While it would be nice to say that everything I cook is perfect, we all know that world of food simply doesn't work out that way. Some things turn out just the way they should, some flop spectacularly. And then sometimes, things fall somewhere in between. Like Sunday night.
Alan, in Seattle for business from Austin (where he works for a company I won't name, but think "exploding batteries") came over for dinner. He mentioned several times that he wanted fish, so I picked up some fresh salmon at the farmer's market from the young and friendly fish guy.
The night started a bit rocky - someone overslept and only got to my house because his phone rang. By the time I grilled the fish (using Cooks' glazed recipe), it was dark. At first pass, the fish was barely even cooked. Strike one. The corn salad (from Cooking for Mr. Latte) was great. And the sliced heirloom tomatoes with fresh basil, fresh mozarella, olive oil and a few sprinkles of truffle sea salt was not only pretty, but delicious.
I made a lemon meringue pie for dessert. For only the second time in several years of cooking from Cooks Illustrated, the recipe just didn't work. The crust was delicious (regular pie crust rolled in crushed graham crackers) and the meringue turned out well. But the filling, oh the poor filling, was a runny mess. Luckily, it was still tasty and edible, meaning that the gaffe was user error rather than a bad recipe: I just didn't cook the cornstarch, sugar and water (the first step in the filling recipe) long enough. After a few pieces were removed, I noticed that the filling had spread to cover the entire bottom of the pie plate. The meringue had broken off from its anchor of crust, floating in the middle of lemon, almost like the floating island dessert (french), only not planned and not nearly as pretty.
I don't think Alan really noticed the gaffes. He ate well, mentioning something about home cooked meals and how he never got them. Alas, you win some, you lose some.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Monday, August 21, 2006
Conquering Fear of Pie Crust
Ever since I,Aeove known Jill, she,Aeos always talked about her fear of pie crusts, to which I,Aeove regularly responded with ,Aeuit,Aeos so easy!,Ae? In fact, our very first conversation at the IDC onsite/offsite many years ago could have gone along these lines:
Jill: ,AeuWould you like some candy?,Ae?
Schelley: ,AeuOooh, yes. I like the pretty cellophane bag that you've brought the candy in,Ae?.
Jill: ,AeuBetter than these stale cookies they're feeding us.,Ae?
Schelley: ,AeuI could do much better. I have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe; I really enjoy baking.,Ae?
Jill: ,AeuReally? You know, pie crust scares me.,Ae?
Schelley: ,AeuOh, it,Aeos so easy! I can teach you.,Ae?
So I may be slightly exaggerating the flow of that exact conversation, but I know that those very words were said over the span of many, many conversations.
Finally, I made good on my promise, and on Sunday, much to Jill,Aeos delight, we made pies, cherry pies, per Jamie,Aeos request.
The pie making was tons of fun. Making pie isn,Aeot difficult ,Aei but for some reason, pie crust has developed a nasty reputation. I think it,Aeos bad recipes, or people who just freak out at the amount of fat (butter, lard, shortening, etc.) required and try to do short cuts, or overmix, or lose patience, or any other number of excuses.
We did a little experimentation, a la Cooks Illustrated. Jill didn,Aeot have enough flour for two pies, but did have a package of biscuit flour (it was very white, and I suspect refined differently than flour normally used for baking). The dough using regular flour (King Arthur, self-rising or whatever it,Aeos called) was perfect, easy to work with, with the right balance of butter and salt; the dough using the special biscuit flour was puffy, tasted slightly sour, like a biscuit, and difficult to work with, as in structurally, it fell apart at the slightest touch. Each baked differently: the regular pie (or what we referred to as ,Aeujill,Aeos pie,Ae?) was beautifully golden brown; the pie with biscuit flour (,Aeumy pie,Ae?), darkened too much. According to expert pie eater Jamie, my pie tasted as expected: like biscuits wrapped around cherry pie filling. Not bad, but just not optimal.
Jill's pie was perfect. She brought it for dessert to Lee Dicks,Aeo house (which was an amazing dinner all on its own), and paired with Lee Dicks,Aeo pluot ice cream, was fabulous. The cherries were completely intact, juicy and plump in their cooked goodness and the crust was flaky and delicious.
I,Aeom proud to say that Jill is no longer afraid of pie crust. This is the second person I,Aeove made pies with since moving to Seattle (Tony was the first, over Memorial Day weekend). I would like to say that my pie mentoring is done, but I suspect that there will be others.
Jill: ,AeuWould you like some candy?,Ae?
Schelley: ,AeuOooh, yes. I like the pretty cellophane bag that you've brought the candy in,Ae?.
Jill: ,AeuBetter than these stale cookies they're feeding us.,Ae?
Schelley: ,AeuI could do much better. I have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe; I really enjoy baking.,Ae?
Jill: ,AeuReally? You know, pie crust scares me.,Ae?
Schelley: ,AeuOh, it,Aeos so easy! I can teach you.,Ae?
So I may be slightly exaggerating the flow of that exact conversation, but I know that those very words were said over the span of many, many conversations.
Finally, I made good on my promise, and on Sunday, much to Jill,Aeos delight, we made pies, cherry pies, per Jamie,Aeos request.
The pie making was tons of fun. Making pie isn,Aeot difficult ,Aei but for some reason, pie crust has developed a nasty reputation. I think it,Aeos bad recipes, or people who just freak out at the amount of fat (butter, lard, shortening, etc.) required and try to do short cuts, or overmix, or lose patience, or any other number of excuses.
We did a little experimentation, a la Cooks Illustrated. Jill didn,Aeot have enough flour for two pies, but did have a package of biscuit flour (it was very white, and I suspect refined differently than flour normally used for baking). The dough using regular flour (King Arthur, self-rising or whatever it,Aeos called) was perfect, easy to work with, with the right balance of butter and salt; the dough using the special biscuit flour was puffy, tasted slightly sour, like a biscuit, and difficult to work with, as in structurally, it fell apart at the slightest touch. Each baked differently: the regular pie (or what we referred to as ,Aeujill,Aeos pie,Ae?) was beautifully golden brown; the pie with biscuit flour (,Aeumy pie,Ae?), darkened too much. According to expert pie eater Jamie, my pie tasted as expected: like biscuits wrapped around cherry pie filling. Not bad, but just not optimal.
Jill's pie was perfect. She brought it for dessert to Lee Dicks,Aeo house (which was an amazing dinner all on its own), and paired with Lee Dicks,Aeo pluot ice cream, was fabulous. The cherries were completely intact, juicy and plump in their cooked goodness and the crust was flaky and delicious.
I,Aeom proud to say that Jill is no longer afraid of pie crust. This is the second person I,Aeove made pies with since moving to Seattle (Tony was the first, over Memorial Day weekend). I would like to say that my pie mentoring is done, but I suspect that there will be others.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Jai's Visit!
Jai came to Seattle for business. He flew in a day early, which meant that we could do one of the things that we do best together: eat.
Because he lives in London where Mexican food is not great (unlike Indian, which I will always be jealous about), and because I'm a nice person, I made him Mexican for dinner. It was a great meal, although I didn't quite get the heat high enough for even my tastes, let alone his penchant for nose running heat. Salsa and guacamole to start, then enchiladas stuffed with beans, cilantro, cheese and ancho chiles covered in tomatilla sauce (the green one), and of course, the requisite pinto beans and rice.
We also got in lunch at Ooba's (which I think I like better than El Chupacabre) with a few of his colleagues, who I'm not sure had ever feasted on decent Mexican, if any. At least, I've never had to explain the difference between a taco and a burrito. Hopefully, I was able to influence our friends in that little island across the ocean :)
Later that week, dinner at Shamiana, a decent Indian place. Actually, by our standards, Shamiana is great, but by Jai's standards, where the diviest of dive Indian place is amazing, the Kirkland place was ok. I understand: I miss the Bay Area taquerias, where the diviest of dive is amazing.
Because he lives in London where Mexican food is not great (unlike Indian, which I will always be jealous about), and because I'm a nice person, I made him Mexican for dinner. It was a great meal, although I didn't quite get the heat high enough for even my tastes, let alone his penchant for nose running heat. Salsa and guacamole to start, then enchiladas stuffed with beans, cilantro, cheese and ancho chiles covered in tomatilla sauce (the green one), and of course, the requisite pinto beans and rice.
We also got in lunch at Ooba's (which I think I like better than El Chupacabre) with a few of his colleagues, who I'm not sure had ever feasted on decent Mexican, if any. At least, I've never had to explain the difference between a taco and a burrito. Hopefully, I was able to influence our friends in that little island across the ocean :)
Later that week, dinner at Shamiana, a decent Indian place. Actually, by our standards, Shamiana is great, but by Jai's standards, where the diviest of dive Indian place is amazing, the Kirkland place was ok. I understand: I miss the Bay Area taquerias, where the diviest of dive is amazing.
a recipe from growing up
One of my favorites when growing up was my mom's skirt steaks. She would unroll the long, skinny pieces of beef, brush with bbq sauce, lay a few pieces of bacon on top, roll the meat back up, use a metal skewer to hold it all together and cook on the grill. Even as an adult, I stil have a preference for skirt steak. (for example, Ooba's uses the cut of steak in their carne asada burritos, which I love).
Last weekend, while shopping at Madison Market (good market with huge selection of bulk items and big emphasis on organic and health food), I came across skirt steaks in the meat section. It took me about 5 seconds to remember that I had bacon in the fridge and about 10 seconds to grab the skirt steaks and a bottle of Tom Douglas' bbq sauce (I bought the pale ale variety). Thus, dinner was born.
I still really enjoyed - skirt steak is a decent cut of meat. And what's not to like about bacon? But I also noticed a few problems. For example, IMO, red meat is best when on the rare end, but rare is not necessarily good for bacon. I suppose that cooking on a lower temp would work, although problematic on the gas grill that I use. I also suppose that partially cooking the bacon first would be helpful...
Last weekend, while shopping at Madison Market (good market with huge selection of bulk items and big emphasis on organic and health food), I came across skirt steaks in the meat section. It took me about 5 seconds to remember that I had bacon in the fridge and about 10 seconds to grab the skirt steaks and a bottle of Tom Douglas' bbq sauce (I bought the pale ale variety). Thus, dinner was born.
I still really enjoyed - skirt steak is a decent cut of meat. And what's not to like about bacon? But I also noticed a few problems. For example, IMO, red meat is best when on the rare end, but rare is not necessarily good for bacon. I suppose that cooking on a lower temp would work, although problematic on the gas grill that I use. I also suppose that partially cooking the bacon first would be helpful...
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
bbq! just a few notes
I am loving having a bbq again. I bought blade steak at Trader Joe's the other night, which according to Cook's Illustrated, was perfect for shish kebabs. I marinated the cubed steak in a quick asian style marinade, skewered with onions, pineapple, orange and yellow bell peppers, then threw on the grill. A very perfect meal. A few weeks ago, I made Cooks glazed salmon, again excellent.
Although, the gas grill has problems with heat regulation. A few weeks ago, it just didn't heat up enough. Now, it heats up as hot as possible. Which works for some recipes, but not for others.
I guess I need to finally figure out the charcoal grill. And the smoker that's also on our patio. I even bought a new cookbook, Smoke & Spice, specifically for cooking with smoke that my bbq idols Karen and Evan recommended. I don't think I'm going to make it to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving - if the weather and other things cooperate, it would be funs of ton to brine and grill the bird. Takers?
Although, the gas grill has problems with heat regulation. A few weeks ago, it just didn't heat up enough. Now, it heats up as hot as possible. Which works for some recipes, but not for others.
I guess I need to finally figure out the charcoal grill. And the smoker that's also on our patio. I even bought a new cookbook, Smoke & Spice, specifically for cooking with smoke that my bbq idols Karen and Evan recommended. I don't think I'm going to make it to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving - if the weather and other things cooperate, it would be funs of ton to brine and grill the bird. Takers?
Monday, August 07, 2006
Visitors and a Party
Several weeks ago, Nilay talked me into having a housewarming party. "Set the stage for your move to Seattle. Invite everyone you know." A few weeks later, the evite went out:
,AeuThe boxes are unpacked. The kitchen works. And Lolita has now been properly registered with the powers that be of auto license plates in the state of Washington. That means only one thing: it is time to properly celebrate my habitation of a new home. While breaking a bottle of champagne on the, er, door or cutting a giant ribbon in the hallway with an equally giant pair of scissors might officially declare the Park Rose Terrace home, both are just not fitting. On the other hand, a housewarming party seems extremely palatable. And not some cheesey fly-by-night affair with stale chips and Pabst, but a proper event with real appetizers and margaritas and music and other stuff.
Interested? Come on, you know that you don,Aeot have much else to do on a beautiful, "rain free" Seattle evening. And besides which, you encouraged me to move to Seattle (ok, some of you, and you know who you are), so you need to help me officially establish myself as a Seattelite. Seattelian. Seattle person. You get the picture.,Ae?
To ensure a proper celebration, Nilay, Carrie and Emil came up for a long weekend. In addition to the party, we didn't so much as see the sights as play, eat and drink. So, some food/spirit highlights:
-Matt's in the Market. Another fabulous meal. Starters of clams and musells with a bottle of S. Anderson Blanc de Noirs. Salmon and lentils (one of my all-time favorite combinations) with a sauvignon blanc. A rich chocolate dessert, including a lovely Guinness and port.
-Friday night drinks. Drinks at my place after Matt's. I cracked opened a bottle of huervas (spanish liquor, similar to a jaeger but much lighter and drinkable), while the others concocted interesting combinations. I also want to note that all three served as alcohol mules, bringing me California priced vodka and tequila (it was only when I drug Carrie into one of the government alcohol stores did she she finally believe my stories about the high prices and limited selection). A knock from the neighbors at 1:30 in the morning was a bit alarming, until we found out that they wanted to join the party.
-Venus Brunch. I've been to Venus once before for brunch, and loved it just as much a second time. Venus is connected to the bar Mars, so make an excellent bloody mary (as well as other breakfast drinks). Plus, they make great brunch food, including whole fried and seasoned small potatoes and mushroom gravy and biscuits.
-Linda's Brunch. Again, a repeat. The greasy breakfast and pitcher of Mac and Jac helped with the hangover from the night before. Which reminds me, B Complex is a very good hangover fix; pop a pill, drink some water and sleep.
-Housewarming. Highlight of the party - margaritas. Plus a ton of wine and beer and non-alcoholic drinks (I even made mint lemonade for the non-drinkers in the crowd). Food: my bean dip layered with guacamole, sour cream, salsa, cheddar and olives; a cheese plate; tomato and basil bruschetta; grilled shrimp; blondies; brownies; and someone brought the perfect and fabulous Dahlia Loung coconut cream pie.
Finally, a huge thank you to Carrie, Emil and Nilay for all of their pre- and post-party help. This was definitely the first party that I'd thrown in a long time in which I had anyone to help, and the extra hands were sooo appreciated. Plus, I am so happy that all three came up - we had a ton of fun and I was truly sorry to see everyone leave. I can't wait until we can hang out together again...I have incredible friends.
,AeuThe boxes are unpacked. The kitchen works. And Lolita has now been properly registered with the powers that be of auto license plates in the state of Washington. That means only one thing: it is time to properly celebrate my habitation of a new home. While breaking a bottle of champagne on the, er, door or cutting a giant ribbon in the hallway with an equally giant pair of scissors might officially declare the Park Rose Terrace home, both are just not fitting. On the other hand, a housewarming party seems extremely palatable. And not some cheesey fly-by-night affair with stale chips and Pabst, but a proper event with real appetizers and margaritas and music and other stuff.
Interested? Come on, you know that you don,Aeot have much else to do on a beautiful, "rain free" Seattle evening. And besides which, you encouraged me to move to Seattle (ok, some of you, and you know who you are), so you need to help me officially establish myself as a Seattelite. Seattelian. Seattle person. You get the picture.,Ae?
To ensure a proper celebration, Nilay, Carrie and Emil came up for a long weekend. In addition to the party, we didn't so much as see the sights as play, eat and drink. So, some food/spirit highlights:
-Matt's in the Market. Another fabulous meal. Starters of clams and musells with a bottle of S. Anderson Blanc de Noirs. Salmon and lentils (one of my all-time favorite combinations) with a sauvignon blanc. A rich chocolate dessert, including a lovely Guinness and port.
-Friday night drinks. Drinks at my place after Matt's. I cracked opened a bottle of huervas (spanish liquor, similar to a jaeger but much lighter and drinkable), while the others concocted interesting combinations. I also want to note that all three served as alcohol mules, bringing me California priced vodka and tequila (it was only when I drug Carrie into one of the government alcohol stores did she she finally believe my stories about the high prices and limited selection). A knock from the neighbors at 1:30 in the morning was a bit alarming, until we found out that they wanted to join the party.
-Venus Brunch. I've been to Venus once before for brunch, and loved it just as much a second time. Venus is connected to the bar Mars, so make an excellent bloody mary (as well as other breakfast drinks). Plus, they make great brunch food, including whole fried and seasoned small potatoes and mushroom gravy and biscuits.
-Linda's Brunch. Again, a repeat. The greasy breakfast and pitcher of Mac and Jac helped with the hangover from the night before. Which reminds me, B Complex is a very good hangover fix; pop a pill, drink some water and sleep.
-Housewarming. Highlight of the party - margaritas. Plus a ton of wine and beer and non-alcoholic drinks (I even made mint lemonade for the non-drinkers in the crowd). Food: my bean dip layered with guacamole, sour cream, salsa, cheddar and olives; a cheese plate; tomato and basil bruschetta; grilled shrimp; blondies; brownies; and someone brought the perfect and fabulous Dahlia Loung coconut cream pie.
Finally, a huge thank you to Carrie, Emil and Nilay for all of their pre- and post-party help. This was definitely the first party that I'd thrown in a long time in which I had anyone to help, and the extra hands were sooo appreciated. Plus, I am so happy that all three came up - we had a ton of fun and I was truly sorry to see everyone leave. I can't wait until we can hang out together again...I have incredible friends.
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