Moroccan style vegetable stew (p.246)

So people told me that the Moroccan-style vegetable stew (p.246) was particularly good, so I was looking forward to trying it. This is a fairly complex recipe with a TON of ingredients. I think it would be best to make if you had a garden--which we don't. In fact, I have a black thumb--I kill plants that my mom says are impossible to kill, which is depressing.

I also knew that I just had to make myself happy with this one--my favorite tester hates cardamom and chickpeas, so he was extremely unlikely to like this dish.

The first step of the recipe is to make your spice mix--cumin, chili, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Frankly, this mixture was scaring me a little--it smelled a lot more like I was making a pie than a stew. And I don't like cinnamon. I know--everybody likes cinnamon. But I never have...




The mixture was then mixed over a butternut squash and one potato. It didn't seem like it was going to be enough spice, but they are pretty potent spices.






Carrots, onions, raisins, and garlic were then mixed in. The mix is getting stranger and stranger...plus chicken broth (veg broth would make it vegetarian)...but it doesn't seem like there will be enough broth to cook all of these veggies!





You then have to place foil over the surface and cover it with a lid. I thought this was a bizarre step. And surprisingly difficult. The pot kept wanting to burn me.




You then mix in zucchini, chickpeas, olives, salt, and pepper. I love zucchini and olives...but with cinnamon?? And nutmeg??




I made some couscous. It was surprisingly good! Strange...extremely strange...but good! Is this what northern African cuisine is like? Anyone know? This recipe kept really well--in fact, it was even better the next day.

Beef satay with peanut sauce (p. 81), Potato leek soup (p. 130), and Vichyssoise (p.130)

Every day I look at the wooden skewers that sit on my counter. I never knew what to do with them. So I decided to make Beef satay with peanut sauce (p. 81)--conveniently using wooden skewers!

You have to soak the skewers for at least an hour before using them. I soaked them in the sink because I didn't have a bowl big enough to lay them in.

I decided to combine the coconut milk, shallots, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, cumin, and coriander in the food processor...the smallest food processor in the world.

The before shot:



And after:




I have to say that coconut milk is one of those ingredients that I just don't like working with. It creeps me out. I mean, come on, it's half liquid and half solid. I'm not sure how to use it--do you mix it up first? Try to use an equal amount of both? Just use the solid or the liquid? I have no idea! (**update**I actually like working with coconut milk now--it really has a tasty flavor and adds a lot to recipes)



You take the mix from the food processor and dump the strips of beef into it...there is a ton more marinade than beef. It's easier to slice the beef thin if you put in the freezer for fifteen minutes or so. Otherwise, it's a fight to get the beef sliced. You need to leave this out for at least an hour--I left it out for a few.



While this is marinating, you can make the sauce. This recipe uses a lot of ingredients that you will have if you make a lot of Asian food, but might not be a staple of your pantry if you don't, such as curry paste and my personal enemy, fish sauce. Fish sauce is horrifying. We keep it in the very back of our pantry but I would keep it in a locked box if I could. While getting it for this recipe I spilled some on my hand and almost threw up. I washed and washed my hands but the smell wouldn't even fade! Imagine rotting fish--and double it--and you have fish sauce.

Here is the sauce cooking--apparently the coconut milk doesn't play well with others.




And after cooking--nice and smooth...but still to watery--or at least, too watery for me. So I cooked it down further...



At this point, the beef is tossed in the marinade and threaded through the skewers. It took me a while to do this and apparently it was a problem...Josh later told me that if you don't want the skewers to burn you have to have them really wet. I also read in Ready_made magazine that they won't burn if you put aluminum foil on the revealed ends.






We've never grilled skewers before, so we didn't know how to place them. The solution was to randomly place them. One of them got the penthouse shelf.




Josh did the grilling...TJOC says they only need 2-3 minutes to cook, which made me nervous. We didn't brush them with vegetable oil because I couldn't figure out how to do it without taking off the marinade!




Yum! The finished product. Cooked perfectly but with burned skewers :(





After this picture was taken, I dropped the twin to this plate and it shattered like nothing I've ever seen before! Shrapnel EVERYWHERE--in the food, in the stove, all over the floor, cutting my hands. It was terrible. After cleaning the mess, we threw out the companion plate--I never wanted to go through that again!


Since the kitchen was already dirty and I had to wait for the meat to marinate I made Potato Leek Soup (p. 130) which I transitioned into Vichyssoise (p.130). I LOVE vichyssoise (which I have no idea how to pronounce)--but I don't like it cold. Cold soup is gross to me. But vichy tastes delicious hot. My uncle Denny and aunt Ginny make a great version of this soup--but I've never attempted it before.


Leeks can be intimidating. I mean, heck, there is a pokemon who has a leek as a weapon.


Pretty much, you just have to soak them (cut up) in some water. It gets the silt out. Leeks are like tastier, lighter onions--or like enormous scallions. The thing that makes me angry about leeks is that you end up throwing out about half of what you paid for--only part of them are edible!



Here are a few pictures of the leek-y potato-y mixture. It smelled so delicious!





So, after you blend it, you get potato leek soup. If you add cream, you get vichy! And who doesn't want to add cream? Cream is so yummy! Look how smooth it is...





Another new item in my kitchen...the immersion blender! I love it! So much less dangerous than pouring soup from a stainless steel pot into a blender--and then blending--so scary. The blender solves the problem--plus it makes excellent whipped cream!

Poultry stock (p. 117) take two

First off, Josh decided that part of his stimulus check would be in vested in a KitchenAid ice cream machine. KitchenAid is so cool and has so many awesome accessories. This is the first one that we have invested in but I lust after the meat grinder and the pasta roller.




Some of you probably remember my poultry stock (take one). I included the liver, which is apparently not a good thing. So I started over... and we have Poultry stock (p. 117) take two.

This time the chicken didn't even HAVE variety meats--only the neck--so the offal problem would have never occurred with this particular chicken.

I like the idea of making chicken stock this way because a chicken is incredibly cheap. And as an added bonus, when you are done you have a chicken's worth of cooked poultry to use in other recipes!

I wish this was a smell-o-computer...because my house smelled delicious...








Look at all this extra chicken! I used some of the boiled chicken to make an awesome curry chicken for sandwiches. I modeled my sandwich after the curry chicken sandwiches at Paradise Cafe. The sandwich at Paradise was really good but cost $8--for a half sandwich! And no drink! I was horrified! Frankly, my version was better and a hellava cheaper.



Look how much stock this recipe made! 5 containers. I really wish we had a chest freezer...we always end up throwing some of it away because we can't get it all used before it turns. Frustrating. But this time the stock had a full, chicken-y flavor without any hints of liver!



Stay tuned! I'll probably get four or five blogs posted in one fell swoop (and by the by--what does the "fell" in that statement mean?).

Ground beef tacos (p.188)

So...tacos...yum! Who doesn't like tacos? What motivated me try making Ground beef tacos (p.188)?

In one word, Rachel. My best friend Rachel was going on and on about how easy tacos are to make from scratch and how much better they are than using a taco seasoning mix. I pretended I knew what she was talking about and immediately decided to make from scratch tacos.

Apparently, taco seasoning is just garlic cloves, chili powder, cumin, and coriander.

And it's a hellava lot better than taco seasoning mix--Rachel was totally right! I really recommend making these--I truly don't think they took any more time using the premade mix.

The start--ground beef and onion...so simple!



Yum...the ground beef, tomato sauce and seasonings...cooking up nicely!







The world's tastiest fruity vegetable...the lovable avocado...





Yum...look at those tasty pieces of jalapeño...

Grilled Lamb Chops (p. 493)

Lamb chops (p. 493) were on a sale at the grocery store and I was sure there were some lamb chop recipes in TJOC. And there were!!

Lamb chops are so cute :) They look like tiny tiny steaks. Josh was concerned about having enough but I'm not as big of a fan of lamb as he is--so I let him have all three of them.







I'm not positive why these are so spaced out on the grill. The recipe is really easy--take lamb chops, rub the sides with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and grill!






The final product:




If I had a better camera and more attractive plates, this could have been a really attractive photo !!

I'm getting caught up on former (unwritten) blogs so check back!!

Pork Adobo (p. 502)

Obviously, I am behind on these :) I'm catching up slowly! I posted three this morning and I have about another five on the docket! I have great news to announce soon though...but not yet!

So my dad came to visit (which was great!) and I decided to make pork for him since he is a pork person. I made Pork Adobo (p. 502). The other reason I made this? I found pork shoulder steaks on sale at the store--although I had to half this recipe.

My favorite part of this recipe is this: The first line says that "Adobo is a marinade of chile peppers, paprika, and vinegar..."--but this recipe doesn't have any paprika in it. I would think that if you are going to mention a set of spices that were intrinsic to a recipe, you would expect that they would all be IN the recipe.


I didn't have any cider vinegar...so instead I used a mixture of the vinegars I did have...red wine vinegar and white (my mom always has non-politically correct things to say about white vinegar--suffice it to say, she doesn't think it should be cooked with).





The marinated steaks, with the tomatoes. YUM!





The cooked pork, without the sauce.





Reducing the sauce...Before....



Reducing the sauce...After...






It was really delicious! I usually don't like cinnamon, but this flavor was complex and tasty. There weren't any leftovers :)

Baked Bacon (p. 508)

Bacon. Oh, how I love bacon. But it's such a pain in the rear to fry it up--it makes a mess, it takes a long time, and you have to hover over it the whole time, so it doesn't burn. Microwave bacon isn't crispy, so I don't like it. And the guys I work with say oven-fried bacon is the way to go. So I decided to make it...Baked Bacon (p. 508).

This is barely a recipe. I mean, you take bacon out of the package, put it in a pre-heated oven (350), and wait until it's cooked.


The bacon, pre-cooked. It's a little over-lapped, but what can you do (well, use a bigger pan, I suppose).




The cooked bacon. It was good but not crispy enough--when I made it later using an oven heated to 400 fixed that problem.





So what did I want the bacon for?

I was watching Top Chef (I'm a big fan!!) and they kept making grilled items. All I could think was yuummm...I could sure use a burger....even though it was 9 pm and I was going to bed soon. But, hey, I had ground beef...

I mixed the ground beef, some garlic powder, and a ton of black pepper. I then threw it on the George Foreman--you can mock me but that is truly the fastest way to cook burgers. I didn't have any buns, but some cheese, bacon, and hamburger is truly ambrosia.

Oh...and ketchup, the nectar of the gods....

Poultry Stock take one (p. 117) and Butternut Squash Soup (p. 129)

So why does my post start with Poultry Stock TAKE ONE (p. 117)? This conversation might clear it up...

Me (washing the chicken): Do you think the variety meats go into the stock?

Josh: Which variety meats?

Me: I don't know, the chicken neck, gizzard, liver, and heart?

Josh: I don't see why not.

Me: So I should just throw them in?

Josh: Sure.

So I did. Apparently, believe it or not--the liver makes the broth taste like liver! That's probably fine if you like liver. But we don't. Ick! I used the stock once and threw the rest away :( And there is only one picture of this failure...you will have to wait for take two!

If only we had smell-o-computer!

I decided to do this in the first place because canned chicken stock is expensive and salty. It seems stupid when a chicken is less than five bucks, and you end up with both the cooked chicken and the stock--really cost-effective! So if you are trying to save money, make your own stock and eat the chicken.

So what did I make with my liver-chicken stock? It needed to be something strong...I figured I would make Butternut Squash Soup (p. 129). I'll admit, I love squash--all squash. I grew up eating a ton of it because squash plants are prolific and my father always planted tons in his garden.

The squash--to remove the seeds, I used a spoon, but a grapefruit spoon would be much better. I don't have any grapefruit spoons though....

The recipe doesn't say to cut the squash in half, but i thought they might cook better that way.

Pre-cooking:

Post-cooking--so much lighter!

Now onto another problem--scraping the cooked (and slightly cooled) squash from the skin. I hate doing stuff like that and I tend to burn my fingers. So I looked around at my cooking gadgets...if a peeler can peel a raw squash, why not a cooked squash? So I tried it. It worked extremely well! I highly recommend doing it this way.

I love this style of peeler. I think they peel way better and you can dig out potato eyes with the end.

Leeks. Some of you may remember that I was intimidated by them before...I've read so much about how you have to get all the grit out that I was convinced they were difficult to wash. They aren't! But you do seem to waste a lot of the leek--really, the whole top gets thrown away (unless any of you know anything to do with it!). The leek/ginger mixture smelled really, really good).

The uncooked squash mixture...simmering...yum....

It only has to simmer for about 20 minutes. This is not a slow soup, which is great!

Pureeing the soup...of course, this wouldn't be a problem if I had an immersion blender or a food processor that wasn't a three-cup. But I don't. So I used a blender.

Let me tell you, if you like to live on the end, pour hot soup, using the incredibly hot steel handles of the pot, into a blender. Then use such-said cheap blender, holding the top on, so the entire kitchen isn't covered in butternut squash. It was absolutely terrifying.

But eventually, it worked.

The finished soup....I know it's not a very good picture, but the soup was absolutely delicious. So good--but a little thin. I might use a big butternut squash next time.

The weirdest thing about this soup? I made it with the squash that was on the table. Later, I went back to the table, looked in the bag--and there was ANOTHER butternut squash! So the one I used must have been ancient--or the butternut squash has learned how to clone itself! Apparently, squash stay good for a long time...

Why haven't I been posting???

This post has no food in it. I promise not to do this to you very frequently!

1. TED ALLEN READ MY BLOG! This is incredibly exciting to me. I wish he just stumbled upon it but oh well! I was reading his blog and posted a link to mine in an email I sent him. I actually got a response that was specific--he obviously read at least a few posts. Wow!

2. I was late posting the last two posts...so go read them! And comment, I heart comments :) They make me feel loved!

3. I was in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan for ten days, so there was a while of no cooking. I promise to cook this weekend and post ON TIME. And I will post pictures of my trip--perhaps even by editing this blog, so check back!

Probably the best food related part of this trip was the delicious tea. I love tea...

In fact, here is a picture of me cuddling with the Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime bear (even thought that is one of my least favorite CS teas)...