This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Oct-17: Came back from Paris today. Scrambled eggs for an evening snack.

Tuesday/17-Oct-17: There was a half recipe of Baked Scallops (CL90, p136) for dinner. Served with some mushroom pasta and gesneden snijbonen, hand-cut, of course. Then some of the wonderful chocolate pavés we brought back from Paris with us.

Wednesday/18-Oct-17: I had lunch with friends today while Ed ate from the freezer. Then we shopped. Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/19-Oct-17: Early meal today, a half recipe of Fish Molee (web) made with lieu noir. I emptied my tomatoes to get rid of the seeds. They tasted a bit blah so I added a tablespoon of tomato paste from the freezer to flavor up the broth. Took a bit of time to prep everything, then it goes together lickety split. And it's yummy. (I collected this recipe from an Arizona newspaper in 2008. The article, with a number of "curry" recipes, is no longer there, but can be found here.) More pavés for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/20-Oct-17: Earlyish meal, a half recipe of Sautéed Chicken Cutlets with Porcini Sauce (CI/mar09, web). This was good and relatively quick once the prep is done. Served with Spaetzle (MW@Home, p203; Handybook) and gesneden snijbonen, cut in slightly bigger pieces today. Finished the wonderful Chaudun pavés for dessert.

Saturday/21-Oct-17: We had a delicious Indian meal this evening. There was Ekuri (Parsi)—Scrambled Eggs with Coriander and Ginger (TLInd, p14), which was extra yummy. I made a half recipe (three eggs for two), which was a bit skimpy as a dinner, but would make a wonderful breakfast. As suggested, I served this with sliced tomatoes and Paratha (TLInd, p83), as well as Alu ka Rayta—Yoghurt with Spiced Potatoes (TLInd, p92). The paratha tasted ok, but didn't seem quite right. Later I saw that Madhur Jaffrey says the dough should be soft, and mine was still on the dry side, kneadable but dry, after adding about half of the extra water suggested; that might be the difference. This is fairly easy to make, if full of ghee, so I might try this again. The raita was delicious, definitely do-me-again.

Sunday/22-Oct-17: We went to Mazerolles' old folks dinner today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no
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This week in the kitchen

Monday/4-Aug-14: Off to a movie in the afternoon, so a quick dinner. Spaghetti Carbonara with Peas (web). A little odd that the recipe wants to serve four with only 8oz of spaghetti. For the two of us, I made a whole-ish recipe with only 6oz of spaghtetti. Used lardon instead of bacon. Pretty good. Then a salad. Then we finished off the blueberry cake. A big piggy perhaps, but we wouldn't want it to go stale, would we?

Tuesday/5-Aug-14: Movie yesterday means shopping postponed till tomorrow. It was clean out the fridge night. I googled for recipes using smoked salmon and broccoli and smerged into a tasty pasta dish. It was really smoked trout, but I won't tell if you won't. For dessert with had a tiny bit of ice cream, finishing off a carton, topped with a bit of defrosted mixed berries.

Wednesday/6-Aug-14: Shopping today.

So, a few days, I came across a link to download a book called Good and Cheap (PDF file), written by a graduate student in food studies and aimed at people using food stamps. It looks to be a pretty good little cookbook. I hope they'll manage to get it printed at some point. Tonight's dinner was a half dose of Savory Summer Cobbler (G&C, p78), roasted veggies, topped with biscuit/dumplings. Pretty good, and very versatile, since it could be made with all kinds of veggies, as long as they roast in about the same time. Then a double chocolate mini magnum for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/7-Aug-14: We had dinner in Limoges this evening before a concert. Nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Friday/8-Aug-14: Lunch out with friends today. Only fruit for dinner.

Saturday/9-Aug-14: A bit of a busy afternoon in the kitchen. I got started a bit late, so dinner was later than I would have liked. First there was something more-ish from Nigel Slater.

Having found no cilantro at the shops this week, I made Tamarind Chutney (IndLight, p286) instead of a cilantro-mint chutney. For the main, there was Baingan ka Tikka (Baked Small Eggplants with Curried Vegetable Stuffing (TLInd, p18), not the most successful recipe. I think this got translated for servings somewhere, but not too successfully. The recipe called for six small eggplants, 3-4oz each. Nothing that small to be found here; my small eggplants were probably about 8oz each (I didn't weigh them). So I made a halfish sort of recipe. The recipe asks for 1/2 pound of green peas, about 1/2cup. At about 1 cup, I had only 2oz. Something wrong there. I just made what looked like a good amount of the stuffing veggies. After you've stuffed the eggplant halves, they are topped with  a paste of besan, cumin, and cayenne. These should be turned paste-side-down and fried. How on earth would that work? There wasn't enough paste to cover the tops and everything would fall out if you inverted them. I just popped them under the broiler for a bit, but I really think even that was wasted. Just baking would have been fine. We ate only one eggplant half each and the other two are in the freezer for an easy dinner some night.

As a go-with, there were some Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172). I also made some Baked Onion Bhajis (web), a recipe which got some really good reviews recently. Not a rave here, but worth another try. We thought the onion slices were too thick for one thing. Next time I'll make them quite thin. Also I didn't flatten the bhaji patties as I should have, so some bits were not crispy as they should have been. They are supposed to bake for two 25-minute periods, but were getting quite done (some burned edges) 15 minutes into the second period. Oh well. Good tastes mostly, but presentation not the best.

Sunday/10-Aug-14: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was a nice summer salad; too bad it's rather cool and rainy for summer. It was Fried Zucchini, Pea, and Quinoa Salad (web), a good recipe for using up your garden basil, if you have any. Ed brought up two big tomatoes from the potager this afternoon; we had one of these sliced, with more basil, for a post-salad salad.

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

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