Surrender to deliciousness!
It's been a while since I made a food post. This must be rectified - I have a reputation to uphold!
1) it's farmer's market season again. This makes me happy. This year so far for me has yielded a bounty of ramps, morels, spring onions, and spinach so far. And, of course, meat, thanks to my friends at Fountain Prairie. I've already purchased and epic tri-tip from them, and last weekend saw the grilling of some remarkable pork chops. As for the vegetables, many have become omlettes, salads, or have just been flat out eaten in their natural state.
2) it;s grilling season too, and I've got the grill fired up to intense temperatures once again (oh how I love infrared grilling). Twice now I've made fish kabobs - chunks of a hearty fish (I often use swordfish, but mahi mahi has been on special) skewered with lemon and occasionally bay leaf, seasoned with salt, pepper and a smattering of paprika, then seared on a hot hot hot grill. Oh it's lovely.
I've also been grilling fingerling potatoes, which is a fabulous treatment. I parboil them first to soften them up, then toss them with olive oil and salt, and again, throw them on a hot grill grate. I've once thrown some soaked wood chips on the grill as well to smoke-flavor them but it's almost unecessary. It's a nice variation from the usual indirect-grilled slow-roasted potaotes.
3) While I'm not a vegetarian and it's doubtful I ever will be, I still purchased Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything Vegetarian." I've got two copies of the non-vegetarian version of the book, I read Bittman's blog religiously, and as soon as I perused Robin's copy of the veg version I knew I had to own it. There's some overlap with the non-vegetarian version, but it expands on many of the recipes, and includes plenty more. I am a convert to his recipe for kimchee and tofu soup. He's also got a surprisingly simple recipe for homemade seitan/mock duck which I intend to try at some point - it seems like that could be an interesting base for a lot of different flavors.
is it weird that I occasionally keep cookbooks as bedtime reading?
4) I'm working my way up to actually cooking something from the Alinea cookbook. This takes a little doing.
1) it's farmer's market season again. This makes me happy. This year so far for me has yielded a bounty of ramps, morels, spring onions, and spinach so far. And, of course, meat, thanks to my friends at Fountain Prairie. I've already purchased and epic tri-tip from them, and last weekend saw the grilling of some remarkable pork chops. As for the vegetables, many have become omlettes, salads, or have just been flat out eaten in their natural state.
2) it;s grilling season too, and I've got the grill fired up to intense temperatures once again (oh how I love infrared grilling). Twice now I've made fish kabobs - chunks of a hearty fish (I often use swordfish, but mahi mahi has been on special) skewered with lemon and occasionally bay leaf, seasoned with salt, pepper and a smattering of paprika, then seared on a hot hot hot grill. Oh it's lovely.
I've also been grilling fingerling potatoes, which is a fabulous treatment. I parboil them first to soften them up, then toss them with olive oil and salt, and again, throw them on a hot grill grate. I've once thrown some soaked wood chips on the grill as well to smoke-flavor them but it's almost unecessary. It's a nice variation from the usual indirect-grilled slow-roasted potaotes.
3) While I'm not a vegetarian and it's doubtful I ever will be, I still purchased Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything Vegetarian." I've got two copies of the non-vegetarian version of the book, I read Bittman's blog religiously, and as soon as I perused Robin's copy of the veg version I knew I had to own it. There's some overlap with the non-vegetarian version, but it expands on many of the recipes, and includes plenty more. I am a convert to his recipe for kimchee and tofu soup. He's also got a surprisingly simple recipe for homemade seitan/mock duck which I intend to try at some point - it seems like that could be an interesting base for a lot of different flavors.
is it weird that I occasionally keep cookbooks as bedtime reading?
4) I'm working my way up to actually cooking something from the Alinea cookbook. This takes a little doing.