Braised Pork Empanadas

Once again, I fell off the charts for way too long writing about dinner. I am offering this one with some ambivalence, but at least I’m dusting off my space a bit and adding something – anything – once again.

My wife and I are hoping to sell our condo so we can buy a house. That has meant a good bit of legwork de-cluttering our current home, and I wanted to make sure that any remaining items in our chest freezer got used up sooner rather than later to insure we didn't have to deal with any substantial quantities of perishables down the road. I had a couple of smaller pork roasts left, and braised them in the crock pot for much of the day, half-submerged in apple juice with a couple of apples and a couple of pears, some cinnamon, a small touch of chili powder, and a bit of honey over the top. Thankfully, my wife was able to occasionally “baste” the meat during the day, and the pork was perfect when I got home.

As before, when I made empanadas, I used frozen shells. I still haven’t taken the opportunity to make my own from scratch, and hope I will next time, but the premade offering from Goya is really rather nice. I coarsely chopped the pork and added about a cup of the juice to it, leaving the rest of the juice and the fruit for later. Once cooled a bit, I assembled the empanadas and set them aside.

I removed some of the peel from the fruit and added a few bananas to it, along with a bit of applesauce I had (apple-banana, which my daughters tend to not eat from the variety packs). I mashed this up and let it chill. I then strained much of the liquid from the crock pot into a sauce pan, reserving about a quarter cup, which I then mixed with some corn starch. I began reducing the juice, added my corn starch slurry, a hint of honey and vanilla sugar (yes, I keep a storage container with sugar and a couple of vanilla beans on hand at all times), along with a bit of orange juice, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I kept this simmering and reducing while I cooked the empanadas.

For the empanadas, I fried them in a 50/50 mix of peanut and olive oil. Since they don’t really need high heat, this works nicely, and adds a great flavor to boot.

The verdict

3 out of 4 of us really enjoyed this meal. Our younger daughter reluctantly, but ultimate ate and seemed to like this. My wife went nuts for the sauce. I was particularly pleased with the mellow apple-cinnamon tones in the pork, and the juiciness and tenderness of the meat. Since I made both roasts, and didn't have enough dough for more empanadas, I’ll make something else with that extra meat in a day or so (probably some nice tacos!). The pork worked well here, but on its own would have done well with just some good barbecue sauce, frankly. I really like the apple/banana sauce as a side. It is nice, every now and then, to have some fruits in place of veggies at dinner time, especially when it complements the meal so well.

Our older daughter decided to be stubborn. While she eventually acquiesced and tried the pork, she basically skipped dinner. Sometimes, we win, sometimes we don’t. It confounds me that she will eat a wide variety of vegetables (heck, broccoli is her favorite), but beyond applesauce, we cannot seem to get this child to appreciate fruit. I suppose I may have to find some sneakier ways to get her to try fruits in the future, but on this night, I failed.

While de-cluttering is not really much fun, it can be rewarding. We have been thrilled to clean out closets and drawers, knowing that so many gently-used items will find another life through donation. We have purged books that each of us have moved multiple times over a decade or more, books that really should have been passed along years ago. We find ourselves thinking more and more about what is important, and when we have a meal like this that removes from our larder something we don’t want to transport, we gain a nice memory, a new dish to use again in the future, and in this case, a hope – a hope that someday both our daughters will reflect back on our time sharing meals and NOT remember the times they threw a fit because something was new, or different, or not a favorite. We are building the last of our memories in the home where each of our girls has thus-far lived exclusively. I probably should make sure that I fill some of the remaining dinner times with more mac and cheese (they will tell you, mine is the best), more ravioli, and more PB&J and grilled cheese for lunch on the weekend. Oh, and broccoli. Definitely more broccoli.

A Sort of Fusion

I have been away far too long again, and it took the right meal to make me sit down and write again. Last night's dinner was that meal. A month or two ago, I experimented with using egg roll wrappers with something of a Tex-Mex filling, and last night, I think I hit it spot on. While the prep and cook time for this was longer than the usual half hour I try to allow, it wasn't by much, surprisingly. I started with ground beef and black beans sauteed with a couple of different chili powders, some garlic salt, pepper, ground cumin, and coriander. I rolled these into the wrappers with a bit of shredded sharp cheddar, and browned them in peanut oil. Simple, crispy, and again, surprisingly quick. A bit of rice in the cooker, and that was it. 

The Verdict

When three of the four in our family go back for seconds, it is a good sign. The crispy, flaky egg roll wrappers are a great substitute for the more traditional corn platform I associate with this kind of protein concoction. With a dollop of sour cream and salsa on the side for dipping, the result was unquestionably successful. I also think I have finally beaten my aging and well-used rice cooker into submission, as it has been plaguing me with poorly-cooked rice of late. Last night, it was almost perfectly cooked. I chose jasmine rice, and it had just the right texture to complement the main course.

The idea of fusing cuisines is really a balancing act. It is a matter of picking ideas that work well together, and not just cobbling together random ingredients, hoping something will click. It's not unlike what I've been feeling about parenting these past few busy months. Taking a step back and seeking balance goes a long way toward preserving the sense of self that parents still desperately cling to, while happily sinking deeper and deeper into their other identity of mom or dad. I don't know any two parents who were raised identically, and as such, we all bring different experiences and ideas about how to guide our children to our parenting experience. Really, parenting is a kind of fusion as well, when there are two folks doing the job. And when we are lucky, or thoughtful, or careful, or all of these things, going back for seconds can be really satisfying.

Cucumber-Watermelon Salad and Pan-seared Tuna Steak

Some dinners are not for the kids, really. Tonight was all about satisfying the two grown-ups in our house with something both healthy and unusual. With more and more glimmers of springtime in the air lately, I wanted to put together a dinner that was refreshing, somehow. While shopping this past weekend, I imagined what I might do with watermelon and cucumber, and how I would center a meal on two things I simply find refreshing.

I coarsely chopped the cucumber (just one) and watermelon (about a quarter of a small melon), and tossed them in a bowl with about a tablespoon of honey and maybe 2-3 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar. That's it. Simple and fast. 

As I considered what to serve with this salad concept, I decided a nice piece of fish would be great. I confess; I don't eat nearly enough fish, and I feel rather proud of myself when I think to make it for dinner. I have a nice bundle of sea salts in the kitchen, and once I had my wife figure out which was which (the print was way too small for my eyes), I decided to use a black olive sea salt. Again, simple and fast. I had a tiny splash of olive oil in the pan, and just added the salt. Nothing more. I served a plain bit of rice with this. 

The verdict

I liked this meal, especially the salad, and I'd make it all again. My wife was especially happy with the tuna. I am thinking that the salad would work nicely with a lemon chicken dish, or something similarly acidic.

Tuna steak with cucumber-watermelon salad

The slight hint of olive flavor from the salt was a nice touch on the fish, and I would like to use it similarly again in the future. 

The bonus tonight was watching our 1-year-old practically inhale the fish. The older daughter - there was no convincing her to try any of this dinner, but the little one is in that wonderful adventurous stage, and I loved watching her gobble up every bite we gave her.

We enjoyed a bit of pinot grigio with this dinner. And it was a nice grownup-centric dinner, for a change.

Strawberry Soup and Salad

For well over a year now, our older daughter has mimicked me cooking. She hasn't always mimicked what I've made however, and among the more creative ideas she's invented in her own mind was strawberry soup. I know it's been made. I know it could be made many different ways. But I wanted to make my own take on the concept in honor of my daughter, and in an effort to encourage spring to finally settle in for us, I figured a dinner of salad and cold soup would at least put is in the right mindset.

Strawberry Soup and Salad

I decided to keep this simple, and slightly sweet, and I wanted something cool and refreshing. I was pretty disappointed in the condition of the strawberries I'd just purchased yesterday. They looked great at the store, but by today, a cluster of them had begun to degrade pretty badly. I had to cut back my quantity, and also my hopes for the salad, where I'd planned to either add either slices of strawberry, or if there had been enough berries, perhaps even a nice fresh strawberry vinaigrette.  I put the strawberries that survived into the blender with a few tablespoons of water, a few baby carrots, honey, and a small hint of powdered sugar.

The salad was a basic mixed greens base with some sliced cucumber and Bermuda onion. I topped this with some sautéed chicken breast, and served it with a homemade honey mustard vinaigrette I generally keep on hand.

The verdict

This meal served two functions beyond feeding us tonight. It was an homage to my daughter, and with each day, I grow more and more fond of the girl she is becoming. She made me particularly proud tonight by actually tasting the strawberry soup, not once, but twice. I'll take that; she may not be ready to eat it, but at least she isn't fighting me as much on trying new things. For my wife and I, an added pinch of dried mint topped off the soup, and with that small extra flavor pop, my second purpose - giving at least our plates some hint of springtime - was served. I kept the soup portions small; too much cold soup, especially something on the sweet side, starts to feel like dessert all too quickly. I think some better-quality strawberries would have been helpful, but it was tasty, and both a refreshing change of pace, and simply refreshing.

We poured a couple of glasses of mediocre Riesling with our dinner, and the simplicity of the whole thing has me looking to the coming days, with daytime highs finally leaving the 30s, with great enthusiasm. I think I'll be making strawberry soup again, but I'll probably make sure to serve it colder, and I may add a bit more of the carrot next time. Maybe this summer, our older daughter will join us for a full helping.

Ham and Fruit Empanadas

This week sucked. To be clear, when I was growing up, that was not a word used lightly, so short of really expressing how much the week sucked in the more colorful words the week richly deserves, let's leave it at that. Not all of the week was bad, but the work part was brutal, and having daily crises to contend with put a real hurt on my good dinner planning. Last night, my wife ended up cooking the ham steak I'd defrosted, and shared it with our girls for dinner as I plugged away at work, well past our collective bedtimes, on one of several problems that was still lingering. I had to rethink my plans for tonight to insure we didn't end up with a heaping pile of spoiled food going into the trash just in time for the weekend. I'm usually pretty careful in my planning and shopping, and having something take me off course late in the week can be a real problem.

I knew I wanted to make another kind of empanada after the fun I had making the spicy pork iteration back in the fall. My initial plan was something with pineapple, with the hamsteak on the side, but since the ham was cooked, I decided to try something a bit different. I used the Goya frozen empanada discos again, accepting my usual time constraints. The biggest spoilage worry I had was the fresh, whole (small-ish) pineapple I'd bought over the weekend, and I used my fun pineapple slicer gadget to get things started. If you can afford one (they're pretty cheap), have room for one, and like pineapple, I strongly suggest picking up one of these tools. They leave the core and the skin behind, and you get even slices to boot. I broke the slices into 1/2 cm bits, and mixed them with chopped dried apricot (around 12), craisins (a generous handful; for a bit of tartness), about 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and about 1/2 tsp each of nutmeg and mustard powder.  I cubed up the ham into roughly 1/2 cm pieces, adding the yield of about a cup and a half to my mixture with a handful or so of shredded cheddar, and remixed the filling. I had more filling than I needed for the 10 pieces of dough, so I'll have to work the filling into something over the weekend. For the cooking, I fried them in a small bath of canola oil.

The verdict

My wife and I LOVED these little concoctions. It was like having a delicious personal fruit pie, and bit of a savory-smoky dinner all in one. The crisp shell with a not-at-all gooey middle was wonderful, and while I had some concerns about it, the modest bit of flavor from the added spices did not overpower the dish at all. My wife opened some chardonnay without me yesterday, and in the spirit of not wasting things or letting them spoil, we went ahead and enjoyed the rest with this meal. I will not hesitate to make these again, and hopefully soon.

This was a challenging week, and we capped off the work week with with a challenging meal for our older daughter. It has been a while since we had any substantial food/dinner drama, but tonight we got it full force. Our usual morning commute of 20-30 minutes to school/work extended beyond an hour and a half, following a tragic, fatal accident on Lake Shore Drive hours before we were even awake that resulted in part of the road closed until late into rush hour. Add to that some general exhaustion, and maybe a small bit of gloom added from the cold rain falling, and I am glad we were able to get her to eat any part of the meal.  When trying some tiny portion of the dinner, she began to cry, and when we asked her why she was crying, she replied that "[the food] tickles the polka dots on my pants!" Ticklish pants are usually a pretty good sign that it's bedtime. After a week of problems, headaches, and adjustments, having such a great dinner to close out the work week was just what I needed. And now, if you will excuse me - I think my own polka dots are starting to tickle...

Chicken goodness; no guilt

The first time I tried a Chick-fil-A sandwich, I was dazzled. So simple, but so good. Nothing mysterious about it. I was much younger then, and while no less passionate about social justice and politics, I was not nearly as connected to others, nor informed about issues as I am now. As a teen, I would glibly toss around derisive comments about all things gay, and I'm sure I was hurtful somewhere along the way. Then, a funny thing happened.  I realized that a whole lot of my friends, people I cared about deeply, were gay. And over the years, I noticed that I cared less and less about their sexuality, and a whole lot more about how others treated them. I had similarly enlightening and evolutionary experiences over the years, having heard my fair share of closed-minded rants about "otherness" throughout my youth; I like to believe that I've managed to outgrow the vast majority of my misperceptions.

When it became clear to me over the past year or so that Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, supported a number of (at best) distasteful causes, I joined many of my friends in swearing off the food. Yes, I know that the local franchisees are not the same thing as the overarching corporation, but when a businessperson chooses to open a franchise restaurant, they do tend to have some options. They could opt to start up a restaurant in partnership with a corporation that is supportive of positive causes, and not mired in, frankly, hate. In short, I just don't have a problem with opting not to buy food from a company that will, in turn, use some of my money to support causes that squarely target some of my dearest friends simply because of who they are, and who they love.

This doesn't help me with a fundamental problem - I love the taste of that chicken.

So, last night, I took my shot at making a good substitute for our family to enjoy. I did some digging around online to find what others had attempted, and settled on my own pathway. I knew I was looking at a simple egg/flour coating, but it seems that folks tend to add some kind of sugar in this recreation. I did add some powdered sugar to the flour, salt, and pepper, and also added a small dash of Old Bay seasoning. To the eggs (2), I added an equal part of milk. That's it. For those who like measurements, I can only offer you guesstimates. I had 5 chicken breasts, which I halved in thickness. I wanted to insure the chicken didn't overwhelm the bun, and these were some large breasts. I used about a cup and half of flour, probably 3-4 tablespoons of powdered sugar, 4 teaspoons of salt, 2 of pepper, and a scant 1 of the Old Bay. If used excessively, Old Bay can overpower, so I wanted to keep it modest, but still add a little something to the mixture.

I cooked my chicken in a 50/50 blend of canola and peanut oils, largely because I was almost out of peanut oil. I will make darn sure I have more peanut oil next time, but this worked just fine.  If I were cooking this many breasts again in the future, I would break out the deep fryer to save time. I do try to get food on the table in 30-40 minutes most nights, but in choosing to use the pan, it took much longer. To save time, I did most of my chicken prep while my fries were cooking. Sadly, I don't have a waffle cutter on hand, but my mandoline made quick work of the potatoes, and I had some great cuts in a hurry. As with all frying, the goal is golden brown and delicious (thank you, Alton Brown, for having your voice attached to that phrase for the rest of my life). I love Claussen pickles, and pretty much always have a large jar of them on hand (one of those great Costco perks). I had only spears on hand, so I cut them into 1 cm slices, and put 4 on each sandwich, which was spot on for proportions. I served up some green beans, having forgotten to pick up cole slaw (my preferred side dish when I used to patronize the chain) in my last shop.

The verdict

I think my wife and I agreed: this was every bit as good as what we used to get. I need to find a waffle cutter if I want the whole experience, but I can say with absolute certainty that I can now have my "Chick-fil-A" at home without the guilt. No compromise on taste at all, and well-worth the effort. In fact, it was good enough for our 4-year-old to declare it "delicious," and eat a whole piece of chicken herself! 

I know some of my friends have different takes on the issue of gay rights, and I understand why they feel the way they do. But I firmly disagree with them, and feel it is vitally important to take small stands on my own beliefs. I can't knowingly spend money knowing that some of it is going to causes that are completely at odds with what I feel is good and decent. My daughters live across the entryway to our building from a lesbian couple with a son between them in age. They see a loving family, just like ours, nearly everyday, and I'm glad that my 2 girls are not going to hear from us the kind of bitter, hateful attitudes I heard about same-sex couples when I was growing up. Sure, they'll hear it and see it in life, but it is my sincere hope that they will be voices of reason and care when they do. I officiated a wedding ceremony for 2 other friends, both women, a few years ago, and I look forward to doing it again when I can sign their marriage certificate that grants them the same legal rights my wife and I enjoy. 

In love, in life -- and in chicken -- there should be no guilt!

Rack of Wild Boar

After my wild boar taco night, I had an inclination to cook more wild boar, and I tapped into Artizone, and this Gepperth's Meat Market again for a delivery. I sampled my Facebook friends first to see if  they felt I should make the boar, or instead try some alligator. Boar won.

I had spent the day, a Saturday, working, and was pretty beat after cleaning up the wiring in a switch rack, but I was quickly reinvigorated by the prospect of eating this meal. Thankfully, my wife was willing to help out a bit. She got my roasted potatoes put together and in the oven as I unwound for a few minutes after getting home. I'd saved some of the bacon fat from our breakfast, and had her combine a couple of tablespoons of those drippings with an equal part of olive oil, some Kosciusko beer mustard, dill, and Worcestershire sauce. Once she had those in the oven, I took back over the kitchen.

For the boar, I wanted to try some deep, rich flavors, so I opted for a rub of coarsely ground coffee (Mierisch coffee, for the record), fennel seed, salt, and pepper. I briefly pan-seared the 2 racks in a cast iron skillet, then moved them to finish off in the oven. I also wanted to complement the boar with a good sauce, so I turned to one that I've counted on many times before, with a slight alteration. It is a creamy mustard sauce that emulates one I'll write about more in the future. This time around, I opted for a basic roux, some milk, prepared mustard, ground mustard, roasted mustard seeds, and dill. This is a bit of a variance from my norm, but in addition, and most importantly, I added a bit of white balsamic this time around. It added a bit of sweetness that mellowed the flavor quite nicely. 

The Verdict

On the whole, the meal was good. The two racks were of unequal size, so the one we ate last night was, if anything, a bit more well done than I cared for. The other rack was deliberately underdone, and I served it up tonight as leftovers after a quick sear in the skillet. These were, for me, a bit more tender, but both were satisfying. The fennel was great, and coffee surprisingly mild. They worked well together, but when paired with the mustard sauce, the flavors were far more interesting. I would probably opt for one or the other next time, and not both, if I were to keep the sauce. Or I would keep both and serve with a balsamic or cider reduction next time. That said, I'm sure there will be a next time. I am finding boar a delicious delicacy, and will have to keep it on our menu from time to time.

The potatoes were a real treat, and we found ourselves dipping them in the sauce just as much as we did the meat. Our first night, we had some corn with our meal, and the second night some green beans. There really was no good reason to go crazy with the veggies, so I didn't. We had both meals with some Chilean Carmenere, and it was fine, but I think I'll spend a bit more time picking a better wine the next time I serve boar. 

I know I usually write more about life, but this time through, it is all I can do to just write about the meal. That said, I'm proud to report that BOTH our daughters tried, and seemed to enjoy the meat!

I'll have to plan for the gator down the road a bit. Stay tuned.