Sometimes I feel like I should be in culinary school instead of a liberal arts college.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I like what I do. But I have this really strong emotional connection with food; not only am I an emotional eater (which I should probably stop), but I'm also an emotional chef, to some extent. Had a bad day and there's nothing good in the house to eat? Go to the store, grab ingredients and make a giant pot of borscht! (I did this earlier this week; it says something about my love for borscht that I've eaten six or seven servings since then and haven't even gotten close to being tired of it.)
Of course, the parts of me that probably shouldn't be a chef are 1) the lazy part that doesn't like to do things like sift flour, and 2) the selfish part that sometimes doesn't want anyone else to share what I've made. I mean, I like cooking for parties and things, but if I intended to make something for myself, nobody else better touch it.
THIS HAS BEEN A POST.
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Pierogies? Pierogies!
So, since this past week has been one of nearly unremitting craziness and today has been spent with farmer's markets, kittens and a rather deadly photo/glue combination, I will refrain from giving you all the hairy details of above and instead concentrate on this week's new recipe - pierogies!
The first - and by far superior - pierogies I ever ate were at Pike Place Market, at a little Russian food stand that also serves a delicious borsch and many sides and salads whose names I can't remember. The ones I love there are potato and mushroom, but they can be filled with just about anything, as long as it's something you can fit into a dumpling.
The recipe I used was found at About.com, of all places. (Man, I remember watching commercials for this website on Channel One news in junior high; who knew I'd actually use it someday?)
So, first I washed and peeled the potatoes for the filling and set them aside, then put all of the dough ingredients in a bowl. (This dough has sour cream in it!)
The dough ended up to be a pretty stiff dough not unlike bread. Once mixed, it had to be set aside and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
The first - and by far superior - pierogies I ever ate were at Pike Place Market, at a little Russian food stand that also serves a delicious borsch and many sides and salads whose names I can't remember. The ones I love there are potato and mushroom, but they can be filled with just about anything, as long as it's something you can fit into a dumpling.
The recipe I used was found at About.com, of all places. (Man, I remember watching commercials for this website on Channel One news in junior high; who knew I'd actually use it someday?)
So, first I washed and peeled the potatoes for the filling and set them aside, then put all of the dough ingredients in a bowl. (This dough has sour cream in it!)
The dough ended up to be a pretty stiff dough not unlike bread. Once mixed, it had to be set aside and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
While the dough was firming up, I started the potatoes boiling (which I probably should have done at the start) and sauteed the vegetables for the filling. The recipe called for onions, but I also added mushrooms because I just love them.
I used red onions because the store was out of green onions (my favorite) and that was the next choice. Although the recipe called for a whole onion, only about a quarter of it actually ended up going into the pan, because it was a GIANT onion. (In retrospect, I probably would have used more of it.)
The potatoes took FOREVER to boil. I had never cooked them that way before, so I had no realistic idea how long it would take; I ended up scooping the potatoes out after a while, cutting them into pieces and then boiling them some more. When they were finally finished, the next step in the process basically involved making mashed potatoes with the sauteed vegetables and some cheese. (I used a LOT of cheese.)
The next step was rolling out the dough to make the dumplings. My two major problems here were 1) I had no rolling pin and had to make do with a tall glass from the cabinet, and 2) The dough was extremely elastic, to the point where it absolutely would not stay the thickness I was trying to get. I'm not sure whether this was just a characteristic of the recipe or something I did wrong; as it was, the dough was supposed to be about 1/8 inch thick, and it ended up being almost twice that thick.
I cut out the dumpling circles with the same glass that had served as my rolling pin. (No cookie cutters? No problem!) Because of the thickness of the dough, I had a lot of leeway as to how far I could stretch it around a large amount of filling, but I still ended up with a good amount of filling left over. The mushrooms may have been part of that.
After all the dough was used up, all I had to do was crimp the edges with a fork (both for practicality and attractiveness) and pop them into some boiling water.
They cooked surprisingly quickly. The recipe called for frying the pierogies after they were boiled, but I skipped this step for three reasons: 1) My favorite pierogies from the market are boiled, not fried, 2) I generally don't like fried things anyway, and it's healthier, and 3) I was getting damn hungry by this point, since the recipe was supposed to take an hour to make and it had taken me nearly three.
Luckily, they still tasted good not-fried. They probably would have been better had I been able to roll the dough thinner, but not bad at all, particularly with sour cream. I ended up having a total of seven pierogies for dinner, and there were enough left over for at least two more meals.
The potatoes took FOREVER to boil. I had never cooked them that way before, so I had no realistic idea how long it would take; I ended up scooping the potatoes out after a while, cutting them into pieces and then boiling them some more. When they were finally finished, the next step in the process basically involved making mashed potatoes with the sauteed vegetables and some cheese. (I used a LOT of cheese.)
The next step was rolling out the dough to make the dumplings. My two major problems here were 1) I had no rolling pin and had to make do with a tall glass from the cabinet, and 2) The dough was extremely elastic, to the point where it absolutely would not stay the thickness I was trying to get. I'm not sure whether this was just a characteristic of the recipe or something I did wrong; as it was, the dough was supposed to be about 1/8 inch thick, and it ended up being almost twice that thick.
I cut out the dumpling circles with the same glass that had served as my rolling pin. (No cookie cutters? No problem!) Because of the thickness of the dough, I had a lot of leeway as to how far I could stretch it around a large amount of filling, but I still ended up with a good amount of filling left over. The mushrooms may have been part of that.
After all the dough was used up, all I had to do was crimp the edges with a fork (both for practicality and attractiveness) and pop them into some boiling water.
They cooked surprisingly quickly. The recipe called for frying the pierogies after they were boiled, but I skipped this step for three reasons: 1) My favorite pierogies from the market are boiled, not fried, 2) I generally don't like fried things anyway, and it's healthier, and 3) I was getting damn hungry by this point, since the recipe was supposed to take an hour to make and it had taken me nearly three.
Luckily, they still tasted good not-fried. They probably would have been better had I been able to roll the dough thinner, but not bad at all, particularly with sour cream. I ended up having a total of seven pierogies for dinner, and there were enough left over for at least two more meals.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Carne Asada!
Well, her mom is still here. So until we can have a talk about guests and proper notice, I'll regale you with this tale of cooking success!
(Cross-posted to Flirty Food.)
In the spirit of my new-school-year's resolution to try a new recipe every week, a couple of days ago I made a dish that I'd tried many times before in restaurants, but never made - carne asada. I love this dish partly for the fact that it's steak - and I love steak - and partly for the things it's traditionally served with. (Avocado/guac, beans, pico de gallo and sour cream.)
The recipe, which I got from Simply Recipes, goes as follows:
To get a facsimile of refried beans without the effort and added calories involved with actually frying them, I put a can of pinto beans in my food processor with some salt, garlic and lime juice. They were great!
Finally, it was time to grill the meat. The recipe called for either an actual grill or a cast-iron frying pan; I only had a newfangled Teflon-type pan, so I went with that. I don't think it was a mortal error.
It took a little longer than I anticipated to cook the steaks, but luckily I like my meat pretty rare, so it could have been worse. Here's how they turned out:
Finally, after slicing the meat, I made up a plate with some steak, avocado, beans, sour cream and pico plus a few mini tortillas.
Shortly after finishing dinner, I emailed my dad to tell him I'd successfully grilled my first steak. He was proud.
(Cross-posted to Flirty Food.)
In the spirit of my new-school-year's resolution to try a new recipe every week, a couple of days ago I made a dish that I'd tried many times before in restaurants, but never made - carne asada. I love this dish partly for the fact that it's steak - and I love steak - and partly for the things it's traditionally served with. (Avocado/guac, beans, pico de gallo and sour cream.)
The recipe, which I got from Simply Recipes, goes as follows:
Ingredients
2 pounds flank or skirt steak
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Marinade:
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño chile pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seed (best to lightly toast the seeds first, then grind them)
1 large handful fresh cilantro, leaves and stems, finely chopped (great flavor in the stems)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
I eliminated the salt and pepper (because I'm lazy), the jalapeno (because I don't like it), and the cumin (because I thought I had some and didn't). I also used dried cilantro instead of fresh, because that was what I had already, and garlic from a jar. (Incidentally, I highly recommend Spice World marinated garlic. It packs the same punch as fresh garlic for a lot cheaper, and you don't have to go out and buy a couple of cloves every time you want to put garlic in something, which for me is a lot of the time.)
The rest of the marinade ingredients went into a mixing bowl along with the steak, which I had to cut into a few smaller pieces for the sake of not being so messy.
The bowl then went in the fridge for an hour and a half or so while I went to go do online homework or, more likely, poked around Tumblr for a while. The recipe recommends 1-5 hours marinating; I would have liked to let it sit longer, but I was getting hungry!
While I was waiting, I also prepared some of the things I was going to eat with the steak itself - plain old avocado (guacamole is sometimes just too much effort) and beans, plus some prepared pico de gallo from the grocery store. (For the record, the Marsh here has amazing avocados; I couldn't stop myself munching while I was cutting them up.)
To get a facsimile of refried beans without the effort and added calories involved with actually frying them, I put a can of pinto beans in my food processor with some salt, garlic and lime juice. They were great!
Finally, it was time to grill the meat. The recipe called for either an actual grill or a cast-iron frying pan; I only had a newfangled Teflon-type pan, so I went with that. I don't think it was a mortal error.
It took a little longer than I anticipated to cook the steaks, but luckily I like my meat pretty rare, so it could have been worse. Here's how they turned out:
Finally, after slicing the meat, I made up a plate with some steak, avocado, beans, sour cream and pico plus a few mini tortillas.
Shortly after finishing dinner, I emailed my dad to tell him I'd successfully grilled my first steak. He was proud.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)