January 29 – February 4, 2024

Monday:                   One-Pot Lemongrass Chicken and Rice

Tuesday:                   Parmesan-Braised Beans with Olives

Wednesday:    Eggs Kerjiwal

Thursday:     Cottage Pie

Saturday:                  My Fair Lady at the Benedum and above: Sausage Mushroom Pizza

Sunday:                     Orange-Wine Braised Chicken Thighs

A Favorite Pasta And An Age-old Question

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  If I read Darwin correctly, what came first was the dinosaur.  I don’t know where the dinosaurs came from, but I do know of a wonderful egg dish, concocted for an Indian big-wig at the Willingdon Social Club in Bombay (Mumbai to the more Progressive among you).  This dish will make you forget your Punnett Squares, if you ever knew them.  And it’s good even without the pink gins and other British traditions and quirks so de rigeur among the Indian establishment, even after they had booted the Limeys off the subcontinent.  The dish is named after the chief minister of Bombay, Kerjiwal, who, living in a vegan household, snuck his eggs on the side.  It is also simple to make and while it seems not enough for a meal, is quite filling.  Add a salad and you’ve fixed dinner and can relax and have that pink gin.

In addition to Eggs Kerjiwal, I’m going to correct the omission in the post from two weeks ago and provide you with a perfect dish for our favorite pasta – bucatini.  This is a dish from coastal Italy, not the Northern plains or Emilia-Romagna – hence the seafood in red sauce.

Here’s the deal – I’m not charging any extra for the second recipe.*   But if you’d like to send along some pictures of your Super Bowl spread – if you have one – I’d be glad put them in the next post.  You should send to:  billstewartjr@gmail.com.

*Large donations will be accepted, but please don’t bother us with small checks not worth the time that it takes to deposit and clear them.

EGGS KERJIWAL

(Adapted from, Tejal Rao, NYT “Cooking” Sunday, January 28, 2024)

Timing:                                            20 – 30 minutes

Ingredients:                                     2 servings

1 tablespoon softened butter

2 thick slices Pullman Bread (we used Pepperidge Farm Country White Bread)

2 teaspoons mustard (I would use Trader Joe’s Dijon, if I were you – a bit spicier than Grey Poupon and less than half the price)

4 ounces Cheddar, grated

1 serrano chile, finely sliced (we used a Freson chile)

2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, chopped (we used parsley)

1 tablespoon minced red onion

2 eggs

Salt and Pepper

Prep:

Turn on your broiler.

Grate the cheese, slice the chile, mince the onion.

Heat a skillet large enough to hold two slices of the bread, over medium.

Cook:

Butter the bread on both sides and lightly brown in the skillet (use a skillet you like to fry eggs in).

Smear one side of the browned bread with mustard and transfer, mustard-side up, to a sheet pan.

In a medium bowl, mix the cheese, chile, cilantro (or parsley) and onion and then pile half of that mixture on each piece of bread.  Place the bread under the broiler until the cheese is just melted.

While the cheese is melting, fry the eggs in the pan you used to brown the bread until the white edges are crisp, but the yolks are still soft.  [Note:  If you’re antsy about frying the eggs while the cheese is melting – finish the bread under the broiler first, then turn to the eggs.  Tip:  If you cook the eggs low and slow, put a lid on the skillet to trap the steam and firm the whites on the top.]

Now, carefully loosen the eggs from the skillet and slide on top of the toasts.  Season with salt and pepper and serve.  If you’re a Pittsburgher, you might want to offer some ketchup on the side.

DOUBLE PEPPER DIAVOLO WITH SHRIMP AND BUCATINI

(adapted from bon appétit, February, 2024)

Timing:                                      A bit over one hour

Ingredients:

1 lb. frozen peeled, deveined shrimp – smallish would be best, but we used fairly large shrimp, since that’s what we had in the freezer.

12 oz. jar of roasted red peppers, drained

12 oz. bucatini (you can also use spaghetti, fettucine – any long stranded pasta – but do yourself a favor and use the bucatini and use a bib when eating that delicious, but somewhat unwieldy tubular pasta)

Note:  We used 17.4 oz of bucatini since that’s the size of the package of wonderful, imported bucatini at Labriola’s – there was plenty of sauce.

1 medium onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped – we used 3

10 oil-packed anchovies (I used the whole little tin – maybe 14?)

¼ cup double-concentrated tomato-paste (I used a bit more)

1 cup dry white wine

3 teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 ½ teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes – or more to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons butter, cut into ½” pieces

Chopped parsley for serving

Prep:

Chop onion, measure out other ingredients.

Blend roasted peppers in blender until smooth – set aside.

Thaw shrimp in large bowl into which you pour cool water – this will take 15 minutes to get them mostly thawed.  At this point, drain, pat dry, return to the bowl and add 2 teaspoons kosher salt.  Set aside.

Cook:

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water until very al dente – at least 2 minutes before recommended cooking time.  Reserve 2 cups pasta cooking liquid, drain pasta.

Heat oil in a large, heavy pot – a good Dutch oven is ideal – ove medium-high.  Cook onion, anchovies and 1 teaspoon kosher salt until onions are softened and anchovies dissolved – stir the anchovies to help this along.  This takes about 5 minutes. 

At that point, I turn the heat down to medium and cook the garlic stirring constantly, for 30 or 40 seconds.  The recipe calls for the garlic to go in with the onions and anchovies – but over medium-high, they would burn and acquire a bitter taste.  I will not, ever, burn garlic, unless Dracula is trying to get in the house.

After the garlic is added and stirred in, add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until slightly darkened – maybe 4 minutes. 

Now, turn the heat back up, add the wine, red pepper flakes and sugar and cook, stir and deglaze and keep cooking until reduced by about half, 4-6 minutes.

Pour the reserved red pepper purée into the pot, add the butter, the pasta, the shrimp and cook, stirring often and adding up to ½ cup of pasta water and more as needed, until the shrimp is cooked through and the pasta is coated in sauce – 5 minutes.  Taste, adjust seasoning.

Divide among plates, top with parsley and serve.