This has always come easily to me...I can survey the contents of a fridge and/or pantry and come up with stuff. Here's how I riffed this time. It's all about techniques and building flavors.
Today, mindful of the fact that we have a CSA pick up tomorrow and a semi full fridge, I decided that it had to go. The contents of the fridge, that is. Eric and I like to bring lunch to work with us and have some dinner options prepared when we are too tired to cook.
I had soaked and cooked a pound of organic chick peas, and they were in the fridge in their liquid. Also in the fridge were sad celery, a small head of cabbage, leftover ratatouille and a piece of lamb I had bought last Friday. An onion was in the bowl on the counter top, and a single potato was also available...so, here we go:
1. Provencal Lamb and Chickpea Stew
Base - aromatics - I had one red onion E and I had bought at a farm stand last week. A rough chop and into some hot olive oil in the bottom of a small dutch oven. I trimmed up the sad organic celery and chopped about half a cup finely, adding that to the onions after they had gotten a little color. Let that soften, added salt. In went the leftover ratatouille, which was squash, onion, zucchini and tomato with lots of basil. Some fresh rosemary from my window box, but it hasn't been growing too prolificly (isn't that a word?) so I supplemented with some dried. A glug of white wine that wasn't doing anything else in the kitchen. I heated a saute pan smokey hot, added a few drops of olive oil (canola would've been better) and seared my piece of lamb on both sides, salting it well beforehand. I laid that on top of the veggies, covered it with water and then added about two cups of beans and some of the cooking liquid. Bring to a boil, bring down to a simmer, and I'll let that go about 2-3 hours until the lamb falls apart.
2. Indian veggies. I shredded the cabbage and smashed/rough chopped 4 fat cloves of garlic. I would've liked onion too, but I was out. Ditto bell peppers or carrots.
In some hot oil, I "bloomed" about 1.5 teaspoons each mustard seeds, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Added the garlic and a handful of cabbage. Added the same amount turmeric and twice the amount of some nice curry powder that was a bit old (that's why so much), then about 3-4 tablespoons tomato paste (from the tube, lasts longer than opening a can) cooking it well directly on the heat before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. That would be the rest of the cabbage, tossing to cover it all with spices and flavor. There was salt, and a little more oil as it was getting dry. Then some chili flakes, a handful of dried cranberries and the rest of the beans and their liquid. I'm also thinking about chopping and adding the potato, but I may be too lazy to do that. Will be done in about 20-30 minutes.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
She still cooks.
And there is even a new book.
I've been sniffing around a volume called Olive Trees and Honey; A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World.
I haven't had a chance to peruse extensively yet, because I went directly to the borscht.
See, E had decided to make borscht a few weeks before and it came out watery and tasteless. So, the first step in Russian Jewish cooking for me, call Mama! She asked why I was cooking borscht, as it was 10,000 degrees outside. I told her it was cold borscht. She then instructed me to boil an egg, boil a potato, have some sour cream, traditionally some chopped cucumber...
-BUT, Mama, how do you make the actual BORSCHT!?!
-You buy it, of course!
Yes, reader, you heard me...my mama, along with cousin Olga, Eric's parents, and all Russians I know buy their cold borscht in glass jars that look like this:
This couldn't be! I had organic beets from the CSA, and I was on a mission! I reviewed some recipes on the internet, but when this book arrived from Amazon, I was so pleased to read their entire BORSCHT SECTION!
Of course, I can't ever follow a recipe properly, but very strongly based on this book and conversations with my mama, I present:
Cold Borscht
It's light, refreshing and tasty.
2.5 lbs of beets. I prefer smaller ones, think they have nicer flavor.
one large onion
either: sour salt/citric acid OR lemon juice OR apple cider vinegar - to taste - depends on the flavor you like. I use about 3/4 teaspoons of citric acid, or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
kosher salt, about 2 teaspoons
sugar, I use 3 heaping teaspoons. you could also use splenda, but I think this small amount is just fine
fresh ground pepper
garnishes: hard boiled egg, sliced or roughly chopped, chopped cucumber, sour cream or greek yogurt (make sure it isn't non-fat, that won't give great results. I would try to use at least 2% or even full fat for this), chopped dill and a boiled potato, peeled and chopped.
Peel beets and cover with water in a pot. Add in the onion, whole. Add the citric acid, if using. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 45 minutes, until they are soft. Add the salt, sugar, pepper and lemon juice/vinegar if you are using those. Cook another 10 minutes. Remove the beets and taste the liquid. If it tastes thin, then raise the heat and let it cook down and the flavors concentrate (that is the step I am doing right now!)
Meanwhile, chop or shred the beets. If you have a food processor, that would be a great use of it! Return then to the soup liquid, discard the onion.
You can serve this hot or cold.
Hot, add a few cubes of boiled potato, a dollop of sour cream or full fat greek yogurt and chopped dill.
If you serve it cold, you can include chopped cucumbers as a garnish, as well as some sliced egg. And all the stuff above.
I haven't had a chance to peruse extensively yet, because I went directly to the borscht.
See, E had decided to make borscht a few weeks before and it came out watery and tasteless. So, the first step in Russian Jewish cooking for me, call Mama! She asked why I was cooking borscht, as it was 10,000 degrees outside. I told her it was cold borscht. She then instructed me to boil an egg, boil a potato, have some sour cream, traditionally some chopped cucumber...
-BUT, Mama, how do you make the actual BORSCHT!?!
-You buy it, of course!
Yes, reader, you heard me...my mama, along with cousin Olga, Eric's parents, and all Russians I know buy their cold borscht in glass jars that look like this:
This couldn't be! I had organic beets from the CSA, and I was on a mission! I reviewed some recipes on the internet, but when this book arrived from Amazon, I was so pleased to read their entire BORSCHT SECTION!
Of course, I can't ever follow a recipe properly, but very strongly based on this book and conversations with my mama, I present:
Cold Borscht
It's light, refreshing and tasty.
2.5 lbs of beets. I prefer smaller ones, think they have nicer flavor.
one large onion
either: sour salt/citric acid OR lemon juice OR apple cider vinegar - to taste - depends on the flavor you like. I use about 3/4 teaspoons of citric acid, or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
kosher salt, about 2 teaspoons
sugar, I use 3 heaping teaspoons. you could also use splenda, but I think this small amount is just fine
fresh ground pepper
garnishes: hard boiled egg, sliced or roughly chopped, chopped cucumber, sour cream or greek yogurt (make sure it isn't non-fat, that won't give great results. I would try to use at least 2% or even full fat for this), chopped dill and a boiled potato, peeled and chopped.
Peel beets and cover with water in a pot. Add in the onion, whole. Add the citric acid, if using. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 45 minutes, until they are soft. Add the salt, sugar, pepper and lemon juice/vinegar if you are using those. Cook another 10 minutes. Remove the beets and taste the liquid. If it tastes thin, then raise the heat and let it cook down and the flavors concentrate (that is the step I am doing right now!)
Meanwhile, chop or shred the beets. If you have a food processor, that would be a great use of it! Return then to the soup liquid, discard the onion.
You can serve this hot or cold.
Hot, add a few cubes of boiled potato, a dollop of sour cream or full fat greek yogurt and chopped dill.
If you serve it cold, you can include chopped cucumbers as a garnish, as well as some sliced egg. And all the stuff above.
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