| Quick post, no pictures |
[Jun. 9th, 2007|11:07 pm] |
I may have pictures tomorrow when I do the decorated one for work, but...
Tonight I made a cake from scratch, including frosting, and it was GOOD. I don't normally make cakes, but I got a wild hair up my ass and decided I wanted a strawberry cake to celebrate strawberry season. This turned out to be more annoying than I thought it would be, because 99.999999% of strawberry cake recipes online have either jello or cake mix in them, or both. I just wanted a cake with fresh strawberries as the flavor, damn it. I found it on the Whole Foods website. It has a ridiculous amount of sugar, but in the end it turns out to be a wonderful buttery moist strawberry cake with tart sweet strawberry icing. My husband had two slices. I sort of wish that I had made it with double layers instead of the sheet cake version, but it's still freakin' awesome. |
|
|
| Risotto |
[Jun. 4th, 2007|07:23 pm] |
No pictures for this one. It's not exactly photo-friendly.
Many novice chefs think that risotto is a very difficult thing to make. I'm here to tell you that it's simple, and it's one of the few meals that I can improvise without much trouble at all. Once you've made one, you've made them all--the only difference is ingredients. It's time-consuming, yes, but the general recipe itself is easy--if you can move your arm for a half-hour without giving yourself a RSI, you can make risotto.
The basic ingredients for 2 servings:
1 cup arborio rice. Arborio is the general rice used for risotto, because it has a short grain with a nice pearly center that can leave a good bite. You want the rice to be creamy and al dente when you're done.
An aromatic. I prefer finely minced shallots, about 1/4 to 1/3 cup's worth. I've used garlic or ramps before as well.
Olive oil. (Tonight I got a wild hair up my ass and used truffle oil)
Anywhere from 1/2 to 1 cup of white wine. If you're brave you can use marsala or sherry, but it really depends on your ingredients. My friend Nate gave me a great bacon risotto recipe that I believe used marsala. If I can find it I'll repost it here.
3-4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock, kept warm.
About 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese. And no, not the kind in the green can--you want the real stuff. Romano will also do in a pinch.
Depending on your addition, you may want to add a tbsp of lemon juice, but that's up to you and wholly not necessary.
Pepper to taste. If your stock had salt, you probably won't need more.
So, you've assembled your ingredients. Now what? Well, you need one pan on one burner set to low. That's for your broth. You need another saucier on another burner on medium for your risotto. Put some oil in that pan, just enough to coat the bottom, maybe 1-2 tablespoons. Make sure it's nice and hot and then throw in your aromatic and saute it for 2 minutes. Then add your rice, and you want to saute the rice, stirring it constantly, for 4-5 minutes. After that, add the wine. Stir constantly until most of the liquid is absorbed. Then, start adding the stock, 1/2 cup at a time. Stir constantly until each addition of liquid is almost absorbed before adding the next. Keep adding broth until the rice is creamy and al dente and seems like it won't accept any more liquid. After that, turn off the heat and stir in the cheese and salt/pepper if needed. Congratulations, you've achieved basic risotto.
Anything else is up to your imagination. You can use fish stock and stir in seafood, as I did once when I made a shrimp and crab risotto. Last week I mixed in some spring greens with the cheese, and stirred it around until they were just wilted before I served it. Tonight I sauteed up some shiitake and oyster mushrooms, garlic scapes, and more shallots separately, added some more white wine to reduce at the end, and flavored it with salt and white pepper. Stirred those in at the end of the risotto cook. Gonna piss off my husband that I didn't save this stuff for when he was home. |
|
|
| June 2nd CSA and Market buys |
[Jun. 2nd, 2007|01:57 pm] |
CSA netted me the usual half-dozen eggs and bag of greens, plus a small bag of spinach and another small bag of stinging nettles, along with some of those fun radishes from last week. The stinging nettles are interesting--before they're cooked, you have to wear gloves to handle them or they will hurt you, but after cooking they're fine. Which begs the question...who first thought it would be a good idea to try to see if this thing that hurts you raw won't hurt you when you cook it and swallow it?
We also got some yummy small strawberries, a pound of shiitake and oyster mushrooms, a huge bunch of delicous garlic scapes (which I have already used some of to make a nice batch of garlic scape pesto), and from inside the North Market, two spatchcocked chickens that we'll smoke tomorrow.
The camera is fixed, so tonight we'll be making Atomic Buffalo Turds and will hopefully have a nice picture post. |
|
|
| Also, tooting my own horn |
[May. 28th, 2007|09:11 am] |
I'm not a very good improvisational cook. Usually, my idea of improvising is finding a recipe that's close to what I envision, and then play around with it a bit. Very rarely can I just throw stuff together for an actual meal and end up with something that's as good as what I would have done had I been using a recipe. There are a few things I can improvise, but it's rare.
I just made a frittata with asparagus, caramelized ramps and Emmenthaler cheese that was as good as anything I could get in a restaurant for brunch, and I didn't use even the barest hint of a recipe. When I open the bed and breakfast, this is on the spring menu, if only for a couple of weeks. |
|
|
| Vegetarians beware... |
[May. 28th, 2007|08:06 am] |
This is the coolest video series I've seen on Youtube in quite some time.
Ever wonder what's involved in preparing your steaks? This is a six-part series, approximately 50 minutes long, that basically starts with a hanging cow carcass and ends with a whole bunch of meat. The butcher is amazing. It's like nothing I've ever seen. As someone who's about to buy a quarter of beef, it gives me a whole new respect for the people who prepare it for me. |
|
|
| It's the most wonderful time of the year! |
[May. 27th, 2007|10:37 am] |
Got our first CSA box of the year yesterday. Nice spring asparagus, a huge bag of mixed greens, some wee little radishes, and RAMPS! Oh, and a half-dozen eggs, which I'll get every week.
Sadly, my failure to recharge my camera batteries means I got documentation of none of this, but so far my weekend cooking has been pretty stellar. Here's a list:
Risotto with ramps and spring greens
Spring green salad with chopped radishes, feta cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette
Slow-grilled tri-tip (I'd never had tri-tip before, and it's incredibly flavorful. Give it a shot!)
Atomic Buffalo Turds, which will deserve their own post at some point in time. To get it down to basics, you stem, split lengthwise, and seed a jalapeno pepper, stuff it with cream cheese and a meat if you choose (we used plain cream cheese in some, and a li'l smokie sausage in the others), put the halves back together, wrap in bacon, toothpick closed, rub with your favorite dry rub, and grill on indirect for about 40 minutes until the bacon is crisp. We had a couple of friends over last night, and went through twelve of these and two sixers of beer in short order.
Buttermilk biscuits (my first ever attempt at biscuits from scratch, shockingly). I used them to make fatty sandwiches. I think I described fatties in here at some point. If I didn't, a fatty is simply a log of sausage (just buy Bob Evans or Jimmy Dean) covered in dry rub and slow-smoked for a few hours. Slices of fatty go extremely well with biscuits and cheddar cheese. I'd made the fatties last weekend and froze the slices, so I just reheated them this morning to go with the biscuits. Yum! Biscuits are easy, too. I don't think I'll be going back to the canned or mix variety anytime soon.
And just now, I got the ribs prepared. Took the membrane off the slab (not easy, but I think I got most of it) of spare ribs, covered the slab in yellow mustard, and then covered that in dry rub. They'll be smoking for about six hours. Hopefully the camera will be charged by then. |
|
|
| Gardening! |
[May. 13th, 2007|07:22 pm] |
One of my major goals when we got this house was to start a vegetable garden. Well, shit happens, and I'm not very good at gardening anyway, so it's been almost four years and I haven't done a thing other than grow herbs every summer. Well, we're working on getting an actual landscaper out to make sense of our overly-shaded backyard, and in the meantime, we just bought a couple of very fun experiments. By next weekend, I should have twos Topsy Turvy Tomato Trees, and some hanging bags for herbs and other veggies.
Now is the time for you gardening types to suggest varieties of tomatoes I might like, because I need to go find some plants to put in them. |
|
|
| Laab (Spicy Thai beef salad) |
[Aug. 7th, 2006|07:28 pm] |
No pictures--it's not exactly pretty. I made it fo' realz, with the toasted rice powder and kaffir lime leaves and everything. It was delish.
However, the recipe involved me hand-tearing a CUP of mint leaves. My fingers are now very fragrant and stained with chlorophyll. |
|
|
| This week's farmer's market take |
[Aug. 5th, 2006|03:27 pm] |
A TON of tomatoes, both standard and heirloom
Two eggplants
Two green peppers
Five jalapenos
Three really nice looking shallots
Three ears of sweet corn
One small watermelon
A dozen jumbo eggs
Two trout
The trout are being grilled tonight using one of my favorite recipes of all time, Bacon-wrapped Trout Stuffed with Fresh Sage. The sage is from my herb garden, so all I had to buy was a lemon at Whole Foods. I'll be posting pictures of this tonight--I'm serving it with grilled corn and a smoked mozzarella and tomato salad. |
|
|
| Who needs restaurants? |
[Jul. 22nd, 2006|08:17 pm] |
Last night, I went out to Champps, where I had one of their summer specials, a "Vine-Ripened Tomato Salad." It had sliced tomatoes, coarsely chopped basil, lightly cooked onions (sliced into thin rings, and cooked enough to be limp but not enough to be translucent), crumbled blue cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. While I was eating it, I thought, "I could do better." In fact, I may have said that out loud at some point.
( Photographic evidence. ) |
|
|
| Farmer's Market Haul |
[Jul. 22nd, 2006|11:28 am] |
Husband is going out of town next week, so I didn't get much.
5 tomatoes
4 small eggplant
4 jalapeno peppers
a quart basket of green beans
fingerling redskin potatoes
a dozen eggs
a bunch of callaloo |
|
|
| I think I just ate summer. |
[Jul. 10th, 2006|06:08 pm] |
Husband is working late tonight at his side job, so I ended up just making myself a salad. Romaine lettuce, a chopped tomato, three slices of crumbled bacon, and a few homemade french bread croutons, with some fresh cracked black pepper and a dash of sea salt. I brought up a side of the dressing I made on Saturday, too.
It didn't need it. After about three bites I stopped using it. There was a bite of tomato for every bite of salad I had, and it was dressing enough. I grew up hating tomatoes, because I was used to the mealy, gritty, flavorless grocery store variety. There is nothing like a fresh tomato from a farmer's market. Juicy, firm, with a bright flavor, and even the seeds aren't all slimy and gross. I never used to like raw tomatoes, and now I'm at the point where I can eat the damned things like apples.
I want another one. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 9th, 2006|12:37 pm] |
Nothing like a brunch of bacon, lettuce, and fried green tomato sandwiches with Bell's Oberon. I bought the country bacon at Weiland's, which I've been looking at for a long time but never purchased. It's just sitting out in front of the meat cases, vacuum-sealed but not refrigerated. Let me tell you--I may never go back. It was even better than the organic bacon I got at the Worthington farmer's market last week. It cooks up thicker and crispier and...just yum. It also doesn't shrink as much as regular bacon. Bacon is probably one of my favorite foods ever.
Gonna go make pork goulash soon, and tonight I'm making a flank steak with mushrooms and green beans. That'll keep us set for most of the week as far as lunches go. |
|
|
| Another Saturday, another trip to the farmer's markets |
[Jul. 8th, 2006|11:30 am] |
Summer is officially kicking in, peeps. We almost filled four Trader Joe's bags full of stuff from two separate farmer's markets--I wasn't going to stop at Clintonville, but driving home we saw green tomatoes and I actually made my husband stop the car and drop me off.
Worthington:
A pint of black raspberries
Spicy mesclun greens
Small purple potatoes
A bunch of golden beets
About six tomatoes
Two cucumbers
Two zucchini and one yellow squash
A big bag of green beans
Sugar snap peas
Spring onions
Two green peppers
A small head of cabbage
Aged feta cheese
Spicy tomato chutney
A small bear of honey for my husband to use at the office
A two-pound pork loin roast
Clintonville:
Green tomatoes
Green onions, which I'd completely forgotten to get at Worthington
My plans so far include vegetable fried rice (I have leftover rice in the fridge), something involving the pork roast with the cabbage, a roasted root vegetable dish (gonna have to get carrots and turnips at Weiland's), cucumber pickles, and tonight's dinner will be a fried green tomato salad with feta cheese dressing. |
|
|
| Broiled stuffed tomatoes |
[Jul. 4th, 2006|06:35 pm] |
Just had these as sides for more of those bistro steaks from Weiland's. They're about the most perfect side dish for a steak that I can imagine. I put them in the broiler when we got the steaks off the grill and tented, and by the time we had the tomatoes out of the broiler and plated, the steaks were ready. I'd imagine this is relatively good for the latter stages of a low-carb diet, as well.
Two ripe tomatoes
1 oz crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped basil
Approximately 4-6 large kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Slice the tops off the tomatoes. Carefully remove the pulp from the inside of the tomatoes. Discard the seeds and coarsely chop the flesh. Place the chopped flesh in a large mixing bowl, and combine with the remaining ingredients. Stuff the mixture into the two tomato shells. Broil for two minutes. Serve immediately. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 3rd, 2006|01:42 pm] |
I got that Shun bread knife today. I also got the paring knife that my husband ordered me as a surprise. W00t! Now all I need is the utility knife and I'm set.
Gonna make something for dinner tonight that should photograph pretty well. Keep an eye out. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
notable_table's journal