Prosciutto, Tomato and Green Pea Hummus Bruschetta (sort of) I found this recipe for Green Pea Hummus on seriouseats.com. It looked pretty good and I’ve always had a strange fondness for green peas. I had originally just intended to make the hummus and eat it with slices of brie and wheat thins but realized I could do more. Ingredients 1 bag of frozen green peas, thawed1/2 lemon, juiced1/4 cup of olive oil3 cloves of garlic (diced finely or pressed)salt and pepper to taste (I have a knack for getting this right so you may have to work at it)3 slices of prosciutto1 Roma tomato or other small tomatograted Parmesan cheese2 slices of good (artisan or french) bread Preparation Throw thawed peas, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and lemon juice into a blender or food processor. Chop/blend till the mixture achieves the consistency of your standard, run of the mill, hummus. Set your oven to broil on high. Toast bread lightly then place in a baking pan or on a baking sheet. Spread the hummus onto the slices of bread. Then place prosciutto slices on top, tomatoes next and finally the Parmesan cheese. Put in the oven for about a minute and a half to two minutes (depends on the oven). Now eat it :). View high resolution

Prosciutto, Tomato and Green Pea Hummus Bruschetta (sort of)

I found this recipe for Green Pea Hummus on seriouseats.com. It looked pretty good and I’ve always had a strange fondness for green peas. I had originally just intended to make the hummus and eat it with slices of brie and wheat thins but realized I could do more.

Ingredients

1 bag of frozen green peas, thawed
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic (diced finely or pressed)
salt and pepper to taste (I have a knack for getting this right so you may have to work at it)
3 slices of prosciutto
1 Roma tomato or other small tomato
grated Parmesan cheese
2 slices of good (artisan or french) bread

Preparation

Throw thawed peas, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and lemon juice into a blender or food processor. Chop/blend till the mixture achieves the consistency of your standard, run of the mill, hummus.

Set your oven to broil on high. Toast bread lightly then place in a baking pan or on a baking sheet. Spread the hummus onto the slices of bread. Then place prosciutto slices on top, tomatoes next and finally the Parmesan cheese. Put in the oven for about a minute and a half to two minutes (depends on the oven).

Now eat it :).

Savory Breakfast (Oatmeal & Ham)

Mark Bittman (chef & NY Times columnist) wrote a blog post yesterday about his savory breakfast. Intrigued by a salty oatmeal dish and disliking celery, I tried my own variant this morning using some Canadian (or Irish :D) bacon that I had leftover from my cabbage soup adventure.

Ingredients

3/4 cup of oatmeal (your heart-healthy serving!)
Canadian bacon - this is more based on how much you want, I had 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 cup water
1/3 tbsp butter

Preparation

Fill a small soup pot with the water and chopped bacon. Put on medium heat and let it reach a rolling boil. Once boiling, add oats and reduce heat to medium low. Stir the mixture occasionally and let cook for about five minutes. Assuming you know what you like your oatmeal to look like, I use that as my judge for when its done.

Pour the oatmeal+bacon mixture into a bowl, add the butter and soy sauce and mix. Consume!

Thoughts

It occurs to me that this is probably better served with sesame oil rather than butter, as Mark Bittman mentions in his post. The flavor would be richer. I will note that I can’t eat near as much of this as I can of standard oatmeal+sugar+butter+cinnamon mixture. This is richer and has more body with the bacon.

I’ve been on a bit of a cooking-related buying spree lately. On Sunday I cashed my Costco rebate check and went straight to The Epicurean Edge. There, I bought a MAC Paring knife, a magnetic wall-mount knife block and a bamboo cutting board (my current cutting board wasn’t very large). Admittedly, I really wanted a Hinoki cutting board, but I couldn’t justify spending $130 on the cutting board when I got all of the above for about $150. Later that evening I also went online and ordered a ceramic (cast-iron core) dutch oven by Lodge Logic with a Le Creucet replacement handle. The one that comes default with the Lodge Logic dutch oven is plastic and melts above 400 degrees. Thus, my dutch oven looks very much the part of a Le Creucet dutch oven with the nice price tag of about $55. On Monday I proceeded to buy James Peterson’s Cooking, as I have no real cookbooks besides the Alice. B. Toklas one, which isn’t entirely practical or broad. It came in the mail today as well, hooray :). I like that its got all the pretty pictures and the recipes seem quite followable. Finally, I haven’t been very happy with the Farberware Non-stick pans I bought from Costco. They’re okay, but they don’t have very good heat properties (ie: stay hot too long, take forever to heat up). So I decided that since Costco has such an awesome return policy, I’ll return these and buy a set from Amazon. I ended up getting a nice stainless steal with aluminum core set by Cuisinart (Multiclad Pro series). The particular set I wanted was sold out, so I bought a smaller set and added on the 3.5 qt saute pan and 8 inch omelet pan (Marcus Samuelsson, no Cuisinart). Huzzah for new cooking things! Now all I’m missing is someone to test my cooking on, which will primarily be Caroline (g/f) when she comes next week. View high resolution

I’ve been on a bit of a cooking-related buying spree lately. On Sunday I cashed my Costco rebate check and went straight to The Epicurean Edge. There, I bought a MAC Paring knife, a magnetic wall-mount knife block and a bamboo cutting board (my current cutting board wasn’t very large). Admittedly, I really wanted a Hinoki cutting board, but I couldn’t justify spending $130 on the cutting board when I got all of the above for about $150.

Later that evening I also went online and ordered a ceramic (cast-iron core) dutch oven by Lodge Logic with a Le Creucet replacement handle. The one that comes default with the Lodge Logic dutch oven is plastic and melts above 400 degrees. Thus, my dutch oven looks very much the part of a Le Creucet dutch oven with the nice price tag of about $55.

On Monday I proceeded to buy James Peterson’s Cooking, as I have no real cookbooks besides the Alice. B. Toklas one, which isn’t entirely practical or broad. It came in the mail today as well, hooray :). I like that its got all the pretty pictures and the recipes seem quite followable.

Finally, I haven’t been very happy with the Farberware Non-stick pans I bought from Costco. They’re okay, but they don’t have very good heat properties (ie: stay hot too long, take forever to heat up). So I decided that since Costco has such an awesome return policy, I’ll return these and buy a set from Amazon. I ended up getting a nice stainless steal with aluminum core set by Cuisinart (Multiclad Pro series). The particular set I wanted was sold out, so I bought a smaller set and added on the 3.5 qt saute pan and 8 inch omelet pan (Marcus Samuelsson, no Cuisinart).

Huzzah for new cooking things! Now all I’m missing is someone to test my cooking on, which will primarily be Caroline (g/f) when she comes next week.

Kale, Prosciutto, Tomato and Egg Salad This is a modified rethinking of Chef Tim Love’s salad served at his restaurant, Lonesome Dove (also my favorite restaurant). This is my first go at it but I did learn a few things along the way. The original lacks the tomato and prosciutto, but I had some in the fridge and figured it’d go well. Ingredients Kale - enough to fill as many salad plates as you’re serving3 strips Prosciutto - per plate1 egg1 Roma tomatosalt - to tastepepper - to taste3 tsp red wine vinegar - this is still up in the air, its what I used this time1.5 tsp olive oil0.75 tsp sugar Preparation Wash the kale in cold water, towel dry. Cut off the stems of the kale up to where heavy foliage begins. Take the kale and cut it in about 1 cm increments perpendicular to the stems. <SIDE NOTE> If you leave the kale as is when served, the kale will be somewhat.. more resilient and tough. I don’t mind it much but I remember it being tenderer when I ate it at Lonesome Dove. That makes me think they VERY briefly steamed the kale, just to soften it a bit. I will update the recipe when I know more about this. </SIDE NOTE> Dice the tomato and prosciutto. Place the kale on the bottom, with tomato and prosciutto on top of it. To make the dressing, mix the olive oil and vinegar together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Depending on the vinegar you use, you may need to add sugar to the dressing. Set the dressing aside for now. Last part, and the best :). Fry an egg over easy, you could even fry two if you had a real appetite. Place the egg(s) on top of the salad and then pour the dressing over the top. Serve immediately. View high resolution

Kale, Prosciutto, Tomato and Egg Salad

This is a modified rethinking of Chef Tim Love’s salad served at his restaurant, Lonesome Dove (also my favorite restaurant). This is my first go at it but I did learn a few things along the way. The original lacks the tomato and prosciutto, but I had some in the fridge and figured it’d go well.

Ingredients

Kale - enough to fill as many salad plates as you’re serving
3 strips Prosciutto - per plate
1 egg
1 Roma tomato
salt - to taste
pepper - to taste
3 tsp red wine vinegar - this is still up in the air, its what I used this time
1.5 tsp olive oil
0.75 tsp sugar

Preparation

Wash the kale in cold water, towel dry. Cut off the stems of the kale up to where heavy foliage begins. Take the kale and cut it in about 1 cm increments perpendicular to the stems.

<SIDE NOTE> If you leave the kale as is when served, the kale will be somewhat.. more resilient and tough. I don’t mind it much but I remember it being tenderer when I ate it at Lonesome Dove. That makes me think they VERY briefly steamed the kale, just to soften it a bit. I will update the recipe when I know more about this. </SIDE NOTE>

Dice the tomato and prosciutto. Place the kale on the bottom, with tomato and prosciutto on top of it.

To make the dressing, mix the olive oil and vinegar together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Depending on the vinegar you use, you may need to add sugar to the dressing. Set the dressing aside for now.

Last part, and the best :). Fry an egg over easy, you could even fry two if you had a real appetite. Place the egg(s) on top of the salad and then pour the dressing over the top. Serve immediately.

French-style Butter Smothered Potatoes

Courtesy of Alice B. Toklas (The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook)…

Found this recipe while browsing the aforementioned cookbook, which by the way is a fantastic read (reads more like a memoir with recipes interspersed). The original calls for two pounds of potatoes but since I’m generally cooking for just myself or my girlfriend I’ve modified the recipe for two.

Ingredients

2 large Russet potatoes (or 3 large Yukon Golds)
1/4 cup salted butter (if you’ve only got unsalted, you’ll want to salt more at the end)
salt (to taste)

Preparation

Wash and partially peel the potatoes. You can leave them unpeeled as well, either works. Melt the 1/4 cup of butter on medium heat in a medium frying or sauce pan (8 to 10 inch pan). Once the butter is melted, put the potatoes in the pan, stirring occasionally. It should take about 15 minutes to brown (on all sides). The potatoes should be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Once done, salt to taste, no pepper.

NOTE: This recipe is actually very close to the recipe for pommes sarladaises, which are the archetypal side served with duck confit (my favorite dish). The primary difference is you swap the butter for rendered duck fat. An amazing dish with a more gamy flavor.

Irish/Ethiopian Cabbage & Potato Soup

I’ve wanted to make a soup for a while. Last week I got it in my head to make squash soup but as it turns out, it is not squash season which means squash is ridiculously expensive. Since squash turned out a failure, I went for something less seasonal and more gaseous. Hunting around on http://epicurious.com, I found two recipes I liked. One was for Ethiopian Lamb & Cabbage soup and the other was for Irish Cabbage soup. Since lamb shoulder was $28 at the store, I went for the Canadian Bacon listed in the Irish Cabbage soup.

Ingredients
1/2 to 3/4 lb Canadian Bacon (you want this in a slab form, not slices for pizza)
1 large Russet potato OR 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, diced into smallish pieces
1 small to medium head of cabbage (savoy or green or even red), chopped
1 medium Yellow or Sweet onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley (Italian or otherwise)
3 to 4 tbsp salted butter
2 cups navy beans (this is optional, I wanted the protein)
2.5 qt water or chicken stock (depends on the flavor you want)
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 tsp (large) cumin
1 tsp crushed red pepper
3 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried mint
season salt or kosher salt to taste (vague, I know)
ground black pepper to taste (vague, I know)

Preparations
Soak the navy beans for about 8 hours. Just fill a bowl with water and the beans so that about an inch of water is covering the top of the beans. There are ways to speed up this process if you’re unwilling to wait, I won’t cover that here.

In a sauce pan (or a deep frying pan), put the Canadian bacon and enough water to cover the bacon to about an inch. Put on medium heat and allow to reach a low boil. Skim off any foam/fat that is on the surface of the water. Cool and drain the bacon. Slice these into about 1/2 inch chunks.
NOTE: I tend to cut the bacon into a few chunks from the start. My package of Canadian bacon was 1.25 lbs so I cut it in half and cut that half into a few smaller chunks before boiling. Less water needed to boil basically.

Chop the veggies above in the fashion mentioned. Take a large soup pot and melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted throw in the Canadian bacon and brown (about 3 minutes). Once the bacon is browned, throw in the onion and cook till soft (about 3 minutes). Throw in potatoes, parsley and garlic next and cook till potatoes are soft (3-4 minutes depending). Add the 2.5 quarts of water, navy beans, cumin, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Simmer for about 40 minutes.

Add the chopped cabbage and mint to the soup and cook for another 40 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and serve.

This can be cooked a day or two in advance. Most recipes say “blah blah 1 day in advanced” but I’ve taken to freezing soups I make. I wouldn’t leave it out on the cook top (burner OFF!) for more than a day though. It should be refrigerated.