foodfluency.com

I’m learning.

I can tell because I made this Chicken and Egg with Pastina Soup, and I didn’t even have to look up what pastina meant.

Little pasta, for those keeping track. But, it doesn’t even matter really. Pasta that you would be comfortable eating in soup. I don’t even know the name of what I grabbed from the store. That’s how comfortable I was.*

I also learned a lot about making soup. This was the first time I actually made a stock. Check this out.

It’s not fully homemade. I bought the chicken preroasted. It was also a method of cooking the chicken further. HOLY MOLY was that some tender chicken by the time it was done. It just fell over all over the place. It practically shred itself.

It was also scary, because I was so excited that I kept moving the chicken around, breaking things. For example, I broke its spine. Oops. For some reason I expected the spine to be more substantial. I forgot that chicken bones are light, because birds are meant to fly. So, I had an anatomy lesson as well as a cooking lesson. Win.

But the part that was really cool to me was the egg part. I was so excited, I kept calling it the egg soup, which just confused the people I was talking to. You can’t taste the egg. It’s just there to make the broth thick and creamy. As a non-dairy person, I miss creamy. So I will be using that technique for other things in the future. I’m thinking of making something akin to mac and cheese.

As much fun as it was to make this soup, the taste was only okay. I love lemon, and I love dill, but they are both “high” to me. They taste high and cut through everything. This soup had no low. It was like eating a song of piccolos and cymbals. It needed a bass line.

It is possible that the cheese garnish added some depth, but, I wouldn’t know.

So, I kept some in the fridge so I could experiment with some additional ingredients later. I think nutmeg, or allspice, or something else warm that could bring it all down a bit. I had the best of intentions, but, too much time has passed and now I’m afraid to eat it. I’m not good with leftovers. So, I’ll have to try it again.

You’ll also notice that the picture is not one of mine. I meant to take a photo of the final experiments. So, now I’m just stealing from the Food Network.

* I know sarcasm and self-depreciation don’t come across well on the internet, but, if you are even in any doubt, err on the side of me mocking myself. And feel free to mock me back. It’s how I roll.

In a lot of ways, this was the meal of things that annoy me.

I don’t like apples. It’s something about their slimy texture and round shape. They provoke a distaste in me that has no real logic, but, disgusts me nonetheless.

When I don’t like a food, it helps me to chop it up small, so it’s less recognizable. I’m fine with the taste of apple. I’ll eat a slice of apple pie if it’s the only dessert there (gotta have sweets). So, I decided to make some apple chutney. To go inside some crepes.

I don’t like French, the language that is. It was the only thing I was ever bad at in school. I remember one day I had a cold and my teacher was all excited because my stuffed up nasal passages gave me some semblance of a correct accent. On that day, studying French crossed the line from “annoying” to “downright stupid” and it hasn’t gone back since. Even when I had a boyfriend from the actual place of France. We didn’t last long.

Crepes have always been alright though. For some reason, I’ve always been good at making them. It’s the savant in me. Maybe I was already annoyed by the apples, but the crepes were seeming extra French to me as I was making them, so they annoyed me too.

The poor roasted chicken almost didn’t stand a chance. Except, I bought it from the store already roasted. I so cheated!!! But I think if I hadn’t, something really bad would have happened, so it’s just as well. I like chicken. I’d hate for it to annoy me too.

Anyhoo, I had to use a non-dairy crepe recipe. I didn’t have any soy milk around, so I used the vanilla almond milk I had made a cake with earlier this week (which turned out to be a train wreck that I’d rather not talk about). I was worried the crepes would turn out too sweet for a savory meal. I almost added some allspice that I was using in the chutney, but I decided not to to test how sweet they would be without it. But, in the end, you couldn’t taste the vanilla at all. So feel free to sub away with what you’ve got hanging around.

This was the chutney recipe I used, with golden delicious apples. It turned out really well! The only thing that didn’t work for me was the amount of red wine vinegar. It just kept simmering away. I kept waiting for the juice from the apples to kick it up in the liquid end of things, but, that never happened. At least not to the extent I needed it to. So I kept pouring in more vinegar. I probably used three times as much as the recipe calls for. And that was perfect. Everything was moist and yummy. I think I’ll use this recipe as a base for future chutneys. I’d like to add some nuts next time, to give it some crunch.

Soooo… even though I was slightly annoyed most of the time I was cooking, everything turned out really well. That makes me happy because inevitably, you are going to be annoyed sometimes, for one reason or another. At least you can eat well.

I’m a little too old to party all the time. And if you got that reference, you’ll agree with me. So, I’ve spent the past few New Year’s Eves with my husband, cooking up delectable dinners with our favorite wine (A Rhone Valley red for him and some Malbec from Argentina for me), and snuggling into bed. It’s all very relaxed and happy.

As an added bonus, this year, we went out and bought a cream whipper. Although the instructions said it was to be used to make whipped cream ONLY, the husband ignored all that. As well he should.

Project Number One: Carbonated Strawberries. It was a subtle effect taste and texture-wise, but you hear them crackling, which was hilarious.

Project Number Two: Jello/Foam Cucumber. I’m not really sure what was going on here. I got him the book, “Cooking for Geeks” as a stocking stuffer. He already is a fantastic cook, but, it’s time to dabble in molecular gastronomy. So, jello/foam cucumber. Yeah. It tasted just fine, but, I’m not sure what one would use it for.

Project Number Three: Coconut Whipped Cream. I’ve been missing whipped cream really bad since the whole non-dairy thing started, so, he put some coconut milk and sugar in the can, and voila. It was delicious. It’ll taste even better with some vanilla in it, I think.

Then it was onto actual dinner. For our entree, the husband made chicken wrapped in prosciutto, atop pasta with homemade veggie sauce and basil herb sauce. We often have components of this dish for quick and easy dinners, but tonight he threw it all together. Delicious.

It was my job to make dessert. I still haven’t reached the point where I can cook too much without a recipe (though sometimes I can and I’m much better at not using the measuring cups for every little thing!), and I especially can’t bake anything without a recipe. So I used a recipe. Two actually.

The first was this lovely recipe from Chef Chloe, a well-known and respected vegan chef, for chocolate strawberry shortcake cupcakes.

I was really wary of the espresso powder. I hate coffee. I love the smell, hate the taste. No one really understand how I can love dark chocolate, love “wine that tastes like dirt”, and still find coffee too bitter, but, there you are. But it was a small amount, compared to the overall volume of batter, so, I thought it would be okay. Then I mixed everything up, and the smell of coffee was so strong. And you could taste it in the batter. ARGH!!! But, then I baked it and all was well. You could not taste it in the final product. Yay!

I must also talk about the frosting. My nana has a frosting that I associate with wonderfulness and childhood joy. Probably because it’s made from Crisco. lol. Everyone I’ve made it for in my adult life has honestly not known what to make of it and has backed away slowly but firmly. But whatever. It’s good! And this frosting had that same oily texture. It was great. I was so excited! “See?” I said. “This recipe won a contest on Food Network. So there!” I feel a tad vindicated.

I wanted to add some chocolate ganache on top. So I searched the web for dairy free grenache. Then I laughed really hard because grenache is a grape and of course that is dairy free. After ten minutes of forcing myself not to ask the husband, who would make fun of me, I remembered the word was ganache and found this. I halved the recipe, because who needs two pounds of ganache? I was especially happy with it because it turned out nice and shiny. Ganache needs to be shiny, imho.

So then we ate. Here you can see the husband’s hardworking hands.

The cat enjoyed some nibbles too.

UPDATE: After sitting out on the counter all night, the cucumber mint jello foam has formed a new consistency. THIS is what you can do with it, the husband tells me:

I still dare him to eat it.

Happy 2011 everybody!

Okay, it’s not real Cuban mojo sauce. Real mojo sauce looks crazy dangerous. I didn’t feel like setting my kitchen on fire (we’re renting), so, I went with this “new take on mojo.”

Behold… Shrimp Escabeche with Blood Orange Mojo

It’s a lovely, light, summer dish. I had it with a Corona.

I was pretty much drooling when I boiled the orange/lemon juice with garlic. I wouldn’t have thought to put those two together, but it smelled fantastic. There was a lot of chopping involved, but, that relaxes me now, after a long work day. Fun to make. Fun to eat. Two thumbs up.

I still don’t like bell peppers though, so I picked those out for mine.

My husband actually found this recipe. Then he told me I had to find a recipe for him to make tomorrow. I told him I didn’t like this change of rules, lol. So then he had me pick two number. I picked 12 and 52. He used them as latitude/longitude and came up with a space between Yemen and Somalia. Now he gets to make a Yemenese dish. ha

Behold, the crazy pasta maker.

It’s kind of old. And foreign. It was generously passed down from the husband’s Italian grandmother. No pressure.

Today was the first day I used it by myself. It’s pretty simple to use, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a death trap. It’s mechanical, so, if your finger gets in there, it’s going… I kept all my fingers, so I guess it was a success!

I found this recipe the other day, carrot tagliolini with zucchini walnut pesto. I thought it sounded delish, and more exciting than regular pasta, so, that’s what I made today. It’s Sunday. I have HOURS to dawdle away in the kitchen.

The dough was a pain in the ass, because I kneaded it by hand. Well, I kneaded for half an hour, and my husband went for another 10 minutes or so. We didn’t have the carrot issue that the original recipe maker had. No added flour here! I don’t think I pureed the carrots enough though, so maybe they were less watery. Instead of having orange-colored pasta, mine was yellow with pretty orange flecks.

Here it is hanging on a microphone stand in our kitchen. We didn’t know where else to put it, lol.

We have a ton extra, actually. Yell if you want some.

I only used one zucchini for the pesto, too. Coincidentally, I didn’t need to add extra oil. It came out good. I still like traditional pesto with pine nuts and basil best though.

Here’s the final product.

Homemade pasta is so good. This tasted nice and fresh. And no, you couldn’t taste the carrots. The recipe gets a thumbs up from me!

Have I ever mentioned I’m a Taurus? And therefore, stubborn as hell?

I’m still on a mission to master chipotle chicken. As in, duplicating the flavor you get at the fast food place. I knew my latest attempt wouldn’t be spot on, because it looks totally different, but, I was hoping to learn a little more about the flavors used in various chipotle chicken recipes. That’s the plan anyways.

There are certainly enough chipotle chicken recipes to learn from. My goodness. My boyfriend tells me that chipotles became quite “trendy” a few years back. That would certainly explain the 33 pages of chipotle chicken recipes found on epicurious.com. When I search for “chipotle” alone, I got a whopping 266 pages. Holy crap. Whadda think? Should I change this blog to a chipotle cooking blog? A recipe a day? Think I’ll get a movie deal?

The recipe I used comes from Gourmet magazine. I changed it up a teeny bit, by using chicken breasts instead of two whole chickens. My cat’s on a diet*, so, I was just cooking for me and the boyfriend. We don’t need a chicken apiece.

Therefore, I had to guess on the cooking time. I think, just by comparing pictures, that I cooked it less than they did in the magazine. But I’m cool with that. It came out really tasty.

That first night, we had it in tacos. Like the last time I mixed chicken with taco ingredients, the flavors were overwhelmed by the other taco ingredients. It was still tasty, but, it just tasted like ordinary (yet moist) chicken.

The next day at lunch, I had the leftovers with some mashed potatoes. That was delicious. I didn’t even care about the chicken actually, I was just sucking all the sauce off. That pretty much made it BBQ chicken, but, mmmmm. Tasty.

So yeah, it still tasted nothing like the stuff in the restaurant, but I was really happy I made it. I’ll be making it again. The directions were easy to follow, and we had all the non-fresh ingredients in the cupboard. I love it when that happens.

* She’s lost three pounds! I’m so proud.

I made such a mess of the kitchen the other night. I had help though. My trusty bf and I decided to go Asian and make spring rolls and wontons. With all the dipping sauces and marinades, it came to a grand total of five sauces. Ridiculous.

I’ll start with the food food, and then elaborate on the sauces, or mad science as I like to call it.

But yum, huh? Doesn’t that spring roll look good? I snagged the recipe from one of my “Foodbuzz Friends,” Filipinalovesfood. She recommended making them with pork, cucumber, noodles, mint, lettuce, and pineapple. I had never had a spring roll with pineapple in it before, but I loved it. Spring rolls are probably the “freshest” tasting food around. So that’s awesome right there. But when you add sweetness? I’m twice as sold.

And here’s the dumpling recipe. Also yum. We were so full from the spring rolls though, that we didn’t eat many dumplings. Most of them are sitting in my freezer right now, to be enjoyed for lunch later on this week.

Sauce, Sauce, Sauce, Sauce, Sauce

I’ve been quite interested in sauces, as of late. I actually have a copy of, “Sauces: Classic and Contemporary Sauce Making,” by James Peterson sitting on my coffee table. I’m curious about the structure of sauces - why they work like they do, what thickens and why, etc.

Like I said, we made a total of five sauces for this meal. Two were marinades - one from the spring roll recipe (for the spring roll pork) and one my bf just made up (for the dumplings). I liked them both a lot. Marinades are awesome. There are so many different possibilities. My favorite so far has been a lime-flavored marinade though. I was going to make that again this weekend actually. Anyhoo.

Then I made some peanut sauce for dipping. That was hilarious. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the recipe and I accidently used a tablespoon of sesame oil, instead of a teaspoon. Dammit. A little sesame oil goes a long way. So in an attempt to fix it, I just quadrupled the rest of the ingredients. I ended up with more peanut sauce than I would ever use in my life. My bf delicately suggested afterwards that sometimes it’s better to throw the mistake away and start over, instead of trying to fix what you have. Oh yeah. That would have been smart. I used about half a jar of peanut butter up! It’s a good thing I love it and have 2 1/2 jars left over in my cupboard still.

Also made a soy sauce-based dipping sauce. And a sauce to mix with the marinated pork for the dumplings.

I didn’t care for either of the dipping sauces, actually. Those are all personal preferences though. I’m not a big dipper. Or even a little dipper. I don’t use salad dressing. I eat chips plain. I’m just weird like that. My spring roll tasted perfect just as I had made it, I thought. I also don’t like soy sauce. I’m trying to like it, but it’s way too salty for me. I can put it in things, but when it’s the main ingredient, it’s nasty.

But, that’s fine. The science of a sauces is still fun for me. Here’s me playing with some corn starch and water. That s*it is crazy! Fun times, fun times.

Okay, I hearby promise that the rest of this entry will be devoid of rhyming.

Instead, I will tell you all about these awesome chicken nachos my boyfriend and I made.

We experimented with the chicken marinade/rubs, so there are actually three different flavors of chicken in there. Yum…

These were all the ingredients we used. As you can see, we just went nuts. It was fun.

Dish one was an ordinary dry rub. I forgot what was in it. I apologize. I wasn’t paying too much attention. I was much too excited about dish two, which is where we tried to recreate the chicken they use at Chipotle restaurant.

I’m from the Albany, New York area, and I live there now, but for some years in between I lived in Denver, Colorado. Chipotle stores are every three feet in Denver, so it was inevitable that I’d go in someday. Once I did, I was hooked.

It’s ridiculous. They have a ton of options, but I order the same, plain thing every time: chicken tacos with cheese. That’s it. No salsa. No guacamole. No nothing. Just the yummy, yummy chicken offset with some cheese. I’d get it a few times a week. Kinda sad really. But I have no shame, so I don’t care.

I went for years without it, once I moved away. It made me sad, but that’s life. I always kept an eye out though, to see if they would ever expand this way. And a few months ago, they finally did.

I’ve settled back into the old routine. We’ve reached the point where the folks behind the counter knew what I wanted without me telling them, just like their counterparts all over Denver, lol.

So, yeah. If I could create that flavoring on my own, I’d be so happy. It turns out I have some work to do though. That smokey flavor is hard to get! Seriously, if anyone reading this works there, or knows someone who works there, hook me up. We used hot sauce, dried chipotle and some balsamic vinegar. And cilantro and garlic. I think that’s it. I should have written it down, lol.

The third dish was my boyfriend’s special, make-it-up-as-he-goes-along concoction. I liked it the best out of the three, due to the lovely sweet and spicy mix he had going on. He used brown sugar and cocoa for the sweetness, cumin, oregano, and cilantro for the inbetween, and sriracha for the heat - that’s a Thai hot sauce for those of you (like me) not in the know. Plus some salt and pepper just for fun. The end result was really tasty all by itself, but the subtlety was overwhelmed by the rest of the nacho stuff, like the cheese and sour cream.

That was my common complaint actually. The nacho stuff tended to drown out a lot of the seasoning. I’m not sure if that means more seasoning or less other crap though, lol. Next time, we have plans to marinate them longer than two hours, baste while grilling, and to actually tenderize them and flatten them out to increase the surface area of the chicken. That all should help.

My boyfriend liked the dry rub the best, actually. I appreciated the crispy crust it made, I didn’t like that the chicken was dry compared to the marinades.

It was really weird to me how different each piece of chicken looked after marinating for a while. I should have been surprised by the different staining, but I was.

Ahh, Middle Eastern food. It really has a certain smell, doesn’t it?

When my boyfriend and I made these Persian Beef Kebabs the other day, that was the first thing we said. “Wow, these really smell Middle Eastern, don’t they?”

“Funny though,” I continued. “They aren’t garlicky at all.”

“Do you associate garlic with Middle Eastern food?”

“Yeah!”

I think he thought that was a little weird. But it all made sense later when we had five cloves of garlic left over.

“Where are these supposed to go?” he asks me, keeper of the recipe.

“Oh crap. They were supposed to go in the meat marinade.”

I also forgot to bring my saffron with me. I had been looking for ways to use it up, which was why I had that recipe in the first place. It was definitely an instance of “cooking while spaced out.” Ah well. It tasted good anyway. We had cumin as a saffron substitute, and just slapped the garlic over the meat at it was grilling. No harm done.

Except to the tomatoes. Have you ever just slapped a tomato on a grill? It’s frickin’ weird! “Cook until blistered and soft,” the recipe says. I should have taken a picture of the “blistered and soft” tomato. All the pics I’ve found on google don’t do the warpness justice.

Next time, next time.

Before I blather on for a bit about planning a complete meal, I have to share tonight’s dinner. One of my favorite food memories is eating crab cakes three ways. I don’t recall exactly how each crab cake differed from the next, but, I remember it they did, and it was delightful. So, I’ve slowly been trying to recreate that.

Not all at once. That’s too time-consuming and crab is freaking expensive! But, a new kind every few weeks or so sounds good to me. It’s my summer thing.

About two weeks ago I made some baked cajun crab cakes. It’s a weight watchers recipe, so I’m not sure if that link will work if you aren’t a member. They were quite tasty, but I had a hard time getting them into cake shape. They just kept falling apart and breading them was a nightmare.

Tonight, I made mini corn bread crab cakes, from Cooking Light. Again, baked, and again, delicious. And this time they stuck together pretty well.

The big deal here is that now I have some Tabasco-like product in my pantry. *curse you mini corn crab cakes, for turning me into one of those people* lol. I have no idea what I’m going to do with this jar of hot sauce in the future. I’m not a fan, generally speaking. I actually picked this particular bottle of hot sauce because it was the prettiest, and I thought it should have at least that going for it.

Food Pairing

I paired this with a Tri-Colore Orzo recipe from that Everyday Italian show. My logic in doing so? They both use lemon.

Now that I seem to have some cooking basics down, one of my biggest challenges seems to be planning a complete meal. I really have no clue what I’m doing there. I can pair together meat and potatoes, but that’s about it.

Tell me, how do you plan a meal?

Do you stick with a certain cuisine? Do you go one complicated dish, and two simple? A protein, starch, and veggie? Do you mix up colors? Tell me your approach.

It’s a goal of mine to be able to plan a meal of complementary foods, but I don’t know where to begin.

*help*