perhaps it is falck’s recent post, littered with food references, that prompts me to query:
what do people here eat and cook? this thread is to catalog your recent culinary conquests and catastrophes, gustatory gallavantings, on the kitchen counter or restaurant table!
coffee and some nice semolina bread w/ emmentaler for breakfast
just moved to a new apt that doesn’t have gas set up yet, so any kitchen-centric fun in my life will have to be delayed a few more days…
off to get a slice of pizza, i suppose..
I frequently prepare steaks, for that is what my significant other truly adores. Lately I’ve taken to blanching some brussel sprouts, slicing in half and then cooking them in the just used steak pan with white wine or even beer.
On non steak nights I’ve become partial to safeway frozen pizzas. Man are they cheap!
A long time favorite is broiled salmon: just dice some garlic, pour on some olive oil salt and pepper. Do the same to green beans or asparagus. stick under the broiler for a while. Use the leftovers in a cold salad.
Marinated pork chops are also delicious, especially on the grill.
how do you like to cook your steaks?
normally i start the steak on the stove top with a strong sear, then finish in the oven - but lately i’ve taken to starting the steaks in a low oven for 10-15 minutes (which allegedly acts as a ‘speed dry-aging’ process), then searing on the stovetop. this produces surprisingly juicy results, but it’s a little tricky for me to keep the meat as rare as i like! have to work out the timing of everything…or just a decent meat thermometer…
and cooking just about anything in the fond at the bottom of a steak pan is a good idea although often i’ll just make a simple pan sauce with shallot and balsamic vinegar…
ohhh now i want steak…
I’ll have to give the oven a try. I usually just get the pan so hot the steak is well beyond seared by the time it reaches ‘very rare’. THe kitchen is usually filled with smoke by then.
Of course there are ample opportunitys for barbequing out here in Portland where people live in houses with backyards and such. I never got the hang of Fire Escape grilling when I was in Queens
Tonight on the menu: Spagetti with commodity sauce enhanced with fresh sausages.
Of course someday, when I visit NY, I would love to sample the cuisine of the new anchovy wave.
i’m deeply, deeply jealous of the grilling capabilities that much of the rest of the world possesses. not that i’ve ever been able to work my way around a grill as well as a stove. i really wanted to try to find a place with a suitable backyard with this last move, but it wasn’t in the cards….
*sigh*
haha, anchovy wave indeed! i should actually make a radicchio anchovy salad tonight or tomorrow…that doesn’t require any stove work, and i have a small head of radicchio waiting…
Fortunately I’m dating a girl who loves to experiment with cooking as much as I do. We’ve made some incredible germknoedel (traditional Austrian sweet dumplings, usually stuffed with a plum paste, but we used fresh blueberries… incdredible!), gnocchi, Teriyaki avacado burgers… Last week we stumbled up a Polish festival in SF that sold delicious seasoned salami; we pan fried it with sweet peppers and onions, and put it on toasted Dutch crunch rolls with cheese. That was about the most delicious thing ever. Damn, now I’m hungry again.
We also tried pan frying some hot peppers a few weeks ago. Within minutes, the entire house felt like it had been doused with pepper spray and we had to go outside so our eyes would stop watering…
ripped the heads and shells off some shrimp and sauteed with celery, bell pepper in olive oil, got a nice red color out of it then put water in with saffron flowers and simmered for a bit, used this broth to make rice. dusted shrimp with parika/pepper/salt then seared in a cast iron with some chopped bell peppers and tomatoes added at the end. placed that over the rice and had some spinach cooked with garlic and butter on the side.
made tomatillo salsa and roast chicken last night, to accompany leftover black beans.
i’ve taken to using the high-roast method for chicken lately - you brine first, then butterfly, separate skin from meat (and liberally stuff butter/garlic/spices under the skin), and roast at 500 degrees. gets super super crispy skin, brining keeps the meat moist. no way in hell am i going back to cooking chicken at 375…
oh damn! save me some of that!
FR makes the best tomatillo salsas!
we should make paella this week. I know I’ve said it before but I now have
THE perfect margarita recipe:
take 3-4 lime wedges, squeeze out juice then put into mixing tin and
muddle them up making sure to get that bitter oil out of the skin
then
4 count tequila (sauza hornitos works well or a white tequila)
1 1/2 count triple sec
1/2 count grand marnier
2 count fresh lime juice
shake it up good and blast off
if you live in an area with mexican bodegas you can get this lime salt there
called usually “sal limon” put that on the rim or kosher rock salt. Don’t ever use
fine cooking salt (like morton’s) though..
culinary oddity of the day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu
i’ve heard about the mites in mimolette, but this is crazy…has anyone tried this cheese?
