Odds and Ends

This is a poor second cousin to seafood noodle salad, but it was still tasty. And photographed beautifully.

In other news, Brother Samuelson made me a pie.


Of the chicken pot persuasion.


With a perfectly flakey, all-butter crust.


I ate the whole thing in about three hours.

So then I reciprocated with Italian Stuffed Shells. Note the absence of hyphenation, please. I hadn't made this in years, so it was fun to revisit.

I'll post the recipe later.

Brownie Plot

I wanted brownies and, for stereotypically womanly reasons, I wanted them really, really chocolatey. So I melted a couple ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate and stirred it into the batter. I also added walnuts, a splash of vanilla, and a dash each of cinnamon, cloves, and chili powder. Me likey. I think a cheesecake layer, sweetened with coconut cream, would be a good addition. Too bad I only want brownies, like, twice a year.

Packin' Pasta

Ingredients:
sauteed onions, mushrooms, kale
brown rice pasta and white beans
tomatoes stewed with garlic and herbs
chopped sardines

Tater Salad

Salad:
red potatoes, quartered and boiled, salted and sprinkled with vinegar while hot
onion rings and mushrooms, roasted with olive oil, herbs, and salt
peas and celery

Dressing:
mayonnaise and cream cheese
mustard and horseradish
roasted garlic, minced
lemon zest and juice
pepper trio (black, white, cayenne)
fresh parsley and salt

Garnish:
soft-boiled eggs
salt and pepper

More leeks...

Quesadillas with Panela cheese, oregano, sauteed leeks, and roasted red peppers. Good combo. Excellent with green chili salsa.

Spring thing!

LEEKS! Leeks are in season, and Broulims had them on sale for 89 cents a bundle this week. BOOYAH. So I made:

Leek Cornmeal Pancakes

2 leeks, white and pale green parts only, rinsed and sliced thin
olive oil and butter
salt and pepper

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
thyme
allspice
nutmeg
garlic powder
white pepper

1 1/4 cup buttermilk (we all know the trick about stirring a tablespoon of lemon juice/vinegar
into regular milk and letting thicken for ten minutes, yeah?)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, then butter, waiting for butter to stop foaming before adding leeks. Saute to desired softness/mildness; season to taste.

Heat new skillet over medium heat. Whisk dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. Pour wet into dry, whisk just until combined, gently fold in leeks. Oil pan and fry pancakes. Serve with butter and/or a drizzle of honey.

Notes: The batter was pretty thick, so I added some water. Next time I might increase the cornmeal and decrease the flour by a bit. Dried thyme is VERY assertive. Use sparingly. It'd be nice to work in cheese somehow.

First Fruit Salad of Summer

Tried something a little different with the dressing this time. Took low-fat plain yogurt, sweetened it with coconut cream, and added lime juice and zest, mint, and minced candied ginger. So so so good. Though the yogurt was tasty and (relatively) healthy, it did get watery in the fridge, so I'd like to try substituting cream cheese and whipping it (maybe with a little cream) for a better texture.

Baby Quiches

Awesome! You take phyllo dough, cut it into squares, and layer it with butter into muffin tins -- three or four sheets thick. Then, bake till golden brown, fill with quiche goodies, and bake again!

I made two kinds: shallot-broccoli-mustard and shallot-mushroom-thyme-white pepper-nutmeg. Jarlsberg Swiss in both. Very tasty.

Summer Sippin'

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Oh yeah, babe.

Legumes galore...

Curried lentils with peas, smashed yams, steamed zucchini, and sour cream.

Dinner tonight

Curried lentils with roasted broccoli and pickled ginger. Good combo.

Fish Tacos

Note: Asadero is one of several Mexican cheeses made fresh from part-skim milk -- the Mexican equivalent of mozzarella. Like mozzarella, asadero (along with fresco, panela, an quesadilla cheese) has an equal fat-to-protein ratio. But unlike mozz, these cheeses have an extremely low "melting" temperature, but do not run or separate, or even lose their shape, really; they just get hot and very soft. Also, asadero has a deeper, nuttier flavor than mozzarella. 

Fish Tacos

olive oil

tilapia fillets

salt and pepper

lime juice

6-inch corn tortillas

asadero cheese, sliced or grated

cilantro, chopped

salsa/hot sauce/chilis, green or red

ripe mango, diced

sour cream

lettuce or cabbage, sliced into ribbons

Heat a little oil (about half a teaspoon per fillet) in nonstick pan over medium. While it heats, prepare the other ingredients. Pat tilapia dry with paper towel and set in hot pan. Season with salt and pepper. Let it cook several minutes, until thin side of fillet is almost opaque throughout (it's hard to overcook tilapia, and you want both sides to brown nicely). Meanwhile, continue preparing other ingredients. Flip tilapia and continue cooking. When done, remove from pan, turn heat to medium-low, set fish aside on cutting board or plate and drench fillets with lime juice. Add a little oil to the pan if needed and heat the tortillas on one side, flipping them over after a minute or so and sprinkling hot side with cheese, cilantro, and salsa/hot sauce. When cheese is melted, remove tortillas to plate, add tilapia, mango, sour cream, and lettuce. Wrap up and enjoy.

New Cake o' Dreams

Planning on making it within the week. (Hooray for MONEY and TIME!)

Four buttermilk spice cake rounds, soaked in tres leches.

Orange curd filling.

Mascarpone/whipped cream frosting.

Ginger-infused caramel ganache.

Toasted pecan garnish.

Title ideas: 

Orange-Spice Caramel Torte. 

Autumn Trifle Cake. 

Spice 'n' Citrus Soaked Gateau.

...?

Y'know, tinned fish has its place.

Since (mostly) giving up meat last autumn, I've been experimenting with protein sources -- seafood, seeds, legumes. I've always loved smoked oysters, but I haven't really had any desire to eat sardines since that one time at Sunriver when I was a kid. Turns out, though, that they're full of good stuff, including calcium in their tiny crunchable bones.

So I made a simple sauce of canned fine-dice tomatoes, fresh garlic, fennel seeds, oregano, and red pepper flakes, cooked it down for about thirty minutes, stirred in a tin of lightly smoked sardine, and tossed it with brown rice pasta, white beans, fresh steamed asparagus, and parsley. 

Delish. Can't wait to try it with oysters.

Something New

Confession: I've never bought Brussels sprouts fresh. Or frozen, come to think of it. In fact, these tough, knobby little cabbage buds were the very last veggie on the "DO NOT LIKE" side of my list until three or four years ago, when my aunt brought a braised batch to Christmas dinner and I fell like the S&P 500. Since then I've been on the lookout, but Broulims' specimens have never been very appealing... until now. 

So I roasted a bunch. Aubrey offered me some of her gyoza in exchange for some of my sprouts, and the combination was scrumptious.

Perchance to dream...

Phyllo dough. Browned butter. Roasted butternut squash. Red onion. Maple. Sage. Jarlsberg. Smoked fontina. Spinach. Fine-ground almonds. A drizzle of bechamel. White pepper. Nutmeg. 

Hot, flaky, layer-y goodness. Like my dad says, "I love anything hot in a pocket. ...Except Hot Pockets."

These would not be Hot Pockets.

Seafood Noodle Salad

I made like five pounds of this stuff. Why did I do that? I mean, I love it... it's one of my favorite dishes. And I've been craving it for months. But even I can't eat this much. And it's sort of a hard thing to give away, what with the seafood factor. Hmm. So yeah, fair warning: the recipe below yields a HUGE amount. Like, take-to-a-Mormon-potluck amount. Tip: Get all ingredients as dry as you can before adding to the bowl. Towel off the veggies after rinsing, and press the shrimp a bit.

Seafood Noodle Salad

~2 cups mayonnaise (Best Foods, pref)

~2/3 cup sour cream

zest of two lemons

1-2 TB fresh lemon juice

pepper, paprika, white pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

tons of dill (fresh would be awesome)

salt (not much as shrimp, krab, and olives will add saltiness)

half a small red onion, diced fine (taste and soak in water 1 hour if too strong)

1 lb small or medium shell pasta

3 celery ribs, chopped 

2-3 red bell peppers, chopped

3/4 lb salad shrimp, thawed and drained

3/4 lb imitation crab meat (krab), pulled into small pieces

1 10-oz jar green olives, sliced

Combine dressing ingredients in large bowl and refrigerate. Cook pasta in salty water to desired doneness, drain, soak in 2-3 rounds of cold water until at least room temp. Drain well, spread over four paper towels to dry. Meanwhile, chop celery and peppers and slice olives. When pasta is reasonably dry, taste dressing and make adjustments as desired (all flavors but salt should be quite strong). Stir pasta, celery, and peppers into dressing. Stir in shrimp and krab, then gently fold in olives. 

SALMON.

I LOVE IT.

IT LOVES ME.

THE END.

The Good Earth.

I went a bit mad at the grocery store yesterday. 

Last semester I was too poor to meet my usual fruit-and-veg-quota, and the knowledge that that won't be a problem this semester just sort of welled up and overwhelmed me last night at Broulims. 

I bought: broccoli, cauliflower, apples, oranges, tomatoes, garlic, scallions, potatoes, cucumbers, spinach, carrots, parsley, cilantro, lemons, and onions. I wanted to get squash, zucchini, mushrooms, celery, parsnips, turnips, Brussels sprouts, pears, avocados, and bell peppers, too... but it's a little early to be making my new roommates hate me. And, believe it or not, even I am limited as to the amount of produce I can throw back before it spoils.

Here's what I had for lunch/dinner:

I broke in my mini food processor (Christmas pressie) with a batch of hummus. And discovered that roasted broccoli and carrots are THE BEST EVER VEHICLES FOR HUMMUS. How have I never thought of this before? For protein's sake I also ate a boiled egg as I was cooking. Too bad I was so hungry; it woulda looked good on the plate.

Discovery!

Check it out check it out check it out check it out.  --Strongbad

We picked mass quantities of blueberries last summer and froze them. Over Christmas, I discovered that if you combine frozen blueberries and milk, the milk will clump into a soft freeze around the berries, which thaw quickly into juicy, slushy goodness. It's almost as good as ice cream! 

Frozen Blueberries in Sweet Milk

1/2 cup milk (whole probably works and tastes best)

1/2 TB sugar

pinch of cinnamon

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Pour milk into small bowl, mix in sugar and cinnamon, and add blueberries, submerging them as much as possible. Let sit about 30 seconds, then give a few gentle stirs to coat blueberries. Eat!

Also, look at the pretty Christmas cookies we made! Chocolate-walnut squares, pine nut tassies, and lemon curd macaroons!