Roasted Beef, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes, and Roasted Asparagus

To economize and have more organized meals, Ken and I have been working on planning our shopping and cooking schedules ahead of time. I have no idea if we'll actually be able to do this for more than a few days but so far its been working alright. At this point we have managed to use a chuck roast to make roasted beef and a delicious beef stew and we're planning to turn a roasted chicken into enchiladas and chicken pot pie.

Below are a series of photos of the meal prep. I am not going to write out a recipe because I think its fairly intuitive. (If anyone would like the recipe, please feel free to write a comment and I will put it up.) The only slightly unusual thing that Ken did while making the sauce was to reduce beef stock for a long time to make it more flavorful.

Look for a recipe and photos of the beef stew very soon.
cheerio!

p.s. Ken just came over to look at the pictures I was putting up and started muttering angrily at himself. Apparently, he wrapped the roast the wrong way. He said if the striations in the meat were going lengthwise, the meat would have been more tender after it was sliced. Not a cooking disaster per se, but I'm sure he'll be more careful next time.

Pan-Fried Tilapia with Salsa Verde and Spinach and Tomato Pilaf

I don't really have much of a story for this recipe. We wanted to have fish for dinner one night last week and Ken came up with this recipe. We chose tilapia because it is a mild-flavored and affordable fish. Most tilapias, according to Ken who knows a lot about fish for some reason*, are omnivores. This means that they are easy to raise in fish farms and the flavor difference between wild and farmed tilapia is small.

The dish turned out quite well and the contrast between the salsa verde and the mild fish and rice was tantalizing. Unfortunately, the final pictures did not turn out as well as usual for a few reasons (which include things like pan frying instead of deep frying, which yields a less evenly coated batter; the similarly mottled appearance of each component of the final plate; over-sized portions; and an impatient and starving photographer.)
Huh. I guess I did have something to say after all. In any case, I've included a recipe below.

Spinach and Tomato Rice:

When Ken makes rice, he usually begins by sweating some small onion pieces over low heat in a saucepan with a bit of oil. Once the onions turn translucent, he adds the rice and fries it for a bit over high heat (stirring frequently). When the rice turns a sort of pearly color, then he adds the appropriate amount of water, brings the pot up to a boil, covers the pot, and puts it in the oven at 350 until it is cooked (20-30 minutes). I always used to make rice on top of the stove, but I have been completely converted to this method of making rice. Not only do you save stove space, you avoid having to watch for boiling over and the rice NEVER burns to the bottom of the saucepan. Its amazing. If you don't cook rice this way, you should. (If you don't want onions in the rice just leave them out and lightly fry the rice before adding water.)


In any case, this rice was slightly more complicated than what I've described above. Before Ken added the water to the rice, he also added about 1 C of diced tomato and fried the tomato with the rice/onions until they were a little soft. He then added a bay leaf and the water and put the covered saucepan in the oven. Once the rice was cooked, he removed the pan from the oven and set it on the stove to cool. He opened the lid and added several large handfuls of fresh spinach and covered the pan again. The spinach began to wilt while the rice cooled. Once the spinach was a bit wilted he tossed the spinach into the rice until evenly mixed and added salt and pepper to taste.

Salsa Verde

10 tomatillos
1 medium white onion
poblano chillies (or favorite green chili) to taste
fresh cilantro to taste
lime juice
salt
pepper
sugar to taste (very little- just enough to cut the bitterness of the lime)

Roast the tomatillos in the oven until they are soft and the skin starts to have dark spots. Let them cool and then put everything in a food processor and blend until it is of the desired consistency. Cool in refrigerator.

Pan-Fried Tilapia

To make the tilapia, ken cleaned and washed the fish and then evenly coated it with corn flakes. He lightly fried the fish in oil over the stove.

So that's all seems easy enough, huh?
It was a nice refreshing meal on a summer's day and really didn't take too long. Plus, we had mad left over salsa verde which was very nice.


*Ken wanted me to point out that "some reason" is actually that he enjoys fishing as a hobby and that it is also part of his job to know about the fish he cooks. I maintain that all of those rationales were adequately covered by the more general category of "some reason". Nevertheless, now I've explained it all and everyone feels happier. Relationships are all about compromise folks.

Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Apples and Shallots

A while back in Chicago, I was spending a lazy afternoon watching cooking shows on PBS. When Ken got home from work later in the day, I described my hazy recollections of a few interesting dishes that I'd seen. There was a recipe for fish baked in a huge pile of salt, grilled artichoke hearts, and a recipe for pork served with roasted apples and shallots. Recently, we were planning a shopping list and thinking about some meals we wanted to try when we recalled the pork dish. Ken purchased ingredients and made up a recipe based on my descriptions of what I'd seen. The final product was fantastic and Ken commented that it might be the best pork tenderloin he'd ever eaten- let alone made. I thought the roasted apples and shallots were just a spectacular combination. Yum.

As I was preparing to write this post, I did some searching and managed to locate the show that I had seen and the original recipe that I was remembering. Ken's variation is a bit more complex, but I imagine their recipe would be quite tasty as well. I remember the show itself as being cute and inviting. I would certainly recommend watching it if you happen to run across it on television. After reading about the two chefs a little more, they seem like an interesting and knowledgeable pair.


Preparing the Apples
and Shallots:
2-3 nice apples
8 shallots
4 T melted butter
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375.
Clean shallots and cut big bulbs so that the shallots are roughly the same size. Cut the apples into chunks that are a similar size as the apples. While cutting the apples make sure to toss them in the butter immediately to avoid browning. After the apples are coated in butter, place them on a baking sheet. Then coat the shallots with the remaining butter and pour all of the shallots and butter onto the baking sheet with the apples. Season lightly with salt. Toss the apples and shallots a little on the baking sheet to insure that the entire sheet is lightly coated with butter. Roast the shallots and apples until they are soft and starting to turn brown (1 1/2-2 hours).

Preparing and cooking
the Pork:
1 medium-sized pork tenderloin
1 T salt
1-2 tsp cracked black pepper
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary

Take pork out of fridge about 2 hours before you want to cook it to allow the meat to come up to room temperature. (Ken says the meat cooks more evenly, doesn't dry out, and allows for more control if its at room temp.) Season the meat about 15 minutes before cooking with an even coating of salt and cracked black pepper. While you wait for the meat, mix the olive oil with thyme and rosemary. When the meat is ready, take the herb soaked olive oil and rub it over the raw meat. Heat a regular saute pan over high heat with a tsp of olive oil. Coat the pan well and then sear the meat on all sides. Once the meat is browned put the meat on a rack in the oven next to the shallots and apples. Cook the meat until done (30-45 minutes).

To baste the meat:
3 T honey
3 T melted butter
2 T nice spicy mustard
1/2 tsp molasses

Whisk together honey, butter, mustard, and molasses. Use a brush to coat the pork every 10 minutes while it cooks in the oven.

Preparing the Sauce:
1 cup chicken sauce
4 T butter

While the meat is cooking, take the saute pan that has the left over browned pork bits. Use white wine (or water or chicken stock) to deglaze the pan over heat. Once the meat and shallots/apples are finished cooking, remove them from the oven. Add the remaining honey glaze and all of the juice and browned bits from the baking sheet with the pork drippings and apple shallot remnants. Add some chicken stock. Cook the sauce down until a little thicker and adjust to taste by adding salt, additional ingredients, etc. Remove the sauce from heat, add the butter and swirl it around until it melts.

To serve:

Plate everything and eat.
Bon Apetite!

Bad Behavior

I write with sad sad news... but never fear. I intend to quickly distract you from all that sorrow by talking about my lively pup.

But first. Our desktop computer recently suffered a mid-life crisis and decided to take some time off. Now while this is really annoying for a number of different reasons, its particularly obnoxious because that computer held most of our electronic data... including all of the food pictures that I've taken over the last few months. Right now, we're mired in trying to recover data and determine what (if anything) was backed up. I'll let you know how that goes. But basically, this means that I can't show you some of the lovely pictures of scrumptious food that had yet to be uploaded... and unfortunately, I just cleared the memory card on the camera-- so they may be gone for good.

In the meantime, I thought I'd put up some rouge pictures of my dog, L (named after the elevated trains in Chicago). I adopted L about three years ago from a dog shelter. I have been meaning for some time to contact the shelter (and one employee in particular) to let them know that L (formerly Naomi) has found a happy home and has a good life. While I know that any shelter would be pleased to know that one of their dogs found a good home, I think they might be particularly pleased that L is doing well because it wasn't always that way.

When I first adopted L, she had severe dominance issues. I believe (for several reasons) that L was abused before I knew her and I know (from shelter records) that L was placed repeatedly and unsuccessfully with many families. Learning to take care of her and dealing with these issues took a long time and a lot of hard work. I had to learn about and extensively research canine behavior and dominance issues. I spent even more time working with L, training her, and teaching her how to be a good companion. Sometimes progress seemed slow but over time she has become a loving mellow animal who is part of the family. These kinds of behaviour issues always require constant vigilance but, overall, today she is a happy and lucky dog with a good life.

She is also very playful and often quite clever. One of the things that made her a very bad dog when she was challenging authority is also one of the most fun things about her now that she behaves well. L is particularly sensitive to moods, generally attentive to people and their behavior, and extremely stubborn. You can imagine how unpleasantly these qualities could be combined to, say, steal and angrily guard a person's wallet for several hours... alternatively, they could be used in a positive manner to learn new games and tricks. L loves learning new things. One of L's favorite games is hide and seek. We play this a few different ways. Sometimes, I will just tell L to sit and wait while I run off and hide. I then tell her "Ok! L!" and whistle for her. Other times, Ken or I will hide and then the other will tell the dog to go find that person. L loves these games, bounds around, and always looks so pleased when she's found us. She's also learning to go find toys and specific objects in the house. It's all great fun.

In any case, I guess my point here is that if L can change from being an angry frightened animal to a lovely well-behaved dog, don't give up hope... Perhaps my computer will abandon its blue screen of death, turn on, and miraculously have all of my files in working condition.

Here's hoping.

One Last Dinner in Chicago

On one of our last nights before we packed everything away into boxes, we had a quiet dinner with two of our dear friends. In many ways, it was like so many dinners we'd had before in that apartment. The company was lovely, the food was amazing, the wine flowed freely, and the tiny kitchen was sweltering and nearly uninhabitable. I will miss Chicago and my friends, but Ken and I are both glad to be living in a house with central air and a usable kitchen.

Below are pictures of our meal. Unfortunately, I do not recall the wines we paired with each dish (although I do remember that our friends brought over a lovely red). Below, I've written the names of the dishes and a few of my impressions of the food.



Mixed greens,
fig compote with prosciutto, and blue cheese.



This dish was quite remarkable. I would never have thought to add warm figs to a salad, but the gently sweet, soft, warm tones and textures of the figs contrasted well with the prosciutto, lettuce, and blue cheese. This may be my new favorite salad.

Ruby Red Trout Fillet poached in lemon juice, shallot, and butter with a chive buerre blanc.
Served with sauteed baby leeks and chive mashed potatoes in a potato cup.

The trout was perfectly done and the sauce was really delicious. It was a lovely light meal for a hot day. The leeks were also flavorful, very well cooked and went well with the sauce. I think the only complaints about the plate were 1) the potatoes could have been a bit more creamy and 2) the sauce, while extremely tasty, might have been more visually striking if it were of a slightly different color.


Bananas Foster












The bananas foster were good but not particularly surprising. We remembered, belatedly, that one of our guests detests bananas. Nevertheless, she managed to choke down most of the desert- saying she had never enjoyed a banana more. Of course, I don't know if that says more about Ken's bananas foster or our friend's politeness. In any case, for most of us the heavy creamy desert was quite appealing after such a light meal, but the ice cream melted very quickly. With that heat, it took only moments for the hot bananas and cool ice cream to turn into a luke-warm soup. Oh well. Everybody loves soup.

Camarones en Salsa de Serrano

Apologies all around for the long hiatus. However, I do have some good news. We are now officially moved and unpacked. I have lots of food pictures and news to catch up on, so we should be posting more regularly again from now on.

Below is a recipe that Ken made on a summer's night while my younger sister was visiting. It is a very fresh, bright, and beautiful dish that is perfect for serving on an oppressively hot day. This recipe is based on a recipe from Rick Bayless. Ken tweaked the recipe slightly but it remains similar to the original.

Salsa Preperation:
In a non-reactive bowl, combine the following ingredients:
4-5 medium sized ripe tomatoes, finely diced
1 finely diced & rinsed medium onion
3 serano chilis, very finely diced (quantity to taste)
2 T fresh cilantro,
fresh lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Taste and adjust ingredient quantity as necessary. Put the bowl in the refrigerator to rest for at least an hour (could be made the day before).

Shrimp Preparation:
You will need 1 lb (18-20 ct.) shrimp. Here we used tiger shrimp.
Peel and de-vein the shrimp. In a non-reactive bowl, combine the shrimp with the juice of 2 limes, 1/2 T salt, 1 tsp cracked black pepper. Adjust seasoning to taste. Marinate shrimp in fridge for about 1/2 hour.

Cooking the Shrimp:
You will need to use two different skillets to cook this dish, a heavy regular, or cast iron pan (it should NOT be non-stick) and a regular non-stick/stainless steel pan. Coat the cast iron pan with a thin layer of olive oil and heat it to medium high heat. Pour about 1/2 inch layer of the salsa mixture into the non-stick pan and heat it over low heat (the salsa should reach a low simmer).

Once the pans are heated, put one layer of shrimp in the cast iron pan and let them cook for 15-30 seconds. After that, move the shrimp into the second non-stick pan with the uncooked side down. Put another layer of raw shrimp into the cast iron skillet. While the shrimp in the cast iron skillet cooks, remove the shrimp from the salsa pan and set it aside. Then, move the shrimp from the cast iron skillet into the salsa, and so on. Repeat this process until all of the shrimp are cooked. Be sure to add more salsa and olive oil to their respective pans as necessary.

Once all of the shrimp are cooked and set aside, pour all of the remaining salsa into the non-stick pan and heat through. Pour the salsa over the cooked shrimp.

Garnish with cilantro. Serve with fresh warm tortillas and rice.