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!

French Silk Pie (Wednesday, February 2, 2011)

I received a suggestion (or was it a challenge?) from Abby to make a dessert on the second snow day of the week.  Per the suggestion of Erin I decided on French Silk pie.  After looking the recipe I thought there were some things I could learn.  Plus, Erin was just too excited for it, and it had to be done.  I almost gave up when I couldn't get my truck to move from its parking spot due to it being parked at a 45 degree angle on the side of the street.  The 2% grade is just too much for it to handle!  I put on some tennis shoes with fresh grip and walked to Schnuck's and back with ingredients in hand.

The Crust:

Into the food processor went 8 tbsp. butter (1 stick, cubed and cold), 1/3 cup pecans, 1 1/3 cups flour, 1/4 cup dark brown sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt.  I processed until there were no more butter chunks but before the mixture became warm.  This made enough for probably 2 pie crusts but I used about 75% of it for one, cause I was only making one pie of course.  I packed the crust into the pan (metal, non-stick, 9 inch pie pan) as evenly as possible, thought there ended up being a rather thick crust in the corner, too thick to easily get through with a fork.  In fact, the crust was probably too thick everywhere and using only 50% would have been better.  The crust was baked at 325 degrees for 20 minutes.

The Filling:

There is no lack of butter in this recipe.  In a mixing bowl I creamed 12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) butter with 1 cup of sugar.  While I was doing this I melted 3.5 ounces of unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler and then let it cool a bit before mixing it into the butter cream with 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla.  Okay, then the recipe I used called for 3 large eggs to be whipped in one at a time for 5 minutes each at medium speed.  I don't know if whipping each one in separately was necessary but I took the advice.  Behold, 15 minutes later I had a thick chocolate substance.  This I poured into the shell and put in the fridge to set.  The recipe says 4 hours.  By the time I got to it it had been about 5 hours.  I whipped some cream and shaved some chocolate for a topping and viola.  It was really good.  The texture was somewhere between a mousse and a cheesecake.  I think this would be awesome with chocolate crust as well.  I loved it.  Erin loved it.  And, a day later, Jake loved it.  Make sure to use fresh salmonella free eggs cause there's no cooking involved!

Manicotti (Tuesday, February 1, 2011)

Erin and I were trapped in the house all day, held down by the storm of the century which, as usual, didn't turn out to be as disastrous as the weathermen had bet.  Erin had some ricotta cheese in the fridge and some manicotti in the pantry.

First, per the recipe for "Cheese Filling" in The Joy of Cooking I emptied the 24 oz tub of ricotta (rather than the 15 ozs called for in the recipe) into a bowl and beat it with a whisk to fluff it up.  I then added 3 medium eggs (the recipe calls for 2 large) into the bowl and whisked them in one at a time.  Finally, 3/4 cup of grated parmesan, salt and pepper were added and whisked in.

Salted water was brought to a boil and in went the manicotti.  This is the first time I've encountered a 14 pack of anything.  They boiled for about 6 minutes until they were not even al dente.  They were just softened enough to be pliable.  The rest of the cooking would happen in the oven later.  I let them cool before stuffing them with the cheese filling.  At first I tried to use a spoon to fill them.  This made a huge mess so I again turned to the ever useful ziplock bag.  I filled it and snipped off the end.  Filling the tubes of pasta vertically was again, messy, as the cheese filling was easily pulled out of the end by gravity.  I opted to place the tubes on the counter sideways, insert the cut corner a half inch and use my free hand to squeeze the bag until I saw the cheese near the opposite end of the pasta.  I placed them all into the pan one at a time until it was full.  Then I shoved in two more cause I'm a rebel!  Into the refrigerator this went until dinner time.

When dinner time came around, we simply poured a jar of sauce over the pasta and topped it with a few handfuls of mozzeralla and some sprinkles of parmesan, popped it into a 400 degree oven and waited 20 minutes.  It wasn't done as the recipe said it would be, and so we put it in for another 15 minutes, and then another.  Erin got increasingly grumpy as this process continued.  Then, to her dismay, we had to let it sit for about 10 minutes before dishing up.  Some Pillsbury breadsticks, two tall glasses of water and some reruns of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" finished off the meal.  But, the housewives left a strong numbing aftertaste of collagen, silicone and botox on the tongue.  Really though, it was pretty good and simple.  I plan to use a similar cheese filling recipe with some homemade ravioli to come in the next few days.  Change the pasta from rolled to flat and perhaps add some sausage and you'd have a killer lasagna.  Hopefully the roads are too dangerous for work tomorrow too!

Shepherd's Pie (Saturday, January 29, 2011)

I wanted to attempt to recreate the Shepherd's pies that have cured countless hangovers of mine.  I'm not talking about the casseroles of ground beef and cheddar cheese that your mom used to make.  I planned to use the ingredients common at pubs around Saint Louis like The Scottish Arms and Dressel's.  Damn I love their Shepherd's pie!

On Saturday morning I took a trip to the Soulard Farmer's market to find some ingredients.  I'm always amazed how cheap some of the produce is there.  I picked up a 3.5 lb lamb shoulder, 4 lbs Russett potatoes, turnips, yellow onion and two giant carrots that made me feel like less of a man.  Trimming the shoulder to obtain minced lamb was a chore.  There was a shoulder blade, socket and some ribs within the cut of meat and it was difficult to navigate.  I ended up with a fair amount of meat for only $14 and I had plenty of bones for a stock so I started some water to boil. 

Into the boiling water went the bones and scraps from the lamb shoulder, the ends of a bunch of celery, unusable carrot portions, onion scraps, a bulb of garlic (no need to clean it up, just smash it), some week old basil nearing its end, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, a hefty dash of kosher salt and some fresh ground black pepper.  I let this simmer for the better part of 3 hours. Not only did I end up with a great stock but I perfumed my apartment and the hallways of the second floor. 

Meanwhile, I peeled my potatoes.  I didn't need all 4 lbs for the pie, true, but mashed potatoes are just awesome and you can eat them all by themselves, which I did, for lunch.  I should point out here one of the rules I picked up somewhere.  Always start pototoes is in cold water and bring them up to temperature with the water.  However, never do this with pasta!  Unless you like mushy slop for dinner.  Another rule, always season the water with salt.  After the potatoes were fork tender drained them and let them cool a bit.  Into a big bowl they went with about 6 tablespoons of butter (that's 3/4 of a stick) and about a cup of milk.  I could have used a whole stick, and would have but this one was already open and it told me it would rather hang out with potatoes than the other butter in the fridge.  I think the whole sticks were making him feel insignificant.  I knew exactly how he felt in light of the giant carrots sitting on my counter.  Again I had a chance to use my new hand mixer I got for Christmas (thanks Momma!).  The potatoes turned out awesome and I didn't even use bacon.

When I finished the potatoes I realized I needed some parsnips too.  So I set out for the grocery store.  Mother#$%&er!  Behold, my truck has a new pimp lean.  The rear left tire was flat as possible, with the rim on the pavement and a shiny screw as decoration.  So, I got to work changing the tire.  I had to lower the spare from under the bed and surprise, surprise, it was also flat.  Erin came to the rescue and took me to get it inflated.  Then she watched me inch the truck off the ground one quarter crank at a time and put on the spare.  She followed me to NTB where they repaired the tire for $20 while we ran to the Shop and Save which luckily had parsnips, though they were prebagged and I nearly missed them.  We returned back to my limping Ford and after a mere 3 hour detour I was back to the kitchen.  I chopped my carrot, turnip, onion and ever important parsnip.  I set the stove to medium-high and browned a pound or so of minced lamb in olive oil (I froze the rest).  I removed the lamb and tossed in my veggies with a bit of butter and let the roots soften a bit.  I returned the lamb to the pan along with some red wine (I only use the best).  No, it wasn't $4 at Wal-Mart.  Why do you ask?  Obviously I didn't let my stock go to waste.  I strained out the bones and veggies and added about 2 cups to the pan as well with a few dashes of Worchestershire.  I let this reduce for a while and it wasn't as thick as I thought necessary so I used some good ole' fashioned cornstarch in cold water to thicken it a bit. 

Into the dish it went.  I moved the mashed potatoes I whipped a few hours ago into a large ziplock bag for easy application over my stewey goodness.  If I had a some frosting tips they would have resulted in better presentation but this method worked fine for a first try.  I then put the pie into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes and also made some quick biscuits from a tube to soak up what the potatoes couldn't.  It was absolutely heart warming and I will definitely make this again.  This took me nearly all day, but next time I'll use some of the leftover stock and hopefully won't have to repair a tire and I think it could be done in a little over an hour if you make and mash the potatoes while your stewing the vegatables and lamb.  It was also great when reheated in the microwave.  I made sure to have a hangover the next morning



The pie before going into the oven.  I forgot
to take a picture when it came out cause I
 was too excited to eat it, but it looked about
the same except for some browning on the
potatoes and oozing around the edges.