One dish two ways - for the Omnivegitarian couple

As a child, brussel sprouts were up there on the MOST HATED FOODS list along with innards, gizzards and chicken feet. Which is weird, because I was a pretty well behaved kid and generally liked most vegetables, with a particular fondness for cabbage. And sprouts are mini-cabbages.

Anyway, bizarrely, this winter seems to have been the rise of the brussel sprouts season, in both quantity and esteem. You've seen me roast them before, but when we were at NBs house for Christmas his mummy steamed some, and he loved those much more. One thing you should know about NB: he is of a household that doesn't particularly consume salt or... flavours. Ie oil and fried. He is also currently a vegetarian.

Here is the result: 2 dishes, zero extra work! And as a bonus, I will throw in a middle ground.

Steamed Brussel Sprouts

(You are probably noticing my thumb over the lens. Stellar photogs skills. It was too bright to see the screen!)

Ingredients: 1 bag of brussel sprouts, Water

Clean sprouts. This involves rinsing them, cutting off a little bit of the stem part and removing the outer leaves.

Bring one pot of water to boil (but not enough water to touch the bottom of the steamer part, because then it's boiling the vegetables), steam sprouts until they are tender and green. Easy peasy. I would say like 10 minutes? Watch out though, if you over steam those babies they will turn an unappetizing shade of gray-green.

Also, here's a tip for those who don't have a steamer: Use a metal sieve in a regular pot, cover.

Serve.

One step up: Lightly season and mix with a small pat of butter until melted.

For the fatty:

Pan Fried Brussel Sprouts With Bacon

Ingredients: Pre-steamed brussel sprouts, a teaspoon of minced garlic, 2 streaks of bacon

Ohh yea, you heard me. Bacon. So while the sprouts are a-steaming, fry up two streaks of bacon. You may want more, or less, depending on how fatty your bacon is. Mine was some budget Vons bacon, and did you know that price of bacon is inversely proportionate to amount of fat per streak? When the bacon is crisp, remove and set aside. Sautee the garlic in the fat, then add the steamed brussel sprouts (you could cut them in half - may I recommend length-ways? - first), season - but go really light on the salt, and pan fry until they are slightly browned. Serve with the bacon crushed over the top.

One step down:

Use a tablespoon of butter instead of bacon fat, thus making dish vegetarian and slightly less sinful.

So. There you go. Reclaim the sprouts!

The Red Pepper

TheBigBoss is away this week, so I finally have time to catch up on my reading / procrastinating. You are probably wondering how one can have to 'catch up' on procrastinating - trust me, it takes many years of experience to get to this level. Think of it like sleep debt... if I don't get my 8 hours in a day, I have to do 10 the next. Only not quite as many hours.

Anyway, let me share with you the incident of The Red Pepper.

Last weekend, NB and I took a little impromptu road trip southeast. I give only the direction because there is mostly nothing there, except eventually we got to the Salton Sea.

Day 1, Gas Stop 1, there was a fruit stand by the gas station . They have bags of 25 avocados for $5! 25! But the 25 are very small. They also have 10 large for $5. Still very cheap. We go for the 10, not thinking about how there is no way we could possibly finish 10 avocados in the time it takes for them to ripen, and especially not thinking about how being shut in a warm car does something chemically to speed up the ripening process. (Don't question me on that one, it's part of the 'food magic' that I can't explain along with ripening avocados with apples and bananas and leaving the seed in the guac to keep it from browning.)

Naturally, we arrive home the next day and they are perfect. The bestest, creamiest, smoothest, non-brown avocados we have ever eaten. True Californian Avocados.

By Monday we realize that eating 9 avocados in the 2-3 days following would probably not be possible. As it is a public holiday for some, NB, Dad and I have a dude day with a Star Wars marathon and doughnuts. We decide to make it an even Dudier day by making some guac. The NB is sent to the store to get the supplies.

He comes back with:

3 tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 block of tofu (for other purposes).

And says: I forgot the lime!

And I am like... and the cilantro. And everything else. And WHY did you buy a red pepper?

NB: You said! You said to buy a red pepper!

Me: I most certainly did not.

NB: You said pepper! You said red!

Me: *Confused* Maybe I meant black pepper? But we have black pepper... what else goes into guac?

NB: You also said mint but I didn't want to.

Me: Cilantro... tomato... onion! I SAID RED ONION! NOT RED PEPPER!

NB: Oh.

So the NB was sent back to Vons to pick up, ya know, ALL the ingredients except the tomato.

Maybe you had to be there. But that red pepper was the butt of many jokes for the rest of the week.

Turkeys go in and (apple) pies come out.

Let me start this by saying that my pies were not inedible. But they were not awesome. Sad face. Why yes, that is a sense of foreboding you are getting.

I got the bright idea (no sarcasm, it really is a good idea) from some blog or site to use turkey leftovers to make turkey pot pie. Nom nom nom.

I found these adorable little disposable pot pie pots, so I could make individual servings and bring a couple to work for the boys that drive me around (long story resulting in no car this week) and feed the roommies. And I used kind of a hodge-podge of recipes, because I figured it was a left over pie, you don't need to follow rules!

What I did (makes 6):

The innards:

Made turkey stock with my carcass, 2 onions, a bag of carrots and a bunch of celery. Also added thyme, oregano, salt n pepper.

Made a roux with 2 tbsp of butter and 3 tbsp flour. Added some roasted garlic, courtesy of thxgiving*. Added 3 cups of stock, with as many carrots as I could gather and as few celery bits as I could (I don't like the idea of celery in my pie. Peas and carrots only please). 1 cup of milk. Seasoned. Added 7 chopped up white potatoes. A cup of frozen peas. 2 cups of chopped up left-over white meat turkey. Simmer until potatoes are tender.

I found that the sauce was too thin so I took all the bits out after and reduced the sauce til it was thicker.

The Outards:

I had a big debate with myself whether to make a regular pie crust or use pre-made puff pastry. Puff pastry won. There's just something so enticing about a puff pastry top. I used one package of puff pastry, but then I threw away one sixth of it because I didn't flour the board the first time and then it stuck to everything and was a giant faily fail. Laziness really kills. I then had to streetch my other pastry out to make it fit 6 pies.

Got the pie crust in, tried to distribute the insides as evenly as possible, covered them up. Dabbed some eggwash (one beaten egg) on each top. Baked for 25 min at 350F.

Here are my results:

I know. Pretty failyfail. Especially when all viewed together. I was a little embarrassed about bringing them to work to give to people, but then I remembered they are boys and thus not picky.

Ah well, learn from my mistakes...

Lessons learned:

- NEVER STRETCH PUFF PASTRY - it shrivels back to size, or doesn't rise and is just generally depressing. It also gets holes in it really easily and then the sauce gets under the pastry and then the pastry shell is all goopey. So use flour aplenty to stop it from sticking and getting thrown away. I would also advise cutting the dough before rolling - a pack of puff pastry usually comes in 2 sheets which are folded in 3, which is pretty perfect. Cut each strip into 2 (one side slightly bigger than the other) and use the bigger for a base and the smaller for the lid. Roll the bigger one so that it is about 3/4 of an inch more in radius for the rim of the pie. Throw it in the pie tin as a square, fit it properly (without STRETCHING!) and then trim whatever falls over the edge.

- I believe you are also meant to cut a little slit in the top to let the steam out.

- Use a brush to do the egg wash. I used my fingers, and it was not even, so my pies were not beautiful and brown and shiny, they were just even more sad.

- For the insides, the biggest piece of advice I can give: cut the carrots and potatoes up, steam all the things separately and put them in the shells, then add the sauce. Why? Well. To ensure perfect cooking of each element. My peas were kind of an olive green by the time all the potatoes were cooked, and my carrots were not so vibrant. My turkey was also kind of dry by the time it had stewed... This also ensures that you get the desired amount of each food, not say one piece of turkey and 9 potatoes.

- Chopping: It really helps to cut things pretty small here. I am a lazy and there were giant chunks of potato and turkey and carrots... which was fine, but would have been better small.

- Aluminum pots are not so great to bring to offices that only have microwaves, because then you have to take the pie out and put it on a paper plate and then the crust gets even soggier.

Back pats:

+ The stock: My soups are generally delicious, and this was no different. Although one roommate has voiced complaint that even our bathroom smells like turkey now.

+ The potato: Using a waxy variety is a good plan because then it doesn't disintegrate in the sauce.

So. Go forth and prosper, children.

In other news, I slept with wet hair and am now experiencing a truly horrible hair day that even a hat couldn't fix. My bangs look like a mullet.

* I have noticed a lot of faux-hip mom-aged peeps throwing this little gem around the emails. They think they are sooo with-it.

Sprouts

Here is my champion weekend purchase from Trader Joes. I don't even like brussel sprouts but it was like $3 and who knew they came on a vine and were such freaks?

Roasted with EVOO, salt and pepper... for an hour... on 400F. A bit of a failey fail, the house was very hot and the outsides were a little black and the insides were a little raw and the stalk did not cook at all even after another 20 min sans sprouts. That was sad. In the end, we should have just plucked em off and roasted them so they would be cooked evenly. But that seems like such a waste.

Now everyone is farting sprout farts, which are similar to cabbage farts but stay in the air longer.

Oh, yes, that is NB in the background. He bicycled all the way to LA from Washington state. I know, what a crazy. Now he is all hairy and all his clothes have holes and his shoes are smelly and actually orthopedic shoes for elderly women. My receptionist is going to queer eye him this weekend.

What's for Dinz?

Lemon-thyme-garlic chicken and mashed cauliflower.

(I didn't take a picture, but it's not like it would be a good picture anyway.)

Now you know what I needed my cauliflower for. Mashed cauliflower sounds weird, but I was inspired by one of the Food Network Chefs who said it was a great substitute for mashed potatoes. No carb, ya know? I want to say it was Bobby Flay, but I don't really know, I was far away and I can't find the recipe on foodnetwork.com, so no clues there. I had to wing it, only knowing that I was meant to boil the cauliflower in milk for 20 minutes.

So here you go:
(serves 2)

Cauliflower:

1 head of cauliflower, cut into fleurettes
2 cups of milk
2 cups of water
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp crushed rosemary
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp parmesan
salt n pepper

Bring the milk, water and nutmeg to a boil. Simmer the cauliflower for 20 minutes. Strain it, leaving a little of the liquid behind. Stir in the butter, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper in, and mash it all together. It'll be a little soppy, so return to the heat, stirring until it's your desired consistency. Top with parmesan and stir.

Chicken:

2 boneless chicken thighs / breasts
2 tsp thyme
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
salt n pepper

Marinate the chicken in all the ingredients over night. Pan fry the chicken for around 5 min on each side. (Mine took a lot longer because it wasn't totally thawed yet, so that was a guesstimate... I might be wrong)

Ta da!

Turning Japanese

Have I raved about JustBento yet? I love it, although I wish they updated more. It makes me want to make bento boxes every day, except I usually eat at home unless I'm interning so I really don't need to. I made this miso chicken last night for dinner, it was like 5 min prep time and 15 min cooking. And cheap. Do it.

Not quite there...

I have this book. And I love it because all of the pictures are delicious and the recipes easy-ish. But I've only tried two of the recipes, and neither have really impressed me. You know, good in theory, mediocre in practice.

Tonight I tried to make summer berry tartlets.

Problems:

1) Crust kind of dry and not super special delish tasty.

2) Vanilla cream was lumpy (my fault) and too jelly-ish, not creamy enough. And not as white and creamy as they imply.

3) The whole thing was very disproportionate. The recipe for the crust claims to make 20 mini tarts and they must be frickin tiny because I made 12. And then there was only enough vanilla cream for 10. (Though the leftovers went fab with strawberry yoghurt. Kind of like eating graham crackers and yoghurt.)

4) My blueberries were kind of sour. I guess it's not summer yet. I was just so anxious.

However, they did look really pretty with the sugar dusted on.

Cinnamon Palmiers

I was feeling fancy one afternoon, plus I had a leftover sheet of puff pastry in the freezer, so I decided that palmiers were the way to go. Esp since they are so easy peasy. And called elephant ears, so cute! I've made savory ones before, (honey mustard and prosciutto) but they were kind of fail fail. Anyhoo, inspired by the recipe on joythebaker, and all these pics I've been seeing lately of cinnamon buns, I made these.

Brought them to class, great success. Except NB was like 'why are they burn't?' and I was like 'they aren't fool, that's the cinnamon and sugar'. ANYWAY. I did get 'these are really good, where did you buy them?' That's pretty legit right?

Makes around 24 small pastries.

1 sheet of puff pastry
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

You'll probably have extra sugar.

Roll out the puff pastry sheet, using some of the white sugar instead of flour to stop it sticking. Mix the rest of the sugars and cinnamon together, and sprinkle generously onto the sheet. Roll the pastry in tightly from both sides. Wrap in cling film and fridge for half an hour.

Pre-heat oven to 400F. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.

Take roll out and cut into 1/4 inch slices, place on tray. I sprinkled some extra sugar on top of each one. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on the sheet.

Done!

Rainy Day Lentil Soup

It has been bizarrely cold in Los Angeles this past couple of weeks. Today it was rainy. Rain always puts me in the stewing mood, and I had 3/4 of a red onion, carrot and celery sticks left over from my weekend roadtrip with NB, and some parsley from a couple of weeks ago... and best of all, a bag of lentils in my cupboard from some time last semester when I was sure I would make a lentil soup but never did. So lentil soup had to happen. Inspired by Ina Garten but mostly just what I had in the kitchen.

Lentil Soup

Serves 6-8

(What I used)

3/4 red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bag of dried lentils (1 lb... I hope you appreciate that I just dug through the trash to find that out)
2 carrots, diced
3 sticks of celery, sliced thinly
4 sticks of asparagus, sliced (kinda weird, but they were in the fridge...)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp ground cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tbsp pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder (optional, obv, but as an Asian I feel the need to add chili to everything)
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1/2 gallon hot water
1 tbsp fresh parsley
3 tbsp red wine
3 tbsp grated parmesan

If I had been shopping specifically for this, though, I would have also had:
More carrots / onion / celery
Thyme
2 tbsp tomato paste / some fresh tomatoes, diced
Chicken stock in place of water

Rinse lentils and soak in hot water. Heat olive oil in soup pot (for lack of a better word...). Sautee garlic and onions until soft, 3-4 min. Add carrots and celery (and fresh tomatoes, if you have them), sautee until soft, another 7 minutes ish. Add seasoning minus 1/2 the parsley (and the tomato paste, if you're using that...). Stir in 2 tbsp red wine. Drain lentils, add to pot. Add asparagus. Add water / stock. Bring to a boil then simmer on low heat for an hour, stirring every... 10 min? Check the seasoning to make sure it's tasty.

Serve with chili flakes/parm/drizzle of red wine/drizzle of olive oil/parsley.

MmmmMMmmm nom nom noms. Easy peasy and makes the house smell great.

Sunday Family Dinner - Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Puffs

Second weekly dinner was a success! We were missing Mels, but Rach's cousin took her place at the table. And this week I had co-pi/sous chef Rona.

I guess picture, as usual, lacks fab, but I assure you this is easy and well worth a try. The innards are easy to change around, if you want to make it vegetarian or would rather put something else in it.

Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Puffs with Cream Sauce

Makes 8 puffs

1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 leeks, washed and cut in 1/4 inch slices
1 pack sliced mushrooms
4 chicken breasts, cut into 1/3 inch cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter + some melted for greasing the sheet
1 tsp nutmeg
2 boxes/4 sheets of frozen puff pastry dough
2 tbsp ++ flour for dusting
8 tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp parmesan
1 tbsp parsley
1 egg, beaten

For puffs:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Heat olive oil and butter. Sautee onions and garlic until tender, 3-4 min. Season with salt/pepper/nutmeg, 1/2 tbsp parsley. Add chicken, sautee. Add mushrooms and leeks, cook until tender. Add cream. Simmer for 1-2 min.

Roll thawed pastry into squares, then cut diagonally twice to make 4 triangles per sheet, dusting to stop them from sticking to each other.

Grease cookie sheets and lay half the triangles out (you'll probably need 2 sheets unless you have some kind of ENORMOUS sheet... maybe even 3... I used 2 next to each other and then the oven couldn't close properly). Spoon chicken/veg mixture onto the middle of the pastries, leaving 1/4 inch around the edge. Try not to get too much of the liquid oozing around the place, leave it in the pan for the sauce. Coat the edge with the egg mixture, then cover with the leftover triangles. Use a fork to press the sides together. Coat the tops with egg. Put tray in oven.

Bake for 20 min, until golden brown. Serve with parsley and cream sauce.

For cream sauce:

Simmer the cream mixture left in the pan (and it should be quite a bit...) with the parmesan, stirring, until of desired thickness. Yes, it is pure fat with fats, and it is delish, thanks.

Paella tips

I know you are probably bored of the paella talk already, but in case you haven't tried but are planning on it, here is something to consider:

I told my Daddy about making paella, and seeing as we bond over the most bizarre things, he also shared his war stories. His thoughts are that you either burn the paella or eat raw rice. Then he brought up the possibility of cooking it in a rice cooker. I told him I had done something similar but Asian in Home Ec back in the day, so he ventured to try it. He says it is pretty good, and also awesome that you don't have to stand there stirring. (Which you are not meant to do, according to paella lore. Risotto is to be stirred, paella is to be left alone. But I didn't mention this to him.)

So ya, there's your tip. Fry all the veg/meats up, stir in rice, put in rice cooker with stock and wine instead of water, leave to cook. No burns!

Rave Reviews - Chocolate Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have pictures of these, but I thought I'd share anyway. And trick you with a stolen google pic of some chocolate chips.

As of late, I have been on a mini-mission to make good chocolate cookies. I make good chocolate chip cookies, because I cheat and use the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip packet. My roommates affectionately call these the 'salty cookies', because they aren't super sweet. But they love them.

Last weekend, I tried making a modified version of these, with white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips and chopped pecans. I used her base recipe, took out the M&Ms and substituted with a cup of each chips and 3/4 cup of pecans.

The experiment was kind of a fail fail. The cookies were okay, but they weren't great or anything. They were a little dry and cakey. Plus the pecans were from my Costco spiced trail mix because I was too cheap to buy real nuts, so they made the cookies taste a little strange and peppery. I should have known not to trust a recipe with no salt and only one type of sugar.

It occurred to me last night that to 'chocolate' most recipes just involves substituting half a cup of flour for cocoa powder. Duh! Back to the Tollhouse recipe. Tried that, with 1 cup milk chips and 1 cup white chocolate. Success!

Here are the reviews:

"Oh my god, these are so good." - Shannon, the New Roommate.

"Your best yet!" - Adam, from Work

"These are by far my favorite." - Adam, from Work.

"These are really good." - Adam, from Work.

"Ngyrumsfds *mouthfull of cookie*, thanks." - James, from Work.

As you can see, Adam was a big fan. So yea, y'all should try that out, if you get all sweet toothy. They are really easy to make, especially with a KitchenAid. Heh. Product Placement. But not really, because they didn't pay me, I just want to show off that I have one.

Fist Weekly Family Dinner - Vegan Paella

Everyday at the co-op, 2 people are in charge of making vegan dinz for the whole house. When I first heard that, I was green with envy, looking at all these fun vegan recipes on tastespotting and stuff. Then I remembered: I have my own house of people to feed.

Thus began the new (actually, renewed) tradition of Sunday night dinners. This week, we had

Veggie (for Rach, which in this case is also Vegan) Paella.

You might remember I was a little obsessed with making the perfect paella after my Spanish Summer. I haven't revisited it in a while, but this time was by far the best.

Ingredients:

(feeds 4-6, depending on how fat you are)

1 brown onion, diced
3 tomatoes, diced and deseeded
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red/yellow/orange bell pepper
6 stalks of asparagus, sliced
1 cup of peas (I used frozen)
1 cup of artichoke hearts
2 1/2 cups of medium grain rice
1 cup of white wine
5 cups of vegetable stock
2 tbsps of olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp saffron, crushed
salt & pepper, to season

Heat olive oil on med heat (I added a pinch of chili flakes for an extra kick). Sautee onions and garlic until the onions are transluscent, then add the tomatoes, and sautee together. Add paprika, and seasoning. Add bell peppers, more sauteeing. Add rice, artichokes, asparagus and peas, and stir them all together so the rice is evenly coated, then add wine, stir until it cooks off a bit. Season again. Add vegetable stock, then cover and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes. Uncover and simmer for another 10 minutes so that the stock boils down.


Try a spoon of rice from the side to make sure it's cooked. If it is and the stock hasn't evaporated enough, try scraping the sides in to let the liquid run through the rice a bit more. Turn up the heat for the last minute to slightly burn the bottom of the rice. (Like bibimbop, the burnt rice is considered a delicacy. I failed at this part because I walked away to watch the end of the superbowl and the bottom ended up very black. But the rest of it was good!)

Wait... No butter?

The NB has moved into the co-op, which is a large orgy full of hippies and pot and some cats under one roof. They do cute community-type things like have a roster for who cooks dinner for everyone one each night. There are 16 of them, so this is no small task. And, three (or more?) of them are vegan, so all the dinz have to be vegan. You know, like even more than just vegetarian, like zero animal products? No eggs (bye quiche), no milk or cheese (bye lasagna, grilled cheese, everything good in this life) and no butter (um... goodbye Paula Deen's entire stock of recipes.) So it pretty much goes without saying that there's no bacon.

No bacon???

Anyway, because I love to win the hearts of new people with baked goods, and because I wanted to play with the KitchenAid, I ventured to make vegan chocolate cupcakes.

Love of my life...

Here's the recipe. If anyone is ever feeling vegany.

Vinegar in a cupcake?? Let curdle?? BLEARGH!

Here they are before being iced. I didn't take a picture of the after-icing, because first I delivered most of them to the very greatful hippies who happened to be inflicted with the munchies when we arrived, and the few that I left behind were attacked by ants before I could take a picture.

Speaking of icing, I don't think her recipe is quite right. Hers makes 12, so I doubled everything, but the buttercream was WAY to thick. It wouldn't go through my piping tips ( :( no trial run there...) even after I had soy-milked it down, resulting in me spreading the icing rather than piping. Then I checked the KitchenAid cookbook which gave a similar recipe only it was 4 cups of icing sugar (instead of 5) and zero cocoa (which one might need to make it chocolate...) so that kind of explains why it was so thick. So yea, if you do make these, take that into consideration.

Melissa came down halfway through the baking and said that it smelt like bacon, which is ironic, n'est pas? But other than that, both Dad and NB said that they were delish. The hippies also, but they were high so I don't imagine that they were very picky at that point.

This Soup Is Too Salty!

I made me some Teriyaki chicken for lunch, using a bottle that was allegedly marinade and glaze from Ralphs, and I followed all the directions - 10 min, and it looked very nice and succulent and stuff, except that it didn't thicken and glaze like they usually do, so a little watery, but ok... and I was all thinking, how can anyone say that they can't cook when it is SO easy to make this sorta thing? Even if it doesn't really count as cooking...

But it frickin TASTES LIKE SOYA SAUCE CHICKEN!

I am not happy.

If I wanted soya sauce chicken, I would have marinated my chicken in the free little packets of soya sauce we can get at Panda Express, not bought Teriyaki sauce. How can Teriyaki be not sweet at all? Very confused. Am eating it with sweet Thai chilli sauce to balance it out, but is really kind of a bizarre mix of flavours. Oh wells.

Fail lunch.

Experimental Baking : The Conclusion

Tonight, on In The Kitchen: These suckas are out of the oven, cooled, tasted, and wrapped. They're not very shortbready, though.

Previously, on In The Kitchen: I took the dough, slapped it on to some floured cling film, squashed it into a log and stuck it in the fridge.

...

(Super: One Hour Later)

I took both logs out and cut them each into 12 slices. Perfect dozen per batch. Sprinkled some white sugar on the pecan+cherry before baking, didn't on the other. Should have. The problem with the sugar is that it browns the sides. The bottoms of mine were brown anyway from Pamming the foil. I should stop doing that.


Neither cookie was very short-bread like, they were more like sugar cookies. Not enough butter? Not enough flour? Too much mixing? Will have to find out what Ina does.


The pecan+cherry were excellent, would be even better half dipped in chocolate. Unforch, I don't have any.


The lemon was sour as eff, so I sprinkled some sugar on them and baked them for another 5 minutes. That wasn't long enough to melt the sugar though. Solution? I think half the lemon juice and 1/8 cup more sugar would have been excellent. Also, I was really lazy with my rind so there are rather large curls of lemon peel in them. Oh wells.

Did my ghetto packaging for the office peeps -- see how they like them, or how polite they can be while eating the lemon ones.

Experimental Baking

In an attempt to use up all the baking ingredients in our apt before we have to move out, I am making shortbread cookies with random flavours.

The base is this recipe. Plus half a tsp of vanilla essence, because I can't not add that. Also, not land-o-lakes butter, they should just be grateful I'm using butter at all and not that $0.50 for 4 sticks of fake butter.

I've done this before, when I went to visit NB, so I'd have something to bring his parents without having to spend any money. I'm pretty ghetto like that. That's not exactly the same base I used before, but I couldn't find the one I used. As a filling (is that the right term?) I threw in some leftover chopped walnuts and a mixture of chopped up semi-sweet baking chocolate and some dark chocolate chips. Then because I couldn't find a brown bag to make it look all cute and home made, I wrapped them in tin foil (to stop the paper bag from getting oil blotches) and then in a home-made paper bag from some construction paper. Hey, you can't say I'm not resourceful.

Anyway, tonight I'm doing 2 batches:

One batch has the rind + juice of a slightly depressed lemon (depressed because it wasn't used in an alcoholic bevvy as intented, I'm sure.) and also an extra 1/4 cup of flour to make it not-so watery.

The other batch has a chopped up mixture of 10 cocktail cherries and a handful of pecans. I think pistachios are usually what is used with them, but I didn't have a giant bag of them on hand.

Anyhoo, I just put them in the fridge for their 1h of sitting, so we'll see how they turn out later. Maybe even with pics, if I'm feeling fancy.

Mushroom Lasagna

In an attempt to do some serious ass-kissing for NB's parentals, I made dinner on the last night I was there. My big worry was that they are pretty healthy and don't really use much oil/cheese/fat etc, which is really the only thing I'm good at. But I remembered Ina Garten making a mushroom lasagna, and since NB loooves mushrooms, I figured I'd give it a try. It's cream-based, which still went against the whole fatty fat thing, but whatevs. I served it with a sort-of caprese salad, sort-of because I used little mozzerella balls and baby tomatoes and mixed greens with the balsamic/basil/olive oil.

Thoughts:

-I didn't use alll portobello, I mixed in some brown mushrooms (the store didn't have enough, and brown was cheaper anyway) and it was still good. You could probably use more than she used.

-I Used just about every pot/pan in the house... so make this if someone else is cleaning up.

-I probably would have added an equal amount of shredded mozzarella to the Parmesan because it wasn't very gooey or cheesy.

Bacon, Leek & Mushroom Alfredo

I've noticed in good food blogs/books, they always start with a little story or anecdote or something about how the dish came to being.

WELL. I was in the supermarket, and noticed leeks seemed to be in season, or at least were relatively cheap and looking fresher than usual. So I bought them.

Time for some fun facts about leeks? They're related to onions, which obviously makes them great. Because they lower blood pressure and some other shizz that old people care about. They're a mild diuretic (according to French Women Don't Get Fat) , which means they make you pee and lose water weight. And best best best of all: They are a Welsh national symbol, like the daffodil!

Anyway, my original intention was to use them for a leek soup, as seen in above mentioned book, but because I am a fatty, I decided to use them for evil instead, or at least to make evil pretend to be healthy at least a little.

I bought mushrooms because I missed the neighbour-boy, aren't I sentimental? He is disgusting and eats them raw.

(I usually claim to despise mushrooms because they remind me of feet, or more specifically, athlete's foot, but actually that's only the long skinny chinese-soup ones. Actually, I think it's just because they are both forms of fungus. While on fungus, be sure to look up pictures of nail fungus, it will make you lose your lunch.)

Anyway, I don't like toooo many mushrooms, and there are other things I prefer over mushrooms, so it's easier just to say I don't like them. But like I said, I was feeling sentimental, so I had a pack.

Uh, from baking, I always seem to have heavy cream in the fridge, and bacon is awesome.

So, check it out, my own recipe (well, various recipes combined and tweaked) AND my own pic!



Ingredients:
(serves 2-4, depending on how fat you are)

1/2 lb linguine (half a pack)
10 strips of streaky bacon cut into half-inch pieces
2 leek stems cut into half-inch thick rounds
1 package (eff if I know how much this was) of sliced button mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 cup grated parmasean
1/2 tbs chili flakes (optional I guess...)
1 tbs parsley
Salt and pepper

Boil a pot of water for the pasta.

Heat butter and olive oil in pan, combining. Fry bacon pieces, keeping them in a thin layer so that they crisp. (You might have to do this in 2 batches, or settle for soggy bacon). Set bacon aside. Leave fatty fats in the pan. Add chili flakes, stir. (The oil will become kind of orange)

You can start cooking the pasta now, probably. Cook as package instructs, til al-dente. Mine was 9 min, but if yours is less don't start yet!

Put the leeks in the oil, then cover the pan. Do this for about minute on each side (til tender), then add the mushrooms. Put the garlic and most of the parsley in too (but leave some for pretty garnishing). Stir, but try not to eff up the leeks. When the mushrooms are reasonably cooked (probably about a minute and a half? Maybe 2?) add the heavy cream. Season.

Let the mixture simmer, stirring (don't let it boil! I don't know why, but I hear that can eff you up.) Hopefully the pasta is done now. Drain that. Add 1/2 a cup of parmasean to the sauce, and stir, which should thicken it considerably. Turn off the heat, stir the pasta and most of the bacon in.

Serve, sprinkle with remaining cheese or even more because I know the people that read this are fatties that love cheese for the most part (or maybe I'm just thinking of me?) and garnish with remaining parsley and bacon.

Great.

Revisiting Risotto

Over spring break, the roomie and I stopped by Seattle for a night, and went to a birthday dinner at a moderately classy Italian restaurant. Sad to say, neither of us were particularly impressed with the food... hers I was pretty sure I could have made myself, and I found my ravioli sauce kind of too much on the brothy-side.

Whoa there, look at me writing all pretnetious-y. It's because I've spent all morning reading food blogs like Chubby Hubby.

Anyway...

Basically, nothing in this restaurant was cheesy or tomato-ey or robust, which is really what I think Italian food should be. I reached over and tried the birthday girl's risotto, and it was watery. How can you have watery risotto? And then I was a big bitch and sat there thinking "my risotto is way better."

I haven't made my risotto in a while because it is basically carbs cooked in fat, and I'd rather not tempt myself. But that meal rekindled my interest in it, and since I actually have stuff to do for school this week, it was the perfect opportunity to procrastinate with some cooking.

See, this is why it's better for everyone that I steal pictures from random blogs. This just looks like a pile of poop. But it was delish. Regardless,

Mushroom Risotto
(feeds 2-3 ppl, depending on how much of a fatty you and your friends are)

1/3 stick of butter (1/6 of a cup?)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot (thinly sliced)
1 clove of garlic (diced)
Sliced mushrooms (1/3 of a box? I used button but if you are fancy, portobello would be good)
1 cup med grain rice
1/2-1 cup dry white wine (depends on how tart you want it)
16 oz (ish) chicken stock (or vegetable I guess)

1/2 cup grated parmesan (more if you like that)
Salt n pepper


Heat the oil and melt the butter into it. Have the chicken stock heating in a diff pan. Sautee the onions and garlic (and here's a tip I learnt from Giada: put the onions in first then put the garlic on top of them so the garlic doesn't get burnt. Genius.) Season. Add mushrooms, sautee them too. Add rice, stir. Add wine, stir until all the wine is absorbed by the rice. Add a little chicken stock, stir until absorbed by rice. Repeat. Continue until rice is cooked. I checked that by taste testing, but it'll probably be cooking for about 20 minutes. Season. Watch out for the salt, coz parmesan is pretty salty too and you haven't added that yet. Turn off stove, stir in cheese. Eat. Yum.

So really, it's easy to make and only takes 1/2 an hour, but is kind of a bitch coz you have to stand there and stir. Would go well with roasted asparagus (but the Ralph's produce was tragically disappointing so we skipped that) and grilled chicken. Mostly coz I'm anal about having well rounded meals. Gotta hit every food group.