Back to cooking

Well, I should say back to cooking for fun, or so I hope. It was nice to see my previous posts, 4 years ago, before the kids, when I had a lot more time and the dinner table looked a lot nicer.

Anyway - trying to improve my cooking repertoire, I am tired of having the same old quick dishes all the time.

I am also trying to figure out what the best place to put my cooking comments/tips so I can find them next time. Will start here and see where it goes.

So last Sunday I made pizza the first time. 2 pizzas, grilled, crust and sauce from William Sonoma, one with sausage, one half plain half grilled vegetables, the grilled vegetables were leftover from a dinner a couple of days back, but they were great. Even Diana liked the pizza. Next time I am making my own crust. I venture to say it will take me about 10 times of making pizza before I get comfortable with it.

Thursday night Grilled Salmon with potatoes latkes

- http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/quick-potato-and-carrot-latkes-recipe/index.html
- Notes: fried latkes at medium heat about 3 minutes per side, recipe says 4 min but that is too long, started at medium-high and they were getting burned
- Grill salmon at 350-400F for about 12-13 minutes. I marinated the salmon with a marinade from William Sonoma and olive oil for about 1 hr before cooking

I am hoping this will turn into the Summer of cooking. I want to try at least 1 new recipe a week.

The dinner

Yesterday's dinner was great. It took a few hours to prepare - but it came out really well.
And James' floral arrangements were a big hit. Not to talk about the Kir Royal - the best ever :)

Hors o'dourves
- Zacusca and prosciutto on baguette and mozzarella

Appetizer
- Shrimp quiche and Waldorf salad

Main dish
- Pasta shells staffed with crab meat then baked (doesn't really have a name - wish it had one because it tastes a lot better than the description)

- Beef roast with potatoes and carrots (of course you could tell I cooked this dish - the potatoes outnumbered the carrots by far :))

Desert:
- Strawberry and rhubarb crisp - Emeril's recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/rhubarb-strawberry-crisp-recipe/index.html

I started taking pictures earlier in the cooking process - towards the end I completely forgot about it.

Yesterday also marked the first time ever when I was ready before the guests came in. The invitation was for 6:30 - and they showed up at 6:30 on the dot. At 6:25 the hors o'dourves were on the table and all the dishes were done - except for the crisp that just went in the oven.

On the subject of being on time, it took me years to get used to the American habit of being on time. In Romania nobody would show up on time - in general we were counting on people showing at least 15 minutes late. In my family other than my grandmother's generation we all incapable to be ready on time. So for me this was a big victory yesterday - but I can't really take credit - James helped all day so I can get the cooking done in time.

Notes along the way:
- Every time I say I need to get the shopping and cleaning done before the dinner day - and that never happens - the day before is always busy - something comes up and I never make it to the store. At least this time I made the shopping list before

- Waldorf salad - love it love it love it :) Every time I make it I am saying I will not make it again it takes too long for a salad - I would say about 30 minutes in preparation time - but it is totally worth it - it looks all fresh and tastes so refreshing - I used Martha Stuart's recipe. One tip I learned from another recipe - to grate the fennel- I had the hardest time before trying to cut it thin.

- Shrimp quiche - the Julia Child recipe - this was the fastest recipe for the evening - the shrimp takes about 5 minutes to peal/devein and prepare in butter and Vermooth - the mixing the milk/cream and eggs is 2 minutes and off it goes in the oven.

- I was first going to serve the salad and quiche separately - but they actually worked very well together.

- The shell pasta - I am attaching picturea of work in progress - when it went in the oven it had breadcrumbs covering it and it comes out nice a crispy looking on the outside.
Basically - you prepare the crab mixture then stuff the boiled pasta shells with it. A few years back my mother was visiting and we were having people over for dinner - I of course was running late when we sat down to fill the pasta shells. It makes me laugh when I remember her looking at me like I was out of my mind to go through the pain of stuffing every little pasta shell :) If you have the patience - it is well worth the effort. Yesterday I timed it - 30 minutes of filling the pasta. The dish was a hit and it is every single time - which makes me have the patience to make it again.














- Onto the rhubarb crisp. This is a simple dish to make - minimal chopping involved :) There are more complicated rhubarb pie recipies but if you are in a hurry this is a a tasty substitute. Rhubarb is in season now - all through last winter I had to use the frozen one - it just doesn't come out the same way. One note on rhubarb - it should be peeled - the outer layer is a little tougher.

Around 5 I was busily peeling the potatoes and carrots and instead of throwing the peels in the trash I used the garbage disposal which turned out to be a big mistake - I am saying now as I am waiting for the plumber at 11AM on Sunday morning to unclog the pipes :)

A few years back, the first time I moved to Reston I did the same when I cooked the first meal in the new place. A few hours later the downstairs neighbor showed up and said I flooded their apartment - fortunately they are at home and caught it in time. He asked me if I used the garbage disposal - I said yes. Then he said you must have thrown a lot of stuff in it - I said no more than usual - turns out the garbage disposals and pipes in Reston are too delicate to handle potato peels.

Anyway - no damage done this time - no neighbor to flood - just waiting for the plumber to arrive ...

Boeuf bourguignon

I didn't have to drag my husband to see Julie and Julia. He is all about encouranging me to cook and he figured the movie will "inspire" me. He got me Julia Child's baking book a few years back and enough kitchen stuff to get me started. I made several recipes from her Joy of Cooking - the chicken pot pie and chocolate mousse are my favorites (with Fall starting again I can't wait to make those again).

Starting has been slow - all these recipes are good when you have plenty of time on your hands - and preferably don't work. More than a year ago I spent 4 hours on one weekend to make a chocolate cake - probably spent $25 on the ingredients and it turned out worse than the $4 10 minute powder thing you get at the supermarket.

So we saw the movie and the making of the famous boeuf bourguignon (on an unrelated note - I don't understand why they can't pronounce boeuf properly and they say something similar to boof)

Anyway - a couple of weeks ago I gathered the stuff for the recipe and started - on a Thursday afternoon - the advantage of working from home - got my work done early in the morning - fixed the bourguignon and while it was in the oven for a few hours did more work.

I had forgotten the pearl onions and didn't go back to the store to get them - so you can say it was not truly boeuf bourguignon. I followed the recipe to the T (other than the onions - which probably would have added another 30 minutes of cooking). All and all I'll say it is actually easy to make - if you put the time in - it took me about 3 hours of cutting, frying, etc. Next time I will definitely make it the day before I plan to serve it.

The best surprise in the recipe was beurre marnie. I have been incapable so for to make decent gravies and my last attempt at making roux for gumbo (one of Emerille's recipes) turned into such a disaster I had to throw away the whole thing. I had everything done up to the beurre marnie. I was all nervous I will mess up the whole recipe and it will turn into a gumbo disaster. But to my surprise it was very easy to make.

It was definitely my kind of food - meet and potatoes at its best. It was excellent. There is this French cafe we walk to often - I had Boeuf bourguignon there a couple of times (they serve it with linguini instead of potatoes) - mine was so much better - I am not ordering it there anymore.

Next time I won't forget the pearl onions ...

Oh - I found one of Julia Child's comments in the cookbook funny - you should serve the dish with the same kind of wine you cooked it with - funny - and the recipe calls for 1 - 1.5 bottles of Zinfandel :)

Crab Melt Panini

Today was definitely a good cooking day. I needed to do some work - but than can wait till the evening - I was all into cooking this morning.

So - to repeat myself - I am a Williams Sonoma fan - our friend butters turned us onto the store - he and his wife gave us a gift certificate a year or so ago - the rest is history - so you go in there and they have their themes - earlier in the Summer it was the panini grill - and a panini cookbook next to it. I waited and waited and finally last Thursday I bought the grill and the cookbook.

Today I tried the crab melt - it was literally melting in your mouth it was so good - and it looked like the picture in the book. I used Vermont hot dog buns - maybe try a different roll next time. I also used gruyere instead of cheddar - I am not a cheddar fan.

The next panini adventure is the turkey with brie and apples and a sweet recipe - cinnamon-apple stuffed pancakes - I am prepared for this one with the Calvados the recipe calls for - never had Caldos in the house - had a couple of times in a French restaurant - went to get a bottle - hmmm - expensive - maybe I should have stayed with the alternative - apple cider.

Zacusca

First time attempting zacusca. I got this recipe from my grandmother years ago - the paper is yellow by now - I had never tried it.

Had to get stuff I never had in my kitchen - a meat grinder, sunflower seed oil (basic oil in Romania) - I was not sure what peanut oil will do to the taste.

Here is the recipe - I made a quarter of the regular portion - quantities in US measurements - it is a pain every single time to translate from kgs to lbs.

- 2 lbs eggplant (I got the small Italian version)
- 1 lb red peppers
- 1 lb tomatoes (nice and ripe)
- 1/2 lb onion (yellow)
- 1/2 lb oil (sunflower oil)
- 1 hot pepper (I got jalapeno at the store - being the first time I bought jalapeno I must have picked it wrong - it was not spicy at all)
- 5-6 garlic cloves (this was not in my grandmother's recipe - but I found it in Radu Anton Roman's cook book - I have the actual book - but there is some pdf on the internet as well http://rapidshare.com/files/5087389/Carte_bucate_Radu_Anton_Roman.pdf)
- ground pepper (wish I could tell how much - Romanian recipes are notorious for saying - as much salt and pepper as it takes ;)
- salt (plenty of it)
- 1 bay leaf
- some cayenne pepper if it needs to be spicier (since I didn't have luck with the hot peppers)
- paprika

Now onto the preparation:
- Bake eggplants - in Romania we used to put the directly on the stove one eggplant per burner - very messy - plus - I have an electric stove - so not the same effect as gas. So I opted for baking - 350 F - on a baking sheet - I turned them a few times - takes about an hour to bake.

- Let eggplants cool off in the sink - then peal and set on a wood board to drain - these eggplants were unusually dry - I found in another cookbook that they should be draining for 3 hours. Anyway - they drained while I prepared the other vegetables - which took plenty of time.

- First put the onions through the meat grinder. Meat grinder stuck in about 30 seconds - need to make the onion pieces smaller. Unstuck the grinder - now we're moving - but the onions look all mushy and all the liquid is coming out of them). Ok - what now - picked up the phone and called my grandmother - she said I need to cut the onions by hand - hmmm - I said of course - then decided to move forward with the onion mush - first strained it to get rid of some of that liquis - heated up the oil and put the onion mush

- Red peppers - cleaned and diced - put through the meat grinder - my grandmother used to first bake them then peal them then put the through the grinder - talk about adding another hour to the preparation

- Tomatoes - they need to be first pealed - so set a pot with water and salt to boil - drop tomatoes in for about minute or until you see the peal cracking. Peal them and cut the green part out - then dice them - I use this dicer from Williams Sonoma - I bought it a couple of months ago and it is probably the most used item in the kitchen. Keep all the juice and meat from the tomatoes.

- Now onto frying - heat up half of the oil in a thick bottom pot (dutch oven worked - the second most used item in my kitchen), first fry the onions on medium heat with the bay leave and fresh ground pepper until translucent. Add peppers - fry for a few more minutes - if the oil is absorbed add some more. Then add tomatoes (with the juice) and the eggplant (put the eggplant through the grinder first). Add the garlic puree (put the garlic through a garlic press). Add the remaining oil. Bring to a boil - lower the heat, cover and let simmer for one hour - need to stir frequently so it will not stick. Taste a couple of times while it cooks and add more salt and pepper if necessary. I also added a little cayenne pepper for a little kick.

- Let it cool off and fill out the jars. My grandmother made these to last the whole winter - so there was a whole ritual around filling out the jars so the zacusca will keep (I got all the details again on the phone today) - I skipped that since I didn't make enough to last all winter - so I am just storing it in the refrigerator.

- All together a 3 hour adventure - plus a 50 minute phone call to Romania while dicing tomatoes. For my first zacusca - pretty good. The conversation was worth it - parts of it went like - you prepare tomatoes the way you prepare them for tomato paste - like I ever made tomato paste :)

The last thing I needed were canning jars. I headed to my new favorite store - Williams Sonoma - the sales woman laughed - said it was too late in the year to get canning jars - she went through the same thing last year - apparently they only sell canning jars in the spring - I guess I was not prepared for this year :) I will be ordering my canning jars in the winter next year.

I was tempted again by the pepper mills - but $80 seems totally outrageous. It almost makes you look at the $26 pepper mills as being reasonable ...