dcseain: Cast shot of me playing my violin in role of minstrel in the Two Gentlemen of Verona (Default)
Had some in the fridge this AM. So i:

Minced an onion, a couple carrots, and some celery.
Put them in a pan and sauteed until onion was almost translucent, then lowered the heat and sweated the mirepoix to umamiful perfection, then added one can of good tuna, well drained, and a healthy amount of dried chervil, stirring to combine, then stirring now and again until the tuna was darkened some. Oh, added a chopped green onion with the tuna and chervil, reserving some of the chopped green part.

Meanwhile, put the potatoes in a large bowl, and added the stuff in the pan, stirring well to combine thoroughly. Put a fresh pan on the stove, heated it on med-high, added oil, and fried the potato-bound patties to crispy perfection, placing them on a plate and topping with the reserved green parts of green onion and some sriricha.

A wondrous breakfast that would have been just as wonderful without the tuna.
dcseain: Cast shot of me playing my violin in role of minstrel in the Two Gentlemen of Verona (Default)
by [livejournal.com profile] fr_defenestrato and me:

1 Large Butternut Squash, coarsely chopped and peeled
1 Medium Hubbard Squash, coarsely chopped and peeled
1 Large shallot, minced
1 Small ripe bell pepper,minced; we used orange because that was what was on hand
3 Cloves garlic
1 Parsnip, coarsely grated
1 Turnip, coarsely grated
3 Bay leaves
Tarragon
Marjoram
Thyme
Nutmeg
Salt
Butter -- we used cultured
Whole Wheat Flour
0.5 Litre of heavy cream
1 Litre of Vegetable stock
5 Cups Whole Milk

Chunk the squash, pile in a large bowl with water and microwave for 15 minutes, stir, microwave for 20 minutes, stir, microwave for 10 minutes, stir, continuing until cooked through and able to be mashed with a potato masher.

Meanwhile, put the turnip, pepper, shallot, and garlic, 4 ounces of butter, and a few tablespoons of salt in a pot, and stir over high heat until all is cooked through. Add 4 tablespoons dried Tarragon, 2 Tablespoons dried Marjoram, a healthy dash of Thyme, and the bay leaves. Stir until well-incorporated.

Add 4 ounces of whole wheat flour, and stir until flour is cooked.

Add the Vegetable stock about a quarter at a time, stirring after each until incorporated. Keep on a low flame, stirring occasionally until the squash is cooked.

Mash the squash, and stir it in. Once fully incorporated, add the heavy cream, stir until incorporated, and finally the milk, stirring until incorporated. A a healthy grating of Nutmeg and stir.

Serve, garnished with a grating of Nutmeg.




NOTES:

Normally, we would have roasted the squash, scraping it from its skins, but an oven was not available.

I think some Cardamom would be good in this at the stage you're adding the herbs.
dcseain: Cast shot of me playing my violin in role of minstrel in the Two Gentlemen of Verona (Default)
You know deviled eggs - the yolks of hard-cooked eggs made creamy and flavoured somehow and served in the halves of the whites, yes?

Deviled Eggs is my consistent contribution to my family's Christmas dinner. This year i made two varieties - one with olive oil, garlic, and green onion, and one traditional. The traditional one came out fabulously this year, i think in large part because i made my own pickle relish. Always totally adjust these to taste. Your preferred methods may differ, prep as you please. If you use one or the other recipe, feedback is appreciated. So, the recipes anon:

Olive Oil Garlic Deviled Eggs



Hardware
  • Food Processor
  • Cutting Board
  • Knife
  • Bowl
  • Spoon


Ingredients:

  • 8 Hard-cooked eggs, halved
  • 3 Medium cloves of garlic (use more or less as desired, but the garlic is raw, so i suggest not more than 4 cloves)
  • 2 Green Onions (also known as Spring Onion, Scallion, or Salad Onion), whites and greens sliced.
  • Olive Oil (i used extra virgin)
  • Salt


Process:

Smash the garlic, peel, and place it in a food processor. Process to minced.
Scrape down the bowl, and add the yolks to the processor. Process until minced.
With the processor running, pour in the olive oil until the mixture is smooth.
Add salt to taste.
Manually stir in the spring onion slices, and fill the whites with the mixture.

My Riff on Traditional Deviled Eggs, 2009



Notes
I was thrilled - really, really excited - with how these came out. SO nummy.

I do not measure when i cook. The measurements above are estimates, but the quantities are exact. Vary the amount of the measured items to taste.

I tried the mixture with Smoked Hot Hungarian Paprika, regular Hot Hungarian Paprika, and Cayenne Pepper. The Cayenne flavor meshed nicely with the sweet of the pickles, the paprika not so much so. Old Bay was just wrong for this, so i don't suggest you go there.

Hardware
  • Food Processor
  • Cutting Board
  • Knife
  • Bowl
  • Fork
  • Spoon


Ingredients

  • 8 Hard-cooked eggs, halved
  • Loose 1.5 C Gherkins
  • Loose 1.5 C Cornichon
  • 5 or 6 Cocktail Onions, and some of the liquid from the onions
  • 1 Clove Garlic
  • 2.5-3.5 TBS Dry Mustard
  • 1/4 to 1/3 C Prepared Brown Mustard
  • about 3/4 C Mayonnaise or Nayonnaise
  • Cayenne Pepper


Process:

Place the egg yolks in the bowl, and mash with the fork. Set the whites aside. I usually put the whites on the serving plate/tray/platter at this point.

Put the Pickles and garlic in the food processor and process to a coarse chop. Add the cocktail onions and a splash of the liquid from them to the bowl of the processor, and process to a fine chop.

Add the pickle relish to the mashed egg yolks and combine using the fork. The mixture should look green at this point.

Sprinkle the dry mustard over the mixture and blend well using the fork, then squeeze or scoop/spoon in the prepared mustard and combine using the fork.

Add the mayonnaise or Nayonnaise and combine using the fork until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

Now, walk away for 15 minutes. Yes, the eggs and the mayonnaise will be fine, really. Go read a book for a bit. Play a quick game, whatever, but let the mixture rest to hydrate the dry mustard.

When you get back to the bowl 15 or 20 minutes later, give it all a good stir again, using the spoon this time, and then fill the whites with the mixture. Top each egg with a sprinkle of Cayenne Pepper.


Plenty of the yolk mixture will be left for sandwiches later, or i just ate my leftovers using Triscuits. I usually chop up any leftover broken/unusable whites into the leftover yolk mixture, top it with the cayenne in the this case, give it a good stir and pop it in the fridge for later.
dcseain: (Birdie!)
I decided tonight to make something vegan with Orzo, which Wegman's sells as
Rosa Marina, which it turns out is slightly different.

Anyway...

I went to the store and wandered the produce area, picking up so me red bell beppers, some roma tomatos, and some garlic. Got home, and popped the peppers in the upper oven to roast, then peeled two bulbs of garlic to individual cloves, popped them in a small pot with a cup of extra virgin olive oil over low heat to caramelize, set a pot of water to boil, and walked away.

Fifteen minutes later, the water and salt were at a gregboil*, and the garlic was popping away in deep-fried happiness. I stirred the garlic, turning it down a bit, and walked away again.

Fifteen minutes later again, the water was at a boil, and the garlic was almost fully caramelized. Peppers were still roasting. Poured in the pasta and started chopping 3 tomatoes. After washing the tomatos, i noticed the peppers had wrinkly skins, so took them from the oven.

I let the peppers cool just enough to be handleable, then put them on the chopping board and diced them, then diced the tomatos. Next, strained the pasta, put about 250g of baby spinach on the pasta, and poured the hot oil and garlic over the spinach and pasta. Added the tomatos and the peppers, and stirred.

Served in a bowl with several grinds of salt and pepper. Yummy!


*gregboil - the point at which water sounds like it is boiling, but is actually at a high simmer. Also the point at which Greg puts the pasta in the water, or at least he used to.
dcseain: Cast shot of me playing my violin in role of minstrel in the Two Gentlemen of Verona (Default)
Tonight, i made capellini. I was pleased with the sauce i made.

Tonight's pasta sauce recipe )

The sauce would have been better with a finish of Sherry Vinaigre, i don't care for Balsamic, though it would work too. Fresh pepper and/or a spot of hard cheese would be nice to taste on a serving, too.
dcseain: (Black Currants)
[livejournal.com profile] nancylebov made a post about this soup. Following is my commentary about the recipe, from an email a while back to a friend, and the original recipe.

I used 6 cups of stock rather than 3 cups of bouillon. Using the 3 the recipe calls for makes for a much thicker soup which is quite nice, but not what i was looking for this time.

I used butternut squash because the orange flesh adds to the colour. I used about 3x the chili powder plus a scant tbs of paprika in place of the Southwestern Spice Blend; totally adjust that to taste as the amounts are best guesses cause i didn't measure, i just added till it tasted right to me. The colour of the soup varies depending on the amount of chili powder added, obviously.

The additional stock i used also made for a dilution of the orange of the squash. The friend from whom i got this recipe has used zucchini and yellow squash instead of winter squashes with success, and a thinner soup.

I used medium onions, small chop, rather than the small ones because that's what i had on hand, and i substituded shelled Edamame for the lima beans. This time i used white beans, though i've used cannelini and navy beans in the past. This time, i mashed most of the squash, but not beans.

When i have leftovers, i add tomato and use it as a pasta sauce with penne rigtate or radiatore or such smallish shape.



Three Sisters Soup - The Original Recipe )

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