This week's fresh list

After a pretty rich few Thanksgiving days, the pendulum must swing back. (Darker marker coming soon, click to enlarge for easier reading.)


For tonight's meal: pork loin with Kashi pilaf and kidney beans. Pretty tasty, but it could have used a little more than salt and pepper to spice it up. I'll see if I can't make it over to Market Spice (again, perhaps virtually) this weekend and fill in my pantry some. Any spices you're partial to that I should check out? I'm looking for things that dress up vegetables and beans, specifically, but that can also work well with pork and chicken. I feel that lean pork and chicken are often interchangeable; their flavors are different of course but taste-wise both are pretty light and can work well as a background for more interesting flavors.

On a cold rainy day...

...you need soup. This one's lentil and carrot. Now my fresh list is totally empty! Except for a few asian pears and, yes, a few eggs.

I need to take a break from eggs. Between the omelets and the custard and the scrambled eggs I had for breakfast, I can feel my blood cholesterol creeping up. No eggs until Christmas!

Cup custard

Cup custard has been one of my favorite desserts for as long as I can remember. My mother made it often when we were young, usually in the fall. It's really simple to make, just eggs, milk or cream, sugar, and vanilla, baked in a water bath in a low oven. My mother always put nutmeg on top, now I realize that was probably a trick--and a good one--to make them look like creme brulee's burnt sugar crust. The nutmeg tastes really nice with the cream, though. I prefer it to a burnt sugar crust, which, while delicious, inevitably gets stuck in your teeth. (When I was little I used to save the nutmeg-crusted corners for last, they tasted so good. Chewy and sweet.)

Last night, I opened the fridge and realized that I still had a lot of duck eggs to use, so I made them into a batch of custards. I used a mix of half-and-half and milk. My mother's original recipe is just whole milk, which produces a lighter, firmer custard then this one. As you'll see this is soft and a little loose without being runny, almost coddled in texture. Begging for a spoon. It tastes rich (almost too rich, I think next time I'll stick to just milk) and velvety, like a creme brulee, and it's nice and eggy just the way I like it!

When I was whisking the duck eggs I could definitely see their potential for making great cakes. But who has time for that? I'll take custard please.

Cup Custard (makes 4 large ramekins or 6 medium)

This is not my mother's recipe, because I don't have her cookbook, but it's probably not wildly different. If you wanted to get creative with the flavoring, you could infuse the milk/cream with something other than vanilla when you're heating it.

6 large egg yolks
3 cups of milk (or half-and-half or a mix of both, depending on how creamy you want it)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean split in half and scraped, or 1 tsp of pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Grated nutmeg (I used fresh but the powder is fine)

First: put a kettle of water on to boil. Pre-heat the oven to 300-325 degrees. (My oven doesn't have a 325 option, so do what you can.)

1. Warm milk with vanilla bean (scrapings and pod) until hot but not boiling.
2. Whisk egg yolks vigorously until smooth and a little lighter in color, then add sugar and salt and whisk to combine.
3. Add the warmed milk/cream, slowly at first so you temper the yolks (tempering, this sounds fancy but isn't--just want to make sure the yolks don't scramble). Whisk to combine.
4. Pour the custard through a sieve into a pitcher if you have one for easy pouring.
5. Portion out the custard among your cups taking care not to fill them too high. Sprinkle generously with nutmeg.
6. Place cups in a roasting pan and fill the pan with warm water from your kettle until the water reaches halfway up the side of the cups.

7. Bake for 30 minutes until the custard is set and barely quivering. Remove from the pan with tongs if you have them (easier than maneuvering a pan filled with hot water) and cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

Breakfast for dinner: omelet with swiss chard

I love eggs. I hope I never develop an allergy to them. That would be most tragic.

Tonight I made a little omelet with my duck eggs and some of the swiss chard I braised yesterday. It doesn't look pretty, but as you must know by now, I am unafraid of ugly food shots.


This could have been prettier if I hadn't been hungry and lazy. As such, I let it get brown and my circle of fluffy egg broke when I folded it hastily over the filling. Next time: lower heat, oil instead of butter, no milk in the eggs, all fillings portioned out ahead of time!

I'd like to master the brown-free omelet. I'm told this is what chefs will most often ask a cook to do when they're applying for a job on the line. (That and chop something really awesome-like.)

In other news, today I met Michael Ruhlman. He's a great food writer and blogger and he came out with this book, copies of which I am going to try to procure for all my food-loving friends because it's fun to read and also, handy. Anyway, I had lunch with him and a few others from work and it was a great time. We talked about salt! And measuring versus weighing. And recipes. And homemade bacon. I was in heaven, obvs.

Curried Cauliflower Risotto with Apples and Leeks

Thanks to an inspired suggestion from cooky last week, I just made this risotto. Very tasty. I'd describe it as warm and toasty with just a tiny bit of sweetness.


This is easy to make. Check it out.

For 2 meal-size servings (or 4 side-dish portions):

1 medium-sized cauliflower
1 large or 2 small leeks, cleaned, halved lengthwise, and sliced thin
1 large apple (Fuji, honeycrisp, or Granny Smith would all be nice), peeled, cored, and diced
Mild curry powder--just keep it handy with a teaspoon nearby. In total you'll probably use 3 T, I just added it as I went.
2/3 cup arborio or carnaroli (risotto) rice
1/4 cup white wine
1 T unsalted butter
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 pints of stock (can be chicken, veg, or a mix of both)
salt & pepper

First things:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Put your stock on the stove. Add a spoon of curry powder to the liquid and bring it to a simmer.
  

1. Use your hands to break cauliflower off the stalk and into very small florets (big florets like you might usually eat won't mix into the risotto very easily)
2. Toss florets with salt, pepper, 1/2 of your olive oil, and a spoonful of curry powder.
3. Spread cauliflower in a single layer on a sheet pan (use foil for easy cleanup). Roast cauliflower in preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until tender and toasty.
4. While cauliflower is roasting, heat butter and the rest of the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add leeks and stir/saute until softened but not brown. Season with salt and pepper, add apples and cook until they start to soften.
5. Add risotto to leeks and apples and stir, then add white wine and stir until the risotto has absorbed most of the wine. There should be very little liquid in the pan.
6. Using a ladle, add two measures of your simmering stock to the risotto. Stir gently but continuously until the liquid is absorbed, then repeat. You'll continue to repeat this step for roughly 18-20 minutes. You want to add liquid, stir, and cook until the risotto looks nice and creamy and tastes al dente (not crunchy, not mushy). As you add stock and stir, taste intermittently and add salt and pepper and more sprinkles of curry powder as you go until you're happy with it.

• Here's what it will look like when it's just about done:

7. Fold in 3/4 of the roasted cauliflower, then top with the rest for prettiness.
8. Dig in!

Turkeycakes - sounds strange, tastes good!

Turkeycakes are my modification of the Thai fishcake starter, tod mun – small, pungently flavored fish fritters often served with a sweet and sour cucumber salad. Unable to make it to an asian grocery for the requisite ground whitefish, I altered the recipe in order to utilize the ground turkey more conveniently located in my refrigerator. The experiment, I dare say, was a success.

Here's what I did:

1 lb. ground turkey
1 T flour
3 T low sodium soy sauce
2 T red curry
1/4 cup shredded kaffir lime leaf
1/2 t garlic powder
3 thai bird chilies, sliced (optional)
1/4 cup frozen corn (frozen peas or sliced fresh green beans would also work well)

Take all the ingredients and mix them together. Form patties about 1-2" in diameter and a half centimeter thick, basically just thick enough to maintain shape through the cooking process. Shallow fry on medium-high in canola or vegetable oil.

Between the hot oil and ocassionally errant corn kernal, this gets a little messy.

Flip once one side has become dark brown, then drain on paper towels.

It's not a pretty cooking experience, but let me assure you it is delicious if you're a fan of strong spicy flavors. I recommend at least having the turkeycakes with a side of fresh cucumbers if not a sweet and sour cucumber salad. But if you felt like it, you could make a simple one with quartered cucumber slices (so they look like pie pieces), enough white vinegar to cover the cucumber, some sugar, and a little onion and garlic, chilies may also be added if desired. I'd make the salad first and then prepared the meat so the flavors can stew a bit.

Squash soup addendum.

I decided to blend and strain the rest of the squash soup for the sake of comparison. It was very thick at the start so out came the cream and the veg stock. I think I do like the overall taste and texture a lot better blended, it's just more uniform. I also have to take into account that all the flavors had some time to mellow out together over the last two days, which helped even things out too. And the cream? While I was hoping to convince myself that cream doesn't make a difference, it does. It softened the heat from the pepper and the cumin without blanketing it and, well, who doesn't love cream. At least I used half and half!

Perhaps my next squash-themed soup should be of the chunky vegetable variety. Maybe squash miso soup? I kind of like the sound of that.

Beacon's squash soup, maybe.

About this time of year maybe four years back, I had a business lunch at Beacon. I attended with my boss at the time, who informed me that it was a Very Important Lunch. To which declaration I nodded serious assent, but what I was really thinking about was my meal, since I'd heard Beacon was pretty spectacular. I was a younger, less experienced Chefty then (as opposed to my current only moderately experienced self) and NYC lunches were one of the few high points in an otherwise hand-to-mouth existence.

Anyway. The lunch was actually pretty unmemorable, save for the best squash soup I have ever had. Ever. The best part of the Beacon soup experience was the presentation. They brought the soup out ladled into a heavy silver cup, which had been placed in the middle of a wide, shallow white bowl. Then the waiter picked up the soup and poured it swiftly into the bowl right before my eyes. Without sloshing! The whole effect was breathtaking. A gorgeous deep orange soup, fragrant with herbs and spices but with not a fleck of any other ingredient in sight (that's good blending). Undiluted deliciousness, I declare.

So tonight I tried to recreate this wonderful soup. It's quite tasty, but not at all the same. Mostly because I don't have an immersion blender, so it's more chunky-rustic, with the diced onions and sage and pepper floating around. It's also just a little more peppery than I remember Beacon's being, but I like the pepper. In the spirit of recipe sharing, here's what I did:

1. Cut in quarters, seed, and peel (if you want--you can always scoop the squash out after roasting) two small to medium squash (I had honey delicata and buttercup varieties)
2. Season squash with salt and pepper and seasoning of your choice. I used a little honey, cinnamon, sage leaves, a few dots of butter.
3. Cover with foil and roast at 425 for about an hour, or until you can poke a fork in the flesh without any struggle.
4. Remove squash and let cool to almost room temperature. Scoop it out and into a food processor or food mill (if you're that fancy) and puree it with a little milk or water until it's less like mashed potato and more like a thick puree. You should end up with a yield of about 3 cups or so.
NOTE: In the immortal words of Julia Child, steps 1-4 can be done ahead of time. When you're ready to make your brilliant squash soup, you can plunk that puree straight from the fridge into the pot.
5. Dice 1 medium or 1/2 large yellow onion and saute with olive oil, salt and pepper over medium heat until soft. Don't brown.
6. Add half a whole clove of garlic, a small cinnamon stick and a few more sage leaves. Let cook over medium-low for about 10 minutes.
7. Add squash puree and stir to combine.
8. Add 3 pints of liquid. I used 2 pints chicken stock (the best for making soup, homemade even better but storebought is OK too) and 1 pint of vegetable stock. You should probably have more liquid on hand if you want a soup that's a little thinner.
9. Season! I already had sage and cinnamon going, then I added one good shake of ginger, about a teaspoon of ground cardamom, and probably 1-2 tsp of cumin. Usually I don't love cumin, but it really worked here.
10. The result? A thick hearty stick-to-your ribs squash soup.
11. If you have an immersion blender, lucky you. Once you're pleased with the taste, remove the cinnamon stick, give the soup a good buzz, strain if you're fussy, and check again for seasoning.
12. Voila: (as per the above, this version is without the blending)

I didn't even have to use any cream. But if you ended up having less squash or using more stock, you might want to hit it with a little cream at the end to give it that extra smooth and creamy finish.

Fresh list.

This is pretty ghetto. I need a darker marker. In the meantime, suggestions for what I should make this week? Pass them along.

Snapshots.

Huzzah! The camera cord has been located. I realize, however, that the few food shots I had didn't really come out that well. So...here are some pretty fall pictures that are worth sharing, and a couple shots of the new digs.

Lenin, with leaves. I'll need to go back and do a better study of this. Across the street while walking...not the best stance for picture-taking.

Spaghetti squash (this one's for you, sister!)

My living room on a rare sunny day.



A bit of clutter and stuff. Fireplace: rocks.

My deck. I can't wait to have a grill and some plants out here. And a hammock too! Yes. (Oh, there's a strange green napkin in the corner. We had some big windstorms a few weeks ago and this found its way onto my deck. Bing saw it through the blinds and started going nuts, I thought somebody was out there. But it was just the napkin. I have since disposed of it.)
Stairs leading up to my hilltop spot. Picturesque during the day, hard to see where you're going at night.
Looking up at a flame-colored tree. (I hate that Fall is almost over.)
Has anyone seen the movie Superbad?

He of cozy repose who needs no introduction.

Who doesn't love a list?

When I go grocery shopping, I list everything I just bought on my whiteboard (it's my "fresh" list) so that when I come home after a long day, I can look at what's there and get inspired, instead of griping, oh woe, nothing to eat. Somehow writing it down motivates me to cook, even though I'd see it all sitting there anyway upon opening the fridge.

I derive great satisfaction from crossing things off the list. I can't wait for the food to be gone, because then I get to go shopping again. I love picking out all the things I'm going to get. Plus, most of the time my fresh list is all fruits and veg and I'm proud of myself for eating all the good stuff and not letting it go to waste.

Sunday is my grocery day, so tomorrow morning I'll be heading out for a restock. Here's the latest version of the list. If I can find my dang camera cord, I'll document the new list tomorrow and post it here.

Swiss chard
Salad greens
Asian pears
Apples
Carrots
Miso
Eggs
Smoked salmon
Amy's frozen pesto pizza
Buttercup squash
Honey delicata squash
Lemons
Thyme
Shallots

I will definitely be getting some swiss chard again. It's so delicious. I braised it with some olive oil, shallots, a clove of garlic, a bit of thyme and lemon juice. It doesn't look that pretty when it's done, kind of an off-green and a bit clumpy, but it's really silky in your mouth, not stringy or mushy in the least, and it has this lovely rich garlicky smell that wafts up when you pop the lid off. MMM. Good cold weather food. And so easy to make. I just ate the whole bunch for my dinner, but this would be a great side dish with a juicy meatloaf, roast chicken, and especially lamb. Leftovers would also make a tasty filling for a quiche or omelet, with a bit of hard cheese thrown in.

Now, the carrots were also a big hit this week. I sauteed them with some shallots and then made a glaze/sauce for them with the miso paste. There are a number of kinds of miso out there, but I'm partial to what's typically labeled "mellow white." It's got a good salty-meets-tangy flavor and it has a lot of body to it. It's thick, and it looks like it would be really heavy, but when you mix it up with some other liquids it gets smooth and creamy and doesn't drop a hammer on your taste buds. All good sauce-making properties! I used a little bit of my latest batch of chicken stock (more on that later) and some water to thin it out. Then I added honey, ginger, salt and pepper, some lemon juice and zest, and poured it over the carrots and let it cook down for maybe 10-12 minutes, then finished it with a drizzle of toasted sesame oil. Very tasty, the carrots cooked just long enough to keep their bite and the sauce was a nice match for their natural sweetness. I think next time I'll use orange instead of lemon, and I'll try adding some chili sauce or powder to give it a little heat. Some garlic with the shallot might be good too.

I do still have some squash to use, however, which I'd been planning on turning into soup, but I think I may try roasting it instead with a miso sauce and see how that turns out.

I also need to get some meat. Lately, though, I've had a resistance to meat, and I don't know why. It's just that meat is such a diva. I go shopping and I look at the long counter filled with beef and pork and hunks of chicken and I feel like it's all just sitting there begging for a plan, wanting a whole meal created just for *it*. Right? You can't just pick up a piece of sirloin or pork chop without wondering: how will I season it, and what do I have to make a sauce, and I need potatoes, and so on and so forth. Meat, I say. I love you, but I don't have time for these shenanigans.

I think the solution is to take a page from cooky's book and work on some good one-pot meat and veg meals. Chili. Yeah! And curry for sure, which I've never made. I am going to make a trek here this week (perhaps a virtual trek, since I see that they are now powered by the mothership) and go hunting for new pantry items. (cooky, come with me!)