Smoked Salmon Risotto

Still under the weather, but feeling much, much better. I'll be getting back into my normal cooking grove here very soon.

Last night Mr Humble made me dinner, a smoked salmon risotto, and it was so delicious I felt it was worth noting on the blog.

Of course, like most people from the Pacific Northwest, I am a little biased towards things that involve salmon. We do love our fish around here and we take it very, very seriously. You can go to just about any seafood restaurant in Seattle and find the menu will include a full seafood biography. Detailing the specific type of fish, how it was raised and how it was caught.

Salmon is rarely just 'salmon' in Seattle.

My personal favorite is wild caught Alaskan King salmon, of which I treated myself to a smoked fillet while shopping last Friday. One that I had been nibbling into oblivion over the course of the week. Lucky for the blog, Mr. Humble snatched it away from me and put it to good use.

After all, I probably can't get away with a blog post that consists only "Step 1: Buy Salmon. Step 2: Nibble." although I heartily endorse this practice.



Smoked Salmon Risotto with Lemon & Mascarpone
adapted from Good Food
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
350 grams Arborio rice
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
4 cups vegetable stock
170 grams smoked salmon, divided
85 grams mascarpone
3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
handful arugula (baby greens are best)
lemon juice
ground pepper

Reserving some large pieces of salmon to garnish, roughly chop the remaining smoked salmon and set aside.

In a large pot over medium high heat, add the olive oil and onion. Sauté for five minutes until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the rice and garlic to the pot and cook for two more minutes, stirring continuously. Add the white wine and a cup of the stock to the pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Simmer, stirring frequently until the most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add another cup of the stock and continue to cook, stirring constantly until it too has absorbed. Repeat, until you've used all the stock and the rice is tender and creamy.

Remove the pot from the heat, add the mascarpone and stir until melted. Add the chopped salmon, parsley and lemon zest and mix. Season with fresh ground pepper and lemon juice to taste.

Plate the risotto with a some fresh arugula and the pieces of reserved salmon.

Linguine with Mascarpone & Prosciutto

Today I am going to post some "real food" as Mr. Humble likes to call it.

Real food and well... a bit of a rant concerning staging food.

Now like most food bloggers, I stage the food that goes onto the blog. Meaning I pay a little more attention to how I arrange my plates than I would were just serving it up for the Humble household table. I think that is an acceptable level of manipulation, as it is entirely possible to recreate.

What I do not employ are tricks like rubbing barely cooked steak with shoe polish to give it that nicely browned look, using shortening mixed with powdered sugar for indestructible ice cream, or hair spray to make my cake slices look moist. You get the idea, taking food and rendering it inedible for the sake of looks.

Anyway, I don't like fooling people and I certainly don't like being fooled myself.

Like I was this weekend when I spotted a gorgeous Moroccan stew. It was lovely with chunks of lamb mingling with garbanzo beans, lentils, herbs and vermicelli.

So I made this stew for dinner Saturday night, following the instructions to the letter, only to have it come out looking like something my dog barfed up. Well, that is if I had a dog and it happened to survive solely on a diet of corrugated cardboard.

The stew was miserable looking. After simmering for two hours the fresh herbs and lamb were now roughly the same unattractive color. The lentils, garbanzo beans and vermicelli mingled in the insipid gray broth. It tasted alright but it looked awful.

So I took a second, critical look at the photo included with the recipe. The herbs shown are bright and vibrant! Clearly they had not been been simmering in a stock pot for two hours. The lamb chunks appeared to have been seared and then placed artfully arranged on top. The Garbanzo beans, neatly piled in the center of the bowl had the glossy, fresh from the can look... this soup was a LIE.

I was pretty annoyed. Okay I was really annoyed. I was going to post the photos of the soup as advertised and the real soup on my blog but it is so utterly depressing that I can't bring myself to photograph it nor inflict that kind of visual trauma on my readers.

Rest assured that I will never pull that kind of nonsense on this blog.

Anyway, lets get to today's lunch.

I'm still making an effort to deal with the surplus mascarpone I have on hand. So I decided to toss linguine with it, mixed with basil pesto.

To contrast the creamy sauce, I added salty slivers of pecorino romano and thick pieces of prosciutto. To give the dish a little color and texture I added some freshly toasted pine nuts and a scattering of fresh basil leaves.

A quick lunch for the little Humble and I, one that required less than 15 minutes of hands-on time.

Tasty and pretty, no shoe polish or hairspray needed.


Not So Humble Linguine with Mascarpone & Prosciutto
serves 8
1 lb linguine
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2-3/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup basil pesto
1 cup thickly sliced prosciutto, cut into bite sized pieces
pecorino romano
fresh basil
salt and ground pepper

Boil the pasta according to the package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for a few minutes until they are fragrant.

Drain the pasta and then toss with the mascarpone and pesto to coat. Plate the pasta and sprinkle with the pine nuts, prosciutto, shaved pecorino romano, basil and season with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Roasted Sesame & Ginger Steak

'

One last 'normal' food post before I get back into making sweets again. This is a simple meal of seared, marinated steak and dipping sauce. I'm using leftover rib steaks for this recipe, but any tender steak well suited to pan searing will work just as well.

Not so Humble Roasted Sesame & Ginger Steak Marinade:
marinates 4 steaks
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 cloves garlic
2 inch piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon sake
1 teaspoon sugar
green onion

In a skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds until they begin to brown and pop.

Add the toasted sesame seeds to a food processor with the rest of the ingredients and blend until the garlic and ginger are finely chopped. Add your steaks to a large zip-lock bag and add the marinade. Turn the bag to coat the steaks and allow to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Cook the steaks on the grill or in a hot skillet for a few minutes on each side, turning once. Slice and serve with green onions and the following dipping sauce:

1/4 cup tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon black vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil paper thin slices of ginger

Oh and for the frilly green onions, just quickly slice... er... well let me make a quick diagram:



Make sense? A little? Well, just cut the onion into two inch lengths and cut along the lines leaving the center intact and then place in cold water for about 30 seconds until the ends curl.

Early Bird: Pre-Thanksgiving Turkey

All done with the my near-freebie turkey. Thankfully, it is now a much more manageable size with the meat removed and the carcass simmering away in my stock pot. Thats right, there will be a soup post in the near future. Going to turn my birdie buddy into my favorite Greek soup tomorrow if time allows.

Anyway, on to how we dealt with this enormous turkey.


Look at that beast! Almost too wide for my biggest roasting pan.

So I went with a simple, reliable approach for this unplanned turkey. Herbs and lots of lots of butter, smeared under the skin to keep the flesh moist and flavorful. It is hard to go wrong with that. Though, can you go wrong with a dish when 'lots and lots' of butter is involved? I think not.



Not so Humble's Basic Herb Butter Rub:

I cup of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 clove garlic minced

Cream the mixture together and set aside. Now comes the fun part, where you get really familiar with your dinner. Starting from the neck cavity, slip your hand in between the breast and the skin of your turkey, separating any connective tissue. Get all the way to the other end of the breast making a pocket for all that yummy butter. Repeat on the other breast. Now, take about half the butter and slather it all over both breasts under the skin, using the pockets you've made. Take the rest of the butter and thoroughly rub it over the outside of the bird and inside the cavity. This part is a bit icky, I know. I didn't want to spend my morning elbow deep in a cold turkey, but some things just have to be done. Besides, if the girl who passed out twice in highschool biology can do it, so can you.

I then take 8-10 whole fresh sage leaves and slip them under the skin, arranging them best I can to look pleasing once the turkey is baked. They are hard to see now, but once the turkey is cooked the skin will be crispy, golden and near transparent. The leaves will then show, making a pretty, edible mosaic under the skin. Once that is finished I sprinkle the bird with more kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, stuff some of my remaining fresh sage and parsley into the cavity and it is ready to hit the oven.



Cook at 325°F for however long necessary for the weight of your bird. Check occasionally to see how it is browning, tent with foil towards the end of the cooking if the breast is darkening too quickly. Once the thickest part of the thigh hits 165°F your turkey is ready. Allow the bird to sit for about 20 minutes before carving so the juices can saturate the meat.

The end result should be a moist, flavorful bird with very crispy skin.

Fish Steamed in Banana Leaves

Had a nice food find this week. Fresh banana leaves!

These are great for wrapping food and then steaming or grilling. Steamed, the banana leaves impart a sort of fruity, almost floral taste to the food. Grilled, they add a similar but more bitter aroma.

I also picked up some yellow eye rockfish that looked fresh and delicious. However, I just read that it is probably going to be declared a protected species in our area. Gah! Now I feel really bad for eating the poor thing. Of course, this recipe works equally as well with just about any other sustainable white fish. In fact, I'm going to leave that rockfish alone entirely, now that I know that it is up for a possible status change in my area.

The black rockfish would be a better option for those of us wanting to make eco-friendly choices and if you're ever worried about the impact of what you're putting on the table, here is a link to help choose environmentally friendly seafood (link)

Not so Humble's Fish Steamed in Banana Leaves:

1 large banana leaf
boiling water

2 lbs firm white fish fillets
1 tablespoon garlic finely minced
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon oil
1 small onion chopped
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 heaping tablespoon rice flour
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Juice of half a lime

Boil several cups of water and cut the banana leaves into 4-6 13"x9" sheets. Place the leaves into a roasting pan and pour the boiling water over top and let soak while preparing the other ingredients.

Trim and skin your fillets and cut into large chunks and set aside. Assemble the remaining ingredients in a bowl, mixing well. Coat the fish pieces in the mixture and allow them to marinate for about 10 minutes. Once ready, remove a banana leaf from the dish of water, it should be pliable enough to work with now.



Place 3-4 pieces of fish in the center of the leaf and fold the sides to the center, then bring the top and the bottom up to close the little package and secure with a toothpick or skewer. Arrange these in your steamer's baskets and steam for 15-25 minutes.



Hopefully your steamer is bigger than this one! But hey, it is my most photogenic steamer... so in they go!

Savory Hand Pies

Craving hand pies today, which of course means making pastry. I like using puff pastry for my little pies--homemade whenever time allows--but I'm not enough of a masochist to make puff pastry in the classic style very often. I mean, that can end up being a full day of labor and there is no instant edible gratification in that!

Guess I'm just not 'hard-core' enough to make that sort of time commitment, so I make what is termed a rough puff pastry. It is very similiar, light, flaky and buttery, only you can start the dough at lunch time and have it done in time to make dinner.



So I took my homemade puff pastry and made hand pies stuffed with prosciutto ham and a creamy local artisan cheese with green and black Madagascar peppercorns.



It's like a hot pocket... only edible!

Anyway, these are on the table tonight alongside a simple organic tomato soup.

Yummy.

Not so Humble's Rough Puff Pastry:
(Makes a dozen large hand pies)

3 cups all purpose flour
3 sticks cold unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup plus 1-2 tablespoons ice water

Egg wash
1 large egg beaten
1 tablespoon water

Cut the cold butter into the smallest cubes you can manage (mine are roughly 1/2-1/4 inch cubes). Don't fret over them too much, you don't want to warm the butter with a lot of handling. This is one time where maintaining temperature is more important than uniformity or showing off your OCD chopping skills.

Combine the flour, salt and sugar in the food processor and mix with a few pulses. Add one of the sticks of cubed butter and pulse several times till the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the rest of the cold butter and mix for about 20-30 seconds. Place this into a bowl and add the ice water a tablespoon at a time mixing with a spoon. Add enough water to allow the dough to form a rough crumbly mass.

On a cutting board, handling it as little as possible, shape the pastry into rectangular slab a couple of inches thick and wrap in plastic wrap. Place this in the fridge for at least an hour.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to a little less than a quarter of an inch thick. It is hard to explain the exact method of folding, so if I am unclear in this I apologize. Working quickly so the dough remains chilled, fold the dough like you would a letter for an envelope. Then starting at the narrow end of the dough, fold/roll the dough into a compact brick. Wrap this mass and chill again for at least an hour.

Repeat this process 2-4 more times and it will be ready to roll, cut and bake.

Stuff the hand pies with whatever sweet or savory filling appeals to you. Brush with an egg wash and bake in a 400°F oven for 10-12 minutes