Leftovers for Lunch!

After a hard morning of playing Fallout 1 playing Torchlight cleaning, what better and more convenient way to refuel than with leftovers? Couscous from yesterday, John's vinegary cabbage salad and Magic Bag peas from Monday, plus a few slices of Spam fried so they're crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside. Turned out to be a wonderful mix of sweet (peas), sour (salad) and salty (guess which one?), as well as a colorful meal.

Nilagang Baka (Beef Stew/Soup)

My near-constant craving for soup probably has something to do with the encroaching cold and the cold/cough I've been fighting off. I wanted something nourishing but not bland, and so riffed on this recipe for an old comfort food staple. Prep took a little longer than usual - partially because I opted to brown the beef, and I've never been the world's fastest mincer - but was easily accomplished during innings 2-6 of this sad-making game.

• 3 tbsp. vegetable or peanut oil
• 2 lbs. beef, cut into 1-1/2 to 2 in. cubes
• 1 head garlic, minced
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 cups water (not enough for the soupiness I wanted - will add 2 or so cups more next time)
• 4 tbsp. patis (will try more next time)
  
• 1 heaping tsp. black peppercorns
• 3 medium potatoes, cut into 1-1/2 to 2 in. cubes
• 1 small cabbage, roughly chopped
• 1 bok choy, chopped (alas, didn't have this)

Place oil in a large pot or Dutch oven on medium heat. Brown beef on all sides (about 5 min.). Remove from pot and reserve.

Add onions and garlic. Saute till soft (3-5 min.), making sure to scrape the pan and free the fond-y goodness from the browned meat.

Return beef to pot. Add water, patis and black peppercorns. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low, cover, and simmer till beef is tender (1 hour, maybe more).

Add potatoes; return to a boil, then to a simmer till potatoes are nearly done (10-15 min.).

Add cabbage; return to a boil, then simmer till everything's done (10 or so min.).

Correct seasoning if necessary, then serve hot over lots of white rice.

Brassica di Seville: Goi Ga Bap Cai (Vietnamese Chicken Cabbage Salad)

So that seven-plus pound cabbage from a couple of weeks ago? There's still some left after this latest recipe. The salad, courtesy of Wandering Chopsticks, turned out to be a perfect dinner to bring to Nationals Stadium for this year's Opera in the Outfield (a wonderful production of The Barber of Seville, with a deft and assured Lawrence Brownlee as Count Almaviva). The full recipe - including sub-recipes - is reproduced below. Even with a bare 30 minutes to chill, it tasted wonderful - flavorful and filling, with a nicely varied texture.

• 2 scant cups shredded chicken (I boiled four small thighs; will use more next time)
• 1 bunch cilantro, stems removed and roughly chopped
• 1 small carrot, julienned
• 1 medium head of cabbage, sliced very thinly

• 1 red onion, sliced thinly
  
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tsp. sugar

• 1/4 cup patis
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• juice from 1 and 1/4 lime
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (substituted for 1 chile)
  

Prepare the hanh dam (Vietnamese vinegared onions). Dissolve 2 tsp. sugar in 1/4 cup of rice vinegar. Add thinly sliced red onion; use more vinegar if need be to cover. Leave for 15 minutes or till onions get soft.

Prepare the nuoc mam cham (Vietnamese fish dipping sauce) - I opted for the spicier version. Mince three cloves of garlic along with the juice of 1 and 1/4 lime, 1/4 cup patis and 2 tbsp. sugar; adjust flavors to taste. Set aside.

Boil the chicken (I did so in about a quart of water with a half a head of smashed garlic, some of which I added to the dipping sauce afterwards, and a chopped onion); set aside.

Slice the cabbage as thinly as you can. Julienne the carrots, then stem and roughly chop the cilantro.

Combine everything - veggies, vinegared onions and dressing - in a bowl and mix. Correct seasoning if necessary.

Chill for at least half an hour, longer if possible, to let flavors meld. Enjoy.

Pesang Manok (Boiled Chicken Soup)

Had a couple of inches of ginger and some softening celery to use up, so I figured I'd order a cabbage and some chicken thighs and make some boiled chicken soup, Filipino-style. Now, I've almost eaten all the soup, but I still have more cabbage than I know what to do with - this monster weighed over seven pounds! (See what can happen when you order produce, sight unseen, from Peapod?) This can result in a dish that's fairly bland on its own, but comforting and delicious when served with a dish of fish sauce on the side. Took Market Manila's suggestion and browned the chicken first, which helped deepen the broth a wee bit.

• 1 tbsp. or so peanut or vegetable oil
• 2"-3" in. ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 2-3 lbs. chicken (I used thighs)
• 5 cups water
• 1 tsp. peppercorns (next time, I'll use more)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 stalk celery, cut into 3-4" lengths (used more as I had a bag to get rid of)
• 1 small cabbage, roughly chopped (about 1/4 of that monstrous head)

In a pot large enough to hold all the soup ingredients, saute the ginger and onion till they release their aromas, about 1-3 mins.

Add the chicken. Brown slightly on both sides, about 3-5 minutes/side.

Add the water, peppercorns and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and cook till chicken's almost tender, 20 or so mins.

Add the celery, wait a few minutes, then add the cabbage. Cook till the veggies are tender - another 5-10 minutes.

Serve over white rice with patis and sriracha on the side.

Chicken Soup - Or Is It Braised Veg?

Another one of those "let's clean out as much of the fridge as possible" meals. First step is making a stock based on Bittman's "Quickest Chicken Stock." Once that's done, I get to continue.

• about 6-1/2 cups chicken stock
• 6 large leeks, washed and chopped into 1" lengths (quarter the large ones, halve the smaller ones)
• half a cabbage, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• meat from 4 chicken thighs, removed from bone and shredded
• salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Normally, I'd saute the vegetables in 2 tbsp. butter for a few minutes or till soft, but I'm too lazy right now.

Put broth in a large pot. Add vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes, till vegetables are tender but not mushy.

Add chicken meat. Correct seasoning.

11:03 pm: Barely enough broth for the leeks, let alone everything else. Added a cup of prefab stock, stuffed the poor Dutch oven to the brim with the cabbage, set it to a boil, turned the heat to med-low, and am curious to see how it will all turn out. Could this be a fail?

Apr. 15, 4:46 pm: Ended up turning off the heat after 20 minutes, covering the pot (a heavy Dutch oven) and letting it sit for half an hour more before cooling and storing. Turned out pretty well - if too light on the broth - but I'll probably put it on the stove for another 10 minutes or so tonight to get the cabbage and carrot just a bit more tender. And next time, I'll start working on some semblance of a solid-liquid ratio for my soups (something that, alas, Ruhlman does not cover in his new book Ratio).

You Say Puchero, I Say Pochero (Filipino Beef Stew)

This took quite a bit longer than I had anticipated, and was a bit more complicated than I wanted dinner to be, but turned out wonderfully. And, as it's a stew (albeit a very soupy one, as I used all the delicious broth), I expect it will taste even better tomorrow. It's based on two recipes - one from Filipino Cooking Here and Abroad, and the other from this website - and the usual impulse to use up the greatest number of perishables. Would have rather gotten shanks instead of supermarket-style stew beef cubes, but EM was closed, alas.

• 1.75 lbs. stew beef, cut into inch-square cubes
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1-1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 medium onions - 1 sliced,1 chopped
• 7 cloves garlic - 4 crushed, 3 minced
• 3 celery stems - 2 cut into 4 in. lengths, one chopped (will probably leave out the chopped portion next time)
  
• 2 chorizos or 4 oz. spicy pepperoni (used the latter since I didn't have any chorizo handy)
• 1 14-oz. can of tomatoes
• 1 14-oz. can of chickpeas
• 2 tbsp. peanut oil
• 1/2 head medium cabbage, quartered
• 1 medium potato, cut into 1-2 in. chunks
• 6 scallions, cut into 2-in. lengths

Place the beef, peppercorns, salt, sliced onion, crushed garlic and 2 celery stems in a large pot or Dutch oven and cover with water (about 4 cups in this case). Bring to a boil then simmer till the beef is tender - anywhere from 1-1/2 to 2 hours. (The recipe to this point makes a nice, tasty beef broth that I'll be using as a base in the future, especially for nilagang baka [beef soup].) Add the chorizo or pepperoni 30 min. before you finish cooking this part.

Place the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the chopped onion and garlic for a few minutes, till the onion turns translucent. Add the tomatoes - crushing or chopping them, as is your preference - and cook till the mixture turns saucy for about 5 minutes (if you're more patient than I was at this point, you can cook them for another 5-10 minutes or so, till they break down and turn saucy). Add the chickpeas and cook for another 5 minutes.

Once the beef is tender and the chorizo/pepperoni has cooked, add the potatoes, chopped carrots and chopped celery. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the cabbage. Cook for about 10 minutes more or till the vegetables are tender but still have bite to them.

Add the tomato mixture to the large pot. Stir to combine and cook for another minute or two. Correct seasoning.

Remove from heat, add the scallions and cover. Wait 5 minutes, then serve over white rice.