It's Not Me, It's You

Picture sourced from allyou.com

I love the magazine Real Simple. I think that it is beautiful to look at and has helpful information. My official subscription began this month and I have made two recipes from the magazine. Real Simple is not just about food, but they sure make the recipes they feature look good.

Unfortunately, the actual results have been just ok. This brings me to ask: is this my fault or are these crappy recipes? Has anyone else been seduced by a beautiful picture and then been disappointed by the results of the recipe the picture is plugging?

I guess I'll keep trying the Real Simple recipes and rotate them with my other sources. Only with time will I answer my question.

Mac and Cheese

Use this recipe from the Food Network. You can leave out about 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter and two or three ounces of cheese, plus use 1% milk. I promise you nothing will be compromised and your arteries will thank you.

Why Not Soup?

Sourced from: thekitchen.com

Joey and I had his dad's white bean soup this sunday. It was an easy meal to make and it was delicious! At The Kitchen they have some nice and simple soup ideas. Why don't you try one of these out this week?

Joseph Mauro's Bowl of Fire Hummus

Today Joey is sharing his hummus recipe. It's name is a reference and homage to all of Andrew Bird's excellent Bowl of Fire albums. It's a great name, but don't be worried, the hummus doesn't pack a lethal dose of heat. Rather, it has a wonderful rounded out flavor. The heat, and garlic combine nicely, but what I like the most about it is the texture, which unlike store brands, has chunks of chickpeas waiting to be scooped up with all the other yummy goodness.

What you need:

1 can of chickpeas, drained

sea salt, to taste

a rounded tablespoon of crushed red peppers

3 cloves of garlic

generous tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, don't skimp

rounded tablespoon of tahini

rounded tablespoon of Goya adobo

rounded tablespoon of cayenne pepper

rounded tablespoon of cumin

rounded tablespoon of chili powder

Note: You will do this in three rounds.

Round 1

Put 1/3 olive oil in food processor with salt and all of the garlic and pulse. Then add in 1/3 tahini paste, pulse again. Add a 1/3 of all the spices, pulse again. Lastly, add 1/3 of the chickpeas and pulse again.

Round 2

Repeat round 1 and omit salt.

Round 3

Repeat round 1 and omit salt.

Fennel: What's For Dinner

Picture sourced from: Johnson's Back Yard Garden

Last night I made a dinner that used fennel in two dishes, Iron Chef style. There were fennel seeds in the sweet Italian sausage and I used a small fennel bulb two play two parts in the meal. Half the bulb went into a Cannellini bean and sausage dish from Mark Bittman's Food Matter's Cook Book and the rest went into a salad conjured from my imagination.

The flavors of the main dish were hearty and simple. The sausage was broken up and browned; to this, I added, per the recipe, garlic and red crushed peppers. Then I added the greens with the zest, and lastly the beans. I loved how everything played together. The beans were silky and mild against the liquorish crunch of the fennel. The dish was rounded out with the less assertive, Brussels sprouts,which were tender, but still firm, creating a nice foil to the beans. The sausage speckled the dish with a little decadence. It was all very nice. I was proud that the addition of the fennel and lemon zest really worked with the recipe.

To complement the main course, I threw a salad together.

What I used:

half of a small bulb of fennel, slivered
a sliced apple
olive oil
lemon juice
black pepper (I would have preferred white pepper)
sea salt
Parmesan cheese, shaved
dry dill, a dash

Put fennel and apple slices in bowl. Squeeze a little lemon juice, dust with seasoning, including dill. add a judicious amount of olive oil, only to barely coat. Mix with hands gently. Serve on plate and dot with olive oil and shave the cheese over the salad. Yum!!!!!

Michael Symon Inspired Last Night's Dinner

Picture source: Cooking Channel

Sometimes you follow a recipe and sometimes, you don't. I watch a lot of cooking shows because I love food and I love to learn. I often do go to the show's website to grab the recipe, but sometimes just a vague idea sticks around and inspires me. A few weeks ago I watched the chicken episode of How to Cook Like an Iron Chef. When it came time to make dinner last night I plucked this idea from the air: Chicken legs, fingerling potatoes, leeks, braise and I think it was inspired by this.

This is how I brought everything together. First I put salted water to boil, actually Joey did that for me. Then I cut the two leeks and four small potatoes. The leeks were cut lengthwise and then in half to create a nice surface area for searing and I left them about the length of the potatoes. The potatoes I only cut lenthwise and then par-boiled them. I warmed some garlic slices in olive oil before starting the searing, I removed them when they were starting to get golden and put them in a bowl.

Joey cleaned the chicken and I dried and seasoned it with salt and pepper and a very fine coating of flour. The chicken was seared first, then the leeks, then the potatoes. Lastly, I placed everything in a large deep pan, including the golden slices of garlic and added chicken stock, covering it only half way. I seasoned everything with a pinch of oregano and salt and pepper. I let it simmer away until everything was super flavorful and tender. It was a rich and hearty meal and even though it tasted like a million bucks, it only cost about ten. Now that's what I call a bright idea!

Tomatillo Salsa, Encore

Yes, eating this is messy, but also tasty.

There was a lot of tomatillo salsa left over from last week, so Joey and I made skirt steak with some nice fixings. You can go here for the recipe. It is from Michael Symon's How to Cook Like an Iron Chef.

Look at what a great job Joey did grilling!

Pasta Inspiration

Although I could have let the sauce reduce a bit, the flavors were spot on.

What I made earlier this week was based off of this recipe from Jamie Oliver's website. I did not have time to get into pasta making that evening, especially without a pasta machine, a food processor, or even a rolling pin, so instead I made sauce.

When I finally do make pasta, I might actually buy the rolling pin, but I will probably hold off on buying the other two things. I can't wait for that day! I would love it if you joined me.

For this particular night I just used store bought pasta. I bought five boxes on sale a few weeks ago, so I have to use the reserves. I also set aside the excess basil, wrapping it up and putting it in the freezer.

I did make some slight deviations on the sauce. I bought whole tomatoes because they were on sale and I used crushed red pepper flakes because I could not find a fresh one, and lastly, I stuck a bay leaf in the sauce while it simmered because I have a huge container of bay leaves I need to use up. I also used mozzarella balls, because I love them with a spicy sauce. In the end, it was a quick awesome meal. Try it, and you will see.

Coming Soon

It's like your eyeballs are in my mouth!

Sometimes it's awesome when you have a messy sandwich and you have to eat in pieces. I really loaded on the chickpeas today and it made my sandwich harder to eat, which made me eat it slower and really savor it. I am telling you, you have to try it out!

Anyway, I wanted to alert you that I came up with a yummy spinach pasta recipe last night and, after a few tweaks, I will post it. The flavor is perfect, but I need to find the right pasta shape and decide how much spinach I want to put in and if I want old or young spinach. Looking forward to working it out.

What did you eat for lunch today?

Success!

You can see the steam swirling off the bowl.

It worked. My instincts were spot on. The stew came out bursting with flavor and texture. I changed some stuff up, but I got the idea to make this from Mark Bittman's The Food Matters Cook Book. The recipe is for Quick Posole, although what I made is not that since it didn't have hominy in it.

This is what I put in my stew:

Three pork loin chops, center cut bone out, about a 1/2 inch thick

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and Pepper

1 large onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic minced

3/4 tbsp Cayenne powder

1/4 tbsp Mrs. Dash

Large head of kale chopped, stems removed

two radishes and the leaves of five stems of cilantro

1 can of creamed corn

1 heaping cup of cooked beans with broth

Step 1. Brown the pork chops and season with salt and pepper in pan.

Step 2. Remove chops and drop in garlic and onion, saute until soft, then add Ms. Dash and cayenne.

Step 3. Add the corn, beans, Kale and all broth you have. With combo of broth and water, be sure to add two cups of liquid to pot. Leave it alone for a minute.

Step 4. Add the chops and cook until boiling.

Step 5. Remove the chops, cut up return to pot.

Step 6. Serve with chopped radishes and cilantro, tortillas if you wish.

Check out that texture.

I hope that you'll take the time to try this out. I think this is a great thing to make if you have some left over beans in the freezer. You don't need to though, and I know a lot of people don't have beans in their freezer. You could easily throw this together with a can of beans and chicken broth, yum! You could even make posole, if you find that elusive dry corn.

For dessert I made little chocolate cakes, which I have stored for the next dinner party I attend. The cup cakes I made are for Laura's place already, so invite me over! You'll get an awesome treat!!!!!

Clickable: Stir-fry Idea

Souffle Fever

Hey everyone! I'm not sure if you're up to speed on my current affection and love for the ever impressive souffle. Two weekends ago, at Joey's request, I made a chocolate one and it came out perfect and delicious. I'm not saying this to brag, at least not entirely. I'm saying it to let you know that souffles have a very good work/reward ratio. The work is not too intensive, you don't need a lot of differnt ingredients (just a good number of eggs) and with a little patience and attention you come out with something impressive, beautiful and delicious. Hostesses of the world this is your secret weapon!

My one tip for you is that you butter the ramnekins with reckless abandon, it will really help your masterpiece rise. Oh, actually, one more tip I got from a cooking show, run your thumb around the rim after you pour the souffle in before baking. Both of these things, along with dusting your buttered ramnekins with something the eggs can grip on to, will help with rising.

If you would like to use the recipe I used, go to Food Network. Please note that you can bake this in a large dish, as I did, but your baking time will increase. I baked it for 40 minutes in an electric oven. I would recommend giving it about 30 minutes and then checking it. Souffles are not as fragile as you would think. I checked on mine twice while baking and it did not deflate. Also, you want the very center to not be completely set. Okay, go forth, bake with love!

Clickable: Egg-cellent Sandwich Idea

Creamy Carrot Soup

I wanted to make an Asian inspired noodle dish with chicken, vegetables, buckwheat noodles and an improvised peanut sauce. I felt like it should have carrots in it and I decided to get those huge carrots pictured. It was great because the carrots were so large I was able to slice them into paper thin circles that looked quite fetching in the dish. I saw though, that I would need one carrot at most, so I quickly decided that I would also make carrot soup. I finished making it today and it came out sweet, creamy and subtly spiced.

Here is what I used:

About four cups of cubed carrots, about a 1/4 inch in length

An inch of minced ginger

A serrano pepper, quartered and hulled

A cup of chicken stock

For later:

A pint of light cream

A quarter cup of maple syrup

I am guessing the measurements here, as I eyeballed the whole thing. Basically I prepared the vegetables and cooked them with the stock in the slow cooker for a few hours until the carrots were so tender they offered no resistance to the poke of a fork. In the morning I put the cooked carrots in the fridge.

When I came home I poured the vegetables into the blender and pureed them on high, afterwards blending them on the slow function. I also took out the cream and let it rest outside of the fridge for a bit. I wanted to avoid shocking the cream with the heat when I warmed up the puree.

Then I pressed the puree through a sieve (a.k.a my colander). After that I poured it into a heavy pot and lit a very low flame beneath. I poured the cream over it and then the maple syrup. I stirred it gently until just incorporated, covered and let it heat for about 15-20 minutes. When the center of the pot was just bubbling I turned off the heat. The texture was completely smooth, creamy and sweet, with a savory finish that barely hinted at the bite you normally expect from chillies and ginger.

The idea here is really basic, but no less delicious for being so. I hope this inspires you to make a creamy vegetable soup, whether it is your own or your take on this. Enjoy!

The vegetables before I added the stock and turned the slow cooker on.

Parmesean Cheese Souffle

I caught an episode of Five Ingredient Fix on the Food Network this weekend and was inspired to make a souffle with a ceasar salad, making the dressing from scratch. It was pretty easy. The picture above is not my souffle, but looks very similar to the one that I made. Joey was a big fan. You should try making it. It was pretty simple and tasted great!

Also, I wanted to let you guys know that the Grub Street fair was pretty awesome, if crowded. We had a lot of tasty treats. We enjoyed food from quite a few vendors, including, Pies and Thighs and Luke's Lobster.

As I promised last post, I am adding a quick note about a cake I made last week. I had wanted to enter the cake in a competition, but the frosting came out a bit grainy. It was my fault for having bought the wrong chocolate and then trying to fix it with granulated sugar. I gambled that the sugar would melt with the chocolate but the chocolate melted much faster. I may actually go with a totally different frosting next time, as it was perhaps too rich for a three layered cake. I guess that's why they call it devil's food cake. When I make this cake again I will try a lighter chocolate frosting.

On a final note I present you readers with a perplexity I encountered while baking this cake. As with all butter cakes, one must beat the sugar and room-temperature butter together to make a fluffy base, to which yolks are later added and other wet ingredients. Then dry ingredients must be gently mixed in. The less you mix, the more moist, hence better, your cake will be. Yet, if you are very gentle, with a thick wet-base as devil's food cake, how do you prevent flour bubbles? I had to bake this cake twice. The first time the cake was very moist, but it had little pockets of unmixed flour. The second cake had virtually no pockets of flour, but was also drier than the first. How do I keep the moistness and get a perfect texture?

It took Maybelle three days to eat this, it was so rich.

Clickable: Yummy Sandwich Idea

When I lived in memphis I used to make this sandwich. Click on my scrap paper for details.

Basil Chicken Tacos with Relish and Cream

Do you know how when you buy basil it smells so good and is such a lovely and bright addition to your meal, but a little goes a long way? Inevitably, you put the rest of it in the fridge and two nights later half of the basil is brown and dying? Yeah. I hate it when that happens. Thus, the other day Joey and I blended up the basil with garlic in his food processor. We ended up using it to make Southwest Potatoes with a poached a egg on top.

It was a great meal. We followed Bittman's lead, but made it better by using the basil puree as the oil base and then, also using some fat rendered from a wonderful smokey bacon from the Meat Hook (thanks Sean) to brown the potatoes. At the end, we used the crumbled bacon on top of the dish before finishing with cilantro and lastly the egg. I don't have pictures from that meal, but trust me, It was awesome.

At home I made my own basil puree in a blender. It is a lot harder to do it in a blender, so if you are going to, put very few leaves at a time and be prepared to use more oil. As a slight aside, Bittman just wrote an article on the wonder and awesomeness of food processors.

The second puree was just basil and oil. Today I finally got to use it and what I made was so good, I am sharing it with you.

Making the chicken

thin cut chicken cutlets (1 per person)

basil puree (olive oil and basil pureed together)

Adobo, salt and pepper to taste

I followed a loose interpretation of another Bittman idea to cook them up, basically using the puree as a moisture seal for the lean meat.

Making the relish

For the relish, and really the whole idea of having tacos this week, I was inspired by a show on the food network. It's one about using just five ingredients to make things. I don't know what the name of the show is. Anyway, the show was more of an inspiration than a directive and I just used what I had.

Equal parts diced yellow onion, green pepper and radishes

Lemon zest and dry cumin

I felt pretty ingenious when I put this together. I knew that I wanted to add a lemon flavor to the relish but I did not want to add a lemon, oil combo to it because the cutlets are packed with an olive oil infused stuffing. Instead I took my peeler and shaved off some zest and diced it up and threw it in the bowl with the vegetables and then sprinkled the whole thing with cumin. I chose cumin because if I had fresh cilantro, I would have put it in.

Making the Cream

This was the easiest part and I also got my inspiration for making this from that cooking show. I took polish cream, which is basically just like sour cream except that the reduced fat version still only had cream in it rather than stuff like corn syrup (yuck Breakstone's). Anyway, I took a spoonful of that and mixed it with a spoonful of Salpica Habanero Lime salsa. Both are really good on their own, so their marriage was the perfect edible proof that opposites attract. The creamy cooling flavors mixing harmoniously with the acidic, smokey ones, perfectly topped my happy little tacos.

Success!

I am posting more pictures on Facebook, if you want to check them out. I hope this inspires some of you to try this at home.

Heaven on Plate, If a Little Late

Back in March I went on a kick where I was obsessed with the tiny slow cooker that Maybelle gave me. Over a three day period I created a simulacra of a meal I had with Joey, or rather that he had on one of our first dates. We went to Mesa Coyocana and I had tacos, he had enchiladas and we shared cactus, which I loved. It was a really amazing night except for when the runner left us guacamole and we decided it was complementary, which has happened to me at the wonderful Mercadito Cantina--only to be later blamed as the cause of our neighbor's delayed appetizer by a catty waiter.

Anyway, Joey gave me a bite of his dinner and it left me hankering for a full plate of my own, so I set out on my adventure. Below is a picture diary of the process.

I started by making a pot of beans with aromatics. Of course, the beans were cleaned and I added salt to taste, but pretty much what you see is what you get. All you need is about a medium low heat and patience. You want your beans to be velvety not gritty, so take your time and taste often.

The next day I cooked a nice fatty pork shoulder in my little slow cooker. It fit quite nicely in the pot. The idea is quite simple here too. I took a generous amount of adobo and applies as a dry rub. Then I cut up green peppers, onions and dropped garlic cloves in. I also added water and covered it. This cooked all day and night until the pork fell off the bone. Before heading to work the next day, I put it in a new container and stored it in the fridge.



The following day I took out my spices to create the sauce for the enchilada. I had done this sauce before and had taken it from one of m cook books. I decided that it was too thin in it's original form so I added tomato sauce to get the right consistency.



The trick to the sauce is too heat all of the dry ingredients until they are aromatic. This whole endeavour is an exercises in patience. Heat oil, garlic and then spices. Then add can of tomato sauce and vinegar. Leave a comment if you want exact proportions.



I then went to gather all my materials to put together the enchiladas, including the pork that gained a nice golden hue over the many hours of slow cooking.



Putting together the enchilada was a cinch. I heated the oven and then dipped tortillas in the sauce and then added beans, pork and finished them with a smoked cheddar.



I kept it simple and just did an overlap wrap. I poured some more sauce over the enchiladas before putting them in the oven.



I had a nice system in place while I was making them. I would pop a few in the oven and then wrap them in aluminum foil. I planned to keep a few and to give some to Joey, since he played a part in my inspiration.



Here is a close up of the enchiladas when they were done. I really enjoyed them. I will probably make them again when the weather gets cold again. Let me know and I will set some aside for you. For all the work it takes, it doesn't make sense to make a small batch!

Freeze Your Broth: Say Adios to Cup-o-Noodles

The Landlady Special

Since I had frozen broth I made some ramen tonight. I am calling it the landlady special since I saw mine today to pay my rent. She's a very nice woman and my soup muse today.

The Land Lady Special

What you need:

Frozen miso broth (I made this another day by boiling water with miso, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil)

smoked tofu

garlic clove

udon noodles

rice wine vinegar

soy sauce

chili pepper

vegetable oil

egg

To make:

Heat down the frozen broth into liquid. Slice some tofu and mince the garlic. When broth is liquid add noodles and soy sauce. Heat oil and drop garlic, brown and add tofu. Drop egg in broth. Simmer broth. Cook the tofu. Then ladle the broth into bowl and add tofu. Finish with rice vinegar and two slices of chili. Great soup in no time!

HOT DOG! A Salad You'll Want to Gobble Up

How could you not love that face?

I am naming the salad below in honor of my favorite little dog Leroy; he's a dog with a lot of love and character and I used to live across the hall from him in Memphis. Today on my way to work I bumped into him and his owner Jeff. They now live in Greenpoint. What a small world huh? It was a great surprise and really made my day.

Leroy's Salad

What you will need:

Thin sliced pork loin chops
1/3 avocado
a green pepper
mesculen greens
mushrooms
adobo
salt
pepper
cumin
cayenne
salt
black pepper
olive oil
sherry wine vinegar
red pepper flakes

What to do:

First you will put all of your meat in a pan. On one side you will sprinkle the meat with adobo. On the other side you will sprinkle it with salt and pepper. If you only have salt and pepper, use that. Turn heat on medium high and cover. Then wash and slice your green pepper and heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a new pan. Then throw in the peppers and cover. Clean your mushrooms and also slice. Rinse and dry the salad and set aside. Then put the mushrooms in the pan with the green peppers, add cumin, cayenne and salt to taste.
Next, turn the meat and leave uncovered for a minute or two. Slice the avocado and sprinkle over a teaspoon of vinegar. When chops look about done, then raise the heat very high for a bit over a minute to brown. Don't burn them! Use your nose and your gut to know when to turn it off. While the pork is browning set up your plate: salad greens first, then the avocado slices followed by the sauteed vegetables with their liquid. Leave the plate and remove two chops, or one if you got larger chops, and slice up. Put on top of salad and finish with olive oil and red pepper flakes.

Ladies and gents this is not a side salad

I hope you enjoy it. I sure did and I know Leroy would have gotten in on the action if he had the chance.