Part Three : Chapter Thirteen : Dry Goods Identification

It's been another hectic week at work, and we've also had after work plans, so I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and write in a few days. I've been using the few meals we've had at home to use up ingredients from the fridge and pantry. It's another one of those "get creative" phases to clean stuff up a bit. I even cleaned the kitchen this weekend! The stove needed a good scrubbing, that's for sure. I decided to take this slow night as an opportunity to read a chapter of my textbook, and get one step closer to the real cooking!

Speaking of cleaning out the pantry, this chapter comes at the perfect time. I've collected quite the assortment of oils, vinegars, spices and rubs and some of them really make me wonder if I'll ever need them for another recipe. That's when it's time to start making stuff up...and concoting! Just like produce and meats though, these dry goods lose quality over time, so on a somewhat regular basis, I go through my stock, and throw anything with a passed expiration date in the trash. Sometimes, it's just better to start with something fresh.

I tend to store my grains and flours in screwtop containers. I rip off a piece of the label and place it at the top of the container so that I know what is in each one, but it's more organized this way because everything is a bit more uniform. It's hard to reseal those bags anyway!

I have quite the collection of spices, and I'm still coming up with ideas on the best way to store them. I have too many to fit in any one spice rack, and I always end up taking all of them off the shelf, just to find the one I'm looking for at the moment. When I come up with a system that works, I promise I'll share it with you!

After 35 pages about flours, wheats, spices, grains and legumes, I'm finally at the end of Part Three. In my next lesson, we'll start in on Part Four : Stocks, Sauces and Soups! I couldn't have come sooner and I will begin to gather the ingredients I will need for the first lesson...and get down to it! Look forward to many more pictures with this next part of the book, because what I learn, I will then share with all of you! Can't wait!!

Autumn is here!

Well, it's been a busy week. I've worked overtime in the office, rushed around in the evenings, and also celebrated our 4-year wedding anniversary last night! There's been little time for cooking and so we've been surviving off of leftovers and of course, my go-to, chicken breasts over arugula with lemon juice. Yummy! Autumn is definitely upon us, with cooler days, much cooler nights, and evenings that become dark much earlier. With Autumn comes different vegetables in season and heartier, heart-warming meals!

from Flicker - by bluebird218

It's time for a new menu...I know, we never got to visit Germany on our little culinary world tour. I couldn't find veal cutlets anywhere, so the Weiner Schnitzel went out the window. Next time I see them at the store, I'll be all over them, and we'll revisit that one. This weekend, I will work on that new menu, as well as hopefully get to the store for a little grocery shopping. I'm looking forward to soups, stews, and the re-appearance of parsnips, turnips and celeriac as stars of the dinner table.

What do you look forward to in the Autumn months? What would you like to see on the next menu? Leave me a comment and let me know - I know my husband has made a request for another batch of delicious Bi Bim Bap this time around, so I'm already on the right track to a full, delicious and hearty menu! I hope you all have a good weekend, and to all....a good night!

Foumami

I've been meaning to visit this kitschy spot since I read about it months ago in my daily ThrillList email. The self-proclaimed Asian sandwich bar has a creative menu of sandwiches and salads using many key Asian ingredients such as ginger, Wasabi, soy sauce and cilantro. While a few of the items seem a bit forced into the constraints of what would be considered "Asian," (Wasabi Caesar Salad, Asian Cobb), the majority of the menu is striking and unique.

When I glanced at the menu online, in preparation for my visit, I immediately knew that I needed to have an Iced Ginger Tea! I love beverages with ginger in them, and this one was absolutely no exception. The spiced bite of ginger flavor integrated with the sweetness of the tea is a definite winner! It was wonderfully refreshing on this warm day!

I opted for the Braised Beef Brisket sandwich as my lunch, and as soon as I could pay and step sideways to the pickup window, they had called my name! Now, that's some service! I unwrapped my meal, thinly sliced brisket, cooked to perfection (silky, smooth and falling apart) along with some cucumbers, scallions and cilantro sprigs, all wrapped in a flat bread similar to naan. It wasnt very large but it ended up being a hearty lunch for me and I was satisfied for the afternoon! The sandwiches also come with a pickle and potato chips...but I wished for something a bit more authentic as a side...some Kim Chee, or a small bowl of edamame would have been a really cool touch.

They offer many soups on their online menu, one or two of which are available each day. There were a few specific flavors that would certainly go back for (Wonton, Hot & Sour, String Bean Noodle), because they sound delicious. Other options include desserts such as shaved ice and cookies.

Foumami is located at 225 Franklin Street, in the Financial District of Boston. Check them out at their website, or call them (617-426-8858) to find out about those soup specials!

Cool fact of the day: In Japanese culture, umami is one of the five basic tastes with sweet, sour, bitter and salty.  In Japanese, it means "pleasant savory taste."

A Minestrone for Spring

Yesterday, we were in Vermont for a quick visit with Matt's mom, and we woke up to what I can only describe as a snowstorm. There was an inch of snow on the ground, it was coming down in buckets, and it hardly felt like the end of April! We drove back through rain and snow to warmer temperatures here in Boston, and thankfully, today was short-sleeve and flip-flop weather! What a difference 24 hours makes, huh?

Last night, it was so dreary and blah. It was definitely a soup and sandwich kind of evening, so I started cooking early in the afternoon...this soup takes a LOT of prep work, and minimal cooking time.

From Jamie's Kitchen, Jamie Oliver creates a delicious minestrone for the spring season. Using vegetables readily available during this time of year can make a meal seem even more comforting. It just seems...right. I made some basil pesto (for the end of the process), and gathered some chicken stock, diced fennel, sliced asparagus, cauliflower florets, diced zucchini, blanched and diced plum tomatoes, olive oil, sliced garlic cloves, chopped scallions, sliced green beans, shelled fava beans, broken spaghetti noodles, salt, pepper, basil and chives. I left out peas and yellow beans - and i'll tell you why - I couldn't find yellow beans and I was already shelling fava beans, so I chose to just stick with those. Check out the mise en place on this one!

It took a long time to cut, dice, chop, slice and shell all these veggies! I totally cleared out a nice little alcove in my fridge though - that's a lot of vegetables!

Once we were ready to start cooking, I brought a pot of stock to a boil. Meanwhile, I added about 5 tablespoons of olive oil to a large pot. I heated the oil until warm and then added the sliced garlic cloves, diced fennel, and sliced scallions, and gently fried them without browning for about 15 minutes.

While that was cooking, I started to gather the ingredients for my sandwich...Chicken and Mango with Cilantro-Pesto, from the Williams Sonoma Panini Cookbook. While I didn't take pictures of the process, I will say that the recipe was quite easy...and delicious! I'll make it again so I can document it for you guys sometime soon.

Once the 15 minutes were up, I added all of my veggies (asparagus, cauliflower, zucchini, fava beans, green beans, tomatoes) along with some broken up spaghetti noodles and my boiling chicken stock. Stir everything together, and depending on how liquid-y you like your soup, add some more stock accordingly. I added an extra cup of stock because it didn't look soup-y enough for my taste, but if you love a REALLY chunky soup, there's no need!

I brought it all to a boil and allowed it to cook for about 10 minutes more. Meanwhile, I assembled and pressed my panini sandwiches.

When plating, I scooped some soup into each bowl and then topped them with a hefty tablespoon of pesto. I sprinkled some chopped basil and chives on top and then put a panini on each plate. The pesto packs a real punch of flavor into each spoonful of the soup...I'm so happy I've got leftovers for lunches this week! :)

Zuppa's on!

Tonight, I was in the kitchen for quite awhile, but it was well worth it! I made what Jamie Oliver calls "La Mia Ribollita Preferita," his favorite ribollita. This is a Tuscan soup whose name literally means "reboiled." According to Wikipedia, Italians used to make this soup by reheating leftover minestrone soup from a previous meal.

The cannellini beans, which I bought dried, needed to soak in a bowl of water overnight. Before I went to sleep yesterday, I placed my dried beans in a bowl, filled it with water and covered it with some saran wrap. When I got home from work today, the first thing I did was place those beans on the stove in a large pot with some water, a squished tomato, a bay leaf and a small, peeled potato. Dried beans need to cook for about an hour, whereas fresh ones only need about 25 minutes, so I knew I had an hour of simmering ahead of me.



Then I got my mise en place together!



While my beans were cooking, I finely chopped 2 red onions, 2 carrots, 3 stalks of celery and 3 garlic cloves. I placed them all in a pot with some olive oil, a pinch of ground fennel seeds and a little bit of dried red chili, and cooked them on a medium heat, for about 20 minutes. I allowed the mire poix to sweat, without browning. Meanwhile, I cubed some bread and thinly sliced a beautiful bunch of kale.

Once the 20 minutes had passed, I added a can of plum tomatoes and allowed it to simmer for a few more minutes. Once it had simmered, I added the beans from the other pot, after removing the tomato, bay leaf and potato. You want to reserve the cooking liquid to actually make the soup (but I found that if you don't have enough, it works to add some hot water from the sink as well - just make sure you season).



Once the mixture came back to a boil, I added my sliced kale and it immediately started to wilt into the soup. Doesn't it look bright and delicious!?



I softened some cubed semi-stale bread with some of the cooking liquid and then added that to the soup as well. I made this loaf of French Herb bread this weekend, so it wasn't exactly crunchy-stale but it worked for this situation. The bread really thickens up the soup and gives it this fantastic texture!



I continued cooking the soup for another 30 minutes, adding a little more water to loosen it up a bit along the way. It was nice and thick, and the recipe called for 4 big glugs of extra virgin olive oil to top it all off. This gave the soup a lovely sheen and a great silky texture. So comforting on a cold day like this one!



I served the soup with a great panzanella salad, but more on that tomorrow - I figured I'd split this evening's cooking into two posts for two reasons. One, I was racing around the kitchen this evening - these two recipes were pretty labor intensive, and two, tomorrow's my late night at the gym so we'll be eating leftovers for sure!

Buona notte il amichi miei!

North African Comfort Food

It was a long day at work today, and I'm not feeling fantastic this evening, but I had one last menu item to create, and today was as good a night as any. The fact that comfort food is actually in the title helped a little bit too! :) So this meal is another excerpt from A Platter of Figs and other recipes by David Tanis. Remember my New Mexico post? Yup, it's from the same book. This guy gets around. In the introduction to this, the twenty-fourth menu in his book, he discusses the meaning of comfort food, and how it is interpreted by different cultures. To us, hearty soups and stews, as well as warm, gooey dishes like macaroni and cheese conjure up those images of a "comfort food," and in North Africa, the thoughts of hearty stews isn't far off-base.

From Flickr - by bocavermelha

The entire menu consists of:

Carrot and Coriander Salad

Chicken Tagine with Pumpkin and Chickpeas

Walnut Cigars

I scrapped the thought of making the cigars, even though I had thawed my phyllo dough and everything. I just wasn't in the mood for another baking catastrophe this evening. I put the chickpeas on to boil since they had to cook for over an hour and then got to work on the rest of the ingredients. This dish was fairly easy to complete, as the recipe really went step by step, and there wasn't much multi-tasking involved. 

I cooked up some diced onions in butter and oil, until they were golden. These onions became the bottom layer of my casserole dish (since I don't have a tagine...yet!) After that, I laid large slices of seasoned butternut squash on top of the onions. I couldn't find pumpkin...I think it's a tad past the season for those, but the butternut squash worked out swimmingly. After that, I layered on my seasoned chicken thighs and drumsticks. Finally, I poured some of the liquid that the chickpeas were cooking in on top of this concoction and stuck it in the oven! 

From Flickr - by visiting-africa

While that was cooking, I prepared the Carrot and Coriander Salad, which, I have to say, was just eh. It was raw, and I probably didn't leave enough time for the acidity of the lemon juice to soften the carrots, but it was just okay. The flavors melded well with the main course but I'm not a huge fan of raw carrots to begin with. 

And back to the main event! The chicken skin browned nicely by the time it was time to take my casserole dish out of the oven, and the chickpeas had just finished cooking. I mixed those with some butter, parsley and cinnamon (I think that was my favorite part - SO GOOD!) and then it was time to plate! I put a chicken drum and thigh on each of our plates and then spooned on some onions and butternut squash which was cooked until it was so soft it was falling apart! I spooned a little of the liquid over it and then topped it all off with some of those delicious chickpeas! VOILA! 

Now that's what I call comfort food! It might not be what I thought of first but going forward, it will be!

A Soup-er Sandwich

I love the day on my menu that calls for a delicious panini and a nice, steaming bowl of homemade soup! And that's exactly what tonight was - Soup and Sandwich night! I took that kickboxing class again (ouch!) so I got home a bit later tonight. Good thing I made my soup last night while we enjoyed our 'Za!

From Flickr - by AmberNectar 13

Soups are great because you can throw everything in the pot and then just let it go! I have recipes that call for only 1/2 an hour of real simmer time, while others call for 2-3 hours of the heat. Either way, you'll have a heartwarming bowl of goodness when the time is up! I knew I'd be getting home later tonight so, rather than eat dinner at 10pm, I decided it would work well to simmer that soup for the 2 hours it needed last night. I did all the necessary spice adjustments, blended it with my immersion blender, and strained it through a sieve to remove all the lumps. I let it cool a bit and then put it in the fridge, in anticipation of tonight's meal.

Tonight, when I came home, I assembled my paninis, turned on my panini grill (which I love! Thanks Bill and Heidi!), and started to heat up the soup...within 30 minutes, we had a delicious, comforting meal of steaming soup and a gooey panini!

Stir's White Bean Soup with Sage and Hazelnuts is a creamy, velvety soup, with none of the fatty dairy ingredients you'd think to find! It's just water, and white beans, and sage, but the depth of flavor would make you think there's 20 ingredients in there! As for the panini, I thought the soup would pair well with a Rustic Turkey Sandwich, with Apples and Brie. Once heated through, the few slices of Brie on each sandwich just started to ooze and get all gooey and delicious! I used a delicious seeded, wheat bread for this sandwich, and it really worked the rustic effect quite well!

Soups and sandwiches, or salads, make for a great, hearty meal. And if you plan ahead, it can most definitely work in your favor when you need something quick and easy. Heat up your soup, grill your panini and sit down to enjoy! Just like that! Making a pot of soup is a great weekend activity, and it makes your house smell SOOOOO good! Try it this weekend! :)

The Menu - The Focal Point of your At-Home Culinary Journey

When it comes to planning my meals, I make a menu, and it comes in handy for numerous reasons. First of all, never again will you ask the question, "What do you want for dinner tonight?," only to be answered by "I don't know." Yea - I know, you ALL know what I'm talking about!

Second, it makes going to the grocery store a helluva lot easier, don't you think? A list of things you'll need to make meals for numerous days in a row - it's a brilliant concept, right? More on that in a later post, I promise!

You can plan a menu by day, or by type of food, or by country of origin, you can do it anyway you like...but here's how I do it: I make a list of different main ingredients and I pick ONE recipe for each of those main ingredients. You can't get bored if you're only eating chicken once every 2 weeks! My categories are as follows: Fish, Shellfish, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Lamb/Veal, Soup/Sandwich, Risotto, Pasta and Breakfast for Dinner. My husband especially likes that last one...

This little tip will help you plan ahead for your meals. You can prep things ahead of time if you know you are going to be home late one night. Marinating something overnight, and then just throwing it in the oven when you get home is the easiest way to get a great, home-cooked meal without all the fuss!

I normally just spell it all out on a piece of paper, which I then check off when I make one of the meals. Sometimes the menu lasts longer than other times, just based on things that come up - did we meet someone out somewhere for dinner? Did we both feel like sushi one night? Did I just SERIOUSLY not feel like cooking - because that happens once and awhile...and that's okay!

Whichever way you plan your menu, I promise you will find that it helps you immensely in the long run. It's much less stress to just know what you have to cook when you get home - and sometimes, even get excited about it! :)

I'd love to hear your feedback - if you try my tips and think they are good...or even if you hate them...leave me a comment and let me know! It will definitely help me figure out what road to take this blog on!