My mother has always been a master at stretching a dollar because she’s had lots of practice most of her life.  As a single mother of three children under the age of five by the time she was 25, she worked hard to put a roof over our heads and food on the table.  She was very good at providing us a life we never considered was lacking, even though by today’s standards, most would say it was.   Our clothes were mended and patched when they began to show wear, and those gently worn were passed down to the next child in line.  Yes, we had toys, but more often, we ran around outside playing with friends at imaginary games. We ate only at meal times, and when we did, the food was simple and filling.  Often, beans were on the menu, and on those days when my little sister asked what we were having for dinner, the response would be, “Hundreds of wonderful things.” And why not when you consider that a two-pound bag of pintos costs only a few dollars even at today’s prices.

As much as I still enjoy a good pot of beans, white beans, or cannellinis, are what we most enjoy now.  Often referred to as white kidney beans, they’re related to navy beans, or great northern beans.  I often keep a can or two in my pantry, but I always have a small bag of dried beans as well.  They find their way into so many different quick dishes these days — like pasta, soup, or salad.  Our favorite way to eat them is with wilted dark greens such as chard or kale, and lots of garlic.  On some nights, sun-dried tomatoes are tossed into the mix, and others, whatever pasta  I have in the pantry helps bring everything together.

This recipe for “Cooked Shell Beans” is from Frank Sitt’s Bottega Favorita and is a good starting point for so many fabulous recipes, including a nice Bean Puree if you add some roasted garlic.  Put a pot on this weekend, and enjoy all the possibilities.

Cooked Cannellinis

18 oz. dried cannelinis (about 3 c.)

1 leek

1 sweet onion

1 carrot

4 cloves garlic

bouquet garni with thyme, marjoram, 2 bay leaves, chives, and several sprigs of flat-leafed parsley

salt & pepper to taste

extra virgin olive oil*

Parmesan

Place the pre-soaked beans (see notes below) in a large pot and cover with about 3 inches of cold water.  Split the leek lengthwise, removing the dark green leaves and rinsing the remaining light green and white pieces well.  Quarter the onion and carrot, adding those as well.  Smash the garlic cloves, remove the peels, and add them to the pot.  To make the bouquet garni, take a dark green leek leaf and wrap it around the other herbs, securing the package with a bit of kitchen string.  Add it to the pot with the other ingredients and bring everything to a simmer over medium heat, partially covered.  Continue cooking slowly, about 45 minutes, then stir in  a few large pinches of salt.  Finish cooking at a low simmer until the beans are very tender, an additional 45 minutes or so.

To serve, use your imagination!  Here, cannellinis (sans bean broth) are served with a good extra virgin olive oil, some fresh thyme, maldon salt, cracked pepper, and shaved Parmesan.   However you serve them, don’t throw out the bean broth!  It can be used with the beans for soup, to lighten a pasta dish served with beans, to braise vegetables, or to make bean puree (recipe follows).

Notes:

• Dried beans need to be soaked before cooking.  Slow method: the night before you want to cook them, rinse them in a colander to make sure there are no stones or bad beans.  (Honestly, in all my years, I’ve never seen a stone in my bag of beans, but my teeth can’t afford the risk, so I rinse.)  In a large pot, cover the beans with 2 inches and let them sit overnight.  They’ll swell quite a bit.  Discard the liquid when you’re ready to cook them.  Fast method: Cover the pot and heat the beans and water to a boil.  Turn off the heat and allow the beans to sit covered for about 1 hour.
• During the cooking time, if desired, add water to keep the beans submerged by about 2 inches.  This will give you a good amount of bean broth.  If you choose not to, you’ll have a thicker sauce with your beans.
• I know what you’re thinking.  Beans give you quite a bit of intestinal discomfort.  The soaking process is supposed to help with that, so plan ahead.
• Beans are considered a super food and a rich source of protein, fiber, and antioxidants.  This all adds up to “healthy!”
• Rancho Gordo is a great source of information, products and recipes for beans.
• * When I attended the Foodbuzz Festival last November in San Francisco, I participated in an olive oil tasting seminar.  Not only did I learn that tasting olive oil is a similar process to tasting wine, I received a bottle of California Ranch’s Olio Nuovo to sample.  Its pungent, fresh, grassy taste was a treat I’ll not soon forget.  It was perfect on salads,  crusty bread, and drizzled over these beans.
• The salad is one I never posted:  arugula, fresh mozarella, shallots, roasted cherry peppers (or was it grape tomatoes?), cannellini…I think it was Bittman No. 54.  I’ll have to go back and check.

Cannellini Puree

1 c. cooked cannellinis

2 tsp. roasted garlic

1 small potato, cooked and peeled

salt & pepper to taste

extra virgin olive oil

Add the cannellinis, garlic, and potato to a food processor and run until the mixture is smooth.  If necessary, add a bit of the bean broth to lighten it.    Taste, and season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle on some very good extra virgin olive oil.

Use as a dip for crudites, a topping for crostini, and pizza, or filling for ravioli.

Notes:

• I love this.  It’s wonderful as a dip with vegetables in place of fatty sour cream based dips.  Make sure it’s the right consistency and seasoned well.
• If you’d like it with more carbs, toast pieces of a baguette with a bit of olive oil.  Dip them into a bowl of bean puree drizzled with the olive oil.  Fabulous party food.
• The roasted garlic is so good in this.  To send it over the edge, add a bit of the roasted garlic olive oil to the puree before digging in.
• If you’ve never roasted garlic — it’s very easy.  And you don’t need a ceramic roaster.  Aluminum foil will work just fine.  Halve two heads of garlic.  Drizzle olive oil over the heads, salt and pepper, then sprinkle some fresh thyme over.  Roast at 325 degrees about 45 minutes.  Allow to cool then squeeze the garlic from the peelings and mash to use in the beans.  Save the oil — it’s fabulous, but use it quickly over crostini, pasta, risotto, or grilled vegetables.  Roasted garlic is also delicious spread over crusty bread.

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I’m never out of garlic, and yet yesterday when I wondered about what would go in the potato leek soup we made for dinner, I found I had only the shriveled remnants of my normally plump reserve.  There were no shallots, and I couldn’t find an onion, either.  Cooking just isn’t the same for me without these flavors.  I roast garlic and smear it on crostini, flavor oil with it to drizzle over roasted vegetables, saute it with almost everything, smash it and sprinkle on some sea salt to make a paste, mince it, cook whole heads in their papery skin, and wince when I find I’m out.

Have you had your garlic today?

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It’s the busy season for my husband so that means dinner is later with each passing week.  There is no complaint from me because I’ve gotten used to it over the last many years — and I’m not the one working late.

The later schedule allows me to think a bit longer about dinner if I’ve procrastinated, or, as in this case, have something ready that takes almost no time to prepare because it’s a) classified as something that can be made ahead of time — as in the day before; or b) it’s left-over.  You’re welcome to choose whichever version you’d like, but I’m going with choice a because that’s what I did.

Pork shoulder was on sale for some ridiculously low price if i purchased two roasts wrapped together, so I thought, what the heck.  Each weighed about 4-5 lbs.  I separated them when I got home, freezing them in ziplock bags knowing that I’d find something that struck my fancy.

My fancy ended up being Pulled-Pork Sandwiches but I had to roast the pork to begin with.  Now you could enjoy the slowly roasted pork for dinner one night, then the pulled-pork sandwiches the next, but my roast wasn’t all that big and I know that had we eaten it after it came out of the oven, there wouldn’t have been enough for the sandwiches.

This recipe caught my eye because of the capers.  I can’t get enough of those sun-dried and brined flower buds that grow in the Mediterranean region.  In fact, I no longer rinse them as most recipes advise, because I enjoy the tang the brine adds to whatever it is I’m cooking.  There’s never enough brine to lose the unique flavor of the capers no matter what I’m making — especially with this recipe.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
makes 3  giant sandwiches

1-1/2 T capers
2 c. cabbage, sliced
1/4 red onion, sliced
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
3 T chives, minced
3 tsp. cherry pepper, chopped
2 T red wine vinegar
salt
2 c. shredded pork shoulder
good sandwich rolls
3 T olive oil

First you have to prepare the pork.

1 T kosher salt
1 T cracked pepper
4.5 lb. pork shoulder
1 lg. onion, quartered
3 lg. carrots, peeled & chunked
10 cloves garlic, smashed & peeled
1 c. chardonnay

Two days before you’d love to have your pulled pork sandwiches, rub the pork shoulder with a mixture of the kosher salt and cracked pepper.  Place in a ziplock bag and keep in the fridge overnight.  Before roasting the pork, remove it from the fridge and let sit at room temp for about an hour.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Roast pork in a baking pan in the center of the oven about 2 hours or until well browned and very tender, or about 30 minutes per pound.  Add the remainder of the ingredients to the roasting pan along with 1/2 c. water and roast for an additional 30 minutes.

At this point, this is a lovely piece of meat for dinner as long as you save some for the sandwiches!  And if you do, then shred the pork then instead of waiting.

Now on to the sandwiches.

In a large bowl, combine the vegetables and capers and mix with the vinegar and salt.  Let it sit to soften a bit for at least 30 minutes, tossing occasionally.

Prepare the rolls by slicing, opening, and placing down on a hot skillet or griddle to brown.

Reheat the pulled pork if necessary and load onto rolls.  Add some of the cabbage mixture to each roll and drizzle with olive oil.  Salt and pepper if wanted.

Dig.  In.

Notes:

• This is good.  No.  This is really, really good.  Hit the spot doesn’t even come close.  Sad but true that only once in a while do I bite into something that just sends me and this did.
• I confess that the sandwiches were quite large.  Oh.  Well.  I could have halved each of them, and then we would have gone for seconds.
• I could see a nice stone ground mustard on these if you had to, but it’s so not necessary.
• You could play around with the veggies, like add some peppers you have on hand.  Maybe some kalamatas?  Who cares?  It’s just one of those kinds of sandwiches.
• Good luck doing this with left over pork chops.  That roast is so tender, juicy and flavorful…
• The inspiration for this recipe came from Fine Cooking.  Essentially, I used half the pork but retained most of the quantities of ingredients for roasting.  Loved all that sweet, roasty garlic.
• I can’t say too much more except that I’ve been experimenting with my camera and learning more about custom white balances, using Curves in Photoshop, and shooting in RAW sometimes.  It makes for a fairly wonky collection of photos, but I’ll get there some day.  Maybe.

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Of course the calendar swears it's October.  And yes, magazines have arrived sporting all things orange, brown, and sage green.  Grocery stores have displays of apples in every size and color, and yes, oddly shaped squash and pumpkin are everywhere.

So I pretend, and I indulge myself by fixing a braised piece of meat and some vegetables knowing that the resident hunkster will smile when he sits down with his plate to yell at the television and one of his many fantasy football players' latest indiscretions on the field.

That's how I really know that Fall has arrived, and I wouldn't trade it for anything, whether the sun is shining and the palms are swaying in the breeze or not.

This is a lovely and satisfying meal that takes some time to prepare since the roast needs to be brined over night.  I'd say that qualifies it for being slow, wouldn't you?

The cooking time isn't all that long, however, so the pay off is big.  Plus, there's a Low and Slow event being held at The Constable's Larder I'd like to send this off to.  Today's the last day, and true to form, here I am late even though I prepared this meal well in advance and specifically for the event.  In fact I prepared two.  Funny how that works, isn't it?

Brined Pork Roast with Mushroom Polenta and Collard Greens

16 c. water, divided
1 c. kosher salt
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 onion, quartered
1 head garlic, unpeeled, halved crosswise
few sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. whole mixed peppercorns
1-4 lb. pork shoulder roast
1 c. chicken broth
2 tsp. red wine vinegar

In a very large pot, mix 8 c. water, salt, sugar, onion, garlic, thyme, bay, and pepper, bringing it to a boil over high heat.  Stir occasionally until all the salt and sugar dissolve, then add an additional 8 c. water and remove from the heat.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

When the solution is fully chilled, add the pork making sure it is completely covered by the brine, put a lid on the pot and refrigerate over night.

The next day, approximately two hours before serving time…

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove pork from the brine and rinse and pat dry with a clean towel.  Salt and pepper all sides of the meat and in a cast iron skillet or pan that can be placed in the oven, brown on all sides until golden and beginning to crust.  Place in the oven and roast for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 145 degrees F.  After roasting time is done, remove the pork from the oven, place a loose foil tent over it and let sit for about 15 minutes.

While the pork is still in the oven, approximately 1 hour before serving time, make the collard greens.

Braised Collard Greens

2 T unsalted butter
2 T olive oil
1 onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 lbs. collard greens
2 c. chicken broth
1 T red wine vinegar

Melt butter with olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic, stirring until it softens, about 5 minutes.  Add the chopped greens and stir occasionally until they begin to wilt.  Add the broth and allow to boil.  Cover, turn down heat to low and cook until very tender, about 45 minutes.  Before serving, add the vinegar, and season with salt and pepper.

Immediately after the collard greens are on low and simmering, make the polenta.

Mushroom Sage Polenta with Smoked Mozarella

4 c. water
1 tsp. salt
1 c. cornmeal
1/4 c. unsalted butter
2 leaves fresh sage, sliced thinnly
2 c. shitake mushrooms, chopped coarsely
1/2 c. smoked mozarella, grated

In a large sauce pan, add the salt and boil the water.  Slowly stir in the cornmeal and continue to stir until the mixture begins to thicken.  Turn the heat down very low and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 30 minutes. 

While the polenta is cooking, saute the mushrooms in a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Add the sliced sage and saute until the mushrooms have released all their moisture.  Set aside until right before serving.

When it's time to serve, pour mushroom mixture and grated mozarella into the polenta and stir.

When it's time to serve the meal…

Pour the chicken broth and vinegar into the pork's roasting pan over high heat and bring to a boil.  Scrape up any browned bits from the pan and season with salt and pepper.  Slice the roast and serve with the sauce over all.

Notes:

• The original recipes can be found in the October issue of Bon Appetit here.
• Although we prefer to brine our turkeys, I've never prepared pork in this fashion and it was truly excellent.  The original recipe called for a rib roast, but I had the shoulder and it worked just fine.
• I have a huge kettle I used for this, but you can use a couple of clean plastic bags (kitchen trash sized) just as well.  The most important aspect of brining is that the meat stays covered by the brining solution at all times.
• For safety reasons, make sure the brining solution is completely chilled before you add the meat.  There's nothing worse than thinking about meat sitting in a warm liquid overnight and the havoc that would wreak on your constitution.  Seriously.
• For the collards — oh my.  I grew up eating all kinds of greens and love them.  You can substitute swiss chard if you like, and now that I'm thinking about it, probably turnip greens as well.  But the collards are amazing.  That touch of vinegar at the end is fabulous.
• I know it says polenta, but I used cornmeal.  Polenta costs more, is more fine, and I just didn't have any.  My polenta usually looks more like grits.  No creamy anything.  I like it that way.  I should probably try to make it beautiful and creamy, but it tastes great, and it's all rib-sticking food anyway, so what difference does it make, right?
• When you serve this meal,  make sure you pour some of that pan jus from the pork over everything.  It's quite the treat, I promise.

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Mmm-Hmmm.

I have found out that at least in San Diego, PBS is running the series  in the middle of the night, so I have set my DVR and have begun to live vicariously through the Foodie Foursome which includes Mark Bittman and a lovely Spanish actress I’ve not seen before, Claudia Bassols.  Oh, to be cruising through Spain in a caravan of expensive German cars.  Hell.  Just cruising through Spain.  The countryside is gorgeous, and the cooking seriously simple.  I’m loving the entire experience.  In fact, I’ve ordered the book since my Penelope Casas’ La Cocina de Mama has been getting quite the workout lately.

In fact, recently, we had meatballs and I’m left wondering why I never had meatballs when we lived in Spain.  There were meatballs?

I don’t think Gordon Ramsay would yell too loudly at me over this one.  You know.  The chef who wrote the book I’m giving away if you’ve commented and sent in a recipe.  If you can’t remember, then click the book on the left.  Time is seriously running out, and if I can’t scrape together a decent spread to celebrate my 100,000 visitor which happened yesterday, well.  Get those recipes and photos in everyone.  Everybody needs another cookbook — especially a big pretty one that’s FREE.

Where was I?

Spanish Meatballs and Greenbeans, that’s where.  It has comfort food written all over it.

First, the meatballs…

3 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 white onion, chopped fine
1/2 bell pepper, chopped fine
1/4 lb. roma tomatoes, grated (see below)
1-lb mix of very lean ground meat
1-1/2 tsp. salt
3 lg. eggs
3 T dried fine bread crumbs
flour for dusting

And the sauce for the meatballs…

1/4 white onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped fine
1 tsp. flour
1 T tomato sauce
1/4 c. white wine
1 c chicken or veggie broth
Salt & Pepper

To make the meatballs, first heat 1 T of olive oil in a skillet and saute the garlic, onion, and bell pepper slowly over low heat, stirring until softened and very aromatic, but do not brown them.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Cut a small piece from the tomato, and grate coarsely over a medium sized bowl to catch the juices and pulp. Discard the remaining piece of skin.  Add the ground meat to the tomato with salt and pepper, 1 egg, and bread crumbs.  With your hands, squeeze the ingredients together to mix well, and shape into balls about 1 to 1-1/2 inches in size.

Mix remaining egg in a small bowl, and have a plate ready with the flour.  Heat remaining 2T olive oil in the same skillet you browned the veggies in, and roll each meatball first in the flour until covered, then dunk in the eggs.  Immediately put in the skillet to saute until browned on all sides.  When brown, remove to a platter to reserve.

To make the sauce, in the same skillet add the second batch of chopped onions, garlic, and bell pepper, sauteeing them slowly until soft.  Stir in the flour, tomato sauce, wine, broth, and season to taste.  Cover the skillet and slowly simmer the sauce about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Transfer meatballs to the sauce, stirring gently, and cover, cooking until meatballs are cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Now for the greenbeans…

1 white onion, sliced thick
2 sprigs flat leafed parsley
4 cloves garlic (2 whole, 2 sliced)
3 T olive oil
1 lb greenbeans, trimmed
2 thick slices day old French bread, cubed
2 tsp. red wine vinegar

In a medium saucepan, place the onion parsley, whole garlic and 1 T olive oil to boil in salted water.  After it boils, add the greenbeans and simmer until crisp tender about 10 minutes.  When they’re done, drain them through a fine meshed strainer and reserve.

While the beans are cooking, heat a bit of the olive oil in a skillet and saute the bread cubes until they’re golden brown, shaking pan occasionally to brown all sides of cubes.  Remove to a plated lined with paper towels.

Add the remaining olive oil to the same skillet and add the sliced garlic, stirring until fragrant and beginning to brown.  Add the greenbean mixture to the skillet, stirring to mix onions and garlic with the greenbeans.  Sprinkle the vinegar over and toss briefly, then pour onto a platter.  Add the browned bread cubes to the platter, and serve.

Notes:

• These meatballs would be perfect for tapas.
• Any ground meat would be good for the meatballs as long as it’s very lean.  I used veal and pork and the flavor was very nice.
• Although the chopped veggies in the meatballs is great, they’re also good without the onion and bellpepper, or with other veggie combos.  Spanish food isn’t spicy, but I’d be hard pressed not to want to add some heat to these.  Even if it was dried red pepper flakes.  Some roasted jalapeno?  Mmmm….
• Making meatballs has always been tedious for me.  Even the melon baller doesn’t make it fun — but if you make sure your hands are wet before you begin to form the balls, it certainly does make the job much less messy.
• When you brown the balls, they get a bit flat here and there if you don’t watch them.  Brown them until they’re almost done inside.
• Use tongs when dipping the balls in the egg.  Otherwise, you’ll have more coating on your fingers than the balls.
• For the green beans, broad and flat are also fine.  The cooking time may need to be lengthened, though.
• Very easy, yummy dish!

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Any number of resources are available that will explain why I should truss my chicken, how said trussing will affect the final product, and of course, show me how to truss effectively.  To be honest, this whole subject must have been determined by destiny. 

Some people are destined to be famous and make millions, or influence hoards of willing subjects thereby changing the direction of humanity for the better.  I am destined to be someone influenced by clever and charming Foodie I happened onto a few days ago after I’d already made the decision to thaw the eight-dollar non-organic, mass produced big box grocery-store-bought Foster Farms roaster in my freezer and had some semblance of a recipe in mind.  I wasn’t looking for a lesson on trussing, but I got one anyway.  And  must have been a good lesson, because I’d read Thomas Keller’s viewpoint on the importance of trussing not too long ago, but wasn’t compelled to give it a go.  Of course, I didn’t have a chicken in my sink at the time.  Waiting. 
So thanks, Matt of Wrightfood.  I enjoyed the video and your blog.

I’m not sure I was perfectly successful at the trussing (you’re not supposed to have a big "X" across the most delicate part of the chicken…), but I enjoyed myself, and will be looking into this business of trussing, adding it to the mental list of things I should do, but don’t, and then chide myself over mercilessly.  Our roast chicken was, however, very moist and flavorful with little or no effort.

There are quite a few variations on Chicken with Olives that I’ve come across, so I can say that they’ve all influenced my version one way or another — without the trussing.

Roast Lemon Chicken with Garlic & Olives

1 whole chicken with innards removed from the cavity
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1/3 c. rosemary, parsley, & thyme
2 heads of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
3/4 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. cerignola olives (large green), seeded
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Zest the lemon completely.  Then juice it and quarter it.

In a small bowl, mix lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil and herbs.  Set aside.

Pat the chicken dry after rinsing it — inside as well.  Liberally sprinkle inside and out with salt and cracked pepper.  Sprinkle some of the herb mixture into the cavity, then add the lemon pieces. 

Truss the chicken, and according to this source, "you’ll have a better looking bird."

Place the chicken in a small roaster or cast iron skillet and sprinkle the remainder of the herb mixture over it, patting it into the skin.

Sprinkle the garlic cloves around the chicken.

Roast the chicken for 18-20 min. per pound and check for doneness by piercing a thigh and looking for opaque meat and clear juice or use an instant read thermometer inserted in the thigh that reads a USDA recommended 165 degrees F.  About an hour for an average sized bird.

Remove the chicken from the roaster when done and place on a platter, tented with foil.

Pour the chicken broth into the pan and over medium-high heat stir, scraping up any brown bits in the pan.  Add the olives and cook until they’re warm.

Carve the chicken, and serve, passing the olive sauce.  The taste is one of our very favorites.

Notes:

Cerignola olives can often be found at the olive bar in many grocery stores.  They’re mild tasting olives, and not as briny as some.  In other words, they don’t make the inside of your cheeks twinge when you eat them.  They have a pleasant fruity taste like, well, good olive oil.  They are usually unseeded, but they’re so big, I cut the cheeks off them just like you would a mango.  It works.  I can’t always find them, so have used other green olives instead  — except "Spanish olives" with pimientos stuffed in them.  I like them, just not for this dish.

You can have fun with different combinations of herbs like cilantro, or oregano, or add some shallots.  Use your imagination and choose what you enjoy. 

If you don’t want to peel all that garlic, purchase it in bulk already peeled.  I sort of like peeling garlic.  It’s soothing.  Go figure.  Of course when I don’t have the time, I smash the garlic, skins and all, with a bench scraper, and the peels come right off.  You’ll just have squashed garlic instead of pretty cloves.

This chicken is excellent with mashed potatoes, quartered and simmered until fork tender with peelings on.  Add some buttermilk and a bit of butter and mash some more, but leave a few chunks.  Season with salt and pepper.

After feeding the three of us, there was enough chicken to have pasta with the sauce for lunch the next day, and club sandwiches for dinner.  You’ll see…

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