What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Re: Extra long cooked vegetables... Agree with Jenise. Beans reach another level.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/maga ... .html?_r=0

[Jenise]

Loved that article, Christina, thanks!

"For over an hour, the beans tasted forgettable. I worried I’d ruined them a second time. But right around the two-hour mark, they transformed again, into a dark, tangled mess, soft but defined. They were extraordinarily rich, deliriously sweet and dense with flavor. I’d never tasted anything like them." YES.

I'm also a fan of summer squashes cooked until they're practically mush.

[Jenise]

Dinner tonight: a seafood paella. Conveniently large item, as a young couple in the neighborhood recently had a baby, and I'm helping feed them while they're adjusting to parenthood.

Mediterranean inspired meal tonight.
Meatballs flavoured with oregano, garlic, mint, browned add simmered in a light tomato purée.
Babaganous. Because I’d whacked an eggplant on th e grilll yesterda.
Greek inspired salad of tomato, cucumber, black olives, celery, fennel, feta, radish. Because i pulled all the veg from the crisper and worked from there.
Homemade bread. Flour purchased From a genuine old windmill on our recent ttrip to

Gaaad. My iPaad is going nuts.

[Jenise]

I want those meatballs!

[Jenise]

I'm in test kitchen mode due to the upcoming Xmas dinner for 80 I do annually, testing and refining recipes to hand off to my crew who will do the final cook. Last night I worked on the potato side for the Roast Delmonico we're doing, so Bob and I ate those with steamed asparagus for our main course after a plate of thinly sliced and lightly salted watermelon radish.

The potato recipe is just brilliant; I'm going to post it separately. Admittedly, when this methodology was first brought to my attention I, who hate gimmicks, thought it was a gimmick and wasn't interested--potato gratins baked in muffin tins? I was wrong.

[Jenise]

Dinner tonight? Dunno. Need to cook for four, I'm feeding the new parents again.

Mushy peas, pureed carrot... oh, wait, the parents?

[Jenise]

Mushy peas, pureed carrot... oh, wait, the parents?

It's worth cooking to get to hold the little one. So tiny, so perfect in every way at this moment--which also means it's all downhill from here.

Mushy peas, pureed carrot... oh, wait, the parents?

It's worth cooking to get to hold the little one. So tiny, so perfect in every way at this moment--which also means it's all downhill from here.

And somebody else's problem when s/he cries!

The annual Turkey Rice Soup tonight.

I got home Friday from a week's trip out to see my parents and made pork chops with a dried porcini sauce from one of Mario Batallli's books. Those were served with roasted potatoes (using a Serious Eats recipe) and green beans that were blanched, sauteed in olive oil, and dressed with a little lemon juice. Good stuff.

For tonight, I was thinking of doing some kind of stew and ended up thumbing through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in search of a recipe. Instead of stew, I ended up going with Fondue de Poulet a la Creme, which is chicken and onions simmered in cream. The cream is then reduced and served over the chicken. The risotto from page 532 is recommended for a side and I was curious to see how they would define a French risotto, so I followed the instructions on page 532 and made it. (I threw in a bunch of peas in order to at least give us some token vegetables.) The chicken was wonderful; tender and infused with the cream. The sauce was one of those examples of something with very few ingredients that becomes complex and delicious just through concentration. The rice was similar in that the only flavoring agents were chicken broth, a half teaspoon of thyme, and a piece of a bay leaf, yet it was very flavorful. Overall, an excellent and easily made meal that I plan to make again.

Mike, that sounds delicious.

Tonight it’s left over meatballs with bubble’n’squeak and Greek salad.

[Jenise]

Mike, I'm going to dig out my Julia Child. A "French risotto" doesn't even compute--I must discover this! But oh yes about simmering in cream!

Any second now I'm getting together with one of my cooks for big Xmas dinner to compare green peppercorn sauces. He did a pan reduction in the fond from some beef prep, I think he said a Wellington, over the weekend. I soaked a mixture of dried mushroom just for the soaking water and reduced that with cream, beef broth and dry white vermouth. We'll choose one method or the other for the dinner.

And then I'll use my sauce tonight. Having friends over. We'll start with cucumber-lime Hendricks martinis, and I'll serve parmesan crusted shrimp, then roquefort souffles, then seared and sliced prime filet mignon over steamed broccolini with that peppercorn sauce.

[Jenise]

Braised pork chops with wild rice/brown basmati mix (pressure-cooked), purple brussels sprouts and cucumber salad.

What is the extra oomph of purple brussel sprouts?

So I needed to “bring a plate” to a meeting.
So out comes the tried and trusted baked cheesecake recipe (from my first cookbook The Margaret Fulton Cookbook battered and bruised but still loved) .simple but near perfect and foolproof and delicious.
The tweak of the day was to use some ginger biscuits, with real root ginger in them, in the crust.
Wow, they were nice and spicy and the ginger comtrasted well with the creamy cake.

[Jenise]

Gingersnaps, as we would call them, would be a terrific addition for a cheesecake. Good thinking.

Dinner last night was a bowl of corn and peas, followed by a shared plate of clementines, 'safe' food because I woke up with Mr. Gout yesterday morning which was completely undeserved. We'd been to a few parties the night before but I'd had very little to drink and only snacked lightly--nuts, some artichoke dip thing, olives, and three baby tortieres. I could have easily eaten about six of those--I showed restraint!. No idea about tonight but of neccessity it will be equally boring.

Sunday was maple-brined pork chops with mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts. The sprouts were the best I've made in forever (and we eat them a lot). Not sure why this batch came out so good. I roasted them at a slightly lower temp than usual - 400 vs. 425 - but otherwise they were purchased from the same vendor at the farmers' market and they were just as fresh as ever.

Last night was potato leek soup with bacon and fresh jalapeno as a garnish. Tonight, it was leftovers.

[Jenise]

Sunday was maple-brined pork chops with mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts. The sprouts were the best I've made in forever (and we eat them a lot). Not sure why this batch came out so good. I roasted them at a slightly lower temp than usual - 400 vs. 425 - but otherwise they were purchased from the same vendor at the farmers' market and they were just as fresh as ever.

Last night was potato leek soup with bacon and fresh jalapeno as a garnish. Tonight, it was leftovers.

With the sprouts, wonder if they got a little less browned and therefore that came across as naturally sweeter? I enjoy roasted sprouts but have had many overdo it. Too much browning can induce a bit of bitterness.

Speaking of sprouts, I bought purple ones the other day!

Dinner tonight was a Costco chicken and a sliced bell pepper salad. Super simple food that kept me off my right foot, which I needed to do.

[Jenise]

Sunday was maple-brined pork chops with mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts. The sprouts were the best I've made in forever (and we eat them a lot). Not sure why this batch came out so good. I roasted them at a slightly lower temp than usual - 400 vs. 425 - but otherwise they were purchased from the same vendor at the farmers' market and they were just as fresh as ever.

Last night was potato leek soup with bacon and fresh jalapeno as a garnish. Tonight, it was leftovers.

With the sprouts, wonder if they got a little less browned and therefore that came across as naturally sweeter? I enjoy roasted sprouts but have had many overdo it. Too much browning can induce a bit of bitterness.

Speaking of sprouts, I bought purple ones the other day!

Dinner tonight was a Costco chicken and a sliced bell pepper salad. Super simple food that kept me off my right foot, which I needed to do.

On the sprouts, it was the texture that really stood out. They were about as brown as usual for me but they stayed moist and tender. Didn't dry out as much as they sometimes do. I will be going with the lower temperature in the future to see if that's what it was.

[Jenise]

Another trick is to lightly nuke them (wet, but not sitting in water) and then quickly brown them. I find this brings out their natural sweetness best of all.