all in a day's work - PART II

PART II

the baking and eating part...

So, as the deliciousness stew is brewing and bubbling and making me very hungry, I decide the best thing with stew is cornbread. Warm cornbread straight from the oven with a little butter. Okay, stop drooling. Seriously.

Feeling a little creative, I decided to look into what else I had around. We have already covered the whole love of citrus especially on a winter day idea. I dug a little further. AHA! A recipe for cornmeal cake batter with orange zest. Not feeling very orangy, but definitely feeling very lemony I decided to get after it. Here we go:

Lemon cornmeal cake

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for pan
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup for topping
- 1/2 cup dry white wine (I know, I know what you are thinking... but it will be okay)

Try this one... the wine cube has little servings of wine that are individually sealed. You then, won't be tempted to drink the whole bottle, and you avoid the disapproving looks from your spouse who thinks you just might!

- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Finely grated zest of 1.5 or 2 lemons

Here he is. The naked lemon. I am sorry to disrobe you in all your loveliness sir, but it is for a good cause. I will use the rest of you, I promise (and I did).

Directions

Step 1: Turn on Michael on the itunes... got to be startin somethin I said you want to be startin something...

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan with oil; line bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper, and brush paper with oil. Don't sweat it. Use an exacto, yo.

stuck in the middle yeah yeah...

You're a vegetable... you're a vegetable... (wait, what?)

In a large bowl, (or in your way-cool new stand mixer like mine) whisk together oil, eggs, 1 cup sugar, and wine until smooth. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and orange zest; whisk gently to combine. Or you could just beat it. Beat it, beat it, beat it...

Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle top evenly with remaining 1/3 cup sugar (topping will be thick). Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 minutes or so.

Keep On With The Force Don't Stop Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough Keep On With The Force Don't Stop Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough Keep On With The Force Don't Stop Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

Cool in pan. Run a knife around edge of cake; invert cake gently onto a plate, and remove parchment paper. Reinvert cake onto a rack to cool completely.

Now is the part where if you are me, then you place the cake in your favorite and very special crystal cake plate and dome that you received as a wedding gift. Perfect and pretty. I served my warm crusty cake with a little lemon curd for dessert. Who's bad?

Plate the soup, add a bit of parsley on top. Cus it makes it faaaaancy. That is why.

all in a day's work - a blog entry in two parts

PART I

What could be more comforting than corn bread and beef stew? I will tell you:

Venison stew made from scratch
and
warm lemon cornmeal cake for dessert


It was not one of those afternoons where I set out to cook all day... truly, I never intend to spend quite as much time in the kitchen as I seem to. (It might have something to do with the frenzied, messy way that I cook and the clean-up time required after the fact). It was an easy afternoon though.

We have covered the whole new year, new selfishness thing going on here. So, while in a self-indulgent mood the other day I spent the entirety of my Amazon and Borders gift cards on new cookbooks. One of the cookbooks I decided I needed was James Peterson's Cooking in all its glory. Never before have I encountered such an informative and thorough tome about the kitchen. I may just throw my Joy out the window. Seriously. Each page is visual trip through the recipe. Each section gives me more than I have ever wanted... "so THAT is how you make a marquise."

The step by step photographs and easy to follow recipe made the beef stew recipe a cinch. I modified it for my purposes as follows:

The best venison stew ever



- about 3 pounds of venison stew meat, cut into large chunks
- half of a large white onion
- 1 large shallot
- 1 head of garlic (James calls for half, but I knew I wanted the whole thing)
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- about 2 cups of yukon potatoes, cut into pieces
- bouquet garni (eyebrows raised... oui, I made my first one)
- 2 cups of full-bodied red wine
- salt
- pepper
- flour (for patting cubes of meat)
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2-3 tablespoons of butter (who am I kidding? I used 4 or 5)
- 2 cups of broth

The first part was really easy. I combined the onion, shallot, garlic, carrots, bouquet garni, wine and meat in a large bowl. Then I took a nice long nap on the couch. I let it marinate for a couple of hours. James says you can let it sit (in the fridge of course) for up to 12 hours.





Then, I got to patting. I took all the meat pieces out of the marinade and patted them dry, and covered them with flour. Shook off the excess and browned the meat on high heat in the bottom of mi favorito Le Creuset pan. James warns to only sear a few pieces of meat at a time so the pan stays VERY hot. After you are all done with the meat, set it aside on a plate. Add the butter to the pan. Mine immediately began to bubble even after reducing the heat to medium.


Next - strain the marinade and keep all the separate parts. Wine? check. Bouquet garni? Oui. Vegetables? Yes, sir. Put the veggies in with the butter first and wait for them to get soft and the onions to get a little clear. Then, add the meat, the wine and the broth. Don't forget the herbs! Add the bouquet garni too. Salt and pepper, and then cover it up and forget about it for a while.


I covered and kept it on low for about 2 hours and added the potatoes after about thirty minutes. The scent filled my house and every time I lifted the big red lid off the pan, the juicy, steamy smell of meat and wine and herbs met my nose.

Fiona even came running in to see what it was.




MMMMmmmmm.... comforting so far...

the supper club (AKA the log of yum)

I have been meaning to tell you about this one for a while now... I have these pictures saved that tell part of the story... and I just couldn't bring myself to elaborate on this partial failure. It would be wrong to tell you only about the perfect recipes that are tasty and beautiful and that work out just fine. I have to also tell you about the time that I was in way over my head.

First, I need to tell you about the supper club. There are ten of us now, and to be honest, six of us was a bit easier. Mostly because of space, and also because of ingredients. I may need to buy a new stock pot... (but who really has room in their kitchen for a 20 quart stock pot?) Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the company of all of my friends, and we originally invited this whole group, but somehow in the beginning we were six. To seat more than six at my table you need... well, another table. To seat ten at my table you need to make a run to Crate and Barrel to buy a few more place settings of my flatware. This is all fine with me. I enjoy setting the table, and having lots of friends in my house. I think next time though, we will go with a buffet.

The reason for the expanded supper club and the fancy table with rented linens was this: It was Katie's birthday. What a great excuse to pull out all the stops and try the recipe we had been drooling over since we saw it on TV. When we found the License to Grill show on the food network one lazy weekend afternoon, my husband was thrilled to happen upon a show about food that he could watch. He is an anti-foodie... but more about him later.

Each License to Grill show has a specific theme, or at least reason for Rob to fire things up. Rob Rainford is the host, and he just always has guests coming by for one reason or another. This episode was the Scuba episode. In all seriousness, this is the part where he looks into the camera and says that they are celebrating their final dive (in his pool) to end their Scuba training so he needs to cook up some yummy goodness on the grill. Here is my, well, beef with Rob: I think he is a great cook, and an upbeat guy to watch... but the staged weird interactions with his friends do not add to the show. It is lame, my friend.

But I digress... here is why I am telling you about Rob. Rob loves the grill, and so does my husband. Rob loves veal, and so does my husband. Rob loves to create his own spicy rubs for all the meat he prepares. Rob loves the seafood... This lazy afternoon on the couch we were quite frankly taken aback by the combination of all these things... BEHOLD... THE LOG OF YUM.

The Scuba episode was a memorable one because Rob prepared his Seafood Stuffed Veal Tenderloin that day. Did you hear what I said?? Veal tenderloin pounded out and rubbed down with seafood in the middle. You heard me, that is why we dubbed it the LOG OF YUM. My husband started talking about this recipe with his friends. People knew that it was next up on the supper club circuit. The pressure was on.

One thing that is nice about the club is that we tend to go for Sundays so the cook has the weekend to prepare. I needed every ounce of that extra time. I set out to shop for the ingredients and was met with disappointment when I found that not a single specialty shop or butcher (not even Pete's!) in town carries a veal tenderloin that has not been previously frozen. Bummer. If the pressure wasn't on, (and I hadn't just spent half my paycheck on the other stuff) I would have stopped in my tracks and chosen something new. Who wants to put all this effort into meat that is not perfect? (And where does Rob shop anyway? Maybe they eat more veal in Canada... I don't know...)

Here we go... I get home, I defrost the meat and proceed with the recipe. I pound it out and I find that the previously frozen meat is not behaving. If I had bought this from the butcher in its regular state I would have had them cut it open like a book and pound it out for me, but instead we ended up with some very small parts, some really thick fat pieces although I pounded with all my might. How were we going to roll it up properly if the meat wasn't thin and neat? We shall see...

The rest of it was fairly easy. We set up an assembly line of sorts on our tiny kitchen counter. Yummy prosciutto laid out first, next the mismatched bits of veal, then last but not least all the scallops and shrimp. It looked great while it was being prepared. Then, we began to roll. We struggled a bit with the prosciutto, but after wrapping it all up in the plastic wrap and setting it aside in the fridge to marinate we felt a bit more confident... we looked at each other. "It should be fine, right?" "Sure."

Here is the rest of the story... the prosciutto stuck to the grill and exposed the insides of the roll. The veal that was not large enough exposed the shrimpy scallopy insides and it all sort of fell apart.

We made five total rolls and two of them held up. Once inside on the platter we used to serve all the ingredients mingled together and the crispy salty prosciutto tasted perfect with the now smoky-flavored shrimp and scallops. Everyone agreed, it was ugly, but it was tasty.

I served a couple of odd things that night. My parsley root soup got lukewarm reviews. The log of yum fell apart. My husband did NOT like the napa cabbage salad with homemade buttermilk dressing, or that I blanched the asparagus. "Why is it cold again?" But everyone had a good time. They all pretended that everything was good and we enjoyed each other's company. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to Katie as she blew out the candles on the cake I made from scratch. (And by the way, that cake was GOOD if I do say so myself).

So, the moral of my long story I suppose... is, even if the recipes do not all come together, all is forgiven in the company of friends.

sunshine on my winter table

I live in Texas so my winter is not so hard. It is relatively cold today, but as the outside thermostat hovers at 45 degrees or so, I am not going to sign up for the next seasonal affective disorder support group. Still, nature seems to know that in the middle of winter, we all need a little bit of warmth and sunshine. I think it is no small coincidence that citrus fruit abounds during this season, and I am thankful for that. While others shuffle past with sniffles and coughs, what could be better than a boost of vitamin c and a fresh acidic flavor?

Meyer lemons, blood oranges, grapefruits, and oh, the tangerines! Clementines always remind me of my childhood Christmas stocking, and they are so easy to peel and share. They are just the right combination of sweet and tart.

The citrus that I am inspired by today is the tangelo. A cross between a tangerine and a pomelo, the tangelo has a deep orange color, and an intense zingy flavor. Characterized by its protruding stem end, it is easy to spot among its cousins on the produce aisle.

As I was eating alone this fine afternoon, I set out to prepare my favorite kind of meal - one made up of small beautiful plates and rich flavors. The centerpiece of this array of snacks was a citrus salad with a bite.

Now, mind you, I know this flavor is not for the faint of heart, or for the acid stomach... It started out as a relish, and I thought it was delightful on its own.

Tangelo salad with capers and shallots:

- 3 tangelos segmented and separated
- 1 small shallot sliced finely with a mandolin (this is my favorite way of preparing shallots for salads right now...)
- 2-3 teaspoons of capers with juice
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- salt and pepper

Combine all elements above to taste, enjoy!

Notes: Segmenting a citrus fruit is easier than you think... although it can be time consuming. This link shows you how step-by-step. Here is where I insert my shout out to my fellow blogger Helen. Thanks for your informative post.

A new year, a new sense of selfishness

Okay, so I am a bit new at this... There are countless blog entries that I have started and that I cannot post. There are many, many pictures that I have saved and that deserve a little explanation and a recipe. But I must say, that it is hard to put yourself out there... harder than I thought.

I have a new respect for you, dear blogger / blog-reading / blog-dabbling friend. It is hard to believe that anyone cares about my perfect wedge salad or the mustard seed crusted pork tenderloin that I can easily crank out. It is hard to believe that anyone cares about my experience with fried chicken. I laugh when I think of someone happening on this blog and finding something they might resonate with, but I suppose that begs the question... is this for me, or is it for you?

The answer is most certainly the former, if I do say so myself. I have decided to stop worrying about you, and to post post-haste. This is a new year, one with new possibility, and new recipes and new photos. While acknowledging that blogging is a fairly self-indulgent process, I have decided not to care about that part of it...

It is like a counter full of freshly chopped ingredients, each assigned to their little bowl, just waiting for you to join them together. It is a counter full of expectation, but patient and methodical preparation. It is arming yourself for battle. It comes from cooking as a child, no doubt. My impression of this process stems from watching perfect chefs on television with beautiful ingredients lined up in tiny pinch bowls and throwing them all together a la Martha. While this is not all that realistic, when it happens in my kitchen, it is a beautiful thing.

When possibility and fun and taste and tangible results (I am big on these) and immediate gratification are lurking around the corner in this new year, it is a beautiful thing indeed.