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October 10, 2005

Fall Food Update

It's so sad. I didn't make it to a single OHNY event this weekend, due to various family- and baseball-related activities. Did anyone go?

For want of juicy details about a visit to the Montauk club or canoe trip on the Gowanas, here's an update on our latest cooking exploits.

I still don't quite have the cooking experience needed to "throw something together" and have it actually be good. I'm not sure if that skill comes from genes or cooking experience, but I'm hoping for the latter. It's frustrating when there's a fridge full of overripe produce begging to be used and I can't just, say, make a paella or something -- I know too well that my improvisational cooking skills still leave something to be desired. Having a grill is nice because just about anything can be grilled, but even then, things usually turn out better if I stick to a recipe. I'm hoping that if I spend a few years following recipes, a la Amateur Gourmet or The Julie/Julia Project, my "throwing-dinner-together" talent will somehow emerge. I'd love to walk through the farmer's market, see some arugula, funny-looking squash, and kale and say, with a French accent: "Alors! I know exactly vat to do vit zose!" (Regarding ze accent: I am very envious of a friend of mine who took time off in college to go to the Cordon Bleu in Paris.)

Case in point: I took another stab at chile relleno because a recipe for it on Gothamist looked promising. This time, I remembered to put the chiles in a paper bag after broiling them, and the skin came off much more easily. For filling, we probably deviated a bit too much from the recipe. We used gruyere, mushrooms, baby eggplant, and pomegranate seeds (I wanted to use figs but there were none at the Coop).

The pomegranate was a first for us -- I assigned D the task of getting the seeds out of the red thing we brought home, and he stared at it for a while as though he didn't quite know where to begin (he usually preps for new cooking experiences by reading the full history of the food in Joy, but I convinced him that slicing the thing open would be fine) Once it was open, I kept sneaking seeds away because they make for a good little snack (although the seed is a little bitter). The resulting stuffed chiles were better than the last batch, but still not fantastic. The filling just isn't interesting enough (chorizo would have helped), and the poblano peppers were a little bit too hot (it's possible that I left seeds in them by mistake). Oh well. Practice makes perfect, right?

On the positive side, we tried out a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa Parties! cookbook (thanks Mel!) for Grilled Herb Shrimp with Mango Salsa. It was fabulous, and the leftover mango salso goes well with just about anything. The ingredient list is longish, but entirely worth it. And since we completely destroyed our last shimp-on-the-grill endeavor by overcooking everything (a perfect example of rash creativity in the kitchen), I was relieved when the shimp came out perfectly tender and tasty with this recipe. It was a nice finale to our grilling-on-the-roof season.

On the baking front, I found a wonderful recipe for Banana Bread on Simply Recipes. I've always been disappointed with the New York Times Cookbook version because it's a little dry -- I think banana bread should be moist and as banana-ey as possible. This recipe involves using only a wooden spoon so things don't get too blended, and with 4 very ripe bananas, it makes a great loaf. It's fantastic with butter when it's warm. I'm definitely on a cake and comfort food kick right now, with the cold weather creeping up on us. I'll probably have my winter weight on by the end of the week.

Here's another highly recommended cake recipe that was a hit upstate this summer: Blueberry Pudding Cake from Epicurious (again, thanks Melissa!). It's lemoney and the blueberries turn into a wonderfully sweet syrupy goo. It's perfect with ice cream in the summer.

I'm starting to realize that my recipes are in a sorry state -- they're loosely collected in a binder and some are on the web -- if a website decides to take them down I'm in trouble. I'd like to find some good recipe-management software that could print recipes on index cards or something. Not that I'd ever be organized enough to use software like that.

One last thing while I'm on the subject of cooking: we had some great scrambled eggs earlier this summer. The secret ingredient: cream cheese. Worth a try. (Fresh basil and cream also works well.)

Posted by csageday at October 10, 2005 05:59 PM

Comments

Posted by: kaitlyn at October 11, 2005 06:42 AM