Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

What could be better than a crispy, crusty potato gratin?  When cooked in a single large casserole that crispy goodness is limited to the edges.  But when cooked in small gratin dishes it is everywhere.  I improvised by using my small tartlet pans because that was all I had.  I had to wrap the bottom and outside with foil so that the butter and cream wouldn’t seep out.

I bought a big wedge of Gruyere cheese while at Costco last week.  It is one of my favorite cheeses for potato dishes and quiches.  It was wonderful on this gratin.  I adapted the recipe from one in a Patricia Wells cookbook.  She says the recipe was named for the Jabron river in the Drome region of France.  It is served at the Relais and Chateaux designated hotel and restaurant La Bonne Etape.

The charming restaurant has earned one Michelin star and, although it is elegant, it is known for its classic bistro-style cooking.  I love the beamed ceiling and antique furniture.  The grounds include an organic garden, swimming pool and lovely outdoor seating.  It has been run by the Gleize family for generations.  It would be a great vacation destination someday.  It won’t be this year, although we are going back to France.  Our summer trip this year will be a motorcycle tour led by our intrepid French friends Laurent and Carole.  They have traveled the world on their bike.  Laurent wants to start a motorcycle tour business and we and our riding buddies from our Alaska trip will be his first customers.  He is taking us from the Loire Valley up to Normandy and Omaha Beach, then down into Dordorgne, Perigord and into Provence.  It will be a two week ride.  David and I will then spend three days in Paris before flying home.  I can hardly wait to go back.

In the meantime I will enjoy this little taste of France.

INDIVIDUAL POTATO GRATINS  (GRATIN DU JABRON)- Adapted from Patricia Wells

4 medium to large russet potatoes, peeled
Salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 large cloves of garlic, finely minced
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 to 3/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream

Place the potatoes in a single layer in a saucepan.  Cover with water, add salt to taste.  Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until nealy cooked through but still firm in the center, about 15 minutes.  Drain and let cool.  Cut into thin slices (This step can be done several hours in advance.)

Preheat the broiler.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  When hot, add the potatoes and garlic and saute, shaking the pan from time to time, until nicely browned, about 10 minutes.

With a spoon, transfer the potatoes to 4 individual 6-inch round gratin dishes.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle with cheese, dot with the cream.  Broil until brown and bubble, about 2 minutes.  4 servings.

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You know those store-bought rice bowls in the prepared food aisles of the grocery store?  I hate them.  It seems to me that it is much easier to pull together a homemade version with less additives and less cost.   You can mix up all kinds of things with rice.  This Puerco Cubano is a good example.

I found this recipe in a book by Diane Mott Davidson called  Crunch Time.  She is the author of the Goldy Bear caterer mysteries.  Don’t know about you, but when I read a mystery I like it when the protagonist eats.  There is just so much of sleuthing, danger and mayhem that I can take before I am ready for my detective to retire to her or his lair for a little rejuvenation.  I relish those moments when a glass of wine is poured and water is brought to a boil for pasta,while cheese is grated and a salad is tossed.  These are moments of introspection for the sleuth.  A warm bed is waiting to lull the busy mind to rest and restore it to renewed vigor in the morning light.  So many thriller novels leave out the basics of life.  I’m sorry, but we all have to eat, bathe, sleep and use the bathroom.  It just makes me feel good when these incidents are included in a book, well maybe not the bathroom part.  Diane Mott Davidson does this  very well because her books are focused on food along with the mystery.  This makes me a happy reader.  In addition her recipes are included in the back of the book.

Puerco Cubano was meant as a quick comfort food in the book.  It was easy to prepare, using ground pork flavored with orange juice and lime juice.  It was served over simple cooked rice.  I like the idea of using fresh squeezed orange juice as the liquid in this dish.  Oranges are plentiful this time of year and, goodness knows, we all can use the hit of vitamin C in the winter.

This was a very satisfying meal.  Both easy and tasty.  You could add many things to the mix; black beans, avocados, green onions or pistachios.  I think it needed a little crunch.  Homemade rice bowls are flexible that way.

PUERCO CUBANO

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons freshly minced or crushed garlic
2 teaspoons demi-glace de poulet or demi-glaze veau (chicken or veal demi-glace) I used a bouillon cube disolved in 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups fresh orange juice
1/4 cup fresh or organic, not-from-concentrate lime juice
2 teaspoons (or more) granulated sugar
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

In a large (12-inch) nonstick saute’ pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the pork and the garlic, and cook, stirring and breaking up the pork, until the meat is just cooked. Add the demi-glace and stir well.

Add the flour, oregano, salt, and pepper, and cook stirring, until the flour is cooked and the mixture bubbles.

Stir in the juices and sugar and raise the heat to medium. Stir constantly until the mixture bubbles and is thickened. Taste and correct the seasoning.

Serve over hot cooked rice and sprinkled with cilantro.

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There are very few dishes that The Barefoot Contessa does not do well; foolproof recipes so to speak.  Her new cookbook Foolproof; recipes you can trust is a case in point.  One of the recipes she includes is this recipe for Roasted Sausages and Grapes.  The recipe comes from Al Forno, a restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island.  Al Forno is known for its wood-burning ovens and hardwood charcoal grills.  This is a dish I would cook in my fireplace in Lake Lure.

But unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your outlook, we are in Florida without a fireplace.  And fortunately this recipe can be cooked in a 500 degree oven. The  combination of sausages and grapes is a genius idea.  The following picture shows the sausages and grapes ready to go into the oven.

The roasted grapes make a sweet counterpoint to the spicy sausages.  The final touch is a balsamic vinegar reduction that brings it all together.  We absolutely loved this combination.

I served the sausages and grapes with creamy mashed potatoes and zucchini cakes.  This is an easy recipe and a satisfying winter meal.

ROASTED SAUSAGES AND GRAPES

1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian pork sausages
1 1/2 pounds hot Italian pork sausages
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 pounds seedless green grapes, removed from the stems
1/2 cup good balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the sausages, and simmer for 8 minutes to remove some of the fat.  Remove to a plate.

Melt the butter in a large roasting pan on top of the stove.  Add the grapes and toss them to coat with butter.  Transfer the sausages to the roasting pan with tongs, nestling them down in the grapes in one layer.  Place in the oven and roast for 20 to 25 minutes, turning the sausages once, until they’re browned and the grapes are tender.

Transfer the sausages and grapes to a serving platter with tongs and a slotted spoon and cover with aluminum foil to keep them hot.  Add the balsamic vinegar to the roasting pan and cook over medium-high heat for 2 minutes to reduce the balsamic vinegar slightly.  Pour over the sausages and grapes and serve hot.

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I have always been aware of French potato salad, hot German potato salad and good old American potato salad.  But Austrian potato salad is a new one to me.      I know now that Wolfgang Puck has a wonderful recipe for warm Austrian potato salad.  I found this particular recipe because I could not sleep.  Sometimes we insomniacs get up in the middle of the night to read in the hopes that it will lull us back into sleep.  I finished the last 20 pages of the novel I was reading and still wasn’t tired.  There was a stack of  old Cooks Illustrated magazines sitting on my book shelf, so I dragged them out hoping that another half hour of perusing their pages would do the trick and send me back to bed.  I found the recipe for this potato salad and became intrigued, as I always am by any potato recipe.  But the question that nagged at me was – “What makes Austrian potato salad different from German potato salad?”  Or American for that matter?

The difference is American potato salad is mayonnaise-based.  German potato salad has bacon in it.  Austrian potato salad is lighter; using very little fat.  Instead it uses the starch from the potatoes by mashing a few chunks into chicken broth to form a thick and velvety dressing.  It still has the tang of vinegar and a crunch with cornichons and diced red onions.  Unfortunately, when I made it the next day I did not have cornichons.  So I substituted the pickled red onions that I had made in my previous post.  Also instead of chives, I used parsley.  The dish is forgiving of these substitutions.

Traditionally Austrian potato salad (erdapfelsalat) is served with Wiener Schnitzel.  We had it with grilled barbecued ribs.  I highly recommend it.  Sometimes insomnia is a good thing.

AUSTRIAN POTATO SALAD (Cooks Illustrated)

2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (about 4 large), peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
Table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 small red onion, chopped fine
6 cornichons (pickles), minced (about 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
Ground black pepper

1. Bring potatoes, broth, water, 1 teaspoon salt, sugar and 1 tablespoon vinegar to boil in 12-inch heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook until potatoes offer no resistance when pierced with paring knife, 15 to 17 minutes.  Remove cover, increase heat to high (so cooking liquid will reduce), and cook 2 minutes.

2. Drain potatoes in colander ser over large bowl, reserving cooking liquid.  Set drained potatoes aside.  Pour off and discard all but 1/2 cup cooking liquid (if 1/2 cup liquid does not remain, add water to make 1/2 cup).  Whisk remaining tablespoon vinegar, mustard, and oil into cooking liquid.

3. Add 1/2 cup cooked potatoes to bowl with cooking liquid mixture and mash with potato masher or fork until thick sauce forms (mixture will be slightly chunky).  Add remaining potatoes, onion, cornichons, and chives, folding gently with rubber spatula to combine.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

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While our family was visiting over the holidays my DIL Kristen made tacos for us one night.  She is a natural when it comes to flavorings and is especially fond of Mexican inspired dishes.  One of the condiments she made for us for her meal was pickled onions.  She marinated red onions in a combination of red wine vinegar, a little sugar and black peppercorns.  They make such a pretty addition to any number of dishes and look vibrant on tacos.

But the taco recipe I am using here is an adaptation of one that I saw in Food and Wine a long time ago.  It uses pork tenderloin which shreds nicely after only a short time in the oven.  It is flavored with lots of garlic, cumin, barbecue sauce and chicken broth.  The black beans make a flavorful topping and the red onions contribute their sweet and sour bite.  I wanted the tacos to look pretty and easy to pick up from a platter; perfect for those Super Bowl parties.  So I decided to form them into shapes by placing them in pieces of greased or sprayed foil.  About 10 minutes in the oven will ensure that they hold their shape, but will still be soft enough to eat.  Be sure you use a good quality corn tortilla.  I used Mission Artisan style Tortillas with Corn and Whole Wheat Blend.

When the taco shells are ready, you can either place just the meat in them and let everyone choose their own toppings, or go ahead and load them up with the onions, black beans, sour cream or any other condiment you wish.  We loved the flavor of these.  The barbecued pork makes them a little different.

I just remembered that I have some leftover pulled pork in the freezer from the holidays.  It would make a good alternative, although not as lean.  We are all about lean these days. Enjoy!  I am linking this to Tailgating Time-Super Bowl 2013 over at Seaside Simplicity.  Go on over and get some great ideas for the Super Bowl.

PORK TACOS WITH SPICY BLACK BEANS AND RED ONIONS

For the Pickled Red Onions:
1 large red onion
1/2 cup Red Wine vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
10 black peppercorns

In a small saucepan combine vinegar, water, sugar and peppercorns. Slice a peel red onion in half and then into strips.  Add to pan and bring mixture to boil.  Turn off burner and let onion sit in mixture for at least an hour.  Can be stored in a ball jar in the refrigerator until needed.

For the Black Beans:
2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic , minced
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 tomato, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium skillet, heat the oil.  Add the onion, garlic and jalapeno and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 7 minutes.  Add the beans and the tomato, oregano and a little water to keep it moist.  Season with salt and pepper and simmer briefly until the ingredients are warmed through.

For the Pork:
1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of silver skin and fat. Cut in half
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup raspberry chipotle barbecue sauce or barbecue sauce of choice
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 habanero chile, seeded and minced (optional)
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Corn tortillas and condiments of choice

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  In a small enameled cast-iron casserole, combine the broth with the barbecue sauce, garlic, peppers, bay leaf, cumin and salt and pepper.  Bring to a simmer.  Add the pork tenderloin.  Cover and bake for about 1 hour, turning the pork once, until tender.  Transfer the pok to a plate and cover with plastic wrap until cool enough to handle.

Remove the bay leaf.  Shred the pork into strips and stir into the sauce.  Season with salt if needed.  Fill the tortillas with pork and serve with the black beans and red onions.

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