Night Stirrings

Cooking Together

2011-10-26T03:21:00.000-07:00

A month or two ago (time gets hazy with me sometimes) I got together with a cooking/food friend in San Francisco who belongs to the same cooking group to which I belong. We had talked about cooking together, and had been ruminating on what to cook for our first adventure in cooking together. We settled on the Roasted Split Chicken with Mustard Crust, from Jacques Pepin. How can one go wrong with St Jacques!?

It is from his book, More Fast Food My Way. I described it to my friend and showed her the recipe, and we both agreed that it looked great. This recipe had been tempting me for some time.

We planned a menu around it, from things we had been wanting to make or try. One of the ideas that came up was to have a Manhattan as our cocktail. I had never had a Manhattan, and wanted to try one. My friend makes them on a regular basis, so she is good at them. This was to be my introduction to the cocktail.

Now, like the conscientious drinker that I am, I decided that we should have something to cushion our stomachs from the deluge of alcohol. Again, a recipe came up involving mushrooms on crostini that I had wanted to try, from Marcus Samuelsson. I had seen this from his feed on Twitter, and it looked really good to me.

When I got up to my friend's house with equipment in tow, we started to cook. First up, the mushroom appetizer. I got to work on the mushrooms and the toast.

By the time the crostini were ready, I was ready for a Manhattan. My friend made a small one for me, as I was not sure how I would like it and because I was driving back down to the San Jose area later on that night.

Needless to say, I liked it. Later on, she made me another one, also on the small side.

By that time, I was starting to work on the chicken. My friend spatchcocked it, and I went to work on the crust for the chicken.

Even before it went into the oven, the mixture that forms the crust smelled fantastic.

We put it into the convection oven, eventually turning on the fan to brown the bird more evenly.

Enter the cake that my friend had wanted to try. I think she combined a recipe from another cooking friend, with another idea. It had apples and rosemary in the cake, which ended up being a great combination of flavors. Not too sweet, which is my favorite type of dessert.

As I finished up my work on the chicken, my friend got to work on the other dishes in the meal. We kept it simple: mashed potatoes to mop up the wonderful juices of the chicken, and sauteed swiss chard. Nothing else was needed, except wine, which we drank with dinner.

And then, the cake.

This (at least according to our planning) is not the last time we will cook together. Everything we tried ended up being a winner in our books.

In Search of the "Real" Butter Brickle Ice Cream

2011-05-31T15:46:00.000-07:00

My friend Serene and I were discussing our favorite ice creams, and I happened to mention that mine was Butter Brickle. I cannot find it easily anymore.

I did happen to find it at one of the Sunflower markets in Albuquerque and I bought some in anticipation of delight. It wasn't a delight. Not the right flavor and only a tiny bit of brickle.

Serene mentioned that it was also the favorite flavor of her partner, and we both decided that we would try different recipes and hopefully come up with the "true" Butter Brickle ice cream. We are going to work on this independently (but trying the same recipe at the same time) and then compare them. And then tweak, and go on from there. Serene's partner will be a taste tester.

So this is a shoutout to any and all of my readers. If any of you have a recipe for Butter Brickle Ice Cream, would I be able to experiment with it? If you are so inclined to part with the recipe, that is. I have a few recipes already, with which to experiment.

I have already tried one recipe, that was way too sickly sweet, and didn't have the mellow flavor of my memory. It went down the drain, after I could only eat a very tiny amount.

Thanks to all of you in advance!!

To go with that pot roast...

2011-05-30T23:19:00.000-07:00

Ya know that pot roast I fixed some time ago? Want something to serve along side of it?

I cooked the pot roast again for some old friends a few months ago. I was back in New Mexico for a week's vacation, and I made another dish that my mother would make every so often: Stove Potatoes.

This is from an old cookbook that my mother had, and that I often referenced when I was growing up. I think it came out during WWII, but I cannot be certain of that. I do know the author had a radio show, and the cookbook came from this, I think. The Mystery Chef kept his identity secret according to his mother's wishes. At that time, men who were cooks were considered a bit strange, unless you were a famous French chef.

This was one of my favorite potato dishes when I was growing up. I learned to make it early on in my life as a cook. It is somewhat of a stove top riff on scalloped potatoes.

Bacon fat is my choice for this dish. Being a GRITS girl, there is nothing like potatoes fried in bacon fat. Or anything else fried in bacon fat, for that matter. To a southerner, it is a whole food group in itself.

Then the potatoes go into the pot. After a few minutes, the onions. By this time the aroma is becoming intoxicating. Onions and bacon fat...Mmmmmmm. I salt the potatoes and onions at this point as well.

Add a lot of ground pepper. I mean, a LOT. It smooths out in the cooking, but the correct amount is a LOT. More than you think you should add. I use regular black pepper. If you are like Julia Child and don't want the black pepper to show up, I suppose one could use white pepper. I have never tried it with white pepper. Either way, use a lot of it.

This is where it gets a bit tricky. I use milk instead of water or stock. But not too much; just exactly what the directions say. I have made this in the past and have thought it wasn't enough milk. Believe me, it is.

Cover the pot and let the potatoes cook til they are tender. A warning here: they will stick to the bottom of the pan. Maybe some of you out there know of a trick or two that will prevent that, but in all the years I have made these, I have never been able to find the one trick that will prevent sticking. Non-stick pans? They still stick to the pan.

I haven't fiddled with this recipe in all the years I have made it. It is just so simple and so good the way it is. And it is the perfect accompaniment to the pot roast. And it is a reminder of my mother and her cooking.

It's On Again, Off Again Time!

2011-01-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

This is an old favorite. It is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Cafe Beaujolais Cookbook. The author, Margaret Fox, used to own one of my favorite restaurants, Cafe Beaujolais, which is up in Mendocino, CA. The restaurant still exists, but not under her ownership and direction any more. In the cookbook, she mentions this as being a pot roast that her mother used to make a lot.

For you cookbook collectors, this cookbook has a lot of gems in it, of which this pot roast is only one.

In the cooking newsgroup I frequent, this is considered one of my signature dishes. I only make it frequently, but never developed the recipe myself. I consider Margaret Fox the real author, along with her mother.

I had been craving beef this past week or so. I would smell someone roasting beef, or grilling something beefy, and I would immediately get such a craving for something beefy. I finally decided this weekend, that I needed to do something about it. So, I set about looking in the supermarket ads, and what did I spy? And ad for chuck blade/7 bone roasts at a very good price. Someone must have been reading my mind!!

So I got a roast last night. And two sweet onions, although I usually use regular onions for this.This is an unusual pot roast, in that it is essentially dry braised/roasted. No liquid is added, only the flavorings of salt, pepper, garlic and onions. Minced garlic is rubbed into the roast after it is salted and peppered.

Then a pile of onions are strewn over the roast.

The magic happens when the onions melt down and form a sauce, along with the condensation in the pot.

The On Again, Off Again, refers to the method. The cover of the pot is on for the first hour, then taken off for the second hour, then back on again for the third hour of cooking. The second hour, when the cover is off, is when the onions brown and produce a richly flavored sauce.

I have on occasion, pureed the sauce so that the onions are blended in. Most of the time I don't.

A friend, to whom I passed on the recipe, adds carrots and potatoes to the roast during the last hour. I haven't tried it that way yet.

Unfortunately, the last picture I took of this, doesn't show how glorious a pot roast it is. As you can see, it is hidden under a mass of onions. And this time, most of the juices cooked down. I am blaming that on the enameled cast iron pot I used: I am thinking it retained more heat than usual.

This goes well with a side that will sop up the sauce, such as broad noodles or mashed potatoes.

Congruence in Red

2011-01-04T00:03:00.000-08:00

I got my Le Crueset Tarte Tatin pan out of storage a few weeks ago. . I was happy enough with that, but then I swung by Monterey Market on my way down south to Pismo Beach, where I am staying these days. And what should I see, but my beloved Winesaps. This could mean one of several things (like my mother's panned apples) but right now with both of them, it means Apple Cake! I was ecstatic!

It was always made with Winesaps, which were our staple apple when I was growing up in Virginia. They are plentiful there, but not so much out here in the west. They are now considered heirloom apples, and well they should be. I keep my eyes open for them, and I can find them at my favorite produce markets in the bay area in the fall and early winter. Anywhere else outside of the South, not so much.

I grew up with this Apple Cake. So did my mother. Her mother used to make it, and my mother wrote about it in her book Once There Was a Farm: A Country Childhood Remembered.

This isn't an elaborate apple cake. It is more like a kuchen, I suppose. I have nothing to really compare it to, and I have no idea of where my grandmother got the recipe. But it was a staple dessert when I was growing up. And always with Winesaps. It is the voice of memories to me. Lovely memories.

And always served with hard sauce.

Many folks have made hard sauce, and often with some spirit or other. We only flavored it with vanilla. Hard sauce wasn't much heard about in the last few years, but now it seems like folks are rediscovering this sweet sauce that melts upon contact with heat. It is a delight with tartish desserts, adding the necessary sweetness.

This cake isn't as good the day after it is made, but I never turned down a piece of it for breakfast the day after. Or any other time.

It never got much farther than the day after. At least that is my memory of it. And it didn't this time, either.

Traveling: packing up.

2010-09-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

I have been here in Bakersfield for the last 3 months. At the end of this coming week, I will be heading back to New Mexico. At this moment, I am not sure where I am heading next, although there are things in the works, so to speak.

I am packing up the stuff I bring with me. I thought I would give you all a glimpse of what and how I pack all the stuff that I bring with me. I bring probably way too much, but I like to have my cooking comforts here.

Mind you, I am almost done packing. Most things are in boxes, but are not sealed up yet. I am going to show you the unsealed boxes, to give you an idea of the stuff I bring with me.

Since I bring cookbooks with me, I also need a place to put them. So I have folding bookcases which house the cookbooks I bring.

You can't really see them now, but I also bring some folding cast iron racks, to house various things like cookware, utensils, and whatever can't fit on the counters. The main one is packed in this box, and this is what it is:

Cookbooks. Me and my cookbooks. I bring way too many with me, but they comfort my soul. They feed me, both literally and figuratively. I have more that I brought with me, but they are up in my storage unit in Vallejo. I miss them. Next contract, should it be in CA, will have me getting the rest of them from storage and having them with me.

Gadgets. I am a gadget geek. I have a whole box of them here, and I have more packed in a box that I can access immediately. And I have some in a rolling backpack, so I can be up and running within a few minutes.

Cookware. This is my main cookware box. I have another box in storage in Vallejo, which has some not as used cookware, although I am finding I really miss it now. Like my wok. But I can survive and survive nicely with what I have here.

I am packing up my Le Crueset. I have a box of it. As you can see, it is not all packed yet. One piece broke the last time around, which is slightly unheard of. Le Crueset breaking? It was my gratin dish. I am heartbroken, but I am calling Le Crueset and will see if this is covered under their incredible warranty. I try to carry less of it with me, and I will probably leave part of this back in New Mexico when I get there. If I can get to the box..

Did I mention spices? I have a ton of them. I had them all in this box until the last time I was back in New Mexico, then I realized I couldn't cook some of the things I wanted to, cause they were buried in this box. So I separated out some of the most common ones I use and now I can access those easily..in this bag. No, you can't see what they are right now, cause they are packed for traveling.

I carry a few bags with me, of ingredients I use a lot. I used to buy them almost every contract, but it got expensive. So now, I carry them with me. Stuff like vinegars, oils, Asian condiments, Worcestershire sauce, and the like. And a bag of ingredients that I want to be able to access almost immediately. So nice to have ingredients to make a meal in case I don't feel like getting to a grocery store right away, Pantry ingredients, so to speak.

I have boxes of groceries too. I can't see buying all this every time I land somewhere. So it comes with me as well. This time, I am putting baking supplies in their own little box, as I found out the last few months, that I had to go scrounging to find anything with which I could bake. Things like yeast, baking powder, and the like.

My liquor cabinet, so to speak. I don't drink much of this..most of this is used for cooking. But again, it gets expensive to buy these every time I go somewhere. Especially the stuff like Kirsch, or Grand Marnier. Or Framboise. So they travel with me.

By the time the van is loaded, I can barely get to anything I need. I try to get the van loaded so that I can pull out the things I need almost immediately. I have a box that holds those types of things, like my dishpan, and dish drainer. A few utensils I need. A dishtowel, dishrag. Sometimes my teakettle, although this time I might have it shipped to New Mexico. A few pots or pans that I need. My baking mat.

I have other boxes too. A few boxes of dishes, to round out whatever my apartment has. Baking dishes, a box of cutlery. My food processor. My KitchenAid mixer. A box of measuring cups and mise en place bowls. Glassware.

Oh, and my knife bag. I can never forget my knives. They go wherever I go.

And my pot rack.

These are only the boxes with my cooking stuff. This doesn't include my suitcases, my boxes with other essential stuff, like office stuff/desk stuff. But those don't count. Really, they do, but to me, my home is where my kitchen is.

Eating Healthy And On the Cheap

2010-06-04T11:55:00.003-07:00

This has been a rough month. I thought I would be in California at this time, and for a time I was. 2 weeks to be exact, in Roseville, CA. Then plans were upended, and I headed back here to Albuquerque.

For the two weeks that I was there, I was able to visit some farmers markets that I had frequented years and years ago, plus one that was still rather new to me. It is an exciting time of year in California farmers markets, as the new spring produce is really going strong, and the produce from the transition to summer is starting to arrive. Fava beans were starting to come into season, and the farmers markets had piles and piles of them. By the time I left northern California, the price was becoming insanely inexpensive, even cheap. And the strawberries. There were stands all over the place, not just at the farmers markets. Strawberries that you could smell before you even got to the stand. AND bright red all the way through.

When I first got to northern California this time, I visited a farmers market with a close friend and got some wonderfully sweet carrots. This may not sound unusual to a lot of you, but finding those in New Mexico at this time of year is impossible. New Mexico farmers markets are not on the schedule you think of when you think of states like California. Everything is delayed. People think that because we are a more southern state, that we will have produce like the more southern states. Not so at all. Everyone forgets that we are a mile or more above sea level and that frosts (and snow!) can come late in the spring. So our growing season is much shorter than those states at sea level.

A week or so later, I visited another farmers market; one of my old haunts. The summer squashes were starting to come in, and I found the loveliest small zucchini. Again, this might not seem unusual to a lot of folks, but most of the time here in New Mexico, zucchini and other summer squashes are not sold until a pretty good size. Needless to say, I snapped up some of these lovely small squash..and had plans to cook them simply.

At the time, I was staying in an extended stay hotel, and had a rudimentary kitchen in which to cook. The burners on the flat top "stove" had to be turned up to high to achieve a moderate heat. I had most of my tools and pots and pans still packed in my car. I kept on putting off doing any real cooking as the one instance in which I did cook on that stovetop was not encouraging. My lovely little vegetables that I had gotten at the farmers market languished in the fridge.

Suddenly, I was heading back to New Mexico. I packed up my vegetables in a cooler, and brought them back here with me. Plus all the other lovely ingredients I had gotten while there.

Back here, I had to cook them. And because I was now out of a job, I needed to watch my pennies. I also had the idea that I would like to eat more vegetarian dishes for reasons of health, and because they were generally cheaper.

Enter my lovely little carrots and zucchini. I remembered a dish that I have made off and on again over the years: Moroccan Vegetable Tagine It is from an unlikely source: Eat More, Weigh Less, by Dean Ornish. The contributor of this recipe is Joyce Goldstein, a wonderful San Francisco chef and cookbook author.

Now this dish is a very low fat dish in it's original incarnation. When I used to make it in years past, I would make it as directed, with no oil in the dish. Now, I make it with a good amount of olive oil. And this time, I added chickpeas. I thought this would make a nicely rounded vegetarian dish and indeed it did.

Originally, the carrots and green beans are cooked in a bit of vegetable broth, and then set aside. The broth is then used to "saute" the onions. The dish turns out fine using this method, but these days, I like my olive oil. So I changed how things were done. I used olive oil and cooked the onions and the carrots at the same time.

After that, I added garlic, and then then the rest of the Moroccan seasonings, then in quick succession (after I let the seasonings cook a bit), canned tomatoes,vegetable broth, zucchini, chickpeas, a huge pile of Swiss chard, thawed green beans, and finally, lemon juice (and more salt!) to brighten it up.

I think this is the best version of this tagine that I have made so far. I like the addition of the chickpeas (which I cooked from dried this time) and I can't help but think that the lovely little carrots and zucchini I brought back from California improved it tremendously.

To go alongside it, I made an Afghani rice preparation, using brown basmati rice instead of regular basmati. I told ya I was trying to eat healthy, didn't I?

Now, I am heading back to California in the next two weeks. Not to northern California this time, but farther south, and in the great Central Valley. Hot and dry. I will be back with my beloved California farmers markets, and closer to the greater Los Angeles area. As usual, my pots and pans, assorted kitchen gear and a slew of cookbooks go with me.

Stay tuned!.

Interlude with Lamb Shanks

2010-04-09T23:02:00.001-07:00

Okay, I was remiss. No excuses as to why I didn't post in so long... I could say I was overwhelmed, busy, you name it. I wasn't . I did have bunion surgery in early September and then I went back to work for a few weeks. I then quit my job and took off for California. Maybe that will be a good enough excuse. Probably not.

I did have one of my friends here in Albuquerque cook for me a few times when I was off on medical leave., since I wasn't be able to stand for very long. Arri fixed me Indian food one night while I was off : a host of curries along with a rice pilaf!

The top curry is a spinach and potato curry. The one below that in the blue bowl is a chicken curry with whole hard cooked eggs in it. The bottom bowl is a quasi-curry with a red pepper and fresh tomatoes, along with parsley. I forget all the spices that Arri used, but there was a bit of pounding in my mortar during dinner prep!

I have occasionally done some more major cooking over the months before I left my job. One such instance was due to a gift of some gorgeous lamb shanks from a California friend who was coming through town. Lin had gotten them from her favorite meat "guy", and she and her husband gifted them to me. I couldn't cook them right away, as I still had food that needed to be eaten (from the dinner I cooked for Lin). They went into the freezer.

A week or so later, I started scrounging around in my cookbooks, and finally landed on a Richard Olney recipe, from Simple French Food. This, like so many of his recipes is simple and extremely good. It was basically lamb shanks, a boatload of garlic, water, and maybe Herbs de Provence. It braised for a long time after it was initially seared. The final dish was a brown, garlicky goodness. So simple, so good.

Italian Wedding Soup, bastardized.

2010-04-09T15:32:00.007-07:00

I first encountered this particular soup years and years ago.. Probably back in 1982 or 1983. I don't remember the occasion, but I remember the person that gave me some of this soup, and gifted me with this recipe. Her name was Patty, and she was of Italian descent. I think she was from the New Jersey area, but I don't remember for sure.

I know that on one chilly night I had my first taste of this soup. It was a revelation, and hit the proverbial spot for me. I loved it so much then, that I begged for the recipe.

I have made it a few times since then, but it never turned out the same as when Patty made it. That always seems to be the case...

I made it again a month or so ago, and I bastardized it. Yes, the meatballs are pretty much the same but the garlic is fresh this time. I didn't take a shortcut and buy meatballs, but made them myself, cause these have Parmesan in them. How many storebought meatballs do you know that have Parmesan in them? It makes a difference.

And fresh garlic!! The original recipe called for garlic powder...but times have changed. I can't do that anymore.

I didn't make beef broth this time either. The original recipe calls for beef bones, upon which you make a beef broth..with carrots, celery and onions. I scrapped that idea. I did have some good chicken broth on hand, I used that. But, I did saute some chopped onions, carrots and celery in a bit of olive oil to start, and then added my good chicken broth to cover. It was mighty fine.

Then I added my meatballs, adding them as I formed them in my hand. The ingredients were pretty much the same, except I used bread crumbs I made from some heels of leftover bread. And the aforementioned garlic. They plumped up in the broth and added their garlicky goodness to the broth.

Then the chard. The original recipe doesn't call for chard. A friend has a similar recipe in which she uses chard, so I stole the idea from her. I had found some great loose chard leaves at the Marin farmers market on a Sunday, so I decided they were just waiting to be used for this. I trimmed the stems off, then sliced the chard into ribbons, and then into the soup they went.

Oh my. It was starting to smell heavenly by then. I got to the final touches, of beaten egg with Parmesan cheese, dribbled into the boiling soup.

I couldn't wait any longer. A bowl of soup was in order...and I served myself a good sized bowl of it. I tasted it, and I was ecstactic. This is the best version I have made so far. By far. Talk about hitting the spot: this did. A glass of cold white wine completed the experience..

I ate a second bowl..after letting the first one sink in...

Note: This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was the best one I had of the soup. It doesn't look as yellow and muddy in real life.

Last Gasp of Summer Tomatoes

2009-10-05T15:30:00.014-07:00

The summer is over here in New Mexico, and with it, the last real tomatoes of summer are almost gone. I am heartsick over this, as I feel like I live for summer sun ripened tomatoes. The temperatures here in New Mexico are now dipping too low to sustain them any longer. It is October here, and fall and winter come early.

I have a few left on my cutting board, which I am eeking out into various dishes. This time, I decided to make a bread salad that originally comes from Italy. The recipe I use is not authentic by a long shot, but it is still very good. It comes from a respected member of a longtime cooking and food group to which I belong: rec.food.cooking.

I made this for the first time about 7 years ago, when a group of us had what we call a Cookalong. A cookalong is a virtual potluck or cooking session. Several of us decided to fix this recipe by Charlotte (who adapted it from a recipe from Michaela Ann Jordan) and we put our own spin on it. We all virtually gathered in a "chatroom" to chat about this as we cooked in our own kitchens. The last time I made it, I didn't add the capers. I don't remember if I used the olives or not. This time, I added both. I did use basil in both instances.

Well, it was still great. But it would have been better if I had not salted the dressing as much as I did. I forgot about the olives adding more salt. The capers did as well.

I did make one change of my own this time. I have made some vinagrettes lately that had a smidgeon of cumin in them, and I think that adds a wonderful deeper dimension. This time I addes a tiny bit of cumin to this vinagrette. I like what it does, and don't regret adding it one bit. It doesn't detract from the rest of the salad, but just adds a deeper complexity.

I cut the recipe in half this time, as it just makes too much for one person to eat at one time. It doesn't store well and needs to be eaten soon after finishing. Even so, it is filling, and I still have half of it left. This salad is the essence of summer to me.

Still more tomatoes to use before they spoil and before the taste of summer is gone completely. More to come.........

An Old Friend

2009-06-14T21:35:00.008-07:00

A few weeks ago found me cooking once again, late at night. I started after midnight, as I couldn't figure out what I wanted to cook.

Back in the late '70s and early '80s, Pierre Franey was writing for the New York Times, with his collaborator Craig Claiborne. Together, they produced the column The 60 Minute Gourmet. Later, these columns became the basis of a great cookbook, The New York Times 60 Minute Gourmet.

During those days, one of my favorite recipes was from that book. I cooked it for myself, and it was a fantastic company dish as well. Everyone that ate it, raved about it. My mother cooked it after having it at my place one day and she served it to her friends who loved it too.

It is a one pot meal, for the most part. Add a green salad, a light dessert (if you want) and it is a great meal. Back in those days though, I added more elaborate dishes to the meal. I remember one dinner which had this as the main course, but mussels a la Julia Child for a starter, and a frozen layer cake with a mocha mousse filling as dessert. Now, I would think that is overkill and way too heavy, but in those days when I was younger and svelte, I thought nothing of fixing such a dinner. It was the way to go then.

For some reason, I stopped cooking it. I think I moved onto other cuisines, other flavors, new techniques, and different ways of cooking, plus I moved into a different world, known as California and encountered all the great produce and ingredients. My cooking got simpler and a lot more seasonal.

I had defrosted some chicken parts (legs) that night, and I couldn't decide what to do with them. I searched through some of my newer cookbooks, and thought I had settled on a Spanish dish that I had never fixed before. I had heard good things about this particular dish on a food forum I frequent, from Rancho Gordo. However, when I finally decided to go about fixing it, it seemed more complicated and time consuming than I wanted.

I started searching again, this time online. Going through various websites, food blogs, I came across several dishes with chicken and rice. Suddenly, I remembered my old friend, this chicken and rice casserole, which Pierre Franey calls, Casserole de Poulet au Riz, or Chicken and Rice Casserole. This was it!!

I got out my ingredients, pots and pans, fixed my mise en place, and started cooking.

One of the things I noticed when making this, is how my setup and my cooking process has changed over the years. I used to follow the recipe religously, but I now take many more liberties in porportions, and the steps used to get to the finished dish. In this particular instance, I doubled the rice, and mushrooms, as well as the wine and chicken broth. I like a lot of the mushrooms and rice with the chicken. And instead of adding the rest of the ingredients to the chicken, I remove the chicken and add it back in before the final cooking.

Chicken and Rice Casserole
Adapted from a recipe by Pierre Franey in The New York Times 60 Minute Gourmet

1 whole chicken breast, split in half, about 2 lbs. total weight for the 4 pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/3 fresh mushrooms, sliced or quartered
1 bay leaf
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup raw rice
1 cup chicken broth

I used the chicken pieces I had, which ended up being 3 thighs, and 2 drumsticks. I also used a bit of olive oil in place of half the butter.

Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. I get this done, before I start getting the other ingredients ready, and let the pieces sit for a bit til I am ready for them.

Heat the butter (and oil, in my case) and then add the chicken pieces, skin side down. Let them brown on all sides, for approximately 5-10 minutes. I like them to be a nice golden brown.

Pierre says to scatter the onion and garlic between the chicken pieces, but I suggest removing the chicken pieces to a plate. I add the onion and garlic to the pan, let cook for a few minutes, then add the mushrooms and bay leaf. Add a sprinkling of salt at this point: I like to salt in layers. Let cook for about 5 minutes. Add the wine, and let cook down til it is almost evaporated. Add the rice, and cook in the fat for a few seconds, then add the chicken broth. Add the chicken pieces back in, with the skin side up.
Try to get the rice mixture in between the chicken pieces. Bring it all to a simmer, then cover and turn down low. Cook for approximately 20-30 minutes until the rice is tender and the broth is all absorbed.

Procrastination

2009-04-15T16:51:00.010-07:00

Okay, I admit it. I am procrastinating on finishing up my taxes today. So I am posting my blog instead.

Last week, I cooked a pork shoulder that I had been hiding in the freezer. I had been debating on how to cook it. Do it like the Zuni Cafe Mock Porchetta, which is so very good, or smoke it in my little used smoker for hours and hours? Or braise it, or a myriad of other things.

Well..one of the longtime posters on the Usenet newsgroup Rec.food.cooking mentioned this method of cooking a pork shoulder. It sounded good to me, and I flew with it.

The roast produced a nice crackling skin, which peeled away from the meat. Nice and garlicky.

I have been making Cubano sandwiches with the leftovers lately. I cobbled together my method of making them from various sources around the web. I use generic bollilo rolls from my local supermarket, and they seem to work well for this. And while some folks seem to think that dill pickles are the pickles to use, I have seen sweet pickles used in some recipes. And cause I like sweet pickles, I use them. And plain ballpark mustard.

I don't know if this is authentic or not, but it sure is good. And to me, that is all that matters.

Up next, a barbecued pork pizza, with smoked gouda cheese. Making the dough and barbecue sauce tonight. More procrastination.

Delilahs!!

2009-04-15T14:55:00.005-07:00

Last week, I happened to be in Whole Paycheck and saw something I haven't seen here in this town before. Meyer Lemons!!

Now maybe for many of you, baking or a savory dish comes to mind when you think of Meyer lemons. Not me. I think of Delilahs.

I have a host of friends on rec.food.cooking to thank for this drink. I think it originally started out as a Aviation, but then the variations surfaced, which included lemon juice, Cointreau, and gin.

And then someone tried it made with Meyer lemon juice. And there was no turning back. I have had this drink several times in the intervening years. It is an eminently civilized cocktail...

But beware: it packs a wallop!!

I have made this with Triple Sec when I didn't have Cointreau. I finally got some Cointreau this year, and it does make a big difference in the flavor. And I am a heretic to my friends: I don't use Bombay Sapphire gin. I use Plymouth.

Delilah

1 1/2 ounces gin
3/4 ounce lemon juice
3/4 ounce Cointreau

Shake hard over ice and serve up in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon.

Note: I forgot the lemon twist when I made it this time.

Remains of the Ham

2009-04-13T20:04:00.021-07:00

Last week, I succumbed and fixed a generic type "city" ham, Cook's brand by name. People on many food groups I read had been talking about ham, and while I was trying to avoid buying more meat, I finally indulged. Not the best ham by any means, but it hit the spot. And I used a honey glaze from the Los Angeles Times to embellish it. So very good!! I will definitely do this glaze again when and if I fix another ham in the future.

I have been making Cubanos with some of the ham and the pork roast I also cooked last week. Yes, sometimes when I cook, I cook several things at once so that I don't have to cook on the long nights that I work. This was one of those occasions.

I had a bit of ham left on the ham today...and I was craving soup. I had a medical emergency this past weekend, and soup seemed to be the item that it would hit the spot today. And the logical soup for this, is one of my old, old favorites, the Senate Bean soup.

The recipe I have is printed on one of those old stained recipe cards. I think it originally came from the old Fannie Farmer cookbook, or so my mother told me when she first made it. We had this soup occasionally when I was growing up, sometimes from generic type Smithfield hams, and sometimes from ham hocks. The best version I ever had was made from the remains of a country ham.

Navy beans are the beans of choice, although one year I was in a major fog and made it with black-eyed peas. Not surprisingly, it was wonderful even then.

The ingredients are simple: beans, leftover ham of some sort, water, cloves, peppercorns, celery, onion, carrots and freshly mashed potatoes to thicken it. And LOTS of ground pepper. It usually takes a few hours to put together and simmer, but this time I used my fairly newish pressure cooker to cook the beans and ham together. Another variation this year: Grains of Paradise. I had been thinking that they might turn out to be a welcome addition to the soup, and it certainly was.

My usual choice of accompaniment is a good cornbread. I make the buttermilk cornbread from Marion Cunningham's book, The Supper Book. It has a custard layer on top of the cornbread, and a finer crumb than is achieved with just using cornmeal. And in true southern fashion, there is no sugar in it.
Buttermilk Cornbread
from Marion Cunningham's The Supper Book (instructions paraphrased)

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups milk

Melt the butter in a 8x8 square pan. I put the pan in the oven and let the butter melt while I mix together the rest of the ingredients. Make sure the sides of the pan are coated.

Sift together the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Beat the eggs til they are a bit foamy in another bowl, and then add the buttermilk and 1 cup of the regular milk. Stir together, then add to the dry ingredients and stir til they are well blended.

Pour the batter into the baking dish and then pour (without stirring!!) the remaining 1/2 cup of milk into the center of the batter. This is what creates the thin layer of custard. Bake for about 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees. Test with a straw or toothpick: it should come out clean when it is done.

I usually like a very acidy salad with this meal, and the favorite is Perfection Salad. Haven't made it yet, but it is very likely going to be made today.

More to come.....

Pizza by Reinhardt

2009-03-14T02:27:00.006-07:00

Over the last 5 years or so, I have become addicted to Neapolitan style pizzas.

I was lucky in that I got my first introduction to them from Pizzeria Bianco, in Phoenix, AZ. At least I think it was my first intro, but I might have bought Peter Reinhardt's book, American Pie before then, and heard about them then. Memory is tricky here. I did manage to get to Pizzeria Bianco and had pizza from the master, and I was in love from then on.

I also don't remember when I first made one of the Neapolitan style pizzas from American Pie. It might have been in the summer of 2005, when I attempted to make them for the first time, for a group of friends. They were okay then..but nothing special. And certainly nothing like the ones I had at Pizzeria Bianco.

The last few years has seen my technique improve and the flavors improve. I take more liberties now, but I still use the Neapolitan style dough from American Pie, and the Crushed Tomato Sauce from said book.

The dough is simple. It uses ordinary all-purpose flour, salt, yeast and water. Period. And it couldn't be simpler to make, especially in a food processor. Reinhardt gives instructions in his book, on how to make it in the food processor. I have a heavy duty food processor and it handles the dough well; otherwise it would have to be done in two batches to not burn out the motor. The food processor technique involves mixing all the ingredients in short pulses til they just form a ball of dough. Then the dough is rested for about 20 minutes, after which the food processor is turned ON and the dough is mixed for another 45-60 seconds. Supposedly this makes enough dough for 4 pizzas, but I never make them small enough for that many pizzas. And I don't think I get the dough as thin as they suggest, but that is okay. The pizzas are still good.

Once the dough is made, it is turned into an oiled bowl and set aside to rise for a half hour. It then goes into the fridge overnight or however long it is til I get to the pizzas. Sometimes it is a day or so. I have had people tell me that there is no way that the dough will rise in the fridge, but I usually have to punch it down a few times while it is in there. It tends to overflow the bowl otherwise.

The Crushed Tomato sauce is simple as well. A 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, dried oregano, dried basil, garlic powder (or fresh garlic), salt, and red wine vinegar are the only ingredients.

My toppings vary. I most often do the Marinara version, but I have tended to vary that lately. One of my favorites is a Greek style pizza, with feta cheese, red onions, olives, oregano, and sometimes spinach. I try to keep the topping light for this style of dough.

Last time I made pizza, I made a combo of Marinara and Margharita, but only barely. I rolled out the dough (yes, I know I should have stretched it, but I am really bad at that right now), and spread some tomato sauce on it. Chopped garlic went on top of this, then sliced mozzarella cheese, Parmesan, and a sprinkling of oregano. A drizzle of olive oil to top it all off. It all went into a 500 degree oven which had been preheating for an hour.

I keep my pizza stone in there although I don't slide the pizza directly onto the stone anymore. For convenience, I build the pizza on parchment paper, which is laid onto a pizza peel, and then the parchment paper/pizza is slid onto the stone. For some reason, this seems to work better for me and my pizzas, and still gives me pretty good results.

For this latest batch of pizzas, I used ingredients which I already had on hand. I had the crushed tomatoes already stocked, and I had the cheeses as well as the garlic and olive oil.

Catching Up

2009-02-23T23:33:00.022-08:00

It's been awhile since I last posted here, but that mainly been due to exhaustion from work. I have been cooking off and on and taking pictures of what I fixed, but general tiredness after I am done cooking has interfered with me posting all of it.

I haven't stopped cooking or taking pictures of what I have been cooking and eating, but just not posting them.

A lot of my cooking has been to provide me with meals for my nights at work, plus meals in between those nights. Nothing too elaborate, but I am trying to use up a lot of what I have on hand.

So, to begin...

Hainanese Chicken Rice

I have become addicted to this dish. I don't serve all the accompaniments, but to me it is still very good.

I use this recipe. I start with a chicken broth that has been used before to make this chicken dish. I reduce it down from the previous time, then when the urge for this dish gets to me, I take out the broth and reconstitute it. It becomes richer as it goes along.
I then prepare the chicken, which is "stuffed" with garlic, ginger and scallions.
Then the chicken goes into the broth and poaches until it is barely done.It gets cooled down briefly in a bowl of ice water. This seems to set the flesh, to give it a wonderful texture.
After about 15 minutes, it is taken out.

Then the usual step is to make the accompanying rice. I used barley this time, as an experiment. It was okay, but didn't quite come up to the level of rice. Next time I might try brown jasmine rice.

I had some chicken fat saved in the freezer, which I then proceeded to render.
That formed the basis of cooking the rice. Shallots, and garlic were sauteed in this, after the crisped chicken skins were removed. The barley was then added, and after that had sauteed a bit, the chicken broth.

It was at this point, that I started getting very tired. I finished up the barley, and then put the whole "dish" into the fridge. A day or so later, I took some to work, and this is the only picture I have of that.

It was a good work night dinner.

Spinach Quesadillas

I don't even remember what day I made these. These were somewhere early in the month. This recipe comes from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers. I have taken to making up the spinach ahead of time, and then making quesadillas as I want them.

The spinach part starts with sauteing a diced onion, a red or green jalapeno chile, and dried Mexican oregano in about a tablespoon of olive oil. I also add a sprinkling of salt. I don't finely dice as the recipe suggests, and I use more than one chile. This is New Mexico after all, and we don't usually do really mild, which is odd since Deborah Madison lives here in New Mexico as well. Maybe she likes less heat.

Anyway, that is sauteed for a few minutes, then about 1/2 pound of spinach is added. I used spinach from Costco this time (and I had doubled the recipe as well). Another sprinkling of salt is added to the spinach, and the spinach is cooked until barely wilted. Deborah says to add a bit of water to the pan if the mixture dries out, but I didn't need to do that this time. As soon as the heat is turned off, I added about a half cup of chopped cilantro.

To make a quesadilla, start with two flour tortillas. I use whole wheat tortillas, and that is what is called for in the recipe. I build the quesadillas outside the pan and then slide one into a nonstick skillet. My cheese of choice is Monterey Jack, or Pepper Jack. In this instance, I chose Pepper Jack, as I wanted the extra heat. The tortillas are layered with the grated cheese, and then a layer of the spinach goes on, then the top tortilla. It all slides into the heated skillet, and then is cooked on both sides til it is crispy and browned.
In these pictures, I didn't build them that way, but used one tortilla for each quesadilla. They were layered the same way.

Cut into quarters, this is what it looks like.
A mighty fine snack.

2009-01-29T01:08:00.007-08:00

Okay, I get annoyed. I see various posts on various food blogs about how they have trimmed their budget to about $100 per week, per two people. And they talk about how this is depression cooking, cooking on this low amount.

I can do much better than that, I think. I haven't plotted it out, and I would probably be cheating, with the way I shop and cook, but I probably end up spending much less than that per person.

I need to start figuring out how much I do spend each week on my food. I do cook from scratch, and I do have an already full pantry. I have no idea of how to calculate all this into the picture, but from week to week now, I rarely go up to $40/week. Maybe much less.

I get paid this Friday. I am going to try to keep my expenses to the absolute minimum these next two weeks. I won't set a dollar amount, as I am trying to see how low I can go, and still eat well.

Yes, it might seem like I am cheating. But I do shop ahead: that is, I stock up when things are on sale, and I have a very full freezer to show for it. And a full pantry.

I will be buying a few staples that I use from week to week. Cream for my tea is one of those things, and cottage cheese is another. I get those from Trader Joes. I will be going on Saturday to get those and any other staple that I REALLY need from my markets. And I will pick up any specials that I figure I can use well during the next two weeks. But I am counting on using what I already have.

I have no plans for menus yet. I don't tend to plan too much ahead, in case I see something on a terrific sale. I do have a general idea in my head, but I have learned to be flexible, to account for what is on sale, and what I feel like eating. No point in fixing something that is economical that I don't feel like eating at the time.

I know that I am craving pizza though. So I will make up some of Peter Reinhardts' Neopolitan pizza dough tonight, and stick it in the freezer, after I divide it into portions. With his Crushed Tomato sauce, I have a good basis for a pizza. I have all the ingredients here already, so it is no money out of my pocket now.

And more than likely, I will will cook one of the chickens I got on sale a month or so ago. Not the porno chicken this time, but maybe the Hainanese chicken rice dish I saw on a few blogs. I will make the rice dish with barley this time, or maybe brown rice, to increase the nutritional content. Maybe add mushrooms, which I already have in the fridge. I already have the basis for the broth in the freezer, from the last times I cooked this. I start out by using this broth base to cook the chicken, then use some of the resulting broth to cook the rice. Then I freeze the leftover broth, which becomes richer and richer each time it is used in this dish.

And because I work a difficult job, which sometimes leaves no time for heating up food, I will more than likely take some of the chicken to work in a sandwich. Or if it is slow enough at work, I will take some of the entire dish to work, and heat it up there. I eat my "leftovers" at work.

I still have some ingredients in the fridge this week, that need to be used. I got some stuff for a Joyce Goldstein recipe that was in one of Dean Ornish's book Eat More, Weigh Less. This is a quasi Morrocan vegetable tagine, and assuming the ingredients don't go bad before Saturday, I will make this for the coming weekend. Yes, that is cheating, but I don't care. I need to use up what I have.

And I still have a cauliflower, that is needing to be cooked in some way. My original thought was to marinate it, to add it to salads. I haven't fully decided on this yet.

More to come on this, as I plan and cook my way through the next two weeks. Stay tuned....

An Infamous (Porno) Chicken.

2009-01-18T23:31:00.012-08:00

I have had a lifelong love affair with roast chicken, especially really good roast chicken. And the best I ever had, was back when I was just a child of about 7 or 8. Since then, it has been a quest to find one as good as the one that was fixed for me by our maid, Myrtle.

I was at home sick with some ailment, the day that Myrtle fixed this chicken. I didn't pay attention to how she did it, as I was not feeling my usual inquisitive self regarding things coming from the kitchen. I did sit up and take notice with my first bite though. It was chickeny, buttery, and incredibly tender. The essence of chicken.
The memory of this chicken has been a lodestone for me ever since.

I don't know whether or not it was the chicken itself that was just so good or whether it was the cooking method. This was back in the later 1950s, and chickens weren't bred as they are now, plus this was a southern town (Richmond,VA). We sometimes got our chickens from a market where they had been alive only a few hours before we took the plucked and dressed chicken home.

I found out later on from my mother and my older sister, that Myrtle had been trained by French cooks, in some of the James River plantation kitchens. Maybe her training and cooking made a difference in the final outcome, but I will never know now. I wish I had learned then, what she did.

Nowadays, my favorite method to roast a chicken is one espoused by Marcella Hazan in her book More Classical Italian Cooking. It is the Roast Chicken with Two Lemons. A simpler method can hardly be found, and the results are most often wonderful. For some reason, this particular roast chicken has been cast as one of my signature dishes by some of my cooking friends, although I don't dare take any credit for it. Marcella deserves it all.

I have tried other variations on roast chicken, such as those by Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe fame, and Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Bouchon fame. They both use high heat for roasting, and it does produce a lovely roast chicken. But these methods haven't captured my heart as well as the Marcella Hazan version.

And none of them come close to the one from my childhood. I am still questing for that perfection.

This chicken has come by the nickname of Porno chicken, from friends who saw pictures of it shortly after it came from the oven.

From Marcella Hazan:

For 4 servings
Ingredients

* A 3- to 4-pound chicken
* Salt
* Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
* 2 rather small lemons

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels.
3. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken, rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity.
4. Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar implement.
5. Place both lemons in the birds cavity. Close up the opening with toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but don't make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from spreading apart and splitting the skin.

6. Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will not be affected.
7. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20 and 25 minutes total cooking time for each pound. There is no need to turn the chicken again.
8. Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt.

My notes:

I rarely use an organic or even free range chicken. I just cannot afford them the majority of the time, as much as I would love to be able to do so. That is the case with much of my shopping, unfortunately.

I don't truss. While it can help hold the shape, I think it prolongs cooking times. I learned this from Barbara Kafka.

And I do cheat and use a bit of cooking spray or olive oil on the breast. Otherwise, the skin tends to stick to the pan, and doesn't puff up like it should.

As a rule, I generally use just salt and pepper for the seasoning. However, sometimes I have been known to vary the seasonings with either the Trinidad mix from Penzeys, or Grains of Paradise. Both are fantastic.

My times vary. I am at a higher altitude, so I generally have to add about 5-10 minutes to each stage of roasting.

And as in most roasted meats and poultry, I let it sit for about 20 minutes before cutting into the bird.

Keeping it Cheap: Eggplant was on sale.

2009-01-15T02:46:00.018-08:00

One of the original ideas I had for this blog, was to set myself a goal of a certain amount of money per week, and shop, cook and eat on this budget.

I set myself a limit of $40 per week.

I have had folks tell me that cooking and eating well can't be done on this amount. I think it can, and I have found other folks that can do even better than that. I do think it takes careful shopping and cooking though to do this well.

One of the things I do every week, is to check out all the supermarket circulars when they come out on late Tuesday night/early Wednesday. This seems to be the common day across the country when they come out. I have learned that I can find them online for the most part.

I originally wanted the blog to be called $40 A Week, as a takeoff on Rachel Ray. I would always get irritated at her talking about eating on $40 A Day. Why not $40 A Week? I think more of us these days are trying to avoid those $40 a day expenses, and are aiming for that amount for the whole week. If we can.

Reading some other blogs on this subject makes me think I can come in under this amount. Some of them are fantastic, and one in particular, 30 Bucks a Week makes me look like I am so over the top, so extravagant, especially since she is feeding two people on this amount every week. In my defense though, I am not a vegetarian. But I am also trying to stay within my amount even with being an omnivore.

Now, I must admit, I have a well stocked pantry, including full freezers. I say that in the plural, as I have a top freezer on my fridge in the house, an upright freezer in the garage, and another fridge with a top freezer on it, in the garage. They are all stuffed full. I have stuffed them this way, on the principle of stockpiling.

It goes like this. I see a really good special on something at one of the markets, say spareribs. I get as much as I comfortably can afford, and then separate out the packages and store them in the freezer.

I have been doing this for some time now, and my freezer is stocked with whole chickens, boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chicken thighs, chicken breasts on the bone, spareribs, pork chops, and a few pork shoulders. Oh, and some seafood, like frozen shrimp, scallops.

At the moment, I am not buying any more meats. I have enough. I am actually trying to reduce the contents of my freezers, to the point where they are almost empty. This is in preparation for eventually moving from Albuquerque to my love, the San Francisco bay area. It may take some time, as I have a LOT of stuff in those freezers.

So nowadays, I am shopping from my freezer and only buying essentials and things to round out my meals made from those things in the freezer. That means mainly vegetables, and a few things that I use such as cream, cottage cheese, and a few other odds and ends.

Last week, I went to my local Sunflower Market. Now sometimes they have really good deals and for this town, they have the best prices on a fairly wide variety of produce. It isn't all organic, and while I would love to have only organic produce, I just can't get it at a price I can routinely afford. Not here in New Mexico. Whole Foods has lovely organic produce, but not for nothing have they earned the nickname Whole Paycheck.

Back to my current cooking. I got an eggplant on sale, for $0.88. I had the rest of the ingredients for this dish at home in my pantry. Dry navy beans on the pantry shelf, onions, garlic in the pantry, and canned tomatoes. And a loaf of whole grain bread. And spices/herbs.

These are the ingredients:
This is from one of my all time favorite cookbooks, The Greens Cookbook.

I have gotten so many, many wonderful recipes from this book, and it had become very tattered over the years. And Deborah Madison is one of my heroes, with all of her books. I will be featuring more of her books and recipes later on, as I use them a lot.

I cooked the beans a day or so ago, with the bay leaves, and some of the sage. I love my new pressure cooker, as it made short work of cooking the navy beans. Can you say FAST?!?!!!

Back to the eggplant. I started the onions and garlic sweating in olive oil, along with the sage and thyme. Came back to it after the onions were tender.
Yes, that shows a lot of olive oil. I probably used more than was indicated. I love the stuff.
After that, I added eggplant and cooked it for a bit. Then I added tomatoes, and cooked it a bit longer. And after each addition, I added salt. I forget who taught me to salt in layers like that, but it can make a big difference. And I cheated: I added already diced tomatoes, and I doubt that they were plum tomatoes. But they are still good.

Then I added the cooked beans.

I made breadcrumbs out of some of the slices of whole grain bread I had. Mixed them with a bit of the olive oil. The eggplant mixture, with beans included, was put in a casserole dish, and topped with the bread crumbs. Then put into a hot oven and baked for about 30 minutes or so.

On the plate:

My own mess o' greens

2009-01-15T00:08:00.017-08:00

One of my friends from rec.food.cooking, Koko , who is the star of her own blog, recently fixed her first batch of collard greens.

Now, good southern girl that I was, I learned to fix them a different way. Mine are usually long cooked. Koko cooked them for a much shorter time, and as she says in her blog post, she used collard greens and the recipe on the package of collard greens.

Well, I found some pretty mustard greens on sale at the local Mexican mega-mart here in town, and I decided that I was hankering for them. The recipe that Koko used had some interesting seasonings that I had never before used in long cooked greens, but it sounded intriguing. I also had some peppered bacon at home. No ham hocks around. And no ham broth.

I started out with frying the bacon.I then sorted through the greens, and washed them. Added them to the pot with just the water clinging to them.After that, I tossed them together with the bacon, and added a tiny bit more water. Now is where I diverged from the way I usually do them, and stole from Koko's recipe. I chopped up an onion and some garlic, and sauteed that for a few moments, then added the spices in her recipe. I let it "toast" for a bit.Then, I let them simmer for a few hours.
Now, in my haste to eat some of these, I forgot to take a picture of them in the bowl. But man-oh-man, they were good!!

Thanks for the inspiration, Koko!! Shows you a GRITS girl can learn some new tricks!

A bastardized Hot and Sour Soup

2009-01-08T23:30:00.020-08:00

Okay, I am a cookbook addict. I admit it. I adore them. They own me. I own them. And I will probably never ever get over this addiction.

I finally got around to counting them all, and I *currently* have about 1025 cookbooks. That excludes the little spiral bound volumes that accompany the Foods of The Worlds series from Time-Life. If I added those in, I might come up to 1051 or more.

I am a rank amateur compared to some famous cookbook authors, and folks I know from the Usenet newsgroup Rec.Food.Cooking. Some of those folks have well over 3000 and maybe even over 4000 cookbooks. I can only wish... And I am trying to emulate them, really!!

My downfall lately has been that I signed up with a Borders Reward card. Every time I see a 40% off coupon in my In Box, I get excited. Even a 30% off coupon can do wonders for my composure. I start pouring over the cookbooks that look interesting, from other sites..and then I go shopping. Sadly (or maybe not, depending on how you look at it) I usually end up buying not just ONE cookbook (with the coupon) but maybe an additional one as well. That is probably the psychology of this offer.

So far, I have been buying late issue cookbooks. I am starting to think about that strategy though, in that I want some good classic issues. Like Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. That will probably be my next buy. Maybe. It is getting close to when new cookbooks come out in droves. I could change my mind.

This brings me to all the cookbooks I currently have. I love to read them, and will go through them obsessively sometimes, just getting ideas. I go back to them for favorite recipes, and sometimes I try a new recipe from them. Maybe I get interested in a technique, or a specific dish, and then I go searching. And sometimes I just want to read about good food, in a story well written. I have a lot of those types, as they appeal to me the most. Doesn't matter if the cookbook has only one really good recipe: if the writing is good and it draws me in, plus the descriptions make my mouth water, then I am in.

These cookbooks are a lifesaver. I am focused on eating well, but not breaking my budget. Having such a library has taught me a lot about various techniques, other cuisines that traditionally are based on low budget foods, and how to save money in the best way, cooking the most varied foods. AND, how to shop for these foods.

And sometimes making "something from nothing", as Madeline Kamman says in her classic book, When French Women Cook. She was talking about her grandmother, who would get the less than perfect produce from the market at a steep discount, plus various meats that would soon go off, but were good for that day, but not any longer.

I must admit, I don't cook enough from these books, but I do okay. One of my goals is to use my library a bit more. It is such a resource. I do go back to it for favorite dishes, but I am aiming for more.

I went back this week to a soup that is a great one for cold weather, and for those coping with a cold. It's the Vietnamese Hot and Sour soup from one of the Moosewood Collective's cookbooks.This recipe is not low fat, as the title suggests (I modified the recipe). I also changed it to use a curry paste instead of chiles: it just wasn't as spicy as I would have liked with just chiles added.

The original recipe:I had most of the ingredients already at home, except for the mint and the basil. I picked those up at the local international grocery store here in town.

The soup came together rather quickly after I had assembled everything.
Note that I added a keffir lime leaf in there. It is not in the original soup, but adds a lovely note. The tofu has also been added as well.

The final dish:
I go back to this soup now and then for it's comfort. And it sure did the job this time!

Kalua Pig for Kili

2008-12-27T01:28:00.054-08:00

This is my first post.

I wondered how to start this blog, before Saturday night.. That night, it was decided.

A friend who I never met in person, passed away on Saturday.. I am dedicating this blog to her.

She was so enthusiastic about the idea of me starting this, and I want to remember her. She even wanted to be a contributor. Now she never will be, except through her food and her attitude. She was a treasure, now missed by hundreds of people.

She and I were part of a Usenet newsgroup, that antiquated part of the internet. This particular newsgroup goes by the name of rec.food.cooking, or rfc for short. It is a motley group of unruly folks who truly love food, for the most part. It is and was an anarchical group. But many of the members have grown close over the years and have enjoyed each other's company in a chat environment, and through events called Cook-ins, and of course the newsgroup.

As I said above, I never met Kilikini. Her real name was Christy. She lived for a long time in Hawaii and loved those islands. I met her online before she got married to her husband Allan. She was head over heels in love with him, and they got married soon afterwards, at the opening of a barbeque restaurant. She moved to Florida to live with her husband after that.

Christy was a prolific poster to rfc and one of the most beloved figures there. Always cheerful, she was eager to please and help folks. She found out she had a genetic disorder and a rare cancer while she was a contributor to rfc. We all followed her journey of her marriage, her food and cooking, and of her illnesses.
In the midst of all of this, she contributed some wonderful recipes. One of these was her Kalua Pig.

Mind you, I had never made this before. I cooked this for Christy this weekend, in her honor. She would have been happy for me to be cooking this, as she knew I was interested in cooking and shopping frugally. I had the pork shoulder already in my freezer, and the cabbage in the fridge. I had the rest of the ingredients as well.

In her words:

Get a pork butt or shoulder and stick it in a dutch oven. Rub it thoroughly with sea salt. Add in a cup of water and the equivalent of a can of chicken broth - homemade stock is fine. For the smokey flavor (cover your eyes, you BBQ efficianados), toss in about 1/3 of a cup of liquid smoke. Yes, liquid smoke. I said it. :~)

Put the lid on the pot and put into the oven at about 275 degrees. It's a low and slow process, but it smells so good while it's cooking! The pork is done when it easily pulls.

The next step is to chop up the green cabbage. You can leave the cabbage raw if you place the hot pulled pork directly over the cabbage; the heat from the pork will wilt it.

Meanwhile, when you take the pork out of the pot, you're going to think that there will be way too much greasy liquid in the mix, but don't throw out the juice! When you're done pulling the pork, you want to pour some of that juice back into the pork so the pork and cabbage soaks in it. Every time you get an order of kalua pork in Hawaii, it's sopping in the juice. Plus, you serve the pork and cabbage over white sticky rice and the rice absorbs a bunch of the liquid. You never want dried kalua pig.

My notes on kalua pig:

It could have used more salt. Either that, or it might have been better with a bit of pre-salting a la Russ Parsons/Judy Rodgers.

Also, I think there was just too much liquid smoke. I don't know if there was a misprint in the amount, but the whole house had that aroma of smoke, without the smoke.

I am also thinking that it will make fantastic leftovers, maybe in a quesadilla, or (Horrors!!) a bastardized Cuban sandwich.

I am glad I made this, since I had been having a desire to try it out. Kili raved about it. But I am not sure I will make it in this fashion, if I make it again. Still, all in all, I am glad I made it in her honor.

Followups to come.