Kitchen Challenge: Having The Cahones To Make Tostones

Today's combination visit to the Howe Meadow Farmers Market and Giant Eagle resulted in an interesting array of raw products that I would have to transform into dinner tonight. The seeds of a dinner are usually planted when I visit the farmers market and discover what is available that day. It isn't until the follow-up trip to the supermarket where my mental lens focuses in on exactly what I will be making for dinner actually happens. It can be a little daunting to cook that way, and I can understand why it would make people uncomfortable, but I find it both challenging and rewarding.

Today's market visit left me with a bag full of beets, apples, onions, broccoli, seven-grain bread, and, of course, a sour cherry pie. To this bounty, I added only a few more ingredients from my grandmother's local Giant Eagle. I knew my protein would be either pork or chicken, I just had to figure out my starch for dinner. Because my grandmother cannot each small things, e.g., rice, nuts, seeds, etc., I knew I had to be creative when it came to the starch department. I've done roasted potatoes many times and while she likes them, I felt like I needed to push the envelop a bit.

As I wandered around the produce section, I happened to spy that unripe plantains were being sold next to the bananas (at triple the price of the bananas I happened to note). Having seen plantains be used many times on various television programs to make tostones, I immediately thought that this would make an interesting, and hopefully tasty, side dish and cover my starch requirement. In what came as a not-so-surprising turn of events, after I got to my grandmother's condo and finished unpacking, I noticed that the cashier had rang up the plantains as bananas. Ah well, no way to correct it now.

I knew that the roasted beet and caramelized onion compote I was planning to make to accompany the chicken would take the most amount of time, so I started working on that right away. I essentially roasted the beets the same way I did last time. As soon as I got the beets in the oven, I turned my attention to the two medium onions. I peeled each, sliced them in half (pole to pole) and then cut onion half-moons. After runnings my fingers through them to separate the onion layers, I ended up with a bowl of onions ready for caramelizing:


I preheated my grandmother's stainless steel skillet over medium heat. When it was ready, I added about a tablespoon and a half of butter, let it melt (but not turn brown) and added the onions to the pan:


It should be noted that I did NOT salt the onions right away. Since I wanted the onions to caramelize, the salt would've drawn out the moisture of the onions and they would've steamed instead of sautéed. In my mind, caramelizing onions takes time. Yes, there are shortcuts you can use, but I was resigned to do it the classic way, butter, onions, and heat.

As soon as I had gotten my onions into the pan, I decided to make the gastrique as well, since it needed to reduce quite a bit before it would be ready. To a saucepan, I added:

1/3 cup white wine vinegar
2/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar

After stirring it to dissolve the sugar, I put the pan on the hot element to bring it to the boil:


Once it came to the boil, I turned the burner down a bit. It was still hot enough to keep the mixture boiling and reducing, but not at a crazy speed. In the end, the mixture reduced by probably 75%, which is how much liquid needs to evaporate in order to make a syrupy consistency. The vinegar smell can be quite strong, so an open window or turning on the ventilation fan above the stove might be a good idea.

After about twenty minutes or so, the onions looked like this:


As you can see, they've cooked down immensely and have a translucent look to them. They are just starting to color a little bit as well. Another twenty minutes or so and my onions now looked like this:


It was at this point, I added salt, turned the burner off and just let them sit until I was ready for them.

While my onions cooled and my gastrique reduced, I turned my attention to tonight's vegetable selection: roasted broccoli. First I cut the broccoli into bite sized florets and arranged them in a single layer on a foil lined cookie sheet:


I then drizzled the broccoli generously with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. I used my hands to toss the broccoli in the topping so that it was evenly coated and placed them into a pre-heated 400 degree oven. They only took about 30 minutes or so to crisp up and be ready for dinner. You won't believe how much water comes out of the broccoli. I know I didn't the first time I tried this technique.

Now it was time for the tostones. I took my grandmothers other skillet, of the non-stick variety, and placed it on a medium burner and added enough canola oil (I know, gentle reader, not very traditional) to not only coat the bottom of the pan, but also be about 1/4" deep. Utilizing a technique called pan frying, the oil has to come partway up the food.


Unripe plantains are quite a bit harder than what Americans think of ripe bananas. This was helpful in keeping the flesh of the plantains intact during peeling. Here was a shot of the plantains that I got at the supermarket:


To peel them, I cut off the top and bottom and ran my knife down the peel from top to bottom. Then, using my thumb, I split the peel and used my thumb to essential slip between the peel and the flesh. It was a bit more difficult to do than I had originally thought, but after a bit of effort, I had these:


Knowing that tostones are made by frying the plantains, smashing them down, and frying them again, I cut the them into fairly large chunks:


They were sliced somewhere between 3/4" to 1" thick. Once the oil had come up to temperature, I placed them in a single row in the pan and fried them for about three to four minutes before flipping them onto their opposite side. As you can see in the photo below, you don't want to color them too much during this first fry:


The top side looks a little dried out and has just a hint of brown color. Perfect! After frying the second side for an additional three to four minutes, I removed them from the oil and placed them on a paper towel lined plate to drain:


Since the next step was to smash each plantain down, I set up a smashing station:


The big plate would hold the finished plantains and the small plate with custard cup would be my smashing tools. I took each fried plantain and placed it on the small plate. Exerting surprisingly little force, I smashed each one flat. I tried to make them all an even thickness so that they would fry up evenly during the second fry:


Finally, I returned each of the smashed plantains to the same sauté pan I used during the first fry:


These took even less time than the first fry, maybe two to three minutes per side, just long enough until they had that lovely brown color. Using a slotted spatula, I removed these to a foil lined tray and sprinkled each batch with a little sea salt while they were still hot. Unlike the first fry, I had to do the second in four batches, but the good news was that once they were fried, they held up fairly well. I also had a chance to sample one while I made up the additional batches of tostones. If you've never tried these before, you must give it a try. Crispy and a little salty, they tasted nothing like bananas. They were crispy on the outside, but still a little creamy on the inside. And they tasted ... well, good! I gave one to my grandmother who was extremely wary and even she was surprised at how tasty they were.

The final component of my dish tonight was the protein. I had selected a package of chicken breasts at Giant Eagle and after trimming them, I simply seasoned them with salt and freshly cracked pepper before placing them into a skillet in which I had placed a combination of grapeseed oil and a tablespoon of butter. After the butter browned slightly, I placed the breasts in the sizzling oil:


I seared each side of the chicken for three minutes before placing them into the toaster oven set at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and cooked them an additional 15 minutes, or until the instant read thermometer read an internal temperature of between 155 and 160 degrees.

While my chicken finished cooking through, I returned to the gastrique and caramelized onions that I had been working on the entire time:


When the gastrique had reduced by about half, I added it to the pan which contained the finished caramelized onions. By doing this, I could "deglaze" the pan and pick up all the little brown bits. Once the skillet bottom was clean, I poured everything back into the saucepan and continued to reduce. My roasted beets now clean, I diced them up and added them to the pot as well (probably 5 small-medium sized beets). When the mixture finally reduced and became syrupy, I added a handful of chopped fresh tarragon, salt to taste, and just a small pinch of crushed red pepper (you could also do cayenne, too).

All the elements of the dinner now ready, I prepared two plates, one for me and one for grandma:


I have to say, this was a most delicious meal. The tostones were nice and crispy (I had kept them warm in a turned off oven), the chicken was moist and tender, the broccoli was caramelized and crispy, and the roasted beet and caramelized onion compote utilizing the sweet and sour gastrique really hit this meal out of the ballpark. Grandma couldn't believe how tender and juicy the chicken was and when I told her how I did it, she was surprised at how easy it was to do. While I always purposely give her just a little bit more food than I think she will eat, tonight she surprised me by completely cleaning her plate.

I highly suggest you try both the compote and the tostones. While there were multiple steps involved in getting each ready, the end result was definitely worth it. In addition, you could totally make the compote the day before and just re-warm it for dinner. I think it would be a wonderful addition to many different proteins, chicken, turkey, pork loin, and ham, just to name a few. I continue to be amazed at the wonderful bounty available at the farmers markets and I can't wait until I get to try out my skills again.

Kitchen Challenge: Roasted Beets And Whole Wheat Pasta

I won't go on and on about how much I enjoy the challenge of cooking from ingredients I find at the local farmer's market because I've done that before and I don't want to sound like a broken record. That being said, today's visit to the Howe Meadow farmer's market in Peninsula, Ohio, yielded me some tasty ingredients. Besides my usual stop at the Humble Pie Baking Company table to pick up my pie from my friend Diane, I made several other stops while wandering around the partially shaded grassy field. What I walked away with were some fresh beets along with their tops, a small container of goat cheese from Lake Erie Creamery, two pounds of freshly ground whole wheat flour from Mud Run Farms, a one pound sack of fresh sugar snap peas, and a bag of fresh, lovely smelling basil.

In trying to come up with dinner tonight for my grandmother, I decided to do a roasted beet salad for a starter and finish it up with a entrée of seared pork chops, a homemade whole wheat pasta that I would toss in the cooked beet greens, some rendered bacon and garlic, and the sugar snap peas, first blanched and then finished off by searing in some butter. The only complication was that I didn't have my pasta rolling machine with me and I've never rolled pasta by hand before. Then again, given that these machines are only recent additions to the home kitchen and pasta has been around for thousands of years, it was obviously possible and I was certainly capable of giving it the "old college try."

When I got to my grandmother's condo, I set about making the roasted beets. Here was a shot of the ingredients required to roast the beets:


My first task was to turn on the oven and set the thermostat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, I cut the beets from the stalks, placed a single piece of aluminum foil inside the pie tin and placed the cut and washed beets in the center of the foil. I added just enough olive oil to coat the beets. Here was a shot of the beets ready to be packaged up and roasted:


To package the beets, I simply folded the sides of the aluminum foil up over the top of the beets and crimped it shut. Depending on the size of your beats (and the number), the roasting time will vary. I checked after fifty minutes and while my paring knife slid easily through the outer layer of the beets, there was still just a tiny bit of resistance left. So, I let them roast another five minutes.

After they came out of the oven, I opened up the package to let them cool slightly:


After about ten minutes, they were cool enough to handle. To remove the skins and minimize staining, run the beets under cold water. To remove the skins, I just used a paper towel to rub the skins right off. It really was a pretty simple thing to do. Here was a shot of the finished roasted beets:


You could eat them warm right now or put them in the refrigerator for later if you wanted to eat them cold. Since my plan was to use them in a salad, cold was perfect. You could certainly do this step well in advance, even the day before.

Next up I turned my attention to making the whole wheat pasta. Here was a shot of the ingredients:


While you could certainly try and make whole wheat pasta with 100% whole wheat flour, it can get a little tricky and that flavor might be off-putting to some people. And since I was cooking for more than just me today, I decided to do a 50/50 blend between the whole wheat flour I got from Mud Run Farm and the AP (all purpose) flour I knew that my grandmother already had. The basic rule of thumb for fresh pasta is two large eggs for every pound of flour. So today I used:

227 grams whole wheat flour
227 grams AP flour
2 large eggs
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 pinches (roughly 1/4 tsp.) course sea salt

If you are using fine granulated salt, use half as much. You will also need about 1/8-1/4 cup of water, depending on how humid the air is as well as how old the flour is. Today I probably ended up needing the entire 1/4 cup. Also know that whole wheat flour absorbs more water per ounce than AP flour does, so if you decide to make the pasta with 100% AP flour, you would probably need less water.

After mixing the salt with the flours, I dumped it out onto my grandmother's counter and made a large well in the middle. I then scrambled the eggs and olive oil until it was well blended and then poured it into the middle of the well:


Using a fork, I gradually began to incorporate the flour from the inner edges of the wall and stirred it into the egg mixture. Don't be alarmed if, as you get close to the outer edge, you get an egg leak. I did and that was about the time that I switched from a fork to this VERY handy tool:


This is a metal bench scraper and is your best friend when making pasta. It allowed me to fold over large section of the emerging dough onto itself and keep the work surface clean. I used this while getting the dough to come together. At first the dough stayed quite crumbly and didn't want to come together, but after working at it for about five minutes and adding additional water, it eventually became a ball of dough. I could tell, however, based on the feeling of the dough and the fact that when I kneaded it under my palm (it basically tore instead of stretched), that I need to let this dough ball rest for about twenty minutes or so. This would give it time to allow the flour to fully hydrate and the gluten to begin to form. I formed the dough into a ball and covered it with plastic wrap:


After the twenty minute rest, I unwrapped and began to knead it again for another five minutes or so. BIG DIFFERENCE. The one rule that I always tell people when working with pasta or bread dough ... if something isn't working, if it isn't rolling out properly, cover it and give it a rest. Even five minutes of resting time will make a big difference. After the five minutes of additional kneading, the dough felt supple and when I stretched it with the palm of my hand, the dough didn't tear. I reformed it into a ball and then flattened it slightly into a disc, re-covered it with plastic wrap and this time I put it into the refrigerator since I wouldn't be rolling the pasta out for several more hours.

Here was what I put into the refrigerator:


You could also do this part ahead of time, although I wouldn't make the pasta too far in advance (maybe a day or two max). You could also freeze the dough at this point by double wrapping in plastic wrap and then placing in a freezer bag. Frozen dough could be made well in advance. The multi-hour rest also helped the gluten in the dough to relax, which made rolling the dough out much easier.

To roll the dough out, I unwrapped the dough, cut it into quarters, and then dusted both my work surface and the top of the quarter of dough:


Using my grandmother's rolling pin, I began at the center of the dough and rolled outward. Always start at the center and work your way outward. You'll get a more evenly rolled out piece of dough that way. Also, lift, rotate, and flip the dough often so that you make sure it doesn't stick to the counter. Add additional flour as needed, but try and use as little as possible as too much flour at this point will toughen the pasta. As I was rolling out my first piece, I noticed that the dough was fighting me, springing back when I rolled it out. So I decided to set it aside and work on the second piece. Each piece fought me and as each did, I set it aside.

When I got back to the first piece, it had relaxed and I was able to roll out this final shape:


I then used my chefs knife to trim off the irregular sides to make it either a square or a rectangle (depending on how good your rolling skills are). I then made sure the side facing me had a nice light even layer of flour on it and folded the pasta twice, both in the same direction, bottom to top. This made cutting the noodles really easy as I could go through four layers at the same time. After cutting all the noodles (and I was going for a wider fettuccine noodle today, you could certainly do spaghetti or angel hair if you are a true masochist), I opened each one up and loosely piled them together. To this "nest," I added a sprinkling of more AP flour and then used to my hands to "fluff" the nest, thus coating each noodle with just a little bit of the flour so that the noodles wouldn't stick together. After rolling out my four quarters of dough and cutting into noodles, I noticed that I had enough scraps of dough from the four quarters to mash together and get a fifth nest out of it.

Here was a shot of the fettucine nests, floured and ready to be cooked:


As it turned out, only three of these nests were required for dinner tonight, so I individually froze the other two nests in plastic baggies and then put them together inside a freezer bag for long term storage. That gives my grandmother two additional portions of fresh pasta she can use whenever she wants them. To cook them, dump them into boiling water still frozen and boil for about 4-5 minutes or until the noodles float to the top.

My pasta noodles cut and bundled, I turned my attention to the sugar snap peas. One of my favorite tricks with vegetables is to blanch them and shock them in cold water to stop the cooking. Once drained, they can hang out for hours until you are ready to finish them off. After snapping the peas and removing the string that runs along the inside of the vegetable, I set them next to the pot while I waited for it to come to a boil:


If you have more vegetables than will fit in your pot in a single layer, blanch them in stages. Today, I was able to fit them all in:


Once I tossed the peas into the boiling water, I blanched them for four minutes. You want them to be at the same time tender, but also still have a little bit of texture to them. Once the four minutes was up, I used a wire mesh strainer to move them to a bowl of iced water I had already prepared.

Knowing that the whole wheat pasta would cook within just a few minutes, I turned my attention next to the condiment in which I would toss the finished pasta. For my beet greens today, I removed the greens from the woodier stems, minced three cloves of garlic, and sliced five pieces of good old bacon:


The item on the bottom left was crushed red pepper flakes. Although grandma doesn't like it too spicy, I knew that a small pinch would add some character without making it too offensive. In my pre-heated skillet, I tossed in the bacon and cooked it until the bacon fat had rendered out and the bacon was crispy, maybe about five minutes.


To the cooked bacon, I added the garlic and sautéed it until I could smell the garlic and it began to brown slightly. I then added a pinch of the crushed red pepper and my chopped beet greens. Knowing that the greens needed some time to cook, I added about 1/2 cup of chicken stock to the pan, turned it down and covered it. This allowed the greens to steam. After about ten minutes, I checked on the greens and discovered that they had cooked down nicely and the chicken stock had now evaporated. Since I was still working my mojo with the four other components of the meal, I simply turned the burner off and let it stand until needed.

Next up, I turned my attention to the thick cut pork chops I had picked up at the local Giant Eagle. Here was my pork chop prep station today:


I seasoned each side of the pork chops with salt and freshly ground pepper. I then dredged each side in unseasoned AP flour, tapping to remove any excess. I added about a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of grapeseed oil to a pre-heated skillet, let the butter melt and brown slightly and added my massive chops. After cooking on the first side for three minutes, I flipped them over and sautéed them for three minutes more.

Here was a shot of the golden brown crust on the pork chops:


After three minutes on each side, I removed the chops from the pan and placed them on the foil lined tray of my grandmother's toaster oven (which I had set for 350 degrees Fahrenheit). I then finished them in the oven for another twelve to fifteen minutes or so. Ideally you want the chops to cook to about 155 degrees internally, because they will come up another 5 degrees or so while resting. And while I do enjoy my pork medium, that definitely wouldn't be acceptable for grandma.

By removing the pork from the sauté pan after cooking the chops also gave me a chance to build a pan sauce, too. I dumped out most of the fat (but without wiping out the pan) and added a healthy amount of chicken stock to the pan. Using my wooden spoon, I scraped all those lovely bits up from the bottom of the pan (also known as the fond). I then let the sauce reduce until it had a nice consistency and turned off the heat to whisk in two or three healthy pats of butter. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and added just a drop or two of sherry vinegar to balance out the mouth feel from the butter.

Just before dropping the pasta into the boiling water, I turned my attention to the roasted beet salad. I quartered the beets and arranged them on small salad plates. I then topped them with some of the goat cheese from Lake Erie Creamery (use a fork for this, it saves getting your hands all messy ... just scrape the fork tines repeatedly over the goat cheese and it will form crumbles), some fresh orange zest and a chiffonade of the fresh basil leaves I had obtained earlier in the day. To this, I added a sherry vinaigrette I had made from equal parts sherry vinegar and olive oil seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Here was the finished roasted beet salad:


I dropped the pasta into the boiling water and cooked it until it started floating on the surface, perhaps about three minutes. I then scooped it out using a mesh strainer and dumped it straight into the cooked beet greens, where a tossing with some tongs mixed the ingredients together. I then prepared a plate of food for myself and my grandmother. A couple slices of pork, a nest of pasta topped off with some freshly grated Romano cheese, and a spoonful of snap peas quickly sautéed in some butter and seasoned with salt and pepper:


Wow, so delicious and even with the additional fats I added (butter and olive/grapeseed oil), this still felt healthy. Having not eaten since the morning, I greedily devoured my portion. While grandma only ate about half of hers, she saved the rest of hers and ate it for lunch the next day. Even with having cooked only three of the five fettuccine bundles for tonight's dinner, the amount of food I had made today would've easily fed four hungry adults. And since nothing goes to waste (and I do mean nothing) in my grandmother's kitchen, I made up two extra plates of food, one destined for my grandmother's neighbor and one that I would have the next day for lunch, too.

My grandmother normally does the dishes when I cook, but because today had been a little hectic getting all of the components ready at the same time, I had used a few more dishes than usual. Not wanting to leave her with the mess that I created, I also helped her clean up and within about twenty minutes, other than the extra plates of food in the refrigerator, you couldn't even tell that I had been here today.

I know that homemade pasta isn't on everyone's radar, even though it is quite lovely and delicious and pretty easy to make, even if it does take a bit of time. The roasted beets, however, are a no-brainer and in my opinion, one of the easiest and tastiest ways to enjoy this vegetable. I grew up with only canned beets in my house and until I discovered the deliciousness that roasted beets bring to the table thought that I was a beet hater. My eyes have been opened and my taste buds are much happier for it.