Southern-Spanish fusion

So I'm pretty sure Spaniards don't eat grits in any form, but I didn't care when I cooked these---much less when I ate them. I took the method and liquid to grits ratio from Cooking for Two 2010 but subbed and added ingredients to make them answer a craving for Spanish flavors, or what I know of them. These came out light and fluffy, and while M still isn't gung-ho about grits, he at least ate them without grumbling about how over-rated they are. Good enough.

Creamy baked grits "al estilo español"
Adapted from Cooking for Two 2010
(serves 2)

1 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. minced onion
3/4 c. water
1/4 c. half-and-half (low fat or whole milk will work too)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. quick-cooking grits (not instant, not old-fashioned)
1/2 c. grated Manchego cheese
1/3 c. jarred roasted red peppers, rinsed, dried, and chopped
1 lg. egg, lightly beaten
1 scallion, sliced thin on the bias
generous pinch piment d'espelette, or hot paprika (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Melt butter in a 7" or 8" ovensafe nonstick skillet over medium heat; add minced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, til softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the water, half-and-half, and salt. Once at a boil, slowly whisk in the grits. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, til grits are thick and creamy, about 5 minutes.

2. Off heat, stir in all but 2 Tbsp. of the cheese, the chopped peppers, and the egg. Smooth grits into an even layer and sprinkle with remaining 2 Tbsp. cheese. Transfer to the oven and bake til cheese is melted and golden, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove skillet from oven and let stand on a trivet or rack for 10 minutes. (Be sure to keep a potholder over the handle as it will be extremely hot for quite some time.) Sprinkle grits with the scallions and piment or paprika if desired, and serve.

As usual, bacon is a fine accompaniment. And it can cook in the oven for about the same amount of time as the grits, on a lower rack.

a worthwhile slow cooker chicken recipe---can it be?!

Oh yes it can. Tonight we had this pulled jerk chicken, and it was outstanding. I have really no prior experience either eating or cooking Jamaican/Caribbean food---I doubt it was real authentic to serve the meat on hamburger buns---but looking at the ingredient list I thought the flavors sounded like they were worth a try. Besides that it was a very convenient and inexpensive recipe: I already had almost all of the marinade (the bulk of the recipe) ingredients in my pantry and fridge. The spiciness level was about a 5/10 to me; if you don't like heat you'll want to at least take the seeds out of the chile (I used habanero) before slicing into rounds, to avoid biting into one later. I also counted how many rounds I made before putting them in, so I could be sure to pull them out at the end.

Further notes: I halved the recipe but otherwise stuck to it pretty closely. My chicken was falling off the bone within 5 hours, and was possibly done a good while before that. I only turned the pieces once, but I think if you're making the full recipe with 4 lbs. of chicken that step is more important. For once I had no fresh cilantro on hand, and I never have fresh thyme, so I omitted both without trying to substitute. Oh, and "freshly squeezed orange juice"---give me a break. I don't think my dish suffered too much from the stale old Tropicana I used.

Didn't take a final result photo, but at least here's the view from the top of the slow cooker after putting everything in:

With the sandwiches I made yuca fries based off a couple of internet recipes, which did not turn out as well as I hoped. I might have crowded the pot because the oil temperature dropped way low for way too long after I added the fries, and I think it had an adverse effect on their texture. Kind of sad, and of course ketchup was no match for that mysterious spicy green sauce they serve with these at Papi's. Oh well, frozen yuca is cheap, so I'll have to try again with a little more research someday soon.

Skillet pasta primavera

Dishes like these are why I love Cook's Illustrated. Creative (at least I wouldn't think of cooking pasta in a skillet), carefully thought out, balanced, delicious. I made this for lunch out of Cooking for Two 2010; M's only complaint was, "where's the meat?," which was a) expected and b) irrelevant. Protein is overrated. :) I think this dish was conceived as a vegetarian one, judging by the rare appearance of vegetable broth instead of CI's much-beloved low-sodium chicken broth (which I used instead). Some prosciutto or diced deli ham thrown in at the end would certainly work, but needless to say I loved this dish just as it was. I recently read that if I put a recipe's instructions in my own words, there aren't copyright problems, so I think it's safe to post it here. I did make some practical modifications as well (e.g. the original recipe has asparagus; I just upped the quantities of mushrooms and zucchini).

Skillet Pasta Primavera
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen's Cooking for Two 2010
Serves 2 generously

2 Tbsp. butter
1 zucchini (8-9 oz.), quartered lengthwise and cut into 1/2" dice
2 1/4 cups water
4 oz. white mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 lb. bowtie or campanelle pasta (shape doesn't matter so much, just make sure it has a cooking time not much less than 14-15 minutes)
2 Tbsp. heavy cream
1/2 cup frozen peas (do not thaw)
1/4 cup fresh grated Parmiggiano
2 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1. Melt 1 Tbsp of the butter over medium heat in a 12" nonstick skillet. Add the zucchini and 1/4 cup of the water with a pinch of salt, cover, and cook til zucchini is crisp-tender, 3-4 minutes. Uncover and cook just til tender and liquid is almost evaporated, 1-2 minutes more. Transfer zucchini to a medium bowl and cover with foil to keep warm.
2. Melt remaining Tbsp. butter in the empty skillet and add mushrooms with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, til they've released their moisture and are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer the mushrooms to the bowl with the zucchini and cover again.
3. Add the garlic to the empty pan and stir til just fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the 2 cups water, broth, and 1/4 tsp. salt, then add the pasta. Increase heat to high and cook, stirring frequently, til pasta is tender and sauce has thickened, about 15-18 minutes. (You may need to decrease the heat toward the end if the liquid is evaporating too fast for the pasta to cook, but it needs to be at a rolling boil.)
4. Stir in the mushrooms and zucchini, cream, and frozen peas, and cook til veggies are heated through, about 1 minute. Off heat, add the Parmesan, basil, and lemon juice, and check seasonings. Serve immediately.

Cinnamon dolce iced coffee

I think I've finally perfected an iced coffee, at least to M's and my taste. With my Aeropress, which I love for many reasons, it is especially easy to make something approximating espresso in individual servings, without having to use nasty leftover cold coffee. I'm sure a strong-brewed French press cup would work extremely well here too. Here's how I made mine:

Cinnamon syrup:
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Combine sugar, water, and cinnamon in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let reduce for about 5 minutes, then remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Kept covered in the fridge, this should last a good while.

Coffee:
1/2 cup hot strong-brewed coffee or espresso (I used Starbucks Italian roast and made "espresso" with my Aeropress)
2 tsp. heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon syrup (see above)
4-5 large ice cubes

Into the fresh brewed coffee stir the cream and syrup. Add ice cubes all at once and stir for a few seconds to cool quickly. Enjoy.

Burgers.

Last Christmas my grandparents bought me a food grinder attachment for my stand mixer, and this week I finally made plans to use it. I decided I wanted one after reading so much about the benefits of grinding your own meat, where you actually know what kind of meat is being ground up and ingested. Also "they" say the flavor difference is enormous.

So for the first try I used as a base this In-N-Out style recipe from Kenji Lopez-Alt, a former Cook's Illustrated cook. I think I may have erred in the fundamental matter of choosing a cut (or cuts) of meat to grind: he simply recommends a beef chuck cut with "lots of fat." Not knowing what exactly that meant, I chose a beef chuck (shoulder) roast that was reasonably well-marbled. The end result was a little bit too lean. Next time I'll try grinding in short ribs for about 1/3 of the meat. The flavor of the meat was fine, though when you're loading it with ketchup, mustard, pickles, lettuce, and cheese, it's a little hard to pick out the nuances of fresh ground meat to compare it with storebought. Hey, at least our chances of getting E. coli are lower.

As for the whole grinding ordeal, it was a bit messy, but I expected that. I've got a couple issues to work out with the grinder---maybe I didn't freeze the meat long enough, because by the time I finished there was a fair amount of very slick meat stuck in the "chamber" or whatever the part before the die is called. That was a bit tedious to clean out.

Here is my Pulitzer Prize-winning cheeseburger photo. I like how it looks like I caught the mushroom in mid-air. Not the case.

Ah, a note about the buns: these were from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday, the soft sandwich bread recipe made into about a dozen 3 oz. buns. I loved the flavor and texture: not quite as fluffy as storebought buns, but not dense like recipes I've tried before, either. As usual, shaping will take some work; I guess I should have squashed the rolls a bit with my hand before baking them.

Humdrum.

It's been an outstandingly mediocre couple of weeks in my kitchen. I tried three more recipes out of Best International Recipe, and I would have to say all three were a bit of a let-down. Let me detail the disappointments for you.

The tomato-mushroom tart (I fused the original, tomato-based recipe with a variation also listed) was fine in all its components except the crust. A fairly important component. I loved the (inexplicably surprising) notion of making a crust with olive oil instead of butter. It was very easy to work with and press in the pan. But. One thing that makes my stomach turn is sweetness where it doesn't belong. Such as in a savory tart crust. After reading that 1 Tbsp of sugar was to be added to the crust, which is the same quantity as in most (dessert) pie crust recipes I've come across, I scanned the informative pre-recipe "abstract" (one more thing I love about Cook's Illustrated & co.) and found that tasters apparently liked a touch of sweetness in the crust, playing off the tomato taste. To me nothing is more revolting than tomatoes + overt sweetness. I should have adjusted the recipe accordingly, but CI has me well-trained to trust them blindly. Unfortunately that weird taste combination ruined this tart for me. I'd be glad to try it again with maybe 1/2 tsp instead of 1 Tbsp of sugar, though sometime down the road, because my stomach still turns when I think of what it tasted like.

It looked halfway decent for something I made, though.

Tonight I finally made the Swedish-inspired cold-poached salmon I've been wanting to try, along with the creamy dill-cucumber salad, both in the central Europe section of BIR. This morning I swung by Fresh Market and got my Atlantic salmon fillets, which lay pale and sad beside their bright pink $20/lb Copper River counterpart. It's not as though my frugal (cheap?) self would really be tempted, but the visual difference was marked. I think it was almost certainly better salmon than I could have gotten at Kroger or Publix, or maybe Fresh Marketing is just working on me as intended...it's the classical music and the soothing forest green everywhere. Anyway, the salmon and sour cream sauce weren't bad, but it turns out that M doesn't go for cold fish, or really anything creamy (e.g., the sauce---what a freak). I was just so curious about this method, and it was tasty salmon, so I don't regret trying it once.

The crisp cucumber salad elicited that strange phenomenon where, during the first two bites, something tastes perfect; but after the third you suddenly don't want anymore---you want it off your plate entirely. I can't identify the problem here. Too much pungency, or potency, or something. Sad. The picture I took of this little ensemble was so horrendous I won't post it. I will post the picture I took when I got so excited about the beautiful onion slices my sharp little mandolin was churning out. Between the cucumbers and onions, I used it for like 10 minutes and didn't slice off so much as a fingernail! A pleasant surprise.

Hopefully better things are to come with homemade burgers tomorrow (finally breaking out the KitchenAid grinder attachment I got for Christmas), and an auténtico Rick Bayless recipe later in the week. I finally checked out a cookbook of his and it looks legit. I want to make everything immediately.

Chocolate-mint tuiles; blackberry-lime sorbet

This was technically not my first time making tuiles, but I'd rather not revisit the utter failure that was my previous attempt. Different recipe, different time. This week, since I had a couple of egg whites sitting in the fridge, I decided to try Sherry Yard's chocolate-dipped tuile recipe (from Baking by the Yard). I ended up filling the tuiles instead with a whipped chocolate ganache flavored with the tiniest bit of peppermint extract (I've learned the hard way how potent it is). I daresay it worked, though my whipped ganache recipe was a little guess-y.

I was probably a little crazy to take on tuiles this week, with temperatures keeping around 95: after the tuiles have baked (about 4 at a time) you open the oven door, set the baking sheet on it, and work with them that way so they stay warm and malleable. Then you do the other three batches. After each batch you have to wrap the cookies quickly around the handle of a wooden spoon (they're hot of course) so that they hold their characteristic shape. I have pretty callused/heat resistant fingers, so this wasn't too hard. Shaping is one of the top 5 things in the kitchen that tend to provoke my temper---I'm clumsy and don't follow written directions as well as pictures and/or videos---so I was surprised that these went so smoothly. The one hitch was that I didn't bake them long enough; scared by her warning that overbaking makes them difficult to shape, I didn't let them go longer than the indicated time even though they weren't quite golden brown, so the cookies never really crisped up. I'll remember that next time, and there will be a next time---this is a great way to use up whites left over from custard-based ice creams, and it doesn't involve finicky whipping! I'll take a hot kitchen over egg whites that refuse to whip right any day.

For the ganache filling, which I piped in with a makeshift pastry bag, I used about 2 oz. of Trader Joe's 72% dark chocolate and 1/3 cup of heavy cream, with a tiny splash of mint extract and maybe 1/4 tsp. vanilla. You just chop the chocolate, heat the cream in the microwave at intervals of 30 seconds til hot, then pour it over the chocolate, whisking til smooth. Add the extracts, put it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, then take it out and whip it with a mixer til light and fluffy. This results in an interesting texture that dissolves in your mouth instantly. Very tasty.

Also this week I tried a David Lebovitz recipe (The Perfect Scoop) I've been eyeing for a while: blackberry lime sorbet. I don't usually get too excited about sorbet---yay, it tastes like fruit with all the nutritional value (painstakingly) strained out---but this combination sounded compelling. It did not disappoint. I'm fairly in love with this sorbet. Unapologetically tart, it has the perfect balance of sweetness, is a gorgeous, appetizing color, and somehow feels more substantial than a mixture of fruit puree, sugar syrup, and lime juice. (Lots of lime juice.)

I couldn't bear throwing out all the seedy pulp strained from the blackberry mixture, so with the blender already out I threw it in with about a cup of plain whole milk yogurt and about 3 Tbsp of fresh mint. It doesn't hold a candle to the sorbet recipe, but it makes a nice texture contrast, as shown below, and was a decent way to use up the pulp. Leftover tuiles, which I (re)crisped in the oven first, were a perfect foil. This photo is bad, because you can barely see the gorgeous dark purple sorbet sneaking through my attempt at granita on top.

This is the mixture before freezing:

Kale (belated, for Rachel)

My master gardener friend Rachel pulled some (red Russian?) kale out of her backyard for me when I was there last month, and I enjoyed experimenting with it. Actually I did a pretty typical greens routine with it----boiled about 10 minutes til tender, drained well, and then lightly sauteed in oil with garlic and pepper flakes---but it was very tasty.

Before:

After:

I wish I could garden. Maybe I would eat vegetables more.