Simple pleasures

So I did some heavy duty cooking this week but the best things lately were my simple recipes.

I made fried rice with green onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Added a cold boiled egg and some soy sauce and it was delicious!

I made a radish cheese pie and used the extra Gruyere cheese pie dough to make a simple popover. Some extra cheese, a cheddar curd, some green onions chopped up. The best thing ever. Pictured with radish compote and rosehip and hibiscus iced tea.

I get lost sometimes in all the fancy recipes and complicated techniques. Sometimes it pays to remember the basic simple fact that cooking should be about joy. The food need not be complicated to be delicious. A simple salad or fried rice at the right moment may be much better than any fancy recipe. A simple mug of hot milk with honey, rum and mint may be the best thing in the world even if it is easy to make.

Red beans

So I actually cooked a couple of things this week but the best of the lot was definitely the red beans.

I started with toasted sesame oil (this stuff tastes kinda like bacon fat) and I browned a bunch of garlic and some spring onion (lower part only not the chives.) Mean while I washed a package of Camellia brand red beans. I put them in a pot covered with water and then I added the cooked up onion and garlic along with two or three bay leaves, some salt and some Tony Chacheres extra spicy and a vegetable bullion cube. I cooked the whole think on low simmer for two hours adding water every 30min or so to keep them from drying out. So tender and salty and yummy I sat and ate a whole bowl of them right there without even waiting for the rice.

This was my first week cooking in my new kitchen and it was wonderful! the light was so beautiful I kept having to stop and admire the things I was washing or chopping before I could cook them. Also the beans spread a wonderful cooking smell through the top flour making it all homey and inviting. Ahh I am so glad we decided to do this it really is a great place to spend a day.

Kale and Blood Orange Salad

So this was one of the recipes I made when I was first starting to get the box from Holly Grove.
It is super yummy but I totally butchered it when I made it. I decided the hemp oil and himalaya crystal salt were both too expensive/ridiculous. So I subbed in olive oil and large grain kosher salt. You can also skip the fennel if you don't have it on hand. I got a huge bunch of fennel from Evelena around this time so I made it with the fennel leaves. I didn't have any fennel bulbs so I just skipped that all together. It is even yummier the next day when all of the juice has been marinating the Kale. I used to eat it right out of the bowl standing in the middle of my kitchen.

FennelOrange Kale Salad
By Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com
Yield 2 servings

1 medium bunch curly kale
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons hemp oil
3/4 teaspoon fresh orange zest
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt
pinch nutmeg
1 cup fennel bulb, thinly sliced*
1 cup orange, peeled, seeded & chopped
8 kalamata olives, pitted & chopped
1 tablespoon fennel leaves, chopped

Destem the kale. You can leave the more tender parts of the stem (toward the top of each leaf) in the salad, but the harder stems toward the bottom of each leaf should be torn out. Tear apart the kale leaves (or use a knife and chop them) into bite-size pieces.

Place the torn kale into a large bowl. Add the lemon juice, hemp oil, orange zest, salt, and nutmeg. Take a minute and massage all of these ingredients together with your hands. Add the fennel, orange, olives and fennel leaves, and gently toss to mix. Enjoy!

* I use a handheld V-slicer

Chanterelle al’Pomodoro

A lovely way to spend the day

So this weekend was basically the best thing since sliced bread. Friday I had a client have a fit and actually draw blood before falling asleep,quiet and adorable in my arms. I drove through town through saints fans and an inexplicable group of men running through the street in red  lingerie. To spend an evening with a new "friend."  We talked watched a movie and ate some very odd vegan Pizza. I am not even going to guess what the cheese was made out of....
Saturday I went on the road, hit the Hollygrove market for three bags and then drove a whole friend circuit. Ponchatula to have lunch with Aunt Debbie and Uncle Richard then on to Baton Rouge to help Christopher move in, from there I went to Covington to have dinner with Gail.
More friend time than I think I've had in months.

Any way Sunday was the exact opposite
Slept in, read a book, went for a swim.
In the afternoon I walked to the book store then I made this lovely meal.

Chanterelle al’Pomodoro
by Luisa   
# 47
1 pound of chanterelle mushrooms
1/2 pound of cherry tomatoes
5 cloves of fresh garlic
1 tsp of crushed dried hot peppers
handful of fresh basil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 pound of wheat angel hair

Boil the water for the pasta.
stir fry the chantelle mushrooms with oil and minced up garlic till the mushrooms are lightly brown.
then toss in the cherry tomatoes till it becomes gravy like.I always throw a teaspoon of sugar in the tomatoes for a sweeter taste and less acid.
throw in all the peppers and salt and basil let simmer for 20 min. Then when pasta is done mix in with the chanterelle mushrooms al’pomodoro.
 Since it is me we are talking about here I obviously did things a little different, I subbed in a teaspoon of Tony Chacheres for the salt and I used a little red bell pepper from my back yard instead of a hot pepper. I also used Pene instead of angel hair since that is what I had on hand. The result was delicious if a bit too spicy!

For desert I made a recipe of my grandmothers, I don't remember what she called it but I call it cereal stickies.
First pre-heat the oven to 325
Then you whip 3 egg whites with 2/3 of a cup of sugar
When you feel like the eggs are whipped  into submission you add four cups of cereal.
After that you use a teaspoon to scoop it onto a cookie sheet and bake for 13-15 min.
The result is yummy sticky things which will put a smile on your face.

Candied lime peel and little crush

So I have a bit of a crush. I'm a big girl and I can admit this.
So I have come up with a plan.
I will make her a box of home made candy and give it to her as a gift,
I am concerned that this amount of effort for a person I'm not dating may make me a stalker,
but I sort of don't care; since I really really need a relationship that is not totally made of fail. I still don't get how it can be this hard to find a nice girl, single, likes girls, great smile, friendly personality. At any rate I have located one of this rare breed and I'm thinking that the route to her heart is through sugary things.Certainly this is the way to my heart so hopefully we will have this in common,

I'm making candied lime peels here is what I had to do:
First I took the peel from 10 limes, cut them into quarters and then spent about an hour and a half trying to remove all the pith from the back.
That done I boiled 4 and 1/4 cups of water and 2 and 1/2 cups of sugar in a pot before adding the peels.
Let that simmer for an hour and then drain (I saved some of the now lime flavored simple syrup YUM)
Next I tossed them all in granulated sugar and put them on a tray in the oven, I dried them for only about an hour since I like them kind of gooey but I guess you could do it for longer.
The last step will be to chocolate dip them and then arrange them in a nice box.
If that doesn't impress this girl then I am totally sunk.

The candy is sweet and bitter and delicious and overpowering. I put some on the Key Lime Pie I made with all the lime juice, it makes a great compliment to the soft yielding texture of the pie.

Cucumber finger sandwiches

This is a recipe I wrote myself and it is a twist on an old classic.

I was home alone one evening and craving both cucumbers and protein. After a brief consultation with both my scary french cookbook and my actual fridge I decided on salted cucumbers with tuna salad. In the picture is a little local sweet potato which I boiled in the microwave and then filled with honey and cinnamon (YUM)

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cucumber
1 can tuna fish
A dash of vinegar (I used the red wine kind but any will do in a pinch)
A dash lemon juice
A dolop or two of mayonnaise  
Tony Chacheres (optional)
Zatar (optional)

First off open the tuna and drain the water placing the remaining dryish tuna in a bowl.
Second put some water in a second bowl and place that bowl in the microwave. Now crack an egg into the water in the microwave bowl and microwave for 1-2min or until yolk appears hard.
In the mean time you can add the vinegar, lemon juice and Mayo to the tuna. When the egg is ready add that too and chop it up in the bowl with a knife or fork.
Last but most important cut the cucumber into slices and arrange them in a single layer on a surface.
Sprinkle one side with the Tony Chacheres and then flip them all over and do the second side with the Zatar.
(one could do salt and pepper in a pinch but some sort of spice is necessary to bring out the cucumber)
Last but not least assemble them into sandwiches and enjoy!

I do hope you guys enjoy this bread free sandwich as much as I did!

Hollygrove and a New Age of Recipeaweek

Okay so this blog always aimed for vegetarian fare but now in year two I find that I am hankering for a new challenge so I have been buying produce boxes from the Holly Grove Farm and Market. Basically you get an unpredictable assortment of local produce sufficient to sustain you (hopefully) through the week.

This whole experience has been like a quiz on cooking  or more precisely botany for example
Take these three bunches of greens and tell me which one is the swiss chard?(the silver looking one)
Or what is the best way to store carrots or beets with or without the tops?(Without if you want them to last)

All in all it has been so far a broadening experience if a bit weird.
My collard greens came out horrible but the mustard greens were OK
The cookies with local honey and local sweet potatoes were wonderful but I think I could have lived without the cilantro and strawberry salad dressing!
I have been cooking a great deal but writing very little as the insanity of the holidays and my impending move took me over. So here is what I'm going to do, I will post all the recipes as direct links and then go back and write the posts if/when I get the time. I will warn you that some of these recipes contain a frightening quantity of green things. As the Hitch Hikers guide to the galaxy says "DON'T PANIC"  most of them reduce down a lot as you cook them. Good luck.

Fiona's white bean soup

So this week we have a guest cook in my mom who got this recipe from her friend Fiona. Below is their conversation back in July of 2010 about the soup. I am going to give it a try and post my reaction as a comment. 

Fiona,

  We have just finished our week in Perth and Margaret River. Tell Scott we went to Beckett's Flat. We bought a bottle of their wine for Shabbat.  We gave him your regards. They said they had not shipped to Africa before but were up to give it a go once we get settled. He said the post might be expensive, so we are first going to try and see if the local bottle shop will order it in for us with their normal consignments. I also want your white bean soup recipe. I think Mara might like it as well as it is a good meal for vegetarian--that with some bread would be a good meal in its self.

Thanks again for everything while we were in Brisbane. Know that it was truly appreciated. It was an honor and privilege to get to know you and your family.

Cheers,

Arleen

Hi Arleen,

Glad you had fun on the west coast of our lovely country. I have attached the recipe for the white bean soup. It comes from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten. Just replace the chicken stock with vegetable to make it vegetarian. I also found I had to cook the soup for longer but it's possible I didn't cover the beans with enough water the night before as they had absorbed all the water by morning and some were still dry. My tip, use a big bowl and lots of water. Enjoy!

Keep in touch

Regards

 Fiona

Very good with a loaf of fresh bread or cornbread.

Here I used 3 cans of beans, drained and rinsed them, added vegetable stock cubes with that amount of water and dried rosemary. I did not puree. got lots of compliments.

Enjoy, especially on a cold day.

 mom

I tried it out and it was indeed yummy, good for a cool winters day for sure!
Mara

Sweet potato and black bean chili (or not)

So I forgot to buy the chili powder (or really any of the things the recipe called for) so I did some odd things to this poor defenseless recipe.
Toasted sesame oil instead of olive oil
No chili powder or cumin or chipotle or cilantro
1tbsp basil parsley and oregano
lemon juice instead of lime
1/2 tsp Cayanne
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp Tony Chacheres Herb and spice mix
4 tbs Creshendo Greek spice mix (from Rouses specialty section.)
Whole canned tomatoes instead of diced.

It came out really yummy but probably not at all like it would have if I had even half followed the recipe...

Chocolate Peanut butter cookies

So the last time Jess was here she signed me up for Ok Cupid internet dating sight. Last night I finally had a date with someone from there. We were supposed to meet in the quarter but that didn't work out. (for those of you wondering 30min is as long as you can stand in a shoe store before it gets creepy) I ended up following a bunch of protestors yelling UP WITH EGYPT DOWN WITH MUBARAK for about 4 blocks and then I went home.
She called about 2 hours later and we figured out that we actually had already met at an event on the Tulane Campus months ago. So I had her over to the apartment for a cup of tea (mostly to avoid having to go out in the cold again.) We ended up making these cookies. The cookies were pretty good. The jury is still out on the date.

Link to the Cookies!

Lemon Pie (the redo)

Evelena gave me some home grown lemons from her lemon tree so I had a go at Lemon Meringue pie.
For those of you who are wondering: When the recipe says use a mixer instead of a whisk USE THE MIXER!
I was frustrated about something and needed to get her off my mind, so I thought I would whip this by hand myself. The pie tasted fine but no one knew it was supposed to have meringue on top because the whole thing was flattened out. I beat it for about 20 min and thought I had gotten stiff peaks but obviously I was wrong. Oh well It was yummy and it made Monday better so I guess I'll just go with it...
Here is the link for the recipe.

Whole wheat beer bread

So those of you who are frequent visitors to my apartment know that I have accumulated a motley assortment of different kinds of alcohol left behind by house guests and especially beer which I rarely drink. This recipe is the perfect use for the leftover beer, plus it is super easy and looks really impressive.  I did it the first time just as the recipe said and used a Guinness, this yeilded a loaf of heavy dark bread. The second time I went nuts and modified the recipe left and right. The original author says not to use light beer but I actually thought it tasted better with the bud light from last Mardi Gras...

Here is the original link.
When I  made it the second time I  used Bud Light
I also sauteed up a batch of cabbage and sweet potato in the skillet and added a cup of that.
Finally I added
4tbsp of buttermilk powder (equivalent to 1cup of buttermilk but without making the dough too wattery)&
2tsp of honey
I cooked the whole thing in a cast iron skillet instead of in a loaf pan and it cooked up in about 30 min instead of the whole hour. I think this version was much yummier. The buttermilk powder makes it taste sort of like sour dough but without all the yeast and work of sour dough.


   

Back from break !

So the year is over and I am done with my obsessive weekly need to cook.
I am still cooking though and have been enjoying some recipe writing as well as my recipe reading.
I will try to catch up the old posts but for the moment I am just going to go forward.
This year I want to try and bring down the money and calories in my cooking so look forward to some healthier picks and some things made from what I had lying around. I hope you enjoy!