Thursday : December 27, 2007
The Payoff
How about that Texas weather!? Meyer lemons in the backyard! Piccata, Hollandaise, mayo or just apply it to an open wound. Huge love to the lemon that loves Texas.
Thursday : December 27, 2007
Restaurant Review: Satay
Satay is located right up the street from our house, in a nondescript strip mall. Very unassuming. You wouldn't be able to find it unless you were looking for it. We went there to attend a Slow Food meeting. We ordered some Vietnamese Spring Rolls to snack on during the meeting. They were by far the freshest tasting ingredients I had eaten in a restaurant in a long time. Tofu, rice vermicelli, cucumber, zucchini, leaf lettuce and mint/basil, with a Vietnamese spicy peanut plum sauce. It seems the owner, Foo Swasdee, has been making fresh, healthy ingredients a priority for some time. Her rolls are going down as one of my two food epiphany's of 2007 (The other was Uchi's Miso Shiru.)
Wednesday : December 26, 2007
More of a Good Thing
I never get tired of it. We make pizza at least once a week, tweaking the dough from time to time, always using the best cheese we can find. Varying the toppings, but never abandoning the classics.
Tuesday : December 25, 2007
In Print: Meatpaper
Meat seems to be something a lot of people are conflicted about. Some don't want to have anything to do with it, others eat it but do not want to know where it comes from. I don't think that I am the biggest carnivore out there (ignore the last five posts about beef), but I do enjoy it and find conversation about it's social implications interesting. If you're like that, I found an interesting read for you.
Monday : December 24, 2007
Boeuf Bourgogne
Lately, this has been a very requested dish. Plus, it goes perfect with the weather. I think the key is to do the full, overnight, marinade of the beef in the red wine. I start out with a whole, bone-in roast. After I have cut the meat into cubes, I make a stock with the scrap and bones. It makes the sauce even richer. The side of potatoes are also a must. If anyone out there is listening (I'm looking at you Santa) a ricer might make a good gift. It would come in handy for super smooth potatoes.
Monday : December 24, 2007
Curry Soup
This is my wife's rustic curry soup. It varies by season, but today's is made up of lentils, onion, carrot, Napa cabbage, bok choi, mustard and fennel seeds.
Thursday : December 20, 2007
Not Just For Breakfast
The French may wear hats and talk funny, but they love a good sauce. The sauce I am speaking of is the noble Hollandaise. You say you thought it was from Holland? No, no, my friend, France. We mainly put in on Eggs Benedict, but it can do much more than that. This mother sauce is a mix of egg yolkes, butter, lemon and a willing whisk.
Thursday : December 20, 2007
Mirepoix
This has to be the tastiest, most colorful, least expensive way to get flavor into a meal: carrots, onions and celery. Either cook it down, mix it in or stuff it around.
Monday : December 17, 2007
Chicken Fried Steak
Sometimes, one of your friends starts mouthing off about how great his chicken fried steak is. So you go do what you know you have to do; make your own killer chicken fried steak. How did it turn out? The potatoes were awesome, the steak needs some work.
Friday : December 14, 2007
Steak Salad with Roasted Fingerlings
Friday Super Post! Grilled steak on Bibb lettuce with roasted fingerling potatoes, leeks, Pure Luck goat cheese and a Meyer lemon vinaigrette.
Put the potatoes in a big cast iron skillet on medium heat, slowly browning the cut side. Then, flip them over and put the skillet in the oven to finish cooking them through.
You guessed it, leeks! I tossed the potatoes with them.
Thursday : December 13, 2007
Box Pasta
I talk big talk about making your own pasta, but there is a time and a place for everything. For example, corkscrew pasta (Fusilli). First, there is no way in hell I am trying to make this by hand. Second, someone else has already made some, boxed it up and it's for sale at the grocery store. Just don't be tempted by the jars of red stuff a few feet away masquerading as pasta sauce.
Thursday : December 13, 2007
Book Report: Chez Panisse Café Cookbook
Still fighting the good fight, Alice Waters cranks out yet another cookbook. This one has the fare from the upstairs cafe. Most of the recipes rely on high quality ingredients to make the dishes work. None the less, it is a fun read with solid ideas on what is good to eat.
Wednesday : December 12, 2007
Vanilla Extract
My wife likes orchids. A lot. So, as you can guess, I have been to a few orchid nurseries. On one trip, I learned that vanilla is a seed pod that grows on an orchid. Who knew? The picture above is of my wife's homemade vanilla extract.
Tuesday : December 11, 2007
Boiled vs. Roasted
Take your average Butternut squash. Try cooking it two different ways: roasted and boiled. The difference is amazing. When roasted, the sweetness is overwhelming. It tastes like you added sugar to it. The other half (cubed, boiled and mashed), is light and nutty. Same vegetable, two techniques, dramatically different results.
Monday : December 10, 2007
Works As Advertised
These are wonderful bowls, with a good pitch and heavy gauge aluminum. The main selling point, though, is the rubber coated bottoms. The bowls grab onto your counter as you whisk, stir and mix, never giving up an inch. Here's the rub, when you put them away in your cabinet, that rubber doesn't stop working. And, you thought they did a good job holding onto your counter? They glue themselves to the painted shelf in your storage area, lending themselves to a very dramatic next appearance.
Thursday : December 6, 2007
Pecan, Pear, Goat
Toasted Pecan, Pear, Goat Cheese Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. This was a big hit with a dinner party we had after Thanksgiving. I think the guests liked it because it was lighter than the food they had been having around the holiday. I liked it because it only took 15 minutes to make and it scales up or down in a flash.
Wednesday : December 5, 2007
Get Cracking
The roof has been getting hammered for a few weeks. Their shells are a particular kind of torture for canine and human feet alike. It's time to pick up those pesky Pecans and start cracking.
Tuesday : December 4, 2007
Creamy Goodness
It's something about the softness of hand made pasta with cream sauce that makes this one of my favorite dishes. The mushrooms add an earthy taste to balance the cream.
After a quick saute of the mushrooms, add the cream and reduce down. At the end, I season with Thyme and truffle oil. Garnish with fresh Parsely.
Monday : December 3, 2007
No Utensils Required
How many foods can you eat without a fork, knife or spoon? OK, a burrito, you got me. But, what else?! OK, French Fries. This little quiz isn't really going my way. We made artichokes. Not a whole lot of complex cooking involved with this dish (boiling water), but what a wonderful and unique taste.
Friday : November 30, 2007
Book Review: Toklas Cookbook
Written in 1954, the book is Alice's musings about cooking and life with Gertrude Stein, while they lived outside of Paris from 1908 till 1947. It's fun to read about food trends and this book gives you an idea of what foodies were doing back then. Beef and Anchovies cooked in cream!
Wednesday : November 28, 2007
Bread V3.0
Now we are getting somewhere. If you remember my first and second attempts, I have been locked in a battle with flour and water. It's finally starting to look like bread.
Tuesday : November 27, 2007
Your Kingdom for a Cow
You want free-range? Organic? Grass-fed beef that they promised had a good life? I got it and your looking at it. I did the deal of the century. I traded a website for a cow! My friends have a ranch that they have set up as a B&B of sorts. They were in need of a promotional website and I had my eye on one of their cows.
This bothered a few people when I told them the story. It bothers me that the majority of us are so removed from where our food comes from. Don't worry, these cows have the best life in the cow universe. If you don't like the fact that hamburgers are cows, stop buying Happy Meals. In fact, the more I have learned about the beef and poultry industry, the less meat I have been eating. Be informed and make an educated decision. Just don't turn a blind eye and continue to order the McNuggets.
Monday : November 26, 2007
Holiday Pie
After a big, complicated food weekend, it is nice to do something simple. I banged out our standard pizza. Simple sauce, red onions and olives. The good news about my explorations into baking bread is that my pizza dough has improved. I am still butchering the bread, but applying some of the successful techniques to the pizza dough.
Thursday : November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving
Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We went up to Dallas. The meal was tasty (though I had no hand in cooking it).
Tuesday : November 20, 2007
Roasted Main Course
Roasted chicken with mashed squash and herbs. I also grilled some lemons to go over it.
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