INSTANT POT LAMB CHICKPEA STEW

My Mondays are more like Sundays. Sunday I work a busy day shift and then might have some drinks with coworkers or my roommate, or like last night, get in my bed super early and watch one of the Fyre Festival documentaries. Then Monday I'm off, and I try to get organized for the week ahead. Cooking-wise, that often translates to some big batch of healthy-while-satisfying soup or stew.

And while I love the ritual of slow-cooking something all afternoon on a day off, there's no denying the convenience of the pressure cooker. Enter the Instant Pot, which I received from my mother for Christmas. The ability to sautée, sear, and brown meats and vegetables before the pressure-cooking makes it so easy and clean-up minimal. This recipe is warm, earthy and comforting, not to mention pretty healthy. I tried it a variety of ways throughout the week; once with steamed cauliflower, another time with Israeli couscous and wilted baby spinach, a third time just with crusty bread. Every time with a dollop of full-fat Greek yogurt. It's kind of in between a Mediterranean-flavored lamb bolognese and a chickpea stew. Whatever you want to call it, do yourself a favor and make it soon.

• 1 lb Ground lamb

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic, smashed

• 1/2 a large or 1 small red onion, diced

• 1 yellow or red bell pepper, diced

• 1 15 oz can whole peeled tomatoes

• 1 Cup chicken stock

• 1 cup crushed tomatoes

• 1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp coriander

• Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Turn your Instant Pot to the Sautée setting on Medium heat. Add olive oil, diced onion and peppers. Cook for about 4 minutes and add garlic.

Let garlic cook for another minute and add lamb. Brown lamb, breaking up with a wooden spoon, for about 5 minutes. Add spices in as your brown the meat. Using a ladle, scoop up and discard some of the cooking liquid if it seems quite fatty, it will reduce how much fat you'll need to skim off at the end.

Now add your drained and rinsed chickpeas, whole and crushed tomatoes, vinegar, and chicken stock.

Those tomatoes add so much, just you wait.

Now cover and set your Instant Pot to high pressure for 40 minutes.  Let the pressure realease naturally for about 20 minutes and then you can release the rest. 

Break up the tomatoes with a spoon and stir to incorporate. Skim fat from top and you're done!

Serve with Greek yogurt over rice, cauliflower, potatoes or with bread. 

Happy Monday! 

ITALIAN SAUSAGE PT. 2

When I last left you I was celebrating success of my first sausage making experience. Within twenty minutes of leaving my friend's house I had distributed several parcels to hungry friends at the pub as impromptu Christmas gifts. The next night I was ready to cook my own. I wanted to pair the sausage with something different from a typical red sauce or peppers and onions. I found this recipe for sausage with roasted cabbage and apples but opted to do the whole thing on the stovetop in my cast iron skillet. The tartness of the apples and acidity of the red wine vingegar offered a lovely balance to the richness of the sausage. I also used some fennel that I had sitting in the fridge, a nice addition. 

ITALIAN SAUSAGE WITH BRAISED CABBAGE, APPLES AND FENNEL 

• 4 Italian sausage links

• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

• 1 Granny Smith apple, sliced

• 1 head red cabbage, thinly sliced

• 1 head fennel, thinly sliced

• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

• Crusty bread for serving

Heat olive oil in cast iron skillet over medium heat. Brown sausages and cook through, about 10-15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, slice your apples, cabbage, onion and fennel. 

Once the sausage is cooked through, remove from skillet and set aside. Discard all but about 1.5 tbsp of fat leftover from cooking sausage, then throw in the apples, onions and fennel. Cook until onion and fennel have browned and softened slightly.

Then add the cabbage.

Stir cabbage and toss with other vegetables as it wilts. Sprinkle in some kosher salt and ground pepper, then add red wine vinegar and 1/4 cup water. Turn heat down to medium-low and let simmer, partially covered, until cabbage is soft, about 15 minutes.

Look at that color! 

Toss sausages back in skillet with cabbage to heat up, then serve with buttered bread. 

This was a very hearty and satisfying meal, enhanced by the knowledge that the sausages were made from scratch and with love. Over the next few days I received texts from the friends who received sausage gifts and everyone did something different; one person did sausage and peppers, another with pretzel buns. The rest are in the freezer waiting for future enjoyment. 

I hope everyone had the happiest holidays and is ready for an exciting new year! If you have any suggestions for cooking projects I should try, please leave them in the comments. I'd love some inspiration for new challenges!

ITALIAN SAUSAGE PT. 1

For some reason the idiom “how the sausage gets made” has a negative connotation. It’s used to refer to unpleasant processes that we would rather not witness. But I’m here to tell you: don’t be afraid! This was my first time making sausage and there was nothing unpleasant about it. It is time-consuming (give yourself about 4 hours) and requires some slightly strenuous labor, but it’s fun and so gratifying. It’s definitely a team sport so call over a buddy or two and make an afternoon of it. 

If you have a KitchenAid you can buy a grinder attatchment, or you may choose to invest in a heavy duty meat grinder. We used one from Cabela’s. Make sure to look over the manual for your machine as the functions and parts may be different.

Regardless of the equipment you use, I recommend watching this video before beginning. It will give you a good idea of how the grinding and stuffing functions should look in action. 

We decided to go big so this recipe calls for 10 lbs of meat, but you can scale down of course.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE 

• 10 lb Boston Butt cut off the bone
• 1 lb beef ribeye trimmings, mostly fat (you can subsitute additional pork fat) 
• Hog casings, cleaned (ask for natural casing for sausage from your butcher. Ours were cleaned but be sure to ask if you need to soak or rinse yours.) 
• 2 cups finely chopped white onion
• 2 cups finely chopped celery
• 1 cup finely chopped green onion
• 1 bunch finely chopped Italian parsley
• 6 tbsp kosher salt (start with half and test a batch before adding more)
• 2 tbsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup + 4 tbsp Italian spice blend (ours contained fennel seed, chili flakes, basil, coriander, oregano, paprika, parsley, black pepper, thyme, garlic, onion and Himalayan Pink salt) 
• 3 tbsp fennel seed  
• 4 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup dry red wine

Cut your pork butt up into pieces that will fit through the hole in the feeding tray into the grinder.

Place a large bowl under the grinder to catch the meat. Turn grinder on and start feeding pork through.

Add in the beef fat or additional pork fat intermittently. 

Mince your garlic. Chop up green onion and parsley. Chop celery and onion, ideally in a food processor; you want it to be super fine. Drain the celery and onion on paper towels to remove excesss moisture.

With your hands, mix vegetables, spices and red wine into ground meat. I noted in the ingredients list to start with half the salt I've called for and add more to taste.

Make sure to mix it well so the spices are evenly distributed.  

Now you're going to test your meat mixture. Scoop enough to form a small patty and fry.

Once cooked through, taste the sausage. Now you can decide how much more salt to add and if you'd like to add more of any particular spice. Through a few test batches, we decided to add more garlic, fennel seeds and crushed red pepper. Once you're satisfied with your sausage mixture let it sit in refrigerator for 30 minutes. You want the meat to be quite cold and firm as this will make stuffing the sausage exponentially easier. If you're working with a large quantity of meat like we were, keep half of the meat mixture in the fridge while you stuff one batch, then repeat.

Okay, ready for an arm workout? It's time to stuff the sausage! Make sure the grinder head is cleaned from the meat-grinding step and attach stuffing funnel.

Feed hog casing onto stuffing funnel so it bunches up like pictured. Keep sliding more of the casing on, as much as you can fit. Make sure you leave enough hanging off the end to tie off after the first bit of meat comes through.

Here's where the teamwork comes in. One person will start feeding handfuls of the meat into the tray, pushing down with the meat-pusher tool (I was wondering if this tool had a less obvious name but apparently it does not!). As the meat comes out, the other person will help guide it into the casing. Right after it starts coming through, turn machine off and tie a knot right at the end to contain the sausage. Then, continue stuffing, pulling on casing when more meat is coming through and holding it tight against funnel when there is a break in the flow.

Either your meat or casing will run out first, but make sure if the casing is getting low to stop--you need enough to tie another knot. Don't tie the knot yet though, just cut the casing off the funnel with a few inches trailing behind the sausage.

Now, take a paper clip, safety pin or better yet, sausage pricker if you happen to own that specific tool and start piercing the sausage to release air bubbles. Poke all along both sides. 

To form individual sausages, pinch casing where you want the first link to end. Roll sausage so the casing twists. Flip next section in opposite direction. The video I linked to will come in handy here. You can see how you can kind of "twirl" the sausage back and forth to divide up the links. 

Once finished, tie a knot at the end of the last link. Let the sausages sit for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight to let casings harden before you cut the links apart.

And there you have it! That's how the sausage is made.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we actually get to cook and EAT the fruits of our labor! 

WONTON CAZINI WITH LAMB RAGU

On the eighth episode of David Chang’s Netflix series Ugly Delicious, Chang mock-debates Mario Carbone over the origin of dumplings. Chang argues that Asia always has and always will reign supreme, while Carbone makes the case for Italy. It’s a playful and entertaining contest, but it gave me an idea to use Asian wrappers for an Italian dish.

I used this recipe from Saveur for Cazini with Lamb Ragu. I've used it before and made the pasta dough myself. But this time I thought I'd make use of my extra wonton wrappers I stocked up on during the last Hong Kong Market trip. My first attempt was a total fail, because i discounted how thin the wrappers were; however, different brands will have different thicknesses, so I URGE you to make one single cazini and test it before continuing to wrap. I learned my lesson after wrapping a sizable batch only to watch it turn into mush and fall apart. The solution? Using two wrappers and sealing them together with a little water. Those turned out just fine.

LAMB RAGU

• 2 cups coarsely puréed whole peeled tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
• 4 garlic cloves, divided
• 3 tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 fresh marjoram sprig
• 1 1⁄2 tsp. thinly sliced fresh sage
• 1 1⁄2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
• 1⁄4 tsp. crushed red chile, coarsely ground
• 1 1⁄2 tsp. ground fennel pollen (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. minced yellow onion
• 1⁄2 cup minced celery
• 1⁄2 cup minced fennel, fronds removed
• 1⁄4 cup minced carrot
• 1 1⁄4 lb. ground lamb
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1⁄4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. red wine
• 2 cups chicken stock

Chop up your vegetables. Then get your tomatoes, garlic, marjoram and olive oil going in a saucepan. 

Bring that to a boil and reduce to a simmer while you start cooking the vegetables.

Start by heating up the sage, chili and rosemary.

Then throw in the diced celery, onion, carrots and fennel.

​After the vegetables have started to soften, add the lamb and cook until it is broken up and no longer pink. Then, add the tomato mixture and chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Reduce to a simmer and let the ragu cook for about 3 hours.

CAZINI FILLING 

• 1 3⁄4 cups plus 2 Tbsp. ricotta
• 1⁄2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for serving
• 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 generous pinch freshly ground cinnamon
• 1 generous pinch freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 large egg
• Pinch of kosher salt

Now, grab your wonton wrappers. 

Lay out the wrappers, but remember my warning: Try boiling one before you fill a big batch to see if you need a double layer like I did.

Fill each wrapper with about 1 Tbsp of the filling and seal the edges with a small amount of water. 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop a batch of cazini in. Mine took just a minute to cook, yours may take up to two. Again, this is why it’s important to do a test with a single cazini before you throw a whole batch in.

Remove cazini with slotted spoon. I would recommend against using a spider as it might pierce the delicate dough.  

Serve immediately with ragu and grated Pecorino Romano if you wish!

KHINKALI

This is a very belated post. I documented this cooking project before I started this blog, and it's about time I shared it!

About a year ago, I joined the Saveur Cookbook Club on Facebook. In the group each month a contributor picks a cookbook to feature and members try their hand at the recipes. Results are shared with photos, tips and insights. It's a great opportunity to learn about new cuisines and connect with other food-lovers. 

The month I joined, the featured cookbook was Tasting Georgia: A Food and Wine Journey in the Caucasus by Carla Capalbo. My friend Benjamin Kemper led the group that month.

I chose to give Khinkali a try. These are hearty Georgian soup dumplings made with beef and pork, onion and a variety of spices. They're served with a healthy dose of black pepper and eaten by hand. This recipe is originally from Carla's book and was also featured in Food & Wine. 

First, make your dough. 

DOUGH

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup water

1 large egg, beaten

Combine flour with sea salt. Make a well in the center and add 1/2 cup water and egg. Stir until incorporated and "shaggy" dough forms. Knead until smooth. Set aside in lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Now make the meat filling.  

MEAT FILLING 

• 4 oz ground beef
• 4 oz ground pork
• 1/3 cup chopped yelow onion
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro  
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp dried kondari or mild thyme
• 1/4 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
• 1/4 tsp caraway seeds, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• `/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground cumin
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup water or beef broth

Stir ingredients together until well blended. 

Now it's time to assemble the dumplings! 

Divide dough into thirds and keep the remaining dough covered in bowl while you work on each batch. On a lightly floured surface, roll out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch round cutter or in my case, glass, cut out dough circles. Re-roll dough scraps to add to remaining dough. 

Scoop about 1 tbsp of meat filling in each circle. Now comes the fun, slightly challenging part: Pleating the dumplings. Lift an edge of the dough circle and pinch the dough create a pleat, then continue around the perimeter. Pinch the top and twist to make a stem. Let sit on parchment paper while you repeat the process with remaining dough and filling. 

I call these "happy little sacks of meat."  

Now, bring a pot of salted water with 2 bay leaves to a boil. Add half of the dumplings and stir to make sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Boil for 8-10 minutes. Remove khinkali and drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining dumplings. 

Serve with generous sprinkling of freshly-ground black pepper. To best enjoy, pick up the khinkali by the stems and bite into the base. You'll first get a delicious burst of the broth and then can enjoy the rest of the dumpling. You can see that they are similar to a Chinese soup dumpling, but so different because of the spices used and black pepper garnish.

Dumplings always make me happy and these were a nice departure from the Chinese versions I'm used to. I look forward to perfecting my pleats.

MINI APPLE PIES WITH BRIE

Being from Connecticut, one of my favorite autumn activities growing up was baking apple pie. And not just the baking part, but the whole process. Going to Roger's Orchards, picking our own apples from the tree, then stopping at the Orchard store to pick up fresh apple cider donuts and eating one in the car ride home, inevitably getting sugar EVERYWHERE. 

I always make at least one pie every fall here in New Orleans to keep the New Englander in me alive. This year, however, I decided to do something a little different. First, make individual pies to share with friends, and second, add pieces of Brie to the filling in place of butter. A quick google search revealed I was not the first person to think of doing this, and now that I have I predict it will be a new staple for the holidays. These are great to bring to your Thanksgiving gathering or holiday party, as they require no messy pie slicing and more importantly are extremely cute.

I was looking into par-cooking my apples to make sure they would be cooked enough with the shorter baking time, and i learned that an easy way to soften the apples without overcooking is the hot water pour-over method. This article from Serious Eats dives into the science behind perfect pie-filling if you're interested! You'll need a muffin or cupcake tin for this recipe.

MINI APPLE PIES WITH BRIE 

• 2 packages pie crust (more power to you if you want to make your own!) 
• 5 apples peeled and cut into small chunks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• Grating of nutmeg
• 6 tbsp flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 wedge Brie cheese, about 4 oz, kept cold until ready to cut

Preheat oven to 425.

Peel and cut up your apples, place in bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Then drain apples in colander. Shake to get rid of excess water. 

​Once the water has drained from your apples, place back into bowl and add your sugar, spices and flour.

Mix together well and let sit while your cut your dough.

Lay out your pie crust on a lightly floured surface and use a large glass or medium sized bowl to cut out rounds of the dough. You'll need to measure this in accordance with the size of your muffin tin--the rounds must be big enough to fold into each slot.

Now scoop in your filing, leaving a bit of room for the Brie on top. 

Now it's time to add the cheese. It's important to note you must keep your Brie cold until you are ready to cut it, otherwise it will be a mess. 

Place a few chunks of Brie in each pie. 

You can top the pies however you like. I went for some lazy lattice on top---certainly not the prettiest, can you tell I'm not a regular baker?  

Bake for 18-22 minutes until crust is lightly browed. You'll see the cheese bubbling with the apples. 

Let cool but not too long---the melted Brie is the best part!  

SCHMALTZ ROASTED VEGETABLES

One of the most comforting meals to make this time of year is roast chicken with winter vegetables. I've been mastering the art of perfect cast-iron chicken thighs and I think I've got it down. But sometimes all I’m craving is the side of vegetables that comes with the chicken, flavored decadently by its fat. So I save the drippings from my chicken for just these occasions. I was looking up recipes for cooking in chicken fat and found this one from Food & Wine that pairs the delightfully rich vegetables with a simple gremolata. In my version I skipped the carrots and cauliflower and used sweet potatoes instead, and subbed shallots for the red onions. I also used my cast-iron skillet instead of a sheet pan. The recipe should work with whatever winter vegetables you're craving or are in season locally.

I'll note that traditional schmaltz, or rendered chicken fat, is made on its own with pieces of chicken fat, chicken skin and onion cooked down at a medium low heat, but the fat leftover from my chicken thighs worked perfectly well. Whichever way you come by your shmaltz, you can store it in a container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

SCHMALTZ ROASTED VEGETABLES

Preheat your oven to 425 and get to work on prepping your vegetables.

Chop up your sweet potato. Then your shallots or red onion. For shallots, simply slice in half. 

I left my brussels sprouts whole because they were small, but if they're larger you can cut them in half or quarters. I also peeled whole cloves of garlic to really mix in with my potatoes, but you can leave it unpeeled and simply chop a whole head of garlic in half if you prefer.

Get your pan going over medium-low heat and scoop a big spoonful of chicken fat (about 3 tbsp) into the pan. 

Beautiful, gorgeous schmaltz.  

Let that melt and toss your vegetables in. You may want to work in batches; the most important thing is to evenly coat the vegetables with the fat.

Combine all the vegetables back into the pan or onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Now you're ready to roast. Bake for 35-45 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare your gremolata. 

GREMOLATA 

Chop up a bunch of parsely, enough to give you a packed cup.

Grate a teaspoon of lemon zest and juice half of the lemon. Mince a clove of garlic and combine with the parsely and lemon in a bowl. Add 1/2 a cup of extra-virgin olive oil.

Season with salt and pepper and you're done! Now just sit back and wait for the vegetables to finish roasting. 

Serve the vegetables with generous scoops of the gremolata and enjoy! 

Thanks to  Melissa and Jasmine Hemsley for this recipe!