It's Been Awhile...

But that's not for lack of cooking!

Let's blame it on my camera. Or rather, let's blame my brief absence from this blog on me being a novice in the food photography arena. I'm waiting patiently for my father-in-law (who's a whiz at anything electronic) to come over and give a tutorial on how to take a great picture.

In the meantime, I have been cooking up a storm...

For the last weekday lunch my hubby and I will be able to share for a while, we had steak and green beans. The steak was simply prepared; I let it rest for about 15 minutes, seasoned it generously with salt and pepper, fried it on high heat for about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare, let it rest out the pan, and topped it with a compound butter of herbs and sun-dried tomato. The green beans are a new favorite. The recipe is inspired by the brilliant cook at the P-town Gourmet (thanks, Neville!). The beans are boiled for a couple of minutes, then cold-shocked to retain color, and mixed with a lemon rosemary vinaigrette, thinly sliced red onion, and cranberries - yes, cranberries.

For dinner, we had a really good mushroom and shrimp risotto. I keep frozen shrimp in the freezer and always have risotto on hand, so this is a really easy go-to when the weather starts to get cool. I always cook the shrimp seperately over very high heat in butter. After the shrimp are done, I squeeze fresh lemon juice into the pan (off the heat) along with another dallop of butter and then pour this over the shrimp. It's really, really good.

Don't ask me how I found time to make dessert with a  crying baby and all. I think I was slightly possessed at this point... But here they are, oatmeal golden raisin chocolate chip cookies. Burp.

Before/After

Before

                                                                      After







Pickled chioggia beets with mango

A Tale of Two Proteins

Today was recipe testing day. I got lucky with this recipe - every single ingredient (with the exception of olives) was already in my kitchen! That's definitely a rare occurrence.

Up to bat was a recipe from Chef Michael Schlow of Boston's Via Matta - Snapper with Tomatoes, Olives, and Capers, served with his Crunchy Green Bean Salad. Click here for the fish recipe, and here for the green bean salad.

After having this dish the first night with snapper, I decided to try out the relish with breaded chicken. The results? The tomato relish was the real winner here. Incredibly flavorful, it would taste good on just about anything... scrambled eggs, dover sole, medium rare steak...

The crunchy green bean salad was also very delicious. I'm always looking for new ways to prepare one of my favorite green vegetables, and this was definitely something I'd make again.

Leaning Tower of Tofu

 

This was really, really good - better than I expected. I made this salad up on a whim, knowing (as with last night's dinner) that I wanted something cool and easy to make. This was both. I started with making a miso dressing, which was surprisingly simple. I used about one and a half tablespoons of white miso paste, a couple teaspoons or so of soy sauce, one minced garlic clove, maybe 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar, vegetable oil, a splash of water, and some honey to balance all the flavors out. I gave it a whir with my hand blender, and that was it. The shrimp were gently poached in water spiked with lots of fresh lime juice. Next time I make this, I'll change two things: I'll add a little jalepeno, and I'll use the freshest, silkiest tofu I can find, since this is really a big component of the dish.  

p.s. I just realized that if you click on the photo, you'll see an extra-large image that shows what's on my plate in more detail. Cool!

Give Me Something Cold, and Give it to Me Pronto.

During my formative years I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to spend some time in South America. What experiences I had, all of which were defined within the context of food. Oh yes, fresh-squeezed tropical juice before setting off for work, chocolate stuffed pastries on the way to work, and delicious fat fries with some kind of dipping sauce for midday break. And lunch was always something to look forward to. I remember the first time I had ceviche, served with popcorn alongside it. I thought that was so cool to have popcorn with your meal.

So tonight, in celebration of the sweltering heat, I made cool and clean shrimp ceviche, with popcorn of course.

Breakfast for Dinner, Take Two.

My husband and I fell in love in Paris. Not because of the Eiffel Tower or the romantic little cobbled streets - but because of the food. But even more specifically, it was because I could finally cook for him. I finally had the space and the tools to prepare a decent meal. You see, my husband's apartment kitchen in the Upper West Side consisted of one skillet from the mid-eighties, spices that were so old, they were the color of hay (I kid you not.) and maybe a rusty spatula. Why didn't he just come to my kitchen, you ask? Because he was too snobby to come to Brooklyn. Sigh...

In Paris, we stayed in a beautiful little studio apartment and I would make breakfast every morning with all the delicious treats we'd acquired the day before. One of his absolute favorite breakfasts was French Toast topped with sauteed pears and strawberries. He had no idea that our relationship could bring a new culinary treat everyday, and was so excited by this particular breakfast that he took a picture and framed the camera so that my face was in the background, hovering over a giant plate of French Toast in the foreground. I just might have to post that picture.

Anyway, biting into dinner tonight took me back almost six years ago and made me realize how lucky I am to be just as madly in love with him now as I was back then.

Fine-Ah-Lee!

A long time ago, back when I was an impressionable young thing, I worked at this "upscale" deli in P-town. I was behind the hot food counter, which basically entailed peeling carrots and chopping onions (not very glamourous, I know - especially the time when I cut myself and fainted in the arms of my Jerry Garcia look-alike boss). One of the perks of working at the hot food counter, however, was that whatever was left over at the end of the night, we could take home! That was music to a poor college student's ears...

Hands down, my favorite dish was their strawberry blueberry bread pudding. I've had a hankering for that pudding, and I've been saving bread butts for a couple of weeks now in anticipation of making this dessert.

Fine-Ah-Lee! I got to make my pudding tonight. This one used left over bread from the bread loaves I've been baking, and what a difference homemade bread makes! The pudding soaked in a brandy-spiked custard over night, and peaches and blueberries were added to the top. If you look closely at the photo, you'll notice little white specks on the fruit. That was my last minute attempt to caramelize the top... it didn't quite work out, but it was delicious none the less.

I have to give a quick "shout-out" to Moo - thanks for the pic...