Thursday, September 16, 2010

Balsamic Braised Ham with Italian Vegetables

A lot of people ask me when you typically run out of Paleo ideas?

This is paleo recipe number 200. It turns out that ideas dry up in the 150's someplace.

So I have the big trip to Arizona in a few days and I needed to make sure my ducks were in a row, I was therefore, fairly brief with my cooking exploits tonight. That being said, I had some ingredients on hand and a willing guinea pig in my room mate before I actually had to post this award winning ham dish.

Here is the scenario: I bought a 2 pound ham, which I thought I would be eating for breakfast, but quickly realized that I was running out of time. Also, I had purchased both summer squash and tomatoes that needed to be devoured before Friday night (which I have to spend at my Father's house before the trip). I would have thought that these ingredients were a lame simple flavor combination that we know will work, but is it amazing? Here's how to make it great.

The idea behind this dish is to find an Italian flavored substitute for those who might crave pasta. Pasta is fairly flavorless, and more of a carrier of sauce than a signature taste. Therefore, if we use something almost equally flavorless that can be cooked al dente and that can carry a similar amount of sauce as pasta, it should be a perfect substitute. This can be accomplished by any number of vegetables, but I had summer squash.

So, to cook squash al dente, you need all portions of a cut up squash to cook to the same firmness, at the same time. This can never be accomplished by trying to Julianne long strips of squash. Rather, and for the same reason frozen squash only comes thickly sliced, we have to thickly slice this squash to make it al dente. 3/8" thick slices work perfectly.

To cook the veggies you need to sauté the classic 5 Italian seasons together with a little garlic. The classic five are: oregano (pungent), sage (pungent), basil (minty), thyme (minty), and rosemary (floral). Use a good amount of olive oil, like 1/4 cup for 5 squashes, and heat the herbs with garlic on very low heat for a while. Then, sauté the squash, covered, for ten plus minutes. Stir five or six times. And when you are ready to combine with the ham, turn off the heat and add three thickly diced tomatoes. Stir for a few minutes unheated.

Meanwhile, cut about a half pound of ham into bite sized pieces. Put 2T of extra virgin olive oil in a pan a sauté with a minced garlic clove and 1t of crushed red pepper, salt and pepper, and 2T of balsamic vinegar. This one step is the big deviation from anything I have ever done. I never emulsify balsamic in boiling olive oil. I will now start doing it all the time, it was amazing. Add the ham and oil-braise until seared (ham is already cooked). Stir in veggies and serve with excess olive oil.

Amazing.

PS I put shaved Parmesan on this and it was even better.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Evolution 2 Point Oh

Trouble meets California

Roasted Pineapple Salsa

This is the roasted part

There is a new taco stand on the pier near my house and they only serve one thing, guess what? Tacos. Anyway, I ventured over there on a lunch break and it was almost a complete failure of a work time lunch break: slow, virtually no To-go packing, zero organization, zero completion on correct orders, they charge for onions and cilantro, etc. That being said, their inane business plan actually turns out tasty, though misplaced/ mis-plated food. One of the things they sold was a roasted pineapple salsa (I know, selling salsa? Fail). Their's was bizarre to me since I figured it would be roasted pieces of pineapple that were cut up and served with cilantro and peppers. I was totally wrong, but it was an enjoyable embarrassment which led to this recreation. Its good, enjoy!

Roasted Pineapple Salsa
Take about 2p of organic heirloom tomatoes and broil them on high 6" away from heating element for 20 minutes, or until they look like the picture above. A better plan is to actually BBQ them. Anyway, blend those tomatoes with 6 Serrano peppers, a whole yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 2t of salt, 1t of pepper, and just about 2T of white vinegar. Add all the chunks of a 20+ oz can of diced pineapples and a little juice. Blend until smooth enough to pass through a squirt bottle.

A spicy sweet salsa

This will be good on anything salty, especially pork.