Tonight I made a salad, brown rice and sole filets.
I need help cooking fish. Tonight's dinner was so bland and boring I had to experiment with sauces. This is what I did:
corn meal
salt
pepper
a little sugar
Mixed the powders, coated the fish.
Fried the fish in olive oil. Then tried butter.
Squirted fresh lemon on it...
Soya Sauce...
Sesame oil...
All bland. Or perhaps it was the Woody Allen movie which accompanied the food...
Possible.
Any ideas?
31 October 2006
30 October 2006
Stuffed Squash and Brown Rice
It's cold today, the sky a crystal blue, the leaves caught frozen in shallow puddles on the roadways. Since I'm too "frugal" to turn on the heat, I decided to cook using the oven and to spend the rest of the evening in the kitchen, soaking up the heat.
I made up this recipe from things I have in the fridge. I was thinking about it all the way home.
1 cup brown rice - cook it!
1 small delicata squash, cut into quarters
4-5 small beets, peeled and quartered
1 small onion, diced
3-4 stalks of celery, diced
1 clove of garlic, diced
1 Portugese sausage, diced
1 bunch beet greens, shredded
5 medium mushrooms, finely diced
olive oil
salt & pepper
Preheat oven to 425º F.
Puncture squash with a fork.
Place squash and beats in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Place in the oven until desired tenderness is reached, 30-40 minutes.
When the squash is ready, sauté onions and celery until soft over medium high heat. Add garlic and sausage. Add beet greens and mushrooms. Sauté vegetables and sausage until meat is cooked and the stems of the beet greens are soft.
Serve a quarter of a squash with a pile of rice and the stuffing on top. Roasted beets on the side.
I had planned to top the whole thing with pecorino cheese, but it was good enough as is.
I made up this recipe from things I have in the fridge. I was thinking about it all the way home.
1 cup brown rice - cook it!
1 small delicata squash, cut into quarters
4-5 small beets, peeled and quartered
1 small onion, diced
3-4 stalks of celery, diced
1 clove of garlic, diced
1 Portugese sausage, diced
1 bunch beet greens, shredded
5 medium mushrooms, finely diced
olive oil
salt & pepper
Preheat oven to 425º F.
Puncture squash with a fork.
Place squash and beats in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Place in the oven until desired tenderness is reached, 30-40 minutes.
When the squash is ready, sauté onions and celery until soft over medium high heat. Add garlic and sausage. Add beet greens and mushrooms. Sauté vegetables and sausage until meat is cooked and the stems of the beet greens are soft.
Serve a quarter of a squash with a pile of rice and the stuffing on top. Roasted beets on the side.
I had planned to top the whole thing with pecorino cheese, but it was good enough as is.
29 October 2006
Sunday Dinner at Itai's
I didn't make dinner tonight, Itai did. He made a fantastic soup from his mother's recipe book: mushroom and whiskey. I'll have to get the recipe, it was so good. He also made schnitzel-fish with cod and mashed potatoes. Saori brought a salad. Then we broke out the geek-wear: computers, disc golf bags and cameras.
Check out the slide show: http://flickr.com/photos/67957199@N00/sets/72157594351404479/show/
I promise I'll figure out how to put links in, but for now there's the whole URL.
Check out the slide show: http://flickr.com/photos/67957199@N00/sets/72157594351404479/show/
I promise I'll figure out how to put links in, but for now there's the whole URL.
Roasted Cauliflower and Sunchokes
Last night David came over for dinner. In addition to left over Caldo Verde, I had plans to roast the head of cauliflower in the fridge. I also had a small bag of sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem Artichokes, which I've never cooked before.
Sunchokes have nothing to do with Jerusalem and bear only a flavour-relationship with the artichoke. They are Helianthus tuberosus L., tubers native to North America -- our sunflower! Formerly known as Girasole -- the Italian word for sunflower -- which over the years morphed to Jerusalem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke), if you believe Wikipedia.
I asked David how he had prepared them in the past, he said he mashed them along with potatoes. But I wanted to be able to taste them independently, and besides we were about to eat soup that was essentially mashed potatoes. So we decided to roast the sunchokes along with the cauliflower.
They were fantastic. They gave us gas, what Wikipedia calls "legendary flatulence." So be warned. I think you can also eat them raw in salad, though I imagine the flatulence caused by such a choice would be epic.
Roasted Cauliflower and Sunchokes
1 head of cauliflower, cut into medium sized florets
4-5 sunchokes, peeled and cut to match cauliflower in size
3 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
olive oil
salt and peppar, to taste
Pecorino cheese, coarsely grated
Preheat oven to 450º F.
Place cauliflower and sunchokes in a medium roasting pan.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Toss vegetables with garlic, salt and pepper.
Roast for 40 minutes or until vegetables are brown on the edges and the desired softness.
Transfer to serving dish.
Sprinkle with grated pecorino.
Sunchokes have nothing to do with Jerusalem and bear only a flavour-relationship with the artichoke. They are Helianthus tuberosus L., tubers native to North America -- our sunflower! Formerly known as Girasole -- the Italian word for sunflower -- which over the years morphed to Jerusalem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke), if you believe Wikipedia.
I asked David how he had prepared them in the past, he said he mashed them along with potatoes. But I wanted to be able to taste them independently, and besides we were about to eat soup that was essentially mashed potatoes. So we decided to roast the sunchokes along with the cauliflower.
They were fantastic. They gave us gas, what Wikipedia calls "legendary flatulence." So be warned. I think you can also eat them raw in salad, though I imagine the flatulence caused by such a choice would be epic.
Roasted Cauliflower and Sunchokes
1 head of cauliflower, cut into medium sized florets
4-5 sunchokes, peeled and cut to match cauliflower in size
3 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
olive oil
salt and peppar, to taste
Pecorino cheese, coarsely grated
Preheat oven to 450º F.
Place cauliflower and sunchokes in a medium roasting pan.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Toss vegetables with garlic, salt and pepper.
Roast for 40 minutes or until vegetables are brown on the edges and the desired softness.
Transfer to serving dish.
Sprinkle with grated pecorino.
27 October 2006
Noodle Oodles
Tonight I ate out. Twice. Noodles both times. Pan-Asian.
But the second time I ate out, I made conversation with my friend Raugi. We talked about art and creation, about family, about quantum mechanics and perception, we talked about love.
I am well-fed.
But the second time I ate out, I made conversation with my friend Raugi. We talked about art and creation, about family, about quantum mechanics and perception, we talked about love.
I am well-fed.
25 October 2006
Caldo Verde
Tonight I made a soup that has become one of my cold weather favourites: caldo verde. Its Portugese meaning, and I'm guessing here, Green Pot. Or Pot of Green. It's a guess. Anyhow, it's one of the easiest soups to make in the world, is cheap and can be meaty or veg. It's traditionally served with cornbread, but I find it quite filling on its own.
CALDO VERDE
5-6 russet potatoes
a bunch of kale
portugese sausage
(optional. You could use cooked chorizo, I guess, though I've never tried.)
water
olive oil
fresh ground pepper
salt
Wash and cut the potatoes into large chunks. For a traditional soup, peel the potatoes. I leave the skins on because they say that's where all the nutritional content is. Put the potato chunks into a large pot and add water. Water level should come to 2 inches above the top of the potatoes. Put the pot with water and potatoes on the stove and bring to a boil.
Cook potatoes until soft but not mushy. IMPORTANT: drain the water out of the pot and keep the taters in. I've done it the other way around --taking the taters out of the pot and leaving the water in -- but this way works better down the line. You need to reserve the cooking water.
Mash the potatoes. A coarse mash. We're not talking whipped potatoes here, we're talking chunky, hearty homestyle potatoes. Add olive oil to mashed potatoes. Start with 1/4 cup. If you like something a little richer, add more, but start small. Freshly grind in some black pepper. Mix all this together and let it sit for a couple minutes.
While the potatoes are cooking, wash KALE in cold water. Take the leaves off the stems and slice super thin with a sharp knife. Slice the sausage thinly as well.
After the potatoes have rested, return them to the pot (or the pot to the stove, if you never took them out) and slowly start to stir in the water over a medium heat. Continue to add water until soup takes on a consistency you like. Add sliced sausage. Add sliced kale. Bring soup back to a boil (careful as potato soup is like napalm -- in that it will stick to you and burn -- when it spits) for a couple minutes -- long enough to cook the kale, and the sausage (if you used the Portugese variety).
That is that. This recipe makes a LARGE pot of soup and it freezes remarkably well.
CALDO VERDE
5-6 russet potatoes
a bunch of kale
portugese sausage
(optional. You could use cooked chorizo, I guess, though I've never tried.)
water
olive oil
fresh ground pepper
salt
Wash and cut the potatoes into large chunks. For a traditional soup, peel the potatoes. I leave the skins on because they say that's where all the nutritional content is. Put the potato chunks into a large pot and add water. Water level should come to 2 inches above the top of the potatoes. Put the pot with water and potatoes on the stove and bring to a boil.
Cook potatoes until soft but not mushy. IMPORTANT: drain the water out of the pot and keep the taters in. I've done it the other way around --taking the taters out of the pot and leaving the water in -- but this way works better down the line. You need to reserve the cooking water.
Mash the potatoes. A coarse mash. We're not talking whipped potatoes here, we're talking chunky, hearty homestyle potatoes. Add olive oil to mashed potatoes. Start with 1/4 cup. If you like something a little richer, add more, but start small. Freshly grind in some black pepper. Mix all this together and let it sit for a couple minutes.
While the potatoes are cooking, wash KALE in cold water. Take the leaves off the stems and slice super thin with a sharp knife. Slice the sausage thinly as well.
After the potatoes have rested, return them to the pot (or the pot to the stove, if you never took them out) and slowly start to stir in the water over a medium heat. Continue to add water until soup takes on a consistency you like. Add sliced sausage. Add sliced kale. Bring soup back to a boil (careful as potato soup is like napalm -- in that it will stick to you and burn -- when it spits) for a couple minutes -- long enough to cook the kale, and the sausage (if you used the Portugese variety).
That is that. This recipe makes a LARGE pot of soup and it freezes remarkably well.
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