Category: In the Kitchen

FoodNerd had to head off to the parental homestead yesterday afternoon which leaves me to my own devices until tomorrow when I head out there myself to extricate her. I was hoping to meet up with friends tonight and maybe grab some dinner out, but plans fell through and I had to fend for myself.

Under these circumstances, I’ll generally just eat something quick and easy: ramen and egg, pasta with Classico red sauce and some generic granulated cheese, mac ‘n franks. Basically, junk food, although I’ve convinced myself that the mac ‘n franks is really the only one that approaches the line in terms of sketchiness. I actually think the ramen business is pretty good as far as quick meals go since I get my protein from the eggs, and I’ve taken to adding kimchi and, very recently, tofu.

But I did the ramen thing last night, and I wanted a little more than just pasta, cheesy or otherwise.

Upon scanning the fridge, I discovered a bag of kale that Ma & Pa FoodNerd had brought from their garden. (Let’s hear it for the mild winter.) I’ve never cooked with kale before, but I decided to just run with it.

So, taking a cue from this post, I chopped up 3 cloves of garlic, lightly sauteed them in olive oil with some fresh ground pepper, added some chopped up kale (just 4 leaves, which initially filled the 3 quart pot I was using) and threw in a generous pinch of salt. Once it had wilted down a bit I added a bit of chicken broth (thank you, FoodNerd, for stocking up) and then supplemented it with some (defrosted) frozen shrimpies from Trader Joe’s. I let it simmer waiting for the pasta to finish cooking and then just dumped the whole mess over the drained pasta.

I expected it to be a little bitter and kind of bland. It turned out to be neither. Surprisingly tasty, actually. (I admit it, I’m not normally a kale guy.) I’m sure the MSG in the chicken broth is helping out a bit here, but I think the garlic and salt also go a long way. And all told, including defrosting the shrimp and boiling the water, the whole business took about 20 minutes to prepare. Schweet.

I seem not to have quit after all, once i regained my senses and got a little bit of sleep and got a lot more information. But I am still going to work the reduced schedule for a few months. Things are looking up. 🙂
And this is looking really good:
Pork Crepinettes with Chard, Lemon and Pine Nuts
(from the Fatted Calf newsletter)
All you people in the Bay Area, get your asses over to the Fatted Calf and eat some of those for me. Yum.

This is an old post that has only just now gotten a photo or two to go with it:
Three things that have sprung from the sporadic bits of time I’ve had for cookery:

red cabbage braised in the pork-chop frying pan with onion, apple, caraway seeds, a teaspoon of butter, and a bit of water… freaking fantastic, really, with the pork chop and some pureed rutabaga with salt, pepper & nutmeg.

chiles relleños: smallish poblano peppers, slit & seeded, sprayed with olive oil and stuffed with a mix of sauteed onion & red pepper, cottage cheese, a bit of hot sauce, and raw egg, then baked at 500F for half an hour. The filling did run out a bit and burn on the pan, but once out of the pan and onto the plate they were just lovely little things, and tasted great.
a frittata of caramelized onions, sauteed red chard, and slices of cooked yukon gold potatoes, topped with a good bit of grated parmesan. Good for breakfasts, dinners, or drunken latenight ramblings through the fridge.
I have been trying to cut the starch & sugar from my diet, particularly the wheat flour, and it does seem to make a pretty big difference. I *feel* smaller, even if I can’t possibly have lost any weight, and I suspect that’s just bloat disappearing due to the wheat being gone. I will still eat the stuff — I’ve been out with friends several times this week and have had some lovely hamburgers and pizza — but I am trying to keep it out of my home cooking in a last ditch attempt to grow smaller without having to eat utter crap. And I think it’s rather good really, since I adore vegetables and fruits, and can supplement with small bits of potato and corn tortilla and brown rice, and not be hungry OR sad.

Wow. I just made some scrambled eggs for breakfast (with leftover sauteed spinach with garlic, onion & pepper in it, yum) and used a splash of that goats’ milk I bought the other day. Holy moly! These are the best eggs I’ve ever had — they’re creamy and sweet, with a more interesting flavor than usual. I am a devout ketchup user when it comes to eggs, with the occasional diversion into hot sauce, and I tried both on these eggs, and they were better plain. I think I may keep this goats’ milk around on a pretty regular basis.

Back from a client visit today, ravenous and without having actually brought any lunch. Fell back on desk-drawer provisions and a bit of bread left over from yesterday. Turns out that tuna with some Wish-Bone italian dressing and a dab of dijon mustard is really delicious. I’ll never give up my Miracle Whip, but this was really very tasty and is going into regular usage for sure.

6 stalks celery
2 red peppers
cut celery & pepper into 1/2 – 1

Because I blew through the hummus and baba and foul moudammas from Middle East Bakery in about two days, but I still had lovely persian breads left, I made a bunch of my own mezze, which came out rather well, if I do say so myself.
First I took my big black eggplant and subjected it to the Cook’s Illustrated Best Recipe baba ganoush recipe oven treatment: 1 hour at 500F, turning every 15 minutes until it is nearly charred and entirely squishy. Scrape the innards out, cut and mash roughly, add olive oil, garlic crushed to paste with salt, lemon juice, and a bit of tahini. Totally ass-kicking. I love baba ganoush, and fresh-made is totally the shit.
Then I made the black bean hummus recipe from Saveur magazine. Much as you might expect, with tahini, garlic, lemon, olive oil and salt in with the can of black beans, but also a bit of cumin and ground coriander, and a quick hit of paprika on top. Very satisfying.
And I did a quick-and-dirty variant on the muhammara recipe in Best Recipe, taking some jarred red peppers and a cup of walnuts and whizzing them up with pomegranate molasses, olive oil, cayenne & salt. This is the easiest thing in the whole world, and so delicious, and unusual enough to be impressive for guests. You could do this and put it on a platter with store bought hummus and baba (not that you’d need to bother, since both of those are wicked easy too), and presto, instant cocktail nibbles. Or dinner, depending on your level of gluttony. Especially if you had some labneh balls and yogurt around too…

Am I the only one who thinks it would be completely rad if refrigerators came with soda siphons in the door along with dispensers of regular water and ice cubes? That would be the best thing EVER. Somebody call Kenmore and Sub-Zero. (And give me copyright credit — i need the money.)

I needed to use up stuff in my house, and I had a can of corn and a potato, so I decided I could make chowder. I sauteed some diced onion and put in some thyme and some smoked paprika to make up for the fact that I had no bacon or salt pork, and then I put the diced potato in to cook with some 1% milk, figuring the potato starch would thicken the milk up a bit, which it did. At the end, I put in the corn and a can of razor clams my daddy brought me from Seattle, and topped it with the last of the cilantro I had in the fridge. Remarkably successful, quite delicious, and low in fat, even. Yum!

The sour slaw that I love so much (and others seem to also) works really well with dill instead of parsley. Mmmmmm.