elfs | Entries tagged with recipe

A couple of days ago, NPR's All Things Considered discussed a French variant of Shepherd's Pie, Hachis Parmentier, and it sounded so delicious that I had to make it.

The recipe consists of a pound of stew beef, stewed in water to cover along with an onion, a carrot (we used two small carrots and a parsnip, and the parsnip was an awesome addition), celery, and some salt and peppercorns, all stewed at a simmer for about two hours.

Drain (and reserve) the bullion you've just made, seperate the meat and vegetables. In the same stewpot, you brown 1/2 pound of sweet Italian sausage, while dicing the meat and carrots (you can ditch the celery and onions). Whon the sausage is browned, toss the beef and vegetables back into the stewpot with just enough bullion to cover, add about a teaspoon of tomato paste, and bring to a simmer.

Somewhere in all this, make rich mashed potatoes. I used 1½ pounds of blue fingerlings, which turned into an unfortunate grey once I whipped it with heavy cream and butter. I did not peel the potatoes.

Put the stew mix into a casserole dish, top with the potatoes, and then sprinkle a layer of cheddar, and then a very light layer of parmesean, and bake at 400°F for 25-30 minutes, until brown and bubbly.

I was thinking, it's just Shepherd's Pie. No, it's much much more than that. It's amazing. The flavor from the meat mix penetrates the potatoes and it becomes this amazing savory, umami flavor. The cheese crust makes for a gorgeous contrast with the smoothly whipped potatoes, and the meat is actually mostly a grace note to the filling starch topping.

I made six servings. There are five of us in the house. It was gone. I was hoping for leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Current Mood: full

While Kouryou-chan didn't particularly care for it, Yamaraashi-chan ate down her entire portion of this particularly delicious half-hour stew.

2 very large sweet onions, sliced thin. I used a mandoline.
10 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
3 15oz cans cannelli beans
1½ cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1/3 cup fresh Romano
Olive oil

In a very big saucepan with, put at least 1/3 cup of olive oil and heat until barely smoking. You may have to add more. Cook until the onions just start to turn brown; turn the heat down to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions carmelize, about 15 minutes. While this is going on, you can shred the cheese, drain and rinse the beans.

When the onion mixture is ready, add the beans and broth, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until the beans are heated all the way through, about 5 minutes. Add the cheese and stir until melted. Serve immediately.

A strong wine and hearty bread compliments this very well. And it's cheap: about $3 a person. It would be even cheaper if you bought the beans dried and soaked them overnight, too.

Current Mood: full

Home made potato chips

This has to be the easiest recipe in the world, but it requires both that you have a food processor and a microwave oven with a removable glass sheet bottom, like the kind you find is carousels.

Take one russet potato and trim it so it fits into the feed of your food processor. With the slicing attachment, run the processor, pressing down lightly. You want the slices to be nice and thin.

Separate them, drizzle about 1/4 cup of olive oil, then lay them down in a single layer on the glass sheet of your microwave oven. Cook on high for 4-8 minutes, depending upon the oven's power. Scrape them off with a spatula and let cool. Perfect home-made potato chips. They're far more delicious than anything you buy at the store.

I haven't yet experimented with flavors like curry, tumeric, or salt & vinegar, but we'll get to that.

Current Mood: full

Well, we were low on food supplies today. I did manage to find four small, slightly soft potatoes, a pound of ground beef, 3/4 cup of brown lentils, a can of tomatoes, a frozen bag of old chicken bones and kitchen scavengings, an onion, some garlic, parmesean cheese, and some bacon fat.

Toss the chicken bones and scavengings into a pot, and let simmer for a few hours. Suddenly, you have chicken stock. Take from the bottom of the pot with a flexible hose to avoid the fat, put two cups with the lentils in another pot, bring to a low boil and let it sit for 30 minutes. In another pot, on low boil, start softening the potatoes. (You can quarter them to begin with to speed up the process. Add a little salt to keep them from becoming too soft.)

Meanwhile, chop the onion and garlic and then toss them and the meat into an iron skillet on medium-high heat greased with a half-teaspoon of bacon fat. No, really, make sure the heat is up, and only add the fat when the pan is fully heated. You don't want to give the fat time to burn.

Once the meat is browned pour off the grease, return to the stove and add the potatoes, some herbs (I used basil, thyme, and oregano), a quarter-cup of wine, a tablespoon or two of flour. Once the lentils are ready, stir them in as well. Put it all in a casserole dish.

Now drain the potatoes, mash with butter, more chicken stock, and the cheese, and top the casserole.

Not a bad shepherd's pie after all, for a kitchen supposedly "low" on supplies. Went really well with a bold merlot, especially after I mixed in some sriracha sauce.

After dinner, I chilled 4tbs. heavy cream, 1tsp. powdered sugar, and 1tsp brandy in the freezer for five minutes, then whipped the cream and sugar until it started to thicken, then added the brandy slowly, whipping until soft peaks appeared. It was the most amazing topping for after-dinner coffee, tea, and ice cream.

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Current Music: Blue Man Group, Rods and Cones

Ladies and gentlemen, I present The Monty Python. In a highball glass, over ice:

1½ shots Elderberry Syrup
1½ shots Laird's 80-proof Applejack
6 ozs. soda water

Dangerously delicious.

Current Mood: giggly

Whiskey-kissed whipped cream appears in a story I wrote many moons ago, and I've always wondered how to make it. I've had it in desserts before, but only at restaurants.

Last night, I figured it out. The secret is cold.

Measure out a half-shot of good bourbon whiskey and a quarter-cup of heavy whipping cream. Put the whipping cream into a metal bowl, leave the whiskey in the shot glass.

Put everything in the freezer for ten minutes.

After taking it out of the freezer, immediately start whipping the cream with a hand-blender. Just as it starts to form soft peaks, put in the whiskey. Whip it for quite a while; the chemistry of alcohol and milkfat will take a while to overcome, but the cold inhibits the reaction that causes the structure to break down and become liquid again. Eventually, you'll get set peaks, and you can whip it as dry as you want.

It will still break down, just not as quickly once the whip has set, and it's got quite a kick to it. Yum!

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Porcupine Tree, Voyage 34: Phase I

No, really, mayonnaise is just about this easy:

1 tsp dijon mustard
1 egg yolk
1 cup of olive oil
one tbsp lemon juice or sherry vinegar

Now, the trick is that you need the following tools: a hand-blender with whisk attachment and accompanying scaled cylinder container, and an emptied clean soy sauce bottle.

Fill the soy sauce bottle with olive oil. Put the egg yolk and the mustard in the bottom of the hand-blender cylinder, sit down and hold the cylinder between your knees, because when it starts to stiffen it's gonna kick. Start blending the yolk and mustard, and as you do so add the olive oil. The soy sauce bottle won't let you add it very fast, so it's safe just to tip it in and watch it vaporize against the spinning whisk.

At first, it'll seem liquid, but as you add more the miracle of mayonnaise will happen and you'll get stiff, delicious stuff. The moment you're out of olive oil, tip in the acidifier (the lemon juice or vinegar) and the mixture will turn from yellow to white, indicating that it's ready to go.

It's so mind-bogglingly easy, I don't get why it scares some people.

Current Mood: giggly
Current Music: Joe Hisaishi, Ponyo rides a Sea of Fish

"Olive oil aoili mixed with homemade french dressing and organic shallots and a pinch of paprika." "Organic ground chuck." "Mild organic cheddar." "Hamburger buns, brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds." "Organic romaine lettuce and sweet kosher pickles."

The flavor of a Big Mac. The guiltlessness of a carnivore liberal.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Beer and Porn Will Save Creationism

I must be in a foody mood. I've been cooking a lot recently. Today's menu: Seared scallops, pasta pilaf w/lemon & chives, and asparagus w/honey & lemon.

1 small onion
1 cup orzo or other small pasta
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 tsp thyme
2 tbs fresh chives
juice of 1 lemon
1.5 pounds sea scallops
1 lb baby asparagus
2 tbs honey
Olive oil
Canola oil
Salt & pepper

If the scallops are frozen, start defrosting them in a colander by running cool water over them.

Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a non-stick saucepan. While it's warming up, chop the onion. Saute' the onion for 3-5 minutes until glassy, then add the pasta (we were out of orzo, but had plenty of kid-friendly star and alphabet pasta the kids stopped eating ages ago, still good), the broth, the wine and thyme. Lower to a simmer and let cook for 15 minutes. You'll know when it's done when the pasta has absorbed all the liquid.

While the pasta is cooking, chop the chives, snap the bottoms off the asparagus and discard, and juice the lemon. Mix half the lemon juice, the honey, and four cups of water and put it all into a large pot. Tie the asparagus with string (or, heck, a rubber band) and stand them up in the pot. Cover, put on high heat, and steam for 4-7 minutes. You can tell when they're done when they turn a handsome dark green.

Bring an iron skillet to medium-high to high temperatures; put in just enough canola oil to cover. (I use canola instead of olive because canola burns at a higher temperature). Toss the sea scallops with salt and pepper, then put into the hot skillet and sear 3 minutes on a side.

When the pasta is done, add in the other half of the lemon juice and chives, set aside and keep warm.

If you're so inclined, toss a tablespoon of butter down the stalk of the asparagus. Either way, remove asparagus from the water and unstring.

If you time it right, everything will be done within two minutes of each other, so serve. Total cooking time, about 25 minutes. Good with crusty bread and a cold drink such as white wine or beer.

( Adult content )

Current Mood: full

1 large carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 handful fresh basil
1 tbs olive oil
1 can pinto beans, rinsed.
32 oz. chicken broth
1/2 cup pearl barley
salt & pepper to taste

Rinsing the beans removes most of the proteins that lead to bloating.

In a large saucepan, saute carrot, celery, and onion in olive oil over medium-high heat until the onion glassy, about five minutes. Add basil until it wilts slightly, then add the broth and beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce the temperature and let simmer for half an hour. Add the barley, and simmer for another 25 to 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve with warm, crusty bread.

Yamaraashi-chan loved it, Lisakit said it had too much celery, and Kouryou-chan was, well, Kouryou-chan. I liked it a lot, myself, and I'm glad there are leftovers.

Current Mood: full

So, I still had the chard left, and some squash, and the usual carrots and chicken broth. I stopped by the grocery store and bought two extra things I didn't have at the time: 3 oz of pancetta, and a pound of pearl barley. I had always wanted to try cooking with barley rather than rice, so I slammed two of my favorite recipes together with instructions from a third on how to cook with barley, and invented:

Barley Risotto with Pancetta, Chard and Roasted Winter Vegetables

4 cups chicken broth plus two cups water
1/4 tsp thyme
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 small parsnip, chopped
1/2 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cup pearl barley
3 oz pancetta
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbs. bacon grease (or olive oil) 3 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cups torn chard
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 425F. Put the broth and water into a saucepan and bring to a near-boil.

Prep the carrot, parsnip, and squash, put into a bowl or plastic bag with 4 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp salt, toss well, arrange in a single layer in a roasting pan, and roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes.

Melt the bacon grease on medium-high heat (or heat the olive oil) in a deep, wide pan. Chop the pancetta, onion, and garlic, and toss into the pan with all of the barley. Stir constantly for about five minutes, until the onion is glassy. Pour in the wine and stir until it's all gone, then cook risotto as normal: 1/2 cup of broth until it's absorbed or evaporated, then another 1/2 cup, stirring frequently (constantly is not necessary). This part might take upwards of an hour. Barley, I've learned, takes a lot longer to release its starch than rice.

Somewhere in all this, the roasted vegetables will be ready. Take them out and let them cool. When the risotto gets creamy and the barley is tender but chewy, mix in the vegetables until they're heated through, then add in the chard and mix, lowering the heat. Let the chard wilt, which should take about three minutes. Turn off the heat, mix in the Parmesan cheese and you're ready to eat.

This was just utterly fantabulous. Barley has a rounder, chewier texture than aborio, and the mix of squash, parsnip, pancetta, and chard made every bite different from the last, in a most delicious way. You really need your sense of smell for this one, too, and it stands up very well to even a strong red wine.

Current Mood: happy

Omaha forgot one Sunday recently to place our orders for grocery deliveries, so we ended up with whatever odd things the organic delivery service happened to have on hand. Among our blessing: sweet onions, chard, butternut squash, parsnips and collards. I decided to tackle the collards first, and my weapon of choice: maple syrup. And when you've got maple syrup, your next thought has to be... bacon! I made Chicken with Maple Mustard marinade, and Collard Greens with Maple Syrup and Bacon, and a bog-standard rice pilaf.

Maple Mustard Chicken:

1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbs Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 pound chicken breasts, skinless and boneless

Mix all the liquids into a sauce. Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes with the sauce in a plastic bag, then toss onto a medium-high grill pan and cook for 3 to 5 minutes on a side. When I turned the chicken, I just drizzled all of the sauce onto the bird, brought to a fast simmer and covered to keep the steam in. Made it juicier. (I've become a big fan of the "heat is an ingredient like salt: learn to use it well" school of cooking.)

Maple & Bacon Collard Greens:

1.25 pounds collard greens.
1 tablespoon water
3 slices bacon
1 chopped onion
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Start cooking the bacon in a frying pan that has a lid. Don't cover.

Trim collard greens and put them with 1 tbsp water into a microwave-safe dish with a cover, and microwave on high for five minutes to wilt.

Remove bacon and let cool. If the bacon wasn't very fatty, add enough olive oil for the next step: saute the onion until glassy, about two minutes. Add the wilted leaves, vinegar, syrup and broth to the pan, bring to a simmer, cover and leave for about half an hour. Crumble the bacon and add. Serve immediately.

It was all very, very delicious. But wait 'til you hear what I did with the chard.

Current Mood: full

"We need to use up stuff in the 'fridge."

A dangerous statement. Y'know what we ended up with? Chicken thighs baked in a Moroccan sauce of lemon juice, garlic, cumin, paprika, thyme, cinnamon, and redpepper, dished over couscous and sprinkled with fresh feta cheese for the protein, and for our vegetable: shredded blanched kale simmered with oatmeal and diced leftover pork, all on a plate with crisp quick-baked thin-sliced zucchini.

Woah. Yum. Recipes:

Kouryou-chan didn't like any of it, except the couscous. She didn't buy it even when I tried doing Gusteau's accent.

I've also been enjoying 1554, a delicious beer from the New Belgium beer company, the group that makes Fat Tire. It's heavy flavor paired well with the rich sauces in this recipe. I've really tried to start eating locally, and while New Belgium isn't really local (it's in Colorado) it's better than Stella Artois, which must have ridiculous food miles: it comes from old Belgium.

Current Mood: full

Sunday was another day of parents being crazy. Kouryou-chan had a birthday party of her own to go to, as

kaelisinger's twins were having their seventh. We hurtled up to the toystore, then back down to their place, and then, having somehow managed to ditch both kids Omaha and I hurtled back home where we spent the next hour in the basement... doing paperwork. Suck.

Omaha's back was hurting her from the day before, so any hanky-panky was sadly right out. So was doing any more gardening. After we were done, I hurtled back out to Kaelisinger's place to pick up my kids. It was nice to see Kaelisinger again, she smells good. Reminds me of Napoleon's famous dispatch to Josephine: "I shall be home in three days. Don't bathe."

Other than that, not much happened. It was a boring day of paperwork. I wasn't feeling too good toward the end of the day; I suspect the roast beef I used for my lunch sandwich was on the verge of being bad. I didn't get violently ill, but I felt unwell for most of the afternoon.

Omaha and my favorite recipe of the moment: In a cast iron grill pan heated to medium-high, put in either chicken breasts or boneless pork chops, sear one minute on each side, then lower the heat and cook thoroughly through, about three to four minutes each side. Lower heat to medium-low, remove meat from pan and put in pre-warmed oven, covered, to stay warm. In a bowl mix 1/2 cup fruit preserves, 2 tbsp mustard (a good one, like a rich deli or dijon), and a tbsp of water. Put the mixture into the pan and reduce for two minutes, stirring with a heavy nylon brush if you've got one. Spoon over the meat or serve on the side as a sauce. Steamed broccoli (1 head brocolli, two cloves minced garlic, a splash of olive oil and a dash of red pepper flakes) and rice or cous-cous to complete.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Kidney Thieves, Before I'm Dead

So, I tried to move my recipe in one direction or another, this time by using organic plum tomatoes, six cloves of garlic, three ounces of pancetta^[?], and twice the recommended dose of basil.

It tasted more or less the same. The salty, savory pancetta, the garlic, and the basil all just disappeared into the sauce.

I really like this recipe because it's easy and completely home-made, but what does it take to make it taste like, well, like anything else?

Current Mood: full
Current Music: The BBC

Well, the rest of the weekend was brutal. I finished making the cider press only to have it break on me. The design was sound, but I need to refine it somewhat.

Basically, the press is built of two 18"x18" boards of 1" plywood, with 2x4s framing one piece and reinforcing each piece, one underneath, one atop. The reinforcing braces must be placed perpendicular to the grain of the plywood. Once you've assembled them all together, you drill a 3/8" diameter hole in each corner such that it penetrates squarely the reinforcing braces. Now, place the press into a 20"x20" plastic basin and fill the base of the press with a 1" layer of apples that have been run through a food processor. Put a towel over that layer, and add another layer. Keep adding until you've filled the frame.

Now, with a wrench and four hex bolts, slowly screw down the top until juice runs out into the basin. Keep going for quite a while, letting as much liquid drain out as possible. Then disassemble the press, discard the compost and refill. It's possible to get a lot of liquid out of the apples his way. Unfortunately, my press broke on the second go. I had not drilled the holes for perfect alignment, and I used carriage bolts instead of hex bolts, and they tore loose from their fittings and spun in place. Undoing them wrecked the threads. I'll try again next year.

Omaha and I ended up hand-milling and squeezing the juice out by hand, a real pain in the neck. But we got a gallon and half of must out of about four gallons of apples, so we're fermenting that to see what we get.

Current Mood: tired

So, we've spent the day cleaning and folding and preparing our camping gear for a trip out to Mt. Rainier park, where we're going spend three or four days having a good time and hanging out and just being away from the rest of the world. Ohmigoddess, 96 hours without Internet access. I may just die! Nah, I'll bring a good book or two. The car is now sparkling clean on the inside.

We made blackberry ice cream this afternoon. 1.5 cups heavy cream, 1 cup half-and-half, two cups blackberries and a half cup of sugar. The ice cream maker worked fine despite my reservations, and the end result was absolutely delicious. The Rival brand ice-cream maker worked adequately although the "cryogel" pack chiller (an industrial chill pack in a plastic container with an aluminum contact plate for the inside of the mixing bowl) doesn't really make ice cream so much as ice slush. I put it into a ziplock bag and squeezed all of the air out, and it hardened nicely. Yummy!

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Sousei no Aquarion OST