A Flurry of Dishes

Days off tend to make me lethargic, but today was an exception. Chalk it up to the culinary wave I've been riding, perhaps. Instead of dilly dallying, I woke up, vacuumed the house (twice in one week??), furminated my bunny (i.e. brushed her to take out all the fur she's been shedding), went grocery shopping for stevia, and then made a whole flurry of dishes.

There were hits, there were misses, and there were what I like to call "works in progress".

Let's start with the hits...

CREAM OF CAULIFLOWER SOUP

I tweaked this recipe just a bit by using fresh ginger instead of powdered, a red onion instead of 2 leeks, no celery, both homemade beef and chicken stock (instead of just chicken stock), and a touch of sour cream and coconut milk to thin the soup out instead of half and half. I love this soup! It's creamy, but not heavy. It's also low on the glycemic index, unlike the carrot and sweet potato soups I've been making. Just one cauliflower yields a lot of soup. I also roasted some cauliflower florets in the oven to add to the soup as a garnish in the end.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cream-of-Cauliflower-Soup-350616



Before putting it in the blender..


PLUM RASPBERRY AND RED WINE COMPOTE

I had some leftover red wine from last night's beef stew, so I found this recipe on epicurious. I prepared it the night ahead, and it was just delicious the next day for dessert. Brad put it over vanilla ice cream while I was happy just eating it plain. For this dessert, it is important to give it time for the flavors to meld; I had a taste yesterday, and it was definitely not as good as it was today.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Plum-Raspberry-and-Red-Wine-Compote-5629

after 24 hours of marinating in the red wine syrup reduction


Brad's half eaten ice cream with fruit


The red wine syrup..


RED WINE BARBECUE SAUCE

Brad requested burgers for dinner, so I made hamburger with a red wine BBQ sauce (yes, I was trying to find a way to get rid of the extra red wine from last night!). It turned out great, and was so easy to make.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Red-Wine-Barbecue-Sauce-109711



Now let's move on to the "works in progress"...

FRIED POLENTA

I had a bunch of leftover polenta from last night, so I wanted to make broiled polenta for lunch. I cut some of the leftovers into slices, coated them with some olive oil, and put it under the broiler and waited.... And waited.... There was no browning whatsover. I took it out, put it in the toaster oven and tried broiling it again. And again, nothing.

Finally, I decided to eat my failed broiling experiment and try frying instead. I heated the oil till it started smoking, dried off one piece of polenta with a paper towel, and then put it in the olive oil. After 4 minutes on each side, I was left with a golden piece of fried goodness. It was heaven. Too bad I only made one piece :P

I tried making this again for Brad for dinner, but it just didn't crisp up like it did earlier. This is definitely a work in progress.

My one perfect piece of fried polenta:


My lunch today: fried polenta with leftover boeuf bourguignon



HAMBURGER WITH AVOCADO, SOUR CREAM, FRIED POLENTA AND RED WINE BBQ SAUCE

This was a "leftovers" meal. The BBQ sauce was the best part!



Finally, we've come to the "disasters" section. There was only one disaster today...

DOUBLE FUDGE BROWNIE (with Stevia)

I have never cooked with Stevia, but I figured I should start because sugar is not good for me and I don't want to get diabetes. I searched online for stevia recipes and found this one. I made some substitutions (butter instead of margarine, half and half instead of skim milk, 1/2 gluten free baking mix and 1/2 regular flour, and pure stevia extract instead of the stevia blend. I guess all of these substitutions was my first mistake. My second mistake was that I didn't measure out the stevia, but added it in little scoops to taste. The problem was, I ended up making it way too sweet! I tried to remedy this by adding more chocolate/butter/half and half. The result was just a mess. It stuck to the cupcake mold, was too moist inside, and was not sweet enough in the end.

On the bright side, I whipped my first egg whites by hand into peaks! Brad helped---it sure takes a lot of beating to make those peaks :P

http://www.cookingwithstevia.com/web/desserts07.shtml

The brownie tops (the rest stuck to the pan)



Coming out of the oven



The mess...



(The disaster didn't stop us from polishing off the whole plate of brownie tops tonight, though.)

Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon

Today I attempted to cook a dish I can't pronounce. In fact, it's a dish with a name I can't even spell--I need to google it just to make sure I'm spelling it right each time!

I finally bought Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". It's $40, and I was lucky to find it at a Border's in the Valley--it's been sold out everywhere else! Of course, the famous recipe from the movie Julie and Julia is Boeuf Bourguignon, so I couldn't wait to make this recipe. I bought all the ingredients except the bacon rind (they didn't have it where I went). I served it with creamy polenta, made from white organic cornmeal that Brad's mom gave us. The polenta was amazing--I cooked it slowly for an hour on the stove with this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Buttered-Polenta-233990

The Boeuf Bourguignon was tasty, but I think I seared the meat a little too long because it was not as soft as I expected it to be. The sauce was also very thin, so I had to thicken it with some arrowroot (trying to boil it down didn't do much). I had a lot of leftovers, so I'm looking forward to having this tomorrow because the flavors will only get better.

Boeuf Bourguignon recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Boeuf-Bourguignon-a-La-Julia-Child-148007


The meat after browning, before going into the oven with stock and wine.



The slow cooked grits



The sauce, thickened with arrowroot



The finished dish..

Perfecting Fried Rice

Tonight I made fried rice, which Brad ceremoniously declared to be "the best fried rice I've ever had, hands down". Here's the ingredients list:

-1 cup day old brown short grained rice
-soy sauce to taste
-drizzle of sesame oil
-2 slices bacon
-2 eggs
-3/4 onion
-1 carrot
-dash of hot sauce
-handful of watercress

To make this fried rice, put the bacon/onion/carrots/other veggies in the pan first to cook. This releases the fat from the bacon, which will add a nice flavor to the rice. Once the bacon's crispy, add the rice and soy sauce and sesame oil. Finally, make a hole in the middle of the pan and add two scrambled eggs. Once the eggs cook, mix everything together.

I'm still working on perfecting this "recipe", but what I've got so far is definitely better than it was a week ago.



Here's my thrown together dinner. In the background is mackerel with hard boiled egg and mustard hollandaise on top (can you tell that I'm in love with this sauce?), and a salad. Yeah, all of that doesn't really go with fried rice... But I still enjoyed it!

A (Not Very) Lazy Sunday

With Brad at work all day on a Sunday, I had a lot of fun in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Yes, I made all of this in one day! (Plus I cleaned the entire house.. um, it's harder than it looks and I now have a greater appreciation for the cleaning Brad does every Sunday)

BACON CARROT SOUP

I made this soup today, and it was delicious! I just kind of threw it together, so there's no recipe, but I listed the ingredients below. I thought this soup was even better than the sweet potato soup in my last post, due to the tasty addition of the bacon and sour cream garnish. Brad's taking this soup to work for lunch tomorrow with a salad.

Ingredients:
-roasted carrots with sage, olive oil, pepper
-homemade chicken stock
-cinnamon
-cumin
-butter
-lemon juice
-garnish with sour cream and bacon




BANANA MUFFINS

We had some bananas bordering on overripe today, so I made a small batch of banana muffins. The recipe is my own, and to be honest, I just made it up on the spot. I'm sure it's not the best banana muffin recipe ever, but the results were really tasty. What makes this recipe unusual is the addition of gluten free flour and the use of evaporated cane juice in place of sugar.

BANANA MUFFINS
-1/2 cup regular flour
-3/4 cup Red Mill gluten free flour mix
-1 stick butter, melted
-1 egg
-dash of salt
-1/2 cup evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
-2 ripe bananas
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line muffin cups. Mix flour, sugar and salt in large bowl. Mix mashed bananas, egg, melted butter, vanilla and egg in medium bowl. Stir banana mixture into dry ingredients just until blended (do not overmix).
Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Sprinkle tops with sugar. Bake muffins until tops are pale golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffins to rack; cool.





FIGGY PIGGY CORNISH HEN

This is a recipe in Gourmet's September 2009 issue. Brad loved it and said that it blew our regular chicken dish (see the Chicken with Mustard Vinaigrette recipe in yesterday's post) out of the water. And we thought that dish was as good as it gets.
The pairing of the bacon and figs is perfect, and the hen was juicy all the way through. It's an organic cornish hen from Whole Foods. They're a little pricey at $10 each, but 1/2 a hen was enough for each of us for a meal.

You can find the full recipe here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Figgy-Piggy-Cornish-Hens-354955

Bacon and sliced garlic are sauteed ahead of time and used for garnish


The hen after it's panfried, right before it goes in the oven




The finished product!


And finally, for breakfast today, I made leftover corn and salmon pancakes. This is definitely a keeper!

Bonjour!

After reading Julia Child's autobiography "My Life in France," I got so inspired to cook French food--heck, any food. I went crazy and bought a casserole dish, stainless steel bowl, and a whole bunch of groceries. Last week, I was able to cook for both Brad and I for only $40 each. We did not eat out once (ok, maybe just once for lunch). I was amazed that we were able to find such good quality ingredients (a lot of it organic and/or from farmer's market) for a good price.

This week, it cost a little more, but this also counted essential pantry items that we were in desperate need of and that will last a long time (e.g. spices, butter, and grains). We also spent a little bit on kitchen utensils (that casserole dish, stainless steel bowl, etc). Opening my fridge and seeing all of the great ingredients I bought this week makes me so happy. Cooking for my guy and seeing how much he enjoys my cooking experiments (even if they flop: see "Raspberry Clafouti" below), also makes me really happy.

Today I made an amazing recipe from Hubert Keller's appearance on Top Chef Masters. It was one of the most delicious things I've ever made.

On the menu for later this week are Figgy Piggy Cornish Game Hen (from this month's Gourmet) and Julia Child's famous Boeuf Bourguignon. I cannot wait!

Below are some of the "Hits" of the past week

CORN CAKES WITH SALMON AND SALMON ROE

This is a Top Chef Masters recipe by Chef Hubert Keller. It is AMAZING. Probably the most gourmet thing I have made so far. It's so easy to make because there's a video on the Top Chef Masters website on how to prepare the dish from start to finish. I used fresh organic white corn, not canned corn like the video suggests. I think it makes all the difference.

Recipe:
http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/thinly-sliced-salmon-baked-in-tender-corn-pancakes-with-watercress-sauce

Video:
http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-masters/videos/hubert-kellers-scottish-salmon

Corn Pancake Batter
3 to 4 ears fresh young corn, husked
3 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Salmon
8 ounce salmon fillet
4 tablespoons Caviar, such as whitefish, salmon, or sturgeon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon virgin olive oil

Watercress Sauce (Optional--I didn't use this)
1 small bunch watercress, stemmed
1 teaspoon virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced shallot
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1 tablespoon cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish
30 blanched asparagus tips, about 3 inches long, fanned
30 1/2- inch-wide slices tomato, fanned
1 teaspoonmixed black and white sesame seeds
1 tablespoon sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives

My plate:

Brad's plate:



A NOT QUITE PERFECT RASPBERRY CLAFOUTI

This was my first attempt at clafouti, and I made two mistakes: too much batter in the ramekin and too much whisking of the flour mixture. The taste was great, but it was rubbery and took way too long to cook (I poured out a lot of the batter).

http://aveceric.com/category/recipes

1 tablespoon butter
¼ cup sugar + more for ramekin
1 large egg
6 tablespoons half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup fresh raspberries
Vanilla ice cream (optional)





FRUIT SMOOTHIE

Brad has been making fruit smoothies every day for breakfast. It's just fruit (bananas, peaches and berries are his faves right now) and a couple of cubes of ice. I also add coconut milk. We calculated that each smoothie costs us just mere cents.


EGG ON EGG ON EGG

I made this dish up. It's asparagus with egg (a poached egg would be nice, but the ones in this picture are scrambled) topped with a mustard hollandaise sauce (I make this from scratch, hence the second "egg" in the title of this dish) and topped with salmon roe (hence the third "egg" in the title)

-asparagus on bottom
-sunny side up/poached/scrambled eggs on top
-mustard hollandaise on top of that
-salmon roe on top of everything



ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

This is so good by itself, or with hollandaise sauce.
-cauliflower (450 degrees for 25 minutes in lower 1/3 rack)
-olive oil
-pepper, salt



SAGE SWEET POTATO SOUP

This is something I just whipped together. The sage in this soup makes it special. I didn't really go by a recipe, but here's the ingredients:

-homemade chicken stock
-yam (450 degrees for 25 minutes in lower 1/3 rack with olive oil, pepper and chopped fresh sage)
-butter
-water



THAI CURRY WITH FRIED STICKY RICE

This is also something I just whipped together. I didn't go by a recipe, but here are the ingredients:

THAI CURRY
-thai chili paste
-coconut milk
-curry powder
-tamarind paste
-cumin powder
-honey/sugar
-ginger
-garlic
-veggies and meat of your choice

FRIED RICE

-day old rice
-onion
-carrots
-sesame oil
-soy sauce
-water chestnuts
-garlic
-ginger



CHICKEN WITH MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE
The chicken is from the farmer's market, which makes all the difference. We cannot get enough of this chicken.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Chicken-with-Mustard-Vinaigrette-1800

1 6- to 7-pound roasting chicken
1 large shallot
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
2 fresh sage sprigs
1 cup Mustard Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage


PAN DRIPPINGS HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Serve this sauce with the chicken!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Poulet-Saute-aux-Herbes-de-Provence-354343

2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon dry white wine or dry white vermouth
2 to 3 tablespoons butter, cut into 1-inch cubes (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, fresh fennel fronds, or fresh parsley (optional)

Balsamic Sticky Ribs

I made balsamic sticky ribs from Gourmet's recipe, and they were unbelievably amazing, even without the grilling. Here's the recipe:

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/07/sticky-balsamic-ribs

Ron and Fran's Housewarming Crepe Party

I made a crepe! It was ugly, but still delicious with ham, cheese and a sunny side up egg. The hardest part is forming the crepe itself--making it thin enough, yet with no holes. Later we added nutella, chestnut paste, jam and fruit. Yummmm!

My favorite Farmer's Market finds

Farmer's Market chicken

This chicken has never been fed corn or soy, is free range, and organic! Soooo moist and flavorful!





Lemon Cucumber... It tastes like cucumber, but with an even "fresher" flavor.

Omnivore's Dilemma

Like others who have read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and seen Food Inc, my commitment toward eating healthy organic local food was reaffirmed and I decided to set some goals for myself.

1. Do the majority of my shopping at farmer's markets
2. Buy organic whenever available
3. Only buy free range organic meats not fed corn or soy
4. Eat out very minimally (~once a month)

Here's my first week's shopping spree at Whole Foods ($40, it lasted 3 days :P Definitely too expensive!).



I also went to the SM farmer's market and for $60 got:

-2 tomatoes
-2 avocados
-2 bunches of kale
-1 bag of mixed greens
-1 bag of collard greens
-3 frozen buffalo patties
-1 frozen buffalo sirloin
-1 whole chicken (OMG so good!!!)
-2 bunches parsley
-1 bunch cilantro
-3 peaches
-1 onion
-2 lemon cucumbers (drooool)

It was a bit pricey. The buffalo and chicken cost the most.

Here's the stuff I've been cooking this week. It's all homemade--nothing premade. WF = purchased ingredients from Whole Foods, FM = purchased ingredients from Farmer's Market.


Whole Foods (WF) Lobster raw



WF Lobster cooked



Farmer's market (FM) Kale Chips


FM Buffalo


FM Bok Choy and Buffalo


WF Salmon and Broccolini


FM Salad with lemon cucumber and heirloom tomato


FM Guacamole


FM baby shiitakes and onions, salad, and WF skirt steak


Skirt steak/egg/bok choy stir fry with salad, heirloom tomato


FM Guacamole


WF Burger


WF Salmon