sans chouriço

I'm trying to make kale soup tonight... kale, potatoes, garlic, leek, onion, white beans and chorizo (etc.)-- too far from New Bedford here to get the real thing. Part of the lure was thinking of grilled chouriço this summer at A. & A.'s wedding (a ceremony on the sea, but with an amazing chouriço and karaoke after party). It's in it's last stages, and the chorizo is yummy and the broth rich, ready to be soaked up in bread...

I made my second load of Bittman's NYT "No Knead Bread" (interestingly, same title as my first bread from a Home & Garden red+white checkered kids' cookbook that got this whole thing started) today, this time with 1/3 whole wheat flour. 3 cups flour, 1 5/8 cups water, 1/4 tsp yeast and salt... a wet, sticky dough, rising for 24 hours (Bittman suggests 12-18, but 24 seems perfect), then cooking in an oval 3 1/2 qt dutch oven (I have no idea why he suggests a 6-8 qt -- it'd be flat). Nonetheless, it's the best bread ever. Great crust, soft inside, perfect structure.

Poilâne, you're dead and I'm far I way.

On another note, I'd been thinking of coq au vin, and went to a dinner of exactly that Saturday night. It's really good. Falls off the bone. That, plus wine and bacon, just might be ecstasy. A kale-potato galette was the side, and strawberries and raspberries in lemon juice fiinished us off. Damn fine dinner.

goat, no photo.

Tonight I brought goat stew to work, the last of a 5lb package of goat (2lb ground, 3lb stew) from the lady who sells me goat cheeses at the market. I think that the alcohol may not have all evaporated as I felt a bit overwhelmed after lunch. It made me want to sit down (which I actually did, for a moment, it was so slow). The stew started yesterday around 10 am with a bottle of chianti, 2lbs of goat, herbes de provence and some onion. Lots of pepper came latter on, as well as a whole wheat bread, à la Boston brown, -- you know, in a coffee can, but this was in some stoneware bread crock I received for Christmas that stuck on the bottom -- and roasted parsnips (which I found out have tons of potassium. And roasted, almost a bananna-like texture, no? [cf. potassium in bananas]).

going a-way

It's been a few weeks, but to commemorate M.'s becoming of a Trojan, we had a party to wish her well as she left for Troy. Starting with this roasted pepper.







I made two sauces for the lasagne: roasted red pepper & garlic and an Italian sausage sauce. I'm not really a sausage person, and just becoming a meat person over the last two years, so I decided to give it a go. The hot Italian sausages at Wholefoods are quite wonderful in sauce (but divine with beluga lentils, as I had the other night).




Then there was pasta, the cheeses (sliced mozz., on top, ricotta-parmasean inside), spinach, the assembly...

The fun part was the hors d'oeuvres. I made limoni di amalfi from the Jamie Oliver book from M. They're lemons, halved and hollowed, filled with anchovies, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil which are then baked until it's gooey and lemony and ready to be spread on toast... or sucked right out of the shell.

There were also other crostini: a bruchetta, sautéed garlic and greens, and a roasted garlic-white bean mash.


D. made lemon bars and brownies for dessert, and my co-hosts (or the hosts, as it wasn't my house), A. and K. did a wonderful spread of cheeses, crackers. And, in his fashion, A. had an 8mm movie for us: Fine Food, Fine Pastry, Open 6 to 9.

Yummm.

yama!

On the way home from New Jersey and Deleware, we stopped at Fante's, where I purchased a Yama vacuum pot. It's a clean (thanks to a tight cotton filter), full coffee yet lacks the silt and oil of a press...

It's kinda like what drip coffee should taste like, but still not close to a press.On the other hand, it sure is fun to watch:

week's end...

A week (and then some) of canning comes to a close. Off to New Jersey and Delaware with Luke -- so canning, cooking and the like can be held at bay until Friday (at the earliest). Made a nougatine tart at work for the "demo" -- the small convection oven, as much as it is small, defies the "middle rack" logic and the almonds were carmalized (read burned, but everyone loved it). One coworker declared it her new favorite dessert. Who wouldn't? Almonds, apples sautéed in butter, a flaky crust... it's a whole lot of heaven.

& lasagne

Stephanie was here for a wedding, and Jonathan due to his new location. So...

While the tomatoes were brining, I made lasagne -- a white lasagne with delicata squash, carrots, mizuna and the standards (ricotta, paramsean, parsley).

Meanwhile, Jonathan documented the lasagne noodles on the rack. (Nothing special this time around, just eggs, semolina and salt...)

And then Stephanie and Jonathan prepped apples for the nougatine tart that was heavenly. Recipe courtesy of Tartine.

(I'm having a major internal debate: grad school or cooking school?)

green tomatoes

Last weekend I made tomato pickles as the CSA has tons ofgreen tomatoes that have been rotting before going red somehow. Jonathan and I picked 30 pounds or so of green tomatoes, from roma to green zebra... Washed them, cored and sliced them and layerd them with salt an onions. They brined overnight, and in the morning I simmered them with yellow and black mustard seeds, peppercorns and a few cloves for thirty minutes before canning them.

Julie and I had some last night. Sweet, tart and very mustardy. I need to try again with some hot peppers.

canning... and canning

I've been canning for three days now. Only turned one spoon red from beets (picked beets, actually. 14 pints to this moment). And there's tomatoes, canned ripe and pickled green. I need to learn to not do anything on my days off.

this is my second attempt at a blog. and that after sucessful and failed livejournaling.