Meat & Heat - Cooking with Hot Pepper

One of my favorite combinations is meat and hot peppers.  There is something about meat, particularly red meat, and hot peppers that I find irresistibly enticing.  Like most “chile heads” I think a wide variety of foods are amenable to heat augmentation, but for our present purposes I wish to focus on meat dishes that are hot.

The Difference Between Hot & Spicy

Allow me to propose an informal distinction between “hot” and “spicy” in the interest of clarity.  By “hot” I am specifically referring to chile peppers and more specifically, capsaicin, the chemical compound that gives hot peppers their fire.  I think of “spicy” as spices or aromatic vegetables that are piquant, but do not contain capsaicin.  Thus, black pepper and garlic are spicy while jalapenos are hot.

I see four avenues by which to incorporate hot peppers into your meat:  hot chile oil, dried ground chile pepper, hot sauces, and most obviously, directly employing whole hot peppers, be them fresh, dried or canned.

Make Your Own Chile Oil

You can buy chile oil or you can easily make your own by simply adding ground hot peppers to a container of oil and allowing it time to infuse.  The oil can be used as a constituent for a marinade or another sauce, or to sauté or pan-fry your meat.  Or you can drizzle some on at the end as a finishing touch.

There are many varieties of pre-made, dried, ground hot pepper.  Some are in powdered form such as ground cayenne and some are in flakes like the crushed hot pepper found in pizza parlors everywhere.  But of course, buying whole chiles, (fresh or dried), and making your own will afford the best flavor.

If the peppers are already dried, merely whiz them in a spice grinder or food processor and then store in a jar.  If they are fresh, cut them open, spread them out on a sheet tray, place them in a 200 degree F. oven overnight until dried, and then grind them.

Ground hot pepper can be added to a marinade or a spice rub applied to meat before cooking.  Or you can sprinkle some in as the dish is cooking or again, use it as a condiment it at the end of cooking.  Like most dried spices however, you will reap its fullest flavor if the recipe in question involves liquid and the ground chiles are allowed to slowly permeate it.

Should I Buy Store-Bought Chile Powder?

If you plan on relying on store-bought chile powder, please note that there is a difference between chile (with an “e”) powder and chili (with an “i”) powder.  Chile (with an “e”) powder is solely ground chile peppers.  Chili (with an “i”) powder is a mixture of chile powder and other spices such as cumin, coriander, garlic, etc.

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For Christmas my friends Barbecue Bob and his wife Bert gave me Lidia Matticchio Bastianich’s cookbook Lidia’s Italy. I’ve seen Lidia on television a few times but I really didn’t know that much about her. After reading through the introduction of Lidia’s Italy and her comments about the various regional cuisines throughout Italy, I’m becoming a big fan.

The cookbook is filled with incredible recipes that home cooks like us can take on and be successful.  The other night I was looking for something easy with ingredients I had on hand since I didn’t want to make a special trip for dinner stuff. Glancing through Lidia’s Italy I came across her Salsicce con Finocchi e Olive or Sausages with Fennel and Olives.

I had to adapt it a little because I only had black Kalamata olives and the recipe calls for green olives. The recipe also calls for peperoncino or red pepper flakes, which I’m sure, give the dish a little heat but I wouldn’t be able to serve it to my girls. I also adjusted the amounts because I was only serving two adult and two kids and Lidia’s recipe is for 6.

This is a very easy dish to put together on a weeknight and essentially a one-pot meal. I did serve it with some orzo and my wife and I enjoyed a glass of  Planeta’s 1999 Santa Cecilia , a Sicilian red wine with a lively nose and a rich, herby complex taste.

Sausages with Fennel and Olives

adapted from Lidia Matticchio Bastianich’s cookbook Lidia’s Italy

Ingredients

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 sweet Italian sausages (about 1 pound)
¾ cup dry white wine
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
½ cup large pitted Kalamata olives (Lidia uses pitted green olives)
1 large fennel bulb, trimmed of its stalk and tough base
coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon of peperoncino flakes (optional)

How to Prepare Sausages with Fennel and Olives

Start by getting all your ingredients prepped. Cut the fennel into 1-inch pieces, measure out your wine, smash or chop the olives… have all the ingredients ready to cook with.

Heat a large fry or sauté pan over medium heat until a drop of water evaporates immediately when hitting the surface of the pan. Add 2 tablespoons of oil and then the sausages. Add the sausages to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes being sure to turn so they don’t burn.

When the sausages are brown on all sides, add the wine and bring to a boil. Cook until the wine is reduced by half.  Transfer the sausages to a plate and pour the remaining wine over them. Reserve for later.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan and then the garlic. Cook for about a minute until the garlic begins to sizzle. If you are using the peperoncino flakes, now’s the time to add them. Now it’s time to add the smashed olives and cook for a minute or two.

Toss in the chopped fennel and combine with the garlic and olives. Season with a little salt, cover the pan and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes until the fennel softens and starts to turn golden. Be sure to stir the ingredients every once in a while so the y don’t burn.

Lidia suggests to add a little water to the pan if the fennel is still hard after 20 minutes. I didn’t find this to be the case.

When the fennel is ready, add the sausages back to the pan along with the wine and any accumulated juices. Gently mix everything together to combine flavors and continue to cook uncovered until the fennel caramelizes. This should take about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve along or with pasta, rice, couscous or orzo like we did.

Bring Good Luck To The New Year With Black Eyed Peas

I just learned from three different people that eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is a southern tradition to bring good luck and prosperity.  According to Wikipedia,

“The traditional meal also features collard, turnip or mustard greens and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.”

I’ve also read in my newly acquired Christmas gift subscription of La Cucina Italiana cooking magazine about a similar tradition in Italy.  Here they eat lentils with cotechino (a pork sausage made with ground pork, pork rinds, fatback and spices) to bring in the New Year for prosperity.  The lentils represent upcoming wealth because they are coin shaped and the pig, “an animal that eats while moving forward, symbolizes good luck in the future.”

I happen to find a great looking recipe for Black-Eyed Pea Stew with Sausage in my latest issue of Food & Wine that I adapted for my family. It is easy to make and tastes great for any of you who would like some good fortune in 2010.

The biggest change I made was to add sweet sausage to the recipe that called for hot sausage because I knew my wife and kids wouldn’t eat the hot stuff.  In fact, if I make it again, I might just stick with the sweet sausage even though I love spicy food and it’s easy to differentiate the hot and sweet by color.

Black-Eyed Peas

Of course I’ve heard of black-eyed peas and I’m sure I’ve eaten them when traveling down south but I can’t remember ever cooking with them. They have their signature black spot on a pale, cream-colored outer layer. Originally from India, they came to the United States by way of the West Indies back in the 1600’s.

What I really like about cooking with black-eyed peas is you don’t have to soak them overnight like many other beans I often cook with. This makes it easy to make a soup or a stew like this at a moments notice and not have to resort to canned beans.

Another dish prepared in the South on New Years day is Hoppin’ John, a version of a classic dish of rice and beans served in the Caribbean. It includes black-eyed peas, rice, onion and bacon or fatback.  Like the lentil, the black-eyed peas is suppose to symbolize coins. Again according to Wikipedia,

“On the day after New Year’s Day, leftover “Hoppin’ John” is called “Skippin’ Jenny,” and further demonstrates one’s frugality, bringing a hope for a even better chance of prosperity in the New Year.”

Black-Eyed Pea Stew with Sausage

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons of Canola oil
2 ½ pounds combined of hot and/or sweet Italian sausage
1 yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded, sliced and diced
½ fennel bulb, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced fine
1 – 14 oz. can of chopped tomatoes, drained
2 cups of dried black-eyed peas
4 cups of chicken stock, homemade is great but commercial is good too
3 cups of filtered water
salt and pepper, to taste
1 small bunch of cilantro

How to Make Black-Eyed Pea Stew with Sausage

Start by getting all your ingredients ready (mise en place). This is the ways the pros do it and it makes the entire job much easier. This means chopping and dicing your vegetables, rinsing the black-eyed peas and making sure there are no little stones in them.

Heat up a large soup pot or one of those nice cast iron casserole pots if you have one on medium high heat. Add the oil and wait until it gets hot enough to shimmer but not smoke. Add the sausages and cook until they are brown on the outside and cooked through on the inside. This should take about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the sausages from the pot and transfer to a large plate or bowl.

Next you want to brown the onion, bell pepper, fennel and garlic in the same pot. There should be enough oil and fat from the sausage to cook them nicely. Be sure to move the vegetables around so they don’t burn. This should take 5 to 8 minutes depending on your stove top and pot.

Add the chopped tomatoes and let them cook down for about 5 minutes. Now you add the washed black-eyed peas, chicken stock and water. Bring this to a boil, cover partially and reduce heat and simmer until the black-eyed peas begin to get tender. This can take 1 ¼ hours to 1 ½ hours.

Slice the reserved sausage on the diagonal into ½ inch slices and add them to the pot.  Be sure to add the accumulated juices from the sausages you find on the plate. It adds lots of additional flavor.

Taste the stew and add the salt and pepper to taste.  Chop and add about ¼ cup of the fresh cilantro to the pot and simmer for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Stew is ready.

I served this stew in bowls but first added a slice of Italian bread to the bottom of the bowl. The kids like having bread in the bowl and everyone enjoyed the stew. Be sure to garnish the top with some of the leftover cilantro leaves. I’ve been eating this stew for lunch for the past couple of days and it seems to get better and better.

Happy New Year and May the New Year Bring You Prosperity.