More than just cooking around here

Woo-hoo! I finished crocheting a baby blanket a few minutes ago. Yes, I know I'm supposed to talk about food but I just taught myself to crochet a couple of months ago, and I am very proud of it. I put a nice lace edging on it.

In addition to the crocheting the kitchen has been busy. Yesterday I made oatmeal-whole wheat bread. I used steel-cut oats that I soaked in hot water to soften them up, and a combination of graham wheat and AP flours. I added some wheat gluten for texture and it turned out soft and fluffy even with all the whole grain stuff. I turned the dough into sandwich buns – more on that in a minute.

Yesterday’s dinner was paella with halibut cheeks, shrimp, and clams, with some asparagus left over from Saturday’s steak and salad dinner. The steak was a flatiron steak, which comes from the chuck and is really marbled even though it’s just a “choice” cut. I sear it and put it into the oven until it’s medium-rare, then slice it down on the plates. Salad was baby shrimp and blue cheese with mixed greens and herbs, and steamed asparagus with sauce Maltaise (a hollandaise made with orange juice and zest instead of lemon). The sauce was good with the steak, too.

Tonight’s dinner will be grilled lamburgers (really 2/3 lamb, 1/3 beef). We are grinding the meat ourselves, so I have cut it all into small pieces and seasoned with cumin, oregano, garlic, and salt. The beef is chuck roast, it was on sale 2 for 1 so we picked up a couple. That’s what the sandwich buns are for. While four days ago it snowed, today it is supposed to get up to 70! That means we will probably take all the dishes and a tablecloth upstairs and eat up on the terrace. Dave wants sweet potato chips so I will have to get busy on those shortly.

I also have a pot of beef stock cooking. When we went to Cash & Carry (the restaurant supply store) we picked up some sliced Swiss cheese and a bag of onions. Dave asked for French onion soup, so of course that is on the menu for this week and I need a good beef base for it. I will add some of the veal demiglace that is now in the freezer to up the richness component.

And finally, I have cubed beef in a seasoning rub for chili. That’s where the rest of the chuck roast went. I’ll make that up tomorrow, probably, and we will can it with the pressure canner. Then we’ll have quarts of my chili on the shelf, and that tickles me no end.

I’m sitting here at the computer with the closet door open, and I can see all the canning jars – pickles, pickled carrots, pickled asparagus, jalapeno mint jelly, apple butter, honeydew syrup, applesauce, pork chile verde, cherry-plum sauce, tomato puree, green salsa, red salsa – and I feel pretty good about myself. I may not be “bringing home the bacon” but I can make it and preserve it.

Dinner for friends: going organic

After seeing the Thanksgiving menu, one of my clients asked if I would please cook dinner for them. Of course, that would be my pleasure. For for three guests, I pulled together dinner. But there was a twist -- one of them is not supposed to eat dairy, sugar, or wheat. And two of them mostly opt for organic foods. So I decided to try out a couple of things: - Make a dinner of things I want to cook and am happy to serve without using dairy, wheat, or refined white sugar - To the furthest extent possible and practical, use organic foods - See how much more if costs (if any) to eat organic The menu was: Salad/starter (wine: sparkling rose) Ahi tartare with preserved lemons, mixed greens and black olive tapenade Homemade sourdough baguette Entree (wine: Washington State Syrah) Moroccan spiced lamb shanks Barley pilaf Roasted carrots and zucchini Dessert (green tea) Rosemary-scented compote of apples and pears with oatmeal granola topping The only place where wheat came into play was in the bread, and of course anyone not wanting wheat can opt out of that. The ahi tartare and lamb sharks are tried-and-true recipes of mine, so the only risk areas were the bread, the barley pilaf, and the dessert. For the bread, I used the Malgieri recipe I've been working with, since my starter is nice and sour now. And I made it into baguettes using the nice new baguette pan. I have to say that this was the best bread I've ever made, in terms of texture and crumb. I think it could have used just a little more salt but by and large it was really great. The barley pilaf was something I had to make up, since I wanted something that could go into the oven and finish while the lamb shanks reheated. I went with 1/2 red onion and 1 cup of barley, sauteed in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil until the barley was toasty, then about a clove of minced garlic. Added three cups of chicken broth and a cup of water. I should note that all of these ingredients were organic. Simmered for about 45 minutes, then put a lid on and put into the oven. It fluffed up nicely and held in there for a couple of hours. The dessert took a little thinking, and I settled on organic brown rice syrup for the sweetener. Simmered that with about a tablespoon of roughly chopped rosemary. The "scent" was nearly overwhelmed by the taste of the brown rice syrup, but it was there. Found organic oat granola with nuts and maple syrup sweetener at the market. I roasted three granny smith apples and three Bartlett pears at 225 for a few hours while I ran out to take care of something else. When I pulled them out they were just barely tender, so I was able to cut them up and just peel off the apple skin with my fingers. The pear skins were nice and tender so I left them on. Tossed the syrup with the fruit, piled it into an 8" square baking dish, and covered the top with the granola. Drizzled more syrup on top, then put into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes until it was bubbly. Came out pretty good, and it was 100% organic as well. For the lamb, I couldn't find organic, but got them from a good natural producer. Rubbed with spices on Saturday, braised on Sunday, rested on Monday, served on Tuesday. They were really good, as usual. Going organic wasn't terribly difficult, as long as you don't mind spending *a lot* more money. I think this meal cost 50% more because of the cost of not only all the organic produce, but things like olive oil, tomato paste, chicken broth, etc. At least when you buy wild fish (like the ahi) you don't have to worry if it is organic or not. But with wine, the ingredients for that dinner for four cost over $30/person. Personally, I'm going to study that "top ten" list of the produce with the highest levels of pesticides etc and maybe focus on that for going organic in the short term.

Dinner party fun

Well, maybe cooking dinner for two of my good friends isn't quite a dinner party to some people, but it is to me. It's kind of a delayed birthday dinner for both of them so I want it to be special. So here's the menu: Mediterranean Ahi Tartare in Cucumber Boats Baby greens with lemon viniagrette, orange supremes, and tapenade North African-Spiced Lamb Shanks Mashed potatoes, roasted zucchimi Chocolate Creme Brulee Spiced palmieres and house brandied cherries And of course I am baking bread (as I write this). The good thing about this menu is that the lamb cooked yesterday, as did the custards. The ahi can be a little labor-intensive because you have to mince it, but that's not bad when you're only doing three portions. I just keep finding new ways to serve it. The lamb is an evolution of what I've done a couple of times now, and it's just the most wonderful braise. And the good thing is that I made extra, since Dave is traveling and I know he'll love having it for dinner when he gets home later this week. I'm serving a Cotes du Rhone with dinner, ought to work well and I know both of my friends like it. Should be a very fun evening. Guess I'd better get back to the kitchen!

Lip-smacking lamb shanks

Always wanted to cook lamb shanks, and when Dave found some for $4/lb I had him pick up a couple. Then of course the challenge was how to cook them. I took some cues from the new CIA cookbook "One Dish Meals." Made a paste of spices, including coriander, fennel, cinnamon, pepper, allspice, caraway, curry powder, cayenne, and some salt and rubbed it into the shanks. Refrigerated for six hours. Chopped some dried apricots and raisins and soaked them in brandy. Browned the shanks in some olive oil in a cast iron dutch oven. Took them out and put in a couple of sliced onions, cooked those until they were starting to brown and added a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Stirred for about a minute, then added a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and stirred until it began to brown. Put shanks and juices back in, added a couple of cans of chicken broth and the fruit and brandy. Put a lid on, put it in the oven at 300 degrees for three hours. Served with mashed potatoes. YUMM! One of the best things I've ever made.

Lamb and sweet potatoes (again)

One of the interesting things for me about blogging is that I can begin to see patterns in what I am cooking and paying attention to. For example, back in mid-May I made lamb meatballs and was eating sweet potato fries. And... ...yesterday I grilled lamb burgers and sweet potato slices. Different mix than for my meatballs: the usual 3/4 lb ground lamb to 1/4 pound regular ground beef, but left the onion finely chopped and mixed everything by hand. Two cloves of garlic minced into a paste with 1/2 t of salt, 1T olive oil, 1T chopped fresh oregano, 1T chopped fresh mint, pepper. I make four relatively thin patties out of this mixture. On the grill for about 8-10 minutes. Served them on homemade buns, used the challah recipe in "Joy of Cooking" since it makes dough with a nice texture and flavor for the lamb. Toss on a little tzatziki, a slice of tomato, and a couple of torn mint leaves and it makes a great sandwich! For the sweet potatoes, I peeled and sliced one into about 1/3" slices, tossed with olive oil and salt. They went on the grill for five min on one side, then turned and brushed with honey/lime/mint glaze (2T honey, juice of one lime, about 1/8t lime zest, 1t chopped fresh mint leaves. Boy, were those good. Once again, we served a rose. Nice with all those flavors going on, and it was a scorcher of a day around here so quite refreshing.

Ducking again...

So I had one duck liver in the freezer, and two more from the ducks this week. So I tried Jacque's recipe for a quick duck liver pate: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/105586 Dang, that was easy and yummy. Had the other duck breasts last night. No cherry sauce this time, unadorned was very very good. Got the confit cooked and packed away to age for a couple of weeks. Initial reviews are positive :) Today, we're having lamb burgers for dinner. But before that I am trying to roast a whole chicken in the advantium. It is kind of messy, you have to accept that it's going to splatter all over the oven then you have to wash it out. I need to figure out a solution for that.

Lamb meatballs

Had to come up with a nosh for a pinot nior wine tasting. Decided lamb of course made sense, so: 1/2 onion 1 clove garlic drop both into food processor and whirl until finely chopped. Add: 1/2 lb ground beef 1 lb ground lamb 2 t. cumin 2 t. salt 1/2 t. allspice 1/8 t. cayenne pepper Whirl to combine, add 1/2 c dried breadcrumbs and one egg. Whirl again, just until it comes together. Chill at least an hour. Form into 1" meatballs. Convection roast at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Served with some tzatziki, yogurt with shredded cucumber, cumin, salt, and a little mashed garlic to taste. They seemed to go over well, and did match nicely with the pinots we were tasting. Discovered that the dairy kind of smoothed out those that were a little high in alcohol.