On The Spirit World
29-Sep-2006
It’s been quite some time since I’ve updated you on articles and information you can find on my other blog, The Spirit World.
First let’s take a little look at Drinks Around the World. We have recently covered:
- A whole series on making your own Limoncello
- Spain’s licorice liquor, Anis
- Poland’s Bison Grass Vodka
- Memories of Kauai and a Macadamia Nut Liqueur
- Praline Liqueur from New Orleans
- And returning to Spain the, uhhh, interesting Calimocho
And for Happy Hour at Home we’ve made the transition from summer to winter:
- Cucumber, Ginger and Sake Sangria & Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls
- Smoked Duck with Cherry Chutney and Pinot Noir – from the Deerfield Ranch Dinner
- Ouzo and Baked Stuffed Eggplant to Make a Priest Faint – from a couple of different Cooking Club dinners
- Apples All Around – featuring apples in both the cocktail and appetizer
- What a Pear! – featuring pears in both the cocktail and appetizer
- Sundaes for Grown-Ups – taking a slight detour from a "normal" Happy Hour
And of course there have been many more great articles in our Mixology 101 and Brewsday columns, as well as the various topics covered on the weekends.
If you haven’t been over for a while, take a little break, check it out and pick out something fun to create for your weekend!
Roasted Tomato Soup
28-Sep-2006
You may have noticed a heavy emphasis on tomatoes in the past several posts and that is so true! It’s that time of year – the tomatoes are really abundant and although they will hold for a little while I generally try to work them into every meal (often breakfast, too) so that I reduce the risk of letting any slip by my daily observation and end up too ripe. (And often attracting fruit flies…)
Last year I canned quite a few and still have several of those left so I’ve decided that’s not an option for me this year. But one way to use several tomatoes all at once (besides in a pasta sauce) is in soup! And this is a really great soup. I think I came across it about 2 years ago, although the publication date is 2003. It’s become one of my favorite ways to use tomatoes.
You do want to plan a bit ahead as you need time to roast the tomatoes prior to starting the actual soup. The recipe says to roast them for one hour and that’s great for plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes or any other smallish tomato, but for larger varieties you want to allow more time. I roasted the tomatoes for this day’s soup for 2 hours.
You can vary the flavor and intensity of this soup in various ways, but I like an intense, hearty warming soup – it’s perfect for lunch on these fall days that are warm for a little while but then start cooling down fairly early in the day. The original recipe is on Epicurious. But let me give you a few other ideas.
First, they say that you need plum tomatoes for an intensely flavored soup – that helps but there are several varieties of tomatoes that will provide intense flavor. More important is that the tomatoes were vine-ripened and that you got them from your own garden or a farmers’ market or a local source that really lets the tomatoes ripen on the plant (and in the ground) before picking them. Most supermarket tomatoes do not qualify and in that case Roma or plum will be your best bet.
The recipe calls for cream to be added in the last step but you don’t need it. Don’t get me wrong it is very nice with the cream but it’s also really tasty without it.
Just for a little variety I often roast a few other vegetables when I’m roasting my tomatoes – mild peppers or carrots for example – and I add the at the same time the tomatoes are added. These other veggies normally add just an intricacy to the flavor but it still tastes like tomato soup.
I sometimes also add a hot pepper like a little Thai Hot. You can remove these before blending or leave them in. Today I left mine in and it added such a nice spicy element! If you blend them in, instead of topping with Parmesan or a Parmesan Wafer add a little dab of sour cream to the center of the bowl. That will help alleviate the heat.
If you have an immersion blender that works better than transferring the soup to a blender – but the blender works fine, too.
Roasted Tomatoes
28-Sep-2006
Soon to be Roasted Tomato Soup! Most of these tomatoes are Caspian Pinks – they grow very large! The yellow one that snuck in there is a Great White. You can also see garlic cloves, if you look closely. Just out of site are a few Banana Peppers that will probably make their way into the mix, too. More info later…
Grilled Cheese, Tomato and Sage
25-Sep-2006
As I was titling this photo and post I happened to remember the uproar several months ago when a mainstream journalist, apparently a bit threatened by the blog world, remarked that he was tired of seeing people’s lunches and hoped never to see another grilled cheese sandwich online – or something to that affect. Of course, many bloggers took supreme offense at this comment and got together to have a "grilled cheese sandwich" day. At the time I stayed out of the fray but I still think about it every now and then.
So here is a photo of a grilled cheese sandwich but what I really like about it is that it’s made with the bread I just baked, tomatoes and sage from my garden. The Swiss cheese is from Tillamook. :-) It was a nice combination of summer, represented by the tomatoes, and fall, represented by the sage. If it offends you, please just look away! ;-)
Radiatorre
24-Sep-2006
I’ve had pretty much a perfect weekend. Friday night was the Elton John concert – so much fun! I love him! Saturday night was a cocktail party with great friends. They had purchased the party at an auction a bit ago and I got to join in the fun.
The party was held at the residence on the very top of Smith Tower – yes, above the observation deck and Chinese Room, if you’ve been there. At the very, very top. In fact, many people climbed up into the glass ball on the very top of the building but I had to chicken out. The steep and narrow spiral staircase and ladder didn’t scare me; or the idea that once in the globe you got to look at the city below basically right through your feet; no, what got to me was the last little passage to the ball that required about 4 or 5 feet of squeezing through a very narrow opening in the concrete – like shoulder pinching squeezing. I was afraid my claustrophobia would kick in and the screams might ruin the party for the others… ;-) But that was okay. The 360 degree view and just the experience of being there with friends was really enough.
Then today was mostly spent outside trying to catch up on yard work. I know that doesn’t sound great to many of you but I really like working in the yard. It’s therapeutic. Mid-afternoon, after making a dent in a couple of overgrown beds, I came in a had a big bowl of Radiatorre with Tomatoes and Onion.
I’d actually made this pasta a few days ago, so technically this was leftovers, but that did not diminish how great it was – in fact it enhanced it since I could have a great meal with no effort! And the best part was that the tomatoes and herbs that made the sauce were all from the garden.
This was a really easy recipe even on day one.
You just sauté one chopped medium onion and a couple cloves of garlic until golden. Then add about 3 cups of whole tomatoes that have been peeled (1 minute in boiling water then remove and the peels pop off) and cored. This week I added a bunch of rosemary at the same time.
As the tomatoes cook you sort of mash them up a bit. Once they are boiling add a splash of red wine, some tomato paste to thicken and a bit of anchovy paste for a little depth of flavor. About the time you add the tomatoes to the pan, add your pasta to boiling water and boil until almost done but still a little chewy.
Drain the pasta , add it back to the pan and then add the sauce. At this point I also add a bit of fresh basil. Oh, and I’ve been salting and peppering (are those words?) along the whole way. Let the sauce and pasta meld together – the pasta will absorb some sauce to finish cooking – add a little Parmesan if you like.
Then pour it all onto a plate or into a bowl, top with a bit more Parmesan, pour a glass of wine and you are set!
I really like radiatorre as all its little ridges and cavities really hold the sauce. A couple weeks ago I used it in a shrimp pasta dish (photo below) although I don’t remember exactly what all I did to the sauce. It doesn’t really matter – just use your imagination and you’ll have something tasty in no time.
White Bread
23-Sep-2006
You may remember that two weeks ago I attended a Baking Class at Culinary Communion. Well, since then the bread baking bug has me – I’ve made pizza and both last weekend and this weekend I’ve whipped up a batch of nice white bread – perfect for toast or sandwiches or just eating on its own.
It’s really so incredibly easy that I don’t know why we don’t all do it more often! This week I added raisins to one loaf as I was rolling it – could have added a cinnamon sugar mixture, too, but decided that just raisins would do for this week. I’m hoping to start branching out into new doughs soon – the next month or so is incredibly busy, though, so I may just stay with this easy, yummy loaf for now…
After you get the ingredients mixed together, you knead it for 10 minutes (I let my Kitchenaid mixer do the work) and then place the dough in a greased bowl, place in a warm spot and let it sit for about an hour until it has doubled.
Once the dough has doubled you "punch it down" – basically just removing the air pockets that have formed in the dough. Then, for this recipe, you divide the dough in half and roll each half into a rectangle. The rectangles are then tightly rolled up and placed in the baking pan. It was at this step that I added raisins – I simply spread them over the rectangle before I rolled the dough back up.
The bread is then covered and placed in a warm place to rise for about another hour. Last week when I made this recipe I actually started it at night. Once I got the dough rolled and into the pan, I placed it in the fridge overnight. In the morning I pulled it out and let it proof at that time. I let it go a bit longer than an hour to compensate for how cold the dough was. But this allowed me to have hot bread fresh from the oven in less than two hours that morning!
Once it has proofed (the second rise). The bread goes into the oven. After 30 minutes the outside is perfectly golden but the inside needs a bit more time, so you cover the pans with foil and then bake an additional 10 minutes.
Once you remove the pans from the oven, the bread must be removed from them immediately or it will continue cooking.
The bread just glides out of the pan (they were buttered before the rolled dough was placed in them) and onto the rack with no effort whatsoever!
At this point you can let it cool or, if you’re like me, after about 1 minute you feel the need to slice into a loaf and check it out! The crusty end with some butter smeared on it is a perfect little snack!
I like this bread as the crust does get crusty, the interior is tender but not airy – it has a little substance to it.
23rd Dinner Club – Mexico: Summary
21-Sep-2006
It had been quite some time since our last gathering and we had all been dying to get back into our dinner club meetings. One of our members had been out of town for most of the summer but she was finally back and we were raring to go! As soon as we had all gathered and the conversation starting flowing it was though no time had passed at all.
Our Mexico dinner club gathering started out where you might expect – with tequila! But maybe not in the way you would expect. M2 had appetizer and cocktail duty and decided to go with a more traditional way of drinking tequila. It was in a shot glass but was a nice tequila appropriate for sipping and was accompanied by another little glass of Sangrita, a sweet and spicy chaser.
There are various recipes for sangrita but hers was based on citrus and hot chilis. Unfortunately, I can’t drink tequila but I did sip the sangrita and it was really great! I could actually see adding it to a Bloody Mary to make sort of a Mexican version of that drink. The tequila was served along with Queso Fundido, basically a Mexican fondue. M2 combined three versions in one pan. The common element was the cheese but each section had it’s own star ingredient: chorizo; mushroom; and poblano chile. Served along with small pieces of tortilla it became a finger food. Each of the different ingredients provided a different character or you could combine them for all kinds of tastes sensations.
We lingered over appetizers for quite some time but eventually made our way to the table. M had been wanting to make Carnitas, that lovely and fragrant shredded pork dish, and that’s where our theme for this month started. Her version was a little different than what I’ve had in the past. It had lots of orange in it, was amazingly fresh and spicy tasting at the same time. She’d made pickled jalapeños and carrots, guacamole and had tortillas to accompany the meal.
I had been assigned salad and decided to go with something that I hoped would really provide contrast to the carnitas, Berza con Cilantro, or basically a Mexican version of coleslaw. I really liked this slaw and loved it piled on top of the carnitas in a tortilla! It started with thinly shredded cabbage as most coleslaw does, then added onion, and cilantro to the mix. But what really made it stand out, in my opinion, was the dressing, which was a lime vinaigrette. It was so refreshing!
R had the side dish and had decided to create her own version of tamales. Using a basic recipe for the cornmeal she then added nopales, cactus leaves. She had created quite a large pile of them – very ambitious for such a labor intensive item! She wasn’t that pleased with them but I thought there were a really great idea.
We spent some time combining the various items in different ways to come up with all kinds of taste sensations.
Along with the dinner were more tequilas. M had three more to offer in addition to M2’s bottle. Those drinking tequila spent some time comparing and contrasting the various types with each other trying to decided if repesado or anejo was their favorite and why.
After the meal we spent a little time lingering at the table before K assembled our dessert. She had originally had one idea and then about a week before our meal, switched ideas and we are glad she did! Not that the first idea would have been bad, just that what she brought was so good! For dessert she’d made Mango Sorbet – simple, tasty and heavenly. It was the perfect light ending to our meal.
As with other cuisines we’ve encountered there was a very common element in many of our dishes. Citrus was present in nearly everything: the Sangrita used both orange and lime juice; the carnitas used an entire orange; the coleslaw was heavily influenced by lime juice; and the sorbet also included lime juice as an ingredient. It’s fun to see how local ingredients really enhance and influence local flavors.
Fall’s First Pumpkin
19-Sep-2006
I picked this little beauty up at Saturday’s U-District Farmers’ Market. I’ve just been admiring it since then. It’s just a little guy – about 2 pounds – but so perfectly formed! It’s a Sugar Pumpkin. I’ve been trying to decide its fate. I think I feel a soup coming on… Something with ginger and curry, maybe. I’ll let you know where it ends up.
From the Garden
18-Sep-2006
My tomatoes are really coming into their own. And, as you can see, many of them are gigantic!
They are, from left to right, a Great White, Yellow Brandywine and Caspian Pink.
The Great White purchase was an accident. I was actually looking at Green Zebras and sorting through the plants to find a good healthy one. When I made my selection I didn’t notice that this Great White plant was just in the wrong row. It’s an interesting tomato and much more of a pale, pale yellow than white. It’s good but I still wish I had a Green Zebra. :-)
The Yellow Brandywine is loaded with large tomatoes! These are a really sweet variety. I always get at least one of these bright yellow tomatoes each year – I love how they look mixed in with the reds.
The Caspian Pink is a very deep rose color. If I had a true red in this photo you’d be able to see that a little better. It’s also a nice sweet tomato and is very pretty when sliced.
Is there anything better than tomatoes fresh from the garden? I think not.
23rd Dinner Club – Mexico: Menu and Recipes
14-Sep-2006
It is so hard to believe that this is our 23rd dinner and that by the time we finish this, our fourth year, we will have 25 dinners under our belts (nice play on words, don’t you think?)! Amazing really.
We had done Mexico once before but just like with last month’s Indian dinner, the two dinners were not much alike. M was hosting and she wanted to try a main dish that she’d had not long ago on a trip to San Miguel de Allende. So our meal was built around Carnitas, that wonderful shredded pork dish.
Menu
- Appetizer: Queso Fundido con Chorizo from Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook
- Cocktail: Tequila with Sangrita Chaser from Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook
- Salad: Berza con Cilantro from Sunset Mexican Cook Book
- Main: Carnitas from The Art of Mexican Cooking
- Side: Nopales Tamales based on Tamales Norteños – modifications below
- Dessert: Mango Sorbet
To make Nopales Tamales use the Tamales Norteños recipe and replace the pork filling with the following:
Nopales Filling
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2/3 cup sliced onion
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
3 cups diced, precooked nopales (about 8 paddles)
1/8 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, or to taste
1/2 cup diced tomatillos)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
23rd Dinner Club – Mexico: Summary
Culinary Fool 