What's in yer house right now? Here's mine,
Chevre
Fruli Pecorino Romano
Gorganzola Dulce
Taleggio
Petit Basque (sheep's milk)
Raclette: a Swiss good for melting
Showing posts with label Food Fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food Fun. Show all posts
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Simple Fish Stew
2 lbs. Monkfish, cut into medallions, approx. 3/4" thick
4 medium red potatoes, 3/4" dice
2 sweet onions, (Walla Walla, Vidalia, etc.) chopped
Butter for sauteing, approx. 4 Tbl.
Milk or Cream, depending on your concern for your arteries
Salt
Red Pepper flakes or Saffron
In a 4-6 qt. heavy covered pan or pot, Sweat the onions in 2 Tbl. butter. Saute the Fish in the remaining butter separately for a minute or two and add to onions. Add just enough milk, with a little cream, to barely cover. Add salt and pepper flakes or Saffron (Not both!) Cook, covered, for 10-15 minutes, then add potatoes, and cook until tender. Serve with green salad, crusty bread, and a nice unoaked Chardonnay. I'm also thinking maybe a Spanakopita style popover, with spinach, egg, lemon, and nutmeg would be good.
It's almost ready, so I'm outta here.
4 medium red potatoes, 3/4" dice
2 sweet onions, (Walla Walla, Vidalia, etc.) chopped
Butter for sauteing, approx. 4 Tbl.
Milk or Cream, depending on your concern for your arteries
Salt
Red Pepper flakes or Saffron
In a 4-6 qt. heavy covered pan or pot, Sweat the onions in 2 Tbl. butter. Saute the Fish in the remaining butter separately for a minute or two and add to onions. Add just enough milk, with a little cream, to barely cover. Add salt and pepper flakes or Saffron (Not both!) Cook, covered, for 10-15 minutes, then add potatoes, and cook until tender. Serve with green salad, crusty bread, and a nice unoaked Chardonnay. I'm also thinking maybe a Spanakopita style popover, with spinach, egg, lemon, and nutmeg would be good.
It's almost ready, so I'm outta here.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Leftovers
My mama was not a gourmet cook; she worked with what she knew, which was plain down home Southern cooking--no herbs nor spices to speak of, and sometimes, shall we say, more traditional than thought out?
But there was a mantra: local and fresh. She shopped at a butcher's for her meat, and locally raised produce was the standard, not the exception. Yes, she canned and, later, froze some things for later use, but it was always with the thought "Fresh is best." I've shelled many a bean or pea on the porch on a Summer morning that was brought by "a friend" the night before from their garden, to be served for Dinner ("Lunch") or Supper ("Dinner") later that day. My Daddy raised 117 tomato plants for five people the first year he was retired--some for eating, some for canning, and some to give away. (He always said the best way to eat tomatoes was going down the row with a salt shaker.) That barter system was a part of being a good neighbor; you had to have something really good to give away to be able to hold your head up and look your peers in the eye as you gave 'em a sack full of ...well, lotsa things.
Peas ( 11 varieties one year, all "field peas"), tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, lettuce, collards, turnips and greens, radishes, onions (about five different types), garlic (finally), potatoes, summer squash, peaches (bought by the bushel), blackberries, sweet potatoes, corn--during "Season" almost nothing was bought. People staggered their crops; if you knew your friend was putting in corn, you might back off corn a little and focus on tomatoes.
What prompted this memory was tonight's dinner: not thought out, nor anything in particular. Last night I had poached salmon, roasted French Fingerling Potatoes w/Thyme, and fresh Sugar Snap Peas. Tonight I plated the cold Salmon, warmed the potatoes in the toaster oven, and "nuked" the peas gently to warm them: one of those days; I drove 230 miles today and wasn't ready to fuss.
The point being: the peas were raised locally in a greenhouse; even re-heated they still had a lovely flavor and some texture, the same with the potatoes--mildly sweet and nutty, with a lovely potato mealiness. The point being: fresh. Local. It holds up. It tastes better. It's good for you and the environment. It gets ya out in the garden "in the cool of the day" like you know Who.
But there was a mantra: local and fresh. She shopped at a butcher's for her meat, and locally raised produce was the standard, not the exception. Yes, she canned and, later, froze some things for later use, but it was always with the thought "Fresh is best." I've shelled many a bean or pea on the porch on a Summer morning that was brought by "a friend" the night before from their garden, to be served for Dinner ("Lunch") or Supper ("Dinner") later that day. My Daddy raised 117 tomato plants for five people the first year he was retired--some for eating, some for canning, and some to give away. (He always said the best way to eat tomatoes was going down the row with a salt shaker.) That barter system was a part of being a good neighbor; you had to have something really good to give away to be able to hold your head up and look your peers in the eye as you gave 'em a sack full of ...well, lotsa things.
Peas ( 11 varieties one year, all "field peas"), tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, lettuce, collards, turnips and greens, radishes, onions (about five different types), garlic (finally), potatoes, summer squash, peaches (bought by the bushel), blackberries, sweet potatoes, corn--during "Season" almost nothing was bought. People staggered their crops; if you knew your friend was putting in corn, you might back off corn a little and focus on tomatoes.
What prompted this memory was tonight's dinner: not thought out, nor anything in particular. Last night I had poached salmon, roasted French Fingerling Potatoes w/Thyme, and fresh Sugar Snap Peas. Tonight I plated the cold Salmon, warmed the potatoes in the toaster oven, and "nuked" the peas gently to warm them: one of those days; I drove 230 miles today and wasn't ready to fuss.
The point being: the peas were raised locally in a greenhouse; even re-heated they still had a lovely flavor and some texture, the same with the potatoes--mildly sweet and nutty, with a lovely potato mealiness. The point being: fresh. Local. It holds up. It tastes better. It's good for you and the environment. It gets ya out in the garden "in the cool of the day" like you know Who.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Lunch
Let's talk indulgence: lunch, including recipes.
First, a nice healthy breakfast, so as to have a clear spirit: oatmeal with wild blueberries and apricots: Sumatra coffee for a heart starter.
Then, Thinking about that leg of lamb from last night: free range, grass-fed, and local: roasted with thyme and olives with Herbes de Provence, still pink the next day.
Oh yeah, and soup: Chard with Lemon (recipe follows, from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. What? You don't own it? This is the one I woulda gotten after the "How to boil water" basic Cookbook, if I had known then.)
And what I think of as the main course: local sweet organic carrots and sublime shallots, roasted with butter, thyme, and Brittany sea salt: dayum!
Wine note: I went back to my shop looking for more of the beautiful Spanish Merum Monastrell 2005 Dennis noted earlier, (link to follow, if I can figure out how) but found another, a Luzon Verde 2004, also from Jumilla, and also good, and also a $ 9 bargain: huah, Spain!
This is simple and easy food, folks, but, as so many point out, it's all about ingredients. Local and fresh trumps Organic from factory farms in the Imperial Valley, for me. I have the time and inclination to have searched for suppliers and distributors for most of this, though I confess that Olive trees are scarce in CT, as is Monastrell. If ya got a little ground, which I do not, and the time, growing yer own is a lovely option, which I daydream about frequently. Ya can't get good results with those little paper boxed months-old shallots from yer local supermarket; I've not been inside one in six months, but that's luck and the time to chase around for specifics.
OK: enough chatter, recipe.
2 bunches green Chard (about eight -ten cups leaves, loose)
1 lg. onion, diced
2-3 red potatos (I use whatever I got), thinly sliced
6 1/2 c. water
Butter, or Olive oil
sea salt
juice of 1 large Lemon, or 2 cups Sorrel leaves. stems removed
Saute potatos and onion s in soup pot over med high heat until they color: ~ 8 minutes. Deglaze with a little water, add greens and cook till wilted (5 minutes), then add rest of water and cook ~ 20 minutes. Let cool and puree in blender. Bring back to warm temperature, and add Lemon juice if you didn't use Sorrel. Serve with croutons and creme fraiche or sour cream garnish.
Ya owe it to yerself to make this at least once: heh.
First, a nice healthy breakfast, so as to have a clear spirit: oatmeal with wild blueberries and apricots: Sumatra coffee for a heart starter.
Then, Thinking about that leg of lamb from last night: free range, grass-fed, and local: roasted with thyme and olives with Herbes de Provence, still pink the next day.
Oh yeah, and soup: Chard with Lemon (recipe follows, from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. What? You don't own it? This is the one I woulda gotten after the "How to boil water" basic Cookbook, if I had known then.)
And what I think of as the main course: local sweet organic carrots and sublime shallots, roasted with butter, thyme, and Brittany sea salt: dayum!
Wine note: I went back to my shop looking for more of the beautiful Spanish Merum Monastrell 2005 Dennis noted earlier, (link to follow, if I can figure out how) but found another, a Luzon Verde 2004, also from Jumilla, and also good, and also a $ 9 bargain: huah, Spain!
This is simple and easy food, folks, but, as so many point out, it's all about ingredients. Local and fresh trumps Organic from factory farms in the Imperial Valley, for me. I have the time and inclination to have searched for suppliers and distributors for most of this, though I confess that Olive trees are scarce in CT, as is Monastrell. If ya got a little ground, which I do not, and the time, growing yer own is a lovely option, which I daydream about frequently. Ya can't get good results with those little paper boxed months-old shallots from yer local supermarket; I've not been inside one in six months, but that's luck and the time to chase around for specifics.
OK: enough chatter, recipe.
2 bunches green Chard (about eight -ten cups leaves, loose)
1 lg. onion, diced
2-3 red potatos (I use whatever I got), thinly sliced
6 1/2 c. water
Butter, or Olive oil
sea salt
juice of 1 large Lemon, or 2 cups Sorrel leaves. stems removed
Saute potatos and onion s in soup pot over med high heat until they color: ~ 8 minutes. Deglaze with a little water, add greens and cook till wilted (5 minutes), then add rest of water and cook ~ 20 minutes. Let cool and puree in blender. Bring back to warm temperature, and add Lemon juice if you didn't use Sorrel. Serve with croutons and creme fraiche or sour cream garnish.
Ya owe it to yerself to make this at least once: heh.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
