What's Cooking (Take Two!)

It was warm enough last night to bring out the gas grill and grill some bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs rubbed with Thai Hanglay curry powder. Today we have a heavy snowstorm.

-Paul W.

For yesterday's football festivities, I made nachos, but not the everyday pile of chips with cheese. These involved first making a bean dip by sauteing onion, garlic, and chili powder and then whizzing that in the food processor with a can of pintos and some lemon juice, vinegar, oil, oregano, and water. (Best bean dip I've had in a long time.) Then you grill some pounded chicken breast that's been marinating in a lime-chili powder sauce and cut up the grilled chicken in little chunks. The nachos are assembled by laying chips out on a baking sheet, putting a little dollop of bean dip on each one, covering them with diced jalapeno and shredded cheese (cheddar and a "Mexican mix" in my case) and putting them in a hot oven until the cheese is bubbling. You pull them out and top them with diced tomato, the grilled chicken, sour cream, and cilantro. Good football food.

[Jenise]

For Superbowl, we were in Hawaii. My hotel room had Sub Zero refrigerator and freezer drawers, a sink, and a Wolf microwave. So we bought furikake chicken (fried chicken with seaweed and sesame seeds in the batter--unbelievably good) and kumamoto grape tomatoes (divine, a new hybrid discovery for me) to have as a picnic lunch. Didn't want to get too full as we had a great dinner reservation that night (grilled octopus salad, abalone risotto....).

Came home Monday night with a sick husband. Bronchitis, it turns out. Poor thing is coughing his guts out incessantly and he has no appetite. So all food since return has been sick food, lots of thick soups that are comforting for his poor overtaxed throat. In between, sips of tea with brandy or honey and lemon. Chicken soup, vegan split pea (better than any ham-based pea soup, much as I love ham otherwise), stuff like that. Today I'll make him a potato/green onion/bacon chowder.

In honor of the Lenten season, I made gumbo z'herbes last night.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Nice. Paul, I was in your neighborhood last night with a spicy dan-dan noodle dish in an effort to create something that would talk to a German Spatlese. It did as well as anything could have--that is, without adding sugar to the dish.

[Jenise]

Tonight: grilled mahi mahi with cumin beurre blanc on avocado waffles.

Friday night I felt like a change so I made a seafood dinner. I got half a dozen Blue Point oysters and some rainbow trout and thawed some nice big shrimps. We had the oysters (raw) as an appetizer and then I fried up the trout. I did the shrimp with sesame and ginger, stir fried with broccoli and cauliflower floret and served with rice.

The last time I tried to buy trout the fish monger was out and sold me Branzino filets instead -- they were better. The trout was a little bland even with lemon juice and capers. The oysters were sweet, briny, and perfect and the shrimp were pretty satisfying.

I recently bought something called "the Smoking Gun" which allows one to do food smoking on a small scale. I think if I buy trout again I will try smoking it before I cook it, I had lots of smoked trout in Europe and always enjoyed it.

...avocado waffles.

Interesting. Waffles with avocado mixed into the batter?

(I love putting things in waffle batter, sweet potato is the standard but am always looking for new ideas and inspiration)

[Jenise]

...avocado waffles.

Interesting. Waffles with avocado mixed into the batter?

(I love putting things in waffle batter, sweet potato is the standard but am always looking for new ideas and inspiration)

Yes, exactly. I used to make savory pancakes and am just experimenting with savory waffles. They came out very well. (My waffle iron is classic, not Belgian.)

Baked ziti with shrimp, in the greek style: with black olives, cubes of feta, sauteed fennel (no onion in this house), garlic, tomato chunks, prosciutto strips, peas, fresh basil, lemon zest, harissa, oregano, a little marinara to moisten it all, and enough mozzarella to give it a top crust. Even yummier than I expected it to be, if I may say. (And a nice change from an ocean of red sauce.)

[Jenise]

Boy, Jeff, does THAT sound GOOD! Sounds light and fresh, not heavy. I presume you started with raw shrimp?

Didn't cook at home last night. Tonight I will, I have a whole half a turkey breast on the bone that I marinated overnight with wine, lots of dill and French basil and a bit of white grape juice. I'm hungry for meat at the moment and need to reduce carbs to kickstart myself into dieting, and this will be the crutch I need to get going. With it, sautéed kohlrabi slices with garlic, finished with the greens, and I don't know what else yet.

Boy, Jeff, does THAT sound GOOD! Sounds light and fresh, not heavy. I presume you started with raw shrimp?

Yes. It cooks in the oven for 40 minutes so no worries about undercooked seafood.

Yes, lighter and fresher but it's still got a hefty amount of cheese and pasta!

Tonight I will, I have a whole half a turkey breast on the bone that I marinated overnight with wine, lots of dill and French basil and a bit of white grape juice. I'm hungry for meat at the moment and need to reduce carbs to kickstart myself into dieting, and this will be the crutch I need to get going.

I'm so spoiled by the excellent heritage turkey that we get for T'Giving that it's hard to think about making a regular one anymore... though I do like turkey BLTs, etc.

I have been tracking my eating all this month. I'm trying to figure out what I can trim -- so as to trim me! -- that I have the willpower to accomplish. It's actually a lot more complicated in my head than I had imagined.

[Jenise]

I'm so spoiled by the excellent heritage turkey that we get for T'Giving that it's hard to think about making a regular one anymore... though I do like turkey BLTs, etc.

I have been tracking my eating all this month. I'm trying to figure out what I can trim -- so as to trim me! -- that I have the willpower to accomplish. It's actually a lot more complicated in my head than I had imagined.

Understood re the heritage turkeys. What I'm cooking tonight certainly isn't that: I generally only buy/cook organic poultry, but in the interests of not putting off the start of the diet any longer, Hello Jennie-O. The herbs and wine will mask the industrial flavors.
Several issues for me here: I can't really start a diet without eliminating carbs. That's what I crave, and calorie counting drives me nuts. Best, always, to just revamp the way I eat, and having something like leftover turkey in the fridge is a huge help. Particularly in the morning, the hardest meal of the day for me to deal with since I don't care for standard breakfast foods. A few bites of protein generally eliminates hunger and then I can move on to lunch. Dieting--and living--on a modified, low fat Atkins approach, works for me. Now that Weight Watchers has moved more in that direction, I could possibly adopt that lifestyle. But admittedly I haven't looked into it.

There is truly spectacular ground turkey from BN Ranch (the one that Bill Niman is involved in). I haven't seen much of it, but does freeze well, so you could potentially stock up. They have both broad-breasted and heritage varieties, I've only had the broad-breasted and it has excellent turkey flavor.

Apparently Monday, 22 February was National Margarita Day (which is odd, because I always thought National Margarita Day was "Thursdays") and I made myself a Jeffrey Morgenthaler mojito, but with tequila. I'm not big on silver rum anyway, not enough flavor. The Cimarron is a good, reasonably priced 100% agave Jalisco tequila from Whole Foods, I think it was $24 a liter. I found an Asian purple sugar cane at the farmer's market, so I used that as the garnish. Tasted the same as conventional green cane. Extremely refreshing, and probably quite dangerous if it didn't require so much juicing and muddling.

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Also on the beverage front, I made jugo verde ("green juice") which is a refreshing non-alcoholic beverage that is served as a health food for breakfast in Mexico. The mixture of nopal (cactus), parsley, and celery with pineapple, orange, and grapefruit juices is a wonderful combination. The cactus, which lends an irreplaceable slightly gelatinous texture to the drink, is easy to find in any Latin market; it's common enough that you even see it cut up like I found it. Occasionally I see it with the thorns still attached; those should be shaved off before use! Obviously, good pineapple is important, I added about four times what the linked recipe uses. It may not be authentic, but it's delicious.

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[Jenise]

Walt, I love the sound of that green juice. But I don't have a juicer--yet. Mojitos are dangerous--every make one with gin? We had one in Hawaii made with Tanqueray--and cilantro in addition to the mint--which we adored.

[Jenise]

To tell you about tonight's dinner I have to tell you about last night's. I'd planned to serve broiled lobster tails, so got two out of the freezer to thaw. Then I got the hankering for lobster thermidor, but not wanting the calories or fat I started thinking of how to put Thermidor flavors on the plate via a rice dish. Liked the sound of that, put mushrooms on my shopping list. While shopping I ran into fresh black cod. We see so little fresh fish here, especially in winter, I couldn't help but buy a filet. So now I had lobster AND black cod. Solution?

Surf n' Surf! Times Two. Last night's prep involved the rice. I didn't have brandy, it turned out, so I substituted a dry Marsala which came across very brandylike but with a hint of something caramelized. It, tarragon, sautéed onions and seared mushrooms (quartered) flavored some chicken broth perfectly. It really did taste of Thermidor. Separately, I made a sauce of melted butter, marsala, tarragon and the juice of half a lime. The fish I crusted with white corn meal (terrific) and seared in the same pan as the two lobster tails, which I halved lengthwise. Everything cooked in the same amount of time. With some steamed snow peas on the side, outstanding.

Tonight's Surf n' Surf #2 will involved a cumin-and-cilantro buerre blanc with avocado waffles, which I'm in hopes of perfecting. If I love the result, I'll post the recipe.

I took a vegetarian Austrian cooking class on Friday and we made a variety of interesting takes on noodles. The most interesting was a savory version of mohnnudeln (poppy seed noodles), which are schupfnudeln (potato based Germanic version of gnocchi, for those who do not know) cooked and then sauteed with poppy seeds. This is often served sweet but we made a delightful savory version, served with roasted cauliflower with vanilla salt and roasted tomatoes in a balsamic reduction.

I often eye poppy seeds in the store and wonder if I can use them, but since I don't cook much desserts I never buy them. Now I have a reason! It was also inspiring to see the fairly easy recipe for schupfnudeln, which I suppose is quite similar to gnocchi, although I don't think I've made gnocchi from scratch more than one or two times.

The most interesting was a savory version of mohnnudeln (poppy seed noodles), which are schupfnudeln (potato based Germanic version of gnocchi, for those who do not know) cooked and then sauteed with poppy seeds.

This sounds good. Every once in a great while I make a quick side dish (or dinner) of just noodles, butter, and poppy seeds. My dad claimed he learned that from his mother.

[Jenise]

I took a vegetarian Austrian cooking class on Friday and we made a variety of interesting takes on noodles. The most interesting was a savory version of mohnnudeln (poppy seed noodles), which are schupfnudeln (potato based Germanic version of gnocchi, for those who do not know) cooked and then sauteed with poppy seeds. This is often served sweet but we made a delightful savory version, served with roasted cauliflower with vanilla salt and roasted tomatoes in a balsamic reduction.

I often eye poppy seeds in the store and wonder if I can use them, but since I don't cook much desserts I never buy them. Now I have a reason! It was also inspiring to see the fairly easy recipe for schupfnudeln, which I suppose is quite similar to gnocchi, although I don't think I've made gnocchi from scratch more than one or two times.

I often put poppy seeds in spaetzle. Can you share the recipe for the schupfnudeln?

I often put poppy seeds in spaetzle.

Nice. Certainly plenty of spaetzle here.

Can you share the recipe for the schupfnudeln?

We got the recipes in German, so this was put through google translate, not sure how standard or not it is for schupfnudeln, but it worked really well on Friday so I'll try it again:

Dough for potato noodles:
500 g potatoes mealy/floury, raw, peeled
2 egg yolks
120 g flour, rough
40 g butter, melted

Cut the potatoes into pieces of equal size and boil in salted water
Strain and put in a 60C oven to let water evaporate
Put through potato masher or a strainer.
Mix strained potatoes with the yolk.
Mix remaining ingredients, immediately roll out into a long log and then cut into pieces, roll pieces into schupfnudeln shape
Boil schufpnudeln in salted water 6-8 minutes.
Strain, sautee with butter and sprinkle poppy seeds.

[Jenise]

I often put poppy seeds in spaetzle.

Nice. Certainly plenty of spaetzle here.

Can you share the recipe for the schupfnudeln?

We got the recipes in German, so this was put through google translate, not sure how standard or not it is for schupfnudeln, but it worked really well on Friday so I'll try it again:

Dough for potato noodles:
500 g potatoes mealy/floury, raw, peeled
2 egg yolks
120 g flour, rough
40 g butter, melted

Cut the potatoes into pieces of equal size and boil in salted water
Strain and put in a 60C oven to let water evaporate
Put through potato masher or a strainer.
Mix strained potatoes with the yolk.
Mix remaining ingredients, immediately roll out into a long log and then cut into pieces, roll pieces into schupfnudeln shape
Boil schufpnudeln in salted water 6-8 minutes.
Strain, sautee with butter and sprinkle poppy seeds.

Thanks!

The Schupfnudeln sound great!

Today's supper was chicken thighs cooked with whole shallots, chicken broth, Moroccan spices, olives, and dates. This was served over couscous with roasted broccoli on the side.

Paella Valenciana, using wisdom recently gleaned from a paella cooking class at Sur La Table. I think it is better than before but I still need some work on technique.