Friday, November 28, 2014
Turkey Day
Happy Holidays, guys! I love Thanksgiving, always have. Something about extended family members coming together over a distance to feast on an abundant fall harvest spread has captivated me since childhood. I'm admittedly sentimental about traditional celebration, to be totally honest with you.
Holidays surface so many memories, many of them food related, all of them meaningful in some aspect to me, however slight. There is a pin-trigger on end-of-the-year nostalgia for me. The sound of the lions or the cowboys playing on a front room television overlapping with the silky narration of 'a christmas story', marathoned every year on some cable channel, for instance, or the smell of each slow-baked dish as it comes out of the oven, resting on a long clothed table in my Grandma's back room.
I remember watching my mom and Aunt Barb pulling each section of that serving table apart, revealing two insertable panels underneath the surface, effectively doubling the surface (and seating) area once set into place. I can't see a handheld electric meat slicer without thinking of my Uncle Bob wielding it at my Grandma's kitchen table, carving thin slices of turkey and ham with butcheresque precision. The slices always reminded me of the fanned pages of a meat book. Disturbing, right? I was a weird kid.
These recollections inspire me to recreate moments passed in my present life; as a result, I cook for the holidays. And I cherish this responsibility, readily embracing the role of sole purveyor of celebratory fare for my family.
Not only am I trusted to capably and effectively obtain, organize and execute a formidable dinner (not an easy feat, as many familiar with the seeping dread triggered by "holiday" and "kitchen" within the same sentence can readily attest), I have the opportunity every year share my passion with my loved ones, to execute these timeless standards in an enthusiastic way bordering upon the artistic.
As an added and essential bonus, I give myself the chance to reflect upon my culinary planning and preparation process later in writing, as I'm doing now, typing it all up the day after, dishes languishing in the sink, intentionally ignored for the time being. I'll tackle them tonight, though. I've developed something of a kitchen tic as I age, and cleanliness becomes all the more an important and essential standard to adhere to. Plus I've been taking more food photos, and filthy surfaces are less than photogenic (or hygienic, really). Such a dirty girl in the kitchen!
Now that I'm older and have a family of my own, I keep up the tradition, though on a smaller-scale. Instead of embarking on some three-hour car ride down to the more rural and less populated parts of Missouri, my kitchen has become the epicenter of November celebration.
My father sits in his living room chair with my fella and his father, each oscillating between cursing and cheering and casually comparing stats at a staggering rate as they focus on whatever game happens to be airing on his flatscreen.
My father has a couple of my sisters over, as well, and they pace about his house across the street from mine, sending my daughter over here and there with inquiries of Turkey ETA. Seven hours, I always say with a sarcastic smirk, to watch my kid's thick brown eyebrows furrow in disbelief. I see why people fuck with me; her face is too cute all scrunched up like that.
I woke up at ten or so in the morning yesterday, and sent Fish across the street for my coffee as I drug myself out of bed. She comes back empty-handed: no coffee made, Mama. No, my waking mind decides, that won't do. I had been meaning to acquire my own coffee pot for a while now, and having to wait on my dad's frozen porch each morning as he unlocked his door so I could pour myself some strong folgers in my to-go cup for my commute, scrunching my nose up as I sipped the thick black stuff, strong and soured with age, pressured me to make the purchase. No coffee at all, though, that sealed the deal for me.
Gabe volunteered to pick one up for me, he had to pick up his father, anyway. Both Detroit natives, they were more than excited for the 11:30 kickoff, and within what seemed like minutes, he was back with a $20 Black and Decker model (that you can program to automatically brew! ...somehow!), filters and a bag of Dunkin Donuts. Goodbye, Folgers Classic! Hellooooo morning java experimentation.
I put a pot on and change out of my silky pajama pants, bind and cover my hair with a bandanna, brush my teeth and wash my face, and get a huge bottle of water. I pour myself a cup of coffee, Gabe hands me a PBR can, I readily accept and open up my recipe binder -- a pink and purple tie dye three-ring binder with recipes sandwiched between sheet protectors -- to the thanksgiving section.
I took a couple days to plan my menu. First, I decided what to serve, then I looked up recipes for them. I don't just click the first one I see, I like to browse around until I can really grip the template of the recipe. What is the base recipe? What is commonly substituted? What would I/my guests prefer? Even mashed potatoes had me looking at three different recipes before deciding on an adapted Alton Brown instruction with no butter. Or pepper. Changed that shit quick. Potatoes and black pepper belong together when mashed. Likely the best squished spuds I've ever made, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Once the menu is planned and the recipes written down somewhat sequentially, I write up my shopping list. This one was huge, and nearly $150 for everything. My dad threw me $50 for it, though, Gabe's dad had $30, so it all evened out, considering I keep all the leftovers. My favorite part. I'm racing here, I need to slow down and focus on each step. Leftovers get me so goddamn EXCITED though!
Grocery list planning is a composite effort, one I do not take lightly. Proper list planning requires a chef to analyze each recipe's ingredients, substituting when necessary, accounting for how each item is sold (cost, size, brand quality, availability, etc). Failing to account for each item on your menu can lead to the nightmarish situation of being out of X the day of Y, so you can't make Z and fucked it all up. Panic mode ensues, and that's not a good look (not to mention cliche as hell. I mean, really. It's fucking flour. Get it together.).
If you're rhythmically precise, you can read your recipes and write each ingredient down, with parantheses around items you may have in your cabinets or fridge already. You will want to physically check before turning over your ignition, though. I do not have Fish do this because sometimes she is lazy and tells me we have something, then we get back from shopping and do NOT have it, to which she says, "weeeeell, I thought we had it..." Same thing with being out of something. "Ohhh, I didn't seeeee it there!" Move shit around, goddamnit! >sigh< She tries her hardest, that's all I care about, effort over ability and all that.
Knowing your ingredients is essential to planning, as well. How many cups of flour total, for all recipes? How much butter? Sticks or cups or tablespoons or what? How many eggs? Keep a tally near the ingredient as you read. I needed 4 cups of half and half, 8oz each, so a 15oz carton will do two. There's a little wiggle room. Unless you're baking. That shit's like chemistry, do not alter those without extreme confidence in your substitution expertise (I am still developing mine). 12 vs 18 eggs, always get more, as eggs are easy to fuck up. Butter is 8 tablespoons = 1/2 cup = 1/4 pound = 1 stick. There are four sticks in a one-pound box of butter. I get unsalted, you do you, though, and get what you like. I used every bit of the two pounds of butter I bought. My god.
Once everything is counted, compared, and cabinet-checked, get to the store and buy as much of it as you can. Fish, my shopping buddy, helps me out with this. I let her push the cart, tossing items at the basket as she shrieks with happiness. She finds empty aisles and races down them, grinning maniacally. I make her stop if I see someone else, they don't need to deal with that shit and all that. Still, she is good to me, and I give her a little little-kid leeway when I can. We pass a kid half her age throwing a screaming fit stemming from generic brand substitution, or an inconsolable infant or loudly indignant toddler in the cereal aisle. I lean over into Fish's ear after we pass and thank her for being on her best behavior. She knows impulse control is both incredibly difficult and immensely effective. So considerate!
We get it all purchased and back to the car, my list more blue scratches than legible items now, and head on home. Her father and her bring in the bags, I get them in the fridge and displayed on my kitchen table, grouped into recipes as much as possible. This is every Saturday for me, only less elaborate and for seven meals versus one. Even this meal will be eaten over multiple upcoming evenings. I can eat for a week or more on these leftovers. Don't take my word for it, though! I'll show you.
So, it's nearly noon on Thanksgiving. I load the live stream of MST3K Turkey Day on my laptop, setting it on my microwave for viewing as I work, crack open another beer, warm up my coffee, and get to work.
First up, the turkey.I bought a 20 pounder last week, so it had time to thaw out in the fridge. I did not brine it, though I am interested in trying this for Christmas dinner. I wanna do duck sometime, too, but that's not the point. I use Coolio's Game Day Turkey Marinade. Coolio cooks? Why, yes he does! And this marinade is incredible. I use the big Pulp Fiction-ey injector for it, too.
I smoke my turkey under a trashcan. Odd as hell, right? I saw this on the news the first year I moved to STL and my dad tried it. It's become tradition, with Fish requesting it every year as "tradition turkey, TRASH CAN TURKEY MOM *giggles ferociously*" It's a charcoal smoked turkey, very easy to do. I think our turkey was too big? Or something went fucky, because we ended up having to finish it in the oven. No worries, turned out beautifully, and will be even better in pot pies and croquettes but we're not there yet omg hang on.
Next was the stuffing. I did not use a recipe for this, nor did I use a box of Stove Top, and fuck you for even insinuating I ever would! I used a loaf of French bread leftover from my potato leek soup (blog post upcoming), as well as some frozen bread heels I throw in my freezer for breadcrumbs. I cubed them up and baked them until they were crispy.
As they baked, I cooked some onion, celery and green apples in some turkey sausage before adding some parsley, sage and thyme. I threw the bread in, tossed it all up until each piece was nice and coated, then added some homemade vegetable broth to it. I put this into a pan and baked it for a half hour. It was not a fan favorite, but I've got tasty leftover experimentation plans for it, just you wait. Maybe waffles, or a savory bread pudding...
Next, I made green bean casserole. From scratch! I know! I used Alton Brown's recipe, and be warned, it is somewhat elaborate. I cut a couple onions and coated them in flour and breadcrumbs and a little salt and throw them on a pan in the oven, tossing a couple times before pulling them out all crispy and perfect.
Fish loves green beans but hates fresh ones, simply for the fact that it's her job, as it is EVERY child's job, to trim the ends. I set her up in front of the TV for this task, and she executes it quicker than she anticipated, presenting the bowl of trimmed beans to me, beaming with pride as she does. She also gives me the trimmings instead of throwing them away. "For broth!" she exclaims. She knows what the deal is!
I boil the beans and food process a package of mushrooms, then cook them in broth and cream with some roasted garlic before tossing the beans in with them. I add the onions and bake them brown.
Gabe requested mac and cheese , another AB classic I adore. Boil the noodles, make a bechamel with mustard powder, paprika, onions and sriracha, combine them in a casserole and coat with buttery panko before baking for a bit. Lots of compliments from this one. I used sharp cheddar, you can use anything you like.
My personal favorite is the sweet potato casserole. So bright and fragrant and dessert-like! It's a cinch, too: roast the potatoes in oil until soft, then slice them long-wise and scoop out their insides. The skin comes right off, it's incredible. Mash up the flesh before adding sugar and egg, then transfer to a casserole. Top with a quick streusel (flour, butter, sugar, vanilla) and bake until brownish. Absolutely to die for. Use marshmallows if so inclined, I never do. I saw a photo from last year's Turkey Day where I put shredded coconut on mine. Don't know what the hell I was thinking with that one.
Oh man. Seriously, oh man. These mashed potatoes. They have potato boil water in them, salt and pepper, parmesan and half-and-half. Dead, man. I added roasted garlic to it to really make it pop, and boy, did it ever. These were superb, likely the best batch I've ever been behind, without even a smear of butter. Will be making them this way again, no question.
The gravy was nothing special, just onion, carrot, celery and garlic simmered with the turkey neck and some sprigs of thyme in some broth I had boiling on the stove as I cooked the aforementioned items. Really drove it home when Gabe brought the bird in for additional oven roasting and poured some drippings into the pot. Good lord. Pureed the broth and strained it, then thickened it with a quick roux and served it in a large mason jar. I have a lot left, which is great, I'm gonna add it to my pot pies this weekend, but I'm getting ahead of myself here, as always.
The cranberry relish I made was also a freestyle dish, a bag of fresh berries simmered in a can of crushed pineapple with lime juice and a little brown sugar and cinnamon. I whirred it all in my food processor for use in leftovers and perhaps ambrosia salad, a sort of fruity mousse that's easy to throw together on a whim. Throw some grapes or something in there. Awesome. Nobody but me eats this, it is my selfish dish that I absolutely adore and refuse to omit from my prep process. Takes two seconds on a back burner!
We arrive, at last, to dessert. Two pies scream Thanksgiving to me, pumpkin and pecan. I outright refuse to buy pie crust, it is easier, cheaper and tastier to make at home. Both pies turned out amazing. The pumpkin was made with cream cheese, very silky and springy once chilled. The pecan was baked in a cast iron (ran out of pie pans) and was the more expensive item served, as pecans are damn expensive, always have been. My god, that pie, though. Will make it again come Christmas, I think. Maybe as bars? A full slice is almost too much.
The finished plate looked like this:
Regarding leftovers, I am thinking personal pot pies for the dads, croquettes for Fish and I with oozing cranberry or gravy centers. Both freeze crazy well. I also may consider these jarred leftovers, purely to recreate the layered image. I am so taken with it, visually, but conceptually, this falls flat, as not many eaters mush all the food on their plate together into one amorphous bolus before consuming. Some experience unease at the mere mention of different items coming into physical contact. Meh. I may do it for the photo. I wanna save a plate for a friend of mine. HE'd eat a mason jar full of em, I bet. Then again, you never know!
Look forward to a separate post for leftovers coming up sometime this weekend, when I have a moment to execute them. I'm thinking Saturday. Tonight, I'm going home and doing absolutely nothing. Maybe some reading or non-Turkey Day blogging. I'm trying to get these idea drafts typed up and posted for you. I can do it, honest! You'll see! Just like I did today!
Thursday, November 20, 2014
slow cooked mexican chicken
I am in love with slow cooking. The crock pot I received as a christmas gift from my sister-in-law a couple years ago -- a large dark-green ceramic dish nested within a camouflage heating base -- gets used more than any other corded item in my kitchen.
Each Saturday, I plan a couple crock pot meals, at least. On Sunday, I assemble these dishes and stick them in the fridge, then dump them into my crock pot before leaving for work. Sticking a pot of anything on low at 8am makes for a ready-to-eat home-cooked dinner by the time I get home around 7pm.
By incorporating slow cooked recipes into my weekly meal plans, I take a lot of the hassle out of end of the day culinary efforts, which seem doable all day until the moment I'm standing in my kitchen come evening, and I just cannot bring myself to execute tasks less simple than pour into pan, shove into oven, scoop into bowl, spoon into mouth (repeat until full).
Instead of being shameful of this work-induced laziness, I account for it with prepared meals: the slow cookables, the marinated chicken and precut veg, the packets of sauce and tins of staples that can be opened and heated and mixed to satisfaction.
I based this slow cooker mexican chicken off of this recipe from The Kitchn, one of my standby food blogs. I absolutely adore this site, and this recipe is effortless and adaptable to any discerning palate. The prep is ridiculously straightforward: shove in some raw chicken, rinsed black beans, a large tin each of green chiles and crushed tomatoes, some frozen cubes of homemade chicken stock (or water, whatever I have on hand).
I season this dish with chili powder, cumin, oregano, some onion and garlic I chopped up real quick, and some cayenne pepper. If the pot is more solid than liquid, add more water/broth before setting on low and walking away for a few hours. Come dinner, I rinse and cook up some rice in my rice cooker (basmati pictured here), and ladle some of the chicken mixture on top. A bowl of this is fragrant and flavorful and leaves you feeling full, three things that are an absolute joy to come home to.
I recommend adding this dish to your easy weeknight meal circuit. I could even precook some rice and freeze it flat, then just nuke a bag before serving the chicken, to make this process all the more receptive to bouts of that day-end laziness I seem to be so prone to.
Are you also too lazy to cook some evenings? How do you manage feeding yourself on nights like these? Do you rely on the modern standard of quick corporate takeout or premade delivery? Do you eat cereal or corn right out of the can? Let me know how you handle these i-can't-bring-myself-to-cook evenings. I'd love to learn more about how you eat when you're REALLY not feeling getting in the kitchen at the end of the day.
Stay Hungry!
~HMW
SPFD FOODOLOGUE
Here's a list of everything I orally consumed on my weeklong trip down to my hometown of Springfield, MO, a town known for homelessness, religious zealots, cyclists, college kids, and chinese food. Seriously, I heard once that there's more asian chicken and rice shacks here than anywhere else in america, per capita.
Per friendly suggestion (thanks, Jay Dee), I will turn each of these items into a blog post, either by day or by dish, I haven't decided yet. I may even do a recipe zine for this trip, as well, as a follow up to Broke Kitchen Cooking. That way, I can have both the recipes and the essays without sacrificing content for either.
Will likely follow the blog format of mentally meandering over each meal for the essays, ending with the recipe post. The zine will be like BKC, straight colloquial renditions of how-to-make versus poetic riffing. I'm unwilling to forego the quarter-page format, and essays on sentimental food experiences (like those listed below) are a logistical nightmare to translate into zine-size, both in content and coherence.
Lots of ideas. ALSO, learned about M.F.K. Fisher after picking up an anthology of her culinary musings at bookmarx over the weekend, so I'll be researching her quite a bit in my overarching mission to write regularly about food and how outright giddy and gleeful I get about it. Lots to look forward to! Also, Thanksgiving is next week! Gotta power through these drafts I have on my list so I can tackle those for a timely post containing original food photos. Freaking swoon, dude.
Without much more ado, I eagerly present to you:
SPFD FOODOLOGUE
THURSDAY
hardees low-carb breakfast bowl with gravy
sugar free red bull
blue cream soda
taffy
potato soup and french bread
30 pack pbr
FRIDAY
starbucks at the bistro
mustard powder, 1/2 gal 2%
au gratin potatoes with leftover ham from last time
grad school cubans
steak n shake milkshakes (bday cake and wchoc)
Kum n Go: pb choc rice crispy, lg diet coke, thinking of fish with the pink milk and green juice
SATURDAY
canton inn
grocery plan and shop (borscht, spaghetti and meatballs, tamales and chocolate tres leches cake, pierogis)
borscht and kielbasa with saeurkraut
wasabi peas
whiskey sours
waffle house hashbrowns and coffee, cedars, mamma mary's
SUNDAY
Kum n Go coffee, diet mtn dew
pb rice crispy cubes
salami and goat cheese and hawaiian rolls and green olives
biscuits and gravy with glaze, no choc gravy
tainted pink in places from borscht splatter the night before
same gas station attendant, chip-pottle, love language
dillons deli selection:
dillons leaving spfd, eel sushi, meat counter, cara dinners
singing to-do riffs
accidentally 450
watch sister make gumbo, import makes best authentic
amber dinner: fizzy tonic and mason jars of sink water
tomato and chickpeas with yard egg
curried kale and carrot and onion
stone cutting board
corgie, foil
cornbread muffins with round tops
sharpie in the bathroom, borges,
table conversation about focus and facebook (inspired vs drained by feed)
mother's beer too yeasty, "pizza beer"
b&g stack story, snes game (bought), read junky aloud to me, no wifi
"freestyle cocktail": rum and sour tonic and orange fanta and maraschinos
tomato paste tube
i mention hummus, he says he prefers baba ganoush better
didn't make pierogis due to podcast, ordered dominos: philly with white sauce, pepperoni (untouched), bbq wings, parm bites (crust chunks), lava cakes
MONDAY
virgin cocktails for fish, realizing a knack for mixing
must eats in spfd: canton, caspers, taylor's, gem of india, grad sch, andy's
pierogis, leftover cabbage plate
to-go sour mix
TUESDAY
double americano from mudhouse
navajo taco, yelp half off deal
tamales
choc tres leches cake
WEDNESDAY
double americano and choc espresso beans
took leftover tamales and unused beef with me
stuckey's before rolla, got rainbow poncho, faygo for gabe, bud light tall can, sf red bull
made navajo tacos for fish and gabe at home
Per friendly suggestion (thanks, Jay Dee), I will turn each of these items into a blog post, either by day or by dish, I haven't decided yet. I may even do a recipe zine for this trip, as well, as a follow up to Broke Kitchen Cooking. That way, I can have both the recipes and the essays without sacrificing content for either.
Will likely follow the blog format of mentally meandering over each meal for the essays, ending with the recipe post. The zine will be like BKC, straight colloquial renditions of how-to-make versus poetic riffing. I'm unwilling to forego the quarter-page format, and essays on sentimental food experiences (like those listed below) are a logistical nightmare to translate into zine-size, both in content and coherence.
Lots of ideas. ALSO, learned about M.F.K. Fisher after picking up an anthology of her culinary musings at bookmarx over the weekend, so I'll be researching her quite a bit in my overarching mission to write regularly about food and how outright giddy and gleeful I get about it. Lots to look forward to! Also, Thanksgiving is next week! Gotta power through these drafts I have on my list so I can tackle those for a timely post containing original food photos. Freaking swoon, dude.
Without much more ado, I eagerly present to you:
SPFD FOODOLOGUE
THURSDAY
hardees low-carb breakfast bowl with gravy
sugar free red bull
blue cream soda
taffy
potato soup and french bread
30 pack pbr
FRIDAY
starbucks at the bistro
mustard powder, 1/2 gal 2%
au gratin potatoes with leftover ham from last time
grad school cubans
steak n shake milkshakes (bday cake and wchoc)
Kum n Go: pb choc rice crispy, lg diet coke, thinking of fish with the pink milk and green juice
SATURDAY
canton inn
grocery plan and shop (borscht, spaghetti and meatballs, tamales and chocolate tres leches cake, pierogis)
borscht and kielbasa with saeurkraut
wasabi peas
whiskey sours
waffle house hashbrowns and coffee, cedars, mamma mary's
SUNDAY
Kum n Go coffee, diet mtn dew
pb rice crispy cubes
salami and goat cheese and hawaiian rolls and green olives
biscuits and gravy with glaze, no choc gravy
tainted pink in places from borscht splatter the night before
same gas station attendant, chip-pottle, love language
dillons deli selection:
dillons leaving spfd, eel sushi, meat counter, cara dinners
singing to-do riffs
accidentally 450
watch sister make gumbo, import makes best authentic
amber dinner: fizzy tonic and mason jars of sink water
tomato and chickpeas with yard egg
curried kale and carrot and onion
stone cutting board
corgie, foil
cornbread muffins with round tops
sharpie in the bathroom, borges,
table conversation about focus and facebook (inspired vs drained by feed)
mother's beer too yeasty, "pizza beer"
b&g stack story, snes game (bought), read junky aloud to me, no wifi
"freestyle cocktail": rum and sour tonic and orange fanta and maraschinos
tomato paste tube
i mention hummus, he says he prefers baba ganoush better
didn't make pierogis due to podcast, ordered dominos: philly with white sauce, pepperoni (untouched), bbq wings, parm bites (crust chunks), lava cakes
MONDAY
virgin cocktails for fish, realizing a knack for mixing
must eats in spfd: canton, caspers, taylor's, gem of india, grad sch, andy's
pierogis, leftover cabbage plate
to-go sour mix
TUESDAY
double americano from mudhouse
navajo taco, yelp half off deal
tamales
choc tres leches cake
WEDNESDAY
double americano and choc espresso beans
took leftover tamales and unused beef with me
stuckey's before rolla, got rainbow poncho, faygo for gabe, bud light tall can, sf red bull
made navajo tacos for fish and gabe at home
Monday, November 10, 2014
caramel apple cheesecake
Fall is all about apples and pumpkin and sweet potatoes to me. I broke down and bought a couple cans of pumpkin to make gnocchi with ricotta. I may also try a second batch with sweet potato, and do a comparative analysis post for you? Things to consider! I planned one for jasmine v basmati, but haven't gotten around to turning that draft into a published post as of yet. I'm working on it, though! Captured the idea and images, anyway, and that's step one, isn't it?
Definitely gonna make this recipe for sweet potato fries and sriracha sour cream at some point this month, as well. Caught the local produce stand on its last day open for the season, scored some lemons and peppers (3 for $1! None of this buck a piece bullshit!) and apples and sweet potatoes for pennies. Seriously, three plastic bags crammed full of produce for ten bucks. You can't beat that!
I grated all the lemons (nearly a dozen of them) into a quart mason jar and filled it with vodka, screwed on the lid and gave it a good shake before sticking it in my kitchen cabinet. This is phase one of the limoncello I'm making for a friend of mine for the holidays. He digs vodka. Here's hoping he digs lemons.
Regarding apples, I kept seeing this recipe pop up on my Facebook feed, as trending recipes tend to do, and couldn't take it anymore. I had to have it. Looking at it, it's super straightforward, and I was surprised at how fast this dish was executed, from first apple slice to first serving slice.
Always start your recipes with preheating the oven, or you'll hate yourself when it's time to bake and you're stuck waiting for 20 minutes for the machine to temp. Inefficient and amateurish, if you ask me. Were you to ask my eight year old what step one is for any recipe, she will not hesitate. "Preheat the oven," she will say, "then get out all your ingredients and bowls and measuring stuff." The little miss grips miz already! So freaking proud of you, Fishers :)
Once you're set up and warming, mix the flour and sugar and cut in the butter. This is your crust, press it into a pan lined with aluminum foil so none of your crust sticks to the pan (note: i did not foil my pan, and they came out fine, but it's better with the foil) and bake for 15m, until nice and browned.
As the crust bakes, beat the cream cheese with some sugar and eggs and a little vanilla. Use an electric mixer and room-temp cheese and eggs. I did this by hand. I do not recommend it, but make sure your cream cheese is soft but not warm, or you will scramble your eggs and your cake will suck city with big chunks of cooked egg in it. This has happened to me before, when I made Gabe a new york-style cheesecake for his birthday (with cherry pie filling, as I do every year, it's a fucking two day cake) and I was devastated.
Pour your filling over your warm crust and set aside. Chop some apples and mix with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. I add allspice, as well, because it's MAGIC. Spread this over the filling. Mix equal parts brown sugar and flour with some oatmeal and a stick of butter and sprinkle over the apples. This is streusel, and it's ridiculously delicious, I promise. Bake for a half an hour and drizzle caramel over it before letting it set in the fridge. Caramel is easy, sugar and heavy cream, that's it.
Be sure to let it chill, or you'll get mushy slices versus clean-cut ones. I would likely make this again, it was stupid fast and was a big hit with the kiddo. Making this dish made me want to make lemon bars again, though, which were NUTS, and I loved them obscenely. I'll do a post on those sooner or later (have I already? What's happening here? Who are you? Get out of my house! No? Well, shit. You want some cake and coffee? Yes? Great! Pull up a chair! Happy to have you, stranger!)
Thursday, November 6, 2014
salmon and zucchini cakes
I surf Allrecipes pretty frequently during the week for meal planning and general brainstorming purposes. It's likely my favorite website right now. I love that any recipe I think of is there, from old-world foreign dishes to three-ingredient throw it in a pot and heat it for a bit meals, all overflowing with user photos and notes of experience. Unpretentious, user-friendly, and infinitely inspiring to my kitchen efforts.
Anything you can think of is on there, like some sort of user-generated encyclopedia of edibility. All over the world, these strangers virtually congregate, passionately pouring over each recipe, referencing their ancestors and homelands as they build and share their catalogues of must-try snacks and apps and dinner ideas. It excites me so!
I'm particularly fond of the viewer suggestions accompanying the recipe. I always check the site-specific comments for spice addition or omission advice or suggested variations in preparation. Many readers express their annoyance at the mere mention of culinary diversion, but I enjoy it. It's a genuine response to the recipe. Cooking is so much more than an equationesque, stepwise procedure for me. It's a living creative process, with recipes resembling templates more than they do rigid regulations.
Do you experience anxiety, watching me cook? Does my foregoing of measuring spoons make you nervous? Does watching me eyeball ratios and substitute seasonings make you uncomfortable? Do you insist upon adhering to every letter of the recipe like holy gospel, no more or less? Have you abandoned the urge to experiment with staple and spice?
You poor unadventurous bastards.
I kept running into these zucchini cake recipes. I love zucchini, it's pretty and makes a neat springy thud sound when you flick it with your index finger that i find oddly satisfying. I wanted to pair it with something equally patty-like, and saw a recipe for salmon cakes, though I couldn't tell you where, so I researched it and found this recipe for them, and it worked beautifully.
I started with the fish cakes. Picked up a can of salmon, which smelled SO GROSS at first. I shouldn't say "gross," more like strong and fishy and unappealing to me. Drained and dumped it in a bowl to flake it up with a fork as I cooked an onion in some bacon grease. Added the onions to the fish once it cooled, along with some mayo, an egg, some dijon mustard, a bunch of lemon juice, and a sprinkle of sugar. I didn't have a baked potato, so I picked out all the potato cubes left in my kapusnaik that was sitting in my fridge and tossed em on in there. Mix that shit up real good.
The mix looked damp, so I added some breadcrumbs, powdered parmesan and pepper, mixed it until it was tacky, and formed a dozen patties. Fried them in bacon grease until they were all crispy on each side. They stayed together in and out of the pan, and tasted incredible! Not foul or fishy at all! Very cheesy and lemony, to be totally honest with you.
The zucchini patties weren't nothing, just some shredded veg I squeezed the water out of with my potato ricer before adding egg, onion, a little flour and some parmesan and salt and pepper. Fried them just like I did the salmon, but used a spoon to get the mix in there, as it was much stickier than the fish was.
Ate both with sriracha and horseradish and lemon. Very light and tasty with low prep time. Cheap, too! Definitely give it a try, it's a handful of cheap ingredients and gets some fish and veg in your diet. Let me know what you think! Shoot me your dinner photos or ideas on Facebook. I love seeing what you're up to in your kitchen, you know.
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