Pesto, Tomato Grilled Cheese (Wednesday, August 3, 2011)

I've been less apt to write about my cooking lately since Erin is gone and most of my meals are done Bachelor style; quick, cheap with disregard for presentation.  So, for the next 10 months, this blog will focus on cooking for one (Bachelor style).

Twice in three days I've made Grilled cheese with sliced tomato and a smear of pesto.  I've managed to save a few tomatoes (~7) from the birds and squirrels.  So, having my "abundance" of tomatoes, I've made several tomato sandwiches, some for breakfast with a smear of cream cheese on a toasted bagel, and others in grilled sandwiches.  I have a variety of cheeses on hand and I recently made pesto with the purple basil from my garden.  The purple is similar to the "standard" Genovese.  It seems a little sweeter and a bit more floral when smelling but it tastes very nearly the same.
First, I made some Parmesan crisps.  I grated Parmesan cheese and sprinkled it in a pan (medium heat) until it melted and browned a bit.  It then dried on the cutting board.  The bread was lightly brushed with olive oil.  One piece of bread goes down.  Next was grated Gruyere.  I have a Sheep Gruyere thatss very bitter and pungent.  It's been in the fridge "aging" for a while now and has mold.  Most cheeses are still good when moldy and simply develop new flavor.  You may or may not like those developments.  I usually do.  I also have a Cow "Gruyere-like" cheese from the CSA I recently joined (http://fairshares.org/).  On top of the cheese I added about 10 thin slices of tomato with pepper and salt.  Then the second piece of bread, this one smeared with a spoonful of pesto.  About 5 minutes on each side with medium heat gave me good color and melty cheese.  I then opened the sandwich and added a few pieces of Parmesan crisps.  For about 15 minutes, I LOVED being a vegetarian!!!  This would definitely make my sports bar menu.  

Pork Belly, Tea Eggs, Noodles (Tuesday, August 2, 2011)

This picture is not pretty.  Front and center is
a pool of pork fat.  I don't really care though
when I'm eating by myself in my underwear at
10 pm.  I miss you Erin.

You ever have that feeling when you finally get the motivation to write an entry on your food blog after months of laziness and as soon as your almost done writing your internet browser suddenly crashes?  Me neither.  Last night, my friend Justin donated a large hunk of pork belly from his slab.  You can cook it like bacon.... or you can cut it into thick pieces and pan fry it will a lot of spice.  Spicy please!  I marinated the belly in hot sauces, jalepenos, dried chilis and prickly ash (aka, sichuan pepper).  I then pan fried it in a wok. BOOM!  Meanwhile I made a noodle stir fry with cabbage, carrot, onion, garlic, ginger and sesame oil.  SPLOOSH!  I also made Tea Eggs.  KAZAAMM. To make, I boiled eggs for a few minutes until hard(ish), cracked the eggs all around, returned them to the boiling water and added mystery tea bags and mystery spices (nearly certain it was Chinese 5 spice.)  This all came in a boxed kit (a gift from a Chinese co-worker, Thanks Xiaoping).  These then cooked for a while longer and eventually sat overnight in the tea (but not the ones in this picture.) The longer they sit the darker they turn.  They actually look a very disgusting shiny brown after a full night but they taste like boiled eggs.  Except they have a slight aroma and soft taste of tea and cinnamon.  The highlight obviously was the pork belly.  It was bursting with delicious savory spice.  

Buckwheat Soba Soup (Thursday, July 14, 2011)

This is a simple and healthy thing to make when you have lots of fresh produce and not much time. I boiled some noodles (Buckwheat Soba) and rinsed them in cold water.  The base of the broth was beef stock, water, mirin and memmi (a liquid soup base).  Beef stock by itself would be fine.  In the broth I also added garlic, lemongrass and ginger.  I put herbs, vegetables and noodles in a bowl and poured the broth over it, straining out the garlic, lemongrass and ginger.  This particular soup has lemon basil, Vietnamese cilantro, mint, carrots, banana pepper and mixed greens all from my garden.  Simple.  Healthy. Refreshing. Filling.

Jewbombs (Sunday, June 19, 2011)

The picture here is poor.  I was already drunk
enough not to care.

These are a hefty and spicy appetizer that I stole from my dad.  He just calls them bacon wrapped jalepenos but I call them "Jewbombs."  Why you say?  Well, they contain pork (bacon), shellfish (crab filling) and are obviously very spicy (hence the "-bomb" portion).  All you do is split and clean the jalepenos, fill them with a crab dip and wrap them in a half strip of bacon with a toothpick to hold it all together.  You can use plain cream cheese or any filling of your liking (most deli sections have "cajun crab dip").  The filling on this occasion contained cream cheese, crab meat, canned chipotle peppers and various spices.  Don't try to eat too many or it will spoil your dinner.  They are extremely filling.  Oh, and make sure to have a cold beer nearby.

Grilled Peach w/ Ice Cream (Sunday June 26, 2011)

For dessert, a white peach from the grill with ice cream.  Simply, I wrapped half a white peach in foil with butter and brown sugar and put it on the cool part of the grill while I cooked.  I then added a scoop of strawberry ice cream and a little bit of basil.  The ice cream is a standard rich vanilla ice cream (same recipe as usual, see "bacon ice cream") with sliced strawberries mixed in.  This is a fast and easy dessert for hot summer days.  You're guaranteed to have a corner of free space on the grill anyway, may as well put a peach there.  In fact, many fruits could substitute (i.e. apple, pear, apricot).

Pappardelle with Mushroom, Radish, Garlic and Lemon Cream Sauce (Monday, May 30, 2011)

I have about 2 dozen eggs in my fridge.  Erin left a dozen with me when she left town and I already had a dozen in the fridge.  I decided to make another batch of ice cream (requires 8 eggs) and some fresh pasta (requires 5 eggs).  I had some leftover heavy cream from making the ice cream.  I also had a handful of crimini mushrooms and some radishes picked from the garden this morning.  I made my pasta (5 eggs and 3.5 cups flour) and cut it into thick noodles (aka pappardelle).  While my water came to a boil I sauteed garlic in butter and olive oil along with my mushrooms.  After the mushrooms were tender I added my sliced radish to cook them lightly, preserving the crunch and flavor.  I then added about 1/2 cup of heavy cream, a squeeze of lemon, the cooked pasta and some grated Asiago Pepato (this is an asiago with whole peppercorns blended in, also donated from Erin's fridge).  I plated up and topped with more cheese.  A simple nap inducing lunch perfectly fit for a lazy Monday.  Goodnight.

The Garden (Sunday, May 29, 2011)

The entire plot from afar.  I have tried to make good use of space by going vertical.  These are 10 ft plastic rain gutters screwed to 2x3s with nylon netting behind them.  The gutters are about $5 apiece.  Wood of this size is pretty cheap.  The netting was a bit more, but allows for vining plants (beans, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.) to climb up.  

Starting at the east side of the plot I have several varieties of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.  There are also marigolds, and a spinach patch.  I harvest from the spinach patch about every two weeks at the moment by clipping the larger leaves.  It provides a lot of food, but I'm told spinach dies out when the heat arrives.  At that time, I will replace this area with something else, perhaps swiss chard.

Moving westward, we can still see the spinach, up close and blown over due to wind.  The peppers are behind the spinach.  There are also snap peas vining up the back, near the short stick in the ground.  Also, here you can see most of the herb garden which is full of goodies, with Snots the Snake standing guard (yellow).  There is also a prominent onion patch in which I have "Candy Apple Red" and "Spanish Yellow" onions planted.  The gutters above have some chives and scallions.

Here I have a cage that I built to protect small plants from the rabbits and birds.  Underneath is a rubber maid covering in "floating row cover" to keep out insides and maintain humidity.  Inside the rubber maid are several small pots in which I am growing seedlings for corn, edamame (soybean), broccoli, cauliflower, broccoli raab and a few melon varieties.  I will let these grow for awhile and transplant them later after harvesting other crops.  The open space here has not been designated yet.  It may be a good place for melon, which will take over a large area.

This is the western end of the plot where I have all of my Brassicas planted.  Brassicas are things like cabbage, broccoli and all the other things kids don't like.  They require lots of nutrients from the soil and are highly nutritious as a result.  I have one row of broccoli (left most) a row of white cabbage, a row of asian cabbage, a row of kale and 2 rows of brussel sprouts.  Underneath all of this foliage are some radishes which take little space and time to mature.   They can be planted around other plants before they are large.  I have planted radishes and carrots all around the garden surrounding other plants, namely my tomatoes.  The tomatoes grow up, not out like these brassicas and will allow the carrots and radishes to receive a good bit of sun through the summer.  In the back  here there are leeks, beans and cucumbers.  In the gutters are various types of lettuce, bok choi and flowers.

Braised Oxtail (Wednesday, May 25, 2011)

Along with my other spoils from the Asian market I bought some oxtail.  Oxtail is surprisingly expensive.  I got about 4 pieces of oxtail for $8.  Though, I'm not sure of the weight, it wasn't much more than a pound. Considering the high price, I had high expectations.  I decided to braise them with some beef stock and wine.  First I cooked them in some olive oil on med/high heat to give some nice color, turning them every few minutes. Then, I added some chopped garlic, onion, celery and tomato.  When the veggies were softened I poured in some red wine (pictured) and some beef stock.  I spiced with caraway, fennel, sage and rosemary.  I thought those flavors went well with the wine.  I let this simmer on low heat, covered, for about 90 minutes.  I then used some of the liquid to make a pan gravy.  To do this, I mixed some flour with cold water and added it to the cooking liquid, whisking constantly to avoid clumps.  While the oxtail was cooking I also whipped up some classic mashed potatoes and some roasted brussel sprouts. The oxtails were good, not great.  For the most part, it was the same as a pot roast.  There may be a bit more fat included, and I'm sure this lent some nice flavor to my gravy.  There are also small bits of cartilage that offer some different texture, if you can stomach it (I can).  Navigating the bones to get little morsels was not worth the work.  I think I know why all the recipes I saw were for soups.  The fat on the tail would provide lots of flavor and when stewed for long enough the meat should fall right off the bones.  I'm for using all parts of the animal, and if I ever butcher my own animals I'll be sure to use even the tail, but at the price people are asking for oxtail, I think I'll pass from now on.

Baked Oysters (Monday, May 23, 2011)

I've been meaning to go to the Asian market for more than a month to get some things.  If an ingredient is used in Asian cooking, you can probably get it much cheaper at an Asian market.  For instance, ginger is $1 a pound and your slightly more exotic mushrooms (shitake, crimini and oyster) are about a third of the price of a regular grocery store.  Additionally, if you want fresh seafood of any kind, you have much more selection and better prices at an Asian market.  Oh!  And, we can forget about all those extra animal parts!  I bought a handful of snacks that some coworkers introduced me to, including sichuan peanuts and tofu snacks (essentially tofu jerky).  I also bought some spices, vinegars, various noodles and some oxtail (which I will feature later).  In the seafood aisle I did numerous passes by some oysters.  I really wanted to buy them but I was worried about it.  I trust an oyster bar, but not myself.  I attempted to ask the guy working at the seafood counter if I could eat them raw, but he didn't understand.  I tilted my head back making a slurping sound while pantomiming eating a raw oyster.  He shook his head "yes" and repeated my motions.  I still wasn't quite convinced.  I went ahead and bought 8 of them anyway at 80 cents a piece.  These things were huge, and I made sure to pick out the biggest in the bunch, considering the "per piece" pricing.  After some Googling about determining freshness of oysters I was pretty sure mine were fresh.  They didn't smell foul, they were closed and were on ice when I bought them.  Not only were they closed, but they were a bitch to open.  One gave me particular trouble so I hammered it a while to produce an opening for my butter knife shucking tool.  Anyway, I decided not to eat them raw and instead started making a stuffing with the ultimate hope of producing baked oysters.

I began with onion, celery and garlic in a pan with butter.  Along the way I added some chopped shitake and spinach (recently picked from my garden).  When everything was cooked I added some bread crumbs and a handful of romano cheese (Sheep's milk of course, leftover from months ago).  After shucking and separating the oysters, I placed them on a pan, using wads of foil to help them stand when needed.  I added a good helping of my filling to each and topped them with more romano, parmesan, panko bread crumbs and a drizzle of olive oil.  These went into a 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes until the tops were golden brown.

I could only manage to eat 5 of them.  These things were seriously monstrous.  I didn't get sick and now I'm more confident of buying oysters, though it would be nice to be able to talk to someone who speaks English and knows exactly how fresh the oysters are.  Maybe I'll make a trip to a nice grocery store to compare prices and ask some questions.  After my belly was full, I was able to settle in for the rest of Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference Finals (Dallas Mavericks at Oklahoma City Thunder) in which the Mavericks overcame a 15 point deficit with 5 minutes left in the game to tie and eventually win in overtime taking a 3-1 series lead.  GO MAVS!

Fish Tacos with Cilantro Mayo (Saturday, May 14, 2011)

It's weird how one little ingredient can take you on a culinary adventure.  I bought some French Breakfast Radish at the Tower Grove Farmer's market in an attempt to force myself to learn more about cooking with radishes.  I have several varieties growing in the garden and they can be grown in small bits of space while other larger plants mature.  So as the season progresses I will be inter-planting radish among all of my other vegetables to make use of all the space.  Considering I rarely eat radishes and never cook with them, some experience was needed.  In my search around the web for ideas, I ran across two recipes by Martha Stewart (known mostly for her excellent investing tactics, but she also cooks).  One recipe was for some fish tacos that had some sort of radish salad on them with a salsa verde.  Another was a recipe for quick pickled radishes.  I opted to make pickled radishes but considering the vast amount of tilapia fillets in the freezer I thought they could be worked into a fish taco that would supersede Martha's.  I was also inspired by the new plethora of "Baja Taco" joints in the Dallas area, two of which I visited when I was there last.  These are small tacos, usually with some purple cabbage rather than lettuce and queso fresco.  But, what makes them addictive is the sauce, which is a garlic cream sauce that gives the tacos supernatural powers.

I began by thinly slicing my radishes along with some onion and pickling them in rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt.  That's as much care as I took with the radishes. Which, might I remind you, "Pickled Radish" was the first domino to fall in the sequence of inspirational thought.  Meanwhile, I marinated my tilapia fillets in olive oil, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and chopped garlic.  When these had marinated about 30 minutes I broiled them in the oven for just a few minutes on each side.  For other toppings, I shredded some cucumber for a fresh crunch, coarsely chopped some cilantro, julienned some spicy peppers and crumbled some feta cheese (I would have used queso fresco if it was available at the store).  The key to the addictiveness of these tacos was the "mayonesa de cilantro."  I made a fresh mayo consisting of  one egg, a cup of canola oil, garlic, onion, lime juice, cumin, salt and of course a large handful of cilantro.  First, everything but half of the oil and the lime juice was blended.  Then, while blending, the lime juice and remainder of the oil was added slowly.  To top it all off I went the extra mile and gave the corn tortillas a little extra crunch by brushing one side with olive oil and toasting them in a pan.

This recipe is one that I would add to the menu at my hypothetical future restaurant.  It's a customizable crowd pleaser.  Although there are many components each one only took minimal effort and the total cook time was short.  The fish only takes about 6 minutes under a broiler.  I absolutely loved these tacos.  Erin did too.  She said "I think you just redefined taco night."  I'd have to agree.  The toppings were all non-traditional, but I still think this dish is accessible. Even kids would love these.  The acidic crunch of the radish, coolness of the cucumber and the creamy spice of the mayo made these so full of flavor I can't wait to eat the leftovers.  I was also happy with the feta cheese rather than queso fresco. Feta cheese has that little tartness to it that really went well with the raw garlic flavor and finished off the bite very nicely.  Let me recommend that everyone get a little more creative on taco night and do something a little less normal.  Tacos are a great way to make use of many of the ingredients you have around, you just have to be creative in how you use them.  And that's what's cooking!

Herbs in my Garden (Friday, May 13, 2011)

This is my first year gardening and I've gone all out.  I'll continue to post throughout the year but today I just wanted to brag and give a list of all the herbs I have growing.  I have a 5'x20' plot at Bell Community Garden and about 15 square feet is devoted to herbs including in no particular order:
Texas Tarragon
Sweet Marjoram

Some Basil beginning to flower.  This is either the Spicy
Globe Basil or Lemon Basil.  If only the picture were
Scratch-n-Sniff I could be sure.

Smoky Bronze Fennel
Lemon Basil
Thai Basil
Boxwood Basil
Spicy Globe Basil
Magical Michael Basil
Genovese Basil
Pineapple Sage
Winter Savory
Roman Chamomile
Red-Veined Sorrel
East Indian Lemongrass
Vietnamese Coriander
Cilantro
Curly Parsley
Italian Flat Leaf Parsley
Thyme (2 varieties)
Oregano
Fernleaf Dill
Rosemary
Caraway
Radicchio
Spearmint
Peppermint

Some of the herbs are starting to flower already.  Love them herbs!  I will feature them in many upcoming posts.  In fact, I've already made a few meals with some of the thyme and marjoram.  If only it were right outside my kitchen window.  On that note, if only I had a kitchen window.

Baby Beet Greens and Mushrooms (Sunday, April 24, 2011)

Not only do I have my own plot at a community garden but I've been volunteering as well at Gateway Greening. There they have demonstration beds and seedlings for sale.  This is the organizing firm for most of the community gardens in the area.  Withing their demonstration beds they have all kind of things planted.  On this particular weekend we did and bit of thinning of some of the beds and some formal harvesting of other things.  The volunteers then get to take home the spoils and I walked away with some kale, lettuce, spinach and baby beet greens.  Beet greens are praised as highly nutritious and they're also very pretty with dark green leaves and bright sanguine veins.  I had no idea what to do with them, but most greens are pretty good just sauteed with some garlic and oil.  In this case I halved some mushrooms, cooked them in some butter and garlic and then added the beet greens.  This was surprisingly filling and satisfying.  The greens have no special taste to them.  If you're used to spinach you would like beet greens, though I'm not sure if they are in stores very often.  The better option is to start growing some in your own garden.  I've been having a great time in mine.  Eat your veggies!

Bacon Caramel Ice Cream (Wednesday, May 4, 2011)

I've been hearing about bacon ice cream for the past few years and when I first heard it I, and others, thought it was a pretty ridiculous idea.  Nowadays it seems somewhat commonly accepted as a good idea, not just because it represents the American way of life in all of its gluttony and excess, but because salty bits of bacon hidden in a rich and velvety mound of ice cream is a logical pairing.  Salty and sweet are natural partners.  I recounted a recent visit to the Bleeding Deacon, a pub and grill here in St. Louis, a few months ago.  They allegedly serve up a dessert consisting of Bacon Ice Cream and a Bacon Brownie that they call "The Disgrace."  Well, it lived up to its name, because it was a disgrace.  I tasted no bacon anywhere in the dish, and considering the amount of time we waited for it to come out, I was highly disappointed.  I've since bought a Kitchen-aid mixer and the ice cream attachments to go with it and I have had it in the front of my mind to make bacon ice cream.
I started with Alton Brown's basic vanilla ice cream recipe which calls for 9 oz. sugar, 8 egg yolks, 3 cups half and half, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 cup heavy cream.  This is the 9-8-3-2-1 ratio.  Another one I've learned is the 13-3-3-6 ratio for making bread.  These are great to remember so that you can impress people by cooking on the fly with no recipes in front of you. First, the dairy was brought slowly to a simmer.  Meanwhile, the yolks were beaten and then the sugar was slowly added while mixing to obtain a texture that produced ribbons.  Once the dairy had been scalded, it was removed from heat and used to temper the egg mixture.  A few ladles of the hot dairy were added to the egg and sugar mixture to avoid cooking the eggs.  Once the eggs were tempered with about half of the dairy, everything was mixed together and returned to heat.  The heat was slowly raised to 170 degrees to eliminate any salmonella that may have been in the eggs.  There is quite a bit of science that is not understood about ice cream making but these heating processes seem to be important for the final product.  After reaching the target temperature I added the vanilla and moved the mixture to the fridge for at least 4 hours until the temperature was about 40 degrees.  This simply leaves an easier job for the ice cream maker.  What makes this ice cream extra special is of course the bacon.  I considered many options as a means of delivery of the bacon to the mix.  I decided to simply cook the bacon until crisp, chop it and then attempted to make a sort-of-praline with maple syrup and brown sugar.  I added the chopped crisp bacon with some brown sugar and maple to a pan and let it thicken a while before pouring it onto parchment and cooling it in the freezer.  I hoped for a hard candy like product.  Seeing as I have little experience with candy making this didn't happen, even with the help of the freezer.  Obviously I have no idea how to make a praline and didn't bother to find out before trying.  Instead I had a sticky thick caramel like substance which was a bother to handle.  As my ice cream churned I dropped bits of bacon caramel into the mix.  After the churning I moved the ice cream to another container and let it harden in the freezer overnight.  The next evening, I had my first bowl (see picture) and it was everything I hoped it would be.  My only mistake was not planning the "candied bacon" a little more.  Next time I'll attempt to make a proper praline or a brittle with the bacon.  Everything tasted great and the caramel hardened in the freezer but dealing with it was a mess.  The ice cream is very rich and a perfect creamy consistency.  The maple added a nice touch and of course finding bits of salty bacon is an adventure.  This is one dish I'm not willing to share.  Okay, enough typing.  I'm off to fulfill my American duty to eat bacon.... for dessert!

Kale Garden Omelet (Sunday, May 1, 2011)

I was the lucky recipient of a harvest from the demonstration beds at Bell Garden.  Among my take was a huge pile of various lettuce and salad greens, baby beet greens, mustard greens and some kale.  I don't think I've ever eaten kale and I asked someone at the garden what he normally does with his and he mentioned that he cooks it up with eggs for breakfast.  My inability to sleep in late on weekends had me up somewhat early.  I had kale and half of an orange bell pepper lying around and decided on an omelet.  I started with onions and the pepper in some butter and later added the kale with the veins removed.  The veins are bulky and from what I hear, tough on the tooth.  After the leaves were wilted I added my whipped egg and milk.  In nearly perfect omelet fashion I was able to turn the egg over on itself.  I topped it with a bit of aged white cheddar cheese and served it up with some greek yogurt (instead of the normal sour cream), some grilled bread (which I always have handy now that I bake bread regularly) and some sliced and lightly sugared strawberries.  I also am now a fan of kale.  I don't know how to describe the flavor except to say that it tastes like the type of vegetable small children would fear.  That is to say, it tastes like its probably good for you. There's a hint of bitterness and earthiness.  This is a veggie I will love to have around.  I also hear from multiple sources that you can roast the leaves with olive oil, salt and pepper to make "crisps" that are a great snack.  Looking forward to more kale. 

About kale:  Although kale is a leafy green and treated like collards and mustard greens, it is actually a brassica (related to cabbage, broccoli and the like).  It also prefers cooler weather and will be more bitter during warm summers.  Following a night of frost it is advisable to harvest kale as it will have a sweeter taste.  This is an adaptation that some plants take to prevent freezing, pumping sugars into their extremities to serve as an antifreeze. Kale is also highly nutritious (no wonder I've never eaten it).

Chang's Mongolian Beef (Tuesday, April 19, 2011)

I had a craving for P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef so I did a search to find out what the secret is that gives their beef that little crunchy edge. What I found was a whole recipe.  The recipe is simple.  It's all about the sauce which is started with garlic and ginger followed by the addition of soy sauce (1/2 cup), water (1/2 cup) and brown sugar (3/4 cup).  I substituted some beer and rice wine vinegar for the water.  I do not regret that decision.  The sauce then needs to reduce for a while.  Apparently the trick that all Chinese food restaurants use is to coat the meat with a dusting of corn starch to give it a little bit of a crust and allow for optimal sauce coverage.  I knew they used cornstarch but I always thought it was added to the sauce to thicken it.  Maybe at some places they do both. I bought a one pound flank steak, sliced it into chunks with 45-degree, against-the-grain cuts and tossed them in a bit of cornstarch.  These went into a wok with about a cup of oil and were essentially fried in small batches giving a nice crust and good color.  Meanwhile the sauce was reducing and when the meat was complete I tossed it into the sauce and let it finish cooking there.  I cut the tops off of 4 bunches of green onion and added those right at the end just to give them a delicious coating.  Knowing how the sauce is made, I now know why this dish is so good.  Sugar and salt make anything taste good.  Using less sugar would probably be just fine.  Also, there's really only a need to make about half of the sauce that I made.  I followed a recipe but ended up with about twice as much sauce as necessary when I plated up.  It was a shame to let all that go down the drain.  I felt like I was flushing my stash of crack.  I made brown rice to go with it.  That makes it healthy!!!  I'm going to try and plant the bottoms from the green onion in the garden, I'm told that the greens will grow back, and when they do I have a good idea what I'll use them for.

Gang Garee / Yellow Curry with Chicken and Potato (Sunday, April 17, 2011)

Ever since leaving Lubbock, TX I miss the Thai food I used to get at Choochai.  This was a little hole in the wall joint painted purple and manned by Than, a five foot Thai immigrant who sat behind the bar seating cooking food right in front of your face while buckets around you filled with water dripping through the ceiling.  He was the man, and the people that worked there knew us by name.  I have never been able to find Thai food as good as that.  The Gang Garee, Kow Soy and Special Artar were my favorite dishes and they also had egg rolls that were out of control.  There was a note on the menu that said, "If you order hot it will be hot.  No refunds."  This place makes it a few stages hotter than most places.  I always went medium and that beaded sweat under my eyes.  I miss that place.
This meal started when I went to Bowood Farms, a plant nursery here in CWE and saw a plant that was labelled "Curry."  It smelled just like curry but said "non-culinary."  It occurred to me that I had no idea what curry was.  The next day I found myself in Penzey's spices and realized reading the label on the curry that it was a blend of many things, namely Turmeric, which gives it the yellow color.  Now I was even more curious about the "Curry" plant that I saw, cause it smelled exactly like curry and according to the label there is no such thing as a curry plant.
I bought some of the curry powder and when I got home realized I had most of what it takes to make something close to Gang Garee (yellow curry with potatoes).  I started with olive oil, onion and garlic and added a few spoonfuls of the curry powder.  Immediately the apartment was filled with the smell.  I let these flavors meld and develop a while over med-high heat and then added the chicken.  I let this cook briefly before adding potatoes and carrots.  I let all of this sautee for a few minutes so everything could absorb some of the yellow from the pan.  I added a can of coconut milk and some of my home-made chicken stock.  I was worried about the coconut milk because it was of a cottage cheese consistency.  I was about to ruin a good dish as I added it.  As soon as it hit the heat it turned to liquid.  Disaster averted.  I then added a few spoonfuls of chili paste, salt, pepper and a bit of cream to help it thicken.  I let this stew on low for the better part of an hour until the potatoes were cooked through and served it over some rice.  I think it was missing a little something but for a first attempt on the fly it turned out really well.  I actually think I did a better job than some Thai restaurants, even though I'm not sure that I adhered to the rules of Thai cuisine.  Some thinly sliced onions toward the end would add some nice crunch and perhaps some cilantro would lend it a more interesting flavor and some color.  AHH!  Fish sauce.  That's what I left out.  For a relatively hassle free, one pot meal, this is a winner that I will continue to work on.  Plus, you can use just about anything you have lying around.  Choochai 4 Life!

Spring Arugula Salad (Saturday, April 16, 2011)

To celebrate the start of actual Spring in Saint Louis some color was in order.
I planted some Arugula and Siamese Dragon (mixed Asian greens) under a cold frame back in February.  To fill you in, I have a 5 by 20 foot garden bed at Bell Community Garden.  A cold frame is essentially a mini greenhouse that has a transparent top. Mine is made with a wood frame and an old window from Schlafly Bottleworks.  These are used to extend the growing season and even grow some things all the way through the winter.
Anyway, I grew a patch of greens and about a week ago they started to succumb to some sort of pest that was eating very small holes in the leaves. It looked like some little squirrel came through with a mini shotgun and had a blast.  After some close observation and Google searches I determined that the culprit was the ever so tiny Flea Beetle.  These are little beetles of various colors that jump like fleas and eat tiny holes in a number of plants.  Allegedly there has to be a pretty serious infestation to kill the plant but I decided to go ahead and harvest some of the greens and eat them before the the little buggers got too much of them.  I also wanted to start clearing this area so I could plant tomatoes in it, of which I planted three varieties so far.  I've learned while gardening that in order to not have pesticide laden greens you must be okay with eating blemished food.  From  about a two square foot patch of greens I obtained about enough for four salads.  We had to clean the greens of the dirt and remove some roots that made their way into the bag.  Harvesting things close to the ground is bound to add some soil to your take. A salad spinner came in handy here and sparked discussion of how the big growers clean their truckloads of lettuce for the supermarket.  Maybe a giant salad spinner?  Or, perhaps just submersion in large pools of water with included time for sediment to sink?
We simply tossed the greens with strawberries, Gorgonzola cheese and a Blackcurrant vinaigrette.
I recently discovered Vom Fass, a little store on Manchester that sells oils, vinegars, liqueurs (including Absinthe) and scotch out of casks.  You simply buy a bottle from them and pay per 100ml.  They also let you take samples to your hearts desire.  They have vinegar made from all sorts of things: mango, honey, quince, pear and the list goes on.  Then you'll find a handful of olive oils (I almost typed EVOO, but I hate when Rachel Ray says that), nut oils, and infused oils.  It's an awesome little place and it's only a few doors away from Penzey's spices which sells about any spice you can dream of.  Justin doubted, "I bet they don't have what I'm looking for."  Sumac?  Of course they do.
Normally, arugula has a very peppery flavor, which it did on the back end, but I thought this salad tasted very earthy and nutty.  I felt like there was some roasted peanut in there somewhere and this made the Gorgonzola a great addition.  This was definitely the most flavorful salad I've ever had that can be attributed to the actual salad greens.  I'm now a believer in the sentiment that food loses flavor (and nutrition) the longer it sits and waits to be eaten.  These greens tasted like they came from the earth and I'm looking forward to more of that.

*Note:  You can spot some of the holes in the picture.  The ones you can see are actually some of the larger ones.  Most of them look like tack holes.

The "Versus" Pizza (Monday, April 4, 2011)

Made some pesto, had some dough on hand and decided to use my leftover veggies to make another pizza.  On one side is Pesto with Peppers.  On the other is Marinara with Eggplant.  I also threw a few anchovies on a few slices worth.  These are not your supermarket variety however.  I bought them at an international market and they're much less salty and marinated in olive oil, garlic and parsley.  I know, "ew, anchovies!"  Shut yo' mouf!  They're good.  Other changes I made was to roll the edges for a thicker, softer crust, put the toppings over the cheese and only baked for 8 minutes at 500.  The crust is much better this time, but the pizza is also a little floppy. Now it's time to watch some basketball.  Go Butler!

Pizza with Eggplant, Peppers and Mushroom (Sunday, April 3, 2011)

It's been awhile.  I haven't stopped cooking but I've been too busy (when I say busy I mean lazy) to write about any of it.  I've been making lots of homemade breads lately.  I recently bought a book called "Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day."  The premise of the book is to make a dough from their "master" recipe and then refrigerate it for up to 14 days.  As it ages is becomes more sourdough-like.  So today, I used the master dough to make a pizza.  I rolled and stretched a grapefruit-sized ball of dough and put it on a cornmeal coated pizza peel.  Meanwhile my oven was heating to 500, the highest it goes.  I also have a pizza stone in the oven that I use for breads, and now, pizza, finally.  I spread on some of my own marinara sauce (see earlier recipe).  I sliced some Chinese eggplant, yellow bell pepper, Anaheim pepper, Baby Bella mushrooms and tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper.  Veggies, meet pizza.  To top it off, some freshly grated mozzarella.  The pizza slid easily off the peel onto the baking stone for about 9-10 minutes, barely enough time to pour and taste my beer.  I topped it off with a Chiffonade of basil and some Parmesan cheese.  Bella! I've been meaning to start making pizzas and flatbreads.  This is a thing that you can make with endless variety and as summer veggies become abundant it will be an easy go to, especially since I'll have bread dough on hand all the time.  To go with it, I had a Sierra Nevada Glissade which I really enjoyed on a warm spring day like today.  I'll leave the discussion of beer to the beer bloggers (ahem!  Willie, ahem!).

I have some backlogged meals to write about in the coming days, including the Family Recipe Beef Stroganoff, Pistachio-Roasted Purple Potatoes, Mixed-Berry Sorbet and a quick and easy fresh pasta dish (including discussion of my new favorite kitchen toy).

Mediterranean Kebab Feast (Sunday, February 27, 2011)

Jake and I decided Sunday would be a good day to prepare a feast and Jake suggested hummus as a part of the meal.  So, around that we planned a lot more.  First, Jake made a salad of cherry tomatoes, onion, spinach and feta.  This was marinated in balsamic vinegar and olive oil I assume.  I actually had no hand in this so you'll have to consult Jake.  The salad was awesome.  The vinegar really soaked into the tomatoes and they popped with flavor.  I think a return to this salad is inevitable.  Perhaps when summer rolls around it will include a wide variety of tomatoes.  We also prepared some hummus from canned garbanzo beans.  The trick to a great hummus is to add the chickpeas to a food processor that was just being used for grinding lamb without washing it.  Jake taught me that one.  I had no idea.  That actually did happen, but to rid the beans of lamb-blood-borne illness we boiled the beans and washed the food processor before restarting the process.  OOPS!  Along with the beans went some water, tahini (sesame seed paste), lemon juice, salt, garlic, pepper, fresh parsley and olive oil.  We had to adjust a bit along the way as it was turning out too runny but in the end we had a good thick hummus.  Maybe its best to add water only as needed toward the end and not up front like we did.  Tzatziki came together in a flash with diced, peeled and cored cucumber, greek yogurt, finely chopped garlic, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper and a touch of vinegar.  BOOM!  Easy, refreshingly delicious and perfect for what is to come....

Kufta kebabs.  I have no idea what kufta means.  Maybe its ground meat but I don't know.  I've only had these at restaurants but they simple simple enough.  The recipes I sought out had many variations some including lamb and others with beef.  Mine though was a mixture of home ground lamb shoulder (remember that tainted food processor) and some ground grass fed beef (support local farms!, even thought it costs a lot more!).  Additionally, I added chopped parsley, diced onion, garlic, white pepper, cumin, mint and dill.  The mixture was too loose for my liking so an egg and some bread crumbs served as my glue.  I then wrapped small handfuls around skewers for grilling.  You could probably make a bad ass burger with the same mixture and thats essentially what a Kufta Kebab is, a burger around a stick.  These went onto a grill until they had a nice char.  This were worth the work and went great with a little bit of tzatziki.

With the leaner pieces of the lamb shoulder I made some standard style kebabs.  I marinated the lamb in lemon juice and zest, fresh oregano, dill and mint, garlic, chili powder, salt and olive oil.  These turned out full of flavor and I look forward to marinating an entire leg of lamb in this mixture (or a steak for that matter).  Simple enough, skewer them, grill them eat them.  I also had some pita from a new grocery store I discovered called "Global Foods Market" which had a wealth of interesting produce and imported staples.  It's in Kirkwood,  google it.  We all ate till full and then the boys ate some more.  I considered every part of the meal a success and Jake got to take home a half gallon of hummus, cause he LOVES THAT STUFF!!!

Marinara (Saturday, February 26, 2011)

Marinara.  Simple enough, I wanted to make a bunch of marinara, some for now some to go into the freezer for later.  Marinara is easy to make and much better when its made at home without added preservatives and all that mess.  Plus, you can make it how you like.  I started by sweating onions and garlic in olive oil.  When the onions had some translucence after about 10 minutes I added diced carrot and celery for another 10 minutes.  After the aromatics were soft and their flavors set free I added 4 big cans of crushed tomatoes.  I was recently made aware that lots of canned tomatoes have citric acid added, which is totally unnecessary.  I found some without. The only ingredient in the canned tomatoes was Roma tomatoes.  Along with the tomatoes I added a hefty bunch of chopped basil,  fresh rosemary, fresh oregano, salt, pepper and bay leaves.  I let this simmer a while before tasting and then decided to add a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, honey and a bit more salt.  I thought this completed the sauce.  The sauce was then blended in a food processor and returned to the heat for a bit longer. I ended up with about 12 cups of sauce, most of which I froze in usable portions.  I had some with pasta for a few satisfying meals and I'll probably use some on some pizzas in the near future.  This sauce is basic and can be touched up for any number of other dishes.

Ginger Glazed Mahi-Mahi and Stir Fried Noodles (Monday, February 21, 2011)

Over the weekend, I organized a binder full of recipes that were randomly assorted, into a new, neatly divided (and larger) binder.  While doing so I ran across a recipe for ginger glazed mahi that I made once upon a time.  I don't remember it being too exciting but I think my cooking awareness has advanced since then so I decided to give it a go with some fillets that have been in the freezer awhile (too long perhaps).  I was a little fearful that they may not be any good, but they were vacuum sealed so I reasoned that freezer burn shouldn't be an issue.  I thawed them and prepared the glaze, which was more of a marinade.  It included:

4 tbsp wildflower honey
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp (more or less) finely grated ginger (utilized a newly bought zester)
2 cloves garlic (again grated with the zester)
1 tbsp peanut oil (substituted for sesame oil, none on hand but its on my grocery list)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

I let the fillets marinate for about 1.5 hours, which is a lot for fish, but it wasn't fresh so I didn't feel guilty about it.

Meanwhile I boiled a bunch of noodles that I bought at an asian market.  I don't know what kind they are.  They're yellow and a bit thinner than spaghetti with a slight flatness to them.  I Julienned some carrot, finely sliced some onion and roughly chopped some scallions.  I marinated the veggies in salt and fish sauce for a short time. Then I took a TV timeout until I was hungry enough to peel my ass off the welcoming depths of my couch cushions and got a large pan and large wok heating. The veggies went into my Uber-hot wok with veggie oil for a few minutes before I added my cooked noodles and stir fried a bit longer.  If you don't know, which you do now, stir frying should be done at very high temperatures for very short times.  That's why Chinese food can show up at your door a mere 15 minutes after placing a phone call.  In fact, woks on stove tops don't tend to get hot enough, so sometimes the trick is to cook in small batches so as to not cool the wok by over-crowding.  Notice most Chinese kitchens have a big cast iron wok over an open flame, but I don't, I have a stainless steel wok over an electric range.  It'll have to do for now.  At the same time I also got my marinated fillets into a medium high pan with some veggie oil.  Another tip, different oils have different smoke points so it's best to use vegetable oil or canola oil when stir frying.  These ones have a higher smoke point than olive oil, for example.  Unless, of course, you like the delicate chiming of your fire alarm.  So a few minutes on each side gave a nice color with a little charring of the glaze on the edges of the fish and we were off to the races.  The bottle of wine I happened to open is now a new favorite.  I included the bottle in the picture so as to share it with you.  It's a 2005 New Zealand Pinot Noir made by Whitehaven.  I detected cherry and strawberry flavors with a clean vanilla finish  (see how fancy you can be about wine just by being assertive).  Its fairly priced or it wouldn't have made it to my house.  I'm planning a return trip to the Wal-Mart of wine and liquor (Friar Tuck's) to purchase a few more.  If I was ballin' I'd pick up a case or two and store it in my wine cellar.  That'll have to wait for another life.  Buona Sera!

Wings "deTX" and Broccoli Salad (Sunday, February 20, 2011)

If any recipe I have is "famous" this is it.  These are my famous wings.  I've taken to calling them Wings deTX because they use my newly invented "Herbs" deTX.  Erin bought me a spice rack for Christmas and I noticed there were all of these herb blends that were basically all the same.  They each shared 5 herbs in common and then a sixth was different among them each.  That sort of pissed me off, they are no longer in the rack, I bought extra jars and added my own spices.  Among them I decided to poke fun at Herbs de Provence by calling my spice rub that I use for chicken Herbs deTX.  Herbs of Texas if you haven't picked up on it.  In fact, though, there isn't a single herb in Herbs deTX.  This is a Tex-Mex inspired rub first invented by Mr. Hoffman who also puts it on his wings.  I'm not exactly sure of the ratios of spices that he uses.  Mine is made with (in approximate order of abundance) cumin, garlic salt, chili powder, onion powder, minced onion, pepper, salt and cayenne.  There may be other things I forgot, but that's why its a family secret.  This is the one thing I'm almost always make when there's a group of friends grilling.  No one ever thinks to grill wings and no one knows how to make the best rub in town, so I come to the rescue and do the deed undone.
I remove the wing tips but leave the drum and "other" section attached.  This makes for easier grilling and better eating.  Then I put them in a tupperware or ziplock and apply my "herbs" liberally and give a shake.  I grill them over somewhat high heat turning every so often to avoid any severe charring and to keep the grease from dripping off.  Justin always jokingly asks me if I'm gonna cook my wings with special sauce.  I think at one point he actually thought it was a sauce cause the wings are coated in a bit of grease that melds with the rub, but since he just says it cause he knows it pisses me off.  I leave them on the grill until I think they're ready which is about 15 minutes or so.
I've also taken a liking to broccoli salad as of late.  In the beginning I browsed some recipes online and instead of using one of them I more or less melded two of them, including things I thought appropriate and excluding others. Mine has broccoli florets, dried cranberries (rather than raisins), celery, crumbled bacon, red onion, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, mayo (quite a bit in fact), sugar, honey, salt, pepper and sliced almonds (honey roasted in this case).  This is now one of my favorite ways to enjoy broccoli and I always make a lot extra as its great leftover and keeps for about a week in the fridge.
Having my delicious cold salad and hot spicy grilled chicken wings I felt the abnormally warm weekend was complete.  I also polished off a bit of cheap whiskey which made it even that more enjoyable.  I'm so ready for the end of winter so I can get to the grill more often.  For now though, the cold weather is back.

*Note there is no space in "deTX."  I used to write this under my street art as a subtle hint of my history in Texas but didn't include a space as I thought that was too obvious.

Banana Bread (Saturday, February 19, 2011)

Okay, simple enough, when I have 3 or 4 over-ripe bananas saved up in the freezer its only appropriate to make banana nut bread.  However, this time, I totally forgot the nuts in my batter.  My recipe is as follows:

3/4 cup Sugar
7 tbsp  Butter (Room Temp.)
Lemon Zest

Cream this mixture in a bowl. Then add:

1 egg
2/3 cup mashed Nanners

Mix.  Then add the dry ingredients, preferable already combined and mixed together.

1 1/2 cups Flour (I use half whole wheat flour and half bread flour)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup nuts (usually I use walnuts, this time I used nonuts, which are a little less crunchy)

Mix this and add it to a buttered loaf pan.  This is where the remaining 1 tbsp butter was used (making 8, one stick total).  This goes into a 350 degree oven for about an hour.  Keep an eye, mine was ready after 50 minutes.  Next time I'm going to double the recipe and still use one pan so I end up with a larger loaf resulting in "full size" slices that I will feel more comfortable making French toast out of.

Spinach Ravioli with Mushroom Cream Sauce (Saturday, February 19, 2011)

The last batch of ravioli turned out so great I've been planning to make more since taking the initial bite.  This time though, I wanted it to be more simple so I decided a spinach and cheese filling would be easiest. I made pasta as I did last time with 4 cups of flour and 6 eggs.  For the filling I blanched 1 lb of fresh spinach in super salty water for about a minute and then submerged it in a super salty ice bath.  I let this drain in a collander, then squeezed as much water out as possible and chopped roughly.  I whipped 15 ounces of ricotta with one egg, and some other leftover cheeses I had around.  These included a bit of sheep's milk gruyere (featured in the French Onion soup), some Parmigiana Reggiano and some Pecorino Romano (sheep milk again).  After all this was whipped up I added the spinach and mixed until the clumps had broken up.  During commercial breaks of the season finale of Gold Rush Alaska, Friday's most watched new series, I managed to roll out 3 big sheets of pasta.  With a full size spoon I made large dollops of the filling on the sheets, painted in between each on with water, folded half of the sheet over and sealed each one keeping out any air pockets.
Now, these ravioli's do freeze, but last time I made the mistake of piling them into ziplocks and throwing them in the freezer; bad idea.  When I took them out and boiled them later, they fell apart because they were stuck together and as they separated they ripped.  This time, I laid the extras out on a sheet pan and froze them without letting them touch before transferring them to baggies.  Since it was 10:30 by the time they were ready, Erin and I enjoyed them nearly alone, but for lunch the next day (today, Saturday) I used the frozen ones and made a mushroom cream sauce.
For the sauce I sauteed one full shallot and two cloves garlic in butter and then added my mushrooms.  The mushrooms I used were of 4 strange varieties that I have no idea what they are.  I bought them for a ridiculous price at Whole Foods.  When I say ridiculous I mean expensive.  I let the 'shrooms cook on medium heat until tender, cranked the heat and added some white wine and lemon juice.  The lemon juice was a departure from the recipe I was following and a bad decision.  The wine and lemon together was too much acidity and the mushrooms really soaked up the acid and were too tart.  The wine alone may have been too acidic on its own, who knows, but the lemon definitely didn't help.  After the wine reduced by two thirds on medium high heat I turned down the burner and added some cream.  I spooned some of the mushrooms and sauce over the ravioli and topped it with some scallions and some more Pecorino Romano.  Bella!
Next time I make a mushroom cream sauce I'll opt for cheaper mushrooms and follow the recipe using no citrus and perhaps less wine, or maybe just one with less acidity.  The important part was the ravioli however and it was awesome as expected.

Rosemary Lemon Roasted Chicken and Yukon Potatoes (Monday, February 14, 2011)

One of my favorite things to make is a roasted chicken.  It's so easy and almost impossible to screw up.  I bought two chickens at the market for the low low price of $7.  One I cleaned and used in my ravioli from a few weeks ago, the other I froze for future roasting.  I also picked up some small Yukon Gold potatoes and some Brussels Sprouts recently.  I also love roasted potatoes.  Coat them in your favorite flavors and throw them in the oven for awhile and boom! For this roasting experience I chopped some garlic and rosemary and mixed it with some olive oil, salt, pepper and the juice of one lemon.  I tossed whole potatoes (they're small, 2 or 3 bites each) into this and then coated my bird with it.  I stuffed some whole crushed garlic cloves and the lemon halves into the bird, salted it a bit more and put it into a 350 degree oven until golden brown (about 70 minutes in this case).  I cooked the potatoes in the same roasting pan and later sauteed my sprouts in butter after marinating them in balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  This is a super simple and affordable dinner and is also great leftover.  I know its a little crazy when you can buy an already roasted chicken for 8 bucks at any grocery store but this can be cheaper if you find a good deal. Plus, you can flavor it however you want.  There's nothing like the scent of roasted chicken permeating the room!

Peppercorn Steak Sandwich and French Onion Soup (Saturday, February 12, 2011)

Erin and I work at a food pantry once a month and St. Louis Bread Co. always donates a bunch of bread which we leave out for all of the clients to take as they will.  The sweets always go first, and then sliced bread.  There's always bagels and unsliced bread leftover and I got my hands on a pair of long loaves.  I'm not sure what kind of bread it was but it seems like ciabatta.  We went to Soulard Farmer's Market afterward and I picked up 2 ribeyes with no idea of what I was planning to do.  Then when I got home I thought a steak sandwich would be awesome on this bread.  I've also been thinking about making French onion soup and would use the bread for that as well.
For the French onion soup you'll need lots of sweet onions.  I went forward with 6 medium yellow onions and a large red onion.  I sliced them into thin half moons and cooked them in butter and olive oil on medium heat for nearly an hour. For extra flavor I added some fresh thyme, salt and pepper. The recipe I was following said they would turn to a "rich brown" color after about 40 minutes.  That didn't happen, but they were brown enough in my eyes.  I then added about a cup of white wine (Lucky Duck Sauvignon Blanc) and turned up the heat to high to evaporate most of it before adding two cans of Beef Stock.  I let this reduce for about 30 minutes before Erin ladled the soup over toasted croutons of mystery bread and topped it with some Sheep's Milk Gruyere cheese which had a really funky smell but great taste.  We put this in the oven right under the broiler to melt and brown the cheese for about twelve minutes.
While Erin took care of the soup I went outside in the beautiful high 40's weather to grill my ribeyes.  I coated each side of the steak generously with Kosher salt and layed one side into some crushed black peppercorns.  These went onto the unevenly heated community grill in the courtyard for about 4 minutes on each side.  The bread had been split open and brushed with olive oil and it too went onto the grill for about 2 minutes on each side to add some flavor and crunch.  I also made a quick aioli in a blender with two egg yolks, 4 cloves of garlic, juice of one lemon, salt and olive oil.  Blend everything but the olive oil briefly and then start adding the olive oil while blending until you have a thick creamy consistency.  I sliced the steak thin and it was mooing too much for Erin so I killed her portion in a pan.  We lathered the bread with a large spoonful of the lemon-garlic aioli (RAW EGG WARNING, oooh scary), piled on sliced steak and topped with some arugula.  Erin wasn't excited about sandwiches for dinner but I think her mind changed pretty quickly.  I only used one steak for the two sandwiches so you know what's for breakfast!

Pesto Genovese (Wednesday, February 2, 2011)

I discovered the wonder of fresh homemade basil pesto about two year ago and since I make it every so often when I feel like a week of garlic breath is in order.  If you don't want to talk to anyone at work, you can ignore them by popping in some headphones or looking busy.  Or...  you can have basil pesto for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you won't have to put any effort into it, cause they'll do all the ignoring for you!

I don't tend to do any measurements with things that I make often.  I think the original recipe I used when I first made pesto is from Simplyrecipes.com.  It calls for the following:

2 cups Fresh Basil Leaves (packed)
1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1/3 cup Pine Nuts
3 cloves garlic
Salt and Pepper

Obviously as with any food, better ingredients equals a better product, but in this case that is especially true because you're eating raw ingredients and there aren't many included, which means that its tough to mask the flavor of any that are bad.  It's sometimes hard to find, but a good Parmesan cheese is awesome.  This is the kind that has little grains of salt inside that crunch on your teeth if you eat a sliver of it.  That's the good stuff, but it'll cost you!

I tend to use a lot more garlic than is called for here (to keep botherers away).  I'd say I use a full bulb most of the time, and that goes for everything I make with garlic.  If I'm using garlic, I'm using a full bulb. All you really need to do is put all of this in a food processor and press go until you have the consistency that you want.  Add more oil as needed.  This is the best way to do it if you're making a good amount.  Sometimes if I only have a few leaves of basil, I'll just use the same ingredients (less of course) and run them under my Samurai sword a few hundred times until I can form a cube on the cutting board with the pesto that maintains its shape.  If you're doing the small batch method chop it a bit before you add any oil or you'll just have a puddle of oil.  You could do this method with a large portion too but you may need a few more swords.  My bet, unless you absolutely LOVE Lord of the Rings and have a lot of swords lying around it might be a better idea to use a food processor.  The pesto will keep in the fridge for a week or more and you can freeze some too if pesto everyday for a week is just too much for you.  Put it on just about anything, usually pasta.

A bit about pestos.  Jake, most of you know him, likes to tell me that he makes things for dinner sometimes, but then when he tells me what was in it, it's pretty clear that he doesn't know what a "stir-fry" or a "pesto" is. Albeit, you can throw variations on classic recipes and still call them by their classic name, but pesto is not a catch all term for a bunch of stuff chopped really fine with olive oil.  Nor is stir-fry anything you have lying in the fridge cooked in a "frying" pan.  In fact, the classic way to produce a pesto is to grind the ingredients with a mortar and pestle.  So, some definitions.  The recipe I gave is a typical, classic pesto genovese.  If you leave out pine nuts you have a pistou (French I think).   Pesto rosso has tomatoes and almonds instead of pine nuts.  Pesto calabrese includes roasted red peppers.  However, chopping tomatoes really fine is not a pesto, that would be called diced tomatoes.  In the modern world you can of course imagine a lot of variations using other fragrant vegetables in the place of basil, and I encourage you to experiment, I probably will too, but you should notify people that you've made a cat-litter pesto or whatever it is that you used.  When I hear pesto I think "GARLIC! Oh, and...  umm BASIL!"

Thanks to Simplyrecipes, Wikipedia and Jacob "Mammalman" Basson for talking points!

Pork Loin, Twice Baked Blue Cheese Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts (Tuesday, February 8, 2011)

Tuesday night dinner at home came together easily with a pork loin marinated in red wine, garlic, paprika, cumin and olive oil.  The loin was pan roasted.  First it was seared on all sides in a pan on medium high heat and then roasted at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  

I had some potato innards leftover from making potato skins for the Super Bowl so I reheated them and whipped them with blue cheese, Gruyère, Parmesan,  milk and sour cream.  This then went into some empty potato skins that I saved specifically for this purpose.  I kept the largest ones in hiding.  They baked along with the pork loin at 400 for about 30 minutes.

For the Brussels sprouts I trimmed and halved them and tossed them in chopped garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, pepper and lots of salt.  These cooked in a pan with a pad of butter over medium heat for about 10 minutes. The blue cheese potatoes were the best followed closely by the sprouts and the pork was too dry and could have used a sauce.  Though I am ready to eat it again for lunch tomorrow at work.  This was my first time cooking and, as far as I can remember, eating Brussels sprouts It won't be the last.

Potato Skins (Sunday, February 6, 2011)

For Super Bowl Sunday I wanted to make something that you can find at any sports bar and something cheap at the same time.  Potato Skins!  I baked about 25 medium sized Russet potatoes (a 10 lb bag), let them cool a bit,  divided them all in half lengthwise and scooped out the center leaving about a quarter inch of potato in the skin.  I then brushed them with a little bit of butter with garlic salt and pepper and topped them with sharp cheddar, mozzarella and crumbled bacon (leftover from making chili).  These went back into the oven for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  Top them with some sour cream and green onion and theres a cheap bar food classic.  Went great with beer and friends.

Trenton's Texas Chili (Saturday, February 5, 2011)

So, word is that Texas chili is made with chunks of beef, not ground beef, and never ever ever has beans.  Well, I'm from Texas and I like beans in chili, but I also like big chunks of beef so this "Texas chili" departs from the unofficial rules in that it does have beans, in this case both pinto beans and black beans.  If anything I'd say that old cowboys on the southern plains and rolling hills of the Texas country side had more beans to spare than they did cows and in all likely-hood their chili contained more beans than anything.  The most important part of a chili is that you make it how you like it I guess, and the way I like it is really spicy with big chunks of steak and beans.  The ingredients this particular time around were 3 lbs sirloin steak, bacon fat, serano peppers (bottom), dried New Mexico chiles (top center), dried chiles pasillos negros (top right), dried chiles de arboles (left), beef stock, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, pinto beans, black beans, two bottles of Shiner Bock (this makes it more Texas than anything else I suppose), onion, garlic, brown sugar, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, Worchestershire, salt and pepper.  Say that 3 times fast.

First, I set large chunks of sirloin marinating in garlic, Worchestershire, olive oil, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  Meanwhile, I set some bacon cooking in my pot to render the fat.  Why sweat garlic and onion in butter or olive oil when you can do it in bacon fat? I removed the bacon and most of the fat just leaving enough in the bottom to cook my finely diced yellow onion and about 3 full bulbs of garlic until translucent.  I removed this from the pan and then browned my sirloin in small batches to keep the pan hot.  After all the beef was seared slightly I added back the onions and garlic along with a can of beef broth, two Shiners, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, the beans and all of the peppers (with the seeds of course).  This was brought to a boil and then left to simmer 4 hours while I finished off the other 4 beers.  I tasted a few times throughout the cooking to adjust the salt, sugar and acid levels.  What started as something quite runny ended thick enough to hug a spoon under 1G of force.  Half of the pot was eaten topped with sour cream and cheese.  The other half was reserved for the next day where it was mixed into the "Souper" Bowl with a half dozen other chilis of all varieties at Willie's Super Bowl party.  I really enjoy chili, but two days of it is probably two too many for the old sphincter.  Slight case of "Ring Sting" as my mom calls it!  Go Pack Go!

 

Chicken and Mushroom Ravioli (Wednesday, February 2, 2011)

Snowmaggeddon had us shacked up for a second day.  So in addition to a French silk pie I decided today would be the day to make homemade ravioli.  I've been making fresh pasta somewhat often in the past weeks and its really easy and cheap and results in delicious pasta.  All you need is eggs and flour (and maybe a few splashes of water).  Another benefit of fresh pasta, you get a workout, especially if you roll it out by hand as I have been.
I mixed 6 large eggs into a well made from 4 cups of flour.  Then I started whisking, slowly incorporating flour until I had a tacky mess.  My tacky mess was a little dry so I wet my hands a few times and began kneading.  Most recipes say to knead anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.  I've sometimes ended up with pasta that is rubbery and my best guess is that it was from over-kneading.  I stop once the dough ball is smooth.  Protocol then asks to let the dough rest wrapped in plastic or under a bowl for 30 minutes.  Longer is fine.  Before rolling I separated the dough into 6 pieces and dusted my surface with flour.  Then I popped on some dance music and started my workout.
For the filling I followed a recipe from Joy of Cooking.  I melted some butter in a pan and lightly browned 10 ozs. of chopped Baby Bella mushrooms and a minced red onion.  I then threw in about a 1/2 lb of rinsed and chopped baby spinach and some minced chicken that I boiled earlier (mince after boiling of course).  I seasoned with nutmeg, salt and pepper and let the mixture cool. I then added a 24 oz container of ricotta and a handful of shredded parmesan and mixed it all in.
I now had 6 sheets of pasta rolled out and ready to go.  A pasta roller would help a lot, especially for ravioli.  One, I wouldn't have to spend so much time and effort rolling it out and two, the pasta sheet would be symmetrical making it easier to fold over the filling.  I spooned huge dollops of filling onto one half of the sheet of pasta, ran wet fingers between each one to serve as a glue, folded the sheet over, pressed down around each mound of filling trying to push out any air that may want a free ride and then cut around each ravioli with a pizza cutter.  A third "advantage" of using a pasta machine would be that all my ravioli would be the same shape.  Although I kind of like the rustic look of each ravioli being a little different.  I ended up with about 40 huge raviolis and ran out of filling just before I ran out of pasta.  I boiled them and tossed them in some butter and garlic on the stovetop and topped with a little more parmesan.  These were amazing and I have about 2 dozen in the freezer.  My fingers are crossed that they are good after freezing.  I've read that they can be frozen and should keep for a while.
Also, along the way I made a basil pesto.  I'll share that recipe at a later date, but essentially its just basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil in a food processor.  Sometimes I actually hand chop it until it can be formed into a cube on the cutting board.  This results in a chunkier pesto and one less dish to clean.

The finished product.  3 ravioli, pesto and a glass of wine. Bella!