Grilled Sardines and Mackerel

This is as far from local food as you can get. I had a craving for sea food in general and grilled seafood in particular so what do you do if you live in South-Western Ontario, Canada, thousand miles away from nearest ocean or sea? Whatever is billed as “fresh fish” in our supermarkets and is from salt water is only relatively fresh if you get it when it is delivered. Fat chance of that on most days, I think. The closest to “fresh fish” inland and far away from ocean is fish frozen right on factory fishing trawler. Among the choices I had in larger town 40 minutes away were sardines and mackerel. What I came up with for a meal to satisfy my cravings was a fusion of Portuguese and Japanese favorite snack foods: grilled sardines rubbed with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and mackerel marinated in teriyaki sauce. Only after we ate our fill did we realize how full of Omega3 fat these fish were. This is not a main meal food, no sir. I have made a mistake right there. I knew that just 2 sardines or half a mackerel with crusty bread would be enough for one serving but I felt that since I have the grill going I’ll cook some more. And so I did.

If using frozen fish, defrost in refrigerator overnight.
When ready to cook, rub the grill with little vegetable oil (so fish won’t stick) and preheat your grill or BBQ on medium high.
To clean the sardines and prepare it for a grill, make a cut along the bottom of the fish and remove the intestines and entrails (simply run your finger inside the cut). Do not remove the head. Rinse and place the fish aside to dry.
Rub the fish with little bit of olive oil and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
To prepare mackerel, cut along the bottom from tail and across the head almost all the way through and then cut in half across between head and tail. Remove head and tail. The fish will be basically “butterflied”. Wash and dry on both sides.
Watch this video for clear and detailed instructions.
Rub little bit of sesame oil and teriyaki sauce into flesh or just use olive oil, salt and pepper. When grill is hot place sardines and mackerel (skin side down) on the grill and cook till skin is crisp and golden, 4 -5 minutes. Flip the fish over and grill till other side is crisp.
Serve with a wedge of lemon and crusty Italian or Portuguese bread.
To de-bone sardines, grasp the head and pull towards tail, the backbone will come off cleanly. Mackerel backbone and rib cage will come off easily as well.

Head Cheese

Head Cheese or Sülze (German), Sulc or Huspenina (Czech) etc…

Head cheese is not a cheese at all, of course but a terrine or meat jelly/aspic. Originally it was made from whole head of pig but since average home cook can’t get his hands on whole pig’s head, pork and veal knuckles or hocks are used instead. Hmmm, veal knuckles? Nope, can’t get these in our small town either so it left me with just the pork hocks. But hey, all you need for basic head cheese is pork hocks, water, salt, carrots, onions and your favorite spices and you are making Pâté de Tête. Doesn’t it sound better than head cheese? Anyway, I remember back in 50’s when my grandmother and other village neighbors killed a pig, usually in February, head cheese and head and barley soup were first things to be made and served to all the families around. It was greasy all right, but was it ever good! The smell of cloves and allspice from these dishes stuck with me ever since and these are the spices I used for my version. As is the norm for me lately, I improvised on the fly so there isn’t really much of a recipe that I have tested but I will describe what I did from start to finish.

On a whim, I bought 2 small knuckles that were split in half and somehow I knew that I will make my first Sülze. Since I wanted the gelatin fairly clear I had to blanch the hocks. Just bring the water with hocks to rapid boil and when brown foam forms on surface dump everything in sink and rinse under hot water. Wash the pot, put the clean hocks back in pot, cover with water and bring to simmer again. Meanwhile I placed cup of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar in slow cooker and turned it on High/6 hours. I use tee egg for spices and some herbs when making a stock so this is what I used again. As I said before, cloves and allspice are the main spices. I have added crushed pepper corns, bay leaf and 6 cloves of garlic. Place the spices in slow cooker. There will be carrots, parsnip and gherkins/pickles going in after the meat is done and removed.

When the hocks start to boil, transfer to slow cooker together with the water, cover and enjoy your 6 hours of doing nothing with this meal.

When done, remove the meat, strain and degrease the stock and set aside to cool. Best way is to let it cool to room temperature and then put it in fridge overnight. Not only it will be easy to degrease but you will also see how gelatinous the stock is. This is very important. If it not firm enough you will have to add some gelatin after you boil the carrots and pickles. You have read instruction on package to see how much to use.

Now it is time to de-bone the hocks. For me, the best part of hocks is the skin: nice, soft and chewy, so I use it, of course. Make sure that all the bones are removed and then chop all the meat and skin. Put back in the pot with stock, cubed carrots and pickles (amount is up to you) and bring to boil. When carrots are soft add the gelatin mixed with water, simmer for few seconds and remove from heat. All done. Now it is time to cool it down, fill the molds or whatever you want to use and let it set. I use aluminum bread pans and they work great.

When set and cool, remove from pan, slice and serve with lightly toasted rye bread and pickles.

 2 hocks gave me 5 of these bread pans.

It looks like there is meat only at bottom but as you can see from previous pictures the meat is spread from bottom to top.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Few weeks ago I ate my very first heirloom tomato and I was hooked immediately on the taste of this light yellow tomato. It was given to us by our neighbor who is retired farmer. Apparently, his friends found it among hundreds of plants they grow for making tomato juice and since it didn’t look red they threw it out. Knowing that we will try anything new food-wise he brought them to us. I do not understand why I waited so long to taste these tomatoes since I do shop at local Amish farms and at our local farmers market and they were always available in season. Looks like my plans for next year veggie garden are changing already since I will definitely grow some heirloom tomatoes.

Last Thanksgiving Sunday we went for a ride in the country and we came across a roadside stand that was selling heirloom tomatoes of all sizes, colors and shapes. Since all of them are open pollinated varieties I will collect the seeds from tomatoes that both of us really like.

This morning we did a little tasting and they are really good! They were nowhere as sweet as some regular red hybrids, but instead there was nice balance between sweet and tart. They will be great in salads and relishes, I think. So far I picked 3 (and counting) that I will try to grow. Over the winter I will try to identify the varieties that I have collected seeds from; not an easy task. Maybe I will email pictures to some seed houses and ask if they can help. It is not all that important to know the name but if somebody will taste my tomatoes, likes them and asks for the name it would be nice to know the answer.

Of course, if you know any of these tomatoes, please, leave a comment.

Here is link to interesting description of “Heirloom Tomato”.

Lecsó – or what to do with too many peppers

As noted in my previous post I had a lot of peppers, red and green, and tomatoes on hand from my last harvest and since I didn’t even consider to pickle or can them, only alternative for me was to cook and freeze them. One recipe that I knew would work was Hungarian Lecsó.

Lecsó is a sort of pepper, onion and tomato stew cooked slowly on stove-top for long time and served as is, with potatoes or meat and potatoes. Since I was going to freeze it I have made plain version that will be kicked up quite a bit when re-heated and served with whatever I choose. Just as an experiment I will one day chop the Lecsó and use it as a pizza sauce. I think that it will be quite good!

Cooking this dish is a walk in the park; it is the prep that takes so much time. Cleaning, seeding and slicing the peppers is so labor intensive! I tried to slice the peppers in food processor but I was faster slicing them with my Chinese cleaver than using Cuisinart. Well, I still have all my digits and without a single Band-Aid.

As usual, because of heavy bottom of the pot I use my pressure cooker. By the way, that is a lot of peppers to clean and cut!

Caramelize the onions...

add peppers and cook till they soften...

add tomatoes and cook for about 2 hours. At first covered and then with cover off.

Add Hungarian paprika and simmer for another 1/2 hour. If the sauce is too watery, add some tomato paste (I did).

Ready as a base for other recipes.

Last Harvest of 2011

I have to admit that the end of my veggie garden season came much faster than I have anticipated. It was fun, though. Next year the garden will be very, very different, that much I know. Not only what I will grow but also how much. I do have a rough idea but nothing will be finalised until next spring.

Here is the last harvest of peppers and tomatoes. The green roma tomatoes at top left will be made into relish and some will be sliced and fried even though I have never done that. All the peppers and tomatoes will be cooked together with onions and garlic and frozen. The dish is a sort of casserole called Lecsó and is a popular Hungarian dish that rest of the countries from former Austrian-Hungarian Empire adopted as their own.
It was a lot of work to seed and slice the peppers but it was so worth it! The picture story will be posted next.

Caraway Rye Bread Revisited

It has been a long time since I have made caraway rye bread! Last week, when weather was cool and rainy, I had a real craving for that crusty bread. Best thing to do was to make one. So, I did. Why did I wait so long to make one again is beyond me.  After all it is “no-kneed” style of bread where you just incorporate flour, water, yeast and salt and let nature and time do the work for you. Here is link to original recipe I have posted last November 30^th.

Only difference from the posted recipe is that I used only 3 cups of flour this time. It made it so much easier to handle that wet dough. Of course, loaf was smaller and was gone in a day! J

10:30 PM

16 hours later...

form into round loaf and let raise for 2 hours and literally plop the loaf into heavy Dutch oven preheated to 500°F. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove cover and bake for 15 more minutes or till inner temperature reaches 210°F 

45 minutes later...crusty and chewy Heaven!!!

Sauerkraut Soup

Yes, you have read it right: this soup is made with sauerkraut as a main ingredient. As far as I can tell, it is of Slavic countries or Central Europe origin and there is no need to say that it is a comfort food. My version is more robust then simple soups that use just sauerkraut, potatoes and stock. Again, just use your imagination like I did.

I think that the key in making this soup taste great to unaccustomed taste buds is to soak, wash and drain the kraut in cold water. I dumped the whole jar of sauerkraut into large and deep bowl, filled with cold water and let sit for an hour. Then I drained it in strainer and washed it under running water for half a minute. I let it drain and run it in my lettuce spinner to remove as much water as possible. This was important step for me because I like to chop the long strands of sauerkraut into a size that will stay on the spoon and not hang over like spaghetti.

My soup was fortified with addition of carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, garlic and smoked kielbasa. For the base you can use any stock you have on hand. Ham stock would be ideal but I didn’t have any. Next time I’ll cook smoked Schweinshaxe or Eisbein (pork hock) I will keep this recipe in mind and keep some meat and skin (for me only) for the soup.

 Ingredients for my version of Sauerkraut Soup

2 cups of German wine sauerkraut

1/3 cup water

3 slices bacon, chopped

1 onion, sliced

1 tsp. caraway seeds

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp. hot Hungarian paprika

1 small carrot, chopped

1 small parsnip, diced

1 stalk of celery, chopped

2 potatoes, diced
1/2 cup diced smoked meat or sausage

3 cups stock

4 cups stock (ham, chicken or beef)

Soak the sauerkraut in cold water for about 1 hour. Drain, squeeze dry and roughly chop.

Crush caraway seeds with garlic in mortar, mini-chopper or chop with knife.

Mix 1/3 cup water with chopped bacon and place in a heavy bottomed soup pot or Dutch oven. Turn the heat on medium high and render the bacon fat. When bacon starts to get crispy and light brown add onions and garlic-caraway seed mixture and cook until onions start to have light color. Off the heat mix in paprika and stir till onions are coated.

Put back on heat and add carrots, parsnip, celery, potatoes and smoked meat or sausage. Mix for few seconds and then pour in stock. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add sauerkraut and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Soup is ready to be served as is but if you like soups with more body, run about half of the soup in blender, return to pot to reheat and serve. Another option is to liquefy the leftover soup in the blender, add some 35% cream and simmer for few minutes. Sinfully good!

Cream of Sauerkraut Soup

Changes to comments section on my blogs

It was brought to my attention that it was impossible to leave comments on all my blogs if signed in as Anonymous or other then Google account. I was using a form that switched to another Google web site and in the process the comments got trashed. I have switched to full page comments form that stays on BlogSpot and when tested it worked fine. My apologies to all that tried fruitlessly to leave a comment or to get in touch with me.
The fact that many bloggers had and still have same problem is not too much of consolation to me, I am sorry to say. I should have caught it long time ago.

Jerry