What's cooking? part 4

I was in CA in...June? and the avocados and stone fruits were SO GOOD that when I came back I craved them all summer...but they just weren't the same here.

There wasn't any bread in the house for breakfast yesterday, but there were plenty of eggs so I baked a dutch baby. The convection is magic - normal bake time is 25 minutes at 425 deg F and this one was puffy and done in 15 min at 400 deg F. So tasty, with butter and a sprinkle of lemon juice and a drift of powdered sugar. Also, so good to be cooking in my own kitchen for a few days.

This afternoon I'm making up a pot roast - we stopped in at Pike Place Market to make some groceries yesterday and I went overboard on gorgeous vegetables: beets, yukon gold taters, baby bok choi, fennel. I leave again on Monday, need to get all these roasted/sauteed/eaten before then!

so far tonight - teriyake salmon (slightly over cooked unfortunately) on top of a soba and green bean salad thing, mug of miso with red pepper, spring onion and chilli on the side.

For tomorrow - chilli, using chuck steak, pinto beans and aduki beans. Heated up again tomorrow it should be ace.

Did the potroast tonight - lardons, garlic, sundried tomatoes, peppercorns, juniper berries, allspice, bay, 1 bottle Valpolicella. 2 hours in the oven. Done with oven-fried yukon gold taters (slice in 1/2, dab of lard underneath each, soft butter spread on top, sprinkles of salt, ground black pepper, thyme, roasted in a cast iron skillet). The beauty of convection had these crispy on the outside and silky inside in 45 min @ 300 deg F. I'm sold.

Accompanied by sauteed beet greens (so festive!) and steamed fennel. And additional bottle of Valpolicella.

http://orangette.blogspot.com/2007/10/sneaky-sneaky.html

^^^OTM

Sossidges tonight! This may not seem like much, but after three weeks of ready meals it is a victory for Miss Cripple here.

uh oh - have you been incapacitated?

i've made a few pasta dishes over the past week: one from alice waters using cored brussel sprouts (great, but boy was it a pain to core those little guys) and a very inauthentic soba noodle dish involving sesame sauce and a lot of quick-pickled kirby cucumbers. i just picked up some eggs from the greenmarket, so i think tonight is going to be fritatta night. with carmelized onion, perhaps?

This week: chicken and onion risotto, lancashire hotpot, po' boys, apple and blackberry crumble, pecan and cranberry bread and butter pudding, rocchetti with upholland pancetta and mushrooms, chestnut and chorizo soup, mushroom and garstang blue soup, houmous, tabbouleh, lots of roast chicken, kale and parsley fritatta, smoked mackerel fishcakes with tzatziki, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toast, salmon and chilli tagliatelle, bouillabaisse, poulet au pot, more pancakes than I care to remember, enough full english breakfasts to kill several men, roast mushroom butties galore.

Guess whose finally opened his deli?

tonight the old standby spaghetti & meatballs, my son's favorite also his grndfather who's coming over. I use ground veal w/a bit of parmesan easy on the breadcrumbs splash of milk and nutmeg, garlicky marinara.

jaq's pot roast sounds like food o the gods. I love my convention option but you've really got to WATCH IT.

convention = convection

Congrats Matt! I wish I lived in your neighborhood, all that sounds fantastic.

Congratulations, Matt, that all sounds amazing. Do you have a recipe to share for your chorizo and chestnut soup - I made a chestnut soup for Christmas last year which was lovely, but could do with something different this year and that might just be it!

gah, I haven't cooked anything in weeks due to the despair of hotel living, but now I am back home and have just fried up some side pork for breakfast.

Matt, that's fantastic! Mr. Jaq and I are talking about some sort of UK sojourn in 2008 and will come and eat all yr foodz when that happens!

Term is over, and now I am starting to enter my kitchen again. Onion soup today. Num num onions.

what to do w/boring bland old boneless chicken breasts? tonight I rubbed em w/a paste made of cilantro oliver oil chili powder cumin & coriander (dried) 1 clove garlic minced S&P. cored & chopped a 1 lb package of tomatoes then spread them around/on top of the chicken breasts in a pyrex dish. 450 over for 20 minutes, not bad served with curry couscous and steamed spinach. from Mark Bittman w/a few adjustments.

If I have to have boneless chicken breasts (and I do, because it's the only part of the bird my wife will eat), I generally pound them flat, dredge in seasoned flour, brown and set aside, turn the fond into a sauce with whatever is tasty and at hand. Add the chicken back, simmer a few minutes, serve chicken and sauce with a starch.

Or I make chicken curry soup.

Ooh, Deli Matt sounds fab!

uh oh - have you been incapacitated?

I fell arse over tit over double-fractured ankle on the way home from work last month. The cast is off now, but I'm still extremely hobbly. Last night's cooking was done by Domino's I'm afraid. Still, I'm going to bring out the mulling spice ice-cream recipe for a party on Saturday night.

omg! so sorry to hear that but glad you're on the mend. some mulled wine along with the spiced ice cream will probably speed recovery.

best dish so far: rice/spinach/ginger/garlic mix. da frigging yum.

tonights meal =

smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich
i.e. two discs of derbyshire oatcake enclosing 2 salmon rashers (lovely smoked salmon we get at work) with rocket and a bit of wasabi creme fraiche

Then cassoulet:
a bit different to norm as MiL doesn't do pork so it had lamb and garlic sausages, some great little lamb chops and some confit duck legs and gizzards, nice crisp crust too which helps - washed down with an excellent Irouleguy.

Pudding was going to be a pannetone bread and butter pudding but my timings were cack, so we'r cracking into a bottle of port instead

i made a quick curry with string beans, a little onion and chicken tonight. served with brown rice. it was kind of not so great.

who has the best easy curry recipe? my friend makes a great one with sour cream. i tried with yogurt tonight but it ended up a bit odd and i think i overseasoned :(

Easiest and always good:

1. Fry mix of minced onion+garlic+ginger+chili in neutral oil.
2. When soft, add spices (like a tablespoon of curry powder, or your own mixtrue). Fry for a minute, until quite dry.
3. Add a can of coconut milk. Bring to boil, let cook down 10-15 minutes until reduced by a bunch.
4. Now you can add whatever protein you want (chunks of boneless chicken, shrimp, etc.) and cook in the simmering liquid. When that's done, you're done. Squeeze over some lime, add some cilantro if you want/have any.

thank you. yes, that is easy but i am also looking for something without coconut milk (sorry i should have said that before) because it's more than likely i won't have that on hand at any given time when i decide i want to throw a bunch of random crap into a curry.

what i've been doing lately:

1) chop up a bunch of veg (and whatever protein you're using) and mix in a bowl with a good quality curry powder. make sure all pieces are more or less dusted and let sit for half an hour or so.
2) chop and fry garlic/onion/ginger/etc as g00blar says.
3) add veg and saute. if you've got meat in there, you want it to sear and brown a bit.
4) add some moisture (ie, water or broth) and cook covered for a bit until veg soften up.
5) cook with lid off for a bit to reduce sauce.

For some reason lately I've been really into chilaquiles, either tomato or tomatillo, with chicken, slices of onion, queso añejo, and a fried egg on top.

Roast butternut squash with harissa and goat cheese or drained yogurt is pretty good too.

And roast brussel sprouts, sometimes with fish sauce, chili, and mint. Or at least salt, pepper, oil, and lemon juice.

^^#1 sounds wild! I roast sprouts w/garlic or shallots olive oil S&P and finish w/a little stock.

gonna make my annual xmas ham here @ my sisters w/old fashioned pineapple glaze/rings and radioactive maraschino cherries

i went through a phase of having a baked sweet potato with crumbled goat or feta cheese and some kind of chili condiment for dinner at least 3x a week, but i never thought of trying it with squash for some reason. good idea. and i heartily endorse the fish sauce/chili/mint combo for sprouts - so, so tasty.

i'm about to go on deviled egg duty for a cocktail party. xmas is gonna be duck, with a prune/apple stuffing.

I was on deviled egg duty as usual this year for the family get-together, and did something a little different. I seasoned up some shrimp with garlic, chili powder, cayenne, S&P, and sauteed them in a crazy amount of butter...took the shrimp out, turned the butter into a sauce with some key lime juice and white wine. Coarsely chopped the shrimp, combined with sauce, and put a spoonful of that in each egg half before I piped the egg yolk part on top.

Christmas things are about to be cooked. Meringues, cranberry sauce, bread sauce and giblet stock. I think that's all I'm doing today other than prepping so that I don't have too much to do tomorrow other than make soup and cook the turkey/veg and assemble things.

I'm making up pumpkin pudding today. I'm also supposed to provide roast potatoes - I guess it makes sense to roast them today and reheat them (after transporting them south 60 miles) tomorrow.

in the process of making Xmas pudding ice cream, and the Agen prunes are soaking in a mixture of armagnac and port ready for pudding.

Also Pigs in blankets are ready for P&M's later on (yes yes, we're having two dinners:) )

Dinner tomorrow will be foie gras (bloc only unfortunately) on brioche toast, followed by a rack of lamb, Cavolo nero with bacon, maple carrots and potatoes (either dauphinoise or Boulangere - haven't decided yet) washed down by a Ravenswood Zinfandel.

and then the pud mentioned above.

Hopefully It'll go down ok - I've been feeling bloody awful for days

Can someone please remind me -- or better yet, give me some sort of mnemonic -- for the test of whether eggs are still usable (for, you know, making cookies in this instance). It has to do with whether it floats in water, right? Or doesn't float? Sigh.

Fresh eggs will sink to the bottom of fresh water. This is because the air cell in the large end is small to non-existent. As an egg ages, the air cell grows larger - a 2 or 3-week old egg will float pointed side down, but still be mostly underwater. Eggs that float mostly above the water are probably too old to be used.

Eggs make good cookies for 5-6 weeks, if they've been stored in the fridge, but the freshest eggs make the best meringue.

How about the mnemonic "fester" (Fresh Eggs Sink; Tired Eggs Rise)?

The eggs were no good, so I made cardamom shortbread instead. But, well, maybe I'll remember "fester"...

Hopefully It'll go down ok - I've been feeling bloody awful for days

I trust it did, and that you're better, it all sounds absolutely phenomenal.

Christmas dinner at Coastal towers was a roast goose, with shredded sprouts fried with pine-nuts and a local pancetta. As a result everything since has been cooked in goose fat, hurray.

Halibut steak steamed over fennel and white wine. Sauteed fennel as a side and slices of yummy pumpernickel.

God i love fennel

chicken & garlic stew -- chick parts and two heads of g cut up in cloves braised in stock w/ a little cinnamon

the other day I made ziti w/sauted califlower & garlic & red onion, finished w/mint and grated parm. tasty.

Anyone have a recommendation for temp/time for roasting a half leg of lamb? 620g/1.5 lbs, bone-in.

From memory (ie. best check with others) half an hour per 500g at 180 degrees.

Dinner tonight: pork shoulder roast rubbed with cracked black pepper and thyme, carrots braised in butter/maple/caraway/black pepper.

I made these brownies tonight; they're cooling RIGHT NOW.

Pretty damn good, even if they're sort of falling apart. Dark chocolate+espresso makes them "complex", but I wouldn't have minded if they were a bit more straightforwardly sweet chocolate goo.

I owed the GF over for a special dinner (she's been cooking up a storm for us), so for my first major meal for us I pained over the following menu:

1) SALAD: a winter salad with baby arugula, microgreens, pomegranate seeds and shaved almonds with a meyer lemon/olive oil dressing. garnished with some red and yellow and orange mini peppers (semi-sweet).

2) APP 1: prawn cocktail with straight cocktail sauce adding a little south east asian chili-garlic sauce for a little more mmmmmmmmm.

3) APP 2: apple cured bacon wrapped brussel sprouts. cheated on the bacon by microwaving it half-way (sacrilege!) and then wrapping around the partially-steamed sprouts. i had some left over prawns so i wrapped a couple of these too and threw the shrimp and sprouts in a frying pan with some butter/olive oil and browned them up.

4) STARCH 1: fingerling potatoes with oyster, shiitake and maitake mushrooms. boiled the potatoes til nearly done and then threw in the soaked mushrooms for flavor. added some parsley. finished it off by draining then simmering the potatoes in the mushroom broth with a little butter, salt and pepper and more parsley.

5) ENTREE: local wild halibut. got a nice medium-belly cut from my hook-up at the fish market. soaked this in juice of 3 meyer lemons for a little more than 20 minutes. folded some foil underneath and then threw it in the broiler for a little more than 10 minutes (the lemon juice starts to boil). garnished with cilantro, a couple more of the mini peppers, and served on a bed of

6) STARCH 2: the coup d'grace: my mother's grits recipe, dressed up with a teeny bit of truffle oil and some saffron. this came out super good as well as...

7) VEGETABLE: side of yellow zucchini. crisp, super sweet and just a dash of salt on top for flavor.

8) DESSERT: hand-packed pomegranate/tangerine gelato from the folks at Ciao Bella (ex-NYC gelateria whom i love), with a few pomegranate seeds for garnish, and a splash of framboise liqueur.

We split a bottle of a bone dry Reisling from Santa Cruz.

Good times.

I did the popcorn in the paper lunchbag with staples thing the other night.
it turned out AWESOME.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_11374,00.html

hooorrraaaay alton brown

staples + microwave = O_o

office staples are shorter than the wavelength of the microwaves and thus don't spark