Just realized I never posted this.
I've been feeling a bit sick, so there was no Tuesday night dinner this week, but in an attempt to make myself feel better, I made soup. The goal was a fusion between Italian wedding soup and chicken noodle soup.
I made mire poix, sweat it with a good bit of salt and pepper, and then added enough chicken stock to mostly fill the pot. Once it had heated through, I added a bunch of herbs and two medium sized potatoes that I'd diced to about a quarter inch. I made chicken meatballs (ground chicken, bread crumbs, an egg, salt, pepper) while those cooked, and tossed them in once the potato was soft enough. After about twenty minutes, I added a bunch of torn up broccoli rabe, since I couldn't find kale. I honestly can't recall what herbs I tossed in, but several varieties of thyme featured pretty heavily.
It was quite tasty, and I ate it for the rest of the week and felt much better.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
[TND] 5.20 Grilled Salmon with Tzatziki Sauce
I had a good bit of the cucumber, mint, dill and yogurt sauce leftover from a re-creation of the last Tuesday night dinner this weekend, and was trying to think of a way to use it up. My first thought was actually lamb kebabs, grinding the lamb with spices and pistachios and forming it around skewers, sort of a mini version of the spinning stick. But I didn't have luck finding stew lamb last week, so I decided to go with salmon.
Interestingly, the farmed salmon and wild caught salmon were about four cents difference in price, and lying right next to each other in the case. The difference in color is pretty stark, with the farmed salmon being this pale, sickly orange and the wild caught a more vibrant reddish-orange. It's also, in general, a good idea to avoid farmed salmon, as farmed salmon is often treated with pesticides and antibiotics, isn't really sustainable and can spread disease to wild fish populations. But the color is really something I've been trying to pay more attention to, not just in fish, but in pretty much all meats.
My initial plan was to crust the salmon and pan roast it, but I bought more salmon than would fit in my pan, so I moved it the grill. I still crusted it with the same spices: salt, pepper, sate seasoning from Penzey's, and cayenne pepper. I made a cucumber and feta salad with mint and dill and sweet onion, and roasted some potatoes to with it. Simple and delicious.
I've been watching a lot of Jamie at Home, a recent series by Jamie Oliver which is probably the best food tv I've ever seen. It's basically him, in rural Essex, with a ginormous organic garden and him making dishes featuring things from said garden. I really enjoy the way he cooks in general. The second season of his first show was airing while I was studying in England, having to feed myself for real for the first time, and his food was simple, accessible and grounded in very generalizable techniques. The style, the idea that food can be a bit messy and needs to be fun, is something that's really stuck with me. This new show combines that with beautiful ingredients, and it really works. So I'm inspired to make some things from the show, in particular, to get more familiar with the pasta machine Dave got me. He made it look very quick, probably as easy as going to the freezer to get a package of pasta, and that's a place I'd like to be.
Interestingly, the farmed salmon and wild caught salmon were about four cents difference in price, and lying right next to each other in the case. The difference in color is pretty stark, with the farmed salmon being this pale, sickly orange and the wild caught a more vibrant reddish-orange. It's also, in general, a good idea to avoid farmed salmon, as farmed salmon is often treated with pesticides and antibiotics, isn't really sustainable and can spread disease to wild fish populations. But the color is really something I've been trying to pay more attention to, not just in fish, but in pretty much all meats.
My initial plan was to crust the salmon and pan roast it, but I bought more salmon than would fit in my pan, so I moved it the grill. I still crusted it with the same spices: salt, pepper, sate seasoning from Penzey's, and cayenne pepper. I made a cucumber and feta salad with mint and dill and sweet onion, and roasted some potatoes to with it. Simple and delicious.
I've been watching a lot of Jamie at Home, a recent series by Jamie Oliver which is probably the best food tv I've ever seen. It's basically him, in rural Essex, with a ginormous organic garden and him making dishes featuring things from said garden. I really enjoy the way he cooks in general. The second season of his first show was airing while I was studying in England, having to feed myself for real for the first time, and his food was simple, accessible and grounded in very generalizable techniques. The style, the idea that food can be a bit messy and needs to be fun, is something that's really stuck with me. This new show combines that with beautiful ingredients, and it really works. So I'm inspired to make some things from the show, in particular, to get more familiar with the pasta machine Dave got me. He made it look very quick, probably as easy as going to the freezer to get a package of pasta, and that's a place I'd like to be.
Monday, May 19, 2008
[TND] Fell behind again
I am bad at blogging. Reliably. Reliably modifies both bad and blogging.
Shortly after the last time I posted, we had a passover seder, after which we skipped the next Tuesday night dinner. I made creme brulee, and the salt crusted beets mentioned earlier. They came out quite lovely, and the creme fraiche horseradish sauce was amazing, especially with the beets. I would like to do more with beets, I feel like they're underrated and delicious.
We also had a BYOM(eat) celebration to mark the end of semester and my probable future employment. I made some steak au poivre, which I later replicated (sort of) for mother's day. The first time I did it right, grinding the pepper with the mortar and pestle, the second time I did it with a small food processor. The result was very very fine pepper dust, which had a much more intense pepper flavor on the meat. Much more intense. Filed it away as something potentially useful, but not for au poivre with good meat.
Prior to that, I made a gourmet-ed version of chicken fried steak. I was looking for, but unable to find, skirt steak, so I used a cut of meat Highland Park has been carrying, called southwestern fillet. It's a shoulder cut, it's sort of halfway between flank and tenderloin and priced similarly to flank. It's a great cut, I've gotten for a number of uses and been very happy with it. I made sausage cream gravy, whipped potatoes, and some sort of vegetable which was purely ancillary to the meat and gravy.
Ryan made a beef and mushroom risotto two weeks back, which was quite delicious. I made the banana-caramel bread pudding to go with it, which were really simple, really tasty, and will be added to the default dessert rotation. I will take the time to make my own caramel sauce next time, because store bought is generally flavored corn syrup, which is the opposite of yummy.
Last Tuesday I intended to make lamb, but was unable to find reasonably priced lamb of an appropriate cut to make kebabs out of. So I used some chicken and beef, covered generously with cumin and paprika. I also made flatbread from a recipe in the most recent Fine Cooking, done on the grill. It came out wonderfully, and is something I'll repeat often, as it was very easy and versatile. I made cucumber (leech the moisture like you would eggplant), dill, mint yogurt sauce to top these little Mediterranean tacos, along with red onion, cucumber, and tomato. Gotta use the full fat yogurt, none of that low fat stuff, and a good dollop of creme fraiche really brings the sauce together. I actually have a good bit of sauce leftover from this weekend, so I may try to find some lamb to grind up into a sort of doner kebab for this week, but last week doesn't inspire confidence.
I also made pie. I'm getting better with the crusts, but baking seems to be pretty fundamentally alien to my style of cooking. Measuring is for the birds. I made a strawberry-rhubarb-mango pie, which was quite delicious. You don't see rhubarb and mango together, probably because the places you can get good rhubarb you by definition get horrible mangoes and places where you can get good mangoes you probably just don't get rhubarb. It's too bad, because it is a fantastic combination, the tart rhubarb and the smooth sweet mango.
Shortly after the last time I posted, we had a passover seder, after which we skipped the next Tuesday night dinner. I made creme brulee, and the salt crusted beets mentioned earlier. They came out quite lovely, and the creme fraiche horseradish sauce was amazing, especially with the beets. I would like to do more with beets, I feel like they're underrated and delicious.
We also had a BYOM(eat) celebration to mark the end of semester and my probable future employment. I made some steak au poivre, which I later replicated (sort of) for mother's day. The first time I did it right, grinding the pepper with the mortar and pestle, the second time I did it with a small food processor. The result was very very fine pepper dust, which had a much more intense pepper flavor on the meat. Much more intense. Filed it away as something potentially useful, but not for au poivre with good meat.
Prior to that, I made a gourmet-ed version of chicken fried steak. I was looking for, but unable to find, skirt steak, so I used a cut of meat Highland Park has been carrying, called southwestern fillet. It's a shoulder cut, it's sort of halfway between flank and tenderloin and priced similarly to flank. It's a great cut, I've gotten for a number of uses and been very happy with it. I made sausage cream gravy, whipped potatoes, and some sort of vegetable which was purely ancillary to the meat and gravy.
Ryan made a beef and mushroom risotto two weeks back, which was quite delicious. I made the banana-caramel bread pudding to go with it, which were really simple, really tasty, and will be added to the default dessert rotation. I will take the time to make my own caramel sauce next time, because store bought is generally flavored corn syrup, which is the opposite of yummy.
Last Tuesday I intended to make lamb, but was unable to find reasonably priced lamb of an appropriate cut to make kebabs out of. So I used some chicken and beef, covered generously with cumin and paprika. I also made flatbread from a recipe in the most recent Fine Cooking, done on the grill. It came out wonderfully, and is something I'll repeat often, as it was very easy and versatile. I made cucumber (leech the moisture like you would eggplant), dill, mint yogurt sauce to top these little Mediterranean tacos, along with red onion, cucumber, and tomato. Gotta use the full fat yogurt, none of that low fat stuff, and a good dollop of creme fraiche really brings the sauce together. I actually have a good bit of sauce leftover from this weekend, so I may try to find some lamb to grind up into a sort of doner kebab for this week, but last week doesn't inspire confidence.
I also made pie. I'm getting better with the crusts, but baking seems to be pretty fundamentally alien to my style of cooking. Measuring is for the birds. I made a strawberry-rhubarb-mango pie, which was quite delicious. You don't see rhubarb and mango together, probably because the places you can get good rhubarb you by definition get horrible mangoes and places where you can get good mangoes you probably just don't get rhubarb. It's too bad, because it is a fantastic combination, the tart rhubarb and the smooth sweet mango.
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