Radio Kitchen

All cooks love learning about new ingredients, especially when it comes with some cooking ideas.  Those of us who like to put some fish on the table occasionally may find ourselves in something of a rut.  Tuna, salmon, mahi-mahi, haddock and rockfish are all wonderful, but as somebody once noted, there's a lot of other fish in the sea.  Jerry is glad to help us out of the rut by suggesting these new varieties.

1. Wreck fish:  from the Carolinas, fished by only a few small fleets.  Very healthy population, it is a deep water fish that loves to live in old shipwrecks.  A firm white fish not unlike Chilean Sea Bass.

2. Opah:  also known as the moon fish for its round profile and mottled skin.
These fish are enormous and very meaty.  It is usually a by-product of tuna fishing, but a market for it has developed.  It is a very juicy fish with a rich flavor.  Chefs have enjoyed working with it.

3. Escolar:  called "White Tuna" it does resemble its famous colleague.  The fish is quite oily and there are health concerns about the consumption of too much of the undercooked meat.  Grilling is recommended to render out the fat, and the result is a fish that is half way between tuna a swordfish, in other words, delicious.

Even if Santa didn't bring you a crock pot this year, it's still nice to contemplate sitting down to a bowl of steaming soup this winter.  Making a soup is easy, but you should be prepared to invest some time in it to allow everything to come together in the pot. Here are three ideas for some great winter warmers.

1.  White bean and ham soup.

-Northern Whites or Navy Beans are perfect.  You can hasten soaking by boiling them in a big pot of water for a few minutes, or let them soak overnight.  Be careful to pick them over first.  Canned work also.  Be sure to drain and rinse them.

- A lot of recipes call for water, maybe 8-10 cups per pound of beans.  I say use ham broth (concentrated powder product available and is great).

-Ham hocks  work well, but also left over ham bones and scraps are just as good.  I used scraps from a Smithfield ham that I had worked on for a few months.

- Finely chopped onion, celery and carrots are almost always included.  Good idea.  You probably don't need salt, but a little dry mustard powder is a good seasoning.

2.  Smoked sausage and lentil  water, makes own broth, with a little wine

-Green lentils and sausage are the stars here, but fennel plays a supporting role.  Good addition to the traditional onion

-In this recipe you gently sauté your onions, fennel, garlic and carrots to enrich their flavor

-You will use about 6 cups of water to cook the lentils in, along with the cooked vegetables.  Add a little red wine (maybe a half cup) and a tablespoon of tomato paste

-Sauté your cut up smoked sausage, to brown it, drain and add to the soup.

-Season with salt and black pepper

3.  Black bean soup  beef broth and porter

-Some of the dark rich porters and stouts that are out there make a delicious

addition to a soup.  This Black Bean soup is a great recipe for that.

-This is a variation on the earlier mentioned white bean soup...you need a ham hock, but there is more going on

-Soak a pound of dried black beans in water overnight.

-Drain the beans and place them in a pot of 4 cups beef broth and one bottle of porter. Add a ham hock, chopped medium hot green and red chilies, diced onions and carrots, and garlic.

-Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for an hour.  For a classic garnish, top with a generous scoop of cooked basmati rice.

Make Your Own Ricotta

A few weeks ago Al attended a lovely holiday party where each couple was asked to contribute to the dinner table.  Since our format was an informal buffet, and since we all wanted to have little plates to go with our little glasses of wine, he thought a couple pots of bubbling fondue would be just the thing.  After many decades in the culinary wilderness, fondue has made some kind of a comeback!  Jerry whips it up at his restaurants and it is constant demand.

There are three basic styles:  cheese, savory, and dessert.  In some cases little has changed over the years, but there are some new things to report. Our preference is for a cheese fondue:  first, flavor the inside of the pot with a garlic clove.  Second choose a dry, acidic white wine without a lot of fruit; sauvignon blanc is great... you don't have to spend a lot of money.  There are two essential cheeses:  gruyere and emmenthal.  Some recommend a little cheddar as well, and we don't argue.  The proportion is 20 ounces cheese to one cup of wine.  Once you grate your cheese, collect it in a mixing bowl and sprinkle in some corn starch.  This coats the cheese, keeping it from clumping together and it adds to the creaminess of the melted mixture.  Heat gently and serve immediately.   For meat fondues, canola, peanut or safflower oil have been the cooking media of choice.  One of the newest ideas in meat fondues is to substitute a savory broth for the oil.  It will take a bit longer to cook your food, but it is healthier and the broth itself adds flavor.  While meats such as beef, lamb, pork and chicken are common, you can also try seafood.  Salmon, swordfish, shrimp and scallops are great choices here.  The dipping sauce is the raison d'etre for the meat fondue.  One of my personal favorites is a blend of blackberry jam, beef broth, and a touch of horseradish.  Creamy mustard sauces are wonderful with pork, and lamb is happy with minty, herbal blends.  Peanut satay sauce is excellent with chicken.  And for seafood, any barbecue sauce you would use for grilled seafood would be perfect.   The default cooking sauce for dessert fondues is chocolate.  You can jazz up the idea with white chocolate, or little dollops of dessert liqueurs added in. But a new idea is to take sweet heavy cream, and add ice cream sauces to it, and bring the whole thing to a gentle simmer.  Fruit, pound cake, coconut chunks or bite-sized cookies are great dippers.