Wonderful summer main dish salad

Tried this salad for dinner Sunday.  Just happened to have some almost everything on hand, and the grocery store avocados were ripe - sometimes the stars just align themselves perfectly.  We all agreed that this was a good meal to put into regular rotation (once every two weeks) over the summer.  Nice bottle of chardonnay was perfect. 

aThanksgiving stuffing to try

Sausage, Chestnut and Mushroom Dressing

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/sausage-chestnut-mush-dressing.html

this looks so yummy. We'll have the traditional stuffing and this one too. Can't have too much stuffing.

The foundation for this recipe is our herbed focaccia stuffing mix, made exclusively for us by La Brea Bakery, the Southern California bakeshop that inspired the artisanal bread renaissance in 1989. Be sure to use a very large mixing bowl so you can thoroughly blend the ingredients and ensure that the croutons absorb the stock.

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 lb. mild Italian sausage, casings removed
• 2 yellow onions, diced
• 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 7 oz. cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1 tsp. minced fresh thyme
• 1 1/2 tsp. minced fresh sage
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
  
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1 cup roasted and peeled chestnuts, halved
• 1 package (1 lb.) La Brea Bakery focaccia stuffing
• 2 Tbs. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 3 to 4 cups chicken stock, warmed

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 375°F. Grease a 3-quart baking dish with 1 Tbs. of the butter.

In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, cook and crumble the sausage until lightly browned and cooked through, about 7 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

In the same pan over medium heat, melt the remaining 3 Tbs. butter. Add the onions and fennel and sauté until soft, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the garlic, mushrooms, thyme, sage, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, about 12 minutes. Stir in the sherry. Let cool to room temperature.

In a very large bowl, combine the sausage, vegetable mixture, chestnuts, stuffing and parsley. Stir in the stock 1/2 cup at a time, making sure it is completely absorbed into the croutons. Taste a crouton; it should be moist throughout but not crunchy or mushy. You may not need all of the stock. Transfer the stuffing to the prepared baking dish, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the top is golden brown and crisp,

Spicy summer grilling

These recipes from Food and Wine were in last summer's issue, but I just got around to making them. The Red Curry Chicken Kebabs with Minty Yogurt Sauce were amazing. I bought some Naan at Giant and dinner couldn't have been easier.

The Fish tacos wither okay - the fish was good, but there were no ripe avocados at the store, so I bought premade guacamole. Big mistake. Need to try these again with decent guac.

The Ginger Garlic Shrimp is the last one I still want to try. Perhaps that tomato sauce will be a good use for the winter's nearly tasteless tomatoes.

Schweinshaxe

My father loved this and used to wax poetic about it, but it always sounded a little overly unctuous, shall we say. However when we were in Germany, he convinced me to try his, and I loved it. Now my son, Johnny wants to try it too, so I picked up some smallish but meaty fresh pork shanks at the grocery store today, and googled up the following recipes. Not sure which one is the more authentic. Perhaps Monika will know.

Schweinshaxe (Pork Knuckles)
1 small leek
1 celery stalk
1 carrot
1 onion
2 meaty pork knuckles
Salt
Black pepper corns
2 tablespoons cooking fat or vegetable shortening
a pinch of cumin
Beer or water
Wash and dice the leek, celery, carrot and onion. Cook pork knuckles, diced vegetables, salt and peppercorns in water to cover 2 to 3 hours or until tender. Avoid overcooking. Remove from water; drain well reserving vegetables and cooking liquid. Preheat oven to 425F (220C). Melt fat or shortening in an enamel-lined, cast iron pan. Add drained pork knuckles, cooked vegetables and a small amount of cooking liquid. Bake 30 minutes. Moisten meat frequently with more cooking liquid. Before meat is fully cooked, sprinkle with beer or water in which a good amount of salt has been dissolved. Add cumin to increase flavor. Serve with potato or white bread dumplings or sauerkraut salad. Note: In Bavaria, the juices and cooking liquid are strained and served as an accompanying sauce.

1 large Schweinshax
Salt
Pepper
Juniper berries (you get them dried in a glass jar from the spice shelf in your local store - Wacholderbeeren)
Caraway seeds (Kümmel)
1/2l Beer (I prefer using dark beer for this)
1/4l Broth (vegetable)
1 cup Sour cream
Paprika powder

Preheat oven to 200°C. Wash and dry the Schweinshax, score the skin (cut in diamond pattern - use a very sharp, thin knife). Rub with salt, pepper and caraway (and crushed garlic if you dig that). Put the Schweinshax in a roasting pan, pour 1/4l boiling water over it, add the juniper berries and cook for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, basting with beer regularly. Make sure that the skin is crunchy, bubbly browned, if your oven has a grill turn it on for the last 10 mins or so, turning the Schweinshax. Mix broth and drippings in a saucepan, add sour cream, season with paprika powder, thicken if necessary.
Serve with Knödel or mealy potatoes and sauerkraut or Krautsalat (thinly sliced white cabbage with oil/vinegar dressing - let sit for a few hours - , optionally caraway seeds and fried bacon cubes).

Week of April 21st

Monday - Split pea soup and bread
Tuesday- Steak, salad, hash browns
Wednesday - Ellen in La Plata
Thursday - Qabili Pilau
Friday - Pizza, of course
Saturday - Dinner for Marty and Phil - Beef stroganoff and noodles
Sunday - youth group
Monday - stir-fried chicken & broccoli
Tuesday - Pasta

Afghan National Dish

When I worked in Sunnyvale, California, there was a fabulous restaurant that we used to frequent for lunch. It was called Kabul, and it served delicious Afghan food full of lamb and sweet spices that still makes me salivate just thinking about it. In reading The Kite Runner, I was reminded of those dishes and felt a certain connection with Hussain as he described enjoying the same rich stews and rice dishes I remembered enjoying. I often wonder about the restaurant owners and staff of Kabul and whether their history is close to those of the families in the book.

In last month's issue of Saveur, Jennifer Bourguignon traveled to Afghanistan and found among the people a longing for the familiar foods of their childhood to reconnect them with their heritage and the national pride that had been thwarted during decades of strife and oppression first by the Soviet Union and then under the Taliban. Many families who had fled Afghanistan returned to their homeland after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and they, like most of us, find that sharing a meal of simple, but delicious comfort foods gives them the sense of togetherness they crave. I am going to make the Quabili Pilau this week and share it with my own family.

poached apricot

1 cup dried apricots
1 cup warm water
1 1-inch piece vanilla bean, sliced in half lengthwise (I used a bit more)
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degreees. Cover the apricots with the warm water and let them stand for 15 minutes if they are already plump and soft, 30 minutes if they are hard to begin with. Drain and reserve the water.

Put the water and vanilla bean in a baking dish - an 8-inch pie plate is just right. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with the tip of a knife and break them up in the water. Add the apricots, sprinkle them with the sugar, cover with foil, and bake until the water is nearly absorbed, about 1 hour. Turn each of the apricots over in the syrup, then cover and refrigerate. Serve chilled.

Serving Suggestions: If you can get Greek yogurt (available at Giant), the chilled apricots are delicious with it - or with any thick yogurt, or fresh ricotta. For a fancier treatment, try the apricots with Coeur a la Creme, minus the raspberry sauce. The apricots are just as tasty for breakfast as for dessert, especially with yogurt.