I made chocolate mini-souffle cakes for Numbah One Son's school's booth at the Farmer's Market. I made 48. Within 20 minutes someone bought them all out.
I rule.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Friday, February 25, 2005
A Misty Look Back At The Golden Age
...when my slow season meant I put in, say, 15 hours a week of labor and mostly puttered like a proper househusband.
I must also confess my shame that I have pilfered--in whole or in part, but usually the former--much of my bloggage from the lovely and gracious Poppy. At any rate, I will try to shed the straightjacket of Blog Slackage by raving about dinnah.
Since Friday is a No Meat Zone, I decided to go all out yesterday and roast a bit of pork loin. I had a lot of lovely sage and thyme and pork just suggested itself. The butcher had just the thing and I was off and running. One trick I figured out was to remove the griddle/grill from my cooktop, thereby exposing the lo-o-o-o-o-ong element. I then rested the roasting pan directly on the element. Normally, cookbooks that want you to do this sort of thing suggest you use cooktop burners, but those invariably leave a cold spot in the middle, owing to the gap between said burners. But with one long element, no gap, no cold spot.
A couple of tablespoons of EVOO went in the pan and once I saw the oil shimmer, the pork, having been rubbed with sea salt, pepper and grated lemon peel went in for a sear. Most people treat these sorts of cuts (loins, tenderloins etc.) as 2 sided, when in reality they are 4-sided. So I gave it a good sear on all 4 sides. I scattered the cut-up stalks of spring onions, 7-8 cloves of whole (& intact) garlic cloves, two juiced lemons (whence the peel came), put the pork on the rack and rested the rack (with the pork) in the pan where its juices would land on the alliums involved. I added about a cup of water to the pan to give the lemon juice a "cushion" while the pork juices materialized. Then I scattered fresh thyme and sage and put it in a 275F oven w. the temperature probe (the cheaper, non-remote version of this) set for 165F.
Two hours later I took out the pan, covered the pork in aluminum foil and let it rest while I sauteed some spinach with garlic, red pepper flakes and teeny touch of anchovy...WOW. The meat was JUST done (TFBIM doesn't care for any pork under well-done, no matter that any wee ferlie beasties would have died 15F degrees earlier), juicy, tender. The garlic and oniony bits had caramelized and the meyer lemon juice had cooked down to a (not TOO) tangy glaze.
I had also a pot of fresh cranberry beans simmering with a sprig of rosemary and EVOO and garlic. Molto yummy.
-J.
I must also confess my shame that I have pilfered--in whole or in part, but usually the former--much of my bloggage from the lovely and gracious Poppy. At any rate, I will try to shed the straightjacket of Blog Slackage by raving about dinnah.
Since Friday is a No Meat Zone, I decided to go all out yesterday and roast a bit of pork loin. I had a lot of lovely sage and thyme and pork just suggested itself. The butcher had just the thing and I was off and running. One trick I figured out was to remove the griddle/grill from my cooktop, thereby exposing the lo-o-o-o-o-ong element. I then rested the roasting pan directly on the element. Normally, cookbooks that want you to do this sort of thing suggest you use cooktop burners, but those invariably leave a cold spot in the middle, owing to the gap between said burners. But with one long element, no gap, no cold spot.
A couple of tablespoons of EVOO went in the pan and once I saw the oil shimmer, the pork, having been rubbed with sea salt, pepper and grated lemon peel went in for a sear. Most people treat these sorts of cuts (loins, tenderloins etc.) as 2 sided, when in reality they are 4-sided. So I gave it a good sear on all 4 sides. I scattered the cut-up stalks of spring onions, 7-8 cloves of whole (& intact) garlic cloves, two juiced lemons (whence the peel came), put the pork on the rack and rested the rack (with the pork) in the pan where its juices would land on the alliums involved. I added about a cup of water to the pan to give the lemon juice a "cushion" while the pork juices materialized. Then I scattered fresh thyme and sage and put it in a 275F oven w. the temperature probe (the cheaper, non-remote version of this) set for 165F.
Two hours later I took out the pan, covered the pork in aluminum foil and let it rest while I sauteed some spinach with garlic, red pepper flakes and teeny touch of anchovy...WOW. The meat was JUST done (TFBIM doesn't care for any pork under well-done, no matter that any wee ferlie beasties would have died 15F degrees earlier), juicy, tender. The garlic and oniony bits had caramelized and the meyer lemon juice had cooked down to a (not TOO) tangy glaze.
I had also a pot of fresh cranberry beans simmering with a sprig of rosemary and EVOO and garlic. Molto yummy.
-J.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Foodie ramblings
Given that it's Lent and that I am a practicing Catholic and that it is Friday, it is clearly inevitable that I'd be having impure thoughts about a bone-in ribeye (oh, shut up). I am an omnivore and always have been, although the actual amount I consume of beef, poultry, etc. is pretty slim.
So it stands to reason today I should crave something the size of a hubcap.
Instead I must make do and try to get my umami blast elsehow. I am thinking of making ceviche. I was thinking also of making some hard-seared tuna, but that makes Trilby wince (or gag, I forget). Tuna is good when one is craving something in the meat family, but for one reason or another, that isn't about to happen. I'd make tuna tartare, which I think makes Trilby happy, but which TFBIM cannot stand.
So this gets me thinking of grilled mahi-mahi with peanut sauce or maybe a honey/chipotle/lime glaze, which might do instead of ceviche (I'd go with scallops--if I can get fresh ones--and/or shrimp, which are always available fresh) if the evening proves cooler than warmer. Naturally, either would pair well with scallion/coconut-infused jasmine rice and some seared leeks or spring onions spiked with a chile/ginger dressing.
Then, if the evening is warm, I'm figuring on some sort of melon sorbet with mint and ginger...and if it's cool (I mean, really, we hit 83F today), grilled pineapple slices with a rum and molasses glaze. Not sure about the wine, but I have a couple of bottles of 2003 Edna Valley Vineyards Paragon Sauvignon Blanc which suggest themselves.
A lot of people--even those who might say "yum"--cannot understand thinking this way every day (and twice on weekends). Me? It's just the way I think and it has the added felicity of keeping TFBIM from getting angry with me, or minimizing her wrath when she has had quite enough of my drivel.
Tonight I could have done no wrong. I made a spinach salad with pancetta & gorgonzola dressing (kinda rich, but a little goes a long way and the buttermilk in the dressing alleviates any remnant of guilt) and then Rigatoni alla Romagnola (a medium simmered tomato based sauce with a little bit of ground beef [¼lb. for 4 people] and acres of very finely diced onion, and shavings of parmigiano-reggiano...muy yummy) and damned if TFBIM didn't go for seconds. (Even Numbah One Son ate his serving without complaint...very high praise indeed)
Between the food and the wine (2001 Bosco Montepulciano d'Abruzzo) TFBIM only wanted a cappuccino for dessert and as such my evening's foodiness was complete. It only stands to reason I should be curling up in my fave chair with a cookbook: Schlesinger & Willoughby's Let The Flames Begin.
So it stands to reason today I should crave something the size of a hubcap.
Instead I must make do and try to get my umami blast elsehow. I am thinking of making ceviche. I was thinking also of making some hard-seared tuna, but that makes Trilby wince (or gag, I forget). Tuna is good when one is craving something in the meat family, but for one reason or another, that isn't about to happen. I'd make tuna tartare, which I think makes Trilby happy, but which TFBIM cannot stand.
So this gets me thinking of grilled mahi-mahi with peanut sauce or maybe a honey/chipotle/lime glaze, which might do instead of ceviche (I'd go with scallops--if I can get fresh ones--and/or shrimp, which are always available fresh) if the evening proves cooler than warmer. Naturally, either would pair well with scallion/coconut-infused jasmine rice and some seared leeks or spring onions spiked with a chile/ginger dressing.
Then, if the evening is warm, I'm figuring on some sort of melon sorbet with mint and ginger...and if it's cool (I mean, really, we hit 83F today), grilled pineapple slices with a rum and molasses glaze. Not sure about the wine, but I have a couple of bottles of 2003 Edna Valley Vineyards Paragon Sauvignon Blanc which suggest themselves.
A lot of people--even those who might say "yum"--cannot understand thinking this way every day (and twice on weekends). Me? It's just the way I think and it has the added felicity of keeping TFBIM from getting angry with me, or minimizing her wrath when she has had quite enough of my drivel.
Tonight I could have done no wrong. I made a spinach salad with pancetta & gorgonzola dressing (kinda rich, but a little goes a long way and the buttermilk in the dressing alleviates any remnant of guilt) and then Rigatoni alla Romagnola (a medium simmered tomato based sauce with a little bit of ground beef [¼lb. for 4 people] and acres of very finely diced onion, and shavings of parmigiano-reggiano...muy yummy) and damned if TFBIM didn't go for seconds. (Even Numbah One Son ate his serving without complaint...very high praise indeed)
Between the food and the wine (2001 Bosco Montepulciano d'Abruzzo) TFBIM only wanted a cappuccino for dessert and as such my evening's foodiness was complete. It only stands to reason I should be curling up in my fave chair with a cookbook: Schlesinger & Willoughby's Let The Flames Begin.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
The Oil Crisis
The Oil Crisis
As I was straightening up in the kitchen this morning, I realized I was running low on one of my favorite oils: "O" Tahitian Lime infused EVOO.
This, as you might surmise, is a complete bite. Not because I have to schlep around and get a replacement bottle, but because I cannot find such a replacement bottle. If you cook Cuban* or "Floribbean" food at all, EVOO and lime are flavor cornerstones.
So now I am faced with the daunting task of making my own. I could, I s'pose, cook with EVOO and squirt lime juice...but cooked lime juice has its flavor profiled to really emphasize the sourness of the lime, and that's no good. Stay tuned to see if I ruin a harvest's worth of limes and a drum of gigabuck EVOO.
But that leads me to discussing essential oils. This is what you should, at a bare minimum, have oil-wise if you have any foodie aspirations, in order of importance.
1- EVOO. You can get Italian, which is a wallet-eviscerating thing most of the time. (There are 2-3 great exceptions to this, though.)
2- Peanut oil, cold-pressed
3- Citrus-infused EVOO
4- Basil-infused EVOO
5- Chile-infused peanut oil
6- Garlic-infused peanut oil
OPTIONAL:
- Sesame oil
- Madras curry-infused peanut oil
- Smoked paprika-infused oil
OK, off to gather and peel a gazillion limes.
-J.
* Cuban food is to Spanish food what New Orleans' Creole food is to French food- a lineal descendant. In fact, in Cuba (back when it HAD food) Cuban cuisine was called "Criolla" which is Spanish for "Creole." This is in contrast to, say, Mexican food which is essentially the indigenous cooking of the Native Mexicans (Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayas and those conquered by them) with some input from the Spanish colonists. Cuba had a steady influx of Spaniards pretty much until 1959, with an extra spurt during the Spanish Civil War, when many families fled to avoid the atrocities inflicted by either the Communists or the Fascists or both. At any rate, the arriving Spaniards made some modifications to their cookery (replacing the temperate lemon with the tropical lime is the most prominent such change), and just kept going. There, more than you needed to know.
As I was straightening up in the kitchen this morning, I realized I was running low on one of my favorite oils: "O" Tahitian Lime infused EVOO.
This, as you might surmise, is a complete bite. Not because I have to schlep around and get a replacement bottle, but because I cannot find such a replacement bottle. If you cook Cuban* or "Floribbean" food at all, EVOO and lime are flavor cornerstones.
So now I am faced with the daunting task of making my own. I could, I s'pose, cook with EVOO and squirt lime juice...but cooked lime juice has its flavor profiled to really emphasize the sourness of the lime, and that's no good. Stay tuned to see if I ruin a harvest's worth of limes and a drum of gigabuck EVOO.
But that leads me to discussing essential oils. This is what you should, at a bare minimum, have oil-wise if you have any foodie aspirations, in order of importance.
1- EVOO. You can get Italian, which is a wallet-eviscerating thing most of the time. (There are 2-3 great exceptions to this, though.)
2- Peanut oil, cold-pressed
3- Citrus-infused EVOO
4- Basil-infused EVOO
5- Chile-infused peanut oil
6- Garlic-infused peanut oil
OPTIONAL:
- Sesame oil
- Madras curry-infused peanut oil
- Smoked paprika-infused oil
OK, off to gather and peel a gazillion limes.
-J.
* Cuban food is to Spanish food what New Orleans' Creole food is to French food- a lineal descendant. In fact, in Cuba (back when it HAD food) Cuban cuisine was called "Criolla" which is Spanish for "Creole." This is in contrast to, say, Mexican food which is essentially the indigenous cooking of the Native Mexicans (Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayas and those conquered by them) with some input from the Spanish colonists. Cuba had a steady influx of Spaniards pretty much until 1959, with an extra spurt during the Spanish Civil War, when many families fled to avoid the atrocities inflicted by either the Communists or the Fascists or both. At any rate, the arriving Spaniards made some modifications to their cookery (replacing the temperate lemon with the tropical lime is the most prominent such change), and just kept going. There, more than you needed to know.