Flashback - Election Night

At this point, probably all we remember about election night was the glory of Obama winning (or the sadness at McCain's loss depending on your affiliations). I want to bring your attention back to another glorious happening that occurred that same day - our interactive election map cake!

Sure the state lines weren't too accurate and there were maybe even a few extra states in there, but it was still pretty impressive if I do say so myself. We frosted as we eagerly awaited the returns and then were able to celebrate with a deliciously colorful cake.

A quick refueling

This is Dancemasters Weekend at Wesleyan, a time when various choreographers and dancers come from across the country to perform and to teach master classes. I have just come home from a class with Carla Maxwell, one of the principle dancers with the Limon Dance Company. The class was pretty vigorous and I have returned dripping in sweat and craving a good nap. Unfortunately I am on a pretty packed schedule and soon have to turn around to go to Robert Battle's class. I am beat, but since he is the founder of the amazing company, battleworks, I could hardly skip it. So I found myself needing a refuel...and FAST!
I was ravenously hungry so I knew it had to be carby, but I also needed a heavy dose of protein to sustain me through the afternoon. Peeking in the fridge, I saw we had no quick and easy meat so I started thinking peanut butter. The final dish was highly experimental. It sounds pretty gross and isn't terribly easy on the eye (although the picture doesn't capture the warm curry color - it didn't actually match the table!), but it was absolutely delicious.

First I put some couscous (leftover from the night of disasters - see earlier post) in a saucepan and added a bit of milk. When it was nice and hot I put in about a tablespoon and a half of crunchy peanut butter. Thinking of thai food as inspiration, I added a few liberal shakes of curry powder. Upon tasting, it was missing some tangy-ness. I peeked into the fridge, hoping for sour cream, but only found cottage cheese. I decided to give it a go, so in went the cottage cheese. As it heated up those awkward lumps melted down, and the dish came together nicely. Now I am feeling ready to return to the dance floor! Hooray for experimentation!

Ricotta Gnocchi with Cabbage Sauce

I have always been a big gnocchi fan, but around two years ago I stumbled upon this recipe for Lemon Ricotta Gnocchi and it changed my life:

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/07/09/pan-fried-lemon-ricotta-gnocchi

Before then I thought that all gnocchi was made with a potato or other vegetable base. The great thing about ricotta gnocchi is that there's no vegetable to cook and mash first. Also I find them much harder to mess up. My potato ones always come out doughier than I would like.


I've stopped measuring when I make them, but here is an approximate recipe. The recipe in the link above is a delicious lemony alternative.

1lb whole milk ricotta
2 egg yolks
1/2 parmesan cheese
1-1 1/2 cups flour - the dough should be somewhat firm and dense, but still a bit sticky
a big pinch of salt

Mix everything together is a big bowl, and then make long logs of dough around 3/4 an in in diameter. Now you have a choice, The link above suggests immediately cutting them up and pan frying them in butter. I have also found recipes that call for putting them in boiling water. The third option, which is what I used today, is to do both. I wrapped the logs individually in plastic wrap, and put them in a pot of boiling water for around 7 or 8 minutes. Afterwards, I took them out of the plastic wrap, chopped them into little cubes and seared them. I find the advantage of this technique is that they get crispy on the outside, but you don't need to leave them in the oil or butter for too long to cook and so they're a bit less greasy. No technique is better than the other, its all about what you're in the mood for. I think for the picture behind the title of the blog I skipped boiling and just sauteed them in butter.




I wanted a somewhat lighter sauce, so I took half of a cabbage which we have been trying to get rid of and boiled it till soft with some salt and garlic. I then took out the water, and pureed it with a bit of milk, salt, pepper, basil and garlic powder.

Unfortunately I forgot the people who ate it picture.

Night of disasters

There's this Herb Khoresh recipe with lamb shanks form the New York Times that I've been eyeing for months, and I finally found the time and the lamb shanks to do it... but ultimately it was disappointing. I didn't have dried Persian limes, so I did some research and some websites said that it would be ok if I substituted regular limes. Bad idea. Bad bad bad bad bad idea. It made the braise bitter and limey, in a really bad way. I called Avi in a panic and he suggested making a sauce from the braising liquid by adding some wine and tomato paste. Apparently I neglected to tell Avi/he didn't hear me say that there was a ton of lime in the braising liquid, because the tomato paste and wine didn't work at all. Now what would have been delicious lamb stock is just a big pot of bitter limey liquid and my salty tears (ok not really, but almost).
I rescued it, sort of, by taking the meat off the bone and adding some spices and figs and roasting in the oven, but not as good as I desperately wanted it to be. On top of that, Becca over-salted the cabbage salad.

Still, everything was edible.

The one great thing about dinner was Becca and Emily's curried stuffed sweet potato. It pretty much made up for everything else.

pot-stickers

Last week, at the fruit and veggie co-op, we picked up two giant heads of cabbage. None of us like cabbage that much, but we were determined to use them this time (the last time we got cabbage it ended up going straight to compost after sitting in our fridge for a month). A few nights ago Emily made a lentil and cabbage soup with lots of cumin. Last night we made cabbage pot-stickers.

I called my mom for the recipe, but the conversation went like this:

Mom: "mix some flour with some water and an egg."

Me: "how much flour and water?"

Mom: "some."

Me: "how much is some?"

Mom: "until it feels right!"

My mom can tell when things feels right, but I haven't practiced enough to know when that is. I grew up eating pot-stickers, but I've never made pot-stickers without adult supervision before, and by adult supervision I mean the adults made it and I sat in a corner playing with a lump of dough. Thankfully Becca was there to help. The blind leading the blind.

In the end I think we ended up with three cups of flour and approximately a cup and a half of water and one egg for the dough. The hard part was rolling the wrappers.

Then there was the problem of the cabbage: If it's just cabbage and mushroom and seasoning (as in, no pork), there's not much to hold the filling together in a neat lump inside the wrapper. Instead the filling was loose, which caused our pot-stickers to lose some shape. In the end, though, they were delicious if not entirely attractive.

Buffalo

The Food:
For tonight's dinner, Avi and I enjoyed some buffalo shoulder steaks. The shoulder is a tougher cut of meat, and it is recommended to either braise it or marinate it for 24 hours. We did not do either of those things (we did marinate it, but we were 19 hours short of the target), and the meat was a bit chewy, but not unpleasantly so.
It was served over a fluffy mound of mashed potatoes and beside a medley of steamed kale and cabbage. This whole ensemble was covered with a spectacular pan sauce that Avi made using some red wine, the pan drippings from when he seared the meat, garlic, brown sugar, worchetershire sauce, ketchup and other things that were added in a moment of inspiration and then promptly forgotten. The combo sounds pretty awful when thinking about it, but it was one of the best sauces I have ever had. It complimented the buffalo perfectly.

The Animal it Came From - some fun facts about buffalo and their meat:

• Buffalo meat has 70-90% less fat than beef and half as much cholesterol
• The meat also has more protein than beef
• The Buffalo is the largest land mammal who has lived in North America since the end of the ice age
• They actually aren't called Buffalo, the official name is the North American Bison. Buffalos are only in Africa and Asia.
  
• Bison can run up to 35 miles an hour
• During mating season, you can hear a male bison bellow from up to a mile away
• They can climb over fences up to 7 feet high.
  
• And a cheesy buffalo (sorry,bison) joke for good measure:
  

What does the father buffalo say to his son before he leaves? Bi-son!

Samosas and Beer

Last weekend Emily made samosas wrapped in fillo dough. They were delicious. I lost count, but my guess is that I ate between 12 and 239 samosas. 

Becca made the fresh, garlicky cilantro-mint dipping sauce in the food processor. 

3-4 cloves of garlic

1 one-inch piece of ginger

1 bunch fresh mint

1 bunch fresh cilantro

1 jalapeno, seeds and stems removed

1 teaspoon sugar

salt 

juice of 2 limes

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon olive oil 

 

shortbread cookies

For rehearsal last night I made Dorie Greenspan's chocolate-espresso shortbread cookies. Since I've been sick, nothing tastes right anymore, so I can't really tell you whether or not they were any good. However, they got good reviews from everyone else.

Also, the recipe calls for instant espresso powder, which I didn't have. As far as I know, instant espresso is only good for baking the occasional espresso-flavored thing, so it never made sense to have it around. I substituted one tablespoon of prepared espresso instead, but the flavor never came through. What's the best way to convert instant to real espresso in recipes?

( You can find the cookie recipe here. )

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

The Circumstance:
Today was (in the word montage style preferred by Ms. Weisbuch):
blizzardy
blustery
bone-cold
bundle up
brrrrrrrrrrrrr
fuzzy hoods, falling snow, freeze fest, frigid......
I wanted, no needed, something satisfying and warm for dinner. I had grand plans to make a lasagna, and then brownies from scratch for my dancers at tonight's rehearsal. But, of course, life had to intervene. Its midterm season, and those plans would have been suicidal - yes delicious - but suicidal nonetheless.

The Food:
Avi and I decided that meatball subs would meet the above criteria of hearty, delicious, and most importantly, fast! We divided and conquered. I made meatballs using beef from Four Mile River Farm. I prepped the meat with salt, pepper, herbs de provence, an egg, and some grated Parmesan. Meanwhile, Avi whipped up a fresh sauce using diced tomatoes and green pepper. Once this was done, we assembled (sauce, meatballs, mozzarella cheese, and more sauce on top of a halved baguette) and broiled for a tasty dinner.


The Method/The People that Employed Said Method:
Avi took the classic sandwich eating approach...open wide, bite down, and repeat. Sure it may be messy, but it gets the job done. Favored by speed racers, superheros, and competitive food eaters, this approach had Avi taking his last bite a good 5 minutes before I did.



I took the civilized approach, using a knife and fork to tackle my prize. This is a technique favored by the seasoned procrastinator, it will guarantee that dinner takes up a nice, big block of time (especially if you decide to make a post about it afterward!)

Baby's all growed up.

Apparently some day I will have to feed myself without help from my housemates (and honorary housemates). Rumor has it that day is fast approaching. To prepare for this, I have been under their tutelage since September. A year ago--almost to the day--I took on baking for the first time. With Sarah Jeffrey babysitting, I produced a delicious batch of chocolate chunk cookies to be consumed by this boy I was visiting (hmm how little things change in a year, hmm hmm). I spent the spring and summer honing my baking skills, and I have spent most of this year playing helper to my housemates' (and honorary housemates') cooking endeavors.

So what happens when Grace is in Tahiti (luckyyy) and Em and X are at opera rehearsal? I think to myself, "I am hungry. There is food in the house. I can make that food. Right? I can make it yummy and have dinner waiting when my housemates come home."

And man am I amazing. I did it! A simple meal, but I did it aaaaall by myself. If you don't think this is impressive, ask Sarah to describe my baking efforts a year ago.



Baked tofu, mmmm. Marinated for a bit in some soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger, then baked for nearly an hour at 375 degrees. Attractive, no, tasty, yes.



And roasted green peppers. Green peppers are boring, but roasting is no-fail. They kept the tofu company in the oven. So apparently it's true: Anyone can cook. Even me. I might make it out there in the world. The food was successful: Em and X tested, Stega approved.

Cause I'm Feeling Bad About Losing Iron Chef

Here's a nice meal I made for my sister before she went to Israel earlier this year:

Broiled Asparagus and Parmesan Sticks with Crema Balsamica



Seared Sesame Crusted Tuna Over a Sesame Cucumber Salad, with Cucumber Ice and Spicy Mayonnaise


Ricotta Gnocci with Tomato Compote and Shaved Parmesan


Deep Fried Hard Boiled Egg Curry with Carrot Air



Melon Caviar with Goat Cheese and Sage


Quatre Quart Cakes under a Pineapple Sorbet and Starfruit Chips with Chocolate Allspice Sugar on a Painted Candy Plate

Iron Chef

We got 4th place. woohoo!!

Our team was Sarah Jeffrey, Arielle Golden, Emily Busch and me.

Here's what we made - sorry no pictures
the secret ingredient was white asparagus

Spicy white asparagus and coconut milk soup
Asparagus paste crusted seared salmon with bok choy and fried asparagus sticks
Asparagus and mint custard in a sweetened rice bowl

I guess we can't win every time...