What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

Tonight: filet of sole, Julia-style.

I made a Harissa Stew last night from a newspaper recipe; it was promoted as a one-pot dish which implies limited washing up, but the amount of equipment needed to prepare the ingredients made a mockery of that.

Only timings were 5 minutes to cook two sliced onions - well, it takes longer, and 40 minutes to cook the stew (main ingredients aubergine and chickpeas), but 40 minutes was not long enough to cook the aubergine, now was the 60 minute I gave it.

It was OK, but needed more cooking.

The recipe was for 4, so I have frozen half and when I use, it will give it some more time in the oven.

Are the chickpeas in that stew pre-cooked? I'd have thought the chickpeas alone would take an hour or two to cook if you strted with raw, dried chickpeas.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Making an appetizer to take to a friend's birthday dinner: shrimp rolled in garlic and parmesan cheese, then fried and spritzed with lime juice.

Are the chickpeas in that stew pre-cooked?

No, they're from a can

An appetizer for chili dinner with friends: mini sweet peppers baked with a stuffing of goat cheese, grated parm, minced jalapeno for which I substituted Aleppo because no fresh jalapeno, grated garlic, black pepper. They were quite tasty and inhaled.

Jamaican jerk chicken on the grill tonight.

-Paul W.

An appetizer for chili dinner with friends: mini sweet peppers baked with a stuffing of goat cheese, grated parm, minced jalapeno for which I substituted Aleppo because no fresh jalapeno, grated garlic, black pepper. They were quite tasty and inhaled.

Those sound good!

[Jenise]

Paul, heard a very interesting program on NPR yesterday, an interview with, among others, journalist Leigh Cowart, author of "Hurts so Good: the Science of Pain on Purpose". Quoting her:

“At its core, masochism is about choosing pain on purpose, for a reason. And often, in my experience, that reason is to feel bad to feel better. I believe that this phenomenon — the engineering of situations in which one suffers in order to secure guaranteed relief — is worthy of a tender, hilarious, heartfelt-examination. I would know: I am an inveterate, high-sensation-seeking masochist. I am a science reporter. And I have some f***ing questions.”

Top among subjects was chili eating, which made me think of you. I am guessing your love of high heat chile eating never struck you as masochistic, nor would I use that word to describe what you've shared about it, but nonetheless I think the whole idea of pain on purpose would resonate.

Btw, for dinner tonight: bangers and mash.

The scientific explanation I've always heard is endorphin release (aka runner's high).

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Today we're going to a riesling tasting, for which I'm making a sauerkraut quiche. No, I've never made one or tasted one, don't even have a recipe. I'm going to make this up, but I figure it's going to be amazing for riesling.

[Robin Garr]

I saw a recipe for cacio e pepe risotto in the La Cucina Italiana email newsletter the other day, and the idea rocked my world: Cacio e pape, but as a risotto rather than a pasta (bucatini) dish. Whoa! Naturally I had to try this the other day, and yes, it was just as good as it sounded. I'll definitely do this again.

cacio e pepe risotto.jpg

The scientific explanation I've always heard is endorphin release (aka runner's high).

-Paul W.

I've experienced the endorphin rush a time or two after sampling really hot chiles. It is, indeed, similar to a runner's high (which I had a couple of times in my younger days).

[Jenise]

Robin that sounds fantastic.

Larry and Paul, I've never been a runner so I can't follow that, but I have experienced a bit of an endorphin rush after an hour or so of physical work that provided the fuel for another hour or two. That's as close as I can get!

Well, my quiche is in the oven. I'll be lucky if it's not a total disaster. First of all, I pulled an untried recipe off the internet. Had qualms when I realized that her "deep dish pie crust" was a frozen/store-bought model. Deep dish my ___! Her recipe called for 1.25 cups of cream and four eggs. That seemed skimpy for my old-fashioned Pyrex deep dish pie dish (I haven't made a quiche in a few years but I am fairly sure I've never used fewer than six eggs so I went ahead and added two more eggs and another half cup of cream, happy to throw away anything unused rather than slow down to make more. Well, that wasn't even enough. I ended up blending up two more eggs worth of custard of which I used about 75%. I used about her filling ingredients, though admittedly didn't measure. She used 1 c of cheese and one box of frozen spinach, wrung out, which was in volume probably about 1/2, if that, of the amount of sauerkraut I was putting in my pie. Figured it would all even out in the end...but geesh, it's been in the oven for about 25 minutes now and I am supposed to leave in 45 minutes. Might not happen.

Rain, rain, and more rain and loving it! Tonight there are baby back ribs cooking away. Sides are wild mushrooms, leeks, and fresh thyme risotto, fresh green beans in onion, garlic, and San Marzano crushed tomatoes, with Beau Monde and Poultry seasoning.

Will look for that NPR program Jenise. Mothers feed hot peppers to babies to reduce crying from hunger and capsacin is used in pain management because it defunctionalizes pain fibers. Interested to hear discussion.

Made quiche tonight, too! In a store-bought frozen "deep dish" crust. Used 4 eggs, 1 cup cream, 1 cup shredded cheese, 1/2# shrimp, 1/2# bay scallops, and a handful of shrooms. It all fit, minus a few ounces of goo (which I baked separately in a little Pyrex cup). Possibly the best quiche I've ever made.

Made quiche tonight, too! In a store-bought frozen "deep dish" crust. Used 4 eggs, 1 cup cream, 1 cup shredded cheese, 1/2# shrimp, 1/2# bay scallops, and a handful of shrooms. It all fit, minus a few ounces of goo (which I baked separately in a little Pyrex cup). Possibly the best quiche I've ever made.

Interesting. I've probably gotten so accustomed to cooking for our son, which means quiche is always just cheese, milk and eggs. But interesting with those seafood additions. Do they cook slowly amidst the custard and therefore avoid getting overcooked? My quiche recipe cooks for 30 minutes at 325, which I would never do to shrimp or scallops.

[Jenise]

Will look for that NPR program Jenise. Mothers feed hot peppers to babies to reduce crying from hunger and capsacin is used in pain management because it defunctionalizes pain fibers. Interested to hear discussion.

The name of the program is '1A' and it was the broadcast on 10/21, if that helps.

[Jenise]

Jeff--and you still had room for a pound of seafood. Proves my point! But alas, my quiche was WONDERFUL. Huge success, and a perfect match for rieslings.

[Jenise]

Only cooking today will be the breakfast I just made as we're heading over to my brother's. But the breakfast was outstanding, a perfect confluence of things from the past few days. Two bangers left over from Friday's bangers & mash, thinly sliced and sauteed with onions and diced tomato to which sauerkraut and fresh dinosaur kale were eventually added and, finally three beaten eggs to make a mixed scramble under a thin layer of grated cheese*.

*Cheese is something new at Trader Joe's that I tried, a supposed mix of cheddar and gruyere which struck me as a good thing when selecting a cheese for my quiche, and indeed it was excellent. Sharp but not overly, creamier and richer than gruyere. Melts like a dream.

Interesting. I've probably gotten so accustomed to cooking for our son, which means quiche is always just cheese, milk and eggs. But interesting with those seafood additions. Do they cook slowly amidst the custard and therefore avoid getting overcooked? My quiche recipe cooks for 30 minutes at 325, which I would never do to shrimp or scallops.

I pre-cook the shrimp, scallops, and mushrooms. Two reasons: most importantly, I want to prevent them weeping into the pie, secondarily, to add flavor: shrooms get a simple saute in butter (adds color, reduces wetness), the shrimp and scallops both get a little garlic + paprika + pepper + the merest dusting of flour then briefly sauteed (remove while not fully cooked).

This recipe goes 15 min at 425* to set the custard, then 35-45 min at 300* or 325* to finish it up still tender.

Jeff--and you still had room for a pound of seafood. Proves my point!

Well, if your point was that it isn't enough goo to fill a whole d-d crust, sure. I prefer to think that it means a d-d crust has plenty of room for what I want to do. (Anyone need half a glass for something?)

[Jenise]

This recipe goes 15 min at 425* to set the custard, then 35-45 min at 300* or 325* to finish it up still tender.

Jeff--and you still had room for a pound of seafood. Proves my point!

Well, if your point was that it isn't enough goo to fill a whole d-d crust, sure. I prefer to think that it means a d-d crust has plenty of room for what I want to do. (Anyone need half a glass for something?)

Yes, I did mean that. I was also inferring that the typical frozen pie crust isn't deep-dish from what I've seen (never used one). Btw, Trader Joe's sells pre-made crust in the frozen department that's astonishingly good. Awhile back a friend used (while I was at her home) a Safeway house brand which was awful--one of the two crusts provided was dry and full of cracks, and the dough was (like almost everything in America these days) mildly sweet. So I wouldn't have expected much from the TJ's brand, but it's next level and the one above that better. A friend used in an onion pie and I never would have guessed it wasn't homemade. It was tender, NOT sweet, and held it's form beautifully. About as easy as a frozen pie shell without looking like a frozen pie shell. Would be a cool shortcut to have on hand and I plan to buy some soon.

Re the cooking time. I baked my quiche at about 350 for 55 minutes. No need for higher heat to set the custard, the result was lovely.

Today was the season's first Boeuf Bourguignon made, as usual around here, with an inexpensive Bordeaux.