The Happiest of Birthdays

Well, I just celebrated a big birthday. The BIG 1-7. No, it isn't one of those milestone birthdays but it is definitely one that woke me up. I do feel older, and it is quite strange to actually think that I will be applied to a college this time next year. Regardless of my "getting older" woes and responsibilities though, I had a wonderful small party with my mother and father where food was the star...aside from my brand new Cinnamon Red Kitchen Aid Stand mixer that I got for a present.

Seeing it was my party, my mother wouldn't allow me to do any of the preparations, which I must admit, was quite unnerving, but nonetheless, it all turned out well.

For our entree, I had decided upon Shrimp and Grits. This is one of my all time favorite meals, and I never get to eat it, so I figured my birthday was the best day to do it.

We used a recipe from The Martha Stewart Show, titled "General Oglethorp's Shrimp and Grits". Don't get me wrong Martha is someone I truly emulate, but her recipes sometimes leave a little something to be desired. To be honest. It really wasn't very good. The grits were outstanding, and the shrimp were fresh, but the roux drizzled on top was bitter, and the seasoning on the shrimp was just okay. In defense of Martha, it wasn't her recipe.

Maybe cake will be better...

Funfetti Cake. Can we get any better? Yes, I am highly against boxed cake mixes, but for birthdays, when you are seeking nostalgia, I fear that box cake is permitted. Well...

It was worth it. I managed to find the Rainbow Chip Icing reminiscent of my childhood, because the new Funfetti icing simply would not have done, and my mother dyed the cake and icing to a playful pink and blue hue. The cake was delicious to SAY THE LEAST, and was the instigator of a very unpleasant binge...

All in all, my birthday was wonderful, and surely one to remember. Capping of the night, "Sex and the City" re-runs, and aching bellies, I wouldn't have changed a thing.

The Closet Italian

Italian food is always a cuisine that I underestimate. Whenever choosing a restaurant or recipe, Italian always has some sort of stigma in my head of being heavy and laden with tomato sauce. But in reality, Italian food is an expression of simplicity, beautiful presentation, and the use of delicious ingredients in their most organic state. This makes for a delicious recipe, even though looks may be deceiving.

That being said, I decided to try my luck at pasta making this week. We have had a pasta maker for a little while now, and I have been dying to use it, so I made time to do it. I decided to use an Eric Ripert recipe for the actual making of the pasta, and a Cooking Light "Pappardelle with Roasted Winter Squash, Arugula, and Pine Nuts", for the remaining of the preparation.

So I start with my well.

Flour, eggs, and a dash of salt, are poured gently into my well to begin making the dough. What I had determined would be easy, turned out to be the beginning of a small nightmare. First, I think I may have combined too much of the flour with the eggs in the well, far too quickly. For this unknown mistake, my "dough" turned into a coarse meal, and not a soft and silky, HOMOGENEOUS, piece of dough. Therefore, after several minutes of kneading, I came to the conclusion that my "sand" was not going to transform itself without any help. I decided that the only way to save the dough, was to add water, and lots of it. I know that this may seem like a pastry chefs worst nightmare, but I did what I had to do. It won't happen again...

Minutes later, after water and all, I have dough, which goes into the fridge for at least thirty minutes, but in my case, a few hours.

Hours later, the actual rolling of the pasta arrives. Since I didn't address the degree of difficulty associated with the dough making, I was by no means feeling carefree about rolling the pasta.

I prepared the dough by rolling it out to a large rectangle, and then I feed it through the machine at the widest setting...Easy! Success.

I fold the dough in half, and repeat the process...It worked again! Now I am feeling cocky, and continue the rest of the process with ease. I crank out some linguine for my father, which is done effortlessly by the machine, and then cut my mother and myself some rustic pappardelle. I gently drape the pasta over a floured baking sheet, and prepare the rest of the ingredients in the recipe. Little did I know, the REAL problems began simply, with the way I let my pasta wait.

In the meantime, I roast my butternut squash with balsamic vinegar, oil, and salt. What I am left with, is a beautifully crisp, and delicious tray of cubed butternut squash. Next, I have a mixture of pine nuts, sage, and garlic, ready to be sauteed in a pan with butter. This is all to be done at the last minute, so I get everything ready to go, and wait until the proper time to cook my pasta.

When this time arrives, I toss my fathers in first. Well, I had the pasta waiting on top of each other, and what is obvious now, stunned me at the time. The pasta or dough, being very malleable, combined itself right in with all of the other pasta that it was nestled on top of. Consequently, I had one giant clump of linguine strands melded together. I drop them(it?) in the water, with high hopes that they may separate with cooking.

2 minutes later, the linguine has separated slightly, but I find that it can be pulled apart easily, after cooking, so I move onto the pappardelle. Well...

The situation here is much worse. The ribbons are not coming apart, which has turned my, what was beautiful pasta ribbons, into small, uneven chunks of dough. What I did salvage(which was plenty) didn't have the same appeal, as the original look of the sheets, but I had to get them in the pot regardless. While the pasta cooks, I melt the butter for the pine nut, sage and garlic mixture.

With frustration coursing through my body, and just when I didn't need it, I smell something. It is the familiar smell of burning...The nuts and garlic, are scorched in the pan. I never do this! Mindlessly, I had walked away and forgotten. In hot pursuit, I had to prepare that mixture again, drain the pasta, only to find that I have some very unappealing hunks, and finish preparing the meal.

I put the pappardelle in a bowl with the butternut squash, and throw in the now perfectly cooked pine nuts, and toss to combine. Now comes the arugula, and some freshly grated truffle cheese, and the pasta is ready to go. A huge sigh of relief is heaved, but I can still feeling a sort of nervous buzzing reverberating in my head.

The verdict: Well, the past isn't that great. My family and I found it to be a tad heavy, and something just wasn't right. We did agree on the fact that homemade pasta does have that certain something. A je ne sais quoi, that is unexplainable. Aside from this tragic end to the actual pasta, the recipe made was delicious and we would happily try it again with dry pasta...unless I make some real positive strives in the pasta making realm. Which reminds me of the beginning statement. Italian cooking may seem simple, but often that results in explosive flavor.

In the end, the whole pasta venture didn't really work out. I will definitely reattempt this journey again, after some careful research and observation. It was a fun project, and being able to say that you have made pasta is a truly rewarding accomplishment.

Sydney Had A Little Lamb...

Lamb. My favorite protein.

I adore the distinct "gamey" taste that is immediately recognized when taking a large chomp out of a delicate rack of lamb, and that is simultaneously sensed when eating sheep's milk cheese. It is obvious that a sheep's cheese would resemble the lamb meat, just as goat's milk cheese resembles the taste of goat meat, but every time I compare the two I am simply blown away by the lovely taste of lamb. That is why, I decided to make 'Beef Tajine" or, well er...."Lamb Tajine" on my part.

Ethnic, middle eastern food calls to my mother and me so strongly, we often find ourselves making it more than anything else. Therefore, on a very cold night, we found no other solution to the winter blues, than a lovely "Beef Tajine" turned "Lamb Tajine" by one of my personal favorites, Jaime Oliver. To start, I had to make the "ras el hanout" which, yet deliciously fragrant, was not of the standards I had hoped, due to a lack of will power to run to the grocery. Anyway, the task was to marinate the lamb chunks in with the spice blend, for a few hours-overnight. I opted not to marinate this long, which in fact, didn't seem like it made a difference, but in test kitchen fashion, I will try both ways eventually. Although, deep down I feared that the great natural flavor of the lamb would become vague, or disappear with all of the very "present" spices in the marinade. To my chagrin, it did not, and as the lamb marinated, I chopped my veggies(butternut squash, being the star player), and prepared to cook.

With the lamb marinating long enough to my liking, I started to get to work on the actual stew portion. Taking the lamb out of the fridge, I gently fry the lamb chunks in a dutch oven, coated with olive oil. I proceeded to add, onion and coriander(cilantro), which smelled up the kitchen wonderfully, and fried that with the lamb for a few more moments. Next came the can of chickpeas, the stewed tomatoes, and a little deviation from the recipe. The recipes instructed to simmer the tajine for 1-and-a-half hours on the stove. I decided to pop mine in the oven at 375 F, and let it simmer there for the duration.

5:30pm, I come back to my home, and the kitchen smells of a Moroccan village. I am immediately engrossed in the delicious smells of coriander, and cumin, and prepare the rest of the ingredients to go in. Next in the pot, is the fat chunks of butternut squash and the torn prunes. The tajine, continues to simmer for about an hour, or in my case, until the butternut is cooked at 9,000ft elevation.

6:30pm, the last steps of the tajine are ready to be performed. The lamb is flaky, and the butternut squash is not rock solid still, after an hour or so of cooking. With all of the vegetables and spices nicely melded together, and the cooking liquid reduced, so you have more of a stew-like consistency, I put the couscous in a pot on the next boiler, and prepare to serve.

-Yes, I know it looks like quite the mess, but it actuaclly didn't stick at all, and the dutch oven washed beautifully.

6:40pm, after adding a slight bit of water to the tajine, to make it a little less dense, I scoop the couscous into our bowls, and top with the lamb tajine and a generous sprinkle of cilantro. Anxious to eat, my mother and I sit down to enjoy the flavors of the far east.

So, what seemed as if it were going to be slightly daunting at first, ended up being of true ease. The tajine was a walk in the park to make, and gave me my lamb fix that I wanted. This dish had a flavor that did not overwhelm the other components of the dish, but was still very much involved in boosting the dish to its maximum potential. The textures were diverse, with the flaky lamb, the soft, mushy butternut squash, the chewy prunes, and the chickpeas somewhere there in the middle as buffers. Both my mother and I loved this, and would certainly make it again, adding it to our long list of tajines, and indian curries that we have loved.

Soaking up our last bit of sauce with the couscous, my mother and I laid back in our chairs with extreme pleasure, and pondered the vast, and diverse aspects of the flavors in the dish. Bed, was closely impending...

A New Beginning

Hello World Wide Web. My first blog post is certainly a feat I never thought that I would get to. Month after month now, I have wanted to start one, but for some reason, I could not find the initiative or the material to write about for that matter. Here I am now though, New Years Day, finally beginning my journey into the blogoshpere. So, a new start to a new year, and the start of my blog all in the same day. That being said, I find no recipe more fit to begin with, than my New Years Eve dessert. We forge...

7:30am New Years Eve morning: I arise, walk upstairs to fetch my coffee, and discuss the oncoming evening with my mother. My mother and I are renowned for our thorough analysis, contemplation, and deciding of recipes and preparations of dishes for family dinners and holidays. Hence, the evening should have been thought out,...but it wasn't. As of New Years Eve morning, we had no idea who was attending our gathering, or if we were hosting the dinner at all. That said, once the guest situation was squared away, my mother and I got (very)busy searching for recipes, because we needed to get to the market.


8:00am: I have decided on a French Laundry Recipe. Lemon Sabayon-Pine Nut Tart with Honeyed Mascarpone Cream.

10:00am: Grocery Store on New Years Eve=Mad House. We buy everything we need as quickly as possible, and get home to get started.

11:00am-: The baking begins. I carefully read through the recipe, because Thomas Keller I surely am not. First of all, instead of using one 9-inch tart shell, I chose to use five 4.5-inch tart shells. After contemplating this decision, I do as I am told by the recipe; butter/flour tart shells, preheat oven, make dough/chill dough. Once this group of steps is complete, I am ready to press the dough into my tart shells and get making the sabayon. I chill the tart shells for a few minutes before baking, and then I place them in the oven, for intervals of five minutes. Meanwhile, I make the sabayon, which was a first for me, but to my surprise was exceedingly easy. The sabayon came together perfectly, the tarts transformed into a savory golden brown, and all was going well. I finish my sabayon, ladle it into the tart shells, and prepare my oven for broiling the top of the tarts. Once the broiler is ready, I place my tarts in the oven and watch carefully. The instruction said to watch them like a hawk because they will burn very quickly. This is a very true statement, so if you attempt this recipe, do not neglect this step. I take them out, and they all look beautiful.

5:00pm: After finishing up with my daily activities, I thought that it was a perfect time to begin making the cream. I hate running the stand mixture while company is sitting and trying to talk so I made it well ahead of time. As my mother prepared other dishes, I set up the mixture and got out my ingredient. Whipped cream, is strangely enough, one of my most favorite things to "whip" up. I pour in the cream, add the mascarpone, drizzle in the honey, and whip. Within moments, I have unctuously fluffy whipped cream. I taste, and decide to embellish on the honey by adding more, because I did not feel as if the flavor was present enough. A tablespoon of honey later, I am much happier.

8:30pm: It is dessert time, and I begin my preparation. I place the delicate tarts on pristine white plates and serve the cream on a dessert spoon with the plate. The remaining whipped cream is put in a dish on the table. I prepare to take them to the table...*crosses fingers*.

Much to my feeling of uneasiness, as to how the outcome of this dessert would fair with my guests, it turns out that it was a huge hit! Everyone loved it, including me, and I recommend it for any occasion at any time of year. The sabayon had the taste of lemon bars, which accompanied the savory of the pine nut crust beautifully. The whipped cream, what can I say, is it ever bad? In addition to the deliciousness of this dessert, it was surprisingly easy. I was intimidated by my French Laundry Cookbook, but after making this I feel as if I could attempt anything out of it. This was a great success and I will surely make it again! Happy New Year!