What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Not sure why I can't use the "Img" to link to pics on this website.

IMG_4415 copy.JPG

Jason, if I recall correctly, "Img" will only work with online images no larger than 500 x 500 pixels. Also, I assume you know this, but it only works for images on the Web, not in folders on your computer.

I take images right from a folder on my computer Robin....I make sure it is the right size, however. I store my photos in Picasa but open them with Microsoft Office Picture Manager. I've always done this on this site.

Tonight it is pork tenderloin, marinated in balsamic, apple cider vinegar, evoo, fresh rosemary, garlic and grilled. I saved some of the marinade to cook down a little and serve with the finished meat. Tomato paella, a rice dish cooked with red onion, garlic, saffron, smoked paprika, tomato paste, topped with thick tomato wedges coated with a bit of olive oil, and finished in the oven, then garnished with parsley or cilantro. Tuscan green beans.

Our Farmer's Market is loaded right now, everything is about one month ahead of schedule. Peaches, cherries, tomatoes, cukes, garlic, loads of lettuce, onions, baby squashes and potatoes, all kinds of herb plants, tomato plants, flowers everywhere. I had to force myself to leave today and still came home with too much. We will be eating good and healthy this week! I love that the grower's are branching out now with more offerings, but there is still only one that does asparagus! I had to decide today which was more important, asparagus or cherries...I will not stand in line!

[Robin Garr]

take images right from a folder on my computer Robin....I make sure it is the right size, however. I store my photos in Picasa but open them with Microsoft Office Picture Manager. I've always done this on this site.

Karen, I'm guessing that works because your images are actually being brought in from the Web - on Picasa! You're working on them in your computer, but they're actually "in the cloud." Or that's my guess, anyway. I'll look closer tomorrow at one of your pix and try to figure it out for certain.

[Robin Garr]

Shaljam ke kebab, Pakistani and North Indian turnip curry patties, and Sophie's Kitchen plant-based fried "shrimp" with a wasabi-chili dipping sauce.

This is our version of a famous Turkish dessert, Küneife, especially popular in Antakya. You buy a package of Kataifi, which is phyllo dough cut up into "hair." You separate the strands and massage in some melted butter and a bit of milk. You press half of that into a cake or pie pan, and then add a creamy center, and then press the rest on top and bake it. Our creamy center was a kind of bechamel involving rice flour and milk with sugar and orange flower water, plus some torn up fresh mozzarella. One source for our recipe was a "Knafe" recipe published in the NY Times Magazine from Feb 3, 2013 in honor of Claudia Roden. Everyone really liked this. There are chopped toasted pistachios on top, and the whole thing is soaked in simple syrup to which lemon juice and orange flower water have been added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/magaz ... .html?_r=0

kuneife.jpg

Frank,
The Kuneife looks absolutely delicious! Reminds me a lot of the Greek Kadefi. The latter always looked daunting to be attempted, but your version might be something we could try. Thanks for sharing!
-Shaji

[Robin Garr]

A variation on a dish I came up with recently: green beans long-braised with browned onions, garlic, dried red-pepper flakes and, in this variation, lots of shredded leeks, with a good dose of Spanish smoked paprika to give it a good, plant-based "bacony" flavor. Lots of umami going on here ...

A variation on a dish I came up with recently: green beans long-braised with browned onions, garlic, dried red-pepper flakes and, in this variation, lots of shredded leeks, with a good dose of Spanish smoked paprika to give it a good, plant-based "bacony" flavor. Lots of umami going on here ...

(image snipped)

Now -- that's what I'm TALKIN' about!

Not sure why I can't use the "Img" to link to pics on this website.

IMG_4415 copy.JPG

Jason, if I recall correctly, "Img" will only work with online images no larger than 500 x 500 pixels. Also, I assume you know this, but it only works for images on the Web, not in folders on your computer.

I thought I tried shrinking it down enough on picasa. Maybe not. I'll give it a shot next time.

Jason

Using up the last few slices of our grilled pork tenderloin, which was excellent in a balsamic marinade. I making small piles of ingredients, all arranged on a bed of fresh lettuce greens. The piles of ingredients are: In the center, slices of cold tenderloin. Then in a circle around that will be; roasted asparagus, green beans sautéed in butter and French Tarragon, hard boiled egg slices, garden tomatoes, cucumber, Peppadew peppers, avocado, then sprinkled with sweet basil and lemon vinaigrette. Usually a dinner like this is reserved for very hot summer nights, when cooking in not on my radar. It is a cold, rainy day, and I cleaned out two refrigerators today which reminded me I over bought at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, and we need to eat up precious tender veggies while they are at their best!

[Robin Garr]

Tiny new white creamer potatoes parboiled, then poached in melted butter and dressed with Italian parsley and black pepper.

[Robin Garr]

Do you prefer slaw creamy or vinegary? This one's a little of both, a slaw of cabbage, Vidalia onion and fresh fennel with carrots, celery and green pepper, a bit of tomato and tart pickle, tossed in a light vinaigrette and finished with a dab of Dijon aioli.

Those two photos of the potatoes and coleslaw have me drooling...beautiful! I'm a fan of mayonnaise, however, I try and keep it to a low consumption. I like any coleslaw that is tasty, and well made by hand. I hate those coleslaws with all the veggies run through a commercial slicer and they are all the same size. I like my coleslaw rustic.

Tonight's dinner will be Jamaican jerk chicken.

-Paul W.

Tonight's dinner is a shared New York steak, grilled. A sauté of red onions from our garden, and mushrooms. Corn on the cob and braised baby Yukon Gold potatoes in evoo, chicken stock, fresh bay leaves from our tree, and whole garlic cloves. It is finished off by cooking the liquid away, letting the garlic turn golden while the potatoes brown on the outside in the remaining oil.

I've been eyeing the fresh green almonds for the past month or so, but only got around to buying them today, at what is probably the near end of the season. They're new to me and I was always afraid they would require some extensive preparation. I was wrong.

So, we enjoyed them for dinner. A salad of fresh sliced raw green almonds and an underripe mango. And pasta with asparagus, green almonds, herbs, cheese and a bit of lime. Nice to eat new things.

Lamb shanks and linguini with salad. Washed it down with an '08 Los Rocas Grenacha.

Last night was Sweet Corn Polenta with Eggplant sauce from Plenty. It was scrumptious and there werent any leftovers We cheated a little with the recipe by adding some sliced sun dried tomatoes to the Egg plant sauce. The feta cheese in the polenta gives it a very interesting dimension. All went well with half a bottle of left over Barolo.
Tonight everything points towards some hearty chicken curry with parathas
-Shaji

Long day at work today and the wife and kid are off on a visit to the Midwest, so that left me not wanting to cook. There was some fava bean puree in the fridge that we made a couple of days ago - just favas, olive oil, and garlic. I warmed some of it up, spread it over a hot flour tortilla, sprinkled that with crumbled feta and Tabasco Chipotle, rolled it up, and ate it. Then I repeated the process. Fortunately, I ran out of tortillas at that point, or I would have just kept going.

[Robin Garr]

Simple Truth meatless griller strips meatless stir-fry "chicken(*)" stir-fried with slivered pea pods, onions, garlic and ginger in a spicy Sichuan black bean sauce.
(*) http://www.simpletruth.com/products/fro ... er-strips/

[Robin Garr]

Ragout of fresh veggies: Tiny new white creamer potatoes, yellow summer squash and zucchini parboiled, then finished with browned onions and crimini mushrooms for a quick poach in butter and olive oil.

Tonight we made 2 recipes from Jerusalem by Ottolenghi. I had bought ground lamb and ground beef -- so I got intrigued by the Kofta b'siniyah on page 195. Basically made a half recipe, we already had most of the ingredients. Louise had recently made her famous hummus so we had cooked chickpeas etc. I asked her to make a small batch of hummus (the previous batch was GONE, zoom!) and so I decided we didn't need to make the tahini sauce. I did toast extra pine nuts and we served the kofta with hummus and the combination was wonderful. FWIW ingredients always make the difference, in any recipe, and what Louise does that a lot of cooks don't understand -- she always uses dried chick peas and soaks them overnight. SO much more flavor than the canned beans.

The other recipe was the salad "Spiced Chickpeas and Fresh Vegetable Salad" on page 54. He suggests serving this without the spicy chickpeas, along with the kofta dish above. What I really liked about this salad was 1) you use a BIG dice for the red pepper, cucumber, and tomato. That just tastes fresh and healthy. 2) the dressing is full of lemon and lemon zest, and also just makes the salad taste REALLY fresh and healthy. We both loved it. If we had included the chickpeas -- the spicing is really strange, ground cardamom, allspice, and cumin.

With toasted whole wheat pita and Louise's hummus -- what a meal! FWIW we "matched" all of this with gin and tonic (Tanqueray, Schweppes) and what was left of the 1974 Martini Merlot that I opened last night. A great wine, just as fresh and fruity tonight as it was last night.

To get this meal together -- I made an elaborate "mise en place" for Louise, pre-measuring all of the spices, salt, pepper, pre-weighing the meats, finely chopping the onion and parsley and hot red pepper. All she had to do was mix everything together and saute. In the other room I was doing the 1.5 cm dice of the salad vegetables, and chopping cilantro, parsley, whatever. Cooperation is key sometimes.

Tonight it is Tandoori Chicken on the grill. Roasted purple, yellow, and orange carrots with purple potatoes and red onion, drizzled with hazelnut oil, dried red Chile flakes, and fresh lemon. Sliced Cherokee Purple Tomatoes with Big White Prince Radishes with a little salt and pepper is all they need. An Asian grower who gives me free things because I return all his containers, threw these radishes in for me because I had been admiring them. They are huge, and a beautiful solid white all the way through. They are crunchy, very sweet and beautiful. I cannot find out much about them. He also gave me some of the best red onions I have ever had. Again, very crunchy, they cut beautifully, and are a deep purple on the outside.

To get this meal together -- I made an elaborate "mise en place" for Louise, pre-measuring all of the spices, salt, pepper, pre-weighing the meats, finely chopping the onion and parsley and hot red pepper. All she had to do was mix everything together and saute. In the other room I was doing the 1.5 cm dice of the salad vegetables, and chopping cilantro, parsley, whatever. Cooperation is key sometimes.

Lucky lady to have you as her sou chef! I do the mise en place almost everyday. I do all my prep in the morning....it is so much easier as I do not like cooking in the afternoon. When it is dinner time, all I want to do it cook...not chop and find ingredients. I put all the meats, veggies, aromatics, in the refer on a prep board covered with plastic and it is ready when we are.