Attack of the Over-ripe Tomatoes!

I'm a gal that can't resist a bargain. I was telling you yesterday how the fabulous yellow/orange tomatoes I found at my local grocery store were only 99 cents a pound! Well yesterday, as I was mentally scanning the store's inventory once again, I found that the tomatoes have been reduced to 69 cents a pound!! Are you kidding me?! Well I have to admit that this was the last of them and they were going over to the state of mush and over-ripeness (sp?). A lady near me also saw the amazing price and quickly turned away from seeing their state. Well, I couldn't just leave them alone. So, I picked up just over a pound of gorgeously ripe and bright colored tomatoes! Thank goodness Tom had a recipe that would utilize these beauties in his Pasta chapter!

85. Chilli, Basil and Almond Sauce (Picci Pacci) - *Pasta*

Picci Pacci, Tom indicates, literally means 'this and that'; meaning the pasta had elements in the sauce that incorporated a few ingredients here and there. For this dish, the sauce would have tomatoes, an herb (Tom said I could use parsley instead of basil, and I did), chilli and almonds. Like the Quicker Tomato Sauce, this combo of ingredients did not need any cooking as such, but they do need to sit together for a while so that all the flavors could develop and mingle.

I first started the sauce for the pasta (Tom recommends spaghetti, but it is not mandatory) by crushing my glorious over-ripe tomatoes over a colander. Once I was happy with the pulp I got, I mixed it in a bowl with some chopped garlic, extra virgin olive oil, chilli flakes, chopped parsley, salt and red wine vinegar. I covered the bowl and let the sauce macerate for about two hours.

Then it was just a matter of toasting some almonds -- Tom says to use blanched almonds but I already had almond flakes lying around needing to get used, so I toasted them on a hot and dry frying pan. Once they were cool, I chopped them coarsely with my mezzaluna.

The last part of making the dish was to just simply boil some spaghetti, drain it, and mix it in with the sauce. The chopped almonds then went on top.

Isn't it just glorious?! It looks like a crown for a summer queen, if there ever was one, to symbolize the heat and beauty of summer! I just love the color of the orange tomatoes against the paleness of the almonds and the sharp green of the parsley! I think with a fabulous sauce such as this one, this could certainly turn into an impromptu pasta salad for a barbecue. And I'm not talking about ones that are coated in mayo and sweeter than grandma's peach cobbler! I mean a cold pasta, such as rotini, with a beautiful and sharp coating of sauce, such as this one! Here's another view:


I have to give a fair bit of warning, though I think this may fall on deaf ears, or rather, over-enthusiastic, spice-seeking, tongues. For two portions, the sauce must have 1/2 tsp of chilli flakes. I found this way too much for me. Not oppressingly so for me, as I was able to eat the dish and not experience the metal-tongue I usually do when eating extremely spicy things that kill all my tastebuds, but enough that in addition to it being about 100 degrees in my tiny apartment, I was sweating buckets! (And I even used 1/4 tsp!) So I think next time I will use only a pinch of the chilli flakes unless I need to get rid of a sinus cold or something!

Anyway, this is a great last-minute type of recipe to try; I actually was not planning on cooking at all last night, but once I bought the tomatoes I knew that I had all the ingredients I need!

The Untraditionalist

Tom starts off the introduction to the Napoletana pizza recipe saying that it is a very traditional one. Ha! Well, leave it to me to screw with tradition! When do I ever seem to follow the rules in this project??!

83. Quicker Tomato Sauce - *Junk Food*
84. Napoletana - *Junk Food*

I was hesitant to dive into another pizza recipe following my previous debacle. Ironically, my pizza making in the past had been disaster-free. I think it is because I didn't heat my pans first, or would just make one large pie, albeit not exactly a thin-crust one!

In order to give myself more time and to not rush, I made the basic dough on Wednesday night, and the pizzas last night. The dough, as you may recall, is quite simple - I have to toot my own horn and say what a bad ass I am when it comes to making dough in my Kitchenaid. It has taken a lot of time and practice but I finally have all the techniques down resulting in perfect dough and no last minute running for more water or flour! I left the dough to rise in the fridge overnight, knowing that it will probably result in a crunchier pizza - fine by me!

So last night, I made the sauce and added the toppings for the final assembly job. The sauce, as its title implies, is mega-fast to make. But I am mega-slow, so for me, it was a Moderately Fast Tomato Sauce. :)

First I crushed some tomatoes in a colander. Tom indicates to use two cans of peeled whole plum tomatoes, or to use fresh, if I'm confident my tomatoes are ripe and delicious - oh boy, were they!!

Don't adjust your screens, yes those are orange tomatoes! This was my first summer seeing these tomatoes in Brooklyn. I'm sure they are all around greenmarkets in the 'city', but it was the first time seeing them at my local grocery store. Of course, how could I not pick them up?! Actually, I walk by the store every day mentally scanning its inventory - I was so delighted to see them this week, and for 99¢ a pound!

Now, back to the sauce, it was indeed 'quicker' than the Quick Tomato Sauce, in that no cooking was involved. I squished the tomatoes, getting rid of extra moisture. This tip came from the man himself in an email to me. I had asked Tom about his expertise in making sauce out of fresh tomatoes, and he said:

Whenever I use fresh for sauces I deseed but often don't peel them. You could do both, but needn't bother with either if the tomatoes are on the small side. It's the runny juices in the cavity rather than seeds or skin that can make the sauce watery that bother me!

I managed to squish the tomatoes as much as possible to get rid of any juices, and what I got was a wonderful orange pulp! Beautiful!

In a separate bowl, I squished some garlic with salt and added it to some light olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Then I pureed the entire thing in my new Kitchenaid (cobalt blue, natch!) food processor. It's only a 3 cup one - many of my friends will know that I am saving myself for the 12 cup when I buy a house! But this one was purchased to replace my $9.99 one, that I had purchased at Rite Aid, no less! Ain't my new boyfriend a beauty?!

And there you go, the Quicker Tomato Sauce. I loved the technique of using non-cooked tomatoes and just mixing it up with salt, oil and vinegar, and garlic. That's really all a sauce needs, in my opinion. It reminds me of the fabulous fresh sauces on the brick-oven pizzas served here, like in Patsy's or Lombardi's. Fantastic!

Then came time to take out the dough and start a-rolling! Last time, I had a few problems, to say the least. This time I was more organized, took out two pizza pans, and chucked half of the dough into the freezer for next time.

It was a bitch to roll out, I'll admit, but I know that is because it was losing its chill from the fridge and did not lend itself too much, but after some elbow grease I managed, erm, sort of 24cm circles. Well, close.

As you could see from the top, I topped the pizza Napoletana-style (sort of!) with mozzarella, oregano, and dry and wrinkly black olives. This is where I went untraditional. First, I used orange tomatoes for the sauce. Then, I completely ignored Tom's suggestion to use anchovies and capers. I hate the former, and Rafa hates the latter. We're fussy! No wonder we have no friends! Ha! He said that mozzarella is not traditional, but nevertheless yummy, so I decided to go with the yumminess factor and included it! Tom also mentioned to add the oregano or basil after cooking, but I knew I'd forget that way, so added it with the other toppings. I must say, the pizza did not suffer - in fact, it was fantastic!

I was happy that the pizza did not get too puffy and maintained a certain air of crispiness and thin-ness. The toppings worked so well and the entire apartment smelled of garlic due to the fantastic sauce! I didn't bother heating the baking pans first, but I don't think my pizza was gravely affected because of that. Here's a virtual slice for hungry readers!

Mmmmmm! Pizza! A friend said I had some balls to attempt to make a pizza to rival the great pizzerias around me -- well I have to admit, it's not exactly Trio, but not too shabby either!

Check in your knives at the door!

Now I'm back in familiar territory - vegetables! It's been a while since I checked out the Stir-Fries chapter!

81. The No-Knife Stir Fry - *Stir-Fries*
82. Chocolate and Banana Shake - *Afters*

Tom is true to his word about the stir-fry ; there is indeed no chopping at all! It consists of oyster mushrooms, bean sprouts and mangetouts (snow peas). All of these items were purchased when I got home from work.

The preparation for the stir-fry sauce was equally simple; I grated some ginger, garlic, and lime zest into a bowl. To this I added lime juice, honey, and soy sauce.

The stir-fry itself took minutes. First I heated some light olive oil until my pan was smoky, and I started frying the oyster mushrooms, that were just torn into smaller slices. They fried for a couple of minutes, and then I added the mangetouts, followed by the bean sprouts. The sauce was added last, and that's it! The rice was ready on the next hob, so dinner was promptly served!

This was really wonderful! I particularly liked the tang of the lime in the sauce and also the oyster mushrooms. It was the first time cooking or eating with them and I was happily surprised! Mmmmm!

For dessert, I decided to just make a quick shake of chocolate ice cream, bananas, and milk! Delicious!!!

The shake could have been a tad sweeter - it's due to the bananas not being ripe enough. I'm an impatient gal!!

So now that I have had my veggies and fruits, I could afford to have a brownie or four, right?!

The Reluctant Non-Vegetarian

Perhaps I'm a closeted vegetarian, because whenever I think of planning a meal that involves meat of some kind I really wish I was doing something else, like shopping! Meat doesn't excite me; there I said it! But even though CL is not exclusively meat, meat, and more meat, (actually it's very veggie-friendly!) there are still lots of meat recipes to get through, especially in the Grills chapter.

79. Grilled Steaks - Grills
80. Braised Peas in Red Wine and Sage - Grills

Beef! The foundation of the American family -- and it couldn't be more stressful to me! For weeks I have been doing my pseudo-research on the type of steak cut to buy. I watched an episode of Test Kitchen where the editor of Cook's Illustrated (I call him funny, bow-tie man) described the best cheap cuts from a cow. I couldn't for the life of me remember what they were -- something like sirloin and butt, huh? So I also consulted my friend, Lisa, on Friday, the day I was to buy the steaks. She said her favorite was rib-eye. I went to a Chinese supermarket near where I live after work on Friday and none of the cuts looked familiar, and I really had no idea which would be good for grilling. I even asked the nice Chinese man behind the counter which would be good for frying or grilling (I simulated grilling action by flicking my wrists). He just smiled and shook his head. Ok -- so no steaks Friday night. I texted Lisa:

Me: So no steak tonight too fucking complicated
She: Get a ribeye

I had then remembered that I did see ribeye at the store -- but I was already walking home and thinking of a cunning plan of convincing hubby we were going to eat out that night - sushi!

It turned out that convincing Rafa was not that difficult - that man will say yes to anything involving the prospect of consuming beer! And I had decided I could always go back to the store on Saturday, which is what I did!

I bought two ribeye steaks - for a total of about $11 - ouch! I also got some frozen peas for the second dish.

Both were incredibly simple to make.

First, I started the peas. Since the peas were to be braised in red wine, Tom kindly requested (he did say please!) to not use plonk. Ladies and gents, non-plonky wine at your service:

If you're straining your eyes it's a Californian cabernet sauvignon - no idea what that means but I wasn't going to drink the puppy. The fact that it didn't say Goya on it meant it wasn't plonk!

Now back to the peas, I sweated some onions, garlic and sage (had to use dry as my store was out of fresh - typical!) with a little bit of salt. To this I added the red wine, which I let simmer for a little bit, and then I finally added the frozen (but thawed) peas. This was allowed to simmer in the sauce for about twenty minutes.

I got started on the steak close to the end of the peas' cooking time.

For well-done steak, which is how Rafa likes it, all you need to do is sear an oiled steak on one side in a hot and dry frying pan, and then season the steak before putting it into a hot oven. I really didn't care how well cooked my steak was since I kinda guessed I wouldn't enjoy it anyway. I used the poking test for doneness, and then let the steak rest for a few.

The steak was OK; nothing spectacular. Perhaps a better quality meat not cooked as much would have tickled my fancy, but really nothing to write home about. The peas did not impress either...


I could understand how they would have tasted horrible with plonk, but even with the non-plonk they were not that exciting either. Hmmmn, thank god for chocolate!

I had made these earlier in the day; they are from the Moosewood Low-Fat Cookbook. Not sure if I actually had a low-fat experience out of it since I gobbled up those three, plus five of their brothers shortly afterwards. A closeted-vegetarian surely needs his/her kicks from somewhere!

The night of fun did not end there!!! There was zilcherama on TV last night; Rafa and I stared at each other for a little bit - that got old very fast! So, we decided to play a one-on-one game of Pictionary. In case you're wondering if that is a euphemism for fornication, let me assure you it is certainly not! One-on-one is sort of ridiculous because the game ends in about 15 minutes and we can't exactly figure out who gets the points - plus we didn't have a rules manual, whoops!

Here is the finale to our intense game - Rafa at the board:


That's his drawing for 'warpaint', people - yah, I know, it baffled me too! Ten points to the person who can figure out which one of the above is Iraq!

llana's Test Kitchen

Cupboard Love is set up in a way that about 75% of it are full recipes, and the rest of it is all about variations to those recipes. This is very good news for me because I am not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to cooking - meaning I mess up, a lot! So I will now get second, or even third, chances to really perfect the recipe.

I have been watching a lot of Test Kitchen on PBS. It's from the creators of Cook's Illustrated, and let me tell you, these people know their stuff. I mean they test recipes over and over again, and you could tell that their final result would be trusted to be the best. I've simulated a small test kitchen in my tiny kitchen due to this project, and it seems like this past week has been the week of variations!

Well this morning was no different; I decided to make the variation for the Spanish Omelette.

78. Spanish Omelette (dill-flavored variation) - *Toast*

You may recall that a few things went wrong the last time I made the tortilla. I found that the mixture for 4-6 people was WAY too much for a 20cm/8 in. pan. I had to quickly transfer to my bigger pan, resulting in the bottom burning a bit since I had forgotten to oil it. And then, because I was worried about burning the other side too, I served the omelette with it not being completely set. Oh well! It was still bloody fantastic!

So, this time, I decided to be a bit more relaxed in the kitchen and not take myself so seriously. The test kitchen commenced with me deciding to halve the recipe (Rafa's at work anyway) and using my 20cm pan for that small mixture. Even better, I had waxy potatoes this time! I completely ignored this distinction last time I cooked the omelette not knowing what waxy potatoes really were. 'Sup Food Subs!

The waxy potatoes!

I cooked a thinly sliced onion for about a half an hour in about 1/2 cup of olive oil. While that was happening, I boiled some thinly sliced waxy potatoes in salted water till just tender. I drained each separately, making sure to reserve the oniony oil. Then I mixed up the two together with a bit of the oniony oil and some chopped dill, (Tom didn't say how much so I left it up to taste - this by the way, Tom points out, is what makes this variation of the omelette totally unauthentic - Spaniards don't add dill to their tortilla! Ha!).

I also added three beaten eggs, with a pinch of salt to taste.

I heated up the 20cm pan until very hot and added a tablespoon of the flavored oil. Then I carefully tipped in the omelette and lowered the heat so it could cook thorougly.


I was freaking out about the flipping part, but managed it pretty well in the end.

I served the omelette with some sliced cucumber on the side. Tom says smoked salmon would actually be good, but I didn't have any. I still wanted something to offset the sweetness of the omelette, and the cucumbers turned out to be a welcome addition.

The omelette was delicioso! Unbelievably warm and sweet from the barely-there onions - they were so softened they just melted into the entire dish! The dill gave a nice little change to the dish, though was not overpowering, and the cucumbers on the side really brought out the lovely flavor in the omelette because of its contrast!

You know I always cringe at 'wine experts' on TV that talk about pairing wine with food to bring out the flavor in both, and how they describe wine, jeeez! 'It's slightly oak-ey, with a hint of spice, but warm and buttery at the same time!' Euuushh! Make up your mind people; does it taste like an oak tree, like cinnamon, or like butter?! Please tell me it can't be all of those at once! LOL. Most of the time I think they are just sloshed off their heads because this one chick (who really needs a new hairdresser because the 80's called, and they'd like their hairstyle back!) usually recommends drinking three different wines in one meal! What?! Anyhoo, sorry for the tangent, but my point is that I kind of did that pairing thing with the cucumbers and the omelette. When eating the omelette I wanted a piece of cucumber, and vice versa! Before I knew it I had finished the omelette - whoops!

On another note, I'd like to offer a music recommendation to this recipe - and this is so unlike me! I was really enjoying listening to Lite-FM (yes I'm a Lite-FM geek!), and was loving eating the omelette and listening to James Blunt's 'Goodbye My Lover' and Anna Nalick's 'Breathe'. Perfect for a quiet and relaxing Saturday morning!

A-bacon your pardon?

The shelf-life (or rather fridge-life) of asparagus is not very long. According to some Internet sites, they could only last in the fridge for three days, and that's if you wrap the bottoms with a wet paper towel and keep the bag they are in ventilated. Screw that; I am the worst when it comes to storing perishable items. My fridge is a wasteland -- which is why I was ecstatic to see Tom use asparagus in quite a special way in CL.

77. Pasta with Eggs and Bacon (Carbonara) - asparagus variation - *Pasta*

Asparagus is used as bacon would be in the classic pasta carbonara. Even though carbonara is Italian, it seems to be a staple dish in the U.K. because everyone on Nigella.com seems to rave about it. I have to fess up that I have never made it, never eaten it, and really never payed much attention to what was in it because it was one of those weird pasta dishes that you used egg as the sauce (scary!) and bacon was involved. I don't do bacon!

Tom even adapts this classic recipe in a Telegraph article* he wrote a few days ago. So, this would be the vegetarian's carbonara, and maybe asparagus is the poor man's bacon! Or if I was to look at it logically, bacon is the poor man's asparagus as asparagus is WAY more expensive than bacon round these parts.

So, when I got home from work last night I started on dinner. The actual putting together of ingredients takes only a couple of minutes so I was sure to read the recipe beforehand and get all my ingredients chopped and grated and ready to go.

First, I chopped up some asparagus to roughly the shape of the pasta I was using (orecchiete), and I fried the pieces in some butter till nice and crispy.

While I put the water to boil for the pasta, I grated some poorman'sgrana and mixed it up with an egg yolk. It was pretty thick and I was kind of confused what to do because since I halved the recipe (Rafa flat out refused to eat pasta with asparagus without any type of sauce - not his thing, he says, hrmph!) I would need to use 1 1/2 egg yolks... what!!?? Ok so I used one egg yolk and slightly less poorman'sgrana though the mixture was still thick-ish.

It was at this point that I remember why I had not made a carbonara up to this point; I am incapable of making a dish everyone else seems to make with so much success. I always end up failing - it is inevitable.

I put the pasta to boil and psyched myself up for the last couple of minutes of putting everything together. Once the pasta was done, I only drained it for a second before returning it to the pan (which was off the heat!)... I bet you could just imagine what happened next! I added some more butter to the pasta along with the egg yolk mixture, and the sauce, erm, became slightly scrambled. Now I'm not talking about full on scrambled eggs, but not exactly glossy and homogenous as Tom said it would be. I added a bit of water to break it up a bit, and it did the trick only slightly, though not much. At this point, I just said 'Fuck it' and continued on. If I was destined to eat scrambled eggs pasta, then so be it! Who am I to tempt fate? I added the lovely and crispy asparagus to the pasta, tipped the pasta onto a plate, and sprinkled the top quite generously with some poorman'sgrana - if I was going to get wet, might as well go swimming! Well here is the final creation.

It actually tasted really really good. The egg part kind of blended into the pasta, albeit in a clangy non-smooth way, but I didn't feel like I was eating scrambled eggs + pasta. The asparagus worked really well with the cheese and pasta. I'll probably make the bacon pasta for Rafa one of these days so will have another chance to royally fuck up - or maybe not. Maybe my parmesan was too finely grated (a la Microplane) causing the mixture to be so thick, or maybe I should let the pan cool further down before adding the egg yolk mixture, who knows?

*Looking at the Telegraph recipe (below), I see that Tom does not add the parmesan to the egg yolks, it is added at the very end!! So I think when I make the bacon carbonara I will just add the yolks at first and the parmesan at the very end before serving. Tom, yer breakin' my heart, man!

Penne with asparagus 'a la carbonara' - Telegraph UK - June 3, 2006

This is great as it is, but classic carbonara fans could also incorporate a little bacon. Simply sweat small cubes of it with the butter, before adding the asparagus, and go easy on the seasoning as the bacon will add a salty note.

1 bunch (normally about 1lb or 500g) asparagus
2 tbsp soft butter
1 tbsp olive oil
10oz/300g penne or garganelli pasta
3 beaten egg yolks
4 tsp salt
4 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
2oz/50g freshly-grated Parmesan
A dozen or so whole leaves of basil

Wash, trim and slice the asparagus spears fairly finely along the bias, in sections that match the size of the pasta.
Heat one tablespoon of the butter with the oil and cook the asparagus gently. Don’t let it brown. Set it aside and cook the pasta.
As soon as it is done to your liking, drain it briefly and return it to the pot, off the heat, with the second tablespoon of butter.
Stir the butter in and immediately add the egg yolks, the seasoning and the asparagus. Stir quickly until you have a glossy emulsion around the pasta and asparagus. Don’t be tempted to return the pan to the heat as it will scramble the eggs.
Add the Parmesan and basil leaves, then test the seasoning before serving immediately.

June?? What's that??!!

I'm really trying to be positive about this and accept this cold and rainy spell we have had recently here as a welcome start to a usually uncomfortable and humid NYC summer... I'm really trying, but I'm also really sick of this rain!

Wednesday night I came home with my sneakers squeaking because of the rain. The wind was blowing hard outside, and I was in desperate need of some comfort food. There are three camps of comfort food for me, not including chocolate, which deserves its own sub-category; risotto/pasta, soup, and eggs. So last night I dipped into the Toast chapter for yet another wonderfully comforting CL omelette dish.

76. Portugese Omelette - *Toast*

The portugese omelette is very different than its eastern cousin, la tortilla española. It doesn't contain any potatoes, and the main thing is it's hardly Portugese. It's actually more of a Sri-Lanka dish, but it is so named, Tom believes, because the omelette contains chillies, and the Portugese were the first to bring chillies to Asia. In addition to chillies, this omelette has a lot more lovely things in it.

To start the omelette, I deseeded and chopped finely a couple of tomatoes. (I increased the quantity of ingredients since I was making this for three -- hubby eats for two.) I then chopped up a red onion and a couple of garlic cloves. I added this to the tomatoes plus a little bit of chilli flakes.

To the vegetables I added a couple of tablespoons of milk, and then I folded the eggs in being careful not to beat them, but just enough to break them up a bit. Finally, I seasoned it with a tiny bit of salt. I heated the frying pan with a little bit of olive oil in it, and then poured in the omelette mix.

At this point I followed the Basic Omelette recipe, and let the omelette 'dance' on a high heat, before lowering it a bit and letting it set.

Since the mixture I had contained six eggs, the bottom was browning far more quickly than the top was setting. I had to think fast, so decided to let it set in the oven on the grill setting. Thankfully, it worked out well, but next time I think I will just stick to making the recommended servings.

I put the omelette on some ciabatta and sprinkled on some parsley... it was fantastic!! The omelette had a bit of heat but not too much and it warmed me up right away. Perfect fare for a winter's (ahem), cold summer's day!

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Just a short note to say that I haven't posted these last few days due to technical malfunctions on my Internet connection at home (which has been fixed!) and also Blogger now seems to not let me post pictures -- and what's a food blog without pictures?!

So just to let you all know I am not lying in a ditch somewhere, or worse, eating microwaveable baked beans, I am cooking, eating, and most importantly, enjoying it!

Peace out to you homies!!

xoxo
Ilana

Asparagoose!

You may remember that I have already made the Lemon Risotto recipe in Cupboard Love. And you may also recall that I didn't like it --- at all! It was way too tart and lemony for my taste. I had thought it was because there was no stock used, only some water. So it felt like I was brewing risotto in lemon and water!

Since the risotto has a couple of variations, I had a second chance to redeem the recipe! I decided to do the very Spring-like asparagus variation -- or should I say asparagoose, which is how it is pronounced by a funny little French chick I used to know.

75. Lemon Risotto (asparagus variation) - *Risotto*

The variation for the recipe is very similar to the original, but instead of only sweating some onions in oil, this time some chopped asparagus is added along with the onions.


Then, I added the rice and lemon zest and juice. (To reduce the Tea o' Lemon taste, I only added half of the lemon's zest and juice.) I continued to cook the risotto in vegetable stock, instead of water. I am really getting my risotto technique down as it took about 15 minutes and I barely used half of the stock - go Ilana! Next time I think I will only use 1/2 liter of stock -- I like to live dangerously!

The butter and parmesan (severely reduced amount) was added at the end and the risotto was left to sit covered for just a few minutes!

While the risotto was resting, I made a little side dish just for the heck of it.

Wilted spinach and butter beans sautéed in a bit of butter and oil, and then sprinkled with sumac! Yummy!

And here's the risotto too!


Woohoo! Success with lemon risotto - ok so, mental note: less zest and juice and use veg stock. Fantastic!

Istanbul, Constantinople, Istanbul....

I am really all about theme nights... cooking a few dishes from the same country of origin, pretending that you are in some exotic locale. Plus, it's a way of getting a few recipes down at once, which is something I am in need of doing! Tonight - it's Turkey night!! No, not Thanksgiving... Turkey, the country -- lamb, tzatsiki (cacik), and salad!

72. Grilled Lamb Chops - *Grills*
73. Tzatsiki of Sorts - *Junk Food*
74. Turkish Salad - *Larder Salads*

When I went in search of minced lamb the other day and was completely unsuccessful, I did manage to pick up some lamb chops -- or at least I think they are. The package (yes it's from a supermarket, kill me all now!) said Australian Shoulder Lamb Chops. So I either have lamb shoulder or lamb chops - well, it looked grillable so I thought, why not?

Since the lamb chops would take the shortest time to cook and needed to be served warm, I started on the tzatsiki and salad.

Tzatsiki, as Tom points out, comes in many forms in many countries. The yogurt/cucumber/mint dish in Turkey would in fact be called cacik. Tzatsiki is the name for the dish in Greece. Lamb and yogurt always seemed to be a good pair so I didn't mind borrowing this recipe from the Junk Food chapter.

For the tzatsiki, I grated a cucumber that was deseeded.

I removed excess moisture and mixed it with thick yogurt, dried mint, finely chopped garlic and salt. I let it get 'cool as a cucumber' (thanks, Tom!) in the fridge, but before that I snapped a pic!!

Then, a few minutes before dinnertime, I began the salad. It is not a difficult salad, just time-consuming because it takes on qualities from salad niçoise, which must have potatoes and eggs just so. I first did the chopping for the salad - yellow peppers, tomatoes (deseeded), cucumbers (deseeded), and lettuce. I also added the butter beans before I put the entire thing in the fridge.

I boiled some new potatoes for the salad, and once a bit cool, tore them into uneven pieces. After tossing the potato shards in some olive oil, I let them sit to the side until I would start assembling the salad.

The lamb chops were just basically the hot grill/hot oven method used in all of the Grills chapter. I seared some lamb chops on the grill pan, and then seasoned them and put them into the very hot oven for a few minutes to finish them off. Here are the Australian Shoulder Lamb Chops!

While the meat was resting I finished the salad -- boiled a couple of eggs, toasted some almond flakes, and dressed the salad with olive oil, white wine vinegar, chopped dill, salt and pepper. I topped the salad with the almonds and put the quartered eggs to the side as a garnish. They came out a bit too, erm, runny, even though I boiled them for six minutes as stipulated. Oh well, never mind.

Here is the finished salad!

And closeup!

To go along with the Turkish theme, I also baked Nigella's Nigella Bread -- aka, bread with nigella (kalonji) seeds from How to be a Domestic Goddess.

The dinner was delicious! I had one of the chops, and although it was quite boney, the meat part was tender and juicy. It was lovely dipping some meat into the tsatski. The salad was fantastic too - lots of textures and colors, and I loved the unusual additions of almonds and dill!

Sorry I couldn't get a table shot - we have horrible lighting in our apartment and the only place that gets good light for pictures is the coffee table - so what you may see in almost all of my pictures that I don't crop to an inch of the picture's life is my Leksvik coffee table. We don't eat at the coffee table -- well not all of the time.

My biggest fan!

Stonking!

I've had an ace weekend so far -- previous to now I've been doing a half-arsed attempt at this project, falling behind and not focusing. I wanted to catch up a bit and found yesterday to be a blinding success! In fact I've been talking a load of codswallop about my inabilities to do well with this project - truth is I've been just too lazy. So instead of being a nark about it, I thought I'd do something about it...

Blimey, that was hard!

68. Spring Bean Soup - the Peckham Way - *Soup*
69. Spring Bean Soup - the Peckway Way (Leaves Variation) - *Soup*
70. Bruschetta - *Toast*
71. DIY: Cooking with Dried Pulses - *Soup*

So I wonder if people in Peckham talk the way I just wrote... highly doubt it!

I'll start off with showing all you lovely folks the impromptu lovely brekkie I had yesterday. It is a variation of Nigella's Raspberry and Oatmeal Swirls. For the 'oatmeal' I crushed a few oatmeal cookies I baked a few days ago, and I used lingonberry jam instead of a raspberry pureé. The combo was magnifico!

Alright, the soup(s) were very easy to make - what else to expect from our man Tom. I paired it with bruschetta; and I made the dried pulses for a reintroduction of the Lentil and Vinaigrette Salad to my parents' meal.

For the Dried Pulses, I put about 200g of lentils in a pot full of water and let it boil for about 35 minutes until just tender -- and that's all there is to the DIY.

For the soup, I chopped up some potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic. (Check out my fabarooni Typhoon Diner Blue cookbook stand from TJ Suxx-no-More! Fabulous!)


I let all those vegetables sweat in some olive oil and salt for a few minutes, and again, these were the beginnings of the 'stock' Tom so enthusiastically includes in his Soup chapter recipes. Once the veggies were soft, I added frozen lima beans (the original recipe is for broad beans/fava beans)....

And then I added some peeled tomatoes I had crushed in a colander to a rough pulp.

Some water was added, and the soup was allowed to simmer for about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, I drained the cooked pulses...

And then dressed them for the salad I was to take to my parents' evening meal.

I also made the bruschetta to go with the soup. This was very easy and fast. I grilled some stale ciabatta bread on my Le Creuset ridged grill pan. Then I rubbed a bruised garlic clove on each slice, and drizzled quite liberally with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled on some sea salt. Beautiful!

The final preparation for the soup was just to season it and serve it up. The 'variation' consists of wilting either basil or baby spinach (or arugula) leaves into the cooked soup. Rafa had the variation while I had the original version.

The soup was perfect, and it's true that everything is made great with some bread, so the bruschetta was highly appreciated as well. Rafa commented on how lovely the bread was and said it reminded him of something he used to eat as a kid with his grandad. Aww, very sweet! Anyway Tom has a ton of fantastic soup recipes in CL; no wonder that this one is just as great! Or should I say STONKING!

Hours later, at my mom's place, she served up THE most delicious cheesecake! I have boasted about my cheesecake talents before - no more, I have been dethroned! It is made with Israeli white cheese - not exactly cream cheese but must investigate that. My mom knows only things in % fat when it comes to Israeli products for some reason. Here is the cake; you'd be raving bonkers to pass this up!

As much as I loved the CL recipes I tried yesterday and was proud of myself, this cheesecake really takes the biscuit!

Cheers!

Picky Eaters Club: Month 2

Another month has passed; wow they sure go by quickly!

Well then let's see how well I did.

22 recipes in 31 days. Ouch! Not good, not good! Well at 67 recipes in 61 days I am still above my rate, but only just. I better be picking up the pace. I am not sure why I didn't cook as much; I guess general laziness and not being home that often now that the weather is so much nicer. Well I'll get back on it, especially since we are so skint right now we can't even afford a hot dog from a street vendor!

In May, I didn't buy anything that I haven't previously, but I did like a whole lot of the recipes!

Here are the faves:

50. A Very Quick Tarka Dhal - *Indian*
51. A Simple Bean Soup - The Italian Way - *Soup*
53. (Sort of) Chicken Tikka - *Indian*
54. Want your tikka with masala? - *Indian*
58. Fattoush - *Larder Salads*
59. Chicken in a Bun - *Junk Food*
60. DIY: Make your own mayonnaise - *Junk Food*
63. Lentil and Vinaigrette Salad - *Grills*
65. Thai Chickpea Curry - *Thai*
67. Devilled Shrimps - *Toast*

I have really delved into a few ethnic dishes this month - Indian, Thai, Moroccan (#67 - shrimps), Italian, Israeli/Mid-East. Yum yummy!

Can't wait for June! (and don't have to wait long, June starts today!)

15 minute meal

Work was hectic and annoying today. I was feeling blue because of that, so I really didn't want to make too much of an effort when it came to dinner. It's for days like these that this project came alive - the days I can still cook something delicious when it is the last thing I want to do.

CL's Toast chapter contains a multitude of simple and easy dinners!

67. Devilled Shrimps - *Toast*

The recipe for these shrimps on toast comes as a variation of a Claudia Roden recipe. It is such an easy peasy recipe, and reading it I knew it would be -- I even timed myself with my oven timer.

The method is simple enough that can be recreated by anyone without precise measurements. A garlic clove is chopped and fried in some butter and oil. Then, a few spices are added (ginger, salt, cumin and paprika) along with some peeled, thawed shrimp. The shrimp heats in this yummy sauce for only about three minutes.


Then some chopped corriander (or parsley in my version) is stirred through, and the shrimp is served on some toast with a couple of lemon wedges. I had lime, so that is what I used.



Now I'll do a classic Ina Garten (Barefoot Snot-essa) - 'how easy was that?' - errrrrrrr! I promise to not quote her again. But it really was that easy. 15 minutes from start to finish -- beat that Rachael Ray... Ha! Now you could tell I was in bitch-mode today!

Anyway these were really fantastic and I urge each and every one of you to make these very very soon. No need to send me presents in appreciation - thank-you cards suit me just fine. ;)