This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Jun-14: For dinner I made a half recipe of Eggplant and Goat Cheese Salad (web). Quite a good salad, fast and easy to make, but it only did for dinner because we also had sandwiches using the rest of the potted shrimp on ciabatta. A nice, light dinner altogether, and we each had a double chocolate mini Magnum for after.

Tuesday/10-Jun-14: Shopping today. No cilantro and the cilantro in the fridge was way past its use-by date, meaning a replan required for dinner. Which turned out to be ...

Grilled Fish Steaks (Q&E, p66), with salmon. Accompanied by New Potatoes with Cumin (Q&E, p91) and Tangy Green Beans with Ajwain and Ginger (SpiceKitch, p38). All good things that I've made before more than once. Made a pretty plate, but no camera was handy. For dessert with had some vanilla ice cream with raspberries fresh off the cane.

Wednesday/11-Jun-14: Dashing through the TLInd recipe book now. Should be done with India by the end of this week, but I'll have only one dish made. Others will come, I'm sure. These are some of the things that struck me from what I've looked at so far.

• Like the coconut-opening instructions on p4. 
• Impressed with the idea of making 1-1/2 cups of garam masala. Who's got a cup of cardamom pods around? Easy enough to cut back the recipe, I suppose. I've made garam masala, but being lazy I usually get a small packet and use that; if I haven't used it up, I replace it in a year. If I'm making something really fancy, then I'll make it up fresh.
• Making ghee: they don't mention that the browned milk fats that you strain out can be used on your toast in the morning. I made ghee once in a class and am very happy that it's relatively easy to find, cheap, and keeps for ages at room temp. 
• There are several snacky things I've never heard of ... chiura, bhelpuris. Wish someone would make them for me. 
• If all goes well this week, I'll try lamb biryani later this week. Had an itch for a biryani, although I would have preferred a shrimp one. Think the spices might be too different for this substitution. Plus I've got just the right about of lamb in the freezer. Next time ... It is funny to me that there are two lamb biryanis (one with ground meat, one with chunked) and no others (that I've found yet). 
• Sorpotel - Pickled Pork? Never heard of such. And sounds good too. Onto the list.

Dinner was an embroidery on Chile-Garlic Cabbage (web). Think this was meant as a side dish, but I made it as a main with about 6 cups of sliced Chinese cabbage. Added a packet of tofu (6-3/4 oz), cut in chunks and marinated in a sauce derived from Hagler. Stir-fried the chunks a bit, set them to the side, then stir-fried the cabbage. Added in the yummy sauce with the tofu and stir-fried a bit more. Served over wide rice noodles. Added lots more sambal at the table. Pretty good for a easy dinner. For dessert, some ice cream with crème de cacao.

Thursday/12-Jun-14: Yogurt on overday.

Planned to do a chicken liver thing tonight for a budget dinner for IHCC, but there were none at Leclerc this week; gizzards and hearts aplenty, but no livers. Forgot to replan the meal, so asked Ed to look for chicken livers at Intermarché after choir practice. But I neglected to specify raw ones, so he came back with a packet of cooked chicken livers in duck fat. So I did the best that I could and posted this about it. Served with a bit salad. We were full.

Finished my dash throught the TLInd recipe book today. I'll definitely be adding some more recipes to my short list.

• I noticed a number of recipes that called for malt vinegar. I don't remember knowing about malt vinegar till I visited the UK and discovered fish-and-chips and malt vinegar flavored potato chips. 
• There are more recipes for various sorts of raita/rayta than you usually see. I might try some of these since I seem to make the same one all the time. 
• There are a number of interesting chutney recipes, but no pickle recipes at all. 
• I wonder how many of the mail-order sources are still in business? I used to shop sometimes at Jamail's and Antone's in Houston, although I don't especially remember anything Indian at Antone's. Jamail's was a high-class grocery and had "everything." Didn't know either did mail-order, but why not? By the end of the 70s when I got interested in cooking Indian, there were proper Indian shops. I loved to go in these just for the smells.

Friday/13-Jun-14: Ate lunch at a restaurant following ophthamalogist visits. For dinner we had our usually lunchtime sandwiches and fruit. In the evening we went to a concert.

Saturday/14-Jun-14: This is (supposedly) the last day for the Indian Time-Life book. Just under the wire there was Shahjahani Biryani, Spiced Saffron Rice with Lamb (TLInd, p40). I made a half recipe with all the spices. The meat was good, but the rice was rather blah tasted too much (to me) of the cream and yogurt in the sauce. (The amount of water for cooking the rice was  not enough, but it was easy to add a slog more.) As go-withs there were  Gujerati Carrot Salad (MJ1, p170) and Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172), both old favorites. No time for an Indian dessert, so we split a Magnum classic.

Sunday/15-Jun-14: Ed was away most of the day for a choir concert. I planned a warm-weather salad, easy to have ready for his return. Too bad the weather didn't stay hot. We had a nice salad anyhow, a halfish recipe of Smoked Trout, Potato, and Arugula Salad (web). Used some of our home-grown lettuce for the salad, along with arugula. For dessert, we broke into our third chocolate bunny. Ed ate all of his half, with ice cream. I ate most of my half and am regretting it.

Yogurt on overnight.

I'm a little bit puzzled about how I'm complete my progress on goals. "Cookbooks" is easy. If I've cooked from and old cookbook or from Nigel Slater, I've done that one. But Foods of the World is hard, since the books run in month and a half overlapping periods. This week, I (finally) cooked from the India book, which was just finishing. Haven't yet cooked from Scandinavia. What do I put below? Maybe I should be showing both "current" books. Hmm...

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: no; #5 BREAD: 0

This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Jan-13: Off to a movie this evening, so we had our main meal in the afternoon, a halfish, somewhat embroidered, version of Chili con Tofu with Beans (Hagler, p50). Served with some corn tortillas from the freezer. Finished off by the rest of the three kings' cake. Drove all the way to Limoges, sat through the commercials eating our popcorn, and then the VO (original voices) feature wouldn't play. Sigh. Next Monday perhaps.

Tuesday/8-Jan-13: Put chicken breasts on to marinate, then made Spruced-Up Vanilla Cake (web). Well, I sort of followed the recipe. I used a mix of white and brown sugar, and only 7 ounces, where 8 was asked. I had only 4 eggs in the house, not 6 as asked. And full-fat yogurt, not fat-free. Never mind, it was good.

The chicken turned into Coriander and Lemon Chicken (web). I didn't chunk up the breast, but grilled them flat with the filets opened out. This was quite tasty and easy, although I think using cayenne and ground coriander would be easier and about the same in flavor. Served with trio rice and some steamed broccoli. The cake was yummy too, but made a serious dent in my vanilla supply. (What you expect of a vanilla cake, of course.) MyAmericanMarket has been out for a while; I keep waiting for an email that it's in stock again. Oh dear.

Wednesday/9-Jan-13: Another day wasted waiting DHL. The package has been rescheduled for delivery "as agreed." Agreed with whom? Grrr... Will wait again tomorrow, I guess.

Dinner was (more or less) Gambas au Curry et Risotto (Saveurs mag Best of 2011, p 56, now MC). Pretty good, a risotto with coconut milk as part of the liquid, added near the end of the rice cooking. Then a salad. Then some double-chocolate mini Magnums.

Thursday/10-Jan-13:  Yogurt on overday. DHL finally arrived ... at 17.45.

I accidentally defrosted a chunk of pork Tuesday night, so made some crockpot carnitas today. Not as good as the last batch, but edible. Served with some of Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (MC). Cookies for dessert. Just as dinner was going to table a 2-quart pitcher of herbal tea in the fridge got overturned. What a mess. Didn't I just clean the fridge last week?

Friday/11-Jan-13: Shopping today at last. As I was preparing my shopping list, the spreadsheet where I do my meal planning went all whompy-jawed and caused a few moments of panic and a delay in getting the shopping list made.

An IHCC dinner this evening, Pakistani Goat Curry (web) and Gingery Cabbage and Peas (MJFlavs, p67). For afters, we had some store-bought semoule de lait, vanilla flavored, which was quite tasty.

Saturday/12-Jan-13: Dinner was Mirin Glazed Salmon (web), which was easy and quite good. Accompanied by Broccoli in a Fragrant Wine Sauce (HotWok, p156) and basmati rice. Followed by the last two semoules de lait. Nice dinner. Served not too late. Ran out of mirin, though; next challenge is to find that mail order.

Sunday/13-Jan-13: Dinner was Rice, Cheddar, and Spinach Pie (web), probably not too low-fat, but very tasty. Then a salad. Then Chocolate Soufflé Cake for 2 (MC), a nice little dessert that goes together easily while other things are cooking unattended.

I'm still thinking about what I want to do with cooking goals for 2013.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: yes, #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/22-Aug-11: No bread in house. Made the old standard Authentic French Bread (Magic, p22, but out of head) on Rapid this morning, in time for Ed's breakfast.

Another oppressive day, maybe not as hot, but still very uncomfortable. Storm is forecast for tonight, with 85km/h winds. I'd meant to make pasta for tonight's dinner, but ended up taking a nap instead.

Dinner was Tagliatelles au saumon et à la vodka (VPQ mag, soon to be MC), wherein we showed I really wasn't paying attention. I measured out ten times too much vodka (it's those centiliters and deciliters again) and then it was jenever not vodka (Ed keeps both in the freezer). I had to boil off the alcohol. And the recipe asked for an enormous amount of parmesan, which I duly grated, but ended up putting some in the fridge. The dish was still good, and I'll make it again before long. Served with some mâche and the rest of the Zucchini and Lemon Salad, which kept pretty well.

Tuesday/23-Aug-11: Ate lunch in La Rochefoucauld today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/24-Aug-11: Dinner was a half recipe of Angel Hair with Zucchini and Breadcrumbs, a recipe from the web from a Nava Atlas cookbook I don't have. No angel hair, and not even enough spaghettini, which is my usual stringy pasta, but regular spaghetti worked OK. Quite a nice recipe, easy and fast. Then a salad with avocado and mixed lettuces. Then the end of two ice creams and some raspberries.

Yogurt on overnight (which should have been overday, so there'll be no breakfast yogurt tomorrow).

Thursday/25-Aug-11: Bought lamb at the store yesterday, but didn't feel like cooking either of the lamby things I'd planned. Instead I made an old TNT recipe, Lamb Vindaloo (Q&E, p33), really simple and really tasty. The only problem with this recipe is that it uses more than a pound of meat and we always eat all of it, where it should serve 3 or even 4, so we're well ahead on our protein right now. Accompanied by some plain basmati rice and Zucchini in a Yogurt Dressing (SpiceKitch, p58), another old favorite. Tasty stuff all.

Friday/26-Aug-11: Leftovers tonight. I made up a double dose of spaetzle (MW@Home, p203), twice what I would make to serve it as a side. Then I sautéed some onions and garlic, added some, yes, some zucchini and a splash of white wine, and steam/sautéed until the zuke was getting soft. Added the leftover chicken and sauce, then stretched the sauce a bit. All served over spaetzle. Not bad.

Saturday/27-Aug-11: Found a 1.5kg/3#5oz zucchini in the garden. Yes, we didn't go out to look yesterday (it was raining and we were away a lot of the day), but how can it have gotten so big in two days? Put 9 cups of grated zucchini in the freezer from this single zuke after making:

• Zucchini Bread (MC 2BTried). Not bad. Surprisingly dark in color.
• Zucchini-Lemon Muffins (MC 2BTried). Maybe like these better. Interestingly flavored with lemon peel and (not too much) nutmeg.

Inspired by the first of these recipes, I came up with a new "technique" for making these quickbread things. In a biggish bowl, whisk the eggs a bit and add any liquids (milk, oil, etc.) plus the sugar. Stir in the shredded zucchini, if that's part of the recipe. Sift the dry ingredients (flour, spices, leavening, etc.) onto a plate or a piece of waxed paper. Stir the dry stuff into the wet. Stir in raisins and nuts if using. Pour into pans and bake. Because the leavening isn't mixed with the wet stuff until just before you're ready to bake, this is a good approach for serial baking.

The giant globe zucchini (over 2#) that Ed found hiding at the back of the squash patch a few days ago seems to think it's a winter squash rather than a summer one. Its rind is turning orangeish and is quite hard. Maybe I'll call it a pumpkin and make soup or something. Or just admire it.

Also zapped up some Cilantro-Jalapeno Dip (Hagler, p13), using a chunk of the cilantro that Yvonne brought me. Put it in the fridge for a snack one of these days. Can't think the tofu would well. Unfortunately, I left it too long to chop up the rest and freeze. Bad me.

Collected some zucchini/courgette flowers this morning and made a half dose of Tagliatelle with Zucchini Flower Pistou (from Serious Eats) for dinner. Served with fresh pasta, topped with Parmesan. Yum. Then a simple salad. No dessert needed with all the zucchini bread and muffins around.

Sunday/28-Aug-11: Yogurt on overday. Lunch with Mike and Sally before a concert at the church in their town. Old standard Authentic French Bread (Magic, p22, but out of head) on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: no, #3 MIDDAY: no
This month: #4 PASTA: yes