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Archive for the ‘amateur’ Category
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
There is a recipe in The French Laundry Cookbook for “Clam Chowder” which, of course, is nothing like clam chowder because it’s Thomas Keller’s twist on a classic dish. It’s cod cakes with cod and clams. It’s a fantastic dish, I’ve made it before, actually following the recipe. It takes hours. It is not a dish for a weeknight after work.
I used it as an inspiration for these cod cakes though. This made 3 servings.
- 1 1/2 lb cod
- 4 potatoes
- 1 large shallot
- 1/2 bulb fennel
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 stalk celery
- 2 c. white wine
- herbs
- peppercorns
- 1/4 stick butter
- Peel, dice and boil potatoes…preferably yukon golds, I used whatever I’d gotten from my CSA. Drain and mash up in a bowl with 1/4 stick of butter.
- Dice and saute in olive oil: shallot, fennel, 1 clove garlic, celery. When soft, add to potatoes.
- Trim true cod down so you have small, pretty, rectangular filets. Set those aside.
- Cut the trimmings down to 1-2 inch pieces and put in a sauce pan with some herb sprigs (I used marjoram), 6 peppercorns, a clove of smashed garlic and a cup or 2 of white wine. Simmer until fish is cooked. Remove fish from pan and smoosh it up in the bowl w/ the sauteed veggies and potatoes.
- Add salt and pepper and put the mixture in the refrigerator for a bit so you can handle it.
- Once the mixture is cool, heat up olive oil in a pan and form patties out of the potato-cod mixture.
- Place them in the heated olive oil and then walk away…don’t touch them until they are truly browned or they will fall apart and become potato-cod hash.
- When brown, flip and leave them alone again.
- Remove from pan and place on paper towels to absorb extra oil.
- While the cod cakes are browning, cook your cod fillets up in olive oil with just salt as seasoning. Cod is beautiful on its own, you don’t need anything else.
- I served them on top of a kohlrabi puree (like mashed potatoes only better). Or you can serve atop salad with a nice lemony vinaigrette (caesar salad is good, so is a butter lettuce salad with lemon-shallot dressing) – salad, then cod cakes, then cod filet on top.
Preparation time: 45 minute(s)
Posted in amateur, dinner, food, French Laundry, potato, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
 Prepping potatoes for the campfire There’s no reason not to eat well when you’re camping. I packed my CSA and garden veggies, chicken and eggs up and hauled them to Lassen National Park for a weekend camping trip. Before we left I cut the chicken into pieces and put it in a ziploc with wine wine and herbs so it was all ready to go.
 Grilling chicken and potatoes I always pack my knives with me wherever I go so it’s quick and easy to prepare everything. The potatoes go into foil with onions, garlic, butter, salt and pepper.
 Campfire dinner: Chicken, potatoes and homegrown tomatoes The tomatoes don’t need anything but salt! When they’re straight from the garden, they need no additional flavoring.
 Searing albacore When we go to my dad’s cabin, we cook many nights over the campfire but we also have a propane-fueled kitchen so I can get even fancier with my dishes. We had seared albacore with an orange-reduction sauce.
 Steaming clams in white wine and garlic Alongside the albacore were clams that I steamed with white wine, garlic, butter and parsley.
 Grilling the one porcini we found Every year we go to to the cabin we find ONE porcini. Just one. Every year. It’s wonderful and frustrating at the same time. It gives us the hope we’ll find more and we never do. Unfortunately there are cows that are left to roam wild and they eat the mushrooms! I bet that beef tastes fantastic.
 Gorgeous grilled porcini We sliced and grilled the porcini over the campfire, just like we do every Thanksgiving trek. It’s the only way to eat porcini as far as I’m concerned.
Next time you head into the woods, don’t pack trail mix and hot dogs. There’s no need. If you prep beforehand, you can have just as wonderful a meal as you would at home….plus, everything tastes better in the mountains. I have no scientific evidence for this but it is true. Try it!
Tags: albacore, camping, clams
Posted in amateur, chicken, dinner, flavor, food, hardcore, mushrooms, porcinis, potato, self pleasuring, tomatoes | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
If you have an abundance of tomatoes, this is an easy, rich, tasty way to consume them.
Summer Pasta Sauce
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 1/2 c. white wine
- 1 zucchini, chopped
- Tomatoes – as many as you can peel and fit in your pan.
- 2 cloves garlic
- Saute the onions until they are just starting to brown.
- Add the white wine and reduce completely
- Before the wine is completely gone, add the zucchini
- Once the zucchini is softened, add the tomatoes
- Salt the tomatoes
- Add the minced garlic
- Let this bubble away until it’s no longer watery (may take a while)
- Puree in the food processor (a batch at a time if needed)
Posted in amateur, recipe, self pleasuring, tomatoes, zucchini | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
 White Sea Bass in Broth I picked up my fish from my Seafood CSA (CSS – Community Supported Seafood) yesterday. It’s fun to have no idea what I’m going to cook until after 1:30 when i pick up my fish! Surprise! I came home and pondered for a while. Stared into my fridge….I had a fennel bulb and a chunk of garlic. I almost always have chicken broth since another CSA I’m in gives me 2 dozen eggs and 2 chickens every 2 weeks. The recipe started coming together in my head.
This serves 2 people and could easily be scaled up.
I put a quart of chicken stock on low heat and simmered it with about 2 inches of ginger root, sliced and one fennel bulb, sliced. That simmered about an hour. Reducing by about 1/4th.
Meanwhile, I took the 2 yellow potatoes I had and sliced them as thinly as I could. I don’t have a mandoline. Well, that’s not true, I have one and haven’t the foggiest idea how to set it up or use it. So I use my wicked sharp knife instead! I put the slices into a bowl of ice water where they remained until I was ready to fry them up.
I whisked together:
1/4 cup white miso
2 T seasoned rice vinegar
2 t soy sauce
a dash of cayenne
 Grapeseed Oil I brushed that over the sea bass fillets. This is not chilean sea bass. It’s locally caught white sea bass. It’s more of a cod texture…actually, it may be a type of cod?? Not sure! Sustainable, green-listed fish :)
Cut the fillet into 1/3-1/2 pound pieces. Brush the miso paste onto the top and bottom of the fillet. Set these aside for a few minutes.
 Frying crisps Fill a semi-high-sided pan with about 1″ or so of grapeseed oil (or other high-heat oil). I love the shade of green that the grapeseed oil has. It just looks cool. Bring the temperature of the oil up to 350°. I’ve had this candy thermometer for years and I don’t think I’ve ever used it. Glad I had it though! While waiting for the oil to heat over medium-high heat, remove the potato slices from the ice water and dry them thoroughly with paper towels. You don’t want them wet or you’ll get splattered with hot oil! Carefully drop the slices into the hot oil a batch at a time. I put about 10-15 slices in at a time and it didn’t drop the temperature of the oil dramatically. Let them dance around in the oil until they are brown. Remove carefully and place on paper towels to drain the oil, I also dabbed the tops with papertowels, then sprinkle with a nice finishing salt. I used Shinkai Deep Sea Salt and it was perfect.
Things got a bit hectic when I was trying to do crisps and fish at the same time. Put the sea bass into a quite-hot pan with a little olive oil. I wanted a nice crust on the outside of the fish and a pretty raw center. This fish was caught the day before, it was beautifully fresh. Sear for 1-2 minutes on each side.
Place the fish in a shallow bowl. Strain the simmering broth into the bowl. Sprinkle with chopped scallions. Serve the crisps on the side.
We drank, oddly, a pink wine with this. I hate pink wine typically but this one was light and citrusy and paired rather well.
Posted in amateur, dinner, flavor, food, photos, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
I host a soup night, ideally once a month, but really it happens when we have a free weekend night. I make a huge pot of soup, customized each time for the number of people coming and the allergies/preferences/aversions of the guests. It’s really, really fun and it gives us a way to actually get together with our friends regularly even when life is hectic. It’s a different group of people each time…and if there is every a time that everyone on the invite list can show up, I’m not sure what we’ll do, our house isn’t nearly big enough!
This time I live-tweeted the making of the soup, just for fun. A sort of step-by-step recipe without instructions! This is enough soup for 16-18 people.
3 onions:
 Onions 4-5 quarts chicken stock simmering on the back burner:
 Chicken Stock Simmering 3-4 carrots (mulitcolored, they looked cool!):
 Added Carrots 1 fennel bulb and 4 stalks celery:
 Fennel and Celery Cooking all that stuff down, entertaining myself with the camera:
 Waiting for veggies to cook down 4 yellow potatoes:
 Potatoes will go in next 3/4 bottle white wine and 6 cloves garlic:
 Added white wine and garlic One bunch kale, somewhat “julienned”…I’d say finely shredded:
 Shredded Kale 6 small zucchini:
 Zucchini Snap peas, halved:
 Lastly, snap peas In there with the zucchini went 3 cans of cannellini beans and then the soup was ladeled over spaghetti that I broke in half before boiling (so it would be possible to eat it with a spoon!)
To serve it was first pasta, then soup, pesto on top of that (basil-walnut-lots of lemon), and for everyone but me, shredded parmesean.
 Topped with pesto for serving Yum.
Tags: soup
Posted in amateur, dinner, flavor, food, organic, pesto, photos, potato, recipe, recipes, santa cruz, seasonal menu, zucchini | No Comments »
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
This is basically the springtime version of my fall mushroom salad. Subtract chanterelles, add green garlic. Voila!
Easy: Spinach…wash it, put it on a plate
Lentils…cook them with a clove of garlic and some thyme. Choose your preferred liquid to cook them in, I use chicken stock.
Green garlic dressing…recipe featured here.
To plate…well, spinach, then spoon some lentils on top, then drizzle some dressing on that. You didn’t need me to spell that out did you? Oh, and if you like, crumble bacon on top. To pretty it up, I added some julienned turnips and chive flowers.
Posted in amateur, bacon, dinner, food, lentils, recipe, recipes, seasonal menu, self pleasuring, spinach | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
I was torn between two dishes for dinner. I wanted soba noodle soup but I had all these wonderful CSA veggies to use. So I decided to try introducing two recipes to one another. Turns out they should definitely be friends! I have some of the greens-beef mixture left over today which I’m going to have over rice for lunch. I didn’t, however, take a picture of any of this…it smelled so good I just devoured it!
When I make it again, I’ll try to remember to take one and add it here.
Recipe: Beef saute with soba in dashi
Ingredients
- 4 chopped spring onions
- 2 T minced ginger
- 3 small chilis, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 c. bok choy (or other asian green)
- 3/4 c. minced cilantro
- 1 T fish sauce
- 2 T soy sauce
- 1/4 c. water (if needed)
- 8 oz. thinly sliced rib eye (or other fave cut)
- Dashi
- Soba
- Green onions
Instructions
- Before you start anything else, get your water going for soba noodles and your dashi simmering.
- Saute spring onions, ginger, chilis, garlic, soy sauce and fish sauce until onions start to soften. Add bok choy and cilantro. Add water if soy or fish sauce is getting too sticky in the pan. When everything is desired consistency, add beef and cook until just under your preferred doneness (you will be putting hot broth on this so it will cook a little more).
- Remove greens and meat from pan, leaving liquid to reduce.
- Put soba noodles in a bowl, add a heaping pile of beef-green concoction, spoon some of the reduction on top to add even more flavor, top with chopped green onions and pour dashi over all that.
Quick Notes
Try not to drool in the bowl–especially if you’re serving others.
Number of servings (yield): 3
Meal type: dinner
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Posted in amateur, asian, beef, dinner, flavor, food, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Friday, April 8th, 2011
As my son pointed out, “Sometimes experiments fail.” Well, luckily, I think this one worked!
I had quite a few turnips from my CSA. The only way I’ve ever had turnips is roasted in big chunks and I didn’t like them like that. But I do like thin, crispy starchy things with butter sooooo….
I peeled and sliced the turnips into quarter moons if the turnips were huge or half moons if they were smaller. I put some olive oil in my cast iron pan and then started layering them around. After one layer I put some dots of butter and some thinly sliced shallots. Then I layered some more turnips and then topped that with rosemary, butter, and pepper.
I cooked it, covered, on the stovetop on medium heat until the bottom started to brown. Then I put it, uncovered, in a 400° oven for, well, too long for most people, but good for us…until the bottom was almost black. I thought it was great! Hubby was lukewarm on the dish but I really liked it.
I served it with Herb-Roasted Chicken and a salad. I’d just picked up both my veggie CSA box and my CSA chickens so what else were we going to have for dinnner?!?
Along with it I had a beautiful 2008 Robert Denogent St. Véran les Pommards white wine. Everything came together beautifully.
Tags: turnips
Posted in amateur, chicken, dinner, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
I have changed my stance on digital thermometers. I’ve had 2 fail. One all together died and one was reading 10s of degrees low so I overcooked my meat. Good ‘ol analog for me from here on out.
I’ve removed the product from my Amazon store as well. Is there a name for a kitchen-luddite?
Posted in amateur, food | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
This recipe (if you can call it that, it’s so simple!) was spawned from having too little time and energy to make anything else one night and ended up being a favorite dish in the end!
- 1 chicken, cut into 6-8 pieces…I never cook the wings, I save them w/ the back for making soup and stock
- 1 lemon
- A small handful of herbs…sometimes sage, sometimes thyme
Preheat oven to 400°. Put chicken in a baking dish. Pour lemon juice over each piece. Sprinkle herbs over chicken. When I use sage I leave the leaves whole, with thyme I use whole sprigs but crumble some of the leaves off as well. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, grind some pepper on top. Bake until done!
Seriously. That’s it. I’ve had multiple people rave about this from my 6 year old son to my 70 year old dad. It’s a hit!
Posted in amateur, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
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