Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens (21 page)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 garlic cloves, smashed

2 pounds vegetables to be braised, washed thoroughly, and cut into large chunks (about 1- to 2-inch squares)

Sea salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

cup chicken stock or white wine

1
Place your 12-inch sauté pan over medium heat. Add the butter and garlic and allow the butter to melt slowly and infuse with the garlic flavor.

2
Once the butter has completely melted and the garlic has begun to soften, add as much of your vegetables as will comfortably fit in the sauté pan in a thick single layer. Turn the heat up slightly to medium high. Carefully turn the vegetables over and, as they shrink, add more vegetables if necessary. Season lightly with salt and pepper and continue turning them while they wilt down.

3
Once completely softened, add the chicken stock or wine and reduce the heat to medium. Allow this to simmer for several minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated out. Taste the vegetables at this point to see if they need more salt or pepper. Remove from heat and serve as a large island in a family style serving dish with braising liquid surrounding it, or as a tiny island in the center of a dinner plate topped with your protein.

Show-Your-Sensitive-Side Sautéed Vegetables

Serves 4 to 6

Delicate vegetables like summer squash, spinach, bell peppers, mushrooms, and eggplant shouldn't be abused by long cooking methods. The trick to perfect texture and flavor is to sauté cook them on high heat for a short period of time. Any way you look at it, sautéed vegetables are CLK friendly for their quick cooking in a single pan.

3 tablespoon olive oil

4 garlic cloves, smashed

2 pounds vegetables to be sautéed, cut to be the same size either on the bias or in cubes

Sea salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

1
Place your 12-inch sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Once it begins to smoke, add the garlic cloves, and stir them around in the hot oil while they brown. Remove the garlic and then add the vegetables, using your tongs to arrange them in an even layer.

2
Allow them to brown 1 minute, and then toss them around to finish cooking for one more minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper. When you taste them to check your seasoning, they should be crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Serve immediately as a high stacked “great wall” of vegetables on a family style platter, or tossed together with some pasta.

Rock-'n'-Roasted Vegetables

Serves 4 to 6

Almost any vegetable can be roasted, save for delicate greens. Certainly fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, and baby red potatoes are naturals in a roasting oven, but so are rutabaga, Brussels sprouts, and carrots. The trick is usually to blanch them first, which is the first step in this recipe. By blanching them gently, we foolproof the cooking method. All that's left to do is crisp them in the oven!

2 pounds vegetables to be roasted, cut if necessary into large, even pieces like wedges

3 tablespoons kosher salt

3 garlic cloves, smashed

5 fresh rosemary sprigs

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Gray sea salt

Black pepper, to taste

1
Preheat the oven to 500°. Fill your 12-quart stockpot one-quarter of the way up with water, and place it over high heat. Add the vegetables to the water, and then 3 tablespoons of kosher salt. If the water doesn't completely cover the vegetables, add more until it does. Bring the water to a boil with the vegetables already in the pot. If you boil the water first and then add the vegetables, 2Once the outside will cook too quickly. the vegetables are barely tender when stuck with a knife (the knife should go in easily but should not release from the vegetable), drain them using your steamer basket. Pour them out over a sheet tray, add the garlic cloves and rosemary, and drizzle the olive oil evenly over the whole thing. Use your tongs to move the vegetables around, coating everything with oil. Season evenly with gray sea salt and some pepper.

Put the tray of vegetables into the oven and roast until everything is golden brown. This should take about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve them piled high in the center of a family style platter with a bouquet of fresh herbs planted in one corner.

Peter Piper
Picked a Pasta

Serves 2 to 4

It is wonderful that you can buy fresh pasta in the refrigerator case at the market, so take advantage of it. Everything from spinach to whole wheat pasta is available fresh, but if you aren't able to find the variety or shape you want in fresh, quality dried pastas are just as good. Simply remember to add a little cooking time to dried pastas, and taste them to make sure they're done. A fabulous side dish, estimate 3 ounces of pasta per person. If pasta is the main dish, plan on 4 to 6 ounces per person. The only chance you have to flavor your pasta is through the salting of your water, so make sure to do this or your pasta will be crappy! You'll find a plethora of recipes in the sauce section that work well on pasta, but fresh pasta is also superb simply tossed with butter and a good Parmesan cheese. Using your stock pot/steamer basket combo turns this into a CLK-friendly one-pot wonder.

¼ cup sea salt

8 ounces pasta

1
Put your 12-quart stockpot over high heat
and fill it halfway with water. When bubbles
begin to form at the bottom, add a pinch of
salt. If it sinks to the bottom, the water isn't hot
enough, so wait 5 more minutes and try again.
If a cloud forms as the salt is dissolved, the
water is ready. Now you may continue adding
salt, a little at a time, until the cloud no longer
forms and the salt settles at the bottom. This
means that your water is “supersaturated”
and perfectly salted.

2
When the water is at a full boil, add the
pasta. How long it takes to cook the pasta
depends on the size and whether it is fresh or
not. Fresh pasta will cook very quickly and
should only need about 5 minutes, but you
should check it after 2 minutes by taking a bite.
Dried pasta takes a little less than 10 minutes.
Follow the directions on the package for al dente (firm) pasta. You never want
to overcook pasta. After 5 minutes,
pull a piece of dried pasta out of the
water, and cut it in half or simply
take a bite. If it is still white or
crunchy in the middle, let it cook
and test after one minute. Continue
testing in one minute increments.

3
Once the pasta is cooked, drain
it in your steamer basket. Add
immediately to whatever sauce it is
being served with, and toss together.
If you allow the pasta to finish inside
the sauce, not only will the sauce prevent
it from sticking together, but the
warm pasta will absorb some of the
sauce while coating itself very well.

4
For the butter and parmesan version, melt 4 ounces (1 stick) of butter in a sauté pan. Toss the pasta through the butter, and then sprinkle with ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese. You can toss in Sweet Merciful Scampi (p. 112) or Sautéed 5To Vegetables (p. 170). serve, use your tongs to grab the portion of pasta you want, dangle just over the center of the plate. Set it down while twisting your tongs as if using a screw driver, continuing to twist as you lift the tongs away, and your pasta will be presented in a beautiful coil. If not using a sauce immediately, toss the pasta with a little extra virgin olive oil, and this will help keep the pasta from sticking together.

Mashed Magnificence

Serves 6 to 8

You'll love the extra buttery flavor that shines through in these taters. They mash up in no time, so don't save this recipe for Thanksgiving. Make it anytime!

2 pounds Idaho potatoes

¼ cup sea salt

8 ounces unsalted butter

¼ cup heavy whipping cream

Sea salt, to taste

White pepper, to taste

1
Put your 12-quart stockpot over high heat and fill it halfway with water. Stand over your trash can and peel the potatoes, then immediately place them in the stockpot with the water as soon as they are peeled. This will keep your potatoes from turning brown. Once they are all peeled, take them out one at a time, quarter them, and place them back in the water.

2
When the water comes to a boil, add the salt and turn the heat down to a simmer. After simmering for 20 minutes, test to see if the potatoes are cooked by squeezing one with your tongs. If it crushes easily, you're ready to mash.

3
Once the potatoes are cooked, carefully drain them into your steamer basket. Then return the potatoes to the stockpot, and place the pot in the sink. Cut the butter into cubes, and drop the cubes of butter into the hot potatoes. Using your whisk, mash up the potatoes with the butter. As the butter is incorporated and all the lumps are mashed out, the potatoes are going to become light and fluffy.

4
Whisk in the heavy cream and season to taste with sea salt and white pepper. White pepper is the secret ingredient for most restaurant mashed potatoes, if you've ever wondered why the ones at the gourmet restaurant taste so much better than the ones you make at home. A little bit goes a very long way, so start small, you can always add more. Serve immediately, or wrap tightly in a bowl and place over a pot of lightly simmering water to hold warm for up to an hour.

When serving, pile the whipped masterpiece high on a serving platter, or fill a large dinner spoon and use another spoon about the same size to scrape it off the spoon onto the center of a dinner plate. It should come off looking like an egg (also called a quenelle shape) to be topped or surrounded by any protein.

What's Right White Rice

Serves 6 to 8

Perfectly cooked rice is a wonderful thing to master, and this recipe is truly foolproof. For an added boost of flavor, use chicken or vegetable stock instead of water, add ½ cup finely chopped onion, or simply fold in some unsalted butter when you open the lid.

2. cups water

2 cups jasmine rice

1 tablespoon sea salt

1
Preheat oven to 350°. Add all three ingredients to your 12-quart stockpot, and place it over high heat. When bubbles begin to form at the bottom, cover it with a fitted lid or a tight wrapping of foil.

2
Place the covered stockpot of rice into your oven to bake for 45 minutes exactly. Pull it out when your timer dings, and keep it tightly closed until you're ready to serve.

Call the Po-Po on
This Polenta

Serves 10 to 12

Polenta is a popular side dish in many gourmet restaurants. No one would ever expect the simplicity involved in its preparation.

3 cups whole milk

2 cups chicken stock

1 bay leaf, fresh (or substitute 1 dried)

½ yellow onion, peeled and left intact

Sea salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

1½ cups polenta, or yellow cornmeal

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup diced Roma tomatoes (about 2)