Tapas: A New Adventure

Looky loo-loo what I got yesterday in the mail! That's right, friends. A sweet tapas cookbook!

Look at that cheesy fried goodness right on the cover. Penelope knows what's up.

Bring on the queso de cabra and patatas bravas!

Update: 2011 Summer Goals

Thought I'd give everyone an update on where we stand with our summer goals. 

1. Try not to kill our herbs. Specifically, the basil plant. 

Basil plant: alive (yes!!)
Cilantro plant: alive
Parsley plant: alive, but looks diseased. We'll put it out of it's misery. 
Rosemary plant (that we tried to resurrect): still dead
Tomato plants: kind of alive, but dying (Note: this is not totally my fault, as the workers fixing our building sprayed some sort of sealant, which killed all of the downstairs flowers AND grass. So I'm not totally to blame.)

2. Make flavored oils. But without giving ourselves botulism. 
Still working on this. Tried a quick ginger oil right around the time of the goal-setting, and it didn't knock my socks off. Maybe we can use some of the still-kicking basil plant for this. 

3. Stop shopping at the local chain grocery store.  
Um, pass.


4. ADDITION: Christine will learn how to grill meats. 
I have mastered preheating the grill for Paul. I ALMOST had to cook last night because Paul was on the phone (and I was out of control starving). I managed to get the grill ready, get everything outside, then found him out there cooking while still on the phone. In my apparent rush to mentally prepare for this foray into grilling, I burned the couscous. Oops. I'll get back to what I'm good at -- making sure stuff doesn't burn in the kitchen.

June 13: Grilled Salmon with New Potatoes, Broccoli...and a minor fail

We're big salmon eaters around here. Paul had picked up this nice big fillet at the store. We weren't sure how we should prepare the salmon, especially a large piece like this (about 2 lbs). I found a recipe online that looked easy and tasty. 

Fillet? Filet? I went with the two L version.

The only thing we were missing was mayonnaise to make the sauce. So, we decided to make our own. I decided to make it in the food processor. First, add an egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard. I only had one egg left, so it was do or die. 

So far so good...

I started the food processor, and used the feed tube to add in the oil. I think it went too fast into the mixture, because it didn't work. I couldn't get the mayonnaise to emulsify. 

Yerg.

So, we scratched the sauce, and simply went with the marinade on the salmon instead. (Note: I'm not sure it's technically a marinade since we didn't let it sit and soak into the salmon, but for the sake of keeping the marinade and the failed sauce straight, we'll call it the marinade). The marinade consists of vegetable oil, prepared horseradish, soy sauce, garlic, salt and pepper. 

Getting the salmon all ready to go. 

We decided to make some small red potatoes in olive oil and rosemary as a side. The potatoes were small enough that we figured they could cook alongside the salmon on the grill. 

Everything went on the grill. The potatoes went on first while I was making the marinade for the fish. The potatoes were on for about 20 minutes (you really can't overcook the potatoes here.) Paul cooked the salmon for about 5 minutes on each side. 

We think it was 5 minutes per side. Note to self: update the blog in a more timely fashion and you won't have friends cursing you while eating raw fish. 

Everything came off the grill looking quite tasty!

We steamed some broccoli to go with the salmon and the potatoes.

You also can't go wrong with rosemary potatoes in my mind.

YUM. I would totally make this marinade for the salmon again. It was really tasty! I'm glad turned out okay without the sauce. The fish was really nicely cooked, even the end pieces which can dry out. By making such a big fillet, we also had salmon lunch for each of us for a couple days. Normally I fear reheating fish in the microwave, but both Paul and I commented that it still tasted delicious a day or two later.  

Bon Appetit's Summer Cooking Manifesto

Summer ingredients and cooking make me happy. Enjoy!

Hello, lover.

2011 Summer Goals

So Paul and I set a couple goals for this summer: 

1. Try not to kill our herbs. Specifically, the basil plant. 

This one is directed at me. In dire need of basil, I snipped the whole damn thing. Surprise! It dies. In typical overkill fashion, we went bananas and bought a ton more herbs and some tomato plants, as well as are trying to resurrect the dead (herbs) we already had.

2. Make flavored oils. But without giving ourselves botulism. 

Um, I was unaware this was a concern, until I started looking up how to make them. Holy hotcakes. I do not want that. 

3. Stop shopping at the local chain grocery store.  

It's too expensive. I can go in with a list of 10 things, and end up spending $100. I can't take it anymore. $8 for couscous? THEY ARE TINY BITS OF RICE(? OR PASTA?). whatever they are...no, thanks.


4. ADDED (as anticipated): Christine will learn how to grill meats. 


Yeah. This one is going to be good. 

I will be sure to update on our progress -- and knowing us, we'll probably either add like 8 more in. Or we'll attempt to do everything in the last two weeks of August. Or both.


Happy Summer, all!

June 9: Grilled Shrimp with Kale Leaves with Quinoa and Feta

Note: We added shrimp to the week's menu after realizing we had some picked up some from the grocery store the weekend before.

The shrimp we made here was based on the shrimp tikkas recipe we had learned at Naveen's cuisine.  We had about 1/2 pound of shrimp, so we cut down the spice amounts. We made a marinade of 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic, 1/2 tablespoon minced ginger, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/4 teaspoon garam masala. We didn't have garlic paste or ginger paste, so used minced versions -- and then put in less cayenne pepper than the recipe had originally suggested (1/2 teaspoon for 1 pound of shrimp) as well.

We used some fresh shrimp we had gotten at the meat/seafood counter. Naveen had suggested using uncooked shrimp, but felt that fresh or frozen would work. He had also recommended butterflying the shrimp before marinating it, which essentially consists of running your knife down the back of the shrimp, as you can see from the photo below.

Mad skillz.

The shrimp went into the marinade for about 30 minutes (they can sit up to 2 hours). 

Raw shrimp. Not so pretty here.

In the meantime, I washed and cut the stems from the kale leaves. I prefer just to eat the leaves -- the stems can be kind of tough for me. Kale is like spinach in the sense that it reduces down big time once you cook it. I know this looks like a ton of kale, but it really shrinks down.

The kale was cooked on the stove with a little olive oil. You'll see in the last picture how much it reduces down. 

Paul, the grill master, cooked the shrimp on the grill for about 5 - 7 minutes -- until they are no longer opaque. Here they are when first tossed on the grill...
 

Thank you, grill light! You are you handy when we make dinner at 9 p.m.

...and about 5 minutes later. The butterflying makes them curl up like that and look pretty. 
 

Um, there a few less shrimp in this photo. I think someone had a snack before dinner.

Alongside the kale and shrimp, I cooked up a quick cup of quinoa. We added some feta cheese crumbles to the kale, and topped the shrimp with some cilantro.

It turned out pretty good! I was impressed, even with messing with the spice ratios. I like keeping frozen shrimp in our freezer for a quick meal, and this would make great use of them as well (see below). Paul suggested that next time, we plate the kale on top of the quinoa. I ended up mixing everything together as I ate anyways. 


Update: We made the shrimp recipe again recently for a larger group, and this time used the recipe amounts (1 pound of frozen uncooked shrimp) and the correct ingredient ratios: 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, 1/2 teaspoon garam masala, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (I still kept this a little lower than suggested because I didn't want people to think it was too spicy). We marinated them for about 2 hours and then cooked them up on the grill for about 7 minutes. They went FAST. Our guests really enjoyed them. I love having a quick backup recipe like this that I can make with the ingredients I have in the house or that I am comfortable bringing with us to another party.

June 7: Recipes from Naveen's Cuisine

Inspired by our Indian cooking class at Naveen's Cuisine, we decided to try to make two of the dishes we learned that evening -- kachumbar (vegetable salad) and murgh curry (curry chicken).

(Since Naveen doesn't list these recipes on his website, I'll describe what we're including and how much of each ingredient. We also doubled the salad recipe because we had 2 cucumbers from the produce box that week.)

First, we started to make the kachumbar. To make the salad, you chop up a ton of vegetables, and marinate them in lime and spices. No oil needed. Our first step was to peel and chop two cucumbers. 

Then dice up a cup of red radishes. 

Dice two cups of tomatoes.

Cutting those tiny V-shapes is my go-to method for "coring" (if that's even the right word) tomatoes.

We combined all of this into one bowl.

We minced 1/2 cup of red onion and chopped 4 tablespoons of fresh cilantro. All of that also went into the bowl.

Then we mixed the "dressing" -- 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of garam masala (we did not have chat masala, which is what the recipe calls for), and the juice of two limes.  This is covered in saran wrap and goes into the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to marinate.

According to what I found online, chat masala and garam masala are not interchangeable. Oops.

On to the curry!

This is my job...Paul gets a little emotional over onions. They're just onions, Paul!

The coloring is a little hard to see here, but this is a TON of chopped ginger. Ton being the exact measurement we used.

We heated 4 tablespoons of oil in the pan, then added the ginger, onion and garlic and cook (with the lid on) until golden brown. Next, we added the chicken, and cooked it for 7 minutes or until the meat starts to turn brown.

The recipe called for ground coriander. We had "full-sized" coriander, so we used our coffee bean grinder to make it into ground coriander. The coffee tasted -- interesting the next morning. 

"Full-sized" coriander? Now I'm just making stuff up.

We added in 3/4 teaspoon turmeric, 3/4 teaspoon garam masala, 2 teaspoons of ground coriander, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper. We cooked this mixture with the chicken for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Then, we added 1 cup of chopped tomatoes, and mixed everything in well. Then we added 2 - 3 cups of water, so the chicken became completely submerged. Everything is brought to to a boil and cooked on medium heat until tender.

We served the curry chicken on a bed on white rice, topped with some chopped fresh cilantro. 

 

The curry came out nice and spicy -- especially the sauce. The curry came out less thick than we remembered, so maybe we cooked it down more during the class. 


So as I mentioned earlier, we had used garam masala instead of chaat masala for the vegetable salad. It tasted good, but I remember absolutely loving this salad-- so the next time I make it -- I would definitely use the again with the chaat masala instead.