Moroccan Tuna Bolognese (TTH)

Tomato Sauce

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, minced
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• Two 28-ounce cans San Marzano tomatoes in juice [ATK says San Marzano is not at all inherently better quality and I take what they say as gospel]
• One 4-inch piece Parmesan cheese rind [Didn't have this]
• 1/4 cup finely diced charcuterie scraps, such as prosciutto or hard salami rinds (optional)
• 4 teaspoons dried oregano
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 18 to 20 fresh basil leaves [I threw the basil into the back of the fridge even though I knew they were a strong possibility that they would freeze and become ruined...  C'est la vie.]
• 5 to 6 leaves from an organic or nonsprayed tomato plant (optional) [Better be]

Tomato sauce mise en place.

Cook onion and garlic until softened over medium heat.

Add tomatoes, mash with potato masher and simmer for 1 hour.

Moroccan Tuna Bologneese

• Three 6- to 8-ounce tuna steaks
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
•  1 carrot, finely minced
• 1 stalk celery, finely minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon Moroccan spice blend [I'm judging you if you need to resort to this] or 1 teaspoon each ground coriander, cumin, and cinamon
• 1 bay leaf
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup dry sherry or red wine
• 2 cups Tomato Sauce
• 1/2 cup pitted Picholine or other green olives, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest, plus more for garnish
• 1 pound Fresh Pasta Dough, rolled out and cut into linguine, [Didn't happen], or store-bought dried linguine
• Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
• 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled, for garnishing
• 1/4 cup mixed chopped fresh dill, parsley, and basil [I think I just had parsley]

Mise en place.

Very finely mince one of the tuna steaks and cook in olive oil over medium-high heat until it begins to brown.  Remove with slotted spoon.

This is a utensil I didn't exactly have when I cooked this, but I do now.

Add aromatics (I guess I need to be more explicit here and say this only includes the oncion, carrot, and celery.) and cook until softened.

Add garlic, spices, bay leaf, and salt and pepper.  Cook to toast spices.

Add tomato paste and cook to caramelize.

Add tomato sauce and cooked tuna.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer until the sauce is very thick, 25 to 30 minutes.

Stir in the tuna chunks, green olives, and orange zest, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

Add pasta to the sauce, then add the lemon juice and half the feta and herbs.  Toss until pasta is well-coated.
Sprinkle with remaining feta, herbs, and extra orange zest if I really wanted to bother pulling out the microplane again.

Chicken Confit with Green Olives + Kumquats (TTH)

FOR THE DRY CURE

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 2 whole star anise, finely crushed with the side of a knife [Probably better done in a mortar and pestle]
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried [dried]
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest or dried orange peel [former]
• 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers [I did my best here in trying 3 different stores.  My third store was Christina's Spices and Specialty Foods in Inman which is the one store in Boston where if you can't find that spice/herb/rice/flour/tea/chile/pantry item here, you probably should order it online.  I guess they usually carry it, but they were all out.]
• 8 large bone-in, skin -on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds), patted dry.

Mix it all up.

Pat thighs dry with paper towels.  Layer a third of the salt on the bottom of a pan that will hold the thighs as tightly as possible.  Throw in the chicken and evenly sprinkle another third of the salt in.  Pack the last of the salt so well that the chicken is completely covered.

Cover with another plate, pan, or saran-wrapped box of kosher salt in my case.  Weigh this down with a couple heavy cans.  Throw this in the fridge for a couple hours.

FOR THE CONFIT

• 2 cups vegetable or canola oil, or as needed
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers (optional)

My pyrex isn't quite stove-top safe so I moved the operations to my dutch over where things are a bit roomier.  Pour over oil to cover the thighs you have rinsed of salt and patted dry again.  Toss the spices in and confit in a 300 degree oven for I don't know how long.  Blais doesn't tell you, but a paring knife met with no resistance at the 1 1/2 hour point.

Transfer thighs skin side up to baking sheet to drain excess oil.

Heat up 2 tablespoons of the confit fat (You can apparently strain it and use it as many times as you like for 30 days, but I don't really think I'm going to confit again so soon.).

Dip skin side down into the flour seasoned with black pepper and crisp up the skin over medium heat.

FOR THE SAUCE

• 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 18 kumquats, thinly sliced and seeded, or 1 small tangerine, peeled and finely choppes, any seeds removed [After cooking this, I think it would be nuts to use a tangerine over kumquats, but if you need to use a tangerine to get you by...]
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pitted green olives, such as Picholine or Cerignola
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Sauce mise en place.

Toast the mustard seeds.

 
Add sugar and water and stir to dissolve.

Add kumquats and cook until they break down a bit.  Season with black pepper.  Later on, add olives.

You know, I've never been a fan of duck confit.  It's one of those hoity-toity ingredients I don't get that all foodies seems to love like foie gras that I simply can't fathom why they're interesting.

However, I do love cooking chicken thighs, it was fun to go through the confit-ing process using vegetable oil (rather than duck fat which will set you back a considerable amount unless you're rendering duck skin all the time), and...  This was insanely good.
Remarkably well-seasoned even without the lavender I failed to source.  Beautiful texture, beautiful skin, the kumquat-olive relish the perfect foil.  Great dish all around though not necessary one I'm going to cook all the time unlike the recipe in my next blog entry.

Japanese-Spiced Roasted Beets with Honeyed Walnuts (FM)

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for greasing the pan
• 2 pounds beets (about 4 large), peeled and cut into wedges
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon Sichuan or black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons white sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
• Salt
• 1/2 cup sliced scallions
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• 2 tablespoons honey

Smear baking sheet with oil.  Put beets on pan, drizzle with sesame and vegetable oil, and toss to coat.

Roast undisturbed for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Then turn every 10 minutes until just tender.

Should've used my half-sheet pan.

Mise en place.  I didn't have honey to toss the walnuts in.  I figured sorghum was better than molasses.

Toss everything together with a sprinkling of salt and bake for a 1 minute or 2 just to toast the spices.  There was a ton of seasoning left so I typically just re-seasoned the dish every time I ate it.
I figure you can easily double or maybe even triple the number of beets you use and have enough spice.

A really nice dish.  The basic recipe frankly didn't require enough beets, but I figure four servings could be construed as the amount needed for a side dish.