Halumi radicchio salad

We made this salad the other day as a fridge-cleaner, but it ended up being really quite delicious.  A tangy lemon vinaigrette on a salad of fried haloumi, baby golden beets, chickpeas, and grilled radicchio!  

To grill the radicchio, we cut the head into quarters and just placed on the rack in the oven at 400F. I don't remember how long it took, but I'd check at 15 minutes; you want some browning but not burning.

The beets were just boiled; these were little guys so they cooked in a half hour or so. It's a can of chickpeas, and the haloumi we fried in a drop of oil in a non-stick pan, then cut into strips.  The dressing was a mix of lemon, oil, salt, and pepper. Simple, and delicious.  Also on the plate is a candy striped beet (without any stripes) and some crunchy kale, but the important part here was the salad.  Definitely eat the bitter radicchio with the sweet beets, earthy chickpeas and salty cheese - that's a winning combo right there!

Thanksgiving

Oh man, am I ever behind in posting pictures and recipes of yummy things.  Since I don't know where to start, I figure Thanksgiving is probably a good place.  Possibly overwhelming; you may not get many recipes with this.  Zan and Becky came to eat and drink with us, which made for excellent company and a really fun day.  

We started with appetizers. Ed really wanted to make a vegetable terrine, so he spent a long time roasting vegetables and getting everything *just so*.  It was a very pretty terrine, unfortunately, it sort of just tasted like cold vegetables, with too much aspic on top.  I don't really know how to improve on the fact that the terrine just tasted like cold roasted vegetables. I like roasted veggies, but the other appetizers were far more interesting.  

Other appetizers included a smoked salmon plate, some chicken liver pate that Ed made that we served with shallot jam, that he also made (and this was delicious), some turkey pate that was made with some unknown parts of the bird that maybe should not have gone into the pate (this was not quite as delicious; much more gamy and not really all that delicate), and some hummus and veggies.  All my favorite things!  

We made this immediately after going for a long-ish run in the snow, so were all quite chilled by the snow and quite excited by the appetizers.  Ed managed the perfect photobomb... 

The ladies showing their excitement without the photobomb...

So, after a few more hours of eating and drinking and talking and laughing, eventually dinner was done.  Mashed potatoes, delicata squash with sage and thyme and oregano, pull-apart garlic bread, two kinds of cranberry sauce/chutney, roasted Brussels sprouts with ham and gruyere, sausage and apple stuffing and roasted turkey thighs.



No idea what's going on in this photo, but it makes me smile.


Here's a photo of my plate, which may have been overloaded. And I may have gone back for seconds, and felt quite uncomfortable after that.  But I just loooove stuffing! And you only get it once a year! It took me days to be hungry again.



No photos of dessert, but we had a slightly-more-caramelized-than-ideal tarte tatin, with vanilla ice cream, and I was so stuffed that I barely had any of it.  I should also mention that Zan arrived armed with a beer or three for each course, that we paired pretty darn successfully!

Here's the cranberry chutney recipe, at least:
2C apple cider vinegar
1 onion, diced
1/4C fresh ginger
2 tbs orange peel
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp ground clove
12oz cranberries
1.25C brown sugar
2 bosc pears

Cook the spices and the cider until it's reduced to ~1.5C (10min).  Add everything else, and simmer for 30 minutes, then mash coarsely.

And the stuffing, which was so delicious - I used Pioneer Woman's recipe.  Highly, HIGHLY recommend this one.  We cooked it underneath the turkey thighs, so all the drippings went right into the stuffing.  Win!

Oh, and here's the shallot jam. This one's a little estimated, since Ed made the shallot jam...

Start with several pounds of shallots. Slice thinly.
Cook on low with plenty of duck fat and salt, for 20-45min until you're starting to get some good caramelization.  Add some cider vinegar and some sugar. How much? Only Ed knows. Some. Also good are some raisins, preferably golden raisins.  Add more duck fat as needed.  Keep cooking. If things start to stick, you can add some water.  Keep cooking. Taste occasionally and keep cooking. After about an hour, it's probably ready.

This was really good with the chicken liver pate. I have no idea what the recipe for the pate was, sorry!

Plum scones

I saw this recipe the other day, and I was totally intrigued.  Cornmeal scones sounded like a great way to bring more crunch to the party, and a honey-plum-bay leaf jam on top? I'm sold.  So, like a good little obedient cook I followed the recipe, and I found there were a couple things I'd change.  First, the batter was really loose.  Needs a smidge more flour.  And, there wasn't quite enough cornmeal flavor for my liking.  Time to add more of that! Maybe I can get away with just adding more cornmeal rather than more flour, and that'll dry things out enough. 

The plum jam was fantastic.  I would suggest making 16 scones (so, two rounds that you cut into 8ths) rather than 8, because A) more jam and B) they were a little large. 

Ok, I didn't actually follow the recipe to a T, because it says you should chill your jam for an hour. I just put it straight onto the scones. So what if it's a little runny, it was delicious.

These got a good Ed-rating, and I brought some in to work, where they were also proclaimed delicious.  I'll be making them again, but with the above changes.  I'll let y'all know how that goes...

Spaghetti squash

Spaghetti squash is a really weird plant. When you cook it, it gets all stringy. I suppose this would be gross if it weren't so cool.  Anyway, we had dinner with my friend Maddy the other day, and she served us spaghetti squash, mixed up with some sauce and stuff and topped with cheese.  It was so tasty! But, Maddy being vegetarian, my suggestion that sausage would have improved things didn't go over super well.  So, I decided to remake the squash, this time with some meat. Definitely improved, and definitely delicious. I may have eaten an entire half squash in one sitting.

First, roast the squash: Cut it in half lengthwise (this may take some effort), remove the seeds, and stick it in a 400-degree oven, cut side up.  20 minutes later, see if it creates ribbons when you drag a fork across it.  If so, take it out, and shred the meat of the squash into ribbons with a fork. Careful, it'll be hot!  Put the spaghetti strands into a big bowl, to mix with all the ingredients.  Definitely save the seeds and roast them, too, because they're delicious.

As the squash roasts, prepare the filling. I used two pans (what one-pot meal? not so good at that part), one to caramelize some onions, and one to cook up the ground beef.  Sausage would work well here, but I had ground beef.  I threw in a big pinch of rosemary, fennel seeds, and cumin seeds into the grease to flavor things, and this was a good move. Definitely flavor the heck out of that meat, because the squash itself is pretty bland.

Put the onions and the beef and spices into the bowl with the spaghetti squash. We also had like a cup or two of chopped herbs - basil and parsley. But you can really go wild, whatever you think would taste good.

I had some fresh mozzarella, and put half of it, torn into pieces, in the bowl. The other half I tore into pieces and sprinkled on top.  Plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper, and then put the filling back into your squash shells, top with more cheese, and return to the oven for another 10-20min, until the cheese on top is slightly browned and totally melted.

Serves two as a main dish, but you could probably stretch it to 6-8 people as a side.  Tasty, healthy, cheap - this one's a winner!

Pear tart

I really wanted a pear and frangipane tart the other day. I had visions of something that looked like this, but, well, mine looked more like someone was in a rush and didn't bother to clean up the edges of the pie crust, and then dumped a can of pears on top.  Oh well, it still tasted delicious.  I love that almond-y flavor in the cookie-ish frangipane, and the canned pears were the perfect texture for something like this.  I boiled down some of the pear syrup to make a glaze, and I'd say that was pretty durn successful, too.

Overall, this is the sort of tart that is quick and easy to make, and tastes really delicious. Need to make again!

Pear Almond Tart

1 recipe pie crust/pate brise (choose your favorite)

Frangipane: 

1 egg

1/2C almond flour

3 tbs butter, softened

1/4C sugar

1tbs flour

1/2tsp almond extract

1 can of pears

Make your pie crust. Roll it out, make it pretty on the edges if you're into that, and blind bake for 20min at 350F.

In a food processor, combine the butter, sugar, egg, almond meal, almond extract, and flour, until it makes a smooth paste.  

Spread the paste into the pie crust shell.

Cut the pears into pretty wedges and arrange artistically around the pie. Or, randomly dump them on top.

Bake the tart another 20 minutes, until a tester stick comes out clean.

Meanwhile, boil ~1C of the pear syrup until it is thick and sticky.  When the tart comes out of the oven, brush the syrup on top of the tart.  

Try not to consume the whole thing in one sitting.

Burgers, with flavor!

We wanted burgers the other day, and may have gotten a little carried away with all the stuff we put into them.  I don't remember exactly everything, but I do remember that these were quite tasty, juicy and flavorful.  I don't know if we had a theme for our flavors, but  remember grinding up some cumin, coriander, cardamom, pepper, and fennel, along with a couple good pinches of sumac and even more pinches of salt.  Then most of a head of parsley, a clove or two of garlic, and a handful of pitted green olives (not the canned kind; the tasty kind that are small and olive-y tasting).  

I mixed that up with my hands, because what better way is there than that? Threw a small piece in the pan to test the flavors (yum), and formed two burgers.  The meat was way too finely-ground, which may have been the inspiration behind putting all the stuff in the burger in the first place, and it was also way too lean, but the olives helped keep things moist.  I think it was buffalo meat, since that had been the same price as cow meat for some reason, and I like trying new things. Tasted similar to cow.  

I cooked these just in a pan - got a good sear on both sides and after maybe 10 minutes they were cooked through.  We were lacking any burger buns (fail), but did have some fresh whole wheat bread, that we cut in half, slathered with hummus on one side and garlic aioli on the other, and that was totally acceptable.

Summer pasta dish

With summer truly upon us, that can only mean one thing, and that thing is fresh corn and too much zucchini.  Our landlords gave us a giant zucch, which normally is no better than junk, but we experimented with taking the seeds out before cooking it, and that vastly improved things. This pasta dish was quite tasty, and a good way to eat your veggies, too.  I've been trying to cook my pasta more like how they did it in Italy (disclaimer: I have no idea how they did it in Italy, but somehow it just tasted better. Altitude?), and the solution I think I've stumbled onto is to just put a ton of salt into the water once it reaches a boil. Like, a tablespoon or more.  This seems to give a bit more chew to the pasta, as well as improving the taste, though it is hard to improve on the taste of pasta.

Side note - ever notice how when you're running through a neighborhood around dinnertime, you can always smell who's cooking pasta?  mmm.

Anyway, I recommend this one. Quick, easy, tasty, healthy, cheap - it wins on all fronts.

Summer Pasta Dish

1-2 zucchinis (for 2-3C of chopped zucchini)

2-4 ears of corn

1 lb pasta, small shapes

~1/2C chopped herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, mint, whatever you've got on hand)

Grated cheese for on top

Salt for the water

Pepper to taste

Bring a big pot of water to a boil.  Once it boils dump in a lot of salt, and then the pasta, and toutouille (this is a well-established verb in Jospe households that means "to stir the pasta once you've put it in the water".  It can also refer to tossing a salad after you have dressed it, but is generally reserved for the cooking of pasta).

Meanwhile, cut the zucchinis in half, use a spoon to scrape out the seedy parts, and chop into rough cubes.  Cut the raw corn off the cobs.  Chop the herbs.  Throw a glug of olive oil into a pan, and saute the zucchini until it's soft enough that you want to eat it. At the last minute, toss in the corn, and cook that for about a minute.  

Once the pasta is al dente, drain, and combine the zucchs and corn and pasta and mix in the herbs.  Sprinkle plenty of fresh-ground pepper on top and grate a pile of cheese on top. Enjoy!

Overnight waffles

Brendan makes these really good waffles, that have become a bit of a staple for post-training brunch type activities with CSU.  I was hosting a training, and needed the recipe so I could make waffles.  They're tasty enough that here's the recipe - I believe it's from David Lebovitz's book "How to Cook Everything", but I'm not actually sure.  The recipe isn't hard; the only hard part is remembering to get it started the night before.

Overnight Waffles

Serves 4-6

1/2 tsp instant yeast

2C flour

1 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2C milk

8 tbs melted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

Combine the dry ingredients, stir in the milk, then the butter and vanilla.  It'll be loose. Cover with plastic wrap and leave overnight at room temperature.

Grease your waffle iron, preheat it.

Separate the eggs, stir the yolks into the batter.  White the whites until they hold soft peaks.  Stir them gently into the batter.

Spread a ladleful or so of batter into the waffle iron, cook for 3-5min, and serve immediately. Preferably with lots of berries! And maybe maple syrup.  Most delicious.

Grits and greens

This was surprisingly delicious. We had some sad-looking greens (I really don't remember what sort at this point... looks like kale maybe?), some tofu, and some mushrooms that needed eating. How to make something edible out of this?  We decided that maybe a pile of cheesy grits under the greens would be a good idea.  We were right!  Quite simple, really - we had a tub of Quaker corn meal, and there's a recipe on the side for "cornmeal mush".  Ok, let's make some mush: 

Boil 3C water

Add 1C cornmeal and a hefty pinch of salt to another cup of water

Pour that mixture into the boiling water

Turn down the heat, stir, and cook for 5-10 minutes until it's nice and thick

Add things to make it taste good - cheese, butter, more salt

Cook your veggies, I recommend lemon and salt if you're sauteeing kale. Dump on top. Wolf down, because you're starving, and this sort of dish really only tastes delicious when you're starving.

I don't really know how we made the tofu. Looks baked. That's a good idea, I'm going to bake some tofu next time.

6-Grain hot cereal

The other day, I discovered that cracked what, or kasha, would cook in roughly the same amount of time as old-fashioned oats. i.e. the amount of time it takes for me to shower in the morning.  And, that they add a really nice wheaty flavor to oatmeal, and some different textures. I remember the last time I cooked kasha, I thought that it was just mush, and kind of gross because of that.  Well, it turns out oatmeal is also just mush. Oatmeal is also cheap, easy, and good for you, and I've learned to tolerate it (though not quite tolerate it enough to eat a large enough quantity to get me through the entire morning without a snack).  Anyway, kasha was a welcome addition. Yay!

From there, it was not a giant leap of imagination to consider if I could make my own fancy 7-grain cereal.  You know, like this. The only major failing is that I like some chew to my cereal, which you can get with old fashioned oats, but not so much with quick cereals, and when it comes to things like brown rice and barley, you kind of have to grind them up finely to have them cook in 5 minutes. So, the major failing here was that the cereal mostly tastes like mush. But, mush with a wider variety of flavors than just oats.  I suppose leaving some of the flax seeds whole, and having an interesting nut/seed mixture to sprinkle on top, would help with the texture.  Anyway, if you're bored of regular oatmeal, and want to mix things up, give this a try.  

Homemade 6-grain cereal 

probably not any cheaper than the real stuff, and probably doesn't cook up as neatly.

1C old fashioned oats

1/2C bulgur

1/2C kasha

1/4C brown rice, ground up roughly (I did this in our spice grinder)

1/4C barley, ground up roughly

1/4C flax seeds, ground up 

To cook it, well, doesn't really matter, but I found using a smidge more water than usual was helpful in making more of a porridge and less of a solid glob.  So, 2/3C cereal + 5/3C water, more or less. And a good pinch of salt.  I like to dump it all in a pot and stick it on medium-low-ish while I shower, and once I'm clean it's done.  If you let it sit for a minute or two (while you put on moisturizer, for example), then you can stir up anything that stuck to the bottom of the pot.  

Top with tasty things. Maybe some milk, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, frozen fruit (protip: frozen fruit will cool it off so you can eat it sooner), ice cream... 

Oh and if you were really thinking ahead, you'd have made some overnight iced coffee.  Because obviously if it's iced coffee weather it's hot cereal weather. Geez, I am so confused when it comes to food temperatures!  (we can all agree that ice cream is an every-weather food, right?)

An American dinner

We had a very American dinner the other day. Steak and potatoes, and salad eaten on the same plate at the same time.  Whoaaa.  We made this salad again, because it was delicious, only without the avocado because we didn't have any.  Anyway, I wanted to talk about mashed potatoes. Because they're easy and quick and these ones were quite delicious.

I used to think I hated mashed potatoes, because they were always sort of gooey and the same consistency and pale and just gross.  But, it turns out that it's just boxed mash potatoes that I don't like.  Chunky "rustic" mashed potatoes are actually delicious!  

In this case, we chopped up two potatoes into quarters, and boiled for 15-20min or so until they were soft. Then, into a bowl with them, and maybe 2tbs of butter. Salt, pepper. A scallion, chopped finely. Mash with a fork. Eat. So simple, so delicious. You should make some, next time you want something fast and simple and delicious.  

Also, that yellow blob - that's an extra beet. Cooked, sliced thin, and drizzled with some really good vinegar. This one. You may ask why someone would spend $27 on a bottle of vinegar, and I would answer, because this one is totally worth it. You don't waste it in salad dressing, you drizzle it on things like beets where you can really taste it and appreciate it. Yum. Oh, and a pinch of salt and pepper, just to top things off.  

Salad (and ribs)

Ed and I tend to read the same food blogs. It often means we'll see the same thing on a given day, and both want to make it. This is why we get along.  Anyway, we saw this, and both were like, let's have salad tonight.  We also had some ribs marinating, so Ed cooked those, too.  And then made us some sort of fruity cocktail drink with fancy ingredients from the distillery next door to his office. I definitely don't remember what was in the drink (possibly rum based? with a grapefruit slice?), and I don't remember how he cooked the ribs, but I made the salad, so I remember that part.

We wanted to add avocado, since it seemed like adding something green and creamy and delicious would go over well.  It did.  And the Boston lettuce was perfect, crunchy and sweet.  I don't remember what we did for a dressing, unfortunately, it may have just been some oil and lemon and salt, with the pepper sprinkled over the whole thing. The only problem was that the eggs were not quite soft-boiled, they were somewhere between hard and soft boiled.  Would have been better if we'd taken them out 3 minutes sooner.  Oh well, live and learn.  Regardless, this salad was delicious, and refreshing, and filling, and beautiful.  I recommend making it.  

Baguette rolls

We wanted to make some banh mi sandwiches the other day, but we were pretty low on any sorts of food stuffs.  Luckily, we're masters of cleaning-out-the-fridge sorts of meals, and ended up with a damn tasty sandwich.  I believe we had oyster mushrooms, cilantro, yellow pepper and some sort of spicy mayo on the sandwiches, and we made the bread relatively quickly. Total success. But, the bigger success was that I figured out a method (finally!) to get my bread to crust up like a proper baguette.  

I've noticed that the NYT no-knead bread has pretty much the awesomest crust ever, as well as the proper amount of holes on the inside.  I knew that given the short rise time and lazy knead time meant no big holes, but if we could just get a good crust... that might make it worthwhile.  The advantage of that NYT bread is that it's cooked in a dutch oven, so the steam from the dough itself makes a little steam bath for the bread inside of the dutch oven. So, I figured I'd try making my whole oven into a steam bath.  I started things at 500F, and then dropped the heat to 350, to properly cook the insides once the crust had done it's thing, and boy was this ever a success.  Try it for yourself - totally worth it!

Baguette Rolls

Start by making your bread dough. About 2C of warm water, a spoonful of sugar, a spoonful of yeast. Add flour until it's paste-like, then add a spoonful of salt.  Maybe a splash of olive oil.  Add more flour until the dough is at a knead-able consistency. Knead for 5 minutes or so.

Go for a run.  (I believe in this case the rise time was ~1:15).

Come back, wash your hands (yes, you, you know you've been snot rocketing while running), and divide the dough into whatever size rolls you want. Put them into whatever shape you feel like. Preheat the oven to 500F, and put a pan full of water on the bottom shelf. Let that preheat and steam for 20min or so.  Then cut some gashes (crosses, slices, whatever, score the top) into each roll, put them on a pan (maybe grease the pan first, or put down cornmeal or something), and stick the rolls into the oven.

Cook at 500 for 10min or so, then without opening the oven, drop the heat to 350ish, and cook another 20-30min.  They're done when the bottom makes a hollow noise when you knock on it. They may look done sooner, since the tops will be golden brown and delicious thanks to the steam earlier than the insides are cooked, but go with the knocking test.  

Enjoy!

Rhubarb Tart

I saw this recipe on Epicurious the other day, and it looked so pretty that I wanted to try it.  I also liked what someone had suggested about some pastry cream underneath the rhubarb, so I figured I'd play around with a little frangipane underneath.  Total success, because the sweetness of the almond frangipane offset some of the tartness of the rhubarb. Though, testing the straight-rhubarb vs the frangipane, I sort of liked the tarter one.  Maybe you could make a less-sweet frangipane, but really, I hate to admit this... the epicurious recipe was best when left alone. Crazy!

You start with a sheet of puff pastry. Roll it out, and then layer on the rhubarb (over the frangipane, if you're using that).  For frangipane, I creamed 1/2 stick of butter with 1/4C of granulated sugar, dumped in one egg yolk and 1/2C almond flour, and a dash of almond extract and a pinch of salt. Should make a loose cookie dough consistency.  That was enough for half the puff pastry (which was half the box of puff pastry).  Do be sure to slice the rhubarb at an extreme angle, as the bigger your pieces of rhubarb, the prettier your tart. Also, try to remember to leave a little space between the pieces of rhubarb, so that the puff pastry gets a chance to puff.

The syrup was easy to make, and easy to apply. This was the first time I'd ever used my new pastry brush! Very fun.  Sort of. 

Anyway, after baking, brush on the reduced syrup, and then consume within the first half hour or so - I found that the next morning, while still delicious, the tart was a little soggier.

Tart with frangipane on the left, without on the right. Both delicious!

Strawberry napoleons

Good desserts should include strawberries.  That may be an Alex rule of thumb. To make them great desserts, they should also include chocolate.  Now that you know this, you should invite me over for dessert... Anyway, the dessert that Gail and I finally decided on to close out the chicken-and-rice meal was strawberry napoleons.  I decided that they needed some chocolate drizzled over the top, but other than that I believe we followed a recipe.  Thing was, the puff pastry *really* puffed, and maybe that's the point, but it made it hard to eat.  The following morning I discovered that a better way to eat this dessert is to use the bottom layer of puff pastry like toast, and put the strawberries and cream on top, like jam.  See, healthy breakfast - toast with jam.  And, due to the lack of chocolate drizzle on the breakfast version of this dessert, that's totally a legit breakfast.

Wait, we were talking about dessert.  Much tastier, because, chocolate.  So, the original recipe called for rolling out the puff pastry, then letting it chill in the fridge for an hour, then baking.  I don't exactly see the point of the extra chilling, even though we did that, so I'm saying you should probably just skip that step.  Anyway, roll out the puff pastry to fit your baking sheet, 1/8" thick, then back until puffed and golden, then cool.  Whip the cream to soft peaks, then add 1 tbs framboise and 2 tbs powdered sugar, then whip to stiff peaks.  Fold in the sliced strawberries, which you should have tossed with 3tbs granulated sugar (maybe 2-3C of berries?).  Use a serrated knife to cut the puff pastry into whatever size you're in the mood to eat (apparently the size I chose was considerably larger than what everyone else at dinner would have chosen... oops).  Put the filling on top of one piece of puff pastry, top with another piece, and drizzle with chocolate, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Yum!

Ingredients:

2-3C strawberries

3tbs granulated sugar

2 sheets of puff pastry

1.5C whipping cream

2tbs powdered sugar

1tbs framboise (or vanilla extract)

~1/4C chocolate, to melt and drizzle on top

More powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

I think next time, to make it easier to eat, I'd use the puff pastry as a tart base, and either bake it with the strawberries, or bake with some frangipane filling, then put the strawberries and cream on top of that.  The top layer of puff pastry wasn't entirely necessary.  But this definitely should get made again, it was delicious.

Chicken and rice (delicious version)

I got the opportunity to spend a night out in Sunderland last week, and this of course meant that what was left of the Gang of 5 needed to get together for dinner, because yum! Gail had her eye on this chicken and cardamom rice dish from the Jerusalem cookbook by Ottolenghi, and because I love his take on food, I was all for it.

I'll repeat the recipe here, because we changed the amount of water required - the original 1C of water was not going to cook any rice.  The end result was really delicious, especially all the crunchy bits of rice stuck to the pan.  Gail actually cooks by the recipe, we'll see how poorly this dish degrades when I take my usual approach to it next time.  (quantities? eh, close enough...).  Anyway, a very tasty version of chicken and rice, and I'll definitely make this again.


Ingredients:
2.5 tbs currants (or barberries, if you can get them, in which case you're supposed to soak them in sugar and water first)
3 onions
4 tbs olive oil
8 chicken thighs
salt and pepper
10 cardamom pods
1/4 tsp whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1-2/3C basmati rice
3C boiling water
1.5 tbs chopped parsley
1/2C chopped dill leaves
1/4C chopped cilantro
(I imagine you could get away without the parsley, dill, and cilantro)

  

First, caramelize the onions in ~2tbs oil.  I think this should be done in a separate pot, though it defeats the whole one-pot part of this meal, because then you could parallel process the chicken.

Put 1.5 tsp of each salt and pepper all over the chicken along with another tbs of olive oil and all the whole spices, rub that in with your hands so it's really in there.  Brown the chicken in some olive oil.  We cooked the chicken skin-side down for probably 10min first, rendering out a lot of the fat and cooking the meat most of the way through. Since the chicken may need to cook longer than the rice, and you don't want to overcook the rice, it's worth browning the chicken for longer than you might for a chicken stew.

Pour off the excess chicken fat, then put all the rice, onions, currants, and spices into the pan.  Add 1tsp salt and more pepper.  Pour the boiling water over the top, put the chicken back into the rice, cover, and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  The chicken should be tender and the rice should be done...

We then took the chicken out of the rice and broiled it for 5min or so, until it was good and crispy.  Stir all the herbs into the rice, put the chicken back on the rice, and serve!




Gail in her new kitchen! I have kitchen envy.

Kale salad, again

After making the kale and quinoa salad the other day, it occurred to me that kale and any old grain is a good combo, because the toothiness of the grain offsets the crunchy of the kale nicely.  Recently, in Whole Foods, I had seen some kamut in the bulk aisle, and I was intrigued, so I got some.  No idea what it would taste like, so I figured I'd give it a try tonight.  It was tasty! and exactly what I wanted in my kale salad.  To add some other flavors and colors, I went with a grated carrot, a few sliced kumquats, and some dried cherries (since I still had them on hand.  Another reason I love Russos - they had dried cherries for "only" $11.99/lb, as opposed to Whole Foods' $18.99/lb. I don't even pay that for STEAK!).

For some protein, we fried up some tofu.  This is remarkably easy - add a quarter inch of vegetable oil to a small nonstick pan, and put in the tofu pieces, let them sit there for a few minutes, then flip them over. I found chopsticks were an excellent tool for this.

The dressing was a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of oil, and a pinch of kosher salt.  Pretty tasty, and got a good Ed-rating, too!

Strawberry balsamic goat cheese salad

While we were in California, they had a lot of strawberries, and a lot of avocados, on sale for really cheap at the gas-station-esque fruit stands in the central valley.  Most of the produce sort of looked too ripe for shipping, so I'm hoping it was just stuff that wasn't going to make it to grocery stores.  We may have gone through about 20 pounds of strawberries with not many people in not many days... yum.  Did you know strawberries are my favorite food? Anyway, we made a very tasty salad upon returning to San Francisco, with strawberries, toasted walnuts, avocados, goat cheese, and Russian purple kale. The dressing was a spicy balsamic, made with a habanero-infused olive oil and some awesome balsamic vinegar.  I could have eaten that all night long, but we ran out too soon... 

I suppose we can make this at home, no trip to California required, now that I think about it... 

(that's a pile of guacamole on the side. Another necessary part of being in CA was eating a ton of avocados. I did my part).

Kale almond cherry salad

So, I saw this. I'm more a fan of cooked kale than raw kale, but when it comes to raw kale, the dinosaur kale is definitely the way to go.  And I love me some dried cherries and toasted walnuts.  May as well give it a try.

It ended up being quite delicious!  The kale and the quinoa sort of just are there as a base for the toasted almonds and the cherries, and without the almonds and cherries, it would have been a pretty sad dish. That said, I never quite got around to making the dressing, so that would probably improve things drastically on the kale front.  

1/2C dry quinoa

1 head of dinosaur kale

~1/4C dried cherries

~1/2C slivered almonds

~1C grated salty hard cheese, like pecorino or parmesan or ricotta salata or whatever hard goat cheese it was that I happened to have on hand

The lemony dressing sounded good, but I didn't get around to making it, and kept bringing the undressed salad for lunch and kept eating it and enjoying it, so I suppose it's optional, though probably delicious.

Also, I didn't realize that washing quinoa before cooking it was a Thing.  It is. Wash your quinoa before you cook it.  

This got a good Ed-rating, but that may have been because he was really hungry and working at an orienteering event and hadn't eaten real food in a few days.

Spinach Ricotta Pie

I first had a spinach-ricotta pie at Anna Mcloon's house, and it was from this awesome cookbook she had from the Moosewood cafe. It was good enough that I wanted to make it again, but I was worried about Ed's reaction, because he's not a huge fan of quiches. But, we were in luck, because the spinach and the ricotta create a firm enough texture that it's not quiche-like at all - no jiggling here!

The recipe is basically this one. I don't think I actually changed much, but I did just use my usual pie crust recipe. This was tasty! It got a good Ed-rating, and even his colleagues liked it when he brought in the leftovers. So, don't hesitate, make yourself a spinach-ricotta pie!