Too Many Cookbooks

Some odds and ends

2010-10-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

Is it really October already? Here are some odds and ends

Had a trip up the coast for our anniversary, cooked some Alaska salmon, had some fantastic wine, and took a drive up the 1 to Monterey.

Finally got around to making Chinese soy sauce chicken, including an adventure to the 99 Ranch Market soy sauce aisle. Bonus, tiny bok choy for $.99 a bag!

Birthday dinner was a great big veal chop and some heirloom tomatoes -- YUM!

Crazy around here, watching what we eat and drink, doing Wii Fit, baseball, baseball, baseball... are the holidays really almost here?!?

Life giving you lemons?

2010-06-03T21:22:00.001-07:00

Add vodka.... and wait....

I am a terrible food blogger

2010-05-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

I am such a bad blogger...

1 - I get into a rut where I make the same things over and over ... or go to Juan Pollo around the corner

2 - We go to the coast, eat fresh fish and/or steak, and really who wants to hear about our adventures at the beach?

3 - When I do cook something new -- this week a "quick chicken masala" from Food & Wine that I adapted to be even quicker -- I forget to take a single photo (but I served pale chicken and onions, along with white rice, on a white plate....)

Well... for #3, here's the recipe:

Take 1 8oz package of Greek yogurt, mix with 2 Tbs olive oil, a clove of garlic (minced) and 2 tsp of garam masala (I might suggest using a bit more), along with a tsp or so of salt. Mix up in a baking dish, then add a package of boneless/skinless chicken thighs, and marinate overnight.
Preheat oven to 400, slice a large onion up in 1/4 inch slices, lay the chicken out on the slices, cook for about 50 minutes in the top 3rd of the oven, until the chicken is done.
Meanwhile, I tossed some baby carrots with olive oil, salt & cumin seeds, then roasted them on the other rack in the oven for about 30 mins, tossing every few minutes.
Serve with basmati rice & chilled Harmony Riesling.

Text only

2010-04-13T20:28:00.001-07:00

So...

I've actually cooked twice this weekend, new things from cookbooks since this is the time of year that I put away the braising type books and get out the lighter cooking.

Yesterday was a classic from Marcella Hazan, a pasta in sausage cream sauce. It's a lot like Mario Batali's "sausage and weeds" (in fact I use the same pasta), but no tomato paste. I really liked it, it had a nice mild flavor but was still creamy and coated the pasta well.

Today, we went around the world to Rick Bayless from Mexican Everyday. I hit the Smart & Final "Extra" down the street for some tomatillos, a chile, tortillas, and some cotija cheese. I made the spinach & mushroom enchiladas with tomatillo cream sauce. I left out the optional chicken, but followed the recipe pretty closely. I do have this comment ... the recipe calls for queso fresco, but lists feta as an alternate. Queso fresco here is more like mozzarella in texture, so I bought cotija. Maybe it's a regional difference? Who knows. I used sour cream too, I find the Mexican crema a bit too runny for my taste.

Why no pictures? Well, the pasta wasn't really all that photogenic, a pale sauce on pale pasta. The enchiladas really needed to be put together, served & eaten really quickly. And, I was running late, or I would have added some artistic photos of tomatillos half husked or something using depth of field. Besides, surely someone else has made those enchiladas so there is probably a great photo out there in the interwebs somewhere.

It's Friday!

2010-03-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

As an homage to Thursday Night Smackdown's "Awesome Shit that I Want Monday"... I present the following....

Don't you need a pendant that looks like okonomiyaki?? I do... or rings that look like other Japanese foodstuffs. Check it out on Etsy

Local Bounty

2010-03-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

A quiet weekend in Los Osos was well deserved after the 25 lbs of pork shoulder sold at the baseball tournament last weekend!
We rested, we ate Mo's BBQ for lunch, steaks & local bay scallops for dinner, and homemade chorizo & egg burritos for breakfast.

As we were packing up, one of the Forever Stoked guys that live next door brought these beauties, wild chanterelle mushrooms from their secret spot somewhere in the hills:

Yes, they are that big, here's one next to my chef's knife (not a paring knife) for scale:

Simply sauteed with butter, shallots, and a bit of thyme & seasoning, splashed with vermouth & cream:

Tossed with papardalle, they were just about perfect with a Loring Wine Company Pinot (08 Rancho Ontiveros to be exact).

Spectacular. Makes California worth it... mostly.

Back to the Kitchen...

2010-02-28T15:43:00.000-08:00

A week with the creeping crud head cold, our house saw a lot of soup. Monday and Tuesday were soup, and Wednesday was pasta (sausage and "weeds" from Mario Batali) which is a big favorite. Thursday I was just way too beat, so it was pizza.

Friday I made it through the afternoon without cold medicine and without using a box of tissue, so we celebrated with something new from Pepin's More Fast Food My Way, crispy chicken thighs and mushroom sauce.

The thighs are cooked skin down with a tight lid in no fat until the skin is nice and crispy, these could have gone a few more minutes. Then some onion, garlic & mushrooms are sauteed in the chicken fat (drain all but about 2 tablespoons), with a bit of wine (vermouth in this case) until reduced to a nice sauce. With a nice salad, made a perfect Friday night dinner. The evening was rounded out with some popcorn and The Great Muppet Caper - love Charles Grodin's socks!

Saturday was errand day, with grocery store visits in between torrential downpours (its an El Nino, confirmed officially today). I had promised the Rabbit for a while that we would see the Percy Jackson movie, capped off by Bob's Big Boy (ok patty melt actually, though the meat was kind of dry).

Today, the sun came out, and I felt like spending some time in the kitchen. I made breakfast (eggs and chicken sausage), then put together some no-knead bread, and baked it.

During the USA/Canada overtime, I tried this quick "ricotta" cheese from Serious Eats.
Note my sophisticated cheese making equipment - Pyrex, colander, paper towels.

It actually turned out pretty good, with a drizzle of nice olive oil, a bit of salt, pepper & thyme. We had a little post-game snack.

Now, I have a pot roast going in the oven. Life is good.

Pressure.. part 2

2010-02-16T20:21:00.001-08:00

So that chicken curry?
Eh... it was ok. Not very flavorful. The good part is, it was fast. It just didn't come together quite like I hoped. It didn't even look that good, hence no photo.

Please, pressure cooker... prove me wrong! Show me that I didn't waste $45 (hooray for an excellent coupon). I know I can do my mom's famous lima beans with a smoked ham hock, but the question is... will Andrew's white bean allergy translate to lima beans?

Under Pressure

2010-02-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

I finally replaced the scary jiggly-top Presto cooker that I inherited from my mother in law. While it cooked serviceable lamb shanks on more than one occasion, it spit and bubbled, always making me a bit nervous that I'd be cleaning lamb bits out of the can lights in the kitchen. I joined the 21st century and picked up the Fagor, it has lots of pressure release safety valves, which makes me feel better.

First up was a pork stew with tomatillos. It's been a while, so I can't remember where it came from. While not as yummy as the stew from Suzanne Goin's Lucques book that I have made before, it was really good. And, best part ... really really fast!

Speaking of fast, I still love the Jacques Pepin "Fast Food My Way" series, and he has a really nice, easy chicken bouillabaise that comes together with simple pantry ingredients, and even a rouille to swirl in. Perfect for a cool evening after a baseball game. The kielbasa I used wasn't the greatest (sorry Farmer John, stick to hot dogs, ham & bacon...), but this dish always gets raves around here.

I have grand plans for a chicken curry later this week from Lorna Sass' book Cooking Under Pressure. Can't wait!! Of course, it's been about 80 degrees this weekend. Wait, isn't it still winter??

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, so lots of repeats, soups, and cheap eats. There were 4 briskets smoked in the cookshack for various events... tired of brisket!
I did Eggs in Purgatory again(but did not photograph) and came up with the best method - 8oz can of plain tomato sauce, 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes w/basil & garlic, plus seasonings to taste (oregano, crushed red pepper, s&p)... simmer a bit, poach eggs in sauce, serve over toasted sourdough with some arugula & olive oil on the bread before putting on the sauce & egss. GREAT and CHEAP! Hooray!

Coming attractions: more with the pressure cooker; some Ethiopian derived recipes from a friend; CORNED BEEF from scratch .. turned into Pastrami by the CookShack....

Curry for a cold night

2010-01-18T19:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it really wasn't THAT cold, but last weekend I made this curry from Jamie Oliver with a funny name, Jalfrezi. I can't find the location of the original recipe, but here is a link to it. The recipe I found had a curry paste method as well, or you could use store bought (which I did).
One thing about this recipe, it makes a LOT of curry. Enough for us to have 2 meals, with seconds. It has a lot of ingredients, and I was a little suspicious of the cauliflower (which I love). It was really delicious, with just the right amount of heat. I didn't have any fresh chillis so I used a couple dried anchos.

Then, this fail-fest - a "shepherds pie". It tasted ok, but really not spectacular. I'll leave the cottage pie cookery to The Olde Ship.

New Year's 2009

2010-01-02T19:07:00.000-08:00

We were a smaller group than usual this year, but that's ok - we still had a fabulous night of good friends, good food & good wine!

We started off with a wonderful rose, Montaudon, to go with gougeres that I made with some English cheddar, and stuffed with some truffle pate whipped into some cream cheese (in my new 4 cup Cuisinart).
We also had some home smoked trout by Andrew, that was brined in a maple syrup based brine (but perhaps left in a bit too long, as it was a tad salty), smoked with apple wood in the Cookshack. We served that on granny smith apples with a dab of horseradish cream.
Our friend Andy made a sweet corn chowder, with red pepper & crab that was outstanding. It was really thick and wonderful, like maque choux and butter made into a soup. I hope he wrote that one down (I know he probably didn't)! That went perfectly with a 2006 Turley White Coat that we picked up a while back in the Paso Robles tasting room.

I made olive crusted rack of lamb, from this recipe on Epicurious, which came together like a breeze -- I made the topping earlier in the day, then just had to sear off the racks, paint them with a bit of dijon, and press on the crust.

It was cooked perfectly if I say so myself (though the crust didn't want to stick), and went well with a parsnip potato mash with olive oil (no cream), and just a simple wine sauce made with veal stock reduced and red wine/shallots/rosemary reduced.
Next time I'll thicken the sauce a bit more, but the flavor was definitely right. We had a magnum of 2003 Vieux Telegraph La Crau to go with the lamb, and finished up (after a little walk and Travis Pastrana jumping the rally car on TV) the wine with some Beecher's Flagship cheese and some smoked almonds - home smoked again -- one with bbq rub (top secret) and one with hot sauce (Red Rooster) and brown sugar. The hot ones were addictive. Somehow I had no photos of the almonds... and they are all gone. He will be making more of the hot ones for sure!

For dessert, our friend Kate made a winter fruit ravioli in phyllo pastry, with some sauce that was to die for - reduced berries & wine. I need to make sure to get some ice cream to use up the leftovers! We had a Konzelmann Vidal Ice Wine with this.

Then we talked, laughed, cleaned up, and mocked Ryan Seacrest before popping the cork on a Dom Ruinart Brut & watching some illegal fireworks in the night sky.
All in all, another very nice evening in a great tradition.

Week 1 of food coma.....

2009-12-29T20:44:00.000-08:00

So, Christmas version 3 on the Central Coast was again "the best ever". This time it was just 5 of us in the house, which was definitely less hectic. There were no scheduled activities, it was nice to laze around, take walks, go to the beach, and just enjoy the peace. Speaking of the beach, this one turned out pretty good:
For Christmas Eve, I made cioppino, with fresh fish from the fish market in Morro Bay (supplemented by some crab legs from the grocery, they were on sale...). Local California halibut, the sweetest bay scallops, the shelled crab, and some fresh clams went into a thicker version of my family marinara recipe, just simmered long enough for the clams to open and the fish to cook.
This turned out great! I took my dad's advice and made sure the marinara was nice and thick so that the stew wouldn't thin out like bouillabaisse (like theirs did in Colorado this year.... sorry Dad!)

Some dead soldiers:
Oooh, learning how to use depth of field on my DSLR camera, hehe:

Cannolis to round out a semi-traditional Italian American Christmas Eve, then off to wait for Santa:

Andrew cooked up some quail to go with a spectacular mini-vertical of Loring Cargasacchi Pinot on Saturday:
All in all a great weekend for food, I feel like I had my fill of cream cheese based items though. Grand plans for New Years as usual, with photos to follow....

Way overdue

2009-12-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

I got this cookbook for Christmas last year (or maybe the year before), it was one of those "I should probably have this". I borrowed my mother in law's copy just previously to make something, I can't remember what now..

Anyhow, it really screams 80s to me, but I've been meaning to try making the famous Chicken Marbella. So I did, but I cut the recipe way down (the recipe in the book serves about eleventy billion people I think, sheesh). You know what? It was really good!! The balance between the marinade, the dried plums (er.. prunes), the olives & capers. I would absolutely make this again! Maybe even for company.

Speaking of company, the holidays are well underway and aside from our annual barbeque the day after Thanksgiving, we have yet to have company over. I'll be making cioppino and probably canolli (if I can remember to buy shells before Monday) in the Los Osos house for Christmas Eve, so I'll be sure to take some good photos and post on it.

Rest and recovery

2009-11-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

After too many weeks of this, we had a brief respite at the coast. That and the big guy was a statistic of the H1N1 flu... he was out for a whole week with a terrible fever and aches. But, he felt good enough for a 5 hour drive.. well worth it to get to this:

After a day spent at Pismo Beach, and an afternoon of just lolling about the house, we headed down to the fish market in Morro Bay and picked up these beauties, live spot prawns. Andrew was brave and did the skewering.. yes they were still alive here.

Not so live anymore, made for great surf and turf.

I really have been cooking at home for a change, but just comfort food this week now that we are over flu and colds.. soup, pot roast, chicken divan, sausage and cabbages... things I have posted about before, and fall back on when I am busy.

Oh, and this cheap thing -- eggs in purgatory. Poached eggs in tomato sauce over toasted tuscan bread. Yum!

Its almost recipe testing time for the New Years extravaganza though, yay!

I love this man

2009-10-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

3 meals from these books this week. Not sure why I haven't managed to take photos, but it has been a crazy one.

Away...

2009-10-13T22:01:00.001-07:00

Sadly,

It's been youth baseball tournament time... Henderson & Paso Robles.

Not much cooking, but this:
http://www.ajisen-la.com/

and this: http://www.southpointcasino.com/dining/big-sur-oyster-bar.php... 3 words, lobster grilled cheese

Soup night was back today with the triumphant return of pasta e ceci. Yum!

It's my birthday.... almost

2009-09-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

So, rather than an expensive night out, look what we bought:
Yes, they cost $26/lb, but for 3 people to have a steakhouse meal, with wine for 2, for less than $100, a steal.

Plus I loooovvveee these carrots, pan roasted with thyme:
The steaks were expertly cooked to the rare side of medium rare, and were absolutely sinful.

Tensley syrah from the central coast to balance out the meal, capped off by a visit to the neighbor's hot tub.
A perfect pre-birthday celebration (since my birthday will be spent watching my 6th grader play in his first flag football game before trucking of to a baseball tournament in Nevada).

Tomorrow... Dodger dogs @ Chavez Ravine!

Problem Solver

2009-08-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

So... here we were several beverages into the evening, after a beautiful sunset at Montana de Oro state beach, and I was told, "Here's some halibut, can you do something with it?". Well, here is what I did.... sorry for the lack of photographic evidence, too much wine and beer was consumed...
I buttered a pyrex dish, placed the thick halibut steaks in the dish, salt & pepper, and into a 350 oven for about 15 minutes. Then Andrew finished on the grill. That's it, there was no magic formula, no secret recipe. Just simple, fresh, honest. Some perfectly grilled yellow squash, a steamed local artichoke (with lots of butter & mayo of course), some green salad, and the forementioned wine - Claiborne & Churchill Riesling and Gewurtztraminer to be exact.
What a great weekend!

Japanese home cooking.

2009-08-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

I saw this post on Serious Eats (after it came across on my email) and decided to give it a try. I love kara-age at the Japanese market, I figured it wasn't that hard...
I'm not much for frying usually, too messy or I don't do it right, but figured this was something I could do in my Le Creuset with not too much effort or mess. Plus the 2 nice side dishes were a bonus. I had to resort to basmati rice instead of short grain, I had pantry bugs from somewhere... I hate tossing half used bags of pasta but that's where it always starts isn't it?
The cucumber salad & green bean salad came together very quickly while I marinated the chicken, got some rice started (and cleaned out the pantry) and got some peanut oil to temperature in my pan.

The frying actually worked out well for me! I think that as long as I don't attempt my grandma's crisco fried drumsticks, I'll do fine. I can do hot wings & now these, oh and onion rings. It's just the bigger pieces of chicken that I never get right.
Paired with some American lager (couldn't justify spending the high price on Kirin at the regular grocery!), the sides & rice, it was a perfect meal for a weeknight!

Dog days of summer...

2009-08-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

Thankfully though, the summer has been fairly mild here this year (so much for global warming...). We did have a hot spell a while back, but it has been delightful, nice enough to finally get outside to enjoy it. Now that our (just turned) 11 year old is back from hanging out with his grandparents and cousins, we can get down to enjoying the last few weeks before school starts. Of course there are baseball practices & tournaments thrown in for good measure, but that has become part of the daily life around here over the last year.
I dusted off the pots and pans for this simple summery pasta that I found on Serious Eats - Sea Shells and Creamy Basil-Tarragon Pistou with Crab and Sweet Peas. Of course, shopping for the ingredients at Trader Joes limited me to fusilli instead of shells, and no tarragon (my garden did not happen for me this year, too busy...), but they have such a good price on the canned jumbo lump crab I didn't want to make more than 1 trip.

It was so easy to put together, the pistou (or pesto if you like) was easy to whip up while the pasta cooked. The guys both said this was "a keeper" and I agree, the lemon zest gave it a nice freshness and the bit of cream stirred in made it less like standard pesto. It went perfectly with our patio, some music, and our "house white", Harmony Winery Riesling.

on the road....

2009-07-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

We took a bit of a road trip, from Orange County, through the California Desert, all of Arizona, and to Albuquerque NM. Some gems along the way: The Red Raven in Williams AZ - excellently cooked steaks, nice wine list, great service... in a rather brutal dining scene... - Blake's Lotaburger... green chile cheeseburger, be sure to ask for the chiles to be grilled - Bob's Burgers ... ranchero burger (green chile sauce) and the spiciest frito pie ever --- Little Anita's for brunch, chile rellenos with green, everything else Christmas... we missed out on the Owl, not enough time. Go Isotopes!

So.. about that brisket

2009-07-01T21:46:00.001-07:00

Thanks to our friend who is a Stater Bros meat cutter (only lightly trimmed, whole, delivered to our house), we put this brisket in at about 1am on Wednesday, took it out at 3pm on Thursday. No rub, no seasoning, nothing.
Isn't it pretty? It was so popular, the Grillmaster/Smokemaster has been commissioned to do it again for the 4th - which happens to be his grandmother's 85th birthday and first as a US citizen.
There was coleslaw, but something about white cabbage in a white bowl in a photo? Not so much. So here's some more brisket:
.. yes, that little thing in the background is the smoker, cool huh?

Soon to be improved photography as well thanks to a new camera... once I figure out how it works :)

3 great finds in and around SLO...

2009-06-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

A kidless weekend found us at the beach house in Los Osos. Arriving late Friday night, we were up Saturday morning wandering SLO. Stopped in at an honest to goodness coffee house, Linnea's, where we had a latte and an au lait, along with a really yummy scone. This place has a laid back vibe that reminded me of my old haunts in Denver - Cafe 13, Paris on the Platte & Muddy's.
A bit more wandering down the block and we noticed this place, Bel Frites. It wasn't open yet, but they had 2 things on the menu - frites and Belgian beer. Ok, we'd have to come back. So we walked around the block, looked at fancy British motorcars, and arrived back. There are traditional sauces and different spice sprinklings that come with the traditionally prepared (blanched then fried) frites. We spoke with the owner while waiting for our order, he was a college professor and this is his retirement. We decided he was definitely the most educated fry cook you will meet! What a treat! I had traditional (sea salt) with a roasted red pepper aioli, and he had spicy cajun with chipotle mayo. And Wittekirke Belgian white beer to wash it down. What a great stop!!
Walked around a bit more, had some salty asian fusion rice bowl things before deciding on a movie time, and then hit the remodeled (yay! clean bathrooms) Frog and Peach for a few beers. Movie was The Hangover, which we heartily recommend. I haven't laughed that hard since Something About Mary.
Then for dinner, TripAdvisor pointed us to Sylvester's right around the corner in Los Osos for burgers & onion rings, which we took back to the house and enjoyed with some Loring pinot while watching the Dodgers win. What a fun weekend!! Next weekend, Hanford.. to pick up the Rabbit.

Keeping it short (like me)

2009-06-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Everything is better with a poached egg on top.. oh, and bacon.. and croutons:

And from the new Jacques Pepin, a yummy popover with jam:

Better yet, there is a brisket in the Cookshack as I type!

Extra mega cheap Hobo Monday

2009-06-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I feel shame for not participating in TNS's monthly throwdown of cheap eats, and this month was extra challenging. I was going to make this, but stupid Boursin cheese costs $2.99 which is half of my budget of $6.00 for 4 servings (yes, I know our family is 3 people which should limit me to $4.50, but some people that are not me love leftovers for breakfast or a snack after school or work, so I always plan on 4 servings - does that make me a cheater?).

So I decided on this cheese and onion tart, which I made a while back in a convection toaster oven when my range died. This time I made the crust myself (saving the $1.99 on Pilsbury). Every ingredient was a pantry ingredient so I spent no money.
What? It doesn't work that way? Ok.....Onions, I always have - but for arguments sake they were about $1.50 (I think $3/lb last time I bought the big ones), maybe less. A block of sharp cheddar which was $3.72, I used half of it, shredded ($1.86). Flour, butter, salt, pepper, dry mustard, thyme, milk - all pantry staples. One egg, $.08 (.99/dozen). That's $3.44 for the tart. And, I think it looks better this time than with the prefab crusts.

I used a 1/3 bag of "Italian" salad mix ($1.99/bag, so $0.67), 1 roma tomato ($.50) and pantry oil, vinegar, salt & pepper for a salad.

So, even for 4 servings (which 3 people ate with leftovers), I'm at $4.61. You can only buy 3 soft tacos and a Coke at Del Taco for that.

Wishing for some sunshine!

2009-06-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

In a continuation of playing with the new toy, we (well, actually he) smoked some chickens Friday night in the previously mentioned Cookshack Smokette -

don't they look great??

Now, I'm generally not a fan of BBQ, grilled or smoked chicken, but this was phenomenal. It was cooked all the way through, but still moist and juicy. They didn't need any sauce whatsoever. Just great. Perfect with some greens & bacon. Excellent for leftovers as well.

Would have been even better if it was warmer than 60 degrees outside. Some of you are familiar with what we here in Southern California call "June Gloom/May Gray" - basically maybe the sun peeps out of the low clouds and mist for a few minutes in the afternoon, or maybe not. Much of this weekend was the "maybe not" part of that equation. I know, it's a rough life when we get 72 degrees in January, but when it seems like grilling & BBQ weather but you have to put on a sweatshirt? I know, remind me of this rant when it is 90 in 3 weeks....

Sunday, the sun did peep out, and I felt like with the new range and the new smoker, we had been neglecting our old friend the Char-griller. So I pulled out Mario Batali's Italian Grill for some inspiration, and went with the grilled lamb chops "scottadita" (meaning burnt fingers because you will want to pick them up and eat them) and some grilled artichokes. I really really liked the rub for the lamb - mint, lemon zest, sugar, s&p whirled in the food processor until like coarse sand. It went great with the yogurt & cumin (despite the fact that I didn't buy goat yogurt and didn't toast my own cumin..), which added a "honey" component to the flavors. The artichokes were pretty good, but I didn't really simmer long enough, and they needed more oomph or seasoning (or just plain old butter & mayo, hehe).
The Hitching Post in Buellton & Casmalia in the Central Coast of CA has the BEST grilled artichokes, I need to figure out what it is that is sooooo good (aside from buying their "secret seasoning" of course).

Anyhow, looking forward to another week of the fog - we actually had a bit of drizzle this morning - and the weekend in Los Osos!

A new toy for the Grillmaster

2009-05-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Last week, we took delivery of a Cookshack Smokette Elite
After a dry burn in, and a practice run with 1 small pork butt, we did 4 for the long weekend. We put them in on Friday night at 9 after rubbing with a basic rib/pork rub (that came with the smoker). Took them out at 8am, wrapped in foil and newspaper & popped into a cooler to hold for a while (while we went to Huntington Beach for a quick travel ball game). We came back at lunchtime to this:

It pulled beautifully.

We had 4 full tupperwares, so we "dressed" each version differently - one with rub & cider vinegar, one with spicy bbq sauce & rub, and one with spicy sauce & vinegar, and one with Mo's BBQ Philty Phil's sauce (mmm... next weekend in Los Osos - Mo's in SLO!!). Perfect on hamburger buns between the remaining double headers of our tournament filled weekend.

Trying out some smoked chickens tonight, and in 2 weeks - brisket!

The Cookshack is the Juan Pierre to the new convection oven's Manny Ramirez in this house right now --- batting .400 while the convection oven waits out the hot weather. GO BLUE.

Yay!!!

2009-05-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

So, the new range is awesome. I made this paella one night for some friends, which is an adaptation of the Cook's Illustrated version. The high heat browned the chicken & sausage nicely, and the regular bake function did a good job of cooking the rice. I used regular calrose rice instead of arborio, I think I like the texture but wish I would have had more of that crispiness on the bottom. Maybe longer browning on the stovetop next time.

And....ta-da! The convection function is totally awesome, I almost forgot to snap a photo of this beautiful chicken that I roasted in only 45 minutes!!

Now, if spring baseball season would go away I could cook even more. But, it's a start! And, bread bakes beautifully.. I haven't tried convection on that.... will have to experiment.

Christening

2009-05-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

What better way to christen the new Fridgidaire PLGS389EC than to go back to an old favorite, chicken divan. No pics, it always pretty much looks the same.
Worked like a dream.... I'm back!!!
Ooh, and this one has convection!

Making the best of what we have

2009-04-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

Even without an oven (using a borrowed convection/toaster oven) I was able to put together this awesome onion and cheese pie from The Yummy Mummy. With Trader Joe's pie crust... even though I have made mildly successful crust, I'm still scared to death of it. Next time I'll try the crust, once I have the new range.

And thank goodness for the grill, so we can make this into this: chicken tikka from some magazine that I don't remember clipping it from. The cilantro yogurt sauce was really good.

There's been an awful lot of this the past 6 weeks.....
But WEDNESDAY is the day that Pacific Sales delivers my new Fridgidaire Pro Series range with CONVECTION --- scary! Now, to find an installer.......

It's dead....

2009-04-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, the POS Amana range has finally kicked the bucket. The oven control panel has been detached for a while, now the "off" button is no longer functioning (I've been using the buttons with wooden spoons... long story, the heat generated has melted the glue on the control panel connections.....

So, I'm ovenless for a bit, and shopping for a new slide-in range. I have the integrated microwave/vent, am not interested in springing for a new vent, so am looking at mid-line ranges, gas, about 2500 max. Reviews seem to be few far between.... if you read this, any advice?? Looking at KitchenAid, Frigidaire, Kenmore? I wish I could afford one of the euro models without any electronic controls so I wouldn't have that problem!

Hobo Cheapo Wednesday (2 days late)

2009-04-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

I'm 2 days late for the official Cheap Ass Monday. So sue me, I was too busy enjoying quiz night at the pub with some friends on Monday. We didn't have baseball practice for a change this week, so we took full advantage.

I never understand people that say they don't have time to cook, can't cook, blah blah blah. There is really nothing simpler, or cheaper, than this meal.

I took a 1/2 bag of Trader Joe's white creamer potatoes, cut them in half & boiled for a few minutes. Then drained, tossed with olive oil, and popped in a 450 oven along with a chicken that I picked up at Fresh&Easy on my way home. The chicken already comes neatly trussed with a nifty elastic string, so I just dried it and salt & peppered it. That's it, nothing fancy. That all cooked for more or less an hour until the chicken was done. I put the chicken on a cutting board, and then wilted some garlic and mixed up greens in the same skillet I roasted the chicken in until tender, about 10 mins or so, yes in the chicken fat and juices.
Carved up the chicken and put it all on the platter together. Tres gourmet, yes? And it took a bit over an hour. Cost: $1.15 for the potatoes ($2.29 for a bag, I used half the bag), chicken $4.85 ($1.19 a lb), greens about $2.29 or so a bag (I forget). At any rate, this cost less than $8, and fed 3 with leftovers so would have fed 4. You would spend more if you went to In-n-Out Burger.... mmmm... grilled onions.... but I digress. Cook this at home, it is delicious and easy, and light on the wallet.

Spring in a bowl....

2009-04-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

A quick & easy soup night hit -- cream of asparagus soup. Which goes to show how much I loooooovvvvveeeee my immersion blender. Simply some home made chicken stock, leftover asparagus chopped up, blended with a touch of cream, and the tips added to heat through. Yum! Although, next time I will strain......

Thank heavens for rainouts...

2009-03-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

...otherwise I would barely get any cooking done! Sunday we had a rainout, and once the weather cleared I had my heart set on leg of lamb. Unfortunately, the usual suspects did not have any, so I bought some beef and made a carbonnade with Chimay Belgian beer. I used Saveur's version, clipped from a magazine ages ago. It was very very good. It went well with the beer as well! Unfortunately my picture came out very blurry....
This week was a bit hectic, I realized I missed calling my nephew on his 16th birthday. I did manage to get 2 meals on the table -- Monday soup night was the Jamie Oliver pasta e ceci that I made before, and Tuesday I finally got around to trying these balsamic glazed pork chops, from any number of food mags I have gotten, so who knows where it came from. You brown the chops and shallots in the pan, then add balsamic & brown sugar, reduce to a glaze, and return the chops to the pan. Perfect with some asparagus and roasted potatoes.
Thanks to Costco, I get my lamb fix today. I cut a huge 5 pounder into 4 pieces so I can pop one out of the freezer whenever the mood strikes. Of course just as we were getting ready to start the charcoal for the grill, it started to sprinkle... so oven roasted lamb & asparagus, with aioli and home made bread tonight. Then, back to the craziness tomorrow! Ooh, and I get to work in the snack bar on Tuesday night (ugh).

Crazy times....

2009-03-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

It's baseball season here again.
Well, it's always baseball season but in the spring not only is there club baseball, there is also Little League. So, we find ourselves sitting down to one or two meals a week max that aren't Subway, sloppy joes, grilled cheese, etc... There is a lot of this, which is the Nigella Lawson chicken and sausage bake without the sausage.
I found this in my camera too, I made a curry-garam masala paste and roasted whole chicken legs, served with basmati rice, baba ganoush and tzaziki. Oh, yeah, and 5 minute bread makes a fun pizza. This one with pesto, fresh mozzarella and sundried tomatoes, a bit of procuitto on top too. Yum! We had a rainout today, and I tried to buy leg of lamb but no one seemed to have any, so I will make carbonnade (beef stew with beer) and post on that later this week.

I did, however, finally get around to making this mushroom bourguignon a few weeks ago, it's from Smitten Kitchen. I didn't have any beef or veg stock, so I used veal stock. That made it good :). This was pretty easy to put together and tasted really really good. The smell while cooking the mushrooms and then the mirepoix was pretty dang amazing. And tasty too, with some cold leftover lamb on the side.

Sigh.... is it August yet?

Nothing new.....

2009-02-16T15:27:00.000-08:00

My cooking and planning time has been severely hampered... but for a good reason. After being out of the market since the end of August, I finally got a job!! So, I will be returning this week to some classics like this and this, and then we are off to the coast with a friend over the weekend (with an oyster knife in hand!). I do have some new things to try, and am looking forward to "Hobo Monday" (though to be honest it will be Sunday or Tuesday since first Monday is pub quiz night). The nice thing is, my job is a quick drive rather than a train commute away. But springtime also means baseball practices and games 5 or 6 (or 7!) days a week with 2 different teams, so interesting meals may be few and far between. Any suggestions for pre-prepped ultra fast things would be great!

Atonement Soup

2009-02-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

We did not eat healthily this weekend.... Friday night after baseball we went to Chick-fil-A, Saturday we ate nachos for lunch and steaks for dinner. Sunday I made fresh breakfast sausage, biscuits & gravy for lunch, we had guacamole during the superbowl, and then had ribs for dinner. Monday is our usual soup night, but the first Monday of the month is pub quiz night at The Olde Ship so we did that & ate fish & chips (although I had the curry - yum!).
This nice, simple lentil soup recipe comes from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks, but I found out about it from Claudia at cook eat FRET. The photo with the poached egg looked sooooo good! I used regular lentils, I just took a bit of extra care not to overcook them into mush. When I first mixed in the tomatoes & water, I thought the flavor was too tomato-ey, so I added some crushed red pepper & smoked paprika to darken the spices a bit. Next time I might add chicken stock instead of water to make the soup a bit richer. I don't think that my hubby is a big fan of lentils, but he enjoyed the kale. Our 10 year old liked it okay. No one had seconds, so I have a ton leftover. I think I might try it with a poached or fried egg for dinner tonight before band..But, wow, the saffron yogurt! That may have been my favorite part. And, it looks so pretty in the bowl. I would probably make this again next time we feel the need to atone for bad eating habits, as it is healthy and wholesome. On a side note, I have a bunch of kale, plus some chard, leftover. That is going to be a wonderful side with roasted chicken on Thursday. I start a new job on Monday, so expect a return to some of the quick weeknight meals.

My 2nd foray into Charcuterie

2009-02-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

I got a KitchenAid grinder attachment for my birthday back in September. With all that has been going on (or not) around here, I haven't really been up to the challenge. Well, after grinding a bit of pork last week for this awesome spicy pork and tofu dish (from Bittman, kind of a simplified mapo tofu),
I realized that it is super simple to operate and maybe I should use it more often.
A craving for biscuits and gravy from our ever hungry 10 year old (not sure where he puts it!) made me decide to make the breakfast sausage from my Ruhlman/Polcyn Charcuterie book. I picked up some pork shoulder, diced it up, measured out the seasonings (went with ground ginger, fresh seems too strong for this), and put in the back of the fridge to chill. I popped all the grinding mechanisms in the freezer for a while, and ground later in the day. I think that it went okay, it took a long time through the fine die, and I had to clean the cutter off twice. I guess I need to chill the meat even more -- maybe in the freezer for 30 mins or so? -- to keep the fat from getting too soft. But, I persevered and got a nice grind. Cooked up the next morning somehow without photographic evidence, and I pledge now never to buy Jimmy Dean again. Now, to convince my mother in law that this would make the Thanksgiving stuffing 1000% better.....

By special request from a 10 year old

2009-01-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

I love my kid. He eats his veggies, still calls me Mommy, and cracks me up on a daily basis. Before too long, he will be taller than me - yikes!! For weeks now, he has been requesting French onion soup. Yes, he is 10, but he is an adventurous eater for sure.. So, I pulled out one of my many "bistro-ish" cookbooks just to get the proportions right, and chopped lots of onions, cooked slowly in my Le Creuset to the desired brown-ness, and used up the rest of my store of beef stock & a splash of port. YUM!

There are very few things that make me happier than the smell of sauteeing onions. I had baked a very nice baguette earlier in the day for the croutons, brushed with some minced garlic & olive oil before toasting,

and used Dubliner cheddar insted of the considerably more expensive gruyere (there is a recession on, after all).

This got rave reviews, I knew it would so I served it in huge bowls instead of the cool FireKing soup crocks I have. The pot was literally clean at the end of dinner. We are loving this soup night thing. Carrots were 78 cents for a 2 lb bag this afternoon, so carrot soup is up again on Monday, or Tuesday due to pub quiz night.
On a side note, just finished reading Kathleen Flinn's "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry".. and entertaining read with a good recipe for "ragu" that I made Sunday & we enjoyed thoroughly (though it really tasted more like "stroganoff").

We cooked, but no camera!

2009-01-20T15:17:00.000-08:00

We spent a nice 3 day weekend at my in-laws' "beach house", a little fixer-upper in Los Osos, CA. It is right down the road from Morro Bay, on the coast from San Luis Obispo. A really perfectly situated place for visiting wineries, the beach, Hearst Castle, whatever. Friday night we somehow appeased the traffic gods and were able to get there in time for some crispy chicken tacos at Taco Roco. We love this little place, always fresh salsa, friendly service, bottomless chips, and.. the tacos.. yum! So good that we went back again with my brother & sister in law and nephew on Monday.
After enjoying some nice pastries at Carlock's (mmmm bacon & cheese fritters) Saturday we spent a few hours in San Luis Obispo: Mo's for BBQ and some time at an INDEPENDENT record store - what fun!! Then, we went to Morro Bay and were too early for the farmer's market. So, the guys played catch on the sand by the rock, and we hung out a bit. By then, it was market time -- we had to get some olive tapenade from the olive guy, they have a bruscetta mix that is awesome (we actually left it there in the fridge for my inlaws that are going next weekend), some salsa from the tamale truck (our first try.. this stuff is great), and some rock cod from the fish guy. Very tempting were his fresh oysters, but alas we don't have an oyster knife at the house... will be remedied next time we go up! The fish was pan fried simply with some s&p, butter & olive oil, then a simple sauce made with wine and a bit more butter - Andrew is the master of fish!! I roasted up some brussels sprouts --- our 10 year old requested them much to the delight of the seller -- and made a quick salad. What a great meal, rounded out with Harmony Riesling. Once my brother & sister in law and nephew arrived, we played "Jenga" (a generic version), watched Top Gear, and had many drinks.
Sunday we went to Carlock's to find them not open :( -- who closes a bakery on a sunday? So, we all settled for cereal, toast, coffee, etc. before heading down to Pismo Beach. We stood in the line for Splash chowder in bread bowls, ate that on the beach, walked around a bit, then split up. The boys wanted to play some frisbee on the beach, and Andrew and I needed to do some shopping. He needed new sneakers so we stopped by the outlet mall only to end up at Big5 instead. No worries, because we were on our way to Spencer's Market, on the north end of Morro Bay. It is a small local grocery chain, and we have found that they carry the best quality beef - we picked up some steaks for dinner. After thoroughly enjoying chips with the great salsa, plus some guacamole and onion dip, we grilled up steaks, roasted potatoes, and had an overall awesome meal. We all topped it off with more drinks, and s'mores over the fire pit in the back yard.
What a great weekend!! I would have had photos of all of the cooking and fun food, but my camera was sitting on my kitchen counter :(
We are so thankful to have a great place to hang out with friends and family!

Easy tomato soup

2009-01-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

Soup night was pushed back to Tuesday this week, we were working on a baseball-related project for our garage. I have really been down this week what with not having success in a job search, so wasn't highly motivated. I pulled up the old internet to find a simple tomato soup, and found one as easy as it gets. 4 cups chicken stock, 1 can crushed tomatoes, 1 cup cream. Season to taste with salt & pepper, add basil to garnish (which I did not do... basil in January seems so very wrong). I think using home-made chicken/turkey stock was part of what made this soooo tasty. Served it with a foccacia from the stored dough split in half and filled with raw milk cheddar.
I cooked this loaf on the George Foreman grill that my brother & sister in law gave us for Christmas. It has lots more surface area than my panini press. That turned out really great also, since the bread is baked on an olive-oiled sheet & has oil drizzled over the top it gets nice & crusty.
Too bad it was 80 degrees out, we would have enjoyed it even more!

First Thursdays: Challenging Myself

2009-01-09T10:01:00.001-08:00

I had already planned a tofu dish for dinner tonight, so I couldn't really find a challenge in that. But for me, the most daunting kitchen task of all is making pie crust. I don't really like pie all that much though, so if I make it I buy refrigerated rolled out dough. So, that was my challenge. I happen to have some frozen from fresh blueberries in the freezer, so what the heck. I used Bittman, and made enriched sweet pie dough for a rustic berry tart. I can't believe I had to get my food processor dirty just to combine butter & flour/sugar/salt. Hmmm.... must find a pastry cutter in kitchen gadget drawer.... The combining into a ball really started to make me angry though. I added the egg yolk and some cold water, and really just had a pile of flour with a clump of dough in the middle. I finally got it to come together mostly, and put it in some plastic wrap.
Yes, my camera is not screwy, this is purple plastic wrap. I ran out of clear the other day and haven't made it to Target yet this week.
That sat in the fridge while we ate, then I rolled it out into more or less a circle (on the 2nd try).
I filled it with berries, brushed on some melted butter, sprinkled on some sugar and cinnamon, looks ok so far right?
I baked it while we played some Rock Band 2, and it came out mostly non-retarded looking I think.
It definitely didn't taste retarded. Yay, me! I made a dessert crust that didn't cook into a tasteless brick! And both my son and my husband said I should make it again! Well, maybe.. if I can find that pastry cutter.

Succotash Soup - say that 3 times fast!

2009-01-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

I was browsing soup recipes for Monday night, trying to keep it light after a month of excess and found this one on Epicurious and thought it sounded good. After a quick consult to make sure that Lima beans were not offenders, as white beans are, I picked up the ingredients to make this soup. Most of the ingredients are pantry, though I did need to pick up the frozen (yay! easy!) beans and a can of creamed corn. Luckily those things are really cheap. This made a big pot of soup as well, gave me lunch Tuesday and dinner Wednesday along with the 3 of us all eating 2 huge bowls.
I did pass on the black pepper sourdough croutons, fried in a pan with butter, and instead made croutons with my own freshly baked bread, in the oven with olive oil. Either way though, croutons are awesome with soup.
I thought that the creamed corn, as weird as it sounds, gave the soup some body. The bell pepper, on the other hand, was totally expendable. It didn't really add anything to the soup except that it is a traditional succotash ingredient. I was thinking that next time I might roast the pepper before adding it. I would probably make this soup again (especially since I have half a bag of Lima beans left over). It was a big hit.

New Year Sunday Supper

2009-01-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

For my first Sunday dinner of the new year, I had to feed some tired off-roaders. The guys went to Vegas for the weekend, drove off-road trucks and did other stuff that they don't mention. So, I spent Sunday working on another gem from Sunday Suppers at Lucques -- what a great book! I don't think we have had a dud yet, I highly recommend this book. Today's task was Boeuf a la Niciose. Saturday was spent running around for ingredients. Thanks to the brand new Mother's Market here in Santa Ana, I didn't have to make the trek down to Whole Paycheck for papardalle and Nicoise olives. Now only if Mother's sold real meat.....
Some boneless shortribs that were hiding at Ralph's and a leftover filet from NYE were cut up & marinated overnight with some thyme, some orange zest, and some garlic. I browned this up, then sweated some fennel, onion & carrot, tomatoes, a few sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf. Then came some balsamic reduced to a glaze, some red wine, and some beef stock. This all went in the oven for 3 hrs to braise. The best part - some whole canned tomatoes are split, seasoned with S&P and thyme, and roasted in the oven for an hour and a half - these get tucked in at serving, next time I will make more - yummmm!!
The papardalle gets tossed with some braising liquid and olives after cooking, then spinach & more herbs are wilted into that, with the beef being served atop.
This got rave reviews from everyone, and it makes spectacular leftovers. I really can't recommend this book enough! I am also thinking there must be some other applications for the roasted tomatoes (I mean besides just eating with a loaf of bread).

Good Riddance, 2008!

2009-01-02T11:46:00.000-08:00

Every year we do some sort of home gourmet meal with friends and family. Last year, our neighbors had a fun party with lots of us, but this year we did the scaled down version. 7 of us, multiple courses and wines. My husband did the menu layout, here it is with photos, footnotes for the wines.

For passing

Canapés (1) - Gougeres and Bresaola with Peppered Chevre

Gougeres were from The French Laundry, but I used some raw milk cheddar instead of gruyere.

Bresaola and chevre idea was a good one, next time with a roasted pepper or sun dried tomato slice.

For sitting

Salmon Tartare (2)

From Bouchon. Lots of chopping. Mine is not quite as meticulously chopped as the photo from Bouchon, and for some reason there was not enough egg yolk for all the plates.

Mushroom Soup with Truffle Cream

This is Bourdain's soup recipe again, but I added a bit of truffle oil to some heavy cream & frothed it a bit with my immersion blender. Yum!!

Mixed Greens, Pears, Pecans and Stilton (3)

Just a "go to" fancy salad, with Trader Joe's Pear Champaign Vinaigrette

Beef Wellington with Bordelaise and baby carrots (4)

I did individual Wellingtons with Costco filets which I admit were too big. And cheated with a sauce base. But still good!

For after sitting

Gingerbread & Pear Trifle (5)

Our friends Kate & Andy made these, the pears were poached in brandy and the creme anglais had some Bailey's in it - it was fantastic!

For toasting (6) - we had some Godiva chocolates, but we never got to opening them. We went out into the fog and pulled confetti poppers instead.

The sacrifice to ward off evil spirits

(1) Perrier Jouet Fleur de Champagne, 1996

(2) Claiborne and Churchill Pinot Gris, 2007

(3) Bernard Morey et Fils Chassagne Montrachet Vielles Vignes, 2002

(4) Tensley Syrah “bmt” magnum, 2004

(5) Chateau Clos Haut-Peyraguey Sauternes, 2001

(6) Phillipponant Clos Des Goisses Champagne, 1992

Another great use of leftovers

2009-01-02T11:44:00.001-08:00

I had some leftover mushrooms and onions. I cooked the onions for a long time but left the mushrooms raw. Add a bit of Boursin cheese, 5 minute artisan bread dough - presto ----
It wasn't too pretty, and totally stuck to the pan, but it really tasted good.

Is it a pasta dish or a soup?

2008-12-16T09:07:00.000-08:00

I think it is a little of column A and a little of column B as they say. I really love Italian bean soups like minestrone, pasta e fagioli, Tuscan white bean soup, etc...
But unfortunately my significant other is allergic to most white beans. Thankfully, he is not allergic to garbanzo beans/chickpeas. I pulled out a recipe from the Jamie's Italy book, first time using this book but it is very nice to look at. I sometimes like Jamie Oliver, but his show is really like trying to watch MTV with the jumpy editing. Anyhow, I decided to try pasta e ceci from said book.
Along with a fresh loaf of bread that I forgot to slash the top of prior to baking - a very crispy crust and fairly custardy crumb, so not a total disaster.
This was a pretty easy soup to make, especially since canned beans were allowed here. Just a bit of onion, garlic, celery, olive oil, and rosemary from the garden get sweated for a while on low heat. Then the beans are covered with some chicken/turkey stock and cooked a bit. I removed about half of the beans from the pot before blending with my stick blender, then re-added the beans and some salad macaroni (ditalini if you want to be fancy schmancy) & simmered until the pasta was done. This soup needs lots of seasoning, beans love salt. A little drizzle of oil over the top to finish, it was really nice. I think I will be revisiting this one before the "winter" is over.

Miscellany...

2008-12-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

This week brought a repeat of my Best Soup Ever, broccoli and rice soup. It was welcome after this home-made macaroni and cheese which we ate Friday and Sunday for dinner.

I also discovered that not only plain boules and baguettes (and the ugly Pain d'Epi I made) can be made from the stored basic dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, but I can also put together a nice foccacia. This was great all by itself with olive oil, as well as the 2nd loaf with pasta & marinara sauce.

Lots of repeats and instant food this week, but looking to do something a bit different for soup night next Monday. Maybe Thai or Chinese style...

Thursday Night Cocktail Snack

2008-12-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

I thought I might throw out this simple hors d'oeuvre to keep with TNS First Thursday theme. This is my first time participating in this, I really wanted to do something different and adventurous. Well, then I remembered that this week is parent-teacher conference week, and Thursday was the designated "No Students" day, so I had a kid around the house who needed to type up his world explorers research project (Sir Walter Raleigh). Add to that the need to get to the store, and the quest for clear report covers (yay Staples!). That sort of put a damper on my hope for a really cool snack to go with an expertly made Manhattan.
Enter my notebooks full of clipped recipes that I never seem to make. I have them sorted, so went to the apps section and found this beauty from a 2006 Sunset Magazine (no, I'm not old, I just like Sunset). Garlic stuffed mushrooms, what's not to like? I bought some "stuffing mushrooms" at Trader Joe's which seem to be about halfway between a good portobello shroom and the little creminis. Worked great, they had really short stems, so there was not too much waste. Oh, and I only made a half batch because I was low on panko and TJ's seems to have discontinued theirs again. I love this because it is pretty much pantry ingredients - garlic (a LOT), cream, salt, panko and mushrooms. I cooked the garlic in the cream for about an hour until it got soft enough, then just mixed in the panko, stuffed the mushrooms and popped them in the oven. Wow, these were really good! For the vast amount of garlic used, they were not strong at all, but very sweet and mellow. I would definitely make these again, they are less greasy than the usual sausage stuffed mushrooms. I wouldn't say healthier.. the heavy cream and all. And went well with the expertly prepared Manhattans.

A good Tofu recipe from Cooking Light

2008-12-02T19:48:00.000-08:00

Flipping through a Cooking Light this weekend, I found an interesting recipe for Tofu with Red Pepper-Walnut sauce and thought I would give it a whirl. It had romesco (red pepper-walnut sauce) and panko fried tofu, what wasn't to love?
It was pretty simple too, although I took some liberties with the herbs. I hate buying basil, and more so in December as it just seems all wrong. I do have parsley, oregano and thyme growing in my garden, so I used those to make up the required herbs for the marinade.
The panko breading of course makes all things better. I must admit I did use just a bit more olive oil than the CL recipe called for, but sheesh how can you effectively brown in only 2 teaspoons of oil!!

The sauce was the winner here, thanks again to the immersion blender for making less cleanup - the leftover marinade, a jar of roasted red peppers, and a couple tablespoons of toasted walnut pieces. Lots of leftover sauce for bread tomorrow - hooray!!

This got a big thumbs up from the guys!

Lookie, I made Pain d'Epi!!

2008-12-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

Not bad for the first try, not too retarded.

I'm sure that I made a French woman cry with this though, hehe.

Soup with a side of snark....

2008-12-02T19:12:00.001-08:00

This week's installment of Soup Night comes courtesy of our favorite snark-master, Anthony Bourdain. Here's the recipe posted on Serious Eats, but I can highly recommend the Les Halles cookbook for many many things.
I didn't find a problem with the cooking time, and it is really simple as it gets - sweat a sliced onion. Add some mushrooms (12 oz). Don't brown the onions, but cook a bit more. Then add 4 cups of chicken stock and a sprig of parsley. Then just simmer this for an hour, then blend. Thank you, immersion blender for giving me 1 less thing to clean every time I make soup!! I must admit that after blending I did add a swirl of cream, and probably added less sherry than called for, but the result was still spectacular.

I baked a quick loaf of bread early in the day, which I sliced up and slathered with garlic and olive oil. I grated some real-deal Parmesan on top - normally I buy Grana Padano but WF didn't have any so I splurged. At least it lasts a long time.

What a great Monday night meal, especially after the carb fest that was the holiday weekend.

How to get kids to eat cabbage!!

2008-12-02T19:02:00.001-08:00

I love cabbage, and it's cheap and healthy. I made this braised cabbage, inspired by both the Amateur Gourmet and the same book that he has, Molly's braising book. I left out the carrots but kept the onions in. I was also a bit liberal with the crushed red pepper. It is so simple, just a bit of stock and some onions, along with seasonings, and in the oven it goes. I have served this twice now, this time I put some heat-n-eat turkey kielbasa on top of the cabbage for the last 20 minutes (after the foil comes off) . I'll stick to the first version I did a few weeks ago though: I cooked up some "Lincolnshire" sausages from the Tesco Fresh & Easy, a much better choice. Turkey kielbasa is just so meh. Not enough fat, which is what sausages are all about. Note to self: I have a grinder, need to get busy and use it!! 2nd note - the turkey kielbasa looks bad in this photo, doesn't it?

The cabbages come out all tender and melty, I just can't get enough. I had leftovers but as usual forgot all about them until they were past their prime. This is a "heavy rotation" meal, it's so simple and fits the "cheap ass" (thank you Thursday Night Smackdown) mold.

A big winner for Soup Night 2.0

2008-11-26T16:55:00.001-08:00

In the 2nd weekly "Soup Night", it was suggested that I try a carrot soup. I picked this one from Serious Eats, used homemade chicken stock, whipped it up with an immersion blender.
Wow - it was really spectacular. While cooking, the little bit of turmeric turns the stock a beautiful yellow color, looks pretty with the orange carrots peeking through. Did I take a photo? Of course not... my battery was dead after our weekend of baseball. It smelled a bit like Indian food cooking. It turned out great, served with just a little green salad, some freshly baked bread, and a chicken liver pate crostini. I know, it didn't really match flavor-wise but I was experimenting with a recipe for New Year's.
One for the rotation for sure. Next up for Monday, cream of mushroom with extra snark.
Happy Turkey Day!

Soup Night

2008-11-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

Even though the days are still hot and dry here in So Cal (and smoky, thanks to the flammability factor of our hillsides), I instituted Monday Night Soup Night this week. With all of the excesses of the weekend (junk food, mixed drinks, pizza, wine), I figure that Monday is a good day to step back and simplify. A nice soup, with homemade bread is a good way to start of the week. This week was a simple split pea soup. I adapted from Bittman, which has become my "go to" for recipes and methods for easy meals. I really just needed the ratio of stock (home made chicken this time) to dried peas. I started off by browning some already cubed pancetta (thanks Trader Joe's!) and removing for later. Then I sweated a small diced onion, and added the stock and the peas. I let this cook for about an hour (maybe a bit more as I was multitasking), then used the handy immersion blender on it. I used the pancetta as garnish, along with some easy salt & pepper croutons made from leftover bread. It got a huge thumbs up from the family, as did my plan for a weekly soup night.

Plus, my ulterior motive... it is more often than not healthy and, especially in this economy, cheap! I also threw in an extra soup night (found some ground beef in the freezer) this week and made Cincy style chili. This time with just cheese and cornbread, no spaghetti or raw onion..... Next up will be one of my dad's other soups, besides the best soup ever described here.

Annoying, but her recipes do sometimes work

2008-11-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

As annoying as RR is, some of her recipes actually work. I pulled this one off of the Food Network website a while back for pasta with pumpkin and sausage. If I remember correctly, our neighbor made it for us one night and told me where he got it. It's actually really good, and a fall favorite around here. I had everything ready to go and realized that I did not have fresh sage - something ate it early on from my herb garden - so I just used a palmful of dried. I also used water instead of chicken stock, and dry vermouth instead of wine (good enough for Julia, good enough for me). I just made a ton of stock 2 weeks ago, but I didn't have any thawed out at the moment.
It turned out great as always, but I forgot to take a picture (it's orange pasta with chunks of sausage in it, trust me). I'm just that kind of slacker right now. Being unemployed has made me uninspired to cook. But, the holidays are just around the corner and that means our annual New Year's Eve dinner with friends. Time to dust of the cookbooks and find something to make that will complement the fantastic wines that we have ready to go.

Is fall here yet?

2008-10-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

I know in many parts of the country, Fall is not only here, but Winter is upon you. However, here in Southern California we have been experiencing hot and dry conditions, temperatures in the 80s and 90s. It doesn't really inspire a lot of cooking, so I have been revisiting a lot of favorites. I had big ideas at the beginning of October to make a dent in my 4 Mario Batali books. I made carbonara, which I have done before, and finally got around to the "2 minute Sicilian Lifeguard Calamari" from the Babbo cookbook. I used my grandma's marinara sauce instead of his though, even made a double batch for pasta a few days before.
This was truly a quick dish: the pine nuts, currants, capers, and red pepper are quickly sauteed in some oil, the sauce added, and then the squid goes in and cooks fairly fast. Add to that some par cooked Israeli couscous, and the dish comes together literally in the 2 minutes inferred by the title. The couscous was toothsome, and the calamari was perfectly cooked. It was a touch spicy though, since the initial sauce already has some crushed red pepper in it I think I added a bit too much. I have been heating up the house just about every other day baking a loaf of the "Artisan Bread in 5" bread, but other than that, motivation is slow to come. But, I did roast a chicken and some egpplant & squash last night that restored my faith in things. Tonight, braised cabbage & Lincolnshire sausages, maybe I will make the cool weather come quicker~

coq au vin

2008-10-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

I think Bourdain puts it best..... "like the very best dishes, this is one of those that goes on the stove looking, smelling and tasting pretty nasty". Yep, I pulled this bowl of marinating chicken & aromatics out of the fridge, took the plastic wrap of the top and went, "blech". It smelled and looked pretty bad. But, after all was said and done it tasted pretty darn good.
I used the Les Halles Cookbook recipe, except that I substituted some big fat leg quarters that I had in the freezer. In retrospect, I probably could have cut down on the marination time because of that.
After marinating them in some merlot/cab blend or another (drinkable, eh...), some chopped up aromats and a bouquet garni overnight, I browned the chicken (kind of hard to tell with the purply skin, lol) and the veggies, then added the marinating liquid back to the pot (yes, I thought about the germy implications of this .. but realized it would all be slowly simmering for the next hour or so), and then prepared the garniture...
Fancy, huh? Thick bacon (since for some reason slab bacon is impossible to find around here), mushrooms browned in the bacon fat, and some browned pearl onions. Yes, I cheated and did frozen pearl onions. Next time I will invite you over to peel fresh ones.
Some fresh wine was then reduced in the onion browning pan down to a syrup, then the strained cooking liquid and garniture were added. Wow, wow, wow. The sauce for this was great on its own! The chicken was just ok, blah grocery store chicken, a tad overcooked (my timing was a bit off), but the sauce was really great with some buttered noodles.
Although we would have preferred rice and maybe some crusty bread next time instead. I guess I just don't get buttered noodles as a vehicle for sauce, it doesn't work for me.

Return to an old favorite

2008-10-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

Fall is almost in the air here in Southern California (it was 100 degrees for a few days this week, hopefully for the last time) and today it was only about 80 or so. Time to fire up the BBQ for Flank Steak with Coffee & Black Pepper Marinade from Gordon Hamersley's Bistro Cooking at Home.
I had forgotten how much I really love this cookbook. Of course I was reminded when looking through it the other day, many pages are dog eared and stained! I first made this back when we were living in a condo in Santa Clarita - grilling was often a challenge there because of the wind! I think we had a Weber back then. Now with our trusty combo grill/smoker, no problem at all!
This bit of flank steak (which turned out to be a LOT bigger than I thought) was marinated in a cup of espresso, dijon mustard, garlic, shallot, balsamic, dark brown sugar, salt & pepper. For exact measurements, buy the book! You won't regret it!
Grilled to perfection by the grillmaster of the house (rare for flank steak bien sûr), accompanied by a bordeaux, some haricot verts and a nice salad we had a perfect bistro meal. Of course, we were having it in the living room watching the Dodger game!

Turkey cutlets Bolognese style

2008-09-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

From the "Molto Italiano" cookbook, I made the Turkey Cutlets Bolognese Style the other night. Trader Joe's always has nice turkey cutlets at an excellent price. This recipe calls for a fresh truffle shaved over the top, which of course I left out. He specifically says not to use truffle oil, so I did without. I also skipped the breading this time. I didn't have any fresh bread for crumbs, and didn't want the crispness of panko for this dish. So I simply dredged the cutlets in seasoned flour, browned in a bit of butter, and then assembled the dish: a few curls of shaved parmesan on top of the cutlets, followed by a slice of prociutto, and then some asiago (he calls for pecorino toscano). I put this all in a 450 oven until the cheese was melted and the turkey was cooked through.

I really liked this preparation quite a bit. It was a lot like veal/chicken salimboca which I make a lot, without the sage and with a bit less frying. Not that there is anything wrong with that of course, but we are watching our fat & cholesterol intake around here a bit.
This was definitely a keeper, as leftovers were still very good - even cold!

Mmmmm, pizza!

2008-09-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

I've been making the "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day" boule dough in order to have fresh bread every couple of days. It has been awesome!! Although with one more blast of hot weather, I won't be putting the oven on at 450 or higher for a while.
One of the things that the book suggests (it was a gift for my birthday) is to use the dough for pizza, so I gave it a try. The oven needs to be preheated to at least 500, but preferably 550 - happily my oven does go that high! So, windows open, fans on, battery out of the smoke detector.. here goes.
I rolled the dough out as thinly as I could while the oven preheated, and just added a simple plain tomato sauce, some Italian herbs and crushed red pepper, and some shredded mozzarella cheese.
Then, into the hot oven for about 10 minutes or so. The dough puffed up a little bit more that I prefer, and didn't get quite as browned on the bottom, but it was still very very good.

I will definitely be doing this again. I think the key for next time will be to wait until the very last minute to work with the dough to get it thin & crisp.
One thing I do is use parchment paper instead of cornmeal on a peel - no worries about the dough sticking too much to the peel.
We also have a spare pizza stone for the BBQ, so that might be something to try also if we can get the grill hot enough.

Summer gratin

2008-09-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

I love gratins, all kinds. So, when I saw this simple summer gratin in this month's Food & Wine, I had to give it a try. Alas, the eggplant and tomatoes were store bought (but local), but the zucchini was from our friends' garden and I baked the bread myself. Lots of garlicky olive oil is used to layer the veggies on top of the bread pieces, and all in the oven for about 40 minutes. The bread gets crispy (fried in the oil basically) on the bottom and juicy on top from all the vegetables.
We cleaned this dish, the flavors all really melded together well, the highlight being the crispy bread on the bottom. I hope to make it one more time with some more garden vegetables (hint, hint guys!).

Martinis revisited

2008-09-17T14:12:00.001-07:00

A few posts ago I wrote about the beauty of a simple gin martini, with olives, and a splash of olive juice in the mix. I got a nice comment from Eric at American Mixers regarding their product, Dirty Sue Martini Mix, and would I like to give it a try. So I said yes, and he sent me some to try! It was very generous of him, looking over the product literature it seems like a perfect thing for dirty martinis, you don't have to use up all of your olive jar brine.

We gave it a whirl, with Bombay Sapphire gin, and I must say I enjoyed the flavor quite a bit. It was slightly salty so I might decrease it just a bit, but I really liked that it didn't have that bit of "greasiness" that sometimes olive jar brine has to it. It was very clean. I sometimes use vermouth in martinis (enough to coat the glass) but didn't this time. I am thinking that a touch of vermouth will also counter the saltiness of the brine.
I will definitely share this with my friends, thanks Eric!

The Omnivore's Hundred

2008-09-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

I came across this interesting post from a UK blog called Very Good Taste. Basically, it lists 100 things that an "omnivore" should try at least once. Here is my list, I italicized the things that I have tried before.... and changed the color of the things I would never really care to try in red. I think I did pretty good, I toe the line at insects, durian and the raw Scotch bonnet. There are only a few things I haven't tried (22 or so since Spago here in LAonly has 2 stars)

Fun post, links to definitions of some of the items....

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile -- hmm, does alligator count?
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp - possibly in Japan, but I am not so sure
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - no way, too spicy
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi does Mango Lassi count? maybe...
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O - hehe... not sure I want to admit that one
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian - no thanks to this one for sure...
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse - in Japan, this is a delicacy apparently. We found out afterwards
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Tomatoes, yum!

2008-09-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

I found myself with a lot of tomatoes this week, courtesy of our good friends Kate & Andy that have an awesome garden. A couple of their good sized tomatoes and some nice local romas that were a great deal at the market made a lovely tart. Inspired by this hilarious blog, I looked in the freezer and lo and behold! One lonely sheet of Trader Joe's puff pastry! Yay!
I sliced tomatoes while the pastry thawed, then just used tomatoes, a drizzle of olive oil, some Maldon sea salt & some pepper. I didn't have goat cheese, so I used Boursin. A bit salty, but a nice flavor. Next time I'll use herbed goat cheese. Yum!
Went perfectly with impromptu "shrimp Louis" salad - just cooked shrimp (also a freezer find), salad mix, green onions, cucumbers and a dressing of mayo & chili sauce. Oh, and white wine of course :) Is it September already??

Mom's Gazpacho

2008-09-05T14:48:00.000-07:00

My mom passed away a little over 2 years ago. Sunday would have been my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. This soup always makes me think of my mom. She used to make a big batch of it in a blue lard bucket with a tight fitting lid for us to take on picnics in the mountains. I made this last night, along with some yummy "deviled" chicken legs - basically just chicken legs rubbed with dijon mustard & rolled in panko, parmesan, salt, pepper & cayenne pepper. Oh yeah, and some butter :). Baked at 450 for 30 minutes, then cooled in the fridge, they went perfectly with this gazpacho. Wow, what a terrible photo! Oh well:
Note that this is not a traditional Spanish gazpacho (no bread, not blended), but my mom's special recipe. Sometimes I substitute cilantro for parsley, or half & half. My mom HATED cilantro though, so this time I made it just the way she did:

1 large (46 oz) bottle tomato juice (use PLAIN)
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1 cup parsley, chopped
2 cups chicken stock (or to taste - depends on how thick you want the soup)
juice of 1 lemon

Mix everything together, season to taste with salt & pepper, maybe a hit of hot sauce. Refrigerate for as long as you can - serve it COLD (add ice cubes if needed)

I like to serve with a dollop of sour cream in the bowl.

It tastes like summer. Try it :)

More fun with grains from the Flexitarian Table

2008-09-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Since we love the tofu dish on p. 126 (Tofu w/Lemon, Soy, White Wine & Butter Sauce), I paired it with the actual menu pairing: Quinoa Salad with Green Beans, Corn & Tomatoes.
Like it's predecessor, this makes a TON of this salad. I must admit that I took some shortcuts, frozen French green beans, frozen corn & cut up roma tomatoes are what I had when I decided to make this last minute. I had never used quinoa before, and I really loved the texture of it. I am not a huge couscous fan, especially "instant", and I think that I may use this grain as a couscous substitution when I can. It has a soft texture but still a nutty flavor, the combination with the sweet corn was great! This and the vegetables really picked up the lemon and olive oil dressing quite well. We really enjoyed this, but then had too many leftovers to finish and no time to do so. Next time I will make this for a crowd!

Labor day weekend was packed with a baseball tournament, we just had time to grill some frozen hamburgers last night before all falling asleep. Some holiday weekend, hehe.

Egg Foo Yung

2008-08-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

I can't remember the last time I had egg foo yung. It was probably long ago in high school at any number of random Chinese AYCE buffets. I found a recipe in Food & Wine or Gourmet (I think) in the last few months that I though I would try. Full of fresh ingredients and with a home made gravy on the side, I thought it would be a winner. Shrimp, bean sprouts, scallions & mushrooms made up the veggies. I was out of oyster sauce so used a bit of Japanese okonomi sauce instead. I thought it turned out pretty good, although a bit bland - even the gravy was kind of meh. The 9 year old was not a big fan, though I tried to convince him by calling it a Chinese fritatta. Oh well.

Served alongside, I made Spicy Glazed Eggplant, from another issue of Gourmet. Basically just sauteed Asian eggplant (which I didn't have so used regular) to which is added a mixture of mirin, soy sauce, ginger and Japanese 7 spice powder.
All pantry items around here more or less. We really liked the flavor of this, next time I will use the Asian eggplant since it really cooks more tender than Italian eggplant. We had the leftover bulgur & roasted chickpeas as well, but it lost something in chilling, the chickpeas got sort of mushy after a day.

The Martini

2008-08-26T13:52:00.001-07:00

I know I am being picky, but the fact that a drink is served in a martini glass does not make it a martini. Every time we go to a bar or restaurant that has a "cocktail" menu, there are pages of fruity concoctions that call themselves -tinis. Now, the Seagram's Bartending Guide lists exactly ONE Martini in it's pages. It has gin and vermouth (far too much) shaken in ice and strained into a glass with olives. So, if you are a well meaning waitress that asks me "what kind of martini", I am sorry that I was snooty and said "a normal one".
Scott's Seafood across from the South Coast Plaza makes an outstanding dirty martini. I also happen to make a good martini. This on the authority of several people including my husband and his late grandfather who may have been an authority on such.
SO, here is what I do when the need arises, as it did last night, for a good martini.
Serves 2.
8 olives (4 each, skewered on toothpick or cute olive picks like mine), keep the jar out for the juice - see below
Gin, preferably Bombay Sapphire, or The Blue Ruin as it is called around here
Dry Vermouth
Ice
2 martini glasses
cocktail "Boston" shaker & strainer

Put some vermouth in each glass, swirl around & put the glasses in the fridge (if the vermouth isn't cold because you don't always have some in the fridge, add some ice too)
Fill the shaker halfway with ice cubes. Add 4 big glugs of Gin (I suppose you could measure...4 or so ounces for 2 drinks) and just a splash of olive juice, maybe about 1/2 oz)
Shake around a bit
Remember those glasses in the fridge? Get them out, swirl the vermouth around, and then dump it out -- yes... you read that correctly. Maybe a tiny tiny bit for the shaker (less than the olive juice)
Strain the chilled gin into the chilled glasses over the olives.
That is civilized, isn't it? Not a drop of pomegranite juice or apple pucker in sight!

Back to it....

2008-08-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

After a relaxing weekend, we are ramping up for school starting (yes, 2 days of school followed by a 3 day weekend... great planning). The schedule has calmed down a bit this week, I have a minute to find some new things to work on. Back to the Flexitarian Kitchen then. I had tabbed a few Spring section things and never made them so here goes:
Bulgur with Roasted Chickpeas, Red Onion & Lemon:
This recipe is full of simple pantry items: spices (cumin seed, cayenne, smoked Spanish paprika, turmeric), red onion, canned chickpeas, lemon juice, oil or butter (I opted for oil). The roasting of the onions & chickpeas with the spices really adds a nice curry flavor to them. I had not cooked with bulgur before and I really enjoyed it, probably more than couscous (which you can substitute). The recipe makes a TON, way more than for 4 I think.

I served it with the Smoked Salmon Croque Monsieur. But, I used my electric panini grill rather than a griddle and a heavy pan on top. I did butter the bread and grill to add a bit more brown-ness (the nonstick panini grill doesn't actually brown that well without a little help). Basically just a smoked salmon & gruyere panini... with addition of a little lemon zest & chives with grainy mustard on the salmon side. We really liked this (used TJ's whole grain artisan loaf, worked quite well) and it made us think of other things for the panini press (again... we hadn't used it in a while). Peppered smoked salmon with maybe red onion relish.. kind of like a salmon reuben? Maybe next time. I really loved this. Luckily I have leftover salmon, bread and cheese.... lunch later in the week after the kid goes back to school!! Today I promised him noodles at the Mitsuwa Market food court. More overdue clipped magazine recipes this week....

Still here....

2008-08-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

A quick update... we've been pretty busy with baseball (both the travel team and the local minor league team) and getting ready for the school year to start, so I've been making a few repeats (brined pork chops) and easy instant stuff (Ikea meatballs & roasted potatoes). With a few ballpark hot dogs and soccer stadium nachos thrown in for variety.... But now that soccer season (Chivas USA) is about done, OC Flyers baseball is winding down, and school is ready to start, we will hopefully be back to a normal dinner routine. I have 2 new cookbooks (free, I only had to pay shipping, couldn't pass that up!!: The Art of Mexican Cooking by Diana Kennedy and Mario Batali's Italian Grill)

Sunday I brought home a package of cooked lobster claws and 3 lbs of clams home from Costco for our dinner, we had a 1996 Chassagne-Montrachet to drink in celebration of our 12th wedding anniversary. Clams went into the pot with a bottle of inexpensive but drinkable Pinot Gris, about 2/3 stick of butter, a sliced lemon, 4 smashed garlic cloves and a big pinch of red pepper flakes. We ate the lobster claws cold with lemony clarified butter. Some nice demi-baguettes rounded out the meal. I was outvoted on a salad, we made a good mess on the outside tablecloth. It was fun, we debated about music and the Dodgers while getting messy with shellfish. I forgot to take a photo of the spread either before or after, there was quite a bit of carnage. A great way to end the weekend.

Monday I made a different tofu recipe from the Flexitarian cookbook - roasted tofu with lemon & thyme. I was a bit short of lemons so left of the slices. It was sort of meh, kind of dry. We all like the "other" version better (I posted on it before, with soy/butter/ginger/shallot sauce).

Last night was brined pork chops, also posted previously. It is just amazing to me how brining makes even blah supermarket pork chops very tasty.

Tonight & tomorrow bring more repeats, fritatta & chicken/sage bake without sausage this time.

Leftover basil

2008-08-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

I do own a Cuisinart, but there was really something kind of fun about crushing garlic & basil into pesto with a mortar & pestle.

I had some leftover basil from a caprese salad from the night before, so I immediately thought I would make pesto. I left out the pine nuts, mine seemed kind of rancid. I also didn't add much cheese, so it was probably more like pistou (Provencal style) than pesto. It was a perfect light supper for 2, since our son was away. The basil, organic from Whole Foods, almost had a minty quality, it was nice & earthy, not overpowering at all. A glass of crisp white wine (Pinot Gris I think) rounded out the meal.
It was hard work, but definitely worth it.

Parent's night out

2008-08-04T14:42:00.000-07:00

We were more or less kid-less for nearly a week and boy do we know how to party! Saturday, we thought about going to a movie but did you know that it costs nearly $12? Considering that we have the full HD setup (no Blue Ray yet...), and can buy a movie when it comes out for less than $20.... Saturday night found us playing Daytona, Skee-ball and Flip-it games at Dave & Busters. 4 plastic pint glasses were purchased with our winnings, and many drinks and bar snacks were had.

Sunday brought the troupe back over to our house for birthday BBQ (see previous post), and Monday was a Double Header night for the OC Flyers, our local independent baseball team. Good, cheap fun, I think tickets start at $5. Yes, we really do love baseball. In fact just this past weekend we were in Fresno and saw the Grizzlies (AAA team for the Giants) and will be back at the Flyers tomorrow night.

Since I have community band on Wednesday, we decided Tuesday would be fine dining night. We really didn't have a restaurant vibe though. So, hubby went to our offsite wine storage to pick up something special and I was off to Whole Paycheck. I returned with a baguette, baby carrots, basil, burratta cheese and 2 fantastic veal chops. The basil & burratta went perfectly with some heirloom tomatoes grown by our friends Kate & Andy (who by the way gave me a volunteer plant that they had put in a pot - I really hope I don't kill it!). All we needed was olive oil and a drizzle of balsamic. We spread the salad onto a baguette and enjoyed what may be the last 1996 white burgundy wine in our cellar. After that, we decanted a 1997 Silver Oak Napa, and made pan roasted veal chops and carrots. The veal chops were awesome, the wine was really drinking well. All this cost a fraction of what we would have spent in a restaurant and was simple to prepare and to clean up.

I have a strange kid

2008-08-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

For the occasion of my son's 10th birthday, I suggested that we do white BBQ chicken. He immediately said "YES" and bowed down to my cooking greatness. What kid gets all freaky about BBQ chicken and specifically white BBQ chicken? Indeed, if said kid is not from Decatur, Alabama, chances are they have never even heard of it! Funny thing is, the Grillmaster has more work on this recipe than I do!
This recipe comes from a place called Big Bob Gibson's and the sauce recipe is widely available in cookbooks, on the web, etc. Its' not really a secret. We tried it last summer, I was totally skeptical but it is really really awesome.

The chicken (I used whole legs instead of split chickens) gets salted & peppered, then cooked over indirect heat until mahogany, basting once with fat (lard, butter, oil, whatever - we used melted butter) . This takes 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, we should have started earlier but it was ok, everyone was still happy.

Once done, they are doused in a sauce of basically mayo, cider vinegar, horseradish, salt, black pepper & cayenne pepper. You can also make a batch of the sauce to mix with cabbage for coleslaw (not pictured), which is what I did. I think the good folks at The Shack By The Track may do this as well, because the slaw tasted remarkably similar.

My in-laws, my nephew, and the Grillmaster's Australian grandmother loved this. There was not a bite left, and the dish was pronounced the best chicken ever by all. There was room for dessert, a (yes, from the box) yellow cake with chocolate frosting, appropriately decorated with birthday candles.

Take that, Pinkberry!

2008-08-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

I made the exceedingly simple frozen yogurt from David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop", basically plain yogurt, vanilla & sugar frozen in an ice cream maker. Nice and tart, this goes great with some frozen blueberries (leftover from a Coscto package). Mmmmm summery goodness!

Comfort Food & a little rant about Costco chicken

2008-07-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

Nothing is as comforting as roast chicken, even in summer. I thawed out some huge chicken breasts (bone in, skin on) from Costco and roasted them the other night after a quick browning of the skin. Served with a little chili vinegar made in the browning pan, quite nice. Salad & green beans (as always) rounded out this meal, along with some embarrassingly cheap Pinot Gris from Fresh & Easy that I kind of liked. Unfortunately the best part was the skin. These breasts were so darn big that once they were done at the bone, they were kind of overcooked. But still tasty and perfect for eating outside.

Which brings me to my short rant -- for some reason Costco carries the hugest chicken breasts & thighs available to man. 3 of them barely fit in the pan, and whenever I get the thighs they are always too big for whatever braise I am doing. Even the boneless/skinless/tasteless breasts are too big & I have to butterfly them. The only thing worth buying is the wings I think. I know, I just need to get over it and spend the extra money on organic no hormones normal sized chicken, but unfortunately in this economy our priorities lie outside of the spectrum of shopping at Whole Paycheck. Luckily I have found excellent whole leg pieces at a great price at Fresh & Easy (Tesco's new US venture), I think less than $1.00/lb. Those will be making a special appearance on Sunday for Alabama white BBQ chicken - stay tuned - I'm even going to bake!

BBQ in Georgia

2008-07-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

We visited friends this last weekend in Jacksonville Florida. Despite the high temperature & humidity, we had a great time. We saw a lot of minor league baseball: Jacksonville Suns (Dodgers AA) and Savannah Sand Gnats (Mets Low A). And we ate a lot of great food, from huge stadium hot dogs to local BBQ joints (Toby's in Jax) to little old school cafeteria (Carey Hilliard's in Savannah) to even the Cracker Barrel. Unfortunately Beach Road Chicken Dinners was closed on Monday so we didn't make it there.
The standout of the trip found us driving on a 7 mile long dirt road as the best way to get there - to the little piece of Georgia that dips down into the top of Florida - St. George, GA and The Shack By The Track.The Grillmaster had serious pit envy - the door to the cooker came up & down with a garage door opener!We shared an order of ribs and an order of pulled pork between the 3 of us, and there was more than enough food. Sides of coleslaw, potato salad & beans, plus the yellowy white bread (I think the brand is Sunbeam, a local brand). The ribs were fall off the bone tender, the sauce was nice & not overwhelming at all. The pulled pork was fantastic (there was some of it in the beans too^^), especially combined on the bread with a bit of the coleslaw (which was really great - it had a flavor that I need to figure out, but I think it was the mustard). The much lauded homemade potato salad was not bad, although I still prefer my mother-in-law's.
We really wanted to go back here, but they are only open 3 days a week and with a double header on Saturday, we missed our chance.
Can't wait to get back -- bonus: the t-shirt we bought says "Get your butts here", heehee I'm 12.
The other side of the Shack serves ice cream, so we had to leave room for a hot fudge sundae.

A huge hot dog!

2008-07-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

For a mere $15 or so at the Historic Grayson Stadium on the south side of Savannah Georgia, you can buy a baseball ticket - general admission in this awesome old shade covered bleacher area seen here-
, a coke and a REAL footlong hot dog - it was about an inch thick too, we should have added something to the picture for scale. The Sand Gnats play there, they are the low A affiliate of the NY Mets. We had a fantastic time, they won the game and had a fun mascot. Andrew & Anthony even got to do one of those zany minor league between inning games (home run tball derby). Minor league baseball rocks!!

Yakitori at home

2008-07-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

I bought my husband this cool little Japanese table grill for Father's Day/Birthday a few years ago:
It takes the binchotan charcoal sticks from Japan, they get very very hot. We had only used it once (because the charcoal is kind of a pain to light and the cooking surface is pretty small) and decided we were way overdue.

So, off to the Japanese market we went for pork belly, yakitori sauce, veggies (eggplant & shitake mushroom)
and hamachi-kama (yellowtail collar) which I did under the broiler:We found some mochi dango (little mochi balls covered in this sweet sauce) too, that we will pop on the grill just to warm them for dessert. Oh, and did I mention beer & sake??

I already had some chicken wings, so I made the Spicy Grilled Chicken Wings with Lemon & Garlic from "A Flexitarian Table" to cook up. I made these before and they were literally inhaled by kids before I could take a photo. The combination of ginger, garlic, soy, lemon & jalapeno pepper (courtesy of our friends' garden!) really give these an awesome flavor. I left out the rosemary this time.
They didn't have the sliced pork belly that we usually buy, so I had to improvise & slice myself into skewerable pieces. And now I know where to buy smallish pieces of pork belly to make into bacon and pancetta!!
Unfortunately the little grill didn't work out as planned (the charcoal didn't want to stay lit) so we used our regular grill. It was all still delicious, even an hour late.

"Picnic"

2008-06-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

This is a tradition that I brought over from my parents. Owning and operating a restaurant often means that cooking was the last thing on my parents' minds. We would often have what my mom always called "picnic", even if it was the dead of winter. In fact, this was our normal New Year's Eve dinner! The actual picnic (in the mountains at a picnic table) was something altogether different, and consisted of a bucket of my mom's gazpacho (I'll post about that soon) and peel/eat shrimp. "Picnic for dinner" is more of a concept than a meal.
We generally just do this in the summer months, when we have an ample supply of rose wine such as Commanderie de Peyrassol. Sadly, importation of this wine was super limited this year, we are already down to our last bottle and we haven't even had a paella party yet. But, I digress....
The idea behind "picnic" is just to sort of graze, usually while watching a movie or sports on TV, or just hanging out in the back yard listening to music and talking about random stuff. Items can include salumi (prociutto, bresaola, sopressata, salame), cheese (usually at least 2 or 3 varieties of varying style, I like cambozola, aged cheddar and gouda-type as a good combo), olives or tapenade, and sometimes pate & baguette croutons. I like to include one instant cooked item that I can pop in the toaster oven, Trader Joe's is great for these - escargot in brioche, mini crab cakes, or those shrimp in the rice paper wraps (these are awesome with Thai sweet chili sauce, toss the packet that comes with them).
Tonight's bill of fare: Trader Joe's mushroom puffs (basically duxelles loaded into little pastry moons), sopressata, prociutto, aged cheddar, cambozola, gouda and wheat crackers. I didn't bring out the olives for some reason, but I had them. I'm the only one that eats those anyway. Topped off with some rose wine, a perfect meal for a hot evening. (Sorry about the blurry picture and the ugly cutting boards and the missing mushroom puffs, they were in the toaster oven)

Tuna noodle casserole for grownups

2008-06-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

Last night there was NO BASEBALL! No travel team practice, all star team was eliminated Wednesday, and the College World Series is over. We actually ate at the dining room table for a change, and at a normal hour.
I made tuna sauce from John Ash's excellent book Cooking One On One. It is traditionally vitello tonnato sauce (cold veal sliced with this sauce) but it is super on pasta. The author's comment: "This is the best tuna noodle casserole you'll ever eat", and he is correct. The sauce is creamy and blended - simply olive oil, oil packed tuna, garlic, anchovy, lemon juice, capers, parsley and a bit of cream and chicken stock. This is great hot or cold since the sauce is uncooked.

One night a week we eat pasta or rice-based meals, especially before baseball games/practices for our growing 9 year old (eep, almost 10!). It means that us adults need to get a bit more exercise to burn off the extra carbs!
Tonight after baseball practice is one of our great summer traditions - "picnic". More on that next post.

Too hot to cook!

2008-06-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

It has been a sweltering week. Sunday, The Grillmaster did all day REAL barbecue of a 14 pound beef brisket (I love Smart & Final!!). It was a huge success, we invited the coaches & manager of the Little League team. Somehow I managed to not take any photos though. I looked at my camera and all I had were baseball photos.
The brisket was trimmed up a bit of fat on Saturday night, and rubbed with dijon mustard, brown sugar, garlic, and the super secret spice rub. Left in the fridge overnight, then put on the cooker at about 8:30 am. Cook over smoke & periodically mop with a mixture of sauce, vinegar, apple juice and some rub possibly. I think the chips in the firebox were a mixture of pecan & hickory, but I am not too sure. 4 hours later, the meat goes into foil and stays on the grill for 4 more - to an internal temp of about 190 and falling apart. It was absolutely fantastic, with home made cole slaw, with or without sauce.

There was not too much left over, but we made quesadillas with BBQ sauce & shredded mex mix cheese last night for dinner. YUM!

A new addition and a quote to share

2008-06-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

After picking this book up many times, I finally bought The Whole Beast: nose to tail eating by Fergus Henderson now that a nice sleek paperback edition is available. Mainly in the hopes of broadening my horizons on food, but mostly to make the much lauded Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad. And to get some tips on preparing sweetbreads which I adore. Anyhow, I just wanted to share this quote from the introductory chapter:

"Do not be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave. Enjoy your cooking and the food will behave; moreover it will pass your pleasure on to those who eat it."

Better late than never......

2008-06-12T10:23:00.001-07:00

Kate over at The Clean Plate Club hosts a monthly Cookie Carnival. The May selection was Blueberry Drop Cookies. My guys can't resist blueberries so I joined the club. Well, May sort of got away from us in many ways, so I made these the other day. June 10th. Oh well, they were good anyway. I left out the lemon zest, didn't have a lemon, and used vanilla instead of almond extract. They were not beautiful, kind of a cross between a scone and a cookie actually. But here it is Thursday and they are all gone! To be honest I did share with the neighbors, and the recipe made only about 2 dozen (mine must have been to big, they were supposed to make more).

Too many cookbooks, too little time

2008-06-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

My cooking time has been cut into a bit this spring by Little League. That season is over, but baseball is now a permanent fixture. Our son loves it, so we signed him up for a travel team. Check out my husband's well written blog about it here. He's the narrative guy, I'm too much of a technical writer (he says and I tend to agree).

That being said, you might see quite a bit of easy make-ahead type of stuff since we have practice from 5-7pm 2 nights a week and all day tournaments 2 weekends a month. If I find something I particularly like, I'm going to include it on this blog for anyone out there with the same predicament - kids in baseball, swimming, soccer, band camp etc. that need something substantial that can be made ahead & even taken along without much fuss.

On Monday I made spectacular sandwiches (no pics sorry), these were make ahead & wholesome: I took a single pork tenderloin, marinated it for a few hours in 1/4 cup bourbon, 2 Tbs. sugar (dissolve in liquid) & 1/4 cup soy sauce. I cooked at 350 for about 40 minutes (to about 145-150), let it cool, then thinly sliced it. I made a spread of equal parts mayo & Greek yogurt, added some Colman's dry mustard to taste. Spread 1 side of a wheat French roll with the spread, the other side with guacamole. Placed some meat & a slice of munster on the spread side, and some salad greens on the other. Rolled up tightly in foil, put in a bag with drinks to keep cool. These sandwiches really got raves from the guys while we watched a tournament game.

Portobello Mushrooms w/Bread Crumb Salsa

2008-06-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Another installment from The Flexitarian Table.
I really did love the "salsa", I used panko instead of bread crumbs. For the 3 of us I used 3 big portobellos, but probably should have used 4, and oven roasted them instead of grilling them.
The flavor was nice & meaty, we all liked this dish. For the "salsa", I used a bit of parsley, some thyme, and some cilantro. You can mix with basil, mint & tarragon as well.
A super easy weeknight meal, served with brown rice with greens & asiago cheese (2nd time with this nice rice side dish).

A famous Australian Dessert

2008-06-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

A few years ago my son's class did an International Recipes book as a heritage project. On his request, I baked (yes, BAKED) great-grandma's Date Raptures. Here's the recipe, they are really good:

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp each of baking powder, baking soda & salt
1/4 cup shortening (do not substitute, please use Crisco - it will not kill you)
1/2 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup sugar set aside
1 egg
1/3 cup buttermilk (I used the powdered kind: 1/3 cup water where you would add the buttermilk & add the appropriate amount of powder along with the flour mixture)
1 Tbsp grated orange rind
1 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup orange juice strained of pulp

Preheat oven to 350
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt
With a mixer or beater, beat the sugar (1/2 cup), shortening and the egg.
Add the dry ingredients, then the buttermilk & orange rind. Beat until smooth.
Stir in the dates.
Pour into greased muffin tins about 2/3 full and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Mix the orange juice with the 1/4 cup of sugar & stir to dissolve sugar (don't cook)
Pour the juice over the individual cakes when serving - serve hot.

I baked these early and then heated up in the toaster oven briefly before pouring the juice over. What a nice, light treat! Perfect for proper afternoon tea or a not-too-sweet dessert. Try it!

PS
I did have to buy Crisco, and then had a good laugh when I found an unopened package that expired in 2006 in the pantry. Now you can see that I really don't bake! No idea why I bought the first can. I also noticed that on the package it says "not intended as a spread". Eeek.

Farfalle w/Smoked Salmon & Vodka Sauce

2008-06-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

We've been on a bit of a pasta kick. The 9 year old is in serious baseball workouts right now for league all star team and a travel ball team, so I figure he needs the carbs.
I tried this recipe which I have had in my loose leaf binder for quite some time. I have no idea which magazine it came from or when. The big difference in this one for me was that there is an egg/cream emulsion that is added at the end, off the heat. That made the dish nice & rich tasting but still simple.
1 lb farfalle, cooked al dente
2 Tbs butter melted, add 1 small minced shallot & cook until golden
Add 1/4 cup vodka & cook until evaporated
Add 2 cups of heavy cream & simmer until reduced by half
Stir in 4 oz salmon cut into strips
Season and remove from heat

Beat 3 egg yolks with 1/4 cup cream

Add the pasta (drained of course) to the skillet & combine well, then add the egg mixture & stir over low heat until just warmed through. Season again & serve with some minced chives as garnish (optional).

I would probably make this again. The method called for thinly sliced (lox style) smoked salmon, but I used a cut up chunk of wild smoked salmon instead. I think the lox style is too salty.

In bianco

2008-05-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

It is said that Italians feel that eating food in bianco (white food) serves to settle an upset stomach and give the internal organs a rest.
That is pretty much why I decided to make Spaghetti with garlic, onions & guanciale from Molto Italiano on Tuesday.
We have had a hectic week so I've been making lots of repeats (including that awesome chicken, sausage & sage dish), with a quick trip up to Oregon over the long weekend, so something simple was in order. This dish is basically Amatriciana without the tomato sauce. I used pre-cubed pancetta from Trader Joe's in place of the guanciale (it is on my list of things to do, really!... too many charcuterie plans, so little time). I found that it didn't really crisp up like I wanted it to... next time I'll just use good bacon. This dish was nice, but not spectacular. I also subbed parmesan as I was all out of romano (a situation that has now been remedied).
No picture, it was pretty un-photogenic and looked nothing like the picture in Molto Italiano.
Next up some new stuff, plus I'm baking an old traditional English/Australian pudding today. Yikes!

Pantry Shrimp

2008-05-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

It was HOT this weekend. Couple that with little league game, MLS game, little league bbq. We were running around like nuts all weekend. I realized that although I had been to the grocery store, we still had no food - it was all for the BBQ on Sunday! We also had a death in the family - our 2003 vintage eMachine computer that was used as a network server, printer server, and online game machine. It bit the dust so we spent Sunday evening and all of Monday rebuilding files. The hard drive was fine, so data was thankfully not lost. But trying to remember the miriad of passwords was another story.
At any rate, cooking was the last thing on my mind. I had frozen shrimp though! And limes, cilantro, garlic, ginger and hot sauces. So I threw together this shrimp marinade:
2 cloves minced garlic
about the same amount of peeled minced ginger
juice of 1 lime
a few tablespoons of chopped cilantro
a few tablespoons of olive oil
a squirt or 2 of Sriracha chili sauce to taste
kosher salt to taste
Marinated the shrimp in this for about as long as it takes to heat the grill, grilled the shrimp until done. Served with jasmine rice, steamed green beans and hot sauce on the side. This went really well with Thai sweet chili sauce as a dipper/sauce for rice.
No pictures, too hot.
Today it's 20 degrees cooler, thankfully. Not much cooking this week, we are off to Oregon!

CARBONARA

2008-05-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

I put together this carbonara recipe from Mario Batail "Molto Italiano" (halved it for 2 - just me and the boy, it was poker night). This is really the perfect method, hold the peas, hold the cream - no need for these. The egg whites, cheese & bacon drippings (I do usually drain partially although the recipe says not to) make the perfect creamy sauce, the egg yolk that gets stirred in at serving makes the whole thing just luscious. It will be even better when I make my own pancetta or guanciale!!

Chicken has been upstaged by BROWN RICE!

2008-05-12T09:34:00.001-07:00

I tried the Crispy Pressed Chicken with Garlic & Mint from "The Flexitarian Table" the other night. The chicken thighs had marinated in a garlic/mint/lemon juice/olive oil mixture much of the day. The recipe calls for cooking in a cast iron pan, but I thought I would bust out my mattone - terra cotta chicken press. That method took a LOT longer than specified - I think I had a few things that didn't work out for me - the mattone does not get as hot as cast iron, the thighs were the really big ones from Costco, I put 6 thighs in, they released a LOT of fat, so didn't really crisp up like in the picture in the book. The alternate protein for this is tofu, which actually looks very yummy in the book, so I may try that next time.
The superstar of this meal, though, was the Creamy Risotto-Style Brown Rice w/Spring Greens & Asiago. I used short grain brown rice, cooked ahead of time in the rice cooker, and used mache & arugula for the greens. It's simple - scallions (or ramps if you are a lucky duck, I was not), garlic & ginger sauteed in some olive oil & butter, add the rice & blanched greens with a bit of the cooking water from the greens, stir in the cheese & presto - healthy and delicious! Everyone had seconds of this, it was excellent. Another side dish from this book that will enter "heavy rotation" along with the polenta. It had the same flavor profile as broccoli rice soup, but even better. I felt like I had eaten something similar before, it was really great.

Fregola Risotto-Style w/Chard & Feta, Baby Beets

2008-05-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

Another installment from "The Flexitarian Table" - Spring Menu 10: Fregola Risotto-Style with Chard & Feta Cheese, Mache & Pea Shoots w/Baby Beets & Mustard Vinaigrette

I did this last night after hunting over hill & dale (well, all across Irvine anyway) for Fregola Sarda. I found at Whole Paycheck, of course... I could have substitued Israeli couscous at half the price, but the toasted fregola just looked too lovely to pass up.
I started by getting the baby beets roasted for the salad, then peeling & cutting them up into little matchsticks. The vinaigrette is a simple mustard emulsion with the addition of some toasted mustard seed. The beets are then chilled, and later tossed with mache & pea shoots. I actually passed on spending another $8 for mache & pea shoots at WF, maybe next time. I just tossed with a bit of spring greens mix. I didn't realize ahead of time that my husband doesn't like beets, but he said "these were better than I thought they would be". I guess I can take that as a complement. The 9 year old wasn't fond of them either, so this is probably not going to make a repeat performance.
The fregola was pretty prep intensive, lots of veggies to cut up. First mirepoix and the chard stems are sauteed in butter & olive oil until soft:

Next comes the mushrooms, garlic & thyme:

Add the fregola & saute until toasty smelling:

I made the vegetable stock in the book (without the kombu), but I could have used chicken stock - isn't this pretty?
And simmer until the fregola is al dente, then add the chard leaves, and the feta just before serving
I put together the "5 minute bread" the day before, so baked a loaf just before starting to cook dinner, with some whole wheat flour substituted for the regular flour. Nice & chewy, I love the crust on this bread! We all agreed that this meal didn't seem very Spring-like. It was so earthy from the beets, toasted pasta, chard & mushrooms that I might classify it as more of a Fall dish. Despite that, it was very tasty, and terribly healthy.

Grilled Shrimp w/Harissa & Fresh Corn Polenta

2008-05-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

This was essentially "summer menu 3" from "The Flexitarian Table". I almost forgot to take any photos until the meal was nearly done, it was one of those afternoons.
I was unable (until 2 days later!) to find caraway seed for making the home made harissa, so I just added a bit more fennel & cumin to the spice mixture. I did toast & grind the whole spices, which I do think makes a huge difference. I marinated the shrimp for a bit longer than directed due to timing, but I think they still fared ok. I used "large" shrimp but next time would want to use "jumbo" I think. The spices were really nice, some heat from the cayenne but the cumin & fennel makes it more warm than spicy hot. A really wonderful flavor. I grilled them on the stove in a grill pan, next time will do over charcoal.
The polenta was OUT OF THIS WORLD good! I was just going to buy frozen corn, as it is really a bit early for me for fresh sweet corn, but I went to the middle eastern market where produce is super cheap and they had some nice looking corn. I finally made polenta that wasn't too thin or too thick! I think I will use this recipe for all of my polenta needs, it was that awesome. It didn't really need any cheese or cream, it was absolutely delicious - no leftovers!. I did the sauteed cherry tomatoes too, which added a little bit of color to the plate. I used tiny grape tomatoes, which are super sweet. They provided a really nice contrast to the richness of the polenta.
The alternate protein for this is poached/fried eggs atop the polenta, which actually might make it into the weeknight rotation in the fall.

I did leave out the grilled zucchini with mint oil this night, but served it with grilled flatiron steak on Sunday night (sorry no picture). Olive oil is simmered with garlic & red pepper flakes just until the garlic is colored, then mint leaves are added. This is brushed onto the zucchini as they grill. The mint flavor was very subtle, but was an interesting contrast, the garlic seemed quite a bit more present. There were not leftovers of this either!

Another cookbook - The Flexitarian Table

2008-04-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

This is the cookbook of the month on Chowhound for May. I looked at it at Borders and despite the sort of lame title, I really love the concept so I picked it up. Basically the premise is that you can prepare a nice seasonal meal that will satisfy both meat eaters and vegetarians or even vegans at the same time. Many of the menus have one sauce or preparation style that can be used with 2 different proteins, meat or not meat. There are also some nice sounding all vegetarian meals. Those of you who know my family must be thinking, "Yeah, right, they don't eat tofu & stuff". But, yes we do! I am still not too sure about tempeh & seitan, or some of the more exotic grain dishes, but I may have to give them a try after some early results with this book.
The first thing I tried, after reading several posts about the dish on Chowhound, was the Tofu with Lemon/Soy/White Wine & Butter Sauce & the Striped Bass with Lemon/White Wine & Butter Sauce. I made these on 2 nights in the same week since it is just the 3 of us, and served both with white rice. The tofu was served with stir fried vegetables, the fish with steamed green beans. The quinoa recipe in the menu suggestion will be tried later, I need to stock up on my exotic grains, hehe.

The verdict in both cases was "wow" from both the husband and the 9 year old, so I will definitely be making these again. In both cases the sauces were light but very flavorful, great to scoop on top of the steamed jasmine rice. I actually used halibut instead of the striped bass for the fish recipe, and used extra firm tofu instead of firm.
Stay tuned for more from this book as I explore it!

Quick Pork Medallions

2008-04-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Pork tenderloin is a staple here. I usually pick one up at Trader Joe's once or twice a month. Here's something new, from Gourmet 2007, crispy pork medallions with creamy caper sauce. It's here on Epicurious.
Slice the tenderloin into nice thick medallions, flour/egg/breadcrumb them, then fry until golden. Finish off in a 350 oven until cooked through. Serve with a very yummy caper sauce - yogurt (I used the thick Greek kind), mayo, capers, parsley and pepper. We had the leftovers of the sauce as an alternative to aioli the next night with lamb. Definitely "a keeper".

Crusty Bread Revisited

2008-04-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

Using this method, I made this great loaf pictured here. It is adapted from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day", which is about to be added to my wish list - what a great loaf! The dough definitely improves over a few days in the fridge.

I did it again.

2008-04-21T11:17:00.001-07:00

Quite a bit of buzz around Peter Berley's The Flexitarian Table. It is in line for cookbook of the month, and there are some promising sounding things in it. Now, I love meat and bacon and all that, but we also do enjoy tofu (we had fresh silken tofu custard in Japan, oh wow) so I thought this might be an interesting book. I picked it up at Borders and could not resist, so there will be some upcoming adventures with this book, first up will likely be tofu cooked with butter, garlic & wine. Stay tuned!

A nice spin on Jambalaya

2008-04-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

We like jambalaya. Spicy sausage, rice, veggies, hot sauce to taste - what's not to love in a quick weeknight meal. We have even been known to use Zatarain's packaged version. I clipped this recipe from the March Food & Wine, and gave it a whirl. Chicken andouille,

, the usual holy trinity plus some garlic

, chicken stock & water, plus jasmine rice.

After it all simmers, stir in about 1/2 lb of crabmeat and let warm. Served with hot sauce on the side and a Caesar salad, all we were missing was some Abita beer (we had Spaten instead).

Easy and good!

Dinner & Dessert

2008-04-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

I made this nice ham steak with bourbon sauce from Epicurious last week. The first time I did it I flamed the bourbon - the flame shot up to nearly the ceiling! This time I just reduced it in the pan instead. I couldn't tell the difference (except the fact that the cat did not run full speed out of the kitchen this time), so don't flame it unless you are brave. The best part of this dinner though was the dessert - roasted banana ice cream from The Perfect Scoop (see my previous post). Bananas are roasted with brown sugar and butter, then blended with sugar, milk, vanilla & lemon juice. Chilled and run through the ice cream maker, super easy - no custard to worry about. I almost forgot to take a picture - it tastes like creamy banana bread.
Next up hopefully fresh strawberry-sour cream ice cream with super local berries!