Baked Corned Beef Spaghetti à la Noynoy

For dinner tonight I had a weird pasta dish, baked spaghetti with corned beef, the recipe I got from the online edition of the Philippine newspaper Inquirer. I was checking the latest results of the presidential elections and naturally my eyes gravitated towards the Food section and found an article on the candidates's favorite recipes . Two of [the presumed president-elect] Noynoy Aquino's favorites are Libby's corned beef and his mom's Swedish meatballs. Reggie Aspiras, one of the newspaper's food columnists, wrote the article and created a recipe based on those favorites. The dish is baked spaghetti with Purefoods corned beef and for crunch and the must-have yellow color she added canned corn. I thought at first the flavor combination is odd but it actually works, it's quite delicious. Thank you Reggie for the recipe. The only thing I will alter should I make it again is to layer the spaghetti and sauce so there's sauce in the middle.

The future president might want to try this pasta dish, he'll probably like it.

Baked Corned Beef Spaghetti à la Noynoy
adapted from a recipe by Reggie Aspiras

1 pound thin spaghetti, cooked al dente and drained (reserve some of the water)
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1½ cups sliced onions
4 tablespoons chopped garlic
3 cups fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
3 cups shredded corned beef or 2 cans Purefoods corned beef
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 can whole corn, drained
sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
cream cheese bechamel
1 cup each shredded mozzarella and Parmesan

• Combine oil and butter. Saute onions until caramelized. Add garlic. Add tomatoes and Italian seasoning. Add corned beef, cook for five minutes. Add corn and pasta, toss to combine. If you find the mixture too dry, add a little bit of pasta water. Season to taste.

• Transfer pasta to a baking dish. Top with cream cheese bechamel. Finish with grated mozzarella and grated parmesan. Bake in a pre-heated 350°F oven for 30 minutes or until cheese has melted and the top slightly golden.
  

Cream Cheese Bechamel
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
3 cups fresh milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup cream cheese
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
sea salt and ground white pepper to taste

• In a saucepan, melt butter, whisk in flour. Slowly add milk, stirring frequently. Add cream and cream cheese and cook, stirring frequently until smooth and has thickened slightly. Remove from heat and add parsley, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

The Filipino grocery store in my area does not sell Purefoods corned beef which is not a problem because I prefer to cook it myself anyway. There are seasoned corned beef in grocery stores, all you do is add water, boil, and shred. If you can't find seasoned corned beef, here again is the recipe.

Corned beef:
2 pounds beef brisket
2 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon pickling spice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, quartered
¾ teaspoon pink salt, optional (if you prefer the cooked meat with red hue)
water

• Put brisket in a pot large enough to accommodate the brisket. Add the rest of the ingredients and enough water to cover meat. Bring to a boil, cover, turn heat down to medium, and boil for 2 hours. Remove cooked meat and transfer into a plate. Leave until cool enough to handle. Slice the brisket across the grain into 1½-inch strips. Shred the meat using 2 forks or with (gloved) hands.

Mellow Bakers: Miche, Pointe-à-Callière

Woohoo, I finished baking all 3 May 2010 MellowBakers breads with Miche, Pointe-à-Callière. I made a very small baby-size, 1 pound 10 ounces boule knowing I'm the only one who's going to eat it. Sour breads are not very popular around here. Besides, I didn't want to get disappointed if the bread turned out inedible.

It was a pleasant surprise when I cut open the bread to find it has a moist chewy open crumb as Jeffrey Hamelman promised. And it is also not too sour, at least to me it isn't, and has a smokey flavor that I really like. I hope the flavor gets even better just like Peter Reinhart's Miche recipe. I give Hamelman's recipe one point higher than PR's because of the beautiful open crumb.

Miche is a sourdough starter-raised bread that takes 2 days to make. A sourdough build is prepared 12 hours before and mixing, fermenting, shaping, second rising, and baking takes approximately 6 hours. This bread needs a baker's full attention as it has to be folded 3 times during fermentation.

I was not expecting too much from this bread as it was slooow in growth and super wet. I kept peeking while it was rising and didn't notice it getting any bigger and after 2 hours I poked it and it was ready. I was still suspicious and thought it wouldn't hold its shape when I inverted the basket on the peel [with a piece of parchment paper], but it did. And it had an oven rise of 1 inch and less than an inch all around. I'm very happy with the recipe, it's worth making again. Thank you Messrs. Hamelman and MacGuire.

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Mellow Bakers: Corn Bread

I love Jeffrey Hamelman's yeast Corn Bread, the second of 3 recipes I have baked for the MellowBakers May 2010 breads. The bread is slightly sweet and has a crunchy crust which is so good for elaborate sandwiches, or simply buttered, or spread with jam. I made a loaf with half a recipe using limed cornmeal and another half recipe with regular yellow cornmeal and the dough is formed into rolls. They are both yummy and I can't tell the difference in flavor.

This recipe is a 2-day bread requiring a 16-hour poolish. The next day the cornmeal is softened in water for 15 minutes before mixing with bread flour, water, olive oil, yeast, and salt. After fermenting, the dough is formed into whatever shape is desired, let rise, then baked in a steamy 460°F oven. In other words, it's a very simple recipe to do.

very nice with lemon curd


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Crispy Pig Tails

The love affair goes on. This time it's crispy breaded and baked pig tails. They are incredibly delicious to die for crunchy melt-in-your mouth tender pork delicacy. I love it simply dipped in vinegar-hot pepper-soy sauce dipping sauce.

One of our all-time favorite Filipino dishes is Ox Tail stew but I have never thought of cooking pig tails. After getting a small package of pig tails already sectioned into 6 inch lengths, I found a recipe from one of my cookbooks CHARCUTERIE AND FRENCH PORK COOKBOOK by Jane Grigson. The tails are brined for 3 days, are simmered with lots of vegetables then dredged in bread crumbs and grilled. I didn't use that recipe as I didn't want to wait 3 days but instead I adapted the one from gourmet.com which is from the Fergus Henderson's cookbook THE WHOLE BEAST that I read about here. [I want a copy of the cookbook, right now!]

Next time I cook these I'll take my time and brine the tails and cook them using Jane Grigson's method. And maybe deep fry them just like crispy pata (pork legs).

they're good by themselves or with steamed mix of Israeli couscous, spinach and carrot orzo, baby garbanzos and red quinoa

Crispy Pig Tails
adapted from gourmet.com
2 pounds pig tails, cut into lengths
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
6 cloves peeled garlic

2 sprigs Italian parsley
2 sprigs thyme
zest of half a lemon (removed into strips using a vegetable peeler)
1 bay leaf
4 whole black peppercorn
1 cup red wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Arrange tails in a large roasting pan, then add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, herb sprigs, zest, bay leaf, peppercorns, 1 teaspoon salt, wine, and broth and cover tightly with heavy-duty foil. Braise in oven for about 3 hours. Cool in cooking liquid, uncovered, to room temperature, about 2 hours, then chill, covered loosely, until tails are cold and firm, about 3 hours.
• Put a heavy shallow baking pan on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 450ºF.
• Remove tails from braising mixture and remove adhering vegetables and aspic. Sprinkle tails with 1 teaspoon salt.
• Whisk together mustard and eggs in a wide shallow dish and put flour and bread crumbs each in a separate wide shallow dish. Working with 1 piece at a time, dredge tails in flour, knocking off excess, then coat with egg, brushing it into the crevices and letting excess drip off, and roll tails in bread crumbs, coating thoroughly. Transfer as coated to a plate.
• Remove hot baking pan from oven and add butter to pan, tilting it to coat. When foam subsides, add tails. Using tongs, turn and coat tails with butter on all sides. Roast until underside is browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Turn tails over and roast until other side is browned, 10 to 15 minutes more.