Pumpkin Pickles

From SF Chronicle, Jacqueline Higuera McMahan

Yields about 1 quart

No one expects a pickle from a pumpkin. The pumpkin cubes absorb all the cinnamon and cloves from the syrup and make a great accompaniment to turkey and pork. Place in a beautiful glass jar for a gift. You can layer slices of pumpkin pickle into an impressive turkey sandwich and no one will guess your mystery ingredient.

* 1 pumpkin, at least 1 1/2 pounds 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
* 4-inch-long cinnamon stick, broken in pieces
* 4 cloves
* Four 2-inch-wide strips lemon peel
* 1 small dried chile (arbol), optional

Instructions: Slice the top off the pumpkin. Cut into wedges so it will be easier to handle. Using a paring knife, remove inner fibers and seeds and discard. Use a potato peeler to remove the pumpkin's skin and then cut the pumpkin into 11/2-inch cubes.

Combine the sugar, salt, apple cider vinegar, 2 cups water, cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel and chile and simmer for 5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Add the pumpkin cubes and simmer until tender, about 18 minutes. Check with a fork to make sure they are just tender enough to be easily speared. Remove the pumpkin cubes to a glass bowl and continue to simmer the liquid until it is reduced and syrupy. Be careful, as it can turn to caramel very quickly. You want the syrup to just coat a spoon. Cool it down for 15 minutes and then pour over the pumpkin cubes. Cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours before using. Place in a pretty glass jar to give pumpkin pickles as a gift. They will keep for a month, but should be refrigerated at all times.

Brussels Sprouts Gratin

4 servings

From Alice Waters' "The Art of Simple Food" (2007, Clarkson Potter). The recipe is reproduced as written in the book.

Trim the outer leaves and stems from:

1 pound Brussels sprouts

Cook them until tender in abundant salted boiling water, about 10-12 minutes. Drain the sprouts well and chop coarse.

Into a heavy pan over medium heat, put:

2 slices bacon or 3 slices pancetta, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Cook until just rendered and limp. Add the chopped sprouts. Season with:

Salt

Fresh-ground black pepper

Stir, and cook for a few minutes. Butter a gratin or baking dish. Add the sprouts and bacon and spread evenly. Pour over:

1/2 cup half-and-half, or a mixture of half-and-half and heavy cream

Sprinkle evenly over the sprouts:

1/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs

Top with:

Thin shavings of butter

Bake in a 400° oven for 20-25 minutes or until the crumbs are golden and the liquid is bubbling.

Per serving: 180 calories, 9 g protein, 18 g carbohydrate, 9 g fat (4 g saturated), 23 mg cholesterol, 273 mg sodium, 5 g fiber.

Grilled Persimmons

From the SF Chronicle

Serve with pork chops or a pork roast, or duck breast, along with braised winter greens. They are also good added warm to a spinach or frisee salad.

* 2 Firm Fuyu persimmons
* 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil + oil for the grill

Instructions:
Preheat a gas grill or build a charcoal or wood fire.

Slice the persimmons crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices. Remove the seeds with the tip of the knife if necessary.

Put the slices in a bowl and gently toss with the olive oil.

When the grill is ready, brush it with a wire brush and rub it with a little olive oil.

Place the slices directly on the grill or in a single layer in a grilling basket. Grill until slightly golden and softened, about 3 minutes. Turn and grill the other side until golden, another 2-3 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Beer-Braised Short Ribs

From Cook's Country

Time and gentle heat are the secrets to turning tough short ribs into a blue-ribbon dinner. Cooked long enough at a slow enough temperature, the meaty ribs turn fork tender and deeply beefy. The demands of short ribs seem perfectly addressed by a slow cooker, but few of the slow cooker recipes we have tried measure up. The meat has tasted bland and looked pale, and so has the sauce. We wanted to find a way to coax out the best of short ribs in a slow cooker. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

* Fully brown the ribs for the deepest flavor and best color.
* Prunes are the secret ingredient in this stew, lending a mysterious depth and deep flavor.
* Braise the ribs in a dark, sweet beer like Newcastle brown ale. The bitterness of hoppy beers can affect the stew’s flavor.
* Add soy sauce to deepen the flavor and color of the stew.
* Use tapioca to thicken the stew rather than flour or cornstarch, which will make the sauce taste starchy.
* When time allows, prepare the dish ahead of time and refrigerate ribs and sauce separately to easily remove the fat.

STEP BY STEP

Rib Rules

1. The ribs taste best if fully browned before going into the slow cooker. Brown the meaty side of the ribs, then turn them on each side to finish browning (you can lean the ribs against each other if they won't stand on their own).

2. Place the browned ribs in the slow cooker with the meaty side facing down and the bones facing up. This placement will ensure that the meat stays submerged throughout the long cooking time.

Beer-Braised Short Ribs

Serves 4 to 6

The only way to remove fat from the braising liquid is to prepare this recipe a day or two before you want to serve it. Luckily, the short ribs actually taste better if cooked in advance and then reheated in the defatted braising liquid.
5 pounds English-style beef short ribs (6 to 8 ribs), trimmed of excess fat
Table salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 pounds yellow onions , halved and sliced thin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 (12-ounce) bottles dark beer such as Newcastle Brown Ale and O'Doul's Amber Nonalcoholic
2 tablespoons Minute Tapioca
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons soy sauce
12 pitted prunes
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

1. Season ribs with salt and pepper. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add half of ribs, meaty side down, and cook until well browned, about 5 minutes. Following photo 1, turn each rib on one side and cook until well browned, about 1 minute. Repeat with remaining sides. Transfer ribs to slow-cooker insert, arranging them meaty side down, as shown in photo 2. Repeat with remaining ribs.

2. Pour off all but 1 teaspoon fat from skillet. Add butter and reduce heat to medium. When butter has melted, add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook, coating onions with tomato paste, until paste begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in beer, bring to simmer, and cook, scraping browned bits from pan bottom with wooden spoon, until foaming subsides, about 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and stir in tapioca, bay leaves, 1 teaspoon thyme, soy sauce, and prunes. Transfer to slow-cooker insert.

3. Set slow cooker on low, cover, and cook until ribs are fork-tender, 10 to 11 hours. (Alternately, cook on high for 4 to 5 hours.) Transfer ribs to baking dish and strain liquid into bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 2 days.

4. When ready to serve, use spoon to skim off hardened fat from liquid. Place short ribs, meaty side down, and liquid in Dutch oven and reheat over medium heat until warmed through, about 20 minutes. Transfer ribs to serving platter. Whisk mustard and remaining teaspoon thyme into sauce and season with salt and pepper. Pour 1 cup sauce over ribs. Sprinkle with parsley and serve, passing remaining sauce separately.

Beef daube

My interpretation of daube, a classic French Provencal dish.

2-4 lbs stew beef, cut in chunks (I've used oxtails, too)
olive oil
1 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 cups beef stock
3/4 bottle red wine (traditionally a Rhone-style wine)
strip of orange peel
1/4 cup chopped black olives, pref. oil-cured
bouquet garni or loose herbs, your preference: thyme, bay leaf; optional oregano, marjoram, whole cloves or allspice berries (that's Julia Child's recommendation)
4-6 anchovy filets, mashed
1 16-oz can whole tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped or crushed by hand (or peeled and seeded fresh tomatoes if they're deserving)

Brown meat on all sides with a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large, covered casserole. Set meat aside. Deglaze pan with a bit of wine.

Over medium heat, saute onions until softening, then add garlic and anchovies and stir for a minute or two. Now add everything else, including meat, and adjust amounts of liquid to mostly submerge meat. Put in on lowest possible heat and cover, cooking for 3-4 hours. Stir and flip meat occasionally.

To be extra fabulous: cool stew completely, skim fat and reheat before serving. If you want thicker, stewier stuff, make a roux and add to the pot. Over egg noodles with lots of delicious broth is my preference, but extra-good bread dipped in a stew bowl is good, too.

Simplest (&best) oven-baked tomatoes

For abundant crops (or boxes) of tomatoes. Try on grilled cheese, in pasta, in salad with feta and parsley, on pizza...I assume they can be frozen, too.

Slice a pile of paste (San Marzano, Roma, etc.) tomatoes in half. Toss on a baking sheet with olive oil, salt, pepper and maybe some herbs. Lay cut-side-up in a single layer and bake on low for about 3 hours.

Skillet cornbread

adapted from the Tassajara Bread Book

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp butter
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or milk)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2-1 cup grated cheddar or jack cheese (optional)
1/3 cup chopped roasted and seeded hot peppers (like Hungarian wax peppers or jalepenos)

Heat oven to 400 and preheat cast iron skillet in oven. Combine dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients and stir. Melt butter in skillet, then pour batter into hot pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden. Invert onto a cooling rack; eat hot or cool.