authentic italian episode #2: lamb and fennel stew

so i thought i would be doing one of these authentic italian posts a week, but reality has set in, so, after a delay of too many weeks, here is the only the second post. . . i would love to say there are more to some soon, but i don't want to lie anymore. . . well maybe a little more. . . so many more posts to come!!!

i was looking to make something quick and easy for some friends who were coming to watch football, as well as something seasonal, and this recipe just jumped out at me. it couldn't have been easier: brown the lamb, add some chopped onion, some DOP tomatoes, let it cook for about 10 minutes, add some chopped fennel, cover, and let cook for about 90 minutes - add some water if necessary along the way. simple recipe, basic ingredients, and it turned out great. i cooked some nice curly pasta as well and served it in big bowls.

the key of course is getting the best ingredients, and the guys at golden gate meats didn't disappoint. i went in on friday to and asked for some lamb stew meat and came back saturday to a big package of beautiful lamb. i did make a big rookie mistake thought - i wasn’t thinking and put all the lamb in the pan to brown at one time - it let out tons of moisture, lowered the overall heat, and suddenly i had gray meat. i stopped - pulled all the lamb out, got a second pan, and browned them in that pan in batches, then adding it back into the main pan where all the juices had already accumulated. slow and steady wins the race. it does go to show that it's tough to ruin a simple recipe, and that sometimes it easy to forget the basics.

some more photos below (i'm still trying to improve my food photography, so bear with me - you can see the whole set here):


overcrowding the pan


halfway there


dinner is served

authentic italian episode #1: escarole soup

i've been really focusing on french cooking the last three years and i've loved every minute of it - stocks, sauces, terrines, 'lesser' cuts of meat, and mastering some dishes i wouldn't have attempted a few years ago, has left me with a full belly and a good base. but as we have been getting more and more winter vegetables lately and with the addition of a little baby to the house, i've been looking to make some more rustic dishes that aren't as complex in preparation, but still put a big smile on my face.

as i went and thought about what to do next, i came across a great cookbook that was tucked away in the corner called "Italy: The Beautiful Cookbook". It's an oversized cookbook with beautiful photos and dishes from all over italy. most of them are of the rustic variety and every recipe starts from scratch: if the recipes includes pasta it tells you how to make fresh pasta. i was actually given this book by the owner of a now defunct italian restaurant in north beach about 7 years ago, and i had forgotten how much i enjoyed cooking from it, as well as just flipping through the pages and drooling over the pictures.

i quickly decided italian cooking would be my goal for the coming year, and this book my primer. i'm going to try to do a couple recipes a week from this book, take some pictures, and let you all know how it turns out. not as exciting as the girl from new york who made every recipe in julia child's cookbook in a years time (and who got a book deal might i add), but this is italian cooking - we don't need all that pressure and structure and the cordon bleu staring over our shoulders....

for my first performance, escarole soup! escarole is a slightly bitter salad green that i was in our box from the farm a few weeks ago. it was about to expire, and i remembered seeing a recipe for soup in the cookbook i am now tackling. it was a pretty easy recipe and made for some good soup. here's the quick recap:

• bring chicken stock to a boil and add some carrots, leeks, and onions and let it go for about an hour.
  
• after an hour, shred a head of escarole and saute some pig lard (i used wild boar lard)in olive oil with garlic for about 7 minutes.
  
• add this to the chicken broth and let cook 10 mins.
  
• remove from heat and add two well beaten eggs and stir it all up
  
• serve with some grated parmesan and parsley
  

adding the egg at the end was new to me, but it ended up making the soup pretty hearty. a little crunchy rustic loaf and some red wine, and we were good to go.

that's all for my first installment of authentic italian - if you want the full recipe, let me know, and if you have any extra pig lard, send it my way.

Crunchy French Toast

So we are building a house. We are excited about this project for a bunch of reasons as you can imagine, but we are especially excited because for the first time in our lives, we will have a real kitchen. With an oven that isn't the cheapest thing at Sears. This means we have to learn to cook. Since I can't make toast, this has been an uphill battle.

Recently, Holly got a great cook book that I can't find or I'd recommend. I think that it is called Cooking for the Blind with No Appendages or something like that. Advanced apologies to blind people with no appendages, but I'm guessing you aren't cooking much these days. It is super dumbed down. Anyway, there was a great recipe for Cruchy French Toast that I made the other morning. Seriously, this was the first non-microwave /non- pasta thing that I've cooked since I made lasagna in 8th grade 'Single Survival' class.

Total aside: In 8th grade I had to take a course called 'Single Survival'. Don't ask me why as now that I look back on it now, there was no chance that I'd be living on my own for at least 5 more years and I would have forgotten how to sew buttons and bake brownies in that time. I did learn to make a mean lasagna, though.

It came out really well, but despite my doubling of the recipe, we were still pretty short.

Prep Time: 20 minutes (ready in 2 hours 40 minutes) - Yield: 8 slices; 4 servings

3 eggs
1 cup half and half
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups cornflakes cereal, crushed to 1 cup
8 slices (3/4-inch-thick diagonally cut) French bread
Strawberry syrup
Fresh strawberries

1. Grease 15x10x1-inch baking pan. In shallow bowl, combine eggs, half-and-half, sugar, vanilla and salt; beat well. Place crushed cereal in another shallow bowl. Dip each bread slice in egg mixture, making sure all egg mixture is absorbed. Coat each slice with crumbs. Place in greased pan; cover. Freeze 1 to 2 hours or until firm.

2. Heat oven to 425°F. Bake bread slices 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown, turning once. Serve with syrup and strawberries. If desired, garnish with whipped topping.

I also pre-cut the bread into little quarters. This made them more bite sized and I didn't feel like I was really eating 4 pieces of french toast. It was, however, some of the best french toast that I've ever had. I was really stoked. I can't wait to get our real kitchen so that I can make this on weekend mornings, drink lattes and read the paper online.