Pale and tangy with a slightly sour flavor. Not great for baking, but wonderful for bread with salt. Purchased at Milkpail.
After a lot of flapping, the birds have finally flown the coop. I haven't seen them for days. I admit, I miss them a little bit.
with salmon, tuna and tai.
Last night I got to try out Angeline's Kitchen in Berkeley, a Louisiana soul food place where all the beer is served in ice cold mason jars. We only ordered some starters: garlic salted hush puppies and grilled boudin with mustard, greens and one tiny green tomato. The gumbo was spicy and flavorful, but I felt the shrimp taste and texture was a little lost in the thick brown roux. I, in fact, like the Gumbo at Brenda's better, but a Creole expert I am not.
The star for me were the brussel sprouts suprisingly. I've had only one really good experience with brussel sprouts, and that was at Bay Wolf, where the flavor, color and texture were absolutely clean and just tender without any bitterness. Their technique (so I've been told) is apparently to leaf every brussel sprout, discard the bitter core, and boil with just a lot of butter. But for some reason, no other restaurant, nor I myself, have been able to achieve a satisfactorily similar result. At Angeline's kitchen, the halved vegetables are (perhaps lightly steamed and) sauteed (or roasted) in brown butter and crispy sage cracklings. Not as fresh or light tasting as just plain brussel sprouts but definitely a fragrant hearty flavor. Below is a recipe according to the Real Simple folks. Angeline's grills 'em till the edges are brown and crispy.
The star for me were the brussel sprouts suprisingly. I've had only one really good experience with brussel sprouts, and that was at Bay Wolf, where the flavor, color and texture were absolutely clean and just tender without any bitterness. Their technique (so I've been told) is apparently to leaf every brussel sprout, discard the bitter core, and boil with just a lot of butter. But for some reason, no other restaurant, nor I myself, have been able to achieve a satisfactorily similar result. At Angeline's kitchen, the halved vegetables are (perhaps lightly steamed and) sauteed (or roasted) in brown butter and crispy sage cracklings. Not as fresh or light tasting as just plain brussel sprouts but definitely a fragrant hearty flavor. Below is a recipe according to the Real Simple folks. Angeline's grills 'em till the edges are brown and crispy.
2 pounds fresh Brussels sprouts (40 to 50 sprouts), trimmed and halved
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup coarsely chopped sage leaves (6 to 8 leaves)
1 generous teaspoon kosher salt, to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
In a large saucepan, add the sprouts to boiling salted water and cook until bright green and just tender, 6 to 8 minutes; drain and set aside. In a 12-inch skillet, over medium heat, melt the butter and cook until nutty brown in color, being careful not to burn it. Add the sage, stirring until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sprouts, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat in the butter and cook until heated through, 5 to 7 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
This is how I do Coolio's Italian Bread Recipe.
1 french bread baguette, halved
1/4 cup softened butter
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp hot sauce or to taste (I use whatever I've got. He prefers Crystal, of course.)
4 cloves garlic finely minced or, better yet, pressed into paste.
1/2 cup grated cheeses: parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, whatever... I find that a finer grate is better.
Adjust to taste. Sizzle garlic in cold pan with tsp of water and a tbsp of butter until the paste is slightly darkened and caramelized. Mix all the ingredients together and spread. Wrap in foil and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Open up the foil and broil on a baking sheet in the lower rack of the oven till bubbly golden.
Or,
Mix, spread and broil. Coolio style.
These are my finds at the nearby quilt show today. From left to right clockwise:Colored wood grain in stripes fabric from Australia.Three unintentionally matching prints from Amy Butler.The snake and dots are also from Australia.Two black and coral circles at the right bottom corner are actually beaded rings.Czech glass buttons in smooth coral, and clear with black and gold detail.Gold and brown trim with raised metal filigree, purple beads and thread. I've got only about a yard, so I'm thinking it will make a nice sash for a dress.
Inspired by the film Julie and Julia to eat Beef Burgundy, I set out to make it. The recipe is from The New Best Recipe book and was followed rather faithfully except for a few very minor alterations, namely no parsley garnish.
All the base ingredients are combined and ready to be boiled and placed in the oven. You can see the string of the cheesecloth bag which holds the herbs and vegetables. The liquid is rather muddy at this point after the roux has been added.
Here are the wines I bought at Trader Joe's for general use. We "tested" a few glasses during the long cooking process so I needed to pop two bottles. I would say both wines were rather characterless but sufficient to make the sauce. A richer, more interesting wine would probably make this dish peerless. The book suggests a good Pinot Noir or Burgundy.
After the recipe timings lapsed, the result was soupier than I expected. I learned that my electric range is rather underpowered. If I'm following a recipe very closely, ingredients seem to take much longer than the book expects. With the coils on the highest heat (say where water is at a rolling boil), I need to cook everything nearly twice as long, which is tricky when quick sauteeing or serious browning is called for. I also need to preheat the coils for quite a while, so the lag needs to be calculated into my cooking times. On tricky projects, I tend to burn all the coils on different temps so firing works more quickly.
To reduce the sauce to 3 cups, I poured most of the liquid into a saute pan while the veg and meat stayed warm. The final result was a brown and slightly opaque yet glossy stew that was delicious but not quite spectacular. The first night we served the stew with rice but the next night we cooked up some fettuccine. I'm going to try it again with Julia Child's recipe, the appropriate noodle, and a better wine next time. The recipe is time consuming, not overly complicated, but better done on a lazy day.
All the base ingredients are combined and ready to be boiled and placed in the oven. You can see the string of the cheesecloth bag which holds the herbs and vegetables. The liquid is rather muddy at this point after the roux has been added.
Here are the wines I bought at Trader Joe's for general use. We "tested" a few glasses during the long cooking process so I needed to pop two bottles. I would say both wines were rather characterless but sufficient to make the sauce. A richer, more interesting wine would probably make this dish peerless. The book suggests a good Pinot Noir or Burgundy.
After the recipe timings lapsed, the result was soupier than I expected. I learned that my electric range is rather underpowered. If I'm following a recipe very closely, ingredients seem to take much longer than the book expects. With the coils on the highest heat (say where water is at a rolling boil), I need to cook everything nearly twice as long, which is tricky when quick sauteeing or serious browning is called for. I also need to preheat the coils for quite a while, so the lag needs to be calculated into my cooking times. On tricky projects, I tend to burn all the coils on different temps so firing works more quickly.
To reduce the sauce to 3 cups, I poured most of the liquid into a saute pan while the veg and meat stayed warm. The final result was a brown and slightly opaque yet glossy stew that was delicious but not quite spectacular. The first night we served the stew with rice but the next night we cooked up some fettuccine. I'm going to try it again with Julia Child's recipe, the appropriate noodle, and a better wine next time. The recipe is time consuming, not overly complicated, but better done on a lazy day.
The New Best Recipe produced by the Cook's Illustrated people is a cooking bible seriously beloved by older ladies and moms everywhere. I overheard a quartet of silver foxes on Bart discussing the merits of this book (and Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Child), and my sewing circle should probably get paid for the amount of hype they created.
The recipes are mostly spot on with the directions and quantities, but an added bonus are the technical tips, cookware recommendations and recommended ingredients that are interspersed throughout the chapters. If you want to know why a recipe works (or doesn't), or just want no fuss abc's to follow, this is a great book with a lot of common classic recipe's, mostly American, but also International cuisines, that are streamlined but not dumbed down. A small portion of the info may be redundant for an experienced or professional cook, like how to pan fry a salted fish fillet, but the skills set is a good refresher for anyone meticulous about their home cooking or for beginners intent on improving their skills.
Below are the recipes I recently tried that turned out very tasty. Most of the recipes were improvements on ones in my stash, while others were fantastic as followed more or less exactly. While the techniques sometimes varied a tad from what I've done in the past, all the recipe's were easy, easy to execute. Some of the cooking science was new to me, which helped adapt my technique to the physical limitations of my kitchen and improvise madcap fashion.
The recipes are mostly spot on with the directions and quantities, but an added bonus are the technical tips, cookware recommendations and recommended ingredients that are interspersed throughout the chapters. If you want to know why a recipe works (or doesn't), or just want no fuss abc's to follow, this is a great book with a lot of common classic recipe's, mostly American, but also International cuisines, that are streamlined but not dumbed down. A small portion of the info may be redundant for an experienced or professional cook, like how to pan fry a salted fish fillet, but the skills set is a good refresher for anyone meticulous about their home cooking or for beginners intent on improving their skills.
Below are the recipes I recently tried that turned out very tasty. Most of the recipes were improvements on ones in my stash, while others were fantastic as followed more or less exactly. While the techniques sometimes varied a tad from what I've done in the past, all the recipe's were easy, easy to execute. Some of the cooking science was new to me, which helped adapt my technique to the physical limitations of my kitchen and improvise madcap fashion.
Blueberry Muffins - Thicker batter than ever before. Better muffins than ever before.
Chocolate Chip Cookies - Perfect. Soft and chewy in the middle, crisp on the outside without any greasiness or cakiness. Holds texture for storage.
Balsamic Mustard Vinaigrette - My new go to salad dressing.
Chicken Fried Steak with Cream Gravy - YUM! The breading was perfect. Steak thickness and oil temperature are paramount variables. I need a new instant read thermometer.
Mango Salsa - Made with the little golden mangos from the Fillipines.
Pizza and Basic Sauce - Remember, the dough recipe makes three thin rounds and comes out better on a pizza stone. Timing is crucial, although if you need to bake a bit later than expected you can put it in the fridge for a while. We topped ours with mild italian sausage, sauteed mushrooms and a thin layer of mozzarella.
Yellow Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting (Lemon, Coffee) - I substituted buttermilk for the sour cream in the batter. None the worse. The Frosting was a little twiddly and I added more zest and a stronger brew since I didn't have espresso. The result was an extremely rich, buttery, smooth topping without the gritty crackle of storebought buttercream icings.
Scrambled Eggs - No brainer, I know, but if those prestigious french chefs never had T-Fal then how come mine always get stuck on my stainless pan? Well, never again.
Shallot Vermouth Sauce - Simple stuff really. I did mine with roast chicken drippings.
Apple Crisp with Streusel - Quick no fuss desert to bake in a fry pan. I didn't have any lemons, so I subsituted some cider vinegar.
Rib Eye Steaks with Madeira Anchovy Sauce - Pan fried on high heat with sauce made in the pan
New York Style Crumb Cake
Corned Beef and Cabbage - Simple budget food. Provides dinner and sandwich variations for three days feeding two.
**There were two recipes that fell short of my expectations but were in no way terrible or inedible. The Classic Irish Soda Bread, a giant biscuit really (the SO says giant cornbread), was just not what I expected but went well with breakfast eggs and bacon. Since the writers were trying to avoid a sandy texture, the Peanut Butter Cookies were a bit more delicate and flatter than I'm used to. I also didn't add the extra peanut bits the recipe called for, so it's probably my own fault, but I'm beginning to think I like my peanut butter cookies sandy. However, the cookies hold up extremely well
Pozole Roja - gets a thumbs down for overwhelming porkiness and lack of chili tone.
The Andante are mild, friendly cheeses, very delicate in flavor and a bit hard to tell apart when eaten with condiments or strong bread. The paste have a slight resistance but the texture melts creamy into the mouth.The stinkiest of them all was the La Tur, really pungent washed rind with a sticky, creamy interior and a bit of bitterness. Definitely not for the meek.
The Jorge had a slightly rubbery texture with sparse small holes. I honestly forget what it tastes like.
A French blue that has less tang and sharpness than the English forms, but more of that bitter stinky pungency of washed rinds. Rather than being crumbly and firm, the texture is slightly tacky and creamy like a washed rind too. Really good with honey and crackers.
The Monte Enebro is a simple cheese with a strong but not overly pungent flavor of goat milk when eaten early. At a certain degree of ripeness, the chalk also develops a deeper intensity of flavor with a peppery tang that I much prefer. May be a little adventuresome for the Monterey Jack set, but a good branching out kind of cheese. The french affineur at Whole Foods thinks the Monte Enebro is salty, but this is probably one of my top 5 favorites.
From Japan...
This guy came to play on our balcony with his special friend one day.
Before we knew it, these two resulted.
I can now confirm that pigeons are a mess. But pigeons are also doves. Creatures of peace and constant cooing. The babes are now walking, screeching, pooping balls of mess that are starting to get more and more curious about the boundaries of the balcony. I hope they start flying soon, so I clean up their mess!
Before we knew it, these two resulted.
I can now confirm that pigeons are a mess. But pigeons are also doves. Creatures of peace and constant cooing. The babes are now walking, screeching, pooping balls of mess that are starting to get more and more curious about the boundaries of the balcony. I hope they start flying soon, so I clean up their mess!
