Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Who knew? Beets are delicious!

So it turns out that beets are super yummy and easy to prepare. Found on the internets this weekend: Roasted Beet & Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese and Toasted Walnuts. (How could I not make it?)

2 bunches beets (1 red, 1 golden if you are feeling adventurous, which you clearly are since you are cooking beets in the first place)
1/2(ish) cup walnut pieces
1 pkg baby spinach
rest of an open package of goat cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh dill

Remove tops from beets, clean beets (and tops, if you want to steam them with garlic for tomorrow's dinner) well, wrap in foil and cook in a 400-degree (preheated) oven for an hour or so, or until you can easily poke them with a knife. When cool, peel them, making sure to keep beet juice as contained as possible and especially not on clothes. Cut into slices and set aside.
Meanwhile, you should have put the walnuts in a pot and just covered with water, then brought them to a boil and drained immediately. Apparently this reduces the bitterness. Lower the oven to 350 and put the walnuts on a cookie sheet or similar to bake until they are browned, about 20ish minutes.
Make sure your spinach is clean if not from a package.
Combine 1 (or however much you want) diced shallot and 1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette in another bowl. Slowly whisk in 1 cup olive oil and add s&p to taste. Yum.
The recipe wants you to dress the beets in one bowl and the spinach in another and then put the spinach on the plate and the beets on top. I did it this way but now I feel that it would be OK to just put it all in the same bowl and dress it in that bowl. But do it whichever way you want, then sprinkle the walnuts and the "crumbled" (I find goat cheese just smushes together, so I had to do it little bit by bit off a butter knife) goat cheese.
Realize you forgot to put the dill on the beets like it called for so sprinkle that on the top too.
This turns out to be very yummy! Beets are my new friend.

adapted from http://www.napanet.net/~dennis/recipes/96sb.html


Tortilla soup, fancy dinner out, gnocchi, and scallops s on the way, I promise.

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Quick Lunch #1.

One thing I recently realized with some degree of surprise is that my idea of quick, easy, and cheap foods has completely changed. Ramen is now only for hangovers, never for dinner; I haven't had boxed mac&cheese in months. The purchase of an old used George Foreman grill at my favorite store Hardwick's has facilitated delicious and inexpensive grilled sammiches, as follows:
Choose from among the following ingredients:
  • fresh basil or pesto (homemade or otherwise) or green sauce
  • fresh tomatoes
  • shallots sauteed in a tiny bit of olive oil and some balsamic vinegar (does this mean carmelized? I've been calling it carmelized but I might have made that up)
  • mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar
  • cheeses: yummy flagship cheese from Beecher's at the market; havarti; fontina; chevre; gorgonzola; mozzarella ...
  • whatever else you have in your fridge that might be delicious on a sammich - grilled eggplant slices, meat (if you are so inclined, but make it good meat - not bologna or similar), hummus, etc.

    It also helps to use good bread. It turns out that Safeway's 99-cent italian bread does not toast very well, or rather, it toasts extremely well and turns into a big crunchy thing that hurts to bite into. Keep it in the freezer if you don't make this often enough, but slice it before you freeze it for much easier sammiches.

    Brush olive oil on both sides of each slice of bread, unless you are putting pesto or something with olive oil in it on one side. Pile on your ingredients. I always put the cheese right next to the bread so it can get melty. Stick the whole thing in the grill and carefully (so as not to slide the top off) lift the lid up and place it straight down on the top of the sammich. Since this grill is old it helps to check the sammich partway through and turn it - not flip it, but turn it, because the middle of the grill is hotter than the edges and one edge of the bread will be toastier.

    Serve with soup if you want - Progresso Lentil is a good option, plus you can garnish it (!) with the rest of your sauteed shallots.

    Way more satisfying than ramen.


  • Tortilla soup last night - recipe soon.

    Wednesday, January 12, 2005

    Guest blog #1: Pepper-encrusted salmon with green sauce.

    Original recipe is from Caprial's Bistro Style Cuisine. The editorializing in this version is, of course, not by Caprial.
    This is shockingly good.

    Green sauce--a member of the pesto family:

    1 bunch parsley
    1 bunch basil
    1 tbsp chopped mint
    4 cloves garlic
    4 anchovies
    2 tbsp capers
    zest of one lemon
    2 tbsp lemon juice (from the zested lemon, natch!)
    2/3 cup EV olive oil
    salt
    Ground pepper.

    Salmon--Copper river is recommended, but that's hard to come by. Use
    whatever your fishmonger has.

    Sauce:

    1) Chop the basil, parsley and mint. Not too small, but not huge either. Mix
    them up in a bowl.

    2) Take your anchovies and a sharp knife--I used a santoku--and freakin'
    annihilate them. You don't want chunks of anchovy but rather a diffusion of
    anchovy throughout the sauce.

    Chop the capers and the garlic, no need to get carried away, esp if your
    girlfriend loves capers.

    By this point, your kitchen will start smelling oddly delicious. This is
    good.

    3) Whisk together the anchovies, garlic, capers, zest, juice, and olive oil.
    Add salt and pepper to taste.

    This sauce will be freakishly delicious.

    Salmon:

    1) Salt the salmon normally, then crust it in as much cracked or coarsely
    (and freshly, that's implied throughout the recipe. There is no call for
    pre-ground pepper unless both wrists and at least one ankle are broken and
    interfering w/ operation of a pepper/salt grinder.) ground pepper as you can
    get to adhere.

    2) Preheat your over to 350 degrees F

    3) Fire up a frypan w/ a bit of oil in it. Heat the pan over high heat until
    the oil smokes. At this point, you may want to clear the dogs out of the
    kitchen and turn on the hood. Huck the filet into the pan and sear it for
    two minutes per side. This will produce clouds of steam and smoke, as well
    as a delicious aroma. It's good fun and should satisfy your need for
    elemental fire for a while.

    4) after two minutes per side or however long it takes the fish to stop
    sticking to your pan, pull the pan from the stove and stick it in the oven
    for ~5-7 minutes. Test the doneness w/ a skewer or w/ a thermometer, esp. if
    you just bought a cool new one at the restaurant supply store.

    5) Set a base of sauce on the plate and flop the fish on top of it. Then
    cover the fish with as much sauce as possible. Eat the remaining sauce with
    a spoon. Or maybe on bread, either way.

    Note: It is likely that the skin of the salmon will stay with the pan. This
    is alright. You may give the skin to your dog. It will make him shiny and
    happy. Or, you can leave the skin and fond in the pan and make a quick pan
    sauce. You'll have nothing to out it on, however.

    Also, try and avoid grabbing the oven-hot handle of the frypan. It just
    makes one feel silly.


    The second time we made this, the amount of olive oil in the green sauce seemed excessive; I think in the future the best plan of action is just to add maybe a third of a cup, stir well, and then keep adding some more slowly until it looks about right.

    The sauce is also very yummy on pasta, though it requires a bit more salt.

    Friday, January 07, 2005

    Yeah, yeah, so I'm lazy.

    It's not that I've not been cooking or eating, just that I've not been writing about it.
    Much eating was done in Hawaii: sashimi, "baby chinese mustard cabbage" which turned out to be the same thing as baby bok choy, dim sum (yay!), poi, squid in taro root and coconut milk sauce, coconut cake, dried squid, lomi salmon (which we shall try making soon) ... more to come about some of these, eventually.
    I also have a new favorite cookbook: Caprial's Bistro Style Cuisine.
    Have made:
  • Cracked-pepper-encrusted salmon with green sauce
  • Spicy ratatouille in crêpes with garlic crème fraîche
  • Scallops with madeira mirin ginger glaze and almond & caper topping.
    I do not, however, have the book with me right now, so recipes shall come later.