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Cooking Mojo
Jul. 5th, 2009 09:17 amThe first six months of this year have been weird, like I've been watching mildly interesting TV and all of a sudden it's July. It's been hard to work up activation energy for projects, nothing has been too fascinating nor have I been curious to find things that are. A good metonymic example is that I've been able to get to the gym on a regular basis but our bicycles are still at the shop waiting to be picked up.
I haven't been inspired to cook much, either, but Friday night some new friends were coming over and I took charge of the menu and everything turned out great.
In the garden we served sliced baguette with canned foie gras and two cheeses: wensleydale with figs and honey, and an etoki. The foie gras was disappointing, it wasn't bad but it needs to either be fresh or in pate, we decided. The cheeses were tasty, slightly sweet.
We moved inside for figs larded with manchego cheese and wrapped in prosciutto, baked until the cheese has melted and sweet fig juice starts to run out of the bottom, then lightly cooled. We've made this one before and it's always a hit. I think next time I'll drizzle a little honey over them before baking.
When we were planning the meal I had a strong jones for fish, and specifically fish baked in parchment. Friday night we did a test run with white wine, salt, pepper, fresh oregano, chopped garlic shoots, and pieces of baby fennel. It was good but the flavors were not as pronounced as I wanted, and then Ernie said that he imagined opening it up to the smell of coconut so we decided to do a thai coconut milk theme. On Saturday I got a couple of extra pieces of the sea bass and we tested it with coconut milk, fish sauce, chicken stock, lemon grass, red chiles, and lime zest. Again, the flavors were not as strong as I wanted so I took all the ingredients but the fish and simmered them together for a while and then added nuoc mau to make it richer, and a little bit of coconut syrup. After it cooled the fish went back into it for a few hours. Cooked them in the parchment bags for 20min at 350 and served it with jasmine rice and it was delish.
The main course was "cuban" short ribs, brussels sprouts with marjoram, and roasted radishes. One of the people who came over is on a reduced-carb diet (since we know a lot of bears, many people I know are doing the same thing) so we left out potatoes and the radishes were to fill that spot on the plate.
The short ribs are my own recipe but not really since it's a standard cuban way of cooking; I browned the pieces of meat, then sauteed a couple of onions sliced thin, a couple of green peppers, a handful of garlic cloves, two bay leaves, a large can of crushed tomatoes, and white wine. When it was all softened I put it in a crockpot and set the short ribs bone-side down own top of the sofrito and cooked them on high for 4 hours after which the crockpot goes into a keep-warm state for ~6 (it was off but warm the next morning.) I trimmed off the bones and fat and put the sofrito and juices into a blender and then into the fridge. Later in the afternoon I took out the liquid and spooned off a lot of the fat that had risen to the top. To serve, I put the meat in the microwave for a a minute to reheat, then heated the liquid on the stovetop and added some sour cream to smooth it out. Sliced a couple of avocados next to the meat and spooned over the sauce.
The sprouts were done with the Epicurious recipe that's become a standard. It's pretty much perfect.
The radishes I washed and trimmed and halved or quartered the larger ones to that each piece would be a bite. I rolled them in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then convection baked them at 375 for over an hour until they looked really "roasted" - like:
.
Set them aside and before serving heated them in the micro and the tossed them in a hot pan with hot oil and then rolled them around with finely grated parmesan cheese and black pepper. They were delish. They lose the radish heat and become sort of mellow and juicy.
Dessert was (big surprise) pie. Blueberry lemon pie with a touch of fresh mint. With the acidic blueberries and lemon you really want to serve this with a cream, so I made a simple syrup with a cinnamon stick and a splash of OJ and when it was cooled I added a little rose water. The cinnamon seemed to ground the rose aroma into a food category, and after adding the confectioner's sugar to the cream and beating it, I added the syrup until it tasted right and whipped it up the rest of the way. Made my own pie shell using the cooks's illustrated butter/lard/vodka recipe and baked it at 425 for 15 minutes - which really puffs up the crust - and then 350 for another 20 until the berries were bubbling and the top was pretty and brown.
It wasn't a huge amount of work but was really really tasty.
I think I need to finish eating that pie.
I haven't been inspired to cook much, either, but Friday night some new friends were coming over and I took charge of the menu and everything turned out great.
In the garden we served sliced baguette with canned foie gras and two cheeses: wensleydale with figs and honey, and an etoki. The foie gras was disappointing, it wasn't bad but it needs to either be fresh or in pate, we decided. The cheeses were tasty, slightly sweet.
We moved inside for figs larded with manchego cheese and wrapped in prosciutto, baked until the cheese has melted and sweet fig juice starts to run out of the bottom, then lightly cooled. We've made this one before and it's always a hit. I think next time I'll drizzle a little honey over them before baking.
When we were planning the meal I had a strong jones for fish, and specifically fish baked in parchment. Friday night we did a test run with white wine, salt, pepper, fresh oregano, chopped garlic shoots, and pieces of baby fennel. It was good but the flavors were not as pronounced as I wanted, and then Ernie said that he imagined opening it up to the smell of coconut so we decided to do a thai coconut milk theme. On Saturday I got a couple of extra pieces of the sea bass and we tested it with coconut milk, fish sauce, chicken stock, lemon grass, red chiles, and lime zest. Again, the flavors were not as strong as I wanted so I took all the ingredients but the fish and simmered them together for a while and then added nuoc mau to make it richer, and a little bit of coconut syrup. After it cooled the fish went back into it for a few hours. Cooked them in the parchment bags for 20min at 350 and served it with jasmine rice and it was delish.
The main course was "cuban" short ribs, brussels sprouts with marjoram, and roasted radishes. One of the people who came over is on a reduced-carb diet (since we know a lot of bears, many people I know are doing the same thing) so we left out potatoes and the radishes were to fill that spot on the plate.
The short ribs are my own recipe but not really since it's a standard cuban way of cooking; I browned the pieces of meat, then sauteed a couple of onions sliced thin, a couple of green peppers, a handful of garlic cloves, two bay leaves, a large can of crushed tomatoes, and white wine. When it was all softened I put it in a crockpot and set the short ribs bone-side down own top of the sofrito and cooked them on high for 4 hours after which the crockpot goes into a keep-warm state for ~6 (it was off but warm the next morning.) I trimmed off the bones and fat and put the sofrito and juices into a blender and then into the fridge. Later in the afternoon I took out the liquid and spooned off a lot of the fat that had risen to the top. To serve, I put the meat in the microwave for a a minute to reheat, then heated the liquid on the stovetop and added some sour cream to smooth it out. Sliced a couple of avocados next to the meat and spooned over the sauce.
The sprouts were done with the Epicurious recipe that's become a standard. It's pretty much perfect.
The radishes I washed and trimmed and halved or quartered the larger ones to that each piece would be a bite. I rolled them in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then convection baked them at 375 for over an hour until they looked really "roasted" - like:
. Set them aside and before serving heated them in the micro and the tossed them in a hot pan with hot oil and then rolled them around with finely grated parmesan cheese and black pepper. They were delish. They lose the radish heat and become sort of mellow and juicy.
Dessert was (big surprise) pie. Blueberry lemon pie with a touch of fresh mint. With the acidic blueberries and lemon you really want to serve this with a cream, so I made a simple syrup with a cinnamon stick and a splash of OJ and when it was cooled I added a little rose water. The cinnamon seemed to ground the rose aroma into a food category, and after adding the confectioner's sugar to the cream and beating it, I added the syrup until it tasted right and whipped it up the rest of the way. Made my own pie shell using the cooks's illustrated butter/lard/vodka recipe and baked it at 425 for 15 minutes - which really puffs up the crust - and then 350 for another 20 until the berries were bubbling and the top was pretty and brown.
It wasn't a huge amount of work but was really really tasty.
I think I need to finish eating that pie.
