Halibut Fillets with Walnuts and Shallots

 

It's cold, wet, and raining outside.  Not my idea of what the weather should be like in the days leading up to Spring.  But... since I can't do anything about it, I may as well go with the flow - so to speak.  We lucked out.  With the torrents that have fallen the last few days, we got a bit of seepage around the stone fireplace and the mysterious puddle in the basement.

The puddle in the basement is fun.  It appears in the middle of the floor.  The middle of the floor.  No water trail from the walls.  Nothing from overhead.  The middle of the floor.  Fortunately, it goes away quickly.  And anything of value (our bazillion Christmas ornaments, for example) are high and dry in plastic tubs.  The middle of the floor...

But I digress...

Dinner...

I went up to the fish counter today and asked the guy behind the counter what I wanted today.  He said that normally, people tell him what they want, not the other way around.  But if he was buying, it would be the halibut.  He had just cut it and put it out.  It was fresh and wild-caught.

I bought two.

I tend to like to cook fish fairly simply and then add something fun on top.  Tonight it was walnuts and shallots.  It's a variation on an idea I saw in Bon Appetit a few years ago.

To cook the fish, I place it skin-side down in a hot skillet with a bit of olive oil and butter.  Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.  I brown it on the stovetop for a few minutes and then stick the pan under the broiler for about 4 or 5 minutes.

Walnuts and Shallots

  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup sliced shallots
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • S&P, as desired

Melt butter in small skillet.  Add shallots and saute slowly until they begin to caramelize - 6-7 minutes, or so.  Add walnuts and cook until lightly browned and fragrant.  Add zest, lemon juice, and parsley.

Mix well and spoon over fish.

I served it up with sauteed zucchini and whole-grain brown rice.

And I almost forgot yesterday's feast!

I was down in media eating and taking food pictures, so when I got home, Victor whipped up a simple pasta.

Garlic, anchovy paste, red peppers, peas, beans, zucchini...  grated cheese.  And pasta.

DeeLish!


Tea & Cakes Tea Room

A dear friend of ours opened up a Tea Room in Media, PA a while back and I was down there yesterday taking pictures of some of her offerings for her new website.

OMG!  The food is fantastic!  Pots of wonderful teas, sandwiches, cakes, pork pies... She has it all!  She calls it "A Tea Room with a Twist" and she's right!

Carol's background is cooking and catering as well as working for a couple of high-end national grocers.  She knows her food!

A pork pie...

Cakes and tartlettes...

Unbelievably wonderful soups.

Sweets and cakes galore.

Tea Sandwiches.

Wonderful foods, wonderful presentations.  All served on wonderful mix-and-match china.

She serves a full breakfast on Saturday and High Tea on Sunday.

There will be more details on the new website.  I'll let y'all know when that's ready to launch!

In the meantime... Go.  Today.  Don't wait!


Salads and Cheesy Bread

Did my weigh-in at work.  I lost 2 pounds this past week.  I'm happy.  That's not a bad achievement considering we have dessert virtually every night.  But it also shows that if one takes the time to cook real food and not fill up on processed crap all day, you can have your cake and eat it, too.  It's all about balance - and real calories that will do me some good versus crap calories that are nothing more than crap calories.

We're fully into salad mode, now.  It's cold and raining, but I grilled a couple of thin-sliced round steaks to add to salads, and I made a loaf of bread to go along with it.  Cheesy bread.

I cubed up some sharp provolone and mixed it in before forming the dough into a ball.

And if a couple of slices of provolone bread with roasted garlic butter wasn't celebration enough for losing a couple more pounds, I'm making a yellow cake for dessert!  Real cake - not a mix.  It's in the oven right now.

I'm thinking chocolate icing.....


Yellow Cake Is calling

I do love cake.  It's one of my most favorite things - besides pies and cookies.  And ice cream.  Let's face it, dessert in general is my most favorite meal.

I decided a yellow cake was in order for tonight.  It's been a while since I made one.  I reached for my Better Homes and Gardens standby and then decided I wanted something else.  I quick search on Epicurious brought up more variations than I wanted or needed.  I went for one of the first ones listed.

Whenever I go to Epicurious, one of the first things I do is read the comments people leave about the recipes.  It's absolutely amazing what some people will write.  My favorites are always the folks who didn't follow any instructions, substituted half the ingredients, and then state it was the worst recipe they had ever made. (Well, duh.)  Or the pompous folks who will go to a hollandaise sauce recipe and then expound for pages on how evil butter and eggs are.  (Uh... this ain't Vegan Times...)  They're just silly.  This particular recipe had over 100 comments - and a lot of them were about how dry the cake was and how quickly the cake baked - nowhere near the 45 or so minutes of the recipe.  I'll bet that not one of them used the 8" pans the recipe calls for.

Of course, I didn't either.  I did use 8" pans, but I used 8" square pans.  We all know from math class that an 8" square has more volume than an 8" circle.  And since I knew from the beginning that I was changing things,  I adjusted accordingly.  It's not brain surgery.

Moist Yellow Cake

Epicurious | August 2004

Ingredients

  • 3 cups (330 g) cake flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (8 ounces or 230 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups (454 g) granulated sugar
  • 5 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups (10 fluid ounces or 300 ml) buttermilk

preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter and line with parchment paper two 8x2-inch (20x5-cm) pans. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Cut up the butter into 1-inch pieces and place them in the large bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment or beaters. Beat for 3 minutes on MEDIUM-HIGH speed until the butter is light and creamy in color. Stop and scrape the bowl. Cream the butter for an additional 60 seconds.

4.Add the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the eggs one at a time.

5. Reduce the mixer speed. Stir vanilla into the buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk. Mix just until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.

6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a knife. Lift up the pan with the batter, and let it drop onto the counter top to burst any air bubbles, allowing the batter to settle.

7.Center the pans onto the lower third of the oven and let bake 45 to 50 minutes or until the cake is lightly brown on top and comes away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I doubt I shall be winning any awards for neatness in cake-slicing this week, but I don't care.  What it lacks in picture-perfectness, it more than makes up for in taste.

It was good.  No matter what they wrote.


Diner Dinner

Since we actually had to leave the house this afternoon, we decided dinner at the diner was in order.  Considering how seldom we actually eat out, this was almost a big deal.

I kept tossing greasy cheeseburger and club house sandwich back and forth.  Either would have been fine, but I finally decided I can make a pretty good greasy cheeseburger at home any time.  I seldom make a club.  As the picture attests, the club won.

It didn't disappoint.  Three slices of rye toast with turkey, bacon, iceberg lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise.  Thick steak fries, cole slaw, and a pickle.  And coffee.  Ya gotta have coffee at the diner.

Victor opted for this weird east coast concoction called a Corned Beef Special. It's a hot corned beef sandwich on rye, with cole slaw and dressing on it.  Not grilled, cold cabbage.  I don't get it.   Then again, I wasn't eating it.  I don't have to.

I was a good boy and didn't finish it all.  Weigh-in tomorrow.

And we still have madeleines.....


Bean Soup and Madeleines

That roasted chicken from Sunday just keeps on giving.  Tonight, it was Bean Soup.  The soup itself was pretty basic and simple.  I boiled down the broth I had made yesterday just a bit more to concentrate the flavor and then added the leftover gravy I had made.  I then added three cans of beans - pinto, roman, and pink beans (I always have a variety of canned beans on the shelf.)  I hit it with the immersion blender and pureed it pretty well.  I just added a bit of S&P because it had a pretty good flavor and I was looking for a simple soup because I was going to add stuff.

And the fun began.

I had seen a recipe in La Cucina Italiana for a chick pea soup with cabbage and chicken on top.  It was a really really thick soup, but from looking at the recipe, not overly exciting.  Victor pretty much loathes cooked cabbage in any form, so that idea was out.  I decided to work with the concept...

I cooked a chicken breast with 2 links of fresh chorizo, removed from the casing.  I then wilted spinach in a bit of roasted garlic butter and spooned that on top of the soup.   I added the chicken and chorizo on top of that and dove in!

Oh...  and I baked another loaf of bread identical to the one yesterday.

And for dessert...

Madeleines!

I don't think I have made a Madeleine since CCSF circa 1974.  Years and years and years...  But our friend Ann posted a recipe back in December and I've been wanting one ever since.  I finally broke down and bought a Madeleine pan, and yesterday made the dough.

I baked after work today.

Ann's Madeleines

This recipe makes a dozen of the med to large size.

Make up batter the day before or at least a couple of hours before:

  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 1 C sifted flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • Pinch salt
  • Zest of one orange, more or less
  • 2 eggs, room temp
  • 3 1/4 oz butter, melted and cooled

Mix dry ingredients in bowl, add zest, stir in.

Add eggs and melted butter, stir, don't beat until just combined.  You don't want to incorporate a lot of air into the batter.

Chill for 2 hours up to 4 days.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Oil and flour pans (Lady in store said grapeseed oil gives the best crust)

Using pastry bag, pipe batter into molds.  I didn't use a tip as I didn't have one big enough, isn't as if you are going to make a design you know.

Bake 7-11 minutes until edges are browned and the top springs back when tapped with a finger

Turn out onto rack and let cool.

These outdo Julia.

And who am I to argue?  They came out rich and buttery and just properly crisp.

I see more of these in our future...


Chicken Salad Salad

 

The chicken I roasted Sunday has given forth another meal - a chicken salad salad.  This was actually a planned meal - not something I often do.  But when I roasted the chicken Sunday, I planned at least 2 more meals from it - a salad and a soup.  The carcass is simmering as I type.

The chicken salad was your basic - chicken, onion, celery, pickle, salt and pepper, bound with mayonnaise.  I put a big ol' scoop into a tomato I sliced in eighths and set on a bed of mixed greens.  I then added cheese and garlic tortolloni, blackberries, and Victor made a simple vinaigrette.  A loaf of bulgur whole wheat bread finished off the meal.  And me.

And lest anyone thing we've totally lost our minds and are eating a whole loaf of bread every night...  Not exactly true.  I'm making 10-12oz boules.  We each get a few slices at dinner, and Victor has sandwich bread for lunch the following day.

I am loving the weather change.  I lovelovelove snow, but I love warm even more.  Salads are really making me smile.

And so is the fresh-baked bread.

Tonight's loaf  was the whole wheat dough with about 1/4 cup of bulgur wheat mixed in and sprinkled on top.  And roasted garlic butter to spread on the warm slices.

There is just nothing better...


Steaks and Bread

Charcoal grilling is just the best!  It may not be as convenient as a gas grill, but there's just no comparing the flavor!  And with the thermometer actually hitting 60° today, grilling was definitely called for.

On my Monday grocery shopping trek today, I picked up 8 - yes, eight - bone-in New York strip steaks for a mere $24.00.  I love an in-store special!  Six of them were vacuum-packed for the freezer, and two became dinner tonight.  Grilled perfectly rare and topped first with a bit of Boursin cheese, and then slathered with caramelized onions.  Lots and lots of onions.

Baked sweet potatoes and peas rounded out the plate.

But that wasn't all we had!

I also made Whole Wheat Sun-Dried Tomato Bread!  I took the no-knead recipe and tweaked it a bit and for this loaf, added some chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil.  It was a little messy mixing them in, but the final result was worth it!

Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread

  • 3 cups lukewarm water
  • 2 pkg yeast
  • 1 1/2 tbsp salt
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Stir ingredients together and let rise 3 hours.  Follow instructions for basic no-knead artisan bread.

For sun-dried tomato bread, chop tomatoes and mix into 1lb piece of dough, form into ball and follow instructions for rising and baking.

I really like the whole wheat version better.  It has a better crumb - not as chewy as the white, but the crust is still excellent.

And to add just another layer of decadency, Victor made roasted garlic butter to slather on the bread.  It's quite simple.

Take a whole head of garlic and slice off the tips to expose the garlic cloves.  Drizzle with olive oil and place in a hot oven (450-ish) for about 45 minutes.  Let cool, then squeeze out the garlic and mix with softened butter.  Use on anything and everything.

And there's flourless chocolate cake later on.....


Sunday Roast Chicken

I installed new under-cabinet lights today.  They are so bright against the white tile we can use them to land an airplane in the kitchen.  I'm psyched!

We had low-volt lights installed when we did the kitchen in 2001.  They worked fine until 2007 or so.  The transformer blew and then the replacement blew.  Not good.  Last year, we had them redone as rope lights.  Also not good.  They just didn't put out enough light.  I even added to them.  Still not enough light.  Our kitchen is always dark - and even more so in winter.

So...  off to the local lighting store.  Any idea how many options one has for under-cabinet lights?!?  Any idea how much money one can spend on under-cabinet lights?!?   Holy light-bulb, Batman!  I wanted them to work on a dimmer switch, and I wanted them hard-wired.  I didn't want to have to build anything.  We found some xenon lights that fit the bill perfectly - and fit our minimal budget.

We can see, again.  Our always-dark kitchen is now bright and cheery.  I only cursed a few times, too.

With new lights ablaze, I roasted a chicken for dinner.  I ground up a few juniper berries with rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and just a bit of olive oil and spread it under the skin.  Into a 375° oven for about and hour and 15 minutes.  Thermometer was at 170°.

Egg noodles with pan gravy and spinach with mushrooms finished off the plate.

And Victor was so enamored of the new lights that he decided to bake a cake for dessert!

A flourless chocolate cake to munch on while watching the Oscars.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

  • 1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 9 large eggs, separated
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
  • 1/4 cup strong black coffee
  • 2 cups heavy cream, cold
  • Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1-inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs – this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate; then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.  Add the coffee and mix well.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 25 to 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan.

Serve at room temperature dusted with confectioners’ and the whipped cream.

This is just a great cake.  Every time he makes it I'm in chocolate heaven!

C'mon Oscars!


Salad Weather!

It's no secret that I love the snow.  Multiple back-to-back snowfalls is my idea of winter heaven.  But if I had to choose warm or cold, warm would win every time.  If I'm going to live where it snows in the winter, I want to see LOTS of snow in the winter.  But then I want it to get warm.  Like today.  And then I want to stop eating soups and stews and casseroles and start eating salads.  Like today.

There may still be snow on the ground, but I was craving a salad today.  Mixed greens, micro greens, avocado, tomato, cucumber, hard-cooked eggs, and sauteed beef and mushrroms with a red wine vinaigrette that Victor whipped up.    I cleaned my plate!

And for some strange reason, I had a hankerin' for something I haven't made in years - microwave caramel corn!

I really don't know the last time I made this - we may have still been living in San Francisco.  It's been a long time.

It may be one of the eassiest and most fun things to do!

Microwave Caramel Corn

  • 4 qts popped corn
  • 1 stick butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup corn syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp baking soda

Pop corn and place in brown paper grocery bag.

Place butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla in a glass bowl and  bring to a boil in microwave.   Remove from microwave and carefully stir in baking soda.  Mixture will thicken and lighten in color.

Pour over popcorn in bag, roll closed, and shake very well to mix.

Place bag in microwave and heat for 90 seconds.  Shake very well to mix and return to microwave and cook for another 90 seconds.

Shake, again, rip open bag, and enjoy!

Warning:  It's addictive.


Chipotle Chicken Sandwich

I feel like such a slacker.  I didn't bake the bread or hand-cut the french fries tonight.  Sometimes ya just gotta go with the flow.

I had taken chicken out of the freezer this morning with no clear idea of what I was going to do with it.  This is a perfect example of why I don't plan or shop for meals in advance.  I just don't know on Monday what I'm going to want on Friday - or any other day of the week.  I keep plenty of ingredients in the house and let my taste buds take me where they want to go.  I would much rather open the 'fridge and see something and think "Gee, I need to use this - let me think of something" rather than opening the 'fridge and seeing the ingredients for chicken pot pie - and it's an unexpected 70° outside!  It may be pure delusion on my part, but it seems like I have more creative control this way.

So...  I had chicken and no clear idea of what I was going to do.

At some point this afternoon, I started thinking crepes, which lead to tortillas which lead to melted cheese and Mexican which lead to tonight's Mexican spiced chicken with chipotle mayonnaise sandwich on a baguette.  See how linear that thought process was?!?  From crepe to sandwich in mere seconds!

I sliced the chicken breasts into medallions and seasoned them with cumin, chili powder, garlic, salt, and pepper.  I fried them in a splash of olive oil.

I made chipotle mayonnaise by adding a heaping teaspoon of adobo sauce (from a can of chipotles in adobo) to 1/4 cup of mayo.

I generously slathered the mayo on the baguette, added pequillo peppers, sliced avocado, the chicken, and jack and cheddar cheeses.  Under the broiler it went to melt the cheese, and dinner was served.

The fries were frozen bagged fries.  They were pretty good.  No nasty ingredients.

I know dinner was good because halfway through the meal, I had to get up and wash my hands - the napkins just weren't enough.

It was worth it.


Beef Stew and Biscuits

I didn't bake bread today.  I made biscuits, instead!

It seems as if winter is actually starting to leave.  The snow is melting, we can see patches of lawn (and fence repairs that need to be made) and it's actually been above freezing.  It's almost time to trade in the stews for salads.  Almost.

I took the easy way out tonight.  I  made a simple beef stew and topped it with cheesy baking mix biscuits.  I semi-follow the recipe on the box except I don't measure, I add an egg, and I splash in the milk a little at a time until it looks right.  Tonight, I also added some shredded provolone cheese.

The secret to light - and fully-cooked - drop biscuits in a stew is to start with really hot stew.

Get your stew to boiling, and drop small amounts of biscuit dough onto the hot surface.  I use a small ice cream scoop.  Leave enough room for them to expand.  Then put it into a 425° oven for about 45 minutes.

The hot stew steams the biscuit from the inside while the hot oven cooks it from the outside.

Guaranteed perfect every time!