Saturday night dinner

The first time we went to Babbo's 4 years ago, I fell in love with wild boar ragu. The richness of the sauce, the gaminess of the meat, it was heaven. I'm not sure what convinced me to try making it for the first time, but I end up buying both the Babbo cookbook and Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, both of which had recipes for wild boar ragu. I followed the Molto Italiano recipe to a tee and found that it tasted a lot more like the wine I used than I would have liked. Then I started to blend the 2 recipes and found that it tasted too much like tomato sauce. After many iterations, some better than others, I finally have a recipe that I like.

Disclaimer: I have only made this version of the ragu once and I am writing down the recipe by memory. A lot of the measurements are approximations. I highly recommend tasting at the various stages to make sure everything is seasons properly.

And with that, here it is...

Wild Boar Ragu
approx. 8 servings
active cooking time: 1-1.5 hours
inactive cooking time: 3-4 hours

2.5-3 lbs of wild boar shoulder, divide in 2
.25 - .5 lb pancetta, chopped
1 carrot, fine dice
1 stalk celery, fine dice
1 medium yellow onion, fine dice
1-1.5 cups dry white wine
3 cups of tomato sauce (see Pizza Post)
1 16 oz. can of whole tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 qt. brown chicken stock
1 tablespoon beef bullion
1 bay leaf
Pinch of sugar as needed
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup flour
2-3 TBS olive oil

Trim some of the fat off of the boar. Cut half of the wild boar shoulder [boar] into 1/2" cubes, slightly smaller than if you were making stew. The pieces do not need to be the same size. Mince the other half of the boar in the food processor and set aside.

In a large dutch oven heat 2-3 TBS of olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pan) on medium/high heat.

On a plate mix flour and 2-3 TBS of salt and 1-2 TBS of pepper. Coat cubed boar in flour mixture. Brown the meat. To determine when to turn the meat, you will notice that it has stopped sticking to the bottom of the pan. This is the point when there is a good crust built on the outside. If it is continues to stick, continue to cook it longer on that side. This method can be applied to any piece of meat. If the pan starts to get crowded, brown the boar in as many batches as it takes. Once the cubed boar is finished browning, set aside.

Do not turn the heat off on the pan. There will be bits from the browning stuck to the bottom of the pan. Don’t worry about it, that’s normal. Add 1/3 of the chopped pancetta to the pan. Saute on medium to low heat, allowing the fat to render, 4-5 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium/high and add minced boar to the pan. Salt and pepper lightly (the pancetta is already salty). This will add flavor to the minced meat. Cook the meat about 80% of the way through. It will have extra time to cook later. If you accidentally cook it all the way through, don’t fret, it won’t ruin anything. Once the minced boar is finished, take out of the pan and set aside.

You’ll notice at this point that the majority of the bits are gone from the bottom of the pan. Turn heat down to medium/low. Add the rest of the chopped pancetta, and let the fat render, 4-5 minutes. Add celery, carrots, and onions. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Sauté until soft, 4-5 minutes, then add garlic. Sauté for another 1-2 minutes. Taste. You want to make sure the base flavors are well seasoned or they will lack flavor in the final product. Season as needed.

Add the cubed boar to the pan with the vegetables and mix well. Add wine. Bring to boil and simmer until evaporated. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, ½ of the chicken broth, ½ of the beef bouillon, oregano and bay leaf. Mix well, bring to a boil and simmer. Simmer for 1 hour. Taste.

What does it taste like?
Too tart? Add a pinch of sugar.
Tomato-ey? Add more chicken stock. (This may require a longer cooking time)
Too much wine? Add tomato sauce or paste.
Lacks richness? Add tsp of beef bullion (remember, beef bullion is super salty)

Add in small amounts. You can always add, but it’s hard to take away.

Simmer for another 2-3 hours. Stir every 30-45 minutes. If the sauce starts to thicken too much, add chicken broth. If you don’t have another 3 hours, another hour will do, just don’t add as much chicken stock. Keep in mind, the longer you cook the sauce, periodically adding chicken broth, the richer the sauce will taste and the softer the meat will be. You can over cook the meat, so I wouldn't recommend cooking it for longer than 4-5 hours. Taste periodically, it’ll make all the difference.

This is best served over fresh tagliatelle or other wide pasta.

Enjoy!!

Pizza with Friends

As much as I love to cook for my friends, cooking WITH my friends is always a laugh, and Saturday night was no different. Debbie and I, after taking a pizza making class a few weeks ago, decided we would make pizzas for Ladies Poker Night at, our friend, Sharon's house. Since we had some trouble with the store bought pizza dough in class (from Trader Joe's) and found working with homemade dough much easier, we opted to make our own dough, which meant heading over to Sharon's early to get the dough rising, and ingredients cut.

We used the recipe from our pizza making class, listed below, which we found easy to make and work with. We started around 4pm, making 4 batches of dough, since there would be 8 people coming over (each batch of dough made 2 personal pizzas). Thankfully all of our yeast was alive and active, which kept us on target for the party. Once the yeast was activated, after about 4-5 minutes, we slowly mixed it into the flour mixture until it was combined. We then floured our boards and hands and started kneading. From there we let the dough rest, and had a well earned glass (or 2) of wine.


After the dough had risen, we started the prep work. We had cheese, peppers, garlic, mushrooms, shallots, olives, sweet Italian sausage, and pepperoni to prepare. Once it was all sliced, chopped, cooked, and organized in an assembly line fashion, we started arranging our pizzas. I had remembered that rolling out the dough was not easy, but needless to say, I didn't think it would be THIS difficult. We had a lot of trouble making the dough round...


But regardless of the shape, they all tasted oh so good. The crust was crispy and light, and the toppings were cooked to perfection. At the end of the night, we all voted that Debbie's pizza with garlic, shallots, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil, was the best of the bunch. . Here it is before it went in the oven..

Needless to say, I do not have an after photo, since we were all too busy eating the pizza to remember to take a photo.. Whoops... :-)

As always there are lessons learned when cooking. Here are ours..

1. Do not knead the dough for a 3rd time before rolling it out. It condenses too much and makes it even more difficult to get into a beautiful round shape.

2. Sprinkle a bit of good olive oil over the pizza to give it a nice sheen and flavor

3. Finely chopped garlic is a fabulous addition to ANY pizza.

4. Put basil leaves on the pizza AFTER you bake it, not before.

5. If you are cooking your pizza on a pizza stone, assemble pizza on the pizza peel with a lot of cornmeal to ensure the dough dough does not stick when trying to put it in the oven.

6. If you are cooking your pizza on a pizza pan, be sure to use plenty of cornmeal on the pan prior to putting your pizza dough on it, or it will stick to the pan once it's finished.

Here are some more photos from our pizza making experience....

Basic Pizza Dough
From Cooks Boulevard cooking class
2 personal sized pizzas

Ingredients
1 package active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water, about 110 degrees F
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour,plus extra for kneading
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together yeast, warm water, sugar and olive oil. Let sit for about 3 minutes to fully dissolve and activate the yeast. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour and salt. With a rubber spatula, gradually mix the yeast mixture into the flour until just combined and dough barely holds together.

Turn the dough out onto a clean counter surface dusted with flour. Knead the dough with flour-dusted hands until the dough has become smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. The surface should be tight and silky and bounce back slightly when pressed. Lightly grease a large mixing bowl with olive oil and place the dough in it. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.

Once doubled, punch the dough down and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Knead each 1 slightly to form a uniform ball. Set aside and cover them with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap to rest for 30 minutes.

Note: Dough can be made the day before and refrigerated overnight once it is divided. Keep covered tightly in plastic wrap or in a sealed food storage bag.

Variations: Whole wheat dough: Replace 3/4 c of the four with whole wheat flour. Garlic and herb dough: Add 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried oregano, and 1/2 tsp granulated garlic to the flour mixture

Marinara Sauce
From Cooks Boulevard cooking class

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 large cloves garlic, minced
4 cups tomato puree
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 large fresh basil stem with leaves removed
1 teaspoon sea salt, preferably gray salt
Pinch light brown sugar

Heat the olive oil in a large non-reactive pot over moderate heat. Add the garlic and saute until caramelized, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes to the garlic and bring to a simmer. Add sugar. Add the parsley and basil and simmer until reduced to a sauce-like consistency, about 15 minutes. Remove the basil stem before serving.

Gravlax or smoked salmon?

Technically, they are not the same thing, but their names are often used interchangeably. I quickly found this out when searching for a recipe to make my own smoked salmon and kept coming across recipes that used "smoked salmon" as an ingredient, but not how to make it on my own. Then Chow.com published an article on Gravlax v. Lox and accompanied it with a recipe on cured salmon by Traci Des Jardins. Perfect timing!

After searching through tons of sites and my cookbooks at home, I picked a recipe and started curing. I decided to try Traci's recipe first, as it was the most basic. Helpful Hint: When perfecting a new recipe, try a basic recipe first. Once you are comfortable with that recipe, read through other recipes to get ideas on how you would like to make it your own. For suggestions on making changes to your recipe, check the comments section on recipe websites. For this recipe I used wild, previously frozen coho salmon. It's the wild salmon that always seems to be at Whole Foods, and it was even on sale this week. YAY! When I made Traci's recipe, I found it to be a little sweet for my liking, which may be from packing it in the salt/sugar mixture, and I couldn't taste the meyer lemon I had bought especially for the occasion (boo). One step I found that is key, REMOVE THE PIN BONES. I was lazy and didn't do this, and wasn't able to get nice, thin slices.

For my next batch, I used Alice Waters gravlax recipe from her Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook. This recipe called for A LOT less sugar and salt, still in a one-to-one ratio, which I think helped it to be less sweet. It also called for all-spice and dill, but I think the ratio of all-spice to the salt/sugar mixture was too much and it over powered the salmon, especially the tail end. Lesson learned, always use the center cut. The tail-end peices cure way too fast. I did take out the pin bones this time, though, and it made a hug difference when slicing it. I also had issues with weighting the salmon. I used a baking dish on top of the salmon and found that the weight was not evenly distributed, so the texture was not consistent across the fish. Another lesson learned.

My latest batch, which I started on Sunday, I mixed both of the above recipes to come up with my own.

Ingrdients:
3 TBS of salt
3 TBS of sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 TBS of crush white peppercorns
3 stems of dill
1.5 lbs of center cut wild coho salmon cut in half

Mix the first 4 ingredients well, then sprinkle 1/4 of the mixture on the bottom of the dish. Put the first piece of salmon on top, skin side down. Rub a 1/4 of the mixture on top of the salmon. Put the dill sprigs on top. Then rub 1/4 of the mixture on the flesh side of the other peice of salmon and quickly put it flesh side down on top of the dill. There should be enough moisture in the salmon that the mixture should stick. Rub the remaining mixture on the skin side and rub extra mixture into the sides of the salmon so that every inch was covered. Cover the top of the salmon closely with plastic wrap. To add pressure and weight to the top of the salmon, I used a ziplock bag of rice and stacked a couple of cans on top of that. I find that rice is good because it forms around the salmon and the weight is more evenly distributed. Let this sit in the fridge for 24 hours. Drain any additional liquid that has come off the salmon, and flip the salmon over, so the piece that was on top, is now on the bottom. Let the salmon sit in the fridge for another 24 hours. At this point, drain off any additional liquid, and rinse of the mixture. Pat dry and the slice to serve.

I took this batch out of the fridge last night, and I have officially decided that I am curing my salmon too long. It still tasted a too sweet on the outside, but was just right on the inside. On a positive note, I really enjoyed the lemon-y flavor, which the first 2 batches did not have. Next time, I will be curing it for less time, but with the same recipe. I'll keep you posted...