If I Only Had a Time Machine...

…then I would not make this dinner.  At least not tonight.  I spent quite a while browsing through cookbooks and cooking magazines this afternoon trying to find the perfect, easy and inexpensive dinner to make this evening.  In retrospect, the excessive time I spent on this search should have been used to cook something else that was more time consuming.  Actually, I should have just taken a nap in the afternoon and re-heated some leftovers from Chef Chu's this evening.

I had a narrow window of time to shop for groceries late this afternoon.  Moments before I really had to get going or not go at all, I decided to make Sausage and Broccolini Risotto from the December 2011 issue of Food Network Magazine.  In my haste, I failed to notice that the recipe was prepared in a Dutch oven.  I don't have a Dutch oven.  I noticed my error when I was at my small local grocery store shopping for ingredients.  I decided to carry on and hope that I could find something big enough and oven- and stove-proof enough to prepare the risotto in when I got back home.  I always err on the side of high-end ingredients but my bill was not too bad today: $28.63.

When I arrived home, I began cooking.  I decided to use a 12 inch All Clad skillet (I had to do a little research online first to confirm that it was oven-proof!).  Unfortunately, the skillet did not have a complementary lid so I had to use an ill-fitting one.  In hindsight, I should have prepared my ingredients first - completed all of the slicing, dicing, and removal of sausage casings - prior to beginning the cooking process.  The first order of business was to heat the broccolini in a little bit of unsalted butter over "high heat". I kept thinking that "high" seemed a bit too high but decided to follow the directions.  The recipe stated that the broccolini should be stir-fried until just tender, about 3 to 4 minutes.  8 minutes later, the broccolini stems were still pretty crunchy but the florets were getting blackened.  I then realized that I was to remove the broccolini from the pan, add all of the other ingredients and bake them before adding the broccolini back in at the end. I had counted on the baking process to further soften the broccolini but I was to be disappointed in that regard.

The next steps involved filling the skillet up with most of the remaining ingredients: the chopped yellow onion (slightly singed due to the high heat!), chopped carrots, aborio rice, a minced clove of garlic, some dry white wine (it is not ideal to have to quickly open a bottle of wine while food is burning on the stove awaiting the arrival of some liquid!), low-sodium chicken broth, and a can of diced tomatoes.  Luckily, the skillet was juuuuust big enough to accommodate everything.  After adding ingredients, mixing, and adding some more, I brought the concoction to a boil, put the lid on (and there were some unfortunate gaps between the lid and the skillet - hardly ideal for risotto!), and put the skillet into a 450 degree oven (and then crossed my fingers that the glass lid wouldn't burst as I wasn't sure if it was oven safe).  Lessons learned so far: (1) read the recipe through before beginning (I am always forgetting to do this - oops!); (2) buy a Dutch oven; (3) pre-prep my ingredients; and (4) follow my instinct and turn down the heat even if it goes against the recipe's instructions.

As the risotto cooked, I shredded some Italian fontina cheese in anticipation of the last step.  Right after I finished with the grater, I began unloading the dish washer as my sink was already full of dirty dishes.  As I moved to put a pint glass up in the cupboard, I somehow managed to bang the glass and it shattered on the counter.  Glass shards went all over the floor, in the dishwasher, and, unfortunately, on the plate of shredded cheese. I yelled to the kids to grab our two dogs to make sure they did not step on the glass, picked up the biggest shards, and then started shredding some more cheese. (I finished the glass clean-up a little bit later.)  When the risotto was finished baking, I set it on the stove and added some more unsalted butter and the fontina cheese, and began stirring rapidly, per the instructions.  This was supposed to have the effect of thickening the risotto.  Unfortunately, likely due to the ill fitting lid that allowed steam to escape the baking risotto, there was still too much liquid.  I turned the heat on again and hoped that I could fix the soupy situation.  I then grabbed a smaller skillet and continued cooking the broccolini in hopes that it would become more tender.  As you can imagine, my hopes for a tasty dinner were quickly dying.  Thankfully, the risotto did firm up and the broccolini softened up somewhat.  I added the broccolini into the risotto and called the kids to dinner.

My risotto "soup"

The Food Network's risotto doesn't quite look like mine! Hmmm...

My husband was at a work function tonight and I imagine that was a blessing.  He tends not to like the "one pot meal" meals.  I gave each kid a very small portion of the risotto realizing that (a) the slightly burnt pieces of broccolini and onion mixed into the risotto would be off-putting and (b) the 1/3 cup of white wine I cooked into the risotto still managed to have a prominent place in the flavor of the dish.  My son tried the most minuscule bite of each ingredient and declared it too "spicy".  (What spice???!)  He had leftover Chinese food.  My daughter ate hers and asked for a *little* bit more.  I was so excited!  That is, until she concluded that "this was pretty good but I think that it is something I will like more when I am an adult."  Sigh.  This adult liked the risotto well enough so I polished off my portion as well as my son's bit of leftovers.  The rest went into the fridge along with my hope that someone will eat it over the next couple of days.  

Wish me luck!

ad hoc

     Friday night is usually "family night" at our house and can involve dinner and/or a movie out, board games, or a home cooked meal.  Tonight I decided to cook a meal entirely from recipes found in Thomas Keller's ad hoc at home cookbook from his casual Napa restaurant, ad hoc.  After dinner we planned to watch the second movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Two Towers).

     Over a year ago, our local butcher shop - a highly regarded family-run institution - was gutted by a fire.  A few weeks ago it re-opened, more spacious and better than ever.  My husband really wanted to grill some meat from the re-opened shop so that is where our meal originated.  I first picked up three Porterhouse steaks which the butcher cut to order off of the "slab" of steak.  I went with 1-inch thick steaks since I didn't think any of us were up for a more traditional 2-inch steak.  

     The Porterhouse steaks were simply prepared: trimmed of fat, basted with a little bit of canola oil and then sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  The ad hoc twist was the addition of a compound butter. I made herb and shallot butter from the cookbook which consisted of shallots, butter (of course!), flat-leaf parsley, freshly squeezed lemon juice, kosher salt, and sweet paprika.  After the ingredients were blended I formed the butter into a log shape, wrapped it in wax paper and put it in the freezer since time was short.  Next I prepared the creamed summer corn, something I haven't always enjoyed as there is often too much cream involved.  This recipe was perfect and had the more unusual seasonings of lime zest and lime juice as well as cayenne pepper (just 1/8 of a teaspoon) and fresh chives.  I then started the buttermilk biscuits.  The last biscuits I made were a disaster.  They had the consistency of hockey pucks and were, unfortunately, served at a dinner party to friends.  They still tease me about the biscuits!  I followed Thomas Keller's directions to not over process or overwork the dough (he repeated this several times throughout the recipe) religiously.  I also used expensive "high-end" unsalted butter to be on the safe side.  When I turned the dough out onto my work surface to cut into biscuits, however, I was very worried by its consistency.  It was very wet and sticky.  When I cut each biscuit, I could barely pick them up to move them to the parchment paper-lined baking sheet as they had no firmness.  Thankfully, they came out perfectly!  (After dinner, I could not resist bringing two biscuits over to our friends who had previously been subjected to the "hockey puck" biscuits.  They were really impressed and wanted the recipe!)  Lastly, as the dinner foods were cooking, I mixed the brownies.  These were definitely not your ordinary overly-sweet mix-in-a-box type brownies.  I melted half of the butter and then pored it over the rest of the room temperature butter so that the batch of butter was soft but still creamy.  I then mixed the eggs and extra-fine baker's sugar together, added flour, unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder (I used Guittard) and the butter, a little bit at a time.  I then added some vanilla paste and, finally, some chopped 62% chocolate pieces (I used Scharffenberger).

     The verdict: My kids loved the steak and the biscuits and both ate, but did not love, the creamed corn.  My daughter could not get enough of the compound butter but my son would not try it.  The real surprise of the evening was my calorie-counting husband.  When he saw me making the compound butter he said that he would try a little bit but wanted his steak "dry".  After he sampled the butter with his steak, he ended up slathering the whole steak with it!  I personally loved everything and would happily make all of the dishes again. 

Porterhouse Steaks

Herb and Shallot Compound Butter

Creamed Summer Corn

Buttermilk Biscuits

Brownies

     While we were watching the movie, I brought out the brownies.  The were super rich and tasted like they came from a professional bakery.  My daughter ate hers but was not a huge fan since she tends to like milk chocolate and sweeter brownies.  My son is a huge dark chocolate fan and he would have eaten the whole platter of brownies, if allowed.  I was really glad that I finally dove into the ad hoc at home cookbook as I had been drooling over its pages for awhile.  And now some of those pages are covered in flour and butter - the cookbook is officially broken in!

     This meal took me a long time to make and the ingredients were pretty expensive.  I think next time I will go for a quick and inexpensive meal to balance it out.  Now I just need to get motivated again…  Wish me luck!

Thai Tuesday

     I realized at 9:00pm this evening that yet another factor contributed to my cooking inertia: washing the dishes.  The number of pots, pans, bowls, utensils, and kitchen tools one must use (and then wash) in order to make a dish rises exponentially in relation to how interesting a dish is.  Tonight, instead of my usual suspects, I made Beef Satay with Peanut-Ginger Ramen and Thai Cucumber Salad.  Here are the results...  


     I found the Beef Satay with Peanut-Ginger Ramen recipe in the September 2012 issue of Everyday FOOD.  The recipe did not have any heat in it so I figured it was "safe" to try out on my kids and that my husband could still add some chili pepper or other spicing.  The recipe called for a few cucumber slices to be served with each portion but that struck me as a bland addition. However, it did inspire to me to look up a recipe online for Thai Cucumber Salad (made with rice wine vinegar, sugar and red onions).  I found a simple recipe on the WashingtonPost.com site.  One of the things I like most about cooking nicer meals is that I tend to get the ingredients that same day.  Since I was getting beef, I went to our local "gourmet" grocery.  Despite my upscale shopping trip, the ingredients for this meal only cost me $15.29. ~ way less than eating out at a Thai restaurant!  The dishes were fairly easy to prepare but a little bit time consuming.  I grated fresh ginger and squeezed fresh lime juice, soaked wooden skewers in water, marinated the beef and then threaded it onto the skewers, mixed the peanut-ginger sauce*, cooked the rice wine vinegar and sugar together until the sugar dissolved and the sauce reduced, and finely sliced cucumbers and onions.  My husband grilled the skewers while I boiled the ramen (Top Ramen minus the flavor packet - no wonder the meal was so cheap!).  *The only issue I had was with the KitchenAid chopper I tried to mix the peanut-ginger sauce in.  It would not turn on so I finally transferred the sticky (it had 3/4 cup of peanut butter in it) mixture into my big Vitamix and blended it there.  Unfortunately, that meant one more appliance to clean!

     The verdict: The kids were excited to eat the dinner since it looked and smelled great.  As they ate, they were surprisingly less than enthusiastic about the peanut buttery ramen noodles - I think the sauce just had too much peanut butter in it and that was overwhelming.  Everyone loved the beef skewers which were made using flank steak.  My husband and I, in particular, gobbled up the cucumber salad but my daughter liked it too (my son would not touch it with a ten foot pole).  I thought the food was really tasty although lacking a lot of complexity.  At the end of it all, I was just glad that my family seemed to like it.  It's hard to put a lot of effort into cooking only to see the kids sticking their noses up at the food!  If I recreate this meal in the future I would use only one package of ramen (I used two per the recipe) and half of the sauce and I would reduce the amount of peanut butter in the sauce.  One other great thing about the meal: it inspired us to eat in the underused dining room tonight!

Peanut-Ginger Ramen

Beef Satay

Thai Cucumber Salad

The meal!

     As is often the case with any new challenge we give ourselves, our enthusiasm may hold our interest at first but wane as time goes on.  The real challenge is to keep it up.  In my case, I have successfully completed Day 1. Here's hoping that I make it to Day 2.

Wish me luck!

A Revelation

     As I was walking out of the house this morning, on my way to dropping my kids off at their respective schools, I wondered what to make for dinner.  And, in that moment, it struck me that my plans for dinner invariably involved making one of a handful of family favorite meals (read "kid friendly") while my pantry was overflowing with cookbooks and cooking magazines full of recipes for every meal and occasion, for every type of diner, from a wide range of cultures and countries, and even for cooks with minimal time and/or minimal ingredients. Over the years, every time I purchase a new cookbook, I pore over the recipes inside it with a sort of foodie fervor.  As I flip through my issues of Everyday Food, Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, Real Simple, and even Disney's Family Fun magazines, I rip the little renewal cards that come inside the magazines into strips and mark the recipes I want to make.  Sometimes, almost every page of a magazine is bookmarked in this fashion.  And yet, very rarely do I actually try and actualize any of these dishes I dream of.    

     Part of my inertia can be blamed squarely on my children.  On the rare occasions that I do branch out and try to make something new and different (not too different as I know my kids' limitations!) their reactions invariably range from polite "It was good," to the blunter "Do I have to finish this?".  My husband, on the other hand, who enjoys a wide variety of foods, has been on a health kick the past couple of years.  His reactions tend to begin with questions such as the subtle "This is good - what kind of oil did you put in it?" to the blatant "How many calories would you say are in this?" and end with scorned side dishes and ignored sauces.  

     The days and weeks move faster now, however, and they are quickly turning into months and even years.  At some point, I need to start making the food I dream about and let everyone else fend for themselves if they don't want taste-test alongside me.  My epiphany today led me to conclude that I need to actively start working my way through my mounds of magazines and overflowing shelves of cookbooks.  I will never be able to make more than a dent - especially given that our family schedule won't allow me to experiment every evening - but I will at least make that dent.  I've never blogged before but this foray into cooking struck me as something worth blogging about.  My guess is that I am not the only one with many volumes of unused cookbooks and cooking magazines with pages that are marked and then never seen again.

     Wish me luck!