cumin lamb stir fry/melted leeks

Sometimes it's good to make something a little different, and when you work until 6:00, it's good if that something different is also something EASY. That's where Mark Bittman comes in, with his seemingly endless supply of fast, cheap, tasty meals from all across the globe.

Nathan picked out this particular dish from Bittman's last Bitten column, in which the writer had compiled a list of his 25 favorite recipes published over the years. It's a damn good reference and I really should look to it more when trying to decide what to make.



I don't do a lot of stir frying, so that made this Asian inspired lamb dish a bit of a departure for me from the start. When I cook meat, it's more often than not on the bone, or cut into large steaks or filets. Here, the lamb shoulder is cut into cubes, which is a great way to cut down on cooking time in the evening.

So far so good, for sure, but fairly boring I'll admit. What makes this dish exciting is the bold flavors that come from toasted cumin seeds, scallions, cilantro and red chili pepper flakes. The lamb should marinate with the cumin and red pepper, garlic and soy sauce before being cooked briefly over high heat with the scallions. It tastes great over rice and is ready in minutes.



I served it with some leeks that I tried to caramelize. They were good, but Bittman's lamb was certainly the star.

scallops with avocado, tomato, scallions and cilantro

Every time a new month rolls around, I remind myself to write a blog post. It stems from the hope that I'll be able to blog every day for a month, like I did twice last year, but I don't really have it in me these days.

Anyway, I have a great summery dish for you today: scallops, avocado, scallions, lime, tomatoes and cilantro, all served up in a giant cocktail glass. This is actually something my mother usually brings to Christmas Eve dinner as one of the compulsory fish courses, and the picture below is from last year's celebration. My brother's godmother, Julie, has this fabulous giant cocktail glass that she serves this in every year, but you could just as easily use individual margarita glasses or make due with less flashy bowls. Even though it's part of our Christmas tradition, I want to share this with you all now as the ingredients certainly lend themselves to warm weather. I definitely would love to make this with the summer tomato crop!



A cold seafood salad of sorts, this is almost akin to ceviche, although the scallops are briefly cooked before being doused in citrus. What makes it a likely choice for hot weather its ease of preparation. As long as you don't mind a fair bit of chopping, this dish is a breeze– with less than two minutes of actual cooking time, you won't even have to break a sweat. Once the scallops have been simmered, you just toss it all together for a bright, colorful and delicious dish.


Scallop-Avocado Appetizer
(from USA Weekend, Eat Smart, by Jean Carpenter, 2006)

1 pound dry-pack small bay scallops (preferably those that have not been frozen)
1 cup chopped tomato
1 cup sliced green onions
1 avocado, cubed
1 cup chopped cilantro
6 tbsp fresh lime juice (two lies)
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp hot pepper flakes, or to taste
¼ tsp salt, or two taste

In a small pan, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add scallops, reduce heat and simmer 1½ minutes– do not overcook. Drain and refrigerate for 2 hours. Combine all ingredients. Serve in cocktail glasses.

what I cooked for the holidays pt 2

Wow. I really have been putting off this particular blog entry. That's right, it's time to talk Christmas dinner. And I wonder why no one is interested in reading my blog.



I made a few things that I've discussed on here before. First, this amazing recipe for maple syrup lemon brussels sprouts with bacon, as first discussed here.





In the first picture, you'll also catch a glimpse of some carrots, which were simply steamed and dressed with lemon and olive oil. Standard.

I also made a variation on those olive oil glazed potatoes first written about way back in July.





Of course the main event was the prime rib, which we made using a Craig Claibourne recipe. It was predictably juicy meaty delicious, and the simple horseradish sour cream that went with it was tangy and delicious. Less successful was the yorkshire pudding.



Does that look like a god awful spongy mess or what? I don't know if I just didn't have the drippings hot enough when I poured in the batter or what, but this was just a weird greasy omelet. I won't rule out that the pudding wasn't just a victim of me trying to prepare one too many dishes, but I definitely would skip this next time around.

We also made Thomas Keller's creamed pearl onions, which were labor intensive but delicious, if a little over reduced. Luckily, even with a less than perfectly silky cream sauce, pearl onions with bacon and chives are still delicious.



Check out the close up for some nutmeg action.



For dessert I went super low key, in order to accommodate Matt's gluten free diet without pulling out too many bells and whistles. The Smitten Kitchen's wayyyyy-easier-than-pie
roasted pears were a rustic yet elegant, easy yet delicious end to the meal.



Of course, when it comes to Christmas, you're there for the roast. Here's the recipe.

Prime Rib
(adapted from Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Cookbook, 1981, p. 165)

Roast
1 prime rib rib roast, ribs removed
¼ cup cold water
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Remove the roast from the refrigerator 2 ½ to 4 hours before cooking. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
2. Place roast in an open shallow roasting pan, fat side up. Season with salt and pepper. Pour water around the meat. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
3. Reduce oven heat to 400 degrees and continue baking for 25 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees and bake for 15 minutes for rare beef, 30 minutes for medium rare beef, longer for well done. Carefully transfer the roast to a serving dish and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.
4. Pour off all the fat from the roasting pan, but save about ½ cup for preparing Yorkshire pudding. Serve the beef sliced with Yorkshire pudding and grated horseradish or horseradish cream on the side, if desired.

Yorkshire Pudding
1 cup milk
⅛ teaspoon grated nutmeg
4 large eggs, about ¾ cup when measured
½ cup beef drippings

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine the milk and nutmeg in a mixing bowl. Put the eggs in another bowl and beat until frothy. Ad this to the milk and stir.
3. Pour the beef drippings into a heat-proof baking dish and place on the stove over moderate heat. When quite hot and almost smoking, add the batter. Smooth it over with a rubber spatula. Place the pudding in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Turn the baking dish as the cooking proceeds for even cooking.

Horseradish Cream
½ cup freshly grated horseradish
¾ cup sour cream
salt to taste

Blend all the ingredients and serve.

buttery mushrooms and parsleyed polenta

Here, Gourmet magazine and Smitten Kitchen combine forces to bring you a predictably awesome dish of garlicy broiled mushrooms. Really, both of them are pretty much food gospel for me, so whenever Deb talks up something from Gourmet, it always goes to the top of my "to-make" list.

(If you know me, you won't be surprised to know that I have an obscenely long "to-make" list. And also "to eat at" list. And "to read" list. And "movie-to-watch" list. It all springs from my mild obsessive compulsive tendencies.)

Anyway. Food blog. Right.

Mushrooms and butter and garlic oh my!

Really, it doesn't get any simpler or tastier than this. Clean off your mushrooms and toss them in a pan with minced garlic, butter, and capers. Roast in a 450˚ oven for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with lemon juice and chopped parsley for a rich but easy side dish.



I served mine with some creamy polenta and some more parsley, but I'm sure it'd be even better with crusty bread. Any time you soak up a yummy sauce with bread the meal becomes 46% more enjoyable. Scientific fact. Seriously.

salmon fritatta

So awhile back my parents had a big box of smoked salmon, and we wanted something quick for dinner. I made up a great smoked salmon frittata based off this Ina Garten recipe.

I changed things up a little by leaving out the goat cheese and adding some grape tomatoes and chives, but the basic idea is pretty simple. Saute onions in butter. Scramble eggs. Add cream, salmon, scallions and tomatoes. Bake for 50 minutes at 350˚.



It was a nice hearty omelet, and with a nice green salad it was perfect for a light dinner. I think this would be good with lox, but the smoked salmon that we had was packed in oil, so it wasn't the bright pink kind that you would expect. Either way, it was definitely good.

sun dried tomato infused spinach

Nathan and I threw together this tasty spinach dish with some garlic, sun dried tomatoes and lemon. Initially I was probably just going to toss chopped sun drieds in with the steamed spinach, but as we rehydrated the tomatoes in some hot water, I had an interesting idea. What if I used that tomato infused water to cook the spinach?

It turns out that the end result is both very tasty and somehow strangely reminiscent of Asian flavors. I think the tomato water functioned a little bit like soy sauce, salty and rich with a savory umami funk.



I simply sauteed the spinach with a decent amount of chopped garlic, some lightly squeezed lemon slices, the sun dried tomatoes and their broth. I often squeeze lemon over my spinach, and God knows I love to use garlic, but the addition of the sun dried tomatoes made this dish a whole new experience of deliciousness. I was very pleased with this new flavor combination, and it is one that I will try to explore more in the future.

ravioli with creamy butternut squash sauce and crispy sage

So remember when I did a whole big post rounding up all sorts of pasta recipes? Well I hope you liked it, because it turns out I forgot about one of them. So, without further ado, I give you ravioli with butternut squash sauce and crispy sage.

check out the rare daytime photo! love that natural light.

I mainly followed a recipe for a butternut squash sauce, but I took the idea for using fresh sage leaves rather than the dried ones from this recipe here. If I made this again, (which I would definitely like to do when I have some more butternut squash), I don't think I'd be able to resist further following the second recipe by throwing in some bacon. In fact, I am pretty shocked that I didn't do that in the first place. I must not have had any in the fridge– stranger things have happened.



I roasted the butternut squash with cloves of garlic and then pureed it all with a little milk, pasta water and romano cheese. This made for a nice thick pasta sauce that went really well with some Borgatti ravioli. The mellow roasted garlic really compliments the sweetness of the squash, and the saltiness of the cheese rounds everything out.



Topping this with fried sage leaves gave the dish some much needed textural and color contrast. Just the way I like it.

gouda mashed potatoes with bacon and crispy sage

I appologize for the less than stellar photographs, but let me assure you: these pictures depict the best thing to happen to mashed potatoes since they first discovered milk and butter: cheesy bacon and sage mashed potatoes.



This was, as you might already suspect, a decadently rich dish, even without boiling the potatoes in stock as the recipe instructed. (I just used plain old water since I figured there was quite enough going on with these potatoes already.)

We peeled and chopped our potatoes, and then boiled them until cooked through. After draining the potatoes, we put them back in the pot and turned the heat back on. We stirred the potatoes for a few minutes to help dry them out before the mashing began, and then added a couple tablespoons of butter and a couple of cups of grated gouda cheese. From here on out, this was all Nathan, as he lovingly mashed the the potatoes into creamy and cheesy goodness with the electric mixer, adding a splash of warm milk to bind it all together. Meanwhile, I was frying up some crispy bacon bits and sage leaves for the garnish.

I normally find gouda to be a little overpowering with its smokiness, but the mashed potatoes definitely tempered and mellowed the cheese, and then end result was smooth and delicious. The bacon and sage added salt, color and texture to really kick things up a notch.

This was like eating an awesome stuffed baked potato, only it felt super classy instead of like something off the TGIFriday's menu. Frizzled sage leaves tend to have that effect. Plus, Nathan did a really excellent job mashing these up for optimal silk smoothness. The boy makes peerless potatoes. What more could I ask for?

purple cabbage shallot puree, polenta and steak with brown beer mustard sauce

This dinner was definitely one of the best things I have cooked this year. From left to right we have a nice rare steak with a beer and grainy mustard sauce, creamy polenta with parsley, and a purple cabbage and shallot puree. I won't beat around the bush. It. Was. Awesome.



This meal came about when I saw this recipe. Unlike the gloppy looking purplish goo that I came up with, the photo that accompanied original recipe was so damn pretty that I couldn't believe it wasn't actually a dessert. I when I realized that it was actually the prettiest cabbage that I've ever seen, I knew what I was making with some of my seemingly endless supply of purple food co-op cabbage. (Seriously, that stuff doesn't go bad, and it multiplies like Jesus with the loaves and fishes when you try to chop it up!)

While my dish didn't quite compare visually, I am happy to report that it was super delicious. I'd even go so far as to say that this may be the tastiest cabbage preparation I've ever eaten. The cabbage is cooked slowly with plenty of chopped shallots in some olive oil, so everything turns sweet and mellow as the shallots caramelize. Then you blend everything up with some milk or half and half to make a nice smooth puree.

I am telling you, this was such a pleasant surprise. I never knew that cabbage could be so silky and sweet. I couldn't stop eating it. And, even if it wasn't as pretty as I thought it would be, I definitely enjoyed having something purple on my plate. What can I say, sometimes I am girly like that.



I used this nice Belgian beer to make a sauce for my steak. I swear to you that I got the idea for a beer and mustard pan sauce from some recipe I saw on Serious Eats or perhaps some other food blog, but I can't seem to find the original anywhere. So I guess I will just have to take all the credit. Perhaps I merely dreamed that I read about a delicious steak, seared on high heat and then left to rest while the pan is deglazed with a nice ale and some grainy mustard. Sounds like a pretty sweet dream to me!



The steak was perfectly rare on the inside with a nice crust on the outside, and the beer and mustard sauce thickened up into a wonderfully rich glaze. It was very easy to make up this sauce, and it was a good way to scrape up all those lovely brown bits that are left behind in the pan after you sear the steak. A pan sauce is such a great thing, and I really should try to make them more often.



Paired with some easy, cheesy polenta and a nice green parsley garnish, the steak and cabbage were a great dinner, and one of my 2011 dining highlights to date!

prosciutto fried pears

I don't know if this is something that people do, or just a crazy idea that I had, but I had some prosciutto and I had some juicy ripe pears, and I decided to play match maker. I quartered the bartletts, and then wrapped each piece in very thinly sliced prosciutto. Toss those babies in a hot frying pan, maybe with a little melted butter, and let it sizzle. The sugars in the pear will help caramelize the prosciutto, and the pears warm up and get nice and soft.

This turned out to be pretty tasty, a classic mix of salty and sweet. I particularly liked the crispiness of the prosciutto, which is something you don't get in the classic melon/prosciutto combo. In that regard in the very least, I think this fried pear update is an improvement.

Has anyone heard of anything like this before? Regardless, I think prosciutto fried pears are a pretty good idea, and they honestly couldn't be easier. We're talking three ingredients and ten minutes max. Toss it on a bed of arugula for a fancy salad, or serve with some sort of crunchy cookie and some dulce de leche ice cream. I could definitely see a lot of cool things happening with prosciutto fried pears. If you like the sound of these, you should give them a shot at home and let me know how it goes!