So I moved across the country. The trip itself is another post, maybe. I'm not sure we had any real culinary adventures, aside from fry sauce (meh) and some very good barbeque in Lovelock, Nevada, of which the beans that were almost as much linguisa as beans were definitely the highlight. At any rate, I now reside in Merced, CA.
My basis for comparison is Storrs, but to be fair to CT, I'll include Manchester and Vernon in my local area. Merced, at first pass, pretty much kicks the crap out of it either way. On the fast food front, the presence of In'n'out and Sonic means that it's possible to eat a cheap, quick burger and fries without ingesting toxic additives. Also, strawberry limeade.
I was anticipating being able to get better Mexican food, but my only venture in that direction has been at the 24 hour drive through called Victoria's. Yeah, 24 hour drive through Mexican food. It is cheap, and everything I've tried has been really good. Their beans are a bit too salty for my taste, but the horchata is muy deliciouso. Did I mention they're open 24 hours and I don't have to get out of my car? I've seen at least four or five other Mexican places, including one with a lunch buffet and another that apparently specializes in enchiladas.
As far as other cuisines, I've seen a couple of different asian countries represented, one Italian place, and an Indian place. I went to a Vietnamese place for lunch today, called Rice Bowl. The summer roll was good, if not as fat as I'm used to, and the coffee was great, but the pho was not terribly impressive. The broth was a bit weak, both in spice and general beefiness, and there was no basil included. A nice guy who was arriving as I was about to leave told me there's another one down the street, but that the pho there was too heavily spiced, particularly with ginger. Apparently San Jose has a ton of Vietnamese places, which were the standard for him. I think the strength of this place may be in their non-pho dishes, which I will have to explore at some point.
I'm about to hit the grocery store for the first time, to get some staples and food for the week. I need to explore the different options for grocery stores, especially the ethnic specialty stores, of which there seem to be many.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Ravioli with meat sauce
Tonight was the last regular (to the extent that they ever have been) Tuesday night dinner, ironically, on a Wednesday. I wanted to use some of the tools I don't use a lot, do something a little different, as well as delicious.
I ended up making the ricotta for the ravioli. It's a dead simple recipe, takes no time and is delicious. One gallon of milk, one quart of buttermilk. Combine in a big non-reactive pot over high heat. Stir frequently until it hits 175-180 degrees, at which point the curds and whey will separate. Remove from heat, and ladle the curds into cheesecloth over a strainer. Pull the ends of the cheesecloth together and hang it for 5-15 minutes depending on how loose you want the ricotta to be. The recipe emphasized that the flavor really comes from the quality of the milk, and I got raw milk from some local farms, which worked out wonderfully. To make it into ravioli filling, I added two eggs, a head of roasted garlic, a bit of parmesan, some fresh basil and parsley, salt, pepper and a touch of lemon juice.
I also made the pasta dough. Jamie Oliver had a bit about making your own pasta on a show about eggs, and asked the question of why anyone would buy pasta when it was so easy to make. Tonight really drove that home. If you have a food processor and a pasta roller, it really is a trivial task. Half a cup of flour (plus a bit for adjustment) for each egg, about one egg worth per person. Process it until it changes from a whizzing noise to a thumping noise. Squeeze it, if it sticks to your fingers, add a bit of flour and process until it's incorporated. Repeat until it just sticks to your fingers. Dump it onto a floured surface, work it together, throw it through the roller. Flour it lightly, fold it in half, roll it again. Repeat this four or five times, then roll it to the desired thickness. We made ravioli, and the second setting was pretty much ideal. The ones we did on the lowest setting were too thin and came apart in the water too easily.
The sauce was basically a cross between a traditional ragu and pot roast. I got some top round roast that was on sale (I would definitely experiment with other roasts, this was a bit hard to shred). Seared the salted and peppered pieces of roast, deglazed with onions, garlic, carrots, celery and leeks. When they were soft, I added some red wine and beef stock and let it simmer for a bit. I then crushed some cans of peeled tomatoes with my hands and added them. I added too many and then couldn't fit the roast pieces back in, so I pulled out a bit of the vegetable mixture and set it aside (I added it again when I put the leftovers away). Roast pieces back in, lid on, into the oven for a couple of hours. I pulled it out, pulled out the roast pieces and shredded them with a pair of forks, returned the shredded meat to the pot, and put it back in the oven for a bit to let the smaller pieces absorb a bit of liquid.
It was pretty delicious and very filling. I plan on adapting it to cooking for one by making the sauce ahead of time and freezing single portions, and then making the pasta with the mini cuisinart I have. Probably not ravioli, but it takes less time to make a batch of pasta and rough cut it into tagliatelle than to boil a pot of water. I eat a good bit of pasta in the winter, and while I won't really have winter in CA, I imagine I'll still be eating pasta.
I ended up making the ricotta for the ravioli. It's a dead simple recipe, takes no time and is delicious. One gallon of milk, one quart of buttermilk. Combine in a big non-reactive pot over high heat. Stir frequently until it hits 175-180 degrees, at which point the curds and whey will separate. Remove from heat, and ladle the curds into cheesecloth over a strainer. Pull the ends of the cheesecloth together and hang it for 5-15 minutes depending on how loose you want the ricotta to be. The recipe emphasized that the flavor really comes from the quality of the milk, and I got raw milk from some local farms, which worked out wonderfully. To make it into ravioli filling, I added two eggs, a head of roasted garlic, a bit of parmesan, some fresh basil and parsley, salt, pepper and a touch of lemon juice.
I also made the pasta dough. Jamie Oliver had a bit about making your own pasta on a show about eggs, and asked the question of why anyone would buy pasta when it was so easy to make. Tonight really drove that home. If you have a food processor and a pasta roller, it really is a trivial task. Half a cup of flour (plus a bit for adjustment) for each egg, about one egg worth per person. Process it until it changes from a whizzing noise to a thumping noise. Squeeze it, if it sticks to your fingers, add a bit of flour and process until it's incorporated. Repeat until it just sticks to your fingers. Dump it onto a floured surface, work it together, throw it through the roller. Flour it lightly, fold it in half, roll it again. Repeat this four or five times, then roll it to the desired thickness. We made ravioli, and the second setting was pretty much ideal. The ones we did on the lowest setting were too thin and came apart in the water too easily.
The sauce was basically a cross between a traditional ragu and pot roast. I got some top round roast that was on sale (I would definitely experiment with other roasts, this was a bit hard to shred). Seared the salted and peppered pieces of roast, deglazed with onions, garlic, carrots, celery and leeks. When they were soft, I added some red wine and beef stock and let it simmer for a bit. I then crushed some cans of peeled tomatoes with my hands and added them. I added too many and then couldn't fit the roast pieces back in, so I pulled out a bit of the vegetable mixture and set it aside (I added it again when I put the leftovers away). Roast pieces back in, lid on, into the oven for a couple of hours. I pulled it out, pulled out the roast pieces and shredded them with a pair of forks, returned the shredded meat to the pot, and put it back in the oven for a bit to let the smaller pieces absorb a bit of liquid.
It was pretty delicious and very filling. I plan on adapting it to cooking for one by making the sauce ahead of time and freezing single portions, and then making the pasta with the mini cuisinart I have. Probably not ravioli, but it takes less time to make a batch of pasta and rough cut it into tagliatelle than to boil a pot of water. I eat a good bit of pasta in the winter, and while I won't really have winter in CA, I imagine I'll still be eating pasta.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Braised pork roast with fennel and apples
Pork roast was on sale, buy one get one today, so I picked up two smaller ones (2.5 lbs, roughly). I knew I wanted to do something with the shiny new dutch oven that Carissa got for me. So I synthesized a couple different recipes based on what caught my eye and what was in the house. Namely, fennel and apples.
I cut slits in the roasts and put slivers of garlic in them. Roughly 15-20 slits, maybe two cloves per roast. I rubbed salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and fennel fronds into the meat, and then seared each on all sides in the dutch oven with a bit of peppery olive oil. I set them aside, and tossed some onion cut into thick slices and whole cloves of garlic. One large onion, the rest of the bulb of garlic. I tossed that around to loosen the sticky goodness leftover from the searing, then properly deglazed with about half a cup of cider. I put the biggest, outside pieces of the fennel bulbs (after trimming the top and bottom and slicing into half inch discs), on the bottom of the pan to keep the roasts up a bit. I put the roasts back in, and wedged the rest of the fennel in along with two apples sliced about like the fennel. I added another half a cup to a cup of apple cider (whatever was left in the bottle), a couple of sprigs of rosemary, covered it and put it in a 325 degree oven. I have convection, but I don't really think it matters too much, since it's cooking for so long. I left it in there about 3 hours 15 min, it probably was find after about 2 and a half, and I probably could have left it in there for another hour or so without too much going wrong. The meat was falling apart, had all of the sweetness from the cider and apples and the herbiness of the rosemary. The apples had all but disintegrated, and the fennel was on its way, but still delicious. I think if I was using a smaller roast, I'd put more fennel in, because it felt like there wasn't enough, but there really wasn't room for much more than the two bulbs I used. Less liquid and some root vegetables would be interesting as well.
I served it over whipped (sort of, the mixer went with my sister when she moved out) potatoes with a bit of parsley, and a simple salad on the side.
Hmmm, looking back at that, I wonder if I should write these up as proper recipes. I do lot of recipes out of magazines and don't want to really muck about with copyright, though. But I guess in cases like this it wouldn't be bad to make it an actual recipe.
I cut slits in the roasts and put slivers of garlic in them. Roughly 15-20 slits, maybe two cloves per roast. I rubbed salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and fennel fronds into the meat, and then seared each on all sides in the dutch oven with a bit of peppery olive oil. I set them aside, and tossed some onion cut into thick slices and whole cloves of garlic. One large onion, the rest of the bulb of garlic. I tossed that around to loosen the sticky goodness leftover from the searing, then properly deglazed with about half a cup of cider. I put the biggest, outside pieces of the fennel bulbs (after trimming the top and bottom and slicing into half inch discs), on the bottom of the pan to keep the roasts up a bit. I put the roasts back in, and wedged the rest of the fennel in along with two apples sliced about like the fennel. I added another half a cup to a cup of apple cider (whatever was left in the bottle), a couple of sprigs of rosemary, covered it and put it in a 325 degree oven. I have convection, but I don't really think it matters too much, since it's cooking for so long. I left it in there about 3 hours 15 min, it probably was find after about 2 and a half, and I probably could have left it in there for another hour or so without too much going wrong. The meat was falling apart, had all of the sweetness from the cider and apples and the herbiness of the rosemary. The apples had all but disintegrated, and the fennel was on its way, but still delicious. I think if I was using a smaller roast, I'd put more fennel in, because it felt like there wasn't enough, but there really wasn't room for much more than the two bulbs I used. Less liquid and some root vegetables would be interesting as well.
I served it over whipped (sort of, the mixer went with my sister when she moved out) potatoes with a bit of parsley, and a simple salad on the side.
Hmmm, looking back at that, I wonder if I should write these up as proper recipes. I do lot of recipes out of magazines and don't want to really muck about with copyright, though. But I guess in cases like this it wouldn't be bad to make it an actual recipe.
Monday, September 15, 2008
To be resumed
I've been lax in updating the last couple months. I was finishing my dissertation and thus didn't have a lot of time to update. As a result the Tuesday night dinners either haven't been happening, or were something quick and/or not terribly interesting.
I'm moving to California in early October, which will unfortunately cut down on the Tuesday night dinners to almost non-existent, since I was unable to negotiate a benefits package that included weekly flights the east coast. I will have a fabulous kitchen and be living in the area that produces a huge amount of the produce consumed in the US, so I will be cooking a lot. Expect it to feature smaller meals and experiments. My isolation may contribute to more frequent updates, we shall see.
I'm moving to California in early October, which will unfortunately cut down on the Tuesday night dinners to almost non-existent, since I was unable to negotiate a benefits package that included weekly flights the east coast. I will have a fabulous kitchen and be living in the area that produces a huge amount of the produce consumed in the US, so I will be cooking a lot. Expect it to feature smaller meals and experiments. My isolation may contribute to more frequent updates, we shall see.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
transmute leftovers to takeout
I had leftover slices of eye round, leftover fresh noodles, as well as onions, scallions, and bean sprouts. We made pho on Tuesday, but since Ryan made the broth, it was mostly an assembly meal, so I didn't post about it. I thought about making the noodles into a lo mein style thing when I was eating them on Tuesday, since the texture was very nice. I'd definitely get the same noodles again, they were terrific in the pho and perfect for this dish as well. I think they were Wang brand, which makes them even better.
I picked up some celery and mushrooms on the way home, but didn't end up using the mushrooms, since my sister was going to be partaking. They would have been delicious, however, so I will not where I would add them. I couldn't find shiitake, but fresh shiitake would be ideal, and crimini would be lovely as well.
I heated up a mix of oil (half and half vegetable and an extra peppery olive with a splash of sesame) over pretty high heat in my giant sauce pan (a stir fry pan would be good too). Once it started popping, threw in the chopped celery and onions (red, from the pho). Once they'd softened a bit, I pushed them over to the side and did the sliced eye round (salted and peppered, easy on the salt) in batches, just browning it and then moving it into the pile of aromatics. Once all the meat was in, I added mirin, soy sauce, leftover scallions and bean sprouts, as well as a ton of coarse ground black pepper and some garlic powder (I was lazy, but if I weren't I'd have put fresh in with the beef). I stirred and let it simmer while I put the noodles in the boiling water. Add a bit more soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper and other seasonings to taste (red pepper flakes or chili sauce if you want some heat). If you want to do it exactly like me, you need to stop paying attention to the noodles just before they're about to boil over, and make a terrific mess of your stove. Ideally, you skip that step, but it seems to happen very quickly, and the fresh noodles are done in a couple of minutes tops. Turn everything off, and transfer the noodles (I used tongs, resulting in more mess) to the pan with the sauce. Basically, you're treating it like you would Italian pasta, you want it to still be hot and still have a decent amount of pasta water on it. Toss it to combine, and the pasta should soak up a good amount of the liquid, and what remains should combine with the pasta water and be thick and lovely and covered with veggies and beef. It should look pretty much exactly like takeout lo mein, only fresher.
For a pound and a half of meat and two pounds of fresh noodles, I used about half an onion, four (six?) celery stalks, two scallions, and about a cup of bean sprouts. Maybe a quarter cup of mirin, and about half a cup of soy sauce, added as two separate quarter cups. Sesame oil was splashes, pepper was grind until my hand got tired, and maybe a teaspoon or two of garlic powder.
I picked up some celery and mushrooms on the way home, but didn't end up using the mushrooms, since my sister was going to be partaking. They would have been delicious, however, so I will not where I would add them. I couldn't find shiitake, but fresh shiitake would be ideal, and crimini would be lovely as well.
I heated up a mix of oil (half and half vegetable and an extra peppery olive with a splash of sesame) over pretty high heat in my giant sauce pan (a stir fry pan would be good too). Once it started popping, threw in the chopped celery and onions (red, from the pho). Once they'd softened a bit, I pushed them over to the side and did the sliced eye round (salted and peppered, easy on the salt) in batches, just browning it and then moving it into the pile of aromatics. Once all the meat was in, I added mirin, soy sauce, leftover scallions and bean sprouts, as well as a ton of coarse ground black pepper and some garlic powder (I was lazy, but if I weren't I'd have put fresh in with the beef). I stirred and let it simmer while I put the noodles in the boiling water. Add a bit more soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper and other seasonings to taste (red pepper flakes or chili sauce if you want some heat). If you want to do it exactly like me, you need to stop paying attention to the noodles just before they're about to boil over, and make a terrific mess of your stove. Ideally, you skip that step, but it seems to happen very quickly, and the fresh noodles are done in a couple of minutes tops. Turn everything off, and transfer the noodles (I used tongs, resulting in more mess) to the pan with the sauce. Basically, you're treating it like you would Italian pasta, you want it to still be hot and still have a decent amount of pasta water on it. Toss it to combine, and the pasta should soak up a good amount of the liquid, and what remains should combine with the pasta water and be thick and lovely and covered with veggies and beef. It should look pretty much exactly like takeout lo mein, only fresher.
For a pound and a half of meat and two pounds of fresh noodles, I used about half an onion, four (six?) celery stalks, two scallions, and about a cup of bean sprouts. Maybe a quarter cup of mirin, and about half a cup of soy sauce, added as two separate quarter cups. Sesame oil was splashes, pepper was grind until my hand got tired, and maybe a teaspoon or two of garlic powder.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
experiments in cooling beverages
It is now well into iced tea season. I usually consume about 1-3 mugs (my mug is a bit larger than a pint, apparently, so saying 2-3 cups is misleading) of tea a day during the cooler months. I usually use a bit of skim milk and one teaspoon of organic sugar per giant mug. I am a fairly warm blooded person. Some of my friends have compared my thermal output to volcanoes and other such phenomena. So once it gets warm (by which I mean over 70 degrees), I start drinking iced tea instead. I usually have a gallon pitcher in the fridge, and have a small half gallon pitcher that I use for non-standard tea. I like my tea a little bit sweet, and since sugar is a pain to integrate with cool beverages, I've been experimenting with simple syrups. I've made ginger syrup (used it on fruit salad, but it was delicious with black tea as well), lime syrup (for mojito inspired tea), but a happy accident was what led me to make some vanilla syrup. I have a tub of sugar into which I put all the used vanilla pods and some older pods that got a bit tried out. This subtly infuses the sugar with vanilla. This tub was nearly out of sugar, and I was trying to get a cup out of it, and accidentally ended up with some vanilla pod bits in the syrup. I left them in there, and the flavor intensified a good bit in the syruping process. It is quite delicious in black tea, and I've been repeating the accident since.
Some other experiments I'd like to try include barley tea, which is apparently very popular in Japan, and more with green teas. Most of the iced green tea I make and purchase seems to have a woody or smoky flavor, which I'm not fond of. It's not bad, and in most commercial applications its usually covered with excessive sweetness. I'm trying shorter brew times with more bags, and it seems to mitigate it a bit.
I didn't forget to update last week, I did beer brats again. The only thing I did differently was grilled some onions to go with them. Skewers through the slices made them really easy to handle, and they were quite delicious. I should say something about the red bean paste I made, but that's for another post.
Some other experiments I'd like to try include barley tea, which is apparently very popular in Japan, and more with green teas. Most of the iced green tea I make and purchase seems to have a woody or smoky flavor, which I'm not fond of. It's not bad, and in most commercial applications its usually covered with excessive sweetness. I'm trying shorter brew times with more bags, and it seems to mitigate it a bit.
I didn't forget to update last week, I did beer brats again. The only thing I did differently was grilled some onions to go with them. Skewers through the slices made them really easy to handle, and they were quite delicious. I should say something about the red bean paste I made, but that's for another post.
Friday, May 30, 2008
chicken wedding soup
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.
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.
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