things I should make

I subscribe to two cooking magazines, both of which I enjoy very much. Fine Cooking and Bon Appetit, two very different magazines, both of which I like to pick and choose bits and pieces from, as well as draw inspiration. I often times will read them when they arrive, think "ooo, I should make that and that and that and that." Then I put them down, and when Tuesday rolls around, I think "wow, I have no idea what to make."

So here's a list of ideas, some from the magazines, some from random places.

Dinners

Cuban burgers (chorizo and ground pork patties, possibly marinated, on sweetened buns with pickles and mustard and swiss. And possibly cappicola, 'cause it's awesome)

Peppered beef stroganoff (Jan BA) (creme fraiche, how can you go wrong?)

Middle eastern bison meatballs with cilantro-yogurt sauce (Feb BA) (this is what we call a "targeted" recipe)

Salt crusted beets with horseradish creme fraiche (Feb BA) (sounds neat, and it's fun to rhyme with beet)

Pasta with peas, cream, parsley and mint (Feb BA) (fresh!)

Lamb burgers with gyro fixings (haven't done them in a while)


Desserts

Caramel banana bread puddings (Jan BA)

Pomegranate panna cotta (Feb BA)

Lemon souffles with boysenberries (Mar BA)

[TND] 3.4 Burgers, Oven Fries, Roasted Veggies and Cocunut Pudding

Oh, and crab cakes. Or "laborcakes", as those actually making them came to call them. They were quite tasty, so it was definitely worth the extra effort on someone else's part. The recipe was one of Emeril's, but we pretty much modified it to things we had access to and eliminated steps that we didn't feel like doing. We used my new pan on the new stove, and it was magical. I need to deep fry more things, I think.

There's not much to say about burgers. Good meat, seasoned aggressively with kosher salt and nothing else, not over-handled, and they will be fantastic. I heard a suggestion for Cuban burgers involving ground chorizo and the typical cuban sandwich fixings, we may be seeing those sometime in the near future.

I grilled asparagus, but also some radicchio. It was very interesting, I'll definitely be playing with it some more in the future.

Finally, I made a very simple coconut pudding from Bon Appetit. It was quite delicious and could very easily sustain some heartier spices, like cardamom. My mom got me some vanilla suspension, which seems to be the inside of vanilla beans suspended in some sort of syrup, and it's basically like having vanilla beans you can use with a teaspoon. I predict creme brulee in the future.

[TND] 2.25 Thai Noodle Soups

I love noodle soups. I am assured of ruining a shirt, but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make in the name of deliciousness. Bon Appetit had an interesting looking recipe, but I completely failed to find yellow curry paste, despite heroic efforts on the part of some of our regulars. I also had limited amounts of lemongrass. Finally, I was under the mistaken impression that red curries were in general hotter than green curries, so my attempts to make a hot and mild version ended up with two mediums.

The recipe was good, and simple, and I'd make it again. If I'm short on lemongrass again, and even if I'm not (since apparently whole foods sells it by the bushel), I think I'll peel it a bit more than I would if I were using large pieces, and send it through the microplane. Especially for a quick soup.

Two other notes: creme fraiche made both soups better, the red in particular. Also, they were both even better after a day.

[TND] 2.18 Balsamic Garlic Pork and Mushroom Risotto

I refined the balsamic garlic pork I did a while back for this week, since I thought it pair nicely with the creaminess of the risotto. I roasted a healthy amount of garlic, two or three heads worth (by the way, you can buy fresh peeled garlic at whole foods, it speeds up the process immensely and the markup isn't that substantial once you account for the peelings), and put it in a gallon ziploc bag with a cup or two of balsamic vinegar. I added pepper and thyme and a bit of salt, and then mushed everything together until I had loose balsamic garlic paste. Pork chops were on sale, so I used them instead of the pork loin. I put them in the bag, smooshed it around to coat everything, and let them marinate a bit while I got the risotto prepped and started, occasionally flipping the bag. After I transferred them to sheet pans, I snipped the bottom of the bag and distributed the paste over them before roasting them at about 450 for 10-12 min. The real change was topping them with creme fraiche, which turned into an amazing sauce. I think you could put creme fraiche on pretty much anything and it would make it better, though.

Mushroom risotto is something I'll make for a weeknight dinner occasionally, though I usually just use dried mushrooms. This was greatly improved by adding a variety of fresh mushrooms. I was a bit intimidated by the per pound price of fresh shitakes, oysters and enoki, but turns out mushrooms aren't very dense, and you get a good amount of mushroom for pretty cheap. I soaked dried mushrooms (a variety, from trader joe's, or trapper john's, as my mom calls it), and used the soaking liquid (strained) as the broth for the risotto. Every time I make risotto I think "wow, this ratio of wine:rice:stock is really easy to remember" and then promptly forget it. I think it's threes. 1/3 for wine and 3x for stock, so one cup of rice needs a third a cup of wine and three cups of stock. I think I usually need more stock, so maybe it's fours. Between three and four will work. Probably. Warm stock, shallots and onions, not just onions, though now I'm thinking about a risotto involving leeks. Since they're delicious. I really like making risottos, it's fun to watch it come together slowly. Fresh mushrooms go in towards the end, along with a dollop of creme fraiche, lots of thyme (fresh or good quality dried), a handful of parmesan, salt 'til it tastes good, and pepper.

[TND] 1.29 Quiche

I made four different quiches using the same basic recipe. I used puff pastry for the shells, which I rolled out to be to make a crust. Layer of non-cheese ingredients, layer of cheeses, repeat until full, leaving gaps and spaces. I then beat six eggs and a glug (yes, a glug) of half and half, and use that to fill in the gaps.

The four I made were:

Bacon and leek with Jarlsberg and gruyere.
Ham and broccoli with cheddar.
Asparagus and leek with gouda.
Spinach and feta.

All were good, the asparagus and leek with gouda was definitely the highlight.

[TND] 1.22 Meatloaf

Meatloaf is one of those things where every time I make it, I use a different recipe. I'm never satisfied with the results, so I seek out a new approach every time I do it. This time wasn't too much different. I modified a recipe that called for mushrooms, since my sister won't eat them (and then she didn't show up!). It was pretty standard, three meats, except I also added leeks in place of the onions. I think it had balsamic vinegar and was wrapped in bacon. I also made a basic cream gravy (with bacon) to go on the meatloaf and the whipped potatoes I made. There may have also been some sort of vegetable, but I forget which. Possibly just salad.

Overall, it ended up a little dryer then I would have liked. So we're still looking, though the leeks are probably here to stay.

Playing Catch Up

Between illness and a number of other things, this poor blog has been neglected. I'm going to try to fill in the gaps, there's going to be one or two nights that are missing because they didn't happen or they were something I've done many times in the past, like the tomato soup with orange and cumin.