Blogging 101: Keep Blogging. If someone points out you haven't blogged in a while, then that's not good. So this is for Karyn!
I do have a good excuse. I got a bad upper respiratory infection. Then Brian did. Then Brian and I went to New York. With URIs. Fun. Then we came back. And we still had URIs. 2 weeks after i exhibited the first symptoms, I still have some symptoms, but I managed to make some food (other than soup). In New York, Brian and I went to a cute Greek restaurant (Greek Kitchen on 10th Ave.) for lunch. For an appetizer we got the eggplant dip. I was telling a co-worker who is half-Greek about it, because we always talk about Greek food. I couldn't remember what it was called and neither could she, so she looked it up, and it is called melintzanosalata. She kept saying it over and over again to learn to the word: "Mel - in -tzan - o - sa - la - ta. Mel - in - tzan - o - sa - la - ta." That's just too many syllables for me. I said that I do make melintzanosalata, but I think what I make it is more like baba ganouj.
Here's what I make:
Baba Ganouj
1 medium eggplant 2 cloves garlic 1 TBSP tahini Salt, Pepper, Coriander, and Cumin to taste juice from 1 lemon about 2 TBSP Olive Oil 1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil Toasted sesame seeds
Put eggplant on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Place on top rack of oven. Place rack as close to heat source in oven as possible without the eggplant touching. Heat oven on Broil. Broil for about 8 to 10 minutes, until one side burns. Turn, and broil until skin burns. After 4 turns, remove from oven, wrap in foil to steam. Steam for about 20 to 30 minutes, and then unwrap and allow to cool. Remove all skin.
In a food processor, chop garlic. Scape sides, and add roasted eggplant, tahini, salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, and lemon juice. blend until mixed. Slowly drizzle in 1 TBSP of olive oil and the toasted sesame oil. Blend until smooth.
Plate. Then drizzle with remaining olive oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with warm pita.
I also made a Greek Salad to go with it, with store-bought dolmas on top. Brian made hummus, and pomegranate martinis. I have been trying to get him to write out dip recipes, but he finally wrote out the martini recipe:
Pomegranate Martini
Fill a shaker with ice, then add:
2 jiggers (2oz) vodka 1 jigger (1oz) Bauchant- orange liqueur 1 jigger (1oz) Pomegranate juice squeeze of lime
shake contents vigorously.
use the squeezed lime-half to rim the martini glass, then dust with sugar
Here's another combo of salad ingredients I made this week... No measuring, yet again:
Spinach Chopped onion Chopped roasted red bell pepper pine nuts? (I think I put them in... maybe I didn't) chopped tomato goat cheese crumbles
Homemade balsamic vinegrette. This would be especially good with a pesto-y dressing, which you can make easily by adding a glob of pesto to dressing and whisking it.
I stopped by World Market the other day to pick up some wine and to look at sushi rolling mats. I didn't get the sushi rolling mats, but I did find this: (Stevie wanted to check it out what I bought for her Daddy).... As you can see from above, it didn't come with food. So, Brian picked up some shrimp: Isn't it so cute!
Brian kicks butt at French toast. He uses more egg than most people I know, resulting in a super custardy toast. Last weekend, he made Challah French Toast (the weekend before I made French toast with Easter Bread of the Alps from Central Market, which tastes like challah, with a little bit of lemon. I topped it off with a whipped cream and sliced strawberries). We still had a bit of challah left over from last week, but not really enough to do French Toast again. I remember seeing a Chocolate French Toast recipe (I finally figured it out that it was in Everyday Food: Great Food Fast). I had some Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips left over after making the Chocolate Cherry Almond Oatmeal Cookies, so I thought, "Hey, it's Sunday. Why not?!"
Chocolate-stuffed French Toast
6 slices of Challah bread 5 eggs 1/2 to 3/4 Cup half and half 2 TBSPs sugar dash cinnamon 2/3 or so semi-sweet chocolate chips
Heat griddle or non-stick pan to medium heat. Beat together eggs, half and half, sugar and cinnamon. Dip challah in egg mixture, one at a time, until soaked. Place one soaked challah slice down on buttered griddle, sprinkle enough chocolate chips on top to cover (about 2-3 TBSPs). Place another slice on top. Cook until bottom slice has cooked through and chocolate is starting to melt. Flip, and cook other side until done. Repeat until done. Plate and dust with powdered sugar
I made some fake sausage patties to go along with it - to balance out the sweetness. It was pretty good! I think they could use a wee bit of adjusting, but I'm definitely willing to give these a shot again.
So I’ve been told a million times that I look like Rachael Ray (I don't really think so, and hopefully they mean pre-alcoholic bloat and smoker rasp). Brian even told me I looked her the night we met. If ever start talking with my mouth full, slap me. As much as she can be annoying, she has some good points that I have always agreed with, but I’ve got some of my own too. Here’s some of my basic principles of cooking:
1. EVOO - Okay, I know everyone wants to smack Rachael Ray when she says this, but it is so true. It makes all the difference in the world to use real Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And pick a high quality one too. I like Whole Foods 360 brand. It tastes great, and is a great value, and with how quickly Brian and I go through olive oil, by God, we need the value.
2. Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese - But seriously, She’s right about the EVOO, and she’s right about the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. You can buy the stuff in the green can for popcorn (love that!), and you can buy the slightly fancier grocery store shredded concoction in the plastic deli tub (which I do buy to sprinkle on top of soup out of a can or a frozen dinner). However, if you want your homemade pasta to have umph! Or to raise the bar on your salad, you have to use Parm-Reg. The real stuff. It is expensive, but worth it.
3. Good butter - Like a good man, good butter is hard to find. Good thing I found both! Like my men, I like my butter European Style (Brian may look like an All-American rebel without a cause, but he was partially educated in Europe, and can talk European painting better than a professor, and he knows his French wine regions as well as a sommelier). I love Plugra European Style butter. It may be straight from the Heartland, but it tastes as good as those butters on the breakfast buffets of European hotels in which I always whined, “Why doesn’t American butter taste this good?” Well it does - at least Plugra does. Good butter makes all the difference in baking. If your butter is bland and has absorbed your fridge smells, whatever you made is going to be bland and taste faintly of leftovers. Once again, it is expensive, but so worth it! Horizon, Central Market, Archer Farms, and Challenge also make good butters, but none hold a candle to Plugra. It doesn't even separate when you melt it.
4. Sea Salt - I can’t stand that Morton Salt girl anymore*. Iodized salt is salt with an added iodine - a chemical. The result is salt that tastes chemically, which results in food that tastes chemically. I never noticed before, but once I started using sea salt, I just can’t use the other stuff anymore. Unlike Rachel Ray, I don’t throw it over my shoulder. I don’t find it very lucky to have to re-sweep the floor because I purposely threw salt on it. (*I have to say in pinch when I couldn't get across the Trinity to get to Central Market, I picked up some Morton Salt Sea Salt at Tom Thumb. I don't hate her so much anymore).
Other rules I generally follow:
* Don’t substitute low fat or nonfat crap for the real stuff in recipes, unless it says you can. The only exception I have found with this is milk, and sometimes I am still wary. If you want to eat low fat, find recipes that were developed specifically to be low fat.
*Do a taste/sniff test. Taste and/or smell all ingredients before you use them in a recipe. If anything is off, the whole recipe will be off. It really will be. Sometimes butter absorbs fridge smells, but sometimes garlic or onions are a little off too. Sometimes spices go bad. A little sniff sniff before you cook can save you some real tears after.
This one of my favorite Rachael Ray recipes: Cheesy Orzo. It's a great basic recipe that lends itself to your own creative whims.
I usually add a handful each of chopped fresh basil and parsley at the end of the baking. Pictured below, I added those herbs, and also a handful of sun-dried tomatoes. That's one big plate of food! The orzo is served with baked Dover Sole with peppers and olives, and a spinach salad. Don't worry, I'm not going to say the "Y" word again, but this is awesome:
Brian was having a no-good-awful-very-bad day. In an effort to cheer him up, I made him all the Brian comfort foods I could think of: Pizza, Hummus, and Oatmeal Cookies.
For the oatmeal cookies, I took the recipe for Nestle's Choc-Oat-Chip cookies and altered it to make Chocolate Cherry Almond Oatmeal Cookies. I know that sounds like a lot in one cookie, and I was worried too many flavors would be overkill. However, they came our really good.
Chocolate Cherry Almond Oatmeal Cookies
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 2 tablespoons milk 2 teaspoons almond extract 2 1/2 cups quick or old-fashioned oats 1 tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp cardamom (optional) 1/2 cup White Chocolate Chips 1/2 cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips 1 cup dried cherries 1 cup sliced/slivered almonds
Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350° F.
COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat brown sugar, butter and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk and almond extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, cinnamon, cardamom, chocolate, cherries, and almonds; mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
BAKE for 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 1 minute; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Brian liked them, and judging by how they disappeared at work, I'm thinking they were pretty good!
Olive Oil 1 or 2 cloves garlic Red Chili Flakes, to taste 3/4 Cup chopped onion 3/4 Cup chopped bell pepper 1-1/2 Cups Shrimp Splash of Wine (I would normally suggest white, but red works so well with the sundried tomatoes) 1/2 Cup Sundried Tomatoes 2 TBSP Taco Seasoning 2 Cups Fresh Spinach Cheddar Cheese, grated Sour Cream Tortillas
Saute onions, bell pepper, and garlic, and chili flakes in olive oil. Add shrimp, sundried tomatoes, and seasoning, and wine. Saute until shrimp is done. Fold in spinach. Add additional olive oil, salt, and seasoning if needed. Cover, and cook until spinach cooks down. Serve in tortillas with cheddar cheese and sour cream.
In the photograph, I tried to make a roasted red bell pepper sour cream sauce for the tacos. While it tasted good, it made... pink... taco... sauce. Yeah, I won't make it again just because of that.
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