This week in the kitchen

Monday/3-Oct-16: Put up the latest batch of tomato purée. Now a brief pause before picking more.

Hamburger time tonight. Ed was supposed to barbecue this evening, but he hurt his back falling off a ladder and didn't feel like it, so I grilled them on the stove. Very lean ground beef mixed with a shot of soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and a dash of cayenne. Pretty good, although I cooked them a bit long. Served with the leftover lentil salad, still good. Also grilled a zucchini cut in thick slices and sprinkled with a Moroccan spice mix, with a sauce of crème fraîche and minced garlic. Mini magnums for after.

Tuesday/4-Oct-16: Dinner was Fattoush—Levantine Bread Salad (PatSalads, p72). Picked two tomatoes from the potager to use. Instead of pita breads, I used some lavash. I rather like that and have bought it twice now. I see I forgot to add the cucumber, but it was still a yummy salad. Some bit of cooked meat (chicken?) might be nice too, or maybe feta.

For dessert, there was Apple Crisp (BeatThis, p13; cookbooker). Having had a look through this book, I'm going to put it in the recycle box. Too many recipes using canned soup, etc. But I saw this and gave it a try. I made it with frozen raspberries and grannies, half and half. Very good, with a splash of cream. Have put the recipe in my HandyBook, since a quick and easy sort of dessert is always useful.

Wednesday/5-Oct-16: Shopping today. The enlargement mess and noise continues to be very unpleasant.

I bought a bit of blue cheese today (St Agur) just for a lark, and, as we returned home, I noticed lots of ripe figs on our neighbor's tree. I went and picked four for us. For a starter, I halved these lengthwise, crumbled a bit of blue cheese and dribbled a bit of honey onto each, popped them in the oven for a few minutes, then served topped with chopped walnuts. Yum. Even Ed liked them.

Our main was salmon (cookbooker) from my latest book for Cookbook Countdown. Served with some trio rice. Followed by a simple salad. We didn't feel a need for dessert (but we did have some square of chocolate later). We might finish the apple-raspberry crisp for breakfast tomorrow.

My attempts at making a yummy fig jam haven't been very successful. We're currently eating a really good fig-walnut jam that I picked up at a market somewhere. I'm tempted to pick a basketful and try again. We might have some of last year's walnuts still in the freezer. (It looks like this year will be a pretty poor crop unfortunately.)

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/6-Oct-16: Ed has asked for more beefy things, so tonight there was boudin noir again. Not really beefy, but high in protein for his hemoglobin.

During the day I made up some Carrot and Ginger Quickie Pickle (MC; Scraps, p82; web).

We had Black Pudding in Pastry with Mustard Sauce (Diaries2, p146), kind of sausage rolls, but with black puddings. The recipe asks morcilla, which I have seen at Leclerc, but not this week, so I got regular boudin noir, locally made. I used a package of four squares of pâte feuilleté, rolling two square out to a rectangle that enclosed the boudins on a bed of onions. Pretty good, but doesn't need to be made again. Served with some steamed broccoli, and some apple chunks that I sautéed in the onion pan. Also made some Radish and Sour Cream Salad (TLMidEast, p87), but we were too full to eat it.

Friday/7-Oct-16: Picked some more tomatoes today, just enough for dinner and a few extra. Finally made Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter (ClassItal, p152). Had an idea to serve it with fresh pasta, but didn't have time in the end, and she doesn't recommend it, except for potato gnocchi, which I definitely wouldn't make. I neglected to peel the tomatoes, which was a shame, so I buzzed them a bit (not quite enough) with my stick blender. Looks chef-boyardee-ish, but tastes much better. Froze half for later use.

Saturday/8-Oct-16: Had our main meal early today so we can go out this evening. We had West Indies Salmon Cakes (MC; web). Yummy and three more frozen for another meal. Served with turmeric rice, loosely based on something from the web, the Carrot and Ginger Quickie Pickle that I made earlier in the week, and Pan-Grilled Zucchini (MJ@Home, p173). All yummy. Had some mini magnums for dessert.

Sunday/9-Oct-16: Home late last night, and up late this morning. We went to a concert in the afternoon. I had planned to cook dinner, but really didn't feel like it. So we went out for pizza instead.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no; #5 FotW: no for Oct/Nov

Cookbook Countdown: Lamb with Green String Beans

One last dinner from Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking. Tonight we had Lubya Khadra Billahm—Lamb with Green String Beans (p33) from the Arab States.

The recipe states that the whole recipe serves 4. I made a half recipe to serve 2. A half recipe, that meant one pound of green beans. That's a GInormous amount of green beans for two people! (Of course, green string beans are not to be found in this area of France, if at all, so I used haricots verts.)

This is another easy-to-make recipe, some assembly and then the whole thing cooks on low for an hour or more till you're ready to eat. The green beans are cut into 2" lengths and piled in the bottom of a heavy casserole. One-inch cubes of lamb are browned and put on top of the beans. The stack is topped with a bunch of peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes. This is topped with salt, freshly ground black pepper, freshly grated nutmeg, and ground allspice. Plop the top on and cook over low heat for an hour, or until the beans and lamb are tender. When I took the lid off, the spices were still on top where I left them, so I had to stir it all together a bit before serving over rice.

I really have enjoyed cooking from this book. I have several new salads (radish, spinach and yogurt, and cabbage) that will get added to the household regulars. It was really a stroke of luck to have planned this book in my Foods of the World project for (late) summer months when veggies like tomatoes and eggplants are at their best. (Unlike the last one, Viennese Empire, which is full of appetizing cold-weather food.)

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Fried Eggplant with Green Peppers and Tomato Sauce

Tonight's dinner included a side dish (a half recipe) from Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking. That was Kizarmiş Patlican—Fried Eggplant with Green Peppers and Tomato Sauce (p73) from Turkey. The eggplant and tomatoes were from the potager; the bell pepper was from the grocery store.

Simply flavored, but this was a very tasty dish. First some tomatoes are peeled, seeded, and chopped, then cooked in olive oil with salt and chopped garlic until all the liquid has evaporated. The eggplants are peeled, cut lengthwise into thick slices which are then cut into "fans" by making longitudinal cuts that don't go all the way to the end. These fans are first soaked in salt water, then dried and sautéed until browned on each side. (In the end, since I had only three thick slices and there were only two of us, I cut the fan bits all the way through, making fingers rather than fans.) The green bell pepper is seeded, deribbed, and cut lengthwise into quarters. These bits are then sautéed until browned and limp. (The limp bit didn't happen for me, even though I cooked them about twice the time that was asked; I think this would be better under the grill, as you would do for roasted bell peppers.)

To serve, you mound the eggplant fans (or fingers), top with the tomato sauce, and surround with the bell pepper chunks.

 Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Yogurt&Cucumber Soup and Fruit Compote

Tonight's meal began and ended with Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking.

We started with Cacik&mdash:Cold Yoghurt and Cucumber Soup (p19) from Turkey, which is a very nice, easy-to-make cucumber-yogurt soup. Grated yogurt is combined with yogurt, white vinegar, olive oil, mint, dill, and salt. (Too much salt, actually. The recipe asks for 1 tsp. I put in about 3/4 tsp and it was still too salty.) The whole recipe should serve two to four; I made the whole recipe and served it for two. These were quite substantial servings; smaller servings would probably be better for a large meal. Sorry, my soup plates weren't chilled, but I did add an ice cube as suggested.
 

For dessert, there was Paludah—Fresh Melon and Peach Compote (p112) from Iran. I had one very small charentais melon, which tastes and looks much like a cantaloupe. After checking the weight, I made about a 1/3 recipe with a whole peach (i.e., a half recipe's worth of peach). The recipe indicates should  served up to two; I think it would have easily served four. The compote has melon (in chunks rather than balls) and peaches, mixed with sugar, lemon juice, and rose water. A nice combination. The rose water wasn't over-powering as it can be sometimes.

 Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Braised Chicken in Tomato and Cinnamon Sauce

Tonight's entry from Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking was Kota Kapama—Braised Chicken in Tomato and Cinnamon Sauce (p55) from Greece. I had planned to make a dessert to go with this, but after spending the afternoon deseeding something like 5 kilos of tomatoes from the potager, I didn't feel like doing anything besides the main course.

Having three chicken thighs, I made about a third recipe by weight. (For some reason, they've started packaging Label Rouge—free-range—chicken thighs three to a package rather than four. Very annoying.) The chicken is browned in butter and olive oil, then set aside. Most of the fat is removed from the skillet, and onions are garlic are added to the remaining bit. When they are soft, some tomatoes that have been peeled, seeded, and chopped (I saved two out of the batch I was working on for this), along with a bit of tomato paste, chicken stock, and a cinnamon stick are stirred in. The browned chicken is returned to the skillet, covered and simmered for 30 minutes.

This dish is typically served with any kind of pasta (I used tagliatelle), accompanied by freshly grated kefalotiri or Parmesan. Tonight it was Parmesan. One day I'm going to find some kefalotiri in a shop or market and buy a chunk to try.

I was specially intrigued by the tomato sauce with cinnamon, which seemed to me an unusual combination. Neither of us could taste the cinnamon in the finished dish, though, so that was a bit disappointing.

 Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Cabbage Salad and Cold Rice-Flour Dessert

Tonight there was a side and a dessert from Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking. We had Salatet Malfoof—Cabbage Salad (p10) from the Arab States to accompany a Sicilian marinated steak and Mihallabiyya—Cold Rice-Flour Dessert (p104) from Egypt.

I made the Mihallabiyya in the morning, so it would be chilled for dinner. I used cornstarch as suggested, since I had no rice flour and was too lazy to grind some up. I looked this dish up on the web and found that this recipe is typical, although it can be rice flour, a rice flour and cornstarch combination, or just cornstarch to thicken. More typically, though, it seems to be flavored with orange flower or rose water, rather than vanilla and cinnamon. This one has a topping of chopped pistachios and currants, as well as cinnamon, which I mixed with the nuts and fruit. Quite tasty and easy to make.

To go with our steak, I made the Cabbage Salad as a go-with, and here we have another excellent salad from this book. The recipe calls for two cups of shredded cabbage to serve four. I had two cups to serve two, with only half the dressing, and we could have eaten a bit more. The shredded cabbage is tossed with a dressing of garlic, salt, lemon juice, olive oil, then topped with some pomegranate seeds for serving.

 Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Baked Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice

For the day's roast chicken, I made a side dish from Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking. That was Domates Yemite me Rizi—Baked Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice (p82), from Greece.

The stuffed tomatoes are supposed to be eaten at room temperature. This would make them a good buffet kind of food if people are sitting down to eat. They'd be fine to make ahead.

Rice is half-cooked and drained. (I used basmati, but it might be nice to use a brown rice and cook it just a bit longer here.) The tomatoes are hollowed out, salted, and turned over to drain. The innards are chopped for use in the filling. Minced onion is sautéed, then the rice, tomato pulp, some tomato purée, parsley (oops, I forgot to by parsley and last week's bunch didn't last, so I used the frozen stuff), mint, garlic, oregano, and S&P are all stirred in. Rather than defrosting two cups of my frozen tomato purée for the less than half cup needed for a half recipe, I used a small amount of uncooked purée with a bit of tomato paste, both from the freezer.

This mixture is cooked till it's fairly dry, then stuffed in the tomato shells. Some reserved tomato purée is poured around the tomatoes and all is baked for 20 minutes at 350F. (I had no leftover purée, so I buzzed up a fresh tomato and called that purée.) Result: A tasty side dish for a roast chicken.

 Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Coucou Bademjan and Borani

We've eaten from Iran tonight, another dinner from Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking. I made Coucou Bademjan—Thick Eggplant-and-Egg Pancake (p72) and Borani—Cold Spinach and Yoghurt Salad (p86), which was the suggested side dish, both from Iran.

A coucou is a kind of frittata-like thing. In this case, you first brown some onion slices and set those aside. Then you cook some cubes of peeled eggplant with water, turmeric, with salt and freshly ground black pepper, returning the onion slices to the pan for the last bit of cooking and evaporating the water. This mixture is set aside to cool, then combined with four eggs. The eggy mixture is added to a pan, cooked, then turned out onto a plate (this didn't go all that well tonight), and slid back into the pan to cook more.

The spinach salad suggested as a go-with was a bit hit. I used frozen spinach, rather than fresh, to make a half recipe. I thawed what was needed, squeezed it dry, and chopped it fine. To this is added some lemon juice, a bit of grated onion, salt and freshly ground pepper, yogurt, and some sliced mint. Simple to assemble and very tasty.

The picture is a bit of a dark picture because the lamp over the dining table has gone awry. The bulb is okay, but there's a problem lurking between the switch and the lamp that will be discovered tomorrow. The flash pictures looked really boring, so this is hand-held, lighted by a floor lamp with a bit of help from a candle.

 Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Braised Lamb and Eggplant

Another dinner from Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking. Tonight there was Khoresh Bademjan—Braised Lamb and Eggplant (p35) from Iran.

This is a very tasty dish; there's no heat from chilies, but it's well flavored with onion, turmeric, lemon juice, and pomegranate syrup (aka molasses).

To make a half recipe, I needed about 350g of lamb in 2" (5cm) cubes. At the grocery, there was nothing suitable in the pre-packaged meat cooler (unless I wanted to deal with a whole leg or shoulder or lamb), so I went to the butcher counter and asked the cute young thing wielding the knife for what I wanted. He proceeded to cut cubes, about twice the weight I needed, leading me to think he's quite new to the butchery business. (Our local butcher can magically cut almost exactly the weight you ask.) I went away quite please with my 350g, which turned out to be only four chunks of meat.

This recipe has you peel the eggplant, cut it into long wedges, and soak the strips in salted water. (The recipe has you fastidiously turn the strips with a spoon to moisten them thoroughly with the brine. I just used my hands.) While the eggplant soaks, you brown some onion slices, then remove them to a plate. Next you brown the eggplant strips, drained and dried, and set those aside. Finally you brown the lamb cubes. When those are nicely colored, you add some beef stock (or water), tomato paste, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Then add the browned onions, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Next, the eggplant strips get placed on top of the lamb with some slices of tomato. Lemon juice and pomegranate molasses are added, and the whole thing is covered and simmered another 45 minutes.

This dish is traditionally accompanied by chelo, a rice dish topped with raw egg yolks. I meant to make this, but neglected to calculate in 2 hours for soaking the rice before it's cooked. So it was just plain rice basmati tonight.

I made the Radish and Sour Cream Salad (p87) again tonight, this time with only 1/3 cup sour cream (crème fraîche) for the sauce. I suspect only 1/4 cup would be fine, meaning that measurement should be reduced by half for a whole recipe. An excellent salad.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Fish Fillets with Tomato and Wine Vinegar Sauce plus Radish Salad

Continuing with my Foods of the World project, this month it's time for Time-Life Foods of the World: Middle Eastern Cooking. So far this has been an enjoyable read, and I've marked lots of recipes to try.

Tonight's dinner was Psari Savori—Fish Fillets with Tomato and Wine Vinegar Sauce (p63), from Greece. The recipe calls for porgy. No idea what that might be in French. Instead I used lieu noir, and which seems to be saithe in English, but that doesn't help me much. In spite of the black in the name, this cooks up as a lovely white fish that we enjoy frequently.

The fish are simply dredged in flour and fried in olive oil. The sauce is what makes this a nice dish. There are peeled, seeded, and finely chopped tomatoes, the first from the potager this summer; a tiny dab of tomato paste; red wine vinegar; finely chopped garlic; a crumbled bayleaf; salt; and freshly ground black pepper. These good things are boiled briskly together until the mixture is quite thick.

The recipe suggests serving the fish with crusty bread and a green salad, which is what I'd planned. But I skipped a beat as I started cooking and made Salat Znonit Beshament—Radish and Sour Cream Salad (p87), from Israel. I'd planned this for a meal of lamb later in the week (and will make it again, since this was a hit).

The dressing is sour cream, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. This is tossed with thinly sliced radishes and red onion. Simple. Delicious. My only criticism is that there's too much dressing for the amount of veggies, but that's easily remedied.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their September cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?