Saturday's experiment
Yes, this is yet another post on cooking.
So, the Palm Springs area finally has a Farmer's Market. Yeah, I know there is a sort of a Farmer's Market on Thurs nights. The one time that I managed to be home for it, I was sadly disappointed. More crafts, not so much produce, some really cool chocolates.
On Sat am starting at 8 at the Camelot Theater parking lot on Barristo near Farrell, there is a certified organic FM. There were only 2-3 fruit/veggie vendors, but they were stocked with stuff - asparagus, oranges, brussel sprouts, green beans, parsley, cilantro, cukes, etc.
Spare ribs were on the menu, so we were on a search for side dishes. The brussel sprouts were the size of a racquetball rather than the puny golf ball sized ones at the reg grocery store. Sky remembered a recipe from Bon Appetite that looked good which called for brussel sprouts. So we nabbed em. He also found me blood oranges which are my favorite citrus and only available around this time of year. I jones for them as well as cherries each year and need to get better about keeping track or recipes.
We finally bought a gas grill last year and I spent some of the summer making stuff outside. The plan was to smoke the ribs over indirect heat at 220-225 F over 4-5 hours. Because we don't have a smoke box, I went online and found that foil packets would do the trick. Thing is, you need to get the chips hot enough to start smoking without the ribs cooking too fast and drying out. After some experimentation, it finally worked. I had to replace the packets several times and went through have a bag of chips, but it worked. The smokiness was okay, but in my opinion, I seriously underseasoned the pork. They could have been far more flavorful. The citrus vodka mop/sauce was good (OJ, vinegar, lime juice, sugar, dry mustard, corn starch, crushed red pepper - off heat, vodka, lemon and lime zest, scallions). It's tangy with a little heat.
NEW PLAN: Get a smokebox for the grill. Buy a copy of Steven Raichlen's BBQ Bible (unless someone has a better suggestion) with my Amazon gift card and use as a resource.
The brussel sprouts kicked ass. I backed off on the oil as 1.5 oz (3T) 2of oil seemed a bit much.
Sauteed Brussel Sprouts with Lemon and Pistachios
2T grapeseed oil (3 if you follow the printed recipe)
1T minched shallot
1.5 lbs brussel sprouts (approx 12 large), trimmed with leaves separated from cores and cores discarded. According to the recipe you should have approx 8 cups.
3/4 c shelled unsalted pistachios
2T lemon juice
Heat oil over med high heat in large nonstick pan. Add the shallots and sautee for 20 seconds. Add sprout leaves and pistachios and sautee until leaves begin to soften and turn bright green (approx 3 min). Drizzle with lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Wow! I was surprised that the pistachios actually rounded out the flavor. It was great. FYI, I didn't bother to separate the leaves from the cores. I just sliced around the core because (1) I was in a hurry and (2) it didn't need to look as pretty as the magazine.
I also made a Blood Orange Sorbet by simply juicing all the oranges (Yield=2 cups) adding a commercially pre-made splenda simple syrup until it was sweet, but not sickingly so, and churning in my Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment that the old man was kind enough to gift me last year.
I almost screwed it up by reducing the juice to 1 C over high heat with a little of the zest before remembering that the last time I did this with grapefruit it was as bitter as could be. So, I just let the hot juice sit for about 10 min with the zest before straining it to absorb some of the oil in order to up the flavour and this worked really well. Normally I would have used regular simple syrup, but I'm trying to lose some weight and didn't need the baby bouncing off the walls at 8 pm. He now knows to say sorbet by the way. I've made splenda simple syrup in the past and have gotten a chemically aftertaste particularly with citrus. So there must be another or better way to accomplish this.
FYI, the sorbet worked really well in a Blood Orange Vodka martini with a splash of Pomma. ::Drool::
Now all I need to do, is to add the sorbet recipe to my "Dessert Main Recipes" document, so that I know what to do the next time. If I had bothered to do this the last time I made sourdough bread, I wouldn't be struggling with the *@(@*&^!!!! calculations for the sponge today.
So, the Palm Springs area finally has a Farmer's Market. Yeah, I know there is a sort of a Farmer's Market on Thurs nights. The one time that I managed to be home for it, I was sadly disappointed. More crafts, not so much produce, some really cool chocolates.
On Sat am starting at 8 at the Camelot Theater parking lot on Barristo near Farrell, there is a certified organic FM. There were only 2-3 fruit/veggie vendors, but they were stocked with stuff - asparagus, oranges, brussel sprouts, green beans, parsley, cilantro, cukes, etc.
Spare ribs were on the menu, so we were on a search for side dishes. The brussel sprouts were the size of a racquetball rather than the puny golf ball sized ones at the reg grocery store. Sky remembered a recipe from Bon Appetite that looked good which called for brussel sprouts. So we nabbed em. He also found me blood oranges which are my favorite citrus and only available around this time of year. I jones for them as well as cherries each year and need to get better about keeping track or recipes.
We finally bought a gas grill last year and I spent some of the summer making stuff outside. The plan was to smoke the ribs over indirect heat at 220-225 F over 4-5 hours. Because we don't have a smoke box, I went online and found that foil packets would do the trick. Thing is, you need to get the chips hot enough to start smoking without the ribs cooking too fast and drying out. After some experimentation, it finally worked. I had to replace the packets several times and went through have a bag of chips, but it worked. The smokiness was okay, but in my opinion, I seriously underseasoned the pork. They could have been far more flavorful. The citrus vodka mop/sauce was good (OJ, vinegar, lime juice, sugar, dry mustard, corn starch, crushed red pepper - off heat, vodka, lemon and lime zest, scallions). It's tangy with a little heat.
NEW PLAN: Get a smokebox for the grill. Buy a copy of Steven Raichlen's BBQ Bible (unless someone has a better suggestion) with my Amazon gift card and use as a resource.
The brussel sprouts kicked ass. I backed off on the oil as 1.5 oz (3T) 2of oil seemed a bit much.
Sauteed Brussel Sprouts with Lemon and Pistachios
2T grapeseed oil (3 if you follow the printed recipe)
1T minched shallot
1.5 lbs brussel sprouts (approx 12 large), trimmed with leaves separated from cores and cores discarded. According to the recipe you should have approx 8 cups.
3/4 c shelled unsalted pistachios
2T lemon juice
Heat oil over med high heat in large nonstick pan. Add the shallots and sautee for 20 seconds. Add sprout leaves and pistachios and sautee until leaves begin to soften and turn bright green (approx 3 min). Drizzle with lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Wow! I was surprised that the pistachios actually rounded out the flavor. It was great. FYI, I didn't bother to separate the leaves from the cores. I just sliced around the core because (1) I was in a hurry and (2) it didn't need to look as pretty as the magazine.
I also made a Blood Orange Sorbet by simply juicing all the oranges (Yield=2 cups) adding a commercially pre-made splenda simple syrup until it was sweet, but not sickingly so, and churning in my Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment that the old man was kind enough to gift me last year.
I almost screwed it up by reducing the juice to 1 C over high heat with a little of the zest before remembering that the last time I did this with grapefruit it was as bitter as could be. So, I just let the hot juice sit for about 10 min with the zest before straining it to absorb some of the oil in order to up the flavour and this worked really well. Normally I would have used regular simple syrup, but I'm trying to lose some weight and didn't need the baby bouncing off the walls at 8 pm. He now knows to say sorbet by the way. I've made splenda simple syrup in the past and have gotten a chemically aftertaste particularly with citrus. So there must be another or better way to accomplish this.
FYI, the sorbet worked really well in a Blood Orange Vodka martini with a splash of Pomma. ::Drool::
Now all I need to do, is to add the sorbet recipe to my "Dessert Main Recipes" document, so that I know what to do the next time. If I had bothered to do this the last time I made sourdough bread, I wouldn't be struggling with the *@(@*&^!!!! calculations for the sponge today.