White Barbecue Sauce

Welcome back to No Free Lunch! It's been a while, but hopefully I can get back in the saddle during what has turned out to be one of the most stressful years since I started the blog. On the food front in the last six months, we continued to adapt to life without dairy and soy. Luckily, we have been able to slowly reintroduce foods and getting soy sauce back was a huge relief. We haven't fully gotten back to normal, and one of the items still forbidden is ranch dressing. Like a lot of people in the Midwest, we once used it as a dip for many things, but it contains buttermilk and had to go. We tried a few different vegan ranches but none of them were very good. Enter Alabama-style white barbecue sauce. It's not vegan (if you care about such things), but it is dairy free and hits those creamy, tangy notes excellently. Since I first made it a couple months ago, it quickly became a staple that we put on everything. I only wish I'd thought to try it sooner!

Alabama white sauce is one of the many regional barbecue sauces, traditionally served with smoked chicken. We most often have it with grilled chicken, but it's incredibly versatile. It also works well as a salad dressing, topping for gyro or kebab sandwiches (as pictured; these are from Costco), or sauce for fish tacos. There are a lot of recipes out there, that differ quite a bit. The commonalities are a mayonnaise base with some kind of vinegar and seasonings, usually quite heavy on black pepper. Mine is most closely inspired by one from Southern Living. Different mayo brands will give different results and will affect the best ratios of other seasonings. Duke's (apparently a popular choice in the south) is a common recommendation, but I've balanced my recipe around homemade mayo using Kenji's recipe. Soybean oil is cheap and very neutral, which is ideal for the base of the mayo. For the vinegar, I've found the best results from plain old distilled white vinegar. I've also had good results with Filipino cane vinegar (Datu Puti). Many recipes suggest apple cider vinegar, which I've yet to experiment with myself. For the rest of the seasonings, I don't usually measure and just taste and adjust. Try it yourself and make it your own! 

Clam Dip

My dad started making this clam dip about 20 years ago and I've enjoyed it ever since. I wish I could credit the original author, but all I know is that it came from a 2002 issue of Gourmet magazine. Gourmet ceased publication in 2009 and this particular recipe doesn't seem to have been archived. The recipe I've posted here is my adaptation of dad's adaptation of the original. It's a great snack or appetizer served with chips. All the amounts here can, and should, be adjusted to personal taste.

My main change has been in the garlic and clam juice. I grate the garlic on a microplane, which releases a ton of flavor. I've realized lately that recipes measuring garlic in cloves can be a big problem since they vary in size so much. I've been getting garlic from our local farmer, whose garlic comes in massive cloves about 2-3 times the size of those typically found in the grocery store. With something as potent as raw garlic, this can make a big difference. Grating helps measure more consistently. My recommendation is to be careful as you can always add more garlic, but can't take it away. For the clam juice, I added one tablespoon at a time until the consistency was right. Four to five tablespoons should do it. It should be fairly loose but still able to be picked up with a chip. The scallions came from our garden. With the incredible heat this summer, most of our vegetables didn't do as well, but the scallions were very successful.

Eggplant Dip

This year's Passover recipe is roasted eggplant dip. While not particularly traditional, it fits right into the Kosher for Passover restrictions. While I'd normally eat this dip on a piece of crusty bread, it works just as nicely on matzo. Once you unlock its potential as a carrier of dips and spreads, matzo's not so bad. I used jarred roasted eggplant, which has a nice smoky flavor. This makes for an incredibly low-effort but delicious appetizer or breakfast. Of course, roasting your own eggplant is an option. The dip is also completely vegan, a rarity on this blog but worth noting if you care about such things. This recipe makes a very large amount of dip (about 2/3 of it is shown in the photo), but it keeps well in the refrigerator to snack on for the next few days.

After the last two years of Zoom gatherings, it was truly a pleasure to be able to host a Passover seder in our home. The meal consisted of all the classics: matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, and braised brisket. After my failed attempt at homemade gefilte fish last year, we made sure to stock up from a Kosher store in St. Louis Park last time we were in the area. I made two 3-pound briskets in separate pans, which I then combined into one after slicing. We also made horseradish, charoset, and a flourless chocolate cake.

We were a little nervous hosting a seder for the first time, but by all accounts it went well. Plenty of wine was drunk, songs were sung, and everyone was well fed. I might even say I'm looking forward to doing it again next year. Chag sameach!

Tomato Jam

Today, I'm pleased to present a recipe from Ariel, which serves as a follow up to her strawberry jam from 2012. As I mentioned earlier, our cherry tomato plants have been quite prolific lately. Tomato jam is a great way to use them up while also putting them into something that won't go bad as quickly. The tomatoes for this recipe came from one day of picking. Although I'm generally not a huge fan of cherry tomatoes, this was an interesting and enjoyable application. It was very nice on a warm pita with a little goat cheese.

Ariel used yellow sunburst tomatoes, which resulted in a deep orange-colored jam. Other colors of tomatoes could be mixed for different colored jams. The main discussion we had afterward was about the sugar content. I didn't mind it, but Ariel thought it was much too sweet. I suppose the sugar does obscure the tomato flavor a bit. I tried the jam by itself on toast, as well with goat cheese as shown above. The goat cheese does balance out the sweetness. Dropping the sugar down as low as 1/2 cup could be a good experiment for the future. 

Chopped Liver

It's Passover, which means my house has been inundated with traditional Jewish foods. We've had matzo ball soup, braised brisket, gefilte fish, and now chopped liver. Chopped liver is one of those simple, delicious, and very satisfying foods that is perfect for the holidays. As with last year, the duty to make it falls upon me. The concept is certainly not alien to me, as it is pretty much just pâté. I also strongly support spreads of any kind that help spruce up the matzos, which I still believe are very much an acquired taste. There seems to be a reasonable consensus among recipes on the internet, and mine is based closely around this general formula. The proportion of egg is a little higher here than most, and that is a matter of taste, easily adjusted.

The exotic ingredient du jour is, of course, schmaltz, or rendered chicken fat. Until I first made chopped liver, this was not something I had ever worked with, but it is apparently a key ingredient of traditional Jewish cuisine. Last year, we were able to find it in a grocery store, but this time around we weren't so lucky. However, it's not difficult to make your own. It just takes some time.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup schmaltz (rendered chicken fat, see below)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 lb chicken livers, drained and rinsed
• 3 hard boiled eggs
• Sprig of fresh parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste

Schmaltz

• Fat and skin trimmed from 4 chicken thighs (or equivalent)
• 1/2 onion, diced
• Pinch of salt and pepper

Instructions

I'll start with making the schmaltz. If you have it canned, go ahead and skip this part. As it happens, 4 chicken thighs will provide you with just enough fat for the chopped liver, but of course, any fat and skin you can harvest from other parts of the bird is just fine. If you happen to be making matzo ball soup, or some similar dish, you have the perfect opportunity to trim fat. 

I removed all the skin, and cut the smaller deposits off the bottom and sides. Chop the skin up as finely as possible. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Put all the skin and fat into a nonstick pan on low heat. You can experiment with the heat a little -- I had it halfway between low and medium for a while, and then lowered it back when it got too hot. Once a little of the fat has started to melt out, add the diced onion.

Cook the fat for about 90 minutes, stirring every once in a while to prevent sticking and burning. Once the bits of onion and skin have browned and crisped, you are done. Remove these bits (known in Yiddish as gribenes), which apparently have their uses, as well. Measure out 1/4 cup of the rendered fat, and refrigerate the rest. I ended up with exactly 1/4 cup.

 

Heat up half (1/8 cup) of the schmaltz in a frying pan, on medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until lightly browned. Season the livers with salt and pepper, then add to pan. Cook until just done, about 8-10 minutes. 

Transfer the liver, onions, and any juices into a food processor. Add the parsley and remaining schmaltz and pulse to desired smoothness. Remove shells from eggs, slice in half, and add these to the food processor. Pulse a few more times. Taste the chopped liver, and add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a container and refrigerate, where the chopped liver will set and become more spreadable. Serve with matzos, toast, or crackers.