Landlubber Cioppino

To download a copy of the recipe for Landlubber Cioppino, click HERE.

In its original form, Cioppino was a stew made from the bounty brought to the San Francisco waterfront by returning fishing boats. Fresh-caught fish and shellfish – often served in the shell – were cooked in a tomato and wine broth and served with good bread. As this delightful meal made its way inland, catch-of-the-day often got replaced by seafood from the freezer case, but the result was still a hot delicious combination of several different fish and shellfish.

Here in Jersey City, we have a waterfront too. It’s just generally considered best not to eat most of what you might catch there. And so came the inspiration for this week’s recipe: Landlubber Cioppino. Blending shrimp, beef, chicken and sausage in a tomato and wine broth, it’s a land-based meal soup with the soul of a stew. Serve it with a good bread on the side (and a glass of the wine used to make the broth), and you’re ready to take the chill out of the coldest winter night.

Some Cook’s Notes before we begin:

• You’ll note the recipe calls for chicken drumsticks. This is an homage to the in-shell crab, mussels, etc. used to make the original Cioppino. If you prefer to use a boneless cut of chicken, feel free.

• When stewing the beef, I have to warn you: an hour and forty-five minutes of simmering an uncovered skillet of tomato-juice covered meat will spatter on your stove. Not to worry; a moist sponge takes it right off.

This recipe makes about 6 meal-size servings.

To stew the beef:

Season ¼ cup of all-purpose flour with salt and pepper.

Pat 1 to 1-1/4 lbs. of stew beef cubes dry with a paper towel. Dredge them in the flour mixture to coat, shaking off excess flour.

Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a large skillet. Brown the beef very well on all sides, then remove to a plate.

Add enough of a 46 ounce bottle of tomato juice to cover the beef. Add 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, 1-1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, and 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard.

Mix well, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the skillet, and bring to a simmer.

Simmer uncovered until the meat is fork tender, about 1-3/4 hours. Add more of the tomato juice as needed during the stewing to keep the meat covered. (If you run out of juice and need to add more liquid, water can be used.) Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside till needed.

While the beef is stewing:

Warm 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a grille pan over medium heat. Brown 1-1/4 lb. of turkey sausages on all sides.

Begin preheating the oven to 350 degrees.

When the sausages have finished browning, wrap in foil and set aside.

Pat the 1 to 1-1/4 lbs. of chicken drumsticks dry with a paper towel. Add a little salt. Brown them on the same grille pan you used for the sausages. (They should be well browned, but don’t have to be cooked through, since they’re going into the oven after this.)

After the drumsticks have browned in the grille pan, wrap them in foil and place in the oven for 30 minutes..

After the beef has been stewing for about an hour, warm 3 Tbsp of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add 1 large diced onion to the large pot and cook till translucent.

Add 4 minced cloves of garlic and cook till fragrant, about another 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add 2 tsp salt, a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes (including juice), ½ tsp hot sauce, 1-1/4 cup dry white wine (chardonnay or similar), 4 cups chicken stock, and 1 bay leaf. Stir to combine.

Cover the large pot, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer covered for 30 minutes.

While the soup liquid is cooking, slice the sausages into 1-1/2” pieces.

After the soup liquid has finished simmering, add the browned chicken, browned beef, browned sausage, 1 lb. uncooked shrimp (shelled and deveined), ½ tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp dried thyme, ½ tsp dried basil, and 2 Tbsp dried parsley.

Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for an additional five minutes until the shrimp is cooked through.

Divide into bowls, making sure every portion gets all four types of protein. Serve with a good bread and a glass of the chardonnay you used to make the soup liquid.

To download a copy of the recipe for Landlubber Cioppino, click HERE.

Now that should keep you warm this winter!

 

That’s it for this week. Please visit again next week for another kitchen-tested, home-cook friendly recipe. Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Lump Crabmeat Hash with Lemon-Sage Aioli

To download a copy of the recipe for Crabmeat Hash with Lemon-Sage Aioli, click HERE.

Hash, that great comfort food, has been the subject of a previous post here as Turkey Hash Pie. This week we’re taking hash in a completely different, and no less delicious, direction. Imagine lump crab meat and crisp potatoes combined with sautéed vegetables and just a kiss of bacon, topped with a cooked egg (a hash tradition), and dressed with a lemon-sage aioli. It’s easy, full of great taste, and - just as important - allows plenty of room for you to customize the ingredients to your liking!

Some Cook’s Notes before we begin:

• In this recipe, I’ve used a good quality canned lump crab meat. Cooking fresh crab is never wrong, and can even be downright glorious, but it's not practical to do at all times and in every place.

• For the aioli – basically, garlic-infused mayonnaise – you can make your own mayonnaise base if you like, but I went with a prepared jar of low-fat mayonnaise. (After making marshmallow cream from scratch for a cake frosting in last week’s post, I thought we deserved to use something in a jar this week.)

• The traditional egg accompaniment is usually sunny side up or poached, but make whatever kind you like; it’s your hash, after all. (I make mine sunny-side up as in the photo at the top, but make similar portions for my wife and son topped with scrambled eggs.) In cooking, as in all things, an important lesson about doing things “by-the-book” is this: Do you know who wrote “the book?” Nobody.

•  A special thanks to loyal reader (and good friend) Kim, a great cook and life-long New Englander, for helping a north Jersey guy with valuable insights into seasoning crabmeat.

This recipe makes 4 servings.

Let’s start by making the aioli.

Chop two garlic cloves. Use the flat of the knife blade to press them into a paste.

Combine the garlic paste in a bowl with ½ cup low fat mayonnaise; 1 tablespoon dried sage; 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice; and kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste.

Whisk until smooth, then cover and set aside till ready to serve.

To get the potatoes started:

Par-bake 2 pounds of russet potatoes for about 1/3 the amount of time it would take to bake them fully (approximately 4-5 minutes in a microwave, or 15-20 minutes in a 425 degree oven). When the potatoes have cooled enough to handle, peel and cut into 1/2" cubes.

Prepare the vegetables as follows:

Cut ¾ of a green bell pepper into a ½” dice. Cut the remainder into a fine dice and place in a small dish, separate from the larger dice. Do the same for a red bell pepper. Cut ¾ of a large celery rib into 1/8” slices. Cut the remainder into a fine dice and add to the fine-diced peppers.

Cut a medium onion into a ½” dice.

To cook the hash:

Heat 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. Add the potatoes, season with a little salt, and cook for several minutes until the potatoes are browned and crisp. Set the cooked potatoes aside in a bowl.

Using the same pan over medium-high heat, cook 2 ounces of turkey bacon, chop into pieces, and add to the potatoes.

Adding a little oil to the pan only if necessary, cook 2 cloves of minced garlic till aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add the ½” diced peppers, the 1/8” celery slices, the onion, ¾ cup of corn kernels and 1 bay leaf. Sauté till cooked. Add the potatoes, bacon, crab meat, 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1 tsp dried tarragon, and ¾ tsp hot sauce. Cook till heated through, about two minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Divide the half into four portions and keep them warm (such as in a warm oven) while you prepare the eggs.

Next we’ll cook our eggs. Cook them any way that is desired. Sunny side up, prepared as follows, is frequently used. Cook one egg for each serving.

In a non-stick pan over medium heat, melt just enough butter substitute to coat the pan. The pan should be large enough for the number of eggs being cooked, or work in batches. Break the eggs into the pan, being careful not to break the yolks.

Immediately reduce the heat to low. (If firmer whites are desired, add ½ tsp of water per egg to the pan and cover with a lid or plate. For looser whites, don’t add the water and keep the pan uncovered.) Cook slowly, usually 2 – 3 minutes, until the whites have set and the yolks have started to thicken. (The doneness of the yolks can be checked by gently shaking the pan and seeing how the yolks move.)

Near the end of cooking, baste the eggs with melted butter substitute.

Season with salt and pepper after the eggs have finished cooking.

To serve:

Using a spatula, top each serving of hash with one of the eggs.

Garnish each serving with the fine diced green pepper, red pepper and celery.

Top with lemon aioli for serving.

To download a copy of the recipe for Crabmeat Hash with Lemon-Sage Aioli, click HERE.

Serve as is or with a favorite side dish, and you’re all set for a great meal your family and guests will love!

Visit us again next week for more tasty meal ideas! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

  

Sausage and Pepper Sauce with Breaded Turkey Cutlets

To download a copy of the recipe for Sausage and Pepper Sauce, click HERE. For the breaded turkey cutlets recipe, click HERE. 

What is Sausage and Pepper Sauce, and why are we using a sauce made with one meat as a topping for another meat? Good questions. Here are the answers.

Sausage and Pepper Sauce is a nice change from the usual tomato sauce. It’s a savory red sauce, but instead of being made from tomatoes, it’s made from freshly roasted red peppers that have been pureed, seasoned, and combined with browned sausage meat. (Some tomatoes are used, but the flavor of the sauce is really defined by the roasted red peppers and the sausage meat.) It’s simple to make, and ideal anywhere you’d usually use tomato sauce.

Why turkey cutlets? The idea of using meat as a condiment, either on vegetables or on other meats, is one that has been around a long time, and that has gained new traction in recent years after Chef Michael Symon began to champion it.) Sausage, with its deeply seasoned flavor, seems a natural choice to be used this way. Even if you put it on more traditional dishes like pasta, however, this is a sauce you will be very glad to have in your arsenal.

Some Cook’s Notes before we begin:

• This recipe makes more sauce than you’re likely to need for any one dinner. Homemade sauce is one of those things it’s just as easy to make more of than less, so make the extra and save it to use with another meal.

• I usually roast red peppers on the stove top. That’s fine for one, or perhaps two, peppers. In this case I roasted three peppers, so the stove top would have been cumbersome. As described in the recipe, in this case I used the oven broiler.

• In the photos, you’ll see the sauced cutlets served with rice and baked zucchini sticks. Needless to say, feel free to serve them with whatever sides you like.

This recipe makes one quart of sauce (about twice what you’ll need), and four breaded cutlets.

First, we’ll marinate our cutlets.

To make the marinade, combine 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar; ¼ tsp salt; ¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper; and 1 Tbsp fresh thyme in a bowl. Whisk in 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Place four turkey cutlets in a sealable plastic bag and pour in the marinade. Let the cutlets marinate in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours, turning occasionally.

When the cutlets are almost finished marinating, begin making the sauce. First, we’ll roast our red peppers. Set the oven on broil, and prepare the peppers as follows.

Remove the tops, bottoms and cores from three red bell peppers. CCut into quarters; remove any remaining seeds; and trim away the ribs.

Place the peppers, skin side up, on a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.

Broil for several minutes until the skins of the peppers are blackened. (Be sure to keep an eye on them. You’re looking to blacken the skin, not cremate your peppers!)

Remove the baking sheet from the oven, Wrap the blackened peppers in the foil and set aside while the peppers steam and gradually cool a bit.

When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel away and discard the blackened skins.

Cut the pepper flesh into pieces and set aside.

Next, we’ll cook the sausage.

Remove one pound of sausage meat from the casings.

In a non-stick pan, cook the sausage till well browned, breaking any large pieces up into small pieces as it cooks. Set the cooked sausage aside.

Now it’s time to cook the remaining sauce ingredients.

Add a little olive oil to the sausage pan. Add 1 medium chopped onion and cook until translucent.

 

Add ¼ tsp red pepper flakes; 2 chopped garlic cloves; ½ cup chopped fresh basil; ½ Tbsp chopped fresh oregano; 1 tsp chopped fresh mint; and 15 ounce can diced tomatoes. Cook for another two minutes.

Add 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper, and the chopped roasted red peppers.

In a blender or food processor, or in a bowl using an immersion blender, puree the pepper mixture.

Add the cooked sausage to the pureed pepper mixture, stir to combine, and set aside till needed.

To make the turkey cutlets:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Shake the excess marinade from the cutlets. Bread the cutlets by dredging in all-purpose flour, dipping in 2 egg-substitute eggs, and coating with seasoned panko breadcrumbs.

Place the cutlets on a baking sheet lined with parchment or foil lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Bake until cooked through and golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

To plate:

Place the turkey cutlets and your side dishes on the plate. Top the cutlet with sauce, remembering not to over-sauce the turkey. Serve hot, pausing only long enough to accept compliments from your family and guests!

To download a copy of the recipe for Sausage and Pepper Sauce, click HERE. For the breaded turkey cutlets recipe, click HERE.

All that’s left is to decide what you’ll put the extra sauce on for another special dinner soon!

Looking forward to seeing you here again next week for another tasty, home-style recipe! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)