Archives for August 2007
Smokey corn and cabbage salad
Often when I cook I start out with a vague idea of where I want the meal to end up…no not in my belly silly…I mean how it will taste and what it will look like. On Monday I cooked six ears of corn knowing that we wouldn’t eat them all but that I could use them in a salad on Tuesday night. So I actually started thinking about Tuesday night’s dinner while I was making Monday’s dinner.
On Tuesday I planned to fritter away the whole day learning some new applications on my adorable new laptop. Isn’t it cute…I’ve covered it with my moo picture stickers…oh such a delight! It’s powered by Linux…specfically the Ubuntu, Feisty Fawn distribution. I’m now a huge fan of Linux and the whole learning curve has been painless thanks to the sweet, sweet GH. Open source rules!!!
Back to the food…I managed to tear myself away from Lappy (yes I named my laptop) long enough to get some pork chops out of the freezer to defrost. Later, I dug through the freezer again and found a jar labeled “spicy marinade” and felt resonably confident that it would go well with pork…doesn’t everything. While I pulled a double espresso I defrosted the marinade in the microwave and plunked the chops into it for a soak.
At six I headed into the kitchen and began putting dinner together. In the refrigerator was a red bell pepper, cabbage, a purple onion, the corn plus there were three tomatoes on the counter. I roasted the bell pepper over the flame on my cooktop as I chopped the cabbage, sliced the corn off the cob, and diced the onion and tomatoes. This all got thrown into a large bowl. Once the pepper was roasted I removed the loose charred skin and seeds, diced it, and added it to the bowl. In a mixing cup I combined 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1/3 cup lime juice, and 1/3 cup olive. I always keep bottles of Santa Cruz lime and lemon juice in the refrigerator…they work so well in marinades and dressings. I stirred that up well and added a teaspoon of Spanish smoked paprika and a 1/4 teaspoon of chilpotle. Once that was well combined I tossed the salad. The pork chops were on and off the grill in no time at all and dinner was served.
The salad worked so well with the pork chops. The smoky spicy flavors of the paprika and chipotle played accented the sweetness of the roasted pepper and corn. The cabbage might seem like an odd addition but it really was pleasant. The acidity of the lime juice boosted the flavors. My favorite was a small bite of pork with some salad on the fork too. Perfect easy summer dinner.
For those of you that like a recipe click for the printer-friendly version.
Finally, a brief aside about this blog. Over the summer I’ve been tweaking the design and layout. I upgraded WP and my theme to the most current releases. I’ve got my fabulous, colorful banner and I’ve resigned myself to tolerating the small photo size (I’m at 461px on the width and I lust after 580px). I removed all ads because, well really…they’re never going to actually pay enough to balance out their inherent ugliness. I’ve cleaned up the sidebar and added a few flickr mosiacs…hopefully they don’t slow the loading speed down too much. Today I added a new “related posts” feature at the bottom of each post. I hope it behaves and serves us well but if not I’ll bring it in line or kick it out. If you have any comments or suggestions please let me know. Thanks for reading!
Chicago…a tangy, cheesy inspiration
We spent a long weekend in Chicago, arriving on the heels of a gigantic storm that ripped up ancient trees and downed power lines. Although Friday afternoon was steamy and hot, Saturday and Sunday were clear and sunny. This is the view from the apartment we stayed in, thanks to the gracious kindness of GH’s sister… it was great!
On a walk down Astor Place we passed this secret garden, locked up tight, but the view was free for the taking. Check out the little aqueduct that flows past a pair of sphinx.
I love to take photos of ornamental stonework…this sandstone example reminds me of thistle leaves.
We browsed a farmers’ market on Divison between State and N. Clark. There were lots of peaches for sale but I wasn’t buying…I didn’t want to carry them all day. I have yet to eat a peach this season but I hope to fix that situation this week.
We ate so many fabulous meals …excellent sushi, an absolutely perfect brioche french toast with mascarpone chese, chicago hot dogs, lobster rolls, cannollis. Saturday night we went to Second City to see Pratfall of Civilization. It was a hilarious revue of our crazy culture and I laughed so hard at the comedy terriorist skit (they tell jokes that bomb) that I had tears in my eyes. Before the show we ate a delightful middle eastern meal at Old Jerusalem. They serve a salad of tomatoes, cucumber, and onions dressed with yogurt, lemon juice, and feta cheese. It was good at the restaurant and when I got home today I saw all the ingredients (except cucmbers) sitting in my refrigerator waiting for me to recreate it’s fabulousness. So after a few hours of pulling gigantic weeds from my flower garden I went inside and prepared a quick dinner of leftover curry with jasmine rice and a side salad ala Old Jerusalem. It’s tangy and cheesy…I love it.
Old Jerusalem Salad
4 small tomatoes
1 small onion
handful of basil
1/3 cup of plain yogurt
juice of one lemon
1/3 feta cheese, grated
Chop the tomatoes and onion in a large dice, salt lightly. Mix the yogurt, lemon juice, and feta in a bowl. Add the tomatoes and onions. Stir and top with the chopped basil.
Click here for the recipe.
Stuffed zucchini with pasta
For me, inspiration often comes from the book I’m currently reading. Last week when I made this dish I was reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love…specifically I was on the “eat” section and since she was in Rome and eating pasta I too wanted to eat pasta. Which was fortunate because I had just purchased a pasta machine.
Actually it was my second machine in a week. The first machine was purchase at The Kitchen Store located on Williamson Street, next to Lazy Jane’s. It’s a relatively new store and I do love to shop local so I bought a few needed items and a pasta machine. But when I got it home and opened it up it was obviously very poorly made. I boxed it back up and took it back to Roz, the proprietor of the store and she promptly gave me a refund. The one thing that I bought at the store that I truly, truly love is a garlic mincing gadget called the Garlic Twist. I’m really not much for gadgets, I’ve had the same Zyliss garlic press for 20 years and I rarely use it. But this gadget is attractive, easy to use, and more importantly…easy to clean. It’s perfect for those times when you simply need one clove of garlic minced.
But I’d pondered a life with a pasta machine so I couldn’t tolerate a life without one…and I hadn’t even used it yet. But those brief dreams of fresh fettuccine, ravioli, and lasagna just couldn’t be shaken from my mind. That’s when I got the brilliant idea to check ebay for a pasta machine. Some quick research showed me that Atlas or Imperia were the brands to trust and ebay had a bunch of them for sale. I found mine for $35 with shipping and it arrived on my doorstep in 2 days…wow! My other awesome and recent ebay purchase was prompted by my butter fingers dropping a #36 Le Creuset gratin pan and narrowly missing my left foot. Damn those things are heavy! You wouldn’t expect it to hit a wooden floor and crack into several pieces…but that is exactly what happened. I almost cried…I bought that pan 14 years ago at the Salvation Army store in Antioch, Ca. It cost me $5.00…best deal, ever! But to replace it now would cost a staggering $119 for a new one….but never fear, I found one on ebay for $25 and it was in my hot little hands 5 days later. I love the internets…yes I do!
Okay so now back to the original topic…zucchini gratin and pasta. With 2 jumbo zucchinis to stuff I found my inspiration in Gilbert’s tales of dining in Rome….what would a Roman stuff a zucchini with? I came up with some ground pork, mushrooms, onion, garlic, 2 roma tomatoes diced, sage, thyme, and a bit of cream. I hollowed out the zuchs, filled them with this mixture, topped them with Parmesan and baked them at 350F for about 30 minutes…them were absolutely perfect. The stuffing was savory and rich and the zucchini was light and zesty…a perfect match.
Served along side these splendid zuchs was a tangle of perfect, al dente fettuccine tossed with olive oil, one mined garlic clove (see…I used the garlic twist), and pepper. Topped with a feathery beard of Parmesan this was the best pasta I’ve ever ate. It was fun to make it myself, so easy to roll it out with the pasta machine…and so satisfying to see and feel it being produced.
Go out here and stuff those zucchinis, make that pasta, feel good about life…enjoy some irrational exuberance!
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