Homemade Boudin Blanc October 31, 2008

Boudin Blanc over Pancetta Herb Risotto

For my second sausage project I made boudin blanc, a French white sausage made with white meat, eggs, and cream or milk. I used the recipe from Charcuterie which calls for chicken breast, pork shoulder, eggs, milk, white pepper and quatre epices. This was my first time using casing, which was kind of weird but cool at the same time. It’s so stretchy! The sausage came out plump and delicious, mild and delicious with the warm spices. I served it over pancetta herb risotto.

Serious Steak October 28, 2008

I felt like eating steak one day so I head over to the butcher shop and tried to decide on which cut to get. Being that I should be on a budget (although I haven’t acted like it) I perused the cold case for something affordable. I saw $7.99 beef shoulder steaks. Whoa, so cheap! But then I saw the Prime USDA New York Steak and it was over. I got two for just under $40. Yup, pricey, but sooo worth it.

I seasoned the steak with freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt and seared it up in a combination of olive and butter. When one side got nicely crusted I flipped the steak and continued cooking. The steaks could have been cooked about two minutes less but it was still at a delicious stage although a little past my preferred medium rare state. Well there’s always next time when I’m buying $20 steaks to do it right. But these were so delicious, well seasoned with salt and so crusty. Boy and I wondered why we don’t do this more often. I made a very simple peperonata with lipstick peppers and onions sauteed in olive oil with garlic, marjoram, and red wine vinegar. I forgot the capers but that’s ok – they weren’t missed at all. Thinking about the steak at 9:30 in the morning is making me hungry.

Heirloom Tomato & Burrata Salad with Jamon Serrano, Mint October 25, 2008

Yip, more heirloom tomato salad. I was craving burrata one day and picked up a container of Gioia’s when I was over in Santa Monica for the farmer’s market. Of course I got some heirloom tomatoes too. So another heirloom tomato salad made it onto the plate – heirloom tomato & burrata salad with jamon serrano and mint. I used a combinations of O Meyer Lemon Olive Oil and great quality extra virgin olive oil to dress the salad. A small squeeze of lemon just to brighten the whole thing up.

Scallops Beurre Blanc October 21, 2008

Scallops Beurre Blanc with Roasted Asparagus, Mashed Potato

Simplicity does it again. I love scallops sooo much – it’s my favorite seafood and definitely one of my favorites foods ever. So succulent and sweet. I seared it up and served it with beurre blanc, a French butter sauce in which butter is emulsified in a liquid state using a reduction of wine/vinegar and shallots. This was a dish I made for a birthday friend recently, a fellow scallop loving girl. She requested mashed potatoes for her birthday so that’s what I did. Trader Joe’s was low on potatoes when I went shopping and whatever ones I got weren’t the best for the mash. I even put the mash through the tamis and didn’t get the super smooth texture that I wanted. Looks a lil funny under the scallops but oh wells. Roasted asparagus flanked the side of the plate – you can’t go wrong with those.

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Fourme d’Ambert October 15, 2008

Will I ever get sick of heirloom tomato? Nope. I was making a quick little lunch salad for work but the colors looked so beautiful I decided to snap a photo of it. In the beautiful plastic container that is. The salad is green zebra and pineapple tomato with Fourme d’Ambert, meyer lemon olive oil, marjoram and freshly cracked black pepper. I tucked in a lil piece of lemon in the container to very lightly squeeze over the salad right before eating.

Purple Hull Pink Eye Beans October 9, 2008

Purple hull…

Pink eye…

Beans!

I was super excited to buy my first bundle of fresh shell beans and such beauties at that. The hulls are dramatic and the beans themselves are so adorable with its light green hue and a flirty pink eye. I kept the dish simple buy using bits and pieces from my fridge. The beans were cooked with pancetta, onion, thyme, chile de arbol, kosher salt, black pepper, and a good glug of good quality olive oil. I had half of a boiled potato sitting around the fridge so I threw that in too mashing it up into the bean liquid. When the beans were ready I served them with a grating of parmigiano reggiano, chives and a final drizzle of olive oil. I had this as a very quick and delicious weekday dinner with a heavenly slice of Bay Cities’ filone bread.

Figs in Salad October 8, 2008

Maggie’s Farm winter mix of salad greens along with fresh figs, fourme d’ambert, toasted walnuts, and walnut oil & sherry vinegar dressing. Pungent, sharp, sweet, nutty, pleasantly acidic.

Dinner 09.30.08 October 5, 2008

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho, Meyer Lemon Olive Oil

I made a birthday dinner for my shellfish-centric pescatarian friend. I absolutely love vegetables and shellfish so this would be no glitch at all. The first course was a refreshing heirloom tomato gazpacho made with a mixture of heirloom tomatoes blended up with Perisan cucumbers, red peppers, garic, sherry vinegar and unfiltered extra virgin olive oil. Before serving I garnished the soup with diced tomatoes, red and green peppers, cucumber, chives and a final drizzle of meyer lemon olive oil and sherry vinegar. I loved the sweetness of the tomatoes and the tang of the vinegar in the chilled soup.

Ras el Hanout Sweet Potato Fries, Lemon Aioli

Second course was straight up fries and aioli. My friend loves French fries so I did a twist on the classic by frying up sweet potatoes and dusting them with ras el hanout when they came out the oil. I realized ten minutes before my guests were arriving that I forgot to make aioli for the fries so I had to cheat and serve mayo with grated garlic, lemon zest, and lemon juice. I used Greg Malouf’s recipe for ras el hanout which included cardamom and fennel seeds which added such a unique kick to the spice mixture. The ras el hanout mixtures I’ve made previously did not contain them. It was delicious on the sweet potato fries even though the fries did not come out as crispy as I wanted them to. Anyone have tips on making crispy sweet potato fries?

Chermoula Shrimp en Papilotte, Zucchini, Pistachio Couscous (before baking)

For the main course I went with gigantic shrimps marinated with chermoula, a marinade I am getting very addicted to. The lemon juice and olive oil really brings a nice zing to the spice mixture. I cooked the giant shrimps in a parchment pack along with half moons of zucchini and couscous with pistachio and herbs. When I opend up the parchment pack at the table the steam carried out the savory aroma of the chermoula shrimps out to the diners.

Fourme d’Ambert, Fresh Figs, Honey Comb

I did a complete flop and accidentally served the cheese course after dessert but here is where it’s supposed to be. I went this whole season without eating a single fig and I was mourning my loss when I came across a small batch at Whole Foods. A small part of my guilt washed away and I was able to serve these sweet beauties with the creamy fourme d’ambert along with honey comb.

Cream Cheese Fritters, Red Wine Cherry Syrup

The birthday boy loves cheese cake but instead of making that I ran with the idea of cream cheese as the star ingredient. So I had a go at cream cheese fritter using a ricotta fritter recipe as the blueprint. But they came out too dense and I should have thinned the batter a bit with milk but I wasn’t thinking on my feet too quickly. I served the fritters on top of wine syrup I made by reducing a bottle of pinot noir with sugar, cinnamon stick, white peppercorns, and lemon juice to which I added a few tablespoons of Frog Hollow’s cherry conserve.

I served Grof Degenfeld’s Tokaji Furmint, a light and fruity Hungarian white, with the meal. Here is Alder Yarrow’s Vinography review since I am bad with describing wine:

Pale green-gold in the glass, this wine has a waxy nose with subdued but juicy aromas of starfruit. In the mouth it offers nice flavors of unripe apple and starfruit, combined with a slightly waxy quality. Unfortunately the wine doesn’t possess quite as much acidity as it should in my opinion, which makes it fall a little flat on the palate, despite delicious flavors.

I was actually looking for Velt. 1 Gruner Veltliner but it wasn’t in stock and I was pointed in the direction of this lovely Hungarian white as a substitution. With food, wine and conversation flowing I think my friends had a great time and left very satisfied. I had a great time cooking this meal.

Potato, Chorizo & Pepper Tacos October 2, 2008

The raw chorizo mixture had to marinate overnight to meld all the flavors together. The next day it was on and I excitedly made potato, chorizo & pepper tacos. I cooked the chorizo first in the pan then spooned it out to brown the boiled chopped potato, bell pepper and onion. The potato, pepper and onion soaked up all the flavorful chorizo drippings. When these were browned I added back the cooked chorizo and tossed the whole lot together. The mixture was scooped into an open-burner-warmed-and-charred-around-the-edges mini corn tortilla. I was very happy with my very first sausage making experience and the fruits of that labor that were befalling me.

To top the delicious tacos I made a spicy heirloom tomato salsa fresca with pineapple tomatoes and a proper amount of minced jalapenos.

A creamy guacamole was also in order.

I was introduced to this Spanish rose just recently at a Silverlake Wine tasting that recommended wines that went well with bbq foods. It’s been a pleasure drinking it nicely chilled on a warm day and it was great with the chile and spice inflicted chorizo tacos.

It was only fate for chorizo and eggs to become my delightful breakfast the following morning.

Homemade Mexican Chorizo October 1, 2008

After buying and returning two manual meat grinders that didn’t quite suit me I settled on the widely available Kitchen Aid mixer meat grinder attachment. The motor can only handle a bit more than a few pounds at a time without getting hot (as some reviews stated) but I don’t think this will cause a problem for now since all I want to do is make a few pounds of homemade sausage for home consumption.

For my first homemade sausage I made Mexican chorizo. One of my favorite snacks is a chorizo taco from a taqueria doused with spicy salsa verde and bits of chopped onion and cilantro. I used Rick Bayless’s recipe which calls for pasilla and ancho chilies. I substituted guajillo for the pasilla which I couldn’t get a hold of and followed the rest of the ingredients which included cloves, dried oregano, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, paprika, black pepper, ground ginger, garlic and vinegar. The meat part of the recipe called for pork fat, lean pork loin, and lean pork shoulder. This part seemed a tiny bit fussier than some the other recipe I found online which just called for pork shoulder. But the results were delicious so no complaints here. The meat marinated overnight with all the seasonings and the next day I made tacos. YUM. More to come…