Olive hates her picture taken, but she hasn’t figured out the cell phone camera yet. Jeffrey has no such issue.
Olive and Jeffrey learn to share
They DO like each other!
October 16, 2008Wedding plans
October 5, 2008I just got back from a trip to Vermont with Andy to make some wedding plans, visit new family, and set him off on a motorcyle trip back home. Here’s a few pics. Unfortunatly some really great ones were spoiled by my ability to pull a face. The rest are available here: http://flickr.com/photos/aggiezoe/
Ragweed Pollen
September 30, 2008It’s of the devil. The only thing worse is probably cedar season or millions of paper cuts and a boil at the same time.
Hot Toddy:
Equal parts bourbon, water, and fresh lemon juice. Cinnamon and lemon zest for flavor. Maple syrup to sweeten. Hold it under your nose till it clears up a little.
Green Chilé Beef Stew
September 27, 2008This is probably the last chilé recipe for a while because it used the rest of my frozen store of the magical Hatch. It’s based heavily on a recipe sent to me by Allysa, the supplier of my stash of chilé. Her husband, Edward made a version of this with a brisket, corn relish, and hatch salsa. I intentionally made mine just a bit more watery, and used fresh corn instead of relish. I served it in whole wheat tortillas with Greek yogurt to cool it off a little. However, I used mainly the mild peppers, so it was not so hot I couldn’t have eaten a bowl full. Instead, the stew was smokey from the peppers prepared over charcoal and a little sweet from fresh corn.
1 lb tenderized round steak, cubed
1 tbs olive oil
2 sm white onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 hot hatch green chilé, chopped, roasted, skins and seeds removed
8 mild hatch green chilé, chopped, roasted, skins and seeds removed
½ cup black coffee
½-1 cup Bloody Mary Mix (I used the lesser amount to keep it thicker)
8 small tomatoes (I was using campari)
1 ear sweet corn, removed from the cob
1 can black beans, lightly drained
1 tsp cumino
1 tbs fresh oregano, chopped
1 tbs fresh basil, chopped
kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Heat the oil on high in a cast iron dutch oven or other heavy vessel. Toss in round steak, seasoned with salt and pepper and brown. Remove the steak from pan. Place onions in the drippings with a touch more oil if necessary and cook until browned and softened. Add garlic and heat until softened being careful not to let it burn. Add chilés and stir into the onions and garlic. Deglaze the pan with the black coffee. Add remaining ingredients, then cover and let simmer on low until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 30 minutes.
If I’d had about double the amount of the mild chilés I think I would have left off the beans and let this be just a chilé stew.
Tapioca pudding
September 25, 2008I started with the tapioca recipe from 101 cookbooks.com. http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/tapioca-pudding-recipe.html This I essentially doubled and flavored to suit my whim.
2/3 cup small pearl tapioca
5 cups milk (I used 2%. Whole would have been nicely decadent.)
1 cup coconut milk
4 egg yolks, fork beaten
5 tbs sugar
dash kosher salt
1/4 tsp cardamom
dash fresh nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla (A scraped vanilla bean would have been better, but the HEB was out)
1 cup pecan halves
Spray olive oil
dash kosher salt
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp sugar
Soak the tapioca pearls in 1 1/2 cup of milk for about 30 minutes. Whisk in the remaining milk, coconut milk, egg, sugar cardamom, nutmeg, and salt. Bring the mixture slowly to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to a bare simmer. Stir constantly until the tapioca softens and becomes translucent, and the custard thickens. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
In a large mixing bowl, spray the pecans with a bit of olive oil. (or melted butter) Toss with the seasonings and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes until toasted. Pay close attention to the nuts to assure they don’t burn. Chop and fold into the pudding.
Tonight’s salad
September 25, 2008I’m a big fan of tomato and cucumber salads with a balsamic vinegrette, but the Dude doesn’t seem to enjoy the balsamic. I did this one with cider vinegar and fresh herbs instead. It’s pretty darn tasty and will be better in a few hours.
Toss Together:
6-8 small globe tomatoes, large dice
5 small cucumbers, thickly sliced
1 small shallot, slice extra thin
2 tbs fresh chives, chopped
2 tbs fresh mint leaves, chopped
Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste
Dressing:
Whisk together 1/3 cup cider vinegar with about 1 tbs maple syrup. Slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil while whisking.
Toss the dressing with the salad and refrigerate for at least an hour. Pour off any excess dressing before serving.
I typically make my vinaigrette 1:1 when it’s just me, but I like things quite sour. When I’m making salads for other people I go just a little less oily than the traditional 1:2 vinegar to oil ratio. Instead of 1/3 cup vinegar to 2/3 cup oil, I use about a 1/2 cup oil.
So Very Hair!
September 23, 2008Do they train women to say that at face waxing school?
Jeez!
Buttermilk Biscuits
September 21, 2008Each time I make biscuits I have to go look up proportions of flour to butter and I never get it the same twice. These were delicious. They weren’t puffy or light at all, but rather they were flaky, tender, and very buttery. Eating just one was a huge challenge. (Which I failed when I ate another) The key to biscuits is to keep the butter from melting, so work quickly and never use your hands if you can help it.
In a large mixing bowl, combine:
2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of kosher salt (I may have used more like two… I never measure salt.)
1 stick of chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and re-chilled
3/4 cup of chilled buttermilk, give or take
Without ever touching the butter or the batter with your hands: Drop the butter cubes into the flour mixture and toss with a fork to coat and separate. With a pastry cutter or fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until you have very small beads of butter mixed throughout the flour. Pour in the buttermilk a little at a time and mix it with the flour/butter mixture until all the flour is worked in. The dough should still be very crumbly. Add additional buttermilk by the tablespoon if necessary.
Turn the crumbly batter onto a floured board and quickly pat into a square. I know most prefer round biscuits, but this reduces waste! Using as few passes as possible, thin the dough to about an inch thick with a rolling pin. It should just barely hold together at this point. Cut the dough into squares and carefully transfer them to a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.
Hatch Chilé Pumpkin Soup
September 21, 2008A few weeks ago, the hatch chilés landed in the Southwest. These are wonderful peppers that lend flavor and heat to recipes without the same acid or bite as a jalapeno. A friend, Allysa, supplied me with a gallon bag of hot and a gallon of the mild. These I blistered on the Big Green Egg, slapped under a heavy pot so they’d sweat, skinned, seeded, and froze down. I grab them out of the freezer to throw in Mac and Cheese, Rice, or tonight: Pumpkin Soup. They’re smokey, hot, and yummy.
1 medium sized pumpkin
Splash of olive oil
1 large Texas Sweet onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
4-5 hot hatch green chilés, diced (My soup was hot as sin. Back off if you care to)
1 tbs thyme fresh thyme leaves
1 tbs fresh sage leaves, diced
1 tbs fresh rosemary (or lavender?) leaves, chopped
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
Fresh grated nutmeg, to taste (go spare on this at first and add to finished soup if desired)
1 pumpkin ale (regular beer would work. I used: http://www.buffalobillsbrewery.com/beers_bottled.asp )
Optional: Splash of milk or soymilk
Maple Syrup
Split the pumpkin in half. I do this using and old heavy knife and a rubber mallet. Scrape out seeds and fiber and place these in a large stock pot that will accommodate a steamer basket. Cut the pumpkin into manageable cubes. Add about ½ inch of water to the stock pot and place your steamer basket down into the liquid. Place ½ the pumpkin cubes in the steamer basket, and steam over medium heat until fork tender. After steaming, strain the liquid from the pulp and seeds and save it to use as stock. Discard the pulp and seeds. The steamed pumpkin I peeled, pureed, drained, and froze for later use. I just wanted the stock. I believe I first saw this idea on America’s Test Kitchen.
Place the remaining pumpkin pieces in 2 baking dishes and roast them at 350 until soft. This took me about an hour. Allow them to cool, and remove the peel from the meat. Cut the meat into cubes and set aside.
In a heavy soup pan, heat enough olive oil to coat. Add diced onion to the pot and allow to cook over medium heat until they soften and pick up some color. I used the sweet onions specifically for the caramelization. Add garlic, green chilés, and cook to soften. Add seasonings, and herbs. Mix through to release the aromatics. Deglaze the pan with pumpkin ale and reserved stock from the steamed pumpkin. Add pumpkin cubes and just enough water to almost cover. Stir well and then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer on low until the flavors have blended and the pumpkin cubes are completely soft. Puree the vegetable pieces with a stick blender, or in your food processor in batches. Taste for flavor and adjust.
Mine was smoking hot from the peppers, so I added a generous splash of milk to cool it off, then served it with a drizle of maple syrup to balance the remaining fire. A drizzle of heavy cream would have been nice as well, but who needs the fat? Using soy milk instead of regular would have made this a nice meal soup for the vegans in your life.
I always give pizza as an alternative.
September 18, 2008Sometimes, like tonight, I come up with some disastrous dinner ideas. It turns out you can’t really float a giant wad of biscuit dough on top of a pan of reworked borracho beans and expect it to cook through and be tasty. The beans were plenty good when I made them last week, but my track record with left overs isn’t so hot.
I swear my mom used to make something with Bisquick and taco meat that was fantastic… at least to a nine year old.
Thank Flying Spaghetti Monster that Austin Pizza delivers so quickly. I didn’t even wait for my monstrosity to come out of the oven before I jumped on line and ordred our back up pie.
Not The Knowing One 