Wednesday, September 23, 2009

What I'm thinking about this week...

Every season has its charms - asparagus and fresh peas in the spring, summer's tomatoes, but for anyone who really loves to cook it is Fall that stirs the imagination. I can't help it. The first chilly breeze that sweeps through my Clarksville neighborhood has me pulling out flour and yeast from the cupboard. Soup pans follow closely, and a trip to Fresh Plus for a bunch of leeks seems inevitable.

What a dilemma. When I saw strawberries and rhubarb at CM I immediately decided that pie had to be in this week's menu. Then I thought of gumbo with succulent shrimp, andouille and okra. Of course, you can't have gumbo without rice - a nice firm basmati, cooked just so. And sweet corn pancakes to pay a last homage to summer, with some smoky collard greens to greet the fall. The only thing missing is a sourdough boule. Something crusty and round that can be slathered with butter, and torn into chunks to dip in the gumbo. Ummm. That does sound good...

So where's the dilemma you ask? Well now, I just can't stop. What about a daube? Or silky butternut squash soup with a wild mushroom lasagna and individual chocolate souffles? Or, for that matter, how about baked macaroni and cheese, with gruyere and cheddar and a drift of buttery crumbs on top? Cheesecake Brownies?

It's a curse. I just want to make it all!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Rosh Hashanah Menu



Well, I can honestly say that I am really tired, but it was so worth it. All of the food turned out as I had hoped - the matzoh ball soup was fragrant with thyme and bright flecks of carrot and celery, the brisket was a bronzed beauty with a silky plum and onion confit that just napped its sides in a perfect embrace. The flan managed to unmold perfectly, (as Julia Child famously said, you must flip with conviction!) and bathed in caramel sauce that begged for a stray 6 year-old finger to just graze the surface...
I rounded out this week's menu with glazed carrots, a chunky cinnamon applesauce that comes together in the microwave, and wheat bran and raisin muffins.
Heavens! What will next week bring? I did see some perfect strawberries and lovely dark red rhubarb at CM, practically begging to be made into a pie... Well, we'll see.


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Friday, September 18, 2009

Challah

The challah turned out just as I hoped --- fragrant, golden and delicious.
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Shanah Tovah!

So, what else should I be thinking about today??? (insert bad yiddish accent)
I am thinking of pillowy golden challah bread... And matzo ball soup. And absolutely without fail, there must be brisket - brisket that has simmered with honey and prunes and cinnamon sticks until its sweet savory fragrance overwhelms the senses. Oh, and apple sauce. Chunky and tart with hints of lemon and sweet fruit. Glazed carrots with raisins. And orange flan, a silken orange-y custard and caramel ending to a wonderful meal.
That's the plan!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

New Client!


New client this past week! The family is mostly vegetarian so I wrote up some ideas for additional main courses that might appeal to them. They chose the Tuscan Bean Soup and Manicotti for their main dishes, and granola, potato bread, and a fruit pie for the rest.

I have been enamored with peaches for the past two weeks. Each time I shop at Central Market they have had piles of the most gorgeous, rounded fruit right by the entrance, and I have usually succumbed. I ate two that were ambrosial, but then others in the same batch proved disappointing. I remembered this with dismay after selling the new client on a peach pie rather than the apple pie that she had initially suggested. I love to try things that appeal to me, but it's very different when you are making them for someone else --- after all it's not like you can just cut yourself a slice to see how it turned out. (Here is your pie - no, never mind the chunk that's missing, I just had to take a slice for quality control...)

I also had some anxiety over the soup, which is wonderful with pancetta and the long simmering that the beans, broth and rosemary do together, but which I was not so sure about with the Parmesan rind. The Parmesan rind is supposed to compensate for the loss of the pancetta in the vegetarian version of the soup, but I have to say that I found the results disappointing. Not that the soup was bad, but it was just different. Plus, the rind softens as it cooks and just looks really unappealing - I just removed it halfway through cooking because I couldn't stand looking at it any more. The soup developed a bit of heat that I didn't expect - perhaps the additional fat from the pancetta softens the hit of red pepper flakes in the regular version. I don't know, but I was definitely concerned given that the NC (new client) has two young children and I don't know what their spice tolerance is. I had also had a nice long conversation with her about how I try not to spice my cooking aggressively just because I too have a small child... Great! Of course I immediately had to call Jen in a panic so that she could reassure me that it was okay. (Woman rushed to hospital after experiencing panic attack caused by spicy food! News at eleven!)
Being the wonderful friend that she is, Jen came right over and managed to restore (some of) my equanimity.

Everything turned out fine. I delivered all the food to the NC's home by 6 pm, an she called the next day to let me know that everything was fine. (OK, she actually said that they loved everything.) So I felt better, a lot better.

I am going to try to post photos of what I make each time just to try and create a visual record for myself. (This way when I am struggling to think of what to make next, or what I made when, I can actually have a way to see it.)

Register for Paris Marathon... Check!

I am now officially on the road to Paris. I finally got through on the registration page and am now inscrite in the Marathon - and my Numéro de dossard is 47562. Just by registering I am increasing my french vocabulary - who knew that a bib is actually a dossard? I will never use the word again - from now on I will always call it a dossard, Fancy Nancy be damned!
I had been waiting to register since I first had the idea to do this. Somehow it makes the whole thing concrete.
I had been warned that the marathon always sells out pretty fast, so I had been marking time until September 15, the date when registration opened. Unfortunately it seemed like the website for the marathon hadn't been clued in as fully as I had been, and kept displaying the same message claiming that the prochaine edition would be open on the 15th (Liars! I fumed...) Finally, just before 10 PM I was able to log on and register. FĂ©licitations!
The race commission requires that participants submit a health certificate before the registration is complete, leading me to believe that the french do not like their marathon participants to expire... Good idea I suppose, but one more step for me. I may actually have to break down and have a physical.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

What I made today...

With the rain and the beginning of school, it was hard not to start thinking of warmer dishes. The warmth of Fall, of oranges and yellows and deep browns that conjure visions of cozy evenings. (Never mind the heat and humidity...)
This week's menu featured all of my favorite flavors, but nodded to summer with the inclusion of grilled vegetables, and sunny slices of grilled pineapple as a complement to the pork.
This week's menu:
*Blueberry buttermilk pancakes
*Fennel and tomato soup
*Honey whole wheat bread
*Sweet potato puree with roasted pears
*Maple glazed pork tenderloin
*Pesto
*Roasted red peppers
*Grilled asparagus

I am anxious to get the reviews on the pesto, since I tried out a new technique that is supposed to be helpful if you want to freeze it for later. The idea is that you should very quickly blanch the basil in boiling salted water, then plunge it into ice water to revive it. Ideally the blanching is meant to "fix" the green color of the basil and prevent it from browning. In practice however the basil turns into a seaweed like substance that seems really unappealing. I managed to dry it as best as possible and then ground it with the additional ingredients as usual. I also toasted the pinenuts and blanched the garlic cloves very briefly to tame the bite of the pesto (because of the kids).
Notes: Despite the fact that I made 3 tenderloins instead of the 2 that the recipe required, I ended up with waaaayyyy too much glaze, which is a waste considering how expensive maple syrup is... Next time I would use 1/4 of a cup rather than the 3/4 that the recipe calls for.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

My first delivery menu

My first delivery menu was created for my wonderful friend Jennifer. Her appreciation and love of food always sparks my creativity, and I will always try to come up with dishes that bring that special sparkle to her eyes.
*Challah French Toast
*Tuscan White Bean Soup
*Potato Bread
*Rigatoni with Sauce Bolognese
*Grilled Mediterranean Vegetables
*Double Chocolate Brownies
I love the recipe that I use for French Toast - it is adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe that I have used for years. I confess though that I do not use my own challah bread for making french toast - I just buy a good loaf from Whole Foods or CM. It just takes too much time and effort to bake bread from scratch to use up for something like this, and there never seem to be any leftovers... The Tuscan White Bean Soup is a gem too. I love the layers of flavor that you get - from the smokiness of the pancetta to the slight piny tang of rosemary at the end. However, I have to admit that the standout for me in this menu was the bolognese sauce. My God! (Did I mention that I am mostly vegetarian? I do taste what I am cooking though and will taste recipes that contain meat now.) This sauce almost single-handedly converted me to a confirmed carnivore status again. It was a revelation of flavors and nuances, somehow both meaty and cheesy (although the sauce does not have any cheese in it). The house was redolent of delicious flavors for days. I really feel like making this again...