$45 in spices later…

I give you “Rava Dosas with Potato Chickpea Masala.”  Now, I’ll be the first (and Becca, a close second) to tell you that I generally don’t willingly cook or even order vegetarian dishes.  Unless it’s pizza.  Pizza counts, right?  But last night I was informed that not only would I a) be responsible for dinner that night, b) by myself, and c) for four.  D) was that we should invite one of our good friends that keeps kosher.  This presents plenty of fun issues to work around.  While I’d usually take the easy road and just substitute tofu, I decided to go for it last night.

Out comes epicurious and “Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking.”  I had picked it up used off amazon a couple years ago and hadn’t cooked from it once.  From that, I came up with the dish shown above and a curried creamed spinach.  The latter was good enough that the remains disappeared before the camera could be found.

This was amazingly tasty (I should say “is,” given that I am eating leftovers while typing this), but I would definitely recommend working in pairs or planning about two hours to do this, especially if you’re making anything else.  Stirring the masala, adding cream to the spinach, and making the rava dosas (the crepe-like pancake it’s sitting in) while setting the table for four does not make for a relaxing evening.  Fun fact about eating this:  One person went burrito style, one folded with fork-and-knife, and two ethiopian, tearing bits of the crepe off individually with the masala.

I think that cookbook is going be making more appearances.  Stay tuned.

Noodles!

The combination of a quiet work day for me plus Becca being home around lunchtime made for one of the best lunches I’ve had in awhile.  Usually, I’m scrounging for leftovers or slapping together a sandwich from whatever I can find, then returning upstairs to eat and continue working.  However, today brought us this:

Donburi Style Chicken over Udon Noodles

This was warm, comforting, and fantastic.  Softened onions, egg, and chicken thighs in a broth of soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and dashi.  We found the recipe at http://www.catesworldkitchen.com and are definitely saving it for another cool day.  We tweaked the recipe’s proportions ever so slightly… less onion, a little more chicken… served with udon noodles instead of rice.  It also would have been better with three eggs instead of two.

bienvenue a paris

- Paris, Spring 2009

We left for Paris on Friday, February 27 for my final spring break (I told Eric if I ever say I want to go back to school, shoot me). We flew direct from Philadelphia to Paris on Air France, and decided to take a chance on their dinner… Eric had boeuf bourgignon and I had salmon. Neither one was especially impressive. Neither one of us slept, either, the plane was entirely too uncomfortable.

When we arrived in Paris, it was foggy and cool. After escalators up and down and moving sidewalks back and forth, we managed to go through customs and find the RER to get into Paris– it only took us one hour. Another hour of RER and dragging our suitcases through the streets, and we finally arrived at the apartment, where my sister met us. She had made us coffee, but we got right into bed to take a nap.

After our short nap, we woke up to a warm (for this time of year) and sunny day. We quickly set out, first to eat something… and then to visit what has quickly become our most-frequented spot in all of Paris– BHV.

First some history. We are staying in the family apartment, which makes a 9-day trip to Paris almost affordable. We, and all of our family members, get to stay for free. It is a large, sunny apartment with French doors that open onto balconies and courtyards. It has comfortable furniture and a fully-equipped kitchen. In the past year or so, the older generation has decided to rent the apartment out to non-family members, since we’re not here often enough and it is usually empty (you can view the apartment at www.landesparisapt.com). Unfortunately, in the span of the past month or so, it has suffered many casualties– first the washing machine, and then the dishwasher. When we arrived, the washer was full of mildewy water, sheets, and towels. It was our job to empty the washer of its contents and purchase a new washer, a matching dryer, and a dishwasher.

The emptying of a broken washing machine… Eric and Elana

Hence our stop at BHV, which is the Bazaar de l’Hotel de Ville, and the closest department store. It can really be a fun place to visit, with beautiful clothes and home goods, but we spent most of our time on the 3eme etage, looking at appliances. We made friends with Fouad, who told us our best bet was with a German machine– Siemens and Bosch, which are the same firm. We picked out reasonable machines and said we would return on Monday.

We then began our walk, around the Hotel de Ville, down by the river, people-watching and scenery-gazing. We didn’t have any real direction, but just tried to give Eric a sense of the city. Eventually we turned home and picked up some groceries on the way.

Elana had met a young American man, Kevin, on her flight to Paris from London. He was on business for two weeks in London and decided to take the weekend to see Paris for the first time. He met us for a drink at a bar, Prune, near the Bastille and then joined us for dinner.

Dinner was at a small restaurant the size of a master bathroom. We were crammed in like sardines, but the food was good and very French. We were all eager to share, and picked out three appetizers:

• Salmon with guacamole
• Foie gras with onion confit
• A cold beef “salad”( beef and marinated vegetables)

And three main courses:

• A “pate” (this was actually called something I don’t remember and didn’t recognize. Elana and I asked the waitress twice to tell us what it was, and nodded vigorously when she described it, but had no idea what we were ordering. It turned out to be almost like meatloaf, but made with pate and likely ground beef and a lot of herbs and served hot. It was a pleasant surprise.)
• A slow-cooked pork – What turned out to be a giant piece of salty, smoked bacon-type pork.
• A beef stew over noodles

We shared two small desserts, one was fromage blanc, the other a chocolate cake drizzled with honey. It was very reasonable, and we had a wonderful time eating and getting to know our new travel companion who, for being a stranger, was very eager to share all of our dishes with us and take a chance on ordering something that we had no idea what we were getting.

Later that evening, I went to place a bottle of wine in the refrigerator. It promptly fell out of the refrigerator, crashing on to the tile floor. Fortunately, it was “safety glass,” and didn’t shatter. However, two other shelves had already broken out of the fridge and this left us with only one shelf. We didn’t have much food, so this didn’t trouble me much, but it was just another item on the list of “things that don’t work” here.

That night we slept very well after a long day (or two) of travel and a big, delicious dinner. Let the eating begin!

Back in the Swing of Things

After quite the hiatus from writing, we’re back! It’s been a hectic few months… lots of travel, a new job (Eric), finishing a doctorate (Becca), one lost (then found) cat and two stray (then adopted) ones.

I won’t speak for Becca, but fall is my favorite time of the year to cook. For one, it’s bearable to be in the kitchen for extended periods of time. It’s also the time for stews, soups, and roasts… no more of this “just throw it on the grill” nonsense. And lots of mashed potatoes.

I also discovered a slew of draft posts by Becca, detailing our time (well, mostly the meals) in Paris this past spring. We’ll finish those and post them as we can, interspersed with more current meals.

Your wife knows you well when…

… most of your Christmas presents from her come from the King Arthur Flour catalog.

Along the yeast and rising basket, I also received a cookie sheet cooling rack, pasta and pastry flours, and various other baking implements.

This should be a tasty 2009!

Dinner with the parents

This one is a little old– my sister and I had thought that we wanted to host a dinner party. But between my dissertation deadlines and her rocky romantic relationship, we ended up just cooking dinner for my parents, Eric, and a friend. We had read the recipe for a pan-roasted fish on risotto in Bon Appetit’s RSVP column and decided it looked good.

I love risotto and cook it often. This makes ordering it in restaurants dangerous, because I almost always find that restaurant risotto is underdone, or not creamy enough. My general recipe for risotto is:
Warm up at least a quart, preferably more (6 cups) of broth (chicken of vegetable, depending on who you are serving)
Take a soup pot or dutch oven, heat it and add some olive oil to cover the bottom
Add chopped shallots or onion, saute until soft
Add 1 cup of Arborio rice, stir it into the oil and onions until it begins to crackle a little
Add some white wine, stir until it is evaporated/absorbed
Begin adding stock– two ladlefuls, stir until it is absorbed. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, one at a time, and stirring until it is absorbed.
After you have added most of the broth, begin tasting. When the rice is soft and creamy, add whatever additions you would like– we like frozen petite peas and parmigiano-reggiano (or just plain parmesan) cheese. After you have added all your additions, salt and pepper to taste.
This is not an exact science, the most important parts are to saute the rice in olive oil before adding broth, and keep adding liquid until it is cooked to your liking. Don’t stop adding liquid just because your pot of broth is empty– add some more liquid to that pot and warm it up (even water if you like), or your risotto will be chalky rather than creamy.

The dish pictured certainly fits our title of “nothing is fat free.” It had a stick of butter and plenty of heavy cream in it. It was flavorful and delicious, the perfect meal for an early fall evening. And, having been to a bridal shower earlier in the day, I had to serve it on my wedding china just to prove that brides really do use all that expensive stuff they register for.

Cookies

We haven’t had much time to post lately, but I wanted to post some pictures of our favorite topic: cookies! First, my chocolate chip cookies. The recipe for these started from the “Once Upon a Tart” cookbook, but the original process was sloppy and results were unpredictable. Isolating some of the more important steps and changing them helped. These cookies are by the far the best chocolate chip I’ve ever had. They get made about once a month.

Next, two recent first tries that came out quite well:

On the left, we have a peanut butter and chocolate cookie with roasted, salted peanuts on top. They’re good and have the right balance of sweet and salty, but felt a bit confused to me.

On the right, we have a chewy chocolate chocolate chip cookie rolled in granulated sugar prior to baking. These are from the latest “Cooks Illustrated” and are excellent.

Lastly, triple chocolate cookies (picking up on a theme here) from one of the Nigella Lawson cookbooks… I forget which one exactly. These are great, especially warm and in a bowl of vanilla ice cream or dipped into coffee. One of my favorite parts of this recipe? It calls for the cookies to be measured out in a 1/3 cup measure!

Thanksgiving 2008

Here’s the menu from this year’s Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. There were about eight people responsible for varying amounts of it, and about 25 total guests. Items with a * were ours.

Appetizer
Savory Palmier

Turkey
Smoked turkey with gravy *
Kosher turkey with stuffing and gravy

Sides
Cauliflower and Pear
Mashed potatoes with caramelized shallots *
Lemon roasted french string beans
Sweet potatoes and parsnips roasted w/ rosemary and garlic
Corn pudding
Raw cranberry sauce
Maple tangerine cranberry sauce
Salad mache, arugulua, jicama and blood orange supremes, candied pecans
Challah rolls
Corn bread

Desserts
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Pumpkin mousse pie with ginger cookie crust
Apple bread pudding with caramel sauce *
Pomegranate sorbet

A question

So my mother in-law returns from Paris with a unique gift for me. One large can of duck fat. Still looking for inspiration, but perhaps I’ll find it when we’re in Maine around Christmas. There’s an excellent restaurant called Duck Fat in Portland, ME that specializes in twice-fried Belgian style frites using duck fat. The restaurant itself is lovely; informal, cozy, and delicious.

Last visit: Duck fat poutine (duckfat fries with duck gravy and melted locally-produced cheese curds), a pulled pork panini, and a Chimay Bleu. A lipitor chaser might not have been out of the question.

Any suggestions?

Limoncello

One of my favorite things to make (mostly because it’s a) alcoholic, b) requires very little effort, and c) tastes amazing) is my own limoncello. I’ve been doing this for more than a year now, and the results are light years beyond what you’d normally find in the liquor store.

It also costs a lot less.

Zesting more than a dozen lemons is a bit tedious, but well worth it. The three main variables I’ve been playing with are the alcohol used (traditionally it’s grain alcohol, something a bit difficult to get in PA sometimes), the concentration of the simple syrup used in the second stage of the process (measured on the Baumé scale), and the methods used for filtering and purifying the end product. Still a work in progress, but the failures are more than passable.

Note: The botttle was full, once upon a time. It umm, evaporated?