It's Too Darn Hot

This week brought a terrible heat wave across much of the country, and my part of Connecticut was no exception.  Our apartment has no air conditioning, and the air flow from one end of the house to the other is agonizingly stagnant.  Heat causes physical discomfort as well as mental strain, and Vanessa and I found ourselves arguing over nuances of fan positioning and the mechanics of air airflow and temperature change.  So stupid! 

It was really, just too darn hot for June.  On the second day of the heat wave I managed to get away for a hike and swim with my friend Jackie, visiting home from the Peace Corps in Honduras.  We timed the outing perfectly in a respite between a pass-over thunder storm and a huge downpour that engulfed the area for the rest of the evening.  It was so nice to be in water on such a hot day.  We swam in a small natural pool, formed under a tiny waterfall in a local river, a place that I have returned to year after year since I was in high school.

Vanessa coincidentally, was also visiting a best friend of hers that, like me, she had not seen for a year.  Her visit required more of a trip than mine, and her car is insufferable in the heat.  Not only does her air conditioning not work, but the driver's window does not open!  The poor girl came home and collapsed. 

Now eventually this story needs to get to some food, right?  Well, here it comes.  I did not want to cook.  I did not want to turn on the stove for any significant period of time, and I certainly did not want to turn on the oven at all.  So what does one make when one is drained, tired, and wants to avoid the heat?

Pesto.

My herb garden has been more or less coming along these last few weeks; some herbs are healthy but slow to grow, some are deteriorating, and others (my chervil) have flat out died.  Fortunately, the most important herb in the garden, the basil, has taken off.  In the pouring rain that marked the end of the heat wave, I went out in my yellow raincoat, and snipped sprig after sprig of basil.  My basil is doing so well, that I daresay I could make pesto three times this week, and not hinder the plant's growth.

Fettuccine Rigate con Pesto

Dinner was delicious.  It sure as hell felt like summer, so it was refreshing to eat as if it were, nice and light.  The pesto, for those who care, was as basic as pesto gets: basil, toasted pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and grated parmesan cheese.  Very little actual cooking was done, just boiling water for pasta and toasting some nuts - everything else just came together in the food processor.

Thank God the heat is now over!

Indonesian Chicken

Last Wednesday I cooked some skinless chicken breasts in an Indonesian-style coconut curry.  When asked what she wanted done to the meat, Vanessa requested Indian food, so I looked through an Asian cookbook, and figured this was culinarily close enough.  It also happened to sound really delicious. 

I have recommended this cookbook before on this blog, but I really cannot say enough good things about it.  In fact, click here to buy it - you really should.  There are sections in the book on regional foods from China, Indonesia, Singapore/Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Laos/Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, India/Pakistan, Burma, and Sri Lanka.  It calls for authentic spices and ingredients, not premade sauces or spice mixes.  Many recipes may be difficult if you do not have an overstocked pantry, but there are so many tantalizing recipes and pictures that it may encourage you to try new things.  I have certainly learned a great deal from this book.

For the dish that I made, which was a slight modification from the book's recipe, I blended onion, garlic, ginger and a little water into a paste in a food processor.  Then I cooked this in a pan with some coconut milk, turmeric, coriander, white pepper, salt, sriracha chili sauce, and ponzu (a Japanese citrus sauce that I used instead of the called for kaffir lime leaves).  I placed the chicken breasts, whole, in this mixture, and cooked them over a low heat for about forty minutes.  Then I removed the chicken, caked with chunks of onion sauce, and seared them on a grill pan to caramelize.  I reduced the sauce and pored it over the meat on the plate.  To go with this, I made some cardamom infused jasmine rice, with green peas and almond slivers.  I also heated up some frozen naan to help soak up the sauce.  Everything was topped with diced scallion and fresh cilantro from my herb garden.

Indonesian-Style Coconut Chicken

Cardamom Infused Jasmine Rice and Naan

Admittedly, this meal was lacking in vegetables.  I always try to cook a protein, starch and vegetable in every meal, and I dropped the ball on this one (the few peas mixed with the rice really should not count).  Everything was tasty though, so no one minded.

Another picture that I wanted to share, entirely unrelated, is of this amazing sandwich that I had last weekend in Florida.  Vanessa and I went to Amelia Island with my family for my cousin's wedding.  We had a great mini-vacation on the beach and at various wedding-related parties.  For lunch one day in the town of Fernandina Beach, we ate at a place called LuLu's.  Below is my fried soft shell crab sandwich, which was AMAZING!!!!

Dining Out: Scallops and Risotto!

Last week was the first night that Sarah, Vanessa and I were all home to enjoy dinner together outside on our new porch table.  Vanessa picked up some sea scallops, thinking that Sarah would not be home (she keeps kosher).  It was no problem, however, because Sarah had some leftover risotto from a previous night out with her parents.  Her risotto looked so good, that I decided to make some for everyone.

My Two Pretty Housemates

Our First Dinner Together on The Porch

It was truly a lovely night - made all the better because it followed what had been an unrelenting slew of rainy days.  The temperature was around 70 degrees, the garden looked beautiful, and the sun was still out.  It was so great to be eating dinner outside!

For supper, I pan seared the scallops with salt and pepper, finishing them with a little lemon juice.  I served them on top of some arugula, with some steamed broccoli.  The risotto that I made was simple enough; with green peas, diced vidalia onion, fresh parsley from my herb garden, and gruyere cheese.  I cooked it in chicken stock and vermouth.  When everything was done, I drizzled the whole plate with aged balsamic vinegar.  To drink we finished a bottle of Gruner Weltliner, an Austrian wine that Vanessa developed an affinity for last year in Vienna.

Seared Sea Scallops with Arugula and Gruyere Green Pea Risotto

Drizzled with Aged Balsamic Vinegar

with Steamed Broccoli

After dinner, we all hopped in my car and went out for ice cream!  We went to a place in Wilton that Sarah likes, and that Vanessa and I had never tried, called Scoops.  Pretty good ice cream, very cute place, really bad chunky hot fudge, but what can you do?  It was nice to have an evening outdoors.

Too Good to Eat Alone

In my last brief post, I was mid-preparation of a veal ragù, and had just received word that, due to a change of plans, I would be alone for dinner.  Originally, I thought I was just slow cooking a casual Sunday night meal.  But the thing about slow cooked, stewed nuggets of veal is that they make the house smell really wonderful, and it becomes rather apparent that the food is going to be pretty delicious.  This was not going to be the kind of meal that one should eat alone on a couch in front of the television.  The best food should always be enjoyed with company.

Fortunately for me, I have very supportive parents, and when I called and explained to them my predicament (I'm making a veal ragù, and have no one with whom to eat it!), they hopped in their car to make sure their son would not be alone. 

We started with a salad (not pictured), that my mom prepared when she arrived.  The dressing was one of my favorites of hers: poppy seed vinaigrette, consisting of oil, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, poppy seeds, salt and pepper.  The salad was arugula, carrots, red onion, cannellini beans, and tomato slivers.

Then we moved to the ragù, served over rigatoni.

Rigatoni with Veal Ragù

To make this sauce (I will go into detail, because mom requested a recipe), I began by browning the stewing veal pieces (just under a pound, I think).  Then I removed the meat and deglazed the pot with the remainder of a bottle of cabernet.  I added half of a chopped vidalia onion, four small sliced carrots, two small diced tomatoes, a lot of garlic chunks, some green olives (about eight, cut in half), marjoram, bay leaf, a dash of cayenne pepper, a dash of cinnamon, a couple teaspoons of tomato paste, a drop of red wine vinegar, and enough water to cover everything well.  This simmered for a few hours.

My parents told me that they would be coming earlier than I was planning on eating.  With Sarah and Vanessa frequently working late, we have gotten in the habit of rarely eating before 8:00.  Mom and Dad were coming over at 7:00, and this left less time to slow cook the meat.  Since I was using stewing chunks of veal, I needed them to cook for a while, until they had dissolved into shreds of meat, and the liquid had almost completely reduced to a thick sauce.  With the lack of time, I had to speed things up.  I removed the meat from the bowl after about two hours of cooking.  At this point it was very tender but not really falling apart without help.  I heated up a large skillet to flash boil the sauce.  For those of you who don't speak kitchen jargon, this means when the pan was very hot, I poured in the sauce, which was still very liquid.  The large surface area of the pan and the significant increase in temperature causes a lot of liquid to immediately evaporate, reducing the sauce, and concentrating the flavor into what remains.  I quickly reduced this liquid on high heat for a couple minutes, until a couple cups of liquid had become about half of a cup of flavorful paste.  I had put the meat back into some of the remaining sauce in the pot while this was going on, and broke up the meat chunks a bit with a spoon.  When the reduced sauce was thick enough, I combined the meat sauce in the pot with the goodies in the pan. At this point, I added about a half of a cup of cannellini beans, and corrected the seasonings with salt and pepper.  I stirred in a little bit of heavy cream, and continued to slow cook until my folks came and it was time to eat.  As I said, earlier, I put the ragù over some rigatoni pasta, and we had a fresh warm baguette and some Côtes du Rhône.

I tell you, it sure is nice to have such supportive parents.  It was really considerate of them to come join me for dinner.  Food is an experience best shared with friends and family.  The more the merrier at the dinner table. 

If you'd like to come over for a bite, let me know!  Friends are always welcome.

Who Will Eat My Veal Ragù?

This problem typifies my apartment:  I'm making a veal ragù, and no one is home to eat it!

Vanessa is away tonight, but Sarah told me that she would be home for dinner.  She just called to tell me that she had plans.  Alas... would anyone like some veal ragù?

The Garden

I have always loved nature, always trumpeted the belief that, "outside is better than inside."  Watching my parents toil each spring in their garden, I suspected that I too would someday tend my own garden.  I did not imagine myself reaping quite the same joy as they seemed to.  Still, with my love of the land, the forest, and the wilderness, it seemed inevitable that, when I did begin to garden, it would be something I would enjoy.

Such a garden came into fruition this May.  My small porch is now adorned with a row of window boxes, and my outside steps carry terracotta saucers and pots.  It will not surprise my readers that food provided the impetus for this garden, and everything that I planted, while pleasant to look at and sit beside, is edible.  More specifically, I should say that I planted an herb garden.  Along with your standard parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, I planted chives, cilantro, mint, chervil, Thai basil and seven common basils (with two more to come).

I also bought a small red table and set of chairs for the porch (they called it a bistro set).  Now that the weather is nice, I look forward to enjoying dinner outside in my quaint little herb garden.

This week saw the first use of the new herbs: pierogies with sauteed peppers and onions topped with fresh chervil.  This was the main event for Sarah, while Vanessa and I had it on the side with some bratwursts and grainy mustard.  Sorry no pictures were taken (my camera needed batteries).

The gals have some plans to plant some vegetables and flowering plants in front of the porch.  We really are dealing with a very small place, and do not want to crowd it, but I think it will come out nicely. 

Now, because I don't want to leave anybody hanging, here are some food pics from the last couple weeks, completely unrelated, but nonetheless delicious:

Penne in White Wine with Shrimp and Bell Peppers

Chicken Curry

Asparagus with Mustard Seed and Garam Masala

Rice and Garlic Naan

Wild Salmon Steak in a Lemon Dijon Sauce with Thyme

Rice Pilaf and Grilled Zucchini

Una Noche de Paella con Mis Padres

This past Friday, my parents came over to join Vanessa and I for Shabbat, and for paella. 

The meal was about as unkosher as it gets: shrimp, squid, mussels, clams, and chorizo.  No one seemed to mind.  We lit shabbat candles, enjoyed a challah, some salad, some sauvignon blanc, and of course, the paella.

Vanessa took this photo of me and my folks after dinner, with empty plates and full bellies.

Here are some photos from the meal:

The Dinner Table

Seafood Paella

With Shrimp, Squid, Mussels, Clams, and Chorizo

Spanish paella is a food that I had always enjoyed in restaurants growing up.  When my sister, Trish, was in college, she studied abroad a summer in Salamanca and a semester in Madrid.  The family went to visit her on the later of these trips.  Spain was my second time to Europe, and I was immediately entranced by the beauty of the landscape, the Moorish architecture, the cobblestone streets, and of course, the jamon and langostinos.

Paella became a family favorite and a special treat.  Luckily for us, we were not far from Bridgeport, CT, where a sizable Portuguese community lives.  Like their Spanish neighbors, the Portuguese cook paella.  Two Portuguese restaurants became favorites of ours for paella.  In recent years, I have come to attempt the dish myself.  It is actually a fairly simple dish to cook, and it does not take a lot of time.  Below is a pictures from the last time my parents came over for paella.  This was shortly after we moved in to the Norwalk apartment.

Another Seafood Paella

As with any dish, the more you make it, the better you get at preparing it.  This most recent paella, I think, was my best yet.  I am figuring out how to time the different ingredients so that the clams open at the same time as the mussels, and so the squid and shrimp are not over cooked.  

¡Viva España!