Amuse Bouche

Makin' Bacon

The time had come.  I had a beautiful pork belly on my hands from Miss Maggi and Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie, some pink salt(nitrate/nitrite haters read Mr. Ruhlman's solid rant about the truth here - hint, you've been having them all along even if it says NO NITRATES) and Bruce Aidell's Complete Book of Pork.  The planets had aligned.

During my cooking day with Ali we had mixed up Ruhlman's basic cure for bacon and we popped it in a cambro and tucked it away in the fridge for a week to rest up, tighten up and exude away.

During the week I ordered some wood chip, more like sawdust from here.

On Sunday I pulled it out of its resting place, rinsed the cure off and patted it dry.

I filled a half steam table pan (one of those grocery store disposable aluminum pans) with some of the wood shavings,1 pint of hickory and 1 pint of cherry, lit a few briquettes in the chimney and laid them on the shavings.

The grate went on the porky goodness was nestled on top.  The vents on the top and bottom of the grill were open and I popped in a thermometer to ensure it hung in the 80-120F cold smoke sweet spot.

Husband and I continued our PURGE of the basement in anticipation of laying a new floor and periodically I would check the pig.  A few times I had to add a few more white ash briquettes and shuffle things around and once or twice I think the temp might have climbed to the high 130's, but generally over the 5 hour period it was pretty consistent.

Here she is in all her smoke lacquered, porky, piggy, beauty resting and waiting to be sliced and eaten.  I will NEVER go back again.  This was hands down one of the easiest, highest gratification projects I have tackled.  Go on, you know you want to make it.

Porchetta or Pork Butt(shoulder) on the Spit

Porchetta (pork butt on the spit)

This is a 10 minute of prep time recipe that will knock your socks off.  Big flavor, incredibly moist (even as leftovers!) and it will make your neighborhood smell like an Italian street festival minus the ubiquitous peppers and onions if you live in New England.

In a food processor toss in 12 or so peeled cloves of garlic, 2 TBS of fennel seeds that you toasted lightly in a pan until they were fragrant, 1 T kosher salt, 1T ground black pepper, 2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary.

Puree this all up in the food processor and then add enough olive oil to make it a paste.  Rub this all over your 5 - 6 pound pork butt (shoulder) preferably butterflied open like a book so you can spread the flavor everywhere.  Once it is nicely rubbed roll it up and tie it in a nice bundle and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

I have a Weber kettle grill so we started 1 chimney full of hardwood charcoal and when it was ready we laid it on either side of the grill leaving the center open.  We tossed on a few longer burning charcoal briquettes to keep the fire going.  I speared the pork onto the spit and started it spinning.  When the chimney cooled enough to handle we lit another chimney full and added more coals on each side.  We put an aluminum disposable roasting pan down under the roast to catch the drips and prevent flare ups.  The lid went on and it did it's nice slow spin, spin, spin for about 2 hours. 135F - 140F is your magical temperature for delicious porkie doneness. I happened to have my iphone by nearby and not my usual camera so these pictures are not the most brilliant in color, but you get the idea right?

We took it in and let it rest for 15 minutes and sliced.  See the delicious juice!  not only was this good for dinner, but unlike most pork it was great and still moist as leftovers.  I made staff lunches with sliced porchetta, apple/jalapeno jelly, mayo and romaine.  I just had mine on a salad. 

Don't be afraid of throwing a big roast on the grill!  For those who are spitless and need to cook this in the oven the recipe is based on this if you need oven directions.

Weekend Farmstand Haul

A sunny Saturday and the top down. I went out rte 119 to Groton, back to Pepperell and Littleton and then a stop in Concord.  Here is a paleo girl's haul of goodies and delights.

John Crown Farm for another free range chicken, a rib eye, some grass fed ground beef, and a lovely bunch of red onions.

Springdell Farm for some of their goat for curry, beef tenderloin for his majesty, he who only likes the tenderest part of the cow, and a few packs of pork chops.  I also grabbed one of their punnets of cherries.  There is a little sign that says they come from a local gentleman's tree.  I bought one last year and I don't think it made it home intact.  I spent the ride popping cherry pits along 119 like a crumb trail.  This time it made it home and The Stig, as you can see, enjoyed them as well.

Spring Brook Farm for milk for husband, cream, fresh garden peas, a few ears of corn on the cob (yea, not paleo I know, but Native Americans were HUNTERS AND GATHERERS. 1 ear people, I had 1 ear), Cabot cheddar from the wheel for his majesty the cheddar lover, a yellow tomato, eggs and a few zucchini.

Again Stig would like to show you how good the peas were.

Last stop was Concord Fish & Prime for some steaks for the grill and more goat which was absolutely divine.  Really people you need to climb aboard the goat train it's delicious and unlike goat cheese can do goat meat does not taste like a goat smells.  

Later I'll tell you about the porchetta we did on the spit on Sunday.  The Stig was waiting for me to finish.

 

 

 

Korean Radish Salad or Banchan with a twist

 

First seed you attempted to grow? RADISH!

Large contents of your CSA box until at least August? RADISH!

You've had them with butter in a sandwich, you've added them to every salad, you've kept a bowl of them in your fridge in cold water ready to dip in salt and snack? RADISHES!

Now what? You ask.

Looking for something snappy to have with that fatty delicious barbecue?  I've got just the simple ticket.

Of course normally you would make this with a Korean white radish or maybe if you were feeling cross cultural and adventurous a daikon.

This weekend presented a plethora of Korean barbecue at my house from Kalbi to lip smackingly delicious short ribs.  I served this beside my favorite hands down favorite banchan , David Chang's scallion sauce.  Dear lord it is good. (Recipe found in the kalbi link above).

Pardon my iphone snap, but there was dinner to eat!  Just trust me and make this.  Absolutely lovely.

Koread radish salad (American style)

6 - 8 radish, washed and cut into sticks like carrot sticks

1 tsp salt preferably kosher or sea

1T sherry or cider vinegar (i like the sharpness sherry vinegar brings)

2 cloves of garlic minced fine (or if you are me 3 and maybe, just maybe,4 cloves)

1 - 2 T Korean pepper (Gochugaru) very inexpensive but has a distinct taste and heat level.  Order online if your local Asian bodega doesn't stock it - pop it in most anything.

1/2 t raw honey (if you are paleo) or sugar

1 scallion, cut thinly white and green

1 - 2 t toasted sesame seed

Sprinkle salt over sliced radish and let it rest for 10 minutes or so.  Drain off the water that exudes out of the radish.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Stir.  Taste for salt and heat and vinegar snap and adjust accordingly.  Chill.  Serve as one of many sides with barbecue.  Cuts right through the fatty deliciousness of pork.

 

Slow Cooked Pork Shoulder in the Italian Style

 

Summer you say?  So hot you can only eat salads and look at homemade gourmet popsicles? Well not in New England buddy.  You've heard of the Mason Dixon line, that mistical invisible divider of the North and the South?  We're currently living north of the mason dixon of sumer weather, we are firmly planted in early cold wet spring even though the calendar indicates we are not so many days from July.  I want to have the urge to just toss something on the grill and whip up a gorgeous salad of fresh garden grown greens but mother nature has decided that I will whip out my crock pot and hunker down with stew instead.  FINE!  I can play that game.

On Thursday I raided the chest freezer in the garage and found a pork shoulder I had brought back from a farmer in Maine kicking around in a dark corner, I tossed it in the fridge to thaw and headed off to work.  I knew it would end up as some semblance of pulled pork, I just wasnt sure what country the pulled pork would be from. Thursday went by without a chance to research any recipes and I headed home without stopping at the store. Friday I ended up staying home to update the work calendar so I had to raid fridges and pantries and in the end I settled on Italian.

I prepped everything in the morning and then wandered upstairs to my computer to work on the calendar.  Sometime around 3:00 my house started to smell like my Italian grandmother had been in the kitchen all day.  It was in the slow cooker on low for about 7 hours, but I'm pretty sure it would have been fine to eat after around 5 hours.  We had it with cauliflower that was tossed with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice and roasted.  Caulifower and tomato sauce are a match made in heaven, trust me on this.

Slow Cooked Pork Shoulder in the Italian Style

2- 28oz cans of tomatoes (I chose one whole and 1 crushed and both were fire roasted.)

5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1 large Spanish or 2 small yellow onions cut to 1/4" dice

1 carrot grated finely (My Mom always added carrot to her sauce)

1 red chili chopped, seeds included (you could also use dried crushed red pepper to taste)

olive oil

1 pork shoulder 4 - 5 lbs

Kosher salt

4 oz guanciale or pancetta diced

6 cloves garlic, peeled

1/4 - 1/2 cup Italian flat leaf parsley

2 cups dry red wine

6 - 8 sage leaves

1 sprig rosemary

handful of thyme

 

First make your sauce.  In a heavy bottom pan drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil.  Add the onion and the garlic (don't worry, since the pan is cool the garlic won't burn), cook this over low heat until everything is nice and soft  and just starting to get some color.  Add the chopped hot chili and stir for 30 seconds. Add the grated carrot and cook 1 - 2 minutes or until carrot is soft. Turn up the heat, tip in the crushed and whole tomatoes and their juices (again, don't worry about adding the tomatoes whole, you'll chop them with a spoon as you cook) and bring everything up to a high simmer.  Turn the heat down and cook for 20 - 30 mintes stirring ocassionally and chopping up the whole tomatoes with your spoon as you go.  Cook until some of the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens. Season to taste with some kosher or sea salt.

While the sauce is cooking salt the pork and let it rest.

Make the soffrito: In a food processor pulse the guanciale or pancetta, garlic cloves, thyme and parsley until fairly smooth.

In a heavy bottom skillet or dutch oven add 1/4 cup of oil.  When the oil is shimmering add the soffrito and stir.  It will begin to melt into the olive oil and smell very fragrant. Add the sage leaves (whole is fine) and rosemary. Be careful to not burn the garlic, adjust the heat if neccessary.  Cook 2 - 3 minutes.  Pour this into the crock pot.

Return the pan to the heat and add the pork starting with the fat side in order to render some fat for the pan.  Turn the shoulder and brown evenly.

While this is browning the sauce should now be done.  Add this to the crock pot with the soffrito.

When the roast has browned add it to the crock pot squishing it down nicely and nestling it in the sauce.  Add 1 cup of red wine to the pan and deglaze scraping up and brown buts ad reduce by half.  Pour this into the crock pot and add the 2nd cup of wine. 

Cook on low for 5 - 7 hours or until the pork shreds easily.  There will be a good deal of fat that has risen to the surface.  Just skim it off with a spoon before you remove the pork and stir everything together.  Place the pork on a platter and either slice, chunk or shred it.  Serve the sauce on the side to pour on everything.  No really, everything.  So good!

 

You're Welcome

I am just going to publish a little link here.  A link that will change your life if you are off sugar and looking for dessert.  It involves 1 ingredient and 1 machine.

You're welcome.

 

A new direction

Smoked duck breast, seared foie, pickled cipoline, marinated artichoke heart, sauteed mushrooms, sauteed apple, mache, arugula sprouts and mesclun

I haven't been posting recipes here for quite some time.  Either it's just more of the same old same old, Tue chicken, Weds fish, etc., or I haven't felt like taking pictures before dinner and as we know if you are going to write about food most people want a picture to drool along to.  Even, my SD won't buy a cookbook unless it is loaded with pictures.  Recently however, Easter day as a matter of fact, marked the day a few things changed around here.  That was the last day I consumed sugar, seed oils, grains (hence no gluten) or legumes.

Why?

Well I'm not a dieter.  Never believed in it.  Why change your eating for a few months only to go back to your old habits when it 'ended'? I've never, ever been thin. I never really ate junk food.  I don't drink soda.  I'm not a sugar junky, I'd rather have a steak over a piece of cake any day, but I did grow up in a house of starch.  Loads of starch.  Pasta? Ah, hello...Italian.  Mom never made a meal without a starch of some kind.  Potatoes, rice, pasta made an appearance every night and garlic bread was her holy ghost.  Out of habit I've always done the same.  Husband and I did however dabble in Atkins once a few years ago.  It worked great for him.  He dropped weight without even thinking about it but eventually we stopped for no apparent reason. I had no intention of doing this, I wasn't seeking a change, thin is not my goal, I don't even think it is possible for me, but being healthier and feeling better is.  At one point after hearing about 3 friends experiences with bariatric surgery I was actually contemplating going down that long, dark, expensive road.  But on a lark one day Sam and I were talking at work about ideas for some new classes for Create a Cook.  Sam is a nutritionist and creates our healthy cooking classes.  We tossed out raw, vegan, new vegetarian menus, more gluten free for the allergy crowd and then Paleo came up.  She wasn't sure what paleo was exactly so she said she would go home and research it.  The next day she rejected it out of hand the next day saying it was all about eating bacon all the time.  LOL!  Typical nutritionist response!  I'm working on her though and she just *might* be coming around.

I'd heard enough about Paelo to know there was more to it than bacon, but believe me there IS bacon.  That weekend I started googling Paleo and Primal (see this great Venn diagram for the differences between Primal, Paleo and Atkins).  I found Wolf and Cordain and then a slew of others who spoke about the diet, its origins and loads of testimonials from former fatties or those with autoimmune or health issues like diabetes or PCOS on what it has done for them. In fact if you aren't a reader spend a bit of time and take a little gander at this documentary and then think long and hard before you scoff at the very idea.  One thing I did learn going down this road is that it's all about the insulin baby.

Now let me take a moment here to assure you I AM THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SKEPTIC.  My father done raised me right.  Nothing comes for free.  Nothing good is easy.  Nothing you buy on an infomercial works. Ron Popeil is a shiester. There are no shortcuts, well except the one he once took that was 20 miles out of the way but we were at least MOVING, I digress.  I went into my research with a high degree of 'WHATEVER' and then I came out the other side buying books, reading them cover to cover, trawling sites, eading papers and curious for more and then I decided WHAT THE HELL you were going to have MAJOR surgery it can't hurt to try can it?  And really a diet about eating meat and vegetables is a diet lifestyle change I can get behind!

I am here to tell you that just 1 week in to the change, ONE WEEK after giving up grains and hence gluten, my joints felt absolutely amazing.  Knees that creaked and crack?  No longer.  Aches and pains that I attributed to age. NO MORE.  Ocassional GI issues that I wrote off to other reasons GONE. No longer am I tired after I eat.  NO more do I want to take a nap after a sandwich for lunch or pasta for dinner.  I am five weeks in and I can easily see this becoming a lifestyle.  I crave nothing that I can't have.  I don't want sugar or chocolate.  I ate potatoes 3 or 4 times a week before.  I haven't had a spud in 5 weeks and I am down with that.  100% fully down. Bread? WHATEVER! 

Now I'm not here to proselytize.  I will never lecture you for eating that cupcake.  I could care less if you wanna suck down that loaf of freshly baked sourdough. And you will not scoff at me for eating bacon or liver without first reading the research and then coming to your own conclusions. However I will tell you why I'm not eating those things - if you ask.  I'm also NOT a saint.  Yes, I have a beer.  One.  Or maybe a glass of wine or a NORCAL margarita. And bourbon - oh sweet bourbon you distilled, gluten-free saint!  I ride the line somehwere between primal and paleo.  I think grass fed butter is just fine.  And the 1 TBS of milk or cream I put in my tea is not going to stop the world turning is it? And, yea sometimes I'm gonna use gluten free tamari cause I loves me some Asian food and coconut aminos just do NOT taste like soy no matter how much they smell like they should. Hell dudes I even bought a kettlebell.  Baby steps folks.  B-a-b-y s-t-e-p-s.

Over the coming weeks I will be pouring through my archives and marking things that fit the lifestyle, some with modifications which I will note on the recipe.  A word off the bat.  I am a cook.  I will not be skipping salt in my cooking.  I know the lifestyle wants you to forgo but I am controlling my own intake and I am using sea salt with trace minerals.  NOT GIVING IT UP.  And I will be using tricks in my arsenal like sous vide.  If you haven't heard of it I am sure you have heard of google.  Do a wee bit of research.  I will tell you now that is simply one of the most efficient ways to cook meat EVER.  Perfect level of done EVERY TIME.  Sure, I have some equipment that might be out of your range, but don't fret.  My friend Helen Rennie of Beyond Salmon will tell you how to make a rig on the cheap.  How cheap? How's $15 bucks?

So all of this is just to tell you that I just might come back here again and put up some recipes. Nothing wrong with meat and veg is there?  In fact when you see these dishes the last thing you should think is that this food is diet food.  The very last thing this place will ever become is an eat this/don't eat that, follow my rules, sanctimonious food site.  All food is good, just some foods are better for some of us than others.  There will be no lectures, no numbers, no mention of diet.  Just good food. Lots of good food.

 

Pork Stock and Pork Tenderloin Sous Vide

A little photo pictorial of last weekend's projects.  Today I am researching pork belly ideas.  What will it be this weekend?

Painted pork bones roasting for pork stock.

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble...

My mini kitchen upstairs in the old kitchen.  We have yet to remodel the space for another use so it is currently my sous vide set up.  In the bag is a chunk of pork tenderloin rolled in my house spice rub (hot paprika, smoked paprika, garlic powder, toasted onion powder, onion powder,  cracked black pepper, thyme, oregano, cayenne, etc) with added fennel seeds and a dusting of fennel pollen and a piece of butter.  We love the fennel in this house. Vaccum.  Into circulator at 60C.

After 3 hours, seared in a red hot cast iron pan.  Juices from bag poured in at last minute to glaze the meat.

 

Sliced after a nice rest.  Perfect.  Don't fear the pink people!  Even husband - SIr Picky Pants who claimed he hated sous vide cooking and liked things cooked 'the normal way' polished his off, smacked his lips and said delicious.  After a withering glare from she who had to listen to the winging and moaning about me not cooking dinner 'the normal way' he conceeded that sous vide is good. *sigh* Chalk it up to another battle between the Brit and the American won.

Frisée salad: Salumeria Biellese guanciale, fava beans and tiny, teeny mushrooms

Summer has come early to New England for the first time in as long as I can recall.  May has felt very much like June, the garden is out of control for this early in the season and even though we have had a few nights that have threatened us with frost, I feel remiss for not having my tomato plants in their pots already.  I know that I am pushing things, Memorial weekend is the traditional plant your tomatoes weekend in my neck of the woods, then again Gran always said have your peas in the ground by St. Patrick's day which found me one year planting in a snow storm. Who am I to question Gran's wisdom?

Summer of course means salads, salads of all kinds and shapes and colours.  I consider salad like a good tapas meal, little bites and nibbles of this and that all available on a plate for combining various ways on a fork.  No taste bud burnout and new combos in each bite. Given my love of all things bitter it comes as a surprise that it took me 45 years to like frisée.  I used to call it the lettuce that bit you back with its vicious looking spines sticking out of a salad like coral on a beach.  A few tries later and some encounters with some lovely softer leafed frisée has changed my perception entirely. The impetus for this salad came when my pal Maggie at Kinnealey sent me some gorgeous Salumeria Biellese Guanciale when I ordered guanciale last week.

I've had it from La Quercia and Niman Ranch before but nothing and I mean nothing beat this pig cheek.  Marbled, cured, piggy porky heaven.

My other latest obsession are agrodolce or sweet and sour cipollini onions.  I had a pint one day that were languishing around so I found a Mario Batali recipe that didn't cook them in balsamic.  I like them well enough with the balsamic but I feel like it drowns them out a bit and I wanted something lighter tasting.  His recipe is simple.  Peel your onions, in my case a 1 pint container.  Add to a sauté pan with 2 TBS olive oil, 2 - 3 TBS white vinegar, 1/4 cup water, 2 TBS sugar and some salt.  Cook at a good simmer until the onions are knife tender and then lid off to let it reduce and glaze a bit.  I store them in a crock in the fridge and have them with everything.  They are very, very addictive.

Spring is also the season of the fava bean, broad beans to those of you on that island over the pond, the worlds most labor intensive, delightful, vegetable.  Piss and moan about artichokes all you want, for maximum work, waste and also reward the fava bean wins hands down.  First you choose the tightest freshest pods, far more than you think you will need, and then if you are me, sit down and join the 11+ class on a Wednesday night and chat with them all as you shuck them from the pod.  Proceed to then discard most of the weight of the product you bought in the trash, those empty pods weigh a lot and take a lot of real estate.  Since the burners are all in use, go and join the 9-11 class in the other kitchen who just happen to be blanching asparagus and quickly blanch and shock your fava beans in ice water.  Go back across the hall again to the 11+ class and sit down and peel the outer tough layer of each and every fava bean off.  Pare a 3 lb purchase down to, oh say, 6 ounces of beans.  Those were later sautéed with some teeny, tiny mushrooms I bought at Russo's in olive oil and garlic. Foolishly I did not get the name of the mushrooms and of course I haven't seen them there again.  They were like tiny representations of toadstools you might find in Alice in Wonderland, a bit like these.  We had some for dinner one night and the leftovers were sprinkled on the salad.

The salad itself was simple.  A bed of frisée topped with a few of those agrodolce cippolini, poached egg from my egg lady in Maine and the leftover fava beans (skip for paleo and primal) and mushrooms The dressing was guanciale sautéed until rendered and crisp, removed and drained and to the pan I tossed in a minced shallot sautéed until soft and added a final splash of cider vinegar. Fridge cleaning at its finest.

Yogurtlu Kofte Kebabi (Lamb kebab with a spicy tomato and yogurt sauce)

This week I popped by Russo's to stock up on some supplies and into my cart fell a package of gorgeous pitas.  They were about 12" in diameter, tissue paper thin and soft enough to wrap a baby in.  I used one for lunch that day with a salad and rest of the package languished in my microwave bread box until I finally decided I was craving lamb kofte.  I first made this dish back in 2008 with my 11+ class and it was my first introduction to sumac. Sumac is a gorgeous tart, lemony ground spice that comes from grinding the drupes of the Rhus genus of plants. Just promise me you won't collect any poison sumac from the side of the road and try to make your own.  I get my sumac from the middle eastern markets in Watertown on Auburn St, but there are loads of sources online.  Husband was watching me prepare this as he popped in and out of the kitchen at various stages and he would occasionally say his usual 'i don't think i fancy that', 'what's that, will i like it?'  Once I pulled the toasted pita out of the oven and started breaking it up onto the platter his mood changed considerably. The smells won him over.  The recipe is an adaptation of the one by Claudia Roden in her gorgeous book Arabesque.

This is not a difficult dish to prepare and many steps can be done ahead like the spicy tomato sauce and the kofte mixture. Take your yogurt out of the fridge an hour or so before so it isn't freezing cold when you put it on the dish.  Don't buy those really thick pocketless pitas for this it will be too much bread.  The thinner the pita the better it softens up under everything and becomes a tasty base for it all.  Don't skip the foil on your sheet pan or you will be scrubbing a big mess for days. In the end the combo of the tart yogurt and lemony tart sumac with spicy tomato sauce seeps into the pita and it make a lovely, messy, delicious mess. Bring lots of napkins, you'll need em!

Yogurtlu Kofte Kebabi (lamb kebabs in a spicy tomato and yogurt sauce)

For the Spicy Tomato sauce:

1 can of 1 lb 16oz Fire Roasted Tomatoes, diced

1 jalapeño or serrano, remove seeds and ribs,mince fine

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small yellow onion, minced

a few glugs of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Aleppo pepper to taste

1-2 tsp sugar

Sauté the onion in some olive oil until soft, Add the jalapeño and garlic, stir once or twice and cook about 1 - 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, season with salt, pepper and sugar.  Simmer over low heat until it begins to thicken, about 15 - 20 mins.  Add the Aleppo pepper and taste for salt.  This can now be shut off and reheated later or proceed with the recipe.

For the Yogurt Sauce (skip if paleo, make if primal)

2 cups thick Greek yoghurt like Fage at room temp, stirred well. (I will sometimes add a clove of garlic mashed well with salt in a mortar and pestle.

For Kofte

1-1/2 lbs ground lamb

1/4 - 1/3 cup minced fresh flat leaf parsley

salt and pepper (season generously)

1 small yellow onion, minced fine

In a bowl, mix the lamb with the salt, pepper, parsley and onion.  Distribute the ingredients well.  If you are curious about the seasonings, cook a small patty in a pan to taste for seasoning. 

Again, you can cover this and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to cook.  It gives the seasonings a chance to permeate the meat.

Finish and Assembly

2 pitas (skip this for paleo and primal)

1/2 - 1 tsp sumac

2 TBS pine nuts

2 TBS butter or olive oil

Heat oven to 450F

Reheat the tomato sauce if necessary, bring the yogurt sauce to room temp.

Line a sheet pan with heavy duty foil and smear with a small amount of oil to stop the kofte from sticking.  Take the kofte mix and form long sausage shapes.  Make them 2 or 3 or 4 inches long, but make sure they are all of even thickness.  Arrange them spaced well on the sheet pan. 

Toast the pita lightly in the oven on the rack.  Remove and break the pita up onto a platter.

Place the kofte in the oven and cook for 5 minutes.  Turn the kofte.  Roast 3 - 5 minutes more. Turn the kofte again and set the oven onto broiler and cook kofte under the broiler for another 3 minutes or so until nicely brown. (this cooking time is based on a kofte about the thickness of a fat Italian sausage, your mileage may vary)

Meanwhile melt the butter or heat the oil in a small pan.  Add the pine nuts and cook until butter stops foaming or until the oil and nuts smell fragrant.

Spoon the warmed spicy tomato sauce over the pitas on the platter.  Sprinkle with some of the sumac.  Spoon the yogurt sauce over the tomato sauce.  Arrange the kofte on top of the platter and pour over the pine nuts and oil or butter.  Sprinkle with more sumac and serve.