MASTICATOR

Fall and Its Associated Starches Are Here.

2007-10-02T16:45:00.000-04:00

Not too much going on due to work and band practice. But a few high points.

Eggplant and Green Beans with fish sauce, soy, mint and sesame.

Steamed Pac Choi and Steamed Jasmine Rice

Chocolate and Peach Clafouti

Rye Flour Cut Pasta, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Arugula, Sauteed Shallots, Brown Butter, Olive Oil, Pecorino Romano

Rye Flour Pasta Ravioli with Zucchini-Shallot filling, Cranberry Beans, Roasted Japanese Turnip Chips, Raw Japanese Turnips, Warm Walnut-Oregano Mayonnaise, Oregano.

Apple Cider Soufflé

Roasted Broccoli and Onion Salad with Broccoli Leaf-Walnut-Sherry Vinegar Pesto, Ricotta, Polenta.

Roasted Poblano stuffed with Polenta, Cranberry Beans, Roasted Tomato and Onion. Poached egg, Ricotta. Arugula with Thyme Honey-Tomato Seed Dressing.

Pizza/Foccacia thing. Clockwise from top left: Broccoli, Garlic, Broccoli-Leaf Pesto; Capers, Cured Olives, Oregano, Ricotta; Zucchini, Green Shiso, Ricotta; Tomato, Arugula, Ricotta. Salt, Black Pepper, Olive OIl and Pecorino Romano over all. Crust almost there - recipe soon.

Arugula-Oregano Green Risotto; Japanese Turnip with Spanish Paprika; Sweet and Sour Fried Japanese eggplant.

Bagels. Sesame and Salt. After an earlier half-assed attempt, I took another stab at it with some prompting from a post on Smitten Kitchen. I made some Bialys as well. I have to say, the bagels are pretty great. And I'm not just saying that because of how long they took to make.
Anyway, time to make dinner.

Not Too Much

2007-09-19T14:37:00.000-04:00

This week has been busy, and I haven't really kept up on my cooking besides lots of fried egg sandwiches on homemade english muffins, and a couple of quick green vegetable stir fries. I did try(and nearly succeeded) to make couscous with cornmeal, an experiment I will revisit. It went in a salad with beets, mozzarella and mint/caper pesto. I also made a roasted potato and green bean salad with tomatillo puree that was pretty tasty. I apologize for not having pictures of any of these things.
Now for the rundown:

Baked Egg with Cream, Heirloom Tomatoes, Capers and Fried Eggplant; Rye English Muffin; Mustard Green Salad.

Zucchini "Noodles," Golden Tomato Sauce, and Minted Yogurt.

Red Potato and Asian Pear Gratin with lots of Cream and Black Pepper.

Red Potato, White Corn, Red Onion and Sungold Tomato Hash; Poached Egg.

The Best Pizza I Have Yet to Make(and some of the best I have had).
I wanted to cook for my roommate and I(it was recently his birthday) so I decided to make a Sicilian-ish pizza. The four topping divisions are as follows(clockwise from top left): Zucchini, Mozzarella, Mint; Red Onion, Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella; Roasted Yellow Peppers, Red Onion, Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella; Tomato Sauce, Cured Olives, Capers. Everything got Pecorino Romano, Black Pepper, Sea Salt, Olive Oil.
It was ridiculously good, and I was of the belief that you couldn't make pizza at home good enough to compare to what comes out of pizza ovens. But it worked. Preheat the oven to 550˚F for about an hour. My oven tiles got nice and hot - the pizza baked in 10 minutes or so(maybe less). The crust was airy, chewy and all of those other things you want the crust on a square pie to be(not including the sometimes thinner grandma-style pies). I was a proud father. I will do it again and post the dough recipe, but it was pretty close to my basic bread recipe, though with more gluten, more salt and a bit more barley malt.
Cheers.

The Hits Just Keep on Coming

2007-09-10T15:50:00.000-04:00

This past two weeks have been pretty crazy with work, although it didn't keep me out of the kitchen. I may include some recipes below, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Grilled Zucchini, Red Onion, Red Pepper and Ricotta Sandwich on Weird Bagel Bread.

Cornmeal Pancakes with Peaches and Maple Syrup.

Fried Yardlong Beans with Jalepeno, Shallots, Arugula, Jasmine Rice, Fried Egg, Tarragon.

Fried Egg, Fried Onion, and Womanchego on Homemade English Muffin.

Cut pasta with Basil-Tarragon Pesto and Cured Olives; Homemade Bread.

Greenbean, Yellow Tomato, and Jalepeno Salad with Sherry Vinegar.

Homemade "Supermarket-Style" Italian Bread.

Unhealthily-Rich French Toast with Greengage Plum Butter.

Grilled Womanchego and Tomato on Homemade Bread.

Sauteed Okra with Shallots, Tomatoes, Jalepenos, Ground Peanuts, Jasmine Rice.

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Maple Syrup.

Spicy Panzanella with Grilled Tomatoes, Jalepenos, Yellow Bell Pepper, Garlic.

Almond Flour-Sour Milk Oven Pancake with Greengage Plum Butter.

Fried Okra Tacos with Grilled Tomato/Tomatillo Salsa, Homemade Corn Tortillas.

Beetroot and Mustard Greens with Sesame Seeds and Black Pepper

Red Flannel Hash with Mustard Greens, Pecorino Romano, Poached Egg.

Incredibly Spicy Greenbean-Tomato-Roasted Bell Pepper Tagine with Mustard Seeds; Couscous; Greek Yogurt.

Potato-Zucchini Hash; Crispy Fried Egg; Lemon Cucumber; Homemade Rye English Muffin.

THE GREATEST MEAL I HAVE EVER COOKED

To celebrate my mother's 60th birthday, I cooked a 4-course meal for 11. It was by far the most consistent and cohesive meal I have ever made. I have a tendency to fall off at the main course, but this time it worked out beautifully. The curse is lifted!

Cold Smoked Red Bell Pepper-Charentais Cantaloupe Soup, Homemade Ricotta(this was not served in a demitasse at the meal but in a teacup - this photo is a recreation).

Duck Confit, Wilted Leek and Sprout Creek Ouray Cheese Tart with Almond-Whole Wheat Crust(made with the Amish Pat-in-the-Pan method); Burnt Greengage Plum Butter.

Summer Squash Terrine with Gelled Sherry Vinaigrette; Roasted Eggplant-Pine Nut Crostini; Confit Tomato and Baby Arugula Salad with Greek Thyme Honey Vinaigrette.

Crisp-Skinned Arctic Char with Cretan Olive Oil and Pink Salt; Lavender-Scented Gnocchi(made from a few of the 60 red potatoes my mom received from our farmer friends) with Basil Pesto; Steamed Waxbeans; Sweet and Sour Radishes.

This is an unbelievably beautiful and delicious Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Hazelnuts made by my sister-in-law(there was also a delicious Black Magic Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze made by my brother) which we had for dessert, along with a bottle of Chateau Frank Celebre Cremant from the Finger Lakes(which was very very good).

After all this I was exhausted, and swore to take a day off of cooking the next day.
It was not to be.

My aunt and uncle are moving, and brought to the dinner some things they are geting rid of that they thought we might be interested in. One was an old Mirro Cookie Press from WWII that belonged to my grandmother, which included in the box a lovely little aluminum donut/biscuit cutter. So my brother and I thought we had to make donuts, considering we had a donut cutter. I mean, you might as well, right? Right.

The night before we threw together a dough after not recieving much guidance from any of the recipes we could find. Here is the recipe, but be aware it makes around 32 donuts, give or take. And donut holes, which are hard to cook.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 envelope Rapid-Rise yeast
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup apple cider, warm
2/3 cup milk, warm
2 eggs, beaten
a little nutmeg

Mix this all together in a large bowl. It will be very wet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in refrigerator over night.

In the morning, knead on a liberally floured board, adding just enough flour so the dough can be handled without being too sticky. Roll it out to be around 1/2" thick, give or take. With a donut or biscuit cutter(or any sort of round cutter, although you could make square donuts if you wanted) cut as many donuts as you can, gently re-rolling and cutting the scraps until you have used up all the dough. Transfer cut pieces to floured sheet pans and allow to rise until doubled in size(we did this rise in a warm oven, considering the dough was still cold from the overnight refrigeration).
Heat canola(or rice bran or your favorite frying oil) in a heavy pot, 1"+ deep to 365°. When the oil is hot, fry donuts one or two at a time, depending on the size of the pot, without crowding them. Keep an eye on the oil temperature and pause your frying to allow it to come back up to the correct temperature. If you do this right, these donuts will be light as air and not greasy at all. when you take them out of the oil, give them a second on a piece of paper towel, and then roll them in sugar, cinnamon, or whatever else you want. We made a couple with shredded coconut stuffed in the hole, which were pretty tasty.

As you can see, it makes a lot of donuts. But I think you could halve the recipe pretty easily.

And thanks to all of my readers who have told me they are actually readers. I am trying to come up with a way to reward you.

Heat Wave Denial food, Pt. 2

2007-08-27T14:51:00.000-04:00

Another heat wave? Yes. Did I seem to care? Not so much. But I am posting a recipe that I think is pretty damn good(and easy, and you can wait until cooler weather to make it). I also used fresh ricotta in more things than I have in my entire life. It is delicious.
First, the rundown:

Lima Bean and Tomato Risotto
White wine, butter, olive oil, shallots, basil

Sauteed Mustard Greens, Jalapenos, Capers, Salt

Cream of Zucchini Soup with Parsley

Black Pepper Popovers

Fried Eggplant and Ricotta thing(someone would probably call it a napoleon) with Spicy Tomato Sauce, Pecorino Romano, Fresh Basil
Mustard Green & Wild Concord Grape Salad with Sesame Oil

Not really cooking, but delicious: White Peach, Portuguese Sweet Bread, Fresh Ricotta, Honey

Black Pepper Popovers stuffed with Poached Eggs, Cherry Tomatoes, Fresh Ricotta, Green Chile Jam(made at the Taos Food Center and ridiculously good), Pecorino Romano, and this strange, soapy herb from the Prospect Park/15th St Greenmarket that I have yet to identify.

Portuguese Sweet Bread French Toast, Sour Cherry Syrup, Fresh Ricotta, Cantaloupe

Baked Egg with Spicy Tomato Sauce and Fresh Ricotta; Red Potato, Zucchini, Jalepeno Hash.

Roasted Eggplant, Pistachio and Beef Meatballs with a light Tomato-Wine Sauce; Lemon Cucumber and Tomato Sambal; Crazy Soapy Herb, Basil and Almond Pesto; Fresh Ricotta

And here is the recipe:

English Muffins
After some fiddling with a basic bread recipe, and consulting whatever data I have collected in my brain every time I bake anything, I devised this recipe.
3 cups of flour(2-1 all-purpose to whole wheat is what I did, but feel free to experiment)
2.5 tsp wheat gluten
2 tsp salt
1 .5 tsp sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
150 ml warm water
150 ml milk
1 Tbsp Barley Malt(dissolve it in the water and milk)

Combine the dry ingredients well in a large bowl. Add the water/milk/malt mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or your hand until a soft, smooth dough forms, adjusting with additional water or flour if necessary. You con't really want to knead it very much, and if the dough feels right you can simply leave it in the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a damp towel until the dough has doubled in size.
Seperate the dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls, then flatten until 3/4" thick and transfer to a lightly floured board. Cover with a cloth(or reuse that same piece of plastic wrap) and let rise until doubled in size.
Heat a heavy pan(preferably cast iron) until very hot and cook the muffins a few at a time until brown(but not burnt) on both sides(approx. 3 minutes per side).
You can fork-split and toast them further if you want. Or simply split them and eat them like this:

Cato Corner Womanchego Cheeseburger on Homemade English Muffin with Arugula and Dijon Mustard; Lima Bean, Corn, Cherry Tomato, and Yard Long Bean Succotash.

Red Pepper and Arugula Homefries; Poached Egg; Fresh Ricotta; Pecorino Romano; Weird Bagel Bread(made with english muffin dough which was boiled and baked - a respectable attempt and a delicious bread)

A Holiday, sort of.

2007-08-21T10:53:00.000-04:00

So last week I went to Martha's Vineyard with my family to stay in part of our friend's rambling ramshackle house. It was wonderful as always. The Vineyard is probably my favorite place out of everywhere I've been because I can go there and not think about anything. It's like riding a bicycle(which I also do more there than normal) - as soon as I get there it's as if I never left.
But of course I had to cook. I brought some ingredients with me(everything there is REALLY expensive), including 10 or 11 lbs of the tomatoes shown above(picked at previously mentioned Starlight Gardens in Durham, CT). I didn't take many photos, so I may struggle to remember everything. Here we go...

Cornmeal-Fresh Corn-White Nectarine Pancakes with Homemade Butter.

Some grapes growing behind the house. I made a proto-verjus.

A brandade-ish codfish spread. Fresh cod smoked with pecan wood, white onion, heirloom tomatoes, mayonnaise, smoked paprika.

Green Beans with Sweet Onion, Pink Salt, roasted Green Peppers, Sungold Tomatoes, Protoverjus.

Summer Squash Terrine with Basil Paste, Basil Oil, Balsamic Vinegar.

Crispy Potato-bottomed Tomato-Cheddar Frittata with Fresh Herbs.

Homemade Fettucine(to use up the eggs in my fridge before I left town) with Fresh Tomato Sauce(very basic - a mix of tomatoes through the foodmill, salt, olive oil, parmesan rind) and turkey Meatballs(with golden raisins)

Cucumber Salad(mayonnaise, protoverjus and cream dressing)

Beer and Milk Fried Chicken with Halaby Pepper

Layered Baked Ratatouille with Basil Oil and Garlic.

Chowchowish condiment - tomato, cucumber, green pepper, plum, onion, protoverjus, salt, sugar

Whole wheat-Cornmeal-Banana-Whipped Egg White Pancakes

Cornmeal Fried Cod and Pan-Grilled Steak Tacos with Homemade Whole-Wheat Tortillas(thanks Maggie for the perfect rolling with that plastic coke cup!), Tomato-Sweet Onion Salsa, Cucumber-Green Pepper Salsa

Five Star Bakery of New Bedford Portuguese Sweet Bread french Toast with Blueberry-Peach Salad, Bacon

Mustard Seed Grilled Swordfish

Smoked Paprika Grilled Squid

Cold Corn Soup

Grilled Summer Squash, Green Peppers, Onions with Balsamic

Bok Choy and Strangely Oversized Green Bean Salad.

Phew!

Rumors of My Death Were Mildly Exaggerated

2007-08-09T22:09:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. I am happy to report(for my sake at least) that I have not died and gone wherever it is one goes when that happens. I have just been a jerk and ignored this thing. Not that I haven't been eating or cooking, I just haven't been doing as much of it as usual, as people seemed to want to visit with me, and when people visit I don't have a lot of time to cook. AND NOT that I don't appreciate a good visit now and then, but I can only eat at restaurants so many times before I start to go a bit mad. And though there were some highlights of these meals cooked by others(Shopsin's milkshake, Noodle House in Flushing for soup dumplings, Dumont burger, some pretty good barbecued brisket given a pastrami treatment at Fette Sau, etc) sometimes I'm just not that impressed with or interested in restaurant meals.
So to keep this short I am sticking to highlights of my own cooking since the last post, plus maybe a few photos I thought were nice(for example, the wild apples above which were picked in a graveyard(OOOOoooooOOOOOOoooooOOOOOO) and are now sauce in the back of my fridge).
Here we go...

This flour and egg became the dough for zucchini ravioli. I can hardly remember what it was served with - three-corner-field farm sheepmilk ricotta and something else... This was part of a meal I cooked at my parents' house for the first family dinner in a while. There was also a cold corn soup with dill and a cold tomato soup with dill flowers.

And a salad of Lollo Rossa lettuce, Upland Cress, duck confit and a poached quail egg.

And then Sugarplum Sorbet and Sugarplum Shortbread(abstracted from a super-classic scottish recipe from a Scottish hospice nurse, with help from my baking brother).

And then exceptional wheat flour/corn meal pancakes with the whipped egg white method, plus massachusetts blueberries, ny apricots, and raspberries and blackberries from the back yard.

My variation on Keller's crazy ratatouille(actually a vegetable bayaldi) from the amazing film "Ratatouille." I guess "Vegetable Bayaldi" isn't a terribly catchy name for a film, and also does not contain the word "rat." Turkish eggplant, two kinds of heirloom tomato, a delicious kind of zucchini(all from Yuno's farm, my favorite) with a roasted red pepper puree, olive oil and Halaby pepper, a Lebanese crushed sweet-hot pepper. Served atop some whole wheat couscous with whipped middle eastern yogurt.

Vegetable Biyaldi filled crepes.

Zucchini, roasted red pepper and shishito pepper sauté with crispy fried egg and the incredibly dense whole wheat bread(with raisin and apricot puree as a yeast feeder)

Two okras two ways(purple okra sauteed, green okra rolled in cornmeal and fried) with charred tomatillos, heirloom tomato and green shiso

Blueberry-Almond Flour pancakes

Spaghetti alla Chitarra with fried Turkish eggplant, tomato, escarole, pecorino romano and egg yolk.

Roasted red pepper, garlic and almond puree; roasted eggplant and labneh puree; whole wheat couscous and shishito pepper.

Potato cake cooked in duckfat, green heirloom tomato, escarole, pink salt

Arborio rice dumplings, okra, padron peppers, yogurt, olive oil

Braised short ribs in green pumpkin seed sauce; charred corn and tomato salsa; mizuna and fresh cheese(I made cheese!) and homemade flour tortillas(thanks to HomesickTexan for posting the great recipe - it is so ridiculously simple that everyone should make them).

Sweet corn soup with basil puree, fresh cheese, and pink salt. Thank goodness for foodmills.

My take on Imam Bayaldi("The Imam Fainted"). I call it "Aşçı Bayaldi" or "The Cook Fainted" because it took so much work. Zucchini, smoked onion and bulghur-stuffed Japanese eggplant with smoked tomato sauce and mizuna salad.
I figured out how to use my wok as a smoker. I am very excited.

Chocolate ice cream with ground sumac, nutmeg, and orange flower water. My ice cream maker is working again. I am very happy about that.

Green bean, grilled yellow zucchini and white onion salad with sesame oil.

Adirondack All-red potato gnocchi with basil pesto and fresh cheese. I am almost getting the hang of gnocchi. These were almost light and pillowy.

Sweet corn, avocado squash an red onion hash with poached eggs

Mizuna, heirloom tomato and salt salad

Orange Watermelon

Coconut Peanut ice cream

Avocado squash, yellow zucchini and tomato casserole with Halaby pepper.

Green bean, red onion, and Adirondack All-red shoestring fried potatoes with basil pesto.

Mizuna, fried red onion, and crisp braised short rib.

Next week I am on Martha's Vineyard, and plan on cooking some updated and/or deconstructed versions of dishes from the Martha's vineyard cookbook, and also doing some squid jigging, otherwise known as fishing for squid. I promise I will post more often from now on. Probably.

heat wave denial food

2007-07-12T09:14:00.000-04:00

Yes it has been hot. I'm not sure if I have any readers, but if I do they are probably in the Northeast, so they know we are having a heatwave. Although I don't have air conditioning, or even much in the way of air circulation; and despite my tendency for developing heat and dehydration-related migraines; I seemed to ignore the heat as far as cooking was concerned. Some would call it stupid. I call it stupid. But the food was pretty good.
After breaking a toe last week I kept it simple for a few days, only eating things with some pesto I had made on the first day, ATB(Anno Toe Breaking). It was good pesto, a real trooper, especially in the potato and wax bean salad I dressed with it.
But then I realized I was out of ingredients so I limped up to the greenmarket at Grand Army Plaza on Saturday, which led to these things:

Saturday Dinner: P'ajon Party

Squid and Garlic Scape P'ajon with Cucumber Salad and Sweet Soy Dipping Sauce.
As you know, I love pancakes, and probably eat too many of them. But you may not know that I love pretty much every international pancake variation(and not just Rooty-Tooty Fresh and Fruity) especially savory Asian pancakes. I had been wanting p'ajon, the vegetable and sometimes seafood rice flour pancakes of Korean cuisine. I have never attempted to make them, but they seemed easy enough, and Bittman's take on them in The Best Recipes in the World is a good jumping off point. Plus I had some squid, and I thought that the garlic scapes I had might be a good thing to throw in too(I also added a few minced broccoli leaves).
They were good, but because I didn't have any glutinous rice flour, I used Browned(not brown) Rice Flour, a Vietnamese product which is exactly what it says it is. It was a little too strongly browned, and made the pancakes slightly burnt tasting. I should have used more all-purpose flour-to-BRF. Next time. I ate it with a lightly-dressed vinegar and cucumber salad and sweetened soy sauce.

Sunday Breakfast: BEC, ATB

Bacon, Egg and Cheese with Fried Tomato.
Wicklow bacon, Tello's eggs, Cato Corner Dutch Farmstead cheese, and somebody's tomato on the last two July 4th hamburger rolls. Yum.

Sunday Dinner: Surprisingly Un-Mucilaginous Salad

Warm Okra Salad with Tomatoes, Shallots, Marjoram
Okra cooked in an almost dry cast-iron pan until browned in places, golden cherry tomatoes and sauteed shallots; with fresh marjoram and apple cider vinegar. Local okra is really good. This came from Maxwell's at the GAP Greenmarket.

Monday Dinner: First-time Artichokes

Cut Egg Pasta with Artichokes and Basil
This is the best pasta I have made yet. Perfect texture. Cut into large-ish diamonds. With a sauce of chopped baby artichokes, shallots, butter and olive oil; plus some pecorino romano and African Blue Basil on top. I had never cooked an artichoke before, much less eaten a locally grown one. If you have the opportunity, please take it.

Tuesday Breakfast: Pancake Heaven

Yellow Cornmeal Pancakes with Fresh Peaches and the Last of the Homemade Butter
Just good. I will put up a recipe once I figure out the proportions I used. Cornmeal, Unbleached Pastry Flour, Evaporated Cane Juice, Salt, Egg, Baking Soda. With a peach sliced and sprinkled with a little sugar then left to sit for 15 minutes or so. Great peach.

Tuesday Process: Dumbest Idea Yet.

Duck Confit
Tuesday was the high point of the heat wave. Heat Index around 105. Watermelon? Pasta Salad? No. Duck Confit. Late Monday night I trimmed the two ducklegs I had in the freezer and rubbed them with a mix of salt, long pepper, bay leaves, and marjoram. I rendered down the trimmed fat and threw it into the fridge.
Tuesday around 3 I preheated the oven and put the ducklegs(cleaned of most of the salt mixture) and some shallots in a ceramic baking dish, and poured the duck fat and a little lard over the duck, making up the difference to cover with grapeseed oil. Four hours later I had duck confit, easily one of the most delicious things in all existence. I removed the legs and wrapped them up in tin foil, and poured the fat/oil in to a jar to save for the next confiting(or for some intense sauteing). Yow.
Then I made...

Tuesday Dinner: No Idea Whatsoever

Broccoli with Lardons, Shallots, Shishito Pepper, Agrodolce and a Poached Egg
I don't know where this came from. Sauteed broccoli, shallots, crisp bacon chunks, with an agrodolce(Italian style vinegar-based sweet and sour sauce) made in the pan. With a poached egg and some pink salt on top.

Wednesday Breakfast: Patience is Rewarded

Crepes with Duck Confit, Dutch Farmstead Cheese and Yellow Tomato Sauce
Excellent. Traditional crepe batter, shredded duck confit, cheese. Threw some yellow cherry tomatoes into boiling water for a few minutes, then zipped them, plus a shallot and marjoram, with the immersion blender. Recipe to come soon.

The Pursuit of Happiness

2007-07-05T17:22:00.000-04:00

I broke my toe. It wouldn't bother me so much if market day wasn't coming up so soon. But for now I'm just staying off of my foot. Now for the rundown.

Sunday Dinner: Lots of Vegetables

Tomato and Avocado Squash Terrine with Mint Gelée,Olive Oil and Pomegranate Molasses; Bulghur, Lollo Rossa Lettuce and Basil with Pistachios and Sumac
Avocado squash is like a denser, sweeter, drier zucchini. I threw the squash slices into a hot cast-iron pan for a minute to soften them up. I hadn't planned on the mint gelée, and it probably wasn't necessary. But it was interesting, and I had to try making it at least once. But it was good, and the salad too.

Rocambole Garlic, Garlic Scape and Spinach Soup with a Poached Egg, Chickpea Flour Dumpling, Sheep's Milk Yogurt.
This was good. Rocambole is one of the varieties of hardneck garlic. This garlic comes from Keith Stewart's farm, where a friend of mine is now working. It is the best garlic I have ever had. Great texture, some sweetness, just enough heat. It was perfect in this. And I poached the egg in the soup, which was an added bonus. The little dumpling was made of chickpea flour, more of the sheep yogurt and egg white. I browned it in butter and then finished it in the soup.
And I ate the rest of the semifreddo with some of the stewed sour cherries. It was even better than the raspberries.

Monday Breakfast: Pan de Maiz y Flor de Calabaza

Cornmeal Oven Pancake with Squash Flowers and Shallots. This was delicious. I was hoping I could make something that wasn't a pancake, but I couldn't help it. Plus it had lard in it.

Monday Dinner: Real Sesame Noodles

Soba with Sesame Butter, Wax Beans, Shallots, Shishito Peppers, Sesame Seeds and Ground Peanuts. I don't think I have ever had sesame noodles that were truly sesame noodles. I can understand. Peanut butter is more readily available for one thing, and a slightly more accessible taste than a ton of sesame paste. But I liked it.

Tuesday Breakfast: Butter, Pancakes, and a Revelation

Random Ingredient Cakes. Ground Rolled Oats, Whole Wheat, Barley Malt, Raisin Puree, Nutmeg, and the Buttermilk from...

the butter that I made. I saw the bottle of heavy cream in the fridge. So I decided to make butter. It was so much easier than I thought it would be, and I thought that it would be pretty easy. I used just a bowl and a whisk, and it all went very quickly. I think it may have been related to the fact I was listening to a White House press conference and channeling my aggression into the whisking. But man was it good on the pancakes. I made approximately 3 Tbsps, and I still have a little piece. And now I know.
Also I am in the early stages of development on a new feature, the Random Pancake Generator. More to come.

Wednesday All-American Dinner: Off The Grid.
It was the Fourth of July, so I had to eat a hamburger. And I had some NY State Grass-Fed Ground Beef in the freezer.

I made the hamburger buns from a mishmash of advice from recipes I found online, but used lard instead of margarine, because margarine is gross. The burgers were seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked on a grillpan. The potato chips were russets fried in canola and grapeseed oil with sea salt, somked paprika, cayenne, and a little sugar. Lollo Rossa lettuce, tomato, grilled Shishito peppers. They were handsdown the best burgers I have ever eaten. Ever. And not just because of the labor involved. The meat had a nice amount of fat, they were packed very loosely, the texture of the bun was great, and it had character(without going in the direction of sweetness like those brioche buns so many hamburger joints are using). Fantastic. No condiments. Roommate Mike said they were the best he had ever eaten as well.
Plus many Rolling Rocks and fireworks.

Thursday: Broke Toe Pesto

I needed something simple that wouldn't require too much standing. So I made pesto before the basil went bad. Here it is with some farmer's maccaroni and grated avocado squash. Whaddya want from me?

Everybody's Gotta Eat

2007-07-01T13:01:00.000-04:00

I really have to get back to updating more often. I'm forgetting the details. AND I'm going to try to write recipes more.

Wednesday Dinner: Right Dish, Wrong Season

Pork Meatballs with Red Spinach, Thumbelina Carrots and Coconut Milk; Sticky Rice. Not sure what brought this on, but it was completely wrong for the weather. Fish sauce, shallots, can't recall what else. Good though.

Thursday Breakfast: There Was Still Bacon in the Fridge

Coconut Milk Crepes filled with Coconut Jam; Sheep Yogurt; Jowl Bacon. These crepes were problematic. I was a little too liberal with the coconut milk, but I didn't want to use another egg. But they ended up crispy around the edges and very tender in the middle(to the point that a few of them fell apart a little). But man o man, they were good. Some wheat germ for a little added character. And that coconut jam is really good. I think it's just cooked-down coconut milk and palm sugar. Just don't put in the refrigerator if you ever want to get it out of the jar. I learned that lesson with the last jar. Available at better Asian markets(or not-so-great ones as long as they carry Filipino products).

Thursday Dinner: Raw Food
It was hot, and I had learned my lesson the night before. So I made some completely uncooked food. I don't know how I feel about raw food diets. I think eating some raw food is good for you, but everything? Some vegetables taste much better slightly cooked. Raw shell peas? chalky. And no poached eggs? That's not a life. Who wants to live until their 100 anyway?

So I made two things. First, the soup above. Tomato, zucchini, green bell pepper, olive oil, sumac, sherry vinegar, a couple of hedge mustard seeds.

Then a salad. The most powerful salad I have ever eaten. Raw chiogga beets, 2 cloves raw garlic, arugula, cider vinegar. Sinus-clearing to say the least.

Friday Dinner: Fancy Snobby New Ingredients Day Dinner.

Poached Purple Thumbelina Carrots wrapped in a Shiso leaf, Carrot Syrup, Sesame Oil, Sumac, Sea Salt.

Seared Sea Scallops, Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes, Lollo Rossa Lettuce with Hedge Mustard Dressing, Blackened Shishito Peppers, Hawaiian pink salt.
The difference between seafood bought from a local one-boat operation and from some huge trawler halfway around the world may be totally mental, but I'll be damned if it doesn't taste better. Best sea scallops I ever had. Sweet, perfect texture. I mean, I cooked them pretty well too. But the quality cannot be mistaken.

Also, I made sharbat-e albalu. Iranian sour-cherry syrup. I had it once, but never really thought about making myself. But then I read a little essay about it in the NY Timed Dining Section and saw it included a recipe. And then I saw sour cherries at the Greenmarket. So I made some. And I added vanilla, which is traditional but was not in the recipe. It is really good. And I also have a jar of sour cherries in syrup, which I will have to find a use for.
Sharbat-e Albalu
1.5 lbs of sour cherries, stemmed and washed.
2.5 cups of sugar
juice of one lime
1.75 cups of water
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
Combine sugar, lime juice and water in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, wrap cherries in a double-layer of cheesecloth and tie securely. When syrup boils, gently lower cherries into the pan. Cover, turn burner to low, and cook for 25 minutes. Lift cherries out of the syrup, holding above the pan to allow syrup to drain out. Set cherries aside to cool. When cherries and syrup have cooled, put cherries in the bottom of a clean jar and pour syrup on top. I ended up with enough syrup for two quart jars, so I put the cherries in one jar and left the other only syrup. Mix 1 part syrup with 3-4 parts water or seltzer. You could also put it on ice cream or yogurt or make a cocktail with it if you want.

Pranzo di Sabato
Saturday Dinner
I was inspired, or bored, or both. But whatever it was, I spent three hours making myself dinner. It was the most Italian dinner I have made in a long time. So I have translated the dishes into Italian. I hope I was accurate.

Fagiolini al Pesto e Fiori di Zucchine con Purè di Pisella
Wax Beans with Basil Pesto and Fried Zucchini Flowers with Pea Puree
I am not the biggest fan of wax beans. I guess the name is in reference to the color, but usually it seems to describe the taste as well. But the specimens from Yuno's Farm were so beautiful I gave them a try. And they taste as good as they look, or at least have some flavor which is normally lacking from wax beans. And green beans and pesto is one of my favorite things, so I thought I'd try it with the wax beans. The pesto was basil, almonds, pecorino romano, olive oil.
The pea puree from the ravioli of last week was so good I wanted to use it again. I found squash blossoms(9 for $3!) at the Greenmarket. Really simple batter(olive oil, milk, flour, salt, seltzer). I burned the roof of my mouth eating the first one directly out of the pan, but it was worth it.

Orecchiette con Polpettine, Pomodoro e Menta
Orecchiette with Meatballs, Tomatoes and Mint
I made orecchiette for the first time. Supposedly there is a trick you do with the tip of a knife to shape them into shells. I do not know the trick. The only description I could find(in The Silver Spoon) was to "drag them, one at a time, slowly over the counter using the tip of a knife to form small shells." I'm sorry, but that is not terribly descriptive. But I think I figured it out on the last few. And I made them with an egg dough, which is not typical. The meatballs were pork, pecorino, cayenne, salt, and black pepper, made very small(approx. 3/4" in dia.) and browned in butter. Sauteed shallots and sliced tomatoes, Kentucky Colonel Mint(from Keith's Farm, very strong), sea salt and olive oil. The orecchiette could have been more consistent in thickness, but the texture and taste were good.

Semifreddo di Yogurt della Capra
Goat Yogurt Semifreddo
I bought some goat's milk yogurt from Saxelby Cheesemongers that comes from my favorite goat dairy upstate, Stone and Thistle Farm. Anne said it was pretty tangy(she had previously recommended the 3-Corner Field Farm Sheep Yogurt over it, which is very good) so I thought I would give it a try. I have been in a frozen yogurt mood of late, but due to my ailing ice cream maker that was out of the question. And I had never made a semifreddo before, so I tried it. And it is good. Be aware that this will use a lot of bowls. This makes enough for two people. I exhibited unnatural self-control and only ate half. I will eat the rest tonight.
Goat Yogurt Semifreddo
1 egg, separated
1/4 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/2 cup goat yogurt(or sheep or cow)
1/8 cup of sugar(superfine if you have it)
In one bowl, whisk the egg white to stiff peaks. In another bowl, whisk the cream to stiff peaks. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolk and sugar until pale and sorta fluffy. Add the yogurt to this until well-combined, but gently. Gently fold in the egg white, then the whipped cream. Line a small bowl with plastic wrap(16 oz or so, or souffle dish or mold or whatever. I used a little pyrex bowl that made for a nice dome shape). Gently pour or spoon the mixture in to the lined bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze. Seven or eight hours is a good idea. remove the semifreddo from the freezer 30 minutes before you want to eat it. I ate it with pureed raspberries, but the sharbat-e albalu might be nice. I will try tonight.

Sunday Breakfast: Pancakes Again

Whole wheat, wheat germ, almond flour, corn meal, with Grade B maple syrup from beautiful West Glover, VT .

Culinary Cavalcade

2007-06-26T12:01:00.000-04:00

Hopefully I can remember what all these things were.

Thursday Dinner: Fancy Department Store Salad for a Dowager
I once ate lunch at Fred's at Barney's, the restaurant on the top floor of Barney's New York. All I really remember about it was that everyone, including me, was eating an enormous salad. That was sort of my inspiration for this salad that would easily satisfy one of the Ladies Who Lunch, as they are called.
Boston Lettuce, French Breakfast Radishes, shell peas, foccacia croutons, jowl bacon, tarragon, and blue cheese dressing(but I can't remember which blue)and of course a poached egg.

Saturday Dinner: Very Quick Ratatouille-Like Thing with Teenage Arugula, Sheepsmilk Yogurt and Spicy Semolina Chicken Cutlets
I love chicken cutlets. Friday I met some friends at Prospect Park to see Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys play a free show. We had a potluck picnic. My offerings were a jar of garlic dill cucumber pickles and a dozen small sandwiches on currant pistachio rolls. The rolls did not rise enough, but they tasted good. Most of the sandwiches were tiny chicken cutlets with boston lettuce and a blue cheese sauce. I also made a couple of vegetarian sammies with griddled zucchini, arugula and cured olives. The picnic was very nice. Two delicious salads(potato and fennel), a fruit salad(mostly berries) and some very strong lemonade. And the show was great. Ralph's voice has become really amazing in old age, and the difference between good and great bluegrass bands was very evident, and is huge(the opener was good, but no where near the headliner).
But anyway, I had some chicken cutlets left at home, so Saturday I threw together cocozelle zucchini, green bell pepper and green garlic in a very hot dry cast-iron pan. Once the vegetables started to brown I added a tablespoon of olive oil, and then a minute later added a little less than one quarter cup of white wine. I threw in a Prudence Purple tomato cut in wedges(plus the two grape tomatoes that were left), a half-handful of blue basil chiffonade, salt and pepper and covered the pan. Then topped it with the cutlets and a handful of raw arugula. I am a big fan of Ratatouille(and similar mixed-vegetable dishes) and ths was a nice, lighter, springier version.

Sunday Breakfast: Malted Semolina Bread French Toast with Almonds, Raisins, Strawberry Puree, and Sheepsmilk Yogurt
On Friday I also made another loaf of semolina bread, trying to reproduce last week's success. I failed to match or beat it, but the bread was still good, just not as springy and a little chewier. But it made good french toast. I put some barley malt syrup(which I purchased for an upcoming bagel-making experiment)and nutmeg into the egg-milk solution.
Man-o-man, it was good.

Monday Breakfast: Thumbelina Carrot Taginette with Currants and Olives, Spinach, Dill and a Crispy Egg.
In a dry pan, toast fennel seeds, ground cumin, ground mustard, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon. When fragrant, add a tablespoon in olive oil, a tablespoon of currants, and thumbelina(or another variety) carrots cut in long skinny sticks. Toss carrots to coat with spices, add around 1/2 cup of water, cover the pan and turn the burner down low. Keep covered until carrots start to soften. Uncover pan and add a few pitted black olives(cured olives are good, but you can use something milder) and let the liquid cook away.
Meanwhile wilt some spinach(I used red-stemmed spinach) with a little salt and sprinkle of water in a covered pan.
I've started making sunny-side up eggs in a cast-iron pan. It gets the bottoms really crispy, which I like. But you can do whatever you want.
When the liquid was completely cooked away from the carrots add a few dribbles of olive oil, a few sprigs of dill, and a squeeze of lemon juice(or a similar amount of rice vinegar). Put these things together in whatever order you want(after putting the carots on the bottom I realized that having the spinach on the bottom would have allowed the spinach to catch all of the spicy, carroty sauce that ended up in the bottom of the bowl. Oh well. I used my fingers to wipe it up. Pita would be nice too.

Monday Dinner: Sweet Pea Ravioli, Zucchini and Green Garlic Sauté, Crispy Garlic
What you are looking at is a puree of blanched sweet peas, heavy cream and pecorino romano. The camera did not do a very good job with the color, which was radioactive.
I put this puree between some eggless pasta dough(which I found in the freezer).The ravioli were probably 3 inches across.
Here's one.

When cutting the green garlic, I realized that I could cut long narrow spiralling strips of the outer layers around the stem. So I fried them in a little olive oil and made them crispy.
Then I charred a very small dice of cocozelle zucchini(the denser, lighter green variety) and green garlic in a cast-iron pan. Then I added some olive oil, white wine, salt, pepper and cayenne.
So it went like this:
1)zucchini-garlic saute on the bottom, 2)sweet pea ravioli, 3)crispy garlic things, 4)olive oil drizzle, 5)Pecorino Romano, 6) Hawaiian pink salt.
And it looked like this:

It was very good. Definitely a keeper.

And I baked this cherry-almond pie. The top looks like the logo of a hardcore band.

And this morning I had whole wheat-wheat germ-peanut-butter-barley malt silver dollar pancakes with raisins. I feel so healthy now. If only it weren't so hot.

Pancakes, O Pancakes

2007-06-21T12:13:00.000-04:00

Man, pancakes are truly one of life's great pleasures.
That might seem like a bit of an overstatement to you, but you haven't been eating any of the pancakes I have been making. I think I have finally mastered the art of the pancake.
Two days ago I made pancakes with strawberry puree and a tablespoon or so of almond butter in the batter. I apologize for the lack of a picture because they were a lovely shade of pink. If they had been sweeter I could see a 5-8 year-old girl really liking them. But despite the lack of sweetness there was that pronounced floral flavor that good strawberries have.
Today I made these:

Silver dollars with molasses, nutmeg and peanut butter in the batter, with pureed strawberries(with tiny bit of balsamic vinegar added) and cream on top. I have trouble making pancakes these days without peanut or almond butter in them. I think the added texture and richness is nice, and I suppose I'm getting more protein as well.
And that stuff on the side is some smoked jowl bacon.
But before we move on, here's a photo of molasses and milk:

Now more on the bacon.
Two nights ago I made an unreasonably complicated dinner, which is something I don't usually have anything against. But this one was too much.

A BLT. Smoked Jowl Bacon, Butter Lettuce, Caramelized Tomato Jam, Mayo, Tarragon and Dill on Toasted Semolina Bread. So more like a SJBLCTJTD. It was delicious. The tomato jam was very simple. I threw a handful of whole grape tomatoes into a pan with a tsp of olive oil and a tsp of chestnut honey. When the tomatoes started to brown and looked like they were going to explode, I took the pan off the heat and pureed the tomatoes with the immersion blender. Then I put it back on the heat, added a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar, and cooked off the excess moisture. It was just enough for one sandwich. So maybe it wasn't so simple.
And I had this:

I will call it Failed Cauliflower Bloomsday Soufflé.
It needed more egg white for structure. But it tasted good. Cauliflower, sauteed shallots, some of the Bloomsday Anniversary cheese, and a pinch of cayenne.
I'll try it again.

a few good ones

2007-06-19T10:59:00.000-04:00

Squid with Red Potatoes, Peas, and Tarragon/Almond Pesto.
I dusted the squid with roasted chickpea flour and shallow fried it in grapeseed oil for 50 seconds or so. The pesto was tarragon, roasted almonds, salt, pepper, and roasted walnut oil.
It all tasted pretty roasted.

Cornmeal-Peanut Butter-Currant pancakes with Pomegranate Molasses.

Cauliflower-Couscous Salad.
Cauliflower, fresh red onion, grape tomatoes fried with crushed red pepper, ground mustard, cumin. Tossed with couscous, black currants, pistachios, kirby cucumber and dill.

Queen Anne Cherry Ice Cream.
I made a crème anglais and poured it into my limping ice cream maker with pureed queen anne cherries(from Jersey!) and some heavy cream. As the photo shows, I was too impatient to let it set up enough in the freezer, but the texture and taste are very good. I put very little sugar in it so it is really only as sweet as the cherries are.

Strange Lamb and Crouton Breakfast Thing with a Poached Egg.
I don't know where this came from. Lamb(the last scraps) and shallots sauteed in a little butter, tossed with semolina bread croutons, kirby cucumber, tarragon, almonds and smoked paprika, sea salt, black pepper. Topped with poached egg.

Saturday Night Squid

2007-06-17T20:23:00.000-04:00

Squid Panzanella
Grape Tomatoes, Fresh Red Onion, African Blue Basil, toasted Semolina Bread, lightly sauteed squid, olive oil and sherry vinegar.
Yum. Best tomatoes yet. Straightforward and refreshing.

Also, you can vote again AND double your own chances to win.

And don't forget to vote for my friend-blogs as well, Not Eating Out in NY and Butter & Oil.

"A corpse is meat gone bad. Well and what's cheese? Corpse of milk."

2007-06-16T12:03:00.000-04:00

A delicious(up to you) quote from Joyce starts the Bloomsday New Ingredients Rollcall(sorry I mostly forgot which farm-which produce):
strawberries
queen anne cherries(Treelicious)
boston lettuce
fresh red onions
baby red bliss potatoes
tarragon(maxwell's)
peas
cauliflower(maxwell's)
grape tomatoes
kirby cucumbers(maxwell's)
squid(Blue Moon)
jowl bacon(Wilklow)
ground beef(Wilklow)
leaf lard)Flying Pigs)
creamline milk(Ronnybrook)
heavy cream(Ronnybrook)
eggs(Tello's)
apple cider

and

Cato Corner Anniversary(1-yr) Bloomsday,
which led to this:

Bloomsday Egg and Cheese.
fried egg and Anniversary Bloomsday cheese between two slices of yesterday's bread.
Beat that, Brunch!
Plus two strawberries(that got a little crushed on the way home) and two cherries.
Speaking of cherries, on my walk home from my Sahadi's Bulk Stockup yesterday(raisins! almonds! pastry flour!), I found a fruit-bearing cherry tree on Union St between 3rd and 4th Aves. Very good, very ripe, very bright cherries, and I don't think the resident of the closest building picks them as the only missing cherries were definitely bird-pi(e)cked.
May return in the middle of the night.

LAMB WEEK CONTINUED: A Fennelbration!

2007-06-16T09:53:00.000-04:00

Yes, I said Fennelbration.

LAMB WEEK, PART IV/FENNELBRATION, PART I:

Filei Calabresi with lamb, young fennel, peas, pecorino romano and olive oil.
This was just about the end of the lamb. There are a few bits left that may be involved in a breakfast, but the shoulder has been picked pretty clean by now. It's now looking forward to its retirement to the stock materials bag in the freezer.
Really nice. The fennel is very young, so its much subtler, with a sweetness that the peas helped bring out. And filei is a really nice shape for stuff like this. It is a very loose twist, with some variations in thickness that add nice texture. I used La Bottega della Pasta brand from the good italian importer I have previously mentioned, which has all of those characteristics that good dry pasta is supposed to have, and seemed very fresh compared to anything from the supermarket. I hate the supermarket.

FENNELBRATION, PART II:

Fennel and almond tart; salad with mustard/anchovy dressing.
I had previously baked a peach pie with an almond flour crust(1 part almond flour to 1 part white whole wheat) and, thanks to a change of heart about a lattice topcrust, I another pie's worth of crust dough in the freezer. I was trying to think of something to do with the rest of the fennel all day that would not require shopping and would not be a fennel salad. So I cut off a little hunk of the frozen dough and decided to make a tart.
I cooked down 1.5 cups of chopped fennel stems and fronds and one large chopped shallot in olive oil, then pureed it with 1 Tbsp of pecorino romano, salt and black pepper. Then I sliced the fennel bulbs thinly and sauteed them lightly to wilt them a little.
In the meantime, I rolled out the tart crust and laid it in the bottom of a small metal baking pan. Using a 3.5" dia. stainless steel ring, I cut a circle of rolled dough(leaving the ring around the cut piece) and used the extra dough to build up the sides of the tart on the inside of the ring, making sure the joint between bottom and sides was sealed.
Into the bottom of this unbaked crust I spooned the fennel/shallot/cheese puree and smoothed it out so it was even. On top of the puree I layered the thin fennel bulb slices so it looked as pretty as I cared it to look and gave it a sprinkle of sea salt. Then I stuck it in a 370˚F oven and baked it until the crust was nicely browned.
The salad was simple: French Crisp lettuce and purslane leaves. A dressing made from walnut oil, an anchovy(also from the italian importer, very good quality), a few capers, a spoonful of mustard, a dribble of sherry vinegar, and another dribble of chestnut honey; all whizzed in the tiny processor attachment to my immersion blender.
A few currants on top of the salad, and some crushed roasted, unsalted almonds on the tart.
This was really good. I love savory tarts(but don't make them often enough) and this was a good one. Powerfully fennel-y, it played really well against the salad dressing. And the crust held together really well - I lucked out with the fennel puree being on the drier side.
Delicious.
I also baked a loaf of semolina bread, which has the best taste and texture of any bread I have made. But it got stuck on the peel and ended up kinda ugly. I tried to take a picture but it covered itself with a jacket. It will be in a panzanella tonight.

Oh yeah, and you can still vote for me to go to Napa if you want. And thanks to those who have already. Also vote for Not eating Out in NY and Butter & Oil, please.

LAMB WEEK CONTINUED: Parts II and III

2007-06-14T13:32:00.000-04:00

Well, lamb week has moved along smoothly, and I even had a special guest(my brother, in town for work, came over for Part III).
PART II:

Lamb tacos.
Leftover lamb, homemade corn tortillas, griddle-crisped spring garlic julienne, radishes, chili paste, lime. Plus a candy-cane beet salad with mint and mayonnaise.
It had been almost two years since I made corn tortillas, and as you can tell by the picture I was a bit rusty. The texture and taste were good, but only the last couple were pretty. Oh well. The tacos were still awesome, especially the little bits of lamb fat.

PART III:

Red Flannel Lamb Hash.
Leftover lamb, German Butterball potatoes, the last candy-cane beet(sob), shallots, dill, lots of salt and pepper. Topped with a poached egg, with foccacia and chestnut honey on the side.
The hash was delicious, and this time I have my brother for a second opinion. Salty, sweet, rich from a little lamb fat. The dill added a nice springy brightness. A good start to the day.

Part IV coming later today.

How About You Vote For Me.

2007-06-14T11:06:00.000-04:00

Want to send me to the COPIA school in Napa to take a grilling class? You probably don't, but you could possibly go too, so you might as well.

Breakfasts, and Lamb Week Begins

2007-06-11T15:04:00.000-04:00

Sunday Breakfast: Pancakes with wheat germ and peanut butter, served with coconut jam and strawberries.
Monday Breakfast: Peanut Butter and Avocado Flower Honey on Sesame/Black Pepper Focaccia.

LAMB WEEK SUPERSPECIAL #1: Sunday Dinner.
I had previously mentioned having a local lamb shoulder in the freezer. Well it has been thawed and is now being celebrated as LAMB WEEK '07, or as long as I have leftovers.
To begin, I marinated the shoulder for almost two days. The marinade was a no-holds-barred affair, comprised of wild garlic brine, spring garlic greens, dried apricots, nutmeg, black pepper, ground mustard, dried safflower blossoms, cumin, a dried hot pepper, and a little honey. After the marinating I dried the shoulder and rubbed it liberally with salt and pepper.
The cooking was straightforward. I made a large cast-iron pan very hot, and seared the outside of the shoulder, threw in a couple of roughly chopped shallots, then transferred the pan to a 500˚F oven. After 12 minutes or so, I turned it down to 350˚ and roasted it until medium rare.
After letting the lamb rest for 10 minutes or so, I made a sandwich. It looked like this:

Lamb, french crisp lettuce, thinly sliced radishes, dill, mustard, chestnut honey, and some of the shallots that got crisped in the lamb drippings, on the new focaccia. Really good. Would have been nice with some ricotta or thick yogurt. Maybe later.
But the lamb was like pastrami. The result of using the garlic brine in the marinade, I reckon. I am looking forward to dinner #2.

Lunch Lessons

2007-06-09T13:46:00.000-04:00

WARNING: The following post contains some slightly graphic descriptions of food preparation that may offend some readers.

If you are feeling disconnected from your food, I strongly suggest making softshell crabs. Or maybe not.
In a purchase of passion I splurged on a pair of local softshell crabs from the lovely folks at PE & DD Seafood at the USQ Greenmarket today. I had gone strictly to visit my friend who is currently working on Keith Stewart's farm upstate and was down for her day of garlic-selling. I told myself repeatedly that I still had a large variety of ingredients at home, and tried to put blinders on. But I couldn't help it. The things that have come into availability this week were too tempting, so I got some baby fennel from Paffenroth Gardens($1/bunch), a tomato and a quart of milk. And I have been wanting to cook softshells, as I never had before, and after not cooking anything yesterday(besides the buffet dinner party I "catered" for a friend) I felt I owed it to myself. At least that is what I keep telling myself.
So I brought everything home and started cooking. I knew I wanted to fry the crabs, which is really the only way to cook them. So I made a salad to balance out the fried-ness. French Crisp lettuce, peas, and French Breakfast radishes, plus some crispy fried shallots. I made a double-function mayonnaise that would serve as a salad dressing and a condiment for the crabs - egg yolk, canola oil, walnut oil, lime juice, mustard, salt, pepper.
I readied the egg white/milk and cornmeal/flour coating components.
And then the test.
I've cleaned fish, dealt with headed poultry, deboned, removed offal, etc. But this was the most "in touch" I have ever been with a thing I was going to eat.
The crabs were sitting next to each other on the counter, motioning with their claws, looking around, breathing out bubbles. Alive. Watching me ready the platform, checking the noose, testing the gallows. I should have been wearing a hood.
I took out my heaviest knife...

A BRIEF RESPITE: On my walk home yesterday, I found pineapple grass(chamomile), lamb's quarter(AKA wild spinach), and purslane growing out of cracks in the sidewalk in just one block of McDonald Ave. Who knew?

I flipped the first crab onto its back and with the knife quickly removed the front section of its body(eyes? mouth? brain?). The legs got a little wild at this point. I stuck my fingers under the shell on both sides of the body and removed the gills(or lungs? I'll say gills) and then pulled a bit of toughish tissue from the underside of the tail. One done. At this point I am not sure how I feel about the whole thing. It is different to say you are ok with this sort of procedure when you aren't actually doing it. But now I am doing it.
I repeat the procedure on the second crab. I heat the oil in the pan. The crabs go in the egg/milk(to which I have added a bit of chili paste), then the cornmeal/flour, then the oil. The spatter like crazy. I duck and grab the spatter gaurd. They turn a beautiful golden brown. I plate them with the salad. It looks like this:

It is delicious. Transcendentally delicious. The best crab, softshell or otherwise, I have ever eaten. The shell and coating are perfectly crisp, the meat sweet and a little briny and moist and flakes into beautiful petals the way it should. The claws and legs are unbelievable. I would eat a bowl of them at the movies instead of popcorn. The mayonnaise works really well. A little dab is just enough, creamy with a bit of heat from the mustard. The salad is refreshing: crisp radishes, great lettuce(from Keith's), and peas that are intense little bursts of pure sweet spring. I'll admit that I ate it a little too fast. Not that it made my stomach hurt or anything, I just wish I had savored it a bit more.
But now I know what it takes. And as far as becoming more connected with what I eat, I just got a little more connected. Because if you are going to eat it, you have to know what it took to get to your plate.

Squid? Again?

2007-06-07T19:58:00.000-04:00

Yes, friends. The rest of the squid.
Fried squid with a chickpea flour/sumac crust and smoked paprika-lime mayonnaise.
Chickpea and green garlic puree with green shiso and olive oil.
Candy-cane beet and purslane with mustard, honey, and homemade horseradish.

Squid was perfect. The chickpea flour coating was flavorful but did not overpower the clean flavor of the squid. And the mayonnaise was the best I've ever made or had, with a radioactively yellow-orange yolk from a Tello's egg. The added color from the paprika made it pretty intense, though it doesn't show so well in the photo. I guess I could have photoshopped it.
Chickpea puree was good, but could easily have been more garlic-y. I have some leftover and will probably make breakfast with it somehow. Would also be nice whipped with some labne or greek yogurt. But I don't have any at the moment.
Beets were cooked a little too soft. But the combination of the horseradish, mustard and avocado honey was nice, especially with the bright flavor of the purslane. And I still have two large-ish beets left. I will have to come up with something good.
TOMORROW: Don't really know, but it will contain peas and radishes, and I have two pieces of foccacia left for breakfast. Also, I am defrosting the lamb shoulder and probably marinating it tomorrow for Saturday.

Was the Pie Good?

2007-06-06T20:52:00.000-04:00

The pie was good. Ate two pieces.

New Ingredients Day!

2007-06-06T19:23:00.000-04:00

Breakfast:
No breakfast. I jumped out of bed and ran to the USQ Greenmarket looking for inspiration. And I found it. Keith's Organics spring garlic and french crisp lettuce, peas, strawberries, shallots, candy cane beets, radishes, peruvian purple and german butterball potatoes, purslane, dill and some squid from Blue Moon.
And I had a taste of a cow and goat mixed-milk cheese from Sprout creek in Poughkeepsie that was really nice.

Dinner:

Purple potato gnocchi with squid, peas, shallots and dill. With sea salt, black pepper, olive oil and a little ground sumac. Really nice. Gnocchi came out well, light and with a good texture. The peas are fantastic, with a very concentrated flavor that is not often found in peas. And the squid was excellent. I cut very thin rings of one large body(I only got one squid's tentacles, and those are for tomorrow) and cooked them for probably 55 seconds tops. Fresh squid is pretty hard to beat, and I really like squid from this part of the Atlantic(and from Nantucket Bay, which I will be posting about in August if I have my way).

Dessert:

Peach Pie. I haven't eaten it yet. I'm still pretty satisfied from dinner, and am in the middle of drinking my first glass of my first attempt at a homemade root beer/cream soda. Foraged sassafrass, ginger root, licorice root, allspice, vanilla. It's pretty good but needs work. And more sassafrass.
But the pie looks like it will be pretty good, and I like the big "P." I had originally planned on doing a lattice top, but then decided to save the top to make another pie or tart. But I still had some dough left after rolling out the bottom, and after a few attempts at some leafy designs I settled on the "P." If I ever have a bakery that makes pies, I think I will label them this way.
It is a traditional peach pie(peaches, lemon zest, sugar, cornstarch) but the crust is half whole wheat/half almond flour. I will eat some and let you know if you should be sorry you can't join me.

The Last Couple of Days

2007-06-05T14:58:00.000-04:00

Sunday.
Breakfast.

Whole wheat buttermilk pancakes with almond flour, almond butter, molasses, granola and raspberries, with a little butter and a little honey.
I am getting really good at making pancakes. And completely disregarding recipes, which never work very well for me.

Dinner.

Roasted asparagus with wheat berries, sweet onion, pecorino romano,duck chicharones, a fried pheasant egg and a mustard dressing. Really good. Some of the asparagus were very thin andgot a bit crispy. The flavors all balanced pretty well, good textural variety, and duck chicharones are awesome.

Monday.
Breakfast was a bowl of the granola with strawberries.
Dinner.

A sandwich of spicy fennel sausage, spinach sauteed with garlic, and a fried egg on the homemade foccacia. I'm going to miss the foccacia when it's all gone.

Even I Am Impressed

2007-06-03T00:42:00.000-04:00

What a day. Got some free fruit from my landlord's father(he is a produce supplier to restaurants), went on a bike ride(mainly to go to the GAP greenmarket for eggs and to drool over all of the stuff I want to buy), did some freelance work, and started a new book project.

And then I cooked this meal.
It is in the top five meals I have ever cooked for myself. Maybe top three. All very simple, but it was exactly what I wanted to eat. And here it is:
Faicco's hot fennel pork sausage, cooked in a dry pan, finished with onions, basil and sherry vinegar.

Wilted spinach and a poached pheasant egg with a lemon/anchovy/pickled wild garlic dressing

Boiled beets with roasted walnut oil, mint, black pepper, salt

Tomato with capers and olive oil

Plus the first foccacia I ever made, whole wheat with sea salt and black pepper.
Here's the spread:

It may look like a lot of food for one person(and yes I had to use a baking sheet as a platter), and it was. What a chore.
Followed by homemade organic cantaloupe sorbet(amazingly good cantaloupe courtesy of Tony). These are the kinds of meals that make it all worth it, whatever it all is.

Friday Night

2007-06-03T00:27:00.000-04:00

So it's Friday night, I'm a moderately with-it(although I did just write "with-it" which probably disqualifies me) 26-year-0ld and I live in Brooklyn... What do I do?
Make granola, of course. I do not have a picture of said granola, but I have a good deal of it left so you will probably get to see it sometime soon. Pretty straightforward: oats, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, wheat germ, pepitas, cinnamon, molasses. It is good, or at least good in comparison to the crap they call granola in most grocery stores. It has a much cleaner taste in that you can actually taste that it contains oats. It is not just a vehicle for huge amounts of rice syrup.
Prior to making this granola I made dinner.
I have been in a cold noodle mood of late and figured I had some things laying around that could dress it up a bit. So here goes:

Cellophane noodles with small shrimp, asparagus, chives, tomato, sweet onion, fried shallots, and ground peanuts with a light dressing of peanut butter, lime juice, rice vinegar, tamarind concentrate, fish sauce. And probably something else I am forgetting.
Pretty good. Should have drained the noodles a little longer, as the remaining water made the dressing watery. But good flavors, and I love buying $2 of shrimp, because it is surprisingly a lot of shrimp.
My one meal of the day(it was too hot to eat earlier on) and a good one.