Friday, February 19, 2010

It's time for a break. Spring break in fact! Alas, this means that Katherine and I will be apart for the weekend, as I will be enjoying some winter fun elsewhere.

But this doesn't mean I can't challenge her! She'll have more time, but fewer people to cook for, so hmmm... Maybe some elaborate munchables.

This is so the day I would challenge her to macarons, but that's not only cruelly difficult, she wouldn't be able to eat them.

However, she has been mentioning Thai curries quite a bit. And housemate Caroline, who will be available to enjoy whatever comes of this challenge, is rather delighted at the idea!

But since Katherine is the one who has been doing the research, I think I'll leave this up to her.

So, Katherine! Make your choice combination of Thai curry, love, and deliciousness! Any kind, any ratio!

And take pictures so I know what I'm missing:)

--Sophia

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Finally time to relax!

It's the weekend! Hooray! It's nice to have time to eat and sleep:)

For a day anyway.

SO! I thought I'd let the um... four or five of you guys know that I tried the beef vindaloo on Monday night, and it's delicious! I have to try someone else's first before I make it again though. It tastes good, but I have to admit I don't know what real beef vindaloo tastes like. I'd never had it before. If I DO cook it again, I'll just call it beef curry and nobody will be the wiser.


I used the spice mix from the original recipe, though I have to admit the paste it made was only half of what I needed. You can see here that it's not nearly enough for two pounds of beef. Having run out of a few of the spices, I just threw in more turmeric and coriander at random until there was enough to incorporate all of the vinegar.

I suppose at this point I should mention that for the procedure, I used a new recipe. It was actually one of the first ones that came up in a google search, so it isn't hard to find:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Beef-Vindaloo-the-Real-Thing-207043


Actually, I just noticed it's the FIRST one that comes up in the google search. I'd like to think I had a small part in that!




The instructions in this recipe were so well organized, I could really prepare the way I wanted. I even had time to take some pictures of the preparation! I had forgotten to cut up the serrano peppers though, and while I did that I burned the garlic a bit. You can tell in the final flavour, but it's actually not unpleasant.




As for the beef, the recipe says to "fry the meat till just brown." Now that sounded vague to me. However, I have some experience with making beef stews, and figured instead of cooking the meat just a little bit, I could sear it. The stew I usually make is a quick stew, so the beef needs to be seared before hand at a very high heat. It's a very scary process and I had to keep curious roommates from looking into the pot. I was halfway across the kitchen and still getting oil spluttered in my face. It worked though; the beef was NOT transformed into tough little leather cubes.

In all, it was a success.



Tasty, juicy, and gone in a matter of minutes!

No rules for next week, and a guest challenger! Exciting!

--Sophia

Saturday, February 6, 2010

A History

I've fallen by the wayside in terms of cooking enthusiasm... I suppose it's bound to happen mid semester. I apologize for the premature decline in posts... Sophia and I have been keeping up a busy schedule outside of food world. However, today I decided to dedicate a lovely sunny saturday morning to food while all members of the household are nestled snugly in their beds still sleeping!

I don't want to be a name dropper.. but much of my inspiration this week has come from Rebecca Caro of From Argentina with Love...a Denver woman married to an Argentine http://fromargentinawithlove.typepad.com/from_argentina_with_love/2008/02/the-truck-drive.html



and Katie of Seashells and Sunflowers...a Philadelphian woman living in Necochea, Argentina with her boyfriend



Alas their classic Argentine recipes got me excited about going back to the kitchen again. For me, the appeal to authentic Argentine food is the tradition that it carries with it. You know the kind of recipes that are shared in conversation with all the town folks. The kind of recipe that you have to get by waking up early and having breakfast with the oldest lady that works in the bakery before it opens. True story, someone did exactly that in order to get me an authentic recipe for empanadas.

Real Argentines have the knack for making virtually everything casero, homemade. I mean really, why buy it when you can make a better version yourself?

Preblog times Sophia had made bread on a couple of occasions and it had the exact taste and smell and look of pan casero, a homemade bread made in the countryside of Argentina. The authentic kind traditionally is baked over a wood fire. It's a dense bread that gives me comfort in cold weather with a mug of mate cocido.



Classic Argentine homemade bread and sweet potato filled empanadillas, enjoyed but not cooked by me


(Courtesy of productsdelsur.net)

That week I made pan relleno or stuffed bread, also an Argentine favorite, and originally from a recipe that was passed to me by word of mouth that week. I admit, although I just finished talking about the appeal of tradition and oral history of recipes... I almost always back up one recipe with another... just to find commonalities and to see ways to improve. The tomato, mushroom, thyme filling was all of my own creation. Thus was born our blog.

Last week Sophia and I fell in love with eggplant (and coffee if you hadn't already picked up on that). Eggplant is so beautiful that I made a friend this week for the love of this gorgeously curvaceous vegetable.




(Courtesy of http://www.myinkblog.com/2008/07/18/creative-and-unique-poster-design-inspiration)


The first time I tried eggplant, it was fried and I couldn't appreciate its flavor. The second time was at my first Argentine asado/barbeque. It was served on bread with olive oil. It is by far one of the most simple and most delicious ways to savor this lovely plant! It's basically marinated eggplant with a little bit of garlic and crushed red pepper. Thanks to both Katie and Rebecca, I am able to finally make it myself.

Thereby I present to you:
Berenjena en Escabeche or Marinated Eggplant

Step One: Steep Eggplant in salt for several hours



Step Two: Stew eggplant in vinegar and water


Step Three: Marinate eggplant in garlic, crushed red chili pepper and oregano


Unfortunately the final product doesn't look all that appetizing. You'll just have to take my word for it...




I accompanied this celebration to eggplant, with a new and improved ratatouille and french bread!

It was a bit dense and didn't keep fresh for very long. By the next day it started to become hard. But I must say when it was freshly warm out of the oven and eaten with soft melted butter it was delicious especially after a night of dancing tango!

Earlier this week I helped out Sophia with the vindaloo meal by making pakoras. The recipe I took almost word for word out of a cookbook, which to my dismay was a huge mistake. The pakoras were flavorless and spongy! Halfway through I decided that particular cookbook had never served me any good, and I threw it whatever spices at hand, coriander, garam masala maybe? turmeric, cayenne...I don't even remember. Lesson learned? Trust your instinct on spices and adding flavors... never abide by a single recipe, unless it's a damn good one, pardon my french. I was able to sample some of the best pakoras in town last night and I think the key ingredient involves some sort of seed...fenugreek maybe? I've yet to figure it out, same goes for samosas.

I also made naan, which was naan for maybe less than an hour and then starting taking on the characteristics of pita bread then pita chips. How to remedy a naan turned pita chips?



Make hummus!



First time that I've made hummus. Fairly straight forward. I cheated and used canned chickpeas. I've heard soaking the chickpeas in water for a little time before use is highly recommended... don't ask for the reason.. just trust me on this one. Who knew hummus is just chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and garlic? Well I didn't obviously. I had originally planned to roast the garlic and add it something else to add some pizazz? (pizazz? who have i become really??) But at 10:30 at night when all you've been running on is caffeine all day, I really couldn't be bothered. The quick fix solution?

Chipotle chili powder. A lot of chipotle chili powder.
All in all the hummus was a bit thick and more of a paste than a spread. Nonetheless it was a hit in the household.

I think I'm back on the cooking train... stay tuned to see where it will take my fellow comrade, Sophia and me in the upcoming week.

Friday, February 5, 2010

So this weekend, due to a busy schedule, I not only failed at the beef vindaloo, I also failed at writing about it. I don't know how I would have gotten through if it weren't for the sudden apparition of a coffee machine in the apartment though! That and Katherine's (adult) hot chocolate:
It's full of however much Bailey's you want, which is particularly wonderful before giving a presentation. I've never felt more disorganized, yet enthusiastic, about literature before:)


So back to the vindaloo. It started out ok. The curry was in this tasty-looking paste, it smelled lovely, even my hands smelled great from the spice rub. It was really promising:

But then the recipe got a bit confusing. VERY confusing. Adding four cups of water and boiling this meat until it resembled tiny leather cubes was the next step, it would seem. However, Katherine saved everything with some basmati rice and pakoras.







So in the end, if you mixed everything together, it turned out ok. I'm still going to try again though, so no new challenge for me this week.



In other news, the sun came out for a while, so I got enjoy some of my "Paris, Mon Amour" tea in a sunbeam!



I also decided to branch out from my regular Chilean red wines in favour of some Alsatian stuff. I picked it out judging by the prettiness of the label. Always judge a book by its cover. Always.


Honestly, the best part was being able to keep it cold on the balcony. Until it froze a bit.
--Sophia