French-Style Lamb Shank

Hello, my dear readers, it's been a busy week full of quick, non-blog-worthy meals. I've returned with my most delicious concoction for a while. I've always loved a lamb shank, and this is my first time cooking my own. We use classic French techniques here, even with a mirepoix and some Dijon mustard. Thanks goes to dad on this one; it's adapted from his recipe. The meat is fall-off-the-bone tender, and what's more fun that picking up a huge piece of meat by the bone and just going at it, Medieval-style? The sauce is great poured over rice with the shank.

Ingredients

• One lamb shank
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup crushed tomato
• 2 tbs Dijon mustard
• Chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Oregano
• Orange zest
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat a little olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Dice the onion and saute until softened. While the onions cook, mince the garlic and add that partway through. Dice the celery and carrots and add these. Saute everything until lightly browned. 

Mirepoix. Aren't I fancy now?

Season the lamb shank on all sides with salt and pepper. Turn the heat up to medium-high and brown the shank on as many sides as is practical. Briefly remove the shank and add all the rest of the ingredients. Mix together and deglaze the pan. 

After baking

Return the shank to the pan. Tightly cover with foil and bake for 90 minutes. Periodically check the liquid to make sure it doesn't get too dried out. Consider also turning the shank over midway through baking. Be careful when you're taking it out, as the pan will be very hot.

Honey Soy Glazed Salmon

Salmon is a sure way to make an easy, tasty, and healthy dinner. It's hard to mess up as long as you keep it simple and avoid overcooking. Salmon is a very versatile fish; you can marinate or dry rub, and it also goes with almost any side dish. Here, I decided to go with the vaguely Asian theme and use Chinese noodles. You could also easily serve this with rice or potatoes, as well. I get my salmon from Sam's Club (at a little under $7 a pound) and slice it into individual portions. You can freeze these indefinitely.

Ingredients

• Salmon fillets
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
• Chinese egg noodles
• Olive oil

Instructions

Combine soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, sesame oil and vinegar in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Slice the salmon into 2 inch-wide pieces. Marinate the salmon for about 20 minutes. Preheat broiler. When finished marinating, line a sheet pan with foil and brush it lightly with olive oil. Broil the salmon for about 8 minutes, watching carefully for burning. The thin end of the salmon will probably burn; you can just discard this if you want. The salmon will be juicy and tender on the inside.

For the noodles, boil dry noodles in salted water for 3 minutes. Heat a bit of oil in a non-stick pan. Transfer the cooked noodles to the pan. Fry until slightly crunchy on the outside, flipping frequently to get all sides. I served 2 pieces of salmon with 1 "nest" of noodles.

Patty Melt

It's a great day for America, everybody, and I'll tell you why. We're making patty melts! I love classic American food, and it doesn't get any better than this. It may look like a regular sandwich, but it's anything but regular. A perfect patty melt takes love and dedication. The result is greasy, meaty, cheesy deliciousness. I'm not often a big stickler for ingredients of the highest quality, but I don't make any exceptions when it comes to cheese. Real Swiss Emmentaler for me, none of this "Swiss" cheese for me. When it melts, the texture stays slightly firm and a little stringy. The patty melt also lends itself to variations. You could try creating a spicy mayonnaise or adding vegetables as well.

Ingredients

• 1/3 pound ground beef (85% lean)
• 2 slices rye bread
• 1/4 sweet onion
• Sliced Emmantaler 
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 tbs butter
• Olive oil

Instructions

We'll start by caramelizing the onions. Slice the onions into strips. Cook the onions in a pan on medium-low to medium heat with a bit of olive oil. Stir frequently so that the onions do not brown. Instead, we want them to get very soft and develop their own caramel color. If the onions look like they are drying out, add a little water to the pan. You can also add a tiny bit of sugar to help them along. I cooked them for almost an hour. Set the onions aside when done. Note that this is a pretty long process, so you can always caramelize the onions ahead of time.

Dry out the pan a little. Season the beef and form into a patty. Keep in mind that you are going to put it on bread instead of a bun, so try to make it thinner than you normally would to cover more area. You should also form it into an oval rather than a circle. As they cook, burgers tend to get thicker. Fry the patty on medium-high heat. Flip once the bottom is nicely charred. Cover with cheese and continue cooking. You can consider covering the pan to help melt the cheese. 

Now, assemble the sandwich: bread, burger, onions, bread. You could also add a slice or two of tomato here. Melt half of the butter in the pan, and put the sandwich in. Cook until the bottom slice is crunchy but not burned. Take it out, melt the rest of the butter, and flip the sandwich. Fry until crunchy. Serve with a generous supply of ketchup.

Baked Penne Mornay

Pasta and cheese. What's not to love? The idea behind this type of dish is a sort of classed-up mac and cheese. I was originally inspired to try a recipe like this when I saw something similar on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. My version isn't quite as extravagant, and I've added Italian sausage. The recipe for the cheese sauce is derived from one found in The Joy of Cooking, but with more cheese.

Ingredients

Pasta

• 2 1/2 cups dry penne pasta
• 3 links Italian sausage
• 2 tbs half and half
• Extra Parmiggiano-Reggiano

Sauce

• 2 tbs butter
• 2 tbs flour
• 1 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/4 cup grated Emmentaler
• 1/4 cup grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Get some salted water boiling and cook the pasta for about 10 minutes. Drain, rinse, and set aside. Heat pan on medium-high. De-case the sausage. Break it up and add to the pan. Cook until well browned and set aside.

Clean out the pan. We'll now make the sauce. Melt butter on medium heat. Add flour and mix together. Cook until the roux darkens slightly. Add milk and whisk together. Simmer the sauce while grating the cheese. Add grated cheese and stir together until melted and integrated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the pasta, sauce, sausage, and half and half in a casserole dish. Mix thoroughly to coat the pasta. Cover the top with more grated Parmiggiano. Bake for 20 minutes. The top should be a little crunchy, while the interior will be creamy and cheesy.

Pork Chow Mein (炒麵)

In Chinese cuisine, Chow Mein (pronounced chaomian in Mandarin) is basically stir fried noodles. Unlike "chow mein" often seen in Chinese takeouts here in the US, the noodles remain relatively soft, rather than crunchy. Please spread the word about what the dish really is. The noodles used here are Chinese egg noodles, which are a popular part of Cantonese cooking, often seen in wonton noodle soup. Good Chinese noodles are often hard to come by at regular supermarkets. If you can buy them dry, the usually come in a fun little "nest" shape as seen in the photo.

Chaomian is a very easy dish to make, and is definitely a staple for me. You can use whatever meat or vegetables that you like. Bok choy, for example, works great. Shrimp, chicken, char siu, or beef all work just fine for the protein. Here, I have an easy, basic version with just pork and green onions. The aromatic five spice powder used to season the pork creates some interesting flavors.

Ingredients

Pork

• 2 pieces boneless pork loin
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp five spice powder
• Black pepper

Noodles

• 4 "nests" Chinese egg noodles
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 bunch green onions
• Oil
• Salt

Instructions

For the pork, trim the excess fat off the sides of the pork loin. Using a sharp chef's knife, cut the pork into thin strips. It actually helps if the pork is still very slightly frozen; this makes it easier to make good, even cuts. In a bowl, combine the pork with the soy sauce, sesame oil, and five spice. Grind a little black pepper on it, and mix together to coat. Set aside.

Get some salted water boiling. You can do this right in the wok if you want. Submerge the noodles and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Note that this is a lot shorter than the cooking time for semolina pastas. Drain and rinse the noodles in cold water, and set aside. While the noodles are cooking, chop the green onions into small pieces, up to the point where they start to get pale and firm.

Dry off the wok, and heat it on high. As with all wok cooking, the high temperature is important. Add some oil and swirl it around to coat the wok. Add pork and fry until all sides are well browned. Toss frequently. Add green onions and cook briefly. Add noodles and remaining soy sauce. Mix everything together. If you want, you can break up the long noodles a little with your stirring implement. Toss frequently so the noodles don't burn too much. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the wok frequently.

This recipe will serve two.

Stir Fried Pea Tips (豆苗)

I can't fully explain why, but Chinese vegetables satisfy me in a way that others cannot. Pea tips, kai-lan, bok choy, I love them all. I was very excited to find pea tips, as it's not often that I get to eat them. Like many leafy vegetables, spinach for example, the pea tips will shrink down quite a bit when cooked. Simplest is best in the handling of these vegetables; let the flavors speak for themselves. I wouldn't add much more than a little soy sauce, if you choose to go that route.

Ingredients

• Heaping pile of pea tips
• 1 clove garlic
• A bit of salt
• Canola oil

Instructions

First, remove any curly tendrils you see popping out around the leaves. Rinse the pea tips in water.

As with any wok cooking, you'll want to start by getting the wok very hot. Finely mince the garlic. Once the wok is hot, add a little oil, then the pea tips, minced garlic, and salt. Stir fry for a few minutes, until the stalks are soft and the leaves are wilted. If you want you could also add a little soy sauce. Keep everything moving to prevent burning.

Stir fried pea tips go nicely with rice, and whatever protein you like. I heated up some char siu to go with it.

Rava Kesari

This is, for many reasons, a groundbreaking and exciting post. No Free Lunch has reached its fiftieth blogiversary! I have a very special recipe for today. Even as a home cook, I think it's very important to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and that's exactly what I've done here. I rarely cook desserts, and even more rarely exotic Indian ones. The results weren't perfect, of course, but were certainly pretty encouraging. I've even included extra pictures for this extra-special post.

Rava Kesari is a south Indian dessert made from semolina, basically the stuff cream of wheat is made from. Also, there's a lot of sugar. A whole lot of sugar. As with any dish with which I have no clue what I'm doing, I journeyed across the internet to figure out what's going on. The sugar proportion published here is pretty much the consensus among Indian cooks. In hindsight, it was a bit too much for me and probably, generally speaking, the American palette. I was also not able to get quite the color I was after. My spin on the dish was the use of turmeric, nature's food coloring, as I call it. It could be that I needed a bit more of it. The amount of ghee varies, but I went on the low side, as I have no plans to die tomorrow. I picked up a jar of it, but you can also make it at home.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup semolina
• 6 tbs ghee
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• A few raisins and cashews
• A few strands of saffron

Instructions

Melt half of the ghee in a pan. Break up the cashews a bit. Toast the raisins and cashews until the nuts are browned. Set aside the raisins and cashews. 

Turn the heat down to low and add semolina. Toast for a few minutes. While this is happening, get the water boiling.

Slowly pour the water in. I started off with 1 cup, which got absorbed very quickly, so I added a bit more. I did not end up using the full 1 1/2 cups. Stir the blob of semolina until it is cooked, several more minutes.

Next, add the sugar little by little, mixing it into the semolina. The whole mixture should loosen up significantly now. Turn heat up to medium and keep stirring to eliminate any lumps that start to form. Cook until roughly homogeneous.

Grind up the saffron, and toss that in, along with the cardamom, turmeric, raisins, cashews, and the rest of the ghee. At this point, mine got very runny and the ghee was not integrating into the mixture. I continued to cook it for quite a while at this point. What did the trick was folding the semolina-sugar blob into the pooled up ghee. Eventually it all got absorbed. You want it to be a sort of sticky, pudding-like consistency. Notice how much it changed between the two pictures.

Serve hot. This recipe makes about 3 portions.

Coconut Shrimp Curry

Today's recipe is a pan-Asian inspired shrimp curry. The shrimp are seared ahead of time and added back to avoid overcooking, which can produce some unimpressive results. For the pepper, I used a poblano, but bell peppers are probably better because they are a little more tender. Your pepper choice will also affect the spiciness of the dish. It's really up to your preference. For those who don't know it, garam masala is an Indian spice blend that you can usually find in an Asian grocery store. Enterprising folks could even make it themselves. Garam masala is what gives Indian food its distinctive, spicy flavor.

Ingredients

• 6 large shrimp
• 1/2 lime
• 1 green pepper
• 1/2 onion
• 1 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp ground mustard
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup water
• Salt, pepper, and coriander

Start by peeling and cleaning the shrimp. Put in a bowl and squeeze the lime juice over them. Season with salt, pepper, and a little coriander. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Heat oil on medium-high in a saute pan. Sear the shrimp on both sides and set aside. 

Cut the onion and pepper into slices. Remove the seeds from the pepper. Add more oil to the pan, and heat on medium. Add garam masala, turmeric, mustard, and basil, then the pepper and onion. Stir well and cook until vegetables are softened.

Add the coconut milk and water. The coconut milk will provide the flavor base, while the water will thin out the sauce a little. Add shrimp and simmer for a few more minutes. Stir to integrate everything. Taste the sauce and add salt to taste. Serve with basmati rice.

Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee

No Free Lunch has returns with a recipe to bring us into the warmer months. Grandpa loves iced coffee, and he definitely passed that on to me. Depending on the temperature outside, a visit to Grandpa's house will almost certainly result in either a hot or iced coffee. If it's iced, expect a scoop of ice cream, too. My variation is a coffeehouse favorite; instead of cooling off hot coffee, here we cold brew overnight. Heat brings out the flavor faster, but with it more acidity. That's why we need to brew for so long. Another good variation is Vietnamese style, adding sweetened condensed milk.

Ingredients

Coffee (makes 4 glasses)

• 4 cups cold water
• 90-100 grams coffee beans, ground

For each glass

• 1 cup coffee
• 3 ice cubes
• 1 tbs half and half
• 2 tsp sugar

Instructions

The coffee is made in advance. You can brew it in any kind of container - a bowl, carafe, pot, whatever works, as long as you can strain out the grinds later. The most convenient way is to use a large French press, since you can easily strain out the grinds. Add the grinds to the French press and pour water over them. Stir gently with a chopstick. Leave to brew for at least 12 hours. Once the coffee is ready, pour into a carafe. You can keep this refrigerated for quite a while if you want.

To prepare a glass of iced coffee, combine ice, coffee, half and half, and sugar, and stir. You may wish to crack the ice with the back of a spoon first. For a special treat, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to your iced coffee.

Minnesota Hotdish

I'm going back to my roots for this one. No matter how many delicious Indiana pork tenderloins you feed me, there will always be a place in my heart and belly for hotdish. There's just something so endearing about a food that you dump a can of soup into. Comfort food at it's finest. This recipe is the perfect complement to the mushroom soup-based casserole from January. I, perhaps like many Minnesotans, am lucky to have casseroles from both sides of the family. This is a dish Mom grew up eating, and I made sure to call for some tips before making it.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups dry elbow macaroni
• 2/3 pound ground beef
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1 cup diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1/6 cup breadcrumbs
• Salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Boil salted water in a pot. Cook the macaroni for 10 minutes in the boiling water.

Dice the onion. Heat some oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Fry the onions until soft, then add beef and season with salt and pepper. Remember, other seasonings would be so un-Minnesotan. Brown the beef. Add the diced tomatoes and tomato soup. Mix together and heat briefly.

In a casserole dish, combine the beef, onion, and tomato mixture with the macaroni. Mix thoroughly, then sprinkle breadcrumbs evenly on top. Bake for 30 minutes. If you desire a softer, gooier texture, bake longer. You may also want to broil for a few minutes to brown the breadcrumbs on top. Make sure to watch it so it doesn't get burned.