What's Cooking (Take Three!)

I have braised steak and onions on the go and thinking mash and…… a vegetable or salad will happen
As well.

Today was the season's first Boeuf Bourguignon made, as usual around here, with an inexpensive Bordeaux.

I usually use an inexpensive Cotes du Rhone. I'm told that in Burgundy itself they often use press wine.

-Paul W.

Tonight is a potato leek soup my husband loves. After having gone through an Atmospheric River the past two days, this will be a nice comforting meal. I think a few slices of Cranberry Walnut Bread will also please the man.

Today was the season's first Boeuf Bourguignon made, as usual around here, with an inexpensive Bordeaux.

I usually use an inexpensive Cotes du Rhone. I'm told that in Burgundy itself they often use press wine.

My local shop has $10.99 Bordeaux so.... I can believe they use press wine. I recall an article over on Serious Eats that cooked-down a bunch of different wines and found that there wasn't much difference in the end.

But I do follow Julia Child's advice never to cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Karen, having fun with that weather? We did not get the share of that event we were supposed to. Pretty grateful so far.

Re red wine in cooking, haven't seen the Serious Eats article but, by experience, I agree with it. What matters most to me is pigmentation--I don't want a very purple extracted wine imparting a blue-black stain to the dish. Better a lighter colored red, hence my choice of CdR too. As a matter of fact am thinking of doing something like that tonight: fresh chanterelles are down to $15 a pound, gorgeous things. A Beef Boourgogne would be sensational, though they should star on their own for Meatless Monday.

I agree about the importance of color when cooking with red wine. I used a Bonny Doon Clos de Gilroy once to make coq au vin. It tasted just fine, but the sauce was a lurid, almost day-glo puce.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

But I do follow Julia Child's advice never to cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.

-Paul W.

Right, but I've seen people using that to defend wasting a premier cru, which totally misses the point. Julia, way back when, was essentially advocating against using so-called 'cooking wine' or an unlikable table wine (probably corked).

My daughter gave the whole family a set of 12 different spices/ingredients for Christmas last year and we use one each month. My wife and I make something and all three kids make something on their own so each month there are 4 dishes made using the specified ingredient. It has been a fun way to experiment but also to stay connected as a family.

October was berbere month. Last night we made a paste using the juice of one lemon, 6 garlic cloves, olive oil and a half cup of berbere. Throw that in the blender and make it into a paste.

In a baking dish toss some fingerlings, radishes, Brussels and baby carrots in some oil, salt and pepper. Put a 4 pound chicken on top of the veggies… smear the chicken all over with the berbere paste and roast everything up! Very good…. But pretty spicy.

But I do follow Julia Child's advice never to cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.

-Paul W.

Right, but I've seen people using that to defend wasting a premier cru, which totally misses the point. Julia, way back when, was essentially advocating against using so-called 'cooking wine' or an unlikable table wine (probably corked).

The Serious Eats article also advises against fake wines and "cooking wine" products. They claimed to find almost no difference in the outcome regarding oakiness or corkiness. The only things that mattered were: color, and sweetness. (Probably should not make coq au vin with Sauternes....)

[quote="Jenise"]Karen, having fun with that weather? We did not get the share of that event we were supposed to. Pretty grateful so far.
Pretty scary, massive amounts of water, luckily, our city was on top of it, and so far all the drains handled it. Our yard is a mess, lots of branches down, very saturated soil, my herbs suffered, basil plant is coming out, and so it goes.
We cleaned up what we could, and waiting for the next round. Your share may still be coming...

[Jenise]

My daughter gave the whole family a set of 12 different spices/ingredients for Christmas last year and we use one each month. My wife and I make something and all three kids make something on their own so each month there are 4 dishes made using the specified ingredient. It has been a fun way to experiment but also to stay connected as a family.

October was berbere month. Last night we made a paste using the juice of one lemon, 6 garlic cloves, olive oil and a half cup of berbere. Throw that in the blender and make it into a paste.

In a baking dish toss some fingerlings, radishes, Brussels and baby carrots in some oil, salt and pepper. Put a 4 pound chicken on top of the veggies… smear the chicken all over with the berbere paste and roast everything up! Very good…. But pretty spicy.

What a cool gift!!!

John, I once had a roommate who grew up in Ethiopia. Berbere was a household staple, and his family had it shipped to America in 5 pound bags. None made here duplicated exactly what they wanted--imagine asking 20 different spice blenders to make "meat loaf spice" and imagine how many different responses you'd get. Anyway, I learned to adore it and Vic kept a paste in the fridge at all times--what you describe minus the garlic--which he'd slather on bread or thick slices of cheese for a snack. His mother and aunties used it liberally, from the traditional Ethiopian stewed chicken called 'wot' to just sprinkling it over pork chops before barbecuing them. Currently I buy Whole Foods version.

[Jenise]

Yesterday's chanterelles turned into creamed chanterelles on toast. I sauteed them briefly with onions, splashed them with brandy, then added cream, herbs d'Provence, diced fresh tomatoes and finely chopped lacinato kale, cooked that down a bit and served it scooped over a slice of toasted sunflower bread. HEAVENLY. That was the second course, the first was thick slices of Chinese eggplant that were sweated first with salt, then smeared on both sides with mayo then pressed into panko and baked until golden on both sides, about 12 minutes at 450F. Three pieces per serving were stacked on frisee and drizzled with a pesto vinaigrette. To die for. I love making salads out of unexpected things--lettuce and tomato, move over.

What a cool gift!!!

Jenise…. The rest of the lineup on spices was:

January - black eyed peas
February - tamarind paste
March - nigella seeds
April - golden needles
May - sumac
June - kaffir line leaves
July - chipotles in adobo
August - saffron
September - berbere
October - juniper berries
November - ras el hanout
December - amchur

[Jenise]

Super cool. But now I'm going to have to go look up 'amchur'--new to me!

I have a few Indian recipes that call for amchur (green mango powder).

Tonight I'll be making Thai massaman curry.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

So it's dried mango powder. Some time in the last year or so I opined out loud, "suddenly I am seeing dried mango powder mentioned a lot, what's going on?" I'd never heard of it before and suddenly it's in recipe after recipe. An article by Kenji Alt-Lopez sheds a lot of light.

Yesterday I thawed a steak that was in the outside freezer. A beautiful, thick well marbled boneless rib eye that seemed a bit brownish and had me a little concerned. I'd Food Saver-ed it but there was quite a bit of juicy leakage from the edges of the meat (I now freeze first THEN pkg) and I had a feeling...and that proved out. It had that old meat smell, so I trimmed off all the edges and cut it into large, about 1" cubes for a Vietnamese shaking-beef style prep wherein lime juice, fish sauce and red onions would would make it taste fresh as a daisy. And it did. Loved it.

[Jenise]

So it's dried mango powder. Some time in the last year or so I opined out loud, "suddenly I am seeing dried mango powder mentioned a lot, what's going on?" I'd never heard of it before and suddenly it's in recipe after recipe. An article by Kenji Alt-Lopez sheds a lot of light.

Yesterday I thawed a steak that was in the outside freezer. A beautiful, thick well marbled boneless rib eye that seemed a bit brownish and had me a little concerned. I'd Food Saver-ed it but there was quite a bit of juicy leakage from the edges of the meat (I now freeze first THEN pkg) and I had a feeling...and that proved out. It had that old meat smell, so I trimmed off all the edges and cut it into large, about 1" cubes for a Vietnamese shaking-beef style prep wherein lime juice, fish sauce and red onions would would make it taste fresh as a daisy. And it did. Loved it.

.... I sauteed them briefly with onions, splashed them with brandy, then added cream, herbs d'Provence, diced fresh tomatoes and finely chopped lacinato kale

I make a similar concoction. I call it my Universal Mushroom Mixture. Depending on how thick (or thin) I make it, it can be a base, a sauce, or a side dish. I don't usually tart it up (add tomatoes, kale, etc.) until I decide how I'm going to use it.

[Jenise]

It's delicious stuff, and as you say so versatile! In our case, since it was a main course, the addition of bright sweet chunks of firm tomato and the emerald green kale added interesting possibilities to each bite.

[Jenise]

No idea about tonight. Was gifted three big plump green tomatoes, so may have to go southern tonight though I really wanted to accept a challenge on another cooking site to cook something from my birthyear. They provided something that purports to assist you with ideas, but it's pretty lame as such things always are. It gave me Spam and Baked Alaska. RIGHT. I can guess well enough but would be more fun to pull something out of a book of my mothers that I kept. It's called something like The Meat Cookbook and it has helpful diagrams of animals and which part comes from where, and that's one of the reasons I saved it. The other is that I, at approximately 2-3 years old, considered this my very first favorite book and personally filled the margins with infantile squiggles. It's the best proof I have that I have never not been fascinated by food.

I don't recall that my mother owned a cookbook.

I think the first cookbook in the house was bought for me when I was in high school.

[Jenise]

Strangely my mom, who did like to cook, didn't own but one or two cookbooks herself. Didn't even have one of those everything-compendiums like Joy of Cooking. There was just the skinny little Meat book I mentioned and a book published by Sunset magazine. She pretty much made the same couple dozen meals all the time. Though she and dad considered themselves foodies while dating, cooking food that four kids, each with their own peculiar finicky issues, would all like trumped everything.

I don't recall my mom having cookbooks either, but she was a great cook, mainly cooked on weekends as she worked all week. I loved her tamale pie and she would make a huge roasting pan of it, with huge, whole black olives that I loved biting into. Strangely, I got out of the house without that recipe and it saddens me because I loved it so much. She mixed the cornmeal into it and it had the best flavors. Creamed tuna on toast was a good one too, and usually made during the week before we went to a movie or other event. Everything she made tasted good.