mangosteens

saw them at the grocery store this weekend but I didn’t get them because i don’t usually like fresh fruit that much and i thought maybe it would be wasted on me.  i’ll have to go back though, my curiosity is getting the upper hand…

easy dinner

been trying to clean out the cupboards by eating through them… today i did something super easy, good, healthy and easy to adapt to whatever is around.  I had beluga lentils (they don’t fall apart as much as other lentils i find) so i toasted up the last bits of some old spices that were almost done (happened to be cumin, ground mustard, and mild chili powder), added some garlic and oil, then i put it all in the pot with some beef stock and a can of tomato paste.  i had some avocado and lemon so i put that on top when they were done, but really you could switch any part of this out (beans or rice instead of lentils, whatever spices/herbs you have, throw in some old veggies, add cheese or sour cream or meat, have it with bread or crackers or whatever).  i’ve been working harder to use what we have before we buy more and i know its kind of anal, but i just made a huge list of whats in the kitchen and cross things off when they’re done, trying to think of something to make with old ingredients before going shopping for something new.  i read some zen dude talking about the difference between the cook who finds the recipe first and then goes shopping and the one who makes whatever is around, and would like to try (on most days) to be more like the latter….

sick!

I have a cold, so I dug up a recipe I found years ago on the internet somewhere. The soup is a great twist on chicken soup for a cold, the spice clears me up pretty well (even when it’s the only thing I can taste!). I just use the ingredients for some ideas/guidelines, but usually just make it with whatever is around, though the snow peas and bean sprouts are nice when I get them.

Warming Chicken and Asian Vegetable Soup

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into thin slivers
8 cups (2 qts.) chicken broth
1 tablespoon chili paste (or as much cayenne as looks good…)
1 fresh gingeroot (about 4 inches wide, unpeeled, coarsley chopped
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 carrots, diced
1 cup snow peas, sliced
4 scallions or green onions, sliced
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped

In a large soup pot or dutch-oven, place chicken broth, chili paste, garlic, ginger and sesame oil. Bring mixture to a simmer over high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 15 minutes. Put carrots and chicken in another pot and strain broth over it. Simmer over medium-low heat for 3 minutes. Stir in snow peas; simmer 1 minute. Stir in scallions, bean sprouts and mint; simmer an additional 2 minutes. Serve hot. Serves 8.

weekend

There was lots of eating out this weekend, so I didn’t cook much, but I did finally try a recipe for butternut squash lasagne from Gourmet that I’ve been wanting to make since I first got the issue (2001!!). It came out well but it took more work than I anticipated. Next time I’ll add a bit of spice or something to make it a little livelier. Also made baked coconut shrimp (quick, but a bit dry – had them with lime-cayenne sour cream) and Vietnamese coffee ice cream from The Perfect Scoop, which is delicious and way easier than his other coffee ice cream recipe. I really have to be feeling some special inspiration to be bothered to make custard… It’s just 3:3:1 of condensed milk:strong coffee or espresso:1/2+1/2 and some finely ground coffee and stick it in the ice cream maker. TOO SIMPLE! The library is bugging me to give the book back, so I’ve just ordered my own copy and am looking forward to blue cheese and honey, avocado, basil, lavender ice creams… it’s going to be a sweet spring.

cookbook of the month

Will be Vegetables by James Peterson. I’ve been terrible about composting old produce lately, hopefully this will help (and more careful shopping!).

smorgasbord!

So party day finally arrived. I cooked for days and ended up with tons of leftovers (I always end up making every dish in quantities to feed every guest, even though there are a million different things to eat…). I didn’t take any pictures of the preparation and I got a quick pic of the table as I was laying stuff out (there was no empty space by the time I was done), but no others during the party (too busy SKOALing).

I ended up making the meatballs from a recipe I got out of the newspaper a few years ago when Marcus Samuelsson’s Aquavit first came out, and specifically asked the Olsen’s guys for the least-sweet lingonberry preserves available (which were of course still plenty sweet). Here is that meatball recipe, although the one I have doesn’t call for the pickle juice… They were a big hit.

The cucumber salad and marinated mushrooms were from the Sunset Scandinavian Cookbook; and the potatoes, gravlax, mustard sauce, sillsalad, and pickled beets were from Foods of the World: Scandinavian Cooking; the chocolate-beet cupcakes were from a recipe that’s been taped to my kitchen wall for a long time, I’m sure it came off the internet at some point, so I’ll find it sometime and post it. The almond cake is from Gourmet and is so lovely that I think it will have to replace my old standby Jacques Pepin almond cake recipe (although preparation is a bit more involved – though really, to be fair, I always skip the syrup part of JP’s recipe. The gourmet one just stands on its own better, if you prefer simple desserts like me). The meats, cheeses, lingonberry preserves, crispbread, and herring came from Olsen’s.

Here is the menu:

Drinks
Aquavit
Vodka
Scandi beer

Herring Course
Scandinavian cheeses
Scandi breads and crackers
Pickled herring
Sillsallad with beet sour cream sauce
Sour cream with dill

Fish course
Gravlax with lemon
Mustard sauce with dill

Cold meats and salads course
Cucumber salad
Pickled beets
Marinated mushrooms
Cold meats

Hot course
Meatballs with lingonberry sauce
Butter-steamed new potatoes

Dessert
Almond cake with lingonberry preserves and cream
Beet cupcakes
Coffee

I’m disappointed I didn’t get a picture of the herring setup – I filled a roasting pan with ice and had the different kinds of herring and sauces in huge goblets nestled in the ice. The cheeses on the board were gradost (the round one), danish blue, farmer’s cheese, and on the plate over to the left gjetost (the brown one) and a harder finnish cheese (can’t remember the name).

clockwise from top in the right side of the frame: marinated mushrooms, cucumber salad, crispbreads, gravlax, pickled beets. Down in the bottom left corner are the meats, which were a swedish salami, lamb salami, and a lamb loaf. Mixed reviews on the meats.

It was fun, but probably a one-time thing. I think the next theme will be Bastille day… which gives me plenty of time to plan.

It’s time to pick my March cookbook, and I’m completely undecided.

recycled soup

made a simple tomato soup this weekend from the cook’s illustrated testing list. It’s meant to be a pure pantry dish, and it is except that it calls for chives (which I skipped). Just onion, garlic, olive oil saute, add some red pepper flakes, bay, canned tomatoes – then puree and then add some chicken stock. Super easy and way better than out of a can. Today I reheated it and threw in some roasted halibut with red onions and red bell peppers – all came together well. If it were a bit chunkier it would be a good dip/bruschetta topping too I think. Simple!

My failed cheese fantasies have given way to chicken fantasies…

weekend

Last night I had a whole head of celery so I tried a celery gratin from fannie farmer (an older edition than linked). The sauce was great to dip bread in, but the celery itself…. not so exciting. I’ll have to look around more for something reliable, since I always have this problem (only need a couple stalks for whatever I’m planning, then I have most of a head left over). I suppose stock is always an option.

I also used up the green beans and the last of the bacon, quick saute with garlic and worcestershire, always works out. Finally, another quick saute of crab with butter, garlic, and lime (no lemon in the house). It was ok, nothing fancy. Next time I’ll try crab cakes.

Today for lunch I had one of those fun times when you think you have nothing but manage to throw something together, something good even! I dug up the beluga lentil leftovers, opened a nice can of tuna (ie. not water-logged shreds…), cut up a tomato and an avocado and added some olive oil, mustard, lime, and pepper (no salt since the lentils were over-salted to begin with). It was lovely with a little toast.

For dinner, going back to the SCforA testing with Swedish meatballs and red cabbage. The cabbage called for a bunch of steaming time and I don’t really have a good steaming setup at present, so I used this recipe instead which is pretty similar in ingredients. Didn’t have balsamic, so I had to use plain red wine vinegar. I haven’t tried it yet, but I have to say it doesn’t smell great…

So the Swedish meatballs. They call for a stiff egg white and continuous mixing for FIFTEEN minutes. I cut it a bit short. I used the leftover goat milk from the latest cheese fiasco (seriously, it was supposed to be whey, but it’s still so thick that after a couple of days it had a cream top!). I was amazed at how much liquid the meat and bread absorbed – the meat mix is super light. Looking forward to it.

>> Update: The cabbage was nasty and the meatballs totally fell apart. I’m sad to say that SCforA, though it means well I’m sure, is not a winner as far as I’m concerned. For the smorgasbord I’m putting my faith in Foods of the World…

week

Last Friday I made beef&brew stew for SH’s birthday from Texas Home Cooking and tried the mizuna in a salad. Also put some blood orange and grapefruit in the salad dressing. We had the usual people over and a nice time. Oh and I made snickerdoodles for birthday presents, since he loves them so and E. isn’t picky (we were celebrating both). They were really good, soft and subtle in a good way (from martha).

Saturday was halibut with a nice herb sauce, used mizuna instead of parsley and it worked fine. The dish is a little subtle for my taste, so a flavorful side is in order. Since N refuses to like fish I had plenty of leftovers. Also finally cooked the beluga lentils I got forever ago. I (sort of) followed this recipe, came out way too salty, I’ll have to be more careful next time. I am lying, I didn’t really do anything the same as in that recipe, I just wanted an idea for cooking time, but it ended up taking way longer. Maybe I’ll try to follow it some other time (didn’t have all the stuff, just used shallots and herbs and stock). But it is true that they look rad. Maybe with israeli couscous next time, to overdo the effect, ha. I also started cheese (from raw milk this time) and a different recipe. It yielded even fewer curds than before. I think I need some personal direction. I’m going to hold off on more experiments for now… Feeling pretty jealous of PDX these days… (why)

I can’t remember what I made Sunday. There were some chocolate chip cookies in there somewhere. Weeknights there is less experimenting… spaghetti, some egg with tortilla things, oven fries and hippie chicken nuggets, we went to tutta bella one night… I had some salty mango also, which I haven’t had in years.

Finally yesterday (Friday again) was pork chops – never made these before and it didn’t work out so well… Used CI/ATK AND the instant read and they still came out too dry. I prefer the loin anyway, easier to cook and tastier. I did get to throw together an improv sauce with some of the apple sauce I made for latkes a while ago though. Also tried roasted mini bell peppers – these were super cute, and I’d never done roasted peppers before, but it wasn’t the right pick. They were small so more prep time (ratio of time to pepper yield, ha) and they cooked too quickly. I could have gotten more out of them just raw in a pasta salad or something. The pepper roasting is simple, the only pain is getting the skin off, which I think would also be easier with larger sections of pepper…

[cute - next time use them for something with minimal handling...]

Also made some chocolate chip cookies and tossed a bit of cocoa powder in. We’ve gotten pretty used to having frozen cookies around, one is the perfect-sized dessert (we’re not big dessert people).

Tonight I’m going to use more blood oranges for a tart for the s c a g s. And maybe try a half-recipe of this (don’t have much bacon in the fridge).

week

Gravlax last weekend worked well – no recipe in SCforA but there was the mustard-dill sauce that is supposed to go with it – it was good! Used gravlax recipe from Foods of the World book. Made me wish for bagels, but it was fine on regular bread. It’s definitely on the menu.

ready to gift!

Got some blood oranges… starting a simple marmalade right now, total experiment. Debating whether to stick a bit of rosemary in now. Used some juice in a salad dressing last night with lemon, olive oil, and zatar. The salad was parmesan shavings, hella caramelized (to the point people thought they were bacon) shallots, mizuna, and lettuce.

Made apple sauce from the cook’s illustrated book for latkes this week, but haven’t made them yet… the cook’s illustrated was sort of the December book but I’m getting lots of ingredients each week that don’t show up in the scandi book…