What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

Peter, those greens are what we call 'collards' in the U.S. and "Beans and Greens" is a popular dish. What you made sounds good, though I would have used all the sausage.

Trying this one tonight along with some simple chicken breasts have pounded down and are sitting now with a bit of salt, pepper fresh thyme and EVOO… will pan sauté them and then make a pan sauce with some white deglaze and a touch of butter….. also made some Japanese rice with cilantro and scallions just in case

file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/62/02/6D9AB8C8-9479-4E4F-9923-C0FF827EFF45/IMG_4015.HEIC

I’ve been cooking a lot lately…. Not that happy at work so cooking instead!

This could be more useful

http://oneperfectbite.blogspot.com/2010 ... s.html?m=1

[Jenise]

Cooking's great therapy, John. Interesting...a clafoutis. I'm a big fan of Patricia Wells, btw. Have several of her books: bistro-style cooking is definitely my thing. And nowadays I occasionally exchange thoughts with her on Instagram!

[Jenise]

Tonight I'm cooking for company. The main dish will be the veal scaloppine with gorgonzola sauce John F posted here a few days ago. I'll serve it over paparadelle. The starter course will be chilled asparagus (whole spears) and tiny diced watermelon radishes marinated in a tarragon vinaigrette and topped with crisp broiled proscuitto. Artichoke crostini to start, and lemon curd cheesecake for dessert.

Do you peel asparagus? I recently watched a short vid by America's Test Kitchen which was recommending it.

[Jenise]

Yes and no. White, always. Green, yes when they're thick. Better texture, and very pretty too when cooked plus useful when absorbing a marinade. What I have today is only about 1/2" thick, which would become 1/4" if peeled so they'd look emaciated.

Today I am making a Cipollini onion and fennel pot roast. Braised in fresh thyme, evoo, salt, pepper, carrots. fennel bulbs garlic, sherry wine, beef broth and bay leaves. A lemon, chive risotto with white wine, parm, lemon zest, and shallots as a side dish. Salad is a roasted beet salad, with walnuts, goat cheese with a honey Dijon vinaigrette. I could not find the packaged Love Roasted Beets the blogger said she prefers, and I could not find fresh beets. I never buy canned veggies, but I went to the aisle to look and found a
S&W product called Spiced Pickled Red Beets. They are small beets, sliced and marinated in red wine vinegar. They are not bad at all, and with all the great ingredients in this salad I think they will work, with the shallots, mixed red and green lettuces. I'm using pecans instead of walnuts.

[Jenise]

Karen, you pile more ingredients into a single meal than anyone I know and I love you for it. You hit every taste bud possible.

No plans yet for dinner. But we had barbecue brisket tacos for lunch, so it's likely I'll go with vegetables for dinner. Maybe roasted portabellos and zucchini.

Thanks Jenise, I love to cook and use ingredients. However, I really need to cut back and simplify...but when? I have tons of spices,
and herbs. friends who travel, bring me stuff, kids bring me stuff...not complaining. Still, a family of one here now, and my Havanese kid can't eat my food, I really only cook about twice a week. I eat salads for lunch, lots of fresh fruit for breakfast, with yogurt, or avocado toast, smoothies. I like to have fun in the kitchen.

Tonight a simple but tasty pasta
Tri colour fusilli, EVOO, garlic and chilli flakes, tossed in some fresh diced tomato just to warm through.lots of parmigiana.

[Jenise]

Barb, that's one of the best pasta dishes possible.

Last night I stayed true to my original plan re going vegetarian for dinner. Took me awhile to make up my mind what to prepare, though (I bought a lot on Friday and am well-stocked), so I chose zucchini and portobello mushrooms. I thought I'd grill the portobello and separately bake the zucchini--cut into spears, 4 per, and tossed with olive oil and herbs d'Provence. In the process of preparing same though, as often happens, I had a better idea: stuff the mushrooms and bake them on the same cookie sheet with the squash. So I did: rosemary, diced white onion and cheese went into the mushrooms, and into the oven they all went for 20 min at 400F--turned out perfect for both. To serve, on each plate I made a bed out of the spears and nestled the mushroom on top. It was not only pretty, when cut into the mushrooms leaked some juices into the plate which the zucchini happily absorbed. It was never meant to be 'a dish', just two items on the same plate, but I ended up with a lovely composed dish and marriage of flavors anyway. I'll definitely want them together again. And: no carbs!

Today: no plan yet.

Jenise

How was the veal?

Thanks

This morning I had a confluence of ham, asparagus, and eggs, so I made Eggs Benedict with homemade hollandaise.

One boo-boo: I plated both before I realized I hadn't included the ham. Duh! I gently lifted everything and slid in the ham. Anything similar ever happen to you?

[Jenise]

Jenise

How was the veal?

Thanks

Fantastic. I make a sans-recipe blue cheese/beef broth/cream sauce for a very upscale filet mignon dinner so this wasn't unfamiliar territory, but using veal, making it saucier, and adding the tomato and basil
parts added wonderful new dimensions. I used gorgonzola dolce and served it over papparadelle.

Last night was Island-spiced chicken: legs and thighs spent an hour rubbed with brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, coriander, grains of paradise, s+p; then baked on top of pineapple spears in a hot oven; doused just at the end with a simple brown sugar-butter-rum-pineapple juice glaze. Served with our favorite mix of brown, red, and wild rice.

(Yes, if it were just me, I'd punch-up that spice mix with a chipotle in adobo and scallions.)

[Jenise]

Mmmm, that sounds good. Baked on the pineapple no less, interesting technique.

[Jenise]

Meant to add, last night we had calamari steaks--panko crusted, fried, topped with a 4 oz broiled lobster tail, lemon butter, and strewn with tiny cherry tomatoes in EVOO and some fresh basil.

Mmmm, that sounds good. Baked on the pineapple no less, interesting technique.

That worked out very well: added flavor to the chicken and contributed to the pan sauce. Also, if your pineapple isn't quite the best, a trip through the oven will improve it. I borrowed the idea from a related recipe which I did not do, but which also added citrus into the seasoning and baked the chicken on a bed of orange slices.

Jenise

How was the veal?

Thanks

Fantastic. I make a sans-recipe blue cheese/beef broth/cream sauce for a very upscale filet mignon dinner so this wasn't unfamiliar territory, but using veal, making it saucier, and adding the tomato and basil
parts added wonderful new dimensions. I used gorgonzola dolce and served it over papparadelle.

Interesting….. I stared at the dolce for along time and ended up not going with that… was worried it might be a little sweetness?

[Jenise]

It's not sweet, 'dolce' is misleading here. It's just young/new/creamy, which are excellent attributes for melting. I was wanting to avoid the grainy blues like Cachel from Ireland, which has a wonderful flavor but it's grainy which is fine on a cracker but not in a sauce. In fact, for that reason I've used cambezola when I do the similar sauce for filet mignons.

[Jenise]

Tonight I'm taking the remains of last weeks beef/clove sauce for pasta and extending it, maybe with powdered ancho chiles, into something kind of chili-mac to bake for that hard, crunchy crust we've been enamored with of late. Of course, a green salad will be part of the meal.

It's not sweet, 'dolce' is misleading here. It's just young/new/creamy, which are excellent attributes for melting...

Indeed. Gorgonzola dolce is my favorite blue cheese for cooking for exactly that reason. A shame my wife and son don't like it, so I have to take advantage of the meals cooked without them.

Last night was Island-spiced chicken: legs and thighs spent an hour rubbed with brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, coriander, grains of paradise, s+p; then baked on top of pineapple spears in a hot oven; doused just at the end with a simple brown sugar-butter-rum-pineapple juice glaze. Served with our favorite mix of brown, red, and wild rice.

(Yes, if it were just me, I'd punch-up that spice mix with a chipotle in adobo and scallions.)

Jeff, have you a link to the recipe or was this your own great idea. I am going to make this on Saturday and am wondering about spice measurements.