until tender, about 3 hours. Check every so often; add more liquid if necessary.

Add olives, lemon and remaining fennel to the stew the last 15 minutes of cooking.

It is finished when the fennel is tender and the meat is buttery and falling off the bone.

Taste and season as necessary.

Photo Hunt - Cuddly

This week's Photo Hunt theme is cuddly. 'Cuddly' is an emotion that doesn't fit with me at all - I don't 'do' cuddly. I despise cuddly. There are lots out there who love cuddly - have at it. Just don't want to cuddle me! LOL

Nonetheless my tactile defensiveness aside, this statue immediately came to mind when I saw this week's theme. We saw it in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens last fall. The museum is stunning - overwhelming even, with room after room filled with the most incredible collection of treasures from ancient Greek civilization.

This 3000 year old statue was set off to the side in a room filled with life-sized depictions of warriors, athletes, gods, and goddesses. It tugged at our heart strings because it was just so unusual - the only 'real' image of humanity in the entire room. This wasn't depicting ideal or glory or worshiping . . . this was 'just' a child cuddling their dog.

You can read more about our visit to this amazing museum in this post here.

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Lots of the slow travel  community members also photo hunt when they aren't traveling. You can find their posts by clicking the links below. 

• Old Shoes, New Trip
• Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings
• My Place in the Sun
• Churches in Venice – Mosaics, Marble, and Miracle-Working Madonnas
• Palmabella's Passions
• What I Really Think
• shave Ice and Gelato
• Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!
• Keep your Feet in the Street
• Postcards from the Trail
• Cooking at the Whistlestop Cafe
• Candi's Corner
• Trekcapri's Blog   

Baked Eggs with Chorizo and Potatoes

Paul and I wake up at 5:45 a.m. all through the workweek and are out the door to get the train by 6:40. In that time I shower, shave, dress, feed the cats, make lunches, put away the dishes from the night before, and put breakfast on the table. Paul shows up. I

 am a morning person. He, most definitely, is NOT!

Needless to say, with only an hour to get everything done, we don't do anything fancy with breakfast! On most days it is all I can do to dump some cereal in a bowl, pour on the milk, and we gulp it down.

When the weekend rolls around I'm looking for a more relaxing time of it. We like to sit around the table, reading the paper, coffee in hand, enjoying a more substantial breakfast.

I saw this recipe on the Food and Wine site and immediately thought 'hash'. I LOVE hash (no, I am not referring to the drug, although there was a time. . . . ahhhh, the joys of an errant but fun youth) it brings back memories of camping with my family or hanging out at the cottage. This was a treat my mom always had for us.

This is a different sort of hash to be sure. Far more sophisticated than the can of corned beef, can of potatoes, and eggs I got as a child (I confess to still craving it though . . . all the ingredients are in the cupboard as I type. MMMM) Chef David Kinch loves to say that this hearty combination of crumbled chorizo, chunks of crispy potatoes and eggs—all cooked together in a big cast-iron skillet—is his Mexican-Californian twist on rösti, the classic Swiss fried-potato breakfast.

It isn't like any rosti I have ever had but it was bloody amazing. I love the spice of chorizo. I love fried potatoes (I used cubed ready cooked potatoes - Simply Potatoes). I love baked eggs. I love fried onions. We LOVED this meal.

I wouldn't CHANGE A THING! It was THAT good.

Baked Eggs with Chorizo and Potatoes

2 pounds medium Yukon Gold potatoes
1 1/2 pounds fresh chorizo, casings removed
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 large eggs
Toast and hot sauce, for serving

Preheat the oven to 375°. Put the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook over moderate heat until tender, about 25 minutes; drain and let cool. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 3/4-inch pieces.

Meanwhile, heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet. Add the chorizo, break it into chunks with a wooden spoon and cook over moderate heat, turning, until cooked through and lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape the chorizo mixture into a bowl and wipe out the skillet.

Heat the oil in the skillet. Add the potatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until golden and crispy, about 6 minutes. Stir in the chorizo mixture. Remove the skillet from the heat.

Using a ladle, make 8 indentations in the potato-chorizo mixture about 1 inch apart; crack an egg into each one. Bake the skillet in the middle of the oven for about 12 minutes, or until the egg whites are just set but the yolks are still runny. Serve at once with toast and hot sauce.

note - because we used the Simply Potatoes (which we can only get in the US) we pretty wekk started off at step 2.