Pauline Panzer

Baby Soup

2008-07-06T15:17:00.006-04:00

In the end, we didn't cook the baby. But we cooked the crap out of those fish heads.

Last night's dinner was a big pot of Tom Yum Gung, a spicy Thai soup. We didn't have every single ingredient so we improvised, starting with the homemade fish stock.

Bring a pot of water to a boil then throw in the fish heads (cleaned, with gills removed), some dry vermouth, a chopped onion and salt. Turn the heat down to a simmer and leave uncovered. Every now and then check to see if any foam has collected on top and skim it off. After about an hour, strain the stock and you're done. Sorry little salmon head.

For the soup, my advice is to throw in as many ingredients as you can find in your local market. We threw in all the following at once: sliced ginger, chopped garlic, dried shitake mushrooms, chopped scallops, fish sauce (not too much, just to taste), red chilies, lemongrass. The trick for cooking with lemongrass is not to try to slice it first but to bludgeon it and then slice it. That softens up an otherwise very hard vegetable. Watch your fingers.

The shrimp, in their shells, went in last. They're done as soon as they turn pink.

Ladle the soup into individual bowls than finish each one with chopped scallions, chopped cilantro and a few heavy squirts of fresh lime juice. If you're lucky, it'll look as good as ours did:

A Kebab Workout

2008-07-05T09:48:00.003-04:00

We gave our Weber Q-200 a real workout last weekend. I don't work for Weber but I can't say enough good things about the little Q-200. So small on the outside, so spacious on the inside.

We fit about 10 skewers on there, a few with chunks of sirloin and many more with onions, peppers and mushrooms -- everything got a coating of olive oil, salt, pepper and my special ingredient, Goya brand powdered Adobo. My love for Adobo is matched only by my love for the Q-200.

That's a spring onion in the foreground. We discovered them in Mexico City, grilled and served in baskets at every taqueria.

Oysters and Clams

2008-06-28T07:43:00.002-04:00

Not much to say about these Wellfleets and Little Necks, except that N did a hell of a shucking job once again. Since we posted this photo, it was picked up by our latest online obsession, Food Gawker--a sort of porn site for food bloggers.

Here's a quick guide to a clean shucking oysters, according to the man himself...

Grab a knife with a rigid, short, sharp blade and hold it in your strong hand. For me, that's my right. Don't use your best paring knife because it will probably get dinged up.
Hold the oyster in a thickly folded kitchen towel placed over your other hand. (The towel protects you if the knife slips.)
Find the soft part of the hinge on the back of the shell. On clams, this area is usually a darker color; on oysters it's lighter.
Jam the point of your knife in there and pry the shell open by twisting the blade like a screwdriver. This part requires a lot of force and tons of patience. It took me dozens and dozens of tries before I got the hang of it. This is also the dangerous part, because when you're trying to push the blade in it can slip out and go into your hand. Careful.
Once you make that screwdriver turn with the knife in the shell, you'll here a little pop as the whole thing instantly opens up. The shell is just open a little bit, but the worst is over.
Run your knife along the top of the inside of the shell, releasing the meat from the shell.
Open the shell all the way, and run your knife under the bottom half, releasing the meat from that part as well.
Throw in a little lemon, a drop of Tabasco, and enjoy :)

Above: Releasing an oyster from the bottom shell. (Note that I'm not using a safety towel. Also note the blood at the base of my left thumb.)

Three Burgers for Dinner

2008-06-25T07:25:00.000-04:00

I've eaten two burgers in one sitting before, but this was the first time I ever crossed the line to three. The triple threat felt right at the time--not so great the next morning.

We kept it simple: a couple of pounds of chuck mixed by hand with breadcrumbs, raw egg, salt, pepper, ketchup, a dash of worcestshire. The special something was the blue cheese and the grilled english muffin. Also, the condiment buffet:

I focus on the main event, the bacon, but we also had a bowl of sauteed onions, a bowl of sauteed mushrooms, sliced gherkins, a few kinds of mustard, mayo, ketchup and an arugula salad dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.

Housewarming Tacos

2008-06-22T15:35:00.000-04:00

To my five loyal readers: Thanks for sticking with Panzer Kitchen during this last long absence. We've been settling into the new place in Sunset Park, getting the kitchen organized and scoping out the markets.

I bought the shrimp for these tacos, the first meal cooked in Panzer Kitchen's new kitchen, at No. 1 Fei Long market on 8th Avenue in the heart of Brooklyn chinatown. Not to be confused with First Fei Long market across the street, No. 1 has fishmongers who will scoop out a live fish from one of the aquariums, bash it over the head with a sledgehammer and then clean and gut it for you. The fish don't feel a thing.

I drizzled the shrimp with olive oil then stuck them under the broiler for about five minutes on each side. Meanwhile, I crisped the tortillas stovetop, one at a time, right over an open flame. Do not walk away when you're doing this! It takes only a few seconds for the tortillas to start browning and if you don't flip them (tongs work best) right away, they'll catch fire. I've lit many tortillas on fire in my day, but I wouldn't recommend you do the same. Still, this is a far easier/tastier technique than warming them in the oven.

Here's what went on the taco: peeled shrimp, pico de gallo, mayo. That was all. And you know what the only truly essential ingredient was? Mayo. I could eat hot corn tortillas smeared with mayo any day.

Death By Fern

2008-06-10T09:27:00.000-04:00

They say fiddlehead ferns can kill you if eaten raw, or just give you a nasty G.I. infection. But they're so fun and green and crunchy, I can't resist them. I once picked some on the side of a road in rural Vermont (where I'm told they're the state vegetable), ate them and lived to tell about it.

The ferns above were blanched in boiling, salted water for a few minutes until they were slightly soft then sauteed with chopped onions in some olive oil.

The End of Chicken

2008-06-05T07:33:00.001-04:00

All good things must end, and this is how our last night barbecuing chicken on the Panzer Kitchen patio ended.

Here's how it began:

And here was the secret to its success:

A third sauce, Vernon's Jerk, isn't pictured, but it was the clear winner. Still, I can't complain about the other two, as the photo up top proves.

Friday Night Swine

2008-05-31T10:43:00.000-04:00

I started Panzer Kitchen about two months ago with the goal of expanding my range in the kitchen without hewing too closely to other people's recipes. I wanted to learn to cook, really cook, not just follow instructions. I'm beginning to think this was a good idea.

Last night I made something delicious of my own invention: pan-friend pork chops smothered (marinated?) in crushed almonds, fresh lime juice, olive oil, soy sauce, cilantro, garlic and jalapenos. That's right, I made it up, practically out of thin air. I never used to be able to do that.

I served it with a raspberry yogurt dipping sauce to cut the spice of the jalapeno and to add a touch of sweetness--also because I wanted to enter a monthly food blogging competition called The Royal Foodie Joust, hosted by the Leftover Queen, a real blog with actual ADVERTISEMENTS. The deal is you get three ingredients--in this case, raspberry, lime and almond--to turn into a meal.

I don't love this photo, but I need to prove to the judges that I used the raspberry yogurt. I did use it, I swear, and though not totally necessary, it also wasn't half bad.

Wait a second, I just realized anyone can be a judge! Just click on the link above, go to the June event and vote for me. Go on, vote for me. Do it. Do it.

Anyhoozle, if you want to make this yourself, and I encourage you to do so, just mix up the ingredients above in whichever proportions you prefer. I went light on the soy sauce, heavy on the lime juice and jalapeno, and used a hammer to crush a bag of raw, unsalted almonds. I massaged the mix all over the chops and then fried them up in olive oil. I would have grilled them outside if I hadn't discovered at the last minute that the grill was out of gas.

Word to the wise: the almonds will stick to the pan and they will burn. If you find they're getting too burned, remove them from the pan and set them aside. They'll be fine on the plate while you finish cooking the chops. I threw the extra almond mix into the pan because it was so tasty just cooked on its own.

When the meat was done, I deglazed the pan with soy sauce. I learned something from this, which is that when soy sauce is cooked on the stove and allowed to evaporate, it becomes extremely salty. Duh. Seems obvious now, but it didn't occur to me in that split second when my eyes happened on the bottle of Kikkoman and I thought: Deglaze! Still, a little dollop of this on the pork was a nice final touch.

Sweet Satsumaimo!

2008-05-30T07:43:00.000-04:00

Say that three times fast. Or just say Japanese sweet potato.

Baked for an hour at 400 degrees, slapped with butter and drizzled with maple syrup, it's a meal. Japanese sweet potatoes have a subtler taste and denser texture than your basic yam, with hints of chestnuts, pear and pound cake. I like them a thousand times better. The Internet tells me they're a fall harvest vegetable, which I believe, but my local market has them year round. The Internet also says they're from Japan, but I'm pretty sure this one's from South America.

For something fancier, try these:
Roast them with scallion butter [Epicurious]
Japanese Sweet Potato Cakes [My So-Called Japanese Life]
Japanese Sweet Potato Gratin [NY Mag]

Barbecued Chicken

2008-05-28T09:40:00.000-04:00

This post is pretty much self explanatory. Cover chicken in a sauce and throw it on the grill. After that, it's all a matter of opinion. I like to start it out on a very very hot grill and get it nice and charred on both sides, basting every time I turn it. Toward the end, I'll turn the heat down (this doesn't apply if you've got a charcoal grill) to let it finish cooking on the inside. I've heard that eating the burned bits can kill you, but so can being bitten by the rabid squirrel who's still camping out on our patio, or getting hit by a speeding bicycle messenger. I'll take my chances.

Plenty of people make their own marinade, which is often delicious. But sometimes I prefer to go to an overpriced market and pay a premium (about $6 in the case of this jerk sauce) for a fancy marinade that also delivers--without the work.

Put the asparagus directly on the grill, moving around occasionally, and don't worry about it.

Stay tuned for more barbecue from the Panzer Patio before our move next week. Yes, we're moving! Not to a new home page, but to a new actual, 3-dimensional home in a place called Sunset Park. Google it.

We'll miss climbing out the bathroom window to get to our patio. Some guests think it's strange, also inconvenient, and even embarrassing when they actually have to use the toilet. But we think it's charming, in the way many things can be charming in tiny Brooklyn apartments, like book shelves made from old wine crates and breakfast "nooks".

Happy Memorial Day!

2008-05-25T06:46:00.000-04:00

Vodka, club soda, fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. Pick your proportions.

Roasted Eggplant Salad

2008-05-21T06:53:00.000-04:00

Eggplants used to intimidate me. All that salting and rinsing and frying seemed too much of a hassle. It was sad, because I love eggplant. Then I learned there's an easier way: Stick the whole thing in a hot oven (500 degrees) or a covered bbq and call it a day. It worked perfectly! I poked it first a few times with a knife before I put it on the grill and then I occasionally turned it while it cooked. When the skin started to char and peel off and the eggplant sort of deflated, I took it off.

It didn't look pretty. I let it cool. Then I peeled off the skin and mixed the cooked eggplant with olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic, salt and pepper. I was available on Blackberry throughout.

This photo isn't half bad, taken by sheer good fortune just at the start of the golden hour. I'm sending it over to a blogger named Michelle. I don't know her personally, but she's got a blog I read regularly called Greedy Gourmet (I especially like the European-style date lines) and a feature called SnackShots. This month's theme is salads, so what the hell.

Sweet Plantains (and a Surprise Guest)

2008-05-19T20:52:00.000-04:00

My Bubby, who is 93 years old this year, used to cook maduros, or sweet plantains. They are a childhood favorite, and immediately conjure images of my grandparents' apartment in Miami Beach--a gold velvet couch, heavy gold drapery, an oversized TV console blasting "The Price is Right," a domino set on the glass coffee table, giant watercolors by a supposedly-famous Israeli cousin and of course, maduros, rice and beans and arroz con pollo at the dinner table.

Really good maduros require plantains that are ripe beyond all imagining: black, oozing syrup and starting to mold (see left). My advice: If you think they're ready, give them another 3 days.

Peel the plantain carefully and slice it on an angle, then fry in vegetable oil, or some other oil that can stand high heat.

Be generous with the oil. I've found that maduros are tastiest when they've fried ankle deep in very hot oil. Flip them once, when the undersides are brown and caramelized, and when the other side is cooked equally, take them out and let them drain on a paper towel. If the oil is very hot, they shouldn't take more than a couple minutes on each side.

This batch came out delicious. Even the squirrel thought so. When we weren't looking, he jumped through the kitchen window, grabbed one, and ran out onto the deck to eat it. Can you blame the little bugger?

Sweet Noodle Kugel

2008-05-17T08:56:00.000-04:00

It's not exactly my Bubby's recipe. She used to make it with a can of Del Monte's fruit cocktail ("without the liquid!"). I got a little fancier and used sliced pairs and raisins, just like a recipe I'd seen in Faye Levy's 1,000 Jewish Recipes. No matter what you do, it's hard to make a mess of eggs, cheese, butter and sugar.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil a bag, or a half bag, depending on the size of your baking dish, of egg noodles. Cook them until they're almost al dente then run them under cold water and let them sit. In a bowl, mix equal parts cottage cheese and sour cream (don't skimp on either one), half a stick of softened butter, two beaten eggs, sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you like it), a dash of cinnamon, raisins and thinly sliced pears or apples. Mix in the noodles then pour it all into a greased baking pan.

One last touch: Before you put it in the oven, drizzle a bit more softened butter over the whole thing. That'll get the top all crispy and brown. I cooked it for about an hour.

I'm now sending this over to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night. (Think of it as Jewish baked ziti.)

Stop the Presses!!

2008-05-16T10:18:00.000-04:00

Browsing through my Foodie Blogroll widget (below and to the right), I happened upon a blog that immediately seared itself into my brain: Real Bagels are Boiled. But it wasn't the bagel part that attracted me, it was the author's obsessive devotion to something called NATIONAL BURGER MONTH. Never in my own burger-obsessed life have I encountered such a vast and unusual trove of burger recipes and photos, from a startling shrimp-topped burger to James Beard's favorite burger, a decidedly unkosher blend of ground beef and heavy cream. Mysterious bagel blogger: I salute you.

The burger in the photo above was eaten by my friend Tom (right after he took the picture), another burger devotee, at Five Guys in NYC.

For more burger love, check out the always reliable A Hamburger Today.

Jicama Salad

2008-05-15T07:57:00.000-04:00

Jicama is so delicious I don't know why I only eat it once a year. For this salad, I cut a whole jicama into thin strips and tossed it with sliced, seeded cucumber and radishes. I made a dressing with olive oil, sherry vinegar, lime, salt, cayenne pepper, a wee bit of agave nectar (sugar is a fine substitute) and chopped mint.

Lessons From a Sea Bass

2008-05-13T07:06:00.000-04:00

Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

What do we mean by "adapted"? In our kitchen, we mean using most of the ingredients called for in a particular recipe, substituting some and skipping others, and then ignoring the specified measurements altogether.

What's the worst that can happen? The sauce is a little too salty? The fish a little overdone? Big whoop. The payoffs are worth it. We'll be able to cook the same meal again one day without having to refer back to the recipe. That's cookbook liberation.

On this night, we practiced braising. It's a technique you can't screw up: Brown the main ingredient (fish, chicken, meat, vegetables, etc.) at a high temperature then cook it slowly, covered, in a liquid. The browning adds flavor and crispiness, the liquid steams (we think).

We coated the fish (locally caught whole sea bass) in flour first to give some thickness to the braising liquid. After shaking off the excess flour, we browned each side in very hot peanut oil in a deep saute pan, then removed the fish to a plate. Lowering the heat, in the same pan, we sauteed sliced onions, sliced mushrooms, minced garlic, minced ginger and cayenne pepper. Here's a gratuitous shot of the mushrooms and onion, and the cheese we snacked on while we cooked.

After the veggies were nearly soft we added a few small cups of water, white wine, soy sauce and white wine vinegar. Per our mission, we didn't measure anything, just sort of threw it all in figuring it would work out (it did). Keeping the liquid on a low simmer, we put the fish back in, covered the pan and left it to cook for about 10 minutes until it was done. The final touch: a dollop of sesame oil before pouring the liquid over the fish.

Almost forgot the appetizer! Fluke sashimi. Here's how you make it: Ask your fishmonger which fish is sushi-grade (meaning fresh and fileted). Buy some. Take it home and slice it. Accompany with soy sauce and wasabi (the powdered kind is widely available and only requires a little water to make into a paste). Dip, rub, eat.

Roasted Asparagus

2008-05-12T08:55:00.000-04:00

A classic spring crowd pleaser: Set the oven to 500 degrees; lay the asparagus out on a flat baking dish lined with tin foil and coat generously with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes or until firm.

Pasta Night: Lemon & Garlic

2008-05-09T07:35:00.000-04:00

Jessie in Lexington, Va., had a classic cook's conundrum: an exotic ingredient she wanted to play with, but no clue how to use it. (How she came to have an excess of salty preserved lemon around to begin with is a mystery.) She writes:

"I'm never quite sure what to do with salty preserved lemon, so last night I tried adding it to a simple pasta dish. Throw a bunch of trimmed ramps (that have been blanched in boiling, salted water for about 3 minutes), lots of roasted garlic, olive oil, preserved lemon, and a squirt of fresh lemon juice to a food processor and pulse into smooth. Toss with al dente spaghetti, and top with grated parmesan and freshly ground pepper. Serve with a slice of homemade bread and home brew."

We're submitting this dish to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night. Crossing fingers...

The home brew is delightful, but hardly simple. If you have a few hundred free hours on your hands, give it a shot. Here again is Jessie:

"Making homemade beer is sort of like canning vegetables in that it requires standing over a 3 to 5 gallon pot of boiling liquid for a couple of hours while all the windows in your home fog up. But unlike canning, it's crucial to regularly measure the density of the liquid with a hydrometer before adding additional ingredients (tales abound of home brew bottles exploding under pressure due to imprecise hydrometer readings). What you're looking at here is a blond ale, with a 7 percent alcohol content, comprised mostly of malted barley and stored in 3-4 cases old Grolsch bottles. The entire process--boiling, bottling, and, in particular, fermenting--takes about 10-12 days. The taste reminds this beer maker of the English ale New Castle. "

A hydrometer???

Grilled Pizza

2008-05-08T05:43:00.000-04:00

With the weather warming up, it was finally time to break out the grill. Up in Boston, Marisa and Mo have been cooking grilled pizza. They use a bag of pre-made pizza dough at Trader Joe's (at Panzer Kitchen, where we use no measurements, making our own dough would be near impossible) and take it out of the fridge 20 minutes before they're ready to start.

The only tricky part about this dish is flattening the dough. Mo went at it diligently for about 10 minutes, using a rolling pin and a floured wood cutting board, and occasionally lifting it up to stretch it out with his hands.

When it was the right size (in our case, sort of medium-sized), he put it on a heated grill and brushed the dough with olive oil, flipping it carefully once until it was crispy on both sides then sprinkling grated cheese and covering the grill just long enough for the cheese to melt. Again, this requires diligence, but no particular magic. Right, Mo?

We topped our pizza with turkey sausage and red peppers, chopped tomatoes and arugula drizzled with olive oil and lemon. But you can put anything--or nothing--on yours.

10-Minute Dumpling Soup

2008-05-07T04:19:00.000-04:00

Pick up a package of frozen vegetable gyoza or dumplings (available at Trader Joe's or most good supermarkets). Saute chopped kale and a lot of minced garlic in olive oil. Boil a pot of vegetable broth (fresh or from a cube). Drop frozen dumplings and frozen edamame in boiling broth. Let cook for about 3 minutes then shut off flame. Add kale and garlic, a splash of soy sauce, and hot sauce (Siracha if you can find it) to taste.

Spring Omelet

2008-05-06T04:38:00.000-04:00

Fresh ramps from the farmer's market. Garlicky-scalliony-earthy-buttery spring ramps. Delicious raw with a cold beer, chopped up on a salad, or cooked with just about anything. Here, we slice up the white bulbs and the thin pink stems and saute them in lots of butter in a non-stick pan. Then we add the beaten eggs.

We cook on a low heat, using a rubber spatula to keep the sides loose as the eggs slowly cook. When the omelet is nearly done, we sprinkle on some grated parmesan and gently fold.

We top with slices of ramp leaves, sea salt and pepper.

New Orleans Special

2008-05-05T11:40:00.000-04:00

Panzer Kitchen took a field trip to New Orleans for Jazzfest last weekend. The music was fine, but the food... omg.

Barbecued shrimp po' boy from Liuzza's (by the track)

Jambalaya from a vendor near the jazz heritage stage

Fried gulf oysters at Cochon on Magazine Street

Cream Cheese, Wonder Bread, and...

2008-05-04T16:17:00.000-04:00

Wonder Bread and Philadelphia cream cheese: Is there a more perfect union in all of appetizer-dom? We think not. Put anything atop the squares and you're done. We went with tinned sardines in oil (King Oscar brand), radish slivers and sea salt, cucumber and dill, and our childhood favorite, green olives.

World's Easiest Salmon

2008-05-03T11:24:00.000-04:00

Prepare on a large piece of foil spread on a baking sheet. Rub the fish with olive oil. Add some white wine, salt and pepper. Cover with lemon slices. Close up the foil and bake until done. This was Alaska Sockeye. Serve at any temperature with a dill sauce. Or just dill. Or no dill.

A Big Day For Panzer Kitchen!

2008-05-01T18:35:00.000-04:00

Our recent duck fattoush was cited as a favorite of Cook Think's weekly Root Source competition!

The ingredient we had to work with was pita, and here's the final take from the folks at Cook Think:

"We had some incredible entries to the root source. Ivy, of Kopiaste, submitted our favorite recipe, Sheftalia in Cyprus Pita. We can’t wait to get our hands on some caul fat to try it out.

Also whetting our appetites? There was a gorgeous Tuscan Style Pita Pizza from Wine Imbiber. We’ll be picking up some lamb this week to try We Are Never Full’s Lebanese Spiced Lamb Smothered in a Garlic-Yogurt-Pomegranate Sauce and The Culinary Chase’s Turkish Lamb, Feta and Spinach Melts. We’re also excited about this Deconstructed Duck Fattoush from Notes from a Kitchen. Thanks to them and to everyone else who submitted."

Picadillo

2008-04-30T18:19:00.000-04:00

(& thanks to Nook & Pantry)

The photo above is NOT our picadillo. It's a delicious pork picadillo courtesy of Nook & Pantry - A Food and Recipe Blog, which adapted it from Everyday Food.

Our picadillo was also delicious, only our photograph left something to be desired. (To see what we mean, click here.) Our recipe was passed down from grandma Ida, who we think might have first learned how to cook picadillo as a teenager in Havana from the classic Cuban cookbook, Cocina al Minuto.

Brown the ground beef. Pour out the fat. You can use a strainer to do this and keep the beef in the strainer for the time being. Saute diced onions, chopped garlic, green peppers and a bay leaf. When onions are soft, add the meat back in, some red wine, a can of plain tomato sauce or chopped tomatoes with the liquid, and raisins (Ruth doesn't like green olives, so she leaves them out, however, many of us think the saltiness of the olives mixed with the sweet pop of the warm raisins is the essence of picadillo). Cover and simmer for a half hour or so. Another option is to start by cooking the onions and when they're soft, adding the meat and browning.

Anything Goes Granola

2008-04-28T12:08:00.001-04:00

Granola contains two sets of ingredients: hard stuff (any mix of grains, seeds, nuts and dried fruit) and soft stuff (syrup to bind the hard stuff together). Our hard stuff included grains (rolled rice, rolled oats, rolled barley) and seeds & nuts (sesame, pumpkin, almonds, walnuts). We heated our soft stuff (brown rice syrup and maple syrup) on the stove until it was hot. Then we laid out the granola mixture on a baking sheet and poured over the syrup so every piece was covered. We baked it all at 350 degrees, moving around occasionally, until browned and crispy.

Later, we added dried fruits to the mix: banana chips, cranberries, goji berries, apples slices and coconut.

Nassau County Meatballs

2008-04-25T09:10:00.000-04:00

These easy meatballs come courtesy of Ina. They dominated the first night of Passover this year. Combine lean ground beef, salt, pepper, ketchup, plenty of bread crumbs and an egg. Shape into little balls. In pot, pour one bottle of Heinz chili sauce, the equivalent amount of water, one can of cranberry sauce (not the jellied kind), and the equivalent amount of water. Heat on a medium setting and when the liquid is hot, put the balls in and let them cook, covered for about an hour, or until they're done. Don't worry about the liquid so much--if it seems too thick, add more water. If it seems to liquidy, uncover it for a bit so some of the water evaporates. No harm done either way.

Linguine With Clam Sauce

2008-04-23T21:56:00.000-04:00

Mince quite a few garlic cloves and saute them briefly in olive oil. Add two small cans of minced clams with their liquid, salt and white pepper. Bring to a simmer. In a separate pot, boil linguine (we used whole wheat) and when it's almost ready, add lots of chopped parsley to the sauce. Combine pasta and sauce and add plenty of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Churrasco

2008-04-21T09:14:00.000-04:00

Use any thin cut of beef--shell, flank, hangar, tenderloin sliced with a grain. Make a chimichurri sauce: the leaves from two or three bundles of flat-leaf parsley go into the food processor with salt, pepper, a few shakes of Tabasco and lots of garlic (we used all the cloves from one head). Process and stream in enough olive oil for a thick sauce consistency, then add distilled white vinegar until it tastes piquant.

Use half the sauce to marinate the beef for an hour or so. Grill the meat, just a few minutes per side for medium rare. Serve with reserved sauce. We dished ours up with grilled tomatoes sprinkled with sauteed garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and fresh thyme, along with grilled fresh asparagus and scallions.

World's Easiest Brisket

2008-04-20T08:39:00.000-04:00

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place any size brisket in an oven bag, pour in a bottle of Heinz chili sauce and a can of beer. Seal the bag, place in a roasting pan and cook for as many hours as you can stand, or until the meat is tender. Four hours is generally enough. You can also use a covered casserole dish instead of a bag.

These are Shirley's time-tested ingredients, but there are endless possibilities with this technique. Any combination of one part liquid and one part sauce will work. Bourbon and barbecue sauce? Water and Thai peanut sauce? Dos Equis and chipotles? Check out this one from Simply Recipes or post your favorite brisket recipe below.

Here's the cooked brisket, accompanied by steamed asparagus and a cabbage dish adapted from Miriam's Red Cabbage. We sliced a head of purple cabbage, chopped two peeled apples and diced an onion. We through everything in a big pot, sauteing with oil until all three ingredients were soft. Then we added sugar, water and red wine vinegar and kept cooking on a low heat for about 20 minutes. You can cook for longer or shorter, depending on how you like your cabbage.

Deconstructed Duck Fattoush

2008-04-19T09:45:00.000-04:00

Warning: This dish, though easy to make and hard to screw up (everything is basically mixed, added and cooked to taste), has more steps involved than most dishes on Panzer Kitchen.

Pita: Heat oven to 425 degrees. Open a few whole-wheat pitas, drizzle them with olive oil and toast in oven until crisp.
Duck: Skin side down, rub top of duck breast with coriander seeds, salt and cayenne pepper. Heat a little olive oil in an oven-proof skillet on medium-high heat. When hot, place breast skin side down and cook until skin is very browned. Flip breast and cook until the other side is browned. Place skillet and duck in the 425-degree oven for about 10 minutes or until it reaches the desired color (we like it pink, or cooked to about160 degrees inside). Remove from heat. Slice.
Salad: In a bowl, mix julienned cucumbers, radicchio and cabbage of your choice (we used green), halved red grapes, small bunch chopped parsley, smaller bunch chopped mint, diced shallot. Toss with dressing.
Dressing: 2 parts olive oil to one part sherry vinegar, splash of honey, fresh lime juice to taste, salt, pepper. **For an even duckier flavor, deglaze the duck pan on the stove top by adding some red wine and stirring it with the leftover duck fat until mixture is slightly thickened. Add a spoonfull of the mix to the salad dressing.
Compose the salad any way you like. We layered -- placing bite-sized pieces of the pita on the bottom layer, followed by the salad and topped with duck. But you can also toss everything together so the pita gets a little moister.

Brunch for Dinner

2008-04-18T06:25:00.000-04:00

The main ingredient is good quality pre-packaged smoked trout. From there, add on the garnishes: finely diced onion, cucumber and chive, sour cream, capers, lemon wedge. Scramble eggs, folding in sour cream for a richer texture than milk. Salad dressing, inspired by Franny's in Brooklyn, blends pine nuts, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, half a clove of raw garlic, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper (we also added a splash of walnut oil for a nuttier taste, but it's not essential) in a food processor. Toss with a simple lettuce (we used dandelion greens, but don't recommend them because their natural bitterness overwhelmed the dressing) and top with grated ricotta.

Pita and Veggie Burger

2008-04-16T07:11:00.000-04:00

Throw vegetables in a food processor or blender: Portobello mushrooms, carrots, red peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro, kale, etc. Add a can of rinsed and drained black beans, soy sauce, cumin, salt, pepper, chives. Blend everything together. Mix in a lot of bread crumbs and one egg. Form patties and pan fry in oil until crunchy on the outside.

No-Skewer Chicken Satay

2008-04-14T20:09:00.000-04:00

From Tom in New York. Chicken Satay: Turn on the broiler to heat and slice a few chicken breasts into thin strips. Toss with a small splash of vegetable oil and some spices of your choice, maybe coriander, curry powder, a bit of cayenne. Prepare a peanut sauce by mixing a scoop of chunky peanut butter with a few squirts of soy sauce, some brown sugar, and enough lime juice to thin the mixture. Cover a jelly-roll pan with foil and lay out the chicken strips. Stick under the broiler for just a couple of minutes until crisp. Side dishes include grated cucumber with sliced red onion, rice-wine vinegar and a sprinkling of sugar, and microwaved or steamed snap peas.

Sunday Salads

2008-04-13T09:14:00.000-04:00

From Lenore in Miami, clockwise from top.
Salmon salad: Can of salmon, capers, parsley, lemon, olive oil, minced shallot, salt, pepper.
Egg salad: Onions, celery, salt, pepper.
Crusty bread.
Pasta salad: shells, diced red and green bell peppers, sliced black olives, mayo, celery salt, dry mustard, pepperoncini, diced cornichons, diced shallot, salt, pepper.
Roasted peppers tossed with mashed anchovies, olive oil.

Sashimi Tuna Avocado

2008-04-12T17:42:00.000-04:00

From Talia, via the Japanese market. Cut up sushi-grade tuna, avocado, cucumber and scallions. Toss with sesame seeds, cilantro, sesame oil, wasabi, soy sauce. Serve with prepackaged wonton wrappers rubbed with olive oil and salt and baked.

Green Lentils and Sausage

2008-04-11T17:29:00.000-04:00

Slice carrots, onions and garlic and saute in olive oil. When soft, add lentils and enough water to cover the lentils. Add bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer until lentils are as soft as you like them. Add more water as the lentils cook if they seem like they need more to soften up. Slice cooked sausage (in this case, leftover sage pork sausage from Flying Pigs farm) and stir in until everything is hot.

Tuna

2008-04-10T17:27:00.000-04:00

Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink tuna salad: A can of tunafish in olive oil, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion, sliced gherkins, olives, carrots, pine nuts, ricotta, parmesan, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

1st Street Tostadas

2008-04-09T16:40:00.000-04:00

From Alexandra. Chop an onion, chop some garlic. Saute some of both in a pot with olive oil for a bit then add a can of pinto beans and some salsa. In a separate pan, saute the rest of the onion and garlic in some olive oil. Add slices of yellow or red bell pepper. When they’re almost soft, add spinach leaves and cook until they’re just wilted. Soften tortillas—corn or flour—in the oven. To assemble, take a tortilla, add grated cheese, a dollop of the beans, a dollop of the spinach/pepper mix, guacamole, chipotle or other chile saude, chopped tomatoes, lime juice.

Bar Saigon

2008-04-08T16:39:00.000-04:00

Like taco night, only Vietnamese. Lay out mint leaves, basil, cilantro, sesame seeds, peanuts, sliced radishes with sugar and soy sauce, lime wedges, sliced jalapenos, a jar of chile-garlic sauce, whole leaves of butter lettuce and leftover carrot-beet salad. Meanwhile, marinate the skirt steak in fish sauce and slices of lemongrass. Grill the steak , slice it, lay it out with the rest of the fixings. Use the lettuce as taco-shell-like wrappers, and stuff with fixings of your choice. Wash it all down with grape soda.

Early Spring Dinner

2008-04-07T16:37:00.000-04:00

Slice and grate a bunch of carrots and raw beets (grating is easiest in the food processor), add a bunch of raisins and pine nuts. Pour in a few things from the cupboard—in this case, olive oil, sherry vinegar, honey, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice—until it tastes the way you like it. Pair with a nice cheese, crackers and fig jam.

Fish Dinner ($16.95 from farmer's market)

2008-04-05T16:33:00.000-04:00

A dozen oysters (shuck them over the sink), a few filets of mackerel sliced for sashimi, and two whole mackerels grilled on the stove with olive oil, salt and pepper. Accessories include sliced jalapenos, horseradish, lemon, wasabi (made with store-bought wasabi powder and mixed with water). Bottle of $8.95 Reisling.

Beer-in-the-Butt Chicken

2008-04-03T18:41:00.000-04:00

Take the top of the beer can off with a can opener, empty half the beer out, then plop in spices of your choice—in this case, garlic cloves, thyme, tarragon. Rub the chicken with butter, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, stick it, butt first, over the beer. Cook in a 350-degree oven for about an hour.