Fizzy limeade for grownups

I was in Fairway a few weeks ago and they had agave syrup on display. I wanted to see what the fuss was about, so I bought a bottle of the light amber. I took it home and ate a little bit off a spoon and decided I liked it quite a bit. I put the following together:


1 T agave nectar
Juice of 1 lime
3/4 oz vodka (one shot) I happened to have some Chopin in the house


stir all ingredients together and pour over ice. Fill the glass up to the rim with seltzer. Toast to finishing the workday without screaming.




I do feel obliged to mention that agave is NOT, according to any health journal I've looked at, a non-caloric or low-glycemic substitute for sugar. You'll see claims that it's "sweeter" so you might use less. According to this article by the Mayo Clinic, it does trigger a need for insulin. I am not a medical professional, consult your doctor, et cetera. 

Help! I sound like a magazine!

As I mentioned in my last entry, we just moved. While we're mostly unpacked, it took a while to get everything into the kitchen, so I have not done as much cooking as I would have liked. I did marinate a flank steak in ancho chile powder and garlic with a little vinegar recently, but I wasn't thrilled with the result. My sweetie really enjoyed it, so it may have simply been to subtle. My dear Nexx never smoked and has much more sensitive taste buds than I. As for myself, I thought it needed more acid and salt. On the bright side, I was able to get a very nice texture on a less expensive cut of meat. When I've improved the recipe, I'll post it here.


I was a little worried a few years ago when I moved to Connecticut. I spent my teenage years in an affluent suburb of Massachusetts and I used to joke that the town was as pretty as a postcard and had about as much depth. Okay, I wasn't really joking.  Anyway, I was concerned that Connecticut would be similar, that I was going to be living the life I had spent the last twenty years running away from.


I needn't have worried. Despite the stories of yuppies and preppies and whatever the current abbreviations are (they used to call my kind of household DINKS, double-income, no kinds), Connecticut has pockets of character. And in Stamford, we have some ass-kicking pizza.


Where the magazine comment came in is when we had some leftover Remo's pizza the other night. When we went out for the original dinner we had some fresh (!) bread with olive oil as well as some fresh sliced mozzarella for an appetizer. We went home with half a personal pie each. I knew half the pie wouldn't be sufficient, and I'm still having a hard time chewing salad, so I found myself "jazzing up" our dinner of leftovers with some roasted cauliflower. I thought of making the balsamic version I did some time back, but then I found this recipe and said, "Hmmmm."


Our ingredients:

• 1 lemon
• 1 large head cauliflower, trimmed and cut into bite-size florets
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish (I used grana padano, which is a little more complex than parmesan and quite delicious)
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed

Besides the cauliflower, which you want fresh anyway, I'm happy to say I had all the other ingredients in the house as a matter of habit. The grana padano was a money-saving effort because imported parmesan is getting ridiculous in price.

The instructions were very easy to follow:

1. Position rack in lower third of oven; preheat to 450°F. Coat a large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.  
2. With a sharp knife, remove skin and white pith from lemon and discard. Working over a small bowl, cut the lemon segments from their surrounding membranes, letting the segments drop into the bowl. Drain the juice from the segments.
3. Toss the lemon segments, cauliflower, oil, salt and pepper on the baking sheet and spread evenly. Roast until starting to soften and brown, stirring once halfway through, 25 to 30 minutes.
4. Sprinkle Parmesan and capers over the cauliflower; stir to combine. Serve garnished with more Parmesan, if desired.

................................

I always appreciate a recipe that tells me where to put the oven rack. It can make such a huge difference and this is not a lesson you want to learn the hard way

When a recipe says "sharp knife," take it seriously. I was able to get out the lemon segments without mangling them too much, which is a big change from my first attempt and supreming an orange. I opted  not to drain the juice. Since the capers were to be rinsed, I thought the extra bite from the citrus would be nice. I probably also went a little overboard on the black pepper. I blame Nana, and damn do I miss  her.

I loved the results. The recipe says this makes 4 servings. It made two from a small head of cauliflower. Lemon and capers work pretty well together. Capers you can almost consider the poor person's truffle. Added correctly, in a small amount, they can really class up a dish. And unlike truffles or truffle oil, capers are within Joe or Jeanne Average's budget.

With spring being upon us (though the temperature in Stamford has yet to hit 70), you'd think I'd be going more for fresh vegetation. Unfortunately, I still have that bite plate in my mouth to go wtih the braces. Chewing raw veggies, especially cruciferous (I may not have spelled that correctly) is still difficult.  I have until next April and then one of my first meals is going to be corn on the cob.

Coming soon--a different kind of fish coating. Stay tuned!

I like it both ways

Welcome back, everyone. It's been a slightly crazy time. Not only did I just wrap up a class with the first term paper I've had to write in mumble  years, but my sweetie and I moved into a new apartment, so we've spent a lot of time cleaning, packing and moving, and now goes with the unpacking.

But a couple weeks ago, I did one of my recipe searches, looking for the perfect hummus recipe. As with many foodstuffs, there were variations out the whazoo including one from Alton Brown that used peanut butter instead of tahini. I may never forgive him.

I'm all for fusion if it's done right, meaning there is respect for all the fusing cultures involved. I had some fabulous Peking duck fajitas a long time ago for example. I also believe that some names of foods are often stretched beyond recognition. 

My favorite example of this is the bagel (I've lost my recipe, but I may attempt these again sometime soon). As far as I'm concerned, a bagel is not a bagel unless it has been boiled before baking. This is what makes a bagel so dense and chewy on the inside.

Hummus has become one of those things. My understanding is hummus is not hummus unless there are chick peas and tahini (ground sesame) involved. If you mush fava beans or white beans or black beans (all of which I enjoy), you don't have hummus, you have bean dip. There is nothing wrong with bean dip, folks. You don't have to tart it up and call it hummus. Viva la bean dip!

Anyway, I put two recipes together. They both started with:

• One 14.5 ounce can of chick peas, drained. Reserve the liquid
• 1/3 cup tahini
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• liquid from the chick peas as needed for texture
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Version 1

• 6 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

Version 2

• juice of 2 fresh limes
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 cloves of garlic

I made these in my blender, which took a lot of patience. If you don't have a food processor, I recommend picking up the blender unit and shaking it a few times. Air pockets will form and you'll need to do a lot of stirring.This is where adding the liquid from the canned chick peas will come in handy. It takes a while, but it is so very worth it.

I served these to one of my gaming groups with some bell peppers (red, orange, gold) as well as some cucumbers and some lentil crackers. There was none left, which I take as high praise.

Thank you for reading! My next Project Management class doesn't start for a month, so hopefully I'll have some time to do some more posting. As always, your comments are welcome.

Making ingredients again

I am currently quite pleased. I attempted something today that it had never occurred to me to do. I was inspired by this article, which made everything seem so very easy.

So today, I made ricotta cheese. I cut the recipe in half, but here's the original ingredient list:

8 Cups Whole Milk

.5 cup buttermilk

1 Cup heavy cream

3 T lemon juice

.5 t salt

Line a large sieve with a layer of fine-mesh cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl.

Slowly bring milks, cream and salt to a rolling boil in a 6-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Add lemon juice, then reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring constantly, until the mixture curdles, about 2 minutes.

Pour the mixture into the lined sieve and let it drain for an hour. After discarding the liquid, cover and chill the ricotta. It will keep in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.

I found the instructions pretty easy to follow. At least I thought I did. I added the lemon juice and turned the heat down. Two minutes later, when there was no curdling, I realized I hadn't put in enough lemon juice. Back up with the heat, added more lemon juice, yet I was only getting very little bits of curd. I added some more buttermilk and then I got the curdling action I wanted. Into the sieve. 

An hour later, I had ricotta. The lightest, fluffliest, melt-in-your-mouth ricotta ever. I stirred about half of it into some polenta (about 1.5 cups dry) along with:

1.5 Cups chopped tomatoes

.25 cups fresh basil, torn

.5 cup chopped onion

.5 cup chopped mushrooms (chantarelles were on sale)

It was so good I forgot to top it with the parmesan, though I did drizzle it with a bit of olive oil before serving.

The day before, I had started some shoulder steaks marinating in a bottle of Paul Newman's Italian dressing. Quite tasty, but the polenta was definitely the star of the show.

Thanks for reading!

Wrong protein

Another adventure in salmon tonight. I liked this recipe a lot for several reasons. It uses salmon without dill, it uses balsamic vinegar which I love. It's also quick, which means it's good for a weeknight supper and then I can get back to studying or watching Sam Neil be ominous on Alcatraz.


The ingredients sounded like they'd go together:

• 6 5oz salmon fillets
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 T white wine
• 1 T honey
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 4 t Dijon mustard
• slat & pepper to taste
• 1 T chopped fresh oregano

1. Prehead oven to 400 F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray
2. Coat a small saucepan with non-stick cooking spray. Over medium heat, cook and stir garlic until soft, about three minutes (I was not stirring fast enough, obviously, my garlic got kind of toasty).
3. Mix in white wine, honey, vinegar, mustard and salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered for about three minutes, or until slightly thickened. (more like 5-7 minutes before it started getting thick)
4. Arrange salmon fillets on baking sheet. Brush with glaze, sprinkle with oregano.
5. Bake for 10-14 minutes, or until flesh flakes easily. Brush with remaining glaze and season with salt & pepper

I have a few quibbles with this one. The glaze was tasty and tangy, though I didn't taste the Dijon at all. My sweetie found it too sweet, but admitted that the balsamic would be overwhelming without the honey. The oregano didn't really add much. I think it might be better to add it to the glaze itself, let it release its essential oils into the glaze.


The big thing, though? I kept wishing my salmon was chicken. My sweetie agreed that this would work much better on something white-fleshed, either white fish or poultry. So this means we have some plans. One to make this again, sans Dijon, with a much dryer wine (the labels sometimes lie) with some chicken. Two, we may have a guest post from my sweetie coming up as he designs some enhancing flavors for salmon. Stay tuned!


Coming soon--overstuffed quesadillas!

Happy New Year!

This has been an interesting month. I wrapped up 2011 being sort of sick, which kind of killed the week I had taken off from my day job. I've made a few things, some memorable and some less so. I'm going to talk about a couple of the less memorable ones, that might be able to be saved.

The first one was an herbed chicken I put together. I've used yogurt and spices as a successful coating for baked chicken before. My vision was marjoram and black pepper and nice juicy chicken.  

I think I goofed in trying to use Greek yogurt for this one. I did thin it out a little bit, but it was more like a frosting than a coating. I just wasn't thrilled with the results. My sweetie liked some of it, but we agreed that this was not my best effort. I will be experimenting some more with this one.

Another one, I made last night. I didn't make a New Year's resolution to eat more fish, but we are starting to do so. Salmon is very low in mercury (unlike two of my favorite, tuna and halibut), so I think I'll be looking for a lot of salmon recipes in the future. Fish is also the easiest protein for me to chew these days. I can only eat so much soup, yogurt and quiche.

Now I like the herb dill as much as the next chef. Heck, I have a friend called Dill (though that's short for Dillanger). Still, I wanted something a little different. This gets challenging with a couple of different palates in the house. The sweetie doesn't like teriaki, and the mustard/brown sugar glaze I made when we still lived with Austin didn't go over too well either.

So you can imagine my delight when I found this recipe. That is, until I made it:

• 3 lbs salmon (I actually had about 3/4 of a pound, two small fillets, and this recipe was just enough to marinate.
• 1/3 cup soy sauce (I use Kikoman)
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3 T oil (I used vegetable, as my other choices were peanut, olive or sesame and I wasn't sure any of them would work)
• 1 large clove garlic, crushed (or in my case, pressed)
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• Handful fresh chopped parsley. (Whose hand, I ask you? My hands aren't very big, someone who's over six feet is going to have  much bigger ones. I decided on a generous quarter up)

Marinade for 2-3 hours. Broil

Definitely trying for three hours next time. On my sweetie's suggestion, I will be cutting down on the soy sauce. It overwhelmed everything. I think I will also increase the lemon peel, cut down on the oil and add a little more garlic. Possibly, there will be some thickener to make the marinade into a glaze afterwards. We'll see how it goes.

Comments? Questions? Recipes to try? Let's hear from you!

I need a second opnion

While the weather outside is not necessarily frightful, it's still nice to have a hearty soup or stew to enjoy on a cold dark knight. A friend of mine on G+ posted a harira recipe that got my attention. Tomatoes, lentils, chick peas, Middle Eastern spices . . . this had Kate written all over it, or so I thought.

Let's get into the ingredients before I give you my take on it.

• 1/4 pound dried chickpeas
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup diced onions
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes and their juices
• 1 1/2 quarts rich chicken stock
• 1/4 pound dried green lentils
• 1/2 cup long-grain rice
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• Cilantro sprigs, for garnishing

Another attractive thing about this recipe is it's pretty inexpensive, unless you need to refresh your entire spice cabinet. I'm running low on nutmeg, which is normal for this time of year because where there are winter holidays there is nog and I must have my freshly ground nutmeg over eggnog laced with good booze.

Anyway, the only changes I made to the recipe was to put in more chickpeas that strictly called for, and I used chicken tenders. I added additional olive oil to make up for the fat that would have been there had I used thighs. Maybe this was my mistake.

Pick over the chickpeas, cover with cold water, and soak overnight at room temperature. Drain chickpeas and rinse well with cold running water. Drain and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a medium stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season the chicken pieces with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the chicken in batches, and cook until well browned, about 4 minutes per batch. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside. Add the onions and celery and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the ginger, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Return the chicken to the pan and add the tomatoes and their juices, stirring well. Stir in the chicken stock, lentils, and chickpeas and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook at a gentle simmer for 1 hour.
Add the rice and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and return the soup to a simmer. Cook covered for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, add the cilantro, parsley, and lemon juice and cook, uncovered for 5 minutes.
Ladle into warmed soup bowls and garnish with fresh cilantro sprigs. 

The recipe was easy to follow, and everything smelled delicious, but when it all came together, I didn't have that little rush of excitement that told me, "Kate, you did well." It was warming, smelling more of the cinnamon than anything else, but I didn't feel like the chicken had absorbed much of the flavor from the spices and the onions were totally lost.

My sweetie, however, had a different opinion. We've both been a little sick, and he found the stew very enjoyable, and also reasonably easy to digest, which is always a plus when you aren't feeling well.

So, I'd like to throw this out to y'all. If you make this, would you please let me know your opinion? Did you get layers of flavor, did you get a beautiful gestalt? That gestalt is what I look for in a soup or stew, and if it's here, I'd like a road map.

Questions? Comments? A recipe for me to try? I'd love to hear from you!

coming up:  a southern favorite I found myself missing. Stay tuned!